R4 had nothing to do with the lights going out. It did not come from her, nor did she expect it to happen. On that note, there was nothing stopping her from taking advantage of it. In an instant she was in a crouch, and then exploded forwards in a pounce.
She felt her claws go deep, right through a layer of armored coat and into flesh. She heard a curse and heard a click, just before her right eye adjusted to the gloom in time to see a revolver pointed right at her head. She dove down, ripping her claws from the wound, just before a roar of thunder washed over her head. She turned and ran, but not before her tail snaked out to kiss the man goodbye across both his legs.
Another shot rang out, wildly striking a wall and leaving a crater the size of a dinner plate. In a desperate attempt R4 reached out and grabbed Zephyr from where she had ducked down, pulling her towards the doors.
“Eep!”
“Shhh, it’s me.” R4 whispered as she lifted the woman in her arms like a bride and ran deeper into the theater. Even a casual glance at the entrance revealed it was swarmed with moviegoers trying to get out, and two more men in overcoats drawing weapons that glowed with a sinister red light. She wasn’t sure what the armed man saw, maybe the glint of someone’s phone as they tried to illuminate the exit, maybe he had some manner of optics that let him see in the dark, but when he started firing into the crowd she ran just a bit faster. E4 quickly ducked into one of the theaters, specifically one that happened to have been between shows. With a gesture she pressed a chunk of bone into the door, which opened like an umbrella so the door would not open without a serious blow. She turned back, just in time to see two theater employees look up from the seats.
“You’re not supposed to,”
“Shhh. Active shooter.” R4 pointed to the door and the male employee stopped complaining while the female employee went pale and quickly adjusted her shirt.
“We need to follow emergency protocols.” The male employee spoke up, an obvious tremor in his voice. A low BOOM echoed from the door R4 just came through, either explosives of a very large gun. “The fire escapes, This way.”
A narrow door blocked their path, the sign above it glowing faintly in the dim light of the theater. The male attendant pushed on it, with no results. “What the, this isn’t supposed to be locked.”
“That there violates so many fire codes.” R4 snapped. Immediately her tool arm was open. “Let me take a crack at it.”
R4 quickly attacked the lock with her picks, only to find it wasn’t locked. She gave the door a push, and it gave a bit but couldn’t open entirely. There was a tiny crack, but nothing further. “Hold on y’all, I got jus’ th’ thing.” Fiddling with her bag she pulled out a small tube with several joints. With one hand she held the tube, with the other she controlled it with her phone as the Tubal-Tech® jointed camera bent and peered through the crack. Just outside the door she saw a slumped over human form, a large black burn mark clearly visible through his brown overcoat. Beyond him a black drone with ominous red lights hovered, its four blades whirring quietly while a small tube mounted between its landing struts waited for its next target.
“Ok, dead body out there with I think a Mars Corp kill drone. Not goin’ that way.” R4 replied, stashing her jointed camera. “Zephyr, yer from ‘round here, how long ‘til th’ ‘quiz show up?” Zephyr gave her a confused look. “The police?”
“NGPD isn’t going to come down this far, not for a minor shooting.”
“Minor? Did ya’ see that gun? It was shootin’ dinner plates out a’ th’ wall? The guy shot me in th’ back a’ th’ head with a shotgun BEFORE even announcing the robbery!” E4 kept her voice down, but inside her heart was beginning to race. She wanted to be angry, she knew she should be afraid, yet inside she couldn’t help but feel a certain delight. Within she felt a clarity of purpose, and a sense of being alive. “Well we still have ta’ survive. How long until th’ Deep Fish show up then? They run this place right?”
“Couple hours maybe?”
“Well that won’t do. You two, where’s th’ next nearest exit. We’ll have ta’ go slow… are either of ya’ armed?”
“Guns are locked in the break room, on the other side of the theater.” The male usher replied, before turning to the female usher, “Unless Jor brought her derringer.”
“Sorry Hew, Jel caught me with it yesterday so it’s locked up with everything else. How about you tech, anything in that bag?”
“Just a RITE pistol, tier 0, jus’ good fer’ spookin’ lurkers.” This drew a look from Zephyr, who drew a far fancier looking black pistol with several lights.
“R4, you need something with more stopping power. You wear a MARS corp jacket, at least get something made by them.”
