Jin
The hovercar descended to a stop inside of a dilapidated parking hangar. From what Jin could gather, they had traveled to the western outskirts of the Andaka District, an area that had yet to be leavened by the money-grubbing clutches of a powerful corporation. To the east, Jin could make out the neon leaves of the concrete jungle of the newly developed parts of the district. Sky mansions and tower palaces thrust brazenly into the dark sky, casting the rest of the former working-class district in shadow. Tiny hovercars speckled the structures like bees and pollen about tall flowers; the occasional airShip or spaceYacht rose from horizontal landing pads.
“We’re here,” the Yamda driver said.
Jin climbed out of the hovercar, followed by a crestfallen Hiro. Norbu rode separately—though whether that was due to his status as Commander, or because of what Jin suspected was an argument between the two men, Jin was not sure.
Jin and Hiro followed the Yamda members as they led them through the hangar, the only sound the echoes of their footsteps bouncing off the concrete ceiling. Dim and flickering fluorescent bars were their only source of light.
At the end of the garage was an elevator. One of the Yamda punched in a passcode to open the doors. The four of them then boarded—Jin, Hiro, and their two Yamda escorts. A sweat broke out on Jin’s forehead as the elevator descended deep into the earth.
His trepidations were only further cultivated when the doors dinged open.
“A rave?” Jin screamed above the fray, then suddenly realizing that it was the best possible smokescreen for a gathering of a sting force.
Lasers and neon lights shot through the black air and white smoke. Warm bodies sticky with sweat rubbed against Jin as he shouldered his way through the press. There weren’t many times when he was reminded of his smaller stature, but at every twist and turn, these partygoers made sure to. Were it not for his Yamda companions, he might have been swallowed in the swamp of inebriated ecstasy.
His ears were still ringing and his heart thumping to the bass by the time the group finally made it to an unassuming VIP room. The doors closed behind Jin, muffling the sounds.
A team of four guards stood around the room, while five more sat in leather couches, feigning a drunken gathering. When they saw their Yamda compatriots, they nodded and allowed the party through into a private bathroom.
Inside the bathroom, Jin and Hiro were led to a small shower, barely large enough for the two of them.
“Push it to the left when you’re ready,” one of the Yamda said, pointing at the showerhead. Without further explanation, he left Hiro and Jin alone inside the cramped shower.
“Huh,” Jin said. “Ready when you are,” he said to Hiro, pointing out his height.
“Ah.” Hiro gently pressed against the showerhead. There was a low whir and quiet thud, and the elevator began lowering into a steel shaft.
“You’d think a shower in a VIP room would be a bit bigger,” Jin said, swaying his hips. “Not much room to do anything in here.”
Hiro allowed a reminiscent smile to take form on his lips.
The elevator lowered far into the ground before finally slowing to a stop. Immediately in front of them was a sliding door—when Jin thrust it open, he was met by a concrete tunnel, and several more guards of the Yamda creed.
He made his way over to the door on the far end of the tunnel and opened it, Hiro following closely behind.
A vaulting cavern of concrete walls widened before them. An entire command center had been set up within. Processors and screens and holoViewers lined the walls. In the center was a large table where the officers congregated and held meetings. Here and there, Yamda and Mobsters bustled about, their faces all one and the same, wearing looks of weary resolve and purpose-driven survival.
Norbu had spoken truthfully. The numbers of their combined organizations were nowhere near what they had been before—especially if this was all that remained of the Yamda clan. Two hundred total might have been a generous estimate.
When Jin walked inside, several Mobsters recognized him. They dropped what they were doing as if they had caught glimpse of a ghost. One proactive individual ran towards the officer’s table, throwing stunned backwards glances all the while.
The Mobster soon returned, Mugen and Kala on his tail, eventually being quickly overtaken by the latter two. Jin’s step quickened towards the pair likewise, and the three greeted one other in a series of warm embraces.
Mugen held Jin by the shoulders. “I thought you were dead, you little shit.”
“Alive and well, happy to say.”
Kala nodded at Jin, and he to her.
“So,” Jin said. “We’re all here for Kazin?”
“Yeah,” Kala said. “For Kazin.” She glanced behind Jin. “Who’s this guy?”
“My name is Hiro,” Hiro said. “I was brought in by Norbu to aid Damera and Yukia with their Healing and tending of the wounded.”
Kala led Hiro away to get him well settled.
Mugen threw his arm around Jin’s shoulders. “What’s with your arm?” He nodded at Jin’s right arm, still hung in its sling.
“Overextended my bioEnhancements,” Jin said. “Had a little mishap with some guy in the Underbelly.”
Mugen’s happy expression faltered slightly. “That’s too bad.”
“Nothing compared to what happened in Royang,” Jin said sadly. “I wish I’d been there.”
