The Children of Nero camp was not what Aurelia had expected.
From her conversations with Mary, she had imagined an
underground base ready to face anything, with supreme
underground technology, dangerous cyberpunks and the like.
The truth was much more sobering. A few old cyberdecks, a few young
people who were all 20 at most and hardly any weapons or
cybernetics, all in a run-down warehouse with a holey roof.
The seemingly only member of the Children, with Augs, was
a skinny punk in a wheelchair who had a neural connection
that marked him as a Cybermancer. In Aurelia's head, she
heard Raya say in her usual neutral voice, "This is even more
disappointing than I expected." Mary didn't seem to notice
how Aurelia was feeling and went around the former
warehouse introducing everyone.
Aurelia barely listened, only memorizing the
cybermancer's name. Sarvoz, a strange name for a
strange guy.
Who would ever take a cripple seriously as a cyberpunk.
Even as a Deep Dive Cybermancer who sat in a special chair
90% of the time, you had to go outside and work in the field
a lot. And very few of them were deep divers. Aurelia tried
to look neutral and not let on what she thought of this
group held. "So it's not the most impressive,
I know," Mary said at that moment, "but I'm telling you,
we're on our way to the top." Most of us aren't fighters
though, we'd need someone like you for that. I'm reaching
my limits on my own now, I can't be everywhere at once."
Aurelia
looked around again and then asked doubtfully, "On the way
to the top? " "Yes, I understand, but believe me, this is not
representative. Me and Sarvoz are actually the group, but I've offered many of them
to join, just so they can be a little safer." Aurelia found it
more and more difficult
Second harder not to let herself see what she thought of the
whole thing. "So, Aurelia. You've seen how I work. Imagine
how effective we'd be if we both did the jobs together."
Raya spoke up, "Aurelia. I've just checked the network here
and I can guarantee you that appearances are deceptive.
This place is quite capable of competing with the bases of
larger gangs in terms of security, especially with Sarvoz's
abilities. He seems to be able, as Anarchy Mary had already
reported, to access Augs without having made physical
contact first." Aurelia sat down slowly and apprehensively on
an old, worn couch and pondered. After a few seconds, she
looked up at Mary and said, "Okay. Okay. I don't have many
other options at the moment anyway. But I'll provide this
place with a little protection that isn't just on the net."
Mary's eyes lit up and she called out to the others to prepare
a newcomer party. Then she turned to Aurelia and asked,
"And what exactly do you have in mind in terms of
protection?" Aurelia stood up and walked through the
warehouse. "Hey Raya, what do you have on offer that
would help here?" "I can give you access to the self-firing
systems category for 100 coins. From that, I recommend the
T34 Self-Firing Turret System for 75 and the Autonomous
Weaponized Surveillance System for 50. To fully cover the
building, you will need to invest a total of 400 coins for 2 T34 and three monitoring systems." Aurelia stopped. "Ouch.
That's really a lot Raya.isn't there something
cheaper?" "There is such a thing. However, you would pay a
similar price overall for smaller self-propelled guns, as you
would need significantly more. They would also be less
powerful and would have to be reloaded more often." She
had to think for a moment. She would only have 20 coins
left. That would cover her and Mary's ammunition costs and
then be used up as well. "Hey Mary," she finally asked, "are
there any gangs in the area causing problems? Me
would need a few people as cannon fodder." Mary
looked at her in astonishment. "Uh. No, well " Mary ran
to
Aurelia and in a whisper she said "Are you mad? There are
normal people here, you can't say that in front of them. But
yes. There are some dealers nearby that I've never been able
to tackle without risking retribution from their gang." Aurelia
looked at her
"Perfect. Then let me secure the building for a moment and
then go hunting." Aurelia turned away and let Raya instruct
her on the best positions for the guns. The cost hurt, but she
would soon get more. Mary, meanwhile, went over to some
of the frightened-looking people and seemed to be trying to
reassure them. After a few minutes, the
Cybermancer Sarvoz something in Aurelia's direction. "Hey
new girl, your conscience or something just talked to me and
gave me access to the new security system. Tell her thanks,
the system is absolutely amazing." Aurelia thought of Raya and then heard her voice "I've
already made friends with the boy you badmouthed over
there. He has a very strange way of handling the Net. It
seems like he's never been taught the proper technique of
cybermancing, he works on intuition and instinct. You should
get on well with him, he seems to be more than just an
ordinary person." Aurelia looked over at the boy in his
wheelchair and wondered what exactly Raya meant.
Cybermancers were like some kind of magician to most
people, incomprehensible and mysterious, including Aurelia.
