“Rollo, Leo, you’re both finally back!” Claire cheerfully welcomed us as we pushed our luggage toward the car.
“Yeah…”
“Don’t you have anything more to say? It’s been like what? Over a month?”
“Sure… but we’ve been talking through the net almost every day. What else is there to say?”
“Men,” She sighed. “Let’s go then. I reserved a table for us at this new restaurant. Lana will be joining us as well!” She evilly grinned in Leo’s direction.
Leo, Thorne, and I nodded in unison before we finished packing our luggage into the trunk so we could get on our way. The car started leaving the airport and got onto the highway while I enjoyed the view.
It was nice to see the familiar landscape of Elevate City again. The backdrop of the space elevator in the background acted as a permanent landmark that made it impossible to mistake it for any other city.
From the rearview mirror, I could see that Claire was on a call, which explained the silence.
“So how was your time in NLA?” Thorne asked as he merged into the traffic that crossed the bridge toward the city.
“For the majority of it, boring. The only fun part was before we managed to strike a deal with a shipping company to transport our stuff in exchange for our transportation service. After that, we spent the last few weeks doing paperwork, going to meetings, and interviews. ”
“How about you Leo?”
“Not too different from normal. As long as I have a good connection to the net, it’s mostly the same for me. It was just that Rollo kept throwing work on my plate or it would’ve been a pleasant trip.”
I glared at Leo beside me mainly for show, as he wasn’t wrong, though it made Thorne wear a troubled expression, “I see… so you guys got the transportation network thing figured out?”
“Well, mostly. Trucks are running and everything. We’ll have to see if any issue arises, though. The main thing I’m worried about is if the fake damages we put on a vehicle will be seen through. I’d really rather not deal with another corp who gets any ideas with our wastelander connections.”
“Don’t worry, the monitoring program I made will monitor your men and keep them honest and I doubt any corp would waste resources analyzing your vehicles often enough to figure out anything,” Leo said as he played around on his terminal.
“Yeah, it’s been working pretty well for us here, but I think we should get a dormitory soon. It’ll further prevent any possible leaks with the added security,” Thorne added, as he signaled to change lanes.
“Well, that will have to wait until we get some funds. We’re stretched thin already with this new transportation endeavor and renovating our new office. We’ll also want to save a good chunk of credits to incorporate too.”
Claire glanced back at me, her eyes no longer glowing, “The math boys say it’d be best to incorporate in two months when our cash flow stabilizes.”
“We’ll listen to the professionals then. It’s not like we’re in any rush. In the meantime, we can spend the time to relax and enjoy life!”
“Yay, I agree!” Claire clapped as I watched Leo and Throne with a frown on their faces.
“Come on, lighten up, boys, and let’s go enjoy dinner.”
Once we arrived, the two of them tried to put on a smile at the insistence of Claire, but Thorne faltered and tensed up once he saw the prices listed on the menu. It wasn’t until he started eating that his expression relaxed.
I watched as Leo and Lana bickered in their married couple fashion, as former corpos, they ate with refined table manners with ease. Compared to Thorne, who still looked tense at the shoulders, and Claire, who was enjoying herself a little too much, these two were far from ready to handle business dealings involving other corpos.
Let’s hope business goes well. That way I can increase their pay so they can eat out at places like these more often and learn more about corporate culture. I’d much rather have them help me manage the business than hire some scheming corpo, even if they were more experienced.
----------------------------------------
After dinner, we returned home, and I got prepared to go out as usual. As it’s been a while since I’ve been in the city, I called up my old friend, Fitel, to purchase some info on any harvester hideouts. I’ve been away long enough for them to infest the areas I had previously cleared. They were seriously like cockroaches.
“Fitel, it’s been a long time. Do you have any jobs or info on harvester hideouts?”
“Mr Halls, it has been a while. I don’t have any jobs that fit your criteria right now, but I do have some information on harvester locations.”
“Great, how much?”
“It will be the standard information fee of ten thousand credits.”
“Sent, I’ll be around for a while now, so let me know if any job comes up.”
“...It surprises me that you would still be interested in taking jobs from me, but alas, it is none of my business… I will contact you if anything suitable comes up.” The call ended before I could reply. Typical of Fitel.
Within a minute, the information I had bought from him arrived too.
I set the car to head for the new location while I went over the file.
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Normally, for a small den of half a dozen or so harvesters, I could break even with the information fee unless I was unlucky on the loot. The information I got from Fitel this time was a larger one, with an estimated twelve to fourteen harvesters in the hideout.
They operated out of a small warehouse within an industrial district where they disguised themselves as one of the many workers going about their day in their van.
