As soon as I had a little pack of creep around me, I led them through the burning ruins of Vortali’s south gate. The enormous red beam had fallen, lying in a smoking heap. We stepped right over it.

The turrets atop the pale grey stone walls fired death down on us. They were shaped like stylized Chinese lions, shooting explosive arrows from their gaping open mouths. Every third turrent zapped our creep, slowing them down. “Take out the slows!” Sage shouted. “We gotta get up there!”

Grandpa Shadow Stepped up onto the outer wall and began hacking the closest slow turret to pieces. I used my Roped Into It ability and swarmed up to the inner wall’s parapet. I shot the turret right in front of me, reloaded, shot again. Even though it felt like I should be taking a baseball bat to it, my revolver-based abilities were too good. It shut down with a sad clanking noise — despite the fact that it looked like it was carved from granite, without a mechanical piece on it — and moved on to the next.

The next four turrets were closer together, only about five feet apart. I eyed them, calculating the distance, and then fired off one of my vest's special abilities.

A blast of lightning shot out from my chest. My ears rang as it zapped the next couple turrets along before hopping across the gap to electrify the ones on the other side as well. The turrets froze up.

I Inspected them. "Thirty seconds before they can shoot again," I yelled. "Get some reinforcements up here." I grabbed a rope out of my inventory and flung it over the wall. Bill and Bob swarmed up. Sage had her Three-Barrel Race skill going. She teleported up to the wall with Grandpa and ran along, helping take down the turrets on the far side.

As we took apart the turrets, our minions advanced toward the next gate. Up ahead, tall Smith shouted, "Some help with these towers!" I finished off the last of the stunned turrets and sprinted ahead, past a machine gun turret firing a hail of bullets down on my creep. It ignored me as I went past.

Smith's team was up ahead. They had come in the west side gate and were approaching the entrance to the next level of the outpost. It was flanked by tall towers, three tiers high, bristling with turret defenses. The towers were tall, narrow pagodas with blue tile roofs sticking off of each level. Red and gold flags fluttered along the openings of each level.

The lowest level of the pagoda featured turrets that resembled stylized dragon fireworks, like I've seen in depictions of Chinese New Year. They spat out missiles which broke into six or seven separate seekers, flying in spiraling patterns toward their targets. Then they’d explode in a cascade of red and gold sparks that knocked back the creep and delivered a nasty, stunning debuff.

The next level up had a slower rate of fire, shooting another lightning attack that further slowed and stunned our creep. The top level sent a steady stream of projectiles into the creep, mowing them down, but only attacked one at a time. It was the lower two levels we really needed down.

Smith's team was at the bottom of the tower, attacking it. "We can't reach the guns up above,” Smith shouted up at me. "We've made progress on the door. See if there's a way up on the inside."

I studied the tower in front of me. The parapet on which I stood dead-ended into the tower. The opening of the first tier was about seven feet over my head. I holstered my gun, backed up, and sprinted.

As I approached the wall, I leapt. My fingers caught the lip of the opening above. I scrabbled for a better handhold, then got one elbow up. I took a deep breath and pulled my other arm and upper body over the edge of the opening. My feet scrabbled against the tower, trying to get a purchase.

With another enormous effort, I pulled myself up and inside, rolling over to lay on my back and stare up at the guns. Fortunately, none of them seemed to be aiming at me. They all had way more health than any of our turrets had. Close to 800 points, plus a regeneration that would heal them back up to full every few minutes. This was going to take more than my revolver.

I checked my inventory for the stuff Dwight had given me, then reconsidered. I was on the first level. If I blew this one up, it might be even harder to get to the second and third levels, and we needed to take the whole tower down.

There was a bundled pile of rope and slats on the other side of the tower. I walked over to it, discovered it was a rope ladder, and threw it down for the Mongeese. They swarmed up to me. "We need to find a way up there," I said, pointing. "We'll take it down one level at a time."

We stood on a six-foot-wide wooden platform surrounding the inner core of the tower. There was a three-foot-tall wall along the outside, the guns and missile launchers mounted on the walls, firing down at our creep as it streamed toward the gate. Thick wooden posts held up the level above, with solid pillars at each corner.

