Chapter 30: Fighting artillery with artillery!

  "The development of a cannon capable of the battlefield delivery of atomic shell fire rapidly, accurately and under all weather conditions is a signal landmark in military history."

  – Major General A. M. Harper, "Test of the 280mm Gun", first of May, 1953.

  ***

  “Altany, you wouldn’t happen to have any cluster-bomb shells, would you?” I could really use some cluster-bombs right about now… The sound of a snort came into my ear.

  Enough to cover the entire planet’s surface, what are you thinking of?

  The central concourse was crawling with antithesis, but most disturbingly, fucking model fifteens! Oh, and since that wasn’t enough, a fuckload of model fives! “Yeah, I’m going to need some very high explosives with a bunch of shrapnel… Gimme a full magazine…” I really had to deal with these!

  If they started shooting down the corridors? Well, it honestly might not be so bad with the new HFUGs. However, that would mean all other defenders may be suppressed. The little drone kept sending images, including the entrance I was at, from the other side… I couldn’t shoot cluster-bomb shells in close quarters, could I? That’d be a bad idea… Probably. No, definitely.

  Please do not fire the cluster-bomb shells in close quarters.

  “I wasn’t going to!” It wasn’t a lie! I’d decided not to on my own…

  The damn antithesis were gaining fucking ground! My handgun was great, but it wasn’t enough. “Altany, send the fuckers shooting at me some of those!”

  Of course, firing.

  The cluster bombs were rather impressive! It was like my hyper-compressed buckshot but with explosive fragmentation shells going at ‘who the fuck knows’ speed! Also, when I asked for high-explosives, Altany delivered high explosives! I thought that was a good start! Until more fucking spines came raining down! “Fuck! Johnny… Incoming!”

  Apparently a model fifteen wanted to answer in kind! I saw it start to shoot on the drone and brought my gun up. I intercepted it… after a few shots… it got closer than I’d like to be honest. Some of the spines flew down the corridor dangerously! “Mind returning the favor, Altany?”

  With pleasure, please move back a step.

  She did as I asked, launching the shell on a lazy ark down a few floors. The view from the drone felt extremely satisfying. The shell detonated and spread its payload all over the central concourse! The little bombs exploded on contact and sent shrapnel everywhere!

  They weren’t always, or even mostly, lethal, but they sure as hell injured any plant fucks involved!

  I probably made a whole lot of points on that one! She almost immediately went back to shooting the model fives. “Suppressing fire please! I need both my hands!”

  Using the drone for targeting, you should be able to lower your shield without consequences soon.

  The tipping point for me came when a model six managed to get close! Was it just me or was his armor plating thicker? “Fucking bull blowing piece of…”

  I kept firing again and again but it did jack shit! I didn’t have the needed power and velocity with my hand cannon! My shield lowered, my armor gaining some quill decoration in the process. I tried to assemble my shotgun…

  too late.

  My armor was amazing and I loved it. It performed great in many ways.

  However, it apparently wasn’t model six proof. Sure mitigated a lot of the damage though!

  That was probably the reason for my survival when the model six headbutted me into the fucking wall! I got a bit… embedded…

  I felt many plates snap, especially on my sides as that massive bull butt plug attempted to flatten me! Yeah, the bone upgrades were a smart move. It kept me from having my shattered ribs stabbing into my organs like last time!

  Well, last time it’d been a dead xeno on pure momentum. This hit was backed up by muscles! It mother duck fucking hurt too!

  “Fuck…” A bit of blood came out with that one word. My bowels and stomach didn’t enjoy that. My diaphragm seemed a bit fucked too. Oh, and even though my ribcage wasn’t stabbing my organs, the poor thing wasn’t thrilled either.

  As a surge of adrenaline went through me, I activated my vibro-blade claws and fucking made a fucking handhold on that horse cocksucker’s head!

  I punched where I thought its brain might be with a bladed gauntlet! My tail went into a frenzy, stabbing the fucker in the throat, under its head and once in the eye! Good tail!

  It tried to shake me off but I didn’t let it! Those plates were definitely a lot thicker than average, fuck’s sake! Under the tender ministrations of my mother fucking fist they cracked, then split, then revealed flesh that I went to town on!

  I couldn’t aim for the brain with how much it moved and shook! I’d fucking wrecked both of its eyes already and I would take a fuckload more!

