While The Family itself remains neutral in all aspects regarding Samurai relations with other corporations, we do maintain a number of positive relations with certain corporations, such as merch distributors, infrastructure utilities, and local governments.

  That said, we do our best to stay out of any relations between a Samurai and a corporation unless asked for small favors, such as legal work or security presences.

  -An excerpt The Family FAQ: in regards to "I want to fuck with this PMC cause they kidnap kids, what support can I expect?"

  “Miss Synaptic, since it seems as though we have no choice but to become the proud owners of a PMC company, are there any augs that could help me with understanding and organizing people? Or, things that could help me better read people?” Roger asks.

  There are a number of technologies they could assist you with with these things, yes. However, due to Morrigan's requests, Victor currently does not have many points to spare. And besides, none of you will be in charge of a private military company until you have room to host said company.

  “Right! That makes sense. So, Vic, when can we move in?”

  “Well, during the meeting tomorrow, I was going to finalize the purchase of the floors, but now it seems as though I will need a few more. Morrigan, what is your best estimate for manpower for both securing New Phoenix, as well as having enough roaming forces to secure the areas around the city.”

  She regained her smile at my address, and that's when I noticed Jill had wrapped her arms around her in a hug. Curious. “Well, to secure the wall, one thousand four hundred and thirty, for the entire city, double that. For enough to dispatch out to towns, depending on how far out you are looking at, either another four hundred to one thousand. Logistics can easily be handled by AIs and robotics, not to mention dispatch requests and support staff. So, pure human manpower is looking at four thousand. Plus, they would request us to house their families, which makes sense. So, in terms of floors that you would need to purchase, four additional would be sufficient to cover all needed space. It would increase construction times, but I can speed those up by using terrestrial materials, then replacing them later.” She leans a bit further into Jill, who has started rubbing her head. Her smile has become more cat-like as she talked.

  “So, we are going to own six floors of a megabuilding, turn those six floors into forty two, and house thousands of people like a megacorp?” Cody chimes in, his skepticism on full display.

  “Wha- No! We are not putting families in shoebox apartments. Each family will get a decent sized living area. If each mercenary we hire brings between zero and five people with them, that means we have to house between four thousand and twenty four thousand people between twenty eight floors, maximum. Easily accomplishable, plus I will be constantly trying to improve the Spatial expansion, with eventual Class III tech on the horizon, I theorize we could expand the area by a factor of three. Plus, each apartment would have access to a screen to show the outside, or a few other select scenes from across the world. Since we are growing our own food, we could supply restaurants, not corpo ones but our own, with fresh ingredients, managed by said families. We could actually fulfill the promise of the megabuilding!”

  Jill bonks her slightly on the head, “Reign it in, kid. Plot later. How long will it take you to get everything set up?”

  Morrigan rubbed her head, “A month, less once I can produce other Fabrication swarms at Class III like me.”

  Jill pats her head, “Good. So, the biggest hurdle is the materials, but there is a plan in place for that, which we will learn tomorrow. Anything we can do right now?” She asks, looking at Outsider.

  Outsider shakes her head, “No. At this time, all we can do is wait.”

  “Good enough for me. It's getting dark out now, and as much as I want to test my new limbs, I will refrain from going out. Cody, got any family games on that thing, or do we need the blue munchkin to make us one?”

  Morrigan gasps in mock outrage, squirming against Jill's new unmoving arms. Cody smirks “Yeah, there are a few games, even for ten players.” He boots up the console and sends out a room link. Everyone accepts, even Leman, and we spend hours playing social deduction games, team based games, and even a game where one person has to hunt everyone else, being a monster, while everyone else is a less than average human trying to escape. We play that one a lot, with Baba Yaga raging every time she gets got, and Outsider ending up being the most feared monster player.

  Soon, dawn breaks. Buddy and Rogal make breakfast while the rest of us humans go shower. After a nice meal listening to Cody argue about strategy with Baba Yaga, it was time to head out to The Family HQ for our appointment.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  ******************************

  Stepping out of the van, all ten of us were greeted by a small group of suits, with Kira at their head.

  “Welcome back, War Games. Thank you for arriving early.” Kira says, smile plastered on,”I see you have brought your family, that is good. Please follow us to the meeting room.”

  With that, her group parted to allow her through, while she took the lead. Once more entering the HQ, I saw the myriad of signs and path guides formed from the network, and this time I saw a blue path labeled “Samurai War Games Orientation". I got a chuckle out of that.

