“There are more aliens out there than we know. There’s bound to be some that look like our creatures.”
“How come no one has elephant ears then?”
“Cat ears are cute. So are fox ears. Elephant ears are not.”
Streamer interview with Samurai Miss Panther
The day after I came home, I was invited to the city council emergency meeting. I got up early, and made myself clean and professional. I even wore my Business Sheena outfit. I took my hovercar to the council building, and arrived five minutes early. It seemed we all arrived early, so the council invited me in and started the meeting.
Councilor Stubens began, “Samurai Calamity Jane. Have you heard about the Rock Springs disaster?”
“If you mean their decision to abandon the city, then yes.”
“Good. While the antithesis have essentially taken down the city, the population remains, and the corporate vultures are circling. Several members of council are included in that circling. We want to entice as many of them as we can to come to our city. But we cannot handle all their population. Our food production is insufficient, nor do we have space for them all. However, we could handle perhaps five percent growth. It would strain our abilities, but we think it is worth a shot. Anything that helps us grow should help us survive.”
“Sounds like a promising plan. What is it that you want me for?”
“Mr. Landau, if you would?”
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Bret Landau, from Brinksman Securities. Miss Jane, a few months ago we sold you some land. In return, you built us some shelters, and also an additional building outside the city in your enclave. While we don’t know that much about the enclave, we do know it is secure. That’s why we expanded there. One of the things we have learned is that elsewhere in that enclave, you have some sort of automated farm. One not in the city’s projections. Between the farm, and the space, your assets could mean we can grow another few percent from Rock Springs people and corporations.” He nodded back to the chairman.
“Ms. Stockton?”
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ruby Stockton, Department of Public Safety. A few months ago, we made a deal for you to build some shelters. At first it was slow going, but after a no doubt lucrative incursion, your company increased production, and over half of the shelters have been built. We also noticed the speed with which you added some buildings to your enclave. It is our belief that your construction ability is more than we thought. Samurai Barricade is also known for building, but more for ensuring buildings are safe. He is able to build quickly, but I don’t know if we could get him. You, however, are already here.” She then looked to the chairman, then sat.
“You can see where this is going, Miss Calamity.”
“Yes.”
“For the future of this city, will you aid us? We cannot pay you enough for what we need, but if you bring in more people, and corporations, we may survive longer.”
“I am willing, but there will be requirements of you. Not to me, but to those who come. Such a massive influx of people will bring their own ideas of governance. They will want their slice of the pie. Are you ready to surrender some of your power?”
Over half of the council looked shocked, but some, including the chairman, seemed aware of this.
“I can’t speak for the others, but I think it will be needed. I think one or two places on the council might be sufficient.”
Holding up my hand, signaling the others to wait, I asked Ysys, “Given what the mood is in Rock Springs, and the resources I have in the Hidden City, how much growth might we expect?”
With no change of plans, anywhere from twenty five to seventy five percent population increase.
“Why such a large range? And can we get more? They are a larger city.”
There are too many factors affecting their decisions. If you accelerate work with additional construction spiders, you might double the city’s population. If you do likewise with Gillette, they might also gain seventy five or more percent additional population.
Lowering my hand, I said, “Councilor Stubens. You are well informed to know that I have additional capacity for construction. You are not well informed on the scale. In addition to my own hex, or enclave as you say, I am building many hexes. My last update indicated ten are ninety five percent complete. Sixty are half built, with completed outer walls, and more are less complete.”
There were quite a few comments, but the loudest was from Ruby. She said, “No way. We checked. You are only making the one ‘hex’.”
The chairman used his gavel, then said, “Calm down, everyone. Please, let her explain.”
“Does anyone have a live feed to the area?”
Bret nodded.
“Can you patch the feed through? Focus on the area between the abandoned town of Wyarno and my enclave?”
Soon, the council’s screen lit up, and on it was the abandoned town at the top, and my enclave at the bottom of the screen.
