The stoneborn soldiers lined up atop the walls of the foraging outpost were quite tense. Although this was hardly the first time the Nemesis had arrived to assault the base on the shores of Lake Tissyl, she had never before stalled for so long. Usually those steel monstrosities would file into a basic formation and then charge at the wall without further delay, yet this time around they seemed to be stalling. It had already been half an hour since the enemy fired some sort of warning shot at their barrier, yet none of them had moved even a single bolt.

A unit of thirty to forty Pawns accompanied by a few flying Bishops suddenly broke off from the main force and approached the fort. They lined up just outside the edge of the defensive barrier, at which point the ones that had remained behind opened fire on it all at once. The bullets and the bombs pounded mercilessly against the invisible wall, producing a waterfall of sparks, flames and smoke as they did so.

“Ah, cripe! She’s actually doin’ it!”

The commanding officer of the defensive forces was rather taken aback by this development. To his knowledge, it had been almost an entire decade since the enemy tried to brute force their way through the magical fortifications. Thankfully, that sole explosion from earlier and the ensuing silence had tipped him off something was amiss and allowed him to make the necessary preparations. If not for that, then there was a chance the Nemesis might have broken through before they had a chance to react.

The man in question was a stoneborn male with short hair, a bushy moustache and a rather thick unibrow, all of which were spiky and wine red in color. A trio of ruby-like gems glistened in the middle of his wide forehead. He wore a brightly colored long sleeved tunic that was red on its left half and yellow on its right, with a gray trim around the edges of the neck and sleeves. His trousers were a washed out red, and his wide and hairy feet were left bare.

“Oy, Beldir!” he shouted down from the lookout tower. “How are the lads handlin’ this?”

The one he was calling out to was another man with deep purple hair whose forehead gems glistened like amethysts. He was dressed in similar attire as his superior, except that his tunic was a solid red all the way through. The same could be said about the rest of the defending force, who were dressed in what appeared to be simple clothes. There was not a single piece of armor to be found anywhere in sight, though this was mostly because decades of fighting had taught the stoneborn such things were useless. Steel plate armor would just get chewed up in seconds under the barrage of Katya’s guns. Sure, it was possible for heavily enchanted gear made of tougher materials to withstand that level of punishment, but such items were impossible to mass produce.

“They’s doing fine cap’n Rotadin!” shouted back Beldir. “They’s a bit uneasy, but they’s gots this!”

Rotadin looked around the courtyard behind the walls. A massive black diamond at least two meters tall and six meters in diameter stood in its center. The giant gem was cracking up profusely on the same side that the fort was being bombarded from. Hardly surprising, considering it was the focus maintaining the magnetic barrier that bore the brunt of the enemy’s onslaught.

Strictly speaking though, it would have snapped in half less than thirty seconds after the attack began were it not for the hundreds of Stonesingers surrounding it. The magic users were harmonizing their voices in a low hum that was almost a groan. They were pouring their mana into the barrier generating item, sealing up the cracks as quickly as they appeared. From here on, the battle would essentially become a sort of war of endurance between the enemy’s ammunition and the Stonesinger’s MP pools.

However, the attacking force was definitely at a disadvantage here. Because while their ammunition were limited in number, MP was literally infinite. Rotadin knew from personal experience that those crab-like tin cans could only maintain this sort of pressure for about five to six minutes, seven tops. The Stonseingers would be able to outlast the relatively small attacking force, so long as they properly managed their fatigue and didn’t skimp out on the mana recovery potions.

“Cap’n! We have incoming!”

