“What I’m looking for is thick steel plates like this,” Felix said, tapping one particularly worn and dented example. “If I pried this off the machine, would this do what you wanted it to?”
“Uh… well, I guess. I mean, I don’t have any of my tools, it’d be whatever I could scrounge up and put together but… yeah. I think I could do something with it… but I’d need more. The backing I can fabricate easily enough.”
Steve had started to inspect the plate now. “Don’t know how you’re going to pry this off though. It looks like it’s been welded and riveted in place at the same time. That’s just overkill.”
“Get ready for a surprise,” Felix said.
“A surprise?”
Felix concentrated. He didn’t want to actually modify this machine too much. He merely wanted to turn everything to dust that wasn’t suitable for the task at hand.
Which was creating a bunker and choke point.
And he’d need every plate large enough or thick enough that’d work towards that goal.
With any luck, it’ll infer what I need and simply do it. And since we’re not modifying anything, this’ll be a zero point cost.
Or so we hope.
Equipment(Steel Plates): Scrounging metal
Unneeded material converted
Upgrade?(-4,050)
Wincing, Felix hesitated. It’d give him what he wanted, but it’d cost him a potential point loss of around ten thousand. The plates were worth that much in points.
Not like ten-k would actually do me any favors though.
Felix thumbed the upgrade button and took a step back.
Steve practically jumped backward when the entire machine went up in a flurry of dust. The steel plates clanged and banged into each other, or simply fell to the ground from up on high, as the machine became nothing.
“What the actual fuck,” Steve said. “You’re a powered?”
“Indeed. Keep in mind, if you reveal that to anyone, you’ll meet Miu at some point. People don’t enjoy that meeting,” Felix said.
Reaching over, he rapped his knuckles against one of the thick plates. “This’ll do then? You can make this work?” Felix asked, looking back at Steve.
“Yeah. I’ll make it work. You were thinking just a kill zone?”
“Yep. With any luck we’ll make a raid tonight and get supplies. Food, water, weapons. Daytime is for trading information and intelligence,” Felix said.
Sighing he got up and brushed his hands together, futilely wiping dirt from one hand to the other.
Yeah. Need a portable portal device. Or a Telemedic call signal. Or anything.
Never let this happen again.
Ever.
Chapter 30 - War Crimes -
Frowning, Felix shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
They’d camped out in the old hull of a small knick-knack shack and were waiting for nightfall. This had been home-base for Julia and company.
The supplies at this location had already been carted back to the post office with Katy and Lauren. Eva was on duty there, guarding the entrance with Derek.
He was staring at the crude map Julia had brought in for him. It was drawn by hand by one of the men he’d killed, and though simple, at least had information.
Information was beyond priceless right now.
Apparently her group had been in the area for a while and had been working on establishing a “turf” of sorts.
The building he was interested in right now was a pawnshop that was only a street away. It’d been one of the purchases Kit had made on his behalf after the prison break. He’d wanted caches stored away for usage around the city. The idea of his people being trapped in a prison break without the means to survive had bothered him.
“You say there’s a gang there?” Felix asked.
“Yeah. We crossed paths with them once or twice. They left off when Ca… when we got the gun. They’ve been trying to build out in the opposite direction that we were. Mostly protection money stuff. There’s some small camps here and there.” Julia shrugged her shoulders.
“Mm. Alright. How many do you think there are?” Felix had decided that the first move was to see if they could get a hold of the Legion cache. There was a strong possibility it’d have a line back to HQ. If it did, he could summon reinforcements and get out of here as quick as could be.
“Twenty? We didn’t really get a good count. They left us alone after we… after we killed a few. Guns are power,” Julia said.
“Any reason they chose the pawnshop, by the way?” Felix asked as casually as he could.
“Uhhh? I think someone said they found a door. Steel door. They got that open and didn’t find anything though. Was empty. Someone beat ‘em there. They stuck around because it only has the one door in the front, no windows,” Julia said after a minute of thought. Her face was twisting into a grimace. “Didn’t believe them though and kept digging for information.”
Good. That’s perfect.
Though I wonder if she was the one with the knife when they were asking for that info.
“Don’t grow a conscience on my part. I’ve done far worse to people I liked better,” Felix said, standing up. “That’s the plan then. We go take the pawnshop and clear the building.”
“And just how are you going to do that?” Steve asked.
“Two nasty things that when you mix ’em together cause a problem,” Felix said, pointing to the bag in the corner.
When he’d found the products, he’d realized he could weaponize it. All he had to do was find a building he could use it on and not worry about innocent casualties.
Most everyone in the city seemed to be operating under the idea that this was all going to blow over sooner than people feared. Felix was of a differing opinion, and was treating this as if it were the end times. With that perspective in mind, Felix didn’t really care much for any rules or laws that’d prevent him from protecting his people and himself.
He wasn’t positive, but he was pretty sure that the pawnshop would have a vent he could dump it all into and then cover up the entry with a thick blanket.
These cache buildings only had their sub-basements modified. Everything else was left as is for both the building, and the occupants.
Case in point, the vent system would be a very normal everyday thing that probably had a exhaust vent that’d be turned off without any power.
“I don’t understand,” Katy said, looking from the bag to Felix.
“Don’t worry about the details, but we’re going to bug bomb them. Just be ready to welcome anyone who comes out. Preferably with your weapon. They won’t exactly be sticking around once they see what’s going on. After that it’ll just be a matter of waiting for the gas to clear out,” Felix said.
Moving to the corner he picked up his bag and exited the room. “Get the map, Julia,” he called over his shoulder, not waiting or looking back.
He kept their pace fast on their way there. It wasn’t far but it wasn’t exactly close either. Depending on how much they pulled out, it could be a rather long trek back, too. Guessing on the outcome, it was likely they’d spend the day at the shop until nightfall.
He was glad he’d already warned Eva of that possibility as well.
When they finally got there, he’d been surprised to find the fire-escape had already been pulled down to street level. It’d made access to the roof easy and practically without a problem.
The harder part was keeping quiet as they got on the roof.
“You do realize this is a war crime,” Steve whispered, peering down into the vent below them.
“You’ll have to tell me what they think about it when I’m done,” Felix replied, spinning open the top to the bleach.
“What do you mean? They won’t be thinking at all. They’ll be dead.”