I could see our newest companions weren’t impressed with the current situation. It was written all over their faces. I couldn’t exactly blame them.

  Angeline and I were just relaxing by the truck, waiting to get going, but the area around us was chaotic. I had the bears running around the camp, collecting junk to dump in the assembler. Probably not the best first impression, but I absolutely needed the supplies. Bob’s repairs had stalled out earlier, and I really didn’t want to go back out before the system had everything it needed.

  The woman on the gigantic horse sighed, slid out of her saddle and headed towards us, the smaller man one step behind.

  My eyes widened as she approached. She was tall, and I mean really tall. She had to be close to eight feet tall. Once I got over her height, I looked her over more thoroughly. She had green eyes, and red hair peeking out from underneath her helmet. Her armor had celtic styling, and was probably power armor, and carrying a massive spear.

  The man hiding behind her was much less impressive, he seemed to be wearing a cross between the traditional Japanese Samurai armor, and hockey pads. It looked like some of the budget Samurai cosplays she’d seen pictures of. The two swords hanging from his waist looked dangerous, but since he was sliding back and forth on what appeared to be hover shoes, I had a hard time taking him seriously.

  “I’m Caitlin O’Conner, also known as Epona, and this boy behind me is Alan Smith, aka Silent Saber, you two must be Teddy and Bright Eyes.” The two of us nodded, and Alan just waved meekly. “I have to say, I was warned about you, but this is more than I expected.”

  I raised an eyebrow, “What, you mean the armored vehicles? Those are for the bears.”

  “Not that,” Epona replied, pointing back at her horse, “I’m talking about all those squirrels climbing all over everything.”

  The horse was, indeed, covered in a couple foot tall, brown squirrels wearing aviator goggles and bomber jackets. The horse was unnaturally calm, as the rodents explored, and as soon as they were satisfied they’d fully explored the horse, they ran off to explore something else.

  “You can’t blame me for those, they belong to Angeline,” I said before pausing for a moment. “Well, most of them anyways.”

  I glanced over at my friend, who was busy cuddling one of the squirrels. “What? Evelyn doesn’t have a monopoly on cute things, I can have them too,” Angeline pouted. “We were discussing the plan and realized there would be holes in our coverage, so I volunteered to pick up a catalog similar to what Evelyn has, since I’ll be doing overwatch.”

  “Turns out with Class I modular recon robotics and Robotic Facades I can make something adorable too. They totally match my aesthetic, Meh he he he.”

  “So why are there so many, and why are they climbing all over EVERYTHING?” Caitlin asked.

  “I didn’t want to send them out to scout, so they’re in mapping mode and trying to create a super high resolution 3D map of the area by inspecting everything,” Angeline explained. “Besides, I think it’s cute.”

  Caitlin shot me a look, as if asking for an explanation, but all I could do is shrug. “I can’t complain, look at my ground forces. Besides, once Angeline and I split ways I may pick up a couple to assist in recon. Right now I just have one to accompany my main squad.” I said, before turning and petting the gray squirrel standing beside me, the only calm one in the entire area.

  “She’s named after me! Wide-Eyes!” Angeline cried out with glee. I rolled her eyes.

  “Enough about squirrels for now,” I muttered. “It sounds like you two have some idea what Angeline and I can do, correct?” Alan nodded, still hiding behind Caitlin’s back.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “I’m sorry to say we didn’t get much information about you,”I said apologetically. “Would you mind filling us in about your specialities? After that we can discuss how to handle the patrol.”

  Caitlin nodded, then reached behind herself and pushed Alan forward. “You first.”

  The man turned pale, but still nodded. “I, um, use a pair of hoverblades to travel around, so I can traverse faster than most other Samurai. I also have a pair of beam sabers, they’re sharp enough to cut through most models up to the late twenties, and I can extend the blades up to several feet, although they’re much less lethal when extended.”

  “So no ranged capabilities?” I asked.

  The man flinched back, shook his head, then slunk back behind Caitlin.

  Epona sighed, “I’ve known him for years, and even after becoming a Samurai he still doesn’t have any confidence in himself.”

  She straightened up, “As for me, my lance has an energy blade that can penetrate almost anything, at least on a charge, and it can fire high powered laser blasts for ranged opponents. áine, my horse, can crush anything smaller than herself with her hooves, and she has a pair of built-in missile racks for bigger targets.”

  Angeline and I turned to look at the horse, which was casually chewing on some grass nearby, eyes wide. “Your horse has missile racks?” Angeline asked.

  “She may look realistic, but she’s artificial,” Caitlin said. “Just like all your forces.”

  “Right, who are we to judge, again,” I replied with a shrug.

  After jumping down from my truck I headed towards the closest Grizzly, gesturing for the others to follow me.

  “I have lures that can attract most small Antithesis within a kilometer, and I’ve mounted one in the back of each of my IFVs.” I explained as I opened the back of the vehicle, showing off the lure mounted up near the command section.

  “My bears have no problem dealing with small Antithesis, but they lack the punch to deal with larger models reliably. At least, without a significant setup time. I have some limited detection capabilities through the Foxes, but Angeline and I were concerned that larger models may just ignore the lure, and just lurk somewhere when we drive by. That’s why she bought the squirrels, so she can look for hiding models.”

  I waited for Angeline to nod before continuing. “We think the best idea would be to space the IFVs out evenly, and slowly move forward; the bears can clear out the majority of the Antithesis as we go. When Angeline identifies a larger model, or one attacks the lines, one of you two can react and go eliminate it. Any issues with that?”

  Caitlin turned to look at her friend, who just shrugged, so she turned back. “And when there’s no heavier models we what? Hang back, just clear with your troops?”

  “That’s up to you. Maybe one of you could stick closer to the wall just in case we discover a breach,” I suggested. “Since that is one of our side objectives.”

  Caitlin nodded, “Then that’s what I’ll do. Alan can cover the other side of the column.” The man swallowed nervously, but still nodded.

  The four of us stared at each other for a moment, awkwardly, before Angeline took charge. She clapped her hands and took a step into the middle of the group. “Then it sounds like we have a plan! I’ll ride with Evelyn on the truck, let’s hope everything goes smoothly.”

  I immediately commanded the bears to stop what they were doing, and start loading up. It only took them a few minutes to get prepared, and load up in the vehicles, then we were off.

  It took a few minutes to get to the city, even though Epona insisted on riding there. Turns out áine, her horse, could move faster than most ground bound vehicles and, based on a few jumps she made along the way, the horse could probably jump easily to the top of a two or three story building. It just looked so realistic that I kept forgetting it was a robot, until the horse did something completely unbelievable again.

  Caitlin actually beat us to the rendezvous point, disappearing from sight with an unbelievable burst of speed once the city came into view. The woman, and the horse, looked quite proud of themselves once we caught up again.

  I jumped out of the truck and took a look around. The buildings looked intact, and the wall was fine, not surprising since they were at the opposite side as the Ocean, and quite close to the expressway.

  Angeline sent out her fleet of squirrels to scout. Each one extended a wingsuit like webbing from between its limbs, then took off using a tiny, jetpack-like booster on their back. After a minute or so she turned back to the group and smiled, “Recon is a go! No significant threats detected!”

  I grinned. “Then it’s time to get the line setup, let's get this show on the road.”

  and gain access to my full backlog for all stories!

  Here's the link:

  server!

  Here's the link:

  Check out my Stories:

  Big thanks to all those people that review my draft, the chapters would be a lot rougher without your feedback!