(Well, that went to shit.)
Although this was slightly early to reveal things, Mac quickly forced himself to look at the bright side of things.
"I can't really put this genie back into the bottle, so might as well milk it for what it's worth…"
Questionable analogies aside, the fact that Mac didn't have to hide as much as before opened him up for other tactical decisions such as boots on the ground and permanent assets within the atmosphere. Addressing the computer onboard his dropship, Mac's expression warped into a thin smile.
"Spin up the fabs and crack the prefabricated blanks out of cold storage in graveyard orbit; give me one detachment of Lynx APCs, IFVs, SPGs, SPMs, SHORADs and MLRS with the usual FLAC and comm elements."
The Lynx pattern of armoured fighting vehicles was designed to be transported between star systems as blanks, then they could quickly be outfitted to do anything from VIP transport to short range air defence, a reliable all around platform, so to say.
"I also want a support element of Rhino A/SMBTs and any kind of HIMAD on tracks just to be ultra safe."
It wasn't often Mac found himself needing a long range air defence with cruisers in orbit, but the few times he did made him include them anyway. In stark contrast to that Mac had never caught himself saying he had too many main battle tanks, so it was always good to have a couple on hand ready to deploy from orbit.
[COMPOUND MANUFACTURING / FABRICATION ORDER ADDED TO PRODUCTION QUEUE, TIME TO COMPLETION; 2219 STANDARD HOURS.]
"Carve out a spear tip just in case, and add a Lighthouse for deployment above the current zone of interest, to serve as a mesh command node, munitions depot and servicing station.
[LIGHTHOUSE REACTIVATION AND DEPLOYMENT REQUEST CONFIRMED, MOVING TO CHEMICAL BOOSTER INSPECTIONS AND GRAVITY ENGINE REKINDLING; 94 STANDARD HOURS UNTIL EXPECTED COMPLIANCE, 116 STANDARD HOURS UNTIL LIGHTHOUSE-01 ON STATION.]
With the deployment of ground assets came the need to resupply them, and while that was possible by sending dropships constantly back and forth, Mac would much rather deploy a forward depot and handle everything in high atmosphere.
"For Lighthouse defence, spin up the usual; air superiority, skimmers and prowlers with AAR, AEW&C and FLAC for support."
[COMPOUND REACTIVATION ORDER ADDED TO PRODUCTION QUEUE. MOVING TO INSPECT AND DEPLOY 2ND, 19TH AND 221ST AIR WING WITH LIGHTHOUSE-01, 116 STANDARD HOURS UNTIL COMPLIANCE.]
With a base in high atmosphere came a need to defend it, luckily atmospheric air combat didn't have radically different demands, so unlike ground forces that were far more tailored for each planet they would deploy on, Mac could rely on assets he had been storing in graveyard orbit for a while now. Already packaged with one use chemical boosters and atmospheric reentry shielding just like the lighthouse, these air assets could move into high atmosphere by themselves after a quick inspection.
(That should tie up manufacturing for the next few months… Now that my cover is partly blown I should also start introducing myself to the lowlifes of this kingdom, they need to know touching any of my assets, interest or units will burn quite badly.)
As Mac had prepared his tools of conflict and started looking for a reason to use them a high priority comm request came through from his newest employee.
Over the last few days, the sales Tia was making had really started exploding. For the first week or so working for Mac and machinations she had mostly sold through word of mouth and on the recommendations and guarantees from her father, but at this point people had started seeking her and her product out. It had even gotten to the point where Mac had increased his daily night time deliveries to such an amount Tia had to receive them outside of town in the middle of the night. This extra word wasn't really that though however, as Mac had showered Tia with even more bonuses and paid time off after these night time excursions, her pay had gotten to the point where she could retire along with her dad today if she really wanted and live out the rest of her life in relative luxury.
(In for a penny, in for a pound… Mac really did mean it when he said 'payment beyond your wildest dreams'.)
