I work up again with the return of my headache. The throbbing pain had transformed into strong feelings of anxiety and concern. I had plenty of things to worry about on my own, but this didn’t feel like my issues or feelings. I couldn't explain it. It seemed to be connected to the nightmare I had experienced previously. I could try to channel my psyche into a more receptive state so I could experience the emotions more vividly, but you couldn't convince me to do that with a crowbar. I wanted to get out of here and on to our next site where I could focus on my synths for another week or two. I debated climbing down to check in with everyone but decided against it.

  “Gretta to Sunny, what’s your status?” I called directly over the radio.

  “Well good morning Gabby, you raring to go I see?” He replied.

  “You know it. Can’t wait to get Gretta moving again. So the same travel order as last time?”

  Sunny explained, “Yeah. I will take point in the Dozer, you can come alongside or behind me. Then we can have the 2 RV’s: Miles’s Explorer, and Alexandria in the Gecko RV. Hopefully less dust for them to eat if they are toward the front. Then we can alternate your buses, the Kombi-Max with our cargo, and the trucks with flatbeds hauling our equipment.”

  I continued, “I will have my 2 squads spread out and protect the convoy. We are big enough, we shouldn't be a target for anyone.”

  It took us 45 minutes but I assigned borg-synths as drivers to the various vehicles (two kombi-buses, one Kombi-Max, two Roundabout pickup trucks, and the hacked together salvaged bus and trailers) and the entire convoy began to roll toward the outskirts of Phoenix. A few humanoids scrabbed out a hard luck life there, but it seemed no mythical bird wanted to rise from those ashes. We could skirt the town, then hook up with the Maricopa Corridor and make our way to Neu Ca?on in the north. It was 1200 or so kilometers, given the winding path we had to take to avoid the toxic wastes, destroyed cities, and haunted sites. Whether it was folklore, aliens, or monsters we didn't mind an extra drive if we got there safely. As we came down from the foothills of Mt Graham, the weather turned to a spectacularly summer day. The sun was shining but distant clouds provided occasional shade, and the wind blew softly through the shrubs and hardy, albeit alien flowering plants. Toward the north, new and genetically modified grasses and prairies would start to appear. And brave or desperate cowboys would ranch a variety of exotic and native animals for trade.

  Piloting my precious Power Construction Corp? 54r Provender ‘industrial’ mech was a very meditative experience. I was able to pilot manually with the foot and hand controls, directly with a neural-jack, or mentally via my telemechanic link. I always felt a bit superhuman, able to observe more, process thoughts faster, and react quicker. The performance of these technological giants still took my breath away. I drifted into a meditative trance as our convoy slowly rolled along the bottom of gullies or riverbeds. There were no roads, or even paths out this far, and Sunny blazed a trail in the Dozer, maneuvering around the more egregious roadblocks. After a few hours of walking, driving, hovering, and rolling, I spotted a large herd of alien dinosaurs on the horizon. It was always amazing to see the giant animals traversing the post-apocalyptic West. Whether it was the herbivores seeking new grazing grounds, or the carnivores that inevitably followed, the violent cycle of life was reflected in the crazy reality of life in this wild frontier. The herd moved slowly but continued east barely visible with my mech’s image magnification. I knew of some brave souls that ranched dinosaurs as well. But most people left them alone. The dinosaurs that appeared with the coming of the dimensional doorways were incredibly tough and resilient, and all too often deadly.

  Sunny asked everyone if they wanted to stop for lunch, and I voted no, and thankfully everyone else was fine with pushing through. We will find a temporary campsite for this evening, and if all goes well, we will reach our destination tomorrow afternoon. 500 kilometer a day might not seem a lot for those used to flying or high speed chases, but given our load and location I felt we were making good time. My mech continued to place one giant foot in front of the other as I rotated to look at the convoy, the Dozer in the lead was pushing light brush or rocks out of the way.

  The two RVs would often run parallel to the Dozer to avoid the dust trail. The Gecko was equipped with 6 adaptive hub powered wheels. But Miles’s Explorer hover RV was a marvel. Unlike conventional hovercraft no massive jets thrust billowing dust clouds into the air. The slow pace did not generate any dust. When it kicked into high speed it was another story. But then it would leave everything we had in the dust. I suspected it could reach orbit but Miles never confirmed that.

