“I can’t believe they just threw themselves into that toxic swamp,” I grumbled. “I know individual models don’t have any sense of self-preservation, but it’s rare that an entire horde throws their lives away.”

  After CBeRN’s chemical strikes had devastated the Antithesis’ assault, I stepped back from the front lines and hopped up onto one of the Kodiaks in order to get a better view of the battlefield. I’d kept expecting the Antithesis to give up the assault and redirect to an easier target at some point, but they never did.

  In the end it took close to an hour for the massive swarm to finish charging headlong into the chemical dead zone.

  “Deadbeat, send a couple squads out to check the other side of that quagmire, I want to clean up any loose Antithesis over there before they get a chance to reorganize and either reinforce a hive or move against another target,” I announced. “And let Bandit know I’d like him to perform a similar sweep around Chestermere.”

  The light blue bear saluted and immediately ran off and started pulling units off the line to carry out my orders.

  “What are we going to do, boss? Hit a hive? Jump into the biggest swarm we can find? Charge into the next rift we find?” Bob asked excitedly as he paced back and forth at the base of the vehicle.

  “Charge into a rift?” I repeated, raising an eyebrow.

  “Gotta be a lot of good smashing on the other side of one of those,” the big bear declared.

  “Yeah… I’m just going to go ahead and say, ‘No bears are to attempt to enter a rift, unless I give an explicit order otherwise.’” I glanced down at Bob, who looked crestfallen. “That goes double for you. I have no idea if anything would survive a trip through a rift, and I really don’t want to risk losing you to something as stupid as jumping through a rift.”

  “Then what are we going to do now? We’re not going to sit around here and wait for another attack, are we?”

  “Of course not,” I replied lightly. Bob’s face filled with joy, right until I clarified. “Since we’ve finally managed to suppress the Antithesis both inside and outside the city, I’m going to take a chance to return home.”

  “But… fighting…” Bob whined.

  “You’re welcome to go join Nora, Angeline, Charlotte, or any of the other strike teams,” I snapped. “But I have a couple things I need to do. First, I have to let Jane and the kids know I’m good, because Jane might kill me if I wait much longer, and since I have a little time, I want to check in on the situation elsewhere.”

  Bob shifted from one foot to the other. “I don’t get to crush the bark brains if I come with you.”

  “But I’ll let you cuddle with Issi,” I replied as I jumped off the vehicle. “As long as you’re careful.”

  “Oh… oh, oh, oh!” the oversized softy declared, apparently losing the ability to speak in joy as he sprinted around towards the back of the transport.

  “I guess that means you’re coming with,” I muttered. “Deadbeat, keep an eye on things until I get back!”

  “You got it, commander!” the little bear yelled back.

  When I stepped into the back of the Kodiak, Bob immediately slammed the door close button and sprinted to the front. “Back home, Dusty, double time. I’ve got some cuddling to do!”

  I watched as the little tanned bear turned and looked at me, eyebrows raised questioningly under his little military helmet. The movement was so human that I forgot he wasn’t even uplifted yet.

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  “Set course for the Shelter. I have some business at home while things are quiet,” I prompted the bear.

  Dusty immediately turned back towards the controls and threw the Kodiak into drive. The vehicle shuddered slightly as it left the ground before smoothly accelerating back towards the city.

  I collapsed onto the nearest bench, letting the tension slowly leave my muscles. Glancing around at my heavily substituted squad for a minute, I made a mental note to start uplifting more non-squad members into command positions. Although it was useful to have reliable commanders to offload some work to, I kind of missed having the regular squad running around with me. Maybe, with a little luck, I’d be able to afford to start that process by the end of this current shitshow.

  After pulling up a map and performing a couple quick calculations, I signaled for one of the unnamed bears to stand in front of me. I silently sent out a ping to the bears I’d sent out to the surrounding cities, checking to see if anyone I knew was around. Surprisingly, someone swiftly answered.

  The bear in front of me stood up straight, twitched, then assumed a sassy stance with one hand on its hip.

  “Teddy? To what do I owe the pleasure?” the bear asked in a soft feminine voice. Through the eyes of the bear in Vancouver, I could see the shapely form of Grey Goo, dressed in a sensible outfit instead of her skintight nanite layer, performing the same move.

  “Hey Grey, it’s been awhile,” I said with a small smile. “Since we’re starting to get a handle on the situation around here, I thought I’d take a couple minutes and check in with everyone else. I heard things were rough over there.”

  “You’re already getting a handle on things? How?” Grey cried.

  “A handful of competent samurai and an absolute shit ton of combat bots,” I replied with a sigh. “It would have been much easier if the council got off their asses and hired enough PMCs to help defend the city.”

  “We have walls that isolate the different sections of the city, and we had military backup, and we just managed to clear the city center,” Grey snorted. “Forgive me if I don’t feel bad for you when you’re able to clear the entire city faster, without any military backup.”

  “Fine, I’ll stop complaining,” I grumbled. “How are things in Vancouver?”

  “City’s good, the surrounding area is shit,” Grey mumbled. “Thankfully we had quite a few new samurai awaken during the fight, so we have a decent force to help clear outside the walls. I literally just walked out of a meeting with all the samurai in the city, where we explained the situation to the newbies.”

  “So you’re good?” I asked.

  “I wouldn’t say good,” Grey laughed. “There’s so many Antithesis outside the wall that even the protector satellite systems can’t get an accurate count of them. That being said, we haven’t seen anything over a Twenty-Three out there, so we can slowly wear it down with a combination of heavy artillery and samurai sorties.”

  “So things are at least stable,” I sighed. “I’m glad. When I heard that other cities were getting hit, I was worried that someone would get overrun before we could react. Have you heard how everyone else is doing?”

  “Surprisingly well,” Grey declared lightly. “Despite being on its last legs less than a year ago, the twins managed to get the city back onto its feet before the Antithesis hit. They didn’t even get hit by an incursion, so they could start striking out against all the stealth hives almost immediately. They might actually be able to send us reinforcements to help cleanup around Vancouver before this is all over. Portland's a little rough, but holding out. They didn't get any huge hordes, just lots of little pop-ups. Didir's furious over how many stealth hives they had inside the city but also ecstatic in being able to clean house.”

  “You heard anything from outside the Cascadian Sphere?” I asked.

  “The only reason I know our situation is because I received a briefing document right before walking into the meeting,” Grey grumbled. “I barely had enough time to sit down and eat over the last day and a half.”

  “Right, sorry,” I mumbled. “If I haven’t had the time to check, why would you?”

  I quickly flicked over to the maps in my augs and checked my location, it looked like we were quickly closing in on the shelter.

  “I’m approaching my destination, so I’ll have to cut our discussion short. I still need to try and get an update from the other cities before heading back into the field,” I told her. “Don’t be afraid of contacting me if the situation changes. I’ll try and send you some reinforcements.”

  “Sounds good,” Grey chirped. “Make sure you keep in touch. I don’t want to wait until the next world-ending emergency to talk to you again.”

  “I’ll give you a call once this shit show calms down,” I promised. “We can talk about something other than work for once.”

  “We’ll see,” Grey smirked. “Stay safe!”

  “Later,” I muttered as I disconnected from the bear.

  Closing my eyes, I leaned back against the side of the Kodiak. Things weren’t great, but at least Cascadia was holding the line. I really hoped the other megacities in the area were doing just as well. I’d have to check when I had a little more time.

  The Kodiak rocked slightly, marking the vehicle touching down.

  Bob bounded to the end of the back of the vehicle in glee. “Hugs time!”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I muttered, “I’m coming.”

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