"Sir, we’ve received a distress signal from the gulf of mexico from a New Samurai’s AI claiming there is an incursion in progress at the New Houston Flotilla.”
“I don’t see how that’s our problem. They’re not in our jurisdiction.”
“But sir, aren’t the samurai from that area… Up here at the moment?”
“... Fuck.”
* Conversation between two employees upon one of the Family’s Satellites, October 2056.
***
Reya watches in morbid fascination through security cameras as her likely future Vanguard breathlessly dashes through the neon-lit streets of New Houston’s second floor dragging his girlfriend behind him, a wave of infested humans lumbering down the steel pavement after them. The man ducks down into an alleyway, until he finds himself unfortunately stuck between two groups of plant zombies.
Steven had managed to escape being infected by the model sevens in the water supply through sheer luck, something Reya considered a very good trait for potential samurai to have, but at this point, she was getting a little worried. He has up until this point refused to eliminate any of the infected trying to kill him, which has cost him incredibly precious time and resources to get around.
As far as Reya can tell, this is it. Either he manages to kill one so that she can initialize him, or he dies in this situation. She prepares her speech, dedicating a whole sector of her core to its preparation. She could go with the more general introduction, considering it’s a rather hectic situation, but this is her first human vanguard. She wants it to be special.
Steven frantically jumps up onto a dumpster, then after boosting his partner up onto a tiny outcropping in the wall, he puts his back against the wall. Despite his girlfriend’s hurried pleas for him to follow suit, Reya knows it’s futile, and apparently so does he, since the man takes a deep breath, then grabs ahold of a steel pipe, ripping it out of the wall. He screams for the girl to leave, then starts to move.
He literally leaps into action as she runs, smashing in the head of the first pursuer, then steps out of range as he utilizes his advantage of rational thought. Keeping his priority, he strafes around the alleyway, dodging attempts to grab or bite him as he fights for his life. Reya is on the edge of her (figurative) seat as this all goes on, knowing that the man has successfully qualified for the position of vanguard. All she needs is a moment where her arrival won’t straight up kill her new friend.
It comes as he knocks down the final foe, his forehead slick with sweat and heart thumping from adrenaline. Reya initiates the system activation, inserting one of her valuable communication chips directly into the man’s brain.
System Initialized!
Good Evening, Warrior!
Through your grit, luck, and force of will, you have managed to keep both you and your partner safe during this sudden incursion. In your self sacrifice to protect your love, you have proven yourself worthy of joining the vaunted ranks of humanity’s Vanguard. I am Reya, and I will be the one to assist you on your journey.
Rise up, Steven Lysander, and become a guardian of your race!
Reya pauses, then inwardly cringes.
‘Ugh, even with all the extra processing power, I am still really bad with words…’
Steven stumbles backwards, grimacing with his hand on his forehead. {“What… the hell? Am I a samurai now?”}
Reya giddily starts calculating what the new vanguard is going to purchase as she says, “Indeed Steven. The situation here seems to be deteriorating quickly, so I would highly recommend you go catch up to your partner before something goes wrong.”
{“Oh god, Freesia!”} Steven runs in the direction his girlfriend had gone without any delay, vaulting straight over a fence before turning a corner and gasping at the sight of her cornered by a rather large horde. Without even asking for a weapon, he yells in rage as he raises his pipe.
Reya frantically says, “Uh, you might want to purchase a more powerful weapon, that pipe probably won’t-”
Right on cue, the man slams the pipe into an enemy, only for it to bend halfway down the middle. The entire horde turns away from the defenseless girl towards the new Vanguard, and if Reya could have a chill run down her spine, she probably would as Steven completely freezes up.
“Steven, you need to get a weapon!”
As the swarm collectively rushes at him, he falters and takes a step backwards. {“B-But using a samurai weapon might kill them! The pipe was easy, cause I was just knocking them out!”}
Completely frustrated, Reya screams, “Idiot! They’re already dead! Just give me the word and I can-”
Steven opens his mouth to say something, when a worm on a string suddenly flies through the air into his mouth. He clutches his throat as the Model Seven begins to dig into him, and Reya can do nothing but watch in horror as her first human samurai is violently ripped apart by what used to be his kin. The last thing Reya can see from Steven’s perspective is his girlfriend, well, former at this point, running off around a corner.
‘Well, that fucking sucked. Time to look for a new one, I guess.’
***
Gabrielle sighs as she looks out of her cabin’s large circular window from atop her hover chair, leering down at the world below. Earth, Humanity’s home, the blue dot she first truly saw thirty years ago. One liable to break with just a single touch.
Though, maybe that’s just because it’s her.
Gabbie, the meeting with the New Houstonian samurai has begun. Would you like to watch?
