Chapter Seventy-Seven - Dead Samurai Tell No Tales

Chapter Seventy-Seven - Dead Samurai Tell No Tales

"Samurai are our saviours. Our heroes. The people we follow, the madmen and women who force the world to change.

And sometimes they die."

--President of the United States, Silver Hoop''s eulogy, 2035

***

The Family squad ahead of me landed in an open roadway. Three quadcopters coming down with military-grade precision in the centre of an intersection with their fronts turning so that they formed a sort of triangle.

I brought my mech carrier up and into the centre of that formation, then let the clamps go. There was a heavy thump as my mech landed, but I was strapped in well enough that I barely felt it.

The choppers'' opened up aIt the rear and disgorged three fireteams out onto the road. These were men and women in all-black armour, with just a few small patches for identification.

I felt like I was getting used to working with soldiers, but these people moved differently.

I''m not sure if I could point it out, exactly, but it was... tighter? More practised? They swept out of the rides, guns sweeping around as they scanned everything. They all had identical equipment, at least as a base. Small, stubby SMGs strapped to their sides, and a much larger rifle as their primary.

I couldn''t see anything about the soldiers under the armour, though. They had face-covering helmets with nubs for night vision and thermal sensor and full-body armour on. They looked like the kind of troops elite corporations would use to send a message.

They formed a circle around my mech, every-other soldier dropping to a knee and facing outwards. The worst part was how damned quiet they were about it.

Incoming message. The squad leader wants you to connect to their group communication network.

"Let''s do it," I said.

A moment later someone spoke up. Male, from the voice, scratchy and rough. "Samurai Stray Cat," he said. "I''m One. Good to have you here with us."

"Pleasure''s all mine, One," I said.

I had no idea which one of them One was. They had little patches on them, but they didn''t have easily readable numbers. At least, not from my angle. "Are you here for the same reason as we were dispatched?" One asked.

"Yeah, probably. Three samurai downed in this area. ToeJam might still be alive, the other two are apparently dead. I intend to find out what happened. If it''s aliens, we kill them, if it''s some corpo-meddling, uh, the same."

None of the soldiers reacted to that, not even a twitch or a nod. I did notice that a couple of them had some cybernetics. A pair of metallic legs here, some arms that bent in strange ways there.

"Confirmed," One said. "Charlie scout has found Track Pad Lad. Confirmed KIA."

"Fuck," I muttered. "Any idea what did him in?"

There was a decently long pause before One replied. "C-Five, tell us what you can about the mark''s condition?"

A second voice finally joined in, the scout that I presumed was C-Five. They sounded feminine, a little, but I might have been off the mark. "They''ve been dead for at least twenty minutes. Possible exsanguination. I see several lacerations across their chest, armour was penetrated. Arms are both broken, legs might be as well. Lower torso was crushed."

"Fuck," I said. A shiver ran down my spine. It was... clinical, but I could still imagine it. "Their gear?"

"Mark''s gear is still present. Armour is heavily compromised. Weapons... seem intact. Mid-calibre assault rifle and unknown Protector-tech. Can''t divine the state of their electronic gear."

I nodded. If it was all still there, then I could probably rule out a corporation being at fault. Plus, no mention of bullet holes or explosive damage. Rents and crushing was more an antithesis way of doing shit.

I was still walking along with the soldiers, so I noticed when they all suddenly tensed and stopped moving.

"What''s going on?" I asked. I did a sensor sweep, but nothing strange came up.

"B-Five is down," One said.

B-Five had to be the other scout, the one sent to Cavalier. "Where?" I asked.

My map pinged, and I found two pins added to it. One the location of Track Pad Lad, the other Cavalier''s last known location. B-Five''s location was also there, a little dotted line showing them travelling over, then circling around the body before moving in... then they were thrown way the fuck back.

Unless they''d gained a lot of speed all of a sudden, it looked almost like they''d been ejected out of the area.

"Change in objective," One said. "Alpha Medic, take Alpha Two and Three, rendez-vous with ToeJam."

Three of the soldiers, including one with a slightly bigger pack that had a discreet red cross on it, took off at a fast jog.

"Alpha squad, on the samurai. We''re keeping her safe. Bravo, vanguard, Charlie, take point."

The group rearranged itself in an instant and I had to do a little step-dance to get my mech facing the right direction. I wasn''t liking this whole ''not being in charge'' thing, but as the group started forwards with a bit more pep in their step, I figured it might come in handy to have a bunch of dudes with guns when shit went down.

***