Chương 391: Book 6- Chapter 52 - Weight of fire (Spooky POV)

"We're making our way out of the hive now," Bandit reported.

"The weapon is emulsifying everything in the area, including the Antithesis. We're out of the core and into one of the stable tunnels, so the boss said we should begin the strikes now. Kick the Antithesis while they're down."

"How is the boss?" Spooky asked.

"She's not in any danger; her body staunched the bleeding, and the antibacterial Nyx provided killed the Antithesis infection," Bandit replied.

"Deadbeat's operating on her now."

"Good, keep me informed," Spooky replied.

"Pass me command of the surveillance units, and I'll take care of the strike. Just take care of the boss and yourself."

"Can do!" Bandit replied before cutting the connection. Spooky stepped away from the comms terminal and wandered over to the front of the bridge. Closing his eyes, he reached out to the hundreds of bears set up below, along with the scattered chameleon units in the distance. Everything was in place.

"Open a connection to the Family," he ordered the comms officer. When the bear waved back and gave a thumbs up, he began reciting the half-prepared speech he'd been going over in his mind.

"This is Spooky, commander of Bear Force One, a samurai strato carrier currently on station outside Great Falls. A samurai strike team has just deployed a biological phage at the center of the Phobos hive, which should cripple the anti-orbital weapon. To ensure the destruction of the hive and crippling of the weapon, I will now begin a targeted strike upon the hive's anti-aircraft and anti-missile defenses. Sharing the surveillance data stream now."

"Who the hell is Spooky? And how the hell did you get telemetry for this strike? Is this some sort of…" someone started asking, so Spooky turned towards the comm station and quickly slashed his hand in front of his throat. The speakers on the bridge went silent.

"There's no point in getting into an argument right now," he muttered quietly.

"Better to just show them. Weapon officer, report!"

"All missile tubes are primed, and reloading systems are on standby," the bear on his right declared.

"Then let's begin the operation," Spooky declared. He reached out and started connecting the Chameleons positioned around the perimeter of the hive and rerouting their targeting data to both the main targeting computer and the bears below. The Antithesis EMP pulse had nearly ruined all the bosses' plans, knocking out the scouting teams that had crept up behind the main assault. Half of them had collapsed out in the open and were ripped apart by the tide of Antithesis, which were still pouring out of the hive.

Thankfully, the other half had already found hidey-holes in the spines arrayed around the hive's perimeter. Most of these had collapsed into pockets and behind ridges that were hard to see from the ground. Bandit had pushed his processor to the very brink of overheating by connecting to all the surviving units, lending them processing power to undergo restart faster, and bypassing whatever protocols he could so they'd get their camo online as fast as possible.

Considering how many Antithesis had been pouring through the area, it was a miracle that so many Chameleons avoided being spotted by both the Antithesis ground forces and the flocks of Model Ones flying around the hive, as they did. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"What do you plan to do? Do you honestly think you can cripple the Antithesis defenses when the rest of the samurai failed? Their defenses are too strong to get missiles and aircraft through," a voice asked through the speakers. Spooky looked back over his shoulder at the comms officer and raised an eye.

"Sorry, sir, they're hacking through the comm systems," the bear apologized. Spooky sighed.

"If you'd stop interrupting me, you'd see what we have planned," he said, turning back to the window.

"Oh, I can't wait," the voice replied sarcastically. As soon as he confirmed the targeting data had been routed properly, Spooky leaned back and clasped his hands behind his back.

"Weapons officer, prepare for synchronized fire in five, four, three, two, one, FIRE!" The strato carrier shook as the missile tubes out on the upper deck all shot out an ICBM. Once they'd reached a couple feet above the deck, they spun in place and shot off almost parallel with the deck, heading towards the hive.

"You think just because you fire a dozen missiles they'll get through? It's been tried," the voice snorted.

"Two dozen; there are more tubes on the ship's ventral side," Spooky replied.

"Still never going to get through," the voice exclaimed. Spooky casually raised a hand and waved it over his head.

"Weapons tracking, please share your telemetry with the other samurai," he said.

"What difference does that…" the voice trailed off.

"Oh."

"Although our ICBMs have the best chance of outright destroying the quill nodules growing around the hive, they aren't all we're firing at the hive. I ordered our ground forces to fire a hundred and fifty guided missiles to help distract the defenses, and add a little more damage to the barrage," Spooky explained.

"Even though the Antithesis are able to throw up a wall of spines to intercept incoming projectiles, I doubt they can intercept them all." As he monitored the missiles' progress through the command network, Spooky locked his hands behind his back to keep from fidgeting. Even though he was in charge of a major offensive, it felt like he should be doing more or have something to do. Maybe he'd ask the boss for a pocket watch so he could time the attacks manually in the future.

It was something to keep his hands occupied, if nothing else.

"Ten seconds until impact," Spooky declared as he performed a smooth one hundred and eighty degree turn and started marching across the bridge.

"Create a composite image of the hive's exterior, using the Chameleon's data, overlay the missile's tracking data, and display it on the main holo table," he ordered. The large planning table in the middle of the room sputtered to life. It took a moment for the system to figure out the terrain and assemble an accurate model of the hive crater's interior. Spooky made a mental note to make sure the system didn't waste resources making a milimeter-accurate rendition unless it was necessary in the future.

Just as the topography finished calculating, the missile swarm appeared on the edge of the table. It was spread out, with the missiles programmed to approach from every possible direction in order to minimize the losses from the Antithesis flak organs. He watched as the missiles rose up, climbing just far enough from their ground-level approach to pass over the circle of spines around the crater.

If there had been trees and other foliage around, they would have had to approach at a much higher altitude, maybe high enough to give the Antithesis a shot at them, but because of the mold, there was nothing around to obstruct their attack. As the first wave breached the crater's perimeter, they were immediately met with a cloud of spines. The defensive nodules growing around the crater looked like spires covered in porcupine quills, and whenever they sensed movement, they could expel their payload at the target.

They could reload quickly, but not instantly, and that slight delay was what Spooky was counting on. A full half of the missiles winked out of existence, and their explosions caught about twenty percent more, but that still left a LOT of missiles in the air. They streaked in, smashing into the nearest Spires. The smaller ones only took chunks out of the living structures, but the few ICBMs that made it through outright disintegrated the structures.

When the barrage ended, five of the spires lay in ruins, and two more were burning. There were still a dozen more scattered around the crater, but it was a start.

"I hope that's enough of a display to convince you we're not messing around," Spooky declared. The samurai who'd hacked into the comm system didn't reply; maybe they'd already disconnected, or maybe they'd just been stunned by the display. In the end, it didn't matter.

"Begin reloading sequence, and make sure the ground troops are well supplied with launchers," Spooky ordered.

"We still have lots of work to do before we can send the Ursas in to bathe the hive in M-17, and I want to get it done before the Boss gets back. Let's get to work!"