“I don’t think it matters much. Th’ guy’s tier 1. Unless y’all have a tier 1 gun we’re better off hidin’.” At that moment a loud BANG echoed from the door sending them all scattering behind the rows of seats. Hew pointed at the ceiling and immediately the lights went off. R4 glanced at the fire escape, and noticed it was on the far side of the room from the exit. She tapped Zephyr and the pair moved towards the back of the theater, closer to the door. At about half way there there was another louder BANG as the door was roughly kicked open.
E4 and Zephyr quickly found a hiding spot behind some of the seats, careful not to let them creek as they moved. In the faint floor lighting they could not see who had entered, but they were big and walked with a heavy tread. Every step made a dull thud, as metal cybernetic feet hit the soft carpet. A single glowing red eye scanned the theater, making E4 try to curl into an even tighter ball. She suppressed the articles she had read about how mismatched cybereyes had a 10% increased risk of cyber-psychosis compared to properly matched eyes. She tried not to think how popular night vision augmentations were, or the risks of her own mismatched eyes.
“Three types of lies.” R4 nearly jumped, before remembering she was the only one who could hear resonant. “Also you have night vision, if he can see you then you can see him. Also, new gig.”
Like something out of a movie
Team size: 1 (unless you want to invite that lovely young lady beside you)
Hazard: bloody
Company: Fangs of Mara
Contact: Red Queen
Reward: scaling exp per objective.
You’ve had a long day of fixing movie projectors and watching some cheesy action movie, what better way to finish than be IN an action movie. Earn experience for the following: Escape (mandatory). Incapacitate/kill one of the assailants (optional). Incapacitate all assailants (optional). Have an extra edgy interrogation scene. Get in a car chase. Have a romance scene (Zephyr is kind of cute if you’re into that sort of thing, or maybe Issac will show up). Have a tearful goodbye with Zephyr (just note tears may contain ravager isopods so that goodbye might not be permanent). Avoid losing your head (optional).
“Red, not the time.”
“Mara wants to know how the new claws work. Also the Deep Fish appear to be outsourcing
Squid theater Robbery
Team size: undefined
Hazard: 2 (armed intruders)
Company: The Deep Fish
Contact: Jel Harbor
Reward: 500 credits per intruder. Tier 1 or up intruders 1000 per tier
This is an automated alert. Intruders have disrupted business within the Squid Theater. Eliminate these intruders by appropriate means.
R4 swallowed hard as the implications set in. The low thumping of metal feet on the thin carpet sounded faint compared to the heavy thumping of her heart. She flexed her fingers, seven claws shimmering to life. If she could get the shooter, could she put him down? Were he a normal man she could, a knife to the gut would finish most fights, and she had seven on each hand. For a tier 1? Her lack of headache told her all she needed to know about the resilience of a tier 1. As the man trudged forwards she pulled Zephyr along, guided by the foot lights back towards the door. She reached it and tugged, yet as she did the door let out a low THUD and held fast.
“What do we do?” Zephyr asked, seeing the door remain shut.
“I’m thinking, I got it.” R4 fished around in her bag and found a small dead phone. She had picked it up somewhere, and had been meaning to fix it. The wireless receiver had failed somehow, and the battery wouldn’t charge beyond 25%. She quickly turned it on, using a hack she had installed to force it to turn on immediately. It took only a moment to set a timer for 10 seconds, and with that she threw it to the distant corner of the theater, though not towards the fire escape. “On three grab my waist and pull. One, two, three!” She pulled, and felt Zephyr pull on her. The door opened with a CRACK just as the phone went off, shining light into the darkness while playing a guitar cover of the alphabet song in the chord of A flat. “Move!”
R4 bolted towards the entrance of the movie theater, Zephyr actually outpacing her as they ran. In mere moments they were in the entrance, and were greeted by gunfire. The first shot went wide, and with a show of agility that surprised R4 Zephyr managed to make it behind the snack counter before the shooter could make another shot. R4 charged after her, catching a round that threw her behind the counter.
“You’re hit!” Zephyr exclaimed.
“My coat took the worst a’ it.” R4 replied. She poked her camera up to peer at the man, seeing him just standing there watching. “He’s not movin’. Maybe he’s hurt, left ta’ guard th’ door.” Even at her words she sensed a faint resonance coming from him, the ravager toxin wasn’t exactly an Xray outline, more of a vaguely humanoid shaped blob she should sense slightly through the counter. She saw him raise his hand and talk into a phone, or something like one. “Shoot, he’s callin’ th’ others.”
