Sihe Family couldn’t help me, and all the affiliated Samurai were suddenly occupied trying to track down the unknown interloper, Sharron and I just showed ourselves out. Once we were ba the truck, she turowards me, a serious look on her face. “What do you pn to do now?”

  “I donno,” I replied with a shrug, “go bad check how the bear produ is going I guess.”

  “Not go on a vea, try and find the Guiding Light, ahe crap out of their pet Samurai?” Sharron asked, eyes narrowed slightly. “You were pretty pissed off earlier, I holy thought you were going to throttle someone.”

  “Well… the Family pound makes me feel unfortable, far too corporate for my tastes, and I had to keep repeating myself.” I sighed, and y ba my seat, and closed my eyes as I kicked off the autopilot and directed the trueward. “You get shot and see how long your paties in that kind of situation.”

  “Fair. So no hunting these Guiding Light goons across the uy?”

  “I didn’t say that. Why do you think I’ve been flooding the uy with squirrels?”

  “I thought that was for security, and to locate antithesis. You’re telli’s all because of these jokers?” I could hear the fusion in her voice, “Why?”

  “Because they’re a massive threat to everyone and everything below!” I replied angrily. Sharron jumped back slightly, startled by my sudden outburst, so I took a moment to calm down before tinuing. “You want to know what they did? Six years ago they enced the people of the uy to rise up against the gangs, take the power away from their oppressors, and a lot of people did. There was fighting ireets for days. The problem was, after the initial violehere were still a ton of lower level gangers, who thought it was suddenly THEIR time to shihey tried to establish new gangs, established erritories, and fought with their rivals. This resurgence was MUCH worse than the previous fight, because these new groups were a lot less anized, and didn’t care about colteral damage. Things just spiraled out of trol. A lot of bystanders died in the flict, and in the end it took military intervention to end the fighting.” I puhe dash, which was a lot harder than it looked. “Jane, An and I lost our caregivers during that flict, and now those assholes are back preag the same shit as st time.”

  “Shit…” Sharron looked like she didn’t know what to say, so I just tinued.

  “They’re bad news, which is why I've been looking for them. I didn’t expect to have so many problems finding them,” I said, ying my forehead against the steering wheel. “I guess if they have a samurai it expins why I’ve had so many issues. Well, that and all the busted up infrastructure.”

  “And you decided to deal with this yourself, and not ask for help?” Sharron asked. I could hear how annoyed she was, but refused to lift my head.

  “It’s not your problem,” I replied sullenly. “It’s an uy issue.”

  “Bullshit. If that many people died before, and you’re afraid of it happening again you should tell people, get help.”

  “No-one cared st time. At least, not until it threatehe safety, and profit margins, of those living above. Most people prefer to ighe uy.”

  “Not everyone. You’re a samurai now, people will listen to you.” She paused, and cocked her head to the side, “Well, I’m sure some will, if they know what’s good for them.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, finally turning to look at her.

  She smirked, “No offense, but unless you’re talking to your family members, or one of your close friends, you’re about as cuddly as a hedgehog with a saw. It doesn’t help that you usually walk around with a heavily-armed private militia, as cuddly as they may seem.”

  “I’m not that bad,” I replied, with a frown.

  “Tell that to the agent you almost made crap his pants.”

  I winced, “It wasn’t iional.”

  “But my point stands. I’m sure you find someoo intimidate into helping with the situation,” Sharron said, poking me in the side.

  I groaned, she wasn’t wrong… I really didn’t want to deal with some backstabbing bureaucrat, politi, or corporate shill, but if it saved lives… “I’ll think about it,” I said, after a long moment. “I doubt I’ll be able to find ahat’ll help, at least, not without providing them with some serious iives.”

  “Never hurts to ask. I’ll help, and I bet Angeline will too, if you ask.”

  “I said I’ll think about it.” Even as I grumbled, and leaned ba my seat again, I could see her smiling, even through my half closed eye-lids.

  ------

  When we pulled bato the shelter several mier, I immediately jumped out of the cab ao unload the bears. They were iy good shape, still a little soggy, but pletely funal. As they ahemselves, I picked up one of the B3s, and checked the clip.

  “Nyx, any way I could get alternate ammo for the B3s? Something nohal?” I asked as I reloaded the rifle.

  Absolutely. Thousands of different options, care to be more specific?

  I thought for a minute, “Something that’s effective against humans, bonus points if it’s effective through Css I armor.”

  Easy enough. I assume you’ll want to limit the effect to the target?

  “Of course, I’d hate to actally hit bystanders with spsh effects,” I replied, iing the rifle further. Once I’d finished I ha back to the bear I took it from, who was still patiently standing behind me, waiting on the on.

  Your best Css I option would be densed gel rounds with knockout formu. It wouldn’t pierce armor, but precise shots to exposed body parts would still be effective. Alternatively, you could i one of your tokens into opening a catalog with more peion.

  “Naw, not worth the cost. If it’s a matter of accuracy, I’d rather roll out the B3-DMRs to the foxes. Assuming the ammo works for both models.”

  It does. I assume you want a full blueprint for both?

  “Yes. Might as well do it, while I have the points. I’m assuming it’s not going to cost twenty-five grand?”

  You’re correct, five hundred for the DMRs, ay-five for the ammo. That’ll leave you with 25063 points.

  “ you adjust the on print cycles to include a DMR, and a couple clips of the nohal rounds please? I want to start rolling them out to all the squads.”

  I assume you want all the patrols armed with them by default?

  “Yes… it’ll be safer for peacekeeping, but I also want Spooky to keep them loaded at all times going forward. The bears are set to not fire on humans, unless ordered otherwise, and I paid for it today,” I said, rubbing my side. “ime I run into those Guiding Light assholes I want someone able to catch them, or at least able to fight back.”

  Uandable. Your squad will have the neons and ammo in a couple hours.

  “Good, I want to be prepared for my enter. Did the squirrels find anything else while we were gone?”

  Nothing. They scoured the area, and didn’t find any sign of the Guiding Light followers after they retreated. My best guess is they either had a safehouse in the area, or were using tech which made them invisible to the squirrels' sensors. Either way, they evaded dete.

  “Wonderful,” I sighed. “If I keep pushing out squirrels I’m sure they’ll locate somethiually. Let’s just hope it happens before they make their big move.”