Once their ambush was foiled, the Antithesis resorted to throwing waves of fodder at us. Well, waves of fodder with a handful of Model Twenty-Threes mixed in.

  They certainly seemed to have a lot of those oversized bastards.

  It was a good thing that I had both Bob and the Kodiaks to counter them. They always appeared in small packs, which meant that Bob couldn’t stop them all and the IFVs had to intercept the rest. If the tunnel ever narrowed, and I had to leave the Kodiaks behind, I’d have to swap the moose from their horde-clearing rotary lasers over to their single-target coil guns. It would definitely slow the advance, having to rely upon the regular bears to slaughter the waves of smaller antithesis, but it was better than trying to bring down Twenty-Threes with nothing but small arms fire. I could only imagine what a disaster that would be.

  The constant Antithesis assault slowed us down, bogging the bears down with waves of bodies, but it didn’t stop us, and after almost an hour of slogging through the tunnel, we finally emerged into a chamber deep underneath the town. There wasn’t much to it, a slightly bigger hollowed-out area with two additional tunnels heading east and west, right now both spewing Antithesis.

  “I was kind of expecting some cinematic final conflict with some sort of climactic final battle against whatever colossal Antithesis shut down the town,” I grumbled. “So where is it?”

  “Considering that the Seventeen was doing everything in its power to slow us down? Probably long gone,” Deadbeat said.

  “I’m going to spend hours chasing this thing around,” I muttered. “I can already tell this is going to be a whole thing…”

  I glanced between the two identical tunnels and sighed. “Bob, Deadbeat, I need you to take half of our forces and blockade those tunnels.”

  “Why me?” Bob whined. “Why not Bandit?”

  “Because I need Bandit to try and figure out which way our mystery Antithesis went, and I need to send out an update to the other samurai. Probably shouldn’t have waited until now to do it, but… better late than never,” I explained. “Now get covering those entrances!”

  As the big bear sadly shuffled away, Bandit ran over. “So… you need me to find traces. Is there anything in particular I should look for?”

  “Fuck if I know,” I exclaimed. “I don’t have a clue how big this thing is, or what it looks like. All I know is that it’s missing. Just look for any traces you don’t recognize. That might tell us which way it went.”

  “Can’t we just split up our forces?” the fox asked. “We have enough to cover both tunnels.”

  “I want to avoid that for now,” I grunted. “You missed the fight up top with that Thirty-Four-C, but that thing was no joke. I don’t want to risk one of our squads running into something like that when I’m not around to pull some deus ex machina out of a protector catalog.”

  Bandit raised an eyebrow. “I never expected you to know that term, let alone be able to pronounce it.”

  “I’ve caught enough of Eddie’s samurai cartoons and Jenifer’s subsequent rants to pick it up over the last year,” I grumbled. “Anyways… find me those traces--the longer we sit here, the further this thing gets from us. I need to make a call.”

  The little fox nodded before shooting across the room, eyes flicking back and forth, nose to the floor.

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  Once he was gone, I made my way into the back of my command vehicle and over to the communications array. As soon as I was close enough, I connected to the device.

  [You have Sixteen new messages. Would you like to hear them?] the machine intoned.

  “Eh? Sixteen messages?” I exclaimed. “I guess… start from the top.”

  [First Message: Teddy, this is Stalker. The Family has received your message and sent out a city-wide alert. Based upon our readings, our headquarters’ communication system should be strong enough to pierce the interference, but in order to improve our chances of getting through, we’re replying directly to your transmitted frequency. Several Samurai are already en route to Okotoks and should be there shortly. Please acknowledge if you get this. Stalker out.] The machine beeped [Message received two hours, seventeen minutes ago.]

  “That would have been shortly after I sent the original message… that’s awkward,” I muttered.

  [Second Message: This is Saber. I’m with Psychosis and the kid. We’re about to enter the town’s ECM field. I’ve purchased some aug upgrades so we should be able to keep in contact. Teddy, if you get this, please update us on your position, so we know where best to help.] It beeped again. [Message received One hour, fifty eight minutes ago.]

  I winced. So much for that.

  [Third Message: Hey, it’s Nora. Angeline has created an impromptu communication network by gathering her squirrels into small groups and using them like a bunch of signal boosters. Seems to work. we’ve managed to contact Saber but haven’t heard from you. Let us know the situation.] Beep. [Message received One hour, forty…]

  “I get it,” I snapped. “I haven’t been checking my messages. Analyze all the messages, retrieve their frequencies, and save them for immediate response.”

  I didn’t have to yell at the machine;it operated entirely through an augment connection, but it made me feel better.

  [Send to all contacts: This is Teddy. Sorry I missed your calls, but I haven’t been checking my messages. I’ve been kind of busy dealing with all sorts of fucked-up Antithesis since I arrived; Resistance has been significantly higher than I expected. I’ve had regular engagements with Twenty-Threes, and Eights, along with a dragon-like variant around one of the burning areas. I managed to discover the emergence point by tracking a Seventeen back to its point of origin; it was located directly under the north side of the main bridge.] I explained. [Unfortunately, I also encountered a Thirty-Four-C there, which wrecked one of my vehicles before I could deal with it. I recommend extreme caution. These things are extremely resilient, and are capable of both long- and short-ranged combat.]

  I paused for a second, trying to get my thoughts in order. [I’m currently in the tunnels, in pursuit of whatever’s causing the interference. I’ve reached a crossroads, with tunnels heading both east and west. My team has informed me that the Antithesis breached the city from both directions, so if anyone has a way to locate the tunnels please try and find the source. We’ve still got reinforcements attacking us, in addition to the fleeing ECM and command models. I’ll attempt to check back more frequently from now on. Teddy out.]

  The machine whirred for a moment, then flashed a quick confirmation [Message sent.]

  “Great,” I muttered, immediately disconnecting and heading back out into the cave. “I think I’ll save dealing with the fallout of missing everyone’s calls for later.”

  Bob and Deadbeat appeared to have the entrances under control, so I headed right towards Bandit. The fox was scampering back and forth, stopping at the various scraped or discolored spots on the floor.

  “Find anything?” I asked.

  “This thing’s big,” Bandit replied distractedly. “Like… real big.”

  “How big?” I asked, humoring the bot.

  “Its smell is on everything. I must have almost completely filled this area, and I think it might have been the source of all the Twenty-Threes running around,” Bandit replied. “REALLY Big.”

  “Can you tell which direction it went?” I asked.

  Bandit hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “West, but the smell is already fading. I think it was moving fast.”

  “Then we’ll have to move faster,” I declared. “Head into the command vehicle, send a quick summary of your findings to the saved frequencies, then go take over from Bob.”

  When Bandit sprinted off, I immediately connected to the command frequency.

  [Deadbeat, begin to pull back. Put your moose units into the back of the Kodiaks. We’ll have them sit at the back of the formation, with their ramps down, so the moose can act as a rearguard as we follow the other tunnel] I ordered. [Bob get ready to move out as soon as the second group is in position.]

  [Roger!] came Deadbeat’s fuzzy reply.

  I glanced back at the eastern group in surprise. They weren’t that far away, but they were far enough that I shouldn’t have been able to receive a confirmation. If the unknown antithesis had already moved far enough for the ECM’s effect to weaken, even slightly, it really must have been moving.

  Hefting my rifle, I jogged over to join the gathering bears.

  “No time to waste; the hunt is on.”

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