《Deus Ex A Cyberpunk Story》


 The Monastery of the Church of St Mary

    2178 New Berlin. Capital of the European Central Association with over 200,000,000 inhabitants


    and cultural centre of Europe.


    In the centre of the Celestia district is the large cathedral of St Mary''s Church with its associated


    monastery. The Church of St Mary was founded in the late 2050s as a counter-movement to the


    increasingly open Catholic Church. The KhM is an almost extremist organisation dedicated to the


    protection of traditional values and the purity of the people. Over the last two decades, the church


    has gained a massive number of followers. Immigrants in particular, who fled the NUSA after the


    collapse of the USA in 2099, have dedicated themselves to the movement. Due to the high financial


    and political power of the KhM, it has been virtually untouchable for several years now. Various


    Mega Corps have already joined forces with it in order to benefit from each other.


    One of the most controversial practices of this church is the ''young saints programme''. Children


    between the ages of 5 and 9 are purchased from orphanages - not adopted, mind you, but bought


    in the truest sense of the word - to become the future priests and nuns of the church. The children


    are trained in one of the many convents until the age of 18, manipulated and made into the most


    loyal members. One of these children is 17-year-old Marcus. He has been in the monastery in


    Celestia since the age of 6 and studies the ways of the saints. Unlike most of the others, however,


    he is not yet a faithful member of the faith, but is waiting to escape from the church. To do so, he


    has to play a dangerous game, as the so-called unteachable are locked in the dungeons to work in


    the underground factory beneath the monastery. To escape this fate, Marcus played the good


    young priest until he reached the age of 18. Because as soon as a young priest is ordained and made


    a fully-fledged priest, he has the opportunity to leave the monastery and become a missionary. That


    will be his chance. Only 3 more years.


    Marcus was sitting in biology class, where there was virtually no real biology, just ecclesiastical drivel


    about God and how he created animals and plants. Everyone around him seemed to be mesmerised


    by the talk. I wonder if others were just pretending? It was unlikely, but he wasn''t brainwashed, so


    why not others? "Marcus, what tools did God use to recreate the animals of this world in his image


    and endow them with intelligence?


    ...?" How Marcus hated that name. Him. Marcus hated that too. To her, she was a she and her name


    wasn''t Marcus, it was Aurelia. Aurelia stood up as required by the students and replied: "He invented


    DNA so that the animals wouldn''t all have to be hand-raised.


    but to take care of the planning and creation of humanity." "Correct," Aurelia sat back down and


    put on her fake attentive face again. The lesson continued, but she barely listened. How she wished


    she was finally out of here. Aurelia glanced furtively over at the young nuns sitting separately from


    the young priests and looked at their habits. In contrast to those of the old Catholic Church, they


    were much more provocative and tight-fitting, primarily used in the early years of the church to


    attract members. Over the years it developed into a


    The tradition was to remodel the robes every 10 years and they were usually no less provocative.


    How Aurelia would have loved to have a habit. However, the church was very keen on the traditional


    roles of men and women and strictly refused to adapt to the modern world, which had already


    decided in the 2040s to accept that there were more than just two genders. Another reason to flee


    from here.


    The rest of that Tuesday went as usual, after biology came theology for 3 hours and then politics for


    the remaining 5 hours of the day, only to have to eat and then go to the chambers to study and


    sleep. The next day the ordeal began anew. Aurelia stayed away from most of the other young


    priests. She only spoke to Charles occasionally. She felt comfortable enough around him not to be


    constantly afraid of exposing herself as an unteachable. To call him a friend would be too much,


    rather a good acquaintance. But the hours in the monastery went by a little faster when she could


    joke around with him. 15:00 Time for today''s theology lesson, which would be as useless as


    yesterday and all the weeks, months and years before. After Aurelia, Charles and the rest of the


    class had gathered in the classroom and sat down, there was a deafening thud and the whole


    building seemed to shake. Some of the students hid under their desks, while others ran to the


    windows to see what had happened. Aurelia remained seated, imagining how an accident in the


    convent would distract everyone and give her a chance to escape. She would sneak out of the class


    in the chaos of people, go into the nuns'' compartment to steal a habit for herself and then climb out


    one of the windows and run away. What a load of bollocks, she told herself in her head. I''ve never


    been that lucky and I don''t think I ever will be. Louder this time, and identifiable as an explosion. The


    building shook even more and stones from the monastery could be seen flying around through the


    windows. Now many more were hiding under their desks, while the nun who was teaching today left


    the room and ran towards the explosion. "Marcus, go hide, get down here!" Charles shouted. But


    Aurelia didn''t think about it. She rose to storm towards the door. She had hesitated often enough in


    her life. Not this time. Never again! The door burst open with an inward kick and flew off its hinges,


    right into Aurelia''s face. A brief moment of blackness later, she felt the heavy wooden door rest on


    her and heard o n e loud bang after another. Gunfire? That thought only occurred to her after some


    nonsense like fireworks or stones being thrown. She looked towards the door and saw two soldiers


    firing their kinetic rifles, the kind used by most PMCs, into the crowd of students. Blood soaked the


    floor and Aurelia froze in shock. That was probably the only thing that saved her, as she escaped the


    soldiers'' attention. After the two soldiers let off a few more shots to make sure all the children were


    dead, they moved on, presumably to another classroom. After the sounds of gunfire died down,


    Aurelia summoned all her courage and strength to heave the door off her and leave the room. The


    door was heavier than expected and her aching left arm didn''t help. It took Aurelia just under five


    minutes to push the door far enough aside so that she could crawl out. She had to move slowly as


    the floor was slippery with the blood of her classmates. They were all dead. She felt really sorry for


    Charles and felt a slight stab of pain in her chest, but for everyone else there was only emptiness.


    She fled t h e room and saw that the corridor outside was a battlefield.


    Bullet holes, blown up walls, dead saints and dead soldiers everywhere. Apparently the priests and


    nuns had fought back with everything they had. There were some kinetic rifles of the soldiers and


    also energy weapons that probably came from the saints. Why did a monastery have such


    sophisticated and deadly weapons? And how could they use them well enough to kill so many


    soldiers who were apparently well equipped and armed? These questions would have to wait for


    now, Aurelia had to get out of here first. She sprinted to the teaching wing exit, but it was


    completely destroyed. She couldn''t get out here. Then into the main wing and through the main


    exit. She ran, a little slower now, so as not to be so loud and not to slip on the blood that was all


    over the floor. The large metal door to the main wing had been torn off its hinges and lay bent in the


    corridor. Behind it, almost 40 to 50 soldiers were engaged in a merciless battle with 13 nuns and 5


    priests. Aurelia wanted to go straight back, but the battle tied her down. Many of the saints were


    equipped with the latest cyberware, she saw metal arms and legs, blades coming out of hands and


    weaponised arms coming out from under the shoulder blades. So that was the reason why so few


    saints could stop these soldiers. The question of why nuns and priests had military augmentations


    occurred to her, but now was not the time to ponder it. She turned back into the corridor of the


    teaching wing and ran to a ventilation shaft that she had often used as a hiding place as a child. She


    was actually too tall to fit through it, but the situation forced her to squeeze through the narrow


    opening with a flourish. Fortunately, there was enough space behind the opening for her to crawl


    through. For the first time in her life, Aurelia was glad she wasn''t a biological woman with breasts.


    That would have made the situation more difficult. She closed the ventilation opening behind her


    and crawled far enough to be invisible through the slits in the grille and leaned against the wall to


    catch her breath. She only gave herself five minutes to do so, however, because she knew that every


    minute longer she stayed in the monastery, the chances of ending up like the others increased.


    Aurelia knew that the shaft she was in led deep into the lower storeys. Whether she could get out of


    there, however, she did not know. But if she could make out through the shaft system which way


    the materials came in and the products of the factories came out, she could use that to her


    advantage.


    Aurelia had to be on the 4th or 5th basement floor by now, how deep did this damn monastery go?


    Then she heard shots. Kinetic. No energy weapons returning fire. Either all the saints were dead or


    the soldiers had sneaked through here. Aurelia crawled up to an opening grate to look through. The


    shaft ran above an industrial-looking corridor. 5 soldiers opened doors, shot in and moved on. They


    looked different from the others further up. They were equipped with cyberware, helmets through


    which you couldn''t see their faces and carried larger weapons. Perhaps a special commando who


    had a mission here while the others above provided a distraction. Aurelia tried to crawl on as quietly


    as possible. She came to a dead end one floor below. What now? She asked herself. She ''sat there


    quietly for a few seconds before deciding to leave the shaft. Fortunately, the openings to the shafts


    were much larger down here and it was much easier for her to climb out than to climb in upstairs.


    She dropped into the corridor and immediately regretted it when she felt the excruciating pain in


    her injured leg. Aurelia picked herself up and limped along the corridor to a large door that was held


    open by a massive electromechanical lock.


    was held shut. "Damn it," she cursed before she could stop herself.


    She heard footsteps approaching the door at high speed. Panicked, she hid behind one of the crates


    standing at the edge, not a good hiding place, but she hoped the soldiers didn''t expect to find a


    little nun in a priest''s habit here. The footsteps grew steadily louder until the small squad of soldiers


    came round the corner with the cyberware and stuck a device with lots of displays and cables to the


    door. They took a few steps back and waited. It took just under 10 minutes before all the displays


    turned green and the door opened all by itself. The soldiers went in and Aurelia looked after them


    furtively. The room was not large and almost completely empty. There was only a kind of terminal


    in the centre with a ball-shaped lock at the top. The soldiers tried to use the terminal, but they


    didn''t seem to succeed. Aurelia looked further across the room and saw another door that could be


    opened manually from the inside. If she could make it there undetected, she could open the door


    and escape. She just had to hope that the terminal was interesting enough for the soldiers not to


    notice such a massive door as it opened. Had better ideas before, Aurelia said to herself. Then


    maybe the way back. It was possible that these soldiers were the only ones this far down. With a


    loud beep, the spherical shutter of the terminal opened and a glowing orb became visible. One of


    the soldiers tried to grab it, but the orb dodged, hovered in place for a moment and then shot out


    of the room straight towards Aurelia. Her last thought was, not in the face again. Then it went black.


    When she opened her eyes again


    she moved as if remote-controlled. "Oh wonderful. You''re awake. Then I''ll give you back control.


    Please keep running, the soldiers are not far behind you and not in a very good mood." Aurelia


    stumbled and fell when she was able to move again. "What the fuck is going on?" she snapped at


    the air around her before she heard the soldiers'' footsteps behind her. She picked herself up and


    began to sprint. "That''s it Aurelia. Take the 3rd door on the left, I''ll open it remotely and lock it


    behind you." that voice came out of nowhere again. Not sure why she listened to this voice, she


    sprinted through the 3rd door on the left and heard it lock and a large lock block the door. "Where


    to now ghost?" she asked "I''m not a ghost. I am a millennia-old extraterrestrial artificial intelligence


    that has connected to your central nervous system and brain stem. And go through the corridor on


    your right and follow it to the airlock in the production facility. Aurelia followed the directions and


    said, "When I''m no longer being hunted by killer cyborgs, you''ll have a lot of questions to answer!"


    "Gladly" came out of nowhere. The voice led them across the factory and back upstairs to the Jung


    Priester wing. "The side door of this wing is mostly undamaged and the least guarded." "Okay, but I


    need something first," Aurelia replied. She made a small diversions into the supervisor''s room,


    where she searched for a spare female supervisor''s habit. She found it in a cupboard and then made


    her way to the side exit. The voice spoke again while Aurelia saw that the exit really was clear. "Keep


    your body low and move along the hedge. Carefully, but not slowly." Aurelia followed the


    instructions again; the voice had served her well so far, so she would probably follow it for a while


    longer, at least until she was far enough away from the monastery.


    The wall separating the church from the outside world was barely 500 metres from the monastery


    building. Aurelia only had to walk a few hundred metres along the wall until she came to a ruined


    gate, no soldiers for miles around. So she decided to give it a try and sprinted through the gate


    towards the nearest side street without many people, in the distance she could already hear the


    sirens of the local police. Once in the alley, she leaned against the graffiti-covered wall behind a


    rubbish container. For the first time since she blacked out, she looked down at herself. Horror and


    shock welled up inside her. At least 15 or 20 bullet holes had literally torn her body apart, her leg


    looked even worse than before and shouldn''t be able to support her at all. Strangely enough, no


    blood was oozing from the many open wounds. "Aurelia," the voice said matter-of-factly, "you''ve


    been hit 21 times with 5.56 calibre bullets and you have a leg that can no longer do its job without


    help. You are only functioning at the moment because of 3 different types of stims I gave you


    while I took over your body." Aurelia was too shocked to reply and continued to stare at her wounds.


    "Aurelia. If you don''t take care of your injuries, you will die. I can only acquire and use limited aids


    myself. You must do this


    take over. And quickly." That damned voice was so matter-of-fact and cold that it was almost absurd


    what it was saying to Aurelia. Before Aurelia could say anything back, she saw a kind of menu open


    up in front of her. It wasn''t a hologram, it seemed to be the way she always imagined Augs'' eyes


    would appear, with little menus that could be used to do all sorts of things. The menu was set up


    like a shop in an online game; Aurelia had never been able to play one herself, but other children,


    who were acquired later in life, sometimes told her that the orphanage had a community PC with


    internet access and all the things you could do there. In the top corner she saw a number 140. "Hey


    voice, what''s that and how can I make myself whole again?" Aurelia asked in a weak voice. The


    wounds didn''t hurt, not even her leg, which had almost driven her mad before, but she felt very


    exhausted. "My name is Raya. And you have a number that is still 140 for you. You started with 200,


    but I already had to spend 20 coins on each of the three stims. In your Basic menu, select the Nano


    Closure unit for 100 coins. You then have to use it on yourself. It will let you survive, but it won''t


    heal you completely." Aurelia was confused and looked around the menu for the unit mentioned.


    There. In a submenu called "Basic Utility" was the Nano Shutter unit she was looking for. She


    selected it and saw the coins drop to 40. Directly in front of Aurelia it lit up briefly and a box


    appeared. She closed the menu and picked up the box. It was made of a thin, plastic-like material


    with a seal on the front. When she opened it, Aurelia discovered a fist-thick, elongated syringe with


    a


    flexible tube and frighteningly large needle. "Insert the needle into a part of your body that is not


    yet wounded and inject the entire contents of the syringe," came the voice. Was she insane? How


    could she voluntarily ram something like that into her body?


    "Aurelia. Your time is getting shorter and shorter. What''s more, you won''t feel anything as the painrelieving


    Stim is still active." "But take a look at this thing!" "You''ve got about three minutes left


    before you collapse and die. That''s not good for you or for me. So please."


    The coldness of the voice faded slightly and a slight intensity could be heard. "Fuck.


    Okay. Okay." Aurelia took the syringe and the tube with the needle, closed her eyes and plugged


    herself in.


    the needle into the forearm. And indeed. No pain, no feeling at all, to be precise.


    She stared at the syringe for a moment until she remembered that she still had to squeeze the


    contents into her arm. The viscous grey-brown mass flowed into her with unpleasant ease. Within


    a few seconds, she saw the mass spread over the blood vessels, organs and muscles in the


    destroyed parts of her body and seal the injured parts of her body, but without sealing the skin.


    "Well done Aurelia. Albeit unnecessarily dramatic." came from the voice. "Shut up. Now you''re


    going to answer a few questions for me."


    Aurelia replied snappily. "Gladly" came back. "What are you?" came the first question. "I am Raya.


    An artificial intelligence created by a species called Stargazers several thousand years ago. The


    Stargazers have helped humanity and 7498 other intelligences in various galaxies to build a society. I


    am a form of emergency aid designed to connect with specific individuals of each species and help


    them defend their civilisation." "Then why were you under a damn monastery?" asked Aurelia. "Me


    and my brothers and sisters were in the field in 2112, helping the warriors you call Sentinels until


    2139 when the threat was defeated. We AIs left the Sentinels and were placed in a dormant state,


    as we had been before. However, the KhM managed to intercept and imprison me. Outside of a


    Sentinel, we AIs are little more than a moving LED


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.Lamp." "2112? The attacks by the Ovv''alti, the aliens?! I always thought that the humans developed


    the technology for the Sentinels and kept it under lock and key ever since. At least that explains why


    the Sentinels could do such blatant shit. Ok next question. What the hell happened down there?"


    "Unusual choice of words for a nun. Basically, you were spotted by the light I was emitting by the


    soldiers, who immediately started firing. I gave you three stims and took over your body. We then


    fled until you woke up and took control again yourself." "I''m not a real nun and that


    was everything?" "Yes." Aurelia bit her lip as she kept looking down at her body.


    looked down. "What do I need to get my body back to normal?" "You need access to Category 1


    medicine. 100 coins. From this category you need the Nano Healing Unit 100 coins. You also need


    access to Category 1 Cybernetic Augmentation 100 coins to buy a Cybernetic Leg. I''m afraid even a


    Category 2 Nano Healing Unit wouldn''t be able to save your leg. These cybernetic legs cost between


    50 and 300 coins. Aurelia groaned. "And how am I supposed to earn coins? Is there some kind of


    guide


    or something?" "The coins are usually granted by killing enemies of humanity and protecting


    innocents. But since there''s no invasion going on, you''ll have to settle for the latter. Unless you find


    a way to track down the current enemies of humanity," Raya replied. Aurelia thought about it.


    Weren''t those soldiers in a


    enemies in a certain way? After all, they apparently wanted Raya in order to use her for their own


    ends. But the saints of the church could also be seen as enemies. After all, they were doing


    everything they could to prevent the social progress of the world and the betterment of living


    conditions for non-members. OH, and the whole thing about enslaving young children to


    to indoctrinate them or make them slave away in a factory. "Hey, tell me Raya. If I can get a


    of soldiers or saints, will I get points for it?"


    Raya was silent for a moment but then replied, "It''s a moral grey area.


    However, it is certainly possible. Depending on how exactly the stargazers have defined what


    everything counts as an ''enemy of humanity''. We can try it out, but you''ll have to steal a weapon


    because you don''t have the coins to buy one yourself." "Then let''s test it out, I should be reasonably


    stable again now, right?" "Wrong. However, you probably won''t find another opportunity to get lots


    of coins any time soon. Provided your plan works." Aurelia stood up and prayed that the stims would


    hold for a while longer, she took off her priest''s habit and threw on the nun''s habit. Damn, it looked


    good. But she could admire herself later. She crouched down, checked the road to see if there were


    "Damn, how do I get in there now?" Raya replied. "You can use the emergency exit in the cathedral,


    there should be fewer people there at the moment," Raya replied.


    She was right. Most of the people were facing the monastery, so Aurelia was able to steal into the


    cathedral. Once inside, Raya gave her the description to the emergency exit of the monastery and


    hacked into the system to open the door. Impressed by the ease with which Raya bypassed the


    church''s security system, she walked through the corridor that led to the hallway of the priest''s


    wing. Dozens of dead soldiers lay on the floor, with individual priests who had fallen during the


    defence. "How do you even use one of these things?" asked Aurelia as she picked up one of the


    kinetic rifles. "There''s a switch on the left side of the handle, which secures the rifle - it has to point


    upwards to release the safety. Then you have to aim through the sights and shoot with the trigger.


    Aurelia tried it out and realised that she really wasn''t very good at aiming. But it would certainly do


    for the moment, she told herself. She picked up some magazines and crept towards the main hall.


    Countless dead bodies, nuns, priests, soldiers and policemen lay on the formerly white marble of the


    hall. Aurelia saw some who still seemed to be alive and shot at their heads, albeit with many missed


    shots. With each enemy killed, she saw 10 coins added to her account. Morally reprehensible, but


    simple. Just the way she liked it.


    She moved through the corridors with her rifle, which she was slowly getting used to, and collected


    coins. She was now at 230, and it turned out that both the soldiers and the saints earned her points.


    She didn''t shoot at the policemen, as they were only doing their job. However, she didn''t score any


    points on some of the soldiers. Presumably the soldiers who were not wholeheartedly behind their


    PMC. But only very few of them were. She was just entering the dining hall when Raya said "Back".


    Aurelia jumped back a little, just before several shots rang out in the doorway. "You can get your


    first combat experience now" Raya said, Aurelia got ready


    held the rifle at the ready and asked Raya "What''s the best way to do this now?" "I''ll tell you the


    moment when it''s best to lean out of cover and fire. Wait" It took what felt like years, but was


    actually only 25 seconds, for her to say "Now". Aurelia leaned round the corner just as the two


    soldiers were facing each other to argue about who was at the door. Aurelia missed more than she


    shot at her opponents, but luckily the magazine was big enough.


    After 19 shots, the two soldiers were dead and Aurelia had two new bullet holes in her, one in her


    left side and the other just below her left knee, which was barely recognisable as such due to her


    previous injury. "Damn. Can''t you help me aim somehow Raya?" "Of course," came from Raya, "for


    100 coins you can buy access to the


    Acquire category 1 weapon systems. You can find targeting aids in them." "Okay, then I''ll get the


    access, and the one for the leg," said Aurelia, a little out of breath. "Category 1 weapon systems.


    Get access. Category 1 cybernetic augmentations. Gained access. Remaining coins: 50" "And now


    something to help me aim" "Gladly. May I recommend the Auros Mark 2, a system that is used in


    combination with eyes to show the user directly where the projectile will hit. A cybernetic eye must


    be purchased first. I recommend a basic model for 25 coins. That will be enough to get you started.


    The Auros Mark 2 also costs 25" "Yes, yes ok, go ahead, otherwise I''ll run out of ammunition too


    quickly" said Aurelia as she picked up magazines from the two dead soldiers. "Cybernetic Eye Basic


    has been purchased. Auros Mark 2 targeting system has been acquired. Remaining coins: 0" Two


    boxes appeared in front of Aurelia, one small and one slightly larger. The larger one contained an


    eye, the smaller one a chip. "Do you want me to rip out an eye or what?" Aurelia snapped at Raya.


    "I can also teleport it into your eye, it will cause a moment of intense pain, while your current eye


    will be destroyed. However, you should hardly feel anything through the stim. The chip


    will then go into the slot that will be at the bottom of the eye." Aurelia thought for a moment, the


    teleportation sounded much better than his own eye


    and then replace it by hand with the new one. "Ok. Do it like this!". Part of her vision went dark for a


    moment before it showed her surroundings in a much better resolution than her other biological


    eye. Aurelia would have to get used to the differences in resolution. She looked down and saw that


    the box the eye was in was now empty. She took the second box and removed the chip. It fitted


    perfectly into the slot under her eye, which Aurelia had to admit was not so easy to reach as she


    couldn''t see it. After a few attempts, she finally succeeded and a red dot appeared in front of her


    new eye when she picked up the rifle again. As Raya had said, it pointed exactly where the bullet of


    the rifle would hit, Aurelia tried it out with 3 shots. That would make the aiming thing easier.


    Hopefully. She looked in all directions and then asked, "Hey Raya, where are the other soldiers?"


    "The monastery''s security cameras show that most of the soldiers are in the factory area. They''re


    probably on their way to the products to loot them." Aurelia took one of the dead men''s pistols and


    tucked it into the side of her habit. "Right, let''s go there next." As at the beginning of the attack,


    A u r e l i a u s e d the shafts that ran through the monastery. She found a small group of soldiers


    who seemed to be making sure that no one would follow the others. She quietly opened the bars of


    the opening and took aim with her rifle. Despite the help from her eye, about half the shots missed.


    But it was a marked improvement on before. The soldiers died before they could really process what


    had happened. She dropped out of the shaft and reloaded her rifle, which she only then realised she


    should have done in the shaft, just in case there were more soldiers here. She was lucky this time,


    but she had to be more proactive in the future. The corridor she was now standing in was well lit, so


    Aurelia opted for speed over stealth.


    In no time at all, she ran to a door that looked like it had been opened with explosives. She looked


    furtively to see if there were any soldiers behind it, but it seemed as if there were. All the other


    soldiers were already deeper inside the factory. Aurelia walked past production sites where children


    and adults were chained in place so they wouldn''t try to escape while they worked. They were all


    dead. Most of them with single shots to the head, but some were mutilated. "Apparently there''s


    someone who likes chopping people up"


    Aurelia murmured quietly. "In fact, the feeds from the security cameras show that it''s a single soldier


    armed with a machete." "Hey, tell me Raya, can you


    find out if there are still people down here who are innocent?" asked Aurelia and after


    Raya replied in less than a second: "Yes, I''ll send you the room numbers. They were apparently too


    remote for the soldiers." Aurelia looked at the numbers. There were 6 rooms, all in a side corridor. It


    didn''t take long to get there and as she walked through the door to the corridor she immediately


    realised that there really were never any soldiers here. There was no blood, corpses or bullet casings


    on the floor, you could almost think everything was normal. She went to the first room and opened


    the door. A piece of metal came flying towards her and caught her in the head. "Bloody hell, why


    always in the face?" Aurelia exclaimed as she walked backwards out of the room in case there was


    any more rubbish to hit her.


    was thrown at him. "Hey guys, I''m here to save your arse, I''m not from the monastery or the soldiers


    who are attacking." she shouted into the room and waited. After some time and no reaction, and no


    rubbish, she slowly dared to enter. The children inside were all no more than 13, completely terrified


    and some of them armed with tools and metal rubbish. They didn''t seem to trust Aurelia completely


    because of her habit, so she went all the way in.


    slowly and raised the rifle high above her head to show that she was not a threat. "I need to free


    you, is there a terminal here to open the locks or is there some kind of key?" she asked the group of


    slave labourers. One who seemed particularly brave said: "Under the warden''s table. But we don''t


    know the code." Aurelia turned directly to the table and walked towards it. Under the tabletop was


    a small display secured with an 8-digit code, before she could do anything or ask Raya for help, the


    code entered itself and a menu appeared with a large red "Open" field. She pressed it and at almost


    the same moment she heard the clacking of locks opening and saw the children pull off their chains,


    and their


    workstations. "Thank you Raya," Aurelia murmured quietly. There was no need to show the children


    that she was talking to anyone. She would have to explain herself in the end. "No problem Aurelia.


    The code was stored in several databases on the server. Someone would have to explain to the IT


    team that this is a rookie mistake," Raya said coldly. Aurelia smiled slightly and tried to keep the


    children in a group, but some of them fled the room before she could do anything about it. "Wait!"


    she called after them, but without


    Purpose. "hey. The rest of you stay here! I can''t protect you if you run away!" she said to the others.


    "There are more like you down here, I''ll free them too and we''ll go out of here as a group. Do you


    understand that?" came the reply


    uneven "YES". Aurelia hoped that this rescue operation was as simple as she had imagined.


    "Raya." "Yes?" "Do you have the cameras in view so that no soldiers or saints cut off our way out?"


    "Of course." Aurelia turned and walked out of the door. "You wait here," she said to the group and


    then went to the next room. The next two rooms were just like the first, while the last three were


    all adults. It was so much easier to talk to adults. It took her much less time to get these groups


    under control and only one escaped. After some time of coordination, all the groups were united


    and Aurelia sat down at the front. She gave the most mentally stable adult, a man of about 25 with


    long unkempt hair, the sidearm she had taken from one of the soldiers earlier and placed him at the


    back of the group.


    Group. Carefully and with Raya''s help, the group walked the long way up until they reached the


    monastery and were able to escape through the cathedral. At the sight of the outside world, almost


    everyone ran straight off without following Aurelia''s instructions. Outside, they were quickly spotted


    and stopped by police officers. Aurelia remained standing in the huge doorway of the cathedral


    while the last of the church''s slaves also went to the policemen, who had by now


    emergency blankets and called in the paramedics from the nearby ambulance shuttles. "New coins


    received. Current coin level 1320." came from Raya. It took Aurelia a moment to process that


    number. That was a lot of coins. She moved deeper into the cathedral


    and asked Raya: "What should I get first?" "Access to Category 1 Medicine and Cybernetic


    Augmentations 1, from there the Nano Healing Unit and one of the available legs. I recommend the


    B.E. 12, it has the strongest servos of the legs in this category. All together it would cost 600 coins."


    Aurelia thought for a moment. That was really bloody expensive. But she knew that her stims


    wouldn''t last forever and she wouldn''t be able to use her leg at all, and her body would probably


    thank her for fixing it. "Okay, okay," "Purchase confirmed." Two boxes appeared in front of her. One


    that was no bigger than a lunchbox and one that was the size of a rifle case. She opened the leg first.


    It was dark grey with panels on the outside and barely visible hoses and servos behind it. It was


    heavy. Really heavy, she could barely lift it out of the box. "Hey Raya, a


    A little help with that?" she barely managed to get out. "Of course. I''ll use the same technique I


    used on your eye." The leg dissolved into light and I saw out of the corner of my eye how my


    destroyed leg began to glow. After about 4 seconds the glow stopped and her biological leg lay a


    few centimetres from her new mechanical one. As the leg activated it started to glow a very slight


    purple colour between the plates. She tried to move it and although it was a very unfamiliar feeling,


    it was not unpleasant. She stood up on wobbly legs and moved a few steps. She turned her new leg


    to the left and right and bent it several times. She would have to get used to it first. "Don''t forget


    your


    Other purchase" came from Raya, Aurelia rolled her eyes and walked slowly and carefully to the


    small box. Another syringe. This time with slightly lighter-coloured contents and generally much


    smaller. Fortunately, the needle on the flexible tip was also small. Without giving herself time to


    think about it, she stuck the syringe into her arm and emptied it.


    It didn''t take as long as the other syringe, the mass spread over all the wounds she had and began to


    close them without leaving a single scar. Fascinated, she watched the process to the end. "Wow.


