Saturday, September 12th, 2048

I was back in my shelter in Colwood, Victoria, having brought the original Battlecat with me. I wanted to show it to the people at SHOCKS so they could examine the steel critter for themselves. But that had to wait until Monday. Even SHOCKS took the weekend off unless there was a current crisis.

A new set of armor, “Shiv” rail gun and ammunition was taking form in the fabricator. There was no sense in always carrying that stuff around, if I could simply have a set at both locations.

Just as I was about to treat myself to some genuine vegetables that did not come from a food synthesizer, Elya informed me of an emergence warning. On the security forces network I saw that there was no action in the neighborhood, but five Type 21s had teleported to the western side of Langton Lake and were unloading their cargo of smaller Macks. Which were advancing westwards through Goldmont where most of my militia buddies lived. I guessed they could use some support.

I quickly used some duct tape to mark my Battlecat with a big red VC for “Vanguard Command” on both sides. So far I had mostly gotten away with inventing my own military unit and passing myself off as commander. Some people at SHOCKS knew but went along with the joke. The rest of the military had not caught on yet.

While my fabricator made the rest of the ammunition, I loaded the Battlecat and two Spectracopters into my van. On second thought, I launched one right away to recon my route to Goldmont, to avoid unexpected contact with Macks.

I took the once scenic route west of the old Humpback reservoir to avoid direct contact with the Macks. These days, the woods in that area were mostly cleared and replaced by big tower blocks full of cheap apartments, the latter full of poor and unemployed people. Sadly, the economy of Victoria had not kept up with the influx of refugees when Vancouver fell to the Macks, and many of them survived only on the emergency rations from Sanctuary.

But today I was more concerned about killing Macks. As I entered Goldmont, the video stream from my Spectracopter showed that the Macks were already entering the grounds of Willway Elementary. That place really could not catch a break. I was promptly flagged down by two guys in camo who were carrying rifles. When they saw my Battlecat they did a double take, but I managed to convince them that it was friendly.

Overall the situation did not look good. It was one of the bigger emergences in history, and HANAF was stretched to the breaking point. It would take a while until we could expect support here.

Fortunately I was better equipped than in January. With a recon drone that would make it a lot harder to sneak up on us, a robot guard for support in melee and a superb gun.

And an AI that could give me tactical advice. Elya promptly delivered and a path made of yellow spots showed up on my augs.

Fifty meters that way is a small gap between the buildings where you will have eyes on a Type 28. It is currently guarding another approach, you should be able to sneak up on it undetected.

I proceeded to the location and indeed, there was a Type 28 looking the other way. I could barely see its eye from my current position, but barely was enough. I aimed at the part of its eye I could see and fired. The crack of my railgun was followed by a spray of shattered glass from the Mack’s eye.

Moments later I could hear gunfire from the north. One of those sounded like Alan’s .338 Lapua. I hoped he was not out of the armor piercing bullets I had made for him. Then an enemy Battlecat ran that way. I managed to hit it, but without slowing it down. These things had considerable redundancy in their power supply, and even if you shot out the radionuclide generator, they could keep going for a few minutes on batteries.

A few more shots from a powerful rifle rang out, and the Battlecat stumbled. At this point, I had reacquired my target and fired another three rounds through it. It fell to the ground and tried to get up in vain.

“Elya, overlay!” The metal beast became pseudo-transparent, as Elya showed me the location of its most important components. Including the cyberbrain. I felt a nasty grin spreading over my face, took aim and caressed the trigger. Another whipcrack sound rang out, and the Battlecat fell for good.

Watch out, a group of Fours from the west!

I whirled around and saw them approaching. I looked at each one and double-blinked, triggering the Mack-zapper on my shoulders. Two out of four were bamboozled by Elya, the others kept rushing at me. I filled one of them with bullets from my Shiv, but it still hit my armor with a clanging sound before it fell down. My battlecat took care of the other one. In what seemed like slow motion, it slashed first through a forelimb, then jumped on the tumbling metal squid and raked its fiery claws through the eye.

That day shaped up to be more exciting than planned! Another, much larger group showed up from the southwest, cutting off retreat to the south. Fortunately without Battlecats in their ranks, only Type Ones and Type Fours.

They were, however, far enough away that I could thin them out a bit. I kneeled behind one of my newly acquired Fours and aimed at the eye of a Four. I fired and the eye disintegrated in a flash and spray of glass dust. Another. The crack of a shot. A bursting eye.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Now they were charging. I slowly retreated, keeping firing. My fire was less accurate while moving, but I still shot down another two Fours.

Meanwhile, the Ones were close enough to be in range of my Battlecat’s tail-gun. It still had the original plasma gun and unleashed its fireballs into the Ones. Oil pipes burst, plastic was vaporized and the Macks went up in fire.

I moved left to avoid the burning Type Ones and ordered “Elya, retreat to the van!”

My Fours followed my slow retreat as I was walking backwards. A sweep with the Spectracopter showed that the area southeast of us was increasingly lousy with Macks. We had to retreat deeper into Goldmont. The first enemy Fours were now close enough to deal blows with the two I had captured.

