The hum of the city seemed so far away as she sat on one of the many steel boxes on the roof. Her long rifle lay on her side as she scanned ahead from her position, overlooking one of the many rivers that crisscrossed the city.
Anya sighed heavily as she adjusted herself. These damn boxes are gonna burn my fine ass if it gets any warmer; then she spoke up to those on comms… “I see a group of lowbie kids by the river, very light traffic otherwise on the road.” she adjusted herself again as she continued to slowly scan the area that surrounded the location of their planned ambush.
“Heads up, ladies, transpo is close.” Bug Bunny’s communicator icon lit up as she joined in on the chatter. “As expected, this route lacks in traffic, so minimal civs expected around.”
“Dazz, putting up marbles now,” Noa replied. One hand peeled off three spherical, fist-sized steel balls from her belt, tossing them off one by one into the air. Each ball stopped its downward fall as small propellers slid out from the center circumference, spinning around at high speed and emitting a gentle, high-pitched whine as they floated upward.
Noa keyed in the desired altitude of each sphere as they rode up over the single roadway they expected the transport to drive through. The screen on the visor she was wearing lit up with confirmation of the drone’s final positioning. A single, larger drone flew much higher overhead, allowing for a third-person perspective on the scene.
“In position,” Noa piped up.
“I see them, standard convoy. Sec-team vehicles and transpo in between the two," Anya announced as the vehicles entered her line of sight.
Noa focused on the screen on her visor, feeling the adrenaline rush of anticipation as the vehicles approached the location they had decided would be the point of stoppage.
“Kamikaze time,” Noa announced as she selected a command from the screen for the overhead drones to carry out their tasks; each spherical drone plummeted down with accelerated speed toward a targeted vehicle, crashing through a wheel and smashing past the thinner armor of the wheel wells before they embedded themselves in the engine structure, followed by an explosion that emitted a concentrated burst of EMP that disabled the vehicles, which stopped them immediately.
“Main transpo still moving, babe,” Anya responded as she readied her weapon. “Taking it out now”
Her gun barked out, and the sent projectile smashed through the transport vehicle’s engine compartment, followed by a similar EMP burst once it had embedded itself. The transport vehicle slid forward on its momentum and gently crashed into the road barrier parallel to the road. The rifle’s report echoed throughout the area.
“Standard sec-team, three steel, three soft bags,” Anya announced again to everyone as she focused on the targets.
Noa’s HUD confirmed the usage of the combat drugs she had picked for this job; as she felt her body come alive, her senses fired up. She removed the visor she had worn over her eyes, clipped it onto her belt, and peeked up, her weapon at ready. Her eye HUD picked up a robot climbing out from one of the escorting vehicles; a small red chevron appeared over its head.
“Taking out steel bags,” Anya said as if on cue. A sharp clang resonated from the robot in Noa’s sight, and it swayed backward as the round that Anya fired pierced past its armor and buried itself in it. A burst of electricity followed, washing over its metal skin, the robot’s arms slumping down. A couple of seconds later, three consecutive booms echoed throughout the area.
“Switching rounds.” Anya proceeded to announce.
“Comms are jammed; it's your party, ladies,” Bug Bunny said as Noa nodded and vaulted over the road barrier. Her sprint toward the nearest vehicle seemed to start even before she had landed. A frantic voice on the other side of the vehicle greeted her.
“Ambush! This is Snake 1; need assistance now!” The man continuously screamed at his communicator yet received no reply.
Noa vaulted on top of the vehicle and dropped from the roof. Her foot landed right at the nape of the man’s neck, and the resulting impact sent him crashing down to the road. As Noa landed astride him, the baton in her hand slipped through the small space between the man’s helmet and body armor, a jolt of electricity knocking him out.
One of the other guards turned into view from behind a vehicle, the left side of his torso suddenly bursting out in a cloud of blood as the momentum of what hit him sent him flying in the same direction. The loud boom of Anya’s rifle followed moments later. Noa dashed to the road barrier on the other side, where the transport had stopped. Her pistol was in her left hand as she crouched down and moved forward carefully. Her eye HUD picked up movement on her right just as Anya unceremoniously chimed in.
“Mine”
And she immediately dropped down.
Just then, Noa heard and felt a round whiz pass close to her, hitting the guard. The impact of the hit sent him flying back to the road, and the loud report from Anya’s weapon then echoed in the area.
