Chapter 115: Parsing the Situation (Patreon)

Relatively few edits to the previous chapter, it should flow a good chunk better tho.

Michael 'Magos' Sobronov

The compound was still on high alert when we returned, every single one of my troopers was mobilized and in a defensive posture, steady and uncomplaining, and not relaxing even when our APC rode in.

Part of me was almost tempted to praise them for their thoroughness when they began checking if the vehicle hadn't been taken over, but I didn't have the time to waste, and simply tossed Sturn back over my shoulder and stomped outside.

The sight of me was enough to get them all moving, and after ordering the prisoners secured and for preliminary questioning to begin, I rushed to the emergency room only to find the middle aged Dr. Chen and the much younger Dr. Rogers calmly extracting bullets and replacing failing organs while their assistants rushed to and fro the storage rooms to fetch them.

I lowered Sturn (who was almost completely unharmed despite his 'adventure') on a waiting bench and quietly approached the patients currently not being worked on, earning only a slight glance from Chen and a momentary gawk from Rogers.

The older man grunted at him and he quickly got back to work.

Most of the other patients had already been stabilized but there was one splayed over a surgical table who had simply been sprayed with as many preservants as possible and simply forgotten about despite the hole in his face where his eye should have been.

A quick glance confirmed that the wound went slightly beyond the skull, and was well beyond the other two doctors' skillset to fix.

And so they simply left him for me and hoped he lived.

'Well reasoned.' I decided and my Mechadendrites unfurled from behind me. A mental flick later requesting extra supplies, getting an immediate affirmative from a very awake Gloria, and I got to work.

Rebecca

She stomped around the meeting room with a deep frown on her face. Unsure if she wanted to scream at having her big moment ruined, shoot someone's dick off for ruining it, or be satisfied she helped save a bunch of alright old folks.

At least she got to blow shit up?

Agh! She hated overthinking things!

"You good there lil' missy?" The vet drawled through his twelfth cigar.

"Just fucking peachy!" She chirped sarcastically and went back to stomping and muttering "Bunch of fucking clamjammers..."

Chuckles spread across the room, only to be silenced by a stern "Time and place." From Svetlana who looked to a nearby active computer "Still no ID on the intruders?"

"Nope!" A voice lacking any and all identifiable traits responded from the other end "Their encryption is pretty strong, and they were on silent mode the whole time. I'm not even sure I'll be able to crack it at all."

"Damn it." The older woman frowned.

The doors to the conference room swung open, and the borg of the hour stalked in wearing a fresh surgical robe and smelling harshly of disinfectants, which did not deter Rebecca whatsoever as she rushed over to glomp him.

Michael 'Magos' Sobronov

Smiling despite myself, I hugged Rebecca with one arm while I scanned the rest of the people present.

Almost anyone of any significance was gathered in the deceptively fortified conference room, even if a good number of them were completely useless when it came to the matter at hand, and all of them looked just a tiny bit ragged for it, even if they were more than used to getting up on demand.

Part of me immediately jumped to the possibility I was coddling them a bit too much, but the more rational side stomped down on that immediately. They weren't children, and it had only been less than a month of them working at the pace I set.

"They will all live." Is the first thing I say.

There are a lot of smiles and unsurprised nods going around, but my eye is on Mason's reaction first, and the man lets out a low whistle, no doubt having been informed of the extent of his fellow veterans' injuries.

He gives me a long look, cigar smoke dancing around his fingers as he completely forgot the cancer stick in his hand. And then he goes back to his usual, lackadaisical manner, leaning back in his seat and taking slow puffs of his favored drug.

And yet I notice something about him has shifted, something barely different in his eyes and posture. Almost as if he became more present and was taking in everything around him just a tiny bit more seriously.

Filing this away, I face the rest "What do you have for me?"

"There were no other attacks." Mom immediately tells me and her voice makes it clear she wasn't done "Other than that two groups came close but not enough to engage."

"Observers?" I ponder.

"Could be." A featureless voice whose signal I immediately tag for B@D's comes from a nearby laptop "Both were squad sized, had some pretty powerful encryptions on their gear and were going silent."

Meaning even someone of B@D's caliber would need to get into the net equivalent of a wrestling match just to get a breach protocol through, leaving her open for other probes.

"Right, they weren't complete idiots." I nod "What did they do?"

"One was checking the other end of the old basement tunnel you had sealed, the others were in overwatch across the street. I can confirm their signals were different but thats about it."

"I've already got Wesson combing their trail for any clues." Mason cuts in gruffly "Don't expect much if they were this thorough though."

"Anything is better than nothing." I tell him and eye the laptop "Give me the recording and the signals, plase."

"Oh you think you are so much better than me, huh?" B@D asks, likely in the belief that she did not sound whiny.

And who was I to deny her her education "Correct."

Mason snorts, and I see my mother smirking.

"Fuck you!" The laptop's screen shifts to a pixelated middle finger.

I get the files a moment later.

'Logos.'

[On it.]

"Anything else?" I ask "Hernan, has this gone public yet?"

He rubs his hands and quickly checks on something "Nothing so far. It seems that aside from some mentions of company vehicles being sighted there are no rumors right now."

"That will change, and probably quickly." I tell him to which he merely nods.

"I will see to it that it changes in our favor." He inclines his head.

[Encryption analyzed.Probability of misidentification: 5%

Suspected sabotage/infiltration team identified as: Militech Spec Ops.Likely assignment based on company Modus Operandi: Destruction of cyber defenses in preparation for all out attack.Suspected overwatch team identified as: Kang Tao Spec Ops.Likely assignment based on company Modus Operandi: Asset retrieval.]

