The first partially metal projectiles started showing up within half an hour. They were still fragile, imperfect things that shattered upon the bear's armor, but knowing the Antithesis, that wouldn’t last long.

  “Why do you think they’re throwing them all against this part of the line?” I asked Heavy as I cautiously poked at the broken remains of one of the spines with a stick. They were probably harmless, but considering how quickly the Antithesis were adapting and this hive’s predilection for using biowarfare, I wasn’t going to take any chances.

  “This is the closest place to the hive, providing them with the quickest turnaround,” Heavy grunted.

  “So it’s purely an efficiency thing?” I asked, leaving the shard alone so I could look over the wall at no man’s land. “I would have thought they’d just swamp the area in modified model fives. Determine the best genome by throwing everything at us and seeing what survives.“

  “Nothing survives,” Heavy grunted.

  “I actually suspect we’re not seeing their strongest strains yet, but only the dregs,” I heard Deadbeat declare. I turned to find her, Dusty, and Bandit quickly approaching the nearest ladder up onto the wall.

  “Why?” I asked, giving her a confused look.

  “Because the Antithesis aren’t sending out any observers, just waves of Model Fives supported by a variety of other basic models. How would they determine which units excelled and which ones fell flat? Even if they could determine effectiveness against us at that range, everything that dies on that fungus gets dissolved the exact same way. How would they determine which genome is which?” Deadbeat explained. “No, it would be easier to do the tests back at the hive, immediately devour the most promising Models and use their genomes for the next generation, and send the failures towards us.”

  “Why bother sending the failures this way? Why not just recycle them right away?” Bandit asked as he waited for her to climb the ladder.

  “Why not? Even with our ammo enhancements, the Antithesis are losing less than ten percent of their biomass before being broken down by the fungus. That would be significant, but I suspect their scavenging parties are bringing in far more than that from the surrounding area,” Dusty said. “By throwing waves at us, they’re preventing us from sending out our own salvage and recovery teams to break down the dragon teeth.”

  “Ensuring they have access to as much metal as possible,” Heavy grunted. “Smart.”

  “They’ve definitely got some sort of strategic intelligence in the hive,” I said. “It’s not directing every single attack, like a Model Seventeen, but deploying that fungus and developing direct counters to our tactics… that requires a level of situational awareness and planning far beyond anything we’ve experienced before.”

  “That may be true, but that big brain isn’t going to protect it from our bullets once we close in,” Bob declared as he jogged up to the wall.

  “I hope that’s true,” I muttered, with a shake of my head. I waited for the big bear to scramble up the ladder before taking a step to the side and addressing everyone. “So, since the Antithesis have let up a little bit while they work on their new units, I thought it would be a good idea to get an update from everyone.”

  Dusty raised an eyebrow and gestured towards no man’s land, where thousands of Antithesis threw themselves at our defences. “This is the Antithesis letting up on us?”

  “Considering they were throwing at least three times that number of Antithesis at us less than an hour ago, including those behemoths that were capable of punching holes in Bear Force One? Yes, this is a lull,” I said. “I have a feeling we’ll see another surge once they perfect that new Model Five variant, so I wanted to get an update before that happened.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t have much of an update for you,” Bandit started. “After the butt kicking we’ve been giving them, I would have expected them to try and tunnel closer, but there hasn’t been any seismic activity for several hours now.”

  “Nothing at all?” Heavy asked.

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  “Nope. Not unless they’ve discovered a way to dig without disturbing the surrounding area,” Bandit replied.

  “It’s possible--you never know,” Deadbeat muttered.

  Bandit nodded. “We could do with some sort of underground sensor system. The Antithesis in Jasper coated everything in that polymer, which messed with our sensors. We should be more proactive before we get Antithesis pouring into our backlines.”

  “Agreed. I'll talk to Nyx after we’re done here and check out a couple options,” I said, making a mental note. “How are we doing on the other fronts?”

  “Well, the wall is holding. So far we haven’t encountered anything too powerful, it’s mostly been the regular suspects. The heaviest thing they’ve thrown at us so far, besides those big AA beetles, are the Twenty-Eights. We have extensive experience with dealing with them, so it’s been no problem repelling the assaults so far,” Dusty said. “I don’t know how long that’ll last though. Even though they don’t have access to the resources from Grand Falls, they must have at least encountered a few abandoned vehicles or buildings by now. They should have the resources for a couple of Thirties.”

