*Flint Industrial District, Midwest Reclamation Corporation Territory (formerly the city of Flint, Michigan) 2074 AD*

Fred cursed his team mate as the truck flew over the bumpy road, knocking him about like he was inside a rattle.

"For fucks sake man, you said you could drive one of these old things!"

Corporal Lenny "Gears" Freedman just laughed, "This thing was made before magnetic shock absorbers, this the best we will get."

"Oh shut up both of you," their Sergeant sighed, "focus on the fucking mission."

Private First Class Fredrick Ericson grumbled that it would be easier to do if he wasn't battered to death by his squads driving, but wisely kept his voice down.  To be perfectly honest, they were lucky to get this rundown old beater at all.  It still ran on gasoline for fucks sake and was probably close to eighty years old, but unlike modern magnetic hybrids that could smoothly cruise at three hundred miles per hour with a battery pack the size of his hand, the truck was basically too low tech to be traceable.  No extranet connectivity, no AI assistant, no magnetic field, only thing they had to worry about was the awful noise and heat signature as they approached the factory.

The Midwestern Reclamation Corporation had retooled the rundown factories left over from the 2020's and had begun using the new facilities to produce their new line of Maglev tanks.  Intelligence said that they could produce nearly six per day from this plant alone, all fully controlled by an integrated AI commander.  

With that much firepower, The United Remnant wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell and the uneasy truce between the government and the corporation would collapse.  The upper brass was scrambling to get a plan together, but they needed time, and that was why Fred was in this goddamn relic barreling along an overgrown dirt road towards the brightly lit factory tonight with his three squadmates.

Approaching the compound wall, Sergeant Sorli gave the order and all four dived out to each side, relying on their Power Assisted Armor to buffer their landing as the modified truck barreled into the wall and exploded, leaving a gaping hole.

"All right folks, time to earn our paychecks!  We have fifteen minutes before security arrives, so lets party hard and get the fuck out of here!"

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With that, they broke into two teams and engaged the onsite security systems and personnel, laying charges at specific points as they went.

Fred sighed as he fired his chemogauss rifle, just another day at the office.

***

The chemogauss rifle. First built in the late 2050’s, it revolutionized warfare because of its incredible destructive power and amazing accuracy and fire rate. Smartbullets, utilizing nanofins to direct bullets even after the bullet is fired, meant that you didn’t even have to be all that accurate anyway, but it if you were accurate the computers could direct the bullets into vital areas. These bullets were launched by a combination of chemical reactions and magnetic propulsion at a blistering 7500 miles per hour, nearly ten times faster than the speed of sound. The smaller, but denser, bullets allowed there to be hundreds of rounds to a clip as well, so all in all, it was the perfect tool for slaughter.

***

Fredrick and Corporal Lenny hit the doors by the employee entrance, literally.  Sure there were keycard scanners they could have hacked, or maybe they could have gone to the roof and worked through a vent, or even just used breaching charges and blown through, but the reality is that with Power Assisted Armor that was all unnecessary.  Just lower your shoulder and grit your teeth and you’d be through the door in a second.

    R.A.D.E. could be a subtle operation, but the ‘Assault’ and ‘Demolition,’ parts of the job description were about as subtle as they sounded.

    “Anyone who doesn’t want a bullet in the ass hit the ground!”  Corporal Lenny roared as the workers scattered screaming.  Poor fucks, this hit would probably cause them to be laid off.

    “All Employees please report to planned emergency zones,” a pleasant female automated voice was playing out over the speakers.  “Automated defenses are being deployed on the premises.  Failure to comply may result in contract termination or death.”

    The announcement wasn’t kidding either, Fredrick saw some movement out of the corner of his eye and instinctively turned and fired on it.  The defense drone that had tried to sneak out of the women’s bathroom near him was torn to shreds by the bullets.

    “These AI get smarter every day,” Lenny grumbled, kicking the wreckage.  “Pretty soon they will be ruling us, like that old movie.”

    “It is just that you weren’t very smart to begin with,” Fredrick slotted in another clip.  “They are reacting faster than we planned, we had better get to the line quick.”