I heard the firefight before I saw it. According to the map, the three operators in the midst of an intense gunfight were in the middle of a bunch of buried warehouses. I slowed down, and cut all noise as I approached from behind.
I crouched down, and stopped at a line of half-covered footprints in the snow. Whoever moved through here had already gotten some decent leg chrome by the looks of things. It wasn’t a print left by a flesh leg.
”How do we want to do this?” Luna asked me.
”Not sure yet.” I kinda wanted to go in like a maniac and swing my sword around. That was a decidedly bad idea—at least with my current set of gear. “Would’ve been great if I rolled a sniper.”
”…do you want one?”
”Chek. Sure would be nice. I have a, um, bonus objective to use one.” I wasn’t totally sure which of the eidolons wanted me to use a sniper, but it was an easy enough goal. Assuming I could freaking find one.
“I can hack the loot generation,” Luna stepped in front of me, and looked back over her shoulder. “You know… adjust the probability.”
“You can do that?” Why the hell had I been running around grabbing random loot if she could just give me exactly what I wanted?
”It takes points, but sure.” She shrugged. “We have twenty of them, anyway.”
Looting chests had been quite lucrative on top of the kills. Our next big ticket item would require fifty points, but it’d be fine to wait a bit longer for that. Even if I walked around looting everything, I doubted I’d hit my point goal at the rate things were going. Especially not with the Node destabilization imminent.
Speaking of—“How’s the Node looking?”
”Good, good. Still holding strong. It seems Monarch doesn’t want to start things off until a couple more people are eliminated.” A screen popped up in front of Luna. “There’s 213 left. Looks like 7 were fried, and the rest were just eliminated.”
“Already?” I stood up straight once more. 7 fried, huh… in the early game, getting outright killed was much, much harder than late game. Unlucky bastards must’ve run into a seriously strong Netrunner.
“Someone’s moving around the Node with a vengeance.” The menu closed, and her blue eyes locked onto me. “Looks like their operator’s on the north side, so we shouldn’t see them for a bit.”
“You’ll be able to handle that when they do show up?” I started moving toward the firefight once more. This time, though, I changed directions and headed for a small set of buildings to the side.
The first chest I popped open dropped a bunch of pistols. My points dropped by three, though. “Uh, Luna?”
”I said adjust the probability, Shiro, not just give it to you.” She sighed heavily like I was the idiot. “Keep trying.”
I opened three more only to receive useless junk. Twelve of my twenty points disappeared just like that. My hopes of posting up somewhere in the back and sniping were devastated just like that. Worse still—when manipulating probability, we didn’t get any points back. It was just straight losses.
”So much for sniping.” I left a barracks building behind, and walked out into the heavy snow. The blue bar at the corner of my vision slowly started to drop.
The snow dragged at my feet as I approached one of the warehouses. From the map data, each of the buildings only had one way in and out—and those entrances were all facing each other. It made it so that none of the operators here could try to run, otherwise they’d be cut down from the other warehouse.
Likewise, none of them wanted to commit to a full attack. There was an uneasy standoff, mostly full of potshots toward each other. If I threw myself into the mix right away, the entire fight would collapse into a brawl with no guaranteed winners. Obviously, that wasn’t ideal.
I ran my thumb along the pommel of my saber, and slowly came up with a plan. First and foremost, I should assassinate one of them and keep the numbers at an odd three. Letting it go even would only harm me in the end.
Instead of approaching from the front, I moved around to the back of one of the warehouses. I picked my target carefully, and went after one of the guys that’d been in the fight the longest. Their resources would already be running low. It would be an easier fight if something went wrong.
Getting in wasn’t an issue. I hadn’t been worried about that for a second when forming my plan. I flicked my saber out, and the ferrofluid sheath pulled back. With a single thrust, I nearly silently cut through the back wall of the warehouse. Two more slashes, and a triangular hole popped open for me.
I slid into the warehouse, and plugged the hole behind me. The icy gales cut off. Based on where my opponent was positioned, they weren’t concerned about an attack from behind in the slightest.
