Chương 444: Book 7 - Chapter 40 - Tactical Analysis

"Scuse me, pardon me," several otters simultaneously muttered as a whole horde of the bots stampeded through the middle of the hangar. I stepped to the side and gave them a wide berth as they passed. The throng was so thick and the individual bots were moving so erratically that I was a little concerned that I might get crushed if I got too close. As I watched, they rushed to the nearest hangar door and unceremoniously threw themselves off the side, plummeting into the ocean below.

"Are they going to be alright?" Sharron asked.

"I know your bots are tough, but…"

"Spooky brought Bear Force One down closer to the Ocean's surface," I replied.

"We're still a fair way up, so I wouldn't have a human or samurai jumping from this height, but the otters will be just fine. They're related to Bob after all."

"They are?" Sharron asked.

"Should I be concerned?"

"Their frames are reinforced, allowing them to take a little more punishment than the older Bear models, but their AI processors are completely different," I said.

"Don't worry, I already have enough problems dealing with Bob and the Badgers, so I've paid extra attention to the personalities of the newer models lately."

"I thought you enjoyed Bob's tomfoolery," Sharron said, with a small smile.

"I do, but it's far less endearing when I have several dozen copies of him all making reports and constantly asking for orders through the command and control network," I grumbled.

"I have no idea why, but their voices seem to stand out way more than any of the other models."

"Honestly, that's probably for the best. Don't you want to know before they do something like smashing through a wall or assaulting a hive solo?" Sharron asked.

"I know you probably meant that as a joke, but the truth is, you're right. I'm just glad that I have Spooky and the others to help moderate them, or I'm sure they'd be wreaking havoc everywhere," I muttered.

"Sounds like you have it tough," Sharron said.

"Having a literal army of thousands and only having to occasionally deal with half a dozen troublemakers."

"Yeah, yeah. I know I really have no reason to complain. I have competent commanders to direct the troops; no one complains about the hours or conditions, and the logistics are automated. Most militaries would kill for what I have," I said, before letting out a long sigh.

"I'm sorry, I think because I've had nothing to do but sit around and wait for either the Antithesis to make a move or one of our allies to find the target, I've been stuck in my head the last couple of hours. Let me tell you, it's not nice in there right now."

"Why? I thought you had made peace with the fact that you were performing more of a support role," Sharron said.

"I have," I replied.

"It's just… I've been going over my previous engagements with the Tender. I figured if I could figure out its tactics, it might give us an idea of where to look for it."

"I guess that makes sense, and?" Sharron asked.

"And the fucking thing's Tactics don't make sense!" I growled.

"It absolutely created new models to counter my troops at Great Falls, but when I think back, it threw things at me haphazardly. However, when I assaulted it at the hive, it had prepared a very competent ambush. I can't decide if it's brilliant or stupid." If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Oh, I think I understand why you're confused. The thing about the Tenders is, while they're fairly far up the Antithesis command chain, they're not command units. They're more like a more advanced version of the Model Ten than a Model Seventeen. They concentrate on creating new models, not directing the troops. It's like a scientist or engineer working in a lab, creating new weapons and passing them onto the military to use," Sharron said.

"But there weren't any command models around Great Falls. At least, I didn't see any," I said.

"Exactly, so it was probably just pushing out the new models as soon as they were done and expecting another model to take over," Sharron said.

"If that's true, why was the ambush in the hive so well executed?" I asked.

"Well, just because it may not have been interested in directing the other Antithesis, it will do its best to defend itself," Sharron replied.

"Well, if it's so smart, why didn't it produce any command units to support it? Wouldn't that have been even more effective?" I asked. She frowned.

"That… I don't know. It probably should have, but I only have my experience on Mars to go off of. There were plenty of command units running around up there," Sharron said.

"Maybe there was something else managing the balance of units and making sure there were enough command units running around," I suggested.

"It's possible, but if there was, I never ran into it," Sharron said.

"I honestly thought the Tenders were managing the Antithesis populations, or at least the population balance. That includes the command units."

"And that's exactly what I'm saying. The thing seems to be making extremely smart moves sometimes and really stupid ones at other times," I said.

"Even if all the Tender was doing was concentrating on managing the swarm, and it didn't care about controlling them, some of the decisions didn't make sense." Sharron shrugged.

"I don't know what to tell you," she said.

"I may have encountered Gene Tenders and their work on a regular basis up on Mars, but I'm far from an expert. I only know what I saw and what the others told me about them. If you think it's important, maybe you should talk to an expert."

"Do you have any suggestions? It's not like I know that many samurai who went to Mars, and even fewer that specialize in Antithesis biology, or psychology," I said.

"Well, I did meet a couple biologists up there, but I don't know how to contact any of them," she replied.

"However, there is one person you could talk to who might be able to help. I don't think you're going to like it though."

"Really? Why?" I asked.

"Because I think the best person in the area to talk to would probably be Hel," she replied.

"She led one of the hive buster squads, and although she didn't do any in-depth research, she probably has more practical experience fighting Gene Tenders than anyone else on the west coast."

"Who's the second best?" I grumbled.

"Come on, Evelyn, I know she's not your favorite person, but you two did get along at one time, and I thought you wanted to reconcile. This would be a good excuse to talk to her," Sharron said.

"I know, and you're right, I do want to reconcile; it's just… we didn't exactly separate on the best terms, and I don't have a clue what to say to her. It's awkward," I muttered.

"Yeah, well, you're going to have to do it sometime, and it's not going to get any less awkward as time goes on. You should just call her and get it over with," Sharron said.

"Fine…" I muttered.

"I have no idea what I'm going to say to her, but I'll call."

"Just tell her the truth about why you called and chat about the Gene Tenders, and then, once you've chatted for a while and loosened up, you can talk about dealing with whatever issue you had with each other. It'll be easier if it comes naturally," she said.

"Are you going to call now? I can give you some privacy if you want it." I shook my head.

"I'll probably head back to the residence. While I don't mind hanging out in the Hanger while I'm looking for things to do, all the noise is pretty distracting when I'm trying to have an important discussion," I said.

"You want me to come with?" she asked.

"I'm not ten. I'm pretty sure I can handle it," I grumbled, turning towards the distant stairs before muttering.

"I think."

"You've got this!" Sharron called after me as I left.

"Just be yourself!"

"I'm pretty sure that's what got us into this situation in the first place," I laughed.

"But I'll do my best. Talk to you later."