A few minutes later, I noticed Macks forming up on the east side of the highway. They showed no signs of proceeding in our direction. I signaled Wendy to do nothing yet.
“Let's wait and see what they do. Right now we cannot hit most of them anyway, they are in cover behind the buildings.”
The Macks formed up in two groups near the crossing Patricia Bay Highway northeast of our position. Each contained a few hundred Macks, including a Magical Mack Girl. Battlecats were surprisingly absent though.
The occasional Type One was already crossing the road for scouting. If they proceeded that way, there was the danger that they might overrun the HANAF forces from the side. We had to do something about that.
After a short discussion with Wendy, we decided to flank the Macks right back. Wendy collected the van, as it contained spare ammo and a few tools we might need. The sun was down by now, but it was still bright enough that we could see the Macks clearly on the image from the Spectracopter.
One of the Mack groups started spilling over the highway in northwest direction, right towards a HANAF infantry unit. Fortunately they still had those stupid glowy eyes, so we could see them easily in the beginning dusk. I shot two Ones that were looking our way, then we crossed the highway in northeast direction. That brought us right behind the Macks’ attack on the HANAF troops.
Now we had a troop sandwich with three layers: HANAF - Macks - and us. With the added risk of an attack from behind us. That would be the topping if it happened.
Considering the large number of enemies, I decided to capture some of them and use them as our first line. We moved through a backyard to surprise a group of Macks that was still sitting tight instead of storming the HANAF lines. I commanded “Elya, we'll try to grab some Macks again. Battlecats are only to attack those who actively come at us.”
The wireless, beefed up tasers on my shoulders ripped into the circuits of the mechanical menaces. Where the beams hit, little arcs played over Mack armor and disrupted electronics. In one case, they scorched through an oil hose on a Type One and set the Mack on fire. It tried to escape in flames. Wendy fired her Shiv after it, and it collapsed amid a hail of plastic shards.
Three Type Fours did resist the electric attack and stormed at us, only to be pounced on by my Battlecats. After they lost too many tentacles to continue, I euthanized each with a shot through the eye.
But we did capture a dozen Macks and it was time for Picasso’s debut. The cuddly little Mecha-cat trotted over to the freshly tamed Macks, turned around and extended a nozzle from its tail. Looking over its shoulder, it spray-painted a bright red version of the Vanguard Command logo on each Mack. Except for two I wanted to use for scouting.
In the meantime, I planned our next move. The Macks had moved a bunch of Type Twenty-Eights up to the highway and they started sniping at any HANAF troops in their sight. On the video feed from the Spectracopter, I saw a HANAF lookout dropping in a spray of blood.
These Macks were a logical target. Trailing behind the bulk of their troops, they were relatively unprotected. Hoping to get some unopposed recon data on top of the Spectracopter video, I sent the two unmarked Ones ahead. One of them went undetected and got a decent overview of the Macks under cover near the highway. The other one ran unexpectedly into the Mack MG, who immediately killed it.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Minutes later, she peeled off around two hundred Macks from the other group that had not crossed the highway yet. These started moving in our general direction.
I stationed our Battlecats at a crossing where they could shoot down two different roads the approaching Macks had to cross. They had barely taken their positions, when the first Macks came rushing our way. I ordered our troops to open fire.
My Battlecats opened up. Several enemies per second dropped under the withering hail of fire, sparks and splinters of armor spalling off their sides. Next to me Wendy did her part with her own Shiv, although I could not discern how much of the damage was hers.
Despite this lashing we gave the enemy, the wave of steel got closer and closer. I sent my captured Macks ahead to act as a wave breaker, with limited success. They lasted a few seconds before they perished under the spikes of the onrushing Fours. A few seconds that my Battlecats used well by killing another two dozen Macks. Then the remaining Macks were upon us.
My Battlecats collided with the onrushing Fours in a whirlwind of claws, spikes and shots from the gun-tails. Then the situation was sent downhill by the Mack MG arriving. I saw that she wore the same face Arina had worn on her Mack body. On a hunch, I tried to gain a few seconds by asking “What are you?”
She started with a familiar tirade. “Model 54401 Combat Unit, Nanite-Enhanced. I am the beginning and the end, the end…”
Two of my Battlecats switched targets to the Mack MG and railgun bullets started to rip through her torso from the side. Miss Mack whirled to face the new attackers, and further projectiles bounced off an orange energy shield she projected from her arm. Which left her open to shots from us.
Wendy and I had the same idea. We lifted our Shivs and blasted her neck from the side. For good measure, I activated my anti-Mack tasers. The Mack girl twitched and her energy shield failed, then she toppled over.
With a few blinks and eye movements, I used my new C&C software to sic my Battlecats at the lesser Macks again and started to mark those for hijacking again. Elya was happy to oblige. But the distraction by the Mack girl had cost us. By the time we defeated the current opponents, three of my Battlecats were outright destroyed and a fourth one limping. Only two were left fully operational.
On the upside, I had captured eight Type Fours, a Type One and the immediate danger was over. I took a closer look at the Mack girl and saw she was intact enough that she might recover. So I asked Wendy “Fetch the van please? I’ll give you an escort.”
Wendy ran, followed by my two fully intact Battlecats. In the meantime, I saw from the corner of my eye that some of the Macks stirred again. Right. These critters had some degree of self-repair capability. I gave them a second dose of electric disruption, and where that failed to let Elya take them, a bullet through the eye.
Then I noticed that previously neutralized Macks started moving again all along the road they had come from. Fuck.
But they were slow in doing so. Making a snap decision, I started down that road and repeated the catch-or-kill approach on the recovering Macks. I ended up with another fifteen Fours and four Ones. And the road was littered with over a hundred thoroughly destroyed robots. A few Macks had managed to escape though, and more trouble was almost guaranteed.
I returned to the crossing where Wendy already waited with the van, Omnicutter in hand and a questioning expression on her face.
I nodded yes and mimicked cutting my neck. With an iron face, Wendy sliced through the neck of the downed Mack girl. I could only guess what she was feeling at the moment.