Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.6 (Patreon)

8.6

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Time passed quickly enough.

Carla filled Walter in on the events that happened. Walter wasn’t exactly pleased, since he could recognize a complication to the plan when he saw one, but he also recognized that he couldn’t do anything about it at the moment, so that was pretty much that.

Carla’s little group settled into Grid 086, finding that it was the Grid that was most intact and required the least refitting of the entire cluster. Her crew got to work pretty much immediately, reviving some of the Grid’s internal systems from their long sleep after a bit of work. They didn’t have the resources or manpower to bring everything back, but that would have been a bad idea anyway with the Closure Satellites hanging overhead.

Once they had a setup ready to go and they could properly produce whatever it was that they needed, Carla got to work in other ways, first by sending out subtle little data trawlers through the remains of the planetary network. She was good enough that most wouldn’t have noticed, but against the likes of myself and ALLMIND, it was fairly obvious.

Seria and Levi didn’t allow them into the RLF’s network at all, which was something I was fairly sure frustrated Carla for a bit, because she spent a good week modifying the programs before giving up on it.

Carla did, after a few more weeks, start using the info I’d given her. It was far from direct -downright obtuse, at times-, but I trusted in Carla’s intelligence and lateral thinking to be able to properly decipher it and put it to good use.

And she did.

With what I’d given her, she was able to make contact with the right people in the right places. RLF members, primarily, part of the logistical and technological backbone that supported the mercenaries we’d picked up over time. A spectacularly useful thing for people, since it allowed them a much greater freedom of movement and commerce so long as they were willing to abide by the RLF’s terms. The particular people I’d put her in contact with didn’t know her, specifically, but they were also the kind of people who had long decided they didn’t need to know, they only needed authorisation and proof, and I had made certain to inform them beforehand.

A valuable resource for anyone. For Carla, even more so.

Of everybody on the planet, the only group which was likely to have longer and more accurate records than the RLF was the PCA. ALLMIND’s would also no doubt be very good, but she hadn’t been here as long, so it was a moot point.

Obviously, the hand that had been extended to her wasn’t completely free. If Carla wanted access to things that were particularly sensitive, she’d have to make it worth their while.

Carla did as she did best, and made weapons.

First, she scavenged from the battlefields, pulling up the wrecks of machines. From there, they’d go off back to Grid 086, where Carla and her crew refurbished them. At the same time, they’d also modify them, her crew quickly and rapidly proving itself just as skilled as former RRI was expected to be, as they were able to produce some deceitfully dangerous machines from it. From there, they’d sell it.

They sold it at a loss to the RLF, in exchange for information and data. They sold it expensively on the black market for the raw COAM, enough to keep the entire operation going.

By the next year, they’d already moved on to selling variant ACs. Most of them were former BAWS models, owing to how far BAWS’ current designs had penetrated into the market even out here on Rubicon.

The SORA model was the exemplar of all that. Carla’s crew had speciated it into no less than three specialized models, moving the entire Frame away from its generalist, test-bed platform role.

She named them ‘BREAKFAST’, ‘LUNCH’, and ‘DINNER’, and I don’t know what else I was expecting to be honest.

Her naming sense had always been terrible.

As for Walter, that man had been busy in a completely different way. While Carla was busy establishing a black market group, Walter was establishing himself as a Handler, the guide and manager of a mercenary group. He acquired his mercs by the end of June, just a short bit of time after Carla informed him of my presence.

He had four of them to start. Four Augmented Humans, a hell of a force... Though, since this list happened to start at C4-614 and end at C4-617, I was going to wager that most of them were not going to live for very long.

It was... unfortunate. A real shame. C4 Augments were... not kind to a person. They were deep, invasive, traumatic, and very, very difficult to remove. It’s an expensive process at the best of times- though, ironically, easy enough for myself and the RLF.

Still, C4 Augments were effective. Innate performance parity with G8 Augments on the lower end, and surpassing G10 Augments on the higher end. Fifty years of developing the non-Coral Augmentations just to reach the best-case scenario of C4s... As long as you discarded the psychological effects, anyway.

‘Withdrawn’, ‘cold’, ‘sociopathic’... All these were common words used to describe the fourth generation of Coral Augments. For the most part, the data would appear to agree with that, but I couldn’t help but think that the data was inherently biased on account of the fact that it was universally pointed at examining people who went through a lot of stress, suffered extremely invasive medical procedures, and were then usually sold as slaves on top of that.

Well, whatever the case, Walter and his Hounds hit the ground running on Rubicon. Getting them past the PCA was a relatively simple affair, literally just running through the blockade at a speed where the only possible option was to crash into the planet afterwards. The PCA still shot their ship down regardless, and while that scattered the Hounds, it didn’t kill any of them. Once they regrouped, Walter started putting up the jobs for them.

