Do Samurai respect laws? That depends. Are those laws stupid? Do those laws prevent them from doing what they want? Do those laws prevent them from both helping people and fighting antithesis? Was the person who made those laws an asshole?

  If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then no, most Samurai will ignore those laws. The law that, arguably, gets broken the most is Physics. Look me in the eyes and tell me Foxfire obeys those laws, fucking try. The fact that she has a doctorate doesn't matter, the woman spits on physics and dances on its grave.

  -Dr. Angel Gratas, answering a student, wearing Foxfire merch, trolling his lecture, 2056

  I knew this was going to be an ongoing conversation, namely due to some lack of trust Cari had towards something. Probably her extended family, which would be fair, to be honest.

  Morrigan shifted a bit, then spun on a circle. “Okay! Any other questions about this plan?”

  “Yes, actually.” I say “How are we going to cover the other twenty six percent of the city?”

  “Good question! That will be done via Outsider's newest minions!”

  I see a hole open on the runway near the back as four large black birds fly out and land next to Morrigan.

  The birds were huge. Nearly two feet tall and almost a foot wide, but what drew my eye were the outfits they were wearing. One was in a tuxedo with a monocle and a top hat. Another was wearing a poncho and a gas mask. The third wore a hoodie and sneakers, and the last wore a Meah suit and helmet.

  Cari squeezed quickly in delight, and I could feel her desire to hold them. “These Dapper Ravens are going to be Outsider's eyes and ears throughout the city. These four are wearing example clothing for distinction and cuteness purposes, however,” they all turn invisible, “they are stealth units, equipped with myriad sensors and can act as Command Pylons for more secure communications, as well as expanding the range our swarms can be dispatched. Each raven does have a rudimentary AI that is just a bit smarter than the original animal, allowing them to decide how dangerous a situation could be, as well as help out in the case of an incursion by assisting civilians evacuate.”

  I sent a question to Outsider, asking if Cari could hold one of the Ravens. I heard her giggle as the poncho raven revealed itself and glided over to Cari, who held it like a stuffed animal.

  “As you can see, while their frame is rigid, the nanite coating is very malleable and comfortable. They do have some limited combat capabilities, namely thermal charged monofilament wire branches on their wings and claws, with a laser in their beak.”

  Cari turns to Outsider, “Could I keep this one?”

  Outsider giggled while nodding, and Cass reached over to pet it. Cass then walked up to the stage and grabbed the one in a top hat to cuddle with. “Too soft. Very cute. This one goes with Bo and me.” she said. That got some chuckles from all of us.

  We all refocus on Morrigan, and she continued. “With the upgraded processing and communications equipment in the DM Screen, we can deploy enough Ravens to monitor the remaining blind spots in the city, as well as distributing a few dozen per city plate, with room to grow.”

  “The second part of the increase in surveillance is getting a satellite in geosynchronous orbit above and around New Phoenix.” The screen behind her shifts to show a blueprint for a large satellite with dozens of cameras at its base. “One would be used to observe the city and the area around it, with three more planned to observe the rest of Arizona in a triangle formation. This would allow us to monitor for new hives, speculate of where stealth hives may be, and allow us to monitor active threats, such as corporation armed columns. Now, even if I build the satellite now and push it through the portal, it will take a day to get it close to orbit. That said, we have no communications equipment that can easily reach orbit. Doing so will require Class I and II Hardened Communications Network catalog, as well as Class I and II Energy Shielding, with room for Class III in the future.”

  “The shielding should be obvious, but in case you forgot, the orbit surrounding Earth is filled with debris ranging from rocket parts to micro shrapnel. Any questions there?”

  “Any weapon on board?” Jim asks.

  “Not on these, no. These are designed to be information gatherers, not weapons platforms. The strongest thing they have is the shield, which should repulse any debris down towards Earth.”

  “But you have plans for weapons platforms, right?”

  She sighed. “Such platforms fall under Samurai Gunny’s domain. We do have plans to collaborate once he returns, as he is always interested in making and helping others make heavy artillery.”

  Jim nodded, satisfied.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  “Next point is the Cruiser Project.” the screen shifted once more to a blank sheet of blueprint paper. “Now, thanks to the Class III catalogs we have, I was able to design a few mobile command center types, with room to produce ammunition, swarms, food and water, storage and living quarters as well as a small hanger for shuttles, as well as seven heavy weapons emplacements, three on each side and one below. Ten AA guns, as well as a few other hardpoint weapon placements. The sensor suite could be a bit better with a Class II Void Watcher Sensor Catalog, the engines are fine, but could benefit from Class II Gravitational Manipulation catalogs, and the armor is as good as I can make it in Class III.”

  Behind her, numerous boxes appeared, notably not an illustration of the Cruiser, describing the specs of each part without any illustrations. The weapons are two Kinetic. Two plasma, and two rail, and a large cannon for the underbarrel. The engines will require constant activations and will be unable to be quiet, but if there is a gravity Manipulator, power draw actually goes down, and it is far quieter. The hangar can hold up to six shuttles, which is very nice, and there are drop pods big enough for Vulkan, for rapid deployment.

