Chapter Forty-Two - Earning the Tier


    Chapter Forty-Two - Earning the Tier


    At lower tiers, the effectiveness of a single samurai on the field is actually questionable.


    That might lead some to wonder; if a samurai is little better than a small battalion of trained troops, then why not replace them with just that?


    The answer is that while a low-tier samurai might only be that powerful, they wont be low-tiered forever.


    --A discussion on the value of samurai on large scale battlefronts, 2028


    ***


    I was just planning my route, a map open in the corner of my vision, when some clever asshole decided that a large mass of bunched-together aliens would make for a great target for some artillery.


    Something screamed above, and I raised my head and tracked a tiny black speck through the air. Its parabolic arc ended with it smashing into the ground a good fifty metres ahead of the wave.


    A loud boom echoed out, while dust and smoke rose out of the impact crater as a massive column. Nice, I muttered. Myalis, can you get in touch with whomever fired that? Tell them they missed.


    On it.


    The wave was undaunted by the blast. I think most human armies would start running faster to get to cover or something, but the sea of bugs charging towards the city didnt change their breakneck pace at all.


    I looked at my map again. There were lots of streets to cover. Okay. Were going to push them down... Mapleway. I need... these six bigger roads blocked off, and all the alleys along them before the blockage.


    The city was laid out as a grid, with some concessions made for the underlying terrain. This wasnt New Montreal, built on a massive platform raised above the ground, but a more normal cityscape like they used to build before.Findd new stories at novelhall.com


    I couldnt funnel the entire wave. There were too many of them. But maybe I could funnel in a fraction, a good chunk of those heading in towards the city. It would concentrate them, sure, and that would be fucking awful if they ever reached the defenders covering the gap, but I didnt intend to let that happen.


    Funnel them into a big group, then bomb them back to whatever hell theyd crawled out of.


    I need mecha, I said. Six... no, eight. See these roads. I want them blocked off. Foam, maybe pepper in some resonators for if they try to climb over.


    I quickly drew some lines across the map. In the end, my design looked a bit like a square-stepped pyramid, with the tip pointing towards New Montreal itself. Every blocked road would be next to an alleyway or a side street that would let the wave move closer inwards. If we blocked off enough alleys and the previous side-roads, then theyd have no choice but to be pulled in. At least, if they didnt stop to sniff around.


    Fuck, I was treating the entire wave as if it were made of water or something, not living things.


    What are the chances this works? I asked Myalis.


    But in case it wasnt enough... Resonator.


    That one dropped down into the foam with a dull splat. It managed to stay afloat as the foam expanded, a tiny screaming present for the first fucks to try and claw their way over the wall.


    I jumped over the alley, legs bunching up so that Id clear the gap. Kinda forgot I had a jetpack for a moment. Next one, I said.


    The artillery fire started to grow less coordinated and precise. I could tell that some shots were flying much further out, and I winced as a shell crashed into a building that immediately exploded, fire and cement siding flying everywhere.


    At least some of the shrapnel would probably brain a few of the xenos.


    A glance over my shoulder revealed that the wave was hitting the city proper. They slipped around abandoned cars and over guard-rails. It was hard to tell the individual models apart, they were jammed so close together.


    Then I noticed something in the dust behind them. Wings, beating fast.


    A swarm of flying models swooped out of the dust. Little models, no bigger than pigeons, but also huge fuckers with wingspans like private jets.


    Ah, fuck, I muttered as I whipped my gun around. I didnt fire. There was still a ways between them and me, and the chances that Id do more than take out a few of the smaller ones with some stray pellets wasnt great.


    The wave hadnt even hit my barriers and already my plan had gone to shit.


    We need AA, I said.


    Something screamed through the air. Not a shell, something bigger and faster, accompanied by a loud buzz. A glance above and I found a squadron of prop-planes shooting forwards. The guns fixed under their wings opened fire with a mechanical humm and lines of bright-green tracers flitted through the air and into the swarm.


    Maybe I didnt need AA just yet.


    Large hovering vehicles were rising above the gap, with guns afixed to their sides. They started firing, and the air exploded with black-grey bursts of shrapnel around ahead of the flying aliens.


    I turned and continued running across the rooftops.


    This wasnt a one-person effort, I realized. There was an entire army here.


    For a moment, I wondered what I could do alone. But then, maybe my job was just going to be picking up the slack.


    I flung another pair of grenades down a maintenance passage between two buildings and then kept moving.


    Soon the swarm would be on me, then Id have other shit to worry about than how useful I could be.


    ***