Corpo Age

Chapter 217: Deterrence Plan

“Perry!” Polina warmly called out to his former fellow prisoner. “What sort of shit did you get yourself into?”

The mismatch between her kind demeanor and her words made the man give me a questioning look as he awkwardly approached Polina.

“He’s all yours,” I said and headed straight out of the room to let the two catch up.

I didn’t exactly have time to listen to his version of how he ended up being targeted by an entire corporation. I had just rescued him from the clutches of Astro Forge, and now we had to prepare our negotiation strategy. The former step was the easy part, while the latter would be where the challenge lay.

Astro Forge didn’t exactly know who had attacked them yet, but it was only a matter of time. We didn’t hide all our traces, and our counterintelligence capabilities up here in Aegis were less than mature.

That was why we immediately convened to set our plan straight. We had some inkling as to how to go about it prior to the mission, but it was only after the successful rescue that we could hash out the details. No plan ever survived contact with the enemy. No one could’ve predicted how our operation would’ve gone.

“So, we’re the amount of casualties we’ve caused should be on the high end of our predictions,” I informed everyone in our meeting.

We had the holographic projection of various executives, like Vin and Lucy with us, along with several managers from our branches and headquarters. The only people physically in the room with me were Thorne and Claire, and the latter immediately had some words to get off her chest.

“Yeah, no thanks to you boys getting carried away with your new toys! You gave Aegis PD the perfect excuse to extort us for a sum!”

“That…wasn’t our intention. We didn’t want to get into a confrontation, but once we did, we couldn’t hold back against their power armors. They are C-Class corporations for a reason. They have a deep foundation and years of experience to refine their measures. It wasn’t likely we’d be able to bypass them just because our stealth tech is miles ahead of them.”

“Yeah, yeah. Well, now we’ll have to prepare a bigger budget for reparations.”

According to our plan before the rescue, we had come up with several ways to placate Astro Forge after our mission. If the damage was minor, we could’ve directly launched aggressively into negotiations with the threat of disrupting their flow of business. It was more effective when everything was still going well for them, as people were less willing to stop earning money on their own initiative.

Now that we had done enough damage to have gotten them spooked, I was sure they were posturing defensively as we spoke. It would no doubt hinder their business operations, and thus their income as well. When the flow of money had already stopped, we estimated they would be a lot more willing to fight it out.

In that scenario, we figured paying reparation to cover their loss was the fastest way to stop the conflict. It showed sincerity, covered their losses, and quelled any dissatisfaction from damage to their reputation.

However, now that the mission was over, I had a new perspective.

“Hmm, I think there may be a better way to go about this than I had thought.”

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We had so blatantly acted out against a corporation within the city, but we so easily got away with it. It was because of our new status, bribe money, and strength. For squabbles like these, no other corporation really wanted to get involved or impose the rules on us. As long as we didn’t harm their interests, the other companies didn’t care what we did.

Even when we fired off quasi-ship-grade weapons into buildings, no one protested. And that got me thinking.

“Better way to go about it? Here we go again,” Claire sighed and shook her head. “Please don’t tell me you want to escalate it and kidnap their CEO or something.”

“Of course not!” I protested. “Come on, don’t think so little of me.”

Everyone in the meeting avoided my gaze when I searched for their support. They all silently glanced away.

These guys…

“Just go ahead and let us hear it,” Thorne said. “We’re used to it by now.”

“Hey, don’t worry. It’s not that strange of a plan. I’ve heard of others doing the same before with success, so it’s a proven method as long as we do it right. We just have to do what we’ve been saying we should do. Stop holding back and flaunt our strength. Even exaggerate it!”

“Really? You want us to act like snobby big shots?” Claire questioned with a frown.

“You should know that there’s no point in holding back anymore, right? The reason the big corporations are steering clear of us is because of the enigmatic backer we have.”

I took a moment to gauge everyone’s reaction. I hadn’t explicitly stated to the rest of the company about the matter with my guardian angel, but they should have an inkling of the matter. At least those who knew of my time in captivity did.

I simply confirmed some of their suspicions. While those who hadn’t known anything were surprised, they quickly came to terms with it. I believe it was because some of them justified it as the reason why our company had grown so fast over the years, while some didn’t bother to think at all.

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Seeing no one said anything, I continued.

“If the top corporations are so cautious around us, it should be easy to get these midsize companies to be the same way. Convince them we have a colossal backer behind us, and bully them into submission with our influence. This whole operation was to create deterrence, so we’ll just be all-inning on that end.”

I once again surveyed the room and yet again, no one spoke. They all stared at the floor in front of them, deep in thought.

“How do you suppose we do that?” Vin was the first to break the silence. “I don’t suppose you have an armada to intimidate people around with, or anything substantial people can see.”

