“I can’t believe that tiny little thing survived in the middle of my brawl,” Bob declared. “I was all like, pachow! Bop! And they were all like, ‘I’m dying!’”

  “It clamped down upon the back of the Twenty-Eight before it released its charge,” I explained, doing my best to ignore the big bear’s rambling. “Which is good, because I have a feeling if it dropped off, someone would have stepped on it.”

  “Come on, I’m not that oblivious,” Bob whined.

  “You crushed two cars and the front of a store in your brawl,” I replied, shooting the bear with my best disappointed look.

  “... the Antithesis did it!” Bob hollered.

  “Calm down, big guy. It was just an observation. I don’t care how it happened,” I told the bear. “All I care about is locating that Seventeen and getting some sweet payback.”

  “I don’t like your face when you say stuff like that; it’s scary,” Bob muttered.

  “Just wait a couple hours, I’m sure you’ll see my happy face again,” I chuckled as I scooped the tiny drone off the back of the massive Antithesis. The transmitter was so ridiculously weak that I couldn’t detect the signal until I was a couple of feet away, and I couldn’t download the data until the thing was in my hand.

  That was fine though--I got what I wanted.

  “Looks like the Model Seventeen was a couple hundred meters to the west,” I told Bob.

  “Isn’t that back near where we landed?”

  “It’s in the same general area, but I can’t be exactly sure how close it is because I still can’t connect to the local network and download the town map. I’ve got a distance and a bearing through, so we’ll be able to find the general area it was operating from,” I informed him. “Get the troops in the transports, we’ve got a bug to squash!”

  “But… they’re already in the transports,” Bob whispered. “They move the second you think of a command.”

  “Bob,” I sighed, deflating slightly.

  “Yessim?”

  “Get in the Kodiak.”

  I immediately ordered the remaining Kodiaks to fly towards the Seventeen’s location. The IFV that had been thrown mid-fight wasn’t a complete write-off, but had been trapped under several feet of rubble when a building collapsed on it. I didn’t have the equipment to dig it out in the middle of an active war zone, so it was going to have to stay where it was for now.

  When we arrived at the location, all I could do was stare. It was literally a hundred meters from where I landed. Just south of the intersection there was a river that followed the road, and the signal appeared to be coming from somewhere under the bridge.

  “I’m going to commit so much violence for this,” I whispered. “Everyone out!”

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  The rabbits poured out of the transports, causing the Antithesis to start pouring out of the surrounding buildings. There were nowhere near as many Antithesis here as at the ambush site, and they weren’t very organized, but there was still a significant number. Considering I’d come through the area only an hour before, and there appeared to be even more Antithesis than when I arrived, there were two options. Either I was exceptionally bad at clearing the area, or the location that the Antithesis were streaming out of was closer to this location than the fires.

  I knew which one I’d bet on.

  Since there didn’t appear to be anything bigger than a Fourteen running around, I ducked into the back of the Kodiak, leaving the fighting to the rabbits for a few minutes. Slipping up close enough to the signal repeater that the close range connection wouldn’t degrade at all when I connected.

  [Message to: Deadbeat and Bandit. Identified Seventeen, within town limits, appears to be operating from the riverland, near the Okotoks bridge. I’m moving in on its last known location (coordinates attached). Focus your search efforts on the river area.]

  As soon as I finished the recording and set the message to go out, I stepped back outside to check on the situation. The rabbits had done an admirable job of cleaning up the surrounding area, and Bob had managed to restrain himself and not put any additional holes in the surrounding scenery.

  Time to deal with a certain pest.

  “Everyone form up and follow me. Eyes and ears up!” I shouted.

  “Figuratively speaking.” I added when I noticed many of the rabbits beginning to extend their ears higher into the air.

  A single row of buildings was all that sat between the main strip and the riverbank. There was a layer of scrub brush obscuring the river itself, but as soon as we stepped off the road, I knew we were in the right place. Several Model Threes came tearing out of the river area, followed closely by a Model Twenty-Three.

  I knew the monster was coming--it would have been hard for it to hide its presence when it crushed several trees with every step. But it surprised me with how fast it came. The monstrous maw came shooting out of the underbrush mere seconds after entering the other side, attempting to clamp down on my head.

  Dropping to the ground, I fired my weapon wildly into the underside of the creature’s massive head. Its bark-like skin cracked and flaked off under the sustained barrage of micro missiles but only seemed to cause superficial damage.

  When the monster pulled back, preparing to take another bite, I knew I was in trouble. There was no way that I was going to get outside its reach before it got me, so I did the only thing I could and dove closer to its legs.

  Since it was shaped similar to a T-Rex, its front limbs were too short to catch me, and it couldn’t bend forward enough to clamp down on me with its jaws, but that didn’t mean I was safe. The claws on its feet twitched in rage, and the creature began shuffling around in an attempt to either crush me or force me out in front of its lethal jaws.

  “Bob, a little help!” I yelled as one of the massive talons came within inches of eviscerating me.

  Thankfully my oversized protector wasn’t far away and came flying forward. While the Twenty-Three was busy trying to grab me, Bob delivered a massive haymaker to the top of its skull, driving the monster’s head straight into the ground.

  “I’m still fucking IN HERE,” I screamed as the oversized cranium smashed into the ground less than a foot from my face.

  After being driven into the ground and having its spine bent to the absolute limit, the Twenty-Three had been driven up onto the tip of its claws. It scrambled hard, trying to find purchase on the ground, but only coming close to removing my face. With no purchase, the massive beast slowly began to tip over. I waited until the last minute, when I finally saw an opening and flung myself away.

  The monster thrashed about on its side, massive claws still coming way too close for my comfort, when Bob finally delivered a pair of blows that caved in its head and causing the Twenty-Three to finally lie still.

  “That’s the spirit, boss! There’s nothing like getting up close and personal with a monster like that to make you feel powerful and alive!” he chuckled, patting me painfully on the back.

  “It tried to simultaneously step on me and eat my face while I fired explosives directly into its skull. Ineffectively, I might add. It was the most horrifying thing I’ve done all week,” I grumbled.

  “But you managed to make it out alive. That’s the important part,” Bob whooped.

  “Yeah, true,” I muttered. “And since I plan to stay alive in the future, I think you should go first. I don’t know why I keep taking the lead when I have a nearly indestructible melee monster going everywhere with me.”

  When Bob just stared at me blankly, I just sighed. “It’s you, Bob, you’re the nearly indestructible melee monster.”

  “Oh, right! That makes sense. You should have just said you have Bob with you,” the bear exclaimed.

  I grabbed my forehead as I felt a tension headache build. “Just lead the way, please.”

  “Straight under the bridge, looking for big holes, right?” he asked.

  “Yes, just like every other time we go hunting for hives,” I grumbled.

  “Okay, leave it to me!” Bob declared as he turned and trundled into the brush.

  I let him get a few feet ahead before I followed, still clutching my head. “I miss talking to Spooky.”

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