“Are you alright? Where’s Hel?” Sharron asked as she burst out of the back of the second Kodiak. I had the other IFVs land and make their way towards us at street level to avoid the line of fire of those monstrous guns.

  “She’s trying to convince Zettabyte to help her ruin the council, both socially and financially. Either that, or she’s drafting a message to the rest of the samurai, letting them know she’s going to war. The last thing she said before she stomped off was, and I quote, ‘I’m going to ruin those greedy assholes and nail their balls to the front of the council building,’” I said lightly.

  “You seem very calm, considering the situation,” Nora observed as she exited the Kodiak a second later. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine. I’m just running some mental simulations on the best way to completely and utterly crush those fucking assholes!” I managed about half of that sentence before my rage burst forth and I started thrashing wildly about.

  “Now that’s what I expected to see out of you,” Nora said quietly.

  “The council has apparently gone all in on stupidity juice. Dug themselves a hole to die in, and instead of climbing out, they dug deeper. Now, I’m going to bury them in it!”

  “That’s a terrible metaphor,” Nora mumbled.

  Sharron shot the younger girl a quick look, shook her head as if to say, ‘Not the time,’ then turned back to me. “So what are you going to do?”

  “First of all, we need to stop them from killing thousands of people. If Denver’s military isn’t completely incompetent, something I sadly haven’t seen any proof of yet, they should avoid the Deerfoot district once Hel sends out her announcement.” I took a deep breath, attempting to calm down. “Unfortunately, I’m not convinced that’ll prevent the council from carrying out their plan. If they’re desperate enough to collapse a plate in the first place, I could see them bringing it down and trying to blame Denver for it. Stupid? Yes, but if they could drum up some local support and sympathy from other cities?”

  “You think they’d trade thousands of lives for sympathy points?” Nora asked, horrified.

  “I think they’re extremely desperate and want to hold onto whatever power they can,” I grumbled. “Fucking greedy corps!”

  Sharron and Nora were spared another tirade by Hel, who had returned from the alley she’d gone to rant in. “Zetta won’t help ruin the council,” she said. She appeared much calmer than she had been earlier, but I didn’t know if that was because she had time to work through the situation or she was just holding it in like me. “He WILL, however, broadcast their plans for the plate, and organize an evacuation of the upper city citizens. He’ll also let the other samurai know our situation and block any council propaganda.”

  “Only the upper city?” I growled.

  “There’s kind of a superheavy shooting down anything that approaches that area of the undercity,” Sharron reminded me.

  I narrowed my eyes, grimaced a little, but relented on that point. “Okay, fair.”

  “So what do we do now?” Nora asked. “We absolutely have to prevent them from detonating that support, but if that superheavy can knock one of Teddy’s Kodiaks out of the air, how can we possibly get close?”

  “The Kodiak is still good! There was never any real danger of it penetrating the armor, it just had a little engine trouble!” I exclaimed, turning back to the vehicle. “Sure, it’s still smoking from multiple places and half buried in the street, but it’s solid!”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “This is not the time to try and sell us on the quality of your vehicles,” Sharron sighed. “If you thought they could survive a frontal assault, you would have sent them in already. We need a real plan.”

  “Oh, I already have a plan,” I told everyone. “I put it into motion the minute we crashed, and I should hear the outcome of it any minute now.”

  Sharron narrowed her eyes. “What plan?”

  Beside her, Nora frantically scanned the area before looking back at me, eyes wide. “Where’s Bob?”

  —

  “Are you sure we should have shot those transports down? I’m pretty sure they belonged to that Bear Girl. I think the last thing we’d want to do is piss off a samurai,” Lieutenant Colette hissed.

  Colonel Henderson sighed. He ran a hand through his slowly greying hair before looking at the Shell Storm’s second in command. “We have our orders. No one is allowed to approach this area until our job is done. You think the samurai are going to look at us kindly when that plate collapses? But if we’d refused, we would have been shot, and the council would have put another crew in our baby, you know that. All we can do is claim we were following orders.”