“I’m glad you weren’t,” Mugen replied. He gave Jin’s shoulder a squeeze. “Knowing you, you would’ve ended up…” His voice trailed into silence.
“…Like Ako and Gento,” Jin finished for him.
“Yeah,” Mugen said. “True Seven Stars to the core.” No other words were spoken between them the rest of the way to the officer’s table. No other words were needed, nor could they have expressed the sorrow they felt at the loss of their compatriots, or the gladness they experienced in one another’s company. It was one of those moments which only silence could fill.
The officers soon gathered at the table.
Jin listened to the plans with earnest curiosity as Mugen and Kala laid them out for him. Sangsum’s secret compound was located at the top of a new, Shampai-built sky mansion tower, yet to be occupied by its residents. The building seemed to be lightly guarded, to misdirect any unwanted attention from Sangsum’s clandestine activities. All the better, as it made the sting force’s job easier.
They planned to hit the compound when the Vermeta scourBots showed a spike in intranet activity.
“Kala and some others will attack the tower’s power grid,” Mugen explained. “It’s still an unpopulated building, so it should be lightly guarded, if at all. Once they do that, we’ll have a ten-minute window before the generators kick in and all security systems are restarted.”
“Ten minutes to scale that tower?” Jin asked, shaking his head. “That’s easier said than done, boss. It must be at least two hundred fifty stories.”
“That’s why we have these,” Mugen said. He hauled something from the floor and dropped it onto the center of the table.
“Oh no,” Jin whispered. “angravSuits? These are bootlegged, aren’t they? Only the military has access to this kind of tech.”
“Obviously,” Kala said, tapping on it lightly with the tip of the blade affixed to the stump of her right arm. “Homegrown by Yamda scientists, in our glory days.”
“Well then, I’m going with Mugen,” Jin said. “I want to be there when we get Kazin out.”
Mugen nodded. “Fine by me.” He did not cast a single glance at Jin’s arm, for which he was thoroughly thankful.
“Let’s get some rest,” Kala said. “We head out tomorrow night.”
The meeting was ended, and the hubbub of the base dimmed with the lights.
Jin went to bed that night, trying to feel at peace. He didn’t know what they would do after they found Kazin again. The Seven Star Mob had no home to return to, no more Royang.
Maybe I’ll just live with Ghost and Kazin in the Underbelly, Jin thought to himself. That wouldn’t be too bad, he thought. The three of them might be able to eventually climb their way out and get a decent apartment in a cheaper district somewhere. Maybe they could be outcasts and run their own petty crime organization. That would be fun. It was an impossible thought, however. Mugen would want to somehow retake the neighborhood, though that seemed a nigh impossible endeavor as well. Their numbers were nowhere near what they had been, and the Kargu too powerful. If only there were some way to replenish their numbers.
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When sleep withheld itself, Jin climbed out of his cot and made his way to a rear chamber, reserved for smoking. He nearly stumbled onto his bottom when his eyes met those of a limbless man in a stasis tank. Jin approached cautiously, realizing that the man's eyes were open, but that there was no life within them. Jin recognized who he was: Ganzama. Jin silently commended Norbu for his loyalty, for having brought Ganzama to this place during the frenzied midst of the Yamda flight from their homebase, though he wondered if it would be better just to put the man out of his misery.
When Jin slid open the door, he found Hiro already within, sitting at a steel bench against the wall.
“Oh, hey,” Jin said, taking a seat next to the old man. The wall and bench both were hard and cold against his skin.
“Hello, Jin,” Hiro said, helping him to light a cigarette.
The two sat in pleasant silence for several minutes.
“I thought you were exiled,” Jin finally said. “Exile doesn’t usually imply leaving on good terms, with a villa by the beach as a severance package.”
Hiro chuckled. “You are right. Honorably discharged might be closer to the mark. You want to know why I was in the Underbelly, I am guessing.”
“Among other things,” Jin agreed, blowing out a long cone of smoke.
“I was…observing,” Hiro said ponderously while puffing at his pipe.
“Observing what?” Jin asked.
Hiro merely smiled.
Jin sighed in annoyance. “Will you at least tell me why you left the Yamda?”
Hiro nodded. “Very well. Where to begin.” Hiro stared at the ceiling with wet, tired eyes. “Norbu is a very principled man.”
“I know that firsthand,” Jin said, thinking of the time when he had negotiated an alliance between the Seven Star Mob and the Yamda.
“Some would say to a fault,” Hiro said. He paused for a moment as he pursed his lips. “We disagreed on the direction the clan should take. When bioEnhancements first emerged, the clans which did not quickly adopt them were savagely destroyed. At that time, Norbu was more than willing to adapt. The argument between he and I was along the same vein.”
“Huh,” Jin said. “Inorganic versus organic, or something like that?”
