It didn't take long for her to get inside.
Turns out, the sewage pipes were guarded. There were two annoying Maws cooking a couple recently killed rats above the entrance, and a single lone machine gunner at the lip of the tunnel. The lone gunner was hissing through his brass and chrome throat implants while he slept. It looked like he was sleeping while standing, the gun locked in his arms, while the joints in his legs and the fortified spine kept him upright.
Lorelei didn't need a gun, but she wasn't without weapons.
In the brooch attached to the tip of her tail, embedded within the sharpened bladed edge, was a tiny injection slot. The needle had three samples of poison it could deliver. The poison was made from her own sweat, hyper refined with a Lamia's venom. Once injected, it forced the victim to fall into a very deep and blissful slumber; one that they would not wake from for quite some time.
If that didn't work, the blade itself could easily slit throats, and Lorelei was always able to rely on her own magical skills should she have to resort to it. She hoped she wouldn't have too. She hadn't eaten enough to conjure much more than a small ball of flame.
Topeth, that was the name of this warehouse. Lorelei learned that while she incapacitated the guard at the entrance. She overheard it from the guards above, whispering and talking amongst themselves. They were so high on their own narcotics; they didn't hear the sound of their compatriot slumping to the ground.
One shot down, Lorelei made a mental note. Only have two left, need to move fast.
The guards above weren't paying attention, they seemed bored, in fact. They chatted amongst themselves, while Lorelei started moving through the tunnel. She could hear them even as she passed, their words bouncing off the walls all the way up the base of the pipes.
"I told you it was a Paxie!"
"No way, you high bro."
"He was there! I saw him! Dark leather bomber jacket, the implants on his neck—"
"Bro, chill the fuck out. Paxie's don't give a shit about us in the Vult."
Lorelei stiffened.
Paxie's.
The cruel arm of the TannReign. They were the sole thing keeping them in power, keeping all the districts in check. No one knew how many of them existed, or where they operated from. Rumors were plentiful in the criminal world, but no one had any answers.
It didn't help that whenever someone started asking question about them, they tended to disappear, only to be discovered in a ditch or in the river.
During the war, there were times when officers would suddenly go missing. Entire squads of Redever Combine troops were killed in the middle of the night without a sound being reported. There were also instances of prisoners being liberated with no explanation of how they escaped.
Only one word was ever passed around to try to explain these small unexplainable events.
Paxie's.
If there were Paxie's doing something in Vult, that either meant the TannReign really wanted someone to disappear, or they wanted to make a severe example out of someone. There was always the possibility that there was something even more ominous going one. That's of course if what these guards were saying was true; a pair of drugged out Maws were not exactly credible.
Lorelei moved quickly through the pipe until she was within the compound's walls. She then activated the stealth field in her bodysuit to help cover her advance. The suit granted her a small magical distortion field, making it hard for sensors to spot her, and a small layer of camouflage as well. It wasn't enough to completely hide her, but if someone was just casually looking in her direction, they would struggle to pinpoint her. Like a flicker in the corner of your eye, or a slight distortion in the air, Lorelei was able to conceal her presence, but only for a short time. The field was amateur, almost rudimentary for field work, but it was also cheap and effective. That being said, Lorelei knew her suits batteries needed recharging. Another reason to get this job done quickly.
There were several security cameras, but all of them were in fixed positions and they were old tech. All the tech here was scrounged together and barely serviceable. Clearly the Maw's cared more about their own self implants than securing their own base camp.
There were plenty of mines though.
Lorelei recognized them, she even spotted the smaller more hidden ones beneath the rubble. They were all military surplus. Voxsturm army regular issue, along with some Eshirith Combine from the war. There were some stranger ones as well, but there weren't nearly so sophisticated.
Once inside, Lorelei ignored the chemical smell that was rank in every hall and corridor. She had endured worse. The sounds though, they were enough to make her teeth rattle. Bone-saws, drills, and other surgical instruments could be heard coming from several rooms on the ground floor; they were mixed with the sounds of wet meat being torn and twisted.
She sneaked quickly and quietly, putting a little more power into the stealth field to help blend in with the natural colors around her. It made it strong enough to pass the casual eye. She navigated up the stairwell to the second floor where even more messy surgeries were being conducted. Lorelei ignored the wet sounds of drills cutting, and the muffled groans of people strapped to their slabs.
The guards here were more numerous, and slightly more alert. But they were still very comfortable. The idea that someone would trespass here was beyond their comprehension. Clearly, no one had infiltrated their precious lair in some time.
