"Hey Albert, remind me next time that trees break the fall better," Henry told his AI companion as he stood up, pain shooting all over. Henry looked at the left bottom corner of his HUD. Luckily nothing was broken. He pulled out a prototype RCPR or Rapid Cooling Plasma Rifle that Youri handed him during the trip here. It was also solid black and resembled an M1 Garand. The RCPR is the first in its design. It gets its charge from the Templar armor and will only respond to Henry's unique EMS or Electro-Magnetic Signal. Something that all humans put out. The other nice feature of the rifle is that it links to Henry's HUD and shows when the rifle is heating up so Henry knows when to stop firing to give it the few seconds the nanites need to cool the rifle down.

  "Playtime is over. You have bogies incoming, and a lot of them," Albert told Henry.

  "How many?" Henry asked as he turned off the safety and took cover.

  "I can't get a good read, but judging by intercepted radio chatter, at least a hundred, maybe more. Henry, they know it's you, and they mean business. This isn't going to be like it was on Edin," Albert said grimly.

  "You're right, it won't be. I plan on letting loose. I don't have to worry about protecting anybody, or civilian casualties," Henry said as he smiled with glee. Moments after the chatter the first wave of Altherium soldiers came around the wreckage of the first AA, and Henry opened fire. The Altherium soldiers tried to return fire but quickly found themselves overwhelmed with no cover and retreated.

  "No you don't," Henry said as he pulled out a grenade and threw it. It landed on the back of one of the soldiers. Henry heard the soldier, and his buddies scream as the grenade went off, sending chunks of him flying. Henry looked down as an arm landed next to him and came up with a devilish idea. He slipped out of cover with the arm and put another grenade in the hand attached to the severed arm. He peaked around the corner and saw they had made a line along the road that led back to the forge, from building to building. They had flipped over hover cars and had heavy weapons. In Henry's opinion, the biggest threat was the tank they must have captured from the UHC. However, something about that thought struck Henry as odd. The Altherium deploys laser-based weapons, why capture a UHC tank? UHC weapons are primarily kinetic projectile-based ammo. Unless they captured a vast amount of ammo UHC weapons are basically useless to the Altherium.

  "Albert, are there any records of Altherium recently capturing MA11 tanks?" Henry asked Albert as he stayed as still as possible, hoping they wouldn't recklessly fire into their civilian housing.

  "Hmm, the rounded turret and the grey sloped frontal armor along with the AERA siding. Henry, that isn't the MA11 it is the MA11-2. The MA11-2 has a slightly lower profile at 8.5 feet instead of the 8"8' of the MA11. As far as the records indicate, no there is none reported captured. However, that doesn't mean it hasn't happened." Albert said, just as baffled as Henry.

  The Altherium opened fire, breaking Henry's train of thought. Henry activated the grenade in the severed limb and threw it into the line and waited for it to go off. The moment it did he broke cover. He let his armor take the brunt of the laser fire as he returned fire dropping more Altherium as he took cover again to let his shield recharge. As soon as his shield was full, he broke cover again, repeating the process. He tried to do the process for a third time, but just as he was about to break from behind a wall, the tank fired. The shell busted through the wall, right in front of Henry. "I need to get the drop on the tank," Henry thought to himself.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  "Behind you!" Albert warned. Henry dropped to one knee and opened fire dropping five Altherium soldiers who were packed into the narrow alley behind him.

  "That should work," Henry told himself as he started to run down the alley.

  "What is this? Are you running away?" Albert asked Henry, puzzled by Henry's actions.

  "No, not running away, but that tank is putting a damper on things. I need to try a new approach, and the only one I think will work is taking out the tank first," Henry said as he sprinted through the alley onto another road full of soldiers, and another tank. "What the fuck," Henry shouted as he dove back into the alley, narrowly avoiding the shell that whizzed by. "Albert, one UHC tank is one thing, but I can't see two being here as a coincidence," Henry shouted at Albert.

  "You're right. I don't know who, but someone is playing both sides," Albert said as Henry busted through the wall into a house. He saw a mother with her two kids, or possibly their older sister. He slowly put his finger over where his mouth would be. The trio slowly nodded. Henry kept his eye on them as he crept towards the window to better see the opposition. However, before he got to the window the wall that the trio was at exploded killing the three instantly and clouding up the room with dust and a bloody green mist.

  "Holy shit," Henry yelled as he scrambled two his feet after the blast threw him to the ground. "Albert, how long does it take for the autoloader to finish reloading?" Henry asked as he started to sprint at full speed into another alley before the tank could fire.

  "Four seconds," Was the AI's brief answer.

  "That is all I need to know. I just hope I am strong enough to pull this off," Henry said as he crept up to the end of the alley. He stepped out and dove back as he drew the tank's fire along with a hail of laser fire. Henry rushed back to his feet and sprinted as fast as he could at the tank and jumped onto the tracked tank's rounded turret, grabbed the 130 MM canon, and bent it out of shape. Henry dropped down behind the tank as one Altherium used an ATLR. It hit the siding and caused an outward explosion, sending shrapnel that managed to shred three more soldiers. Henry ignored their screaming as he leveled his plasma rifle and returned fire. He focused on the soldiers with the ATLRs as he maneuvered around back behind the wall the tank already damaged.

  He continued to drop one soldier after another. He heard the roar of the twin-turbo jet engine of the MA11-2 tank from earlier, or he hoped it was the previous one, and rushed to a corps and stole an ATLR. He clipped the plasma rifle onto his hip and aimed at the intersection where the tank was coming up. Henry fired two shots rapidly, draining the ATLR's ammo charge. The first shot caused the AERA to explode like it did on the first tank, and then the second shot pierced the armor like a hot knife through butter. It ignited the ammo. Flames burst out of the hatches.

  Henry used the brief moment of confusion to slip onto a side road and into another home, this one unoccupied. He needed to regather himself and come up with a plan. Fighting the base-level soldiers was no problem, the tanks were, if they had any left, were.