THOOM!
The silent night was disturbed by a powerful explosion! It
ripped the side of the building right out, the precisely placed charges
removing the obstacle without damaging the rest of the tall building in
the middle of downtown. Several trucks that were waiting nearby, labeled
for shipping, food, and garbage, opened up their sides to reveal several
figures dressed in armored suits.
A bit taller than a average man, painted pitch black, the suits
were bulky, with weapons mounted on shoulders and arms. Boot thrusters
flaring the hovering suits moved in, swarming over the facility and
evading the internal defenses of the building. In moments they were
done, carrying modules of equipment out even as sirens wailed off in the
distance.
Not much later that morning an older blonde officer pushed her
round glasses up, taking in the damage thoughtfully. "Well, we did try
to warn them," Nene Romanova finally muttered to herself softly, the AD
Police lieutenant observing her people as they moved around the crime
scene to collect the evidence and interview witnesses.
"That we did," Lisa Valente agreed, her dark skin making her
stand out in the crowd. She looked over at her boss, "The place is
mostly automated, we don't have many witnesses."
"And the internal security systems?" Nene asked calmly.
"They haven't granted us access yet," Lisa answered.
A muscle in Nene's jaw jumped slightly as she clenched it.
"Let's go see who's in charge," she said, leading her younger companion
through the maze of people towards the building itself.
Burned debris were scattered around, carefully being collected
by lab techs. Another was plotting where the pieces had rested and was
putting together a computer schematic of the wrecked wall. Thermal
scanners plotted the course the armored suits took, and several armored
compartments in the walls had been torn open by the immense physical
strength.
"Stop photographing that," the slim, redheaded executive tried
to stop one of the AD Police officers, "you don't have
authorization...."
"Something I can help you with," Nene took in her name tag, "Ms.
Harrison?"
"Catherine," she frowned, looking Nene over, "and who might you
be?"
"Lieutenant Nene Romanova," she showed the woman her
identification while maintaining a pleasant smile, "I'm in charge here."
Catherine scowled, "Then maybe you can get these people out of
here. This is a top secret research facility, our shareholders will have
a fit if this information leaks. I want the AD police out of here in
five minutes!"
Nene kept that pleasant smile on her face as she said, "I'm
afraid I can't do that, ma'am. Now, will you give my officers access to
your internal security systems?"
"Of course not," Catherine bleated, "that would...."
Nene calmly interrupted, "Then I'm afraid I'll have to arrest
you for obstruction of justice." As Catherine gazed at her in shock she
continued, "I'm well aware your employers have pull and can get you out,
but it would take several days where I'm sure we can find someone to let
us in the system."
"You wouldn't dare," Catherine hissed.
"You've heard of Chief McNicol of course," Nene continued on
cheerfully, "he distrusts the corporations with a passion and would
fight to keep you in jail even longer." She smiled sunnily, "So you can
let me in the system now, or I can arrest you and get in anyway."
"You'll get your access," Catherine grit out, "but you haven't
heard the last of this." With that she stomped off to where several AD
Police techs stood waiting and used a terminal to bring up the security
system.
"I hope you don't regret that," Lisa commented, but there was
admiration in her voice. The two began a casual walk around, observing
the damage intently.
Nene smiled wryly, "I'm happy where I am in the force, I'm not
looking to be promoted." Her voice hardened, "So I don't have to worry
about brown-nosing or sucking up to people like her."
"Think we'll get anything useful out of the security system?"
Lisa asked, the two stooping to peer at a vault that had been completely
torn open. Oddly most of the compartments inside were still intact, only
one had been ripped open.
"This was done with armored suits," Nene climbed in the vault,
peering at the compartment, "we might be able to get the name of the
manufacturer, at least." She reached out but didn't touch the tag,
reading off, "Ayanami."
"Ayanami?" Lisa peered over her shoulder.
"It does sound sort of familiar," Nene punched the name into her
personal organizer then slid the flat microcomputer away into a coat
pocket. "So what does this company specialize in?" she asked Lisa
curiously.
"Re-genex," the smiling Lisa recited the information from
memory, "are a developer in custom boomer technology. They, along with
certain major competitors, are working on producing the next generation
of boomers."
"Lovely," Nene muttered, "like the AD Police doesn't have enough
trouble from the current brands of boomers."
In the aftermath of Quincy's removal as head of Genom the
exclusive patent they held on the production of boomers expired. Many
other companies soon stepped forward to produce their own variations and
while Genom held onto much of it's market share, some competitors
flourished. Sexaroids became a popular cult item, as were the gray
market ones designed to resemble certain popular idols and actresses.
Sadly, quality control remained a problem with all the boomer
designs. Not all companies had adopted the improved boomer design
championed by Sylia Stingray, instead choosing to use the much cheaper
designs initially used by Genom, so rogue boomer incidents still
happened. In addition the unique boomer variations, including boosted
intelligence and other skills, often made the lives of AD Police
officers that much more difficult.
"So how much progress have they made, I wonder?" Nene speculated
aloud.
Lisa looked thoughtful then she quietly said, "Enough that
someone else had to break in to steal their research?"
"Makes you wonder," Nene agreed.
The two women walked back towards where her techs were
downloading information from the security system while Catherine watched
nervously.
"Is this really necessary?" Catherine looked at Nene worriedly.
"Yes," Nene said simply. She looked at the business woman
thoughtfully before asking, "So how's work on the new boomer designs
coming along?"
"No comment," Catherine said with a scowl.
"Someone launched an attack on your facility," Nene said dryly,
"possibly for data or samples. For certain they took something labeled
Ayanami." She saw a flicker of alarm on Catherine's face and said, "I
see you recognize that."
Catherine did not look very happy about hearing that piece of
news. She sounded much more respectful as she said, "I'm going to have
to talk to my superiors."
Nene noted the tech teams were mostly done. "You do that," she
turned to walk back to the cruiser, "we'll be in touch with more
questions."
The two officers went back to the car, Lisa climbing into the
driver's seat, pulling out into traffic and driving away. Lisa looked
over from watching the road to quietly remark, "I almost expected you to
push her harder than that."
"I want to go over the security data first," was Nene's quiet
answer, "we need to know everything they got away with before we go back
to ask more questions." She smiled slightly, "And I want to look into
this Ayanami, too."
"That makes sense," Lisa nodded slightly in agreement. She
hesitated for a moment before quietly asking her superior officer, "Do
you think that Re-genex will try to launch a reprisal attack on whomever
they think did this?"
"I hope not," Nene scowled, "but probably."
Lisa looked worried, "If that happens what do we do?"
Nene sighed softly, "There's not much we can do, just try our
best to keep things from escalating any further."
Lisa was about to say something more when the onboard computer
chirped. Lisa called up the data quickly, frowning as she read the
initial report. "Those were military grade suits that attacked
Re-genex," she reported.
"Marvelous," Nene muttered, "just what we needed."
Back to Megatokyo Burning Index - Back to Bubblegum Crisis Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction