“Gang politics is very much like actual politics, as in that money is only a viable option until the other side brings a rocket launcher to the discussions. And I intend to be the one bringing two rocket launchers.”

- Overheard quote from the Vice-Lead of Crescent Thorn, before being obliterated by a rocket launcher

We arrived back at the shelter soon after, much to the surprise of the people outside, although when they saw Jenna and the Sentinel behind us they relaxed.

Without a fuss they let us inside, although the Sentinel stayed outside, taking position next to the door. The guards seemed to have mixed emotions about that, but I ignored it, we had other shit to deal with right now.

“Do you want to stay here with the kid? He’s not yours, is he?” I asked Jenna gently, but she shook her head.

“No, he’s not mine. His mom was one of the first who died. Someone had to carry him and I thought I might as well, wasn’t like I had a weapon with me,” she shook her head again, “And no, I don’t want to stay… I… I need points. I want to make sure shit like this doesn’t repeat itself.”

She looked… I didn’t quite know how to put it. There was determination in her eyes, but it hadn’t yet washed away the sorrow she still felt. I was a bit surprised how quickly she bounced back, but I guess that was just something most Samurai naturally do.

In reply I gave her a nod. “Very well. I’ll see about finding someone to take care of him then, Chloe, mind keeping her company for a moment?”

Chloe nodded at me with a smile and gently handed me the kid. I took him gingerly into my arms, then turned to look for Tina.

I didn’t know how much experience with kids she had, but she was someone I trusted and it would keep her busy enough that she didn’t have time to think about taking drugs.

To my surprise I found her near Castas. She was just having some discussion with another joytoy about something regarding… vetting clients?

“Hey?” I asked, looking around, not quite fully aware of what was going on.

The discussions ceased and soon everyone was looking at me. I think my confusion must have shown because Tina gave me a smile.

“We are talking about how to improve our jobs. I know you really dislike how things are at the moment and since Castas put me in charge of making sure everyone is happy and doesn’t do anything stupid, I thought I’d make myself useful.”

I raised an eyebrow and looked at Castas, who shrugged at me. “You told me to keep an eye on her, so that’s what I did. She’s a smart woman, quite scary, actually.”

“Aha…” I muttered, not quite sure how to take this.

“We’ll need to go over some things later, but that can wait for the time being,” he shrugged again, “Figured you would probably come knocking with changes anyway, so might as well get started planning for it. Not like we have much else to do sitting on our arses here.”

My second eyebrow made its way up to meet up with the first, both admiring Castas’ wits. He figured out that with me being a joytoy and having some ideas on how I want the job to be, things would change here anyways, so he made sure he was in the loop and stayed in charge. I smiled at that, he was a smart man.

“Great to hear. I don’t mind you hashing things out, and I’d probably have put Tina in charge anyways. I really can’t be arsed to take care of everything, all I want is going back to my job between killing xenos. Well, I expect I’ll be a bit of an exception in any case, especially when it comes to my rate and pay, but that is something Victor has to worry about.”

“Well,” Tina said with a smirk, “Talking about Vic, I already clued him in. He’s in a different shelter, but he’s up to date. Was quite pissy that I basically took charge, but he relented when I told him you were a Samurai and that you wanted the changes done. I expect he’ll shoot you a message soon.”

I snorted, I could quite visibly imagine his face when he got the news. Vic was… he was an okay man. He had put quite some reasonable rules into place and even if he allowed joytoys to be basically drugged until they do whatever you want them to, at least the joytoys knew about that shit before they signed up and consented. In a legal sense, anyway. I didn’t really like him on a personal level, he could be a bit aggressive in his tone, but it wasn’t that I disliked him either.

I shook my head, “Anyway. I came here because we found a kid that was wounded and needs help. Wanted to ask Tina to take care of him, but I guess you’ll be busy?”

She shook her head, “I can take care of him.”

“Good,” I said with a nod, then gently handed him over, “Uh, Kaysa? Can you put together like a care package for him? Some meds, maybe some cheap Hard-Light emitter for him to play with? Nothing dangerous, of course.”

Of course. I can even add basic food from the Class 0 catalogues. How many points would you like to invest?

“Call it 100? I’m not sure what he needs, but I want to make sure that whatever he needs is available if he needs it. If I come back and find him dead I’ll be very pissed.”

I can put something together for 87 points. While you could spend more, it wouldn’t really help very much. He is stable for the moment, and with some additional medical care over the next couple of days he will recover nigh completely.

“Nigh completely?”

He will retain some minor scars, a simple consequence of rather limited medical options.

“But otherwise he’ll be good?”

Yes, more healthy than most other babies in this district I imagine.

“Fair. Good, bundle it up, make sure he got something fun to play with, probably make it so that Tina can program the emitter or something? And include instructions.” I felt that was a pretty good deal.

New purchase: Princess’ Grace Care Package (Variable Items)

Points reduced to: 122

A big box appeared between me and Tina. It had the same colour scheme and decorations as my usual ones, although in this case the Fox-woman depicted on the lid was clothed in an elegant dress and instead of smirking seductively she was smiling gently. It did make sense, having a kid’s care package depict naked women and implied… activities was something I was deeply uncomfortable with.

