Corpo Age

Chapter 210: D-Mother

I watched on as the tense scene unfolded before my eyes. A gunshot had just rang out from amidst the crowd of dockworkers, who were eager to get home. It caused all the officers manning the checkpoint to turn in their direction with weapons drawn.

No matter what happens, I can only watch. We don’t have a foothold here yet to be doing anything drastic.

Before the crowd could even react, drones flew by above us. It was obvious they belonged to the Aegis police force, looking to identify the threats from within the sea of people. It gave me some relief, knowing they had a more delicate way to do things.

As tempting as it was to do so, I didn’t hack into their systems to see what was happening. Nothing ever good came out of interfering arbitrarily. That was especially so when it came to hacking into networks, as it was a hostile act. Such actions always left behind a trail.

“What are the chances this shit happens right before we pass the checkpoint?” Thorne muttered with a frown.

“Well, we did see it coming, literally from our meeting room,” Claire commented.

“Yeah, and Ferrumus Corp deemed it as nothing because they could just fly off in their fancy spaceships,” I added.

As we chatted, the crowd began to react to their new situation. Sharp-minded individuals knew things were turning for the worse. They came up with a plan, with some of them retreating back toward the dock area until things died down.

Unfortunately, not everyone in the crowd had the same idea. Many panicked and decided to shove their way forward, looking to push through the checkpoint. They weren’t brave enough to break out of the crowd by themselves, so they clumped up for safety as they shifted forward.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I doubt this taxi is armored. This ain’t looking good if they manage to reach us.”

Hearing my words, Thorne rolled down the windows and gestured toward one of the checkpoint guards.

“Hey! Move the blockade and let us pass already. You’ve cleared us, right?”

“Sir, we’ve been ordered to halt all passing until we deal with the situation.”

“Are you guys sane? You want us to wait here? Get your superior on the line with me this instant!”

“Sir…our procedures—”

“Shut it! Do you have any idea who’s in this car?”

“...”

The checkpoint officer went silent as he struggled with what to do. It made me slightly embarrassed, having my weight thrown around, but whether it be on paper or in practice, I was the owner of a bona fide corporation.

While Thorne was arguing, the other officers didn’t just sit there and watch. The crowd approached, so they all assumed a defensive position, with their weapons pointed at the dockworkers. They each held up a long rifle with a magazine painted in a vibrant blue.

“Half of you load E-gas rounds!” one of the commanding officers shouted.

The people in the back row swiftly swapped their blue mag for a yellow one. I wasn’t sure what was in it, but I did know that rounds used so close to the periphery of the space station were special.

Whenever we entered Aegis, we were warned of the rules of the station. They reiterated the seriousness of damaging the integrity of the structure or the life support systems. It wasn’t surprising when I found out they had special rounds that wouldn’t pierce through the exterior walls. They were made to fragment and were what I presumed the blue mags held.

The E-gas that I overheard didn’t ring any bells for me. However, I found out what they were very soon.

As the momentum of the crowd went unabated, the officers in the back row were soon ordered to fire their weapons. A slow-moving round arched through the air before landing in the crowd, releasing a cloud of sparkly dust. The moment it went full bloom, my optics picked up a current of electricity run through the air.

People cried out in pain as they all got shocked. From what I could tell, it was similar to a taser, except it had a much bigger area of effect.

The pain was enough to weaken the crowd’s momentum, at least in the parts that were hit. Although large parts of the crowd in the back were still unaffected, it had successfully halted their movement. The people in the back weren’t mindless enough to trample on their fellow workers. However, the problem was far from solved.

“Look, the situation is under control now. Let us through,” Thorne continued to argue.

“Sir…I would love to, but we have to follow orders. Our commander says we are keeping up the blockade until we find the culprits.”

“Let me speak with him. Now!”

Thorne’s outburst seemed to have done the trick, and the officer gave in, calling his supervisor. After a few minutes, Thorne received a call. It was easy enough to listen in.

“I apologize, sir. Our ongoing situation is causing an inconvenience for you, but the mayor is particularly angry about this incident after finding out two lives were lost in the brazen shooting. He’s ordered us to seal this sector in until we deal with the disruptions.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Are you saying you are keeping us, including my boss, in here for your issue? And in the middle of this chaos?”

“I’m sorry. Without the mayor’s permission, our hands are tied. However, only the ground route has been cordoned off. You can fly a VTOL over if you would like. Or since your boss is there, I advise you to ask him to call the mayor for a special exception.”

So it seemed I would either have to leverage my connection with the mayor or own an aircraft. Neither option was something we could go with right now. Bringing an aircraft up to Aegis wasn’t a priority for us, so we had nothing up here. We had only just arrived, and I didn’t even know the name of the mayor yet.

I doubt renting one was that simple, either. In fact, if others found out about our dire need for transport, they could use it against us.

“Then hurry up with catching your culprits. How hard could it be? Just check the surveillance cameras!” Thorne roared.

Hearing up to that part, I couldn’t help but sigh. It seemed more and more likely that we were stuck here. It made me grimace. We still had a lot of work to get to, and I rather not spend any more time here.

