"Listen greenie, true bravery isn't Seargant 'Badass', who stands looking at an antithesis horde in a hero pose. Its not Corporeal 'Competant', who executes a daring op meticulously planned by command and comes out unscathed. Its Private 'Pissed-His-Pants', who when we were being stalked through the ruins of baltimore with no ammo and escorting civvies, picked up a fucking rebar and charged them when they cornered us.

  ".. Did he survive?"

  "Physically? no. But in the ways that matter he's gods damned immortal."

  — Conversation between a new recruit and his squadmate, Ushapti Corp PMC

  “Plan?” Quinn shot at Elliot as the last few soldiers started to move into position.

  “While your shotgun doesn’t have the same spread they do in holovids and games, you’ll probably want to face the entrance as best as possible to avoid collateral damage. Maybe go stand right behind the barricade in that center point there” He gestured at a spot in the middle, between the two APCs, where a pair of soldiers were manning a set up gun turret.

  Quinn gave him a confused look “There are soldiers there already.”

  “You’re a Sam now Quinn” he replied with an amused tone “You’re more important to be positioned well. They’ll move for you.”

  She approached the two soldiers with some trepidation. They turned round as they heard Cassie’s heavy footsteps.

  “Mind if I take this spot? I think its the best place for me to set up.” She asked with a little hesitation.

  The two soldiers started to pack up and move before they even responded “Of course Ma’am”. She watched them scurry to set up the machine gun again a little further down, before taking her place in their spot, main gun trained on the entrance of the compound.

  “One minute.” came the voice over comms. Quinn realized she didn't know where Elliot was. He'd given her a suggestion but not mentioned where he was going, though he probably knew what he was doing, she hoped.

  “45 seconds.” Her lips were dry, she licked them, then felt around for the canteen and took a swig.

  “Within visual range. 30 seconds”.

  She wiped her sweaty palms on her pants, before grabbing the controls again. She could see a cloud rapidly approaching, Model-1s were the carnivorous bird like ones, right?

  “10 seconds.”

  She adjusted the aim of the main gun, fidgeting the reticle to where she thought might be the best place to aim.

  “5 seconds. Weapons hot”

  The flak guns on the shoulder opened up on the airbourne targets, as did a number of soldiers wielding various flavors of machine gun. Small figures dropped out of the swarm like rain.

  “Contact! North Side!”

  A throng of rushing forms turned the corner of the compound entrance. The cacophony of gunfire truly started then, the different tones of varying calibers creating a harmony of death.

  Quinn added her big gun to the noise, swivelling her aim to fire into the largest groups visible, heedless of any individual. While only a tier 0, her automatic shotgun was perfect for scything through a field of walking wheat.

  The model-1s were closer now, and a few of the mercs on the ground had to switch targets to keep the airspace compatible with human life.

  The antithesis continued to pour in, and casings continued to hit the ground. She heard the guns fall silent to her sides briefly, before starting up again just as loudly. Time lost all meaning, there was only the focus on pointing and shooting.

  “Hey, Miss Sam, your flak cannons are out”

  “Miss Samurai?”

  “HEY DUMBASS”

  She jerked her head to the head to the side, where a short red haired, extremely pale PMC soldier was waving just inside her field of vision.

  “Your fucking flaks are out, buy some more ammo and stand still, we’ll reload you. Buy some for the big gun too.”

  Quinn realized she didn’t hear the flak guns going. “Shit, Irys, two more reloads of each?”

  New Purchase: Raging Tsunami Drum Magazine- x2

  Points reduced to... 874

  New Purchase: Automated Flak Turret Ammo Box - x4

  Points reduced to… 862

  She nervously watched as the tide continued to flow in, but they were holding for now. A few model-1s were getting past the gunfire, but not in enough numbers to overwhelm any soldiers.

  “Irys, why didn’t you tell me I needed a method to reload?” Quinn questioned.

  “I determined the likelihood of it leading to your death was low, as opposed to the benefit of realizing yourself would gain.”

  It… made sense, even though it did feel like being babied a little.

  “Oh, and your raging tsunami is spent.”

  “Shit” Quinn responded, before calling out to her acquired helper “Main gun is out, can you get it?”

  “Can do, hold still” the soldier responded, before she popped back up in Quinn’s vision, disconnecting the old drum from the weapon and reaching to grab a new one.

  Quinn spent the time trying to keep track of the killing field in front of her. With Cassie no longer contributing, the antithesis seemed to be slowly gaining ground, and she mentally urged her newest companion to reload her quick. Unfortunately, that’s about when the model-6 rounded the corner.

  Immediately, the heavier guns switched their focus to the bigger threat, but it powered on towards the lines.

