Content warning: mention of 'suicide'.
Esaki Purin filled the rest of the team on her discoveries on the way to Section 9. She also, after realizing that some bots were still out of control, did her best to use the backdoor to disable the ones she could find.
*"Good job,"* Major replied to her report. *"Ishikawa, what did you find at Haruka?"*
*"They are scrambling to figure out what's going on. They're blaming one of their lead software engineers for the error, but neither they nor we can contact him. We're on the way to his house right now."*
*"Got it. Police are getting reports that at least 15 people were killed and more than 200 injured because of the malfunctioning robots, including a Security-General of the Ministry of Residential Control, who was in a hospital at the moment of the attack. Esaki, try to find who launched the attack."*
*"On it, Major."*
While still in the taxi, Purin analyzed the data she gathered from Alicia's robot and other network logs. She stepped into the building still going through the data, not because she couldn't find what she looked for, but because she couldn't understand what she found. In the end, she decided to look for Major. She found Major in the meeting room, fiddling with an AR hologram over the table, which Purin understood to be the map of all incidents connected to Haruka robots.
"Major? I have a theory of the attacker, but it doesn't make sense," Purin told her.
"That's fine, show it to me."
Purin nodded, adjusted her glasses, and sent the file to the projection. The map zoomed to one of the areas of Tokyo, and a photo and information of a man appeared on the hologram. It was a man with short brown hair and a body covered in striped tattoos. He had a clearly visible prosthetic left arm, one of the budget models.
"Yaguchi Sanji. An ex-boxer. He lost an arm three months ago in a workplace accident at his second job. Got a prosthetic replacement, and had to quit the box because of it," Purin gave Major the short version.
"I see why you think him being the attacker doesn't make sense," Major said and leaned back on the couch, crossing her arms over her chest. "It doesn't look like he had any qualifications or prior experience to pull it off."
Purin nodded again. "Yes, but all traces lead to him and his apartment. I checked multiple times. Which makes even less sense, because the traces are very obvious. And according to the cameras, he didn't even leave his apartment today."
"So either someone is using him, or he is very unlucky. Still, we need to interrogate him," Major said and then contacted everyone. *"Ishikawa, update on the engineer."*
*"Not good, Major,"* Ishikawa responded. *"We're near his home and it's a fortress. A high wall, military guard dogs, cameras everywhere. The security is engaged and primed to attack anyone who tries to enter without an invitation. I'm trying to hack his home network to get the gist of what we're working with."*
*"Understood. Batou, Esaki, Tachikoma, get ready in five. We're getting Yaguchi Sanji first."*
Batou and Purin confirmed the command, and all three of them went to get ready. This time Purin and the rest were in full tactical gear. Despite all three of them having highly advanced and durable cyber bodies, there was only so much armor one could put in a small humanoid frame and still look human. The gear was providing additional protection, especially for the squishy members of the team, protection to the head - the most precious part of most cyborgs, thermo-optical camouflage for the ones who didn't have it integrated, as well as a bunch of holsters, pouches, and attachments for the other gear. This time Major told them to go with the heavier guns, and they all took Seburo C-26A submachine gun. They moved out in a few minutes in an armored van with two Tachikomas following them in the thermo-optical camouflage.
They rode to the opposite side of the city, to the area still recovering from the aftermath of the Fourth World War. It was a mix of buildings in different stages of repair or rebuilding, old apartment complexes interspersed with a few high-rises. Their target was in one of the older buildings that mostly survived the war and wasn't a priority to rebuild.
They engaged the camouflage as they exited the van, and Major took the lead. They reached the target floor and door without any interruptions, and Batou took the position to break in. As Batou burst Sanji's apartment door, they caught a glimpse of him climbing out of the window across the door. Batou dashed towards him, got to the window in the blink of an eye, and looked down to the street.
He aimed the gun and shouted: "Do not move!" Then he clicked his tongue and hopped into the window to follow escaping Sanji. *"Tachikoma, follow him!"*
"Should we help?" Purin asked Major who already holstered her weapon.
"He will be fine," Major shrugged in response and started looking around.
"This doesn't look like a hacker's den," Purin noted as she followed Major.
"No, that looks like a boxer's den who hasn't touched his training equipment in months," Major said while walking around Sanji's apartment. She reached the desk where his computer was still on and pinged Purin. *"Esaki, we're been watched!"*
Major quickly pulled a connection wire from the portable firewall on her belt and plugged it into the computer. A few seconds later, both it and the PC blew up in a small electrical explosion, and Major jerked away from the computer.
"Damn it," she cursed. "Someone was watching us through the camera, but I couldn't find who before they forcibly terminated the connection."
"The real culprit?" Purin asked.