“Area clear”
“No chatter on comms; area clear on my end,” Bug Bunny responded to Anya’s statement.
Noa pushed herself up; her head turned to scan what areas she could see before she returned the gun in her hand to its holster on her hip. She shrugged as she walked over to the targeted transport vehicle. “Area clear”
“Bunbuns, can you take over control of the drone?” She looked up at the remaining drone that still hovered far above the road.
“You got it, Noa, will also make sure the area will be clear of enforcement.”
She looked around. The civilian cars had stopped far away from the last sec-team vehicle, and there were no other vehicles aside from those. An indicator on her eye-HUD bounced throughout those that had exited their vehicles, indicating no threat. She turned and went to the back of the transport truck and placed a gloved hand on it. Her HUD relayed information from senses within the glove while her hand slowly moved in circles as she looked and found the locking panel. She smiled and pulled out the cover before she tossed it away and proceeded to connect it to her HUD via a cable that snaked out from under her wrist, testing the snugness of the connector head as she pushed it in. Her HUD received the information on the locks that kept it shut, and she selected the software she desired to use before waiting for the few seconds it took for the doors to unlock.
“Damn, Bunbuns, I just love your ICE-picks.”
Bug Bunny chuckled at the commentary, “Hey, when you play with the best.”
Noa then proceeded to open the heavy doors on the back of the truck and climbed up into it. The interior was sparse and empty, safe for a large metal box. She knelt, tested the lid, and noted the curious logo emblazoned on it as she ran a finger on the design. With a soft grunt, she pushed it open and was greeted with the contents of the container. Her eyes counted six rolls in the large box, and she picked up one of them.
“Do you see it? It's all there?” Anya asked excitedly.
“Two secs, confirming,” Noa replied and turned to place the roll onto the compartment's floor. Her hands deftly undid the catch to the roll and laid it on the interior floor; the sight of a metallic bodysuit greeted her.
“Yep, I’ll share feed…”
“Hold up, activity babe, coming from your 9,” Anya interrupted her.
“What issit?” Noa perked up; the tone in Anya’s voice tugged at her as she repacked the bodysuit into the container.
“Fuck, Hyenas honing in on your loc.”
“What??” Noa stood up at Anya’s announcement, the loud echoing report of Anya’s long gun replying to her.
Noa drew her pistol out from its holster. Her HUD confirmed the level of the stimulants she had taken before. She unclasped her baton and pressed a button on it; a cylindrical blade equal to the length of the baton slid out.
“Fuck this shit, fucking lowbies,” Noa hissed as she alighted from the transport and looked in the direction where Anya had said they were coming from. Some bodies were already sprawled on the ground as more kept rushing toward her, zig-zagging their way; red chevrons started to appear above the ones that still moved as Noa’s HUD registered those in her line of sight. She knelt behind the transport and opened fire at them, taking out three in quick succession, then another; the sound of Anya’s rifle disappeared as her HUD acknowledged two more, slipping past her vision on her right.
She made a quick mental note of at least one more on the road where a majority of the bodies were left, then turned and darted toward the disabled sec-team vehicle nearest to the truck, just as the pair she saw earlier came around the vehicle. She immediately dropped down onto one knee with her pistol aimed. The two successive shots that followed it sent one of them back against the vehicle, and his lifeless body slid down to the road, a cavity replacing his chest. The other Hyena screamed out as his bladed weapon swung down on her right. Noa’s right arm instinctively moved up as she leaned away, the bladed weapon sliding off her arm in a glancing blow, that part of the bodysuit lighting up red as the blade slid on it. She leaned down onto her left hand and kicked at the Hyena’s ankle; the blow sent him crashing face-first onto the road, and in the split second that followed, she sprung up over him and embedded her bladed weapon into the back of his neck.
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She stood over the lifeless body, blood flowing out from the wound onto the road, and screamed out as if in anger at the lifeless body just as she noticed a flash of movement in front of her. A sizable red triangle with an exclamation mark flashed up as her HUD lit up the Hyena in front of her in red, and she dodged left; just as he let out a shot from his shotgun, some of the buckshot slammed her glancingly at the side, and the force of the impact spun her around as she fell on her knees to the ground. Her pistol clattered away. Warning lights flashed up on her HUD on the damage to her bodysuit.
