Corpo Age

Chapter 240: Self-Guided Tour

“They found them! We should go rendezvous with them and plan an attack immediately,” Thorne exclaimed.

“Calm down, Thorne. What did we just talk about yesterday?” Claire reprimanded.

I ignored their little banter as I carefully read over the message we received from Strand’s group.

As expected, their group was well-funded, with two operable starships and dozens of men. They managed to trace down the group that helped Aurora Corporation procure human test subjects. They were based around Aegis, where they could save on the cost of transporting their victims up the space elevator.

To sum it up, there were just some thugs that Aurora used due to their convenience. If they failed, it could just be wrapped up as the doing of some criminal gang. However, that also meant they weren’t professionals and would mess up.

The whole reason why Strand’s group existed anyway was because they did screw up and messed up a former corpo like Strand. She wasn’t someone high-ranking, but she had the resourcefulness to siphon funds from her corporation and use it to fund her operations.

“It doesn’t tell us if they were the ones behind your captures in the past—”

“But we should still help! Screw their shady operations,” Thorne interjected.

“Let me finish. We’d have to dig through their records to know if they were the ones who wronged you. To do that, we’ll need access to their database. I’m sure the site where they continue with these experiments should have just that. I agree that we should go with them to infiltrate this place.”

“Claire, those were our fake identities. We can just come up with new ones whenever.”

“Yeah, not suspicious at all.”

“Well, in this case, we don’t need brand new identities. We’ll just become a part of Strand’s group.”

“You two tell that to her face in person, then. You’re going to meet her in person, right?”

I exchanged a quick glance with Thorne and nodded.

“She invited you to meet her in that maintenance hangar, right? We’ll just dress up as your guards in the meantime.”

Once the boring meetings and plotting were over, I found myself on one of Strand’s ships before I knew it. It was another mid-sized ship, with over fifty people on it.

I was placed in a room with Thorne, Andrew, and Peng, who tagged along.

This time, we were using everything we had at our disposal because we weren’t only after the captured people. We wanted the data from these labs, which would inevitably be deleted if we launched a frontal attack on them. We would need discreetness if we wanted to retrieve any intel and keep the casualties of this operation low.

However, that didn’t mean this operation would be done entirely in stealth. The hatred of Strand’s people was too great for that. It wasn’t something I could decide on my own, but I didn’t mind. There was a lot I could learn from observing this battle.

“Corpos, head to the bridge ASAP!” the speaker in our room announced.

For obvious reasons, we didn’t reveal that we were the leaders of Halls Corporation. Instead, Strand knew we were Shake and Hall, while the others thought we were simple soldiers who had been sent to lend a hand.

The ship was large, but it didn’t take long for us to navigate through it to the bridge. We fought a large spacious room, with half a dozen people seated, who were operating this vessel. @@novelbin@@

Off to the side of the captain’s seat, I spotted Strand waving us over.

“We’re approaching Mars soon. Are you sure that little shuttle of yours will be able to get you into a fully fortified station?”

“Probably,” I answered. “It may be their headquarters on paper, but I doubt any important people ever go there. It’s practically just a research facility.”

“I’m sure their predecessor would cry if they knew their descendants abandoned their own base for the city life, but that worked to our advantage here. Less security will mean fewer casualties for us.”

“Just don’t start attacking until I give you the signal.”

“We will attack even if you don’t signal after three hours. We can’t risk waiting any longer when we can’t get updates from you because of their jammers.”

“That should be fine, then. More than enough time to find their communication lines and complete our objectives.”

“Just don’t let them find out about us if any of you are captured.”

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Strand gave each of us a frosty look.

We shrugged, and the conversation was soon changed to be about the base we were approaching. We had some visuals to go off of. Aurora Corporation’s supposed headquarters was a space station orbiting around Mars. It was one of many, so if that was taken into consideration, it wasn’t that impressive.

Still, from the images, we could spot dozens of fortified weapons on the surface of the place, as well as several docks that undoubtedly contained their fleet. The only question was how many ships they had now that their leaders frequented Redspire more than their base.

“We’re going to be within range of sensors within fifteen minutes!” the navigator shouted out from behind us.

“That’s of cue to go, then,” stated. “We’ll make sure to set up charges next to all their defenses while we’re at it.”

“Prioritize the captives instead. Otherwise, this mission will be meaningless,” Strand replied.

I walked out of their bridge with my men and we headed straight for the shuttle we brought along. It was just a tiny little ship compared to theirs, but it was something I had put together with the latest results of my research in terms of stealth.

