Chương 370: Book 6 - Chapter 31 - Subterranean Skirmish

"Are you sure you know how to use that thing?" Dusty asked as I hefted one of the new missile launchers. The two of us were about fifty meters behind one of the strike teams, waiting for the final breach to occur.

"Nyx gave me a rundown. I just look through the reticle, center it on the Antithesis, and pull the trigger," I replied. The launcher wasn't super large, but it was meant to be used by moose or regular-sized people, so being so small, I had a little trouble balancing it on my shoulder properly.

"And make sure you change it from Indirect Fire mode to Direct Fire mode," Dusty added.

"I don't want that thing trying to go over the battle and smashing into the tunnel above our heads."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember," I replied, flipping the switch on the side.

"It's not like I want to be buried either. Don't worry, the chances that we'll actually have to use these things are slim."

"Then why are you holding on to it instead of your regular rifle?" Dusty asked.

"Because as much as I hate to admit it, the battle hasn't exactly been going that smoothly so far," I admitted.

"Plus… after the shit the Antithesis have put me through over the last day or so, I kinda want to blow some shit up."

"I'm not sure if that's a healthy or safe outlook to have," Dusty muttered.

"Well, it'll be the Antithesis that are on the receiving end of my attitude, so I'm sure it'll be fine," I replied. The little tan bear stared at me for a few seconds, then shook his head.

"Is everyone in position?" I asked after a moment of silence.

"Yup, just like the last two times you asked. We're just waiting on Bandit to confirm that the pollen and spores have reached a sufficient saturation level in the farthest tunnels," Dusty replied. I nodded nervously.

"I know that Wild's plants pump that shit out at an extraordinary pace, but I still feel uneasy just sitting here. If we wait too long, the Antithesis are going to dig into our tunnels before we can dig into theirs."

"Uhhhh… Wouldn't that have the same effect in the end?" Dusty asked.

"Technically yes," I muttered, "but we've been stuck behind our defenses for so long that I'd like to feel like we're the ones on the offense for once. Even if it's only long enough to intercept and collapse the Antithesis tunnels." While I was explaining, a ringing sound echoed through my head, notifying me of a call. I held up a hand to interrupt Dusty's reply, and mentally triggered my augs. [Hey Bandit, what's going on?] I asked. [Is there a problem with the pollen levels?] [Nope. On the contrary, I'm calling to let you know that we've reached peak saturation levels and should be ready to begin the operation,] he declared. I cocked my head to the side. [So why are you calling? Couldn't you have just sent a notification?] [I considered it, but since you have a habit of overlooking some notifications, and you were ranting earlier asking us to contact you directly when something important happened, I thought I should do my due diligence,] Bandit replied.

Even though he couldn't hear our conversation, Dusty glanced my way. He was probably monitoring the network and had already intercepted Bandit's update, so he had a good idea about what we were discussing. [Well… I appreciate that,] I said after a couple seconds. [Are you in position to watch Wild's back?] [I'm on my way back to the intersection now to meet up with her, ETA thirty seconds,] the fox replied. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

[Good work. I'll give you both a minute to get into position, then give the signal to attack,] I said. [Roger that. I'll let you know if we run into anything out of the ordinary, but otherwise I'll talk to you again when this is all over,] Bandit said. [Then I'll talk to you soon,] I confirmed, just before the line went dead.

"Problems?" Dusty asked once I dropped my hand.

"Nope, Bandit just called to let me know we'd reached the ideal saturation levels," I replied as I adjusted the heavy launcher on my shoulder.

"I told him I'd give him a minute to get into position before I trigger the attack, so get ready." Dusty nodded once, then turned towards the far end of the tunnel, pulled down his ratty desert camo helmet, and started doing another round of weapon checks. I kept one eye on him and the other on the clock in my augs. The seconds slowly ticked by, and the instant Bandit's time was up, I sent out the command.

'Begin' At the far end of the tunnel, the two bears sitting on top of the Kodiak engaged their molecular deconstructors, cutting through the hard dirt and stone wall like butter. Each sweep of their beams removed nearly a foot of material, so it didn't take long for the tunnel to extend towards the Antithesis position.

"Do you think the Antithesis are expecting us?" I asked Dusty.

"I dunno," he replied, not taking his eyes off the far side of the tunnel.

