Only the units that were mostly intact were salvaged—the rest were left where they fell, scrap metal glinting in the faint sunlight.
By the end of it, we managed to extract three facsimiles in usable condition: one heavy, one medium, and one light. Once feared on the battlefield, their designs now seemed almost lifeless as they lay motionless at our feet. The heavy facsimile still carried its imposing M134 minigun, an addition that I certainly welcomed with open arms.
These android robots were terrifying, to say the least. They resembled humans but with glaring flat metal white face and metal plating instead of skin. Their durability was just as unnerving. I tried firing a standard 5.56 FMJ round at the armor plating of the light facsimile, but all it did was produce a faint ping.
Mira and Alice stood beside the salvaged units, already deep in conversation. These two engineers were already fascinated by the automata, and getting their hands on one would probably be in their deepest dreams. However, Elene was the most hesitant one, and I was stuck between the three.
Mira said, “I’m telling you, these will be invaluable. With the right modifications, we could reprogram the heavy to serve as a defensive unit, or at least figure out how their command protocols work. And the light? That’s a perfect candidate for a recon unit.”
Elene, arms crossed and clearly unimpressed, frowned as she looked over the facsimiles. “And what happens if the reprogramming fails?” she countered, her tone sharp. “These things were designed to kill us, remember? If even one of them reboots and defaults to its original programming, it’s going to be a disaster. They’re more trouble than they’re worth.”
Alice then let out an exasperated sigh. “You’re paranoid. We both have reprogrammed dozens of units before. C’mon, Elene, it’s not my first rodeo.”
“That’s exactly why, the last time we pull this kind of shit, it got solved with a shitton of RPGs,” Elene protested.
I stepped in before the argument could escalate further. “Enough. We’re only taking what we can handle. A heavy, a medium, and a light—that’s it. Any more, and we’ll just be inviting trouble. However, Mira has her point, these facsimiles would be useful for us, if the reprogramming is successful.”
Elene sighed, “Fine, you’re the boss.”
Alice and Mira smiled together. “I know you’ll agree with us, Ain,” Mira replied.
With a flick of a switch in my pocket, I activated the dimensional gateway. A soft hum resonated as the shimmering portal opened, revealing the safe house where we could store most of our haul.
While I focused on moving the facsimiles, the others spread out through the outpost, scavenging for weapons worth taking. They worked quickly, stripping the armory bare of rifles, pistols, and anything that looked capable of firing a round. The cache was incredible—everything from standard rifles to explosives that could flatten a building.
Even the regular facsimiles were outfitted with heavily modified H&K 416 rifles. Their barrels bristled with extra wiring, the purpose of which was unknown. But from the sleek, futuristic design, it was clear these weren’t ordinary weapons—more like something pulled straight out of science fiction.
Once we’d moved all the weapons, facsimiles, and explosives into the dimension, I flicked the switch again, sealing the portal. The outpost was left desolate, with nothing remaining but Hesco barriers, the wreckage of auto mortars, and the scattered corpses of automata. The air reeked of burnt plastic as we breathed in.
“Anyway, how about our quest? Is it completed yet?” Elene asked.
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“It’s done,” I replied. “We can start preparing now if you want, but I think we shouldn’t rush. Are you sure we have everything we need to pull off this particular... bank robbery? After all, we can’t be too prepared.”
“Boss, I think we should use the heavy facsimiles. These things were literally built to kill,” Alice suggested, her brown ears twitching with excitement atop her head.
Mira, ever sharp, immediately nodded in agreement from where she leaned against the parked Puma IFV. “Right, that’s a brilliant idea, Alice.”
Elene let out a heavy sigh. “Calm down, you two. We need to get the bloody thermal drill first.”
I had a better idea, “Why don’t we get the hell out of here? I doubt these automata is stupid enough not to send anything in our way?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Mira nodded, she pressed a button and opened the back ramp of the IFV.