She decided that she would ask Raya about it later, but first
came the hunt. She took her railgun off her back and checked
it. She bought ammunition for it and her second weapon for
5 and 10 coins and for the remaining 5 coins she bought
extra ammunition for Mary. "Hey Raya, how about you fill me
in on what you're doing in the background, like with Wheels
over there. I still have no real idea what you can do. Or... if
you're evil or something," Aurelia thought in the direction of
her invisible companion. Who replied directly:" Your brain
would literally explode from the amount of data. But I
understand what you mean. I'll keep in mind in the future
that you are not self-aware enough to bear the thought of
your AI communicating with others." Aurelia stopped in midmotion. How the hell had Raya managed to sound sarcastic
without an actual voice? "Oh shut up you computer, I'm
super self aware. I just don't want you to start plotting
against me." finally came from her. Raya waited a moment and then deactivated all cyberware and stims in
Aurelia at the same time and asked: "Are you sure you could
stop me if I went against you?
would?" As quickly as the implants were deactivated and the
stims stopped working, everything was back online. Aurelia
sat up after her mechanical leg simply collapsed and
coughed. Losing all her stims at once was like being shot
with a war drone.
And not the cute little ones. She stood up with difficulty and
tried, in vain, not to let on, because almost everyone around
her was staring at her with concern. "It's all right!" she called
out to the others and then addressed Raya directly: "Fuck
ey, it would have been enough just to deactivate an implant
or something. Everything hurts." "I could have done a lot
worse, but I want to give you
I don't want to harm you or upset you too much. After all, I
am one with you." came back directly, while Aurelia stood
swaying on her feet and waited for her body to calm down.
Who could have thought that having an omniscient super
thing, ghost, robot, anchored in her head would be
problematic. But at least the weapons she had were super.
Which Aurelia immediately checked again before making her
way out of the hideout. The emplaced guns whirred softly as
they scanned their respective target rooms constantly, and
the soft talking of the others blended into a soothing
background noise that Aurelia enjoyed for a brief moment.
Not much time had passed since the attack on the
monastery. She would have to rest properly very soon. But
protection first. There were people here who and although she wouldn't admit it, she wanted to protect
everyone here.
The weather outside was still clear and sunny and
correspondingly warm. The many buildings in a confined
space multiplied this heat quite a bit, so Aurelia was soon
sweating in her habit. Perhaps she should ask Raya if there
was some kind of mini air conditioning system or something
along those lines. It would be very helpful, especially in the
coming summer months. She let a ping on her HUD steer her
in the direction where apparently some problematic dealers
were plying their grim trade with the lives and well-being of
the weak. Aurelia positioned herself on a street corner that
barely left room for a sidewalk and was therefore rarely used
by others. She would take a look at it first, she had no coins
left at the moment, so if she got hurt she wouldn't be able to
heal, especially as she still had the injuries of the day so far,
even if some of them had healed from that damned giant
injection.
The dealers, there were three of them, were on the same
street, only about 300 meters apart, but one of them was
moving towards his neighbor. But these were only the front
lines for the real dealers. Behind all the positions sat, hidden
in the shadows, gang members in the same colors all dressed
in higher quality clothing than anyone else in this entire
neighborhood. Every 30 minutes, the smaller gang bangers
gave the proceeds to their lieutenants and got more drugs to
sell. Presumably the system was designed in case one of the
dealers was attacked or made off with. Clever. Aurelia positioned
herself a little deeper in the shadows on her inconspicuous
street corner and for the next four hours she watched
everything that went on here, while Raya reported to her at
short intervals everything that could be seen on the
surrounding cameras.
At the end of her scouting mission, one thing was clear to
Aurelia. This street belonged to the same guy in a gang called
Playaz. The open dealers got their drugs for sale from hidden
superiors, to whom they also passed on the proceeds, which
happened every half hour. Every two hours, the presumably
main dealer was driven through this street in a lowered
luxury car, the lieutenants gave the money they had
collected so far to the dealers, who in turn walked past the
car and handed it into an open window. Whoever it was
seemed to be in charge of this and other streets and was
trustworthy enough to collect all the money. According to
Raya's research, the heads of the Playaz were two old school
gangsters who called themselves Flex and Raffie. Among
them were 4 others who kept the whole system running.
Aurelia bet all her gear that the one in the luxury car was one
of those four. The gang had only about 35 permanent
members, according to Raya's estimate.
So Aurelia waited another two hours until she saw the deep,
noble, all-black car turning into her street in the distance.
