“They haven’t shot at us yet, what are they doing Miley?” Catherine and Miley were hiding under the window waiting for anything to happen.

“How should I know? It’s not like I’m going to go out of my way to peek my head out to get shot, what kind of idiot would do that!”

“They are really good at hide n’ seek, I don't see them anymore.” At the other side of the room Annie was standing there, her machine gun was mounted on the window sill and pointed out towards the field

Her gun was something that no normal human could carry, even other androids would have trouble carrying it around. It was a gun meant for mounting and holding a position, it could fire searing electricity bolts at a rate of 3000 per minute. Its enormous battery cells allows it to fire 6000 shots before it needs to be reloaded which could be done rather quickly with the support of another. A gray bipod was connected to its smooth large white barrel which had thin rectangular shaped holes on its sides revealing a mysterious blue light underneath it. Developed by the United Countries to protect key areas around the border, its name is the Thunderbird Machine Gun and to those that saw it on the battlefield it was death incarnate.

The two stared at Annie before Miley spoke up. “W-what? How long have you been staring out the window?”

“Since they got out of their car, I can see it right across the field.”

“Hey Miley you gonna go check what they’re doing now?” Said Catherine.

There was a slight hesitation before Miley finally decided to look through the window with her AM-62 rifle. She used the scope on her gun to get a better look, she surveyed the surroundings to see if she could spot them. Her eyes moved across the field until something caught her attention.

“There’s four of them and uhhhh it looks like they’re standing in a ditch, I can just barely make out there heads.”

Catherine knew nothing about the enemy, the only time she ever saw them was during the last battle. She didn’t know what bizarre tactics they would use but killing them would probably stop it. “What? Really? Just take the shot then.”

“Oh shit, yeah I didn’t think about that.”

Out in the fields the US soldiers were attempting to hide in a ditch.

Sweeper was the first to speak up. “So what do we do now?”

Savage, who was not tall enough to see over the ditch, tried to climb over it. She wanted to get a better view of the fortress that they will soon raid but her tiny frame prevented her from doing so. Sweeper and Guard moved in to give her a little push to get her up.

“Aha now it’s time to see what we’re dealing with ladies.”

“I’m pretty sure they can see us standing here.” Pointed out Dealer.

“From this distance, the size of this trench and since we’re downhill… I have to agree with Dealer.” Sweeper added her thoughts on the matter as she looked uphill.

A piercing sound could be heard as a bolt of electricity slipped past the Captain’s head.

“OH GOD GROUND HERE I COME.” Dealer dived straight into the mud in hopes of getting away from the gunshot. The group immediately followed Dealer as they crouched down behind the dirt wall.

“That was a warning shot, most likely to scare us into retreating.” Said Savage, who didn’t really need to crouch to stay hidden. “That means one thing, that they aren’t in full fighting condition if they don’t want to fight us.”

“Well it worked on me, let’s go home.” Dealer attempted to crawl back towards the jeep before being stopped by Savage.

“Heh those fools won’t know what’ll hit them. I have a plan.”

In the UCNA base Miley and Catherine stood there in disbelief.

“Aw fuck I missed!”

“She was standing still, how did you miss that shot?!”

“Shooting this thing is harder than you think and the wind is screwing things up and my sights are slightly off-centered!”

“Now you’re just making things up.”

“I thought it was a good shot. Now they’re no longer there!” Annie cheerily shouted.

This caused the two to look at Annie and then at her giant gun. Suddenly a thought crossed both of their minds, they looked at each other in disbelief before Catherine spoke up.

“You haven’t been firing that gun at all, have you?”

Annie’s eyes widen as she looked at Catherine and then at her gun and then at Miley for some reason and then back at her gun. Her mouth was agape now as she remembered that she was holding onto this weapon of destruction, she had forgot about it the moment she smashed open the window and mounted it.

“Oh yeah!”

“WELL FIRE IT!” Screamed Miley. “They should still be in that ditch and, wait when did we have a ditch?”

“Got it!”

As she held down the trigger the blue lights on the gun started shining brighter and then bolts of electricity was spat out of it at an extreme speed. Thoom thoom thoom. The sound of the gun started to blare across the room like thunder. The US troops tried to dig themselves further in as panic starts to set in on them.

“Does your plan involve that!?” Asked Dealer before she futilely attempted to cover her head with her hands.

“This seems bad.” Reaper said calmly.

