Chương 392: Book 6 - Chapter 53 - Recovery and Retreat

"Please try to take it easy for a little while. I had to pump your arm full of synthetic growth compound and nanties in order to regenerate that gap in your bone. Although your arm is connected again, it'll take time for the bone to fuse properly," Deadbeat said as I pulled on my new armor.

"So no punching Model Twelves or hanging from the side of a cliff, got it," I replied.

"I'm serious! If you take a hard enough blow on the arm, the patch will shatter, and the shards will rip up your arm!" Deadbeat hissed.

"If I get hit hard enough for that patch to shatter, it means something; A, got close enough to me to hit me; B, was strong enough to not only penetrate the shield but also negate my armor; and C, I was too distracted to dodge," I said.

"And if that happens, I'll almost certainly have bigger problems than my recently patched arm." I slipped my helmet on, mentally triggered the environmental sealing protocol, and finally pulled the hood of my cloak over top before turning back to the bear.

"I can promise you that I'm not going to throw myself onto the frontline or intentionally get into a fistfight with a Twenty-One, but beyond that… I'm going to do what I need to in order to find and kill that fucking thing that wounded me," I said, ignoring her annoyed glare.

"Sorry, but that's the best I can do. I'm not going to sit on the sidelines just because I received a minor wound."

"You lost an arm," Deadbeat said.

"And you reattached it within minutes," I replied.

"I didn't even need to go into a healing coma this time."

"If that's the metric you use to decide whether you're seriously wounded or not, we need to sit down so I can educate you on all the reasons that's fucked up," Deadbeat growled.

"That'll have to wait until later," I replied as I stepped towards the back of the Kodiak and slammed my fist against the door open button.

"Right now, our priority needs to be hunting down that Gene Tender. If it slips away and manages to settle down somewhere else, we may have to go through all this shit again, and I'm not willing to let this happen." When the ramp finally hit the ground, I stepped out, but I paused after just a couple steps and looked back at the bear.

"I realize that you're saying all this because you're concerned about me, but I can't just sit around while there's something to do. I do appreciate you patching me up. Thank you."

"Uh, well, you're welcome?" Deadbeat managed to stutter before I turned away and finally hopped off the Kodiak. It seemed like we were still in the tunnels, despite the fact that I'd been down for close to half an hour. Considering how fast most of my forces could move and the fact that we didn't appear to be encountering a ton of resistance, I could only imagine that our slow progress was due to the fact that we had to wait for the Mauler.

As I jogged towards the front of the column, there was a rumble from overhead, and the ground shook. While inside, I'd caught the occasional rumble through the sound-dampening hull plates, and now that I was out, I could actually tell that the minor tremors were almost constant. That was strange, though; the backup plans I'd put into place should have resulted in waves of explosions, not constant ones.

I found Nora bouncing back and forth, smashing the handful of Antithesis that had decided to turn around to engage our forces instead of rushing out to die on the surface. As soon as she saw me, she leapt over the front line and landed next to me.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

"Considering I didn't feel anything when the damage happened, I guess the answer would be no. I do, however, have my arm back, so I'm fighting fit again," I said, raising my arm so she could see it. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"I can't believe how casually you're taking this," she said.

"You got your arm shot off."

"And then I got better, no long-term consequences at all," I replied, smiling into my helmet. Well, until a thought came to me.

"Don't you dare tell Jane or the kids; they'll never let me hear the end of it!"

"I'm not the one you should be worried about," she scoffed.

"Deadbeat and Jane are super close, and Bob has a complete lack of filters. I think they're going to find out no matter what you do."

"You're right," I sighed.

"Better get myself ready for the fallout." As we were talking, a particularly massive tremor shook the corridor, causing dirt and rocks to get dislodged from the roof.

"What the hell is going on topside?"

"I thought it was just your backup plan," Nora replied, glancing at the ceiling.

"My backup plan was to fire a massive volley of missiles and try to overwhelm the Antithesis' anti-flying defenses. That should have only been once every couple minutes, not a constant barrage."

"Maybe it's the other samurai pushing in," Nora suggested.

"How far off were the other assault teams?"

"I have no idea," I replied. Nora's head snapped downward, and I could see her glowering at me through the faceplate.

"What? Didn't you check their position when you planned this assault?"

"I was busy making plans and buying the Mauler," I replied.

"In the end my plans didn't rely upon someone else showing up, so I didn't bother trying to coordinate with anyone."

"That's… very you," Nora sighed.

"Come on, if the other samurai are here, we should probably get out of these tunnels as quickly as possible. I don't want to get buried alive if they start firing heavy ordnance our way."

"Heavy ordnance? I'm shooting ICBMs at the defenses; how heavy do you think the others are carrying?" I asked.

"Your weapons are all extremely focused, designed for surgical strikes, because you hate the idea of collateral damage," Nora said.

"Not all samurai are so concerned with preventing civilian casualties, especially when we're so far into the countryside, away from major towns and cities."

"Right," I muttered as another explosion shook the tunnel.

"Plus, if Bern's present worked, the anti-orbital organ might be crippled pretty soon, which means the Family could bring their orbital weapons to bear soon. I do not want to be anywhere near this place when that happens."

"Then let's get moving," Nora said. She swiveled around, and before I could say anything else, she was rocketing across the tunnel, smashing into the Antithesis lines knee first.

"Show off," I muttered. Mentally connecting to the command network I quickly found Dusty's channel and hijacked it. [Dusty, can't you push the Mauler's engines any harder? We need to get out of the tunnels,] I asked. [Hey, I'm doing the best I can. You're the one that chose to weigh this thing down with excess armor without giving it a Class III engine. I'm pushing it as hard as I can,] Dusty replied. [As for getting out of the tunnels, don't worry, we'll be out in a minute or two. The exit is just around the corner.] [How do you know that?] I asked. [Bandit created a complete 3d map during the assault, and it's available on the network,] he replied. [And even if he hadn't, I memorized the exact distance we traveled going down, and we've almost traveled that far coming back.] [Oh…] I muttered. [I really should check the network more often.] [You really should,] Dusty said. [Ah! See, just like I said, daylight ahead.] I turned back towards the front, only to discover that I could see clear sky peeking around the next corner. [Ah, I guess that works,] I muttered. [Thanks Dusty.] [Anytime, Boss,] he replied. I cut the connection and jogged up to the front line. There was only a handful of Antithesis filtering back into the tunnel now, and since the bears didn't need to fire constantly, the squads had started to jog forward so they could secure the entrance.

I followed them, just a step or two behind the lines, and when we approached the opening, I raised a hand to shield my eyes from the sunlight. I didn't have to since the helmet automatically polarized, but I still did it out of habit. Despite my instincts screaming at me to not to I glanced up to figure out what was causing the thundering noise above me. In the brief moment that I looked up, right before the nausea and vertigo kicked in, I got my answer.

Bear Force One was hovering above us, spitting out Ursas and firing all its weapons into the crater. I nodded slightly, took a couple deep breaths to try to steady myself, and finally smiled.

"That would do it."