Cyberpunk 2766AD

Wraith secured the small bag to his belt. He spoke the welcome stranger, "Agreed, that would be a logical course of action. Can you show me the way?" gesturing towards the way she came. " I have no other possessions"

 

Jimmy stood there wondering what he was supposed to do now. He couldn't figure out anything, so he started walking back to the ship. He'd gone three paces when a light went on in his head. Moving back to the guard he just took the gun from he turned him onto his face and took his wallet out. He opened it and began riffling through it.

"Cool."

There was actual cash in it. Not many people carried cash with them nowadays. He left behind the I.D. and the credit chips because those were easily traced, but he found a bus pass that looked like it would be useful. After throwing out all the useless stuff he folded the wallet back up and put it in his front pocket. It's harder to steal from the front pocket.

 

"Right. By the way, my name is Xare, though most people call me Fox. Nice to meet you. I think that is the way out." Her tail points to the way she came from. "Follow me, and stay low to the floor." She begins crawling towards the side of the ship, where the damaged door is stuck half open.

 

.//boot
booting...
booting...

SYSTEMS ONLINE

Calamitas X1579 functioning in safe mode...

.//syscheck
checking...
checking...

./CORE.MEM damaged, running .//autorecov...
recovering...
recovering... Failed!

.//startlog
Starting...
starting...

Record Log started 2766CE Unknown Date/time/location

Calamitas whirred to life, its eyes flickering to a dull yellow that pierced through the dense wall of smoke that filled much of the vessel. A quick survey of the area revealed a few dead bodies as well as a few survivors, other freebooters like Calamitas. There was a rather sizable hole blown into the vessel and Calamitas deigned getting out as the first course of action before it could do anything about the damage to its core memory systems. With a clank and a whir Calamitas got to its feets, the crash having thrown it far from its seat. Its heavy steps seemed to echo in the place as it made its escape.

 

Ryugami stumbled out from the rubble, scratching his head. There was only one word to describe what he had just gone through.

Ow.

He rubbed his neck, but otherwise didn't check for injuries. He knew there wouldn't be. It was a result of his skeleton, a super-powered blend of bone and machine, one that could withstand much more than the average one. He spat some blood from his mouth. His eyes scanned the rubble, and they detected some other lifeforms, freebooters, like himself.

His eyes flashed red as they detected a threat. Spinning around, he saw a guard, badly hurt, crawling along the ground towards him. Ryugami knelt down and picked up the guard's pistol.

"This is for the beating." Ryugami pulled the trigger and the guard slumpted to the ground. Ryugami pocketed the weapon. He had really done the guard a favor. He had been in agony, but now...he was fine. Well, not really.

After scrambling through the rubble, he found a strange weapon. It was a sword, but it was obviously a highly-advanced one. His eyes scanned it, and he could recognize some parts used in its construction, but they didn't know what type of weapon it truly was. Shrugging, he strapped it to his pants.

Now, to get to work. He had always been a loner...well, loner wasn't entirely correct. To be more accurate he'd have to say he was a parasite. He'd join up with people, suck them dry of everything they had, and then throw them away when they were no longer useful. And he wasn't about to change.

He noticed a young man flipping through a wallet. He walked towards and shouted. "Hey!"

 

"Hey!"

Jimmy looked up and saw a man with a dragon tattoo curling up his neck walking towards him. He didn't like the way the man looked, so he drew the laser pistol and aimed it at him.

"What? I wasn't doing anything wrong. He's already dead."

 

I was trying to get my bearings when I saw a blonde guy all but fall out of a telephone booth. Drunk, maybe? But his hands were clasped to his head and his face radiated pain.

“Hey,” I went near him but not so near that he could grab me if it was ruse, “you okay?”

He looks familiar, I think he was a fellow prisoner.

 

"Greetings, my name is Wraith"

The pair of them began to crawl to the relative safety, outside the crashed ship. When they reached the outside Wraith asked a question.

"Do you know of any other survivors? Have you met anyone?"

 

"Hey you okay?"

Zu was caught off guard. He looked up at the woman. Oh s***. realizing it was another freebooter from the ship. He shook his head. "Yeah, I..I'm fine," he said, "just a little bit of a headache is all."

He squinted his eyes at her and pulled his hood a little lower. He needed to get out of this slum.

 

"Yeah, okay," I back off but by the look of things he has the mother of all headaches. When he pulls that hood closer around him he can barely open his eyes but he obviously isn't feeling chummy at the moment and I don't exactly have an aspirin.

That's all right with me. I still need to find Ghost. He could be wandering around lost.

"Well, I'm good at fixing stuff, is all. I'm Tolva, see you around."

If he wants to bolt solo for the spires, let him. Only a few of us will make it.

 

He almost turned to walk away, but if she really was one of the other prisoners, she might be able to point him in the proper direction. He turned back around and tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me, but...did you say you're good at fixing stuff?"

 

Fox shakes her head. "I have'nt seen anyone else yet. We might be the first to get out. So, how did you end up as a freebooter, Wraith?" Fox looks up into the sky. All that can be seen is ultra tall building and smoke. This is the only kind of enviroment that she is used to.