The cries of one of his lookouts brought the stoneborn’s attention back to the battlefield. The small armored platoon that had split off from the main force had passed through the magnetic perimeter and was encroaching on the outpost. They opened fire on his position almost immediately afterwards, forcing him and the rest of the stoneborn atop the wall to duck behind the battlements while bullets whizzed overhead. He had nearly forgotten about those things, but he wasn’t too worried. A small number of clankers like that would be no match for an entire-

Realization suddenly struck him like a brick to the face. How were they supposed to push back against this smaller group if almost all the Stonesingers were busy keeping the shield up? They did have a considerable number of Rockfist Guardians at their disposal, but they were still mindless dolls. They needed proper direction and supervision if they were to be effective. Not to mention that they wouldn’t last long without the support of their owners’ magics.

Bottom line was that a part of the Stonesingers would need to be pulled away from the black diamond and focus their attention towards the incoming enemy threat. But if he sent out too many men, then that would compromise the integrity of the magnetic shield. Too few, and the enemy units would get close enough to the wall to breach it by blowing themselves up, thus giving the rest of them a clear shot at the stoneborn in the courtyard. It was a balancing act that he wasn’t sure he could perform in the spur of the moment.

Then again, the he didn’t have to defeat that incursion, but hold them off long enough for the enemy’s main force to run out of ammo.

With his mind made up, Rotadin pulled a unit of twenty Stonesingers away from shield duty. These men and women had chosen Skills that specialized in Rockfist Guardians, which made their earthen constructs not only tougher, but also more numerous. Each of them could maintain two of them simultaneously, meaning that they had a total of forty stone soldiers at their disposal.

The Rockfist Guardians climbed over the wall and charged at the enemy that was still some thirty meters away. The battle-bots kept laying down suppressing fire, making their owners wary of poking their heads out from behind cover. This didn’t last long, as the Pawns were forced to respond to the more immediate threat of the incoming Rockfist Guardians. They halted fire for a second while switching over to high-explosive ammunition, then opened fire on the charging stone soldiers.The special bullets plowed into the primitive constructs and detonated, taking sizable chunks of rock and stone out of their bodies with each hit. The Pawn-bots targeted and drilled through the legs, knees and feet with surprising accuracy, crippling at least a dozen of them before they could get within melee range.

However, the relatively tall golems just kept on coming. No matter how badly they were cracked up, riddled with holes or how many of their limbs were detached, they would not stop moving until their HP was completely depleted. Even if many of them were forced to crawl on the ground, they still steadfastly moved towards the battle-bots. The remaining two thirds of them descended upon the Iron Curtain’s vanguard and engaged them in close quarters combat.

To their credit, Katya’s automata were not as helpless at melee range as they appeared to be. Their many legs and arms allowed them to evade or block the fists, kicks, and body slams of the Rockfist Guardians while peppering them with bullets at point-blank range. The fact that they seemed to be winning the fight was evidence enough that their CQC protocols were quite advanced. However, having to focus on melee combat meant that the Pawns could no longer maintain pressure upon the enemy battlements. The stoneborn took advantage of their newfound leeway to unleash a unified Spell through the use of Synchronous Chanting.

“Withering Sands!”

A huge cloud of copper-colored dust shot out from the fort’s walls and crashed into the extremely noisy brawl some thirty meters away. The magical sands enveloped both sides and hung heavy in the air, clinging to metal and stone alike. Katya’s vaunted automata began rusting over at a mind-boggling pace. Their pristine steel shells grew red and fragile while their joints and internals screeched maddeningly while attempting to move around. The earthen constructs also suffered from the effects of the Spell, as it would cause erosion in stone in addition to corroding metal.

However, the Rockfist Guardians had a naturally high tolerance for earth-attuned magic, so they didn’t suffer anywhere near as badly from the Withering Sands. They cracked up or lost a few chunks here and there, but their performance was barely even affected. The attacking force, on the other hand, was rapidly turning into immobile scrap. Their guns had jammed up, their limbs would not move properly and their frames would crumple and bend under the blows of the Rockfist Guardians. The flow of the fight had shifted from the automata having a definite edge to them being systematically flattened rather one-sidedly.

