“I broke some of my squirrels,” Angeline cried. The battle was over, so the group was just cleaning up the remnants, and containing the breach. Since she didn’t have much to do, Angeline went off to investigate what happened to a couple of the scouts she lost track of. “You did warn me about the kickback, but I didn’t expect the shockwave to flatten my new friends.”

  I took a quick look at the robotic corpses, then shrugged. “Sorry about that, I didn’t realize they were that fragile. You could try and drop them in my robotic repair bay in the back, see if that fixes them.”

  Angeline frowned. “You have a robotic repair bay? How come I didn’t know about it?”

  “Well I expected to need it more. Unfortunately the only one that I’ve put through it was this big boy,” I explained, throwing her thumb at Bob, “and it couldn’t even get his auto-repair fixed. He was just too complex. It should work fine on your squirrels though.”

  “It’s not like you don’t have the time,” Caitlin added. The woman didn’t even look up, she was busy sharpening her lance with some sort of futuristic looking whetstone. “We need to wait on a repair crew, and since the closest one is from the army engineering corps we’re going to be awhile.”

  “What, you don’t like the military?” I asked.

  “It’s not that, it’s just without Samurai tech they’re going to have to plug that hole the old fashion way. A shit ton of cement trucks. Not to mention they don’t have access to instant drying formulas… It’s too bad Teddy’s laser grids aren’t effective against stronger models, otherwise we could just leave a set here and move on.”

  “One of us could just set up the cannon, and babysit the breach, while the others continue to clean.” Angeline said, while trying to figure out how to strap her squirrels into the repair rig.

  Caitlin glanced up. “That’s not actually a terrible idea, it doesn’t need four of us to keep the Antithesis out. Or, it wouldn’t need four of us, if there weren’t those heavier models running around.”

  “Oh oh oh, I have good news on that front actually,” I said, excitedly. “I talked to Humboldt not long ago, and she said that a couple heavy hitters named Nemo and Depth Charge came in earlier. The two of them smashed all the aquatic hives in the area, and the clean-up crew was told to concentrate on exterminating the heavier Antithesis. Without any hives to mind, the weaker stuff flooded towards the city.”

  “Wait… they considered the Twenty-Threes weak? What the fuck were they fighting out there?” Angeline asked.

  “A lot of stuff in the mid to high thirties. Although Sharron wasn’t on the front line, she saw some real nightmare stuff out there. Apparently those hives had a long time to develop before they sent anything against the city.”

  “Fuck me,” Caitlin whispered. “Wait, does that mean we shouldn’t expect any more heavy Antithesis? We should totally continue cleaning. Who should we leave behind?”

  I sighed. “Let’s not kid ourselves, I’m the least useful one out of our group right now. My bears don’t need much oversight, Epona and Silent are useful against heavier models, and Bright is needed to look for lurkers. Angeline can take my truck, and keep repairing her squirrels while you advance. I’ll just keep my squad, the cannon, and rabbit APC just in case I need to move.”

  “Are you sure?” Angeline asked. “I know it’s kinda your thing, but I feel bad leaving you here.”

  “Absolutely. The sooner we clean up here, the sooner we can crack all those shelters,” I said. “I don’t really need the points as much as you guys do.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Angeline didn’t quite seem convinced, but Caitlin was quite enthusiastic. Before anyone could stop her she ran off to get ahold of Silent Saber and organize the bears. I gently laid a hand on Angeline’s back, “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine here.”

  The girl sniffed, but nodded before wandering off to prepare.

  While her friends were preparing to leave I decided to check on the status of my defenses. I had set up several laser grids twenty or so feet out from the outer wall, so the engineers would have a little room to work. Meanwhile my bears were patrolling just inside that perimeter, cleaning up anything large enough to survive crossing the barrier.

  “I know the plan was to set up the cannon, just in case something large attacks while the engineers are repairing the wall, but space is going to be tight once they start repairing the wall. I might need to invest in some alternative options…”

  “Like what?” Nyx asked, borrowing Dusty’s body.

  “I was already planning on upgrading my production capabilities, and you mentioned that with Class II Matter Reconfiguration Machines I could create self replicating mine fields. This might be a good chance to test it.”

  “Are you sure? Based on what you said earlier, I doubt you’ll need them.”

  “True, but I have the extra points. Can I move the replicator after I buy it?” I asked.

  “You can…” my AI confirmed after a second. “The main system takes the form of a three foot spike that is buried in the ground. If you want to go through all the work to dig it up, and recharge it again, you could always bury the generator somewhere else.”

  “Well then,” I smirked, “It’s a good thing there’ll be a ton of military engineers around later, isn’t it?”

  “Speaking of which…” Dusty turned back towards the breach, through which they could see a convoy of trucks pulling up.

  “It’s about time, let's go greet our guests.” I grumbled, leaving the front lines to the bears. As I made my way through the remains of the wall, a couple people jumped out of the front car and saluted. Slightly confused, I saluted back. “What do they say in the movies? At ease? I’ll be honest, I’m not actually sure why you’re saluting me in the first place.”

  The man in front, probably in charge considering his uniform was fancier than the others, looked at her confused. “Aren’t you a Samurai ma’am?”

  “So? What’s that have to do with anything?”

  “All Samurai have a military rank during Antithesis invasions, which gives them the right to take command of local operations.”

  “That’s cool…” I replied, nodding slightly. “Do you need me to take command of pouring the cement?”

  The military officer blanched, “No ma’am.”

  “Then I’ll leave the setup to you. There will be a squad of rabbits on one side of the wall, and bears on the other side to protect you while you work. Feel free to deploy your troops as you see fit. I’m not picky.”

  “Yes Ma’am”

  “And stop calling me that, if you need to contact me call me Teddy. It makes me feel old when people call me ma’am.”

  I turned away from the trucks, and shut down the external comms on my helmet. “Nyx, do I have access to anything that’ll speed this process up? I don’t fancy being here for days while the cement dries.”

  I don’t blame you. You can open up an structural engineering catalog, and buy some quick set liquid for the concrete. Just have the military spray it over the top of every pour, and it’ll dry within minutes without compromising the build.

  “Just keep supplying them with what they need until the hole is closed,” I grumbled, “and tell me the total later. I know I have the points to cover it.”

  Can do.

  Between the massive number of engineers, and the samurai assistance, the initial framing only took a few hours, and the breach was sealed by the end of the day. Even if the engineers needed another couple days to finish the final touches, they wouldn’t need a Samurai babysitter going forward.

  Unfortunately that was the slowest, most boring day I’d had since becoming a samurai. I didn’t see anything larger than a Model Six all day, and in the end I spent the entire day just sitting there,

  When I finally boarded the Grizzly, and went to pick up the rest of the squad, I couldn’t help but wonder how much longer this counter-offensive would last. Even though it had only been going on for a couple days with the number of samurai around, and the speed at which the situation was stabilising, how much longer would they need everyone to stick around?

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