Corpo Age

Chapter 216: The Easy Part

Knowing the people at Astro Forge were trying to secure Perry, we rushed to get to him first, before that could happen. Prior to leaving, I made sure to disable all security features in the building and shut down their systems to make it more difficult for them to regain control. Then, for good measure, we blew up the control room as we exited.

All the noise from our support team sniping in the building had already alerted everyone in the area, but our explosion definitely added more to the chaos. We deployed our D-Mother drones ahead of us into the stairwell as we tried to both be quick and cautious.

From the view our sniper team had, I could see a lot of movement around the building, with security personnel scrambling around, while some decided to lock down the floors they were responsible for. Their control room had been sabotaged, so they were a mess.

It meant we were met with minimal resistance as we stormed up the stairs. Their regular guards were no match for four power armors. Their attacks simply drain some power from our energy shields while our particle beams pierced through not only their bodies but the walls behind them.

Hmm, the building codes here really do make the infrastructure weaker. I should remember to take that into consideration for our branch office here.

Aegis was a city located at the tip of the space elevator. It meant it was attached to Earth, and gravity was a consideration of its structural integrity. This made the city impose limits on the weight of each building. That meant the heavily reinforced material typically used had to be replaced by alternatives. It was one of the reasons why the Light Judgement was able to pierce through several layers of walls here.

We soon made it to where Perry was. No resistance was awaiting us, as they had already been either eliminated or scared off. I don’t blame them because I would be shaken too if enemies started sniping me through walls all of a sudden.

We found Perry slumped against the wall, nursing his head. The particle beam had passed by him at close proximity. It had knocked him to the ground, and he was bleeding.

“Can you stand?” I asked as I kneeled down to his eye level to examine his condition.

I quickly adjusted the setting on my helmet so it would turn transparent.

“It’s me. It’s been some time, but I’m here to help.”

“Ha, nothing ever good happens before I see you. I don’t know whether to be happy or angry.”

“Well, we can debate that later. It’s time to go. Polina wants to say hi.”

“That woman? I guess she would still be trapped up here too, huh?”

This wasn’t the time to clarify any misunderstanding, so I quickly injected him with a stimulant before helping him get up. Andrew and Peng already knew what to do and led the way out. We found the hallways eerily quiet.

“Let’s use the elevators instead,” I suggested. “They are all staying on their own floors, watching for movement. Let’s not go through the stairwell where they have dozens of entry points.”

Thorne knew what I was thinking of and simply unloaded his own D-Mother while my other two guards pried open the elevator doors. The drone swiftly entered the dark chambers of the elevator shaft and surveyed its terrain. It confirmed the elevator car was above us. The drone then extended a blade to lodge itself into the corner before deploying a thin wire down to the bottom.

Using this, we rappeled down the shafts while I had Perry on my back. It wasn’t as bothersome as I had thought. My new cybernetics were not only stronger individually, but the synergy between them made the load of carrying someone barely noticeable.

As we passed by each floor, we could hear people talking, but thankfully, our feet were equipped with a noise-canceling function, so we went by unnoticed. It remained that way all the way down to the ground floor.

Instead of bursting out of the shaft right away, we did the sensible thing of sending out Nyes to investigate. Our sniper team outside had to evacuate by now as reinforcements arrived. The police could be paid off, but Astro Forge’s forces couldn’t.

Before the D-Mother even made it back down to us, we received a clear picture of the situation on the other side of the doors.

Two trucks had arrived on the scene, bringing with them their fast response team. That consisted of a dozen power armors and two times that number in regular units. They were prepared to deal with enemy armored units as I could spot the menacing, heavy weaponry they had at the ready. Two entire turrets were set up in the lobby. Each of them faced a stairwell.

“They’re scanning like crazy for us. I think we pissed them off,” Thorne remarked.

“Well, this was one of the responses we expected. I see our support team has our getaway secured.”

“I wouldn’t call it a getaway, more like a decoy.”

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“Whatever, close enough.”

While we didn’t have any vehicles in our possession, it didn’t mean we couldn’t requisition one. We didn’t even need something fast and armored, as stealth was our strength. Getting away was, in fact, the easy part. We just needed to get out of the building first.

“So the sniper team is out. We’ll have to rely on ourselves. How do you want to do this?” Thorne asked.

I didn’t hesitate to point at our weapons.

He smirked and began assembling the work of art I had come up with.

The Light Judgement wasn’t a separate firearm that we needed to consciously decide to bring in our loadout. It was included in every single one of our power armors. It normally was in its disassembled form, with the extra parts tucked into our backs, while the rifle we had been using was the main body.

