I tore off my dtech armor, and swapped into a second suit I’d prepared. It was a barebones set of armor to obscure myself, and a throwaway set once this gig was done. Although I was hopeful nothing would track back to , I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could hide myself from Brunhilde. She’d likely know it was as soon as I handed over Dorrin.
It was for that reason that I originally didn’t move for this job as Nightshade or any other identity. I didn’t want this to link back to and burn that identity. Not to ntion this job was entirely different in terms of style.
I struggled to get the new chestplate on—at least, until Mira moved up behind and helped with the straps. She’d already made the swap over to the backup armor. “That really was stupid.”
I groaned softly as she pulled the straps a bit too tight. ”What else was I supposed to do?”
She loosed the strap, and moved on to help with the arm and leg guards. I could’ve done it myself, though. ”I dunno—talk it over with the rest of us instead of just charging the guy like a maniac?”
“We’re rapidly running out of ti, and I saw the perfect chance to make a move.” I tapped my stomach just over where the shots connected. “This is well worth the sacrifice.”
”I… you’re right.” She actually conceded for once. My mikata knew as well as I did how quickly I’d heal back. Mira wrapped up the last bit of armor and moved in front of . “I just hate seeing you injured.”
Her blue eyes showed with so much sincerity and worry that it felt painful to keep eting her gaze. I looked away toward Dorrin. “I’ll heal back from it…”
”Just because you can heal from any injury doesn’t make it hurt any less when you are injured.” Mira moved around to my front, and gently cupped my cheek to force to et her eyes. “I feel like a failure every single ti I see you get hurt. Aren’t I supposed to be the bruiser? The vanguard protecting you from the front?”
“It’s better than you...” Injuries wouldn’t stick around for long on . For her, though, they were much more permanent. Universal Donor might help, but it wasn’t like I could lend out Quick Healing.
“That wasn’t my point.” Mira sighed, and shook her head. She grabbed a helt off to the side, and slid it on over her head. It was a bit awkward with the halo, but she managed. As soon as it was in place, her voice turned chanical and the halo disappeared under a hologram. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. “We can talk about this later.”
”Later?”
She shrugged halfheartedly, and took a step back toward the driver’s cabin. ”What can I say? You're rubbing off on .”
“You’ve got maybe three minutes max.” Luna reminded us from her spot far away in the city.
“Let’s hurry.” While she went to retrieve the Transporter, I shifted goals and grabbed my bag. Neat the bottom of it, carefully sealed away in several layers of protection, sat a bundle of high-explosives. We were going to pull off the perfect hat trick, and simply disappear into the night as ghosts. Tex had a better survival chance down in the water than face tanking enough explosions to light up the ocean.
I shuffled around the devac and carefully prid the explosives in prearranged spots to cause the maximum effect. The LRAT ran off of AE3, which wasn’t explosive or flammable, so there wasn’t much point in setting them on the fuel tank. Setting up a bundle just over the radiation chamber for the thermal electric generator, however, was much more worthwhile.
While I moved around, Mira guided the Transporter out just as it finished tearing open our escape route into the Aether. “Need help with anything?”
I leaned over my last explosive, and called over my shoulder, “move him?”
”Roger.” She casually disconnected him from all the sensors and IVs. Mira took the still injured CEO and tossed him through the portal without much of a care. “He was stable, right?”
”For now.” I’d have to work on him a bit more on the way to the hand off. I looked around the devac at all the extrely useful devices. I’d scanned every part of this thing back when Luna and I were removing the trackers just after stealing it right out of dtech’s flyer bays. It’d still be nice to have so of this stuff, though. “Help start moving everything that’s not bolted down.”
”My type of job.” Mira moved for the expensive dical equipnt first.
Between the two of us, we grabbed almost everything I could want from the devac. Mainly, the dicine, stims, and drugs scattered around were my focus. I could make all the tech stuff, but chemicals were mostly outside of my wheelhouse. I needed so to continue treating Dorrin, anyway.
Once we grabbed everything, I stepped through the portal. My Transporter back to the devac shut off just as we stepped through. We weren’t trapped in the Aether, though. Far from it.
The gap between portals opening was incredibly important. The Aether could only be linked in one place. If I tried to open a portal while we were already linked, it’d simply fail to open. Short jumps like this were achievable with a few minutes delay, but moving beyond a city using this technique was more ti consuming than just flying. It took a serious amount of ti for the Aether to shift so a connection could open.
“We’re here,” I called out. A few minutes later, another portal opened up.
Luna peaked through the portal, and then passed one of her decks back to Saint perched up on the roof of the relay building. “You drive.”
”I…” Saint froze. “Right, how hard could this be?”
