Chapter 37: After Report

As Arron got out of the crumpled APC he was forced to step out over the disabled Kix who was laying on the ground next to his door.

He crouched down next to the Exoskeleton and stared at the several large dents, scrapes, and cave-ins.

“Stop staring at me and help me get out of this thing,” said an agitated Kix.

“Does this thing have an external emergency exit button or lever?” asked Arron as he inspected the ruined Exoskeleton.

“Why would it have something like that? If it were to be hit while I was in battle, I would be as good as dead. The only emergency ejection is inside, but it was also damaged.”

“Then how am I supposed to get you out?”

“There should be some tools in the box that held the exoskeleton. Use them to open the helmet and chest from the right side so I can shimmy out.”

“So no slicing through the armor to get you out?”

“The R&D scientists hate it when we destroy their prototype toys. So it's best we don't do any extra damage to it.”

Arron looked at the new APC with a grimace. It looked worse than he thought.

“I guess they'll be disappointed with both of us. Wait here and don't move, I'll go get the tools,” said Arron.

“I'm stuck inside, how can I go anywhere!?” shouted Kix.

While he jogged down the lane towards the box that had the tools, a loud voice boomed out through the entire parking lot.

“Hey! You M1 agent, stop right there! Don't even think of escaping! I'm coming out to talk to you guys,” shouted the female voice.

“I'm not going anywhere,” said Arron as he grabbed a small bag inside the parasteel box and headed back to Kix.

Arron crouched down and took out a metal block, one of the specialized tools that was used to help with the maintenance of the portable exoskeleton.

He ran the metal block, which was actually the manual override key, along the full right side of the chest armor. A soft click could be heard as the internal locking mechanism was manually unlocked and popped open revealing a small gap.

The chest armor was so damaged that Arron could not open it any further. He was forced to pull out and insert a miniature auto-jack into the small gap and let it work its magic.

The auto-jack immediately applied pressure to both the top and bottom pushing the dented armor apart.

With a loud, Pop! The chest armor opened up revealing the harnessed Kix.

“Just a second I'll get the helmet open,” said Arron.

The helmet was the least damaged of the entire Exoskeleton and needed no extra step to pop it open.

“I swear these prototypes are going to be the death of me. Help me out of this harness,” said Kix.

Arron tapped the metal block onto the metal buckle that connected the upper and lower harness, unlocking it.

As Kix was pulling himself out of the husk of the Exoskeleton, a woman, two human guards, and several outdated first-gen hover security bots, arrived at the site of the wreckage.

“What do you two have to say for yourselves? Just look at my Mechanized worker bot! Do you know how much it's going to cost to repair it? More than you make in a month!” said the angry woman, not even letting Arron or Kix reply.

Arron looked over to the totaled Mechanized worker bot. It was still laying on its chest blocking access to the cockpit.

“How are we supposed to get the guy out of there?” Arron asked Kix.

Kix, now fully out of the exoskeleton, looked at the angry female. “Ma'am, could you use your security bots to flip this?”

“Why should I? No, I really shouldn't since it's probably beyond their weight lifting capacity. Plus that's just going to do more damage!”

“Look lady, the quicker we get to Moe, the quicker we can be out of your hair.”

“Fine. Buke, go get one of the other worker bots to come and flip this guy over.”

After several minutes of waiting the Mechanized worker bot was detached from the APC.

“Gently, gently, don't damage it anymore than it is,” instructed the female as it was flipped over onto its back.

Both Arron and Kix inspected the chest armor and sighed. They were at an impasse once again. The security system was still active and they could not get through the outer layer nor could they unlock it manually.

“It's beyond my skill,” said Kix.

“Ha! You'll never be able to get me out! I am willing to die in here!” shouted Moe who had woken up from the impact.

Arron used his helmet’s contact list and called HQ. Moments later Tooth appeared in the top right of his visor.

“Is there something I can help you with?” asked Tooth.

“We need you to send Kat over to help bypass a Mechanized worker bot’s hacked security system. Also, we need a pickup crew to come and get the new APC and the light exoskeleton... they both were totaled.”

“Finally something to do! I'll be right there!” said Kat as she poked her head into view from the side.

Another half-hour passed by painfully as Arron and Kix were forced to listen to the lady complain about them not being careful with the Mechanized worker bot and the cost of it all.

Kat arrived along with Knox in a large flatbed hauler that would be used to bring back the APC and Exoskeleton.

She hopped down from the passenger side and walked up to Arron and Kix with her ever-present smile. Kat inspected the two wrecks for only a second before turning to them and saying, “Looks like you guys had a fun afternoon.”

“Yeah, real fun,” said Kix.

Kat turned back to the Mechanized worker bot before pulling out a hand-sized parasteel box from her belt pouch. This was a special hacking toolkit that had its own operating system and several small compartments containing all the tools she needed. She pulled a thick wire out from one of the side compartments and plugged it into one of her NerViz slots at the base of her neck creating a secure connection to the Hacking toolkit.

She then picked out a second wire from the toolkit, this one was super thin, she continued to pull it out until it was longer than her arm.

Arron watched all this with great interest as Kat walked over to the Mechanized worker bot and started looking for a small opening in the armor.

There were several due to the crash. She began to thread the thin wire inside and as she did this a holovid of the internal structure appeared on her visor relaying everything that the micro camera at the end of the wire saw.

Once the full arm length of the wire was threaded in she accessed the holo-controls of the hacking toolkit. The wire started to move around like a snake hunting for its prey.

When she found the information transfer wire which was connected to the security system, the thin snake-like wire coiled around its target, and moments later hundreds of spikes pierced into the information transfer wire.

“Stage one cleared. Starting stage two,” said Kat as she cracked her knuckles. She swiped her hand to the left, switching the controls to a holo-keypad.

Her hands were a blur as she started to type up a storm.

“Hey! Stop that! Why can't you just leave me alone!” cried Moe angrily from inside the cockpit.

Several minutes of fierce typing passed as she broke through the multiple defenses that were put in her way trying to block her from gaining access.

She typed in one last command and slapped the execute button. “Finished.”

A loud clack sounded out and the hissing of hydraulics sounded out as the cockpit opened to reveal the harnessed Moe.

Kix walked over and slapped some Magnetic cuffs on his wrist.

“You're under arrest.”

***

M1 HQ.

Arron and Kix both sat in an empty office holo-screen cubicle, one of several hundred in the information main room.

Since they had both totaled a prototype, they needed to type up a detailed after-action report explaining what had led to the prototype's destruction. They were also required to write down any insights that they may have had to help improve the next version of the prototype.

The digital paperwork took forever to get through.

Kix, who was more experienced at this, was the first to finish.

“Damn my body is sore right now. I'm going to have several big bruises from this. Moving around tomorrow is going to be a pain in the butt. I definitely need more practice in the exoskeleton if I want to do something as dumb as this again,” said Kix as he rubbed his neck.

Toothbrush walked into the cubicle and asked, “Have you guys finished typing up everything? I need to file everything and send it all to the proper people.”

“Just finished,” said Arron as he swiped the large batch of documents towards Toothbrush.

“The chief wanted me to let you know that it's good that you made it back alive, but don't get into a habit of destroying the prototypes.”