Sitting in a chair she created, placed in the middle of a Neo-Nazi junkyard used as a legitimate business front, Taylor was leaving her drone workforce to strip the place of everything they could. While her smart workers stripped it of the junk, the vehicles used by the Empire 88 during their illegal work, and even the hidden weapon caches, Taylor herself was working out the timings to stop a team of super-villains attacking her.
Othala, Victor, Krieg and Cricket of the E88 were now in a car and about to start driving towards the yard after being tipped off by either a sympathiser or one of their own gang-members. Despite capturing all the guards for the place there had obviously been someone near enough to notice something going wrong.
Fortunately, she'd already been working for a solid hour before the Nazi's got the call, so she only had to stall the group for a little time before she would be able to retreat to a safe house while her drones finished making a small temporary base on Mars ready to live in.
Hence her current activities planning that stalling.
Previously, Taylor had prevented a group from reaching her by shooting the driver, causing the vehicle to go out of control and incapacitate the rest of the team of Coil's mercenaries. With Othala giving Victor invincibility that route was denied her, as well as the fact that the vehicle they were using didn't have the cameras she needed to make an accurate shot.
Instead she would have to use the traffic cameras to disable the car itself, then arrange for a distraction at the stop zone which would prevent the group from stealing a new car to carry on with their mission.
Finishing her calculations, Taylor booted up a voice emulator based around a combination of Zoe Barnes, Mrs Knott, and Principal Blackwell then dialled a well-known number for the bay residents. Seconds later she was connected to an agent of the PRT.
"PRT, how may I help you?"
"A group of the Empire capes stole my car!" The fake voice cried, upset and panic predominate in the tone, "Four capes smashed my window in and drove it away. It was Krieg, Victor, Othala and Cricket, I'm sure. Some of their costumes are obvious. They're heading for Jackson Street, but I don't think they know I caught them, they aren't breaking the speed limits."
"Ok, Ma'am. I need you to calm down for a moment. We can track them from the traffic cameras, so first of all I need you to tell me what the car was and the number plates so I can get someone working on that." The male agent's voice was calm and encouraging, and crucially, he wasn't an Empire plant. As soon as she'd answered Taylor had been interrogating the PRT system to ensure her plan wouldn't be spoiled by someone trying to aid the activities of the Neo-Nazi group.
In the present she pretended to take several deep breaths as a calming technique, then described the car she'd already picked up from the traffic cameras. When the digital enquiry came through from the PRT systems she was ready for the lead and immediately tagged the car in their system.
With the PRT now aware of the position of her enemy she took her attention from the call, setting a pre-scripted sub-AI to talk to the agent and give him all the additional information. The AI, or the approved Mechanicus equivalent that didn't involve chopping up a criminal, picked the data up on the actual person the car was stolen from, parroting generated responses to the generic questions asked by the PRT agent.
Instead Taylor started tracking the capes dispatched to catch the foursome and started working out when to strike to stop the car. Seconds later she amended that to if she needed to act. Apparently the first response team was Dauntless and Velocity. With Miss Militia and Armsmaster gearing up to follow them.
In theory, Dauntless should be more than capable of stopping the car. Assuming he was allowed.
Watching the feeds, she was aware of the moment Velocity found the car, speeding past the rear of it to confirm the identities within. Thanks to her implants she didn't need him to slow down and report, but apparently Armsmaster hadn't made something that would filter things on his end, because the man came to a stop in an alley to update his colleagues.
Calculating routes and timing, Taylor relaxed, confident that Dauntless could move fast enough to intercept the criminals.
Splitting her attention, she checked the various drones and realised that they only had about 45 more minutes until they were finished. Standing from her chair she allowed it to be taken through the portal as well, then moved back into the building to wait.
Less than ten minutes later she refocused on the PRT data link as Dauntless caught up to the car full of Nazi's, dropping down onto the road a fair way in front of the vehicle, shield held at the ready. He was far enough away that the group could come to an easy stop, but still blocking the forward exit from the street they were using.
Making an obvious gesture for the group to stop, Dauntless waited for a decision to be made, but had to quickly fly upwards when the car sped up. As soon as he was above the vehicle in height he deployed and fired his rather famous arclance. The electrical attack striking the car and disabling parts inside. The vehicle gave several coughs and splutters but died quickly and slowed dramatically. The car's forward motion was stopped by running into the pillar for a set of traffic lights.
As soon as the lightning attack had ceased Cricket had leaped out of the vehicle, Krieg not far behind. Victor and Othala only left the car once it had stopped, the skill thief bundling the non-combatant into a nearby ally while his companions attacked the PRT hero.
Fending off attacks with his shield even through the disorientation of Cricket's sonic attack, the Spartan clad hero did his best to occupy the duo and keep all attention on him. Hollow and low booms attested to his success as he was physically attacked by the two front-line fighters.
Velocity, in the meantime, had circled around the alley Othala was moved to. Waiting out of sight he sped out and back into hiding a few times to keep track of Victor. The older villain himself was moving back into the street with an assault rifle to try and draw a bead on Dauntless. Shots rang out from the gun as soon as he was in view of the embattled hero, confident arrogance in every step as he enjoyed the invulnerability given by his much younger wife. Watching his advance via traffic cameras Taylor had to admit to being a little impressed. He had to have stolen skills from some serious elite soldiers at some point. It wasn't quite as good as her future memories indicated (Eldar warriors would have scoffed in disgust), but it was solidly in decent PDF range.
