Arriving in Neosaka

The Neosaka Arcology Complex had grown out of the ashes of Los Angeles. Advertised as a modern engineering marvel, the arcology was a truly self contained smart city capable of looking after the safety and security of tens of millions of people with room for expansion. “If the current projections are sound, we look forward to welcoming our one hundred millionth human resident within a decade.” Mayor Kimberly Soto had said at the three year anniversary of the megacity’s opening. James always found the sight of the manmade mountain of neosteel, ceramite, and rockcrete and how it filled the whole world with light to be awe inspiring. The five hundred story base straddling land and sea was only the foundation on which the seventeen great towers could ascend into the heavens. It made James think about how the old timers were always talking about how fast things were changing and how different life is now than it was before Judgement. It made James think that he was living in the best of times.

James and Cassie auto-valeted their car and taking their slaves by the leash, rode the gravipneumatic tube system to the central atrium on level 1273 Green of the South Southeast tower. James tried not to think about how a single glitch in the momentum exchangers or a hiccup in the inertial sump would cause him and his mom to be crushed into a fine paste by the enormous accelerations involved in the arco’s multidimensional rapid transport system. The nineteen year old boy wondered if he would notice anything going wrong before his body was turned to goo when the tube door opened onto a world of wonders.

The atrium was modeled after the shopping malls of the 20th century, just scaled up. James walked through a busy throughway crowded with people laughing, socializing, shopping, and just enjoying themselves among the affluence and material plenty the New World Authority had provided for its citizens.

Clothing outlets and jewelry stores still made up the majority of the retailers. Women and men moving from store to store trying on the newest fashions and styles. Despite the fact that nearly everyone had a clothing fabricator in their homes, those who could afford it would still pay exorbitant amounts of money for the latest trends. Increases in competition and advancements in technology resulted in the couturiers and design houses starting to incorporate things like hologram and hardlight projectors, countergrav motors, and other little tricks to make their designs stand out. James thought to himself that the way you tell who is really rich and who is faking based on who is carrying the bags. The only people who are carrying their own bags are the ones who cannot afford to hire a luggage drone with the wealthy people having their stuff carried with **** labor.

Those not interested in fashion found themselves attracted to the tech. The moton revolution had been a dream come true for gearheads around the world. Between neuro-engramatic coding, the plethora of new materials, breaking the energy bottleneck, and the whole new understanding of quantum transduction had meant that technology thought to be relegated to the pages of sci-fi was on display at the mall. From the body-parlors where people swap their flesh for machines to the pod dens where people can lose themselves virtual worlds, the mall had everything a transhumanist technofetishist could desire.

Where fashion and technology met, there was power armor. Elizabeth almost bumped into her James when he stopped to stare at the gleaming **** suits of ceramite and neosteel. Like a typical boy, her little brother was getting a hardon for ****. James had wanted one. But Cassie and Bill had been absolutely firm on their stance that if they were not going to have a gun in their house before, they were not going to have a suit with a dozen built in guns and missiles now. “When you are a big mechathlete with your own house and your own money, then you can buy all the terminator suits you want.” Cassie had told James. “Until then, focus on the armor you ride.”

James saw a crowd of people gathered around some new louge harness. To his mind, strapping a ultralight plasteel frame to your body and throttling down the street on all fours with your stomach less than a foot from the road was the opposite of riding a mech. James had tried it enough to know that he preferred the snug comfort of a mechhelm, but among the crowd of wheel-hands, James spotted Cory and Kendra Patton.

Kendra’s eyes made contact with James and a look of recognition and delight spread across her face. “Jimbo! OhMyGod!” Kendra said before rushing over to give her old friend a hug. “It has been forever! How are you? Hi Mrs. Chambers!”

James was speechless. Kendra had completely transformed since the last time the young man had seen his childhood friends. She had grown into a gorgeous woman. Her shimmering hair and luminescent jewelry only added to her beauty which was fully on display thanks to her uniform.

Cory, like James, was wearing his cadet uniform. Cory’s lapel sporting the pin of a velitite, rapid response skirmishers equipped with racer frames who louge into crisis situations. “Sup bot-jock?” Cory asked James.

“Sup speed-freak.” James responded before the two shared a back slapping bro hug. “Looks like we both got the assignments we wanted.”

“Amen to that.” Cory said before his eyes drifted from James to James’s sister.

Elizabeth watched Cory’s gaze as they moved from her little brother’s eyes to the leash in his hand, up the thin thread of ultrasilk to the psi-collar that fit snugly around the **** girl’s throat. Elizabeth felt goosebumps break out over her skin as she watched creepy Cory Patton licking his lips as he looked her mostly naked body up and down. “Since you I assume that you are not here for the premier of the Skyriser, what brings you brandclave dwellers up here to The Hive?”

James was too embarrassed to speak. Cassie filled the silence by informing the Patton twins that “I am taking our new mech-knight to The Candy Shop.” The middle aged milf said with a giggle and a smirk. James groaned in embarrassment.

