Corpo Age

Chapter 84: Pixie

Vin - Halls Corporation

Inside the NLA office of Halls Corporation, Vin strode into the meeting room he had set up as a base for managing all affairs related to the fight against QuickLinks Logistics.

“Talo, have the new equipment arrived?” He asked his second in command.

“Yes, sir. They sent someone along with the new gear. They’re in the basement, going over it with the men in rotation.”

“Good, we can start executing our planned strike then. We’ll set off in three days. We need to end this quickly so we can focus on expanding our vehicle production. We’ll need it.”

Vin then paced around the room, as he carefully examined the information displayed on the various screens. They each contained updated information provided by the company’s new allies from the West Coast Agroindustry Alliance. A majority of the information was mostly mundane and unimportant, but paying attention to all of them gave clues and painted a bigger picture. That was why there were several cy-sec specialists monitoring all the incoming data.

“I’m going to check out the training downstairs. Contact me if you find anything new.”

“Yes, sir.” Several voices replied as Vin exited the room.

He walked past the main floor, where several workers were assembling together parts to create a new Shade, to reach the elevator on the other side of the building. He pressed the floor to the lowermost level in the basement. When the doors opened, he was greeted by several turrets on the ceiling and a thick door blocking his way. Beside the door was a terminal and a screen that displayed some numbers.

The floors in this small chamber acted like a scale, with the screen displaying the weight of everyone who was inside. Vin took a brief glance to ensure that nothing was out of the ordinary before he proceeded.

He didn’t seem to mind the weapons pointed at him at all. He walked straight up to the terminal, plugged into it and looked into the iris scanner. With his security credentials verified, he passed through to find several more turrets in the corridor ahead, with four security guards standing behind them.

“Sir.” They saluted as he approached.

He saluted back and continued moving past several sets of automatic doors. Through the glass windows in the hallway, he could make out the several rooms, power generators, and the armory for this base.

This floor contained the NLA branch server rooms that contained the files for their products and everything pertaining to their business operations. Which was why the additional security was justified.

Right next to the armory was a small area that they sometimes used as a shooting range or to drill their team maneuvers. Right now, it was configured for the latter, using pre-fab walls to construct a basic layout of the interiors of a typical building.

He could see a lone woman standing by the entrance of the makeshift building, studying the various screens displayed before her that showed the body cam footage of the people inside.

Vin walked loudly toward her to announce himself.

“You must be the one they sent from headquarters, right?”

The woman immediately saluted before she replied. “Yes sir. I am Yuki from the Elevate City security team. I have been tasked with overseeing the training of the new equipment.”

Vin’s gaze moved to the table behind her. “Is that the new device Rollo made?”

“Yes sir, this is the new stealth drone, dubbed the Pixie. Its role is support for frontal assaults rather than reconnaissance, though.”

Vin approached and picked up the small drone to carefully study it.

It’s more like a mouse than a pixie…

“How does it work?”

“See for yourself, sir. Team 21 is just about to test it.”

Vin - Halls Corporation

“Get ready, everyone. We will be going straight to the enemy base as soon as we reach the city.” Vin’s voice resounded throughout the entire convoy through the company comms.

Once he finished, he looked over at the woman beside him. “Are you sure you want to participate in the fight? I believe you didn’t come with your team, as they didn’t mean for you to come along. Your job was to only train my men on how to use the Pixie.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ve been with the company since the start. I know how not to get in your way,” Yuki replied.

“Okay, as long as you’re fine with it.”

The convoy of two dozen Wraiths continued cutting through the morning of the wasteland for another two hours before they finally exited out of the sandstorm. They swiftly split off into groups before they entered the city to avoid drawing attention.

“Are you sure they only have one facility in Firebird?” Yuki asked as she took in the sight of the metropolis.

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“Yes, we’ve been getting information from both our own intel department and from our allies that confirms the same thing. Makes sense considering they don’t operate the Firebird NLA route anymore, and they learned their lesson last time of splitting up their assets.”

The Halls Corporation security team parked their vehicle in various alleyways and waited. Once they were all in position, Vin gave the order.

“Execute the plan. Remember, go fast, and target the QuickLinks employees. The mercs will go away once they know it’s a losing battle.”

Vin smoothly exited the car with Yuki following close behind, along with the other two people in the car. They each enabled their active camouflage the moment they stepped out of the alley, as if there were some sort of line there.

With their company program sharing their vision with each other, they could still make out where their fellow teammates were. Vin’s team rushed toward a small building that was the only QuickLinks office in the city. It was five floors tall, but had a spacious plot of land at the front where numerous vehicles were parked.

They moved past the front by hopping over the parking gates that were only meant to stop vehicles.

A lot of those cars are of different makes. They must belong to various mercenaries.