But this sort of situation was nothing new. Both sides were quite used to this scene. It was, after all, the sonekin’s most effective way of repelling Katya’s army. It was also the main reason why she needed to have overwhelming numbers in order to claim a decisive victory. And since those numbers weren’t present, the defenders allowed themselves a hearty cheer.

Their premature celebrations were suddenly cut short by a golden light that began to envelop the enemy’s units was any indication. Their rust disappeared, their cracked shells sealed themselves back up and their bullets were let loose once again. One after the other, each of them was being restored to pristine condition as if time was running backwards. The stoneborn commander called Rotadin frantically scanned the battlefield to try and spot the one responsible, which he did almost immediately.

“Holy- Holy- Light! Light!”

It was probably a good thing Fizzy and Plus were too preoccupied mending Katya’s toys with their combined magic to see the look on his face. Otherwise they would probably take offense to the fact it took the enemy this long to notice them. Then again, hiding behind the Pawns until they were needed was part of the plan in the first place. After all, it wouldn’t do much good to openly announce that the automaton army had themselves a new trump card. But that was then, this was now. And right now, it was their time to quite literally shine.

After ridding a total of sixteen Pawns of their corrosive affliction, the pint-sized Paladin charged at the closest Rockfist Guardian. She swung her Iron Teeth in a huge horizontal arc, smashing through both of its knees in a single motion. She spun on her heel to preserve the momentum of her swing and redirected it upwards, smashing apart its chest before it could fall on top of her.

She then used Armored Charge to crash into the next one, breaking through its left leg. The crippled construct spun around on its remaining foot and fell over with a heavy thud. Fizzy swung her wrench in a downward motion while invoking the Love Tap Martial Art. She smashed the Rockfist Guardian against the ground, causing its body to bounce up in the air as if it was made of rubber instead of stone. The mithril golem then swung once more with a Grand Slam, taking its blocky head clean off and sending it flying towards the enemy battlements. It caught a gawking Stonesinger in the face, cracking his skull and knocking him off the rampart.

“R-Reinforcements!” bellowed Rotadin. “Reinforce the walls! Pull more men away from the shields! Send more Guardians out! You lot - stop staring and hit that thing with another blast! Don’t let any of those tin bastards near the fort!”

A fire had been lit under the stoneborn captain’s ass. What he initially saw as a minor distraction had instantly become a dire situation, all because of the appearance of that shiny-headed woman in the green bodysuit. The way she was tearing through them as if they were paper made chills run down his spine. She was already finishing off her fifth stone soldier by the time he finished rallying his men. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but there was no doubt in his mind that terrible things would happen if that monster was allowed to reach the walls.

“Withering Sands!”

Another blast of rust-inducing powder was sent towards the skirmish, aimed directly at this new enemy. But Fizzy didn’t cower from it. Just the opposite, actually. She ran towards it while making a backhanded swing with her shield.

“Rebound!”

The Martial Art activated flawlessly and deflected the majority of the magically charged cloud of sand, sending it flying back towards the wall. Some of it clung to her and caused her frame to tarnish, but Plus immediately applied a Cleanse and a Holy Light to restore it to its original luster. Much like she had assumed before the assault started, the enemy’s magic couldn’t do much against her mithril hide.

The redirected Withering Sands washed over the fort’s walls in the meantime, causing them to crumble and fall apart at an alarming pace. Unlike the Rockfist Guardians, the fortifications around the Lake Tissyl outpost were not warded against attacks of a magical nature. Why would it be? After all, such things were beyond the Nemesis’s means.

Therefore, the Stonesingers were forced to tend to the crumbling structures, repairing the rock and stone with the same efficiency that Fizzy mended metal. They could not let the walls fall, lest they expose their concentrating comrades to the enemy’s line of fire. There was no danger of that scenario happening though, not when considering the sheer number of earthen magic users around. However, the completely unexpected turn of events had caused them to overcommit to the repairs, leaving a certain mithril golem with just the right opening she was counting on.

