Chương 393: Book 6 - Chapter 54 - Counter Siege

[Spooky,] I said, connecting to him directly through the command network, [what are you doing here?] [Providing fire support,] Spooky replied. [Bear Force One is way more effective when it has a direct line of sight on the target.] [You know what I mean; the plan was to bombard the hive from a distance, then send in the Ursas to bathe the entire place in flame,] I said. [And that's still the plan,] Spooky said.

[However, once those goliath tanks started bombarding the hive, I decided it was probably safe to move up, as long as I left the bears on the wall where they were. You didn't want to be shown up by the latecomers, did you?] [I don't really care whether I get shown up or not,] I grumbled. [Uh huh,] Spooky replied, a little smugness in his voice. [Anyways, moving Bear Force One up made tactical sense. It cuts down how far the Ursas have to travel to reload, and also allows the carrier to provide a little anti-air support.] [Anti-air? Why? I don't see any flying Antithesis anywhere,] I said, turning my head as far skyward as I dared and glancing around. [That's because you're not looking in the crater,] Spooky replied. [Take a look.] I accepted the data feed he provided and routed it through my augs so I could take a look.

The feed connected me to half a dozen different cameras on the bow of the massive ship and gave me a good look at what was happening just a couple hundred meters away. There were hundreds of Model Elevens and Thousands of Model Ones pouring out of the great gaping maw in the middle of the hive. They were being met by wave upon wave of Ursas, half of which unloaded their missile racks into the thick clouds of Antithesis while the other half coated the entire hive in M-17.

As soon as the Ursas emptied their missile racks, they immediately peeled off and returned to the Stratocarrier for a resupply. [How are our losses?] I asked as I inspected the chaotic aerial brawl. [Surprisingly light, considering the number of Antithesis pouring out of the hive. The PAWs systems on our vehicles are doing a lot of the work, but the Antithesis are able to push through with the sheer numbers,] Spooky reported. [Well, try to keep our casualties to a minimum if you can. I want to keep the hive bathed in fire and suppressed as long as possible,] I said. [What were those explosions that were happening while Nora and I were pulling out of the tunnels?] [Oh, that would be the BATs,] Spooky said. [What the fuck is a BAT?] I asked, cocking my head to the side. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

[Big Ass Tank,] Spooky replied smoothly as one of the cameras I'd been watching swivelled away from the battle and zoomed in on two shapes in the distance. Since the camera had been focused on the battle, I'd written the blurry shapes off as mountains; however, once it zoomed in, I could see that wasn't the case. They were tanks, titanic ones. I'd been told they rivalled the Strato Carrier, or a battleship, in size, but the truth is they were much bigger.

They were at least twice as wide and twice as tall as Bear Force One, and each one was completely brimming with cannons that dwarfed the UHR. As I watched, half a dozen turrets turned towards the hive and opened fire. Dozens of high-explosive shells sailed through the air before smashing into the hive, gouging huge pits out of the hive's hardened carapace. [Scary,] I muttered. [I thought that the Antithesis might have delayed the assault team, but I don't see that happening with those monsters leading the charge. I'm guessing the only thing that delayed them was the max speed of those tanks.] I took manual control of the lowest camera and panned it lower and lower until I could look at the ragged maw in the middle of the crater. The weapon that Bern and Wild had prepared had done a number on the Antithesis superweapon. The hardened carapace 'teeth' surrounding it had sagged, melting into a soggy mess that dribbled down into the crevasse below.

Unfortunately, from this angle, I couldn't tell the extent of the damage to the weapon itself. [Spooky, I want you to sink as many missiles as you can into the heart of the hive,] I said. [We're probably going to need The Family's satellites to track down that fucking Gene Tender, and I doubt they'll want to risk their tech until we can confirm that superweapon is offline. Let's make sure.] [You've got it,] the bear replied, a touch of grim satisfaction in his voice.

The battlefield was already a riot of noise, but all that was drowned out when Bear Force One unleashed not only a full salvo of missiles but also a full barrage from all the turrets. A massive explosion rocked the area, causing fire and smoke to billow from the pit. The cannon fire from the strato carrier caused the lip of the pit to crumble and finally collapse inward, choking the passage. [That ought to do it,] Spooky said. [Indeed. Thanks, Spooky, keep up the good work,] I said.

[You know I will,] he replied, before cutting the connection.

"So, what was that all about?" Nora said, poking me in the side once I stopped staring off into space.

"Just making sure that our biggest problem is out of the picture," I replied.

"The Gene Tender?" I blanched.

"Okay… second biggest problem," I admitted.

"I had Spooky drop a few tons of ordnance into the Antithesis anti-orbital weapon thing to ensure it was knocked completely out of commission."

"I'm pretty sure that Bern's phage did that already," Nora said.

"You're probably right, but I wanted to be doubly sure," I said.

"Really didn't want them to deprive us of satellite coverage just when we need it the most."

"Do you really think they'd do that, knowing what's at stake?" she asked.

"Honestly? Yes. Absolutely," I replied. When Nora turned and started to shake her head, I held up a hand.

"Not all of them, of course. I know a lot of good people in The Family, but for every person that wants to use the Family's resources for good, there's a bureaucrat that's more concerned about how the situation looks or what they'll get in exchange for their help. I want to remove as many barricades and excuses as I can before I actually make the call."

"I guess that makes sense," she muttered.

"Still, I wouldn't put off calling for too long. That thing already has a pretty good head start, thanks to you having to have your arm reattached, and every moment we wait, it's probably getting further away.

"I know, I just need to psyche myself up a little. Although I'd like to call Charlotte directly to ask for support, I doubt she has the authority to re-route the satellites since she's only the temporary head of Calgary operations," I said.

"Which means she and I need to talk to someone higher up the chain."

"You could call Mirage and ask him to use his authority," Nora said.

"He and the fleet are only about a day out, which means they're within comms range now." I turned towards her slowly, a disappointed look on my face.

"I would rather face a horde of bloodthirsty Antithesis, or ravenous bureaucrats, than ask Benedict for help," I said.

"Suit yourself. I think it would be faster, but I'm not going to force you," she replied. I looked at the clock in my helmet's hud. She was right, we'd already lost a lot of time in the tunnels, but still… Mirage could be such an asshole sometimes. I groaned as I pulled up my augs.

"Alright, time to make a call."