The warehouse was almost pitch black outside of the front doors. It meant nothing thanks to the night vision Luna had returned. Instead, it played right into my advantage. I slunk through the darkness toward the front.
A burst of bullets exploded from just by the door. I peeked around a crate and instantly spotted my target. It was a woman with a chrome arm and half her head covered in what looked like processors? She was posted up on a crate of wood with her rifle pointed out toward the other warehouse.
“Careful, Shiro. She’s got chrome for quickhacks.” Luna warned me through our private channel.
”Careful’s my middle name.” I pushed out from beyond the crates to carefully approach her from behind—
A chill went down my spine, and I stopped moving just before I could step on a tripwire. Insight didn’t work here, but that hardly mattered in this case. My training from Fox’s Paw did. I pulled my foot back, and slowly leaned down to find a grenade tied to a tripwire.
I cut the microwire with my sword, and pocketed the grenade. Almost got me with that one. This person… There was no reason to put a trap here with one way in, and they still were prepared for the flank. It was another reminder that the people here were all veterans.
With the trap taken care of, I silently crept up on the woman. My steps were dead silent. There should’ve been no way for her to know I was there. Just as I got in attack range, though, she flinched and flicked back toward me.
“Haah!” I Burst Stepped forward and smoothly slid my saber upward in a brutal slash. Skill, practice, and technique all went out the window. I hadn’t actually learned how to use a sword, but that didn’t matter. The monomolecular edge neutralized everything else but getting the blade to them. And get to her I did.
Before she could even move, my blade cut through her. Her arm twitched upward for a moment—and gravity asserted itself. Blood sprayed and her body slid into two chunks. Her eyes widened just as the top of her body slammed into the ground. The crate she’d been using for cover was likewise in half and collapsed noisily.
My HUD flashed like a hack was about to come across, but then faded back normal. At the top, a banner popped up. Upload failed. Nice… though the crate splitting had been noisier than I expected. The potshots outside had totally died out like they’d heard me… and there was a chance they had depending on the chrome. I could already feel the equilibrium of the standoff slipping.
”Holy shit.” I flicked the sword, and the ferrofluid smoothly covered the blade once more. “This thing is crazy.”
“Think you could make one?” Luna asked.
“I… I’m not sure.” I pushed the topic to the back of my mind before I could give it much thought. I was already being distracted enough by cool things.
I pulled her corpse back into cover and checked her for loot. Unfortunately, my sword was a little too effective. Most of her equipment was cut into pieces, making it basically useless. A few flash bangs and stuff, too. I grabbed the flashes, but left everything else behind. One down.
— — —
Saint let out a low whistle as another operator was cut short by Shiro. The girl talked herself down constantly, but she was damn scary in the field. He wouldn’t want to face her, at least. “Alright, we’ll go check someone else out while the fighting here settles—“
He cut himself off as Nightshade charged right through the wall with a clean flourish of her blade. It was normal after a fight to take some time and take a breather. She didn’t hesitate for a moment before charging right into the next fight. Was Mira actually in control here?
| ShadoWalk: Nightshade’s bloodthirsty
| LostCrusader: I’d hate to be working in her city. The database has her marked for a death count in the hundreds since she first showed up.
| Distinguished Gentleman: @LostCrusader source?
| LostCrusader: You trying to get me fired?
“I’ll act as the source.” Saint smirked. He knew her personally. What better source was there? “Nightshade’s a menace. I’ve heard she slaughtered an entire gang just because one of them called her short.”
| Cyberpunk_Blue: Note to self—never mention a woman’s height.
“Probably a good general rule.” Saint laughed, and shifted perspective to the next target of Nightshade. It wasn’t that hard to figure out where she was headed with his master access. “This guy should be next. Now that we know what’s coming, let’s watch from his perspective?”
The point of view abruptly shifted to a third-person camera of a man camped out on top of a shipping container. He had a pistol drawn, and pointed at the door to the warehouse. His rifle sat off to the side entirely empty. He was the first to start a fight, and his resources had been greatly depleted without the chance to loot more.
“Should be quick. The last guy though? Not sure who’ll—“
Bang!
