Corpo Age-Chapter 273: The Last Leg

Lucy - Halls Corporation

Former mercenary Lucy arrived at her office within the headquarters of the Halls Corporation at 8:00 AM sharp. It was another typical day—or so she would’ve liked to say. Unfortunately for her, the company she worked for became entangled in a series of upheavals, one after the other, ever since she joined them.

Corporate skirmishes and espionage were almost an everyday occurrence. It could have something to do with her position as the head of the intelligence department, but one thing was for sure—there wasn’t a single dull moment. Even now, the Halls Corporation was embroiled in one of the largest conflicts in modern history.

It wasn’t exactly what she had in mind when she signed up for the job. The reason she quit her mercenary gig was because she wanted more stability in her life, and right now, she wasn’t sure if she had made the right choice.

“At least the pay is nice. My bosses are too,” she muttered.

Retying the band around her ponytail, Lucy did some breathing exercises to prepare the start of another long day at work. Even if there was a literal war being waged above them somewhere, the business still needed to be run. It was her job to ensure things ran smoothly by identifying threats before they became a problem.

While she sifted through hundreds of reports from her agents and collaborators, her second screen was dedicated to all news that could be relevant to the battle her bosses were participating in somehow. On her main screen, she carefully went over the reports regarding the movements of their competitors and allies.

Within a few minutes of her work beginning, a call obscured the vision of her optics. The caller ID showed it was from her secretary at the desk just outside her office.

“Director, Joey Moretti, the CEO of Authentic Corp, is asking for updates as usual. Do you want me to put him through?”

“Same time today, huh? Go ah—”

Before Lucy could finish her sentence, another alert came up. Without a moment of delay, a robotic voice subvocalized within her mind.

“Alert. Anomaly detected in section 3C-8. Uploading relevant case files relevant to this security breach.”

Hearing this, Lucy felt her heart rate rising. The AI her company secretly employed rarely reached out. If it came to her about some security breach, it was definitely serious.

“—Never mind, something has come up. Tell Mr. Moretti I’ll contact them later,” Lucy commanded and swiftly looked over the new files.

It had detailed information about several individuals who had previously been identified to be corporate spies. It appeared her boss had made some notes about them and his reasoning for leaving them alone until now. Lucy understood the usefulness of leaving some of these rats along so they could feed useful information to any onlookers, but she couldn’t help feeling frustrated at being kept in the dark about it. Her job was to manage these delicate cases, and she was denied an opportunity to carry out her duties.

As she was going over the files, Lanus had alerted her to several other breaches, detailing what systems were currently compromised. This meant she didn’t have much time to dwell on the implications of the incident and had to get to work right away.

Within a few seconds, the three screens at her desk flashed to life with footage from hundreds of security cameras. She paid particular attention to the screen on her left because those were from the hidden cameras that had been implemented since the last attack on their base.

Using their company’s signature stealth tech, they were able to create several surveillance devices that could maintain an active camouflage for most of the day and were capable of staying hidden from every sensor she knew of. It was all only made possible because of the less stringent space requirements, allowing more powerful heat sinks and power supplies to be implemented.

These hidden cameras were also in its own network, managed by the company’s enigmatic AI. Some were apprehensive about giving such control to artificial intelligence, but it was because of this decision that Lucy currently had a full view of the intrusion happening. Otherwise, if it was part of the normal network, the infiltrators would’ve been able to bypass them as they did the regular cameras.

It didn’t take long before Lucy could tell the intruders this time well-equipped and made ample preparation. Their infiltration happened smoothly, and they breached their security systems with ease. Of course, the security systems managed by Lanus were another matter, but this level of efficiency made Lucy suspect the other party was making use of an AI themselves.

She watched as a team of five disguised themselves as one of the many workers of the Halls Corporation and bypassed all their security checkpoints. Nothing seemed to be able to slow them down as they rapidly made their way to the main building.

Seeing their smooth progress, she nursed her head in her two hands.

“What’s with this reckless plan Rollo left behind? Does he really expect me to be some top-tier operator who can just capture the intruders on a whim? How am I supposed to wait until the last minute to see what they’re up to while also ensuring our people’s safety?!”

“Answer. Please check the notes in the attached files again, particularly on page eighteen, where the authorized equipment is listed. Elaboration. The CEO has left some high-specification tools in her workshop that will assist you in your endeavor.”

Lucy quickly reopened the document and went to the page in question. She had previously skimmed over it, as it usually just listed the common items allotted to her department. She was familiar with every single one of those, and none of them could make this job a walk in the park. It was quite rare for new equipment to be added to their arsenal owing to the busyness of her boss.

On page eighteen, it talked about a specialized type of nanites that could shock the nerves and cybernetics of its target to bring them into compliance. The delivery system was simple too, using a more advanced variant of the Nyes their intel department heavily made use of.

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The only issue was reaching the workshop to retrieve the tech before it was too late. Many things could be undone, but a loss of life wasn’t one of them. Time was running out, so Lucy raced out of her office as soon as she realized the situation.

Her office was on the same level as the security control room, the company’s commercial servers, and Rollo’s workshop. It didn’t take long for her to see the double gates that marked her destination. However, before she got there, she came to an abrupt halt and dove into one of the server rooms beside her.

A moment later, the elevator doors opened and a new group of employees coming in disembarked. Among them were the intruders Lucy was so wary of.

“Lucy? What are you doing?” a voice rang out behind her as she tried to keep track of the intruders with her ears.

Lucy turned at being called out to and nodded at the two senior cy-sec specialists.

