The snack bar in front of which Aurelia was now located was anything but inviting. A trailer that apparently hadn't been moved for years, if you looked at the completely rusted wheels with the airless tires, inside a large bearded bear of a man wearing a dirty apron and a small white cap. However, the trailer was completely surrounded by people who shoved all kinds of synth meat into themselves. So the food had to be at least so good that you could ignore the entire exterior. Aurelia had never liked it in the convent, but she could never complain about the food. It was important to the priests to provide good nutrition in order to ensure the best possible physical development of the children. From fresh vegetables to real meat, everything was represented that you would otherwise only find in a higher Corpo apartment. All in all, the last few days were not pleasant, but the food was one of the biggest problems for Aurelia. She was forced to eat PrePaks and whatever else she found. The thought of eating something that sent the taste buds on a journey of culinary pleasure was nothing short of beguiling.

Aurelia had been standing in the queue for a few minutes and began to look at the people around her out of boredom. They all corresponded to what were called suburbans. Outcasts, those who refused to serve the system and criminals who enjoyed the anonymity of the outskirts. Dirty clothes that were often damaged, weapons that hung barely hidden on hips and under shoulders, but a certain aura of self-determination, no matter how neglected some looked. Apparently, many who ate here were those who lived voluntarily in this situation. Aurelia also noticed that many seemed to know each other and chatted with each other. Something she had never seen before in her entire time here, except with the Children of Nero. Perhaps there was a kind of church here that had become rare in the world. Neighborhood. Outside of fixed organizations, this concept didn't seem to exist for decades, at least not in megacities like New Berlin. It also stood by the palpable desperation she had heard in the tent cities along the roads further north. Everyone for themselves, suspicion and suspicion in the eyes of everyone and the stronger ones who took advantage of the weaker ones, be it through drugs, violence or the like. She remembered how she had seen Mary for the first time and someone had followed her to attack her. Here, Aurelia was not once looked at as if she were a potential victim. And it wasn't just because of the big rifle on her back, because before she had seen dangerous glances coming towards her again and again, but they quickly turned to the ground as soon as the rifle was discovered. Here, however... Nothing. She could even see a few smiling faces.

"Hey! Do you want something now or not?!" barked a rough voice in Aurelia's direction. She turned away from the bystander and looked up at the bear-like giant with the apron. She hadn't noticed that everyone had already bought their food before her and it was now her turn. "Oh, um, the best please?" the answer came out more like a question and Aurelia writhed inwardly. "Mhm, that makes three neuros" "Three?" "Three." Three neuros. So little for a meal? "O-Ok here please" Raya seemed to understand what Aurelia wanted and sent the money to the seller's account. "Fits. The splashing fat seemed to get a little louder and after a few moments a long, slightly reddish sausage appeared, which was cut up and served in a reddish-brown sauce. The bear handed Aurelia her food and turned directly to the next customer. A little perplexed, Aurelia walked a few steps to the side to one of the many plastic tables and began to eat.

The taste was amazing. It was hard to put into words, sweetness, dancing with an unusual spiciness, coated the spicy synth meat and caused an explosion of aromas in Aurelia's mouth like she had rarely experienced before. "Wow." came from her lips as she devoured her meal like many others. "Raya, you are the best" "Thank you" came back, while Aurelia virtually soaked up the remains of the delicacy. "How the hell can that cost so little?!" Aurelia asked in a lowered voice so as not to draw the attention of others to her one-sided conversation. "The cost of the cheapest soy-based synth meat is a few Neo Euros per kilogram. The ingredients for the sauce used have an even lower price, as it can all be produced artificially. The production price for the portion for which you paid three Neo Euros is just under one NeoEuro. The remaining two are probably used for maintenance of the kitchen, energy costs and the working hours of the cook. It seems to be a fair price, which will probably be the reason for the high number of customers." "Fair has become rare. What would it cost here in Celestia?" "Between 17 and 20 Neo Euros." "Wow. I'm slowly starting to understand why people want to live here. But the guy could certainly charge more here and still have a high number of customers, right?" "Indeed." Aurelia took her empty plate and threw it into the small recycling machine behind the trailer and walked towards the sales window. There were still customers in a queue, but there were fewer than before, so she waited and watched the ever-shorter queue. When the last customer had received his plate and no one made any move to buy anything, Aurelia stood in front of the big man and asked: "Hey, can I ask you something?" "I don't know. Can you?" So that was the kind of person. "Well, first of all, the food was amazing. But why does it cost so little? With this taste, people would certainly be willing to pay more" A rough, deep laugh rumbled towards Aurelia and the salesman leaned over the counter to her. "You're not from here, huh? If I asked for more than I need, it would soon look like this cursed city." Aurelia couldn't quite follow him and he seemed to look at her, because he continued: "Everyone here helps each other. Everyone is worth the same and that's why I demand just enough so that everyone can afford it and I can live like everyone else here. Wouldn't it be incredibly selfish if I listened to money and everyone else had to pay more for it?" "Yes, but don't you take your shop a little too seriously when you say that it would be like the city if you made more money?" "Hey, that can be. But if you are not proud of yourself, who else should be? And what I meant by that was that when one starts, all the others follow suit. After a while, repairing something will no longer be worth as much as before and additional money will be charged. One thing leads to another and we are at the same problem as everyone else. What is more important, that everyone is doing well here, or that I can afford more?" Aurelia understood his arguments, but it seemed surreal to her that this system had not been destroyed by greed some time ago. "Then you have my respect, I know that it can't be easy to keep everything here as it is." "Not easy. But it's worth it. Is there anything else, because I have to close now, family is waiting" "No, thank you very much, by the way, I'm Aurelia, thank you for the good food," Aurelia said with a sincere smile. The bear began to close the sales window and before it snapped shut with a bang, he said: "Reinold"

