“You okay, boss? You’re looking a little run-down,” Bandit declared as he popped out of one of the newly arrived Kodiaks. His small armored column had come rolling down the river from the east shortly after the badgers had put the Thirty-Four-C to the torch.

  “I made more of him,” I replied blankly.

  “More of who?”

  “Bob,” I mumbled weakly, pointing to the side where Bob was having a one-sided conversation with the badgers. “It was necessary, but… will it be worth my sanity in the long run?”

  “You know they’ll be useful,” the fox said, patting my knee sympathetically. “Just don’t let them follow him everywhere.”

  I just nodded, glumly.

  With Bandit’s bears reinforcing my squad, the situation quickly stabilized. There were still a ton of Antithesis pouring out of the tunnel, including the occasional Model Twenty-Three, but the massed firepower of nine squads was more than enough to put them down long before they became an issue.

  In the few minutes it took for us to fight up to the base of the bridge, a second group of Kodiaks came floating down the river, this time from the west. With Deadbeat’s timely arrival, I’d have quite the little force to investigate exactly what the Antithesis were up to down here.

  Under the bridge, hidden in the shadow of the supports, was a colossal tunnel. Even though I couldn’t see that far down it, the first section was almost wide enough for three Kodiaks to drive down it side by side. It must have taken the Antithesis hours to expand it to this size, just barely wide enough to let the Thirty-Four through.

  I was lucky to have found the entrance when I did. If that monster had managed to get off the riverbank and into the town, it would have caused a massive amount of damage.

  “How did the Antithesis manage to dig under our perimeter without any of the foxes noticing?” I growled.

  “They noticed,” Bandit replied. “Unfortunately, the Antithesis activated their ECM before getting close enough for the tunneling to trigger any seismic sensors. Since they didn’t have any instructions on what to do when they were cut off from the communications network, they defaulted to their primary task--defending the perimeter. You have no idea how long it took me to actually find where they dug in when I had to get within a couple of feet of each fox to check their logs.”

  “But you found it…” I pressed.

  “Several squads in the west reported seismic disturbances right before the attack,” Bandit reported.

  “And the east,” Deadbeat added as she jogged up to join us. “That’s where I started, and several squads also reported seismic disturbances from that direction.”

  “A coordinated attack,” I grumbled. “Which makes sense, considering they’re throwing Twenties and Thirties at us, and we haven’t seen anything like that elsewhere.”

  “We encountered Twenty-Ones in that one hive!” Bob chirped. “I gave 'em the ol’ one-two!”

  “Okay, so we’ve barely seen any Twenties so far,” I corrected myself. “Can you imagine if someone busted into a hive and found Thirty-Fours waiting for them? Bad times.”

  I shook my head, trying to clear the image out of my head.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “We should get moving. With the three of you here, I can’t imagine we’ll have too much trouble tracking down and clearing out whatever’s causing this ECM. I want you all to stick close to your troops so you can give them instructions in case of emergency,” I declared. “Bob, you’re in charge of the badgers. I want you at the front of the column, locking down anything that comes our way. Just don't get too distracted and let yourself get pulled away. Deadbeat, Bandit, organized advance. We’ll take three Kodiaks from each of your squads and leave the rest at the entrance with the rabbits. I want to leave something behind to stop the Antithesis if they get past us.”

  “What if they’ve got alternate exits?” Deadbeat asked.

  “Then I’ll have some of the rabbits relocated. I still have the transmitter in my personal Kodiak. I can send out from there; I just can’t receive any confirmations,” I replied quietly.

  As soon as I sent my orders to the rabbits, I nodded towards Bob, and the big bear strode into the darkness. I felt a lot more confident in our chances now that I had a full complement of bears and some competent backup.

  “Shout the instant you detect anything strange,” I told Bandit. “I don’t want to run into any surprises. I’ve had enough of being ambushed the last few days.”

  “No problem,” the fox barked.

