Wendy and I took a few minutes to reorganize our troops. I reloaded the guns of the surviving Battlecats. I also sent the Spectracopter back to Vanguard Enterprises, as it was running low on batteries. A fresh one replaced it.

Wendy asked “What now?”

“Take them piecemeal if we can. There are still around five hundred Macks and one Mack girl coordinating them. We cannot fight that many head on.”

“Maybe we could join the HANAF lines then, so we don’t have to stem the tide alone.”

“That sounds like a good idea. And Picasso can mark our captured Macks.” I put our little artist to work again. “If we fight alongside HANAF, they need to see which Macks are ours.”

Eventually, we packed the Mack girl into the van and crossed the highway again, westwards this time. I wanted to avoid a confrontation with major numbers of Macks, at least until we could fight them side by side with HANAF.

Wendy and I rode in the van, while our Macks tagged along on foot or tentacle. They were simply too many to stuff in the van. Using the reconnaissance data from the Spectracopter to circumvent Mack units, we took a detour westwards. Past a building site set upon an old quarry, then I signaled Wendy to stop near a pond.

HANAF had built fortifications on Horth Hill, which were now pressured both from the south and the east. I decided “We go north from here, along Tallow Road. That means we have to fight through the westernmost Macks.”

Wendy was skeptical. “That means going through lots of the mecha-critters. Why not through the side streets west of Tallow Road?”

I took a look at the van’s navigation system. “You have a point. It will be slow going though. A lot of these are closed off at one end. And first I have to call HANAF.”

Elya connected me to HANAF’s C&C network again. A stressed out voice replied “Unit, situation?”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Vanguard Command, Lieutenant McCallan. I’m commanding a platoon-sized group of captured Macks, roughly a klick south of Horth Hill. We are seeking to link up with the HANAF defense line.”

“Do you understand how much friendly fire that might cause?”

“My Macks are marked with a logo in red that shows a shield and the letters Victor Charlie on it. If they are attacked by HANAF by accident, they will suffer it rather than retaliate. I hope that will suffice.”

A reluctant confirmation came back. “Very well, I will advise Captain Miller. You can reach him on channel eighteen.”

Elsa switched channels for me. I listened to HQ talking to Captain Miller, then I announced myself. “Lieutenant McCallan here. Where should we rendezvous with your troops?”

Captain Miller rattled off a set of coordinates. Elya translated these into a marker in my minimap, about 200 meters southwest of Horth Hill. He continued “Our flank is under a lot of pressure here, if you could reinforce us it would be appreciated.”

Following Wendy’s earlier advice, we made our way northwards west of Tallow Road, passing through play streets and a small pedestrian zone. A few times I had to dismount and remove bollards with the omnicutter. From the east we heard gunfire, and I could tell that we were getting closer to it.

Eventually, when I peeked around a corner I could see Macks moving between the buildings. A machine gun salvo ripped up one of them, but the others got away and massed behind cover. Cover that did not cover them towards our direction. In military lingo, they were in enfilade and we took shameless advantage of it.

Wendy, our remaining Battlecats and I opened fire. A dozen Macks barely managed to turn around before they lay destroyed on the ground, leaking oil on the tarmac. One of them had a short in the battery and started burning. An acrid cloud of smoke formed over the dead Macks.

Then people shouted from the north “Hey who is there? Are you OK?” ”Stay put, we’ll come over to get you!”

I shouted back: “Vanguard Command. We have tame Macks, don’t panic! You’ll recognize them by the red logo!”

Guns raised, two soldiers peeked around the corner. One of them had been on the expedition to San Juan Island. He recognized me too and told his squadmate “Stand down, she's friendly!”

Minutes later we were behind the barricades the soldiers had erected against the Macks. The soldiers eyed my tame Macks with considerable distrust, but when the bots obviously followed my orders, everybody relaxed. Somewhat.