- I've been kidnapped three times - Jim muttered. I nodded. - And there have been five attempted rapes.

  - At least you're popular - I remarked. - And most of the time it was women.

  - But one time it was a skag - Jim grumbled.

  - That was a female, too - Lily interjected.

  - That's comforting - the mercenary said sarcastically. - Admit it honestly, did you tweak the game?

  - Shall I throw down the logs? - The girl offered, and he nodded after a small pause. For a while we drove in silence, then we heard a surprised "Huh..."

  In my opinion, we had played very well, and this session had pointed out the obvious again - even though Pandora looks like some kind of post-apocalypse, or at best a wild frontier (which it is), I was living in a very technologically advanced setting.

  If only i wouldn't have to reload guns manually yet...

  In fact, I'm tempted to save up some money, blow it all off, and go somewhere closer to civilization. Maybe even take a trip to find Earth.

  Alas, I don't think AlBa will let me do that, at least not until we find the Vault. But it's certainly an interesting idea.

  Hmm. I'm looking at Lily.

  - You don't have any travel recommendations, do you? - I asked. The girl nodded readily, and -

  "Incoming message with attached file, addressee - Lily Rose."

  ...Of course, what could I expect. "The lost city of Magnajabuki, home of the occult order Abbar-Kadabar", "The underground settlement of a tribe of demon worshippers", "The village of witches", "Genuine Eridian ruins", "Anomalous Site A"... Oh, and there I was. Or rather, "my character" was.

  ...Huh. Am I not myself a character in someone's party in Bunkers & Badasses...?

  I shook my head, getting rid of that creepy thought twisting my brain into a closed spiral. In fact, am I too distracted, or too relaxed? We're on a very dangerous mission.

  - By the way... Are you not too young to go out against a megacorporation, and even in such a small group? - I asked Lily. The girl looked at me, raising an eyebrow. Well, yes, i could have asked her earlier... - No, we're only going up against them now, that's why I'm asking now.

  - In order to be successful, you should start gaining experience as early as possible - she said. - Speaking of which, sempai. When did you start?

  - "Sempai?" - Jim interjected. - Well, I started pretty late. About twelve.

  - My first real combat experience was at fifteen - I muttered, fishing out my character's memories. - But not against megacorps, and as part of a company.

  - And against whom? - Lily wondered. I thought of the statute of limitations, the range modifier, the Markov factor... it turned out that I didn't have to worry about secrecy.

  - Toy conspiracy - I reported. - I participated in the beginning of the First Toy Plot, and went through the entire Third. During the Second, I took additional training, then retraining, then re-retraining, and then qualification confirmation.

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  - Sometimes bureaucratic messes can be useful.

  We were silent; each of us seemed to be thinking about something else. Images of fire, explosions, and brightly colored plastic flashed before my mind's eye.

  I glanced at "Mr. Artie." Even though the plushies were our allies, it was their makers who had made that pot of gruel. Competition, my ass.

  - Anyway, if you want to participate, you'll take sniper support.

  The girl grimaced, but nodded. As I could see, she had a decent, even good, sniper skills - she just didn't like it. She preferred close, or rather almost-close, combat with SG and grenades. In general, the best sniper of us is Jim, but given all the circumstances, it is better to change roles. The mercenary agreed with me.

  We were going to split up and attack the roadblock from different directions. Blow up the gate with a grenade launcher, then Jim would fire from the vehicle turrel if possible, and me and Lily and our techno support would, well, support. Maybe Athena, if she actually shows up - she promised, but I wasn't really counting on it - will wreak havoc inside with her teleportation.

  ...However, no plan survives a collision with reality.

  This time, however, the surprise was a pleasant one.

  - Dude, I told you guys I had a cool car, and I made it. Scooter keeps his word! - said the mechanic with a certain pride.

  We visited Scooter through the fast-travel station, first of all to get an EMP suppressor for Atlas' communications. For a new car with improved defenses, too, but... I didn't expect to see THIS.

  None of us did.

  - If our department had a monster like this back in the day... - I muttered.

  Scooter shook his head negatively.

  - No, I have the Monster in the neighboring garage, if you want, you can take it. And this car I called Anti-Lancer... well, or just Lancer, if you like. That's the short of it.

