Chapter 21 (Part 4)

"Arasaka, experiments on children, the old network." Just a few casually thrown phrases were enough to make Susan tense, forcing me to loosen my grip slightly.

"Does this relate to you personally?" Susan pulled back a bit, scrutinizing my face.

"Not at all, but there are things I can't ignore."

"I see, the conversation isn't going well," John said, stepping inside and peering from behind his wife.

"Alex decided to play secret agent," my mentor immediately ratted me out.

"Tell me more." John smirked, sitting on a nearby crate.

"I want to rescue kids from Arasaka's lab, kids stuffed with netrunner implants, and blow the place sky high in the process." I shrugged as if it were no big deal, causing V to let out a nervous laugh.

"So that's why you need so many exoskeletons." The man nodded thoughtfully. "Do you need our help, or can you manage on your own?" His question caught me off guard. I didn't expect him to accept the information so readily, without trying to dissuade me. Such trust was disarming.

"No, I only have five suits, four for assault and one for support."

"Han, Shiro, Vincent, and you, with Inga providing support. Right?" John smiled, glancing at the quiet guy in the corner.

"Exactly. I could handle it myself, but the situation calls for fire support. I needed people whose profiles aren't in any database. You understand, in the camp, you can only find such people among kids like me."

"How many people are you planning to get out of there?"

"As many as we can. We can't sneak in unnoticed, but they won't be able to call for outside help either. I have a runner on my side who's quite skilled in these matters."

"I can guess this netrunner trained you, right?" John O'Brian was quite perceptive, and he could piece together the whole picture with just a few hints.

"Correct. I can't name him unless he decides to contact you himself. He left quite a trail back in the day, so it's best he stays an unknown hacker."

"Bold and stubborn rascal," Susan scoffed.

"Interesting where I got that from?" I replied to the girl with a sly smile, hearing John's hearty laugh.

"When are you planning to test the new toys?" The man pointed at the stands with the suits.

"Tomorrow. I'll be calibrating them and finishing Icarus today. It's better to test everything at once, and we'll also get some interaction practice. Here, take a look at what I managed to pack inside." I sent the specs of the suits, waiting for the nomad's reaction.

"You're a damn genius. Such things shouldn't be shown to outsiders. These technologies could seriously attract corporations, knowing you're assembling them practically from scratch. Of course, the parts you used this time are of much higher quality, but remembering your previous works, you could definitely cut production costs." O'Brian nodded with respect, glancing furtively at the new wanderers.

"After the mission, the suits will stay with the clan. It's not practical to take something like that into the city, and they wouldn't be usable there anyway, unlike in the wasteland, where these things could easily be mistaken for some combat droid. Vega even managed to install a device inside that mimics their data exchange signal, and my assistant added anti-tampering protection. If anyone tries to study the suit from the inside without a special key, the reactor will overheat and eventually explode. Naturally, we considered other scenarios, including a person being inside."

"Storing such things is risky..." John mused, chewing on his lip. "The suits can't be used on missions, but they'd be perfect for clan protection."

"They can also be used as security droids. The armor design allows for operation without a person inside. The decision-making speed will be slower, but even so, they'll outperform commercially available alternatives."

"You're right. We could also cover them with some rags to avoid drawing too much attention to the design."

"Camouflage, yeah..." Only now did I realize I hadn't given that much thought. "We can cover the armor with appliques and camouflage patterns to reduce the detection factor. Vega, when you finish with Icarus, can you handle the calculations?" I called out to my assistant, drawing a surprised look from the man.

"Request processed. Setting queue priority. Estimated completion time: three hours, four minutes," responded a synthetic female voice.

"An AI, right? I won't ask where you got it."

"I paid a friendly visit to Militech," I revealed some of the details of my recent raid.

"So that's why they've ramped up patrols recently. You're something else," the nomad leader laughed heartily, almost sobbing from the emotion. "At this rate, even a kid could rob them."

"Technically, I'm still a kid," I played along with his joke.

"Alright," the man wiped away tears from his prolonged laughter, "if you need help, just holler. I won't meddle in your affairs, just be careful, alright? Arasaka might not be on their turf, but they have long arms. Let's go, dear, let the boys handle their business." John practically dragged the girl out, quickly escorting her outside.

"Well, that was to be expected," V said philosophically, watching his father leave while scratching his temple. "There's too little space here to hide this level of preparation."