Seeing his opportunity, Velocity raced out of his hiding place and aimed for the defenceless Othala. Releasing his power directly behind the sole woman, Velocity immediately grabbed her in a chokehold, pulling her backwards out of Victor's line of sight. Even without his power he pulled the move off quickly enough that he was able to knock the girl out with none of her companions aware.
Othala was quickly tied up and bundled behind a dumpster in the alley so that Velocity could re-join the fight. Pausing to give a brief update to the PRT and request Miss Militia speed up. The woman had left the PRT headquarters ahead of her boss, who apparently was still getting into a set of back-up armour. Driving a motorcycle down the mostly empty city streets Miss Militia was trying to get to the area as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, Dauntless was under a lot of pressure. The two more physical fighters of the group were pressing him heavily, and any time he tried to fly upwards Victor took pot shots to force him to deploy his shield. With the directional shield out the two on the ground were forcing him back down to earth before he was out of range of their weapons by almost getting behind or under him.
He couldn't even strike out at Victor since the man had settled himself behind another car, the metal body blocking the strike of Dauntless's arclance. With Cricket and Krieg keeping close he was unable to position the weapon to strike effectively either.
At the moment he was constantly falling back in small and slow motions to prevent himself from being surrounded or overwhelmed. In short, he needed a lot of help.
Velocity tried the same trick on Victor to take him out of the fight, but a backwards hit with the assault rifle stifled the chokehold before he could get a good grip, then Victor's stolen martial arts skill allowed the villain to disengage and reorient on the new threat.
After that, Velocity was unable to assist Dauntless in any meaningful way. Cricket was too agile and strong for his weak attacks to make a difference, and Krieg's automatic defence caused the same. Attempting to return to normal speed that close to either fighter was a losing proposition. At the same time Victor was now aware of him and thanks to his normal powers could pick the man out when he came to a stop. Automatic gunfire preventing Velocity from tying up his attention.
From her position Taylor sighed heavily at the lack of progress the PRT was making. No wonder the villains ruled this city in all but name.
Making a quick decision she sent one of her drones, this one carrying the Wraithbone sniper rifle to get line of sight.
It took less than a minute for the quick drone to settle on a rooftop with a good line of sight on the fight. Taking over the device more directly, Taylor again dug into the inherited skills from her benefactors, lining up a shot on Victor. He'd been away from Othala for only a short time, but with the shot she was going for it wouldn't matter. And, honestly, she didn't care about what happened to him. Either he had the invincibility still and would survive, or he didn't and wouldn't. Locked in the unemotional logic state she was, Taylor only cared about her freedom and survival right now.
Mere moments later the powerful and deadly sniper rifle fired. The round impacted directly on the assault rifle Victor was carrying close to his body. The man-made metal weapon shattered under the force of a pure Wraithbone projectile, pieces pinging off like a shrapnel grenade, mostly hitting the man himself, but the side of the car he was hiding behind was shredded somewhat.
Apparently Othala's power-up was still active though, as despite letting out a yell of shock and being thrown backwards, he didn't appear injured. That changed when he hit the ground though, as Velocity was waiting for him. Pausing in his use of power the hero threw a heavy punch after a slight shimmer affect broke on the downed villain.
It was a well-known fact that a sufficient strike could break Othala's gifted invincibility, and apparently the gun exploding in his hands was enough, because Velocity quickly had the man unconscious. Leaving just Krieg and Cricket in the fight with Miss Militia now closing in.
Carrying on with his movements, Dauntless wisely gave no indication that he could now fly above the two attackers. Instead he allowed them to carry on focusing on him while Velocity picked up Victor in a fireman's carry and moved him as quickly as he was able behind some cars and out of the line of sight.
Cable ties were quickly used to secure the villain, then Velocity signalled Dauntless who quickly went straight up away from his attackers. With some distance gained his arclance fired again, pushing the duo back. The sound of the weapon striking the ground was loud in the night-time gloom, but no more than the repeated strikes against his shield had been previously. Hopefully all that noise had disguised the whereabouts of her sniper drone.
Confused by the change in tactics and now realising the lack of support from Victor, Cricket and Krieg looked around quickly and realised the tide had turned against them. With a quick glance and nod at each other they dashed off to one side of the street, clearly aiming for an alley they could use to attempt to escape.
Velocity was given the word to stay with his captures while Dauntless pursued, directing Miss Militia to get ahead of them in order to cut the fleeing duo off. A squad of PRT troopers was being routed to Velocity to pick up the captured husband and wife.
Repeated strikes from his lance clipped the heels of the fleeing duo, but with Cricket's skills and Krieg's protections, Dauntless wasn't having much success.
…
Satisfied that the PRT had handily dealt with her issues, but not expecting that they would capture Cricket or Krieg, Taylor ordered the drone back to her and focused back on the junkyard theft. She kept filters going on the phones of the Empire capes, ensuring they didn't try to swing around and come back at her, but other than that she focused on watching her drones take junk apart.
Strangely, despite feeling like the entire exchange was a long one, only a couple of minutes had passed and that was reflected in the change around her. Puzzling slightly at how subjective time could still affect an emotion muted mind, Taylor none the less started directing her drones more closely.
No matter how amusing it was to watch Nazi's get a punch to the face she still had work to do.
…
It was actually more than an hour and a half before she was finished with the strip down. Mostly owing to the discovery of a completely unlogged bunker beneath one of the final piles. It seemed someone was skimming off the top and adding it to their own stock.