  What we were looking at was a real APC. Or rather, a custom version of a APC; smaller in size, and with so much armor... huh.

  - Is that from the armored skags? - I asked, patting my hand on the armor plate attached to the hull. They made the APC look scaly.

  - Yup - Scooter agreed. - It's heavy, though. But strong, like... - he hesitated, - ...something very strong.

  - Mamma mia, heavy plasma cannon! - Jim said admiringly as he climbed up to the turret. - And a pulse plasma projector!

  - And a minesweeper, too - Scooter said happily. - The best of Mom's stockpile. But I'll tell you right away, it's a slow juggernaut. Too much armor and weapons.

  In my opinion, this car should be called "Rhinoceros", not "Lancer" (the obstacles are not his problem, it's of obstacles), but I didn't insist. There was even less interior space in this pile of armor than it seemed, and the speed also related to the Rhino, but armor and firepower... Lancer was quite able to compete with corporate tanks, even medium. Mass class, not elite, but still.

  In fact, real tanks are rarely used by coprorats: it's more profitable to rivet expendable robots or to fill up with expendable meat. But they do use them at times, especially the Vladoff again; we like big armored vehicles. Anyway, I had something to compare it to, and the Lancer was... well, pretty good.

  And its armament was honed for the job in front of it.

  The low speed of the armored vehicle and the open terrain didn't allow us to appear suddenly, but we didn't need to: the trophy identification codes allowed us to get closer without raising the alarm early. And then the Lance fighters didn't have that option anymore.

  The directional pulse of the electromagnetic jammer not only cut off the Atlas soldiers' communications, but also disabled some of their equipment, including most of the cameras and autoturrets. And then the Lancer's plasma cannon and machine gun opened fire.

  Our plasma cannon was quite similar in action to the large-caliber version of the Eridian guards' weapons, considerably slower, but powerful too. Finally, in this fantastic setting, I was able to see (or rather, use) fantastic weapons - not usual absurd ones.

  ...If the Wave wasn't so effective, I would have gotten rid of it, just so it wouldn't break my brain.

  The plasma ball made a hole the size of a soccer ball; the metal balls from the Gauss machine gun finished the job, causing one leaf of the thick metal gate to fall to the ground. A hand machine gun rumbled from one of the turrets - the large-caliber turrets had been knocked out by the EMP - but the skag armor held the attack with negligible ease, judging by my ECHO's readout of our buggy's durability.

  ...And then one of the Lancemen used a grenade launcher.

  With the speed of our Lancer it was absolutely impossible to dodge, and it was impossible to shoot a rocket-propelled grenade from a machine gun with its low accuracy. However -

  The rocket-propelled grenade (and several hand grenades) were about ten meters away when the pulse plasma projector went off.

  Not quite a BFG, yes. But close enough.

  A wave of blue... something mixed with scattered lightning bolts rushed from under the bottom of the Lancer, causing the fine debris around it to scatter into dust.

  The grenades detonated.

  The armored vehicle shuddered slightly, but that was all.

  And then we burst into the roadblock.

  Jim wheeled the truck, and after a plasma burp, the Lancer's ass spewed mines, as if relieved of a constipation. The machine gun continued to fire, heavy plasma pierced the grenade launcher's shelter, and then the armored vehicle belched another projector pulse, forcing the reactor to overheat, but so far out of the critical zone.

  Fortunately for us, the Lance had no time to equip the roadblock according to all the canons of modern fortification, and most importantly - they did not have time to create a good system of shielding against EMP suppression (or did they decide to save money? Also possible - wilderness, hurry, budget problems). And let's not forget about the identifier, which allowed us to get close enough to use our electromagnetic trump card.

  Still, we should give the Atlas fighters credit: they held on with everything they had. Exploding mines tore the fortifications to shreds, filling the air with dust, heavy plasma knocked out weapons that were dangerous to us, and the pulse projector simply destroyed everything around them - but the Lancers fired back, and our armor strength bar in the ECHO display was creeping to the left, shrinking in size.

  I wouldn't have noticed it myself, because I was in charge of the mine-laying machine, so my field of vision was directed in the opposite direction, but the augmented reality automap showed a red dot separating from the checkpoint and flying away at a speed much higher than human speed. Since communication was down, someone had decided to send a courier on the Courier - well, or simply run away.

