Chapter Sixty-Eight – Do Not The Princess

Chapter Sixty-Eight – Do Not The Princess

“Saint-Jérôme is a suburban city located about 45 kilometres northwest of Montreal on the Rivière du Nord. It is part of the North Shore sector of Greater Montreal. It is a gateway to the Laurentian Mountains and its resorts via the Autoroute des Laurentides.”

–Wikimedia Foundation “Saint-Jérôme”, November 2023

“Saint-Jérome is a suburban city located about 60 kilometres northwest of New Montreal on the Rivière du Nord. It is part of the North Shore Defence sector of the New Montreal Anti-Antithesis Pact. It is a gateway to the Laurentian Mountains and its resorts via the Pepsicola Highway.”

–Wikimedia Corporation “Saint-Jérome”, November 2043

***

We rolled into Saint-Jérome with a lot more fanfare than I expected.

In my mind, we were about to cruise into a city that had been fucked up. Sure, we were playing the roles of big damn heroes, but it didn’t mean I expected the locals to give much of a shit.

Instead, we rolled into the city only to be greeted by a crowd swarming on a bridge above the exterior wall of the city. Some thousand-odd people, waving banners and flags and cheering the army’s convoy as we rumbled in.

Crackshot waved at the people above as the mobile base rumbled past and was promptly nailed in the face by someone’s panties.

“We’re a lot more popular than I expected,” I said as I watched it all from within the base. We had access to all of the cameras on the armoured vehicles, and some drones hovering above. It gave a good view of things.

“This city,” General Thibodeau said. “Was almost certainly going to be condemned if we weren’t able to approach. The city itself doesn’t have the pull or money to encourage a large enough PMC presence, not with New Montreal so close. There aren’t enough large corporate interests in the region for them to want to make a difference either. This is just a peaceful little city, with no true worth beyond being a place with a few hundred thousand consumers.”

“What would have happened, then?” I asked.

“The city’s citizens would be told to evacuate further, to New Montreal itself.”

I blinked. “It took us two days to get here. I mean, we’re moving at a snail’s pace, someone driving straight could make it in a few hours, but… wait, how far is New Montreal from here? Like, the outermost wall?”

“Sixty kilometres,” the general said.

I stared. “You, uh, mean sixty… thousand? Or you forgot a zero?”

He frowned in turn. “No? It’s sixty kilometres to the south of here.”

I turned to the holotank, then took control of it and zoomed out. I could see the place where the army had stopped for the night, and the route back, and… yup, that was 60 whole kilometres. “How in the fuck did this take us two days?”

“The first day was mostly getting things organised,” Gomorrah said. “I wouldn’t count today as a second day, it’s not even noon yet.”

“What kind of speed are we moving at?” I asked.

“We average about five kilometres an hour,” the general said.

“That’s walking speed!” I said. “There can’t have been traffic, we have tanks!”

The general shrugged. “We’re moving at the same pace as our slowest units. Some of our heavy armoured vehicles move at a snail’s pace.”

I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Gomorrah reached over and patted me on the back. “This is the speed in which armies work,” she said.

“It’s so slow,” I said.

“Miss Stray Cat likes going fast, then?” Princess asked.

I felt my spine straightening. God, that girl was rubbing me the wrong way. She was smiling, all teeth, and it was creeping me right out. “Let’s get ready to hop out,” I said. “Gomorrah, want to take, ah, Princess and Hedgehog and take the west flank? I’ll go out with Crackshot and Knight, we’ll slip around the east. Tankette can stay with the armoured division?”

The last was aimed at the general who nodded. “Certainly. I’m positive the tankers will take a liking to her. Hopefully not too much of one.”

I had no idea what he meant by that, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. “Right,” I said. We were crossing the commercial part of the city, and the drone above was picking out some of the parking-lots-turned-refugee-camps that the general had mentioned earlier.

Princess and Knight were in the middle of a deep, hushed discussion. From the looks of it, my plan to split them up wasn’t going so well. It ended when Princess frowned, grabbed Knight by the gauntlet, and tugged her towards me. “Miss Stray Cat,” she said, this time with none of the weirdness.

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“Yeah?” I asked.

She took a deep breath. “I’ll let you borrow my sister,” she said. “But only if you promise to keep her safe.”