Chapter 366
”Does this thing have some kind of mic?” Hope smacked the console with her fist. I quickly pulled my fried deck off of it. It was fried, but I might still be able to salvage something from it.
At least I didn’t keep anything too important on it. Most of the stuff was just part blueprints for my printers, which would be pretty useless without the full schematic. I didn’t keep full schematics of my stuff wasn’t anywhere except my head.
>That was loud. I’d appreciate it if you—
“Loud, huh?” Hope smacked the console harder and harder, creating what was probably a horrible feedback loop.
>Muted. I guess you didn’t want me to tell you who your traitor was after all.
Hope abruptly stopped beating the console. “What do you want?”
>Nothing, nothing… Let's just say your traitor is a thorn in my side too. Before that, though, a sign of sincerity.
The screen blanked out and files pulled up one after another. News articles of fires, articles about Crusade investigations, and about Lavender himself dating back a really long time. They flashed and passed quickly.
It wasn’t until the later images started to come around that I actually started to pay attention. Payment logs for quite a bit of rayn sprung up, and photographs of a familiar crate of armor flashed past. Then, as if to ensure we actually saw them, a close up picture of the lost Crusade armor in a particular replaced the first image. A port on the console lit up.
>There’s a drive with what you want. Names, dates—the works.
“The Crusade doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.” Hope glanced at me and subtly nodded to Garrick. He wouldn’t just be handing something over like this for free. Not to mention Garrick might very well get burned along with the names.
”Got it,” I whispered to her and casually repositioned myself between the Knight and the drive. I didn’t think he was in on it by this point, but it never hurt to be safe.
>Don’t call your future accomplice a terrorist. That's not very kind.
”Shiro, can you stall?” Luna asked. “I-I’m getting in through a back door I put in there while I was working. H-he might notice me.”
I motioned to Hope and whispered to her, “stall.”
“Accomplice my ass…” Hope crossed her arms and glared at the blinking chat window. “Fuck. Fine! What do you want?”
>Now we’re talking… how about we start with a full pardon?
“Not happening.” Hope snorted and shot down his first request without any hesitation. “Try something more realistic.”
”I’m back in.” Luna’s symbol flashed in the lower part of my HUD, and a bunch of documents sprung up. Schematics and pictures of different kinds of bots popped up alongside the blueprint of the place. I memorized each of them—and their weaknesses.
>Fine. I’ll fork over my accomplice for 50 million rayn.
Hope cocked her head to the side. “It’s not impossible. I’d need the Commander’s approval, though. Anything else in case that falls through?”
>Hmm… how about—why you—!
The screen glitched out, and a map of the complex sprung up onto it. A big red ping marked a server bank kept in the lower levels of the place. “I-I got it! He’s right there.”
”I thought you said you couldn’t track him?” I crossed my arms and then spoke up so the others could hear me. “He’s still here.”
“Nova.” Hope let out a breath and snatched the drive from the console. “Remember, we need him alive. If that’s not an option, though, don’t hesitate to put this bastard down. Got that, Garrick?”
”Taking people alive isn’t usually my forte.” The large knight shrugged. “Taking out the trash is more my speed. Scavs, gangs—that kind of thing.”
“Just don’t fuck this one up.” Hope looked back toward the door into the command center. “You have any more of those flying explosives, Zuku?”
“No… they were super expensive, too.” I frowned. I had a bunch of them back at the workshop, but their batteries definitely wouldn’t last long enough to fly all the way here.
”I’ll get you reimbursed… where’d they come from?” Hope asked.
”Uh—a friend makes them.” I spoke to much.
”Same friend that made your bike?” Hope backed away. “It doesn’t matter. Just send me the bill.”
”Chek.” I could totally con this. They costed 10–no, 150 each. That should be 7,500 rayn. It was enough to make my eyes water a year ago, but now it was barely chump change… how time had flown.
“S-Shiro. A jammer just went up. I’m blind.” Luna called out to me. I paused for a moment to listen. “He totally locked me out before I could pull anything. I might be able to pull out the files he shower. J-just… only if you can get my pyramid anywhere on the system where he’s accessing from.”
“I’ll try.” Assuming we could even get down to him before he bailed. If he was still here, then the negotiation might’ve been an attempt to stall us just as much as we were trying to stall him. Him claiming to be long gone was already a massive bluff. “What about the jammer, though?”