  My kombi-buses and four trucks with trailers were piloted by the converted drones. Luckily driving was a task that they could easily accomplish, combat flying or power armor operations, on the other hand, were more challenging. The Kombi-Max was safely located in the middle of the cargo vehicles. Four Road-synths were perched on top of the vehicle, the other six were spread out on top of the rest of the convoy. The 10 Hopper-synths roamed free, using the jet assisted hopping, loping, and running in their unusual gait. A method of travel that could eat ground eight times faster than we were traveling, but I didn't want to push the synths to the limit. While I had gotten them to understand and control the Chaparralito and Grasshopper power armor suits, they only functioned at a basic level. They could control their bodies and use the built in thrusters as a pseudo jetpack, but they could not take advantage of the special features or capabilities at this time.

  >>Big Fe, another chore to add to the list, but I was already planning to work on this one, eventually.>>

  I remembered how funny it was to watch the first trials I conducted with the drones in the suits. It was like watching a human baby walk for the first time, a drunk human baby. Well what I assume a drunk human baby would look like, at least. I didn't understand the predilection adults had with kids anyway. During the early tests, the synths continued to take tentative steps forward, jerk their legs back and then fall down. They kept doing this for hours. It was a lot of trial-and-effort before I was able to subvert their normal body templates and suborn my own, resilient learning templates, into place. Now, I was focused on the Squad Leader development but I would need to return to the normal rank and file, the vanilla Squad member synths as well.

  Messing with higher learning and advanced decision making was more fun, and more messy.

  >>Unfortunately, I needed to do all of that before I could return to developing solutions that would work on you, Big Fe. >>

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  I also wanted to explore other Squad roles like calvary, armor, and true arial synths, but I needed to demonstrate some progress, really any progress, to the Black Market before things turned south. Well souther.

  I continued to day dream about my future design builds, deployment methods, skeletal modifications, and even cost reduction ideas, for an hour more. The sun was shining bright but the clouds had started to thicken, the outside temp was likely cooling off as well.

  My musings were interrupted by a message from my Squad Leader, its ears must have been burning because I was just thinking about it, but my heart ran cold and my stomach plummeted when I heard its report “Unknown targets 2,000m behind the convoy and closing. Potentially hostile.” My Squad Leader was tied down to the flatbed trailer, and it was doing a better job guarding the convoy than I was! I spun my mech’s upper torso around as my legs continued forward and I almost froze still at what I saw.

  A blanket of dinosaurs were cresting a hill directly behind us. The monsters were following us! I wasn't sure if they were the same herd I saw before or a different one but over 100 alien dinosaurs were running directly toward us! As I zoomed in, I saw they were not acting alone, each dinosaur had a rider. Neamans! Why on earth would they attack us? Did they know what we have? Were they desperate or just ornery? I guess it didn't matter. I didn’t know the specifics and didn't care, but we had a major problem on our hands.

  “All hands, we have Neamans approaching our rear, fast. They don't look friendly, I guess about 100…” I started to explain on the group convoyNET.

  My Squad Leader cut into the group channel, “I have identified 62 Ostrosauruses analogs and 35 nodosaurus analogs. Each being ridden by at least one armed Neaman.”

  “Thanks Squad Leader, so we have that to deal with. Can we outrun them? Can we negotiate? What should we do?” The panic was starting to take control of my mind. Should I turn and confront them directly? Could I? Can we flee? What do we do about the cargo? I was starting to shake, glad I was hidden in my battle mech. Crap, why did this happen to us, we shouldn't be out here. My dad shouldn't be dead and I should be at home.

  Sunny’s voice brought me back down to earth, “Oh here is what we are going to do people, we will have a running gun battle. Keep all the vehicles moving north, we might get crazy lucky and run into another convoy or friendlies. Gabby, have your squad engage when they can. You use your mech as well but stay safe, you will be a big target. Molly, Miles, if you can help, we just might need it to get through this. I will use the dozer to draw some of the bigger beasties.”

