Harry built a gate inside the gazebo. The roof would cover any contractors who used

  it to arrive next to Brophy. The walls would give them protection from the rampant

  xenos.

  They would have to come up with their own transport and weapons support once

  beyond his effective range.

  He passed all but Howitz up through the gate. The mech would not fit under the

  pavilion’s roof. So he made a bigger gate behind the structure to send the armor back

  to the ship. He didn’t know if the moth could use the thing back home, but it had

  come in handy starting the clearance of Delgas.

  He planted two fabricators for the super bees so Brophy had more air support than the

  regular bees when he was gone. Eventually the air would be clear. Until that point,

  it was just better to have a pair of robotic monsters circling around and clearing things

  out.

  He waited for them to start orbiting Brophy. They went down in five minutes as

  flocks of winged monsters destroyed them. The flying lizards turned to ash as the

  Bolo took revenge.

  “What do you think, kid?,” asked Harry.

  “Fly like an eagle,” said Brophy.

  “I have to get back to work,” said Harry.

  “When you coming home, Da?,” asked the Bolo.

  “I don’t know when but we’ll play then, son,” said Harry.

  Harry stepped on the gate. He felt the disorientation as he stepped off the gate and

  looked at the Jordan’s cargo bay. He took off his helmet.

  “Your third Bolo is a little stranger than I like machines,” said Har.

  “He’ll be fine,” said Harry. “We have our foothold. It looks like things are going our

  way for once.”

  “The tactical is almost the same,” said Har. “Your army of bees and gun robots are

  doing what they can. They are still taking losses.”

  “I’m open to suggestions,” said Harry. “Three Bolos are protecting a triangle of area

  big enough for an armed encampment. There still needs to be a force on the planet to

  clear out that triangle, while protecting the edges. The shooters might do it eventually,

  but once the grunts fall back far enough, they won’t chase. And taking on kaiju means

  something has to get inside to start working.”

  “The good point is the space forces won’t leave orbit unless we get close enough to

  trigger them,” said Har. “So we can take the time to build our own fleet to destroy

  them.”

  “So we can just keep dropping docks without worrying about them trying to stop the

  source of the attacking forces?,” said Harry. “Something feels wrong about that.”

  “I feel the same,” said Harr. “Other species would try to find the source of the attacks

  and cut them off. The enemy doesn’t think this way.”

  “Or they could be stalling themselves in the hopes of getting something here to stop

  us from taking the planet back,” said Harry. “The Jordan is great ship, but it won’t

  win a battle of numbers. Eventually something would wreck us and then we would

  drop to Delgas.”

  “It’s a consideration,” said Har. “I don’t like the thought, but I won’t deny the

  possibility. And we don’t know if they can gate their forces across space.”

  Harry paused in confusion. Of course, they could gate their soldiers across space.

  Then he realized no one had seen a star whale gate itself across space. Even if it could

  build a gate for others, that didn’t mean it could gate itself.

  And if it couldn’t gate, it had to fly to another system manually.

  So if backup was coming, it was stuck with flying like the Jordan if it wanted to take

  them on. It might take weeks, months, for a fleet to arrive to take them on.

  By that time, they could have a fleet of their own waiting for anyone trying to take

  them on.

  If they waited, they could clear the edge of the atmosphere with the numerous ships

  they were building at the docks.

  Adding docks would cut that time.

  “Where are we going?,” asked Harry.

  “Briefing room,” said Har. “We are going over our mission and status. We hope to

  keep coming back to earn points.”

  “I’m sure Junior will carry you around like a little baby,” said Harry.

  “I’m sure he will,” said Har.

  The two contractors joined the rest of their friends in the briefing room. Harry smiled

  as he looked the table over. There were pings for both sides as he went to the table.

  “Are the kids with us, Jordan?,” asked Harry.

  “Present,” said Junior.

  “I’m here, Papa,” said Betty Lou.

  “Cruising down the highway,” said Brophy.

  “What are we doing about the rest of this?,” said Harry. He leaned on the table to take

  everything in. “Do we go down and shoot some more of the xenos?”

  “Extra firepower is not needed,” said Junior. “We can hold the surface from any

  threats.”

  “What do you think is necessary, Junior?,” said Harry.

  “A fence around our operating area,” said Junior. “We can hold the points of the

  triangle and the bees can clear the inner area and then we can push outwards.”

  “What is the absolute range you three can reach on the ground?,” asked John.

  A line miles away from the three Bolos formed a triangle bigger than expected. The

  main problem was the lack of air cover. Harry’s super bees were in the air, but they

  needed to shoot a lot more of the aerial problems in the face to make a difference.

