While we, as a species, have made it to both the Moon and Mars, the effort it would take to make those rocks inhabitants are simply not profitable in the short term, let alone the next five years.

  While we will still maintain the Moon city's transit shuttles, Mars has been evacuated and all shuttles canceled until a more serious leap in transport technology comes around.

  Instead, we will be looking towards the ocean, as a great many Samurai as working to keep our coasts clear and safe.

  -Public minutes of SpazeXD Board meeting, discussing the shift in priorities, 2055

  Heraclese laughed at my confusion. “Let me introduce you to our local artillerist, Gunny. And he is indeed living in a space station in orbit above New Phoenix. Occasionally, he sends a drop pod down to obtain supplies and attend yearly meetings and parties, so getting to space is not an issue.”

  Understanding dawned on me. “And because you are an artillerist, you could easily launch the portals to their destination easily.”

  “Bingo, kid! All I need are the technical specifications of the portals and how they are set up, and it will be a snap to get things set up.” Gunny responded.

  Morrigan asked if she could take the floor through my network. “As far as technical specifications go, I will have my technical advisor take over. She designed the system and will be better equipped to explain it.” I gesture towards Morrigan.

  She steps between Heracles and I, waving towards everyone. “Hello, hello everyone! I am Morrigan, a Class III Fabrication Nanite Unit and Class VII AI, with the pleasure of being the one who will solve our problems!

  So, the portal in question is a fixed two way transport system that can be sustained by a decently robust Class II Power Generator. It will need a power generator on each end, but that can be easily accomplished. The Portal opening can be as small as a finger width or as large as five hundred feet wide. Teleportation between each portal doesn't require a sealed or pressurized room, as the portal film is smart and isn't simply an open window into space!”

  I could see a number of people's shoulders ease at that information. To be honest, I didn't realize that was a problem.

  “And how will you go about producing this portal on the Moon? You mentioned something about nanites, and The Family profile for War Games mentioned that he uses nanite swarms, so does that mean you could preprogram a swarm to build the portal structure if I send it that way?”

  “Oh, no. While I could preprogram a few Fabrication pairs to do that, that is too inefficient and would open us up to scrutiny if you fire more than once at the moon, after all, we need to build at least two portals. One for you, and one for us! So, after we build the first portal base here on Earth, you would shoot me to the Moon and I would build the portals there.”

  She would go to the moon. She was asking to be shot out of a cannon at Mach fuck, be slammed into the Moon's surface, and build portals there. I wanted to object to that plan, to say it was too dangerous, but Morrigan stopped me in our network.

  “Stop, Victor. This is the best method available. I will be safe, the impact will be calculated to be so. I am not organic. I. Will. Be. Fine.” She said, staring directly into my avatars eyes at the speed of thought.

  I felt her sincerity, she was radiating a calm confidence that I couldn't argue with. So I nodded, returning to real time.

  Gunny was rubbing his chin, obviously reading something that I think Morrigan sent him. “Hmm. Yes, this is very feasible. I would need a new cannon to match the specs required, but I have plenty of room for more cannons. Can be done on a day.”

  “I suppose the only question left would be where the portal structure should go, both here and on the Moon.” Doma said.

  “That, and figuring out how quickly we can take over the water works from Bestlé. Or, failing that, how quickly we can neutralize whatever toxins they plan on dumping into the water supply.” A different Samurai said. She was wearing very casual clothes, massive oversized shirt with a picture of a red panda doing its best to be scary, as well as red panda ears on her head.

  “Red Menace is right, Doma. Space is not an issue, we could simply dig down below the plates and undercity. Shrew could easily calculate the most stable place to dig, or make one. Fleming, made any progress?” Someone else said, also wearing normal clothes.

  Fleming, still in his robes, pulled out a tablet, “I have obtained two samples from the pipeline through a great expenditure of effort. Both toxins were different, aimed to do different damaging things. I have neutralized them, of course, but reports indicate a dozen or so toxic payloads spread throughout New Phoenix, let alone the other cities. I have been coordinating with other mercenaries to locate as many as possible, and a few other Samurai to test them. The only real option we came up with is to buy a blueprint for a multipurpose filtration system and install them just downstream of each device. This would be to the benefit of the normal people, after all the water would be cleaner, but it would take hundreds of these devices, and about a week of effort to do it.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “And why the hell weren't you doing this already?” Red Menace asked, glaring at Fleming.

  “Because that felt like cheating…” he mumbled. That got angry looks from everyone. He had the presence of mind to at least look ashamed, and stayed quiet.

  Doma sighed, “So, a week to build and install hundreds of water filtration devices and a portal base. How long will it take to build the portal, Morrigan?”