  It took ten minutes to arrive at the meeting room, and in that time Roger tried all sorts of tricks to get the contingency to open up to him. Jokes, shared interests, asking about their salary. The only one who seemed receptive was Kira, but even she stayed professional and courteous, never divulging anything about herself. It was impressive, really.

  Entering the room, there were a number of chairs set up in a semi circle facing a back wall with a screen on it. Only Kira entered with us, and we spread out to take our seats.

  A few moments later, a door at the back of the room opened and Doma entered, along with a few others. Doma was still in a pantsuit, but her hair was now in a ponytail instead of in an intricate bun. The others were obviously mercenary types, even if they were in suits. They lined up along the back wall as Doma took center stage, so to speak, in front of the screen.

  “Good morning, War Games and family. There are a few more of you than I expected, yet is it safe to assume that the more eccentrically dressed individuals are not human?”

  I nod, “That would be correct, Doma. They are my direct combat strength at this time, as well as new family members, so I figured I should introduce them as such.”

  She chuckles, shaking her head slightly. “Of course, that makes sense. I would apologize, as I had set up a few things for your family and nothing for them, yet something tells me they do not need any opportunities we could offer.”

  Rogal nodded his head, “At this time, the only thing we could request would be access to the “friends and family” portion on the network, General Doma.”

  That got a laugh out of her, “General Doma, am I? Well, General of heading cats, I suppose. Don't worry, by the end of this, you will all receive a data packet containing a link to said network, as well as a few other things.”

  Shaking her head, she regains her composure ad the screen behind her changes, showing the New Phoenix skyline. “Thank you for taking the time to join us here, today. The goal of this meeting is to act as an orientation, to introduce the various benefits The Family can provide, opportunities for you to provide your own specialities, as well as an overview of what expectations we may have for you in your capacity as a Samurai.”

  The screen shifts to a new page, a representation of The Family Store app I was familiar with. “While not required, a number of Samurai here in New Phoenix produce certain specialities. Bub the Worker produces a staggering number of Class I and II materials for sale, as well as more specialized consulting work for designing buildings to be used as home bases, work spaces, or any other use one might have need of a master engineer. Black Log offers an information brokerage, highly rated by those who have used it, and Mirror Match offers a style and public image consulting services. While self admittedly not as good as Emosythe Mordeath Noir out of New Montreal, she strives to surpass her rival at some point. These are just a few of the services currently available for Samurai themselves, while for the families of said Samurai, we offer other opportunities.”

  The screen shifts again, going through a sideshow of different people at work in many, non-office related jobs.

  “From personalized protection equipment or personal, to job security in various fields, to self defence training, we offer a wide variety of hands-on activities that are designed to better assist them in pursuing either new hobbies, passion projects, or life missions. For the four of you, who are pursuing more proactive work, I have lined up a few different instructors from a few different fields in order to better enhance what talents you have. If there is a field that you would prefer to enter instead, that could easily be arranged.”

  “Now, in turns of the more basic expectations The Family holds for you, War Games, there are a few. The first is, of course, to be on call in case of incursions, to assist in the safeguarding of the civilians, and to do what you can to root out antithesis threats in the city. The second is to be available to be dispatched to other nearby cities or towns to help deal with antithesis threats. While not a constant, occasionally large hives are discovered that require the cooperation of multiple Samurai, and with your versatile swarms, you would be placed near the top of the list of requested dispatch candidates. That said, we have a robust rotation algorithm that will make sure that a Samurai is not dispatched more than twice per month. This gives the Samurai time to rest and recuperate any lost gear or damages they may have incurred, while also not pulling them away from any large projects too often.

  The exception to that would be in the case of a city wide emergency, such as a massive wave of invading antithesis that would require a more concerted effort. If it is determined that a Samurai is needed for such an event, we will call upon you and position you where we believe you would be most effective.

  With all that said, you are a Samurai, in the end. As much as The Family may desire you to move in certain ways, we cannot force you to do anything. You may deny a dispatch request, you may instead decide to defend the city in a different way entirely as you have knowledge we are not privy to, you may, of course, decide to do nothing but hole up in a bunker and ignore the world, and we could not force you to do otherwise.”

  That was all entirely reasonable, if not expected. Basically trying to entice the Samurai to be more active with a community of others, pay attention to more than what's immediately around them, and help as many people as possible.

  Then Roger piped up. “And what about corporations? What are your policies regarding the interactions and antagonists towards and in defence from them?”