Chapter Forty-One - Rapid Return


    Chapter Forty-One - Rapid Return


    Were not so different from the Antithesis, in some ways.


    Back either of us into a corner, and thats where youll see us fighting the hardest.


    --Nomad, 2056


    ***


    Gomorrah flew the Fury over the gap.


    I didnt know what else to call the long stretch of space where the wall just stopped. Cranes were set up on either edge, and there were huge cement slabs ready to be pulled up onto the foundation that was even now being poured, but there was no missing the fact that a three-kilometre stretch of the city was entirely unprotected.


    It wasnt an empty spot either. Suburbs were set up on what was going to be the outside of the wall. A satellite city sat on the southernmost part of the gap. It looked like the wall was going to bulge out a little to accommodate it.


    Atyacus, did Laserjack give us a spot where wed be needed? Gomorrah asked.


    The Family has suggested some locations which require reinforcements, a smooth, rather posh-sounding voice said. The entire stretch of space without a wall needs to be defended. Anywhere along or around that area could use Vanguard-tier reinforcements.


    I glanced out the window and noticed that several armoured vehicles were forming a barricade just outside the area where the wall would be. More vehicles were moving into the space behind the wall. Mobile bases, semi-trailers with mobile offices on their backs, and a whole heap of supply vehicles.


    Looks like every other PMC in the city is coming over, I said.


    This location is the most likely to lead to the Antithesis breaching the city, Atyacus said.


    I nodded. Makes sense. Get everyone over the spot thats weakest. The plants will definitely be pushing that spot hardest. Least resistance, and all that.


    Indeed, the AI said.


    I''m going to station myself a bit out in the open, Gomorrah said.


    Isnt your range pretty short? I asked.


    Yes, but I expect that there will be enough of them that it wont matter, Gomorrah said. Besides, I do best when I have a lot of space with no one friendly inside it.


    I considered that for a moment. Not so much Gomorrahs fighting style as my own. How did I fit into all of this?


    Can you drop me out at the far end of that city? I asked, pointing to the suburban sprawl. Lots of apartment buildings, and a few dozen condo-enclaves. My gimmicks not going to be useful in the open, not if theres going to be thousands of the fuckers. Im going to head in towards the walls, leave a few hundred traps behind.


    We dont have a lot of time for traps, Gomorrah said.Th.e? most uptodate novels are published on n(0)velbj)n(.)co/m


    I shrugged. I can run pretty fast. Maybe Ill get a jetpack of my own?


    Gomorrah chuckled. Go ahead. I wont need to taxi you around quite as much.


    New Purchase: Stylized Servitor - CAT Mech


    Points Reduced from... 20,514 to... 20,364!


    A box appeared, and then immediately opened up as a cat mech jumped out of it. It was smaller than the mechs I had for fighting, with a whole set of thin mechanical arms sticking out of its back. It used those to quickly pick up my boots, then it folded my coat with its forepaws and grabbed it in its jaws. The cat looked up at me with glowing cat eyes before slinking away.


    Right, what else, I muttered.


    Catherine, the wave is incoming. You have under one minute before the forward-most section is upon you.


    I swore, then looked up at the nearest building. How much fuel does the pack have?


    Each container should last you long enough for half a minute of flight. They can be replaced automatically, same as the ammunition in your current gun. The tanks cost ten points each.


    That would probably add up.


    Okay... uh, how do I fly?


    I think it would be safest if I flew for now. Keep your legs together, please.


    I tensed up a half-second before I took off into the air. The worst part was the lack of sound. Except for my screaming, of course, but that didnt escape my helmet. At least, I hoped it didnt.


    Myalis landed me on the edge of a flat rooftop, and I paused there for a moment while my heart considered whether or not it would leap out of my chest. Okay, I said. That was all I could think to say.


    A rumble to my right had me looking that way.


    The dust cloud was getting closer, much closer. My augs drew a square at the base of the cloud and a small screen opened up with a zoomed-in view of that square.


    Model threes. Packed in so tight they were bouncing off each others shoulders. More behind them, and through the faint dust, I could make out bigger models. There had to be thousands. How were they kicking up dust when it had to have rained in the last day or so?


    Fuck me, I muttered.


    Any path in particular you wish to take?


    That many would be hard to kill. Impossible, even. Not by me alone, at least.


    Unless...


    Okay, I said. Im going to need a few cat mechas, and... some sort of bomb that will create a barrier. I want walls to cut off their path. Funnel them in a little. Maybe those expanding foam things? With resonators? Well push the entire swarm into a few corridors, then well fuck them up from above.


    All I had at my disposal was an infinite armoury of exotic explosives and the high ground.


    It would have to do.


    ***