Corpo Age - Chapter 142: Politicking (Patreon)

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“So what did he say?” Claire asked immediately as I got out of the room.

I took a sip of the milkshake she handed me before replying, as we moved back to the main building.

“Well, stuff about the politics behind their company, for one. He then went over how they had undermined us in detail. It seems like he was the one to come up with the sabotage method.”

I ignored the side eye she gave me for stopping there and proceeded to press the button on the elevator.

“...Hello? That’s it? Give me the details.”

“It’ll be faster to show you.”

I ignored her quipping and went into my workshop. I searched around and found the small device shaped like a conductor’s baton and then went to fetch some spare parts I had lying around.

“He told me he was simply using this lifecycle tester to sabotage our products.”

“What does it do?” Claire asked as she tilted her head.

“It’s a simple way to test an electric device’s lifespan by running currents that simulate their use. Our friend, Luford, told me he removed the limiters and had mercenaries spam our products with numerous currents until it degraded like it had been used for years.”

“Okay…And does knowing how they did it help us prevent it, then?”

“Not really. Our products are already out there. It would be expensive and ineffective to recall them and have an updated version made. It would take a long time to have our production adjusted, and our enemies can simply change their methods. There are just too many ways they can go about it.”

“So why did you bother telling me about it, then?”

“Umm…because you asked? I needed to get something done here real quick anyway.”

I then ignored her and began manually crafting a cybernetic for my new friend. We had come to an agreement, and he deserved a ‘gift’.

Before I knew it, Claire was gone from the workshop and I had completed my task. I went back to visit Luford in the cell where we held him.

“Come out Luford, let’s get your body checked up real quick and we can send you on your way back home.”

He glanced up at me wordlessly but soon complied.

We took him out of his cell and went into the medical building, where I personally gave him a quick checkup. Well, it wasn’t that quick because I had knocked him out with an anesthetic. I proceeded to install a customer version of the spying implant that all my employees had.

While our talks had gone well, I wanted the ability to listen in on their internal meetings in real time and monitor the situation. I could then also react accordingly if he was losing out in the politicking.

Once he wakes up, he can just return and start putting our plan into motion. I’m glad I met him because being able to choose who to negotiate with is a luxury few ever have.

-----

Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation

Luford woke up confused as he found himself in an unfamiliar room. However, once his memory came back to him, he couldn’t help but let out a yelp in horror.

He had been captured by an enemy corporation and held against his will. They had then interrogated him and the crazy boss of the so-called Halls Corporation was spewing nonsense, like he wanted to be friends. Unable to read the man, it only made Luford more fearful of him.

Luford had decided to talk about the situation in his company, as he believed it wouldn’t have changed anything, but he was then presented with a proposal for him to return and gain control. 

It was a nightmare scenario for him that he had dreaded about in his youth. To be forced to betray his own family. However, the talks hadn’t gone the way he thought it would. They said they would let him retain control instead of making him into their vassal company and would like to just have a good business relationship.

Luford was unable to tell if they were serious or if they had far more nefarious plans in mind later on, but then they suddenly knocked him out at the cyber clinic. It made Luford more frightened than anything else.

Holy shit, did they put a bomb in me or something? What the fuck do I do?

As Luford paced back and forth in the room, the doors opened, and the man who had proclaimed himself the boss of the Halls Corporation nonchalantly walked in. 

Luford’s emotions got the better of him and he immediately leaped toward him as he was desperate for answers. Before he could get his hands on his collars, the cyborg behind him moved at an inhuman speed and took hold of his wrists.

“What did you do to me?” Luford cried out.

“Hmm? Don’t worry, as I said before, I don’t plan to hurt you. I didn’t do anything that could harm you. You can rest assured. I am serious about fostering a better relationship with you and your company.”

While Luford wanted to refute, the cyborg glaring at him made him think twice about opening his mouth. As Luford struggled with his internal dilemma, he quickly found himself in a car and was brought to a familiar area that was only a few streets away from his family’s company.

He forced his legs to move and started walking back in a daze.

Should I really fight for control of the company as they wanted? It’s a good idea so my reckless brother can’t make any more stupid decisions, but I’d be under the thumb of a third party… 

Dad…What should I do?

Having thought of his dad, he remembered how proud he was of their legacy, the company that had been handed down to them for generations. Having thought of that point, the smoke in Luford’s mind cleared and the light of determination ignited inside of him.

“First priority, keeping the company afloat,” Luford muttered.

He shuddered at the thought of the enemies his brother would attract if he let him continue to have it his way, so his next move was clear.

Luford returned to the company and immediately sent a message out to his current supporters, who consisted mainly of the old guards who had been with the company for many years.

The first to arrive in his room was Numen, the head of HR. He was soon followed by two others.

“Gentlemen, I’ve come to the conclusion that my brother’s plan is too dangerous. We need to come up with a contingency plan for when he stirs the hornet’s nest.”

Luford couldn’t afford to let out the fact he was conspiring with an external party and that he knew an imminent counterattack was coming, so he could only frame it as a contingency plan.

“Luford, I thought you agreed to comply in order to maintain unity?” Numen asked.

“I am. We’re not actively going against my brother right now, but we need to plan to clean up his mess for when he screws up. To present an alternative for when the goings get rough.”

“...I’m so proud of you, Luford. Your father would be too if he saw you right now. That is the right mindset a proper corpo should take, contingencies upon contingencies. You have our full support.”

The next morning, the acting CEO, Harold, had called an emergency meeting, as Luford suspected.

“We have several reports of our products malfunctioning. New products that we’ve recently sold, ranging from cybernetics to modules designed for fortified positions. Our investigators indicate it is unlikely the malfunctions were due to natural causes.”

A grim atmosphere took hold of the meeting room as people mumbled to each other. After taking some time to digest the news, one of Harold’s right-hand men spoke up.

“Sir, for this to happen at this timing—”

“Yes, I know. Our adversarial must have caught on to our plot and is retaliating. But fear not, both I and our allies over at GrainScape Technologies had thought of this scenario and we are well-prepared for it. We are ready to fight a war of attrition if we have to. Our allies will offer their financial support to help tide us over.”

“Harold! You said your plan wouldn’t hurt us financially in the short or long term. You do realize hurting our reputation will have a devastating impact on our future finances, right?” An old executive cried out.

“It may not have turned out as we had imagined, but it is still within expectation. With GrainScape’s support, we’ll be able to weather the storm better than our opposition ever hoped to.”

“But sir, we may be able to maintain our current financial position at best. We will inevitably deteriorate and lose market share from our damaged reputation, even if we win this war.” One of the neutral executives warned.

“Our position isn’t stable in the first place. We’ll have to grit through it and expel these upstarts from our market first and think about recovering later.”

…How is this any different from my initial plan of staying low as we retool to expand our markets? This is just the same plus earning us enemies.

The meeting devolved into a Q&A between the concerned executive and the acting CEO, Harold, while Luford stood by and watched.

There were no good reasons for him to interject at this time, but he believed in the other executives to be smart enough to see where this was going. After the meeting, he secretly contacted them to privately discuss the company situation.

“Patrick, you are a smart man. You should now see that my brother had fooled us with his sweet words, and the result he’s producing is worse than what my plan would’ve done.”

“...Luford, it’s not that I don’t agree with you, but it’s too late to change our decision now. The arrow has already loosed. We’ll still have to deal with this new enemy we have earned, even if we backtracked to your proposal.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Patrick. I’ve had people open talks with the other party. This sabotage stuff isn’t good for business and they’re eager to get it over with. They’re willing to forge better relations with us after we put this behind us.”

“...But then that would put us on the wrong side of GrainScape.”

“They recently just lost a war. Do you think they have the energy and resources to start any fights? There’s a reason why they approached us to do their dirty work for them in the first place.”

“...”

“There are no eternal enemies, only eternal benefits,” Luford muttered.

A few days later, another meeting was called, but this time, it was called by the CTO.

-----

I reached out for another handful of popcorn when my hand made contact with nothing but air. I glanced over to find Claire hogging the entire bucket as she was absorbed in the projection before us. All our executives were present, so I didn’t bother bantering with her in their presence.

I shook my head and reached over to the other side, where another bucket of popcorn lay between Thorne and me.

“This is really like those shows corpos usually like to watch…” a voice muttered not far away from me.

I glanced over at the speaker, Lucy, and she flinched back.

“Sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

“It’s fine.”

We all then redirected our attention to the projection that had live footage from a different part of the city where a meeting was soon to begin.

“You know, watching this is getting me paranoid about some big corp doing the same to us,” Claire said.

I was just about to tell her not to worry about it when I realized some truths about her words. If the level of knowledge I had at plus ten with my system put me on even grounds with the largest corps, then they had similar capabilities. Maybe I was even slightly behind in the areas each respective corp specialized in.

I could only master a few disciplines, but those megacorporations were surely not as limited. I don’t believe we would draw their attention yet, being just an F-Class corporation, but it was something I would have to address eventually.

“Well, maybe that’s why QuickLinks Logistics had the compound-wide jammer active all the time. We should look into something similar…”

Before I could brainstorm various solutions, the projection drew all our attention again. I could see from the perspective of Luford, standing up and overlooking the rest of his peers. It was easy to tell which one was his brother as they looked alike and he didn’t bother hiding his displeasure.

“Thank you everyone. I won’t waste any more of your time and will begin this meeting. For today’s meeting, I wanted to present a proposal to get us out of this unwanted predicament so we can focus on our business activities instead of these hostilities.”

Let the show begin.