NOVEL WEB Chapter 81: Open Conflict
“Vin, what is the situation over there?” I asked immediately after I returned to the office from the ambush against us at the mall.
“Rollo, we heard about the attack. That was a lot faster than expected. It’s quiet for now on our end, but that should change soon.”
“You guys are ready for them? Do you need us to send reinforcements?”
“No, they may be waiting for you to do that. We’re on the defensive this time, so we unfortunately cannot concentrate our forces.”
“Then—”
“Don’t worry, I already have a plan since we heard about the potential attack. Luckily, we haven’t sent out our convoys for the day yet. I got to head out to prepare now. We’ll keep in touch.”
“...Good luck.”
I sighed as I relaxed into my chair.
I hate being on the defensive. It feels like I have no control and can only wait for the opponent to play their hand first. I know we are prepared for it, but still—
“What’d he say, Rollo?” I look up to Find Claire and Thorne by the door to my office.
“He says he’s got a plan and for us not to worry.”
“Then you can leave it up to Vin. No offense, but I think you should trust the experienced veteran. In the meantime, you should go get a checkup. Who knows if that hacking attempt completely failed or if a nasty program still lingering in your chrome.”
“You’re right. It isn’t like there’s anything better to do while we wait.”
Drew - Halls Corporation
“Contact, I detect one—no, a dozen vehicles heading our way!”
The detection scanner rang out as it picked up more pings as the enemy vehicles drew near. There was a moment of silence over the convoy’s comms until the commanding officer spoke out.
“All units, veer left toward the north. Prepare to engage, but draw them away from here first.”
Drew swiftly followed his orders and adjusted the course of the car. The detected vehicles came from the south, so they were running away with their backs turned to them.
The enemy drew closer for a short moment as they had to slow down to adjust their heading, but the distance soon stopped shrinking and grew instead.
The commander’s voice rang out on the comms once more.
“All units, keep your speed leveled with them. Do not outrun them. Defensive maneuvers only.”
We aren’t outrunning them or fighting them…Does the commander actually have a plan?
The chase soon devolved into a boring ride for Drew. He kept up with the pace of the leading car and it became an uneventful ride. That all changed when the alerts blared throughout his vehicle. The alarm warned him that his vehicle was being locked on by something.
Well, I guess they would try to slow us down. At least they’re using it from quite some distance now. Too bad for them though, our Wraith isn’t so easy to lock on to. Good luck trying to aim at us through the sandstorm.
Drew quickly reached over and toggled on the stealth field in his car. The lock-on warning quickly faded. A second later, the heat sensor picked up several fast-moving projectiles headed their way, only to veer off course, and a loud explosion could be heard even over the strong winds of the wasteland.
He then toggled the stealth field back off to conserve its use. The enemy made no further attempts at firing their homing weapons.
While it felt like a long time for Drew, only a few minutes had passed. When the fifteen-minute mark from the start of the encounter was reached, they arrived at the border of the wasteland.
Immediately upon exiting out of the sandstorm, his sensors picked up on more newcomers. He didn’t yell into the comms this time though, as the new vehicles were all marked as friendly.
The new party soon joined up their comms network and a new voice rang out in the company comms.
“This is Vin. What’s your situation, over?”
“Commander Vin, turn on the stealth fields. We’re being chased. We’ve taken no casualties and have proceeded as planned,” the commander of Drew’s original convoy replied.
“Good. We had already turned on our stealth devices the moment you entered our network. We’ll now start the ambush as planned.”
Daniel - QuickLink Logistics
“Sir, should you really be joining us?” A QuickLinks Logistics armed corporate security officer asked as he saluted the man in a suit who had just entered the garage.
“Yes, I’m as good as dead if we fail this mission, so I’m coming along. I’ve spent some time working in security before, so don’t worry. “
“Understood…Please join me in my vehicle, then.”
The officer held the door open to his Armadillo for his superior.
Daniel boarded the vehicle and looked around curiously while everyone else got ready to set off. He didn’t have to wait long before their convoy, which was a dozen and a half strong, departed out of their garage, one at a time, out into the city of Firebird.
They blended in with the rest of the city by splitting into small groups that trickled out to the wasteland, each taking a different route to avoid drawing attention.
Their corpo cars heading out were a common occurrence, so all who noticed quickly resumed going about their lives.
Daniel had to endure being cramped into the car with three others for long hours of travel across the wasteland. They had planned to keep moving as fast as possible so they could conduct a surprise raid on their foes. They knew people would notice their vehicles going missing sooner or later, but they would trek across the wasteland faster than anyone could expect.
“Captain, we’ve encountered nothing but mutants for the entire day. Are you sure we will be able to find their convoys out here? Shouldn’t we attack their bases in the city?” Daniel asked, looking much more haggard than he did at the start of the journey.
“My intel indicates they regularly travel around this area. It’s better to destroy as much of their forces while they’re isolated out here first before we attack out in the open. We don’t want to attack their fortified positions when they’re at full strength. We’ll nip their strength by crushing their convoy and then their follow-up investigation party too before attacking their bases.”
“I see…Then we better hope we’ll find their convoy soon.”
“Yes, they should show up around the ruins here once morning comes.”
