Lost Rain
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Outrun - Chapter 186
🕑 Added 2024-12-18 23:04:00 +0000 UTCI flicked on my Blinder just before entering the building. I also ran through a final check of all my sensors, ensuring everything was running smoothly. So far. at least, nothing had broken.
”Zuku?” Hampton called, seemingly staring right through me. “Where are you?”
I waved a hand at him. “Right here?”
He jumped slightly, staring right through me still. “Where? Did Lia cast some kind of invisibility magic? I thought she was having issues with the sprites?”
”What are you-“ Oh. I stared at his eyes. His chrome eyes. I then flicked off my Blinder. “Can you see me now?”
”Chek.” A frown crossed his face. “I wasn’t aware you knew magic.”
”Ugh- I don’t. It’s just a piece of my tech. Look, you go on ahead. I’ll follow right behind you.” I turned my Blinder back on and stepped into the theatre.
Nice to know it was effective against chrome. It opened a whole world of possibilities I’d overlooked, including sneaking right by guards that I otherwise would be intimidated by. Most high-level mercs had chrome anyway. I needed to start checking from chrome eyes while casing the place it seems.
I stuck close behind Hampton as he wandered around, giving him quiet instructions. We put up distance from the entrance, heading in the general direction of the other door.
A few minutes later, an explosion rocked the area behind us. I looked back just in time to see the door and its surroundings filled with sand entirely. It was like we were never even there… hopefully.
We stayed in the foyer, traveling around its circular structure toward the parking garage. It was likewise patrolled by bots and set with turrets, though none of them gave a second glance toward Hampton. It proved my theory that they only knew Renold off his ID badge and nothing else.
This also meant the badges were interchangeable if, for some reason, we couldn’t find enough for everyone. Since it appeared that the badge being whitelisted was all it took, it also made me feel better about the whole plan.
Instead of going for the customer door connecting to the foyer, we went through several back hallways towards a loading garage that the theatre would’ve used at one point. It would make taking loot out of the place much easier coming in through here considering the much wider doors.
Thick shutters covered the garage door just like the rest of the entrances into the Laurus Theatre, though that didn’t pose much of an issue. Just as I did before, I connected my battery to the garage doors and gave them just enough power to lift the shutters away. The only issue I had was with how high up the mechanisms for the garage door were, though I managed to make do by standing on Hampton’s shoulders.
With the shutters out of the way, I moved on to clearing the garage of security. This would be our foothold into the rest of the theatre, so it wouldn't hurt to have it be a secure location.
The few bots that remained in here were easy enough to sabotage. I’d already memorized their blueprint from Technical Expertise, so it was easy to find their power supply and cut a few cords.
The lone turret in the room was a bit harder. It was out of reach even if I stood on Hampton’s shoulders. “There’s a couple of supply closets down the hall, Hampton. Will you go check for a ladder?”
“Couldn't we have just done that before- You know what; never mind. Need anything else?” The man aimlessly stared in my general direction with a slight frown on his face.
”A bunch of Rayn? No- just a ladder. One tall enough to reach the turret.” I motioned to the turret on the roof, though the action was pointless. Being invisible was weird.
He nodded his head and left the room. While he was gone, I took care of the rest of the cameras. They were inferior to modern variants, so copying their blueprint didn’t get me much. Still, knowledge is power… or something like that. Power is also power though, so…
Hampton returned shortly with a ladder that he set in the middle of the room. I grabbed it, moving it over to right where I wanted it. I climbed up the ladder and got access to the turret, quickly disabling it.
While I was up there, I rooted around through the internals, ripping out the targeting array and logic chips. I figured the next several days would be boring outside of getting into the Back Archives, so I wanted to mess around with them and make sure I knew exactly how it all worked.
I then climbed down and tapped on the pad at my wrist, disabling my Blinder. Nothing shot at me. Nova. “Good to go.”
Hampton looked a little on edge as he stared at me. “What even is that?”
