"How's the chip reading going, T-BUG?"
Karl stood next to the couch, holding the last glass of orange juice they'd grabbed from the AV. He leaned over slightly to glance at the screen in front of T-BUG, where strings of data stread rapidly.
Among the team, only Karl and T-BUG had any real grasp of hacking, and even then, Karl's expertise was laser-focused on combat intrusion. Cracking secure chips? Not really his thing—and definitely not sothing he wanted to waste ti on. So naturally, the mont they got back, he handed the mystery chip over to T-BUG.
Not that she minded much. Though to her surprise, this one put up a real fight. It took her nearly ten minutes of aggressive decoding to finally get a foothold. As Karl approached and asked, she replied without looking up:
"Harder than I expected. Whatever's inside this thing, they really didn't want anyone to see it. The ICE isn't just complex—it's designed to destroy the contents entirely if anyone tries to breach it. You get it? This isn't just protection—it's a digital self-destruct."
"I get it," Karl nodded. "So… how much longer?"
"Five."
"Minutes?"
"Four."
"…Right."
Karl got the ssage—she was basically done and just showing off a little.
"Bit flashy for soone who already knows she's the best netrunner in the biz."
"And if I didn't say anything, you lazy bastard, you'd never appreciate how much work this took."
She shot him a half-hearted glare. Everyone in the team—except maybe the newcor, V—already knew Karl's M.O. If it wasn't critical, he wouldn't lift a finger. And when it ca to work like this? Straight to T-BUG.
"Well, anyway. V, Jack, Oliver—get over here. T-BUG cracked it."
Jack wandered over mid-bite with a slice of pizza. "You an the one you picked up just for fun, then imdiately dumped on her?"
Not long after, Oliver and V joined, still munching on snacks, peering at the rapidly shifting data.
"T-BUG, can you project sothing a little less… coded?" Karl asked, seeing the confusion on their faces.
She nodded and switched the output to visual mode. Diagrams and text now floated in mid-air in front of them.
"Looks like weapon schematics?" Jack said, focusing on an image of a katana. "Didn't the chip co from a Japanese corp? This so kind of product promo?"
"I think it's way more serious than that," V said, narrowing his eyes. He recognized the formatting imdiately.
"These look like actual fabrication templates—for weapons."
"Templates? Damn," Oliver whistled. "If this really is from KENDACHI… that's huge. They're all about lee tech and custom chips, right? We could be holding one of their internal blueprint archives. Imagine what this would sell for."
"Maybe," V said. "But it's not a full archive. I looked through the contents—there are only four weapon templates in this chip."
He brought up the nas: "Neurotoxin Knife, Electric Katana, Serrated Katana… and Thermal Katana."
"Three outta four are katanas. Classic Japan." Karl muttered, now clearly disinterested.
So that's what was on the chip.
Sure, KENDACHI's known for its precision work and top-tier blades. And sure, having blueprints was great. But without the specialized equipnt to manufacture them? Useless.
These weren't blueprints you could just 3D-print in your garage. Without the exact specs, materials, and gear, any attempt at making one would be a disaster. Especially the thermal or electric types—those could kill you before your enemies if mishandled.
And Karl didn't need more weapons anyway. He already carried a monowire and combat knife—and had a backup blade tucked beneath Endless Night. More gear would just slow him down.
While Karl quickly lost interest, the others—especially V—were hooked.
He'd been on the fence between installing gorilla arms or mantis blades. But this? Having access to actual, high-grade lee weapons he could build himself? It was tempting.
He did the math—his savings might cover the materials for one of them. But then ca the real issue: equipnt. No way he could build this stuff on his own.
"Hey, T-BUG," Oliver chid in. "You know anyone with the hardware to manufacture this? So factory contact, maybe?"
"Do I look like a blacksmith?" she replied dryly. "But maybe Karl's contacts could help. He's got ties to that Japanese corp, right? If anyone knows their way around a katana, it's them."
All eyes turned to Karl.
"Team vote," Karl said, holding up the chip. "You've got four votes between you."
"And since V was the one who found the chip, if we sell it and split the profits or use it to get custom weapons made, I'm all in. The only thing left is…"
He pulled out his phone.
"…finding the right person to talk to."
Karl called the one man he knew could make this happen, even if it ant bothering him again:
Kenichiro.
"Guess that makes five votes.".
.
.
.
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