Tech Planet (Project NightStorm Book 2) Page 9

  Arri had studied the picture provided by Walker, one of the reasons he had looked so closely was the paper. Very few things appeared on paper. She had an old lined face, creases in the forehead and around the eyes, deep lines by her mouth. She had silver-white hair and dark brown eyes. Arri noticed she had an easy commanding manner, she greeted each guest the same rising from her chair offering a quick shake of the hand followed by conversation. In-between guests, she drank a dark liquid from a long crystal glass. Arri squeezed the sides of his own plastic cup, this lady had influence.

  "I've acquired the target and am heading to her location. I will need a distraction when I get there so if you could start a disturbance that would be handy," Arri said into his comms.

  "I'll think of something," March replied.

  A hand grabbed hold of his arm and turned him ninety degrees from where he had been walking.

  "Can I help you?" Arri said, looking down at the hand holding his arm.

  "I certainly hope so, I saw you talking to Books earlier. What did she say? Well, no matter a new dungeon to explore. If I could just take a few moments of your time. You see I need a favour."

  The man standing before Arri wore an almost identical looking suit to his own. His face was youthful with rapidly changing expressions. Every emotion he felt instantly played out with his mouth, nostrils, eyes and body language. He was completely bald and one eye had a slight glow to it.

  "What's your name?" Arri asked.

  "Call me Craig, I am as you will see a transporter of goods. A provider to empires and kings. Moving objects of desire no one else can. Where do you stand on this dispute? Like me, I hope things need to remain the same. So that favour I need, recently my goods have become stuck and I will pay you top credit to un-stick them."

  "Stuck where?" Arri asked.

  "Well at the docks. A group is blocking there escape."

  "Escape?" Arri said.

  "Let me rephrase. I seem to have to do that a lot. People can't follow my thoughts you know. I sometimes have trouble I must confess. So by escape I mean leave, by blocking I mean actively stopping the transports from leaving the dock. Protesters perhaps. Unhappy my company is backing the status quo."

  "Why would you pick a random stranger to help you?" Arri asked.

  "Random Arri, I think not. The moment you and your Outrider landed here I knew everything there was to know about you. The help would be most appreciated and more importantly I would owe you a favour. Trust I am a man of my word."

  "OK if I have time I'll see if there is anything I can do," Arri said, trying to get rid of the man, he figured going along for now would be the quickest way to do this.

  "Bye for now then. Oh, I've sent the details of the dock problem to your wrist device. You really should get that overlay fixed. Would make life a lot easier," said Craig.

  Arri walked a few steps away from his last encounter, turned back to take in the strange man once again but he was gone like a ghost disappearing into the fog.

  Apps, notes, record, "Investigate the man known as Craig, find out how he knew so much about the Outrider, oh and me." Arri saved the note for later.

  He waited patiently in the queue, the line to greet the councillor was long. Every single person in the VIP area wanted a chance to speak with her.

  "You can't seriously think breaking the arrangement we have will help. How stupid are you? Unhand me I have rights you know." the voice trailed off into the distance.

  Arri listened hard trying to work out what had happened, he thought he caught the sound of something breaking.

  "Thank you for all your hard work. You are an inspiration to us all, where do I transfer my credits to?" the contrast in tone was stark. Arri watched them leave a happy look burning in her eyes.

  He took the hand extended to him and shook it.

  "I need that distraction now," Arri said over comms.

  Gently he lowered himself into the chair opposite his target. He looked her directly in the eye. Fingers turning a small coin object over in his hands. He leaned in as if to speak.

  It took all of his concentration not to look at the body flying across the bar. Instead, he took the small coin and pressed it gently on to the back of the councillors hand. She froze instantly. He turned her head and locked her eyes with his.

  The tunnel formed rushing past him as he piggybacked her connection to her life server, controlling her atoms as if they were his own. There was one specific memory he needed.

  "Signing this contract will make you first chair I can guarantee it." a voice hid from view said.

  "My ambition is to lead the council, once there I can be very helpful to my friends," her own voice was pronounced and warm.

  "Agreed now confirm the contract."

  Her overlay showed all the wordings from the big bold statement of intent to the smaller print of tedious legalese. The number Arri was after clearly showed at the top of the document. He saved the memory back to his own device and pulled away from the councillors eyes, breaking the connection.

  "That's not something you see every day," Arri said turning his head to look at the half-collapsed bar with the body protruding from the centre of its destructive point.

  "I didn't see what happened," the councillor said rubbing at her forehead. Her eyes had a misty look.

  "Bar fight councillor, I didn't catch the start myself," Arri said.

  "How is it I can help you?" she asked.

  "I just wanted to wish you good luck with the vote, and there were so many people waiting to meet you I couldn't resist."

  "Thank you, any credits you can spare will be appreciated."

  Arri left the roped off area, March's distraction had been loud and rash, he needed to find her in-case she was in trouble.

  "Are you OK?" Arri asked over comms, his selfie cam rushing through the club looking for any sign of her.

