The bears had just finished restraining the last of the Council PMC forces outside the building, the interior forces had almost apprehended their targets, and Hel had just reported that she had secured the control systems. The situation seemed to be under control.

  Which of course meant that someone would show up and try to fuck things up.

  [Boss, we’ve got more armor in the street.] Bob reported.

  [The council?]

  [No, I think it’s the other ones.]

  “Wonderful,” I grumbled, pulling up the nearest squirrel cam. There was a massive column of armor making its way up the street, heading straight for the council building. There were at least two dozen tanks and two superheavies. “This is going to be a thing, isn’t it?” I muttered before heading back towards one of the Kodiaks docked at the back of my ship.

  [Bob, plant yourself right in the middle of the road; don’t let them pass. Bandit, set up the Moose on the surrounding roads. I’d like to solve this peacefully, but given my history, that seems unlikely. Best to be prepared, just in case.]

  As I hopped onto the Kodiak with Deadbeat and Dusty at my back, I prayed the situation didn’t dissolve before I got there.

  Thankfully it didn’t, not entirely.

  By the time the Kodiak set down, the column had completely halted. The forward tank had literally put its barrel against Bob’s head, and there was a man wearing an impressive military outfit yelling at the bear.

  Bob, for his part, was laughing.

  “Get out of the way this instant. You’re interfering with a lawful conflict!” the overimportant man screamed.

  “Who decided it was lawful? You?” I growled.

  The man jumped. Apparently, he’d been so absorbed in yelling at my bear he’d totally missed the Kodiak landing only a couple feet away. Idiot.

  “The rules of engagement have been established by corporate charter. In the case where two or more corporations place unreasonable demands upon another, war may be declared. When all the controlling board members of one of the factions have been captured, that faction must capitulate and agree to whatever demands are presented to them,” the pompous asshole declared.

  “So, no one. It’s more corporate bullshit,” I sighed. “Who are you, and what the fuck do you want?”

  “My name is Theodore Andreus Miller, and I’m the Applied System Dynamics military advisor.”

  “Good for you,” I grunted quietly.

  “I’m here to request that you turn over Brooke Lawrence, CEO of Alliance Bio-Tech, and Rowan Sanders, CEO of Telnet Systems, to me. I’d also like to take control of the Calgary council building to use as a command center for the rest of this campaign,” Theodore declared.

  “No.”

  Apparently the man didn’t hear the word ‘no’ that often, because he rocked back, aghast. “Why not? I was under the impression that the samurai weren’t interested in getting involved in the conflict.”

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  “I didn’t get involved because I figured that the two of you would beat the shit out of each other for a while, one of you would surrender, and then the city would return to regular business like your pissing match had never happened. What I didn’t expect was for you both to fight with no regard for civilian safety and for the council to attempt war crimes in order to win.”

  I turned towards Theadore and gave him my best threatening smile. “I’m not exactly a fan of people who are willing to sacrifice innocent people in order to win a fight.”

  “Quite, that’s a barbaric practice…”

  “Like your armored column tried to do a couple days ago in the undercity.”

  Theodore paled. “Right.”

  “The council crossed a line. They attempted to drop a plate down below and take a good portion of your forces with it. My friends and I stopped it. Not for you, but for the people that would have died,” I explained. “They’ll have to face the consequences of their actions, and I’ll be honest, I don’t trust that ASD will do anything beyond throw them in a luxury suite, wait till you got what you wanted, then release them.”

  The man looked insulted, but honestly I didn’t care that much; I just continued my rant. “As for the request to surrender the council building to you, I can’t do that. I’ve recently been informed that ASD did NOT declare war upon Calgary, but Helmar, Telnet, Alliance Bio-Tech, and Great Northern themselves. You have no reason to occupy the council building unless you have some sort of ulterior motive.”

  The idiot turned red. “How dare you?”

  “How dare I? Really? That’s the second time I’ve heard that this week. The first time was from the jackass firing indiscriminately through the undercity. Maybe it’s a Denver thing.” I snorted. “Listen up, Theadore, the samurai in town might not have wanted to get involved in this fucking gong show of a conflict before, but we do now. A lot of us don’t appreciate when someone tries to slaughter innocent people. If you want to continue this fight, go ahead, but let me tell you… we’re going to have a really short fuse going forward, so if you or your forces do anything that threatens civilians, we will not hesitate to end you.”

  “End me?” he paled. “You’d attack half a dozen superheavies and dozens of armor columns?”

  I stared at the man for a couple seconds, turned, and then stared at the super heavy still smoking at the end of the street, then back again. “In the last two days I’ve destroyed two superheavies and a couple of armored columns, without breaking a sweat and only using a couple dozen bears. I have almost a thousand combat bears. If you test me, I’ll use them all. Got it?”

  He flinched slightly before nodding. “Loud and clear.”

  “Then get the fuck off my street,” I yelled as I pivoted and started walking away. “I’m planning on taking the other CEOs into custody over the next day or so. If you want your surrender, you better try and get to one of them before I do.”

  Even though I didn’t command him to do it, Bob reached up and bent the front tank’s barrel nearly one hundred and eighty degrees before huffing at Theodore and following me.

  By the time I made it back to the council building, Hel was just leaving. She gave the Denver armor a suspicious look before heading over to meet me. “Are we going to have an issue?”

  “Not unless they want to walk home,” I grumbled. Hel raised an eyebrow, so I clarified. “I had a nice, polite chat with the head of the Denver forces, where I made it very clear that I’d castrate him and his forces if they did anything stupid.”

  “You think they’ll actually back off?”

  “I don’t know… I really hope so, it would make dealing with things easier, but I really have no faith in Corpos keeping their word. Or, you know, having common sense,” I sighed. “I think most of them sold it over the years.”

  “And you’re not worried that they’ll try and get the Denver samurai involved to keep you in line?”

  “Uggggghhhhh….” I immediately slumped forward and dropped my head into my hands. “That didn’t occur to me at all. Since the Calgary samurai all decided to stay out of the conflict, because it wasn’t our fight, I assumed the Denver contingent was the same. Fuck it. If they come up, I’ll deal with them.”

  Hel patted me on the back of the head. “How about I give the Denver branch of the Family a call, let them know what’s happening, and get a read on the situation before it snowballs out of control?”

  “I would appreciate that, thank you,” I grumbled. “What’s the situation inside?”

  “Secure. I had to spend a little extra time pulling some booby traps and remote explosives out of the room, but it’s all good now,” Hel explained. “I don’t know what the situation is with the council members, though.”

  “I shoved them in a closet.”

  Hel raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

  “Because I didn’t have any plans for what to do with them once I captured them! I don’t have any cells on the Marsupial, or back at the Shelter, so I have no idea what to do with them! Maybe I should call the others.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure they’ll get a kick out of that,” Hel smirked.

  “Shut up,” I muttered. “We did what we needed to and secured the control system that everyone was worried about. That’s the important thing. Now that we have it, we can move on to stage two.”

  “Sure. Right after we call the others and figure out what to do with your prisoners. Probably not a great idea to shove them all into closets,” Hel giggled.

  “Hey, if it works.”

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