Just as I expected, as soon as the inter-mission break I hadn’t known about until five days ago was over, I received a message from Rebecca asking me to come to the meeting room she had commandeered for a briefing.
Despite being the last one to enter the room, I was the first one in the building. I wanted to be sure that there were no miscommunications, so I had been loitering in an adjacent room until everyone else arrived. That room was in use, so I had to blend in by asking some half-assed questions about what looked like a proposed budget. It probably would have been more entertaining if I had disabled the perk just as I left, but it was too late now.
When I arrived, I saw that there was a new person standing up by the front podium. From what I could gather of everyone’s posture from through the wall, that person was clearly meant to be there- which likely made them an aide of some kind. Right before I entered, I remembered to turn off [Act], so that everyone would actually know I had arrived.
Our last meeting had been delayed until someone asked if I had said I was going to be late- reminding me to turn off the perk after I had stopped blushing from embarrassment.
“Ahh, Silvia, you’re here,” the person up front said with the abreast hint of an edge- prompting me to check my clock to see if I was late. I wasn’t, so their annoyance towards me felt a bit weird. “Let’s get started.
“This mission is going to be closer to home than your last one; only a small hop over to the west coast of the mainland. We don’t have an exact Breech assigned yet, but the Cluster is moving in that direction. As normal, you’ll be getting shipped over there tomorrow so that you can be a bit closer to the area projected to get hit.
“Unfortunately, said area is highly urban with a lot of people who decided to chance it instead of following our recommendations to leave. There are actually shelters placed and built according to code, so extractions should be relatively easy.”
Turning to Rebecca, they asked, “I assume you have brought our newest member up to speed.”
“For the most part. She’s been given the theory and some teamwork exercises, but that doesn’t change the fact this’ll be her first Breach. Working in a team, I mean. She’s also going to be replacing Chris or I in extractions duties.”
With a nod, they asked, “Carlos still on overwatch and coordination for extraction?”
After a nod from everyone, the person I now assumed to be the liaison or handler of some sort continued, giving a brief explanation of the general area we would be on the lookout for Breaches in, and where we would be staying until then. It turned out- and made perfect sense- that SEYA had either proper bases or reserved space in a hotel for MGs all around the United States.
We would be staying in a few rooms within New Salem’s capital building specifically designed for our use. By that I mean that there was some space leftover in the building’s design that got converted from storage to housing after SEYA became a thing.
I also learned that while we were there waiting for the Breach to hit, it was customary to go around in costume to various public places and act as a reassuring presence. There was even a recommended itinerary I briefly looked through.
It included a whole lot of events that I immediately dismissed: some corporate convention, magazine interviews, a sports game of some sort- that kind of thing. I was interested in a few of the reservations at fancy restaurants- although none of the particularly boujee ones- and a local symphony, since at both it would be inappropriate for people to come and talk to me except at specific times I could go missing for.
With the meeting over, I walked back to my room to get my stuff packed. To be honest, I didn’t have much- just enough to fill the suitcase I had been given. The most important things were stored in my pocket dimension or under my clothes in the case of my canisters.
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With that done, I silently asked Cleo, “would it be possible to get your computer to use my prosthetics and scan the entire apartment- interiors of walls included- and store it for comparison when I got back. Maybe also check for bugs and cameras?”
In a flat tone, they replied, {yes, of course. It would take fractions of a fraction of a second. You do remember that tokens can’t be partially used and only using part of one is a massive waste of resources?}
“Oh, yeah, right. Can I pre-buy having the same thing done when I get back?”
{The when of an operation matters little.}
“Great! I guess with the rest of the time it would be good to get some programs made. First, if there’s any prep required on my hardware’s end for [Perk Macros] we might as well do that now. Then, if there’s any way to increase how far and/or how much I can perceive by making the process more efficient that’d be nice. After that, if there’s any time left over, maybe something to alert me to anything in range of my perception that has weird properties: high speed, abnormal temperatures, above average ULE content- that sort of thing.”
As soon as I finished talking, Cleo said, {all of those are done and will be applied over night. You still have some time and I’d rather have things go unfinished than tome unused.}
Surprised, I slowly continued, “Alright… Maybe a program to let me keep a copy of an object's shape and location so that even when I leave the area I’d be able to ‘perceive’ it- and I guess maybe also background tracking for anything that moves in general. Like, have a list somewhere that I can look at to see who and what’s nearby.”
{There's a little more time.}
“Uhh, do some general optimization of the base system?”
Nodding, Cleo responded, {All the rest of the time was used for that. Now I would like to ask: are you feeling prepared for the upcoming Breach?}
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling nervous,” I said as I sprawled out on my bed. “I can’t help but remember how massively messed up my last experience with one was. I still have no clue how it worked out even that well- only losing my eyes and getting a little scared.”
{Do remember that there were some… unfortunate conditions. This time you will have access to everything you should have- plus a lot more.}
“Yeah, I get that, but it’s just a bit hard to forget using you as a seeing eye… cat. Damn, that made me remember that I should have used some of the token time to get the new drone hooked into my system.” As I wandered into the other room to grab it from a counter, I asked, “if I just dump a ton of ULE into [Magical Hacking] and [RAT King] is there a chance that the hardware gets damaged?”
{It should be fine, especially considering that it was designed to function under the control of an MG.}
With a grin, I plugged my tail into the data port on the drone and channeled most of my possible normal output into willing the ULE to reset everything on the drone to its defaults. While it worked its magic, I felt a little bit of weird resistance not present when I used the perk previously- but it was quickly overwhelmed and crushed.
After being cleaned, I waited a minute to recharge before using about the same amount of ULE on a RAT, telling it to set up a connection to my prosthetics and get used to controlling the drone while waiting for more commands. I figured that due to how the RAT- or maybe just rat- that I made last time acted, they had some sort of sentience or at least a mimicry of intelligence which was hopefully good enough to substitute for the autopilot program I probably just nuked.
At some point in my usual evening time wasting, I heard a sudden flare of motors and a few thuds- quickly revealed to be the drone haphazardly trying to stabilize itself as I panned my perception over. To be honest, it was a little cute as it acted like a strange bird’s chick learning to fly. After a few more minutes, it was able to fly in a controlled manner which coincided with a familiar cartoon rat icon appearing on the desktop of my built-in computer.
Once I opened the program, I was greeted with a live feed of what each of the drone’s cameras could see as well as a box to type commands into. Opening my door I requested it to do a circuit of the apartment, then land on my desk.
There was some delay before it started moving, but when it did, it moved in a pattern that allowed it to see every part of my living space at least once- odd corners, tops of shelves, open cabinets and drawers- before it carefully landed in front of me.
Satisfied, I gave it a little pat and told it to rest up before feeling a flash of embarrassment for having done so.