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I tossed my bag onto one of my work tables and brushed a silver lock out of my hair. Had I done the right thing? Maybe I should’ve just kept hiding as Zuku… I shook my head. At least it hadn’t gone horribly. She could’ve arrested me on the spot.
”Want me to come pick you up?” I asked Luna and moved back over to my bag to pull out the Transporter. The drone was almost dead, though that was an easy enough fix. Electricity sparked off my fingers and channeled through the thing’s built-in converter.
“I-I’ll get a cab.” Luna’s voice sounded particularly weak. And ‘course she already knew where I lived. Netrunners were scary. “I-I appreciate the offer.”
”Don’t mention it.” I turned around and started to work on my second Roughrider. It was just about done. I got interrupted while getting the arc cannon hooked up to it. Now that I had the autopilot module from Luna, it was almost ready to go.
I disassembled the control panel for the vehicle and replaced it with one that had significantly less buttons and switches. It was best that everything was as simple as possible. I even added labels. I’d probably still have to write up a manual, though.
With the reworked controls, I also rebuilt the entire steering system. In the past, I had the controls really complex for what was basically a set height above ground level, or AGL. It was a bit limiting. If I wanted to sell this as a military or strike vehicle, those limits needed to be removed.
My reworks were quite complicated and a bit rough to figure out. Basically, now it had four modes. The first was still AGL. The next was terrestrial mode, which was basically a low over just over the ground. The third was autopilot with the choice of flyer lanes or street level. It’d only work when connected up to the Mapp since I dind't have my own database of every city in the world’s streets.
The fourth mode, though, was what took me the longest since I had to reconstruct the actual steering system. The other three were basically just adjustments to the on-board terminal. I was going to call my newest mode free flight. It imitated a plane, and allowed for rapid adjustments of altitude just by pressing and moving around the handlebars.
Free flight actually occurred to me back in East End when Mira had to dodge those missiles. Having to take your hand off the handlebars to flick switches just to adjust altitude was a hassle. This new mode would make the bike much stronger at evasion and far easier to control. Or that was the hope, at least.
Just after I finished my second Roughrider, I tossed the drone into the air and it started to open a portal to the Aether. Today was the day. I was finally going to move all my tech stuff down into my new bunker.
While I waited for the portal to open, I hopped up onto one of my tables and started to sketch out a design for a dog-like robot. It wasn’t anything too crazy, though instead of going for the Crusade’s design, I opted for a more fox-like one. A bit thinner, sharper ears, and a way fluffier tail… assuming I could find a way to make metal fluffy, ‘course.
By the time the portal opened, I finished a rough draft of the basic layout… it wasn’t exactly a good design though. I tossed the sketchpad onto a table and sighed. I had a feeling this was something I’d have to workshop quite a bit to get it where I wanted it.
I pulled out my antigrav pucks and moved around to my machinery. The printers were first. They were much more delicate. I scattered the pucks to the four corners of the machine and turned them on. The thing weakly trembled for a moment, and then the micro ionic thrusters churned to life inside the pucks. The printer floated up into a low hover just over the ground.
”Hey, Saint.” I pushed the printer through the portal, retrieved the pucks, and moved onto the next thing I needed to move.
”Yo. What’s up, Shiro?” Saint replied rather quickly this time around.
I shoved a table full of scrap components through the portal. ”Think you could help me out? I need a contract written. If you’re not busy, ‘course.”
“All good, chum. I’m just editing an article at the moment.” He sighed and let out a yawn. “I know a guy. He owes me a favor.”
”Nova.” I briefly got into the layout of the contract as I continued to move stuff out. It was for the experimental tech of CMS… which was probably going to be all of the tech now that I thought about it. “How much do I owe you?”
“Nah, don’t worry about it,” he said nonchalantly. “I never got around to sending you guys the rayn from my stream when you dove into East End.”
“Thanks, then. I’m in a bit of a rush with it. Think you can get it to me by the end of the week?” I wanted to start getting some Roughriders out and into the city. I also needed a boost of rayn to start working on some other things.
“End of the week? How about tomorrow? That guy lives, eats, and drinks work. I’ll get you a couple different kinds too. Are you getting into the chrome field?”
“Would I need a separate contract for that?” For now, Roughriders were going to be my main product. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to expand out, though.
“‘Course you will. Chrome is treated way differently than vehicles. Especially kinds not tested by official sources. There isn’t a good way of getting around the liability.” He paused for a moment. “Why do you think most Savants labs deal with chrome?”
I hadn't put much thought into Savants and why they existed, to be honest. “Um, no, then. I can just get one later.”
“How are the others?” Saint asked a few minutes later just as I was finishing up.
I shoved the last thing through the portal and looked around the cleared out back room. It felt incredibly weird to see the place blank. ”Uh—Mira’s just about to become a full time Troubleshooter under the mayor's new act… Luna’s at Medtech.”
“You guys made the transfer okay?”
“Chek. Iris is settled. What about you? Still working that nomad angle?” I deactivated my drone and charged it up once more. I’d have to sweep in here, but for now I was done.