I sent a quick message to Mitch, the Ragtags’ Canadian demo expert, who should be on the other side of the outpost. You able to lend a hand with blowing something up?

Kinda busy here, he answered back. But if you need advice, let me know.

"Right." I turned back to the Mongeese. "Any of you bomb experts, or do we just try to make it blow up good?"

Black shrugged. “I’ve got some skills. [Remove Landmine], [Premature Detonation], [Defuse Bomb], [Cut the Red Wire], [Explosive Ordnance Disposal].”

“Uh, yeah,” I said, calling up his character sheet. I’d forgotten he was a Demolitions Expert. “That should do it.”

"The first order of business is to get up there.” Tall Smith pointed to the nearest corner, where a metal ladder was bolted to the wall. “Double time.”

I let Smith and the Mongeese go first, while I peered out through the opening to check on our progress. This set of towers was stopping our creep wave dead. "Try to hold back a wave," I called to Grandpa. "As soon as we get this tower down, we'll push as hard as we can."

"We'll see what I can do," Grandpa agreed. He and Sage had finished taking out the turrets on the south side of the towers, and were now proceeding up along the north, clearing everything. Our strategy was to break as much of Vortali’s infrastructure as we could, so that even if they did get repair bots out, they'd have to make choices and leave options open for us.

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I checked my map. All of the spawn points were still shown as ours. There was a stream of creep all headed this way. I sent a message to Juana. Everything quiet there?

So far, so good, she replied. I'm not taking any chances. Dwight and I are getting all of our repairs done. It's going to burn up everything Veda sent us, but I want us in tip-top shape. I can't help feeling something is going to happen. I've had no luck getting through to anyone on the other side.

Neither have I. Just hang tight. I'll see what we can do when we're done here. I turned my attention back to the battlefield.

Smith reported in from upstairs. "Laying charges on the top floor. I don't know if we have enough cord to string all three floors at once. We may have to blow the top two and then come back for the bottom.”

“That's fine," I said. “Get it going up there.” Meanwhile, I pulled some of my own supplies out and started setting explosives under each of the turrets and towers here.

“Proceeding to the second floor,” Smith reported.

"I'm going to jump across to the other tower and start there," I told him.

“Good call.”

I used Roped Into It, which had a five-minute cool-down and was back up by now, to swing across the gateway to the other tower. The gate was still sealed shut. One squad of our pirate minions had made it this far and got a couple of hits in with their figurehead battering ram, but hadn't even scratched the thing before they had been taken down.

The second tower was set up like the first. I kicked the rope ladder over the side to make it easier for anyone to come up from below and then proceeded to the top floor.

I was in the middle of laying charges under the top floor cannons when a pulsed laser shot missed my head by inches.

It had come from behind me. I dropped to the ground, rolled over, and sprang up, Quick Drawing my gun and firing in the direction I thought the shot had come from. I activated my Trick Shot skill. It failed, reporting no target available.

Another shot, a beam of purple coherent light, stabbed across from the other side of the tower right toward me. I lunged sideways, and it burned a hole in my drover’s coat.

You shouldn't be able to dodge laser bolts, but I wasn't going to complain if this reality engine slowed it down just enough for me to have a chance. I aimed a shot back where the bolt had come from, and as far as I could tell, missed.

I swore. "Show yourself!"

There was no reply. I decided to give myself some space, so I ran for the ladder, intending to get down to the ground. As my hand touched the ladder, another bolt sizzled out of nothingness and hit my hand. I shouted and jerked back as pain seared my left hand.

I had the presence of mind to send a quick warning to the team. Someone's here, shooting at me! Then, out of instinct, dropped flat to the ground as another beam shot past me.

Think, Shad, think!

I cast High Noon. This was, as far as I could tell, me against one other opponent who was shooting at me. That made it a duel.

[High Noon Activated] popped up in front of me, and I grinned.

I stood up, my gun in my hand, listening, trying to hear or smell or sense my opponent. I used Reload to fill all six chambers of my gun with frag rounds. Dwight and Sage had made them special for me, just in case we ever had to fight someone with camouflage.

"You might as well show yourself," I challenged. "You can't shoot me, not until I take the first shot. My spells have a long range.”

