Anti-antithesis

When you think water, think Bestlé.

-Ad slogan for Bestlé International: Potable water sales division, 2045

The war map shifted back to Arizona, highlighting a few smaller towns and points inside the major cities of New Phoenix, Targ, and New Tucson.

“While there have been no further overt military actions from them, there have been dozens of minor sabotages, assassinations, and corporate buyouts, affecting more than thirty percent of settled Arizona.” Cody explained as he sat up. “While The Family has issued an open bounty for any confirmed Bestlé saboteur agents in Arizona, it is more reactive than they had hoped.”

The map zoomed out to show the greater North American Continent, highlighting a few other cities in old Canada, America, and Mexico. “A great deal of other branches have also become more active, doing what they can to recoup the losses they gave up from their deal with The Family.” Bahamut takes over. “That said, they have evacuated their Virginia Headquarters in preparation for a raid the East Coast Family recently undertook. The two other PMCs that Bestlé owned, the Fortification and Collections, had been dealt with before they could evacuate to their Sweden Headquarters, which is their main corporate HQ. Unfortunately, due to the operation on Mars, The Family is discouraging any Samurai from following them across the sea as that would put too many cities at risk.”

Cody nodded as the map zoomed into Europe. “With a majority of their military strength unavailable, they will, eventually, be driven out of North America, at least officially.”

“Ah, yes. The corporate shell game.” I said, my tone dripping with sarcasm while Cari looked at me with slight confusion.

“Corporate shell game?” She asked, causing Jill to groan in annoyance and Roger chuckle in amusement.

“Sands, Sis, you grew up sheltered for someone raised by a Samurai.” That earned him a glare from me while Cari rolled her eyes. “The shell game is what we refer to the constant shuffling of corporate assets through various shell companies, burner accounts, and ‘insurance accidents’, all with the intent of hiding how much you actually own or who is buying what. For example, we know that about sixty eight percent of the companies in New Phoenix are owned by the Corporate Council, yet only twenty percent are openly owned by them, with the remaining forty eight percent being under various pseudonyms and off shore holdings. This is to make it seem like they don't actually have the power they do to the lay person, while also protecting their core assets by using them as an early warning system, or as an intelligence network, or as bargaining chips for other acquisitions.” Roger paused as he notices Cari's face scrunching in annoyance. “Suffice to say, the only real way to crush Bestlé is to go after their shareholders and either get them to back off willingly or to deperson them.” He smirked at me when he said that, reminding me of my rather embarrassing display at Blizzards Memorial Gala.

At the time, it sounded cool and right, and it did somehow get Cari to see me as a potential husband. But looking back, Sands I was cringe as fuck. I mean, it was, effectively, what I did to Billy and his shitty family, but saying it aloud in front of dozens of other people? Sands, what the fuck was I thinking…

Thankfully, Cody saved me from my reminiscing. “Bahamut, Outsider, and I have run a few sims on assaulting their land based Headquarters based purely on orbital scans of the facility and their public defense records with varying degrees of success. If we load in every Swarm we have built, with every shuttle and minion squad and even the experimental shit Morrigan has made, we could eliminate the entire complex and the surrounding five miles of terrain, but we would lose at least eighty percent of our forces. And that is only assuming all they have is what they have shown, including the two human-xeno hybrids. And as far as assaulting their space station in geosynchronous orbit above their HQ? We could blow it out of the sky, sure, but we all know there are normal people on board, indentured employees and the like. Which leaves us with a moral and ethical conundrum that we really cannot ignore, especially since we are trying to maintain a clean public record.”

Buddy sighed as he rubbed his head, leaning back in his custom command chair. “Do we try to mount a rescue, or do we let them die in order to more easily take out those hiding on the station."

Cari took a deep breath before responding. “Do we even have the ability to go to space like that? I thought the Pandora wasn't space worthy?”

Bahamut nodded. “That she isn't, Matriarch-” Cari threw a chicken tender at Bahamut, making her displeasure at the title known once more while eliciting chuckles from everyone else. He snapped it out of the air, his words continuing from a speaker as he chewed, “and it would take Morrigan a few days to make her so. That said, the Shuttles could be easily retrofitted for such a deployment in a matter of hours.”

Jill nodded while frowning. “So, we assault the space station, disabling it and making sure we can safely assault the Earth base, but based on what I am reading here, that would require Victor to be there personally to utilize his network in order to counteract any EMC bullshit they have.”

“Then we need a new plan.” Cari said adamantly. “We can't use our troops, since they aren't ready for combat of such scale, and Victor's new spare body isn't ready yet. What options are there for local assistance? I'm sure Foxfire would be happy to assist in defenestrating Bestlé executives from space.”

Cody cracked a wry smirk as the rest of us laughed darkly at the image. “While I'm sure she would, she is almost certainly on Mars right now with the other Tier Vs. That said, her kid's company, PsyCo, would probably be available to assist. Their profile indicates that they have quite a few Samurai currently on Earth, with Maniac herself available, aaand why did your face do that, Vic?”

Damnit, I had really hoped my emotions didn't telegraph my trepidation. “Uh, heh. I, uh, pffff….”

