Chapter Twenty-Nine – Trench Run

Chapter Twenty-Nine – Trench Run

“Operator: Why is the city on fire?

Lord Burninator: You clearly haven’t thought this through.”

–Excerpt from official transcript between Family operations centre and samurai field command, 2038 Venezuela Incursion

***

The turrets I was setting down on the edges of the tallest trucks were the same cheap crap I’d been using for a while. A laser-gun, a small battery pack, a little strip of solar cells and three legs which ended in suction-cup grippers that had no difficulty attaching to the stainless steel roofs of the trailers I was passing.

From earlier observation, the turrets took about three, maybe four seconds of continuous fire on a single model three to take it down. Way less time to take out model ones though, the little birds were easy to knock out of the air.

By the time I was at the back of the convoy I’d set down nearly fifty of the things. They had pretty decent range, and some of those near the front were zapping the quickest of the aliens already.

I’d dipped down four times between slower trucks and bought a few cat mecha. They were more than capable of keeping up with the convoy, and I figured the extra bit of mobile firepower might give us an edge if… or when, the aliens reached us.

I placed the last turret on the roof of the very last vehicle in the convoy. I probably didn’t need to bother, it was another of those oversized mobile bases, with guns bristling out of its sides and a few turrets on the top already, but the turrets would give me and Myalis an idea of the convoy’s status as it moved ahead, and I figured I could retrieve them after, maybe hand them off to the Family to place them along the length of the defences around the city. It was that much more firepower, and the self-sustaining sort.

“Hey, Grasshopper,” I said.

“That’s me,” Grasshopper said. “Is something wrong?”

“Nah, not yet,” I said. “I’m about to start my bombing runs. I’ve set down some turrets here and there, should keep the convoy… safe-ish. Honestly, it’s not much, but it’ll put a dent in their numbers I hope.”

“I understand,” Grasshopper said. “Do your best!”

“Right,” I said. I kicked my bike into gear and shot up a ways. From above I could see the vague formation the antithesis were taking. A large group of them were spread out to the left and rushing in towards the convoy. More were out by the front, where a few patches of forest made it hard to tell where they were hidden.

There was actually some sort of facility in the middle of those woods. Probably abandoned by now. Still… “Myalis, can you check to make sure there’s no one alive around here, I don’t want to bomb some poor sap hiding in that building over there.”

Searching now… no signs of life. The facility is an older slaughterhouse, it has been out of operation for a decade.

“Got it,” I said.

I turned my bike over to the large group heading into the side of the convoy.

The antithesis at the front were more numerous, but they were starting to enter the effective range of the guns on the mobile base, and a few of those armoured cars with machine guns on their roofs were near the front, spraying down lines of fire into the approaching mass.

The group to the side didn’t have as many obstacles, and if they reached the convoy, they’d spread out and rooting them out would be a mess. Some of the trucks were driven by flesh-and-blood people, we didn’t want to deal with dead drivers causing blockages on the road.

So I was going to teach the fuckers about the beauty of high explosives.

“Myalis, I need lots of grenades with the pins already pulled,” I said. “Maybe one every two metres or so?”

Noted. What are you thinking about for the payload?

“Can’t have anything that might damage the convoy. Just a big boom?”

Concussion grenades will release a large burst of kinetic force without launching any shrapnel from the explosive itself. Pieces of antithesis might reach the convoy, but not at speeds that would endanger the vehicles. Also, the explosives are relatively inexpensive.

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“Works for me,” I said.