Chapter 9-2
"Ladies and gentlemen of Wards East-North-East, I come bearing gifts!" Kid Win said, grinning like an idiot. Behind him stood a rack stocked with…
"Are those guns?" Aegis said, mouth agape. "Tinkertech guns?!"
"Yep!" The Tinker chirped back, sounding increasingly like a hamster on coffee. "High-yield plasma pistols, specially modified to fire the energy equivalent of a HEAP round. Can shoot through an inch of steel and sets everything behind it on fire. Best thing I've built in months."
Aegis took a weapon from the stand and inspected it. "That can't possibly be legal."
"Nope." He replied with a mad grin. "Lethal as fuck. No way the board would let me carry these around. Thankfully, I don't give a damn right now and neither do they."
"And the PRT's okay with us taking these?"
"Officially, probably not. Not that anyone stopped me because, you know, zombie apocalypse. Who cares if a few kids are running around with guns? It's our Second Amendment right!" That probably wasn't true, but we didn't feel like correcting him.
"Okay, just asking."
"How did you get so many?" Vista asked. "There's like…one for each of us."
"Oh, oh, that's the Corpus tech in there. Their stuff…all of it is modular. Standardized. It's awesome! I just need a few pieces, have the PRT build like a million of them, and put them together any way I want. I can make guns that shoot fast, guns that automatically target weak spots in your opponents, guns that fire freezing bullets, or fire bullets, or charged ones to disable robots, or…"
"Kid, breathe." Aegis warned. "You've earned it."
Vista didn't seem satisfied, though. "You always complain that the PRT can't build parts for your guns. What changed?"
"Beats me, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth." Kid Win said with a shrug. "Anyway, don't you all want to see what I got for you?"
We nodded, though some of us were more uneasy about it than others. I could understand their reservations, though. Yes, we needed the firepower, but Kid Win was a bit off, to put it diplomatically. Scratch that, he was two steps short of insane. Did we really want to carry around a lethal weapon built by someone like him?
Not to mention where all the parts came from. Just looking at them, even I could tell that these things weren't made of conventional electronics, so how did the PRT get so many parts in such a short period of time? Did they buy them from somewhere? The only ones I could think of who would be willing and able to sell them would be the Corpus, but even I had trouble believing the PRT was corrupt enough to do business with them. Alternatively, the PRT could have recruited a mass-production Tinker recently and I'm just over thinking things again. At any rate, we had more immediate problems and the extra firepower wouldn't hurt.
Kid Win eagerly took a gun from the rack and tossed it over to Aegis. "Idiot-proof plasma pistols. Just point at the target and pull the trigger to shoot. Make sure nobody's standing in the way, 'cause it'll insta-gib anything without a brute rating. Which is bad, obviously." He took a deep breath, took a pistol from the rack and continued. "The power cell is good for about three-thousand shots, but the heatsink will over-heat after five. When it does, take it out of the weapon like so," He pulled a small, metal device out of the bottom of the gun "and put a second back in like this. The old one will take about three minutes to cool after which it can be used again. You each get six heatsinks in total, so I think you'll be fine. Any questions?"
Gallant raised his hand. "Umm, I've never fired a gun before."
The Tinker just stared back, mystified. "Just point and shoot. It's a gun, not a fighter jet. How hard can it be?"
"I think what Gallant meant was that he isn't sure if his aim's good enough." Aegis clarified.
Clockblocker snorted. "We're up against a giant horde of zombies with an appetite for faces. I don't think aiming is going to be a problem. Besides, you don't have to use them. They're just back-up in case our powers can't cut it."
"Precisely." Kid Win said. Then, he turned to me and Browbeat. "For you two, I have a special treat." He took a pair of massive pistols from the rack that looked similar to the one the others got. They were larger and more robust, though. Heavier too. "These are my little babies. Instead of one shot, it fires seven at a time, kind of like a shotgun. I also added stronger rails and a larger capacitor to give it a lot more punch and make up for the decrease in range and accuracy. The gun's a bit bulky now, but I think you two can handle the extra weight just fine."
I looked at the weapon in my hands. It was…it was perfect. A work of art. Heavy, yet well-balanced. Power cells easily accessible, trigger highly responsive, it's… "It's beautiful, Kid." My power was purring in delight.
My power, not me. I'm a professional. I don't squee over guns, that's just ridiculous.
But that didn't mean I shouldn't be grateful. I leaned forward and gave him a hug. "I also made it water-proof, in case you get, you know, covered in blood again." He knew me so well. A little too well, perhaps.
Not that I could get mad at him. Not when he gave me a piece of craftsmanship like that.
In the corner of my eye, I saw Browbeat give Gallant a poke. "Why didn't you tell me anything about this?" He whispered.
"Hey, don't look at me." Gallant replied. "Vicky's just happy with movie tickets and the occasional necklace. No idea she was into guns. Maybe you can win her over if you get her a bazooka."
"You know I can hear you, right?" I said, giving Gallant the look.
"Yep." He quipped back. Ass.
"Anyway," Kid Win interrupted "I should get going. We're leaving in ten minutes and I still need to warm up the robots."
