Chapter Thirty - When the Trees Start Speaking Plant

Chapter Thirty - When the Trees Start Speaking Plant

Chapter Thirty - When the Trees Start Speaking Plant

Were not eco-terrorists. That word leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Terrorism is the unlawful use of force to coerce action.

We dont submit to the laws of men, but rather to the laws of Earth itself. We can hardly be labelled as villains for wanting to protect our own world!

You too, can help our crusade for a cleaner, greener world, by buying our exclusive Mother Earth NFTs!

--Eco-friends website, 2025

***

Spare the fucking trees, I muttered as I hovered over the forest. The convoy was just about to slip into it, and it wasnt going to be pretty.

Thick, older woods, with only the road splitting it apart. We had maybe a kilometre and a bit of woodland to pass through, some of it pretty thin in places, but a few chunks were pretty thick. It looked like the fields before and after the treeline didnt line up. Maybe this area was some missed spot on a bureaucrat's map of the region, left alone so that it could grow peacefully.

Didnt matter.

I didnt need to clear out the forest of aliens. That was too much of an ask. All I had to do was stop the little fuckers from hitting the convoy.

And Grasshopper added to the fucking challenge by asking that I not hurt the nice trees. For fucks sake.

Resonators might do it. Place enough of them down along the main path and it would melt the aliens. I could ask Myalis to tune them so they didnt melt the greenery too. Resonators werent fast-acting though, they took a good dozen seconds to start liquifying an antithesis, and it had to be relatively close to the grenade for it to work.

Good area denial, shit at alpha-damage.

It was going to be like using one of those sound-guns on a crowd to disperse it.

Oh, thats an idea, I said.

Something came to mind?

Myalis, is there a kind of... tear-gas bomb?

Yes. Up to and including some which have been outlawed by international treaty!

Anything like that which works on the Antithesis. I dont need them dead, I need them to fuck off away from the convoy.

I think I see your reasoning. Yes, there are some gaseous chemicals that can irritate and ward off antithesis. Unfortunately their impact is greatly diminished when used in open areas. Laying some down along the convoys route is possible, but the amount of gas necessary to secure the path would be prohibitive. There is currently a strong wind blowing opposite the direction the convoy is travelling in. I have another solution that works on a similar idea.

She nodded. I think the convoy will slow down a little.

That seems counter-intuitive, I said.

Sometimes, things are like that, Grasshopper said. Did you ever do arts and crafts?

What?

Making pretty things from paper and cardboard, and even wood and fun things like sprinkles and glue.

I shook my head. No, sorry. I never really went to, uh, a proper school. Kinda missed out on all of that. Im guessing youre going to make a point thats tangentially related to arts and crafts now?

Its too bad you never went to school, Grasshopper said. I think you would have been a very good student. You seem very smart. Anyway, when doing arts and crafts, if you try to go too fast, youll make lots of little mistakes that going slowly will help you avoid. Art takes time. Its an important lesson.

And whats that got to do with slowing the convoy down? I asked as I glanced out ahead, we were entering the forest already. I could see the aliens in the woods. If we slow down any more, were going to have a hard time with the xenos.

Only a little. If were slower, they will have an easier time reaching the area where they perceive the greatest threat to be. That will, of course, be right in front where were walking.

Grasshoppers mask folds back so that I can see her entire face. Shes... a rather plain looking thirty-something woman, with clever brown eyes and a few freckles on her cheeks.

She grinned. Come on, lets kill them up close and personal. Its good cardio.

I shook my head as Grasshoppers mask closed back up and she ran off the front of the mobile base, leaping into the air and disappearing over the edge. Insane, I muttered. The convoy started to slow down and I noticed the antithesis on the sidelines starting to rush in.

Myalis, that BEES thing. Now would probably be a good time to deploy those.

Understood.

I was expecting a little grenade, but instead Myalis had a large canister appear next to me. It was about the size of one of those three-gallon water bottles like those used above water coolers, but all stainless and with a big plastic-like cylinder filled with glowing motes.

Unleashing the B.E.E.S.

The top popped off and a swarm of buzzing machines flitted out of the top. They left yellow streams through the air as they passed and spread out below.

Neat, I said as they rushed down the front of the convoy. They were already lining up towards the nearest antithesis. I pulled my Bullcat off my back and pumped it for good measure as I started walking to the front of the mobile base.

I couldnt just leave Grasshopper alone down there.

***