System of the Damned

  Chapter 23 - Roderick

  War Crimes and Worshippers.

  I will admit that yes I did end up spending a good few hours with my wife on a certain day doing not much other than rutting. Wren happily watched William and Bruce, the baby dragon being Bruce. Amazingly my wife didn’t hit me with anything when she realized why I’d named him after a comic book superhero. The kid loved to sleep hanging upside down when he wasn’t snuggling my ginger son. And Yes…William is a redhead now, that metallic bit stuck, so he’s got the “crisis red” hair coloring. He’d also turned back to his previous form in his sleep, and boy oh boy did that scare the hell out of Bruce.

  Thunder also doesn’t think it’s funny that William can barely walk, but has learned to leap like a movie monster. I can’t help that I did the fatherly thing and laughed like a maniac when William decided that Bruce flying wasn’t fair and took to monster movie hopping around. Thunder and I had various things in the living area bolted to the walls and ceiling to work out with, which William used to help hurl himself around. And I don’t care what anyone says, I did not deck Honey for asking why my son was playing monkey. After all, you can’t deck someone that dodges the punch you throw at their face. The one that decked Honey was Bruce, with a flying face hug.

  On a side note, my son can almost swim as fast as my wife can, and Bruce thinks it’s fun to constantly beat them both. I know he thinks it’s fun because of the happy warbling he lets out when he beats them. Every. Damned. Time. I should probably stop being a dorky dad and get back to the absolute chaos and fuckery going on. Vehicular Manslaughter…I’m gonna buzz a bunny for that one. No I won’t, Xavier is a good little evil overlord, and he didn’t let them blow up a mountain to make a straight route to the Lo’kar from the Yangtze.

  I was driving the Warg along what had to be one of the best roads I’d ever driven on, and I remember driving back on Earth. The Warg had gotten another refit as well, aside from the eleven hundred cubic inch ethanol hydrogen engine that had a supercharger and quad turbos shoving air into it. The bed had been removed and it now had a trailer mounted to it, which on one hand turned the Warg into a hell of an RV, and on the other made it funner to drive. The truck had three back axles now, while the trailer had another four to help cope with the armor that’d been put on it. It could carry all of my gear, weapons, and had supplies to rapidly turn it into a field command post. Piston had done a hell of a job, so I was rolling over the titan packed road at over eighty miles an hour.

  That didn’t stop my wonderful wife from screaming past the Warg in Satan's minivan…alright it’s not a minivan. It was much worse, it was maybe the size of my original build of the Warg, and had the same engine as my current edition. It was roughly the size of a five ton, had four wheels with independent suspension and four wheel steering. It is also heavily armored, has an entertainment system, snack and drink storage, and four robots clinging to the top of it. The robots were called “Jacks” in honor of Jackalope, who’d programmed them and could take them over when in range. They were a quarter of the size, used caltunium power packs instead of fission, and had cute little sub machine guns. Said guns were cute up until they fired and hosed five point seven rounds at nine hundred rpm, which made them just as scary as a gun bunny.

  A three and a half hour drive later, we caught up with Vehicular Manslaughter as it curved its titanic ass back toward the south. The mimics made bridges over the river were basically hills with holes in them, which could support the titan driving over them loaded. The bridges even had a few transplanted trees that weren’t mimics. We drove up along the side of the over two mile long titan, and I could see the exact moment the garlic from breakfast kicked in. My wife’s vehicle twitched and the windows all opened, letting both Thunder and Bruce hang their heads out of said windows. William thought that having rancid ass gas was hilarious, so I wasn’t surprised to see my wife’s ride shoot up a ramp for the vehicle bay.

  A few hours and an ass chewing later, I stood in the large planning room at the base of the titan’s tower. I was leaning on the table and growling with strain as I held my wife’s arms and kept them from using the buzzers she held on Miss Li. Thunder had been a strong woman before I’d wed her and used her size well, now she was a tiny ball of strength. Miss Li’s arms were pinned to her sides in the leg lock Thunder had her in as she laid sprawled across the table. The clicks my wife was producing were subsonic and thumped the air. “God damn it Li, appologize for not fucking warning her!” I snarled as it was actually hard to keep my wife from buzzing and or beating Li with the clippers.

  Miss Li chuffed and grunted as she was far too focused on fighting the leg lock to talk, luckily Xavier saved her. He hopped over and bowed to my wife. “I am sorry for asking her to juice you without warning. And getting my person to spike your food. I’d made damned sure it was safe for you and the most opportune time to do so.” He kept his posture bowed to her.