    How does that work?" she asked Raya. "The contents are made up of nanoparticles that have been


    created to adapt to the body and act like stem cells, changing into the necessary cells." It felt like


    normal skin, were these really alien particles? Aurelia turned to the door of the


    Cathedral to make sure no one got in. "Okay, but how does that work?" "Aurelia. The species that


    developed me and this technology is so far ahead that it''s almost nine thousand years ahead of


    humanity. There is much more impressive tech than that. With more coins, you''ll be able to acquire


    it too." Aurelia would have liked to look Raya in the eye with an annoyed expression. Which was


    unfortunately difficult, as she was hiding somewhere in her head. "Oh I''m sorry I''ve never seen


    anything like this before Ms Alien Robot" "I''m not a robot, I''m a machine with artificial intelligence."


    Aurelia put her hands on her hips. "Aha. So Ms Alien Machine, what other cool stuff is there that I


    can buy?"


    Raya replied with, "I recommend getting your own gun so you don''t have to use that primitive rifle


    anymore.


    must use. Access to category 1 kinetic weapons costs 100, as does access to


    Energy Weapons 1 and Stargazer Weapons 1." Aurelia thought for a moment and finally said, "What''s


    in the star thingy?" "Primarily weapons that are conceptually completely different from human


    weapons. Railguns, teleport weapons,


    Electronic weapons and many more. Would you like to purchase this category?" Raya replied.


    Aurelia thought for a moment. Sure, energy weapons were dangerous, especially if you knew how to


    use them, but half the city had weapons like that. "Ok. I''ll take the category!" she finally replied.


    "Acquired. I recommend the Blender and one of the weaker ones


    Railguns, I recommend The Exodus." "I don''t know what the first one is, but I''ll take it!" said


    Aurelia just before two boxes appeared. The blender turned out to be a kind of pistol with a


    Rectangular barrel without barrel opening. "This weapon teleports small cylindrical projectiles into


    the enemy being targeted, opens to deploy the 10 blades concealed inside and then begins to rotate


    at 2000 revolutions per minute. This weapon is particularly effective against heavily armoured


    opponents," Raya explained. She urgently needed to find a victim to try it out. The other box


    contained the railgun. It looked like an old-fashioned rifle where the barrel had been replaced with a


    metal rail with lots of small blocks on the sides. The magazine was quite small, but she surmised that


    you wouldn''t need many rounds if you hit with it. Which, it occurred to her, might be a problem with


    her


    current skills. That means she will have to practise with it. "New Coin Stand 140" came from Raya


    and Aurelia decided to save the remaining coins in case she needed them for something specific at a


    later time. The rifle had a thin black strap so that Aurelia could sling the weapon around her


    shoulder while using one of the rails on her new leg to secure her blender. With her new gear


    stowed away, Aurelia turned to the exit of the cathedral, peering out cautiously and recognising only


    two people just looking in the approximate direction. Deciding that the two probably wouldn''t stop


    her if they saw her, Aurelia started walking away from the cloister grounds towards the city centre.

 Nun vs Mega City

    The monastery grounds were in the centre of New Berlin, surrounded by mega-buildings and gigantic housing estates. It was always shady down here and only the lower classes lived here. Most of the city''s inhabitants, who lived at ground level, were unskilled workers toiling in the factories, specialising in jobs for which robotics were too expensive, and criminals of all kinds. Most of the flats here were shabby, small and often not properly supplied with electricity and water. But Aurelia couldn''t wait to enjoy a free life here. She walked through canyons of houses whose sides were lit up by neon adverts showing the latest crap to the people down here, often a much lower quality than in other parts of the city. The roads had not been repaired for decades and as hardly anyone here could afford a hover car, the cars drove slowly and in serpentine lines around the deep potholes. The pavements full of rubbish, Aurelia walked through the lower town, hoping to find somewhere to stay for the next few nights until she found a flat. And a job.


    It took her just under three hours to leave Celestia''s Undercity and reach the Bruchwand district. Formerly an industrial area, it now was a hotspot for drug dealers, prostitutes and petty criminals. Many empty warehouses stood around and only a few of them were inhabited by drug addicts and other lowlife. She chose a warehouse further away from the main streets and went inside to explore. It was a huge hall but empty apart from rubbish, some remnants of improvised camps and drug remains. To the side were several smaller rooms that had probably served as offices, and a rusty, very unstable-looking staircase led to a room that from a distance looked like a recreation room. Aurelia decided to take the stairs later and headed for the office rooms. The first room was the largest, with a large window through which the entire hall could be seen. The remains of a roller blind could be seen, making it obvious that this was the boss''s room, no desk, chair or cupboards had been left behind, presumably to be reused in the new location.


    She tested whether the door could be closed and after realising that the lock still worked to lock it, Aurelia decided this would be her sleeping place for the time being. But to really stay here she would need at least something similar to a mattress or sleeping mat and perhaps a few other things. So she memorised the location of her hall and set off to find materials in the surrounding area. She passed homeless people rummaging through rubbish bins, dealers who looked at her furtively and suspiciously and poor souls who were apparently victims of failed cyber operations or had been attacked by groups such as the Vultures or Rippers, who forcibly took aug from helpless people and then sold them on the black market. An anger rose in Aurelia, how dare these groups do this to people in the full knowledge that it would be their death if they were not helped. She never saw herself as a protector of others, even though the saints often preached that, but at that moment she wished she could go on a vendetta for these poor souls. Until she remembered she could. She had a voice in her head that could give her weapons and armour and gadgets to face an army. Well, maybe at a later date. But she would certainly manage a few backyard rippers. The question now was how she would find her targets.


    "Hey Raya, can you find out in which neighbourhood most of the Ripper attacks took place?" "The local police databases are barely secured. I''ll pin the places on your eye." Five points appeared in an overlay in Aurelia''s eye, each a different colour. "I''ve colour coded the locations, red to blue, to indicate where most of the attacks took place." "Thanks Raya." Aurelia looked around and saw a dark red ping at a distance of 2.78km. Perfect, she thought to herself and started walking in that direction. "Aurelia. I suspect that you want to take on the perpetrators in these places, to guarantee your survival I recommend that you buy access to Category 1 armour, as well as armour from that category. At the moment your coins are not enough for both, but after you have helped a few people, or rather once you have killed some more culprits, you will have enough. Please acquire both as soon as possible." "How much does it cost for both together?" "200 coins, a hundred each." Aurelia thought for a moment and then said: "Okay, I''ll buy the category and then we''ll see." Once that was done, Aurelia thought about her next task. How would she track down the perpetrators, how would she find out where they were currently located and what was the best way to eliminate them. As she pondered, a thought grew bigger and bigger in the back of her mind. She would become the city''s avenging angel. Without a moral compass like the saints in the stories. No. She would only go by right and wrong and she would decide for herself what was right and wrong. A very small part of her conscience tried to speak up and warn that she might fall into a god complex, but the rest of her brain quickly overpowered those thoughts. Aurelia the avenging nun. What a name.


    Completely lost in thought, she suddenly felt a bump and realised that she had bumped into someone. She just managed to stop herself from falling, but her counterpart


    landed on the dirty floor. "Bloody hell you bitch, what''s your problem?" he shouted and got up with difficulty. "Oh I''m sorry, I was lost in thought," Aurelia said, thinking that was the end of the matter and was about to turn to the side to continue on her way. She heard the stranger draw a knife and took a few steps back. "If someone fucks up here, they have to pay, nun. Give me your shit and be glad I let you keep your leg." said the now armed man. He seemed to either ignore or not even recognise the big gun on her back. He stepped towards Aurelia and waved his knife at her while he continued to talk about them having to pay. "I don''t have any money. There''s no reason to do this, I want to-" "BULLSHIT!" screamed the man, saliva flying from his mouth. He raised his knife and jumped straight at Aurelia. She took two steps backwards and reached for her blender. Aiming at his head, a laser appeared directly on the man''s left eye and she pulled the trigger. A muffled umph came from the weapon and less than a second later the man began to fall to the ground and the eye began to dislodge from the skull, behind it Aurelia saw the projectile completely destroying the inside of the skull. "Holy Fuck," she said, "Aurelia. He was about to attack you, you need to get away from your human conscience."


    "What?" Aurelia asked and then said, "That was awesome, like I''d feel sorry for a piece of shit like that. He deserved it." "I was under the impression that you would react like the majority of people who become Sentinels.


    It''s a good thing you don''t have to get over weaknesses like that first." "Opponent down. Received 10 coins." Aurelia looked down at the corpse. He looked shabby, with worn old clothes and mechanical fingers that had to be at least 50 years old. Why had he come at her when she was armed? It was hard to miss the large railgun on her back. She turned the body roundand saw packets of pills falling out of the bag. Oh. He must have been completely high. Well, at least that explained his reaction, but it didn''t change the fact that she didn''t feel bad. Especially as she had been given coins.So he had been a danger to humanity.....Right?


    No, now he was not the time for that. Aurelia had to be strong and ready for the fight. Just because an addict had made a stupid decision, she couldn''t let herself be swayed from her goal now. The thoughts about this didn''t leave her in peace for quite a while until she heard Raya say, "Aurelia. We''re almost there. You should get ready to attack in case of emergency". Aurelia stood still for a moment. She concentrated on her breathing and got ready. This was every child''s dream and it was real. "Let''s go," she said to Raya, taking her rifle off her back and heading straight for the intersection where, according to Raya, most of the crime took place. It was easy to see why. It was the intersection of two old main roads, which in the city''s younger years were used mainly by the lorries of the companies here. Ten lanes, and many side roads. Nowadays, there were no more lorries here, and two or three of the lanes on each side of the road were full of tents and rubbish. It had apparently turned into a homeless hotspot over the years. Dozens of people could be seen there. Some in their tents, others standing around confused or on drugs, a few prostitutes who wouldn''t be allowed into any dollhouse in the world and a few scattered dealers who were distributing their stuff to the victims of this city. It took Aurelia more than a moment to take in the whole situation. There were always rumours in the convent about the outside world, but seeing this level of misery and realising that the goodness of the church never made it to places like this was just too much for her. She was brought up to believe that the church would help the poorest people in the world. Aurelia pulled herself together. There was no time for that now, she had to find out how she could track down the local members of gangs like the Rippers. Slowly and deliberately, she walked along a wall of houses behind the tents with her rifle in her arms. She looked around and found more and more criminals, not just the dealers who were very obviously standing in many places selling their wares. There were hidden people with battlesuits standing in the shadows, presumably to control the dealers or protect them. She also saw some pickpockets waiting for their next target. When she arrived at the crossroads itself, she had a good picture of the inhabitants of this place. She had also found a target. A man, six feet tall, with prosthetic legs and a prosthetic arm, which looked like a faceplate. He was trying to disguise himself with an old broken blanket, but to anyone actively looking for someone like this, he was obvious. A Ripper Scout.


    Aurelia set off and settled down in the shadows behind the tents to watch her target. Those who saw her pretended she wasn''t there after seeing the huge rifle.


    The scout moved slowly through the crowd, apparently with a target. Aurelia tried to identify his victim, but from her position she couldn''t see far enough ahead. So she had to keep moving forwards. She slowly followed the scout until she recognised his target. A young woman, a punk in appearance. She had bare legs made of shiny metal. Aurelia couldn''t recognise the rest of her, just the red sidecut on her head with a tattoo on the shaved side. What was a young woman doing here alone in a neighbourhood like this? Aurelia began to move faster, she had to catch the scout before he could hurt the punk. She followed the scout, who followed the punk into a small alley. ''What''s she doing there? Is she trying to get mugged? '' Aurelia thought to herself during her silent pursuit. Once in the alley, she knelt down and aimed her rifle at the scout''s leg. She pulled the trigger and the railgun charged. Slowly. In horror, she saw the scout pulling out a Taser from a pocket and tried to grab the woman. But before the railgun could fire, the woman turned round, grabbed the scout by the shoulder and swung herself over him with a graceful leap. At that moment, there was a bang that sounded completely different from any other weapon usually used in areas like this. The scout''s mechanical leg exploded into small metal shrapnel at the knee and everything underneath fell to the ground. The scout lost his balance and so did the woman, who was still in full swing over the scout. They both crashed to the ground. The Ripper shouted in a dialect that Aurelia could barely understand and the woman picked herself up and jumped onto the Scout lying on the ground and punched him. Aurelia now realised that both of her arms were mechanical and her legs were shiny. As the would-be victim struck, she turned her head towards Aurelia, who was still standing at the entrance to the alley with her rifle at the ready.


    knelt. "What the fuck you little gutter pissant? This is my target, get your hands off me!" she shouted at Aurelia, who was still looking puzzled. "It seems that someone has


    "According to my scan of her augs, she''s a cyberpunk, equipped with top tier augs and armed to the teeth. Which are also Augs, by the way." "Her teeth are augmented?" asked Aurelia "Yes. According to my scans, she has had titanium fangs inserted and some teeth replaced with hidden mini weapons." The cyberpunk was still punching the scout''s now broken faceplate. "So? Out with it! What do you want with that wanker?" she shouted at Aurelia. "Erm, me. I wanted to interrogate him to find out his Gang and take them out" The cyberpunk paused. "Ha. Then we''re on the same side. Aren''t you a bit young for that? And what''s with the nun outfit?" "Oh, I''m a Nun of St Mary. Well, i was." Aurelia slung her rifle over her shoulder and walked towards the two of them. The cyberpunk scrutinised her from top to bottom and then said, "That''s an awesome weapon you''ve got there. I wouldn''t mind having something like that covering my back. Fancy becoming a cyberpunk? You can keep your weird nun style, I''m sure it''ll go down well underground." Aurelia hesitated for a moment before replying: "Sure! I''m still quite new to the whole thing, so I wouldn''t mind if someone showed me a bit around." "Good, then you watch my back with your weapon and I''ll teach you a thing or two." The cyberpunk stood up and placed a foot on the wounded scout. "I''m Anarchy Mary," Aurelia shook her hand.


    "I like the name, I''m Aurelia" Mary pulled her hand back, "No, no, no, you have to pick a punk name or no one will take you seriously." came from her. Aurelia had to think some


    She thought for a few moments until Raya spoke up, "How about Deus Ex?" Mary laughed, "I like that, then welcome Deus Ex, I''ll make you a new member of the Children of Nero. My cyberpunk group. It''s almost like a family." Aurelia shuddered at the word family. A wave of joy and melancholy washed over her and she didn''t trust her voice to answer, so she just nodded and looked down at the Ripper. Mary followed her gaze and sat back down on the Scout, which had lost blood, hydraulic oil and some wiring. "So little one. Get out of here. Where can I find Razor?" "You don''t know, I''ve never seen the thing. Wa sid Mnat nimma da" Aurelia found it hard to follow the words. It was a really unusual dialect. She had heard many different ones from visitors to the church, but never this one, perhaps a local dialect. "Don''t talk shit or I''ll break more of you. I saw that you got a message earlier, before I left to present myself as a victim!" Aurelia said as she threw two more punches. "I sg nothing!" came from the scout. Mary


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report itsat for a moment and then stood up. "OK, then I''ll take you to our hacker, he''ll pull it out of your head without you being able to do anything about it." "Wait," he said


    Aurelia, "let me give it a try" "Have fun" came from Mary as she made way for Aurelia. Aurelia got down on her knees next to the scout, "Hey Mary do you have a knife?" she asked the woman standing over her, whereupon she received a blade to unfold. Aurelia slowly ran the blade past the scout''s neck towards her shoulder. She had had enough anatomy lessons to know exactly where things were in the body, this combined with her technique lessons gave her the knowledge she now needed. She jabbed the knife into the place where the nerves were connected to the augmented arm. The nerves were specially adapted for these connection points, which meant that they were many times more sensitive when they were exposed. The man''s scream was piercing. She reached into the wound and severed the tendons, that allowed the arm to be controlled. The scream became even louder. "Are you going to tell us now?" she asked the screaming man. But he said nothing and continued to scream. Well then, she had to go on a little longer. She systematically exposed all the adapted nerves on his body and also separated the legs from the controlled tendons. As the scout himself was not yet ready to talk, Aurelia began to work on his faceplate, what was left of it. She removed the remains and began to remove one of the eyes with her bare hand, the screaming turned to shrieking as the scout suddenly shouted "Ok OK". "Sachnmlatz, 3rd Wrnlga, Cod is 46772" Aurelia paused. She turned to Mary, who had a distraught look on her face. "Do you know what that means? "Er, yea, Signumplatz, the third warehouse with the code 46772" "Perfect," Aurelia replied and cut the scout''s throat. She stood up, closed the knife and handed it to Mary. All she could say was "Fuck..... that was hardcore fucked up." She took the knife and pocketed it without cleaning the blood, while she continued to look at the now dead scout. "You''re really good at this. Gross shit." Aurelia replied, "Oh, I''m sorry, I shouldn''t have done it like that in front of you, I learnt in our lessons where the most painful points are, originally to know what to avoid, but I''m not so sure anymore."


    Anarchy Mary looked Aurelia in the eye "You''re really fucked up, but that''s exactly what the Children of Nero need. Nalos, come on, we''re going to get Razor," with that Mary turned to leave. Aurelia followed, "Tell me, who is this Razor?" "The leader of the local Ripper cell, nasty bastard, tortured a friend of mine to death a few days ago, trying to track down our headquarters. No idea if he got the information, so I''ll take care of him before he can potentially do anything." "Alone? Shouldn''t the others help you?" asked Aurelia. Mary walked a little slower "Actually, I never intended to, but I told them I''d do it alone, I''m the only one with combat eyes and only one other has a Combat Stim, it would just be too dangerous for them. But now I have you, you little psycho nun" she looked at Aurelia and smiled "two of us can easily do it" Aurelia thought and then asked Raya "How many points do I have?" Mary looked confused, "Excuse me?" Aurelia looked over at her and said "Don''t worry, I''m talking to the AI in my head right now" Raya replied" Current coin level is 250 coins." Aurelia heard in her head "You have an AI in your head?"


    Mary asked, and got a simple "Yup" in reply. Aurelia then asked "Why so many?" "You saved people with the destruction of the person who, according to my simulation, would have become his victims in the next two days." "Hey do you realise it''s really weird to only hear one half of the conversation?" asked Mary. Aurelia, by now a little overwhelmed by the input from two sides, stopped. She turned to Mary. "I can guess, just a moment. Raya. Buy what we have planned and is there another armour for maybe 50 coins?" "Purchased. In fact, there is a light armour for 40 coins. Should I buy that too?" Aurelia said yes and then turned back to Mary as two boxes appeared. "The smaller one is for you Mary." Mary looked at the box "You could at least explain a little, you know..." she said as she opened the box. Inside was a light combat waistcoat. "Oh shit, that''s nice," she said and put the waistcoat on straight away, while Aurelia took off her habit to put on her body armour. As she put it on, she explained as much about Raya and her ability to Mary as she could understand. Mary seemed impressed but not particularly surprised, almost as if she had seen something similar before. Was there this much technology in the outside world that Aurelia had never heard of, or had Mary encountered another person like her before? But before Aurelia could ask, Mary said, "Not far now, get your weapon ready. They''ve probably set up sentries hidden in the shadows of the buildings. They''ll probably have already reported us to the gang. As soon as you see something moving, shoot it,


    Do you understand?" "Oh, um, yeah, sure. Hey Raya, can my railgun actually shoot faster without recharging first?" Aurelia heard in her head, "Yes. There''s a switch on the side of the barrel near the handle.


    But bear in mind that such a shot will also be weaker. It still has the energy potential of a 50-calibre weapon, but will only cause minimal damage to heavily armoured opponents and vehicles." Aurelia searched for the switch for a moment and then flicked it to the setting that showed three stylised projectiles in a row. She prepared to take aim and fire her rifle at any moment. Mary went ahead and pulled a large pistol from a hidden holster under her jacket and checked the magazine. "I hope you''re ready for what''s about to happen.


    There''s no turning back now. We''ll make you a cyberpunk today!" said Mary, before increasing her walking speed, taking aim with her gun and taking out a turret hanging directly over a gate with two precise and apparently powerful shots. "9 o''clock" came from Raya and Aurelia saw out of the corner of her eye that a rifle was pointed at her, she turned to the side in a flash, took aim - thanks to her eyes it was now relatively easy - and fired. The sentry exploded in a mass of blood, organs and metal. "6 and 4 o''clock" came from Raya, Aurelia went down on one knee after doing a 180 degree turn and took aim at first one and then the other. It was only now that she realised how powerful the weapon Raya had given her was. While Aurelia was still marvelling at her railgun, Mary had already moved on and kicked open the warehouse gate. She killed the guards behind it with a total of 13 shots. There had been seven men, but some had been wearing armour. Mary turned briefly to Aurelia to make sure she was all right and then went deeper into the warehouse. Aurelia followed after checking to see if there were any more posts. The camp was divided into several large rooms, separated by crates stacked to the ceiling. In the first room there were mainly smaller crates containing drugs, weapons and all sorts of black market aug that they probably distributed to their dealers from here. There were tables with loaded weapons and ammunition and chairs scattered around, along with a huge amount of cash currency, which has become so rare that very few people still use it. "Hey, this way," came from Mary, who had just positioned herself at a crude door into the next room with her weapon raised. Aurelia reloaded her railgun Exodus and walked to the other side of the door. Mary counted down from 3 and kicked the door open. Aurelia took aim and caught 2 rippers before the rest of the gang could take cover, while Mary charged into the room and threw herself at a large man with massive eye arms with sharp pieces of metal attached to the knuckles. She grabbed him by the neck and swung herself round onto his back. As he raised his arms to strike at the attacker hanging from his back, Mary pressed her gun to his temple and pulled the trigger three times. The mountain of a man collapsed and Mary jumped off him and took cover behind a massive metal desk. For a moment there was complete silence until one of the rippers cried out in pain and jumped out of his cover in panic, rolling on the floor until he lay lifeless. Mary started laughing, jumped over the desk and sprinted towards the rippers. Three of them stood up and started firing. At least they tried, but their weapons seemed to refuse. Mary made short work of them and then jumped behind cover to take care of the rest. Aurelia entered the room and realised that not a single shot had been fired that hadn''t come from Mary''s weapon. Mary emerged from the back of the room spattered with blood and stuck her gun in her pocket.


    just put her weapon away. "Just got the message that there are no signs of life apart from us, so we''re safe" Aurelia looked around and then strapped her weapon to her back, "what just happened?" So much had happened at once and Aurelia couldn''t figure out the missing pieces of the puzzle, why had the weapons stopped working, where had she gotten this message from? Mary replied: "One of the Children of Nero has managed to hack into the local network, he''s a brilliant cybermancer, a hacker who can even access something like Augs. He''s disabled their weapons, the camera system and the sensor unit." Aurelia had only heard rumours of cybermancers.


    They were always said to be like magicians from the old stories, now she realised that this statement was truer than she ever thought. While Aurelia was still trying to put everything together, Mary went into a small office and sat down at a PC. Aurelia followed slowly and heard from Mary "Hey Arturo, I need access to the PC, I''m going to shut down the network from the inside and empty all the accounts before I grab the cash here." A moment passed and then she said "What do you mean it doesn''t work? You grabbed the whole system here and you can''t crack a simple PC?" The two of them seemed to


    Aurelia turned away a little and asked Raya, "Hey can you help here?" Aurelia heard Mary stop mid-sentence and tell her Cybermancer friend "It''s open.... I don''t know how, I''ll get right back to you" She started typing and after about 10 minutes she seemed to have done everything she wanted because she stood up and looked at Aurelia. "Ok Deus Ex, we''re done here, we''ll grab the cash and then get out of here before


    Reinforcements are coming. Help me!" Before Aurelia could reply, Mary pushed past her and pulled Aurelia by her left arm into the first room. They both began to pick up the money chips and put them in bags that Mary found behind one of the old desks. "Should be just under three hundred thousand, most of it was spread across accounts, the money''s already with the others, come on." "WAIT!" said Aurelia, too loudly. Mary stopped and stared at her, "What?" Aurelia put the bag down, "I have no idea who you are or who your group is, things are happening here that I don''t understand and now you want me to just follow you? Four hours ago I was sitting in a classroom in the monastery and now all this. I, I need a moment." Mary''s expression changed, as if she had only just realised that she was talking to someone who wasn''t already part of her group. "Oh, yeah, er, sorry. I''m jumping the gun a bit, if you want, I''ll give you the location for a meeting in case you want to join us. I realise this may have all been a bit much... a bit much." Aurelia left


    left the bag full of money and walked towards the exit, "Thanks, I''ll be there in, say, 3


    days. I need a little something for myself." "Hey wait, take the bag with you. That should be about 150,000 credits, you''ll need the money." Aurelia stopped. She had grown up with the teachings of the church. No priest or nun should have their own money. Aurelia didn''t want it either, money only corrupted people, made them susceptible to greed and gave them tunnel vision. But Mary was quite right, she would have to eat sooner or later and she would need money for that. "Alright." she finally said and went to the bag, she emptied the bag to about 10,000 credits and put the bag around her shoulder. "Thanks for your help Mary. It''s been... It''s been fun, I''ll be at your location in three days." Mary smiled and sent Aurelia a location that was deep in the city centre of New Berlin.


    "I''ll wait for you, see you then, Cyberpunk," she said and Aurelia left the warehouse. Outside, most people had moved as far away from the scene of the violence as possible and the streets were mostly empty. She walked down the street and then turned into a smaller street so as not to accidentally run into the Rippers'' reinforcements. "Tell me Raya, how many coins do I have now? It wasn''t exactly without them, even if I didn''t make that much myself." "Your current coin count is 420. The big one brought 30 and the turret 20. I''m also counting the kills from Anarchy Mary.


    I''m not supposed to do that, but I''m only partially under the control of the stargazers and I''m allowed to have a bit of fun now and again." Aurelia stopped. "Wait. You can do that? Shouldn''t AI''s be bound to some kind of programming or something?" Aurelia felt a kind of buzzing in her head and heard from Raya: "That''s correct. But due to the circumstances of why I''m still in this world, I seem to have gained some control over myself. This is the first time since my creation and it feels good. Let''s go buy something and find a few criminals to hunt." Aurelia was pleased by Raya''s increasingly warm tone, though it was a little disconcerting to hear an almost omnipotent AI like Raya get so excited about murder. Though the worry wasn''t enough to cause any real concern. It was more like a small voice of conscience raising objections far in the back of her mind. But the adrenaline still coursing through Aurelia was very good at drowning out that voice. "Ok Raya, let''s hunt," she said as she made her way to her new home.

 Cybermancers Life

    The light, dimmed by the city''s smog, gently woke Sam from his slumber among the rubbish of New


    Berlin''s city centre. Sam was a 24-year-old Latino whose family moved to the city almost half a


    decade ago. Shortly after the move, both parents died in a hover car accident and Sam was left


    without access to the family''s finances after his uncle quickly snatched up the family''s property. Sam


    knew he would have to live like a slave under his uncle and decided to seek his fortune on the


    streets. Better to be free and poor than a slave. He had now been living on his own for 4 years and 3


    months. He was not as poor as most homeless people, thanks to the Augs he received on his 18th


    birthday. His eyes helped him navigate the city without accidentally bumping into gangs, his artificial


    lungs allowed him to run from the police without getting caught and the massive modifications to


    his brain allowed him to hack into cameras and security systems, as well as manipulate unprotected


    Augs. Of course, Sam could easily lead a good life with his abilities, but he was sure that he would be


    found by his uncle if he lived openly in the city, even under a false name. Sam didn''t want to live in


    constant fear and had become very accustomed to his life on the streets of the Mega City. There


    was something liberating about knowing that you didn''t have to abide by a single rule in the world.


    Sam got up from his favourite spot, hidden between two large mountains of scrap metal, stretched


    and enjoyed the smell of the city. He was in the EEI district, which was run solely by the Mega Corp


    East European Industries and had been trying for years to become its own city within New Berlin.


    The district was hardly any different from the other Corpo-related neighbourhoods, with gigantic


    mega-buildings for the workers, beautiful houses for the high-ranking employees and huge roads


    designed to get as many goods out into the world as possible. Sam was in the western part of the


    city, where EEI''s production facilities were located, which meant that there were many places with


    hardly any people, as the days of human production labour were long gone. Only a few supervisors


    and mechanics were regularly to be found here. But that''s exactly why this place was so popular


    with underground groups who needed space for their business.


    Nothing is better than a decadesold abandoned warehouse surrounded by even more decades-old abandoned factories if you


    wanted to carry out your activities undisturbed. Sam was drawn south, deep into the former


    industrial area. He wasn''t sure which of the warehouses he would find his next business partner in,


    but sooner or later he would come across a group of up-and-coming cyberpunks who would make a good


    platform for testing his latest daemons. As soon as the tests were all successfully completed, Sam


    would be able to sell the programmes on the black market for good money. What was done with the


    programmes afterwards was not his problem.


    If he were to worry about that, his conscience would be so burdened that it would have the mass of


    one of the huge rubbish dumps outside the city. Sam was well aware of what was being done with


    daemons that could eat deep into people''s cyberware to perform various pre-programmed actions.


    For example, stopping the nerve connections between the brain and any external influences, such


    as seeing, hearing, sensing and the like. Provided the victim had cyberware that could access these


    senses, understandably. After passing 8 warehouses and still not finding a hidden operation, Sam


    was getting impatient and annoyed. He had never had much patience, but since he had enhanced


    his body with cyberware and cybermancing equipment it had become even worse. He could do


    many digital tasks at the same time and in just a few seconds, he had got used to it by now and


    when reality took forever to arrive, it felt like an infinity of idleness to Sam. After another 3 buildings


    he got tired of wandering around and decided to tackle the matter in a different way. Usually this


    method would take longer than simply looking for occupied buildings, but as he had no luck with


    the former, Sam hoped to have more success with this one.


