(Jasper)

“Jasper, your Da just called. He needs help with the harvest, can you go and help him?” My ma asks as she walks into the garage.

I slowly roll myself out from under the car with a sigh. “Sure, I will.”

My ma's face softens as she helps me up. “I know you don’t want to be a farmer, but it is good work, and we’re safe here from all the city gangs.”

I try my best to smile even though this means another day of backbreaking work for little pay. If only my grandpa wasn’t a gambling addict, we wouldn’t owe so many credits to so many gangs, making it almost impossible to live in any of the megacities.

I quickly strap on my helmet and get on my retrofitted hover bike and head off over the expansive wheat fields until I find my Da’s tractor. I find a spot close by and park the bike there. I slowly walk over, making sure that I am clearly visible since I don't want to get crushed by the literal tons of farm equipment.

It seems that my Da is listening to a particularly interesting podcast today as he spots me on the first go around. He stops the ancient machine right next to me and gets out with a big smile.

“Hey there, son, are you ready for a day of hard work?” Da says as he wraps an arm around my shoulder, dragging me away towards the side of the small barn.

“Not really. I think I finally got the engine cleaned out, and I might even get the car working in a few days.” I say with a sigh.

“Agh pah that thing drains diesel like a harpy drains happiness. You'd be better off fixing an electric car.” Da says while shaking his head

“I know Da, but still, it's such an amazing machine, I think it would be such a shame to let it just rust away.” I say while trying to wrestle myself free.

“I guess you are right, and everyone needs a hobby of some kind, but right now it's time for work. Load in those hay bales and bring them to the Kenmarie’s. They needed some more for their cattle.” Dad says, pointing at a stack of hay bales.

“Yep, sure, I got it.” I say as I head towards our second truck and start working on loading it with the bales.

The drive isn’t that bad. We have good weather and the roads are mostly cleared of any detritus, meaning that I can finish driving there in less than thirty minutes. Another ten with some help of the Kenmarie’s to unload the trailer, and I am back off to our farm.

When I get back to the field, however, it is surprisingly quiet. Da’s tractor is standing in the middle of the field with the doors wide open, the farm equipment still attached. Which is odd. Da is very careful with the farming tools, so him not having stored them properly is kind of weird.

I run up to the side of the tractor to look inside, but my Da isn’t in there, so that’s a good sign, I guess. But where did he go? A little investigation later reveals that his old beat-up car is gone. I get on my hoverbike and head back home to figure out exactly what is going on.

Once I get home, I am greeted with the horrifying sound of my mother wailing. I run inside, checking for any danger or blood, only to find my Ma sobbing into Da’s arm.

“What’s going on? What’s wrong?” I ask. Still looking around in a panic.

“They took her. They took her.” My ma gets out between sobs.

“Took whom?” I ask, feeling even more confused.

“They took Jessy. They said she could work to pay off the dept.” She says as she leans further into Da’s arm.

I feel my blood run cold as my world starts to spin. My little sister. Why? It did not take a genius to figure out how they would want her to repay the debt, and the thought alone makes me nauseous.

Suddenly, I feel my Da’s hand on my shoulder. I blink, realising that I somehow made it outside with a hatchet in my hand.

“Where are you going?” he asks in a concerned voice.

I sigh, coming to a decision. “I am going to get Jessy back.”

“With an axe? Jasper, they have guns.” Da pleads.

I shrug. “Yeah, but now that they’ve found us, they will come back to take more. The only things we can do are run away or stand and fight.”

I look at my Da’s face as he wars with indecision, eventually letting go of me as he slumps to the ground. I shake the image from my mind as I head to my hoverbike. I get on and ride away in the direction of the city. Trying my best not to think about the situation too much.

I keep pushing my bike harder, making the tuned-up bike go as fast as it can, breaking several traffic laws in order to catch up to the gang that took my family. In a strange turn of events, I somehow bless my parents' paranoia for putting trackers in us when we were kids, since that’s the only clue I have to go on to find my sister.

I keep driving, flying over the terrain at rapid speed, counting my lucky stars for not having run into any law enforcement so far. I was under no illusion that I could outrun the police, and with the pace I was moving at, the fine they could dish out would have any two bit cop salivating.

The first bit of resistance I do encounter, therefore, has me a bit perplexed. A full on military wall of fences surrounding the city, with soldier stationed at regular intervals, all pointing their guns inwards towards the city.

As soon as I land in front of the blockade, one of the armed men breaks off from his squad.

“Hey you better turn around. An antithesis incursion just hit, so the city will probably stay closed for a long while.”

“What about the people still inside?” I ask, trying to wrap my already fraying mind around this new development.

“Well, they should either make it to a security checkpoint or a shelter for safety. If they can’t make it to any of those places, all they can do is sit tight and not make a lot of noise and hope a Samurai or PMC come and find them soon.” The soldier explains with a grim face.

I sigh, turning my head to look him straight in the eyes. "What if I still want to go inside?”

The man just shakes his head. “Not possible. The Samurai have forbidden civilians from going in.”

Fucking Samurai, how do I beat those? My sister is still inside. I need to find her now more than ever. “Where is this samurai?” I ask, hoping that I might be able to convince him to let me pass.

The soldier points a finger past the defensive wall back into the city. “Back in there rescuing people.”

I give the man a curt nod. “Thank you,” before getting back onto my bike.

I back away slowly, going as high as my old lift engines allow me to go. Then, I make a quick turn, revving the bike at full throttle, rapidly moving forward as my bike drops down from the lack of power to the lift engine. I speed forward, barely missing the top of the barricade as I speed past.

I hear shouting as I make it into the city, but I put it out of my mind as I quickly turn a corner. Sure, they probably weren’t going to shoot me, but you never know. I speed through several side streets and hyper lanes, trying my best to get closer to my sister's dot on the map.

This makes me drive directly into a one of the plant monsters, dragging it with me as I sail past them. The Xeno, not enjoying its use as a crash test dummy, starts clawing and biting at me, damaging the bike's frame pretty badly.

I quickly grab the hatchet and start hacking at the alien in the hope that the sustained brain injuries will at least knock it off my bike. It kind of works, not because I hit the plant especially hard but more due to the fact that I am bad at driving one-handed at speed, and make a weird turn because of it, throwing the creature off me and into the nearest building.

Not wanting to dwell on that situation, I decide to drive slightly slower but higher, making sure that I can fly over most of the green horde. However, it’s time for problem number two. The dot on the map is close. As I turn the last corner, I find myself at the location.

I begrudgingly get off the bike and head into the building. If I had to guess, they would have also evacuated to a shelter. At least I would not assume they're stupid enough to ignore the incursion and stay in their hideout. I quickly open up a map of local shelters and head to the closest one.

I make my way inside the building and down the stairs, finding myself in front of a massively rusted door with some kind of blue wolf graffitied on it. I walk up to the door and knock on it a few times. Nothing happens even after waiting for a bit.

I knock again. “Hello? Anyone in there, please let me in. There are aliens outside.”

This time, something happens as a metal hatch opens up and a pair of eyes look at me with suspicion. “Who are you? What’s your affiliation?”

I frown in confusion. “I’m Jasper.” I say quite dumbly.

“Okay, Jasper, and what gang do you belong to?” the man snaps at me.

“Uhm, none sir. I’m not from this area, so I don’t belong to any of the gangs.” I answer.

The man frowns at me. “Don’t trust it; you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have an affiliation.”

“But it's the truth. I don’t know any gangs, I promise.”

“Boris, what’s going on there?” Another voice shouts, coming from further inside.

“A boy is at the door saying he has no affiliations.” The doorman answers the other.

“I see. Move,” A moment later, a new set of eyes is at the door. “You know it would be less suspicious to just say you belong to one of the minor gangs, right?”

I nod slowly. “That sounds correct, sir, but I’m not from here, so I don’t really know the names of any of the gangs, minor or major.”

The man sighs, “Take off your shirt.” He orders.

“I’m sorry, what?” I ask, taking a few steps back in bewilderment.

“Most gang members have tatt’s. If your skin is clean, the chance of you belonging to a gang is a lot lower.” The man explains.

I nod slowly; that made some sense. And luckily I didn’t have any tattoos, so I put the hatchet down and take off my shirt, turning around a few times to show off that I really don’t have any.

Once that’s done, I grab the hatchet and my shirt to get inside, but to my surprise, the hatch just closes with force, leaving nothing but silence. I’m about to start pounding on the door again, but before I can, I hear glass breaking behind me.

I turn around only to see three of the dog-like aliens slowly creeping towards me. “Well, fuck.”

I start to run, trying to get away from the creatures, but by the pounding sound of footsteps behind me, I’m not doing a good job of getting away. So I do the next best thing, head into an open door and turn around. I don’t know much about battle tactics, but I’m pretty sure rule one is always to use a choke point when possible.