A flashbang went off, blinding the operator. The bright flash of light made even Saint’s eyes burn briefly. Before the concussive echo could even fade, Nightshade appeared like the embodiment of the reaper. Terror radiated off of her, making the blinded guy fire loosely in her direction despite the lack of vision.
Nightshade curled forward and threw a knife with a shocking amount of force. It whizzed through the air and the blade cut deep into her opponent's hand. He flinched, and dropped the gun just as his vision started to clear. It clattered noisily to the ground in between them.
Silence settled across the warehouse while the two watched each other. One was shaking in his boots while the other stood calmly with her sword rested on her shoulder. The man broke first. “W-want to team up? I’ll help you get to the top!”
Nightshade’s voice tilted to the side like she was having a silent conversation. Saint took the moment to speak up. “Moonfall definitely set up a private channel. Nightshade may be terrifying, but her runner is even scarier. If you’ve heard the things I’ve heard, even just being near her would have you shaking in your boots.”
He was exaggerating, ‘course. Luna hardly cut an intimidating figure. More… kinda sickly and weak? He’d done his research on his new crew, though. There was a reason Monarch’s nickname for her was Net’s Bane.
Nightshade laughed coldly. The exact tone of voice was lost in the modulation, but her disdain was clear. “And carry a peon with me all the way up? Pass. Tell you what, though. If you kill yourself, I’ll let you go.”
The man stared at her in stunned silence. “I’ll still be dead!”
”You’re dead either way.” She shrugged, and pulled the saber off her shoulder. Her head tipped upward toward the container. “I just can’t be bothered to get up there.”
”Then I’ll stay right—“
A sniper shot cracked out into the air, and a bullet whizzed through the shadowed warehouse doors. The shot precisely slammed into the merc. His head snapped backward, and he collapsed to the top of the container.
[Summoner > Brokenblade]
Nightshade froze, and the sword tip dropped into the cement. She slowly turned her head back toward the warehouse doors, and the terror-aura radiating off of her strengthened to the point Saint’s leg started to unconsciously bob. “Moonfall? Did I just have my kill stolen?”
A new voice, just as modulated, spoke up. “Seems so… there goes three points.”
“… stolen? From me?” Her helmeted head dipped toward the ground, and a tremble went through her shoulders. “You bastard!”
Her near-feral scream echoed out across the warehouse, and rang into the snowfield between the kill-thief and Nightshade. It was so loud and abrupt it threw even Saint off guard.
| Distinguished Gentlemen: Wasn’t Nightshade supposed to be the thief?
| Redfall: Anyone else suddenly feel bad for Summoner?
| Conjurer: Summoner will win! She’s fucked if she heads to him!
| Cyberpunk_Blue: @Conjurer… any relation?
| Conjurer: … coincidence.
“Conjurer, huh? Well, if you are Summoner’s netrunner, congrats on getting out of the Node.” It wasn’t unheard of for contestants to break out of the Node and access the net beyond. By watching streams of commentators, it was basically screen-peeking on couch co-op games. Not just anyone could do it, though.
| Conjurer: Such a small thing? Easy as pie.
| Conjurer: Wanna make a bet we’ll win?
“Hmm…” Saint pulled out Conjurer’s chat window and popped it up for his entire audience to see. Usually, while streaming stuff like this, he worked with a massive delay. Part of Monarch’s conditions was he did everything live, though. It granted Conjurer near omniscience. “What are we thinking, chat?”
| Distinguished Gentleman: Summoner. Information disparity is simply too important.
| Redfall: Nightshade’s got this in the bag
| Cyberpunk_Blue: @admin, ban Conjurer?
| CorpyDays: I put 100k on Conjurer
| Redfall: @CorpyDays you have to have the rayn first
Saint glanced through the chat, and slowly came to a decision. “How much are we betting?”
The chat exploded as the implication of his words settled in. Tension and excitement spread through the viewers at the fight that was about to come. Saint smirked, and crossed his arms behind his back. Although he acted confident, he too was curious who’d win between a cheating bastard and an enraged thief.
— — —
AN: I’m going to start drinking energy drinks again.