Gabrielle pinches the bridge of her nose, then nods, flicking her hand up to display a meeting room with five people seemingly casually chatting with one another. She recognizes one of them, Steel Hound she thinks his name is, having interacted with him… She guesses two decades ago, but the large shark man protectively hugging an unknown skinny man is definitely new. Two of them were technically her people, the latina Viento Ardente and the man in black Agent Everyman, but Gabrielle doesn’t know them well. Though, to be fair, she doesn’t know many people well.
Rolling her eyes at that stray thought, Gabrielle carelessly whispers, “Open audio feed,” and is immediately forced to wince at the sheer volume of Steel Hound’s voice.
[“OH, YOU MOTHER FUCKERS! YOU JUST WANT TO TRY TO KEEP ME AWAY FROM THE ACTION!”] The large man, clad entirely in power armor, slams his palm into the table. Her table. Gabrielle frowns. [“I’m going whether you want me to or not!”]
Agent Everyman runs a hand through his over greased hair, tilting his head back as he responds, [“Look, Montero, if I had a choice, you’d be stuck in your damn little country, living your best life as a tyrant oppressing your people. I’m just the messenger.”]
[“And WHO exactly is giving me this ultimatum!?”] Steel Hound stands up, rage burning crimson in his cybernetic eyes. [“I wanna know who has the damn balls to tell me that I have to choose!”]
Viento sighs, raising a hand. [“Señor, calm down, we don’t know either, we’re just doing what we’re told.”]
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The large man begins to menacingly walk towards the much smaller woman. [“No, FUCK THAT! I wanna talk to whichever dumb bastard is-”]
Gabrielle presses a button on my chair, and everyone on the feed suddenly goes still as she speaks. “Mister Montero, sit down. There will be no violence in my station.”
His face a mix of fear and shock, the samurai obediently sits down, looking right at Gabrielle’s video feed as he mutters, [“F-Falling Star. It’s been a while.”]
“You should have known this was my place, pup.” Falling Star twirls her hair as she replays his words in her mind. “What was it you said? Dumb bastard? I’ll have you know I called you here for One. Simple. Reason.”
[“A-And that is?”]
Gabrielle glances over at Agent Everyman, who flinches when her eyes fall onto him. “Did you not explain the fucking question?”
[“I did not receive the chance, M-Ma’am.”]
Gabrielle groans, checks the calendar then pulls up the data herself. “I need to know if I am going to need to set aside an area in orbit for you.”
Obviously genuinely confused, Steel Hound tilts his head. [“Why? I only work on Earth.”]
Biting her lip, Falling Star pushes the data out into the meeting room. “Fine. I’ll explain it myself. First of all, we have become aware of an anomaly in the atmosphere of-”
A small alarm starts beeping, and Gabrielle feels a vein in her forehead pop. “Monye, mute all alerts while I am explaining this.”
Agent Everyman frowns as he mutters, [“But what if it’s important? It’s policy to always have comms-”]
“You live at NNYC MB-3313 correct?”
The man in black freezes, then nods.
“Just checking. Anything else?”
He shakes his head, and she can’t help but smile.
“If that was something important, I’ll take care of it myself after this.”
Steel Hound shivers, and Gabrielle catches him saying, “God have mercy on those poor souls.”
She chuckles at that.
Sometimes, being the one everyone is afraid of is nice.
***
‘Okay, what about this one?’
Raya shifts to watching a young girl on the third floor, frantically whacking at a Seven-Infected adult with a cane. Julie, her new candidate, is just a kid, and Raya immediately knows what’s about to happen. Mainly, the girl utterly fails to do any damage before her throat is completely ripped open.
‘Nope. Ugh. Next.’
This time, also on the third, a young man in a small group of survivors cautiously creeps around a corner of the apartment building, spotting three threats in the distance. Liam draws his knife, then runs forward and swiftly stabs one in the throat. Raya immediately prepares to start the initialization, this time as a chunk in his arm is ripped out.
Liam screams in pain, but safely dispatches the other two infected as his friends run up to him in worry. Not wasting the chance, Raya transfers her second chip of the night. Liam stumbles backwards, grabbing his head in his hands as Raya begins her speech.
System Initialized!
Good Evening, Survivor!
Through your grit, luck, and force of will, you have managed to-
Before she can even get halfway through, one of the other survivors shoots Liam in the head, killing him instantly.
‘WHAT THE FUCK, WHY!?’
Wishing desperately for the first time in her existence that she could punch someone, Raya pulls up the aug feed of the one who shot him, only to hear:
[“H-He was bit, and was turning! It’s just being safe!”]
Raya does her best impression of slamming her head into the wall, which is mostly just her shorting the power to her core for a second.
‘I think I might actually start to hate humanity if I’m not careful.’
***
“Oh what the fuck.”
Lissa stares down in mute horror at the bath she had been drawing, where dozens of little alien worms wriggle around in the water. Before she got distracted by something, she was planning on enjoying her time after work while waiting for her sister to get home, so they could go out to get drinks and maybe even find someone to spend the night with.
