Chương 365: Book 6 - Chapter 26 - Redirection

"Hey Mud, been doing some upgrades to your bike, I see," I declared as I wandered down the wall. His bike, if you could even call it that now, looked completely different than it did just twenty-four hours earlier. The previously opentopped vehicle was now completely enclosed.

The front and back tires, which had been oversized before, now looked more like monster truck tires, and instead of just having two self-defense weapons mounted on the axle of the back tire, the vehicle now had weapons on both the front and back axles, along with a missile launcher sitting on top of the pod.

"Upgrades? This is the third new bike I've purchased since this insanity started," he grumbled.

"I saved for years to get my first baby, and now she's little more than a tricked-out recreational vehicle."

"Don't say that. I'm sure your first bike is amazing and still completely relevant when fighting a regular incursion. It's just we're currently stuck fighting the Antithesis in a very atypical situation," I said, jumping down next to him.

"Once we finally find a way to take the fight to the Antithesis and crush the hive, you can always upgrade your old bike and bring it up to snuff. It's not like you're going to need to worry about clouds of acid raining down on you during a regular incursion."

"True," he grunted.

"Speaking of taking the fight to the Antithesis, shouldn't you be up on the walls, trying to figure out how to push out, and break this siege?"

"Unfortunately I'm better suited to holding the line than breaking it," I replied. Mudflap finally stopped digging around in the cockpit of his new bike, stood up straight, then slowly looked over at me, up at Bear Force One, and then back down at me again.

"You're joking, right?"

"Hey, my ship may be impressive, but its primary function is to transport my forces and fortifications," I said defensively.

"Besides, haven't you noticed that every time the Antithesis throw some of their more monstrous models against the walls, Bear Force One either takes a ton of damage or is barely able to fight them back? The beavers are still trying to repair the damage done by the scarabs." I sighed, walked over to a Kodiak parked nearby, and jumped up so I could sit on the roof.

"Besides, if the hive is capable of bringing down orbital emplacements, it's probably able to bring down Bear Force One before it gets close enough to do damage."

"True," the man muttered.

"So why are you bothering me instead of walking the wall? Shouldn't you be preparing for the next attack?"

"Been there, done that," I replied flippantly.

"I've spent all my points upgrading our defenses, Bear Force One, and repairing Bob. Now I'm just waiting until the Antithesis throw their next set of monstrosities our way. Although the Model Fives and Fifteens are still improving, my bears can handle them, for now. I'm just worried that the next colossus they send at us might be a serious problem."

"The next colossus? You think there's more of those monsters out there?" Mud asked.

"I'm pretty sure there's at least one more," I replied.

"I caught a glimpse of something when the Family's battle station flew over the hive but lost the feed before I could get a good look at it." Mud raised an eyebrow.

"Lost the feed?"

"I think the sensors took a shot from the anti-orbital weapon," I replied quietly.

"Ahhh, yeah… that was an unfortunate situation," he muttered.

"Still, shouldn't you be thinking about your defenses or something? Why are you bothering me?"

"Boredom," I told him. When he threw an angry glance my way, I threw up my hands.

"Look, I've done all the preparations I can. My team is monitoring everything, and I'm still waiting to earn enough points to purchase the last few blueprints I ordered from Nyx." I leaned back, glanced at the wall, and kicked my feet idly.

"Honestly, I expected the Antithesis to throw the next wave of behemoths at us by now. Maybe they're waiting until they have a chance to rebirth all the scarabs, but I'm a little concerned… It almost seems like the Antithesis have been throwing fewer troops at us the last hour or so. The Ursas haven't reported an increase of activity along the burn lines, and the foxes haven't reported any seismic activity, so I'm not sure what they're up to."

"Haven't you and Wild been working on breaking down their biomass so they can't reproduce as quickly?" Mud asked.

"Maybe you're actually starting to make a difference."

"It's possible," I replied hesitantly, "but after everything they've thrown at us, I would have expected the Antithesis to adapt, rather than letting us slowly wear their troops down." The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"So maybe they're throwing their troops in a different direction," Mud suggested.

"They have been throwing themselves fruitlessly against your defenses for the better part of a day. Between the napalm you've been spraying on the surrounding area and the unrelenting firepower of your bears, maybe they've finally decided that it would be easier to give up on Grand Falls and try to breach the defenses elsewhere."

"I hope that's not the case," I muttered.

"Even though the Family has a number of strike teams spread around the area, keeping the Antithesis contained, not all of them are strong enough to withstand the full strength of the Antithesis' assault. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but maybe I'll give Charlotte a call and let her know the Antithesis might be directing their attention elsewhere."

"Probably not a bad idea," Mud agreed.

