The next morning I awoke alone again, it's odd I was such a loaner in my past life and now I can't stand it. A big stretch and I was off finding my wives in my office talking to Carly I waved and they waved back and I went for coffee and food.
Getting seated I heard snippets of their conversation with more than one boy's name and I cringed and stayed out of the conversation their moms had it under control. I sat patiently till they finished and joined me at the table and I guess I had a look on my face and Lisa caught it.
"Don't worry Carly found a boy and this one likes her. I guess it got out who her father is and the boys changed their minds" Lisa giggled.
"Please keep in touch with her closely. Human kids can be cruel without even knowing." They both nodded at that. We just have to be there for her when she needs us if she ever comes home, but I'm glad she is there instead of here. The ship could be boring for her," another set of nods.
"We talk every day so don't worry there, she is open with me," Cora said she said with a smile.
"Keep me up to date with the boy's issue please," I said with a grimace and got a hug from each. "what are the plans for the day" trying to lighten the mood and getting shrugs so I checked and saw my brother Shaun was onboard so I left the girls and made my way there.
I found him walking between quarters with his hands full "Shelly wants an extra bedroom for when the girls visit".
"Excellent, I like to hear that. It's the family I'm here about. Do you want to take the family and their friends to the park? I will let you set any limits you see best. I want to see them get here before it gets too busy." He smiled at that.
"Sure we have everyone's number since they have the comm units," Shaun said and Vickey appeared "You welcome" then disappeared with us laughing.
"is there anything I should know Shaun said and I shook my head
"no nothing like that i just think it would be fun and you can have get-togethers for the families," I said with a smile
"that it will be brother" Shaun nodded "Are you going to make an appearance?" he said with a look.
"I may just keep me informed ok" he nodded at that and looked at his old quarters and all his possessions were hovering and now following him. "I have drones for that"
Shelly squeezed by a box in the doorway and came to us laughing "Stop scaring me with those things they still freak me out when they come out to clean"
"I was just asking Shaun if he wants to guide tours of the park to the family" Her eyes lit up and I looked at Shaun "Are you going to learn to fly the larger ships for this mission?"
"I may rely on Sara for that for a while yet but I'm getting up to speed," he said with a smile "What do you mean by limits?"
"If they bring 20 people, they are responsible for them, those kinds of limits," I said with a smile, and he nodded. We chatted briefly, hammered out the details, and then parted ways.
I got back to my office and got a coffee as Vicky appeared “Thank you for making sure the family got the gauntlets”
” You welcome Brad but down to business. The military of the US and Canada are getting nervous for some reason, they have it in their heads you have war machines” she said laughing “They have no idea of our capabilities and they are spooked. You realize it’s going to take a show for them to realize what they are dealing with” I looked at her shocked “I’m not talking about taking on North Korea but you could help someone holding their line in the sand against the bad guys”
”I’m guessing something is going on right now,” I said as she nodded.
” There is always something going on, the hardest part is which one to pick. I wonder if we should go with a public or private with this my opinion is private till we work out the kinks” I nodded and she looked away while she worked.
”I think I have one” then she screwed up her face “Never mind there are too many clans involved, it would be better if it were a 50/50 fight or just plain bullying. There are always the drug manufacturers”
I looked at Vickey “We need to get a plan in place for when their way of life is interrupted, that is a good long-term plan though”
”I have one sir, for real this time, there is a group hell-bent on taking the valley they are in and they just started a few hours ago. They have disbanded the police and the people are defenseless against their firepower. I’m reading that they are killing people as they go and they are taking the kids as slaves”.
” That’s not going to happen” I shot back. “Where are they now” Vickey brought up a hologram showing them at a small town and there were 3 more in their path. “What is the eta to the next town”?
”About 90 minutes at their current rate”
”Send bots and ships to evacuate that village for their safety, make sure they explain why they are being moved. How long to evacuate them”?
”There are 476 people there so it should be done within an hour,” she said and I nodded.
