If you talk to the average person on the street, they’ll probably tell you that the global incursion was the worst thing to ever happen to mankind. We went from living comfortably in our ignorance, to being days from being wiped off the face of reality. But if you asked the average samurai what they thought about the global incursion they’d give you a very different answer. Most of them would tell you, it was payday.

- A Year of Hell, Remembering the Global Incursion, Nibbletainment 2061

—

The room immediately went quiet, and everyone turned towards the front of the room.

“First of all I must apologize for calling you all in on such short notice. I would have liked to give you all some time to decompress after the incursion, but unfortunately some of the more zealous members of the Family are trying to force our more senior members to make a serious decision, despite the situation developing globally.” I could see the anger growing on his face as he went on, and his hands slowly gripped the edge of the lectern tighter, until there was a snapping sound. As soon as that happened, the man blinked. He stepped back, anger draining from his face. Even from the back of the room I could see that he’d crushed parts of the lectern just by flexing. I had no idea how strong he had to be to do that to hardwood.

“Before we get to that,” he finally said, once he’d regained his composure. “We have a ton of new faces here today. Both newly awakened, and visitors from out of town, so it’s probably worth introducing myself, and the local samurai council.” While he stood up straight, and adjusted his naval cap, Grey, Aurora, and the woman I’d spotted earlier all stood up behind him.

“I’m Warspite, and the ship you’re all standing on, the Redemption, is my baby,” he declared proudly. “My partner Thermal Current and I,” he said gesturing towards the elegant looking woman from before, “are responsible for managing the aquatic operations in the greater Vancouver area.” He paused for a moment, and switched hands, gesturing to his other side. “Grey Goo, and Velvet Aurora here handle most land based operations.” He waited for the two women to wave before continuing. “Although your orders may not come directly from us, you better believe we’ll be informed of all your actions going forward.”

Warspite slowly scanned the room, his eyes briefly stopping on Skyler and I, along with a half dozen others. “Normally I’d give all you new samurai a chance to come up, and introduce yourselves, but considering how volatile the situation is, we’ll skip that for now and go right into the briefing.”

A section in the center of the room, directly over the massive table opened up, revealing a holo projector. It took a moment to warm up before projecting a massive 3d map of the city and surrounding area. The area was painted in yellow, orange, and red, and there were over a dozen dark red dots scattered around the map.

“This is a realtime map of the antithesis activity within a hundred kilometers of the city. Yesterday, while we were dealing with the incursion here, hundreds, maybe even thousands more, were occurring elsewhere in the world. In addition, tons of previously undetected hives activated, and began producing new antithesis.” This was apparently the first time most of the other samurai had heard this, based upon the burst of gasps, and chatter, which erupted around us. Warspite simply raised a hand and signaled for everyone to be quiet.

“Although these numbers are far beyond what we’ve dealt with before, I believe they’d be well within our ability to deal with. The Cascadian government has already created a response plan, dispatching PMCs to hold the wall, and construction crews to build new defenses, so the city should be prepared when the first waves hit,” Warspite paused, and I saw anger slowly creep back into his expression. “At least they would be, if there wasn’t another planetary crisis happening, on Mars.”

Again, there was another burst of chatter. While Warspite waited for the room to calm down he glanced at a couple people, shooting a murderous glance at each of them. “A couple days ago the Family discovered that the antithesis not only landed on Mars, but have been slowly terraforming the planet. It’s already home to some of the largest antithesis models we’ve ever seen, so the Family, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that they need to attack the planet before it can develop further,” Warspite took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, then put on a small smile. “They’ve called for all members, Class III and above, to approve and participate in this action later today. Based upon the people I’ve talked to, and their opinions, I think this vote is probably going to pass. We’re going to lose a significant number of experienced samurai from our front lines.”

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This time, there was no chatter, just silence. “Although the council intends to stay here, and support the city’s defenses, a significant amount of work is going to fall to our junior members until the Mars assault team gets back.” Warspite sighed. He took off his hat and wiped his forehead, he looked extremely tired. “When we called you all here today I’d hoped we’d have better news, that the Family would delay their action. Considering that seems unlikely, the council has decided to ask you all to start taking immediate action. The longer we distract, and delay the horde building outside the wall, the more likely that the defensive line will be complete before they get here.”

Warspite waved his hand at the hologram, and as he did my aug received a data connection, it seemed to be a copy of the map. “The Family has ‘Graciously’ provided us access to their satellite network, along with their strategic planning network, to help plan our defenses. Although we expect there to be dozens of hidden hives outside the city, we’ve only discovered a handful so far. Those are indicated by the dark red dots. We’d like our newest members to do what they can to thin the antithesis around the yellow areas, destroy the hives if you can, but put your safety first. We’re already going to be spread thin over the next few days. If any strategic objectives, or emergencies come up, they’ll be added to the map dynamically. Please have your AIs maintain a connection with the strategic system, so we know where each of you are, and what situations are being handled.” A low buzz had built up around the room, but Warspite didn’t seem to care this time. He simply waited a moment, sweeping his gaze across the room. “Any questions?”

Most people shook their heads, but one of the men near the front of the room raised his hand. He was a tall, slender man wearing what I could only describe as an old fashion safari outfit. He even had a monocle. “I’m not confident in my ability to clear hordes solo, any chance I could arrange meeting up with people?” he asked in a faint British accent.

“There’s a chat room, along with a list of active samurai on the data feed. You can either ask in the chat, or message someone directly,” Grey replied. It was the first time I’d heard her speak since coming in. I guess now that the presentation was over, she didn’t mind speaking up again.

“Anyone else?” she asked, with a raised eyebrow. Since no one else spoke up, Grey waved dismissively. “In that case you all know the situation, and what’s at stake. Get out there and fuck things up. If, for any reason, you had a question but were too shy to ask here, you can message me or Warspite directly.”

With that, Thermal and Velvet stood up and immediately headed for the door. Warspite seemed to be preoccupied with putting the projector away again, and Grey walked over to the side and started a conversation with a teddy bear of all things. Guess the meeting was over.

While the other samurai started pouring out of the meeting room, probably eager to get started, Skyler and I stayed in our seats.

“So, what are your thoughts?” Skyler asked quietly.

“I think we’re going to be really busy over the next few days,” I replied flippantly. When I saw Skyler’s scowl, I sighed and answered truthfully. “I think the two of us might be a little over our heads here,” I said. “Yesterday was the first time either of us had seen a real antithesis, never mind fought one, and today we need to protect the city from a horde larger than anything on record? I don’t even know where to start.”

Skyler leaned in close, and rested her head against mine. “I know. I think we can handle it though. Yesterday we learned how to kill antithesis, today we’ll figure out how to destroy a hive, and tomorrow? Who knows. We’ll figure it out one step at a time.”

“Straight to a hive? Someone’s got big ambitions,” I said softly, cracking a smile.

“We have to learn sooner or later,” Skyler replied, breaking a smile of her own. “Might as well start now. Besides, we both need the points to upgrade our equipment.” She pulled away slightly, then poked me in the ribs. “SOMEONE keeps getting injured.”

I slapped her finger away lightly. “Fine, we’ll try and hunt down a hive,” I conceded. “A little action to start the day.”