Chapter Sixty-Seven - Becoming Strong Enough

“How many samurai does it take to defend a city from an incursion?

At least one.

They just need to be strong enough.”

--Menage a Trois, after the Quebec City Incursion of 2035

***

“Now what?” I asked as I looked over the burning city.

Gomorrah shifted. “I’ve turned off the heat generator. It’ll still continue to spread for a while, but without an actual source, it should all slow down.”

I nodded along. That was probably for the best. Didn’t want to see New Montreal burning down because we’d left the oven on. “I’m guessing all of this is going to have some sort of consequence, isn’t it?”

“Maybe,” Gomorrah said. “We might have found an effective way of wiping a hive out without too many horrible side-effects.”

A shorter skyscraper nearer to the middle of the burn twisted, its frame, which was visible since the rest had burned off, bent like cooked spaghetti noodles under the weight of the rest of the building. The rumble didn’t even reach us atop the wall. “I’m not so sure about the lack of side-effects,” I said.

“Oh, we’ve destroyed half a city, sure, but there’s no nuclear radiation, no dangerous biological matter, and once the area cools down in... a week or two, then it’ll technically be inhabitable again. They might even be able to scrape off the melted metal and recycle some of it.”

I hummed. “Yeah, I get it. Can’t imagine deploying this kind of thing all over the place though. Plus most hives will be underground, right?”

Actually, hives in non-contested areas tend to be out in the open. Or nearly so. It makes it easier for antithesis drones to bring materials to the hive and for the hive itself to collect energy from the sun and wind.

“So, what, we burn the planet, root out the buried hives afterwards?” I asked.

Only if you wish to make the planet’s environment entirely uninhabitable. The heat bomb you deployed today will increase the planet-wide temperature for the day by a sizable fraction of a percent. Not enough to be directly dangerous, but if repeated it may be enough to destabilise the planetary ecology.

“We’ll try not to burn the entire planet,” Gomorrah said. It didn’t sound as reassuring as she hoped, not coming from an obvious pyromaniac. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m wearing a helmet, you can’t see my expression,” I pointed out.

“I can read body language,” she said. “And no, I won’t burn down the planet just to see a big fire. I live on this planet. My favourite things are here. It’s also, possibly, against my religion. Though I suppose that part’s up to debate.”

“Let’s not,” I said. There were few things I wanted less than that kind of debate. “So... now what?”

Gomorrah sighed. “We call Laserjack and get an update on the situation? He should know more than we do about what’s going on, or so I hope. Then we find the next fires to put out.”

I nodded, then with a few flicks through my augs I set up a conference call with Laserjack, Gomorrah, myself and Crackshot Cowboy. He might have missed the last part at the end there, but he’d done his share and in his shoes I wouldn’t want to be left out of the loop.

“Uh, hi?” Crackshot said. He was the first to reply. “Is everything alright?”

“We’re fine,” I said. “Back atop the wall. Just a bit warmed up.” That was an understatement. My armour was still smoking lightly. I think it was mostly just heat dissipating off the metal.

“Hah! I felt that from here. Regret not wearing my sunscreen today,” he said, rather jovially for someone talking about a city being lit up. Then again, I guess not being near the burn radius was a good enough reason to be in a good mood.

The line clicked and Laserjack picked up. “Hello,” he said. “Sorry for the delay there, I... well, you can imagine how hectic things are.”

“Hey,” I said.

“Hello,” Gomorrah replied.

“First, before anything else, I just want to thank you. That was a nice job out there,” he said.

“No problem,” I replied, smoothing over the fact that I’d nearly cooked myself. “Just happy to see the city a little safer.”

“Well, the city will appreciate it, I’m sure,” he said. “We had several countermeasures ready to go, but we’ll be deploying those further away from the city now. Jolly Monarch’s King drone is about to start a sweep around New Montreal. It should gain us a fair amount of space to work with.”

“Wait, do you mean that we didn’t need to do that?” I asked.

“Cat’s right, I was under the impression that things were dire,” Gomorrah said.

Laserjack was quiet for a few seconds longer than I’d expect before he replied. “Honestly, no. Things were never that dire. The city has several decently high ranked samurai in it. Any one of us could have repelled the horde on our own. I’m sorry if you were unaware. We should have made that clearer, it would prevent the possibility of taking greater risks.”

“Then why?” I asked. I couldn’t decide if I was pissed or not.

“Because it gave you an opportunity to grow,” he said. “The three of you and all the other low-tier samurai in New Montreal. You likely had the chance to earn more points today than in your entire career. With the global situation being what it is, we might all have to rely on one of you to protect an entire city. You need that head start and that added experience to be able to do that.”

I crossed my arms, but I decided to be the bigger person about it and keep my anger in check, even if Laserjack was pouring water onto my head.

“Think of it as a quick way to grow. Plenty of new points, lots of opportunities to test new weapons and weapons platforms. Even whatever mistakes you made can now be corrected before you’re being relied on to secure a city on your own. Gomorrah, Stray Cat, you’re both well on your way to being tier-three samurai. I’m afraid you haven’t had quite as much time to grow, Crackshot cowboy, but your time will come.”

“Ah, uh, thanks, sir,” Jimothy said.

“Anyway. Get some rest. All three of you,” Laserjack said. “I can’t give you orders, but I can give you advice. You need rest. Things will get worse before they get better, so take the time you can now to catch up on sleep, to buy new gear, and to relax. You’ll appreciate it later.”

I glanced back and up. The sky was turning to night already. I hadn’t noticed it, being so close to the glow of the city and with the many pillars of smoke obscuring the sky more than usual. “So, we get a night off, huh?” I asked.

“No. A day. I’ve seen your records, what’s public at least. You’ve been a samurai for barely more than a week, with no more than half a day of inaction in that entire time. Your AI hasn’t flagged you for burn out or anything of the sort, so I imagine you could keep going for a while, but this global incursion might last longer than that and we don’t need you losing your edge before things get really complicated.” Laserjack chuckled darkly. “Don’t worry. There will be plenty more aliens to kill once you’re done.”

I wanted to argue. It would feel... wrong to stop. But then, yeah, I could use a day off. Just time with Lucy, with the kittens, getting used to the new place. I probably had enough points to furnish the whole home in expensive alien stuff.

“Thank you, Laserjack,” Gomorrah said.

“I, ah, I think I’m going to stick with the PMCs for a bit,” Crackshot said. “I haven’t done as much as you two. My bit’s not as big, so I won’t get tired just yet. I can take it.”

“That seems reasonable for now, just remember to take a break before you break,” Laserjack said. “Call me if there’s anything. If I can’t answer right away, well, the world’s ending, but I’ll call back as soon as I can.”

And with that, the line went dead, at least with him. “Nice fella,” Crackshot said. “On that note, thank you ladies, but I’ve got to run to keep up. I need a minute to buy a few things before we set out. See ya!”

We said our quick goodbyes, then it was just me and Gomorrah.

“So,” I said.

“Yes,” Gomorrah said. She reached up, then paused before touching her mask. “My god, I’m going to have to talk to Franny.”

I grinned. “I’m sure it won’t be too bad,” I said. I didn’t want to pry into my... best friend’s love life... but I one-hundred percent wanted to pry. “If you need help, Lucy’s awesome with romance stuff. She’s discreet too.” Which meant she wouldn’t tell anyone but me.

Gomorrah sighed. “Want me to drop you off?”

“Did you want to drive out of your way so that it would take longer to get back home to confront Franny?” I asked.

“Shut up, Cat.”

***