  “The first Cruiser will be finished in three more days, of which we can do a tour and either a test run, or wait until the Bestlé army arrives to surprise them.”

  More choices, but those are very good ones. “We can decide that later.” I say.

  She smiles and continues. “Now, based on my estimates, while this Cruiser is very powerful, it would not have been able to fight the Fifty that was south of the city.”

  “Wait, what Fifty!?” Cari asked, panic very obvious in her voice.

  Ah. Right. That was classified information, wasn't it. “The hive where… Blizzard passed was just south of the city.” I take control of the screen and upload the hive map data we had stored. I feel her breath hitch, so I hug her a bit tighter. “In the main birthing chamber, there was two dozen hives, nine models in their forties, one of which was the fucker that killed her. And a central pillar with a Model fifty something that was still gestating.” The screen shifts to a photo from my perspective from when I entered the hive cavern.

  I feel her tighten around me. “After she passed, I, at great harm to myself, forced the fifty to teleport twenty five miles up, where Gunny killed it.”

  The screen shifts back to the previous project screen, and Cari has her eyes closed, doing a breathing exercise. I stay still and quiet, allowing her to process in peace.

  When she opens her eyes next, she gives me a small smile and a squeeze. “I will be fine, love.” She said, turning to Morrigan. “Please, continue.”

  Morrigan nods, “As I was saying, to reliably deal with models of that weight class, I would need Class IV or even V weapons tech, which would involve a lot of tokens and points spent on even more catalogs, so not an option for now.” As she finishes that sentence, I catch something. Her face does a little scrunched thing around her eyes, kinda like what Cody did when he had a ‘but’ he didn't want to say.

  “Do we have more unreliable options?” I ask.

  She shifts in place a bit, obviously uncomfortable. “Theoretically. In the hive, you bought a thing from Synaptic that killed those Fortys very well, to the point that… they saw them as a true threat. If I could dismantle one and learn how it works, or if you buy me the blueprint for it, I could possibly create something on that level.”

  Synaptic decided to speak through the trees around us. What she is omitting is that in order to work with such volatile technology, she would need to set up a very different lab and workshop on the Moon.

  “That dangerous, huh?” Cass said as she petted her Raven.

  Extremely. The margin of error is three to the power of fifty of a percent, something that Morrigan is currently not equipped to reliably maneuver around with any safe degree of certainty. One wrong nanite in the wrong spot would destroy not only this building, but also the plate it sits on.

  Oh shit that would be bad. Each plate is a hex with each side being two or so miles long. There are a dozen megabuildings on this plate alone, not to mention the undercity below.

  This also means that until she reaches Class IV in her construction capabilities, or after upgrading her processors and control skills, all such ammunition would have to be produced on the moon, then shipped to whatever armament that would fire said munitions. Storage would also need to be extremely well made.

  “And you just gave me those things in a shoulder mounted tube?” I ask, fear very obvious in my tone.

  Victor. I do not have the limitations Morrigan does. Unless you were hit by one of those thorns, the casing would have been fine.

  And if I had been hit by a thorn, the resulting explosion would not have mattered anyways.

  “So, yeah! That is the forth thing I wanted to ask-”

  “Yes, you have permission to build a moon lab.” I interrupt. “Any dangerous things you are working on must be stored there, however, until you have a… ninty five percent certainty that they will not miss fire or fail catastrophicly.”

  “And no blowing up the moon, either.” Cari adds. “If you need to test things, go set up a station near the asteroid belt and use those.”

  Morrigan goes from very happy to slightly deflated. “But that will take me months.” She mutters.

  I chuckle, “Either that or nothing, Morrigan.”

  “Fiiine.” She said, exaggerating the word. “Now, shifting to the last thing on my presentation.”

  The screen shifts to show a castle settled in a very nice forest of oak and cherry and pine with a pond. The castle itself is surrounded by a six pointed star-like walls, with large roofless turret towers on each point. The castle itself is very fantasy coated. A large central keep with four spiraling towers surrounding a large central spire, with white walls, grey mortar and detailing, and light blue roofs. Numerous stained glass windows dot the walls and towers, and there were nice gardens within the fortress walls.

  “While the Cruisers can act as mobile command centers, I designed them to be more akin to weapons platforms. This. Is the command center I have planned”

  Then the perspective shifted away from the castle, zooming out to show that the castle, forest, and pond were sitting on a massive floating island with a huge light blue crystal sticking out of its bottom.

  I felt my heart beat faster in excitement, and I could feel Cari's doing the same.

  “The land mass will be artificial, of course,” Morrigan continues, “as while I could rip a plate-sized chunk of the Earth out of, well, the Earth, it would take more effort to change the soil composition to what would be required to grow the forest, not to mention the pond and the fishies I want to raise in them, and making sure none of the underground facilities stay intact during the ascent sounds like a pain.”