Even with the most dangerous foes taken out, it would still be a lot of work to contain and round up the rest of the metal pests. My first move was to intercept a group that had entered the airport and was moving northwards. Letting them reach Vanguard Enterprises was not something I considered acceptable.

Unfortunately for them, I caught them in the middle of the airport, far from any cover. I mercilessly picked them off with George’s remaining Shiv turret. Easy kills and another 200 points.

Next I took a detour past the very first group of Macks we had taken out. I found the half arm I had shot off the Twenty-One and hefted it as a club in one of George’s hands.

After that, I doubled back towards the residential area southeast of the airport. My Spectracopter had detected quite a few Macks sniffing around the family homes there, and I wanted to clean them out. Between only two battlecats and George it would be slow going though.

The very first Mack we flushed out was a Type One, and despite the difference in size it went for George right away. I smashed it into the ground with the arm of the Twenty-One and crushed it like a tin can. Plastic shards and oil from ruptured hoses went flying.

Next were two Fours. I dropped my improvised club, grabbed one by the tentacles and swung it over my head. Or more precisely, over George's cockpit. I brought it down on the other Four like a flail. The strong shells of the Macks were barely damaged, but I could hear things inside break.

My bots and I easily defeated any small group of Macks we encountered, but tracking them down took time. Things improved when the fabbers at Vanguard Enterprises produced a new group of four new Lesser Battlecats. I ordered those to advance in parallel to us. While my own group moved southwards along the Patricia Bay Highway, the new robot squad proceeded along the eastern edge of the airport and further along Canora road.

Aided by Spectracopters above us, my fighting groups flushed out groups of Macks one by one and hammered them into scrap. Where possible at range with railguns, but sometimes it came to close quarters combat. Then the fight became a vortex of tentacles lashing out and glowing claws slicing through Mack armor. Or when my group with George was involved, beatdowns with half of an armored arm from a Twenty-One.

It had almost become routine when my western group was assaulted by a Mack MG, escorted by four Mack Battlecats. With a few flicks of my eye, I assigned the Dark MG as primary target. While my Lesser Battlecats cut loose at the MG, the Mack Battlecats attacked them in return. The result was mutual slaughter. The MG was riddled with railgun bullets and collapsed in the street, but my units were cut down by the fiery claws and plasma blasts of the Mack Battlecats.

Checking the map, I found myself halfway between the coast and the southeast corner of the airport. I moved westwards with my group to eliminate the enemy battlecats and secure the body of the Mack MG. Moving down Summergate Boulevard, I spotted two of the Mack Battlecats two hundred meters away. My escorting battlecats had already opened fire, but I did not want to rely on that and joined in with the big railgun.

Lucky shot! The projectile utterly obliterated the first target in a fireball and a shower of debris. It was also slightly deflected towards the second enemy. That one lost two legs from the hit. My own Battlecats finished it off with the Shivs built into their tails.

I pinpointed the next Mack Battlecat using the recon data from the Spectracopter. A house was between me and it. “Elya, wallhack!”

Imitating a cheating technique from the early days of FPS shooter games, Elya projected the silhouette of the Mack on the wall of the house. I figured the walls were thin enough to shoot through with the heavy railgun. I was right. A cloud of pulverized stone erupted from the entry hole and from the exit hole, and behind the house the Mack Battlecat fell over.

I walked George around the house and finished it off with my improvised club. The final Mack Battlecat fell to a concentrated salvo from our railguns.

I proceeded to the body of the Mack MG, got out of the cockpit and examined her. That she was completely still was expected, but then I discovered the hole through her head. One of the railgun bullets had penetrated her electronic brain.

I felt a tear running down my cheek. This was an enemy, but likely not by choice. She had been enslaved and used as a weapon against her fellow humans, maybe even friends and family. Nobody deserved that.

But I had no time to properly mourn her. So I dragged her off the road and covered her with a tarp I stole from a nearby car to give her at least a shred of dignity. I also took a photo of her face in the hope of identifying her later.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Focusing on my mission again, I reloaded the Shiv railguns in my combat bots and returned to George’s cockpit. There were still an estimated two hundred Macks running around south of me, and no HANAF in sight. Being seriously outnumbered, I chose not to dive into the middle of the enemy hordes before I had new reinforcements. Over the next twenty minutes I switched anxiously between watching my surroundings and checking the surveillance feed from the Spectracopter. A few Macks stumbled into my vicinity and were promptly gunned down, but no dangerous concentrations of Macks approached.

