To turn these batteries into bombs was a really delicate process that needed a steady hand and specific tools that would allow them to stabilize at the correct plasmic frequency until they were exposed to the neccessary charge that would destabalize them and cause them to explode. Since I had no training and no tools that were needed for this, I just cut into the casing on the bombs with my laser torch before using my sword to cause tiny punctures in the outer shell of the battery and created a weak point which would then be scraped by the wire I would attach to them before I threw them. It was less nerve-wracking than you'd think since I just needed to not screw this up or I wouldn't have to worry about it afterward if I did.

Cai had told me that the drained batteries would cause smaller explosions than the full ones and he was even sweet enough to tell me exactly how big they would all be. The drained batteries would vaporize an area about twenty feet in radius and cause heat damage in a larger radius that went out another fifty feet, after that they'd cause what he called shockwave damage for another hundred feet. All told that meant each of these puppies would destroy an area of nearly ninety feet before anything with armor could survive. The full ones would do the same things over an area nearly three times the drained ones. I asked Cai why we needed so many bombs if one was so effective and he pointed out that we were setting them in an area to maximize their damages and potentially take out the Queen and any Guardians around her.

My batteries turned into bombs, I carefully bagged them in a bunch of grass-woven sacks I'd made while I waited for today. They made carrying all ten of them so much easier and left my hands free enough for me to put them down if I had to fight any Scourge. Luckily, I had spent the last week clearing out Scourge from the route I had chosen.

Most Scourge I came across were Hellhounds or Kamaitachi but I also found some new varieties I hadn't encountered yet. There were Kongs, which are large gorilla types with an extra set of arms; thankfully they only move around alone so I was able to kill the two I ran into with some quick thinking, fast running, and more luck than I deserved. Also, there were Raptors, which look about like they sound, velociraptor bodies with spiked tails that stuck out twice as much as the body was long and four reverse-jointed legs that ended in taloned feet and a venomous bite. These moved in pairs and always worked to cover each other which made them so much more difficult to take out than they should have been. After three pairs, I thought I was more ready for anything else the Scourge had available to throw at me.

"Cai, do you detect any Scourge in the area that I'm not seeing?" I asked while peering out at the clearing the Queen had chosen to reside in.

"None," his answer did nothing to reassure me. "Take extra caution, Rickshaw. We do not know the full capabilities of the Queens. It may be able to detect your approach."

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Cai's warning was unneccessary since he'd only repeated it about a dozen times in the last fifteen minutes that I'd been laying there watching the Queen sleep while a Cerberous, larger than the one I'd killed a month ago, lay beside it and kept a lookout for anything that might attack it. The fact that there was only one Guardian with the Queen at the moment was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was good because it meant that I didn't have to avoid seven of them while I put my bombs where they needed to be and it was bad because it meant that if I wasn't careful then one could come up and interrupt me, sending my whole plan sideways and screwed til next year.

"How do I get rid of the Cerberous?" I asked Cai. "I can't think of anything myself or I'd already be working on it."

"You could try distracting it and luring it away," he suggested. "Another option that you could choose is to engage it and remove it."

"Won't that wake the Queen up?" I hissed.

"Unlikely. Scans of the Queen from this distance show that it has exhausted itself with a series of egg-laying. This means that it is preparing itself for a significant expansion of its territory or to actively hunt you. We chose an excellent time to enact this part of the plan. Her newest brood will be buried in the ground for protection and warmth and your bombs will destroy them."

Cai's words made sense to me even if I didn't like them. I could see the large patches of ground that looked like someone or something had dug it all up and then reburied it. Some parts even swelled, as if something large was beneath them. The eggs the Queens laid weren't like chicken eggs either, these things were fleshy like all things Scourge were and filled with fluid and depending on the type of Scourge that would hatch would hold up to thirty baby Scourge at a time. Cai had told me all about them when I was stupid enough to ask.

"So if I walk out there and attack the Guardian what are the odds it signals the other Guardians and screws me over?" I asked Cai as I moved back from where I was and got ready for another round with a Scourge Guardian.

"If you end the fight quickly, the chances will be none," Cai told me optimistically. "I calculate thirty seconds after engaging you, will be when it calls the others to its side."

"And any idea where the other ones are?"

"Hunting you."

"They must be really bad at that then, cause I've been closer than I'd want to be."

"Scourge Queens pass on memories to their seeds before they send them off-world. At this point those memories will all contain knowledge of standard Warden procedures that are followed whenever the Wardens attempt to fight Scourge for control of worlds. One of these procedures is that all Warden operating bases be established at least two hundred kilometers from the Queen's point of total control. You are within the point of total control and as such they feel that you cannot be staying in the area you have been and are instead making forays into the controlled zone and killing Scourge within the zone before making your way out of it."

"So the Wardens failing all the time made a blindspot in the Queens knowledge and I've been living in it for the past month and a half?" I asked. "Cool, let's get started with this before I chicken out then."