The Cage was in pain. Was that even possible? She had been getting quiet a bit of ‘feelings’ before the Dimensional Poison had shut her down, but it never really occurred to Maya that the Cage might be coming into its own over the last year.

Mana was a tricky thing, universal mana, purified mana, and even some essence mana were leaking into the Cage itself. It had been months since she had last shut the Cage down, which would cause the ‘bubble’ that surrounded the cage to collapse and basically reset it. All the months of keeping the cage running and all the magics being tossed around within it, maybe it was like a computer being left on too long. Instead of running out of RAM memory, it was changing.

Anyway, the Cage was in pain and Maya was pissed. She pulled herself off the floor and scanned the faces of the people in the command room. There were all looking at her with worry.

She was expecting smoke, exploding consoles, a red alert blaring, and people rushing to help injured companions, but the room was cool, clean, and near sterile. The only change since the explosion was the scores of screens were now only showing static.

“We’re blind,” Chu said, stating the obvious.

“Destructive mana saturation,” Asoltolia said. “It’s one of the tricks that some of the less than savory enemies use to deny the usage of system tech in battlefields.”

“Right, right,” Maya muttered. She opened her comm. “Yosi, you okay?”

“I am,” the reply came instantly.

“Do you wish for me to send my guards to help protect her?” Asoltolia asked.

Maya glanced at the woman and at the two dozen people who didn’t seem shaken by the explosion or loss of visuals of the battle.

“You don’t mind?”

“If Yosi falls, then we all die,” Asoltolia said.

It wasn’t quiet true, but Maya wasn’t about to argue. The little gal needed some big guns to protect her, not the small contingent that had volunteered. Carmichael, one of Chu’s friends, had eagerly taken up that spot.

“Thanks,” Maya grinned. With one worry taken care of, Maya looked at the dead screens. “If they’ve blown a big ass bomb in the middle of the Cage, then they’ll probably take advantage of that. Its like from the Civil War, those dudes who tried to blow up the Rebs.”

“Battle of the Crater,” Chu supplied.

“Yeah, we don’t know the damage here and they’re gonna be using this to push forward,” Maya said. “Those fuckers also hurt the Cage.”

“The Cage can feel pain?” Chu asked.

“That big ass rune they made, how much mana do you think it needed?” Maya asked.

“Based on the size and the rune itself, perhaps several hundred thousand gens of mana,” on of Asoltolia’s guards replied. “Extremely wasteful.”

“The Fleshies have numbers and a religious fervor to kill themselves for the Mother,” Maya said. “Can that rune be used again?”

The guard frowned and looked to Asoltolia. “Yes,” he finally said. Maya pushed down the annoyance that he wasn’t responding to her.

“Well, plans don’t survive contact with the enemy,” Maya said. “Get a report on how many people survived the attack. The message barely got out and I’m sad to say that the Infantry isn’t really Johnny-On-The-Spot when it comes to following orders.”

“Those that survive will be more experienced,” Asoltolia.

Maya winced at the cold blooded-ness of the statement. It was true, but as Pops used to say: All the warrior spirit ain’t shit when it came to trained troops. “That giant turd is gonna try to hit us again with the rune, its basically a giant battery of mana. It needs to die now.”

Maya head to the door, she leaned against it for a moment as pain spiked through her head. When she opened her eyes, she was glad to see that she had managed to close the distance between her room and Canton’s battle room.

Canton stood in the center of the room, his face all angles and scars from the lighting off the screens. An eye stabbed her and then went back to viewing the screens.

“They’ve gutted us,” he said calmly.

Maya stood beside him and peered at the screens. Most were old school human tech, with technicians monitoring radios and monitors. They were in their element, this is what they were trained to do.

A rough image of the city was displayed on a large computer screen. A soldier was scribbling various diagrams and numbers upon it.

“They’ve taken out nearly all the first units, mostly your Infantry who had the better weapons but were shit in terms of training and cohesion,” his voice was flat and Maya could feel the bitterness behind it. Sure, his troops were well trained surviving US military, but at the time she had no intention of arming them with all the best weapons she had. That was opening the henhouse for the fox and all his bros. “It’s not all bad we’ve got a couple of units here that made it through, but luck or by getting their shield up in time.”

Maya noted a blue blotch on the screen.

“The Cubans and Alverez are moving to secure here and here, the reserves are pushing forward. If we had known they had such a weapon, we would have been better prepared.”

“You and me, buddy,” Maya replied. “The Fleshies are sneaky buggers.”

