I could see our panions weren’t impressed with the current situation. It was written all over their faces. I couldly bme them.

  Angeline and I were just rexing by the truck, waiting to get going, but the area around us was chaotic. I had the bears running around the camp, colleg junk to dump in the assembler. Probably not the best first impression, but I absolutely he supplies. Bob’s repairs had stalled out earlier, and I really didn’t want to go back out before the system had everything it needed.

  The woman on the gigantic horse sighed, slid out of her saddle and headed towards us, the smaller maep behind.

  My eyes widened as she approached. She was tall, and I mean really tall. She had to be close to eight feet tall. Once I got over her height, I looked her over more thhly. She had green eyes, and red hair peeking out from underh her helmet. Her armor had celtic styling, and robably power armor, and carrying a massive spear.

  The man hiding behind her was much less impressive, he seemed to be wearing a cross betweeraditional Japanese Samurai armor, and hockey pads. It looked like some of the budget Samurai cospys she’d seen pictures of. The two swords hanging from his waist looked dangerous, but since he was sliding bad forth on peared to be hover shoes, I had a hard time taking him seriously.

  “I’m Caitlin O’er, also knoona, and this boy behind me is An Smith, aka Silent Saber, you two must be Teddy and Bright Eyes.” The two of us nodded, and An just waved meekly. “I have to say, I was warned about you, but this is more than I expected.”

  I raised an eyebrow, “What, you mean the armored vehicles? Those are for the bears.”

  “Not that,” Epona replied, pointing back at her horse, “I’m talking about all those squirrels climbing all over everything.”

  The horse was, indeed, covered in a couple foot tall, brown squirrels wearing aviatgles and bomber jackets. The horse was unnaturally calm, as the rodents explored, and as soon as they were satisfied they’d fully explored the horse, they ran off to explore something else.

  “You ’t bme me for those, they belong to Angeline,” I said before pausing for a moment. “Well, most of them anyways.”

  I gnced over at my friend, who was busy cuddling one of the squirrels. “What? Evely have a monopoly on cute things, I have them too,” Angeline pouted. “We were discussing the pn and realized there would be holes in our ce, so I volunteered to pick up a catalog simir to what Evelyn has, since I’ll be doing overwatch.”

  “Turns out with Css I modur re robotid Robotic Facades I make something adorable too. They totally match my aesthetic, Meh he he he.”

  “So why are there so many, and why are they climbing all over EVERYTHING?” Caitlin asked.

  “I didn’t want to send them out to scout, so they’re in mapping mode and trying to create a super high resolution 3D map of the area by iing everything,” Angeline expined. “Besides, I think it’s cute.”

  Caitlin shot me a look, as if asking for an expnation, but all I could do is shrug. “I ’t pin, look at my ground forces. Besides, ongeline and I split ways I may pick up a couple to assist in re. Right now I just have oo apany my main squad.” I said, before turning aing the gray squirrel standing beside me, the only calm one iire area.

  “She’s named after me! Wide-Eyes!” Angeline cried out with glee. I rolled her eyes.

  “Enough about squirrels for now,” I muttered. “It sounds like you two have some idea what Angeline and I do, correct?” An nodded, still hiding behind Caitlin’s back.

  “I’m sorry to say we didn’t get muformation about you,”I said apologetically. “Would you mind filling us in about your specialities? After that we discuss how to hahe patrol.”

  Caitlin hen reached behind herself and pushed An forward. “You first.”

  The man turned pale, but still nodded. “I, um, use a pair of hoverbdes to travel around, so I traverse faster than most other Samurai. I also have a pair of beam sabers, they’re sharp enough to cut through most models up to the te twenties, and I extend the bdes up to several feet, although they’re much less lethal wheended.”

  “So ned capabilities?” I asked.

  The man flinched back, shook his head, then slunk back behind Caitlin.

  Epona sighed, “I’ve known him for years, and even after being a Samurai he still doesn’t have any fiden himself.”

  She straightened up, “As for me, my nce has an energy bde that pee almost anything, at least on a charge, and it fire high powered ser bsts fed oppos. áine, my horse, crush anything smaller than herself with her hooves, and she has a pair of built-in missile racks fger targets.”

  Angeline and I turo look at the horse, which was casually chewing on some grass nearby, eyes wide. “Your horse has missile racks?” Angeline asked.

  “She may look realistic, but she’s artificial,” Caitlin said. “Just like all your forces.”

  “Right, who are we to judge, again,” I replied with a shrug.

  After jumping down from my truck I headed towards the closest Grizzly, gesturing for the others to follow me.

  “I have lures that attract most small Antithesis within a kilometer, and I’ve mounted one in the back of eay IFVs.” I expined as I opehe back of the vehicle, showing off the lure mounted up he aion.

  “My bears have no problem dealing with small Antithesis, but they ck the punch to deal with rger models reliably. At least, without a signifit setup time. I have some limited dete capabilities through the Foxes, but Angeline and I were ed that rger models may just ighe lure, and just lurk somewhere when we drive by. That’s why she bought the squirrels, so she look for hiding models.”

  I waited felio nod before tinuing. “We think the best idea would be to space the IFVs out evenly, and slowly move forward; the bears clear out the majority of the Antithesis as we go. When Angeline identifies a rger model, or oacks the lines, one of you two read go elimi. Any issues with that?”

  Caitlin turo look at her friend, who just shrugged, so she turned back. “And when there’s no heavier models we what? Hang back, just clear with your troops?”

  “That’s up to you. Maybe one of you could stick closer to the wall just in case we discover a breach,” I suggested. “Sihat is one of our side objectives.”

  Caitlin nodded, “Then that’s what I’ll do. An cover the other side of the n.” The man swallowed nervously, but still nodded.

  The four of us stared at each other for a moment, awkwardly, before Angeliook charge. She cpped her hands and took a step into the middle of the group. “Then it sounds like we have a pn! I’ll ride with Evelyn oruck, let’s hope everything goes smoothly.”

  I immediately ahe bears to stop what they were doing, and start loading up. It only took them a few mio get prepared, and load up in the vehicles, then we were off.

  It took a few mio get to the city, even though Epona insisted on riding there. Turns out áine, her horse, could move faster than most ground bound vehicles and, based on a few jumps she made along the way, the horse could probably jump easily to the top of a two or three story building. It just looked so realistic that I kept fetting it was a robot, until the horse did something pletely unbelievable again.

  Caitlin actually beat us to the rendezvous point, disappearing from sight with an unbelievable burst of speed ohe city came into view. The woman, and the horse, looked quite proud of themselves once we caught up again.

  I jumped out of the trud took a look around. The buildings looked intact, and the wall was fine, not surprising sihey were at the opposite side as the O, and quite close to the expressway.

  Angeli out her fleet of squirrels to scout. Eae extended a wingsuit like webbing from between its limbs, then took off using a tiny, jetpack-like booster on their back. After a minute or so she turned back to the group and smiled, “Re is a go! No signifit threats detected!”

  I grinned. “Then it’s time to get the liup, let's get this show on the road.”