Chapter Eighty - Burning Away

“The Model Twenty-One is a fast-moving, ground-locked Antithesis unit commonly found on the fringes of the territory of an incursion that has been entrenched for any period over seventy-two hours. They are usually found in packs of three to five, often accompanied by groups of Model Threes.

They are, by nature, ambush predators and scouts for bigger, stronger units, but do not underestimate them on account of their relatively small size. They earn their position in the twenty-ranks.”

--The Family’s Guide to The Enemy - Ver. 4.8496 - 2057.

***

“I think that’s it,” I said as I took a last look around.

The tunnel leading off that last hive-infested intersection didn’t have much to it except some stone walls and another one of those big mining rigs. A few roots were reaching into the room, but they didn’t get too far down. Gomorrah made a point of burning them on the way past, leaving the corridor behind us to fill with noxious fumes and smoke.

“Looks like it,” Gomorrah said.

I nodded. “Well, I’m ready to get the fuck out of these tunnels,” I said. “Maybe see some sky, a few clouds. You know, outside stuff?”

“Breathe in the smog and stretch under the radiation-heavy sunlight?” Gomorrah asked. She looked around at the mineshaft we were in. “Yeah, I think that would be nice.”

I couldn’t help but glance up at the ceiling. It was easy to ignore that there were several hundred thousand tonnes of earth above that could come crashing down at any moment. All the bombs and such we’d been using probably didn’t do anything to help the local geography’s stability.

“Let’s,” I said before I took off back towards the intersection.

Gomorrah had emptied both of her shoulder-mounted launchers at the big egg sac that had produced the Model Twenty-One. It meant that I had to let her carve out a path from the tunnel we were in back to the other passage we hadn’t taken over, but that wasn’t a big deal.

I was pretty happy with seeing the hive chunk on fire.

Once we were past that, it was straight down a long tunnel where a few roots had gone questing along the floor, but none of them reached all that far.

“One moment,” Gomorrah said.

I looked around, making sure there wasn’t anything but Gomorrah, myself, and my remaining cat mech around. Unless there was something else and it was invisible.

Invisible enemies were entirely unfair.

“What are you doing?” I asked when I saw her head bowed for a moment. “Is it prayer time?”

“If it was, your interrupting would be rude,” she said. Her hand opened by her side, and a container appeared just above it. “Firebomb. Nothing too spectacular.”

She pulled her rocket launcher from her shoulder and shoved the container into an opening in its side.

“I’ll be down that way,” I said with a vague gesture in the direction opposite the one she was going to burn.

Gomorrah sniffed and raised the launcher to her shoulder just as I started to jog away.

The wash of heat was nothing like the one with her plasma ball nightmare thing, but I still felt it, and it did a number on what was left of the hive, even though it had been on fire already.

No such thing as too much fire in the eyes of my favourite nun.

“That’s better,” she said as she rejoined me. “I’m liking the range of this thing.”

“Not standing right next to the hot-hot death fire is... a good idea?” I asked while trying to sound as innocent as possible.

The nun shook her head. “It’s not as... good when you can’t see the impact of your fire on your enemies.”

“Wow,” I said. “I know this is super hypocritical, but have you considered therapy? Your... pyrophilia can’t be healthy.”

“Did you just make up a new word for a sexual orientation?” she asked.

“A new word for your sexual orientation. I’m clever. I’ve heard a few words in Latin before.”

“Both pyro and philia are Greek, you... God wasn’t generous when handing out your portion of intelligence.”

I laughed. “First time I’ve been called stupid that way.”

“But certainly not the first time in general.”

“Nah, I had my first time a long while ago.”

She sighed. “And we’re back to innuendo.”

I couldn’t help but grin. I hadn’t noticed all the tension from running around and being sneaky piling up on my shoulders, but now that it was all over--or at least, I hoped it was--the tension was drifting off. It probably made things feel funnier than they really were.

“Heat signature out ahead,” Gomorrah said.

