For the Survivors

Anna and Wolf easily dodged the widely spread orange balls of death. One of the friendlies in the rear hadn't quite cleared the atmosphere, making it harder to see and dodge.

As the large group of mechas powered through space, a not-so-friendly sight befell them. The single battleship that was their goal, had multiplied. An incalculable number of similar ships arrived from seemingly nowhere. The stars were few in number compared to the quantity of ships in view.

They reacted fast, too. Squadrons of smaller units were already emerging and backing up the single enemy they thought would be an easy target.

"My Moon…"

"I know, Wolf. The odds of winning just got worse…" Anna beat him to it.

"What will you do, my Moon?" Wolf queried. To him, it wouldn't matter what her decision was, he would follow her and help her till the end.

"Hiding won't do anything now. I'd rather like to make them hurt for the pain they caused me. For the pain of every surviving human. I want to take as many with me as I can." Anna pulled her father's medal out of her pocket. She rubbed it gently with her thumb and kissed it. She tried to put it away, but a tiny mechanical arm snatched it from her.

"Hey!" Anna started.

"You should we-wear it," Wolf countered. "I'm sure he would think you should wear it, t-too."

The mechanical arm brought it closer to her chest and she slightly raised her shirt. The pin was placed and Wolf brought up a camera that was looking at her to show her how it looked on the HUD.

Wrench opened his comm. He started yelling at her to move, that the battle had already started. She took the last few moments to remember her father in full uniform.

Anna closed her eyes and took in a breath while she grabbed the controls. As she let the air escape her lungs, she opened her eyes and pushed the power of her thrusters to full.

The armor plating on the forearms took some hefty hits but held strong. The red balls of death that made up the vast majority of the enemy weaponry were vastly weakened against the new armor. Something that average human technology could never have done before Wolf's help.

Anna pulled out a semi-auto rifle that was attached to the back of the mech with the right arm. The left arm held up the armor plating.

"Remember, jus-st find the target and I'll take care of the aim." Wolf reminded her.

While Anna may be a crack shot, the speed and movement in space were new to her. A wrong move with the thrusters and the mech could spin out of control. Thankfully, the things she had learned when Wolf installed the interface chip in her head included zero gravity controls.

Anna's eyes were wide, taking in as much information as possible. While the enemy robots could easily blend in with the blackness of space, the HUD highlighted every enemy in a red glow. Commanders and their special guns had a warning above their heads. Shots from them should be dodged at all costs.

Wolf wasn't just sitting back protecting Anna, he was relaying all of the enemy movement and information to the friendly systems. The humans didn't have an A.I. to rely on for each unit. So in fact, Wolf was acting as a targeting computer for over forty mechs.

The weapons that Wolf designed for the humanoid mecha were just strong enough to eliminate the basic troops. Commanders were left to Anna and Wolf.

Anna had just finished off her eighth commander with the semi-auto rifle, rendering the gun's clip empty.

A robot got close and she smashed her gun over the enemy's head, crushing the cockpit underneath.

Anna found herself surrounded on all sides. A quick grab and a right thruster boost let her and Wolf work together to shoot all enemies with the quick-fire handgun. One of the robots that didn't explode was sliced in half by a commander with a halberd-style energy blade. He boosted through the two halves of the deceased ally intending to impale Wolf and Anna.

A quick dodge and a large barrel to the chest eliminated the commander with the final bullet of the handgun.

Anna then pulled out a drum shotgun, emptying the right equipment container. Wolf ejected the container.

"Grab the container, use it as a-as a shield."

Anna did just that. There was a handle inside for easy grip. Two enemies were coming fast from opposite sides. She held out the shield to her left and the shotgun to her right. Anna Pulled the trigger, leaving the enemy on the right in shreds. The enemy on the left slammed into the shield which then violently reacted and pushed the pair back.

"What was that?" Anna asked.

"Re-reactive shield plating. Upon impact, the shield generates a large gravitational force in the op-opposite direction. As you had just experienced, it repels us as w-well."

Anna moved the shield out of view and saw the crushed torso of the robot flying out into space without three of its limbs.

A warning light went off, and Anna was too slow to react, but Wolf took the controls for a moment, temporarily disabling enemy tracking for the friendlies. Two more friendlies were lost due to the confusion.

A long-distance shot was blocked by the shield. Anna was expecting an explosion, but they were only pushed back like the previous shield reaction.

"The shield sav-ved us this time, but a few more shots like that will des-stroy the reactive barrier."

Anna let go of the shotgun and took hold of the shield in her left hand. She retrieved the sniper rifle from the right equipment container on the back. Wolf calculated the direction that the shot came from and highlighted the target in yellow. She lined up the target and fired.

*BOOM*

The rifle exploded in the mech's hand. The enemy had gotten off a shot before she realized it. However, the shot fired before the explosion had hit its mark eliminated that long-distance threat.

The left arm of the mech was still in place, but the armor plating was now useless. Wolf ejected the damaged plates.

Anna swapped sides with the shield again and grabbed the shotgun that was still floating where she had left it.

The battle raged on until there were only a few human mecha left. Anna and Wolf were nearing the end of their reserve weapons and ammo.

The last five survivors bunched up, back to back. The enemy was closing in. The commanders stopped interfering for some unknown reason. It was only hundreds if not thousands of spare enemy troops closing in. Anna pulled the trigger and nothing came out.

The end was near.

"Wolf…" Anna started. "Activa-"

But they stopped.

A singular unit was let through the crowd of robots. This unit was larger than the rest. The legs were thicker, it had four arms and the head was the size of Wolf's untransformed torso.

"That is th-th-the Adjutant. The leader of this particular invasion force. His species is known for having a greater intellect and a-nd a hatred of anything unfam-familiar." Wolf droned.

"Did he stop them?" Anna asked.

"Most likely," Wolf confirmed.

Wrench popped up on a screen in the corner of Anna's HUD.

"What now? I'm out of ammo. So are the others."

"Let's see what happens." Anna sneered.