AP5, Ch. 29 & 30 (Patreon)

Chapter 29

Time until next Challenge: 9 days, 23 hours, 14 minutes

“So there’s this dog, right? And it’s got a tie and a hat and it’s just sitting- Oh, hell. They’re coming?”

Vince had been watching my face as he laughed his way through the description of another internet meme. Even with my features obscured by goggles and a gas mask, he knew me far too well, instantly picking up on the bad news Ariel had given me.

I twitched my head in the ghost of a nod, turning to shout to the group. “Wake everyone up! Marie, tell the caves group to hurry!”

I could have communicated all that to the group with my own Announcement but I preferred to conserve my energy. There was an emergency, yes, but the emergency was coming in 23 minutes. For now, shouting was just as effective and much less tiring… and with Hamlet already beginning his strike, alerting him to our incoming allies wasn’t a concern.

Ariel, what’s the sturdiest building within a mile?

<There is an elementary school 3,256 feet away that has been heavily reinforced by local contestants.>

I didn’t love the sound of that. Even if this had all started during the summer, there were sure to be families and kids taking shelter there now. Unfortunately, there was no choice I could make to keep anyone in this town safe. I’d been hoping Hamlet wouldn’t strike while we were within a populated area, but either he’d liked the idea of collateral damage or he’d been excited to use Glasgow’s Pylon to add a Threat onto his assault. At this point, even turning and running into the wilderness south of the city wouldn’t keep the residents safe; several Titans had nasty area attacks that they’d lay down while on the move. 

It might make them a little safer, but not enough to justify how much more dangerous it would be for our group.

Rather than take the lead, I flashed a holographic arrow pointing toward the school Ariel had told me about. “Shelter this way! There’s a school building that’s already been reinforced. Red Cross Elementary. Marie, warn the area! Speedsters, grab our crafters and get over there. We’ll be right behind you.”

I switched to Announcement to make one final addition as thirty people headed away:

First priority: lightning rods everywhere. We’ll have to deal with at least three of the electric attackers. 

Marie’s words followed on the heels of mine:

Over twenty Titans and one Threat expected to attack Glasgow! Rallying a defense at Red Cross Elementary. Take shelter, join us, or flee the city! ETA: 20 minutes.

People began to stumble from the back of the truck trailer, a few stumbling as they shook off the last vestiges of sleep. The rest of us picked up the pace. Fortunately, it had been long enough since Hamlet’s last attack that no one was suffering from ability exhaustion; they had just been napping normally, and were easy to wake. It wouldn’t take us long to reach the school, but I still felt justified in sending the speedsters ahead carrying our crafters. Even if it only gained us a minute of extra preparation time, even if it only gained us seconds, those seconds might matter.

Despite my conviction that every moment counted, we didn’t set down the truck trailer. Even though it was empty of people, it wasn’t empty. Ariel had plenty of data about every Titan Hamlet could spawn now, and we’d come up with a few countermeasures for specific varieties. I hadn’t explained to the crafters why I’d been asking them to put together the devices they’d crafted, and some were being stored in more than one piece if we could slot them together into a whole easily enough, but time would tell if Hamlet had figured out what we were doing. 

Even if he hadn’t figured out our plans, the devices would likely only be useful for one assault before he adapted, but I was praying we’d get that one chance. Better to face Titans we’d been able to prepare for than those we couldn’t.

Ariel was keeping up a constant stream of commentary, letting me know what Titans she could confirm and what she predicted. The first to appear had been set of #11s: quicker ground-based Titans that hit incredibly hard. When we’d first encountered them, Ariel had warned us that they had an ability like Powerful Blow enhancing their attacks to hit even harder than their Titanic physiques would allow. It didn’t look like Hamlet was planning to send any twotwos or yellow speedsters, which struck me as the wrong lesson to have taken from his last attack. Yeah, they hadn’t been very effective at killing us, but that didn’t mean that they’d be so ineffective in a less homogenous attack force. 

Ariel had spotted lightning Titans only moments after the first monsters, although they’d appeared far closer, trundling slowly but inexorably toward us.

As we reached the school parking lot, I breathed a sigh of relief: Ariel had spotted some acid hippos. We’d developed countermeasures for a few Titan varieties, but the one for the hippos was the one I had the most confidence in: a cone cone or a bucket that fit over their nozzle-shaped noses, with chains that would wrap around the monster’s head to hold it in place. The hippos would still be able to emit acid, but it would create a slowly-spreading puddle at their feet instead of a deadly rain that covered an area the size of a basketball court. 

