People came running from all directions, but mostly from the west. These were pursued by Macks. The first Macks that actually showed up were two Type Ones hunting a teenage girl. I fired at them until they fell over, then I finished them with precise shots through the eyes. I needed seven rounds to do it. Sloppy and inefficient.
Finally, the young lady made it to the shelter and asked me “Are you a Magical Girl?”
“No, I’m from Vanguard Command. Elite soldier!” That might start rumors, heh.
She looked a bit disappointed, then she followed the other refugees down into the shelter. I took my second Spectracopter from the van and moved to the lobby entrance. Once the first one ran low on battery, this one would give me another two hours of observation time.
Two more people came running from the property I had so rudely driven through. They were followed by three Ones. This time I managed to stop them with a total of four rounds. Looking around, no more people running towards the shelter were in sight. But the map view still showed some blue dots approaching that would appear at my position soon, and another one straying in a completely wrong direction. There was probably no saving the latter one.
Over the next two minutes, the last four refugees arrived. Some hostiles were on their heels, and I found it necessary to unleash my own Macks. Eight Fours and one Battlecat boiled from the van. The enemies were strangely inattentive, perhaps chasing the civilians took all their concentration. Except for one I had to shoot, they were captured or destroyed quickly. I had another two Ones now and fifty more points.
Should I go into the shelter myself or not? I chose to be daring and go one floor up the stairwell, looking for a corner office with a good field of fire. My Battlecat proved useful in cutting embrasures into the safety glass. Outside, my Spectracopter was keeping an eye out.
Enemies in the south.
As I looked out the window, an enemy Battlecat looked back at me from a distance of about hundred meters. I rested my rifle in the embrasure and took aim. The Battlecat lifted its tail. We fired at the same time. Fortunately for me, a Battlecat’s plasma balls lost coherence at a range of sixty to seventy meters. That saved me from serious burns. An already dissolving fireball washed over the window, and all I got was a faceful of hot air.
The Battelecat was not so lucky. I had aimed accurately. With the further assistance of my aimbot, my shot was perfectly on target and smashed through its cyberbrain.
It was followed by a group of four Fours. These fared quite badly, it took me only five rounds to kill them all. Precision shooting through the eyes for the win.
A look on the map provided by Elya showed a single Type One hiding in a garden west of the road. It might think itself clever, but the Spectracopter still detected it. Aim. Fire. Mack dead.
Lots of Macks were approaching from the east now, fortunately without Battlecats in their ranks this time. I left the shooting of the Ones to my Battlecat and shot only the Fours myself. I got two of them, then my magazine was empty. 150 of the 210 rounds I had brought were left.
As more enemy Macks were already sneaking past my field of fire, I had my Macks assemble inside the lobby and use the entrance as a chokepoint. Reloading on the run, I got downstairs and positioned myself behind my Battlecat. From the outside, the acrid stench of burning Mack wafted through the entrance.
Moments later, a horde of Macks rushed into the lobby. They were attacked from left and right with spikes, claws and my wireless taser. I didn't use my gun, hijacking Macks was more important. My own Macks did well this time and took very few losses, unlike the enemy. A dozen of dead Macks already littered the ground, with five more re-educated to be my new minions. One of the scrapped Macks was burning, courtesy of the Battlecat and its plasma gun.
At this point, I had ten Fours and three Ones under my control. And I was running for the next fire extinguisher. “Elya, let’s try and not set the building on fire!”
With the extinguisher in my hands, I quenched the fire. Then I used a lull in the fighting to start my second Spectracopter. That gave me another two hours of aerial surveillance. I retrieved the first one and put it on the charger inside the lobby.
For the next ten minutes, nothing happened. Then the Macks made their next attempt to get into the lobby. This time it was a veritable flood of exclusively Type Fours. The floor was already slippery enough with spilled oil that they had some trouble maneuvering, and it cost them. Spikes from my Fours hammered into their eyes or tentacle joints, while the Battlecat dismembered them with fiery claw swipes from the side. Shredded tentacles with glowing, smoldering and sometimes outright burning ends littered the floor. All of that was underlined by crackling discharges of the Mack-zapper on my shoulders, with Elya seeking vulnerabilities to hack the Macks.
