Cyberpunk III: 2856A.D. MARS

Angel was shaking with adrenaline as she helped the few surviving soldiers along their path to death.

She shot another one in the head point-blank and she smiled at Nero.

"Nice to have you back, Sergeant." And then a surprised, "Damn-!

One of the red soldiers had swept her legs out from under her with a kick. She crashed to the ground and tangled with him, snarling as she bashed at his face with the gun.

 

Angel blew another survivors face off. "Nice to have you back, Sergeant."

Nero only gave her a grim nod. Then a soldier tripped her, trying to choke Angel with its full strength. The sergeant threw himself into the brawl, jamming the barrel under the visor of the trooper.

"Let her go." he said smoothly. The soldier didn't comply, and Nero can see Angel losing her breath. He pulled the trigger and had layers of tissue, brain and skull make a wet slap as it splattered on the ground around them. The grip loosened.

Nero held out his hand and helped Angel to her feet.

"Your okay?" he said, giving her a concerned look. Even behind the visor, Angel's eyes shimmered, and for a second his heart skipped a beat.

A tiny screeching of armor on rock made him turn, and he saw a crawling soldier.

"What do we have here?" Nero said, shooting the trooper in the back with his pistol, making him fall flat. The soldier screamed, but continued to try and get away. It didn't work. Castillene walked casually around it and stopped right in front of the desperate thing. The soldier looked up at Nero. The sergeant crouched, bringing his eye level directly with the victim. The soldier outstretched its arm to try to pull itself even further. Nero grabbed its hand, put it against the ground and stapled it to the ground with his stealth knife.

"Now your going to tell me who sent you, or things are going to get worse." Nero growled.

 

Alpha

Karasu looked at Jack and shook his head. Karasu reached inside his pouch were he held his rounds and grabbed one of his grenades. He felt in his pouch and took at three fingers.
"When I fire this one off," Karasu said, "I will only have three grenades left."
Karasu handed Jack on of his grenades.
"In an emergency," Karasu said, "Now I only have two left."
Karasu pulled the pin.
"FIRE IN THE CAVERN!" Karasu said to make sure people cleared mostly out of the way.
He threw the grenade and only hope it would go off.

 

*Edited due to synchronization issues.......

 

Karasu got up and started walking around switching his guns in different positions until the dust settled. There seemed to be nothing of these creatures thanks to Jack going berserk as well as the other. Karasu kept his guard up know these creatures very well. He walked over to Jack and bent down still keeping his guns up and still being watchful.
"How are you doing?" Karasu asked.

 

Alpha Squad

The grenade went off, leaving mangled half-carcasses strewn about the room. Jack was impressed. He looked at the grenade Karasu had given him, admired it briefly, and stuck it in one of his pockets.

A final few soldiers still stood about, stunned and injured by the grenade's blast. It didn't take long for them to gather their faculties and begin attacking again. Jack leveled the rifle and shot, aiming for faces. He dusted one and trained his gun on another. Six rounds later, he was dead on the floor, his face shredded.

Jack got up, favoring his wounded leg as he walked over to where Sergeant Castelline sat face-to-face with a soldier, whose hand was pinned to the floor by a huge knife. There appeared to be an interrogation going on. Angel was standing near them.

"Great to see you, sir! Get anything out of the drone besides 'resistance is futile'?"

 

Cyrus walked up to Castillene, Karasu following up behind Cy.

"Great to see you, sir! Get anything out of the drone besides 'resistance is futile'?"

Nero looked at the struggling trooper, whos genetic enhancements were blocking out most of the pain, but he was still stuck firmly in the ground. Nero was standing now, and keeping a constant pressure on the victims open hand with his boot.

"Not yet Cy, anyone have any tricks you can pull on this guy?"

 

Karasu looked at the Nero.
"I have one," Karasu said, "I am sure the creature isn't a fool and saw what happened to his members."
Karasu looked at Nero.
"Would you allow me some time with the creature?" Karasu asked, "I may get some information from him."

 

Nero gave Karasu a solemn nod, and moved away. He was interesting in seeing what were the different capabilities of the cool headed killer.

"Do as you please" the sergeant said, turning to speak with Cyrus and Angel.

 

Alpha

“Looks like it went straight through the muscle.”

Angel’s voice was a croak, her voice still not right after being choked twice in such a short span of time. She was examining Jack’s leg gently and had just found both the entry and exit wounds.