“Others?”
“I think there were two others, maybe more.” R4 gestured for Zephyr to follow as they slipped further back from the snack counter to a small kitchen behind. R4 immediately found the deep friers and set them to hot. Experimentally she wove a small ladle of force and found she could in fact scoop fryer oil without burning herself. She quickly found the fire escape, and with a hefty shove pushed it open. Immediately the fire alarm went off, a loud scream echoing through the entire theater.
As if called by a dinner bell two drones descended from above, both emblazoned in black and red. R4 had half a moment as the lasers lit up, their charging sequence preceded by a short glow before the matching beams of death burned through R4’s clothing in precise painful yet non-lethal circles. Immediately after the right drone lit up, flashing strobes painfully blinding her human eye even as the opposite drone, this one covered in what looked like spikes but were actually antenna, unleashed a barrage of zip bombs and malicious daemons. R4’s phone immediately went dead when a forced system update exploded into 23 Petabytes of nonsense, and an even worse one was uploaded into her skeletal structure. Immediately every bone in her body locked up, leaving R4 helplessly paralyzed… or it should have. A quick shunt forced that little update into a small repurposed node where it promptly burned out, taking the update with it.
“Get down.” R4 threw herself to the side as Zephyr drew a firearm and blasted one of the drones. Fast as a striking snake R4 was before the drone, and suddenly it had no more blades. She caught the device and immediately it began blasting out a garbled frequency full of malware. With the flick of a switch the drone went silent. “That was close, you alright?”
“Tier 1 lasers but tier 0 frames?” R4 asked. She tossed the drone onto an overhang. “Somethin’ fer later.” She pointed. “Let’s get while th’ gettin’s good.”
Behind the theater R4 found a narrow alley and several dumpsters. Yet when she and Zephyr attempted to run out to the street they immediately found themselves back at the exit to the theater.
“Did, what was that?” R4 asked.
“I don’t know,” R4 ran down the alley, turned a corner, but instead of running down the corner she ran right back. “Why did you turn back?”
“I turned right, but it turned me 180 degrees rather than 90.” She turned back, putting one hand on the wall and following it. She made the turn, took a step out of sight, and came right back, her hand on the opposite wall. “What in tarnation? Some kind’a space twistin’ weapon?”
“Tier 2 or 3 at least.”
The curse of the twisted hall
Team size: 2
Hazard: ???
Company: Fangs of Mara
Contact: The Red queen
Reward: Unknown
The plot thickens. A tier 2 or 3 weapon being used in a common heist of a movie theater by a tier 1 thug. Something smells like week old Tuna SCOP.
“Nope, not dealin’ with it. Come on Zephyr, we’re findin’ a new way out.”
Retrieve lost data
Team size: 2
Hazard: 1
Company: NGPD Office of Cyberpsycho Containment
Contact: Officer Bob Blueblood
Reward: 5,000 credits
Per NGPD protocols once the sideways gate goes up it stays up until the Cyberpsycho goes down. However, exceptions can be made for NGPD subcontractors. Bring me a drive with the new film that Mars Corp is so upset about as evidence, and I’ll get you out. I’ll even throw in a small finder’s fee.
R4 eyed the pop up, and relayed what it said to Zephyr.
“Is that sketchy, that sounds sketchy ta’ me.”
“Never talk to the NGPD. They have a backlog as big as the city, and are more than happy to put you at the scene of something you weren’t at. You probably won’t get time, since the jails are overcrowded, but it’ll be a nasty fine. Also Bob Blueblood? I don’t think that’s a legit cop.”
R4 peered back into the theater, noting no one had come after them. “Think we could lure th’ shooter back here an’ lock him out?” Zephyr shrugged, and R4 quickly prepared a trap. She configured a small electronic toy to make a loud beeping, and set it to do so if anyone opened the door. She messed with the lock a bit so it would lock hard and fast, as well as placing a tier 1 bone spike in the upper corner of the door so the next time it closed it would not be opening without significant force.
