Chương 419: Book 7 - Chapter 15 - Luxury Cruiser

"So, where are we going exactly?" I asked Sharron and climbed into the back of my personal Kodiak.

"To Claire and Alise's yacht," Sharron said, before sending a set of coordinates to my Augs. I immediately passed them on to the driver, then turned back to Sharron, confused.

"Wait… did you say yacht? As in a pleasure boat? Not a battleship, or cruiser, or something?" I asked.

"That's right, yacht. Apparently it's the same ship that the twins were on when they first encountered the Antithesis and awakened, and they've spent thousands of points over the years, making it a mobile command center for oceanic operation," Shannon explained.

"I guess that sort of makes sense," I muttered.

"From what I've seen, the twins like to lead from the front and get involved in a fight, instead of directing from the rear."

"They're not afraid of getting stuck in, that's for sure," Sharron smirked.

"Anyway… the twins have already volunteered to host any Samurai without access to their own boats and have agreed to hold any meetings that the samurai involved may want to hold in the yacht's stateroom. Right now the 'Destiny' is pretty much the center of the samurai fleet."

"At least until Warspite brings the Redemption and the other warships down to support us. I doubt people will think it's that important when it's next to a full-blown samurai battleship," I said.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Sharron replied mysteriously. When I glanced over at her, she just smiled.

"You'll see." It took about twenty minutes to make our way from the shore to where the fleet had gathered. The trip was exceptionally dull. There wasn't any scenery to look at, and we weren't harassed along the way. It was so serene that it was actually a little hard to imagine that not far below us, hidden by the waves, a battle between the Antithesis and samurai was about to take place. One that might determine the fate of the entire planet.

Once we got close to the fleet, I flicked on the monitor at the front of the Kodiak's cabin and connected to one of the exterior cameras. The fleet the twins had put together was a little more impressive than I'd first expected, but not by much. There were about a dozen vessels spread out over a fairly wide area, and from what I could tell, only seven or eight of those were combat vessels. Most were small, not much more than one- to two-man patrol craft, but there were two decent-sized cruisers there too.

As impressive as the cruisers were, my eyes were naturally drawn to the absolutely titanic ship sitting in the middle of the fleet.

"Is that the Destiny?" I asked in awe.

"That's it alright," Sharron replied.

"Impressive, isn't it?"

"That's not a yacht, that's a fucking cruise ship!" I exclaimed.

"How the fuck did they afford that before becoming Samurai?" If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"The Monte family is heavily involved in Cascadian politics. They own a number of businesses around the area, including a number of shipyards, which they use to provide ships to the Cascadian Navy. They're a pretty big deal around here," Sharron explained.

"I didn't know that!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, you never really paid attention to politics. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't know who was in charge of Calgary if that war hadn't popped up on your doorstep," Sharron said.

"And what incentive did I have to pay attention to politics? Before I became a samurai, none of the politicians cared about the undercity because they'd already cut any support to the undercity, and there was nothing worth taking from it, and after I became a samurai, I was too busy helping around me to care about what the politicians did," I said.

"I was pretty sure that all the politicians did was make things worse, and guess what? I was right! I never want to deal with that shit again."

"Well, all you really need to know is the twins and their family are loaded. A ship that size, even one that was custom-made, would have only been considered a minor expense for them," Shannon explained.

"If that's the case… how the fuck did the Antithesis not only get on the ship but also force the Twins into a life-or-death situation? If they have that much money, they must have had multiple PMCs or personal security teams on board to protect them," I said.

"I don't know, as far as I know they've never talked about it," Sharron replied.

"I do know it's a sore subject, though."

"Huh," I muttered.

"Well, the one good thing about having a floating palace is we don't have to jump down to the ship--that thing is big enough to have a built-in garage." Sharron raised an eyebrow.

"Were you really worried about having to jump down onto a ship?" she asked.

"Hey! If the ship's small enough, there's a chance I could fall overboard while performing a boarding operation like that!" I exclaimed.

"You know, considering that our battle is occurring in the middle of the ocean, you really should try and get over your fear of water. Otherwise you may not be able to help if things go south," Sharron said.

"Considering that my strength relies upon my army, and not my personal skills, if things go south, I think my lack of swimming skills will be the least of our worries," I grumbled as the Kodiak rocked slightly, signalling that it had landed on Destiny's flight deck. I elbowed the button that lowered the Kodiak's ramp and immediately caught a whiff of the salty sea air. I'd thought the smell was strong on shore, but out here it was practically overwhelming.

As I wandered off the vehicle, I was once again reminded how incredibly massive the ship was. Not only was the landing pad large enough to hold four vehicles, but there appeared to be a large double garage built into the side of the ship. While I was glancing around, I noticed a handful of people standing off to the side, near a glass door leading into the ship. Normally I wouldn't have thought much of them since a ship this size probably needed a decent-sized crew.

But this well-dressed pair were carrying top-of-the-line, if not samura-grade, automatic weapons. It struck me as strange, because I didn't know of any samurai that employed or required private security teams. We dealt with Antithesis on a regular basis, so having a bunch of well-trained, but ultimately weaker, security staff didn't make sense to me. I shook my head. That didn't matter right now.

The fact that they'd remained at the entrance to the ship and hadn't come out to confront us meant they'd probably been expecting us.

"So, who is it we're meeting today?" I asked as Sharron stepped off the ship.

"Well, since this is the Twin's primary residence, I thought we should stop in and say hello to them first, it's only polite," Sharron said.

"After that I was planning on seeing if Mako and the Sisterhood of the Nom were around. Mako was on patrol when I talked to her, but she said she'd be back soon."

"Sisterhood of the Nom?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They're a group of samurai that are focused on re-introducing a variety of lost species to the oceans, increasing biodiversity and hopefully allowing the oceans to recover once we get rid of the Antithesis," Sharron explained.

"Okay… if that's true, why are they called the 'Sisterhood of the nom?' instead of 'Sisterhood of sealife?'" I asked.

"Because while their primary focus is on sealife, they all love eating unique cuisine," Sharron said, giving me a pained smile.

"And for some of them that includes Antithesis."

"Ewww… I can't imagine how gross that must be," I said.

"Why?"

"You can ask them when we meet them," she said, turning towards the entrance.

"First the twins come on."

"Right behind you," I replied, jogging to catch up to her.

"Eating Antithesis… and I thought I'd heard everything."