Hiro stared at Jin in genuine surprise. “Yes. Yes. I had forgotten. You said you were a coder at one point.”
Jin nodded. “Yup.”
Hiro nodded sadly. "There will come a time when humankind and its consciousness might be stored through technology. But full, metal bodies do not only offer greater power. They would also allow second life to the infirm."
"Like the man outside," Jin said.
“Yes." Hiro exhaled clouds of blue smoke. "But Norbu does not believe that such beings are truly human. The question of the grandfather's axe, or the Ship of the Hero, if you will."
"Does the original remain if the parts are replaced?" Jin mused.
"Yes, yes!" Hiro chuckled pleasantly, a twinkle in his eye. "Tell me. What are your thoughts concerning AI?”
“AI?” Jin said. “Well, I know that civilization was nearly obliterated from a couple of uprisings.”
“It’s very interesting you know that,” Hiro said. “As there were no true casualties involving blood and gore—only those of governmental cyber soldiers whose minds were lost in cyberspace while battling the insurgent AI.”
Jin shrugged. “Yup. Civilization nearly ground to a halt, but corporate mercenaries were able to destroy the sentient AI systems, at the expense of large parts of the web.”
“Yes,” Hiro said admiringly. “It is why we do not allow AI to take control of advanced operations in our day and age. We refine algorithms, yes, and glean data from them, but we keep them firmly as tools, without self-governance. But we are approaching an age when man and machine may become one, unified. And that would allow us to attain unreachable heights. It was, and still is, my hope that Norbu will come to see this, before it is too late.”
Jin shook his head. “Maybe. But that would also allow easy control of individual humans, given the right algorithmic tools.”
Hiro threw his head back and laughed loudly. “Your manner of speech is rough, as fitting a mobster, but you are an intellectual!”
Jin sucked bashfully at his cigarette. “My parents were into that kind of stuff.”
“They taught you well!” Hiro exclaimed.
“They were scientists,” Jin remarked fondly.
“Oh?” Hiro said, scratching at his temple. “I was quite the avid researcher, back in my day. What is your family name? I may have stumbled across their work.”
“Mendoka,” Jin replied. “My name is Jin Mendoka.”
The silence which followed was not of the pleasant sort—or at least, that was what Jin thought of it afterwards. It seemed stretched taut, balanced on knife’s edge, with the glimmer in Hiro’s eyes mirroring something that was close to fear.
“I see,” Hiro said finally. “The Drs. Mendoka. Yes, they were very influential in their field.”
“I don’t know much of them,” Jin said. “I was pretty young when they died.”
“Yes. I see. Their passing was a tragic event.” Hiro slowly stood. “I should be going now, as you should, young Mendoka. It is late, and we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”
“Yeah, me too,” Jin said, plunging his cigarette into the forest of stubs in the ashtray. “It was nice talking to you.”
"I as well," Hiro said thoughtfully. "Perhaps, following this rescue, you and I should continue our discussion."
Jin smiled. "Sure."
Jin slept all throughout the early dawn and the morning as well. It was Mugen who eventually roused him from his sleep when late afternoon trudged into early evening.
“Rise and shine, Jin. We have to get out of here before the club opens for the night.”
The cavern was a hive of activity as the strike force equipped themselves with the necessary gear. An array of weapons had been stacked against the wall. Jin chose for himself a single flameSword of golden blade.
The teams were split into two—Kala with her force of armed clanmembers and hackerCorps, Mugen with his Mobsters outfitted in angravSuits with Jin among their number.
They made the slow ascent through the shower elevator, two at a time, and found their way to the hangar where black, rectangular transports were waiting for them. When the strike force had boarded the vehicles and the doors were shut, Mugen informed them of their daring endeavor.
“We’re going to have to jump out of the transport when it nears the cluster of sky mansions. It’ll be too risky to fly in between them, so we’ll have to get onto to the roof of a building on the edge, and then make our way over to the one where Moyashino’s being held.”
Jin tried to ignore the nervous clump that was his stomach. If Kazin weren’t his friend, he might have cursed him just about now. He looked around him at the three others in the transport, excluding Mugen. The angravSuits were steel and blue polycarbonate, clunky in their design, closer in appearance to armored suits than the sleek sort issued by the government. Hexagons were cut into the joints, the bottom of the feet, and the limbs—thrusters, to allow for movement and altitude control. If any one of them failed, the wearer was doomed. Jin hoped that the Yamda scientists had known what they were doing.
The transport traveled higher and higher into the sky, as high as airspace laws allowed. As the sky mansion forest drew near, the five transports making up their caravan broke from the flow of traffic and rose ever higher until they were looking down upon the buildings. Fierce gales shrieked outside, and the transport seemed to rattle from their force. Jin gripped at the wall.
