NABC Chapter 398
Chapter 398
“Hey.” Mira yawned loudly and approached my worktable. She’d spent all of last night playing and running around the Underground with the set of power armor I made her. I thought Uncle Ezra was going to have a heart attack. “Sup.” I glanced at her, and then focused back on the micro electronic I was working on. I closed my flesh eye and my chrome one zoomed in, magnifying everything.
”You’re up early.” She stretched out, and shuffled over to me. “By the way, the hot water’s out in the room I stayed in.”
Great, something more I would need to fix. Since I owned the apartment building now, it was easy enough to set up everyone with temporary rooms. The rooms came pre-furnished considering the beds were built into the walls and the couches into the floors. Only Mira and Luna took me up on my offer.
I paused what I was doing, and idly tapped on the circuit board. Might be worth it to pay for a total revamp of the place from professionals first. I had my own ideas naturally, but they could be implemented afterward.
Mira dragged a chair over to me, and sat in it backward with her arms propped up on the backrest. She dropped her head onto her arms, and stared at me through the golden strands of her hair. “What time did you go to sleep?”
”I didn’t.” There was way too much on my mind to go to sleep. I decided to just stay up and get stuff done. I’d been working on the armor for Nightshade all night while thinking about what I wanted to do with the bounty.
“Ugh, Shiro.” Her halo pulsed, and her cheeks blew up into a soft pout that was at total odds with her muscular arms. “You’re never going to grow if you keep pushing off sleep.”
”I’m not a toddler.” I huffed, and pushed her chair away with my foot. Like I’d fall for that type of lie. Sides, I’d been taking constant measurements. It appeared like I was at my limit…
Mira looked like she was going to say something, and then seemed to think better of it at the last moment. Instead, she reached for something on the work table. “What’s this—?”
I slapped her hand away just before she could grab the half-finished gauntlet. “Don’t touch that.”
”Why not?” Though she asked, she did retract her hand. “Why are you putting claws on it? Won’t that mess with your finger dexterity?”
I pushed what I was working on away, and carefully grabbed the clawed gauntlet. She was right, of course. I realized that too back when I actually started building the piece of armor. I hit a switch on the bottom side, and the claws retracted back into the top of the finger. “Not like this they won’t.”
”Cool, cool…” Mira’s head sagged onto her arms once more. “What's with the claws though? Isn’t your usual style sitting in the back and pew-pewing?”
“Chek.” That was why I was fully changing up my style for Nightshade. Not to mention I now had the menacing katana, Panther’s Fang. “Speaking of, I might need your help a bit.”
”Sure, sure. Anything you need.” She didn’t even hesitate. Her eyes never left my new claws, though. “They seem a little lackluster. I can’t imagine you’ll be doing much damage with that kind of weapon.”
Instead of answering directly, I plugged the gauntlet into a power cell, and slid it on. I flexed my hand so the claws shoot out once more. With all the prep taken care of, I hit a second button, and brilliant red plasma jets shot out along the claws.
The bright red plasma claws extended much further than the metal claws of the gauntlet. The metal had an important job as a guideline, though. Air hissed where it met the supercharged jets of energy, and the surrounding area seemed dimmer from just how bright it was. I curled my fingers slightly, and the plasma jets followed.
“Woah… isn’t this supposed to feel super hot?” Mira, in a move of absolute faith in my tech, stretched out a hand near the jets of plasma. “I can barely feel anything.”
“It’s all held in a projected magnetic field.” The tech in just one finger was more complex then the entire thermal katana I repaired for Torren back in the day. I passed her a piece of metal from an earlier model of the gauntlet. “Toss this.”
”If you say so.” She rolled back further away from me and tossed the hunk of metal out toward me.
I slashed forward with the gauntlet. The plasma claws instantly sliced through the metal in a spray of molten metal. A couple drops of it splashed onto my unprotected arm, and sizzled uncomfortably for a moment. A small frown crossed my face, and I shut the claws off. There was still quite a bit of work ahead of me.
”Wicked.” She rolled back to me and eyed the gauntlet. “You could seriously mess someone up with that.”
”I designed them as more of an auxiliary tool, really.” I pulled the gauntlet off, and checked my hand. Despite the plasma shooting out from the top of the gauntlet, my hand stayed perfectly cool throughout. “For opening things if I didn’t have time to get in discretely.”
”For opening I think is what you meant to say.” Mira chuckled and shook her head. “You should add a dial to adjust the length, then. Or set it up so you can only have one activate at a time? Will you have enough room in your control pad?”
”That’s all future stuff.” I was already planning all of that, anyway. I motioned to the buttons on the bottom side of the gauntlet. “That’s just for the prototype. I’ll write code for it later, and have it directly interface into my chrome.”
Of course, for that I’d need to add several external processors so I wouldn’t overload my NSI. That shouldn’t be too big of a problem though. I had some runner tech in mind now after the hit on Artoras Construction, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to set something like that up.
“Ah, right. My bad.” She nodded her head casually, and turned her attention to the mostly finished helmet and chest plate. “You making boots too?”
”I haven’t gotten around to them yet.” I’d been distracted while working. My mind just kept wandering to the Sentinel contract on Tornado’s CEO.
