There was a massive ch, which caused the Kodiak Humboldt and I were in to tilt to the side for a moment. “I thought you said this thing could withstand whatever the antithesis could throw at it!” Humboldt yelled as she braced against the roof to keep herself upright.
“We’re still flying, aren’t we?” I shot back as I hung onto the passenger monitor for dear life. It seemed that a Model Eleven, tired of perf hit and run attacks, had attempted to board the Kodiak. The stupid, oversized flyer was now crawling across the back, trying to pry different parts off the vehicle. I sent a quick order to Bandit, who was in the gunner’s seat, and a sed ter the on swung around and smashed into the creature, knog it loose. “See… problem solved,” I said proudly, showihe now cleared dispy.
“Uh huh,” she said, obviously unimpressed. “How much longer until we reach the other team?”
“We’re practically there now,” I replied. “Problem is, there’s no pce to nd.”
“What? Why?” Humboldt asked as she made her way over to me to look at the monitor.
“They’re fighting nearly back to back, to prevent themselves from being overrun,” I reported, pulling up a shot of the team on the monitor. “Doesn’t leave any room for the antithesis, or us.”
“So what do we do?”
“Make room,” I replied with a smirk. “All bears to the back!” I shouted, reying the same and to the other Kodiak. “Prepare to create a beachhead!”
Bob smashed his knuckles together and cheered as the IFVs slid to a stop above the other team, then catapulted himself off the end of the l ramp. The other bears waited until the ramp was fully lowered before jumping after him.
Even though I could have watched them through the monitor, I strode to the open hatch so I could watch them work. I only had a dozen bears, but they made quick work of the surrounding models, creating enough of a perimeter for the Kodiaks to nd.
I turned back towards Humboldt. “Front lines, everyone off!” I said with a smile.
“You could have just expined your pn,” she said as she brushed past me, adding her sers to the bears’ firepower, further clearing the area around us.
“This was faster,” I replied, stepping off the ramp after her.
A few feet away, the other Kodiak nded and immediately disged dozens of squirrels. Unlike mihese were white and carried a demolition charge. I’d holy fotten that Bright-Eyes was using the squirrels for bat or that she had them at all. She must have either recalled them all befetting on the Kodiak, or ordered more for the bat.
Behind the squirrels came Bright-Eyes, Hoppy, Broodmother, and Raijin. Mother immediately chucked a single scarab onto a nearby corpse, triggering the near expoial growth of her swarm, while Hoppy and Raijin provided c fire.
“Now what?!” Raijin yelled over the relentless noise.
“I’d say coordih the others, but they’re kind of busy right now!” I shouted back.
You are in an ongoing chat group with the other samurai. You could use that to coordinate, Nyx cut in.
“ht. Ihe others, will you?!” I shouted as I emptied my magazio the mob.
“What?!” Hoppy yelled. “Oh, never mind,” she added a moment ter as she ulled into the chat.
[Teddy: Hey everyone, I’m back with reinforts. Did you miss me?]
[Pestilenow is not the time to be crag jokes.]
[Magpie and Dreamer: Yes!]
[Pestilence: …]
[BroodMother: Perhaps we should discuss how t down that tral hive. I don’t want to distract the frontliners any more than necessary.]
[GreyGoo: Yes, this, Thanks!]
[Whisperer: I have time. Mute us if you o, Grey. We’re advang on the tral pilr, but si’s coated in some sort of metallic armored bark, we o get closer to deal with it. The pn was frey and Dreamer to try to either pry the bark off or smash through it, and then once we had an opening, Pestilence would start melting it with a pgue.]
[Raijin: How we help?]
[Executable: Opening up some extra space has given us some breathing room. Keep the antithesis back, so ull someone off the frontline for a break.]
[Teddy: I’ve taken down a couple s with my Kodiak while you were rampaging about. Do you wao tinue destroying the others or just rip into the locals?]
[Temporal: We’re getting pretty good at clearing up the antithesis, evewes. Maybe you could try and take a couple shots at the tral pilr? Create an opening before we get there?]
[Magpie: Blow up the pilr! Just like Seattle!]
[Teddy: I missed that one, iionally. I wasn’t going to blow up the tral support for aire city]
[Magpie: This one isn’t load bearing. Probably.]
[BroodMother: Even if it is, we still o take care of it, one way or another.]
[Teddy: Alright. You might want to cover your ears, though.]
I flicked the chat closed and stepped bato the Kodiak. The group was about two hundred meters away from the tral tower, so it’d be hard to miss, even if I was the one aiming. With a thought, I set both vehicles tet the exact same point on the tral hive, crossed my fingers, and ordered them to fire. The vehicle shook violently as the repeating on fired shell after shell at the hive. I gripped the sides of the dispy, to both keep my feet ahe results of the attack.
Each vehicle emptied ten rounds into the pilr, and when they were dohe armor pting was badly damaged but intact. “What the fuck is that shit made of?” I mumbled to myself.
The outer shell is most likely structed of yers of tungsten, iron and titanium alloys interced with yers of corded pnt fiber. It depends on what they mao pull out of the ground.
“Fuck… all that to protect whatever the antithesis are trying to birth? That’s not a fug good sign,” I said.
[Teddy: ive peion. My guns weren’t loaded with armor pierg ammunition, but I would have expected them to do more damage than they did.]
[Dreamer: Are you sure you didn’t hit something vital? It looks like the hive is shedding some of the bark. It’s actually quite pretty.]
I flicked to a wider view and watched as huge ses of bark, some had to be over six feet long, peeled away from the tral stalk and fell away. Slowly at first, but the process was rapidly accelerating.
[Teddy: I don’t think I did that.]
[AI Dyana: You’ve triggered the Hive’s self preservation measures, it’s attempting to birth the model early!]
[Temporal: Isn’t that a good thing?]
[Humboldt: Depends how premature it is. If it’s far enough along that the antithesis are willing to birth it now…]
[Bright-Eyes: We might be in trouble.]
I sprinted out the back of the Kodiak, rounding the side of the vehicle so I could look at the hive with my own two eyes. The entire cavern shuddered as the hive twisted and cracked along its entire length. The bottom exploded outwards, releasing an unfathomably long tail that coiled around the hive’s debris. It thrashed about, trying to work free of its prison, and after a few seds, a massive, eyeless, mprey-like head exploded out of the top of the hive. It immediately started ripping at the hive, pulling aieces until another head popped free, then another. Four of these heads freed themselves before the tral head broke free. This one was more serpentine, with a line of six eyes on each side of its head.
The colossal creature barely fit within the cavern, I couldn’t believe that something that rge even fit within the hive. It had to be close to a hundred feet long, half as tall while it was reared up like this.
“Fuck me…” I heard someoter.
“Shoot it!” someone else yelled. We were still stu a brawl with the horde and now had to deal with this thing too, whatever it was.
“They’re fug reloading!” I shouted back. “Nyx… please tell me you have good news,” I muttered under my breath.
I wish I could give you some, but you’re looking at a Model Forty-Four-L. A hive defense model that’s specialized in chemical and biological warfare. It not only stantly floods the area with a gas, which causes fear and terror responses in mammalian species, but it also spits a bination of acid and bacteria. Any wound created by that would be fatal, as the bacteria acts like nanites and causes victims to liquify from the i. This one only appears to be half grown, but I’m unsure if your ons will be able to pee the shell of this juvenile version.
“Do you have any useful advice at all?” I growled as the creature reared back.
Don't get hit.
