The Western Front

2028 January 14
Test Year 1, Day 237
Tau, Caltech

While Chao had many fewer supporters at Caltech, and most of them were far less ardent than the infantry that now held MIT, the events in Massachusetts had not been without consequence in California. Four people had tried to attack Will and Thye as they spoke between practicing swordplay and hand-to-hand in the Dabney Hall garden. Attacking one of the instructors and an unskilled but well-respected pupil in a yard full of practicing ninjas was certainly a move of desperation, and now there would be another joint Star Chamber session.

The less violent followers of the Failure credo either kept quiet or ran away. A total of thirty-three people had fled campus during the night. Nine vehicles had been stolen or maybe just borrowed, a bunch of the fuel reserve had been taken and more had been burned to occupy the ninjas as the former sympathizers of Chao had fled. Medical supplies and food and guns had been rifled. After the fire in the parking structure was put out, Dorman, Townsend, and Will held council.

They argued for a long time, until they decided what the ninjas should do. “Find them. Do not harm them, but bring them back. Some of them aren’t to blame for this: they listened to what they thought was a good philosophy, and would not have sanctioned Chao’s violence. Most of the others will probably feel differently about primitivism when they’ve been alone in the wilderness for a few weeks. They will realize that we weren’t abandoned by the Examiners and that we care about them.” The order went out. But the exiles had fled as though they feared the wrath of heaven and it would take a long time for the ninjas to find them and bring them back.