A few times, Lorelei had to find a corner to hide in, but that wasn't so bad. She had to cycle down the power in her suit to conserve energy while hiding under a desk or crouched low next to a wall. The closer she got to her target, the worse things got. At one point she had to lay in wait until she was certain it was all clear. What she hoped would be a ten- or fifteen-minute-long infiltration took twenty, then thirty minutes. It was starting to weigh on her, Lorelei had to remind herself not to get paranoid.
"Everything ok?" The clients voice whispered into her ear.
"Almost there," she answered back quietly.
She chose to avoid the locker room, instead choosing to pass through a small collection of offices to her right. It was a roll of the dice either way, but she breathed a sigh of relief, finding only a single Maw inside. He was sitting by his desk, leaned back, and wearing a virtual occulus over his face. Deep in his own little world, Lorelei sneaked past him without the need of injecting him.
A few minutes later, she found the entrance to the server room.
Here there was a problem.
A woman was standing guard, this one was not sitting idly by with her mind in the gutter. The woman was tall, with wide feminine hips, porcelain white skin, and immaculate curves. Everything below the jawline screamed sexually appealing, even her outfit was designed to expose the under-curve of her breasts, and her stomach was sheathed in a see-through plastic bodice. Tiny wires decorated her abdominal muscles, synthetic firmware was installed to her physical body. It might've been fashion-ware, or something more. Lorelei guessed it was a fashion statement.
The guard also had dove wings, one of them was lost, complete with clean white feathers. Her right wing was still there, slightly singed, but mostly intact with only a couple feathers chipped away along the edge. Most of her left wing was gone, a stump was all that was left.
An old injury perhaps? Or was she a former soldier? Lorelei wondered. Most likely she was a veteran of gang wars.
Above the jawline things got even more intense.
A thick metal jaw was crudely embedded, extending several rows of stainless steel teeth that comically protruded past her nose. Her cheeks were marked with fresh scars, and her eyes were replaced with a blocky square shaped visor that would definitely see past the simple stealth field her suit provided.
Shit…
The guard did have nice hair though. Long synthetic white hair spilled down her shoulders, matching her feathers. Its highlights were sparkling, glowing with red and orange neon hues.
Lorelei kept low, hiding behind a desk in the adjoining office. She thought about her situation for a moment, calculating, considering her options.
"Trouble?" The voice asked.
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking…" Lorelei sighed. "And you're chirping isn't helping."
"Sorry, I'll keep quiet."
Lorelei wished she had a set of schematics, or some kind of blueprint. She was following all the thick bundles of wires in the walls and ceiling that led her hear. If she couldn't get inside, then maybe she could hack the mainframe from another source?
No, these guys aren't the kind to keep backups…
"Can't get into the server room, not without a distraction." Lorelei whispered to herself.
She wished she had more hacking experience.
Slowly, she took another look. The guard was picking something from out of her protruding teeth.
"Oi! Valesca, get over here! You have to check this out." A mechanically distorted voice shouted from a neighboring room.
The woman glanced over to the source of the disturbance. "What are you on about?" She sounded distinctly Vult born and raised.
The moment her back was turned, the moment she stepped away, Lorelei sprung. She slipped through the door without making a sound and found herself in a room flanked on either side by rows of servers. Dull red lights glowed overhead, and wires covered the floor. Row upon row of computer monitors hung from the walls, each displaying an endless stream of data.
Lorelei moved quickly but kept her eyes open. There was one last person in her way. A technician sitting at the main console, his back facing her. He didn't even notice her or feel the waft of air brushing through the door.
The Maw was…
Lorelei gasped.
He was jerking himself off to whatever he was watching through his occulus.
At least they keep their lower parts intact… Lorelei was half curious as to the extent of their physical implants.
She crept up behind him, her tail ready to strike.
"Easy does it," she whispered to herself while injecting him.
She waited until just the perfect moment, when the human was on the verge of climax. The venom rushed through his veins faster than he could feel the prick of the needle. He jerked back, contracting from the sudden rush of raw pleasure. A thick spurt of semen erupted, spewing from the crown of his swollen manhood, as his body was wracked by the euphoric bliss of what would probably be one of the greatest orgasms of his life. He then sank back into a blind stupor, sinking into the depravity of his own dreams.
"Nice." Lorelei was impressed, scooping up his creamy left-overs. It was thick on her fingers, and very warm.
She sampled his taste.
Very salty, this guy had way too much adrenaline enhancers.
Lorelei suddenly felt a bit lighter, more sated. She licked up more of it. The man's seed slid down her gullet, and already she felt more rejuvenated, more nourished. Her nipples stiffened a bit harder under the latex suit, and her veins began pumping more oxygenated blood to her breasts. She could see crisp blue veins pressing against her warm pink flesh. The recesses of her magic were stimulated. She had more energy now, enough for more than just small bouts of flame.
With nothing else in her way, Lorelei withdrew a small pad that was tucked away in her cleavage and began downloading files from the mainframe. There were pre-installed subroutines on the device, and that did all the hacking for her. The files were massive, but the device sliced and compressed what it needed, allowing for faster downloads.
She watched the bar steadily rise until reaching one hundred percent, then breathed a sigh of relief, before tucking the pad back into her cleavage.
"This is me," she spoke into the receiving, "job done."
"First half done, now we get to the fun part." The clients voice sounded pleased. "But first, you gotta get out of there."
"About that…" Lorelei looked over her shoulder, noticing a shadow beneath the lip of the door. The guard was back and watching the door.
Definitely not getting out without another distraction. She checked her brooch. Only one shot left.
Another idea came to her though.
"Hey, any problem with collateral damage?" She asked. She wondered if starting a fire might both act as a distraction and help cover her escape.
"I would prefer you not…" The client answered back.
Damn.
"Why?"
"Because the data is no good if they suspect they've been hacked and infiltrated." He responded rather sternly.
Lorelei knew she had two options. Wait for the guard to wander away, or she could lure her inside and take a chance on incapacitating her. Judging by that woman's stature, Lorelei didn't like those odds.
Still though, waiting wasn't a good option either.
A minute passed. Lorelei eventually realized she had to take her chances; it's why she was hired in the first place. She had a job to do, she had to suck it up and get to work.
She checked her gear, then lightly tapped on the door from her side.
"Something up?" The guard asked.
Lorelei crept to the corner, her tail at the ready.
A slight pause. Then with a gruff sigh, the guard moved closer.
"I swear Alec, you better not be waving your dong about like last time!" She sounded aggravated.
The moment the door opened, Lorelei lashed her tail out. She couldn't take any chances. She aimed straight for the woman's jugular. Landing perfectly on target, the woman instantly lost control of her legs and fell forward. Lorelei caught her and dragged her inside, then peered outside, just to be sure no one saw what just happened.
Sweat ran down her brow, her heart was thudding beneath her breast.
Luck was in her favor, no one seemed to have noticed the disturbance.
Lorelei dragged the woman further inside.
"Hey," she whispered into the receiver. "So, it's possible someone will suspect infiltration when they wake up…"
She could hear the audible sigh on the other end.
"Just… Get out of there. Try to make it seem as inconspicuous as you can."
Lorelei looked at the unconscious woman; her eyelids were fluttering, and her neckline was flustered.
Such blissful dreams…
"Only one thing I could try then." Lorelei looked over to the man still sitting in his chair, his erection was still rather hard.
Lorelei stripped the woman of her clothes, revealing her perfectly formed—likely modified—tits, complete with sparkling nipple piercings, and her toned body. She then dragged her to the center of the room and gently laid the man alongside her. Lorelei then decided to rub some of the guy's semen onto the woman's breasts to make it seem like their dreams might not have been just dreams.
"It's a long shot, but I think I might have found a solution." In truth, Lorelei wasn't sure what they were going to think when they woke up. There was just as much of a chance that the dove winged woman would strangle the tech to death, as there was of them assuming they got hot and frisky out of the blue.
Lorelei had seen the effects of this drug numerous times before, both during and after the war, and it always came with varied, and often wild, results. Sometimes the people injected would wake up with some minor memory loss and with a heightened libido for several hours. Other times, they would remember everything but were too embarrassed to say a word. One time during the war, when a prisoner was injected with a rather potent version of the drug, they remained partially awake but bewitched and unable to refuse the orders of the succubus who then enjoyed him sexually for hours.
Lorelei only hoped they would wake up with some memory loss, other than the erotic dreams they were likely experiencing. It was also possible they knew about this kind of drug, or spent time with a succubus before, but Lorelei supposed she had no choice but to accept the risk.
So many possibilities, but nothing I can do about it. Lorelei sighed.
"A solution?"
"More like a fifty-fifty shot."
There was a short pause. "Good enough, I guess. Just get out of there. Meet me at these coordinates."
Lorelei looked at the coordinates he sent her. Her eyes narrowed. "That's a strange place to meet?"
"Just get there. We can meet outside the location. We got one more thing to do before you earn your dominions."
"Right, meet you there." Lorelei looked over her work, took another lick of semen, and then proceeded to leave the building before anybody noticed her.