Mark opened his inventory. With the new system repairs completed, his options nearly doubled. The available gear included new weapons, equipment, and even some light vehicles. Taking note of the things he had, the young man began preparations.
To improve his mobility, he opted to use a hoverbike. Being an electric vehicle, it was very silent. The hover bike also had attachment slots for different kinds of equipment. Giving the vehicle a lot of versatility. With this, Mark would be able to tail enemies faster. The problem he had following the vulture gang the day before would be a thing of the past.
Also, he had a new power suit. The machine was called The Ogre. To call this equipment power armor is a misnomer. The Ogre had more things in common with a demi-mech. Standing 3 meters tall and with a small arsenal, the Oger was an anti-personnel weapons platform. While it could not hold a candle to an actual mech, it had no problem taking on a small infantry army.
However, the Ogre suit could not be used for infiltrations. It was loud and conspicuous. If the Mirmidón armor were a scalpel, the Ogre suit would be a jackhammer. Mark decided to use it as a last resort. This will draw a lot of attention after being used, but it was better to have it than not.
Browsing through the list, he chose a tactical droid. These kinds of droids had no weapons or offensive power. Instead, they performed a plethora of different functions. From sabotage, demolitions, hacking, and even first aid treatment. The versatile machine could provide different forms of support. Thadeus, the integrated A.I., could even manage an army of drones for surveillance or attacks.
The egg-shaped droid was about the size of a small dog. Having no legs to move, the droid employed an anti-gravity module combined with bursts of compressed air. To deter the attacks of enemies, Thadeus employs stealth using a digital cloak system.
For the moment, this was the equipment Mark was planning to use today. While he had access to the entire inventory, Mark liked to select certain options for quick response. Browsing his inventory in the middle of a firefight was a stupid thing to do.
All that was left was to wait. Once his family was asleep, Mark would make his move. In the meantime, he opened the system to browse. The young man was trying to find a feat or a system ability to extend the time limit of the design space. After a few minutes, his search bore results.
He found a feat called Improved Endurance. Reading the description, the young man learned that this feat could double his physical and mental endurance. Instead of his limit being 62 hours, his new limit would be 124 hours. With his customary safety margin, 100 hours would be no problem. Mark spent 5,000 TP and acquired the feat.
The system message prompted the new balance. "5,000 TP have been deducted from your account. Your new balance is 157,443 TP. Your bank balance is 0 TP."
The system prompt reminded Mark of the universal translator. He decided to buy it; maybe he could speak with the Anuviar shadow next time they met. The young man moved to the system abilities tab and scrolled down the list. As he was about to buy it, Mark hesitated. Thinking of all the times the system helped him, even giving him the chance to rewrite his own past, he hesitated no longer.
The system message updated his balance once again. "10,000 TP have been deducted from your account. Your new balance is 147,443 TP. Your bank balance is 0 TP.
Mark was tempted to buy the advanced version of the design space. It had a cost of 80,000 TP. However, since he was about to infiltrate the vulture's nest, he decided not to. The young man may need the TP to help him. Mark opted to buy it tomorrow after the new daily bonus.
Rachel finally went to sleep. It was around 11:00 pm when the woman entered her room and lay on the bed. Observing Melly, Mark notices that the girl is still playing with her VR headset. The young man moves back to the balcony next to his room. He equips the Mirmidon armor and begins to ascend.
After getting sufficient altitude, Mark equips the new hover bike. The young man then speeds up in the direction of the vulture's nest. Within minutes, he reached the location. However, he was able to notice a group of people gathering about 300 meters away from the vulture's nest. The sizeable group was composed of around 150 people. Most of the arrows were white, but some were red.
With a mental tap, Mark saw the information. The red arrows belonged to a gang named The Blazing Hand. Out of the bunch, they were the best equipped. Some of those weapons could pose a threat to the Mirmidón armor. The young man wondered why the Blazing Hand had red arrows while the rest were white.
Mark thought for a moment. "What can cause a street gang to have grievances towards me?" The only thing that came to mind was the weapons he and Bart took apart. "That only means that the Vultures were just after the production equipment. The Blazing Hand was the real owner of the weapons Grandpa and I destroyed."
The young man had identified the real threat. Now, he had to decide if he aided the enemy of his enemy or just simply let them fight it out and deal with the aftermath. Either way, he had to take the mech engineer out of the warehouse. In this battle, there were only two outcomes for him. Either he was killed in a firefight, or he was captured by the Blazing Hand.
About a hundred meters away from the vulture's nest, He stored the hover bike back in the inventory. With his phantom veil on, the young man closed the distance to the warehouse roof. As he moved towards the window he used to enter the nest last time, Mark found the body of a vulture. The man had been sniped from far away, probably to keep the attack from being discovered before its time.
Besides the body, there was a flare gun. An idea surged in his mind. The large group was still organizing, but the vultures had been preparing for this attack for a few days. Without the element of surprise, the Blazing Hand group will fight an uphill battle. Pointing the flare gun towards the sky, Mark hesitated. This action will start the hostilities, and people will die.
Thinking of his family, and the things that could happen to them if the gangs were to go unchecked, He hesitated no longer. Besides, he had gone through wars in his past life. Mark was no stranger to killing. Pressing the trigger of the flare gun, the bright luminous ball of fire seared the night.
The warehouse underneath him stirred within seconds. The sound of people running and engines turning on followed. From the area around, more flares could be seen. The vultures were moving towards the Blazing Hand group. Their surprise attack was revealed.
Although the Blazing Hand had the advantage in numbers. The Vultures had the equipment scavenged from the scrap yard. With improvised armored vehicles plus more than a few weapons they managed to create with the few functional 3D printers, they had a technological advantage. Only time will tell if the Vultures can make good use of this advantage.