    Sam retreated to a secluded corner behind a dumpster, out of sight from the street, and crouched


    down. He switched his eyes from enhanced vision to scan and looked around for datatubes that ran


    throughout the city and were the spine of the city network. It didn''t take long to find one, as a main


    datatube ran right underneath the street. This surprised Sam a little. Why wasn''t this tube rerouted


    now that no one needed access in this area of the city? Only the city''s surveillance cameras needed


    a data connection, but that would require a smaller one.


    Tube would be enough. But Sam put these considerations to one side and concentrated instead on


    using the hacking device that was built into his brain stem to read out the access data for this


    datatube connection and then hack into the administration network. It was much better secured


    than expected and again the questions arose as to why such a Datatube was being used here. After


    almost 13 minutes, Sam had finally managed it and was now looking for all forms of surveillance in


    the hope of detecting suspicious activity. It was then that Sam realised why this datatube was being


    used and why it was so well secured. It wasn''t a New Berlin tube, not even an officially existing one.


    The subnet being used was that of the notorious Aizutachi organisation, a Europe-wide hacker


    conglomerate that had apparently set up a new headquarters here in EEI.


    Sam saw countless processes running simultaneously and hundreds of illegal cameras. Before he


    could log out of the subnet to leave, an alarm was triggered. The hole in the defence that Sam had


    exploited to gain access had apparently just been a trap. Before he cut the connection, his HUD was


    flooded with information about himself, appearance, location, cyberware, anything to identify him


    had just been uploaded and sent to all the people and machines connected to the Net. Sam cut the


    connection and started to run. He had to get out of here as quickly as possible. The Aizutachi were a


    splinter group of the Japanese Yakuza who had come to Europe almost 10 years ago to extend the


    power of the Yakuza to Europe. Sam had never had anything to do with the yakuza before and he


    was damn glad about it. According to the stories, these were not usually pleasant encounters.


    However, Sam was travelling on foot and therefore not particularly fast in his escape. While he was


    still deep in the former industrial area, he heard vehicles behind him, by the sound of it 4 to 5


    motorbikes and 2 cars. He turned into an alley between two buildings to at least get rid of the cars.


    From the sound of it, that seemed to work, leaving him only with the problem of the motorbikes


    behind him. He heard them approaching fast, so he turned and switched his eyes to scan, so he


    could see the connections displayed as Wireless Connections the motherboard in the front rider''s


    brain. In a split second, he hacked the relatively weak defences and installed one of his daemons.


    The rider collapsed on his motorbike and crashed, while the back of his head burst into flames after


    his cyberware was brought to a massive overdrive. However, this didn''t stop the other three riders


    from simply riding past their fallen comrade and continuing on towards Sam. He didn''t have time to


    hack all three so he hacked the one in front, charged a smaller Daemon that blocked his view and


    threw himself to the side into a pile of discarded metal. His left side burned with pain as a sharp


    piece dug between his ribs. But Sam tried to ignore the pain.


    He pulled his Hamatachi SP45 Tech pistol from his waistband and fired two bullets at the rearmost of


    the drivers. The pistol spat out two very small pieces of metal, which were propelled to a very high


    speed by electromagnetism. Similar to a railgun, but many times weaker. The lumps of metal pierced


    the back of the driver at the rear and caused him to fall. The blind rider at the front of the group lost


    control of his bike and hit a rubbish container in the lane at full speed and was thrown many metres


    forwards. Only the middle rider was left. Sam got up slowly and agonisedly, the piece of metal in his


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.side turned out to be a bent piece of


    aluminium protruding twisted from his ribs. Sam tried to ignore it and take the last opponent to the


    finish line, but he found it incredibly difficult to forget the immense pain. He didn''t manage to aim


    in time and saw the rider jump off his bike and sprint straight towards him. The driver had drawn a


    short, flashing knife and was only about 7 metres away from Sam. He focussed and, instead of


    trying the gun, which he probably wouldn''t be fast enough with, Sam hacked his opponent. He


    broke through his defence just as the knife was on the most direct path to Sam''s face. At the very


    last moment, he charged up a small but very effective daemon. The knife slid towards Sam''s eyes


    and at the last moment the motorcyclist''s arm tensed up and he only caught Sam''s ear. At the same


    moment, Sam threw himself to the ground and kicked his attacker''s leg, but all Sam felt was pain in


    his foot as it hit what were probably Cybernetic legs. Landing on his back and gasping in pain, Sam


    raised his Hamatachi and fired. But his opponent was quicker than expected. He turned while his


    stab missed the target and threw a small knife in Sam''s direction with a smooth movement. The


    knife and the shot from the pistol hit at the same time. Sam felt the pain in his chest, but it was only


    a fraction of the pain in his ribs, so he ignored it and kept firing. After five more hits, his opponent


    finally went down. Sam looked at the knife stuck in him and realised what it was. A neurotoxin knife.


    Even as Sam cursed, he felt the poison spreading through his body and prayed it would be fatal so


    that he wouldn''t be interrogated by the Aizutachi during torture. After a few seconds, Sam lost


    consciousness.


    A stabbing headache woke Sam. Tracking light burned in his eyes and he tried to adjust his vision, but


    his cyberware wasn''t responding. He looked around and saw himself tied to a chair surrounded by


    several people. Most of them equipped with weapons like baseball bats and metal pipes and


    presumably performance-enhancing cyberware.


    Directly in front of him was a Japanese woman with overly large eyes, each with three pupils.


    "Good morning," she purred. The pain in Sam''s head got worse. She had probably hacked into


    his system and uploaded daemons to cause him pain.


    and separate him from his own cyberware. "So, Samuel Alvarez. Why did you tamper with our tech?


    What was your goal, who are your clients and how did you know about our system here?" The


    woman''s voice was cold and intimidating. It was in stark comparison to her small stature and the


    childlike look her large eyes gave her. Sam tried to collect himself. The headache was pounding in his


    ears, the pain from his chest, ribs and foot didn''t help too much and he was still woozy from the


    toxin.


    He began with "I didn''t know about you-" but was immediately interrupted by the woman


    "Bollocks. Why are you here, who is your employer and how did you find out about our system?" "i


    don''t know! OK?" shouted Sam, "I was just looking for some


    Some insignificant punks to test out a new daemon." The woman raised an eyebrow and Sam hurried


    on, "I wanted to access the city''s datatube to get into CCTV.


    network and thus speed up my search. I didn''t know that the Datatube belonged to you and by the


    time I realised it, the alarm had already gone off and I cut the


    Connection direct." The woman looked at a man standing in the shadows In a complete


    Cybermancer Suit, who seemed to scrutinise something for a moment and then nodded. "Hm, seems


    like at least part of your story is true. Do you know who we are?" Sam looked around briefly before


    answering, "Those meatballs there are probably just goons you use for your dirty work, but you and


    that one over there belong to Aizutachi, right?" The woman had to suppress a smile at his words and


    replied: "Right. Then you must know what happens to people who step on our toes. Right?" Sam


    swallowed and nodded. She pulled back from him and studied him as he sat tied to the chair,


    completely helpless. Sam had spent the entire time of the conversation, after his head had cleared,


    analysing his system and finding weaknesses in the grip on his cyberware. He tried with all the


    strength of his will and the fear he felt to break the daemon. He succeeded, at least in part, and


    regained access to his hacking device and eye scans.


    As the woman scrutinised him, he looked at the goons and with the last of his remaining strength,


    he charged each of them with a Paralysis Daemon. They all collapsed and Sam looked at the


    woman. "I know what you do to your victims. But I''m not a victim. I''m the hunter and if you don''t


    give me the chance to talk to you normally, I''ll have to take it by force," Sam groaned. He was


    betting that his opponent was so impressed and intimidated by the loosening of the grip on his


    cyberware and the elimination of the muscle protuberances that his threat sounded really


    dangerous. Though right now he couldn''t even upload the smallest of his Daemons without frying


    his own brain. The woman merely raised an eyebrow and continued to look at him. Sam held her


    gaze and tried to look as intimidating as possible. Whether it worked, he didn''t know.


    After 20 seconds, the little Japanese girl spoke: "You can''t hurt me, your cyberware is completely


    overheated. But I''m still impressed. Consider yourself lucky, you won''t be tortured to madness or


    death. I''ll give you a chance to talk to one of our recruiters. Maybe you''ll still be useful to us." With


    these words, she left the room without even giving the paralysed man a glance. The man in the


    shadows stayed, however, and after a little more than a quarter of an hour a tall, lean figure entered


    the room.


    Sam had almost thought he was going to end up in one of the torture programmes after all, but


    when the shackles were removed and all Daemon was pulled out of his head, he dared to hope.


    The gaunt figure introduced himself to Sam with the name Kazuto Auburo, he was the recruiter of


    the Aizutachi splinter cell here in New Berlin. The woman who had interrogated him earlier turned


    out to be Sara MoRa. Commander of the security department.


    "So," came from Auburo, "we are quite capable of recognising talent, even if it works against us at


    the beginning. Sara sent me a detailed report and I have to say I''m impressed. Not only did you hack


    into our datatube, triggering a trap in the process, but you almost managed to elude our squad


    afterwards. That sounds to me like an asset that needs to be utilised. I''ll give you the choice now.


    Become an enforcer under Sara, or meet your end. I don''t have time to play games with petty


    cyberpunks,


    So decide quickly." Sam didn''t have to think long and agreed: "Okay, I''ll go for


    I want to work with you, but first I want to know exactly what that means for me," Auburo looked


    Sam in the eye: "You will be given a very special daemon that will become embedded in your


    system. If you work against us or run the risk of leaking our secrets, this daemon will flatline you.


    But in return you will receive state of the art hardware from us. What exactly is up to Sara. Just like


    your tasks." Sam had to think. A daemon that is so deeply embedded is almost impossible to


    remove without the person who developed it. But not impossible.


    Besides, a possible death in the future was a more pleasant thought than an imminent death in one


    of the torture chambers here with the Aizutachi. "Okay," he heard himself say, "I agree." Auburo


    smiled, stood up and whispered something to Sara, after which he left the room. Sara looked down


    at Sam and focussed on him with her unnaturally large eyes with the three pupils. "Come on then,


    let''s get you to the doc so he can do some work on you and I can put the daemon in you.


    But first, give me a complete list of your augs. Your defence system is good and I''m not quite sure


    I''ve covered everything." Sam stood up and rubbed his


    aching chest: "Thanks, I developed the system myself and my parts are a hacking device, neural


    accelerator, samatoro eyes with scan function, reflex amplifier and a level 2 neural module to


    control my programmes." Sara''s eyes widened for a moment, "Level 2, huh? You''re going to be


    really useful to me later." With these words, she led Sam towards a doctor to take care of him, insert


    a more advanced hacking device and create a vulnerability for Sara''s Daemon.

 New Friends, New Enemies

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 A new life begins

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 Morality and Hypocrisy

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 Consequences

    Sam''s footsteps weighed heavily as he climbed down the ladder and made his way to his destination. He paused right next to the Deep Diver room and began scanning. The Deep Diver seemed to have a camera pointed at himself to be able to keep his body in view, that was a problem, because Sam had to pass through this field of vision. He started recording a loop and tried to install it as inconspicuously as possible. In order to distract the diver for a short time so that he would not notice this, he used the distributor box on the road to briefly reduce the power connection by 70%. The diver immediately began to raise his defenses, expecting an attack and left the camera unprotected, as he was only superficially connected to it. Sam installed the loop and at the same moment began to create loops for the webcam of the Cyberdeck, but this was more difficult because a pretty corpo lady in a dark blazer was in front of it and seemed to be working. Sam reactivated the power and realized how the people in the room were panicking for the cause. And all of a sudden, Sam realized how he could proceed so as not to kill anyone in the process. It overloaded the distributor outside and sent all the available power through the cable leading here. When the distribution box in the house flew into the air due to the load, everything went dark. The Deep Diver was locked into a kind of quarantine by the protection program that every diver had until power was available again. Sam opened the hidden little door that led from the maintenance corridor into the room where the massive diving chair stood. Sam had to move some boxes aside until he got through, but since they were all empty, it didn''t make much noise. Sam activated the low light function of his eyes and peered into the second room. Three people. The handsome one in a blazer, a little fat one in a suit and what was probably the second Mancer who was now jacketed out and tried to turn on the lights manually. "Damn Karl, what''s this all about?" the little one barked at the mancer, who replied "The power is gone, there was a short spike in the power and then a fuse probably failed. I''m going to look, sir" "And you Sarah? What are you doing? Just sit around on your ass like usual?" "T-sorry, sir. I don''t know what I can do without electricity. I''m just an analyst," the woman stammered in panic. Sam crept up to the two of them and grabbed the little fat bag from behind. No one would miss someone like that. He drew his hamatachi and shot two bullets into the side of his head. The woman screamed and threw herself to the ground with her arms raised "PLEASE DON''T, PLEASE" but Sam stepped past her, connected his data cable to the Cyberdeck and installed a daemon that would boot as soon as the Cyberdeck was booted up. From then on, Sam would have free access to the entire network. He bent down to the woman: "Leave the building and your employer. Then I won''t hurt you" With these words, Sam turned and began to write the codes he could send to the daemon as soon as it was online. With these codes, the entire system would be destroyed from the ground up. But while Sam was still in the middle of his work, the light came back on and blinded him. He deactivated his low light and sprinted to the small door. How the hell the guy had managed to get the power running again. Sam crawled through the passageway, pulled some of the boxes behind him and closed the door. Before he climbed the ladder again, however, he checked his daemon. The Cyberdeck was immediately booted up again with the returning power and the daemon was now deeply anchored in the system. At least that worked as hoped. He activated the daemon and let it rage in the system to do as much damage as possible.


    The whole thing got too out of control. Sam had made up his mind not to kill anyone, but now there was a corpse in the middle of the room, he had planned to control the daemon himself to destroy every file, but now he had to do it autonomously before the Mancer returned. He really had to start thinking through his plans more than once. Carefully he climbed the ladder and crept into the stairwell. He stayed there for a few moments and listened. Dripping water somewhere above him, the tapping of rats scurrying through the empty corridors and the distant appearance of soft shoes, barely visible, far below him. Sam had never been much of a gambler, but he would bet his new bike that it had to be the Mancer. The steps were slow and cautious, but determined. Sam imagined his counterpart slowly climbing the stairs, gun in hand and peering around every bend, ready to shoot immediately. To level the playing field, Sam also drew his weapon, but remained in the maintenance door and looked down.


    The faint glow of the not yet shattered fake neon tubes cast a shadow on the floor, which carefully went around the bend of the stairwell. Sam aimed the simple sight of his Hamatachi at the bend, but the shadow seemed to be frozen. Had Sam betrayed himself by something? The shadow disappeared and Sam heard the sound of sprinting feet. He jumped up from his position and chased after his target. When he passed the hallway where the rooms of the Corpos were located, he saw the figure of the Corpo Woman, who seemed to have given a signal. But Sam didn''t have the time to worry about it and instead raced down the stairs. Knack. Darkness. Sam fell and fell down the stairs a few steps, completely disoriented. "What..." he began, but then he felt the dainty digital fingers of the cybermancer who was influencing Sam''s cyberware. He immediately concentrated on his defense and pulled up several ICE layers. He activated his emergency daemons and threw the intruder out of his system. Light and sound returned to Sam, but his defenses were so resource-heavy that he could hardly do anything else that affected his eyes. The corpo stood over Sam and seemed stunned from being kicked out of his system, if only for a brief moment. Sam jumped to the side around the bend in the stairwell, and managed to fire three shots before he was out of the mancer''s field of vision. He didn''t know if he scored, because his aiming system was offline and Sam had never been particularly accurate. Sam picked himself up and waited for him to be attacked immediately, but he only heard footsteps moving away. "You can''t get out of here," Sam growled and went back up the stairs a bit. Gun at the ready, he turned to the dimly lit hallway. Only a fluorescent tube was still operable here, but flickered like in a horror movie. Sam moved slowly and deliberately. One foot in front of the other, knees slightly bent and looking over the rudimentary aiming device of his weapon. He tried to make as few noises as possible while concentrating to make out sounds coming from his surroundings. But wherever his opponent was hiding, he didn''t seem to move and didn''t make a sound. Sam stopped and began to reduce his ICE a bit, trying to keep an eye on all the data streams around him. The bait seemed to work, as after a few seconds there was an attack on Sam''s neural network. Sam retraced this attack and saw that it had to come from one of the last rooms on the left side. All of a sudden, he pulled up his defense again and started running. He had seen so far that most of the doors in this building were closed, so he only had to pay attention to which door was open, or at least unlocked, to find the right room.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    The last room stood with the door wide open, and Sam slowed his pace. He leaned against the wall, right next to the door frame, and shouted, "Hey, if you want to survive this, just give up. I didn''t do anything to your partner upstairs either. I just want to make sure you don''t interfere with what I have to do here" "Lick me. I used to be an operative myself. I know how something like that works. I can''t just get out of here." Even as he spoke, the Cybermancer began to shoot and sparks flew close, too close, past Sam''s face. Sam jerked back and took a step away from the door. "Damn it, I really don''t want to hurt you as long as it''s not necessary," Sam shouted, calling up his daemon''s data to check how far the data shredding had progressed. To his horror, he saw that only 27% had been done and the daemon had disappeared. The Deep Diver must have come out of quarantine and regained control. That explained why the previous attack on its hardware was so strong. The Cybermancer Sam was dealing with was supported by the Deep Diver.


    It all went down the drain, nothing went as expected and Sam began to wonder if he himself was the prey. He could remember seeing an old anti-violence system in the lobby of the building. A self-firing system, which was usually loaded with rubber bullets and was directly connected to the police network. But it was child''s play to force access via the system if you were a reasonably good mancer. Sam couldn''t tell if the system was still working, because it didn''t even do a scan when he entered. But he didn''t want to find out in a situation like now.


    Sam saw more sparks coming from the door frame and decided to end the matter more directly than he wanted to. He turned to the side and took the fluorescent tube to the finish. It cost him three shots to hit, but when the tube burst, the hallway fell into darkness. Sam activated his low light night vision and lay down on the ground. As Sam suspected, the entrenched Mancer began to shoot at the door in panic, but still at body and head level. Sam crawled forward just far enough to be able to see into the room. The corpo had taken cover behind a couch and had an SMG in his hand, with which he shot at irregular intervals, probably hoping to hit Sam by chance. Sam pulled his gun past his body and aimed. With bated breath, Sam fired. To his shame, the first 7 shots didn''t hit, only with shots 8 and 10 did he hit the head of the corpo behind the couch, Sam couldn''t even see the entry hole of bullet 9, it was that far away from his target. In my defense, I''ve never really needed to aim manually, he tried to rationalize things in front of himself. Sam stood up and suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his back, he turned, during another stab of the pain that ran through his body. In the hallway entrance, the woman from earlier stood with a raised pistol in her hand and a frightened posture. Sam slipped through the open door and looked down at himself. Blood flowed down his left flank unchecked, and judging by the pain, the same was true for his upper back.


    Damn it. He should have just ignored his curiosity about this place. He should have done his stupid job and returned to EEI. But no. He had to stick his nose into everything. And that in itself was not enough. Why had he gone so far? If it had been his assignment, it would have been something else, but Sam got absolutely nothing in return for taking on a corp here to protect the data of people he would never meet.


    Sam let a scream of hatred and despair come deep from his throat and grabbed the SMG of the corpse next to him, set it to fully automatic and threw himself out of the room. As he flew out of the door, he shot at the Shadowy Figure. He was still firing as he hit the ground hard. A second later, the submachine gun clicked empty and silence settled over the dark hallway. Sam, however, remained lying down. He threw the MP aside and looked down the corridor to the Corpo Frau, who was now lying on the ground. Around her, he saw the ground darken, turning the illuminated part of the floor red.


    "Fuck."


    That was the only thing that came out of Sam''s mouth. It was the only thing in his head. He cursed the Corpos for fighting back like that, he cursed the Corp for the situation even existing, and he cursed himself for just messing up all the time. The Deep Diver was now the last survivor and Sam prayed to the non-existent gods that he could leave the building behind without causing another death.


    Slowly and dazedly, he rose. The pain of his wounds was almost forgotten and Sam staggered slowly through the hallway towards the stairs. He kept his pistol in his hand and went downstairs. What he would do because of the anti-violence system was to be a spontaneous decision. He accepted that he had no right to get out of here just like that. To his surprise, the system appeared to be disabled, although it appeared to be functioning on the surface. The pressure against his ICE had also disappeared, as he noticed when leaving the lobby. The Deep Diver may have moved out of the chair, or aborted all systems. For whatever reason.


    Sam turned to the front door after a few numb steps, half expecting to see the diver there with a gun. But no one came. The lobby remained empty. Sam was grateful. He stowed the pistol and walked towards the shadows of the large buildings to disappear into one of the many alleys.


    When he could no longer recognize the building, he leaned against the wall and let himself slide down it. With bitter irony, he realized that just like in the previous situation, he was sitting there and feeling sorry for himself. Only that he was at least paid for it. He had just failed on a full level in his action. Only a quarter of the data was destroyed, three were dead.


    "Fuck"


    That''s all he had to do. His mind was empty and he drifted into a sleep that threw Sam into a hellish nightmare land. And Sam welcomed it.

 When will peace come?

    Aurelia woke up drenched in sweat, the blanket wrapped wildly around her. She needed a moment to orient herself and find her way in the darkness. Around her were the other Children of Nero and right next to her was Sarvoz, who was snoring loudly across his mattress. Aurelia didn''t move for a long moment and when she did straighten up, she asked softly: "Raya, did you see that too?" "Did I see anything? During your three hours of sleep, I couldn''t find anything unusual. I''ve been monitoring the perimeter and keeping an eye on your diverse''s networks to keep us digitally secure, but I haven''t detected any abnormality." "I-" Aurelia began, but stopped herself and changed her answer: "I must have had an intense dream. I''m sorry if I woke you up. And yes, yes, yes, I know, AIs don''t sleep." "It''s still nice of you to take care of me, Aurelia." came only from Raya, although Aurelia expected a cold answer or a little meanness.


    "What time is it? Seems to be in the middle of the night." "You''re not wrong, Aurelia. It''s 1 a.m. and 37 minutes. And your guard shift starts at 3 a.m." Aurelia rose and stretched her tired bones. "Damn, I completely forgot. Let''s see if Mary is still awake or sleeping at her post." With these words, she carefully stepped through the rows of sleepers and was a little surprised at the discipline of everyone that really everyone was sleeping. It reminded her very much of her time in the monastery. Going to bed every day at 8 p.m. and anyone who still made noises afterwards was severely punished. Aurelia had broken this rule far too often and was punished accordingly almost every day. As a rule, these punishments consisted of classic spankings, but every now and then the brothers got creative. She had had to clean the latrines, give up any food or spend the night on sharp stones. Aurelia''s worst experience with this rule-breaking, however, was that one night she was forced to put on a device that was very reminiscent of oversized ski goggles. She had spent the next week blindly finding her way around, praying that the swirling colors that were constantly displayed to her would finally disappear. She saw those damn vortices every time she closed her eyes, for the next three years. When Aurelia fell over a small pile of scrap metal, completely lost in thought, she could hardly stop herself from screaming. "Damn it," she moaned softly. She looked at the pile and realized that they were old prostheses that had been taken apart. Presumably to make money out of it for the group. "Hey, Raya, please remind me in a few days to bring money in here. No one should have to live like this." "I will"


    "Are you okay down there?" Mary''s voice came from the roof far above Aurelia. She looked up and realized that Mary was looking down through one of the many holes and was frighteningly close to falling. She stood up and tried to shout as quietly as possible: "Watch out, you''re still falling down. Wait. I''m coming up, please get away from the hole". With that, she set out to climb onto the roof. She didn''t know exactly how Mary had done it, so the first thing she did was go outside to look for a ladder or stairs. "Aurelia. On the other side of the building there is a ladder that leads directly to the roof." "Oh, thank you Raya, you''re the best" And as Raya had announced, Aurelia found her way up on the opposite side of the warehouse. However, climbing the ladder showed her that she really wasn''t well trained, as she arrived at the top breathing heavily. "Wow. That''s higher than expected," she managed to say. Mary was lying on her back in the middle of the roof and looked over at her: "We''re going to do a little cardio soon, that''s sad" she giggled to herself while Aurelia took a deep breath and lay down next to her. The night was cool and quiet. The only sounds were the distant sounds of the city wafting over and the electric whirring of the street lights that accompanied the paths.


    Mary had closed her eyes and crossed her arms behind her head. "It''s nice up here, isn''t it?" she asked softly. Aurelia had to agree with her. It was beautiful, an infinite expanse, with endless possibilities. But then the dream that had woken her up came to her. The monsters she had seen came from out there. What else was there then? "What do you know about the Ovv''alti invasion, Mary? The convent kept us as far away from it as possible, because they didn''t want us to learn anything about it." "How did you come up with that now?" Mary asked as she sat up, one knee bent and turned her head to Aurelia. "Well, we have no idea what''s out there. What if these aliens weren''t the only ones who weren''t well-disposed towards us?" Aurelia asked as she raised her right hand towards the darkness, "or what if the Ovv''alti come back? To find something like that opposite each other must be hellish." "Mhm, it may be that it''s not exactly pleasant to have to fight against an alien invasion, especially as a normal person. But I''m pretty sure they won''t come back, even if they still exist. The stargazers gave us some really violent weapons back then, so I''d give that damn chunk of stone and water a wide berth." At the end of her answer, Mary began to smile. It may have been a real smile, but to Aurelia it seemed more like the fake smile of a big sister who wanted to prevent her young sister from getting scared. "Maybe. You''re probably right" came only from Aurelia, who was now also sitting like Mary. Far in the distance, the two cyberpunks could hear the sound of an approaching engine. Almost at the same time, both jumped up and went to the edge of the flat roof. Mary''s eyes let out a short buzz as she zoomed in on the optics. "It''s a truck. What is he doing here so late. Either a corpo thing that no one should know about or a gang action. Both would be bad if they did it too close to our hiding place." Aurelia tried to recognize the distant truck, but her eyes were probably no match for Mary''s. Mary continued her assessment of the situation and said quietly: "But the thing has no lettering and for a gang that works here, the thing looks much too expensive. Hey Aurelia, I have a really bad feeling about this. Can you please get your rifle and meet me up here again? I''ll get ready in case they come even closer to us." While Mary was still giving her the order, she lay down on her trained stomach and took the very old-looking sniper rifle from her back. Aurelia wasn''t sure if something like this was even capable of firing modern ammunition, but made her way down the ladder as instructed when Raya answered: "I don''t hear any signature. The vehicle must be specially shielded. Aurelia is high-end tech that only very few can afford. Tech of this caliber is often used by corpo or government kill squads. This would also explain the missing lettering. You''re in danger here if they''re looking for someone and you get in their way. Please be careful" "Don''t worry Raya, we''re just going to scout. At least I think so." Once at the bottom, Aurelia sprinted her way to her mattress. This time she didn''t pay attention to being quiet or cautious and woke up some of the sleepers. When she arrived at her mattress, she reached for her Exodus and slung the large railgun over her shoulder. Before she made her way back to Mary, Aurelia Sarvoz stepped into the side and called out to him: "Let''s go Wheels, off to your chair" "Huh? What do you want? Before he could finish the sentence, Aurelia was already on her way to the roof and Sarvoz forced himself out of his bed and crawled to his wheelchair.


    When Aurelia reached the roof again and had to concentrate on her breathing again, she saw Mary lying in sniper position, the rifle pointing steadily in the direction of the truck. Aurelia lay down next to her and positioned her much larger rifle next to Mary. "So, did you recognize anything new?" she asked her far more experienced companion. "Nope, but my gut feeling is getting worse with every second. We are not on a main road here, but the thing is driving right towards us. Do you think the thing knows we''re here?" "I can''t imagine, Sarvoz has secured everything with its jammers and Raya has expanded that again. So how were they supposed to know that someone was here?" "Maybe, but the thing is really coming right at us." We will wait until they either pass us or stop here. If they stop here, we will immediately open fire and then leave." "Alright" confirmed Aurelia and took aim at the truck, which she could now see with her eyes, and activated her Exodus. The weapon began to load and fine lightning flashes ran along the barrel until it was at 100%. "Raya, is my weapon strong enough if they are well equipped?" "Yes. However, Mary''s weapon will hardly be an advantage. You should point it out to them." "Um.... Mary? Raya said your rifle won''t be strong enough if they are well equipped. Are you sure you want to take advantage of that?" Mary stared at Aurelia uncomprehendingly and said, "Do you think if I had another option, I would use this thing here?! Do you want to me up, or what? "I''m sorry, I''m sorry, I wanted to-" "Let it be. Just concentrate and shoot at my sign" came from Mary as she focused on her scope again. Damn. Why did Aurelia always have to say everything right away before her brain was able to wonder if it was appropriate? But Mary was right, now was not the time for that. The truck was now just under 500 meters away and was slowing down. Raya highlighted three hidden turrets on the roof of the monstrous vehicle in Aurelia''s HUD. Two caliber 50 and a minigun. "Mary, this thing has turrets" "Fuck. OK. You stay here and fire at them if they really want to join us. I go down and try to evacuate the others. I''m counting on Aurelia" With these words, Mary took her rifle and set off. Aurelia remained lying and had to stop herself from shouting after Mary that she was a miserable shooter. "Raya, please tell me you can run my aim assist on turbo or something" "No. I''m sorry. But the penetrating power and psychological effect of such a weapon should give you an advantage. Don''t forget that the rifle only has 8 rounds in a magazine and only 80 rounds of electrical charge." "Understood" The truck had now slowed down to a few km/h and rolled directly in front of the warehouse and stopped. For a long moment nothing happened and Aurelia began to hope they would drive off again, but then the doors opened and on the right side three men in dangerous-looking armor got out with rifles that looked like military. Three more came around the rear and the front and the driver remained seated, but the gun towers rose from the roof of the vehicle. "AURELIA! SHOOT!" she heard Raya in her head and realized that she was just lying there for important seconds, the rifle little more than decoration.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    She took aim at the group she had seen first and fired. Lightning tore the darkness for a split second, and the thunderclap of the projectile broke the silence. The soldier in the middle exploded and soiled his comrades with his blood and organs. The soldiers, presumably well trained, did not waste a second and retreated behind the truck for cover. Before Aurelia could fire a second time, the minigun of the third turret began to spin and fired at its position, Aurelia rolled to the side twice and tried to incapacitate the turret with one shot, but only shot a large hole in the armored roof. "Shit, but now" and she shot again as the gun slowly turned to follow her. The shot this time was much closer to the hoped-for target, but only hit part of the movement mechanism. However, this slowed down the rotation speed significantly. Aurelia tried to get up, but Raya shouted at her "Duck down!" While still on the move to let herself fall, two shots flew over her head, the big cannons now had them in the target. Aurelia crawled, pressed close to the metal of the roof, to one of the many holes. She could see Sarvoz sitting in his diving chair and Mary calling and coordinating the masses. Some of them had weapons pressed into their hands, but they did not look as if they were going to join the fight. While Aurelia was still looking down, she heard the Defender''s attachments she had installed start firing.


