Cities in Chains

by Tao Wong

  “Kim, this information distortion, can we do something about it? Get better data?” I ask out loud.

  “BASED UPON CURRENT FUNDS, THERE IS ONLY A 34% CHANCE FOR US TO UPGRADE SENSORS TO REMOVE INTEFERENCE.”

  “How much would we need to spend to do even that much?”

  “ALL OF CURRENT CREDITS AVAILABLE.”

  “Bad odds,” I say, shaking my head. “Forget that for now. What else can we do?”

  “MANY THINGS. WHAT ARE YOUR OBJECTIVES?”

  I growl, annoyed at the pissant AI. Luckily, I’ve got a Spirit who knows how to handle these things.

  “Bits-for-brains, we’re dealing with the attacks. What can we do to make it less annoying? Or hurt them when they attack us?”

  “CURRENT DAMAGE OUTPUT BY ATTACKERS WILL REMOVE SHIELDING IN FIVE MINUTES, TWENTY-THREE SECONDS OF CONTINOUS ATTACKS. WE HAVE SUFFICIENT CREDITS TO INCREASE RECHARGE RATES OF THE SHIELD TO INCREASE TIME REQUIRED FOR SHIELD FAILURE.

  “WE MAY ALSO UPGRADE THE SHIELD TO ALLOW SINGLE DIRECTION FIRE, ALLOWING SENTRY TOWERS TO ATTACK IN RELATIVE SAFETY. ADDITIONAL ATTACK METHODS MAY BE PURCHASED, INCLUDING INDIRECT ARTILLERY FIRE, FROM THE CENTER OF THE CITY. LASTLY, WE MAY PURCHASE A SETTLEMENT ENCHANTMENT TO REFRACT A PORTION OF DAMAGE TO THE SHIELD TO ITS ATTACKERS.”

  I frown, tilting my head upward. Even if I can’t see it, I know that the current shield is a dome. Indirect artillery fire would basically make a hole in the dome in the center. Of course, the Sect has shown that they’ve got airplanes, so that might not be the best idea. On the other hand, airplanes are at least easier to spot.

  “Sounds interesting,” I say. “Show me.”

  Tier IV Defense Shield Regeneration Rate Increase

  Increases regeneration rate of settlement shield by drawing a higher level of ambient Mana.

  HP Regeneration Rate: 250/minute

  Credits: 1.98 Million Credits

  Tier IV Defense Shield Upgrade—One-Way Fire

  By altering the frequency and direction of the shield, one-way fire out of a settlement shield is viable.

  Allows intermittent fire from inside to outside the shield. Must be activated.

  Duration of activation: 5 Minutes

  Credits: 2.5 Million Credits

  Automated Tier IV Artillery

  By connecting directly to the sensor network in a settlement, these automated artillery pieces can range up to 50 kilometers away (dependent upon sensor range).

  Base Damage: N/A (dependent on ammunition)

  Capacity: 5

  Fire Rate: 1 per 5 second

  Reload time: 30 seconds

  Credits: 2 Million Credits

  Settlement Shield “Bite Back” Runic Enchantment (Tier V)

  Named by original creator Rqweervs Hivemate, the Bite Back Runic Enchantment absorbs damage done to a settlement shield and applies damage directly to its attacker. This Runic Enchantment comes in a wide variety of levels of effectiveness.

  Base Damage: 2% of Damage

  Requirements: 200 Mana + 20 Mana Upkeep

  Credits: 5 Million Credits

  I scan through the options, wincing at the cost, and pull up the Settlement information once again in short order. One and three-quarters million Credits. You’d think that anything over a million would be enough, but as I go up in Levels and deal with the town, a million has started to feel like pocket change. Unfortunately, with me wiping out the majority of the Credits earlier and the economy only just beginning to pick up, making millions of additional Credits is impossible. Frankly, it’s amazing that we’ve managed to earn as much as we have. Right now, we’re making roughly forty-five thousand Credits a day as a settlement, which might seem like a lot, but that includes all the rent, sales of Sect-owned goods like farm produce, and taxes we’ve levied.