“This is what you were all meant to see. Now see what is really there. Ysys? Cut the holo for ten seconds, but don’t allow any recordings.”
Suddenly the hologram fizzled out, revealing my hidden city. Jaws dropped all around the table.
When the hologram reappeared, I spoke. “I call this my Hidden City project. You are not the only ones worried about survival. When I got that butt load of points, I put them to work. Ysys thinks what I have now could get from twenty five to seventy five percent of Sheridan’s existing population. One or two seats won’t cut it. If I increase production, we could double Sheridan’s population. I recently started over in Gillette, and I may be able to get their population to grow by seventy five percent.”
It was Bret who recovered first. “My god. I don’t know how we could handle that level of growth. And you say you’re doing work in Gillette also?”
“I am, but only just started. As to handling the growth, I have some Protector AIs backing up the Hidden City project. That should ease a lot of the tension, knowing it is being used. But like I said, how much power are you willing to surrender?”
It was bedlam, and they almost forgot about me as they argued back and forth. Three hours later, the chairman banged his gavel.
“It seems we are in sufficient agreement that we should make the full offer. As to how much power to give up, that is harder. Calamity, have you any suggestions?”
“Yes, actually. I spoke with my project’s AI, and it has the following proposal. Already, the city has a large number of councilors. Adding more would cause even more problems in council. Instead, we split council into high and low. Seven will serve as high councilors, elected from the city at large. The low councilors, instead will be elected by district. Each will have approximately the same population in their district. As the city population grows, new districts are formed and others adjusted to even things out.
“For the transition, Chairman Stubens shall be the chairman of the high council. The six most senior will be the other high councilors. All current council, including those seven, will be on the low council, but come next election, you may only be on one or the other. As the next election is over a year away, that should give all of you sufficient time to handle the changes. It also means that most of you will retain some power, while giving the newcomers some of their own power.
“I suggest you accept this, or come up with another compromise soon, if you want to get a lot of people to come.” I then nodded to the chairman.
“Thank you, Calamity. Councilors, have any of you an alternative to discuss?”
There was silence. He waited nearly a minute, looking over everyone, before speaking again.
“As no other alternatives are offered, and we want to make an offer, let’s vote to see if we should take this route.”
Another councilor spoke up. I didn’t recognize him.
“Objection. We cannot change the rules that define this council that easily.”
“Correct, councilor Hayes. However, we can vote on a statement of intent. Actually making the change will take a while, but as long as we are proceeding in good faith, we can make the offer with a clear conscience, and they likewise will accept it.”
“Thank you, Chairman.”
“Any other discussion on the proposed solution?” He waited a few moments, then said, “Let us vote.”
The vote passed, but with significant resistance.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The chairman then called the emergency meeting over, with assignments to several to get their ducks in a row. Then he spoke to me, saying, “Thank you so much. You don’t know what this means for our city. Some can’t relinquish any power easily, but for the good of our city, we will give some up.”
On my way to my enclave... I like that word better than hex. On my way back, I asked Ysys to start generating more construction spiders. I wanted to accelerate completion of the hexes, and to start building the final ones between the enclave and the rest of the hive. I also had her start purchasing land quietly over in Gillette. I then called the Gillette branch of the Family.
After being routed a few times, I spoke to the one who was liaising with the city.
“Hello, Miss Calamity. To what do I own the pleasure?”
“The Sheridan council has decided to welcome Rock Springs population to the city. We cannot take all of them, nor can your city. But I want to try to get more to Gillette, so that between us, we’ll have a large portion of the population. But we need to act fast. For that, we need land. I’m already scaling up my building capability for here. I want to use some there as well.”
“So it has come to a head? We heard rumors Sheridan was going to make a play. Our own council is like minded. I think we might be able to inspire them by framing it as a competition between the cities. But there will be a lot of work.”
