Panic surged through Dasha, overwhelming her, washing away all rational thought, leaving only confusion and the crushing realization that the situation was urgent — one mistake, and someone could die.

“Shit! Shit! How did this happen? Max and Nika are both in deep shittiest shit, and in totally different places. And what’s going on with Alisa? Who the hell knows, yeah? And that… thing… that monstrous squid… so huge and terrifying! Where do I run? Who do I save? That thing’s gonna kill me.”

Daria jumped to her feet and, as if in disbelief, patted herself down. The creature had thrown her hard, but thanks to her armor, the girl hadn’t broken any bones. Glancing around, she spotted her sniper rifle, miraculously intact.

“Thank Cthulhu! Both me and the rifle are fine. Though, Cthulhu’s got tentacles too — couldn’t he lend a hand? Maybe strike a deal or something... Wait! What the hell are you thinking, Vasilevskaya?” She almost slapped herself but remembered just in time that she was still wearing her helmet. “Snap out of it! Get Nika out of the gas cloud, then go help Maksim!”

She spun around and charged forward.

One step.

Something’s going on.

Second step.

A strange sound echoed in her mind, like a crystal ball shattering on a marble floor, scattering into a thousand pieces. The kind of ball fortune-tellers in movies and anime always seem to have.

Without knowing why, Dasha abruptly halted. She stood frozen in the midst of the poisonous gas cloud, with the timer on her filter cartridge still ticking down. But that no longer mattered. Something else was happening — something far more important.

Her vision darkened — but not fully, only around the edges. The AR notifications, the usual flood of data always cluttering her field of view, vanished. Even the system markers, and the ever-present “Settings” mediaglyph — were all gone.

The mandatory AR-environment icon wasn’t there either, the one that’s always supposed to be on according to law when using augmented reality. You couldn’t disable it, not even manually!

“This can’t be happening! I don’t even remember the last time my field of vision was this clear. Probably not since I was nine, before they installed my cortical grid… And those basic mediaglyphs are always on. You can’t turn them off...” Her brain kept running, processing. Well, it was always like that, analyzing tirelessly and never stopping for trivialities like this.

She found herself staring intently at the wall — not at the hole where the creature had disappeared. No. What she needed was somewhere else.

To the left.

A little higher.

There! Her gaze locked onto a strange red dot. Her focus sharpened. And suddenly, Dasha knew, an undeniable certainty flooded her from the inside. Somewhere far ahead, hidden beyond the walls, lay her objective.

And she had to find it!

It felt like her consciousness, stripped of all distractions and limitations, burst free from her body. It surged forward, effortlessly passing through walls, rooms, wires, concrete, and soil — moving through them as if they were a mere tunnel. Darkness pressed in from the sides, but it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered now was the search.

Her vision flew further, and there it was! Found!

The target.

Now she had to get it.

This wasn’t a thought. Not a theory or an idea.

It was pure, crystal-clear certainty. MUST. BE. DONE. NOW!

The whole search took only a fraction of a second. Now came the harder part — she had to move in the real world, and to move fast. But that’s where things got difficult. Dasha lacked the experience, the training, the muscle memory…

Somewhere in the background, the System’s notifications were flashing... about calibration of primary stats, skill assessment, development resources allocation… and all of that faded into irrelevance.

The girl simply did what she had to do.

The rifle was already in her hands. There was no brace, nothing for the cyber-complex to anchor to, which meant only the standard recoil compensator would be working. The shot would hurt like hell, but she didn’t care, not even thinking about it.

Swap the magazine.

Armor-piercing rounds.

Load the rifle.

Safety off.

Finger on the trigger.

Aim.

Fire!

Flash! Boom!

Despite the compensator, the recoil slammed so hard into her shoulder that it threw Daria to the ground. As she fell, she saw bright flashes and electrical sparks in front of her. Then, a second later, there was an explosion nearby.

“I need to get over there!”

