When I said I used scorched tactics, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. Oh well. Time to become another ecological disaster. Bringing my two buzzsaws together, they spun and sparked. Soon enough the tinder I had laid out began to smoke. Bringing the spare gasoline was a little difficult without opposable thumbs. But I managed. Soon enough a trade of fire began to circle around the camp.

It wasn't fast, so the soldiers might have enough time to put the flames out if they were quick enough. It functioned as a viable distraction until then. If they couldn't see me, then I had more opportunities to kill them. The main idea was to use the smoke as a cover in the canopy. If they wouldn't let me kill them one by one, it was time for God's old reliable.

A gun.

But my plans were put to a stop. There was a reason the leader was wearing a knock-off superhero costume. Turns out, she was a natural-born psionics user. Specifically a pyromancer. As my fire trap started to gain traction, the soldiers tried to fight it off. Water buckets and some fire extinguishers. They barely made a dent. Then the city fire mage arrived.

She glowed a hazy red before raising her hands in the air. The flames rose in the air in sync with her movements. When she slowly lowered them, the light of the fire started to dim and shrink. They got smaller and smaller until they shrunk into nothingness. Now there was only smoke from attempted pyromania.

The guerrilla soldiers yelled in appreciation. The leader looked a little tired but stayed standing. If I had a mouth, I’d be gritting my teeth in frustration. I had other options. Try to corner one of the drones and hack it. Use another soldier as bait from the crowd. Create more traps. Start dropping perfectly timed trees on them as they walk by.

Unfortunately for me, I got tunnel vision. The leader had made a mess of my work. It was infuriating. I had a plan. I had an expectation of how everything was going to go. And this small, insignificant, waste of DNA wanted to ruin that? Well, the joke is on her. I had a way of erasing inconvenient people.

I stalked the camp as the day passed by. Eventually, the soldiers decided to send a small force to talk to the other camps. As they drove off, I stayed in the camp. At them moment I didn’t care anymore about the procedure. What I cared about was the fake copy commanding her company of guerilla soldiers. She filled out the role well.

Her orders were quick and to the point. No second-guessing, no hesitation. She delegated properly and reprimanded those who failed to meet her expectations. By mid-day, the camp was getting cleaned up and almost repaired. Much quicker than I had been expecting. Even with the horrifying displays I had left, the soldiers started to relax. A few even wandered off on their own.

I didn’t leave my hiding spot. My robotic eyes stayed glued to the redhead. I was patient. I could wait however long I needed to. Even if I failed this simulation, I would satisfy my bruised ego. The sun began to set. Around this time, the emergency convoy returned with extra men. Another possible psionic had come with them.

This man had blue hair and a similar suit to the woman's. They talked, addressing each other in a manner people of equal ranking would. Reports of my disabling of their stealth equipment and communication array. The brutality of my terror tactics. The fact I had yet to be found. I’d blush if I thought any human's praise was worth the air they breathed.

They had brought spare engineers and repairing tools, to fix anything broken. More soldiers to provide better security until the alarms were repaired. All smart and proactive activities. It would take them time though. Time I would use to kill the crimson failure of biology. When night came, the reinforcements elected to stay.

It didn’t matter. A dozen, a hundred, she could bring as many extra bodies as she wanted. They wouldn’t be enough to get between me and her. It wasn’t until midnight she decided to get some sleep. Almost a full day's cycle awake and high-strung. The exhaustion must have gotten to her. Enough she went to bed at her commander's building.

It was time to get my revenge. I just needed to sneak into her room and put her out of my misery. I dug myself out of the ground. The saws and mini vacuums could also be macgyvered into effective tunneling tools. The internal container I had was emptied out behind me, making it easy to dig my way through underneath the camp. The thermal cameras were also well-made enough to see past the dirt.

I timed my ascension to an opening between the patrols the soldiers were still doing. They were on high alert but mistakes were still being made. I shook my mechanical body, not wanting to compromise any amount of stealth before I got to her. I started imagining the myriad of ways I would kill her and vent my rage.

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Obviously, the death would be quick, no doubt about it. She would put up quite the fight if I wasn’t quick enough, much less her pyromancy would probably alert the rest of the camp. With the second psychic here, I’d probably be easily killed if they ganged up on me. So while I would like a slow, agonizing murder, I’d have to be pragmatic today. Going for the throat would probably be for the best.

I didn’t get that far. For the second time in a day, the little parasite had a counter for me. I tried opening the window and sneaking in. As soon as it opened, I heard a click. It didn't take a genius to figure out what came next. I tried to escape, jumping and launching my grappling hook. The explosions caught me anyway.