We climbed into the back of the IFV and immediately closed the back ramp before finally moving away from the wreckage that used to be the outpost. I had a good feeling with these three, they seemed to have a real sense of camaraderie, and somehow, I fit in as their leader. Well, if they thought that it would be the best, then, sure.
We returned to Ludmilla, but not to the guild office, instead, we went back straight to our safe house. Funny, it was not even a day yet, and I already referred the place as our safe house. Alice couldn’t wait to open the weapon cache that we looted from the automata while Mira couldn’t wait to reprogram the facsimiles that we brought.
However, we were back in the meeting room, sitting down, surrounding the circular table while Elene briefed us fully again with her plan for the grand heist of this small bank in another realm. She was standing right near the blackboard, her black ears were pointed at our direction, alongside with her hands giving bunch of authoritative gestures.
“Alright, first up, the Thermomaster Psio-Thermo Drill 5000, is our goal here. Is not really a drill, but rather a psionic-based laser cutting rotating drill that would cut through the vault, making a clean circular cut that we could easily breach with our explosives,” Elene explained, she pointed at a designated wall that was still connected to the bank vault, but close enough to the rooftop.
She then pointed her hand at a staircase leading to the rooftop, “We are going to extract using a Fulton extraction system, well, an improved version of it, per se. Now, since we’re contractors, we can carry gold in our inventory.”
I nodded. She listed our carrying capability, which was… humongous to say the least. Heck, even humongous couldn’t begin to describe it, it was abnormal when a human being could carry about a ton, but this was a fantasy world, and like all heaven, it was made for our convenience.
- Ain: 550 Kg
- Elene: 1400 Kg
- Mira: 1200 Kg
- Alice: 900 Kg
If someone read this description, I’d doubt anyone would consider it to even be true, but well, this is a magical world, isn’t it?
“Ok… So, how much gold do you think will be available there?” I asked.
“Well, a lot. We counted, there should be a ton of that thing in there, all in 12 kg bar each,” Alice said. “Well, carrying the gold is the easy part, to be honest. Our extraction is also… easy, in the grand scheme of things, it’s the…”
“Yeah, the heat,” Mira nodded her head. “That’s not something you’d get by easily.”
“Can we bring in the IFV?” I asked.
“Well… that’s a good question, and in fact, yes, we can, but, I’m not going to do that. Heat level is separated into five categories, in short. Level 1-2, level 3-4, level 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, you get my point. It certainly can help as a distraction, though,” Mira said. “Let me explain.”
The level 1-2 heat consisted of your run-of-the-mill police officers—nothing too serious. They wore basic ballistic protection, enough to stop a pistol round at most. Then came the level 3-4 heat, which introduced the casual SWAT units. These were the officers who were likely called in on short notice. They wore body armor and helmets, but their lack of advanced ballistic protection significantly hampered their response effectiveness.
Finally, there was the maximum level of this heist: level 5-6 heat. At this point, the proper SWAT teams arrived. These were the professionals, equipped with heavier gear, more advanced tactics, and a determination to neutralize any threat. Mira advised me to keep the heat level below the second group as long as we could and not to escalate to the maximum heat level.
“Ok?”
“Now, a Puma would bring the level six immediately, unless you want to bring down the whole bank, I suggest you not bring that unless the heat level max up, and yes, this police also brought RPG and MAAWS at that level,” Mira explained. “Point is, we need to put up a resistance without scaring them too much.”
“I understand,” I nodded.
“And did I mention that they come in waves? Don’t bother with how the hell they got hundreds of bodies to throw at heisters, but the source said that they would kill SWAT in the hundreds,” Mira concluded her statement. “Yeah, this is not a normal world, after all.”
Elene then added, “Now you know why we need you, Ain.”
“You need someone who can heal?”
“That’s right,” Elene grinned. “We need someone who can heal us.”
“I understand my task, basically, keeping all of you alive as long as I could, right?”
“Correct,” Elene nodded.
“Got it, I’ll make my own planning, then,” I said, already knowing what we needed.