A Displaced Samurai

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

-- Arthur C. Clarke --

I emerged into a lobby that looked almost like the one I had come from. Same architecture, but someone had redecorated it. Different paintings on the walls, different carpet, the corporate logo looked a bit different as well.

Even the monsters around me were different. Instead of a plant theme, here we had more of the robots I had just encountered. Each of them had a single, balefully glowing eye.

Around me, some girls in their late teens were fighting and forcefully disassembling the mechanical creatures. The ground was already littered with broken robots, most of them leaking black oil. Were these girls the equivalent of Vanguard?

One of them wore a sort of ladybug costume in red and black.

Another was a tall brunette wearing green armor, holding a weirdly curved blade with an edge along its whole length and hand grips on the other side. It reminded me of a Bat’leth from that old pre-incursion Star Trek show. Sue me, I’m a sci-fi nerd.

But I could not gawk for long. Seconds after my arrival, the Six followed after me. Almost dead, but still fighting the robots that had attacked it before. Only three now, it had just crushed one of them and the turrets might have gotten the rest.

Finally the Six collapsed, but now the locals were outnumbered again with the three additional robots. One of them was already injured, and the group barely held on. A short, slightly chubby girl in pink costume was tending to another who had a nasty gash along her thigh.

I had to help out. “Elya, Hummingbird!”

Hardware delivery not available

“What the fuck, Elya?”

You have been displaced to a parallel universe. Supplies from the Protectors are not available here.

“Oh shit”. I was dumbfounded for a moment, but then I had an idea. “These look like machines, let’s try the new cyberwarfare stuff on them! Hack them, sabotage them, however you can!”

I’m on it. But they are quite resistant. Little of their cybernetic functions is susceptible to external manipulation.

I moved out of the way, having no weapon right now. Then Miss Ladybug lifted her hands and shouted: “Thunderbolt!!”

A massive electrical discharge flashed from her hands and zapped across four of the robots. Three collapsed, viscous oil leaking from their bodies. The fourth remained standing, but completely motionless.

I control the remaining robot now. Electric discharges appear to disrupt their circuitry and create momentary vulnerabilities.

“Make it attack the other ones!”

The fight had stopped for a moment, with the lightning thrower seemingly exhausted, and the robots also hesitated to attack further. Then my hacked minion jumped its nearest brother and rammed its pointed legs into the victim.

That broke the momentary stalemate. Bat’leth girl found herself with only one opponent directly across from her, and lunged at it with her two-pointed sword. She slashed down on it with one end of her weapon. That end of the sword snapped inwards and flashed towards the target, increasing the force of the slash even more. The attack almost bisected the robot. Black oil spattered her and the floor.

At the center of the fight, my bot and its victim were entangled and struggling on the ground. Oil leaked out of the victim. Both of them were out of the fight for the moment, but still hampered the attempts of other combatants to attack through the middle.

Finally, on the opposite side of the fight Miss Pink had finished patching up her companion, who was wearing an orange and black costume. Orange was still visibly limping, but fit enough again to harass the robot opposite of her with her spear. Of three bots still alive, this was the only one still fighting the girls. My minion had its legs in the bot I had sicced him on and did not let loose.

In the meantime, Bat’leth girl had moved around the two robots on the ground and attacked Orange’s opponent from behind. With a few slashes, she eliminated the robot pest. Finally, she and Orange focused their attention on the two fighting bots on the floor. Within seconds, these were scrap as well,

Targets neutralized! 3 x unknown robot model, estimated threat level similar to Antithesis Model 3.

Reward for destruction of a robot (in home universe)…10 points

Reward for subverting a robot… 10 points

Partial credit for supporting the destruction of a robot… 5 points

New balance… 28 Points

With the immediate danger over, the four girls approached me and bombarded me with questions. “Where are you from?” “How did you get here in the middle of an emergence?” “Why are you not in a shelter?”

I introduced myself and explained my situation.