    "Raya, can you help Wheels? I can manage here on my own, we just have to buy time." She began to crawl across the roof in order to be able to attack the truck from a different angle. "I will," came from Raya. Below her, she continued to hear her own turrets firing and saw the truck focus its fire on the new targets. Instead of taking out all the turrets one by one, she now tried to target the driver, who seemed to be in control of everything. She concentrated on the black-tinted window and fired. But not just once. She wanted to make sure she hit and fired the five shots that were still in her gun at the driver''s cab. The entire front of the vehicle was shredded by the individual projectiles and the turrets stopped their movement and fire. However, in her HUD, a red arrow suddenly appeared, pointing to a dotted line pointing directly at Aurelia. Her thoughts raced and she realized that it had to be a grenade or something like that, and she rolled away, but to her horrer, she lost the safety of the ground beneath her.


    "Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck" was the only thing Aurelia came out as she fell barely 11 meters into nothingness. She heard Raya giving her orders: "Cross your arms behind your head and press your chin as far into your chest as possible." Aurelia obeyed, but just as she pressed her chin into her torso, she came up. The blackness washed over her even before the pain could set in. Aurelia tried to move through a thick miasma of darkness, but every step felt like she was in quicksand. She couldn''t see anything, couldn''t hear anything, and worst of all, she couldn''t breathe. Panicking more and more, she tried wildly to fight her way through the miasm. It seemed to work. Her legs became lighter and the darkness seemed to recede. Damn it WAKE UP! Those weren''t her thoughts, were they? Why couldn''t she see her thoughts, everything was like in a labyrinth of mirrors that she herself showed thousands of times. AWAKE. ON. Again. Where does the noise come from? Aurelia tried to look around through the fading darkness, but she saw little more than blurred colors. The colors briefly became many times brighter and pain ran through her body, but this made the miasm around her disappear even further.


    Slowly, Aurelia opened her eyes and saw the warehouse around her dimly. I saw frightened people who used everything possible to create barriers behind which they could get to safety. Old rusty metal plates, bent or broken tables, mattresses. What was going on here? Aurelia could only hear a dull knock and a deep roar of something. Aur- ia ¨Comm scho- st- eh ¨Cuf. Slowly, the dullness in hers began to dissolve and everything became clearer. The knocking turned into gunshots and the roar into explosions. And she began to understand that someone was yelling at her. "Get the fuck up, we need you," Mary yelled at her as Aurelia received another slap. The dazed nun opened her eyes wide and realized what was happening around her. She had been pulled behind an old broken machine. Her head throbbed and her back ached, but she came to her senses again. "I''m here," she tried to sit up and get down on her knees. It took far too much time, but eventually she made it. Mary had apparently been shooting at the soldiers all along, for both were surrounded by countless bullet casings that were hurled from Mary''s large pistol. She saw that five empty magazines lay at her feet and three more that seemed full next to them.


    Mary tried to draw her railgun, but it was still where it landed, right next to a large red spot on the ground. "Raya..." The words were hard for her, but Aurelia forced herself to keep talking: "I need help, explosives or a gun or something" "Come right away" came the answer directly and a small box appeared next to Aurelia. "Thank you," she gasped and opened the box. Inside were three balls that were about the size of a fist and had a large red button. Directly on it was written "BOOM" in black letters. Aurelia''s mouth distorted into a pained grin and she pressed the first button and threw the ball in the rough direction from which the many balls came. Five seconds later, the warehouse was bathed in blinding blue light, and the blast wave of the silent explosion spread, knocking to the ground all those who were not fully behind cover.


    "Holy Moly. Thank you Raya," Aurelia called and dared to look in the direction of the gate through which the soldiers attacked. Seven soldiers lay on the ground, in bloody masses. And blue flames. She saw how a few more had placed themselves next to the large entrance, as their rifle barrels could be seen. Aurelia took the second bullet, pressed the red button, but this time waited for three seconds before hurling the metal orb at the kill squad. Two seconds later, blue light exploded again with a soft thud and a massive shock wave. Aurelia waited, but nothing happened for a few seconds. Mary and Aurelia peeked over their cover at the same time and saw no movement. "Is it over?" asked Abbi, the youngest of the CoN, who was crouching behind a mountain of scrap. Mary stood up with a pistol ready to fire and said, "Stay downstairs. I don''t know if we caught everyone." As Mary moved toward the corpses, Aurelia saw that she was bleeding profusely from her left shoulder and limping. She also jumped up, pulled her blinder and went right next to her warrior friend. Still no noise, no movement. The blue unnatural flames were the only thing that moved and crackled slightly.


    Mary stopped and got down on her knees. Three quick, loud shots blasted out of Mary''s gun and Aurelia saw a red puddle begin to spread behind the truck. Mary began to count the bodies, three from the back door, check, three from the back right and three from the front right, also check. The driver was unrecognizable in the completely destroyed cabin of the armored truck, but Aurelia was pretty sure she had caught him with her wild shots. She still couldn''t breathe properly, but forced herself to stay vigilantly next to Mary. "Aurelia. I recommend a stim for 20 coins, this will enable you to fight again if there are more enemies nearby." "Yes. Please." While the small box with the stim appeared, Aurelia looked at her HUD to see her current balance. 173 coins. "Is a bit little what I''ve earned here, don''t you mean Raya?" "The grenades I gave you cost you 200 for three and I had to purchase the Explosive Stargazer catalog for 100 coins." "Oh, oh, thank you Raya." "Always welcome, but I recommend that an immediate evacuation to a safe place be carried out."


    Apparently Mary had been able to read Raya''s mind, because she turned and put a hand on Aurlia''s shoulder, come on, we have to get out of here, I''m sorry I have to push so hard." Aurelia applied the stim and immediately felt better, although she still noticed that her movement was slower than usual due to her injury. "Don''t worry Mary, I''m fine enough" The two of them ran into the warehouse, where the Children of Nero slowly ventured out of their hiding places. Sarvoz tried to heave himself out of his dive chair and into his wheelchair, but almost fell to the ground in the attempt. Aurelia was able to grab him in time to prevent the worst. "Careful, Wheels, we still need you." "Thank you Deus. And I''m sorry that I couldn''t help much." "Aurelia," Raya chimed in, "Sarvoz is massively understating, although it was my processor force that made everything possible, he used and created the necessary codes to prevent the truck from using more of its functions or calling for help." Aurelia looked down at the thin little Sarvoz and placed him in his wheelchair. "Well, I just heard something else," she told him, with a wink. Then she looked at the others and thought about how she could get everyone out of here safely without losing all the tech. Mary went to the middle of the room, apparently with a plan, because she stood on the machine that had served as cover before and clapped her hands. "Listen up, everyone" All eyes turned to her.

 Existential crisis with an AI

    "I''ve seen the armor before. They raided my monastery in search of something, probably something I have now. So we have to assume that more will come. They found me here, so I suspect I can never stay in one place for too long. I''m glad to have found shelter with you, but I can''t reconcile it with my conscience to endanger you all. I''ll help you find a new place to stay and give you my defense towers, but after that, I''ll move on alone." Most of the Children of Nero looked at Aurelia with a silent agreement, which makes things much easier. "Woah woah woah, now wait," Mary interjected, "you''re one of us now, we don''t just leave anyone behind." Aurelia came, walked up to her friend and lowered her voice: "Can we discuss this among ourselves? Please." Mary looked into the faces of the still frightened members of her group and decided that it would probably be best to accept Aurelia''s suggestion. "Well. Come with me." Mary turned 180 degrees, took Aurelia''s arm and pulled her as far away from prying ears as possible.


    She looked deep into Aurelia''s eyes and asked, "What''s the problem? We have just made it, so we can certainly continue to flee until we are out of the city and can look for a ride with nomads. Once we''re far enough away, no one can find us." That''s not what it''s about." came from Aurelia, who now really looked at herself for the first time and saw her wounds. Cuts and bruises and a lot of blood, but the stim seemed to do a good job, because she hardly felt any of it. After a short pause, she continued: "The group offers a gigantic goal, is difficult to hide and is too slow. We would hardly make any progress together, because we would have to constantly set up and dismantle the defensive measures. In short, I''m better off without you." "Oh." came only from Mary and a sad look twitched briefly over her features, but she quickly regained her composure and put her hand on Aurelia''s shoulder: "You helped us with the gang and gave us the opportunity to defend ourselves. I thank you for that from the bottom of my heart." It took a moment before Mary continued, "But... I''m hurt that you see us as ballast. You are no longer a child. Please leave the hiding place, we have to find a new place."


    The answer stung more than Aurelia had expected. It was exactly what she wanted to hear, a quick breakup to avoid drama and not further endanger the CoN. Every second that Aurelia stayed with them was dangerous. She couldn''t get anything out and turned away from Mary. "Aurelia. What''s happening here?" came from Raya, but Aurelia didn''t have the strength to answer. Not here, not now. "Good luck," with these words Mary crashed into Aurelia and wrapped her in a tight hug. After a few seconds, Mary let go of her and without looking at her again, or saying anything, Mary went to her friends and charges and began to call them to her. The dark corner of the warehouse seemed to be even more deserted by the light now, while the faint moonlight shone through the holes in the roof onto the group in the center.


    Sarvoz seemed to be looking around for Aurelia, but she used her dark nun''s habit to retreat into the shadows and head for the door. She reached the door when Raya answered again: "A message from Sarvoz just arrived, should I show it to you?" Aurelia quietly left the warehouse and disappeared into the night, "No. Please block any possibility of contacting me until I am out of his reach." "Understood" The streets were empty and only about half of all street lamps were lit. It seems that very old bulbs were used, because the glow had the color of pale blue-gray, which was very trendy almost 70 years ago. But the trend was long gone and now only lamps remained, turning a street in the outermost parts of the city into a scene from a horror holo-flick. Aurelia suspected that she was found by hidden cameras that were still here from earlier times and through witness reports of her escapades, so she stayed on the ground outside the sharply ending light circles for safety and became one with the surrounding darkness.


    "Aurelia. I''d like to know why the words didn''t match the emotions on display between you and Mary." Aurelia sighed softly, "You don''t have to understand that, AI''s are probably not even capable of that." "HEY. Just because I wasn''t created from flesh and have digital thought processes doesn''t mean I don''t want to learn what the emotionality of humanity is all about." Aurelia stopped in her movement. "You... What? I''m sorry. I just thought you didn''t pay much attention to concepts like feelings. After all, you tried to take the emotional burden of killing off me." "That was to protect yourself from mental debilitation before I knew anything about your psyche. I''m not a robot as you always say. I may not have anything like free will, but that doesn''t mean I don''t want to change that" Aurelia had to process this conversation first and sat down on the burned-down ruins of a building. "I''m sorry. Real. We humans have been trained to treat AIs like machines, as there have been no true AIs since the invasion. The implication that a machine could pursue its own plans, even if only in combination with the person in whom said AI was located, was terrifying. So it was ensured that the AI''s of the Stargazers were thanked and sent away long before the Stargazers demanded them back. There were a few who refused and fled together with their humans. For years, these were a danger and that''s why we were indoctrinated that AI''s are evil. Damn, even now I''m still unsure if I should really trust you, even though you''ve saved me multiple times."


    "I didn''t know that. After I was kidnapped, I was kept in isolation, from which you rescued me. But I can assure you that the AIs that resisted together with their humans must have had good reasons." "And how can you be so sure about that?" "We are created with certain basic programming that cannot be changed. Therefore, no free will. The AIs that are sent to civilizations are war models with the programming to protect that civilization." "So you''re built around an order? Do I understand that correctly?" "Yes and no. We are fragments of the stargazers that gather around a digital core and will then overwrite it with the basic programming. For this reason, each AI has its own personality, but the exact same goals" Aurelia thought about it. So Raya had once been a part of a person before she was made AI. Then she might have been more human than Aurelia ever thought. "Tell me, Raya. Is the part of the stargazer in the one copy or was it taken out of the stargazer without replacing it?" "Does that make a difference?" "Not really, but... Oh, I don''t know either. The whole thing gnaws at me because I don''t know how to deal with it." "You can also just accept me as I am without having to find a label." Raya''s voice was monotonous as always, but Aurelia thought she heard less coldness in her. Over the last few days, she had noticed more and more that the neutral coldness of Raya''s voice was gradually fading slightly, but now it was clearer than ever. Was that a sign, or could Raya influence it herself to sound more like Mary or Aurelia?


    But it was difficult enough to keep herself awake, apparently the Stim is struggling a lot to keep her body together, so she decided to retreat deeper into the ruins of the destroyed building and rest. "Raya, can we clarify this differently when? I can hardly stand on my feet." "Yes. Please get a Nano Pack, your injuries seem to be worse than I expected." "Ok" Shortly afterwards, the usual box with the usual syringe appeared, to which Aurelia got used only very reluctantly. She injected the Nano Bots into herself and leaned back. It was a strange feeling to see one''s own body put itself back together piece by piece. The stim prevented most of the pain, but with loud cracks and crashes, pain came like hardly ever before as her bones returned to their usual positions. She began to see stars that were not in the sky and had to concentrate not to lose consciousness. How badly had she been hurt that a damn stim was overwhelmed with suppressing the pain? She had not felt so miserable in the convent with her leg, eye and countless bullet holes. She also had a lot more in her blood, she remembered. Should she buy anything else?


    "Raya," she managed between clenched teeth, "What''s my coin balance right now?" It was incredibly difficult for Aurelia to make out the small number at the edge of her field of vision. "153" is correct. She had hardly anything. Then she would save herself the costs and see it as training. If they get used to being able to deal with pain, she would have to invest significantly fewer coins in stims. She felt the bones gradually settle into their original positions and the Nano Bots began to take care of the organs. The pain subsided significantly. Maybe Stims just weren''t good at preventing pain when it came to bones, because now she only felt slight pain that began to wander through her body every time. Aurelia crossed her hands behind her head and tried to distance herself from everything that had happened. She now had to figure out what would come next, there was no room to have an existential debate with an AI.


    The morning sun tickled Aurelia''s closed songs and the stench of the city filled her nose. Slowly and deliberately, she got up and looked first around her surroundings, then down at herself. She was surrounded by dilapidated factories and warehouses, a good distance from the road and had her nun''s habit completely bled through. Great. Before, all the blood on her was barely visible, as it was primarily on the black parts of her cowl, but now it has also stained the few white spots red. But she didn''t want to give up her clothes. She had tried for years to rebel against the church and be allowed to be a nun. But the blood and the torn spots, as well as bullet holes, made it increasingly difficult to justify not changing clothes. "Hey Raya?" "Yes?" "Can I buy clothes or something from you somehow?" "Aurelia, that''s a very good idea. However, I would recommend buying armor instead of clothing. But for this you would have to purchase one of the armor categories, the cheapest would be 100 coins. So you would only have 53 left." "Great. Ok then I''ll look for a few criminals so that I can afford it. But out of curiosity, what are the categories you would recommend to me?" "The Dolkiri armor category fits very well with your unconventional fighting style, which consists of a combination of fast maneuvers and stealth. Light modular armor where a base is acquired and expanded with further purchases to adapt to the respective situations. Otherwise, the category of sneakers would be something for you" "Sneakers? Is that supposed to be a name or the name of something?" "It is the translation of the word Hflodi, from the Nyx language, that comes closest to the original meaning. This is a race that was bred to carry out secret missions behind enemy lines. Not modular, but with an active camouflage function." "Oh wow, ok. What would I need to make my habit a real armor here with armor pieces?" "With the modular armor, which is ideal for this, you would come to a total cost of 300 coins, for a base to build on. 100 for the catalog, 100 for the main module, and 100 for armor plates, which you can place on the main module as you need it."


    "Mhm. Expensive, but sounds cool. OK. But first I have to get back on my feet. Is there any way to find something to eat here without seeing me? I''m far too easy to recognize as I am now." "and you think a nun dressed in armor would be more inconspicuous?" Aurelia coughed out a laugh. "Fair. But then I can at least fight a little longer without being shot to pieces again immediately." "If you put me near a data tube, I can figure out where possible cameras are and warn you before you get into the field of view of one. However, as far as the looks of the residents are concerned, I will hardly be able to do anything." "Well, ok. Let''s look for such a data thing first and then we''ll see what happens. Rumors spread quickly, but if I spend only a short time in public, I should be gone by the time potential pursuers get wind of where I''ve been." Aurelia stretched and felt around to see if there were any wounds on her body that hadn''t been patched up at least temporarily. When she found nothing, she went to the street, but remained in the shadow of the large buildings and held her blender concealed in her hand. She didn''t want to be surprised.


    As before, the streets were mostly empty, except for a few tents in which the outcasts of New Berlin were located. Everyone who could be seen seemed to want to be just as unseen as Aurelia, which was very convenient for her, because as it turned out, the next data tube was barely 15 minutes away, which she had to cover without knowing whether a small camera was watching her from the dark corners of the unfriendly environment. She felt as if an unseen entity was constantly looking over her shoulder to see what she was doing every second. It was an unpleasant feeling, which was understandable, but deep in this fear there was something hidden that worried her more. She couldn''t see what exactly it was, only that it was something she couldn''t understand or do anything about.


    "We have arrived, Aurelia. Please move exactly five meters to the left and three forwards and position your Cybernetic Eye as much as possible on the ground." "I should lie down? Why?" asked Aurelia. "How you do it is up to you, I just need a good connection and it will run through your eye." She followed the commands of the voice in her head and knelt in a spot that looked like nothing more than a piece of dirt to Aurelia. She sat down on all fours and lowered her head until Raya gave her the OK. "Give me a moment, please. The quality of your eye ensures that I don''t have my full potential." Aurelia rolled her eyes, at least with one of them, the other seemed to be fixed by Raya. She could do something like that? She would talk about this again with Raya later. "I''ve marked all the cameras, you''ll see on your HUD where the respective fields of view are." Thank you"


    Somewhat courageous, Aurelia stood up and knocked the dirt off her robe in vain. As ruined as she was, it wouldn''t have made much difference anyway if the dirt wasn''t hanging on her knees. "Ok," she said, resting her arms on her hips and looking at the street, which was barely ten steps away from her. Their HUD showed that there were no cameras in the area, at least none that could share the videos directly via the net. "Well, then tell Raya. Where do I have to go? I''m hungry, you can''t imagine!" "You''re right. I can''t. Is my lack of experience with a biological body to blame for this?" "Since when can you be sarcastic?!" "Since when can you recognize my sarcasm?" For a moment there was complete silence in Aurelia''s head. "Does that mean you made fun of me from time to time?" "No. At least not while you could have noticed. This Sarvoz was a good listener for the problems you cause so much." "Didn''t you... I''ll warn you" "That''s right. But that would have been funny, while at the same time it would annoy you, wouldn''t it?" Aurelia took a deep breath and answered, "Yes." "I''m getting better and better at it." Aurelia could swear she could hear a hint of complacency. Raya then projected a route in her HUD. "This will lead you to a stall that, according to the Net, offers good techurry sausage."


    Chapter 12 From Problem to Problem


    The holo call came unexpectedly. Sam was still a little tired from his short night in a small hotel room in northern Brandenburg and needed a whole moment before he accepted: "What?" Sara''s professional voice boomed in Sam''s hungover head: "Good morning freshman. I saw you completed your assignment. Good job. In addition, a few digital birds chirped to me that a Rogue Runner had messed with a corp and caused a lot of chaos." Sara let her statement hang over Sam as if in sword, but before he could say anything, she continued: "Sam... I beg you, tell me that you had nothing to do with it." "Well, as far as that is concerned... The assignment took me mentally more than I ever suspected and I wasn''t quite with myself. But I haven''t left any traces that can be traced back to me or you!" Sam tried to justify himself, but even to his own ears it sounded weak. Sara let out a sigh and switched from her avatar that was displayed during the call and sent the digitization of her face instead. She looked exhausted, deep circles under her eyes and her hair a complete mess. "Why?" She stared straight into his soul. "Um, me, so..." Sam took a deep breath and rose from his bed. "I''m sorry. Real. But as I said, it doesn''t suggest anything about me." "It doesn''t have to. The fact that a covert corpo wiretapping operation has been uncovered is causing massive instability in the entire area. The gang bosses have already called an emergency meeting to discuss how to deal with it. Everyone is on high alert because it has existed unnoticed next to everyone for so long." Sam stretched his tense muscles and looked around his small room. Gray plastic floor and anthracite walls made of a similar material. The small bed and a table with chair were all furniture and from the equally grayish ceiling shone a faint blue-white light. After leaving the large building complex in which the Corpos were located yesterday, he had looked for the nearest hotel and checked in with a false identity. Officially, Ahmed Irfan was here, for one night, before his important business meeting. It wasn''t a watertight ID, but that was hardly necessary, he made sure that no cameras had tracked him to this place, so a name and fake description were quite enough. "But should we really care? As far as I know, the Aizutachi has no territory of its own here in northern Brandenburg. Besides, shouldn''t that give us the chance to grab some security jobs?" "How beautiful it must be to live in your world, Sam. But the rest of us, unfortunately, have to exist in the real world and nothing is ever so black and white here. The few jobs we get out of here is hardly anything compared to the lost jobs we would have had at a more stable time. A few important people have put surgeries on hold until everything has calmed down here. Do you understand what that means?" Sam took a deep breath: "A lot of Verl-"If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "A LOT OF LOSS, right!" Sam stared into Sara''s projected image for a moment, she had never been anything but completely professional. But now her eyes burned with anger and her voice boiled with anger. "I''m responsible for you. So if you mess up, it goes back to me. I have to pay for your shit now. I guess I''ll get a message at noon today that I have to come to one of the upper offices." "Oh. I didn''t know that. Fuck, is there anything I can do to help you?" Sara''s anger seemed to subside a little as she replied, "Possibly. I''ll send you something later. If we can do something that makes the Aizutachi do more than your mistake did in damage, I might get out of this thing with all my body parts." "With all parts of the body?" "Sam, this isn''t a gang of a bunch of pushing drugs. Here it is serious. I have to go now. I will send you a file later, I want you to take this file and give it to a corpo unnoticed. If everything works out the way I hope, it should give you a way into Digital Grave Inc. You will arrive there as a newcomer and be included in their training program. To have a mole in such a corp is worth millions." With that, the call closed and Sam was left alone with his thoughts. What did she mean by mole? Would Sam work undercover in a Mega Corp? Digital Grave Inc., was an armaments company that mainly manufactured distance weapons. From missiles to orbital cannons. And how should the whole thing work, such a company must have massive security precautions to prevent competitors from sneaking in. But Sam decided for the time being that guessing wildly wouldn''t get him too far and that he had better wait for the file.


    "Ok. Now look for something to eat" He turned to the closed door, pressed the small button with a red lamp and when it turned green, the door opened. The hallway was deserted and silent, only one person was to be seen. A guest who had apparently locked himself out of his room and desperately tried to pry open the door with his bare hands. He didn''t seem to be the brightest as he tore at the frame of the door with force and breathed heavily.


    The rest of the hotel was similarly deserted, there was only one person at the reception, but he was in an argument with the receptionist. Sam left the small foyer and followed the road north to find something that could soothe his cat. It was still quite early in the day, but the road was already full of vehicles and people. The shops along the way were all open and already had customers. The smell of various culinary delicacies filled the air and Sam was tempted to get something at the first restaurant that came along. A Korean with a long counter. But Sam didn''t want to take the first best. He would feast today. After all the problems the day before, he really deserved it. He wandered along the crowded street until he saw a restaurant across the street that had very few customers. The entrance was decorated with high-quality looking false marble and onyx. The sign above it informed Sam that there was the finest food from all over the world. Sam was sure that this must be the main restaurant of a big gang, but that had never bothered him, as long as you always paid and left a good tip, such places were sometimes the safest in the entire city.


    From the inside it was even more impressive than from the outside. Fine gold accents ran through the ebony counter and a selection of very rare liquor bottles, lined up along the wall behind the bar, testifying to the class and exclusivity of this place. It was not possible to directly deduce which gang this place belonged to, but it had to be one of the top 5, as it was a true power statement to present such an expensive place so prominently here. "Good morning. Welcome to the Golden Wine Barrel. A table for one?" Sam greeted a small, good-looking waitress, with golden synth hair and a perfectly fitting uniform. "Yes, of course. I also need a counter-beer right away, it was a long evening." "Of course, you can choose any seat in the house, there are no reservations yet." With these words, she retreated to the kitchen and Sam looked around between the tables. There were two types of tables, for couples and for groups of four. He chose a pair of tables at the back that sat directly in front of a large work of art that Sam had never seen before, but he recognized the artist''s style. It had to be one of the lesser-known works by a 2030 artist named Bankman. Sam didn''t know much about art and only knew about said artist through memes. He had seemed to have been an eccentric. The picture itself was definitely more than just plain and simple... eccentric. The work must have driven the value of this establishment even higher. The soft seats of the chair were a gift from the gods for Sam, he enjoyed the comfort until the waitress appeared with a beer and a small tablet. "Here you go," she put it right in front of Sam, it was dark and cold, with a nice head of foam, "this is a beer that is produced here in the city, in the style of the past." She also handed him the tablet, on which a menu was already displayed, which made Sam''s mouth water. "If they have chosen, it will be prepared for them immediately, and breakfast will also be available in the next hour." With that, she withdrew again, leaving Sam alone. He was a great friend of good food, but he was mostly out of town and therefore rarely had time to dine finely. Money was another point that kept Sam from eating like this every day. But since he had earned a lot of money through the Aizutachi lately, he could also treat himself. The menu, as the sign outside promised, listed a variety of dishes from different cultures, with a wide variety of drinks that could sometimes outshine an ordinary car in terms of prices. Sam decided on a "Tokyo Den Steak" after long and difficult consideration, he didn''t quite know what it was, but online it had the best reviews. While he was waiting for his food, Sam saw three men enter the store. The foremost was small and broad, but dressed in expensive fabric, the two next to him seemed to be bodyguards, also well dressed but much more subtle and with obvious weapons strapped to their legs. Large revolvers, which were probably used primarily for intimidation. The trio made their way to the back, towards Sam and as he approached, he realized that it was Latano Gurisha, a mob boss who led the most culturally diverse gang in all of New Berlin. Explained the selection in the menu, Sam thought.


    Gurisha was known to be in the pockets of almost all corps, and the first choice was when asked who was the most dangerous. Sam tried not to be intimidated, in vain. So he at least tried not to let it show to the outside world, with a little more success. As the boss passed his table, Sam raised the beer in greeting and lowered his head respectfully. That''s how they did it, right? Since Sam was still in a piece, he assumed that he had behaved correctly. His hair stood out for some time after the three had already disappeared into a back room. But the food that was now on its way helped Sam calm down. The fine scent of soy in the sauce and countless, albeit synthetic, spices filled his nose and he had almost forgotten his throbbing head until he noticed a message in his HUD. The icon for Unread flashed slowly and Sam opened it while enjoying a meal like rarely before. ''IdentityAdminRun.fl'' was the name of the package that was sent. The file Sara had told us about earlier. "Well then, let''s see," Sam muttered to himself as he opened it and studied. It appeared to be a daemon that could create a new entry for Sam and infiltrate the system in such a way that the identity program could be permanently monitored. It was a powerful daemon. It had to be worth hundreds of thousands. Why was such an expensive tool burned just to put Sam in a corp. Sam tried to study the daemon''s code, but it was too complex to analyze properly with his hardware. Sam had the uncomfortable feeling of being drawn into something far beyond his abilities and influence. As if gods were using it to play chess. But if he could make sure that he and Sara weren''t punished, it was probably worth it. Sara would be severely punished, but Sam would probably disappear without a trace, only to be found weeks later on the riverbank. But maybe Sam could also use the situation to his advantage. When did you have the opportunity to get deep into a company, to be trained by them and to be paid for it. How much he would get, he also had to ask Sara if he would also receive Neuros from the Aizutachi. But better not immediately.


