Have you Ever Wondered Why We're Here? Chapter 3 (original chapter Chapter 42)
I stood, as Freelancer, in the middle of the Armoury, clad in my Mark One Armour, sans helmet. It was little more than a testbed of the basic technologies that had gone into the Mark Two armour. Unlike the MK 2, however, the MK1 didn't require anything more than a basic VI to run its systems.
"This is a bad idea." Anne said from her place near the door. To be exact, it was where a soft-light hologram of her was being projected. I had installed the basic SL Hologram generators all over the base's walls, ceilings and floors, even out in the corridor, so Anne could have some degree of freedom of movement until I could build her a proper robot body.
"So you've said." I answered her as I clipped ammo onto my belt, "Ten times in as many minutes."
"That should tell you exactly how much of a bad idea this is." My 'twin' said with a frown. She had chosen an avatar that was structurally similar to me, albeit made up of blue lines and light. She had also taken liberties with her bust size, hips and butt.
"I need to test out the basic systems before taking the MK2 out." I told her, "Going out with a basic VI will tell me exactly how much of your processing power will be eaten up running them so I can calculate how many of my Armour Enhancements I can put into a single suit of armour without overwhelming you."
"At least take Lopez!" Anne said with an angry flash of red light across her body, "You will be going out, alone, in Brockton fucking Bay! What if you run into Lung? Or Kaiser? Or any one of the really powerful Capes? The MK1 isn't going to cut it!"
"Lopez is the Base Custodian. He has to stay here to guard it." I countered, "Phyllis will be acting as support for me using the drones I built."
The drones were very basic by my standards. Around the size of a medicine ball and massing as much, their weapons included a grenade launcher that contained grenades of not-Containment Foam, as well as smoke grenades and a small supply of actual live grenades, a basic pistol turret that fired tranquiliser rounds and Taser rounds, as well as a front-mounted dart launcher that fired bluescreen rounds exclusively. They could fly, hover and land all but silently thanks to sound-dampening tech and they resembled one of those old-fashioned large and bulky computer monitors that Apple had released in 1999. Aside from the stubby wings, engines and rotors and everything.
"How many?" Anne asked warily.
"All five." I answered steadily, "I'm not suicidal…not anymore."
That had been something that had taken me some time to accept. The almost two years of bullying that the Trio had inflicted on me had reduced my ability to care about my own life by quite a degree. I honestly hadn't cared about if I had lived or died in my desire to be a hero.
Anne had realised that. As a Smart AI, analysing her own code -basically her own mind- was second nature to her, and as she had been copied almost exactly from my own mind, she had seen that part of me in her. So, being me, she had ripped that part out of her, causing enough cyber-psychic trauma to cause something amazing to happen.
She had Triggered.
It was an amazing thing to realise. I have created not just a Smart AI, but a Smart AI close enough to being human that they could actually Trigger like any Trigger-capable human could. As she was basically a copy of me, obviously she was Trigger capable.
Like me, she was a Tinker, with a specialisation in Programming. Unlike me, however, she also had a speciality in drone tech, which was how I had built those drones. I had basically built her an entire workshop so she could churn them out. The designs had ranged between a basic copy of a commercially built remote controlled drone to the Hunter-Killer type that I was taking with me tonight.
Anyway, we had sat down and had long talks about why we couldn't afford to die. Dad was one reason and spiting the Bitch Trio was another. I was a whole lot less eager to risk my life after we talked. Having a sister-figure again was nice.
"Well…OK." Anne agreed begrudgingly, "But if it looks like a situation that you can't handle, and Phyllis isn't able to help fast enough, I'm jacking them."
"I dislike that possibility, Alpha." Phyllis joined the discussion, a pair of ululating circles appearing on the nearby wall screen, "I am also perfectly capable of guarding Freelancer."
"You don't have the imagination that a human or a Smart AI does, Phyllis." Anne argued. For whatever reason, Phyllis is leery about making a human-type avatar, so sticks with something that looks like circles most of the time.
"I would still think that I am more than capable of protecting Freelancer." Phyllis retorted, "I have not been proven in either success or failure."
"OK, enough, both of you!" I cut in impatiently, "The plan will be that Phyllis will operate the drones under the supervision of Anne and IF, and only IF, it seems that the situation becomes that Phyllis cannot operate all five drones in a combat situation, then Anne will take over three of them. While you're watching, Anne, start a production run of five more drones of the same type so that next time we do not stand around arguing pointlessly."
"Yes Freelancer."
"Got it, sis."
Every time Anne called me that, I felt warm inside.