  Projectiles kept trying to throw me off, planting themselves on my back, but I was laser focused! Altany still threw that cluster-suppressive-fire through the whole fight. My tail’s crazy chainsaw fur scraped huge amounts of bone off and created weak spots to exploit! Nothing was going to…

  And I got slammed again… a lot more panicked and less of a real strike, but it still caved in some parts of my armor… My ribs were a bit fucked now, not powdered but still…

  Who the fuck cares!? I had a massive prolapsing asshole of an alien to fuck up! It barely threw me off for a half second! I started punching once more, distantly aware that the arm I held on with got partially crushed, but I didn’t give a fuck! I had armor to act like it was still working properly!

  Was I screaming? Probably, I couldn't tell. The pain felt overwhelming but I wouldn’t let it stop me! No, it just helped push me harder! It’d been horrible when we’d started this dance but it didn’t stop me then and it wouldn’t god damn goat fucking stop me now! The whole fight felt like minutes but I doubt it took more than a few seconds.

  My tail’d penetrated deeply and inflicted massive damage in a few spots! Combined with work my fist to its fucked up face did, the damage accumulated or I hit something vital because it dropped!

  On my crushed arm… Fina-mother-fucking-ly!

  I took a second to breath, resulting in a model three trying to bite my arm off! It couldn’t penetrate so I slammed it to the ground and grabbed its throat before using my vibro-claws to rip it to shreds! “No fucking rest for the god damn wicked! Fuck!”

  I injected myself with everything in my colonic injector. Two doses of nano-regenerative and another dose of KP-Kicking.

  You will need a class two nano-regenerative and time to replace the broken pieces of your armor. This is the first time you’ve had this type of damage, try to push ‘out’ with your artificial muscles and armor.

  Thankfully, my legs were pretty much fine, so I was able to give myself some distance. I wasn’t quite at the HFUG but still pretty close. The model six had crushed a lot of its buddies with all the mad shaking and thrashing.

  I assembled my Tunneler and couldn’t help but notice some dents… “Is it safe to fire?” I asked as I tried the thing Altany told me to do.

  Yes, the damage is mostly to non-critical elements and even then, it is mostly cosmetic.

  Pushing… ‘out’ felt odd, but I could tell instantly when I did it right. The memory alloys soaked up a lot of power for a second as they returned my armor to its proper shape. It took a bit of brute force and some ejecting of broken shit, but it worked!

  Also, I ended up very glad I’d thought to inject the KP-Kicking since, you know, my arm had been bent a bit wrong… That was a fun experience.

  I took a deeper breath as my chest armor finally allowed it. “Are the fucking militia guys here already?” I asked, wanting a fucking second for… everything.

  Yes, it appears they were afraid of hitting you. I believe they recorded your fight with the model six. If you’d kindly move to the right so they may start firing.

  I groaned and did as requested. Even then I started shooting, using my crushed arm for stabilization and absolutely nothing else. Hyper-compressed buckshot helped me feel a bit better, especially rapid-fire!

  Then our cute little monster started annihilating the enemy! Grape shot demonstrated the undying beauty of shotguns, the incredible, undeniable superiority of massively powerful sprays of deadly ordnance!

  The frag rounds worked decently in comparison. They did a great job, for sure! However, classics were classics for a reason. It did fine at hitting what the absolutely perfect railgun buckshot didn’t hit. Helical coilguns are technically half-railgun! Altany explained it to me so I was an expert now… I might have been a bit high?

  Of course the armor-penetrator did ok at obliterating the bigger models.

  Then a couple seconds passed and it did it all over again. Five goddamn shots per fucking second. Absolute destruction. Not only that, it was on kid mode because we didn’t want to destroy the building!

  Yeah, totally not overkill for a single corridor. “Is Francis alright with the stairwell? They don’t need any assistance for now?” I asked with some concern.

  No, your enforcers are using the occasion to accumulate points. Although it has barely been a few minutes since you started this offensive.

  Damn, felt a lot longer. We were still going to go with the original plan after some quick weeding. Those model fifteens were concerning. “Call Johnny and load me up with those hornets nest slugs. Let’s test ‘em out better. Thank you for keeping up the suppressive fire through all that.”

  I wanted the sheriff if I was going out there. He did much better at hitting specific targets. My current approach was mostly equivalent to just blasting the whole area with artillery and hoping for the best!

