System Overclocked 3 -ch 10-

Chapter 10

Jogging along Wrench had already found the enemy group. They weren’t far away from him and on the other side of the building he was moving along.

He could hear them over there right now as they scurried along. Rushing toward the exterior wall in their haste to get away from him.

There wasn’t any chatter from them or even a spoken word. It was as if they had communications being routed through their helmets in some way.

It made sense, but he was now curious about the helmet.

If the chance presented himself, he wanted to take one, strip it down, and figure out how it worked.

Since coming here, he had found a great many new machines and technologies to toy with. To poke at, pull apart, and learn.

It’d been a wonderful vacation for him.

I just wanted to keep fixing things.

Reaching the wall Wrench hopped up, put his feet on it, and pushed. Launching himself backward toward the a warehouse wall.

Catching it with his feet and one hand, he pushed off it. Utilizing his extreme senses, muscles, and ability to have everything moving at a crawl, to just about act as if he were jumping off the ground.

He easily reached the top of the wall, grabbed it, and hauled himself up.

Then dropped down the other side, landing in a small strip of cleared land that was between the wall and the jungles.

Rather than wait here, he moved down the strip to where the enemy forces were likely going, the corner of the depot. Wrench wasn’t sure what was over there that they wished, but it seemed to be the general direction they wanted.

As far as he knew, it was just a small building that Oz had called a “trailer” and it’d been filled with sealed crates. From the exterior, they’d been labeled as “alarm clocks”.

Wrench didn’t know why Edmund would need ten crates of alarm clocks but he didn’t care either. Admittedly he’d popped open a crate, taken one, and peeled it apart just to be sure.

It was nothing out of the ordinary unfortunately.

Looking down at the weapon he was carrying, Wrench wondered if he had time to poke at it a bit and discover some more things about it. He genuinely wanted to understand how it operated completely but already had a fair idea from using one and watching the others.

Reaching the corner, Wrench found something unexpected.

Or heard something unexpected.

It was an engine of some sort.

Wrench could hear it softly idling away even as he closed the distance on it.

When he got to the point that the wall became a hard corner he slowed down and then leaned out to take a peek. Doing his best to keep himself behind the wall as he did it.

A large wheeled vehicle was sat there on the back wall.

It was quite large and robust looking. As if it would need to bounce and bump over rough terrain and had done so to get here.

The back of it looked to be a troop transport as he could see the end of a bench along one interior wall of the truck interior.

That interior was enclosed by what looked to be some type of sheet metal.

Originally he’d been very curious about these machines when he was first brought here. He’d found out very quickly that they were combustion engines and propelled the vehicles they were attached to by a series of pistons.

He found them crude, though fascinating.

Hm.

There was one person that was visible, putting small bricks of something on the back wall. Wrench had no idea what they were but he assumed they would somehow create a hole of sorts for the enemy to escape through.

As he watched for several more seconds, and stretched out his senses, he couldn’t detect anyone else here. It seemed this exit route of theirs truly only had one person watching over it, waiting to assist as needed.

Wrench decided this was the moment to see where this went.

He could just kill all these people and consider the task done, but that wouldn’t fix it. Fix the enemy being here.

They’d already come here once, it was likely they’d do it again.

Edmund had already demonstrated he could come and go as he pleased and Wrench wasn’t too concerned about leaving the depot. If he did, Edmund or Oz would just tracking him down and bring him back.

At the moment, he really wanted to “fix” this enemy problem. Fix them so they didn’t come back.

If they came here in a vehicle, that meant that they’d have a camp or a base nearby. He couldn’t imagine them launching this as a long range attack without having somewhere the truck came from or would go back to.

Overclocking his system Wrench felt a lot like he imagined a bow-string would be when drawn back. Everything held back in a tight tension and ready to be released.

Then he was off in a flash, sprinting across the distance toward the truck.

In just a second for Wrench, he made it to the front wheel well.

As he reached that point he looked into the truck cab to confirm there was no one else there. Once down he planted his foot on the wheel, stepped onto the hood, turned, and pushed off.