“Katya!” she shouted at her earpiece. “Begin phase three!”

“Are you sure about zis, devochka? Eet seems highly unlikely zat-”

“Do it now, woman!”

“Alright. Just don’t vhine to me if you end up as scrap!”

Fizzy fell back towards a pair of Pawns that had assumed a rather questionable position. One of them had crouched down to the ground so low that it was practically sitting on it, while the other had climbed on top of its shoulders with the frontmost pair of its crab-like legs. The mithril golem rapidly clambered up their bodies until she was hugging the topmost one’s head. She quickly eyed the distance from her current position to the enemy’s fortifications, and instantly concluded that this was probably close enough.

“Okay, I’m ready! Let me have it!”

“Ura!”

Katya led out a cheer while activating the self-destruct on the two Pawn-bots beneath Fizzy. They exploded simultaneously in a plume of flames, smoke, and shrapnel that sent the mithril golem hurtling through the air towards the stoneborn fort while wreathed in fire. The defenders saw the incoming Pawn propelled Paladin and immediately tried to repel it by using a Skill not too dissimilar to Fizzy’s Magnetize. It didn’t matter how heavy the inbound projectile was - it could still be pushed away if enough Stonesingers combined their efforts.

Unfortunately for them, mithril was not a material that could be manipulated through magnetism, regardless of how powerful the magic involved was.

Fizzy crash landed inside the outpost’s fortifications, well behind enemy lines. The impact from her landing heavily cracked the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust and smoke in the process. The Stonesingers and their pet Guardians tried to encircle her, but they were too slow. She dashed out of the smoke and through their hole-ridden perimeter. She shoved the Rockfist Guardians aside and barreled her way through the stoneborn mob.

Being predominantly magic users meant that Stonesingers were relatively weak in terms of physical strength and durability for their Levels. Which meant they were completely incapable of stopping the golem’s advance. Any who tried to do so were trampled beneath the one-woman murder train as she made her way towards her target. Very few of them used offensive magic on her, as the majority were unwilling to hit their own allies with it. Some of the more desperate and/or observant of them tried putting up walls of stone that erupted out of the earth and blocked her path, but those too would prove to be futile.

“Oh, please!” shouted Fizzy with a wide grin on her face. “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!”

She charged through their hastily erected barricades like a minotaur in a potion shop and crashed shield-first into the huge black diamond in the middle of the courtyard. The mystic crystal broke apart with a loud screeching noise and a flash of purple light, crumbling into countless sparkling shards. There was a brief moment of dreadful silence, followed by high-pitched whistling and punctuated by a series of explosions as Katya’s unobstructed mortar fire rained down upon the fort.

Rotadin shouted from atop the wall in an effort to rally his troops and organize a secondary defensive line, but nobody could hear his voice. The shock of being suddenly bombarded directly like this had caused the fort to fall into disarray, and it was only about to get worse. The wasp-like Bishops flew in overhead and started providing optimized targeting solutions to the Rooks, maximizing the effectiveness of each mortar shell. Supporting gunfire from the mechanized army’s main force then ploughed through the top of the ramparts. The high-explosive ammunition ripped through stone and flesh alike, further adding to the confusion.

Rotadin had barely enough time to jump down from his lookout tower and hide behind the lowest, thickest parts of the outer wall before his position was gouged by gunfire. He didn’t like it one bit, but he had to admit this battle seemed lost. It was a sort of unwritten rule that any fight against the Nemesis was over once her bombs started hitting solid ground. Normally they would have been able to push away the dangerous projectiles with their Stonesinger magic, but the enemy’s new strategy had completely devastated their formation.

