Aurelia woke up drenched in sweat, the blanket wrapped wildly around her. She needed a moment to orient herself and find her way in the darkness. Around her were the other Children of Nero and right next to her was Sarvoz, who was snoring loudly across his mattress. Aurelia didn't move for a long moment and when she did straighten up, she asked softly: "Raya, did you see that too?" "Did I see anything? During your three hours of sleep, I couldn't find anything unusual. I've been monitoring the perimeter and keeping an eye on your diverse's networks to keep us digitally secure, but I haven't detected any abnormality." "I-" Aurelia began, but stopped herself and changed her answer: "I must have had an intense dream. I'm sorry if I woke you up. And yes, yes, yes, I know, AIs don't sleep." "It's still nice of you to take care of me, Aurelia." came only from Raya, although Aurelia expected a cold answer or a little meanness.
"What time is it? Seems to be in the middle of the night." "You're not wrong, Aurelia. It's 1 a.m. and 37 minutes. And your guard shift starts at 3 a.m." Aurelia rose and stretched her tired bones. "Damn, I completely forgot. Let's see if Mary is still awake or sleeping at her post." With these words, she carefully stepped through the rows of sleepers and was a little surprised at the discipline of everyone that really everyone was sleeping. It reminded her very much of her time in the monastery. Going to bed every day at 8 p.m. and anyone who still made noises afterwards was severely punished. Aurelia had broken this rule far too often and was punished accordingly almost every day. As a rule, these punishments consisted of classic spankings, but every now and then the brothers got creative. She had had to clean the latrines, give up any food or spend the night on sharp stones. Aurelia's worst experience with this rule-breaking, however, was that one night she was forced to put on a device that was very reminiscent of oversized ski goggles. She had spent the next week blindly finding her way around, praying that the swirling colors that were constantly displayed to her would finally disappear. She saw those damn vortices every time she closed her eyes, for the next three years. When Aurelia fell over a small pile of scrap metal, completely lost in thought, she could hardly stop herself from screaming. "Damn it," she moaned softly. She looked at the pile and realized that they were old prostheses that had been taken apart. Presumably to make money out of it for the group. "Hey, Raya, please remind me in a few days to bring money in here. No one should have to live like this." "I will"
"Are you okay down there?" Mary's voice came from the roof far above Aurelia. She looked up and realized that Mary was looking down through one of the many holes and was frighteningly close to falling. She stood up and tried to shout as quietly as possible: "Watch out, you're still falling down. Wait. I'm coming up, please get away from the hole". With that, she set out to climb onto the roof. She didn't know exactly how Mary had done it, so the first thing she did was go outside to look for a ladder or stairs. "Aurelia. On the other side of the building there is a ladder that leads directly to the roof." "Oh, thank you Raya, you're the best" And as Raya had announced, Aurelia found her way up on the opposite side of the warehouse. However, climbing the ladder showed her that she really wasn't well trained, as she arrived at the top breathing heavily. "Wow. That's higher than expected," she managed to say. Mary was lying on her back in the middle of the roof and looked over at her: "We're going to do a little cardio soon, that's sad" she giggled to herself while Aurelia took a deep breath and lay down next to her. The night was cool and quiet. The only sounds were the distant sounds of the city wafting over and the electric whirring of the street lights that accompanied the paths.
