“Yes ma’am. The support staff are almost all evacuated, I’m ready to provide covering fire.” The young woman replied.
“East side, don’t show yourself until you hear gunfire.”
“Copy,” was all Daniels said before cutting the connection.
Helen turned to her compatriots, “Our target is just beyond this ridge,” she began, her voice at a whisper. “There are about two dozen Antithesis in the area, Threes and Tens. They’re grouped between eleven o’clock and two o’clock. Samuels I want you to blanket the entire area with your first clip, then target groups. McMullen will suppress any Antithesis that approach our position, and I’ll focus on any targets that charge our position. Understood?”
The two of them nodded again. The nice thing about working with professionals is they understood what needed to be done, and didn’t ask unnecessary questions.
“Then we’ll commence the bombardment just before we get to the peak of the ridge, and hold the top.”
The three crept up the slope, paused to let Samuels unload her grenade launcher, then crested the ridge. Despite not having line of sight, the grenades were expertly placed. The entire clip was spread equally across the target area, and the entire clip was launched before the first grenade even exploded. The result was chaos, at least for a moment. Half the Antithesis surrounding the vine went to investigate the grenades, and were heavily injured, and the others scattered, spooked by the explosives. Unfortunately, as soon as the squad crossed the ridge, the plants recovered and attacked en masse.
The Threes ran head first into heavy machine gun fire. Although it didn’t kill them instantly it slowed the pack down. Any Antithesis that managed to make any progress received either a shot from Helen’s Cudgel, or Daniel’s Sniper to the face, putting them down permanently. The pack of Tens were much less aggressive, since model tens were typically hive tenders, and not combat models, they just milled around at the back of the pack. This inaction cost them, because as soon as Samuels reloaded her grenade launcher she unloaded the next clip right into those indecisive Antithesis, ending them before they could become aggressive.
The operation was quick, and clean. As soon as the Antithesis went down Samuels and McMullen swapped to their rifles and started putting rounds into the downed Antithesis, making sure they stayed down, while Helen approached the vine.
“Loky, where do I look for the nerve bundle?” She asked, running her hand down the side of the vine. The wood was hard, extremely hard, and despite the red veins being flashy, they didn’t seem to be a weak point at all. They weren’t warmer, and she couldn’t feel any fluid moving through them, they just felt like another section of the trunk.
If I had to guess, it would be in the bulb, directly underneath the focusing array… the flower.
She knocked on the thicker part of the vine, trying to find any indication where the plant brain may reside, but it sounded completely solid. “It’s not going to be easy getting through all that.”
You could buy some specialty rounds for that Cudgel of yours. Not sure where you got hold of a Class I pistol, but you have some extra points, you could buy some canister rounds to help you cut your way in.
“As long as there’s no risk of damaging the organ. I don’t want to take any chances now that we’re this close to getting my people off this planet. What type of canister? One of those putrefaction weapons some Samurai use?”
Flesh melters break down biological matter into its base chemical components. Since we haven’t had a chance to study the amber, we cannot be sure that it’ll resist the nanites. I think a desiccant is safe enough to use.
Helen ran her hand over the bulb one last time, before turning around. “McMullen, Ax!” The big man unslung the weapon from his back, and tossed it over.
“I could do that for you commander.” The big man offered.
Helen didn’t reply, instead she wound up and struck the bulb as hard as she could with the ax. The tool vibrated heavily with the impact, but only managed to sink three inches into the wood.
Samuels let out a low whistle as she came over to check out the wood. “Fuck me, that’s a tough plant.”
Helen nodded, while inspecting the gash. It would take an extremely long time to cut to the nerve cluster at this rate. While she was considering how to proceed, her communicator went off.
“Commander, it’s Rodriguez. I managed to get the HAV running again, but we may have an issue,” the team's mechanic reported.
“Get to the point Rodriguez, we’re on a schedule here.”
“That’s why I’m contacting you. I managed to get the scanner up and… either it’s busted and the max range is slowly shrinking, or we have about five minutes until this place is completely overrun.”
Helen frowned, “Explain. Fast.”
There was a momentary pause, then Angela’s voice came across the line. “The scanner is reading contacts, thousands. Maybe millions. Coming in from every direction. Move faster.”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Helen glanced away from the vine, towards the rest of the planet. At first she didn’t see anything, there was just a strange darkness on the horizon. The sun wasn’t going down, that was still overhead, it was slow moving, and unnatural. After watching for a few seconds Helen was able to make out small tendrils reaching out from the darkness. That’s when she realized what she was looking at, flying Antithesis models Enough to completely block the sun. They were coming from every direction, fast.
“Motherfucker! If the HAV is working, bring it down here to pick us up. Loky, gimme a clip of those canisters. Now!”
She held out her hand and a brand new clip for her Cudgel appeared in her hand. The instant it appeared she slammed it into her pistol, aimed at the gash in the vine, and fired. The wood made hissing, and popping noises, and a small section of wood withered, slowly turning bone white. Helen picked up the ax once again, and smashed the discolored section of bark. This time, the bark exploded. The area underneath wasn’t just soft, it was so dry it exploded into sand or dust. Some of it anyways.
