“I ’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 wouldly say ‘solved’. You don’t have the deeds in your hands yet, and you still o inform everyohat received evi notices that they don’t have to move,” Nyx replied, using Dusty.

  “Fuck… I fot about that. I’ll redirect the closest bears to go door to door a people know they don’t have to leave,” I grumbled. “No, wait, I’ll take that oep further. I’ll make sure the bears let everyone know that if someories 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 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 panies will part with the property for a pittahey 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 aodate you,” Nyx expined. “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 st six months, but it might be time to start looking for a source of revenue.”

  “Like fug 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 direg bears.”

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

  “You have plenty of tech you ercialize,” Nyx tinued, 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 make just by selling raw resources or power.”

  “It ’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 yeors.”

  “How much could I possibly make doing that?”

  Nyx shrugged. “Well, you installed half a dozen Css II geors to supply power to the sector, and a single one is more than suffit for your needs. You could easily put out the equivalent of one of the city’s power pnts bato the grid if you wao.”

  “Great, well, if I do that without interrupting any of my regur operations, we should do that,” I decred.

  “How long are you pnning on keeping the bear produ 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 rge numbers. I’d like to have enough to pletely lock down an incursion. It’ll take months for the cil to rebuild their military forces, probably years before they get a hold of more superheavies. Someone’s going to o keep the antithesis tained in the meantime.”

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

  “They 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 moalk. The family doesn't need much to get by, so we work on those ireams 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. “ has spent the st few months making sure the tunnels around Jasper are sanitized and only retly came back to figure out ways to ralize the al 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 wao be extremely cautious dealing with the site. The hive was rge enough to birth a Forty-Four, and the eunnel system was coated in that polymer, with Sevens suspended in it. They o 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 sider that. It took us nearly aire day to get down there using a direct route, and there were hundreds of brang 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 up and research specialists,” Nyx expined. “It might have been aensive job, but they earned quite a few points, and even a few tokens from sing the area.”

  “I guess if that’s their specialties, but fuck… I ’t imagiting there for months doing nothing but washing that shit off the walls. It would have drives.”

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

  “And it drove me fug 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 ed up quite quickly, but stealth hives and political intrigue would pletely cripple the p.”

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

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

  I gnced suspiciously at my AI but let the topic drop. The versation 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 te m 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 reized me at a gnce; without Bob, people still teo overlook me because of my size.

  Thankfully the crowd parted, allowio 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 bae, the guard bears didn’t o 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 effit.

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

  “Or you could stop produg ons 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 iigate w 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 reinforts are done before you decide to start something new,” Nyx suggested.

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

  “You assign Bandit to set it up.”

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

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

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