TBoB - Book 3 - Chapter 22 - The Assault Begins

So my confidence for this arc wained a little bit, wasnt sure that I knew where it was going , and then one of the other FF authors had me put my dates into a spreadsheet. Turns out, between Book 1 and the Global there's a lot more time than I expected. Did you know most cities experience an incursion every 4-6 months? Guess who's overdue. Also, sorry, little shorter than usual, but I felt the chapter got what I wanted done.

“The board has declared a state of emergency. All citizens should remain off the roads, and in doors. It’s recommended you stay at your place of work until the situation has been resolved,” the news anchor explained calmly. Behind her there were images of the outer wall defenses shelling a long armored column, before they were taken out by some sort of guided missile. 

The kids sat enthralled by the scene, while Jane paced behind the couch. “I can’t believe this is happening,” she mumbled. “It’s like the guiding light all over again.”

“No it’s not,” I assured her. “The enemy is going to head directly towards the council building and corporate head offices, so they can force those corporate heads to sign an unconditional takeover as soon as possible.”

“How can you be so sure?” Jane hissed.

“Because I already threatened them. Avoid collateral damage, or else!” I explained, as I started shadow boxing.

Jane just snorted. “And you think that’ll scare them away?” she asked.

“It worked for the farms and power plant. I’m sure if I was the head of a PMC they would have laughed at me, but I’m a mighty samurai!” I declared. Issi turned away from the TV and cheered at my antics. 

“Mighty Bears!” she declared.

“Even if things get out of hand, at least they should be isolated to one or two parts of the city, and I REALLY doubt they’ll bother heading down here. There’s nothing for them down here,” I explained. “Just take a deep breath, have a nutribar, and relax,” I said, grabbing a bar from my hoodie and holding it out to her. 

Jane just snorted. “How long has that been sitting in your hoodie?” 

“It’s still good!” I promised as I ripped open the package and took a bite. Something exploded on the TV behind me, so I turned around to see what was going on. The camera was focused on an absolutely massive, four tracked tank bristling with guns. A single shot from the main gun had been enough to severely damage one of the city gates, it wouldn’t take many more to breach the walls. I’d seen that kind of tank before, back in Seattle

“They even brought a couple super heavies huh?” I grumbled. “Applied System Dynamics really pulled out all the stops for this.”

“Which would win, that or the bears?” Eddie asked excitedly.

“The bears of course, it wouldn’t even be a fair fight,” I replied casually as the massive tank cracked the gates, allowing the armored column to flood into the city.

“You’re not worried about this at all?” Jane asked after a few seconds. 

“Why should I be? The ones fighting don’t provide any essential services, they’re just the richest, and biggest assholes on the block. It’s not like they did anything that benefited us, so why should we care who’s in control?” I said. “Sure, there’ll be a lot of damage, but how is that any different than when the antithesis attack? At least people had enough warning to avoid the direct paths between the gates and city center. Give it a day or two and this will all blow over.”

“You COULD be up there helping people,” Jane grumbled.

“I already did! The bears have been sweeping the closest buildings for the last twenty four hours. Just because I refuse to get involved doesn’t mean I’m leaving people to die,” I shot her a disappointing look. “You should know me better than that.”

“I do! It’s just… I have no idea what to do, this seems like a HUGE thing,” Jane said, wringing her hands.

“Sit down, and relax. If you can’t do it here, maybe go to your room and, I don’t know, practice principaling or something,” I grumbled.

“That's not how it works, and you know that,” Jane hissed, but she still sat at the table and picked up a tablet. 

I shook my head. “I bet you it’ll be business as usual for most of the city in a day or two, and this’ll all be over in a week, you’ll see!” I declared as I lay back on the couch.

“I think you’re vastly underestimating things,” Jane just grumbled. “But like you said, we’ll see.”

—

“It’s now day three and both sides are locked in a stalemate around 85th street. Earlier today local samurai engaged the enemy, stalling their advance. It appears there were several samurai from Denver among the enemy troops, and samurai vs samurai skirmishes erupt. So far there don’t appear to be any casualties, but numerous injuries have been reported,” the TV droned. I hadn’t bothered shutting it off ever since the assault began, and even though the kids lost interest, I liked to keep track of everyone’s movements. 

Denver seemed to have brought a handful of samurai. I couldn’t make out any details, but there was at least one that had heavy lasers, one flier, and one that could repair their armor. There might have been others, but the news never caught them on camera. Opposing them was Mirage and the other corporate supporters. 

“Of course you couldn’t resist getting involved, you dumbass,” I muttered as a shield of light flared in one of the clips, blocking an entire column of tanks.

“Who’s a dumbass?” someone asked right behind me, causing me to jump and turn on the voice. 

“Eddie, don’t sneak up on people like that!” I huffed as I tried to get my heart rate down. 

The boy smirked, then took a long drink of his vegetable juice. “I didn’t sneak up, I walked right past you, got juice, and came back. For someone that doesn’t care about this conflict, you’re paying a lot of attention to it.”

“I’m just making sure nothing gets out of hand,” I explained.

“Who died and put you in charge of keeping order?” Eddie laughed. “You used to claim you thrived in chaos.”

“It’s true! But having the entire city collapse is maybe a little too much chaos,” I replied. “This… this is nothing. Things could be way worse.”

“How?” Eddie chuckled. “This seems pretty bad.”

“Well…” I started before I was flooded with warnings. Even with my improved augs, the flood gave me a headache, so I put a hand up and signalled for Eddie to wait a minute. I pulled up one of the warnings, and checked out what the bear had identified. As I opened the stream I struggled to identify what was going on, the bear was scanning the skies. I prompted it to reveal the issue, and when it looked down, I could see the street was covered in dozens of tiny bird-like corpses. My breath got stuck in my throat. 

I pulled up another bear, this one at a public park. There was a dead Eleven draped over the kids play area.

Finally, I pulled up one of the bears stationed at one of the anti-air emplacements and forced it to look up. The sky was being ripped open, turning red, as creatures from another world began pouring through.

I disconnected the stream and looked at Eddie, pale faced. “It got worse,” I said. 

The boy’s smile fell as a warning appeared in both of our augs. 

‘Incursion detected, please report to the nearest shelter.’

“I believe you now,” Eddie whispered.