“That is awesome.” Cory said. “Dude, your mom is the best.”

“Uuughhh. I am jealous.” Kendra said. “We have two slaves, a holstaur and a sheeple. Even with the price drop after The Auckland Campaign, dad will not get any more. He insists that we have all the monsters that we need. Uuughhghgh! Sorry. I bet you have like fifty slaves now.”

James laughed at that. “Y’all should come over and see our stable.” The young man said. “I am not sure about fifty, but we should have at least a dozen before the end of today. You are welcome to come over and give them a thorough inspection.”

Kendra’s face lit up. “Really?”

“Of course. It has been too long. I miss you guys.” James said.

“Should I ask Mary if she wants to come as well?”Cory asked. Kendra elbowed her brother who feigned pain and confusion. “What?”

“How is Mary? I have not heard anything since…” James had not even texted his first crush since the girl had gotten her fifteen minutes of fame. The whole world had watched the viral video of a garou and a megabear tearing her father apart while Mary cried out for her daddy. What do you say to someone after something like that happens?

“Mary lives here in Neosaka. 975 Red, North Tower. She is good. She is acting. Disnizon paid her waiver and I think she said something about having a part in a show about a princess who becomes a cop or something.” Kendra said, suddenly self-conscious that, despite her pins showing that she had qualified for medical training, she was wearing the uniform of a woman who had been conscripted into the socialator service. For what it was worth, James thought that the whore-corp’s uniform looked good on her. The crop-top cut showed off how firm and flat Kendra’s stomach was in contrast to her ample bosom. “She misses you too. We all do.” Kendra said.

“Then we will have to change that. Reunion party at my place.” James said.

“Woohoo.” Cory said before he gave Elizabeth’s ass an audible SLAP. The **** orc jumped in shock and winced at the pain, but knew better than to raise any objections.

***

As they parted ways with their former neighbors, Cassandra noticed that James seemed even more upbeat and cheery than usual. Cassandra grinned quietly and gave the leashed cat-girl a playful tug. Cassie’s good mood was soured when she heard a familiar shrill cry out.

“Cassie! Darling!” Katrina Bancroft said as she spotted her rival and fellow mech-mom.

“Kat! Good to see you!” Cassandra said in a passably pleasant tone. The milfs exchanged hugs and kisses as their children and slaves watched the two women pretend to like each other. “What are you doing here? Buying more garden gnomes?”

Katrina Bancroft laughed. “Oh darling, you are too funny. No, Malcolm and Miranda were at the armorers getting their suits upgraded, something about quantum gyro-gravity frames that let them drive up walls on their hands and feet. All I know is that my twins look so amazing in their matching power suits. You should see the photo spread Vogue did of them. We had them posing in front of their mechs in their suits, the big armor and the small armor all matching. Oh how they gushed. So I heard that James is a cadet now? Isn’t that fantastic. Maybe you will be put in Malcolm’s squad, he was just promoted to squad leader. Isn’t that right Malcolm?”

“Mom, it is just training squad leader.” Malcolm said. “I would be damned lucky to have The 36 Chambers on my side for once.” The sandy haired twenty year old gave James a look which said ‘our moms are crazy.’

“All I know is that drill sergeant Roth is not going to be happy if you try using those bullshit cheat moves in a real fight.” Miranda said, her tone dripping with anger. “You might have been able to get away with stunts in the arena, but if you try that stuff against me in the field where I am riding StormWasp, things will go very differently.”

James just gave the valkyrie in black and yellow power armor a small smile. “It is good to see you to, Mira. And I am sure you are right that if you had been allowed to use your own mech suit, your team would have won the tournament. but then you have to ask, who would the victory belong to, the pilots or the machines?”

“He has a point.” Malcolm said.

“Whose side are you on?” Miranda asked, hitting Malcolm’s arm for emphasis.

“I am on my stomach’s side, and my stomach wants to get some mershimi.” Malcolm said. His attention turned to James. “When does your first training cycle start?”

“In two weeks.” James said. “Out of High School and into The Agoge.”

“You should come over before then. We just finished putting some upgrades on the arena. I could give you a crash course in military mechjacking, show you a few tricks I learned on my first deployment and maybe you can teach me a few of your ‘cheat moves’.”

“Sounds like fun.” James said. If the Chambers were rich, then the Bancrofts were crazy rich. There had been no question about how Malcolm and Miranda were going to be spending their terms of service. A single military grade mech cost more than a naval destroyer, if people wanted to pay for their own, the NWA was happy to have them. Miranda never had to worry that some NWA bureaucrat would decide that, for the good of The Race, she needed to work as a government prostitute.

Money and privilege had paved a path of greatness for Miranda Bancroft, and the twenty year old girl could not help but see James as an obstacle to that greatness. She would show him who was the New World Authority’s number one Knight Ace. “Oh I am looking forward to this.” She said.

The three mech-knight cadets pounded fists and parted ways. Elizabeth felt James jerking extra hard on her leash as they approached undulating sounds emitting from The Candy Shop.