Even though I managed to knock the Thirty-Seven off balance and kill off its entourage with that initial barrage, the massive mastermind recovered far quicker than I expected.
Before the coilguns could cool down from their first shots, a pair of Fourteens threw themselves between the monster and our battle lines. The bulky armoured centipedes couldn’t survive even a single blow from the anti-tank weapons, but they didn’t need to survive. As powerful as the coilguns were, they couldn’t punch through those fleshy walls to get at their target, and the rotary laser cannons were completely useless against that bulk. Even worse, the Thirty-Seven seemed to be all too aware of this weakness, because the Fourteens streamed into the area, creating a fleshy wall to cover it all the way to the nearest exit.
“Motherfucker! I can’t get a clear shot on it,” I shouted over the surrounding noise. “Not unless someone can remove those Fourteens from the line of fire.”
“Hmmm… perhaps, give me a moment,” Bern replied as he fiddled with a couple dials on his weapon, a massive thing that looked like a combination of bug sprayer and flamethrower, which was connected to several large tanks mounted on his back. “Everyone stand clear, this is some pretty potent stuff!”
Stepping up to the front line, he lowered his oversized weapon and unleashed a torrent of chemicals over the horde. His weapon cut through the smaller models like an extremely high-powered pressure washer, while the chemicals just melted absolutely everything it connected with.
I watched in awe as a good part of the horde just melted away, becoming little more than a thick slurry in the middle of the cavern.
“Why didn’t you use that against the Thirty-Seven?” I asked blankly.
“I did. That monster is extremely defensive, and even though my acids were able to slowly eat through the outer shell, they were neutralized by something in its blood. I tried half a dozen different mixes, and it managed to shrug off most of them,” Bern replied calmly.
“It shrugged off that?!?!” I hissed, pointing at the rapidly liquifying wall of Fourteens.
“It also shrugged off your cannons, Charlotte’s rifle, and Nora’s blows. That thing is unbelievably tanky,” he grunted, before slowly tilting his head to the side. “It’s also speeding up somehow.”
“What?” I blurted, head snapping upwards.
It was true, even though the rapidly melting Fourteens were starting to expose the Thirty-Seven to fire again, the mastermind was somehow making good on its escape. It probably wouldn’t be able to outrun us at that pace, but the mass of Antithesis protecting it would definitely make it difficult.
I wanted to order the bears to immediately push through the surrounding aliens and pursue, but I hesitated.
“That shit you’ve been spraying everywhere isn’t going to melt my bears, or me, is it?” I asked suspiciously.
“The acid is designed to neutralize itself after being exposed to the air for thirty seconds, so civilians don’t get hurt wandering through my battle zones after the Antithesis are taken care of,” Bern explained. “It’ll be safe to cross once it turns white.”
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“That’s great, because I prefer to keep my flesh on my own bones,” I grumbled.
I bounced in place, eyes locked on the fleeing alien brain, as I waited for the acid to clear. “I don’t suppose anyone has an idea on how to actually kill that thing, do you?”
“I never expected it to be that tanky,” Nora muttered. “We managed to crack its shell a couple times, but I don’t think we managed to do any serious damage the entire time we were pounding on it. It might actually be harder to kill than that fucking Fourty-Three we faced a couple months ago.”
“It wasn’t sitting alone in this room because it made a tactical error,” Charlotte declared. “It probably knew we wouldn’t be able to kill it before its backup arrived. It used itself as bait.”
“So… how do we kill it then? Nuke?” Amy quipped.
I couldn’t help but notice how Charlotte glanced over at Bern. “The Family dislikes using both nuclear and biological weapons and will only authorize them as a very last-ditch effort. Although the Thirty-Seven is a problem, I don’t think we need to resort to something that serious yet.”
“Honestly? It’s not that scary on its own. It’s not even that scary when it’s controlling a massive horde. Teddy’s forces can easily counter anything weaker than an army of Twenty-Threes. As long as we keep pressure on it, we’ll be able to wear down its escorts. As long as we take care of the hive producing its backup, it’ll be easy pickings. Assuming we find something that can punch through that bunker-like shell.”
“That’s not going to be easy. It’d probably take an artillery piece to get through that shell,” Amy muttered.
I froze for a moment, then slowly turned towards everyone else. “I’ve got one of those.”
“I’m sure that you do, but Amy was just alluding to the fact that we need a really big gun. I don’t think a traditional artillery piece will even be able to scratch that thing,” Charlotte grumbled.
“I know that,” I snapped. “I don’t actually have an artillery piece, although maybe I should invest in a couple in case of future invasions. What I meant is I have an anti-everything cannon.”
Charlotte turned and looked at me suspiciously. “If you had a weapon like that, why haven’t you dragged it out before now? You could have used it against the horde or against the super heavies a couple of months ago.”
“Because I don’t trust myself with it,” I admitted. “I kind of salvaged it in Seattle. It puts holes in Twenty-Threes, through other Twenty-Threes…”
“I don’t see how that’s a problem with that,” Amy quipped in the middle of my explanation.
“... after already punching through several apartment blocks,” I finished. “I may have caused a little bit of collateral damage when firing it.”
“Oh right, the UHR,” Angeline chirped. “I forgot about that thing.”
“I didn’t want to risk punching a hole in one of the city supports, or, you know, the city plates, with a stray shot,” I explained.
“Come on, don’t exaggerate. It couldn’t be that powerful… could it?” Amy said.
“It has to be anchored to the ground, and it still slides back several feet every time it’s fired. I had to load it with time-delayed ammunition to prevent it from punching through the city,” I replied coolly. “It’s that powerful.”
“Well, that certainly sounds like that’d do the trick,” Bern said. “Just one problem, it’s not here. I don’t suppose you could just order another one up?”
“Unfortunately not. Like I said, I salvaged it from a fellow samurai who fell to a mutant Antithesis, I don’t have the proper catalogs for it,” I replied with a shrug. “I can, however, get the bears back at the Shelter to pack it up and bring it over. If we can find some other way to deal with the Thirty-Seven before it arrives, great, but if not, all we need to do is drive it in the right direction.”
“Speaking of which… The Thirty-Seven is getting pretty close to the exit. We should probably get after it,” Angeline exclaimed.
I turned back towards the room and saw that she was right. The Thirty-Seven was crawling closer and closer to the exit. Not only that, but the other Antithesis were starting to cross the acidic slurry in the middle of the room without instantly dissolving themselves. The bears now had to open fire occasionally to keep the horde back.
“Looks like planning time is over,” Charlotte declared. “Since we don’t have any better ideas, we’ll go with Eveyln’s cannon for now. If anyone comes up with a better idea before it arrives, let us know immediately. Even though the Thirty-Seven isn’t that dangerous itself, it’s an impressive planner. The longer it runs loose, the more time it has to try and counter us. Let’s not give it a chance, if possible.”
She hefted her massive rifle and started walking towards the oncoming horde. “Break’s over, back to work.”
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