    Behind him, Sam heard two muffled shots and the fall of heavy bodies. Time to leave. He got up and sent the waitress the money plus tip and made his way to the exit, but he hadn''t been fast enough. The back door was slammed open and the little mob boss trudged out with a large shotgun in his hand, which was more like a Renaissance cannon. As he walked across the restaurant, he called out to the waitress: "Sina, honey, can you please clean up? Boris thought he had to question me and I wanted to fire Dieter for a while... Hehe. Fire." Sam tried to sneak out of the store, but Gurisha seemed to have good eyes, because Sam heard behind him: "Hey you there, come here" Damn. Slowly he turned around and slowly raised his hands: "I didn''t see or hear anything" he said quickly, but the little man shouldered his gun and laughed: "Don''t worry, I won''t hurt you, but I need someone to deliver a message without using the net. You look young and athletic to me. Gurisha took a small folded piece of paper out of his pocket and trudged towards Sam. "This one has to go to Derv, a fixer in downtown. Do you know him? Mostly hangs out in the Atlantis bar, tell him Gu sent you" Before Sam could reply, 2000 Neo-Euros were sent to his account. "1000 for the task and 1000 so that you don''t look at the piece of paper. Did we understand each other?" "Oh, um, yes, of course" came from Sam, who toyed with the idea of testing his luck and just running.


    "That''s good boy, so come on, get moving!" Sam was lost in thought for a moment, but then turned around, stowed the note unopened and left the store. Behind her, Gurisha shouted "I have your data with my runner, so don''t do shit!" Sam was quite sure that a runner would have triggered the traps if someone had tried to crack Sam''s Data Safe. But the threat itself was enough to assume that it was probably best if he simply handed over the note. No matter what was going on here, he was a small cog that was no longer needed after the abandonment and could disappear.


    So Sam set out to do a task for people who were so far above him that he couldn''t even imagine what the big plan behind it was. And then he would do another task, which was also so far above his salary grade that he could only speculate what they wanted to get him at. Wonderful. The day starts as shitty as the last one ended. Sam sighed and called his motorcycle over his HUD, his Vanguard and waited on the side of the road until the autopilot drove it in front of him. The power of the superbike, which is difficult to control, was able to lift his spirits at least a little. Downtown, huh? He would drive between all the super fancy Corp cars, surrounded by cops without end, which means he would have to follow the rules of the road. Grand.


    Atlantis was more than just a bar, as Sam had expected. It was a full-blown nightclub, with an adjoining casino, three restaurants of different nationalities and a hotel. The building was gigantic, it looked like an ordinary Corpo Tower, one of hundreds. But that was only true from the 20th floor. Among them was the Atlantis and brought bright colors, high-quality holo animations and daring architecture to the desolate gray of the city.


    Sam was on one of the big highways that ran right through New Berlin and saw that each one of them had its own exit, especially for Atlantis.


    Big players were on the move here. So quickly in, hand in notes and out again. Quite simply. What can go wrong? With a jerk, Sam forced himself neither to think the sentence any further, nor to have it in his head in any form. Even in the most intricate corners of his brain there could be no trace of it! It wasn''t that Sam was superstitious, but when you were raised by a nanny who was more abuelita to him than his real family, you let it influence you. Abuelita Sasa had been a very spiritual woman. From tarot cards, to magical runes, to witch spells, she was an expert, as only someone could be who was firmly convinced that all that magical stuff was real. While Sam had managed to never let himself be lulled by the other things, he couldn''t prevent a lot of Abuelita Sasa''s superstition from being burned into him.


    He was good at hiding it, but deep down he always feared that there was a grain of truth in the matter. He squeezed his eyes shut and let the motorbike''s autopilot take over until he regained his composure. Then he shifted down a few gears and turned the throttle all the way through. The superbike broke out into explosive acceleration and shot past the rest of the traffic towards the descent towards Atlantis.


    Sam felt the wind pulling at him and how his innards fought against the still pressing acceleration. At just under 200 km/h, he cut through the remainder, sluggish traffic and only had to let go of the gas a few times before he could race down the descent.


    It felt as if he had strapped himself to a rocket and roughly aimed in the direction of Mars and pressed the launch button. He was now traveling so fast that his biological body was no longer able to keep up and react if something happened. His eyes, however, allowed Sam to continue to perceive everything, even if he was now little more than a glorified passenger.


    However, all this did not last long, as the safety features of the autopilot slowed the bike down and limited the throttle to 5% as Sam approached the club. It was probably better that way, he thought to himself as he freed himself from the rigidity in which he was trapped during the last seconds. Everything about him was shaking. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and his arms were covered with goosebumps. Only now did the adrenaline seem to do its job properly and Sam felt an ecstasy that resembled the effects of designer drugs or street chems.


    He let his motorcycle chauffeur him the rest of the way while he indulged in a frenzy of tension, nervousness, excitement and euphoria.


    He couldn''t say the last time he''d felt so incredibly alive. Even fights to the death no longer gave him the feeling. He should probably be careful with it before he should find himself as a kind of junkie.


    Even when he had stowed his Vanguard in one of the automatic parking elevators, he was still shaking and with knees as stable as the contents of a guacamole pack, he slowly walked towards the main entrance.


    A mighty staircase, decorated with LEDs, led up to five large doors, at each of which two bouncers stood and controlled the guests. Each of them was a mountain full of muscles, even the one female guard Sam could just grab and fold like a shirt. All of them were dressed in classy suits with the exact same styles and wore sunglasses that could probably do more than just block UV rays. And due to their stoic faces and short-shaven heads, they all looked incredibly similar to each other, if you ignored the difference in size of some. Only the colored sashes brought individuality. Each had its own color, from dark purple to bright yellow. Sam had no idea what the style of clothing was called, but it gave the whole thing a certain authority that didn''t come from the gigantic bodies themselves.


    Before he arrived at the stairs, he took a deep breath and forced his body to function normally again. A short breathing exercise later, he took the first step up the steps.

 From problem to problem

    The holo call came unexpectedly. Sam was still a little tired from his short night in a small hotel room in northern Brandenburg and needed a whole moment before he accepted: "What?" Sara''s professional voice boomed in Sam''s hungover head: "Good morning freshman. I saw you completed your assignment. Good job. In addition, a few digital birds chirped to me that a Rogue Runner had messed with a corp and caused a lot of chaos." Sara let her statement hang over Sam as if in sword, but before he could say anything, she continued: "Sam... I beg you, tell me that you had nothing to do with it." "Well, as far as that is concerned... The assignment took me mentally more than I ever suspected and I wasn''t quite with myself. But I haven''t left any traces that can be traced back to me or you!" Sam tried to justify himself, but even to his own ears it sounded weak. Sara let out a sigh and switched from her avatar that was displayed during the call and sent the digitization of her face instead. She looked exhausted, deep circles under her eyes and her hair a complete mess. "Why?" She stared straight into his soul. "Um, me, so..." Sam took a deep breath and rose from his bed. "I''m sorry. Real. But as I said, it doesn''t suggest anything about me." "It doesn''t have to. The fact that a covert corpo wiretapping operation has been uncovered is causing massive instability in the entire area. The gang bosses have already called an emergency meeting to discuss how to deal with it. Everyone is on high alert because it has existed unnoticed next to everyone for so long." Sam stretched his tense muscles and looked around his small room. Gray plastic floor and anthracite walls made of a similar material. The small bed and a table with chair were all furniture and from the equally grayish ceiling shone a faint blue-white light. After leaving the large building complex in which the Corpos were located yesterday, he had looked for the nearest hotel and checked in with a false identity. Officially, Ahmed Irfan was here, for one night, before his important business meeting. It wasn''t a watertight ID, but that was hardly necessary, he made sure that no cameras had tracked him to this place, so a name and fake description were quite enough. "But should we really care? As far as I know, the Aizutachi has no territory of its own here in northern Brandenburg. Besides, shouldn''t that give us the chance to grab some security jobs?" "How beautiful it must be to live in your world, Sam. But the rest of us, unfortunately, have to exist in the real world and nothing is ever so black and white here. The few jobs we get out of here is hardly anything compared to the lost jobs we would have had at a more stable time. A few important people have put surgeries on hold until everything has calmed down here. Do you understand what that means?" Sam took a deep breath: "A lot of Verl-"


    "A LOT OF LOSS, right!" Sam stared into Sara''s projected image for a moment, she had never been anything but completely professional. But now her eyes burned with anger and her voice boiled with anger. "I''m responsible for you. So if you mess up, it goes back to me. I have to pay for your shit now. I guess I''ll get a message at noon today that I have to come to one of the upper offices." "Oh. I didn''t know that. Fuck, is there anything I can do to help you?" Sara''s anger seemed to subside a little as she replied, "Possibly. I''ll send you something later. If we can do something that makes the Aizutachi do more than your mistake did in damage, I might get out of this thing with all my body parts." "With all parts of the body?" "Sam, this isn''t a gang of a bunch of pushing drugs. Here it is serious. I have to go now. I will send you a file later, I want you to take this file and give it to a corpo unnoticed. If everything works out the way I hope, it should give you a way into Digital Grave Inc. You will arrive there as a newcomer and be included in their training program. To have a mole in such a corp is worth millions." With that, the call closed and Sam was left alone with his thoughts. What did she mean by mole? Would Sam work undercover in a Mega Corp? Digital Grave Inc., was an armaments company that mainly manufactured distance weapons. From missiles to orbital cannons. And how should the whole thing work, such a company must have massive security precautions to prevent competitors from sneaking in. But Sam decided for the time being that guessing wildly wouldn''t get him too far and that he had better wait for the file.


    "Ok. Now look for something to eat" He turned to the closed door, pressed the small button with a red lamp and when it turned green, the door opened. The hallway was deserted and silent, only one person was to be seen. A guest who had apparently locked himself out of his room and desperately tried to pry open the door with his bare hands. He didn''t seem to be the brightest as he tore at the frame of the door with force and breathed heavily.


    The rest of the hotel was similarly deserted, there was only one person at the reception, but he was in an argument with the receptionist. Sam left the small foyer and followed the road north to find something that could soothe his cat. It was still quite early in the day, but the road was already full of vehicles and people. The shops along the way were all open and already had customers. The smell of various culinary delicacies filled the air and Sam was tempted to get something at the first restaurant that came along. A Korean with a long counter. But Sam didn''t want to take the first best. He would feast today. After all the problems the day before, he really deserved it. He wandered along the crowded street until he saw a restaurant across the street that had very few customers. The entrance was decorated with high-quality looking false marble and onyx. The sign above it informed Sam that there was the finest food from all over the world. Sam was sure that this must be the main restaurant of a big gang, but that had never bothered him, as long as you always paid and left a good tip, such places were sometimes the safest in the entire city.


    From the inside it was even more impressive than from the outside. Fine gold accents ran through the ebony counter and a selection of very rare liquor bottles, lined up along the wall behind the bar, testifying to the class and exclusivity of this place. It was not possible to directly deduce which gang this place belonged to, but it had to be one of the top 5, as it was a true power statement to present such an expensive place so prominently here. "Good morning. Welcome to the Golden Wine Barrel. A table for one?" Sam greeted a small, good-looking waitress, with golden synth hair and a perfectly fitting uniform. "Yes, of course. I also need a counter-beer right away, it was a long evening." "Of course, you can choose any seat in the house, there are no reservations yet." With these words, she retreated to the kitchen and Sam looked around between the tables. There were two types of tables, for couples and for groups of four. He chose a pair of tables at the back that sat directly in front of a large work of art that Sam had never seen before, but he recognized the artist''s style. It had to be one of the lesser-known works by a 2030 artist named Bankman. Sam didn''t know much about art and only knew about said artist through memes. He had seemed to have been an eccentric. The picture itself was definitely more than just plain and simple... eccentric. The work must have driven the value of this establishment even higher. The soft seats of the chair were a gift from the gods for Sam, he enjoyed the comfort until the waitress appeared with a beer and a small tablet. "Here you go," she put it right in front of Sam, it was dark and cold, with a nice head of foam, "this is a beer that is produced here in the city, in the style of the past." She also handed him the tablet, on which a menu was already displayed, which made Sam''s mouth water. "If they have chosen, it will be prepared for them immediately, and breakfast will also be available in the next hour." With that, she withdrew again, leaving Sam alone. He was a great friend of good food, but he was mostly out of town and therefore rarely had time to dine finely. Money was another point that kept Sam from eating like this every day. But since he had earned a lot of money through the Aizutachi lately, he could also treat himself. The menu, as the sign outside promised, listed a variety of dishes from different cultures, with a wide variety of drinks that could sometimes outshine an ordinary car in terms of prices. Sam decided on a "Tokyo Den Steak" after long and difficult consideration, he didn''t quite know what it was, but online it had the best reviews. While he was waiting for his food, Sam saw three men enter the store. The foremost was small and broad, but dressed in expensive fabric, the two next to him seemed to be bodyguards, also well dressed but much more subtle and with obvious weapons strapped to their legs. Large revolvers, which were probably used primarily for intimidation. The trio made their way to the back, towards Sam and as he approached, he realized that it was Latano Gurisha, a mob boss who led the most culturally diverse gang in all of New Berlin. Explained the selection in the menu, Sam thought.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Gurisha was known to be in the pockets of almost all corps, and the first choice was when asked who was the most dangerous. Sam tried not to be intimidated, in vain. So he at least tried not to let it show to the outside world, with a little more success. As the boss passed his table, Sam raised the beer in greeting and lowered his head respectfully. That''s how they did it, right? Since Sam was still in a piece, he assumed that he had behaved correctly. His hair stood out for some time after the three had already disappeared into a back room. But the food that was now on its way helped Sam calm down. The fine scent of soy in the sauce and countless, albeit synthetic, spices filled his nose and he had almost forgotten his throbbing head until he noticed a message in his HUD. The icon for Unread flashed slowly and Sam opened it while enjoying a meal like rarely before. ''IdentityAdminRun.fl'' was the name of the package that was sent. The file Sara had told us about earlier. "Well then, let''s see," Sam muttered to himself as he opened it and studied. It appeared to be a daemon that could create a new entry for Sam and infiltrate the system in such a way that the identity program could be permanently monitored. It was a powerful daemon. It had to be worth hundreds of thousands. Why was such an expensive tool burned just to put Sam in a corp. Sam tried to study the daemon''s code, but it was too complex to analyze properly with his hardware. Sam had the uncomfortable feeling of being drawn into something far beyond his abilities and influence. As if gods were using it to play chess. But if he could make sure that he and Sara weren''t punished, it was probably worth it. Sara would be severely punished, but Sam would probably disappear without a trace, only to be found weeks later on the riverbank. But maybe Sam could also use the situation to his advantage. When did you have the opportunity to get deep into a company, to be trained by them and to be paid for it. How much he would get, he also had to ask Sara if he would also receive Neuros from the Aizutachi. But better not immediately.


    Behind him, Sam heard two muffled shots and the fall of heavy bodies. Time to leave. He got up and sent the waitress the money plus tip and made his way to the exit, but he hadn''t been fast enough. The back door was slammed open and the little mob boss trudged out with a large shotgun in his hand, which was more like a Renaissance cannon. As he walked across the restaurant, he called out to the waitress: "Sina, honey, can you please clean up? Boris thought he had to question me and I wanted to fire Dieter for a while... Hehe. Fire." Sam tried to sneak out of the store, but Gurisha seemed to have good eyes, because Sam heard behind him: "Hey you there, come here" Damn. Slowly he turned around and slowly raised his hands: "I didn''t see or hear anything" he said quickly, but the little man shouldered his gun and laughed: "Don''t worry, I won''t hurt you, but I need someone to deliver a message without using the net. You look young and athletic to me. Gurisha took a small folded piece of paper out of his pocket and trudged towards Sam. "This one has to go to Derv, a fixer in downtown. Do you know him? Mostly hangs out in the Atlantis bar, tell him Gu sent you" Before Sam could reply, 2000 Neo-Euros were sent to his account. "1000 for the task and 1000 so that you don''t look at the piece of paper. Did we understand each other?" "Oh, um, yes, of course" came from Sam, who toyed with the idea of testing his luck and just running.


    "That''s good boy, so come on, get moving!" Sam was lost in thought for a moment, but then turned around, stowed the note unopened and left the store. Behind her, Gurisha shouted "I have your data with my runner, so don''t do shit!" Sam was quite sure that a runner would have triggered the traps if someone had tried to crack Sam''s Data Safe. But the threat itself was enough to assume that it was probably best if he simply handed over the note. No matter what was going on here, he was a small cog that was no longer needed after the abandonment and could disappear.


    So Sam set out to do a task for people who were so far above him that he couldn''t even imagine what the big plan behind it was. And then he would do another task, which was also so far above his salary grade that he could only speculate what they wanted to get him at. Wonderful. The day starts as shitty as the last one ended. Sam sighed and called his motorcycle over his HUD, his Vanguard and waited on the side of the road until the autopilot drove it in front of him. The power of the superbike, which is difficult to control, was able to lift his spirits at least a little. Downtown, huh? He would drive between all the super fancy Corp cars, surrounded by cops without end, which means he would have to follow the rules of the road. Grand.


    Atlantis was more than just a bar, as Sam had expected. It was a full-blown nightclub, with an adjoining casino, three restaurants of different nationalities and a hotel. The building was gigantic, it looked like an ordinary Corpo Tower, one of hundreds. But that was only true from the 20th floor. Among them was the Atlantis and brought bright colors, high-quality holo animations and daring architecture to the desolate gray of the city.


    Sam was on one of the big highways that ran right through New Berlin and saw that each one of them had its own exit, especially for Atlantis.


    Big players were on the move here. So quickly in, hand in notes and out again. Quite simply. What can go wrong? With a jerk, Sam forced himself neither to think the sentence any further, nor to have it in his head in any form. Even in the most intricate corners of his brain there could be no trace of it! It wasn''t that Sam was superstitious, but when you were raised by a nanny who was more abuelita to him than his real family, you let it influence you. Abuelita Sasa had been a very spiritual woman. From tarot cards, to magical runes, to witch spells, she was an expert, as only someone could be who was firmly convinced that all that magical stuff was real. While Sam had managed to never let himself be lulled by the other things, he couldn''t prevent a lot of Abuelita Sasa''s superstition from being burned into him.


    He was good at hiding it, but deep down he always feared that there was a grain of truth in the matter. He squeezed his eyes shut and let the motorbike''s autopilot take over until he regained his composure. Then he shifted down a few gears and turned the throttle all the way through. The superbike broke out into explosive acceleration and shot past the rest of the traffic towards the descent towards Atlantis.


    Sam felt the wind pulling at him and how his innards fought against the still pressing acceleration. At just under 200 km/h, he cut through the remainder, sluggish traffic and only had to let go of the gas a few times before he could race down the descent.


    It felt as if he had strapped himself to a rocket and roughly aimed in the direction of Mars and pressed the launch button. He was now traveling so fast that his biological body was no longer able to keep up and react if something happened. His eyes, however, allowed Sam to continue to perceive everything, even if he was now little more than a glorified passenger.


    However, all this did not last long, as the safety features of the autopilot slowed the bike down and limited the throttle to 5% as Sam approached the club. It was probably better that way, he thought to himself as he freed himself from the rigidity in which he was trapped during the last seconds. Everything about him was shaking. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and his arms were covered with goosebumps. Only now did the adrenaline seem to do its job properly and Sam felt an ecstasy that resembled the effects of designer drugs or street chems.


    He let his motorcycle chauffeur him the rest of the way while he indulged in a frenzy of tension, nervousness, excitement and euphoria.


    He couldn''t say the last time he''d felt so incredibly alive. Even fights to the death no longer gave him the feeling. He should probably be careful with it before he should find himself as a kind of junkie.


    Even when he had stowed his Vanguard in one of the automatic parking elevators, he was still shaking and with knees as stable as the contents of a guacamole pack, he slowly walked towards the main entrance.


    A mighty staircase, decorated with LEDs, led up to five large doors, at each of which two bouncers stood and controlled the guests. Each of them was a mountain full of muscles, even the one female guard Sam could just grab and fold like a shirt. All of them were dressed in classy suits with the exact same styles and wore sunglasses that could probably do more than just block UV rays. And due to their stoic faces and short-shaven heads, they all looked incredibly similar to each other, if you ignored the difference in size of some. Only the colored sashes brought individuality. Each had its own color, from dark purple to bright yellow. Sam had no idea what the style of clothing was called, but it gave the whole thing a certain authority that didn''t come from the gigantic bodies themselves.


    Before he arrived at the stairs, he took a deep breath and forced his body to function normally again. A short breathing exercise later, he took the first step up the steps.

 The Atlantis

    Sam joined the waiting crowd in front of door number three, because the two smallest of the bouncers were present there. It didn''t make any difference, but Sam could convince himself of a little bit of security if he could at least look one of them directly in the face.


    The workers here had to go through extensive renovations, Sam realized as he got closer. From a distance, they all looked like living refrigerators, but that turned out to be false... no, not wrong... insufficiently. Their bodies were not only wider due to musculature, but looked as if they had been given the skeleton of a silverback gorilla, as Sam knew them from the old documentaries. Giant apes that were extinct in the 2060s.


    The bouncers'' arms were too long for a human and the forearms merged into HUGE hands, which were connected by wrists that were much too large. The muscles under the chic suits had also become closer, more inhuman, with every step. They must have received a complete overhaul. Sam wasn''t even sure if the stoic faces were real, or if they were faceplates that made everyone look the same.


    A completely different kind of tension now ran through Sam. In front of him stood Borgs that could have come directly from one of Europe''s war units.


    When he finally stood directly in front of the bouncer, who was only a little bit taller than him, he had to stop himself from showing his tension with all his willpower. But she was well trained and Sam had to admit to himself that she had seen through him completely with just one glance. Now she put on a short but friendly smile and with a surprisingly soft voice she asked: "Reservation or spontaneous?" It took Sam a few moments before he finally understood, "Neither. I have to do something..." He looked around conspiratorially, "deliver. Gu sends me." The attitude of the guard didn''t give anything away, but Sam could see an outgoing encrypted call that went from her towards the upper floors. Instead of saying anything to Sam, she simply raised her hand with a raised finger and put her other hand to her temple, the unofficial sign of a phone call.


    When she lowered her hands again after a few seconds and turned to Sam, she simply said, "Level 13, you''re expected." And with that, the door opened behind her and with a side step she gave way to the Atlantis.


    Sam''s eyes almost rolled out of his head as the concentrated splendor of the foyer came towards him. Shiny glass floor, over exotic flowers, gold and other precious metals in the countless marble columns and the large reception desks, which were apparently made of real wood. Everyone present, whether staff or visitors, was stylishly and richly dressed. Some wore rare fabrics, others displayed large gemstones on their fingers. Well-groomed faces and noble faceplates, with the arrogance of the super-rich, glanced at Sam. Most of these looks were a mixture of disgust and disguised ignorance. There were one or two not completely disgusted looks, but that didn''t change much for Sam.


    He had fled from his family to avoid such people, too often he had had to endure those looks whenever he was too much himself. Balls were the worst. There he was regularly forced to represent his family, even though his father loathed it at least as much as Sam himself. Only for different reasons. But it was important to be present and the rest of the family couldn''t be everywhere at the same time, so Sam had to serve.


    He could see the same kinds of people here as at the balls of that time.


    There were the nouveau riche who were here only for pleasure and did not take note of the majority of the political currents.


    Similar to the first type were the nouveau riche, who desperately tried to fit into the hierarchy but had a success rate like those who were not even aware that there was a hierarchy.


    The largest proportion were those who moved back and forth in the hierarchies and used all their time to find new allies, conclude contracts and discover trade opportunities. For them, it was nothing more than a job. A job with fantastic food and entertainment, but a job nonetheless.


    And finally there were the colonels of the colonels. Besides, Sam should have been. Surrounded by boot-licking yes-men and ass-crawlers. Individuals with the power of gigantic corporations and the political influence of a senator. Most of these people were execs, who existed so far from reality that she considered everyone else to be an inferior species. A single sentence of such an exec could make the existence of a corporation so great that in no time at all anyone would have heard of it, or could stomp another corporation into the ground.


    While Sam endured the gaze and kept making sure that the cameras showed a different image and fake identity, he made his way towards the elevators, which were signposted and ran not only to higher floors but also to other parts of the building.


    ====================


    Royale Eternity Casino


    Alfretto Paniri Italian Specialties


    Gilles Gusteau Mediterrane Delikatessen


    Iosef Petrovicz Finest from the East


    Hotel ''Zu Poseidon''


    Atlantis Club


    Atlantis Club VIP


    Atlantis Club Platinum


    Atlantis After HoursIf you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Atlantis Bar


    ====================


    The elevators were in full operation, even those leading to the nightclubs, even though it was barely afternoon. Long queues of chattering figures with champagne glasses in their hands waited in front of almost all of the elevator stations. However, Sam was lucky enough to just have to go straight up and was able to use one of the less occupied smaller ones to reach the 13th floor.


    Of course, it had to be the THIRTEENTH floor. Shouldn''t hotels actually skip the unfortunate floor, just like with the room numbers? When he got out of the highly polished capsule, a shiver ran down his spine and he felt cold sweat break out. Great. Fantastic.


    The large hallway felt strange not only because of the association with the number 13. There were no doors, except the large gilded one at the end of the corridor. It felt like Sam was walking the ''Green Mile'', the long road to execution in the old USA. Sam wasn''t one hundred percent sure if that was really the name, but nevertheless it felt exactly like it.


    He activated his improved vision and let his eyes go through the typical frequencies. He could see cameras, hidden turrets and something he couldn''t quite place. It looked like small electric motors hanging symmetrically along the hallway just behind the walls. They were in a permanent connection with the subnet of Atlantis, but Sam couldn''t make sense of what engines were used for.


    The rest of the way, however, seemed very ordinary, more cameras, more turrets, a jammer that was probably meant to take away the view and control of cybermancers like Sam. But the device was nowhere near strong enough. With a skilful eye, he identified the model and searched for known exploits before coming within range of the interference field.


    If the station wasn''t up to date, Sam could try to use a hack that''s been around the net for a while, for little money. But, if the owner, or more likely, the security guy, took his job seriously, he would install any firmware update immediately, rendering the hack worthless.


    While Sam continued to walk towards the door with a steady but somewhat slow step, an idea came to him. Many security guards were lazy. He had learned this during dozens of infiltration gigs and cyberattacks. He began to prepare a daemon, which he always kept in hand, so that it would infiltrate the system and present itself as a firmware update. If the person responsible here was also lazy, the update would be installed automatically if the original signature was replicated perfectly.


    It was now only three steps away from the point at which it would probably come within the jammer''s radius of action. He slowed his pace a little more. Two steps. He had set the daemon to go through all previous updates to fake the signal and gain access to the network. As soon as it had a stable connection to the jammer, and thus to all the others, a simple program would resolve the interference field, but still indicate that it was active.


    One last step. Sam sent his little mole and mentally prepared himself for the worst. He didn''t know what that was, but he had learned that the worst in his head was usually not nearly as bad as what actually happened. So he tried to avoid imagining possible scenarios and simply prepared to end up dead in a sewer pipe.


    Sam entered the radius of effect and... Nothing. HA! It had worked! ''Take that!'' he thought to himself and opened the gold-decorated door.


    Whether he was facing a committee of tie-wearers or a back room full of gangsters, Sam didn''t really care. He still had all his cybermancing skills and his counterparts assumed that he was now helpless. Even if there were problems now, Sam would have a clear advantage.


    The heavy door flew open and Sam was ready to draw his hamatachi and spread lead, but to his surprise the door opened to a huge living room, with cozy looking couches and armchairs, a 150 inch VidFeed, and a relaxed man who was taking a drag on a cigar, whiskey tumbler in hand, looking over at Sam in surprise.


    "Oh shit, you''re already there," the man managed to say, fighting a coughing fit. He clumsily rolled out of the comfortable leather chair and spilled a little of his drink. He stood up and Sam saw a small gangster in front of him in an ill-fitting suit, so far removed from the concept of ''menace'', like one of those strange cloned rabbits with the fluffy fur.


    He walked up to Sam, put the cigar in his mouth, still coughing a little, and held out his hand: "Moin. Mari told me that one of Gu''s couriers is coming by." Sam hesitantly grabbed the hand and was surprised again, the little inconspicuous gangster in front of him had an incredibly strong grip. Sam felt himself immediately reduce his strength when he realized that Sam was rather weak even among the ''Ganics.


    When the handshake ended, Sam remembered why he was here in the first place: "Oh yes, uh, here. I''m supposed to hand it in and say that Gu is sending me." He reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out the small piece of paper, still folded and unread.


    "Ah, great, thank you little one," came the answer and Sam was snatched the note out of his hand. His counterpart unfolded it and began to read. His remarkably banal eyes darted over the piece of paper and then met Sams.


    "Well done, little one. Here."


    Just as Sam was about to ask what was meant by here, he saw that 5,000 neuros had just been sent to him. He accepted immediately and then looked down at the gangster: "Thank you. I... would go again," Sam began to turn and continued, "so, ciao."


    An uninterested grunt of approval was his only answer and no one stopped him as he left the room and closed the heavy door behind him.


    Sam stood alone in the previously eerie corridor. Huh. That went better - No! No, no. He would not think this sentence through to the end. He was neither out of floor 13 nor out of the building yet.


    With a determined walk and the attentive gaze of a falcon, Sam made his way out of Atlantis and had to realize that he had made it without any problems. He had just been led through door 5 and now, admittedly, he was standing a bit lost on the huge staircase. He blinked. Rubbed his eyes. He looked around.


    But nothing happened.


    Huh... Well then. Let''s go home? Or did he have to do something else?


    He would not download and activate the identity program in public anyway. To do this, he would either retreat to the Aizutachi dwelling or look for a nice corner far away from other people. Perhaps one of the never-finished apartment buildings on the border of Celestia. Most homeless people stayed away from it, as Celestia... had radical methods of dealing with undesirables and the church there had a lot of patrols on the way, which also kept an eye on the border buildings.


