Cyberpunk III: 2856A.D. MARS

Whatever else Karasu was, it was apparent he was looking out for number one...and that he apparently enjoyed playing games with them. The information he had gotten was not particularly useful, and Jack would have thought the same thing even before he took the strip. Karasu was seeing just how much he could pull, and the Sarge had showed him the limit.

Okay, time to get moving.

"Alright Sarge. Angel's got a plan, and I think its a good one. What do you think?"

 

Charlie Squad

"Stay here and get ready. When I come back, I'll have some company."

What the f*** is that supposed to mean? Bull was all but convinced now that the lieutenant was a greenhorn. He shuffled over to the side in time to see her run back inside, yelling, and being chased by two tech soldiers. While the two are concentrated on her, Bull drops to a knee and, with four quick presses of the trigger, places twelve rounds in the arms and legs of one of the enemy soldiers. He takes aim at the other, spits, and fires a few more rounds into its back.

Bull stood up and dragged the disabilitated and writhing cyborg over to Hot Dog, flipped it over, and put his foot square in its back.

"Work your mojo uber-Geek."

 

"Alright Sarge. Angel's got a plan, and I think its a good one. What do you think?"

"As long as it's tactically sound. I don't want to be caught in an ambush, so an arrowhead formation would be best suited. Cyrus, you lead." Nero ordered.

Cyrus's eyes flared up, he had been given a chance to show his leadership skills and perhaps impress his new admiree.

 

Karasu bit his lips, not to hard. He kept himself calm though and didn't let himself get jittery. So far there has been nothing, but monsters hiding in the corner and stalking them.
Karasu then pondered something these monsters or aliens or whatever they were called were kind of like the Native Americans when the colonist settled near their home. Of course Karasu didn't think that they would be settling here.

 

Angel brought the map up on the Comm and they all familiarized themselves with what lay ahead. The corridor that had the freshest air wafting from it appeared to go straight and mostly level for about twelve meters before it abruptly dropped - possibly a ventilation shaft. There was no telling how steep it might be. It wouldn't be surprising to find some kind of access or maintenance ladders or steps, however.

She familiarized them all with the fuzzed-out patch of map.

"In theory, if they are protecting this spot it may be what we're looking for," she smiled, "or at least it may be important in finding what we're looking for."

 

"In theory, if they are protecting this spot it may be what we're looking for," Angel said, "or at least it may be important in finding what we're looking for."

"How far are we from the other squads? It may be better to travel in a bigger group, in case we run into that demon again. For now though, we should just start moving because i'm not exactly willing to fall fifteen feet again from holes in the ground" Nero said, getting a few sniggers from his squadmates.

"Hilarious," the Sergeant said with a dose of sarcasm. "Now lets go."

 

Angel moved out with the others in formation as she answered Nero.

"We haven't been able to get a reading on the other squads, Sir, there has been the one message but this place is a nightmare for communication and since we were to go dark for this they don't have a tracker on them. Even the TeamComms are damped to sensor sweeps."

 

Alpha

Jack was surprised, excited, and bewildered all at once. Surprised and bewildered because he wasn't an assault trooper. He was a tech. With a gun. And not an exceptionally large gun, at that. Plus, he had next to no command experience, and no more than the basics in tactics. He wondered what was in the Sergeant's head. A test, maybe? Or perhaps a comparison? He grinned inwardly as he thought of it. Maybe Nero was attempting to establish just who was the dominant male here.

The thought excited Jack a little more. He enjoyed trying new things, and 'taking point' was something he'd never done before.

"Aye aye, Sergeant!" Jack drew his pistol, slapped on the light, and proceeded down the hallway. The vent shaft wasn't hard to find, but sadly, it was a very long way down and there wasn't an access ladder.

Odd.

Jack withdrew the portable grappler from his belt. It was about the size and shape of a can of deodorant with a spike on the end. It was filled with a compressed fluid that immediately solidified upon contact with the air. It was durable and flexible, and there was the equivalent of about 500 feet of it in the small can.

Jack held it out and pressed a small button on the side and the spike shot up into the ceiling above the vent. Jack pulled on the cable that led from it, giving it a simple strength test. He then flipped a switch on it, hung on tight, and jumped down the vent. The grappler lowered him quickly, but not too quickly. His feet hit the ground and he drew his weapon again, doing a quick scan of the newfound area.

"Clear!" He yelled up the vent.

