Chapter 38: Cleaning up the mess

  “Most of the work happens after an incursion. Making sure you got everything, that no alien limp shits grow later, help people rebuild a bit, emptying the fucking shelters, dealing with the dumbass fucking corpos that are the reason fucking ten times more fucking people died…

  That last one’s the worst fucking part, actually. Like, by a loooong shot!

  I prefer shooting those cunts, personally.”

  – Samurai Jackal, post-incursion interview, 2055.

  ***

  “So, where were we?” I asked while following Altany’s directions. I headed towards an elevator bank to say hi to the nice folk eleven floors up.

  The building, you wished to purchase it. I waited as some details needed to be hammered out. Do you want it to be personally owned?

  “Oh, fuck no. Make a corporate entity or… can you make a non-profit with a board of directors? I don’t want to make the Bear-Yakuza a for-profit. Make the purpose of the non-profit to… take care of the inhabitants of the building? I don’t know. Get Robin’s input…”

  I already did. We are discussing legal advantages and moral implications of different choices. He seems to favor the non-profit idea as well. The name would be ‘The Bear-Yakuza foundation’.

  I frowned. “Is the ‘foundation’ part necessary?” I asked with confusion.

  This entity will not ‘be’ the Bear-Yakuza, but will be controlled by it. The purpose of the foundation and the organization may diverge and as an organization, you may wish to make a profit to help your people.

  The Bear-Yakuza foundation will simply be there for legal protection and to shift the ownership of the building to multiple people instead of only you. Since you are providing the funds, you will be the foundation’s executive director. This will mean you will be the representative for the board of directors and make most day-to-day decisions.

  I shifted a bit as I entered the elevator. “All this corpo shit makes me feel icky…” I said with disgust. “Am I going to have to put on a suite? I mean, do all the corpo crap?”

  As we are paired, that will include me as I am, from a legal perspective, an extension of you. This means you will not be required to personally involve yourself as I can sign for you, metaphorically. Not only that, since you paid your legal fees, I am your lawyer. Hence, I will do most of the work, like most CEO’s lawyers

  I blinked as the elevator moved up. “Well, thank you for the sacrifice. Let’s buy the place before the price rises again or something.” I said, getting a bit worried.

  No need to worry, the price has kept dropping. Most of your ill-gotten but justly taken gains are safe. The price is truly minuscule compared to what it was. This also means that the worst predictive shorts have paid off.

  I leaned my helmet on the door. “Jesus goat sucking Christ, what the fuck am I going to do with all that money!?” I felt overwhelmed. It was just… too fucking much. Way too fucking much!

  There is much that can be done. Repairing and renovating the building would be a good first step. I would not be surprised if you wished to improve the pitiful excuse for a school you have? Hire teachers?

  Making the building financially viable for the people inside will be difficult. Points will help, of course, but you only have so much. This will include finding jobs for them, which you will probably be providing the salaries for at first.

  These resources are a good first step and will make the lives of the people inside better because they are in your hands. However, you cannot keep being financially liable for the lives of everyone in your building forever.

  I took a deep breath. “Thanks Altany, that helped.” Grounding the fact of such astronomical sums with the realities of their need helped a lot, actually.

  It wasn’t infinite resources that just appeared out of thin air! Those funds were needed for the Bear-Yakuza, to make a better life and to protect the people in the building.

  I straightened up as we were almost to the right floor. “Do these fuckers know I’m coming?” I asked with apprehension. I didn’t like being in a metal box suspended over a very long drop. I was a walking tank for fuck’s sake! I needed solid ground!

  Camera feeds are cut in this section. It may have been an extraction site or organizational center for the operations within this tower. I would guess they know their team downstairs was attacked. You should probably deploy your shield.

  I did as the door opened. Before my view was cut, I saw an HMG nest!

  Before the door had fully opened I stepped out and planted my foot with spikes. I used it to get as much speed as possible towards the gunner. He clearly hadn’t been ready for my arrival because I got halfway there before the gun barked! The moment it did, the sound gave my echolocation the info I needed to aim my railgun.

  Backwards, that is, since I hadn’t noticed the two gunners currently trying to track me. I sent some grapeshot their way. It’s what I had and it did the job. The mercs got shredded! The one on the left got a few shots off before receiving his dose, but missed.

