11 Entrapment (1/2)

Friday, August 13, 2257. 15:05

After Mako had rested, Riley had the team regroup and prepare for the next phase, trapping a portion of the termites' forces.

"Let's name these gates A to F," Mako said, as labels popped up on everyone's map, marking the six sewer gates closing off a section of the sewer.

"I'll close off A, B, C, and E first. Then the drone will lure them in through D gate, and get out through F gate. Then we close both gates, and they're trapped. Easy peasy." She concluded with a grin.

"Seems straightforward," Cheng commented.

"It'll be very taxing on you. Can you do it?" Riley asked. Baiting several hundred termites at the same time was much more difficult than baiting a few dozens like before.

"Relax, I'm good." She shrugged. "Let's begin, shall we?"

Mako hooked up Riley's smart-pad with a maintenance panel and closed off four gates. She then handed it back to Riley.

"You'll know when to close the last two." She said, and Riley nodded.

She powered up the drone and the group, once again, began watching as it approached the colony.

Riley watched through the drone's 360-degree video feed. The gray concrete gradually became covered by brown slime, and after a while, he spotted termites busily moving around.

"We're 300 meters in. Some of them have noticed." Mako announced.

The drone moved further into the colony's territory. Riley watched as more and more termites began gathering behind it, pushing against each other. Their shrieks were gradually building in intensity, and Riley adjusted the volume on the audio feed.

Ahead of the drone, some termites became aware of the intruder and began jumping up to catch it. Mako deftly maneuvered the drone to dodge the creatures' snapping jaws.

"You've got about… 200 chasing you." Cheng commented. Mako didn't reply, her lips pressed in a thin line as she stared at her own video feed while her hands manipulated the smart-pad.

"Should I get to the center? See what it looks like?" Suddenly she spoke up. Riley checked the map. She was only about 200 meters away from the nest's original reported location.

"Negative! You've got enough of their attention. Get back to the trap." Riley shot down the suggestion. It would be a good idea to scout out the colony's main force, but they didn't want the whole swarm to come rushing at them just yet.

"Right! Heading back." Said Mako, as the drone turned around. "Holy sh*t that's a lot of bugs!" She blurted out as she took in the sight of the swarm that had been following her.

"There must be at least 500. You're doing great! " Cheng encouraged her "Be careful on the way back!"

"Alright!"

Riley continued adjusting his viewpoint from the drone, counting the number of warriors. Suddenly, he caught sight of a blurry shape quickly approaching from a side tunnel on the right.

"Mako! Dive!" He snapped. The view shifted as the drone dove down. A heavy "crunch" sounded as something collided with the wall on the left.

"What the hell is that?" Cheng asked. Riley stared, as the thing fell down, picked itself up, spread its wings, and took to the air in pursuit.

"It's… a flying variant!" Riley said in disbelief.

"What? Seriously? Sh*t" Mako cursed. She couldn't afford to check as she was fully focused on the path ahead.

"Two of them behind you!" Cheng warned.

Riley's face paled as he spotted three flying termites approaching from the drone's front, cutting off the planned retreat path.

"Don't turn right, it's a dead end!"

"I know! I got this!" Mako snapped. The drone few high, just centimeters from the ceiling.

The flying termites from the front approached at dizzying speed. The closest one opened its jaw wide.

A split second before impact, the drone dove down, then left, then right, narrowly threading through the gaps between the trio of termites.

Then something crashed into it, sending it flying sideways. The camera rotated chaotically, making the feed such a nausea-inducing blur that Riley had to close his eyes.

Before anyone could say anything, the screen when dark. The drone had been destroyed.

The group was silent, as they took in what had just transpired.

"So, there are also flying variants." After a while, Riley spoke up.

"Yeah, I'm comparing them to the database," Mako said. "It's called 'flying variant Alate-2'. Usually, this variant doesn't hang out with the non-fliers. Strange."

"Wait, why are you guys still discussing this? Shouldn't we pack up and go home?" Cheng interjected.

"Just calm down, Cheng. Let's think this through." Riley said with an assuaging tone.

"What? You mean we're still doing this?" Cheng said, incredulous. "Am I the only one who saw several flying termites decimating the drone just now?"

"You're not, big boy," Mako said as she watched the drone's captured footage. "These guys seem to be around 2 weeks old. Not that strong, and not that fast either. They're not any faster than the non-flyers, in fact."

"What's your point?" Cheng asked.

"We're faster than them." She was right. From Riley's observations, the termites' running speed is slightly lower than theirs. In short distance races, everyone on the team could outrun them.

