NOVEL WEB Chapter 44: Firebird
“You guys want to do WHAT over there?!” Claire’s image, from the video call that was projected directly into my eyes, leaned forward as she chastised us like children.
“We plan to attack QuickLink Logistics’ facilities in NLA and Firebird to destroy their route. They’re a corp that’s only been around for a year or so and it’s just their branches and not headquarters.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that they’re a legitimate corporation. You’re going to antagonize them big time! Think clearly, Rollo, is this really worth it?”
“Yes, I’ve thought about it all night. This recent incident with the shipping issue has highlighted a real weakness for us. We’re at the mercy of those we outsource our logistics to. If we go through with this, we’ll be able to establish our own transportation network we can profit from.”
“You want to go into the logistics business?”
“Yes, our advantages will allow us to operate at much lower costs than others.” I was careful not to mention our relationship with wastelanders over the call. God knows who could be listening.
“And what do you think about this, Vin? Are you sure they are someone who we can mess with?” Before he could answer, Leo cleared his throat and jumped in. “I spent all of yesterday and this morning looking into them. While they are definitely bigger than us, they are also very spread out across four different cities.”
“Yeah, but what if they have some elite hit squad that will retaliate against us?”
“They’re a relatively new corporation that had to spend heavily on security for their transportation routes, so they shouldn’t have enough money accumulated to form anything elite. They have also been deep in the red for the past while for their Firebird to NLA route because of all the attacks from wastelanders. They shouldn’t be willing to invest much into their nearby branches, at least, not anything we can’t handle.”
”So there’s still a chance—” From the video, I could see Thorn pulling at Claire’s hem, “Calm down, you know Leo knows what he’s talking about.”
They argued in whispers for a short while before their attention turned back to the call, “Fine, do what you think is best. You’re the boss, after all. Just don’t get killed.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not eager to pick fights I can’t win either.”
The call soon ended, and I met Vin and Leo in my office for further discussions in a more secure setting. The people who weren’t physically here had no need to hear the details of our plans.
Before we jumped straight into it, I questioned Vin, “So, you think we have what it takes to do this?”
“Yes, but not alone. We’ll be able to handle their facilities in NLA if the objective is to just cripple their route. We’ll just have to make it too expensive for them to continue running it by attacking their valuable assets. Thought in the case of Firebird, we’d have to hire mercenaries to do the job so we can hit them in both cities at the same time. I don’t know any reliable QGs there, so I’ll have to go to the city myself.”
“No, I’ll be the one to go to Firebird then. You take care of things here. You’re better at commanding the people you’ve trained.”
“...Is that really wise? There are a lot of things that can go wrong in an unfamiliar city. There’ll be some serious risks.”
“Not much different from anywhere else. I did come to NLA alone at first, too.”
“But you knew me already. This time you’ll be going in completely alone with no connections.”
“I’ll go with him,” Leo chimed in, he gave me a nod that I reciprocated.
“Fine, I’ll send a team to escort you guys over, then you’ll have to be careful.”
We then went over and fleshed out the details of the plan, how we would coordinate, and some contingencies.
On paper, it will be a quick sabotage mission. Hopefully, it will be as simple as it appears.
The next day, we rode into the wasteland with two vanguards. The sandstorm continued to rage on as always, allowing for no visibility once we entered.
The entire trip was estimated to take two full days if we didn’t encounter any issues. It was going to suck without having the everyday conveniences I was used to during that time, especially a shower, but there simply wasn’t a better way to travel across the wasteland. We had three people in each car, so we had a rotation of drivers going while one rested in the back.
I should consider hiring a team there once everything settles because it will be hell to make the trip back with just me and Leo.
It was my turn driving, but it was really ensuring we didn’t crash into anything the sensors picked up and kept our heading straight.
To kill the boredom, Leo and I were currently playing a game of chess through the screen displayed directly to us from our optics. It was simply too much of a hassle to use a terminal when the car was on the move, so even though it took up some space in our vision, we could still watch videos while we played.
“So, how’s it going between you and Lana recently?” I started a conversation as I was stumped on how to get out of the bad position I was in.
“Nothing special, same as always.”
“What, really? It’s obvious she’s into you. Just move in together or something already.”
“We agreed to focus on our careers for now. Can we talk about something else?” He turned to stare straight into my eyes.
“Okay, okay, sure. So why did you guys decide to join my company? I thought you wanted to be back with one of the bigger corps, not a tiny business that isn’t even an official corporation yet.”
“You know both me and Lana have a black mark with our old corporation. It’s not likely to get hired back by them and all the other corps won’t either, as they prefer to raise their own cyber security personnel for obvious reasons.”
That wasn’t a surprise. I too would be hesitant about hiring someone who I didn’t know and letting them manage sensitive parts of the business. They could easily be a spy sent by someone.
“...Besides, I know you, I’d rather work for someone who I know is a good guy, especially with all the shit we’ve seen in our time as mercenaries.”
He’s definitely mistaken about me being a good guy. I am a greedy person who simply uses whoever is useful in helping me turn a profit. I wasn’t going to refute a compliment, though.
