Once outside, Damos checked for the patrol he had seen earlier. Although there was no sign of them, he could see the wandering flashlights of other mercenaries around the camp. Making sure to avoid them, he dashed for the opening in the fence. He skidded to the ground as he reached it and scrabbled through. It was only once he’d reached the other side that he noticed two sets of footprints in the ground leading away from the fence. Leaping to his feet, he began to run through the forest, hoping he wasn’t too late.
* * * *
00:34, Outside Abandoned Military Base Perimeter
Lily was woken from her dozy state by a nearby rustling of leaves. She slowly sat up and turned around, crouching behind the bike, peering over the saddle.
Damos? She thought, deciding it was unwise to call out. The rustling continued. Lily tentatively leaned over the bike to look in the direction it was coming from. All she could see were trees. Scattered across the ground were small patches of light where the moon’s glow pierced the leaves. The wind whistled through the trees. Lily could feel it gently blowing across her face.
A white streak flashed out from behind a tree. Lily ducked back behind the bike. The rustling slowly moved across the area behind her. Once it had passed by the bike, she peeked out once again.
A short distance away sat a badger, scrabbling at the ground. Lily watched as it dug. She felt a faint sense of emotion emanating from it. It felt somewhat like happiness, but she was never quite sure. Animal emotions were not as easy to classify as human ones.
A couple of seconds later, the badger looked up and scurried off into the trees. Lily slumped back against the bike. Its hard exterior pressed into her back, but it was better than nothing. She shivered as the cool breeze chilled her arms and face.
Lily suddenly felt something catch against her throat. She struggled to her feet as her blouse was hauled upwards. She lashed around with her arm and felt someone grab her wrist. A tight grip wrapped itself around her other forearm and forced her arms behind her back. She shook and struggled but the grip remained strong. Lily fell to the floor as her assailant pushed her forwards. A couple of seconds later a pair of heavy boots stepped out in front of her. A hand appeared under her head and tilted her chin up. A stern female face looked down at her.
“Who are you?” the woman asked, her eyes never leaving Lily’s face. Lily was filled with confidence, almost tricking her into replying before her senses reminded her it was the woman who was confident, and that she should be anything but.
“Answer me,” the woman snapped, reaching into a pocket and flicking out a knife. Lily’s eyes widened with fear. The woman clearly noticed, a strong feeling of malevolence rising to match the arrogance.
“L-Lily,” Lily stammered. The woman brought the knife closer.
“And why are you here?” she asked.
“I-” Lily began. She suddenly felt the grip on her wrists loosen. Before she knew what was happening, a blue glow covered the woman’s face. A huge man flew over her head, throwing the woman back. The pair tumbled to the floor. Lily screamed when she saw blood tricking from the woman’s forehead. The man let go of the knife and it vanished. A red stream gushed out from the wound, covering the woman’s face.
Damos turned and grabbed Lily’s arm, pulling her to her feet.
“We need to go,” he said. Lily nodded, fighting through her hysteria to climb onto the bike. She barely had enough time to grab Damos’s waist before the pair shot into the air. A second later they broke through the canopy, and a moment after that they were gone.
* * * *
01:27, Unknown Location
Gently pushing back the foliage, Victoria stepped out into the glade. The grass tickled her feet as each foot lightly touched down. A small pool lay in front of her, the sun’s light flashing across its glittering surface. A calm breeze blew against her exposed skin, cool enough to be pleasant without making her cold.
Victoria calmly made her way to the pool. She felt warm water envelop her foot as it passed through the surface. Stepping in with the other, she slowly lowered herself into the pool, relishing in the sensation of warmth against her thighs, chest, arms and finally neck. Shutting her eyes, she tipped her head back onto the bank and sat, cherishing the tranquillity of the glade.
After a few minutes, the sound of splashing broke her serene calmness. Victoria lazily raised her head and opened her eyes. In front of her stood Owen, water slowly seeping up his trousers. He looked down at her and their gazes met.
“It’s ready,” he said, extending a hand.
Victoria let out a long sigh. She took his hand and stepped out of the pool.
“Let’s do this.”
Victoria felt herself jolt awake. She opened her eyes to find herself in a small cubicle. Metal restraints held her fixed to a wall, wrapping themselves around every part of her body which could conceivably move. Affixed to the ceiling in front of her was a camera, staring down at her face.
Pulse, Victoria thought. Although nothing happened, she knew the camera would now be broken. With little more than a tug, she tore herself free of the restraints, and a swift kick separated the cubicle door from its hinges. It embedded itself in the far wall, Victoria quickly following it into the corridor. An alarm began to wail, red lights flashing all around her. She scrabbled at her neck, locating the patch which her captors had used to prevent her activating. She peeled it free as she broke into a sprint down the corridor.
* * * *
01:33, Unknown Location
Owen sat patiently in his chair. He’d been through all his files and permanently deleted them, preventing his captors from using them again. Just to make sure, he’d also uploaded a worm to the system behind his. As he sat, it tore through their files, deleting everything it found.
“I bet you’re pretty pleased with yourself,” said the voice. Owen picked up the communicator.
“A little,” he replied with a smirk.