  “I’ll have to go down and put up a moving wall,” said Harry. “Betty Lou has one of

  the extenders up in the mountains. We can set up where they meet and form a wall

  high enough to keep the casual xeno out. Then the bees can hunt down anything

  inside the triangle. We can have the shooters push to the line while the wall is being

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  built.”

  “Mobile guns and the birds are also on the scene,” said Hei. “They will be able to mix

  with the other forces as long as the fabricators are still in action.”

  “The original fabricator is still in the cave,” said Xin. “The sparrows should be flying

  out of there and helping Unit Betty Lou in the mountains.”

  “They are so cute,” said Betty Lou.

  “There are some natural features we have to take into account,” said John. “We have

  several rivers in the area, and there is a chasm between the cave and the other part of

  the mountain. Those things will be hard to build a wall around.”

  “It doesn’t have to be perfect,” said Delmar. “We could build bridges to get across

  some of that.”

  “The main problem is what happens when we seal that area off from the rest of the

  planet,” said Detrac. “Will the Bolos have to deal with more titans trying to uproot

  them?”

  “Work twenty four hours a day, eight days a week,” said Brophy. “Ain’t that tough

  enough?”

  “Maybe,” said Yema. “We’re more interested in what happens when the enemy try

  to react to your presence. We’re going to rely on you to stop any threat no matter how

  big. We might have to back you up against such large menaces.”

  “We will be fighting again if we go down to build this wall,” said Milla. She seemed

  to smile. “I can once again affirm my status as the demon of death.”

  “Betty Lou,” said Harry. “I think what we should do is start with the wall from your

  enclosure down to Junior. Let the bees and shooters use it as a base to shoot over the

  top. Junior, let the bees range out to meet the edge of the expanding wall. Then the

  shooters can push off to the wall and clear away anything trying to reach that wall.”

  “And then the wall can extend to Brophy?,” said Garry.

  “Yes,” said Harry. “The shooters will push down to the wall, and do what they can

  to keep that area clear.”

  “What about the wall leading back to Betty Lou?,” said Howitz.

  “We need to stay on one side of the chasm with Xin’s cave on the other side of the

  wall,” said Har.

  Harry nodded that the wall has to stay on one side of the river heading up to the

  mountains. The chasm widened as it led up to where Betty Lou rested. It was an

  irregular wall.

  “All right,” said Harry. “How do we make this easier to get done because while the

  wall is going up, the xenos will try to get inside and tear the kids down.”

  “I have a big iron on my hip,” said Brophy.

  “Secondary expeller can be sent down from my position, Papa,” said Betty Lou. “That

  will cut off the sides, then they can cut off the bottom of the triangle from targets.”

  “I like it,” said Harry. “I’ll need to gate down, and give you that other wall builder.”

  “Backup?,” asked Yema.

  “I can take Milla,” said Harry. “Also there will be a ton of bees and birds blasting

  things with Betty Lou clearing space. This should be an easy walk.”

  “The cave is a natural nesting ground,” said Xin. “My birds should have expanded

  down their side of the mountain by now.”

  “All right,” said Harry. “Should I put a cover on the bridge so they can expand into

  Betty Lou’s territory without worrying about air attacks?”

  “I think they can deal with the air monsters by themselves,” said Xin. “Should they

  expand their nests under the bigger machine’s watch?”

  “Yes,” said Betty Lou. “I love birds.”

  Everyone paused at that statement.

  “They are fake birds,” said Delmar.

  “They look real enough for me,” said Betty Lou.

  “We clear the planet, I will get you some birds,” said Harry. “What do you think

  about that?”

  “I will kill all of the xenos,” said Betty Lou.

  “Let’s build the complex first,” said John. “Keep on task. We have to put people on

  this planet to clear the planet. Then we have to worry about putting in wildlife. You

  will have to protect all of that, even stuff that isn’t birds.”

  “I know how nature works,” said Betty Lou. “I would like birds.”

  “Junior, Brophy,” said Harry. “Would you like some type of wildlife installed for you

  to look at when we clear the planet?”

  “Situation is optimal,” said Junior. “Extraneous animals are not necessary.”

  “I like to fish,” said Brophy.

  Harry covered his face with his hand. He took a moment to think about the request

  from his son.

  “There’s no water near you, Brophy,” said Harry. “I guess I can put in a pool for you

  to have fish for you to wash.”

  “That’s what I like,” said Brophy.

  “All right,” said John. “We have a plan. We still have plenty of enemies who want to

  stop us. Let’s start the wall thing. Then we can expand from there, building factories

  for whatever needs to be put down to help future contractors. I guess Nick can look

  around for someone who can build a zoo, or aquarium, in a way that the xenos won’t

  try to eat anything we try to transplant here.”

