//------------------------------// // Chapter 62 - Improvements - Part One // Story: The Freelancers // by OverHeart //------------------------------// Hopefully everyone would forgive her for dropping off the face of Equestria for a few hours, but it would be to their benefit. Star had considered having a backup property to hide out in should things heat up again, and it was only now that she had the means to secure such a place. With the help of her father, she’d secured a meeting to discuss the purchase of a small warehouse on the outer edges of the Sprawl. It was directly beneath, but cleverly masked by, the city’s busiest arterial route connecting upper and lower Canterlot with the city’s outskirts. It used to contain a small server farm used by a local net-based business, so some boxes and crates of unopened stock and systems that had once hosted their business had been left behind, unpowered and slightly dented but still salvageable. She had been assured that it belonged to them now, should she make an acceptable offer, as the previous owners hadn’t shown up to collect any of it. So as far as the attending estate agent, a surprisingly slick Earth Pony stallion was concerned, it was fair game, and he was more than willing to use it to sweeten the deal. “So, what do you think?” the stallion said. “Dunno why you want to set up shop in this dump, but hey, a sale is a sale!” “My… client values discretion.” Star replied. “You said that this warehouse was a server farm at some point?” The stallion perked up and nodded vigorously, gesturing for them to walk into the main warehouse space. “Like I told your associate on the phone, they up and left a few months back and didn’t bother to pick up what remained of their stuff.” To the stallion’s credit, there was a not insubstantial amount of gear left piled up into the far corner of the building, with what remained of the copper cable that once connected everything to the electrical grid and the net had been lazily looped around the metal rafters. There was a catwalk that led around the very top portion of the space, just below what would technically be an attic connected with staircases to the main floor in each corner, one of which was blocked off by the aforementioned pile of servers, cabling, and what looked like a Synth charging station, one designed for a manual labor model. Strangely, the interior partition walls once used to split the warehouse floor into individual rooms had been removed and only the recessed rails they once fit into were left behind, leaving the space quite bare and empty. “I’d show you around, but what you see really is what you’re getting.” the stallion chuckled. “I will mention there’s a small basement where the utilities come in, as well as an office in the back, but it’s pretty small for the size of the building.” “My client needs high-speed net access, I need to know if the previous occupants damaged anything on their way out.” “To my knowledge, any damage has been seen to already.” the stallion assured. “Ponies were in here just last night making sure everything was in order for your visit and I must say, they did a mighty fine job.” “I believe we can move forward with the deal then, my associate will transfer the money to you post-haste.” Star said professionally. “That is, unless you have anything to add?” “Could you please tell your Synth to stop staring, it’s a little off putting.” Snowy was stood in the doorway staring Star down with a surprisingly irritated expression, and appeared to have been doing so for some time. Unsurprisingly, the estate agent took the chance to slink away back to his car, signed paperwork in hoof. “So this is what you’ve been up to.” “Be upset if you want, but I’m doing us a favor.” Star spat. “They might not understand the gravity attached to the things they do, but when the shit hits the fan, they’ll be happy that we’ll have somewhere to run to.” “I am physically incapable of anger, as you should well know.” Snowy said dryly, eyebrow raised. “That aside, while I happen to agree with you, this should’ve been a decision we all made together.” “You say that, but I think it’s pretty obvious they’ll like the place. Of course, we’ll need to clean up the mess, install new walls, replace a few bulbs here and there…” “I suppose its proximity to a highway and skytrain station is purely coincidence then?” Snowy answered, peering around thankful he could not smell how dirty the place must be. “I suppose I’ll start cleaning.” “I should call the others here actually. You know, so I can apologize for going above their heads.” “Maybe when we’ve checked the place out.” Snowy chuckled. “Besides, they were more interested about what got left behind than the warehouse itself. Actually, this is a good example.” Star was confused, but watched as Snowy walked over to the pile, which dwarfed him by quite the margin. He seemed particularly interested in a water damaged cardboard box stacked on top of some old monitors, inside which was some assorted cables, circuit boards, and polymer casings. Intrigued, Star watched Snowy pull yet more boxes and seemingly random objects from the massive pile. She wondered just how many valuable pieces of equipment were stacked up among the junk and broken stuff, but she would not have to wait long until Snowy explained what exactly he’d taken off the pile. “I looked this place up on my way here, and you wouldn’t think so to look at the place, but it actually has quite the interesting history.” Snowy remarked. “According to Access, the fount of knowledge that he is, says that the previous owners had a little business on the side where they’d act as Netrunners for hire. Does that sound familiar?” “So this stuff is old Netrunning gear then?” “Most of it is old office equipment not unlike the stuff that was in YOUR old office, will probably fetch a couple of thousand Eurobits.” Snowy said with a smirk. “No, I’m talking about these boxes. He mentioned I should look for devices like the ones they use to run the Net, Cyberdecks, I believe they’re called.” “I find it hard to believe they’d just up and go without expensive gear like that.” Star said as she peered into the ever growing collection of boxes. “But say that I believe you, why would they take everything else, but not their Decks?” “Beats me.” Snowy shrugged. “Knowing the kind of district the Sprawl is, I’d be surprised if they left willingly.” It was then that Star noticed the bullet holes that peppered the rusted corrugated steel walls, small arms fire at most, but still a little off-putting. At this point, the who, why, and what seemed like the least important thing to be thinking about right now. “I’m going to go up to that little office space up there, see if there’s anything worth selling. I have a feeling the refurbishment is going to be expensive.” “True enough. Might be worth seeing if this place has a security system we can salvage too.” A heavily rusted wrought iron spiral staircase nearby looked to be the quickest, and probably the safest, method available and Star quickly made her way up onto the outer catwalk. Her hoofsteps rattled the metal mesh as she walked and took stock of the area. There were surveillance cameras positioned on each corner of the ceiling on specialized mounts that she surmised might’ve looked over the partition walls when they were still there. She counted maybe ten in total, but it seemed unlikely all of them were real and at least a few were likely to be decoys. The office tucked into the back wall was missing its door and window panes, but inside, it looked quite presentable if you ignored the peeling paint on the walls or layers upon layers of dust. This little space could double as a place for their Netrunner chairs if the wiring was sound. “Snowy, can you call the others here?” Star shouted down to the Synth. “Tell them to bring the van too!” “Already done.” he replied. “I’ll do what I can to tidy up, but there’s only so much we can do with this junk.” “With any luck, Access will know what’s worth something and what isn’t. But, first thing’s first, we need to buy a few things, we’re missing the most basic of basics.” “I’ll start compiling a list.”