Once the corpo grunt had recovered enough to stand he left, running. He didn’t try anything funny, didn’t try to call for help. He ran down 25 flights of stairs and never looked back. Smart guy.

Looking at the body of the one I killed I decided to leave it there, hiding it would serve little purpose. I was not coming back here after today, and my civilian identity was burned already. While leaning over to take one of the submachine guns I winced at the pain I felt from my left upper body, not sure if the rubber bullets caused a fracture but I wasn’t sleeping on that side for some time.

As I started making my way to the apartment to grab everything I did not want to leave, I received an encrypted message from Arty.

Arty:

Corpos are sending hit squads after everyone involved in the black site OP. Seems to be only corpo sec grunts, we aren’t important enough for their elite. Still, be careful. I apologize for burning your identities.

Wish he had sent that ten minutes ago.

When I entered my apartment, I started a group call with the rest of the team. Not that I was particularly worried for them. They knew how to take care of themselves. The two gangsters in particular had nothing to worry about, corpo grunts wouldn’t go into Sentai’s territory.

The call connected, and all four answered quite quickly.

“Did you all read the message from Arty?” I asked them.

“Yes.” Alex and Revy both said.

“What message?” Jun and Batou echoed.

A part of me wasn’t surprised that Arty had chosen not to inform the gangsters. Still, that was a bit of a dick move.

I decided to inform them. “Corpo grunts are after us, everyone ok?”

Alex spoke calmly. “Two SUVs have been tailing Revy and me for some time, I have been hacking some of the traffic lights we came across to keep a healthy distance.”

While we talked, I went to the bathroom and grabbed a medical injector of nanites, and injected a dose. This won’t fix my side immediately, but it will help the healing process.

As I started packing up my medical supplies and my cybermeds I switched my left eye to Alex’s view. She was in her black sedan with the manual change. A sleek motorcycle was driving next to her, the rider was wearing a black leather jacket and a helmet, but considering how close she was sticking to Alex, I could tell it was Revy.

They were not driving towards the outskirts to reach a Sentai district as they should have been doing, but rather towards the residential district that they lived in.

I sighed. “You can’t go home, they probably have people there already.”

Alex protested instantly. “But all my stuff, my gear, my clothes, my VR setup! I can’t leave my VR setup, I custom-modded the hell out of that thing. I spent so much money in-”

“Alex!” I stopped her before she went into the details of her VR setup. “You can get a better VR setup later, the rest you can buy. Focus on surviving.”

Revy piped up. “I told you-“

Alex snapped at her. “The only reason you did, is because you don’t care about anything but your stupid vehicles, which you have already sent towards the outskirts with their autopilot.”

Jun spoke then, his voice slightly irritated. “Just make your way to the coordinates I sent you earlier today. Try not to get killed while you are at it.”

He left the call.

“Be careful you all, Godspeed,” Batou added before also leaving the call.

Guess the gangsters were busy with gangster stuff, so much for lying down all day. Well, maybe they lied because they couldn’t share what they were up to.

I moved to my room to pack some clothes. As I grabbed what I needed from my wardrobe closet, I noticed a stack of clothes that haven’t been touched for a long time. They were Alex’s clothes, well, technically the hoodie was mine, but she had claimed ownership over it. I took them with me.

I wore my armored vest and the rest of my tactical gear. Then I grabbed the bags with the rifles, the ones with clothes, and the ones with medical supplies.

Looking like a pack mule I took one last look at my apartment. And lingered.

I lived nearly seven years here. The person I was when I first entered here is a complete stranger to the person I am now. Memories of better times crossed my mind, I was reminded of what genuine happiness felt like for one second.

Then the guilt suffocated that feeling.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Walking out I focused back on Alex’s view.

Alex and Revy had changed their route in the meantime, now going towards the Sentai district where the coordinates sent by Jun led.

Shortly after Alex's voice resounded. "They are picking up speed." She changed gear and pressed on the gas. Speeding through the wide streets she dodged the light traffic that was present.

Revy kept up with her and then accelerated to get right next to the car's window, she spoke to her in the comms. "Give me a rifle, I'll deal with them."

"We will deal with them." Alex countered. "After I give you the rifle, we'll turn at the next intersection. While they cannot see us we turn around and surprise them with a drive-by."

"But that would mean going against traffic."

"Weren't you supposed to be the awesome driver?"

"I'm just surprised you're the one who suggested this."

Alex’s tone was wrath made manifest. "They stole my VR setup Revy, my VR setup! Somebody has to pay."

I was tempted to point out that it wasn't the ones chasing them that stole her VR set but thought better of it. That would only serve to anger her further.

Alex set the autopilot for a brief moment, she reached for one of her precious modded assault rifles that were sitting on her car's backseats. She opened the car window and with what I imagined was a grave expression on her face said, "Do not drop it."

