Chapter Nineteen

  Upgrades

  Hours turned into days as Cheape and her team worked. What had started as a refuge had become a prison, and the guards outside were simply waiting. By the time the first night lifted and light returned to the Red Segment after their first night in the Outpost, they were ready to search the upper two floors.

  They were an undiscovered country since they had never found a ruin intact to that level, but there was something Cheape suspected was there, and she felt eager to see if her theory was correct.

  It had all started back on Haven with a series of indentations on barely a few feet of surviving wall. There had been deep gouges in the remaining floor, and the wall itself featured incredibly deep holes. To Cheape, they looked like anchor points for something hefty. By working out their size and combining them with the gouges on the floor and their similarity to the marks made by their own Rigs in the early days, Cheape had come up with a name for the theoretical use of the long-lost room: Rig Storage Bay.

  It was the last of the three rooms she had hoped to find in the Outpost. The first was the Repair Store, and the second was the storage room, which turned out not to be there.

  All that added up to a single thing.

  Cheape had to be right about what this place was, or at least close.

  Standing there, one Boost Suited arm on the door, she found herself hesitating.

  A lot was riding on what was behind the door.

  “Mistress?”

  Cheape felt herself clench her teeth at the name.

  It had been a nickname originally. Well, a practical joke by that bitch Paren, but it stuck in a way Cheape really wished it hadn’t. Over the last couple of months, she stopped hearing it, and that had been a relief. Now, since the whole healing incident, several of the team had started using it again. She was trying to be patient, but the tension in her hand made the Suit clamp down on the handle of the door, which creaked loudly.

  “Dickhead,” Someone muttered and batted the offending party on the back of the head.

  “Sorry, Boss.”

  The door rolled back with a yank, and lights started to flicker on inside. Cheape had leaped aside, the memory of the crystal stabbing deep into her guts not having faded along with the actual wound.

  Metal glinted as someone whistled.

  Delicately, as if afraid walking too hard would make them disappear, Cheape stepped into the bay. The far wall was not, as they had assumed, a wall. Instead, it looked like the same kind of door as the main entrance. Heavy and reinforced. That kind of made sense, given there was no way these things could get back downstairs the way Cheape’s team had come up.

  “What even are these things?” Sparks tapped one, making it ring.

  “They’re Rigs, Sparks,” Cheape said with a broad smile. “Just not as we know them.”

  She didn’t blame the woman for being confused. These machines could not have been more different from what they had built on Haven. Really, they were closer to Boost Suits, but if she was guessing, she’d say they were somewhere between the two.

  The central cockpit was there, but the arms and legs looked more like oversized Suit parts than she had expected. Things had definitely changed between these and the one shown on the mural in the Haven ruin.

  Thick shoulder plates dominated the upper cockpit area, and she could see weapons mounts on them. Next to each one was some kind of massive spear and a square of metal she assumed operated as shields.

  “Get some tools up here,” Cheape ordered. “We need to take these things apart and get them to Gas Tank.”

  “That’s a lot of work,” Sparks said quietly.

  “Repurposing all this is even more work,” Cheape said with a nod. “And let’s not forget the rest of this floor and the one above.”

  “Hey, what’s your name?” Sparks asked suddenly. “I mean, I know everyone calls you Cheape, but that’s your family name, right?”

  “Alicia,” Cheape had to dredge the name up from deep in her memory. It had been so long since anyone used it. “What about you?”

  “No chance,” Sparks chuckled. “That secret goes to my grave with me.”

  “Sparks,” Cheape pressed.

  “Mistress?” Sparks asked innocently.

  Cheape flipped her off and dropped the subject. There really was a lot to do.

  /====<<<>>>====\

  Sec crouched on the roof of the warehouse and shook his head. People really were not great at crime in this brave new world. He supposed it made sense. For so long, they had nothing to steal from each other, so they were out of practice.

  It was either that or the people here had stayed a little too close to home in their breeding choices.

  At least it made his new job easier.

  In the street below, a man was walking backward, scrubbing the road with a bunch of twigs and leaves. The pack on the man’s back was stuffed to the brim with a bunch of raw materials destined for the Material Processors.

  The job had been simple. A bunch of materials kept going missing from the warehouses, and a reward was offered for finding them. The actual reward was a pittance, so Sec had ignored the jobs the first three times. When the fourth one went up, it had a secondary listing offering a larger reward for stopping the ‘errors.’