"You're right, but I just hoped no one would be surprised by my latest 'inspiration.' I guess I should have been more modest in my expectations." I took a deep breath and exhaled the tension that had built up during the conversation. "Consider John saving our nerves. Susan wouldn't have backed off so easily and would've started trying to talk us out of it. She reminded me of saving her from Maelstrom's lair for about a month, and in this case, I can't even imagine what we'd face." The thought made me shiver slightly, well aware of the thoroughness of one particular brunette.

"Anyway, we need to finish everything by evening and conduct a stress test. By the way, what about the weapons?"

"I recently developed a gravity trap, and Vega and I came up with a way to use it. Based on this technology, we made a pistol and an assault rifle with decent offensive capabilities. The best part is that the weapons are powered by the armor's reactor, eliminating the need to carry a huge amount of ammo. Just a few special batteries that fit into dedicated charging slots will suffice.

"Unfortunately, creating something truly powerful hasn't worked out yet, so the idea of a plasma shotgun didn't pan out. The power of a large-caliber shotgun is much higher than the plasma equivalent we produced." While showing V the weapons, I explained their principles of operation.

First up was an intriguing pistol named "Rebel," made with heat-dissipating alloys that allow for rapid and sustained fire without overheating and losing accuracy. When fired, a capacitor converts an energy pulse of up to 4 megawatts into a resilient plasma gel and shoots it at high initial speed. The ballistic characteristics of the projectile are comparable to those of a regular bullet, so shooting this weapon is practically no different from firing a pistol. The pistol can fire small, weak bursts quickly or powerful plasma blasts that require time to charge a more potent shot.

"Rebel" had to be reworked several times. The main problem was fitting all the electronic components and shielding everything properly. The primary drawback of such a weapon is that any EMP grenade could render it useless.

The assault rifle "Knight" was developed on the same principles with the addition of an electromagnetic accelerator powered by an extra battery. This significantly increased the weapon's power compared to Rebel but also increased the drain on the battery. The plasmid projectiles of the assault rifle deal damage through both kinetic and thermal energy. Knight boasts decent firing speed for a ranged weapon, emitting small, bright blue discrete plasma spheres.

The rifle also had an additional firing function involving a special copper container attached to the plasma gun's focusing lens. It absorbs the shot's thermal energy and can instantly release it, transferring the heat to a borosilicate diffusion chamber. This creates a thermal wave upon firing, causing thermal damage along with a shockwave that knocks back the target. The user is partially protected from the thermal wave, but it's recommended to wear a thermal protection suit, like my armor suit, when using this modification.

And finally, the crowning achievement of my weapon creations, the shotgun "Fury." I also installed the accelerator used in Knight, significantly increasing the buckshot's speed. The barrel is made of high-quality titanium steel alloy to ensure maximum reliability, repeatability, and yield strength. As an additional firing mode, I installed an under-barrel grenade launcher in the final design. I had to create special ammunition for the grenade launcher. These rounds include a glycerin detonator that explodes the octanitrocubane gel on impact. The blast spreads at the point of impact, creating a wide area of effect.

Besides firearms, I decided to come up with something like a short blade for myself. Sometimes there won't be time to shoot, and stabbing someone is always more practical than swinging fists aimlessly. Initially, I designed a regular bayonet, resembling the M9 bayonet used by the US Army. After testing the blade, I was dissatisfied. The penetrating power was weak, even considering my superhuman strength.

Vega came to my aid, suggesting we integrate an ultrasonic generator into the knife handle, causing the blade to vibrate at high frequency. This allowed even a glancing blow to inflict deep wounds on the enemy. The blade design underwent slight changes, becoming a bit larger and wider at the base. The main weakness of this weapon was electricity, specifically direct contact with it. When it came into contact with electrical current, the ultrasonic generator would fail, transmitting the entire charge to the user. To mitigate this weakness, we decided to use synthesized polymers for the blade, which had high strength properties. Consequently, the blade acquired a matte black color with a glowing cutting edge.

"So, what do you think?" I asked, taking the now unloaded shotgun from his hands and examining it thoughtfully.

"From what you've said, this thing could burn through a tank," V said honestly, closely studying the pistol's specs.

"Advertising works wonders." Smirking, I put the gun back in its place and shifted my attention to the readiness scale of the remaining armor suit. "In a couple of hours, we can call the others for equipment testing. I think John and the rest will want to see this too."

"I see you've also installed an anti-theft system in the guns."

"You can't go without it nowadays..."