The Expandables - A Post - Apocalypse Cyberpunk Adventure

The swarm acted together like a shapeless, multi-limbed beast, its tendrils rearing to surround and assault its preys from multiple directions.

The team responded in kind. They constantly kept on the move to avoid being surrounded and positioned themselves in such a way that the bulk of enemy forces are kept beyond narrow tunnels and other choke points. Here, they plugged a tunnel to stem the flow of termites. There, they trapped and decisively killed off a large group that are packed together in a small area.

Gradually, the preys began to dominate the beast. When it tried to flank, they moved. When it advanced, they retreated. When it showed weakness, they pressed their advantage. One by one, piece by piece, they destroyed the beast's limbs. Step by step they got closer to the beast's heart - the termite king's nest.

"Cheng, whenever you've got a clear shot, take it!" Riley shouted. Mako, Jenkins and he were pressing their assault to give Cheng a clear line of sight to the king's nest.

"Got it!" Cheng replied. His rifle cut short the suicide dive of an alate then clicked empty. He reloaded it then switched to the grenade launcher - loaded with 6 WP rounds.

They rounded the corner and the cylindrical junction was straight ahead of them, about 40m away, packed to the brim with the termites. Standing between them and their destination were about a hundred soldiers. The insects hissed angrily, but did not press forward.

"Fire in the hole!" Cheng lifted the grenade launcher, aimed and fired four shots. The grenades sailed past the termites and entered the junction, scattering within the large chamber.

The moment the grenades exploded and turned the junction into a cooking pot, the team had retreated back beyond the corner. While killing the termites running away from the scalding chemicals, they observed the map. Within the junction, movements became slower and more sluggish. Eventually, from a few hundreds, the mob had been reduced to several dozens.

The team advanced and mopped up the survivors. The ground was almost completely covered by termite bodies.

Eventually, they set foot inside the junction. Compared to the narrow tunnels they had traversed in the last few hours, the place was gigantic, 20 meter in diameter and 20 meters tall. It was almost completely covered in brown secretions. There were large lumps all over the walls. In the center of the junction was a gigantic mound at least five meters high.

"There's movement inside that mound," Riley noted.

"I'm not gonna dig in there to find the king. I say we pop in a grenade in there," Cheng suggested.

"I agree," Mako said.

"Alright. Do you wanna do it, or do I?" Riley asked.

"I'll do it. You guys stay back." Cheng said with a grin.

He unclipped a HE grenade from his vest, pull the pin and chucked it into one of the holes on the mound. He ran and joined the rest of the team at a bend a good thirty meters away.

A muffled blast shook the tunnel, shaking loose some of the caked brown substance on the wall around them. Wet splashes could be heard as fragments of the mound hit nearby surfaces.

When things were quiet again, they re-entered the chamber. The mound was gone, exposing a massive broken body. It was mostly dead, only the slightly twitching legs gave away its feeble cling to life.

"Is that… the king?"

Riley lift Cheng's revolver and blasted the king's head open.

With a cheerful sound, Riley's HUD told him that their mission was completed.

>>> Primary Objective updated - Nests remaining: 0/4

>>> Primary Objective Completed!

>>> Return for briefing or complete secondary objectives for more rewards.

"That's it?" Cheng asked, "We're done?"

"I thought there would be more of them," Mako commented, "We estimated there to be two thousand left. There should be like, 1500 more."

"Well, that was the worst case scenario. Apparently it isn't as bad as we thought," Riley replied. He was exhausted, but his mind refused to lower its guard. He checked the map once again. Red dots were to the north of the teams, at the fringe of the motion detector's range. They seemed to be fleeing now that the king was dead.

Then his breath was caught in his throat as another red dot materialized...

… right in the middle of the group.

"Ambush! Scatter!" Riley yelled. Dashing away from the mound, he whirled around and aimed his rifle up.

*splash* *WHAM!*

A brown chunk landed, followed by a giant insectoid creature. Its tail shot out, striking Cheng on the neck. The big man instantly collapsed.

"Cheng!" Riley yelled. Squeezing the trigger, he sent rounds after rounds at the writhing brown mass. "Crack crack crack" his rifle went, but the thing seemed unfazed. The tail curled then lashed at him. Jumping sideways, Riley dodged as the blow grazed his shoulder. Backing out of its range, he kept shooting.

Soon he was joined by Mako and Jenkins. Hissing more out of anger than pain, the creature scurried off into the north tunnel.

"What the f.u.c.k was that?" Jenkins asked.

"It looks like… some sort of scorpion!" Mako said, her voice trembling. "I'm looking it up now."

"Cheng, are you alright?" Riley asked.

No response.

Riley rushed to Cheng's side. His heart sank when he saw his friend's face. It was frozen in a painful grimace. His eyes darted about frantically, but he couldn't speak. A round hole was on his neck. It didn't bleed, but was swelling quickly. Kneeling down, Riley discovered Cheng's whole body was stiff, his limbs locked in place.