” I guess I should suit up” I collected kisses and went to the armoury. There I found my armor was ready for me to go but it had jungle camouflage now. “Can’t I just cloak the armor”?
”yes but this looks better in case you're not, I’m not taking any chances” I nodded as I climbed onboard.
I adjusted my heads-up display and reduced it to just my map location. “What is the fastest way down” I asked then within seconds I was falling. I went into a glide as I entered the atmosphere “One question, I’ve never landed like this before so what am I in for”?
”I didn’t train you for this yet so I will take control when we are close”. I knew she had it under control so I relaxed. My arms came in front, thrusters in my wrists and ankles popped out, slowed me down to a crawl, and landed.
”when did the ability to fly get added” I asked and got a laugh.
“B tapped into the power from the crystal, you can’t fly but it can take you in for a soft landing, you lose the ability when they retract”
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I looked around and saw people being evaluated and they seemed ok with it, I could see some stressed faces. My sensors went off as a truck pulled up, I zoomed in and saw them looking through binoculars then they left, scouts I’m assuming.
“Sir they are pushing their equipment so eta is about 26 minutes, they must have been tipped off by someone in the village”.
”that makes sense they would know people in the valley, what am I looking at for firepower from them”.
”they have 3 older Russian tanks and the usual barrage of guns and rockets, nothing to worry about”.
I wandered over to a house and had a seat "Keep an eye open for them I'm going to do some paperwork while I'm waiting, how many drones do we have here for me to use"?
"You have 10 on your suit and I have 22 more on-site if you need them," Vickey said with a smile as she popped up on my HUD. "the ones on your suit have the new weapons that render people unconscious that C designed, they just overload the nervous system and you just drop like a stone. We are probably going to be using them on the moon and I bet the police could use them" I nodded at that.
We were going over hacking the drug dealers when the trucks pulled up then the tanks showed up and stopped 400 meters away and sighted their guns. I sent a drone to collect data and found there were 46 of them in total, 2 in each tank and the rest pilled out of trucks.
I looked at Vickey "So if I decloak they can't get to me"
she started to laugh "I was there for the testing, unless they have a nuke you will be fine".
"ok let's do this" I decloaked and stepped out from behind a house they must have been waiting because I got a tank round to the chest and Vickey was right, all I saw was a light show. This is a good thing because it was followed by 3 more and I think there was a RPG as well. This went on for about 5 min till they stopped and waited for the smoke to clear leaving me standing there unscathed.
"Vickey hack their communications and see if you can find me a leader" I instantly heard a single voice giving orders and it was coming from the second tank so I made my way there. Bullets hit my shields and stopped dead and fell, the shields must pull the kinetic energy from the shells. "Vickey sedate everyone except for this tank" The gunfire came to an end as the leader was screaming into the radio getting no replies.
I started to dig into the tank ripping off armor and getting me closer to the occupants, I had to laugh because he was getting more frantic the deeper I got. Using a cutting laser got me access to get my fingers between the tank and the turret and pulled for all the armor could muster ripping it open and exposing the occupants.
He looked at me with the radio in his hands and a look on his face that made me smile, a drone grabbed him and lifted him out of the tank screaming and trying to hold on. Hovering in front of me I looked into his eyes as he urinated himself "Your men can't help you now it's just you and me"
"my father will hunt you down and deal with you" Really I get the self-entitled prick who doesn't know when he is beaten.
I left him hovering there as I messed up the tanks and pushed them off the road so the villagers wouldn't have them in their way. During this time his men were coming around so I looked at my hostage. "tell your men to drop their guns and leave, they have 3 minutes" I watched as they grabbed each other loaded up in the vehicles and left.
"What of me" he said in broken English.
"Now we go visit your father and deal with this right now" I brought up a map of the valley "Show me where he is, don't make me suck the info right from your brain its rather unpleasant". He pointed at the map and urinated again "Is this guy a water balloon" I thought to myself and Vickey giggled.
Accessing the drones I instructed 2 of them to pick me up to start the trip. I had my passenger floating in front of me and I made sure to activate a distortion field that messes with your equilibrium to make the ride as unpleasant as possible and it must have worked because he was puking within minutes.