The group had to endure waiting throughout the entire night and most of the morning before they finally detected a large convoy taking the route their informer had provided.
Not wanting to miss the chance, the captain quickly ordered to give chase.
Finally! I can’t wait to get this over with and return to civilization.
Daniel carefully stared at the screen of their detection radar as they drew closer. As he had suspected, the enemy quickly turned tail as soon as they detected their superiority in numbers.
They only got closer as they slowed turn from turning away, but they then sped up much faster than anticipated.
“...Captain, can we catch up?” Daniel asked.
“We have the specs on the Vanguards they use. An old model shouldn’t be able to match our Armadillo’s top speed. Just give us some time to accelerate.”
Ten seconds went by, then thirty seconds, then a minute.
“...”
The distance only grew further during this time and the captain couldn’t help but wipe the sweat building by his brow.
This…We can’t fail here. There’s no room for failure for me anymore!
“Captain…What is the meaning of this?”
The captain ignored his words for a moment before giving out his orders. “Fire the RPGs! Be sure to lock on to them first before firing. Or else we won’t hit a goddamn thing out here in the wasteland.”
The rockets fired as ordered, but they soon completely veered off course.
“The lock-on system lost its targets, sir. They have some tech to fool the targeting systems! Your orders, sir?” The guard who just fired the rocket turned to his captain and asked.
“...Hold your fire for now.”
“Captain, you can’t let them go! We have to keep chasing!” Daniel yelled.
“They are employing tech that is too different from what we gathered, it’s too—”
“This is a direct order, captain. Give chase. Now!”
“...”
Their convoy silently followed the Halls Corporation people, as there was nothing they could do against them. Before they knew it, they came to the border of the wasteland.
The captain turned to Daniel with a solemn expression. “Sir, we should call off this attack. We no longer have the element of surprise. They’ll know we’re coming and be prepared for it, even if we manage to take out this convoy.”
…Goddamn it! Calm down…If we blindly charge in and lose our forces, then I’ll really have no more option. I should preserve my forces for now and—
“Sir, they’re turning back toward us!”
“What? All units prepare to engage them! There’s no time to turn back from this one.”
The convoys charged toward each other, and immediately opened fire upon entering each other’s range. It didn’t take a military expert to notice one particular side had superior firepower.
The driver in Daniel’s car soon yelled out. “Sirs, the radar is showing…we’re in a half encirclement and they have doubled in numbers compared to before.”
As if to reinforce the driver’s statement, several explosions rang out dangerously close to their car and pushed their vehicle off to the side. The car spectacularly flipped over to its side. The wheels continued to spin, with the two that were still making contact with the ground, splashing sand all around the vehicle.
Daniel watched as the Halls Corporation vehicles continued to fire upon his troops. He watched as several of them blew past his position, only for the fifth one to stop right near his immobile vehicle. Daniel felt time slow as the turret slowly took aim toward him.
How can this be happening…My career. My life. It’s all over!
“We took out the entire force that attacked our convoy, though there may be more hiding around,” Vin said from the other side of the call.
“I see… We should send out some people to keep an eye on them in all their branches. We’ll have to plan how to deal with them this time.”
“Right. Well, their headquarters is in Miles High, and that is out of reach for us.”
Goddamnit, starting fights is easy, but how do you end one…
“We either have to eliminate them or use diplomacy. I’d rather not have a war drag on…”
“I’ll start getting some people into Miles High to gather some intel, so we’re not grasping around in the dark.”
I nodded, “Elites only. Hire mercenaries if you have to.”
“Hm… I’d rather use the elites you had that merc train. We’d want to keep everything in-house if possible.”
“Very well. I’ll send them your way. We’ll keep up our defenses and go about as usual for now. Since you eliminated them in the wasteland, there shouldn’t be any records. They shouldn’t be sure what happened. Oh, and send me the footage of the battle. I want to go over how the new Wraith is doing.”
“Understood.”
I ended the call and brought up my status screen while looking out the window of my office.
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Status |
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Level: |
20 |
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EXP: |
1820/2000 |
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Musculoskeletal: |
211 |
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Neural Reflex: |
65 |
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Visuomotor Coordination: |
87 |
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Endurance: |
59 |
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Sensory Perception: |
127 |
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Upgrade Points: |
0 |
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Upgrades: |
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Enhancements: |
SAID: Zenitech Sebastien v2 Bio-Coprocessor: SocialCorp Lightning II Optics: Mirage Tech Clear-Sights mk.12 Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Heracle Mk. 3 Cyberarm (Right): Nova Tech Heracle Mk. 3 Auditory: SocialCorp Echo IV Cardiovascular: BioGen Lifepump 5 Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade |
I had been making excellent progress until this stuff with QuickLinks Logistics started. And now, I couldn’t move around as easily with the prospect of an attack constantly hanging over my head, which slowed down my leveling entirely.
It wouldn’t be hard for them to find out that I regularly hunted harvesters and their ilk around the city.
Would it be worth it if I tried taking some gigs under my alias as Cloak…?
No, I should wait for more information first. For now, I will focus on preparing items to help attack their headquarters if the chance presents itself.
I took my last look at my status screen before I headed back to my workshop.
Hmm…What should I design with my current repertoire?