The focal point of said strategy, and indeed the immediate cause of all this strife, was undoubtedly that strange girl-shaped weapon. And if these tactics bore fruit here, then there was no doubt they could do so elsewhere. All stoneborn fortifications had the same general layout, after all. Therefore, he had to relay what he had seen back to his superiors so that they can form a counter-stratagem. Which meant that he needed to get out of this place safely and abandon his subordinates to their fate. He didn’t like it, but his duties were clear. His comrades needed to know about this new threat, lest other, larger settlements fell to this new threat.

The stoneborn commander somewhat regretfully reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a palm-sized off-white stone that had a glowing yellow rune inscribed in it. It was a magic item known as a Realm Key, which was similar in function to the Portal Keys used by surface dwellers. The main difference was that this one transported the user to the Realmstone at the stoneborn capital rather than a dungeon’s Waystone.

Rotadin wasted no more time lamenting his decisions and smashed the enchanted rock against his forehead. The Realm Key crumbled to dust, which instantly took on the golden glow of the magical rune that was etched into it. The radiant sand swirled around him as it prepared to transport him to safety. The stoneborn commander ended up shutting his eyes so that he wouldn’t have to meet the accusatory glares of his comrades. Even though everyone involved probably understood the reasons involved, what he was trying to do still boiled down to running away with his tail between his legs.

“Oh, no you don’t!”

Fizzy let out a yell as she tackled him from the side and pinned him face-down against the floor. With the Realm Key’s spatial magic disturbed before it could activate, the golden dust lost its glow and fell to the ground, completely inert. Rotadin frantically struggled against the golem, but the massive weight on his back made it hard to breathe, let alone move. Any attempts at throwing her off or breaking out of her vice-like grip were immediately proven to be futile. The most he could do was look over his shoulder and up at his captor while gritting his teeth with anger flaring in his eyes.

However, what he actually saw left him flabbergasted.

The combination of Fizzy’s dynamic entry and the indiscriminate bombardment of the Rooks had completely torn off her clothing. Not even scraps of that tasteless fabric remained, allowing her glorious frame to show off its otherworldly luster in all its splendor. The pure mithril was so smooth and impeccable, that Rotadin could almost see his reflection in it. The smudges of soot and blood covering it seemed more like works of art rather than filth and grime. Even dung would probably look extremely high-class if it was slathered upon such an extravagant canvas. For the briefest of moments, the stoneborn had completely forgotten that this beautiful creature was solely responsible for the disaster that had befallen him and his men.

He was then knocked out cold with a heavy-handed slap to the back of his head.

“Katya. I captured one of the officers for interrogation,” reported Fizzy into her earpiece.

“*SKKHRT* -ing up- *KHRRT* -fall back to- *BZZZT* -aged! *KHRRRR*”

Except that the only thing she got in response were some fragmented words and a lot of static. It would seem that the Original Artificer’s communications equipment was damaged when she used her creations as an improvised catapult. Either that or that magnetic pulse that washed over her had fried or. Or maybe it was the brief but violent struggle following her landing that did it? Whatever the case, it was obviously far more delicate than she gave it credit for. She couldn’t even fix it, as the thing wasn’t made solely of metal. Thankfully she didn’t have to wonder what to do, as a Bishop buzzed in shortly afterwards and wiggled its wings at her to get her attention.

The golem nodded in response, hoisted her captive onto her shoulder and followed the flying bot through the battlefield while the Pawns and Rooks provided cover. She was escorted through an opening in the wall, where the Knight-class transport she arrived on was already waiting for her. She climbed inside the back of the mostly empty vehicle and secured her unconscious prisoner in a corner by binding his hands and feet with some chain that was lying around. The Knight’s engine roared the instant she was done and began carting the two of them away from the battlefield.

“Vhell,” came Katya’s garbled voice from one of the speakers overhead, “zat vhent better zan I expected.”

“Better? It went flawlessly, didn’t it?” argued Fizzy.

“I vhouldn’t say zat. Despite vhot it looked like, my bots still used too many boolets. Suffered much damage, too. I vhill not have enough to wipe ze, how you say, meetbags out completely.”