A moment later, someone shimmered into existence on the other side of the tower. It was a space elf woman, beautiful and inhuman like most of the space elves I'd seen so far. She was a little shorter than me, with long, flowing purple hair that seemed like it ought to get in her way in a fight. She wore a black catsuit and carried a wicked-looking rifle as well as a short sword at her belt.

She raised one hand to me in salute. "You are the human warrior, Shad Williams," she said.

"That's right.”

“I was in Mak’Gar's warriors chat during the competition. You fought well." She raised her rifle, holding it across her chest. "It will be an honor to defeat you."

“Maybe I’ll be the one to defeat you,” I said. I was sending messages to Grandpa and Smith as fast as I could, letting them know that there was at least one enemy here who had been in disguise and not showing up on my camouflage. I've got her distracted, but I don't know how long that'll last. If there's others, we could be in big trouble.

"You have fought well and tried hard. There is no shame in failing now."

"Not planning to fail. Besides, you started all of this, attacking our base."

She shrugged. "We had no choice. It was us or you.”

“We weren't threatening you at all.”

“Our sources warned us what is about to happen. I'm sorry. I'm certain you would have done well, but we cannot risk our own Phase Three for the sake of indigenous. Not when the stakes are greater than ever before.”

"How so?" I asked, momentarily diverted. "I mean, the stakes are pretty big for my people, but for you guys, this is just an average Thursday, isn't it?"

“Proxima only hires the best. That’s us, and you savages are making us look bad,” the woman said. "Now, let us conclude this foolish duel. I remind you, you will respawn far away, back at your own node, whereas I will respawn here in my camp. You have no chance of killing enough of us to incur our death penalty. I have literally nothing to lose, and you have no way to win."

I caught the way her eyes flickered to something just a few feet to my right. "Apparently you've got a lot to lose," I grunted. I changed out my first shot, swapping from the frag to a knockback.

I raised my gun, took aim with her targeted. I fired a Trick Shot, sending the knockback round at her, then dropped to a crouch and shot at the place I'd seen her looking.

My frag bullet exploded, sending pieces of shrapnel into the air. A couple of them found a target. They lit up bright white as they impacted someone I couldn't see, and I switched my targeting immediately.

The elf woman had been knocked back out of the tower, just as I'd expected. With luck, Grandpa and Sage would be there, ready. I just had to deal with the camouflaged enemy still up here. High Noon would be on cool down for a long time, so I couldn't try that trick again.

A bolt of light burned into the wooden floorboards right beside me. I engaged Fastest Gun in the West and sprinted forward, throwing my arms out wide as I did.

I smashed into someone I couldn't see, driving them back in front of me and crunching them between my body and the corner of the tower. I shoved the muzzle of my revolver into my enemy and fired the other four frag rounds in a Barrage. It was a waste of the rounds, but I hadn't had time to reload.

I did now, just with normal rounds, and shot another cylinder into the invisible enemy. A space rifle clattered to the floorboards beside me as drops of purple-tinted blood splattered all around.

My enemy groaned in pain. I reached up, caught a hold, and wrestled him to the ground. A moment later, the camouflage failed, and I was looking into the face of a male space elf.

He sneered at me. "Fool." I felt his knife stabbing upward. He had drawn his short sword and was thrusting at me. I dodged right and it sliced through my duster.

I shot the elf again. He was hurting bad, but not dead yet. He struggled against me, trying to get his sword back for another attack. I grabbed at it with my wounded left hand, felt the blade slicing through my fingers and palm. But I held on, desperate to keep it away from any vital organs.

He pushed up, throwing me off-balance. My gun went flying, arcing out over the drop before disappearing over the edge of the tower. I rolled to one side and came up at the edge of the walkway, one foot sticking out over the hole down to ground level. The elf was lightning fast. He sprang to his feet and sprinted at me. Blood ran down from his forehead, streaking across his face, making him look horrific.

I cast Quick Draw and fired six rounds into his torso. The elf stumbled back. I reloaded and fired again, and he collapsed to his knees before vanishing into nothingness.

Shad? Shad, are you all right?

I answered Sage’s message. Fine. I’ll be right down.

Good, because we can’t get past this gate and we’re on the clock here! Stop lazing around and get back to work!