Chapter Sixty-Two – Quick Thinking

Chapter Sixty-Two – Quick Thinking

“During the early 2010s, several companies ran this advertising campaign that encouraged people to name their children after a brand or corporation.

Of course, that backfired spectacularly when most corporations forgot all about that by the time those children were old enough to purchase things themselves.”

–Interview with Walmart ‘Walt’ McDonalds, 2034

***

“I have a plan,” I said.

“That was quick,” Gomorrah said.

“The plan is that I’ll jump out of this car and summon a giant warmech so that I can fight and hold off the aliens while you keep bombing the ground around me,” I said.

Gomorrah paused for a long few seconds. “I see now why the plan was quick.”

“Hey, it’s got decent odds of success, I think. We need to slow down the advance of those bastards, and this’ll let the vans continue to drop bombs along the shoreline.” The vans were coming around for another bombing run already, continuing the line that we’d started already. Gomorrah and I had left them to it and were racing to where the antithesis were actually coming from, about a kilometre and a half further down.

“Fine,” Gomorrah said. “Don’t die.”

I grinned. “I won’t,” I promised. “Myalis, how far can that mech you were talking about drop from, and can you summon it with me inside?”

I see where you’re going with that line of questioning, and while the attempt does sound spectacular, it also sounds foolhardy. The warmech I proposed earlier can drop from a height of seven metres without any issue. Above that it will suffer increasing amounts of damage from the fall. As for the summoning, yes, I could summon the vehicle around you in mid-air. Or you could politely ask Gomorrah to swing down and drop you off at ground level.

I groaned, but she was probably right.

It wasn’t nearly as badass though, to be dropped off than to jump out of a moving car, summon a warmech around me, then land with that. “Gom, can you drop me off… about over there?” I pointed to a spot some fifty-ish metres from the shore. There were some wooden piers over the lakeside where the water ended at a cet of cement walls. The piers stretched out over the water, and there were some restaurants nearby using them as sitting space.

A few smaller models were already pulling themselves over the edge of the pier. Dog-like model threes, some tentacle-covered assholes too, and of course, a bunch of model ones were flying right out of the water and into the air for a short distance. A flock of these were hanging onto the rails, like seagulls on a wire, only worse in every way.

Gomorrah brought the Fury down low and quick, the hood popping open to release a flamethrower which did flamethrower things to the nearest aliens.

I waited for the fire to die down before stepping out. “Stay safe,” I said.

“You’re the one going out there,” she said.

“Yeah, but I’ll be fine,” I said as I clicked the door shut. The Fury rose up past me in a wash of broiling air and I was left standing in the circle of burning pier over increasingly agitated waters. “Gonna wanna back up a bit,” I said to myself.

Are you ready?

“How much is this going to cost?” I asked.

The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it.

That was fair enough, I supposed. “What’s my point total right now?” I asked.

Current Points: 37,634

I let out a long breath. “What was that big model? The really big fucker that I saw with the Kittykopter.

That was a model twenty-eight. It is worth six hundred points if you manage to kill it. A rapid estimate suggests that the entire value of the antithesis column moving in your direction is close to twenty-five thousand points.

I worked my jaw, then watched more model threes start to climb up onto the pier. No time to waste, then. “Myalis, sink twenty K into that warmech, and make it fucking fantastic.”

Understood. Summoning a Mark IV Mechcatular Nyanzerfaust. Prepare for arrival.

“Wait, it’s called the what?” I asked.

Then I was interrupted by a glimmer from above. By the time I started to look up, the thing was already crashing down onto the ground next to me. The burst of wind from its passing kicked up the flames all around me and its landing buckled and splintered the pier, sending wooden planks flying into the air.

New Purchase: Mark IV Mechcatular Nyanzefaust
Points Reduced from 37,634, to 17,634

The robot was three metres tall and twice as long, all black and chrome and pent up violence. Its eyes lit up, pink and bright then the light washed out across its entire frame, skimming along its sensor-whiskers, then along its mane and through its body. It flashed as it reached each individual paw and glowed faintly for a moment as it touched the thagomizer on the mecha’s tail.

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It was was several tons of composite, alien armour and corded artificial muscles, and it looked like it could fuck any antithesis’ day up.

The mech turned its head my way, locking eyes with me, then it bent down in a feline bow, the plates along its neck hissing apart to reveal a seat surrounded by control surfaces nestled deep within the mecha’s body.