There was also some deliberation about what to do with the massive amount of drugs she'd found. Eventually she just had them thrown into the sun though. One way portals were very useful. Given the level of competence of the PRT, and the rumours of the corruption in the BBPD, she wasn't willing to bet that passing them off to the authorities wouldn't see them back on the street, so over-the-top garbage disposal it was.
However, with the junkyard essentially gone (she'd even gone as far as disassembling the fence and buildings) all that was left were the pits the bunkers once occupied. Even there Taylor had used her disassembly means to take the actual bunkers, some of the gaps were collapsing without that support.
Now stood in an empty patch of ground, the glow of the portal very evident, she directed her Mars drones back to the red planet before closing the large portal in favour of a man sized one. This one was directed at the empty house she'd picked as place to lay low for the rest of the upcoming day. With her portal opening inside a cupboard and with the windows now blocked thanks to her drone she had no fear of being discovered as she stepped through the twist in time and space.
With hardly any sensation of real movement, Taylor entered the apartment and started checking it over. It was one thing to view things via a drone, but her own senses were capable of just as much. She was soon satisfied that everything was clear though.
Heading into the bedroom, she noted the blackout curtains the occupants used, but only briefly. She was far too tired to do anymore, so she climbed into the bed, set her drones to watch over her and for anyone coming after her, and then dropped asleep.
She'd accomplished everything she'd aimed for, now it was just a case of waiting.
…
Being forced awake at 5 o'clock the following evening, Taylor was starting to think she was cursed. Her drones had pinged her implants because someone else had picked up on her location. This time it was the ABB. Oni Lee had taken a call from someone who spotted one of her drones, almost hilariously it was because the individual in question was trying to peak on the woman living above her current flat. Evidently, the programming on the drone made it check outside the window at regular intervals and some damn peeping-tom had realised what he was looking at after a news broadcast.
Feeling vindictive, Taylor immediately sent an email to the woman informing her just what attention her tendency to forget to close curtains had caused. Detailing who her peeper was, she also listed the various videos the ABB ganger had made, although she did delete them from the creeps computer. Whether they were future blackmail material, or just for the creeps own gratification, they didn't need to exist. Seconds later she updated that to include everything on his computer. Just the names alone were enough to make her feel vaguely ill.
Still, that didn't help with her current situation, that of a serial killing suicide bomber preparing to attack her. The guy was keeping his own counsel about whether he was trying to recruit, kill or drive her off. That said, she couldn't afford to take chances with her safety, so she would work on the basis that he was coming to kill her for now.
Frantically calling up information she blitzed through all of the files the PRT had on him, then the various posts on PHO focused on showing the man in action. Strategic planning algorithms went to work to give her an analysis to find something she could use.
She had a little time while the ABB cape directed armed gang members to surround the building she was in. Gangers armed with automatic rifles (and shoddy ones, at that) were not a massive threat to her theoretically, but they were only there to delay her anyway. Oni Lee was a notoriously difficult opponent. His teleportation and cloning abilities combined with an utter lack of restraint or concern for personal welfare, surroundings or allies meant he was an extremely dangerous threat to most people.
Deciding that she would not be responsible for more damage to her surroundings, or innocent lives being hurt, Taylor quickly checked her equipment before leaving the apartment and striding into the street, again. It seemed her life recently had turned into a parody of a bad western movie.
At the same time she rang each of the people still in a building nearby, warning them of the incoming fight and telling them to get out. With her standing in the street the creep from across the road was reporting her position, so hopefully none of them would be detained by the cordon of gang members toting rusty AK's.
Standing out in the open and waiting for an amoral serial killer to reach her position had to be one of the most nerve racking things she'd ever experienced. Every bit of noise made her want to twitch and spin to look. Only by using the sight lines from her drones was she able to project a calm and patient demeanour, hopefully at least.
Apparently Oni Lee was much more prepared to be patient that she was though. It took ten long minutes before he showed himself, appearing on a rooftop out of her line of sight and moving forward carefully to view the situation. The stealth drones she had high above her caught his movements and highlighted the threat though.
She stood for several more long seconds as the suicide bomber surveyed the situation, then with a suddenness that almost made her jump he appeared ten feet in front of her, staring directly at her.
Neither one made a move, or made to speak as they watched the other. Taylor herself quite content to drag this out and feeling better about defending herself now that action was imminent. Oni Lee's thoughts were completely hidden behind the red demon mask he wore and the inhuman lack of emotion that characterised his appearances.
When his voice came, it was in a monotone even her emotional deadening couldn't match, "Surrender and you will be judged by the dragon. Prove your worth and you will be allowed to live."
Tilting her head slightly at the ridiculous ultimatum, Taylor only had one response. "Never."
Immediately after she drew her sword and spun in the same motion, the amazingly sharp implement slicing through the body of the cape as he appeared behind her. At the same time her other hand drew her shuriken pistol and fired it off to one side where another body was stood. Both crumbled to ash seconds later.
This was just the start of the engagement though as this time three bodies appeared around her, two falling to the sword and another to her pistol as Taylor spun. Seconds later her drones had to start helping. Apparently deciding that her sword as a problem Oni Lee started appearing with a large knife in one hand, first to try and stab her, then to try and block the sword.
Needless to say, a Necron based cutting instrument did not even slow down as it went through high grade steel, and the man holding it.
With proof of his inability to stop the sword Oni Lee changed tactics again. Now appearing in several places out of the reach of her sword and preparing to throw grenades. Taylor was only able to prevent herself being hit by using her drones to strike and crumble the clones as they appeared. Four drones taking up position to protect her.
