Samurai awaken from most walks of life, and yet the vast majority of them all have issues from both before they initialize, as well as when they initialize. And only some of those are physical.
-Unknown Redditor post, 2044
The floating castle was huge. A veritable true floating city. When the image shifted to a wireframe model, I had to take a deep breath to calm my excitement.
The first thing I noticed were four hangar entrances for the Cruisers under the forest, which utilized portals to not distrust the ground. Each hangar was spatially expanded, and could hold four Cruisers and their drydocks, which both excited me and terrified me. What the fuck would I need so many Cruisers for?
Oh, right. Mars has already been taken over, so probably other planets? Or even the ocean? I guess I could dispatch them out to other cities or work between civilized areas. That would make sense.
Shifting my focus, I could see the surface of the island bristling with guns, cannons, and missile pods, split into sections connected to dedicated munitions factories. There were also dozens of hangar ports for shuttles or more dedicated combat ships.
Hydroponics, a more robust DM Screen, a section labeled “Holo Deck”, massive shield generators, and more. The pond was very deep, big enough for a small pod of whales to swim comfortably, designed to allow for fisheries to function normally.
The large crystal at the bottom of the island was… conceptual, based on Morrigan's notes. It mentioned being a housing for gravitational engines and acting as a huge main weapon, either plasma based, laser based, or something possibly more esoteric, depending on collaborations with Synaptic.
What was more interesting was that the majority of the below ground area had no hallways, no standing room, very obviously not designed for life to exist there, only nanites, conveyors, and portal frames.
“So this whole thing is one huge war center? Morrigan, I could take over any country in the world pre-incursion with this. While I admit, I do want it, why did you feel that this was required?” I ask, eyebrows furrowed.
“Easy!” she said, tilting her head and clapping her hands, “Because this is the most advanced thing I could make that would guarantee not only your safety but pretty much anyone else's. The castle is scalable, basically slightly larger than this megabuilding in square footage.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “No, I get that part, and I have an idea as to why you would want us to have this. But I want you to explain why you felt that I would want this, besides that I find it cool.”
She deflates and sits on the stage, grabbing a Raven and petting it. “Because I can't make anything to kill a mid-level forty.” She mutters. “And if you are on the ground, there's nothing that we could do to stop them from eating us.” She looks up from the raven. “I asked Black Log the other day about New Houston, since we ran into a fifty not long ago, even if it wasn't ready. He showed me a video of a huge wyrm-like antithesis breaking through the crust of the Earth under the Gulf, wrapping around the entire floatila, and crush it like it was nothing. I saw Vanguard Starfall, a Tier V Vanguard, attack it with full confidence, and it looked like she killed it. But she didn't, and it escaped.
“Victor, I can't protect you if those things are just beneath the Earth, doing whatever. The only safe place is above the surface, with enough satellites and sensors to see anything coming from miles above and below the surface of the Earth.”
Ah. I understand the root of the issue now. I extracted myself from Cari’s coils and hopped on stage, giving Morrigan a hug. She quickly hugged me back. “It's okay to be scared, Morrigan.” I say. I realize that this is a very valid fear for anyone, and why news of how New Houston was destroyed remained classified, scrubbed from the net by, probably, many Samurai.
She signaled that she was done with the hug, so I let go. I rub the back of my head, “That probably didn't help you feel better, did it?” I ask.
She shook her head slightly, “Confirming that it is okay to be scared was enough, because that means you also understand why I desire you to leave the surface as quickly as I could make you.” She stands up. “Annoyingly, getting even the frame of this thing flight capable will take me a month and a half, let alone the full thing being livable, then fully operational. This is not a short term goal, Victor. If I remain in Class III, with no Class IV catalogs, this will take me nine months to finish.”
Cass whistled as I processed that. Morrigan patted me on the side, waving me to sit back down, so I leave the stage and sit with Cari. Nine months, with only Class III tech. She was planning to build the whole thing out of Class III Materials. Very advanced ones at that.
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Morrigan shook her whole body, then softly slapped both her cheeks. “Right! At this point, I have gone over all the major projects on my docket. In order to do them to the best of my current capabilities, I need certain catalogs.” The screen behind her formed a list of catalogs with their highest class request and point and token costs.
Class II cyberwarefare- 250 points, 1 token
Class I and II Information processors- 380 points, 1 token
Class I and II Hardened communications Networks- 400 points, 1 token
Class I, II, and III Energy Shielding 8850 points and 4 tokens
Class I, II, and III Gravitational Manipulation- 12000 points and 4 tokens
Class II and III Void Watcher Senors- 9700 point, 4 tokens
31,580 points and 15 tokens
While a lot of points, this would take all but one of my tokens. And the problem was every single one of them would be of incredible use to me.