“I am Caitlin McCallan. I am from a parallel universe, and I have been fighting monsters like you do, but of a different kind”. I pointed to the dead Six.

“That is a unit of a plant-based invasion force called the Antithesis that is regularly plaguing our world. I am a member of an informal fighting force that does their best to push back the invaders. And by the way, you should burn this one rather than throw it on a compost heap. It might take root otherwise, and then you get a very nasty invasive species on top of mad robot problems.”

“About how I got here, it seems two invasions have been mixed up. I was a bit careless and fell into a gate just like this one”. I pointed to the gate I had come through. “Inside the gateway, both that Antithesis critter and some of these bots made to kill me, and I escaped through the only way that was left.”

The gate flickered and closed. “Oops. Looks like I’m stuck here.”

With the gate closed, it is now reasonable to assume the people in the shelter are safe. Research on dimensional gates strongly suggests that linked gates always collapse together. That would mean the gate near the shelter is now also closed and attacks on the shelter by new enemies unlikely.

Persons saved: 48

Reward… 48 points

Lady Orange took over the discussion.

“I guess it is time we introduced ourselves. We are Team Battle Bug and as you guessed correctly, we fight our own brand of invaders. Machines instead of weeds, but it seems our tasks have a lot in common.”

She pointed to the girl in red and black, whose most distinctive costume part was a red cape with black points that matched the pattern of a ladybug.

“For privacy reasons, we do not reveal the civilian names of our team members. But you may call her Ladybug. Obviously.”

Next, she pointed to Bat’leth girl.

“Mantis”

And to Miss Pink.

“Pink Orchid. Yes, there is an insect with that name. Finally, I am Longhorn.”

“Nice to meet you” I replied.

Longhorn stared into empty air for a moment, as if she was looking something up on her augs. Then she said “It seems this was our last job for today, there are no further objectives listed. That means we are expected back at HQ for debriefing. Would you like to come along to see more of our organization?”

Hmmm. The Battle Bugs seemed nice enough, but their bosses might be a bit more insistent on squeezing me for information. I still chose to agree, because I hoped to gain some information about this universe too.

“That would be nice. I’m a bit lost in your world and perhaps I can get some orientation on what to do next.”

Longhorn talked some more on her aug and soon a troop transport arrived. The soldiers dragged the Six out of the building, doused it with fuel and set it on fire. With that, they might have saved their world.

Next, a small bus appeared to collect the Bugs. Longhorn got me in as a guest, which seemed a bit unusual considering the reaction of the driver. But we took off without further delay. The girls relaxed visibly and began chatting about everyday stuff like the latest boy groups. As if fighting mad bots was a normal day job.

In the meantime, I tried to gain some intel with the help of Elya. Discussion subvocalized, of course.

“Elya, try to get on the local internet and obtain an overview about local politics and authorities. But be careful not to be detected, no high risk hacks at this time.” Seconds later:

Done. On top of that, I have perused the publicly available material about the robot invaders. And about the defenders. Of course without being detected by the locals. Their cybersecurity is barely on the level of what Humanity has at home.

The Battle Bugs belong to an organization called SHOCKS, a school and sort of military academy in one. The recruits are called Magical Girls, and they are given superhuman capabilities through alien technology supplied by the Advent, the local equivalent of the Protectors.

“Like Vanguard?”

Similar, but in part based on an implanted “mana organ” that powers their abilities. Technical details are hidden behind security measures beyond the capabilities of local technology. At your request, I have not pried too hard.

Publicly available data suggests that the mana system is highly advanced. At least in some aspects. For some things, you would need Class III or higher technology to duplicate the effects with implants. For others, it seems questionable to use implants at all.

We finally arrived at SHOCKS, and security did not want to let me in. A short aug-call from Longhorn solved that problem, but they still insisted on giving me an escort. Can’t let the stranger sneak around unsupervised.