I was confident it could approach the space station of a C-Class corporation undetected.

My confidence proved to be justified after just an hour of sailing through the darkness of the void. We had to move slowly, but we managed to reach the hull of their station undetected.

Next, it was time to test the new infiltration tool I scrambled together. We couldn’t head through their hangars no matter how discreet we were, as the energy shields detected everything going through. Instead, we would be placing jammers on the exterior of their station before cutting a hole through.

We opened the hatch to our shuttle and made the small jump to the space station. The magnetic clamps at the feet of our power armors activated, locking us to their hull.

Andrew and Peng then quickly took out two small half-circle devices and placed them against the hull in a hurry. I saw gas emanating from where it made contact with the hull before my optics showed that it was activated.

We didn’t hesitate and brought out our particle beam swords and began cutting into the hull that was in between our devices. The high heat of our tools made short work of the metal and we soon had ourselves a breach into their base. I didn’t forget to reseal it, in case anyone came by our entry point or if our jammers malfunctioned.

The infiltration into their base was a breeze compared to their base down in Redspire. We had our equipment to work with and their security was weaker here. We even had our drone, the D-Mother, map the entire facility for us. We simply strode around, taking a self-guided tour of the place.

Like the facility I had been brought to by Nova Tech in the past, the outer reaches of this place were entirely devoid of anyone. Their security personnel were likely in the key checkpoints or were on standby somewhere.

As promised, we went around the perimeter, placing charges next to important power generators and ammo storage for the outer turrets.

A few minutes into it, I promptly decided the four of us should split up because of how easy this task was.

Andrew and Peng continued the sabotage while Thorne and I proceeded further.

We soon came across our first major checkpoint, which separated the outer part of the base where the bulk of the security was stationed to the labs near the core.

I watched as the guards on duty paid more attention to the other direction than us approaching.

Not that he could see us anyway, but they really don’t suspect any external threats, huh?

We walked by without a care and began surveying their facilities.

The labs behind massive airlocks had a fancy decontamination chamber. We walked around until we found one of the research assistants pushing a cart toward the lab. We tailed her inside, and my interest was immediately piqued upon entering.

Having worked in a similar environment, I couldn’t help but notice all the terminals the various researchers were on. They must’ve contained valuable research data, and I wanted to make a copy for myself. However, I quickly reined in my urges and began looking for the human test subjects.

It wasn’t exactly hard to find, as Aurora Corporation was leagues below Nova Tech. The place was much smaller, and I doubted they had as many research projects going concurrently.

I quickly spotted a spotless room on the other side of a set of windows, where someone was currently installing a SAID into their patient. The more eye-catching part was that there were a dozen other people on the adjacent tables, all eerily unconscious.

I thought I had to remind Thorne to wait for the opportune moment when I saw the scene, but he cooly continued forward to survey the rest of the lab.

I followed suit and found the office of their head researcher. I spied on him through my Nyes as he busied himself in his office.

Once we were done looking over everything, I didn’t hesitate to take on the form of one of the researchers I saw in the passing and knocked on the door.

I watched as the head researcher looked at the screen to his side with the camera feed of his doorway before pressing a button that unlocked the entrance.

“What is it, Travis?”

“Sir, there’s something you need to see inside room E. The people there don’t know what to do?”

He didn’t reply and began going through the various camera feeds connected to his desk, so I made my move. If he scanned me with a sensor right now, he may have noticed a flicker for a second as my holographic projection replaced my real self.

The invisible me then closed the distance to him and quickly restrained the old man. I pressed his head against his desk and whispered into his ear.

“Tell me. Where is the comms room around here?”

“What are you doing, Travis? Let me go this instant! You’ll never get away from here alive if you do anything to me.”

“Hmm, don’t even know how to beg or ask to work for my company instead. You guys really are inferior to the likes of Nova Tech.”

“Nova Tech? What are you talking about? I’ve got nothing to do with that company!”

I was disappointed by his reaction and sighed. I then brought out the interrogating device and placed it over his head. Soon, his consciousness was brought into virtual reality, and new memories would flood into his mind. Memories that made me believe I was someone he should answer to.

After a few minutes, I learned everything I was interested in. I downloaded the data from his terminal and quickly informed my allies to proceed with the operation.

Thorne would secure the prisoners, Andrew and Peng would disable their defenses, while I went to the comms room to call in our cavalry. At the same time, it was also there that I got to enjoy the upcoming light show.

That was too easy. Let’s hope the battle between Strand’s spaceships and Aurora’s will be more entertaining.