Free Web NovelI ended up sleeping in my workshop. I probably would’ve been fine back at the Crusade Gym, but I dunno. I just felt safe here. It was my own space entirely, and I knew where everything was and should be. The same couldn’t be said for the Crusade’s apartment.
After waking up, and while I waited for my Transporter to open a portal to the Aether, I went through my daily routine. I’d spent enough sleepless nights down here to have a full supply of everything I’d need for the day.
Once that was taken care of, I summoned out Crow’s Canteen of Chaos, and casually sipped at a smoothie. As if they decided I’d had long enough, the interface finally blinked into view.
| Request - The Last Breeze - Completed
-Capture Dorrin Gale(1/1) [100%]
-Kill Dorrin Gale(0/1) [0%]
-Hand Dorrin Gale over to Sentinel(1/1) [100%]
-Eliminate rival mercs [3%]
-Eliminate Tornado Arms Security [36%]
-Steal Tornado Arms Files [13%]
-Complete the job without being noticed too much [78%] |
Not too bad. The elimination part took me a little off guard. For the rival mercs, that was about right. For the security team, though, the interface counted me and Mira destroying most of the weapons as disabling the guards. With the enemies disabled and then killed, it counted that as an assist and gave partial progress.
The Tornado Arms file thing, though, was purely thanks to getting that chip at the very end with Tornado’s secret bases. Luna was working on it last I heard, so no idea if there was anything actually good on there. I had hope I could get some use out of it, though.
Then there was the final objective… it was a little unsettling, to be honest. We went out flashily, ‘course, so we were bound to be noticed. Did that mean that 22% of people saw through it and realized I was behind it? Or did it just mean only 22% of people realized what was going on?
| Reward: 30x Heavy Duty Shutters, 300 EF |
I got my EF investment back. The reward wasn’t too crazy this time around, though the EF was pretty high. The shutters… well, I could go around and reinforce the apartment building now, chek? I’d been meaning to make it a bit more secure, so that works. It’d save me the time to make that stuff.
| Sleight of Hand - 10>11 |
| Leadership - 3>4 |
| Influence - 1>2 |
| Deception - 10>11 |
| Concealment - 9>10 |
Not too bad. Progress was progress, and I actually had a new Perk for the first time in a while. Leadership… wonder what was in that? Maybe boosters for my team if they were following my orders? That might be nice.
I shuffled over to my autominers before doing anything else, and set them to work on a new project—an actual shaft down to my workshop. The way down was incredibly uneven and took me a while to get down so I wouldn’t injure myself. Rocks jutted out, and it was super bumpy since it’s as natural. I wanted space for an actual lift.
I moved the charging ports for the autominers out into the tunnel down, and ran a power cord back to the transformed set up just next to my micro nuclear generator. Once I got everything set up, I let the six legged scarabs get to work.
With that taken care of, I hooked onto the rappel line and moved back up to my speakeasy to water the plants. I shuffled around to the lavender growing off to the side, and carefully sprinkled pure spring water from Crow’s Canteen of Chaos.
Once I was done, I lifted a hand and cupped one of the stems of the calming purple plant. “You’re growing well.”
The lavender plant bobbed around in my hand and almost seemed to rub up against my skin. It was a weak motion, though definitely not just my imagination. I almost pulled away, though in the end forced myself to sit still and just watch the plant.
I’ve noticed it before, but it really was a bit unsettling. Flora’s Daughter, the Trait I wish I’d never gotten, was definitely responsible.
| Flora’s Daughter
-Quick Growth
-Plant Awakening
-Overgrown Mental Defenses |
The Quick Growth naturally made me a good farmer, but it was Plant Awakening that I most worried about. I could see it every time I interacted with the plants I’d been taking care of. They were becoming more and more… awake? Sentient? Sapient? Something like that.
