The defensive formations simply melted away. Maybe if there had been someone actually watching for the skies, things wouldn’t turn out this way. It was a perfect storm—literally. The harsh rain provided my drones cover, and whatever was happening down there kept everyone distracted just long enough for them for my drones to get in. By the time anyone realized what was going on, it was far too late.

I watched yet another anti-air emplacement fry and drip with thermite. The barrels were burned into useless slag. The armored mechanisms inside were totally fine, but they hardly mattered if the thing couldn’t shoot in the first place. The drone swarm was super effective. I expected to lose over half of my Fireflies by the time they dropped down onto the island. I still lost a small percentage, but the main bulk hit without any issue.

The AA turrets I was worried about mostly vanished with focused hits. Heavy sentries of all kinds and types were burned into their cores and destroyed. The metal shutters blocking access to the island were scorched into unrecognizable hunks that entirely lost their function. Even a set of flying tanks were brought low by simply slipping a couple drones in through the gaps of their armor and exploding the thrusters from within.

“Woah.” Mira glanced over my shoulder, and laughed lightly. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

”You should’ve already known that.” I smirked, and opened the targeting algorithm for the drone swarm. The defensive emplacements were all almost gone already, and I still had a portion of the drones left. “Luna?”

”S-still green. There were a couple hack attempts, but the auto self-destruct upon intrusion is working.” Luna helped me get control of the swarm, and pull them back into a mass of explosive death. “What now?”

”Mix some Dragonflies in and scout the island.” I eyed the complex. Although we knew its rough shape, I didn’t actually have the blueprint for this one. The councilman had destroyed all records of this place’s construction, so we were basically going in blind. “Hit anything that moves.”

”Roger.” The drone swarm gathered just over the fortress and turned into a billowing cloud of thermite and metal.

I swapped back to Saint’s stream to watch the approaching mercenaries. As things were, it’d be far too easy for them to get in. “Actualy, change of plans. Split off two-thirds and go play battleship.”

“Roger.” The drone swarm, just regrouped over the island, splintered once more. Most of them scattered out over the bay, while a third of the remaining drones waited around for a bit.

How was I going to do this? I eyed the third of the drones still under my control. There were still so many of them. I might’ve overcooked a bit with this plan. Controlling them through the base to scout it out and build up a 3D model would be something else. I should’ve practiced more.

Mira instantly noticed my dilemma. ”Give me control. That’s way too many operations for just the two of you. I’d rather not see your head explode.”

“It’s fine.” I shrugged. Luna reworked the targeting program I was using, so it wasn’t as bad as it used to be. It was almost like a point and click strategy game now. “‘Sides, you’re flying the—“

”Got this thing, remember?” Mira tapped the pulsing Halo Cortex and completely put down my argument. “One mind is more than enough to handle the controls.”

”Chek.” I quit arguing and held up my deck toward her. She pulled away from the controls just long enough to jack into it, and the fortress-side drones instantly split into five different command groups. I set it back down on my lap and took control of my one.

”Any targets in particular?” The four sets scattered, and just like that, the island was divided into fifths.

“Weapon systems if you see them.” I had no doubt there were still some nasty defenses waiting inside of the fortress. “If you spot guards, then take out their weapons, too.”

”Not aiming to kill?”

”It’d take too many drones to take someone down.” Unless it was a really, really lucky hit. It’d take a couple just to get through armor and into somewhere critical. We still had a decent amount, but not nearly enough to be wasting on that when taking away their weapons was much simpler.

”Got it.” Mira’s halo glowed brilliantly as her sub-minds ran through intense calculations. There was some level of sad irony that the very chrome that’d been forced onto her was now being used to attack its creators.

I turned my attention back to my deck as the swarm once more started to descend on the fortress.

— POV: Tex —

“What the hell is going on out there?” Tex muttered under his vest as another explosion rocked the fortress. They’d already passed by several decimated security shutters like some massive monster was trying to get into the facility. Lightning flashed, and rain pelted into the dark hallways.

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They’d gone through a preplanned route that took them underground to the far western side of the island where a bunch of courtyards were set up. They’d totally missed the initial attack, though they’d seen the carnage left behind. Corpses lined the halls, and it was evident a massive gunfight broke out while they took an emergency route.

”Do we have any runners still active?” Cole Carson carried the client just behind him. Between the two, Tex was the better ranged fighter. The choice of who’d be bogged down was obvious.

“I can’t get anything on coms.” Tex tried again, and swapped to the backup frequency they’d agreed on beforehand. It was still grainy and garbled from the jammer.

”Can anything else go wrong?” Just as he finished speaking, Dorrin started to convulse in his arms. Cole shuffled to a bench, and set down the client. “I need a minute. He’s about to flatline again.”

“Take your—“ A soft buzz came from down the hall. Tex held up a fist, and slowly lifted his revolver. Behind him, Cole swapped out his medical equipment for an assault rifle dangling from a strap.