  I finally got to the fucker firing at me and jerked to the right before grabbing the barrel. I didn’t have any difficulty throwing the HMG away. I was about to take care of him and his buddies when I noticed the color. Green. “Altany?”

  These are low level mercenaries, unaware of the orders the others received.

  I grunted. “Oh well…” I looked at the gunner, loader and ammo carrier. They were surrounded by sandbags. I stood right outside the circle and they watched me like drowning fishes.

  I stared for a bit too long and they all pulled various pistol caliber secondary weapons. Those did nothing. Well, the kinetic redistribution gel made it feel like a… push? Yeah, a push described it well. A planted backfoot did plenty enough to ensure I didn’t budge at all.

  A big advantage with my new bullet focused armor? Wouldn’t have to replace any gear due to combat that wouldn’t earn me any points. It felt nice!

  When they’d all emptied their weapons, they started reloading and I laughed. “Seriously? Do you think a second magazine will do more?” That stopped them.

  “Fuck off.” I said simply.

  They froze. “Uh… what?” It wasn’t that complicated was it?

  “Fuck off.”

  The assistant gunner was the braver one apparently. “Uh… why?”

  I looked at him and tilted my head.

  “Why what?” I asked, confused as all hell. What bugged them?

  “Why let us go?” I blinked.

  “Why would I kill you?”

  “I don’t know, but you came up here and… I imagine you’re the guy that killed the downstairs team?”

  “I am.”

  “Okay… So… Why not us?” Yeah, I could get the confusion now.

  “Oh, I’m not killing you because you haven’t been killing kids and innocent people trying to flee from the building under my protection. I got a bunch of evidence plus a guilt meter software and shit. None of you murdered innocent people. I don’t kill anyone I don’t need to, so you guys get to… you know, fuck off.”

  “I’m sorry, the guys over there have been…” I nodded,

  “Yeah, why do you think I’m here? Do samurais usually go on murder sprees just for killing aliens?” I asked, my mask conveying the raised eyebrow.

  “Wait, why… we just tried to kill you!” The gunner said, proving he had balls.

  “Very unsuccessfully.” I replied with a nod. “You’re not really threats and I need to kill the fuckers that want to murder my family so… fuck off.” I said, turning away. They didn’t have any guns that could damage my back.

  A somewhat heated debate took place behind me, but I didn’t give a shit. They weren’t a problem. No grenades from what I could tell either. I did hear the assistant gunner shouting something interesting. “Fuck you, Calvin! I’m not working for child murderers, I quit you piece of shit!”

  Good man.

  ***

  After some running, I arrived at a super obvious ambush.

  At the intersection, even without echolocation, the guys weren’t that quiet. Then, I remembered I had a scout drone. Should have been sending it forward already…

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  I switched to walking as it did some recon.

  I saw… “Wow, they really sent the newby squad! Are they just trying to slow me down?” I asked, incredulous.

  It seems so. I am in their communication networks. They have not been alerted of my control to prevent them from running away. I am also ensuring they do not assault the building, to be clear. These seem to be forces meant to delay you until they prepare a proper response.

  There were sixteen of them. Only one red and two yellows. The yellows were in heavy mech suits. “Altany, prepare to snipe that commander with the railgun. Nothing expensive, he isn’t worth it. Get like, I don’t know, a tiny metal ball.”

  Coilgun ready.

  I raised the volume on my speakers and opened my mic. “Only your commander has to die. The two fuckers in heavy armor, I’ll give you one chance. The rest of you? I doubt you want to die for child murderers, but it’s your choice. They’re going to be dead soon anyway, it isn’t worth it.”

  That caused some heated discussion! The guys in heavy armor weren’t anywhere near as good at acting as the commander. Eventually, the moment came for them to spring out into the open. They were all ready, guns up, preparing.

  Suddenly, the commander came out of cover to shoot me!

  Alone.

  Altany took care of him. I kept walking. All the greens threw down their guns. I turned around after passing by and looked at all of them, the two yellows included. “Get out of that armor, you two.” They couldn’t throw down the mounted guns.

  They both complied. I looked at the assembled group. Except for the two yellows, they all looked young. The two heavies were older looking. They knew what had been going on… but I didn’t like killing people. I was good at it, I had to, but I didn’t want to.

  “Fuck off.” I said simply. It took a couple seconds, but they did. I kept going on my way.

