“You know, when you said you were planning to build a fortress in the middle of the city, I thought that was figuratively, not literally,” Amy muttered.

  “I don’t do anything half-assed!” I snorted.

  All around us, the twelve-foot tall bear-acade walls drove their automated anchors into the street, turning a previously wide-open intersection into a fortified stronghold. As soon as they were secure, my bears clambered up the ladders, and onto the battlements, ready to intercept the incoming antithesis.

  “How long have you been able to create a fucking castle out of thin air? I’ve never seen anything about it in any of your bios,” Amy asked.

  “A long time,” I replied casually. “I’ve been using fortifications ever since Seattle, and I consider them part of my core kit, but my bears are so strong that it’s usually faster to just sweep through an area than it is to set up a static defense. Plus, it’s a real pain to disassemble once I’m done. The city is, unfortunately, going to have to live with these walls until the Marsupial gets back to remove them.”

  “The laser grids and APS emplacements are on their way!” Bob yelled as he ambled out of the back of the Kodiak. “And Bandit’s repositioning, heading our way now.”

  “And the lures?” I prompted.

  “On their way. They’ll be on site in the next ten minutes.”

  “Good. Have them start driving a grid pattern and drawing the antithesis into the kill zone, as soon as they arrive.”

  “Sooooo… What do you need us to do?” Helen asked as she strutted around the perimeter.

  “Need? Not much. This is the strategy I used to pull the antithesis in Seattle, and I know it’s solid. The bears can probably handle anything that heads our way. The question is, what do you want to do?” I replied. “It would be useful to have someone escort each of the lures to make sure they don’t get bogged down by the antithesis, and if you have access to area of effect weapons, you could lay some fire down the streets once the antithesis arrive.”

  “I was actually thinking about partnering up with Angeline and dealing with any high-value targets or emergencies that come up,” Nora declared as she bounced lightly on the balls of her feet. “I really don’t like sitting around, waiting for things to happen.”

  “Can I come?” Amy asked excitedly. “Normally I’d be super excited fighting from a fortress like this, but it sounds like I’ll end up sitting around a lot, and the bears will end up doing most of the work. I want to be more proactive.”

  “Sure, if you think you’re up for it,” Nora nodded. “How about you, Psychosis?”

  “After everything that happened this morning, I’m quite happy staying behind some solid walls and working my magic on the antithesis long before they even get close to me,” Helen grumbled. “Have fun though.”

  Nora grunted, turning towards me. “You think we could borrow a Kodiak?”

  “Sure, I doubt I’m going to need them anytime soon,” I replied. “I can’t afford to send many bears with you, though. Kind of need them here.”

  “That’s fine, we’ll make do without them,” Amy crowed.

  “Don’t get overconfident,” Helen warned. “All it takes is a single misstep, and the Antithesis will be all over you.”

  “I’ll be careful, and I’ll be sure to pick up some extra upgrades before we engage,” Amy promised.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “Well, come on, kid, daylight’s burning,” Nora said, gently placing a hand on the girl’s back and directing her towards one of the nearby transports.

  “Call us if you need anything,” I yelled at their backs.

  Nora just waved back over her shoulder.

  “You sure you don’t need me to do anything?” Helen asked as we watched the other two prepare to leave.

  “Like I said, feel free to set up anything you want on the streets, but I expect things’ll be quiet here until the lures arrive,” I said dismissively. “I’m going to use the time to take a look at upgrades.”

  “Fine, I’ll throw some gas projectors out at the far end of the street,” Helen huffed. “They probably won’t make much of a difference when the Antithesis are enraged by the lures, but hopefully they’ll help slow the assaults down.”

  “Have fun!” I chirped as she strode away. “Nyx!”

  Nyx’s avatar, a tiny panda colored bear, stuck its head out of my personal Kodiak. “How can I help you today?”

  “How close am I to another Class III upgrade? I could really use some help managing things.”

  “Fighting all those Twenty-Ones puts you fairly close, even split five ways; they're worth a ton, but you’re still a little short. Buying an entire new set of walls, instead of placing an existing set, also sets you back,” Nyx explained.