  My hand rises as I get ready to wipe out the options we can’t afford, then I pause. Not because I can’t really activate the purchases till I’m in the Core. Not because we don’t have enough money to make the changes matter. No, because I realize, once again, we’re reacting. Playing to their game.

  My hand falls and I stare at the information, stopped in the middle of the street as my mind whirls with possibilities. A glimmer of an idea approaches me, skirting around my perception. Time. Space. Action. Reaction.

  Even if I do take the steps I want to, need to, I’ll need to visit Sam and the Shop. But maybe, just maybe, there’s an option.

  Chapter 14

  There are things you do because you have to. There are things you do because it’s the right thing to do. And then there are things you do because you’re just good at them. However, what you think needs to be done and what others consider to be right are often markedly different. Once again, that thought was reinforced as I told the team about my new plan over our delayed breakfast.

  As I sneaked along the ground outside of town, I recalled the arguments, the glares, and the less-than-happy expressions. It was one thing, at least to them, when Ingrid upped and disappeared. She was the Assassin, the scout, the rogue who did all those things. Sending her off from the city, even when we needed her to do some hunting close by, was acceptable. Expected even. She was the free spirit who flitted around. Me? I was supposed to stick around, help settle the refugees, and figure out purchases and defenses and all that crap.

  Never mind the fact that I’m really not suited to all that. Or that there are much better people already in place. Even if I feel—I know—my greatest contribution is in the field, most of the others aren’t particularly happy about my choice. As I left, there were even some muttered comments about me regressing.

  Truth is, they might be right. That’s the thing about the human mind—we can find justifications for everything and easily rationalize our decisions. In my mind, decisions like what to buy, when to buy, the optimization of our defenses and upgrading buildings and rents… all of that can be handled by others more inclined than I am to do so. Kim can run the math and guide the others on my overall goals. The council can do the actual work, and Lana can watch over them all. Mikito is better at handling and training each of the hunting groups, while Mel seems to have a handle on our day-to-day strategic fighting decisions. As much as I might dislike the older man, he’s doing a decent job so far.

  In my mind, there’s nothing I can do that can’t be done by them. But none of them has my Class, my Skills, or Sabre. Of them all, I have the greatest mobility and punching power. Which leads me to traveling across the relatively open ground around the town, leaning on my stealth skills to find the hunting groups. I’ve dumped Sabre into my Altered Space, deciding that going unarmored is a better choice for now. Mobile as it may be, stealthy isn’t something I’d call Sabre in either mode.

  Thankfully, the monsters around me stay away. They can sense the Level difference sufficiently to avoid me when they do pick me up, and I make sure to swing around them otherwise. Thus far, in the last few hours, I’ve yet to find signs of our potential attackers.

  Which isn’t too surprising. The ground to the south of Kamloops is pretty flat and bare, more plains than forests for around five kilometers before they get hilly and forested again. In the end, my goal isn’t to head into the woods where I know most of the hunting groups stay or to flush out our attackers but to make my way farther south.

  South, perhaps swinging by Logan Lake to the southwest a bit, but eventually making my way to Merritt. I might not be able to do as much damage as Sect can with their attacks, but if I can get close enough, when they’re not watching, I believe Ali and I can at least gather further information about our attackers.

  Hours of sneaking and scouting finally elicit a result—a small group of alien creatures, only two of which are humanoid. It’s the weirdest group I’ve ever seen, including a nightmare fish-like creature in an oval liquid containment unit with tripedal mechanical legs; a flowing mass of yellow-cream tentacles and mouths; and a ram-headed, cat-like creature with an extra pair of hands. At least the two humanoids are mostl
y human, even if they are weirdly colored and something you’d see in Farscape rather than Star Trek.

  “What are those things?” I send to Ali.

  “Don’t see them much. The aquatic is a Pismeen, tentacle-goo is a Mohran, and ramses is, well, we’ll call them Satyrs. You can’t properly pronounce or hear its name, so we’ll go with Satyr,” Ali says easily. “Must be one of the Sect’s mixed hunter groups. It’s not uncommon for Galactic organizations to put the minority species together.”

