Chương 385: Book 6 - Chapter 46 - Adaptation and growth

"It looks like the serum didn't manage to kill off the fungus completely," I grunted as we slowly made our way deeper into the hive. Although it was a little patchy, the walls and floors were coated in a fuzzy grey coating.

"Are you sure it's the same stuff? This fungus is a different color," Nora said, taking a momentary break from caving in the Antithesis' skulls to crouch down and inspect our discovery.

"Am I sure? No. However, this stuff seems to have the same general look and consistency as the shit that was overrunning the surface, and you can see the patches spreading their root systems, trying to connect. Although this could be something completely different from what we encountered before, I think it's far more likely that this is a mutant strain. The color change is probably a result of whatever the Antithesis had to do to inoculate it against Bern's bioweapon."

"Didn't he say it was doubtful that the Antithesis would be able to find a counter for his phage? And it would be more likely for it to mutate into something that was either benign or even dangerous to the Antithesis?" Nora asked.

"That he did," I muttered.

"Guess they managed to hit the evolutionary jackpot."

"This could make things more difficult," Nora grumbled as she pushed herself to her feet.

"A little, but we killed a whole lot of Antithesis after the phage was released, and that's biomass they'll never get back. Plus, we've been coating anything we kill down here in flesh melters. I suspect this mutation," I said, gesturing to the fungus.

"Might be too little too late."

"That's assuming that we manage to penetrate the Antithesis' defences and find a way to destroy the hive," Nora replied.

"Because if we don't, and the Antithesis get a chance to reestablish themselves…"

"Even if we fail, there's a samurai battle group coming in from the east, which includes two colossal tanks, and the Mars battlefleet will be arriving in a day or two. This hive is finished," I said, before glancing over at her.

"Since when did you become a pessimist? For those groups to get a shot at this thing, we'd have to fail somehow."

"I don't know," she admitted.

"Ever since we launched the phage and took the offensive, something hasn't been sitting right with me. Not only are the large models you encountered before strangely absent, but it almost feels like the Antithesis have been holding back. The hive should be sending out waves of warning pheromones, causing the Antithesis to swarm us from every possible direction, but that's not happening. We're only being assaulted from the front."

"That's true…" I said, rubbing my chin.

"Then again, this entire complex is strange. Maybe it was optimized for the Martian atmosphere or focused entirely on attacking, so it doesn't have the standard pheromones."

"You don't actually believe that, do you?" Nora asked skeptically.

"Of course not," I replied.

"Although I like to imagine that the Antithesis screwed up, I know the chances of the Antithesis screwing up that much and not adapting to the local environment by now are so unbelievably slim they might as well be zero."

"So trap?" Nora asked.

"Most likely. I don't know what kind of trap involves inviting the enemy into the heart of your base. It seems like an idiotic idea to me, but it's also the only thing that makes sense to me," I said.

"Do you think we should set the weapon off early?" I thought for a moment before shaking my head.

"Bern said to plug it into the heart of the hive to cause the maximum amount of damage, and considering how fast this hive is adapting, I don't think we should risk it. We continue." You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Straight into the jaws," Nora muttered, scraping her foot through the fungus, ripping it away from the floor in clumps.

"At least we know it's coming," I said.

"Besides, what's the worst the Antithesis could do?" Nora glanced over at me for a moment, then shook her head.

"Okay, now I'm convinced you're doing that shit on purpose."

"What? Tempting fate?" I asked, grinning into my helmet.

"I'll admit, this time it was on purpose. I'm going to prove this hive's got nothing on me and my bears!"

"I appreciate your confidence, but keep in mind that there are other people here. When Murphy finally comes calling, I'd prefer not to be in the splash zone," she said. Despite the seriousness of the subject, I heard a hint of amusement in her voice.

"When Murphy and I finally meet, the clash will be legendary," I replied jokingly.

"Right," Nora snorted.

"Anyways, we should probably push on. There's no point in giving the Antithesis any more time to prepare than we already have." She briefly glanced at the tunnel before turning back to me.

"Do you think we'll need to veer off the path at some point? This tunnel has been very linear so far."

"We're still heading towards the center of the crater," I said.

"Although this might not take us right to the birthing chamber, it should take us close to the weapon… organ? Muscle? Thing, at the center. Taking that thing out would be almost as good as killing the hive itself. Opening the hive up against orbital strikes again would help us keep it suppressed or straight up kill it from orbit."

"Unless the Antithesis have managed to grow another one or built some other surprise deeper in the complex," Nora pointed out.

"Now who's tempting fate?" I teased before getting serious.

"It's possible, but if something like that exists, hopefully we'll be able to find some signs of that while we're wandering around down here."

"And I suppose you know what an Antithesis superweapon looks like?" Nora snorted.

"I'll know when something looks out of place," I retorted.

"It'll be like a giant gelatinous mass, huge muscled caverns, or… wires?"

"Wires?" Nora repeated, looking at me strangely, "Why would there be wires in a hive?"

"I don't know, but you're standing on some," I replied, pointing at the area she'd scraped up. Hidden under the mass was something that reminded me of the unorganized spaghetti that was often found hanging from the streetlights around the undercity. Nora crouched down and poked the bundle.

"It's a root," she reported.

"But it also has a sheen to it, metal?" I asked.

"Or crystal," she replied, reaching down and snapping a piece off. Stepping over to the nearest Kodiak, she held the root up to its floodlight to get a better look.

"It reminds me of harvesting plants we saw in Jasper, the ones that dug their roots deep into the earth and leached the minerals out of the rock."

"Those ran vertical, not horizontal," I replied.

"What would they be leaching minerals out of here?"

"The fungus? Maybe this is a collection network designed to accelerate the collection of important materials, like minerals," Nora suggested.

"Maybe?" I conceded.

"Still seems a little odd. Investing your hard-won minerals in a growth within the hive, instead of more of those massive warforms? Someone's got their priorities out of whack."

"Maybe this system helps them gather rare elements faster? Investing early gains into something that allows them to grow even faster in the long run," Nora said, tossing the piece to me.

"It must be something like that. I can't think of anything else that it would be?" I said, stepping next to her and holding the root up to the light. It was a strange thing that almost resembled a frayed plastic-coated wire; A thin black outer coating with some sort of shiny mineral occasionally poking through the cracks.

"Whatever it is, it's probably important," I said.

"We should follow the system and see where it goes."

"Do you really think that's wise?" Nora asked.

"If It is some sort of collection network, then it probably either branches out from the main birthing chamber, or if not there, a major resource gathering point. Either of which I'd be happy to put an end to," I said.

"And if it's for something else… Well, let's just say I'm intrigued. If the Antithesis are investing a lot of minerals in something, I want to know what it is and how breakable it is."

"You want to follow this instead of looking for the heart of the hive?"

"I have a feeling that even if this doesn't connect to the main birthing area, it'll point us in the right direction," I said.

"Unless you have a better lead?"

"We could follow the never-ending stream of Antithesis back to their source," Nora suggested.

"Although if this is a trap, that's probably how they'd try and lure us in."

"At least this gives us a little bit of self-agency," I said.

"Even if we end up in the same place, we'll get there without being led around like a dog on a leash."

"So we walk into the trap from a different direction?" Nora chuckled.

"You know what? Sure. Who knows, that might just give us the edge we need."

"Excellent," I declared, sending out a quick command to the battle group. A handful of bears immediately started scrabbling around on the ground, tearing up the fungus and looking for the roots below. With their data and the help of several hundred bears to process it, I started mapping the network and tracking it back to the source. I smiled.

"Let's go hunting."