[Experimental] The Gatekeepers - Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Notes :

Heya everyone. Sorry again I had to dip into my archives for chapters. I'm hopeful I'll be able to start uploading chapters normally again sunday.

I'm just...it's not been good. Got to see a cardiologist because my heart is going nuts on top of everything else, and I got a bunch of tests scheduled because the doctor did not seem all that happy with what he got from examining me. Hopefully it'll be fine.

In the meantime though, I'll be trying to get things back on track. At least I managed to realize that I'd been in a complete daze in part because of hypoglycemia.

This is the last chapter of The Gatekeepers. I'd appreciate it if you told me what you guys thought about it. It'll help me refine on future story ideas, and honestly I still want to write some sci-fi/space opera stuff. I've been hesitating between continuing TESS (which would have a TON of issues, notably in terms of mathematics) or starting a small side project that would be uploaded irregularly and pretty much be something to default to when I have another burnout like this.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed The Gatekeepers. I'll see you on sunday !

Chapter 3

Terran Federation Fringe

Novalis star system, planet of Novalis Prime

"Investigator ! It's a pleasure to meet you ! I am so very sorry we were unable to gather a proper welcoming party, but we had so little warning-"

"That was by design, mister Oshiyura." Said Sandra as she stepped off the ramp and into the dry, hot air of the planet. Novalis Prime wasn't a desert world per se -if nothing else it had arctic and temperate areas like most terraformed planets- but it was definitely on the arid side, and the primary spaceport was smack dab on the equator. "My predecessors did not…prosper on your installation, and my superiors and I would rather avoid such problems happening again. Which is the reason for her presence. Mister Oshiyura, Amita, my security specialist. Amita, mister Oshiyura, overall facility managed and GSP representative on the planet."

"A pleasure." Said Amita, bowing slightly.

The manager looked at her briefly, then returned a simple nod, and just like that she disappeared into the background.

Amita smiled internally. These corpos were all the same. They thought of the aides and lambda security agents as little more than furniture, and he'd clearly classified her into that category. Which was why she'd gotten to great pains to appear like a generic corporate guard. Suit, tie, standard handgun, the works.

There was no need to show that underneath it all was her covert armor and that she had hidden a fair few weapons on herself. For that matter, she had integrated weaponry into her android, and her 'standard handgun' was a disguised high powered laser. It wouldn't kill power armor but anything short of that would feel the pain.

"I was indeed quite worried about that. Hence why I brought extra security. Please, I would appreciate it very much if you accepted a permanent escort on top of your…specialist."

Amita's body went rigid. She was about to ping Sandra -accepting would be a terrible idea-, but thankfully the investigator didn't seem impressed by the offer.

"Your men failed to protect both of my predecessors, I have little faith in their addition preventing another unfortunate outcome."

It was, all in all, said mildly. But Amita already had several drones up and running, and the investigator's expression was anything but mild. There was steel and a…warning in her eyes.

The manager got the subtext five out of five. So did what appeared to be the security chief, who his superior hadn't bothered to introduce. They had failed to protect the others…or succeeded in assassinating them. There was fear in the manager's eyes now. There was only tiredness and understanding in the security chief's however. Maybe those corporate goons weren't useless after all, if their leader was at least considering the possibility of having moles or rogues. Most leaders would go into a fit if someone suggested that their men were traitorous, or start fearing that they'd become a scapegoat, like the dear manager.

"O-Of course investigator. Still, we will be on a heightened security level as long as you are here."

"That, is more than expected mister Oshiyura." She looked around at the landing area they were currently in. Clearly the place had been designed primarily for cargo transfers, not personnel, although the possibility had clearly been kept in mind. They were more or less on a giant expanse of concrete with the ship being offloaded by automated systems integrated into its berth at their backs, and what looked like a fortified terminal was in front of them. "Now, I suppose we should get to the installation."

"So soon ? Would you not rather settle down first ?"

"No. My baggage will be moved to my room." By Amita's bots, although in this case it was more because the AI wasn't trusting anybody near her client's stuff until they had a solid lead on whatever the hell was killing GSP's investigators on the planet, rather than Sandra using her as an assistant. Good luck tampering with the baggage when the bots carrying it also had integrated laser rifles. "I want to begin immediately. The faster we are done, the faster things return to normal and the company can resume operations without worries."

"Of course. If you'll follow me ?"