Major didn't have time to respond before Batou contacted them. *"I got him, Major. Alive, even if slightly out of shape."*
*"I helped, Major!"* Tachikoma sent the message too.
"Good work. It doesn't look like we have anything else to do here, so let's get going," she commanded as both she and Purin left the apartment. Purin stood in the doorway, then turned back, picked up the broken door, and put it to at least cover the entrance somewhat.
*"Major, we have a bigger problem here,"* Ishikawa contacted them when they were getting unconscious Sanji into the van. *"I cracked the home security, but inside it's even worse. I got the cameras and nothing more, all other systems are in autonomous mode and can't be accessed from the network. The problem is he has damn armed battle maids all over the house!"*
*"Rich men..."* Major replied with an eye roll somehow attached to the voice message. *"We're coming to your position, stay put. Saito, Borma,"* She contacted the others in the squad. *"Get the big guns and meet us there, we'll need your cover."*
"Let's go suppress another robot uprising," she smirked at Purin and Batou.
"Um, Major?" Purin asked after they got into the van - her and Major in the back and Batou at the wheel. "What exactly are battle maids?"
“Exactly what they sound like. Military androids with the typical look of a maid. Pretty and can do your chores, but no less dangerous."
"Why... actually the bigger question is how would someone even get one of those in Japan? Aren't military androids illegal to own?"
Major shrugged. "Money replaces most permits."
They arrived at the target's house in twenty more minutes. Even though they could go over the speed limit, it was still pretty far from the city. They stopped a few hundred meters away from their target and met with the rest of the team except Togusa, who was stuck dealing with the police. They gathered near the van, and Ishikawa took over filling them in on his observations.
"The house is surrounded by a 3-meter wall," he started the explanation and shared the map with the rest. "Cameras cover almost every angle, except the master bedroom and the safe room. I haven't seen the owner on any of them, so he's either not home, or in one of these rooms." He highlighted two rooms that didn't have details on the map on the second floor. "The outside is patrolled by cyber-dogs, and the whole perimeter is surrounded by an anti-drone laser system. My toys got fried instantly." He shook his head and made a disappointed face. "Inside are 8 battle maids armed with assault rifles. 6 on the ground floor, and two more on the second floor protecting the bedroom. All security systems are isolated from outside access, and all battle maids are autonomous, so remote hacking is impossible."
"Why would he have so much protection in the first place?“ Borma voiced everyone's question.
"He is one of the vice presidents of one of the biggest manufacturers in Japan, so maybe he's just a normal rich person?" Ishikawa shrugged. "Beats me. What are we going to do? Are we gonna storm it, guns blazing?"
Major crossed her arms over her chest. "Whatever it is, the key to the case is very likely there, so we're going in."
Major took over the presentation, zoomed out the map to include the surrounding area, and started laying out the plan. After everyone understood their roles, the team started moving. Saito took his giant sniper rifle and one of Tachikomas and found the high ground nearby. Ishikawa and Pazu were left to watch the cameras and cover the outside as the most squishy of the rest. Batou, Major, and Purin got their own assault rifles and prepared for the action.
The party started with two Tachikomas jumping over the wall to the front yard. They immediately got the attention of five cyber dogs that were positioned in the area. The dogs activated, unpacked from their box-like standby form and dashed toward the smart tanks. Tachikomas opened fire from the guns integrated into their arms, but the dogs were very agile and able to literally dodge bullets. The two groups started their dance - Tachikomas shooting, the dogs dodging and closing the distance, then Tachikomas jumping away and repeating. Tachikomas definitely had the upper hand, since the dogs couldn't really do much damage to the tanks, even if they got near, but it would take a bit of time for them to finish the fight. That was part of the plan since their role was to create the opportunity for the others.
Before the battle maids could join the fight and create problems for Tachikomas, Purin, Major, and Batou zip-lined over the wall to the second floor of the house. They burst through one of the big windows that was in Saito's line of sight. They landed right next to two maids that were guarding the bedroom, both already prepared for engagement on high alert from the action outside. Batou and Major didn't lose a second and immediately opened fire at both of them. A few precise shots and the maids were on the floor with a couple additional holes in their heads, unmoving.
*"Six maids inbound,"* Ishikawa reported. *"Two on 3 o'clock, four on 9."*
*"Esaki, take the two,"* Major commanded as Batou and her prepared for the assault from one of the stairs leading to their position.
Two stairs lead from the ground floor to the second. With Batou and Major covering one of them, Purin took the other. As two maids got into Purin's view, the time slowed down for her. She activated the targeting software that she worked on in the past few days and prepared to shoot. But even before she could get a good reading of the maids' moving patterns, the head of one of them exploded from the side as Saito shot it through the window. His vast experience and unique targeting skills were still superior to Purin's untested software. Not to be outdone, she pressed the trigger of her rifle sending two bullets through another maid's head. She waited half a second, and after realizing that no new threats would appear, turned around.
