Chaotic Clusterfuck 41 (Patreon)

Chaotic Clusterfuck

Chapter 41

-VB-

The first major successful raid against the Batarians. Tons of equipment stolen. A frigate stolen. A whole base of operation destroyed. Slaves rescued and freed. 

The news spread from Morocco to South American and Europe. From there, it spread to the rest of the world. 

By the time it hit the big news channels some week after our actual operation, we had already dismantled the frigate to learn all about its techs. And what did we learn? 

Everything.

It took a while for us to reverse-engineer most of the components found inside the frigate. It helped that we had experience with similar components from the Batarian shuttles we took down. However, reverse-engineer was not a simple process. It wasn’t like in games where we just had to find a few parts and voila, we knew how to make it. No, from alloys and minerals to physical principles and design choices, we had to determine 

So how did we reverse-engineer the components so quickly even with our experience with it already? 

… the frigate had an owner’s manual.

Yup.

We found an owner’s manual in the captain’s room. Translating it was easier than reverse-engineering, and once translated, we had a rough idea of how to reverse-engineer at least two-thirds of the components because the manual showed in detail how to fix some if not all of those components for a reason.

See, in space, the moment a component broke down, it was crisis mode. If something critical broke down, then it would be near impossible to take the ship back to a shipyard to get it fixed. It was the same principle as a sailing ship getting a hole in the hull or losing one of the sails. Those kind of things needed to be fixed on the spot.

And so a not dumb ship owner would have back-up parts for all sorts of things.

Which the frigate did have. 

Between the spare parts, the manual, and our own studies into Batarian technology, we figured it out. 

… To our surprise, it wasn’t complicated. 

We already knew that the basis of Eezo technology was “run electricity through element zero and make physics so BRRRRR” or something like that. That was even more so true for the frigate’s drive core. Everything else was just a different way of doing what we already did here on Earth. 

And when I had a hundreds of clones who could focus on that like me with all shared expertise, then, well, things got done really quickly. 

“Mister Marris.”

“Yes?” I asked tiredly without looking up from my paperwork. 

“Have you been listening?” the PRT agent asked me from across my table. 

“No,” I replied. “I’m a busy man and you walked in without an appointment and made your case. I returned the favor and focused on my work instead of listening to you,” I said as I set my pen down and looked up at him. “Is there something you need from me?”

“Yes! I’m here to notify you about your possession of element zero-!” 

“Already sold.”

“... Sorry?!”

“Already sold it,” I yawned. Then I pulled out the paperwork I got from the additional auctions, because, yes, after I took apart the frigate, I went and sold a lot of the parts.

But not all.

After all, how would they know how many components were part of the frigate? Or know if I lied or not? Or how they even knew how I had the frigate. 

So I sold around three-quarters of all parts’ element zero, which was what this mook was here about. 

I smiled. “Would you like to go over the paperwork?” 

Like always, the goon left without anything to show for it. 

Behold, the power of preparation and long-term planning.

-VB-

Taylor… didn’t know how to feel about her current boss despite having worked for him for weeks now. Months, really. 

First off, he was a hedonist. He… He… He made Aunt Zoe, Emma, and Anne into … his playthings. But he wasn’t a Master who used his power to make them want him. He just … seduced them. And thanks to her power, it was impossible for her to not eavesdrop on them when he did things to them.

Things that made her very uncomfortable and in need of relief.

Second, he was a criminal by technicality. Yes, he was a criminal as far as the criminal courts were concerned because he was a) a parahuman operating outside of “permitted” fields of work, b) took possession of “illegal” goods, and c) lied to the government about his status.

But the works he did weren’t illegal for normal people, and he didn’t conduct overtly illegal activities like killing, kidnapping, ransom, stealing, or the like that other criminal gangs did. His “illegal” activity was … manufacturing. Providing water service. Fixing the docks. 

And the local PRT and Protectorate didn’t touch him for those, again overtly, because that was a career suicide. Brocktonites wouldn’t stand for it.

People often forgot that when the Riot of 1999 happened, there were local and federal heroes  and police who tried to corral the riot. Considering that the Boat Graveyard happened, not only did the heroes fail to stop the rioters but four heroes got killed in the ensuing chaos. 

Third, he was … attractive. She hated to acknowledge that about the hedonist but he was! And he treated her well. Nicely. Kindly. She’s had to relieve herself at home while thinking about him more often than she’d liked. And on the few days she “accidentally” peaked at him while he was exercising without a shirt on, she, uh, might have zoned out too hard. 

Of course, she knew why he did it! His clones didn’t get buff on their own! They were copies of him at whatever point in time that they were made. So a clone was only as good (physically) as he was when he made them, so Alan made sure to dump a stunning number of hours into exercising. 

She actually didn’t understand how he could do that while his own clones were having baby-making sex with all of his … mistresses. Weren’t they connected or something?! How the hell was he just powering through watching what was essentially vicarious porn?!

“How are things holding up, Swarm?” 

She almost jolted as she turned around but a quick shunt of her surprise to nearby bugs stopped her from doing just that. She turned around  slowly and deliberately to look at her … her …

Goddamnit, why wasn’t he wearing a shirt?! Did he come here straight from exercising?!

“... Good,” she replied tersely as she looked away, even if her bugs couldn’t. “Silk production is going up.”

“I saw,” he hummed as he walked right up next to her and stood there. “But numbers on paper can say one thing while reality says something else. Got any problems I can help with?”

She hated the fact that he was being so helpful. If he wasn’t so good to her, then she could at least just chalk everything up to … hormones. 

Yeah. 

Just hormones.

“No, I’m fine.”

She was not fine. Of all people for her to feel like this, it had to be a “villain.”