When I finally pushed my way through the last of the scrub brush, emerging onto the broken-down street, I couldn’t believe how devastated High River looked. Most of the houses had collapsed in upon themselves, leaving nothing more than piles of rubble, and even the brick and concrete commercial buildings seemed to be sagging with age.

  Even though High River had been abandoned for years, and Bob was doing his best impression of a wrecking ball a couple streets away, this level of damage and decay seemed… excessive.

  As soon as I stepped out onto the desolate street, the bears spread out into a loose combat formation. They made quick work of the handful of scattered Antithesis digging through the nearby debris.

  I quickly glanced back to make sure Bandit and Deadbeat were sticking closer to their assigned squads. The last thing I wanted was to walk into another Antithesis trap and ECM heavy zone, but I’d done everything I could to ensure the chain of command wouldn’t completely break down if we did. A tight formation, no isolated groups.

  The chances of the Antithesis having another of those worms were probably pretty slim, but if they did, I was ready.

  “Which way?” Deadbeat whispered.

  “Towards the sound of combat,” I replied. “I want to collect Bob before we make our way down into the hive.”

  “I’m pretty sure he’ll be fine if you leave him rampaging around up here on his own,” Bandit chuckled.

  “Maybe, but I’m more concerned about our safety than his,” I said. “I have no idea what we might encounter in the tunnels, and I’d like to have Bob between us and any big bads we might encounter. Just to be safe.”

  Bandit nodded, then made a gesture at the bears around him. The bots immediately charged through the rubble, quickly sweeping the area as they made their way towards the distant sounds of violence.

  As I followed closely behind, my augs notified me of an incoming call, which I opened while on the move.

  [Hey Evelyn, just wanted to let you know I’ve identified a hive entrance you can use. It’s just to the north of you,] Angeline declared. [After you left, the rest of us talked and decided that if you’re not willing to go for a swim, we’ll do a two-pronged attack. You and your bears can attack from the streetside, while the rest of us come from the river.]

  [Just me, no one else?] I asked, surprised.

  [You have a literal army with you,] Angeline snorted. [We figure that with so much firepower you can attract the Antithesis’ attention, which’ll make it easier for us to sneak closer to the main hive.]

  [Guess that makes sense,] I muttered. [I’ve already faced a couple of these thirties head on, I can probably hold against a couple more. Where’s this secondary entrance?]

  [I’m pretty sure you’ll know it when you see it,] Angeline chuckled. [Right now my squirrels are staring at the backside of a bear, which appears to be lodged in the entrance. From the sounds of it, they’re still fighting something topside.]

  [Great…] I sighed. It didn’t take a genius to know whose backside that probably belonged to.

  [I’ll send you a map of all the tunnels my squirrels have managed to explore so far. The Antithesis have quite a few patrols down there, so I’m having trouble penetrating deeper, but it’ll give you a basic idea of the layout. I’ll also send you regular updates as long as comms hold out.]

  [Sounds good. You want me to send you some backup?] I asked.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  [Naw… We might not be able to match your sheer firepower, but the four of us should be more than enough to handle whatever the Antithesis throw at us. Thanks for the offer, though,] Angeline replied. [We’re about to enter the river, so I’m going to have to go. I’ll talk to you soon!]

  [Good luck, stay safe,] I said.

  [You too!] Angeline chirped, before cutting the connection.

  Hefting my rifle, I broke out into a jog, heading swiftly towards the distant sounds of combat. Without having to order them to, the nearby bears immediately accelerated to keep pace.

  “Hey, Boss, what’s the rush?” Bandit asked.

  “The other team is ready to enter the tunnel system, and our entrance is currently blocked up by an oversized bear butt,” I grumbled. “I’ll give you three guesses as to who that could be.”

  “I don’t even need two of them,” the fox grinned.

  As we approached the sounds of combat, the number of Antithesis increased drastically. On the way over we encountered maybe a dozen weaker models, but here in this more industrial section of the town, they’d completely flooded the area.

  I didn’t hesitate, bursting out of the alley and emptying my weapon into the surrounding aliens. The mini missiles made short work of the smaller models, blowing massive holes in them, but they weren’t quite as effective against the larger models.