I had my ways of dealing with it if she couldn’t. I could stab the Jade Dagger anywhere into it, and it’d paralyze the whole system to keep him from deleting stuff. The only reason I didn’t stab the console outright was because it might have a physical gap between here and there. Not to mention I wasn’t sure how long the effect would last on a facility this size.
“I-it won’t matter. My tech… it w-works off something else.” Luna sighed like she said too much. It seemed we were both in that particular boat.
“I’ll try.” I needed to access my Aether bunker anyway. I eyed the blueprints of the bots. I had no faith in our capability to get down through the basement of this place without some heavier guns. Some of these models had acid tanks built into them. Hitting it with a sword would make it spray everywhere. Poor CJ could attest to how powerful this stuff was.
“What a rabbit hole.” I sighed. “So much for simple armor recovery.”
“Welcome to the Crusade?” Hope chuckled like it was another day in the life. “Let’s keep—“
“Can I have a minute? Or ten.” I tapped my bag idly. We were in a rush, but getting myself killed because we were trying to move quick didn’t sound very appetizing to me.
“Uh, yeah.” Hope drew her knives and nodded to Garrick. “Let’s scout the way down.”
Garrick’s silver mask stared at me for a lingering moment. “Right. Be careful, Squire.”
“Careful’s my middle name.” Alongside half the dictionary. I moved over to the console and disabled the microphone as they walked off. “Luna, did you see any cams?”
“I-I only had a moment, but no.” At least I didn’t have to worry about being watched. The less people that knew about my Transporter, the better.
“Nova.” I waited for Garrick and Hope to head down the stairs and then pulled out my drone. I held it close so it’d be in range of my Blinder just in case, and then turned it on. It was a boring ten minute wait. As soon as the rift was open, I stepped through.
A minute later, I appeared back in the bunker with a complete change of kit. The AR Hope gave me was safely stored away and replaced with something I actually had ammo for. Sentinel’s SK-74, a time-honored and much more reliable rifle. Loaded with Blaze rounds, ‘course.
I grabbed a ton of extra grenades for the coil-pistol while I was at it, as well as ammo for my sentry guns. I would’ve liked something with a bit more punch or a shotgun, but I hadn’t invested nearly enough in weapons. After this was over, I needed to sit down and fix that. For that matter, after this was over I had a lot I had to do.
“Can you do anything about the bots?” I stretched out and checked my rifle. It was locked and ready to go.
“Not from this far. I-I don’t have a pod, or any equipment to close the gap anymore.” Luna sighed. “Once you set the pyramid up, though, I-I might be able to shut them off.”
“Oh. Right.” I dipped back into the portal and grabbed her piece of tech. A touch of Technical Expertise went through it—and I still had absolutely zero idea how it worked. I gathered up my drone and shut off the portal.
I moved for the stairs down and met the duo of Crusaders camped out in front of a door. Hope looked up and eyed my rifle, though didn’t say anything. I could see the curiosity burning at her, though. “Ready?”
”Chek.”
Garrick nodded and then kicked open the door. A wash of fog billowed into the stairwell, displacing the clean air. It was dense down here—to the point I couldn’t see much beyond right in front of me. Not to mention my skin tingled unpleasantly where it was exposed.
Garrick scratched at his neck. “Let’s just do this quickly. The sooner we get out of here, the better. Stick close behind me.”
”Right behind you.” Hope moved a step closer to me and held her daggers at the ready. Her light flashed against the amber glowing fog, and failed to penetrate.
We were barely a few steps in before Garrick paused at the front. “Does anyone know where we’re going?”
I thought back through the schematics Luna showed us. “That way. There server room’s built below the distribution wing.”
”Seems like a weird spot,” Hope muttered.
”It looked like some kind of water cooling system.” I shrugged. “Runs off of pumps from the reservoir.”
”Still, I—look out!” Hope pounced forward and body slammed a bot just as it appeared. It was the same kind as the others, but its frame had rusted slightly and its metal sagged weirdly from chemical burns. A Grinwater IndustryFriend according to the blueprints Luna showed off.
