Location: Underwater black site, Spaceship room.

Date: Year 2127 Month 12 Day 15

“Vera!” An ecstatic Revy exclaimed.

A much less enthusiastic Jun spoke right after, “What were you thinking coming here? I told you-“

An angry voice cut him off, “I’m sick and tired of your concern that is nothing more than a poor excuse to keep me at arm’s length while still easing the guilt you feel!”

Jun looked away.

Batou spoke up, his voice garbled due to his injuries, “Fis is not fe time for fightin, corpos are still shootin at us.”

Deciding to focus back on our situation, Alex asked Jun, “How much time do we have left before the submarines show up?”

“8 minutes.”

She nodded and spoke, “Not enough time to take it slow by setting up smoke screens, yet we also can’t charge through like we did before. It’s just too dangerous. I know it’s a bad idea, but we have to use the railguns on the ships that have been commandeered.”

Jun’s head snapped towards her as he exclaimed, “Are you crazy!? What do you think will happen when you fire those things inside an underwater building?”

Alex slammed a fist on the ground. “What difference does it make if we all die anyway!? We got lucky. Look at your father’s group.”

Switching my view to Kenzo’s I saw that only three of the advance party remained. Jun’s Father was missing his right arm. He had scorch marks on his chromed skin. Most likely a bullet found its way to the flamethrower and caused it to explode.

Before we could suggest anything on the general comms, any possible decision was taken from us.

Jun’s father bellowed, “Fire the railguns! Blow those fuckers up!”

He sounded a little pissed off.

Six ships had already been taken over by the gangsters.

18 large caliber railguns turned to aim at the middle area where the corpos took cover.

The thrumming of energy preannounced the upcoming barrage of death.

Lightning cursed through the magnetic rails.

The sounds of thunder erupted.

18 lances bolted at Mach 9 speed.

The ground shook.

A blinding impact forced me to look away.

Blazing air flowed in waves, scorching my lungs.

When the world stopped shaking we turned to see the devastation.

Craters of red molten metal replaced the trenches that the corpos used for cover.

Some of the shots pierced through into the lower floors, creating gaping holes in the ground.

Stray pieces of broken armor littered the shattered landscape.

Remembering what happened to Bobby, a part of me was gratified at the retribution served on the corpos.

I frowned.

She wouldn’t have wanted me to feel this way.

The pouring rain cooled the melting metal and extinguished any fires.

Silence and rainfall were all that was left after the deafening destruction.

Jun’s Father laughed, “We should have done that from the star-“

“What the fuck were you thinking?!” Irene Croft’s melodic and irate voice announced her intrusion of our comms.

Jun’s father was not intimidated, “Not everyone can just ignore bullets like you-“

A terrifying sound of straining metal dominated the air.

Spurred forward by a sudden sense of urgency we got to our feet and ran straight for the ship in the middle. Steering clear from the pits and smoldering craters in the way.

Liquid adrenaline would keep the most injured of us moving. Its effect would last several more minutes. After which we would crash.

Spaceships that had already been claimed began launching. A brilliant blue flame ejected from their main thrusters, propelling the ships upwards. Slowly at first, and increasingly faster as they gained altitude.

Any corpo sec or elites that had survived decided that they were not being paid enough to deal with everything that was going on. Most of them ran towards the still unclaimed ships at the sides. Only shooting at anyone that got in the way of their retreat.

A group of them, however, had a different idea.

Six corpo elites were heading for the ship in the middle. In front of them the three remaining gangsters from the advance party had almost reached one of the columns near the ship.

Jun warned his father, “You have six corpo elites behind you.”

Then he switched to the team comms, “Revy, Batou, Vera flank them! The rest of us provide covering fire!”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The grating sound of metal scraping metal intensified. We quickened our step. Revy, Vera and Batou sprinted ahead and to the side with their superior speed.

Before we could fire one shot Kenzo had already turned around and raised his cyclone.

He fired six times in quick succession.

Two headshots went through the visor and killed the corpo elites instantly. The other four bounced off the helmets. While they were dazed from the impact the corpos dropped to the ground to present the smallest target possible.

Kenzo did not stop to trade shots and started climbing the stairs by the pillar. Following the other two gangsters with him.

To prevent the corpos from getting trigger happy we opened fire, forcing them to scramble for cover. We didn’t stop running. Alex was firing with a pistol with her only remaining arm. Jun and I were barely aiming properly, our wounds and nonstop dashing further hindered us. We did not hit any of the corpos, who took cover behind some rubble.

They did not notice our flanking group. Unlike us, the three cyber augmented humans stopped and took aim at the exposed flank of the corpo elites.

Three grenade launchers released their explosive payloads, the blasts blew the corpos away from cover. Exposing them to us.

Caught in a crossfire, the storm of lead we unleashed took down the corpos, regardless of their armor.

We didn’t pause to celebrate our victory.

The sinister screeching stopped, and the floor trembled once more as something gave in below.

I looked over my shoulder as I kept running.

Behind us, the second group of gangsters, which had gone to the control room, were still by the first set of columns. Desperation fueled their legs as they made a mad rush towards the few remaining ships.

Behind them, water poured through the narrow entrance, chasing after the gangsters.

After a quick prayer for the poor bastards, I returned my attention to the front. We had almost reached the stairs that led to the middle ship.

Exhaustion set in, the effects of the liquid adrenaline faded, the loss of blood took its toll.

My legs felt heavy. Every step felt like an insurmountable challenge. My armor became a heavy burden.