With the back rooms of my speakeasy cleaned out, it almost looked like it was ready to open. I needed to add some tables and stuff for the private booths, but that wouldn’t be too much of an issue—Ah! Right. I also needed to get some actual alcohol and product… and a bartender I could trust to handle the place. No idea where I’d find one of those.
Hummingbird sold all sorts of seeds, chek? Maybe I could find some kind of mutant plant that bled alcohol? Wouldn’t that be interesting… or some kind of hyper productive mutant that I could use for fresh food? An apple tree would be kinda cool. Hummingbird probably didn’t have anything like that, though. It was too niche.
“Just finished, actually. As I suspected, several Savant labs were using the Hawks to acquire illicit goods.” Saint’s voice spurred me from my thoughts. “Following an uptick in disappearances, I believe there’s something a bit deeper going on. I haven’t found out what's caused it yet, though.”
”There was an uptick with Mother, though, right? Are you counting that as your uptick?” I moved to the back and snapped my ascender to the line. Getting up and down was still a bit slow. I definitely needed my auto miners to come make this a smooth tunnel all the way down so I could just jump with my Drop Chutes.
“I thought so too. I scrubbed through the names, though, and there are still roughly twenty-five percent of victims that weren’t accounted for. That’s too big a number to just hand wave.” Saint sighed.
”Not if you’re a politician.” He had a stronger will than I did to look through the names of all the Circle’s victims. After seeing the rituals first hand, I tried to distance myself as much as possible.
I dropped down onto the ledge just outside my new underground base and detached the line. It was finally done. My autominers all sat around idly on their charging ports without further instructions.
My Transporter dropped off my bag and started to open the way back into the Aether. Honestly, the base ended up being way nicer than I thought it’d be. Sure, I needed to rig some lights and stuff up, but I could see this becoming the secret subterranean base I’d been dreaming of.
There were still modifications I wanted to make to the place. I totally forgot to add a grinder room, and I didn’t want to make the main chamber a mess of metal dust. A separate vault for explosive compounds would also probably be smart. I’d need to get some servers set up too if I wanted to start a private robotics lab.
For all of that, though, I needed to go buy a new deck to interface with my autominers. I also wanted to rework the bots themselves and add a couple hover units to get vertical modifications easier. Maybe even—
“Saint?” Something occurred to me, completely derailing my train of thought. “Do you remember Red Veil?”
”Red—oh… you don’t think…” He trailed off as his mind likewise drifted back to that group. They were the outfitted human trafficking ring I attacked to try and find Mira.
”They were a step above normal gangs. They didn’t have the territory or size to justify their strength, either.” They weren’t like the Jade Fang or Viento Cartel who’d been around for decades. Red Veil just popped up out of the blue. “Could be someone behind them.”
”Probably a politician.” Saint’s voice bounced around the back of my head. “Good thinking. I’ll look into it.”
”Glad I could help.” My portal finished behind me. “If there’s anything you need, just let me know.”
”I will.”
The Packheart Ring fell silent as I stepped into the Aether. My bunker was stuffed to the brim with stuff. Should I try to expand it? It shouldn’t be that hard. If I ran into an issue, I could always ask Fox or one of the other eidolons for a bit of help.
I started to move most of my stuff through the portal. I started with my printers and parts for the Roughriders and worked my way through everything else. Just as I grabbed the last things I’d need—
Rrrap… t’k… t’k…
A soft knocking sound came from the door of the bunker. I froze just before I could grab my couch and glanced toward the door. Was it an eidolon messing with me? No—they hadn’t come here in the flesh. I tried to pull up the interface. Instead, I got that familiar static like I was under anti-scrying magic.
Rrrap… t’k… t’k…
The sound came once more, though significantly louder. This time It sounded like a knock followed by metal knuckles dragging against the door. Should I… should I call out? Ask who’s there?
A shiver went down my spine. Something told me that would be a bad idea. It might not know I’m in here. It could just be trying to get a reaction. There were all sorts of monsters in the Aether. I’d been privileged enough to not run across them—at least until this moment. Whatever it was had crossed the empty expanse of the Aether to come here.
I swallowed dryly and silently moved back to my portal. I could return another day for the rest of my stuff. Just as I stepped through the portal, a scratching noise came from the door. I shut the drone off, and the portal vanished.
”Haah.” I let out a breath and leaned against my printer. At least I got the important stuff out—
[R3QU35T - 0P3N TH3 D00R - R3C!3V3D
???
-??RAPP?
-?T’KK??
-???T’K?
-?——?-00]
A shiver went down my spine. “Voyeaurs? U-um… d-did any of you see that?”
[You have a message]
[Recieve? Cost: 25EF]
They could do that? Why was it so pricey? No—the price might be why they didn’t usually send me messages outside the Aether. It was 25EF… Fuck it. What if they said something important? “Accept.”
[The anti-scrying field is gone. You can come back to your shelter.]
That’s… it? 25EF for that? Why…
If it’s all the same to you guys, I think I’ll stay out here where I belong. At least, for the next while. I had stuff to do anyway. I scrubbed at the goosebumps on my arm and turned back to my Roughrider parts. I had everything I needed to finish making several more, so it was really about time I got on that. I needed at least four more done.
Just as I was about to get started, I got a text from Hope.
Inquisitor Depression: The strike’s been set. Meet me early at the HQ tomorrow.