I ducked into a half collapsed building to get out of the snow, and slapped a new magazine up into the assault rifle I stole from my first victim. Honestly, it was probably a bit overkill. Luna had really hyped this entire event up, though, so I treated that guy like a max level threat right from the get-go.
Fear the Reaper flared at max strength to stun the guy, and then Viper’s Strike ensured the hit was critical, allowing me to hit directly into his eye. Everything after that was just cleanup.
”How are we looking?” I rubbed my hands together and checked my point counter. The chest gave us 1 point, and there were 3 for the kill. First blood gave a whopping 7 points, so we were well passed our initial goal now.
”Perfect, Shiro. Just one—got it.” My HUD updated, and a map popped up into the corner. It was almost totally blank except for the area I’d been through. “We need to find a satellite uplink now. I’ll query the server.”
One more point drained, and a bright yellow marker appeared on the map not too far from me. Through the heavy snow, I barely caught the shadow of what looked like a tower of some kind. “I think I see it.”
”Oh, right. Here’s this, too.” Five more points drained away, and the darkness across the snowfield abruptly lifted. I blinked a few times and got used to having night-vision once more. I hadn’t realized how important it was until it was gone.
I was back to zero points now, but that was fine. I warmed up for a second longer, and then trudged out into the snow. Wind sheared right through my heavy winter coat. My entire body shivered despite logically knowing it was just in my head.
”You need to get a fire soon.” Luna appeared by my side once more, and walked just ahead of me. “Your core temperature just keeps dropping.”
”I-I know.” I tucked my hands underneath my arms, and walked with my head tilted down. Flurries of snow slammed into my face one after another. “I-I can feel it.”
Every step felt like marching through mud. The snow clung to my heavy boots, and it took way too much effort just to move forward into the snow storm. I quickly adjusted the plan. Initially, I was going to play for a good position before anything else. I might not even make it to the next POI without some better clothes at this rate.
Gunshots erupted from the distant snowfield and were dragged away by the wind. I flinched, and flicked up toward the sound. All around me, a white abyss stretched onward. Only the small shadows of buildings gave me any direction to work off of. Nightvision didn’t matter all that much when visibility was so limited to begin with. We should’ve gone for something else.
I hesitated for a moment, and then continued to the tower instead of chasing the gunshots. It sounded like only one gun. Could be bait to lure in others, or it could’ve been an ambush. Either way, I didn’t want to approach.
The shadow of my next objective turned more and more solid with each step. It was a kind of radar station, with a massive satellite dish perched on the very top of the tower. I quietly opened the door—
I froze and slunk into a corner of the room. A trail of melting snow led up a central set of stairs toward the radar room. None of the other doors were open, which meant whoever it was beelined straight for the top. They could already have really good gear, or they were thinking similar to me to get map data first.
I took a step back toward the door—and paused. Maybe going out back that way wouldn’t be wise. I could already be under watch by the unknown party lurking here. Better I go out an alternative route.
Instead of continuing up the stairs where an ambush could happen at any time, I quietly ducked into a side room. A military crate in the corner caught my eye, and I walked over to it instead of just continuing through the room like I originally intended.
The chest noisily clattered open, and higher tier loot sprung up out of it. A cybernetic leg dropped alongside a tablet and a couple of weapons. The weapons were just peashooting pistols, so I didn’t bother with them. The chrome and tablet, though…
”Want to equip it?” Luna asked as I held up the chrome leg.
“… I don’t think so.” In here, changing out chrome was as easy as equipping and up equipping it just like a game. Although it looked like just one leg, equipping it would change both of mine. Even glitching wasn’t too big of an issue since this wasn’t my real body. That didn’t mean every piece of chrome was worth equipping, though.
This leg, for instance, had a curved spike instead of a foot. The model was a Rustek Biometric Mk. 7 Stryder—actually pretty decent chrome. Decent when it came to even surfaces. The spiked nature of the ‘foot’ would make walking through the snow so much more difficult.
I set the leg down and instead focused on the tablet. It lit up, and an icon of a ghastly snake appeared. Small letters spelled—“ghost loop?”
Luna’s lupine body leaned down and stared at the tablet. A moment later, the tablet broke into sparks and a new icon appeared on my HUD. ”It’s a quick hack. Here—“
[Ghost Loop - 7R - 12D
-Force a combatant to relive a moment, delaying reaction times and destroying accuracy.]
“Usually it only affects those with additional processors. Should work against everyone just the same here.” Luna adjusted my HUD, and a line of bars appeared. “Here’s your RAM. Um… think of it like mana for your ‘spell’?”
”I know how quick hacks work, Luna.” I just never used them since I didn’t have the chrome. Maybe after this, that’d change. Ghost Loop cost 7 RAM, which I had eight of here. The effect would last 12 seconds, give or take a few depending on if my target had ICE.
