Chow Down Right: The Body Snatchers Job (part 2)

(Game date: 10/29/2020)

The anthrodrone stood in the far corner of the room. Looming at about twice the height of a human, probably steel and plasmer construction, and one forearm had a plasmer rifle in place of a hand. Obviously built for security, so we had to assume that it included motion and sound sensors. So we froze, no one else breaching the doorway.

Ever so slowly, Vamir crept the rest of the way across to the door in the other wall, and opened it.

Most of us couldn't see much. Had it not been for the video link-up we shared, we'd have seen almost nothing from our angle. But Vamir could clearly see inside.

It was a combination warehouse and manufacturing facility. Several crates were stacked, grouped by color (red, yellow, and white). A catwalk, probably for foremen, stretched above the floor. Further south, a large group of machines lay dormant.

And, at various points, more of the giant security drones stood sentry.

We conferred. Vamir seemed confident that he could reach the console down by the machinery, and from there perhaps we could shut off the 'bots. I was fairly confident that, if I stepped foot inside, I would activate them. The general consensus was to give him a chance to try.

I do not know how Vamir has the patience to move as slowly as he did through that building. I barely had the patience to wait outside. But he did reach the console, partly by using the crates for cover, partly by skimming over the catwalk, partly just by being that sneaky. Once there, it was obvious that this console was a control for the machinery to which it was attached, and that this machinery was built to construct the anthrodrones. From there, it was no great leap of logic that the crates contained assembled product.

Guided by group consensus (a LOT of group consensus), Vamir placed one of the two explosive charges that he was carrying near the console. If there was any one spot in this building that we definitely wanted destroyed, this was it.

However, he had seen some other doors, and, remembering the dimensions of the building, concluded that these must lead to an inner office. He still believed that he could shut down the security. If he had my help.

Now, I know you've all seen the holovids, where a brilliant hacker talks a talented thief through breaking into a security system. I'm afraid it just doesn't work that way. In the first place, I had a hunch that these things wouldn't be shut down from a central location. Secondly, you can't impart that kind of learning in a few seconds. But I told him we could try, because there are some things anyone can look for. Stupid little things that just shouldn't be done, but everyone does them, even in a company that boasts being the top security firm in the city.

Like writing down command codes and passwords. "If there's a hard-to-remember, crucial phrase," I said, "I will bet my last credit that it's written down, somewhere."

"Is there any obscure scrawling on a stickynote?" Aru chimed in. "That's a password." I glanced over at him. Has he done some cracking in his spare time? I'll have to ask.

Vamir did find a stack of stickies, all of them bearing a different number-letter combination, indicating a password that changes frequently. He got good scans of them, which Ellie stored, and put the topmost aside, rightly thinking that these would be the most recent. I suspected that I knew what those passwords were for, and it was not for the giant drones, but resolved I'd try it if I needed to.

He headed for one of the two untried doors. One of them was uncomfortably close to one of the hulking anthros, so he tried the other first. On a hunch, I told Parker to take Maggy to the loading bay doors, and get ready to press the buzzer. Maybe it would distract the thing. Maybe. Okay, probably not, but what the heck. Turned out to be a restroom, ergo, not worth guarding. In a couple of seconds, I could argue that point.

Now, if I had been blessed with the gift of foresight, I might have sent the crawler over to the rooftop across the street. Because about this time, Mauger was made by a security guard from Warden, who wanted to know why a heavily-armed stranger was brooding on his roof.

He tried to bluff his way through. Claimed to be sent as extra security, because of a rival corporation trying to horn in? I mean, it wasn't his worst lie ever, but the Warden Op didn't sound convinced. He stuck to the book, asked for Mauger's ACCount info.

We really need some throwaway ACCounts. Just as soon as we're obscenely wealthy, or I can hack into the government systems, we'll get some. For now, the best (and fastest) thing I could think of was to try to distract the guard. I called for Ryatt to assist in setting off a fire alarm in that building. Meantime Vamir was asking for a distraction of the Auto-guard. Fortunately, that was already in place and ready.

When the alarms went off across the street, all the drones in the warehouse came to life. They started to move around the building, heads moving from one side to another. It looked like some sort of pre-programmed search routine, although I didn't wait to suss that out before telling Parker to hit the buzzer anyway. The worst part is, I don't think it distracted the Warden operative more than half a second. He called in for backup to handle the alarm. I guess it must have been enough, though, because the gunman said something about "doing his job" and fired off four rapid shots that must have unbalanced the guy, but didn't seem to char him any.

I couldn't spare him much attention, though, because Vamir needed me to pull some more Stupid Hacking Tricks out of my hat. While the security drones were playing roomba, he was on the move and was now at the last unopened door, and this one had a security lock pad. All numbers, just like the one outside, and no access points. In other words, a bitch to hack.

So, with a firefight and fire alarms blaring in the building across the street, and roaming robots in this one, I racked my brains for old reset and default passcodes, that really, really, nobody should be using. Came up with five, and gave him the first two: 0000, and 1234. The first is a default reset code, the second is a stupid manager's password.