We simply needed to reassemble our rifle into the powerful sniper that dished out decimating particle beams. The only issue we had to consider was to keep Perry safe while we shot. There was a reason this weapon was only usable if one was inside a power armor.

“Perry, we’re going to have you endure being tied down for a bit. We’ll come get you once it’s clear.”

“What do you mean?”

I answered by leaping upward toward the third floor. I then secured him to the elevator cabling and let him hang off the maintenance ladder.

“Just wait here. It won’t take long.”

I didn’t wait for his reply before jumping back down.

“Okay, so let’s go with serve and volley.”

“You sure you don’t want to just go with cloak and daggers?” Thorne asked with a chuckle.

“Hmm, it’s about the same thing, but we get to show off our new toy. We’ve already revealed it, so might as well go for the shock factor.”

The four of us soon got into formation, pointing our Judgment Light sniper rifles toward the lobby behind the elevator doors. We could see everything outlined behind the obstacle thanks to the Nyes feeding us with their position.

“Leave the armored units for the volley part. We can’t exactly destroy them in one shot.”

“Got it. Mithril dagger, ready to go,” Andrew remarked.

“Mithril dagger?”

“Oh, umm…particle sword.”

I exchanged looks with Thorne before we both erupted into laughter. I could only thank myself for making sure the power armor didn’t leak any sound as we let it all out.

“Get ready to cast photon cannon, boys!”

“Yeah, wait for me to get aggro before you move in. Healer, make sure you get me!”

Andrew could only facepalm at his slip of the tongue as he waited for us to let it all out.

“You know what?” I said, after settling down. “Mithril dagger is a pretty good nickname. Particle sword is too on the tongue, so let’s go with Mithril dagger from now on.”

“Boss, can you please just let it go?”

“Hmm? No, I’m serious. I’m not trying to continue teasing you here.”

“...Have it your way.”

With the new nickname settled, we once again got ready to break out of this place. We delegated targets to each other with our targeting system and began charging our sniper rifles. It took a few seconds to reach max power and was one of the most challenging parts to account for when I designed it.

More power made it easier to be detected. It was impossible to hide all that energy completely, but since it was a sniper rifle, it was fine as long as it wasn’t detectable at range. This fact caused our enemies to all turn toward the elevator doors just a split second before we unleashed four beams of high technology toward them.

The metal doors received four new deformed holes as the metal dripped down from the heat. The shockwave of the attack made those not hit duck down for cover while their power armor predictably pointed their weapons at us. Unfortunately for them, they were in a formation facing the stairwells off to the two sides, not the elevators from the center of the lobby.

That split-second delay was enough for us to charge out and engulf the entire place with our smokescreen. It not only hindered them visually, but disrupted their comms as well. This meant they only fired off one volley before they stopped. The risk of friendly fire rose exponentially for them while we closed the gap. It allowed us to do so easily, after only tanking one volley with our energy shields.

The only thing that could enable one to see through this smoke was our Argus sensors, which were calibrated specifically for the powdered stealth material we used in the smoke. It made the entire fight into a one-sided massacre.

This stuff even threw Nova Tech’s kidnappers for a loop, after all. It must be disheartening to face this when we can move so quickly now, too.

“No need to chase the people fleeing on foot. Just make sure all their power armors are disabled!” I reminded over the comms.

With four of us in the middle of this flock of mindless sheep, the fight was soon over. It took us several seconds to take down each armored enemy, but there were only a dozen of them in total. Each of us only had to deal with three, so within a minute, all their power armors were defeated.

Their turrets had been decimated from our first strike, and only their regular infantry remained. Some fled to the streets while some tried to hide. Either way, we didn’t really care about them.

“Thorne, go get our man.”

Thorne was still a full-fledged cyborg among us. The rest of us were very close, but we still came up short when it came to the number of Gs we could withstand compared to him. This allowed Thorne to move the fastest without requiring any limiters in his suit.

Under the cover of our grey smoke, we activated our invisibility to disappear away into the city. Not long after we crossed the finish line, our support team sent our requisitioned car barreling down the road. We had Nyes in there to project our figures within. It would leave a trail to follow, but it would only end in a fiery crash.

As for us, we were moving around the city with various disguises, slowly making our way back. It was a bit too risky to have Perry show up at our office, so we would have to secure a safe place for him to stay. Still, it wasn’t something to stress over.

If they find out, then they find out.

The point of this operation was to just bloody their nose and get them on the negotiating table. I would say the action part was also the easy part.

Next came the hard part. We had to tactfully approach the situation. The point was to get Astro Forge to calmly listen after we had beaten them down, so this conflict doesn’t spiral out of control. After that, we had to get them to make a deal with us.

It would likely require a delicate touch. That was unless I wanted to fully commit to the opposite spectrum.