Chương 368: Book 6 - Chapter 29 - Subsurface access

The beavers were able to quickly bore out a series of anti-sapping tunnels to intercept the Antithesis thanks in no small part to Bandit's directions and the molecular disassemblers. It could have been faster, but due to the fact that they'd been digging through loose dirt and they had safety protocols built into their core program, the beavers wouldn't allow anyone down there until they reinforced the tunnels with some quick-drying cement.

When I first heard about the delay, I really wanted to rage at them for doing something useless, but after a couple seconds I realized they were probably in the right. After everything that had happened, it would have been extremely embarrassing to be crushed by a couple tons of dirt in my own counter-sapping tunnels. As they finished up the last few junctions, our counterassault force. Both Wild and Mud were there, along with Bob, Bandit, Dusty, and half a dozen combat squads.

"You okay there, big bear?" I asked Bob when he wandered up. He didn't look that different from before with the same general frame, but the pile drivers on his fists had to be close to twice as thick. I knew that he had lasers in his head now too, but I couldn't see anything different there. They weren't glowing or anything… Which, after a moment's consideration, I realized was probably a good thing. I didn't want to get lasered in the face.

"Absolutely! I feel like a new bear!" Bob declared proudly.

"That's because you are a new bear," Bandit grumbled.

"How is it that you have the thickest frame out of any of us, yet you're the only one that gets damaged?"

"I don't know… skill?" Bob replied with a shrug.

"I am the tank of the party, I take damage so you don't have to!" Bandit blinked in surprise.

"Uhhhh… That's actually a pretty good reason. I honestly didn't expect you to have a comeback to that."

"It's common sense," Bob replied proudly. Bandit looked at him confused for a moment, so I leaned closer.

"I asked Nyx to install a common sense processor into Bob's head, so he might actually have reasonable answers to simple questions now," I explained.

"Ahhhh, that explains it then," Bandit replied quietly. I quickly glanced around the street around us. The assault squads had already assembled, and both Mud Flap and Wild Walker were quietly discussing something over to the side, by Mud's latest madcap vehicle. It looked like we were almost ready to go; the only one we were missing was Dusty. [Dusty, where the fuck are you?] I broadcast through the command network. [We're waiting for you!] [I'm coming around the corner now!] came the quick reply.

A second later the street was filled by the sound of hover engines as a column of Kodiaks came into view. The hatch on the top of the front vehicle popped open, allowing Dusty to stick his head out and shoot me a salute.

"Ready to go, commander!"

"Dusty, what the fuck is this? Why would you assemble an armored column to go into the tunnels? They'll barely fit."

"Aren't you planning to fight Model Twenty-Eights?" the tan bear replied.

"If that's the case, then we'll need some heavier firepower. The moose's Devastator railguns may be able to injure them, but we need something heavier to deal the death blow. Plus, if the Antithesis are flooding their tunnels with acid, it's probably a good idea to lead with a hover vehicle. Everything else will just drown in the wave of acid that will be unleashed when we engage.

"That's fine, the bears are extremely resilient and they can take it!" I exclaimed.

"I know they can, but can the weapons? You've never updated the basic design, and they have a lot of sensitive parts, like the bear-o-metric identification system. If those get damaged, they might not fire," Dusty replied. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Please, if that was a real problem, the bears on the wall would need to replace their weapons occasionally, and that's not happening," I scoffed.

"It's happening," the nearest beaver snorted.

"We've had about a quarter of our brethren dedicated to weapon maintenance over the last few hours. The damage hasn't been extensive enough to require full replacements yet, but the etching is getting bad. It's only a matter of time."

"Wait, really? Shit!" I swivelled towards the beavers.

"Why didn't I see any notifications?"

"Maintenance requests are handled at a different level than combat reports; we only escalate when equipment destruction occurs," the beaver replied.

"It's procedure."

"Yeah, well… I'm implementing a new procedure. Whenever we experience widespread weapon damage that's not caused by regular wear and tear, I want one of you to contact me directly. If we wait until we see permanent damage, we might not have enough time to produce replacements. Got it." The beavers nodded.

