I only got to four before Ojou turned the tables on me, so after letting her have her way with me, I Reloaded again, and reached ten. No new high score, but there might be time for that in the future! Anyway, I was buzzing as I made it back to my bike, much earlier than I'd done it last time even. Ojou was a heavy sleeper, it seemed. Right... that was fun. Very fun, even, but I couldn't do it every time. So I reluctantly set a Save, shifted on the spot, then rode towards that one 24/7 gas station on the edge of the city. I had all of my Deadline gear in my saddles. Even the sword, which was wrapped in some cloth and stuffed between the bike and saddle. The plan was to get changed, then head out. Sure, I'd have loved a Save much closer to Podunky, but there was a real chance that once I got that, I would realized that I'd need more firepower, or something that I couldn't get in such a shitty little nowhere town. Riding at night did come with some issues, though. It was very early, a few hours before the sun rose, and I didn't dare take that shortcut I'd found when there wouldn't be any streetlights to help me see branches and potholes on the way. So it was the long way around, which was frustrating. Plus, I'd be operating on way less sleep than was ideal. I made a mental note to buy some energy drinks at the gas station next loop. Caffeine wouldn't correct every wrong, but it might help smooth some of them over. I made it to Podunky at nearly six-thirty in the AM. Everything was closed, predictably. Groaning to myself, I rode around the town, getting the lay of it again since I'd last been here a whole week ago. I drove slowly past the Synthcorp compound, eyeing the place up before I moved further into town and looked for a place to take a nap. There was a small park, with some benches... eh, fuck it. I parked my bike, took out some stuff to use as a pillow, and laid there to rest, my phone set with an alarm for forty-five minutes. I woke up with a start, surprised that I'd even managed to sleep at all. The bench was tough on the back, but that wasn't so bad. The air was at least warm and not too filled with bugs. I stretched, looked at the time again, then sat down and just... thought for a moment. I'd hatched up a lot of plans. I wanted to save the town... more or less. The last time, the town had handled things well enough, I think. They contained the breach until reinforcements arrived. There were probably a dozen dead. Workers at the plant, but that was it, mostly. Right... I had two options here, and then a bunch of branching paths from that. The first was to be proactive. Sneak into the compound, see what was going on, maybe jump into the portal before it breached and fight my way through a lot of orcs solo. The other side of the proactive option that was also pretty good was... well, I didn't have a body-cam on me right now, but I could get one. It wouldn't be too hard, I think? Eh... maybe it would be harder than I thought, but I was sure I could find one somewhere in ENE. Documenting everything going on inside, if it was as skeevy as I thought, and then releasing it to the general public could make me 'look like a hero' plan work out. Then when I reported on the capital-B Breach later, people would take me more seriously. Assuming that Synthcorp's censorship didn't just nix all of the footage. Proactive mode would save more lives as well. The workers at the compound now, for example. They didn't deserve to die. The reactive option was a lot less likely to piss the corp off. Sneaking into their compound and filming shit was a surefire way to make me their enemy. Reacting to the breach after it opened, leading the charge into the compound then sealing it would prevent deaths as well, and I'd have the lovely alibi that I was just in the right place at the right time. Reactive would mean that the corp was less likely to see me as someone who was actively there to harm them, and I didn't need to make an enemy of such a big corporation. I chewed on that thought for a while, then stood up and stretched. Nothing for it. Proactive was better as a first option. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to handle a portal of this size in any case, but knowing the layout of the compound wasn't a bad first move. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Moving back to my bike, I found my mask, hooked my sword into my belt, loaded my revolver, then started to walk. The compound was right up next to town. There were homes right next to its walls, and a small patch of forest right behind. I didn't really care about being stealthy as I started to walk along the edge. The walls were about three metres tall, beige concrete with a rusty roll of barbed wire on top, but there were a few places where some trees had grown close and the branches were rubbing up against the wall. I found one spot with a gap, but the tree that had likely caused the barbed wire to fall wasn't thick enough to climb. Annoying. So, I walked back out, then looked around. The homes here were old-school single-family dwellings, with garages and sheds. It took looking in two of them to find a ladder left next to a shed, just laying there on the ground. I felt a smidge bad about it, but it wasn't like it was far from home. I dragged it over, laid it against the wall, then climbed up. There, predictably, a three metre fall on the other side. Right... I needed a second ladder, or I could risk it and jump. I decided to risk it, but not before tossing down more of my gear on the other side. The landing was a bit rough, with no space to gain momentum, but I did scramble down the side and landed on my ass without breaking anything. I stood up, dusted my pants, then looked up to... a camera, right on the nearest wall and aimed right at me. Well, I wasn't planning on keeping this timeline anyway. Grabbing my gear off the ground, I ran over to the cover while hooking everything back into place. The compound was made up of five larger buildings, each one with two peaked roofs connected at the middle, and a fifth area by the entrance with several smaller office buildings and some parking. It looked like whatever they did here, it was in these bigger buildings, with shipping handled out by the front. Already, I could tell that something was wrong. There wasn't an alarm blaring or anything, but I saw a team of six men in fatigues and some light armour, with visored helmets and shotguns run by, all aiming for one of the buildings at the rear. So I circled around. This building, unlike the others, had its windows closed, metal panels welded over them, and the rear entrance was barred from the outside. Suspicious as hell, that. I moved back around to the front, and could make out the faint, distant thump-thump of a gun. Someone ran out the front, a normal-enough looking worker who sprinted towards the office building. Content originally comes from novel⟡fire.net They were followed a minute later by a second, this one a reedy man in a labcoat, clutching at their arm. Well... that was one way to find out what was going on. I stepped out of cover, walked over to the man who was very obviously distracted, then I grabbed him from behind. He screamed, but the shout went nowhere, not when I could hear the last guy shouting out something too. I dragged him back into the shadows around the corner, then shoved him up against the wall. "I have questions," I said. He panicked, tried to shove me off, but... yeah, this wasn't a body builder or martial artist, just some little tired techy. I batted his arms aside and shoved him against the wall again. "Who... who are you?" he asked. "Someone with questions," I growled. The mask helped it not sound quite that cringy. "Starting with this; Synthcorp's been using orc meat and passing it off as synth meat, right?" "Don't play stupid," I warned. "This isn't the time for it. Answer the question." He gulped, then nodded. "Yeah?" "Cool. The breach, when did it start?" He blinked, then shrugged. "It's always started," he said. "Let me go! I'm going to shout." "Security seems a little busy at the moment," I said. The sounds of shooting were growing louder, closer. "Answer the question. When did the breach start?" "Y-years ago! We've been maintaining it since the start!" Huh... wait, was that even possible? It felt like I'd just opened a can of worms. I'd need to hit the books after this one.