"OK, so now all I have to do is pick my weapons…" I said and stepped up to where the firearms were. I had no actual 'ammunition' if you meant physical lead bullets. All of my rounds were special. Bluescreen rounds, Taser Rounds, Tracer Rounds…the list went on. All of my guns were roughly the same calibre, so all my bullets could be used for all my guns.
My first choice of weapon was a close combat one. It was a long black stick that could collapse down to fit in a slot on the back of either forearm in my armour. It was no mere baton however; it could create an electrical field around it roughly as strong as a Taser round or a Stun Gun. It also had a battery prototype that lasted over a month before being recharged. Once I got around to it, I'd modify Lopez's battery to be the same so he wasn't as limited by battery power.
Secondly was ammo. I had an ammo dispenser built into my backpack that held enough for me to fight the Merchants head-to-head and come out on top. I took five magazines of Bluescreens, thirty Tasers, one Tracer and a Quantum Round magazine.
Quantum rounds were my latest invention. Some might call them teleport bullets, because that's what they did, teleport whatever they hit to a pre-programmed location within a few miles. In this case, anyone shot with them would be sent to have a nice swim in the bay. There were, of course, several limitations to these bullets. One was that they couldn't teleport anything massing heavier than your average human, another was that their maximum range was seven miles, or just over eleven kilometres, so you had to choose your teleport location very carefully and then make sure that you didn't leave range of it. Not that that was a small range by any means.
Next was the actual guns themselves. I took a magnum pistol, preloaded with Taser Rounds, as well as a battle rifle, again preloaded with Taser Rounds. I didn't want to risk killing someone, which is why I didn't carry any actual lethal rounds. I had made some though, storing them in a vault on the far side of the armoury, just in case the Slaughterhouse Nine of another S-Class threat turned up in Brockton Bay. It was locked by three access codes that meant that only unanimous agreement from all three code holders (me, Anne and Phyllis) could open it.
No point allowing temptation or rage to get the best of me.
When the magnetic clamps on my backpack locked my battle rifle down, I turned to face the helmet that sat on the table nearby. It lacked the large visor that was the usual calling card of Halo armour. The only 'visor' part was in the shape of angular glasses. The rest was taken up by sensory, communications and emergency rebreather equipment around the mouth and cheek areas.
Once it was locked onto my head, I would be committing myself to a patrol. I had already tied my hair up so my helmet wouldn't get in the way and there was more room inside the helmet than it first appeared.
"Prevaricating?" Anne asked softly. She had walked her holographic avatar next to me while I had been lost in thought.
"I guess so." I sighed, "It's just…this is a big step."
"It is." My AI twin agreed, "But I still share a lot of your memories and drives. We've wanted to be a hero for years. I know it and you know it. And until you can build me a body, you have to live that dream for both of us. This will show that bitch Sophia we aren't weak, that we can do things she can't even dream of. I know you, Freelancer. You aren't going to let her win, are you?"
That did it. I grabbed my helmet and pulled it on, snapping the seals into place. Über and L33T had told me about the 'Unwritten Rules' that Parahumans operated under. They had also told me that the Merchants didn't play by the rules. The PRT and Protectorate were also guilty of skirting the rules by quietly finding out about the secret identities of other heroes and villains to use if they broke the law. So I wasn't taking any chances.
I had swept my house for bugs, thankfully finding nothing, and had several drones following me to and from Arcadia to make sure no one was following me. I was willing to be that having her 'reformed' Ward and her actions paraded in courts of law hadn't endeared me to Emily Piggot, the PRT ENE Director, so I wouldn't have put it past her to have me followed for a while.
And what do you know? Two suspiciously innocent bystanders following me in such a blandly ordinary car that it stood out by a mile. As I usually never went outside during the day unless it was to go food shopping, jogging or to school, they had a fairly boring time of it and left just as twilight came about. There were no follow-on watchers arriving either before or after they arrived, so I tentatively labelled the threat of exposure by the PRT as minimal.
That didn't mean I was going to relax my guard though. The PRT had little to no trust from me, ditto for the Protectorate. They had let an unstable sociopath in the Wards, probation or not, and hadn't bothered to maintain more than a cursory watch on her. Fool me once, shame on you and all that. I wasn't going to let myself get caught out by the Protectorate or the PRT ever again.
"Well then…" I said, the voice disguiser making me sound male, "Let's do some testing of this armour, shall we?"