Revy took the rifle. "Yea, yea mom. Don't worry I got this."

Alex was livid. "Who are you calling Mom?! I'm your big sister if anything."

She then grabbed a submachine gun and set it on the passenger seat. That was a small armory she carried around.

I entered the lift and pressed the button for the garage.

The doors of the lift slid closed.

Alex and Revy turned at the next intersection. After making just enough distance to not be spotted they both did a 180 drift, tires screeching against the pavement. Engines blaring, they sped against traffic, dodging incoming cars, the honking of car horns, and the curses of the drivers following in their wake. The two corpo SUV's that turned the corner shortly after were completely unprepared for what was coming for them.

Revy raised the assault rifle with both hands, driving the motorcycle with only her legs, controlling the speed with her neural interface. Alex kept one hand on the steering wheel while the other one held the submachine gun that was now stuck outside the window aiming at the corpos in front of her.

They each marked their targets on the shared interface and unleashed a hail of bullets on the poor sods that had been ordered to follow them. The rapid gunfire drowned out all other noises.

Luckily for the corpos, their cars were bulletproof. The windscreens of their cars were quickly decorated with a myriad of cracks but did not break.

Unluckily for them, the assault rifle Revy was using had a grenade launcher. She switched to it as soon as she saw the bullets being inefficient.

The grenade hit the nose of one of the cars. The explosion resulted in the car making half a flip in the air, it landed on its roof and slid forward for some time, sparks flying everywhere. Revy dodged the incoming car, one hand back on the motorcycle handlebar to maneuver better.

Alex had shot down the front tires of the other car in the meantime. One foolishly courageous corpo sec grunt decided to stick out of the passenger window shooting his submachine gun blindly at her. She kept spraying bullets undeterred, the corpo guard might have been armored but the kinetic force of a shower of lead hitting you at 3 Mach speeds would still do significant damage. The corpo grunt found that out the hard way, the impacts made him fall from the moving vehicle and roll down the side of the road. He was not going to get up any time soon.

Despite his failure in doing any significant damage, one rubber bullet had found Alex’s right shoulder. Resulting in much cursing from her, she emptied the rest of her magazine on the car, even if it didn’t do much damage. “This is for the VR set.” She muttered once she was done shooting. Now that her anger was somewhat sated, she dodged the corpo car and kept driving.

Leaving the crippled corpo SUV’s behind they got back to the intersection and then turned, this time not against traffic. At a more sedated pace, they now drove towards the coordinates Jun gave us.

The doors of the lift slid open.

Stepping in the garage I walked to my SUV, I unloaded the bags with the clothes and medical supplies in the trunk. While the bags with my guns went to the rear seats, just in case I needed them. The submachine gun I had looted went on the passenger seat next to me.

After running the spoofing code that hides the identity of me and my car from the cameras of LA I drove out the garage.

While driving I received an encrypted call from Uncle Mike. He never did encrypted calls. A bad feeling ran through me as I answered.

“Uncle, what’s wrong?”

He didn’t answer immediately. Eventually, his raspy voice said, “I was discharged from duty today.”

I furrowed my brows. “Why?”

“That’s the thing, a good colonel I know was going around the base offering to discharge people and highly recommending them to take the offer. When I asked him why, he told me he was already overstepping by acting out of order. I knew he was trying to get us out of something ugly, so I took the offer. He disappeared without a trace later today.”

That was… worrying. Colonels didn’t just disappear in thin air while in a fortified army base, surrounded by a literal army and automated defenses. Unless they were doing something that they really shouldn’t be doing.

“What are you going to do now?” I asked him.

“Your father has always been nagging me to come work for Mars, said they needed experienced drill sergeants to shape up their military. I was thinking of taking up his offer.”

My concern increased, my uncle was spooked enough to go off-world.

“When are you leaving?”

“Tonight, one hour from now I’m going to board the shuttle that will send us to the spaceport. I spent a large part of my savings to get two seats from someone else. The second seat is yours if you want it. If not, I have a friend here who will happily take your place.”

Now I was really worried.

“What the hell is going on uncle?”

He sighed. “I don’t know, but the look the colonel gave me when he spoke to me… This is just my gut talking, boy. Maybe I’m just going senile.”

I doubted he was going senile, the old wolf managed to survive as long as he did because he followed his survival instincts. Even so, I was not going to run. Not yet at least.

“Tell your friend to go with you,” I told him.

“Aye, I had the feeling you would say that. Be careful boy.”

“I can’t promise you that. However, if all goes well, I might be seeing you on Mars sooner than you’d expect.” In fact, if all went according to plan I’d get there before him.

“Good, I wouldn’t want to have to deal with your parents on my own. Goodbye, Jack.”

“Goodbye Uncle Mike.”

After that call, I felt much more motivated to get this job done over with quickly, no matter the cost.