The thought sent an uncomfortable shutter down my spine, just as it did every time I saw the World Tree in the middle of the AEZ. I hadn’t started to grow any other plants yet purely because of Plant Awakening. I didn’t want to accidently create a monster.
Alongside unease, there was a strong sense of curiosity, though. The fear and PTSD around plants had mostly faded with time. Going to see Aaron, my counselor, definitely helped. In its place, I couldn’t help but want to find out the full extent of my capabilities.
I unwillingly patted the top of the lavender with my palm, and then moved onto the next one. While passing by the bar, I flicked on the TV to Aythryn City Live. As could be expected of the largest media company in AC, they’d already sniffed out the story with last night’s raid.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The screamstream played a clip taken directly from my Dragonflies. The clip was during the Firefly swarm attacking the bunker. It took me a little off guard to see my own tech featured on a channel. Right, Saint was with Inverse, chek? So was ACL. They must’ve collaborated.
“As you can see, there was a mass deployment of an incendiary drone swarm over the harbor late last night.” The newscaster finally spoke up after a while of watching the drone swarm. “The tech used is unknown, and our investigators found no remnants to track back. The sheer numbers involved indicated either an extremely wealthy group, or a large corporation made a move.”
Heh, wrong on both accounts. Unless—could I be considered extremely wealthy? Probably not. That did wipe out all of my Fireflies. It’d take me forever to restock them, not to mention how long it’ll take me to remake my thermite compound and fill them all up again. What a pain.
”If you know anything about this, come find me? There’s plenty of people that are interested in buying this kind of tech.” The screamstream anchor smirked, and nodded back to the clip.
“A politico finally being hit instead of us laymen brings tears to my eyes.”” The screamstream zoomed in on a particularly brutal part where a guard took a dozen of my Fireflies to his torso. The thermite destroyed his weapons, and melted deep into his armor. “Damages to Councilman Treyark’s compound have been estimated to be around fifty-seven million.
“Woah.” I paused mid-step and looked back toward the TV. 57 mil? For a job that only paid out 20 mil—oh wait, I didn't even get paid. Maybe I’m in the wrong business. If I made and sold security tech, wouldn’t that be so much more lucrative?
“Not enough damage if you ask me.” The newscaster let the clip play out for a while, and then it swapped to an orderly man in a fancy suit. “Councilman Treyark, the owner of the island, had this to say when asked to comment.”
“I will find the terrorist scum responsible for this, and bring them to justice. We haven’t and never will condone terroristic acts in our great city, nor should you.” The councilman stared right at the camera. “If you know anything, come forward and let’s bring this scum down together.”
Riiiight. Terroristic acts? Like, say, launching a bunch of missiles at a Medtech Medevac? Or, I dunno, turning your island into a bloodbath? Pretty sure the mercs he put in place to take out Dorrin killed way more people than any of us did. Not to mention it was under Treyark’s orders from what Saint could pierce together.
But, of course, the media would never report just how twisted and treacherous Treyark actually was. Why would they? It was all our, the terrorists, fault… Though, to be fair, most of the infrastructure damage was actually because of us.
“I shouldn't have to tell you, dear viewers, the irony of Treyark wanting to find terrorists. The councilman’s been linked to payoffs from several Savant labs since he took office six years ago. I truly can’t understand how he was reelected to take office.” The caster sighed heavily. Maybe I was wrong? ACL was kinda down to earth.
The screamstream changed to a zoomed in video of the Medevac flying over the bay, and then exploding. “Tornado Arms CEO Dorrin Gale is assumed killed in the chaos last night. As you can see, the Medevac moving him was blown out of the sky last night. Medtech had this to say.”
The video changed to a Medtech representative in clean white clothing. She had a pretty face, but there wasn’t much about her that actually stood apart. “Two nights ago, at approximately twenty three hundred, a Medevac was stolen. We suspect the stolen Medevac was used to kidnap CEO Gale. We are not involved in any way with last night’s tragedy.”