Damned if the door didn't open on the stupid manager's password. And at a security company, no less. I hate stupid management (Katrya hates all management, but that's another story). I also hate that I hadn't thought to try that on the outside lock. But, that's another story.

That was the good news. The bad news was, Anthro the Giant had noticed him on its way back to its post, and was now ordering him to halt, so it could shoot him. Vamir dove through the door, letting it close him inside a small hallway. The drone fired at the door, which (fortunately) wasn't impressed.

Jane spoke through the comms, with more calm than I felt. "I've still got the cameras, but it looks like there are other alerts going off in the area. You might have company soon."

I replied. Well, more than replied, I rapid-fired some general instructions, because I needed to restore some semblance of control. Varfana kept shifting her axe from one hand to the other, and I was doing the mental equivalent. "Jane, the fire alarm across the street should be the only one. Vamir, watch yourself, I'm concerned about traps. Mauger...Just...hurry."

I have to be fair, Mauger was shooting as fast as he could. Katrya sent Frank around the block, possibly to assist in the firefight, and then she took herself and her explosives over to the west side of the compound, intending to blast her way in if necessary. It was beginning to look like it might be necessary, but I wasn't ready for that to happen, yet. Vamir was hit by some kind of mist when he crossed the hallway, but there was no way to avoid it, and he reassured us that it just smelled like disinfectant. So, why would you have a sterilization procedure...?

The answer to that came when he reached the other end of the hallway, and the door opened for him. It
was an operating room. It was filled with biometers, surgical equipment...operating tables. Two were empty. The third held the cyborg gnome that we had encountered before, who had been leading the raid on Mauger's safe-house. The one that Layla had identified as her mom, coincidentally(?) named Peaches. Lying there, unconscious.

Or, not quite. She was just waking up. She blinked once, looked straight at Vamir, then said, quite clearly, "Do it. Quick. Before they realize I'm awake..."

I do believe I experienced mental shock upon hearing that. I didn't even hear all the noise for a second. So it was true. CyberTek planned on transferring consciousness into these anthrodrones, and they did not plan on giving their living subjects any choice in the matter. And, apparently, Peaches the Gnome didn't like that very much.

Vamir didn't seem to understand. "Do what quick?"

There was a confusion of voices, as others explained. Everyone understood what she meant, except for the assassin. Once it was spelled out for him, though, he was quick, and merciful. I prayed to whatever cybernetic gods listen to hackers that this was not, as Layla used to insist, the voice from the AutoChef (Although, if it were, that might explain why we hadn't heard from her lately).

I told Maggy to get away from the cargo door. There was no central security point, no way to shut down all the drones at once, and it was time for us to move in, one way or another.

(It was somewhere in here that Ryatt attempted to hack into the drones. I didn't know that at the time, because he didn't tell me, and it did not work. That, too, is another story.)

Meanwhile, back on top of the high-rise, Mauger had decided to switch to his high-powered rifle. Unfortunately, the Warden had one, too, and they started trading more deadly bolts of energy. Neither of them missed often. Most of their shots were accompanied by grunts of pain. Then Frank's cannon started firing, and I gave up trying to keep track.

Utter chaos, and it was about to get worse. You know -- Thursday.

While Katrya shaped her charge, I asked EllieRocks to pull up that password from the stickynotes, because (I am ashamed to admit), I had forgotten it. When Kaytra gave word that her explosives were ready to make a big hole where the loading docks were, she asked first. I said go, but Aru objected. Apparently too late, because the next thing I heard was an "oof" as she forcibly moved Aru out of the backblast zone. Then another of the oversized drones started its "Halt!" speech, but didn't even get the entire second word out before -- how shall I put it? Well, let's just say we all discovered just how effective military-grade explosives can be, even the not-so-good-stuff. One drone down, one large hole in the wall created.

Alarms started blaring in the warehouse from the shock. For all I know, the blast set off alarms in adjacent buildings as well. We were now on the clock. I told Ryatt to start setting off alarms all over the city, to try to divert as much attention as possible away from us.

I made my move. As I ran through the entryway, toward the inner warehouse, I shouted, "Drone! Power off!" and gave the password. As expected, it did not have an effect, but I was through the room before it could react. Varfana ran in after me. She was not so lucky. She attacked it directly, but did not disable its weapon, which it used against her with extreme prejudice.

Prejudice is a terrible thing. So is gravity. The Warden Op fired twice more, his first shot pushing Mauger off the roof. The second went wild, and the recoil sent him sprawling backward over the edge. Mauger caught himself as he went over, and he hung on by one hand. The Operative hit the ground, leaving Mauger hanging.

At this point, the young singer did some hand-waiving. Does everyone in this group know magic? From her position inside the tactical van, she levitated the gunman back onto the roof, gentle as you please. But he was still injured, still bleeding.

He wasn't the only one with problems. Vamir wasn't trapped anymore; the drone that had been trying to break down the doors was drawn away by the explosion. He dropped his second charge in the O.R. and exited (he was the only member of our merry band carrying two). However, I was now pinned down among a stack of red high-impact shipping crates, surrounded, and Varfana was getting pummeled.