  Harry saw Delmar typing on his phone. His phone buzzed. He looked at the message.

  MACHINES ARE JUST LIKE YOU.

  He frowned at his second. He couldn’t deny the sentiment.

  “All right,” said John. “Harry, go do what you got to do. Be careful. We’ll take a

  break and get some sleep, and see where we sit in a few hours.”

  “I can do the thing in a few minutes,” said Harry. “I think I’ll stay down there and

  keep an eye on things while the walls are starting. I’ll gate back after things are on the

  way.”

  “Be careful,” said John. “We’ve done some crazy stuff with this. We don’t want to

  lose everything now.”

  “Betty Lou will keep us safe,” said Harry. “She’s a good machine.”

  “Do you think they will try the kaiju trick again?,” asked Detrac.

  “I don’t know, but the kids know how to counter it, so it’s not going to do anything

  but sacrifice their numbers while letting us get done faster,” said Harry. “If we could

  get all of them together in one place, that would help us more than anything else.”

  “I hope we don’t have to deal with anything like that,” said Har. “We have been able

  to hold out against whatever they throw at us. No one will believe what we have done

  without the scans from our gear, and the other machines fighting with us.”

  “But dealing with titans could put us on the back foot before we can put them down,”

  said Yema.

  “I’m coming back down, Betty Lou,” said Harry. “Then I need to take a break.”

  “I’m waiting, Papa,” said Betty Lou.

  “Come on, Milla,” said Harry. “Once we start closing this triangle off, we can think

  about putting in a sprawl for people who want to shop, or have safaris, or whatever.”

  “Safaris?,” said Milla. She floated at his side.

  “Nick’s idea,” said Harry.

  “Was not,” said the agent. “Don’t even think about it, mister.”

  “Maybe I can get Betty Lou some birds from Earth,” said Harry. “A pet shop should

  have parakeets, right?”

  “I wouldn’t know,” said Milla. “The demon of death has no pets.”

  “Neither do I,” said Harry. “Cat would know. I’ll ask her.”

  “I think you should be concerned that your machine wants pets in the first place,” said

  Milla.

  “I thought about it, and I have decided that a few chickens is worth a lot of alien

  deaths,” said Harry. “I would make that trade in a second.”

  “Is there any doubt why you are being reviewed?,” asked Milla. “You come across

  as erratic and so do your machines.”

  “It works for us,” said Harry. They walked down to the gate in the cargo bay. Harry

  made sure his kit was ready. He shouldn’t need it, but it only took one big beast to

  ruin your day.

  The xenos probably still had tricks they hadn’t seen yet. Wallens had less xenos on

  it, but looked worse for the handling.

  “Do you really think you can create a city here?,” asked Milla.

  “That’s not my problem,” said Harry. He stepped on the gate. “I’m just here to kill the

  enemy. Other people will have to repopulate the planet, and put animals back where

  they belong.”

  “I doubt Earth animals will do well here,” said Milla. She joined him on the gate.

  “That’s not my problem either,” said Harry. “Switch us, Nick.”

  He stepped off the opposite gate in the middle of trees. He took a moment to adjust

  to the rippling effect of Betty Lou blasting anything that looked like they were inside

  her house.

  “I think this is the right decision,” said Harry. “Trying to build the wall on the other

  side of the chasm would just leave a hole for the xenos to come in.”

  “I think I can clear the other side while you set the wall up,” said Milla. “Just let me

  take aim.”

  She shot her signature beam across the gap. There were so many targets that she cut

  a bite out of their charge, forcing more into the gap.

  Harry walked to the edge of the wall and climbed up to look over the other side. His

  mobile platforms were continously firing across that gap. He needed to put the

  expeller down and let it roll south along the edge of the river. He checked for

  Brophy’s signature, nodding when he saw the Bolo was also on this side of the water.

  “We have no way of reaching a water supply,” he called. “If we bring people here,

  we’ll have to pipe the water from the river to wherever our people are.”

  “There might be a branch reaching in further south,” said Milla. She continued

  picking off targets from her perch at the top of the wall.

  “It might be underground,” said Harry. He checked his visor. “I don’t see any river

  on the map. Maybe it flows under this part of the continent. If it does, the xenos could

  use it to get under any defenses we throw up.”

  “They can fly over anything less than a dome,” said Milla. “Let’s worry about the

  basic fortification before we start mapping any river system that might be flowing

  under us. If that is what’s going, a grate will keep most of the small grunts out.”

  “All right,” said Harry.