“Thanks for the help, but the model Ones are the least of our worries,” I said, once I recovered from the shock of seeing the animated teddy bear riding in an armored vehicle. “There’s an entire wave of Antithesis coming our way.”

  “Don’t worry, we’ll be able to handle it… probably,” the little aqua-colored bear replied as she pulled herself out of the hatch and wandered over to the edge of the vehicle. “We’ll be able to hold out until the boss arrives anyways.”

  Behind her I could see the other vehicles land and disgorge entire squads of the adorable little shock troops. The town didn’t have a robust perimeter wall like many of the megacities--ours was little more than a seven-foot-tall fence made of concrete blocks, but at least we had one. I heard that many corps didn’t even bother. Too expensive.

  Since the little three-foot-tall soldiers couldn’t possibly see over it, they climbed up on top of their vehicles and used them as impromptu firing platforms.

  Mud raised an eyebrow. “Your boss?”

  “Teddy. Bear Force One isn’t the swiftest vehicle, so she sent us out ahead to hold the line until she and the other samurai arrive to reinforce you. Don’t worry, we might appear cute and cuddly, but we’re professionals,” the bear explained.

  “So are you the one in charge?” I asked. “What should we call you?”

  “I’m Deadbeat,” she declared proudly. “And yeah, I’m one of the ones in charge of this lot. If you can’t find me, you can look for Heavy. He’s the polar bear with the rotary cannon, or Bandit the fox with the oversized ears.”

  “How many of you are there, exactly?” Mud asked.

  “Right now? Two hundred and forty,” Deadbeat replied casually.

  “Two hundred and fourty?!?” I exclaimed. “Really?”

  “I know, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but we’ll receive a second wave of reinforcements soon,” Deadbeat said.

  I looked at the little bear in shock. “The entire Great Falls security detachment consists of forty men, ten patrol cars, and two armored response vehicles. How many troops do you have?”

  “Just over a thousand. Each squad is equipped with its own transport and has access to a complete set of support weapons,” Deadbeat declared. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep you safe.”

  “Commander, movement in the treeline,” one of the nearby bears said, using a much more robotic voice and cadence.

  “Gotta go!” Deadbeat said, before stomping down hard on the top of the APC she was standing on. “Move into position!”

  The vehicle hovered sideways, slid right up to the wall, before landing again.

  “Hey! You can’t leave us out of this,” Mud growled. “This is our town!”

  Deadbeat looked back, over her shoulder at us.

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  “Then feel free to participate. You can either ride that tricked-out ride out front or join any of the squads at the wall,” she said, before turning back towards the wall. “I really wouldn’t recommend going out there though.”

  Mud and I exchanged a quick glance before scrambling over to the transport. There was already sporadic gunfire going off by the time I arrived at the vehicle, which erupted into a crescendo of automated weapons fire in the few seconds it took me to climb up.

  The killing field outside the city was already littered with Antithesis corpses, mostly Model Threes, but there was an entire wave of other Antithesis stampeding out from behind them.

  I’d seen Antithesis swarms before, semi organized hordes of focused aggression. This was more of a frenzied mob. The tightly packed wall of Antithesis flesh surged forward with no regard for its individual members. Anything that tripped or was injured was almost instantly trampled by the large models behind it.

  And there were a lot of larger models. Along with the Sixes, which I was familiar with, there were dozens of much larger, more threatening models. Heavily armored, six-legged tanks the size of trucks; spindly camel-shaped monsters with massive ovular maws; and, most frighteningly of all, a colossal, centipede-like monster the size of a train.

  I whipped my pistol out of the holster on my hip and emptied it into the swarm. The biological payloads detonated, spraying acid everywhere. Normally it was only moderately more effective than a regular pistol, but against such a tightly packed group the effect was devastating.

  Despite all the horrors out there, the bears didn’t even seem fazed at all. Their rifles felled the smaller models and injured many of the larger ones. The models that didn’t immediately die to small arms were caught by the heavy weapons carried by the larger bots.

  I’d never seen some of these models, and the bots were handling them like they weren’t anything special. At least at first.

  The swarm continued to build and build, with larger and larger Models showing up. Soon there were massive bipedal monsters with jaws large enough to swallow people whole and massive quadrupedal turtle-shaped things with squid-like faces.

  In response the armored vehicles rose just high enough to peek over the wall and bring their guns to bear.

  As more and more heavy models wandered out onto the field, shielding the smaller models, the Antithesis started to make serious progress towards the walls. Even with the combination of the armored vehicles and heavy bots, it wasn’t enough to keep them back, til a new set of vehicles started strafing the battlefield, bathing it in explosions. The power and spectacle was frankly overwhelming.

  “Why the fuck is this happening? Why our town?” I asked as I slammed another magazine into my pistol.

  “Bad luck, I suppose,” Mud replied, lowering his old-fashion-looking shotgun. “Could have happened to anyone.”

  “Yeah, but it didn’t happen to anyone. It happened to us,” I grumbled. “This is horrific.”

  “Oh, this is nothing,” Deadbeat said. “It could be much worse.”

  “Please tell me you’re joking,” I said quietly. “How can this possibly get any worse?”

  As if summoned by my words, a titanic creature pushed its way through the horde. Despite being quadrupedal, it dwarfed even the bipedal lizard models. Its head bobbed back and forth as two large, independently rotating eyes surveyed the battlefield.

  “Awww crap, not you again,” Deadbeat mumbled.

  “You’ve seen one of THOSE before?” I screeched. “How? Where?”

  “It’s a long story, but let’s just say it’s bad news. Kinda has a thick hide,” Deadbeat said, before putting a hand against her head. “Uhhh, boss, we’ve got a problem. How long until you’re in firing range? Uh huh… sure, I can arrange that.”

  She dropped her hand and stomped down on the roof of the vehicle again. “Hey googly eyes, time to work!”

  “What’s going on?” Mud asked.

  “Nothing to worry about, just need to help the boss get a proper firing solution,” Deadbeat said as a strange scaly bot poked its head through the hatch. Just like the Antithesis, its eyes rotated independently. “Hey, keep your eye on the target, not our allies!”

  The lizard thing didn’t even climb out of the hatch; it just rotated around and stared at the monster as it trundled closer.

  “I thought this thing was supposed to help you get a firing solution,” I said.

  “He is, don’t worry… Oh, and you might want to cover your ears,” Deadbeat said.

  “Why?” I asked just before an ear-shattering crack split the air and a giant hole was ripped right through the Antithesis titan.

  Deadbeat seemed to say something, but I couldn’t make it out over the ringing in my ears. “What was that?”

  “I… the… here.” she repeated.

  I blinked and stared at her blankly. So the bear just pointed behind me.

  Mud and I turned to find a massive airship slowly making its way over the town. Armored vehicles and attack craft were flooding out of the hangar in the back, and dozens of small turrets raked the battlefield with cannon fire.

  I just stood there, staring in awe.

  “I said the boss is here,” Deadbeat smirked. “Pretty good timing, huh?”

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