The Playaz hideout turned out to be a small run-down hut that was modeled after an old American café of the 2020s. Aurelia tried to appear as inconspicuous as possible on her way there. Which was easier said than done, with a nun's habit, cyberware that looked like everything that came out in the last 5 years and a huge rifle on her back that looked like she had torn it out of a war gun. The streets were, exactly the rest of the district, filled with homeless people who had set up their tents on the roadsides and vagrants who used the dilapidated buildings for themselves until they moved on. So it was busy enough to give Aurelia a bit of protection so that she wouldn't be seen directly by Playaz scouts. Most of the surrounding buildings were so dilapidated that they could not serve as housing even for the poorest of the city, as even a too strong cough could cause the entire structure to collapse. Aurelia took advantage of this to hide and peek just before hiding there. As long as she was careful enough, the building was not to bury her alive. She hoped. "The probability of getting hurt in this place during your scouting action is 39% Please find another place." came from Raya, who sounded surprisingly worried. Aurelia still didn't know how she managed to convey emotions. "Yes, yes, yes, flap robot." “.... I am an almost omnipotent AI that has been crucial in defending this planet. I'm not a robot." "Said the robot in its robot voice," Aurelia answered. Raya didn't answer anymore.
Through her augmented eye, Aurelia watched the café and could make out two scouts and so far, seven guards dressed as homeless people. However, she could hardly see into the building itself, as most of the windows were covered with sheet metal and wood. Probably there were significantly more Playaz in it that she didn't see. A frontal attack would therefore be suicide. So sneaking is the order of the day. She could. Well, at least she wasn't completely bad at it. Had to be enough. "Raya," she whispered to her AI. However, she still refused to speak. "Raya. Please, I need your wisdom..... Still nothing. "OK, I'M SORRY," Aurelia hissed and finally something seemed to be happening in her head. "Yes, Aurelia. What can I do for you? Me as AI?" Aurelia rolled her eyes, but answered, "Can you hack into anything and see if I have a reasonably safe way in?" "Done. There is a back entrance that is poorly secured. I just unlocked it. However, you will have to rely on your eyes, most of the cameras around here are either destroyed or pointing in the wrong direction. Seems like someone doesn't want to be on TV." "Hm." Aurelia rose slowly and looked at her dazzler, who hung at her side. "Do you have anything that's better for being sneaky?" "Your vocabulary always manages to surprise me. And yes. I have something to be sneaky. Leftover is a small stun weapon that shoots silently and sends the opponent to sleep within less than 1 second. The duration of action is 15 minutes. 100 coins. But that's out of your budget right now." "Why are you suggesting it to me?!" "Because I think it's funny." Aurelia stopped in her movement. An AI with a sense of humor. Was this real humor or just some kind of pre-programmed communication algorithm? Raya continued, "What you can afford is a vial of a neurotoxin that can be dripped onto the blade of your knife to make it even more deadly. A vial costs 10 coins." Aurelia thought for a moment as she pulled out the scout's knife and looked at it. "Ok then such a thing. But you've seen how I am in terms of hand-to-hand combat, I don't think it's going to be much better this time." A small box appeared at Aurelia's feet. The toxin was a pale yellow and was surprisingly thick. When she spread it over her blade, she noticed how it spread evenly on the knife. Apparently, it wouldn't leave the blade completely with the first strike. Very good. "Aurelia. As long as you proceed stealthily, combat ability is secondary. However, we should fix this problem soon. However, you'll either need a lot of coins or a trainer for that." Grumbling, Aurelia left the crumbling building and made her way through some other, similar buildings to make her way to the back of the café. Only one guard was stationed there. Apparently, the gang had healthy confidence in their security door. Now it was time to wait. In the dark, the whole thing would hopefully become easier. She deactivated the pretty glowing parts of her augments and made herself comfortable with her rifle across her lap in case she was unmasked and attacked. Against every fiber in her body, Aurelia slowly began to doze off. Her eyes became heavier and heavier and she no longer had the strength to keep herself awake.
"WAKE UP" The voice sounded loud and hammering in Aurelia's head, who flinched and looked around. It was dark, the street lights did not reach their hiding place. And it was quiet. "Why did you wake me up like that, is there anyone here?" "No." "Ok... Why then?!" "I got bored" How can an AI get bored, she would have to have a proper conversation with Raya about what exactly she is. Aurelia rose slowly, quietly and carefully, as she slung her rifle over her shoulders again. Poison, knife in hand, she crept quietly towards the café. It seemed as if there was a change of guard, as another person was now on guard. Bigger, wider and equipped with Augs. Great. Aurelia moved agonizingly slowly through the rubble and garbage of the city until she could crawl into the shadows of the café. She was now only a few meters away from her destination. The knife turned upside down in her right hand, she sneaked right up to him, stood up right behind him, grabbed his head with her left to keep his mouth closed and stabbed her victim several times in the back with her right. After five stabs, the muscles went limp and he sank to the ground. The toxin seemed to do its job well and it was still a good layer on the knife, even after the attack. Raya opened the door for her and Aurelia stole in.
