Kaylee watched as a new wave of robots emerged from the underbrush, one of a good dozen that had been disgorged from some landing zone well beyond the reach of her bugs, to add insult to injury several of those bloody dropships were circling overhead, they hadn’t made an attempt to do any runs on her, at least not since she had shot the first couple down. The artillery bugs making quick work of the airborne pests. With the air threat delayed if not outright stopped, Kaylee was able to focus on the issue of defending the ground, something she actually had the ability to fight. With the new waves of bugs at her disposal, Kaylee began to separate them into groups and disperse them, setting them up in small packets arrayed at variable distances in a wide arc. Bolstering this defense were three groups of two artillery bugs along with a considerable number of the rest of the bugs burrowed into a series of makeshift bunkers or spread out ahead of the line. As she waited for the enemy to make their move she strode into the tunnels. As she strode through she began to reach out to the hivemind.

  “How’s the digging going?” she mentally snapped as she strode down into the darkness.

  Slowly. Progressing.

  Kaylee finally made it into the main area and found the entrance to the tunnel.

  “How far?” she asked as she stared into the muddy hole.

  Close.

  “Well, that’s good.” Kaylee muttered darkly. “We’re not going to have much time to pull out.”

  There was no reply, apparently the hivemind had decided that the bloody bug was giving her the silent talk. Fine. Stomping back up the tunnel, Kaylee began to scan through the eyes of her various ‘scouts’ at the moment it seemed that the enemy was just massing, setting up turrets and laying down a series of walls and trenches. Kaylee was not going to tolerate that.

  “Artillery bugs, be useful.” The order coincided with a projection of the target. While she couldn’t hear it, she saw the effects as the area suddenly ignited in green fire, the robots not even running for cover as bug blasts rained on them.

  “Keep firing. Keep firing… Stop” Kaylee observed her handiwork, the masses of infantry had been shattered, such tight formations of targets made the small number of cannons quite large in effect. In fact, by the look of things one of the dropships had taken a direct hit to the top. Dropping the aircraft straight onto what appeared to be the remains of a fabricator, Kaylee grinned at that. Part of her was slightly concerned by the visceral joy she took from the destruction, the rest of her did not. Finally emerging from the cave and into the night, Kaylee took her position amongst the swarm.

  Garrett sprinted across the tarmac, dodging around bomb craters and leaping over fallen bodies. Mercifully most of them were machines, reaching the carpark he skidded around the side of a building and scrambling up the stairway and bursting through the door. As he began scrabbling through the keys, Max and Nidi appeared behind him, the latter having to stoop under the doorframe to enter.

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  “What are you looking for?” Max asked.

  “The bloody keys for the van, what else?” Max reached over, grabbed a set and jammed them into Garrett’s hands.

  “Let’s go.”

  As they went to leave a bolt of energy struck the door just above Nidi’s head, sending the trio diving for cover. The blast was quickly followed by a sustained barrage that tore through the thin walls of the building, Garrett and Max crawling under the furniture while Nidi through up a psychic barrier around herself. After a few seconds the shooting stopped, none of the building’s occupants spoke. Instead, they pointed their guns towards the door.

  After a few seconds a hulking figure appeared in the doorway, its body almost completely blotting out the flickering light outside, its asymmetrical form projecting a menacing shadow across the floor, after a moment the figure entered, sweeping the room with an absolutely monstrous energy cannon, an off centre red eye sweeping the room, as it swept towards them Garrett and Max silently crawled back further under the rubbish and held their breaths.

  For a moment the machine stared in the general direction of the pair, stepping closer after several seconds. Garrett’s hands tightened on his rifle, bringing it up as slowly as possible. The figure grasped the edge of the table and threw it to the side. Garrett and fired. The effect was immediate with the figure tumbling back from the unexpected impact, its horrific visage highlighted in the rifle fire. Its face was an utter mess, the glowing red eye clumsily forced into a to small eye socket, the entire right side of the face pushed out of shape as if it were made of putty. The other eye was still human, though the light had clearly long left it as it stared down at the two. It raised its arm. With a ragged yell Max jumped up and to the left, firing a full auto barrage at the monstrosity. His bullets aimed for the head. They struck true, shredding the machine man’s ruined face. The monster tracked him and fired, a brilliant blue bolt of energy striking him in the chest, the energy utterly evaporating the man as it continued on through the wall of the building. Garrett opened fire as well. Aiming instead for the elbow, the bullets struck true, ricocheting away with no visible damage. The cannon rotated towards him and Garrett let off the last half dozen shots at the wide metallic emitter, already knowing he wouldn’t make it to the next mag. The weapon sparked and whined, the acrid smell of burning electronics filling the space. For a second the zombie thing was left in what could only be described as shock, shifting what remained of its ruined head to stare at the ruined weapon. Garrett went for the next mag, his first already striking the ground as he pushed the new one into the mag well. The zombie moved faster, lashing out with it’s good arm and striking Garrett in the chest, the force strong enough to shatter the trauma plate and throwing Garrett several feet backwards and into the wall. Garrett tried to maintain his footing, only to be slammed back into the wall as the monster barrelled into him. With no apparent effort, the zombie cyborg grabbed him by the neck and pushed him up the wall as Garrett’s legs kicked uselessly against the thing’s armoured chest. Garrett reached up and grabbed at the cold metallic talons that were digging into his neck, desperately looking for any purchase that would grant him airflow. Vision darkening, Garrett ripped the knife from his belt and with the last of his breath; plunged it into the machine man’s arm. There was a hiss of escaping liquid as the blade penetrated something important. Garrett twisted and pulled and the whatever he had cut completely went, ejecting a spray of scalding liquid from the breach. Garrett hissed as the arm dropped him hard on the ground, no longer able to hold itself up. Unfortunately, the fingers appeared to operate electrically. Garrett gagged, his vision almost completely black, Garrett’s fingers slipped as his body went limp.

  There was a resounding crack and the robot’s grip completely slipped, air rapidly filling his lungs as he looked up to stare at where the robot had once stood. Now replaced with Nidi, her hands sparking with green energy.