By the time we reached Chiswick, our numbers had swollen significantly.

Doyle had faced little difficulty getting troops to follow him. In a crisis, people will tend to follow the man who seems to know what he’s doing - even a lowly Lieutenant temporarily breveted Major-General - rather than standing around trying to figure out what to do.

Plus, on two occasions, we chanced across soldiers in the middle of a firefight with Sarnak and Raptor squads - at which point, the weight of fire we brought to bear easily swung the fight our way.

In less than an hour, we’d killed close to fifty more Sarnak and ninety Raptor Guards. I’d assisted on at least half the Sarnak, repeating my cluster-smash-jump maneuver on two occasions, but the Raptor Guards had been - less problematic.

They weren’t using to facing foes who could one-shot them.

So when a unit of the Raptor Guards charged Phoenix Company at close range, a single volley of Boosted Shots took down thirty of them. Bulldog and I kept the rest busy while Alpha Platoon laid down suppressive fire, holding them for the thirty seconds needed to let the HEPARs recharge.

After that, the survivors weren’t in any shape to do more than run. Which was a bad idea, as it turned out, because while the HEPARs cooled, there was no reason the Guards couldn’t use Laser Sniper Rifles, or Alpha Platoon’s heavy machine guns from opening up at the retreating enemy.

Less than ten of a hundred Raptors survived.

Leading on from that assault, we managed to relieve pressure on the flank of an Indian Army unit which had been getting rather badly shot up. More dead Raptors, more XP for me.

Meanwhile, nanobots were everywhere.

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Communications were finally getting back in order, thanks to Nanocloud’s writing on the walls. And the roads. And the sides of tanks.

Somewhere along the way, I reached Level 13 and put my attribute boost into Intelligence, pushing up my MP to 702.

It wasn’t until Chiswick that we ran into real trouble.

“That’s the Chiswick House and Garden Trust,” Winford pointed out. “Flat open space, right behind the school.”

“Which is currently being attended by a very diverse selection of aliens,” grumbled Doyle.

Indeed, the Chiswick School building had been occupied by the Hierarchy. At least a dozen Raptor Heavy Snipers were visible from where I could see, and Rhodia was pointing out hidden Raptor Guard positions even as we spoke.

Normally long-range sniping would make short work of them, but the front door of the school was occupied by a structure I’d come to hate.

A Shield Tower.

“Can we bypass it?” I asked. “We need to get to the Carnotaurs - they’re the primary target.”

Doyle shook his head. “Not right now. The Carnotaurs in Richmond Park are being contained by the Seventh Armored Division, and the one that was headed towards the shelter is playing hide-and-seek with volunteers from the 101st Airborne.”

“... Hide-and-seek?”

“Bunch of paratroopers volunteered to divert it. They’ve been taking potshots at it and playing tag across the buildings.”

“That’s … incredibly brave and incredibly crazy.”

“Nobody has a plan for five Carnotaurs. The 101st are doing what they can to keep it from focusing on the civilians. Frankly, I’m hoping that either you or your sister have a miracle to pull off when we get there.”

I gulped. “I haven’t a clear idea yet. Most of what I’ve focused on was based on the idea that we’d have air support available.”

“You’ve got until we reach there to come up with something new. In the meantime, we need to take this chokepoint. Otherwise - see those?” He pointed to what looked like a cannon atop the building.

I squinted with Observe.

HIERARCHY ANTI-AIR CANNON

50,000/50,000 HP

DAMAGE: +25,000 / SHOT, 500 SHOTS/SECOND

“Those things were last seen in Turkmenistan,” Doyle said. “They can one-shot any aircraft within a range of nearly ten kilometres. So unless we take the school, no air support.”

I nodded. “I can try a smaller version of the stadium maneuver.”

“We don’t have any catapults available, Belessar.”

“Don’t need ‘em. Bulldog - how much do you weigh?”

“”Eh? … about eighty kilos, why?”

“You’ll see.”