Chapter Ten - Rainbows of Death


    Chapter Ten - Rainbows of Death


    "Look, I''m all for supporting the community, but this is too many flags."


    --the LGBTVexillology Forums, 2025


    ***


    Twin 105mm cannons barked on either side of my mech. I wasn''t in it, so I couldn''t feel that glorious oomf of recoil, but I did get to see a pair of explosions rocking the side of the model twenty two in beautiful high-definition.


    Plant meat and gristle flew all over. Both rounds had penetrated the model twenty two''s lightly-armoured sides, buried themselves into its flesh, then exploded. There were now gaping holes large enough for a family of four to crawl into.


    And still the fucker wasn''t dead.


    The model twenty two stumbled. Some of the sacs on its side were broken, and half-formed alien carcasses slipped out along with a few gallons of placenta juice.


    Around it, the horde of smaller aliens playing babysitter turned my way. There was no signal, they all just started to move in my direction.


    I flicked on the mech''s invisibility, then immediately made it useless by opening up with its twin Gatling guns. A torrent of 10mm rounds rushed ahead. Every tenth round or so was a tracer. For some reason they alternated in colour, green, then yellow, then red streaking together to form a sort of moving...


    Wait a fucking second, were my guns rainbow-themed? "Hell yeah," I muttered.


    I thought you might enjoy that.


    "It''s very stupid," I said as I swept the fire left and right. There was nothing quite like twin Gatling guns to clear out brush, and trees, and aliens.


    Just to be safe, I aimed the big guns at the model twenty two and fired a second salvo. One round smashed into its down-tilted head. The other dug into its already opened side. When they went off, it was enough to send the alien crashing down.


    I pulled back on the digital trigger and looked upon my work. There was a bit of fire around the dead alien, and some that were still squirming, but for the most part, there was just a lot of dead biomass.


    "This one''s dead," I said. "And it was... really easy?" I tapped a few commands in, and charted a route for the mech to catch up and intercept our little group somewhere out ahead.


    "A few aliens couldn''t keep you down!" Princess said over the open comms. "Also, rainbow guns?"


    I decided to ignore her, because sometimes that worked with my problems.


    Gomorrah made a sound that could have meant anything while I exited out of the apps that let me control my mech. We were still floating along ahead of the others through what looked like a dirt road cut into the forest. I wasn''t a good judge of natural shit, on account of being a city girl, but the forest to our right looked a lot younger than the forest to the left, as if we were driving along a divide.


    Essentially. It seems as if this hive had been trying to purify its main source of water.


    I chewed on my lip for a moment. The lake was supposed to be stupidly toxic to alien life, and probably human life as well. The local flora suggested that it wasn''t great, and yet here the antithesis was, fixing it.


    Well, fixing it in order to better make little monsters to eat the locals with, so no points gained there.


    Hedgehog set the armoured truck on park, and then Tankette rode up the hillside, followed by my mech which turned around and faced the incline in case something tried to sneak up on us.


    Crackshot stepped out, then walked over to stand next to me. "Well, shit, that''s a lot of hive," he said.


    "I don''t think the entire lake is a hive," I said. "Looked like... see that entire coast bit there? Looks like the hive is actually in that spot of woods there. It''s just that it''s pulling from the water." I pointed as I spoke. "Still, yeah, that''s a lot of hive. But it might not be all that bad."


    "How''s that?" he asked.


    "I''m not an engineer or anything, but I figure building down is a bad idea when you''re right next to a lake. So the hive will probably be spread out across the surface."


    "We don''t have the tools to deal with either," Hedgehog said as he ambled over. "Protocol for this kind of thing is to carpet bomb the area, then sweep in with heavy armour."


    "We can''t carpet bomb this, and we don''t have heavy armour," I said. "Besides, it''s probably all muddy down there."


    "My tank gets caught in the mud sometimes," Tankette said. "I can''t imagine how much worse it would be if it was a lot heavier."


    "Yup," I said. "That sure looks like a problem. Well, good luck!"


    I patted Crackshot on the shoulder, then walked on over to where Gomorrah was leaning against the hood of her car. "Think they''ll manage?" she asked when I got closer.


    "Yeah. We figured it out the first few times, and there was only the two of us. Plus, they just came off a nice point-farming spree. They must all be sitting on a few thousand each, yeah?"


    Gomorah nodded. "It should be enough. Worst-case, we help a little. It''s not a big deal."


    "Well, it''s a big deal if we don''t finish before sundown. I want to have supper with Lucy tonight."


    Gomorrah shook her head. "You need to set priorities."


    "I... have? Lucy, then all the rest. It ain''t rocket science."


    ***