Of course, it hadn't been all upsides, as Tia was now working longer hours than she did when she was a self employed peddler, and she was definitely attracting more of the bad kind of attention moving such a large amount of goods with seemingly no supplier. Although the guards or knights hadn't started becoming interested in where Tia got her supplies from, the people whose market she was cutting into were, and those people had started complaining, partly to the law that wasn't quite listing yet, but also to more nefarious actors. There was no business without some sort of corruption or grey dealings, whether it was the big players that sometimes got their goods tax exempt, smaller players who paid for bandits to look the other way when their convoys rolled through dangerous trade routes almost everyone who were in this business and moving any real kind of volume had dealings like that. It had been no surprise to Tia when she started feeling eyes on her when she moved through town, be it guards, adventurers or just ordinary looking people, information on her moves and dealings would be starting to gain value on the grey market.
That is to say, both Tia and Mac had expected to gain some amount of negative attention by drastically undercutting a market like they were doing, only Tia didn't expect to feel eyes on her when she was on a deserted road on the way back to town with a fresh batch of synthetic coal.
Hence why she was contacting Mac.
"Mac?"
Clasping the necklace like she had been instructed, Tia spoke up, and a response quickly came through from the other side.
[What's up?]
"I think I'm being followed, outside of town."
[... Standby.]
Hearing his tone turn serious, Tia's nerves eased slightly. That didn't make the next minute of silence any easier however.
"Mac?... You know what, I might be paranoid. It's no-"
[No, you're being shadowed alright. It just took me a second to find the rat trailing you.]
Having her fears confirmed, Tia suddenly started feeling a lot of eyes on her as she looked around from on top of her lizard-drawn wagon, only the only thing she saw was forest around her.
"W-what do I do?"
More silence.
"Mac?"
[You do nothing, just continue on.]
(You say that like it's just nothing to ignore somebody stalking you.)
Now that she knew her instincts were correct, Tia couldn't just start ignoring them when they were screaming at her to run.
[While you do your best to ignore it, I will be poking a bear in just a second.]
Before Tia could even ask what that meant she heard screaming from somewhere behind her, then Mac's voice appeared again from her necklace.
[Bear has been poked, you may proceed while I have a nice 'chat' with them.]
"O-okay."
The shadow which had been following Tia was a single person, or bear-like demi-human to be accurate. The reason why Mac hadn't immediately spotted them with the countless mechanical eyes trained on Tia at all times were due to some kind of magic that made them invisible, to normal light that is. After switching to inferred and compounding that thermal imaging with a bit of target identification and image processing it was simply just a matter of inserting a group of ground-type drones ahead of Tia and her shadow.
After that all it took was a single round from a suppressed short rifle through the demi's thigh to immobilize them.
"ARGH!"
Stumbling from on top of a tree branch down into a clearing, Hanna had suddenly felt a red hot pain shoot through her right thigh, and after crash landing in the forest floor, the red her cloak and clothes were being dyed with told her she was bleeding out at a rapid pace.
"FUCK!"
Freeing a leather strap from her chest normally used to fasten throwing daggers, Hanna quickly wrapped the belt around her leg, then used a nearby branch to tighten it until the blood flow lessened.
(Shit! This kind of bloodshed will quickly attract monsters…)
Although she was skilled enough to operate this far into monster country, she knew that it was basically impossible for her to get back into town with this kind of injury.
This was how Hanna died, she was sure of it.
So of course, that's when the Reaper appeared, when she was most desperate.
[CALM DOWN, I DIDN'T HIT ANY BONE.]
All of a sudden a strange, deep voice sounded out from all around Hanna, and as she looked up from her injury she found herself surrounded by cloaked figures, each of them standing exactly the same height, with a single red glowing eye in the head.
"W-who the fuck are you people!?"
Despite the fact that she couldn't stand with an injured leg and the pain was almost making her pass out, Hanna still drew a set of throwing knives as she desperately thought of how to get out of her current dire situation.
"W-what do you want!?"