“I know. I have some AIs already monitoring the situation. I can probably help grease a few wheels with some judicious information manipulation. Please call on me if you need some assistance.”
“You have Cyber warfare capability? Wait. Forget I asked. We don’t need to know that. I’ll just put you down as an available resource for that kind of stuff.”
“Thank you.”
After he hung up, I said, “Ysys, send up the dragonfly over Gillette and drop off some godseyes. We need to ready another hologram. Queue up another type seven, along with a power unit for it. When they are ready, I want to install them on my land in the area, and start construction in the area. Probably send over a spider to make the installation for the hologram, then to make more of itself.”
The godseyes will be on station in a few minutes. There is enough room to send two spiders with the rest. I’ll select a starting point out of sight of Gillette. We should have sixteen spiders by morning. Once we have a full day’s recording, I’ll expand the hologram from just covering the spiders to covering the largest contiguous area. We can start with three hexes, but more will need to wait on land acquisition.
“That’s better than I hoped for. Please advise the AIs of the changing situation. I want to know what all I can do to get the best result we can.”
Once council decided they wanted to go with the expansion you suggested, I alerted them. Already, the City Builder has cloned itself over to Gillette, and they are working in conjunction with the advisors to plan the most efficient expansion. They already have several actions for you.
“Go ahead with them. Let me know what I need to do, as opposed to just approve.”
Done. A number of letters have gone out from various companies you own, and they contain many deals somewhat favorable to the recipients. We expect a ninety percent plus acceptance of them, which will net at least four more hexes we can expand into. However, you need to keep yourself available, so that we can collect on the letters, and so that when Gillette council gets around to asking you what’s going on, you’ll be ready.
“Can you find some way to find out where their councilors stand on the issue, and how best to encourage them our way?”
The Gillette branch of the Family has just provided a fairly detailed information packet on the council. I have also started my own inquiries, based on the AIs' observations. Some of their councilors have corporate ties the others are not aware of.
“I’ll use that if I need to. But let’s see what we can accomplish with apparently above board tactics. Should we try to manipulate the media?”
We can, although I would limit it. I think affecting the timing of stories by buying a delay, or expediting publication would be most acceptable. Likewise, a few anonymous tips in suitable places should work. But if we are caught with more, the backlash will hurt.
“I can live with that. How about sending out feelers to Rock Springs?”
We will be one of many. It will be difficult to gain their attention.
“Buying some companies could help. Offer fair market price, and a year of discounted rent. Offer points, since I have a lot of them. Tell them we have space for them all. Do you think we should make some moving trucks? We definitively should make the move a good experience. We can set up convoys.”
You should set up some economic advisors in Rock Springs. That would help us leverage things. Moving trucks would help a lot. However, you don’t have blueprints for ones large enough to move a city population. While you have the dragonfly for top cover, you will need a lot more support for making a convoy go this far.
“You’re right. What do you have for moving trucks? Do I need a larger printer? What do I need for support vehicles?”
I have many choices for trucks. A number that would need to be printed in parts from you largest printer. For support vehicles, I would recommend something capable of handling defense against a nearby hive. These would be supported by the dragonfly, and more HTs. Getting a larger printer won’t change your capability much, but it can increase your output. So, what do you want in each of these vehicles?
“The trucks need to be protected from lesser antithesis that slip through. Class one materials might be overkill. But they should be equipped with defensive turrets. Whatever is sufficient to handle the single digit models. Also, we should use dimensional storage to reduce the number of trucks we need. The outer defensive vehicles should be able to take down antithesis in the teens. With the HT’s main guns able to take down stuff in the twenties, and the dragonfly even more, that should be enough. How big can we get a class one printer?”
