It’s Not Easy Making Money In The Apocalypse

After a few hours of work, the dinosaur bones had all been brought and were waiting for extraction by Lily’s group, while all of the apocalyptic stuff was brought to the basement of the museum.   Well, I didn’t bring all of the security items. I left a few choice ones in the factory to monitor it properly. It was nothing that was too obvious or would cause any questions if someone saw them, but when Cecelia connected to them it’d be far better surveillance than anything my world had.

Once I had finished transporting everything, I called on the slaves and began to give out orders. I used the advice of Katarina, Raven, and Red to decide how things should be deployed. After all, I knew very little about defensive tactics. Raven, in particular, had managed to protect the place while the raiders were testing the defenses, so she knew what needed the most support.

There were limits to what we could manage, simply when it came to power. We had gotten a second power generator from under the mall. Turrets used solar power to keep up their meager power needs, but the droids required charging. I had managed to recover a single droid charging unit from under the mall. The rest were strewn around the mall and destroyed in the subsequent battle.

Thankfully, like most Perco items, the charging units were universal for any robot. Robots could be charged without a kiosk, but you had to do it like a car battery with wires and clamps, and the robots couldn’t do that automatically themselves, and if you didn’t watch them closely, there was a risk of blowing out the ion battery that powered them. I had a few replacement ion batteries from the stash under the mall, but it was better not to depend on them unless I had to.

With the charger, they could just back up into the kiosk and charge. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any cables to run it from where I had my current power generator to where it would be convenient to set up the droids. If the idea was to have droids protecting the area between my current location and the subway, there was no clear path for the droids to move. They could not do the stairs, and there was no elevator to bring them down the steps in front of the museum. To have them travel down the street and outside of our scouting range would be risky.

As a result, we decided to put the power generator in the Perco office building. My original base of operations where I had first come to this world was not being converted into the waystation for people traveling through the subway. While the stuff was being brought up from the basement, we surveyed the route.

Essentially, we’d clear out the street leading from the museum to the Allco office. All the waste and junk would be stacked on the sides, creating a blockade. We’d put the power relay inside the Perco office, which would be defended by turrets. We’d then knock out the back of the Perco building, which was already half-collapsed and build out a small blockade feeding directly into the subway system.

Thus, people from the rink would go to the subway, where they could walk to our station in relative safety. They’d come up through the Perco waystation where they would be processed and checked for anything dangerous. They could then walk down the street to the museum. The museum would be the location for caravans and visitors. It’d be turned into a hotel of sorts. They could then conduct trade down in the bazaar.

This was not my original intention. We’d need to do some major projects. My backdoor pathway to Ascension headquarters would need to be removed for safety reasons, and we might need to come up with a new exit for those arriving at the bazaar through the museum. There was once a back door that led into the basement, but it was buried and would need to be excavated. Once that was done, I could use that as my pathway for bringing supplies into the bazaar. It’d certainly be a lot easier than hefting everything up the stairway.

My security force now consisted of ten additional turrets and six droids in total. This was on top of the six existing turrets and the broken droid which was still dead and left at the Perco location. Two of the droids had feet that could go up the stairways. They were not the combative scouts, but something called a handi-droid, and they seemed to exist as workers. They had clamp-like hands that could grab things and move them around. They could also take orders and handle host positions. While they didn’t have any native weapons, I was told they could be handed a gun and used it if commanded.

They could probably move the boxes up the stairway easier than the people, but I didn’t trust them not to drop anything, so I decided to leave it to the employees. I also had a feeling they’d get annoying as customer service, so I only wanted to use them as simple guides. I’d place one of them in the Waystation to help manage the movement of people, and another one would sit near the announcement board where I listed items I needed or wanted for trade. The handi-droid could write on the board, and with Cecelia networking everything together, I could quickly update the board if I needed to. The third droid would be put in the subway as a patrol.  

The remaining four droids were all destroyers, which suited me best despite their bulky frame and difficulty getting around. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use one of them to protect the subway because of the stairs problem, but I could keep two in the bazaar and two on the path between the museum and the waystation. The hospital was able to keep mutants away with just a few robots and turrets. I had more than them, and that didn’t count the population of humans. Once this was all set up, this would be a very secure place.

When our group finished surveying the locations and deciding how we were going to set it up, I explained the plan to the mall refugees. To ensure their safety, the Fire Ravens went out with them and set up several turrets covering their position as they started clearing the pathway between the museum and the Perco building. Katarina, Red, and a few of the employees went the longer route to bring the droids and the supplies to the other side of the museum. This was a dangerous journey as it would put them in view of the raiders who have been ambushing people, but with two destroyers, it was unlikely they would risk attacking.

After everything was set into motion, I returned to my spot in the Ascension headquarters balcony overlooking the bazaar. What? I wasn’t going to personally move stuff and clean out the filth. I had employees exactly so I didn’t need to engage in such risky behaviors. I gave them the plan, and with that, things were in motion. Once the route was established and we started getting caravans at a regular pace, things would be different.

“Master, that Jacques person is looking to see you.”

My eyes opened. I had been trailing off to sleep in my seat. Sitting up, I peered over the edge where I saw the handi-droid I had placed next to the announcement board, and in front of him was Jacque. Jacque noticed me right away and he lifted his hand.

“Oi, my friend. We should talk!”

“I thought you took off after the battle.” I frowned.

“I had a few contacts I needed to meet with, I’m a very busy man.” He laughed, scratching the back of his head when I didn’t wave back. “Did you forget that I needed your help?”

“No… I didn’t forget.” I responded. “I didn’t forget you tried to take my sister!”

“Daniel! I also saved your life… several times if I recall. Surely, you’re not still angry about that time I shot you. That was over a month ago.”

“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t have this turret fill you with holes!”

I nodded down where I knew one of the turrets had been affixed under the balcony. It was the biggest reason I knew I was safe sitting there. Even if someone did try to snipe me, and that shot would have been miraculous, I had the shield protecting me. Well, maybe in the future I shouldn’t take a nap outdoors in the wasteland. None of that had to do with Jacques though.

“Mon amis… I’ve been working on this heist for months. The only reason I even took the Syndicate job was that I needed the money for this job. If you don’t recall, you killed my last hacker.”

“That’s not a reason…” I lifted my hand threateningly. “I can go after them myself, now…”

“No, you can’t!” He responded. “The place is overrun with raiders, remember? If you even try to bully your way in, they have emergency doors that can shut, and once those are shut, no one is getting in, even the Syndicate. On that note, if we don’t move now, then the Syndicate will move on them, and we’ll lose our opportunity. That’s why I have a plan, and it’s ready to go next week. D’accord?”

I thought about it for a second, and then slowly brought my hand down. “What’s the plan?”