  It is my genuine pleasure. Also, thank you for giving my design a better test run. I did not propose them to Francis yet as I was waiting for this.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Altany sounded pleased, it made me smile. “Howdy!”

  “Hey Johnny Law, I got a bit injured, need some healing then we have to go handle those fucking fifteens. You going to…” He didn’t let me finish.

  “Hold your darn horses, you got banged up?”

  “Yeah, think some militia guys might have been filming it…”

  “Ah, yeah, it’s on the enforcer net. I think there’s a few memes already.”

  I blinked. “Hold on a sec, there’s memes on the enforcer net?” I could feel the patronizing look even though the call was audio only.

  “It’s a net. You're darn skippy there’s memes. Lila’s a real shitposter, too. Oh, yeah, there’s the vid and… Damn! How are you still up and talkin’!?”

  I laughed. I had to, this just felt surreal. “It’s my gimmick, Johnny Law.” Why was I smiling? Meh, why question it. As I checked out the video though, I understood why. I felt damn badass!

  Also, drugs. Almost forgot about those.

  Viewing it from the gunner’s point of view, it looked kind of impressive. In the moment, it didn’t feel like it, but I hit the fucker hard! My punches all made massive booming sounds on those damn thick bone plates!

  Seeing a model six get affected like that by a punch from your samurai must’ve been a pretty damn nice sight. Also, my fist had moved so fast you couldn’t see the vibro-blade that came out of it, which made the damage look even more impressive!

  Jesus, that hit I took’d been damn brutal! A damn strong hit by a massive, armored and powerful antithesis! Getting embedded in concrete demonstrated that pretty well. Seeing me go on a rage fueled rampage right after that? Yeah, that was awesome.

  Then, my tail’s performance, which I was pretty sure no one would question after this. It moved quickly, did great damage and the chainsaw-fur made for kind of a great spectacle. Yeah, I felt damn awesome!

  The memes almost, almost ruined my good feelings but I didn’t let them! Really, I shouldn’t have been surprised. The animated eyes were great meme fodder. My ‘face’ when I was slammed into the wall with my eyes going giant was apparently popular. A gif of my ‘rampage punches’ circulated pretty well as a reaction meme.

  “Have to admit though, my armor’s banged up and I need some healing. When I’m done we’ll go handle those artillery cunts, I’m spraying suppressive fire for now but I think you’ll have to…” Our sheriff didn’t let me finish.

  “You kiddin’ right? No! Stay there, get some healin’ and repairin’ and I’ll go handle those! That’s my gimmick. I need my own memes, glory hog.” We shared a laugh. A moment later he sprinted at high speed down the corridor… well, using the walls as footholds so maybe not ‘down’, but whatever.

  “See, that’s your problem, you’re too damn quick to pick up on camera! I’ll see what I can do with my recon drone, this is unacceptable. I need someone to share the pain with.” With another laugh, I ended the call. I had a smile on my face. “You know Altany, I think I made a good friend.”

  He is certainly a good friend to have.

  “Yeah… Now, class two nano-regenerative? My bones are grinding on each other a bit… I think…”

  ***

  It took a class two nano-regenerative, a Mole-Bear field-repair kit and a bunch of replaced parts to get me back in the fight. The most expensive were the replacement parts as some of my divisible plates had been super-fucked! Plus some more plating and pieces for my various equipment. The field-repair helped a lot with reshaping fucked pieces though.

  As I was doing some maintenance, I asked about the rescue. I’d lost one of my enforcers… Sahir… Fight now, Grieve later…

  Sarah and Adnan were recovered! I was glad. Both were veterans and I was damn happy to see more of my friends survive! Adnan was almost ready to rock and roll but Sarah still needed more time to recover. Adnan really wanted an assault rifle and I would oblige his basic tastes because I liked him…

  Although I also kind of hated him… How the fuck did he keep his hair so fucking perfect!? I was dead certain he had a stolen crate of executive shampoo and conditioner somewhere! I knew for a fact he had some hair products stashed away!

  As I got up and moving, I made my way to Francis. He was a sight to behold! That weapon of his was… beautiful. “Hey Francis, how’s everything?” I could hear the smile in his voice as he answered.

  “Great, loving the new hornets nest slugs by the way! Amazing for the price! Saw the video, you sure you’re alright boss?”

