“Always be prepared,” Maya said as she summoned weapons and material. The drones began handling them, setting them out on the gray dirt. “Well, Actually I was preparing for the defense of the Hanganathorie before being hit with the Dimensional Poison. My Inventory was packed with crap we would need to set up defenses.”

“It’s a lot of weapons, but seven thousand enough weapons?” Chu asked.

“We’re currently at about forty percent effectiveness,” Tender said. “That is including the Mercenaries.”

“Which means those fuckers make up nearly half of our strength,” Chu said. He glanced at Sostanio. “No offense.”

“Sos will play nice,” Maya said, unpacking some mana batteries. When had she Inventoried those? Maya shrugged and continued pulling more stuff from her Inventory. “I’ve got some low grade healing potions and the like, we’ll need to spread those out. It won’t last, but for this battle we’ll need all hands, hooves, and claws on deck.”

“I understand the power of the tesseracts are great,” Sostanio said, “but are they not having difficulty recharging. The ambient mana in this dimensional plane is very low and your mages have been expending a massive amount of mana.”

“That is an issue,” Maya paused. “We’ll have to figure that out as we go. I know the Tarvana are big on eating mana stones, so we’ll be able to find a lot of mana stones on them when they’re defeated. That can be drained. An additional source are rogue AIs.”

“Rogue AIs?” Sostanio frowned at the idea. “Such things need to be destroyed completely and utterly.”

“Hey, your fam was totally buying up all the rogue AI crap I was selling,” Maya said. “Seemed y’all loved the stuff.”

Sostanio frowned again, but said nothing.

“Anyway,” Maya said, “the objectives here are simple. We destroy the Fleshies chasing us, we harvest their biomass, and we collect what mana we can.”

“I find it distasteful the we are harvesting living beings for food,” Sostanio stated.

“It’s either that or starve,” Maya said. “The sad and screwed up truth here in the RSH. No biomass, no organics, nothing living. Just trash, dust, and rogue AIs.

“We’ve done some scans of the trash and have tagged a decent selection of items that are useable. Some vehicle parts, some weapon parts, some high grade, Tier 1 components that we always will need. If we can stick around for a week, we might be able to increase our defenses and mobility.”

“In a week?” Chu said. “Seems a bit quick, right?”

“We have Me and Tender and the drones,” Maya said. “What Tender can do, the drones can do. They’re all linked up. System Techery is all plug and play, components here, components there, steal some from this device, use it in this machine. With the mana batteries I have, we’ll have enough power to make vehicles run and then we’ll be able to expand the food processors and water condensers. Tender and I came up with a low-grade cheap food processors that we can make with the stuff that’s here.”

“Those ration bars suck,” Chu said.

“Agreed,” Sostanio said.

“You all had your chances to bring along food before we left,” Maya said. “Don’t blame me for the catering.”

“I should have brought some sriracha,” Chu said sadly. “If I’m gonna be turning cannibal, then I need sriracha.”

“They’re aliens,” Maya said. “It’s not cannibalism when they’re not your own species.”

Sostanio let out a disgusted sound.

***

“They’re coming at us like a buncha frat boys at last call,” Chu said, panting as he sat down on a chair. “Damn near all of them that survived our last attack, probably into the high six thousands. Unorganized and just a mob of hungry fuckers ready to roast our limbs over an open fire”

“They’ll eat us raw,” Maya said, studying her tablet, “No wood to burn here.”

“I feel like I still have to voice my disagreement on what we’re doing here,” Chu said. “We’re expending all our ammo and explosives to basically kill a bunch of civilians. Yeah, I get that we need the biomass, but what about the next fight. There’s always a next fight. And perhaps it won’t be against an unorganized mob. It might be real Flesh Army dickheads.”

“I’ve been pondering that too,” Maya said. “In time I can build some additional heavy railguns, I have much of the components on me, I just need time and more components.”

“Time and mana, the things we’re always low on,” Chu said from his chair. He yawned, stretching his arms and legs. “You survived here all on your own? I can’t imagine myself being able to survive this shithole. I mean Chicago sucked, but this is on a whole different level.”

