Chương 34: Chapter 32 - Phantom Signal

Spooky stepped in front of me before we could leave, "I feel like I should bring something to your attention. It appears that someone has been attempting to contact you both, but the signal has been far too degraded to connect properly." Jane and I exchanged glances, "Do you know who's sending these messages?" Jane asked.

"No, like I said the data is very badly degraded. I've only noticed due to the volume of messages being sent." The bear shrugged.

"I can think of two people that would want to contact us after the incursion, I don't like the fact that they can't get through. Nyx, do you know why the messages are degraded, or where they're coming from?"

"The signal appears to be coming from somewhere in the Scrapyard. As for the reason, I can only guess it's due to the poor quality of your group's Augs." I winced, "Fuck. I'll have to do something about that later, for now we need to find the source of that signal." I turned to Jane, "Maybe you should…"

"Don't even say it, I'm coming with you."

"Fine," I threw up my hands, "I guess it's better to stick together anyways. Nyx, please lead us to the general location." Spooky ran off, Jane at his heels, and I followed, struggling to keep up. — When Nyx said he'd lead us to the location, I expected to see something. Instead, we were left standing in the middle of the Scrapyard, nothing but rusty metal as far as the eye could see.

"Nyx, you think you could narrow it down?" I asked.

"No, I tracked the signal to the nearest relay, which was in this area. I cannot narrow it down further."

"Great." I looked back at my little entourage. Jane had started yelling for Marcus and Jennifer, the bears were just milling around.

"Bandit, you're up. I need you to search for any traces of people in the area, got it?" The little fox saluted, then started running around, stopping occasionally to poke at different gaps. Jane stopped yelling and came over to me, "What's with your fox, I didn't think robots got zoomies."

"It's not zoomies," I gave her the side-eye, "Bandit has advanced sensors compared to the others, so it's better at searching. It's how I found you yesterday."

"You named it Bandit?"

"Is that important right now?" We probably would have kept arguing if Bandit hadn't found something at that exact time. I ran over to the location, Jane and the bears following behind. Bandit was crawling all over an overturned car leaning against a pile of junk, under the car was the corpse of a Model Three. I looked at Bandit, slightly concerned, and in return I received an update from the bot. Something was behind the car, but signals were faint.

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"Fuck. Jane, stand back, Bob, move that car," I backed up, with one hand I pushed Jane out of the way. The big bear stepped up, grabbed the car with two hands, and threw the wreck about thirty feet away. Normally Jane and I would be amazed by something like that, but concern overwrote our awe. Behind the car was the back end of a van, almost completely buried by the surrounding metal. Jane wrenched open one of the doors, and revealed the curled up form of a young girl.

"Jeni!" The girl stirred slightly, she looked dehydrated, barely conscious, but alive. Jane cradled Jenifer while I looked her over.

"Nyx can I give her anything, maybe a nano shot?" I wouldn't recommend it without knowing what injuries she has. You could pick up a basic handheld medical scanner for fifty points, then I could direct you further"Do it." Purchased - Class I Handheld medical Scanner - 50 points Points remaining - 7118 I ripped the little plastic box open the instant it appeared and started waving the device over Jeniffer's body. Jane looked at me in concern.

No lasting damage, some contusions, extensive dehydration and minor starvation. I would recommend a trauma nutrition pack, they're designed to be easy to digest and absorb. She could use the nutrients. Five points. Purchased - Trauma Nutrition Pack - 5 points Points remaining - 7113 I nodded and something that looked like a flexible juice packet appeared before me. I twisted the top off and handed it to Jane.

We sat in silence for a while while she fed Jenifer what was probably her first food and water in close to two days.

"She's going to be fine, no lasting damage, but we should get her home so she can rest. I can have Bob carry her. He can be gentle, when I want him to." Jane shook her head, gently putting her arms under Jenifer and lifting her up.

"I'll do it, she needs a gentle touch right now." I nodded, it wasn't the time to argue. The walk back was quiet. Even though the streets were full of people again no one gave us a second look. I was actually a little glad, there were two things most people did when they found someone sick in the street, either ignored them or took advantage. If I had the option I'd rather have indifference over malevolence any day. We were about a block from the burrow when Dusty sent me an emergency update.

I pulled up his point of view to find him staring at a small group of people approaching dressed in matching red and purple outfits. I'd never seen Hell Moths before, their territory was way over on the south side of the city, but I knew their colours. The fact that they were here now was disconcerting. The closest one brought up something that looked like a harpoon and fired it directly into Dusty's chest. My connection went haywire for a moment, giving me a blistering headache and driving me to my knees.

EMP attack, they won't be able to shut him down with that, but they've temporarily incapacitated.

"Teddy, what?" Jane crouched down, protecting Jenifer, unsure what was happening. I got pissed.

"Bob, you stay here. Everyone else sweep the area, make sure you get that thing out of Dusty." The bears sprinted off, Jane gave me a questioning look.

"Unexpected visitors, I'm dealing with it. We're just going to stay here until everything is clear, just to be safe." She nodded. Through my Augs I watched the bears run into the group of hell moths full tilt. They didn't kill anyone, that didn't mean there weren't any broken bones. As soon as they realised they were out gunned the goons took off. Good riddance. I motioned for Jane to continue towards home. Jenifer was our priority, but I'd have to investigate what the fuck they were doing here.

That was a problem for tomorrow.