  “And once they get a couple of those bad boys going, they’ll be able to infinitely recycle the resources,” Deadbeat added.

  “Well, the UHR has been able to deal with any Model Thirty we’ve encountered so far. Hopefully they don’t develop anything resilient to it before we’re done here,” I said.

  “They don’t need to make anything resilient to it; they just need to throw enough high-strength models at us that the UHR can’t keep up,” Heavy muttered.

  “That’s why I want to get a second one as soon as possible. Doubling the rate of fire will make engaging heavies much safer,” I said. “The UHR won’t be our only way of dealing with the heavies though, the cruise missiles will be ready soon.”

  “Not sure if that’ll be enough. I’ve caught sight of a couple different missile strikes heading towards the hive over the last hour or so. From what I’ve seen, they haven’t made any difference,” Dusty reported.

  “I really wish that we still had some sort of surveillance on the hive so we could see what was going on. The hive has been shooting every orbital that comes close, which means no orbital stations or satellites,” I grumbled.

  “At least it can’t use that thing against our ground forces, or Bear Force One. Losing our heavy weapons would be devastating,” Deadbeat said.

  “True,” I muttered.

  “Speaking of orbital weapons, what happened to that fusion weapon whatchamagig?” Bob asked.

  “They managed to stabilize the orbit, but it’s probably a complete write-off until the Mars contingent gets back. Too much damage,” I said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to you all that the Family has declared they won’t be authorizing any more orbital strikes until that weapon is taken care of.”

  “Not surprising at all. That’s probably why they’ve switched to more conventional weapons,” Dusty said. “The question is, now that the orbitals are no longer viable, how long until someone authorizes a nuclear strike?”

  “I really hope we come up with a solution before it comes to that,” I muttered. “Anyone else have concerns or suggestions on how we could shore up our defenses?”

  “Our AA defenses are solid. Between the PAWS, and the point defense turrets on Bear Force One, but if the Antithesis start throwing larger flyers at us, we may want to have something stronger. It may be time to upgrade the PAWS,” Deadbeat said.

  “That’s true. I’ll add it to the list of things to purchase,” I replied.

  “And personal shields, or at least shields mounted on the walls. If the Antithesis are trying to develop weapons to penetrate our defenses, we should do everything we can to counter them,” Heavy added.

  I nodded.

  “You said the missiles will be ready to fire soon, are you planning on bombarding the hive?” Bob asked.

  I paused for a moment, slightly surprised that Bob would ask such an insightful question, then shook my head. “Since the Antithesis have been shooting down the Ursas and interrupting our attempts to halt the fungus, I was planning on dedicating most of the missile tubes to spread M17 again. I plan on keeping a couple on standby, in case the Antithesis start throwing big boys at us again.”

  “Isn’t it going to be expensive to buy cruise missiles just to deliver the M17?” Dusty asked.

  “I have an excess of points right now, and this seems like a good way to invest them,” I replied. “Besides, the missiles may be large, but they’re nowhere near as expensive as you’d think.” I glanced from bear to bear. “Any other questions?”

  As they shook their heads, a loud ‘crack’ sounded from further down the wall. I’d gotten used to the repetitive ‘crunch’ noises from the bone needles breaking on the bears, so this caught my attention. One of the bears staggered back, shoved back from the impact, a shard of metal embedded in its forehead.

  After a moment, it regained its feet, wrenched the shard out of its armor, and returned to its position. The Antithesis still hadn’t developed an effective weapon, but they were getting closer. Fast.

  “Return to your positions, and report any abnormalities to me,” I ordered everyone. “I have a feeling it won’t be long until the Antithesis resume their assault, and I want to be ready when they do.”

  The bears all nodded and scattered.

  I tested my luck and poked my head over the wall. The Model Fives out there didn’t look anything like porcupines anymore. They looked more like wrinkly rats with gross, pus-filled, cancerous orifices on their backs. As I watched, one of them crouched down, and a thick proboscis shot out of the orifice on its back, launching a spike. The aim was off, and it took some time to reset, but at the rate they were evolving, it wouldn’t be long until they bred both of those weaknesses away.

  Once I was satisfied, I slipped back and jumped off the wall. “No matter how fast you evolve, it’s not going to be enough,” I muttered to myself. “We’ll be ready for you.”

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