Chapter 102: Two Spiders
5:18 AM August 30th
Missy’s review of the hired Mercs she assigned for the August 30th Shandian Raid.
Stonewall and Quickshot are both mercs at the top of their Grade and Tier. Bronze Tier IIs, they’re a step above what you’d normally find but don’t trust them to put their lives on the line for us. They have a job, to help us secure the asset. Our survival means nothing to them except in that their payment comes once the job is done. If they’re going to save anybody, it will be me since I’m lining their pockets.
As for their fighting capacity, Stonewall is a Mutant-Esper capable of compacting any stone or mineral and expanding it into a larger shape. He can also manipulate these walls of stone to a slight degree, forming armor around his body through which his enhanced Mutant powers turns him into a tank. Again, don’t expect him to take shots for us. We’re assigning him to the Northern Facility where Mirage has created fake identities for them to infiltrate and help Diamante into the Research floor. His ability to create barricades will help slow down physical intrusion towards Mirage’s delving port, and allow Diamante to access his combat body when the time comes.
Quickshot, on the other hand, is with me and Topaz. As a BUG Adapter, her Shardware is all focused to improve her range and output with her bow. Yes, a bow. Now I know what you’re thinking, but I can attest to the effectiveness of such weapons that have been modified by shards from my time in the Swarm. Each arrow is worth a hundred bullets, some possesing unique functions that allow her to manipulate battles expertly. Her job is simple, she is to stay outside the facility and draw their forces upwards by launching precision strikes against vital assets, and to provide us cover as we escape from the facility.
R0N1N and Dreadwire. You two will be enough for your facility.
Ripley
Mimicset Modules [7/10]:
* Stabilize: [I+B] Sustain/Sustain
* Burn: [2B] Overclock/Overclock
* Insight: [2B] Analyze/Network
* Wield: [2B] Integration/Integration
* Databreak: [I+B] Dataweave/Jailbreak
* Hammer: [I+B] Accommodate/Overclock
* Overcome: [2B] Sustain/Database
* Hypermind Prime: [B+2S] Sustain/Overclock/Integration
I took a quick review of my various Modules before the battle was to begin, I’d mostly been saving my strength on the ride here by using Stabilize, but under a fight like this, I’d have to rely on directly offensive abilities. Or at the very least, provide opportunity.
Settling on Insight, I decided my first step should be to scan and analyze the Tsuchigumo Exoguard facing me down, my mechanical eyes dissecting what they could to provide me insight into the capabilities of their suit. It drew on from the chunks of data I’d stolen from the Western Facility, linking several components together and relaying to me how they functioned.
But strangely, this time I pulled something deeper. The thin threads of Silver radiating off the body carried delves of information, a library to which I had a strange attunement to.
Was it Frequency Sync? The newest protocol of Data Mimicry was odd, allowing me to alter the way in which others could perceive the Warpcode of my BUG, but apparently also allowing me a deeper view into their own energy.
A view that felt tangible with another Protocol of Data Mimicry, Frequency Sync.
Grade: Silver
Tier… Estimated at Mid-Tier II.
Tier II… that was feasible enough for me to defeat, at least that’s what I told myself before the Exoguard charged straight at me, thrusters across her limbs driving the heavy suit of armor at me like a bull.
It was only the slightest shift in their Energy frequency that alerted me they were gathering strength towards their legs, providing my Preservation Matrix with enough time to command my Arachnodyne into pulling me to safety.
“Fast…” A steel-muffled female voice rattled from within the suit. “Did you steal that from us?”
“Not yet.” I spoke back to her, my weapons charged with Bronze Energy. “But I’ll take pleasure in seeing what I can learn from you.”
“Overconfidence is a flimsy ally.” Her gigantic spider limbs hovered over her body, their seams steaming as electrical bolts slithered out to reveal coiled wires charged up. Shit, I recognized that pattern. A railgun.
It was just my luck when I finally got the assistance I’d been expecting. An arrow lodged into one of the arachnid limbs, disrupting the charge with a silencing quell of Warpcode.
“Shit… you’re really taking her on by yourself?” Quickshot’s voice connected into my head. “You might be a Gold, but she’s a Tier above you. And in an Exosuit.”
“The-e Exosuit’s Bronze-Grade.” I relayed back, my mind moving faster than my mouth for now. “I can tell… and she’s not using her Holoshield-d, must have got-ten damaged in the explosion.”
“Was a hell of a move.” Quickshot chuckled. “So you’re saying if we break through it, you can take her out?”
“No… I might be able to take her out.” It was my honest assessment, there was one tool I hand’t used yet because it was a glass cannon. Though, it relied on how organic she was underneath all that armor. “The more central the damage the better-r. I’ll see what I can do… in the meantime, you got any other arrows heavy with Energy or Warpcode?”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Plenty. What for? Why even try to kill her in the first place, you’re probably faster than her and can escape.”
I thought about how to phrase it. “I’m trying to draw them upwards from Missy.”
That was the last message I could get in before the Exoguard launched a mach-one rod of steel at me. Hypermind provided me the exact second I’d needed to make my move, a railgun needed time to charge up in which the Adapter could aim it and once shot, it’s course was unchangeable.
It was still fast enough that just the air around the rod was scorching to the point that my Shardware had been damaged. The outer casing of my left arm came apart as I found my feet planted to the ground. Then she blurred forward, two of her lower spider limbs slicing sideways to trap me in the middle.
My Arachnodyne punched the ground, leveraging me in the air only to leave me vulnerable to the cannons she had as arms. Fortune was on my side for now as Quickshot landed an arrow into each limb despite the considerable distance, forming a bola that tightened around each limb.