Mary had closed her eyes and crossed her arms behind her head. "It's nice up here, isn't it?" she asked softly. Aurelia had to agree with her. It was beautiful, an infinite expanse, with endless possibilities. But then the dream that had woken her up came to her. The monsters she had seen came from out there. What else was there then? "What do you know about the Ovv'alti invasion, Mary? The convent kept us as far away from it as possible, because they didn't want us to learn anything about it." "How did you come up with that now?" Mary asked as she sat up, one knee bent and turned her head to Aurelia. "Well, we have no idea what's out there. What if these aliens weren't the only ones who weren't well-disposed towards us?" Aurelia asked as she raised her right hand towards the darkness, "or what if the Ovv'alti come back? To find something like that opposite each other must be hellish." "Mhm, it may be that it's not exactly pleasant to have to fight against an alien invasion, especially as a normal person. But I'm pretty sure they won't come back, even if they still exist. The stargazers gave us some really violent weapons back then, so I'd give that damn chunk of stone and water a wide berth." At the end of her answer, Mary began to smile. It may have been a real smile, but to Aurelia it seemed more like the fake smile of a big sister who wanted to prevent her young sister from getting scared. "Maybe. You're probably right" came only from Aurelia, who was now also sitting like Mary. Far in the distance, the two cyberpunks could hear the sound of an approaching engine. Almost at the same time, both jumped up and went to the edge of the flat roof. Mary's eyes let out a short buzz as she zoomed in on the optics. "It's a truck. What is he doing here so late. Either a corpo thing that no one should know about or a gang action. Both would be bad if they did it too close to our hiding place." Aurelia tried to recognize the distant truck, but her eyes were probably no match for Mary's. Mary continued her assessment of the situation and said quietly: "But the thing has no lettering and for a gang that works here, the thing looks much too expensive. Hey Aurelia, I have a really bad feeling about this. Can you please get your rifle and meet me up here again? I'll get ready in case they come even closer to us." While Mary was still giving her the order, she lay down on her trained stomach and took the very old-looking sniper rifle from her back. Aurelia wasn't sure if something like this was even capable of firing modern ammunition, but made her way down the ladder as instructed when Raya answered: "I don't hear any signature. The vehicle must be specially shielded. Aurelia is high-end tech that only very few can afford. Tech of this caliber is often used by corpo or government kill squads. This would also explain the missing lettering. You're in danger here if they're looking for someone and you get in their way. Please be careful" "Don't worry Raya, we're just going to scout. At least I think so." Once at the bottom, Aurelia sprinted her way to her mattress. This time she didn't pay attention to being quiet or cautious and woke up some of the sleepers. When she arrived at her mattress, she reached for her Exodus and slung the large railgun over her shoulder. Before she made her way back to Mary, Aurelia Sarvoz stepped into the side and called out to him: "Let's go Wheels, off to your chair" "Huh? What do you want? Before he could finish the sentence, Aurelia was already on her way to the roof and Sarvoz forced himself out of his bed and crawled to his wheelchair.
When Aurelia reached the roof again and had to concentrate on her breathing again, she saw Mary lying in sniper position, the rifle pointing steadily in the direction of the truck. Aurelia lay down next to her and positioned her much larger rifle next to Mary. "So, did you recognize anything new?" she asked her far more experienced companion. "Nope, but my gut feeling is getting worse with every second. We are not on a main road here, but the thing is driving right towards us. Do you think the thing knows we're here?" "I can't imagine, Sarvoz has secured everything with its jammers and Raya has expanded that again. So how were they supposed to know that someone was here?" "Maybe, but the thing is really coming right at us." We will wait until they either pass us or stop here. If they stop here, we will immediately open fire and then leave." "Alright" confirmed Aurelia and took aim at the truck, which she could now see with her eyes, and activated her Exodus. The weapon began to load and fine lightning flashes ran along the barrel until it was at 100%. "Raya, is my weapon strong enough if they are well equipped?" "Yes. However, Mary's weapon will hardly be an advantage. You should point it out to them." "Um.... Mary? Raya said your rifle won't be strong enough if they are well equipped. Are you sure you want to take advantage of that?" Mary stared at Aurelia uncomprehendingly and said, "Do you think if I had another option, I would use this thing here?! Do you want to me up, or what? "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I wanted to-" "Let it be. Just concentrate and shoot at my sign" came from Mary as she focused on her scope again. Damn. Why did Aurelia always have to say everything right away before her brain was able to wonder if it was appropriate? But Mary was right, now was not the time for that. The truck was now just under 500 meters away and was slowing down. Raya highlighted three hidden turrets on the roof of the monstrous vehicle in Aurelia's HUD. Two caliber 50 and a minigun. "Mary, this thing has turrets" "Fuck. OK. You stay here and fire at them if they really want to join us. I go down and try to evacuate the others. I'm counting on Aurelia" With these words, Mary took her rifle and set off. Aurelia remained lying and had to stop herself from shouting after Mary that she was a miserable shooter. "Raya, please tell me you can run my aim assist on turbo or something" "No. I'm sorry. But the penetrating power and psychological effect of such a weapon should give you an advantage. Don't forget that the rifle only has 8 rounds in a magazine and only 80 rounds of electrical charge." "Understood" The truck had now slowed down to a few km/h and rolled directly in front of the warehouse and stopped. For a long moment nothing happened and Aurelia began to hope they would drive off again, but then the doors opened and on the right side three men in dangerous-looking armor got out with rifles that looked like military. Three more came around the rear and the front and the driver remained seated, but the gun towers rose from the roof of the vehicle. "AURELIA! SHOOT!" she heard Raya in her head and realized that she was just lying there for important seconds, the rifle little more than decoration.