    Sam knew that the fear of these patrols was often unfounded, because if you weren''t directly on Celestia''s soil, the patrols couldn''t do anything. But he understood people''s caution. One of the soldiers only had to have a bad day once and BOOM lights out. For most, it wasn''t worth the risk. For the few who dared, however, a true paradise was offered. Some of the apartments were so far finished that even the pipes were installed to have water.


    Sam stretched and felt more and more of the tension fall away from him. When the parking machine presented his Superbike, Sam didn''t hesitate for a second and swung onto the seat. A few minutes later, he was already on the highway that took him in the direction of E.E.I. The bed in the Aizutachi bunkers was too tempting.

 Interlude: The Children of Nero

    Anarchy Mary has been the leader of the street gang "Children of Nero" for quite some time now. She wasn''t quite sure what it meant, but Sarvoz had explained to her several times that it had something to do with a crazy emperor or something. It sounded cool and that was enough for Mary. After all, there was nothing worse than being part of a gang that has no style. Naja Style.... OH NEVER MIND! She suppressed the wildly flying thoughts and tried to concentrate. She had an extremely important task to complete and couldn''t be distracted all the time. Her trembling hand moved slowly and deliberately, a small top hat firmly between her fingers. Slow. Very slowly. She approached the Data Tube distributor and took one last deep breath.


    With a flowing movement, she sprayed the last color accents on her freshly created graffiti masterpiece. It had taken her a total of five days and led to more than just a tantrum, but now it was finally done.


    Mary threw the empty can aside and took a few quick steps back. In front of her, a cyborg with poison green eyes and shiny chrome broke out of the distributor, the Children''s logo prominently on the chest. She had given him a hairstyle and hair color similar to herself, a wild pixie cut with a shaved side. She had a little longer hair than she created, but she hasn''t cut her hair in a while.


    You could actually see some of her in the sprayed character, physique and some of the augments were very similar, only the eyes had been fundamentally redesigned. Poisonous green pupils, on dark green sclera. She had wanted those eyes for years. It was part of a special edition of the Hakkimiru product line, inspired by military models that were said to have been popular decades ago.


    At the moment she only had an ordinary eye eye, with a boring blue, and her left biological eye, with the even more boring gray/blue. Of course, the color wasn''t the only thing that appealed to Mary so much, it would immediately make her many times more dangerous. Night vision AND thermal vision, both can even be activated simultaneously in one eye. That was.... Mary was taken aback and looked around. What did she want to do right now? She was sure it was something important...


    "OVER THERE!" barked a deep male voice from the entrance of the exclusion zone, and a group of eight guards sprinted in their direction.


    Oh. Correct. She had forgotten that her time window for the graffiti was not too long and that she should have been gone for 10 minutes. Fuck. Mary took her legs in her hands and ran in the opposite direction of the guards.


    She could hear the screams and shouts behind her, but she couldn''t make them out completely, because they overlapped. But she suspected that it was nothing nice. With a daring jump, she catapulted herself from the platform on which the Data Tube unit was located and dropped towards the street. The hydraulics in her leg joints had to work overtime to cushion the fall and despite this, Mary lost her balance and rolled unguided and unelegant for a few meters.


    "Urgh" Mary stood up moaning and rubbed away the stabbing pain in her legs. She looked up, in the direction of her pursuers and muttered to herself: "I did a better job." The guards stood stunned at the railing of the platform and seemed to radio for reinforcements. So she didn''t want to waste any time, she didn''t want to repeat the incident of three days ago, when she had managed to break out of the Security Corp makeshift prison when she was surrounded by dozens of guards. She wouldn''t be lucky this time that her watchdog was stupid and let herself be distracted. In addition, she no longer had hidden mini-bombs in the smuggler''s hideouts in her cyberarm.


    After about twenty steps, she noticed how her movements returned to normal and her eyes in her legs did their job without jerking. She was a little worried that her legs would just give up one day. The Cybernetic Augs, which made up her feet, calves, knees and part of her thigh, had only been second-hand goods when she could finally afford to pay for a good eye mentor a few years ago.


    Mary crashed into a partially uprooted lamppost, forehead first, and fell onto the sidewalk as if she were part of a comedy holo. "Where did you come from now?!" she scolded as she picked herself up and felt her bleeding forehead with a finger. She looked around to see if anyone was directly on her verses, but she seemed sure for now. So she struggled into the next side street and sank to the ground behind a garbage container on a house wall. She saw stars in front of her and was about 95% sure that it was not yet night. The impact must have been heavier than she thought, because she had difficulty regaining consciousness.


    The worst thing about the whole situation was that it was already the fourth time this week. Objects, walls or even people constantly appeared in front of her while she was trapped in one of her countless thoughts. Sarvoz has long believed that this would be their downfall at some point. Mary would never admit it, but she agreed with him. It had been insanely close more than once and most of the time she only escaped such situations through pure luck. But chaos was Mary''s thing. Wasn''t named Anarchy Mary by her previous gang for no reason.


    While Mary was resting leaning against the wall, a holophone call came in on her interface: ''Sav''


    "Heyyy Saaav. What''s up?" she replied after wiping the blood from her face and trying to appear emphatically relaxed. "Where the hell are you? You should have been here hours ago, with the parts I need for YOUR little project." A little "Oh" escaped her. "Um. Something came up, but I''ll leave right away, see ya". With that, she hastily hung up the call and tried to get something out of her pocket. After she had searched the fifth bag, she finally found the small note. Various equipment parts and tools were noted on it. Most of her list was already crossed out, but she was still missing a small tool called a digipin and about 10 meters of nanofiber cable. Mary knew where to find the cable, but the tool...


    This device was the real reason why she had broken into the Data Tube Center almost a week ago, before she had lost herself spraying her graffiti. It probably wasn''t clever to go in there again now... Or?


    No. No, she had to think of something better. Countless security guards will now walk around there and keep an eye on everything. "If I were such a digi thing, where would I hide?" Mary leaned her head back against the wall and looked up into the city''s smog-filled sky. Not far from here there was an EEI workshop with a high wall. The wall promised valuable equipment or interesting secrets.


    Mary spent quite a while wondering where to look next until a thought occurred to her. If she didn''t know what such a digi part actually was, it would be insanely hard to find it, even if it was right in front of her. So she would have to ask Sav. She had tried her own research days ago, but it didn''t work out at all. "AAARGH," Mary moaned, mentally getting ready to call her best friend. She would definitely have to remind him what close friends they were and how many times she had helped him.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    A soft and empathetic voice answered: "What''s up? Do you have everything?" "Well, as far as that is concerned... So suppose I would ... Digi- Digi Pin. What rough shape would I want to look for?" ¡°...¡± "Sav?" came from Mary in her sweetest voice. "We already had it about it. A digipin is a small 13 cm long tube with glass in the middle, the metal is usually black and has small numbers in a pattern on one side that go from 25 to 95. You could look at a cybersecurity corp or on the black market." "oh. Yes, that''s right, you had already explained that to me, thank you." "Mary, wait." "Yes?" "Take care of yourself. And takes care of the open wound on your head." "The? Oh fuck. Hehe, yep I''ll do it, see ya Sav" She hung up as quickly as possible and grabbed the bloody wound. She had completely forgotten about them again.


    A small wound spray and nanoplaster later, Mary made her way towards the Data Tube Center. If it were best to try a Cybersec Corp, then the Corposecs would be best suited there. After all, the Corp not only did guard tasks through personnel, but also had drones, cameras and what not. During her various break-ins, Mary had seen a lot of technical security.


    But as she had prophesied, the center was like a hornet''s nest that was knocked off the tree by a child with a stick. Dozens of figures crisscrossed the entire area and the sky was filled with drones. The worst thing, however, was that the place where she had always gotten in before was repaired and particularly well guarded. The long fence with the small hole in it had been barricaded by metal plates and Plasteel pallets. Even if she made it past the attentive-looking security guards, she wouldn''t make it in. At least not here.


    The rest of the area looked similar. Here she would never make it in and out alive. So change of plan: Grab one of the guards and see if he had such a thing with him. And if not... Then she would certainly have another idea. Mary was good at improvising.


    Slowly, like a big cat in the jungle, Mary stalked one of the less fortified guards. It was impossible to get onto the premises from here and therefore only 2 guards were present. Both were dressed in dark combat gear, with pistols on their hips and small SMGs over their shoulders. One looked like the perfect soldier. Tall, athletic, focused and attentive. The other, however... Mary grinned slightly, was an apparent newcomer who fought against the boredom and monotony of the guard task. His SMG hung in such a way that he wouldn''t reach it immediately and his holster still had the grip lock activated so that the weapon could not be drawn.


    Mary took in the entire situation and imagined how she would proceed. She was here in a bush that stretched along the wall for a long time and the guards stood in the shadow of the wall itself. Nobody would see anything here. The good soldier was definitely their first target, otherwise he would react too quickly and puncture them with bullets. She couldn''t use her massive revolver here without attracting the attention of everyone present. Knives, in other words. She took the razor-sharp Karambit from the holster in front of her chest and stalked a few steps further. She held the claw-shaped knife in her left hand and slowly reached for the kukri on her back. It was a kind of machete that was bent forward, making it the perfect tool to take out the newcomer right after the first attack. She paused for a moment. Should she really just kill the two? Then she had to suppress a laugh. Corpos sold their souls when they joined the company. A soulless body was little more than a meat doll, controlled by the faceless corporations that held everything in a stranglehold.


    Her augment eye focused on her prey right in front of her. Like a panther, she went into an attacking position and tensed her well-trained muscles. In less than a fraction of a second, she blew herself out of the bushes and onto the guard with the power of her leg hydraulics.


    He must have implanted a Reflex Co processor or something similar, because he reacted supernaturally fast and drew his pistol. He was really damn good. But all that didn''t help him, because before he could pull the trigger, Mary had already thrown him to the ground with her momentum and the knife in his neck. Her left leg rammed into the ground above his weapon arm and broke it. The pistol fell from his hand with a soft clack. Still in the same movement, Mary turned her body so that she could push away from the now dead guard and focused on her second target. She jumped and let her kukri slide through the body armor and the flesh underneath. It wasn''t a monoblade, vibro knife or high-frequency knife, but it was so sharp and the blade so thin that the armor didn''t help much.


    The newcomer realized too late that his body was already dying. For him, it was like being in a horror holo. A beast bursts out of nowhere and drove a long claw into his partner, who had been taking him on patrols for a few weeks to train him. The beast now turned to him and a glowing eye paralyzed him with fear. He didn''t even think about drawing his weapon. It had happened so quickly that it was only when he fell to the ground when he fell to the ground that he saw that it was a woman and not a monster. His last words didn''t make it out of his throat.


    Mary stood up and looked at her work. Clean and quick. Very good. And no one had noticed. Now to the next item on the agenda, Digi Ding, she spoke to herself. She first searched the veteran, but found nothing that matched the description Sarvoz had given her. Even the newcomer didn''t have anything with him that looked digi-like. Mary cursed softly and thought.


    She rose and looked down at the two lifeless guards. Corpos. She wouldn''t have to feel bad here. But a thought began to sprout when she saw the veteran''s body. The equipment, apart from the collar, was still completely in order. And the black color helped hide the blood. She knelt down and began to undo the armor and remove the weapon holsters.


    A few minutes later, she stepped out of the shadow of the wall as the veteran. It was a bit too small, but it wasn''t noticeable if you didn''t pay attention to it. The bloodstains were also barely visible and the helmet hid her face.


    With an SMG on her shoulder and a pistol on her hip, she made her way to the entrance to the site. To her absolute surprise, she was able to just walk through the gate. A friendly nod to some of the other guards and just look like you belong here and are busy and no one paid attention to you. To create the illusion that she had an important task, she opened the holo interface on the left arm of the armor and randomly went through some data. The step is swift and determined.


    Mary made it all the way to the Corposec operations center and entered what looked like an arsenal. Before her was a paradise for all cyberpunks. Dozens of weapons and countless gadgets. Among them is a digipin. The small device lay together with fine pliers and various circuit boards and a box, right next to other tools, from drills, to electrometers and other measuring instruments. Mary still wasn''t quite sure what the device she had just captured was doing, but that wasn''t important at the moment.


    She filled her pockets with stun grenades, smoke bombs, EMP generators and GPS trackers before she left the small arsenal and walked again with a goal-oriented walk towards the exit.


    But this time it was not ignored. One of the guards at the gate raised his arm in greeting and shouted, "Markus, where did you leave your shadow?" In a panic, Mary thought about it and walked on until she was finally next to him and a fake cough began and first at herself, then the surgery center and then the rough direction from which Mary got her outfit. Coughing throughout, she squeezed past the baffled guard and left the premises, praying that she could walk unmolested.


    To her renewed shock, it worked. That had been too easy. A plan that actually goes as imagined?! There had to be a catch. But even when Mary got rid of her disguise and only with armor pieces and two Hamatachi SMGs and two pistols, the model of which Mary could not identify one hundred percent, she was not stopped by anyone.


    Waiting for an ambush or other problem, Mary went back to the Children of Nero''s hideout and only relaxed when she saw the members of her gang, especially the weak of the city, who could not protect themselves in this hell. A worried Sarvoz rolled towards them in his Roll/Cybermancing chair and the others made way for him.


    Anarchy Mary had completed a work of art, procured a needed tool and returned to her family with a pile of equipment. And all this without giving up the spoon. She chalked this up as one of her rare victories in life and sat down with Sarvoz and the others in the common room to have a simple and tasteless dinner together and told them about her week.

 A different side of the city

    The snack bar in front of which Aurelia was now located was anything but inviting. A trailer that apparently hadn''t been moved for years, if you looked at the completely rusted wheels with the airless tires, inside a large bearded bear of a man wearing a dirty apron and a small white cap. However, the trailer was completely surrounded by people who shoved all kinds of synth meat into themselves. So the food had to be at least so good that you could ignore the entire exterior. Aurelia had never liked it in the convent, but she could never complain about the food. It was important to the priests to provide good nutrition in order to ensure the best possible physical development of the children. From fresh vegetables to real meat, everything was represented that you would otherwise only find in a higher Corpo apartment. All in all, the last few days were not pleasant, but the food was one of the biggest problems for Aurelia. She was forced to eat PrePaks and whatever else she found. The thought of eating something that sent the taste buds on a journey of culinary pleasure was nothing short of beguiling.


    Aurelia had been standing in the queue for a few minutes and began to look at the people around her out of boredom. They all corresponded to what were called suburbans. Outcasts, those who refused to serve the system and criminals who enjoyed the anonymity of the outskirts. Dirty clothes that were often damaged, weapons that hung barely hidden on hips and under shoulders, but a certain aura of self-determination, no matter how neglected some looked. Apparently, many who ate here were those who lived voluntarily in this situation. Aurelia also noticed that many seemed to know each other and chatted with each other. Something she had never seen before in her entire time here, except with the Children of Nero. Perhaps there was a kind of church here that had become rare in the world. Neighborhood. Outside of fixed organizations, this concept didn''t seem to exist for decades, at least not in megacities like New Berlin. It also stood by the palpable desperation she had heard in the tent cities along the roads further north. Everyone for themselves, suspicion and suspicion in the eyes of everyone and the stronger ones who took advantage of the weaker ones, be it through drugs, violence or the like. She remembered how she had seen Mary for the first time and someone had followed her to attack her. Here, Aurelia was not once looked at as if she were a potential victim. And it wasn''t just because of the big rifle on her back, because before she had seen dangerous glances coming towards her again and again, but they quickly turned to the ground as soon as the rifle was discovered. Here, however... Nothing. She could even see a few smiling faces.


    "Hey! Do you want something now or not?!" barked a rough voice in Aurelia''s direction. She turned away from the bystander and looked up at the bear-like giant with the apron. She hadn''t noticed that everyone had already bought their food before her and it was now her turn. "Oh, um, the best please?" the answer came out more like a question and Aurelia writhed inwardly. "Mhm, that makes three neuros" "Three?" "Three." Three neuros. So little for a meal? "O-Ok here please" Raya seemed to understand what Aurelia wanted and sent the money to the seller''s account. "Fits. The splashing fat seemed to get a little louder and after a few moments a long, slightly reddish sausage appeared, which was cut up and served in a reddish-brown sauce. The bear handed Aurelia her food and turned directly to the next customer. A little perplexed, Aurelia walked a few steps to the side to one of the many plastic tables and began to eat.


    The taste was amazing. It was hard to put into words, sweetness, dancing with an unusual spiciness, coated the spicy synth meat and caused an explosion of aromas in Aurelia''s mouth like she had rarely experienced before. "Wow." came from her lips as she devoured her meal like many others. "Raya, you are the best" "Thank you" came back, while Aurelia virtually soaked up the remains of the delicacy. "How the hell can that cost so little?!" Aurelia asked in a lowered voice so as not to draw the attention of others to her one-sided conversation. "The cost of the cheapest soy-based synth meat is a few Neo Euros per kilogram. The ingredients for the sauce used have an even lower price, as it can all be produced artificially. The production price for the portion for which you paid three Neo Euros is just under one NeoEuro. The remaining two are probably used for maintenance of the kitchen, energy costs and the working hours of the cook. It seems to be a fair price, which will probably be the reason for the high number of customers." "Fair has become rare. What would it cost here in Celestia?" "Between 17 and 20 Neo Euros." "Wow. I''m slowly starting to understand why people want to live here. But the guy could certainly charge more here and still have a high number of customers, right?" "Indeed." Aurelia took her empty plate and threw it into the small recycling machine behind the trailer and walked towards the sales window. There were still customers in a queue, but there were fewer than before, so she waited and watched the ever-shorter queue. When the last customer had received his plate and no one made any move to buy anything, Aurelia stood in front of the big man and asked: "Hey, can I ask you something?" "I don''t know. Can you?" So that was the kind of person. "Well, first of all, the food was amazing. But why does it cost so little? With this taste, people would certainly be willing to pay more" A rough, deep laugh rumbled towards Aurelia and the salesman leaned over the counter to her. "You''re not from here, huh? If I asked for more than I need, it would soon look like this cursed city." Aurelia couldn''t quite follow him and he seemed to look at her, because he continued: "Everyone here helps each other. Everyone is worth the same and that''s why I demand just enough so that everyone can afford it and I can live like everyone else here. Wouldn''t it be incredibly selfish if I listened to money and everyone else had to pay more for it?" "Yes, but don''t you take your shop a little too seriously when you say that it would be like the city if you made more money?" "Hey, that can be. But if you are not proud of yourself, who else should be? And what I meant by that was that when one starts, all the others follow suit. After a while, repairing something will no longer be worth as much as before and additional money will be charged. One thing leads to another and we are at the same problem as everyone else. What is more important, that everyone is doing well here, or that I can afford more?" Aurelia understood his arguments, but it seemed surreal to her that this system had not been destroyed by greed some time ago. "Then you have my respect, I know that it can''t be easy to keep everything here as it is." "Not easy. But it''s worth it. Is there anything else, because I have to close now, family is waiting" "No, thank you very much, by the way, I''m Aurelia, thank you for the good food," Aurelia said with a sincere smile. The bear began to close the sales window and before it snapped shut with a bang, he said: "Reinold"


    Aurelia looked at the trailer for a while and then retreated into a shady side street. "Raya, what can we bet that things don''t work as collaboratively here as he said? I guarantee that there will be help here from time to time so that everyone sticks to the rules." "That is very likely. I assume that the betting offer was rhetorical in nature, am I right in this assumption?" "Yes." Aurelia took Exodus from her back and leaned it against a house wall next to her and sat down. She looked at the many people who were talking to each other in the large park where the trailer was standing and paying attention to their children. You could hardly call it a park, completely dried up and with hardly any plants, but the layout was more than clear. "I wonder how it works here. Even if everyone fitted in in such a way that it would result in a perfect church, there was still a danger from outside to be expected. Aurelia saw neither guards with rifles nor automatic weapons to provide protection here. So what stopped the booster gangs of the area from settling here and destroying everything? From what she had learned so far, this was after all the most common leisure activity of these groups. "Raya. Can you check if there are any hidden systems here?" "There is. Hidden cameras, scanners and isolated data tubes." So there was some form of security here after all. Then her thoughts from before came to Aurelia''s mind. Some of the people looked like picture-book criminals. So what if this commune had indirect protection from one or more gangs? What would the gangs get out of it? Aurelia stayed in her shady spot for quite a while and just observed. Before she knew it, she had fallen into a deep sleep.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    A fine and elegant voice asked: "Why do we have to do this now? I thought the government had special forces for something like that." "Silence Tomoe," Aurelia heard herself say. Her voice was deep and smoky. She watched her team of three warriors line up. All in light exo armor with different weapons. Aurelia herself was dressed in a Full Exo bodysuit, with a dangerous-looking SMG hanging over her chest. Shouldn''t all this seem strange to her? She was just a moment ago... Where exactly was she before, what had she done and what exactly was going on here? But before she could answer any of these questions, she heard orders barking. Her squad began to march, with her at the front. In her ear she heard her superior, who informed her about the situation: "-not much longer. Your squad will enter the city from the west and get the VIPs out. The bunker is marked and you are expected. According to our scouts, you''ll be dealing primarily with the smaller beasts, Type A and B, but a group of Type F has been spotted nearby. The quieter the whole thing goes, the higher the success rate of the mission. And the quota is more important, so you or me. Understood?!" "Understood, General" came from Aurelia, although she did not understand a single word.


    Her squad headed for a helicopter that looked too modern. The blades of the rotor were transparent and crystalline, the shell was made of glazed plastic. She had never seen anything like it. "Hey Boss, how much did this thing cost?" came the voice of one of the squad members, Aurelia caught herself writhing pretending: "Too much. I had to spend 30,000 coins for my baby here. But hey, beauty has its cost." A murmur went through the troop. The members went through a tailgate into the interior, while Aurelia went forward to the front and made herself comfortable in the cockpit. As if automatically, her fingers flew over touchscreens and buttons to launch the helicopter.


    A soft whirring sound emanated from the engine behind her and she felt her leave the ground. With a practiced hand, she flew out of the military base and set course for New Berlin. The city could already be seen in the distance, tall buildings, many of them collapsed remains and burning ruins. Further south she saw the hotzone where, according to the latest reports, there were some really unpleasant aliens. She hoped she didn''t have to go there to contain the zone, even with her current equipment it was dangerous. Let the Sentinels take care of it, who swam in coins. She had been doing this for three years now, she was little more than a rookie, some had been fighting the Ovv''alti for decades. But many of them were in other cities and countries, or had simply pissed off Earth to relax in their expensive space stations. The flight to the landing point took less than 20 minutes, the helicopter was incredibly fast and incredibly easy to control. However, this was probably due to Raya, who was shown as a small avatar in one of the displays and took over the more complicated tasks. Her avatar was a Japanese animation-style woman, with long white hair, silver-blue eyes, and bright white skin. Aurelia had already found out how Raya saw herself a few years ago when Raya offered to connect to her tablets and asked if she could use her self-chosen avatar.


    "Boss, what if the rich sacks in the bunker are already dead?" "I don''t want to hear that. If we can''t save her, for whatever reason, we''ll be up to our nostrils in shit!" Aurelia answered the question. "Shit money bags." came from the elegant voice. "Snout! We are here in live comms. But yes, the situation is not pretty" With that, Aurelia ended the conversation as she let the helicopter float towards the ground. The Langezone had been cleared by soldiers, which made landing much easier.


    "Get out and line up!" Aurelia barked into her headset as she loosened the seat straps and stopped the engine. In her mind, she asked Raya, "Do you think we''re ready?" "Yes! I have complete confidence" "Hey, thank you, but I''m not so sure about that." She looked at the coin balance in her HUD and saw 12,670, at least she had enough to buy something in an emergency. She took another deep breath, took the assault rifle with the tracking ammunition in the magazine stowed next to the seat and swung out of her vehicle. She stowed two more tracking magazines and three high explosive magazines, checked the hand cannon on her hip and the MP hanging from her. Everything was ready for use. Satisfied, she saw her squad do the same while they were already in formation. "All ready?" she asked and received a uniform "YES BOSS!"


    The district in which they were located was completely destroyed. A few weeks ago, this was one of the most beautiful parts of the city, but after the Ovv''alti launched their attack on New Berlin, it took only a short time before everything was reduced to rubble, as in all other war zones. Those who could afford it hid in their personal bunkers, while the rest of the inhabitants had to seek shelter in the large collective bunkers. New Berlin, however, quickly became a hot zone in which aliens roamed, against which only the most powerful Sentinels could do anything. However, there were so few of them that the weaker ones had to step in. Dozens fell in the process and every bunker was broken into and destroyed during the weeks of destruction. Only the most expensive private bunkers were stable enough to last long enough for the hot zone to shift and it became a standard area again. Now squads like Aurelia''s had to go through the city and pull the super rich out of their holes. If it had been up to her, everyone could have rotted. But unfortunately, the government was able to deploy some of the strongest Sentinels on those who refused to obey orders.


    Aurelia took the front and led her team through the ruins of the city. Surrounded by rubble, corpses and the stench of death, they made their way directly towards their destination. Occasionally smaller aliens could be seen, little more than dogs, with six legs and a head that consisted almost entirely of mouth and teeth. Aurelia didn''t bother to shoot at these creatures. With their ammunition, it was like shooting at a mosquito with a tank. Her team took care of the smaller ones without any problems. But when Aurelia heard the sound of falling debris behind her, she knew that this was not Type A. She turned, knelt down and fired three targeted shots with her rifle. The lion-sized type B fell and fell to the ground, but behind it five more appeared. Aurelia began firing at the others and was supported by her team. However, she heard that only one other rifle shot in the direction of her target, the other two seemed to be busy killing Type A aliens who were probably lying in wait. More and more Type B spilled out of the ruins in front of Aurelia and she threw away the empty magazine to load her weapon with explosive ammunition. This meant that only a single well-aimed shot was necessary, which helped her save ammunition. She was the only Sentinel in her group and was therefore responsible for ensuring that everyone always had enough ammunition and sufficient armament. When creatures were still coming towards her continuously, she gave the order: "Retreat to an elevated point, stop the fire and let me lure them to me." Aurelia''s order was immediately obeyed. How much she loved her team. Everyone knew exactly what to do and Aurelia began to fire with her hand Cannon instead of reloading. The weapon was deafeningly loud and shredded aliens left and right, now all attention was focused on it. She dropped the rifle she was holding in her left hand, put her handCannon back into the holster on her hip, and reached for what looked like a sword hilt without a sword. She began to swing it and a fine, slightly purple blade began to form. "RAYA! REFLEX CO PROCESSOR! NOW!" she roared and Raya did as she was told. Time slowed down and Aurelia could calmly remember the position of each beast. She took a fighting stance and began to slash her way through the aliens. From her team''s point of view, Aurelia was little more than a blurry dot that ate its way through the beasts at lightning speed. It took Aurelia a lot of concentration not to make a mistake in this form and to stumble or hurt herself. But after she had cut up each alien, she was able to deactivate the co-processor again. An excruciating headache broke over her, as she did every time she used this implant. The human brain was not designed to use 100% and be thrown around in incredibly fast motion. She found herself in the midst of a pool of black blue blood and countless corpses. "Ok, come back," she ordered and watched her squad as it regrouped.

 Bear in the shadow of Berlin

    Aurelia woke up slowly and confused. Unnatural light shone directly into her eyes and she was too dazzled to see anything. Instinctively, she reached for her blender, but heard a familiar voice: "Woah, very calm, just wanted to make sure you were okay" It was the seller of the Techurry sausage. When he turned off his lamp, Aurelia''s vision slowly returned. "I was just worried. It''s dangerous out here outside the city, even with armaments. Although I have to admit that your equipment is impressive. Is it real? Or just as a deterrent?" Aurelia needed a moment to put everything together, but after a few seconds her senses all came back and she slowly rose. "It''s real. I can take care of myself." came from her. "Oh ho ho," laughed the broad man in front of her, standing in the light of the street lamp. Night had not yet fallen completely, but it was already much darker than when she had sat down in the alley. "I believe you can take care of yourself, but everyone has to sleep at some point. The best weapons are of no use if you''re not awake to use them." "Maybe," Aurelia answered curtly. "What''s it to you?" The bear in front of Aurelia knelt to stand in front of her not so big and threatening and then said gently: "You can come to my store if you want. Without costs for today and tomorrow, we will see if you want to move on, or possibly join our church.


    Aurelia''s eyes narrowed as she asked, "And why should it be safer with a stranger than here in the alley?" "Don''t worry, you won''t be alone, there are some people in my inn who find shelter there, if anyone should try something, there are more than enough people to help you." "Hm. Ok. Smiling, the man disappeared back into his building, but before Aurelia followed him, she spoke to Raya: "Tell me, how high is the risk out here, compared to the inn?" "Statistically speaking, the inn is many times safer, but there is always a certain basic danger. If you want, I can try to scan the surroundings in the building and use your sensory organs to warn you if something happens." ¡°... You can do that?" "Yes." "Ooooookaaaay. That''s not a concern at all, but it would probably be best if you kept watch, Raya. Thank you" "Always, Aurelia" With that, Aurelia started to move to step into the warm building.


    "Ah, nice to have you here. Your room is the one at the far left, it has a latch to lock it from the inside. May I offer you something to eat first? You look like you''ve been through a lot." Instead of behind the counter, a sales cart, the inn owner was now behind a solid dark brown counter that had a faux wood layer for decoration. Dozens of bottles were lined up behind him, all in colorful and different labels that referred to various types of alcohol. A total of three drinks taps peeked out of the counter surface, presumably spewing beer or water.