The buzz grew louder and louder until a single insect floated out into the hall through an opened window. It was a tiny thing no bigger than a housefly. Its back held a deep ominous red glow, though.

”That’s not one of ours,” Cole muttered.

Bang!

A single shot pierced through the drone. It exploded on contact, and dripped a sticky thermite onto the floor. The bright flash of light gave him the answer to his earlier question. They were under attack by an unknown drone swarm.

Tex lowered his revolver, and casually slid it back into its holster like he hadn’t just hit a tiny speck from a fairly large distance. He grabbed the other fully loaded one from the other hipholster, and lifted it up.

“Patch him quick.” After a moment, he drew his other revolver to dual wield them. Although he hadn’t reloaded, the revolver was back at eight shots in the cylinder. He’d spent a fortune on the Remnant Auto-Loading Holsters.

The buzz grew louder and louder. A few more peaked out, only to be shot as soon as their glowing bodies turned the corner. At first, it was a dribble. The dribble turned to a stream, and then a massive wave of drones. Shot after shot rang out, but the drones slowly closed the gap.

”Fuck!” Cole pulled away from Dorrin and lifted his rifle to spray down the hall. His shots weren’t nearly as accurate, though that hardly mattered thanks to the sheer number of drones closing in. With the added firepower, they held back the wave—until more buzzing came from behind.

All at once, things went south. Attacked from both sides by an unknown enemy, it was only a matter of time till the first drone hit. One of them slammed into Tex’s hand just as he dropped his revolver down to reload. It burst against his hand, and flaming hot thermite burned away the top layer. It failed to penetrate through the Titus Lattice running just under his synthskin.

Tex shook it off and quickly drew his revolver, unleashing a furious burst of bullets that took out a dozen drones. Before a group could slam into him, he dodged backward. The Spring Tendons in his ankles turned his short dodge into one that easily allowed him to escape the encirclement of drones.

Cole, on the other hand, went with a different technique. His rifle tanked a drone, and the thermite turned the entire weapon useless. He dropped it, and lifted a fist. Metal plating pulled back, revealing sharp grooves along his knuckles. He took a boxer’s stance and punched out at the wave.

A punch normally wouldn’t do all that much. Cole, like Tex, wasn’t just anyone though. A sonic wave erupted in a sharp cone from the grooves of his knuckles. The first line of drones detonated just from the force of the wave alone. “We can’t stay here.”

”No shit,” Tex growled as he felt another gnat burst against the back of his duster. The scorching thermite burned into his calf. The Titus Lattice protected him from any true damage, but his muscles still screamed from the heat of the thermite.

Tex whipped out a third tiny revolver from the small of his back, and pulled the trigger. The barrel glowed a brilliant electric blue, and the entire chamber exploded with light and runes. The enchanted revolver fired a slug of pure condensed lightning that charged down the hallway and wiped out a chunk of the drones.

He only had six shots, and he made them count. Each pull of the trigger wiped out more and more drones. Unfortunately, even with the increased pressure from the defenders, there was only so much the two defenders could do.

A wave of drones got through them and beelined it for the client. Before either of them could do much, they dive bombed the still unconscious Dorrin in wave after wave of explosive thermite.

“Hells!” Cole dove for Dorrin, and pulled him out of the burning grave that’d formed from the swarm. The synthetic skin and muscles along his hands melted away as he took the brunt of the blow, revealing the titanium skeleton and Raijin Thunderfist underneath.

“Status?” Tex flicked his pistol out and fanned the entire chamber in less than a second. Eight micro-explosions lit up the hallway. His other revolver flicked out a beat later, and eight more drones were instantly downed.

Cole slammed his fists together, and a secondary augment of his chrome activated. An EMP burst blasted out of him, frying every drone in the section of the hall before they could do any more damage. “Breathing, somehow. He needs serious medical treatment.”

“Couldn’t have done that earlier?” Tex slid the special revolver back into its place and drew his other. Throughout the process his other hand never stopped firing into the waves of drones with pinpoint precision.

”You know how long that thing takes to charge?” Cole groaned, and pulled a grenade off his back. He tossed it toward the densest part of the drones—only for Tex’s bullet to pierce it a moment later and set the grenade off prematurely. An electric EMP wave fired off once more and wiped out a large chunk of the drones. “At least they aren’t EM resistant.”

”No kidding.” The slaughter of drones continued for several moments more. The intimidating waves died down under the two merc’s constant pressure.

Tex slaughtered another twenty eight drones before the attack ended. A slow sigh left him, and he twirled his revolver around his finger. It smoothly slid into the holster a moment later. Things were looking increasingly bleak by the moment. First it was poison, and then it was fire. What was next? Lightning?

“We need somewhere to lay low so I can stabilize him.” Cole lifted Dorrin onto his back once more, and kicked open a reinforced metal door. The lock popped, and the door caved in from the impact.

Tex checked either side of the hall, and then followed after the temporary medic. Stopping wasn’t ideal, but it’d all be pointless if the client died in transport.