 

I stare at him a moment.

"Any repair shop in this dump will flash your picture to some guys that want your presence real bad." I shake my head, "If you want to risk that you can go two blocks that way," I point him in the right direction, "Go to the door with the plastic dog beside it, ring the bell exactly three times and say Goldeneye sent you. But if you tell them where I am," I say, grabbing him by the sleeve and boring into his squinted eyes, "you'd better pray you don't ever see me again."

I let him go and turn away. He knows I fix stuff. If he'd rather take his chances on being turned in, let him. I need to get moving. Every minute we're near the wreck is more dangerous than the last.

 

"Wait...wait," he said grabbing her again, his headache making him weaker. "Just...I won't slow you...just help me and we'll go our separate ways..."

He shook off the migraines and concentrated on moving. He needed to get fixed, and soon.

 

.//headcount
counting...
counting...

At least six warm bodies in the immediate area, possible more beyond the scanned range...

Calamitas' ocular implants flickered from the dull yellow of the scanning component to the soft blue hue of normal vision. Another step and a short jump down and Calamitas was free from the wreckage of the ship. What little it could make of the city through the thick smog that hung over the place was not enough to make a definitive guess on where Calamitas might be. High reaching buildings and broken down slums seemed to little the place in almost direct proportion with each other. Well, that could be any city on the planet. Calamitas pulled the thick cloak and hood tight about itself, what there was left of its memory files seemed to point out to Calamitas that most normal humans would usually either stand and gawk at its unusual appearance or run away terrified.

 

"No, hey, its fine, I don't blame you," Ryugami said, his hands raised. "But I wanted to know if you wanted to, you know, travel together? We need to do all we can to lay low and watch for the feds, and you know, two heads are better than one."

Ryugami extended his hand. "The name's Ryugami."

 

For the life of me I will never understand why the pilot told us to hold on to our asses if we were going to crash like this. It would have been better to grip the walls or buckle up.

Enough pondering stupidity, it is time to move. I'll look into that epression when time is ample.

The air seems filled with very unhealthy toxins, I'll have to make note of that and tell Tolva when I see her that she should get a respirator or a filtering mask if she plans to stay health in this area.

The ship is a mess, bodies picked clean and other runners mulling around trying to make the best of this mess.

Time is not a luxury afforded to us. Run or Die are the only options. Or so I have been told at least.

I wonder the reality behind that.

Stepping over guards and others alike, I feel a minor pang inside me. I see their faces unmoving, fear, panic, terror written over them as they must have realized their own ending. I wonder why this bothers me, after all, look how little they cared about out lives. We were cattle them. But still I feel something, something I am not sure how to place.

Then I see her. Her brown duster might cover her enough to make her look decent, but that cat suit only leaves her skin tone to the imagination.

Well given I can see her face just fine, as such I know what her skin tone is, so even that is not needed to be imagined, but clothing seems to have that effect of even if I can see every curve of her body the fact that I can not see her skin seems to play an illusion on my mind.

Funny that. I wonder if the idea is to attracted other people dressed like that, right now I find it a curiosity, I suppose that might pass of the initiation of attraction.

The smoke bellowing into the cabin tell me that I need to move. Pondering life when mine is in jeopardy is not the brightest of things.

Minor vibrations fill the cabin as I begin to make my way out. Good thing to, it seems the cyborg has awoken and will be making a fine target for who or whatever is after us. I doubt that the corporations will take the destruction of their craft sitting down.

Well I suppose they will be sitting down, at a meeting deciding how they will kill us for escaping. Humm another expression I need to look into.

Walking out the hole I see her glance at me. She is talking with other freebooters, or runners, or insignifcant bugs that need to be stepped on, all depending on who you ask.

"Greeting Tolva, I would suggest we make haste, as I would wager that maintaining close proximity to this crash shall be fatal" the smoke whiffs past my face mask threating to mar it's treated fabric. "And perhaps let us find you a subtable respirator, breathing heavy in this environment might be unhealthy for you"

I hate it when I need to mutter but now I just felt the urge pull out "And people wonder why I wear this mask"

 

"It is a long story, I just sort of got dragged in."

He looked back at the wreckage, thinking.

"We shoud wait here, see if any others can get out."

 

I shifted the gun to my left hand, making sure to keep it trained on him, then I shook his hand.

"I'm Jimmy. Yeah, it might be good to travel together, if you don't try anything stupid. Where are you going?"

All right, what was it that I needed to watch for? Oh yeah, if he doesn't meet your eyes, don't trust him. I didn't really trust him anyways. Why would someone want to travel with a kid like me in these circumstances? That sword didn't look very friendly either.

 

Fox nods her head in agreement and sits down. "With any luck there should be others. A group has a better chance of surviving than one person does."

 

Vornn stood on the edge of the tall skyscrapers taking in the view. His long black coat flapped about from the guzzles of the strong wind. His head remained covered by his hood revealing only the yellow glow from his eyes. His long straggles of hair would occasionally blow about his face from the strong guzzles.

He looked down on the city below. He glimpsed the fog that hung between the middle habitats. A great distance to fall.