Of course there was a chorus of gasps, but I ignored them, instead opening the lid and checking things over. I could see neat compartments all labelled with their contents, from medical stuff to baby food.

“Damn, didn’t know you had that.”

Seraphine, you would be hard pressed to find something we do not have.

I snorted, but nodded. Closing the lid I stood up again and looked around the circle of people.

“Well, there you have it. We will be going out and earn some more points. If you need anything, shoot me a message, okay?”

Tina nodded, then glanced past me to Jenna and Chloe, a knowing smirk on her lips.

“Make sure you keep your friends safe, hm?” The way she pronounced friends indicated a deeper meaning there, and I wasn’t quite able to suppress a very faint blush.

“Yeah, yeah.” And with that I turned and walked away with a wave.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The two friends in question were already waiting for me.

“Everything settled?” Chloe asked with a warm smile, which I reciprocated, before I gave her a quick hug.

“Yup. Now, let’s get going. I want to finish up quickly.”

Jenna still looked a bit down, but she did her best to not show it.

“Thank you. Again,” she said with a small bow towards us, “I’m not sure where I would have ended up without you. Both in terms of destination as well as headspace.”

“It’s fine,” I said, then gave her a quick hug as well, “Now, shall we?”

I was just about to leave when I got an idea, “Oh, wait! Here.”

With that I pulled off my bracelet, the first Hard-Light Emitter I had gotten, and handed it to Jenna. “It’s not much, but it’s a weapon you can use and it should help you make some points.”

She looked at it with surprise, “What is it?” she asked when she took it, gingerly, and inspected it.

“Hard-Light Emitter. Your AI can work you through it, but basically if you say ‘Blade’, ‘Bullet’, or ‘Shield’ it forms the respective thing for you to use. You can also control it with augs.”

She nodded, still looking it over, then her gaze shifted onto me and she smiled warmly. “Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied with the same warm smile. “But now, let’s go!”

For the third time today we left the shelter, heading once more towards the brothel.

“So, Jenna, was it?” I asked.

We did pay close attention to our surroundings on our way, but I couldn’t stop myself from being curious about our newest friend. Chloe and I were walking side by side again, half hugging each other. It helped me relax and truth be told it also made me insanely giddy to be so close to her.

“How’d you end up being a Samurai?”

She shrugged, eyes still haunted, but it seemed that just being with others helped.

“For the past four months or so I’ve been working near the inner city gate in a brothel called Vixen’s. When the incursion hit I was just about to shower so when everyone started to rush upstairs I was still in the lobby. Well… Aliens came in, I was panicked, just saw them trying to eat my friends so I took the barstool and just smacked them. Suddenly Cleopatra said something about being a Vanguard and well… I’m not a fighter, but I had made enough points for the Sentinel. I got it, thinking it would be my best bet. The rest of the story you know.” She frowned, but shook her head.

“Oh, so you’ve not been a joytoy long then? Or did you just switch brothels?” I asked, mainly to keep conversation away from the darker topics.

“No, I’m new in the field. Didn’t have any other options available and I’ve had a couple of experiences from my high school and university days.”

“Do you like the job?”

She gave me a curious look, “Well… I guess? It’s not as bad as I had feared it to be. Although… I had, I dunno, kinda hoped to be more satisfied?”

I nodded, “Yeah, that’s normal. Most clients don’t care much about how you feel. They just see you as the tool to satisfy their own lust. I’ve learned to do it myself, but that is something you’ll need to get used to.”

She frowned, “I guess… Although, truth be told, now that I’m a Samurai I don’t think I’ll be going back.”

“Fair. I’ll definitely go back, I like my job too much not to. Although…” I left the sentence hanging, a new thought appearing in my mind. Would Chloe be okay with that? Probably, right?

Then I mentally slapped myself, Seraphine, get a grip! You know her for what, four hours? Don’t start planning your entire life around her already!

Then again… It would be really nice… right? Could I hope?

“You okay?” Chloe asked me, ripping me out my thoughts. She looked at me with a bit of concern in her eyes.

I blinked, then smiled up at her, hugging her a bit closer, “Sorry, just lost in thoughts.”

She smiled in return and rubbed my shoulder.

I vaguely saw Jenna glancing at us with… I didn’t quite know what it was. Interest? Envy? I probably was reading too much into things.

We continued in silence. Jenna didn’t seem to be the type of girl to start a conversation, and Chloe and I were more than okay with comfortable silence. By this point I had kind of gotten used to not seeing or hearing any aliens about, which was just… such a weird thing to get used to in the middle of an alien incursion. I reminded myself to remain vigilant. Things could change at any moment and I didn’t want to end up dead and half munched by an alien because I became negligent.

Eventually we arrived at the brothel and Chloe quickly found her car. And hot fucking damn, what a car it was! I wasn’t a car nut, nor did I know too much, but in my time in the gangs I had heard a couple of guys talking about cars. Well, mainly my old… I didn’t quite want to call him my boyfriend, and his friends, often while they were busy using every orifice my body had to offer.

