AnnouSoz! Fot to setup the weeks releases on ScribHub, should be fine notain Daniel Marley stuck his head out of the top of the APd smiled. His PMC, The Royal Cavaliers, was well known for their exceptional respoimes. What most people didn’t know is that artially due to the heavily modified APCs, which sported oversized engines and slightly less armor, allowing them to almost reach hover vehicle speeds.

  He’d volunteered his team to go in with the vanguard, and secure essential locations ahead of the main n, and so far things were looking up. The scouts reported that Calgary’s main gates had remained sealed, and they hadn’t dispatched armor to aernal plex.

  He grabbed the binocurs hanging from his ned took a look at their primary target, the fusion pnt located a couple dozen kilometers outside the walls. The pnt had a sleek, super modern design, and was surrounded by heavy fortifications. It provided the majority of the city’s power, so it had to be well defended, but also had to be pced outside the walls just in case of a failure. No city wanted a several kilometer wide hole in the middle of their infrastructure.

  Acc to the intel he was given the PMCs that normally mahe pce were either bought off, or moved into the city, so there shouldn’t be any serious resistan site. “Easy job, easy money,” he chuckled to himself.

  As the small n of APCs quickly approached the outer walls Marley saw the first sign that something was wrong. The gate was not only secure, but there was an armored vehicle sitting oher side of the barricade, preventing his team from running through. He briefly sidered the driver to smash the other vehicle out of the way, but when they were about half a kilometer from the wall the opposing vehicle fired a single warning shot. The supersonic round puhrough the woods o the n like a hot khrough butter, toppling dozens of trees.

  A shiver ran down his spine, no on that size shouldn’t be able to cause that much damage, no military on anyways. He ducked bato the cab, “Approach slowly, no hostile as. Tell the entire n to prepare for a, but do NOT move without my express permission,” he yelled at the driver.

  “Trouble?” his sed in and, Rusty, asked as he stepped closer to the hatch so the two of them could talk.

  “That intel we were fed was wrong. There’s an armored vehicle at the gate, which means someone is proteg it, and they have some signifit firepower. I don’t want to risk pissing them off until we know what we’re dealing with,” Marley reported quietly. “I need you all ready to move, if I think we take them I’ll give you a signal, got it?”

  “No problem, we’ll be ready,” Rusty replied.

  Marley stuck his head back out of the hatd sed the area. Now that they were closer to the pound he could see figures gathering at the gate, and on the walls. Something was wrong though, the proportions were all wrong. Children? Could the city be desperate to draft kids in its defense?

  It was only when the APC was within about a hundred meters that he could finally make out what they were. Bears. And not just any bears, Teddy bears wearing bat helmets and carrying rifles. Someone had be fug with him. A sieddy bear stood in the middle of the road, a paw out gesturing for them to stop, so the n had no choice but to slowly roll up to the blockade and oblige.

  “Hello, wele to the Calgary Fusion pnt, he bear asked, like this was a routine vehicle check.

  “Captain Daniel Marley,” Marley replied as he sed the bear. It was an impressive stru, whatever it was. He couldn’t see any seams on it, and it moved muoothly to be a traditional robot.

  “Purpose of visit?” the bear asked . Whatever was uhat c was definitely automated, otherwise it wouldn’t be asking such stupid questiht now.

  Marley smirked, “To take over this pound of course.”

  The bear tinued filling in his checklist for a mihen nodded, “One moment please.”

  “What the fuck is this?” Marley muttered.

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” the bear shot back. It was no loalking in a grumbly, artificial voice, but that of a young woman. The bear even had its paws on its hips. The checklist fell to ctter on the ground, suddenly abandoned. “Last I checked the decration of war targeted Helmar, Tel, Alliance Bio and Great Northern, not Grayville Electrical. Was there another decration I wasn’t aware of?”

  Marley stared at the bear for a minute, “Noooo….”

  “Then what the fuck are you doing here?” the bear yelled, stamping its foot. “Look, I’m doing my best to remairal here, but you assholes are making it real hard when you target locations which could cripple the ey, and not just your target. Are you targeting the farms too? Want to starve the city out along with shutting off the power?”

  Something moved in Marley’s peripheral. When he gnced up he saw there was now a quartet of bears fnking the opposing IFV. These were much rger thaher bears running around, and it looked like two were carrying literal miniguns, and the other two were carrying something that looked like anti tank ons. Things were quickly spiraling out of trol.

  “Look… miss?” Marley started.

  “You call me Teddy. I’m kinda running the antithesis defenses since your dumbass leaders decided to cripple our PMCs,” the bear replied. Marley mentally kicked himself, of course it would be a fug samurai. Who else would have access to this level of tech? He really had to move carefully now.

  “Right. Well, miss teddy, I don’t know about the overall pn for the city, but my orders are to take and hold this pnt. It’s essential to the advance.”

  “Bullshit. It’s essential to cripple the city's defenses, and I’m going to do everything in my power to keep it running,” the bear spat. “You get on your radio and tell your ahat I don’t give a shit who runs the city, but if you try to promise our antithesis defenses, or take it out on the civilians, I WILL have words with them.” The bear paused for a moment, and cocked its head to the side. “And here e your friends towards the farms. Go on, make your call. It seems I’m going to have to have this discussion with a couple of your friends too.”

  “Right…” Marley muttered. A sed ter the bear went gssy eyed a down to pick up its clipboard, ign him. He immediately ducked baside.

  “What’s the call boss?” Rusty asked.

  “The powerpnt is defended by a fug samurai,” he hissed. “She’s apparently got defe all the outer plexes. I trust you boys to get the job done against another human squad, but who knows what those bears are pag.”

  Rusty raised an eyebrow. “Bears?”

  “Yes bears! Fug Teddy bears! And before you go making any dumbass ents there are a couple of toting around fug HMGs and antitank ons, so no, I don’t think we take them,” Marley practically yelled. “She cims the powerpnt is off limits, and wants me to call and.”

  “So what are you going to do?” Rusty asked while scratg his head.

  “Call fug and,” Marley snapped. “I’m not fug stupid. Give me a minute.”

  Rusty nodded slowly, then took a seat at the side. Meanwhile Marley immediately ected to the battlefield and el. The line rang for several long seds, taking much lohan it should have to ect.

  “This is and, go ahead,” the voi the other end of the line said the instant they ected.

  “This is Captain Daniel Marley of the Royal Cavaliers. My team just rolled up to the front of the power pnt and we’ve run into a serious issue and need orders,” Morley reported.

  There was a long pause. “The bear girl?” the voice finally asked.

  “Yes, the fug bear girl,” Morley replied. “I don’t think my squad dislodge her. Fuck, I don’t know if anythihan a full armor n could dislodge her right now.”

  “The situation has already beeed by several of the other forward elements. Your new orders are to disengage. Bear girl has told the other teams she will not participate in the war, just protect essential facilities and anti-antithesis facilities. and has decided to it to a frontal assault and not risk angering a samurai capable of defending dozens of sites simultaneously,” the operator reported.

  “Dozens?” Morley repeated bnkly.

  “Yes, dozens. One of our top priorities right now is trying to keep her out of the flict. Retreat back to the main n, copy?” the operator asked.

  “I copy,” Marley repeated quietly. “Over and out.”

  He blinked a couple times to clear his eyes then turowards the driver. “Head back to the main n, we’re done here.”

  “We’re just leaving?” Rusty asked, fused.

  “Yup, and has decided this is a fight they don’t want, and I agree with them.”