Mod Superhero

Chapter 4.6 - Venture 8 / Clara 8

Venture stared at the wall monitors in his bunker living room. Video feeds scrolled along the corners while graphs and incoming data scrolled across the top. Meanwhile, maps of Atlantic coastlines dominated the rest of the screens.

Last night, a tidal wave had struck coastal cities all along the Eastern coasts of the Americas and the Western coasts of Europe and Africa.

This morning, the Deep Ones simultaneously attacked hundreds of cities up and down those same coasts. Belport was one such city. While Arsenal, Mod, and the others were fighting off one horde in Belport, similar battles were playing out across the globe.

Venture and TINA were trying to find a pattern.

There had to be one.

Despite the alienness of the Deep Ones and their hive-mind, they weren't behaving randomly, and humankind had already gained several valuable insights:

First, like all psychics, the hive-mind's influence decreased the farther away its armies were.

Second, of the four known types of Deep Ones, only mages acted as hive-mind conduits, as links in the chain of communication. While the armies were attacking, the creatures relied on the mages to bridge the distance between the army and the underwater hubs.

Third, killing the mage destroys the chain of communication.

Fourth, any Deep Ones cut off from the hive-mind default to instinctual programming. Soldiers swarm the largest or most attention grabbing targets. Shock Troopers hunt isolated or seemingly weak targets. Monstrosities become enraged and cause destruction in the immediate area.

One of the most basic goals of warfare was to disrupt an enemy's lines of communication. That held true whether your opponent was an army, a hive-mind, or a single super.

In this war, however, there was one caveat.

In every battle, the Deep One's attacks were methodical and measured. In some cities, they had the numbers to overwhelm the Summit's forces, and yet, the Deep ones were content with drawing out engagements—sending their forces out in trickles instead of a single massive wave.

Except when the mages were eliminated. As soon as that happened, the entire force entered the fight.

There were 732 battles accounted for along the coasts of the Atlantic. Some major cities had as many as five separate battles.

In 49 engagements, Summit capes successfully eliminated the mages, causing the entire enemy force to swarm. In roughly ⅔ of those, a Class 4 or 5 super had to be called in to rescue allies and eliminate the Deep Ones. In the other ⅓ of engagements, the capes and the battlefield were overrun.

There was talk amongst the brass about whether to target the mages at all. Some argued that they should be avoided until a Class 4 or 5 super could arrive on scene. But unless the battle went on for days, that simply wasn't feasible; there weren't that many Class 4 and 5 supers in the world, especially not when travel was factored in.

Venture was certain that the Deep Ones were drawing out battles to test them—gathering data the same way that the Summit was. The longer the fights went on, the more the Deep Ones learned about humanity's forces. But that likely wasn't their only purpose.

Just as mages served as relays from the underwater hubs to the invasion forces, they also sent information back to the hub. Any human cities that provided too much resistance or any power supers were no doubt being remembered by the hive-mind.

"There is another possibility," TINA said.

"What?" Venture asked, coming out of his stupor.

"When the Deep Ones overwhelm our forces, a powerful super is sent to turn the tide. By staggering their attacks, they avoid calling attention to themselves. They can whittle down the Summit's forces or prepare for another series of tidal waves."