"So?"

"We can use ourselves as bait instead of the drone." Riley finished her thought.

"I don't believe this!" Cheng threw his hands in the air. "Before we started this thing, you guys said I'm reckless. Now, look at you, volunteering yourselves as termite baits!"

They began arguing for several minutes. Jenkins, like before, said nothing.

"Fine! If you don't like it, you can sit this one out!" Mako said decisively, crossing her arms. "Riley, Jenkins and I can do the baiting!"

"You guys… " Cheng wanted to protest, but no words came out.

He turned to Jenkins and asked: "You're up for this, Jenkins?" The mousy guy looked terrified but still nodded.

"Alright… " Cheng said with a defeated sigh. His large frame hunched over in defeat. "I'll do it. Mako should stay behind and monitor the gates."

"I don't need to!" Mako protested. "I can do the running plus closing the gates just fine."

Cheng looked over at Riley, his eyes pleading.

"Cheng's got a point. You've been straining yourself a lot," Riley said to Mako. 'The timing for closing the gates must be just right. If you're too tired, you might slip up and make a mistake. It's best that you stay behind and focus only on that."

"Fine!" Mako conceded. Cheng nodded at Riley gratefully.

"Good. Let's see how we should do this."

"I think the basic part of the plan is the same" Mako said as the group looked at the map "Each of you guys draw them through one gate, then get out through another gate. After enough of them have got inside, I close all the gates."

No one objected. Using the drone made it easy and quick to pull a few hundred termites at the same time (save for the mishap with the flying variants, which they had not anticipated). With themselves as bait, however, they could not do it the same way. They would have to simultaneously pull three groups of termites into the trap using three different paths.

The team worked out who would head to which area to attract termites, then which path they would retreat through, and which gate they would use. Riley would be heading the deepest into the colony, attract the enemies, then retreat to gate A. Cheng's gate was B and Jenkins' was C.

"Try your best to be back through your gates at the same time, then make your way to gate D, E or F," Mako concluded. "Any question?"

"Dude, are you kidding me with that schoolboy act?" Cheng chuckled when he saw Jenkins holding up his hand. "Just ask her!"

"Which of us will carry the motion detector?" Jenkins asked.

"Good question," Cheng nodded, "I think Riley should carry it. He'll be heading in the deepest."

Riley thought for a moment and shook his head. "That won't be necessary. I don't need a motion detector to tell where the bugs are. My eyes and ears would be enough. I say let Mako keep it. She needs to know when the best time to close the gates is. Having the motion detector will help with that."

They worked out further details of the plan, then headed to the staging area, an out-of-the-way tunnel that was close to the trap, to ensure the whole trap was in the range of the motion detector. There, Mako connected her smart-pad to the maintenance panel and opened the gates she had closed earlier.

Meanwhile, Riley began sorting through his equipment to see which he should leave behind. He would need to move quickly, so he only carried his rifle, Cheng's revolver, his baton, some ammunition and several grenades which he strapped on the front of his protective vest. He put the rest of his equipment into his backpack and put it next to Mako. Cheng and Jenkins did the same.

"Riley, can I talk to you for a sec?" Cheng said to Riley in a low voice.

They walked away from Mako and Jenkins. When the other two are out of earshot, Cheng asked: "You sure about this, Riley?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said if it got too hot, we'd call it quits, right? And it sure as hell looks like we're in over our heads now!" Cheng said, crossing his arms.

"Look, Cheng…" Riley opened his mouth, but he hesitated. He wanted to persuade his friend that this was an acceptable level of risk, but he couldn't. The team was vastly outnumbered from the start. They managed to chip away a big chunk of the termites' forces, but there were still a ton of them left if the footage from the drone was anything to go by. They would be lucky to not run out of ammo before killing all the bugs. On top of that, they didn't know what other surprises were waiting for them. He understood the risk was too big and so did Cheng, so he knew better than to try and bullshit him.

So Riley leveled with Cheng. He told Cheng how badly he needed to start making real money and why. Cheng listened intently, his expression shifting from disbelief to anger to sympathy.

"I know, objectively, rationally, that we should go back," Riley said with a heavy sigh "I know we should wait for another two months, and try this again with a real, proper H ranked mission, not this bullshit. But I can't afford to wait for another two months, man."

Cheng was silent for a long while. He shifted on his feet, his brows furrowing, his fingers tapping on his arm.

"I understand," eventually he sighed "I still don't like it, but I'll do my best." He started walking back to the team, but stopped and turn back to Riley and said: "I believe you know better than to put anyone in danger."