I thought I’d gotteo travelling by truck, seeing the depressing grid of rundown brown and gray buildings. It turned out things could be much worse.

  Travelling topside for the first time was a terrifying experience. Everything was shiny and , it looked brand new. Worst of all, it was all open. I’d lived in the uy my entire life, I was used to having a roof over my head, so having clear skies over my head was almost too much. I pulled my hood down further and trated ohing, it was not the time to have a panic attack.

  I stayed that way until the truck drove into some sort of parking structure and up to a set of heavy metal doors. Maria was standing there, wearing a tidy blouse and dress pants. As I cautiously pushed open the door she smiled, “Wele Evelyn, I hope you had a pleasant trip.”

  I shrugged, “It was an experience.”

  Bob silently exited the vehicle and came to stand beside me. With him at my back I felt a little more fident. I stood a little straighter.

  “Jaentiohere was some sort of emergency, I didn’t expect you to e out to meet me,” I said.

  “I wao make sure there was someone familiar around to greet you.” She smiled, “Unfortunately, that’s a retively short list, Jacob is occupied, and Humboldt isn’t an official member of the Family, so the responsibility fell to me.”

  As she approached the doors they opened automatically. They were thiearly six inches, but they slid open like they weighed nothing. Inside was an immacute white hallway. “We’re headed to the main feren. You’re not the st oo arrive, but most people have arrived,” she said. I noticed she was keeping a slower pace, probably for my be.

  “How many are attending?” I asked.

  “Nine, including yourself. Some are eg remotely.” I found it hard to keep track of our path through the building, everything looked the same. Occasionally we’d pass an offshoot corridor, or a frosted gss door, but I couldn’t see any way to differentiate them. When we passed people in suits, they always so attention. I raised a that but didn’t ent.

  “So, what’s this about? Jacob didn’t give me aails, but I got the feeling it was bad.”

  Maria came to a non-descript door, then paused. “It’s about as bad as it gets.” She held the door open for me, then followed me in. The room was mostly full, and as we walked in everyouro stare at me.

  Their eyes went from me, to Bob, bae, then everyourned back to whatever they were doing before. Tiny girl with giant teddy bear, not a big deal around here.

  I made my way across the room to where Sharron was sitting. I didn’t feel like introdug myself to everyone, so I settled in the er to watch.

  The group was eclectic, to say the least. A couple were nondescript, but a couple stood out. There was a massive man, more cyberics than flesh, a beautiful young woman absolutely stuffing her face with chips, and a man with slicked back hair in a suit that probably ore credits than I’ve made in my entire lifetime. I guess it takes all types.

  I was just starting to get antsy when a young woman walked in with a giant bird on her shoulder. As soon as she arrived Maria stood up and walked to the head of the table. “Thank you all for ing. I’m sorry we didn’t provide you with muformation before now, and I ask that you don’t spread this information once you leave, whether you decide to work with us or not.” She took a deep breath, “The day before yesterday we received this message.”

  A s behind her blio life, showing a huge eye. “Hello? Hello, Hi. Is ahere?” The eye pulled back revealing a woman wearing bck armor standing in an absolute disaster of a room. I thought she might have been in a slum or something, but all the stuff on the floor looked high-tech, perhaps even Samurai level tech. “I’m Maggie Artell, also known as Magpie, from Seattle, the twi me this unicator when they left in case something happened.” She paused, “Well something happehe Antithesis came out of the o yesterday and overran the defensive line. Soni and his boys tried to stop them and, well… I found a pair of Model Threes trying to pull his body into the o half an ho. I haven’t seen Xeno or the rest of the squad sihis m. Everything’s fucked, the Antithesis have takehe streets, so I’d appreciate if someone could e help. Alright? Thanks!!” The woman waved at the camera animatedly, she certainly didn’t look like someone atg her city get overrun by Aliens. The s cut out.

  “The Family firmed the situatioerday. A massive hive developed off the coast, and wasn’t taken care of before it sent an overwhelming number of Antithesis at the city. We’ve been w with the Cascadian govero put together a respohey’ve already sent several armored ns, but they’ll require samurai backup to help push into the city. Which is why we’ve asked you all here. We o put together a suffit respoo evacuate the Seattle shelters, without promising the defenses of any other city.” The room went silent for a moment, then an older, baldileman stood up.

  “How did this happen?”

  Maria sighed, “I could give you a dozen Pswers, but it really es down to the fact that there was a jurisdial pissing match. There was a group of locals that joihe Family, and anroup led by the aforementioned ‘Soni’ which believed they should have plete operational trol over the city. It got so bad that our people left the city. Unfortuwo of the people that left, the twins Atntid Celestia, were the ohat checked the local waters and swept for post Incursioovers. Sonid his boys never bothered to repce them.” She paused, “Even without repts they should have been able to hold against a wave like that until reinforts arrived. We don’t know how they fell so quickly.” The older man sat down, obviously a little overwhelmed by the answer. I’d been a Samurai for just over a week and I already uood how important those jobs were, this Sonic guy sounded like an idiot.

  “Why us?” asked Sharron.

  “Because we o act as soon as possible, and we need some specialists. You’re well suited for uer bat, even if that wasn’t your initial iion. Teddy and Whisperer,” she poi me and the woman with the bird, “while less experienced, sweep and clear areas, Bright-Eyes,” gesturing to the woman with chips, " take trol of surveilnd direct evacuations. The rest of you have the skills and firepower to deal with all the models reported so far, from the low teens to high twenties.” She paused, “We’re leaving at the end of the day, most shelters are supposed to have enough supplies for seven days, but we all know how people cut ers.”

  I caught her briefly gng in my dire. “The army has pulled together a signifit force, including three super heavy tanks. Even though that’ll give them a limited ability to ehe twenties, we all know it won’t be enough to stop them from getting overwhelmed without help. Any other questions?”

  The room was silent.

  “I know this is a lot to take in, but we’re on the clock. If you’re ing please let me kno.” She started stepping away, then stopped, turning back to the room, “O thing, please don’t spread this information outside. People would panic if they knew a city was overrun. Thank you.”

  The room immediately erupted into versation. Sharron immediately leaned over to me, “ you believe this?”

  “Fuo. They don’t even do shit like that in horror movies. What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going. Maria’s right, I didn’t inally open the ‘Deep Dweller’ catalog for uer operations, but I’m uniquely suited to it. You?”

  “A week ago all I had to worry about was my little slice of the underground, now I’m being asked to help save aire city. I ’t let i people pay the price for someone else’s screw up.” I sighed, “I’m more worried about what I’m going to tell the kids.”

  I once again took in all the faces in the room, everyone was on edge. We had a veritable army of Samurai here, I just hoped it would be enough.