He sailed over the cab, up to the very top of the roof of the truck-bed.

Planting his foot on the corner where three panels joined he assumed it’d have the most structural integrity. His other foot he put down on the edge, then squatted down low quickly.

There wasn’t a point that the enemy could see him, but that didn’t mean he wanted to risk them suddenly getting a look at him.

Letting his systems wind back down he smiled grimly. He was getting a lot of practice today in moving himself up and down.

Wrench slowly laid himself out flat against the top of the truck-bed’s metal frame. Spreading his weight out as best as he could. He put his hands near the front edge where he could grasp on if he needed to and tried to spread his feet out to create a wider base for his body.

There was a muffled explosion behind him followed by what sounded like rocks falling and crumbling away.

After, the crunch and pop of things being ground down under heavy boots, followed by the truck rocking back and forth. The clank and thump of people getting situated and a door opening and slamming shut.

Wrench only had a moment to grab the front of the truck as he heard it suddenly shift into gear before it lurched forward.

If he hadn’t held on, he probably would’ve been shot straight off the back of it.

He felt his eyes widen even as the truck began rumbling off toward the jungle.

To be sure, he had expected it to wheel around and go somewhere he couldn’t see or didn’t expect. That it would find some weird path that it’d used to get here, in fact.

Not to race right at a bunch of trees.

As it closed in to a very large looking tree, of the ‘will destroy your stupid truck’ variety he imagined,  he closed his eyes and looked away.

Only for the truck to suddenly be somewhere else.

Looking over his shoulder as the truck rumbled along, he saw the jungle behind them. All the large and nasty looking trees quickly being distanced.

Huh.

I guess… the truck was like Edmund?

It just went where it wanted to?

Looking ahead, Wrench saw that they were driving toward a very dilapidated looking village. Of stone dwellings, scrap metal walls, and muddy streets.

Or just through the jungle, I guess.

I wonder where we’re going.

Wrench slowly let his systems continue to slow down, coming down to normal levels as the truck bumped and raced along. It was just enough of a situation that he couldn’t let his mind ‘power-down’ and give himself some rest either.

A jolt to the left as the massive truck-tire hit some type of divot in the ground sent Wrench shifting to one side. Holding on by the strength of his hands only.

Man.

I hope this is a short ride.

***

Wheeling up to a strange building, Wrench felt like this wasn’t a great idea.

The only thing that made sense in his head was it being some type of garage.

It’s construction was a green painted concrete rectangle with a sloping back to it that seemed to go into the ground. The whole of it was covered in earth and it had a great deal of foliage dotted all over it.

Wrench didn’t understand why someone would build a concrete building and do such a thing.

A heavy door, also painted green, began rolling backward. Clattering and clanking as it did so.

Honestly, none of this made any sense to Wrench but he was glad they were finally ‘somewhere’ rather than driving around through nowhere. There had been more than a few times he had considered just hopping off the truck and going back to the depot.

Except now that he had come this far, he felt as if he couldn’t turn around without a good reason for having committed to this to begin with. He vaguely had felt like he had heard something about this in his last life, something about things being sunk, but he couldn’t pinpoint it.

Blinking, Wrench was surprised when the truck went straight into the building and ended up in a downward sloping tunnel. He hadn’t actually expected them to just drive straight in without a security check of the vehicle.

He hadn’t seen any cameras on the outside of the building either, which means that this was some type of automated entry.

It felt foolish to him given how secure he had tried to keep the Ducts.

The darkness of the tunnel was cut by repeating lights that were set into the walls. He wasn’t sure how they were powered given that the walls looked concrete.

There was a part of him that wanted to jump off, rip one off, and inspect it.

Slowly, the truck rolled downward.

Eventually it reached a flat open space that looked a lot like a garage to him. There were a number of vehicles spread out in every direction.

There was a small area off to one side that looked as if it were some type of oversight or security checkpoint, yet there was no one in it.

There was only one other exit from here and it was a regular sized double-door on the opposite side that they’d entered in.

Coming to a stop in the dead center of the space the door opened as a roll cage began closing behind Wrench from where he had come in from.