”I got it.” Mira left the Aether and swapped places with Luna to take over the flight controls. “Just make sure you get my good side when the fireworks start.”
With our Netrunner free, she slipped into the Aether and instantly started to work on Dorrin. Although we managed to get him this far, I had zero doubts in my mind he was filled with all sorts of nasty trackers. He had at least one in dtech’s Biomonitor that needed to be taken care of.
She pulled out a jack, and connected up to her deck. From there, she accessed Dorrin’s ports and plugged in to start working. “This’ll take … about ten minutes?”
“Take your ti.” I reset the IV, and once more hooked it up to my canteen to feed in more Shiro Slurpie. His burns were already starting to scab over from the regenerative effect, and he no longer looked like a corpse. By the ti we handed him off, he might even be able to move around. “I’ll open it back up when we’re in position.”
“Sure.” Luna glanced at , and then imdiately went back to working on Dorrin.
With that set, I followed Mira out onto the roof and shut off the Transporter. Just like that, we’d left the empty devac behind. No one was the wiser. Even from here, I could see the HMG of the LRAT firing away on anything that dared to approach whether it be a flyer or boat.
Red and blue flashing lights caught my attention, and I looked away from the bay and back toward Aythryn City. Crusade flyers rapidly moved out to approach the fight. I pulled the detonator from my pocket, and held it up. “Anyone want to do the honors?”
Saint, surrounded by decks and screens while he carefully manipulated the stream, looked up with several screens lighting his face. “All yours. The sooner we get out of here the better, though.”
”The thunder’s all yours.” Mira raised her hands up in surrender.
Right, well, there was no ti to delay then. I squeezed the trigger—nothing. My lips dipped into a frown, and I squeezed the detonator a couple more tis. The tal clacked uselessly in my hand. “Huh…”
”Is it out of range?” Mira approached , and looked down at the thing.
”Shouldn’t be.” I’d planned everything out for this well beforehand. The explosives should have more than enough range. I squeezed the trigger again. “Why—?”
A pulse of Technical Expertise flowed through the device—Oh… yeah, that’s about right. There’s always sothing, isn’t there? Can’t believe I forgot the batteries.
I discreetly channeled a bolt of electricity up into the detonator and squeezed the trigger once more—
BOOOM!
A large fireball erupted over the bay, and flashed the entire surrounding area with light. Flyers, boats, and rcs all over froze in confusion as the target erupted into a massive explosion. Debris rained down onto the cold waters of the ocean, and with it all evidence of what we’d done.
I would’ve liked to keep the devac, but it just wasn’t in the cards. The longer I had it, the higher the chances dtech might find sothing or soone to link us to the hit. Getting rid of it was the cleanest option available. I could always steal another. It was’t too hard to get in, snag one, and get out with Luna.
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I turned away from the explosion, and moved for a Roughrider parked and waiting for us off to the side. ”Let’s move.”
— — —
Nearly an hour later, all of us sat in a large SUV that I’d swiped from a parking garage. Its trackers and everything were already taken care of by Luna, so there was nothing to worry about. Speaking off, Luna and Saint sat in the closed off front likewise in armor to hide their appearances. Mira and I sat in the back across from Dorrin. The way the car was set up, the back seats faced each other like a limo.
The CEO himself looked way better than when I first restarted his heart. Most of his injuries were pus-filled scabs by now, and Universal Donor had done a bang up job getting him back into a stable state.
“You sure about this?” I held a stim in my hand, and looked back toward the armored form of Mira.
“Yeah… he’ll need to walk when we hand him over, anyway,” she casually lied. Whether he was conscious or not didn’t matter. I didn’t call her out on it, though.
“He’s fully cut off, right Luna?” I asked.
Her answer ca through the Packheat Rings. ”Y-yeah. All his chro’s disabled.”
With the last of my concerns taken care of, I slamd the stim into Dorrin’s neck and flooded his system with chemicals. I kept a second stim close on hand to put him back to sleep if he tried anything.
The CEO groaned, and shifted across from the two of us. His once hand-fitted clothes were a complete ss of blood, ash, and char. I hadn’t bothered to give him new clothes after saving his life. Not like he deserved any dignity.
“You finally awake?” Mira stared at the now awake Dorrin Gale. She pulled out the hand-cannon Uncle Ezra had just given her for her birthday, and set it down neatly in her lap.
“Is that supposed to scare ?” After a mont of confusion, the man went calm. So perfectly calm. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was just out for a taxi ride with strangers.
”No, it isn’t.” Mira’s voice ca out just as calm. The voice modulator distorted and broke up her voice into sothing barely recognizable. “Tell , Mr. Gale, what do you fear?”
”The sa as any man.” He spat a glob of blood off to the side, staining the SUV with filth. “To have my fate in the hands of another.”
