Chapter Twenty-Eight - What Newton’s Good For


    Chapter Twenty-Eight - What Newtons Good For


    Its only been twenty-four hours since the start of the worlds first global incursion, and already the signs that we were not as prepared as we could have been are showing. Id like to take a moment to remember Buenos Aires. Those poor souls didnt deserve to have a kaiju walk up to their shores this morning.


    -- Family wide communication, 2057


    ***


    I knelt down to one knee as a chill wind whipped around me and hooked onto my jacket to throw it open. The area around the highway was cleared of any obstacles, no trees or forests or even much of a hillside to cut the wind. That wasnt always going to be the case. There was a forest out ahead, with big old pines turning the sides of the roads into a dark pit where I couldnt see anything mean lurking.


    Why are we moving so slowly? I asked.


    The mobile base truck we were on was moving at a zippy ten, maybe fifteen kilometres an hour. I was pretty sure I could outrun it with little difficulty.


    Grasshopper turned her head around so that she could stare up at me. There was no way her neck was normal if she could turn her head that much. Her face mask split apart, the big globes over her eyes sliding back so that I could see her staring right into my eyes.


    She didnt say anything for a moment. Then, right when I was about to break the silence, she spoke up. Baby elephants, she said before her head spun back around and her mask reset itself.


    What?


    Grasshopper sighed. Baby, elephants. She waited for another moment, then shook her head as if I was the dumb one here. Herds with weaker members must move at the fastest pace of the slowest and weakest member so that the combined force of the entire herd can be brought to bear upon any aggressor.


    Oh, right, I said. We were moving slowly because some of the trucks behind us couldnt keep up otherwise. That made sense. Baby fucking elephants, I muttered.


    I see one, Grasshopper said. Then she started to dance.


    It was one of the weirdest fucking things Id ever seen, someone wearing armour that had far to many limbs on it, swaying from side to side like an excited puppy while laying flat on their stomach.


    So... shoot it?


    Oh, yes, I will, Grasshopper said. Do you want to see? I like seeing the aliens die. It makes me happy.


    I looked out ahead. The forest was still a good kilometre away, maybe a bit more. I wasnt a great judge of range. I couldnt see anything alive over there, but then the scope on her rifle was longer than my forearm. Sure?


    A ping to my augs later, and I had a small screen open in the edge of my vision. I had it grow larger.


    It was the forest, but zoomed in. A single model four was climbing up a tree with some difficulty, the smaller branches not entirely strong enough to hold its weight, but it was making its way up the tree nonetheless.


    She stopped firing. How did you know that? she asked.


    Your... name is Grasshopper?


    That tracks, she replied before she continued to kill off the aliens. At this current rate, this group will be dead two hundred metres before reaching the front of the caravan. Problem. Theres a second group coming in from the south, and a third moving in from the forest to the west. My speciality will allow me to remove any of the larger threats with little issue, but Im not good at swarms.


    I glanced to our left, then squinted. There was definitely something moving in the field that way, the grass was shifting a lot as what looked like a small wave spread out to hit the entire caravan. They were a good way out still, though.


    The other forest she was talking about was across the street from the one shed been sniping antithesis from.


    I stood up, careful to compensate for the wind and the slight rocking motion of the mobile base underfoot. Glancing back, I took in the convoy as a whole. It was too damned big to cover from one place. Sure, there were some trucks with guns on them, and the mobile base itself was bristling with guns, but I couldnt imagine the convoy holding out once the aliens were waving through it.


    Okay, heres the plan. Its a shit plan, so feel free to interject with better ideas, alright?


    Grasshopper stopped firing, moved back and up onto her knees, then kneeled there with her hands on her lap and head tilted up to look at me. Im listening.


    Uh. Yeah, Im going to drop a few catbots around here. Theyre mecha cats, they have guns, so... yeah. Then Im gonna place some cheap laser turrets onto the roofs of a few of the trucks back there. And once thats done, Im going to fly over the bigger pockets of the wave and drop bombs on it.


    Are the mecha cats warm and huggable?


    No, I said.


    That seems like a terrible waste of points. But I wont tell you how to live. I can work around your plan. Ill keep removing the greatest threats as they appear.


    Cool, you do that. Keep your coms open. You can ping me if something comes up. I glanced at my map while my hoverbike lowered itself down to my level. We were still a long way from the city, and at the speed we were moving, it would take us a while to get to the outskirts.


    The area around the city was still mostly green though. We were only going to have to defend the convoy for most of the way there, which was brilliant.


    We were about to dip into an entire zone that was nothing but orange and red though. A few kilometres of antithesis infested hell that wed need to cross with nothing but two samurai and a few bottom-of-the-barrel defences.


    The more I looked at the situation, the uglier it looked.


    My hoverbike came down and I leapt up onto it. Okay, see you around, Grasshopper. Call me if you need me.


    Good luck, Stray Cat, was her reply. Show these aliens what Newtons good for.


    ***