Chương 380: Book 6 - Chapter 41 - Made to Order

"Evelyn, Nora, you have a minute?" Bern asked as he worked his way through the ocean of bears arrayed outside of Grand Falls. I looked up in surprise. After discussing my plans with everyone else, I hadn't expected to see him again before leaving, and apparently neither did Nora.

"Hey Bern, you change your mind about following us to the front?" she asked. He shook his head.

"I've always been better at supporting the front line than fighting on it," he said.

"Then… What are you doing here? We were just about to set off," I asked.

"I wanted to give you something," he replied. He cocked his head to the side, extended a hand out in front of himself, palm up, and went quiet for a moment; A second later a large metallic briefcase materialized in his hand. Even though I couldn't see his face through his hazmat-like suit, I could practically hear him smiling as he held it out.

"It's a little present that Wild and I cooked up for the Antithesis."

"What is it?" Nora asked hesitantly as she took the case.

"It's a special fabricator," he said.

"See that sharp needle on the side? The one that's connected to the case by wires? It's a probe. If you plunge it into the heart of the hive, this little thing will cook up a vicious cocktail of pollen, seeds, nanites, and viruses specifically designed to target that specific genome and destroy it."

"If you had access to something like this, why didn't you just rig it to a missile or some other delivery system and just drop it on the hive when you arrived?" I asked suspiciously.

"Well, it's partially because I didn't have access to the required tech before I came. I needed both access to your catalogs and Wild's help to create it," he said.

"Still doesn't explain why…" I started before he held up a hand.

"And the reason I didn't just load it in a missile and launch it at the hive is I don't think it would have been that effective. Both the outer shell and the weapon the Antithesis have been using to destroy our orbitals are very specialized. It's very likely that they're unique organisms bound to the main hive structure, symbiotes if you will, rather than being part of the core hive structure.

Dropping the payload on it may have stripped that armor away, but I find it unlikely that it would have done significant damage to the main hive," Bern explained.

"Plus, the system needs about a minute to perform the proper analysis before it can deploy the counteragent, something it wouldn't have if it was strapped to a missile."

"Fair enough. So we just take this doohickey and stab it into something vulnerable?" I asked, grabbing the probe and pretending to stab a nearby bear. Bern's hands shot up.

"Please be very careful with that," he blurted out.

"The fabricator is designed to activate the instant the probe is stabbed into the target. It's single use and very expensive, and since it uses nanites, I suspect that it would even be effective against your forces…"

"Don't worry, Bern," Nora said as she swiped the probe out of my hand and placed it back in the cradle on the side of the device.

"I'll hold onto it until we're ready to use it."

"Just out of curiosity… How expensive is one of these?" I asked curiously.

"Is it something we should be carrying into every hive?" Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Point-wise? Low six figures," he replied.

"So no, I wouldn't recommend purchasing one for every hive." When I heard that, I took a step away from the case.

"Six figures?!?!?"

"It's a Class III fabricator with built-in Class III genetic analysis hardware and dimensionally shunted storage to ensure the device has enough materials to generate its payload," Bern explained.

"Why would that be necessary?" I asked aghast.

"Wouldn't it be more effective to drop a metric shit ton of nanites on the hive?" Bern shifted uncomfortably.

"Normally, yes. However, the family has already launched several nanite warheads at the hive, and we know at least one of them connected. When hit by a nanite attack, most hives will start purging parts of their structure or producing models saturated with as many nanites as possible, undergoing a cycle of purging until the nanites left in the hive's system are so diluted they're no longer necessary. This one? It seemed to shrug off the attack."

"They did?" I asked before I caught myself.

"Of course they did considering how much of a threat this thing is, the Family probably dumped a number of esoteric warheads on it, and if any of them had worked, we wouldn't still be here." I sighed.

"What makes you think your 'present' will be more effective than the nano warhead?"

"The hive must have some sort of built-in resistance or immune response that it built up on Mars," Bern told me.

"By combining the nanites with various other attack vectors, we can bypass that immunity and hopefully cause serious damage to the hive before it can respond."

"Wait! Are you saying you've built a bomb worth a hundred thousand points, and you don't even expect it to finish the hive off? That's crazy!" Nora exclaimed.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I sincerely hope that it manages to destroy the entire structure," Bern said, "but based upon what we've witnessed so far, I suspect it's much more likely that it'll find a way to adapt before the cocktail will be able to finish the job."

"Wonderful," I grumbled.

"Well… even if your little bio bomb doesn't finish the hive off, we'll be in the heart of the thing with an army of bears, and there'll be several samurai strike teams not far behind us. We'll find a way to finish it off."

"I hope you do, for all our sakes," Bern muttered. He shook his head for a moment before standing up straight.

"Well, now that I've dropped off our little present, I should head back to Wild. That girl's got some good instincts when it comes to biological weapons; she's just lacking the experience to make the most of it. I'm going to do the best I can to guide her while I'm here. Hopefully we can release another plague or two on the Antithesis before this is all over."

"I don't like how casually you said that," I grumbled. Bern laughed.

"Don't worry, I always build failsafes into my tech. It'll only be dangerous to the Antithesis, and it'll completely burn itself out instead of replicating."

"I hope so," Nora replied.

"Dealing with the Antithesis is bad enough. I'd hate to deal with a world-ending plague too."

"I'll be careful," Bern declared, before sticking out his hand.

"You two stay safe out there."

"Thanks! You too," I replied, taking his hand and shaking it firmly. When we were done, he pulled his hand back and shook it a couple times before holding it out to Nora.

"Take care, Bern," Nora said as they shook. As Bern wandered back towards the main gate, I turned to Nora.

"The bears have gathered and finished packing all the extra supplies into the Kodiaks, so I'm ready to go. How about you?"

"Of course, I've got everything I need right here," she replied, reaching down and patting her cybernetic legs."

"Right," I snorted.

"And I'm sure that advanced armor you're wearing and that rifle on your back are just for show?"

"They're nice to have, but if push comes to shove, I can get by with just my feet," she replied lightly.

"In that case, what do you say we get this show on the road?" I said.

"It may have only been a few days, but it feels like we've been on the defensive forever. I'm eager for a little payback."

"In that case, why don't you take the lead?" she asked. I smiled.

"With pleasure." I was feeling a little theatrical for some reason, so I took a couple quick steps towards the mauler before casually leaping up on top of the massive tank. Turning back towards my little assault force, I raised one hand over my head and yelled.

"Bears forward! Crush every Antithesis that crosses our path on the way to the hive. Forward, to Victory!" I'm sure the moment would have felt a little more satisfying if the bears cheered or something, but they just started charging through the bog, cutting down any Antithesis that dared to appear ahead of them. And, although it wasn't as epic as I'd pictured in my head, it was extremely effective. And that suited me just fine.