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B2 - Chapter 5 – Setting up a base and choosing targets
🕑 Added 2024-11-08 15:00:46 +0000 UTCThe rest of the drive was quite tense. Jace made sure to stay in the back and he along with Priam stayed under a few towels that were in Quinn’s go-bags from her hideout. The reasoning was sound – Priam was not from Earth and would stand out immediately, even if he tucked his ears under his wide-brim hat. Being a rabbit-person was just too hard to hide.
But Jace? Well, after that first encounter, Greg made a very solid point. “If you’re going to be doing all the covert ops stuff on the side while we do corpo-contract work, then we need you to be as unknown as possible.”
The reasoning was sound, but being stuck in the back of the APC under towels sucked.
It did make passing through the region much easier, as Quinn and Greg just flashed their Cosmic Power symbols, said they wanted to start up a Streetrunner crew. Since pretty much everyone in South America worked for Pheracorp, they were quickly given contact information about who to talk to in the corpo-capital proper about finding someone called a Fixer. Jace had heard of the job description before – a person who set up jobs between independent contractors like Streetrunner crews and the corporations.
“Don’t expect a lot of non-corpo activity,” Greg had told them as they pulled towards Campinas. “You’re going to maybe see a few gangs that are operating under the radar – but make no mistake; Pheracorp allows them.”
“Why?” Priam asked.
“It lets the malefactors all group up in a single group,” Quinn replied. “Corpos use the tactic all over the globe. Troublemakers will seek out the gang, the corpo lets it build up to a decent size, and then takes all but a few lower-rung leaders at once. Then, the cycle repeats.”
Jace nodded. He’d seen that firsthand; seeing corporate-sponsored police clearing out gang complexes alongside full corpo-mercs. He had seen them execute the gang members in the street and let a few ‘escape’ out of the back entrance. It set him on edge, that these people could just manipulate others for their own means. Treat them like dirt. He could feel the roiling hatred in his gut.
“Anyways,” Greg said as he kicked his legs up on the dashboard, “We should be able to get a base set up. It’ll be corpo-monitored.” He glanced back at Jace, who was peering at the front along with Priam from under the towels and flashed a grin. “You are going to have to be solo for a while until Quinn debugs the place, so we have some privacy. And then coming and going? Gotta be in that Cloak thing.”
Jace nodded, “Then drop me off here.”
Priam grabbed him, “You sure? You’ll be fine on your own?”
Jace patted Ollie’s head, “I’m never alone. And yeah – I’ve survived on the streets in a corpo-controlled city, without Cosmic Power. I’ll be fine.” He looked up to Greg, “Keep me in the loop.”
Quinn pulled the car to a maintenance station and made a show of getting out and checking the tire pressure. Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3), Jace thought as he activated the Skill and slipped out the driver door behind Quinn. Making his way down the darkening city streets as night began to fall, he checked the System message in the edge of his vision.
[25 Days remain until the Earth portal lock ends.]
No time to lose. Jace pulled out his sliverscreen. Quinn had uploaded a map of the three cities that he would be in. And using her Webwalking skills, she had also found the location of several key pieces of infrastructure, research and development, and production. A system message popped up in his vision. From Xera, the faction leader of the Dark Between Stars.
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[You’re finally where you need to be.]
[I’m going to look through these various targets and find the best ones to focus on. I have been coordinating with Star Daddy and The Negotiator, and they’ve been pushing Boons my way that I can use for Quests to help you along.]
[Give me a few minutes.]
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Jace ducked into an alley and suppressed a chuckle. Star Daddy was the name of the leader of the Star Council faction. The Negotiator was the person who coordinated the Planetary Independence Pact – Ascendants who took control of their home world as a sort of ‘local Cosmic System administrator’. They made the rules on that world and could control it. Jace wasn’t sure of the specifics – but they all seemed like the arrogant types that would screw over others for their own gain.
Just like that Archmage Ascendant he had fought not too long ago. It had only been about six days since fighting Yholl Tristrus, and through that fight he had unlocked a Class Expansion to his Swordmage. Wrathblade. A means to channel his anger at Priam’s injury at the time into more strength to take down the powerful foe.
But since getting that Class Expansion, even though it had only been a few days…he felt anger more readily. He hadn’t lashed out at anyone, but he had noticed that his response to seeing how people on Earth were being treated was more…harsh, than his thoughts on the matter pre-Wrathblade. No one else seemed to have noticed. He had shared it with Ollie already, and the otter had nodded sagely but said nothing.
Despite the concern, Jace was firm in his resolve. He had power now…and he would make them pay.
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[Okay. I’ve got a lock on your first job. Quest details incoming shortly.]
[I’ve also been monitoring your norepinephrine levels in your brain at Ollie’s request post-Class Expansion. I honestly have no clue what Wrathblade will end up doing, as no one has ever gotten Swordmage to the point where they could do a Class Expansion.]
[For now, we will keep monitoring through Ollie.]
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[Quest: Stop operations at the Pheracorp Manufacturing Plant B7.]
[Time Limit: 4 hours.]
[Reward: Uncommon (Variable) Boon.]
[Sender: Dark Between Stars]
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Back to it, Jace thought with a smile. Ollie pulled up a map of the area just under his chin, and Jace used his Ghostlight Grapnel arm to pull himself to the top of a roof. Running under the power of his prosthetic legs, he was able to easily clear the gaps between buildings as he traversed the rooftops towards his destination.
