Not a soul slept that night. Carpenters worked under lanterns and torches, while rifles and revolvers laid out on blankets, some disassembled, undergoing cleaning and any final prep needed. Kuros and Clarence handed out ammunition and weapons to those who wanted them. Former deputies joined in, bringing out the sheriff’s hidden stash of guns and ammunition as well, much to everyone’s relief. Now we had more than enough. If the town went out, it could go out guns blazing until the last man was left standing with guns and ammunition to spare.

As the morning hours approached, I joined Clarence on his shooter’s perch. Despite everyone happening, he seemed almost gleeful hovering over the PanTech rifle. And I had to say, this one was interesting. It must’ve been the commander’s rifle, since regular soldiers weren’t afforded these kinds of mods. Stabilizer, heat sink, long range optics that… were likely meant to accompany a specific enhancer implant. The more I studied this rifle, the more impressive I was convinced its former owner must’ve been.

“Clarence, did you ever meet the previous Adversity Management commander here?”

He grinned. “No… Well, yes, but not really. She was a strange one. Almost never left their camp at the edge of the territory. I think I heard her voice maybe once or twice? Never saw her face, but one of the other soldiers mentioned she was covered in tattoos and piercings. Rolo seemed to have some history with her, but he wouldn’t talk much about it, and I guess… now you can’t exactly ask him.”

I frowned and nodded, thinking of Rolo. It sounded like there was a story there, and it would’ve been interesting to hear it.

“I guess we’ll never know. Let me have a look.”

He took a step back and I gave the rifle a closer inspection. I wasn’t exactly the biggest expert on these weapons, but I knew my way around one. I was able to toggle the optics over to night vision. Perfect, since the dawn was still hours away.

“Have a look through, Clarence. Here’s the selector to toggle back to standard optics, but right now you can see in the dark with it.”

Clarence’s eyes went wide like a kid and he immediately checked to see if what I was saying was true.

“Holy!” he shouted. “This beats anything I’ve ever seen. You ain’t kiddin’!”

He looked back through, and I saw his smile fade almost instantly. He reached out and grabbed me by the arm, pulling me back in front of the rifle. I looked through the scope, and felt my blood run cold.

“Incoming!” I shouted. “ETA less than five minutes!”

Everyone below rushed to make their final preparations. Kuros and several other riders mounted their horses, long rolls of rope on their shoulders.

“Hey uh… is there any chance they’d just keep on walking past if we didn’t fire on them?”

“A small chance, Clarence, but guess what happens if we let them get that close before we start attacking.”

“Point taken,” he said, laughing nervously. His hands trembled on the rifle. He looked at me, then at his hands. “Don’t worry. Always get like this before a gunfight. Soon as the first shots are fired I’ll have the steadiest hands in town.”

“Remember, these things aren’t meant for drawn out fights. They’re fight stoppers. They blow most things away in a single shot, but not these machines. You remember where I told you to aim, right?”

“I do.”

“What do you do when it starts smoking?” I asked.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Wait five minutes before firing again and get away from it,” he said.

“Good luck!” I said, patting him on the shoulder and rushing down the ladder. I jumped off halfway, feeling a sharp pain when I hit the ground. I ignored it and sprinted to Kuros and the others.

“Any last-minute advice?” Kuros asked.

“Try to get the rope in the lowest joint. It’ll cut through if they collapse, but it’ll keep the rope in place and slow their movement even if we’re not able to bring one down. Remember, focus all your attention on one, even if the others get closer to the town.”

“The furthest one back, right? You sure we shouldn’t go after the closest?”

I shook my head.

“If we go after the one in the front, the others will attack too. If you get the one in the back, the ones in the front should keep going and leave it behind. We won’t register as a true threat, so it will likely treat us just like it would a bird or a squirrel. Until we damage it… things may change then. Threat prioritization is fluid. It’s based on an algori—”

I paused, taking note of the confused expressions on the faces of every man and woman doing their best to listen. I had to remember that I wasn’t talking to a bunch of PanTech employees who understood these terms.

“I mean… they don’t think like we do. Zero emotion. Total logic. And I can only guess what that looks like if I don’t know exactly why they’re here, and I don’t. So, one in the back it is. Once it is fully engaged with our riders, then we can branch off and move to the next unit. That’s the only way to isolate them. If we do it any other way, we’ll have multiple units attacking the same riders.”

Kuros nodded, riding in front of those gathered.

“Alright men, and a few ladies kind enough to join us, this is it. We already know what we’re up against. We know there likely ain’t none of us making it out of this alive, but that ain’t the point. The point is we’ve got this whole big town behind us, and if we can make them slip on our blood and guts to slow them down even a few seconds, that’s how it’ll be. Any one of you ain’t made peace with that, you’re welcome to ride away now.”

He paused, looking at each one of them. He waited several seconds, scanning the group one last time.

“Good. We ride!”

Kuros drew his revolver and held it high in the air, firing it once.

I jumped on the horse, settling in behind him, then we charged forward.

The tension made it hard to breathe. I’d gone into several fights I never thought I’d win, but I couldn’t remember one that felt as hopeless as this one. We were going to get massacred until the Explorers League unit arrived. It would be a bloodbath.

And everyone riding out knew it.

The roaring of the horses’ hooves on the sand was the drumbeat that played us into battle. We rode only a few minutes before they came into view. It was only when we got closer that they acknowledged us.

The hum of heavy machine guns warming up, spinning, ready to begin feeding large caliber rounds through at any moment. Red lights shown on us, brighter than the full moon above that lit our way. It was something from a nightmare, and I had seen them before. I couldn’t imagine the immediate, depthless dread everyone around me felt.

I heard the familiar locking. They were about to fire.

“Scatter!” I shouted.

“Pair off!” Kuros ordered. “Stick to the plan!”

Machine gun fire ripped through the air like thunder, nearly cutting the horse next to us in half, doing the same to the rider. We all went off in different directions, making our movements as erratic and evasive as possible while not engaging. I only hoped this kept our threat level low enough that the front two machines would pass us.

We circled a broad circle around them, and I held my breath to see what would happen. Eventually, we made our way behind them. Instantly, all three shut off their targeting optics and stopped firing, moving forward and pretending as though we’d never existed. Several riders were dead, cut apart by the machine guns without standing a chance.

“Now!” I roared.

Pairs approached again, unspooling rope and putting distance between one another. Riders approached several legs at once, wrapping the rope around the lowest joint. The first one to hook in was cut and snapped almost immediately. I could feel the morale plummet.

“Try again!” I said.

They struggled, but the next attempt held true. The machine acknowledged this at exactly the same time we did, turning its red light to the riders beneath it, firing at them. Staying close made the legs extremely dangerous, but at least it was easier to evade the gunfire through all the blind spots beneath them. If we’d tried to engage them head on using only firepower, as Adversity Management did, we’d all be dead by now.

Kuros readied his rifle. Now, it was our turn.

We rode ahead of the others, leaving a third of our riders behind to hassle the unit in the back.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw the rope sliced a second time, leaving the riders to continue struggling hopelessly. But struggle they did.

I forced myself to turn away.

I could only hope the next group fared better.