I’d kept the chains and buckets separate, and I shot a quick message off now, letting a crafter know to combine them now that Hamlet was committed. Based on my interactions with Ariel, I wasn’t actually too worried about Hamlet figuring out what we planned in advance: speculation just didn’t come naturally to the Maffiyir Overminds, and I doubted that the people linked with Hamlet were urging him to stretch himself mentally. While it would be hilarious if Hamlet started getting more mentally flexible and turned on his creators, I was sure they’d be doing absolutely everything possible to keep him on-track. No, the real risk was that one of the aliens watching saw what we were doing and figured it out. That would have been totally possible, but we’d done our best to prevent it, offering alternative explanations for our crafting. We’d claimed that the buckets were being made to be turned into pipe bombs and the chains were for draping across the backs of the electric Titans. If that explanation had caused Hamlet to avoid spawning the electric Titans, all the better. The electric blast they emitted was negligible from inside our cars, but terrifying if we were out in the open. If Hamlet had avoided making them, I’d have taken it as an absolute win.

But there’s going to be three of them among our attackers. So, either he’s not paying close attention to what we’re doing, he realized we were lying, or he thought it would be worth it for other reasons anyway. I shook my head. At least they got some lightning rods up quickly. 

Hopefully, those would be enough protection, an uncertain sentiment I had about many of our countermeasures.  Most of the Titans didn’t have an obvious weakness, or, if they did, were flexible or dextrous enough to tear away any simple constructions we affixed to them. 

The school was a two story brick building, and a buzzing hive of activity. Some people – including several families with small children - were fleeing the area, exiting the school and running away from the site of our battle-to-be. After a quick consultation with Ariel, I asked Marie to make another Announcement:

If you’re leaving the city, the area to the east will have the fewest Titans. Stay close to the highways!

Several people changed direction and I put them out of my mind: I’d done my best. There was nowhere we could have this battle that wouldn’t leave collateral damage.

A woman in plate armor approached. Her expression was… conflicted, which made more sense after she introduced herself. “Miranda Vandiver. I was the principal at this school. Are you committed to fighting here?”

“Is there a more defensible location nearby?”

Her mouth twisted like she’d taken a chomp out of a lemon. “No.”

“Then, with apologies, yes. We’ll going to make our stand here.”

“I… understand.” The words were strained, but she took a deep breath and shook herself. “Tell me what we can do to help.”

Chapter 30

Time until next Challenge: 9 days, 22 hours, 59 minutes

Not everyone was as understanding as Principal Vandiver, but the seriousness of our situation prevented the angrier people from doing anything worse than shooting hateful glares and making snappish remarks. It hurt, but I couldn’t blame them: I would have resented people bringing a party like this to my home, too. If anything, I was just glad that their sentiments weren’t universal. For every person snarling about us “training mobs” to a city, there was another rolling their eyes and suggesting they “blame the aliens, Joe!”

Honestly, any emotional reaction truly mattered only insofar as it affected our readiness for the upcoming battle, and even the angriest people weren’t slacking to prepare, no one moving at less than a sprint as we rushed to get ready.

We’d erected what defenses we could and ushered everyone unprepared to fight into the interior of the school, stationing someone with a weak air manipulation ability to try to keep any dangerous chemicals from the noncombatants, a serious worry given that there were no fewer than three types of Titan attacking with various gas attacks: poison, hallucinogen, and one that caused drowsiness.

Honestly, I was concerned about a lot of the people who’d volunteered to fight. Everyone at least had some form of eye protection, but only four locals had gas masks, and my bodyguards didn’t have any spares. The locals had been relying on surgical masks when fighting the gasylosaurs, but it was an imperfect defense. In the stress and confusion of combat, it was all-too-easy for the masks to slip aside or break, and even if they stayed in place, they weren’t a perfect defense. 

We had plans to try to hamper the Titans’ ability to make their gas attacks, but I was far from confident about those, especially since we’d sent a large portion of our most capable fighters away. 

We’d sent a large group to the city’s pylon, hoping to be ready to take down the groundswimmer hive the moment it appeared. Unfortunately, even though we didn’t give the order aloud, Hamlet had clearly been paying some attention to us, activating the Threat the moment our group headed toward it. Worse, he didn’t go for the groundswimmer hive, instead choosing to send a legoliath our way. I felt confident that that was a last-minute switch on his part, and forcing the Overmind to adapt was a victory in itself, but I still didn’t like it. My bodyguards had been in a fight for their lives only half a day prior, meaning that anyone with a long-cooldown Specialty didn’t have it available. We also didn’t have a large volume of explosive on hand, so there’d be no shortcuts to taking it down. I briefly considered calling them away, but the legoliath was too close: as slow as it was, it would reach us while we were still in the middle of the fight.

At least it’s smaller than the one that first appeared near Fort Autumn?

<Accurate. Given the substantially lower quantity of Intensifiers in the area, it is approximately half the length and one-third the mass.>

How’s the battle going?

<No fatalities among your allies thus far. Simulations predict their victory.>

Well, that was good news. How long do you think it will take them to bring it down?

<Simulations suggest it will take another eleven minutes.>

I flinched. 

Vince moved his hand over mine. “What’s up?”

The residents of the elementary school had previously created a rugged lookout tower. My guards had reinforced it further, and my family and I were now atop it, looking out over the area.

“Titans are going to be here in eight minutes, and the legoliath isn’t going down quickly. Between killing it and running back over here, we’re going to be missing a hundred of our best fighters for the first five minutes of the fight.”