With tears welling in her eyes from the pain in her shoulder, Dasha struggled to stand, at the same time ordering her armor to inject a dose of painkillers. There was no time to wait for it to kick in, though.

Twenty seconds of filter time had already passed, leaving only a hundred. Daria raced toward Nika — whatever came next, she had to get the cyborg out of that poison cloud as fast as possible. Easier said than done. Not only was it unclear how to move her, but Redhead weighed a solid 130 kilograms, factoring in the armor, weapons, and ammunition.

The small brunette tried pulling her by the arms, but predictably, it didn’t work.

“Damn it, I’m an idiot! Nika can be pulled out by the bot! Her cyber-core will handle purging the toxin from her system and buy us some time until we’re back. Judging by the monitoring data, her military implants aren’t handling the infection only because of the open wounds.”

[Big One, get over here!] She sent a task packet to the bot via the comms channel.

“I’ve got to hurry! I can feel time running out!” A searing hot needle of urgency stabbed through her mind.

“System, help Nika detox! She’s about to get pulled out!” Daria yelled instinctively, forgetting for a second that she wouldn’t get a reply. Her voice, muffled by the helmet, sounded hollow and somewhat desperate.

Whatever, the most important thing was to eliminate the source of the poison. Redhead would survive! Leaving her in the care of Big One, Dasha prepared to run, but first bent down and yanked the machete from the sheath on Nika’s right thigh. She tossed her sniper rifle aside, and armed with the blade, bravely charged forward — straight into the hole the shaiszu had blasted open.

A tunnel-like passage led her into a large chamber filled with the remnants of old equipment — probably what used to be a pumping station before. The first thing Dasha saw was Alisa’s body, lying motionless on the floor. Her armor was pretty badly scratched up, especially her helmet — the monster must’ve tried to gnaw on it before realizing there wasn’t any organic tissue inside. It must have discarded her like trash after that.

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“Phew! Her chest is intact, that’s all that matters!” Daria breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that the android’s brain and the TACTA modules installed inside were undamaged. But she didn’t stop moving — the urgency drove her forward. At the far end of the hall was a half-open door, and beyond that, a corridor.

Running ahead, Vasilevskaya was met with a horrifying sight: pipes and wires had been crisscrossing the ceiling and walls, and her shot had hit the control panel, causing a power overload and explosion. The shaiszu creature, which had been crawling right next to it, was now trapped under the debris of blown pipes and fried by electricity from a torn power cable.

“Did I cause that explosion?” Dasha stared in shock, trying to process what had happened. And then she saw Maksim — wrapped in tentacles, the thickest one latched onto a gaping wound on his thigh, pulsing as it burrowed deeper.

“That damn squid is still alive?!” A rage she had never known before surged through her. Ferocity belied her small frame, as Dasha launched herself at the beast, brandishing the machete.

Slash, slash, slash, another slash!

Like a rabid squirrel compared to the monster’s massive body, she hacked at the cursed appendage with a desperate fury. Mucus sprayed everywhere, along with some black, foul-smelling blood and chunks of flesh.

SLASH! She was already drenched in blood.

SLASH! The tentacle shuddered but still held firm.

SLASH! A jet of blood hit Daria in the chest, but the girl didn’t stop.

SLASH! She still couldn’t sever it — it was too thick, too tough.

But her effort wasn’t in vain — the monster recoiled, ripping its grip from Maksim’s wound. Even more, its remaining tentacles slackened, releasing him.

[Max, Dasha, Alisa? Where are you? What happened?] Nikola’s anxious message appeared in the chat.

[Nika, I’m here,] Daria replied quickly. [I’m at the passage, the shaiszu had dragged Max in here. I’m trying to save him, yeah! Can you walk? Can you help me?]

[I can. Though I feel sick as hell, but I’m afraid to take off my helmet. There’s this creepy black cloud nearby.]

[That’s toxic gas! Stay away from it!]

[Where’s my rifle? Is it in that cloud?]