  I laughed at that. “Define alright! I’m well enough to go to the next phase. Is everyone ready?” This phase would be a lot easier in many ways. We were still going at it Blitzkrieg style, but it would be a fuckload easier with all the available enforcers going in at once.

  Everyone would be in teams, and going for specific targets. At this point, we had most of the north side on lockdown. Now? We’d be doing the floor below, then we’d move on to the next. I was intent on getting the fucking shelter in the safe zone in less than an hour!

  “Almost all good, waiting on Johnny.” Lila said from her seat on a plant pot that hadn’t held a plant in at least a decade. The entire concourse was filled with enforcers and militia… well, mostly militia.

  Two hundred militia members were coming with us! Their job would be clearing the floor after enforcer teams, which were accompanied by a gunner, who would take over the six access points to the central concourse.

  In truth, there were more than six. A few places could be fully ruled out of any survivors and became a bit useless, so we could combine areas into a single defensible position. That’s not to speak of the stairs, some of which would be collapsed. My first job would be to collapse a couple of them, then me and Johnny would take a side each.

  He’d take the side furthest away and I would collapse useless stairs. After that… I had an idea. It might be a bad idea, but it was an idea. “Alright, I got a slight variation on the plan. Altany, I’d like your input. During the mosh-pit, we pretty much emptied the south quarter right?” I asked, hoping for the best.

  Yes, on the ground floor especially. It was considered a high-risk zone which you kept empty. There were not many survivors as most came to this section, heading for the rally point.

  “Alright, how close is Johnny Law at the moment?” I asked, wanting to wait for him. I was… unsure how people would react to the plan.

  One minute and thirteen seconds away if not delayed. He has purged this section of ranged models for now, or at least those observable from the central concourse.

  That was good. I could wait that long. I used the time to ask for a sit-rep from everybody. The general answer was ‘ready to fucking go!’. When Johnny arrived, a bit red-faced, I sighed in relief. It felt stupid, but that pause in explanation was a bit awkward.

  “So, the variation on the plan. When we assault below, like we planned, I’ll go collapse the useless stairwells. After that though, I’ll do the same with the North-East and North-West stairways.” That got stunned silence. The major stairways were a fact of life in the building, and the implications were a bit hard to grasp for people who lived most of their lives using them. Johnny wasn’t stunned though, just concerned.

  “Isn’t that where most of the antithesis are coming from?” I smiled at him.

  “Yes, yes it is. If they come after that, it’ll be from the south stairwells. After I’m done, I’ll create a distraction and make sure they all come for me in the south quarter.” Now that got a lot of objections. I got super injured during the mosh pit, didn’t I?

  “Look! I know it’s risky, but people are dying!” I said over the protests. It shut everybody up. “If I create enough of a distraction? You guys can secure the entire north quarter in this section! We have enough militia and enforcers to make it happen! When that’s done, we just need to run rescue ops in the east and west quarters and we’ll be done for this section!” My eyes turned to steely determination as I moved on to the next part.

  “We are fighting against time, and this will save us at least half-an-hour! The only reason I haven’t collapsed all of them is that I am not abandoning the first section! You can secure this whole quarter entirely on your own incredibly fast. That is if and only if the hive is distracted. We need a distraction, and that’s me. Johnny can help, but he’s not the hit taking type.”

  Finally, silence again. There were hard faces and unhappy looks all around. Lila walked up to me, the only one willing to say something. I met her gaze, no less determination in my eyes than hers. As she arrived in front of me she just said “Helmet off.” I obeyed.

  She took off her own, then grabbed me in a fierce hug. Her arm went behind my head, bringing my face into the crook of her neck. I wrapped my fuzzy tail around her.

  “Don’t you fucking dare die. Don’t give me that shit about no promises! You don’t fucking die! We need you! Your people need you after this. Your kids need you after this. Your husband needs you after this. I need you after this. You don’t get to die. Do you understand me?” I could feel her tight jaw muscles on the side of my neck.

  I smiled. “Yes mam’.” That got her to smile as she pulled back.

  “Good papa bear.” That made everyone smile, especially as I groaned. Then, she continued! “Also, I’m coming with!” My eyes widened.

  “No! Fuck no in fact!” She looked me straight in the eyes.

  “You. Can’t. Stop. Me.” Her voice was pure steel. “If it isn’t a suicide mission, why do you mind?”

