Chapter Sixty-Four – Anti-Antithesis-Anti-Air

Chapter Sixty-Four – Anti-Antithesis-Anti-Air

“Orbital defences aren’t an option anymore. They’re a necessity. I understand that there are political frictions involved with planting weapons past low Earth orbit, but for the safety and security of our nation and people, we must prepare to receive the alien threat as far from land as possible, and that means installations in outer space!”

–General Whitacker to the US Congress, 2023

***

“Hey, boss, what’s the plan?” Gros Baton asked, leaning lazily against the doorframe of the Big Gun’s command room. His call had caught the attention of the others.

I looked around. We were all here, it seemed, with one extra, even in the form of Emoscythe. Tankette was still making her way over while wiping her hands on a small tank-patterned towelette. She was close enough to hear, though.

A quick check of my augs showed me that we were a few minutes shy of six in the evening. When had the time flown? Also, had I skipped lunch? I couldn’t remember if I’d eaten anything since that poutine earlier, and that was like, overnight.

Right, people were expecting shit from me, and I couldn’t just sit here and bitch about being hungry, even if I really wanted to. “Alright boys, girls and Grasshopper,” I said.

Grasshopper giggled, so I figured that one had landed.

“We’ve got more news, which sucks because I’m tired of this constant cycle of having to deliver news, then something weird happening, then having to deliver more news again right after. It’s a boring circle. Fortunately, the boring circle will be busted up soon. The Family has their panties all knotted up, but I think they’re getting their shit together too. They’re laying out a grid of samurai to keep an eye on the skies and knock the aliens down.”

“A grid?” Hedgehog asked. “What kind, and what are our numbers?”

I checked the thing Gomorrah had sent me. “We’re up to a hundred and forty-eight samurai volunteering, which is pretty decent. The spacing is… awful. We’re covering the entire hemisphere, which means a lot of space between points on the grid. The bigger cities mostly have locals staying in them to keep them safe, and they usually have their own AA so there’s that.”

“There are hardly all that many cities in this hemisphere,” Crackshot said. “I reckon NM’s the biggest here, then Quebec to the east and a few more south of us, but the north is wide open. The west has some pretty big gaps too.”

“It’s a problem, yeah,” I agreed. “The nice thing is that no one sane lives in the north, so fuck it. If the aliens crash there, that’s on them. They can eat snow or whatever.”

“They’ll need to be taken care of,” Grasshopper said. “Just because a problem isn’t right in front of you doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. The antithesis will have to be dealt with, even if they’re not landing right on top of us.”

“Well, that’s where we’re lucky,” I said. “Because they definitely are landing right on top of us. Got the projections from our German pals. They did the maths and we’re right smack-dab in the centre of the shitshow, and it’s probably safe to say that this is where most of the aliens will be coming. We have almost a day before it’s raining plants.”

“So what’s the plan?” Gros Baton asked. He pointedly looked up to the sky, where it was a bit overcast. “Tire le ciel?”

“If Phobos is already fucked, we can probably use the Big Gun a few times to shoot into the swarm,” I said. “Does Earth have any orbital defences?”

“A few, yes,” Gomorrah said. “There are some stations in orbit that belong to various samurai. You’ll recall Deus Ex’s station.”

“That’s the kind of thing I was thinking about, yeah,” I said. I could still remember just… going into space on one of Deus Ex’s planes and arriving at her station. I was pretty sure it was in low Earth orbit, not space, but I was also sure that I was the last person that should be discussing the difference between one and the other. “Her station had guns on it, right?”

“She’s taken it to Mars,” Gomorrah said.

“Wow, top-tier samurai are amazing,” Princess said.

“Yeah, it’s a whole other thing,” I agreed. “And Deus Ex isn’t the only samurai with a station, right? There has to be more? And if they left them behind, then that might knock some aliens out before they hit the atmo.”

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“I wouldn’t gamble on a few stations being enough,” Hedgehog said. “Though this entire incursion and the Phobos situation might be the last kick that the governments and corps need to start building real orbital defences. They’ve been talking about it for thirty years.”

“Budget issues?” I asked.