Corpo Age

Chapter 145: Hitching a Ride

Yuki - Halls Corporation

“Sir, my team is ready to proceed at any time. Just give us the command,” Yuki said as she saluted to her superior on the other end of the video call.

“Please hold until the appointed time. The CEO has yet to arrive at the command center and has given the order to follow everything as scheduled. ‘There is no rush’, he says.”

“...Understood. We are on standby, awaiting commands.”

Yuki ended the call and glanced over to her teammates. She had been assigned to various teams before but has recently gotten to learn a bit more about her current teammates since they were reorganized to form a new elite team.

There were three others current with her, a man with a buzz-cut, another who always wore darkened visors, and a middle-aged woman that you wouldn’t expect to be out in the field.

They were each making their preparations for the upcoming mission, working on their vehicle, fine-tuning their equipment, or typing away on their terminal.

“Command says the mission will start on schedule, not one second earlier.”

“Understood.” They each replied in their own fashion.

The man with the shades turned his head toward Yuki.

“I’ve got it, but it’s not like the other parties won’t find out its sabotage.”

“It doesn’t matter if they know or not. It’s about proof. The inspectors are only able to make decisions based on provided facts. It’s our job to help adjust those facts for them so they make the most correct choice.”

The man simply shrugged as a response and returned to tuning a small handheld device.

Yuki sighed and moved on to the next member of her team.

“How about you, Edith? Are you prepared to breach into their vehicles undetected?”

“Yes, hun. The prep team made everything easy by already having tried out the program they provided on a vehicle of the same model. I’m just optimizing it to make it more streamlined with all the new information we received.”

“Great, keep up the good work.”

The middle-aged woman smiled at Yuki’s attempt to sound like the model superior.

“Yes, ma’am.” She teased. “Oh, and would you like a cookie, hun? The sugar helps keep your mind sharp.”

“...Is that made from real sugar and butter?”

“Yes. The CEO keeps a pantry fully stocked here in NLA, too. And they sometimes hand out things that have been around for a while. It’s nothing surprising, considering he spends most of his time in Elevate City.”

“How do you even know this? We only came here from EC for a week…”

“Oh hun, you simply have to ask. Plenty of people chatting during lunch.”

“I see…”

Yuki tactically retreated from the conversation as she sensed it heading in a direction she didn’t want to tread. She was no social butterfly, and she knew it. It was a part of herself that she didn’t mind keeping unchanged.

She moved on to her final team member.

“Quentin, is the car ready yet? We should be moving out in five minutes, so it’s about time we closed the hood.”

“Yeah, yeah. These old ICE beauties are durable, so they’re ready anytime. I’m just going over the suppression systems. Sound shouldn’t be a problem with the howling of the wind out here in the wasteland, but one little heat signature leak and we’ll show up on their radars.”

“You’re right. We need everything to be perfect if we want to pull this off peacefully. Just wrap it up quickly and inform me if there is a problem.”

“Aye, aye captain.”

Having finished her checks with our subordinates, Yuki let out a sigh of relief.

She needed to ensure everything was perfect because an operation against a rival corp was no small matter. Any mistake could easily cost them their lives, either it be by the enemy or their employer.

Judging from her time at the company, Yuki didn’t think her corporation was so cruel to its people. However, it only made her want to succeed even more to advance the interests of the company she had started to get attached to.

She appreciated the comfortable housing, selection of food, pay, and paid time off she was provided. But more than that, there was this indescribable atmosphere working at the company that she had never experienced before. She found the company more akin to a home than a corporate battleground where blood spilled for the smallest benefits, which made her feel at home.

What they say about the culture spreading from the top down is true. I had gotten scared for a moment when we had expanded so quickly, but the boss seemed to have somehow kept our relaxed work culture in order.

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Like clockwork, Yuki received the go-ahead signal from the mission command once the clock reached the new hour.

“All right everyone. Move out!”

Their team all boarded the modified internal combustion engine car and drove out of the wasteland outpost they were in. The car was something that was put together recently, but required for their current mission.

Their usual Wraiths were already one of the best stealth vehicles Yuki had seen, especially out in the wasteland, but as an electric vehicle, there were some flaws that couldn’t easily be addressed.

The main one was a large amount of electrical emissions and interference. It would leak when operating up close to enemy sensors. The Wraith worked great at hiding from sensors from a distance, but their mission this time required them to be literally next to the enemy vehicle.

That was why they were equipped with an old ICE vehicle, courtesy of Vin. They were antiques in this day and age, and few would even consider making use of them. That included the most designers of sensor devices. They were simply not calibrated to pick up on the signature of internal combustion engines.

The man with the buzz cut, Quentin drove Yuki’s team out into the wasteland. They went on for hours without stopping, even when the sun had set. They traveled like this in silence until midnight, where they quickly refueled before continuing their way.

The sun was at its zenith the next day when they finally came into range of their target. They had precisely calculated the route of the target and timed their ambush exactly at a location where vehicles had to slow down to navigate through an area filled with tall sand dunes. If any vehicle was unfortunate enough to fall toward the foot of the dunes, they could easily get stuck.