The holowires snapped with ease under the Exoguard’s strength, but they let me gather a moment to strike on the offense. My body twisted above hers, my Energy gathered into my eyes as they viewed the rear portion of her Tsuchigumo Exoskeleton, gathering the data of how her spider limbs connected into the wider aegis.
While I couldn’t call myself an expert in Shandian Military tech, the data I’d stolen from them did provide me the entry point into deciphering the overarching methodology of their creation. Shandian tech was heavy and demanding on the Adapter, the physical weight was mitigated through the electromagnetic stabilizers they were so proud of, while their digital vastness meant they only employed Adapter’s able to withstand the load of it.
In other words, almost all Exoguards used either Integration or Accommodation to withstand the demanding suits, but in this particular case… it had to be both. She was only Tier II, not quite up to the standards of the kind of Silvers R0N1N had fought in the previous facility. The only reason she would be using such powerful equipment at her stage was if Shandian had determined her BUG could handle it.
Which left her Silver Implant with only one other Function to supplement her combat abilities. If I was lucky, it was something like Network… though I doubted that was the case since there was a lack of accompanying drones.
Database, Sustain or Psyche was also a good option for me, but if it was Energized or Overdrive, then frankly… I was screwed. The direct enhancement of physical ability they give would overwhelm me in a moment — even wildcards like Analyze, Jailbreak or Dataweave could prove troublesome.
Still behind her, I drove my claw against her spider-limbs, scraping against them to search for a weak-point. I found none, but I did sense her exerting a pulse of Energy through her spine, the four limbs whirring to life as they slashed and slammed towards me.
Dodging each with barely a breadth of an inch, I kept my focus on capturing every aspect of the suit. It was built to be impenetrable, a troubling shield that showed no faults. Even my Scrapgun, which could tear through the Shandian armor like they were made of paper, was only sparking off her suit. Maybe, if I had any Bronze shards left, then they could at least wear her down, but as it stood my Iron pellets were useless.
So then, there was only one choice left. The ugly choice. Arrows came down in between us, streaming electrical bolts through her suit which slowed down her assault enough that I could reinforce a sudden burst of Gold into my Arachnodyne limbs.
Just as I switched to the Hammer module. My back suddenly felt like it was being weighed down by an anvil, and my thoughts came slower than they normally did. Still, the resulting force multiplied enough that the Livewire-based musculature of my Arachnodyne briefly overwhelmed even her spider-limbs.
Whatever alloy her limbs were made off crumpled, their protective casing briefly dislodged. Quickshot acted true to her name, with three arrows striking the broken plating to explode a corner of the joint off. I reached in for that weakness, extending my right claw with its Shardware-manipulating tips eager for the piece.
Only for a shadow to whisk above me, Hypermind Prime slithered me away at just the last second, leaving my store of Warp Energy as a shallow pool. Breathing heavily in my mask, I hurried across the rooftop feeding the Module as a stream of electrical pellets launched through both of her hands.
She growled through her suit. “You’re quick for a Tier II…”
I could have laughed, she thought I was a tier above what I am. I took it as a compliment as I circled behind her once more, the rain of arrows briefly breaking her concentration off me. I was determined to tear her Exosuit apart, there was so much to learn from it.
And finally, as one particularly nasty arrow exploded into an orb of magnetizing force that pulled her off her balance, I reached into the seams of her suit.
And I ripped.
The satisfying whir of my claws as their architecture blurred to life stripped wires and tore through artificial muscle like a demented surgeon. I disengaged the joint, slurping the confined knowledge of its magnetic utility to immediately reverse the polarity, practically exploding the limb off.
Half of one lower limb clanked to the ground, immediately altering the suit’s center of balance as the other three dragged her weight astray. I resisted the urge to dive deeper, drawing distance as one of her charged railguns struck down and crumbled the concrete underneath us to dust.
We both hopped away from the growing crater, and I could feel the fury in her Warpcode. “You insolent merc!”
She jumped, landing hard enough to fracture the ground even more, but it was clear she hadn’t acclimated to that new center of mass of hers, her bladed limbs swept just above my head.
At least, that’s what I had interpreted until they curved down to reach for the broken limb I’d taken off her. Tiny mechanical grippers sprouted from the severed limb, hoisting the rest of the tech back into place as they soldered and fixated the limb in. Then, strangely, some wash of electricity plopped the broken metal back into shape.
A memory alloy based on electricity? That, I wanted to have.
Even more, I had just realized what her third Function. Self-repair mechanisms could be attributed to some complex Feature Link, but to act that quickly?
She had a Technician Feature.
———
Topaz
Elsewhere, Topaz was yawning as he scooped up information from the seventh Datacube that was scattered here. Nothing on Goliath so far, but damn did he find some juicy secrets that could sell for a quick Shed. The tabloids would have a field day with this!
“Hey, when did we turn this computer on?” One of the researchers leaned over him, blind to the merc inches under his face. If Topaz wanted to get up close and personal with a guy, he was more upfront about it. So then, reaching for one of his Parastims, he struck up and-
“You’d think we’d have better security after moving Goliath here.” The researcher muttered under his breath, and guess who was under his breath?
Topaz twirled the Parastim back into his pockets, a delighted smile on his face. Then, he cocked out his gun.
And shot the researcher straight in the jaw. Obviously, that alerted every other person in the room, so he made quick work of them before moving to extract the loose-tongued researcher’s BUG.
After all, Ripley could just read its memory.