[I’ll grab it later. I’ve still got 37 seconds of filter time left,] Dasha responded. [Let’s get Max and Alisa back on their feet first.]

[Got it. On my way.]

[Great, I’m waiting!]

Without holing up until Nika’s arrival, Vasilevskaya grabbed Maksim by the loop on his armor and began dragging him away from the “squid” creature. It was tough work — the guy, with all his gear and armor, weighed well over a hundred kilos. And on top of that, she had to do it carefully — without proper neck and spine support, moving someone unconscious could be extremely dangerous. Dasha might not have been an expert in this, but being friends with Max, it was impossible not to pick up a few things. After all, he’d gotten her into airsoft, so she had some basic field experience.

CrossFit training, which she religiously stuck to, along with the adrenaline pumping through her veins and the convenient loop on his armor, helped her manage. Slowly but surely, with careful, alternating movements, she dragged Maksim to a safe spot, away from the twitching tentacles.

That’s when Nikola appeared.

[I passed Alisa on the way. Is she out cold? I grabbed her medpack just in case. What’s the situation with Max?]

[Nika, I... I’m not entirely sure... yeah… You see, I’m kinda more a chem specialist, not a medic. I’ve got his vitals from the monitor, but I have no idea what to do with them.]

[Send me everything. They drilled battlefield medical training into us during boot camp. I’ll figure it out…]

Daria quickly transferred the data to Redhead.

[Well, it’s not as bad as it could’ve been. Kurwa, I’m saying this and freaking out myself about what’s going on… Anyway, he needs detoxification. We’ve got the right meds in the kit. Help me turn him onto his stomach. We need access to the medport in his armor. I’ll mix up the antidote.]

Nikola pulled out the pharmaceutical configurator, set the necessary parameters, and hit the “prepare” button. Half a second later, the needed ampule was in her hands. Opening the medport, she swapped out the capsule and confirmed the injection with her personal code via the network.

[Okay, antidote’s in. It’ll block the paralytic effects of the poison. We just need to wait a couple of minutes before waking him up. Dasha, handle his wound. Clear it out, apply antiseptic, and foam. I’ll find something to bring him around.]

[Got it,] squeaked the black-haired girl. [I’m on it.]

Meanwhile, Nika rummaged through the medkit.

“Where’s that damn stimulator... it’s gotta be in here…”

[Bingo! Found it!]

[Huh? What did you find?] By that time, Dasha had already cut away the excess material around the wound and treated it with antiseptic.

[A cocktail we used to call ‘Kitten Crusher’ it at camp — a stimulant based on modified adrenaline, boosted with neurotonics. It’ll jumpstart the nervous system and get him back on his feet instantly. It’s a closed corporate formula from Watson Military. Lucky Miro had some. Hold Max’s hands tight — I’m injecting it. It might get... rough. The side effects include convulsions.]

Daria mumbled something unintelligible but didn’t back down, gripping Maksim’s hands as tightly as she could. Nikola quickly swapped the ampoule, but before giving the injection command, she braced the guy’s legs with her knee and pinned his back between his shoulder blades with both her hands.

[Dasha, you better hold his head steady! We don’t want him bashing it in! Injecting in three… two… one…]

Maksim let out a growl and tried to arch his back, but the girls held him firmly.

“Fuck, aaaaah!” His loud, colorful expletive confirmed the stimulant had kicked in.

[Max, you asked us to keep silent unless necessary. You good? Can you hear me?] Nikola asked through the chat. [Dasha, send me access to his med-monitor. I need to check his vitals after that... ‘therapy.’ You know, pulse, breathing, blood pressure, biochemistry, the works.]

[Fuck… It hurts like hell… What happened? Where am I?] the guy muttered after a brief pause, struggling to turn onto his back and trying to sit up.

[What happened? Dunno, don’t ask me. My cyber-core brought me back in a similar way. Don’t move yet, I’ll patch your leg,] Redhead replied, stitching up the wound and sealing it with a wide strip of medical tape. She sprayed a second can of medical foam over the remaining exposed areas, ensuring the injury was properly sealed. [Dasha, what’s the situation?]