Mugen slid open the doors at the exact moment Jin hoped he wouldn’t. Cold air rushed into transport; the wind beat at Jin’s face, and the shrieks of the city, of vehicles, of elevation, roared in Jin’s ears.
“Meet at the outermost tower!” Mugen commanded, adjusting his angravSuit.
“This is damn high,” Jin shrieked, to whoever would listen.
“Damn right!” Mugen hollered excitedly as he tipped out of the transport.
“Just like that?” Jin cried in disbelief.
“When you start to get scared is when you gotta jump, captain!” The Mobsters leaped one by one out of the transport, their thrusters glowing blue as they did so, until only Jin was left.
“Damn you, Kazin,” Jin muttered under his breath. He jumped reluctantly into the night sky.
Suddenly, the city lights were speckled in the black depths below him, the shadowy masses of towers outlined in bright colors. The movements of his angravSuit felt unruly and strange, as if he were trying to run through water. Cold air bit at his eyes and ears and mouth and nostrils. Small constellations of blue light peppered the air as the strike force slowly descended to the target tower.
The angravSuit’s systems were intelligent enough, it seemed, to maneuver Jin safely to stable ground even though he was unable to move his right arm. Soon, he found himself huddled on a rooftop with twenty-four other clanmembers and Mobsters. They were on the edge of a cluster of sky mansion towers—Sangsum’s stronghold was in the center, atop the tallest tower. The structure of black glass rose at least fifty floors above the rest of them like a looming obelisk.
“Alright,” Mugen said. A light rain began pattering atop their heads. “Let’s go.”
One by one, then two by two, Kazin’s rescuers began jumping from the building, thrusters alight. Jin followed soon after Mugen, his stomach tying itself in knots as he hopped from the edge. He looked down below at the ground, so far below that it only appeared as a dark smudge in the night. He momentarily lost his balance, and vertigo swooped through his senses.
“Shit,” Jin panted, wiping the water from his brow. The rain was growing thicker, much more quickly than was to his liking.
The true test of an effective angravSuit lay in two things—its balance systems, and its thrusters. The Yamda suits had more than proven their value in balance—it was in the power of the thrusters that their bootleggedness showed. The rising was slow-going and snail-like. Government-issued suits would have scaled the fifty or so floors in less than one minute. These Yamda suits took ten seconds to fly two stories higher.
The rain thundered down upon them now, and flashes of lightning lit the sky ablaze.
The first Mobster fell from a failed thruster. He did not even have time enough to realize his approaching death.
“Captain!” he yelled. “My suit is acting up! Parach—” The thruster failed, and he lurched through the air and pummeled into the side of Sangsum’s tower. He was rendered unconscious while his body hurtled into the depths below.
Cries of terror arose from the party.
“Keep going!” Mugen commanded.
Jin swallowed, cursing under his breath each and every second, too afraid to breathe for fear that it might send his suit off-balance or mess with its systems. He readied his hand to pull at the parachute release, though he didn’t know if it would even work in the rain.
The second member of the force was hit by lightning as they ventured closer to the clouds. Then a third, a fourth, and a fifth all plummeted to their ends as rainwater seeped into the electronic systems. Their screams echoed in the storm, swirling among the buildings like the wails of a haunting ghost.
Jin found that screaming was the best cure for fear. “SHIT!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. Jagged bolts of lightning rent the air around him. The tower was hidden behind the rain. All Jin could see were thin shafts of clear water. He focused on only a single thing: arriving at the top of the tower. He was no longer sure whether he was going the right way. His thrusters began spluttering.
Come on, Jin thought desperately. Suddenly, a black ledge appeared through the screen of rain, rushing at him quicker than he thought possible. Jin lurched backwards to avoid crashing into it. As soon as he was sure he had made it over the edge, Jin disabled his thrusters and tumbled onto the concrete ground. Mugen landed beside Jin and helped him onto his feet.
When the remainder of the force had gathered, the headcount was significantly less—fourteen left, and eleven dead. The rain had cut significantly into their numbers.
There was no time to mourn, however. Once they had stripped out of their angravSuits, Mugen led the force to the rooftop mansion that was Sangsum’s compound. The lights were still on all throughout the building. It seemed that Kala’s team had yet to fulfill their part.
“And now, we wait,” Mugen whispered. He fingered the crackler that hung on his hip.
"Commander," one of the Mobsters said. "We got trouble." She handed Mugen her tri-scope.
Mugen peered through the sights. Jin looked up at him. The shadows of Mugen's jaw muscles pulsed in the dim and stormy light.
"Guards," Mugen grimaced.
"How many?" Jin asked.
"Too many." Mugen lowered the tri-scope. "And they're all Kargu."
Jin gulped. He had not bargained for a confrontation with the Kargu; and now it appeared that he would experience their supposed savagery upfront and personally.