That was her signal. She moved quietly along the shadows of
the buildings into a side street from which, according to
Raya, she could see the first dealer. and her lieutenant from behind. She waited for a customer
to do his business and move away until she fired two shots
with her Blender. The two projectiles left the barrel one after
the other, teleporting into the dealer and his boss to tear the
body to pieces from the inside. She had aimed for the hearts
to avoid a death scream that would draw attention to her,
but it turned out that even if her gun literally teleported the
ammunition into the enemy, she was still too bad at aiming
to execute her plan as she had hoped. The dealer was killed
instantly, but the lieutenant was not, screaming his dark,
stained soul out as the Blender projectile ripped through his
abdominal cavity. After a few seconds, he was silent too, but
the others were now
alarmed. "Oh shit man, I had it so nicely planned" Aurelia
grumbled as she switched to her Exodus rifle and sprinted
into the street. The car had its windows closed and was
speeding straight towards them. Aurelia knelt down and let
the rifle, in combination with her new eye and Raya, do the
job of aiming. Sieh saw through the sight how the crosshairs
were directly between the driver's eyes. She pulled the
trigger. The recoil of the gun pushed the rifle into her
shoulder. She would have to get used to it.
But through the visor, she saw the driver virtually explode,
wrenching the steering wheel in the process. The car
crashed into a wall at high speed and came to a halt. The
rear window opened slightly and a barrel peeked out. Before
Aurelia could put one and one together, a A volley of machine-gun bullets came at her. She
concentrated all her strength on her legs and let go of
Exodus to plunge to the left behind an overflowing
dumpster. The bullets hit exactly where Aurelia had been a
second ago. She grabbed her blender and tried to catch the
fleeing dealers, but only hit one of the lieutenants, all the
others escaped. Since she couldn't see the person in the car,
her futuristic pistol was unfortunately useless. So she jumped
from cover to cover as bullets rained down around her. She
felt three of these bullets pierce her side as she made the
final leap towards the car. She landed on the roof and had to
roll to avoid falling straight back down. The wound hurt, but
she was aware that if she didn't take the guy out quickly, she
would take more. She tore open the left rear door and then
rolled down the right side. As planned, the shooter was
focused on the open door and concentrated his fire there.
When Aurelia heard the soft clacking of an empty magazine,
she yanked open the door and grabbed the boss, who easily
weighed 250 kilos, from his moving fortress. Without her
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
physical enhancements, it would not have been possible to
get here or pull him out. She would have Raya to thank for
that later. With a quick spin, she tossed the fatso over her
onto the road and grabbed his MP. It was an inconspicuouslooking weapon, small, handy but with a surprisingly long
magazine. She tossed the gun aside and pounced on her
prey. She hammered him with her new arm until his face was just an unidentifiable red mass. Then she struck a few
more times. Just to be on the safe side.
When she stood up, she felt the piercing pain of her wound,
but she couldn't relax and take care of it yet. She drew her
Blender again and looked around. But the street was
completely deserted, except for the Playaz she had killed.
Still high on adrenaline, she jumped onto the wrecked car
and looked around carefully. But there was actually no one
there to attack her. That would probably change very soon.
So let's move on. Aurelia took the money and drugs from all
the corpses and a hidden compartment in the car. She would
either throw the drugs into a fire or a river when she got the
chance. "Aurelia. I recommend you heal." "Yes, yes, all right"
"Nano healing unit purchased. 350 coins remaining." Why
the number was so high only occurred to her in the back of
her mind, a question for later. The box with the healing unit
appeared right in front of Aurelia and she forced herself to
open it. As before, the needle caused her to panic. Another
thing she had to work on. Clenching her eyes tightly shut, she
injected herself with the nanoparticles, which immediately
went to work. It took a while for them to finish, but when
they finally did their work, not a single scar was left on
Aurelia's skin. Aurelia rose slowly and moved towards her rifle, which was
still lying in the middle of the street. With her weapon
recovered, she moved towards a doorway that allowed her
to keep an eye on the street to make sure no one would
come back immediately. As it turned out, her concern was
justified. A group of seven gang soldiers, dressed in cheap
combat vests and armed with assault rifles that had
apparently last been serviced three decades ago, moved
slowly towards the car. When they saw the bodies of their
colleagues and their boss, a loud argument began about who
had to deliver the message and who was responsible for it.
