A Displaced Samurai

After First Emergence in December 2025,

the political campaigns before the 2026 elections for the House of Commons of Canada

was dominated by a strong disagreement about weapons laws. While the liberals wanted

to maintain the status quo, conservatives insisted on far-reaching liberalization to

“restore the right of the people to defend themselves” The topic dominated the elections,

which ended with a landslide victory for the conservatives.

- Excerpt from an article in The British Columbia Observer, 2034

Friday, October 4th, 2047

The immigrant help desk in Victoria had been surprisingly helpful. They had found a (very) small apartment for me and pointed me to a job board where some of their clients had successfully found employment. Not the most lucrative jobs, but something to supplement the emergency rations everyone was entitled to. I found a job as a bicycle courier, which brought in a bit of money and helped me to keep fit.

But what I really wanted was to regain access to Protector tech as soon as possible. I had already worked out a possible road map with Elya, but the cold, hard truth stared me in the face:

Total cost for catalogs and blueprints: 550 points.

And that was only for the first of several generations of fabrication equipment I would need. At the moment I had 416 points. That meant another fourteen days before I had the required catalogs, plus one specific blueprint. Unless I went fighting in an Emergence for more points. But so far I didn't even have a basic rifle, which I considered the bare bones minimum gear.

Elya had suggested some cheap but adequate tools from Ebay, so I could start building a small workshop in advance. I ended up with a decent quality plastic 3D printer, a small lathe the size of a shoe box and an equally small drill press. Plus an assortment of smaller tools. That had severely depleted my funds, so building my first prototype would have to wait until next month.

In parallel, I had applied for permanent residence status. The lady at the immigration office had been very sympathetic, but she had also cautioned me that the process might take several months. Of course, she did not know about Elya.

The same afternoon, a parcel delivery on my courier job took me to an apartment where the inhabitant had gone grocery shopping. His girlfriend was at home and said she was happy to take the shipment off me, but she insisted on checking the contents. So I waited while she opened the parcel. She took off the lid and went pale. I could not refrain from teasing her a bit.

“So, would you now like to sign for the two hand grenades?”

In the face of the Mack threat, a lot of weapons laws had been repealed, but some stuff like hand grenades was still illegal for private citizens. Unless you were a licensed weapons manufacturer with clearance for weapons of war.

A business I might have to get into. In the world I grew up in, the Samurai as a group were so powerful that nobody dared to fuck with them. Here I was alone and observing the law would be slightly more important.

Behind me, the new owner of the hand grenades came up the stairs with bags in his hands. Girlfriend, still pretty shaken, told him “You handle this delivery, I’m out of here!” She slapped the package into his hands and was gone down the stairs. Hand grenade guy had his hands too full with that and dropped half of his purchases.

I helped him to collect his fallen groceries. Including the hand grenades. That could have gone wrong. He introduced himself as Roger and he invited me to a coffee, “to help me come down from the shock.”

I found myself agreeing. What was it with me and charming gun nuts? Not that I had any right to complain. My encounter with real life Antithesis had left me with a taste for firepower as well. So I replied “Sure, I’d be happy to stay for a chat.”

The next day, I met Roger and his friends at his place. Early in the morning. Earlier than I normally liked to get up. It turned out that Roger was running a tiny, unofficial militia. Between the lines I read that his departure from the military had not been entirely voluntary.

I was joining them for a practice weekend. Also present were his friends Alan and Michael. Girlfriend, whose real name was Ellen, was missing today. Roger seemed unsure if she would be back. Two others were unable to come because of work.

We spent the morning maneuvering around in the bushes and ambushing each other with airsoft rifles. It looked silly, but was fun and I could see some value in the exercises. Even if much of it would be inapplicable in urban terrain. For lunch, we returned to Roger’s neighborhood for a barbecue.

The afternoon was practice at a shooting range not too far from Roger’s home. I rented an AR 15 knockoff from the range (which I could barely afford at this time) and got some practice with classical firearms for the first time.

Eventually, the discussion turned to Macks and how to best shoot them. Everybody seemed to agree that a decent handgun was enough against a Type One, but that you needed a powerful rifle with armor piercing ammunition against class two Macks like the Type Four.

