Friday, December 31th, 2047

23:55

My militia buddies and I were on the hill overlooking Esquimalt Lagoon. This time all seven of us. Ellen was here as well, she and Roger had mended fences. We were waiting for the New Year’s fireworks, which should be nicely visible from here.

There were also warnings of a possible emergence. Half the city was on edge, and we had brought our guns just in case. I had brought my four EMP grenades too. Even Ellen was armed, I had lent her my old AR-15 style rifle. She had practiced with the thing enough that she might not be useless in a fight.

Exactly at midnight, the first fireworks missiles went off. Two minutes later, I heard something that did not quite match the sound of the exploding pyrotechnics. Too regular, more like machine guns than like strings of firecrackers. Also, the direction was off. Too far to the north, closer to Hatley Castle than the city center.

I turned to Roger. So did everyone in the group. Roger just said “To the cars, we check out Hatley Castle. But we take the long way via Sooke Road. We don’t want to be cut off in the woods.”

Ten minutes later we parked at the north entrance of Hatley Castle, our two cars positioned to take off across the lawn if necessary. The gunfire had stopped, but the door was open. From the main hall came sounds like someone hammering in giant nails with a sledgehammer.

I went first to take a look into the hall. My heart was racing and I felt jittery with adrenaline as I sneaked up to the door. When I peeked around the door frame, I saw furniture barricades at the top of the stairs and some people guarding them. Several Macks were besieging the barricade at the left side, with a Type Four dismantling a big armoire with its spikes.

I took a step back, put in my ear protection and readied an EMP grenade.

“Elya, when I throw this thing, try to take over the Macks. Highlight the hacking status in my augs. Green for fully controlled, yellow for doubtful cases, red for hostile.”

I stepped far enough into the door that the defenders could see me and motioned to them to cover their ears. Then I lobbed the grenade up the stairs.

BANG.

The beautiful window above the stairs lost part of its glass. It was definitely Collateral Damage Day. The results on the Macks were mixed. Two out of five Type ones turned green, one collapsed, the other two stayed red. The Type Four flickered between yellow and red and jerkily turned around. I lifted my rifle and fired. And scored a lucky hit exactly in the eye of the Four. The eye shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces. A flash of exhilaration went through me.

“Elya, make the controlled ones lie down.”

Perhaps I could save at least one minion before the team obliterated the rest. One made it to the ground intact. The remaining three Ones dropped in a hail of bullets, including my prospective second minion.

When you hit the eye of the Four, I immediately lost connection. The eye seems to be a vital part.

I called up the stairs “What is the situation up there?”

Someone in uniform answered “Two wounded, none critical. We are almost out of ammunition though.”

Roger took command of our team again. “How many people are in the castle?”

“Approximately hundred and twenty. We have barricaded all stairways. A few more Macks are slinking around the grounds, but these are the only ones that tried to storm the place. Who are you anyway?”

“The Goldstream Irregulars.”

While these two were busy, I asked Elya about the status of my new minion.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Still fully under control. The chances that it breaks free again are negligible.

“OK, make it play 100 percent dead. No movement, glowy eye off.”

Meanwhile Roger had committed us to support the local security. “We’ll come up and help defend the place”.

We climbed the stairs and passed through a little gap in the barricade, which our hosts immediately closed again. Inspector Anna Hastings, the commander of the castle’s police force, quickly decided how to use the Irregulars. Ellen joined one of the police officers at the barricades of the main hall. Most of the guys went to guard other staircases.

Alan and I were sent on the battlements as snipers. We were literally hunting whatever Mack showed its eye. It was dark enough that one could easily hide in the shadows, but Macks gave themselves away with their glowing eyes.

Alan had a field day. He was the best shooter in our mini-militia, and his powerful rifle with my ammunition punched through Type Fours at quite a distance. I did not shoot quite as well, but still killed four Ones. Eventually I overheard Inspector Hastings ask Alan “What have you loaded? Penetrating Type Fours at 300 meters?”

“Tungsten alloy armor piercing.”

I could hear her get a little exasperated. “And where do you get that from? Availability on the open market is nil, HANAF buys everything because they are practically out! Inventory is so low they issue these only to elite units anymore.”

“Sorry. The source is quite limited in production volume, I doubt they could supply the amounts HANAF needs.”

Alan did obviously not want to share his source. He was not alone in that. Most manufacturers of armor piercing ammunition had gone out of business (read: their facilities had been overrun by Macks). Armies everywhere jealously guarded their remaining stockpiles. Nobody wanted to share with HANAF. This partly explained why Humanity was doing so poorly against the machines. The armored Macks were really tough and the best ammunition to fight them was in short supply.

Next the Inspector came over to me, and I asked a question that had vexed me for a bit. “Is there no shelter in this place?”

“No. Something about a historical site that should not be altered. City council is quite stubborn about it.”

“What about neighboring buildings?”

“There is one under the Campus reception, about 250 meters on foot. I considered it too risky to walk over there with Macks around, we have some elderly among the guests who are slow on foot. But it seems you cleared the Macks out for the moment, so I’ll organize the guests for the move. One of my officers will fetch you when we are ready.”

Ten minutes later Alan and I each had shot two more Ones, then the signal to move came. We went down to the main hall, where the party guests were already waiting. Two police officers went ahead, with me directly behind them. The rest of the police and militia guarded the flanks. Roger took orders from the police commander without protest, which did not match the story I heard about his departure from the military. But he seemed professional when it was really needed.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Screams from the right flank and people fleeing. I took a quick glimpse and saw Ellen clutching her rifle, panting and aiming at a dead One in front of her. Good girl.

Target eliminated by ally: 1 x Model 1

Reward for providing the weapon… 1 point

Ten nerve-wracking minutes later, the party guests were stowed away in the shelter. We climbed to the roof to keep the machines away from the building a bit longer. Minutes later, a team of Magical Girls came speeding down University Drive in a vehicle that looked like the futuristic version of a dune buggy. I recognized Mantis at the wheel. The metaphorical lights came on. Of course, it was a BUGgy!

Team Battle Bug exited the car and checked the shelter first, then they told us to keep protecting the shelter and went on the offensive. I could tell they had leveled up and refined their teamwork since we last met. They moved with excellent coordination and at a speed that would have exhausted normal humans quickly.

Five minutes later, it was over. The Bugs had cleared the surroundings at record speed. Longhorn recognized me and gave me a friendly wave, then she asked us to stay around until the all-clear signal for defeating the incursion came. Hours later, it came.

Persons saved: 122

Reward… 1 Token, 122 points

You have amassed 734 points now. The Token is for the first time you saved 100 people. Tokens are a currency to unlock higher classes of catalogs.

We were all quite tired at that point, but I still asked Roger for his help in looting some Macks. In the end, we took three without dismantling them first. The eyeless Type Four, the “alive” Type One Elya had hacked for me, and finally the one that had collapsed immediately from the EMP. To be sure it would give no more trouble, I shot the latter one through the eye. Roger had told me about incidents where a Mack presumed dead had regenerated to the point it could attack again.

He complained a bit about the black gunk leaking from the bots, but we found a few newspapers to cover the bed of his truck with. We loaded the Macks up and piled into the truck.

A few minutes later, Roger dropped me and the Macks off at my shelter. With some effort, I dragged the Type Four down into my workshop. The Ones were much lighter. As I carried the last one down the ramp, it dawned outside.