I slowed down, unable to run any longer.

Alex and Jun also fell behind.

The others picked us up without much ceremony and kept running.

Batou was ahead, carrying Jun on his back. Revy followed, her left arm was a bloody mess so she had Alex over her right shoulder.

Lagging behind, Vera tried to keep up, but unlike the other two her injuries were affected by the weight she carried. Her leg and side bled as the wounds reopened.

Despite that, she kept running, the grunts of pain and heavy breathing being the only things giving away her sorry state.

By the time we reached the stairs the others had already started climbing them. Vera placed me down and leaned against the column.

While she recovered, I turned around to see how far the water reached, my armored boot splashed.

Looking down I saw that it was already at my shin and rapidly rising.

Not wasting any time we both began ascending the stairs. Our paces sluggish and unsteady.

The water chased us.

Slowly climbing to our knees,

our waists,

and to our chests,

I took a sharp breath as I felt it slide in through the compromised armor, the deep ocean water was freezing.

Slowing down to a crawl, we supported each other with arms around our shoulders to avoid falling to our wet demise.

When the water reached our necks a flat voice spoke in our private call, “Fuck, I don’t mind dying, but I’d rather not go like this.”

“Yea, me too.” The other replied.

The water enveloped us completely, we lost our footing.

Falling on the stairs I remained there, not getting up.

I was too tired.

Too tired of carrying my guilt and regret every day.

All I had to do was close my eyes and embrace oblivion. The water didn’t feel cold anymore…

The angry voices of Jun’s father and Irene Croft sounded in the comms, I did not pay them any mind.

A bit later another angry voice spoke, this one much more familiar.

I listened to her, “Get your ass in the water! You’re a two meter cyborg gangster, how can you be afraid of getting wet?”

More voices and arguing followed.

Some time later one big arm picked me up and pulled me out of the water.

After taking a deep breath of fresh air I opened my eyes to see that Batou was carrying me and Vera under his arms. He was climbing two steps at a time, not bothered by our weight.

His subvocalized voice sounded in my head, “Sorry it took me so long. The water made me hesitate.”

“Thanks Batou. That was… a close one.”

Right after we entered the airlock of the ship Alex closed the door behind us with her interface.

She then turned and ran further inside the ship while speaking fast in our comms, “Follow me! We have to get to the bridge and strap in so that Revy can get us out of here.”

The ship was vertical in design, a bit like a large tower. We climbed through different sections.

On the way we passed several bodies, all corpos, except for one person in black armor. Some of the corpos had their limbs torn from them.

We arrived in an area larger than the others.

Twenty sleek metal armchairs that were fixed on the ground were spread out in the room. Roughly half of them were occupied. In the frontmost one sat Revy, she was interacting with the many holo screens in front of her station. On one side of the room sat the three gangsters of the advance party, opposite them sat Irene Croft and two of her people. In the middle, on a raised seat that looked like the captain’s chair sat Jun.

We hurried to four empty seats in the middle area and strapped ourselves in.

As soon as we did all the seats rotated so that we were facing upwards.

Revy’s excited voice sounded in the comms, “And we are launching in 10-“

“Launch now!” Everyone demanded.

Revy tsked, “I was just joking, I’ll launch when I can, which is exactly… now!”

The force of 3g’s pinned me against the seat behind me. I got the feeling that this was not good for the wound on my chest, thankfully the painkillers spared me from knowing how bad it would feel.

Despite the intense acceleration it felt like we were barely in motion, as if only inching upwards.

Being unable to move anything but my eyes I looked around, numerous holo screens were set on the walls. Some of them were showing the feeds of the many cameras around the ship. The water had buried half of the ship. Much more concerning was what one screen was showing, a massive web of cracks had formed on the glass of one of the walls outside. It was visibly expanding to cover the entire surface.

“That can’t be good.” Alex said as she shared the coordinates to pinpoint the screen with everyone. All eyes went to the designated screen.

The force that was pushing on me doubled. Knocking out the air in my lungs.

“Your stupidity might kill us yet.” A melodious voice accused Jun’s father.

“Still worth it.” He responded.

“Can you go any faster?” Jun asked Revy.

“No, unless you want to pass out.”

The ship started picking up speed, the bottom half emerged from the water. The blue flame trailing it causing the surrounding water to evaporate instantly.

Near us, the only remaining ships were the two that had been taken over by the second group of gangsters. They had started moving only now and were mostly submerged.

A loud explosive sound made itself heard through all the layers of metal enclosing us. The cracks on the wall began leaking water.

“I think,” I began, “that the corpos have decided to blow the place up.”

We were high enough now that most of the ship had passed the roof, the surface of the ocean becoming visible on the higher cameras.

More torpedo strikes followed the first.

The cracked surface burst into countless pieces.

A wall of water descended inside.

Our ship was clear, but the two behind us were hit by the sudden tsunami. Derailing them and submerging them.

All the gangsters in the bridge cursed at the sight.

Jun’s father was somber in tone, “Fuck, I hope they have the sense to kill themselves.”

The corpos in the submarines would have enough time to board and capture any of the gangsters in armor. But death might be preferable. Considering what we just pulled off, I doubt they will be treated within the protocols set by the second Geneva convention.

As we gained altitude I looked at the downward facing camera.

A maelstrom had formed on top of where the site once stood. The vortex of water formed an almost perfect ring.

The ocean disappeared, we had pierced the dark clouds in the sky.

A single lightning strike followed by the rumble of thunder saluted us as we left the planet.