  The now-familiar hum of heavy plasma, and -

  - the red dot continued to zigzag away.

  - Mjerde! - Jim chimed in. - Again!

  The humming tone began to increase, reflecting the charging plasma, but before the discharge could hit its target, the red dot jerked to the side and stopped.

  What exactly had happened became clear later, after Lily had shot another courier and we had finally cleared the checkpoint: Athena. The Assassiness had been around for some time, waiting for a possible moment when she felt the need to intervene, and it came. Basically, it was exactly the kind of thing she planned to back up against, if the Lancers could send a courier.

  The roadblock had been cleared, and the point of no return had been passed.

  At the defeated roadblock we lingered a bit longer. To look for survivors and trophies, to make sure that the alarm really didn't go off and to take care of the control check - identifiers and Athena's knowledge of internal protocols to help - to repair the Lancer's armor, to check the reactor... Necessary things, even if they make us waste time. But as the saying goes, take care of your weapon and it will take care of you. Lily's bear will sign up if you give him the right pen.

  - There shouldn't be many people in the Citadel right now, Steele has taken most of them to capture key points on the planet - Athena reported. The woman had changed into something that concealed her face and figure, and expectedly armed herself, with a monstrous-looking, blue-gray Jacobs shotgun with four barrels. - Most likely there would be a company on duty and a construction battalion.

  I grimaced involuntarily, and Athena clarified:

  - Our... Atlas construction battalion are not such beasts, they are given mediocre weapons, so everything should not be so bad. But there's a catch.

  Despite the mask, it was noticeable that she grimaced.

  - General Knox. The old man is extremely dangerous, he's undoubtedly the strongest fighter in Atlas. He's got tons of battle honors, feats, and awards that aren't blown, all more than deserved. Ideally, it's best not to mess with him at all, or at least to conduct some sort of diversion. He's using a personal mech, and the EMP won't help you. Access codes too, the hangar is also the general's personal quarters with a separate security system. Unless you have really heavy weaponry, I can't even advise you.

  - Pessimistic - Jim said. The woman nodded silently.

  - Hmm... - Lily said, glancing at me; I held up my hands and shook my head, showing that I had no ideas. Unless I got a corrosive grenade launcher. Or more than one.

  - Do we have good corrosives? - I asked.

  - There was something, but nothing outstanding - Jim answered.

  - Hmm... - Lily repeated, and tapped her fingers on her ECHO.

  - Good luck - said Athena and disappeared. Jim went away, too, continuing to look for something to grab for the benefit of himself and the squad as a whole, I returned to repairing the armored car, and Lily settled in the shadow of it, and quietly communicated on the ECHO; I could hear fragments of phrases.

  - ...Anything to recommend? ...the magister can... ...oh, yes... ...okay, but.....

  "Incoming call, caller: unknown (redirected through alternate Angel protocol)."

  - Hello, Mr. Detlove - an image of a woman appeared in front of me; vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on where I'd seen her. Age... not definite, same like with Moxie, quite beautiful, but, with a certain strangeness. A little bit like Morticia Addams from the old movies. It's not really a similiar face, but... There's a kinship, definitely.

  - Hello... I'm not honored to know - I replied.

  - Spikey Thorne Pepper Spice Lupus-Gold - the lady introduced herself. - You can call me Ms. Lupus, or Mrs. Gold.

  I frowned. What kind of weird system is this...? "Mrs." to address a married woman, "Miss" to a free woman, either one or the other. Unless she was a Lupus before marriage and then attached her husband's last name...?

  I don't know. You can expect anything from that family.

  - I see. To what do I owe the honor? - I asked.

  - Lily asked me to help you with a little predicament you're having, so I thought I'd share a family recipe - the woman said. - It helps a lot with pests, especially mechanized and heavily armored ones. However, it is, as said, a family recipe and I would prefer to avoid sharing it. So.

  "Incoming message with a digital contract"

  - you should sign the contract first.

  I ran my eyes over the text. Uh-huh, uh-huh, I see, the usual...

  - No, it doesn't work like that. It's missing the clause about free of charge transfer of the soul in perpetual lease - I noticed.

  - Clause 12b - the lady kindly pointed out. I reread the said clause... oh, so it's not decoration after all, but text.

  That's how it translates.

