He was an absolute pain in my ass. Drunkenness, whore mongering, disrespectful. One of the worst garrison soldiers I had ever commanded. If he wasn't passed out on the floor of his room, he was usually in the drunk tank at the MP station or in the motorpool or the morgue working on a vehicle or armor with an open bottle of alcohol in his hand. He was the kind of soldier that no commander wished to command in peacetime.

It was an honor and a privilege to pin his awards for valor in the face of the enemy upon his chest. - General of the Warsteel Tut'el, Telkan Marine Corps (ret)

Bit.nek tightened his grip he had around one of the grips at the rear of the M318, twisting his grip slightly.

He felt his smartlink go live.

The weapon was in good shape. Just jammed. It was loaded with ball rounds and was set for two thousand rounds a second. The nanoforge was at 4% slush and 2.5% heat and cooling rapidly. Barrel was in nearly pristine condition. He tried to change the ammo and found he was locked out.

"299," he said softly.

--yes--

"Jack into the armor, then trigger a diagnostic on my smartlink. Use my smartlink to see if you can override the settings on the Madame Three-Eighteen I'm holding," he said.

--uh can do that-- 299 asked.

"Yeah. It'll just be a little painful when you exceed the max bandwidth on my smartlink," Bit.nek said. "My arm will go numb, so you need to be quick."

--we going to die-- 299 asked.

"Eventually, but not right now," Bit.nek said. He felt the muscle move around him, felt the massive windpipe flex and heard a roar faintly. "We're stuck in the neck muscle, between the windpipe and the external armored scales."

--scared-- 299 said.

Bit.nek felt his smartlink go dead and a curious numbess at the corner of his eye, into his brain, then down his neck, into his chest, through his shoulder, and down the length of his arm. His hands and fingers tightened, cramped, and went numb.

"Either we'll do this or we won't," Bit.nek said.

--maintenance codes accepted what need-- the mantid asked.

"Fab it up for APDS, chromium endosteel penetrator with an explosive bursting charge. Set the charge for when the round stops," Bit.nek said.

--okily dokily--

"After that, we're going to need HEDP 40mm grenades, armor defeating. Change the rockets to anti-tank with an osmium EFP," Bit.nek said. "When we come out, we're going to be fighting for our lives straight out of the gate."

He could see the beacons for over thirty sets of armor approaching.

"Once you're done, I want you to see if you get ahold of any still living green mantids in those armors over the engineer channel," Bit.nek said. He closed his eyes as pain radiated from the artificial nerve fiber in his arm. "They need to shut down the beacons and disengage the quantum communication molycircs. Tell them to go to analog."

--ok-- 299 answered. --sorry almost done--

"It's OK," Bit.nek said. He just pushed the pain away, ignoring it.

The beacons were getting closer, over half of them pulsing severe injuries.

He was surprised that out of the thirty odd beacons, only six of them were broadcasting termination of life signs for the operator.

The pain went away with a twinge like someone stabbing needles down his arm, then the warm honey feeling of the smartlink going live again returned.

--done-- 299 said. --rockets and grenades next--

"Hurry," Bit.nek said. He could feel the monster curve and twist.

--done-- 299 said. --engineering channel open working--

"Get ready," Bit.nek said. He pushed his arm through the resistant tissue, grabbing the M318 by the body, shifting his grip on the handle. He'd have to run the gun holding one handle and the body, which would be clumsy to say the least, but he didn't have a choice.

With a thudding crash the beast slammed down. He heard more roaring, felt the neck around him extend out and contract, as well as wave around.

He pushed the barrel hard, the layer of skin underneath the neck scales resisting.

"Disengage the safety interlocks, give me full suit control," Bit.nek said.

--uh ok-- 299 said. --other engineers worried--

"Tell them to follow your orders," Bit.nek said. His HUD suddenly warned him that strength and reflex interlocks were disengaged. He felt the tingling burn around the control jack plugged into his brain stem and grinned inside his helmet.

He pushed the end of the barrel harder and it suddenly ripped through, knocking two scales away by the root. He struggled forward in the tissue till he could see out, knowing he was causing a bulge on the side of the creatures long thick neck.

Outside the gap was a large open area, strewn with twisted metals, power armor jammed into metal wreckage, and high walls made of metallic debris arranged in a bowl around the rooftop. There were cars, buses, even a couple of those crab tanks (torn into pieces) scattered around as well as shoved into the walls.

He could see three other creatures. Massive, two with bat-like wings, the other a long snake-like body and a fearsome looking feline head. They had thick legs with long claws, the snakelike one with over a dozen legs on each side of the body. Some had ribs exposed, some had holes in their bodies exposing rotting meat.

