Horizon and Shawn picked over the wreckage they’d created. The snowmobiles had only sustained some minor damage, so at least they had new vehicles for themselves. Finding and disabling the transponders was the hardest part. Stripping the drivers yielded a couple pistols, survival knives, and insulated suits that didn’t fit either of them. The van was a complete loss, though some of the food and components Horizon had stolen could still be salvaged.

“I’m not sure what we could do with these motors,” Shawn commented as he sorted through the parts. He picked up the solid metal block, “this looks like a hard drive though. Where did you say you got these?”

“A vending machine,” Horizon stated. She picked up a half-melted protein bar. “All this was for a vending machine.”

Shawn sighed, the speakers on the power armor he wore amplifying the sound. “Well, the Company never was one to let the slightest bit of scrip slip through their claws.”

Sam appeared in front of the fading fire from the VTOL crash. “It’s unlikely such a dramatic response was prompted solely by the robbery. The Company probably identified you from security footage.”

“Of course they did,” the raccoon growled back. “They saw my suit give out.”

“Likely,” the AI conceded. “You should have stolen the security system instead of looting the vending machine.”

Horizon kicked a glob of snow at Sam. The AI didn’t even react as the snow passed through her hallucinatory avatar.

“I might be able to get something useful out of this,” Shawn interjected, holding up the drive. “You’d be surprised what data markets will buy.”

“Pack it up then,” Horizon sighed. She picked up what little food she could find, forced down the melted bar, and re-mounted her “new” snowmobile. “Maybe the VTOL will have something else we can salvage?”

“Maybe, yeah,” Shawn shoved the other snowmobile back onto its skis. It rocked almost onto its far side before he grabbed the handlebar in his powered gauntlet. When he released the bar, Horizon could see that it had bent.

Horizon shook her head in disbelief. “You got really lucky when you shot that VTOL down, didn’t you?”

“I fell over a lot,” the vole admitted. He reached up to his helmet and started to fumble with the release. “It might be best if I take it off now.”

She shrugged and walked over to help him remove the armor. Fortunately the Company’s exo-suits were designed for rapid egress and she got him free in a matter of moments. They packed the suit onto the back of Horizon’s snowmobile and zipped off towards the crashed gunship.

The two slowed as they saw the fire from the gunship’s fuel supply, Horizon could tell instantly from the shade of the flames that it was mostly hydrogen. The VTOL had landed on its side, crushing one of the rotating wings, from which a dim fire burned. She added ultraviolet light to her vision input and froze. A three-meter tall pillar of fire sprouted from the crushed wing of the gunship, searing the air around it.

Is it safe to approach? Horizon asked Sam.

“Analyzing,” the AI hummed as she took in the available data. “You should be safe so long as you keep to the intact side. I can’t say one way or another about the safety of the interior though.”

Horizon shrugged and stepped off of her snowmobile, switching the ignition off to save on fuel. She stopped, thinking about the hydrogen fire. If I remember correctly, the VTOLs used by the Friendlies had detachable fuel tanks in the wings. Is this one configured the same way?

“It’s a stock design used all over Surtur,” Sam replied. “It should be, but do you have the tools to remove it yourself?”

For safety the valve shutoff is manual, Horizon thought. She turned to the power suit strapped to the back of her vehicle and started untying it. After closing it I just need to rip it out.

The raccoon popped open the hatch on her suit and slipped inside, grateful that they had been afforded enough time to clean out the remains of the original occupant before they got kicked out of the Friendly Society. She felt a comforting warmth as she locked up her suit around her, she’d almost forgotten just how cold it was outside. The suit still moved more slowly than her enhanced body, but with her implant interfacing with the controls it went smoothly and the hindbrain represented by Samantha kept her from overshooting.

Carefully she strode slowly towards the gunship, scanning for threats, flipping between IR, UV and visible on a cycle. Horizon approached the uncrushed side of the aircraft, viewing the door in the infrared spectrum. The siding and handle appeared bright yellow, but still within her suit’s tolerances. She cautiously wrapped her mechanized hand around the handle, and pulled the manual release.

The hatch popped open, releasing a wave of heat that Horizon could feel even through her suit. She looked around for signs of movement, given how intact the craft was the possibility of survivors was strong. The floor of the main hold seemed to have dropped out save for a narrow bar spanning the length of the hold, the spaces it left were about the right size for the two snowmobiles they had stolen. In front was a small cabin with a single seat, slightly cocked from the impact with the ground. She saw a shadow shift on the far side of the pilot’s seat.

Horizon extended the stun baton on her suit’s right arm and stepped towards the cabin. She grabbed the back of the seat with her left hand and yanked it backwards, revealing the pilot. They wore a cracked polymer helmet that concealed their face, but blood dripped out of their neck. Horizon retraced her baton and took hold of their helmet in both hands, lifting it carefully off. She couldn’t tell whether she did that to make sure they were alive, or to ensure they were dead.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

A white-furred feline face with small round ears and black markings lolled in front of her, bleeding from a few spots on their eyebrows and forehead. She tried to examine the figure for any signs of life. Sam, she asked after a cursory inspection. Are they alive?

“I don’t think so,” Sam replied. “Wait, there’s a slight breath but I doubt they’ll… Oh crap.”

What?! Horizon silently exclaimed.

Horizon’s vision zoomed in on one of the cuts on the feline’s forehead. Through the dense fur she could see a thin line of red crust slowly disintegrating to reveal smooth skin underneath. “They’re healing! This guy has military-grade leukosynths.”

They’re augmented? Horizon thought. How is this possible? What do we do?

“My best hypothesis is that the Company got hold of a Federation-era supply of nanotech,” the AI suggested. “The Company might have recovered enough samples of your leukosynths that they might have found a way to breed them, but it’s unlikely. In either case catastrophic brain trauma should be enough to kill them permanently.”