  The buzzers clicked off and my wife held them for me to take as she loosened her grip on Miss Li, but didn’t fully let her go. “About Goddess damned time you confessed. Lola told me about it the day after it happened…” As she spoke, I’d moved to set the buzzers to the side. That is how Thunder had the room to kick herself off the table and flip back with Miss Li…to slam the woman into the decking. “I feel much better now…” She said as she moved to take a seat in a chair.

  Xavier, myself, and several others just stared at her. “You’re not mad?” He asked, stunned.

  “Turnings will not be done without warnings from now on, or I will personally hurt people…” She trailed off as Miss Li groaned on the floor. “That was your warning, and aside from the pain of change…it’s useful and makes some activities much more fun.” She looked at me. “And quit blushing husband, you humans are far too sensitive about such talk.”

  Ok, yes I was blushing, but seriously! Thankfully Maestro saved a dash of my pride as he thumped a drumstick on the table, he’d been trying new instruments. “You’ve had your fun Thunder, but we have important things to work through other than your sex life. I can always ask Eir to let you go into heat…” He nodded as Thunder let out a squeak. “Very good, now back to business…and General can you put the lieutenant into a chair please?”

  I knelt down and hefted Miss Li up to set her down gently in her chair, which wasn’t a rolling chair or bolted down. The chairs were just normal chairs for the most part, aside from them being well crafted from leather, wood, and alloy. They were also wingback chairs, which helped support the mostly punch drunk assassin while I moved to my chair beside my wife. “I heard that the border bases are dealing with heavy rains. Will that change the timetable on the canyon assault?” I asked and relaxed back in my chair, knowing the heavy rain would mess up the ground.

  Maestro shrugged. “Yes and no, it is actually moving it up and canceling the canyon run at the same time.” He pointed at one of the big screens with an ear as it lit up showing an orbital map of the area. “We are changing course and going to be taking Vehicular Manslaughter through a different route to the targeted Eda ship.” There had been a bright yellow line showing the planned path to the forward bases and canyon, which shifted to the other side of an old weathered mountain range. It went very close to one of the ocean sized lakes that dotted the planet, which held two kaiju if I remembered correctly.

  “Isn’t that the ocean with two kaiju and that broken Eda ship? I remember people were worried we’d set off more or stronger raids during summer if we messed with them.” I used my implants to take a closer look at that area of the new route.

  “Yes, but this Fraulein can make them think to look elsewhere for someone to bother.” Captain Jaeger said with a little grin. “All but three platoons of infantry are aboard with their gear and vehicles. One Raven assault shuttle is aboard along with all of the valkyries, though they’re back on eleven.” The captain shrugged about the near two mile distance between us and the air support.

  Maestro snorted and twitched an ear as he waved his ear back at the screen. “If any of them come and try to pick a fight, we shell them to hell. The fun part is going to be that we’re going to be in crab territory for longer, and following the northern and eastern side of this range and the rivers that come through them. Only one river will require a bridging action, the rest we will be able to cross without bridging them.”

  Thunder made a soft noise and leaned forward. “How stable are the riverbeds and those valleys going to be? They’re much older and more weathered than the northern ranges, are you sure that this won’t just sink?”

  Xavier chittered and there was a flicking of a lighter before he actually spoke. “Scouts, they’re out with some of Arnold’s prospectors checking the new route. They’re keeping out of sight and moving faster than we can safely move Vehicular Manslaughter, and they have already spotted an area we’re going to have to shell.” He puffed on his smoke.

  “Yes, it will cause a slide that will allow us to sure up the ground and pass over it. The seismic effects of the fraulein moving also allow us to use teams with sensors to make sure the ground is stable…within at most twenty miles.” Captain Jaeger said firmly and then shrugged. “The problems will be when we enter their territory. we will be passing by settlements, farms of a sort, and mines.”

  I pulled a cigar from my thigh pocket and lit it, taking one long puff from it before my wife stole it. What was with everyone stealing my smokes!? I glared at her and she winked and puffed once on it before handing it back. “So we’re going to be dealing with infrastructure, civilians, and possible spots to sink in.” I looked at the screen for a moment. “Send two more platoons to the canyon base. Tell them to work like they’re about to do an all out assault, heavy shelling, but do not get stuck in a fight outside the base.” I took another puff from my cigar and looked around.Thunder gave me her little smirk, cause when she was a punk rocker the smile turned smirk or terror inducing. “You aim to distract them and pull as much of their combat forces away from where this monster is going to go.” She gave me a nod of approval. “A good idea, but it also means that much of their combat forces are going to come back when word reaches them.”

