Book 2 - Chapter 37 (rewrite) - Deep Impact

Rewrite of yesterday's chapter. More intense, less ... forced progression. Think it's a huge improvement.

I knew the swarm outside the city was colossal, I’d see the satellite data and I could see the edge of the horde on the horizon, but I didn’t fully comprehend the full scale of the antithesis outside the city until Skyler and I reviewed the drone footage. Most of the scout drones had been picked off by the flocks of Model Ones patrolling over the area, but enough snuck through to give us a view of the situation.

Even after days of samurai harassment, and military bombardment the swarm was vast beyond belief. It took more than ten minutes for the drones to fly from one side of the horde to the other. The antithesis were packed so closely together that I had problems identifying where one model ended, and the next began.

Despite consisting mainly of the lower models, Threes through Sixes, there were plenty of larger models within the swarm.

“How are we supposed to identify the command model when I can barely make out individual models?” I muttered. 

“Maybe we should concentrate on looking at the larger models? Hope that whatever’s controlling everything is big enough to stand out,” Skyler suggested.

“It’s worth a try… but remember the Seventeen? It was smaller than a Model Three, so this thing could also be tiny,” I reminded her. “Let’s just try and flag anything that looks suspicious, clusters of larger models, strange antithesis activity, anything.” 

Skyler’s expression fell. “I forgot about that thing. You’re right, we’ll take it slow, and flag anything unusual. Maybe Athy and Arty can identify the command unit if we narrow things down for them.”

“Come on, let’s sit in the truck while we search. We should be able to concentrate better without any outside distractions. I’ll leave the twins on patrol, to warn us if the antithesis try to approach our position.”

“Good idea.” 

We slowly swept the surveillance footage over the next two hours, a slow, and ultimately fruitless process. I wasn’t expecting to find the commander right away, some samurai had been searching for more than a day at this point, but I nearly missed some Model Twelves in the sea of bodies. The shapes and colors just blended together making it easy to overlook things.

“There’s just too many,” I moaned as I deactivated my augs and rubbed my eyes. “They’re all bleeding together.”

“They’re like Zebras or something,” Skyler agreed as she stretched out her arms. “A herd camouflage effect that makes it hard to concentrate on just a single target.”

“I have no idea if it’s intentional, or if it’s just because they all have similar brown and green coloring,” I grumbled. “Actually, considering the fact that they’ve developed both Nines and Twenty Ones, it’s probably intentional. Small changes that make it harder to target single models when they flood into an area. This is going to take forever.”

{Arty: There’s an incoming message from The Family, you two might want to see this.}

“What? Are they sending reinforcements?” Skyler asked.

{Athy: Not exactly… patching you into the feed now.}

[Attention Vancouver. This is Mjolnir, I’ve just finished adjusting my station’s orbit and I’m bringing the weapons online. I’ll be dropping a kinetic strike down on your little problem in… seven minutes. Normally I’d suggest you clear at least a ten kilometer radius from the center of the swarm, but I doubt that’ll be an issue considering the extent of your pest problem. Ground your air traffic, and buckle down, this is going to be a doozie.]

“What the fuck was that about?” I asked. 

{Arty: According to The Family’s public database Mjolnir built one of the Family’s kinetic orbital strike platforms. Considering the situation, I can only assume these platforms have been bouncing between different cities, trying to keep the antithesis under control.}

“Why did it take them a full week to deploy one here? Why so long?” Skyler grumbled.

{Athy: Only one in five megacities are walled in. Despite having such a large number of antithesis outside the city, it is actually very well defended compared to other locations. Calgary, for example, only had about a tenth as many PMCs as the surrounding cities, and Montreal had no walls whatsoever.}

“So, we were a low priority, got it,” Skyler pouted. When I glanced over at her she shrugged. “Just because I understand the reasoning doesn’t mean I like it.”

“Are we going to be safe here?” I asked. 

{Arty: You are well out of range of the primary blast, but we wouldn’t recommend trying to move. The blast wave has the ability to throw your truck like a leaf in a hurricane.}

“Why the fuck didn’t they give us more of a warning, seven minutes is barely enough time to get people to cover,” I hissed.