“Hey, Vic,” Cass said, drawing my attention. “First of all, thanks for allowing me to be here for all of that.” She gestures at the screen. “Now, I have some advice for you, and I feel as though I should tell you, both as you senior Samurai, as well as your aunt.” Cari squeezed me a bit, nodding slightly.
“Sure, Aunt Cass. What do you have?” I relent.
“You should buy these catalogs, and probably also green light the castle in the sky.” a smirk forms as she says the last part. “A flying fortress is the dream of many Samurai I know, yet so few of them have the support system in place necessary to build one, let alone anything this big. You have the opportunity to make something that can better guarantee your safety, while also being so heavily armed that you could protect any mega city on your own.”
“That was senior Samurai advice. As your new aunt, I will caution you a bit. This is a literal castle in the clouds, a thing that so many citizens mock and hate as a metaphor for the rich and detached. You are already kinda there with this tower, but this would fully isolate you from the world. You will not see the good you do, nor the bad you could see from the ground. If you plan on doing this, you will need eyes on the ground, and connections with others.”
I nod in understanding. “Yeah, I get that. Good news is that Morrigan has already set up plans to make a PMC, which we can grow into something more. Plus, as a Family Samurai, I'm sure you and Bo will keep me honest.”
She smiles, but shakes her head. “Not quite enough, Vic. You need to do some public events, charities and the like, maybe a few offices set up in different cities and towns that citizens can approach to request assistance.”
“I mean, yeah. Sure, that is something I could do. But that leads me down the route of being the world's police, and I hate that idea.” I lean back into the blue egg, rubbing Cari's scales absent-minded. “I know how badly the world is fucked, and that is not including the antithesis in the mix. I… My past is not simple, not clean. I have a lot of blood on my hands because of how my family and I were raised, from guards, executives, and regular people. I have seen the depravity of corporations and how they leave humanity broken and angry. And I know I now have the power to start fixing things, but I am already too jaded and broken to care.”
My focus turns inward to my memories. “We were child soldiers for whoever paid our owners, trained to be expendable, yet rewarded for our reusability. I killed my first person when I was ten, not because they were a threat to us, but because we couldn't leave any witnesses to our work. We have infiltrated penthouse suites to take our corporate rivals, and PMC bases to sabotage their gear. We have slaughtered our way into server farms for data, and cleaned out a gang that got a bit too close to a chemical dump site that wasn't supposed to be there.”
“I have had to watch my sister be put back together because moths ate her on a job gone wrong, and be unable to comfort her because our owners fucked with her head so much, she couldn't cry. I have seen the dead eyes of the living and know I was once one of them. If Roger or Jill or Cody or Buddy want to fix the world, I will support them all the way. If someone threatens my family, I will put them down. But if you want me to fix the world.”
I look at Cassandra. I see her eyes constrict, and can guess why. “Then someone else needs to lead me down that path, because I don't have it in me to forge that path myself.”
Cari proceeds to wrap me in her coils and hugs me tight, muttering something. I hold onto her like a man drowning, because I am. I am drowning in my memories of the last ten years, of every face I killed, of every life I ruined. Of the knowledge that I have, in part, furthered the enshittining of this world.
I hold onto the knowledge that we got out. We got out due to a damn miracle, a miracle that only happened because our employer sent us to die, but we got out. I hold onto the hope that going forward, I can make sure my family is safe. I can make sure that no matter what, no one will ever be able to threaten them again.
I hold onto the rage towards the two groups that I know tried to harm my family. The fucking Mikosanos and….
My mind returns to the present as I scream in anger. Cari holds me tighter, and I feel tears begin to form.
We forgot to rob the middle man. I have no idea who sent us to die.
I feel my rage twist my guts, self loathing floods through me for forgetting the most important thing we were supposed to do! How could I-
I feel a pulse from my Deep Network as Synaptic grabs my attention.
I have the information, Victor. I grabbed it before you left the hotel for the first time. I didn't tell you as I saw you were very distracted by many life threatening situations, and no one else remembered, either.
She had it. Good, good, good. That's good. We didn't fail. I have a direction to focus this hate.
I sync my breathing with Cari, calming myself. It takes a few moments, but I return to a slightly numb state, yet the anger still boils.
“Are you stable now?” Cari whispers to me.
I nod, burying my face in her neck, taking in her scent. Then, I feel a prick on my neck, and warmth flows through me, and my rage subsidies.