Canton didn’t reply, instead he snatched a note from a solider who barely looked old enough to were the uniform.

“The big fucker is moving. It’s heading straight into the city. We can’t hold that thing back, we might as well tickle it with feathers with the amount of damage we’re currently doing.”

“I’m on it,” Maya said. “I’ll handle that fucker.”

Canton gave her an appraising look. “Can you?” he asked.

“She can,” Chu said.

Maya turned around to see the sergeant behind her. “What are you doing here?”

“Asoltolia’s hot, but all those guards she gots are real cockblockers,” Chu said. “Plus no beer and no TV makes Chu something, something, something.”

“We’re starting Operation Hoover, Operation BBQ, and Operation Shoot the Moon,” Maya said. “No need to hold back now. Big Boy’s gotta go now that he’s a giant mana battery. I could take a Kaiju-esque rampage, but sparking up enchanting runes in my Cage? Nope.”

“Anisa’s group is holding down this area,” Canton said. “Its along the projected destructive path of Big Bertha.”

“Damn it,” Maya muttered. “How are they so far out of position?”

“Its chaos out there,” Canton replied.

“Asoltolia said I needed to show my face,” Maya said. “Show them I’m there and maybe that’ll inspire them somewhat.”

“Only fools lead from the front,” Canton replied.

“Color me that, then,” Maya replied. “Come on, Chu. We need to get to Anisa, we need to show face, and we need to inspire everyone.”

***

Canton was correct. It was damned chaos out in the Cage. Maya stood at an opening, watching as mortars were firing away, bombs exploding, and scores of troops were being pulled back on stretchers, in arms, or in pieces.

The SIL cost was high. Already there were thousands dead, a huge dent in her own Infantry due to their positions at the front lines. Then there were the crows and orcs. War was new to them and although they had fought battles against her father and other humans, they weren’t what one would call discipline.

The city was a testament to how the Cage had changed in the year since she was forced into it by Shen. Then it had been barely a few meters wide box with metal flooring. The city was at least fifteen kilometers wide and forty long. At one end was the dimensional tear that the Tarvana were keeping open by blood and force of will.

If she had her powers she could have snapped her fingers and this battle would have been over. She could have slowed down time, she could have broken their hold on the Cage with ease. Yet she was without all those, no dimensional powers, barely able to control the Cage, and now faced with an endless amount of enemies.

At least she had friends.

“We ready, boss?” Tender asked.

He marched up with the Advance Combat Legion, all AIs, all non-sentient, and all under Tender’s control. Maya eyed them over, they were a mish-mash of robots and drones, all heavily armed and heavily armored, and all powered by a small tesseract crystal. They were the tucked away designs and builds that the Hiveship was working on before it succumb to gravity and a lot of railgun fire.

Maya summoned a railgun from her mundane inventory. The bag barely containing a fraction of what she could have carried in her Dimensional Inventory. She sighed and checked the weapon.

“Let’s go.”

***

Emilia vomited blood and coughed as the air burned hot and crackled with destructive mana. She flopped on her back and gagged again, a figure beside her was screaming but his incoherent noise barely registered.

Everything in her body ached as she rolled to her side and got onto her knees. Smoke filled the air and the smell of death was strong in the small apartment she and her squad had been holed up in.

She had been barely able to get the shield up in time when the explosion had hit. It was terrible, far stronger than anything she thought she would have had to face. It was like someone decided to toss a nuke in front of her face.

Emilia wiped away the blood and grabbed an orc who was lying on his side. He grunted and looked at her wild eyed.

“Human!” he croaked and tried to grab for his weapon.

“I’m a friend, you fucking idiot!” Emilia snapped. The recent history of human and pig relationships had been hammered into her head not long ago. It was impossible not to feel some kind of horror that the creature that was before her now was once destined for the slaughterhouse to become pork chop. “Mana! How are you doing on mana!” she screamed into his face. It took a moment for the orc to register what she was saying.

“Low,” he said.

Emilia placed her hands on his skin and drawing from the tesseract, sent a surge of universal mana into him. The orc hissed but his eyes cleared and minor injuries began to heal.

“Abandon Infusion,” a crow cawed. He carried a light railgun and wore a kind of bulletproof vest. “Many dead, we are cut off, and the Fleshies are moving on us. We must defend. Raise shields.”

Emilia gulped. “Where’s the Sarge?”

“Dead,” the crow snapped. “We all dead if we not move, human.”