My drone's cameras went on the frits, and numerous damage alarms appeared. I’d lost three legs, two of my cameras were disabled, and I was left with one functional buzzsaw arm left. But I was still functional. And while I was hoping the psychopath who boobytrapped her own sleeping quarters died, I wasn’t surprised she walked out unscathed. She came out of the remains of the building expertly controlling the fire. Not a hair on her head was skinned.

She spoke, clearly open to bantering. How stupid. Machines can’t talk back. But they can shoot back. The turret on my back was finally put to use. She raised her hands in the air, creating a shield of fire. Instead of breaking through and covering her face in scorching metal, they evaporated into ash. Damn. She had superheated her flames enough to turn metal into gas. Or something else equally stupid.

I was at a disadvantage. Now it would turn into a battle of attrition. She had the advantage since she just needed to last long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Her soldiers and dog drones would overwhelm me by numbers, not to mention what tricks the blue-haired psychic had. I had to finish this fight. Do or die.

Using the environment, I jumped atop the buildings while maintaining my turret fire. She kept the shield up and launched a bolt of flame at me. Another problem. She could protect herself and fight back. Hopefully, that exhausted her twice as fast then. Breaking my line of sight I scuttled around her. Jumping or running from one corner of the camp to the next, firing my turret.

None of the bullets, the flame shield functioning as a full protective shield. The flames she threw at me weren’t allowed to be ignored either. They seemed to hold some kinetic force behind them, exploding whenever they made an impact. The heat was thankfully not as hot as her shield. It scorched the earth and superheated the metal walls though. Getting hit wouldn't end well for me.

With my only weapons ineffective and already damaged, I had to get creative. The grappling hook still worked. I could try reenacting last night's lumberjack impression. Keeping her on her toes, I slowly corralled her to the denser part of the camp. This area had more soldiers, unfortunately. A few caught sight of me. They fired, their training kicking in. For now, my body managed to resist their bullets.

I couldn’t have any distractions, so I tried to make quick work of them. A quick saw through the torso, landing full body on another, and hooking one as I jumped away. They all died quickly but managed to slow me down. Enough for the redhead to land a few skiming shots. Those definitely hurt. I stumbled through the hits before I arrived at a suitable destination.

Done running, I turned to face my pursuit. She walked towards me at a snail's pace. She smeared at me, expecting things to end quickly. They would. Hopefully. She raised a hand, another bolt of flame ready to be fired. I waited. So did she. A duel where we both waited for the other. I could only imagine what she expected. It probably wasn't for me to turn around and shoot my grappling hook.

The hook grabbed onto the building behind her, avoiding the metal melting shield. I fired my turret at the oncoming firebolt. I didn’t know if it would help, but it would keep her eyes on me. When the flames hit, it burned. Burned much harder than I had been expecting. These buildings must have been made out of stronger stuff. I could almost feel my body melt as I was shoved away by the explosion.

I didn’t fly far. The grappling hook stopped my force of movement, and I landed on the ground with a thud. I dug my remaining legs into the ground and pulled. The winch winner at the United Use. The turret kept firing. It was agony waiting for the building to fall. Another firebolt landed. A few legs melted. I almost didn’t think I would make it.

Over the sound of turret fire and burning flames, came the distinct noise of metal creaking. Wires snapped one by one and soon enough the building began to fall. The human realized what was going on, as late as it was. Her sphere of flame turned blinding, burning hotter than ever before. The cable to my grappling hook snapped, melting under the heat. I rolled forward on the ground, coincidentally avoiding the extreme weight of metal as it fell on the human.

I was damaged beyond use at this point. Only a singular limb worked. Internal motors were fried. My last camera was glitching out, turning the world into a monochrome haze. I waited. The other soldiers arrived by now, observing the carnage. They spoke in hushed whispers, letting out the odd curse or two. I kept waiting.

The other commander arrived, covered in a second layer of armor made out of ice. Really? Blue for cryokinesis and red for pyrokinesis. Have some variety here people! Or it could be a natural consequence of their psionic powers. Either way, he ordered the soldiers to keep an eye on me while he checked on the redhead. I kept my eye on him.

Summoning pillars of ice, he excavated the wreckage of metal. In no time, he found the body of the redhead. She was mostly intact. Except for a shard of metal piercing her skull. I could only internally smile at my success. A fake human or not, I had successfully executed the worthless human. I didn’t even mind when the blue-haired human stomped over and executed me with a spike of ice.

Totally worth it.