Another earsplitting roar filled the night. Slowly, Arri took her katana out of its sheath, holding it while moving into a combat stance, preparing for what would happen next.
The creature noticed her, turning her attention towards her, its two blood-red eyes focusing on her. Slowly, it moved into a combat stance, too. Then, without any warning, it attacked.
Arri barely had any time to react. She leaped to the side, with only a moment to spare. The creature brought its clawed fist down where Arri had been a fraction of a second before, punching a hole through the terrasteel roof. She took advantage of its miss, swinging her katana at the creature.
As soon as she had started her swing, the creature turned its head, focusing on her once again with its blood-red eyes. With its free clawed hand, the creature caught her blade before it had travelled half of its intended distance. The creature had caught it with such intensity that the durasteel blade chipped on contact. Meanwhile, the crystals covering the creature’s hand remained unscathed.
Arri realized her attack had been blocked the instant it came into contact with the creature’s hand, and immediately pulled back to try again. The creature was faster, though.
It almost instantly closed its clawed hand around her blade, trapping it in its grip, preventing Arri from pulling back. Then, the creature’s clawed hand closed even together. Arri heard cracking, and knew what was about to happen. She let go of the blade’s handle.
Arri jumped back as the durasteel blade broke in the creature’s grip, the blade shattering into pieces, durasteel shrapnel flying out. One piece nearly hit her, slicing a tear in the sleeve of her jacket instead. The creature once again remained unscathed.
Arri leaped backwards several times, putting nearly the whole rooftop’s length in between her and the creature. The creature slowly opened its hand, the remaining pieces of the katana falling down as it did. Then it turned around to face Arri, its blood-red eyes staring into her. At that very moment, she knew this was no creature, but a monster.
The monster’s jaw hinged open, letting out another roar.
Arri took out her G-84, firing three shots, one at the monster’s head and two at its chest. All three durasteel bullets hit their mark. All three fell down, mushroomed, while the monster’s crystals remained unblemished.
With a screech, the monster lunged at Arri, its clawed hands outstretched. Arri saw it coming, however, and leaped over to another rooftop. She took two more shots at the monster’s eyes, getting the same results as before. She saw that the monster was about to jump at her. This time, however, she wasn’t fast enough.
The next thing she knew, her back was against the rooftop and her G-84 was out of her reach. The monster was on top of her, its blood-red eyes staring into hers. She immediately kicked the monster, pushing it back enough so that she could get out from beneath it.
She only had enough time to pull herself up before the monster drove its clawed hand into her gut, impaling her.
A moment passed, a soft hissing coming from where Arri had been impaled, but no blood. She shifted, and the hissing grew louder, deuterium gas leaking out.
Arri kicked against the monster again, pushing herself off its clawed hand. The last of the deuterium gas hissed from the hole in her stomach, with cut wires, broken tubing, jagged metal and sort of skin-mimic hanging out as well.
After running an almost instantaneous diagnostic, Arri learned that none of her critical systems had been compromised, other than the fact that she had lost the entirety of her deuterium reserves. Without the deuterium, her fusion reactor would shortly shut down. She wasn’t worried about that, though, as she had enough reserve power to keep herself running for the next forty-eight hours.
Arri jumped out of the way of the monster’s next attack, now much more wary, knowing how much damage it could truly cause. Her movements were much swifter now, prioritizing survival over a counterattack. After another successful dodge, she was able to pick her G-84 and did so, putting it back into its holster. Then, she jumped down from the roof and into an alleyway.
The monster followed her down, landing in the alleyway on its feet, the pavement cracking beneath it. Arri wasn’t there, though it could hear a soft whirring coming from some distance away.
Then, Arri turned the corner, carrying a miniature railgun cannon, about the length of her messenger bag and almost fully powered up.
The monster charged forward, but it wasn’t fast enough. The terrasteel projectile plowed into its chest, exploding into tiny pieces of shrapnel and sending the monster flying into the back wall of the alleyway, which cracking from the force. Then, it fell down to the ground with a thud and didn’t move.
