Chương 400: Book 6 - Chapter 61 - Don’t Ask

"Uhhh, Boss?" Bandit said as he timidly approached me a couple of minutes later.

"The satellite coverage has been restored, and we're poring through the data, but we have a problem."

"And what's that?" I mumbled through my mouth full of sandwich. This was the first time that the air had been clear enough of spores, acid, and other shit in the last week for me to remove my helmet anywhere near the front line safely, so I was sitting on the Bear-acade wall taking full advantage of the situation.

"We don't have a way to differentiate between the Gene Tender and everything else," Deadbeat explained.

"What do you mean? Shouldn't it be fairly unique?" I asked.

"Is that a joke, or have you really not been paying attention to everything that happened over the last week?" Deadbeat replied skeptically. I sighed and, with intense regret, put my lunch down.

"I obviously don't understand the problem, so can you just quit this whole song and dance and explain why you're having difficulty, please?"

"Well, as you know, the Tender spent the last week not only throwing the bruisers it brought from Mars at us, but also adjusting the Antithesis being produced by this hive," Deadbeat said.

"And…" I prompted.

"And because of that, about thirty percent of the remaining Antithesis are being listed as 'unknown species' by the system," Deadbeat explained.

"Of those, the system has been able to flag about seventy-five percent as 'probable mutant strains', but that still leaves thousands of unknown signals."

"Can't you just filter through based on visuals? I just updated the Command network, so you should have enough processing power to dig through those remaining reports, shouldn't you?" I asked.

"We should…" Bandit admitted slowly.

"The problem is we don't have any idea what this thing looks like."

"Beg your pardon?" I said, turning towards the fox.

"What do you mean you have no idea what it looks like?"

"Most of our forces went down as soon as we entered the cavern, and while they were recovering, the squad had to deal with both that apex mode and the Antithesis rushing into the cavern behind us. We don't have any footage of this thing," Deadbeat explained.

"Fuck. Would it help if I gave you a description?" I asked, before remembering something. I snapped my fingers.

"Oh! I also have a piece of the thing."

"Why… do you have a part of it?" Deadbeat asked slowly.

"Because I figured I could show it to one of the foxes later, and see if they could track it through the smell or something," I explained.

"Even though I wanted to chase it right away, I figured it was smarter to pull back until we could be sure the bears were in fighting shape. Then the Fifty-One-S showed up, and I kind of forgot about it. Come on, I'll show you." I grabbed my lunch and casually hopped off the wall, heading back towards the town entrance. Since we'd just arrived back in town a few minutes ago, there was still a huge crowd of bots sitting between me and the town.

They were busy repairing, replacing, and resupplying the troops who had escorted us into the hive, so Bob, Heavy, and Dusty could make their follow-up assault. Even though it looked like a chaotic mess, I didn't have any trouble navigating through the mob. The upgraded command link allowed me to subtly and subconsciously adjust the movements of every bear in the area, so there was absolutely no chance I'd run into one unless I actually wanted to. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve.

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"Where are we going anyway?" Bandit asked once we stepped into the town proper.

"To my Kodiak," I replied, cracking open a package of vegetable chips. As I popped the first into my mouth, I glanced over at the fox.

"Are you telling me that nose of yours can't pick up the smell of Antithesis at this range?"

"Have you looked around?" Bandit countered.

"Every single bot we took on that assault is completely covered in a veritable Antithesis soup. Even before the phage took hold and began breaking down the Antithesis, most of our force was covered in blood and guts from fighting through the tunnel. Everything smells like some variety of Antithesis." I wrinkled my nose.

"That's kind of gross," I said.

"I'm glad I don't have to smell that shit unless I have to."

"You know I have that ability too; I just have to swap my olfactory sensors to a backup processor, and it'll do all the work. It's just more efficient for me to process the data actively," Deadbeat replied.

"Good to know," I said, popping another chip into my mouth. I found my personal Kodiak not too far from the entrance, parked down a side road. There wasn't much that differentiated it from the others, just a small armored hump at the front that contained the antenna for the comm system. It had served me well over the last year, but between the new tech I'd purchased during both the Global Incursion and over the last few days, the Kodiaks were really starting to get out of date.

Maybe it was time for another overhaul. I went to the back, slammed a fist into the 'open door' button and waited for the ramp to fully lower before stepping inside to grab the sample.

"What did you pick up anyway?" Bandit asked.

"You know a blood sample isn't as useful as a piece of flesh. The smell is different."

"Don't worry, I got you some flesh," I replied as I dragged the Gene Tender's arm out. It was a little awkward, because the thing was as long as I was tall and the joints were extremely floppy, but I managed it after a minute.

"Uhhhh… What's that?" Deadbeat asked.

"It's the creature's arm," I replied with a grin.

"It took one of mine, so I thought I'd return the favor."

"That's a little morbid," Deadbeat muttered.

"It's the truth," I replied before turning to Bandit.

"Do you think you could use this to help calibrate the satellite's sensors?"

"Probably not," the fox replied as he gently took the limb.

"I could use it to calibrate the foxes, and to a lesser extent the chameleons, to look for traces."

"Great! Get to it then," I said, letting go of the limb and reaching for my chips again.

"You need anything else?"

"Yes! The description," Deadbeat exclaimed.

"How else are we supposed to identify this thing from the satellite?"

"Oh yeah," I muttered before popping a chip into my mouth. I took a moment to chew and try to remember as many details as possible before continuing.

"Well, it had a beetle-like thorax and an oversized grub-like head."

"Sounds like about thirty percent of the Antithesis models," Bandit muttered.

"Oh! It also had an upright, humanoid torso with four articulated arms, and it could deploy four insect-like wings," I said.

"It had a humanoid torso and four articulated limbs?" Deadbeat repeated.

"Well, it has three now," I replied, gesturing to the long floppy arm in Bandit's hands.

"Unless it has some sort of advanced regeneration. I have one of them now. Is that enough for you? I could describe how its eyes are laid out if you want."

"I don't think that'll be necessary," Deadbeat replied.

"It sounds unique enough that we should be able to track it down fairly quickly."

"Good," I said.

"Then I'll let you go. Let me know the instant you have anything."

"That won't be necessary," Deadbeat replied.

"We already cataloged all the unknown signals in the area, and as you said, we have access to all the processing power the command network provides." I crumpled up my chip bag, placed it on the seat of the Kodiak, and brushed my hands off on my pants.

"Well, don't keep me in suspense. Where do we have to go to fuck this thing up?" I asked. The pair exchanged a glance.

"Uhhh, about that," Bandit started.

"It's not here," Deadbeat said immediately after.

"How can it not be here?" I growled.

"It was here only a few hours ago. It can't just disappear into thin air."

"How are we supposed to know?" Deadbeat replied, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"I'm just telling you that nothing matching your description is anywhere within satellite range."

"Maybe it's underground then," I said. Bandit shook his head.

"The samurai grade sensor package on the satellites has ground-penetrating capabilities. They were even upgraded to detect shielded tunnels, like those in Jasper, even if they couldn't tell what was inside. It's not here." I ruffled my hair and hissed in frustration.

"Then I want you to go back through the visual data from all the squad leaders, starting from the time we were in the hive, and look for any sign of it. I want to know where it went."

"And if we can't find anything?" Bandit asked.

"Then check every single bear, fox, chameleon and badger, until you do," I replied.

"We can't let that thing run loose! Find it, no matter the cost."