  - In which case, I apologize, indeed it does. Which doesn't change the fact that you'll have to find another idiot after all. By the way, can you tell me what language that was? Even the ECHO couldn't pick it up.

  - Ancient Aramaic - Lily's mom said, still as kindly as ever. - Okay, if you're not an idiot, here's the second sentence.

  "Incoming message with digital contract."

  - ...Um, sorry for the personal question, but you didn't have any demons or devils in your family? - I inquired. The lady smiled.

  If the first option was an offer to be sold into slavery, then the second... well, into it, but with a decent payment. I was even tempted for a second... nah. After all, I had the Main Quest looming over my head, and the Vladoff wouldn't like that either.

  I sighed.

  - Again, I'm sorry, but not interested.

  However, even that refusal didn't seem to upset the woman; she merely nodded, and -

  "Incoming message with a digital contract."

  Huh. This option already looks suspiciously low-key and unobliging. Non-distribution and non-transfer of the recipe and the license to use it, confirmation of the agreement Lily and I already had, and the most suspicious part - a promise on my part to consider three requests from the Lupus-Gold family with the highest priority. The suspicious part was that it was just a promise, not something legally binding.

  ...Oh, okay. If it wasn't legally binding, there was no need to worry.

  - That's fine - I decided. - But I'm not signing in blood.

  - Personal electronic signatures and legal systems are secure enough to do without it - the lady replied. - Besides, I have good combat lawyers.

  I shuddered, trying not to show it. Combat lawyers are tough. Mix Judge Dredd, a collection agency, and a goddamn dozen demons from the underworld and you get a combat lawyer. I don't know if there's anything in the galaxy more unstoppable and unstoppable than these scumbags.

  Sighing once more, I signed my name and opened the archive with the digital construction scheme, chemical formulation, license - and a ready grenade modifier. Huh.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  - Well, thank you for your help - I said. - It's been, uh, interesting talking to you.

  - I can say the same, Mr. Detlove - the woman replied. - Good luck, and make a video for me, for the family archive.

  The formulation sent by my employer's slightly infernal mother was a killer chemical cocktail that dissolved most metals in a fun and funky way. Sure, the armor uses composites, and... a lot of stuff, really, but it's definitely going to be a good asset against armored pests.

  And that's not an allegory - it's best to prepare in advance for possible Pandorian critters. You won't be fully prepared, but still.

  Due to the disconnected ECHOnet there was a little difficulty in acquiring materials - Angel's options are limited - but Moxie helped to solve it.

  ...The women in this setting are some very... impressive.

  We did come across a couple of small engineering teams of Lancers doing some work, but the means of identification worked well enough to avoid conflict. Exp, sure, but I'm not a maniac to chase it like that. And I sympathize with my colleagues.

  But still.

  - Don't you think there are too few guards and people in general? - I asked, frowning.

  - We will not retreat in any case - answered Jim.

  - That's right, too - I sighed.

  As the Crimson Citadel loomed ahead, we regained access to the ECHOnet. Unfortunately, that meant we had to hurry.

  The fact that Lancer had to be left near another bridge didn't add to my enthusiasm.

  He was standing in the middle of the road smoking a cigar with his helmet open against all safety rules.

  I wouldn't really call that thing a mech. It was more like a heavy - very heavy - armored combat exoskeleton, about three meters tall. As far as I could tell, its owner, whose only visible feature was a graying head with a patch over one eye, was not a small man himself, about two meters tall.

  "General Knox," reported the ECHO. - "He doesn't like Mondays, and this one especially..."

  - You're just in time," the general said gruffly. - I have time to talk a little while I smoke. No, we could start a firefight right away, but you live longer if you smoke, don't you?

  My ECHO automap showed a few more red dots, but they were over the edge and not moving, so it didn't look like he was stalling.

  - Why don't you listen to the esteemed veteran - I said. He nodded and took a drag.

  - Well, let's start by introducing ourselves. Alphonso Knox, Commander of the Crimson Lance... well, I suppose you know enough about me, if not from Athena, then from the net, part of my service record is in the public domain. Governor General of this fucking cesspool called Pandora, as you might have guessed on your own. And a man who is extremely tired of all this shit, but not so tired that he won't finish you off one last time.

  - Jim DiGriz, adventurer and mercenary extraordinaire - Jim introduced himself. - Nothing personal, but I prefer Pandora without megacorps. It's shitty enough as it is, but at least it's free.