 

Cyrus slid down the grappler line with ease. Yelling "Clear!" as he landed at the bottom of the hole into a new cavern. Taking a few steps foward, he peered down the vertical fall. With a solid grip he descended the rope, letting go of the rope early, he landed with a dull thud. His weapon already poised and a small red laser darted to different parts in the room.

He took up a position against a pillar. "Alright, you can come down." Nero said, as the other Alpha members prepared for their rappelling session.

 

Alpha - I keep forgetting to put this in the title line!

Angel took her turn at the grappler line, mildly glad they were going down and not up. When her boots hit the ground she called, "Clear!" up to Karasu who had been guarding the way they had come. He seemed spooked which was understandable. In this place anything could run up on them.

"The ventilation fans should be ahead of us." Angel told the team.

That was almost unnecessary as the current of air coming from ahead of them was now a breeze.

 

Team 3: Charley

The squirming body of the cyborg almost made me puke......

Scratch that... it did make me puke. But I puked like a real man, my puking was ownage!

I mean I can see that my last meal was some military grade dried Lamercrap, which actually made the place smell better, which makes me want to puke again just to prove my awesome skills in all I can do.

"Work your mojo uber-Geek."

WTF? OMFG! Right. Work my Awsome manly greatness. I see the smile on Ash's face and I can feel that womans need for me, Oh yah , if Bull was not here she so would be jumping my greatness right now.

"N3x7 70 73h PL4Y5747I0n K0N7r0ll3r I2 4 PhULL CliP 4Nd mY Pi570L4 7urn 4 J4CK3R IN70 4 k0m4."

* Very Loosely translated: I'm a tech not some twisted mech-mortician, Would mind turning it off first as pulling parts from living bodies is not my thing. very.. very... loosely translated.

 

Ash looks through what the belongings of the Adepts. Four pistols, five grenades, and an assult rifle. She keeps two of the pistols, and the explosives, gives one of the pistols and the assault rifle to McShayne (along with the extra rifle ammo that he was carrying), and one pistol to Bull. Turning her attention to Hot Dog she says "You have a gun don't you? Shot it and it'll stop moving."

 

Charlie Squad

Bull's eyes kept drifting from Hot Dog's moving lips, to the vomit on the ground, and back to his mouth. "Umm, yeah ok..." Bull said looking at the body and rubbing his chin. "I guess I can turn it off?"

Bull watched the lieutenant address Hot Dog. "You have a gun don't you? Shot [sic] it and it'll stop moving."

"Nah, nah," Bull said, waving the notion off. "I think I got this."

He wasn't good with technology like this, and wasn't quite sure how to go about it. Bull decided the best course of action was to kneel down and grab the head of the cyborg and smash it on the ground until it stopped moving. He stood back up and wiped his hands off.

"That oughta do it," he said. "I'm sure I hit the on/off switch somewhere in there."

 

Alpha

The spinning fan blades were now illuminated by the beam of Jack's flashlight attachment. It looked like there had been a large mesh grating in front of it before, but it had been mostly ripped away by something. Beyond the grate, there was about two feet of clearance in front of the blades. They were spinning quite rapidly, denying any chance of a timed jump. Jack scanned the passage on both sides.

"No controls from down here..." How could they get past this thing? They could try and jam it with something....it would have to be strong to not break. No, they didn't have anything like that.

Jack stopped, an idea suddenly coming to him.

"Angel, can you scan for energy readings with that comm box of yours?"

 

Angel had been nibbling her lip, assessing their options which pretty much stank.

"Angel, can you scan for energy readings with that comm box of yours?'

"If not we can rig it to do so, I think," she told him, flipping the Comm on and sorting through functions. "Ahh, yes. What are you thinking, exactly?"

 

"They have to have power running these things. If the lines aren't too deeply buried in the walls, we might be able to cut 'em and bring this thing to its knees."

 

"Do it" Nero said, moving to a different position. "Me and Karasu will be the rearguard, deal with the lines, and then we'll see if the cables are powering the fan." he continued, signalling Karasu to stick with him.

"Angel, do what you can to help Cy, your both are more experienced than I in that field" he ordered.

 

Angel was nodding before he finished speaking, adjusting some settings and finally walking around the walls until the comm showed a hot red line. She pointed to the solid metal wall and said, "Here." Walking on she found two more places, "Here and here," that also had power lines. All behind the walls.