  With that, Sunny immediately turned the dozer around and began to trundle to the back of the convoy. I froze for a second, or 10, but I managed to unstick and follow after him. We would play a delaying action and see how this goes. I reached out to Squad Leader and my deployed synths. I told them to return fire and attack at will.

  Use Active Engagement maneuvers, I mentally ordered.

  I should have used more sophisticated tactics, heck I should have developed more sophisticated tactics, but that was alway something for the future, damn. I hope this is a lesson that I can survive to learn. The driver’s synths would keep operating the vehicles and move the convoy toward our original evening rally point.

  The Neamans were armed with a combination of melee weapons, bows, and rifles. Neamans are the most common aliens that have been gated to our world that started the emergence of the Doorways, more than 100 years earlier. They looked like a cross between neanderthals and orcs. At least what most people thought a cross would look like. It seems they shared genetic ancestry with us humans, somehow. As a race they were straightforward and blunt. Their focus on physical pursuits and family ties did not often put them in conflict with corps or governments, but in cases like this, it would put them in conflict with natives, like us. Fekko!

  The rifle wielding aliens were already firing madly at us. The ones with bows had drawn beads on their targets but were holding off until they were close. And the ones with melee weapons had an assortment: nano-blades, nano-axes, and even a few more exotic weapons made for alien creatures.

  They were around 700m out and my stomach was an endless pit, somehow a dimensional doorway had opened up inside my body and was sucking me slowly into another dimension. I should probably have that looked at by a doctor or exorcist, if I survive this.

  Sunny was facing off against a pack of four charging nodosauruses and their riders on the left flank. I moved to the right side and faced the charging dinosaurs and monsters there. And there were a lot of them. Running right at me. “Okay, you can do this Gabby. You are in 30 tons of super-steel, weaponry and awesomeness, you can do this.” I don't know who I was convincing because it wasn't me. Maybe I was trying to cheer up Big Fe safely stored inside the engineering trailer, at least until they kill us all and ransack the trailer.

  Snap out of it!

  I pivoted the top of Gretta’s body and opened up with the dual plasma casters on her left arm. They were out of range but I heard suppressive fire is a good thing?

  It felt like a good thing melding into the operations and moves of Gretta as the arm cannons fired both blasters repeatedly.

  Behind me, I was aware of the two manned RV’s pulling out of line. They were further away from us, and continuing to follow the convoy but slowing down perceptibly. On the Gecko RV, Molly was out in full body armor, covering every inch of her in BDwerks?’ best, it even looked shiny and new. The rifle she was holding was distinctly a Rosatom General Energy? product. They had cornered the market on nuclear generation, energy design, and directed energy weapons. And this rifle was a preem example of their superiority. It was massive, taller than she was as she lay prone on the roof of the RV. She began to carefully line up shots. Even back further away than I was, I could tell each time she fired, she was dropping a rider or a dinosaur. She couldn't fire very fast, but as far away as she was that girl had some skills! On my side, Miles’s RV was similarly taking position. While their elven Explorer hovercraft was fully featured, it had no weaponry either. But out of the top hatch an armored figure appeared. Given that the figure had two legs and two arms and no horns it had to be the elf, Miles. It looked like he had picked up some magitecha armor in Neu Ca?on. The magitecha Gorge powered armor was quite popular and fairly inexpensive for magic crap. I shouldn't judge it, but technology seemed to win most arguments, look at the recent American Empire steamroll of the independent cities formerly known as the Northwest Free States. As Miles jumped into the air he began to silently hover. Soon his entire body was changing color and fading indistinctly. It was less invisibility and more a chameleon’s camouflage ability. That was pretty cool, I had to admit. He had his old service rifle from the Assembly but he seemed to be relying on some childhood magic at the moment.

  I slapped myself, literally. It hurt and didn't help, I needed to get my head into gear, the monsters were now 300m away and close enough for me to engage with actual accuracy. I took aim at the closest nodosaurus and continued to fire at it for several rounds. My accuracy was pretty good inside my Provender battle mech and I managed to score direct hits every single time. The monster was clearly hurt, but still on course for me and the convoy! I seemed to draw more than my share of exploding arrows and rifle shots. I know Gretta could take the abuse but she was an older mech and didn't have the most modern armor around. But co?o, I also didn't plan on taking her into battle against an army either.