  “Samurai, I need that Model-6 down.” Lieutenant Briggs’ voice sounded clearly over the comms, with an edge of concern.

  “Shit, I’m still reloading!” Quinn yelled back.

  The walking tank picked up speed as its six legs scrabbled to push it forward under the pressure of fire. Quinn glanced down at her gun, her helper currently feeding the belt into the mechanism, it wasn't going to be quick enough.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Something in the world, something indescribable but barely perceptible shifted, and suddenly the model-6 was falling over, straining under its own weight to crawl forward. Other models nearby also collapsed and were quickly cut down, while model-1s plummeted out of the sky, breaking on the ground as they landed hard.

  “I can only hold it for a few more seconds” Elliot's voice rang out over comms.

  Quinn glanced down, the soldier was pulling the bolt back and stepping away “Clear! Resume fire!”

  She unleashed the raging tsunami, blasting the model-6 as it slowly staggered to its feet, until it finally fell and didn't try to rise again. Moments later the anomalous effect ended, and the models still alive in the area sprang to their feet and resumed their kamikaze rush.

  The corpses were beginning to stack up at the entrance, requiring newly incoming models to climb a hill before entering, but also providing them cover for longer. A few enterprising model-4s had clearly managed to scale the walls, as one pounced down on some unfortunate PMC soldier, crushing him. More began following, and some soldiers had to turn from the main entrance to shoot down the new threat.

  There was a loud thump, followed by a wet gurgle from next to her. Expletives were thrown.

  She noticed a small form rocket over the walls and crash down within her field of vision. As it landed, she caught a glimpse of what looked like a lithe model three with oversized back legs. It immediately started to tense its legs for another powerful leap before it was cut down, but there were yet more landing.

  “Unknown models breaching killbox, some sort of jumpy fuckers”

  Roger that, all units fall back to secondary point, explosives detonation in 5.. 4.. 3..”

  Quinn turned and pushed Cassie forwards, and moments later a deep whump of a large cluster of shaped charges went off behind her. Soldiers ran past while occasionally firing behind them as they sprinted for the large vehicle passable entrance to the basement of the main building, turning as they passed a set of apartment buildings.

  She spotted her erstwhile helper a short distance in front, running with her gun barrel pointed to the sky with one hand on the gun itself. As the ramp down to the basement came into sight, a green, fleshy wheel impacted the ground a little in front of her. Something within it snapped, and uncoiled like a spring, and multiple soldiers, including her assistant were suddenly collapsing in a pool of blood.

  “Model-15!” Came a panicked cry from her right.

  “Fuck!” the Lieutenant's voice, the expletive somewhat foreign, came over the connection. “Takimura, Ruthers, We need that 15 dead or the basement will just be a death trap.”

  Quinn just stared at the body of the soldier for a moment. She hadn't even known her name. Fuck, she needed to do this didn't she.

  “On it” she yelled, before turning back around and firing the tsunami at some of the antithesis catching up. “Irys, what the hell does a 15 look like and where is it.”

  “Like a grasshopper the size of a car, and likely 60 meters into the swarm north west, behind that grocery store, by the trajectory of the projectiles.”

  There was… a lot of antithesis in that direction.

  Elliot, if he could pin them down like he had before “Elliot, can you do the gravity thing again.” She continued to take shots at any antithesis getting too close, while PMC members laid down covering fire.

  “Yes, where, and how strong.”

  “Where I'm facing, and enough to keep them from swarming me.” she replied. Another of those wheels like projectiles came hurtling though and landed to her right, causing a scream from behind her.

  There was another shift, and the antithesis in front of her were suddenly struggling to walk forward rather than rushing. She entered the zone and could feel Cassie’s internals struggling under the increased weight, but it wasn’t enough to stop her. She pushed Cassie to the limits, dodging the larger models and crushing some under the mechs feet, as she ‘sprinted’ forward.

  She rounded the corner of the Foods store, the flak cannons blasting any model 3 and 4s that got close. She spotted a pair of larger models, one the chunky six legged model-6 like she remembered, and another that looked similar but with a pair of tucked in wings and a long, angular face.

  “Is the winged one the 15?” Quinn questioned.

  “Yes.”

  She pushed towards the large pair, but the model-6 noticed and moved to intercept. She blasted it with shotgun round after shotgun round as it came at her, bringing it down just moments before the two would have collided physically.

  Sidestepping the corpse at speed caused an alarming screech somewhere in Cassie’s internals, but she pointed the raging tsunami at the model-15, which was now staring in her direction and pulled the trigger.

  Blam, Blam, Blam, Click, Click, Click.