“Fuuck!” was all she could muster as she wheeled back around and unsheathed a knife with a black-faced blade that emitted a red glow at its edge. The man that had shot her screamed out as he started charging her, his spent firearm held up, ready to swing down. Without waiting, she rushed him; the blade in her right hand swung upwards; the slender blade met and cut his left forearm clean off. The man screamed out in pain as he slumped down, his free hand clutching at what remained of his left arm. Noa stepped toward him and slammed her blade deep into his neck, her eye-HUD assisting in identifying the location she needed to aim for a quick kill.
She stepped back and scanned around her, but there was no movement. The warning lights in her HUD still flashed, identifying slight damage to her body under the bodysuit. Although the stimulants in her system nullified the pain, she still winced as she looked down at the area where she was hit. The bodysuit and its armor had protected her from any perforations and any significant impact, and the otherwise hexagonal layer of plating in that area was now clean and smooth, showing the bodysuit’s underlying material, which indicated the loss of armor plating where the buckshot had hit.
“Anya, all clear down here.” She sighed, leaned against the truck, and looked in the direction of Anya’s perch; no reply came back.
“Anya? All clear down here; what's your sitch?” Still no reply.
“Bunbuns, do you have Anya on comms?” A feeling of dread rose inside her as she climbed back into the back of the truck, yet her tone hid it well.
“Her comms is up, but it's silent. Moment, lemme verify… Her location has changed; she’s not where she was,” Bug Bunny replied, her calm demeanor seeming to conflict with Noa’s dire feelings.
“What? Where is she? Ping her suit!”
“I am; it's going deeper into Hyena turf.”
Noa’s mind raced. She looked at the cargo and then at the damage to her suit, and the words from Anlidar echoed in her mind.
“Can you secure transpo loc and cargo?” Noa deftly climbed back into the back of the transpo vehicle.
“I can, but..”
“I’m going after her; if this suit can do what Anlidar’s info says it does, I’ll get her,” Noa cut in as she knelt by the large metal box, picked up one of the rolls, and opened it.
“Are you sure? You’re suggesting going alone deeper into Hyena turf.”
“Fuck it, I’m not letting them have her; I’ll burn their whole area down if I have to”
“I’ll make sure the cargo is secured.”
Noa nodded curtly to herself as she picked up the unpacked body suit that they had been contracted to pick up.
“Ok. Keep me posted with her loc, please.”
“Will do, Noa.”
—-------------------------------------------------------
“Step on it! We gotta ghost before the CPs get here!” Stoner screamed out as he balanced himself in the rocking vehicle.
“CP?” the woman at the wheel chuckled. Where you think this is? High-rise? Ain’t no CP gonna risk their necks here. Even if they do, they won’t be comin' around in any hurry,” she said as she kept her foot down on the accelerator.
“How’s the blud?” Her eyes, which consisted of irises that looked like a pair of spirals in each eye socket, reflected in the rearview mirror.
Plate-Face looked down at the dark-haired woman slumped on his lap.
“Her vitals check out; lucky Stoner is good at knocking out people, himself or others,” he winked at a younger man beside him.
The woman scoffed. “She better be. Nano-ink won’t be worth shit if the extraction was made from a corpse.”
Stoner took a hit off the inhaler in his hand, “Pity we couldn’t get the rest of her gear. Did you see them? Those look like dazz gear.” he mused.
Plate-Face nodded, ”Dazz indeed, this blud and her crew must be swimming in YeeBees.”
“That will also mean we need to kill her loc module ASAP.” The driver darted a look to her right; another woman sat in the front seat and was frantically moving her hands in the air as if her fingers were typing.
“How’s that coming along, Berb?”
“Had to mod my ICE-pick for the loc module. It’s crazy good whoever wrote this for her, and it's only a damn module; I haven’t even looked at the suit’s ICE… but I got it covered,” She replied without stopping what she was doing.
“I have no doubt that you can crack it, but we don’t have the time for any… ‘work of art’; we just need her loc module off,” Spiral-eyes retorted back sharply.
“You drive, I crack ICE, shut the fuck up, I'm working,” Berb responded, her tone kept at a monotone despite Spiral-eyes’ remark.
Plate-Face looked at Stoner and shrugged, a smirk on his lips. He removed his left glove and rubbed strands of the dark-haired woman’s hair between his fingers.
“Wonder what Big Rock has in mind for her.”
“Her? No idea. I know we can get mucho stacks of YeeBees for her com-suit and most defo for the nano-ink that comes with people that wear the kind of suits she does.”
