Chapter Sixty-Three

***

I shifted in bed, staring up at the ceiling even as I opened my augs fully and read over the messages. There was a handy return option that brought me back to my last read message.

Mostly there were a few texts in the group chat between Hedgehog and Crisis Mode, confirming that she was somewhere safe. He wasn’t a bad dude, really. Then there were some reports, copied over from the army. Scouting reports and the like.

At about eleven or so, more reports were copied over. The army was pulling a lot of troops back from the walls to handle the riots. 

Riots, because they’d crossed over that invisible line from protest to riot at some point. Fuck, I’d have to look into why. I had expected us to have a few more days to calm shit down. Actually... while it was still hot. “Myalis, what sparked the riots?” I muttered.

Multiple factors. A modern riot is not a simple creature that can be explained by pointing to any single spark. It’s more that a collection of individuals independently decided to push things to the next level, and once a few start, others copy. 

In this case, however, I think I can point to three minor incidents. First, a response by corporate security in downtown Quebec escalated. Several members of a protesting crowd were injured and others were killed.

“Great,” I muttered.

Next, a chain of popular automated convenience stores shut down. I’m afraid that I can trace that back to your actions, as one of the CEOs you forced into the militia was the owner of that operation, with the chain of leadership broken there was a set of confusing, contradictory orders given that eventually triggered a shutdown of the stores. That is over 300 locations across the city, in 62 mega buildings, where food and essentials were cut off with no warning.

“Fuck.”

Third is a counter revolutionary movement, a leftover of a former politically active group whose members have been primed to cause disturbances for a while decided to act. They targeted several politically sensitive locations with attacks overnight.

I rubbed at my face. More to figure out. But that probably wasn’t the red alert. A few small riots? Most cities had one of those every six to nine months. The timing was ass, but it couldn’t be all. So I kept scrolling, and then my blood went cold.

“Cat?” Lucy asked as I shuffled out of bed. I was already looking for something to wear. 

“Sorry, Lucy,” I muttered. I found pants, but where were my underwear? They’d gotten lost at some point last night. I grunted and shifted the covers around until I found them. “I, uh, might have to head out.”

“It’s... it’s only four?” she asked, obviously still on the edge of sleep and a little confused.

“I know. Sorry. Just rest, we’ll talk in a bit.”

I got dressed, hopping around on one leg as I pulled my pants on and looked for my boots next. No, wait, undersuit first, dammit. I couldn’t afford to go out half-equipped.

The news hadn’t stopped with the riots. That was bad, sure, but it wasn’t anything that wouldn’t blow over. Most rioters needed sleep too, and the city had cops and corporate enforcement and so on. They’d be able to handle it.

But the army had still been dispatched to help, mostly because things were getting out of hand. People had started fires, some of them bad. 

And then the aliens attacked, which was exactly the kind of sentence that usually came when shit hit the fan nowadays.

They didn’t come from the north east, the direction we’d cleared. Instead the push had come from the north and north west. One massive push, in the dead of night.

The reports I had were fragmented, but Hedgehog, or his AI, had summed them up. A large number of Model Elevens, the bigger cousins of the little flying Model Ones, had swarmed over the wall, ignoring the AA fire taking them out to attack the artillery emplacements behind the wall.

Then the walls themselves were hit while people were moving around. Lots of artillery, lots of swarming models that were smaller and more agile. More concerningly, they had reports of Model Nines all over the place. The smart little mimic-like aliens. 

The northern wall was falling.

It wasn’t fallen. That difference was pretty fucking key at the moment, because it meant that someone could come in and plug the holes. That someone wasn’t Hedgehog or Crisis Mode. Both were on the ground already. Princess and Knight were near the city, serving as a deeper line of defence, back to the riots that were still not under control.

I placed a call. It took a few rings for Shy to pick up. “Hm?” she asked.

“Hey, sorry for waking you up,” I said. “We have a situation, are you down for a quick trip back to Quebec? We might have to run over and put out some fires.”

“Oh. Give me a moment.”

I couldn’t hear anything over the line, but that was fine, the quiet gave me some time to find my boots. I glanced back, and Lucy was slowly crawling her way to the edge of the bed. Her hair was a mess, and she looked bleary-eyed and ready to fall back asleep at a moment’s notice.

I moved over, helped her lay down correctly, then tugged the blankets back up. “Just sleep,” I said. “I might need you at one-hundred percent later. Okay?” I leaned down and gave her forehead a quick peck.

And then I was off getting ready again. When Shy returned I almost jumped. “I’m ready,” she said. “I looked. Um. Things are bad.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “My place? As soon as you can?”

“I’ll be there soon.”

She hung up, so I made another call. This time it was Gomorrah who replied. “Yes, Catherine?” she asked. She sounded fully awake.

“We have a situation, are you down for a quick trip back to Quebec? We might have to run over and start some fires,” I repeated my spiel with a minor change.

“I’m almost ready,” she said. “I was following Hedgehog’s reports already. I didn’t expect things to degenerate so quickly. I’m going to head out now, but I’ve called the Family already. We might get some reinforcements soon.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Sam-O-Ray is available. I haven’t gotten confirmations from anyone else yet, but it is very early,” she said.

Sam-O-Ray? I hadn’t been him in a hot minute. Wasn’t he supposed to help us... no, nevermind. I wouldn’t say no to any additional help. “Might call the army as well.”

“I’ll do that on the flight over,” Gomorrah said. “I’m getting in the Fury now. I hope you don’t mind me flying ahead. Oh, one moment... Atyacus, yes, exactly. Thank you.”

I blinked as something came in through my augs. A rather small file. SERAPHINA.Key. “What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s the key to my mech. Just to drive it out of the Bastion. Leave it somewhere logical, would you?”

“Got it,” I said.

Fuck, my mechs! I had so many repairs left to do.

I hung up then groaned. “Myalis, I need two things,” I said.

I’m listening.

“Get the repair drones into the Bastion, would you? I’ll be down there in five, but they might be able to fix something. I’ll buy a few more, uh... and I need a good energy drink.”

New Purchase: Hyper-caffine energy drink

Points Reduced to: 12,420

Not bad. “And... just a couple of small repair drones that won’t take up too much room in the Bastion. Just... maintenance, you know?”

I can find something like that. How does two hundred points each sound?

“Fair enough.”

New Purchase: Compact Autonomous Technician X2

Points Reduced to: 12,020

I sighed as I read the name. “Were you even trying with that one?”

I lowered myself to a you-appropriate level of subtlety.

The two drones appeared in a large-ish box at my feet. The box was about knee-high, and long. When I opened it, a pair of CATs jumped out. They were robotic, of course, with faces covered in sensors and with a speaker-grill for a mouth. Their back had a dozen mechanical tentacles coming out of it with various tools on the ends. The two CATs circled around me as I finished getting dressed and equipped, then they followed me down the elevator to the garage floor.

I jogged over to the Bastion and both of them peeled off, clunking up the ramp towards the BOBCAT and MEOW.

Good enough. I had some time to get pre-flights checked out and maybe move some materials around before Shy arrived.

And then we’d be flying out to what was hopefully a city that still stood.

***