  ***

  The welcoming party looked impressive! The anti-armor railgun that almost killed me? They had three aiming at where I’d supposedly arrive. However, those were very tech-heavy guns! They had cooling systems, management programs, etc… So, Altany had complete control of them.

  What interested me more? The small army behind them. A whole fuckload of red. Lots of mercenaries. Mercenaries that had murdered my people. I had to take care of them. “No innocents in the area?” I asked, just to be sure.

  No one. The commander sent all of them on the delaying action. There are sixteen yellows and forty-two reds.

  I nodded to myself. This floor had a command tent, which contained most yellows. These were people that knew what was happening, but didn’t participate. The kid I’d taken on had refused, but those fuckers simply didn’t give a shit. They hadn’t given orders that caused horrible things to happen. I could give them a chance. The others? Nop.

  There were a lot of soldiers, with a lot of guns. I tried to keep the expenditure of points to a minimum, but some had pretty strong shit. “Cluster shell, normal load.” It’d be less expensive.

  ***

  Commander Stanley was so fucking fucked! There was a god damn samurai coming! That wasn’t even speaking of his bosses, either fucking off or going dark! “Fuck! Another went dark, we’re never getting fucking paid… The delaying force?”

  His second answered, a lot calmer than he was. “Gone dark, sir.”

  “Shit! Our explosive ordnance won’t make it in time… At least the railguns have proven somewhat effective! He braced! We can do…” One of his information officers interrupted him.

  “Sir! He’s here!” He prepared for the sonic booms and the…

  “Why the fuck aren’t they shooting!?” The light armored vehicles should have taken a shot the moment they had visual! The samurai just… walked! That weird as hell deadly tail swayed behind him. If he hadn’t seen what it could do… Stanley shuddered.

  “The… The railguns are… inoperable…” The information officer said, paling. The angular helmet looked straight forward, past the vehicles! The eyes were narrowed. Even on something this fucking weird, he could recognize anger.

  That coil gun on his back pointed up… no… was it angled? Suddenly, it recoiled!

  “Shot incoming, brace!” It came so slowly, he could see the arc, aiming for the defensive position! The command tent wasn’t that close, maybe… The mortar detonated mid-air, launching… “Cluster b-!”

  A cacophony of explosions interrupted his warning! Shrapnel didn’t penetrate the tent’s bullet resistant fabric. His eyes focused on the views in his augs. “Alright, okay, he… He didn’t take out that…”

  The samurai sprang forward and everyone in the tent shut up, watching the display of pure violence. That guy wasn’t some axe-master, quite the opposite, but Stanley knew someone good at fighting when he saw them. His heart leapt with hope every time one of his men got a shot off, but they did nothing!

  A complete massacre. A fucking bloody one at that! The guy could launch cluster-bombs from his back! Why…

  “He doesn’t want to waste the points…” He muttered to himself.

  His men, his firepower, were all so insignificant that they weren’t worth spending points on…

  The commander fell into his chair, limp and terrified. The fight didn’t take long. The cluster-shell had done its job. His men ended up dazed, injured or dead. They just… couldn’t fight back, not really…

  He was fucked. Truly and utterly fucked. His people seemed to think so too. They’d stopped giving info, talking, or even… trying, really.

  The two guards inside the tent shook like leaves. They had SMGs because they should only have humans to deal with… useless for this…

  The fight ended and the samurai walked towards him. Stanley could feel it. He was the target. The two guards hid behind the flaps until he got within ten meters, then popped out and dumped their whole magazines into his chest.

  The monster didn’t even slow. The two dropped their guns and backed off. When that maniac entered the tent, he got a few meters in then looked around. What was…?

  Suddenly, a handgun assembled itself on his gauntlet. He aimed and fired at six people.

  ‘Oh, the guilty’, he thought. This… thing came to deliver vengeance…

  All of them died before hitting the ground. The beast then nodded and finally spoke. “The rest of you, you get one chance. Fuck off.” Everyone started running. Somehow, CM Stanley knew it didn’t mean him.

  He stayed right in his chair. No point in doing anything else…

  Something unexpected happened after everyone left however. “Why?” The question baffled him for a second.

  “Why what?”

  “Why take the contract? Why kill so many kids? So many innocent people?” He actually thought about it.

  Why the fuck lie?

