Crash Flux 1: Welcome To The Machine (12 page)

Adon was about to say something, but Burk patted the back of his hand against Adon’s chest.  “Let me handle this.”

Burk said, “That’s just plain nasty friend.  Which way we headin’ Goo?”

“We must find splicer, they control sewers.  Splicers' smuggle people into wheel often, but no ID, no work.  No work, no chance.  We take only tertiary and secondary tunnels.  Tertiary tunnels too small for Guard patrol bikes to follow.  We take secondary tunnels only when we must.”

Adon stepped ahead of him and said, “We have to make a stop first.  Can you take us here?”

Goo took a look at the holopad and said, “Mmmm, yes, yes I can, but it will take much time.  How much time you have to spend?  Precious little, Goo say.”

Adon said, “Without some sort of protection, we are at the mercy of whoever finds us.  Tell us how to get there.”

“I will take you.  This way, follow, follow.”

The party trekked the sewage lines for over an hour, the heavy equipment already wearing them down.  Halfway to the next checkpoint, Adon heard a noise coming from Goo.  He took a glance on his pack, and noticed an ancient CB radio fitted into a makeshift holder, squawking now and then with scrambled conversations.  Goo led them into a secondary tunnel, wide enough to drive a small truck through.

Adon said, “Why are you listening to scrambled transmissions?”

Goo’s eyes went up, then left, and he started stammering and jerking his head up and down.  “Feh, feh, feh, Fooooooorrr, the listening of troops, yes, yes.  You hear them before they come our way.”

Adon said, “What good is it if the communications are scrambled?”

Goo scratched his head, “Mmmhhaa, Goo don’t know.  Didn’t think about it that way.  Maybe we can communicate with squatters living in the sewage tunnels.”

There was a section of tunnel that had obviously been worked, the sides of the tunnels were off color and there were lines in the sides that indicated a secret passageway.  It would not have been enough to stand up to close inspection, but Adon doubted that those operating here would have any need to suspect close scrutiny into their activities.  A small rectangular section lay off to the side, and Adon pressed his palm to it.

The holographic wall disappeared.  A cartoon graphic of an exaggerated Chinese caricature appeared in the holographs stead.   Adon looked up into the corner of the wall at the small pin cam and said, “We are here to see Tochi.”

“Ah… so sorry. We are closed.  Please to do business some other time.”

“We were told you sell weapons.”

“No.  No weapons here.  Only us chickens.  Buck buck.”

Raydin looked frustrated, but Adon raised his hand to his side and said, “I can handle this.”  He looked back up at the screen and said, “Xia sent us, she said you would sell to us.”

“We moving soon.  You no have time.”

“We will make it fast.”

“You need special skill to assemble weapon.  Skillcheat veeery expensive.”

“We’ve got the money.”

“You… you not Chinese.”

“We can’t really help that, sir.”

“You not even Asian.”

“Would if I could.  I’ll wire you our account numbers.  You can make the transfers yourself.”

“Alright.  I let you in.  You have three minutes.  Starting… NOW!”

The doors opened and Adon immediately connected the marquee deck to his ocular cavity.  He wired in, and was assaulted by a barrage of two dimensional icons.  A picture of the cartoon caricature appeared once more, covering the screen.  “Is time to buy now.  You have two minutes, thirty seconds, must buy, buy, BUY!  Everything must go!  Plasma grenades, half off.  Monowire coils, half off.  Assembly infoburst skillcheat, full price, but if act now get four combat ROMs for price of one!  Buy all five and you get first weapon for free!”  Adon bought each item as Tochi highlighted them.  Adon sorted through over a hundred icons, pinpointing and selecting the flashing grenade icon, buying a gross to grease the wheels.  He bought more of Tochi’s surplus stock, buying a dozen boxes of monowire cable, four sets of handling gloves and a spooler stapler for building fortifications and setting  traps.  He winced as he saw the million dollar price tag on the infoburst skillcheat, but didn’t miss a beat as he downloaded it and it burst thousands of images over his retina, burning them into his brain just long enough to us the program Tochi had assembled.  He tagged four more skillcheat, these in the form of occupational training ROM chips, each the size of a cigarette lighter, cased in hard black plastic.  He paid extra for the decryption module, and loaded Tochi’s assembly program.