>>>---<<<
Quinn pulled the APC into a parking lot. Pheracorp was letting them rent one of their safehouses – already used and forgotten but still with functioning utilities. Greg and Priam helped her unload the vehicle, and then she locked it with a special program that she had custom-tailored during the drive. Only she would be able to open the vehicle. Well, her, or her allies with their sliverscreens.
Making their way into the first-floor apartment, she immediately spotted the various concealed wires along the ceiling. Right, I’ll have to deal with that sooner rather than later. Show them that we are not new to this whole business.
She had been with Streetrunner crews before; often from her home base back in Sydney and acting as the Webwalker – the person who found the information, shut down alarms, interfaced with various security systems and shut them down, and the like. But she had been in the field a few times when she had to get hands on to bypass some systems or set up forks in the network nodes.
The building was decently sized. Three rooms with a single shared restroom. The trio set down the duffel bags and Quinn set to debug the apartment.
Greg patted Priam on the back, “We got a kitchen here, and I feel like cooking. I’m going to get some groceries. Wanna come?”
“Sure, if you think it’s okay.”
Greg nodded, “Just gotta keep that hood up and pulled forward a good bit. Keep those gloves on, too.”
Quinn just waved the two off as they left. She winced and grabbed her temple as the grinding, whirring pain kicked on again. It almost made her fall off the chair she was standing on to access one of the node-boxes on the ceiling. Damnit. I need this replaced ASAP. She pulled out the bottle of painkillers and swallowed some down, feeling the pain recede to a dull thump. Once you debug the place. Then, get online. Find a vendor and a doc.
She had done her research into the various megacorporations when they were at her old safehouse. The Nebula Alliance had spread out their…gifts of higher functioning cybernetics. They had not given all of the different schematics to all of the big five – after all, a faction that spanned the whole Cosmic System and focused on mercantilism would not want to eliminate competition amongst their own ranks.
Myscape Industrial and General Logistics had the most generalized prosthetics. Enduralife Enterprises was more specialized, with limbs and brain implants for more refined purposes. Cybronics Research had the best brain/head implants but not much else – and Pheracorp had a whole host of bio-tech implants available, which was a mix of pure technology and artificial tissue that would lead to easier integration.
Ideally, Quinn wanted a Cybronics Mk. IX Cyberbrain with the accompanying Mk. IX Cybereyes. She doubted she would get them here in the heart of Pheracorp holdings. But, Pheracorp did have something similar. A bionic brain. More seamless blending of machine and brain matter, but it wouldn’t have the same level of processing power as pure cybernetics.
But she was out of options. I have to get this fixed before it causes too much degradation. She had already found her decision-making skills slowing down; her reaction times as well. All because the implant was not installed correctly. And even reinstalling her current implants would not fix the issue.
An hour passed and she was still hard at work when Priam and Greg arrived and unloaded the groceries. Priam watched her intently while Greg began cooking, and soon the smells of spices were wafting through the air.
After the trio had eaten and both Priam and Greg went to sleep, Quinn had finally finished removing all of Pheracorp’s monitoring from the apartment. Going to her heavy briefcase, she used the large kitchen table to set up her apparatus and hook into the network node. Time to find someone who can give me what I need.
>>>---<<<
Jace had just arrived on the roof adjacent to the manufacturing plant he was supposed to sabotage. Deactivating his Cloak well out of sight of any cameras, he leaned against the air conditioning unit and felt the sweltering, humid heat seemingly sticking to his skin. The (Burnguard) augmentation to his armor helped with the temperature – but not the humidity. This is disgusting, he thought.
As his energy refilled, he spotted movement on the roof of the manufacturing plant. Someone had just opened the door leading to the roof and was taking a smoke break. Perfect. There’s my way in. Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3). He vanished and leapt over to the building soundlessly. Walking past the man he slipped through the open door and entered the factory. The rooftop access was a simple set of concrete stairs, and the inside was lit by industrial-white ceiling lamps.
Descending the stairs, he entered the factory proper. There were cameras all over the place along with other types of sensors that couldn’t detect his presence thanks to his Class Skill. He was on a catwalk above the complex, with a set of stairs going down further behind him to an operations center.
People were working – but it looked like a relatively small crew. It made sense, given the levels of automation. On the production line below, he could see something he’d seen on the docks during his courier days. Cable. Thick, metal cables for some type of industrial use elsewhere.
Descending the corrugated, steel stairs, he entered the control room which also had an open door. Security is lax, he thought. Must be because we’re in the center of their manufacturing district. What idiot would try to do a gig this deep into corpo territory? He chuckled to himself as he walked over to the control console.
A man was sitting behind it, monitoring various dials. “Ollie, how can we disable this?” Jace asked.
Ollie flew over to a button – right in front of the Pheracorp employee’s face but still unseen – and pointed to the large, red button under a pane of glass. “Emergency shut down. That’ll turn things off for at minimum 12 hours. But you need to permanently sabotage this place.”
“Suggestions?” Jace asked as he looked out at the factory floor.
Ollie mimicked swinging a sword with his little paws, “Just cut the equipment up. Easy enough. Especially with that new Nethaldrim.”
Jace nodded as he fingered the pommel of the blade he received from the combined effort of the Nethal species, whose home he restored by defeating that Archmage Ascendant on Nihilethelea “Easy enough. Shutdown and then destroy the machines?”
“Either order, honestly it won’t matter much.”
Jace grinned and punched the shutdown button.
