Chapter Twenty-Three - Gonna Be

Chapter Twenty-Three - Gonna Be

Chapter Twenty-Three - Gonna Be

Theres this pervasive idea, especially from those old-ass zoomer sorts, that one day things will return to normal. The samurai will disappear, the aliens will fuck off, back to whatever hellhole theyre from, and everything will be right as rain.

Its not gonna happen.

Welcome to the new normal, motherfuckers!

--Award-winning highschool essay, 2041

***

So, whats the sitch? I asked.

Men and women ran around, carrying sandbags, metal boxes, and other equipment. The only uniform they had was a distinct lack of uniform. They were normal folks, with that kind of desperate energy that said they were happy to be doing something but they werent sure if it would be enough.

Jolly Monarch reached up and adjusted the oversized crown atop his head. His whole uniform took the theme thing to another level. He had a thick red cape and was wearing some sort of almost militaristic suit, with medals all over his chest and a sceptre by his side. It didnt suit his face though. He couldnt be older than thirty.

The situations looking a little bleak. I have twenty-four pawns here, and four bishops. He pointed with his sceptre to the nearest of the trashcan-looking drones. I guess they were meant to be shaped like the pawns in a chess set. That didnt give me much of a clue as to what kind of armament they had.

And whatll we be fighting off with those? I asked.

Jolly Monarch grinned. A nice proto-wave of everyones favourite man-eating plants. He gestured to the side and one of the pawns came closer. A small opening appeared on its side and a projected hologram started to float between us. The city we were in, and the long stretch of highway heading westward from there. The wave is mostly following the highway. Were estimating between one and a half to two thousand models. Mostly on the lower end of the spectrum. Threes, fours, maybe some model sixes.

So a whole heap of them, I said. Can you take care of the wave on your own?

My projections say... mostly? Jolly Monarch said. His smile twisted a bit. I have enough pawns here to blunt the front of the wave. I might even be able to stop its advance entirely. But thats only if Im lucky. The more likely situation is that Ill be overrun if all I use are my current forces. Then the locals also defending this section will suffer for it.

Cant you use the points to buy even more pawns or whatever? I asked.

Jolly Monarch nodded. Oh yes. But these pawns are about a thousand points each. They dont come cheap.

I frowned at the drone. It didnt look like a thousand-point investment to me.

Right. How long do we have?

Forty-two minutes and change, Jolly Monarch said.

I glanced at the projection again. That was plenty of time. Okay then. Ill be back in forty minutes. I started out towards the road.

What will you do? Jolly Monarch asked.

I picked it up, tucked it against my shoulder, then leaned my head down to look through the large reflex scope that unfolded on the top of it. Neat, I said.

My free hand came up and rested on the slide on the front. Which begged the question. Okay, so if its fully automatic, why does it have a pump?

It makes a satisfying and threatening sound when you pump it.

I frowned down at the sleek gun, then, with a hand gripping around the fore end, I pumped the gun.

It made a crunchy crack-chunk noise. The sort of noise that says Im here to fuck shit up. Then the gun started to hum even as little lights on the sides and within the barrel glowed an ominous red.

Oh fuck yeah, I muttered.

I didnt have all day to cuddle my new gun though, no matter how cool it was. I had something of a plan.

Alright Myalis. I want to cover this street with things that will make the xenos day worse. I was thinking we set things up with timers, let them get funnelled in enough that when we set things off, it will be too late to pull the majority of the wave out. It should blunt the front of their assault. Maybe a mix of those resonators to begin with, then something with a bit more kick to it? Uh, maybe some of those fuel-air explosives.

Youre in an open space, the fuel will spread further, but its damage will be more limited. There are other non-conventional weapon choices that could slow down an advance. Perhaps zero-kelvin bombs? Those would freeze large areas. Garrote grenades could create pockets of unpassable space as well, perhaps slowing the antithesis enough to allow your resonators to act.

I like it, I said. Theres a lot of houses on the edges. We could break some windows, place turrets in there and have an overlapping field of fire down the middle of the road.

Thats a wonderful idea!

I grinned. Damn right. Look, Im not super clever, think you can figure out the ideal location for the bombs so that they overlap correctly?

How many points do you intend to spend on this?

I shrugged. I didnt have many to work with. All of them.

In that case, please move over to the drainage pipe to your left. Pull the cover off and place this within it.

I dropped to one knee next to a sewer pipe, pulled it open with surprising ease, then found a box appearing by my side. A resonator with a cord tied around its middle. I nodded as I figured it out. The cord I tied to the bars in the grate, then I let the grenade fall down so that it hovered a foot into the pipe. Alright, next?

Next, a Zero-Kelvin explosive under the wheel-well of the vehicle abandoned to your right, followed by a diagonal row of garrote grenades across the street. We will also be placing a fuel-air explosive into the dirt next to the ditch on the left with the spray nozzle pointed downwards.

Myalis tone was fairly flat, but I couldnt help but get the impression that she was having a lot of fun with all of this.

To be fair, I was looking forward to blowing shit up too.

It was going to be a blast.

***