“Well, back in my day, things were a lot easier. Barely any rogue AIs, a derelict ship at my disposal, and a whole pub that just fell out of the sky for me to exploit.”

“A pub?”

“Asoltolia’s son was running a shady nightclub on some hunting planet. The place fell out of the sky and into my grubby hands. Turns out they had stuff I needed and that’s how I began my whole career as a scavenger and up-cycling trash.”

“What do you think our chances are?” Chu asked.

Maya looked up from her tablet and shrugged. “Fifty-fifty,” she said.

“Jeez, that’s not comforting at all,” Chu muttered.

“I am confident that the thought of imminent death and consumption by our enemies will cause our forces to fight to their utmost,” Maya said, giving a smile. “Like they say; the rabbit fights for its life while the fox fights for dinner.”

“Tell it to the hundreds of rabbits that fox ate in its lifetime,” Chu replied.

“We got railguns, we got plenty of mana for the time being, we got troops, and we got a giant field of explosives to thin them out. It should be heavy fighting and close combat, but in the end we’ll kick ass and take names.”

“You think so?”

“Of course. They’re not soldiers. Kill a few hundred of them and they’ll rethink their lives and how much effort they’re willing to put in to get some stringy crow and human meat.”

“Just kill a few hundred of them. Damn, that’s cold,” Chu said.

“It’s life in the Integrated Multiverse,” Maya said, Inventorying her tablet. “Come on, it’s time for battle.”

***

Maya looked down at her armor and weapons. She was the only one in their small army that still had a complete set of armor. The fights in the Cage and the last few days had caused a lot of their gear to break. Marsani blades snapping, railguns failing, pistols broken. The list of damaged or destroyed weaponry was immense and their ability to repair was limited.

Two hundred and seventeen humans, orcs, crows, and Sinzhva, what Asoltolia’s people were called, hustled around her. She stood on a six feet high wall that had been thrown up around their position, their backs against the trash pile and their front mined with every bit of explosives they had.

Above them in an elevated position were the railguns, seven railgun turrets hooked up to tesseracts and mana batteries. The canister turrets had been dismantled, their targeting and other system tech components needed to build another railgun. The weapons were still functional and they were spread out among the orcs to use.

The creeping sense of nervousness filled Maya as she scanned their defenses. Would they be wiped out by the Tarvana here? Was she an idiot to try and make a stand so soon? They could have kept moving, harassing their followers and perhaps finding a safer spot to refit and rebuild.

How soon would it be before word was sent out to the Flesh Mother? How soon before the Flesh Army arrived on the scene to spread the joy? Tick-tock. The clock was not waiting for them to find the right spot. Danger was everywhere and second guessing was death. They had to crush this mob of Fleshies, hit them back, and get some breathing room.

They needed that breathing room. Half of the troops were walking wounded and the other half were still exhausted from all the fighting. Their gear was in near ruins and their ammo near depleted. She was responsible for them. She had dragged them here, escaping the Cage. This was her fault and she had to make sure she brought home as many as possible.

The thought of what was happening in the Cage was roughly squashed down. She didn’t have time to worry about that. About Yosi. About her family. About what was going to happen to Earth now. All those thoughts she shoved behind a wall and focused instead on the mob heading their way.

The Tarvana, the Children of the Mother, were small creatures; they were weak and they were sickly. One on one, she had no doubt that every person in the small army would be victorious, but in the huge mob they were moving in? They were the goblins of myth and legend, cruel, callous, and cannibalistic. The god they worshipped was the Flesh Mother, a being Maya heard much about but had not yet had the chance to meet. Nor did she ever want to.

The battle in the Cage against the Flesh Army was a win in Maya’s opinion. The Champion was dead, their generals were dead, the army had been smashed pretty badly and they had been retreating. In all metrics that was a win, right?

Although she still didn’t know the losses they had suffered or if the teleporter even worked correctly. For all she knew the Earth troops were splattered across the multiverse and Earth was doomed to be conquered.

In the gloom light, Maya watched as the horde approached. What drove them? Why were they so hell bent on killing a few hundred strangers in their midst? They attacked and were thrown back, but then they came back again. Regardless of losses. All that for a little snack? Their combined total flesh mass wouldn’t be more than a few pounds per Tarvana. It seemed like too much effort for too little meat.