Emilia nodded, following the crow. He lead her through rooms and corridors, rushing past collapsed rooms, screaming men, and so much blood.

A giant orc stood looking out a window. His armor was in tatters and Emilia saw dozens of scars running across his body, leaving behind white stripes against his skin.

“Ironbeak, brother. You live,” the orc said.

“Hard to kill.” The crow muttered.

“What’s happening?” Emilia asked.

“Big bomb, tricks like Crow Cather used.” Whitestripe said. “Destroyed much. The forward part of the city. Many dead. Maybe all who were there.”

Emilia gulped at the news. There were at least a thousand Infanty and five thousand orcs in their area. They were all supposed to be protected by overlaying tesseract powered shields.

Did no one else raise their shields in time?

“Shit,” Emilia muttered.

“Right,” Ironbeak said. “They push forward now. Kill those that are injured and those that cannot regroup. Pig Killer tactics. Hit hard, confuse, kill.”

Emilia dug in her bag and pulled out a small device. The destructive mana caused the holographic map to flicker and sizzle, but they could see where they were. Already the map was updating with information on what had happened, a giant symbol had been etched into the ground outside the city and everything in front of it was just… gone.

“Shit,” Emilia said. There were at least several thousand in that area. Even if they had managed to get their shields up, they were dead. As it was, her company of orcs and crows had survive due to being out of the blast zone. “We need to fall back, to the other companies.”

“Can’t,” Whitestripe said. With a sword he pointed to the ruined buildings, they were flaming hot and cutting off their escape. The only other direction was toward the army of Fleshies, but they were closing in fast. “We stand and fight.”

“Shit,” Emilia said again and began drawing power from the tesseract.

***

Fear was a terrible thing. The badly coordinated and barely trained Infantry just had its ass handed to them and now they were running from the fight. Maya watched without saying anything, her face harden by the sight.

This wasn’t their fight, no matter how much she tried to say it was. This was her own doing, she had poked the Flesh Army and now they were poking back. Her forces were falling back, but the crows and the orcs were holding their lines in bloody battles all along the edge of the destructive field the rune had caused.

“They know the Tarvana will eat the dead,” Tender said as he stood by Maya. “They do not like the thought of becoming food.”

“We’ll all be gracing a Tarvana plate before the day is over if we don’t find Anisa and fire Big Bertha,” Maya said.

The news was confusing, Anisa had rushed into the thick of things to rally the troops. Yet all Maya could get from the streaming Infantry was that there was a lot of fighting up ahead. Half didn’t even know who Anisa was.

“The Tarvana are pushing hard, they’ve pushed through half of the city already and are making easy progress. There’s practically no one defending the lines anymore,” Chu said.

“You shouldn’t be out here,” Tender said to Maya. “The Infantry has already broken and are in a full rout.”

Maya’s response was delayed as a horde of Tarvana began streaming over a wrecked building. Tender acted immediately, sending out his drones. Maya watched as they began dismantling the low leveled Tarvana.

They rushed by the dead, only pausing to allow Chu to snatch up any XP shards that were left. He was still below thirty and every little bit counted.

A horde of force and Fleshies battled in the middle of an open area, the place where a building once stood. The massive orcs were tossing around the smaller Tarvana, but they were outnumbered. Crows popped off shots and cast magic from behind the wall of orcs, doing their best to hold the cultists at bay.

Maya dint’ pause, instead he charged into the fighting. Chu tried to keep up with her, but was left behind as she and the drones slammed into the flank of the Fleshies.

Her railgun burned through the cheap leather armor and her kicks and punches sent them flying. The Orcs rallied and pushed forward, their swords, shotguns, and glaives going to work. The crows sniped from the backs of their companions.

In a few minutes the ares was clear. Maya looked to see the was the Sow that had been fighting. The massive orc was bloodied and her armor was near shreds.

“Merchant Sullivan,” she said, her voice booming in the sudden silence. “Your soldiers flee and we are left to fight.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Maya said, glancing int eh direction the Tarvana had come. There were signs that more of the Fleshies were coming. “Not all have run,” she added, brining up a map. The tracking devices in all her soldiers showed living Infantry huddled together and fending off probing attacks by the Fleshies.

“Battle is the Great Decider,” the Sow stated. She wiped her long glaive clean off a Tarvana body. “It is a truth we have known since the moment we Awakened.”

“We’re moving up the schedule,” Maya said. “I need you and whatever troops you have left to fall back to the Third Positions.”