Helen threw the ax to McMullen. “I’m going to fire at the tree, once it gets discolored strike it with the ax. Samuels, we’re looking for something that looks like Amber, keep an eye out.”
Without waiting for a reply she fired into the vine several more times, causing huge sections of the wood to dry out. As soon as the wood dried out McMullen smashed those sections out, then Helen fired again. They were just finishing the third cycle when Samuels gasped. “Something fell out. Hold on a sec.” The woman fell to her knees, dug around in the massive pile of sawdust, and came out holding an orange gem. The thing was about eight inches long, three inches around, and inside the semi-opaque gem there was a mass of highly dense root-like structures.
“Loky, please tell me that’s what we came for.”
It is
“It’s about fucking time. Let's get out of here.” Helen turned back towards the building, and looked up just as the massive HAV hovered past the edge. The Heavily Armed Vtol had a massive, bulky, jet shaped silhouette, and was capable of carrying multiple squads to a combat zone, then stick around and provide covering fire afterwards. It wasn’t a pretty vehicle, but considering the circumstances, there were very few vehicles Helen would rather be stuck with.
The massive vehicle took a minute to maneuver closer to the ground, then, when it was about a foot off the ground, a ramp on the rear of the vehicle lowered to let them in. The back area was crowded, with the support staff taking up most of the seating, but there was enough room for Helen and her squad to step past and head to the cockpit.
Angela was sitting in the pilot seat, calmly raising the HAV into a higher position. The mass of Antithesis was much closer now, blocking out more than half the sky. Instead of just an indistinct black blob, the crew could now make out individual dots on the outskirts of the swarm.
Everyone turned and looked in Helen’s direction.
“Ok Loky, we need to get out of here. Now. How do we perform this exchange?”
Take the nerve bundle in your hand, and give me verbal authorization to perform an exchange. Then I would suggest you make purchase requests, fast.
Without a moment’s hesitation Helen grabbed the amber crystal out of Samuel’s hand, “I give permission to exchange this item for rewards.” She paused as the crystal just dematerialized out of her hand. “Now I want to purchase the most reliable way of getting these people home.”
I’ll have to take some liberties with your purchases, for time purposes, but I will get you out of here. I just need you to agree.
“Just do it.”
There was a clunk in the rear compartment, a quiet hum followed by some surprised gasps, but most of the crew was busy staring at the huge roiling mass of Model ones that were nearly on top of them. A single Model One managed to slam into the cockpit, cracking the glass, just before the HAV blinked out of existence.
—
Angela opened a heavy metal door and peered inside. It was dark, so dark that she could only make out the silhouette on the bed due to light from the doorway behind her. Slowly, she approached the bed.
“How did everyone take it?” Helen asked. Since she was laying face down, her voice was muffled. Angela could still hear the exhaustion, despite the pillow-like muffler.
“They were disappointed, but everyone knows you’re doing the best that you can. It’s not your fault it’ll take another three years to get home with the route that was plotted.”
The HAV didn’t make it back to earth, it only made it to a desert planet a couple systems over. It was only after they arrived did Loky explain the limits of what could be purchased using Helen’s limited resources. Back on earth most Samurai would have killed for two million points and twenty tokens, but it wasn’t enough to buy all the tech to get all the way back to earth in a single jump. Loky DID get them to a relatively safe spot, and revealed the tech it had invested in WAS useful for getting home, it was just a long term investment.
Class III Intergalactic drives had limited range, and Class IV were out of Helen’s price range. This catalog also required investment into Class II Intergalactic ships, and Class II Auxiliary Space Ship Systems. After a discussion with the remaining survivors Helen boosted those to Class III, as well as opening up Class III Intergalactic Comm systems, and Class II Hydroponic systems. All her points went into purchasing a single, massive ship, which tech from all her catalogs, in order keep everyone alive for an extended voyage. After everything else was done, Helen had three tokens, and just over ten thousand points left.
Angela put her hand gently on the back of the other woman’s back. “Are you alright? I know you pushed yourself to get the ship equipped properly. Was it that stressful?”
Helen shook her head, “No.” Came the muffled reply.
“Were you worried that everyone would blame you?”
“No.”
Angela frowned, “Then… what’s got you down?”
“I tested the communicator. There’s a few second delay, but I talked to my parents. Well… my mother. Ten minutes of her explaining that I need to be responsible for my people, and fifty minutes of me trying to keep her from crying. She’s extremely worried.”
“She always has been. Remember when you went for tactical training?” Angela asked, a small smile on her lips. “She forced you to put on the equivalent of bomb disposal gear before you left the house.”
Helen turned her head, finally looking in Angela’s direction, a small smile on her own face. “Yeah. It’ll be a hard journey, but we WILL make it home again.”
“That’s the spirit.” Angela pulled the other woman into a sitting position, then to her feet. “Let’s get this thing going. We have a long road ahead of us, there’s no point in delaying. The galaxy awaits.”