Teddy Bears on Brigade [A SCS Fanfiction]

Book 6 - Chapter 28 - Diggin

“What are you doing?!?” I heard Wild screech as I approached one of the dig sites.

“Diggin,” one of the beavers replied in a bored tone.

“But why? What’s going on?” Wild asked.

“Dunno. We were told to dig, so we’re diggin,” it replied.

“What? Hey, wait, come back here… aaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhh!” Wild screamed.

I knew how focused the beavers could get when they were working on a project; they’d never be able to give Wild a satisfying answer to her questions. I had no idea how long she’d been interrogating the crew, but I could tell she was approaching the end of her rope.

I immediately broke into a jog. I really needed to get in there and explain the situation to her before something happened.

I’d missed the start of the excavation because I’d been busy reviewing and clearing the command network’s message queue. Even though Dusty and Bandit had probably informed me of the most important changes in the Antithesis’ behaviour, I wanted to be sure.

It actually hadn’t taken me that long, thanks to the fact that I could sort through it all at the speed of thought and all the messages were organized by both priority and source. I’m sure if I had tried to perform the same job using a terminal, it would have taken me several days to go through everything, instead of the several minutes it had taken using the cerebral interface.

Most of the messages were pretty basic, either after-battle reports or casualty reports from the various squads positioned along the wall, but there were a couple useful notifications sprinkled through the queue. The most notable thing, besides the slow withdrawal of Twenty-Eights, Twenty-Threes, and Fourteens, was the marked decrease in the number of flyers attempting to assault the Ursas around the perimeter.

They’d gone from regularly harassing my assault craft to completely ignoring them about an hour ago. That was slightly concerning and definitely something I’d have to investigate once we’d finished investigating this tunnel situation.

When I stepped through the main gate to town, Wild’s head snapped towards me. “Teddy! You need to stop your bots from ripping up the street!” she exclaimed.

“I know, it’s under my orders,” I explained.

“Under your orders?” Wild’s voice raised an octave. “I thought you were here to protect our town, not destroy it!”

“Alright, calm down now,” I said, holding up my hands. “I know this looks bad, but I have a really good reason for ordering the beavers to dig here.”

“You’d better,” Wild grumbled, “because I don’t want to have to go to the residents later and explain that they’ve lost their livelihoods because one of my samurai companions needed to salvage the raw materials from the homes.”

“First of all, you know you don’t have to tell those people that yourself, right? The Family could send out attaches to do it for you,” I said.

“Maybe,” she sniffed, “but this town isn’t that large. Mud and I are the only samurai here, and I feel responsible whenever damage happens. I’d rather explain to the people myself.”

“Right… I guess I can understand that,” I muttered. “The good news is, I never planned to just knock these buildings down unless absolutely necessary. The beavers performed structural analysis of the surrounding buildings, reinforced any that might have been at risk of being affected by the vibrations, and are only digging through the street. It shouldn’t affect any of the surrounding buildings, and even if it does, I planned to order the beavers to repair any damage before I left.”

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Wild looked at me suspiciously. “Alright, that sounds fair. It doesn’t explain why you felt the need to excavate a massive hole in the middle of town.”

“It’s not a hole, it’s a tunnel,” I explained, “and they’re digging it because Dusty, Bandit, and I suspect the Antithesis may be trying to stealthily dig some tunnels under the battlefield.”

“Shouldn’t your foxes be able to detect that?” she asked. “I thought they could detect the vibrations created by digging and could detect tunnels through some sort of subterranean sixth sense.”

“It’s more like ground-penetrating radar,” I said. “At least that’s what Bandit said when he tried to explain it to me one day. I didn’t really get it though and zoned out halfway through his explanation.”

“My point is,” Wild said, interrupting my tangent, “shouldn’t your Foxes be able to detect that? What do you mean, suspect?”

“Oh, that. Well, last year I wandered into a super hive the Antithesis had dug into the rocky mountains and discovered that some Model Fourteens are capable of excreting a polymer-like substance, and when they coat their tunnels in it, it both stabilizes them and makes them much harder to detect without specialized gear,” I explained. “In addition to that, we suspect that the Antithesis might be trying to dig by dissolving the rock using an acidic slurry instead of physical force, like usual.”

Wild cocked her head to the side. “What gave you that idea?”

“The fact that both the Twenty-Eights and Fourteens disappeared off the battlefield at the same time, and that Bandit has been detecting traces of new acids and dissolved minerals wafting over from the hive for the last little while,” I explained.

“That sounds like pretty flimsy evidence,” Wild grumbled.

“It is,” I admitted. “And honestly, if I hadn’t encountered the Antithesis polymer before, I wouldn’t have thought twice about the situation, but considering both models disappeared at the same time, I think it’s worth having an exploratory dig under the battlefield. Just in case. It’s way better to intercept the Antithesis out there, under no man’s land, than let them create a superhighway under our defenses.”

“Well, yeah, that goes without saying,” Wild mumbled. “Still, that doesn’t explain why you’re using those oversized garbage trucks of yours to dig up the streets.”

“Oh, those are my salvage rigs. They have molecular disassemblers on them, which break down matter and collect it in the tanks in the back. Despite being set up for defensive operations, I don’t have any bots or equipment dedicated to digging trenches and embankments. The salvage trucks were the closest I could think of,” I explained. “I probably should get some dedicated digging bots and equipment, considering how often the Antithesis like to create tunnels, but the trucks seem to be doing a decent enough job right now.”

Wild shook her head. “I know about the salvage rigs. I saw when you deployed them earlier, that’s not what I’m confused about.”

“Then what? The beavers? They’re my engineering crew,” I said.

“Not that either!” Wild snapped. “What I’m confused about is why you’re digging up the streets!”

“Oh! That’s because, based upon Bandit’s estimations, the Antithesis must be fairly deep, and in order to get down to that depth, we’d need quite a ramp. If we started digging further out, like between the town wall and the Bear-acades, there was a good chance that we’d overshoot the tunnels and end up connecting to the tunnels behind the Antithesis sapping teams,” I said. “Although that has some advantages—I assume it would make taking care of whatever’s tunnelling easier—it also comes with a series of issues. That polymer is insanely tough and hard to dig through. It can also have model Nines buried in it. I’d rather just head that entire thing off, seal it behind some bear-acades, and deal with it later.”

“Yeah, but, couldn’t you just have dug down from the outside the wall, perpendicular to the suspected Antithesis tunnels, then branched out in the right direction when you reached the right depth?” Wild asked.

Both I and the Beavers paused. “Theoretically…” I said. “I may, uh, not have thought of that. I was kind of distracted by the thought that the Antithesis might be trying to sneak in earlier.”

Wild sighed. “Well, what’s done is done. Just try to keep the damage to a minimum, and make sure you clear up the damage once you're done. I don’t want civilians falling down there once they return.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be thorough,” I promised. “Once I’m done, you’ll never be able to tell there was a hole here.”

“If you say so,” she muttered. “I’m going to go talk to Mud. If there are Antithesis down there, it’s probably better that we investigate together. Especially if it’s all the strongest models. I’ll be back soon.”

I watched her go, casually waving good-bye, until she disappeared around a corner, then I immediately grabbed the nearest beaver. “You guys CAN repair all this damage when we’re done, right?”

It raised an eyebrow. “We integrate and repair Class II systems all day. Compared to that, patching some pipes and repaving a road is child’s play.”

“Good to know,” I muttered, letting the beaver go. “Carry on.”

As it wandered off to rejoin the digging team, I turned back towards the direction that Wild went. “I have a feeling I don’t want to let Wild down. That girl seems pretty scary when she’s angry.”