  My hope that things would go smoothly was quickly dashed when the Antithesis stopped engaging us shortly after entering the tunnel. Even though this quickened our advance, I quickly grew concerned.

  “These bastards better not be retreating,” I grumbled. “I don’t know if we’ll have time to set up ECM countermeasures prior to them hitting somewhere else.”

  “You want me and the boys to take a Kodiak and rush ahead to catch them?” Bob called from the front.

  I considered his suggestion for a minute, then shook my head. “Not with Model Seventeens running around. They’re probably the reason the Antithesis down here stopped engaging us, and they’re smart enough to try and separate us and pick us off separately. Better to stick together for now.”

  “Okie dokie!”

  We traveled down the highway-sized tunnel for a couple more minutes before Bandit ran over and tugged on my arm.

  “Movement!” he quietly hissed.

  “Where?” I whispered back.

  “West wall, about twenty feet beyond Bob. East wall about forty feet. It’s not just Eights digging access tunnels; there are some big boys in there,” the fox reported.

  “They want to flank and cripple us,” I muttered. “Run up to Bob and give him the exact location of the closer tunnel. Tell him to wait until he’s right next to it then to open up. Leave two badgers guarding the tunnel in case that second group decides to try and get involved.”

  “Got it,” the little fox whispered before scampering off.

  With a quick mental command sent the rest of bears assembling into ranks, preparing for the oncoming battle.

  Bob continued moving forward with his hands behind his head, whistling as he advanced in what was probably the most blatant attempt at looking casual that I’d ever seen. As soon as he reached the point that Bandit pointed out, he sprinted straight into the wall, not even bothering to punch it, just relying upon his mass to carry himself through.

  I couldn’t see what happened next due to the angle, but I heard his voice echo up the tunnel. “I’m sorry, but did you obtain a municipal permit before you started digging here?”

  The wall exploded outwards at multiple points as several Twenty-Eights shoved their way through, followed by about a dozen Twenty-Threes and hundreds of smaller models. The badgers immediately opened up with their plasma projectors, roasting the smaller models and charring some of the larger ones before something smashed the nearest badger aside.

  “Twenty-Ones!” Bandit growled.

  “Run back to the Kodiaks, close enough that you can direct their gunners!” I shouted. “I’ll take over your command! Heavy, I want you and the moose to fire for effect! I want this tunnel so full of light those bastards can’t hide.”

  All around, the big bots dropped into a crouch, changing from short controlled bursts to full auto. Heavy wouldn’t have been able to cover the tunnel in fire, but with ten moose backing him up they were able to completely saturate the tunnel in laser fire.

  While it seemed to bounce off most of the twenties, Bob and the badgers, it evaporated the smaller models and, most importantly, revealed suspicious, highly resilient voids in the middle of the tunnel. The Twenty-Ones didn’t seem to appreciate being revealed, and many dropped their stealth to rush forward, charging through the barrage in an attempt to reach my lines.

  They didn’t make it. It had taken Bandit mere seconds to reach the armored vehicles and start passing on targeting data. Although our small arms didn’t do much against the big Antithesis running around, the rapid-fire, high-velocity coilguns were an entirely different matter. The much heavier rounds punched straight through their armor, either sending them staggering away or outright killing them with just a few shots.

  Even the Twenty-Eights didn’t last long against the combination of Bob’s thundering blows and the Kodiak’s heavy cannon fire.

  By the time the second tunnel burst open, which was only slightly delayed, I’d already felt like we had the situation under control. The second group being further down and having to punch through four assault bots instead of just two just made dealing with them that much easier.

  The fight was over in minutes.

  The badgers hadn’t been able to take down the Twenties effectively, and they’d ended up pretty banged up, but they’d held the line long enough for us to deal with the rest. I’d definitely have to invest in more later.

  “Form up!” I shouted, my voice echoing down the tunnel. “The fact that they set up this ambush either means they can't move the ECM or need time to move whatever it is. Let’s not give them a chance. Forward!”

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