Chương 397: Book 6 - Chapter 58 - Withstand

I watched as Bear Force One and the Fifty-One-S slowly but surely took their battle into the sky. The behemoth wasn't super fast, but what it lacked in speed it made up for in both resilience and firepower. Once it had finally pushed out of the ground and begun chasing Bear Force One, the Fifty-One-S showed what made it so fearsome. About a dozen long tendrils were hanging below it, each large enough to pick up a Model twelve.

Although I assumed they could be used as weapons, they appeared to be primarily used for the creature to sweep up whatever it could get its tendrils on and shove it into the horrid hooked beak that sat on the underside of the creature. It also carried, and probably birthed, a small explosive Antithesis model, which it launched from its side in waves, like a living missile.

On its top and side were dozens of fleshy nodules that launched projectiles much like the Model Fifteens did, and finally, and most frighteningly, there were two chitinous growths on its front that appeared to fire huge bone-like lances at incredible speeds. Even with the shield generators active, Bear Force One couldn't completely withstand a hit from those biological railguns, so the ship already had five long bone spurs embedded in the hull.

Thankfully, it seemed like the Fifty-One couldn't fire those very frequently, and they hadn't hit anything important yet, but if we let the fight drag on, it was only a matter of time before it hit something critical. When the creature finally rose above the crater and entered the open sky, it was struck by a staggering amount of firepower. A mix of Naval artillery, plasma bombardments, and laser barrages smashed into its side, causing the creature to lurch to the side.

For a moment, I thought Dial-Up and Lag might have delivered a serious blow. However, once the smoke and debris cleared, it became obvious that all they'd managed to do was crack the creature's shell. [Negative on the damage,] I reported to everyone. [The barrage failed to penetrate. It does seem that you did crack the creature's armor, so it might be worth bombarding that spot and seeing if you can gradually break your way through, but I suspect we're going to go with plan B.] [It's almost ready,] Wild replied.

[Bern and I have put together a couple of biological and technological weapons to throw at it; we just need to put them in the delivery mechanisms. Although they'll probably work if we smash them against the creature's hide, if we want to maximize the damage, they should be delivered to the soft flesh inside.] [Dial-Up, Lag, you heard the lady. Keep hammering that part of the shell,] I said. [Do you still want us to launch the weapons from one of our cannons?] Dial-Up asked.

[That won't be necessary,] Bern replied. [Wild and I discussed the situation while we were cooking and realized that Teddy's missile launchers made better delivery mechanisms. They're guided, and the explosion helps disperse the weapon over a larger area.] [If you want to use those, we're going to need spotters,] I said. [I'll send a couple of chameleons up in Kodiaks, and hope they won't get shot down before you're ready.] [You think that thing could take down your APCs?] Nora asked. [Probably. It's putting twenty-foot-long spikes into the side of my Strato Carrier, so I can only imagine that its smaller weapons are strong enough to at least knock a Kodiak out of the air,] I replied. [I'm going to get them to hang back, just in case.] While I set up my spotters, Dial-Up and Lag continued to lay into the side of the monster. It took several barrages, but they finally managed to break off a piece of the shell.

It looked like a tiny, insignificant wound at a distance, but when that chunk of armor fell to the ground, it nearly crushed an entire squad of bears. Although I knew that thing was large, that really helped cement the sense of scale in my mind. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. A minute or so later, I saw one of Mud's bikes zipping across the barren plain towards me. When it skidded to a halt, the side popped open, and Wild popped out.

"Uhhh… Where's Mud?" I asked, glancing into the empty cab.

"Patrolling the area around Great Falls," she replied.

"He had so many points and was upgrading his bikes so often that he decided to install autopilots in the most recent versions to get some extra coverage."

"That's pretty smart," I said.

"That way nothing goes to waste." I reached into the cramped cab of the vehicle, grabbed one of the crates, and placed it on the ground next to Wild.

"Are these all the weapons?" I asked.

"Six different payloads, all of which are cross-compatible with each other," she said. When I looked back at her questioningly, she shrugged.

"While we were working on the phage, we realized that if we weren't careful, we could have caused some of the faster-acting methods to kill off the areas infected by the slower-acting ones, causing them to end prematurely. To prevent that, we added a tiny amount of nanites to every weapon, which could carry the payload to a new area if it looked like it might get killed off prematurely."

"The shit you guys work with is scary enough as is. I can't believe you added a failsafe to make sure it's as dangerous as possible," I muttered.

"Considering everything we've been dealing with, we didn't want to take any half measures," she replied.

"I assume you have someone around that can fire those," she said, gesturing to the small pile of crates at my feet.

"Of course," I replied, mentally summoning a couple of bears. The squad ran up, flipped open the cases, and took out the weapons before running to the top of the nearest ridge.

"Anything I need to know before launching these? Do they need to be fired in a certain order or something?" I asked.

"Just make sure you get them into the wound if you want them to cause a lot of damage," Wild replied.

"That I can do," I said. Diving into the network, I pulled up the telemetry from the Chameleons far above and connected it to the bears and launchers. As soon as they established firing solutions, the squad fired. The missiles streaked skyward, slowly steering away from the Fifty-One-S before making a sharp turn and diving directly towards the open wound. Just as it looked like they were going to hit, the missiles lost tracking.

Most of them continued along their current trajectories, smashing against the shell, leaving only one or two to slip into the wound.

"What just happened?" Wild asked.

"Fuck! The thing has some sort of short-range ECM field," I swore.

"Why didn't I consider that before? All the stronger models seem to have some sort of disruption ability."

"Well, at least the missiles all hit. Even if they didn't get into the wound, they can go to work on the exterior and work their way in," Wild said.

"Well… the non-mechanical ones, anyway. If that thing was capable of frying my missiles from that distance, I imagine it probably fried any nanites, too," I replied.

"That's only two out of six. The others can still go to work," Wild said.

"How long until we know if they're effective or not?" I asked.

"Oh, five to ten minutes until we see any noticeable effect. I'd say at least half an hour until they really start affecting the thing," she replied.

"Half an hour? Why so long?" I asked.

"Because that thing's the size of a skyscraper, and who knows what its internals look like. Even the most invasive, necrotic bacteria we created take a while to work through that much flesh, and if the creature has a strong immune system, the process would slow even more. It would be like the Antithesis storming Bear Force One and slowly shoving their way through it, bulkhead by bulkhead. Even without defenders, that would take a while," she said.

"Please don't say something like that," I muttered.

"That thing is already punching holes in my ship. I don't want it to get any ideas."

"Evelyn, I've heard you talk. You tempt fate multiple times a day," Wild said.

"That's because I don't see those situations ever happening," I said, before pausing.

"Even though, historically, they usually do. The thing is, I can actually see the Antithesis storming Bear Force One to disable it. Because if they did…" I waited a few moments, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Wild just looked at me strangely.

"Okay, maybe I'm just being paranoid…" I started, before getting a quick message from Spooky. [Boss, we've got a problem.]"Damnit."