With the sounds of battle starting, Mark entered the warehouse. Like last time, he hovered near the roof and move avoiding the lamps. As he closed in on the area where the mech engineer was being held, Mark was able to hear screaming. The woman was grinding the mech engineer again.
The young man lowered his body on top of the improvised workshop. The voice was clear this time. "I got you the list of parts you wanted. Why are the mechs not operational yet!?" The woman slammed her hands on a table, tossing everything on the ground."
The submissive man spoke next. "The mechs need a new software patch, I can not do that in such little time. No one can."
The young man looked at the two light mechs beside the workshop. In a single day, the mech engineer had made the franken-mechs mechanically sound. This guy was a genius. The woman walked to the door. "You get those mechs working, or I will burn a laser through your skull before the Blazing Hand kills me." The woman grabbed a laser rifle and left the workshop.
Looking at the mech amalgamations, an Idea came to Mark. If he were able to create the software patch, the Vulture's victory would be assured. However, leaving the vultures with these machines would be unethical. This was also dangerous for Riggan's Point.
While the battle raged outside, he thought of a solution. If he planted a hidden subroutine, Mark could cause a breakdown once a certain time had elapsed. Without delay, he entered the design space. Using a few mental commands plus 100 Tp, he managed to connect to the computer of the vulture's workshop.
He examined the software programs for the mechs. With all the different parts installed, the code was all over the place. Some parts even had diferent programing language. Mark decided to increase his programming skills even further.
Starting with the Computer Science root skill, Mark spent 10,000 TP for an increase to level five. The next skill to upgrade was Programming. The young man spent 5,000 TP to increase another level. Finally, he used 2,500 TP to upgrade logical code optimization to level five as well.
The solution for the compatibility problem came after the upgrade. Instead of reprogramming every mech part and function, he was going to create a single program to bring it all together.
If he were doing this in any other place, Mark would take weeks, even months, developing this software. However, the white space had a computational power far beyond human capacity. Even quantum computers were archaic in comparison.
It took him 20 hours to come up with a working solution. He decided to name it I.S.M. (Integrated Systems Manager). The software acted as a Rosetta Stone for programming languages. Effectively managing connections between all different parts of the Franken-mechs.
It was time to extract the mech engineer. He would leave the new software tool, along with a hidden directive, that would render the mechs inoperable within two hours of starting the machines. That way, he could hurt the Blazing Hand and deny the Vultures a permanent strength at the same time.
Before going to the improvised workshop, Mark used the map function to see the enemy positions along with the people around. The fighting had spread all over the warehouse. If he wanted to extract the mech engineer, he had to move quickly.
The phantom veil rippled as Mark moved with haste. Jumping from the roof of the improvised workshop, he lowered his body, landing silently in front of the entrance. The door was locked. A numeric keypad to the right of the door guarded the entrance.
Mark observed the keypad. The number zero had grease and dirt smudges. The young man had a look of frustration. With reluctance, he pressed the number zero four times. "Does nobody put up an effort to use a good four-digit code?" The door opens, and Mark enters the space.
Inside the workshop, the mech engineer observed the ripples moving in. The shimmering shape came in as the door opened. The malnourished man inside knew this was some sort of camouflage technology. "Who goes there?" The man moved instinctively to the corner of the workshop. The chain wrapped around his waist made dragging sounds.
Mark saw the alerted state of the man. He used the voice modulator and spoke with an electronic voice. "Don't worry, I have come to get you out." Before anything else, Mark scanned the man.
Name: Travis Shaw
Species: Human (Level 4 species)
Abilities:
Strength: 2. Intelligence: 8.
Dexterity: 4. Wisdom: 6
Vitality: 2. Presence: 3.
Neuronal Capacity: C+.
Skills:
Assembly (Mechs): 3. Artistic Expression (Painting): 4. Cooking: 3. Mechanics: 4. Mechanical Engineering (Mechs): 4. Programming: 3. Mathematics: 4. Vehicle Operation (Sky-Car): 2.
Feats:
Gear head. Improved Learning. Mechanical Aptitude.
Special note: Due to malnutrition and physical abuse suffered, the subject's following abilities have dropped: Vitality, Strength, and Presence.
Mark called out his name. "Travis dont be alarmed." He then turned off the phantom veil.
Travis had a reluctant look. In his mind, he would be trading one master for another. He could only hope his new master would treat him with more dignity. The man spoke to the armored figure with resignation. "Are you here to take me to another gang hideout?"
Noticing the man's mental state, Mark decided to reassure him. "No, I have come to free you." Using a mental command, Mark orders Thadeus to cut the chains using its welder. In the meantime, Mark moved to the computer terminal and loaded the new software program onto the mechs.
The egg-shaped droid turned off the cloak and moved near the man. The machine used a small plasma torch integrated in its systems to cut the chain. Thadeus then cloaks again and moves to hover arround mark.
Travis looked in amazement as all the software problems he had been struggling with vanished. All of the diferent part's software were working in unison. In that moment, he realized the wondrous technology he was witnessing. The camouflage, the power suit in front of him, the droid that cut his chains, and now the software that solved all of his problems.
Admiring these things, Travis failed to notice when his chains hit the ground. Moving towards the computer, he felt something was missing. The chain was no longer dragging behind him. He had been chained for months now. Plenty of times, Travis had dreamed about being rescued, but none had felt as real as this time.
A fast-moving object on the map caught Mark's attention. The thing was moving quickly toward the wall of the warehouse near them. With the battle outside, it could only be one thing: a rocket.
With haste, Mark moved behind Travis. With a swift movent the young man tossed the malnourished man to the floor. Then his shape began to change. With a mental command, Mark placed Thadeus to hover on top of Travis. His changing form was covering them both. An explosion erupted from the back wall of the improvised workshop.