It felt like the situation should be a stalemate, but Taylor was fully aware it wasn't. She was keeping herself safe, but she was burning energy. Worse, she needed to get things right each and every time. Her opponent only needed one slip before he could cause damage, which would cause more slip-ups and more damage. Time and time again he repeated his the tactic of attempting to kill her with grenades.
Given the patience the cape showed, it was likely he knew she only needed to make one mistake and was fully prepared to carry on trying until he succeeded.
Shooting another clone at slightly longer range, Taylor jumped a minute later when she was pinged by the analysis drone. Between the previous footage of him in action and the analysis running of his current movements the drone had picked up on something. His teleportation was line of sight.
Hurriedly sending orders to additional drones she set them to predictive analysis. Using one set of drones to predict his movements and the second to take pot shots she should be able to get ahead of him and break his momentum.
At first the system didn't appear to help. Drones appeared to be randomly firing into the ground around Taylor, but not actually at any visible clones. Thankfully she'd kept the original four drones on her defence without the predictions, because the continuing barrage of attempted grenade attacks would certainly have killed her.
There were several attempts by Oni Lee at hiding his actions over the next couple of minutes. Mostly to the tune of an additional clone appearing behind another to try and give him enough time to let loose a grenade, but the powerful shots taking him out ensured it didn't work, given he wasn't even wearing body armour the ammunition she was firing went through both clones. Absently she realised just how much Hollywood was lying to her by having the hero use a human shield, but that was a distant thought.
Suddenly, a beep came through from the drones. As soon as Taylor registered it the devices started working as intended. Each shot took out a clone as it formed instantly. The change allowed Taylor to relax as he machines handled the difficult part of the fight. Instead she started finding the original.
A high drone quickly pinpointed the man on a nearby roof. He was travelling between several roofs in a teleporting jump that took him past Taylor each time so he could leave the clones behind.
Here the man's stunted mentality worked against him. Taylor was able to determine a dedicated pattern after only five more passes. Oni Lee was patient, methodical and unrelenting, but this time that would work against him. Calculating the exact timing, the high drone fired off a group of three bullets at the precise moment he reappeared on a roof to Taylors left.
It felt like for a moment the entire world held its breath. Even the wind seemed to pause as Taylor watched anxiously. Then the murderous cape dropped to his knees, blood pouring from his torso. He toppled forward over the edge of the house he was stood on, fell for two stories then impacted the driveway with a disgusting wet thud.
Deciding to err on the side of caution, Taylor ordered a follow up strike, a new bullet being buried in his head to make sure.
Satisfied that he was definitely dead, and with no clones appearing, Taylor still cautiously approached the body. He shouldn't be able to harm her, but if he'd prepared grenades they might still go off with too much movement or time. Once she reached the edge of the drive she had one of her drones flip the man onto his back, then relaxed once she saw he only had a knife drawn.
Stowing pistol and sword, Taylor unlatched her Aeonstave from her back and held it as she walked over to the now dead cape. Kneeling by his head she lift the mask to look at the utterly forgettable individual below for several long moments.
While she was currently emotionless, or the closest thing to it without a full magos conversion, she was aware it was a temporary measure. Her emotions were going to hit her very hard once she was safe enough to feel them again.
It was the least she could do to remember the faces of those who died trying to enslave her. Hopefully she would be able to move past the pain taking a life would cause and remember even though she killed them, they made that choice. Neither Oni Lee nor Coil's mercenaries were good people. Hopefully that would help.
Standing back up after resetting his mask, Taylor took a step backwards and contemplated the villain. It would be easy to engage her Entropic Lance and dispose of the body entirely. But she couldn't hide her involvement in the fight and his disappearance. Too many people knew he was coming to confront her, and she was being watched the entire time to see if she left.
Even now, the original instigator was watching her from his long lens camera.
So hiding the death was out of the question. Where did that leave her?
Well, she could just walk away. The ABB cordon was scattering with the death of their only cape in the city. It would take Lung turning up to give them any backbone again right now. There was no guarantee that Oni Lee's body wouldn't be taken by the gangers later if she did that, so the PRT would find out eventually, but not via first-hand knowledge.
Delivering the body to the PRT could send a powerful message though.
Eventually though, she shrugged and gave a muttered, "Fuck it."
She was too fed up with this entire fucking city to work through the ramifications of one action over another. Accessing the cameras of the PRT building she brought up the view for one of the empty parahuman cells in the building then directed her teleportation drone to open a portal beneath the body.
Seconds later Oni Lee dropped through the green circle and fell a few feet into the cell, alarms blaring across the building at both the new body, and presumably the energies of the portal.
Closing the portal with a thought, Taylor uploaded the video of the fight to the secure server, then added another link on PHO to show just how little she was playing around. Adding a little note on the end of her original post to tell those reading that she was leaving this cursed city behind.
Checking the time she sighed as she realised that she still had another couple of hours to go before she could actually leave though.
Seconds later she cheered up as she had a thought. One of her stealth drones was sent as fast as it could out into the bay. Taylor herself turned to stare directly at the house with the creep still watching her, holding the glare for several moments to hopefully worry the asshole, then walked off between buildings.
Ten minutes later her drone reached the wrecked super-tanker blocking the major access route into the Bay and had found a room that was both free of water, and lacking windows. A portal opened into the room shortly afterwards allowed Taylor access. Stepping through the portal she was immediately assaulted with a strong smell of the sea, and a stronger smell of rusted and neglected metals. The room was mostly bare, just built in metal cabinets remaining from what was presumably one of the living quarters when the ship still sailed.