  - Lily Rose Vinegar Sugar Lupus-Gold - the girl, unexpectedly, made a curtsy. - I'm on a quest. You just happened to fall into my lap.

  - Lupus-Gold? - snorted the general. - Your mother shot me in the right leg. Twice. She paid for the treatment of one hole, though.

  - Pyotr Dyatlov - I joined the trend. - Technically, a sales rep for the Vladoff. In fact - free mercenary, private businessman, professional repairman. Problems with coffee makers? Contact us!

  My companions glanced at me; I glanced back at them.

  - What? You should always take advantage of a good publicity opportunity!

  - And the Vault Seeker - hummed the General, ignoring the publicity.

  - Well, in a way - I agreed. - But it's like a hobby.

  - A hobby is good - agreed Knox and took another drag. - Tell me, how old is your direct superior in Vladoff?

  - Is that a trick question? - Lily interjected. - I like trick questions.

  - No - the general answered briefly, continuing to look at me. I shrugged.

  - Fifty-two, I think.

  - Mine was five - Knox said, sighing heavily.

  - Five tens? - Lily interjected again.

  - No - the general repeated again.

  - Oh. Clannishness and nepotism work wonders - Jim voiced my thoughts. Knox nodded.

  - Athena's betrayal, Steele's failure, now this... - he took the cigar out of his mouth and looked at it. - What the fuck am I even doing on this planet?

  I found myself nodding.

  - We all ask ourselves that question on a regular basis, sir - Jim informed me. - Perhaps it could even be called Pandora's Ultimate Question. Along with "How much ammo do we have left?" and "Is it gonna *gasp*?"

  - Anyway, I was thinking about retiring with a loud slam on the door, but then you showed up - said the general after a short pause, during which we considered Jim's words and recognized their truth. "So I thought why not do Atlas one last favor. And there's a chance for a good fight.

  He took another deep puff and tossed the cigar away.

  - Let's get started.

  The general's helmet slammed shut, and the three of us immediately darted away. Jim and I threw grenades behind our backs, Lily threw a bear.

  The flashes of a light plasma gun flashed past; the clang of metal against metal let us know that the robo-bear had joined the fight. I reached one of my pre-prepared shelters and ducked behind it amid the clatter of corrosive SG turrets. No wounds, the shield was two-thirds gone, Lily hid behind her own cover and fired at the general from behind it.

  I peeked out for a second and found Knox clutching at an already slightly sparking and smoking Robogrizzly, and clearly overpowering it.

  The sickening thing i discovered is that the general apparently had a shield as well, not just armor.

  The Thunderer chanted his war song, but before the shield strip could show any significant advancement in the desired direction, the Atlasian reacted by flipping off the bear and leaping into the air. Not so much a flight as a jump, accelerated by the jetpack behind his back... significantly accelerated.

  I suppose a direct hit from the two plasma cannons of the Knox that appeared in front of and above me would have fried me on the spot.

  Luckily, Jim had the Big Gun.

  The monster gun from Jacobs, the orange quality gun that bears that name was (officially) just considered a hunting gun. Well, you can hunt tanks too, I suppose...

  The hit threw the general slightly off to the side, knocking the scope off, by jerk allowing me to survive his shot. Unfortunately, he fell to the ground the next second, and his mechsuit sent a wave in all directions reminiscent of the pulse projector from the Lancer.

  Fortunately, many times less powerful and long-range. Even so, one of my turrets stalled, part of the concrete barrier crumbled, and the remnants of my shield waved goodbye.

  Still, I kept firing, letting the machine gun's palpable recoil throw me away from the enemy, and even maneuvering this peculiar engine slightly. Knox pointed his hands at me again - or rather, his guns - but then a rock (bear?...) and another Big Gun bullet flew into him, along with a scattering of small-caliber corrosive and shock bullets from Lily's turrets and SGs.

  Break the distance. If I get hit by his pulse gun, it's gonna be an barbeque, steaming and well fried. We need to take out the shields, then we need to corrode it.

  A plasma discharge passed between my legs, burning the armor and the meat underneath. A mental command, and instead of a corrosive grenade, a tesla grenade appeared in my hand, attached itself to Knox's shield; immediately, i switch back. Jim's cannon roared again, but the damage to the shield was nowhere near as high as I would have liked; Lily was actually contributing more now.