“I hope you realise what this means,” the voice replied. “She can never activate again.”
“Check again. I’ve wiped all your files from root. Your system’s empty; it doesn’t even have an OS anymore.”
As the voice began to reply, Owen heard the door open behind him.
“Sorry, got to go,” he interrupted, spinning his chair around. He found himself staring at the business end of an assault rifle.
Shit.
“Don’t shoot,” he shouted, throwing his arms into the air. The woman holding the gun grinned, quickly turning to shock as a blade appeared through her chest. She fell sideways, her finger pulling the trigger on instinct. The shot went wide, embedding itself in the far wall. Owen flinched, curling up on his chair. The blade receded and the woman collapsed to reveal Victoria stood in the doorway.
“Get your lazy ass out of that chair,” she shouted. Owen began to unfurl when he heard a pair of gunshots in the corridor. Victoria shot him an exasperated look. Bending down to pick up the assault rifle the woman had dropped, her head snapped around and she fired off a shot. Owen heard a man cry out.
“Quickly,” Victoria urged. “I can defend myself, but the more of them there are, the harder it will be to get you out.”
She’s right, man up, Owen thought, flicking himself out of the chair to join her.
“No guards outside, but there’s a squad heading down from the right. We go left,” Victoria said. “Stay close and warn me if they come up from behind.”
Owen nodded and followed. They quickly reached the fallen guard Victoria had just shot. He mumbled something, trying to reach for his gun, but the bullet embedded in his shoulder made it difficult. Victoria extended her holographic arm, grabbed the gun and passed it back to Owen. He gripped it tightly with both hands, holding it across his chest like the guards seemed to. It still felt wrong. His weapon of choice was a keyboard, not a gun.
“A second team is heading towards us. They must have sent two, one in each direction,” Victoria said, continuing down the corridor. Owen quickly
followed, making sure to stay close behind. As soon as the first guard appeared around the curve of the corridor, Victoria planted a bullet in his knee. He tumbled back as two more appeared. Victoria immobilised them in a similar fashion.
I didn’t even see them appear. I’d forgotten how lethal she is when activated.
There was a clatter from down the corridor.
“They’re falling back to form a blockade.”
“Can you break through?”
“Yes, but stay back until I give the all clear. There’s a lot of firepower.”
Owen nodded and moved to the wall, pressing his back against it with his gun held up. He watched as Victoria marched down the corridor. She quickly disarmed the three guards she’d forced to the floor before continuing. Her entire body was lit up with strips of blue which reflected off the metallic corridor.
The assault rifle she was holding was clearly designed to be held with two hands, and yet she aimed perfectly with only her right arm. As the shots began, Owen saw her chest flash underneath her tank top, a wall of mana deflecting the bullets.
Victoria let off a pair of shots before stepping out of sight. Owen heard a man cry out in pain, and another scream.
Distracting himself from the cries, Owen looked around and checked the other direction for more guards. None seemed to be coming, but without the aid of Victoria’s eye he could only see so far.
“Clear,” came Victoria’s voice.
“Coming,” Owen replied, running after her. He wretched as soon as Victoria came into view. She was stood in a pool of blood, several guards lying around her clenching wounds.
They’re going to need one hell of a medical team to deal with this, Owen thought as he covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve and forced himself on.
Is this place just one long curving corridor? Owen asked himself as they continued. He kept his gun raised, pointing it towards the edge of the inner wall. As they travelled, Owen noticed the light began to shift to a more natural white. Not much further on he spotted a window.
“Owen, we might have a problem,” Victoria said, staring out.
No kidding, he thought as he approached. Outside floated a layer of clouds, rippling across the sky.
“We’re in one of the ManaNet server housings,” he realised, the curving corridor suddenly making sense.
“Explain?”
“It’s not really important, but inside this ring is one of the ManaNet servers which sends and receives ManaNet signals. They’re airborne to get the best coverage.”
“How do we get down?”
“An aircraft brought me here, so hopefully there’s a hangar nearby where we can steal one. It’ll likely be off this corridor, so we should just carry on this way.”
“Got it, let’s go.”
The pair continued down the corridor without any resistance.
This doesn’t seem right. With Victoria around, I would have expected far more than nine guards.
“I’m picking up a huge amount of activity from a room several meters down to our left,” Victoria said. “100 credits says it’s the hangar.”
“They must have realised it’s where we’d head and plan to take us there. How many do you count?”
“I’m reading twenty-three.”
“That’s a lot, even for you. With that much firepower, they might break through your armour.”
“I can probably eliminate five before they realise we’re there.”
“That still leaves eighteen. In cover. With whatever special weapons they’ve brought here to deal with you.”
“We’ll have to sneak past. I think there’s some sort of gantry overlooking the hangar. Only a single guard seems to be up there. If we could enter there instead, I could silence him before he can alert the other guards.”
“You’d be alright with killing him? Because any kind of immobilising shot and he’s going to shout.”
“If it’s what’s necessary then it’s what I’ll do.”
“Okay,” Owen replied. The pair cautiously approached the hangar. As they reached it, Victoria threw out her hand, signalling Owen to stop.