“New plan ladies, first we get Private Dealer to run up to their base and get mowed down by that machine gun.”

“What about that machine gunner?” Guard’s eyes were on Savage hoping that she will have an answer.

“This is where the second phase of the plan comes into action, as they will become too busy laughing at how pitifully Private Dealer died. At that moment Private First Class Reaper pops out and BAM the entire enemy team is now dead.”

“Wow, Reaper is that good?”

“Can we come up with a new plan?” Dealer wanted to change the subject.

“Fine. Plan B, where we blow up the enemies’ base from our position of questionable safety. Private Dealer did you bring the rocket launcher?”

“No. It’s back at the jeep.”

“That is literally your job! Just when I thought my disappointment in you has reached the bottom, the floor collapses revealing an even bigger ravine of failure underneath.”

“I aim to please ma’am.”

“Alright moving on to plan C. Where we unveil our secret weapon and it will destroy the UCNA base.”

“Captain what would that be?” Sweeper inquired.

A devious smile appeared on the Captain’s face. She accounted for Dealer’s mistake as she always does, though she can’t help but be disappointed each time it happens.

“The secret weapon, which we will unleash on our enemies! I have the command controls right here.” Savage pulled a small controller from her pocket. “All I have to do is press this button and it will arrive in our location swiftly.”

Sweeper quickly looked down and went into deep thought about what the captain said. She didn’t have a clue on what the Captain meant by secret weapon as they didn’t really have any. Could it be the Dealerpult? No that was still being put together. Just then, Sweeper managed to figure it out.

“Oh, that thing we found in the woods after the battle?”

“Are you talking about that tall creepy thing we found after getting lost?” Dealer had remembered them picking something up when they were trying to find their way back to the base.

Sweeper nervously looked around before saying anything. “Yeah, so I forgot to charge it when we got back to base. I mean the power was out, I could’ve used one of the back-up generators but I was pissed off at Dealer so I went to complain at her. And in the end, it’s actually Dealer’s fault.”

The captain glared at Sweeper with eyes that could pierce through steel plating. She could handle Dealer screwing up, but to have someone she actually had expectations for fail caused her profound sadness. And anger.

“Well I’m going to skip over the next couple of plans, since they probably won’t work, and go to plan G. The G stands for grenade launcher, because I use this here grenade launcher to kill the enemy.”

She showed off the weapon she was carrying the whole time to the team. It was the Andersons’ Extreme Impact Tesla Grenade Launcher (AEI for short) and was a large weapon capable of holding 12 grenade rounds, each round infused with electrical energy that allowed it to cover a larger radius and can short circuit electronics just outside of its range.

“Ladies, distract the enemy long enough for me to get in range. If this succeeds, this will be the last battle we ever fight here in this area called Former North Dakota. I’ve only known most of you for 6 months, a couple hours for Guard, but I’m proud of most of you. We’ll all be assigned somewhere else, maybe we’ll still be with each other, but we’ll fight in a different battle in this war. This is but the first stepping stone to lead the US army to victory over the UCNA and reconnect North America to end this ceaseless conflict on our soil. So I want you all to give it everything you got!”

As soon as the Captain’s speech finishes each soldier crawled along the ditch to different positions readying themselves.

“G-guys… This is my first day.” Guard was now crouching there alone. Just then the sound of the machine gunfire stopped.

Miley was overlooking the battlefield. “Crap, they aren’t pinned down anymore I think I saw some of them moving around down there!”

“Alright now that I can hear again I think I got a plan.” Catherine looked at Miley with confidence.

“You know how we have these drones lying around right, for recon and stuff. How about I strap a bunch of these plastic explosives onto them and fly overhead. This is when you’ll shoot them causing it to explode on them!”

“Plastic explosives are a lot more stable than you think dumbass, even a shot from this gun won’t cause it to detonate. And can’t you just use the detonator?”

“See about that… these are the explosives made by Olivia.” Catherine lifted up the most disgusting looking clump of wires and tape Miley had ever seen. “So they’re kinda uhh not stable, a long drop would probably set them off. Also I don’t know where the detonator is, probably still on her body or something.”

Miley gave out a small sigh. “Alright then let’s go with that, also goddammit Annie can you stop holding the trigger down and making noises with your mouth? You’re out of ammo, reload the damn thing already.”

“Ok.”

A minute later Catherine strapped all the explosives she had onto the drones and started flying them out onto the field where the US soldiers are.