It launched into the fog—and combusted into flames as I sent a burst of fire into its half-dome head. The rifle’s rounds were much stronger than what I was using earlier. Boosted with crystallized fire, they easily punched through and directly melted the bot’s central processing unit.
“Damn. Since when did they make Dragon’s Breath rounds for rifles?” Garrick lowered his sword and glanced back toward me.
”Custom order.” I shrugged. “It helps to have connections.”
”I can see that,” Hope muttered and swept the fog with her flashlight once more. “Good idea to swap.”
”Yeah, well… let’s keep moving.” I brushed over the subtle probe. Now really wasn’t the time to expose all of my secrets. Especially not the Aether Bunker.
We walked through the fog between vast machines, vats, and chemical production chambers still working away despite the chaos. The first IndustryFriend seemed like more of a test than anything. No other bots approached through the fog. It was just us and the deeply unsettling feeling of eyes beyond what we could see.
That was until we arrived in front of a storage section full of chemicals. They glowed slightly, and made the fog bleed through with multi-colored light. Garrick touched one of the vats. “You guys know of any chemical that glows like this?”
“Only stuff that’s in the middle of a reaction.” I wiped off a label and read it. The stuff had apparently been sitting here for five years.
”Something Aetherial?"
”I don’t think so.” I’d been checking almost nonstop since we came here, but nothing stood out as from the Aether under my eyes. Hope’s light flashed across dozens of more vats, and we continued walking down the path.
The next attack came with Insight burning a trail across my body. “Dodge!”
We scattered just as a jet of high-pressured fluid streamed through the air and slammed into the ground. It sizzled and melted into the concrete, disappearing below the floor.
A dozen IndustryFriends charged out of the fog or dropped from above. They created a dense wall that blocked the way forward and backward. Or, at least, they attempted to. Hope charged forward and sliced three of them to pieces with practiced ease, and Garrick wasn’t far behind her.
Time slowed to a crawl as I lifted my rifle and inspected my surroundings. I fired into the crowd of IFs with sharp bursts that penetrated armor and left smoldering wrecks in their wake.
Sensing that the battle wasn’t going its way, a much larger bot stepped out of the fog. Or, more accurately, it rolled out of the fog. It was a type of machine that had treads instead of legs, and supported a much more robust upper body. Its arms and hands were outstretched with a glowing pipe running to a tank on the bot’s back. A Grinwater Purifier, usually responsible for cleaning. Its typical cleaning solution had been replaced with something much stronger. Grinwater’s logo of a grinning water drop was painted on its face, but it was half melted and the teeth looked serrated.
Another jet shot out at Garrick. The Knight smoothly slashed forward to meet the fluid. It split around his sword, scattering around him in a perfect wave that barely missed his arms. Where the acid met his blade, it sizzled slightly though it didn't do much damage.
“Watch my back!” Garrick slid forward, and I sprayed all around him to outline his body. Sparks erupted, and kept bots back just long enough for Hope to clean them up.
Click! Click! Click!
I dropped my rifle into its sling and quickly pulled my coil-pistol. It hissed as the coils sparked to life, and a grenade shot out into the air. It slammed into the Purifier with an electric explosion that traveled much further through the fog than it did on the layer above.
”Nice shot!” Garrick slashed forward, claiming the bot’s head with an easy cut and avoiding the tanks of acid.
”The processor is in its torso!” My coil pistol snapped open with a click, and I shoved another cylindrical grenade into the coils. “Just left of the heart!”
Hope slammed into Garrick and knocked him to the side just as a blast of acid hissed through the air. It barely missed both of them. They moved in perfect sync, with Hope moving around to the back while the Knight took off one of its treads. She stabbed forward a dozen times in quick succession, ending the bot before it could do much more damage.
The rest of the IndustryFriends were a breeze to clean up without the ranged support of the Purifier threatening us. The Knight got the last one and flicked his blade, scattering oil off the sharply vibrating edge. “That wasn’t so bad—“
“Shut the hell up!” Hope tried, but it was already far too late. Silence filled the air for a lingering moment like the entire chemical facility was holding its breath.
Something clattered to the ground just out of our sight. From beyond the fog, several jets of acid flew at us and slammed into the machinery all over the place.
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AN: Sorry, the next couple chapters are probably going to be a bit late. After some feedback, I decided to rewrite the version to something a little different that’ll hopefully flow better.