“... and then they didn’t even attack my position, so now I’m going in after them,” I finished. I might have been ranting a little bit, but I’m pretty sure I managed to inform Whisperer about the cavern and location of possible surface contamination during it all. Probably.

“Teddy, I appreciate your heads-up about the surface breach, but my focus is on animals, not plant life,” Whisperer replied. I could hear her annoyance ooze through the connection. “I don’t know what compromised plants would look like, so I’ll just pass that information to the Family. Second of all, you’re not the only samurai assigned to Hinton. There’s supposed to be a pair of fairly new samurai coming up from Edmonton, and we’re supposed to show them the ropes.”

“You and I?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m going to be based in Hinton for the foreseeable future. I already finished my preliminary survey, and I didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, so I’m moving to back you up. This was all included in the information package that you were sent.You did read it, right?”

“Nyx did,” I replied.

“Just… don’t do anything until I arrive there,” Whisperer said sternly. “There’s no reason to rush in.”

“Fine,” I sighed. “I guess I can wait a little while. I’ve already ordered reinforcements from Calgary and need them to arrive before I can set off anyways.”

“Thank you. And if the newbies arrive before me, please don’t try to convince them to join you. Just keep them safe until I arrive.”

“No suicidal expeditions, got it,” I replied flatly, “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Later,” she said as she hung up.

I looked over to the cave entrance, where I had my bears setting up to sortie, and set them back on patrol. I did promise I’d wait, so there was no point in having them sit around. Just as they started reinforcing the laser grids, I heard a commotion from beyond the gate. I pulled up the feed from one of the bears back at my truck. There was a rickety old van making its way up the road, rocking back and forth as it struggled over the uneven surface.

I took direct control of one of the heavy bots, stepped directly into the road, and called out. “This is a samurai controlled area, no access to unauthorized people.”

The van almost immediately slowed to a stop, and a girl, even younger than me and dressed all in black, jumped out of the passenger’s seat. She was dressed all in black. Black shirt, black jeans, black makeup… she must have been roasting. “I told you we were going in the right direction! If you’d asked your AI, they would have backed me up, but you just had to argue!” she yelled at the driver.

“It’s not that I didn’t believe you. I just thought there might be a safer way up here,” the driver replied as he climbed out. The man had to be close to seven feet tall and mostly muscle. Despite that, he seemed to flinch every time the girl yelled at him.

“Ummm… I wasn’t joking, no access! I’ll send one of my bears to escort you back to town if I have to!” I yelled, raising my voice so I’d be heard over their bickering.

“We’re supposed to be here!” the girl yelled back. She opened the back door of the van, and a dozen mechanical spiders, each the size of a small cat, shambled out. The man pulled a rifle out of the back seat and raised it so I could see it.

“Ffffffff… come on in, park over by my truck,” I said before disconnecting from the bot. “When I was told reinforcements were coming, I didn’t expect them to roll up in a junk heap,” I mumbled.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Both Tina Reed and Jesse Paro were selected during the last Edmonton incursion, which was about six months ago. Although they survived, neither one was near the epicenter of the attack, so neither of them managed to get much experience.

“And they volunteered for this?” I asked as the pair struggled through the gate, dragging various bags behind them.

That attack was six months ago, and they were deemed too inexperienced to help with the Seattle situation, so they’ve been looking for a chance to earn some more points.

“Right…” I noticed the girl waving excitedly, so I waved back and waited for them to get closer.

“You’re Teddy right?” Tina asked. “I’m Tina, and I'm a huge fan of yours!”

“You are?” I asked, surprised. “Why?”

“I’ve seen the recordings of you fighting in Seattle. They’re all over the samurai fan sites!” she gushed.

“The what now?” I asked dumbly.

“Ignore her. She’s a samurai fangirl,” Jesse said as he walked up. He dropped the massive pile of luggage on the ground, before sticking out his hand. “Jesse Paro.”

“Evelyn Claire, aka Teddy. You want me to call you by your civilian names, or your samurai ones?” I asked.

“We don’t have samurai names,” Tina pouted. “Haven’t earned enough points to establish a style is what Aegis told me.” She crouched down and ran her hand along the top of one of her bots. “Didn’t listen when I told him I was going to be using spiders.”

I stared down at the girl for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to say. “At least you have a goal,” I finally managed to say. “How about you, Jesse? Do you have a plan or anything?”

“Not really,” the big man said sheepishly. “I managed to make do with a rifle during the incursion, but I’ve been fairly indecisive ever since. I don’t want to waste my points.”

“Fair enough,” I replied with a shrug. “I’d take you into the mine to earn points, but I’ve been forbidden from doing that, so you’ll both have to just hang out for now. You could probably set up your… stuff just outside the gates. The bears will watch it for you,” I said looking down at the huge pile of things Jesse was lugging around. “What the hell did you bring anyways?”

“Just the essentials, like food, tents, and stuff,” Tina replied, standing up straight. “We didn’t want to come unprepared!”

“You know you can buy a decent meal for a point, right?” I asked the pair, as they gathered their things.

“Maybe, but I don’t want to waste the points,” Jesse replied. “Every point counts when you rely upon the daily stipend.”

“Alright… just don’t expect me to help you carry that shit if you plan to bring it into the mine,” I said, reaching out and helping Tina right herself as she teetered under the weight of her pack. “Food is important, but so is being able to move in a fight.”

“We’ll make do,” Jesse said as he headed back towards the gate. Tina handed her pack to her spiders, before following him out, waving pretty much the entire way.

“We’ll make plans once Whisperer gets here!” I yelled at the retreating duo. “Just watch for the flying pickup.” I could see a flash of confusion, but decided not to elaborate. They’d see soon enough.

Once they stepped out of sight, I turned back towards the mineshaft, and checked on the status of the squirrels. They’d made progress, finally mapping the width of the network, and now they were moving deeper. Thankfully, there were only two or three locations that approached the surface, even if they didn’t fully breach. I made sure to mark their location in case the Antithesis surged so I could set up defenses.

Other than that, progress was slow. The tunnel network, beside being expansive, was filled with twisting corridors that spiderwebbed deeper into the mountain. The squirrels were doing their best to map it, but they could only do so much. They had stumbled upon another half-dozen chambers, much like the root-filled one I’d found earlier, but these were all empty. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell if they’d been cleaned out or if they were just meant to be junctions of the various tunnels. The most annoying thing was that I hadn’t seen a single sign of the Antithesis ever since they ambushed my squirrel. It was like they just vanished into the tunnels.

I severed the connection, frustrated with the lack of progress. My reinforcements were still an hour or so away, so there wasn’t much for me to do at the moment. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long until I saw a familiar red truck fly by, heading for the main gate. Now that Whisperer was joining us, maybe I could enter the mine and make some actual progress.