“Bring the PanTech girl out to join us,” Eric said, flinging open the door and walking out of the building. He was unsteady on his feet, but refused any help. “Gather every deputy available and offer bounty payment to all men willing to join us! Double it. No, triple it!”
He couldn’t be serious. If that unit wasn’t in complete shambles, they’d rip him and his men apart. One healthy man, fully outfitted in a power suit could easily take ten of his men. If the commander was alive, and their enhancer still functioned normally, a hundred alone wouldn’t even break a sweat.
The deputy dragged me along the ground, like I was nothing more than a sack of meat. When we finally came to a stop, I spat the sand out of my mouth, noticing blood with it. I had internal injuries to some extent, but I had no way of knowing how bad they were. And now wasn’t the time to worry about it.
I scolded myself for using my enhancer in an attempt to get free. All I did was damage my wrists and tighten the knots even more. Now, I wouldn’t be able to depend on it if I had the opportunity.
The next few minutes were chaos. The deputies were using the gun store as a supply station for those wishing to join in the showdown. A surprising number of townspeople were willing to join in for the promise of a giant reward. Even more than had been willing to join in the fight against the Red Collar Boys. With them, the town was divided, if not downright supportive. Against PanTech, they were united. Everyone here hated PanTech, and taking into account my own experiences as a citizen, could I really even blame them? I joined a rebellion in my zone too, and I’d have likely jumped at a chance like this.
The sheriff wasn’t taking the virus seriously, or he thought it was some kind of conspiracy for PanTech to gain further control. Almost no one else in the town knew. With our lab studies of the virus, I had to accept the very real possibility that it would very soon wipe out a chunk of their population nearly all at once.
After nearly half an hour of chaotic preparation, a large gathering stood around me. There had to be nearly a hundred men, all armed.
“Sheriff!” I called out.
He was standing nearby, and approached me. He was even paler now, sweat pooling and dripping from his chin.
“Yeah? Not going to start begging more, are you?” he asked.
“I only know of one thing that could’ve damaged a PanTech unit like that, and things will be so much worse if I’m right. I understand how you feel about PanTech. Believe me, I do, but you need to hear them out or—”
He kicked me in the stomach. I saw it coming, and my armor made it feel like a kick from a child, but with the way my chest was feeling it was enough to flare the pain up again.
“Shut your mouth, missy! You are PanTech. You don’t understand nothin’ but tricks and mind games.”
“There are giant spiders, made of steel,” I continued after a deep breath. “Nearly killed me when I escaped. They could rip this whole town apart in just a few minutes.”
The sheriff laughed hard at that comment, which quickly turned to coughing. He cleared his throat and spat on the ground. Even from this distance, I could see the blood in it. Whether the virus would take moments, weeks, or even months to finish the man off, no one could predict.
After a few more minutes of patiently waiting, the “convoy” rolled up. It was beyond generous to call it that.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Three vehicles were barely rolling at all. No surprise it took them longer than I expected to arrive after they were spotted at the edge of the territory. Chunks were missing, and I saw a giant hole in one of them. My fears were confirmed. These were arachnid machine units, facing off against soldiers that were completely unprepared for them. They didn’t know any of their weaknesses, nor their strengths. If caught off guard, these arachnid units were a nightmare made real. I’d mostly only seen them wandering alone, but after the group of more than a dozen that pursued me and my Explorers League when we escaped from the walls, I could only cross my fingers that this was a single unit.
If only crossing my fingers didn’t hurt so much.
A man stepped from one of the vehicles, followed by three more.
The man who stood in front was missing his helmet, and it didn’t look like he’d removed it voluntarily. His upper body movements were sluggish, indicating he probably had reduced power above the waist. It was possible the fluid in the suit had leaked out, based on all the damage done to it. A chunk was missing from the neck, where the helmet would seal, and a sickly purple bruise decorated the left side of the man’s face. His eye was closed on that side, no doubt the eye beneath his lids was destroyed from whatever had made that impact.
Two of the other men didn’t even have suits on. Their wounds from recently removing the suits were still visible on their shirtless torsos. Normally, these types of minor wounds were simple to fix within minutes. This meant their supply had been destroyed, or separated from them, and they probably didn’t have a medic to speak of. The last man to get out had his full suit, although heavily damaged. His blaster had seen better days, but the fact it was on his hip likely meant it was functional to some degree.
All the men present immediately drew their pistols or raised their rifles, training them on the battered and beaten PanTech soldiers.
“Sheriff Eric,” the man in front began, completely undeterred by the display. “I’m afraid I have to seize command of your men temporarily. We lost our commander in the field, so the temporary role of commander has fallen on me. If we start setting up now, we might stand a small chance against the threat approaching. We engaged in three skirmishes with the—”
Sheriff Eric cocked his revolver, leveling it at the man in front of him.
“You’ll be doin’ what now? Don’t reckon I heard you right.”
The man, stone-faced, repeated himself.
“I will be taking command of your men to ensure the survival of the—”
The blast from the barrel of the sheriff’s gun shattered the calm. The bullet struck the soldier in the head, and he fell straight back on the ground.
One of the soldiers without armor was shot by another man’s rifle, before he could even react, falling on his face as he was running for cover.
The other unarmored man reached into the vehicle, pulling out a PanTech rifle, but I knew what was about to happen before I even watched it unfold in front of me.
He turned, aimed, taking several shots to his body before firing himself. The concussive force from the blast alone sent sand flying in all directions. The energy ripped through nearly a dozen men, killing or terribly maiming them in an instant. Without power armor, or at least an enhancer, the rifle was impossible for any man to control. It flew from his grip, landing several feet behind him, causing him to fall on the ground where he was shot several more times.
The soldier still in armor returned fire, each individual bullet doing very little damage to his suit. Each shot he returned killed someone as he strafed slowly toward the rifle.
“Don’t let him pick that up!” the sheriff shouted. “Concentrate all your fire on his head and neck.”
The soldier had nearly reached it, leaning down to pick it up. But leaning down had exposed a vulnerability in his armor, as he caught several rounds in his torso. He slumped back, sitting on the ground and giving up on trying to get the rifle. He clutched at his wound, trying to protect the expanding opening in his armor with his gauntlet.
He returned fire for what seemed like several more minutes before the soldier could no longer continue fighting, succumbing to his injuries.
“Get that… that… man shot in the back,” the sheriff shouted, choking several times and struggling to complete the order. “Tie him up. Kill the other three and make real sure they’re dead!”
Just a few minutes of scrapping with these soldiers left more than half the sheriff’s men and armed townsfolk dead, many in pieces. That they’d triumphed at all qualified as a miracle, only made possible by the fact the Adversity Management soldiers showed up half-dead already with hardly any functioning equipment to speak of.
I could only look on in horror. How could things have so utterly fallen apart in such a short amount of time?