  “Either way we would be facing that issue. The General’s orders will help lower the risk of having to fight in or around their settlements.” Maestro said and got a distant look for a few seconds. “I’ve passed along the orders.” He looked to Xavier.

  My little bunny buddy let fly a soft squeak and sat forward. “The interesting part will be when we have to shell the pellets out of the canyon range. To create the proper slopes and allow Vehicular Manslaughter to move past, it will take a third of the artillery and cannons…five hours.” He twitched an ear. “The rest will be giving supporting and defensive fire. It’s the best ratio we’ve been able to figure out, and this machine will have a purpose after the battle.” He chittered the last firmly.

  Thunder made me proud when she nodded to Xavier. “Vehicular Manslaughter was built by and belongs to The Order, who spent two seasons bringing it to life.” She narrowed her eyes at him in the way all human women learn to do to males of any species. “And kept it secret from the rest of the Alliance, yet you are using it to work with the Alliance toward a mutual goal.” She nodded to him. “You’ve also labeled every section from nose to tail with the sigil of The Order, which is an interesting creation in itself. A mix of a human pirate flag and knight’s crest, crewed by Lagosapiens primarily.”

  Xavier beamed at Thunder as he chittered. “We largely learned from various human cultures, I worked with the other Firsts to make the sigil. A shield to show protection, a skull to show a willingness to kill or die, and the crossed torch and hammer for creation and destruction.” He winked at me. “It’s very pretty and scary, and yes it’s shown on every car of Vehicular Manslaughter. That is a much nicer option than all of us peeing on it to mark it as ours, Though Governor Rowland did pee from the top deck, human navy rituals are very odd.”

  Maestro sighed as I snickered. “It was a show of skill, being able to piss off the side of a moving ship without hitting the ship or falling from it. Guys used to do it in the wet navy.” I was grinning like an idiot as I spoke.

  Thomas had come in without me noticing. “Captain, the First Officer requests you take over command for the next leg. His wife is needing to rest.” Captain Jaeger stood up and nodded, giving Xavier a salute before heading out of the room to take over command of the bridge. Thomas then looked at me and sighed. “You still can’t properly say his last name can you? You have to use his handle?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You know my German is horrible. I can’t say his name properly because my brain wants to turn it into fucks…” I motioned for him to sit. “Besides, you got yourself kicked in the face by Jira. She’s one of my staff officers and even I know she’s part of The Order.” Cue squeaky giggles from Xaiver. “The chinese berserkers were Tong, The Order is the closest thing to home that exists here.” I looked at Xavier.

  He held up his little hand paws and chittered. “They do not call me Grandfather or Lola Grandmother, but yes I’ve noticed it. Much more noticeable in Miss Li and Lady Jira.”

  “That is because we were in the longest, Yinyang handled projects and Spot was wonderful for acquiring things from the military. Especially after the communist party took back over fully, fear is a horrible tool to control a population.” Miss Li gave Xavier a soft smile. “Besides, Albert finally got Jira to face her fear of tasers. That alone would have earned my service.” She smiled at Thunder and winked. “Even helping Clan O’Connell become a powerful reality…”

  “Clan O’Connell?” Flowed softly from my wife’s mouth and her eyes flicked to me and saw that I was puffing on my cigar to hide my reaction. “You claimed our family as a clan within The Order?” She asked as her eyes flicked to Xavier.

  My little bunny buddy nodded to my wife and gave her a wicked grin. “You thought we wouldn’t claim you as part of The Order? Your husband is my person and my wife has done all but claim you aloud as her person. She came up with the Idea and thus the two of you, William, Bruce, Quake, Titan, Grek, Squall, and Stormwind are Clan O’Connell.” He winked. “Along with myself and Lola of course.” His eyes flicked to Thomas. “And with Thomas’s family.”

  “Joy.” Drawled from Thomas’s mouth as he leaned on the table. “Now let's get back to business shall we? William and Bruce are passed out in a small pile of bunnies after playing and I’m not sure how long until he wakes up demanding food.”

  As it turns out, it was long enough for us to get the planning done and have lunch. I gave the boys hugs, got bit a few times in trade for giggles, and kissed my wife before she left to help her mom. Twins Basil! Twins! Luckily they hadn’t learned the wonders of being able to bite daddy, so Grek was lucky. That left me to head down to the Warg and do checks on my suit and gear for a few hours. I even did the evil paperwork that I had to do, which thanks to Adam was a quarter of what it would’ve been in the past.