"Got it, boss," one replied.

"Good," I muttered.

"I'll have to make a note to talk to Nyx about updating the B3-ARs once we're done here. Get out in front of this problem."

"Do you want me to pull the armor back?" Dusty asked.

"I can disperse the column if you don't want it." I glanced up at him and shook my head.

"No, you were right to grab them, especially if we're dealing with Twenty-Eights. Plus, who knows what else the Antithesis might have crawling behind those diggers. Best to be prepared," I replied.

"At least, we should try to bring them. I don't know if they'll fit in the tunnels."

"What do you take us for, amatuers? We built our tunnel large enough to support civilian traffic and strong enough to take a tank shell without collapsing! We have our pride," one of the beavers exclaimed.

"What about a coil gun round?" I asked.

"You wanted the tunnel done yesterday," a different beaver scoffed.

"We're engineers, not miracle workers."

"Right… be careful with the gunfire. Got it," I muttered.

"Dusty, take the Kodiaks and pair up with the different squads. We'll have you ferry them into the tunnels to get set up."

"You got it, commander!" Dusty replied. He threw a quick salute before disappearing inside the vehicle and slamming the hatch shut.

"How would you recommend we breach the tunnels?" I asked the beavers as I stepped aside to let the Kodiaks pass.

"Based upon your previous comment, I'm guessing that explosives wouldn't be your first choice."

"Not unless you want to bring the unsecured parts of the tunnels down on your heads," the leader grunted.

"I recommend using the old disassembler packs. Less disruptive on the surrounding dirt, and I suspect the Antithesis are gonna have a hard time recognizing what it is. Maybe have one of the bears sit on top when they use it. If the Antithesis don't hear a bunch of feet running around the tunnels, you might take them by surprise."

"That's… actually a pretty good suggestion. I didn't know you guys had strategic planning algorithms in your head," I said.

"We don't, just good old-fashioned analytical thinking," it replied.

"Comes in handy in all sorts of situations."

"So it would seem," I replied.

"Thanks for the help. I'd appreciate it if you'd stick around up here until we're done. If things go wrong, I might need you to dig up one of the teams or collapse the tunnels."

"You're the boss," it said, shooting me a loose salute.

"We'll be here if you need us."

"Thanks, carry on," I said, before waltzing back towards the combat teams. Most of them had already embarked upon their assigned transports, leaving just Bob, Bandit, Mud, and Wild, who had apparently finished their conversation."

"So kid, what's the plan? I assume you're not planning to just rush straight into the waiting jaws of the Antithesis," Mud growled.

"Kind of hard to do anything else… unless the Twenty-Eights are melting rocks with their butts," I smirked. When he didn't give me even the slightest hint of a smile, I winced.

"Sorry, bad joke. I hope." Wild looked at me oddly.

"You hope?"

"I don't know how they're creating acid, it could be any number of excretions," I explained.

"Anyways, I think we'll send the Kodiaks down first, position them before the probable tunnel locations, then simultaneously break through using some molecular disassemblers. If we're lucky, we'll catch the Antithesis by surprise."

"Need us to do anything specific?" Mud asked.

"Not really… you can join any of the teams you want, but if either of you could flood the tunnels with something to either disrupt or destroy the Antithesis, it would be helpful." Wild put her hands on her hips and shook her head.

"We all know you're talking about me. You could just ask me directly."

"I didn't want to pigeonhole you, and who knows, maybe Mud's picked up some tricks over the last couple hours," I replied. The big man raised an eyebrow and scoffed.

"Alright, you ARE the most likely one to have that kind of tech, but it's up to you whether you want to use it."

"It's fine," Wild replied, waving me off.

"I've got a few new plants I'd like to try. They have a longer reach and are faster acting than the previous version. Should do a good job of clearing out the tunnels."

"Sounds good, can't wait to see them in action!" I said.

"In that case, anyone have questions before we begin?" When no one spoke up, I clapped my hands.

"In that case, let's go see what trouble we can dig up."