Cari gave me a reassuring squeeze. “You are in a safe space here, love. What about Maniac bothers you? I'm sure whatever it is, we can work through it.”

Taking a deep breath, I organized my thoughts. “Well, aside from the fact that she is basically hated by Family leadership for her… justifiable response to what happened in Zurich, her skill set is a direct counter to mine. I mean, she's a single target type, so you would think I would have something of an advantage, but she is also one of the best combat hackers on Earth right now! We only have Class II cyber warfare. I mean, she could probably disable anything we have with little to no effort!”

Cari nodded softly at my ramblings. “Alright, that does sound reasonable. As far as retaliation from The Family, I truly do not see a problem arising from that, as I am sure Auntie Doma would back you up. And, unless you antagonise Maniac, I do not foresee her doing anything to you. Syn, dear, would you be able to prevent her from doing such a thing, at least so long as she is around Victor?”

So long as Victor doesn't actively instigate a fight against Vanguard Maniac, it would not be breaking any rules to prevent her from probing or taking over anything or anyone.

Cari smiled as she gently rubbed my shoulder. “See, love. Nothing to worry about. Not to mention, she's in Europe right now.”

“So, a two pronged assault, then?” Roger said, taking over the flow of conversation. “We retrofit the Shuttles to assault the space station. Then, once the orbital weapons are disabled, PsyCo takes over the ground assault.”

“A wise plan, Roger.” Bahamut chimed in. “And if we are planning on dealing a heavy blow to Bestlé, we should also decide whether we should take over Bestlé and their international holdings, or use the majority of it as PsyCo's hiring fee.”

I shook my head quickly. “We aren't taking it over. Way too much territory to cover, too much that would require our direct intervention to fix. That would take… months if not years to work through, all the while we could miss way too much or make things worse.”

“Vic,” Roger said, “you are looking at things way too narrowly. We could easily delegate tasks to others-”

“I'm not budging on this, Roger.” I said with steel in my voice. “Domestic holdings, like what's in Arizona, maybe a few other locations here in North America, sure. Nothing abroad. Roger, we are too small, too young, to deal with international politics, while PsyCo is an established, legitimate force on the global stage already. And while I'm sure you feel as though you have a strong backing that is me, might I remind you that, as of now, the only reason I have won against Bestlé up till now is because they underestimated me. They know what I can do for the most part now, even if I left some things ambiguous on the Family Profile. I mean, I wasn't exactly subtle with the MAF Pandora when we took her out, was I?”

“Victor is right, Roger.” Morrigan said over a speaker. “Give me six months and I'm certain I could develop enough toys to be a true threat to the Multinationals. Hell, once the sky castle is finished, I can guarantee it. As of now however, if they decide to make an example of us for over stepping, there is very little we could do besides holing up in here and repelling every assault possible until they decide to drop the plate beneath us. Which wouldn't do anything, I will say. Spatial anchors in the building would prevent it from moving an inch, but it would kill everyone in the undercity directly below us. I am working on reinforcing the plate, but that will take a month or so.”

Roger rolled his eyes and exhaled sharply. “Fine, fine! I got the message. PsyCo can get most of it. But! What's in California and New New Mexico is ours.”

“Alright.” I acquiesced. “But that's on you to manage, Roger. Use my name or whatever, but I want nothing to do with it beyond that.”

Cari giggled softly, running a hand through my hair. “You know, there was this saying from before the antithesis arrived. ‘Never count your chickens before they hatch’. Maybe we should call PsyCo and set up negotiations, maybe secure their cooperation before we plan on how to cut up Bestlé into nice bite-sized chunks for Roger and I to play with?”

I raised my eyebrow in question at Cari's last statement. “Roger and you?”

“Of course!” She said cheerfully. “Yerlette is majoring in business management with a minor in accounting, and I need experience in dealing with public relations and management if I am to be your public liaison going forward. So, while Roger plays politics behind closed doors and Yerlette manages the business side of things, I will deal with the more public facing aspects of Real Dreams.”

Jill narrowed her eyes. “Real Dreams? The hell is that?”

Roger chuckled softly. “That would be the corporation I set up a few days ago in order to place the Niltmore, The Lower Six, the Tower, and the Monster Box under a protective umbrella. Congratulations, by the way! Everyone in this room, minus the minions, are shareholders of the corporation! Cari, could you get me in contact with Yerlette? And I suppose Opal and Alice as well, considering you four seem to be a package deal. I need to split the shares again to get them set up, as well as figure out what positions they want.”

Jill's posture shifted slightly. “We will talk later about this, brother. For now, we should call PsyCo.”

Cari shifted to her human form, her new armor shifting with her into a very sharp dark blue business suit with a white dress shirt and black high heels, while nodding at Roger. “Why don't I do that? After all, I had already promised Victor I would take over all his public appearances, and this seems like a great time to debut myself.”

As she stood, Jill and I adjusted to make sure we weren't in frame as she wrote an email to PsyCo, requesting to negotiate a massive job against Bestlé, one that would require Samurai involvement.

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