As soon as the first model runs through the door, I bring the axe down neatly, embedding it deep into its skull. Okay, so rule two is probably don’t lose your weapon, and since I’ve been forced to let go of the axe in order to back away from the other two monsters, I have handily broken that rule already.

Though, if I’m being honest with myself, managing to kill one with the axe is already impressive. Okay, time for rule number three: throw shit at the problem until it stops moving. I start grabbing random pipes and other bits of rubbish and throwing them at it. This seems to do nothing more than just piss the creatures off even more, if that’s even possible.

Then I grab something that, well, I wouldn’t call it useful, but it is sharp at least. Some kind of big metal shear-like thing. I open the mouth as far as it can go and charge at one of the creatures. Thank the Protectors for all those times Da forced me to work on the farm because the extra muscle mass I built up is probably the only reason why I managed to kill the second plant with the plier like tool.

Okay, so it’s a one versus one now, a fair fight in a way. Why does it feel like rule four should be to never get into a fair fight? I manage to grab an iron pipe right before the Xeno jumps at me. I dodge to the side, only getting grazed slightly by the plant.

As it lands, I pounce, beating it repeatedly until it’s nothing more than mulch.

“Fuck, that sucked,” I say to myself as I get up.

System Initialized!

Congratulations. Through your actions, you have proven yourself worthy of becoming one of the Vanguard and a defender of humanity. I am Cygore. I will assist you to uplift humanity so that you may defend your homeworld from the Antithesis threat!

Rise, Jasper Boatang, and become a protector of the weak!

I blink, turn around, then blink again. “Come again?”

Congratulations. Through your actions, you have proven yourself worthy of becoming one of the Vanguard and a defender of humanity. I am Cygore. I will assist you to uplift humanity so that you may defend your homeworld from the Antithesis threat!

Rise, Jasper Boatang, and become a protector of the weak!

“You got to be kidding me,” I murmur to myself, still feeling shaken after the near death experience.

I’m afraid not. The grampa like voice announces in my mind.

I try my best to get myself back together but somehow can’t stop the shaking in my entire body.

“Okay, first I need a weapon, the flashier and scarier looking the better.”

I can do that, should I take your current condition into account?

The amount of concern slightly surprises me, but I just mutely nod.

Class I Automate Plasma Weaponry Unlocked!

Points reduced to... 90

New Purchase: Hands Free Plasma Cannon

Points reduced to... 10

A long box appears in front of me, and I slowly open it, revealing a long silver rod with a bulbous protrusion on the end, ending in a point.

“What is this?” I ask a bit confused.

It's a tail that can shoot for you, allowing you to keep your hands free for other stuff. I assume that with your current condition, shooting a gun might be hard.

I nod, grabbing the tail and dumbly passing it to my back. A moment later, I feel cold metal creep over my skin and settle the tail into place. The weight feels kind of weird, but it’s not impossible to keep myself balanced, so that’s a thing. A little reticle appears in my AUGs allowing me to choose what targets I want to shoot, so that’s neat.

After the tail settles in, I slowly make my way around the corpses and back to the shelter door and start pounding hard on it.

“Open the fucking door before I blast it open.” I shout.

A moment later, the little hatch opens up and I stick the big bulbus gun part through it. “I said open the door.”

A string of muttered curses comes from the opening, but the door does open up.

“Cygore, keep an eye out, someone does something dangerous, shoot them,” I whisper to myself as I enter.

The shelter is rather big, and inside are a lot of disgruntled looking people. “Jessebel, where are you?!” I shout loudly.

I hear a distinct scream from the back. Another moment later, my sister runs out, her clothes basically destroyed, as tears stream from her eyes. A man runs after her, holding his pants up with his hands.

“Hey, I wasn’t done with you?” the disgusting pig shouts after my sister.

“Kill.” Is the only word I say, and a blast of energy shoots out, vaporising his upper body.

The room goes completely quiet after that. As everyone stares at me with big eyes, I ball my hands into fists, trying my best to stop my body from shaking.

“Any way to tell if there are more bastards like him here,” I almost whisper.

Pretty easily. What do you want me to do with the information?

“The same thing as you did to the first one” The laser shoots a bunch more times, killing with every hit as people start to panic to get away from me. In the chaos of it all, my sister makes it to me, hugging me tightly as I wrap my arms around her.

“Cy, can you give her something?” I ask.

Naturally.

A long coat suddenly appears, and I drape it around her shoulder. “Let's get out of here.”

Jessy nods slowly, and we get out of the shelter.