”It’s, uh-“ What to say? Best I go with something simple, right? Something pretty common? The tech in the Blinder was something that could be very, very valuable. Heck, if I hadn’t stolen it from Advent, it probably would’ve been locked up forever, unknown to the world. Rykon crystals are rare and illegal, after all. “It’s one of Raijin’s Stealth Modules.”
”Oh. Aren’t those a bitch to work with? I had a buddy that fried his chrome trying to get one of those to work.” Hampton shook his head and his guard dropped slightly.
”Totally. I’m a techie though, so I can fix it when it breaks. Let’s let the rest of the Company in?” A real smooth shift in conversation, Shiro. Might as well tell him you don’t want to talk about it. Ugh- I need to stop thinking in the third person.
I moved over to the door and hit a button near the door. As the garage door lifted up and out of the way, I came face to face with Captain Roger as well as Red-Six and Red-One. Everyone had their guns up. “Oh, Captain Roger… What a surprise.”
Yep, shoulda seen this coming. Why wouldn’t he show up when I was opening another door directly into the HQ? As for the guns raised in my direction… sweat dripped down my spine. Was this a betrayal? Or-
“Clear,” Ysmor called from the Captain’s side. Everyone dropped back into a neutral stance. “Security taken care of?”
Right, checking for threats to the Captain… Stupid paranoia! Why can’t I get rid of you? ”Course! At least in here. There's about a dozen turrets down the hall.”
”Nicely done, Zuku.” Captain Roger stepped into the garage, checking out the two fallen bots. “Badges?”
I tossed over a dozen of them to the group. “Someone want to volunteer to check them-”
“I’ll do it.” Captain Roger stepped out before Yonrow could. He easily went to the door and flung it open without hesitation.
I waited a few moments. No shots came toward him. “Looks like everything is working.”
”How do you want to do this? Everything taken care of? Any areas we should know about?” Captain Roger asked me.
I pulled out the holo-puck he gave to me a while ago and connected it to my deck. I quickly went through and filled in the blueprint with almost everything I’d learned about the place since breaking in.
I then tossed the holo-puck to the floor and turned it on. A holographic blueprint of the entire building popped up. “You have almost free reign of the place. For now, it’d be more effective to look for ID badges to get the rest of the company in before looting.”
I pointed towards several sections, including the offices and the command center. “Probably more likely to find them here, here, and here. Keep your eyes peeled though. Security should be taken care of, but I ran into a nasty creature in the cubicle farm. Might be something else on the prowl.”
“What about the Back Archive?” Captain Roger asked. Probably wanted to confirm there were actually valuables here as soon as possible.
”Right, stay away from the Back Archive. The security systems there run on an independent network. I’m not sure how it’ll react to anyone approaching. I’ll take care of it soonish, but otherwise everywhere else is fine.” I thought through the rest of the blueprint. "Also, be careful in the cafeteria. There's a fifty-fifty shot something lives in there."
That was based on almost nothing. But the snake creature must've come from somewhere, so there was a solid chance something else got in too. And where would be the best spot for said something to make their base? The cafeteria, where they kept the food.
I ran through the timetable as Captain Roger started discussing with the other PMCs. It took two days for me to disable the security. Add another… two? Yeah, two felt right. Add another two to get everyone in and looting. Then that left ten days before the Urjune Company's reinforcements came?
We should be getting out of here before then. Or at least, I assume we should. Even an amateur leader like me knew it was best not to run the clock too closely. So I had at least four days to get through the security in the Back Archives, find the underground structure, and help loot with the company.
I half paid attention to the rest of the discussion as I ran through some plans of my own. Before too long, Captain Roger left to go brief the rest of the Crimson Company while those of us with badges split up to go look through the theatre for more badges. Well, most of us.
I split off from everyone else and headed for the Back Archive. I had been very interested in getting through the security there if only to steal the combat bots’ and the rocket's blueprints. Knowing there were books in there worth millions only made me more interested. Now that others were in, I wasted no time.
