Chương 369: Book 6 - Chapter 30 - Tunnel Work

The beavers had done good work. The main access tunnel was wide enough for two Kodiaks to drive down side by side, and the roof had been carefully sculpted and reinforced with quick-drying concrete. It probably wasn't going to collapse on our heads without taking some serious punishment. Even though the ramp wasn't that shallow, we still needed to travel quite a way to get to the bottom. Very little sunlight made it down this far, coating the intersection in gloom.

I sent a quick command to the drivers, and the Kodiaks simultaneously ignited their spotlights, illuminating the impromptu intersection. Even though they did a good job of lighting up the area, I still enabled the vision enhancement systems built into my helmet's visor. If something happened to the transports, I really didn't want to get stuck down here in the pitch darkness.

"So, where do we go from here?" Wild asked. I shrugged, then glanced over at Bandit. The fox was glancing around the intersection, his ears twitching madly.

"Bandit?" I said, finally drawing his attention.

"Which way?"

"Right, sorry," Bandit muttered.

"I was checking for sounds and vibrations. It's a little trickier down here, with all the echoes down here." He wandered closer to us, crouched down, and ran a hand across the dirt floor a couple times to create a flat section.

"There are four distinct areas where I can hear running liquids," Bandit explained, extending his pointer finger and running it through the dirt. Within seconds he'd created a tough, branching, spiderweb-like diagram.

"This is the tunnel layout. The beavers cut as close as they could without breaching the enemy lines. The enemy is located here, here, here, and here." He quickly added small X's to the end of a couple of the tunnels using the sharp claws on the end of one of his fingers.

"If you think there are four enemy teams, why are there so many branching tunnels? Based upon your diagram, there have to be a dozen of them," Wild asked as she bent over the small diagram.

"These are the four locations I'm the most confident in," Bandit replied quietly.

"They're quite clear and appear to be moving closer. There are another half dozen that I'm not as confident about, but they're further back. I don't know if they're cases of actual runoff, echoes within the antithesis tunnels, or more tunnelling attempts. It's hard to tell, but I figure if we can get a foothold in the close tunnels, we can send scouts to check." Mud lifted the visor of his helmet, lit a hand-rolled cigarette, and took a long draw.

I'd seen him partaking a couple times over the last few hours, but this was the first time I'd seen him do it anywhere near anyone else.

"Do we have any idea what's behind the diggers? What sort of Antithesis might be in the assault teams?" he finally asked, smoke swirling around him. Bandit shook his head.

"None. I'm relatively confident that the Antithesis are digging our way. That's the only reasonable reason I can think of that the drainage noises are slowly crawling closer to our lines, but the Antithesis seem to be going out of their way to obscure their advance. I don't know if they're using the polymer like in Jasper or something else; I just can't make out any other movement."

"Maybe they're not trying to invade. Maybe they're trying to deliver some sort of biological weapon of mass destruction," Dusty suggested. My head snapped towards the tan bear.

"Do they have shit like that?"

"I don't see why they wouldn't. Tunnelling behind our lines would allow them to open another front, but detonating something right below our lines and blowing open our defenses would probably be just as effective," he replied.

"Now how likely is that? I have no idea--I'm no Antithesis expert."

"Nyx," I muttered, turning back towards the rest of the group.

"Want to give us your professional opinion?" Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. The back of one of the Kodiaks popped open, and one of the bears inside poked its head out.

"Of course!" it exclaimed in Nyx's voice.

"The Antithesis have evolved billions of different combat forms during their battles with the Protectors and other protectorate races, and although they CAN create weapons of mass destruction, they tend to avoid such extreme measures until fighting Class III or IV civilizations. They prefer to avoid destroying biomass and resources unless absolutely necessary," Nyx explained as they piloted their temporary avatar forward, hands clasped behind its back.

"What about against Class III or IV defenses?" Wild asked quietly.

"Teddy's defenses have done a good job of repelling their assaults so far."