  “Not long, a day at most, so long as I have a steady stream of materials. If the plan is to dig a cavern below the city, then we won't even need to remove the dirt, as I could use it to make the base. I can coordinate with Shrew to make things easier.”

  “Very well. We have a plan of action. In a week, so long as everything works as intended, we will remove Bestlé from Arizona. Prepare your gear for the inevitable corporate war that will follow and our raid on Bestlé Local HQ. I will send out a briefing for everyone taking part later, and I will make sure Black Log redoubled his surveillance on them. Anything else we need to discuss?”

  No one said anything, and I stood there in shock that quickly turned to acceptance. Of course there would be a corpo war. Bestlé probably owned Arizona, and if we were kicking them out, Sands knew how many sharks would come after smelling the blood we would shed.

  “Good, meeting adjourned. I will see you all at Blizzard's party Thursday.” And with that, practically everyone filed out of the room.

  Heracles patted my shoulder, “Excelent work, War Games. You did good. See you later!” Then he leaves, with Doma, Morrigan, and I remaining in the room.

  Doma leaned back in her chair, looking at me with a pleased expression. “You know, for someone who had no public speaking experience proposing a plan in front of a group if extremly powerful individuals that many of them had already dismissed, you did very well. You didn't even stumble on your words once!” Her fox-like grin spreading. “You deserve a reward.”

  She stood up, making her way towards me and Morrigan. Morrigan raised an eyebrow, but didn't interfere. Once she was standing in front of me, towering over me slightly, seeing my face turn a bit red again.

  She leaned down ans whispered into my ear, “It's such a shame your too young for me to reward you as I would like.” She straightened, giggling at me as I was disappointed in myself for feeling as I was.

  “Come along, Victor. I need to introduce you to Black Log and give you your welcome package.” She sauntered out of the room while I followed. Morrigan smiled a cat-like smile as she followed in silence.

  *********************************

  Black Log’s office was not the Meshizen lair I was expecting to see, dark, cramped, full of servers and screens and wires. No, it was something cozy. There was a large Mesh chair in the far corner, but the rest of the room was a bunch of bloby furniture that you could feasibly sit or lay down upon, but they were not the focal point if the room. No, that wemt to the walls and ceiling, which were actually aquariums. I could feel the chill of the water through the glass, see the light in the room shift and reflect as it was want to do when shine through water. And within them was swarms of jellyfish of all kinds.

  Walking in, I couldn't help but marvel at the sight. “It's a beautiful thing, isn't it. A right pain in the ass to install the thing, I assure you,” a deep male voice said, emanating from my right.

  As I turned to look at the source of the voice, I saw a floating black jellyfish. It raised a tentacle at me, “Black Log, pleased to meet you.”

  I reached out to shake the tentacle, but my hand went right through it. The jellyfish jiggled as he laughed. “Holy shit, Doma, you are going to have so much fun with him.” He said. I hate it here. “I'm a hologram, War Games, as are all those jellyfish above us. Went extinct years back, but I love looking at them.” He floated over to the couch blob things, beckoning us to follow.

  As we sat down, a few cups of water were brought over by a table drone. “So, welcome to The Family, and thanks for giving us a weapon to shoot Bestlé with. We have a few things to go over officially, and a few things unofficially. First, the boring things. There is a profile we have for all Samurai that explaines a few things about their capabilities, preferred territory, protected people, as well as what work they are good at, such as cleaner, heavy hitter, low number exterminator, things like that. There is also a more civilian side of things, community and commercial actions and the like. We also collate the Catalogs each Samurai has that they are willing to share, at least. We do this so that other Samurai could possibly access those Catalogs to buy things, share tech, and possibly avoid wastful purchases. This is entirely voluntary, and really only a local policy. The entire thing is editable by you and only parts of it are visible to other Samurai. Please adjust as you see fit at a later date. It will be available through The Family Store.”

  His voice sounded bored, as if he was reading from a script.

  “Second thing is, of course, giving you the keys to your office here in the HQ.” A data packed arrived, the image on it an old house key. “Your office is on S3, or Samurai level three. Just follow the path the network provides later. You will be given a stipend to decorate the room as you please, or you can use those nanite to do it for you. Your liaison, Kira, will have the room to its front as her office, which you may subsequently decorate as you wish, or allow her to do so using your stipend. Even if you have no intention of ever using the office, it will be yours until the day you either move district's, or die.”

  “Third and final boring thing is a designated parking spot. You will need to designate a vehicle that falls within the size requirements found in The Family Store. You may change the designation at any time, but only one vehicle may be designated at a time.”

  Once he finished, the jellyfish did a loop in the air. “Alright. Boring things done and over with. Time to get to the interesting things!”