TBoB - Book 3 - Chapter 12 - A City Survey

I.. uh... don't know if I like this this chapter or not yet. It took a long time to put together, and it feels kinda... meh to me. It keeps the plot moving forward... I'll look it again later, and if I really don't like it I'll rewrite it the next writing day.

I reclined in one of the massively comfortable chairs on the bridge of the Marsupial, as I mentally checked the status of another massive anti air emplacement mounted on a building through the eyes of a squirrel. I couldn’t make out any damage, so I sent the little bot on to the next location.

“Why did we take this massive thing, instead of your truck?” Hoppy asked, as she spun around in another comfortable chair, this one at a bridge console. The marsupial didn’t have any chairs installed before we set out this morning, since it was designed to be run by the bears, but after an hour of just standing, staring at monitors, I decided to splurge.

“Because I had the thing for months, and never used it. Didn’t want to just leave it hanging from the ceiling of my garage, like some oversized trophy,” I replied. “Although, I kind of regret that, considering how much attention we attracted.”

Hoppy snorted. “I can’t believe you thought no one would question a massive, armed ship that just randomly floated out of the undercity,” she swiveled back towards the console, then clicked a few buttons. “The gun on the Atlantic tower looks good,” she reported.

“Hurray! Only one hundred and seventeen installations left to go. Woo!” I cheered, with absolutely no energy.

Hoppy spun in her chair again, so she could look at me. I was beginning to believe she just liked spinning. “Why did you volunteer for this if you didn’t want to do it?” she asked.

I sighed. “Because even though I don’t want to join the Family, or get involved in this corporate BS, it doesn’t mean I want innocent people to suffer. I don’t know many of the other samurai in the city, but I trust Sharron when she said I was the best one to check this shit out,” I flicked over to the next squirrel just as it approached the next installation. “I don’t even know what the fuck to look for.”

“I don’t know,” Hoppy admitted as she spun back to the console. “Probably something like bypassed connection, broken servos…”

“A block of explosives wedged directly under the ammo feed so you’d need to be practically underneath the weapon to find it?” I asked.

“That’s a little more specific than my examples,” Hoppy said with a frown. I quickly shot a copy of my current feed over to her monitor. Squirrel number seven hundred and ninety two was currently hanging upside down, staring at something that looked suspiciously like a bomb.

“Please tell me I’m not looking at what I think I am,” I moaned. 

“I wish I could… Where the hell is this?” Hoppy asked 

“It’s an artillery piece on the south wall, Number Eight-Seven A Six BAX Seventeen,” I had to pause and take a breath, “FAS Twelve,” I finished. “Who named these fucking emplacements?”

“It’s just an identification code,” Hoppy replied, punching the number into her console. After a few seconds the central holographic display blinked to life, displaying a map of the city with a blinking light along the south wall. “At least it’s an artillery piece. Most incursions land within the walls and can’t be targeted with these large pieces, too much collateral damage. If they really wanted to damage our defenses they would have sabotaged our AA coverage.”

“Yeah, lucky us,” I muttered as I shoved myself to my feet. “We’re going to concentrate our next leg of the search on the south wall,” I said pointing at the hologram.

“Why? The Anti Air should be a higher priority,” Hoppy said, pointing at the various towers we hadn’t checked yet.

“Yeah… but I have a feeling if we find anything else it’ll be along the wall,” I admitted. “Although part of me hopes I’m wrong about that.”

Hoppy turned and looked at me, “Why?”

“Because Helen and I caught a saboteur in the south side of the undercity only a few days ago, and it would have been fairly easy for the guy to climb up to the top of the walls,” I explained. “But if he did climb to the top of the walls, and sabotage those guns, it gives more credence to Mirage’s crazy theory that someone is going to attack the city.”

“You’re joking, right?” Hoppy asked.

“I wish I was,” I muttered. “Can you contact HQ and have them send someone out to disarm this shit while I check the other emplacements?”

Hoppy nodded, and immediately turned to make a call, while I redirected a few more squirrels to the area. I suddenly wanted to get this search over with as soon as possible.

—

“Sixteen anti tank guns and five heavy artillery pieces, all along the south wall? Are you sure?” Hel asked. I stared at her through the comm console on the marsupial for several long seconds. 

“No. Both Hoppy and I are completely incompetent and don’t know what we’re talking about. Sorry for bothering you,” I snapped, before I mimed like I was reaching to hang up.

“Alright, I believe you,” Hel yelled, rocking forward. I smirked and sat back down. “I hate you so much right now,” she muttered. “Did you complete the survey?”

“Hoppy is still going over the anti air towers, but it doesn’t look like any of those have been compromised,” I reported.

“That’s great. Let’s hope that our luck holds out,” Hel leaned forward and grabbed her head. “I would have rather you found damaged AA guns though.” 

“I know… Mirage is going to be insufferable if he finds out. Good thing I don’t have to deal with him,” I said lightly.

“You think this is funny? If anything this adds credence to his theory that someone is going to attack the city,” Hel hissed. “This is going to divide the members even further than they are now.”

“So don’t tell them,” I replied. 

Hel’s head shot up, and her eyes narrowed. “What?”

“Seriously. Don’t tell them, at least not yet,” I repeated. “If you do, people will panic and things will probably spiral out of control. You should at least wait until they finish the interrogation and get some actual information, before you announce anything.” Hel leaned forward and grabbed her head again. “Nothing happened during the interrogation, right?” I asked suspiciously.

“His head exploded! We knew he had a suicide switch in his head, but one of the AIs was mimicking the killswitch signal, so there should have been no way for it to go off, but it did!” Hel muttered into her hands.

“Seriously?” I shook my head. “So you’ve got nothing left, no leads, just a bunch of circumstantial evidence and a corpse.”

“I should never have volunteered to come here,” Hel continued, speaking into her hands. 

“You’ll get no argument from me,” I agreed. I waited for a minute for Hel to look up again, and when she didn’t I cleared my throat. “Maybe the sabotage will stop, and everything will go back to normal?” I suggested.

“Someone broke into Great Northern’s main research labs and caused the servers to overheat yesterday,” Hel replied without looking up. “It puts their latest projects back months.”

“Fuck!” I snapped. “Can’t those corporate assholes just get along? Fucking fine! I really wanted to believe that no one would be stupid enough to start a war over fucking corporate competition, but reality keeps pushing the proof right into my face.” I sighed. “I’m still not going to get involved in the corpo fuckery, but I’m starting to believe we need to do something to prepare for the worst.” 

Hel finally looked up again. “If you were willing to do that, it would be great. I know there are a couple people already trying to make contingency plans, I’ll put you in touch.”

“Alright, thanks,” I said. Hel and I stared at each other for a couple seconds, and I couldn’t help but notice how tired she looked. She’d only been here a couple days, and she already looked worse than Mirage did. “You okay?”

“No. Coming here was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made. Tensions are high, and everyone has different ideas on how to proceed. I spent every minute since I saw you last just trying to mediate between everyone… I have no idea how Broodmother managed to keep everything together,” Hel admitted.

“I’m sure everything will improve if you keep at it,” I told her.

“You don’t believe that,” she replied quietly.

“No, no I don’t, but things can't continue like this forever. Whether things stabilize, or fall apart and someone tries to take advantage, things’ll change,” I explained.

“You give the absolute WORST pep talks,” Hel laughed.

I smirked. “So I’ve been told. Once Hoppy and I finish our survey I’ll check in again, you can pass me that list of names then. I’ll talk to you soon.”