Aurelia looked at the trailer for a while and then retreated into a shady side street. "Raya, what can we bet that things don't work as collaboratively here as he said? I guarantee that there will be help here from time to time so that everyone sticks to the rules." "That is very likely. I assume that the betting offer was rhetorical in nature, am I right in this assumption?" "Yes." Aurelia took Exodus from her back and leaned it against a house wall next to her and sat down. She looked at the many people who were talking to each other in the large park where the trailer was standing and paying attention to their children. You could hardly call it a park, completely dried up and with hardly any plants, but the layout was more than clear. "I wonder how it works here. Even if everyone fitted in in such a way that it would result in a perfect church, there was still a danger from outside to be expected. Aurelia saw neither guards with rifles nor automatic weapons to provide protection here. So what stopped the booster gangs of the area from settling here and destroying everything? From what she had learned so far, this was after all the most common leisure activity of these groups. "Raya. Can you check if there are any hidden systems here?" "There is. Hidden cameras, scanners and isolated data tubes." So there was some form of security here after all. Then her thoughts from before came to Aurelia's mind. Some of the people looked like picture-book criminals. So what if this commune had indirect protection from one or more gangs? What would the gangs get out of it? Aurelia stayed in her shady spot for quite a while and just observed. Before she knew it, she had fallen into a deep sleep.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

A fine and elegant voice asked: "Why do we have to do this now? I thought the government had special forces for something like that." "Silence Tomoe," Aurelia heard herself say. Her voice was deep and smoky. She watched her team of three warriors line up. All in light exo armor with different weapons. Aurelia herself was dressed in a Full Exo bodysuit, with a dangerous-looking SMG hanging over her chest. Shouldn't all this seem strange to her? She was just a moment ago... Where exactly was she before, what had she done and what exactly was going on here? But before she could answer any of these questions, she heard orders barking. Her squad began to march, with her at the front. In her ear she heard her superior, who informed her about the situation: "-not much longer. Your squad will enter the city from the west and get the VIPs out. The bunker is marked and you are expected. According to our scouts, you'll be dealing primarily with the smaller beasts, Type A and B, but a group of Type F has been spotted nearby. The quieter the whole thing goes, the higher the success rate of the mission. And the quota is more important, so you or me. Understood?!" "Understood, General" came from Aurelia, although she did not understand a single word.

Her squad headed for a helicopter that looked too modern. The blades of the rotor were transparent and crystalline, the shell was made of glazed plastic. She had never seen anything like it. "Hey Boss, how much did this thing cost?" came the voice of one of the squad members, Aurelia caught herself writhing pretending: "Too much. I had to spend 30,000 coins for my baby here. But hey, beauty has its cost." A murmur went through the troop. The members went through a tailgate into the interior, while Aurelia went forward to the front and made herself comfortable in the cockpit. As if automatically, her fingers flew over touchscreens and buttons to launch the helicopter.

A soft whirring sound emanated from the engine behind her and she felt her leave the ground. With a practiced hand, she flew out of the military base and set course for New Berlin. The city could already be seen in the distance, tall buildings, many of them collapsed remains and burning ruins. Further south she saw the hotzone where, according to the latest reports, there were some really unpleasant aliens. She hoped she didn't have to go there to contain the zone, even with her current equipment it was dangerous. Let the Sentinels take care of it, who swam in coins. She had been doing this for three years now, she was little more than a rookie, some had been fighting the Ovv'alti for decades. But many of them were in other cities and countries, or had simply pissed off Earth to relax in their expensive space stations. The flight to the landing point took less than 20 minutes, the helicopter was incredibly fast and incredibly easy to control. However, this was probably due to Raya, who was shown as a small avatar in one of the displays and took over the more complicated tasks. Her avatar was a Japanese animation-style woman, with long white hair, silver-blue eyes, and bright white skin. Aurelia had already found out how Raya saw herself a few years ago when Raya offered to connect to her tablets and asked if she could use her self-chosen avatar.