As it was already pretty late, the Bugs were sent to their rooms and I too. Apparently the debriefing could wait until the morning. In a polite but rather insistent way, Security escorted me to a guest room, where they left me with strict instructions not to leave the floor unsupervised. Five minutes later a young woman arrived with some fresh clothes. “Take these, they are a gift from SHOCKS.”

“Thanks a lot!” I replied. My own clothes were dirty with blood and Antithesis sap, and I really could use a change. What I received were a set of underwear, socks, sweatpants and a T-shirt with the SHOCKS logo. Very casual and looking quite comfortable.

Time to discuss a few things with Elya. “Elya, what support from the Protectors can I still access?”

Unfortunately, we are completely cut off from hardware deliveries. Your Vanguard status remains, including the various ways of earning points. The robots take the place of Antithesis. You keep your daily allowance of ten points. You still have your catalogs.

Hypothetically, you could buy any kind of information I have, which is all of the eight million catalogs, the blueprints in those, many scientific and engineering textbooks and even some entertainment media.

“But I would need to find some local means of manufacturing, right?”

Exactly. I can point you to a possible roadmap for building the equipment, but you would still need to buy relevant catalogs and blueprints. It would be against the rules for me to do all the R&D for free. But once you have the respective blueprints, I can help you implement things.

The next morning, I was invited to breakfast with the Bugs. Over coffee and buns, I learned a lot about how Magical Girl powers and the operator system worked. Apparently, they gained strength and access to new equipment from fighting the invaders, like a RPG player would. Not too different from the Vanguard after all.

Afterwards we went to a joint debriefing. The fight between Team Battle Bug and the robots, also called Macks, was discussed quickly. That seemed to be routine business. The SHOCKS leadership was a lot more interested in my home universe and the Vanguard.

Actually one of their highest ranking members had come to interview me. A Magical Girl in a puffy blue-and-white dress introduced herself as B.S.O.D. and started asking questions.

“Welcome to SHOCKS, Miss McCallan. We do not have visitors from parallel universes often, so I hope you are willing to tell us about your home. Especially how you are handling your version of aggressive aliens kicking in your front door.”

“Of course. Afterwards, I hope you will be willing to answer some questions too.”

I spent the next fifteen minutes explaining Antithesis, the Protectors and Vanguard. B.S.O.D. seemed especially interested in the logistics system. She asked “Interesting. Could you describe how equipment is delivered to a Vanguard, please?”

“There is no operator in the sense Team Battle Bug has described the system to me. Instead we have a little aug implanted that allows us to access logistics. The purchased items are teleported to us, just like in the Magical Girl supply system.“

Little Aug?? Elya spluttered in my head.

“Shush you” I subvocalized back. “I just don’t want to give away how awesome you are!”

...better. Elya still sounded a bit grumpy though.

The questions continued. I answered most of them truthfully, but avoided revealing Elya’s full capabilities.

Eventually it was my turn. I would have asked for details about the MG system, but I doubted they would give me more than the public brochures Elya had already analyzed for me.

So I asked about accommodations for newly arrived refugees, job opportunities including at SHOCKS and immigration procedures instead. After all, I was mostly dumped back into the role of income-less school graduate. Minus Bachelor's degree, but also minus student debt. Unless the University of Victoria (Antithesis-land) learned how to send debt collectors to parallel universes.

B.S.O.D. replied “Normally I would refer you to the immigrant intake in Victoria City, but depending on your age there may be alternatives.”

“I am twenty-one, why?”

“I am sorry, but that means you are too old to consider as a Magical Girl recruit. The organ implants are only safe in a narrow age range, and twenty is considered a hard upper limit”.

Considering what the Bugs told me about operators having access to their eyes and ears, I was glad that I did not need to find excuses for declining that job. I still had to work through having Elya in my head, more people would be too much at the moment. It also sounded like a privacy nightmare. Elya was barely acceptable. An organization that could assign you to another operator on a whim? Nope.