I pulled my launcher up and flicked my coat’s invisibility back on at the same moment. The coat had plenty of time to cool down.

We waited for a moment, then Gomorrah shook her head. “It’s Cause Player. I’m texting him, I don’t need to be shot today.”

I lowered my gun. Maybe it was a bit too soon to let all of the tension go.

“Alright command, it seems that we have some allies up ahead,” I heard Cause Player say. His steps were surprisingly soft. I’d barely heard them. Or maybe I was just bad at paying attention to that kind of thing.

I tugged my cloak’s hood up and tucked my launcher between my cloak and coat, where it wouldn’t be visible. If Lucy was watching, I didn’t need her thinking I was putting myself in any sort of undue risk.

“Hello, Cause Player!” Gomorrah called out.

“I think, chat, that we’re going to be breaking character for a moment,” Cause Player said. He walked around a slight curve in the tunnel ahead, still in his green armour, and with a huge, very glow-y gun in hand. “Hello, Gomorrah,” he said.

Gomorrah nodded. “How did the clearing go? And are you still live?”

I started walking around the two, keeping close to the walls and walking at an angle so that Cause Player wouldn’t notice the few bits of me not covered with my cloak. I wasn’t going too far with it—I was sure he would see me if he was paying attention.

But he wasn’t.

“We are! I hope you don’t mind.”

“I don’t,” Gomorrah said. I saw him glancing around before spotting me, likely through his augs.

By then I was already behind Cause Player, right where his little livestream camera was floating.

I snapped it out of the air, the little device buzzing and humming in place, its little wings beating against my grip until I brought it around and had it face me. I turned visible again.

“Hi Lucy!” I said with a wave.

Behind me, Cause Player jumped about three feet into the air and spun around.

Did I spook him?

“Yo!” I said before pointing to his camera. “Hope you don’t mind? I was just saying hi to my girl.”

“I didn’t see you there,” he said.

“You should be more careful then. We’ve got Model Nines, and we met a Model Twenty-One. Mean bastard. Broke some of my cat mechs.” I let go of the camera and it buzzed away from me, almost as if the little thing was insulted that I’d grabbed it.

“A Model Twenty-One, here?”

“A baby one,” I said. “Still nasty though.”

He shook his head. “That’s unexpected. The hive here wasn’t very old.”

“It was specialized though,” Gomorrah said. “A stealth model for a stealth hive.”

“Did you clear everything on the way here?” I asked.

Cause Player nodded. “Every shaft and side-passage, even a few that weren’t on the map. Found a few little groups of Antithesis, but the biggest challenge was a pair of Model Thirteens that came out of nowhere. Made for a nice boss-fight, I think.”

“Cool,” I said. “Does that mean we’re done here?”

“I guess so,” Gomorrah said. “What’s the fastest way out of here?”

“Don’t we need to leave from the same hole we came in? Your car’s parked there.”

Gomorrah shook her head. “The Fury can pilot itself to wherever I want. I wouldn’t drive it down these shafts, but otherwise, any exit would do.”

“A profitable afternoon,” Cause Player said. “A few points, some b-roll footage. I’ll edit everything later to make it more seamless before posting it.”

“Aren’t you live right now?” I asked.

“Well, yes, but that doesn’t compare to a well edited fight scene and a tighter storyline. The people who watch it live do it because it’s fun to see the behind the scenes stuff.”

“Huh,” I said. Not my cup of whatever. “Right, should we get going then?”

With all that said and done, we finally headed back, retracing Cause Player’s steps. He spoke with Gomorrah for a bit. Apparently he knew some of the clean-up samurai who’d come in later to make damned sure that nothing of the hive was left. I had to wonder how much the hive could regrow from the few bits left over in just one night.

The answer was probably too damned much.

But, all of that was someone else’s problem for now.

“Myalis,” I asked, my voice pitched low. “How many points did we manage to make?”

Current Point Total:

12,471

I tripped over nothing.

“Holy crap!”

***