People were getting out of the truck now and they were doing it quickly.

He had noted that the truck had been moving faster than it probably should as they drove along. Taking hills, holes, and roads with more speed than it was likely rated for.

Wrench knew nothing of vehicles though and it was quite likely that he was over thinking the problem based on his bias.

With a blink, he realized everyone had exited the truck and were all jogging to the far doors. Leaving him alone with the truck.

Hmmm.

Alright.

Let’s go check that nook first.

Maybe it has something I can prod at.

Figure out where I’m at, what I’m dealing with, and how to fix this whole problem.

Rolling off the top of the truck Wrench hit the ground in a way that he was sure his Grae would approve of. Standing up and smoothly walking away after letting his knees and ankles bend with the drop.

When he reached the strange booth he found it was a computer setup. There was also a bin to the side with a number of discarded electrical components that looked like they had been pulled out of vehicles.

Even a small display that looked like it’d been ripped out of a vehicles dash.

Sniffing once, Wrench hesitated, then went over to the computer. He tapped at the mouse and found the computer responsive no sooner than he had done so.

The screen flickered on.

It wasn’t locked for some reason.

Wrench shook his head at the audacity of someone not locking their system down.

Given that they didn’t have security outside the garage either, or even seemingly in here, he realized that this operation as a whole seemed very strange to him. As if they weren’t concerned about security for one reason or another.

What he saw on the screen didn’t seem to matter to him.

Whatever it was it made no sense to him and realistically didn’t give him any insight into the building or location. If anything it just would provide him with more questions than answers.

Deciding that this wasn’t something of use to him, Wrench instead exited the booth and then went off after the enemy team.

Holding his weapon in front of him tightly he went right to the door they’d gone through.

Leaning his head down he put his ear to the crack between the door and the frame and listened.

He heard nothing beyond.

Opening the door carefully, quietly, he saw he was in a hall that led away. There were a few doors here and there but nothing that stood out as where the team had gone.

Looking to the ground, he didn’t see anything that’d help him.

With a grunt, he realized that this was indeed beyond him.

That this whole thing was a waste of time and he’d done something incredibly stupid.

Whatever.

Going back to the garage door Wrench checked it and found he could tear out the pulley system if he needed to get out.

“Oz,” Wrench hissed as he moved back over to the truck. “Edmund?”

He had found that both Oz and Edmund had an uncanny ability to find him if he started asking for them. He really didn’t know the why or the how, but he was hoping this strange behavior and ability would work out for him.

There was no response.

Clicking his tongue, Wrench hopped up into the truck and squatted there.

Thinking.

He was of the opinion he should just get in the truck and blast out of the garage and back the way they’d come from. He was fairly certain he could manage his way back.

While the trip had been tedious it’d only been an hour long and they’d only changed the road they were traveling on once.

There was a deep rumbling noise followed by all the lights going out. Dropping the entire area into pitch blackness.

“Oh,” Wrench said aloud and hopped out of the truck.

In a flash he had dialed up his ability to see in the dark to the point that it was like dim-morning light to him.

He went straight back to the door he’d decided not to go into.

Opening it, he lifted his weapon, and entered the hall.

Straining his hearing he pushed into the hall, deeper and deeper. Walking through the dark with ease.

Ahead of him, a door pushed open and someone stumbled out. They had one hand out in front of them and a small gun in their other hand.

The door closed behind them and they began feeling their way down the hall away from the garage.

Wrench couldn’t really tell if it was a man or a woman given the full helmet over their head, but he was mildly surprised. He thought for sure that such a large and cumbersome thing would have the ability to see in the dark.

This world is weirdly ahead and weirdly behind of what I expect.

Marching right up to this person, Wrench reached out and simply snatched the weapon out of their hand. Jerking it away with ease.

“Ah!” squeaked a feminine voice.

“Simple. Answer or die. Ready?” Wrench asked, backing up two steps. He let the large gun on it’s strap move down to ward his side. He lifted the gun he had just taken from this woman up and pointed it at her head.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Where am I?” Wrench demanded.