Aurelia waited in her small doorway until the soldiers had all
gathered around the body next to the wagon. She whispered
softly, "Raya. I need something for close combat, I want
try something." "Please don't kill yourself trying to fulfill
your repressed desires as an actor for action movies. And I
recommend The Sword of Gladio Inanis. It comes from your
Star Guardian catalog and costs 300 coins. It's a katanashaped frame that creates a micro portal into a black hole
that forms the blade." "First of all. Fuck you. Second, fuck
yeah I want that" Aurelia replied immediately. The sword
was more impressive than she had imagined, it looked like
an old fashioned Japanese sword with an all black blade that
slightly distorted the reality around it. The dark purple and
black hilt
completed the look. "Oh yeah, this is going to be fun," she
muttered as she concentrated on running at high speed
towards the arguing soldiers. Even before one of them noticed a nun with a Sci Fi sword
shooting towards them, Gladio Inanis slipped through the
first two without even the slightest resistance. With a quick
turn, Aurelia moved towards the nearest soldier and sent the
Kling spinning. One of the soldiers must have stumbled in
shock, because before Aurelia could cut her target in half, a
soldier fell directly into her movement and was severed from
his lower torso before the actual target fell. Now the soldiers
seemed to have understood what was happening, because
the remaining three raised their weapons almost
simultaneously and began firing wildly. Aurelia ducked and
catapulted herself in the direction of the soldier opposite,
severing his legs before killing the last two in a savage spin
that sent her habit billowing around her. The legless man
screamed in pain and threw his weapon to the side and in a
shrill
voice he shouted: "Shit man, please please, don't. I'm just a
nobody, you've already punished me. Please. I have a family,
my child needs medicine, that's why I'm here."
Aurelia turned to the bleeding Playaz member. She
looked down at him and replied, "Okay. I'm not going to kill
you. You can crawl away." With those words, she turned on
her heel, deactivated her sword and hung it on her belt,
which by now was beginning to crack under the weight of
her other gear. So the next thing she would do would be to
get something like a tactical
belt, or have to buy a military harness. "Aurelia. This one
won't survive, he'll bleed to death by the end of the road at
the latest," Raya said in her cold voice. "I know. But let him get his hopes up."
Aurelia replied curtly.
The way back to the Children of Nero's hideout was quiet
and gave Aurelia time to think. She was well aware that her
actions could hardly be considered good or even acceptable.
There were always ways to resolve situations without killing.
But she had to admit to herself that she was out to kill and
destroy. It went against everything she believed in, but she
didn't regret doing what it took to take out people who were
a danger to everyone. The worst part of the whole situation,
however, was how much she enjoyed the killing. She had
known for years that she had a cruel streak, but the amount
of pleasure she had experienced while fighting was
downright terrifying. Well. For most people. Raya seemed to
have been pleased with her. And she herself probably only
felt bad because she'd been indoctrinated by the Church of
St. Mary for the past few years. According to their teachings,
sometimes you had to do bad things to help people, but you
had to do it with humility and inner pain.
Aurelia took a deep breath and sat down leaning against a
wall. Since when had she had such thoughts? And why now
of all times? At the moment, she didn't have the time or the
peace and quiet to deal with philosophical
To give up bullshit. "Raya, what's my account balance at the
moment and why did I get so many coins earlier?" "100
coins. And you got 100 coins from the damage to the vehicle
and the smashing of the receive additional coins for the drug operation.
You're welcome" So damage to property also brings money.
Good to know. The only question was. Now what? It
probably wouldn't take the gang too long to realize that
something was wrong with the members here. If they
thought the Children of Nero, who were based nearby, were
the culprits, it would lead to a massacre. So time to find the
rest of the Playaz. Aurelia stood up, slung her railgun around
her shoulder and looked down the street. Soon one of the
gang would probably come here to see what had happened.
That someone would show her where the rest were.
It took almost a whole hour for a scout to come into the
street to check what was going on. Longer than expected.
Aurelia had made herself comfortable on the roof of the
wrecked luxury car, with a bag she found at one of the dealer
lieutenants, which now contained all the weapons that once
belonged to the Playaz. They would certainly pay off, either
to equip the Children or to earn a few Neo Euros by selling
them. The scout came closer until he realized that Aurelia
was not one of them. "Hey, hands up! Who
Are you?" he shouted with his gun raised. Aurelia played
along, she raised her arms and replied: "I looted the bodies
and wanted to dismantle the car here and take parts out of
it.
sell." She slid down the side of the cart, her hands still
raised. "Are these your people here?" The scout looked at
her suspiciously and slowly approached her. Aurelia didn't
give him time to answer. With a mighty leap, she catapulted
herself forward and threw and the surprised playa to the ground. Her mechanical hand
grabbed the gun and flung it aside while her organic one
held his neck.
