10 Ambushes

Riley and Jenkins walked back to the third nest.

"What are we doing here?" Jenkins asked, clearly uncomfortable to be standing in close proximity to the dead termites. The acrid smell, although having been diluted by the air filter system, still stung their eyes.

"We're picking up termite eggs"

"What for?"

"You'll see. Now help me find the egg chambers. We need the eggs intact, so be careful."

They split up and began tapping the lumps on the walls and floor, looking for empty-sounding spots.

"I've found one!" Jenkins said. Riley walked over. It was indeed an egg chamber. He could see the eggs through the cracks and holes.

Riley pried it open with a crowbar. There were hundreds of eggs inside. Dozens of them had hatched, though the larvae were all dead. Riley gave Jenkins several plastic bags he took from Mako.

"Put the eggs in. Remember, don't break them."

Suppressing their disgust, they picked the intact termite eggs and put them in the bags.

"We're using it as bait, right?" Jenkins asked, finally catching on.

"Correct," Riley replied. When the content of egg had a distinct smell, alerting the termites to a threat. Whichever creature had the smell of the eggs on them would immediately attract hostility from the whole colony. This gave Riley a great way to draw the termites to him.

They walked back to the rest of the team in silence, until Jenkins said.

"Look, man. About what happened back there… I'm really sorry. I don't know what happened to me. I just froze up. I just… don't wanna die, you know?"

"None of us want to die, Jenkins. And there's no reason we had to die here. We've got Mr. Goodman behind our back. Do you think he'd let one of us die on his watch?"

"Uh… I guess not." Jenkins admitted.

"You've been through this plenty of times before. You're still alive, aren't you?" Riley said, wincing as he realized what he said was really insensitive.

"Yeah," Jenkins answered, apparently not offended. "That's 'cause I always ran first, though." He said with a self-deprecating chuckle.

"We're in this together," Riley said. "We're a team. We've got each other's back. None of us will let you die. Do your best to return that courtesy."

Jenkins only nodded and said nothing.

After Riley and Jenkins rejoined the team, they moved to the first ambush site to set up. It was a section of side tunnel that was smaller than the main ones, 3 meters wide and 40 meters long.

The team took up positions, Jenkins and Cheng in front, Riley, and Mako at the back. While the rest checked their equipment, Mako started her drone and flew it towards the termite colony. They had broken a termite egg and smeared the content onto the drone, to make sure it would attract termites.

Riley focused on the map at the center of his HUD. On the green sewer map, a pulsing blue dot - the drone - moved toward the misshapen brown-red splotch representing the colony.

"I have them in sight," Mako announced as the blue dot neared a brown tendril. "I'll move in closer to attract as many of them as possible." She fell into silence. No one spoke to let her concentrate.

Riley continued tracking the blue dot as it moved further into enemy territory. A short while later, it stopped moving, then reversed course.

"They've taken the bait! I'm bringing them back here! No warriors. Only soldiers!" Mako announced.

When the drone was about 500 m away from their position, multiple red dots showed up on Riley's map. Several dozen angry red dots moved erratically, homing on the blue dot. As the termites came into the motion detector's range, their movements were picked up and displayed on the map and on everyone's vision.

The red dots are moving closer. Riley dismissed the map to a corner of his HUD and focused on the tunnel ahead. He could not see the drone yet - it was still a dozen turns away. However, he could see its representation on his augmented vision - a pulsing blue triangle moving at a breakneck speed, along with a number telling him how far away it was.

>>>[Mako's Drone] [360 m]…[340 m]…[320 m]…

Following the drone were dozens of termites, marked with pulsing red triangles. It was impossible to count them, as they overlapped each other. Riley estimated their number to be around forty.

As the drone got closer, Riley began to hear the click-clack of dozens of legs on concrete, along with the familiar hisses and screeches. Everyone visibly tensed up. Riley could hear his heartbeat quickening and his breath became shallower. "You've got this!" He told himself and took several deep breaths.

"Take it easy, guys. We've got this!" Riley said, both to calm his teammates and himself.

[90 m]… [80 m]… [70 m]…

The drone got closer and closer. In just a few seconds, it would show up in the corner just 40 meters ahead, dragging with it a few dozen termites soldiers.

[50 m]… [40m]… There it was!

The drone turned a corner and entered the narrow side tunnel, heading straight towards the team. Seconds later, the termite soldiers followed suit. They pushed and shoved against each other, blindly pursuing the agile enemy.

"Ready!"