“No,” the Sow stated.” We have seen the mettle of your troops and find it lacking. Pig Killer would have stood his ground.”

Maya winced at the name. It was what the orcs had been calling her father. A genocidal war had been fought in northern Texas, one that was still going on all through out the midwest.

One of the orcs came up the Maya and the Sow. He tossed Maya a familiar backpack, one of the tesseract packs she had sent out with the mages.

“Where’d you get it?” Maya asked, tossing the pack to Tender. He immediately slid it on and awaited instructions.

“Many dead, found among them,” the Sow responded.

“Do you need the mana?” Maya asked.

“No gilts here,” the Sow said “What mana we need, we take from the dead.”

Maya nodded. “I’m heading that way,” she said. “Most of the orcs are regrouping that way,” she pointed in the opposite.

“You still have to honor your deal, Merchant,” the Sow said. “We shall ensure that you do. Lead on.”

Maya glanced at the two hundred orcs still standing. Were the orcs suicidal or were they willing to die just to see that their gilts were cured of their affliction? It wasn’t loyalty to her, but Maya felt a wave of gratitude to the Sow and her soldiers. “The more the merrier,” she said.

***

Anisa smashed the head of a giant six armed brute. The length of marsani that she had improvised as a weapon bent with the impact. The six armed creature cried out in pain as she swoop down to pick up her dropped sword.

She brought up the blade and cut the creature from its stomach and up through the upper most right shoulder. It squealed and staggered back.

A railgun round punched the creature in the face and it toppled over, dead.

Anisa looked around, not many people carried railguns. She looked to see a dark armored figure, behind them were scores of robots and hundreds of orcs.

“Maya Sullivan,” she said a smile on her face.

“You’re out of position,” Maya said.

Anisa grimaced at the words. “I go where I am needed. We have been holding this area and keeping the flesh eaters from rolling up the flank,” she said. “We have been giving the injured and broken a chance to retreat and have been reorganizing those that still have fight in them.”

“We need to fall back, Big Bertha needs to earn its keep.”

“The explosion?” Anisa asked.

“Yeah, it was a rune carved into the Cage by blood and mana. That big guy’s been pumping mana into it until it wrecked us. Asoltolia’s mage says they’ll use it again if we don’t kill the turd.”

“Then we kill it,” Anisa rolled her shoulders and hefted her sword.

“That’s what BB’s for. You’re in the way.”

“You came all this way to tell me to move?” Anisa asked.

“Comms are wonky, destructive mana in the air. Yosi’s doing what she can to absorb it, but it’s not fast enough.”

“There are hundreds more who are still fighting here,” Anisa said. “We cannot abandon them.”

This time Maya grimaced. “We need to kill the big guy,” she said.

“And sacrifice the lives of hundreds more that could be saved?” Anisa asked. She walked up to Maya, towering over her. The sword gleamed in the Cage light and her dark eyes held Maya in place. “We do not leave the living behind. Too many have died.”

“They’re trapped and they’re too close to the firing zone,” Maya said.

“Yet you came out to warn me,” Anisa said.

“You’re different,” Maya replied.

“How? My levels? My fame?” she spat the last word. “I have fought every day since we first met. Every day. I have killed to protect my people and my daughter. Every life is sacred; the humans, the orcs, the crows, all are life and all are sacred. We cannot just abandon those survivors.”

“I don’t need a goddamn lecture,” Maya snapped. “We’re fucked if that thing powers up that rune once again and I’ve already wasted too much time trying to find you.”

“I left my homeland and my people for you, so have all those that are fighting here,” Anisa said. Her heavy sword stabbed into the ground and she stared fixedly upon Maya. “We are all willing to die here for you, Maya Sullivan. Are you willing to do the same for us?

“I have seen the hardness that infects people in this new world. I have seen family abandon one another, I have heard the words “sacrifice the few to save the many” so many times, but every-time it pains me. We have been given power, great power, and-“

“It comes with great responsibility,” Maya finished, a sour chuckle coming from her. She stood there and faced the direction the Flesh Army was approaching.

“Fuck this,” Maya said. She brought up a map. “You still got your mage?”

“Yes, she is still alive.”

“Tell her to get her ass over here because she’s going to be the only thing keeping us alive in a hot minute.” Maya opened her comm. “Canton, I need you to blap this whole area and keep the mortars coming.”

“What are you doing?” Canton asked.

“I hear there are some stuck troopers not far from us. But there looks to be a lot of Fleshies between us and them.”

There was silence off the comm. “Got it,” Canton said.