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She took aim at the group she had seen first and fired. Lightning tore the darkness for a split second, and the thunderclap of the projectile broke the silence. The soldier in the middle exploded and soiled his comrades with his blood and organs. The soldiers, presumably well trained, did not waste a second and retreated behind the truck for cover. Before Aurelia could fire a second time, the minigun of the third turret began to spin and fired at its position, Aurelia rolled to the side twice and tried to incapacitate the turret with one shot, but only shot a large hole in the armored roof. "Shit, but now" and she shot again as the gun slowly turned to follow her. The shot this time was much closer to the hoped-for target, but only hit part of the movement mechanism. However, this slowed down the rotation speed significantly. Aurelia tried to get up, but Raya shouted at her "Duck down!" While still on the move to let herself fall, two shots flew over her head, the big cannons now had them in the target. Aurelia crawled, pressed close to the metal of the roof, to one of the many holes. She could see Sarvoz sitting in his diving chair and Mary calling and coordinating the masses. Some of them had weapons pressed into their hands, but they did not look as if they were going to join the fight. While Aurelia was still looking down, she heard the Defender's attachments she had installed start firing.
"Raya, can you help Wheels? I can manage here on my own, we just have to buy time." She began to crawl across the roof in order to be able to attack the truck from a different angle. "I will," came from Raya. Below her, she continued to hear her own turrets firing and saw the truck focus its fire on the new targets. Instead of taking out all the turrets one by one, she now tried to target the driver, who seemed to be in control of everything. She concentrated on the black-tinted window and fired. But not just once. She wanted to make sure she hit and fired the five shots that were still in her gun at the driver's cab. The entire front of the vehicle was shredded by the individual projectiles and the turrets stopped their movement and fire. However, in her HUD, a red arrow suddenly appeared, pointing to a dotted line pointing directly at Aurelia. Her thoughts raced and she realized that it had to be a grenade or something like that, and she rolled away, but to her horrer, she lost the safety of the ground beneath her.
"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck" was the only thing Aurelia came out as she fell barely 11 meters into nothingness. She heard Raya giving her orders: "Cross your arms behind your head and press your chin as far into your chest as possible." Aurelia obeyed, but just as she pressed her chin into her torso, she came up. The blackness washed over her even before the pain could set in. Aurelia tried to move through a thick miasma of darkness, but every step felt like she was in quicksand. She couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything, and worst of all, she couldn't breathe. Panicking more and more, she tried wildly to fight her way through the miasm. It seemed to work. Her legs became lighter and the darkness seemed to recede. Damn it WAKE UP! Those weren't her thoughts, were they? Why couldn't she see her thoughts, everything was like in a labyrinth of mirrors that she herself showed thousands of times. AWAKE. ON. Again. Where does the noise come from? Aurelia tried to look around through the fading darkness, but she saw little more than blurred colors. The colors briefly became many times brighter and pain ran through her body, but this made the miasm around her disappear even further.
Slowly, Aurelia opened her eyes and saw the warehouse around her dimly. I saw frightened people who used everything possible to create barriers behind which they could get to safety. Old rusty metal plates, bent or broken tables, mattresses. What was going on here? Aurelia could only hear a dull knock and a deep roar of something. Aur- ia –omm scho- st- eh –uf. Slowly, the dullness in hers began to dissolve and everything became clearer. The knocking turned into gunshots and the roar into explosions. And she began to understand that someone was yelling at her. "Get the fuck up, we need you," Mary yelled at her as Aurelia received another slap. The dazed nun opened her eyes wide and realized what was happening around her. She had been pulled behind an old broken machine. Her head throbbed and her back ached, but she came to her senses again. "I'm here," she tried to sit up and get down on her knees. It took far too much time, but eventually she made it. Mary had apparently been shooting at the soldiers all along, for both were surrounded by countless bullet casings that were hurled from Mary's large pistol. She saw that five empty magazines lay at her feet and three more that seemed full next to them.
