Epona stared at the chaos in front of her, face impassive. She had read about the diminutive Samurai’s accomplishments, and her use of stuffed animal analogs for combat, but the scene in front of her exceeded any expectation. She sighed heavily, dismounted her horse, and signaled for Silent Saber, her sometimes partner, to follow.
Angeline had seen the new Samurai coming a long time ago, but this was the first time Evelyn had seen either of her two team mates. Her first impression of the woman was, she was tall. REALLY tall. Epona was close to eight feet tall, wearing a celtic style power armor, and carrying a massive spear. The man hiding behind her was much less impressive, he seemed to be wearing a cross between the traditional Japanese Samurai armor, and hockey pads. It looked like some of the budget Samurai cosplays she’d seen pictures of. The two swords hanging from his waist looked dangerous, but since he was sliding back and forth on what appeared to be hover shoes, it was hard for Evelyn to take him seriously.
“I’m Caitlin O’Conner, also known as Epona, and this boy behind me is Alan Smith, aka Silent Saber, you two must be Teddy and Bright Eyes.” Both Evelyn and Angeline nodded, Alan just waved meekly. “I have to say, I was warned about you, but this is more than I expected.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow, “What, you mean the armored vehicles? Those are for the bears.”
“Not that,” Epona replied, pointing back at her horse, “I’m talking about all those squirrels climbing all over everything.”
The horse was, indeed, covered in a couple foot tall, brown squirrels wearing aviator goggles and bomber jackets. The horse was unnaturally calm, as the rodents explored, and as soon as they were satisfied they’d fully explored the horse, they ran off to explore something else.
“You can’t blame me for those, they belong to Angeline. Well, most of them anyways.”
Evelyn and the two new Samurai turned to look at Bright-Eyes, who was busy cuddling one of the squirrels. “What? Evelyn doesn’t have a monopoly on cute things, I can have them too. We were discussing the plan and realized there would be holes in our coverage, so I volunteered to pick up a catalog similar to what Evelyn has, since I’ll be doing overwatch. Turns out with Class I modular recon robotics and Robotic Facades I can make something adorable too. They totally match my aesthetic, Meh he he he.”
“So why are there so many, and why are they climbing all over EVERYTHING?” Caitlin asked.
“I didn’t want to send them out to scout, so they’re in mapping mode and trying to create a super high resolution 3D map of the area by inspecting everything. I think it’s cute.”
Caitlin shot Evelyn a look, but she just shrugged. “I can’t complain, look at my ground forces. Besides, once Angeline and I split ways I may pick up a couple to assist in recon. Right now I just have one to accompany my main squad.” Evelyn petted the gray squirrel standing beside her, the only calm one in the entire area.
“She’s named after me! Wide-Eyes!” Angeline cried out with glee. Evelyn just rolled her eyes.
“Enough about squirrels for now,” Evelyn said, “It sounds like you two have some idea what Angeline and I can do, correct?” Alan nodded, still hiding behind Caitlin’s back, “I’m sorry to say we didn’t get much information about you, mind filling us in about your specialities? After that we can discuss how to handle the patrol.”
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Caitlin nodded, then reached behind herself and pushed Alan forward. “You first.”
The man turned pale, but still nodded. “I, um, use a pair of hoverblades to travel around, so I can traverse faster than most other Samurai. I also have a pair of beam sabers, they’re sharp enough to cut through most models up to the late twenties, and I can extend the blades up to several feet, although they’re much less lethal when extended.”
“No ranged capabilities?” Evelyn asked. The man flinched back, shook his head, then slunk back behind Caitlin.
The tall woman sighed, “I’ve known him for years, and even after becoming a Samurai he still doesn’t have any confidence in himself.” Caitlin straightened up, “As for me, my lance has an energy blade that can penetrate almost anything, at least on a charge, and it can fire high powered laser blasts for ranged opponents. Áine, my horse, can crush anything smaller than herself with her hooves, and she has a pair of built-in missile racks for bigger targets.”
Evelyn and Angeline turned to look at the horse, which was casually chewing on some grass nearby. “Your horse has missile racks?” Angeline asked.
“She may look realistic, but she’s artificial, just like all your forces.”
“Right, who are we to judge, again.” Evelyn replied with a shrug. She gestured for the others to follow, and started walking towards the closest Grizzly. “I have lures that can attract most small Antithesis within a kilometer, and I’ve mounted one in the back of each of my IFVs.” She opened the back of the Grizzly, showing off the lure mounted up near the command section. “My bears have no problem dealing with small Antithesis, but they lack the punch to deal with larger models reliably. At least, without a significant setup time. I have some limited detection capabilities through the Foxes, but Angeline and I were concerned that larger models may just ignore the lure, and just lurk somewhere when we drive by. That’s why she bought the squirrels, so she can look for hiding models.” Angeline nodded. “We think the best idea would be to space the IFVs out evenly, and slowly move forward; the bears can clear out the majority of the Antithesis as we go. When Angeline identifies a larger model, or one attacks the lines, one of you two can react and go eliminate it. Any issues with that?”
Caitlin turned to look at her friend, who just shrugged, so she turned back. “And when there’s no heavier models we what? Hang back, just clear with your troops?”
“That’s up to you. Maybe one of you could stick closer to the wall just in case we discover a breach, since that’s also one of our objectives.”
Caitlin nodded, “Then that’s what I’ll do. Alan can cover the other side of the column.” The man swallowed nervously, but still nodded.
The four Samurai exchanged glances for a moment, then Angeline clapped her hands and took a step into the middle of the group. “Sounds like a plan! I’ll ride with Evelyn on the truck, let’s hope everything goes smoothly.”
Once they got everything packed away, and started moving, it took a few minutes to get to the city, even though Epona insisted on riding there. Turns out Áine could move faster than most ground bound vehicles, and based on a few jumps she made along the way the horse could probably jump easily to the top of a two or three story building. It just looked so realistic that Evelyn kept forgetting it was a robot, until the horse did something completely unbelievable again. Caitlin actually beat them to the rendezvous point, disappearing from sight with an unbelievable burst of speed once the city came into view. The woman, and the horse, looked quite proud of themselves once the column caught up again.
Evelyn exited the truck and took a look around. The buildings looked intact, and the wall was fine, not surprising since they were at the opposite side as the Ocean, and quite close to the expressway. Angeline sent out her fleet of squirrels to scout. Each one extended a wingsuit like webbing from between its limbs, then took off using a tiny, jetpack-like booster on their back. After a minute or so she turned back to the group and smiled, “Recon is a go! No significant threats detected!”
Evelyn nodded, a small grin crossing her face. “Then it’s time to get the line setup, let's get this show on the road.”