A quick application of her disassembly array and she had materials to build a chair and a heater to keep her comfortable while she waited. Setting the two up she collapsed back in her new chair while the heater got to work ensuring she was comfortable.
Kicking her feet back in the recliner chair Taylor grumbled as she hoped she would be left alone long enough this time. She only needed a few more hours before she could leave the city behind entirely.
With the heater quickly warming the small room and a fairly comfortable chair, the last two days caught up with Taylor quickly and she fell asleep.
…
Slumping into her seat at the head of the table and facing the large screen built into the opposite wall, PRT Director Emily Piggot looked around at those in attendance. The entire Protectorate roster plus Aegis as Wards captain were on one side of the table. The other side was taken up by the PRT strike captains and her deputy, Paul Renick.
Rather than the overwhelming anger of their last meeting, this time Emily was showing all the signs of exhaustion, along with the kind of depression that sapped your will to carry on.
Following the very public airing of dirty laundry that affected every facet of Taylor Hebert's outing as a cape Piggot had been dragged over the coals by everyone from the Chief-Director (along with the entire board of directors), Watchdog, the Youth Guard, Child Protection Services and even the FBI had gotten involved.
Right now it felt like she would be lucky to end the month with her freedom, let alone her job.
Looking up at the room following several long moments of staring at her paperwork, she spoke in a tired voice, "Alright, you know why we're here. First off, what do we have on actually finding her?"
Captain Samson was the first to speak, "We have an update on her movements from this morning until the early evening thanks to the Empire incident early this morning and a fight with Oni Lee earlier.
Seeing several blank looks, and a similar look on Piggot's face he elaborated, "Early this morning we received a call from the owner of a car that had just been stolen by four Empire capes. The woman on the phone was able to give us enough details and headings that we could use the traffic cameras to tag the vehicle and send Dauntless and Velocity to intercept. The car was carrying Othala, Victor, Krieg and Cricket."
With a gesture at the Spartan themed cape the captain handed the rest of the explanation to him, "There was a fight when we got there, of course, but thanks to the preparation we were able to take Othala out of the fight immediately. Velocity had her tied up and hidden from view straight off. Velocity also managed to take down Victor and the other two legged it after that, I lost them in the back streets, but we have the first two in custody now."
Leaning forward, Velocity cut in to add some details, "Actually, Victor was keeping me out of the fight right up until his gun exploded in his hands. It was hit by a shot fired from extreme distance. If he hadn't still had Othala's invincibility he'd have been dead on the spot. As it was that strike knocked him down and cleared the power so I could put him down."
Taking up the narrative again, the captain spoke up, "Exactly. When we went to interview the woman who called the theft in we found out that not only did she have no knowledge of the call, she wasn't even aware her car was stolen and her phone wasn't used."
Seeing his point, Armsmaster chipped in, "You're saying that Miss Hebert arranged the confrontation?"
Speaking up without looking away from the tablet in his hands Renick added more information, "With those points in mind we also spoke to Othala this morning. She confirmed they were being sent to confront Miss Hebert. They had information she was in the main junkyard for the city."
Tapping something on his tablet, Paul gestured at the main screen as everyone shifted to look. Two pictures were showing side by side. On the familiar sight of the BB Junkyard, the other a completely empty plot. "She stripped the entire place to the foundations."
The almost emotionless face of Miss Militia was the next to speak, putting the dots together on the items taken by Miss Hebert, "She's going into hiding then. She's picked up enough supplies to live off comfortably while burying herself without coming outside for a fair while. Longer if she can create something to act as a freezer since all the appliances in the stores were left alone. And she also has a large amount of crude supplies, enough to spend a fair amount of time building."
Finally stirring from her slump, the director spoke up for the first time, "It gets worse. We have confirmation from outside the city that she has full access to the PRT databases. The camera's only picked up on the car the Empire were using so quickly because Hebert manually created the link, she was aware of all the documents relating to her and she knew exactly what we were planning during the confrontation. Finally, we can tell she accessed the cameras in the cells earlier this evening in order to dump the body of Oni Lee there for us to find."
Taking another deep breath the director continued, "Further, she isn't the only one with that access. Dragon was given orders by the Chief-Director this morning after we became aware of the Empire incident. Dragon went through every system in the building to investigate how Hebert was getting access. Although she didn't find out it was done, she did found that Hebert had fixed an exploit we believe was installed somehow by Coil."
That brought everyone aback, "Coil? What the hell was he doing having access to our systems."
Armsmaster spoke up brusquely at that point, obviously unhappy about the security flaws, and probably that he hadn't been consulted, "From what we can tell? Everything he could to downplay his resources and power. In this specific case he altered the cameras in the area suggested by Daniel Hebert to cease tracking his men's position, instead it was actively wiping them from the recordings."
Everyone was silent as they considered the ramifications of that kind of access in the hands of one of the gangs. A different captain raised a query after that.
"If he had that access, and was blanking those specific cameras, he must have been making a play for Hebert himself. Was he stopped, and do we know why he went there? We searched the area and didn't find anything."
"We don't have any leads for how Coil found Miss Hebert," Armsmaster replied, "All we have is speculation right now. But he did make an attempt to capture or recruit her. A team of his people were moving into an area we searched when we believe the driver was struck by a projectile. Our surveillance wasn't detailed enough to give more details, but the strike killed the driver and he took the vehicle with him, ending with it in an abandoned building. Another team moved into the area to retrieve the bodies before we became aware of the incident."
