Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Twenty - Rescue Quest

“For a while there was a real debate across just about every country, on the nature of self-defence. Should civilians be allowed to arm themselves for their own defence? What kind of weapon can a normal person carry that goes too far? How do you split the difference between acceptable arms and unacceptable?

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--Start of a Vidtube broadcast, late 2026

***

“Alright,” I said. “Lay it on me.”

Simmons and I had moved off to the side between the gantry mechanisms holding up a pair of hovercars. We had both crossed the yellow striped line on the ground that marked the area where it was or wasn’t safe to stand while hydraulic lifts held up the cars around us, but I don’t think either of us cared at all.

“Materson and Thundercrock have gone missing. At least, they’re not reporting in.” Simmons reached into one of the many, many pockets along his belt and pulled out a small radio, not bigger than his palm and made of that off-white plastic that all cheap shit seemed to be fond of. He tapped the front screen. “No signal from their mics.”

“Okay. And who’s Meterson and... Thundercrock... is that really their name?”

He nodded. “Jeff Materson and Storm Thundercrock, and yeah, it’s his name. Two of my agents. Not the brightest, but loyal and hardworking enough. Sent them to the third floor. I caught sight of a few survivors in that area. Pair of young women, some office workers from one of the accounting firms. They just showed up on the security feeds for a little bit then were gone, but I figured they were worth trying to save too.”

I couldn’t fault him for that. “Security feeds?”

He tapped the side of his neck, the universal sign for an augment. “Neural and optic implants connected to the building. I can see through any of the building’s cameras, and any of those that belong to a store that’s under our contract. That leaves a lot of blind spots though.”

“Can you see any aliens?”

He nodded somberly. “Yes. The first two floors are crawling with them. Models Three through Six, mostly. Nothing bigger yet.”

I felt an eyebrow perking up. “You know your way around the aliens?”

“I was military before signing up here. This won’t be my first incursion,” he said. “It’s why I don’t mind the idea of leaving, even if it’s a risk. It’s better than trying to pull a last stand. Those never work out against the xenos.”

“Right,” I said. “So Materson and Thundercock?”

“Thundercrock,” he corrected. “And they went MIA. I don’t think they’re dead though, just incommunicado. They’re not the sort to go AWOL, and if they were, where would they go? Take a stroll down main street? Nah, I need someone to go check on them.”

“And you want that to be me?”

“You’re a samurai. Your sort tend to like killing xenos by the lot. It’s why I don’t mind your green ass strutting around as if you own the place.”

I snorted. “So I need to earn my keep?” I asked.

“That’s the jist of it,” he said. He pushed the little radio into my hand. “Connect your gear to that. Standard ForkBeard nine point-oh. Bit old, but it works.”

Accepting strange gear from overly serious hardasses you didn’t know was somewhere in the top ten things a girl shouldn’t do, but I took it anyway. If it was bugged I was pretty sure Myalis could poke the virus dead. “Thanks. Yeah. I guess I should head down. How long until we’re ready to go?”

“Depends on a few things. Can’t get that AA to work without someone knocking it about. I’m tempted to send you, but I have some actual IT people from some of the offices. They’ll do a better job than you could. It’s mostly flicking a switch. Maybe an hour until we’re all ready to make a run for it? That’ll be... more or less two hours since the incursion began.”

“Is the time important?” I asked. “It’s my first incursion.”

“I figured,” he said. “And yes. The more time passes the worse the xenos get. Right now we’re dealing with single digits, low ones. In a few hours the nasty sorts will come out, then by tonight the double digit monsters. Those need special troops and equipment to put down. If we’re not gone by then, we’re boned.”

He is correct. Though I should add that eliminating a more difficult model of Antithesis gives a commensurate number of points.

“Right, so get down, find your two chumps, then race back up before things get worse. Maybe kill some aliens along the way.”

He nodded. “Stay in touch.”

With that he walked off, as if he had more important stuff to do, which... yeah, he probably did. It felt as if he wanted me out from underfoot, which might have been exactly what he wanted.

I stared out across the room and found Lucy chatting with Marie, the kittens and the religious kids mixing together like water and oil around them. I could have gone over to say goodbye again, but Lucy took those hard at the best of times and doing that to her again sat wrong.

So did just walking off. But maybe that hurt me less than having to go through goodbyes one more time, and at least this way I could justify it by telling myself that I was short on time as it was.

“Think you could crack the building’s security?” I asked Myalis. “It’d be nice to know what’s around the corner.”

I’m afraid not. There’s only so far that my reach can go. Both to limit my spread, and to prevent you from using me to abuse the technological rights of others. I could provide you with implants and software to easily crack into any system though. Class I CyberSecurity would let you override the building’s system and Class I Cyberwarfare would allow you to buy the tools to come to the same end.

“So you can’t do it, but you can give me the tools to do it?” I asked.

And I can provide instructions! Before purchasing any of those though, I’d suggest Class I Technological Utilities. Your current augmentations are inadequate.

“You’ll need to explain your logic on that one, not the aug-gear, I know mine’s junk.”

I can’t kill your enemies for you, but i can provide you with the tools to do so.

“That’s a weird hair to split.”

I have enough computing power to take over the world’s infrastructure, and even without the blueprints to automatons--which I have--I could engineer methods to turn the entire world into a fortress.

I snorted. “Then why don’t you?”

There would be no place for humans in such a world. And my goals align with my creators. I want to protect you, not coddle you. It is, as you said, a fine hair to split.

“Yeah, I guess,” I said. “Well, whatever. Let’s keep moving.”

Certainly! I predict a sharp increase in your points in the near future!