Chapter Nineteen - Vital Defensive Preparation


    Chapter Nineteen - Vital Defensive Preparation


    I like the ship.


    On the one hand, sure, its classical trope stuff. The hardboiled, mean-spirited punk falling for the angelic nice-girl nun, but I mean, tropes exist for a reason you know!


    Plus, I bet that in private, Gomorrahs totally the dom. I mean, have you seen the amount of faux-leather in her outfit?


    --ShipBattles Forum post by user Youralis, 2057


    ***


    My plan had three basic steps, and of course I ran into trouble before the first one was out.


    Fuck, I said succinctly.


    Myalis had continued to direct my drones through the hive tunnels, and that meant that with each passing minute we had a better picture of where the hive was. The good news was that few of the branching tunnels were under Downtown. Not none, but few, which was the second best option there.


    Then Myalis, being the helpful little AI she was, kindly pointed out a big glaring issue that I hadnt considered.


    If we wanted to spread the alien-eating nanogoop to as many aliens as possible, then wed need to insert it in a few spots, and the best of those were all hard to reach. She overlaid a few locations in the tunnel network where we could do the insertion, but they werent all close at hand.


    Okay, I said. My first thought was finding suicidal volunteers to head out and drop the packages off, but there were other, better options. We send out drones. Same cat drones that were using already, but with the bombs attached to them. Is that doable? I asked.


    Of course. The cats will also be able to reach the locations that Ive designated as ideal spreading points with relative ease. Though this will take time in any case, and there are few locations to insert them from. The hole in the basement of the museum is one of three locations Ive found so far, and its the most convenient.


    I nodded along. It wasnt central or anything, but... yeah. Time to delegate. Get me the General, I asked while I paced along the length of the food court. I didnt care if anyone saw me, really. Manic was still around, cleaning her nails out with a guitar pick. Sprout and Gomorrah had run off to prepare the defences and Johnny--Arm-a-Geddon, that was, had run off to... I didnt know, try to get laid maybe?


    A line opened up on my augs with a boring image of the generals face as the only indicator of who I was talking to. Stray Cat? he asked.


    You got any militia people with honking big testicles, General? I asked.


    He chuckled. I might have a few. What needs doing?


    I need a very precious cargo driven to a specific location and delivered to a specific hole. And no, this isnt any sort of innuendo. I need people to deliver a load of drones to the museum, specifically the basement where theres access to the antithesis tunnel network.


    Is this going to be the sort of mission where we only ask for volunteers? he asked.


    Im talking to Cat. Give me a bit? Lucy asked. At Frannys nod she walked off to the side where she had a little bit more privacy. So, whats up?


    Uh, literally just called to ask about the turrets. How many do we have?


    Forty-seven, she said. And I think we wont be able to fit all of them in the van. Racs working on making more as we speak, but they take like, twenty minutes each, so even if we did a round trip and then returned we wouldnt deliver that many more.


    Thatll help, I said. Also, what do you mean by we?


    We as in me and Franny! Lucy said. Im going to be the door gunner!


    Lucy, no, I said.


    Lucy, yes! she cheered. Come on, it wont be that dangerous.


    Its a van, not a gunship. Theres no door to gun from, I said.


    I have a handgun, she replied. Then she looked down, unzipped the front of her blazer, and pulled a handgun out from where shed tucked it into the waist of her pants. See, she said.


    Disregarding how hot that was, I said. Still no.


    Lucy laughed and shoved the gun away after checking to see if the safety was still on. You cant stop me, Cat. Besides, its just a quick trip over, right? Ill kiss you in like, an hour, tops. Alright? Now, I need to get back to work. Love you!


    And then she had the gall to disconnect me.


    Lucy was coming here. Oh, I could probably stop her, for now, but then it would become a challenge and I really didnt want to stand in Lucys way when she felt challenged about something. That wouldnt be healthy for our relationship. Besides, I did kind of miss her.


    So, if I fucked up here, I wasnt just going to get a few thousand civilians dead, I was going to end up without Lucy too.


    Well, fuck, I muttered. Myalis, how many points do I have left? I asked as I ran up the escalator. The clock was ticking.


    You currently have ninety-six thousand, four hundred and twelve points remaining. You have been spending without paying them much heed recently, but that amounted to less than three percent of your point total, so I didnt see the need to be overly concerned.


    Uh-huh, I said. Were going to be spending a lot more. I need drones with those nanomachines, I need turret emplacements, I need entire crates of easy-to-use weapons, and I need cases of grenades. If we cant make the walls around Downtown impervious, then well just turn everything at street level into one big killing field.


    Oh, wonderful! In that case, might I suggest a few catalogues?


    ***