My anti-mack taser spit lightning again, the electricity racing along the ionized path the lasers had burned in the air. Sparks danced over the enemy Macks. Experty modulated by Elya, they hacked and converted a good percentage of them into my followers. Soon I had subverted four of them. and the Battlecat killed a fifth one. Another three kept still a little too long and I got them with my rifle. But even so, the attacking hordes grew thicker, and I started worrying about eventually running out of ammo. My first magazine was almost empty, and I had only brought seven of those.

“Elya, let’s conserve our forces and let the captured Fours take the brunt of the attack!”

That is a good tactical decision. I am pleasantly surprised.

We almost had reached the van, and I commanded “Elya, we retreat to the next intersection! Macks follow on foot!”

I jumped behind the wheel and took off with spinning tires. Behind me my Macks clattered along. It was not far, and the shopping mall at the corner had some solid walls and pillars. Fragile windows as well, but for a few minutes we should have passable cover here. I rounded the corner, parked next to the entrance of the mall and jumped out. Seconds after me, my Macks arrived.

A terrified shop owner fired some ineffectual shots at my Fours, then his magazine ran out and he ran to barricade himself in the toilet.

Looking up the road to the north, I could see people drawing heavy barbed wire rolls across Mt Wells drive as a barricade. Just in time before the first Type One and Type Four Macks arrived and got tangled in the wire. It was good to see that at least the older models were still a bit stupid.

Men with axes and picks ran at the entangled Macks and lashed out at their weak points. Which was surprisingly effective. But I soon had other things to worry about. The attackers from the south were upon us. A wave of Macks clashed into my thin line of defenders, who barely held back the flood. “Elya, flank them with the Battlecat”.

Said Battlecat hit the attackers from the side, clawed off tentacles and when a Mack turned to it, it usually had its eye raked into glowing ruin. In between, it shot up Model Ones with its plasma gun. I was not idle either and kept zapping Macks, whom Elya hijacked more often than not. Within seconds, I had lost three Fours to the wave of attackers but captured five new ones.

I shot two more Fours before my magazine went dry. I threw it into a garbage can and slammed the next one into my railgun.

By the time I was ready to fire again, the Battlecat had dispatched five Fours and three Ones. Good kitty. The handful of Type Ones that was still near fled. Two of them did not make it. I shot one, the bullet ripping through its entire length and out at the front with a big spark. The battlecat baptized the other one in plasma fire. It kept running a bit further, then it fell over, its plastic parts merrily burning.

A few of the Macks strewn before our position seemed to recover, so I told Elya to have the Battlecat finish them off.

Looking to the north, I saw a horrible sight. An enemy Battlecat had shied back from the barbed wire, but fired its plasma gun at the people behind the wire. Two people lay burning on the ground. One of them still tried to bat out the fire. I could hear his screams all the way from my position, 150 meters away.

I switched my gun to maximum power, aimed at the Battlecat and snapped “Overlay!” Elya complied and showed its internal components as wire frame, like on a CAD system. Fortunately it held still for a moment, so I managed to hit its head exactly where the cyberbrain was. With a shower of sparks, the projectile went through the titanium and the electronics behind. The metal monster fell over.

“Elya, give me your recon results!”

A map appeared on my augs, slightly de-cluttered compared to a satellite image. It showed a strong concentration of Macks in a semicircle from Wilway Elementary to south of my position. Smaller numbers of Type Ones infiltrated the town from other directions. I wondered if we could stop all of those. Perhaps it was time to retreat. The Wilway Elementary shelter was not an option anymore though, as Wilway was already overrun. Blue points that symbolized friendlies were holding Humpback Road from the western side.

So I asked Elya “What other shelters are nearby?”

Elya highlighted one of the newer highrises at the western end of Goldmont and displayed two routes to it. One for cars, the other on foot.

In the basement.

“Is there a shorter way by car? I’m willing to run over some flower beds.”

Another route appeared, this one in red and with a big warning sign on the way.

At this point, you may damage or break your suspension.

I would take it anyway. The blue points on the map already retreated in that direction, and I did not want to be encircled in the open. Through Elya, I gave commands to my troops. “Macks follow me on foot, watch out towards the south!"

I got into my van again and drove westwards along Cressida Crescent, but this time at a lower speed my Macks could follow. Soon I reached the point Elya’s warning sign was for. It was a private property where a sufficiently reckless driver could cross through the garden. I was sufficiently reckless. The path led into the driveway, across a flower bed (snerk!) and across the lawn.

The suspension-endangering part was a small earth wall at the rear of the property. I took it like a champ. And I did totally not come out of it with a bent front suspension.

The building with the shelter was just across the road. I realized I had made a mistake. My Macks might scare off people seeking shelter. So I opened the door of my van and ordered them to pile in. With the Macks hidden, I drove over to the shelter and positioned my van to fight off Type Six attacks. Then I got out and opened the rear door a crack so my Macks could get out when necessary.