Chapter 30

Just like the rest of the other flying units YoRHa used I quickly unstrapped myself and just as I jumped out of the drop ship, I heard a loud bang as a box was shot out of the ceiling of the ship.

The box then had arms pop out of the sides to hang down below and I knew it was the Pod that was assigned to me.

While the pod quickly flew over to me, the drop ship already had continued on as machine lifeforms would certainly be hurrying to this location and it was standard procedure to evacuate large-scale vehicles rather than possibly lose them.

"Hello Jake, this is Tactical Support Unit Pod 150, I have been outfitted with the newest technology and have a particularly powerful overcharge laser slotted in as my auxiliary chip but be warned it will need to be left for several minutes after firing as it will stress my energy source."

I nodded and I could already hear the sound of the Machine Lifeforms, flying units making their way here. "Alright Pod, I will entrust my back to you so keep an eye for me and where are we heading?" I asked as I certainly had zero clue on how to navigate through this desert.

"Please follow me, sir." Pod 150 told me and started flying towards a nearby cluster of buildings.

I quietly followed the pod for the next few minutes and the few hostile machine lifeforms I ran into on our trek were only the most basic potato-shaped machine lifeforms, which allowed me to easily crush them simply by slamming big enough rocks on them or likewise just shorting their internal circuitry by shooting some lightning at them.

Not to mention should they actually manage to surprise me, my guardian would easily be able to crush them like a soda can in a hydraulic press, but no machines were able to sneak up to me as my pod was able to both passively scan for machines and funny enough the void where cloaked or otherwise hidden enemies had made them a bigger target as the absence of all information in an area was pretty glaringly obvious.

When I reached the building that was indicated and went into the basement where the supposed stash was, I could only facepalm and laugh seeing the large sign blocking the door into the basement.

Blockbuster/Gamestop.

"Huh guess the two companies merged or something in this timeline," I spoke after gently setting aside the sign as GameStop alone brought fond childhood memories of sitting down on the couch, they sat in the front window to literally play a game in its entirety at our local mall. Oh boy, the employees got mad when they heard the end credits and me cheering as I managed to beat the final boss.

I walked into what looked to be a storeroom and I certainly wasn't disappointed as I saw several disk repairs machines as well as literally thousands of movies and video games with even more modern gaming systems like an Xbox One and PS4 though it didn't look like they had too many games for said systems with the apocalypse coming in their life cycle.

"Hmm, now how the hell am I going to get all this out of here," I muttered before I had a eureka moment and had my guardian carry whole shelving units of stuff outside the basement and lay them on the huge Blockbuster/Gamestop sign.

"Jake you there!" I heard a feminine voice call out from outside and I perked up.

'With how energetic that voice sounded, either it is one of the androids I talked to at the bunker and managed to track me down, or it's 9S.' I cleared my throat and called out from within the basement. "I am in the basement Nines come on down!"

Within moments I heard a harsh clatter as said android's heels rapped against the aged concrete and not even a second after she paused at the door to stare at me blankly, my arms were almost instantly full of happy android as Nines hugged the stuffing out of me and taking deep whiffs of my scent as she buried her face into my chest.

"I missed you, Jake..." She mumbled into my chest and I could only pet Nines on her head as 2B and 6E walked at a more sedate pace into the basement where I had probably already moved a good half of all the stuff stored outside using the sign as a sled.

"I missed you too Nines," I whispered into her head as 6E being her more stoic self just calmly walked over to me and gently for android headbutted my chest as she sought her own physical affection like a cat would.

"Yes I missed you too 6E" I rolled my eyes and brought her into the group hug before disengaging from both of them as I could see that distance certainly did make the heart fonder as 2B herself looked jealous of our interaction but then again, she herself wanted a quote. [More than hugs as a reward for doing her mission well]

"So, ladies how did your mission go?" I asked as the androids helped my guardian move the shelving units of movies and stuff onto the sign sled which the guardian would carry up and deposit outside.

"Oh, it went really well! We managed to kill a goliath and several other high-value targets and there's just one more targeted area we have to clear before we have officially cleared this zone." 9S excitedly explained.

'Hmm, honestly getting this massive pile of stuff moved around is going to be a little annoying so it being in the shade for a couple of days won't hurt allowing me to help clear their schedule.' I thought before speaking. "Alright well, after we clear all this up let's go clear out that last place as we will need a drop ship to carry all this stuff back anyway."

The androids nodded knowing at this point with my magic and elemental manipulations I could beat all three of them so there was no point in arguing about my safety as anything that could beat me, they wouldn't be able to do anything too, short of a black box reaction.