Myth Gods Tech - Omnibus Edition: Science Fiction Meets Greek Mythology In The God Complex Universe (42 page)

“
So,” I broke the silence, “it can make me anything I want.
Can it print me a woman while we are there by any
chance?”

All that
replied was the whirr of the engine and some eyerolls.

Chapter
4

“
How about
a dog. Can it make me a dog?” I asked.

“
Deimos shut up and get ready man!” said my brother and pulled
the bullet infested van next to the factory.

“
I
am
ready.
My ammo is checked, my rifle is in hand, I am wearing my armor, I
have memorized the path, and I am ready to shoot people. Do you see
someone you would want me to shoot Thomas?” I asked standing tall
and pretty in the middle of the van.

Where
are all the mirrors when you need one?

He
turned his head and looked at me. “Yeah, I might be seeing someone.
Just cover us while we open the gate,” he said and got out of the
van with the kid.

I got
into cover and looked around. The kid started doing his thing,
probably using the passwords and exploits the client gave us to
disable cameras and locks. My brother did the physical part of the
lock picking, that thing came natural to him.

“
I can lockpick too. I have a spare shotgun on my back,” I
declared.

Alkinoe
clipped her SMG to her belt and grabbed her smartpistol. She took
her place beside me and covered my back. It was amazing how well
the angry little lady worked in a team. It wasn’t just the
training, it was the pack mentality. Just like wolves, the Amazons
were nasty little creatures on their own but when encountered in a
group… Heh. Best to keep your distance.

Only
then did I realize how hard it must have been for her to leave her
group. She never told us why, it was an issue and we did not go
there.

The gate
to the factory compound opened. Not too loud, but still louder than
I wished. There were huge construction cranes in modular pieces
neatly stacked around the place. It was something of a backyard,
but it was bigger than a few city blocks. The only way for security
to cover this big place was to rely on cameras and drones, so if
the client had really done his work, we would be as good as
invisible.

That was
good. I like invisible. It helps keep a lead-free diet.

We
covered the ground, running from cover to cover as my brother and
the kid followed behind. Alkinoe and I were working flawlessly as a
team, I would love to have her as my sister-in-law. Me and the
family, pew pew loot grab bang alcohol.

Too bad
that after this we could all retire and never have to do another
job in our lives.

I
checked the perimeter. No drones, no patrols. We picked up the pace
and ran deeper into the compound. The big cranes got replaced by
steel parts, maybe from a bridge. Could be a skyscraper, but these
were curved. Even skyscrapers are curved nowadays, so who
knows?

I
finally saw the factory doors. Clear. I covered the right side,
Alkinoe covered the left.

The kid
went to work. “All codes fine so far,” he said.

The
loading door opened. I put my smartrifle first to peek inside. No
tangos. I went in and found cover. The others followed behind me.
We were all much quieter now, there could be patrols inside. The
kid linked up the map on our overlay but I didn’t need it, I had
already memorized the route. I could see the others were using it
though.

Corridor. Locked door. The kid opened it easily. Some sort of
a packaging room. Clear. Door. Not locked. Corridor. Locked door.
The kid opened it.

God this
is boring.

“
Hey Thomas let’s hop on two of those forklifts for the rest
of the ride,” I said and got a brotherly backfist on my chest.
Ouch, that shouldn’t hurt so much.

Alkinoe
said to me, “You can buy as many big-boy toys as you like when we
get paid.”

I
lowered my head and felt scolded.

The next
couple of rooms, were not exactly rooms but sections of an assembly
line. Huge cauldrons of molten metal, sitting there at an optimal
temperature waiting for the morning shift.

If the god Hephaistos had a playground, it would look just
like this. A meld of blacksmithing and high tech, shiny chrome and
dirty red rust. And the noise, oh man the
noise
. Gears turned, liquids flowed,
metal scratched as construction grade metasteel alloys got bent
into submission. Ladies and gentlemen, we have here a straight beam
of the strongest metal ever constructed. What’s that ma’am? You
want it round? I will make it round. You, beam, bend over. Why?
Cause I said so, because I have a bigger machine that somehow
manages to bend the strongest thing in the world. Yes my good sirs,
buy now, two beams for the price of one!

Two
factory drones whirred down the corridor. I took cover and readied
my rifle.

The kid
said, “No, leave them. They won’t notice us.”

I held
my finger to the trigger just in case. The drones came straight
towards us, stopping at some readings and dipping their finger in
lava. The molten metal fell on the floor and sizzled. I
instinctively aimed for a joint and held my breath. The drones came
right next to us, pulled a lever down and went on their
way.

We took
a freight elevator upstairs. Thomas wanted to take the stairs but
the kid assured us the cams were off.

“
The 3D printer is around the corner, let’s move people,”
Thomas whispered.

This
floor was cleaner than below. Not by much, but it resembled less of
a smithy and more of an R&D place, with equipment open and
wires pouring out from every conceivable surface. The hybrid
printer stood about thirty meters tall in the middle of the room.
It was what I imagined an airplane would look like without its
outer hull. But vertical.

Most of
the 3D-printers I have seen were commercial models, or modded ones
but still rather small and boxy. They were fit for printing
replacement parts, crude armor repair plates and tons of other
things. This thing though, this thing seemed like it could
print…

Chapter
5

Tanks. Like
it could 3D-print
tanks
. And if what Thomas said was true about this doing delicate
work, that might actually be its purpose.