”Theories abound, but the prevailing one is Medtech’s cutting their tail.” The screamstream snapped back to the moment before the Medevac blew up. “Naturally, they don’t want to admit they failed to extract a VVIP. Better to claim someone stole a Medevac and made a play. On a completely unrelated note, they didn’t contact the Crusade about the stolen property.”
Woah, ACL was, like, totally backing me up right here. So far everything they’d said was leading people to other conclusions than a small merc team pulled everything off.
The video clip froze, and then rewound to play back through key moments once more. “Here at ACL, though, we subscribe to a different idea. The ghost idea. Although it's well hidden, there’s enough clues that indicate a Medevac might actually have been stolen by an elite team of spooks and everything was part of their plan. It’s crazy, but if it’s true? We might be seeing the rise of more legends here in Aythryn City.”
My praises for Aythryn City Live immediately cut off, and I stared at the TV. Now why’d he have to go and say that? Ugh… seriously, why couldn’t he just let sleeping dogs lie? I shut off the TV and moved around to finish watering. I couldn’t sit around any longer. I had a ton of work to do.
I moved back down into my workshop, and carefully dodged the autominers beaming away the stone and bedrock into molten slag. It was about time I finished my armor for Nightshade.
About halfway through working on the boots, Mira dropped down behind me. “Warn a girl next time? I was ‘bout cut in half.”
“But you weren’t, were you?” I glanced back over my shoulder. She had on a baggy sweater that dipped low over her collarbone and shoulder. “You look comfy.”
“Today’s a relax day, isn’t it?” She smirked, and adjusted the sweater slightly. “You look noticeably uncomfortable.”
“Why?” I had on the same clothes that I usually had on. Tech pants, a jacket, and baseball cap. “My clothes are nice?”
Her nose curled up, and she shook her head. “We really need to go shopping.”
I looked at my clothes, and pulled at the fabric. “What’s wrong with this?”
”What isn’t?” She sighed, and rubbed at her head. “Whatcha working on?”
”Boots.” I turned back to the boots I’d just been putting the final pieces into. They had a retractable heel that I could use to easily adjust my height on the fly and make me look way taller.
“Weird.” She leaned over and dropped her head onto my shoulder to check them out. “Figured you’d be cooking up some new weapon of mass destruction.”
“Not everything I make has to be a killer, okay?” I’d actually prefer it if the stuff I made didn’t kill anyone. I was trying to have less blood on my hands, right?
Something in my voice made her pause, and she pulled back to look at me. ”Does it really bother you?”
“… a bit.” freewebnσvel.cѳm
She nodded her head, and went silent for a few moments to think. “Then why don’t you start making tech to save or better lives instead? It seems pretty simple, no?”
She… might have a point. I was just used to making weapons and utility stuff. Most of my prints and focus had been on that kind of thing since day one with the Sentinel prints. What would I even do with that kind of stuff, though?
Wait, never mind. It must be Stupid Shiro’s day to take the reins. I could totally sell that kind of stuff through Cold Moon, couldn’t I? So far, the only actual product I had was the Roughriders, and I was about to sign that over to Sentinel. What if I changed my flagship products to making stuff that’d protect people and better the lives of those that used them? I could sell them incredibly cheap too, since my supply line was through Transmutation.
I’d been conflicted on what I wanted to sell through Cold Moon. I wanted to live up to my grandpa’s dream with the company. Back then, they’d sold chrome and that kind of thing to help people better their lives. I didn’t really want to turn around and then turn Cold Moon Solutions into a gun manufacturing corp.
Right, if my tech saved a thousand lives, then I might not feel so bad when I have to kill someone, too. Where would I even start, though? I put down the boots, and pulled out my sketchbook as a few ideas started to come to mind.
Mira chuckled softly, and headed back toward the way up. “Remember to eat something, Shiro.”
”Chek chek.” I waved over my shoulder and started to workshop a new kind of product.