"Mako, come here!" Riley barked. Mako plopped down next to him, checking Cheng's wound.

"He's been hit with a paralytic nerve agent," Mako said as she opened her pack and took out an injector. Loading a small glass cannister into it, she continued "I'm gonna give him an atropine injection to ease the paralysis. Otherwise he will suffocate. The next shot will be a general antidote for the toxin, ..."

"Just do it!" Riley was only half paying attention to her word. His mind was racing. This made no sense! This thing had been staying on the ceiling in ambush even before they launched that WP grenade. It willingly endured the grenade just to get the drop on them. And it was acting by itself. What the hell?

He clutched Cheng's hand and looked into his friend's eyes. He berated himself for leading everyone into an ambush. If something happens to Cheng…

The injection took effect almost instantly. Cheng began taking short, gasping breaths, his jaw opening and closing. His arms loosened and his body relaxed. Mako loaded another cannister and give him another injection.

"Take it easy, man. You'll be alright." Riley assured him.

Cheng kept opening and closing his jaw as if trying to say something, but no world came out. His eyes darted from Riley to Mako.

"Guys!" It was Jenkins who understood "We're surrounded!"

Startled, Riley looked around. Red rectangles filled his vision, and more materialized when the termites came into the 500m range. Checking his map, he felt blood draining from his face when red dots lit up every direction around them.

There really were 2000 termites left at the base. Earlier, when the team were thinning down their forces, the majority of the 2000 termites had kept out of the motion detector's range to get behind and surround them. Now they are squarely in the middle of the trap.

"How are they still doing this? Isn't the king dead? This is ridiculous?" Riley wanted to ask, but realized the answers did not matter. The one that did was "How can we get out of here?"

"We gotta move! Now!" Riley commanded. With four open tunnels and a dozen drainage pipes, they wouldn't last ten minutes if they stayed in this junction.

Mako checked the map and dropped a waypoint.

"We go southwest! Tunnels are narrower. Easier to defend." She snapped, scrambling medical supplies back into her bag. Then she grabbed Cheng's rifle. With him out of commission, she would need his gun to fend off the swarm.

"Alright. C'mon!" Riley propped Cheng up, "Jenkins, help me lift him up! Mako, prep the foam grenades, we're plugging our exit."

Cheng was maneuvered onto Riley's shoulder in a fireman's carry. Grunting under his friend's 80 kg weight plus gear, Riley began trudging toward the south tunnel, the same way they had approached the nest.

After they had cleared the exit, Mako threw two grenades at the tunnel opening. With two muffled "bang," each grenade released a large chunk of rapid-hardening foam that initially resembled a giant, gray marshmallow. In a blink of an eye, the foam adhered to the floor and wall and expanded to cover the tunnel opening almost completely. After a few minutes, it would harden. The material had the hardness comparable to concrete but was far more brittle. Nevertheless, it would buy them some time.

Gritting his teeth, Riley focused fully on navigating the uneven ground, trusting Mako to direct their retreat.

They headed toward the minefield they had set up earlier at the straight tunnel section 150 meters south of the nest.

At a relatively level stretch of tunnel, Riley chanced a look at the map. The circle made out of swirling red dots around his team was shrinking. Occasionally, several termites would rush in and harass them. Fortunately Mako and Jenkins's firepower were enough to fend them off.

Twenty meters and three turns away from the minefield, they stopped. Any closer and the blast waves would injure them as well.

Riley looked at the map. The red circle keep tightening, the southern edge began overlapping the marker he had set on the minefield. He had hoped that they wouldn't have to use explosives to avoid collateral damage. Right now, he didn't care. He wanted nothing more than getting everyone out alive.

"Whenever you're ready, Mako!" Riley said, his legs shaking from exertion. He leaned his back on the wall to ease the weight on his shoulder. Cheng g.r.o.a.n.e.d something that sounded like "sorry." Riley just shook his head and muttered just enough for him to hear: "What are you sorry about, man? I'm the one dragging you into this mess. I'm sorry."

"Got it!" Mako replied, eyes fixating on the map, "Detonating in three… two… one… Now!" she pressed on her smart-pad.

Riley felt it at first. The tunnel shook under his feet when eight mines exploded consecutively. They had laid the mines along the tunnel in a pattern that allowed the blast waves to do the most damage. After a few seconds, a blast of hot air washed over them.

On the map, the part of the red circle overlapping the minefield had faded. The number of termites there had been thinned out considerably. It was their chance to punch through the encirclement.

At the same time, the rest of the circle seemed to be closing in faster.

"Let's move!" Mako shouted.

Adjusting his grip on Cheng, Riley strained and began moving as fast as he could. Mako took point while Jenkins covered their back.

Upon entering the minefield, they saw that most of the termites were already killed or heavily injured. Mako and Jenkins swept through the survivors, while Riley helped out with the revolver.

As they walked pass a warrior that had been torn in two, a blade swung up, catching Mako on her leg.