The entry way to the theater remained unchanged from when they left it, save the shooter had found a chair somewhere and was now sitting down. His revolver sat in his hand, while the shotgun lay across his lap. Just seeing it gave R4 a phantom headache. She watched the man’s head begin to nod, and with a gesture called Zephyr to run for the nearest theater with her. The door opened with a short squeak, and they both took cover among the seats. As R4 crouched down she heard a low splash, and looked down to see what she was standing in. “Please be cherry soda.” The coppery smell coming from it informed her it was not. She immediately looked to the left and the right to see where it was coming from.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Are the sprinklers dripping?” R4 immediately looked up, and noticed two things. One, the rafters were not that high up, maybe 6 meters. Second, someone had managed to hang a body from one of the lights. A low growl from the seats pulled R4’s attention back to them. For a moment she just stood still, not believing what was before her eyes. She blinked, resetting her right eye.
Her left eye, her non-augmented eye, showed her a large feline like creature. She could not determine if it looked more like a tiger or a bobcat, for its lines were blurred and distorted. In coloration it was, of all things, highlighter yellow. Its snout was a bit too long for either of the creatures, looking almost doglike. It opened its mouth to hiss, revealing long cat like fangs but also a split tongue like a snake
[[Ravager eye reset.]] Immediately R4 felt the thing’s MESH, and while she couldn’t tell exactly what it was connecting to, she could measure it as Tier 1. Even as she did something slammed into her ICE. [[Yell0wKhat.ent is attempting to breach your MESH with Yell0wKhat.exe. Retaliate (y/n)?]]
“Red, what am I seeing?” R4 asked, her claws out. Zephyr drew her firearm and fired three potshots at the creature, all of which hit. The cat’s features blurred, before resolving as mere scuffs on its fur. It growled, and lunged over R4 and at Zephyr. In an instant Zephyr blurred, reappearing a meter back while the cat landed, R4’s head spun as she spun to catch up with it, her horns buzzed like they were filled with hornets. “Red? Bleedin’ havoc. Yes, retaliate.”
Immediately the cat seemed to light up. It was not in any way R4 could see with her eyes, more a sense she got from her horns. The sensation was similar to when Bella had begun to resonant with her, a transfer of energy that let the other know they were there, with two notable exceptions. First, it was a one way link, R4 could sense the cat but it couldn’t sense her back. Second…
“It’s hostile.” R4 whispered with a grin. With a gesture she pulled on the sensation. Within the cat ravager toxin locked to cells, devouring whatever forms of energy they could find and resonating back to R4. The energy gain was minuscule, maybe 1 unit of ATP per hour, but it was enough that her vision stabilized.
[[Caution: Mars Corp Military hardened MESH has detected unusually high usage of several systems. Terminate?]] With a gesture R4 confirmed and the cat immediately froze. Not paused, not hesitated, froze like a budget PC trying to render a HD video during a zip bomb attack. R4 lunged, both claws sinking deep into its spine before she ripped out a length of fiber optic cables and two lenses from a 3d projector.
[[DO NOT THE KHAT!!!]] R4 felt her limbs lock as her eyes were barraged by a gold and green strobing banner. [[DO NOT THE KHAT!!! DO NOT THE KHAT!!!DO NOT THE KHAT!!! DO NOT THE KHAT!!!DO NOT THE KHAT!!! DO NOT THE KHAT!!!]]
As R4’s vision cleared she was left holding the fiber optic cables, but of the cat the only sign of its passing was the still swinging door. Zephyr had her gun out and was staring into the shadows.
“What th’, is that normal fer y’all city slickers?” R4 rubbed her head, rebooting her cyberware. Thankfully her regeneration protocol and ravager.exe were untouched, but several others had to be rebooted. Her phone let out a cranky whine as she reset it, but it turned back on. “Feels like I jus’ had all my ad blockers turned off at once.”
“I don’t know what that was, but it ran off that way.” Zephyr whispered. “And we should probably keep moving, I don’t think that made much noise but if they have audio implants they probably heard it.”
“We should probably get that guy down first.” R4 eyed the rafters. Despite how the theater was designed, he was only about 5 meters up. She quickly found a section of the wall already damaged by some very distinctive claws. “Looks like I’m not the first one with this idea.”
