Chương 267: Book 4 - Chapter 56 - Subterranean Escalation

As I stepped back, there was a loud crack, followed closely by another, as the thick wall anchors snapped and the thick metal wall was hauled across the room. As soon as it came in contact with the Thirty-Four, the thick metal was quickly ripped apart by its mass of churning legs.

"Okay, maybe walls weren't the best idea," I muttered as I backpedaled from the rapidly deforming defensive barrier.

"Nyx, give me two badgers, right on top of that thing." Done. The AI quickly agreed, causing two large shapes to materialize a couple meters ahead of me. Are you sure you don't want any more backup?

"To fight that fucking thing? It'd rip them apart!" I grumbled.

"The badgers will deal with it." Actually, I was thinking you'd want something to deal with that wave of Antithesis pouring out of the tunnel on your left.

"What?!" I yelled in surprise, whipping around to look at the far side of the room. Antithesis of all shapes and sizes were flooding into the cavern out of half a dozen smaller tunnels. I guess the Thirty-Seven had gotten tired of playing with my bears and called in the reinforcements to deal with the real threats. Lowering my rifle, I began firing indiscriminately into the incoming wall of flesh as I retreated towards the rest of the team.

[Bob, please tell me you're done clearing that tunnel,] I screamed across the command network. [Almost. The job got a lot easier once the Antithesis backed off a little. I dunno where they went through,] the big bear casually replied. [I know where they are. They're in here with the Thirty-Seven! We're going to get overrun.] [Oh, okay, be there soon,] Bob replied, breaking the connection.

"Bob? Fuck!" I shouted. After sending a general alert across the network, I lowered my weapon and ran. As powerful as it was, ripping through entire lines of Antithesis with each shot, I was barely making a dent against the thousands of Antithesis streaming into the area.

"Nyx as much as I hate to do this, I may need some of that backup you mentioned," I huffed as I sprinted back towards the others.

"Like… a lot of it." Just tell me what you want, and I shall provide! Glancing back over my shoulder, at the ocean of alien flesh rapidly filling the cavern, I did my best to estimate.

"Fuck… I don't know, a LOT!" I hissed. Just as I turned back, a massive shape shot out of the darkness ahead of me. I slammed on the brakes, managing to throw myself to the side, rolling awkwardly, before coming to a crouch, weapon ready. I did all that just in time to see the shape burst past and throw itself into the oncoming tide.

"Fucking… Bob?" I mumbled in surprise before collecting myself. As I did, the rest of my bears burst into the cavern, unleashing an unrelenting barrage right into the front of the oncoming horde. I immediately booked it towards the wall. After surviving both getting harpooned and outrunning the swarm, the last thing I wanted was to get killed by a stray bullet fired by my own troops. Stolen story; please report.

"Nyx, cancel those extra troops," I muttered. I kind of figured you'd say that, my AI replied. Slipping along the wall, I managed to make it to my troops and slip behind the front line.

"How'd you manage to get here so fast?" I asked Deadbeat, once I found her.

"Bob said he was still clearing the tunnel."

"He was. When you called, he was in the middle of moving the very last corpse out of the way," she sighed.

"Of course he failed to mention that part."

"Once this is all done, I'm going to put him in a course about the importance of proper communications," I grumbled, glancing back at the ocean of Antithesis.

"Do you think we can hold that lot off with what we have here?"

"Hold them off, yes. Push them back? No," Bandit declared as he jogged over.

"Which might be a problem."

"And why is that?" I asked suspiciously. Bandit just pointed towards the Thirty-Seven in response. The Antithesis had swarmed around the massive tick, creating a living wall of flesh between it and my friends. Most of them were too small to provide full cover to the two story tall monstrosity, but there were more than enough of the creatures to push the squad back and prevent them from getting anything more than glancing blows upon its upper carapace. Even worse the colossal creature appeared to be moving now.

Since it couldn't seem to move on its own with those tiny vestigial legs, the other models must have been trying to carry it out of the area.

"Motherfucker. We can't let it get out of here, not after everything we've gone through to get here," I shouted.

"I don't know what we could possibly do to prevent it no matter how many guns we point its way, the Antithesis have more than enough bodies to throw in the way to protect it," Deadbeat exclaimed. I grited my teeth and tightened my grip on my new weapon as I watched the bloated brain slowly slip further and further away.

"Point all the devastators at it. All of them. And have the rotary cannons keep their firing lines clean," I growled. I caught Bandit and Deadbeat exchanging a quick, worried glance out of the corner of my eye.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Deadbeat asked hesitantly.

"If we do that, we won't have anything to stop the Twenty-Threes from reaching us, never mind the rest of the swarm."

"First of all… Twenty-Threes are far from the worst things down here right now," I explained, nodding towards the inferno in the far corner.

"And second of all, we're not fighting alone." While I was talking to the bears, I flicked up my augs and typed a quick message out to the others. [I'm going to have my bears point all their anti tank weapons at that Thirty-Seven before it gets away, can you cover us when that happens?] [Do you think that'll work?] Angeline asked. [No idea, but it's probably better than letting that thing escape. I don't want to be stuck doing this song and dance again,] I replied. [Agreed,] Charlotte declared.

[We'll work our way over to you. Feel free to start without us.] [See you soon,] I said, cutting the connection and focusing back on the conversation in front of me.

"Do it," I ordered. As soon as the words left my mouth, the front line shifted. All the moose, who had previously been spread equally among my forces, all gathered at the center of the line. The big plush brawlers took a moment to array and anchor themselves before releasing a deafening torrent of firepower into the Antithesis lines. The combination of rotary laser cannons and heavy coil guns evaporated the aliens between me and the Thirty-Seven.

Heavy rounds cracked against the mastermind's shell while the laser blasts ripped apart the assortment of Fours and Sixes attempting to carry it. The instant its defenses fell the massive Antithesis let out a scream of rage. This wasn't like its previous sonic attacks, which were short and focused. This was a full wail that went on for several seconds, shaking the very cavern with its intensity.

Everything went quiet for half a second, the horde was completely still, and then every single Antithesis charged my lines as one. It was actually frightening how fast they closed in on us once they were no longer attacking like a feral pack of animals. I brought my weapon up and sighted a Twenty-Three at the head of the charge, emptying my magazine into its head and chest. It staggered under the heavier rounds, even stumbling to its knees at one point, but it still wasn't enough to stop the monster.

Just as it was about to stumble into my lines, a pink and white streak smashed into its face, throwing it back and crushing the smaller models behind it.

"You really kicked the hornet's nest with that," Nora chuckled as she deftly landed next to me.

"That thing barely even twitched when we were smashing into it."

"I think it was confident that we wouldn't be able to break through its shell before the reinforcements arrived or that the Thirty-Four would be able to take us out," I grumbled.

"I can't think of another reason that it would be sitting here alone, without guards."

"Well, it was partially right… it's built like a superheavy tank," Nora grunted.

"Speaking of Thirty-Fours, you okay? I considered going to get you, but by the time I realized what was going on, you'd crawled away and walled off that side of the chamber."

"I'll live; it didn't. Now I have a couple of badgers that I can throw into the side of the horde. Not that it'll make a difference with this many," I grumbled.

"Maybe, maybe not," Nora hummed.

"But since it looks like this fight is far from over, why don't we find out?" I smiled, "Let's."