  And then a robogrizzly that was accelerating crashed into Knox's armor.

  Both mechs went tumbling, but Knox immediately rose into the air and fell again, slamming the bear to the ground and adding discharges from his plasma cannons.

  The bear exploded.

  This time, Lily's robot didn't last long at all, but his help proved quite valuable. Knox's shield finally failed, and now I didn't have to worry about friendly fire; a grenade went off... And another one....

  The General swung back, knocking Lily's grenade aside so that he was only slightly caught in the spray, but the one I threw hit the hull, on the opposite side of the tesla, which had just stopped emitting lightning.

  Knox wasn't just swinging away, though. A shot, and Lily's shield flashed red.

  No way.

  The heavy Thunderer disappeared, replaced by an assault rifle, and I fired... acid, at the armored suit's arms.

  Lily avoided another direct hit, but even just a close discharge was enough to nullify her shield and shorten her health bar. The girl shrieked.

  "The health" of Knox's armor, however, was also shrinking, and another grenade caused him to make another reactionary dash, this time to the side - but in the movement he fired again. There wasn't another hit on Lily, but another turret was down.

  I rushed to the girl; she was now covered by my concrete structure, so there was some safety, but I had to do something about the wound.

  - Not bad for a mercenary - came Knox's voice. - In that case, let's get serious.

  A siren sounded, and the red dots outside of the minigraph came into motion.

  Shit.

  Problems, however, must be solved as they come, and under the sound of shots of the remaining two turrets and Jim's gun, I crouched near the unconscious girl, assessing her condition.

  Huh. Her dress is armor. The lace and fringe on the surface had burned away, exposing not at all a girlish body, but a black, slightly smoking, tight material. Electroshock, short-term paralysis, burns, not serious condition, she'll recover soon, but we don't have that "soon," so I pressed the bracelet of the auto-aid kit against her neck.

  I'm surprised she doesn't have her own.

  The time spent on the girl was enough for the battlefield to undergo some changes. A couple of Crimson Lance fighters, who had come from wherever, were engaged in a firefight with Jim, another was setting up a turret, and the fourth... was field repairing Knox's armor. Holy mother of engineering medicine.

  I launched my own turret; Lily hissed, and I pinned her to the ground, keeping her below the barrier. And then fired as well, choosing the Nutcracker this time.

  Whoa. The engineer with the turret exploded spectacularly and his pet followed; success. I shifted my aim to the "medic", but this time the explosion didn't work; he did fall down, however, hit by Jim's shot. I shot at one of the remaining soldiers and immediately crouched down to reload... just in time: plasma flew over my head.

  Rise, fire, crouch, repeat. Another soldier exploded; lucky day, it's not every day you get to blow up two almost in a row.

  Lily fired again, and I barely had time to pull her from where a patch of melted sand immediately formed.

  There are two things with guns in this setting that I just don't understand. The first is the manual reloading. The second is the incredibly poor accuracy of rocket-propelled grenade launchers. We're in the fucked up far future, so why the fuck do these fucked up things always go fucked up?

  And yet, when the familiar pipe appeared in Lily's hands, her counterpart appeared in mine.

  Imagine my surprise when I realized that my rocket-propelled grenade was exactly on target, exactly where it was supposed to go.

  ...But it didn't hit it, not one or the other. Knox used exactly the same trick we used on the Lancer: a plasma projector pulse. His men were already dead, and friendly fire was no threat to them, but the grenades were in range.

  At least the general was caught in the blast wave, causing him to stagger, and I immediately fired a second and final rocket-propelled grenade. I'll put it on Lily's bill, they're freakishly expensive.

  The girl, who didn't care much about the price, repeated after me, and I switched back to the corrosive, at the same time launching the digitizer with it, and immediately to the shotgun.

  And just in time, too, as Knox made another dash for it. If it hadn't been for my oncoming shot, he would have rammed Lily and me, but as it was, he smashed our cover.

  The girl and I rushed in different directions, tossing grenades. My left arm flared with pain and went limp; it was good that I could still feel it, but the way the left side of my body twitched wasn't good. No fire from Jim's side, but the turrets stepped in for their boss, continuing to pick at enemy already damaged armor.

