Chương 408: Book 7 - Chapter 4 - Flotilla

"Nyx, how long have I been asleep?" I asked blurrily as I fumbled about, trying to find the alarm that had started me awake. It took me a couple of seconds to realise that it wasn't a physical object but an alarm being projected into my head through my augs. About two hours, my AI responded. I blinked a couple times, trying to clear my blurry vision, then frowned.

"That doesn't sound like enough time for me to recover from the fighting around Great Falls," I said. It's not, you'll probably need somewhere between twelve and twenty-four hours of sleep to recover, but you can still get by on micro naps for a couple more days, Nyx replied.

"I may be able to, but it doesn't mean I want to," I grumbled.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't set that alarm, so I'm guessing you did that. Was there a reason why you needed to get me up so early? Did we find something already?" Not yet, but I just got pinged by Claire and Alise's AIs. The two of them are about to hold a meeting with all the samurai they managed to pull in and they'll probably want you to participate. I figured you might want a minute or two to pull yourself together, instead of getting woken up by the phone call.

"Well, that's true. I doubt it would make a good impression if the first thing all these new samurai heard was a long string of expletives," I muttered as I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair. Now, it can be the second thing out of your mouth, Nyx said.

"If we're lucky," I snorted.

"How much time do I have to prepare?" Less than a minute, Nyx replied.

"Enough time to rouse myself, but not enough time to clean up, wonderful," I muttered.

"At least they won't be able to see me." It's a holo call, Nyx snickered.

"Of course it fucking is!" I exclaimed.

"Well, fuck it. They'll just have to put up with my bedhead." I pushed myself to my feet and staggered towards the bathroom in my cabin, only to be interrupted by an incoming call. Even though I knew it was coming, it distracted me just long enough for me to slam my toes painfully into the side of my desk. Thankfully, with my samurai reflexes, I managed to avoid slamming face-first into the wall too. [Fucking shit! Hello?] I growled into my augs. [Uhhh, Teddy? This is Atlantica. Is everything okay?] I heard Alise ask. Since she was using our samurai names, that meant this wasn't a private call, and the meeting had probably already started. So much for not opening up with a string of expletives. [I'm fine, I just got up from a quick nap and I accidentally slammed my foot into something,] I replied. [You were sleeping at a time like this?] a voice I didn't recognize asked in disbelief. [I spent the last week defending the town of Great Falls from an unending tide of Antithesis,] I growled.

[Then, instead of taking a break, I chased a fucking abomination all the way to the coast in order to prevent a potential catastrophe. I have a literal army out there trying to keep that thing from slipping away, and they had orders to wake me if there were any developments. So yes, I was fucking sleeping.] [I did warn you that Teddy had an attitude,] Claire sighed. [Let's try and keep the discussion focused on the Gene Tender and our efforts to track it down. I have a feeling if we get off track, this meeting will drag on far longer than some of us would like.] Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. [No arguments here,] I grumbled. [Teddy, everyone is projecting their image into the Family HQ here, so we can have an impromptu face-to-face. Would you mind joining?] Alise asked. [In my current state? Not a fucking chance,] I snorted. [I'm not in my gear and I look like shit.] [You are aware your AI could project your samurai persona, and not a live image, right?] Claire asked. I cocked my head to the side. [No… and something tells me that my AI may have intentionally forgotten to share that bit of information with me,] I said. [Nyx, I know you're listening, can you please send them an image of me in my armor, instead of my current attire? I would appreciate it.] Absolutely, all you had to do was ask, Nyx chuckled.

I'll also provide you with a link to the sudo mesh meeting room, so you can see everyone else. [Thanks,] I muttered. As soon as I received a link to the data stream, I closed my eyes and connected. After a second the darkness behind my eyes receded, and what I assumed was a glowing digital recreation of one of the Family's meeting rooms in Seattle formed.

The table was far larger than I expected, and honestly was probably far longer than its real-life counterpart, but that meant there was enough space for every single person attending. Even though it was unnaturally long, I found that I didn't have a problem seeing anyone. In fact, when I focused, it was like they were right in front of me. Probably some sort of effect of the digital realm.

