Lost Rain
patreon
Outrun - Chapter 273
🕑 Added 2025-07-07 22:04:01 +0000 UTC“It’s ready.” Saint’s voice called from my phone.
I wiped sweat from my face, leaning away from a klept motorcycle in the speakeasy. I’d gotten it all stripped down to its basic frame. Now it was just like putting a super complicated puzzle together, one that was three dimensional… progress was coming though.
”Chek. I’ll get ready… you have the deck?” I asked. The deck was the lynchpin in this whole set up. I’d spent nearly fifteen thousand Rayn on a fairly high end one
”Courier is bringing it to the gym.” Saint went silent for a few moments. The sounds of a mouse clicking came from his end. “You sure you can get the Crusade to move?”
I tossed the grease rag onto my work table and rubbed my hands on my pants. “You aren’t the only one with connections. I’ll get us moving. Sides—I might not even need to plant evidence.”
”Fair, fair…” Saint sighed. “Well, good look then. Let me know how it all goes once its over?”
“Course… assuming you tell me how the article is going. This will all be pointless if no one even sees it.”
He chuckled. It sounded genuinely warm, though that could be said for his voice in general. “Trust me. It’ll be seen. I managed to get a manager in the Inverse Corporation to promote it. City of Sorrow’s newest article is guaranteed to get traction.”
Inverse Corporation… that was a major media corp, if I wasn’t mistaken. The major media corp across all of the Arkhanikas, at least. A bit like ASCorp in that it was just too specialized and small to be one of the Big 7, but it was a near thing. “That's your site?”
”City of Sorrows? Yeah… What do you think? Nova name, right?”
”Chek.” He mentioned it twice now, so I figured. Named after his old band, eh? Why did he quit to become a reporter? I guess it was still part of the whole media business, but it was a bit of an odd change in direction.
Man, I really should’ve looked into Saint a bit more than I had. I’d just been so focused on getting this all sorted out that it slipped my mind. After the raid I’ll check him out. See if his band really was as famous as he says.
“After this- Big Mike’s? Be easier in person.” He asked.
“Fine with me. Assuming it all goes well.” That was a big concern. We were basically socially engineering one of the Big 7. There was a not so small chance this went a different way than we planned and blew up in our faces.
“Trust the process. We didn’t go through all of this trouble for no reason.” Saint was a still an ever-present shining beacon of positivity.
”If you say so.” I shuffled over to a different work table and snagged the black book I grabbed from the tie-dye gang. The ink should be dry by now.
“I do. Good luck, kid.”
”Thanks.” I hung up and pulled out my Crusade phone to dial up Hope’s number. “Hey.”
”What’s up?” The sounds of gunfire came from her side.
Was she in a fight? “You- you good?”
“Firing range.” She went silent for several moments. The sounds of the shots abruptly cut off. “So?”
“I got a lead on that gunrunner group. My source managed to get their black book to me.” I flipped open said black book, looking through it. The cipher was easy to figure out. Then, with that done, it was even easier to forge everything I needed to make it look like Lance was way more involved than just a one time client.
“And?”
I stepped out of the speakeasy, heading for my bike. I also sent her the deets about one Lance Brittlesmith. ”And I need some help. It links back to a doctor from Medtech. One of their execs.”
“That- that complicates things.” Hope sighed. I could envision her rubbing a hand across her face. “I’ll talk to the commander.”
The commander? ”Ligh? Do we need him for this?”
“Crusade Policy. Anything that involves one of the Big 7 has to go through the commander… I’m sure it won’t be an issue though.” She spoke to someone else briefly before talking to me again. ”Meet me at the HQ in a couple hours?”
“Chek.” I needed to go get my Crusade gear anyway. And the deck. Couldn’t forget that one. If the blackbook was what made the crusade move, then the deck would make Medtech move. It was literally the smoking gun that’d make it seem like Lance was a traitor.
Saint set the article and deck up in such a way that he ‘accidentally’ leaked the ‘source’ for his information on Medtech’s internal operations. The source linked to the deck, which had been doctored to fit the doctor. If we were too obvious with it, they’d be suspicious. It was all very subtle, and working off the assumption that Medtech would be very interested in a deck someone under investigation had.
Like I said though, if this worked out how we wanted? Bye bye Mr. Lance Brittlesmith.