"They can probably tell there are tunnels or caverns in this direction, and I imagine they can hear the deconstructors work, but since everyone's embarked in the Kodiaks and the deconstructors don't sound like traditional digging, they might be a little confused."

"Good. Hopefully that'll be enough to catch them off guard," I muttered. It took about another couple minutes for anything to happen. The Beavers had been extremely conservative in their construction efforts, so the assault teams had to dig through a good twenty or thirty feet of dirt. This put them quite far from the unsecured tunnels, but I'd been assured that the heavily packed dirt would remain stable as long as it wasn't disturbed too badly in battle.

The first indication that we'd breached the Antithesis tunnels was when a stream of acid spewed out of a fissure, bathing the Kodiak in caustic liquid. It must have been potent stuff, because the bear's facades instantly melted away, and I could hear the acid fizzing and bubbling as it splashed against the tunnel floor. The deconstructors failed within seconds as the acid soaked through their frames and began eating away at their sensitive internal components.

Thankfully they'd done enough, as a couple seconds later the rest of the wall collapsed, releasing a wave of acid into the tunnel. As soon as it did, the Kodiak's rear hatch shot open, disgorging bears into the tunnel, and the vehicle's main gun opened up on the darkness. I just tilted my head to the side. I'd expected to see some sort of monstrous creature sitting on the other side of the wall, but even with the low light amplification of my visor, I couldn't make out anything. Just darkness.

Lowering the missile launcher, I considered moving forward and joining up with the squad so I could investigate. I didn't, though. Something felt very wrong; there should have been an entire legion of Antithesis on the other side of the tunnel, or at least the tunneler, but there was just… darkness. After a moment the Kodiak stopped firing and started floating forward, sweeping its spotlight back and forth. The cave on the other side was slick and absolutely dripping with acid.

Maybe the Antithesis shock troops couldn't advance until it had cleared? I guess that kind of made sense, but if that was true, why would the Antithesis use this method to dig? I was still trying to figure out what was happening when the Antithesis finally struck. However, instead of the standard mob of weaker models, what shot out of the tunnel appeared to be a dozen snake-like plants, each about two feet in diameter, with flower-like heads.

These new models erupted from the tunnel, wrapping themselves around the Kodiak, spewing acid at the bears from their grotesque floral serpent mouths, before simultaneously pulling back, pulling the Kodiak deeper into the tunnel. It immediately went into full reverse, and I heard the hover engines whine as it struggled to resist the creatures. As it did, the bears surged forward, pouring everything they had into the heads, trying to get them to release their stranglehold.

Although they managed to blow open one or two, the remainder continued pulling the transport deeper into the tunnel until, with an earth-shattering crash, it was gone. For a moment I thought the Antithesis had collapsed the tunnel on us, until I realized what I was looking at. A colossal beaked mouth with nine concentric serrated jaws. Each jaw had a pair of holes, which I would have called nostrils if they weren't spewing acid like a firehose.

The creature shook its head for a moment, then opened its maw so wide that its mouth filled the entire tunnel and its mouthparts sank into grooves it had burned into the walls. I just stared in shock for a moment. No wonder I hadn't spotted the Antithesis' tunneler when we breached. The fucking thing was imitating an empty tunnel, trying to lure prey closer so it could consume it.

In only a few seconds it had managed to completely crush the Kodiak and turn it into scrap, and now the snakes, which must have been some sort of tongue or grasper, were emerging again.

"Uh, Boss… What are we supposed to do now? We lost our heaviest weapon," Dusty shouted as gunfire echoed around the tunnel.

"No, we didn't," I growled, shouldering the missile launcher.

"I still have this."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Dusty asked, a touch of panic in his voice.

"Yes," I replied simply, as I pulled the trigger. Even with my enhanced muscles, the missile firing still caused me to stumble back a couple steps. It lanced forward impossibly fast, smashing through one of the tongues, turning the grasping appendage into paste as it disappeared deep into the titan. A moment later there was a flash, followed by a hot wind and torrent of fluid. Chunks of charred flesh flew out of the wound, and the jaws went slack.

With the help of the still smoldering flesh, I could see that the blast had blown the back of the creature out, bathing the Antithesis horde in its potent acids. They tried to charge, only to collapse and dissolve, diluting the substance for those that came afterwards. It wouldn't take long until they finally started streaming through.

"That went better than expected," I declared, discarding the spent launcher and grabbing my rifle.

"Now, we can go to work."