"Not going to lie, of all the executive types you see, its people like him that scare me the most. Those so coldly confident in themselves they seem fucking invincible. After all, if they've gotten up the ladder with that attitude they usually have the competence to back it up.But rest assured when they do make a mistake? Its usually cataclysmic."

  — Post meeting chatter between two mid level Nimbletainment managers.

  Quinn was back in the simulation, rolling her shoulders as the Iron Swan dropped her off behind the wall. The suited executives that had been looming over the proceedings earlier were conspiciously missing, but there were still PMC on the walls. It only took a few moments for Captain Mercier to come waddling over.

  "You're uh, back. I'm guessing based on the giant explosion you managed to clear the hive?"

  That had been visible all the way over here? Damn.

  "Yes." Quinn replied tersely. "The hive has been destroyed."

  "Oh, good! I can tell the clients the threat has been dealt with, then maybe we can go home and get some rest."

  "Speaking of, where are the clients we saw earlier?"

  The captain shuffled awkwardly in place. "I think they retired to their offices in the city proper to await the all clear."

  Quinn narrowed her eyes. "And what about the lower level employees."

  "Uh, I think they are still in shelters."

  She let out a sigh, deliberately broadcasting it out loud.

  "I see. Can you ask them to meet me here? I wish to have a chat with them."

  The Captain was starting to sweat at this point. "They don't really like me messaging them except on important updates or in reply."

  There was a thunk as Cassie took a small step forward, not a huge one, but enough to make a loud enough noise to remind the Captain that he was talking to a 20 foot tall mech.

  "I.. I'll do so. Give me a minute."

  A minute or so later Irys gave a "Hmm" in her ear.

  "Quinn, darling. You may be interested to know that the shelters have all been unlocked. Furthermore, a broadcast has gone out informing all employees they are to immediately return to work to make up for lost time."

  Quinn gripped the armrests of her seat. "Haven't they been in those shelters for like a day?"

  "Closer to 32 hours at this point"

  The final straw came a few moments later when the Captain spoke up shakily. "They uh, informed me you could make an appointment with their front desk if you so wished, but otherwise they have no further business with you."

  Quinn snapped. She was tired, she was stressed, and for some fucking reason in the year of our lord twenty fifty fucking 6 a set of corporate executives had decided being rude to a samurai was in any way a good idea.

  "Irys, is that warehouse like building over there empty of people? Also who the fuck even are these guys?"

  "I am detecting no humans within that warehouse. The clients mentioned seem to be the corporations who own and operate Prosperity - Greyrock, Bazinga Technologies and Lockherd Michelle."

  "Cool, thanks. Do let me know if anyone gets within collateral range."

  Quinn turned around and walked up to the warehouse, shoving the door open and peering in to find large, unusually high tech looking containers stacked in rows. She took a step back, drew her sword, and stabbed it into the wall of the building. Holding the blade part way down she began to push, dragging the blade shrieking through the steel walls. She yelled back to the Captain over the noise.

  "Let them know I'll keep going till they talk to me."

  It was tough work, but she slowly pushed her blade through the building towards the corner, noting that the roof was already starting to sag a little. The noise was an unholy cacophony, she was going to need to check up on her sword after this - it was clearly not designed for being roughly shoved through a fucking building. She watched as the soldiers nearby on the wall turn round and stared at what she was doing, while those closer went running clutching at their ears.

  She'd gotten about half way through the second wall, part of the roof in that corner having collapsed at this point, when Irys kindly informed her the Prosperity Management Group were on the line. She let go of her sword, leaving it in the wall for the meanwhile, and clicked the call icon that had popped up.

  The visage of a joyless, late middle aged woman, pearl skinned and greying blonde hair, appeared in the call window. A pair of suited executive looking men loitered in the background.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  "Samurai… Mecha Suit Maiden. You wanted to speak with us, and clearly decided patience was not in the cards. So, you have our attention."

  "Good." Quinn glowered at the woman. "Why were your workers not evacuated yesterday, before the antithesis outside the walls became a problem?"

  "Because that would be costly and time consuming, but I repeat myself. This incursion has already cost us significantly, and will harm the economy for years to come. We saw no need to further compound that."

  Quinn's eyes narrowed. "So instead you chose to just wait and hope a Samurai came to deal with your problem for you, while you fucked off back downtown where it was safe?"

  The woman's tone didn't change, but her brows furrowed. Behind her, one of the men shrunk in on himself, while the other crossed his arms and scowled.

  "Yes, and given the result it all worked out fine in the end. People are safe, you earned points, we can get back to work quickly."

  "And you're not even giving them a rest after being stuck in shelters for over a day?"

  "I think you'll find they did nothing but rest in the shelters."

  "That's not the same thing."

  The woman sighed. "Do you have a point, miss Maiden, or did you key one of our warehouses just to try to shame us for a perfectly reasonable set of actions."

  Quinn gripped the armrest hard enough to ache. "No, I wanted to make it clear this isn't to happen again. If there's an incursion you evacuate people when you can, and you're giving them the afternoon off now."

  The woman wrinkled up her nose as if in disgust. "And what if we don't? What are you going to do, Miss Takimura, inflict some more minor property damage and then lecture us on call again?"

  Quinn practically snarled. "Or I can cause some real damage. And how the fuck do you know my name."

  The executive looked down briefly, then lifted a data pad with Quinn's face on screen up to the camera. "We know a lot of things about you, Quinn Takimura. We like to know who our Samurai are around here. Based on your history my bet is you wouldn't do anything of the sort. Now, if this nonsense is quite over, let us return to our business and you can go back to yours. Thank you for clearing the hive."

  Something in Quinn's mind snapped. All her life, she'd been dealing with shit people fucking her and others like her around. First her parents, then school, then Amazon and now this. But she had power now, it was time to show these fuckers that their money and status meant nothing.

  "Irys, what's the most expensive building nearby."

  "That building north north west of you is a weapons lab, it contains a large amount of valuable testing equipment, prototype parts and data on secure servers."

  "Great, anyone in there or in its shelter?"

  "No, the engineers were evacuated downtown yesterday, and the few menial staff were forced into other shelters."

  "Great, do I have anything in my catalogs that would utterly destroy that building without much collateral damage?"

  The woman on the call was beginning to look slightly less smug.

  "Yes, I could recommend a magnetic pulse bomb. It will destroy the majority of the building while also ruining any electronics, including data, beyond repair."

  "Neat, get me one of those, please."

  New Purchase: "Yoink" Magnetic Implosion Bomb

  Cost: 10. Points reduced to... 4347

  A pill shaped device, about the size of a pillow, dropped into Cassie's hand. Quinn sauntered over to where Irys had highlighted a nicer looking building. It was clean lines and unchipped paint, but there didn't appear to be any windows .

  "What are you doing?" The woman on the call asked, trying to sound commanding but starting to sound nervous.

  Quinn ignored her, responding to Irys instead. "Where does this go?"

  "You'd want to get it somewhere in the middle of the building, if you walk around to the right you might find it easier."

  She did so, and found herself looking through reinforced windows into a spacious lab area, dozens of workbenches, machines and a few clear meeting areas. She tossed the bomb at the windows, only to have it bounce off with a thunk and clatter to the ground.

  "The windows are reinforced, darling. I would recommend using more force."

  One of the male executives, the one who had been acting tougher, at this point ran forward to take up most of the screen. "Listen we get it, stop and we'll give the employees a day off. No, a week off."

  "Shut up you moron." The woman snapped back. "She's not going to do anything, don't give her what she wants."

  Quinn picked the bomb back up, briefly checking it over to confirm it hadn't been damaged. Unsuprised to find the protector made device was fine, she reared back and punched the window with her free hand, and with a crash the glass caved in. She walked on over, threaded the arm with the bomb into the building, and tossed it towards the middle underhand.

  "Okay, that's enough."

  Quinn took a few steps back.

  "Shall I arm the detonator?"

  Quinn nodded, and a big red button lifted up next to her. She pressed it.

  There was a brief pause, and then a scream of metal as the building collapsed in on itself. The whole thing crumbled like a tin can being crushed in the fish of a giant, leaving a vaguely dome like hunk of twisted metal where the building once stood.

  She turned back to the call, where the woman was staring in horrified shock.

  "You don't know shit about me." Quinn spat, rage in her voice. "Next time, I'll make it your fucking house. Whether or not you're in it at the time will depend on how much you've pissed me off."

  She ended the call, stalking back towards the wall. The Iron Swan, which had been hovering overhead, dipped down to pick her up.

  "So uh, what was that about?" Elliot asked with some trepidation over their call.

  Quinn snorted derisively. "They treated me and their employees like fucking inanimate tools, so I made sure it was clear I wasn't going to stand for that."

  "I uh… see. There wasn't anyone in there, right?" There was a real edge of worry in his voice.

  "No, I checked with Irys beforehand. I'm not going to murder random people just to make a point to some corps."

  Elliot let out an audible breath. "That's good. Hopefully none of the employees had anything valuable in there. I don't think they are getting anything out."

  Having extracted herself from Cassie, she meandered back into the cockpit, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. She slumped in the open chair, then glanced back at the jagged wreck of fused metal that was the remains of the lab. "Shit, did I go too far?"

  He just shrugged in return. "Maybe? Probably. But you didn't do anything you can't take back. Not really."

  Maia stood up and shuffled over to her, before leaning over and giving Quinn a hug. "Hey, why don't you take the bean bag for a spin, its very comfy."

  Quinn nodded, then forced herself back up briefly before lurching over and collapsing into the gel bag. It was very similar to the one in Cassie, and she quickly found herself sinking into its gooey embrace.

  "Time to go home?" Hayden asked, still lounging in his chair.

  "I think so. Do you want us to drop you off somewhere specific, Hayden?" Elliot replied, hands back at the controls.

  "Uh, I'll send you my address."