  It had taken Sec a grand total of five seconds to figure it out, but he had been watching the man for two days—well, two nights.

  Tonight, he would finally satiate his curiosity.

  Moving quickly and quietly, Sec scaled down the side of the building and slipped up the alley. In no time, he was leaning against the corner and waiting as the man edged right back into him.

  “Evening, there,” Sec’s hand dropped onto the thief’s shoulder and clamped down tight. “You’re nicked, obviously, but I just have to know… what’s with the twigs and shit?”

  The man struggled, trying to run, and when that didn’t work, taking a couple of swings at Sec. It was a complete waste of time, given Sec was a Quad. All the man managed to do was bruise his knuckles.

  When he gave up and slumped in the road, Sec finally got his answer.

  “I was erasing my tracks,” the man mumbled.

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  “Tracks?” Sec leaned over and looked at the road. “Mate, that’s fucking stone. There are no tracks.”

  “So, how did you find me?” The man said dejectedly.

  “Dipshit, you always stole from the same warehouse.” Sec shook his head. “I mean, at least try and make it interesting next time, okay?”

  Sec patted his wrist comp fondly as he jogged up the stairs to his office. He was really starting to appreciate the job system they had here. It got rid of all the complicated crap and made everything simple. No sooner had he handed the target in than he was paid, the prisoner was off his hands, and he was on his way to get a cup of complimentary HyperDrive to take back to the office.

  Sara was tilted back in her chair as he opened the door, snoring her head off.

  Sec closed the door carefully and snuck across the outer office, heading for the back with all the stealth he could muster.

  It was the HyperDrive that tripped him up. The smell was like catnip to the young demon he had been saddled with.

  “Sec!” Sara’s voice cracked out like a whip, freezing him in place.

  “Hey, Sara,” Sec straightened up with all the dignity he could muster after being caught sneaking through his own office. “How were things tonight?”

  “I got two jobs done,” Sara said proudly. “Which means…”

  “Which means you get the next lesson,” Sec rubbed his forehead. He had really been looking forward to getting a little more research done tonight.

  “Or dinner,” Sara reminded him.

  “Sure, or dinner at a place of your choice,” Sec amended.

  “I choose dinner,” Sara said. “Let me go change. And no sneaking off!”

  “I don’t sneak off!” Sec protested guiltily. He had been thinking of doing exactly that. He’d tried before, of course, but Sara was the quickest person to ever change clothes. With how little time she took, his only hope was to throw himself out a window and then run for it.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Sara smirked. “Back in five minutes!” She dashed past him and into the back, leaving him standing there holding a rapidly cooling cup of HyperDrive.

  He still wasn’t entirely sure how it had all happened.

  The original idea had been for her to learn under his occasional passing guidance. In reality, things had turned out quite differently.

  Sev was convinced it was a problem with the translation between languages. His understanding of the term ‘Assistant’ was someone who worked for him and did what he needed them to. To Sara, it seemed to mean someone who ran the business like Sec was just in the way. Every day, he seemed to acquire appointments he had never made and jobs he had never taken.

  That was in addition to a whole new wardrobe.

  Sara chose a nice place to eat, which, by Sec’s standards, meant somewhere that served HyperDrive and didn’t pull faces about it when it ordered it with every course of the meal.

  “Quiet place,” Sec said, looking around suspiciously.

  “Nice, isn’t it?” Sara smirked. “No one bothering us, I mean.”

  “Sara, how much of this place are we paying for?” Sec glared at her.

  “None of it,” Sara gave him a long-suffering look. “I got this as payment for a side hustle.”

  “We talked about side hustles,” Sec said.

  “You talked,” Sara smirked again. “But this was an entirely legal side hustle.”

  “Entirely legal?” Sec had his doubts.

  “There are no laws against it,” Sara shrugged. “Same thing.”

  Sec wanted to argue, but she was technically correct. Besides, it was nice here. Why ask too many questions?

  Around the second course, Sec looked around again and suddenly got a bad feeling.

  This was all very nice. Quiet, lots of HyperDrive, and precisely the food he liked. Sara was even dressed like a respectable adult.

  “Shit!” Sec tossed his napkin on the table.

  “What’s wrong?” Sara asked innocently. Too innocently.

  “I know when I’m being set up, Sara. Spill it.” Sec growled. “If you are having more stuff delivered to the office—”

  “Oh, no!” Sara laughed. “It’s nothing like that.” Another smirk. “You can relax.”