The Flesh Mob were marching straight toward the defensive ring of mines. There was no tactics, no strategy, just march forward and kill the enemy. Maya liked that, as her battle plan was just to hit the enemy until they fled.

Maya turned to the people behind her. She scanned the crowds and saw the looks of determination and fear in their eyes. Be it crow, human, orc, or Sinzhav. Battle always brought the fear of death, the chance that you wouldn’t make it out alive.

“Everyone,” Maya said, her voice booming across the defensive ring. Heads turned to her and ears perked at her voice. She had their attention, over two hundred pairs of eyes staring at her and waiting on her word. It never got easy. “You all are survivors. You’ve survived Integration. You’ve survived the horrors on Earth. You’ve survived the fight in the Cage. And you have survived the transition into the RSH.

“We’re in a land that doesn’t have any mercy. What else is new, am I right? Earth is full of horrors, so is this place. You survived the hell that is Earth; you can survive the hell that is the RSH. Right now we’re outnumbered about thirty to one, but we’re fighting Fleshies. We just kicked their asses. We destroyed their Champion and we killed their generals.”

There was a low cheer at that.

“These aren’t soldiers. These are just crazed cannibals looking to make a meal out of you. I, for one, don’t wanna be eaten. You wanna go home? I do too, but these fuckers are in our way! They are an obstacle. And we fucking crush obstacles!”

The first line of Tarvana crossed into the mine field and the explosions began. Maya turned to see the a chunk of charging Fleshies turn into vapor. The second line stumbled, but kept moving. They ran into more mines.

The railguns began firing, their low and slow thumps belying the devestation they caused the Tarvana mob. Gouts of blood and gore erupted as the marsani slugs hit. Entire lines just vanished as they were struck by the kinetic rounds. But those holes were filled once more as madden Tarvana rushed forward.

“They don’t look to be breaking,” Chu’s voice said over the comm.

“Give it time,” Maya said.

Smoke, dust, and debris filled the air around the Tarvana. Maya had to turn to the scanners of the railgun turrets to see what was happening. The wireframe images of the Tarvana still charging forward gave her pause. They really weren’t breaking.

“They’ve cleared the mine field,” Tender announced.

“Shoot ‘em if you got ‘em,” Maya said, summoning her railgun. She had given up her excess inventory of weapons to those that needed it, leaving her with only a few weapons to choose from. It felt odd having a nearly empty Inventory, the years of working on machinery and fighting had stuffed it full with all sorts of equipment and weapons. Right now, it was a good thing.

Through the smoke, dust, and fire, the Tarvana kept marching. They were bloodied and hobbled, their ranks in tatters, but they kept moving.

“What the hell,” Maya muttered. “This wasn’t in the brochures.” She activated her scanner and began peering at the Tarvana that were only a kilometer away.

Their faces popped into view, haggard, starved, and covered in the usual growths and sicknesses that afflicted the Tarvana. They were not a pretty bunch, not before the minefield or before the four days of pursuing their small army.

“What’s the deal,” Maya said. “They don’t look like the happy go lucky Tarvana I met when I first came across White Claw’s tribe. These guys are all kinds of screwed up and still heading into the meat grinder.”

“Mind control?” Chu said. “Could be they’re all being forced into fighting us.”

“You think?” Maya asked.

Chu shrugged. “You’re the Fleshy expert.”

Maya chewed on that thought. She looked at the Tarvana again, their single minded determination and vacant eyes. Definitely something odd going on there. She sighed and contacted Tender.

“Hey, buddy. I think our guests are leaning toward being mind controlled to come to this party. Think you can suss out who’s doing the controlling of minds?”

“On it, boss,” Tender replied.

Maya stood there for a moment and watched the oncoming tide. She watched as rifles barked, boomed, and beams of laser and light flashed out. She watched as Tarvana fell, exploded, melted, or an entire section turn into a ball of flame. Yet through it all, their expressions didn’t change. They kept staring ahead and marching forward in a slow and methodical way.

