Save Scumming Chapter Ninety - Ladders

I only got to four before Ojou turned the tables on , so after letting her have her way with , I Reloaded again, and reached ten.

No new high score, but there might be ti for that in the future!

Anyway, I was buzzing as I made it back to my bike, much earlier than I'd done it last ti even. Ojou was a heavy sleeper, it seed.

Right... that was fun. Very fun, even, but I couldn't do it every ti. So I reluctantly set a Save, shifted on the spot, then rode towards that one 24/7 gas station on the edge of the city. I had all of my Deadline gear in my saddles. Even the sword, which was wrapped in so cloth and stuffed between the bike and saddle. The plan was to get changed, then head out.

Sure, I'd have loved a Save much closer to Podunky, but there was a real chance that once I got that, I would realized that I'd need more firepower, or sothing that I couldn't get in such a shitty little nowhere town.

Riding at night did co with so issues, though. It was very early, a few hours before the sun rose, and I didn't dare take that shortcut I'd found when there wouldn't be any streetlights to help see branches and potholes on the way.

So it was the long way around, which was frustrating. Plus, I'd be operating on way less sleep than was ideal.

I made a ntal note to buy so energy drinks at the gas station next loop. Caffeine wouldn't correct every wrong, but it might help smooth so of them over.

I made it to Podunky at nearly six-thirty in the AM. Everything was closed, predictably.

Groaning to myself, I rode around the town, getting the lay of it again since I'd last been here a whole week ago. I drove slowly past the Synthcorp compound, eyeing the place up before I moved further into town and looked for a place to take a nap.

There was a small park, with so benches... eh, fuck it. I parked my bike, took out so stuff to use as a pillow, and laid there to rest, my phone set with an alarm for forty-five minutes.

I woke up with a start, surprised that I'd even managed to sleep at all. The bench was tough on the back, but that wasn't so bad. The air was at least warm and not too filled with bugs.

I stretched, looked at the ti again, then sat down and just... thought for a mont.

I'd hatched up a lot of plans. I wanted to save the town... more or less. The last ti, the town had handled things well enough, I think. They contained the breach until reinforcents arrived. There were probably a dozen dead. Workers at the plant, but that was it, mostly.

Right... I had two options here, and then a bunch of branching paths from that.

The first was to be proactive.

Sneak into the compound, see what was going on, maybe jump into the portal before it breached and fight my way through a lot of orcs solo.

The other side of the proactive option that was also pretty good was... well, I didn't have a body-cam on right now, but I could get one. It wouldn't be too hard, I think? Eh... maybe it would be harder than I thought, but I was sure I could find one sowhere in ENE. Docunting everything going on inside, if it was as skeevy as I thought, and then releasing it to the general public could make 'look like a hero' plan work out.

Then when I reported on the capital-B Breach later, people would take more seriously.

Assuming that Synthcorp's censorship didn't just nix all of the footage.

Proactive mode would save more lives as well. The workers at the compound now, for example. They didn't deserve to die.

The reactive option was a lot less likely to piss the corp off. Sneaking into their compound and filming shit was a surefire way to make their enemy.

Reacting to the breach after it opened, leading the charge into the compound then sealing it would prevent deaths as well, and I'd have the lovely alibi that I was just in the right place at the right ti.

Reactive would an that the corp was less likely to see as soone who was actively there to harm them, and I didn't need to make an enemy of such a big corporation.

I chewed on that thought for a while, then stood up and stretched. Nothing for it. Proactive was better as a first option. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to handle a portal of this size in any case, but knowing the layout of the compound wasn't a bad first move. Content originally cos from N()velFire

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Moving back to my bike, I found my mask, hooked my sword into my belt, loaded my revolver, then started to walk.

The compound was right up next to town. There were hos right next to its walls, and a small patch of forest right behind.

I didn't really care about being stealthy as I started to walk along the edge. The walls were about three tres tall, beige concrete with a rusty roll of barbed wire on top, but there were a few places where so trees had grown close and the branches were rubbing up against the wall.

I found one spot with a gap, but the tree that had likely caused the barbed wire to fall wasn't thick enough to climb. Annoying.

So, I walked back out, then looked around. The hos here were old-school single-family dwellings, with garages and sheds.

It took looking in two of them to find a ladder left next to a shed, just laying there on the ground. I felt a smidge bad about it, but it wasn't like it was far from ho. I dragged it over, laid it against the wall, then climbed up.

There, predictably, a three tre fall on the other side.

Right... I needed a second ladder, or I could risk it and jump.

I decided to risk it, but not before tossing down more of my gear on the other side.

The landing was a bit rough, with no space to gain montum, but I did scramble down the side and landed on my ass without breaking anything.

I stood up, dusted my pants, then looked up to... a cara, right on the nearest wall and aid right at . Well, I wasn't planning on keeping this tiline anyway.

Grabbing my gear off the ground, I ran over to the cover while hooking everything back into place. The compound was made up of five larger buildings, each one with two peaked roofs connected at the middle, and a fifth area by the entrance with several smaller office buildings and so parking.

It looked like whatever they did here, it was in these bigger buildings, with shipping handled out by the front.

Already, I could tell that sothing was wrong.

There wasn't an alarm blaring or anything, but I saw a team of six n in fatigues and so light armour, with visored helts and shotguns run by, all aiming for one of the buildings at the rear.

So I circled around. This building, unlike the others, had its windows closed, tal panels welded over them, and the rear entrance was barred from the outside.

Suspicious as hell, that.

I moved back around to the front, and could make out the faint, distant thump-thump of a gun. Soone ran out the front, a normal-enough looking worker who sprinted towards the office building.

They were followed a minute later by a second, this one a reedy man in a labcoat, clutching at their arm.

Well... that was one way to find out what was going on.

I stepped out of cover, walked over to the man who was very obviously distracted, then I grabbed him from behind.

He scread, but the shout went nowhere, not when I could hear the last guy shouting out sothing too. I dragged him back into the shadows around the corner, then shoved him up against the wall. "I have questions," I said.

He panicked, tried to shove off, but... yeah, this wasn't a body builder or martial artist, just so little tired techy. I batted his arms aside and shoved him against the wall again. "Who... who are you?" he asked.

"Soone with questions," I growled. The mask helped it not sound quite that cringy. "Starting with this; Synthcorp's been using orc at and passing it off as synth at, right?"

"What?" he asked.

"Don't play stupid," I warned. "This isn't the ti for it. Answer the question."

He gulped, then nodded. "Yeah?"

"Cool. The breach, when did it start?"

He blinked, then shrugged. "It's always started," he said.

"Huh?"

"Let go! I'm going to shout."

"Security seems a little busy at the mont," I said. The sounds of shooting were growing louder, closer. "Answer the question. When did the breach start?"

"Y-years ago! We've been maintaining it since the start!"

Huh... wait, was that even possible?

It felt like I'd just opened a can of worms. I'd need to hit the books after this one.

***