Another creature slammed down, its head reduced to almost a bare skull, massive holes in its chest that leaked black fluid.

--oh boy--

"You said it," Bit.nek said. He gripped the M318 tight and stopped. It was still jammed and he had tried to clear it by running the action but the action was jammed, gummed up by the black liquid and shreds of flesh.

Less than ten meters was a smart harness with a M318 in smartgunner mode. It was linked to a set of armor that had red LEDs flashed to indicate the wearer was dead or disabled, but other than that, it looked in perfect condition.

The rear nanoforge let loose a thin spray of steam.

"299, can you talk to that engineer?" he asked, highlighting the smartgun.

--yes--

"Tell them to disengage the harness and give you the code to operate it," he said.

He saw the locking points disengage.

--done--

"Get ready," he said.

--ready--

"Steady," Bit.nek said. He closed his eyes, took a breath, and opened his eyes. "GO!"

He thrust one hand out of the hole in the creature's hide, ripping open the rotting hide, feeling the tough fiber weave of the underskin resist for a second. The pistons and actuators in his armor hissed as the strength on demand system ramped up.

"Slave the grenades and rockets to my eyes," he ordered. "Red and silver only," he snapped.

The skin parted in a spray of clotted blood and black fluid, shredded muscle fiber, sheets of fat and epidermis, and a shower of scales. He dropped to the ground, landing in the standard pose. Knee down, M318 up, fist down.

He lunged forward, dropping the M318 onto the roof. He got to the gunnery harness before the massive creatures even noticed he was there, grabbing it and yanking it up. The bars flipped up into position, locking onto his armor as he kept running, sprinting for a hole in the walls of the nest, and he figured that's all it could be.

The one he had torn free of gave a gurgling roar of rage at the sight of him. The lion faced one gave a long hiss, its tongue flicking out, the end shredded, and missing Bit.nek as he ducked underneath it.

Another pulled its head back, making gulping noises as the base of its neck swelled.

--crap crap crap-- 299 said.

Bit.nek blinked at the swelling in the neck. The missile launcher rotated and fired, the sprint drive kicking in, the missile going hypersonic with a crack. It hit the bulge, a streak of light as unburnt propellant burned in the air, thudded inside.

When it exploded flaming liquid poured over the front of the creature. The creature didn't seem to care, leaning forward, opening its mouth with a hiss.

Twenty more steps.

"GIMME GRAV STICKY FEET!"

299 went through the menu as fast as possible, clicking his jaws with the stress.

Burning liquid ran down the creature's chest even as it opened its jaws and tried to exhale. The breached windpipe and bulge bubbled and hissed, more of the liquid flying from the huge rent between its forward legs, bursting into flame after a half-second's contact with the air.

Ten more steps. Bit.nek felt his paces get slight resistance.

Another one breathed at him, but Bit.nek got lucky and the hellfire splattered behind him as the massive rotting dragon breathed where he was rather than where he would be.

Five steps.

A tail came at him from behind, muscles tightening and forcing long blade of biologically extruded battlesteel. Bit.nek saw it in the HUD, jinked right, and watched as it slammed into the roof to the full length ahead of him. He jinked back and lowered one shoulder, slamming into the thinnest part of the tail.

The rotted flesh ripped free and the tail whipped back, the blade still stuck in the roof.

He threw himself into the gap, a half controlled still on his feet slide taking him twenty feet into the walls of the nest.

Rather than resting he took off running.

"Get mapping drones up," Bit.nek snapped.

--roger-- 299 answered, trying to swallow down the panic. He launched the three mapping drones from the hip launcher, tabbing up three more instead of masking agent grenades, and brought up the software to add their mapping to the suit's inertial and acoustical mapping system. He then ensured the launcher's dedicated nanoforge was putting up another rocket, checked for any myomer muscle fiber tears as well as the status of the actuators, pistons, and flatwear motors.

Bit.nek turned the first corner, hustling for it, running up the tunnel that attached to it, then hanging a hard right.

299 ordered one of the mapping drones back into the mouth of the tunnel it had exited from.

Bit.nek paused in the mouth of the tunnel, watching.

There were three of the long snake-like dragons, six of the big ones. Another one landed, its back cratered and pitted from rot and damage. He checked the M318 in his grip. It was active, ball rounds, and he shook his head.

"Get me some APDS with a HE kicker and a willy pete thread," he said.

299 just triggered the 'affirmative' icon and ordered the M318 nanoforge to make that ammo, overriding the lockout easily.

The little green mantid couldn't believe the amount of on-the-job training he had been put through in the last 48 hours. He tabbed up a stim injection into the breathable kinetic gel he was surrounded by, took a nibble off the ration wick, and went back to balancing heat and power for the suit.