Arri let out a sigh of relief. Then, her attention was drawn to a series of crackles and pops coming from the railgun, followed by a small burst of flame. She instinctively dropped it, and it broke in two upon coming into contact with the ground. The flames quickly engulfed the two pieces, making it a charred and melted mess.
A sound that was a mix of glass shattering and hissing filled the alleyway. Arri looked up and to the end of the alleyway.
The monster was back on its feet, though slightly unsteady. Its blood-red eyes seemed to be fading underneath the crystal covering it, which had finally cracked. White lines in the crystal covering the monster began to spread and grow, some of the crystal turning into the dust Arri had seen on Marsh at the beginning, She could see more of him being exposed as the crystal continued disintegrating.
The monster staggered forward, seemingly losing control of the body parts that were no longer covered in crystal. It took one last step forward, before the last of the crystal disintegrated and Marsh fell face first onto the ground in front of Arri, his hand out stretched, seemingly in a last effort.
Arri took a quick scan of him. He hadn’t been physically harmed at all, his pulse and breathing akin to someone asleep. She hesitated for several moments, thinking over her options. Finally, she picked one.
She took her smartglass out of her messenger bag, miraculously undamaged from the battle. Arri powered it up and requested a taxi about a block away from where she was, getting a mode of transportation while also trying to make sure that no one would find the scene of the battle until she was a good distance away. She shut the smartglass off right after her request went through, putting it in her messenger bag before she set the bag down as well. Then, she went through with her choice.
Arri propped Marsh up against one of the walls, who, true to his frame, was quite light. It looked like he was in a deep sleep, his face calm and still, his breathing soft and steady.
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Arri peeled off her torn gray polystic windbreaker, her black res-fiber shirt in a similar state. She took her holster with her G-84 inside and put it in her messenger bag. Then, she tied her windbreaker around her stomach so that the hole through her stomach was fully covered up. After making sure it wouldn’t come loose, she picked up her messenger bag and slung it over her shoulder. Finally, crouching next to Marsh, Arri picked him up in a princess carry with ease. She stood straight up, and proceeded to walk out of the alleyway and towards where she had requested the taxi, with Marsh in her arms.
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The taxi finally came after about ten minutes of waiting, the whir of its electric engine getting quieter as it stopped. During that time, Marsh hadn’t moved at all, seemingly frozen in sleep. While still carrying him, Arri opened the door to the backseat, setting him down in one of the seats before getting inside as well.
“So, where to?” the driver asked as Arri closed the door. He was in his late forties, olive skin and overweight, wearing a faded white polycystic jacket, a pair of poly-fiber jeans, and a brow poly-fiber flat cap. The driver, his clothes, and the whole inside of the taxi reeked of stale smoke.
“655 116th street, in sector seventy-four,” Arri said. “Don’t log this trip. I’ll pay you double what you would normally earn from a trip of this distance in cash.”
The driver stayed silent for almost half a minute, processing what he had just heard. “Alright,” he finally said. “You’ve got yourself a deal.” He changed the gear and the car picked up speed with a soft whir of its engine, driving through the night.
A minute passed in silence. Then, the driver spoke up.
“To be honest, I thought he was from one of those new… brothels over in sector sixty-nine,” the driver said, hesitating. “I’ve had to pick up a couple of their… employees after they did their jobs.”
“… what do you mean?” Arri asked, though by her voice, it sounded like she didn’t want to continue the conversation.
The driver continued talking. “His clothes. I thought he was one of those… what’s the term… a boy toy.”
“He’s not one of those. And I will pay you an extra hundred Federation dollars to be quiet,” Arri said coldly.
The remainder of the drive was silent, with the driver looking ahead, Marsh silently asleep, and Arri looking out the window.
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The black durasteel ATT hovered about two feet off the ground. It was still slowly descending when one of its side doors opened and Commander Mono jumped down from the troop cabin, fully suited up in her black durasteel body armor and a black res-fiber field cloak on top of it. The field cloak covered everything from her neck down, hiding her armor, especially the stripes on her pauldrons. It also had a hood, which was currently pulled back.