Stoner’s expression gave away his confusion, and Spiral-eyes chuckled,
“That com-suit she has on? That’s top tier, beyond vogue, beyond just dazz. Either this is some rich blud from High-Rise playing gunnee, or she and her crew are at the top of their game…”
She paused as another thought hit her,
“... or both… either way, we salvage that com-suit right, and the nano-ink that comes with it, I can bet you Rain and Big-Rock will notice you, and definitely you Plate-Face.”
Plate-Face smiled and looked at her. “Faerill?’
She nodded, “Yep, faerilll. That com-suit is no civ market suit, strictly military. So yea, getting our hands on an undamaged one is rare, enough for that kinda notice.”
Plate-Face’s face beamed as he leaned against the interior of the vehicle, which seemed to slow down somewhat.
“Heads-up, we’re close. Stoner, buzz the others and tell ‘em to open the loading entrance.” She looked at Berb.
“Are we done yet?”
Berb sighed, her hands lowered before she turned to Spiral-Eyes and winked, a smug, satisfied smile on her face.
“Never in doubt.”
Spiral-Eyes smiled as she turned the corner, her eyes seeing a large and tall rectangular building with red bricked-colored walls that seemed out of place among the low, grey buildings around it.
“About time.”
—----------------------------------------------
“The loc module switched off, but I got a clear read on the last known.” Bug Bunny’s communicator icon flashed as she spoke in her calm demeanor.
“Ok, send me the coords; I’ll get there,” Noa replied as she continued going through the initial configuration of the new suit she had on.
“Hate to ask again, but are you sure about this? That’s the heart of Hyena turf you’re charging into.”
“Very sure. I told you, I’m not letting them have her; she better be okay. Or they’ll know what it really means to be in the wild.”
Select default. Color “Hmm, this is new.” Noa’s fingers scrolled through choices, her review of each option reflected as the color of the hexagonal plates changed correspondingly on the bodysuit
“What?”
“Nothing, just monitor that loc for me, pass me the coords, and make sure we get the cargo secured; I don’t want the local law to come in and sweep up what is ours.”
Bug chuckled over the comm. “Well, they sent some to check the area, but their vehicles kinda lost their way, redirected their on-board navs to another location. Don’t worry about it, cargo is as good as secure; you just make sure you and Anya get back safely.”
“I will,” Noa replied flatly as she scrolled through a set of highlighted options, finally deciding on one.
Reflective. Confirm Option. Yes.
“Okay, So that’s everything except this,” Noa whispered silently to herself as she reached the final list of start-up options for the suit.
Stimulation. Manual, Auto. Hybrid - Please make sure to have the minimum number of charges for Manual and Hybrid Stimulation Options.
“Hmm,” Noa’s fingers moved in the air, selecting the suit’s manual’s definition of the terms presented. Nodded at the information and finally picked Auto.
Auto. Confirm Option. Yes.
A new set of options scrolled up on her eye HUD.
Target option: Total, Maximal. Moderate. Minimal.
Again, she quickly browsed the onboard manual’s definition of the terms and cursed softly at the time it took for the suit’s initial set-up.
Total: This will result in a target's fatality. Maximal: There is a minimal requirement for a target to live. Moderate: The target's functionality is reduced. Minimal: There are no significant adverse effects on a target.
Noa pondered each option, rapidly deducing, from the little she knew, what this new com-suit had the potential to do, and proceeded to make her selection.
Total. Confirm Option. Yes.
Please Confirm the Selected Options.
A list of options she had selected scrolled up on her HUD. She read off each line, then scrolled down to the final command.
Activate Plasma Enhanced Combat Suit. Confirm Option. Yes.
The bodysuit emitted a soft hum as the lines crisscrossing all over the suit lit up, outlining each hexagonal plate. Before the plates changed color to the option she had picked, each small individual plate reflected what was on the other side of the wearer. Noa couldn't help but smile as she raised her right hand, turning it slowly around,
“Fuck me, this is amazing,” she chuckled softly despite herself before she pulled up the hood attached to the upper part of the body suit, covering her head.
Stepping off the truck, she reverted the suit to a customized form she had selected and headed to where she had parked her bike.
“Bunbuns? Get the stuff secured and keep me posted; I’m heading there now.”
“Will do… and I’ll do one better. Will stay on comms with you.”
“Yes, yes, that is better.”
“Good Hunting Noa.”