She straightened and gave Jack a shaky smile. His hair curled damply at his collar, inviting her to brush it back with her fingers and she half-raised her hand to do so before she realized how inappropriate that would be.

Angel blushed slightly, thankful for the dimness of the room, and turned away, unslinging the pack that held some medical supplies. She was rooting through it as Nero joined she and Cyrus. She almost dropped the pack as Nero’s dark eyes met hers.

“Your leg,” she said, “that…that…animal sliced it open. We should tend it.”

 

Alpha Squad

Jack watched her as she examined the wound closely, actually really seeing her for the first time: a smooth, gentle face with soft features...beautiful eyes. No. Gorgeous eyes. Just as he thought it she looked at him, and her gaze met his. And he was stunned. Paralyzed. He couldn't move, couldn't think....couldn't do anything but stare back.

And for an instant, just an instant, he saw beyond the efficient, cool exterior. Into something beautiful and gentle.

And then she broke his gaze, and the whole drab reality of the situation came crashing back on him. She rose and turned to tend to the Sergeant. Jack sighed and began tending his wound, giving it a shot of coagulant, then wrapping it tight with gauze. He then stood, hoping the pain wouldn't slow him down too much.

 

Nero watched as Angel tended to Cyrus's wound. Cyrus was visibly in pain from the bullet wound, but Castillene can see in the way Cyrus looked at Angel that he didn't entirely want to stay as squad members. She bandaged his leg up carefully and he glared idly, feeling a surge of jealousy chill his skin.

He turned away, instead attempting to preoccupy himself with some other unnecessary task. Then he decided against it, feeling that his emotions shouldn't get in the way of his mission.

"You feeling any better Cyrus?" Nero said, holding his tongue on a rude remark his mind told him to say. He gave a sigh. "We should start getting our things together" Castillene said.

“Your leg,” Angel replied, “that…that…animal sliced it open. We should tend it.”

Nero looked down at the bloody gash. He didn't want to concern himself with more injuries, he felt all he's been doing so far is becoming more of a space filler than a leader.

"Don-" he attempted to speak as Angel stumbled slightly with the supplies. Their eyes met.

Nero was paralyzed still, he couldn't stray his look away from her. Her delicate features and shining eyes made his thoughts race with vigor. Castillene desperately wanted to reach out and kiss her, but his body refused to move.

"I, um, i-its okay. Really, I can do without it. I appreciate the concern." he said nervously.

 

Karasu pulled the creature off somewhere kinda far from the others so that way they didn't get in the way.
Karasu pinned the creature down in a position that would make it easier for him to maneuver the creature.
Karasu grabbed the creature and placed bomb in its mouth. Karasu gave the creature a cold stared.
"I know you aren't a fool," Karasu asked, "If you don't answer I will pull the pin."
Karasu looked into the creatures eyes with a deep thought. His finger on the pin of the grenade.
"Who sent you?" Karasu asked.
"Reistance is futile," the creature said his mouth slightly muffled from the grenade.
Karasu looked deeper into the creatures eyes with a cold look that could freeze time and freeze cold sweat running down the creatures neck.
"Who sent you?" Karasu said in a much calmer tone.
His voice so cold and calm that it could freeze your breath.
"I....I...don't know...our boss got a message from an unknown ally," the creature said.
"Unknown ally?" Karasu said.
"They just stated they were an ally and that if we didn't want to die to kill the humans who enter this planet,"
"Don't sound like friendly allies....why did you go with the plans?"
"Because we were going to get a nice sum of money,"
"Money, so even aliens are filled with greed as well....how about your base? Where is your base?"
"Off in the middle of the Mar's data where the desert turns to ice,"
"Anything else you want to tell me?"
"You won't live,"
Karasu looked at the creature with an icy look and gave the creature a calm smile. He pulled the pin of the grenade and moved quickly away from the blast. Karasu remembers the look of the creature. Even aliens get scared huh, he thought.
The creature blew up with the grenade in its mouth.
"I never told you I wouldn't kill you likewise," Karasu said, "You were a threat and you gave me an answer I didn't like."
Karasu sat down on a rock and finally felt the pain through his shoulder from the wound earlier. He had forgotten about through all th excitement.

 

Alpha Squad

Jack finished applying the gauze and rose to his feet. It hurt, but he could walk on it a little easier now. He looked over to see probably the exact same thing Castillene had seen only a minute ago. The only difference was that Castillene could speak...however shaky he was.