[YOU LOOKED SOMEWHERE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE.]
All at once the hooded figures took a step closer in an apparent attempt to finish Hanna off, at least that's how she inferred it so she fought back and tossed knives at the front 5 hooded figures.
[CALM DOWN. IF I WANTED IT YOU WOULD'VE BEEN DEAD BEFORE YOU HIT THE GROUND.]
The knives Hanna used were in no way dull, so seeing them harmlessly bounce off of the hooded figure with the sound of metal hitting metal sent her mind into overdrive.
(Metal!? Then these are high class golems… There's no way I'll be able to defeat a golem master of this caliber in my current state.)
"Why the fuck is a monster of your caliber guarding a trading firm like this?"
[THAT'S FOR ME TO KNOW, NOW SIT STILL.]
In lockstep the golems approached Hanna, and as they stepped into the sparse sunlight cutting past the forest roof she saw golems unlike anything she had ever seen before. Having approached, countless golem hands quickly immobilized Hanna as they grabbed her arms, legs and head. Regardless of how much she struggled she couldn't free herself from their grasp.
[I SAID HOLD STILL.]
"Let go of me, the fuck are you doing?!"
Struggling in vain for a minute, Hanna eventually tired herself out before one of the golems removed something from its cloak and pressed it towards her wound.
"ARGH!"
[A TROUGH AND TROUGH HIT, NO MAJOR VEINS HAVE BEEN AFFECTED. SHOULD BE A QUICK FIX.]
Before Hanna could scream more as one of the golems inserted something into her wound, another one injected something into her arm, and she quickly felt her consciousness slip away as sedation flooded her system.
Next thing Hanna knew she woke up staring at the evening sky.
"Wha!-"
[I MOVED YOU CLOSE TO A VILLAGE, YOU USE THOSE TO HIDE, NO?]
Looking around, Hanna found herself still surrounded by the same golems as before, only this time there were only 6 of them.
[CHECK YOUR LEG TOO, IT'S BEEN REGENERATED.]
Like the golems said, Hanna's leg had healed completely, likewise she saw wheat fields in the distance, so she was now close to a village where she could rest and recover.
Even the few knives she had thrown at the golems had been returned to her.
"... Why didn't you kill me?"
Hanna had worked in this 'industry' for a while, she knew what the risk of getting caught usually entailed, so she was curious why she was still alive.
[BECAUSE YOU'RE MORE USEFUL ALIVE.]
With the strange voice sounding from all around her, one of the golems placed a few gold coins in her hand.
[GO TO YOUR EMPLOYER, TELL THEM IT WILL BE A MISTAKE TO MESS WITH RED.]
"... They won't believe me."
Starting to get an idea of why she was spared, Hanna still found the golem master's plan doubtful as she knew the kind of people she were working for wouldn't heed her words, instead they would declare her incompetent and cancel their contract.
[YEAH, THEY WON'T. BUT THEY'LL START BELIEVING IT WHEN ALL OF THEIR SHADOWS COME BACK SAYING THE SAME THING… STILL, I'M BY NO MEANS A GENEROUS GOD, I WILL ONLY SPARE THE NEXT 9 RATS, TELL THAT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES. AFTERWARDS THE ONLY THING I'LL RETURN IS THEIR HEADS TOPPED ON SPIKES.]
Delivering a final statement she was supposed to relay, Hanna watched as the cloaked golems stepped back and disappeared from sight like a mirage, only their red eyes remained floating in the air like a heat haze.
[TOUCH, FUCK WITH, OR INTERFERE WITH RED EVER AGAIN AND I PEEL OFF ALL YOU SKIN WHILE YOU'RE STILL ALIVE. OF COURSE, YOU'RE FREE TO BUY FROM US, WE CAN ALWAYS USE MORE CUSTOMERS.]
With that final warning, the red eyes also faded from view, leaving Hanna alone as she silently vowed to never get close to, shop at or even touch the firm known as Red importing consortium ever again.