“Woah you did that fast.” Miley expressed her surprise.

“What can I say? I’m good with my hands.”

As the drones flew over the last known positions of the enemy, Miley aimed her rifle at them as they floated still. Bang bang bang. The bullets flew past the drone.

“What the shit!?”

She held down the trigger and started firing at one of the drones but each bullet did not meet there mark.

“I’m going to kick my creator’s ass!” She took her glasses off. “Who the hell makes a nearsighted android that needs glasses?!? These GLASSES AREN’T EVEN AT THE RIGHT FUCKING PRESCRIPTION ARRGHHHHHHH!!!”

As Miley begin to freak out, a loud explosion could be heard at the entrance of their base.

“Haha take that scumbags!” Shouted a red haired android in the distance.

“Are you guys okay?” Annie went over to check on Miley who lost her balance and fell to the floor. At that moment a bullet just missed her.

“Hmm, their machine gunner’s pretty good.” Reaper said before preparing another shot.

“Guys there are suspicious looking drones above us and I don’t know what to do.” Guard pointed to the things hovering above.

“Oh crap those look like explosives get away rookie!” Sweeper quickly moved back to Guard’s position to pull her away.

Back in the base, two more people had entered the reception room.

“I heard loud noises and came right away!” Engie ran to the group in a panic.

Engie had brought along Silver. “Eugh, what’s going on?” Groggily replied the silver haired android, her sapphire eyes slowly looked around the room to get a better understanding of the situation.

“You sure work fast Engie.” Catherine had ran to the reception desk to grab two guns from the back and threw them towards the two new combatants.

“Not really, Silver was already fixed up. When I went into the medical bay she was just lying there. She also ordered me to get her food.”

“I needed energy.” Silver shrugged as she loaded the gun.

“If we survive this, I’m going to make sure Engie gets a chance to repair your robotic ass after I trash it.” Miley said as she got up with the help of Annie.

“We weren’t doing anything the entire week tho, and I put in a lot of work during that last battle.” Silver begin moping around with her arm dangling down. Much to the annoyance of Miley and Engie.

“You’re lucky that the only thing you’re good at is fighting.”

Bullets could be heard hitting the walls of the base and another explosion went off nearby.

“Okay that’s it, I’m kicking the ass of whoever is doing that.” Silver’s eyes had changed to an amber colour as she ran up to the window.

“Aim for the drones in the sky!” Miley shouted out.

Silver’s gun was similar in style to the Thunderbird Machine Gun that Annie was lugging around. The Wendigo Electric Rifle made its appearance in 2106. Being able to hold up to 72 rounds as well as having a shotgun attachment that could fire up to 10 shots, its ease of use and versatility allowed it to become a favourite for post-World War 4 private military companies and a staple in the UCNA army.

She ran to the window and started firing at each drone in quick succession. Multiple explosions were set off as the drones hit the ground and the UCNA group couldn’t see or hear anything for a few seconds, but in that moment Silver’s head moved to the right and something flew past it.

“THIS IS GOING TERRIBLELY, OH JEEZ!” Guard was beginning to lose it.

“Holy shit Sweeper! Are you alright?” Dealer had ran back to Sweeper and Guard’s position.

The debris caused from the explosion had hit Sweeper, fragments of rocks had embedded themselves into her scorched back. Dealer and Guard, who were in the same area, had also taken some hits but they were not as serious as Sweeper’s injuries.

“I would say I was ‘fine’ to act tough… but I’m in too much pain for that to work…”

“Oh man, I’m sorry. I really owe you one for shielding me.” Guard tried to find a way to help. “So at least get back to base so I can repay you. Damn it, why can we feel pain?”

“Well… it’s not actual pain… but more of an electronic shock that allows us to judge *cough* the situation better… oh God this hurts so badly *cough* why are we made to feel pain?”

“Are the Captain and Reaper fine? Where are they, I can’t see a thing in all this dust!” Dealer looked around to find the other two.

A little ways off Reaper was taking aim from a shack just north of the UCNA base. She had just missed her first shot on a silver haired android who managed to react in time even in all the chaos. Despite that she still remained calm and collected, readying the next shot and firing. Silver saw another flash in the distance and took cover behind a wall, seeing this Reaper calculated her new location and fired another shot. Every sense in Silver’s body told her to get to a new place and she moved just in time to see a bullet hole in the wall she was hiding behind, just then her eyes changed to a flash of white.

