Chương 435: Book 7 - Chapter 31 - Plan of Attack

Between Sharron and the bears, we managed to stem the tide of Antithesis pouring through the sensor net long enough for reinforcements to arrive. We couldn't keep them all from slipping through, there were just too many for that, but we at least managed to keep the majority from crossing the line. When the Destiny finally arrived, a few minutes later, the other Samurai swarmed into the area and started exterminating the Antithesis with ruthless efficiency.

Most of them were just as efficient, if not more so, than Sharron. The samurai divers came in all shapes and sizes, from the extremely fast and lithe, who appeared to have little more than a high-tech diving suit on, to the heavily armored behemoths that trudged along the bottom, sweeping the Antithesis away with heavy weapons. Seeing how effective they all were at exterminating the aquatic Antithesis species actually made me feel a little inadequate.

While my bears were barely able to hold the line, relying upon their close-range lasers and the high-explosives to haphazardly clear large groups so they could take potshots at the survivors with their rifles, they were far from efficient. Of course, I knew that these samurai were all specialized and experienced in aquatic combat, while I had just picked up a few techs so my forces could function, but still, even compared to the few newer samurai, the difference was night and day.

With Mako, Sharron, Cinnamon, and the others now basing themselves on Bear Force One and my aquatic infantry limited, I vowed to take a more supportive role going forward. At least until I built up enough of a battle force to be effective. [It looks like the wave is finally starting to peter out,] Mako reported. [The swarm's density has dropped to less than ten percent of its peak, and it's still dropping.] [Good. That means we'll probably see the tail end of the attack in the next thirty minutes or so. I'll ask a couple of our trackers if they can trace the swarm's path back to their source. Although that was only a moderately sized school, we should still exterminate the hives they used to build up,] Claire replied. [You call that a moderate-sized swarm?] I asked. [You've been at the forefront of some massive land-based battles,] Alise replied. [How would you describe a swarm that can be exterminated in around an hour?] [Honestly? I call that a slow day,] I replied.

[But I'm aware that not everyone has access to an entire army to back them up.] [You're not the only one,] Hel said. [That might have looked a little sketchy, but considering the bulk of the wave was made up of Model One, Three, and Four-Os, and only had a handful of Model Twenties for backup, that attack was pretty tame.] [I don't understand what their plan was,] someone I didn't recognize said. [A raid of that size is hardly a threat.] [I'm not sure if the point was to fight us,] Mako muttered.

[They seemed far more interested in just rushing past and traveling further into the zone than in engaging us. In fact, I think the only ones that attempted to fight me only did so in self-defense.] If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. [Why would they do that?] the same voice asked. [Biomass delivery,] Sharron replied. [We saw it all the time on Mars. Since the forward hives could never produce enough biomass to repel the samurai assaults, the Antithesis would just produce fodder units further back and send them to the front line bases just to be recycled in the digestion pools.] [It was a gruesome, but horrifically effective way to bolster their front lines,] Hel confirmed. [However, whenever they did that, they would send a constant, steady stream of forces. Not a small assault force.] [Unless this is just the first wave, and they're planning on sending more later,] Sharron said. [Well, what the fuck do we do then?] I grumbled. [If we send the scouts out to try to track down the source, we'll be able to cut off the reinforcements, but we'll also lose the chance to track down the Tender. If we send them to track the few Antithesis that got through, we may be able to track down the Tender, but we'll have to face a never-ending wave of reinforcements. Do we have enough scouts to do both?] [Technically yes, but they typically work as a team, and if they split up, there's a chance we may lose both trails,] Alise said. [Maybe Warspite and the group from Vancouver brought a couple of scouts, but they're at least half an hour out, and the trail would probably have faded by the time they arrive.] [It doesn't hurt to ask,] Sharron said. [And besides, we should probably be including them in our discussions. Is there any reason we haven't added them to the comm room yet?] [We could… the problem is we've tried to create a comms group for all of The Family members in Seattle, and we found that it quickly devolved into a lot of meaningless chatter, which drowned out the important discussions. That's why my sister and I prefer to create smaller, more focused chat rooms,] Claire explained. [Well, we don't need to have a single comm channel; we can develop multiple. Maybe one for Warspite's group, one for ours, and a command channel so we can coordinate,] Sharron suggested.

[Perhaps a support channel too, since there are a few samurai back in Seattle that want to help out but aren't set up for aquatic operations. Including one particularly intense and unyielding friend, who most of you are familiar with,] Claire grumbled. [I'm actually surprised that Magpie didn't come out with you in the first place,] I said. [Not that I'm complaining. Without her, I probably never would have been able to get through to you after that EMP,] I said.

[That's because it's her anniversary, and she promised Valerie she wouldn't do anything dangerous,] Claire grumbled. [Unfortunately, someone had to let her know the situation out here was a little worse than expected, so she's decided that she needed to contribute somehow.] [While I love Magpie, perhaps we could discuss this all later, and prioritize,] Hel said, interrupting everyone. [If we delay too long, the Antithesis's trail is going to go cold. What do we do about the tracking?] [We try and find the original hive,] I said. [Although I'd love to find the Gene Tender, we already have it trapped here, and we have a plan to track it down. If we leave the hive alone, we'll probably need to leave people here to keep intercepting the Antithesis reinforcements. Besides, even if the hive does manage to get one or two waves off, we could just use those to try and track the Tender later.] [That sounds like a decent plan,] Hel agreed. [I also suggest we drop some static defenses here. Some sonic cannons and sea mines, so if the Antithesis do penetrate the net in this area again, we don't have to scramble to clear the area.] [Do you have that sort of stuff available on the Destiny? Or somewhere in the rest of the fleet?] I asked. [We carry a full array of deployables, just in case,] Claire confirmed. [It'll take a while for us to set them up, though, and we shouldn't leave the support fleet for that long. I don't want to risk them getting hit by another leviathan while we're gone.] [Fair… in that case, you can either send the munitions to me, or I could take the Strato Carrier over to cover them while you work,] I said. [I'd rather be in charge of setting things up. I have the bear power to do the labor, but I lack effective naval weaponry to protect the fleet.] [The cannons are large… I doubt they'd fit in one of your APCs,] Alise replied hesitantly. [Don't worry, I have the heavy lifters. As long as you can get the cannons to someplace that's accessible from above, then my bears can retrieve them. You don't even have to wait here. I can pick them up while you're en route back to the fleet.] [That would be helpful,] Claire replied. [You sure you don't mind?] [Absolutely not, it gives me something to do,] I replied. [Alright, in that case we'll start moving the weapons to the landing platform to pick up,] Claire said.

[And once that's done, I'll get in touch with Warspite and see if the other fleet has some personnel we can borrow. Maybe we can rebalance the two forces and make up for the losses we suffered in the leviathan attack.] [Sounds like a plan,] I replied. [Let's get started. I have a feeling that the Antithesis aren't done with us yet, so the sooner we get this done, the better.]