*Sorry for te releases. I was sick and had to push through work with no sick pay. Felt like crap. Anyway, here you go!

  Machine gun fire echoed throughout the facility. We came closer and closer to the sound. Between bursts of gunfire, we could hear shouting, cursing, screams of agony, all the cruel sounds of war coming through in bits and pieces.

  Ahead of us was the battle we were hearing, and to see it made my heart sink. The st of the militia was holed up behind some concrete barriers, metal tables, chairs, anything they could grab to erect a wall to stop the incoming fire. The popped over the cover here and there to fire back at the incoming security forces. Some threw rocks, bottles, or whatever they could grab from nearby.

  They must be out of ammo, or they had no guns to begin with. The Praxis security forces on the other hand, they had an organized assault, machineguns pushed up and fed with constant ammo.

  We watched from the far side of the room, crouched behind some desks. The steps to the main elevators were occupied by militia, while the Praxis forces pushed from the main ptforms, ready to annihite the resistance.

  This was it. The final battle of the power pnt. If we couldn’t secure the pnt now, all would be lost. The Meowtw’s would lose the confidence of the people, the corporate entities would step up security, and the iron grip of greed would constrict the moon until all things good were squeezed out of existence.

  Echo wheezed next to me. I could feel my ankle throbbing now. If that was any indicator, Echo would be feeling his wounds pretty soon here. Things were not looking good.

  “What’s the pn?” he asked while peeking over our flimsy cover.

  Thump.

  We both ducked as an explosion shook the ground. Fire erupted over the elevators behind the militia. Grenade unchers, fuck these guys had it all.

  I squinted to see if Uwu was anywhere in the crowd. If he wasn’t here, where was he? Dead in a puddle of blood? I had to find him. My eyes darted around the anthros and humans present.

  I sighed with relief as I spotted him, right in the middle of the group, encouraging the people around him. Firing off shots here and there.

  “Uwu’s there. He’s fine. Damn, at least something good happened today.” I sagged down, thinking of a pn. Anything to help. We had some small arms, rifles, a shotgun, and that was about it. Nothing big enough to help here. “I’ve got nothing. Besides drawing some fire. But if those machineguns turn this way, we’ll be filled with holes in an instant.” I rubbed my forehead in frustration. There had to be something we could do.

  “You’re right. Fuck.” Echo smmed his fist down. “This is all fucked. Where’s the Meowtws?”

  We jumped when a voice from behind startled us.

  “If the pn goes wrong, you fix it yourself. Find a way. Never give up. Pushing forward is the only option.”

  We turned to see Speck, covered in blood, some of his own, most not. He was dragging along a string of grenade unchers in one hand, and a bandolier of grenades in the other. An arms was still attached to one of the guns, leaving a red smear as it dragged across the grey, stoney floor.

  “Use your enemies’ strengths against them. Leave none alive to tell the tale.” He slumped down next to us, dropping the weapons. His eyes were gzed over. I slowly inched away from his as his eyes shut and he went unconscious.

  I poked him a few times, giving an uneasy look at Echo.

  He shrugged, “I don’t have any more of that Huff. Just leave him be for now. We’ll get him medical attention if we get out of this mess alive.

  I hunched over and gave Speck a quick hug. If he was conscious, he would have ripped my throat out for touching him, but I had to thank him for his gifts.

  “It’d be a shame to waste his presents, no?” I winked at Echo, who smiled back at me devilishly. “You’re a better shot, I’ll keep them reloaded, you bst those fuckers back to their corporate headquarters.”

  Echo nodded, “Fuck yeah, sounds like a badass pn!”

  I handed him the unchers, making sure with each bst he took, another was in it’s pce. One after the other, he unched them out, one after the other, I loaded them, until all the grenades were gone. It was glorious.

  Explosions rocked out across the corpo lines. One after the other. They had no time to react. They were blindsided. Fire ripped through them, burning flesh and scattering limbs from their bodies. Shrapnel ripped out and sliced clean through the fleshy host of Praxis men and women. One man was hit directly, showering his comrades in viscera.

  Thump. Thump. Thump.

  The milita took the disarray to push an assault. They popped over the cover, Uwu leading the charge. They shot, threw, or just cursed at the corpo forces. The Praxis security began to retreat, taking their lives into their own hands, getting out before they were cut down. Explosions bsted rocks and bits from the walls. Electricity sparked from falling cables from the ceiling.

  The security forces fled back to the ptforms, leaving the cheering militia members, although a few too little to be of comfort.

  Uwu ran over to us, his arms wide open as he shouted, “Thank you, saviors!”

  I ran up to him, csping him tightly. “I’m gd your still here.”

  “Not all in one piece, I’m afraid.” He pointed to his arm and leg. They were bandaged up, red liquid oozing throughout the bandages. “But I’m still standing.”

  Echo was dragging Speck out from behind the desks, “Better than the rest of us, I’m afraid.”

  Uwu’s brow furrowed, “Shit, what happened?”

  “Fshback.” Echo just had to say the one word for Uwu to understand.

  “Let’s get him to the steps. Donald’s there, nursing the wounded.” Uwu slung my arm around his shoulder, assisting me to the steps.

  Donald was there, bandaging up the wounded with whatever first aid supplies he had lying around. Several bodies were covered up with jackets over their heads. Some people grunted and moaned in pain, all snugly packed behind concrete barriers.

  Donald nodded at me with a half-hearted smile, “Nice to see you in one piece. It’s been hell down here. We need to get these people to a proper hospital, like, soon. Or I’m afraid they won’t make it.”

  Uwu nodded, setting me down, “If we can clear out the rest of the security forces, we can take the tram back…”

  “And fight our way through Gellys? Or other security?” I opened my mouth, looking around at the looks I received, I hushed my tone, “The Meowtws were supposed to be here long ago. We’re fucked.”

  Uwu went silent. He knew it too. He tapped his foot for a moment, “But it’s all we can do. If we stay here, we’re just as fucked.”

  “INCOMING!” Someone shouted at the bottom of the steps.

  I gnced over the makeshift barrier just in time to see an Anthro-Cat be turned into red mist.

  BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!

  Concrete exploded all around us. The barrier colpsed as the remaining militia members scrambled to anything to protect them. I looked down the steps to the ptforms. The slug repeater was mounted to a mobile, hover ptform, bsting away at everyone left alive.

  I grabbed Uwu’s hand, holding him tight. He gnced into my eyes and we both knew we were running out of luck.

  This was it. I smiled, waiting for an explosive round to finally end my existence. One could only hope that it was a fast death.

  *Please consider donating 3 to my Patreon. Thanks!