Captain Daniel Marley stuck his head out of the top of the APC and smiled. His PMC, The Royal Cavaliers, was well known for their exceptional response times. What most people didn’t know is that was partially due to the heavily modified APCs, which sported oversized engines and slightly less armor, allowing them to almost reach hover vehicle speeds.

  He’d volunteered his team to go in with the vanguard, and secure essential locations ahead of the main column, and so far things were looking up. The scouts reported that Calgary’s main gates had remained sealed, and they hadn’t dispatched armor to any external complex.

  He grabbed the binoculars hanging from his neck and took a look at their primary target, the fusion plant located a couple dozen kilometers outside the walls. The plant had a sleek, super modern design, and was surrounded by heavy fortifications. It provided the majority of the city’s power, so it had to be well defended, but also had to be placed outside the walls just in case of a failure. No city wanted a several kilometer wide hole in the middle of their infrastructure.

  According to the intel he was given the PMCs that normally manned the place were either bought off, or moved into the city, so there shouldn’t be any serious resistance on site. “Easy job, easy money,” he chuckled to himself.

  As the small column of APCs quickly approached the outer walls Marley saw the first sign that something was wrong. The gate was not only secure, but there was an armored vehicle sitting on the other side of the barricade, preventing his team from running through. He briefly considered ordering the driver to smash the other vehicle out of the way, but when they were about half a kilometer from the wall the opposing vehicle fired a single warning shot. The supersonic round punched through the woods next to the column like a hot knife through butter, toppling dozens of trees.

  A shiver ran down his spine, no weapon that size should be able to cause that much damage, no military weapon anyways. He ducked back into the cab, “Approach slowly, no hostile actions. Tell the entire column to prepare for action, but do NOT move without my express permission,” he yelled at the driver.

  “Trouble?” his second in command, Rusty, asked as he stepped closer to the hatch so the two of them could talk.

  “That intel we were fed was wrong. There’s an armored vehicle at the gate, which means someone is protecting it, and they have some significant firepower. I don’t want to risk pissing them off until we know what we’re dealing with,” Marley reported quietly. “I need you all ready to move, if I think we can take them I’ll give you a signal, got it?”

  “No problem, we’ll be ready,” Rusty replied.

  Marley stuck his head back out of the hatch and scanned the area. Now that they were closer to the compound he could see figures gathering at the gate, and on the walls. Something was wrong though, the proportions were all wrong. Children? Could the city be desperate to draft kids in its defense?

  It was only when the APC was within about a hundred meters that he could finally make out what they were. Bears. And not just any bears, Teddy bears wearing combat helmets and carrying rifles. Someone had be fucking with him. A single teddy bear stood in the middle of the road, a paw out gesturing for them to stop, so the column had no choice but to slowly roll up to the blockade and oblige.

  “Hello, welcome to the Calgary Fusion plant, name?” the bear asked, like this was a routine vehicle check.

  “Captain Daniel Marley,” Marley replied as he scanned the bear. It was an impressive construction, whatever it was. He couldn’t see any seams on it, and it moved much too smoothly to be a traditional robot.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Purpose of visit?” the bear asked next. Whatever was under that covering was definitely automated, otherwise it wouldn’t be asking such stupid questions right now.

  Marley smirked, “To take over this compound of course.”

  The bear continued filling in his checklist for a minute then nodded, “One moment please.”

  “What the fuck is this?” Marley muttered.

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” the bear shot back. It was no longer talking in a grumbly, artificial voice, but that of a young woman. The bear even had its paws on its hips. The checklist fell to clatter on the ground, suddenly abandoned. “Last I checked the declaration of war targeted Helmar, Telnet, Alliance Bio and Great Northern, not Grayville Electrical. Was there another declaration I wasn’t aware of?”

  Marley stared at the bear for a minute, “Noooo….”

  “Then what the fuck are you doing here?” the bear yelled, stamping its foot. “Look, I’m doing my best to remain neutral here, but you assholes are making it real hard when you target locations which could cripple the entire city, and not just your target. Are you targeting the farms too? Want to starve the city out along with shutting off the power?”

  Something moved in Marley’s peripheral. When he glanced up he saw there was now a quartet of bears flanking the opposing IFV. These were much larger than the other bears running around, and it looked like two were carrying literal miniguns, and the other two were carrying something that looked like anti tank weapons. Things were quickly spiraling out of control.

  “Look… miss?” Marley started.

  “You can call me Teddy. I’m kinda running the antithesis defenses since your dumbass leaders decided to cripple our PMCs,” the bear replied. Marley mentally kicked himself, of course it would be a fucking samurai. Who else would have access to this level of tech? He really had to move carefully now.

  “Right. Well, miss teddy, I don’t know about the overall plan for the city, but my orders are to take and hold this plant. It’s essential to the advance.”

  “Bullshit. It’s essential to cripple the city's defenses, and I’m going to do everything in my power to keep it running,” the bear spat. “You get on your radio and tell your commander that I don’t give a shit who runs the city, but if you try to compromise our antithesis defenses, or take it out on the civilians, I WILL have words with them.” The bear paused for a moment, and cocked its head to the side. “And here come your friends towards the farms. Go on, make your call. It seems I’m going to have to have this discussion with a couple of your friends too.”

  “Right…” Marley muttered. A second later the bear went glassy eyed and bent down to pick up its clipboard, ignoring him. He immediately ducked back inside.

  “What’s the call boss?” Rusty asked.

  “The powerplant is defended by a fucking samurai,” he hissed. “She’s apparently got defenses at all the outer complexes. I trust you boys to get the job done against another human squad, but who knows what those bears are packing.”

  Rusty raised an eyebrow. “Bears?”

  “Yes bears! Fucking Teddy bears! And before you go making any dumbass comments there are a couple toting around fucking HMGs and antitank weapons, so no, I don’t think we can take them,” Marley practically yelled. “She claims the powerplant is off limits, and wants me to call command.”

  “So what are you going to do?” Rusty asked while scratching his head.

  “Call fucking command,” Marley snapped. “I’m not fucking stupid. Give me a minute.”

  Rusty nodded slowly, then took a seat at the side. Meanwhile Marley immediately connected to the battlefield command channel. The line rang for several long seconds, taking much longer than it should have to connect.

  “This is command, go ahead,” the voice on the other end of the line said the instant they connected.

  “This is Captain Daniel Marley of the Royal Cavaliers. My team just rolled up to the front of the power plant and we’ve run into a serious issue and need orders,” Morley reported.

  There was a long pause. “The bear girl?” the voice finally asked.

  “Yes, the fucking bear girl,” Morley replied. “I don’t think my squad can dislodge her. Fuck, I don’t know if anything less than a full armor column could dislodge her right now.”

  “The situation has already been reported by several of the other forward elements. Your new orders are to disengage. Bear girl has told the other teams she will not participate in the war, just protect essential facilities and anti-antithesis facilities. Command has decided to commit to a frontal assault and not risk angering a samurai capable of defending dozens of sites simultaneously,” the operator reported.

  “Dozens?” Morley repeated blankly.

  “Yes, dozens. One of our top priorities right now is trying to keep her out of the conflict. Retreat back to the main column, copy?” the operator asked.

  “I copy,” Marley repeated quietly. “Marley out.”

  He blinked a couple times to clear his eyes then turned towards the driver. “Head back to he main column, we’re done here.”

  “We’re just leaving?” Rusty asked, confused.

  “Yup, command has decided this is a fight they don’t want, and I agree with them.”

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