Finally, the next batch of four Lesser Battlecats emerged from the fabricators at Vanguard Enterprises. I ordered them to my current position and resumed my previous one at the highway. Carefully I advanced towards the south again, the new Battlecats mirroring my moves further west.

I soon ran into bigger groups of Macks, and a few times I had to retreat for a bit. But wrecked Mack by wrecked Mack I managed to carve the enemy up. My group of four Battlecats to the west also did well.

Suddenly, I found myself face to face with four Magical Girls. I recognized them as the newbie team I met three months ago. Back then, I had to assure them that I was not an evil Mack Queen who would feed them to her bots.

By now, they had grown a lot more confident. The girls also had found their specializations. A leader wearing orange, a yellow supporter, a blue magitech specialist and finally a healer in pink.

The MG team immediately prepared to attack. Hastily I made George and my escorting Battlecats prostrate themselves and got out of my cockpit.

The apparent leader of the MGs raised her chainsword and asked “What the fuck are you? A Forty-Two?”

The girl in yellow signaled her to calm down and replied “Wait, I recognize her. She is the crazy lady with the tame Macks we met before. Weird but probably not after our blood.”

“Hi, I’m Caitlin. Weapons manufacturer and occasional hobby soldier.”

“I’m Aquila, leader of Ad Astra” the girl in orange replied. “We are here to contain and exterminate the forces of chaos, err, the Macks.”

With grudging respect she added “It seems you were already doing a passable job. Could you help some more by keeping the tin cans from moving further north again?”

“Sure, what’s the plan?”

“Keep watch at McTavish Road and kill all Macks that try to move past it. We need to clear out the residential area south of here, and it would be nice if the Macks don’t sneak past us while we are hunting them.“

“I can do that. Actually, would you like some recon support?”

“How?”

“I can send you a small reconnaissance drone to help find the tin critters.“

Their blue team member piped up “I’m Hydra and my perk is that I can see through surveillance cameras. Let me try using that drone!”

I replied “A moment please!” and subvocalized to Elya: “Try to establish a connection to the Spectracopter for her.”

Haggling with the weird MG tech… done.

Hydra made a surprised face and started searching the sky. “What the fuck, I can see Macks all over the place? That drone has to be somewhere above but I cannot find it.”

“Yes, it is designed to be almost invisible.”

I’ll make it show up as a friendly unit, following the SHOCKS color code.

“Now you should be able to see it,” I added and pointed towards the Spectracopter. At Elya’s prompting I added “It will follow the movement controls included in your MG enhancements” and handed over control.

Hydra made it move around a bit and started to gush. “Yesss! How does it work? Especially the invisibility? And…”

Aquila interrupted “That’s great and thank you,” looking at me, “but we have to get going!” This said, Team Ad Astra disappeared among the houses to the south.

I held my position for another two hours, but very few Macks dared to challenge it. Those who did were swiftly perforated with railgun bullets.

Eventually Team Ad Astra showed up again and announced the emergence was as good as over, and they would soon return to SHOCKS. I showed them the body of the Type 42. “I have not seen that face on a Forty-Two before, might be a new kidnap victim.”

I cannot find the face online either, which suggests this one is not modeled after a particular person. Very few people are never in a photo that finds its way into some database.

Aquila nodded. “This is bad. Very bad. We will take her to SHOCKS with us, perhaps they can identify her. But also, thanks a lot for your help. Perhaps we could meet and talk again when we are not knee deep in Macks.”

We agreed to meet over Christmas for a small celebration. Hydra was also quite eager to learn more about the Spectracopter and other interesting tech I might have.

A bit later, the internet came back on and a HANAF representative proclaimed that the emergence had been repelled. Elya chimed in with a comment about my accomplishments today.

Including the points from HANAF’s use of your weapons and your previous balance, you now have 11804 points. You also receive a token for almost single handedly containing the Mack landing at Cy Hampson Park.

“Nice. But I was not really done with the Macks on that front.”

You would have managed even without Team Ad Astra. I have faith in you.

“Aww, that’s sweet!”