We continued our trip with idle chat and took turns sleeping in the back. They let me sleep during the night while the other employee took over the night shift.
It wasn’t a fancy bed or anything, but cars always had a way of luring you to sleep. Just as I felt my consciousness fade, the vehicle abruptly swerved to the left. I immediately sat up to assess the situation.
“What is going…” I couldn’t finish my sentence as I spotted a giant shadow rapidly growing in height off to the side. It was visible through the gaps of the sandstorm thanks to the flares someone had launched. The cylindrical monster was at least 30 feet in diameter. I couldn’t hear it at all, as the sound of the sandstorm was overwhelming.
“What the hell is that?”
“Hell if I know. Some giant mutant, but who cares? I’m not going to stay around to find out,” Leo yelled back from the driver’s seat.
I glanced back at the monster and noticed its figure was growing larger, “It’s chasing us. Step on it!”
“I already am! Get on the turret and try to slow it down or something! Aaron, go back there to assist him.”
While the security guard sitting beside Leo climbed into the back seat, I immediately popped open the hatch into the gunner’s cockpit, which was fully shielded from the elements and aimed toward the monstrosity.
It was keeping up with us despite going as fast as we safely could driving in the sand while having to be mindful of obstacles we may run into. I couldn’t even spot any limbs or anything to shoot at, so I aimed low and pulled the trigger. The night vision provided by my optics made it easy to spot the bright tracer rounds that were fired every few bullets which helped correct my aim.
A low growl rang out in response to my bullets, and the creature seemed to have sped up.
I continued to hold the trigger down as I yelled, “I think we pissed it off!”
“So you got its attention then, good. Aaron, tell team two to shoot it from another direction. Let’s see if we can take turns drawing him between us.”
“Roger,” He immediately contacted our second car after a succinct reply.
Not long after, I spotted tracer rounds from a different direction, firing at the creature, and I took the cue to cease fire. The colossal creature appeared to be entirely ignoring the new threat until well over a hundred bullets were fired toward it. Much to our relief, it seemed to be fed up with the constant gunfire pelting it and changed targets to the other car.
“Good, it’s working,” Leo celebrated. “Sir, at this rate, we’ll run out of ammo before long!” Aaron said as he finished loading up a new belt of ammo into the turret below me.
I heard Leo hiss just before I started firing again to draw the creature’s attention. We continued to take turns drawing its attention to ping-pong it between us.
After the fifth belt of ammo was expended, Leo’s voice rang out again, “I detected some ruins up ahead with some big buildings still intact. Hold on.”
I focused on the target so I didn’t bother to try to spot where he was talking about and continued shooting, but before long, the ground below changed from sand and dirty to concrete, and then buildings started to appear as we drove past them.
I watched as the creature slowed down and came to a halt near the edge of the buildings. It then let out another growl before it began shrinking in height, burrowing back into the ground.
“It stopped chasing. Let’s regroup and spend the night here and hope it goes away,” I said as I threw myself back onto the backseat.
“Agreed. Whatever that was, I don’t want to see it again.”
After we regrouped, we spent the night in some derelict building. It was always impressive to me how these structures weren’t just filled entirely with sand and could provide shelter despite their shoddy appearance.
In the morning, we resumed our trip and thankfully this time, there weren’t any giant mutants chasing us down. From there, we enjoyed an uneventful trip until we could make out the skylines of the city two days after our encounter.
“The city looks pretty much the same as any other metropolis…” I couldn’t help but mutter.
“What were you expecting? Some fiery buildings?” Leo replied as he popped up from the back seat.
“Nothing in particular really, it’s a little comforting to see, actually. I can’t wait to take a shower and get some food.”
It wasn’t long until we got close to coming upon traffic, both on the ground and in the skies above, where flying vehicles zipped by.
Having gotten used to sitting in the car for such a long time, it felt like an instant before arriving at our hotel through the traffic and our escorts started their return trip.
Good luck to them. Hopefully, they won’t encounter that thing again. The last thing I wanted to do was to pay a hefty compensation if anything happened to them.
After I got cleaned up, I immediately began my search for any information on the colossal creature we encountered. Unfortunately, information wasn’t freely posted on the web in this world, and I only came across dubious anecdotes on various wasteland creatures. Not even paid libraries have much on the wasteland, as it wasn’t in the corporation’s best interest to spread that info around.
Having given up, I tried out the milkshakes here and went with Leo to an establishment he found where we could get into contact with a Quest Giver. Unlike in NLA and Elevate City, where the establishments we went to were bars, the one we went to right now was an underground casino.
They didn’t operate sneakily in the back alleys and operated their casino openly on the streets, but the reason why I knew it was underground was because every single corporation supported gambling bans.
It only made sense as having your employees addicted to gambling was a serious security risk and made them unproductive, so I was surprised to see them operating a casino here out here so openly.
I wasn’t even able to make it to the entrance of the casino before I felt someone grab onto my thighs.
“Sir! Please help me.”