The pocket dimension blueprints you have cannot handle the larger objects companies will likely want to transport. While there are some larger storage options in the class one catalog, encountering a hostile environment could prove problematic. However, with a class two catalog, they would not only be robust enough, but also provide far more ability to load and unload at a small distance. You can get printers large enough to print a megabuilding a hundred stories tall. I don’t think you want that. Currently, there is an upper limit to what the roads and walls can handle. A printer capable of creating the largest megatrucks the roads and walls can take should suffice. Since we are in a hurry, and you can use them later for other production, I would recommend getting a high performance industrial model rather than a standard model.
“Can you give me some more detail on that storage?”
Dimensional technologies, while robust enough for casual use, tend to break down when subject to heavy combat. The ones you use in your magazines are no exception. However, they are overbuilt, and subject to a predictable force. Ones on the moving trucks subject to combat are subject to greater forces that are unpredictable. Should we encounter antithesis, a number of dimensional pockets could rupture, and possibly shred whatever is inside. Class two pockets can withstand combat to a high degree. It would take something in the thirties to casually break them, or in the twenties to deliberately do so.
The distance loading and unloading is basically a handheld sensor close to the pocket that the pocket then uses for targeting. It interfaces with the user’s augs to select the targets to load, and provides an overlay for placement of targets for unloading.
“I see. So I should get the class two dimensional catalog. Okay. How much will that all be?”
That would be Class II Dimensional Utilities catalog for one token and five hundred points, Blueprints for Bigfoot Hauler for seven thousand points, Blueprints for Zin Attack Spider for eighteen thousand points, Blueprints for Hunter-Tracker type JQ, with advanced sensors and superior armor for fifty five hundred points, and the Blueprints for Arc High Performance Creation Engine for a hundred seventy thousand points. The grand total would be one token and two hundred one thousand points.
“That big printer is expensive.”
Yes, but it also performs far faster. However, it burns through power and materials quickly.
“You’re right. We’ll need to get more raw material quickly. Can we speed up the collection rats?”
Yes. You are currently using the Mark I Resource Collection Rig. The Mark IV Resource Collection Rig for two thousand points is about the same size as the Mark I, so you could simply upgrade the collection rat design. This rig is more suited to industrial mining. But, by itself, it will not fully solve your problem. Much of what you are planning to make will use materials that are available in limited quantities. You either need to vastly increase the volume you scoop up, buy supplies with credits or points, or find a way get the needed material in some other manner.
“While I have a lot of points, buying fancy matter for points sounds like a good way to run out of points. Since fission and fusion change the nature of the atoms used, what do the protectors have to transmute matter safely and reliably?”
To do that, you would need a Class III Simple Matter Transmutation Catalog for three tokens and seventeen thousand points. Since you plan to use it to feed your other printers, I would recommend the Series C Atomic Reconfigurator for twelve hundred points. It can be set to any class one material, and will consume random mass, while producing the target material, and waste material. The latter is used to buffer the energy release and absorption that occurs when the atomic numbers are changed.
“Wait, does that mean I can get more efficient power generation?”
Yes. The Class III Simple Matter Transmutation Catalog also opens up direct mass to energy power production.
“I can get this catalog? I thought it would be locked behind a set of requirements.”
It is. You have opened class two catalogs in sensors, matter reconfiguration, city building, and dimensional utilities. That is sufficient to unlock it. The catalog’s price is because its versatility, both in material production, and energy production.
“Okay. Let’s get it, but blueprints not the actual items.”
Opened Class II Dimensional Utilities catalog – 1 token and 500 points
Opened Class III Simple Matter Transmutation catalog – 3 tokens and 17000 points
Blueprints for Bigfoot Hauler – 7000 points
Blueprints for Zin Attack Spider – 18000 points
Blueprints for Hunter-Tracker type JQ, with advanced sensors and superior armor – 5500 points.
