Chapter 18: The Loser's Strategy
The sound of sirens echoed through the entire street as the mechanical spiders and cyborgs started to be drawn towards the noise.
"They seem to be attracted to the sound..."
Leo noticed the situation, and Anna, seeing it too, looked at him.
"Then let's break out! Are you ready!?"
Anna turned to look at the remaining four members of Squad 4. Leo had already raised his gun, and another lightly wounded team member was carrying the most severely injured. Without a second thought, Anna opened the door. She and Leo took the lead, covering the two injured members as they began moving through the streets.
The siren’s sound moved erratically through the district, confusing the mechanical creatures, but what was it exactly?
In the sky, two dragonfly-like objects flew over the street—that was the answer—miniature drones.
On a hill not far from the city, two figures were hiding in the trees, controlling the drones. These were Dylan and John.
Two hours ago, Dylan and John had taken out what looked like dragonflies from their backpacks and showed the team. These were the drones they had built themselves. Before joining the resistance, they were both passionate about mechanics, but had no choice but to join the fight for their families.
"See? I told you these could draw the killer machines away!" Dylan said, watching as the drones successfully distracted the mechanical creatures and pulled them out of the city. They high-fived. Step one of their plan was a success. The second step: Alex and the rest were sneaking in from another direction.
"Hurry!"
The rest of Squad 6, led by Chad, crouched low and covered each other, using the buildings as cover as they advanced toward the city center. Alex pulled out his communicator, preparing for the next move...
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"Rrraaagh!!"
In the city center, a mechanical spider, its claws raised, was about to attack when a bullet pierced its power core, followed by an arrow that exploded, sending fire everywhere. Leo and Anna's shooting skills were now impeccable.
The wounded members of Squad 4, protected by Anna and Leo—the two elite marksmen of the resistance—cautiously made their way towards the outskirts of the city.
During the chaos, Anna casually asked, "Your shooting was really on point just now, but still not quite as good as mine..."
Leo, unsure whether to laugh or cry, just gave a wry smile.
"I can’t help it—some people just don’t like it when a guy’s better with a gun than they are."
Anna knew exactly what he meant. She shook her head with a sigh, about to respond, when suddenly, bullets began to fly from the side, forcing them to take cover behind the building.
Leo peeked out to assess the situation, but things were looking grim.
"Dammit...this is bad."
About 50 meters away, nearly 40 skeleton-type robots armed with machine guns were advancing toward them. They hadn’t been distracted by the drones. Each one wielded a heavy machine gun, taking turns unleashing a hail of bullets at the building where Anna and the others were hiding, leaving no chance to escape.
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"Bang! Bang! Bang!!"
The building was quickly being shredded by the intense gunfire, but neither Anna nor Leo were ready to give up. They had to come up with a way to take down these skeleton robots.
As the robots kept firing, suddenly a bundle of grass flew from the top of the building, landing among the machines. With a loud explosion, the nearby robots were torn apart. It turned out, the grass had been mixed with hand grenades—thrown by Leo.
Before the robots could react, more bundles of grass and mud were tossed from above, some mixed with grenades, throwing the mechanical forces into disarray.
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Anna seized the opportunity, stepping forward with her bow and firing a series of flaming arrows into the robots, quickly spreading fire. The machines were caught in a dilemma, which was exactly the opening Anna needed.
With incredible speed, Anna switched to her gun and began rapidly taking down the robots, one after another, without missing a beat. She truly was the best marksman in the resistance.
As the skeleton robots were destroyed and the numbers dwindled, Anna and Leo saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
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But finally, the two drones were shot down by the mechanical spiders. This was bad news—the distracted spiders began to return to the city and quickly moved to reinforce the fight against Anna and the others.
The situation quickly flipped as the rest of the machines returned to support the others.
Despite Leo's incredible stamina, he was beginning to tire, and with no more hand grenades, there was nothing left to confuse the machines. Anna’s bullets were running low, and all they could do was retreat behind the building, letting the machines fire relentlessly.
The entire building was about to collapse under the gunfire, and Anna, Leo, and the other two team members exchanged looks, not knowing what would happen next...
"...Squad 4, please respond...This is Squad 6..."
Through the faint static, Anna's communicator crackled.
Both Anna and Leo were stunned because they had no idea Squad 6 was in the area, and they hadn’t been told that reinforcements were coming. Anna hesitantly answered the call.
"This is Squad 4, who is this?"
"This is Alex! Is that you, Anna?"
Anna and Leo were stunned to hear Alex’s voice. It was almost impossible to believe.
"How is it you...?!"
Anna asked, still in disbelief, as Alex responded without wasting time.
"Of course I’m here to rescue you! No more talking, just watch this!"
With that, Alex dropped the mic, and Anna couldn’t help but feel a mixture of confusion and anticipation.
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Just as the remaining hundred skeleton robots and spiders in Tacoma launched an all-out assault on the building where Anna and her team were hiding, strange little spheres suddenly appeared from the sky on both sides.
The spheres landed near the robots and exploded, spraying a flammable substance, which quickly ignited in a massive burst of flames, creating a wall of fire.
This was Squad 6’s ambush—using slingshots to launch coal balls. Though the machines were already aware and on guard, this was part of the plan.
The robots quickly shifted their focus to pursue the source of the attack, but unexpectedly, a water jet of some unknown liquid shot out from 20 meters away. Before the machines could react, the fire erupted again, even bigger than before. It turned out, the liquid was oil.
Now, all the mechanical creatures were caught in the flames.
To explain this strategy, let’s rewind two hours...
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Two hours earlier, Squad 6 had devised a plan. Dylan and John used their drones to lead the machines in circles, then split into two teams. They located an abandoned gas station in the city, turning it into coal balls to launch with slingshots. Joey and Gordon gathered mini pressure washers to spray gasoline on the machines to intensify the flames.
The heat from the fire made it impossible for the machines to detect humans, and this was the key to the plan. The third wave began with spraying a heat-resistant resin.
Under Chad’s cover and leadership, Brenda, Shelley, Susan, Nick, Max, and Alex all rushed out to spray the resin, with Alex even using his "air" abilities to help quickly coat multiple spiders at once.
Soon, most of the robots had their mechanical eyes covered with the resin, temporarily losing the ability to detect humans. For Squad 6, a non-direct confrontation strategy had worked remarkably well.
"Quick, quick!"
Without lingering, the team rushed to Anna and Leo’s position. Alex was the first to reach Anna. He purposefully coughed and said with a smirk:
"I’m here to save you, Anna goddess."