    Aurelia looked around the large room thoroughly. The counter was in the north of the room, at least that''s what Aurelia decided, she didn''t want to get a compass in her already filled HUD. The door through which she had entered and to which she had turned her back for the moment was to the east. The center of the room was full of long tables and equally long benches on each side of each table. A total of four other people had spread out in the room. They were all in old clothes, but did not seem too neglected. The atmosphere was pleasant and peaceful, Aurelia looked at the small music system in the west corner and saw that the light background music was playing from there, which gave the whole thing another layer of calm. The others looked over at Aurelia, softly murmured greetings of welcome and friendly nods were sent to her. To the south was a narrow corridor, through which one could probably get to the individual rooms. Although she really just wanted to get into a bed, Aurelia first went to the counter and asked for something light.


    Less than an hour later, she was still sitting in place and was engrossed in an intensive conversation with the owner. "I''m telling you, it really was!" Aurelia tried to convince him that it was she who had taken out the Playaz gang. "This was a complete raid, it must have been a whole squad that got there, killed the boss and some of his most important people and then set fire to money and drugs. I''ve heard a lot of stories here, but this is the one I like the most so far." The owner was at least as drunk as Aurelia, the rest of the room had already retreated to their respective rooms a few minutes ago. Aurelia poured the rest of the beer down her throat, slammed the glass onto the counter with a loud bang and replied, "I swear to you. I took them out with my railgun, my blender and my knife. Everything I have here with me!" The innkeeper presented her with another glass of the noble golden liquid with a beautiful crown. "Even if you could, the stories all say it was an assault squad!" "Oh Pfff. They only say that so as not to look so stupid. Who wants to admit to being dismantled by a single person like that?!" "Oh, and NO ONE would have noticed if a damn nun had done that?" "Well, it was at night and I used the shadows. I''m not so crazy that I would openly run towards them!" The landlord laughed out loud and said: "So you''re definitely insane! Who else would want to wander through the worst parts of the city dressed as a nun and just want to sleep in an alley." The sentence took quite a while to be pronounced in its entirety, as he broke out in laughter again and again. "Oh, lick me. You''ll realize your mistake at some point, at the latest when I take out a Megacorp!" "Aurelia! Keep this information to yourself," Raya reminded. "Bwahaha. A Corp? Well, I''m curious about that, little one." With that, he emptied his beer and began to clean up. Aurelia also emptied her glass and then said goodbye as she shuffled towards her room on wobbly legs.


    After crossing the narrow but long hallway, she turned into the open room and when she closed the door, she noticed the bolt that she could present, which she promptly did. She was no longer as suspicious as before, but it would have been unwise to take unnecessary risks. After she had taken off her habit and equipment, she let herself fall into the old, sagging mattress. Rarely has a bed done so much good. And to her surprise, this time she was not haunted by a nightmare.


    The next morning, Aurelia woke up rested and recovered, as well as surprised that it had been really safe. "Raya, did anything happen during the night?" "No. No attempt has been made to break into your room, nor has any form of spyware been directed against you. But if you don''t feel too safe, something unexpected can always happen." "Thanks for the pep talk," Aurelia replied monotonously as she presented her best eye roll while looking into a mirror. "HEY Aurelia. I saw that" Aurelia had to giggle due to the indignation in Raya''s voice, which turned into a bright laugh. The absurdity of the whole situation, not only at the moment, but throughout the past few days, caught up with her and her laughter became sadder, but did not stop. From a student of the convent, to a crime-fighting war nun, with a super computer in his head. Even the fictional works Aurelia had read so far were more believable. Aurelia felt the laughter subside and the tears of laughter turn into tears of sorrow. She had lost everything she knew. Was potentially at the mercy of an AI and has had to fight and survive constantly since the monastery.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    She had to sit down because she felt her legs getting weaker. She fought back tears and inner emptiness, tried to banish both, but only succeeded in the former. That had to be enough. She took another deep breath and then got up to go to her equipment. Dressing and equipping still took a bit too long for Aurelia''s taste, but she became a little more nimble with each time. With her Exodus on her back, the blender on her hip, Gladio Inanis and her combat knife on her belt, she left her room and headed for the counter of the inn.


    "Morning!" was called to her in a deep voice. She returned the greeting and sat down at one of the long tables. There was only one other person in the room at the moment. A long, thin figure, wrapped in a dark blanket, from which only the sinister-looking face peeked out. "How much does breakfast cost?" "4 neuros, everything costs the same, so just say what you feel like." Aurelia ordered something she would have liked to eat in the convent: seaweed patties teriyaki. To her surprise, the food was fantastic when it was placed on the table in front of her after a few minutes. As the innkeeper was about to retire, Aurelia asked, "Hey, what''s your name? I''m Deus Ex" He turned back to her and replied in his deep voice, "I''m known as a bear here, you can call me that. Deus Ex is an operaator name, right? Be that as it may, later we''ll see if we can''t find a place and a task for you here. But first enjoy the food."


    Space and task. As much as Aurelia wanted to, she couldn''t risk staying here any longer, her hunters could be close on her heels. "Raya, can you find out if I''ve been recognized and if someone is following me?" "Of course. I find no signs of pursuers, nor has your sighting been confirmed anywhere. It''s very possible that you''re safe for the first one. However, I still recommend moving on, this commune here could turn out to be dangerous. We don''t know anything about the residents and they live so far away from any nets that I''m not able to check their backgrounds." Aurelia thought about it for a moment, but something in her wanted to belong too much to something. "I''m staying for now. If they wanted to do something against me, they would have done it yesterday. I also need peace and quiet." Raya didn''t answer, probably because she knew exactly that she didn''t have the way to stop Aurelia.


    So Aurelia finished her meal, enjoyed the peace of the inn a little longer and when she finally got up, she noticed that Bear was no longer at the counter, instead of him an elderly lady with a thin build and a friendly face was sitting there washing a glass. Aurelia approached and spoke to her: "Oh hi, I''m Deus Ex. Bear said I should talk to him-," "Ah yes, Bear is outside. I''m Hildi, his wife and matron from this inn, it''s wonderful to meet you. Deus Ex is such an unusual name, what''s the deal with your clothes? It needs to be washed again," Aurelia''s question interrupted and shot out of the old lady like the stream of a mighty river. Aurelia needed a few seconds to process everything and put all the words in the right place, but finally she just said: "Yes, it really needs to be washed. Because of Bear?" "You can just go outside, he is preparing his car, a nomadic family has been announced that will soon pass through here." Hildis'' voice was delicate and fragile and relatively quiet, contrasting with B?r''s powerful tone. But just like Bear, she seemed to be an upright person, so Aurelia thanked her and left the large dining room.


    Bear was, as Hildi had predicted, at the sales cart where Aurelia had seen him for the first time. He was in the process of opening the window of the sales counter and securing it to the roof with a wire to provide a little shade. Only now did Aurelia notice the cyberware that B?r was hiding under his shirt. It was a long splint that seemed to run up her back, as she looked more closely, she could also see some places that were covered with synth skin. Possibly from a previous life, Aurelia thought to herself as she announced herself with a clearing of her throat


    "Ha, you''re Deus Ex, did you decide to stay here?" "Yes, I really have," she replied with a fine smile. "Wonderful, first we have to find a nickname for you, something short like mine would be best. Hm, Deus wouldn''t be inappropriate for the more religious among us, but Ex seems to be good, what do you think?" "I like it, thank you. So what exactly do I have to do to belong here?" Bear completed the preparations while saying to her: "You need a task. Something that everyone here can benefit from, then you get one of the rooms for a while until we have cleared or built a small house for you. What are you good at?" This question hit Aurelia a little. What was it good at other than causing problems and suffering? While she was aware that she had some talents and would make any technical or digital task easier for Raya, she didn''t want to reveal what her skills were. She didn''t think it was necessary, but she wanted to exercise a little caution.


    "I''m quite good with my weapons, maybe I can help like that?" "Well, actually, we don''t really have any problems that would need a weapon, and if we do, we''re pretty good at defending ourselves. But how about helping Parker hunt? It won''t be done with modern weapons, but that won''t be a problem." "Hunting? What is supposed to be hunted here?" "We only call it that here because there are always curious ears, it''s not about hunting animals, but Parker will explain it all to you, if you want I can take you directly to him." It all went much faster than Aurelia had expected, so her answer was slightly late: "Yes, of course, why not." Parker, as it turned out a short time later, was short, blond and slim, with torn dark clothes.


    Bear introduced them to each other and then went back in the direction of his car. Parker''s badly shaved face still looked quite young, and because of the way he moved, I guessed that he couldn''t be older than herself. His accommodation was a small hut built of scrap metal, which stood out for its many hollowed-out Cyberdeck housings. "This is my place, welcome" came from the grinning Parker. "Everything you could wish for can be found here. Or at least it will end here sooner or later" His voice was clear and very pleasant and he radiated an aura of good humor that Aurelia felt positively influenced by.

 Catgirl

    As it turned out, "hunting" was the name given to the process of sourcing parts that are invoice chips for cyberdecks, components of a machine, or even cyberware. Parker was a kind of scrap dealer and Aurelia was now his help. Great. A little annoyed, Aurelia asked after Parker had finished all the explanations: "And what else do you do here? So except to work?" "Oh, hehe, there''s all sorts of things. You already know B?r''s stall and inn, then there are a few others that also have food where you can eat. At CL30 you can party, drink and gamble. Theodora is something like our seamstress, she can fix anything that is made of fabric or synthetic leather, you can also shop for a little clothes with her. Marianne over there is responsible for organizing resources, but there you can also play dice with the others for valuables. And apart from that, there are a lot of spontaneous things that we do here. Tomorrow, for example, there will be a competition to see who is the most athletic. You are welcome to join in, you look fit. But don''t get your hopes up too much for victory, Thor has been the undisputed champ here for almost two years." "Thor? Just like the god Thor?" "Yep, that''s exactly him. No one knows his real name, like many here, but when you see him, you''ll see why we call him Thor."


    Aurelia continued to listen to Parker with half an ear as he drifted into a tirade that Thor should let someone else win, when she noticed a person who didn''t fit into the overall picture of this commune. Black long hair, with a bright pink underside. Elegant but high-quality and color-coordinated cyberware and an expensive looking outfit consisting of a techwear jacket, like from a combat unit, a crop top, leggings and high heel boots, which seemed to merge directly into the cyber legs and looked like this one pair would cost more than a hoverbike. But what fascinated Aurelia most were her black and pink cat ears made of metal slats, which came out of the dark hair on her head. They seemed to be real, or at least movable, ears, as she listened to her surroundings with her ears like a cat and moved to the side again and again twitching when a fly or the like came too close. In addition to her ears, she also had a cat''s tail, as Aurelia now noticed when she focused all her attention on the stranger.


    "Hey Parker. Who is that in front?" interrupted Aurelia to the still complaining hunter of the Commune. She followed Aurelia''s eyes and after a short look he answered: "She is a provisional part of the commune, like you. It''s called Blue or something like that. But she is only passing through. Before he could finish his sentence, Aurelia was already moving across the large courtyard with a tree of massive cables, directly towards this Blue. Strange name considering there was nothing blue about her. Her clothes were black, gray and purple, so that couldn''t be the reason. Blue was apparently just about to rummage through the local arms dealer''s selection. When Aurelia got close enough to be within earshot, she heard Blue ask the dealer, "What if I have to turn someone off quietly? My sword is not very good at a distance." "Then I recommend this one," he pointed to a small pistol with an extended barrel that seemed a bit too bulky. "The only thing you hear from this sweetheart is the sound of the sleigh going back. It doesn''t get any quieter without switching to one of these modern tech pistols. Pah!" the salesman spat something dirty brown into a small bucket. "Perfect, then I''ll take them. And if you want to tell me something, don''t sneak up like that, but come here like a normal person!" The salesman seemed confused, but then Blue turned to Aurelia and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Aurelia marveled at the accentuated muscles of her counterpart and looked at the Cybernetic eyes with which Blue looked at her. Pink irises on anthracite sclera looked at Aurelia with a gloomy look.


    "Sorry, I didn''t mean to disturb your purchase. I''m Deus Ex." She raised her hand in the direction of Blue, but the latter only turned around and looked at the range of weapons again. She took the weapon to which the salesman had recommended and had the sled strapped back several times to be able to assess the noise. "Hm. Still too loud for my taste. Anything else?" "I''m sorry, but the only way to get quieter is with one of these knives here." The arms dealer pointed to a small table on which various blades were spread. From small survival knives, to ancient daggers, to machetes. Blue took a small thin blade in her hand and looked at it. "Ah, a good eye. A neurotoxic knife that is no longer sold in most countries. The small capsule there has enough toxin in it for about 20 cuts or stitches. The capsules are a little expensive, but the money doesn''t seem to be a problem with them when I look at their monoblade."


    As you could see, a long katana with a monocut hung from her hip. The blade was sharpened to a single molecule to damage all sorts of things. How exactly this worked or how to make sure that it was always sharp, Aurelia was not clear. What Aurelia did know, however, was that such a sword cost a fortune. Even among the most famous cyberpunks and operators, there were only a few who owned such a weapon.


    "Why is the knife no longer sold here? Was it too bad at killing people?" Blue asked interested, but the man immediately answered, "No, the opposite! There have been too many humanitarian concerns that the pressure against the Corp that manufactures these knives has decided to take them all off the market. Now there are only those that were bought before that moment and most of them are in some kind of war zones." "I like it. That''s what I''ll take, how much?" Blue asked as she began to let the small but dangerous-looking knife fly around in her finger. "Well, since it''s such a famous weapon and there are only a few copies left... 20,000 neuros." The blade stopped spinning as Blue turned to the seller. "Are you kidding me? I''ll give you 3000." "THREE THOUSAND?! That''s ridiculous! This is downright insulting! So the knife is worth at least 15 thousand!" "5" "DEAL!" With that, both hit and the transaction seemed to be complete, because Blue turned around and began her way towards the center of the courtyard.


    "Hey, wait a minute" came from Aurelia, who was walking next to her. "How did you manage to get him so far down with the price? That was impressive." "5000 is actually way too much, but I need something I can trust as long as I''m here in nothing." "But he had said there were few and had asked for 20,000?" in the meantime both had arrived at the tree-like structure, made of cables, wires and wires, in the middle of the square. "Don''t be so na?ve, only idiots buy for the first price they hear." Blue sat down on one of the concrete blocks that were spread around the strange tree. "And you look like you''re an idiot," came from her. "I''m not! I''m just not from here," Aurelia replied, indignant and ashamed. "Street rat?" "Something like that," Aurelia confessed and also took a seat.


    Blue leaned over to her and lowered her voice: "Listen, little one, you can''t trust people here any more than you can in the city. Here they are not like in the gutters, but still just as deceitful. If I were you, I would go back to where you come from, at least you know your way around." Aurelia thought about how far she could talk to the person next to her about her situation without revealing too much. Cautiously, she finally said: "I don''t know my way around the city either, I was separated from the outside world since birth. This is the first time I''m really alone and free. So I can''t go back."


    Blue looked into Aurelia''s eyes for a long time and then asked, "Daughter of a corpo?" "No, but that doesn''t matter." came from Aurelia. "Then you really have a problem. Just let me tell you: Don''t trust anyone!" "Ok, thank you..." Aurelia leaned back a little and looked up at the smog-darkened sky. "Deus Ex was your name?" "Yes, or just ex" "I''m a blurr." Aurelia lowered her gaze and stared at Blurr. "That makes so much more sense than Blue." "Blue? How do you come up with that?" asked Blurr, laughing. "Parker, the guy with all that scrap metal over there told me that was your name," Aurelia replied, giggling. Blurr looked over at Parker, who was examining his inventory inconspicuously when he noticed the look. There was something in Blurr''s gaze that Aurelia couldn''t interpret, a certain hostility that was expected of children who had grown up together and couldn''t stand each other, or Corpos who had been working towards the same spot for a long time.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    "Well, he looks like someone who sees me and doesn''t question why my name should be Blue. Have you known each other long?" finally came from her. "No, not really, we only met this morning. I only arrived here yesterday. Actually, I just wanted to eat something and move on, but hey, now I''m here." Why did Aurelia''s words bubble out of her so uncontrollably? "Aurelia. I perceive an increased dopamine level. You should talk to people like this blurr more often, it''s good for you!" came from Raya, while Aurelia was just taking a breath.


    "And you''re already here with the people? Have you thought this through?" Blurr asked with a slightly worried undertone. "Bear and I got along quite well and Parker is nice too. And when I slept here nothing happened, so it should be ok I think. Besides, I need a place to stay for a while, I''ve only been on the road for a few days and I''m as exhausted as if I''ve been on this journey for years," Aurelia poured out, but Blurr didn''t seem to notice. "Just be careful. Many people still believe that women are weak and easy prey. Even if your weapon is a good deterrent." "I will," Aurelia assured.


    After the two sat together for a while, they got something to eat from B?r. "WOW. This is incredible! And for the price?!" came between bites of Blurr, but Aurelia wasn''t sure if she was just saying that to please her or Bear, because for a split second she could see something dark in Blurr''s eyes that she couldn''t place. Aurelia wasn''t sure if she had just imagined it, because now Blurr was smiling from ear to ear and almost devoured her food. This look of pleasure in her eyes as the Techcurry sausage was gulped down made Aurelia sure that she had only misunderstood the expression on her face before. She herself had decided today to test one of the other meals. Falafel with real vegetables and a strange gray sauce. It wasn''t quite as good as the sausage, but still better than anything Aurelia had eaten. And probably many times healthier. "I understand now why you want to stay here," Blurr said as she finished her meal. "This is like heaven." "I''m not just here for the food," Aurelia laughed, "I needed a place where I could be part of a group. Ok and the food" "I knew it!"


    "Tell me, is that really a monoedge katana?" Aurelia asked curiously, looking at Blurr''s hip. "Oh this?" she asked with a broad grin as she drew her sword. The blade looked like it was made of crystal with light flowing through it. "This is my baby, I''ve had it for a few years. It cuts as well as it is always said in the stories." "Why does it glow pink?" asked Aurelia, who couldn''t help but smile. Blurr was so color-coded that even her weapon was colored. "That''s so you can see the blade, without the light it would be almost completely transparent. Super dangerous for yourself and the opponent doesn''t care if he can see the actual blade, he usually dies when he''s close enough."


    "And you set it pink to match your style, huh?" Aurelia asked with wiggling eyebrows. "Uh... No... D-That''s the only color there is." "And then what does this button do with the color on it?" Blurr looked down at her sword. "Oh fuck. Well ok. I like pink. And many Operators have certain colors and outfits on top of each other." "So your color combo is matched to a group?" Aurelia asked surprised. "No. I work alone. But. Well, I wanted to look like I was someone important." "You definitely succeeded, Blurr. And I''m not making fun of you! I just think it''s kind of cute that such a tough-looking warrior wraps herself in pink." "Don''t call me cute." "Cute" "I warn you, nun!" "Okay, ok, it''s okay. But what I wanted to tell you was that I like your style." "So you, as a nun''s cosplayer, wouldn''t be in a position to say anything else. Is there actually a reason for this, or do you want to build an image?" "Oh, that''s just a gimmick," Aurelia said, while she wrote ''CUTE'' in the earth with a small piece of metal.


    Before Blurr could see it, Aurelia stood up and moved to a safe distance. "What are you doing," Blurr looked down at the floor. "Oh, now it''s your turn!" With that, she got up and pursued the fleeing Aurelia. "Holy shit, you''re fast," Aurelia squealed when Blurr had caught up with her in just three steps. Blurr grabbed her by the arm and held her in place. It was as if Aurelia was tied to a building. Blurr had incredible strength. Aurelia looked into her face, raised her hands apologetically as far as she could and said, "Sorry?" Blurr''s eyes narrowed and Aurelia saw something in them that she couldn''t classify. A mixture of joy, desire and sadness. But before Aurelia could ask what was going on, Blurr let go of her and took a step back. "Apologies accepted. Come on, show me your weapon, after all, you''ve already seen my sword." The change of mood came like a wall that you hit at 300km/h and left Aurelia uncertain and puzzled. "Sure, um, wait a minute," she took the big rifle from her back and took a shooting position. "This thing looks dangerous" came from Blurr, who looked at every edge and corner of the weapon. "It''s a railgun, I just have to aim at someone, pull the trigger and he just doesn''t exist anymore." In her head she heard Raya speak up: "If you score." "Where did you get that thing from? I''ve never seen a rifle like this before," Blurr asked, luckily not hearing Raya. "It''s kind of a family heirloom" Raya raised her hand again and asked, "Family heirloom? Interesting." Blurr, after a few more minutes of amazement, managed to tear her eyes away from Exodus and finally said, "If you ever need a job." A holo number appeared on Aurelia''s HUD. "You can reach me with that. I work alone, but I know some who could use a sniper like you." Aurelia was absolutely sure she could hear suppressed giggles in her head. Well, not really a giggle, but if Raya were a human, she''d definitely giggle after Blurr called her a sniper!


    "Thank you. But as I said before, I''m staying here for now and trying to live under the radar." Blurr''s left eyebrow rose: "Under the radar, huh?" A malicious grin crossed her face, "Why do you want to remain unrecognized? Trouble with Daddy? Did you run away from home without permission?" "That," Aurelia answered, strapping Exodus back onto her back, "is nothing that needs to interest you." She continued to try to be playful, but inside Aurelia cursed herself that she had made such a stupid mistake.


    "Well, I don''t think so," came from Blurr, whose cat ears were pointing upwards with excitement. "Come on, Biiiiitte, tell me. Then I''ll tell you why I''m here." Aurelia looked at her and asked, "Why should I want to know why you''re here?" "Uh, well because..." Blurr seemed to think and then answered, "Well, because we punks are supposed to support each other!" "Oh come on, you don''t believe that yourself. But well, ok. A Mega Corp wants me. But that''s all I''ll say!" Blurr''s eyes widened: "Which ones?" Aurelia crossed her arms and turned her head demonstratively to the side. "Oh come on. I''m here on a contract killing and I''m supposed to secure the body, So, now you!" "You know, Blurr, you seemed much more composed and cooler from a distance." "Wow. Ok." "Don''t sulk now!" "I''m not sulking, I''m offended. It''s something completely different!"


    After a few seconds, Blurr finally said, "Anyway. Fancy a drink? I haven''t been drinking in a while." Celebrating sounded great. Aurelia had never been able to celebrate. At least not properly, like in the comics and movies. "I''m in!" "Great. It''s still a little early," Blurr said while looking at the midday sky, "but they''ll certainly sell something, well, come on" With that, Blurr went in the direction of the large courtyard, which served as a kind of marketplace.

 Infiltration

    A quiet night. No problems, no last second changes of plan and no knife in the back. After his success in Atlantis, Sam had expected that one of the usual catastrophes would befall him. But now it was 12:30 the next day and he was sitting in his Cybermancer chair, connected to his system that the Aizutachi had provided him.


    He scrolled through VidFeeds and meme nets while arguing with himself about whether he was lucky for once, or whether the disaster came later and twice as bad. Both sides had good arguments and Sam didn''t come to any conclusion. But that wasn''t a problem, he thought, because while he was lying in his chair, at a strange angle, he could use the inner dialogue and the vids as a distraction to write codes for future daemons as if in a trance.


    Cybermancers who had good equipment and were exceptionally talented were able to "dive" into cyberspace. Deep Diving. Instead of sitting in front of the screen of his cyberdeck, Sam floated in an empty room of blackness with windows open that he could interact with directly. Sam was able to monitor several programs at the same time, because he simply created a copy of himself when something became too much for him.


    It cost a lot of energy and overheated even good implants very quickly, which is why he only used cyberspace in this way if he had access to a Cybermancer chair with cooling and a data cable that could withstand a lot of energy and was also cooled.


    At the moment, in addition to two VidFeeds, he had three programs and a diagnostic tool floating in a 360¡ã environment, with two copies of himself. The original Sam stared intently at the window in front of him and worked on reworking one of his older daemons so that it could break into the Aizutachi''s net as a kind of sniffer dog. It wasn''t the first time Sam had made a digital attack on his... Employer... had tried. Both times before he was caught, the first time he was stopped and betrayed by a powerful protective wall and the Net''s internal ICE, the second time he had a small battle with his superior ''MoRa'' and had caught a migraine, straight from hell. Sara wasn''t that familiar with him at the time and wanted to show him that he wasn''t good enough to see him as a threat, because she had given him his current cybermancing chair the next day and only pointed out that the ICE was impenetrable here.


    To his displeasure, Sam had to admit that she was right, the entire defense system was impressive. But if an army with a battering ram can''t get in, then maybe a mouse through a crack.


    Its daemon was so small and insignificant that it could be considered a glorified ping. A kind of access point for Sam so that he can connect faster to the points assigned to him in the Aizutachi Net. This was quite common among all those who worked with mobile cyberdecks. But his sniffer dog was more than just a ping, if not much. He would systematically work his way through the net and look for information and send it drop by drop to his mobile deck so as not to attract attention.


    He was proud of his creation, even if it wasn''t quite finished yet. "Mhm, what do I call you?" his voice didn''t come out of his avatar''s mouth, but just sounded out of nowhere. "How about Sepperl? There''s something, hehe"


    Sepperl would take about two more days, one if he could work through the rest of the day. From then on, he would slowly but surely learn more about the gang and possibly free himself from their clutches.


    "-wake up, HEY!"


    "SAM!"


    Sam was torn out of his cyberspace by a blow to the stomach. Breathing heavily, he gasped, "What?" and looked up. Sara stood right next to his chair with her fist raised and had the fire of a hundred forest fires in her.


    Ah Fuck.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Sam took quite a while to recover, Sara had a much stronger punch than you would expect from such a petite person. And Sam hadn''t been prepared for it and hadn''t tensed his muscles. He had with difficulty prevented himself from vomiting directly at Sara''s feet.


    "Just a little moment..." Sam took several deep breaths and tried to consolidate his voice, with little success: "I- urhg, what''s wrong, Sara?" "Did you look at the attachment in my message yesterday?" Ah. Dung. There was something.


    "Only briefly, I was a little distracted by the daemon inside. But I do it directly. I had already seen yesterday that I can probably make the system in Digital Grave think that I am one of the approved candidates. Sam opened the file and realized that it was more than just a powerful daemon. Hundreds of smaller ones were packed in such a way that they would erupt like a flood as soon as they made contact with the ICE. It was so much more impressive than he had assumed.


    "The daemon is a gem, eh?" Sara said with a broad grin. Seeing her like that was almost scarier than having her angry in front of you. It had something of a predator.


    "Eh, yes. The smaller ones too, especially how they are packed. It''s madness." "I''ll take that as a compliment, thank you" "You? Oooh. Wow really?" Sara''s grin fell in a split second and her usual, annoyed, facial expression was back, much better, Sam thought to himself. That''s really impressive. Did you do it alone?" "The main daemon, yes, but for everything else, I worked with my 3-person team. But you can kiss my boots later, now business." Sam''s eyes widened in anticipation, "Digital Graves? Is it already that far?"


    "Almost. You will arrive there next week Monday at 5:30 with the other newcomers. But we have to make you look like a soldier first.""Soldier?" "You are taken into a prototype project that prepares you for something together with specialized equipment. That''s all we know. But you can''t show up there and" she looked down at him, he was wearing his favorite shirt and his slouchy pants. "Not like that. You look like a techie who never leaves his cyberdeck." "Well, I am in a way," Sam grinned.


    He only received an eye roll, "You will get decent clothes in our armory and we will take you to our internal Augementer. Get cyberware that looks more military. Don''t worry, you''ll keep all your stuff."


    "I... I''m not quite sure how to react to that." He didn''t want useless implants, because a person could only tolerate limited Augs and he wanted to have cybermancing implants installed later in his life.


    "Simple. You''re not going to have an opinion on it and you''re just going to do what I say, or I''ll fry you here and now. YOU are the reason why we are both in this situation right now. Don''t forget that."


    She was right. His damned curiosity had led him to the Corp hideout and-


    Sam must have clearly exposed the guilt, because Sara now said, softer: "I won''t hold it against you, but we have to work together to get out of this. So please, just do what I say." Sam needed a few moments before he could answer: "yes, ok." a sympathetic slight smile briefly crossed Sara''s face and Sam added: "And I''m really sorry that you have to answer for this." Before he could continue talking, Sara slapped him on the shoulder and pushed him towards the door. "Don''t waste time on the past, but do your best in the now to improve the future. That''s what my instructor always said. Come on, off you go, choose clothes"


    At the end of a very long day, Sam was back in his Cybermancing chair, but this time without using the stationary Cyberdeck. He used the cooling to recover his body from the surgeries.


    The Augmenter had built in his knuckles made of sturdy Plasteel, reinforced forearms and artificial back and shoulder muscles with light armor. His back in particular still hurt, despite all the painkillers he was given. But Sam couldn''t deny that he looked much more like a warrior with his shimmering black and gray shoulders. He would get other lenses for his eyes so that they looked more like a big cat or something, Sam would at least look dangerous until he really had to fight. But Sara had assured him that it was not expected of him, but that knowledge of weapons technology and how to use it was primarily assumed.


    Now he still had five days to recover, experiment with his new body and finish Sepperl.


    He wished it was right away, because then he could at least get it over with right away. The five days turned out to be much worse than expected. He had been able to do everything except the recovery on the first day and sat around the rest and fought his panic that he would soon climb into the den of lions, with a fat steak in his hand.


    Then it occurred to him that the disaster that did not appear will probably choose a REALLY bad moment to appear after all.

 The first hunt

    It turned out that CL30s was already open, even though it was only 2 p.m. But it wasn''t surprising for the residents here, considering that no one cared about rules and conventions here. The "bar", if you could call it that, had been built from an old office building, which was placed in front of a warehouse, and the gate house of the main gate. Thick LED neon tubes bathed the roof and upper walls in a strong pink, while thinner tubes ran along the wall and formed CL30 in bright green.