  The following morning graced me with one of the most beautiful and terrifying sights I would ever see. The aged and wooded mountains with their rainbow of colors and animals on one side, and an ocean on the other side that flowed to the horizon. It was absolutely breathtaking, the island of scales I could barely make out in the distance made me want to wet myself. The two kaiju sized dragons were floating lazily and sunning themselves in the morning light with hundreds if not thousands of their smaller kin around them. Well around, on, flying above them, and no doubt swimming and hunting the various freaky looking fish this planet boasted in insane quantities. I realized that the Eda had turned into just another link in the food chain here that things like wolves, lions, and tigers used to have back home.

  Lions, tigers, and wolves had fallen to spears and bows, so hearing the soft whine of motors shifting guns to aim at the ocean wasn’t a surprise. After all, these predators were massive in comparison. Neither was it a surprise to see a plasma fired one five five shifting as it tracked something in the air and looked up to see a dragon circling high in the sky. Tracking the dragons was fine, even having targeting solutions on them was fine, everyone knew not to fire unless they attacked and they hadn’t. Yet. I may have been standing on the top deck of Vehicular Manslaughter’s tower, but my suit was mag locked to the deck behind me. My sword and ax rested on its back with their handles sticking up a foot over either shoulder, and I had a belt fed shotgun. That was in my suit’s left hand, while I had my revolver in a quickdraw holster for my left hand. Yes I’m a lefty, and I’ll use your right handed crap with my left hand. Granted my right is pretty good with the ax Squall gave me.

  Oddly enough, the dragons didn’t attack us. It was just a three hour long Mexican standoff as Vehicular Manslaughter came to its closest point to the ocean. It had nothing to do with the dozen Valkyries that were patrolling, or that boulder someone decided to vaporize with one of the forward guns. There was also the occasional bunny that went blur, and I swear I saw one appear on a dragon’s head and pet it for a second. Just what I needed to worry about, like this monster wasn’t bad enough…I knew. Just fecking knew…they were going to try dragon taming at some point. But there were better things to worry about after more hours of travel, as in late that damned night.

  Being really sneaky wasn’t an option with the monstrous metal beast of burden, and rolling into crab territory was like playing heavy bass rave music at full volume and poking a hornet’s nest. I had never seen one hundred fifty five millimeter tracers before, or the same caliber flares, but that night I got to see them. There had been a weird screech in the distance and a loud clang of something hammering into the armor of Vehicular Manslaughter. Then the beast stirred and cannons roared, vomiting light into the darkness that turned miles of it to daylight. I was already in my suit by the time a salvo of the spine firing giant spikes the crabs used as artillery started to hammer into my ride. Tracers started to fill the air in counter fire as I kicked a spool of cable from the top of the tower, grabbed hold of a bit of it, and slid down it in my suit.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  I nearly crushed someone with the feet of my suit when I slammed into the top deck, but I’d dodged them and ran for the defense point I was assigned to. Yes this was a mobile base, yes I’m a General, no I’m not sitting on my ass during a fight. If I lost my shit, there were plans in place to deal with it. The most prominent plan being to make my shotgun not work and to try not to run my currently fluffy ass over with a titanic land train. My assigned point was with Mel and Tom, who were both in Jackalope mechs when I got to the vehicle ramp on the first car. My suit sealed up as a cloud of oddly colored gas erupted from a big spike that had bounced into the bay.

  “Toxic gas warning in vehicle bay one! All crew don masks or suits!” I think that had been the Ai Jackalope’s voice. Yep it was, I saw the Ai driven mech with a few dozen Jack bots moving for the third car.

  I took my place on the side of the ramp and cursed as my suit instantly was hit with spines, which thankfully didn’t sink into the armor. You know what does sink into armor? Hypervelocity five point seven rounds from the top turret on a mech, and the crab that had shot me was turned into a holy relic. The other thing that does a number on armor…magnesium and white phosphorus twelve gauge rounds, and I handed them out at one hundred and eighty rpm from my shotgun. That was the best Honey had managed with a cooling system to not melt the gun, and I was so glad for my suit. The night had been muggy, there were clouds of toxic gas, and you could light a cigar off my gun’s barrel after a few bursts.