Horizon extended her baton again and slammed it down on the pilot’s face, cracking their muzzle and opening more blood vessels but it didn’t seem like enough to kill them. She slammed the baton down again and again, until she heard their skull crack. Then she turned away, grabbed a survival bag off the wall and threw it outside, and exited.

She yelled “get that!” to Shawn and turned to the wing. The fuel tank was hidden underneath a black-painted aluminum panel that she almost missed, but with her cybernetically and suit-enhanced vision the hinges were readily apparent. Horizon dug her suit’s fingers into the seam and ripped it free, revealing the removable tank. Thank archons for corporate standardization.

“What happened in there?” Shawn called as he grabbed the survival bag and hauled it off to his snowmobile. “Is it going to explode or something?”

“No,” Horizon replied. “The team might not be dead yet. We need to clear out before they pick themselves back up.”

“What do you-” the vole stopped as he realized what she was saying. “You don’t think they have implants do you?”

“I didn’t just shatter the pilot’s skull for nothing,” Horizon retorted. She closed the double valve on the fuel line feeding out of the tank. “At least one of these guys had leukosynths.”

She grabbed the handles on the tank with both hands and pulled. At first it didn’t budge but as her suit’s motors strained the locks cracked and the pipeline twisted. Then with one last wrench the tank came free. The end of the pipe came free with the tank as Horizon staggered back.

“RUN!” Sam warned. Horizon looked up at the wing she’d removed the tank from, and saw that both valves had been torn free. Meaning that the fuel inside the line was leaking free into the air. She turned and raced off towards the snowmobiles.

An explosion sounded behind Horizon, rocking her with its shockwave. She felt chunks of debris bounce off her back and shoulder, but they didn’t penetrate her armor. As she staggered over she glanced down at the tank, suddenly worried that it might have ruptured. She scanned it in IR, and it read as cold as the surroundings.

“You okay?” Shawn shouted out, already revving up his snowmobile with the survival pack strapped to the back.

“Yes,” she replied. Horizon laid the fuel tank on the back of the other snowmobile and started pulling straps over it. “Get going, I’ll catch up.”

Shawn sped off into the distance and Horizon locked the straps into place. She turned to take one last look at the latest disaster caused by the entities chasing her. The wreck of the tilt-rotor craft was left in tatters, flames spilling out of countless holes in the fuselage and wings. She doubted anyone could have survived that now, even with leukosynths.

Still, there were the other two, the snowmobile drivers. They’d been left stripped in the snow after she’d broken their neck or filled them with bullets. But if they were augmented…

Horizon turned her snowmobile towards the battlefield. Quickly she came upon the corpse of the first trooper, the one she’d pounced upon. He laid face-down upon the snow, a white-furred hare with small ears, head bent at almost a right angle. She gave him a quick look-over and confirmed that he wasn’t moving before moving on. Just as she began to rev up the engine again she saw movement from the direction of the remaining trooper.

Her vision switched to infrared, revealing a figure glowing in yellow and red, burning hotter than a normal body. Almost reflexively Horizon fired both the carbine on her snowmobile and the gun mounted on her suit’s shoulder. Hot streams of blood flowed out of the trooper’s torso and head, jerking as if on strings, then he collapsed.

She turned back to the trooper with the broken neck, he still wasn’t moving but she aimed her shoulder cannon at his head regardless. Horizon hesitated before sending the trigger signal, it didn’t seem right to shoot a helpless enemy, even if they were already dead. And was there even a reason to? The VTOL had doubtlessly been transmitting as it went down, it was already too late to start silencing the witnesses.

Horizon left the incapacitated Company trooper behind, eager to leave the scene before reinforcements finally arrived.

---

She spent the better part of an hour driving back and forth across the landscape, creating false trails for the Company to follow, driving over her own tracks so many times. Eventually Horizon was satisfied with the misdirection she’d created and headed home.

The campsite was hidden in a small valley twenty kilometers from the outpost where she’d been spotted. A small tear-down habitat dome was buried under almost a meter of snow, with a garage nearby made from a prefab shed that was big enough to hide the van that had just been destroyed. She stopped three meters from the door to the garage and dismounted to check the interior. With a glance the door slid open and Horizon breathed a sigh of relief, the other snowmobile was inside and unpacked, with plenty of room now that the van was gone. She pulled in her snowmobile and shucked out of her exo-suit, hanging it in its improvised rack. After setting the new hydrogen tank well away from any of the vehicles Horizon headed for the dome.

After entering through the “airlock” doors and shaking the snow off her boots Horizon found Shawn sitting in front of the heater using his laptop. The vending machine hard drive that she’d stolen sat on the floor next to him with a cable from his laptop plugged into the side. His head swung towards her as she opened the inner door, eyes wide and ears raised, but relaxed as he realized it was her.

“Did you lose them?” he inquired.

Horizon nodded. “I’m pretty sure we should be good for now, but we should make plans to move again.”

“Already?” Shawn replied. “We’ve only been here for a couple weeks…” he remembered the events of the day and sighed. “Okay yeah, we should get moving soon. But I found something on this drive that we should extract first.”

“What is it?” Horizon turned her head curiously.

“It’s the vending machine’s digital wallet,” he explained. “And it’s using the old software, this thing hasn’t been updated in years.”

The raccoon peered over the vole’s shoulder at the screen, it showed a progress bar on his cracking program, only at 17%. “How much money do you think is in it?” she inquired.

“For security reasons they have armored cars physically visit these machines and both collect their sacs and install updates,” Shawn replied. “If nobody’s bothered to visit this machine there could be thousands on it.”

Horizon glanced aside and visualized Sam’s avatar, see, she thought. He’s useful after all.

“That remains to be seen,” the AI retorted.