Chapter Twenty-Two – Jolly Old Day Job

Chapter Twenty-Two – Jolly Old Day Job

“A lot of people, when they talk about the ideal samurai load-out or specialisation, tend to suggest mass automation. Things like drone armies or reproducible nanoweapons.

It’s strange that despite the number of samurai that do have some automated drones at their disposal, very few actually focus on using those.”

–Spacefight Versus Forums, 2041

***

One of the first things I did on waking up was check the interactive map.

The antithesis hadn’t been sleeping much, it seemed. The orange blobs representing their positions had grown to cover almost twice the space they had the night before, and now there were a few red dots here and there.

If it doubled again, it was possible that they’d manage to encircle the entire city. As it was, the blobs were spread out into long tendrils, often poking out from one big area and reaching out in a dozen directions. I could almost see a pattern there.

Then, of course, I squeezed in closer to Lucy and opened a few media apps to doomscroll the night’s news.

A few cities had been hit already. Some had had terrible problems with evacuations. Washington was taken over by protesters from some anti-doomsday cult who were chanting that the antithesis were all made up. The forests around Los Angeles were on fire, because why not, and Mexico City’s arcology had shattered.

Shit was hitting the fan all over.

I sighed.

And it was my job to stop that.

I got up, figured that I’d showered once in the last twelve hours and didn’t need a second even if I’d been rather active last night, got my clothes on, then stepped into my armour.

Lucy was laying down on a heap of blankets, one bare leg uncovered while the rest of her hugged the spot I’d been on a moment before.

I took a picture before sneaking my way out of the room.

A few of the kittens were up and about downstairs, but they were mostly preoccupied with making a mess of the place. I told them off, maybe tossed a few threats around, then headed outside.

It was, of course, raining. Because we couldn’t have a nice day of sunshine to go with the invasion. I called over my hoverbike while adjusting my coat against the constant weak drizzle. I bet a bunch of corporations were having a field day pumping the production on their factories while inspectors and the like were too busy preparing for the invasion.

My bike came to a stop before me and I climbed on and shot up into the air.

It was just shy of noon, and the city below looked like it always did, as if the invasion was an afterthought. The banner ads on the sides of skyscrapers would warn people to stay home, but only between ads for new hair gels and some celebrity porn sites.

Sighing, I opened the map and started looking for a place where I’d be useful.

Catherine, there’s a mid-urgency call for assistance at this location.

Myalis highlighted a part of the city to the west. A long stretch of road where a smaller city was set up. It was almost big enough that its suburbs merged into New Montreal’s. The priority alert was just on the outskirts of that, away from New Montreal.

“What’s going on there?” I asked. There was a pin there, with an exclamation mark and a tag saying that one samurai was present.

In summary, a large convoy of supplies gathered from a collection of smaller settlements to the west is heading to New Montreal. The convoy has attracted a lot of attention from the antithesis, and is being followed. The Family suspect that this formation of antithesis might be the first proper wave in this incursion, at least if it isn’t stopped.

“What makes it a wave or whatever?” I asked as I turned my bike that way. That sounded like a good spot to make some points from.

A wave is a colloquial term for when a large body of antithesis all start moving towards a singular objective or area. Often these will run into small groups who will join the larger formation.