After he was disarmed, she struck him a few times, boldly but
not with full force, to make him a little dizzy. "Where are
your quarters? Where are the other Playaz hanging out?"
another punch "Tell me and I will
let you live!" The scout spat blood and looked through his
bloody eyes. "Shit man, I'm not telling you anything!" He
tried to fight back and kicked Aurelia's stomach with his
knee. The surprised nun doubled over and let go of her
victim, who promptly lunged at her. He leapt straight at her,
in a metaphysical mirror to the previous seconds. His fists
pummeled Aurelia, who pressed her mechanical arm against
his chest to throw him off. When she added her mechanical
leg, she succeeded and rolled to the side, scrambling to her
feet. However, the scout was already standing in front of her
and had drawn a knife. Before Aurelia could draw one of her
weapons, she felt the blade dig deep between her ribs. Pain
shot through her body and paralyzed her. Her opponent
stabbed her a few more times until Aurelia hit the ground,
covered in blood. As he tried to pounce on her again, Aurelia
finally managed to pull her blender out of her leg holster. She
didn't aim, but simply fired. Still falling towards Aurelia, the
scout's leg exploded with blood, skin and muscle as the
blender's projectile twisted in his lower leg. The scream of
pain echoed through the street as Aurelia pushed the scout
off her. He tried to defy the injury to fight on, but the shock seemed to have too much of a grip
on him. His movements were slow and imprecise. Aurelia
crawled over to him and worked his face with punches,
putting all her strength into them.
After a little more than a dozen blows, the scout seemed to
be unconscious. Aurelia rolled off him and asked Raya in a
weak voice for a mini heil pack. "60 coins. Current amount 40
coins" The box appeared in front of her as usual, only smaller
than the usual pack and she set about using the needle to
pump herself full of the mass. As usual, it took quite a while,
which she used to connect the scout's leg to his shirt. She
wanted him alive, so it was no good if he bled out so quickly.
Her wounds closed slowly and not completely, the pain was
hardly less. But she would have to get used to suffering pain
and injuries. And she would have to learn to fight properly.
As powerful as she was with her weapons, in a direct fight
she was apparently inferior to the weakest gangers, or at
most equal to them. The nanomass was used up after a few
minutes and at least the bleeding had stopped. She grabbed
the scout and punched him to wake him up. "Ey wake up,
you have a hiding place to show me scumbag." His eyes
opened slowly at first, then quickly and he blinked. Then the
pain in his leg seemed to set in.
He began to squirm and looked down at his bandaged leg.
"Hey! Are you even listening to me?" Aurelia shouted at him.
He looked to her and stammered," What, what did you do to
my b-leg?" "WHERE. THAT. HIDE. YOUR. GANG?" The scout seemed to be struggling with
himself until he finally decided to answer her:
"Schiebergasse 2677, is a hall that leads to a bar.
was rebuilt, the MUFF. We use it as a front, through the door
that says PRIVATE, we enter the rest of the hall. That's where
the whole operation is based. Please don't kill me, I haven't
been here long. I had no choice, I was recruited by them and
had I not accepted they would have hurt me and my family."
Aurelia took in the information and made mental notes.
After she had memorized everything that was important,
she looked deep into his eyes and said: "Your family will be
safe as soon as I've finished with the gang." The scout's eyes
filled with hope until they suddenly lit up with panic and then
looked sightlessly into the distance. His blood dripped from
his own knife, which had just slit his throat.
Aurelia stood over the corpse of the gang member and felt
something that was neither regret nor sadness nor joy. It
was a sadness at the end of a fight with someone who was
her equal. Interesting. That was something new. She would
surely find others who were capable of delivering a fight that
wasn't one-sided. She would have to explore this feeling.
Besides, sadness was the wrong word. It was more like
melancholy.
"Aurelia. Is everything all right? You've been standing here
motionless for several minutes. Can I talk to psychic
Do drugs help to prevent depression?" "Hehe." Aurelia
laughed softly, "Don't worry, I'm just realizing that I
misjudged my situation." "And your Assessment before was... what?" "I thought I'd be like in the
smuggled DigiComics the guys in the Priest Wing often had. A
kind of avenger of the weak.
But I hardly knew anything about the real world at the time.
And that's still the case, but I now know that there is no good
and bad, everything is relative. And I don't care what shade
of gray it is, I'm going to do what I set out to do. Be it hunting
people, helping the Children, or just wandering around the
city." "OK? I'm a
'powerful AI that can process billions of pieces of data in
less than half a second. And yet I don't quite understand
what you're getting at." Aurelia thought for a moment and
then replied: "Me neither. But I thought a monologue like
this would be cool."
".........................................................................................I
had the hope of finding someone at least somewhat
normal. ........................Maybe next time." Aurelia
grinned and looked up at the sky. She would find out for
herself what she was trying to say with all that.