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Once the attack was over and I had to use the extinguisher again, I could take stock. Aside from the vastly superior Battlecat, my Fours were better than the enemy ones in terms of technique. With Elya’s help I had trained them to go after the weak points of the enemy, while the enemy Macks still tended to stab wherever they could hit. Against the armor of fellow Fours, that only yielded small dimples in the armor.
Now sixteen enemy Macks littered the floor, while I had captured another six. Three of my own had been lost, which left me with thirteen Fours and three Ones. As long as I could keep this up, my forces would gradually grow. So did my points, time for an update. “Elya, point status?”
You have so far earned 1750 points today, not counting indirect gains from the weapons you delivered to HANAF. That brings your total to one token and 5653 points.
Finally, we were getting somewhere. With the payout from HANAF’s use of my mortars, I should be able to afford one fairly big item for a change. And become more powerful. My end game was to kick the Macks off Earth, but for that I had to get a lot stronger. Ambitious much? Damn right I was.
Beyond that? I would play it by ear.
A look at the larger Victoria map, as provided by Elya hoovering the data from the HANAF network, showed that the defenders had fought the Macks to a standstill. The enemy Battlecats had been a nasty surprise though. Losses among Magical Girls and HANAF soldiers were larger than usual, even for this already trying year.
I had no idea what had happened to the militia guys. Considering the Macks had overrun most of Goldmont, they might be either dead or in a shelter. My idea of linking up with them and defending the place together had definitely not worked.
But now HANAF finally got around to mortar the shit out of the Twenty-Ones at Langford Lake. That should stop the influx of further Macks. Also, a team of MGs supported by a platoon of HANAF soldiers approached from the west. It looked like their first objective was clearing the beach.
The Macks in view of my spectracopter suddenly gave up their assault and moved back towards the beach. I asked Elya “Can you see any HANAF drones around?
No, there was one until five minutes ago but it retreated westwards.
“Connect me to the local commander then.”
Soon I had a Magical Girl on the phone. I had almost forgotten that they automatically got officer ranks in HANAF’s hierarchy. This one sounded very young. “First Lieutenant Hobbit here, what is it?” came her excited voice over the net.
I gave myself a promotion. Last time I had introduced myself as Sergeant, not realizing that every MG would automatically outrank me.
“This is Lieutenant McCallan of Vanguard Command. We have some spare recon capability in the form of a drone over Goldstream. If you would like, I can assign it to your unit for the duration.”
I could hear half of a conversation, then she replied to me. “Great! We are on Channel Bravo-Five-Lima, please give admin rights to my operator Harry!”
I did and soon after a somewhat perplexed Hobbit asked “Where is your drone? I get the video feed just fine, but I can see no drone in the air!”
“New stealth model. You cannot see it, the Macks cannot see it.” I was fairly confident of that.
“Anyway, thanks for the support!”
The girls made pretty quick progress through Goldmont, partly thanks to their borrowed recon drone. I did not want to create a friendly fire incident as they would not recognize my Macks as friendly. So I stayed in the lobby until Team Middle-Earth checked this shelter.
As previously established, my Macks rolled over at the sight of the girls and presented their bellies. Hobbit turned out to be a young redhead with cute freckles, around fifteen years old.
When she saw my rolled over Macks, she asked “What is going on?” with a perplexed face.
I enlightened her. “It is a submission gesture. These Macks have been captured and subverted, but not automatically repainted in our colors. Instead, they kow-tow to show deep respect to any human officer.” Not the most accurate description, but it got the point across.
Warily, she replied “Wait, you are the lady I just talked to! Tame Macks, invisible drones, what else do you have?”
“Super effective guns!” I showed her my railgun.
“Cool. But we must check the shelter, keep them quiet,” she said and pointed at my Macks. Two minutes later she returned and said “Gotta go now, but I will find you and then you must tell me all about Vanguard Command!”
As the area looked clear, I took my Battlecat and eight of the Fours that were still in good condition. With them in my van, I set out to collect the broken enemy Battlecats. Loading them into the van proved difficult, but with the help of my Macks and some rope I managed.
With a wobbling front wheel and loaded to the maximum, my van hobbled back to Colwood at half its normal speed. Eventually the official all-clear came and with it the summary from Elya.
You have received 3112 points from HANAF’s use of your mortars. That brings your total to one token and 8765 points.
Nice. That would pay for one of the bigger items I had on my mind. I was a bit worried though about the increasing size of the emergences.