[Nika, I sent you everything. Max, we were attacked by some… shaiszu creature… like a squid… yeah… It jumped out of the wall! Alisa’s nearby, knocked out, needs a reboot. Moira’s online, working with the drone swarms. Things are pretty heated up there, it’s a total apocalypse, honestly. The monster dragged you and Alisa off, then hit us with a cloud of poison. My armor filtered it, but Nika had open wounds, so she got the worst of it.]

Meanwhile, Redhead finished with her patient’s treatment and moved on to her own injuries. She couldn’t afford to leave any bleeding cuts — they probably would have to run through the toxic gas cloud again. So, open wounds could lead to blood poisoning and become lethal.

Maksim steeled himself and got onto his feet, doing his best to avoid putting weight on his injured leg. The stimulants had sharpened his mind, and as he connected to Moira’s analytical hub, which controlled the drone clouds, quickly assessing the situation. Only about twenty percent of the drones were still operational. They were all in the tunnels, focused on covering the retreat of other groups of renouncers.

Above ground, just three drones remained, with two more damaged but still transmitting video. He saw that the Protectorate forces had withdrawn from the area and had carpet-bombed the Factory into oblivion. Not a single building remained standing.

[All the other teams are on the move. Some have already reached their vehicles and are heading out. We’re falling behind. Girls, we’ll have to move fast. Protectorate forces are trying to lock down all the tunnels and exits.]

[Can you even run?] Nika asked, glancing at his foam-covered, wounded thigh.

[I’ll manage. Not as fast as I’d like, but I’ll keep up.]

The girls quickly packed up the medkit, and the cyborg slung it over her back as they set off running. Along the way, Nika scooped up Alisa’s body into her arms.

When they reached the room where all hell had broken loose, the poison cloud had spread further, though it had thinned somewhat.

[Max, you shouldn’t go in there!] Nika immediately reacted, lowering Alisa to the ground. [I’ll bring the cart over, and Dasha can grab the weapons, okay?]

[You two just get the cart and load my sister onto it,] Maks replied. [I’ll use Big One’s manipulator to pick up the guns. He’s banged up but still operational.]

Both girls nodded and hurried into the gas cloud, while Maksim kneeled next to Alisa’s body. He quickly pulled out two smart cables from a side pocket and connected them to the diagnostic ports at the back of her neck. At the same time, he linked to Big One and sent the bot to retrieve the weapons.

[Dasha, I’m connecting into her diagnostics. I’m checking the hardware and if everything’s okay, gonna reboot her.]

[Oh, great! Share the data with me, I’ll take a look too.]

[Sure,] Max agreed.

Soon, the platform carrying their gear appeared out of the gas cloud, pushed by the women and assisted by Big One. The bot’s extended manipulator held both assault rifles and Dasha’s sniper, slung over its mechanical arm.

[We should’ve bought meds from TACTA!] Maksim said, looking at the battered team.

[Once we’re out of the city, we’ll restock at the first call. Still’ve got some grants left, as I remember,] Dasha agreed.

[Yeah, yeah, we’ll buy everything,] Nika added with a chuckle. [But right now, let’s just get loaded into the truck! We’re one of the last teams out. The Linkers and all of Miro’s groups have already evacuated!]

Maksim confirmed that Alisa’s hardware was fine and initiated the reboot. In about three minutes, she would be back online. But they couldn’t waste any time waiting. The girls loaded her onto the cart and kept pushing it forward.

Because of his injury, Max was forbidden from heavy lifting, so he provided cover with a rifle in hand.

Surprisingly, they made it the remaining kilometer to the truck without any further complications. Now came the final challenge — setting up the stealth system, loading the cart’s contents into the vehicle, and then — just a simple task! — sneaking past the Watch Towers and the countless enemy drones flooding the skies to escape the polis.