”Heh-hahahaha—!” Mira’s laughter abruptly cut out, and she once more returned to that perfectly neutral voice. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. “Then you must be terrified right now.”
“Why would I be?” The man grinned widely. He looked entirely unconcerned by his situation.
“Your fate is in our hands,” my mikata stated casually. Her hand bobbed, and the hand-cannon moved with it. The hologram over her head faded, and revealed the halo floating gently over her head.
“Oh please. Keep the hogwash to yourself.” His grin turned to a sneer, and he looked around the SUV like a king looking at peasants. “I know what you people are. You’re just retriever dogs barking for treats from their master. You’re incapable of seeing the wider ga.”
Mira’s hand tightened around the grip of her pistol. Although her face was hidden, I could still see the irritation throughout her entire body. She wanted to pull the trigger. To end this miserable existence of a man that saw everything as pawns in a ga.
“I have a room in my workshop,” I spoke up after a mont. I regretted the words as soon as they spilled from my lips, but it was too late to pull back now. “And plenty of chro ideas to test.”
“Ah, the Halo Cortex.” Dorrin didn’t look intimidated by the suggestion in the slightest. He just stared at the halo floating atop her head with interest. “I thought I recognized it. Funny, isn’t it? My own creation—ugh!”
Mira’s fist slamd into his throat, completely cutting off whatever the man was about to say. She smoothly slid her gun back into its hip holster. “I am not your creation. Your creations commit suicide—or did you forget about that?”
”Kehk.” Dorrin coughed. His face was flushed an ugly shade of red. I couldn’t tell if it was from lack of air or what Mira said. “So that’s how you, haah, play?“
”Is it all a ga to you?”
He laughed and rubbed at his throat. ”What else would it be?”
”Was it a ga when your son killed himself, too?” I asked after a mont. To think, I’d actually sympathized with this man for a mont back on that rooftop.
”No, no, no! It wasn’t suicide.” The calm mask the man wore cracked, and his eyes flared wider. “Failures like him can’t even be considered human!”
“…” Mira just stared at him the way she would a disgusting cesspool. Only this cesspool once had the power to shake up the entire south central FSA.
“It doesn’t matter.” Dorrin fixed his mask, and dropped back into the calm mask of his. “None of this does. It all ends the sa. You’ll deliver to your masters, and I’ll walk free the next day.”
I wasn’t too worried about it. From the way Brunhilde talked, Sentinel wasn’t going to let him out alive. They had a bounty of five million for his head dead, so they obviously wouldn’t be too torn up if he flatlined. “Keep telling yourself that.”
“You just don’t understand the ga.” He shook his head, and spat a glob of blood off to the side. “You will eventually, though. You won’t have a choice.”
”If I had a father like you…” Mira shook her head, and ran a hand along the grip of her gun. “Poor Tommy.”
”Bastard!” Dorrin lunged forward—only for electricity to surge out of and lock up every single muscle in his body. He collapsed back with his eyes wide in rage. He twitched erratically, but couldn’t put any force into his limbs.
“No, he wasn’t. That was the issue.” Mira didn’t hold back for a mont. Then, as if realizing sothing, she tapped the side of her head. “Why am I wasting ti on a soon to be corpse?”
“You think they’ll kill ?!” He flopped to the side as his body slowly started to co back under his control. His eyes flicked between and Mira. “You really are clueless.”
“If they don’t, I don’t mind a final eting.” Mira tapped her pistol against her leg. “I hope they don’t, actually."
“This ti, when I’m out, I’ll find you and finish the job. I’ll find all of you, and I won’t just stop there. I’ll take everyone you love. You’re mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers. Before your eyes, I’ll—“His jaw clamped up, and no matter how much he tried to get it to move, it just stayed shut. He let out a muted scream of outrage.
“His yapping’s starting to give a migraine.” Luna’s voice in the back of my head left no doubt why he suddenly decided to go mute. “Unless either of you want to keep speaking to him?”
”I’m fine. He was slipping into a villain monologue for a mont there,” Saint answered. “You, Alpha-Two?”
“No.” Mira sighed. After a mont, she looked toward to answer my earlier question. “I appreciate the offer, Alpha-One. This guy isn’t worth any more of our ti. Let Sentinel have him.”
“If you’re sure.” I stared down at the waste of blood as he gasped for air through his charred nose. I shouldn’t have tried so hard to keep him alive.
“More sure than ever.” She turned away from the CEO, and stared out the window. Her voice dropped to a low whisper, “more sure than ever…”
“Five minutes out,” Saint calmly inford us through the Packheart Rings. “Do I need to slow down?”
”The sooner we drop him off, the better,” Mira answered.