At first I was thrilled that we had so many people participating in the meeting, but after quickly scanning all the participants, it became clear that a large percentage of them were fairly green. Most of them were still in Class I gear and probably had awakened during the Global Incursion. There were a few noticeable exceptions though, including an imposing figure in what appeared to be an antique diving suit and an older gentleman in a naval longcoat.

Although neither of them was wearing anything super overt, they just held themselves differently than the others. They'd seen action. [So, where do we stand?] I asked once I'd finished surveying the room. [With so many people participating, we should have a decent-sized flotilla to help intercept the Gene Tender.] I glanced around. [Everyone here knows about that, right? I don't have to go over it?] [Don't worry, everyone here knows the situation,] Claire said.

She and her sister were wearing the same matching wetsuits they'd had when I first met them, during the siege of Seattle. They had rectangular helmets and some sort of plastic-looking armor plating over their vitals, which gave the suits a sort of retro spacesuit vibe. When I looked over at them, the sisters shifted uncomfortably. [As for ships, we have seven vessels on site, with a dozen more coming in from Vancouver.] [That's significantly less than I expected,] I muttered.

[So the reason there's so many people here is…?] I asked. [Because we volunteered to help,] a younger guy in a long, flashy coat that looked like it was on fire. [We may not have ships, but we can help crew, and participate in the hunt.] [I guess that's fair enough,] I admitted. [I have a feeling we're going to need all the help we can get.] I turned back towards Claire and Alise, [Is a dozen ships going to be enough to take down this leviathan?] [Absolutely, we have more than enough firepower,] Alise declared confidently. [Unfortunately, we're lacking the ability to track it. Normally we'd have Nemo or Ahab around to help with that, but they're both out in the deep pacific dealing with the pieces of Phobos that landed in the ocean. They all developed extensive hive structures within hours of splashdown.] [I'm more than familiar with how fast the Phobos Antithesis spread,] I said. [Can we call one of them back?] [We've already talked to them, but apparently the hives became extremely aggressive several hours ago, and they're unwilling to leave the area with them intact,] the older gentleman said. I turned to look at him.

"I don't think we've been introduced…" [Warspite, captain of the Redemption,] he replied coolly before extending a hand towards the figure in the oversized brass diving suit. [And this is Depth Charge, our resident underwater demolitions expert. The two of us just finished cleaning up a particularly bad swarm outside of Vancouver, and we'll be leading the reinforcements down to help.] [Well, I hope you don't take too long. The longer it takes us to track this thing down, the longer it has to try and figure a way out,] I grumbled. [Don't worry, we're making all available speed,] he replied. [Good, I look forward to meeting you,] I said. [So, since this is a strategy briefing, I might as well let you know what I'm doing, and what our current progress is.] I pulled the latest status through the command network and pushed it through the data link.

[My forces are currently putting together a sensor network both North and South of the leviathan's projected max range. Hopefully that'll be enough to prevent it from making a run for it, but if it does, I should be able to get a strike team over there within minutes. Even if I can't, I plan on asking for fire support from the Mars armada. I doubt there's anything on Earth capable of resisting their firepower.] [Sensible,] Warspite said, stroking his moustache. [And if the leviathan was faster than you expected?] [Then we're fucked, and we'll have a real bug hunt on our hands,] I replied. [Let's hope that doesn't happen.] A little further down the table, a girl with grey rubbery skin and massive jagged teeth jumped to her feet and opened her mouth to ask a question, but before she could, Spooky appeared in the middle of the meeting room, causing several people to jump. [Boss, we've got a problem,] the bear announced. [When do we not?] I growled. My hologram pushed away from the table and stood up.

[Sorry everyone, I need to deal with something. I'll give you an update when I know more,] I announced before cutting the line. I opened my eyes and rubbed my temples for a second before finally connection to Spooky.

"Okay, fill me in. What's going on?"