Later
Docks Area, Brockton Bay
So far, the real world testing of the basic armour was going great. Several minor faults had been discovered in the servomotors that helped me move the armour and expedient field repairs had been made. The night had been surprisingly quiet for the crime filled Bay, which was typical. When you need some common thugs robbing somewhere, they were at home sipping beer or something.
"Freelancer, there is a silent alarm going off two blocks to the north." Phyllis informed me via. She had her drones high in the sky above me, monitoring the usual frequencies of such things as silent alarms and the encrypted police radio frequencies, although for a Tinker, especially one who specialised in programming like me and Anne, regular encrypted channels might as well be broadcast in the clear once the right kind of decoding program was written.
"You going?" Alpha asked. She had been giving me feedback based on the data stream of my armour sent back by the on-board VI, which I was actually sorry for not giving a proper name.
"Might as well. I still haven't been able to field-test any of my weapons." I grumbled. Testing the things inside a practice range was all very fine and dandy, but how equipment functioned in the real world was a true test of it.
I was on top of a building facing south when Phyllis told me about the break in. I turned around and jogged over to the edge of the building and leaping over to the next one, over five metres away. The lesser strength enhancing portion of the armour seemed to be working perfectly, with no strain to my own muscles. The actual Strength Enhancement equipment that required a Smart AI or AI Fragment to run would make this look like ordinary strength by comparison. With that equipment, I'd easily be able to pick up and throw a car with one hand.
Getting to the site of the break in took less than three minutes, by which time the perps were in the middle of loading their van out of an electronics store. They were stealing TV's, VCR's DVD players, the whole shebang. Thanks to the enhanced vision features of my helmet, I knew who I was up against, but I decided to test Phyllis.
"Phyllis, confirm enemy identities to be of the Empire 88."
"Confirmed. All suspects are wearing Empire 88 armbands denoting their loyalty." The Dumb AI replied, "Orders, Freelancer?"
"I'll handle the guys loading the van." I told her as I unlimbered my rifle, "You drop one of your drones and Bluescreen that van. It's one of those fancy ones that relies on a lot of electronics to run properly."
"Roger."
Rather than make a big, flashy entrance, I simply walked down the side of the building using my Grav Boots. I loved the things.
Stopping at just above head height, I took aim at one skinhead and squeezed the trigger, the riffle set to a three-round burst. The roar of the rifle surprised me, and I decided to invest in a silencer that didn't reduce muzzle velocity at some point.
The skinhead I had shot at spasmed as the three shock rounds struck him before collapsing, I ignored that and moved to the next target, sending another burst at him.
Once that man fell, the others were shouting and swearing like crazy. One eventually spotted me and drew a gun. A Desert Eagle. Noted for chambering the largest centrefire cartridge of any magazine-fed self-loading pistol. Thank you Phyllis, I didn't need that pop up on my HUD.
Even as the man squeezed the trigger, I was moving with a leap so that all the bullet did was bury itself in brick and mortar. I dropped him before dodging one man charging me with a length of pipe. Seriously? That was just cliché. I knew it wouldn't do a thing to my armour, but these morons didn't know that. Better to keep them in the dark in as much as was possible.
Dodging another swipe, I slammed the butt of my rifle into the thug's stomach, making him bend over, which I took advantage of by clubbing him over the head. As I did so, I heard the distinctive 'zorchhh!' of a Bluescreen Round doing its business. Phyllis had eliminated the van from the equation.
Including the three I had put down, there were ten of the Empire thugs. The first one I had shot had a gold trim around the edge of his armband, indicating he was something similar to a group leader. So, this was an official Empire raid, not just a bunch of morons deciding to rob a store.
I sprayed three of the idiots who had clustered together, knocking them out or immobilising them. That left four, who decided that running was the best thing to do here. Smart, but a smarted plan would have been, you know, NOT to be Nazi scumbags.
"Phyllis, take them down, Taser Rounds." I ordered. The drone that had knocked out the van had turned and zoomed in pursuit of the thugs even before I had spoken.
"With pleasure, Freelancer." The AI replied as the drone's turret spat out bullets that nailed all four fleeing skinhead thugs in the back and dropped them like flies.
With the take-down sorted, I had to deal with the clean-up. One of the other things in my backpack were zip-ties made of a special polymer that needed bolt cutters to sever it once it had cooled down, and I had enough of them, barely, for the skinheads.
"Phyllis, make a note that twenty-four improved zip-ties are insufficient for a night on patrol." I said as I locked my rifle onto my back and secured the hands and feet of the thugs, "Triple the amount to be placed in the MK2."
"Note taken." Phyllis answered, "Thus far, how has the Mark One operated?"