"Boss, what if the rich sacks in the bunker are already dead?" "I don't want to hear that. If we can't save her, for whatever reason, we'll be up to our nostrils in shit!" Aurelia answered the question. "Shit money bags." came from the elegant voice. "Snout! We are here in live comms. But yes, the situation is not pretty" With that, Aurelia ended the conversation as she let the helicopter float towards the ground. The Langezone had been cleared by soldiers, which made landing much easier.

"Get out and line up!" Aurelia barked into her headset as she loosened the seat straps and stopped the engine. In her mind, she asked Raya, "Do you think we're ready?" "Yes! I have complete confidence" "Hey, thank you, but I'm not so sure about that." She looked at the coin balance in her HUD and saw 12,670, at least she had enough to buy something in an emergency. She took another deep breath, took the assault rifle with the tracking ammunition in the magazine stowed next to the seat and swung out of her vehicle. She stowed two more tracking magazines and three high explosive magazines, checked the hand cannon on her hip and the MP hanging from her. Everything was ready for use. Satisfied, she saw her squad do the same while they were already in formation. "All ready?" she asked and received a uniform "YES BOSS!"

The district in which they were located was completely destroyed. A few weeks ago, this was one of the most beautiful parts of the city, but after the Ovv'alti launched their attack on New Berlin, it took only a short time before everything was reduced to rubble, as in all other war zones. Those who could afford it hid in their personal bunkers, while the rest of the inhabitants had to seek shelter in the large collective bunkers. New Berlin, however, quickly became a hot zone in which aliens roamed, against which only the most powerful Sentinels could do anything. However, there were so few of them that the weaker ones had to step in. Dozens fell in the process and every bunker was broken into and destroyed during the weeks of destruction. Only the most expensive private bunkers were stable enough to last long enough for the hot zone to shift and it became a standard area again. Now squads like Aurelia's had to go through the city and pull the super rich out of their holes. If it had been up to her, everyone could have rotted. But unfortunately, the government was able to deploy some of the strongest Sentinels on those who refused to obey orders.

Aurelia took the front and led her team through the ruins of the city. Surrounded by rubble, corpses and the stench of death, they made their way directly towards their destination. Occasionally smaller aliens could be seen, little more than dogs, with six legs and a head that consisted almost entirely of mouth and teeth. Aurelia didn't bother to shoot at these creatures. With their ammunition, it was like shooting at a mosquito with a tank. Her team took care of the smaller ones without any problems. But when Aurelia heard the sound of falling debris behind her, she knew that this was not Type A. She turned, knelt down and fired three targeted shots with her rifle. The lion-sized type B fell and fell to the ground, but behind it five more appeared. Aurelia began firing at the others and was supported by her team. However, she heard that only one other rifle shot in the direction of her target, the other two seemed to be busy killing Type A aliens who were probably lying in wait. More and more Type B spilled out of the ruins in front of Aurelia and she threw away the empty magazine to load her weapon with explosive ammunition. This meant that only a single well-aimed shot was necessary, which helped her save ammunition. She was the only Sentinel in her group and was therefore responsible for ensuring that everyone always had enough ammunition and sufficient armament. When creatures were still coming towards her continuously, she gave the order: "Retreat to an elevated point, stop the fire and let me lure them to me." Aurelia's order was immediately obeyed. How much she loved her team. Everyone knew exactly what to do and Aurelia began to fire with her hand Cannon instead of reloading. The weapon was deafeningly loud and shredded aliens left and right, now all attention was focused on it. She dropped the rifle she was holding in her left hand, put her handCannon back into the holster on her hip, and reached for what looked like a sword hilt without a sword. She began to swing it and a fine, slightly purple blade began to form. "RAYA! REFLEX CO PROCESSOR! NOW!" she roared and Raya did as she was told. Time slowed down and Aurelia could calmly remember the position of each beast. She took a fighting stance and began to slash her way through the aliens. From her team's point of view, Aurelia was little more than a blurry dot that ate its way through the beasts at lightning speed. It took Aurelia a lot of concentration not to make a mistake in this form and to stumble or hurt herself. But after she had cut up each alien, she was able to deactivate the co-processor again. An excruciating headache broke over her, as she did every time she used this implant. The human brain was not designed to use 100% and be thrown around in incredibly fast motion. She found herself in the midst of a pool of black blue blood and countless corpses. "Ok, come back," she ordered and watched her squad as it regrouped.