The back rooms were little more than storage space full of weapons, drugs and Augs scattered in various boxes across three rooms. A narrow hallway led further in, Aurelia could hear voices ajar to the door: "I'll tell you boss man. The whole street." a deeper voice answered, "Damn it. I have an idea who it was?!" To which a third person answered: "I guess it was either the 167ers or these Children of something else" The first intervened: "They can't have been, they consist of people who can't even help themselves. They only have one that is a bit dangerous" The deeper voice seemed to be lost in thought, as the conversation only continued between the other two. "It doesn't matter who it was. We just have to choose someone and say it was them. We have to show that we don't get fucked. And the 167ers and Children things are the weakest here, so let's take on one of them." "And what if it was someone completely different and it turns out that we attacked someone who had nothing to do with it without thinking?!" "Pff is, but never mind, then let's say it was an example for everyone" The deep voice chimed in again "It's enough. I'll sit down with Mike and the guys tomorrow at noon and then we'll decide. It's way too late for shit like that now." This seemed to settle the issue, because Aurelia heard two people leave the room. This was her chance. She opened the door a little wider and peered inside. To the right was a large dark desk full of packages and money, someone was sitting behind it and reading something. Slowly and carefully, Aurelia moved towards the table when, as it had to happen, she stepped on something that drew attention to her. The Playa turned around and Aurelia jumped towards him across the desk before she had even realized exactly what was happening. She threw her legs forward and hit the chest, which threw her counterpart off the chair and prevented him from yelling. Aurelia herself landed with her back on the table, rolled to the side through a pile of money, jumped on him like a cat would jump on a rat and stabbed him in the side of the neck with the knife so that his trachea was blocked and he could not call for help. After a few seconds he was dead. The massive, lifeless body was that of an old Central European in fine clothing. The soundscapes from just now had probably been heard by some, Aurelia had to improvise. She dragged the body under the desk, which was closed at the front, thus hiding the body. She placed herself behind the door that led further into the hiding place. And then she waited, knife in hand. Tense. But the door did not open. Even after 10 long minutes, which felt more like 10 hours, no one had come through the door.
Either no one had been close enough, or the others were used to their boss making noise in his office. Aurelia breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't messed it up yet, then let's move on. Slowly she opened the door and looked into the hallway that led to the café. Straight ahead was a door that looked as if it was specially secured. Probably the café door. On the left, however, were two more ordinary doors, one open, the other closed. With a firm grip on her knife, she peered around the corner into the first room. Five gang members and what looked like a hostage in the middle. Bound and gagged, she lay there bloody and beaten. However, the wounds looked older, so they must have been in company here for some time. With these five opponents, she would hardly be able to attack silently with her knife. So she put it back and instead pulled her gladio Inanis, activated it and stormed into the room without thinking too much about it. If she could kill all five so quickly that none of them could activate an alarm or something like that, maybe it would still be quiet enough not to attract everyone here. In a whirl of black and purple, Aurelia raged through the room, with the first blow she felled the two who had been standing with their backs to the door. One stood up and drew a blade, the other two each jumped backwards to create distance. The first of the two, however, was too slow and Aurelia hit his neck with the tip of the sword and cut it. With a twist she jumped to the other two and struck, but the one with the blade parried her blow and punched her in the face with his empty left hand. Aurelia didn't have time to catch himself, as he jumped right after her and let the blade fly towards her chest. Aurelia managed to push off a table next to her with her left arm at the last moment and the blade slid just past her. Even as she fell, she struck back with her sword and severed the arm that wielded the blade. She landed crashing on her side, rolled off and saw how the Playa had taken the blade in his left hand and was coming towards her. In a desperate attempt to stop him, she threw her sword at him, but throwing a sword was usually not as effective as swinging it and so he could easily dodge and closed the distance between himself and Aurelia with a nimble step. He raised the blade and let it fall. The pain in her shoulder came a little later, but she felt exactly where she was caught. But with the approach, he was now within reach to catch him with her knife. It hit only slightly and only left a scratch on his already injured arm. When the blade was about to fall down again, Aurelia catapulted herself backwards and hit her back against the wall of the room. As she tried to sit up, she saw the neurotoxin kick in. The opponent in front of her collapsed without any sound and landed elegantly on the ground, right next to the hostage. The last one had been sitting in the corner the whole time, huddled together. Aurelia approached the gangbanger in fetal position and knelt down to him. "Hey, you there, if you give me answers, I'll leave you alone" With pure panic in his eyes, he looked up at her and stammered something, but Aurelia couldn't make out. "What?" she asked, but again got a barely understandable answer. But after he had spoken, he began to gesticulate wildly. His arms flew around him as if he desperately wanted to win in charades, with a partner who wasn't one of the brightest luminaries. After repeating it a few times, Aurelia slowly began to understand. There are many in the, presumably, main room and they are armed. It was probably only about 10% of what he wanted to express, but that had to be enough. Aurelia kicked him in the face in the hope of just kicking him unconscious and not killing him. Promises were worth nothing if you broke even one, she certainly wouldn't become someone you couldn't trust because of a gangster.