I watched her for a mont. The mont stretched into minutes, and before long we pulled up to our destination. It was a backwater canal half buried under a building. Neon flashed and cast deep shadows across the entire space.
This was the drop off point I’d arranged not that long ago. I ended up using one of the contact numbers Brunhilde gave to set up this eting. It was a claim just as much as it was practical. Yeah, I was the one that did this. Our debts were paid now, so back off. Hopefully, this would be our last eting… I had a feeling things wouldn’t go quite how I wanted them to, though.
“Let’s hope Sentinel didn’t decide to backstab us.” Saint flicked on the brights, erasing parts of the shadows. There was already a heavy ATV sitting down just inside of a culvert and waiting for us. It was unmarked, but the heavily ard PMCs standing around left nothing to the imagination. Nor did the Valkyrie standing at the head of them.
Mira and I got out of the vehicle. She dragged Dorrin out by his burned arm, not caring in the slightest as she ripped off fresh scabs. For his part, the CEO just scread quietly with his jaw locked up.
The PMCs straightened up as we approached, and the Valkyrie moved to et us halfway. She wasn’t one I recognized. Granted, I’d only seen a few of them, and it was a while back.
“I heard he was a notorious talker.” The Valkyrie crossed her spear over her shoulders and rested her arms on it. “I see that bit of intel wasn’t correct.”
”Oh it was.” I glanced back at Dorrin. His jaw was still sealed, and he watched all of us with hatred burning in his eyes. “My runner shut him up. Wouldn’t stop yapping.”
”Then it seems you did us a favor.” The Valkyrie nodded her head to one of the power armored guards. “Pass it over.”
The guard pulled a briefcase out of the car, and popped it open. A single, small drive sat in the very center of the briefcase. “All yours.”
“What’s this?” I didn’t instantly go to take the drive, though the kobold side of my brain demanded I swipe it the mont my eyes dropped to it.
“Your paynt’s already been dealt with.” The Valkyrie shrugged. “I don’t know or care about the details. This is a… reward from Director Taro.”
“What’s on it?” I hesitantly pulled the drive out of the briefcase and turned it in my hands.
“A list of Tornado’s hidden bases across the FSA.” Her helt flicked toward the SUV, and then refocused on . “If you’re interested.”
“Hmm…” I slid the drive into my pocket. Why would I not be interested in sothing like that? “Can’t imagine this is a charity act.”
“If they’re taken care of, we won’t have to send out operators.” She nodded to the . “It’s win-win.”
Right. A group like Sentinel wouldn’t care much about what might be in the facilities. Rather, I highly doubted the drive had every base. It wouldn’t surprise one bit if they kept all the high-value ones for themselves. Their research was stolen, so why not go steal the research of soone else?
”It’s probably filled with trackers,” Luna’s voice whispered into the back of my mind. “Don’t plug it into anything without there.”
I tapped the drive in my pocket, and sent a pulse of Technical Expertise through it. Not only was there probably a digital tracker, but there was a physical one built into the device as well. “The trackers necessary?”
”You know how it is.” The Valkyrie didn’t react much to being called out for the subterfuge. “Consider it a capability test.”
I just shook my head, and motioned to the back. Mira, in her pitch black armor, pushed Dorrin up behind . “All yours.”
“Nova.” The Valkyrie twirled her spear off her shoulder, and slamd it down into the ground. “I know plenty of people that’ve wanted a word with you, Mr. Gale.”
“Wait.” I lifted a hand in front of Mira just before she could push him over, and checked the tir I’d set up on my HUD. There was half a minute left until my blood from the canteen cleared out of his system. “He’s patched up, but he’ll need another transfusion if you want him to live long.”
”Affirmative.” The Valkyrie dipped her head, and lifted a hand to the side of her helt. After a mont, she checked on Dorrin once more. “He looks fine.”
”For now.” I checked my HUD once more. “Three. Two. One—“
”Ugh…” Dorrin almost imdiately went pale as the majority of my blood cleaned out of his system. He sagged heavily against Mira—only for the latter to drop him onto the ground just in front of Senteinel’s guards.
”Fancy trick.” The Valkyrie retinue moved forward, and dragged Dorrin into the ATV. “Be seeing you.”
”Not if I can help it.” I shook my head, and Mira and I turned back toward the APC. The entire ti, I watched them for any signs of a betrayal. There was nothing aside from the trackers, which was well within my expectations.
Once we were in the SUV, I stuffed the drive into a special bag to block the signal. Saint glanced back at us, and shifted the vehicle into drive. “All set?”
“Chek.” I glanced back toward the eting spot, but the Sentinel APC was already long gone down the culvert. “Let’s get out of here.”
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