  “Only a couple hundred points, and I need… what? Ten Thousand points to push each bear to Class III?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Ugh… I really shouldn’t have spent all those points on the Marsupial,” I grumbled.

  “The Marsupial has kept a slow but steady flow of points heading your way ever since you sent it out,” Nyx reminded me. “Plus, you had more than enough points to uplift another bear, even after you invested in the Marsupial. You just spent it all on blueprints and equipment to get your undercity rejuvenation project going.”

  “I know, I know, and I don’t regret those purchases. It’s just frustrating to be in a situation where I could really use more commanders and not have the points to afford them.”

  “You could call Spooky back. The Marsupial isn’t the swiftest vehicle, and it’ll take him over twelve hours to get back, so if you think you’ll need him, I recommend recalling him now.”

  “I would, but from what I understand, New Montreal is in worse shape than Calgary is,” I grumbled.

  “A little. Unfortunately, New Montreal doesn’t have a perimeter wall, and the antithesis are rushing the city. The local samurai have created a cordon, and they’re creating a wall as fast as they can, but it’ll still take a while before the city is secure.”

  “Then it’s probably better to leave him there for now. By the time he gets back, the initial crisis, the Incursion, will be pretty much dealt with, and the bears will be moving on to the surrounding hives. Spooky would absolutely be useful there, but not critical. I’d rather have him plugging holes in the New Montreal lines, keeping the Antithesis out of the city until it’s secure.”

  “It’s your call,” Nyx shrugged.

  “So, how long until I can afford an uplifting?” I asked.

  “You know I can’t give you an exact number,” Nyx replied, shaking their head. “But if I had to take a guess, it’d take less than an hour once you start luring the antithesis into the walls.”

  “Not bad at all,” I mumbled. “I can’t wait to get started.”

  “Just keep Helen’s advice in mind; just because you’ve encountered this kind of situation before doesn’t mean the Antithesis won’t throw some surprises at you.”

  “Nyx, this isn’t my first rodeo, and I’m not going to just slack off because I’m facing the weaker models. The antithesis have been coming at me from every angle today. I’ll keep an eye out.”

  “Alright, if you say so. I’ll park my avatar back in the Grizzly, out of the way. Just yell if you need me,” my AI muttered as they wandered back towards the transport.

  It only took a couple of minutes for the lures and laser fences to arrive, and once they were set up, I began the cleaning operation as quickly as possible.

  Even though the plan was effective, it was much slower than I wanted. Sending the lures out, pulling a bunch of Antithesis and then driving all the way back took far longer than I expected. The bears rarely had to deal with more than one wave at a time and had time to run between the different walls to get set up, which made dealing with things even easier. After about an hour, I felt like things had fallen into a slow, repetitive pattern.

  “Bandit!” I yelled as I leapt down from the wall after the latest wave. The ghillie suit-wearing fox seemed to appear out of nowhere, sliding up to me before I’d fully recovered from the jump.

  “What you need, boss lady?” he whispered in what I’d been told was a thick australian accent. I still hadn’t figured out how he picked up the accent, when I’d never heard it before, but after six months it hadn’t faded. If anything, it had gotten thicker.

  “How long will it take us to get to ‘clean up’ levels at the current rate?”

  “Hard to say. At the current rate I’d say seven or eight hours, but I’d probably keep operations going for twelve to do a thorough clean,” the fox mumbled.

  “That’s fine. Even though I’d like to dismiss the perimeter guards and send them outside the wall, I don’t want to risk any antithesis getting loose. Take the time to do it right.”

  “Got it!” the fox barked, throwing a salute.

  “And I need you to keep a close eye on the compound let me know the instant anything seems out of order. I don’t want to be surprised by the Antithesis tunneling in or bursting through a building or something.”

  The fox cocked his head to the side. “What you gonna do?”

  “Try and take a short nap before the next wave,” I said. “It’s going to be a long night, so I’m going to grab some rest wherever I can. We may be cleaning up the streets, but we still have a ton of other issues to tackle tomorrow. I’ll need whatever rest I can get.”

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