AnnouI have a holiday episode ing tomorrow!Since Sharron didn’t have ao go, and was living out of her RV, I let her move into level five of the tower, once stru had finished. I even loaned her the beavers so she could arrahe space however she wanted. I didn’t expect her to go all out, and pletely trick the pce out, but I didn’t expect her to go so minimalist.

  She had a small bedroom, moderate living and dining rooms, and a small kit. That was it. The rest of the massive space was slowly turning into a workspace, with armor maintenance, on ste, and various workstations. It surprised me how many maes she’d set up over the st few months, sidering she’d been living out of a tiny box before that.

  We stepped off the lift into her workshop, then had to cross the retively empty space to get to her living area. The walls had extremely good sound proofing, so as soon as we stepped into the fy little room, the sounds of all her maes vanished.

  “So, what’s so important?” I asked as I climbed up into one of Sharron’s massive fy chairs. “Is the world ing to an end again?”

  “Sort of…” Nora started.

  “Today, during the corporate cil meeting, the Helmar Eleics representative accused Tel Aerospace of colluding with an outside power, and assisting with the various sabotage attempts around the city,” Sharron expined as she colpsed heavily into another one of the chairs. “They’re demahat Tel be removed from the board, and have threateo withdraw both their moary and military support from the cil until it’s done.”

  “Fuuuuuuuuu….” I moaned. “I thought Mirage and his ies were trying to keep those assholes happy, what happened?”

  “Apparently Helmar found definitive proof of both the collusion, and sabotage, but they refused to disclose it during the meeting. Sihe cil meetings are open to outside observers the ey is in a paniora said, “I’m surprised you haven’t already heard about it.”

  “I don’t watch the news,” I replied with a shrug. “It’s not like all that political p affects those of us in the uy anyways.” I sighed. “So, what’s the worst case sario, defense wise?”

  “Both panies provide twenty pert of the city’s military forces, either through PMCs or corporate military forces. The best case sario is that Mirage helps them work out their problems, and everything goes back to normal,” Sharron expined.

  “And worst case is they’re thrown out of the cil, and we’re out awenty pert of our forces?” I asked hopefully.

  “No, the worst case is they’re right,” Nora replied quietly. “And the other corps send in their militaries to deal with Tel. Sih sides have armor, and super heavy tanks, we could be out upwards of forty pert of our forces.”

  I dropped my fato my hands. “I don’t have the bears to cover that. I barely had enough to cover the she left by Global Rare-Earth,” I moaned.

  “We know,” Sharron replied. “Hel’s already sent out a call for reinforts. The cil will probably take a couple days to make a decision, she’s hoping to have a couple more samurai willing to stop by before it bees a problem.”

  “It’s already a problem! I’ve bee involved in politics, even if ily. I hate it,” I pined.

  Sharron sighed. “No you’re not. Yetting news about the situation sed hand, and anding bears, that’s it. Stop being melodramatic.”

  “Speaking of bears” Nora cut in. “You still have a couple bears sitting around…”I sat back up, and looked at my friends. “Yeah, I know. I probably spare ahree hundred without disrupting my owions. I just upgraded my augs, but it’ll still take me quite a while to get that many units moving, so you o make preserving those PMCs a priority.”

  “ you make more bears?” Nora asked.

  “I opped. I have teams going around to the abaowns and salvaging anything they , and the matter refigurators are pumping out two squads a day,” I replied. “It’s great for slowly building up troops, but doesn’t help when we need a ton of forces all at once.” I slumped into my seat again. “Do we know what Mirage is doing?”

  “Iigating apparently,” Sharron grumbled. “He kind of stopped talking to us when we refused to support his side of the flict, but we’re pretty sure the information didn’t e from him. He wants the situation stabilized just as much as we do, and a schism in the cil just makes his job more difficult.”

  “What about Zetta?” I asked.

  “He’s iigating, but the accusation came out of nowhere, so everyone is scrambling to catch up,” Sharron replied.

  “You have to admit, the timing of the accusation is odd. If they had proof, why not provide it? What’s with all the spectacle?”

  “I thought the corps liked that sort of thing. Makio drive up the stock prices,” I shrugged.

  “Do you holy think that announg that the city has been utack, and one of the leading panies iy was helping to drive up the stock prices?” Sharron asked. “Even you ’t be that ignorant.”

  “Fi’s not to drive up the stock prices, but it’s some sort of py,” I shrugged. “What are the PMCs doing right now?”

  “They’re just standing by, like usual, I think,” Sharron replied. Her brow furrowed, “Why?”

  “Because if Helmar holy thought Tel to something they’d probably want to move their forces into advantageous positions before the fighting broke out,” I pointed out. The other two women stared at me in surprise. “What? You don’t and troops for months on end without pig up a few tricks. Positioning is everything.”

  Sharron pushed herself to her feet. “I’ll be right back,” she said quietly, before stepping into the kit.

  With her gone Nora and I fell into an unfortable silence. I knew she was even o everything than I was, and was following Sharron’s lead, so I tried my best to make small talk.

  “Soooo… been doing any teag tely?” I asked awkwardly. “I know people have been swarming yym.”

  “I only give demonstrations, like when I teach the kids here. My legs are lethal ons now, so I ’t exactly participate in matches anymore,” she replied glumly.

  “ht, sorry to hear that,” I replied bnkly.

  Thankfully Sharron came bato the room shortly after that, preventing me from making things even more awkward. “Helmar’s forces have moved, but not to eelhey’ve secured essential chokepoints, buildings and utilities. A signifit number of troops are moving towards both industrial districts, but they haven’t blockaded anythi.”

  “So they’re seg their facilities?” Nora said. “Makes sense.”

  “Still… I feel like if they really believed Tel was the saboteur they’d want to get the upper hand, not take the defensive,” I grumbled. “Maybe they’re just used to fighting the antithesis, and default to the defensive operations.”

  “How long will it take you to field the remaining bears?” Sharron asked.

  “Probably a couple hours,” I replied. “Even though I have plenty of troops, the Kodiaks are at a premium right now. They take a couple days to produce, so I only have one for every six squads. I could probably use the Marsupial to speed up the deployment, but the st time I took it out Hel pined. Apparently the locals didn’t like having a heavily armed hovership floating above their heads.”

  “Leave it then,” Sharron said after a mihe st thing we o do is cause even more panic, just slip them out using the Kodiaks.”

  “Fine,” I muttered. The room fell into silence for a minute. “So, is that it? Any more news you want to drop on me?”

  “The city is falling apart, isn’t that enough?” Nora asked quietly.

  “Absolutely,” I said, jumping out of the chair. “Wanna e to dinner?”

  “You still want to eat, after everything we discussed here?” Nora asked.

  “Well Issi would be upset if I didn’t try her favorite sagna, and even though everything’s goo shit, we ’t do anything this instant. Might as well eat,” I expined.

  Sharron just shook her head.

  “e on, Jane and the kids would love to have you both,” I added before heading to the lift.

  “I ’t believe I’m doing this,” Nora muttered as she followed me.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll feel better on a full stomach. I’m already repositioning bears, so there’s no point sitting here and w about it. What could possibly g in the couple hours?” I asked as the doors closed.