“Well, to start, our new Light Judgment is pretty close to that. An infantry-sized weapon with the firepower approaching ship-grade cannons, albeit of the smallest grade.”

“They’ve seen that already. I suppose you have a show of quantity with it, I guess, but those who are located off station won’t really care as long as they don’t think it can reach them. That’s why ships are so effective as a deterrent.”

“Then if it’s a ship we’ll need to put on a good show, then a ship we’ll get,” I declared.

I caught sight of Claire face-palming in the corner of my eye while the more militant of the bunch smirked, excited for what was to come.

It seems like everyone knows me enough to see where this is going. Good.

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Sometimes, I wish money could buy me more time. Too bad life never went exactly as you envisioned it, but I’ve learned to come to terms with that.

“Hurry your ass over here if you want your ship to be ready on time!” a voice screamed out at me from a distance.

I swallowed my complaints and quickened my pace while lugging around this huge plating on my back. However, I didn’t stop myself from glaring at the stocky man looking down at me from the scaffolding. He was the owner of this shipyard, so there was no one else I could complain to about the worst customer service I’ve ever witnessed.

Still, I tolerated him because I knew he was a man who got the job done.

I carried this giant slab of metal up to the platform that oversaw the midsection of a suspended spaceship in the middle of the hangar. There were parts strewn all over the floor, and only the immediate area below the ship was spared from the mess. Off to the side were large pieces of machinery that fabricated parts and was also where I had fetched the plating from.

“Here it is, Grom. Where do you want it?”

“Did I say you could use my name? Call me Ship Right, as everyone else does!”

“...Sure thing, Ship Right.”

He scoffed and easily took hold of the large piece of metal plating from my hands before slapping it on the ship before us. It was a feat that was a lot more impressive during my last visit, after the negotiations with Ferrumus Corporation. With the gravity here being set so low, and equipped with a full set of cybernetics, even I perform the same feat as him. Though, I doubt I’d be able to accurately eyeball the measurements of everything or work as precisely as he did.

With the last piece I was responsible for, delivered, I surveyed the rest of the shipyard to see how my employees were doing.

We had submitted a rushed request to Grom to lend us a ship and help us refit it to be as intimidating as possible. Just like the last time, he replied with, “I’m just one man with two hands. There’s a limit to how fast I can work. If you want to speed it up, then come help me yourself.”

This led my entire security detail and me to pitch in and help.

I saw Andrew and Peng feeding in materials to bot as instructed, and Thorne leading the rest of our men working with the internals of the ship.

One entire side of the ship still had its interior exposed, and only the side where Grom and I were was properly plated. This wasn’t the usual method, or so Mr. Ship Right said. We were only doing it this was because of all the requests we made.

We were looking to have the most intimidating ship around, which meant jamming numerous advanced functions that high-tier corporations would have access to. These were all things I had taken into consideration when selecting my latest round of skill upgrades with the system.

The only issue was that I hadn’t taken the time to research the ship-grade application of them yet. So we decided to cheat.

Spacecrafts were state-of-the-art technology that was carefully designed to hit every checkbox there was. It had to be fast; it had to be deadly, and it had to have a plethora of utility abilities. On top of all that, there had to be sufficient cabin space to host all the life support systems and amenities to make it livable for the crew.

In our case, we simply needed something for the short term to put on a show, so we could cut out everything to do with making it livable. It was cheating, plain and simple.

Seeing Grom didn’t need me for anything anymore, I climbed down toward Thorne to supervise their progress. While the flight capabilities were something Grom was in charge of, I oversaw the firepower, stealth field, and electrical systems of the ship.

My aerospace engineering skill gave me a plethora of knowledge regarding how to design the ship too, but I had to throw most of that out the window for now. It only needed to work for a short time, so many parts were makeshift solutions.

“How’s it going? Are you guys done with installing our cannon yet?” I asked as I walked up behind them.

“See for yourself,” Thorne pointed to the gunner’s hatch above him.

He was busy assembling the various oversized Shade units I hastily put together around the ship, so I left them along and climbed up the hatch. After going through an airlock, my power armor warned me I was entering the vacuum of space.

When I got to the top, I was met with a round room with a bunch of harnesses meant to strap a dozen people against the wall. On the opposite end was a small tunnel where I could get a glimpse of the starry skies of the expanse.

This was the cannon that we had devised on the spot. There was no way to produce a real ship-grade particle beam within a few days, so I decided to simply use the power of quantity instead. We would have a dozen people strapped together in a formation here, firing in unison to produce our own ship-grade beam.

Despite the makeshift nature of our project, it still took me two nights to ensure everything was in order. I had to create new software programs to run the entire ship, synchronize a dozen Light Judgements to fire without incident, and coordinate countless Shade units to work together. It was a feat that wouldn’t be possible without my expertise in software and electrical engineering.

It was a lot of work.

I could only hope the folks at Astro Forge would appreciate my efforts.