The blow landed well with the blade cutting straight into his windpipe which was exactly the hope. If I’d missed it then he’d have at least got a screech out before I’d sawed forwards, or worse I’d just hit the spine and stop. I’m not strong enough to sever a spine after all.

Almost going with the guy as he fell forwards I pulled the knife free an stepped up to finish him quickly. No sense in him suffering and making a load of metallic banging noise doing so.

I couldn’t see him but I guessed he was now on all fours, or at least three with a hand to his neck. No idea in the dark. I’d got his throat well and I could hear an attempted breath gurgle uselessly in his neck giving me enough noise to line up another slice.

Then I heard a rush of air for a moment, just a fraction of a moment really.

By the time I reacted and tried to pull back I heard the grate rumble as he must have fallen down further, my arm was extended and the the hand with the knife was moved. The damn ability must have activated when he swiped blindly at me. I guessed I’d cut his hand and he’d flinched away and fallen on his stomach in panic and pain.

I quickly knelt down on his back and swung my free arm blindly forwards just to the left a little, patting the guy a few times until I found a face, then I used that to orient and grab his nose and squeeze hard while pulling upwards. I heard more spluttering as he tried to shout in panic at having his nose grabbed. Then I sank the blade into his jugular properly, my other hand giving me enough positional data on the guys head to land it right.

Almost immediately the guy flailed in pain and fear as he realized it was over but he had no leverage to use his full grown strength from his position. He quickly grew sluggish and I let go of him. I heard the blood splattering through the grate underneath onto the pipes below in a steady stream, the man was done. He’d die in a minute or so, unconscious when he went at least. A mercy down here.

Cleaning the knife on the guys shirt or whatever it was as I couldn’t really tell, it was just something to grab, I stood up and holstered the knife. I quickly pulled out my pistol again and the scope.

I checked all around me quickly before pointing it forward. Nothing but tunnel, walkway and pipes to see. The guy on the ground was basically carrying nothing and wearing a shirt thing and simple pants, nothing worth looting.

Good, no other hostiles.

Well, technically this guy wasn’t immediately hostile. But I don’t have a lot of leeway down here. So he got to be included in hostiles anyway. Even if he was just one of the explorer style scratchers. Or even just a very, very lost person. Sometimes you just end up dead because it’s too risky for someone you have no knowledge of for you to live.

Sanctum do you grade people’s morals?

[That is not a tracked metric. Though actions are tracked for behavioral differences for evidence of personality drift caused by Sanctum functions, cyberware load or outside factors like chemical weapons or foreign control signals.]

Alright then, Ears always said I was too quick to just kill a threat. One of our many disagreements that led to me barely working with him by the end. Noe just didn’t like me killing, said it’d drive me crazy eventually like it was cyberpsychosis or something. Mom didn’t really have an opinion, she knew I’d got into fights but I don’t even know if she knows I’ve had to put people down sometimes.

She probably did, she’s not stupid.

[Sanctum can assign User’s confirmed kills to the tracking data if the User wants to track this data.]

Nah, it’d just make me sad when I wind down in between jobs and I start to think all big picture and so on. Start getting artsy thoughts about the city and so on. Better to let them all fade into a big sad ghostly ball at the back of my mind.

Talking to Sanctum help me find my calm a little. Well thinking with Sanctum, whatever.

Knowing I was safe again I headed off along my route once more. Same way as last time, hand on the rail and quiet steps with my gun held low and ready to raise and shoot. My arm hurt a little where it had defended me on it’s own, not quite to the degree of a pulled muscle but definitely enough to be noticeable.

Smooth, bump, smooth, bump.

I continued along to the second crossroads where my hand slid off the end of the rail, quickly pulling out the scope I checked my sight lines and found nothing. Orienting myself properly, I headed down towards the junction room where I’d need to turn left.

The pumping noise was really quite loud now, a mechanical sloshing noise and then a pneumatic hiss that sounding like a blast. Repeating over and over every second. I reached a doorway, as the railing I was touching ran into a wall. I pulled up my scope and checked out the room, obviously they didn’t bother with lights in the junction rooms after all.

All that was in there was hundreds of pipes of various sizes with a whole lot of valves and readouts all of which were actually physical and manual. You’d think they’d be digital but apparently not.

Maybe it was another anti-AI thing. Or just a better, cheaper way to do it. No idea, I’m not exactly a plumber. That did have me wondering if I could learn the… water treatment engineering skill or whatever it would be from studying the pipes a bit.

[User would have to study in depth documentation and real, working examples to gain the Civil Engineering Skill through passive effort. User would be advised to engage in repair or deconstruction to reach the required compatibility with the Skill more quickly.]

Tearing some of these pipes down somehow and flooding the area would likely derail the mission and probably kill me, so let’s worry about that skill another time.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Moving through the walkways of the room I reached the left side of the room to find a gate, one that had been cut open at some point. I moved forwards through it with the scope looking around for hostiles.

Another fifteen minutes of walking or so and I’d reach the estimate for he edge of the scratcher’s den, then I’d need to go into it a little bit to the drop point and grab the package which was apparently a very small secure lockbox about the size of my palm that was secured to the back of a pipe. Then get out of the den and trek all the way to the second drop point.

Fortunately the time passed rather calmly, I was almost settled into the hypnotic pattern of smooth, bump and counting crossroads when I reached the second junction I’d need to pass through.

This one looked a little more lived in, there were broken railings inside and other signs of traffic. I checked the room carefully to make sure I wasn’t leaving a hostile behind me, never know if there was a guy sleeping under a pipe or something.

I didn’t find anything though, no surprise scratchers or traps. Hopefully I could wrap up this job with a single encounter.