“Please just hurry,” Zephyr whispered, crouching next to a seat, her gun shifting between the door and the shadows. On a whim R4 reached out, trying to sense the cat. For a moment she thought she felt some kind of connection, before the sensation extended off in a triangle shape and dissolved into static. Shoving the sensation from her mind she quickly and surprisingly easily made it to the rafters. Spreading her arms for balance she walked along to reach the body. On a whim she took a picture with her phone, and at the sound of the click the body groaned.
“Hey, are y’all awake?” The body, a man R4 realized, began to shift. “Stop, don’t move, you’re going to fall!” She whispered urgently.
“Who the F,” R4 quickly clapped her hand over his mouth before he could yell. Yet as she did she overbalanced, and both of them tipped off the rafters and landed hard in a heap on the ground with a THUD. “Ow,” The man slowly stood, a low whirring from his legs indicating they were both mechanical and badly stressed. Immediately his arms opened up and long blades extended. “You again!”
“Shhh, active shooter!” R4 whispered. It took her only a moment to realize it was the same man who had been ready to draw iron over popcorn. Immediately the expression on his face changed. “Three a’ them, maybe more. At least one has a tier 1 pistol an’ a tier 0 shotgun. That, an’ that cat thing that got ya’.”
The man eyed R4 for a moment. “And what of my team?” R4 blinked. Gone was the belligerent man who she had stopped from harming an employee, his eyes were cold and logical.
“Sir, y’all were alone up there, jus’ like in th’ lobby. If ya’ came with yer’ family,”
“Coworkers, corporate sent us here on our day off to mess with any Mars punks who decided to attack the theater, had the nerve to call it a day off. Surely they didn’t go down without a fight.”
“Sir, I have no idea, guns started firin’, I hid.” She rubbed the back of her head. “I got nicked by that boomstick, an’ I’m not eager fer’ a repeat.” She paused, concerned how he would react but making a judgment call. “When we found ya’ some sort a’ cat robot was lurkin' 'bout. Do you know what that was?”
“No.” He lied. R4 could tell he was lying, and from the hardened expression he too could tell she knew.
“Well, speak up if ya’ think a’ somethin’” R4 replied, choosing not to call him out on it. “We’re getting out before the gunman finds us.” The sound of gunfire caught their attention, sending R4 scrambling for cover. Zephyr hid behind some chairs, while Mr. Blade took a position right behind the door. Just in time as well, for someone kicked in the door and unleashed a hail of bullets within. Mr. Blade lashed out, his mantis blades stabbing into the gunman, who promptly unloaded into his chest.
R4 saw where Zephyr was hiding compared to where she hid. Zephyr was close, and the blue streak in her hair was more noticeable. She calculated 4 in six odds Zephyr would be noticed first. If the gunman targeted her R4 could probably slip out, unless there was someone behind them in which case it was moot. A thought occurred though, she had seen how the projectors were arranged behind the theaters. It would be a tight squeeze, but she could do it. “Well Red, ready for a daring escape?” The munching of popcorn made for an answer. R4 reached into her bag and quickly drew some odds and ends, which she slid into her tool arm. She watched as Mr. Blade struggled with the assailant, not sure who was winning. Within moments she had a blade in her hand. She gave it a quick lick goodbye before standing and throwing it as hard as she could before bolting for the back of the theater. She was half way up the wall, claws again coming in very handy, before she heard the strained cry of pain.
“I think you got them in the eye.”
“Tier 0 knife, tier 1 hitman, prediction protocol anticipates little to no serious damage.” R4 replied under her breath, a stray thought wondering when she got a prediction protocol. She squeezed through the hole, knocking the projector over. As it fell the usb that held the film fell out. Almost as an afterthought she snatched the movie usb with her tail and plugged it into a cloner. As she made for the door a sense of unease and anxiety washed over her, keeping her from leaving. “Red, what’s that?”
“Don’t you know? Protocol dictates whenever you download important data you must stay close to the source. Weren’t you watching the movie?”
“RED! The source is a portable USB drive, it’s in my pocket!” R4 trilled in anger. She head the sound of gunfire and saw sparks fly past her head. Mr. Blade was still wrestling with the other figure, but while both of the gunman’s hands were taken holding back his blades a sub arm branched off from his main arm and had taken a pot shot at her. She saw the gun swing down towards Mr. Blade and begin dumping rounds into him. Not 5 meters away Zephyr was trying to sneak around yet the fight was happening right in the doorway. R4 reached for her gun, yet the idea was quickly dashed by the fact the gun was tier 0 and the target tier 1. In the wan light R4 saw a glimmer of the knife still in the gunman’s eye, and she had an idea.