Chancing a sidelong glance at his boss, Renick realised she wasn't going to help getting the meeting back on track and decided to intervene, "Let's get back to the main focus of the meeting. We are still waiting on more information into the breech from Coil, but right now we need to be talking about Miss Hebert. We know where she's been, the video of her fight with Oni Lee also puts her in the city earlier this evening, but have we had anything from her since?"
Getting headshakes from everyone at the table, Renick sighed slightly, "We will need to keep focused. So far Miss Hebert hasn't been able to stay in any one position for long without discovery. If the gangs carry on finding her eventually they are going to get lucky. Based on what she's shown already we cannot afford for her to be supplying the gangs in this city."
Leaning forward to stare at the Director, Assault cut in before Renick could try and start getting plans in place, "Has there been any change in what happens after she's caught?"
Everyone looked at the red clad hero at that point. Assault was normally pretty cheerful and ready with a joke. This time he sounded actually angry. Which wasn't actually surprising given his history. Although he'd joined the Protectorate and made a good life for himself, his early years as a cape were doing everything he could to disrupt the Birdcage. Seeing the PRT attempting to essentially enslave a parahuman was likely hitting a lot of sore points.
Before anyone could do anything to try and calm him down though, the Director spoke up, "Yes. Following the meetings with the Chief Director and Glenn Chambers the documents previously prepared have been deleted. Right now what happens to Hebert in the future will depend on when, if and how she is brought in."
Managing to sit up a little, Piggot carried on, "The guardianship papers Mr Hebert signed have already been dismissed. The courts are working on a potential solution, since the way he did things means he's been deemed unfit to look after his daughter. Normally at that point it would fall back to us again, but since it's being removed from the PRT in the first place, and because we don't actually have her in custody it becomes much more complicated."
Slightly mollified, Assault quickly tacked on another question, "And Sophia?"
Gesturing listlessly at her deputy, Piggot handed the question over to Renick, "As you may know, we all originally objected to her placement in both the Wards and in Brockton Bay. At the time we were overruled by Washington as they felt that her powers could prove useful. Sophia is being transferred there for holding in the short term while Watchdog and internal affairs go over every detail of her case. Her social worker and Youth Guard handlers have both been arrested already. Washington will be putting out a statement shortly to that effect. I've made sure they don't push the blame for her stay here back on us, the head office will take full responsibility."
Sighing heavily again, the Piggot spoke up after Renick finished, "It gets worse though, again. They haven't made it public yet, but one of the BBPD officers took our men aside when they went to check out materials relating to the two cases filed against Hess. Based on the evidence they have it might be the case that Shadow Stalker has been involved in more crimes after she joined the Wards."
Stopping at that point Piggot looked around at everyone as she worked up to her next sentence. All of them realised she had more to add and waited for the next words tensely, "Including possible murder cases."
Raising a hand, the tired and ill looking woman rubbed her forehead while the rest of the room reacted. Most tensed, or swore, Miss Militia closer her eyes and leaned back, the picture of sorrow. Armsmaster meanwhile clenched his hands where they rested on top of each other, the knuckles clearly creaking.
The fact they had missed one of their own people going off the reservation so completely didn't sit well with any of them.
"How?" Velocity eventually managed to grate out, "How the hell did no-one suspect or notice anything? She wasn't that fucking smart! She was arrogant enough that there should have been some sign."
"There was." The simple statement from Renick brought everything to a halt as everyone except Director Piggot turned to stare at him. "Based on the systems check Dragon is still going through there were numerous points where something was potentially able to bring everything to our attention. The damage done to Miss Hebert, the murders and more. Every last one hit some kind of error or dead-end that stopped it alerting anyone but a select few members of the PRT. All of them have ties we have now found, leading back to who we suspect is Coil."
"I assume Washington will be holding off on their statement until the initial findings into Coil are complete then?" Came the brusque question from Armsmaster.
All he got was a slightly listless response from the Director, "That seems to be the plan, yes. Although it will depend on the exact findings and how long it takes. Parts of the chain of events will be released before then, of course, such as the fact that the lies told by Hess led us to react as if a Ward's civilian identity and life were at risk. They can't hold those details back without causing too many problems."
There was a few moments of silence before the Director seemed to shake herself slightly then sit up straighter again, "Let's refocus. We know Hebert was in the city and found early this evening, we've also gone over the fact that there has been no sign of her since then. What about the way she dumped Oni Lee on us, were we able to pull any data from her teleportation method. Can we use it to find her?"
Finally having something to contribute directly to the meeting, Armsmaster immediately leaned forward and began speaking, "As you are all aware, there are a number of devices in the cell block to detect activity by the prisoners. It is not a comprehensive information gathering array by any means, but we did get some initial data from the point Oni Lee was… delivered. I haven't had a chance to fully examine the data, but initial views suggest that the teleportation is done via a unique form of energy opening a gate between two points. The energy is unique enough that we can scan for it, but such capability will not be quickly available. Also, the amount of energy in the gate seen in the cells was relatively minor, so the new scanners will need to be energy intensive, presumably the main energy cost is on the sending side, so to detect the portals exit point will need more sensitive data gathering tools."
While the rest of the personnel gathered exchanged looks at the information overload, Armsmaster added one final piece of information, "Based on the data from the cell block, however, such a scanner will only pick up active portals. There does not seem to be any energy signature when the device is dormant."
Making a few notes on her pad, and having leaned over to speak quietly to Renick during the speech, Piggot nodded and spoke, "That's partial good news, at least. Move forward with creating the scanner as soon as you can. Make sure it can scan beyond the city as well, Hebert's PHO post indicates she's intending to leave at some point. With any luck she will carry on using the portals as readily as she has been, then we can track her down to a central base once she stops moving."
