Sunday, January 23rd, 2050

  In my shelter below the Colwood fire department, Anna’s new body was primed and ready for her consciousness. With some trepidation, she looked at the skinless head that had an eerie resemblance to a terminator from the movies. The “brainpan” was currently open so we could transfer and install her Mack brain.

  I told her “Don’t worry, once the skin is attached, it will be almost indistinguishable from a human head. Except for the special features you ordered of course.”

  Anna visibly got a grip on herself and said “Let’s do this!” She moved to a cot Arina and I had prepared for the occasion and laid down. I gently deactivated her and opened her skull to remove her electronic brain. Minutes later, Anna was installed in her new body. She quickly got up and ran over to the mirror.

  “Damn, I’m looking good!” she grinned. “I just have to…”

  There is a slightly unusual emergence warning, Elya announced.

  The big screen of the entertainment system came to life.

  Warning!

  Attack Detected

  Aberrant machines have started firing projectiles at the general area of Victoria City. Internet connectivity has been disabled. Phone systems have been disabled. Audio and visual surveillance have been disabled. Electricity has been rerouted to emergency lighting, communications, and power. Emergency ordinance and State of Emergency laws are in effect.

  Please remain calm and follow your optical augment’s directions to the nearest shelter.

  “That’s a new one,” I mused. Usually such announcements would be about nearby emergences, but this sounded like the attack came from outside the city. Time to do some reconnaissance.

  “Elya, please start half of our Spectracopters, disperse them over Victoria and look where the bombardment is coming from.”

  I’m on it.

  Blue icons slowly crept over the map of the city. Anna, who was not familiar with the system, asked “What do those symbols mean?”

  Arina helpfully explained “Blue symbols are friendly units. That means Magical Girls, HANAF or in this case Cait’s bots. Reconnaissance drones to be exact.”

  Just in time for my explanation, part of the image switched to slow-motion footage of a massive shell plowing into a highrise. The detonation completely eviscerated a large corner office and did considerable damage to the rest of the building.

  On the ground, people were running for their lives. Not all of them made it, I could see some being smashed by falling debris.

  Those appear to be fired by Type 18 Mack artillery. The trajectory points to San Juan Island as the source.

  “We need to do something about this!” Arina exclaimed.

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  “And we will,” I answered. Through the command and control software on my augs I directed some of the Spectracopters eastward to San Juan Island. Pointing at the screen, I explained “The drones here are moving towards the source of the bombardment. Hopefully they will find the Mack artillery. And over at Vanguard Enterprises some combat drones are getting ready.”

  Anna looked somewhat overwhelmed by the developments. Arina, being much more familiar with our operations, asked “Bombardier drones?”

  “Yes. And a few Dragonflies as escorts.”

  A few minutes later, Elya reported

  Mack artillery detected. These are indeed Type 18.

  On the screen, the images of exploding buildings in Victoria were replaced by footage of Mack artillery. Huge coil guns jutting out of insectoid steel carapaces, moving on dozens of short, massive legs. As we watched, these abominations spat massive projectiles at our home city. Contrails crisscrossed the sky, painting trails of death towards Victoria.

  With grim satisfaction I noted “Good that we started to ignore the concerns of the City Council about excessive armaments in civilian hands. First flight of thirty Bombardiers is airborne.”

  Minutes later, my “Bonsai Bombardier” drones arrived on the scene. In dive bomber style, they delivered their armor piercing HEAT bombs. With unerring precision, each of the bombs struck a critical part of a Mack. The jets of molten metal ripped through the coils of barrels, pierced reactors and in some cases, took out the cybernetic brain of the machines. Yet the destruction did not look that spectacular. A flash, a shower of sparks and a Mack that stopped moving.

  It did, however, not go entirely our way. A swarm of Type Six kamikaze drones tried to intercept my little bombers. The Dragonfly fighters drones pounced on them, and dozens spiraled down in flames or outright exploded. Even so, a few found their target and annihilated a Bombardier along with themselves.

  What followed was a wild but one-sided aerial dogfight where Dragonflies chased enemy Sixes down and ripped them up with their miniature machine guns. Bombardiers that had survived and were not out of bombs yet sped away, only to return for a second bombing run.

  Within three minutes, over twenty huge Macks lay disabled on the ground, surrounded by countless smaller drone wrecks. My surviving drones set course back to their launch cradles at Vanguard Enterprises. Of the Type Six Mack drones, there were no survivors.

  Anna wondered “Was that all?”

  “Yes, and it is sufficient for now. These machines are out of order for at least a few weeks. Until then, we better find a way to shut down their base.”

  Switching back to Victoria, our drones showed us eerie footage of a burning city with empty streets. Some time later, fire brigades and ambulances dared to come out of their shelters. We did our best to support them. While I had no drones for firefighting, the Spectracopters proved useful in identifying survivors among the victims. I was talking to the civilian rescue service, while Arina used whatever contacts she had in the military to help coordinate their efforts. Maybe exceeding her authority in some cases, but I considered it justified.

  Monday, January 24th, 2050

  Way too early in the morning, B.S.O.D called. In a slightly exasperated tone she asked “Was it you who shot up the Macks on San Juan Island? Without telling us? We have been running ourselves ragged trying to find the enemy artillery, until one of our drone pilots happened to find the wrecks!”

  “Perhaps you should consider upgrading your drone recon network. Once we have more AutoChefs out there to prevent a famine, I’m sure Vanguard Enterprises can make you a good offer.”

  “Ha. Ha. But wait a moment, doesn't HANAF own half of your company anyway?”

  “Sort of, and maybe they will feel like being generous towards SHOCKS with their half of our production capacity,” I needled her. “But seriously, with our current arrangement there may be lapses in coordination from time to time. Perhaps SHOCKS and HANAF should have something like a common pool of drones to draw from.”

  “Thanks for trying to do my job for me,” B.S.O.D snarked back.

  “But seriously, we will need to coordinate better. I’m thinking of giving you a MG liaison, I just have to figure out whom I can spare.”

  “Looking forward to it!” I was actually serious about that. The Magical Girls I had worked with so far had all been decent persons and easy enough to get along with.