 

Charlie Squad

"g1rL, u A1N'7 Know, 1'M crA2y l1K3 KrAY213 8on3; Ju57 7RY1NA 8On3, A1N'7 7rY1n' 7O Hav3 NO 8a8132."

Bull nodded at what Hot Dog was saying. "Umm," he said. "Thanks half pint, you too." He smiled and patted him on the back. He turned and walked over to the other dead adept on the ground and bent down and grabbed the back of its head.

"You want me to make sure this one is off also?"

 

........Sigh. This is why I hate leading teams. I'd rather be working on my on and just consulting a team........

"Fine, stay here, and I'll return in a little bit. Try not to make too big of a mess if the enemy discovers you." says Ash as she goes ghost and leaves the biulding again. She is used to working alone, so its better that she searches by herself. As she goes down the nearby street, she can see an adept giving orders to others. She sneaks into a nearby alley and puts her silencers, on the new guns.

Pressing herself agains the wall, she waits for him to pass. Though he decideds to look into the alley instead. Damn. From behind him, she aims the pistols at his knees and fires. As he falls, she shoots his arms. She quickly and quietly pulls him back to the building that Charlie is using as hq. "So Mr. Leet, here is a another cyborg to get it from. Just deal with the fact that he's squirming around, got it."

 

Bull shook his head slightly. What's the lieutenant's deal? he thought. Did she not see the other one that ran in after her dead on the floor also?

"Well Hot Dog, you got two dead ones and one living one," he said to Oscar and sighed. "I'm sure you'll be able to make do. "

 

Angel pointed out the spots where the lines ran. He pulled out a small laser-cutter from his belt...that wasn't going to work on ferrocrete walls.

"...umm. Anyone got anything heavier than my puny cutting laser?"

 

Alpha

Angel smiled a tiny smile.

“I may just have something. Here, hold this.”

Handing Cyrus her backpack she rummaged around in it until she came up with two tubes about half the size of caulking compound.

She slipped on her protective gloves and carefully uncapped one of them, running a line of the clear goo around a rectangle big enough for them to access the line.

Re-capping it she made very very sure that she had dripped none of the gel on herself or Cyrus before stowing it again and uncapping the other tube. This time the goo was black and she ran it over top of the clear gel.

“Stand back just in case.”

She told Jack as she pulled him away, checked them both minutely for drips of the black liquid before capping it and putting it in the pack.

Nothing appeared to happen for a long moment as the chemical compounds mingled. Then they became a smoking line along the course that Angel had poured and began to bite into the ferrocrete.

Twenty seconds later the smoking stopped. Angel had been watching the time minutely.

“That’s as much burn as it’s capable of,” she told Jack, “I’m not sure how thick the wall is but it should be safe enough to touch now that the compound’s depleted. Still, wear gloves just in case.”

She moved toward the wall, slinging her pack back on and examining the wall.

“Looks like we’re nearly through but not quite. We may need to break it loose.”

 

Alpha

The two chemicals mingled and gave off a strong smell that had a bouquet resembling something between ammonia and burnt rubber. They did their job, though, and cut deep fissures in the wall.

Jack examined the wall. He flipped out the cutting laser again and ran it along the new, deeper cracks, hoping it would be powerful enough to cut through the last centimeter or three. It was. He traced out the cut lines, and the slab fell with a slight thud. He then grabbed it with gloved hands and pulled, yanking it out onto the floor, where it fell with a crash.

The lines in the wall were now exposed. Jack went to work with the cutting laser, quickly severing a few of the lines. The electrical energy arced out briefly, and the fan slowed and eventually stopped. Jack smiled, feeling the wonderful exhilaration of a hack well done.

"Win win." He said.

 

Flint found himself lost and very alone wondering aimlessly through the long passageway cavern tunnels until finally he emerged at the foot of a large city. The city was empty and deserted. Flint looked about he could see many of the buildings on the outer reach had been levelled and those that had not were covered in crater blasts. It was clear the war had spread in the city. Flint wondered about survivors or resistance members. But shoved the thought to the back of his brain. It paid no head to think of thinks of hope. With that in mind Flint took a drink of water from his canister if anything the temperature was warm and spending all that time in the tunnels he felt humidly irritated. He wondered of Midori maybe she had survived who knows. If not he could also be facing the fact he was the only survivor and going on the importance of this mission he would have to try and accomplish the mission.

Flint walked slowly down the empty streets of the domed city the red sky almost taunting him in its self. How he longed to see Earths blue skies again. The cult of tech would certainly remember his name as history would flow.