“Red, can I turn the projector into a laser?”
“How?” R4 was already picking up the projector and had begun fiddling with the electronics. “R4, a weapons grade laser requires serious power. Even now most work based on chemical reactions, only tier 1 and above electronics can handle it, and lasers don’t beat out solid projectiles until tier 2.”
“I don’t need it to burn through flesh,” R4 finished ostoblasing a wire and slammed the cover back on the projector. “I just need it to burn through an eye.”
Holding the unwieldy weapon R4 aimed the projector and with a resonant command unleashed a shimmering green line of light. Now the weapon was unwieldy, and she was aiming through a hole in the wall at a target currently wrestling with another human being, so for a moment the light hit the man’s shoulder rather than his face. Yet with a quick jerk R4 re-positioned and shone the blinding green beam right in the man’s eye. The effect was immediate, as he tried to let go and cover his face. This was a mistake, as once Mr. Blade’s hand was free he immediately deployed his blade and the gunman’s eye was suddenly the least of his worries. A moment later he had no worries at all. A moment later R4 got a notification that the copy was done and she quickly replaced the USB.
“Well that’s one down.”
[[Attention: All persons receiving this message are to stand down. Failure to comply will result in legal action up to and including termination-Subsection 6 Cyberpsycho squad.]]
R4 quickly recalled the guidelines she had been given when she first entered the city. While NGPD had its own cyberpsycho squad it was an elite bunch that rarely left the tier 3 or 4 zones. The rest of the city had contractors that operated under their banner, and beneath them were the sector psycho squads. She quickly found a place to wait, where she would not look threatening. She took out her phone, opened the NGPD app, and pressed a button. In case of emergencies it would create a marker that would tell the police where she was.
“Should I disable that?”
“If they kick in the door and I don’t have it they’ll think I’m either an idiot, or an accomplice. I don’t want that.”
Within five minutes the door was kicked in and a pair of men with NGPD badges had guns pointed at her. Given they did not wear uniforms R4 guessed they were subcontractors. Both wore dark colors, and while they were off she could see the lumen on their clothes that would mark them as Deep Fish. “Hands in the air!” R4 raised her hands and grinned. Both badges had cameras, and from the gentle buzz her horns were feeding her both were streaming to somewhere off site. Either they were live-streaming a hostage situation, or their manager was watching them. That’s not to say they couldn’t be doing both, and probably were, but it told her they were probably on the up and up. “You armed?”
“I have a T0 in my bag.” R4 admitted. “You’re cyberpsycho squad?”
“Shut up.” The first one spoke, “Out there with the rest. No talking, and if you so much as touch a weapon I’ll blow your head off.”
R4 was quickly herded to a small group, which already had Mr. Blade and Zephyr. They were quickly escorted towards down the hall as two contractors checked the doors and two more eyed the slowly growing crowd.
“**** can’t we go any faster?” One of the contractors muttered, quiet enough R4 could barely hear him. “There’s a cyberpsycho in here somewhere, and they still haven’t found him. What if he’s in one of these theaters. We’ve got all these civvies and he’s just watching us.”
“My money it’s one of these civvies, they got their blood with the guy out front and now they’re waiting until they can get their next fix. My money’s on the girl with the blue streak. Never trust a girl with blue hair, that’s what I always say. Bet the weapon’s in her bag, maybe we should search her.”
“Dude, you want to set her off while you’re in knife range? Did you miss the fact the psycho ripped his guts out so fast nobody saw anything? Guy was tier 1, just torn apart like that.” R4 shuddered at the thought, a cyberpsycho, on top of a mugging, on top of the strange cats.
“Hey, open up!” One of the contractors exclaimed, banging on the door with his gun. Now that it wasn’t pointed at her face R4 could see it was some manner of pistol, large and blocky in the way that high powered low tiered weapons were. There were a few glowing bits, and her horns told her it was tier 1, yet the connection to the owner’s MESH went through the thin black gloves in his hand. She quickly shot a glance to the other men, feeling their MESH. Only Mr. Blade, whose real name she still didn’t know, and herself were tier 1.