— — —
It wasn’t just Hope as I walked into the briefing room. Joshua and Dev were here, standing against the back wall. It wasn’t just our group either. Four Knights stood around the briefing table with Hope at the head of it. They had a blueprint pulled up on the holographic table. Looked like Lance’s house?
”Squire Zuku, you’re here. The book?” Hope asked me, stretching out her hand.
I pulled it out of my bag and tossed it over. “Big group?”
”Yeah.” Hope tossed the book to a technician off to the side of the room and clapped her hands. Everyone’s attention snapped to her. “Here’s the deal- the commander got us a no-knock warrant. We’re blitzing the perp before he can destroy any evidence…though there’s a chance he already knows we’re coming. Non-lethal, though force is authorized.”
One of the Knights stuck out their hand. “You said the perp was with Medtech?”
”Affirmative. Expect light guards. Our Netrunners already got into his house’s systems though, so we just have to worry about the human element.” Hope replied.
Honestly, the human element wouldn’t be too much of a problem either. From what I saw of his guards when checking him out, they were all chromed. Should be easy enough for the Netrunners to take care of them too. Not to mention there wasn’t much that could be an actual threat to a group of Crusaders.
“Target is in Elysium. We’re going in with a Waymaker to completely bypass their security.” Hope motioned up. “Pilot awaits us up top. Any more questions?”
”What about the perp himself? Is he going to be home?” Another Knight asked.
”No. Another Squad is going to invite him in for questioning. No family either. Should just be guards and maids.” She motioned toward the map again. “Try not to break anything? Please? The house is still Medtech property.”
The other Knights voiced their concerns, but it was a pretty short meeting all things considered. I had a feeling it was super rushed. Probably concerned about a Medtech spy being in the Crusade.
We were up the elevator and on the Waymaker within thirty minutes of my arrival to the Blue Crusade. Shortly after that we were on our way to the target just as Saint and I planned.
— — —
The Waymaker dropped, falling onto the mansion’s lawn. Plants and shrubs were absolutely totaled as the heavy bulk of the flyer fell on them. The hatch of the Waymaker slammed down, letting out the pack of Knights.
They charged out, Squires following closely behind. In mere moments, the Waymaker cleared out of everyone but Hope, Dev, Joshua, and I. The strike squad was out and in full force.
I followed out behind them and adjusted the headset I’d been given. Perimeter guards were out, staring at us uncertainly. One of the Knights stepped forward. “Official Blue Crusade business! Surrender! On your knees! Hands behind your back!”
Hesitation was evident in the posture of the guards. As soon as one gave in though, the rest would follow. I flickered Fear the Reaper from behind the Knights. The bulky guard I targeted shuddered, turning into a trembling leaf. Fear the Reaper was fully charged up by the death’s of the cult members. It was a serious force to reckon with.
The guard hit the ground hard, knees digging into the synthetic grass of the lawn. His eyes were fully dilated, staring at us in absolute horror. With the fall of one, the rest followed. The perimeter security fell apart in mere moments of us showing up.
The Knight’s stormed the rest of the mansion, spreading out to clear it room by room. Hope called out from behind me. “Dev, go with Zuku to the second floor. Joshua, stay with me on the first. We’re looking for any kind of evidence linking Brittlesmith's misdeeds.”
Dev nodded and stepped up to me. “Anywhere in particular?”
”Uh- office? Might be a hidden safe somewhere.” It was stereotypical at least. To be fair, it was one of the best places to hide a safe.
We entered the mansion. All around the entryway, people were sat down and cuffed with zip ties. Most of the guards had chrome, so they could probably break out of them without much effort. Still, it was the symbol that mattered
One of the Knights nodded at us as he stood up a group of them. “Move it out to the lawn. With any luck, you’ll be released within a few hours!”
A couple of groans came from around the entry hall. The maids in particular looked more annoyed than anything. Surprisingly, there was very little resistance. It seemed Lance didn’t inspire much loyalty in his employees.
We moved up the stairs to the office. It was locked, but that was easy enough to bypass with a quick pulse of Technical Expertise.
The office itself was an impressive space. Everything was ornate and gold inlaid. There was more wealth in this one room than most people in Aythryn City would ever have in their life. I was so, so very tempted to pull out my Transporter and shove everything in. If I wasn’t with the Crusade…
Dev moved to check the bookcases while I slid over to the desk’s chair. I looked through it briefly, finding a bunch of documents that I couldn’t care less about. Employee contracts and such. I activated Hidden Hands, pulling out the fake deck from my bag. “Found something.”