  Mel saved my ass when he swatted me out of the spot I’d been standing, and a big spike shell shot through the space half a second later. It was sort of how a fly must have felt getting whacked out of the air, it didn’t kill me, but ouch. I took a moment to eject the near melting point barrel from my shotgun and grab another from the thigh of my suit. There was enough flashing from lights, guns, and explosions of shells to be counted as a disco or rave when the first tracks started to slam down the loading ramps. Having to step back from the ramp let the supply platoon move to reload the mechs and my ammunition pack.

  To my surprise, I was stripped of my shotgun and its ammunition pack, then had a flamethrower shoved into one hand and a gatling into the other. The ammunition and fuel drums were latched to my back as I was still staring through my visual feeds at the weapons. “Tower, War Crime One is ready and loaded.” Came over my suit’s com system as Mel and Tom’s mechs waited for the tracks to finish unloading.

  Maestro answered. “Copy that, Captain, we are go for Crazy-Train.”

  Captain Jaeger’s voice was next. “Copy that, Go on Crazy Train! Release the Hound!”

  “Fuck you all…” Flew from my mouth before I could stop it, and a wrench thunked my helmet as a cable snapped to my suit. I didn’t bitch, instead I ran for the ramp. Thundering steps followed me from the mechs as I jumped off the side.

  “ALL ABOARD!” Roared into the night along the entire length of Vehicular manslaughter and music contested the weapons fire for rule of the night. The cannons on the titan lit the night with another salvo of flares and tracers. The cable slowed my fall to a safe speed as the twin mechs came down on jets of flame. The ramps the tracks had come down…were raising up from the ground. Maestro had fucking planned this! Wait, of course he’d fucking planned it, he was the damned strategist!

  The cable snapped free of my armor when I landed and I felt a sting as a shot of calm was pumped into me from my suit. It wasn’t really a tranquilizer or something that would mess with my head. It was a little cocktail I’d been the lab rat for the last few months, and it helped me focus, kept the monster from clawing at my brain so easily, and made my nose run for some reason. I also had to eat a ton and rest after using it, it was kinda like handing someone their first cup or marine coffee.

  I would say I’m not proud of the things I did in combat, or that it bothered me to use heavy weapons and a flamethrower to kill others, but I’d be lying. And after this night the Jackalope mechs that didn’t have the Ai in them, were called Hoppers. Cause even with me casually melding with my monster and using bullet and flame to murder, I got swatted down occasionally. The damned mechs hopped and danced around, and then would hop into the air on pillars of flame and stomp a crab like a roach. Mel and Tom’s mechs didn’t have laser cannons either, they had flame throwers. Has anyone mentioned yet how much the Crabs hate fire weapons? Did Maestro set me and the twins up to get the attention of every crab in a valley? He damned sure did, and that drew them away from the less protected cars, and let the tracks and flyers have better fields of fire.

  Needless to say that I got some very close and loving attention from the crabs, even with Tom and Mel covering me. Like the big ass trio of crabs that scuttled their asses up and were wearing armor! Crab’s bodies were armor! And then here come three of the bastards in armor! Metal alloy armor! That was not fair! And neither was the weird shield and pick combination the trio had going. Well one of them had a club, and all of them had those spine shotguns as well, but seriously! Why me! Apparently the bigger one really didn’t like me and his buddies distracted Mel and Tom so he could baseball bat me away from them. Needless to say the group I got batted into wanted to treat me to a full body circumcision. And oh look, more up armored alien monsters! My night was awesome!

  Ok, I may have lost my temper just a tiny bit, and the monster within me cackled in glee as I triggered the ammunition and fuel drums to drop from my suit. Clacky the crab thought it was a good idea to rush me and snip my arms off, so I ripped off one of his snipping arms and tripped him to land on the tanks. I then raised a shoulder, ducked my head down, and charged…before diving under one of the armored ones. Multiple tons of man and suit are not nice to crab legs, but the armored one let itself trip…just in time for me to trigger the detonator in the drums. Eat your heart out Michael Bay, those drums made one hell of a pretty explosion. God bless C-four and it’s holy thump.

  I barely noticed the music had changed, I think it was Hail to the King, I was more focused on drawing my sword and ax. And then I said a phrase I wished I’d never have to use. “Command Override! I am not a man! I am a Monster!” I snarled and really wanted to punch Honey for bribing his way into that override command’s wording. Part of the very limited medical suite in all berserker suits was a horrible cocktail that added to the one that gave us…well me…clearer thought. It was a mix of several different drugs and hormones specific to each berserker and purposefully made us lose our shit. The reason was that when a person crosses the line from anger into “seeing red” fury, they don’t feel injuries, they also forget about things like their body having limits. This was also a problem with my ptsd, but the monster was happy to have me call it out.