He shouldn't have even thought it. It shouldn't have even entered his mind. But there it was. Some feeling of protectiveness, of potential loss.

He shook his head. No. First of all, none of them knew if they were making it out of this thing alive. They all hoped, but hope was a fragile thing in the face of reality. What was the point of starting something now that was doomed to end? Secondly, why should she be interested in him? He was just a hacker with a gun. Thirdly, even if she WAS interested in him...in either of them...it was her freedom to choose...and he shouldn't have to come in the way of that.

Jack sighed. A beautiful dream, but one that was most likely going to be lost in the nightmare that overshadowed it.

"Yes sir. Ready to move out."

 

Alpha

"I, um, i-its okay. Really, I can do without it. I appreciate the concern."

For a second Angel thought that Sergeant Nero Castillene sounded nervous. The she decided that she must be projecting her own shakiness as she began to come off the adrenaline high onto him.

"You were sliced with a chain sword," she told him dryly, "that's not a small thing."

She gently pushed him down to sit and quickly tended to his leg, suppressing a wince over how the skin and muscle were damaged. Thankfully the wound wasn't nearly as deep as she had feared.

What had just happened between first she and Jack and then she and Nero? Angel wondered as she disinfected, applied coagulant, and closed the wound with an absorbable skin glue. She was puzzled, men were usually shy of her, intimidated by her brusque efficiency.

Tending the wound gave her some time to regain her composure and by the time she finished applying a protective bandage she felt like herself again.

"That should be better for you," she said quietly and crisply, turning away to repack the supplies. Looking toward Jack she saw that he had taken care of his bullet wound already.

Angel rubbed her bruised throat and once again reconsidered her career choice. Visions of the beach...she could almost feel the hammock swinging and she could see the frame of a man silhouetted against the bright water.

Then she was back to the moment as a drop of water fell from the ceiling and into the back of her collar.

"Where is Karasu?" She asked and then an explosion of a grenade cut off her thoughts. "oh."

 

Jack ducked reflexively as he heard a grenade go off.

"Holy blue screen of death...!"

Jack sighed as he saw Karasu come walking back. Actually walking wasn't the right word...more like slinking. Jack cocked an eyebrow at him as he walked past. Didn't he say he had only three grenades? If that was the case, Jack had the last one.

Waste...

Jack looked down at the weapon he carried. A rifle. He didn't want a rifle. He dropped it, and began looking around for something more pistol-like in nature. As it turned out, he eventually found his own gun again, along with most of its empty clips. He then began checking the other guns, hoping to find some ammo similar to his own. He found it on an SMG, but he had to transfer the actual rounds by hand to his smaller clips. Having done this, he sat still, cross-legged on the ground and shut his eyes. He emptied his mind of all thoughts and distractions, feeling the moment he was in. There was no past and no future. Only him, in the present, in harmony with his environment. When he came out of his brief meditation, he was set again. Ready to take on any computer, sentry gun, or borglike mutant they would throw at him.

 

Karasu sat on a rock and took out rounds for his gun. He began to load his gun carefully. Karasu brought his guns upwards to make sure they weren't damage in any way, especially after the one got stuck and wouldn't shoot it until he had hit it on the rock.
Their didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. He wondered if he had time or if it were even safe to pull apart his gun just to see if he had a few screws wrong. Then he looked at Jack.
Karasu whistled at Jack.
"Could you help? The trigger got jammed can you tell me if there is something wrong inside without pulling it apart?" Karasu asked.
Karasu walked over to Jack and handed him his right hand gun.

 

Jack studied Karasu's face. Intense, serious, and in-control. This guy was ice cold. Killing to him was as trivial as swatting a fly. Again, an asset to the mission, but Jack wasn't entirely sure he was ready to trust him. He kept his eyes on him as he accepted the pistol.

"Well," He said, examining it. "I know what's wrong with it; the firing pin got gummed up in there. I'm gonna have to break it down to fix it, though. Is that okay?"

 

Karasu looked at Jack. He looked intensely into Jack's eyes. Karasu then looked around the cavern.
"Will we have time and is it safe here?" Karasu asked Jack, "If the answers to this questions are a yes, then please fix it; if it is a no then just hand it back and I'll fix it later and if it gets stuck in another horde I will just hit it on another rock."
Karasu looked at Jack with a stare that could stop a man dead in his tracks. A stare that was as cold as any ice block. A stare that could stop a man's breathing and stop time.