These enormous sand dunes were the perfect place for Yuki’s team to sneak onto the incoming trucks when they slowed down. Visibility was near zero in the wasteland, so as long as they stayed off any sensors, they were practically invisible.

As they had done ample planning ahead of time, Yuki’s team didn’t need to wait long before they detected the arrival of a caravan of trucks.

The team needed no words as they set their plan into motion. They trailed one caravan once they passed them, closing the gap with the last truck. Once they were close enough, they carefully hopped on over toward the back of the slow-moving vehicle, leaving only their driver behind.

Edith, the middle-aged woman, handled herself surprisingly well for her age and swiftly plugged into the vehicle. It only took a second before the back doors began to open. The trio quickly turned on their Shades out of reflex.

There wasn’t a lot of room in the back of the truck for them to maneuver around in, as it was stacked full of sacks.

Bobby, the man wearing the visor, quickly got to work while the other two stood watch outside. He closed the door behind him and fished out a canister from within his vest. He held it above him and pressed a button that made the canister begin to release a bluish gas.

The entire process only took a dozen seconds before it was complete. There were no visible changes among the numerous sacks of foodstuff on the truck, but the job was complete. They just needed to repeat it with the other trucks as well.

The team proceeded to repeat their work on the other trucks, up until the last one that was at the forefront of the caravan.

Just as they completed their last vehicle, the truck suddenly began to speed up.

“Guys…This isn’t supposed to happen. What is going on?” Yuki cried out.

“...We don’t have a connection with Quentin, but from my readings on my Argus, I think we have company,” Bobby replied.

Swiftly pulling up the latest scans on her optics, Yuki quickly understood what her subordinate was referring to. A large dot that indicated an organic organism was detected just behind them.

“Is that what I think it is, from the company training?” Yuki muttered.

“Should be, unless you know any other gigantic mutants with a cylindrical shape? That should be the Devil Worm we were warned about.”

“...What are the chances—Whatever! We need to get out of here. There’s no way we can deal with that.”

The trio glanced back at their companion in the car. The entire convoy had picked up speed, forcing Quentin to pick up speed as well. They were far past the speed at which they could safely transfer vehicles in.

“These convoys are operated by an experienced corporation, right? They must have a way to deal with the Devil Worm,” Edith calmly stated.

“Yeah, but we’re due to exit the sand dunes area soon. We’ll be going too fast to jump back into our car. I’d rather not jump off a high-speed vehicle and get detected. Bobby, you said you were prepared for such a situation. It’s time to live up to your word.”

The man nodded. His eyes were hidden by his pitch-black visors, but he exuded confidence.

The operatives waited patiently for the convoy to deal with the Devil Worm, and they did. All they heard was an enormous explosion behind them, along with the wails of the mutant, before their cars sped up again. While they heard the mutant screaming as it chased them, it grew quieter until it could no longer be heard.

Even with the Devil Worm far behind them, the convoy didn’t slow down and continued their journey at a high speed. The two women looked at Bobby to take action.

“Get ready to jump when we slow down.”

He calmly climbed onto the roof of the car. Making use of his company’s provided magnetic boots, he silently trekked toward the driver’s seat.

He lay prone once he was there and fished out a small handheld device. He attached it just above the windshield and fiddled with it. A moment later, the front car of the convoy slowed down and steered toward the right. It didn’t immediately pick up speed as it waited for the rest of the convoy to readjust.

Bobby immediately retrieved his device and doubled timed it back toward his companions. From his sensors, he found that they had already made it back to their car, so he didn’t hesitate to leap over as well.

It was scary to make a blind jump into the sandstorm, but he soon made contact and landed safely in the back of the reversing car where his squad mates were.

The sound of the howling of the wasteland abruptly softened as the doors closed behind him.

“Floor it Quentin! We’re all back!”

“Roger that!”

The Halls Corporation agents safely distanced themselves from the convoy and Yuki could breathe again. She glanced toward Bobby, whose visors were slightly off-centered, and pointed it out for him.

“Good job, Bobby, but what did you do to get them to slow down?”

“I simply had produced some fake sensor readings for the front car. I made them detect another one of those Devil Worms ahead, so they quickly steered clear of it. However, it’s not perfect. If I sent out the fake readings to every car, they would each detect it at the same fixed distance I set it to. It would be easy to see through it if they were coordinated, so I had to target the leading car only.”

“Whatever works. You can leave the tech stuff to the brains back in the labs. Now then, since our job is done, let’s quickly catch a plane back to Elevate City! I want to watch the results of our hard work with our boss!” Yuki excitedly declared.

It was something she was surprised was allowed. Usually, agents didn’t get to know many details except what they needed to get the job done. It made Yuki especially happy that she got to observe the fruits of her labor. It let her know her job had a meaningful impact.

“Let’s see how GrainScape Tech feels, now that they’re on the other end of sabotage!”