I came back to the line only to find age. Half a dozen of my bears were down, with spines embedded in their heads, and the ground was coated with small squid like corpses.

  “Fuck, Deadbeat get those broken bears back to the creation engine.” I pulled up my new rifle and aimed at the Antithesis lines. In the distance I could see turion was busy dealing with a pair of Twelves, half a dozen fifteens were pelting our location with their strange projectiles, and the street was absolutely covered in the lower models.

  “What the hell happened i five minutes?”

  I opened up with my rifle, methodically taking out the fifteens. I was about half way down the line when I realised some of the Fifteens were different, instead of a gaping mouth they had a drical snout, various frills ran down their backs, and their legs had fins on them.

  As I watched the odd fifteen it spat out something resembling a football. As soon as the projectile ected with the ground it unrolled into one of those tiny squids, which my bears promptly exterminated. I didn’t hesitate after that, blowing away the remaining Fifteens in the line.

  “Let me guess, more O variants?”

  Correct. Fifteens and Nines, probably the Threes too, although their ges are more subtle.

  “There are Nines here?”

  The squids. Their stealth funality was extremely limited in an uer enviro, so this variant is u targets instead.

  “They don’t sound as bad as the stealth models.”

  They eat their way into the target then devour them from the i.

  I shuddered. “I stand corrected. How is the evacuation going?”

  Almost dohey’re just loading the st survivors now.

  “Good, things are starting to get hairy.”

  I fired another burst into the Antithesis lines, blowing holes in the writhing mass before me. Lasers scorched the area to my left, bursts of blue-white fog froze the area to my right, but the Antithesis did not let up.

  Halfway through my sed clip Hel pulled me into a group call. [We’re ready to go, but there are too many Antithesis to move the buses safely. Options?]

  [I give the bears heavy mae guns before they board the buses, but I’m not sure that’ll be enough], I reported.

  [And I wall off some of the roads to slow pursuit], Mirage added.

  [Probably not enough, the super heavy will crush anything ing from the front, aurion will do his best to clear the side streets, but the buses are fairly vulnerable from the sides, especially from a horde this size], Bright-Eyes reported. I could hear the in her voice, she wasn’t wrong.

  [Think fast people!], Hel snapped.

  I muted the call for a minute. “Nyx, is there anything else in my catalogs that would help?” I whispered.

  You could pce mines ahead of the voy, but that would only be temporary reprieve. Alternatively, we may be able to colborate with one of the other Samurai to build something more effective.

  “You could do that? Seriously?”

  It’s an option, unfortunately I don’t think your current catalogs would be suffit. Give me a sed.

  Less than a sed ter Nyx was back.

  Here’s an option, if you unlock the Css II heavy on empts Aeonys and I could put together Laser Array Empts. They’d o be set up prior t, they’re te for even Bob to fire on the go, but we could probably mount them in the buses.

  I did some quick math in my head, and frowned. “Fuck, I afford that?”

  You when you split the cost with Humboldt. 500 points and a token for the Css II heavy on empts, 300 points for each ser array.

  “That lets me afford what, one?”

  Correct, and a sed by the time the first is mounted.

  “Fine, but I want that blueprint before we’re done here.”

  I unmuted myself, “Humboldt and I fit turrets based upon her sers on the buses, that should give them a heavier punch.”

  Hel’s reply was immediate. “Do it, leave your special bears on the line while you’re w.”

  “Got it,” came Sharron’s reply.

  I ran to the bus, jumping the stairs and frightening the passengers with my sudden appearahe passengers pushed against each other trying to get out of my way. I held up one hand, “Stay calm people, I’m here for your prote after all.” As soon as the panic subsided a little I moved to the midse of the bus.

  “Nyx, do it.”

  Purchased

  Css II heavy on empts - 500 points, 1 token

  Heavy Laser Array Empt - 300 points

  vehicle mount - 25 points

  Points remaining - 106 points

  The array was huge, five feet long from butt to barrel, the back two feet was a square block a foot per side, then there was something resembling a barrel for about two feet, and finally a plus shaped muzzle on the end. It looked weird, hopefully it was as effective as Humboldt’s version. The mounting ected to the roof ahe gun around the midse, it reminded me of the guns they mounted in bombers in the really old war movies. Hopefully they would be enough to turide.

  I ran off to the bus.

  —

  It took about thirty mio get all the guns mounted. Unfortunately I lost two more bears while setting everything up, so my boys were going to have to fill in as gunners on the buses while the creation engine rebuilt my troops.

  turion performed close in support while the bears backed off to the buses, the Antithesis were just starting to cross our previous defensive lines when the n started off. Since I didn’t have ara bears to fire from my truck, I decided to take off instead of staying in lihis allowed us to pact down the voy, and trate the defensive firepower.

  As I flew over the front of the n I got to see the super-heavy work for the first time. The main guns never fired, they probably would have been overkill against the Antithesis we were fag.The smaller empts were more than capable of getting the job done anyways, putting out a frightening amount of firepower and sughtering the ining aliens. A wave of Antithesis tried to swarm the front of the tank, only to to quickly learank’s treads were as dangerous as any of its other ons. Overall it was super impressive, for non-Samurai tech.

  Behind the tank the APd buses raked the approag Antithesis hordes. Occasionally one or two Antithesis would mao close in, but it ook long before they were picked off by one of my bears or the other Samurai.

  As we made our way out of the area, and the Antithesis finally started to thin out, I let out a sigh of relief. Two shelters down, oo go.