I came back to the line only to find carnage. Half a dozen of my bears were down, with spines embedded in their heads, and the ground was coated with small squid like corpses.

  “Fuck, Deadbeat get those broken bears back to the creation engine.” I pulled up my new rifle and aimed at the Antithesis lines. In the distance I could see Centurion was busy dealing with a pair of Twelves, half a dozen fifteens were pelting our location with their strange projectiles, and the street was absolutely covered in the lower models.

  “What the hell happened in the last five minutes?”

  I opened up with my rifle, methodically taking out the fifteens. I was about half way down the line when I realised some of the Fifteens were different, instead of a gaping mouth they had a cylindrical snout, various frills ran down their backs, and their legs had fins on them.

  As I watched the odd fifteen it spat out something resembling a football. As soon as the projectile connected with the ground it unrolled into one of those tiny squids, which my bears promptly exterminated. I didn’t hesitate after that, blowing away the remaining Fifteens in the line.

  “Let me guess, more O variants?”

  Correct. Fifteens and Nines, probably the Threes too, although their changes are more subtle.

  “There are Nines here?”

  The squids. Their stealth functionality was extremely limited in an underwater environment, so this variant is launched at targets instead.

  “They don’t sound as bad as the stealth models.”

  They eat their way into the target then devour them from the inside out.

  I shuddered. “I stand corrected. How is the evacuation going?”

  Almost done, they’re just loading the last survivors now.

  “Good, things are starting to get hairy.”

  I fired another burst into the Antithesis lines, blowing holes in the writhing mass before me. Lasers scorched the area to my left, bursts of blue-white fog froze the area to my right, but the Antithesis did not let up.

  Halfway through my second clip Hel pulled me into a group call. [We’re ready to go, but there are too many Antithesis to move the buses safely. Options?]

  [I can give the bears heavy machine guns before they board the buses, but I’m not sure that’ll be enough], I reported.

  [And I can wall off some of the roads to slow pursuit], Mirage added.

  [Probably not enough, the super heavy will crush anything coming from the front, and Centurion will do his best to clear the side streets, but the buses are fairly vulnerable from the sides, especially from a horde this size], Bright-Eyes reported. I could hear the concern in her voice, she wasn’t wrong.

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  [Think fast people!], Hel snapped.

  I muted the call for a minute. “Nyx, is there anything else in my catalogs that would help?” I whispered.

  You could place mines ahead of the convoy, but that would only be temporary reprieve. Alternatively, we may be able to collaborate with one of the other Samurai to build something more effective.

  “You could do that? Seriously?”

  It’s an option, unfortunately I don’t think your current catalogs would be sufficient. Give me a second.

  Less than a second later Nyx was back.

  Here’s an option, if you unlock the Class II heavy weapon emplacements Aeonys and I could put together Laser Array Emplacements. They’d need to be set up prior to firing, they’re too large for even Bob to fire on the go, but we could probably mount them in the buses.

  I did some quick math in my head, and frowned. “Fuck, can I afford that?”

  You can when you split the cost with Humboldt. 500 points and a token for the Class II heavy weapon emplacements, 300 points for each laser array.

  “That lets me afford what, one?”

  Correct, and a second by the time the first is mounted.

  “Fine, but I want that blueprint before we’re done here.”

  I unmuted myself, “Humboldt and I can fit turrets based upon her lasers on the buses, that should give them a heavier punch.”

  Hel’s reply was immediate. “Do it, leave your special bears on the line while you’re working.”

  “Got it,” came Sharron’s reply.

  I ran to the nearest bus, jumping the stairs and frightening the passengers with my sudden appearance. The nearest passengers pushed against each other trying to get out of my way. I held up one hand, “Stay calm people, I’m here for your protection after all.” As soon as the panic subsided a little I moved to the midsection of the bus.

  “Nyx, do it.”

  Purchased

  Class II heavy weapon emplacements - 500 points, 1 token

  Heavy Laser Array Emplacement - 300 points

  Custom vehicle mount - 25 points

  Points remaining - 106 points

  The array was huge, five feet long from butt to barrel, the back two feet was a square block a foot per side, then there was something resembling a barrel for about two feet, and finally a plus shaped muzzle on the end. It looked weird, hopefully it was as effective as Humboldt’s version. The mounting connected to the roof and held the gun around the midsection, it reminded me of the guns they mounted in bombers in the really old war movies. Hopefully they would be enough to turn the tide.

  I ran off to the next bus.

  —

  It took about thirty minutes to get all the guns mounted. Unfortunately I lost two more bears while setting everything up, so my boys were going to have to fill in as gunners on the buses while the creation engine rebuilt my troops.

  Centurion performed close in support while the bears backed off to the buses, the Antithesis were just starting to cross our previous defensive lines when the column started off. Since I didn’t have any extra bears to fire from my truck, I decided to take off instead of staying in line. This allowed us to compact down the convoy, and concentrate the defensive firepower.

  As I flew over the front of the column I got to see the super-heavy work for the first time. The main guns never fired, they probably would have been overkill against the Antithesis we were facing.The smaller emplacements were more than capable of getting the job done anyways, putting out a frightening amount of firepower and slaughtering the incoming aliens. A wave of Antithesis tried to swarm the front of the tank, only to to quickly learn the tank’s treads were as dangerous as any of its other weapons. Overall it was super impressive, for non-Samurai tech.

  Behind the tank the APCs and buses raked the approaching Antithesis hordes. Occasionally one or two Antithesis would manage to close in, but it never took long before they were picked off by one of my bears or the other Samurai.

  As we made our way out of the area, and the Antithesis finally started to thin out, I let out a sigh of relief. Two shelters down, one to go.

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