"Which means she needs to stay free of the gangs," commented Miss Militia, finally bringing herself back upright after the daze she'd been in from hearing about Sophia's crimes, "I doubt they will allow her a lot of movement once they have access to her."
There were curses from a couple of the PRT strike leaders at that, they were relying on a teenager to keep herself free of organised and experienced gangs, at the same time they were in a race against time for Armsmaster to build something that could detect the girl before she actually had a base. The odds were not in their favour.
Battery was the next to contribute to the attempt to find Hebert, asking a question of Armsmaster, "What about the device she used against your bike? Could you get an energy signature to track from that?"
Shaking his head, Armsmaster immediately discounted the notion, "Any data picked up during the attack would have been on my bike and didn't survive. Analysis of the… remains, after the fact, didn't show anything. There's nothing to differentiate between my bike and a wreck left to the elements for a significant time."
Nodding her head, Battery subsided as she wrote some notes on the pad in front of her.
For the first time in the meeting Director Piggot started to show some signs of her normal self though, as she scowled heavily at the explanation from the Tinker, "That means we can't make something to defend against that weapon either then. That will be difficult to overcome if it does come down to a conflict. What about the area of slowed time?"
Spreading his hand slightly, Armsmaster replied, "Same problem. My detailed scanning devices were all still on the bike."
Cursing softly, the director nodded to show she'd accepted the explanation but didn't look up from her own note-taking.
"Alright, I guess we need to play catch-up then." She eventually spoke again, looking to bring the meeting to a close, "Colin, make the portal detection a priority, then see if you can come up with anything to block Hebert's more unconventional weaponry. The rest of you see if you can track her down using more conventional methods. Even if she has a large supply of food and materials she will still have needs we can track. Power, heat, anything you can think of, also see if we can get any information out of the gangs that might point her out to us. Any questions?"
Seeing a general shaking of heads or non-reaction, Piggot nodded then started levering herself out of the chair, "Dismissed, then. Let's get to work."
…
Waking up from her nap, Taylor was actually mildly surprised she'd been able to wake up naturally (at least, she was after she was properly coherent, the first few minutes were more grumbles than actual thoughts). No emergencies or discoveries had appeared to force her out of her sleep, just the soft and slow transition from sleep to awake of someone who isn't due to be anywhere for some time.
Feeling a little confused she checked the time and realised her drones had let her sleep long past the point her base should have been finished. It was now 5 o'clock in the morning the day after her confrontation with Oni Lee.
It wasn't a major problem. The initial time scale for the base was only to get the basic functionality installed. Life support, increased gravity and such-like. With her extended sleep the drones would have carried on with the follow-up plans. Which should mean a furnished personal room, including shower, bathroom and toilet. They would have also been expanding her workshops to bring in everything she wanted to work on.
Deciding to indulge her emotional side a little before she left, Taylor had her teleporter drone open a portal to her base and shifted the chair and heater through. Then, after stretching a little to work out some kinks, she left the small cabin she'd been using and walked out to the bridge of the tanker.
The bridge itself was long since destroyed. Expensive computer equipment had been ripped out carelessly by salvagers, and the lack of care for the elements had left the windows broken open and other equipment strewn over the floor to create more hazards in the room. Taylor didn't linger long before moving to an outside space which appeared to have survived in better condition.
It didn't creak alarmingly with her steps for a start.
Still, she remained careful as she approached the railing, testing it thoroughly before leaning on it to watch the city. With her back to the ocean she wouldn't be able to watch the sun rise, but she had decided to watch it come out over Brockton Bay. Her plans were too important to sacrifice to sentimentality, and the city was far too dangerous for her now anyway, but she would miss her home.
Idly deciding to set up a permanent communications tap in the area so she could keep an on things, Taylor carried on leaning against the railing and watching as more and more of the city came into view as the sun rose.
If you didn't know what the place was like down on the streets it would be a beautiful sight, she felt. Street lights and the lights coming from various buildings flickering on and off as the time changed. The darker parts of the city, where working street lights were a luxury, slowly coming out of the darkness, and all the time the shining shield of the Protectorate base off to the side.
She kept her self-imposed vigil until a little before 9 in the morning before she pushed herself away from the railing. The sun was mostly up, even with the weak February strength, and the city was fairly clear now. Certainly clear enough that any beauty faded.
Taking a step back from the rail, Taylor gave her home one last look before sending a command to the teleporter drone. Seconds later, when the familiar green circle appeared against the outer wall of the tanker she waited until all of her drones had dipped through before spinning and striding across the threshold. Mars awaited.
Unknown to Taylor, the glowing green light of a Necron Warp Gate was not missed entirely. The New Wave duo of Lady Photon and her daughter, Laserdream, had been patrolling the edges of the city and the boat graveyard in particular. When the green light first appeared they had quickly starting making their way towards the origin.
They arrived in time to watch as Taylor moved forward and stepped over the threshold, keeping place high in the sky as the portal shut down. Exchanging glances they eventually decided to report the phenomenon to the PRT when they got home.
It would be the last sighting of Taylor for some time.
…
Finally stepping foot on Mars, Taylor couldn't help by breathe a sigh of relief and relaxation. Only partly because she was now definitely free of any of the cape nonsense in her home city, and outside of the range her alien foe allowed any parahuman. Most of her improvement in mentality though was because she was finally where she belonged.
