Antiseptic

Lasers glanced off nearby rocks, sintering them immediately. Everything smelled like molten glass. Dust swirled through the air making an inescapable haze. The neon shops and patchwork streetlights blended into a rainbow tapestry of flickering distractions. In the distance, dark figures advanced slowly. I nuzzled my cheek into my rifle, peered, fired, reloaded. One of the shapes fell, but the others continued their inhuman movements.

I squinted through the scope again. They all seemed differently shaped. Arms and legs in a random assortment of configurations. Bodies of smooth black plastic. Weapons in place of their head. I fired and watched with satisfaction as yet another machine splintered into fragments. These things were cheap. But low cost meant high volume, and they just kept coming.

Their weapons finished charging and they fired another volley. I ducked just a little too slowly. My cheek erupted in searing hot pain. My ear was gone. I could feel burn marks on my face and neck. I staggered backwards into the alley, tripped, and fell to the side. My wounded face was pressed against the filthy city cement and it stung and stung.

I looked towards the beastly soldiers. Their weapons were nearing a charge. I lugged my gun over to my other shoulder. I didn’t even need the scope now. Their bodies loomed clear and shiny out of the chemical gloom. Their gate was stochastic, but their bodies floated forward, stabilized by machine learning and years of tyranny on foreign soil. I squeezed the trigger and felt the jet black shards cascade across my body as yet another frame erupted into dust.

No matter how many fell, they would just keep marching. I wished desperately for a grenade, but I had none. They fired again, aiming at me and everywhere else. I was fatally cauterized from head to toe.