Dev stopped pulling out random books from the shelf. “Yeah?”
I tossed it onto the desk. ”Deck. Maybe the runners can get into it?”
“Probably… think there’s anything on it?” He asked.
“It was in a locked drawer, so maybe?” I lied. ”You find anything?”
Dev motioned to the shelf. I thought he was just bored and messing around, but it seemed he really did notice something. “This shelf is weird… The dimensions for this room are off from the blueprint?”
I thought through the space. He was right. There was something off up here. “Did you see a door to the left on the way in?”
”No? Hmm… hidden room, maybe?” I stood up from the desk and checked out the bookshelf. I casually tapped around it. For the most part- ah, wait. A pulse moved through the shelf, highlighting several components that stood out. There were slight grooves below the shelf too. Definitely a hidden door.
I followed a wire down the wall through the floor. It led back to the desk. Did I miss something? I opened a few drawers, finding a hidden panel in the locked drawer I ‘found’ the incriminating deck in. I pulled it up to reveal a number and fingerprint combo. High end too. Would be a pain to get through by myself. Good thing I wasn’t by myself.
”Overwatch?” I called out into the headset. “I got a number pad. Suspected hidden room.”
”Roger.” One of the Netrunner replied. After a few moments, they got back to me. “One of the Knights is coming up to jack in.”
A few minutes later, a Knight entered the room. “Where?”
”Here.”
The Knight moved over to the desk and fiddled around with the lock. Within moments, the hidden door behind the bookshelves activated. The bookshelf slid up out of the way, revealing a vault door.
The vault door looked similarly high end, with facial, retina, finger print, and what looked like fingerprint scanners blocking the way. Looked like Lance went all in to keep whatever was in there safe.
The Knight moved over to the vault and jacked into the pad. This time, it took way longer for the Netrunners to get in. Nearly thirty minutes. The thing must’ve had some serious ICE to keep them out for so long. By the time the vault opened, Hope and Joshua had already finished sweeping the rest of the mansion and were back with us.
The Knight pulled out his jack just as the vault door shuddered harshly. It popped open, revealing the contents-
“Shit.” Hope muttered under her breath.
”No kidding.” I stared at the micro drug lab. Boxes and boxes of drugs sat along the walls, all clearly labeled.
Here I thought I’d need to plant Dark Ether to justify bringing this guy in. Heh- little did I know. He had it all covered by himself.
Comments
Arkeus
First few paragraphs are doubled
UnderwhelmingBird
Nice nice looks like Hope's rep is gonna be looking good, how kind of the dear doctor to implicate himself so thoroughly. It's good Shiro didn't have to bother with planting evidence, and even better she had talented folk to bypass that pesky security. Probs woulda been a pain in the ass, if she could even *find* a way to do it quietly.
Arkus86
She was shown to be able to target the skill practically from the start if I remember, so I assume some innate knowledge on how to use it is part of the default package. She also practiced it in action occasionally. As for kinetic, there is certainly room for training, though her ability to disable some electronic locks and similar feats can be explained by the combination of her control of lightning and technical expertice letting her know precisely where to send it/how to use it for maximum effect.
Gardor
"I’ll get us moving"-> not sure if this is on purpose, to show her making a mistake and revealing her identity, but if not it should probably be "them moving". "I flickered Fear the Reaper from behind the Knights. The bulky guard I targeted shuddered"-> can she "target" this aura? She never really trains with it, when did she get technically proficient? This loops back to my "she needs someone to train her to be a kinetic" whining, maybe Fox can do her a solid and send her a quest to learn at the Fox Shrine. Or whichever eidolon is most closely associated with lightning, i guess. Was that Wolf? Tyftc
W Maxwell Cassity-Guilliom
Hope is a good commander. She planned it with enough overwhelming force and speed that they were able to go non-violent, and gave the primary investigation role to Shiro and Dev, actually sharp investigators.
Almost Famous
We double pasted our comments haha
Lost Rain
I fixed it. Thank you!
Lost Rain
Thank you. It’s fixed.
Almost Famous
Think you doubled pasted the chapter
William Fullerton
Nice chapter it seems like you double pasted
Lost Rain
It’s fixed. Thank you for pointing that out!
John Pratt
This chapter is duplicated in the text.