  I grunt. That’s something I’ve noticed, that groups like the Truinnar, Hakarta, or the Yerick tend to be single species groups. I guess when you’re the dominant power in your region, it’s easier and better to keep to a single species for your groupings. Which makes mixed species groups rarer since they are, by virtue, a minority.

  “We going to bury them?” Ali asks after he finishes naming the other two species.

  I ignore their names for now, already pondering my choices. “No. We’re going to stalk them. I want to see if they meet up with our midnight attackers. Tell me about the weirdos.”

  I make sure to let the group pull away even farther, just inside my ability to track them. Even now, their markers are weirdly shaded in my minimap, Ali’s way of indicating that they’re there because I can see them and not because he’s getting the information from the System.

  “Okay. Well, let’s start with the Satyrs. Firstly, don’t ever get into a drinking contest with one—alcohol actually doesn’t affect their bodies at all…” Ali begins.

  I only half-listen, since I do actually have to make sure I’m not caught. Still, it passes the time and gives me a little bit of information about new species.

  The next few hours are surreal, watching the enemy group travel across the map, doing their best to hide so they aren’t found out while at the same time looking for our hunting groups. Groups which I have full view of in my map. Twice, barring a hill and a particularly dense piece of forestry, the Sect nearly stumbles upon our people—and vice versa. I’m glad it doesn’t happen though, since it’d waste all the time I’ve already invested.

  So strange to think of a simple turn left or being five minutes slower and what could have been. Then again, isn’t that the truth about our lives? Half an hour one way, a different decision, and our lives would be so different. If I had never gotten a cup of coffee on that Saturday, I might never have met Anne. Trace it back further—if I had gotten up when my alarm first went off that morning, I’d have had time to make coffee for the day. Without meeting Anne, I’d never have traveled to Whitehorse. Never gotten my Class. Never met Lana or Ali.

  Small decisions, small changes, and the course of our lives could alter by such a wide margin. Every day, we chide ourselves for past mistakes, past actions, calling forth a myriad of what-ifs of times past. We might never know of the hundred thousand small decisions that might have changed our lives. Still, we reprimand ourselves for the decisions we make as if, somehow, we know the optimal path.

  As evening comes, I watch the group peel away, slowly heading south. I wonder if they’ll finally bring me to my prey. Of course, it’s not that easy. Twenty kilometers from Kamloops, and well out of sight of the settlement, the mixed species group gets on the road and calls forth various instruments of transportation, pulling away at speed. I stare in amazement at the mecha shrimp, shaking my head at the weirdness of the System world. Mecha. Shrimp.

  I take my time getting on the road soon after and following, knowing I won’t be able to keep up and stay hidden. A failure of some form perhaps. There’s something to be said about knocking out their people, again and again, killing even the small fry till they have no one else to send.

  But…

  Sometimes, you have to wait. Play the long game. Hope to get the whole pot rather than bleeding them for a few chips here and there. So I head down the road, staying to the shadows and waiting. Maybe I’ll find something. Maybe I’ll fail. But for the first time in days, I feel useful again.

  The message from Mel later that night was exasperating in its conciseness and the news it provided. Another attack, launched at ten and again at two in the morning. In neither case did the individuals who launched the attack come via the road I was watching. Which meant that my presence watching the road was of little use.

  Yet… negative progress was still progress. Or could you call it negative progress? Probably not, now that I was thinking about it. Which tells you the kind of thoughts that occupy one’s mind when you’re seated in a small depression overlooking a darkened road early in the morning after spending the entire day awake.

  I’ll admit there’s a small chance that the group involved might have sneaked past me. But a Skill that could hide sixty individuals from the System—or at least their data from people drawing information from the System—was powerful. So powerful that it must have been upgraded quite a few times. A Skill that could hide sixty people from the System and from visual and other line-of-sight sensing at the same time was insanely powerful. If my understanding of power levels in Classes is correct, that’d be a Master Class Skill. And if there’s a Master Class Sect member out here, they wouldn’t be bothering with all this bullshit.