"Robots?" Aegis asked.
"Repurposed Corpus drones, remote controlled by yours truly. Parents would pull me out of the program if I went into battle myself, but they didn't say anything about using kill-bots as a proxy." With that, he ran off.
Vista was the first to say what we were all thinking. "Okay, I've known him for over a year, and he's never been this much of a spazz." The way she sounded made me wonder if her interest was more than just professional. Kid Win had been a Ward for a year now, I think. I guess she sees him as a friend, or maybe even family.
"Or this productive." I added. "Seriously, how does he have time to sleep? Not that I don't appreciate the result, but he's gonna kill himself like this."
"Armsmaster said he's fine." Aegis replied with a tone that said he didn't want to discuss the matter any further. "Apparently, it's a Tinker thing. The boss believes Kid just figured out his specialty and that it has something to do with modular equipment or something. Whatever. Let's just go and get this over with."
Well, that pretty much ended the conversation then and there. I made a mental note to keep an eye on Kid Win later, just in case. Oh, and on Vista. And on Insight, albeit for a completely different reason.
Wait, wasn't that supposed to be Aegis's job?
Whatever. Doesn't matter who ends up doing it, as long as it gets done. I gave Vista a quick nod as we piled into the van. A slight hardening of her face was her only response. I stopped prying immediately. Clearly, it was making her upset and I didn't want to distract her.
With nothing left to do but wait for the go-ahead, we were driven to a warehouse near the docks and waited for the rest of the capes to arrive. Aegis grabbed a box and turned to us. "C'mon, help me spread these around. Wards always do. It's tradition." We actually have traditions for apocalyptic battles. I suppose that says something about how bleak and cynical our world is.
Armsmaster took to the stage and started speaking. "Thank you all for coming. We're fighting a new threat, so I can't give you the statistics. I don't know what our chances are going in. I do know that we've taken every precaution we could to minimize the risks we're facing. All in all, I believe that we can eliminate the threat known as Outbreak, if we work together to defeat it." He paused, letting it all sink in for a moment. Even though Armsmaster wasn't a talented pubic speaker, he did know his stuff.
"Our opponent is a sapient virus that converts its victims into monsters under its control. The virus itself can normally spread through air and water, but thanks to a device constructed by myself…" He shot a glance at the Corpus "with the help of the Corpus, that risk has been almost completely negated. However, the virus is still able to spread through bites or physical contact. Should that happen to any of you, your only hope for survival is to immediately amputate the affected limb and get to a medical facility as soon as possible. Once the conversion has started, there is no way to stop it or save the victim. This also counts for the civilians already taken. We have no choice but to eliminate them. It is dark work, but I'm afraid that there simply is no other solution."
That's another tradition, I guess: letting the head of the Protectorate tell us how fucked we are. If that was Armsmaster's intent, well, mission accomplished.
"Let me reiterate: Outbreak is sapient. It grows more intelligent with every person it turns and is already smart enough to communicate, apparently through a form of telepathy. It also has a near-religious hatred for capes and will do everything in its power to kill you, should it become aware of your existence. The individual creatures can shrug of small-arms fire, chew through an APC in seconds, and are much faster than they appear. Even without the risk of infection, close combat is strongly discouraged for anyone without a mid-to-high brute rating or a sufficiently inhuman biology. Do not underestimate these things, or it will cost you your life, if not more. Every time Outbreak kills, it becomes stronger. While the converted do not seem to retain their powers, we cannot let our enemy become even stronger. If you are turned, I will kill you myself…and if I fall victim to the plague, I hope that one of you will show me the same mercy."
He took a breath and continued. "Our first priority is to establish a perimeter around the infected area. We need to keep Outbreak from spreading and claiming more victims. The PRT is setting up barricades, but they will need support. Kaiser will lead the shakers and non-flying blasters. Anything not human that tries to get through the wall, you turn it back or rip it apart."
I was more than a little surprised that Kaiser let Armsmaster order him around like that, but then again, tradition. Besides, I have no doubt that E88's propaganda machine will make it sound like an 'immovable bastion against the tide of darkness'. He'd still get his positive press without having to risk his own hide too much.
I shook my head. This wasn't important right now. I kept handing out armbands.
"Our second priority is to reduce Outbreak's numbers. We cannot attack the virus directly, but we can weaken it by killing its victims. Lady Photon, you will lead the aerial blasters. Destroy as many of them as you can. Collateral damage is not a concern. The creatures can't fly or shoot, so you should be relatively safe. They can dig tunnels, which is where the rest of us come in. I will personally command the teams that will head into the city and wipe these things out to the last. With your help, we will be able to turn this around. With your help, we will take our city back."
A simple plan, I suppose. Contain the threat, thin their ranks, then move in for the kill. Of course, when has anything like this ever gone to plan? Armsmaster wasn't fooling anybody. Things were about to get ugly. Everyone in the room knew that. As he started explaining how the armbands worked, I grimly wondered how this was going to end. We were with our backs against the wall. Yes, there was still hope. Yes, we had a fighting chance. A situation like that brings out the best in some people.
It brings out the worst in others…