Raydin put a hand over Adon’s shoulder, guiding him through the door as it opened.  More than half-blind, Raydin had to steer him out of the way of the boxes being stacked on the sides of the wall, small Asian men hustling back and forth, running as fast as they can to beat the giant cartoon clock up on the wall.  In front of them, a clear window gave a good view of the assembly area, where four men wearing white and red bandannas stood ready at a rolling assembly line.

Over a thousand different modular parts swelled over Adon’s vision, each icon adorned with a serial number, a price, and other essential technical specifications.  Adon processed each part, highlighting each piece and putting them in the clipboard in the lower right hand corner, discarding incompatible parts and replacing them with viable alternatives.  He assembled a sniper rifle for use with the scout O-ROM chip, picking out a mechanical low light scope, twelve millimeter barrel, composite frame and semi-automatic firing mechanism.  After he had purchased the basic parts, he accessed thousands of images, putting each together with the skill of a master artisan, in the blink of an eye.  Tochi deducted an assembly fee, but true to his word, did not charge him for the parts themselves.  “Ah good choice.  Long range sniper rifle, heavy caliber, kill them before they kill you.”  Adon added a barrel extension as an afterthought, and Tochi charged him double for the add-on and tacked on another ten thousand credits for assembly.  “You snooze, you loose!  Barrel extension not included, cost extra!”

Parts dropped from the ceiling, and the workmen went into a flurry of assembly, finishing the weapon in less than thirty seconds.  Adon didn’t give them any time to rest, and bought a three piece kit for a modular chemical laser.  This one was straightforward, it came bundled together, but purchased twenty four modifications to the basic package before moving on to the next one.  Tochi said, “Chemical Laser, easy to assemble, very pricey.  Good choice.”

Raydin looked at the clock and watched the sniper rifle drop through a box in the wall like a soda out of a vending machine.  He looked up at the clock and said, “Hurry up Adon, I think this guy has a few screws loose.”

“I got this, don’t worry.”  Adon fumbled with the caseless carbine, combining over two dozen parts before he found the correct combination.  Tochi laughed over an invisible loudspeaker.  “That cost you BiG-Time, you now have only one minute left.

Adon brushed Raydin’s hand off his shoulder and said, “Don’t rush me.”  He sped through the displays, discovering the magnification feature and analyzing each part before putting together the burst rifle.  The weapon clanged as it fed through the hole in the wall, and Adon looked at the clock.  He had twelve seconds remaining, his face sweating as he struggled to pick up everything he needed.

He processed over two dozen icons in six seconds, buying crate after crate of custom ammo at exorbitant prices, accidentally purchasing a case of explosive charges when Tochi’s pop-up blocked his view of the rest of the merchandise, then remembered to purchase detonators and steel inserts for their armor.  “You click, you buy!  Time to go now!”

Ahead of them, the entire assembly area seemed to shake and vibrate, and to Adon’s astonishment, it started to move forward and pull away.  Adon yelled, “Wait, I’m not finished yet!”

Tochi’s cartoon character appeared over the clear window, an image of a giant head in front of a red sun with shifting rays in the background.  “OH, so sorry.  But in my business, we have saying.  “Customer always WRONG!”  A strange sound of a man with a deep voice that sounded like he had been kicked in the balls mingled with heavy drums as the image faded and the truck pulled away.  The three trucks that had been attached to it turned down the tunnel, until they too disappeared, a lingering worker struggling to follow it as it would not slow down.  He jumped onto the back and Adon saw him disappear into the distance.

Irule looked at the crates of supplies and ammunition, then towards the four weapons sitting in the bin attached to the wall.  “Well.  You don’t see that every day.” 

Adon rummaged about the equipment, opening up crates and instructing everyone else on what to gather and where to put everything.  He finished up, and said, “Alright, we bundled our weapons up in that roll on top of the worktable over there.  The rest of your equipment is in our packs, lined up against the wall over there.”

Irule said, “What about the skill cheats?   I’ve never used an O-R.O.M.”

Adon said, “They are in a black pouch, inside my pack.  The chips burn out after each use.  It’s a basic military package, equivalent of six months basic infantry training, three months recon training, and three months light combat duty, burned from garrison troop’s nervous systems using recording gear.  Shouldn’t interfere with what you already know.”