We’d actually be missing more than that, since we’d sent out our flyers to try to slow and harass the Titans that didn’t have long-range attacks, but I didn’t count that: if those people didn’t make it back in time, it was only because they’d managed to keep their Titans from joining the fray when Hamlet wanted them to. That was a good trade, in my opinion.

Vince drummed the fingers of his free hand on the railing of the watchtower. “Well, sounds like I should head down, then. Someone has to keep them busy, and my Specialty’s on a short enough cooldown that I have it available.”

“For a minute,” I said. “It hasn’t gotten more time as it’s gotten stronger, and the cooldown hasn’t gotten short enough for you to use it more than once in a fight.”

Vince didn’t even argue, just holding my gaze until I sighed, giving in. I knew it made sense, even if I didn’t want to admit it. “Fine. Go. I just… hate sending you away.”

“I’ll go too! I’ll protect Daddy!” Gavin said.

Vince reacted before I could, putting a hand on my six-year-old’s shoulder. “I need you to stay here and watch over your siblings and Mommy. Can I count on you for that?”

Gavin squirmed, looking at the six others up there with our family, Marie, Priya, and Anju. “Mommy’s still got guards…”

“Oh. Are they as good at protecting Mommy as you?”

My middle child stopped squirming to glare at my husband. 

“Well?” Vince asked.

“I want to come fight with you,” Gavin said.

“Okay. Then tell me Mommy’s other guards are better at keeping her safe than you are.”

“What about you?” Gavin asked, his voice plaintive.

“I’ve got my Specialty. I’ll be fine.”

“And I’ll go with him,” Priya volunteered.

Gavin glared for another moment, then slumped. “Okay. I’ll stay with Mommy.”

I pulled down my gas mask briefly to exchange a kiss with Vince. “Stay safe.”

“You too.”

My husband didn’t bother taking the ladder, just vaulting over the edge and throwing himself forty feet forward, treating the four-story fall like it was nothing. He even dropped down into a three-point superhero landing, a glance over his shoulder making it clear that the impractical pose had just been a flex to entertain me. I shook my head as he came to his feet with a cocky bounce to his step. Priya followed him with less flair and more pragmatism, dropping two stories to the school’s roof and running a few steps forward before jumping the rest of the way.

I forced myself to focus. I could hear the sounds of combat in the distance, a sure sign that our time grew short as the Titans began wading through the rest of the town. The Titans might not be stopping to go after people the way they usually would, but that didn’t make them not dangerous.

How many people have they killed so far? I asked.

<There have been seventy-three fatalities within five miles of your location in the past 20 minutes.>

I couldn’t help but suck in a breath. How many of those were from the people we sent out to meet the Titans?

<None, although one of your allies suffered serious injury and eleven were from the group approaching from Mammoth Caves.>

I felt a stab of guilt.

What happened to the group from the caves?

<Group was engaged in combat with one of the remaining Titans you designated a “centi-snake” and the Titan you designated “acid hippo” when the Titan designated “bonefur” came in range. The hearing protection of several group members proved highly inadequate and the ensuring disorientation resulted in several fatalities.>

What a disaster.

<Inaccurate. The group was delayed by the fight, but terminated all three Titans.>

But people died, Ariel. Did… No. No one would have warned them. I didn’t think to ask you which Titans were coming from their direction, and you didn’t either. In the future, please alert me when Threats or Titans are approaching nearby allied groups.

<Imprecise. Define “nearby.”>

Within… I hesitated, uncertain about how many miles I should say. Within two hours’ travel of my position.

<Acknowledged.>

And… the injured ally? How were they injured?

<Contestant Heath Mitchum. An appendage was destroyed.>

I recognized the name as one of our flyers, if only barely. He shouldn’t have even been in a Titan’s range! Was he showboating?

<Imprecise, please restate.>

I sighed, then shook my head, realizing I was trying to distract myself. I didn’t need these details right now. No matter what had happened to the guy, we’d just have to hope he could hold out until we could send him help. Never mind. New question: how many incoming Titans have had their effectiveness hampered, and how many have been slowed?

<Ten devices have been attached; six appear to have meaningfully affected the Titans’ lethality. Three Titans terminated by the Mammoth Caves group. One killed by Glasgow residents on the eastern edge of the city. Efforts to slow the Titans have been less successful, with only four Titans delayed by more than thirty seconds. First Titans due to arrive in two minutes.>

“Marie, make an Announcement. Tell everyone to double-check their gas masks and eye protection and put in their earplugs. It’s almost time.”

“I can see one already!” said Micah, pointing. The Titan he was indicating wasn’t actually visible yet, but the crackle of electricity it was giving off was. 

“Earplugs in,” I told him severely as I put on my own hearing protection. The dampened sounds heightened my anxiety, adding to the feeling of unreality the nightmarish situation already had.

Every second ticked by slowly, the sounds of the monsters’ approach growing louder and louder, until a purple blur streaked out of the woods across the street, crashing into Vince, Priya, and a handful of other melee defenders and sending them flying.