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The hostage was still lying unconscious, or dead, in the middle of the room. Aurelia bent down to the bloody man and felt for a pulse. Weak. But it does exist. Perfect, she asked Raya for a small micro nano healing pack, as well as pen and paper. When she left the room, there was a note in front of the unfortunate man's nose that read: "For your wounds. Run away before more come." with a small arrow pointing to the Nano Pack. It was quiet in the hallway and the two remaining doors were still locked. It seemed as if no one had noticed what was happening here. Aurelia checked the door that was directly to her left. The door was the same as the one she had just left behind, the lock was primitive. "Raya, can you give me something I can use to open locks?" she asked quietly and got the answer promptly in her head: "Yes. Through your Basic Utility catalog, you have access to a regular lock pick set, in different designs, as well as an automatic lock pick that can pick most standard locks in a short time." "How much does the car thing cost me?" "30 coins." With a quick glance up, where her coin number was displayed, she realized that she was earning 100 coins by fighting so far. The thirty for the hostage had been expensive, she now had to make do with 70 coins. She suspected the high coin number came from the destruction of the hierarchy, as she had directly eliminated a seemingly really important playa. "Ok then give me the automatic, I don't trust my dexterity enough to try it myself." The box appeared and it was down to 40.
The device worked much faster than expected, after Aurelia had put it on, the door was open after about three seconds. She opened the door carefully and dared to take a quick look inside. No one there, it looked like a camp. The light of the hallway lit up the room as Aurelia opened the door completely. It was indeed a camp. The walls were full of metal cabinets that contained countless small white, blue and black packages. Aurelia opened one of the blue ones and realized that it was a street drug she had seen on some of the homeless people just before she met Mary. It wasn't hard to guess what the rest were. She began to tear open all the packages and pour them on the floor until she had a mountain of drugs in front of her. "Raya, do you think this stuff here is inflammatory?" "Dichloride amphetamine is inflammatory, yes. The other two don't, but if you set this room on fire, everything in it will be destroyed." "Thank you" came from Aurelia as she slipped into the previous room to examine one of the thugs for a lighter. She found a storm lighter, which she promptly tested and then brought back to the drug room. Before she threw it in, however, she stopped in her movement. What was she doing? A fire would announce that something was wrong and would lure the gang here. So it would miss the opportunity to turn it off unnoticed. If there were too many, she wouldn't be able to take them all out directly, like in the hostage room. She closed the lighter and put it away for the time being. She then walked towards the door that separated her from the main room of the café and thus from the rest of the corridor. Raya was able to pick the electronic lock in no time and Aurelia dared to take a cautious look. The room was full of people, all in similar colors. At first glance, it counted 16 men. These were spread out in such a way that there was hardly any way to eliminate anyone without someone else noticing. She tried to catch a glimpse of the front door and realized that it was probably an electronic lock that Raya could open unnoticed. "Please stop working," Aurelia murmured as she closed the door again and took out the lighter. If she didn't come from this side, she had to try from the other. And for that she needed a distraction. In passing, she threw the burning lighter into the pile, which must have cost countless Neo Euros. But the room ignited much faster than expected. A gigantic flame burst out of the room in Aurelia's direction. She threw herself forward and landed rudely on the ground. But she hadn't been quite fast enough, because she saw how her organic leg had caught fire. She jumped up and tore off her pants, which she was wearing under her habit. Luckily, she had been quick enough to save her leg, but that had cost her time. Even as she turned to leave the hallway, the door was slammed open behind her and some Playaz spilled in. "FUCK EY, can't even anything work the way I plan it to," Aurelia shouted as she hurried to sprint through the office into the night. She was lucky that there was hardly any light here, because she could throw herself to the ground in one of the dilapidated buildings and merge with the darkness. She looked over at the door from which glistening light came, interrupted by individual bodies holding weapons in their arms. Aurelia tried to get her exodus off her back as inconspicuously as possible and took aim at the first one. The sight's aiming software did its job and