Ralph, the range owner, brought a piece of Mack plate from his office. It was cratered and dented, but only one of six shots had gone through.

“See this? The bullets are NATO M993 in 7.62x51mm. The best armor piercing ammo we have in that caliber, but barely penetrates Type Four plate under favorable circumstances.”

I took another look at the plate. The one bullet that had fully pierced the plate had hit almost perpendicular. The others all hit at somewhat oblique angles.

Ralph saw my curious look and added “Oblique angle is bad. The projectile has to punch through more material that way, and sometimes it just bounces off.”

Thursday, October 18th, 2047

The magical day had arrived. Blueprint and catalog purchases!

“OK Elya, let's recap what we have planned for the first stage of Operation Fabber.”

First, you need to unlock teleportation technology in general. That catalog will cost 100 points.

Second, you have expressed a desire to study the field in some depth. For that I recommend a digital textbook from the Lorekeepers. They are among the oldest species among the protectors and have developed a great aptitude in conveying their knowledge to others. The textbook also contains software you might need to design your specific application. All of that engineering goodness can be yours for 100 points.

Third, your planned 3D printer teleports matter piecemeal and in tiny quantities to the object you are printing. That alone will not make them stick together, you would get a pile of dust. Class I Basic welding systems for 50 points will unlock technology that can help with that.

Finally, a key part for the welding process is implemented in a tool from that catalog, almost exactly as you need it. The blueprint will cost 300 points, but having it lets me extract the tech and apply it to your design.

“Show the whole stuff in table form, please.”

Item

Point cost

Description

Class I Basic teleportation systems

100

Catalog

Lorekeeper Tome of Teleportation Technology

100

Interactive digital textbook with integrated CAD software

Class I Basic welding systems

50

Catalog

Class I cold welding tool “Steel Sealer” (Blueprint)

300

Contains technology for teleportation-based sintering

Total cost

550

“Yes, let's do it”

Purchased: Everything in the table

Points reduced to… 6

Wednesday, October 24th, 2047

Your permanent residency has come through

“That was fast, but not as fast as some stories about Vanguard made me expect.”

I have fast-tracked it through the digital parts of the process. I deemed it wiser not to risk messing with the human review.

Also, as a permanent resident you are eligible for certain business development programs.

“Such as?”

With a promising business model, you can get a substantial loan to get started and premises for business use. Advanced technology would qualify, such as your 3D printer project. I can help you to bullshit your way through the application.

“Does that require a catalog?”

Basic bullshitting is considered Class 0 and available for free. There are catalogs for more sophisticated forms of trolling and gaslighting.

I was not sure if Elya was bullshitting me at that moment, but I was willing to go with the program. “OK, what are the steps to get such an application going?” I asked. We ended up having a planning session on how to abuse the system.

Monday, November 4th, 2047

My October paycheck for delivering parcels arrived. With that I could afford to buy the materials for my first prototype. The basis would be a used plastic 3D printer I chose for its robust frame. It did not have to look good, that would be the job of the production model. Which would be more cash cow than wonder fabricator, substantial advancement was planned for version two.

Thursday, November 7th, 2047

The bullshitting for the business development program had been successful. Suddenly I had more money than I could earn doing parcel deliveries in a year. And a small shelter under the old Colwood fire department that was unused since the city had consolidated the shelters into larger ones. I quit my courier job so I could focus on the printer project.

For the first time in over a month, I visited the gun range again with Roger’s mini militia. He greeted me with “Long time no see, Cait. Don’t you like us any more?”

“I was almost out of money. What little I had went into a business project, I could not afford ammo and renting a gun.”

“So you can afford stuff again? I heard Alan wants to upgrade and might be willing to sell his old one”, Roger replied. “The thing looks pretty banged up, so it might be cheap.”

Alan showed up soon after and agreed to sell his old AR 15 knockoff for a modest price. He even let me shoot a few rounds to prove it still worked fine. That evening, I returned home with a very used but still accurate rifle and a bunch of surplus M855 ammo. It might not be enough for a Four, but I should be able to kill the lesser fry with it.