Although I thought I could get my troops up and running within a few minutes, I quickly found that pulling armor-piercing quills embedded in solid metal was more than a little difficult. When I realized how long it was taking me to remove the quills, I quickly bought an entire case of pliers and got some of the bears to help.
“How long until we can get moving?” Whisperer asked after a couple minutes of plucking oversized needles.
“About ten more minutes,” I replied, taking a step back from the row of bears. “It looks like a couple of them took damage to essential components, like the main processor or repair system, but most of them should be good to go.”
My arms were killing me, so I stepped back and let the bears take care of the quills for a minute. Jesse and Tina were busy cleaning up the last of the antithesis, so I stepped up to the strange row of brambles instead. The plant structure was different from the thick, wood-like mushrooms from earlier; these were thin, interlocking vines. Once I got closer, I noticed there were strange, multicolored fruits hanging from the different vines.
“What the fuck is this? The antithesis ripped down all the previous biomass. Why not rip this down too?” I mumbled.
“This appears to be a variant of one of the antithesis harvesting strains. One that spreads out huge root networks, seeks out specific elements, then collects these elements into a single, easily harvestable package,” Nyx explained, using some random bear to explain.
Tina stopped dissolving bodies for a moment and turned to the bear. “Wait? You mean these are metal fruits?”
“Metals, rare earth elements, crystalline elements, and even noble gases. It depends on the type of vine,” Nyx replied.
“Should we destroy them?” I asked as I carefully circled the strange hedge.
“I wouldn’t recommend it, at least not right now,” the bear replied. “The tunnel network could collapse.”
That got Whisperer’s attention. “What? Is their root system that extensive? Why wasn’t it detected by scans before?”
“The root structure can spread over dozens of square kilometers, creating a titanic network. Since the roots contain an extremely high amount of minerals or other elements, that means they can be mistaken for natural formations.”
“So what? We just leave them here?” Tina asked.
“For now. We’ll mark down the location and let the cleanup crews know about them. We don’t have the time to break it down and stabilize the structure at the same time. We’ll also have to make sure they look for similar mineral structures going forward,” Whisperer declared.
I nodded. “We’re still on a tight schedule, and these delays aren’t helping. The last thing we want to do is cause a cave-in and block our way. Or crush ourselves,” I said as I headed back towards my downed bears.
Most of the bears were back on their feet, but there were still half a dozen down, despite removing all the quills. Deadbeat seemed to be just digging around in one, apparently trying to either find any hidden quills or kick-start the repair process.
“Leave them, buddy. We’ll have to pick them up on the way back. We can’t do anything for them now.”
“That’s not quite true,” Nyx said, swapping from the bear over by the brambles to Spooky, who was standing near Deadbeat. “In fact, you have the catalogs required for a quick repair, just not the tech.”
“Define quick,” I said, glancing at the bear.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Within minutes. It would just require a scanner module and a nanite module. Since you have the blueprints for the bears, the device can identify broken components and program the nanites to repair them on the fly. It’ll even be relatively cheap.”
“How cheap?” I asked.
“A hundred and fifty points. It’s so simple that the bears can even use it on themselves.”
I sighed. “Fine, give it to me. If it’s that simple, I can leave a bear behind to repair the last squad, and they can try and catch up with us once they’re back on their feet.”
A plain-looking shoebox appeared at my feet, but before I could reach down, Deadbeat snapped it up. The bear ripped open the package, revealing a strange device that looked like some sort of caulk gun, with a massive needle on the end and a tablet attached to the top. He immediately turned back to the nearest downed bear and started shaking the device around like a toddler with a new toy.
“Ummm…. Nyx, I thought you said the bears could use the device. Deadbeat looks like he’s going to break the thing,” I said as I tried to grab the device. Unfortunately, Deadbeat retreated away from me before freezing up. He stood completely still for a few seconds before grabbing the device’s handle and slowly swinging it across the nearest bear in a methodical fashion.
“Don’t worry, he just needed an instructional package. I’ve pushed the update to all the bears, they should be good now.”
“And why did Deadbeat snatch the device, and try to keep it away from me?” I asked, looking at the green bear suspiciously. “Is he broken?”
“From what I can tell from his code, it’s just a part of his developing personality. Ever since he helped heal those girls from the Void Runners, part of his kernel started developing a desire to help others. It’s not that odd, all your bears will develop their own personalities sooner or later.”
“Wonderful… Hopefully they don’t get as possessive as Deadbeat. Otherwise, things will get out of hand.” I watched Deadbeat for a moment as the bear apparently identified a broken component, stabbed the needle deep into the bear, and pulled the trigger. After a second, the bear twitched. “At least it’s working. Can I trust you to handle this properly?” I asked the bear.
He stopped scanning for a minute, looked up at me, then nodded seriously before continuing his work.
“The clean-up’s done. How are things looking over there?” Jesse called from the far side of the room. When I glanced his way, I could see all three of my companions were already at the exit to the cavern, waiting for me.
“I’m also done here!” I yelled back before I started jogging over. “There are a couple bears still down, and they’ll need more time to recover, so I just ordered them to catch up later.”
“That’s fine. As long as you have enough to keep cutting through the barriers, we can continue making progress towards the hive. We’ve delayed long enough,” Whisperer said before turning towards the exit. “Have you heard anything from the other teams?”
“Not recently. The dig team is probably on-site by now, but I have no idea how long it’ll take them to get into the tunnel system. The Jasper team was moving slightly faster than we were, as Broodmother’s bugs can easily deal with the smaller models, but I’m not sure about her ability to deal with the bigger stuff,” I reported as I fell in beside her. “I hope they’re having a better time than we are.”
“So, how much farther to the hive? Do we know?” Jesse asked from behind me.
“I estimate the hive is between five hundred fifty-six meters and eight-hundred and seventy-two meters from our current location. The antithesis like to keep support systems like these mining plants, fairly close to the hives. It’s efficient,” Nyx reported.
“What about when Model Seventeens run the show?” I grumbled.
“Based upon all my simulations and historical evidence, I doubt Seventeens would make such massive changes to the hive structure. These changes typically only happen when a much stronger model takes control and begins optimizing the genetic code of the models created within,” Nyx said nonchalantly.
Tina’s head snapped towards the bear. “They can do that?”
Nyx nodded. “When they face heavy resistance and are given time to build up and develop, absolutely. That’s why it’s important to proactively remove small hives.”
“At what point do the antithesis develop this ability?” Jesse asked quietly. “It wouldn’t happen to be in the low forties, would it?”
The bear nodded. “There are some models with basic genetic manipulation skills in the forties, but the real manipulators start appearing in the late fifties and higher.”
“But it COULD happen,” the man emphasized. The bear just nodded again.
We were all quiet for a moment. “We should hurry up,” Tina declared quietly.