The Halls Corporation guards bypassed anyone outside as their first goal was to take control of the security room. Fighting now would only allow a chance for QuickLinks to rally together and organize a tougher defensive effort.

Vin led his team inside the first floor of the building and straight into the washroom that was just before the security scanners that blocked their way.

“You do the honors, Yuki. You know how to use the new drones best, right?”

She nodded and took out several Pixies, the new drone her boss had made, and released them out of the bathroom.

Using the same method they had employed, the drones turned invisible and scurried into the building through the various vents.

Yuki connected the rest of her team with the live footage to keep them up-to-date.

One of the pixies soon peeked into the rooms on the second floor to find several mercenary teams on standby. Among them were heavily augmented people, cyborgs that definitely were specialized in frontal combat.

“Let’s not that those guys head on. I know you can handle it, but these are the guys that will leave once they are disadvantaged, right?” Yuki looked up and asked her current superior.

“Yes, keep looking around. We want to take out any QuickLink leaders here that are pulling them together.”

The Pixies continued their search and mapped a good chunk of the building. As they had suspected, the executives stayed on the top floor, on the fifth.

An unhealthy big man sat in the most important-looking office with several cyborgs standing guard behind him. Sitting on the other side of his desk appeared to be a mercenary.

“You know we still have to charge the same price even if we’re just standing by here. Otherwise, my men will goof off and start leaving if they aren’t getting compensated appropriately,” the mercenary said.

“Fine, as long as you agree to adhere to the NDA contract, and disable your connection to the web while under our employ,” the obese executive replied as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

The mercenary soon left his office after their negotiation was over. One of the guards then spoke up after confirming the mercenary had left.

“You sure that’s okay, sir?”

“It’s fine. We have more important things to worry about. Go see—”

Yuki drew her attention away from the footage from the drone and looked toward Vin.

“Sir, we got the location of a VIP. Should we move to secure him first?”

“Yes, we need to take out all their decision-makers to keep them scattered. Did you find a way for us to get in unnoticed?”

“No, sir, nothing inside or outside. We’ll need a cy-sec specialist in their security system to do that.”

“Alright, then this is where we go loud,” Vin toggled over to comm frequency for the entire team. “Everyone, prepare to go loud in five minutes. We’ll be rushing in to neutralize the VIPs.”

As the team was waiting in the bathroom for the final five minutes, the door suddenly opened as someone walked in. The person walked up to the urinals and started to relieve himself.

The entire team waited with bated breath as the man went about his business. Once he finished, he went to wash his hands with the synthetic foam dispensers and began fixing his hair while looking into the mirror.

Vin watched the countdown draw close as the man took his time caring for his appearance.

The time ticked down, and when there were only ten seconds left, Vin made his move. He turned on his active camouflage and quickly maneuvered himself behind the unsuspecting man. Vin then lashed out and placed the man in a chokehold.

“Get the restrainers on him. We’ll leave him in the bathroom.”

Once the man was out cold, they placed him in a stall before they rushed out of the toilet. Then ignored everyone in the lobby and rushed straight toward the staircase behind the scanners.

It didn’t take long for an alarm to blare throughout the building as they were detected.

Vin wasted no time as the people in the building were confused or panicked and rushed up the stairs.

“Jam the doors as we go up!” He commanded.

With the building only having five floors, it didn’t take long for the crew to reach the top floor. They could already hear shooting downstairs as the decoy team did their jobs.

“Sir, his two guards aren’t moving away from the door. They’re just around the corner,” Yuki yelled out after looking at the camera feed the Pixies gave her.

“Ready the heavy weapons—”

“Sir, leave it to me.”

A look of realization dawned on Vin’s face as he nodded back at her words.

Yuki immediately got to work and focused her attention on controlling her Pixies again. She had another Pixie rendezvous with her previous one and commanded them to approach the two cyborg guards.

The drones came out of the vents, landed on the ground, and rushed up to their designated targets. The active camouflage allowed them to stroll straight to their cyborg objectives, where they then exploded right at their feet.

“They’re disabled, go take them out!” Yuki cried out.

Vin and his team quickly reacted and rushed out immediately after the explosion. He could see the two cyborgs slumped over on the ground, struggling to move.

The EMP from the Pixie drones had taken out the controls of their cybernetic limbs, and they wrestled to regain control. Their systems were likely robust enough to recover too, if given enough time. Unfortunately, they didn’t even have five seconds before Vin plunged a blade through their throats where they were least augmented.

With the two guards down, the team quickly pushed through the door and found the obese man still sitting at his desk.

Vin stared down at the nameplate for a moment.

“Mr. Jared Reinhart, order your men to surrender now or you’ll get a bullet. It’s your choice.”