"I honestly can't see a difference in the assault, but then again, I'm not able to monitor the full length of our defensive line at the same time, like you can."

"Just in case they haven't given up, and this is only a temporary lull, I should get back out there," Mud declared, sitting on the edge of his bike.

"The more weeds we cut down now, the less we have to deal with later."

"I'm not sure that's completely true, considering how aggressive the fungus is," I said.

"If the combination of Wild's seeds and your… whatever those trucks are doing aren't making a difference on the Antithesis' numbers by now, then we're probably already up shit's creek. I don't know what we could possibly do to get rid of this filth, besides hitting them with a nuclear weapon."

"I really hope that's not going to be necessary," I muttered.

"Good hunting out there!"

"Later," Mud grunted as he slammed the door on the heavily armored pod. When he started the bike, I could feel the vibrations from the revving engine echo through the ground and up into the Kodiak I was sitting on. Usually, the more advanced the engine, the less noise and vibration it created, but Mud's bike seemed to dial it up to eleven. He must have requested those features from his AI when he bought the bike. I didn't get it, maybe it was a biker thing.

As he pulled away from the wall, kicking up a massive spray of debris behind him, I waved my goodbye. Once he was gone, I sighed and placed a call to Charlotte. My augs beeped several times, echoing around my head, as I waited for her to answer. [Evelyn, how are things on the ground?] Charlotte asked hurriedl, as soon as she picked up. [Stable, at least for now. Things get a little hairy whenever the Antithesis throw one of their bruisers our way, but we've managed to throw them back each time. Both my walls and Bear Force One have taken quite a beating, but we're managing to hold,] I replied. [That's good,] Charlotte said, letting out an audible sigh of relief. [I was worried that there was a problem. We've had quite a lot of trouble keeping the Antithesis hemmed in and have had to shuffle our most experienced members around a lot to deal with all the variants running around. It just started to look like the situation was stabilizing with the latest wave of reinforcements, and I was a little worried that you were calling to let me know things were deteriorating on your end.] [They're not deteriorating, quite the opposite,] I replied. [The situation has stabilized, but… it kind of seems like the Antithesis assault has slowed a little bit over the last hour. I'm a little concerned that the Antithesis might have turned their attention elsewhere.] [Oh, I bet they have,] Charlotte chuckled. [They're probably busy trying to hold down the eastern flank right now.] [Wait… the family is pushing back against the horde?] I asked, surprised. [Not the family,] she replied, [at least, not all of us. A couple heavy hitters finally showed up.] [Who?] [Dial up and Lag,] Charlotte said. [They usually like to sit in the mesh, and mess with cyberspace, but it seems like one of the higher-ups managed to get them involved.] [And how exactly is that drawing the Antithesis' attention? I doubt they can hack into the Antithesis hive mind and convince them there's a bigger threat in the east,] I grumbled. [They don't have to,] Charlotte laughed. [They're driving a couple tanks the size of battleships. Extremely slow, but the Antithesis don't seem to have anything that can even slow them down.] [Ahhh… well, that would explain it,] I muttered.

[If they're involved, maybe we'll even be able to mount a counteroffensive before the Mars fleet gets back. Would you mind passing on a warning to them? The Antithesis should be rebirthing their scarabs again soon, and those things could punch holes in Bear Force One. I don't know if they can fire those spikes horizontally, but they might be strong enough to cause an issue.] [I'll pass the information along,] Charlotte agreed.

[Look, Evelyn, I'd love to stay on the line and chat some more, but the situation is still a little precarious, and I'm needed to coordinate our defenses, so I'm going to have to let you go.] [I understand,] I said. [Before you go… any chances we'll get any reinforcements here before long? I have my bears, but the situation still isn't that great over here. We could use some help.] [Well, the good news is I was planning on sending Hoppy your way in the next couple hours,] Charlotte replied.

[The bad news is, she's probably the last reinforcements you're going to get for a while. We need as many boots on the ground as possible to chase down all the Antithesis that slip through the holes in our lines. Most samurai are good at slaughtering hordes, and assaulting a point; they're not good at holding a line.] [I understand, we'll take whatever help we can take, and Hoppy is absolutely welcome here,] I said. [Anyways, I won't keep you any longer if you're busy. Give me a call if there are any developments.] [Will do,] Charlotte replied. [Take care of yourself Evelyn.] [You too,] I said a second before hanging up. I leaned back and let out a long breath. It sounded like the situation was finally stabilizing, the Antithesis were being pressed on multiple sides, and were now somewhat contained. Things were looking up… but I had a sneaky suspicion that things wouldn't stay that way. The Antithesis weren't done with us yet.