Chapter Thirty-Seven - A Genius Idea

Chapter Thirty-Seven - A Genius Idea

Chapter Thirty-Seven - A Genius Idea

There are several curated, quick, and even inexpensive services willing to teach a budding or even experienced samurai how to handle public-facing tasks.

We strongly encourage any samurai that wants to have any amount of time in the spotlight to take one or more of these classes. The lessons might seem like common sense for the most part, but they are nonetheless invaluable.

You dont want to have the public turn on you because of mismanaged PR.

--Family Head of PR John J.J. Johnson, 2051

***

I could have very easily spent the rest of the afternoon trailing after Lucy and scaring people into doing what she said. In fact, Id done that before and it was always very enjoyable.

I dont know what it said about me as a person, but something about seeing Lucy go full girlboss on people, unleashing her barbed tongue then snapping around to being the sweetest, most angelic person in the world faster than anyone could blink really did it for me.

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to a crashing explosion of an end.

My comms spat on and I jumped as a voice blared into my ears. Cat, where the fuck are you?

That was Gomorrah, nice, proper-Christian-girl Gomorrah who didnt usually swear. Which meant that things were probably not going so well.

Im here, whats up? I asked.

Ive been running around lighting aliens on fire for the last hour and every time I turn around theres more of them. I dont know if Im going to get swarmed here, but if I dont start getting help soon, Im going to lose it.

Okay, right, Im on my way. Can you hang on for ten minutes?

Yes, she snapped. I can hold on for ten minutes. I swear, if you spent the last hour goofing around Im going to rethink all the nice thoughts I had about you.

Right, right, Im coming. And I wasnt goofing around, I was arming the people and getting things set up back here.

Uh-huh. The line went dead, and I sighed.

Lucy waved the people she was talking to off, and they took the hint, leaving before Lucy had to really ask. She turned towards me, and her head tilted to the side a little. You okay?

Yeah, need to run though, I said.

Oh, thats alright, she said. I think Ive got things handled here. The extra suits and gear will come in handy. Ill try to stay on top of things, so if you can keep the aliens off our asses, then well probably be fine.

I nodded, then slid my helmet off, wrapped an arm around Lucys waist, and pulled her in close.

Myalis brought up a handy countdown showing me that I had under five minutes left to get to Gomorrah while keeping my word, so I reluctantly broke the kiss. Okay, I said once I caught my breath. Well continue that later?

I clapped. Fantastic! Nows your chance.

She patted me on the shoulder then walked on past. Im going to take my me-mandated break.

Oh! While youre at it, the folks at the mall need mini-flamethrowers to take care of the zombie problem.

Gomorrah paused, then shrugged. Alright. I can do that.

I watched her head out, then worked my shoulders loose. Without Gomorrah to feed the flames, literally, I imagined that our firewall wasnt going to last forever. I opened up our map of Burlington. Myalis, where are the other samurai at?

Sprout is patrolling the eastern cordon. I suspect he's trying to gain points where the action is lightest. Arm-a-Geddon is still in River Heights. Manic is to your north, outside the walls perimeter.

I nodded along.

The Family has sent you a message. You have reinforcements en-route.

Oh, thank fuck, I said before searching for the message in question and opening it.

>>>Stray Cat

We appreciate the reports. Your request for undersea specialist samurai has been added to the queue. Expect arrival of an expert within the next three days.

Your reinforcement request has been expedited. A battalion of Tier-2 prepped PMCs are on their way to Burlington. ETA, 2 days, 16 hours.

-Thank you.

I blinked. Two days.

How in the hells was I supposed to hold this place together for two days? And how many people was a battalion anyway?

I bet it wasnt nearly as many people as Id need.

The specialist only arriving in three days surprised me a little less. I bet there werent many of those. What kind of idiot would want a job where they had to get submerged?

I shook my head, picked up my gun from its sling, then watched the wall. I supposed I wouldnt have a choice now. If we had to hold, then we had to hold. We could set up rotations, get more of Lucys people on the front line, maybe install more mortars and better defences and just hang on tight.

... I didnt like relying on people that werent here yet, but what choice did I have? It wasnt like I could charge out to the nearest nest and fuck it up.

My eyes narrowed.

Wait... I could literally just do that.

***