Mary tried to draw her railgun, but it was still where it landed, right next to a large red spot on the ground. "Raya..." The words were hard for her, but Aurelia forced herself to keep talking: "I need help, explosives or a gun or something" "Come right away" came the answer directly and a small box appeared next to Aurelia. "Thank you," she gasped and opened the box. Inside were three balls that were about the size of a fist and had a large red button. Directly on it was written "BOOM" in black letters. Aurelia's mouth distorted into a pained grin and she pressed the first button and threw the ball in the rough direction from which the many balls came. Five seconds later, the warehouse was bathed in blinding blue light, and the blast wave of the silent explosion spread, knocking to the ground all those who were not fully behind cover.
"Holy Moly. Thank you Raya," Aurelia called and dared to look in the direction of the gate through which the soldiers attacked. Seven soldiers lay on the ground, in bloody masses. And blue flames. She saw how a few more had placed themselves next to the large entrance, as their rifle barrels could be seen. Aurelia took the second bullet, pressed the red button, but this time waited for three seconds before hurling the metal orb at the kill squad. Two seconds later, blue light exploded again with a soft thud and a massive shock wave. Aurelia waited, but nothing happened for a few seconds. Mary and Aurelia peeked over their cover at the same time and saw no movement. "Is it over?" asked Abbi, the youngest of the CoN, who was crouching behind a mountain of scrap. Mary stood up with a pistol ready to fire and said, "Stay downstairs. I don't know if we caught everyone." As Mary moved toward the corpses, Aurelia saw that she was bleeding profusely from her left shoulder and limping. She also jumped up, pulled her blinder and went right next to her warrior friend. Still no noise, no movement. The blue unnatural flames were the only thing that moved and crackled slightly.
Mary stopped and got down on her knees. Three quick, loud shots blasted out of Mary's gun and Aurelia saw a red puddle begin to spread behind the truck. Mary began to count the bodies, three from the back door, check, three from the back right and three from the front right, also check. The driver was unrecognizable in the completely destroyed cabin of the armored truck, but Aurelia was pretty sure she had caught him with her wild shots. She still couldn't breathe properly, but forced herself to stay vigilantly next to Mary. "Aurelia. I recommend a stim for 20 coins, this will enable you to fight again if there are more enemies nearby." "Yes. Please." While the small box with the stim appeared, Aurelia looked at her HUD to see her current balance. 173 coins. "Is a bit little what I've earned here, don't you mean Raya?" "The grenades I gave you cost you 200 for three and I had to purchase the Explosive Stargazer catalog for 100 coins." "Oh, oh, thank you Raya." "Always welcome, but I recommend that an immediate evacuation to a safe place be carried out."
Apparently Mary had been able to read Raya's mind, because she turned and put a hand on Aurlia's shoulder, come on, we have to get out of here, I'm sorry I have to push so hard." Aurelia applied the stim and immediately felt better, although she still noticed that her movement was slower than usual due to her injury. "Don't worry Mary, I'm fine enough" The two of them ran into the warehouse, where the Children of Nero slowly ventured out of their hiding places. Sarvoz tried to heave himself out of his dive chair and into his wheelchair, but almost fell to the ground in the attempt. Aurelia was able to grab him in time to prevent the worst. "Careful, Wheels, we still need you." "Thank you Deus. And I'm sorry that I couldn't help much." "Aurelia," Raya chimed in, "Sarvoz is massively understating, although it was my processor force that made everything possible, he used and created the necessary codes to prevent the truck from using more of its functions or calling for help." Aurelia looked down at the thin little Sarvoz and placed him in his wheelchair. "Well, I just heard something else," she told him, with a wink. Then she looked at the others and thought about how she could get everyone out of here safely without losing all the tech. Mary went to the middle of the room, apparently with a plan, because she stood on the machine that had served as cover before and clapped her hands. "Listen up, everyone" All eyes turned to her.