The drone began rising higher, just centimeters away from the ceiling to clear their field of fire. The termites either didn't notice or didn't care as they had spotted the team waiting for them. They rushed in even faster. Their screeches echoed in the small tunnel, making Riley's hair stand up.

"Fire!" Riley shouted.

A chorus of gunfire reverberated as muzzle flashes lit up the tunnel. The bullets slammed into the termites at the front, instantly killing them. Heedless of their dead comrades, the one in the back crawled over the bodies and kept charging forward. As the tunnel was straight and narrow, they could not dodge left or right. The termites keep approaching, driven to a frenzy by the smell of broken eggs marking the colony's enemies.

After twenty seconds, the last termite died. The team had wiped them out before they got within 10 meters.

Riley and his team reloaded their weapons. They had only used their sidearms in this ambush to save ammo for the last engagement.

As the smell of multiple dead termites would overwhelm the smell of broken eggs, the ambush site could not be used a second time. The team moved to another place and began their preparation.

"Ready when you are, Mako," Riley said.

Just like that, they drew the termites from the colony's most distant corners to ambush sites. They had mostly stuck to using handguns, although the big guns still had to be used when a warrior or two were involved. Occasionally, a WP or Disruptor grenade was also used when the group the drone managed to attract was too large.

After killing the last termite they ambushed, the team looked for a place to rest.

"That's it for small groups," Riley said before uncapping his water bottle and taking a large swig.

"How many did we got?" Mako said as she inspected her drone for damage.

"Around 500, I think," Said Cheng as he loaded the rounds into a magazine of his rifle " and 5 warriors."

"How are you holding up, Mako?" Riley asked. Mako looked slightly tired, which was understandable. Her job had been the most mentally taxing of the group. Controlling the drone for an extended amount of time was no easy task. Her initially precise control had deteriorated and she had begun making mistakes, misjudging distances and having the drone bump into walls and ceilings a couple of times.

"I'm fine. A few minutes to rest and I'm good to go." Mako looked up from the drone and smiled wearily.

"How's the drone?"

"A little banged up, but nothing serious."

Riley turned to Jenkins, who was sitting a distance away from the rest of the team. He was checking his equipment.

"You doing okay there, Jenkins?" Riley asked as he sat down next to Jenkins.

"Huh?" Jenkins was slightly startled "Yeah. I'm good. Much better now."

"Good. If we're moving too fast for you, speak up." Riley said sincerely. "Don't push yourself. We need everyone at maximum capacity. There's no use if you tried too hard right now and burned yourself out before things got really hot later."

"I understand." Jenkins nodded. Riley handed him several energy bars.

"We'll continue in five. That okay to you?"

"Yeah." Riley stood up and walked back to Mako and Cheng.

"Riley!" Jenkins called out to him. "Thanks a lot for all this. I mean it."

"You're doing fine," Riley replied. "Keep it up and we'll get through this."

"How's he doing?" Cheng asked as Riley sat down next to him. Mako had finished fiddling with her drone. She was chewing on an energy bar while listening in.

"Seems okay," Riley replied, "so far."

"Yeah. I thought he was hopeless when he ran away earlier," Cheng added. "But he's calmed down a lot. And he's a pretty decent shot after he's stopped freaking out."

"He's just overwhelmed," Mako said. "He's not very good at operating on his own, and needs clear directions. And he's not used to going from 0 to 100 in a second, he needs to gradually adjust to the mission."

"Really?" Cheng was surprised. "How do you know that?"

"I was teamed up with him a few months ago." Mako replied " Another bug hunt. In the beginning, he also froze up. Our team leader just shouted at him and told him to not do anything. So he didn't. And then we were overrun, and the leader told him to 'do something'."

"It didn't end well."

"Of course it didn't. He never had a chance to acclimatize himself to the situation. So he panicked and messed up big time. We failed that mission, no surprise. Our supervisor had to bail us out."

"I didn't know what the deal was with him then. I do now." Mako looked at Riley. "You gave him a second chance, handed him one small task at a time while putting him in a position where he couldn't do much damage if he messed up. You're good at this." She said with a smile.

Riley recalled the instructions he gave Jenkins. They all seemed like common sense to him. Shouting at him wouldn't solve anything, and might even affect team morale. Giving him simple tasks served to ease the burden on the rest of the team, and made him feel he was useful. And he was positioned at the front so he wouldn't accidentally shoot someone while panicking. Idiotic or not, Jenkins was still a teammate and Riley had to make sure he contributed to the team. All his previous teams didn't do this?

"Tell me when we're ready. I'll go check my stuff." She stood up and walked back to her spot.