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president to support your military venture. How did you do it? Convinced some of your friends from the arms industry to fund the president's next campaign? Some sick super-PAC magic?"
    Taurus kept his voice cool, because he knew: those who lost it, truly lost it.
    "I used the most powerful weapon on Earth."
    The representative's right eyebrow cocked. Taurus squeezed the silence out of the moment. He wanted to savor every bit.
    "Logic. Filled with the armor-piercing ammunition called facts."
    "Very funny."
    The woman averted her eyes and marched away. Taurus watched her defeat with glee as he waved her goodbye in a melodramatic way.
    "When you negotiate with your soulless shells, tell them the AC Marines remember."
    The representative rolled her eyes and flipped him off in the distance.
    Little schmuck, Taurus thought and wiped his hands.
    Now he had to find the perfect candidate for the mission.
    Whom was he kidding—he had the perfect person already in mind…

12
     
    Fuck these Newtards.
    Bellrock pressed his armor against the wooden barricade as the flood of bullets impacted the other side. 
    Twap, twap, twap.
    The rounds battered his five inch layer of protection.
    "Cover me, goddamn it," he said into the commlink, which fizzled with interference. 
    Bravo Delta II responded with hesitation.
    "Sir, I'm pinned down."
    Not you, too, Bellrock thought.
    He checked the digital ammo counter of his standard issue, flechette-based combat rifle: twenty-one rounds left. Plus three thirty round magazines inside the mag pouches of his urban camouflage, medium-armor suit. Enough to cause a ruckus, enough to win against this Newtard fireteam, trying to give him hell. Bellrock peeked past his barricade and saw two of them rushing next to the crates on the other side.
    Four in total, splitting up.
    Damn bastards tried to flank him again.
    Not in this dimension.
    "JD, I'm going to flush them out with a smart bang. Cover my ass and go suppressive."
    JD, a heavy assault, carried a Stryker LMG with enough firepower to mow down a battalion. Sure, the 10.5 kg firearm weighed him down, which made him a terrible front runner but a perfect support unit. Bellrock primed his smoke grenade, threw the cylinder-shaped device over his barricade and watched the sucker bounce off the far away crates, spreading the clouds with a bang.
    Gotcha. 
    He flipped on his thermal vision, selected auto-fire and burst around the cover spot. He fired during the run, which meant accuracy was a bitch, even with the digital stabilizer set on max, but Bellrock didn't care. He unleashed volley after volley into the silhouettes spreading through the cloud he had just released. Two suckers cracked down under the fire, two scrambled for cover and wanted to return shots when JD's suppressive bullet flood rained down on them.  The 'poor' Newtype had no choice but to stay ducked, when Bellrock jumped into their cover line, switched to his scattergun and pumped the pellets into the pinned down soldiers. 
    One pump for you, boom.
    One pump for you, fruit.
    Double-action deluxe. 
    The two downed like tanks in the water. Two more head crosses added to Bellrock's HUD, but this wasn't over yet. The leader was still alive, hiding behind his final barricade.
    Head down, confidence lost. 
    The shell snuck behind the best cover spot of them all, but he was outgunned now. 
    Bellrock called all three of his remaining team mates and told them to advance toward the final spot. They took position behind the crates and eyed the final row of sandbags that divided them from winning. The Newtype leader hunkered down and sighed in his cranky voice.
    "Since I'm the last survivor, I speak on behalf of all the Newtype in my team. We lost, you win. It's over."
    Behind Bellrock's cover, JD looked up.
    "So that's it?"
    Bellrock shook his head.
    "It's over when every single one of them is down."
    He ordered his team to commence the final assault.
    A flank attack from both sides, circumnavigating