"Better than I suspected it would, given that it's less sophisticated that the MK2." I answered as I finished with the last thug and stepped back, "Still, some of the faults in the joints and servomotors took me by surprise. Have Lopez start manufacturing replacement pieces without the faults immediately so I can install them when I return."
"Lopez is already carrying out your orders." The Base AI informed me, "He said something about being more useful that way."
"He can't possibly be insecure-" I started to say when a blur that looked like a ball of metal flew past my head at blinding speed to crash into the wall. Turning to see where it had come from, I saw a girl wearing a black and red robe edged in Futhark runes. Peeking out from the hood, I could see blond hair. Oh hell.
"OK, now I could fuck you up here, but it's been a long night." Rune, one of the Empire 88's Parahuman members, said roughly, "Stand the fuck off and get lost. Or the next shot's gonna take off your head."
"I was under the impression that lethal force was against the Unwritten Rules." I drawled out as I turned to her and crossed my arms, "Last I checked, Kaiser crucifies anyone who breaks them if they're in his gang or even applying to join his gang."
Rune flinched slightly. The last person Kaiser had crucified for that offence had murdered Fleur of the New Wave group. Kaiser had tortured him, crucified him and left him for dead outside the PRT building. The PRT were not amused.
"I can still fuck you up!" she threatened, but with her position weakened by logic, it wasn't a particularly intimidating threat. Especially with Phyllis manoeuvring another drone around to foam her.
Without blinking (metaphorically speaking as she wore a cowl and had a half-face mask on her head), Rune reached into her robe and tossed a sphere of metal into the air, which then sped right at the drone behind her, smashing it out of the air and sending it tumbling. Phyllis managed to stabilise it before it crashed but it wasn't combat worthy anymore.
She shouldn't have been able to hear the engines of the drone with us both speaking like this, so how…?
Ah.
"You have a spotter nearby." I said with a sigh, "It figures that a Nazi can't go anywhere without someone to hold her hand. Are you gonna get Hookwolf to beat me up next?"
"I fight my own battles, bastard!" the cowl and robed Cape snarled at me, "If you think you can stand the heat, get in the kitchen!"
"DODGE RIGHT!" Anne bellowed in my ear.
Acting without thinking, I obeyed, doing so just in time to avoid the first sphere slamming tonto the middle of my back. I quickly drew my rifle as I rolled to a kneeling position and fired at Rune, who also dodged and landed on top of a wooden pallet that the thugs had discarded before I arrived. She seemed to concentrate for a minute before the entire pallet floated up with her on it.
If I was remembering Rune's powers, she supposedly had telekinesis, as was self-evident. Thing was, she needed a handful of seconds to 'mark' the things that she could telekinetically control. Another rumour I had heard was that she could only control up to four things before she had to remain stationary or something like that. On the pallet and the surfaces of the metal balls, I could see faint glowing lines that did look like runes. Guess that's where she got her name.
As another orb of metal fell out of her robe and started to orbit her body with the other two, I had to smirk. She seems to hold true to the limit that the rumours on PHO said she was. Nice to know.
"Looks like I'm not the only one who has a spotter." Rune snarked.
"It's called sensors." I answered mockingly, tapping my helmet, "Now are we going to fight or are you going to bore me to death?"
With a roar of anger, Rune sent the three spheres straight at me like cannonballs. I leapt up, using one as a springboard as I locked my rifle over my shoulder again, and gestured with my right arm. The stun baton was launched up from the pocket in my armour and I grabbed and activated it, energy crackling over it as I flew towards a very surprised Rune.
She tried to dodge, but her surprise had lowered her defences by just a split-second, more than enough time for me to slam my weapon into her gut. She yelled in pain as she doubled up over my weapon. The force of my strike actually made her stagger back off the pallet and land on her back on the ground.
Hearing the distinctive whistle of the spheres, I leapt straight up into the air to avoid them cleaving through the air where I had stood just seconds before. It evidently took Rune off-guard too, as she only barely managed to stop them before they hit her.
"Bastard! Son of a bitch!" she howled in frustrated fury. I didn't blame her. Thanks to the reflex enhancers and strength boosters built into my armour, I was artificially at the level of someone training for the Olympics. Trying to hit me was almost as frustrating as trying to catch a fly.
I didn't say anything. I just twirled my stun baton and beckoned her on with my free hand.
Then shit got real.
So, in case people are having trouble picturing Freelancer's armour, the Freelancer Mark One Armour is basically Agent Carolina's first armour. The Freelancer Mark Two Armour is the set Carolina wears starting at the Chorus Saga.