Chương 413: Book 7 - Chapter 9 - The Net Closes

Once I finished my call with Alise, I slowly pushed away from the conference table and stepped out of the room. Although I'd only used it to manage the Marsupial and make a holo call, I was starting to feel a little anxious. I didn't like sitting behind a desk, organizing things from a distance; I liked to be up on the frontlines, managing things from the front. The problem with that was that there was no frontline here.

We were playing a massive game of hide and seek with the Antithesis, engaging in the occasional skirmish, not a standing fight. I knew that killing the Gene Tender wouldn't be straightforward; I just wish there had been more to fight than a single harassing hive. I wandered through the halls for a minute before finally making my way up to the bridge. When I first purchased the Strato Carrier, there had only been five or six consoles on the bridge, and I'd left the floors and walls completely unfinished.

I didn't have enough points to finish everything, and the bears didn't care about the decor, so finishing it was a low priority, especially when the ship hadn't been fully armed. After Great Falls, however, I had points to spare, and I'd given Spooky permission to furnish the area however he wanted. I'd expected the area to be very utilitarian. Instead, as I climbed the heavy metal grate stairs from the living area up to the bridge, I was surprised to find it fairly modern-looking and a little stylish.

The main operational area had been rearranged, and several new consoles had been added. There was a long, unobstructed walkway made of some sort of impact-absorbing rubber flooring that led up to the main window where Spooky was standing. The stations had been moved to raised areas on the left and right and were half-hidden by chest-high black metal dividing walls.

The massive planning table that had once dominated the middle of the bridge had been moved into a large enclosed glass room to the left of the stairs, and another, nearly identical system had been installed on the right. I was surprised to see several bears standing around the table on the right, observing a holographic map of the coastline and taking notes as little holographic Ursas flew about. I had no idea why Spooky would be doing something like that.

He should have been able to track the status of the deployment through the network without any problem, but if it helped, I wasn't going to complain. As I stepped onto the bridge and started making my way down the walkway towards where Spooky was standing, the bear turned to face me.

"Hey Boss, to what do I owe this honor?" he asked.

"I just wanted to check in, see how things were going," I said, as I strode up to the window. You couldn't see much of the surrounding area from the bridge window. It might have been the highest point of Bear Force One, but it was mounted on the rear of the ship, facing forward. It did give you a good look at the upper hull of the ship, and as I looked out, I noticed a handful of shapes running around outside.

As I leaned forward and squinted at the distant silhouettes, I could just make out their hunched forms and large flat tails.

"Uhhh… Why are the Beavers running around out on the outer hull?" I asked.

"They're making the final preparations to connect the turrets to the stowage system under the deck," Spooky explained. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"I thought they weren't ready for that," I replied.

"They're not. They're still working on the changes to the superstructure, but there's only so much room to work down there and a lot of beavers, so they're doing the hull-side preparations too," Spooky said.

"I think they're mapping out where the hatch is going to be installed right now."

"And why aren't they wearing any safety gear?" I asked.

"What if one of them slips?"

"Well, that'll never happen because they have magnetic clamps installed in their feet, so they can remain locked to the hull," Spooky said.

"And even if they did slip, those oversized backpacks they have, with all the mechanical arms, have grappling functions so they can anchor themselves in place." He turned and looked at me strangely.

"What are you doing up here anyway? Usually, you just contact me through the network if you need something, and I just checked; I don't have any messages…"

"That's because I didn't send you any," I said.

"I just finished directing the Marsupial while I dealt with the hive-crustacean-thing that was harassing our sensor deployment efforts, and I wanted to check how things were going."

"If you wanted an update, you could have just called," Spooky replied.

"I would have given you a complete rundown."

"I know you would have," I muttered.

"But I didn't want to just read through a bunch of files or listen to you spout off some statistics across the network. I'm sure I would have got the information I needed, but I wanted to do it face-to-face. It's much more personal that way!" Spooky raised an eyebrow as he looked me up and down.

"You were bored."

"You're damned right I'm bored!" I said, throwing my hands in the air.

"While we were in Great Falls, we were under constant threat and the Antithesis were practically throwing themselves at us twenty-four-seven. Out here we're still dealing with an Antithesis threat, but the enemy isn't fighting back. They're hiding, waiting for the right time to either fight back or make a run for it, and even though we're doing everything we can to drive it toward our allies, I feel like I should be out there, doing more."

"You could learn how to swim and go out and chase them yourself," Spooky smirked. I turned towards him, eyes narrowed.

"You know that's never going to happen, smart ass. So I'm looking for something reasonable I can do with my time," I said.

"That's why I came up here, to see how things are going." Spooky sighed.

"Things are on schedule now that we're not being harassed so much," he explained as he turned away from the window and headed back up the aisle towards the planning rooms.

"I've assigned additional escorts to the deployment teams, so we shouldn't experience any more interruptions."

"I wouldn't count on things going smoothly forever," I muttered.

"Not if the Gene Tender has anything to say about it."

"That is, if it's trying to obstruct our efforts at all," Spooky said.

"I've been monitoring the investigation team's efforts, and they haven't found any indication that the Gene Tender introduced the aerogel mutation into that hive in the first place. It might have been a coincidence."

"Do you honestly think that's true?" I asked.

"That the Antithesis would spontaneously develop a mutation that's practically useless against every threat just when we show up in the area? I find it more likely that they'd develop something explosive, or toxic, to deal with their foes." I shook my head.

"No, this was the Gene Tender trying to fuck with us. I know it."

"How, did you use your points to develop psychic powers when none of us were looking?" Spooky asked.

"What? No. Instinct. I've fought the Antithesis long enough to know that even the ones that run on instinct are spiteful," I said, before pausing.

"Do you honestly think there's a catalog that could give people psychic powers?"

"It was a joke, but considering that we're standing on a flying aircraft carrier and creating an army from recycled garbage, it's probably not completely out of the realm of possibilities," Spooky replied.

"Why? Are you actually considering it?"

"No! I was just wondering," I snapped, as we stepped into the briefing room with all the bears. Not a single one of them looked up, but they all shuffled to the opposite side of the table, leaving Spooky and I with unrestricted access to the table. I looked down at the massive holographic table, which displayed everything from the coast out to where the other Samurai were hunting and everything in between.

It even showed the position of all the Ursas, the condition of the sensor net, and the location of Bear Force One. Everything we needed to know in order to plan our next move. I leaned over teh table, taking in all the details, before finally look over at Spooky.

"Now tell me everything I might have missed," I said.

"I feel like we've been playing things a little too passively up to this point. I want to give this fucker a little push."