Thomas wasted no time, plugged in the SSD on the controlling
computer where the kid showed him and left him space to do his job.
I covered the exits and kept looking around but the ugly truth was
that we were in the middle of a big room. It was
the
worst place to
choose from and just sit there in enemy territory.

The kid
sent the design schematics to the controlling server. I know it is
a server, because it is big. A small computer is called a personal
computer, a portable one is called a laptop and a
big-in-a-closet-kind-of-way computer is called a server, that much
I do know.

I
glanced at the monitors and said, “How can we still not see what
the thing we are printing looks like?”

The kid
was busy, so Thomas replied instead, “It’s encrypted, forget it.
The only thing that matters is that it’s accepted by the hybrid
printer and it seems to have begun processing.” He was hovering
over the kid but knew that he had to let him do his
thing.

Alkinoe
was changing covering sides after me, but she was looking worried,
throwing glances at the dudes all the time.

A
loading bar popped up on the monitor and we were all enthralled by
its awesome percentile power. Twelve percent. Thirty
percent.

“
Oh the suspense! Do we have forty? Going once, going twice!
Forty percent, sold to the tall dark and handsome man standing
right next to me,” I said but I was the only one
laughing.

Then the
loading bar cheated and filled up all at once. What’s the point
then man? What’s the point?

Our
heads turned and the hybrid printer came to life. Some chemicals
started boiling in their tanks and ten printing nozzles moved down
to coordinates 0,0,0. They squirted some stuff on the base of the
printer, then went at the beginning and squirted some more. A third
nozzle squirted something else on top, something steamy. All we
could see was some matter (yes matter!) on the floor.

“
Oh malakies, is this going to get printed one molecule at a
time?” I exhaled.

The kid
typed some stuff and went, “Oh-oh.”

“
What?” Thomas asked.

“
The new estimated printing time is twelve minutes sir,” the
kid said.

“
You calculated six!” said Thomas with eyes darting
around.

“
I know sir, I’m sorry but there was really no way to know for
realz without the hardware,” the kid apologized and looked really
bummed up about it.

My
brother held on to his leadership skills and told him, “It’s all
right, you couldn’t have known. Ok. Is it printing now on its
own?”

“
Yes sir, we just wait for it to finish,” said the
kid.

Thomas
gathered his thoughts and said to all of us, “All right, minor
setback. The print could take more than twelve minutes. Let’s gain
some time by going for the parts at the safe. Alkinoe stay here and
guard. Me and UberToxic will go upstairs to the safe and get the
parts. Deimos, you guard but also block some of the entrances just
in case. We will meet you down here, wait for the print and carry
the whole lot out of here.”

We
nodded in approval.

“
Let’s move,” my brother said and that was the last time I
ever saw him alive.

Chapter
6

She was not
amused.

I opened
my arms wide and said, “What? It’s a legitimate strategic
deployment. My orders are to barricade the doors and secure the
area.”

“
And this was the only way you could think of to secure the
area?” she asked angrily and crossed her arms.

“
I am in a factory, with devices that carry stuff around. I
need to carry stuff and I am lazy, so, here,” I said and pulled the
lever that tossed the load from my forklift in front of her. There,
that should provide some cover. I turned my wheel, these things
turn around from the rear wheels, it’s funny.

As I
drove towards the elevator, she yelled at me, “You were hoping for
this delay. I know you better than you think mister.”

I yelled
back, “Watch those squirts if they align right. Hate to see the
client go through all this trouble and get a gorilla-faced tank in
the end.”

As I was
coming back forklifting more stuff to block the doors I saw her
taking cover behind the industrial drill I brought earlier. “It’s
ok, think of it as my wedding present,” I told her and barricaded
another exit.

She
squinted at me. “Huh?”

The
print-job was progressing steadily. We had something that looked
like soles. Two of-em. Could this be a battle armor? I want a
mecha.

Then I
drove my forklift as if I was riding a mecha.

The kid
sent us messages on our overlays. He said, “Safe nt open,
pass=wrng. w8 their. Brb.”

Alkinoe
looked at me and I made no comment on the update. Her eyes said it
all. It took me a minute to understand the message but I finally
got it.

This was serious. I tried to hide my worry but she is a
woman, they have like a superpower sensing those things. She gave
me no more skata and stayed alert. My preemptive lockdown of the
place didn’t seem that silly now. We had a delay
and
a locked safe. One
skata is normal,
expected
even in jobs like these, but two is a bad
thing.

I parked
my trusty forklift next to the server and took cover behind it. Two
exits were left on this floor, two more on the balcony above, which
I had no way to block. Tyche would have to smile upon us on that
thing. The barricades were good enough for infantry, anything more
and there was no point in us trying anyway. Me and Alkinoe had good
cover, we were each checking one exit and I had left a surprise on
the elevator.

I turned
around at the print job. The steam was weird, it looked like it was
circling the object instead of, well whatever steam normally does.
Yeap, those were feet.

“
We are printing feet,” I said. She glanced at me and kept on
pointing her smartpistol at the door.

The kid
sent us, “Prmtr mvmnt. B rdy!”

I squinted. I bought a vowel. Oh!
Perimeter movement!

Gamoto!
I knew this was too easy. A metal grenade rolled from my exit. It
filled the place with smoke, enough to cover whoever was storming
in.

“
Save your ammo, find a target first!” I told Alkinoe, and she
listened. My combat specs overlays were trying to lock on to heat
signatures but their countermeasures blocked me. No point, it’s a
chicken and egg problem. I relied on my senses.

And then
I saw my worst fear taking shape, in the form of a tight
muscle-toned woman’s ass.