“Leo, Lana, I don’t have time to explain. Can you keep quiet for a second?”

It was apparent they were clueless about the situation, so Lanus had chosen not to inform them. Lucy was in no position to question this decision right now. Getting to Rollo’s workshop was more important.

“Seriously? You’re going to barge in here and act elusive all of a sudden?” Leo quipped.

“Just—just stay calm in a moment. I have everything under control.”

While she could see the confusion in Leo and Lana’s faces, the head of the intel department held up her hand and gestured for them to stay silent.

Her cameras spotted the intruders walking by on the other side of the doors and she needed to time the exit perfectly. An extra second of delay was another second for something to go wrong.

As soon as the infiltration team walked by, Lucy rushed out the door and keyed in the code to Rollo’s workshop.

Under Lanus’ guidance, she soon got everything she needed, and even a D-Mother drone to deploy the Nyes for her. She put the technological marvels her boss had created to work and discreetly returned to her office. Then, the only thing left was to watch the show unfold.

The Nyes made it to the intruders just in time before they suddenly knocked out the company’s comms. They were taking action, having gained access over the main control room.

They first locked down the building, preventing the security teams from coming to the defense. Then, a few of their members began rounding up everyone on this level. They were borged out monstrosities that moved faster than anything Lucy had seen before. Thankfully, her duty was not to fight them head-on.

She opened up the feeds from the hidden cameras on her optics and prepared to shock them at any moment. Lucy was relieved as she saw their objective was to capture and not to kill.

After some time, these intruders made their way over to her. They restrained her and brought her to one of the server rooms, where they gathered all their captives. Then, they brought her, along with several other people of notable positions, toward the offices of their leaders. With control of the main security systems, the infiltrators swiftly repeated their actions, restraining everyone on the office levels.

Lucy’s composure held up until she recognized the devices her captors were installing around the place. High explosives hugged every load-bearing wall. She was just about to take action when Lanus’ voice interrupted her.

“Recommendation. Delay the capture of these invaders. The shock nanites installed on them have the capability to terminate them permanently. Conjecture. It isn’t likely they will activate the explosives immediately due to the extensive preparation they are doing.”

“Screw that. I’m not—”

“Get behind me. Our superiors are calling!” one of the intruders shouted out.

They grouped in front of the CEO’s office and held up a strange cubed device of some sort.

Lucy strained her audio implants to listen in when another alert flashed in her vision.

How many priority alerts am I going to get today?

Thankfully, the new message allowed her to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was her boss, Rollo, ordering her to take out the intruders. It was a command she was happy to follow. After all, she still had several meetings scheduled for the day and important allies keep happy.

Without any fanfare, her boss’ special payload worked seamlessly, stunning all the intruders at once. Almost immediately, a squad from the security department rushed onto the scene, finishing up the dramatic morning with a rough touch.

“So, it is done?” the man in a fine suit and an army of robotic hands hanging from his back asked as soon as the airlock cycled.

“Yes. I’ve marked the location of his corpse on the map I just pinged you.”

NPC nodded and stormed off into the facility I captured, with a dozen power armors on his tail.

There shouldn’t be many threats remaining, as I used the time after I had finished Silas to take over their security systems. I had broadcasted the demise of their leader and with their Executors dead, I didn’t notice any possible resistance that was worth talking about. The remnants of Silas’ people were too busy rushing to board one of the ships to escape from this place.

Unfortunately, I had sealed the exits to the hangars before destroying the terminals that had access to them. They wouldn’t be able to escape any time soon.

“Rollo!” two predictable voices called as I turned my head back from the shadow of NPC.

“See. I told you I’d be fine.” I grinned.

“What do you mean fine?!” Thorne bellowed. “You’re missing an arm!”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious. I almost didn’t notice.”

“You—”

Claire held him back and cleared her throat. “Allow me,” she emotionlessly muttered before turning a pair of cold eyes to me.

I was expecting a barrage of insults and reprimands to come, but they never did. Instead, she opened her arms wide and brought me into a hug. I relaxed, seeing I escaped a long-winded lecture.

That was one of the greatest mistakes of the day.

A sharp pain coursed through my shoulder all of a sudden. It took me a dozen seconds to collect myself and assess what happened. Claire had punched the spot where my missing cyberarm was supposed to connect to. A layer of metal protected me, but it didn’t prevent the impact from coursing through to my nerves.

“Do you feel that? That’s pain.”

“Did you really have to do that?” I asked as I nursed my shoulder.

“Of course. A dork like you has somehow forgotten about what that pain represents. I need to teach you a lesson lest you go off on some suicide mission alone again.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t plan on going on any missions at all, moving forward. I think a nice relaxing retirement is on the docket.”

“Retirement?”

I took a moment to regard my two companions. Their faces had grown a lot ever since I picked them up from some corporate lab site. The youthful features were gone. It was unmistakable that they were maturing. It was almost hard to believe only a few years had passed.

“That’s right. Walk with me. I told you the gist of it already, but the details should no longer be a secret with this victory.”

As I led our way back through the airlocks to return to our ship, I outlined what I had in store for our future.

With NPC leading the largest corporation as our allies, there were no obstacles left to implement the AI-governance plan.

No system was infallible. I knew that, but new systems rarely failed within the first generation. It meant there wasn’t much I had to worry about. I would do my best to set up the foundation and it would be up to others to carry on the torch in the future.

Once the new system was implemented, the urgency to get to continue to grow would dissipate. My carefree retirement was in sight. Perhaps for the first time in this world, I would have a moment of peace, with nothing weighing me down. I was sure looking forward to it.