Prologue

Delilah cut the call with Cat and suppressed a sigh. Catherine was... being herself, and took the news that Earth was about to be screwed over with all of the grace of someone who really didn't give a fuck.

It was almost refreshing, in a way.

Delilah's own worries paled in comparison to how little Catherine cared, because as far as she could tell, Catherine assumed that things would either work out, or they wouldn't and they'd all be too dead for it to matter.

It wasn't a way of thinking that Delilah could ever hope to emulate, but it was still comforting to witness, in a way.

She glanced to the side, where Princess was sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest in the passenger side seat. She wasn't wearing a belt, but Delilah wasn't going all that fast, and she wasn't planning to get into any sort of accident in the first place.

The young samurai... worried Delilah a little, especially with the news Cat had just dropped on her. "Atyacus," she subvocalized. "Can you do a little digging into Princess and Knight? Confirm what Cat discovered.

Of course. You must be aware that there is only so much metaphorical digging that I can do. The privacy of other vanguards takes priority over the curiosity of the one. However, I can let you know what is a matter of public record.

Delilah nodded slightly, a very shallow nod, but one that her AI picked up anyway.

Tiffani Dupont, also known as Princess, has been a vanguard for a little over three days. She was contracted soon after the death of her father, the previous mayor of New Montreal. Her identity as a member of the Dupont family was sealed until the time of the mayor's death.

"How?" Delilah muttered.

There are certain provisions in place that members of the political elite can use to keep the identities of family members, the location of their homes, and other confidential information private. One of these was employed on young miss Dupont until the moment where she became a vanguard. There are traces that the privacy shield was removed by another AI.

So, likely Princess' own AI had removed whatever the mayor had put in place. Did she want to make her public identity easier to find after the death of her father? She wasn't wearing any facial coverings. No mask, no helmet, nothing. It contrasted pretty hard with those samurai who did want to keep their identities to themselves. Like Knight.

Delilah sighed again, and this time she noticed Princess glancing her way. "Is everything okay, miss Gomorrah?"

"It's fine," Delilah said. "We're here."

She pulled God's Righteous Fury to a stop on the side of the road. There were a few other cars here, left abandoned on the sidewalk without a care. Saint-Jérome wasn't all that unfamiliar of a city.

Not that she'd ever been here, exactly, but Delilah could remember being raised in a much smaller city than New Montreal, before she was sent off to the convent. One city was much like the next. Apartment buildings crammed in as close to each other as possible, with the occasional commercial building, parking lot, or city-infrastructure shoved in where they could fit. She'd even driven past a park. A little one, with exactly twelve trees and seven vending machines.

"Alright, all out," she said as she pulled herself out of the Fury.

Hedgehog jumped off the roof of her car and landed with a slight bend of the knees. "What's the plan from here on out?" he asked.

Delilah wished, in moments like these, that she had Cat's grace when it came to giving orders and the like. Not that Cat was good at it. It was just just that her... closest work friend had a fantastic ability to bullshit her way through problems that Delilah completely lacked.

"We'll be moving northwards, and slightly east. Cat's team is following the 117th north as well. We'll meet by the far end of the city," she said.

"Got it," he replied. "Well, I'll see you there."

Delilah reached out towards him, almost in time to stop him, but the samurai moved on towards the nearest side street, walking with a quick, determined stride.

She hesitated, then let it drop. The city wasn't entirely swarmed by aliens. If anything, this was as close to an ideal learning ground that a new samurai could ask for. Lots of weaker enemies, with no time to establish themselves or set up traps, and a literal army riding up behind them when things went wrong.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

There was something to say about learning by tossing someone in the fire. There was probably a lot more to say about carefully training a person up through limited risk and with careful preparation. But that wasn't how Delilah had grown as a samurai, and she'd turned out just fine.

"Did you want to stay close?" she asked Princess.

Princess nodded. "Yes please," she replied.

"Do... you have any weapons at all?" Delilah asked next.

The younger woman nodded, then reached into the ruffles of her dress and pulled out a rather ordinary, all-grey handgun.

"Huh," Delilah said.

"What is it?"

"I was expecting... no, nevermind." she didn't want to dig into it. Maybe the gun had been bought before Princess had secured her whole princess theme? Delilah had tried a couple of things before she decided that she preferred just burning everything to death, and even now she was experimenting with a few different things.

Mostly it revolved around fire, but sometimes it was just melting things with powerful acids, or sometimes it involved exciting something's atoms apart.

"I'll take point, then," Delilah said. She reached the back of her car and pulled out a flamethrower from the trunk. It only took a moment to shrug the pack on, and run a quick diagnostic to make sure it was ready to burn.

"I'm used to sticking behind a little," Princess said. "Not, ah, not that I have much experience."

"Oh?" Delilah asked. "Have you fought the antithesis yet?"

"Yes. The day I became a samurai," Princess said. "Isa... Knight and I were out of the city, at my dad's estate. We didn't kill that many."

Delilah lowered her estimate of the girl's capabilities by a whole lot. This wasn't going to be like when she worked with Catherine, who... despite everything was at least capable of pulling her weight.

"I'll light them up, you finish them off, then," Delilah said. It wasn't much, but a few early points could really set a samurai up. Princess was even working for two, in a way. If the only person she was supplying was Knight, then it wouldn't be all that bad. Delilah had enough cast off equipment to supply a small platoon, and she'd only been a samurai for a relatively short while.

They started down another road, this one adjacent to the one Hedgehog had taken. Delilah noted the soldiers coming up behind them, trucks unloading met at every intersection.

That was good. Soon enough, they'd have all the backup they could want.

"Atyacus, what's the news saying about Phobos?" Delilah asked. She didn't bother subvocalizing, so Princess was able to hear her loud and clear.

"Phobos?" Princess asked. "Is that a samurai? Or do you mean the moon?"

"I mean the moon, the martian one," Delilah said.

Not much news has reached the public yet. There are some tidbits of news on some astronomy enthusiast websites, but it's conflicting and the sites are brushing it away for the moment. Mars has never been easier to see than right now.

"Because it's close?" Delilah asked.

Because the entire surface is currently on fire.

"Oh," Delilah said. An entire planet... that must be quite the sight, actually. And with Mars's atmosphere being so light, she imagined it would burn quite strangely. She wasn't averse to seeing it.

The Family and other vanguard-associations are tracking the Phobos Object now. A clearer idea of its projected landing zone should be available by 2130.

"Why are you talking about Phobos?" Princess asked guilelessly. She could only hear half the conversation which... was a very Cat thing for Delilah to do.

"Sorry. I just wanted Atyacus to keep an eye on it for me. You'll... learn more about it very soon," Delilah said. "Don't worry about it. For now, let's focus on getting you a few kills, and a few more points."

"Oh, I've been getting a few already," Princess said.

"You... have?"

The samurai nodded. "Yeah! My sister is probably killing some already, because I have points coming in. Don't worry so much about me! We've got something good going on, the two of us!"

Delilah wasn't sure she was entirely onboard with Princess' big thumb's up and bigger smile, but she supposed that with everything else going on, giving her a chance wasn't so bad.

They would all need some chances in the coming days.

***