  "Of course just dealing with, sorry dealt with the bouncer. Bit of an unfair fight turns out he's not wearing a combat suit."

  "Don't hurt them too bad they are just doing their jobs."

  "It was a small boot to the head nothing to worry about. Let me just check his vitals, see its fine he will have a slight concussion."

  "Who was the guy you broke the bar with?" Arri asked.

  "He had the opposite view to my position on the trade arrangement, words were exchanged when he tried to throw a punch at me. The hard part was keeping his anger up until you needed the distraction. I think he will live as well although he will need some medical care."

  "I got us a lead on the next dungeon, an untouched one. It might have something that can help Marcus, at the very least we will find out more about the planet."

  "Did you get what you needed from the councillor?" March asked.

  "Yes, I just need to forward the information on to Walker and we should have all the permission we need to explore the surface."

  "You trust that guy?"

  "Until he does something that warrants my distrust."

  March stood over the limp form of a dark-suited bouncer. The rain still flowed like a small river from up high.

  "It strange that it rains indoors," March said.

  "It strange this place exists at all, to keep a secret like the location of this planet, then to build this out here," Arri said. "One more thing to do tonight before we head back to the ship."

  "Oh, what's that?"

  "There's a small problem on the docks we need to clear up for a man named Craig."

  12

  Docks

  "When you said little problem at the docks, I was picturing maybe a malfunctioning robot, or loader. There are armed men stopping us from getting in," March said.

  "In fairness, the information I had was limited," Arri said.

  "Why help this guy out?"

  "He knew me by name, despite us never having met before. He knew about the ship and claimed to know everything else. He said he would owe us a favour if we helped him out and I thought it worth looking in too.
"

  "Well they are definitely blocking the dock workers," March said, as an armed mercenary pushed one of the workers who was attempting to enter the docks back into the small vocal crowd they had formed.

  "I guess the question is should we get involved?" Arri said.

  "Your call but I don't have my rifle so we would be going in hand to hand."

  "OK, let's take down the guards, find out what they are stopping the workers from doing then decide from there."

  "Loud and in their faces or from the shadows," March asked.

  "Shadows until we get caught then as much noise as possible," Arri said. His combat armoured suit was still hidden under the nano disguise. He had to avoid head hits where possible and remember punching people without gloves would cause some problems especially if he hit anything solid.

  "Can you take out the light?" Arri asked.

  "Maybe with a power surge, hang on," March opened her app pool racing through programs as fast as her mind could travel. She found the one she was looking for and fired it up. "Got it light switch control, going dark in three, two, one."

  All the lights in the docking bay went out, a few of the guard's issued long curses to the various gods of the universe.

  Arri crept through the shadows, he could make out the outline of his target ahead, a short stocky man clutching his rifle close to his chest. It wouldn't take the guards long to change their vision to another part of the spectrum, March had to turn the lights back on before that happened otherwise they would stand out like the blazing heat signatures they were. He took up his position and waited.

  The lights came back on. He timed the blow to the back of the head to perfection, levelling the guard in one hit, as the body collapsed he caught it and the gun before they hit the floor. He pulled the man back into the shadows of the box he had been hiding behind.

  Arri checked over the man looking for a clue as to the reason he was here. There was his rifle, a sugary snack bar and a small bottle of clear liquid. In one pocket he had a few coin bars.

  "Target one is down," Arri said.

  "Having a little trouble with target two," March's voice took on a strained tone, over the comms tapping sounds could be heard loud at first but fading quickly over time.

  "I can't see you," Arri said eyes searching the bay for the battle March was engaged in.

  "Target two down. He heard me just before I got to him," March said.

  Arri reached his second target, he sent his selfie cam high towards the roof of the docking bay providing a real-time view of the guards and March's position. He brought up a small location map in the corner of his contacts vision and watched as the little green dot that was March closed in on her target.

  A part of Arri wished he could have picked up the rifle of the guard he had just taken down. Having taken a quick look at the grip and realised it was DNA encoded, meaning one of two things, either the gun just wouldn't fire or the gun would issue a vast electric shock rendering the non-authorised user unconscious.

  He sprang forward elbow ready to land the knockout blow, whether it was instinct or something else the guard turned at the last minute managing to raise a block. Their eyes met, one pair focused and determined the other set wide with surprise. Arri was so close to his target he felt his breath on his face, without thinking he smashed his head forward executing the perfect head-butt and dropping the guard to the floor dazed, with blood streaming down his nose. Arri fell to his knees, grabbing at the neck of the man before him setting up the choke hold, he applied pressure cutting off blood flow and oxygen to the brain. Slowly the man went to sleep, Arri held the hold until all movement had ceased.

  "Any trouble with that one?" Arri asked.

  "Nope, he was listening to music completely distracted. Probably not a very good guard," March said.

  "Maybe he was on his break," Arri said.

  "They would be better off with AI drones, wonder why they are using Mercenaries?"