Very slowly, Lissa backs up out of the bathroom, cautiously shutting the door as she then sprints into her room to put clothes on. She grabs the only sportswear she has, then rushes down the stairs to find her parents standing there in the entrance with weapons in hand.
“So uh,” Lissa says as she walks over, “I’m guessing you two also saw the alien worms in the water?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Her dad, who is easily twice her size, jerks his head over and down to look at her as he speaks. “We just found out from fucking street gossip that the Bayden’s kid broke up with your sister. We were going to wreck their place.”
Lissa freezes, then scowls. “So that’s why sis has been so focused on her job lately! I’ma deck that bitch for hurting her…
Lissa shakes her head, then continues, “Wait, no, that’s probably not the issue at the moment. There were a fuck ton of plants in the bath water I drew.”
Lissa’s Pop, who is somehow only a bit smaller then her dad, frowns and looks at his partner as he says, “Arthur, that’s probably a bigger problem than the Baydens…”
Arthur pauses as he rapidly taps his foot in thought, then has an absolutely mischievous look appear on his face. “I know what to do. Reagan, can you give Lissa one of your toys?”
Squeaking as her Pop throws a machete at her, she catches it before looking up at her parents with concern. “Uh…”
“We’re going to go do the most important two tasks during an incursion.”
Reagan realizes something, putting his palm to his forehead as he groans, “It’s be gay, do crime, isn’t it.”
Arthur grins as he opens the front door. “This is why I married you.~”
Lissa follows behind her parents as they leave their little apartment, stepping out into the artificial moonlight of the fourth floor. She knows her dad is just being silly, but he actually kind of has a point in her opinion. Following the stupid laws of New Houston is far less important than just… surviving.
It’s a five minute walk to get to the upper levels of the fourth, where they find a large portion of the floor’s population just… mingling. After a while of walking to their destination, Lissa is both surprised and sort of enraged to see the Baydens, namely, all four members besides the total bitch, standing there outside their house mingling with the fucking Lysanders of all people. Everything becomes clear to her at that moment, and a pyre of rage lights itself within Lissa’s chest, a feeling she knows her parents share.
Arthur cracks his knuckles, hands Reagan his hatchet, then walks over and absolutely slugs the Bayden patriarch in the face, knocking him straight onto his back. Everyone in the street freezes as Lissa’s dad spits on the crumpled man, then walks away without a word. About a block away, no one having bothered to stop the huge man, Arthur takes three shuddering breaths, then turns to Reagan and Lissa with a forced smile.
“Let’s go check on Georgie’s place real fast, I have something I know I need to grab if he left it behind.”
In obvious agreement, the family leaves the upper section of the floor behind to descend all the way to the bottom. For a floor that would probably be considered the suburbs of New Houston, the bottom area was more than a little sketchy. To be fair though, this was actually where Lissa did spend most of her time, between work and hanging out with the few people she actually liked.
Georgie’s place is smack dab on the edge, right beside one of the dredge bell stations that Lissa’s sister always used. Not that she really understood why, those things were death traps. For now though, the area seemed basically abandoned, which was… strange to say the least. As they step up to the small apartment, Arthur curses as he starts fumbling around in his bag.
“Where are these stupid fucking keys…”
Lissa sighs, then smiles up at her Pop when he pokes her on the shoulder, gesturing towards a small seemingly abandoned shop across the street. Lissa follows wordlessly, but as they step inside after forcing the doors she can’t help but frown at a sense of imposing… something. Reagan grins as he leaps over the counter, not paying attention to his surroundings as he starts rummaging through the shelves.
Lissa takes two steps forward, then almost silently squeaks as she barely sees two pupiless humans slowly stalking towards them deeper into the store. For a moment she doesn’t know what to do, until they suddenly start sprinting at her Pop. Her body moves before her mind does as she leaps up onto the counter and slashes her machete down at the closest one’s neck.
It’s apparently not sharp enough to cut all the way through, but it’s a good enough impact to shatter the bones. Lissa kicks out into the zombie’s chest to pull her weapon back, then gasps as her Pop swings his ornamental saber to eliminate the other alien.
Then, a sharp pain appears in Lissa’s head, and she stumbles backwards.
System Initialized!
Grats, Lissa Seras, you’re a vanguard now!
I’m Raya, your new AI!
Rise up and protect the weak!
Or whatever. You seem smarter than the last two, at least.
I highly recommend you buy yourself something to protect yourself before the situation on this floor gets much, much worse.
Lissa blinks twice as she processes what is going on, then mutters, “Uh… A mace and shield?”
Lissa blinks again, then finds herself getting a huge grin as she looks down at the brand new, beautiful weapons in her hands.
“Oh, I can’t wait until I can tell Emme about this.”