the railgun shot exploded the closest playa to her as the projectile pierced his chest. The rest panicked for cover, but the second shot was already on its way. Aurelia had cut down three men until the rest were in cover. However, they didn't seem to be out to fight her, as not a single shot came in their direction. The burning of millions of NE was probably more important. Aurelia took advantage of this to fully reload her weapon and slowly began to move through the shadows of the city's past beauty. The front of the café was now completely deserted, even the scouts and guards disguised as homeless people had apparently become Impromptu fire brigade people. The door was slammed open, ready to receive Aurelia and Raya. She switched to her knife in her right hand and the dazzler in her left and made her way through the previously impregnable gate of the gang. She saw panicked people desperately trying to extinguish the fire with water, while others sat on the floor with their faces buried in their arms, leaning against walls. This was the first thing the nun lurking in the shadows took on. Not for a tactical reason, but because they were easier to hit with their dazzler. The gruesome dying sounds were not entirely lost in the cacophony of chaos, for some turned and looked in terror at their friends who lay in a puddle of blood and guts. Aurelia used this moment of shock to pounce on her with her knife. Like a panther, she jumped out of the shadows and threw herself on her first victim, whom she stabbed twice in the chest. Even as he fell over, Aurelia threw herself on top of the next one. Together with him, she fell to the ground and rolled off to fire wildly with her blender. Who needs shooting skills when you throw yourself directly into the crowd of enemies.
When those who were directly around Aurelia fell, Aurelia threw her knife at another while she dropped the empty blender to pull her Gladio Inanis and threw herself forward. In a sandwich that was a raging fire on one side, just destroying the rest of the rooms and the other was a sinister figure with a sword, the rest of the Playaz were too much in each other's way to fight effectively. With quick steps and flying sword, Aurelia plowed through the rest of the gang, which hardly knew what had just happened. As she ran her sword through the last two, the fire came a little too close to her and she felt the skin on her face slowly heat up so much that it would suffer permanent damage. With one leap she threw herself backwards, rolled off, this time not quite as elegantly as before, but since no one was here to be a witness, she didn't let it distract her. She grabbed her blender, which was lying on the ground, put her sword back and tore her knife out of the unfortunate one.
With a sprint, she left the building and placed herself opposite on the other side of the street to watch the spectacle. It didn't take long until the entire building was in flames and some more drug-hidden people caught fire, because she saw some exploding flames shooting out. To see the fire in its splendor and glory was downright exciting, she lost herself in the wildly swirling colors that never remained the same. Such beauty was rare in the world, it was proof that there were higher forces than humanity. Whether you called it God, gods, spirits or simply nature was insignificant, because everyone could bathe in this pure beauty of destruction.
Before a large crowd of people could form and the fire brigade arrived, Aurelia made her way back to the children. No, back to the other children, she was now part of it. And the way she saw it, she was the sole fighting force together with Mary. However, she had earned enough coins with her little stunt here to supply everyone else with weapons and then have some for herself. Destroying all the drugs and money that had been hiding in the café had increased their account to 1570 coins. As far as she knew, standard pistols weren't too expensive, so she would buy them directly and distribute them as soon as she arrived at the hideout. The way back felt much longer than it should. Exhaustion had come over her with the force of a tsunami as the adrenaline had left her body. The pain, tiredness, exertions that have accumulated since the attack on the monastery were almost unbearable, as her stims now also let her down. But she didn't want to waste coins unnecessarily that she might need later. So it was necessary to walk the stony path only with the help of God. The night had almost turned into the soothing twilight of the morning when she finally reached her destination. She was greeted directly by the aiming lasers of her guns. So security works, very well.
Most of the Children of Nero slept soundly, only two guards stood tired at the north and south exits and Sarvoz sat in his wheelchair connected via neural port. Whether Sarvoz was asleep or awake, she could not say. She didn't even know if a cybermancer needed to sleep at all. Perhaps time passed differently on the net. Aurelia greeted the two guards and asked the boy standing next to her, binoculars with a cracked lens on one side in his hand, "Has Mary set a place for me to sleep, or can I just lie down somewhere?" "Back there next to her, she has a mattress that we had left ready for you. I even think she's found another blanket somewhere that you can use." "Thank you, little one." With these words, she moved quietly through the warehouse until she arrived at her sleeping place. For the first time, she didn't even know how long, she was actually able to find peace, even her nap in her scout's hideout had hardly been recovering. She lay down, pulled the holey blanket over herself and began to drift off into the land of dreams. Weapons and combat equipment next to her, she could finally just be without having to worry.