“Thorne,” I called out, ”let me talk to the supervisor.”

“...Here, my boss wants to talk to you.”

“Huh, what? I don’t think that’s—”

“Hello, this is Rollo Halls of the Halls Corporation.”

“Umm… yes, sir. It’s an honor, sir. What can I do for you?”

“Well, letting me out of here would do wonders.”

“Sir, as I explained to your employee, that isn’t possible without—”

“Yes, I’ve heard. Either the mayor’s order or you catch the culprits, right? I wanted to offer you my assistance with the latter. Considering the Aegis PD consents to it, of course.”

“Sir, that’s…entirely up to you. We would be fools to say no to your assistance, but we don’t dare to trouble you either.”

“I’ll take that as a yes. Send me what you have of the suspects.”

I swiftly disconnected the call and received an info packet shortly after. Then I gave the command to our security team to deploy one of our new prototypes. I watched as they exited the cars and made their way toward the crowd. However, that was only a front for what was really going on.

The few who had our power armor equipped began to deploy our new drones under the guise of holographic projections. These tiny wonders had the shape of dragonflies and were equipped with the same stealth technology that was proliferated throughout our equipment.

They flew at the volume of a soft whisper, making it virtually silent with all the background noises in the area. Zipping through the air, they scanned through hundreds of people, examining their faces and their possessions.

The police had sent me a short video from a security camera of the suspected shooter. It appeared several people approached him from the crowd and tried to grab him. He retaliated by shooting at his assailants before disappearing into the sea of people.

Wow, shooting in such a dense crowd. No wonder there were casualties. Still, it’s not my business to judge rights and wrongs right now. I just want to get out of here.

Our new drone had several advantages from the common ones I saw. It acted not only as a mobile carrier for my Nyes, but I made sure it was equipped with all our classic features like the Pixie. I upgraded the little Pixie drones to be up to par with our standards, but their role remained unchanged. It still snuck up to people and sacrificed itself to disable enemies with its EMP discharge.

In a way, this new drone was like an aircraft carrier but for smaller drones and unmanned devices instead of jet fighters. Still, it could scout out the area just fine. I made sure the program used for object and facial recognition was the best I could do, allowing it to scan the entire crowd in just a few moments.

While it didn’t find the suspect, the drone, currently dubbed as D-Mother, managed to spot some suspicious activity. It spotted a few small groups huddled together, looking back and forth between the police drones and one of the warehouses nearby.

The operator quickly acted on this behavior, sending the D-Mother into that building. It went in from one of the ventilation shafts and began deploying the Nyes for more eyes in the facility. After all, the D-Mother still made some noise, while the Nyes, being virtually silent, were much more suitable for close-quarter scouting.

My other security guards moved to surround the building. Of course, our movements were noticed by both the police and the dockworkers. It just wasn’t possible to stay invisible while walking through so many people.

I watched from the corner of my eye as Thorne picked up a call. He didn’t hesitate to share it with me again.

“Sir, have your people found something? Do you need backup?”

Thorne gave me a look, and I nodded.

“Nothing concrete yet, but we are moving to cut off all exits from the building in case we find something.”

“Understood. We’ll deploy a few teams to watch your backs.”

It was hard for us to decline, as there were challenges to operating with such a large crowd nearby. Any one of them could sneak up on our personnel, so more manpower was welcomed.

As the outside of the building was being secured, I began directing my attention back to the interior.

We only had two prototype D-Mothers with us. One overwatched from outside, while one searched the building. Even so, it didn’t take long to scour the warehouse with dozens of Nyes.

The first thing we spotted were the two men we had seen in the previous video. They were walking around the warehouse, searching through every nook and cranny.

“Come out, Perry! It’s not such a big deal. Pay your dues and we’ll leave you alone. We know you have the money,” one of the men cried out.

His nonexistent attempt at hiding himself had me dumbfounded. I couldn’t help but turn to the other occupants of my car to see if I wasn’t imagining it.

“Is this guy serious? Is he just shouting around in a building after a shooting took place outside? He was an involved party too! Doesn’t he know the authorities are hunting for them?”

“Hmm, he doesn’t seem armed,” Claire commented. “Probably doesn’t think he’ll get into much trouble. It’s the guy they’re chasing that shot.”

“Still, this guy doesn’t know what the word discreet means. All the fuss he’s kicking up was bound to draw attention even if we didn’t intervene. How could he collect any money from someone in custody?”

The two men’s search continued as they flipped open every crate and container in their path. We ordered a team to go in and neutralize the men while we conveyed our findings to the police.

A few moments after we had done so, the scene inside the warehouse changed drastically.

Our Nye trailed the two suspected loan sharks and watched it all unfold. One moment, they were searching through a container. The next, a figure caught them off guard from behind, pressing a gun to the back of the head of one person and a knife to the back of the other.

“Give me everything valuable you have on you now!” the ambusher cried out hysterically. “Do it quickly or I’ll kill you! I’m not joking!”

Okay…That guy is definitely on the verge of having a mental breakdown if he’s thinking of robbing his pursuers of all things.