  “Yeah, no,” Sec started to rise. “Tell me, or I'll start looking around on my own.”

  “Okay, okay!” Sara rolled her eyes. “It’s not like you’ll find anything. I’m just changing the nature of our relationship a tiny bit.”

  “The President agree to that?” Sec sighed, relaxing, and now he had an idea of what was going on. Sara was trying to wriggle out of her punishment. He plopped back into his chair and got back to eating.

  “I don’t mean that,” Sara laughed. “I just meant that we’re going to be partners from now on.”

  “We are partners, sort of,” Sec shrugged.

  “No, real partners,” Sara nodded. “Completely and totally partners.”

  “So you want a raise?” Sec joked. “I mean, you already make most of the damn decisions.”

  “No raise, equal splits from here on in. On both our jobs.”

  Sec sat back and thought it over. In truth, he wasn’t making much more than she was, anyway. Given all the organizational stuff she did at the office, she had earned this much, at least.

  “Agreed,” Sec nodded. “That all?”

  “Sure is,” Sara beamed. “Trust me; you’ll be so glad we did this.”

  /====<<<>>>====\

  It had taken over a week of solid work, but their new gear was finally complete. Even with the automation and resources of the Repair Shop, there was only so fast you could go without nanites to do the work for you.

  Cheape put the finishing touch on the final armor plate and passed it over to Sparks, who placed it into the press to be molded to shape. Bleary-eyed, the pair tottered out into the bar and collapsed at a table across from Gas Tank, who was snoring face-down on the table.

  “Done,” Cheape groaned as she stretched out her aching back.

  “Think it will all work?” Sparks asked with a yawn.

  “Tank thinks it will. That’s enough for me,” Cheape said. “Let’s get some sleep and—”

  There was a loud bang from the main entrance.

  Everyone moved at once, with Andy and Mace being the first to make it to a slit window.

  “They’re moving!” Andy warned.

  “Five Leapers targeting the main door,” Mace reported. “Others are starting to move as well!”

  “Shit!” Sparks slammed her hand against the table. “So much for a nap and testing.”

  “Nothing to be done about it now,” Cheape grimaced. “Everyone! Suit Up!”

  They had cannibalized everything they had in order to come up with something entirely new. That included their remaining Rigs and Suits. It wasn’t a matter of choice so much as necessity. If they had tried to preserve what they had, it would have cost them everything in the end.

  At least, that was what Cheape was betting. Concentrated power and defense. That was the order of the day.

  Tank had heeded the call with his usual vigor, and the new suits were the result.

  Warden Suit Online…

  Connection Established…

  Welcome, Alicia Cheape, Mistress of Haven…

  Systems online…

  The armor closed around her as Cheape felt a gentle warmth envelope her.

  Climate Controls Online…

  Internal Rebreather Active…

  A shiver passed through the suit, and it was suddenly under her control, feeling as natural and light as her own body.

  Internal Shields online…

  Structural Integrity fields online…

  External Shields online…

  Repulsor Field Active…

  A flash of light and sound, and she could see and hear, with a series of Icons flashing in the corners of her HUD.

  Sensor suite online…

  Threats detected…

  Allies detected…

  Bringing weapons online…

  The gauntlet on each of her hands opened, deploying a miniaturized chaingun on the left and a plasma thrower on the right. A second later, the heavy backpack that made up the Warden suit’s storage sprouted a pair of arms that held laser arrays. They moved into position above each heavy shoulder guard and tracked with her head and eye movement.

  Thruster test… complete

  She felt herself lift off the floor for a moment as thrusters on the backpack fired.

  Weapon pairing complete!

  Cheape turned and pulled the improved Tri-Ammo rifle assigned to her suit from the wall rack next to her. It was much more compact now, and she had several drums of spare ammo on the armored belt that guarded the suit’s waist.

  She put the rifle into its holster on her pack and grabbed her own contribution to the design. It was a round shield that mounted onto one gauntlet. She had found the original on Haven and studied it relentlessly. These were near-perfect recreations of that design.

  Ingenious things, they combined internal shielding with layered armor plates and reactive repulsor fields. They would be a drain on the internal power when used, but it was better than her people getting killed.

  They also had a secret weapon if something caused the suit to lose power, but Cheape was really hoping they wouldn’t need to use them.

  It clicked into place on her right gauntlet, and she pulled the rifle again, checking it over before nodding and looking up to see her team standing ready.

  “Wardens, let’s move out.”

  “Yes, Mistress!”