“How fug expansive is this tunnel system,” I mumbled. I was currently sitting on a deissioned pieining equipment, reviewing the area the squirrels had mapped so far. I had ordered them to go wide to try and find out if there were any other nearby tunrahey were about ten kilometers out in both dires, and still going. s yet, but plenty of pces where it wouldn’t be hard for them to bust through. “If I’m going to get through this I’ll more squirrels. Truck loads more.”

  While I was iigating, a small group of is slowly made their way across the yard, spurred on by each other. I forced them to stop mining the polymer and to leave the mine, so the entire group had been just milling around for a couple of minutes now. “Ummm… Miss Samurai, you please let us know when we go back to work? The longer we’re off the job, the more we owe the pany. A couple of us are getting close to paying off our tracts and we 't afford to stop,” the leader, a sy man just out of his teens, said. The other two, probably just as skinny as the leader, huddled behind the man.

  “You don’t,” I said with a sigh. “I’ve already asked my AI to audit Global’s payroll, and prevent them from screwing you over. I ’t promise they’ll treat you fairly after I leave, but I protect you while I’m here.”

  “Really?” One of the followers asked, a girl whose face ractically bck with dirt. I couldn’t help but wonder if that’s how Sharron looked while she was here. “Yeah, promise,” I replied quietly. “Just stay away from the mirance for now, got it?”The entire group nodded emphatically, before running back to their friends.

  If you wanted, I could pletely bankrupt Global Rare-earth and Industrial Mining Corp, or null all their i tracts right now.

  “If the pany wasn’t keeping this eown afloat, I’d probably take you up on that offer. Unfortunately, the st thing I need is to try ahis lot, and fuck over absolutely everyone else. Just keep the pany ho for now, I’ll think about how to help these people while we’re here,” I replied. “If I send the truck back to pick up supplies, will it be back before nightfall? I kind of need a secure pce for the night.”

  It’ll arrive after dark, but not super te. You could call for one of the bear's infantry fighting vehicles instead. It would have a smaller cargo capacity, but be faster.

  I bit my lip, and thought about it for a moment. “The ideal solution would be aruck, but I barely have two hundred points left after Bob’s upgrade, so I guess I’ll have to make do with an IFV. I’ll have to set it up to make regur supply runs in order to get enough squirrels up here to map this petime this tury.” With a quick thought, I set the gears in motion bae, pag another squad of bears and as many squirrels as possible into an IFV. Assuming there were no issues, it wouldn’t take long for them to arrive.

  “Now, tell me about this… polymer? Where the hell did it e from?”

  It’s excreted by the Model Fourteens when they’re overfed. It provides both a way to shore up the tunnels and to hide from surveilnce.

  “Fuck me… they o overfeed those big, segmented bugs? Wouldn’t they need a lot of biomass to coat all those tunnels like that? Like a LOT lot?”

  Yes, it would require several hundred metris of material.

  “Shouldn’t we be able to detect that much damage from the air? Or, you know, space?” I asked.

  You would be correct if they used material from the surface.

  “Instead of what? Last I checked, most ‘non-surface materials’ weren’t anic,” I said with a frown.

  You would be correct. Most of Earth’s subterranean biosphere is posed of rock. When a hive does not have access to an easy source of biomass, it’ll start produg its own. It’s slower than mass-harvesting, but safer. It’s meant to be a stop gap measure until the hive locate more mass, but some models have been known to use that method to hide their presence.

  I let that digest for a moment. “If they had this source of biomass and didn’t want to reveal themselves, then why the fuck did they hit Jasper? They should have stayed hidden or overwhelmed the town with a full tide. Hit and ru make sense.”

  That I ot tell you. It does not maty of the Antithesis’ established patterns.

  “Wonderful. Smart enough to hide, stupid enough to attack a town.” I sighed. “Let me know the instant you e up with a reasoheory.”

  Will do.

  I received a ping from one of the squirrels, so I stood up and brushed off my pants before pulling up the visual feed. The squirrel iion seemed to be sitting in a hollow space, filled with gnarled roots. At first ghey appeared to be regur tree roots, but they were thicker than normal, and in a number of pces around the perimeter, the roots were noticeably broken, or chewed off.

  “Fuck me, didn’t expect to find something so quickly,” I mumbled.

  Unfortunately, I do not see any sign of a core root structure beyond these fuel roots. Typically, these are pnted near quite advanced hives in order to keep the more advanced models fed evehe surface biomass begins to dry up. This appears to be more of an isoted garden.

  “To… provide susteo the Fourteens?” I asked suspiciously.

  Most likely. It’s odd that the antithesis haven’t stripped it bare, or at least harvested it retly.

  “I don’t like any of this,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “When the new squirrels arrive, we’ll have them start from there.”

  Just before I disected, the squirrel was wrenched violently to the side. For just a moment, it caught sight of a Model Three, before the creature surged forward and cmped its jaws upo’s head.

  “Fuck!” I yelled as the feedback from the severed e hit me. It took me a moment to shake it off before I started running towards the mirance. “Bob! Gather a squad together; we have firmed sightings about ten minutes out!” I yelled. The big bear just nodded, and cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

  “You lot!” I screamed at the various is that were sitting around the yard. “Quickly move out to my truck! Do NOT leave the area. Stay he bears out there.”

  There was a moment of silehen everyone scrambled towards the gate. To their credit, they didn’t seem to be panig and formed retively lines while filing outside of the gate. I had half the bears outside carefully help people into the trailer, while the other half fixed a set of ser projectors to what remained of the gate.

  Ihe tunrance, Deadbeat and Heavy were busy attag another set of emitters to the wall, preparing for the iable wave. As soon as they were done, I took a position behind one of the nearby furnaces before recalling the squirrels. If the Antithesis were ing, I wao know from where and how many. Miicked by as the squirrels got into position, ahere were no further Antithesis sightings. The Antithesis should have had more than enough time to flood the mine, but they didn’t.

  “I don’t like this,” I mumbled, redireg the squirrels back towards the hollow. There was some sign of movement, but not of the Antithesis. I put my back against the furnad sat down, so I could trate on the leading squirrel’s signal. As it came running into the hollow, I had to double check that it was the right pce. The Antithesis was gone, but so were the roots. Ihan half an hour, they’d pletely ed the entire root system and vanished.

  “Did that fug thiroy my bot in order to buy time to destroy the evidence?” I asked in shock.

  The Antithesis and models have been known to use quite advaactics, and maneuvers. It should be no surprise that there’s at least one running around, sidering the tactics used in Jasper. The fact that it’s still hiding and gathering biomass, instead of going on the offensive, is ing.

  “No shit. If it’s going to py around, I’m going to drastically increase the number of reinforts I’m bringing in. Fuck pying games with pnts, I’m going hunting.”