Chapter Thirty-Four - The Next Move

“As cities grow, so do their energy requirements.

If you were to use coal fire as a source of energy, for example, then a single mega-city the size of N-Three York, or the Texan Mega Slum would burn more coal in one month than the industrial revolution did in a decade.

That’s why we are so dependent on more reliable and consistent sources of power, and why nuclear, both fusion and fission based, is the main source of power that many cities depend on.”

--Excerpt from The Nuclear Future, 2038

***

It was approaching late afternoon and I was sitting atop the newly built wall around part of New Montreal, legs dangling over the edge, helmet placed on the ground next to me, and wind whipping my hair around so hard I was considering what Lucy would think if I went short.

I had a plastic container in my mechanical hand, filled with some sort of meaty paste that looked absolutely vile but tasted like how an orgasm felt, and a cheap plastic spoon in the other hand.

All said and done, it was a nice spot for a break.

Grasshopper pushed herself up, standing on the very edge without any concern at all. “I’m off,” she said.

“Hmm?” I asked. I looked up to her, then back down. The convoy we’d escorted was parked down below. The trucks were being looked over and hosed down before being allowed inside the walls. No one wanted any antithesis meat to be brought into the city. You needed a critical mass of the stuff to start growing a hive, at least, that’s what I understood, but still. Better safe than sorry. “Where are you heading off to?” I asked.

“I have evening lessons,” Grasshopper said. “I don’t want to miss them. What will you be doing?”

“Skulking about and stuff,” I said. “Maybe find another samurai that needs help, or check up on Lucy and the kittens.”

“Kittens?” Grasshopper asked.

“The orphans I look after. You should see them, they’d like you.” I smiled up at her.

“So, you’re a mommy cat.” She chuckled. “I might visit. That sounds very cute. But not tonight, I don’t think. Goodbye, Stray Cat.”

“See ya, Grasshopper,” I said.

I waved her off with my spoon hand, then scooped up another bite.

She left the area a bit later, and I stayed perched up on the wall, looking over the outskirts of the city. Smoke rose in the distance. I hoped that was a good sign.

No massive armies of skittering plants were visible, not yet.

I almost jumped when Myalis spoke up.

You have an incoming message from Laserjack.

“Yeah? What’s it about?” I asked.

It seems as though he sent over a summary report of the last twenty-four hours. Personnel and vanguard losses. Areas highly affected. Potential action plans and calls for assistance in certain areas.

“Vanguard loses?” I repeated. “Some samurai have died?” I asked.

It wasn’t Gomorrah, I didn’t think. Sam-o-Ray? Jolly Monarch? Cause Player? I didn’t really know any of the others well enough to remember their names off the top of my head.

The Vanguard known as Nomad is the only confirmed casualty.

Nomad... that had been the chick who talked about cars and such. She didn’t seem like a fighting-type, but still. “Fuck,” I muttered. I set my meal aside. As good as it tasted, my hunger wasn’t there anymore.

A call came in just as I was standing up, from Gomorrah. I answered it while picking up my helmet.

“Cat? How are you?” Gomorrah asked.

“Good enough,” I said. “What’s up?”

“Did you look over Laserjack’s report?” she asked.

I looked around for a garbage can, but didn’t spot any. I did see some construction guys loitering around further up on the wall. I started their way. “Nah, but Myalis skimmed it. Why, what’s up?”

“The Family spotted a few hives. They’re looking for volunteers to take them out. I thought you might be interested in helping me. One’s maybe twenty minutes outside of the city. No one else has claimed it.”

“You can claim hives now?” I asked. “You’re going to head over and become the bug nun? Maybe start spawning fire-breathing critters?”

“If you claimed it that way, all that would come out of your hive would be horny cats,” Gomorrah shot back.

I grinned, then pushed my half-finished meal into the hands of some construction guy. “Here, eat this, the fate of the world depends on it,” I said before moving on. My bike was stationed a bit above, next to one of the bigger cannon emplacements. “Yeah, if you need a plus-one to take on a hive, I’m all in.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Great. I don’t think we’ll be able to bomb this one from near orbit though.”

“That’s not fun to hear, why not?”

Gomorrah sighed over the line. “The hive is about two kilometres away from a micro-nuclear plant. It’s next to a river. The plant should be fine, in theory, but the Family specifically says that we shouldn’t blow up the area around it. Just in case.”

“Alright, fair. Where do you want to meet up?” I asked.

“I’m with the ground crew guarding the outer edge of the wall, where it’s still being added to. They’ve stalled here for a bit. Lots of people here, lots of guns too, I don’t think we need to worry about anyone dying to an antithesis.”

I climbed onto my bike, and Myalis helpfully punched in the location that Gomorrah was at. “What’s the issue?”

“The Family and a few companies secured the right to build the wall through a section of a native reserve. But they want to cut a straight line through, and that means demolishing a lot of stuff. The tribe isn’t pleased with the idea. The other option is to go around the reserve, but that would lengthen the entire wall by a considerable amount, and it would mean more wall to defend.”

“Huh,” I said. I wasn’t too sure who was in the right there. “Sounds like a bitch to deal with.”

“Which is why I’ve excused myself from the entire thing. It went from a civil disagreement to a screaming match in far too little time for my comfort. I think tempers are running rather high all over the place right now.”

That was normal, probably. “More than enough stress to go around.”

“I suppose. Every minute they spend arguing is another where things aren’t moving forwards though. It’s frustrating.”

It took all of two minutes of flying along the length of the wall, avoiding heavy lifting vehicles and the cranes pulling up the massive slabs that became the foundations for the wall. Gomorrah was next to the Fury, arms crossed and a wafting aura of frustration coming off of her to ward off anyone who would dare test her.

“Hey,” I said as I jumped off my bike. “You ready to go? We can take my bike. Ride together.”

“We’re taking my car,” she said. No negotiating there.

I shrugged and went around to the other side while my bike parked itself. Gomorrah wasn’t lying when she said there were plenty of people arguing with each other, though it mostly seemed to centre around one group.

“Laserjack’s on his way to smooth things over,” Gomorrah said.

“Huh, alright. So, the current mission,” I asked as I sat down.

Gomorrah started the Fury up, and we took off into the skies, heading northward, if I wasn’t mistaken.

“A hive was spotted thanks to some seismographs next to a micro-nuclear unit fabrication plant.”

I raised my hand. “Question. What’s a micro-nuclear plant?”

Gomorrah took a moment to reply. “You know what a nuclear power plant is, right?”

“Yeah. Are you going to say that it’s that, but small?”

“That would be a little reductivist, but not entirely inaccurate,” she said. “I think someone just sat down and figured out the exact minimum amount of machinery you need to boil water with radioactive products, then build a reactor out of that. They’re meant to be more efficient than the older, bigger reactors. You can fit a few hundred in the footprint of an old facility.”

“That’s neat,” I said. “And now there’s a bunch of aliens next to one of these plants?”

“The plant makes those reactors. It’s not a power plant. Though I imagine they produce their own power. The hive should be relatively small. It’s taken over an old factory complex. I think it was a brick-making place, actually.”

“How old are we talking here?” I asked.

Gomorrah shrugged. “I didn’t bother checking. The hive’s fully active though. I don’t think we’ll be able to land right on top of it.”

“Just to be clear. No big bombs, but little ones are fine, right?”

“I suppose.”

“And no one has any problems with us using B.E.E.S. right?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Gomorrah said.

I grinned. “Well then, you’re going to love these.”

I wondered if Myalis would give me some B.E.E.S. that lit on fire if I paid her a little extra. Just as something to show Gomorrah how much I appreciated her.

***