  "Money, a high-end robot is going to set you back a lot of credits, semi-skilled Mercenaries for a one-off job probably much cheaper. So there are just the two guards at the entrance blocking the workers from getting in. Let's leave those for now and take a look at the cargo."

  Arri crouched by a large rectangular container, he was partly hidden by its long shadow. A screen like interface hovered three inches above a small cut out designed to help with lifting the top, the display showed container number and weight, there was also a key symbol. He ran his fingertips along the outside of the box, it was cold to the touch, much cooler than the ambient temperature of the docking area.

  He turned on his electromagnetic scanner, cycling through the spectrum looking for any micro, radio, infrared, ultraviolet waves that it might be emitting. Nothing, the box black in colour with only a small white logo etched into the side wasn't connected.

  "It just occurred to me, I haven't seen any automated drones anywhere on the station," Arri said.

  "Well we could ask Echo about it," March said.

  Arri's attention turned back to the small lock symbol, he closed one eye squeezing the muscles hard distorting his face in the process. His mind quickly brought up the military special operations lock picking app. Mentally he dragged the app over the top of the key and sat back waiting for the algorithms to break the encryption. A small progress bar appeared counting off an estimated percentage of the hack progress.

  He shifted his weight tensing first the muscles of his left leg then the muscles of his right, he could feel the tension in his shoulders. The bruises he had sustained earlier from combat with the Nivgarians throbbed with a dull annoying pain. The progress bar ticked up.

  "What do you think is in there?" March asked, she was also in a crouched position hidden by the shadows, her eyes were fixed on the backs of the two guards preventing the dock workers from entering.

  "Humm I am going to go with guns."

  There was a click then a slight hiss of escaping air as the container popped open. Carefully Arri pushed his fingers into the cutout only needing to apply the slightest pressure to raise the lid. From within a golden glow illuminated Arri's face.

  "That's not something you see every day," Arri said.

  March took a look back over her shoulder, "If only we could keep a few bars."

  "That's a lot of material in just one of these containers."

  "Probably have every bar tagged," March said.

  "We need to take out the last two guards, can you cause a commotion to get them to run to you, we need to engage them away from the dock workers."

  "I've got just the idea," March said.

  Arri applied just a small amount of pressure to the top of the container lid, the hydraulic system magnified his strength allowing the small touch to close the lid with ease. He noticed March's outstretched hand offering him a glow stick.

  "Break in half aim at the back of their heads then duck in cover round here. They will think it's a prank. They will then charge at us where we can take them down without any real problems," March said.

  "I like it," Arri said taking the glow stick between his hands watching March's nods for three, two, one. He snapped the stick in half a bright blue light pour forth from its centre lighting up the shadows in all directions. He hurled the stick, using his armoured suits enhanced strength at the back of the left guards head. It caught him just below the neckline before bouncing off and hitting the floor.

  "What," the guard yelled hand immediately clutching the back of his neck. Arri watched as the man checked both sides before turning his back on the crowd, his hands reaching for weapons as he saw the shadow of Arri standing just to the edge of darkness.

  Arri ducked back down behind the container, sliding along its side with his back. The dust selfie still feeding pictures and positional information back to his contact lens display. His next move was about timing, March's glow stick had struck the second guard skimming off the top of his head, now both advanced towards them. The little map app showed the guar
ds as red dots, the video feed from above showed them as armed men.

  In his head, he counted matching the rate of the guard's movement to his numbers. Each tick of the numbers turning the guards would advance a few feet. Arri waited, every muscle in his body tense, his hands were screwed into tight fists. He assumed an intense expression, his eyebrows bunching together at the centre.

  The gun barrel swung around the side of the container and met with a very solid state of the art combat suit. Arri used his arms to knock the barrel off to the side, he flicked out his thumb aiming for the guard's eyes. His blow landed causing the guard to leap back letting out a yelp of pain. He followed up with a quick left hook, the mercenary collapsed to the floor.

  "So now we have a handful of unconscious guards," March said releasing the arm lock of the guard crumpled at her feet.

  "Disarm them, leave them to the workers," Arri said.

  13

  Drifting to Madness

  The data started to swirl through Jenkins mind faster and faster, becoming a whirlpool of flashing numbers and letters. Standing in the centre of the bridge eyes closed rapidly moving from side to side, Jenkins was in trouble. The colour slowly drained from his skin, beads of sweat trickled down his face pooling at his naval collar.

  The storm inside his mind raged on, he was having to adjust his balance every few seconds to remain standing, he felt lightheaded. The lights on the ship brightened slightly. Jenkins stumbled throwing his arms from his side to maintain equilibrium. He staggered one final time before everything went dark.

  "Medical to my location," Galdan said, the lights on the Outrider were stuttering strobe-like. He checked Jenkins was breathing by placing a hand in front of his mouth and feeling for the exhale of breath. His overlay display outlined Jenkins crumpled up form with a red-line. Concentrating on the line produced a series of readouts heart rate, temperature, breaths per minutes. As he watched the area around Jenkins' head became pixelated. He flicked out of the overlay looking at Jenkins with his own eyes, everything appeared normal.