TBoB - Book 8 - Chapter 4 - Departure (Patreon)

“I really wish you’d consider stopping in Seattle,” Macy grumbled. “With everything that happened, the Sisterhood and I never had a chance to treat you to dinner.”

“While we were busy, and while I appreciate the invite, I doubt that I would have been able to keep up with the rest of you,” I replied to the miniature hologram hovering in front of me. “I’ll make sure I make time to meet you all the next time I stop by.”“And when will that be?” Macy huffed.

“Well, if history is anything to go by, there’ll probably be some huge crisis somewhere on the west coast in the next six months or so,” I grumbled. “Even if it doesn’t, I feel like we should try and arrange a meeting with as many of the west coast samurai as we can, to discuss everything that’s happened in the last two years. Both to fill in those that went to Mars, and figure out if there’s a better way to coordinate during a crisis.”“We can barely coordinate within our own city; I really doubt we’ll be able to coordinate with everyone on the West Coast,” Macy muttered. 

“You may be right. I know there are a lot of samurai who are just as interested in playing politics as they are fighting the Antithesis, but there are a few of us who only care about pulling weeds. Who knows what’ll happen if we manage to all sit down together,” I said. “When are you heading back to town?”

“I’m planning on hanging out on the Destiny with Alise and Claire until they head back to town,” Macy replied. “I may not have my boat, but I’m one of the fastest water-bound samurai around, so I figured I’d stick around and just patrol the area until the clean-up finished. Just in case.”

“Well, I wish you luck,” I said. “If you ever decide to take some time off, and you’re near Calgary, feel free to give me a call. I’ll take you to dinner.”

“I may just take you up on that offer,” she replied, smiling wide enough to show off her sharp, shark-like teeth. “Take care of yourself.”“You too,” I replied before waving my hand over the control panel of the strategic holo table and ending the call. I took a step back, resting my back against the glass wall, and let out a long sigh before finally rousing myself and heading towards the door. 

“Finish all your goodbyes?” Spooky asked as I stepped out of the planning room and onto Bear Force One’s bridge.

“Yeah, finally,” I muttered as I wandered towards the forward window where the bear was standing. “You know, I never realized just how many people I met down here until I started saying my goodbyes. I expected to take twenty minutes, half an hour tops, not be here all morning.” 

“Twenty minutes? I know you’re not great at small talk, but you are required to perform a minimal amount of small talk when saying goodbye to someone,” Spooky said.

“Well, I realize that now,” I grumbled. “And it was more than I thought I’d only have to make one or two calls, but kept thinking of more and more people to call.” I walked up to where the little grey bear was standing, his hands clasped firmly behind his back and looked out the massive window at the front of the bridge. 

From here you could see almost the entire topside of Bear Force One. The massive vessel matched the old naval aircraft carriers for size and had enough firepower to level most modern megacities. Not that I’d ever consider doing something like that. 

“I still need to plug a pair of UHRs into the dorsal heavy turret,” I muttered. “I’d completely forgotten.”“It’s not like we’ve ever needed something so strong on the ship’s topside,” Spooky grunted. “With the exception of that huge gassbag the Gene Tender released at the climax of our siege on the Phobos hive, we haven’t encountered a single Antithesis that our light defensive turrets couldn’t take care of. Even if there was something strong enough to board the ship, we still have the dorsal Shard Storm cannons.”

“Yeah, and I guess if something strong enough did manage to land on the hull, we wouldn’t want to fire a UHR at it anyway. Not if we wanted to keep the hull intact,” I chuckled. 

“Please don’t joke about that,” Spooky grumbled. “I feel like I have to constantly monitor the gunnery crew during a battle, just to make sure they don’t accidentally cause damage by firing something and then hitting an ally or building when the round inevitably penetrates.”

“Come on, I know our standard bots aren’t the smartest, but I’d like to think they’re smart enough to check that they’re not going to accidentally hit something behind their primary target,” I said.

“Sure, they connect to the ship's sensors and do a visual check, but they don’t connect to the recon troops to check the status of the subterranean tunnel systems. During the siege of Great Falls, I had to take direct command and redirect their attacks to prevent them from collapsing the tunnel systems our troops were assaulting,” Spooky said.

“Ahhh… yeah, we have enough problems dealing with the Antithesis; we don’t need friendly fire incidents on top of that,” I said, rubbing my chin. “You know, between your problems with the gunners and the underwater disaster, where we lost several squads of bots because they were out of comm range and couldn’t get updates, I’ve realized it’s probably about time that I started installing some Class III AI cores in some bots. I doubt I could afford the blueprint, but I might be able to afford to get each of you an assistant or subcommander. Lighten the load on you all.”“Although I’d appreciate it, can you afford that?” Spooky asked.

“Honestly? I think that entirely depends on how much the Gene Tender was worth. I’ll check with Nyx after we’re done here,” I said. “So, what’s our status? Are we good to go?”

“We are. The Kodiaks finished the last of their deliveries, and they’ve all returned to the ship,” he replied. “I’ve left the Ursas out on patrol because their top speed is so much higher, and we don’t have an urgent need for them. They’ll return once we start moving.” The bear went quiet for several long seconds, staring out the window. “So, what happened with Heavy? I thought he was supposed to be rebooted first thing this morning.”“He was, but when I talked to the Beaver this morning, they said even though there wouldn’t be any problem booting the big bear, it might be better if you and the others were around when he’s brought back online. Give his systems a little bit of an emotional push, which will give him a better chance of awakening his original personality,” I explained. “While I really want to see him up and running again, all our forces are now out of combat, so there’s no need to rush the process. I’d rather wait until everyone’s back and do what’s best for him.”

“And I’m sure both he and the others will appreciate that,” Spooky said quietly. “So, what are your orders? Shall we get underway?”

“Absolutely. The others are waiting for us,” I said. “Set course for their position. I’ll start rearranging the flight deck to make room for the rest of our forces. While I don’t think we’ll have a problem handling our ground forces, we still need to send the heavy lifters to pick up all the Bear-a-cade walls and the Mauler. I’m honestly not sure if we have enough room for all those wall sections… maybe I should give Wild and Mud a call to see if they want to keep them.”“Even if they don’t, I’m sure they’ll fit. They’re designed to collapse down for easy storage, and we do have an area for them on the far side of the flight deck. We might have to squeeze the Kodiaks and Ursas a little bit closer together, but it shouldn’t be a problem. The bears are capable of robotic precision after all.”“Yeah, but I’m not,” I grumbled. “When you’re trying to fit everything together like puzzle pieces, all it takes is one mistake and suddenly we have a multi-vehicle pile-up in the middle of the hangar.” “Eh, a little hull damage isn’t going to hurt anything. And if the crash is significant enough to cause damage, we can just throw everything into one of the assemblers to be rebuilt. Plus, parking two vehicles on top of each other saves space,” Spooky said with a small smile.

“I’m glad you find this so funny,” I grumbled, turning towards the stairs at the far side of the bridge. “Call me once we get closer to the rendezvous point,” I called over my shoulder. “You know where I’ll be.”There was a subtle change in the background hum, and the ship shifted slightly as it slowly started turning towards the mountains in the distance. Even though I was several dozen feet away by this time, I just barely heard Spooky mutter under his breath. “Weigh anchor, set course for the rendezvous point, and steady as she goes.”