Chương 416: Book 7 - Chapter 12 - Performance Evaluation

When I pulled up the first visual feed from the scout team, I was surprised to find that I couldn't see anything. The feed was live, and the bear I'd accessed hadn't reported any sensor failures; it just wasn't broadcasting anything useful. I grumbled in frustration, swapped feeds, and stared blankly at the chaos occurring out in the ocean. The patrol had been engaged by a large group of Antithesis, mostly the same ray-like Model One replacements that could both swim and fly.

While they were annoying, the rays weren't what the bears were having a problem with. No, what was giving them trouble were the rubbery, multi-tentacled menaces that were shrugging off the bear's gunfire, swimming close, and ripping them off the scooters. Although they had the same general shape as a squid, the Antithesis brawlers were mostly see-through, and they had hundreds of thin stinging tendrils intertwined with their larger tentacles.

The creatures must have been nearly impossible to see until they were right on top of the squad, at which point they dropped their stealth, took on a milky white texture, and engaged. The only thing that had really saved the patrol was that the Antithesis creatures apparently had no idea how to deal with the bears. Most of the squid-things had attempted to squeeze their victims to death, and when that failed, they'd resorted to attempting to bite through the bots with their beak-like mouths.

It was obvious that these things weren't that strong; they were probably the equivalent of a Model Four, or maybe a Model Thirteen if I was being generous, so even though they had beaks capable of tearing into boat hulls, they couldn't really do any permanent damage to the bears. The reason why I couldn't see anything from the first bear that I'd connected to was that one of the Squid-things had grabbed it by the head and was currently using it as a club to bash any other bears that got close.

"Well… this has turned into a real shit show, hasn't it?" I muttered quietly to myself as I watched the chaos. The Antithesis hadn't really caused much damage to the patrol; they'd unseated seven or eight bears while the rest of the team circled the area, cleaning out the other, smaller Antithesis models.

"I didn't think there'd be anything that would be able to stop that team, but they got disrupted by the first group of Antithesis they ran into." I grumbled.

"They can't even kill those stupid Jelly-Squids." Well, they can, Nyx said, It's just that a lot of aquatic Antithesis have decentralised nervous systems, so they can take quite a bit of punishment before they die.

"Significantly more than the surface models, if this battle is a good indicator," I grumbled.

"Look at this! The bears would have completely picked apart any surface model long before they got close, but right now they're getting their butts kicked." According to my readings, they still haven't taken any significant damage… Nyx replied.

"Okay, so they're not exactly getting their butts kicked, but they're having far more trouble than I expected," I said. What did you expect? Not only are your bots designed and optimized for ground combat, but the weapons you equipped them with are sub-optimal for the setting. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"Well, almost all my weaponry comes from the Linear Accelerator Weapon catalog, so I thought it would be better to adapt some Class III weapons than open a new catalog. I thought supercavitation prevented the rounds from losing too much power due to the water resistance?" It does, as long as the round is traveling slowly enough for the supercavitation effect to manifest in front of the round. Coilgun rounds need to bleed speed and power before the effect takes effect, making them significantly weaker underwater.

Nyx explained. I did warn you they wouldn't be as effective.

"Yeah, but I didn't think it would be THIS ineffective," I grumbled.

"Besides, the scooters have torpedoes! I figured anything the bears couldn't kill with their rifles they'd be able to take down with the explosives." Well, now you know. You're going to have to perform far more significant upgrades to your team if you want to participate in the aquatic combat properly.

"Ugh… Fine, when the patrol finally grinds through this speed bump, I'll call them back and try to refit them properly," I grumbled. Since Nyx had confirmed that the bear's small arms could kill the Jelly-Squids with their small arms, I redirected half of the remaining patrol, forcing them to focus on the cephalopods one by one. Each one required significant firepower to take down, as its distributed nervous system allowed its tentacles to continue grasping and spasming long after the main body had died.

Once the squid-things had been cleared, the bears easily cleared the rest of the small Antithesis. I stuck around to observe the rest of the battle so I could evaluate how well the bears handled things. One of the things that quickly became apparent was that although the bears were just as accurate underwater as they were on land, they took far longer to line up attacks. They just weren't that aerodynamic, and while riding around on the scooters, they had to deal with both the drag and water resistance.

They were strong enough to avoid getting their weapons dragged out of their hands, and they could eventually bring the rifles to bear, it was just a slow process. In addition to that, almost every single enemy the bears encountered was far too fast for the Torpedoes to track effectively. I had added them to the scooters to deal with the larger models, like whales and Leviathans, but it still felt bad to have the Antithesis not only avoid the projectile but also get far enough away to avoid the subsequent explosion.

The bears may have won handily, but it wasn't a pretty fight, and the victory wasn't as overwhelming as I would have liked. Once everything finally settled down, I set the bears about cleaning up, retrieving the loose scooters and bringing them down to the bears that were unseated, and destroying the Antithesis remains. Well, attempting to destroy the remains anyway. The problem was that many of the Antithesis bodies were buoyant and were getting dragged away with the tide rather than settling on the ocean floor.

I sent the bears to collect as many pieces as they could and had them pile them up the best they could, but I'm sure a large amount of biomass managed to escape them. Thankfully the flesh melters didn't have any problem operating underwater, and they were able to break down the shit the bears had managed to collect. When they were done, I called the patrol back and finally disconnected.

"I need to replace so many things," I whined.

"I thought I could get away with upgrades, but that just won't work… Aquatic combat is just too different for the bears to be effective!"

"Really? You're just figuring that out now? I got to say, I'm a little disappointed it took you this long," a familiar voice exclaimed. I froze, then very slowly turned my head to the left to stare in shock at the woman standing just a couple feet away in front of a familiar squid-limbed set of armor.

"What? No hug? I know we've talked regularly since I left, but we haven't seen each other since I left for Mars," Sharron said jokingly.

"Squiddy! When did you get back?" I asked, jumping to my feet and running over to give my friend a hug.

"Literally just two minutes ago. Benedict managed to get me on the first transport down. I figured it would be smart given the situation," Sharron explained.

"So the Mars fleet is back? Does that mean they'll be taking care of this Gene fucker?" I asked, waving vaguely at the ocean. Sharron gave me a strained smile.

"Unfortunately, most of the aquatic-based samurai were smart and stayed home, and while everyone in the fleet got plenty of combat experience, there weren't any open bodies of water on Mars, so there was no reason to purchase aquatic equipment up there. Although several people have already volunteered to park in geostationary orbit and provide heavy weapons support, the truth is you've probably already gathered the best group possible to deal with the situation."

"I have bears riding on sharks," I replied.

"That doesn't exactly scream 'I'm the most qualified samurai to deal with the situation.'""Well, you dealt with that shard of Phobos, didn't you? You figured that out. I have faith you'll figure this out too," Sharron said before giving me a cheeky grin.

"Besides, I was mostly talking about the twins."

"Har-de-har-har," I muttered, before looking up at my much taller friend.

"Well, it's good to have you back, even if you're not bringing a whole bunch of reinforcements with you. I missed you." She smiled.

"I missed you too. It's good to be back."