Chapter Fifty-Nine - Hot Hives in Your Area!

"We don't like the term trailer trash, we find it all sorts of offensive to our long heritage and ancestral culture. My great great grandfather bought that trailer with his own money.

If you need to call us something, then perhaps 'Trailer-privileged Community,' would be more respectable."

--Jim "All Teeth" Vincerella, 2038

***

"Myalis, 'nade. Something high explosive," I said as I brought my left arm back. Something small and weighty fell into my hand, and my thumb naturally touched upon a trigger. It started to beep a moment before I flung my arm forwards.

The grenade sailed through the air, then smacked on the bottom lip of one of the holes in the hive. It bounced, then rolled in, disappearing from sight into the darkness within.

I brought my arm back around and continued to shoot.

Gomorrah was laying down a wall of fire that didn't seem to want to extinguish, even with nothing to burn. It looked like her gun had shifted from firing... well, fire, to launching large, swelling masses of some goopy material that formed a large barricade ahead of us.

That barricade was, of course, on fire, and any alien that tried to climb over it soon found themselves glued onto a surface that was literally burning. They'd tug and thrash and sink in deeper into the goop even as they burned alive.

It was a sight to see.

I took a few of the smaller ones out of their misery, but I had bigger, meaner targets to focus on just behind the line of fire.

Then the grenade in the hill went off. Myalis hadn't cheaped out on the 'high' part of the explosive.

The hill exploded outwards, man-sized chunks of dirt and roots flying away from the top while a rush of looser dirt was flung upwards and out.

I ducked my head as small pebbles and clods came raining down all around me. Some of them landed on Gomorrah's fire, as well as a few larger stones that could serve as stepping stones, at least until she started hosing those down too.

"Did that do it?" I asked as I stood back up.

The tactical com from the soldiers registered a few scuffs. One guy was swearing up a storm as he'd been smacked in the face by a jagged piece of rock. I felt a little bad for the guy, but that was the price for playing with high explosives.

"No notification," Gomorrah pointed out. "The hive's still alive."

"I can toss in a few more," I suggested.

I had earned plenty more points from that stunt than the cost of a single grenade, after all.

"Let's move up instead. We don't know how deep it goes. Lieutenant, hold here, if you can. If it becomes too hot, then feel free to start pulling back."

"Acknowledged, Samurai Gomorrah, we'll hold," the LT said.

That was simple enough, then. "So, we charge in?" I asked as I took a second to reload.

"We can at least get to the edge of the hive," Gomorrah said. "I have some new equipment that I haven't had the opportunity to field test yet. Your equipment is heat-proof, right?"

"Uh, a little?"

"We might want to set it off from afar, then. Just in case. I'm looking into replacing my skin with something less flammable. You might want to do the same."

"I'll add it to the list," I said.

Once I got back home, I was probably going to give in and get a few upgrades. I didn't wanna go full cyborg, but maybe being faster and tougher wouldn't be so bad.

Gomorrah moved up, and I trailed right after her. She'd left a gap open in the wall of fire. It was still damned close to the flames, but there was a gap that we could cross without getting cooked.

The antithesis had noticed too, and were crowding on the other end. At least, until Gomorrah switched the nozzle from 'tight' to 'spray' and lit the fuckers right up. I shot into the bunch as well, punching holes into the tougher models that didn't seem to mind being on fire as much.

Honestly though, this... wasn't that much of a challenge.

I had decent gear. Gomorrah was burning everything down, and we still had a few mortar strikes coming in and blowing up the antithesis on the other side of the hill long before they got to us. The soldiers were staying behind, but that didn't mean they weren't working. They fired ahead, landing shots more often than not.

We reached the hive, and I stepped up to the edge of it and aimed down into the hole. There were large roots squirming around within, and a few smaller models trying to climb their way out of the crater we'd left. I put them down, taking my time while Gomorrah knelt down next to me. She tossed something small within and it made a loud beeping noise before going quiet.

"The hive extends another five metres down, with some tendrils reaching the water table below," she said.

"That doesn't sound good."

"I doubt they'll have spread through the entire thing. They probably just tapped into it for fresh water. Even the antithesis need water to operate. Well, they use it when they have it, at least."

"So, blow it all to hell?" I asked.

"Burn it all," she suggested. Gomorrah summoned up a small box, opened it, then tugged out a cylinder with a pair of handholds on the sides. It reminded me a little of those rugged speakers some cool types carried around and set on the corners they hung out on so that everyone could enjoy the shit noise they called music. Only this one had a bit more 'bomb' in its DNA.

Gomorrah tossed it down into the hole, then sprayed the top of it with burning goop. "Is that, uh, wise?"

"It's fire-proof," she said. "At least, until I set it off. We shouldn't be here when it does go off."

"Alrighty," I said as I started back. We beat a steady retreat. By the time we were back at Gomorrah's firewall, there was barely any resistance left.

The soldiers were waiting for us still, and we all started back through the woods as a big unit. There was no stealth this time. We had lights out, and resonators screeching along our entire path.

"We're far enough," Gomorrah said after a long silence.

I didn't have time to ask anything when she activated her bomb.

I felt the rush of warmth pressing against my back, as if I was standing next to a bum fire. The forest lit up in reds and oranges, and when I looked back and squinted, I saw that the sky was painted in the same colours.

"Wow. That was a big one?"

"Eh, medium sized," she said. "It'll boil the water table a little, but that's probably for the best. Most antithesis don't survive boiling like that. We're going to need to comb through the unburnt parts of the forest for remnants."

Lieutenant Moreau shielded his eyes while looking around. "We'll have a team come in and do just that," he said. "That's one of our specialities."

"Get to it, then. I don't see much fun in rooting around in the dirt for a few last aliens," I said. It was important work, but it sounded tedious as hell.

"Do you... want us to start right now, ma'am?" the lieutenant asked.

I blinked, then checked my wording there. "No, I meant... just make sure it's done. I'm sure your guys want some time off as much as I do. Not that tonight was very hard. This was pretty easy, actually."

"A couple of thousand points, but for relatively low-risk," Gomorrah said. "I'm starting to understand and appreciate those samurai who specialise specifically in hive removal like this. It might be tedious, but it's not nearly as dangerous as being on the front line of a large surge, or tripping over first responders during an active incursion."

"Yeah," I said. It probably took a special kind of nut job to want to be out there when an incursion was just starting up. On the edges it probably wasn't so bad, but I was pretty sure the centre of a new incursion had all sorts of nasties.

Then again, that's why people like Deus Ex showed up.

"Hey, any news from Mars?" I asked Gomorrah in a private channel.

"I haven't looked into it in a few hours, but they were launching a big offensive. If it goes well, I think they'll be on their way back."

"Huh," I said. That might be... big, actually. "So we'll be able to chill while the big boys do all the hard work?"

"I hope so," Gomorrah said. "But that might be a while off. Travel from Earth to Mars isn't instantaneous, you know?"

"Right, right," I said. "So... think I can bum a ride back home? We do live in the same building and all."

Gomorrah just sighed.

***