Sandra nodded, and the manager departed, everyone else in tow. Amita set her body to follow on autopilot for a few seconds as she linked in with the pathfinders. Thankfully the drones were pure antigrav, so they could fly themselves out of the cargo bay and immediately take to the skies, after of course she'd, ah, filed a course with traffic control. One that stated that they were cargo drones doing a delivery. Then promptly hacked into their systems and dumped the data from it. Officially they'd never have existed, and they would drop into stealth and circle back as soon as they were out of sensor range of the city.

Even just their preliminary readings had been fascinating however. The spaceport was divided into multiple distinct sections, as well as the city in general. You could clearly see the buildings from the original colony, then the radical change in architecture when the Iroguis had invaded and subjugated the world, and then another massive change when the Federation had liberated it. And GSP's private terminal in the spaceport didn't just look fortified. It was a prefabricated, standardized naval terminal, the kind the Terran Federation Navy just dropped on any world it had conquered to create a fortified beachhead. It was probably surplus the corp had bought when it had settled in, but readings indicated the internal security systems were still up, and unless she was seriously mistaken, so were some of the weapon emplacements. The kind with big old surface to air missiles.

As she followed Sandra, she pinged the security chief, and requested integration into their security network. He didn't even blink as he sent back a request for her authorizations, and she forwarded them. He'd clearly expected something like this, and before long she had full access.

Which was when she fully connected into it, and the security chief almost stumbled. Having an AI inside any network was kind of like having a mech step into a room. Most humans had implants nowadays, but their 'footprint' in a system was tiny. She was digital data, so hers was rather massive.

The security chief quickly recovered, and shook his head as one of his men offered assistance, smiling at the same time. And he clearly didn't bother telling anything to his boss.

Amita was starting to like him.

*****

"So, your thoughts ?"

"Ma'am ?" Said Amita, more or less by reflex, as the car started up with her and the inspector aboard. Transportation had been provided by the corp, a pretty standard automated corporate VIP SUV. Still a ground vehicle with tires and all, but it was armored to some level.

"Don't call me that ! I told you, call me Sandra."

"Sorry. And my thoughts ?"

"Yes, on all of this."

Amita looked at the investigator, realized she was serious, and shrugged.

"Not much so far. Their books add up, but two third of this is a black operation. So they'll have a lot of practice with falsifying paperwork." She shrugged. "We need more intel."

"Agreed. But I still have some leads. Any conclusions you've drawn from what happened to the other investigators ?"

"The first one was kidnapped, possibly tortured, then executed and disposed of. Second was caught in a firefight. Bodies were too damaged for precision, but I would bet that it was sustained. The armor of his detachment was good enough that a perfect ambush would have required heavy weapons. Really heavy ones. The kind that don't leave much more than ash and plasma behind."

"Right. That won't happen to us, correct ?"

"I am considerably tougher and more dangerous than that entire squad was. I'm also better at intercepting and predicting threats. Besides which, I have drones and bots to back us up, just in case."

"Which leads me into my next question, where are they ? I was told to expect you to bring a lot of remote controlled security stuff, and I haven't see any of them yet."

"That's the goal. Keep them out of sight as much as possible. People rarely appreciate armored combat machines trudging through the streets. Too many bad memories."

Sandra winced, and nodded. She was from a Core World, so she'd never had to experience a Federation 'liberation', but everyone knew that they were…bloody. It had been over a decade since the end of the war, almost fifteen years since this world had been liberated, and there were still signs of damage here and there, if you knew where to look. Or had pathfinders. Those things were terrifyingly good at finding targets and fortified positions, however damaged.

"Well, I suppose that is more than fair. Alright, since-" She paused as she saw Amita calmly pull out her pistol and check it. "What are you doing ?"

"We've taken a turn. But it wasn't on our intinerary and traffic control still says our beacon is on our original path. We're being diverted."

"Shit ! Should we call the police ?"

"To do what ? So they can find some hacking software in traffic control ? I'd rather follow where they want us to go, and take care of them."

"What if they're just going to drive us into a bomb ?"

"I have drones in every direction scanning for that and armed assailants. Push comes to shove, I override the autopilot and get us out of here while they take care of things." Most of the drones were fairly lightly armed, but she had one of the pathfinders diving from its high altitude perch into a close air support position. Its missile racks were empty, but it had twin laser cannons capable of giving light tanks a new behind, and a rotary beam weapon that was roughly a laser gatling. Except that it was fusion pumped and more or less a concentrated micro nuke beamed at whoever it wanted dead. The reason for the rotary barrels was that with so much energy they'd overheat like crazy. Even with that it wouldn't fire continuously for long, but it would be able to shred even power armor like no one's business while it did "Either way, we'll get out safely."

"What if they've hacked the car ?"

"Already checked it before you stepped onboard. The programs are clean and I've pretty much taken over its security. It’s traffic control that's compromised, and sendings us wrong navigation information."

"I thought the autopilot was autonomous ?"

"Not quite. Traffic control, well, controls traffic. That means being able to override vehicles sometimes." And slag them if necessary. A wheeled car accident was a problem, but a grav truck could take out a skyscrapper if you knew what you were doing. There was a reason the differences between an air defence battery and a traffic control center were mostly academical on most worlds. "I'm trying to find the hack in their systems, but it's pretty well buried."

"Right, of course…wait, how did you get acces-"

Amita held her hand up, and frowned.

"Four hostiles. Three holding firearms, one with a holstered gauss pistol. We're going straight towards them. They're inside a warehouse. Now shut up, and let me focus."

Sandra obediently shut her mouth, and Amita double checked that there were no weapons capable of penetrating the SUV's armor. And there wasn't. Which was weird as hell. Four guys, three with obsolete pieces of scrap as guns ? The guys that had killed the second investigator had Inner World grade lasers, at least.

The car swung into the warehouse, the door automatically closing behind them. Amita watched as the four stepped up to the vehicle.

They were…well, gangsters. The muscle, the three with the firearms, were covered in tatoos.

"Hey, princesses." Said one of the gangers as she tapped on the hood of the car with the butt of her pistol. "Are you gonna come out or what ? Or boss wanna talk with you. C'mon, don't be shy, I promise we'll be gent-"

The ganger's sentence ended in a scream as four windows exploded, and eight drones swarmed into the warehouse. The two other gangers were dead before they were even able to raise their heads, shredded by the hail of laser bolts.

But the one who'd spoken had put her face in front of the passenger window, and Amita ordered it to lower at maximum speed. It practically disappeared, and she grabbed the ganger by her collar and headbutted her. Flismy flesh met high tech polymers and military grade alloys with the force of a pile driver, and Amita threw her corpse to the side as she aimed her pistol at the ganger with the gauss weapon. Her drones could have technically done it, but her ambassador was far more accurate.

The first shot took out his pistol. The second his right knee. And the third his left shoulder. He collapsed, screaming in pain as the drones spread out, scanning for other possible threats.

Amita waited for a second, before stepping out, gesturing for Sandra to stay behind her. She quickly scanned their surroundings, and then filed a report with the system's police force. They were going to want answers. If nothing else, her drones were jamming all communications in a three hundred meters radius, and she could already see people starting to wonder what the hell all the fuss was about. The warehouse had probably been soundproofed, and it was decently remote, but well, she'd just smashed the windows and the last ganger was still screaming like a pig.

"Holy shit…" Said Sandra, and Amita winced as the ganger Amita had headbutted. The woman's skull was clearly caved in, and her face looked like it had met a truck.

"My drones could have penetrated our vehicle's armor, and I needed to move her out of the way." Amita shrugged. "She picked her fight."

"You killed them."

"And they were going to kill us. If they wouldn't have tried to torture and rape us first. Quit your bitching, two of your colleagues are dead, remember ? And these guys probably did it." She nodded at the bodies.

"...Right."

Amita sighed, and made her way to the remaining ganger. She knelt next to him.

"Hey, asshole. Are you the boss ?"

"You…you bitch ! Y-You shot me !"

"Yes, I did. And I will again if you don't tell me what I want to know. Who the hell are you working for ? Why were you after her ?" She gestured at Sandra.

"Go…suck Irogui cock you bitch !" Said the ganger as he spit at her.

Amita shrugged, wiped the spit off, and shot the man's remaining kneecap off.

He writhed around, screaming at the top of his lungs, and shrugged at Sandra's horrified look.

"I keep my word. And gave me a chance. Don't expect mercy from me." She tilted her head. "The cops are on their way. Stay here, don't get away from the drones. I'll patch this guy up so they can interrogate him properly."

"R-Right, of course."

Amita sighed, and pulled out her medikit. Just her luck, the investigator she'd gotten seemingly wasn't a classic bloodthirsty corpo. Stars know she would be if she was following up on two dead and tortured colleagues.

Well, that was a problem for later. For now she had a lead…and even more questions to ask. Like why the hell would these guys send only four guys ? Three of them with firearms of all things ?

And gangers of all people ? This just kept getting weird and weirder.