Despite the late hours when I reached there, there were still many warehouse workers in sight.
Most corporations I knew had their workers either on two twelve-hour shifts or three eight-hour shifts depending if delicate controls were needed on the job. For my logistic warehouse in NLA, I implemented four six-hour shifts instead because of the compensation clause I signed with my employees.
If they kept getting hurt on the job, I would be out on quite a bit of money before I knew it, so I tried to ensure they weren’t overworked. After all, the compensation policy wasn’t something I planned to go back on, considering how effective it was at motivating them.
The truck drivers would still be on three eight-hour shifts, though. Three was the maximum number of people the trucks we rented could hold. It simply wouldn’t make sense to have it any other way if we wanted them to be on the move 24/7.
I stuck to the unlit area as I crept closer to my target warehouse. I only used the camouflage to cross areas that didn’t have any blind spots I could traverse.
The warehouse compounds were each separated by thin metal sheets they called walls and large gates that allowed multiple semi-trucks to pass at once.
When I reached the correct warehouse lot, it was entirely empty outside without a guard in sight. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought it was unoccupied.
Just in case of cameras, I made use of my Shade, the stealth implant, the entire way until I entered the building and breached the locked door. With my software engineering skills up to par now, it helped somewhat with my hacking skills, as it allowed me to prepare hacking software to be used beforehand.
Once I was in, I made sure the coast was clear before I detached my new submachine gun, the Coil Wrath, from my lower back. I had it fitted to my suit, so it wasn’t in the way while I moved around.
I had gotten myself to continue using it recently to get more experience with it, but it may be because I’m a little addicted to the ease it allows me to land shots with the automated smart bullets that helped correct my trajectories.
I had gotten the suppressor attachment, and although it wasn’t as quiet as the Suri, it was still enough to clear an area without alerting anyone in the neighboring rooms as long as the walls weren’t too thin. With this new gun, my tactics slightly leaned more toward brute force than pure precision.
Once I was prepared, I ventured further into the building where my auditory implant soon picked up on the sound of mumbled conversation.
I soon came into the big open area of the warehouse, which was partitioned into different areas with blinds that many harvesters used for their so-called ‘surgical area’.
I spotted the overseer’s office on the high ground and headed that way immediately for the vantage point. The thugs in here, like many others I’ve encountered recently, were really sloppy. They were busy watching videos on their implants, or chatting amongst themselves.
Maybe it was because I had been comparing them with corporate forces I had gone up against. Even if it was from a small corporation, they were still miles ahead of common criminals out in the streets.
With the view from the second floor, I took some time to mark down everyone in sight, as well as the layout of the entire place. I then went to each exit I found and blocked it off with a little hacking.
With the stage set, I relied on my Shade to reach the center of the warehouse where the majority of the harvesters were. Once I was in position, I checked my new Coil Wrath once more before I aimed and pulled the trigger.
The automatic fire kicked in as the smart bullets exited the chamber and flew to all the targets I had already marked. Screams echoed as others scrambled around with confusion.
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One relatively smarter woman had lain prone and started shooting toward the direction of where she thought the bullets came from. Unfortunately for her, the bullet’s trajectory wasn’t completely straight, but I took the cue and kept on the move as I reloaded.
A few stragglers managed to get behind cover and ran away as fast as they could, only to be stopped by doors that they desperately tried to pry open.
With a fresh mag in my gun, I finished off all the remaining harvesters around me before I dispatched the last few by the door.
I then took stock of the inventory they had here, most of the cybernetics and organs packed away in crates with a few that were freshly taken out of some poor souls still by the bloody operating area.
There were still a few bodies dumped together in a pile that was only covered in some plastic sheets, but one of the bodies on the operating table suddenly coughed.
I quickly examined him and found that he was missing an arm, his optics, and likely various smaller implants in his head, judging by the incision point that still remained.
I guess I’ll be here a little longer than I thought. I’m going to have to find these implants or find ones that would work with what he has. Why can’t they have names on them?
By the time I got back, the sun had already risen.
I opened up my status as I lay on my bed and pondered for the future.
Status
Level:
14
EXP:
800/1400
Musculoskeletal:
76
Neural Reflex:
15
Visuomotor Coordination:
27
Endurance:
24
Sensory Perception:
52
Upgrade Points:
0
Upgrades:
* Stealth +7
* Hacking +3
* Cybernetic Engineering +7
* Stealth Technology +9
* Software Engineering +6
Enhancements:
SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3
Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4
Cyberarm(Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6
Cyberarm(Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5
Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2
Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4
Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade