Chapter 40
“Suit up and jack in!” Andrews twirled his hands in the air, motioning for the assault to go forward. Men and women snapped into motion at his command. Net breakers jumped into their seats, while techs quickly wired them in. The neural deck of each chair hummed to life, filling the operation center with the acrid smell of superheated electronics.
The lights in the room dimmed, until only the blue glow of monitors was the only source of light which cast itself upon the techs, giving them an ethereal glow to their faces. Lights quickly turned on, but only to illuminate the walkway.
“I want eyes on the inside.” Andrews ordered. “No one moves until our cowboys break their networks. Am I understood?”
“Yes sir!” The room shouted in uniosion.
“Net breakers are in the ether, sir.” A tech informed him without looking away from her monitor.
“Get a function in there so I can see what's going on, and put it on the main screen.”
Within a few seconds the main screen, which encompassed most of the far wall, displayed the five net breakers in the ether. Their avatars were all generic Cy-Tech models, black, almost robotic looking.
“What level are they going in at?” Andrews asked while he passed back and forth.
“Second.” A male voice answered from somewhere in the dark room. Geraldo tried to change the settings of his optics so that he could make better use of the low light, but his hud only flashed the words “Fuction disabled.”
A tech walked up and whispered into his ear. “We have suspended your implants. Company policy.”
Geraldo ground his teeth, readying a quick retort, but before he could speak the net runners displayed on the main screen began to move toward the building where Gabriela allegedly was being harbored.
“What are we looking at?” Geraldo asked his new friend.
“It’s a rendering of a submesh of the ether.”
Geraldo had never been in the ether. Brain docks were expensive and the decks needed to do anything more than a meta deck were too far out of his pay range. What he saw amazed him. He could recognize the city around the net breakers, but it was more of a background. The buildings that reached up to cradle the Upper City were more gray and lifeless than in reality. They were nothing more than monocolor shapes, with what looked like bright, golden vines snaking around them, reaching to the Upper City, which was like a golden canopy of some dark forest.
“What are the lights?” He asked, his mouth gaping open. He found himself leaning forward.
“Data streams, hard wired.” The tech explained. “Each point of light is tech that is interfaced with the ether, every pocket terminal, meta deck, all the way down to hearing implants. All data points, sending and receiving data. Have you ever seen the ether?”
Geraldo looked back at the tech. She was shorter than him, the sheen of sweat on her forehead glowed in the blue light. “I’m too poor to go there, too old to give a shit about it.” He admitted.
“Well,” The tech smiled. “Sit back and watch. You are in for a treat.”
The tech moved beside him, and they watched together.
The net breakers fanned out, and made their way to the building. Geraldo noticed that the building had no data lines, or data points. “That building looks lifeless.”
“They are encrypting their data.”
“Enemy net breaker.” Someone in the room announced. The Cy-Tech net breakers stopped their advance, and a single, golden avatar appeared before them.
“That's Soma.” Andrews declared. “I want that fuck flatlined. All net breakers are to eliminate him.”
“Shouldn't you just send one or two after him?” Brian asked. “Have the rest break the building's encryption?”
“That asshole has been a thorn in the world's side for years. Think about it. We bag him and Gabriela, that's more than a kudos to us, that's a goddamn promotion. Go.” Andrews waved his hand. “Get him.”
The net breakers surrounded Soma, each of them materializing martial weapons into their hands.
“Each weapon is a function designed to flat line an opponent.” The tech answered Geraldo’s question before he could even ask. “The function that is allowing us to look is only giving us a rendering, processing it down to more basic components for us to make sense of it all.”
“Thoughtful of it.” Geraldo mumbled without looking away.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The net breakers made their move, attacking in unison. Soma countered and blocked, spinning and twirling out of the way of each attack. Just when Geraldo thought that he was done for, the ground in the ether buckled and collapsed, forming a symmetrical hole, which he used to escape the onslaught. He lept backwards, arms outstretched, into a perfect dive into the hole.
“Enemy is going down a layer.”
“Follow him. Keep two of our cowboys up top in case he tries to double back.”
Three of the net runners followed Soma down the rabbit hole. Geraldo couldn't tell if they were falling or running down the hole, which was more of a tunnel that shifted and twisted as the net breakers ran along its walls. They cast out functions that looked more like orbs with twisting wires that sparked along the tunnel's surface.
Soma either dispatched the functions, or dodged them gracefully. Jumping from wall to wall, twisting just as the wires were about to touch him, letting the function pass him by.
Geraldo looked at his new friend, her jaw was clenched and her eyes focused on the screen. Clearly this was not going as planned. Geraldo couldn’t help but smile a little. He didn’t know who was right or wrong in this cluster fuck he had found himself, but somewhere in his heart he was rooting for Gabriela.
Soma managed to flatline the first net breaker. Just as the net breaker was about to reach him, the tunnel split, causing the net breaker to smash into the wall, tumbling down the tunnel. Soma dispatched him with one quick thrust of his blade. Alarms called out from one of the netchairs, the body strapped to it convulsed.
“Get him out of the chair and wire up another cowboy!” Andrews barked.
Techs quickly unstrapped the now lifeless body and rolled it out of the chair. It fell to the floor with a deep thud, its limbs sprawled out. The next net runner simply stepped over the body of their fallen comrade and strapped in. No one moved the body.
The remaining two net breakers managed to avoid Soma’s trick. One found themselves traveling down the same tunnel as Soma, while the other took the latter.
Both tunnels opened up onto the same cityscape that they had left, but this one was different. The monocolor buildings were replaced with wired mesh models. Even the net runners and Soma’s avatar were replaced with mesh.
“What is going on?”
“The deeper you go into the ether the more abstract it becomes, which makes it harder to render.”
Soma and his pursuer fell from the sky above. Their blades clashed again and again as they fell. A second hole opened up and they fell into it.
“He’s going deeper.” Someone called out.
“This piece of shit has a death wish.” Andrews laughed out. “Keep pursuing him. Either kill him or let him fragment.”
Geraldo watched the two of them battle as they fell through the tunnel. When they broke through their avatars were nothing more than stick figures. The two net breakers that were pursuing him jolted and shook in their chairs. The strain of going so deep into the ether was now physical.
Soma didn't even need to finish the net breaker he was grappling with. The poor fuck’s heart gave out, and he flatlined in his chair.
“Fuck!” Andrews shouted. “Get the next one ready.”
“I’m not going down there.” The next breaker in line announced.
Andrews turned toward him and pulled out his pistol, leveling it at the net break. “Get your ass in the chair.” He ordered cooly as he pulled the hammer back.
The net breaker did as he was told, allowing the techs to jack him in.
Andrews didn't holster his side arm. He turned around and addressed the room. “This is not a daycare. There will be no pretty pleases or snacks. You will do as you are told. Am I understood?”
Another resounding, “Yes sir!” answered him, but it lacked the bravado of the previous.
“Our final net breaker is about to make contact.”
Geraldo held his breath as Soma landed and stumbled on the flat featureless ground of the ether. Before he could right himself his final pursuer collided with him. They both fell to the ground, which gave way into another hole and another tunnel. This one was shorter. There were no longer any buildings, no data line, just darkness and the two net breakers. Their avatars were now just ones and zeros grouped together in humanoid shapes.
”What's wrong, why can't we see anything?” Geraldo demanded.
“They are too deep for the function to process what they are seeing. No one goes this deep.”
Geraldo watched as the two of them struggled to their feet. They swayed, holding their blades which seemed almost too heavy for them. They looked at each other for a moment before they each rushed forward.
The Cy-Tech net breaker doubled over and fell, shattering into billions of ones and zeros, which dissipated into the ink-black darkness around them. His consciousness fragmented and absorbed into the ether.
The body in the chair jerked and flatlined. No one stepped up to take his place. Every eye was glued to the main screen.
Soma fell to his knees, his body beginning to dissolve.
“That's right, fragment you fuck.” Andrews hissed.
This was how it was going to end for the great Soma, Geraldo could see that. Not bested by a better mance, but victim of his own huboris.Like Ichoris, he flew too close to the sun. Geraldo began to turn away from the screen in solemn silence while Andrews laughed and ordered the remaining net breaker to break the building's encryption.
“Sir?” A tech said shakily. “I don’t think he is fragmenting.”
“Bullshit.” The smile on Andrews face slipped away as he shoved the tech to the side to get a better look at the data they were watching.
Geraldo turned around and stepped forward. He watched in amazement as Soma began to reassemble himself, pulling his lost data from the darkness as he stood, and then, with one leap, he sprung up, in the levels above, his avatar reforming with each level he passed.
“How the fuck is this possible?” Andrews demanded, but no one would answer him, Geraldo knew that no one had that answer.
Up and up Soma went, until he was back to second level. The three net breakers waiting for him took a step back as he landed in front of them. Before they could react, Soma unleashed what seemed to be every function he had at his disposal. The shocked net breakers had no time to react. Each and everyone of them flatlined.
The room was silent.
“Proceed with the assault.” Andrews whispered.
“Sir, we don’t know what they have in there.”
“Proceed with the goddamn assault!” He screamed.