She stood in front of the alleyway Arri and Marsh had been in, the only things remaining being the black dust from Marsh’s crystals and the smoldering remains of Arri’s railgun.
The ATT set down behind Commander Mono, and the rest of the passengers in its troop cabin exited, being her nameless, Lieutenant Lapel, and his two security division CFM soldiers. The nameless and Lieutenant Lapel also wore field cloaks, theirs being black and dark gray respectively.
“I still don’t understand the point of coming all the way out here,” Lieutenant Lapel said as Commander Mono knelt down next to some of the black dust. “We should have let the police troops deal with this.”
“Some things you can only see from being at the scene yourself. And some details stood out to me.” Commander Mono set down her black poly-fiber pack, and began to rummage through it. She took out a small plasteel case with several glasteel vials, using one of the vials to scoop up some of the black dust. She sealed the vial, putting it in one of her utility belt’s pouches, the case with the rest of them being put back in her pack. Then, Commander Mono began to pick apart the two charred pieces.
A minute passed. Then, she stood back up.
“So?” Lieutenant Lapel asked, clearly exasperated.
“N-25, can you bring over the two police troops who first responded to the scene?” Commander Mono asked. “Their drone too.”
“What do you see, Commander Mono?” Lieutenant Lapel asked again dryly as one of the nameless headed off to do what they had been told.
“What happened here,” she replied. “I merely need to confirm my thinking.”
“Do you mind telling me?”
Commander Mono was quiet for a moment. “Someone dropped down into this alleyway. They ended up taking a railgun round, most likely made out of terrasteel, but they survived and either got away or were helped.”
“That’s impossible!” Lieutenant Lapel spat. “First of all, the drop’s about ten stories! Anyone would have died from that height! And a railgun? I don’t fucking see one!”
“It’s not a typical railgun, Lieutenant,” she replied, pointing to the charred pieces. “Two rails, a heavy-duty power cell, and terrasteel fragments. It’s a miniature railgun, probably experimental based on its current state. Ended up overheating and caught fire. The terrasteel fragments are shrapnel from the round it fired.”
“But still, no one could have survived the fall, and a direct hit from a railgun round would mean instant death, even if they were wearing durasteel body armor!”
“Project Crystallization could have,” Commander Mono stated.
“What the hell is Project Crystallization?” Lieutenant Lapel snapped.
“Not what, Lieutenant. Who.”
“Fine, then,” he spat. “Who the hell is Project Crystallization?”
“You don’t have clearance to know,” Commander Mono answered. “But, for your information, Project Crystallization is responsible for what happened to laboratory twenty-four.”
“If you’re only going to tell me that, then what was the fucking point…” Lieutenant Lapel muttered. Commander Mono could clearly his remark, but said nothing.
N-25 came back a moment later, the two police troops in tow. They were practically identical to the security division soldiers in terms of appearance, other than the fact that their stripes on their left shoulder pauldrons were a dark navy blue.
“Ah, just in time,” Commander Mono said. “Can you two launch your drone and check out the two rooftops on either side of the alleyway?” One of the troops set down and opened a quite small durasteel case, taking out an even smaller durasteel quadcopter, setting it on the ground. The other took out a tablet-sized smartglass, powering it up and opening the drone control program.
“Actually, let me do it,” Commander Mono said. The other police troop passed the smartglass over, and she took control. The quadcopter powered up and took off, a camera in the drone sending video to the smartglass. “There it is,” she said. She could see the holes in the roof from Arri and Marsh’s battle, as well as the durasteel shards and some tubing.
“N-20 and N-22, get up onto the roofs, bag anything of interest.” Two of the nameless walked up to the buildings, each taking out a grappling gun, firing it and then beginning to rappel up.
Commander Mono turned the drone and began to pilot it down.
Then, a shot rang out through the night. Immediately, all of the nameless were on alert, their MO-4’s out. Commander Mono set the smartglass down and took out her MO-4 just as the quadcopter crashed down into the street.
“Incoming,” Commander Mono stated, her voice cold. “Prepare for battle.”