"That's true… but there's a difference between a single military force using Class III technology and facing an entire race armed with that same technology. This whole conflict would only be a minor inconvenience for a Class III civilization, and the Antithesis would have to resort to more drastic measures to have the remotest chance of causing damage. Here the Antithesis are able to push out, find gaps and weaknesses in the Samurai's lines, and make progress," Nyx said.

"Since the Antithesis are more efficient at adapting, and reusing biomass than other races, they tend to try to avoid outright destroying the local flora and fauna whenever possible."

"You say that, but that fucking hydra we encountered in Jasper had no problem dissolving everything in acid," I muttered.

"Although destructive, that acid wouldn't have completely destroyed the biomass, just broken it down into an easily recoverable slurry," Nyx replied.

"Isn't that what they're doing here?" Mud grunted.

"Trying to melt down our defenses so they can devour us?"

"Similar, but the thing in Jasper spat out acid so potent that it went through most Class II armor like it wasn't even there," I replied quietly.

"The stuff we're facing here is just a pale imitation."

"Ahhhh…" Wild muttered.

"I'm glad we purchased that chemical hardening catalog. I can't imagine how terrible it would be to go out that way."

"You have no idea," I replied quietly. I shook my head, trying to clear out the horrible memories from that day before they could dig too far into my psyche. If the Antithesis were digging towards us, I couldn't afford to be distracted right now. I could wallow in the past later.

"So, even though Bandit can't hear anything scrambling around down here, I'd guess that we're going to be facing some pretty sizable foes. The Antithesis didn't just pull the Fourteens and Twenty-Eights back, but the Twenty-Threes too," I said.

"The only reason I can see them doing that is to throw those bruisers against a different front. Either on the surface or down here."

"Not much room for those oversized lizards to fight down here," Mud grunted.

"That's true, but there's not much room for us to fight either. If just one of those things got into our lines, they could really fuck up our defenses," I replied.

"We need to be careful."

"So… does that mean you want to change up our tactics?" Dusty asked.

"No, I think the plan's solid," I replied after a second.

"The Kodiak's main gun is more than sufficient to punch through the hide of a Twenty-Three. I guess the Antithesis could have adjusted them, added armor, or something, but I doubt that would be enough to resist our firepower."

"And what if they throw something new at us instead of a Twenty-Three?" Bandit asked.

"I guess it is possible. We've seen the monsters the Antithesis have been throwing around on the surface…" I said, before pausing for a moment.

"Hey Nyx, anything in my catalogs we could use in case of emergencies? Maybe a missile or something?"

"A missile like that would almost certainly pulverize the tunnel and bring it down on everyone's heads," Nyx replied.

"Honestly, I'm okay with that," I replied.

"If we did encounter something like the megapedes down here, I want to have a stopgap measure, just in case."

"Even if it brings the tunnel down on your own head, or that of your friends?" Nyx asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, I'd prefer to not be permanently buried, but since we can't call down fire support from Bear Force One down here, we'll need something to prevent the Antithesis from running over us before we can assemble a second line of defense," I said.

"Do you have anything that might be strong enough to stop a megapede but not to bring down the entire tunnel system?"

"There are a couple handheld launchers available," Nyx confirmed.

"I still wouldn't recommend firing them down here unless it's an emergency."

"Noted," I muttered.

"Can you get one for each of the squads then, please? When the teams breach, we'll make sure we stay WAY back from the front line."

"Already done," Nyx replied, waving a paw at the Kodiaks. A long case appeared next to each of them, only to be snapped up by the bears and shoved into the back of the transports. I turned back towards Wild and Mud.

"Anything you two want to do before we start?"

"Give me a couple minutes to set up some plants here at the entrance," Wild replied.

"I'd like to get some pollen into the air before we actually start the fight."

"Just point me towards the enemy. I'm ready to roll at any time," Mud grunted as he dropped his cigarette, stomping the butt and closing his visor.

"Good. Then let's give Wild some space to set up and get into position," I said, before turning to Wild.

"We'll wait for your signal." She nodded and immediately started busying herself with burying some seeds along the floor and walls. Within seconds small green shoots started poking up. I turned back towards Bandit and Dusty, who were standing nearby, and gave them a nod.

"Let's get to work."