Chương 433: Book 7 - Chapter 29 - Soup

[Teddy… Did you happen to have Incendiary warheads on those missiles of yours?] Mako growled through the Samurai comm network. We'd only split up about two minutes ago, she and the Sisterhood of the Noms heading to the hangar to jump on transports while I headed up to one of the strategic planning rooms on the bridge to monitor the situation. That's why I couldn't figure out why she sounded so pissed all of a sudden. I took a step back from the planning table, looked at Spooky, and furrowed my brow. [Uhhhh… maybe? I was using M-17, a napalm-like substance, to try and keep the Antithesis confined when I was in Great Falls,] I replied. [And we might have had a couple of those missiles in the silos, why?] [Because you're boiling part of the ocean! Do you know how dangerous that is? Never mind making it nearly impossible for us to drop in and engage the Antithesis safely, but the thermal shock may kill whatever endangered fish species are still in the area!] My mouth flapped open and closed a couple of times as I tried to figure out how to reply. On the one hand, I realized I'd screwed up by ordering Spooky to fire everything without checking what sort of warhead we had loaded. On the other hand… we were in the middle of a crisis; was this really the right time to be worrying about fish? Before I could reply, I heard Hel jump on the line. [Are you able to confirm exactly what's down there?] [No, we can't. There's too much steam coming off the water,] a third voice replied. I could only guess that it was another member of the Sisterhood I hadn't met yet. [We'll drop some camera drones once we get over the area.] [Good, send us the feed once you do,] Alise said. [And stay out of the water until I give you the go ahead,] Hel added. [Did you miss the part where I said the ocean was boiling?] Mako grumbled. [No, but I'd hate for you to be in the water when I try to fix it. Thermal shock can be kind of a bitch,] Hel replied. [Wait… What? What are you planning to do?] Mako asked. [Fix the problem,] Hel casually replied. As she did, my eyes were drawn down to the strategic planning table, and the little holographic version of the Destiny as a little red line arced from the ship and streaked towards the combat zone. It only took a couple of seconds for it to streak from the luxury yacht to the combat zone, and it seemed to split apart just before finally plunging into the water.

[What the fuck was that?] Mako shouted. [Cryogenic burst warheads, to even out the temperature,] Hel replied calmly. [Don't worry, I made sure they had temperature sensors, so they won't overdo it and freeze the area. I'll hook the sensor feed into the chat so you'll know when it'll be safe for you to engage.] [But the fish…] Mako grumbled. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

[I'm sorry to say that if there were any in the area, they're probably already dead. I'm not aware of any fish that survive getting boiled alive,] Hel replied. [And while I apologize that I may have upset the local wildlife, may I remind you that I did it because we had Antithesis flooding into the area? Assuming the sensors aren't lying to me, they're STILL trying to penetrate our defenses; They're just doing it a little further west,] I hissed before switching over to the command network and ordering the Kodiaks full of Aqua bears, and the one otter to immediately deploy into the roiling ocean. [Since it might take a minute for the temperature around the initial breach to stabilize, I'll take responsibility and drop my troops there to hold the line. They'll be able to function in the extreme temperatures and should be able to hold the line until everything stabilizes. I'd recommend you and the sisterhood move to cut off the new breach.] [Fine,] Mako growled. [But we're going to have a long chat about your reckless endangerment of wildlife later.] [Fine,] I grumbled. [I'm going to silence the comm group for a couple of minutes while I try to figure out what the situation is in the soup zone. I'll keep sending updates, but if you need to talk to me, contact me directly.] [Good luck,] Hel exclaimed before I disconnected from the chat. Although I knew that a ton of Antithesis had streamed into the area, I had no idea if any had managed to make it through before the missile strikes or if any had somehow survived the devastation.

"How long until Bear Force One is in position?" I asked Spooky.

"About two minutes," he replied.

"We were fairly close when we detected the first breach."

"I kind of regret reconfiguring our production setup right now," I grumbled.

"If I hadn't, we might have a second wave of Aqua Bears to drop into the area when we arrived."

"You had no idea the Antithesis would try and sneak an attack force into the area right under our noses," Spooky replied.

"Besides, the first full squad of otters will be ready in about twenty minutes."

"Hopefully, we won't need them before that," I grumbled, before glancing up at him.

"I'm going to take direct control of the combat team. You have the bridge."

"Aye aye, ma'am!" Spooky replied with a quick salute. With a deep breath, I closed my eyes and dove into the command network, connecting to the heavily armored bears sitting just a couple of feet above the simmering sea. Since I had planned to start replacing aquatic-based bears, I hadn't really tried to fix the deployment problem. I still needed to get the bears into the water while sitting on the scooters, and I didn't have a good way to do that while away from the shore, so I improvised.

As soon as the bears were all seated on their scooters, I had the Kodiaks tilt upwards, nearly sixty degrees, nearly stalling out, to dump them out the back. Most of the bears managed to hold onto their scooters when they hit the water, and as soon as I saw the area was somewhat clear, I sent a pair of bears out to help re-scooter the three that didn't. I'd joked that this area was a soup earlier, but now that I had eyes on the area, I wasn't sure how much of a joke it actually was.

The area was absolutely saturated with blood, chunks of flesh, and small boiled Antithesis bodies. From what I could tell, there had to be hundreds of corpses, which probably meant there had been thousands of Antithesis streaming through the area before the first missiles hit. Although I had equipped all my bears with flesh melters, there was no way they could have possibly cleaned all this up, so I just made a note to ask for help from the others later.

Splitting the bears into small squads, I sent them out to scout the area. Although I'd seen plenty of small, skate-shaped Antithesis, the same ones I equated to Model Ones, I didn't see anything bigger. The sensor net definitely detected larger models coming through, and although it was possible they'd been pureed by the explosives, I'd expected to find some sign of them. Some recognizable parts floating out among the rest of the chum.

As the bears slowly combed the area, poking into every hole they could find, the otter rocketed towards the sensor net, trying to get a look at the narrow strip of ocean between the sensor net and the missile impact sites that would have managed to avoid most of the fallout. I say most because even if something had been lurking there and managed to avoid the explosive fallout, they still would have to survive the waves of scalding water radiating from the impact zone.

As it approached the net, I began to see a lot more of the Antithesis I'd expected earlier. Larger shark and squid-like models that appeared to have been cooked alive. At least, most of them. As the otter began to close with a couple, they twitched, slowly unfurling their ruined limbs in a vain attempt to swipe at it. I'd almost forgotten how tough the stupid things could be.

I ordered the otter to safely finish the living ones with its laser from a safe distance, but before it could get started, something moved out in the darkness beyond the crippled Antithesis. I blinked and changed my focus from my forces in the water to the holo table in front of me. The buoys nearest to the otter, which had fallen quiet after the boiling, were flashing again. Instead of tiny flickers, these were fairly long, consistent pulses.

Through the otter's eyes, I caught sight of something large and eel-like slowly emerging from the darkness, and behind it, the ocean churned. I took a step back from the table and looked at Spooky.

"I think we might need more bears."