  Which leaves me with the question of what to do now. Option one—return to the area around Kamloops and work with the hunter groups to locate the attackers. That’s the safe option, the smart one. Take out the attackers, give the settlement some rest. But it’s also likely the one they’re expecting.

  The other option, the one I want to do, is to ignore the attackers. I know the group I stalked left for another area. Probably a staging area in Merritt or somewhere else. Hit those guys, make their lives miserable. But the moment I take out one of their hunting groups outside of their city, I’m also letting them know that we’ve changed tactics and I’m out here.

  Doing so would call down the dogs of war. Which means I need to make sure that when I do act, it does the most amount of damage possible. I sigh, leaning back, and go back to watching the road, turning the thoughts over in my mind.

  Hours later, I finally give up on locating any hunter groups on this stretch of road and look at my brown friend. I don’t have to speak, but there’re no monsters or Sect members and I’d like to actually hear my own voice. “Am I selfish?”

  “Yes,” Ali says automatically, then pauses as he considers my question. “Yes. What brought that on?”

  “Lana,” I say, remembering the accusation leveled at me.

  “Ah.” Ali shrugs. “Don’t worry about it. You’re sentient. Outside of a few, rather dumb, races, we’re all selfish.”

  “Thanks, I think.”

  “Oh, come on, don’t sulk. What’s that thing you’re always muttering? What is, is?” Ali says. “This is the same thing. You’re selfish for wanting to go out and do this alone, because it gets you out of the city. Lana’s selfish for wanting you back in Kamloops, safe and with her. You’re both right to be selfish.”

  “Greed is good?” I mutter, and Ali rolls his eyes.

  “In moderation, sure.” Ali shrugs. “What, you don’t want to Level up?”

  I grunt, thinking about that single Level I need to hit 40. All those Skills, all that power. Yes, I can admit it. I want to grow, to Level up. To become more powerful. And that’s greedy and selfish, but also practical and sensible and yes, sociable since I’m the bulwark for my group and town. “So… selfish. And greedy, charitable, and angry.”

  “Or as I like to put it, sentient,” Ali says.

  “Speaking of sentience…” I frown. “Why didn’t you recommend I buy a military AI? Or upgrade Kim to a military AI?”

  “Probably because it’s a bad idea. You seem to think AIs are like your Skynet. They’re closer to the Machine.”

  “The Machine?” I frown, raising an eyebrow at Ali, and he sighs.

  “Person of Interest. Great show,” Ali says. “AIs are limited, both by the constraints placed upon them by the Galactic Council but also the information they’re a
ble to ascertain. They’re only as good as the information provided, and you, my boy, are limited on the information you can provide. A good military AI needs a lot of information to function, to make the best guesses possible. It also needs to get trained to function properly.”

  “Why?” I frown, shaking my head. “Can’t it, you know, figure out the optimal choices with what we have now? I thought buying the data stores gave it the training.”

  “Not that kind of training. Look, let’s keep it simple. If I told you that we should kill all the ex-Serfs to remove the Sect’s objective for taking back the city, would you?” I glare at Ali, and he nods firmly. “Exactly. But it’s a viable, potentially even the easiest, solution. An AI might see that option, decide it’s the best option, and tell you that. Now, when you tell it no, you’ve got to explain why. Teach it.”

  “Ah…” I tilt my head to look at Ali. “And how long does it take to teach an AI that?”

  “How long’s the tapeworm?” Ali says. “Varies on the type, tier, resources, and how good you are at teaching and actually knowing what you want. With you? Quite a while.”

  I sigh and nod. I can see Ali’s point and, on further thought, his point about lacking knowledge for the AI to actually make better decisions. It’s not as if we’re tapped into the Internet or anything, so the AI would be stuck with limited knowledge of the world. Unless we wanted to spend a ton of money purchasing information from the System, I can see how it’d be limited. It’s only because Ali is a linked Companion that he has access to as much information as he does. Even Kim is forced to rely on tapping into general System information channels and the information provided by the settlement.

  For all his assurances, I am concerned about the AIs used by larger organizations. But since I can’t do anything about them right about now, I decide not to ask about it. I’ve had enough nightmares to last me for a while, and a galactic-wide, networked AI is one I don’t need.