“So just a heads up, your average human has 2D of force, let’s call it 3D for these guys and 1D for the armored vests they’re wearing.” R4’s eyes immediately locked onto their vests.
Mars Corporation Surplus Legion Security coat (T0-T1 adaptive): For when you need to come alive. Provides 4D points of tier 0 armor and 1 point of Tier 1 armor. Provides second chance protection. Note: Tier 1 armor only applies to the chest. Tier 1 armor requires one charge per minute. Charge: 5/7.
Mars corporation sees you watching, and reminds you that interfering in official NGPD business is a serious crime. If you are interested in similar armor see your licensed MARS corporation dealer. This armor can be yours for the low price of 1,500 credits.
“Nice gear,” R4 trilled back quietly. “So call that 7D of protection, and I have 7D in force. Even odds.”
“12D, that’s tier 1. You could go for the chest and have 7, but they’d only have 3D+1 to reply. If things go down, you can take these guys.” The contractor in front fired into the door and kicked it in. The moment he did a yellow streak bolted out, pinning him to the wall an instant before its teeth locked on his face where his armor couldn’t protect him and with contemptuous ease ripped his head clean off. “New gig.”
The Khat came back
Team size: 2
Hazard: Bloody
Company: The Fangs of Mara
Contact: Red Queen
Reward: 50 exp
You saw that right? That cat just ripped his head off, it was like something out of a horror movie. Kill it or survive it, and get the data
Zephyr grabbed R4 and pushed her down just before a roar of automatic fire echoed from behind her, scything through two of the other survivors before ticking off the cat. The beast shrugged off the tier 0 bullets and pounced.
[[Warning: Yell0wkhat.exe is has penetrated your MESH barrier. Retaliate (y/n)]]
“Run!” Someone yelled, and as one the crowd became a stampede, running towards the door. R4 threw herself over Zephyr just before someone stepped right on her back and over. Within five seconds the stampede was gone, leaving one of the contractors, Mr. Blade, and them. R4 spotted one of the contractors from where he lay, clearly bruised but quickly righting himself. Standing where he had been, Mr. Blade had his blades out and looked ready to throw down.
“Alright you stupid cat, time for a rematch.” The Cat crouched and stalked to the side, as if looking for an opening.
“Zephyr, are you alright?” R4 whispered. She heard Zephyr acknowledge her. “Can you give me your gun, mine’s somewhere in my bag and I can’t get it.” As she spoke the cat lunged for Mr. Blade. Just before it did she felt a surge in her horns, as if something was pulling on her mind. The cat seemed to move with inhuman speed as it crashed into Mr. Blade. In a show of skill obscured by his plump and soft looking exterior he parried easily and plunged his blade into the cat, leaving a nasty cut. In an instant the cat seemed to blur, and the cut was gone.
“Hey, R4, you alright?” R4 felt the gun pressed into her hand. “You just froze there.”
“Froze… That’s it! Mr. Blade, reboot your systems!”
“Who?” Maybe it was the tilt of his head, but it was enough for the cat to lunge. Mr. Blade ducked, bringing his blades up and skewering the cat. With a grunt he threw the beast off his limbs. “What are you on,” R4 watched as he froze, and the cat seemed to reform. With unnatural speed it retreated, yet as it did she caught a small patch of fur drop at unnatural speeds from his blades to the ground. A trio of shots burst from behind her, so fast it sounded like a single shot.
“It’s overclockin’ our hardware, stealing computer power ta’ slow us down and repair itself.” R4 announced. “MESH, force quit.” Technically she couldn’t do that with a simple voice command, but for her onboard AI it wasn’t too difficult. Immediately she felt a surge of weakness flow through her, her eye flickering for a moment before an error log appeared. Yet for the cat it was like being dropped from 4K to 144 p, its outline became digitized and it began moving in a jerky motion for just a moment. It’s eyes went dim, but only for a second.
Before R4’s system could reboot the cat lunged, yet when Mr. Blade moved to block it instead kicked off him and went flying for R4. She ducked, claws up, yet in a feat that seemed to defy physics the cat kicked off the air and tackled R4 just as she was getting up. Immediately she was thrown on her back, the cat’s claws ripping into her shirt and jacket.
“By the might of Nu’Grav BE GONE!” A blazing blue blade swiped over R4’s head, bisecting the cat horizontally. For a single moment it froze, then glitched, then R4 was covered in a strange ash like material and a damaged CPU.
