Book 1: The Rebirth of the Aztecs

Chapter 7 Part 3: Bonus Sub Tank Acquired

“Brother Eisen, do remind the Chief Engineer Brother Ivan that I expect a clean sweep of all our tracking software after those ruffian pirates stole our submersible right out of our maintenance subbay in the Maldives two weeks ago. It’s regretful that they seemed to have disappeared entirely despite our high tech machinery, but we are a small nation with limited resources. However, I do hate to wonder what those barbarians could achieve with such stealth capabilities,” Uncle Colt said with complete sincerity over his face as he continued to bury his nose in the juicy intel buffet of a lifetime on his screen. Before Drake could react to this information about pirates “stealing” the mini submarine he was standing next to one of the tech monks sauntered forward with a lopsided jester grin on his face.

Drake took a second to look the tech monk over as a key materialized from his sleeves. Brother Eisen’s tan rob showed off his status as an engineer monk contained scarlet highlights leading to a sigil with a hammer and classic 1980’s computer monitor laying at the feet of a golden cross signifying him as a computer engineer. He was young to be trusted in the high stakes game of subterfuge roulette the Inquisition was always playing. The kid was having fun given that smile, but Drake doubted he knew what pond he was swimming in. This was a treacherous lake with no bottom. Even the most skilled found a sea serpent or two they weren’t ready for. Only the skilled, humble, and the lucky survived the spy games of the King’s crusades, and that was a fact Drake was all too familiar with.

In the midst of his brooding, the pirate captain was startled by the email chim warning on his watch, and Drake didn’t have to check to know the it would be an encrypted message disguised as a malware attack which would slow down his system for a day or two till the malicious program deleted itself leaving behind a series of codes and digital keys for the computer systems inside the sub. As big a pain as that was, Drake knew this method had allowed the Inquisition to coast under the radar in the global political scene more than once. Playing dumb allowed the sneaky monk boys to both feed their enemies' view of them as tech challenged religious hillbillies who couldn’t even keep their most secure systems safe from nebulous “hackers” while discreetly “losing” tech and intel to proxies and would be allies. Still, Drake’s watch was going to be the one freezing up like a strawberry smoothie not Uncle Colt’s. 

The Pirate Captain grimaced at the thought before catching the titanium and cobalt blue keys tossed at him by Brother Eisen. Even in the dim lighting of the sub pen the glimmer of the brand new keys shimmered and sparkled. Everything had to be a work of art to the tech monks. Didn’t matter if you were dealing with the Agrarian Brotherhood keeping cattle fences secure, or boys down here in the depths of the warmachine. Everything was functional, but also a work of art. When events allowed of course. Sometimes you just didn’t have the breathing room to edge a relief of bleeding rosebushes when the cartel goon with Aztec ghoul tattoos was standing over you with a club.

The keys would’ve been scoffed at by the powers that be. There was a time when Russia and China would’ve applauded the use of physical applications that couldn’t be hacked, but thirty years of relative peace on their borders were changing even the infallible. The real shocker was China on that front. Change was never fast in the Middle Kingdom. Most of the more religious and less Cloak and Dagger men of the cloth were theorizing spiritual entanglements. The Inquisition was keeping tight lipped on the matter. Which probably meant they knew something that Drake was better off not stressing about.

Regardless, many of the powers at large were phasing out many of their practical defenses from the World War Three era in small ways. In this case going all digital on more and more of their complex systems. That was a vulnerability the High King found intolerable. Someone might be able to hack the system of a submarine, but they ain't operating the beast or setting off its ordinance unless they have the keys. A bit harder to steal a complex device under the protection of killers and spiritual assisted wild men like his Uncle. Unhealthy would be the better word. 

“Oh no! I’ve been robbed by pirates. They stole the keys off me while I was drunk on duty, good thing we have a replacement submarine waiting for us in Great Korea, “ Brother Eisen said while straightening his back and slapping his head like a bad cartoon character auditioning for a looney toon convention. Yeah, the kid was having too much fun.

“I hope they don’t use those codes stolen by hackers to gain access to the emp and jamming tech onboard,” Called out another snickering monk from behind said sub who incidentally was removing a fuel nozzle. They already had the girl prepped for launch. Now that was service.

Unlike the submersible underwater scooters used by the legacy empires back before World War Three this beast was three fourths armored personnel carrier, and one fourth sub. She was slow as a brick underwater and she wasn’t going to break any land records either, but the metal monster could do it all. There was nothing like the shock on a wannabe Aztec junkies face when a whole light tank came bursting out of the depths to bail out the suppressed “trapped” Royal Ranger Marine squad who had played possum by the water’s edge. That little game never got old.

Drake took a minute to dance his eyes over his crew’s latest toy. His father had kept a sizable library for a man of the field, and in that collection was a history of arms for the second war of the worlds. The would-be pirate had spent countless summer days engrossed in the many machinations of pioneers in the art of armored warfare. There was one piece of machinery Drake’s eyes were always drawn to. The French submarine battleship mashup called The Surcouf. His new tank sub troop transport hybrid was like a smaller squished version with treds. Even down to the fighter hangar bay in the back though in this case it was a drone carrier.

She was black as the deep and twice as mean looking with the quad 10 mm turret on the top of the seamonster. Watch out landlubbers. She’s following you onto land. Like everything on this fancy tub there were modifications on this beauty. There wasn’t any room for the frivolities of the Baron tastes of course, but there was still plenty of space for all kinds of sweet toys.

First one that jumped out to Drake was one of the most childish amazing additions he’d ever had the good fortune to witness. The animal was too small for torpedoes so they strapped a pair of compressed air-launched harpoons on either side of the chassis. The trained eye of a marine saw the marked signs of high explosives in the tips as well. Drake shook his head trying not to laugh. The thing looked like it was right out of his Action Crusader sets as a kid. Where are my harpoons Brother Yosef! I need more harpoons! Best kid’s show ever. 

This was an unexpected bonus Drake could get behind.

The Story Will Continue Every Monday

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