'Asset retrieval, as in kidnapping.' My mood somehow manages to darken even more 'How sure are you about their missions?'

[The team composition was based on the Prowling Tiger Strategem, their preferred method for capturing and extracting high value personnel. Do note their strategem data is highly classified so the information we have available may be faulty.]

'Duly noted.' I sigh internally and inform the rest about the identities of the two groups.

The first response belongs, naturally, to Mary "Bullshit!"

I just have Logos ping her in response, to which she understandably begins crashing out.

Thankfully not before muting herself.

Mom is frowning heavily, while Rebecca is looking quite murderous.

The doors behind me swing open, and Schmidt rushes inside.

No alarms were raised by either Logos or B@D so I remain calm at the interruption "What is it?"

He seems almost annoyed as he speaks "Both the Wraith and the 6th Street cunt squealed." He tells us with a scoff "The Wraith didn't even need a good smack to start crying how everything was the 6th Street's idea, listed everything too, dates, payments, planning."

"And how long did he claim they were they planning for this?" Mom immediately catches on that.

"'Bout four days." The soldier shrugs.

"That's..." Hernan hisses "Barely a day after the export deal was made."

"Which means either we have a mole." I do my best not to growl and fail "Or the leak is on the other end of the deal."

Everyone turns deadly serious at that.

"For now we will act as if the latter is the case." I say after a moment "Which means there is nothing we can realistically do about it." And my teeth grind at the admission.

The deal was made with the Los Angeles City Council which means the specifics of the delivery could have been leaked from almost any level of government, knowing how utterly corrupt such institutions are.

There was always a chance the Wraith was lying but I'd made sure to terrify him thoroughly beforehand, so that could be confirmed easily enough.

I take a sharp breath and exhale "Moving on. Schmidt, you said both squealed?"

"Got that right." He nods "The 6th Streeter tried bargaining at first after I got a few good licks in, but the moment I mentioned he could get a personal visit from you he got all puckered up and spilled the detes."

"And?" Mom demands.

"It was Miltiech." He informs bluntly "Some up and comer of theirs wanted access to our security systems so 'she' told them about the transport run, wanted them to snatch the highest rank grunt they could and get anything they can from them. Lots of eddies involved in the whole thing."

"Did he share anything else about the identity?" I prompt.

"Said it was anonymous over the holo." Schmidt shrugs "Could be lying but I don't see it." 

My thoughts race for a moment before I sigh "It was a fucking probe."

The non combat oriented people present seem confused but those of a violent inclination pick up the pieces easily enough.

There was simply no way the 6th Street goons could get viable security data from Sturn because he did not have access to it in the first place! 

Meaning they were made to commit suicide by me just so the corp could gauge my reaction to an attack, and the sabotage team was sent in case my security was lacking enough to be breached.

Fuck that was irritating.

"That covers the Militech group." Hernan speaks up hesitantly "But what of Kang Tao? Have we provoked them in some way?" Hernan asks hesitantly, looking at me "We know Militech has no love for you but what of the Chinese?"

"Think the rats need provocation to do anything?" Mason scoffs, biting down on a fresh cigar "They probably got a mole in Militech that gave them a last minute warning, so they sent some grunts just in case they could smash and grab something."

"So you think this was just an attack of opportunity?" I fold my arms.

"Only option that comes to mind unless the two are actively working together." He snorts, making it clear exactly how likely he thought that was "In my experience its best to keep things simple. You can make FBCs, a model and frame they don't have access to."

"Which is more than enough reason for them to try and get me." I mutter "Or at least leverage over me."

"Eyup." He smacks his lips.

"Fuck." I grunt and go over everything again.

The situation with Kang Tao was, despite being incredibly frustrating on principle, far easier to deal with than the one with Militech because as powerful as Kang Tao was their power base was on the other side of the world.

Militech pretty much surrounded us on all sides except the NC seaside, which was instead under control of Arasaka.

Which made escalating the situation an almost inevitable lose lose for me.

Because if I got into open conflict with the company, I would no longer be able to export anything out of Night City without either doing so through intermediaries (and paying them a massive chunk of the profits) or looking more and more like an Arasaka puppet.

Having the rep initially was fine, but tying myself to them long term was incredibly stupid.

Fuck, I really shouldn't have scrapped that Dragoon...

Still, there was no way I could pull back from the Los Angeles deal even if I wanted to.

"The next convoy will go with the APC for support." I tell my mother after an objective second to which she nods and starts typing away "Hernan, contact the Bright family of the Aldecaldos and see if anyone is interested in doing some light escort work for us."

The ex priest smiles and inclines his head.

[B@D] I ping her [Start looking into Militech activities across the city.] 

[So now I'm good enough?]

[A fittingly menial task for you.] I fire back instantly.

[Gah! Betrayal!]

[You going to do it or not?]

[Yeah, yeah, but you owe me a rematch!]

[Anytime, anyday noob.]

I cut the connection before she can start seething at me as usual.

"Redouble security around the compound and make sure the next convoy we send is prepared for anything." I speak up again "The contract has leeway for a slight delay but if the next shipment doesn't reach its destination on time we start getting into penalties."

I listen to their acknowledgements briefly and nod "Anything else?" Hearing nothing I turn to my girlfriend "Now what was that about a celebration?"

Her eyes brighten like something straight out of an anime.