When I arrived at the site of the hive, I had the driver do a couple laps around the area before finally landing. The impact site looked less like a crater and more like an infected wound in the world. I could see the barest hints of a thick chitinous shell around the edge hole, and the inside looked wet. Alive.

  By the time I touched down, Deadbeat and Bandit had already prepared everything we’d require for an assault. Two dozen squads of bears, along with two squads of badgers.

  “I wish we had more of the big guys right now,” Deadbeat said, staring into the gloom below. “Based upon what the recon team has reported, we’re going to need a lot of flamethrowers.”

  “That’s my fault,” I muttered. “I just added them to the regular production rotation, thinking we’d slowly build up a small force over time. Turns out that when you only produce one Badger for every two squads of bears, production is exceptionally slow. We’ll adjust and switch to only producing the big boys for a while, until we have a decent force. It’s not like I’m lacking bears right now.”

  I carefully crept to the edge of the wound and glanced inside. Steam was billowing out of the wound, which made it difficult to tell what was down there, but I could make out a number of dripping wet, organic hallways, splitting off from the breached chamber.

  “You said there was surface matter?” I asked, after backing away from the wound.

  “Yeah, from what we can tell, a lot of surface vegetation in this area is actually an extension of the hive, gathering energy and redirecting it into the hive,” Bandit explained. “I almost missed them at first--they’re exceptionally close to the original plants, but the smell was just a tad off. When I got close, I realized they were pulling all the moisture and Antithesis pheromones out of the air.”

  “Cleaning up their traces, making it harder for anyone to detect them. Smart,” Deadbeat muttered.

  “Yeah, too bad for them we had the best nose in the Pacific Northwest with us,” I said, patting Bandit on the shoulder. “What sort of resistance have you faced so far? I expected to see Antithesis flooding out of the tunnels when I arrived, but I haven’t seen a single Model, or heard a single gunshot since I arrived.”

  The pair exchanged a quick glance. “A small horde of basic models did flood into the chamber when we initially breached, but we haven’t seen hide nor hair of anything since then,” Bandit said. “The place is too quiet.”

  “That’s usually a bad sign,” I grumbled. “Something’s holding them back.”

  I studied the wound for a minute, then shook my head. “Every time we encounter a hive, it’s fucking different. Would it kill them to standardize?”

  Bandit snorted at my joke, while Deadbeat sighed.

  “No point in delaying any longer. I assume the plan is to ferry the troops down in Kodiaks?”

  “The wound is large enough,” Deadbeat confirmed. “And it’s safer than setting up some sort of rope or ladder system.”

  “Proceed then. Secure the initial chamber, and as soon as you have enough troops down there, start clearing the corridors. I’ll follow you down in a minute,” I said.

  Stolen story; please report.

  After the pair nodded, and ran off to organize the troops, I shut off my helmet’s external speaker. “Hey Nyx, any chance you have an idea of what we’re dealing with here? This structure seems a little more… extensive than usual.”

  My first impression is that we’re dealing with some sort of extreme environment adaptation.

  “The Antithesis not only survived on mars, but terraformed it,” I snorted. “Compared to that, this is far from an ‘extreme environment’.”

  The mars invasion had time to go through millions of evolutionary changes by the time the samurai arrived, they had time to adapt. If a standard incursion force landed somewhere out here, they’d be hard pressed to survive, never mind expand. The limited surface biomass would be hard enough, but the lack of available moisture would be crippling over time.

  “So, you’re saying all this,” I said, gesturing to the hole, “is to preserve moisture?”

  It’s a much slower and more methodical method than most incursions, but an effective one. Create surface foliage to gather energy, slowly generate biomass instead of gathering it, and conserve resources until the hive can discover and expand to a more prosperous area.

  “Let me guess. If it’s threatened, the hive will use all those stored reserves in an attempt to protect itself,” I grumbled.

  Correct. Although the methods may differ from what you’re familiar with, it is an Antithesis hive at the end of the day.

  “Great,” I huffed. “Can you please contact the family, or whoever is running Denver, Kansas, and Minneapolis, and let them know what we found. I doubt we’ll have trouble clearing this place, but who knows how far its feelers go. We’ll probably need an expert to clean up the remains.”

  And if they want to send backup?

  “Let them. It’s their territory, and if they want to handle it, I’m not going to stand in their way. I’m supposed to be on vacation anyways.”

  Anything else?

  I glanced at the giant wound and grimaced. “Yeah, we’ll need some way to take out the structure after the troops pull back. I really don’t want to have to go around digging up the Badlands to retrieve my troops, because it turns out the fleshy bits down there were load-bearing. Can you provide the troops with canisters of those flesh-eating nanites that I could trigger remotely, instead of the regular grenades?”

  Of course. How many?

  “I dunno. Start with a case, and if we run out, keep resupplying them until we either clear the place or I somehow run out of points. We can’t leave this place standing.”

  Done. Nyx said as a large plastic suitcase materialized at my feet. I flicked it open to find several dozen large canisters arranged perfectly to fill the entire space.

  “Great, thanks, Nyx,” I said as I slammed it closed again.

  Anytime.

  After pulling my rifle off my back, I glanced down into the fleshy cavern below. Most of the bears had been deployed, but since the opening was so narrow, only one vehicle could descend at a time. I could probably have jumped down, but the case was bulky and awkward, so there was always a chance I could damage it if I landed incorrectly. Instead, I waited until the next Kodiak made its approach, then hopped on top of the IFV to hitch a ride down.

  “Every squad takes a handful of detonators from the case. Follow Nyx’s instructions on how to deploy them, and come back to get more if you run out. I want to bring this entire place down when we’re done,” I shouted as soon as my boots touched the ground. “Deadbeat, Bandit, are we ready to begin?”

  “Ready, boss!” the fox replied, giving me a thumbs up.

  “Then Bandit, you take the north passages, Deadbeat south, and I’ll take the east. Keep in constant contact, and report any issues,” I ordered. “Move out!”

  The bears instantly split into three equal groups and formed ranks around the various corridors. As soon as my group was in place, I mentally prodded them forward. The architecture of the central chamber had been a little unsettling, but these corridors were on another level. The fleshy conduits constantly pulsed and writhed, and they were coated with a thick mucus. After a couple hundred meters we emerged in another cavernous chamber. This one had large, fibrous vats scattered around the area connected by large fleshy tubes, which snaked around the room before finally disappearing into the wall.

  As I watched, the nearest vat started to empty, and the fleshy tubes slowly pumped the liquid across the room and out through an orifice on the wall.

  “I don’t have a fucking clue what’s going on here, but I’m sure as hell going to stop it,” I muttered as I stepped into the room. As soon as I did, there was a snapping sound directly above me. I instinctively threw myself backwards, just as a massive creature smashed down where I’d been standing. It had three giant bell-shaped bodies connected at the top by some sort of stem, and at the bottom each bell was supported by several long tentacles. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Thirteen. If you think you can stop me, you’re sorely mistaken. You’re not even a challenge.”

  There was another cracking noise, then another, and another. Soon the room was absolutely full of Model Thirteens, their tentacles all writhing, eyes locked on me.

  “I really should look around before I say shit like that,” I mumbled before bringing up my gun. “Alright squiddies, bring it on!”

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