Chapter Sixty-Four – Getting Hot

Chapter Sixty-Four – Getting Hot

“Why is it always giant mechs with those damned samurai?

–Respectfully, sir, because they’re cool.”

-Exchange between staff sergeant and general, the Pergignan incursion of 2032

***

I hopped to the side, then swiped a paw forwards. With my claws fully extended, the void terminus blades simply moved through the space occupied by any of the aliens in their path, leaving nothing but chunks behind.

My attention wasn’t just on those nearby, however. I had half an eye aiming my twin Gatling guns which were both raining constant fire on any of the smaller models around. It only took a split second of concentrated fire to rip through an entire swarm of model ones, and barely any more than that to kill dozens of model threes.

Which was good, because the antithesis here were really going all out with the numbers.

A small siren rang in the back of my head and I fired up the jump thrusters in the mech’s feet while pushing back with my… its rear legs, sending me and the mech flying back half a dozen metres.

It was enough to avoid the exploding, tangled mess of an antithesis artillery ball.

Where had that warning come from? A quick check of my systems showed that I’d received a ping from the warmech’s lidar system that had detected an oncoming projectile and beamed the warning right into my brain.

I shook my head, and only realized a split-second later that I’d made the mech shake its head too.

This was getting weird.

I wasn’t exactly sharing most of my senses with the Mechcatular Nyanzerfaust, but a lot of its controls were linked to my augs, and I was controlling it with an ease and familiarity that was freaky. It was like getting dressed with the lights off while I knew exactly where I’d thrown my pants.

Or something like that. I was moving and acting and controlling this thing as if it was second nature, but I hadn’t practised for it. Some bits of me were confused as hell.

The rest of me really wanted to just kick back and have fun, because this was a fucking blast. I mechashifted my sides open and watched as a dozen model threes charged my way, each one of them salivating at the thought of taking a chomp out of me.

So I deployed my 105mm guns and fired both.

The explosion changed the minds of the aliens in a rather permanent fashion as it spread them over a couple of acres.

The guns reloaded automatically, ejecting a pair of casings that I could fit my arm into with a very satisfying ker-chunk while I sprayed another horizontal sweep through the smoke the explosion had knocked up with my Gatling guns.

“Having fun?” Gomorrah’s voice asked in my ears.

“Tons,” I said.

“Ready for a bombing run now. Going to do it right across your nose.”

“Uh,” I said. “One sec, I’m not sure how fireproof this thing is.”

It’s capable of enduring high heat, though your stealth systems do need to be within a certain temperature range to function correctly and some of your sensors will have to remain shielded. I’d also suggest keeping your cannons locked up for the moment, they are not rated for direct flame contact.

I tugged the guns back in. “Should be okay, more or less,” I said.

“Don’t worry. I loaded up on weaker bombs than before. These are just kerosene cluster bombs. No hotter than an oven.”

“That’s… awesome, thanks,” I said.

“I do try to think of my friends,” Gomorrah said.

I watched the Fury fly low over the shore, tiny black pinpricks dropping out from beneath it and spinning through the air before they’d burst apart and send even smaller specks flying every which way. Those ignited in the air just before hitting the ground.

There were thousands of them.

I stepped back a couple of paces, making room as small bombs, no bigger than my fist, exploded over the ground and spread massive circles of liquid fire around.