“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” She asks when we’ve made it halfway to my bike.

“The gangsters were being weird.” I answer, trying my best to stay focused and not have a meltdown.

“Yeah, some looked a little gay to me.” My sister confirms, making me snap my head in her direction in surprise.

The fact that she doesn’t really appear to be smiling makes me not comment on it any further. “Right, let's go home.”

“Do we have to?” Jessy asks, hugging herself.

I shake my head. “No, I’m a Samurai now, we can go wherever we want to live wherever we want. But I think we should grab the rest of the fam first.”

Jessy nods. "Yeah, right, that makes sense”

I look at my downtrodden sister and then immediately decide on my next question. “Where do you want to live? Anywhere is fine. I promise I’ll make it happen.”

Jessy looks at me, her eyes looking so weak and vulnerable. “Somewhere safe.”

—

I snap back to reality, sighing to myself as I tighten some of the armour plating on the underside of one of the PsyCo cars. That was only the beginning of our troubles. When we came back; the rest of our family was missing, and it took a psychopath in a purple hoodie to find them and bring them back safely.

Well, if anything, I did manage to find a place where my sister actually feels safe, and now that she is going to the company therapist, she’s doing a lot better. I sigh, trying my best to put all those events out of my mind, the violence still leaving my body completely shaken sometimes.

“I think your spanner is the wrong size.” I monotone voice suddenly says from beside me, startling me and making me hit my head on the bottom of the car.

I look to the side and see that our resident psychopath is lying beside me on her own under car roller. “How long have you been there?”

“A while, but you were staring into space, and I thought it would be rude to interrupt.” Maniac says, though something is off. Her usual emotions aren’t showing on her face.

Time to enact rule forty six: don’t question anything the psychopath does; it will only drive you insane.

“Right, so what do you need?” I ask as I roll myself out from under the car, Maniac following suit.

“I need a car. I was told that you could provide me with one.” She says in a matter-of-fact tone.

“What’s wrong with your car?” I ask, still feeling nervous around the small woman.

“It stands out too much. I need something more normal.”

I take a small glance at the ambulance. So she does know that it isn’t normal. “I think I have something. It doesn’t have armour yet, though.”

“That is fine. I don’t plan to do much fighting.”

“Right, in that case, you can take the brown one. It should be enough if you just need a ride.” I say, pointing at the car in question.

“That will do. Thank you, metal bug boy.” She says

“Good, anything else?” I ask just in case.

Maniac slowly nods. "Car seats.”

“What? Why do you need those?”

“For the children, for when we want to go somewhere in the ambulance.” She says, giving me a questioning look.

“Whose children?” I ask, feeling a bit perturbed.

“Our children,” she says, pointing a finger at herself.

“I didn’t know you had children.” I say with a bit of surprise.

“It is a more recent development, one that has me quite concerned.” She says in the same monotone.

“I can imagine, but don’t worry, I'll get it done. It might take a bit though.” I say, trying to banish any thoughts of how she might have obtained the kids from my mind. It was probably something more normal, like adoption; her wife looked reasonable after all.

Maniac gives me a small nod. “That is fine; there is no deadline set yet.”

I nod, and Maniac slowly starts to walk to the car.

You should tell her now that you have a moment alone?

Cygore’s suggestion, though not unwanted, does make me freak out a bit, but I have to tell her. “Maniac?” I call after her. “There’s one last thing.”

Maniac turns around, giving me a flat look. “It’s just the fighting, I can’t do it. I get all shaky and nauseous, and I don’t like it. I’m sorry. I know that we’re Samurai and all that, but I just can’t.” I blurt out, bowing my head.

“First off, I am not my sister. My name is Crow.” I look up at the blank face with a bit of surprise. “Be that as it may, however, if the war against the antithesis could be won with a single soldier, we would have won already.”

“So you think it’s fine that I do nothing?” I ask, feeling unsure.

Crow looks around the garage. “I would not call this nothing; you are supporting the people that go out to fight, making sure their vehicles are reliable, that is doing something. I would even estimate that, in most cases, what you are doing here saves more lives than you going out there and killing the antithesis.”

“Right, thanks, and you’re sure Maniac would say the same?” I ask, still feeling unsure.

Crow shakes her head. “No, Maniac would say something along the lines of ‘Good more for me’ or something equally benign.”

I laugh at that. “I guess that’s true, anyway. Thank you, that’s helpful.”

Crow nods again. “You're welcome. I will go now,” she says and turns around.

I just shake my head as she goes. Every day, that girl gets weirder.