“We need to go up here. Hold on.” Holding her holographic arm up, Victoria extended the blade until it pierced the ceiling, then cut around in an oval. A thin steel disk fell through. Victoria’s arm morphed into a hand and grabbed it before it hit the floor. Placing it gently down, she launched herself up and through the hole. A moment later her holographic arm extended down from the darkness.
“Grab on,” Owen heard her say. He reached up and grabbed her wrist. It felt like smooth plastic, leading to an odd sensation when her fingers curled around Owen’s wrist and pulled him up. As his head passed through the hole, he found himself in an incredibly tall and narrow room which curved like the corridor. Numerous cables hung all around him, twisted and tangled together. The only light came from Victoria’s glow and the hole they’d left behind.
Once Owen was out of the way, Victoria extended her arm back down through the hole and retrieved the disk she’d cut. Rotating it slightly, she placed it back over the whole, its ovular shape stopping it falling through.
“We need to get up there,” Victoria said, pointing to a patch of wall high above them. “Then I can cut through to the gantry.”
“How do propose we get up? If we damage the cables, we could shut the server down, which in turn would shut off your grafts.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t hit them.”
Victoria dropped her gun and bent low. The strips of light on her legs flashed bright as she shot into the air. Owen watched as she sailed upwards. At the peak of her jump, when she was level with the spot, she rammed her bladed arm into the wall and punctured a hole. She quickly swapped hands, grabbing the handhold with her real hand and steadying herself with her feet. In a comfortable hanging position, she cut a larger hole with her blade before dropping back down.
“Grab on,” she said. Owen did as asked, gripping around her waist as she placed her real arm around him. His head spun as they shot upwards. Owen felt his whole body compress from the force of the sudden rise. A moment later it was over, and he found himself looking through the hole and into the hangar.
In front of him extended the gantry Victoria had spoken about. It spanned the entire length of the hangar, right to where the room ended and the open air began. A single guard stood upon it, a few meters away, his back to them as he looked down into the hangar. Owen noticed a faint shimmer against the sky, produced by a screen of Mana which held the air and warmth in against the low pressure outside.
Victoria nodded her head at the hole and pulled Owen up towards it. Doing his best to keep quiet, Owen grabbed the rim and pulled himself through. The rest of the hangar became visible. Below him were three jet planes, their engines rotatable to allow vertical take-offs. In front of them, several lines of troops stood behind makeshift barricades. All had their guns trained on the door.
Owen moved aside to let Victoria follow him through. She gracefully slid through the hole, her grafts harmonising with her muscles in one fluid performance, before calmly approaching the guard. He kept his back to her, oblivious to the danger. In one fluid motion, Victoria clamped her hand over the guard’s mouth and slid her blade through his back. His body shook for a brief moment before falling limp. His gun slid from his grip. It clattered onto the gantry before tipping off the side.
No! Owen thought. Victoria dropped the guard and reached with her holographic arm, morphing it into a hand and extending it as far as it would go, but the gun had already fallen too far. It hit the ground with a crash. The guards looked around, then up at the gantry.
“Run!” Victoria yelled as the guards opened fire. Owen sprinted behind her as bullets pummelled the gantry below.
The scream of jet engines suddenly filled the hangar. Owen glanced down to see the aircraft taking off.
“They’re trying to strand us. Hurry,” Victoria shouted over the noise.
Owen didn’t reply. He ga
sped for breath as he threw himself down the gantry. He heard the jets pass below him. He looked up to see that Victoria had nearly reached the edge of the hangar. A fizzling sound echoed around the room as the jets passed through the Mana barrier.
Victoria suddenly slowed. Owen felt an arm wrap itself around his waist.
“Hold on!” Victoria shouted. They suddenly shot into motion again. In two strides Victoria covered the remaining distance before leaping up onto the railing at the gantry’s end. Her legs flashed as she kicked off the bar. The pair shot out of the hangar. Owen felt a tingling as they passed through the barrier. A force knocked his leg, as if it had been struck by a metal bar. Then the cold hit. His entire body screamed out. A freezing wind blew against him from all directions. He felt a pressure in his chest. He tried to breath, but his lungs wouldn’t contract. Owen felt his head swirl. He half-closed his eyes to protect them from the cold and pressure. Out the corner of his eye he could just see Victoria reach out. Her holographic arm extended, stretching as far as it could go, grabbing for the closest jet.
Then the pain grew too great, and Owen passed out.
Chapter 12 - Regret
02:22, South District General Hospital, South District
Matt was woken by an unusual crackling sound outside his window. His curiosity getting the better of him, he swung his legs around and tried to stand up. His new leg hit the floor with a clunk, remaining perfectly rigid. That was when the memories of what had happened came back to him. Doing his best to fight through the pain, he limped across to the window and nudged back a curtain. A jet plane sat parked outside the hospital. Matt watched as the back opened and a train of armoured men marched out.
That doesn’t bode well. Best make myself scarce, just in case, Matt thought, retreating from the curtain and hobbling over to the door. He paused for a second and looked back into the room. That was when he noticed Lily’s backpack. He quickly grabbed it before leaving.
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