She turned right in time to see two maids had dropped their weapons and were closing distance with Batou to engage in melee. Two others were already in the form of scrap on the floor. Major dashed to Batou to help him in melee, likely deciding not to try and shoot when her ally was close to the target. Despite being military robots, the maids were outmatched by both Batou and Major. Purin wasn't surprised that Batou could keep up, but Major was even scarier. They both were nimble, but when Major dodged all of the maids' strikes, Batou used his heavy build to block most of them and dodge only some.
Purin was mesmerized by the dance of the two. Even though they didn't fight the same enemy, they treated the fight as one and relied on each other. They attacked each other's enemies, swapped places, covered each other, and at one point Major even vaulted over Batou and his enemy. That was the moment that settled the fight. As Major landed behind one of the maids, she slammed her fist into its head and the maid flew to the side. Batou reached behind, grabbed the other maid that Major fought previously, threw it over his head on the floor, and landed on it with his full weight, breaking something important.
Before the other maid could return to the fight, Purin used the opportunity that it was far from her teammates and shot it in the head. The fight was over and everything quieted down, including the noise of Tachikomas outside. Purin, Batou, and Major stayed on alert and swooped the rest of the floor looking for more threats. First, they found the safe room of the house, but the door to it wasn't even locked, and no one was inside.
After that, they proceeded to another room that they didn't have the camera feed from - the master's bedroom. Batou went in first, holding the gun at the ready. He scanned the room, didn't face any threats, and relaxed. Major and Purin entered next. The room opened to a gruesome sight. A king-sized bed stood in the middle of the room, and on it laid the body of a man in his mid-thirties - the vice president of Haruka Robotics, Asato Shion. His hand was holding a pistol, and his head was blown to pieces. Blood, gore, and cyberbrain parts were splattered all over the bed. In the room's corner stood still like a waiting doll, another battle maid, unarmed and in reverse colors compared to the others - black apron, white thighs, and the rest of the uniform, its hair was also significantly longer than the rest, reaching down to its butt.
"Esaki, download the recording of what happened from the maid," Major said as she started looking over the scene.
Purin turned towards the maid and pulled out the connection wire from the portable firewall on her belt. She reached out towards the maid's neck but stopped and gave the maid a closer look.
"Major? Is it normal for a maid like this to be trembling in her apron?" Purin said as a grin started creeping up on her face.
"Only if this maid thought that she was sneaky and we would just leave her alone," Major laughed.
"Are you two on your own wave?" Batou asked in confusion.
"Esaki put a lock on the maid and get her in the van, we will interrogate her later."
The maid's shoulders slumped, she sighed and raised her hands in a quiet surrender. Esaki pulled a cyberbrain lock from one of her uniform's pouches and slotted it into the back of the maid's neck.
*"Ishikawa, everything is clear, help me dump his servers,"* Major sent to the group.
Purin led the maid outside, who followed without a fuss. Batou followed them too. The fight outside was also over. The team opened the front gates and rolled the van into the front yard. The ground was littered with pieces of robot dogs shredded by Tachikomas. Two of them were on high alert watching for threats, while the third one rolled to Batou as soon as it saw him.
"Batou-san! Batou-san!" It shouted, "We're done here too!"
Batou gave the Tachikoma a pat on one of its round heads. "Good robot," he said.
Tachikoma giggled in response, while the other two made an "aw" sound, which Purin almost joined in on, but restrained herself. As Purin led the maid to the van, she noticed movement in the corner of her vision. She turned to face and zoomed in as much as she could. She analyzed the shape and movement of what she saw and recognized it as a micro-drone - only a couple centimeters long robot with wings - hovering five meters above the ground and watching them all.
The drone noticed Purin looking at it and boosted forward trying to escape at a high speed. After almost frying her brain earlier, Purin thought that she learned her limits, and concentrated on hacking the drone. The model was unknown to her, so she didn't have time to search for vulnerabilities. Instead, she used Section 9's access and connected to the closest mobile network tower, which she hoped provided connectivity to the drone. She guessed right, but it didn't give her access to the drone itself. The traffic was encrypted and likely came through a series of proxy servers. Instead, she marked the drone's identification and sent it to the network operator to start recording the drone's traffic and position wherever it went. All of this took her only a couple of seconds, and the drone was gone by that time, but at least she knew where it was heading for now. She also happily found that these two seconds didn't affect her state, and all internal sensors reported green.
*"Major, we've been spied on again,"* she finally reported.
ReginaLancifur· Apr 26, 2024
Eirenliel· Author · Apr 26, 2024
elverton· Apr 28, 2024