“That wasn’t going to happen no matter what. A few of them disappeared like this guy was about to before I nabbed him.”

Fizzy had spotted a few puffs of yellow smoke accompanied by flashes of golden light on her way out, meaning that there were those who had already escaped Katya’s grasp.

“I’d just be glad we managed to breach their defenses that quickly if I were you.”

“Dah. Zere eez no denying zat. But I steel lost a lot more units zan I thought I vhould. Your strategy, eez much messier zan it seemed at first. ”

“Not really,” said the golem with a shrug. “To be honest, this is how all battles are normally like. Ugly. Violent. Chaotic, even.”

Even though she was waging war, Katya was essentially a civilian that lived a sheltered life. She might have heard of things like ‘shell shock’ or ‘post traumatic stress disorder,’ but she failed to truly grasp their meaning. It was only to be expected though. There was no way someone who had never been on the front lines would understand the true impact prolonged combat could have on a person’s psyche. The stress of waking up each day knowing it could be their last, or suddenly realizing that the people they laughed and shared drinks with just last night were gone forever. Such things were completely foreign to someone like her who had never even been in a fight and saw everything purely in terms of numbers and statistics.

But Fizzy knew those troubles well. Her own experiences leading up to her forsaking her flesh and subsequent observations during the elf-human Calamity Conflict had given her quite a bit of insight on the subject. She knew how infectious fear was, how easy it was for a tightly wound soldier to snap, and how to best use such things her advantage. How could she not? Both Boxxy and the elven Legions relied on causing a panic through an ambush or other underhanded tricks. They would then either wipe out the enemy before they could regroup, or at the very least deal as much damage as possible before falling back and trying again. There was no way Fizzy wouldn’t pick up a few pointers in deviousness and psychological warfare with ‘teachers’ like that.

“Indeed?” said Katya. “Sadly, I do not zink your meetods vhill be as effective ze next time.”

“Maybe not, but at least I can get a better picture of what I’m dealing with thanks to this guy,” pointed out the golem while lightly kicking the stoneborn on the ground.

As it turned out, despite all her research and observation, Katya was more lacking in information than she cared to admit. Especially when it came to magic. For instance, she had no idea how magic items that projected defensive barriers worked and what their limits were. Therefore, she didn’t realize that the Stoneborn were supplementing their magnetic shield with their own mana in order to cope with her onslaught. A fact that left them rather vulnerable should a second force walk past it and encroach on their position, much like the golem had done earlier. It also probably interfered with their magic somehow, otherwise they wouldn’t have it stretch out so far away from the walls.

Granted, Fizzy was by no means an expert on the subject of magic, but she learned quite a bit about its practical applications in siege warfare during the battle at Fort Yimin. That was how she was able to deduce all of that based on the recordings she had been shown. Strictly speaking though, the fact that Katya had never once tried to circumvent the magical barrier with a pincer attack like she did today was truly mind boggling to Fizzy. Perhaps the golem was underestimating just how stubborn the Original Artificer was? That was most probably the case, actually. After all, she was dealing with a person who defied an entire kingdom rather than bow down to their authority, so there was no way she wouldn’t be incredibly hard-headed.

“So, your impressions of ze Stonesingers?” asked Katya. “I am curious to heer vhat you tink of zem.”

“Hmm, they’re definitely troublesome. I’d have struggled a lot more against those Guardians of theirs if you didn’t soften them up for me. I also got hit with quite a few solid hits while I was inside the fort. Those Echo Blasts of theirs were especially bad.”

The Spell in question assaulted Fizzy with intense vibrations that made her shake apart from the inside out due to the resonance. She was by no means a specialist on the subject of sound, but she still had a solid grasp on the physics involved thanks to her Artificer Job. She was therefore quite aware of how dangerous something like that could be, especially to a hard-bodied construct like herself. Sure, mithril was one of the most durable metals in the world, but even it wouldn’t stand a chance if she was nailed with the right frequency and amplitude. Or if too many of those hit her at once. Trying to avoid or Rebound the Spells in question was extremely difficult, as it was quite impossible to predict the path of invisible vibrations that travelled through the air at the speed of sound.