{Athy: If the platform isn’t in geostationary orbit the firing window can be fairly tight. Mjolnir is probably bouncing between cities, firing as soon as the window appears and continuing on to the next target. The city walls will shelter most of the civilians from the blast, it’s only people outside that will have to deal with the fallout.}

“People like us,” Skyler muttered.

[This is Mjolnir. Strike incoming, hold onto your butts.]

Skyler and I stared out of the windshield expectantly. I expected a missile, or bomb or something, what we got was something entirely different. A streak of light pierced the clouds, striking the middle of the horde. The ground shook violently, like an earthquake, and huge plumes of dust and smoke were thrown into the air, obscuring our view of the antithesis.

Things went quiet for just a moment, then the blastwave hit. I honestly thought our truck was going to get flipped, or thrown into the city walls several hundred meters away with how much it shook. Debris slammed against the windshield, rocks the size of my head battered the reinforced glass but thankfully it didn’t break. Finally, everything went quiet.

“Fuck me…” I whispered as I steady myself with shaking hands. 

The air was completely clear, even the clouds had been pushed away by the blast, leaving a deep unnerving silence. I couldn’t see the antithesis on the horizon anymore, how many of them could survive a blast like that?

[Payload delivered, leaving the cleanup to the folks on the ground. Good luck down there.]

“And just like that he’s fucking gone,” Skyler muttered. “I really want to see what happened over there, but I doubt any of my scout drones survived.”

“Oh shit, I forgot to call the twins back,” I exclaimed. “They were still outside when that thing… whatever it was, went off. It’s a good thing you packed your drones away.”

“You think they’re still operational?” Skyler asked.

“Only one way to find out,” I grumbled. Flipping over to my augs I sent a quick ping to the drones. Both sent back replies, but they were pretty messed up. The first drone’s propulsion system was heavily damaged, and it was immobile, while the second one had half of its blades ripped off when it was thrown into a tree. It was actually impressive that either one survived, considering that blastwave. 

“Both are heavily damaged, but I think one’s operational enough to investigate the blast zone,” I reported.

“Then send it! I really want to see how much damage that thing actually did!” Skyler exclaimed excitedly.

I nodded, then shared the feed with Skyler as I prodded the drone towards the impact zone. Things didn’t look too bad at first, the immediate area was a little disheveled from the blastwave, but mostly intact. It was only once the drone started floating over the outer perimeter of where the swarm used to be that we started to see some serious damage. 

Mangled remains, ripped apart and thrown about. Despite the entire area being covered with antithesis remains, there were far fewer bodies than I expected, they were packed so tightly I couldn’t make them apart earlier, there should have been mounds of dead. I did catch sight of a couple antithesis, scrambling about, but they quickly disappeared heading deeper into the impact zone.

The drone slowly followed them to ground zero, where there was a massive crater. Nearly a hundred meters wide, and several meters deep. There was a large metal rod, several inches wide, embedded deep into the middle of the devastated area.

“The hell is that?” I muttered.

{Athy: Iridium rod. Fired from orbit at near the speed of light. It creates nearly as much damage as atomic bomb on impact, but without any of the messy radioactive fallout.}

“Seriously? Mjolnir just fired a chunk of metal from orbit, and it did all this?” I muttered.

{Arty: Kinetic energy is a hell of a thing.}

Skyler suddenly sat up, and grabbed my hand. “Turn the drone, back towards the west! I saw something!”

“What? Alright…” 

Turning the drone I just caught the briefest glimpse of a Model Three as it disappeared behind into a shadow on the edge of the crater. I directed the drone to follow, and only caught the tail of the monster as it slipped down a very wide hole.

“Is that a tunnel? Were the antithesis digging underneath themselves the entire time?” Skyler wondered quietly.

“I hope not… because despite that being an impressive blast, there’s a lot less dead here than I would have expected. If there’s still antithesis loose under ground, we’re going to have problems.”