It was one of the two remaining independent smaller corporations that hired them first. The pay was low, but the reputation was worth it for a while. They were being menaced by Arquebus’ MTs, in the latest corporate takeover event. They were in the process of setting up to leave, and Arquebus had come to raid their data just in case.

Since Walter’s Hounds were four ACs against a squad of just moderately enhanced MTs, this ended in exactly the way that anybody would expect. Arquebus’ MT Squad got destroyed, and the corporation was able successfully stage a getaway. That brought them into a very rare category; ‘people dumb enough to come to Rubicon who managed to live through it’.

As for the Hounds themselves... Eh. They weren’t bad, precisely, but even for Gen Four’s surprisingly high ceiling, they didn’t rate much higher than middle of the pack. Better than some, worse than others.

What was surprising was their teamwork- which was definitely unusual for Gen Fours. For starters, they were actually capable of working together, and while the typical coldness and unhesitating aggression of Gen Four was fully present, they didn’t direct any of it towards each other.

Instead, what I saw was target division, dynamic role assignment, and immediate response in the face of potential threats. Impressive, especially for Gen Four.

That alone would elevate the entire group up a few threat levels even beyond just ‘four ACs’.

Anyway, the job got done, and there were no problems for either Walter’s Hounds or the Clients. With four ACs up for hire for the right price, and a minimum of basic competence now proven, that meant that offers started to come in fair quickly.

The other remaining independent faction hired them next, having the same plan as the first. Unlike the first, however, they were hired as a precautionary measure rather than one based on a proven threat. It proved prescient, as Balam followed the same plan as the counterparts did. Another destroyed MT squad followed, and the completion of that job removed the last of independent corporations.

Balam, evidently knowing how the game was played and not particularly bothered by the fact that the mercenaries had literally just finished savaging them, promptly hired them in turn. They wanted Walter’s Hounds to go blow up some of Arquebus’ stuff, and oh boy was that Gen Fours’ favourite thing to do.

Arquebus lost a supply depot. Arquebus also lost an AC pilot, who I could only presume was a spectacularly unlucky guy to have been there in the same moment that Walter’s Hounds were present, or Snail had already started on his little sabotage adventures. V.IX, Tagore, had fallen in battle after a decent effort on his behalf. Balam provided a bonus for getting the job done even with that rather unexpected interference.

There was a ton of back-and-forth hires after that. The corporations were allies one day and enemies the next, and then allies again the day after that. So long as none of that mess approached the RLF, it wasn’t a problem for us, though.

I was genuinely kind of surprised that the two stayed so focused on each other for this time, ignoring the RLF completely. I suppose that the RLF didn’t rate as ‘threats’ since they weren’t actually aggressive, just holding out in their own territory.

Anyway, Balam and Arquebus’ corporate war ebbed and flowed. Periods of high intensity combat interspersed with raids, blitzkriegs, and sabotage. Another Redgun died during the whole thing, even. G12, who I eventually found out was named ‘Ruki’.

V.X Hesse almost died, but he’d successfully ejected prior to his AC’s destruction. Judging by the fact that it took him a few months to show up again, I can only imagine that Snail had been displeased, and had ordered some arbitrary punishment in the aftermath of it.

Ah well.

Walter’s Hounds went all around the continent during this period. I had noticed them running some scouting and observation missions as they did, no doubt trying to search for Coral in their free time. It was pointless, and Walter himself probably knew it, but it seemed he wasn’t the type to not make certain regardless.

Things were perfectly fine and good- until they dropped off the grid for a few days and came back with two less members. C4-614 and C4-616 had perished on an undisclosed mission.

At least, that was what everybody else on the planet knew. The truth of the matter was rather more complicated. Walter had been chasing a lead on a mass of Coral that Carla had handed him -a well, so just a small one-, and his Hounds had run into a problem.

Another AC, piloted by another mercenary. One I knew.

At some point, and I wasn’t entirely sure when, Sulla had arrived back to Rubicon.

Sulla was a former mercenary, who’d been particularly unfortunate enough to receive Gen One Augmentations. He lived, but he was forever changed afterwards. Before, he’d been a relatively calm individual, a merc just doing a job. After...

Well, he was violent and unstable, and lived only to hunt down and kill others.

You’d think a four-v-one would end badly for the one, but not in this particular case. Sulla struck 616 when the group had split to cover more ground, and by the time the others had been able to get back, 616 was already dead. One-v-three was still not great odds, but for a merc who’d been active continuously for nearly six decades?

Sulla was driven off, but 614 had died in the process.

Yeah... not great for them. Two members dead after not even a year of operations.

Being down two ACs also affected their marketability. It was a significant dip in their power, and that meant a corresponding dip in business. Not an end, mind, but certainly a decrease in pace.

They handled it regardless. A duo was hardly ineffective, after all.

So it continued, all the way into the next year.