  “I’m a samurai! I’m equipped for war!”

  She grinned. “Altany, upgrades.” Altany, clearly having a flair for the dramatic, made everything appear as she dropped things. Her SMG got tossed at Gary who took it like it was a loaded baby.

  A god damn suit of power armor appeared! It was clearly plated with Mole-Bear alloys, thick metal plates, perfect integration with the helmet as she stepped into it and a fuckload of servos!

  I wish to be clear, your suit is far superior in durability, flexibility, strength and speed augmentation, agility and let us not discount the integration of several additional systems. Your system also eliminates any lag and integrates with your neural wreath, eliminating the need for most command systems.

  This is essentially a basic suit of power armor with the plating changed to Mole-Bear alloys, it was rather inexpensive compared to yours. I ensured it interfaces well with the helmet and is somewhat modular so she can keep upgrading. The servos are made to help her strength and it will protect her rather well.

  Then, what appeared in her hands was a BBW, as in a big, beautiful weapon! Something between an LMG and an assault rifle. It was a chunky boy!

  It was almost a pure rectangle but with a massive missing space under the stock, which wasn’t small to begin with! There was clearly a hole for her hand and a trigger in front of it. Then, she loaded up… “What is that? Some kind of box magazine?”

  Even without seeing her face I could tell she looked smug. “Oh no, do you know what the beauty of caseless is? Shorter rounds, which means you can fit a double helical magazine in the stock!” I thought about that for a second…

  “You mean to say, it’s a perfectly controlled helical magazine, but instead of one bullet per spot, there’s fucking two? How much fucking ammo does it load?”

  “One hundred and twenty rounds! Read ‘em and weep, bitches! It’s also a bullpup for maximum barrel length since I’m firing 15mm rounds at close to 50 BMG velocity! Ahahaha! I’ve been saving for so long for this upgrade! I hate SMGs! Even super SMGs! It was cool and badass and strong but I need some recoil in my life! You gave it to me as a fucking joke, Louis!” I looked at her, unimpressed.

  “You know you could have asked for something different and I’d have given it to you, then handed that one to another enforcer, right? Like Garry?” She froze.

  “Huh… Ok, fair. Whatever, this thing is amazeballs!” I had to agree! The barrel was pretty long…

  Do not worry, the barrel can shorten to an extent. Also, she forgot to mention that in her power armor, with the recoil management, she’ll have less recoil than with your mother’s CMAR. It can also do what humanity has called ‘hyper-burst’ fire. Four rounds will fire before the recoil is felt. This system will, of course, fire esoteric ammunition. Oh, and it has a liquid nitrogen cartridge for emergencies.

  I shut off my mic. “You’re really getting into the liquid nitrogen thing eh?”

  The more powerful and numerous the shots, the more necessary it becomes. When we upgrade your weapon, I will recommend the same. We should devote some time to it soon. It is, after all, an extremely modular design for a reason.

  “Thanks for reminding me!” I opened my mic again. “Still, the two of us on this mission, wha…”

  “Three.” Francis proclaimed.

  I hung my head. “You too?”

  “Boss, I’m made for defensive positions, and if you’re doing a big damn distraction? You’ll need more firepower for longer. Although… Yeah, I’ve been getting a lot of points, might get some power armor myself!”

  Suddenly, fucking Bella chimed up! “You’re going to need an overwatch sniper, boss. Also, I want more points, I’ll be most useful with you.”

  “Me too!” Garry said before I could say anything. That one confused the fuck out of me for a second.

  “You sure buddy?”

  “Yes boss!” He was firm, resolute.

  “Why?” Now he wavered a bit.

  “You’ll need a tactician!” That… wasn’t that bad an idea.

  “Alright! That’s it, no more admittance for the super dangerous mission! Now, if we’re going to prep that much for a distraction, We’re going to make one hell of a fucking distraction, and we’re going to do a lot more.” Now my plan… evolved? Was that the right word? Going to shit was more like, but fuck it, why not. “Altany, you said the hive is attacking us because we’re its main threat closest to the hive right?” The voice of Altany came through comms this time.

  Yes, it does not seem to prioritize resource gathering, hence this is my best speculation.

  “Alright, that means to piss it off enough to get it to come to us, we’ll have to get closer. That also means that a larger portion of the building will be free. Everyone! Get ready to take back the north quarter! All of it.”