As we approached the house I started scanning and was appalled at what I found. It seems Daddy was in the slave trade and the evidence of rape and torture made my blood boil as I landed at the front door and dropped my passenger flat on his back on the deck and trapped him under a shield so he couldn't go anywhere.
The door opened to a man and woman "Are you the parents of this piece of shit". They ran to him and tried to touch him getting stopped by the shields, I dropped it long enough to snare Mom and Dad. "Vickey sedate every person you can find except these 3". There were 4 men with guns trained on me dropped for no apparent reason.
"I want to own every electronic device within 100 meters and get a med ship en route with enough beds for the victims". I bent over and got face to face with Dad "It seems you deal pain and suffering and as of now you are out of business" I shrank the dome they were under pinning them to each other I saw the puddle forming under the father as he watched the ship land and dozens of robots stepped out and retrieved their profits disappear into the ship.
"Vickey who wants these slimebags the most," I said allowing them to hear as I watched their eyes get wide.
"Interpol would be the best bet, I will look for a contact," she said out loud and the slime family started to freak out "It's on your comm sir" so I dialed.
After about 10 min I finally got the person I needed to talk to "Yes sir I can have them in Germany in under an hour" he asked about the noise "It's just the family complaining, I'm letting them listen in. There was snickering on the line till they gave me an address to deliver them.
"Vickey do you have their phones under our control" She appeared and nodded "Send messages to everyone on their contact lists and tell everyone there is a fire sale and everyone is under investigation. Go back over their messages and make them sound authentic". She read the messages out loud as the slime family started to complain and cry. It seems they are sick of this lifestyle and have decided to turn themselves in according to the messages.
Vickey made 3 cells on the ship, just very small forcefield rooms for them to sit and wait. I dismounted my armor and looked at them "You're lucky this isn't up to me because I would like to leave you here for the bugs to eat" Getting shocked looks made me smile.
We finished collecting the victims and took to the skies on our way to Germany. We found the address and landed outside an office building with people waiting for us. bringing them onboard to collect them. standing in front of them I handed over the phones and a hard drive with enough proof to put them away for a long while.
An older man looked at me "How did you come by this"
I smiled "Do you want on the record or off the record"
"on the record sir," said the same man.
"Well, I was rendering aid to a village that was in the son's path when all the legal stuff happened. They presented themselves and wanted to turn themselves in and wanted to send one final text so I let them. they gave me their phones and gave up, that's when I contacted you".
They just looked at me with a questioning look "And off the record"?
"We shut down their operation and sent messages to their contacts telling them they are on the radar so it's time to get out and run for the hills," I said with a smile.
Another man stepped up "Why are you doing this"?
"It needed to be done. All his victims are onboard and safe, I will return who I can and the rest I will give homes" I said getting nods from the rest of the crowd. "you have enough information to put them away for a long time in a not so nice place"
The first man smiled "Oh I will make sure of that". He looked at them and they looked scared and rightly so.
We landed on the ship and Vickey already contacted the twins so I brought them up to speed. "We can look for their parents but I'm scared those monsters were killing people randomly". We decided to wake up the older ones hoping they could help with the younger ones and we were right, after the shock wore off they were all willing to help knowing they were safe now.
getting back to my office Vickey appeared "That compound was under surveillance by a bunch of different agencies to the point of having drone footage of you in action. That family was slimy beyond slimy, I sent more than one government official one of the messages. BTW I like the cover story you gave".
"Yea maybe we can use it a few times before they bitch" I laughed
She looked at me with an evil grin "So is this going to be your new hobby, busting bad guys in your spare time"
I laughed "I can see myself having to do it a few more times before it gets out. Now that they have footage of my toys we will have to see how the agencies act"
Vickey looked away for a second then a video of me at work popped up and I was amazed at the quality. "If this gets out your going to have to go to a Comic-Con in your suit just to piss them off" she laughed.
I just shook my head and went to my wives and relaxed for the evening.