I approached the two combat bots with my Blinder and Cold-Blooded active. I easily slid up to them, completely bypassing all the fancy sensors that once acted as security.
The seismic sensors were completely useless before Fox’s Paw and the anechoic bodysuit I wore under my clothes. The thermal imaging device and heat sensors were even more useless thanks to Cold-Blood and my poncho set to cold.
The bots themselves didn’t notice a thing as I stepped right up to them and lightly tapped all over their mechanical bodies, getting a full rundown of their inner workings. The little pulses from Technical Expertise quickly added up as I stole all of their secrets.
They were a hundred times more sophisticated than the attendant-style bots that patrolled the theatre. They lacked the personality modules and service tools, though instead had far better combat capabilities. There was a good chance they’d be a decent threat to even someone of the modern age, especially with their rockets.
The rockets themselves were extremely intriguing and quite simple. They were the simple point-and-shoot kind, lacking in any kind of thermal seeking or coordinate locking mechanisms. It was fine at short distances, though they’d fall off hard at long range.
Still, I could now add rockets to my arsenal once I got back home. I just needed to get the right parts to make the explosives, but that wouldn’t be hard thanks to the Constellations Night Market.
Speaking of, now that I know Technical Expertise and Eidetic Schematic work so well together, I should head back to the Night Market anyway to steal even more prints. There were so many gadgets and tools on display there.
Anyway, for all that sophistication and tech, they were completely useless before me. I don’t think I’d ever felt stronger and more reassured in myself than at the moment. Even the door they guarded wasn’t an issue. I easily found the faults in it with Technical Expertise and popped it open.
The bots reacted slightly to the door opening. They scanned the area, though of course noticed nothing. They moved to close it immediately afterward. It wasn’t an issue as I slipped underneath their outstretched arms and entered.
The door led into a long hallway, with the actual Back Archives at the end of it. The hall itself was filled with even more sensors than the approach to the original door. At the far end of the hall sat a large vault door, the kind that I’d see protecting some super-important bank or something similar.
Six bots stood perfectly still, evenly placed down the hallway. They were armed to the teeth, just as the combat bots guarding the door had been. Except these seemed to be a heavier-duty variant strapped with miniguns as well as rocket pods.
I stopped just in the door frame, eyeing the way forward. I was very, very hesitant about moving forward. The normal thermal and seismic sensors were there, but motion sensors had joined the lot. They looked to be the ultrasonic type. It posed a small issue.
Ultrasonic sensors were… well, they were something I had yet to run across security-wise. Most places opted for thermals and cameras. Anything over was usually overkill, especially considering most chrome generated quite a bit of ambient heat unless specifically designed not to.
The passive infrared sensors that were used everywhere weren’t an issue thanks to my body generating no heat under Cold-Blooded. Camera motion tracking wasn’t an issue either with my Blinder. However, ultrasonic sensors were not as easy to trick.
If it was just the passive seismic sensors that detect vibrations, they wouldn’t be an issue. They weren’t though. These kinds of sensors send out ultrasonic frequencies before receiving them back like a bat. They then read the information to see if anything changed. Not impossible to get past, but not something I could do at the moment.
I could strip down to the body suit and let the anechoic fibers absorb the sound, but then the bots could see me. My Blinder wouldn’t be able to get by. I needed something else to get past all of this. A few plans formed in the back of my head, though nothing concrete yet. And it was late.
I slipped back out of the hallway and returned to the Archives. I left and headed back up to the HQ. I could figure the rest of it out tomorrow.
Comments
Gardor
Could be, but that was somewhere else for something else. But yeah I guess he could be annoyed about a past situation that worked out.
Vakri
She stood on his shoulders earlier in the chapter to open the previous garage door, that's probably why he was annoyed
Gardor
There are two things every good thief needs: forethought and a full PMC for back up. I think you should add a line about her getting down off Hampton's shoulders before asking him for the ladder, otherwise it just seems like she could tell by looking that the turret was too high. Not that she'd tried to get on his shoulders and couldn't reach, and he was annoyed about it.
