Chapter Thirteen - Flick My Switches

"Forest fires are a common occurrence. In some part due to human intervention, but also as a natural-occuring phenomena. Once, we attempted to corral and control them, but now, with the rising risk of antithesis presence in the wilderness and in rural areas, controlling a wild fire is a much greater risk."

—James "Smokey" Silver, Saskatchewan Fire Chief, 2041

***

"You know, this reminds me of the good old days," I said.

"The good old days?" Gomorrah asked over a more private channel. It was just the two of us, and I supposed our respective AI. I couldn't imagine Myalis not snooping in.

"You know, back when it was just you and me, heading out to blow things up and light the world on fire," I said.

"Catherine, that good old days you're alluding to was two weeks ago," Gomorrah said.

I paused in the act of swinging myself into my mech's cockpit. "Yeah, and?" I asked. "It feels like it was a longer time ago, what with those weeks being pretty busy." I spun around and crashed ass-first into the pilot's seat, then I reached over and flicked the cockpit closed--which required flipping a small analogue switch which my studies into repairing the mech revealed was only there because flicking switches did something for people.

I leaned into the seat, then wiggled my flesh and blood fingers, opening and closing them a few times. My skin felt a little... taut? Like it was just a bit too tight, or I was wearing a pair of latex gloves that were too small for me. It wasn't cutting into my dexterity, but it was noticeable.

The itch was easier to ignore now, though I felt oddly... dirty? I couldn't wait to take a shower later.

"Do you think that our level of business is normal for samurai?" I asked. There were more flicky-switch toggles to click up or down. Some had little plastic covers that had to be pulled up before I could toggle the switch below. They all made very satisfying 'clicks' as I pressed them.

"I don't think so," Gomorrah said. "Atyacus?"

A rather snooty voice came onto the coms. "Neither of you will be surprised to note that you didn't break any galactic records for busiest newest-inducted Vanguard. However, you are both in the top percentile for busiest human Vanguard in terms of hours spent fighting the antithesis compared to hours since induction."

"Huh," I said as I chewed on that for a minute. "Top percentile is good, right? Because the last time I heard the word percentile it was with regards to the quality of the orphanage, and it was followed by 'lowest' which I think means it was shit."

"In this case, top percentile is probably not ideal," Gomorrah said. "But I can't exactly complain, we had some time off. We might have spent it unwisely, but we had it."

"Yeah," I said with a nod as I settled in, hands touching the control sticks at last. "I'm ready to rock over here," I said. The screens on the inside of the cockpit lit up and I had a one-eighty view of the outside of my mech. A map opened in the corner, and a diagnostics read out popped up in the other with text scrolling through it.

I actually knew what some of it meant now, which was kind of neat. Until I realized that a lot of it was reminding me that the mech needed servicing.

That was a problem for future-Cat.

"Alright, let's move," I said.

"About time," Gomorrah replied. She kicked the Fury up and into the air, and the car came to a hover over my mech's shoulder. Gomorrah then switched our comms channel to encompass the newbies as well. "Stray Cat and I are heading out to take on an incoming surge. You have until our return to eliminate the antithesis hive here. Make the most of it, but don't get in over your heads please."

"Aye-aye, boss," Crackshot said.

"Oh, bye-bye! Have fun!" Princess replied.

The others acknowledged with a little more professionalism, and Gomorrah turned the comms back to private. "They should be able to reach out if there's trouble," she said. "And I left a drone behind to watch over them."

"You did?" I asked.

"I did. You're not the only one who can purchase stealthy equipment, you know?"

I frowned at that, then spun the mech's sensor suit around and checked over the newbies, then I looked over the newbies and the sensors picked up some fuckiness some ten metres up. Fluctuations in temperature, a few distant clouds that were jittering very slightly because what I saw of them wasn't real but rather a projection. "Neat," I said.

Should I have called up a few cats to keep an eye on things?

To be fair, I was... not great at keeping track of my cat drones. They were scattered about here and there across New Montreal, and I was pretty sure Myalis was the only one with even a vague idea of where they were and what they were up to.

Sometimes I worried. Most of the time I didn't think about it.

When we went out with the Kittens, it was always Lucy who kept track of them. I just bailed them out of whatever shit they inevitably got caught up in.

Gomorrah set a waypoint on our shared map. "This is the intercept point. We have three kilometres to go. Do you think you can make it there in a reasonable time, or should I give you a lift?"

"I'll make it," I said. I pointed my mech in that direction, then metaphorically floored it. The mech started to run. Fortunately, most of the greenery around here was well past dead, so when I inevitably ran into some small trees and bushes, I came out on top.

Less fortunately, the ground was far from level, and was, in fact, a bumpy fucking mess. My mech moved with a calm, careful grace that had its core stay pretty level even as its legs shifted to run. It made for a surprisingly smooth ride when the variations in terrain and changes in direction weren't too bad.

They were pretty bad right now. I found myself tightening my legs against the sides of the spaces for them and gripping onto the controls as hard as I could.

The little red light flashing above me, reminding me to put on my harness blinked sarcastically at me.

We arrived at the point Gomorrah had pointed out soon enough, but by the time we were getting there, the aliens were arriving too.

The spot was a thicker patch of forest with a few thin ATV roads dug into the dirt criss-crossing through it, just past that was a wide open field. It looked like it hadn't been cultivated in a while, and was filled with small, thin baby trees that didn't look too much taller than I was, as well as a fuckload of bushes and flowering plants and tall grass.

The only reason I knew the aliens were getting close was because my vision, coming from the mech's head, had a decent amount of height and I could see the grass shifting in waves as they moved through it.

"Looks like it's gonna be interesting," I said as I finally buckled in properly.

"Looks like it. We're far enough from the nest now that I think we can allow ourselves to... shift the terrain a little. In fact, let me set the stage."

I followed the Fury as Gomorrah moved up and away. She started to fly in a long, arcing curve that stretched out for a kilometre or two. Tiny glints of light caught something falling from the bottom of her car. Then it reached the end and spun around to retrace its path, only to continue on the other side.

"What's that all about?" I muttered.

"I'm creating a wall," she said. When she returned, I could almost feel the relish in her voice. "Like this."

Gomorrah triggered something, and there was suddenly fire.

Huge rising balls of flame roared out, the sky flashed orange, and then a wall of smoke burst out of the expanding fire and into the air. She had created kilometres-long firewall. It curved to the left and right, with only one exit... right where we were sitting.

"That'll do it," I said. "Will that burn for long enough?" I asked.

The fire was settling already, though more smoke was still rising.

"It'll last," Gomorrah said. "Did you want me to go over the finer details of how this works? The initial explosion was essentially a flash-fire, to destroy anything nearby that can catch fire. Now the firebombs will just keep a much smaller line of fire going for the next twenty to thirty minutes before extinguishing it. It shouldn't spread if we're lucky."

"And if we're not feeling particularly lucky?" I asked.

She sighed wistfully. "Forest fire."

Sometimes I worried.

***