Chapter Forty – Rooftop

Chapter Forty – Rooftop

“The Samurai have developed a sort of community among themselves. At a first glance, this seems perfectly reasonable.

The truth though, is a lot more complicated than that, and quite a bit darker.”

–Professor Stephenson, Boston University, Late 2039

***

The room with the AA gun was… something else. I’d seen some high-tech looking places on my media feeds, of course. Who hadn’t? But stepping past the door next to Longbow’s screen was like walking into another world. The walls were covered in computers and gantries and little machines that were all hovering, literally, around a machine in the centre.

The thing in the centre had a large glass dome built into its front covering two dozen camera and sensor-looking things. Two long forked cannons pointed ahead next to it. Railguns, if I had to guess. Beneath those were a pair of gatling cannons with barrels as big around as my wrist. There were more guns around it, smaller ones mounted on arms that looked like they could point in any direction.

It was like looking at the physical manifestation of overkill.

And it was stuck here, completely useless.

I wondered how many aliens the thing could have killed if it had been deployed at the start of the incursion.

“When do I get to play with something like that?” I asked.

Most of the loading and repair systems are Class I. The railguns are Class II, the gatling guns are Class I. Longbow’s assertion that this cost approximately thirty-thousand points wasn’t wrong. There are a lot of smaller parts from a variety of catalogues here. I suspect it will take you some weeks to be able to afford something like this if you did nothing but focus on it to the detriment of all else.

Damn. “Right. I can salivate over Longbow’s toys later.”

“Can I keep a recording of you saying that?” Longbow’s voice said across the room.

I jumped about a foot in the air.

“And a recording of you jumping just there?” he replied with a laugh.

“Fucking hell,” I said as I looked around. “Where are you?’

“California, I have a nice penthouse here. But if you mean where in the room, there are a dozen speakers and some mics here and there.”

I shook my head. “I swear, if I find a vid online of my saying anything like that, I’ll find you, and then I’ll kick your ass.”

Longbow laughed. “Right, right. Fair enough. I wouldn’t wanna ruin your rep so soon anyway. Roof access is at the back. Do you have anything to move the car?”

“I’ve got bombs?” I said.

“That’ll do! Good luck, Stray Kitty!” The speakers shut off with a clunk before I had time to tell him off for being an ass.

He wasn’t all that bad a guy, which just made it harder to be pissed at him.

“Are all Samurai like that?” I asked.

Of course not. All Vanguard are quite unique. Though the criteria by which a Vanguard is chosen does mean that they will usually be amicable towards others like them. There are entire communities of Vanguard who work closely together.

“Cute,” I said.

You don’t have to join any of those, of course. More than half of all Vanguard work on their own while still keeping in contact with others. The ‘lone wolf’ is rather common among the chosen.

I found the roof access at the back, just like Longbow had said I would. It was a heavy door, with a wheel in its centre that I had to press all of my weight against to turn.