Blueprints for Arc High Performance Creation Engine – 170000 points
Blueprints for Mark IV Resource Collection Rig – 20000 points
Blueprints for Series C Atomic Reconfigurator – 12000 points
New Total – 963986 points, 7 tokens
“Lets make the Arc first, and when it is done, make the rest. While it is being made, other printers can make the new collection rats, and we can send them out to chew on some mountains. We can send one of the new HTs to do that. They should be back in time to feed the reconfigurators. We can make a number of trucks, and then switch to mass producing larger structures. Also, do the same over at Gillette. The Arcs should increase hex production. Let the City Builders and Advisors figure out the exact mix.”
I have so advised the AIs, and have queued up the initial items. I have taken the liberty of using several printers to make the Arcs in parallel, since they need to be assembled anyway. It will significantly shorten the time needed to create the Arcs.
“You recommended sending some advisors to Rock Springs. Can we make a mobile version of the Cyber installation? No need for special protection beyond class one materials.”
Yes. A Heavy Duty Hauler for seven hundred points could handle a Cyber Installation and accompanying power plant.
“Lets add those blueprints to the bill, and make ten or so to send there as soon as possible. Later we can put them in new hexes.”
Blueprints for Heavy Duty Hauler – 7000 points
New Total – 956986 points, 7 tokens
“Thanks Ysys for all your help. I don’t know if I could have done it without you.”
While the pace quickened building the hexes, the wholesale movement of companies and the offer of points quickly got around. In three days, several large Rock Springs companies announced the deals they made to come here. A few days later, Gillette’s council asked for my help. I offered the same as I did for Sheridan, but indicated I needed land, and they would need to let go of some political power. Since their council was better structured for the size of their city, it took a little longer to generate a solution the City Builder said would work.
Once the council was on board, they started to apply pressure to get the company owned land into my hands. As it was much less a secret, I decided I didn’t need to own all the land, but I did need to have free and clear access, and that I would own the buildings I put on the land. I would then trade some of the buildings for land ownership, with the idea that all the buildings I retained would be on my land. In the end, I got my way.
Of course, there were some problems that came up. I had haulers for things, but not for people. So I bought some blueprints for semi-luxury busses. They had sufficient amenities that the masses didn’t need to leave them until they arrived here. Another problem was the reduction in population there. That left holes in their defenses, so I increased production of the attack spiders and HTs. I hired some PMCs to man them. Then there was a whole lot of logistics to handle. There, the City Builder was my secret weapon.
Two weeks after the first companies left Rock Springs, I started getting calls from other Samurai. It seems some other cities were looking to copy me, since I was proving rather effective. A month later, I had made deals with six other cities. I delivered an Arc, a bunch of the new collection rats, and the blueprints for the busses and the Bigfoot Haulers, but without the dimensional pockets. Those I simply sold to the Samurai cheaply. For my own benefit, I built Cyber installations and advisors in those cities to support my metropolitan advisor.
When we encountered significant antithesis presence, we took them down, but did not stay to clear up after. I made the Family aware that the areas would need clearing by others, since I was busy. Once, Gillette was attacked while I was away. I activated eight attack spiders, and sent them to Whiplash and Double Fist. With control transferred to those two, they got the support they needed. Had Sheridan been attacked, I had twelve on standby for Flamer and Soundbite.
The Arc printers were a game changer in my hidden city. Over ninety percent of the hex could be made with them, and they made what they did nearly twenty times faster than the other printers. Using points to help get companies meant I collected a bunch of new blueprints. I had limited my blueprints as I had to others, but even so, there was a lot in my catalogs that they wanted. I even bought more blueprints when I realized I had overlooked some need in the hexes.
Given how prominent a role I’m playing in moving people and companies, my popularity is rising, and like Ysys had predicted, people are thinking of me as a builder more than a naughty Samurai. Oh, I was still known for that, but it wasn’t the first thing that came to mind for a lot of people. With eight cities getting monitored, my metropolitan advisor will finally be fully engaged. I would use it to two purposes. The first is to simply earn credits by fulfilling needs. The second is to influence the markets to stability and to strengthen the multi-city economy.
Havoc and the Cafeteria Queen