Most cities drill their military forces until their response times to an incursion can be measured in minutes, not hours. Not to eradicate the incursion, but to isolate it. Despite the overwhelming firepower most militaries can bring to bear, they would take extensive casualties, and cause extensive damage to the surrounding area to do it. In comparison a single samurai, even a newly awakened one, can kill more antithesis than an entire armored column. And the local samurai WILL converge upon the area shortly after the quarantine area is established.

That’s why the first order is to contain, and not engage.

- A Study of Modern Military Tactics, published 2052

—

About ten minutes later a whole convoy of vehicles rolled up to the front of the jewelry store. Two additional armored vehicles, a couple jeeps, and a half dozen trucks already laden with people. The civilians didn’t care, they clambered onto whatever vehicle they could find space on, until the trucks were over capacity.

“Are they going to be alright like that?” I asked as the PMCs went back and forth to the different trucks, making sure no one would fall off.

“They’ll take people off and let them ride in the APCs if there’s not enough space,” Grey said, practically ignoring the situation. She instead walked over to a nearby jeep and slipped into the passenger’s seat, to the surprise of the driver. “Come on now, you and I have places to be.”

I glanced at the driver, who promptly sat straight up in his seat and said nothing, before hopping in the back. “To the district gate please, and please inform the command we have a new vanguard here that needs babysitting,” Grey said as she slid down the seat and placed her feet on the dashboard. The driver nodded, and grabbed the radio to report in while he drove.

“I don’t need babysitting,” I growled as I slumped in my seat.

“It’s nothing personal there Reina, just procedure. We don’t want to lose new samurai on the first day, not if we can help it. We assign you backup, and run you through some of the most common tasks samurai usually take on in order to get you comfortable with the situation,” Grey explained. As I watched she pulled a pair of juice boxes out of thin air and threw one back to me.

“Still sounds like babysitting to me,” I mumbled as I fumbled with the strange drink.

“More than ninety percent of samurai casualties happen in their first day of combat,” Grey replied quietly, before taking a sip of her drink. “The Cascadia government suggested regulations to try and lower that casualty rate, and the Family agreed. So like it or not, the team is going to follow you for the rest of the day, just in case.”

“The Family… you mean the Samurai governing body?” I asked, finally getting my straw into the juicebox.

“It’s not a governing body, it’s a community, and only in North America. One of the first things you learn as a samurai is you can’t force another samurai to do anything they don’t want to. The Family provides support for their members, and judges samurai that go WAY out of line, but membership is voluntary.”

I took a tiny sip of my juice, just to taste it, and found it one of the greatest things I’d ever tasted. It was like all the sweetness of a berry punch, but with a zesty aftertaste. I drained the entire thing in seconds.

“That’s a samurai special right there. An energy drink to get you through the next few hours. I’m sure your AI would let you know they can provide drinks and snacks, if you’re wavering, but these only cost a point and I wanted to be nice,” Grey announced. “We’re coming up on the district command center in a few minutes. Any last questions before we part ways?”

“I thought we both were heading into the combat zone,” I asked. “Why are we splitting up?”

“Because I’m heading into the heart of the storm, and you’ll be poking around the outskirts. You’re not ready for where I’m going.” She actually had to yell to be heard, because the area we were driving past had a number of artillery pieces setup, and firing non-stop. To the left I could see one of the massive district gates. Each district was separated by a massive wall which wasn’t designed to completely stop the antithesis, but slow them down and attempt to isolate the worst of an incursion in a single place. To go between each sector you had to pass through one of the gates, a massive eight lane wide, four story tall steel structure which could slam shut and cut off the major arteries in, and out of the area. This was the first time I’d seen one closed.

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Just ahead of us was a row of armored vehicles, including full blown tanks, a ton of different PMCs running around, and at the center of that mess was a two story tall, four lane wide, monster of a vehicle.

“You mentioned that samurai names are given to them by the veterans?” I managed to ask before we finally pulled up to the massive vehicle.

“If you survive today, I’ll give you one,” Grey replied with a smile. “Go over to the command vehicle and let them know who you are and they’ll get you set up.”

I began to ask another question, but before I could she jumped from the still moving vehicle. As soon as she touched the ground the nanite goo reformed as a helmet. Each step she took caused more of the mass to gather, until she was once again several stories tall, wandering towards the massive gate. I watched her as she almost casually stepped up to the gate, reached a massive arm up, grabbed the top of the wall, and hauled herself over.

After that display all I could do was wait for the jeep to finally drive up to the command vehicle and stop. “Thanks,” I muttered to the driver as I awkwardly jumped out of the back. I brushed myself off, tried to ignore the blatant stares directed at me from pretty much everywhere, and stepped inside.

There was a massive holographic display, showing the situation within the nearby district, along with a dozen or so monitoring stations placed around the perimeter. The two guards at the door snapped to attention and saluted as I passed through, which attracted everyone’s attention. Including the three people at the planning table.

“You our new samurai?” the serious looking woman asked. She didn’t seem that old, but she already had grey hair, with a shock of white over the brow, and she was wearing a slightly different military uniform from her companions, with an impressive array of medals on her chest.

“That’s me. Reina Tanaka, nice to meet you,” I said politely.

“I’m Adriana Howard, Cascadia military supervisor, and I’m in charge here. These are my associates, Micheal Anderson, my PMC attache,” she said gesturing to a hulking man still in full militia armor, “and Lessly Montgomery, Family coordinator,” she said gesturing to the mousy woman in a full business suit and glasses. I didn’t miss the momentary look of disgust when she looked at Lessly.

“I know you came in with one of the heavy hitters, did she brief you on the situation?” Adriana asked.

“I saw the seed pods come down, and Grey mentioned something about getting a squad of PMCs to walk me through the basics, but I don’t know much beyond that,” I admitted.

“That’s fine. I can give you a rough idea of what’s going on, and what we’d like you to do,” Adriana replied, before turning to the hologram. “Four pods all hit the center of the information district within a kilometer of each other,” she said pointing at the hologram. I could see four bright circles, with thick lines of red roping off of each one. “The antithesis have been attempting to push out, but we’ve been using precision artillery strikes and heavy armor to stymie their advance. Most of the PMCs in the area are busy evacuating the highest risk areas, and creating a primary perimeter around the area,” she said pointing at the various green cubes, dots, and light green circle around the area.

“So… what exactly do you want me to do?” I asked as I studied the map.

“A large section of the western combat zone lost power, and communication when the pods hit. We need someone to go in and check that the primary shelters in that area are closed, and if not, make sure to purge the compromised ones.”

My head snapped up. “That’s pretty harsh,” I said, looking Adriana in the eyes.

“It's necessary. Trust me, if the shelter’s already compromised, then a swift death will be a relief to anyone inside,” Adriana said. I was still a little unsure, so I glanced at Anderson, who nodded slightly in agreement.

“Fine, but only if the situation requires it,” I begrudgingly agreed. “Anything else?”

“We found a veteran PMC to escort you to your destination. I know you may not like having them around, but they are experienced in antithesis combat, and may actually have some decent advice for you. I’d recommend not abandoning them the first moment you can, but I also know we can’t stop you,” Adriana said, rubbing her brow. I had a feeling that happened more often than she liked. “There is another samurai in the area, so if you do want to abandon your escort, I recommend you at least find them first. Your escort is waiting for you outside, bright orange APC, hard to miss. If you have any extra points I’d recommend spending them now, before you go through the gates. Good luck.” I kinda expected her to shoo me away, but she gave me a sharp salute instead.

“Yeah,” I muttered as I slowly backed up, and made my way towards the door, “hopefully I don’t need it.”