  A Model Twelve sitting only a couple of meters away turned to face me. The massive, armored, rhinoceros-like alien snorted, eyeing me up as it tried to line up a charge.

  It didn’t get a chance.

  Heavy emerged from the alley only a couple steps behind me. The gruff-looking polar bear raised the coilgun he was carrying, nearly resting the massive weapon against the monster’s temple, and pulled the trigger.

  The force of the shot shoved the Twelve back six or seven meters as the round ripped its way through the bulky alien before exploding out of its back and cutting through another half dozen Antithesis before finally embedding itself in a ruined building.

  When that happened, the street erupted into chaos.

  The bears emerged from the surrounding alleys, immediately assembling into orderly lines as they calmly gunned down the nearby aliens. The Antithesis, on the other hand, just seemed to erupt out of every corner, crevice, and hole in the area.

  An entire pack of Twenty-Threes came sprinting over the opposing rubble, taking only seconds to clear the space and bear down upon my lines. They were met by the Moose who, like Heavy, had their coil guns at the ready.

  Four of the monsters died nearly instantly, as massive holes were ripped in their heads or torsos, but one monster managed to survive the opening attack.

  The final beast, obscured by the rest of the pack, was only struck in the leg. Even though the blow ripped the appendage clean off, spraying the area in a fountain of green, sappy blood, it didn’t prevent the monster from going on a rampage.

  Removing its leg caused the Twenty-Three to fall to the ground, skidding face first down the street. Rather than admitting defeat, the massive monster rocked itself, just enough to get some purchase with its remaining leg, and threw itself, maw first, towards my lines.

  As it clamped down upon a pair of bears that didn’t manage to clear the area fast enough the Twenty-Three thrashed about, bouncing its body and smashing its head into the road in a frenzy.

  “Motherfucker,” I muttered under my breath as I ejected the spent drum magazine from my rifle before slamming a fresh one home. Even though the Twenty-Three’s impression of a grounded fish hadn’t caused that much damage, it was disrupting my lines and making it easier for the surrounding Antithesis to close in. It had to go.

  Using the old, hollowed out wreck of a car as leverage, I vaulted to the building closest to the Twenty-Three and sprinted to the edge.

  Since it was stuck on its side, and almost blind to the damage it was causing, when I emerged on the side of the building above it the monster’s eye immediately focused on me, and narrowed.

  It must have had an excellent view as I slammed the butt of my rifle against my shoulder, aimed at that glassy orb, and opened fire.

  The Twenty-Three thrashed even harder as I robbed it of its sight, but I wasn't going to stop there. Every time I got a clear shot I emptied more rounds into the growing pit on the side of the creature’s head. The mini explosives dug deeper and deeper, the Twenty-Three growing slower and weaker with each one, until it finally laid still.

  “Status?” I shouted from my perch.

  “All hard targets are down, we just need to mop up the smaller Antithesis,” Deadbeat shouted back.

  “Forget the clean up operation. The hive is going to send a constant stream of gribbles at us until we finally take care of it. Just dispatch any that wander close,” I replied, hopping down from the roof.

  While a couple of bears went around covering the corpses with flesh melters, I pushed forward. The earlier sounds of combat had completely died down, but I was relatively sure that we’d been fairly close to the source before being intercepted.

  When I emerged on the next street over, I became certain. The badgers were standing there, stupid grins plastered all over their faces, the corpses of half a dozen Twenty-Threes littering the area around them. They didn’t get through unscathed, in fact both of the bots were now missing arms and one of them had a huge chunk missing out of the side of their torso, but they were still standing.

  As I stepped into the street, I heard the sound of struggling, so I walked around the side of one of the bodies, where I found Bob. The bear was embedded in the street, nearly up to his shoulders, and trying to pry himself out.

  The bear froze as soon as he saw me. “It’s not what it looks like.”

  “It looks like your famous high-altitude entrance backfired,” Bandit chuckled.

  “Yeah, well… How was I supposed to know this particular section of rundown street would be brittle?” Bob whined as he started struggling again.

  I sighed. “Someone get him out of there.”

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