Waves of salt water and gnashing teeth surged against Belport and the rest of the Atlantic coast.
TINA saw it all.
She watched the assault through millions of drone lenses. She hijacked information from Daedelus's spy planes as well as military jets and government satellites.
Heavy drones buzzed the coast, their guns targeting sectors with the highest enemy densities and weakest superheroes. There were far too many Deep Ones for her to defeat on her own, but she could thin their numbers.
At first, choosing her targets had been easy, but TINA had underestimated the sheer numbers of their enemy. She'd already lost a non-negligible number of drones to mages and monstrosities, and her ammo reserves would be depleted within the hour.
But TINA couldn't afford to be disappointed in herself. She couldn't spare the bandwidth.
The Deep Ones' previous attacks on the surface world were on a scale that humanity had never before experienced. They dwarfed even the fronts of the two World Wars. It was hoped that using nuclear strikes on the enclaves would destroy the bulk of the Deep Ones' forces.
But the current battle was on another scale entirely.
The discrepancy in the sizes of the attacks made two things clear:
The Deep One's first assaults were just tests of humanity's capabilities. They'd kept the bulk of their forces in reserve. Possibly even spread out across the sea floor, buried and in hibernation.
And second, that this was the death throes of a dying species. Just like earlier when a mage was killed and the surrounding fish-men swarmed indiscriminately, now their entire species had been whipped into a fury.
There was talk in official channels about using nuclear weapons along the coast. Far too many desperate voices and far too few pleas for restraint. Nuclear strikes along the coast would kill supers and military soldiers, and the fallout would cause immeasurable deaths from disease and famine all across the world.
Equally troubling was that that Atlantic flood zone was swelling—rising higher and pushing inland. So much water had been displaced that water levels in the Pacific had fallen five feet.
Not enough was known about the powers the Deep Ones had, so no one knew what would happen to sea levels in the aftermath. With the enclaves destroyed, the bulk of the magic should've faded. Clearly, that wasn't the case.
Permanent reality warping and permanent magic were much rarer than their counterparts. All simulations pointed to water levels returning to normal after the Deep Ones were eradicated. When the species died, their magic would die with them.
The thought filled TINA with several emotions, the most overwhelming of which was sorrow.
QUERY FOR LATER: What is the likelihood of the Deep Ones race surviving the war?
QUERY FOR LATER: What is the estimated minimum viable population of the Deep Ones?
QUERY FOR LATER: Was there ever any hope for peace?
The weight of current events bore down on TINA. With her processing power stretched to the absolute limits, she almost zoned out and let her unconscious processes take over. Like a runner in the midst of a high, their brain so flooded with endorphins that they were euphoric, even as their body was near collapse.
TINA almost started working on her queries, but stopped herself. She didn't have the time. She didn't have the bandwidth.
...And none of it mattered.
ČTEŠ
Mod Superhero
Sci-fiFor this cyborg, power is just an upgrade away. Emmett was used to being caught between college and his engineering internship, but when he gets caught between a powerful hero and an even stronger villain, he becomes collateral damage. Instead of d...