“Fair maiden, are you alright?”
R4 saw an armored hand and took it. As she stood she found herself peering into the deep aqua eyes of Issac. For a moment time seemed to stop. He wore the same outfit he had the first time they had met, though he was not wearing a helmet for some reason. For a moment their eyes locked.
“I denote his irises are expanding by 25%, now is the time to speak something notable and profound.”
“Hi.” R4 stammered, before a well timed surge of brain chemicals brought her back to her senses. “I mean, thank you, noble knight, for the timely save.”
“It was but my calling fair one, and your voice upon the wind did lead me here. Yet this place is not safe. To the East then South you must go, for the beak of this monster is wide and safety lies there.”
R4 took a step, before freezing. It felt as if her joints had locked up, like a certain someone was stopping her from making a big mistake and messing up her big romance scene. With a quick step back she pressed her face to his, and with a moment’s hesitation planted a kiss upon his lips. The kiss was brief. R4 wasn’t sure how much force to give, being new to Tier 1. She knew Issac was Tier 2, so she wasn’t exactly afraid of hurting him. She felt a spark the moment their lips touched, and then it was over. She stepped back, a goofy smile on her face even as she turned beet red. Her knight in chrome armor smiled back, a bit more assured and a little less shy.
“Thank ya, hero.” And then she turned and ran, half sure she was leaking steam from her ears. “Red, what was that?”
“You’re welcome.” She somehow managed to turn even redder, which was rather amusing. “You sure you want to leave it like that?”
R4 paused at the corner, glancing back at Issac who was still staring at her. She gave a wave, and then she was around the corner and out of sight. “For the best. I don’t want to interfere in his work. Seriously, what did you do? It took me a week to even hold hands with my last boyfriend.”
“You’re in Nu’Grav, where no one’s got the time for all that red tape.”
R4 quickly caught up with Zephyr, who had already made it to the door. Another contractor ran a scanner of some sort over her, then did the same to R4. It beeped once on Zephyr, which the contractor ignored, and not at all over R4. With that they were allowed out. Already the area was swarmed with cars waiting to take any survivors to a hospital, or home. A grav car bearing the brand of the NeuMed franchise waited for any victims rich enough to afford them or too injured to resist. A woman was speaking to a small video drone that hovered on four small propellars narrating the events. Several men and women in various amounts of armor were milling about, most of them with the luminescent markings of the Deep Fish. Standing off to one side next to a table full of medical equipment Cutter scanned the crowd. Beneath her helmet R4 couldn’t see what she was looking at, though she was pretty sure Cutter was watching her.
“Let’s get out of here.” R4 whispered to Zephyr.
“Yeah, but we’ll have to walk. Fare prices are going to be sky high right now.”
Just as R4 thought they were going to get away she felt heard a familiar voice, “R4, a word.” Slowly R4 turned to see Cutter facing her. Her voice wasn’t coming from her mouth, but from R4’s phone. “What are you doing here?”
“Had a gig.” R4 replied, taking her phone in her hand. She eyed her surroundings, and quickly found an isolated space. Zephyr gave her a look. “Are you asking everyone this question?”
“Questionnaires will be sent out, though not everyone here has the questionable privilege of meeting my partner three times this month. Issac is convinced you called him here, warning him of a cyberpsycho attack. We come here, and what awaits us but the ripped up body of a tier 1 thug, drugged out of his mind and babbling about cats. Any comments?”
“This ain’t what I had in mind when I recommended a movie date.” R4 replied grimly. “There is some sort a’ cat creature in there, I think Issac killed it but there may be more.” R4 replied, sending a picture of the creature from her first fight with one, then another from right before Issac cut the cat off of her. “From how the one Issac killed died, it may be some sort of scath that managed to make it to the surface. It has some sort of hacking ability that can steal resources from your MESH, my firewall called it Yell0wKhat.exe and Yell0wKhat.ent” She paused, considering telling a bit more, before taking a leap of faith. “I’m not from Nu’Grav, so maybe everything ‘round here can hack into your MESH to steal resources, but the last thing that hacked MESH and crumbled away like that wore a black hat.”
“I see. Do not bring that last detail up in your questionnaire, I will know if you do.” She paused for a moment. “We will be in touch.”