Much like Holy Terra had been imprinted on the consciousness of every human in the galaxy, either a source of pride and love for those loyal to the Imperium, or a focus of hate and anger for the heretics, so too was Mars inside the heart and mind of every member of the Mechanicus.
Across the known galaxy every last member of the order knew where their home was and what it meant to them. They could have been raised, recruited and worked clear across the Imperium, never having visited at all, but Mars was always, always, the true home of any of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Right now the planet was almost entirely untouched, not containing the deep and forbidden vaults, nor the terrible abominable intelligence the Mars of her memories hid, but it still felt like she had left all worries and problems behind as she cleared the portal.
The start of her initial base had been created on the heights of the Olympus Mons, what would one day give way to an immense construction that pierced the atmosphere. Right now it was still just a massive mountain, but was no less impressive for that. The receiving room was what would eventually double as a living room/ relaxation room, and one entire wall was constructed of transparent Glasscrete, the first created in this reality.
Standing in her personal suite Taylor allowed herself a few moments to enjoy the vista before her. None of the famous dust storms were blocking her view for the moment, and with her armours vision improvements she could see for dozens of miles. The red and brown landscape of the Mechanicus' planet looked amazing. Nothing like the once proud but subsiding wonders of her benefactor's world, but raw potential and unused landscape spread before her, waiting for her personal touch.
After admiring the view she left the room and headed across to what was clearly a planning room. The large holographic table in the centre was mostly built using Imperial methods, so the green holograms were a familiar sight. Right now it was showing a view of Mars itself, with the tiny dot that was her base centred in the view.
From here she would be able to properly plan the conversion of a planet into a singular edifice of technology, construction and the arts of war taught to her by three distinct factions within the reality of the God-Emperor.
That it was going to take a lot of time and planning was clear. She wanted to avoid the mistakes made on the Mechanicus' version of Mars, obviously, but she also needed to integrate the knowledge gifted by the Necrons and the Eldar. Contributions from the Necrons came from the Lords Trazyn the Infinite and Szarekh the Silent King. The Eldar contributions came from Yvraine herself, as well as Eldrad Ulthran. Together with the information given by Belisarius Cawl and Oud Oudia Raskian she had extensive knowledge of all of the technology, tactics, problems and triumphs from the War in Heaven right up to the 13th black crusade.
Each race had made its own massive mistakes, ones that plagued them for millennia, but Taylor could learn from those as well.
Granted, she was really hoping not to surrender her physical form like the Necrons, create a malevolent AI like the Mechanicus, or create the Ork's like the Elder did with the Old Ones, but there were lesser mistakes she felt could be a good start to learn from.
A twinge from the back of her mind reminded her that she had her emotions turned off though, and that wasn't going to last much longer now that she was safe. Deciding on a plan Taylor strode up to the console and started adding details to the basic outline already there. Specialised drones to tap into the planets core were lined up so she could get proper sustainable power and heat, she also added a variety of differently sized rooms for future projects and experiments, and finally she planned a number of manufacturing rooms for pre-set designs.
While having a single joined solution would be better in the long term, her recent experiences proved that sometimes you couldn't wait for things to line up and get sorted before you needed firepower. Having a large number of war machines on hand would be prudent.
Satisfied that her drones had enough work for the next week at least she saved her changes and stepped away from the computers. Staring at the plans for a few moments, she decided there were no obvious issues or errors then turned and headed for a nearby door.
Inside was a form of cloakroom, except adapted for her weapons and armour. Removing each piece she added it to the storage designed into the wall. Then, clad in comfortable clothes for the first time in a few days she moved into her quarters.
Once the inner door was sealed, Taylor moved to a panel set to one side. The lights had come on automatically when she entered, but the panel had additional controls as well. Locking the doors, Taylor also cut herself off from anything below a level one alert. This would stop her being able to command any of the drones outside her room without specific passwords. She didn't want to order anything while getting up to speed with her emotions.
When the control panel pinged the confirmation that her commands had gone through, Taylor moved further into the room and perched on an armchair. With a deep breath she turned off the emotional deadening implants.
All of a sudden the last two days came into stark view. Killing at least two people, being attacked and hounded by Protectorate Heroes, beating them, engaging villains and stealing property across the city while fleeing from everyone. And worst of all, the video of her father agreeing to hand guardianship rights across the PRT. Almost no thought as he gave up his daughter, admitted that he couldn't deal with her because of her role in his wife's death.
It took her several seconds to realise that she was somehow screaming and crying at the same time. The revelation didn't help, she just added throwing items around the room as she tried to vent her pain and betrayal.
She wept for the loss of her life, for the loss of the last of her family, her innocence, any peace and goodwill she'd managed to build in the wake of her trigger and the knowledge of what she was facing.
Inside the room, Taylor continued to lose herself in painful emotions and memories for the rest of the day, finally falling into a fitful sleep after several hours, only to wake up in a daze and repeat herself again. In the end, it took most of three days before she could even start thinking clearly again.
Outside the room, automated drones followed plans to build the first human base beyond their own gravity well. No sign of the complete breakdown in the nearby room touched the scarabs as they stripped rock and materials from the planet, building more of themselves as well as the equipment each room demanded.
Rarer minerals and material was specifically targeted across the planet and mined by swarms, where they couldn't find anything portals were opened up to pre-checked asteroids, although only long enough for those materials to be collected.
With the collected efficiency of the Mechanicus combined with massive Necron swarms, Olympus Mons was slated to become the first Hive sized building in this reality, dedicated to technological advancement.