Anyways, I wasn’t too much into cars, but Chloe’s was a beast and probably much more expensive than even those guys had dreamt of. It looked to be one of the older models from like 2020, although on closer inspection the small little details and modern controls did reveal it to be what it was: A rather new car that was just designed to mimic the old design.

In specific it looked to be a mix between an old muscle car and some kind of military jeep, with sleek lines, but a generally bulky look to it, all in bright red with black accents. It had wheels, but I would bet that it had some tricks up its sleeve. Not that it was a Protector grade car, that was for sure. Small little dings could be found on the bumpers and such, but strangely they just looked even more fitting than if it had been just plain new.

“Hot damn!”, I said with an appreciative whistle, “You certainly know how to hit on a girl, Chloe.”

To underline my statement I hugged her close from the side, leaning into her and maybe rubbing myself against her just a little bit to tease her a bit.

Chloe blushed profusely, especially when I started my antics, but she did seem to genuinely appreciate my comment.

“She’s my pride and joy. Only got her recently, but I take her wherever I can.”

It was a five seater, so I got in on the passenger side, while Jenna took a seat behind Chloe. She didn’t say anything, but from her expression she did appreciate the car as much as I did.

The interior was similarly old fashioned in terms of design, but with modern materials and comforts. It gave the car a rather sleek, but comfortable atmosphere.

Then Chloe hit the engine and… oh lord, what a sound that was! I moaned in appreciation, already feeling tingly. This was a car, an actual car, not those cheap cabs you found down here in our district. And even I could appreciate just how exquisite of a ride it was.

“If you continue like that you’ll ruin the seats,” Jenna said with a teasing smirk, surprising me greatly. From the glint in her eyes when I glanced back at her she seemed to be a bit mischievous if given the chance.

“I mean,” I said, shifting in my seat, fully playing into Jenna’s little game, “You do have to admit that it is a very nice car.”

Jenna nodded sagely, “That it is indeed. But that doesn’t mean you should soil it. Wouldn’t that be a shame?”

I didn’t know where that sudden mischievous energy came from, but she knew how to use it damn well.

I nodded in agreement, one hand slowly following the lines of the door, “True enough. I shall think lots and lots of boring thoughts so as to not make a mess of the seats. Such a shame though…”

Jenna and I were both smirking widely, desperately trying to suppress our laughter, while Chloe was as red as she could get.

“Could you both shut the fuck up about… ugh!” She muttered, then put us in drive and hit the gas.

I felt myself being pressed into my seat as we shot into the air, leaving me breathless for a moment. Not only did it sound powerful, it was powerful. It didn’t take long for us to leave behind the brothel, and Chloe threw us into a tight corner that had me losing my breath again from the G-force, to point us into the direction of the city. She seemed to either be a rather aggressive driver in general, or Jenna and I had riled her up maybe a bit too much.

Regardless, from up here in the sky I had a much better view over the district and the incursion as a whole. It seemed to have landed mostly in our quarter of the outer city and it didn’t look too big. The redlight district, the industrial district, and maybe a bit of the storage areas to the west of the redlight district. I wasn’t quite sure about the Inner city, though, it was hard to see from here. The wall that shielded the inner city seemed intact, but that didn’t mean much at this distance. It was tall enough to be easily visible but it was absolutely dwarfed by the skyscrapers and megacities, which were the main reason it was hard to look into the inner city.

In the opposite direction I could see the much shorter wall shielding the outer city from the rest of the world. It too seemed unbreached, not that that mattered much considering that the incursion had landed inside of the city. It was something to keep in mind though, if some aliens landed outside and formed a hive, then that would definitely mean trouble for us.

Halfway from the brothel to the inner city I could see the small opening that revealed the giant gate to the undercity. It wasn’t that impressive looking and if you didn’t know what it was you probably wouldn’t even have recognised it, but as someone who’s been around the district before I knew what to look for.

I thought it looked undamaged, but considering that it looked old and decrepit at the best of times I wasn’t entirely sure.

We were still a good bit out but we could already see the horde of xenos snapping at the gates to the inner city. The defenders had put up multiple makeshift barriers, wrecked cars, sandbags, weapon emplacements, but from the looks of it they were pushed back quite far already. I could see remnants of previous barricades deeper into the swarm of xenos.

The inner city gates were very well defended, but that didn’t mean that the xenos couldn’t push through, especially with how many xenos were around. I had no clue how many exactly, but somewhere around a couple hundred, maybe even close to a thousand. And that was only near the Gate, not including the xenos still extant. I could see smaller groups still coming in from further out, at least where the buildings allowed me to see the streets. Giant flocks of model Ones and Twos were flying about. Strangely though they didn’t seem to react to our presence at all.

“Fuck…” Chloe muttered, and both Jenna and I felt similarly about the horde of aliens in front of us. There would be no easy way to deal with this. Actually, it looked like an absolutely overwhelming problem. But we were Samurai now. Time to see how we could buy our way out of this one.