Her face changed from composed to something that can only be described as sheer anger. In her mind this other person needed to be completely destroyed. A faint mechanical clicking noise was heard in the room, Silver leaned down and took a runners starting position and in that moment she bolted to the end of the south hall in a flash. Her shoes exploded on the first step, her legs look like they were covered in blue fire and were about to fall apart, she took precise shots every time she passed through the windows in the hall. Reaper could barely keep up with the movement of the target but she knew what they were planning as she took cover in her wooden barrier to avoid the incoming barrage. She attempted to retaliate but before she could, Silver had made another mad dash back taking more shots at the shack on the way.

Her cover had caught on fire from the bolts of electricity that were fired from Silver’s gun and was about to fall down on Reaper. Silver reloaded and quickly took position to shoot at the enemy as soon as she tried to leave her burning cover. But that didn’t happen, the shack burned down and the area turned into a small inferno. Silver paused for a moment before catching a glimpse of a faint light shimmering through the flames, she realized what was happening and ducked away before a bullet whizzed past her head tearing her left ear off. A figure stood up in the flames and vanished.

“Shit, Silver you alright?” Miley caught Silver before she could fully fall over, noticing that her eyes are amber again.

Miley glanced around the room to find something that could fend off the attacking enemy, her gaze ended up on the Thunderbird.

“Quick Annie, reload that thing!”

Both Miley and Annie ran towards the gun, Annie replaced the battery cell before taking position to fire it while Miley took cover behind the metal door.

“Huh, Miley watch out!” Before Annie could fire she ran to Miley’s position, grabbed her and flung her towards Catherine and Engie who were hiding behind a couch. Before Miley had time to complain another loud noise could be heard and the door flew open from the explosion, hitting Annie in the back.

“Haha that one hit its mark!”

Silver rushed to the front door and started firing at Savage. The US Captain ran back to the ditch dodging her shots.

“GET BACK HERE YOU 5’2 ASS MIDGET, SO I CAN CRUSH YOU!”

Silver continued to shout profanity at the retreating enemy. That was all she could do as Savage managed to regroup with her three companions.

“Well I think we should call it a day.” Said Savage as she jumped back in the ditch.

“W-what? Are we actually retreating?” Questioned Dealer.

“It’s not retreating, the battle will still be going on, we are just going off to do some other things first before coming back to it. You guys took some damage and Private First Class Sweeper is badly wounded, also Private First Class Reaper’s gone missing.”

Just then a flaming object approached the group causing them to jump back in surprise.

“I’m here.”

“O-oh ok… Private First Class Reaper is here now but we’re still heading back to base.”

“Couldn’t you have fired that grenade launcher a couple more times into the enemies open base? Not to be rude sir but you were right there.” Asked Guard.

“Well you see, uhh… I… I forgot to fully reload it. We only have three rounds.”

Sweeper struggled to get up and threw two flash bangs into the air at the enemy base and laid down two smoke grenades to cover the US troops.

“Quick thinking Private First Class Sweeper!”

“Thank you Captain… but if we could run back to the jeep before either the enemy recovers or I die… that would be great.”

Guard and Dealer grabbed Sweeper and hauled back to the jeep.

“This isn’t a retreat UCNA scum, we’ll be back!” Shouted Savage as she got in the vehicle.

Dealer quickly hit the pedal as soon as everyone got in and drove off into the distance.

As the smoke died down, Catherine peeked out the door which was more of a hole now.

“Hey I think the enemies are retreating!”

“Oh shit, Annie got hit badly she still hasn’t gotten up.” Miley was crouching over Annie.

“Is she dead, oh no I think she’s dead.”

“Ummm guys I don’t think so, look her head is still moving around.” Engie pointed at Annie’s face.

“I saw this online, I think they call it post-mortem twitching or something.” Catherine said as walked towards the three.

Suddenly a sound came from the giant android. “I’m okay.”

“Never mind she’s still with us.”

Just then Silver walked back in “Wha-what happened? Ouch my ear.”

She looked around at her team members before noticing Annie. “Eww, what happened to her? Why is her head moving like that?”

“I think the enemy hit her with some sort of electronic interfering device. It probably had a small range since it didn’t reach her head as she was still leaning after chucking Miley.” Explained Engie.

“This feels weird.” Said Annie.

“It looks weird.” Catherine replied

Engie looked at Miley “So, um, what do we do now?”