Suddenly, one of the voices among the chorus of "Halt!" ceased. I peeked over the top from my hidey-hole. Aru had zapped a drone with the electrical setting from his multi-pistol, shorting it out. I got to see Katrya tearing it apart, while it did not fight back. He'd found a possible weakness.

I told Parker to see to Varfana's wounds. I may have many regrets, but that medical software is not among them. At the same time, I tested Aru's discovery against another of the drones. It, too, shorted and stopped moving. Success! A verified weak spot...and, come to think of it, a terrible design flaw for a security drone. I was about to inform the team when Mauger reported.

"Guys, this jerk up here reported me before I shot him, so they know it's a security issue and not just a fire. I'm pretty banged up. Anyone with some healing oomph that I could hook up with? Or should I just get out of here?"

Train of thought, interrupted. Okay, no way should he just sit up there, waiting to be arrested. Anyone who could fix him up was down here, and if he could be fixed, it seemed to me that he'd be more useful with us. "Get down from there," I told him. "I'll send Maggy to meet you with first aid. Parker, hear that?" Once I got confirmation from both, I told everyone to hit our enemies with electricity.

Not everyone had this option. Varfana's axe, for example, is not electric (I believe that we can do something about this, given some time). Ryatt's drone does not have an electrical attack, which we will also have to correct in his next version. Yes, I said that right. His dog distracted the giant drone in the lobby area long enough for Varfana to get one good swing in, and escape. Then the security 'bot mangled the mechanical mutt. R.I.P., R.E.X.

Vamir came out of decontam wielding his newly-assembled, untested, acid-shooting gun. He drew a bead on a juggernaught, pulled the trigger, and foul greenish liquid erupted from every crack of the weapon...except the front of the barrel.

Frank the TacVan rolled up to our personal loading bay (read: charred hole in the wall) at about this time. Aru left off his attacks and grabbed a crate, leaving the battle to Katrya, who didn't seem to mind a lack of electricity in her vibro-claws. She continued to disassemble number 5, while calling out loading instructions to her fox-kin.

By now you're probably wondering, How did Mauger get down from the roof, with Warden agents crawling all over the place? I'm so glad you asked. He leaped over the edge, catching himself with his gravity hook. Oh, for a time machine. At any rate, he alit on the wall as Maggy crawled to the top to patch him up, at least enough that he could make it to the tac van for a more magical injection of health. Varfana was already there, getting the E.R. treatment.

I placed my charge on the floor, amidst the stacked crates, judging that we would never be able to carry them all away with us. Just a few meters away, Vamir wiped down his vial launcher, reloaded, and fired again. He missed his target, but what that acid did to the wall was obscene. So was the drone's retaliation. Vamir stood his ground, but that plasmer blast had to hurt. Catching his attention, I tossed him my purloined TekKnight camera, and told him that I needed it pointed at the dead gnome. He agreed, but only on the condition that I keep that plasteel PITA off his case.

This was fair, but I really, really hoped that one shot would do it. There were sirens wailing outside, currently from afar, but not for long. I mean, I couldn't hear them from in here, but those on the outside could, and Mauger told the rest of us about it as Ellie gave him some healing peace. Too much to do, and too little time. Okay, first things first.

One giant robot left (I was actually wrong about that, but didn't know it at the time). The one out in the lobby, with a hole in its steel belly, was still dutifully guarding the lobby. But never mind. I shot the one presenting the closest danger, and the blessed static charge did its job again. It froze.

I told Parker to bandage Vamir, and insisted that everyone check that they had placed their explosives. The last thing we needed was to find out we had one left when the detonator was activated.

Still much chaos around me, but lessening. The few guard drones that were left, were not moving, and being used for target practice by anyone who wasn't currently loading crates. Maggy scuttled beneath the catwalk, zeroing in on Vamir. I reached the console, and there, finally, put to good use the sticky-note password that our assassin had discovered on his initial sortie. Thus, no hacking required and no time wasted. I plugged in a datastick and grabbed everything.

As the system spilled all its secrets, Frank's belly filled with colorful crates. Some debate took place over whether we had time to bring around the "junk van" and grab some more. I can't express how tempting that option was, for everyone, but in the end we all allowed our common sense to rule. We ended up with five anthrodrones; one intended for a general public customer, one intended for a corporate customer, and three for government use. Oh, and one of the big boys -- government spec, of course. By the time these were loaded, I had all the technical specs, plus the special project from that operating chamber. Yet another, disturbingly horrifying, story.

We got ourselves into the vehicles, and I activated the TK camera. As we headed out, several emergency vehicles were headed our way -- fire trucks, at least two different law agencies, heck, Border Patrol for all I know. Everybody hates us, but they didn't see us because we took different streets. As soon as Katrya reckoned we were a safe distance away, she hit the detonator.

Did I say that the previous explosion's force set off alarms in adjacent buildings? We were blocks away, and felt this one. I think it may have set off as many alarms as Ryatt had done. I found myself wondering how much collateral damage we had just done.