  “You honestly think a samurai is going to care about that?” the athletic brunette growled. “We should abandon our position and either surrender to the Denver forces or head to another city. We’re helping the council commit mass murder. I don’t care what the council’s paying us, I didn’t sign up for that.”

  Henderson looked at the woman, and opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, there was a call from the observer on top of the tank. “Gunfire from the north! It looks like one of the guard squads engaged enemy units.”

  Swiveling the turret so it was facing the northern street, Henderson activated the image enhancement. The camera on the elevated turret took a couple of seconds to focus on the area, and when it did, it revealed a black bear marching through the defensive lines. It completely ignored the defenders, shrugging off everything thrown at it while it marched forward. Heading directly for the Shell Storm.

  Colette paled when she saw the image. “The Great Bear,” she whispered.

  Henderson closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, then raised his voice. “Anyone that disagrees with the council’s decision to drop the plate or wants out of this conflict, you have ten seconds to leave the Storm. Starting now!” He reached up, grabbed the financial shard he wore around his neck, tore it off, and shoved it into Colette’s hands. “Take care of them,” he growled.

  She looked at him confused, just for a moment, before saluting and booking it towards one of the large side hatches. Most of the crew followed her, leaving just Henderson, the driver, and two gunners.

  “We’re with you, sir!” one of the men yelled, before the three crew members saluted.

  “It’s been an honor to work with you, you stupid bastards,” Henderson grumbled as he slipped on his noise-canceling headphones. Next he flipped the fire control and target assistance systems on, causing the Shell Storm’s massive cannons to start spinning up, filling the hull with a loud electrical whine. Once the tank was ready, he carefully targeted the distant bear silhouette, said a quick prayer, and pulled the trigger.

  The area was instantly filled with unbelievable noise as the twin rotary cannons opened up, spewing shells down the street at a dizzying rate. Henderson held down the trigger for a full ten seconds, long enough for the street to be completely obstructed by smoke and dust. One of the surrounding buildings trembled and collapsed from the shockwaves.

  Henderson carefully scanned the scene, looking for any sign of movement. For several long seconds, everything was still.

  “Too easy,” the commander mumbled. “Come on!”

  As if summoned, the creature erupted from the smoke, no longer strolling down the street but charging forward on all fours. The plush covering had been completely ripped away, exposing the warbot’s true form. A vaguely humanoid shape covered in massive amounts of interlocking heavy armor. Red eyes burned out of its otherwise featureless face.

  Quickly adjusting his aim, Henderson zeroed in on the bot again and pulled the trigger, another ten-second burst. This time, as soon as he let off the trigger, the monster shot forward again.

  He tried again, adjusting the cannon, suppressing the bot, only for it to take off the instant he let off.

  “You three out! It can’t be stopped; all I can do is slow it down. Run while you can!” One of the men tried to answer, but Henderson had already pulled the trigger. This time, he did not let go.

  To their credit, the men DID evacuate, using his distraction to leave the doomed vehicle.

  Henderson just held down the trigger, counting down the seconds and letting the dread build. The Shell Storm had the best burst damage out of any vehicle in Calgary, but even with its extended, belt-fed magazine, ammo was limited.

  The tank managed to fire for just under a minute before the shells stopped firing, the cannons empty. The instant the fire stopped, the bot shot forward. Henderson watched in horror as the bot charged the last couple feet, leapt onto the hull, and stood up menacingly. It squared off with the turret, wound up, and smashed its fist right into the camera.

  The turret screeched and deformed, so Henderson ducked down into the hull. The second blow was accompanied by screeching and popping noises as the turret lifted off the hull briefly. The third blow separated the two halves of the tank, leaving the hull open to the air.

  Henderson stared up at the bear as it loomed over him. Its outer covering was quickly regenerating, and now that it had enough of a face, he could tell it was furious. Glancing around the empty hull, it humphed before hopping down and stepping over to him.

  It raised a fist, wound up, but paused just for a second before striking. “Sorry, chief, Boss says no more second chances.”

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