  Happiness, yes that is the reason my body suddenly felt like I’d been dipped in molten metal, the vents opened at least and let the flame I screamed out get out of my helmet. The command also let Maestro tap into my implants and target the enemy. Failsafes, a good thing to have. The howling screams of a madman must have worried the crabs, or it was the screaming and burning suit suddenly leaping into them. Giant pincers snapped at me, toxin soaked spines bounced off my suit or got ground to puddy in the joints, and limbs slammed at me. I answered them with enraged howls and screaming roars as I hacked and slashed at any brightly glowing red crabs. See, failsafes are good to have. I’m a good boy! I only smash the red glowing bad things!

  I don’t know how long I was surrounded and bashed back and forth between various crabs, ripping limbs free, stabbing, chopping, burning. I was alone with my rage and even when my right arm stopped responding I kept going. Even when my left knee locked up, I kept attacking the enemy. When my helmet was bashed free of my suit, I bit into the enemy and screamed out the rage that burned me from within. Then the gods of war hurled a flaming spear over my position and two valkyries rode down on wings of flame. Yes I was delirious, but two mark tens dropping from a fast moving assault shuttle could pass for what I saw.There was a reason this was the “Oh shit” mix and not the “Another day in the Marines” mix, mild risk of dependency was just one of the warnings for it. Risk of permanent damage, the shit you could see while using it, and the fact that you needed a handler to designate friendlies were some others.

  The duo pulsed green in my vision as they slammed down atop a pair of crabs, one lashed out with a giant spiked flail in either armored hand. The other was odd enough to even give my rage filled brain a second of pause, the head of the suit was shaped like a snub nosed cannon. A subsonic pulse of sound lower than any human could produce shot from the cannon as two oversized hammers went to work making crab tartare. My valkyries moved to either side of me and lashed out with their weapons, and the loudest and deepest singing voice I’d ever heard was let free. My brain made a connection and my implant painted the cannon suit a flashing pink. Thunder! My wife had come to fight by my side! And she was singing in public…sort of. Listen, a battlefield is public, especially for Thunder O’Connell.

  I didn’t think anything past “My wife” though, thinking was dangerous in this sort of situation and I knew that. Thinking led to feeling, and feeling would be very bad for me. So I moved back to the attack, and my sword was missing! No. Wait it was sticking out of that crab…best get that. Wait, my arm wouldn’t work. Use the ax instead, yes it dug into crab joints nicely. I lunged into any crab that tried to get around one of my two valkyries and used fang and ax to make sure they turned into good dead crabs. Occasionally one of my valkyries would jerk me to one side or the other, and I might of been tossed into or away from a crab a time or ten.

  I remember the crabs starting to retreat and being held from trying to go after them as flashes of light zipped around. Then the most wonderful voice in the world filled my ears. “Override Engaged! Put the monster to bed!” It was my wife’s voice and I dropped to a knee looking at her suit which was covered in dents and gore. Then the pain hit me and I screamed, and blacked out.

  *******************

  I woke up the next evening in a medical ward, I think it’s in the fourth or fifth car of the train? I’m not sure even years later, and it's been remodeled a dozen times or so over the years. Absolutely everything hurt, especially the stitches in my fluffy head and the holes in my ears. The fancy cast on my left leg hurt, that knee pulsed with my heartbeat. My right shoulder was a ball of flame and barbed needles that went down to my elbow, and the four bare breasts pressed to my left side were heaven. Ever so slowly I shifted my head to see my wife snuggled against my side in the bed. She was totally uninjured of course, because like Lola, she’d been mostly in the chest of her suit. Smiling hurt, but I still did it. My warrior maiden wife had rejoined the fighting to save my ass, god I loved her.

  After a sip from a water bladder near my head, I used my implant and made the pain meds go up a notch in my iv. I woke up the next morning still feeling like an over tenderized roast, but I had to be a person. I didn’t want to be a person, I wanted more drugs and sleep till I didn’t feel like hell. Thunder and Lola were there when I woke, so I didn’t have a choice. They helped me into some loose pants, then into a wheelchair. They also introduced me to enough electricity to power a house for a month in winter, which eased the burning in my wounds. I had to let Thunder push me, which was hilarious because she had to look around me. She was too short to see over me, I just couldn’t laugh or smile. Tiny women have tempers, and mine likes to use hammers.