“I… what?”

“Where am I? Where is this base? You just attacked a depot. I was there. I came here. Where is here?” he asked.

“This-this is observation post six.”

“What does it observe?”

“The Depot. It’s here to observe the Depot. We’re here to watch anyone working there. We had reports that there was activity there.”

“Yes. Did you attack it?”

“I didn’t. I know a team went there today. They… did you come with them?”

“I see. What are you?”

“Uhm, what?”

“What’s your job.”

“Drone technician. I operate… operate drones.”

“I see. You will lead me Tech. Take me to the place where this place has it’s electrics. HVAC, water, gas, everything,” he demanded.

As he had looked around, he had noted that there were vents throughout and given the location of this place, it was likely the air was treated.

If it was treated, than it likely would have systems to distribute air.

That meant there was likely mechanical machinery of some sort that he was nearly positive he could turn into an explosion in some way.

He’d just set the place to blow up and leave in the truck. His plan seemed simple enough and he liked it.

Though, this really was a stupid idea.

What the hell got into my head to make me do this?

In fact… in fact… I can’t… huh… weird.

This is so unlike me that it’s strange.

Oz said he didn’t know where they came from and I suddenly wanted to know.

I don’t think I’d do something like in a million years.

Strange. Very strange.

I’ll ask Oz or Edmund.

“I… okay. I will,” said the woman.

“Pull your helmet off. You won’t need it. I will guide you, but you must tell me where we should go,” stated Wrench. “Walk in front of me. I will kill you if I must. I already killed a number of your people.”

The woman nodded her head, pulled the helmet off, and dropped it to her side.

“We need to go down this hall till it stops. Then turn right. When it stops, we should be at an open area. It’s a security checkpoint,” advised the woman.

“I see. Alright. We’ll go then,” Wrench said and put the large gun barrel on her shoulder. Then he put the barrel of the small gun in her spine. “I have your gun. I will shoot you. That is a bigger gun on your shoulder. You are my firing platform.

“If you do something stupid, I’ll shoot you, Tech, then go on without you. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand,” she hissed.

“Wonderful. Please move forward,” Wrench demanded and pushed at her spine with the gun he’d dug into her.

He briefly wondered if the weapon was in a firing position but he wouldn’t know if it was, or wasn’t, without firing it.

If he tried to fire it, he’d give away that it was or wasn’t ready if she noticed, and if it wasn’t, he wouldn’t know how to fix it.

“Actually,” Wrench said then stepped back, putting the large barrel to her head. “Is the weapon I took from you ready to fire?”

“Yes,” she said.

Wrench lifted it up, pointed down the hall, and pulled the trigger.

It clacked but didn’t go off.

“You lie,” he said.

“I’m-I’m really… I’m…” her voice trailed off as Wrench pushed the barrel against her head a bit more firmly.

“Make this weapon ready, then place it on the ground,” ordered Wrench. “If you do not do as I’ve said, I’ll shoot you. I can see in the dark. You cannot, Tech.”

Wrench had pushed the small gun into her hands and then stepped away quickly. Then shifted where he was as well.

“I… yes. I’ll do that. I thought it was ready, I really did,” she whimpered.

She thumbed a switch on the side of the weapon and then put it down on the ground.

“The pistol’s ready,” she said.

Pistol.

Pistol?

“What is this large weapon called with the box on the front. It fires quickly,” Wrench asked. He was feeling incredibly awkward asking these questions and quite literally showing off how little he knew, but he needed to ask them.

Needed information.

“A rifle?” supplied the woman.

Rifle.

Pistol.

Wrench picked up the pistol, pointed it down the hall, and pulled the trigger.

It let out a satisfying boom and lit up the hall.

The reverberation was quite loud and brightness of the light hurt his eyes.

Thankfully his system quickly repaired his eyes and he was ready to go again.

Wrench grabbed the Tech, pushed her around, and dropped the rifle’s barrel on her shoulder.

Then jammed the pistol into her spine. He pushed hard enough to make sure she’d feel it through her armor.

“Let’s start moving then, Tech,” he commanded.