  “I needed the money. It was fucking good pay. I don’t care enough about these people to turn that down. They don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, really.” The samurai nodded.

  “Thanks.” Then he raised his gun…

  ***

  Laser Jack took another drink. He needed it. That piece of shit Lacroix had issued a bounty! That meant that a high level samurai member of the family had to independently verify and concur before it could be taken down!

  “Fuck…” He’d spun some crap about an interpretation of 'cleaning up the mess' and they’d both known it had been horse shit. Now he’d have to involve high level members and they’d almost killed a promising samurai! “Fuck!”

  He’d wanted to stop this kind of bullshit from happening with that call, but apparently it wasn’t enough! Now he had to explain why there was a bounty on a damn samurai, which didn’t happen often!

  The story would be so much harder to contain... Even with all his efforts, hiding this many bodies and violence this public couldn’t be done. The bounty ruined any chance at being discreet.

  Oh well, The Family wouldn’t avoid a bit of a scandal, but the worst was…

  You are receiving a call from vanguard Jackal.

  A development with the hive? Wasn’t it contained? The higher tiers were beating it back, growing in strength to finish it off. Hell, they might go up a tier! Jackal had made a lot of points as well from what he could tell! Successful operation… as far as he knew. Maybe something happened?

  ‘Put her on’

  Dealing with that woman was a nightmare but if they had a problem with the hive…

  “Did you know?” Laser Jack blinked at the question.

  “What?” He asked, confused. She sounded more pissed than usual.

  “I asked if you knew. See, I’m talking to this nice lady, enforcers they call themselves, that new kid’s got an interesting thing going, anyway, she’s been telling me very interesting things. Stuff I should have fucking known. So, I ask again, did you fucking know?”

  He blinked again. “Do you mean that messed up plan? Yeah, why do you think I sent you those extras? You weren’t super interested in the fucking details, Jackal!” Always had to swear with that woman.

  It took a few seconds for a reply to come back. “You’re a dead man you piece of shit.” Then, she cut the connection.

  He blinked a couple more times. “What was that about?” This didn’t sound like her type of threat… Jackal usually preferred more verbose and creative threats, often including emasculation of some kind.

  I believe she is infuriated partially because you did not inform her of the number of civilian lives in danger or of the details of the situation.

  Laser Jack shrugged. “She needed to hit the hive from her side anyway and she would have gotten killed if she went at it her way…” Whatever. He needed to refocus. That kid had a massive task ahead of him. “What’s Mad Panda doing?” He asked, a bit worried for the guy.

  He is currently eliminating the mercenaries amassed around the building. He seems to be selective. I believe he has borrowed accountability software from vanguard Johnny Law.

  Laser Jack sighed. It made sense, and he understood. However, it didn’t make the whole bounty situation better… On the other hand, him being discriminating could help with the right spin… He’d have to do some free PR at a minimum for the poor man.

  “Alright, assemble the troops. We need to go help with the cleanup. This whole building is filled with hive potential. Get cleaners and soldiers, well equipped. Time to finish this.”

  ***

  Calwell was so fucked! His accounts had been emptied, even the best hidden ones! He still had some assets, this kind of shit happened. Making sure you had physical backups in an age of fucking samurais was essential…

  The elevator opened and he stepped out, aiming for his car at the edge of the roof. It wasn’t a sport’s model, but it could go fast enough to get away from this…

  “How do you plead?” He stopped in his tracts and stood motionless in the rain. The voice had come from his augs.

  Calwell wasn’t on a call. He’d been going dark. “What?”

  “You stand accused of mass murder, includin’ the murder of over a hundred children. How’d you plead? I got full control of you augs, you ain’t lyin’ to me fella, now how do you plead?”

  He stood there, completely frozen. It was clearly that fucking interloper, that damn Johnny Law that ran in before anyone could react! They hadn’t been able to shoot a samurai for no fucking reason!

  “I…” He couldn’t say ‘not guilty’! He believed him about the no lying thing! His eyes went to his car, could he…

  “No, you can’t.” Just like that, the car dropped from the sky, all hover engines turning off. It took a few seconds before it crashed on a landing.

  He had to answer! “I… I plead guilty of cleaning up the filth of this fucking city!” It came out a bit more shrilly than he planned but fuck it! He’d been doing the city a service!

  “Thank you for your cooperation.”