“I can’t believe the nerve of that woman. At least I’ve solved the issue before it spiraled out of hand,” I announced as the squad and I waltzed back towards the shelter.

  “I wouldn’t exactly say ‘solved’. You don’t have the deeds in your hands yet, and you still need to inform everyone that received eviction notices that they don’t have to move,” Nyx replied, using Dusty.

  “Fuck… I forgot about that. I’ll redirect the closest bears to go door to door and let people know they don’t have to leave,” I grumbled. “No, wait, I’ll take that one step further. I’ll make sure the bears let everyone know that if someone tries to evict them, to report the act. Best to get out in front of this if some other fuckwad tries to do something stupid.”

  “If you want, I can start making discreet inquiries about the other buildings in the sector.”

  I paused slightly, and looked over at Nyx’s current avatar. “Do I have enough money for that? I know we took quite a bit from Indico, and we barely use any of it, but is it really enough to purchase the entire district?”

  “Most companies will part with the property for a pittance; They see most of the property down here as just a tax write-off anyways. If I drop hints that the prospective buyer is a samurai, most will bend over backwards to accommodate you,” Nyx explained. “Even if you get them all at a bargain, it’ll take most of your money. You’ve been living on that initial payout for the last six months, but it might be time to start looking for a source of revenue.”

  “Like fucking what? Go back to selling scrap metal?” I shouted, throwing my hands in the air. “I’ve only ever been good at two things: surviving and directing bears.”

  “Don’t forget petty vengeance. You’re pretty good at that too!” Bob added helpfully.

  “You have plenty of tech you can commercialize,” Nyx continued, unbothered by the big bear’s interruption. “You could register the bears as a PMC, sell fabricators, or just raw materials. You’d be surprised how much you can make just by selling raw resources or power.”

  “It can’t be that much, it barely fed the family before,” I grumbled.

  “You were selling tiny, scrap parts to a third party, which was ripping you off. Creating pure ingots and selling them to a producer would make you vastly more money. And if you didn’t want to take cycles out of the mass fabs, which you’ve been using to produce troops non-stop, you could always sell the excess power from your generators.”

  “How much could I possibly make doing that?”

  Nyx shrugged. “Well, you installed half a dozen Class II generators to supply power to the sector, and a single one is more than sufficient for your needs. You could easily put out the equivalent of one of the city’s power plants back into the grid if you wanted to.”

  “Great, well, if I can do that without interrupting any of my regular operations, we should do that,” I declared.

  “How long are you planning on keeping the bear production going anyways?” Nyx asked after a moment. “You already have a massive standing force.”

  “I’ll stop when I run out of space to store them,” I replied casually. “We’ve both seen what they’re capable of in large numbers. I’d like to have enough to completely lock down an incursion. It’ll take months for the council to rebuild their military forces, probably years before they get a hold of more superheavies. Someone’s going to need to keep the antithesis contained in the meantime.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “You’re not worried that they’ll become reliant on your forces and avoid building up the military again?”

  “They can try, but I’m going to be extremely clear that my bears aren’t going to do anything to protect the city,” I mumbled. “Plus I’m going to charge them a shitload if they insist on leaving the entire job to me.”

  “I guess that’d be one way to make money,” Nyx replied.

  “Anyways, fuck this money talk. The family doesn't need much to get by, so we can work on those income streams slowly over time,” I sighed. “Do I have anything else on the schedule for today?”

  “Nothing essential, but you may want to visit the settling pool when you have some time,” Nyx replied. “CBeRN has spent the last few months making sure the tunnels around Jasper are sanitized and only recently came back to figure out ways to neutralize the canal sludge.”

  I stopped and looked at Nyx. “It took them that long to clear up the tunnels? Why?”

  “I don’t know all the details, but based upon my information, the Family wanted to be extremely cautious dealing with the site. The hive was large enough to birth a Forty-Four, and the entire tunnel system was coated in that polymer, with Sevens suspended in it. They needed to not only sanitize every single inch of the tunnels but also dig around and make sure there weren’t any other hidden tunnels nearby.”

  “Fuck, I didn’t even consider that. It took us nearly an entire day to get down there using a direct route, and there were hundreds of branching tunnels. I could see it taking months if they had to scrape that shit off all the walls. I actually feel bad for those that stayed behind.”

  “You don’t have to feel bad. Most of the people that stayed behind were dedicated cleanup and research specialists,” Nyx explained. “It might have been an extensive job, but they earned quite a few points, and even a few tokens from cleansing the area.”

  “I guess if that’s their specialties, but fuck… I can’t imagine sitting there for months doing nothing but washing that shit off the walls. It would have driven me nuts.”

  “You said the exact same thing about politics, but you still managed to sit through weeks of planning and preparation there.”

  “And it drove me fucking nuts!” I growled. “I don’t think I could have put up with another day of people whining about shit.”

  “That’s why we AI recruit a wide range of personalities. If everyone was like you, the antithesis incursions would get cleaned up quite quickly, but stealth hives and political intrigue would completely cripple the planet.”

  “I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult,” I grumbled.

  “It means you’re very specialized and good at your job,” Nyx clarified.

  I glanced suspiciously at my AI but let the topic drop. The conversation had been going long enough for us to make it all the way home. The streets around the shelter were starting to fill up with people, starting the late morning shopping rush. It was a good thing that Bob was with me. Otherwise I’d probably blend in with the crowd of kids wearing multi-color hoodies.

  I don’t know if it was out of respect or fear, but none of the vendors ever seemed to sell green hoodies. That didn’t mean people recognized me at a glance; without Bob, people still tended to overlook me because of my size.

  Thankfully the crowd parted, allowing me to cross the road unaccosted. I effortlessly pushed open the heavy metal security door and headed into the cavernous interior of the Shelter. Now that the refugees were back home, the guard bears didn’t need to be out twenty-four seven, and the garage area was getting a little crowded again.

  The problem had less to do with the bears and more to do with the dozens of Kodiaks littering the area. Having one vehicle for every two squads made it easy for the bears to get around, but it wasn’t very space efficient.

  “Nyx, I might have to invest in a parking lot soon,” I said, staring at the mess in front of me.

  “Or you could stop producing weapons for a while and work with what you have,” my AI replied.

  “Naw, parking lot. I could fence off part of the railyard, beside the Terminal, and use that. Now that the refugees are out of there, it’s a massive empty space. Maybe I should investigate working with the Brokers, and making a real market, or additional housing over there,” I mused.

  “I think you already have a ton of projects already. Maybe wait until the building reinforcements are done before you decide to start something new,” Nyx suggested.

  “Fine. We can still move the Kodiaks for now. We have the fencing, and the forces to monitor the area. I don’t see a reason why I shouldn’t and I could use the space.”

  “You can assign Bandit to set it up.”

  “Later, first I’m going to head down to the settling pool and meet CBeRN. See if there’s anything I can do to help with the water supply.”

  “You know it would be much easier to get things done if you just selected one task, and stuck with it for more than thirty seconds,” Nyx berated me.

  “But doing a thousand things at once is much more fun,” I replied with a small smile. “Let’s get going.”

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