Thankfully, there was a way to counteract it. Her Shock Absorption had gone up a Level during the latter stages of the kerfuffle, so she was quite sure it was able to dampen the hostile vibrations. Surely raising the Skill’s Proficiency Level would prove to be an effective countermeasure. Not to mention that her Metal Golem Job was getting awfully close to a Rank Up. Therefore, if she wanted to make sure she survived any future conflicts where she didn’t have the element of surprise, she needed to get stronger across the board. Which meant a whole lot of fighting and killing.

“Katya, you know where there are monster nests around here, right?”

“… Yes. I do. Vhy?” came the somewhat hesitant answer.

“I want to train my Jobs and Skills before I head out there again. Gotta keep stacking those odds, y’know?”

Even if Fizzy wanted to return to Boxxy as soon as possible, it was quite obvious that this was not something she could accomplish in a day or two. She may have rushed into that raid from being overly excited at the realization that it was still alive, but she had more than enough time to calm down and think things through since then. She needed to make sure she returned to it in one piece, after all.

“Ah. I see,” said Katya. “But eezn’t zat dangerous too? I am not sure how eet eez on ze surface, but ze monsters down heer are no pushovers.”

“I know. I’ve already tangled with some of them. Besides, I can just rely on your automata for support in case I get in trouble.”

The best part was that they were all soulless machines that did not have a Status of their own. Having them tag along would mean Fizzy would still get all the credit for the kills. Or most of it, at least. However, the golem wanted to maximize her Skill gains as a priority, so she would want to fight without their involvement as much as possible. Not to mention that, even though she didn’t want to admit it, she had some reservations regarding blatant power-Leveling after what she went through as Boxxy’s battle slave.

“Hmm, eez good point,” consented the disembodied voice. “Okay. I vhill make ze necessary arrangements vhen I am finished vhit ze foraging outpost.”

“What, they’re still at it?”

“Dah. Ze primitives, zey got zeir act together and are fighting ze good fight. Zey might even claim veektory now zat you’re no longer zere. But eez okay, I already finish my objective. Any furzer damage I can do is just bonus.”

“… Right. We were supposed to sabotage the food supply.”

In all the excitement, the golem had nearly forgotten what the goal of that attack was. And now that she thought about it, there was one part of the original plan she wasn’t quite clear on.

“Actually, you never told me how you were going to do that.”

“Eez very seemple,” stated Katya. “I just need to get eenside fort and use Fat Man at point blank range.”

“Uh-huh. I’m assuming this ‘Fat Man’ is some sort of weapon and not an actual obese person.”

“Dah. Eez meeny nuke launcher.”

“Sorry, a what?”

“Shoulder mounted catapult, throw special bomb at enemy. Eet make big boom zat glow like sun, kill many things. I take idea from century old game I play as little girl. In honest, eez not very efficient or practical design, but eez nostalgic.”

“What, really?”

“I know, I know. Eet probably sounds seelly, but game make big impact on young me. Eez vhat give me passion for roboteeks - er, I mean avtomata - in first place.”

“Okay? I suppose that’s fair, but I don’t see how a big bomb is supposed to affect food supplies stored in the keep’s basement.”

Not unless this ‘Fat Man’ was capable of demolishing the entire fort in one blast, but Katya wouldn’t be struggling so much if she had something that powerful on hand.

“Ze nuke, eet let out a lot of radiashun. Eet seep into ground, walls and lake, poizen food and vhater, make zem unfit for eating.”

“Wait, you mean like that blue stuff I found at your old dump site? You’ve weaponized it?!”

“Of course.”

“But… Why?!”

“Becoz I can, devochka.”