The M318 beeped and Bit.nek stepped forward, aiming at the face of one of the dragons that was busy gnawing on a bus.

The 20mm cannon roared, its firing rate sitting at 450 rounds a minute. The tracers flashed as the rounds slammed into the face of the massive dragon. Scales shattered and blew away, muscle exploded outward from hydrostatic shock, and the bone was exposed in less than two seconds, huge divots blown in the brownish bone.

Bit.nek's eyebrows raised. He'd used that ammo to rip into Dwellerspawn before.

The dragon looked up and around and Bit.nek walked his fire down its neck. The other dragons were just starting to look around as the rounds exploded inside the dragon's neck, hitting the treetrunk sized spinal column.

One of the serpent ones roared and lunged forward, moving smoothly, eerily like liquid, heading straight for him.

Bit.nek yanked the M318 around and leveled fire into the creature's face. The HE component blew away flesh and scales and filth encrusted hair around the lion face, the WP thread burned white.

The thing kept coming.

Bit.nek put a missile into its face.

The skull held, visible through a gaping hole in the flesh almost three feet wide on a face as wide as a two-laned highway.

"SHIT SHIT SHIT!" Bit.nek yelled, spinning in place and sprinting down the corridor.

The lion faced creature plunged after him as he ran down the tunnel. He took a left, then a right.

"FAB ME UP 20mm APDSFSAM, 5mm sabot, .5 antimatter core!" Bit.nek yelled.

299 checked the system.

--no template-- he said.

"Check my datalink! Look for Happy Happy Joy Joy files!" he yelled, grabbing a corner and sliding around it.

299 checked the datalink, startled to find that Bit.nek had easily fifty times the storage as any other one he'd seen. The mantid engineer could tell it was a black market addon.

It was full of templates.

He grabbed the one labeled Happy Happy Joy Joy in the "Dancing with Madame" file, scanning them quick.

The green mantid couldn't believe all the ammo types. Stuff he'd never even heard of in armor engineer school. He found dozens of them and had to whip up a quick search string.

He found the APDSFSAM under "toucha toucha touch me" and started threading it through the decompressor.

Bit.nek ran up another tunnel, then slid down another one, taking corners as fast as he could.

The lion head roared behind him, the tongue flickering out only a few meters, the end tattered and flapping around.

299 ran the error checker and threaded the template through the compiler, then slammed it through the linkages and into the primary nanoforge's memory. The nanoforge checked the template and rejected it.

--not working-- 299 said.

"Jailbreak it!" Bit.nek yelled. He went to go right, saw that the body of a different lion faced one was going by an intersection only fifty feet away, blocking that tunnel, and took off running.

The tunnels were resin on top of twisted metal. If it wasn't for the 'sticky feet' setting of his grav-boots, he'd be slipping and sliding. Even so, the resin resisted being pulled up and sticking to his feet as he turned another corner.

The M318 beeped and the nanoforge started hissing.

Bit.nek crossed another intersection, spotted a THIRD scale pattern, and slowed. He aimed and squeezing the firing grip, running through the whole twenty rounds in just two seconds.

The white snap of antimatter blew away scraps scale and rags of flesh.

Still sprinting, he went down, made a right, then up, then stopped when he saw another scale pattern.

He leveled the M318 and gripped the firing lever, ramping the fire rate up to 1500 a minute. A solid bar connected the end of the 20mm cannon barrel and the scaled wall of flesh. Bright flashes lit up the corridor and he ripped through part of the body, going for the upper section. For a second he saw the spine.

The damaged part kept sliding away and he moved the barrel up and down.

The body stopped moving and he took off down another passage, running full bore.

299 was busy going through all the templates in Bit.nek's datalink, downloading them, decrypting, decompressing, and recompiling them. He was keeping an eye on a dozen systems, using his telemechanics sense to keep an eye on the armor as Bit.nek ran pell-mell through the labyrinth. The mapping was still mostly based on acoustical echoes, but 299 was working as fast as he could to keep the map updated.

Bit.nek saw the first one's scale pattern, fired two missiles down that passage, and ran down a third.

He barely stopped, grabbing onto the edge, and almost flew out.

He was 80 feet above the base of the nest. Two dragons were gnawing on vehicles, including the one with the blown out throat. Two others stopped butting their heads together and turned to slowly stare at him with cataract covered eyes.

Weirdly, three of the huge reptiles had breasts. One of the three had six of them and two sets of male genitalia.

A roar of one of the lion faced ones from behind him let him know his options were limited.

"299..." he said.

--yeah--

"Get ready..."