  Lily threw at the general... Not a grenade. A bottle, with a "handmade," as far as digitally constructed, "mom's recipe" concoction.

  The Knox hand cannon that the vial shattered against melted, and exploded before my eyes. And I immediately retrieved my own bottle from the ECHO vault.

  This infernal mixture was far less convenient to throw than a grenade capable of partial targeting, and it had no explosion whatsoever. Plus it was almost useless against a shielded target - but Knox's armor, as tough as it was (and it was, judging by the scratches left by the Big Gun), held it up to almost nothing.

  The main thing was to keep the spray off us.

  Both of Knox's hand cannons were out of action, but he simply kicked Lily, throwing her a dozen meters away; the girl fell and froze again. He turned and lunged at me, no jet propulsion, but still fast; kicked, and I flew away, too.

  It hurts, but I manage to get up and throw the "ordinary" corrosive; or rather, on the contrary, throw and then get up. Switching the auto-pharmacy mode to a more optimal one made the pain recede a bit, and even my left arm moved.

  Four more soldiers appeared at the gate to the Citadel; Knox ran toward them. I rushed toward the grenade launcher that had fallen out of Lily's hands like a three-legged turtle that wanted to live.

  Though her gun was better than mine, it wasn't as accurate as mine.

  But it was good enough.

  The grenade exploded on the ground, between the two engineers who had rushed to help the bosses and the boss himself. The bullet from the sniper behind me made another hole in me; I let the grenade launcher out of my hands.

  And replaced it with a Nutcracker with one bullet in the AB.

  Two soldiers were aiming at me. I aimed at one of them.

  Explosion. And another hole.

  I fell, knocked down by the recoil of my own rifle. My leg was shot, but I was able to sit up and materialize the assault rifle.

  An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a foot for a foot.

  Two explosions in a row affected the general's balance in a bad way, and my shots - sensitively recoiling even despite the work of the auto-pharmacy - did not improve his situation at all. Still, unlike me, he was able to get up.

  - There's nothing to shoot with - I grumbled gloatingly.

  ...Fucking dramatic irony.

  On the body of the armor, in the area of the chest, opened a niche, from which stuck out not large, but quite decent barrel.

  *uck.

  The grenade modifier "with teleport", trophyed at the checkpoint, was really shitty: white quality, low efficiency, in addition there was no normal targeting system - you had to set the target manually. It was just a trophy to sell for cheap.

  But there it was. And i also had a mentally controlled ECHO.

  The barrel on the armored mech was still extending when the grenade appeared in my hand - and disappeared again.

  And reappeared again, this time right in front of the barrel.

  The explosion didn't turn the gun around as I'd hoped. But it did enough, creating a hiccup, and preventing Knox from noticing what I had noticed.

  Jim, who had dropped out of the fight some time ago, had not escaped or died. The mercenary was wounded and crawling, but he was only wounded, and he was moving, moving closer to the enemy.

  And a bottle appeared in his hands.

  Acid with the clinking of glass doused the armored man's leg, and it buckled under his weight, forcing him to fall.

  And then Jim threw the usual corrosive.

  - Fucking planet - Knox wheezed.

  - At least you didn't run into Claptrap - I wheezed.

  - Agreed - Jim wheezed.

  - So this is where I'm going to die...? At least it was a good fight - Knox said. - And while you're at it... If you survive, give Atlas Command I hate them. And a bullet.

  - Will be done - Jim replied, and fired into the hole in the armor.

  The commander's death didn't mean we were safe, but our disabled team couldn't even move. Lily was still alive, but unconscious, I couldn't get up, Jim... well, the mercenary playing the sloth on the ground was still the most mobile of us. Give it at least ten minutes and things wouldn't be so grim, but now... If a lame janitor found us now, he could probably beat everyone to death with a broom. Then level up dramatically, but that's another story.

  Fortunately, neither the janitor nor the new soldiers showed up, and it was immediately clear why.

  The siren that was still going on suddenly changed its tone, becoming even sharper and more piercing. And then a voice was added to it.

  - Attention! All non-evacuated personnel must leave the area immediately! The Crimson Citadel will self-destruct in five minutes!

  It was echoed by a second voice, filled with grief and anguish--

  - No! My money!

  Who's yelling?..

  Oh. That's me.