Honestly, I didn’t want to go for it. That wasn’t because I didn’t want revenge or anything, but rather I didn’t want to play into Sentinel’s hands. It was more of a small rebellion against being controlled than anything.
As much as I felt hesitant to go about it, though, I was definitely going to make a move. I couldn't just sit back and watch. Not after what they’d done to Mira. I still found her mindlessly scratching at her chrome on occasion. Nael used a stronger synthskin around the metal last time she went for a checkup, or she’d likely end up bleeding quite often.
So whether or not I was going wasn’t an option. I had larger concerns—like whether or not I’d outright flatline the man once I got the opportunity. Or even how we were going to go about this. I’d read the files Brunhilde gave me. This was going to be borderline impossible without some exceptionally craft planning.
Dorrin Gale, the CEO, wasn’t coming to Aythryn City unprepared. He was bringing practically an army with him. Private escorts, heavy flyers for transport, over a dozen named mercs—he had it all. More than any of that, though, I was concerned about one man in particular.
Rodrigo ‘Tex’ Silvershot. Fake name probably, but he was a well known figure around the south central where Tornado tended to operate. He was a top class mercenary, with a reputation to be feared and revered. Dorrin hired the best when it came to his retinue this time around.
Tex’s reputation was actually kinda good, so I had no idea why he’d agree to go with Tornado after they were just exposed for running a Savant lab. The guy was known as the southern peacekeeper, and it was said his accuracy and skill with guns rivaled even the previous holder of the interface. All of that naturally, at that, without buffs from the eidolons. Getting past him wouldn’t be easy, let alone any of the other security.
I dropped what I was working with, and leaned back in my chair with a heavy sigh. That wasn’t even mentioning external sabotage and competition. Sentinel had given the hit out to a wide swathe of mercs. There was a good chance every merc in the city might try to gun for the CEO. When he finally arrived in the city, it’d be like the unbeatable army versus the endless horde.
“What do you think, Mira?” I asked her softly.
She immediately got what I was asking about. I’d forwarded all the information we had to her after we got done testing her armor last night. The girl stared at the ground with her jaw clenched tightly. “Do you think it’s possible?”
”That’s not what I was asking.” Even if it was impossible, which it certainly felt like, I still had some ways I might be able to pull together a plan. “What do you think?”
”I…” Her head drooped, and the halo dimmed. Her finger traced a part of the Shift ExoCore that stuck out of her skin. “He… he wasn’t the one who did this to me. Probably isn’t even the one that ordered it. I doubt a CEO would be that plugged into operations in a city on the other side of the FSA.”
“So…?”
”So…” She rubbed a hand roughly against the metal sticking out of the back of her arm. She looked up to me, and appeared the most fragile I’d seen her since just after I pulled her out of the lab. “I would like some closure.”
“Chek.” That was all I needed to hear. Likewise, it seemed to be all the eidolons needed to hear. A second later, the interface popped up.
| Request - The Last Breeze - Received
-Capture Dorrin Gale(0/1)
-Kill Dorrin Gale(0/1)
-Hand Dorrin Gale over to Sentinel(0/1)
-Eliminate rival mercs
-Eliminate Tornado Arms security
-Steal Tornado Arms files
-Complete the job with reduced presence |
Mira shot out a hand, and lightly grabbed my shoulder. “Only if it’s possible, though. I don’t want to risk for something that happened in the past. It’s not worth it.”
“Of course.” I was worried about it too… my planning abilities—I had full faith in them, ‘course. Sure, the last job ran into a few hiccups. That was just some growing pains, though. This one couldn’t have any issues. Not with all that was riding on the line.
If I screwed this up even the slightest bit, or if something out of my control went wrong, we’d get torn to pieces. Not only by Tornado’s defensive forces, but also by the other mercs attracted by the hit. The ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ rule didn’t apply in this situation.
I checked the request again. The first, second, and third objectives were all very achievable. Eliminating rival mercs and Tornado security, though? Not so much. Especially if I wanted to achieve the last goal. Naturally, I did. Even without that being part of the request, I’d want to go mostly unnoticed anyway. There was safety in anonymity.
I worked on the gauntlet for a couple more hours while I tried to make a plan. A lot of ideas had promise, but I kept working and refining them while my hands stayed busy. By the time I finished the gauntlet, Mira left for the gym. Luna had come down at some point, and was hard at work typing away on a deck.
I pushed myself away from the table, and mutely headed up to the speakeasy with my notebook to start finalizing ideas. At the same time, I pulled open the EF Shop and scrolled down to an entry that I hadn’t thought much of the first time I saw it.
| EF Shop - 401 |
| Viper’s Scheme - 75
-Buy a perssonalized scheme sssuited for every occassion. Sssatissfaction guaranteed. Viper, the Queen of Scheme, will personally craft the plan. |
After hesitating for a moment, I hit purchase. I confident in my own skills, but I wouldn't mind having a bit of help with the plan this time around. There was too much riding on this to have a slip up.
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AN: I’m super excited for this one. This was the final arc I had planned to wrap a bunch of stuff up. It ended up being a bit different than usual, but I kinda liked it for its uniqueness in terms of Outrun? Well, you’ll see.