“Why won't these assholes give up?” I moaned as I nudged a ganger with my toe. I'm sure he would have pined if he hadn’t been busy cradling his busted nose and messed up fingers. I didn’t reize the gang colors, which probably meant the small group came from a couple sectors away to attack the refugees.

  “I still don’t get what they’re after. Attag a refugee camp to, what? Kidnap people? Steal their pocket money?” Nora said as she threw the st of the thugs away from the little corridor betweeerminal and the camp.

  “I don’t know if they even have a pn. I think most of them just hear that some upper-city folk are taking cover down here and figure they’ll be easy targets. At least this lot had a pn and tried to attack the people going into the Terminal to get some supplies, rather than the perimeter.” I turned back towards the pound, leaving the pile of moaning gangers behioo bad for them, I left the Rabbit Response Force there watg for trouble. They’re just as effective as the bears at crag heads, but faster.”

  Nora shook her head. “I ’t believe you hem that.”

  “What the rabbits? I didn’t, Nyx did. I just decided it was easier to go along with it than argue or e up with a new name.”

  “Right.” The taller girl sighed. “Have you heard the test development from up top?”

  I gnced back at her. “The ambush? Yeah, I heard. The cil was already struggling to maintain their defenses, so losing two of their superheavies at once is probably going to be devastating.”

  “Who would have guessed that Helmar would backstab the cil and side with Denver?”

  I just grunted. Anyone who was really paying attention should have seen that ing. Unfortunately, the cil had been way too occupied with the flict to actually do anything about it.

  “I doubt the cil will be able to st much longer with their frontline sed,” Nora tinued.

  “Good! I don’t have a horse in this race, but I really want to see the end to this fug flict,” I grumbled. “We’re running out of pces to put people.”

  As we sauntered bato camp, the people parted for us. I don’t know if it was out of fear or respect, but I appreciated it all the same. I usually had a fug terrible time trying to get through crowds. The two of us sauhrough the o of tents towards the tral area where the mess and administratios were.

  After cutting across the long soup line, we ducked ihe temporary headquarters.

  Angeline assed out on one of the temporary cots, cuddling with one of her squirrels, while Hel and Sharron were crouched over some paperwork. They looked up as we walked in.

  “Any issues?” Hel asked tiredly.

  “Just more fug idiots. These oried to hit the people traveliween the camp and the Terminal, but my bots got to them before they could do any damage,” I expined. “How are things going here?”

  “Fi’s been a lot of work, but everything appears to be stable. Everyone has been receiving a small amount of points for their refugee work every day. It’s not a lot, but it’s been enough to cover our costs. We should be able to maintain them indefinitely, if necessary,” Sharroed.

  I felt my eye twitch. “Let’s hope we don’t have to maintain them indefinitely. I don’t mind helping these people, but we’ve only been doing this for three days, and everyone is stressed as fuck. There’s just too many people.”

  “Thankfully, we should have a solution for that fairly soon,” Hel announced.

  “How? Have you vihe cil to surrender after their st catastrophe?” I asked.

  “Hardly,” Hel snorted. “Barricade has spent the st few days repairing the buildings he eastern gate. Sihe bat has moved further into the city, I feel fident that we start returning some of the people back to their homes. Not everyone, but it’s a start.”

  “Is it going to be enough to offset the new people ing in from the current bat areas?” I asked warily.

  Hel gave me a tired look. “Do you really wao ahat?”

  “Not unless yoing to lie to me,” I replied wearily.

  With our brief discussion over, I made my way over to one of the couches on the far side of the tent and colpsed into it, face down. The couch was lumpy, firm, and unfortable. It made me really miss my couch bae, but right now I was so exhausted I could probably have fallen asleep on a bed of rusty metal.

  As soon as I closed my eyes, my augs went off. My eyes shot open, and I silently screamed into the couch for several seds before finally pig up.

  [Spooky… I swear, this better be important, or I’m going to fug recycle you. Choose your words carefully,] I growled. There was a momentary silence. [Spooky!]

  [Sorry boss, I was choosing my words. There’s something strange going on. The cil is running armored vehicles through the uy again.]

  [Probably a group that got cut off and is trying to rejoin the main n again. What’s the problem?]

  [That’s the thing, Boss. It’s the main n that came down. Heavies and all.]

  My brain malfuns for a minute. I shot up to a sitting position and stared at the message. “What?” I said bnkly.

  Sharron turned and looked at me. “Did you say something?”

  I quickly waved her off. “On a call right now, will fill you in as soon as I’m done.”

  [Spooky, give me the feed, now!] I barked into my augs.

  A moment ter I was looking out of the eyes of a squirrel ior Fifty-Twht in the middle of the road was a monstrous vehicle. The massive hull was twice as wide as a standard tank, and it was three times as long. It was crawling along, supported on not four, but eight tracks, a pair at each er of the massive vehicle. Finally, it had aed turret with two massive rotary ons.

  It was, beyond a doubt, the same monster I’d seen back at the gates.

  Unlike many other superheavies, it didn’t have that many sedary ons, but then again, I doubted there were many things that could stand up to that main gun.

  Esc the superheavy, or being escorted by it depending on your point of view, was nearly two dozen tanks and an equal number of APCs.

  “Where the fuck are you going?” I muttered as I watched the slow advahere aren’t any lifts in that dire.”

  “Where is who going?” I heard Nora ask. I shut down the feed for a moment, only to find everyo Angeliaring at me.

  “There’s a fug cil armor n rolling through the uy,” I told them. “They could be moving to fnk Denver. But as far as I tell, they aren’t heading towards any lifts.”

  Hel frowned for a moment, pushed off from the desk, and rolled her office chair right over to the cot. She gently nudged Angeline for several seds until the other woman startled awake. “Please tell me it’s not my shift already,” Angeline pouted before letting out a massive yawn.

  “It’s not, but we need your eyes. What are the cil forces doing right now?” Hel asked softly.

  Angeline frowned, but I could see her eyes fsh. “They’re retreating towards the Deerfoot office district… Hey, there’s a superheavy missing.”

  “Don’t worry, I kly where they are,” I said, before shooting everyone a copy of the feed. “Fuows why they’re down here.”

  Angeline frowned. “That’s a lot of firepower to pull out of a fight. I could uand trying to fnk, but why would you park right underh the bat area?”

  I frowned. “Beg your pardon?”

  “They’ve parked,” Angelied.

  “Not that, the other part,” I snapped.

  Angeline looked over at me, fused. “They’re directly beh the Deerfoot office district right noould they do that? It’s not like they fire upwards. There’s meters of metal ptiween them and the surface,” the sleepy woman said.

  An unfortable silence fell over the room. “Nyx, you give us access to their s?” I asked.

  One of the guard bears outside of the tent turned and pushed its way inside. “Unfortunately, no. The entire n is running dark. Radios, augs, beas—they’re all disabled right now.”

  I hopped to my feet, already reanizing the camp's defenses so I could get a handful of bears to ese.

  “Where are you going?” Hel asked.

  “To iigate,” I replied as I made my way towards the door. “It’s too suspicious. Moving a super heavy through the uy with a s bckht before a battle? They’re up to something.”

  I paused right before leaving and looked back towards the others. “Anyone ing with?”