Burk pulled the cloth off the table, whistling as he took inventory.  Adon said, “We got one caseless assault carbine complete with six clips of alloy armor piercing ammo, one semiautomatic electromagnetic burst rifle, one precision chem laser, and one semi-automatic twelve millimeter sniper rifle with two clips of explosive anti-personnel rounds, and two high-explosive anti-tank rounds.  All brand name quality.”

Adon picked up the carbine and pointed it at the ceiling, looking down its sights.  “I figured you’d want the carbine, Burk.  The firing mechanism, the chamber and the barrel have been modified to handle a higher rate of fire.  I installed better vents and a compression pump.  You can fire a three round burst with the same accuracy as a single shot.  It will cut through a standard issue breast plate like hot knife through butter.  I wouldn’t switch to full auto though, assuming it doesn’t jam, it will fly out of your hands, and the pump is liable to bust if you do.”

Adon looked at Raydin and said, “I made sure the sniper rifle was equipped with last year’s military optics.  Those anti-tank rounds weight over a pound each, and aren’t very stable.  Be careful with them.”

“I installed a custom capacitor in the Burst Rifle and changed out the barrel.  Smaller shot with more torque means better penetration.  It still won’t go through a standard chest plate unless you’re point blank, but whoever gets hit in the chest with a load of ferrous shot with this fucker is going to be very unhappy.”

“Tochi didn’t have enough parts to build two carbines, so I did the best I could with such short notice.  The laser kit came with most of the parts included.  I didn’t have time to fuck with the lenses, so I just bought the best kit I could find.  Take the first extension off, it turns into a carbine.  Take the second off you have an oversized field pistol.  I bought some optics, but since we already have a scout, I figured we would rather not bother with a scope that might need to be recalibrated if we get into the type of scrap where your rifle gets banged around.  

He continued, “I’ve had bad luck with lasers, if you don’t cut a clean rake, odds are they’ll get back up again.  I hotshotted the battery, on full burn, it will melt through boron.  It’ll fuck up the secondary lenses, you’ll lose four hundred meters after the first couple of shots, but we’ll need it where you’re going. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Right, so, I got the sniper rifle for Raydin, the burst rifle for Irule, the carbine for Burk, that leaves…” comprehension dawned on Adon’s face.  Raydin picked up the laser rifle and handed it to Adon.  

He said, “Looks like this one’s yours, Ace.”

Adon slung the pack over his shoulder, and said, “Anybody want to trade?”

  They all began downloading their O-ROMS.  The knowledge decompressed, and Raydin said, “Alright, I’m on the sniper rifle, Adon has the laser, Burks on the carbine, and Irule has the burst rifle.  I know you don’t have much experience, Irule, so just set the choke on the rifle wide, aim for the legs or groin and chances are, you will hit something.”

Adon rummaged through the crates, and started throwing things at them.  He said, “Last but not least we got four impact mini-grenades, four timed plasma, eight half kilo blocks of plastic explosives, phase wire spool and magnetic handling gloves, proximity and remote detonators, and the kitchen sink.”

Goo, who had been waiting outside, came in and said, “Why you get nothing for Goo?”  

Burk smirked, and said, “Next time, friend.”  

They had walked only half a kilometer before they saw the bodies, lying in the middle of the tunnel.  Raydin walked past them, keeping point, while Irule leaned down to examine them.  They were all squatters, people living in the sewers.  Many had harmful mutations, birth defects caused by chemical and radiation poisoning.  She examined the wounds, and said, “These people were killed by the Guard.”

“See here?  These are gauss needler rifle rounds, the guard is the only one that uses them because they don’t cause much collateral damage.  Not structurally, anyway.  Every other wound here was caused by standard issue police weapons.  Most of these people were shot from behind, trying to run away.  We didn’t see any signs of return fire on the way up here.”

Burk said, “They… they just killed them?  But they were unarmed!”

Raydin moved his foot, moving a body out of the way and revealing the body of a twelve year old boy.  He moved the other body back on top of the other corpse before his companions could take notice.

Adon said, “That’s what zero-tolerance means, Burk.  Anyone caught in the tunnels is subject to summary execution.  They say it’s because they erode at Datcora’s foundation, drilling into the walls to create dwellings and endangering us all.”