  It was while we were eating in a mess hall with members of The Order and Alliance Marines that one of them said something that made me blink. “Wait, they didn’t break until the blurs started attacking them?” I sputtered.

  Lola nodded her wee head. “Yes, they were doing counter attacks on the crab artillery and were busy for a while. It wasn’t until my husband got his suit broken that they joined the battle. I swear to God and the Goddess that he is as brick headed as you.”Thunder snorted and rubbed my good leg. “He was leading the defense of the other side of the train, and he fought just as hard as you did. They fled from his side before ours thanks to Xavier and the group of Burrow Guard that were with him. The crabs are apparently terrified of blurs, not to mention when they suddenly had small fluffy things ripping their legs off.”

  Lola squeaked in laughter. “He overdid it though, Thomas is having to carry him around on his shoulder!” The dwarf bunny that could hurl a car at you absolutely loved it when her husband overdid it. She was also the strongest of the bunnies and sparred with berserkers like Jira and myself. It is seriously hard to hit the tiny fuzzy cannonball, and she knows how to use her size to her advantage. She also trained the tanks of The Order in hand to hand combat.

  I groaned and took a drink of coffee, then water as I looked between them. “Like back last summer with the storm, he went super bunny and overdid it?” Thunder answered with trilling laughter and nodded, and I waited for her to calm. “How bad were our losses?” I asked softly.

  They shared a look and my wife sighed before answering me. “Thirty two dead, forty nine are taking turns in the tanks regrowing limbs, and about eighty or so walking wounded. Worse than we’d hoped, but better than we’d feared.”

  Lola twitched an ear and looked at me. “We were off on our expectations, we expected hundreds. There were thousands of crabs here…”

  “And a bunch of them were wearing some sort of alloy armor that made them way harder than we were used to.” I grumbled. “They also targeted me pretty hard. Who else did they try to give a personal touch to?”

  Lola nodded to Thunder and my wife shook her head. “The Spots, all three are in the tanks back at the labs. As far as anyone can tell the crabs aimed for you, Xavier’s suit, the Spots, and Jackalope. The last went really bad for the crabs, he uploaded to another mech and blew the mech he’d been in. They’re still cleaning fallout from cars nine and ten. I’m not sure if they were aiming for Jackalope or just the mechs. Tom and Mel’s mechs got beat to hell, but those two are fine. We also have a quarter of our tracks down for repairs and some of them have to be completely rebuilt.”

  “Then there’s the near one hundred suits in states between needing some new armor or needing full replacements. Arnold’s suit is a total loss, mainly because when the crabs disabled it…he ripped it apart and used the limbs as clubs. He’s fine though, dug into the ground and started tearing off their limbs when they tried digging after him.” Thunder shook her head softly and chewed on a hunk of crab meat, her eyes flicking to the side before she nodded to someone.

  Lieutenant Commander Krieg came over with a tray and plopped his lanky ass down into a chair beside me. Since he was a pilot and constantly was wearing a helmet, he was barely tanned, yet his blonde hair was long. Ice blue eyes flicked to me and he gave me a little smile. He also leaned a cane on the table, which made me look and notice the cast on his leg. “They’ve gotten themselves a sort of AA, a little version of the big spike artillery.”

  “Yes, and the Raven is in for armor repair, canopy replacement, and a new pilot’s seat.” Lola said, giving the ace pilot a look. “Blitz was nailed to his seat, but you kept doing attack runs until you emptied your ammunition bins.” She gave him a nod of approval.

  “Some of my gun crew had to clean out their suits afterward, I could only use one foot for turning or rolling. Hell I even hurled a couple times, bless The Order for getting the mimics to play G suit for us pilots. We’re not as crazy as the juiced up marines…” He pulled a necklace with the dog tags of the fallen and slid it to me. “Sir.”

  I sighed as I took the necklace and slipped it into my thigh pocket, grunting as my healing shoulder did Not like that idea. “Thanks Blitz, I’ll make the rounds in medical as soon as I can manage a crutch.”

  He gave me a nod. “Everyone that’s conscious has already seen the footage of this big crazy werewolf fighting solo. Along with the two war maidens that joined him, but I will admit that the most watched is Xavier.” He paused to chew a bite of sandwich. “Don’t get me wrong, watching a movie monster go ape shit on aliens is awe inspiring. Xavier losing his shit is just pretty, like a fireworks show at ground level. Burrow Guard is fuckin scary though, ripped the armored fuckers apart.” He winked at Lola and I saw her beam with pride. “Not a clue where they learned it from.”