“They didn’t act like this when we engaged them,” Chu said. “They would fight, but when they lost a bit too much, they would run and regroup.”

“Seems like someone’s either leveled up or there’s a new boss in charge,” Maya said. “Great friggin’ timing.”

What were the odds? Maya glanced up to the rainbow sky and possibly where the System lived.

“The harder the squeeze, the sweeter the juice,” Maya muttered.

“That doesn’t make any kind of sense.”

***

It was with a soundless charge that the Tarvana hit their defenses. The small ditch before the wall was immediately filled with bodies, most of them face planting into the dirt and then being immediately trampled over. There was no stopping them.

Maya Inventoried her empty railgun and summoned a sword. She sliced the blade horizontally and took the heads off a few Tarvana. They were crawling hand over hand up the steep wall of dirt. Explosions began as some enterprising Tarvana turned themselves into bombs. How? Maya didn’t know.

The tide shifted and kept moving. The mana shieldS were flaring as projectiles slammed into them. The arcane energies of mages filled the air, along with the tangy taste of destructive mana. The orcs were using their massive sizes to sweep whole sections of wall free of intruders, their heavy glaives, swords, and rods crushing skulls and bodies.

“Why the hell aren’t they breaking,” Maya muttered as she kicked a Tarvana back into the mob. It was sucked under and she could almost hear the crunching of its bones.

Thousands lay dead. The ticker on her helmet estimated nearly two thousand three hundred had been killed since the battle began. Most suffering wounds from the minefield and railgun fire. A third of them dead and they were still marching forward in creepy single mindedness.

“We’ve located the Mage,” Tender said.

“Mage?”

“Mental Mage, it appears. Moderately leveled to control this large a group,” Sostanio said. “We have dealt with these types of mages, standard operating procedure is to take them out as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, thanks for the SOP,” Maya said. “Take the turd out. Maybe the winds of battle will change.”

The thumping of the railguns paused for a second as they adjusted their aim. With a roar, all seven guns fired. Maya watched as a fireball blossomed toward the rear of the Tarvana mob. She waited for a change to the Fleshies, but nothing happened.

“Mana shield,” Tender explained. The guns fired again and again and again. “Got him.” There was a flash of dissipating mana that hung in the air for a second before vanishing.

“Nice shooting,” Maya replied.

A switch flipped in the charging Tarvana. Their forward march stuttered to a halt. It was as if they had finally awakened from a dream. There were murmurs of confusion, frantic movements, and many crying out in pain as injuries made themselves noticed. The confusion reached a crescendo, a palpable feeling in the air as they realized where they were and what they were doing, with it came dawning horror. Maya could almost read the questions that were running through their minds.

“Hit ‘em,” Maya said, her voice cold and flat.

“Maya…” Chu began.

“All forces, fire at will. Make ‘em run.” Maya called out.

A roar filled the troops and they began redoubling their efforts. The entire front line of Tarvana vanished in seconds, followed by those behind them. It took a moment for the Tarvana to realize that they were being attacked and soon they were stampeding. Terror overriding all senses and thought. They had to flee and there was only one direction to flee towards.

Maya called a halt in the attack. She pulled the forces back and they held their position as four thousand terrified Tarvana smashed into one another. Maya watched as they trampled one another, mindless in their need to escape; eventually they began fighting one another in sheer terror and confusion.

Claws, teeth, and weapons were used upon one another. The entire horde of Tarvana turning upon itself in a terror fueled massacre.

“Send a squad out. We need prisoners.”

***

Maya found a quiet spot away from everyone. The sound of work and orders being called filled the air. There wasn’t a sense of celebration in the air, only one of weary acceptance. They had won, but they weren’t home yet. This was only one battle in many more to come.

She released the clasp of her helmet and let it fall to the ground. A broken chunk of concrete was her seat as she sat down heavily.

She couldn’t breath. She sucked in short ragged breaths, her heart hammered in her chest and her hands were shaking violently.

It took a moment for her ragged breaths to ease. The pounding of her heart and shaking of her hands soon stopped. Maya took a long breath, stared at the cracked rainbow sky and got back up.

There was a lot of work to do.