  The model-15 was still standing, though it was leaking sap and clearly injured. It spat one of those wheels at her, which exploded and peppered the surface of the mech, but didn’t seem to penetrate.

  “FUCK.” Quinn swore, desperation and fear leaking into her voice “I need something the mech can use in one hand to cave its face in that the hands can grip”

  “Done.”

  New Purchase: Customized Armor Breaker Oversized Combat Axe

  Points reduced to… 1130

  A vicious looking axe dropped into Cassie’s free hand, with divots in the bulky handle for the tines of the hand to fit into. She gripped the axe, and rushed at the model-15 as it glared at her.

  She felt impacts as smaller models jumped at Cassie’s sides, and something in one of the legs snapped as she lunged at the larger threat. She swung, and the axe embedded itself in its hide.

  “Quinn, you are currently being swarmed, and the flak guns are about to run out of ammo.”

  “I Know!” She yelled, and ripped the axe out, only to smash it back into the model-15 twice more before it stopped moving. A model 4 latched onto her front and began attempting to probe the internals with long tentacles, and she smashed the gun hand against it with a crack that boded poorly for its continued function. She swung the axe in a wide arc, attempting to cleave through as many of the swarm that was now surrounding her, flailing the other arm to try to pick off models crawling over her. There was an electrical sounding zap, and the arm with the axe fell limp; another zap and Cassie was falling to one knee. She yelled into the comms.

  “Model-15 is dead but I’m trapped. I think I need help.”

  Elliot responded near instantly, a rare tinge of fear in his voice “Stay alive, I’m coming.”

  She desperately thought back to the disparate media of samurai she’d consumed over the years. Turrets or drones would just get ripped apart. But Wait!

  “Irys, there are weird chemicals and bombs right? I want a chemical bomb that hurts them but not me, and a C-foam type thing. Set them to appear and detonate one after the other right above me.”

  “An interesting idea, Darling. To be clear, this will likely render Cassie unoperational”

  “Just do it!”

  New Purchase: Esoteric Single-Use Explosive Devices Catalog

  Points reduced to… 1250

  New Purchase: Esoteric Antithesis Enzyme

  Points reduced to… 1240

  New Purchase: Esoteric Foam Adhesive Bomb

  Points reduced to… 1230

  “You may want to look down and hold your breath.”

  There was a thunk, followed by a deluge of chemically smelling liquid that sloshed into her hair and clothes. Moments later a white foam expanded over her vision, and everything went dark, but there didn’t seem to be any immediate danger.

  “I’m safe for now I think, but Cassie is disabled.”

  “I’m still coming, they’re thinning out, hold tight for just a bit.” Elliot responded.

  It was a tense few minutes, listening to the sounds of gunfire and scrabbling limbs somewhere nearby, while sitting there drenched in the barely lit cockpit. Quinn began to nervously hum to herself and think about what she was going to do the next time she got to play Star Union, trying to keep the anxiety of being trapped at bay.

  Eventually the sounds of gunfire started to peter out, and her brain let her relax just a little. She was starting to lose track of time when Elliot’s voice shocked her out of her wandering thoughts.

  “Hey, are you in the giant glob of foam?”

  She nodded, then realised he couldn’t exactly see her doing that “Yes, I am. I sealed myself in to prevent any of the little ones getting to me.”

  He laughed, tone returning to his usual easygoing style “That will do it, Damn you did a number on the big fucker. Let me see about getting you out.”

  “You can purchase a solution to dissolve the foam for a few points!”. Somehow Hylios’ incorrigible pep lifted Quinn’s spirits.

  “Give it to me.” Elliot replied.

  “Sorry it took so long, another 6 showed up and without you around I had to get a solution to it.”

  “Oh, what did you get?”

  “Fuck off 5 shot revolver, you should hear the damn thing when it fires, its.. weiierd, but damn if it didn't go straight through the big guy like nothing.”

  Quinn pondered this “Why a revolver and not like.. a magazine fed thing.”

  She could start to hear Elliots voice from outside as he replied. “Something about the bullets being unable to be too close together without destabilizing, so the revolver chambers keep them far enough apart.” he chuckled “Don't worry, I'm not going all cowboy on you.”

  A few gaps of light had started to poke into the chassis, and she could hear the sound of a spray can hissing.

  “Okay Irys, I think can we disengage the nanites holding the cover on?”

  “Of course, darling.”

  The slightly purple sealing around the edges dissolved away into powder, and there was a grunt of effort before Elliots form appeared, heaving the heavy pair of shields off of the main body and dropping them with a clang to the floor.

  He stuck out a hand for her, and she took it and allowed him to pull her out of the cockpit. She took in his slightly dirtied, smiling face and butterflies fluttered in her chest.

  “Welcome Back!”