Using the scope I moved over to the exit I needed and checked around for traps, I’d need to be more careful now I was nearing their den. Passing through the clear doorway I moved forwards through the dark.

I kept my movement slower than before, almost too slow. I wanted to be able to feel a trip wire before I triggered it. I could scan the whole area in front of me with the NV scope but switching view from that to aim my pistol to defend myself would be totally disorienting and likely just wind up with me missing and wasting essential reaction time so I was better off just being patient and creeping forwards already prepared to fire.

My ears were strained hard for the sounds of hostiles, my nerves on edge but held stable as I could keep them. I wasn’t exactly a veteran here, keeping stressed like this was tiring.

Pushing slowly onwards I checked the map and it showed me as a little green blob moving along the route I had drawn out, it wasn’t truly mapped as it was just using the scale and moved distances to gage the distance traveled with a compass sensor somewhere in my cerebral implant to track direction, unless Sanctum has eaten it and made another one to replace it.

Now that I was inside the den zone sketched out by Marchand’s agent I was about six minutes away from the package, maybe more with my slow, careful movement speed.

I took a left at a T-section and then right at the next cross roads. No signs of hostiles apart from a patch of crunchy grating I tried not to think about too much. I hoped it was just vomit but in the darkness I had no way to be sure.

But when I got to the next junction and turned left I saw a light in the distance, a few lights actually. A few crossroads down there was a junction room as expected but this one had little PLED lights in it that were just visible through the darkness from where I was along with some other light that might have been actual lighting in another attached room spilling into the visible room.

So I’d found one of their hideouts, maybe a barracks or just a place to get some food down them. No idea. But if it was in use at the moment I would have to either find a way around or go through.

The pick up point was basically on the other side of that junction room although I’d have to pass through another two of the junction’s attached rooms to actually reach the spot due to the construction layout of the junction.

I approached the junction room doorway from far away with deliberate caution. I was careful to soften my steps, my arm was held loose but ready to snap up and fire, my breathing was shallow and quiet.

Past the first crossroads, no hostiles on the scope in any direction, cleared and moved on. Past another crossroads, same procedure, cleared and moved on. Third crossroads, same procedure but I find a load of clothing laid onto the railings near a hot heating pipe, cleared and moved on. This was it then.

Moving up to the edge of the dim light cast from the junction doorway I glanced into the room with the NV scope, it was still dark enough in there to make use of the scope even if it had a tiny bit of light in there.

I saw signs of living in there, vending machines up against the wall that looked hacked to be free. Some vid screens hung from pipe to watch television or whatever they were watching. A bunch of rolled up sleeping bags. A large pile of empty wrappers and drinks cans scattered about the floor near the corner.

Then a shadow passed over the dim lighting of the room, someone was in the doorway from the other room. Was I discovered? Were they coming for me?

The shadow faded but I heard the careless clanking of the hostile’s footsteps on the walkways of the junction’s vending machine room. The room I stood a little away from the entrance of. If I was discovered I would need to act quickly to prevent them from pinning me down and covering me from multiple angles at once.

A vending machine beeped a few times just out of sight, then a mechanical whir and a click and a tumble. The guy had used the machine. I needed to move in now while he was distracted.

I quickly moved into the dimly lit room with my gun held level with my eye and ready to shoot, I quickly found the hostile. It was a ganger of some kind, no idea what the gang markers were, and he looked like he might have been quite fat once but now he was just a large amount of skin hanging on bones.

His cyberarm was a concern though, he didn’t need much other than that to break my neck without much trouble. It looked like a proper piece as well, not a medical replacement model, an actual combat grade cyberarm.

In that heartbeat of me entering the room and lining the crouched ganger in my pistol sights I had a number of plans run through my mind as I considered what to do.

Pull the trigger, send the rest of them of the defensive and grab the package and get out to the drop point? Risks the scratchers going crazy and hunting me through the dark but also gets the job done quickly in that case if I can lose them in the maze of pipe ways.

Switch to my blade and take him out in a quick surprise attack? It’d not alert the others right away and I might be able to sneak away with the package without being followed. It did risk them finding the body quickly and spreading out to hunt me down with less fear than a gun.

Just ignore the gonk and hide? Wait for him to leave and then sneak to the package location. Might be able to get out unseen with no one following at all. But it did risk a very nearby hostile coming for immediate back up if I got discovered.

My veins were lit on fire from the stress and focus of the situation even as I tried to keep my mind cold and calm. I felt sweat freely pouring from my forehead as I slowly took steps into the room with my gun trained on the hostile ganger.

“Hart, you gonna be all day getting those drinks or what?” Another hostile called from the adjoining room. Then the speakers shadow filled the lit doorway as he’d come to see what his choom was doing with the vending machines.

The silhouette had an open bag of carbofries in one hand and the other on the doorway as he stepped into the doorway. The head of the silhouette was changing shape as the hostile obviously munched away at the carbofries.

“Hey, who you talking with Har? That why you taking so long?” The new hostile asked from the doorway.

“Huh? What?” The hostile named Hart asked confused before looking around into the gloom.

Okay well, decision made for me then.

I quickly lined the pistol up on the silhouette, upper chest, and pulled the trigger. The gun had a light kick to it perfect for my kid body. If I was firing a zukai revolver I’d probably break both my arms.

The shot rang out incredibly loudly in the room and into the tunnels beyond with booming echoes already returning even as I was lining up the next shot on Hart, another shot adding to the noise.

Guy in the doorway went falling back with a grunt as the carbofries went flying through the air. I didn’t know if he was wearing armor though with him being back lit strongly so I closed in towards him even as Hart slammed into the vending machine and dropped two cans of some drink.