  My wife snorted. “I have one hundred pulsars who are going through treatments because they don’t like me out classing them so badly. And those are the ones that aren’t pregnant, the rest want their turns after they give birth. My damned mother is one of them, and the sad thing is that we’re all out classed…”

  “By a baby.” I said with a grin and my wife’s eyes literally lit up with pride. “Who has his own burning buddy.” I went back to eating. William was going to be wearing two of the collars used to keep young Pulsars from doing bad things. The pair kept him from doing things like blowing up a house with soundwaves.

  “The latter being my husband’s fault, but it worked out.” Lola sipped some coffee from a straw. “I have to say that his new nanny is interesting.” Thunder and I both groaned as she said that. “Eve is taking some getting used to I see, and she never returned the Jack bots that she stole.”

  “Says the queen of the kleptomaniacs.” Blitz said with a little grin and worries, because it was true. Mimics stole tasty or shiny things, The Order stole any tech that they could get the blueprints or theory on. If they couldn’t get blueprints or theory, one of the items would simply vanish and be returned later. They were polite kleptomaniacs, but they’d steal anything from a tablet to a small building. No I’m not joking, a storage building in the avian settlement vanished for a week. They always returned the items though…or buildings.

  I couldn’t help but chuckle aloud before I spoke. “Yes, Eve is taking some getting used to. More for the Lo’Kar population than us, Thunder and I had lessons on nosey and curious Ai before she was activated.” I gave my wife a little smile. “But Wren and the few other old ones think it’s absolutely hilarious. The Lo’Kar have Ai, so do the Ca’zeze, so the eldest of them are just finding it fun for the young ones to learn the new joy.”

  “Yes, Jackalope didn’t deal very much with anyone other than a select few of the lab teams, and Adam doesn’t talk much with anyone that isn’t in the Yangtze Valley.” My wife shrugged softly after she spoke, getting up to take my tray, Lola’s plate, and her own tray over to the counter. When she came back she looked at me and sighed. “We can’t wait for your shoulder to heal, let's get you back to medical to see the troops. I called many of them walking wounded, but there are plenty in the beds.”

  I snagged the coffee jug I’d been sipping from and nodded. “Yes, morale boosts come in all shapes and sizes…” The short joke didn’t go unnoticed and she flicked one of my wounded ears, making me twitch in pain.

  It wasn’t until that night cycle that I was able to get out of the wheelchair and use a crutch, which my shoulder hated. Vehicular Manslaughter had shuddered a few times from firing salvos of cannon fire, and the Blurs had made themselves known more than once. The crabs didn’t make any more attack runs though, no ambushes, not even any shelling. The titan even ran over a small outpost that had been abandoned by them. It was worrying the hell out of the old hats like myself and a few others, but the scouts had reported no signs of planned resistance.

  Then the next morning Vehicular Manslaughter rolled to a stop halfway into a valley with a small river running through it. Blue, green, and violet grasses and plants filled the near treeless plain, there were also odd crops growing in marshy areas. The reason the titan had come to a stop was sitting about halfway into the valley, crabs, thousands of them. The massive horde was gathered around what could only be a statue or altar of some kind.

  I stared at the screen as its view zoomed in on the gathering, which was mostly the crab warriors, and none had moved to attack us. If I hadn’t been sitting in a chair, I’d of fallen flat on my fluffy ass…still hadn’t been able to turn back. The reason for my limp limbs was the fact that the crabs seemed to be praying and leaving offerings to a very nicely made statue. It was a fucking rabbit…and there were smaller ones holding crab legs or limbs, and others portrayed as streaking forms. There were armored forms in the statue scene kneeling…and one of them was of me wreathed in flames. There were a dozen or more of us in the room just staring…because the main statue…holding a ladle…was Lola. The crabs. They were praying to not just the bunnies, but to Lola. She’d not only killed crabs, but cooked them and fed them to us, and they knew it!

  "Well no shelling holy sites…" was chittered by Xavier.

  I couldn’t help it. I giggled. Then started to laugh, and was being stared at as I howled in maniacal laughter for a long moment. Everyone was staring at me as I wiped a tear from my eye. "Someone hammer my suit into working order. Lola…gather an honor guard. It's time for Eostere to play diplomat…" I looked at Lola, who twitched and broke into evil villainous giggles. "And someone get this cast off me and bring me a brace."