 

Jack was about to respond when Karasu caught his gaze and held it. The coldness that Jack saw in his manner was reflected a thousand times in his eyes. His stare was like looking at death itself. What had happened to this man to make him act as he did? Shaking himself free from his gaze, he responded.

"We got time. It won't take long." He took the pistol over to a flat rock and proceeded to break it down, his hands gliding expertly over the gun's cold metal. He used a small pick to clean the cruft out from around the pin, and gave the weapon a quick clean-up before piecing it back together.

"There you have it. Should last for a while now before glitching again." He handed the gun back and was about to walk away, when he realized his own gun could probably use a quick cleaning. Using the same rock, he proceeded to break down his own weapon.

 

Karasu watched Jack's procedures as he fixed his gun.
"There you have it. Should last for a while now before glitching again."
Karasu gave a silent nod to Jack.
"Thank you," he said calmly.
Karasu breathed in calmly and began to analyze the caverns again. It was something he had been taught. Be aware of your surroundings at all time. Karasu grabbed his shoulder as it burned. He cracked his neck.
"How are you doing?" he asked Jack, "Is this your first time on a battlefield?"
Karasu wasn't a nosy person, but he didn't mind friendly chatter once in a while. It at least made him feel alive and it made him feel human. Most of the time Karasu was a demon and he didn't even know himself.

 

Jack blinked, not quite expecting small talk. This guy was full of surprises.

"Well, no, but this is my first time in an assault force. Being both a tech and a half-decent soldier gave me a leg up. Mostly I've done covert ops dealing with information retrieval. Things have gotten messy a time or two." He carefully cleaned and polished each piece of his broken-down pistol as he explained.

"What about you? This obviously isn't your first mission, either. You special ops?"

 

Bull shook his head and sat down in the hover. The constant inefficiency of his new lieutenant was beginning to make him think she'd never been in the field before today. That, paired with a seeming lack of direction, made Bull nervous. Unless this is some kind of rope-a-dope on the enemy, he thought and spat some more. If it is, she's doing a godd**n good job. He started to think about his other options, trying to hook up with another squad or just going solo. What's the difference, I'm just going to die either way. I'll probably last longer leading myself than this chick.

He looked out the window of the now war torn lift. "So we going to fly somewhere," he said and spat again. "Or are we going to throw an advertisement on the back of this piece of s*** and continue on in circles?"

 

I slip the control pad in my fingers and then start slamming down the codes to make this platform do something beyond float. A nano-second later and I have the protection/containment field going full power. Which we need because methane and explosive devices caused a brutal fire that engulfed the platform and killed the troopers after us.

I command the pad and platform to lift us to an unloading port in the roof, but the door won't open to let us pass though. We are safe right now, if just floating about.

As I am pondering how I am going to bypass the loading door the Deathbringer shows a blue light for the com-tech of alpha team, then fades away.

ZOMFG n00bs on Military issue Micro$uck $pazwars! Lame $uckdated crap!

I pull my X-Gala 2700 Jonagold-GS*1 Uber mod platform gauntlet and slip it on my arm, then plug in my Deathbringer and bring up the solid light interface for me to work with.

"tH3Y 533 M3H r0ll1N', tH3Y H4t1N', p4Tr0Ll1n'"*2

Within a few moment I have a fix and a link on how to get the main hatch doors open. I ponz dis world! God Mode is I!

*1: Made by Apple(tm). GS stands for Granny Smith.
*2: Translated - I am getting annoyed with not being able to contact the other teams, and it seems to be their fault.

 

Alpha

Angel had retrieved her plasma pistol, recharging it and holstering it. She was tempted to keep the soldier’s rifle but it really was too bulky. She stooped and appropriated a wicked-looking knife from another dead soldier.

Putting the rifle down, Angel withdrew the TeamComm and swept for a signal. She almost dropped it when she saw she had one. A weak signal, but steady for the moment.

Quickly she typed a message to the other teams:
Alpha Team has been attacked, 12 soldiers/red DMP/well armed assault. We continue to move toward the objective. Please report.

She sent it and breathed a sigh of relief as it finished transmitting just as the signal died away.

“This place is a nightmare for communications.”

Angel went to the mapping function of the comm and studied it for a moment before calling the team softly to her.

“We need to go this way,” she showed them on the comm’s map, “it leads through the ventilation system.” She tapped a section that refused to show up on the map…it was a square of interference only and was directly along their path.

“Jack, what do you make of that?”