Chapter Twenty-Six - In Time Out |
Chapter Twenty-Six - In Time Out
"You've heard of the old Side-Hustle, but that's your parent's gimmick, people that were raised in the golden age of the 2010s, back when things were affordable and nice and neat. No no, this is the 40s! We don't have it easy... but you could have it easier, with a Down-Hustle! Lemme explain!"
Influencer Mister Money Grabs, ad read, 2041
***
I was put in the adult-equivalent of time-out. Which is to say that no one laughed at my joke and I just got a few flat stares instead. So... yeah, that was unpleasant.
Just about everyone was here, plus some of the office workers that Libre employed, but they were mostly minding their own business.
The big screen mounted to the floor was fully active and being updated live from what looked like a few forward viewing platforms.
Currently, the whole thing was focused on a space about three kilometres from the north-eastern walls of the city. There were reports of Antithesis sightings all along the edge of the wall, each one appearing on the map with a little time-stamp next to it and small digital representations of the aliens.
"Let me begin?" he asked. I saw him glance at me, then towards Gomorrah, with his gaze staying on her.
Gomorrah nodded once. "Fine. Since we're all finally here, we might as well begin. You do have a better knowledge of the overall tactical situation. You can give us an overview, and even suggestions, but you don't have the final say as to what any of us or the army are going to do. Crisis Mode?"
Crisis Mode looked up. "Yes?" she asked. She had obviously not been expected to be called on.
"Can you take charge of the militia? I got the sense that they respect you," Gomorrah said.
"They do?" she asked.
"You were on the front with them," I said.
"She's right," Hedgehog said. "Soldiers value a commander that's present. I say that from experience, both good and bad. But mostly, I think people remember that you've saved them or their friends. That's important. A lot of a samurai's job, at least at our level, isn't to wipe out the hordes. It's to plug holes and keep soldiers from breaking because as long as we're around, the fight isn't over."
Wow, when had he gotten so inspiring? I crossed my arms and nodded along. I didn't have much to add.
"Samurai Hedgehog is right," Tinwhistle said. "But we should probably get a move on? Meaning no offence."
"Fair enough," Gomorrah replied. "Libre, if you would?"
Libre licked his lips again, then gestured to the screen below. It zoomed out, then expanded into a full three-dimensional hologram. "What we're seeing here isn't unexpected. It's also a distraction."
"A distraction?" Princess asked.
"Yes. Judging by the numbers we're seeing, this is a force of perhaps two thousand Anti-thesis. Lower ranked. Not even a tenth of the number of models we can expect to see in a full assault. Based on that, and on the models we're seeing, and comparing it to historical precedents... this is a probing attack with two objectives. The first is to distract us along this quadrant."
He did something, and a section of the wall lit up. There were pins for militia and army units in the area, with more, larger pins for the vehicles moving in to the back of the walls.
"If my predictions are correct, and your arrival yesterday doesn't change the short-term reaction of the Antithesis, then we're likely going to see several smaller but still considerable waves pushing towards the wall here, and here."
Two areas were circled in green.
"Why there?" Princess asked, one hand raised as though she were in school.
"Those are areas where we had groups sortie previously, then pull back towards the wall in a way that suggested a certain amount of weakness before being covered by other, flanking elements," he said.
"You created bait?" Gomorrah asked.
"Of the sort that the Antithesis can understand. Though you can only trap them with this kind of thing maybe twice before they adapt and start to ignore the cue," Libre said. "Thinking that the Antithesis are animals is a mistake. They are smart. Incredibly smart, even. Just not in a way that most 'smart' things on Earth are. It makes it difficult to conceptualize what they'll do."
Libre walked over the screen, moving his hands through a few gestures to change the zoom and focus the screen elsewhere.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
"This is the second front where we're going to have issues," he said.
The projector was now focused on a spot just below the section of wall he had been at, a little to the south. There was a wide river pouring out from below the walls there, then a spot of land, then a second river. Both of them looked murky and brown and would probably give you super cancer if you swam in them.
"This is l'ile d'Orleans," he said. "It's a rather large island that the Quebec City mega-cite platform has grown over and uses as an anchor. The Saint Lawrance splits at the start of this island." He pointed to a spot in the ground and it turned semi-transparent.
Beneath the megacity platform was the rest of the river. It was flanked on the side by concrete walls and had pillars dotted through it. The northern most part of the river, around that island he mentioned, was partially walled off.
"This section was turned into a hydro-electric plant. It was a massive undertaking, and currently provides nearly thirty percent of the city's electricity. It is also extremely vulnerable to attack. The walls here are noticeably lower over the ile d'Orleans section as reaching that section would require crossing the river in the first place, and because of the hydroelectric dam, the area is riddled with maintenance access areas. Breaking into the walls or the facility from here will be easy. There aren't as many hardpoints for defensive equipment, and the walls here are only twenty feet tall. Far lower than regulation height."
I nodded along. That's what it looked like on the hologram, and I could see why the aliens would think that this spot was juicy.
I could also see why it wasn't built better. To reach the spot, you'd have to cross a fairly wide river, with no bridges nearby.
"How will they reach that area?" Princess asked. "Won't they have to cross the river?"
"There's a small hive likely in this location," he said, and an area at the far end of the island was lit up. "But most of the forces that will push here will be amphibian. We can expect variant models of everything in the single-digits up to the low teens to participate in the attack."
"Alright," Gomorrah said. "So, how do we want to organize the defence, then?"
"I can take the lower wall and facility," Hedgehog said.
"We can help," Princess replied.
Gomorrah nodded. "Good. I'd rather avoid that area. My fires won't be smothered by a bit of water, but it's still not the ideal environment for me. I'll station myself in the northeastern quadrant. I can burn a wide swath there."
I worked my jaw for a bit. "I'll be around there too. I can probably move up and down the wall, minus the river. Damn, that river is really going to complicate things."
As close as things were, it was still going to be a physical barrier between two fronts.
"It's worse than that," Tinwhistle said. "The plates above the river are rated for a certain weight, and some of the mobile artillery I have can't be placed there. I'll have to put them further back."
"Movement through the wall should be possible," Crisis Mode said. "So we can move up and down easily enough."
"Yeah, okay," I said. "So... we're talking a lot of defence here, how are we going to take out the hives responsible?"
Libre perked up. "For that, I would suggest focusing on this hive at the end of the island first," he said. "Before the much larger hive to the north. To attack that one will require a full, coordinated assault. This smaller hive can likely be removed by a dedicated force of specialists."
"Are we just going to ignore the bigger hive?" I asked.
"Can we afford to attack it while defending at the same time?" Libre asked right back.
Man, did he have to be an ass?
"We'll start attacking the Antithesis in earnest soon," Gomorrah said. "We need to start putting pressure on them. Speaking of which, the riots."
"That's an easy one," I said, which got a lot of people turning my way. "What?"
"You think it's easy to stop riots?" Knight asked.
"I mean, no, but distracting people is. We have some camera equipment somewhere, right? Just set it up, get some producers or something to work in the back, and show everyone in Quebec the aliens getting slaughtered at the walls. As long as we don't fuck up people won't panic, and maybe it'll remind everyone that there are bigger problems to deal with."
"That's almost sensible," Gomorrah said. "I suppose we can try it. I don't like splitting what few forces we have to take care of riots either, so... yes, Cat's idea isn't awful."
"I aim to be not awful," I said.
***