Chương 404: Book 7 - Chapter 1 - Barren Coast

"Ugh… Why did that stupid Antithesis have to flee to the coast?" I grumbled as I stared out over the waves.

"Why couldn't it just roll over and die like the rest of them?"

"I wouldn't exactly say they 'roll over and die,'" Heavy said.

"In fact, most of them seem to be very intent on both surviving and killing you."

"Yeah, well, most of them are bad at it," I replied. Heavy"I think most people would beg to differ," Heavy snorted.

"I came over to let you know that the Beavers have finished refitting the Ursas with sonar pods."

"Good," I grunted.

"It's about time."

"They started less than an hour ago and refit more than two dozen vehicles," Heavy replied.

"I think that's pretty good."

"It is," I admitted, "but we're on a tight schedule. Every second we delay is a second that Gene Tender is getting further away." I stepped away from the heavily armored polar bear and retreated into my nearby Ursa drop ship. Normally, I'd be using my command vehicle, a converted Kodiak hover APC, but since we'd had to race to the coast in order to have the best chance of catching our quarry, I had to leave it behind.

Using my mental augments, I connected to the little holo projector built into the top of the vehicle and called up a map of the Pacific coast.

"How far do you think that leviathan we saw could get in two hours?" I asked. Depends on what type of Antithesis it was, Nyx, my protector AI and constant companion, answered, projecting their voice directly into my brain. The more advanced models could cross the ocean in a couple hours. Although I couldn't tell exactly what type picked up the Gene Tender, based upon the size it was probably a fairly basic aquatic transport model.

"Well, that's great and all, but it doesn't help me figure out how far it could have travelled in two hours," I huffed. I can help you with that. Here, Nyx replied, and a slightly misshapen semicircle appeared, originating from the point where we'd lost the Gene Tender on the satellite footage and extending out into the ocean. That's based upon the max travel speed of the known lower-tier aquatic transport models. If the one that picked up the Gene Tender is something new, it may have travelled further.

"It's good enough to get started anyways," I replied as I leaned in to examine the map.

"That's a pretty large area, and the Ursas need time to deploy and rearm. Could you adjust your projection to account for that? I'll have the Ursas start deploying the sensors at the coast, on both sides of the area, and move outward." Just a moment. The projection changed, causing the estimated area to elongate and balloon outwards.

"It looks like it's going to take some time to deploy, considering how wide the area is getting," I muttered. At least four hours, based upon current estimates, Nyx replied.

"Well, there's no time like the present," I said, mentally connecting to my nearby forces. Using the map as a general guideline, I set the other aircraft in the area to start deploying their payloads. Within seconds, I could hear their engines spooling up and the first wave taking off, heading towards the objectives. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"How likely is it that the Antithesis are going to be able to evade the sensor net?" I asked.

"I bought the best I could, but I'm still a little concerned…" While the oceanic Antithesis have adapted to be difficult to spot on sonar, you're using displacement sensors. If anything larger than a bear moves through it, you should know.

"Good," I muttered.

"I'd hate to go to all this effort, then have this fucking thing just stroll right through our net." As I stared at the map, my augs pinged, alerting me of an incoming call. When I checked the caller ID, I blanched slightly before picking up.

"Hey Celestia, how's it going?" I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"How's it going?" the woman growled.

"Is that really the first thing you're going to ask? You chased one of the most dangerous Antithesis that has ever set foot on our planet into my vicinity, and instead of giving me a heads-up, I had to find out through a family-wide bulletin. I expected a little more from you, Teddy." I winced slightly. Claire and Alise Monte were twin samurai who lived in Seattle and went by Celestia and Atlantica.

I first met them when I came down to help against the Antithesis invasion of Seattle over a year ago, and considering that I'd just visited them a month ago, she had every right to be pissed right now.

"I've been busy!" I exclaimed.

"I've been trying to figure the best way to track that fucking thing down. I just started deploying a sensor net to ensure that if it tries to leave the area, we'll know about it."

"And during all those preparations you couldn't take a single minute to give my sister and I a call?" Claire asked.

"I'm sorry, I know I should have. I just got distracted," I admitted.

"Can you really blame me?" Claire sighed.

"Considering everything I just learned about Gene Tenders over the last hour? No, no, I can't," she said.

"You said you're creating a sensor net? You don't mean a sonar net, do you?"

"No, Nyx recommended I use displacement sensors instead," I replied, "So I immediately upgraded to a Class II catalog and grabbed them instead. I can send you the deployment plan if you want, just give me a minute."

"You just had the points and tokens available to jump straight to Class II?" Claire asked.

"Yeah, I've been kinda busy the last week," I muttered.

"Technically most of my forces are still busy dealing with the remnants. The Antithesis that managed to escape from Mars were no joke."

"I've heard," Claire replied.

"Are you sure you can afford to step away from that battle?"

"The situation back east is under control," I said.

"Or, well, as under control as it could ever be while fighting the Antithesis. We dropped a bioweapon into the heart of the hive, and the samurai who were keeping the Antithesis contained were rapidly approaching the hive to help clean up. Besides, if the Gene Tender gets away, the situation could get a hundred times worse, so I thought it would be better to track that fucker down."

"Well good, that's one last thing to worry about," Claire said.

"So, now that you know how things are going on my side, how are things going on yours?" I asked.

"Can we expect a flotilla of samurai reinforcements to help track this thing down?"

"Not right away, no," Claire growled.

"As you know, we've had a little bit of a trust problem around Seattle lately. A large percentage of the aquatic contingent don't trust the Family and think this call to arms is just someone crying wolf."

"Someone really needs to come over there and knock some heads together until they realize they should be putting the city, and the world as a whole, first and their own personal opinions second," I growled.

"Didn't you start a year-long beef with the Calgary branch of the Family when you first awakened?" Claire asked.

"Just a couple of the members," I exclaimed.

"And during that time I never once avoided fighting the Antithesis because of my personal beef."

"Fair enough," Claire replied.

"If you want to come knock some heads when this is all over, I'd be all for it."

"So how many samurai do we have on our side?" I asked.

"Half a dozen ships, and most of them are crewed with Class I and II samurai," she replied.

"We do have reinforcements coming from Vancouver, but the first ones won't arrive for at least an hour."

"Well, at least that's something," I muttered.

"We'll just have to work with what we have. Can you coordinate with the other Seattle samurai and try to get them organized? I may have some ideas, but I have no idea what exactly is involved in oceanic Antithesis combat, so you'll probably have a better idea how to get them going."

"Alise is working on it. We'll send you an invite to the comm group once it's all set up," Claire said.

"Thanks, and I'll forward the plans for the perimeter I'm building as soon as we're done here," I replied.

"Sounds good," Claire said.

"We should be in position in a few minutes, and once we are, I'll call you back."

"Then I'll talk to you then," I said.

"Oh, and before I forget… sorry for not calling; I really should have. I apologize."

"It's fine, you'll have plenty of time to make it up to us before this is over," Claire replied ominously.

"Oh, and Teddy, welcome back to Seattle. I'm sure it'll be another memorable visit."