Chapter Forty – Creative Kleptomania

Chapter Forty – Creative Kleptomania

“Samurai technology might very well be the most valuable thing in the world right now. But humanity is catching up. It’s not fast, but it’s consistent, and the more time we spend breaking down their alien tech, the faster we learn basic principles that will allow humanity to catch up, and eventually surpass, the Protectors.

Just give us a few years, a decade at most, and we will turn this world into a utopia!”

–Professor Henry, MIT, 2031

***

Predictably, the PMCs knew nothing.

In fact, they seemed willfully ignorant. They were not remembering a lot of things, and that was probably my fault.

I had questioned the group together. Once one of them insisted he couldn’t even remember how long he’d been working at this location for, or what his hours were like, or how much he was being paid, the others decided to join in on the rapid forgetfulness, especially when it became clear that I wasn’t going to shoot them for not giving me the answers I wanted.

It was frustrating, but at the same time, more or less understandable.

They were very insistent that they didn’t know what they were defending, and I was even inclined to believe them. Myalis tapped into their augs and was able to confirm that none of them had been any deeper into the warehouse than the first dozen metres past the entrance.

That left one avenue to discover what this place was hiding, and that was checking it out myself.

Of course, I obviously assumed that the place was boobytrapped out the ass. If whomever had set this up could afford private contractors this well-equipped, then they could afford a few grenades and some string, or a few more complex options.

“I don’t want to go in there,” I admitted to Gomorrah.

She eyed the interior of the warehouse. “I can’t pick up any obvious traps. But I also don’t have anything designed for picking out traps in the first place, and I don’t think traps would set off my thermals.”

“So, options?” I asked.

“Get trap-disarming equipment?” Gomorrah proposed.

I took a deep breath, then shook my head. “Expensive, I bet. And I don’t have a big supply of fresh points I want to spend on this. The electronics for my augs to see traps might be fairly cheap, but then again, they might not cover everything.”

“So we send in some of these PMCs one at a time? We have… a decent number of them.”

“Wow,” I said. “That’s… really fucking cold.”

Gomorrah paused, then nodded. “You’re right. That is a rather uncharitable way to treat people. And a war crime.”

“That’s never stopped us, but I’d rather keep the war crimes aimed at the aliens, not… well, these chumps aren’t innocent, but they’re not exactly evil. If they’d shot Rac up for real, then sure, but they didn’t hurt me or mine.”

“So we leave this to the professionals?”

I flinched back. “No way,” I said. “They’ll take forever and we might never learn what’s actually going on. Though… Alright, I’m gonna send a cat drone in. It’s small, might not trigger every trap, and if it does, then it’s a dozen points gone, not a huge deal.”

I can get you something simple and disposable for about twenty points. Any lower and its utility would be highly questionable. It’s already not going to be very impressive, armed, or capable of long-term operations.

I nodded along. Another point sink, but not a huge one this time. A box appeared next to me, and I popped the top off, aware that Rac’s friends and some of the PMCs had frozen up at the sight of the box.

A fat cat ambled out of the box. It was… exactly that. A large, chonky boy of a cat drone. “Myalis, why does this drone look like it needs to go on a diet?”

Cheaper parts are often larger and heavier. This is the price of compromise.

“Huh?” I… decided not to dive into that one. Instead, I lifted the cat drone up while making sure that the fact that it was damned heavy wasn’t obvious. I should have lifted with my knees. Bringing it over to the entrance of the warehouse, I set it down, then gestured within. “Go ahead.”

Certainly.

The cat strutted in, tail swaying from side to side while its head scanned left and right. At the same time, a small screen opened up on my aug’s display, showing me what the chonker could see. I made sure that the screen was shared with Gomorrah.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

The outer parts of the warehouse weren’t anything too special. There were a few bays to the side for parking their APCs and a few more ordinary vans. Further in was a small maintenance hangar like thing. I guessed that that’s where the mecha were parked when they weren’t terrorizing local mercs.