Vornn slowly walked across the edge looking down at balcony’s and bridges between buildings.

The wind whistled through his hood with each step he took carefully he kept his balance walking on the edge then he stopped at the corner looking down still.

He took out a data slate from his cloak and took in the detail of those with a bounty on their heads.

Dead or Alive.

Vornn preferred dead of course.

His hand was covered in a black leather glove and the hilt of his sword became visible a beautifully carved cobras head.

He flexed his body back to embrace a sudden gush of the wind, and then leaped from the building.


Death was coming but not his.

 

I booked away from the shattered hulk toward a nearby alley; the shuttle, and the huge column of greasy black smoke it was generating, are a great beacon, and I don't plan on being at ground zero when the cavalry arrives, 'cuz they sure as heck aren't on my side. Once I'm semi-sheltered, I'll start lookin' for Tolva and Ghost. Just as I reach the alley, an explosion rocks the street behind me; I spin around for a look, but it was just one of the fuel tanks exploding. I can see a few other survivors stumbling around in a daze, so I start lookin' for friendly faces.

I finally spot Tolva off to one side, near a dingy old phone booth, talkin' to some guy who looks drunk or stoned or something... he sure isn't too steady on his feet. I start jogging over, but then Mr. Buzz-Cut lurches forward and grabs ahold of Tolva's duster. I break into a run, cursing him silently with every step, stupid men and their stupid perverted ways...heck, I barely tolerate Ghost, but thats just because he doesn't act like every other man I've ever met... he doesn't look at me like I'm a slab of meat. I dunno, maybe he's a eunuch or something, I never asked. Never wanted to know.

I didn't take more than five steps when, think of the devil, Ghost stepped out of the thick blanket of smoke still surrounding the shuttle and strode up to Tolva. If this perv really was trying anything, Ghost'd stop him. I slowed back down and jogged up just in time to catch part of Ghost's comment, "...wager that maintaining close proximity to this crash shall be fatal." he paused for a brief second as a puff of smoke drifted past his face, "And perhaps let us find you a subtable respirator, breathing heavy in this environment might be unhealthy for you."

"Hey Tolva. Hey Creepy. Everything alright here? This guy bothering you?" I ask lightly, fingering the silk-cord-wrapped handle of the blade nestled securely against the small of my back. The stranger's head snaps up startled at my intrusion, but Tolva grins at me, and Ghost just frowns slightly, "Please stop calling me 'creepy'." he mutters flatly. I spare him a quick grin, "Ya wear a white mask all the time... yer creepy. Deal with it."

"No, this guy isn't bothering me," Tolva butts into my banter before it gets any further, "he apparently just needs something fixed." I glance suspiciously upwards; I can't see very far because of the blanketing layer of haze, but just because I couldn't see enemies above me didn't make me any less paranoid. "Creepy's right. We need to get out of here and away from the shuttle, and we need to do it now. We're sitting ducks out here, and you KNOW they're gonna come lookin' for us."

 

Wreathed in the dark, thick smoke of the wreckage, another, blacker figure steps slowly forward. At first he is only an indistinguishable blot amidst the swirling darkness, but soon he emerges, a double-barreled shotgun dangling loosely from his right hand. His long dark jacket flows around him as he moves with a cat's grace and a deadly purpose.

An injured guard nearby moves, trying to bring his pistol to bear on the figure. The man known only as Spencer makes one fluid movement and the shotgun cries out amidst the darkness, silencing the guard and eliciting a splash of dark blood. His face remains calm and in control; undaunted by the smoke around him, or the threats to his life. His eyes are obscured by dark glasses, and his flesh is pale underneath spiked black hair.

He searches the wreckage, only his eyes and head moving. Several of the surviving freebooters were already scattering. It was time he did the same. His eyes stop for a moment on the bot, and his right eyebrow lifts slightly. He would need weapons if he wanted to fight off the eventual pursuit, and here was a worthy weapon indeed. Confidently, he strides over to where the bot assesses the situation; perhaps attempting to regain its digital faculties after the crash.

"Explain your functioning, robot." Spencer says, his voice deep and cold as steel.

 

When the fuel tank exploded I thought to myself Screw this! I'm getting out of here. I turned my back on Ryugami and ran as fast as I could down the street past a group of people next to a phone boot. I didn't stop though, it was time to get as far away from here as possible, and I was rapidly coming to the conclusion that it would be better if I was alone. It's harder to find one person than two.

 

Name:Dakota Lynne Mallet
Sex:Female
Augment: She's infested with nanobots that alter her RNA to speed along homeostasis and recovery. She also has a chip implanted in her brain that allows for communications with others without moving her lips-this is not telekeniesis, she just doesn't open her mouth-
Weapons:Small laser she discovered within a wristwatch, a knife with a blade the size of her hand
Age:18
Appearance: Her eyes focus intently on anything she looks at, making her otherwise chestnut brown eyes more pronounced. Of average height, her fair skin glows irredescnet when the nanobots are activated (meaning she has sustained damage). She blends into a crowd, but can't hide in ine for long because she often creeps the crowd out.