“Just making sure.” Her ears flattened and she dissipated once more. “One sec—a runner’s trying to breach our ICE.”
”Take your time.” I slid out the window of the room, and dropped down into the snow once more. My gun swept the area just to make sure I was safe, and then I pulled my bag off my back.
With a bit of effort, I tied a length of rope from my ice-climbing gear to the ice pick. I took a step back, and whirled it repeatedly to build up momentum. The storm hid most of the top of the tower in flurries of white, but bright red lights blinked on occasion. At the perfect moment, I released the rope and the ice pick flew into the air.
Clang!
A soft noise, almost entirely drowned out by the wind, came from the top of the radar tower. The ice pick perfectly hooked onto one of the anchors holding up the satellite. ‘Course it did. Throwing Weapon Master still worked perfectly fine even here.
A shiver went through me, and I stuffed my hands into my pockets. I could already feel my fingers going numb through the gloves. The rope felt like a blade running across my hand thanks to the cold.
I reached back for my ascender—ah, right. Instead, I gripped the rope tighter and slowly started to climb up the side of the tower hand over hand. I’d gotten used to the cushy way, but I hadn’t forgotten where I came from.
I slowed down near the central viewing room, and carefully peeked up through a window. The black winter coat actually helped me blend in with the backdrop of the storm surrounding the tower.
A man stood in the middle of the dark tower, with the only light coming from old monitors and consoles set up around the room. The light flashed across his body, and proudly showed how he watched the stairs like a hawk. The console directly behind him had a loading bar slowly filling up.
[RespawnDenied]
As soon as I could clearly see him, a username slowly appeared over his head. An illusory ghost likewise appeared working on the console—the man’s netrunner.
I took a breath, and slowly lifted my assault rifle up over the ledge. Stalk kept me perfectly hidden from view. The Perk was an active type, and actively worked to scrub me from peripherals.
My eyes narrowed, and the icon for Ghost Loop appeared just above his head. It flashed a few times as if to let me know it was about to deploy. The moment it flashed a final time, I squeezed the trigger.
Rat-tat-tat!
Glass sprayed inward, and a heavy kick punched back into my shoulder. My opponent didn’t even have a chance to react before a spray of bullets slammed into his chest and head. He staggered backward in a spray of blood. In one clean swoop, my ambush claimed the life of another.
I silently eyed the corpse. Ghost Loop was… was probably overkill. He died before I could even see what it did. Honestly, it might not be bad for others. Probably not for me. My ambush strategy didn’t benefit from it much.
A sigh escaped me. This had been hyped up, but… no, maybe I was just getting against some weak opponents? Even beyond that, I bet most of these guys were fully chromed in meatspace. They were going from 100% to 1% while I was going from 100% to somewhere around 60%. Of course I’d have the advantage.
I climbed up a bit more, and hauled myself over the ledge. I couldn’t afford to be complacent. The more time that passes, the more geared the others would become. Chrome, advanced weapons, resources—it’d all improve with time and put them back on their baseline. My advantages would dwindle if I didn’t press now.
I fired a shot off into the man’s head to ensure he was dead, and nodded toward the central console. “Luna?”
”On it.” Her avatar moved to where the other netrunner was, and started to interface directly into the radar’s console.
An operator, the ones moving around the map, could still be active without a runner, but a runner couldn’t be active without an operator. The moment I eliminated RespawnDenied, it also derezzed his runner.
I dropped by RespawnDenied, and quickly searched him. More ammo was nice, but the guns and armor were all downgrades. This guy beelined it here without grabbing much of anything. I did snag a couple grenades and a spool of microwire, though.
”Little help?” Luna asked as I started to secure my back.
“Coming.” I finished dragging my rope into the building, and moved over to the console. I pulled a jack out, and inserted it into a port on the front of the radar console. She could piggyback off my hard connection to go quicker, though it left me partially incapacitated.
In a matter of minutes, a ping spread across my minimap and revealed the nearby terrain.
[Drastovosky Research Base, Northern Sovet]
[POI - Southern Radar Station]
A second ping shot across the map, and red dots slowly started to appear. There were four other operators scattered around the radar station. Two of them stood close to each other like they were in a firefight, a third moved toward the first two, and the last was headed right for me.
”Now we’re talking.” I clapped my hands together, and eyed the map. Information was the first step of my master plan to win this thing. We’d have to get a more central console for full map information, but pulling back the fog of war on the Southern Radar Station was already a good starting place.
I ran a quick calculation in my head, and jacked out of the console. New plan—I needed points for Luna to start juicing me up. Good news! There were twelve ripe for the taking if I played my cards right.