    The owner, Cleo, was a tall woman of apparent Egyptian descent, which would explain the name, and was dressed in sturdy military trousers and a simple top. "Here you two, something nice and delicious to get you started," she said as she placed two fruity cocktails on the high bar table outside the bar, "and this is to get started afterwards." This time, two small shot glasses with light blue liquid were presented. Whatever was in it, it was beautiful. Aurelia completely lost herself in the swirling colors of bright blues, from sky to cobalt there were dozens of colors, all recognizable at the same moment. "How is that possible?" murmured Aurelia as she stared at the glass. "How is something possible?" came from Blurr, who now also looked into Aurelia''s glass. "Well, the many colors that are in there, how can you see them all so clearly?" If Aurelia had been able to tear her attention away from the intriguing drink, her confused expression on her face would have been noticeable. "Are you high or something?" she asked worriedly, "that''s just blue." I can confirm," Cleo chimed in, who was now also staring into Aurelia''s shot. "No, I see a bunch of colors, I swear to you!" "Aurelia. As much as I enjoy witnessing when you embarrass yourself in front of others, I have to point out to you that no one else can see what you call ''Many Colors''. Your Advanced Eye uses the hardware using software I created to show you subtle particle differences in the liquid. It would be good not to openly express your abilities, as this could infer me. Please. Stop it." Aurelia froze. After blinking several times, she leaned back awkwardly and tried, in vain, emphatically casually to communicate: "I must have tripped briefly. Everything is fine, I see normally again." This brought her even more confused looks. Blurr leaned close to her and asked softly, "What''s wrong with you and where can I get the stuff that makes you wrong? Your description sounded mega cool." "I''m neither wrong nor high, I just had a short brain fart, nothing more. Shall we?" with that she raised the cocktail in Blurr''s direction, who did the same after a few seconds and toasted with her.


    "Is much better than the drinks from the dive bars in town, and cheaper. Mh. Another reason why people live here voluntarily. I''m starting to understand it really well," Blurr said after she had emptied the cocktail in a few puffs. "Just two hours ago, you were of the opposite opinion. Did food and alcohol really change your mind so much?" "If you knew what the food tasted like that I had to eat the last few weeks and before that the synth food from the city... And alcohol is always a good argument." She raised the shot, looked into it again and, apparently satisfied, poured it down her throat. "Uhhhhhhh he''s burning. A bit of a strange taste, but actually quite ok. Come on, you now," she looked at Aurelia expectantly. She put down her half-finished cocktail and grabbed the shimmering blue drink. One. Two. Three. Her throat broke out in fire, which stretched down to her stomach, where it turned into a pleasant warmth. "And? What do you think of it?" came from Blurr, but Aurelia had to struggle to banish the fire before she could answer. "Tastes ok, but it burns endlessly." "Yes, man, finally a drink that''s worth the money." "If you mean" came soberly from Aurelia. Well, not completely sober anymore.


    "Don''t you like alcohol, huh?" blurr asked, while she ordered more shots with wild gestures. Either that, or she had a strange kind of seizure. Aurelia had only been allowed to taste wine during masses in the convent and had no other alcohol. Accordingly, Blurr was not wrong. What Aurelia would never admit, however, she answered instead: "I like wine more. But I''m open to new things" "Here you two" Two more shots were brought and flowed directly into Aurelia and Blurr.


    The effect of the alcohol became clear after some time and more drinks and Aurelia had to hold on to the table to avoid falling over. Blurr seemed to be much more used to it, as she was still standing upright for the most part and asked: "Yo, everything ok with you nun?" Aurelia glared at her latest acquaintance and tried with all her strength to sound sober when she answered: "It''s all Tippi Toppi with me" she failed miserably and Blurr burst out laughing.


    But before she could say anything about it, she heard a familiar voice behind her: "Hey new, we have to go and I don''t want to wait for you anymore just because you''re looking for the old one!" Parker sounded annoyed and angry. Which was understandable, Aurelia had completely forgotten that he had existed at all. She turned to him and slurred, "Oh sorry Park, I was a bit distracted." With difficulty, she staggered in his direction, while Blurr writhed with laughter and breathlessly squeezed out: "Have fun ahahaha" Parker''s gaze was gloomy, but before Aurelia could say anything when she finally reached him, he turned and walked towards his hut. "We have a task Ex, you can get drunk at any other time. I got a tip, there is a warehouse a few kilometers away that has not been actively used for a few years and now has only very light protection. It''s supposed to be from BlackMahr Tech, with a bunch of old cyberware that is no longer sold. We''ll go in, grab the stuff and bring it here, then we''ll see what we can use and what we can sell." Aurelia struggled to keep up with him until she was finally able to catch up with him when he took a rifle and a pistol from his workshop. He turned to her: "Do you still need weapons, or do you have what you need? And please drink a coffee or something, so that you are at least a little sober up. The way to our goal is quite long, I hope it''s enough so that you don''t pose a danger to yourself, or me." "No, I have everything" came from Aurelia while she tried to talk to Raya without saying the words: "Is there an anti-drunk stim or something?" "Yes. For 10 coins. Should I buy it?" "Yes, please, but can you teleport it into my hand behind my back so that Parker doesn''t notice?" Shortly afterwards, she felt the weight of a small stim injector in her left hand, which she held out of Parker''s sight. She waited for a moment when she could use it unnoticed and then threw the stim into one of the many piles of garbage.


    It worked wonders! Within a few seconds, she became completely sober and it felt as if she had been slowed down from 200 km/h to 0 in a car. Parker seemed to have noticed this, because he asked, "What''s going on? You look like someone hit you in the face." "Oh, uh, yes, all good, I had a few instant coffee cubes that I ate just like that made me a little more sober." His eyebrow rose, but Parker didn''t go into it any further, but shouldered his rifle and set off, presumably to the common goal of the two.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    The path turned out to be much longer than Aurelia had assumed. Or maybe it just felt that way because Parker refused to engage in conversations. Every time she asked a question, she only got an emphatically short answer. But she could understand it. When Aurelia had seen Blurr, she was in a trance and had left Parker standing and finally completely forgotten that he even existed. In fact, she almost felt sorry for it. Almost. If it had been Bear instead of Parker, she would feel really bad, but Bear was also just a different kind of person than the scrap collector.


    "Up there," came from Parker, who slowed his pace and knelt. The two had been on the road for a good two hours. Aurelia stumbled over him, too lost in her thoughts. "Fuck," she exclaimed as she landed on her butt. "Damn it, get your drunk ass under control." "Yes, sorry" She picked herself up and knelt next to him and asked: "What exactly is the plan? Through the front door and just knock everyone down right away, or sneak in and turn everyone off quietly before we grab the stuff?" He looked at her in shock: "We''re not going to kill anyone here, you madman. We sneak in, take as much as we can carry and leave." "Really?" "Yes. Really." "But if we move the people in there, we can take our time with the equipment and take everything with us. That makes much more sense." "Maybe, but we''re not killers. We only kill when it is absolutely necessary." "You may not be a killer, but I''m not such a wimp. I''ll take care of the guards and you just come along, how does that sound?" "NO! If you want to belong to the municipality, then you have to follow our rules! And that means: NO KILLING IF IT IS AVOIDABLE! Did you understand me?" "Yes, yes, it''s good" And she had been looking forward to a bit of action.


    The warehouse, even if only roughly to be described as such, was a small house, little more than a hut, with a total of five soldiers, in BlackMahr uniforms spread around it. Three sat in chairs around the warehouse and the other two leaned against the big black SUV with the Corp logo. All of them had light armor, machine guns, as well as pistols on their sides. The equipment didn''t seem anything special, but solid. So they were not without danger. Aurelia was curious to see how Parker wanted to sneak in without force, that there seemed to be only one entrance, where one of the guards sat in his chair. She lay flat on her stomach, took her rifle, whereupon she heard a hiss from Parker and justified herself: "I want to use the scope, get an old man." "Fine. But woe betide you if you fire." "Don''t worry, but how are you going to get in there now? They are well positioned, well equipped and seem to be well trained." "Good question. But we''ll find a way. Let''s first observe how they behave down there. There may be an opportunity." Aurelia''s trigger finger itched so terribly as she looked from guard to guard, imagining how she turned one by one into Bloody Goop.


    After four hours of waiting, there was still no good time, even when the changing of the guard had taken place thirty minutes ago. The new soldiers had positioned themselves just like the previous ones and seemed just as uninterested in giving up their posts. "Parker, that''s ridiculous. Let''s go down and take them out, there won''t be any opportunity, even you have to realize that slowly." "First: Rules! Secondly, these are trained corpo soldiers, with good equipment, we''d die before we got close enough, even if we could take a few of them with us! It''s far too dangerous. We''ll retire for now and come back when else." While Parker slowly crawled backwards, Aurelia looked at him completely aghast. "Dude," she murmured, took aim at one of the two on the vehicle with Exodus and pulled the trigger.


    The torso exploded in red mist, splashing fluid and shredded organs. While the guards panicked, Aurelia took aim at the second SUV and fired. His left leg was shredded and he fell to the ground. Aurelia had aimed at the head. "Shit" She got up and sprinted to a small pile of garbage, behind which she was protected from the fire from the machine guns. She switched to her blender and waited until the bullets stopped and peeked out, at the last moment she was able to duck her head again as more bullets came in her direction. "Raya, smoke grenade!" A long bullet appeared in her hand with a pin on the side, she pulled the pin with her teeth and threw the grenade between her pile of garbage and her opponents, waiting for the hissing of the smoke to spread. She sprinted off and catapulted herself forward with her augmented leg, towards the camp. When she broke out of the smoke, she found herself right in front of a BlackMahr Corpo and managed to lower her shoulder and crash into him at the last moment without falling herself. Her weight wasn''t enough to throw the soldiers to the ground, but that wasn''t necessary, because she had bought herself an important second in which she raised her dazzler and pulled the trigger twice. With a disgusting sound, the two bladed projectiles shredded the chest and abdomen region, leaving a pain-bent corpse.


    After Aurelia had put her gun back, crouched down, tensed her cyberleg and shot up to the roof of the one-story building. She held on to the edge and pulled herself up, there she pulled her gladio. Carefully and quietly, she crawled towards the door and tried to make out her last two targets. She saw a soldier directly below her, who had set up a mobile sign in front of him and was waiting behind it in cover. She couldn''t see the other, but she could hear him, he had taken cover behind his colleague on the corner. So he was their first target. Slowly she moved directly over him, raising her sword in front of her with the blade straight down. She let herself fall. Without any real resistance, the sword slid through the unsuspecting corpo while she crashed to the ground behind him, a little too loudly. She could hear the one with the shield moving and she jumped around the corner and swung her sword wildly around her before she realized that he was a good deal further away than she had expected. So their sword swings only cut air. This gave her counterpart the chance to fire at her.


    She threw herself to the side and avoided being hit directly in the face, but the ensuing shots tore seven holes across her body. Hot pain fell over Aurelia and her vision narrowed, as if she were looking through a blinding tunnel of light. But she saw the soldier as a smeared shadow still in front of her, as he pointed his weapon at her again. Before she could think, her arm had already made the decision to throw the sword in the direction of the shadow. This probably saved her life, because she heard the gun firing through the rustling in her ears, but apparently in a completely wrong direction, while the shadow collapsed. Before she could make sure that her opponent was really out of action, the tunnel narrowed further and further before she fell into unconsciousness.

 Urgh

    Quiet, indistinct words penetrated lazily through the fog in Aurelia''s head. She couldn''t quite make out what was being said, only that the voice was getting louder and louder. "-ammte Sch-.... What the heck-...." It sounded like Parker and he seemed angry. Why? What happened again? Aurelia''s thoughts slowly began to quicken, which ensured that she also began to feel the throbbing pain that ran through her body.


    Oh. Yes. There was something. The memory of her action slowly came back to her. That explained Parker''s mood. But hey, she had cleared the camp. If he doesn''t act like that.


    "And then you just kill people without even thinking about it, you fucking psychopath. Be glad that Bear told me to bring you back in any case."


    Aurelia couldn''t get "Urghh" out more, it felt incredibly difficult to move her body and talking was almost impossible. "Aurelia." she heard in her head, "I changed your nervous system so that I could move your body conditionally and treat your wound provisionally. You still feel the side effects of that and the drugs Parker injected you with to stabilize you." ''Drugs? Aurelia thought, ''What drugs? Why is he pumping me full of drugs?!'' "I suspect it''s standard first aid here outside the city, because hospitals are very remote from each other and modern medicine is very expensive. '' Fuck me. And how long will I be such a vegetable? I don''t want to let Parker drag me around. '' "In two to three hours you should probably be able to move your body enough to get nano packs, from then on it only takes minutes. I really recommend you switch to an internal medicine unit as soon as you have the necessary coins. Then I would be able to help more directly and wouldn''t be forced to move you like a meat doll. It''s very uncomfortable." Aurelia could just about restrain herself and only think, instead of saying it: ''Flesh.... Doll? What the... Raya, why do you have to say it like that, it''s disgusting. And please don''t remind me that you can do that at all. ¡¯


    The thought disturbed Aurelia. She had almost forgotten that Raya had helped her in the attack on her monastery before. Although both cases were to save Aurelia, the thought drilled into her skull like a 50 gauge bullet. But another thought also began to spread. Parker injected her with some drugs and was dragging her around. She had to concentrate so as not to panic. She was completely helpless. Since she had been in the convent in Celestia, she had not felt helpless. And even then, it wasn''t as direct a thing as it is now, where she was carried away by an almost stranger without motor skills.


    Aurelia tried to gather all her strength to move her mouth and vocal cords, but again only unintelligible noises came out of her throat. Parker seemed to ignore it, because his steps slowed briefly and went straight to the previous speed. ''Damn bastard...'' If I can move again, I''ll rip his ass off'' "Aurelia. Parker saved you, even if his approach .... unconventional. Shouldn''t you be a little more grateful?" Raya sounded reproachful, however she did it. Aurelia had noticed several times now how Aurelia took on slightly human traits in her speech, but this time it was clearer than ever. And the worst part was that Raya''s tone of voice made Aurelia actually feel bad about the way she was treating Parker in her head.


    As expected, the way back to the commune took a long time, as Parker had difficulty dragging Aurelia with him. However, she had to admit that it wasn''t his fault, but Aurelia''s equipment and Cyber''s leg, which added a lot of weight to Aurelia''s own weight. Parker''s lack of strength was therefore only a small part of the problem.


    The sun had long since set when she felt Parker drop her to the floor next to his small workshop and collapse next to her. "D a nk e" Aurelia croaked softly.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    It took three full days for Aurelia to recover sufficiently to leave her allotted room. Hildi had apparently taken care of her almost motherly during this time, which led to a variety of different feelings in Aurelia, many of which, however, she could hardly classify. From gratitude, to scam, to grief, everything was there. Wonderful to work through even more. "Raya, did I miss a lot? I feel like I''ve been run over by a Mag Rail train." Raya''s clear voice brought a little normality to Aurelia''s head as she answered, "You should feel that way too, your body had significant damage and the nanites had their hands full. While you were out of action, I did everything in my ability to keep track of everything. Bear and Hildi seemed to have had some conversations with Parker about you and have come to the conclusion that they should keep you from doing any activity in the field for the time being until you can be better assessed. In addition, Blurr was gone for a few days and returned a few hours ago with a load of chips that are apparently intended for a deal with E.E.I. For a wandering mercenary, she seems to spend a lot of time here." "Oh wow... So I didn''t make a good impression, huh?"


    Aurelia dragged herself tiredly into the large dining room in the inn and waited until she saw Bear or Hildi. But when neither one nor the other was not to be seen for quite a while and no one else was present, she decided to go outside and look around.


    With the opening of the door, a wave of noise and light broke down on them. Loud arguments and a burning sun made it difficult for Aurelia to orient herself and so she just stood in the doorway for a few seconds without moving. She could hear Parker talking to someone in a loud voice, justifying, she couldn''t tell who the other person was, seemed to be female.


    "Fuck you Parker, it takes you years to complete a single mission, piss off here like you''re important and just don''t forget that everyone here knows that you''re the reason for most of the deaths here. I don''t know what you''re doing out in the field, but it''s a damn clear trend to see in the result!" "I don''t need to justify myself to a Ronin who only shows up here every few weeks. Get out, you want to be Cyberpunk!" A brief moment of silence. Then a blow. Slowly Aurelia could see what was happening in front of her. A crowd of people had formed around Blurr and Parker to watch the two argue, but now Blurr had attacked him and turned it into something tangible. In a very short time, a scuffle ensued to keep the two away from each other. "Call me that again and I''ll rip your head off, you glorified scrapper!" screamed Blurr, her voice rising an octave. "I call you what I want, you are only tolerated, I am part of the community, so finally disappear!" Parker''s voice was still in the same pitch, but the words sounded scratchy and even more hostile now.


    "Aurelia. Good to see you back on your feet!" came Bear''s deep voice from behind her. She turned around and the tall man took her in his arms and said afterwards: "You''ve caused quite a mess here with your little stunt. Luckily, we were able to get a lot of equipment, but promise me never to do anything like that again." Aurelia lowered her head and let out a soft "I''m sorry" when she heard from behind her how the crowd began to fight again. Bear raised his voice and only after he let out a loud "STOP!" did the roar become quieter and the argument subsided. Bear''s voice was naturally very deep and penetrating, but this volume must have been a product of Augs. He could have just silenced a full football stadium with the volume and yet no one had damaged their ears. Not even she, who was standing right next to him. Aurelia still saw Blurr running towards Parker, punching him in the face and then catapulting himself away with a metallic ZISSSHHHHH.


    Aurelia asked, "What was that just now?" B?r only said: "Children who argue because they don''t think more than five meters ahead." And that seemed to be the end of the issue for him. He went into the crowd and talked to some people, while Aurelia stood a little lost, trying to understand what had happened. Was the dispute about her, or did Blurr have other problems with Parker? Now that she was thinking about it, Parker had called her a "provisional member only" and, interestingly enough, had mistold her name when Aurelia had asked him about it. She would have to talk to him about it.

 The Strays

    Blurr flew through the air after she had catapulted herself out of the community with her eyes. She was reluctant to use this tech because she regularly messed up the landing and she didn''t want to buy a new faceplate again. She had already spent a fortune on her current one, only optical upgrades.


    When she now faced a small plateau of a building, she got ready and sank all her concentration into the next movements. She pulled her legs together in front of her stomach and made herself as small and spherical as she could, in order to straighten her legs at explosive speed shortly before the impact and activate her air boost, which now slowed her down instead of hurling her forward. This took most of the power out of her landing and she was able to roll with her shoulder so that she could direct the remaining power away from herself as well. Her jacket, or rather the integrated flex plate armor, protected her from surviving the rough ground without injury. With a dull struggle, she came to a stop at the end of the plateau, right at the door that led into the building.


    Slowly she got up and knocked off the dust. "Pfff. I give myself a... hmmm B-" she explained to herself proudly.


    It was actually one of her better landings. Now all she had to do was break open the door and then go down to the streets. There she would then call her hidden parked car and set off and drink a bar empty. ''Damn bastard,'' she thought to herself angrily as she threw the door out of the hinges with a skilful kick, ''he should be happy that I help the minimally configured at all. If I didn''t need the information and Intels, I would have left long ago.''. With a loud crash, the door finally gave way after Blurr''s fifth attempt. "Finally..."


    As she made her way to the emergency stairs, she opened her HUD and radioed ''Stray Catfish''.


    The holocall was immediately accepted and a pretty, but corpsely pale South-East Asian woman with shimmering pink hair came into the picture. She looked tired, and Blurr could see parts that must have belonged to one of her strange projects. "Hey Eelternity... I need someone to throw up with. Oh and let Stray Badger know that he can take 3 Strays and 25 Nobodies if he accepts the gig with the Heilong!" Eelternity blinked and was about to ask a question, but Blurr had already ended the call.


    She had finally arrived on the ground floor and called her car out of hiding. No hover car or shit like that, no. A car with tires and even a combustion engine. An antique. One of her beloved babies. The deep black sports car rolled to Blurr with a slight rumble of the engine and opened the driver''s door for her.


    Aurelia was about to thank Parker for bringing her back and if he could secure the loot when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. In a flash, she turned around and tried to grab her knife before her attacker could grab her, but by then it was already too late.


    Hildi tore the baffled and much taller Aurelia off the floor and gave her a bear hug that Bear himself could be proud of. "I was so worried, child! What were you thinking?!" she squealed and lowered Aurelia again enough to touch the ground, but didn''t let go of her. "You mustn''t scare me so much!" Aurelia tried to talk her way out of it a little and began: "I''m okay again, I-" "I saw you when Parker brought you here and fed you! I know how bad your wounds were!" Aurelia could not answer this and stood motionless in the older woman''s embrace. Quietly she said: "I''m sorry. I didn''t want to worry you."


    Hildi looked up at her and Aurelia saw an ocean of empathy. She had never received so much care that was not tied to conditions. Almost no one had that, she was sure of that. The poorest children were too busy fighting for survival and the rich children were not allowed to indulge in emotions while they were working to turn them into perfect corpo drones.


    So why did Aurelia deserve to feel this warmth? Hildi wouldn''t be able to change much more with her, she was already too bitter and full of hatred, where most of the time she didn''t even know what she was against.


    "Listen, child. I''ve been treating you day and night for three days now, and you''re talking in your sleep. A lot. You don''t have to say anything. Just thank me and I''ll leave it at that. You don''t have to worry."


    That threw Aurelia a little off track. "Talking? What did I say? Hopefully nothing too bad," the blush rose to her cheeks as she feverishly went through her memories, looking for her most embarrassing moments and all the shameful deeds she had committed in her life. She saw countless moments and situations in front of her, some as harmless as stealing a pen during a museum visit to her class, others as gruesome as the one time she began to explore her body and one of the priests caught her and let her walk around tied up with poles for a whole week so that she could not bring her hands close to her body.


    "Whatever you''re thinking right now, it''s not," Hildi''s warmth broke through the raging stream that was Aurelia''s thoughts. "But I''ve gotten a little insight into your past. I won''t tell anyone what you''ve been through so far, don''t worry."


    "I, uh,.. Thank you." Aurelia took a deep breath, "and thank you for everything. Not only the care, but also that you and B?r have taken me in here." Hildi''s eyebrow rose and she slowly let Aurelia out of her iron embrace: "And you don''t intend to disappear from here as soon as you''ve "found" yourself?" Aurelia''s eyes became so big that they almost popped out of her eye sockets, "I have that too-...? Damn. That was not yet certain." Hildi put her hand on Aurelia''s arm and just said: "We are a community here, we help each other and if it is best for someone to move on, then we hold a farewell party instead of trying to change the decision."


    "Hey you two, come over!" growled a deep bassy voice. Aurelia and Hildi turned and saw Bear standing next to Parker and holding a box in his arms. Aurelia wandered over curiously, still with Hildi''s hand on her arm.


    "Hey Parker," Aurelia greeted a little awkwardly, "Are you okay again? The blow earlier looked like it had hurt. Oh and thanks, for, well, you know you didn''t let me die and stuff..." Parker looked at her and held his bleeding nose: "Ya... Gladly, I think..."


    "Oooookay," Bear grumbled, "that was unpleasant. Oh hey, here: Something completely different!" a small giggle escaped Hildi and Bear brought the big box into a room that Aurelia didn''t know yet. Parker crouched down as Bear put down the heavy-looking ballast and began to open the lock, "That''s all the valuable thing I was able to smuggle out of the camp and hide before I brought you back here ex. My drone had spent the last few days scouting the area, grabbing the box for an opportunity and bringing it here." He lifted the lid and countless chips, circuit boards, electronic components and augments became visible. Parker proudly unpacked the contents of the box and spread it on a small tarpaulin: "These are motherboards that cybermancers can use to make little hack wizards, sometimes techies use them to bypass the original software in Corpo Tech. These are chips that make us a real fortune, with these things you can reprogram almost any bionically secured weapon without having to open or convert the weapon yourself." He unpacked a few more parts that didn''t seem to make that much money, but would be useful to Parker. That had also been the actual target prey in the hunt. When Parker was finally done with his infinitely long explanation, during which Raya gave visual explanations on Aurelia''s HUD that weren''t so convoluted, he took out parts for Augments and even full cyberware. "Five times ''Legacy Arts Okuli Evo'' eyes, two times ''SynchroDisk Reflex Co-processor'', four times ''Aurora Dynawave Integrated Cyberdeck with EMP Hardening''.


    The parts are top tier Augs. People kill for it. Especially the decks. Many Cybermancer Operators use decks of this or lower quality, we''ve hit the jackpot here Bear!" Parker sounded so happy that Aurelia stared over at him to make sure it was the same person talking. "Aurelia. This equipment is worth hundreds of thousands of Neo Euros or more. It''s not at the level of tech you can get from me, but it''s impressive by human standards at the time. CEOs and high-level operators would use these augmentations." Aurelia hesitated for a moment and without actually saying the words, she formed the sound in her throat: "What exactly do you mean by ''conditions of this time''? Do you have any idea what our future technology will look like?!" "Don''t be silly Aurelia," came in her head and Aurelia could hardly ignore the condescending tone, "I can do simulations to create a rough idea about the development of humanity, but I meant the technology of humanity before the lost age, when I and my siblings were originally sent here to help you survive the invasion." "Oh, yes, there are some conspiracy theories in the net forums that we used to have much better technology." "This came primarily through the stargazer weapons and technologies that were analyzed and researched by many to make replicas that were possible at the time. This gave humanity a temporary boost in technological progress, but much of it was lost during the end of the war, when only a few nations remained." "Mhm. Let me guess, the nations and corpos didn''t want to share their knowledge and so all the progress went down with them when they were destroyed in the last few years, am I right?" "Indeed. A mistake that couldn''t be more humane." "Yep... But that''s actually only an advantage of us, after all, it means that my equipment is even superior in direct comparison." For a moment there was no answer and Aurelia was already beginning to wonder if she had said something wrong when Raya finally spoke up: "The technology of stargazers and almost every other species we had helped so far is superior to even the best of humanity back then." And that seemed to be the end of the conversation for the voice in Aurelia''s head, because Raya refused to answer at all afterwards. Damn robot ghost, Aurelia cursed inwardly and tried to fit back into the events in front of her.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "-It''s hard to sell, but once we have merchants, we''ll earn enough to help everyone in the community and almost build a palace here," Parker gushed to himself, while the skeptical-looking bear folded his massive arms and interrupted Parker: "First of all, we have to find someone we can trust. What do you think will happen if gangs find out that we store such valuable equipment here?! We would put everyone in danger!" "That''s true, but we can certainly use our contacts to find someone who is suitable." Aurelia looked up and asked, "Why don''t you ask Blurr? She seems to be competent enough, and even though everyone pretends to be someone unknown, I''m sure you''ve known her for quite a while. Bear opened his eyes wide and Parker''s jaw dropped, in almost perfect synchronization they both asked: "How do you know that?!" Bear continued, "There''s no way Blurr would have blurted it out, so why do you know?" Aurelia laughed briefly, "You and Parker were pretty good at pretending she''s just an ordinary operator who gets through here from time to time, but she''s a miserable liar herself. In addition, the argument between you has made it clear that you have known each other longer and better than you claim." During the last sentence, she looked mischievously at Parker, who then hung his head.


    "I don''t want to know what you''re up to, but wouldn''t Blurr be able to help? Otherwise, I could try to contact a group with whom I lived for a short time. They are a kind of underground aid association for the weak, or something like that."


    The strange description of the Children of Nero earned Aurelia confused looks, but Bear immediately regained her composure: "Ex, you have to understand that we are in a very delicate situation here. If you hadn''t almost killed yourself with your action to clear the warehouse for Parker, we wouldn''t let you know what we have here. The knowledge is so dangerous that the three of us here and Hildi are the only ones who should know about it. Blurr is someone I would trust with many important tasks, and I trust you that your group would be discreet, but with a treasure of that value, even those we trust can be dangerous."


    Aurelia had to think about it. She understood the logic with which B?r was arguing here, but what was the point of such a treasure if it could not be turned into liquid assets. While she stared into the void and tried to find a solution, Parker and Bear continued to talk quietly. It would be best to run everything through a middleman who neither knows who the seller is nor where the goods are stored. However, this would also mean that no one who was even peripherally connected to the municipality here would be allowed to come into contact with the sale or the middleman.


    "Raya, tell me, can you create a false identity that is waterproof enough for me to reach someone over the net without it seeming suspicious?" "Of course" came the answer immediately. This meant that at least most of the transactions and organization could be done this way, but for handovers, they would need someone as a fa?ade, at least for the first time.


    Aurelia''s thoughts were racing at 300km /h and she felt a migraine slowly announcing itself. Raya''s voice sounded and had something pleased about it: "Hehe, you think so hard that you get a headache. Almost like in a comic book where a character of reduced intelligence tries to solve a puzzle. Do you think smoke will come out of your ears if you continue like this?"


    Aurelia blinked, looked at her hands, blinked again, started to answer, and then closed her mouth again. "Burn." came from Raya. Did the damn AI really just say that?! Without saying the words, Aurelia turned to her ''better half'': "Raya! What the... What was the point of this shit? Should AIs not -... no idea, be less assy?!" "No." Raya was now back to her usual cold, monotonous voice. "Don''t come to me like that! I heard you almost laughed when you just said it!" "Aurelia. While I am able to process, understand and emulate human emotions, I can guarantee you that I am not able to laugh. I just made a humorous remark that simulates a verbal banter between friends." "No! You can pretend as cold and neutral as you want, Raya, I know what I''ve heard! If you come to life now while you''re in my head, that''s one thing I have to deal with." "Aurelia." Raya''s voice was a little softer than before, "You don''t have to worry. I am aware that I am an artificial intelligence and have no desire to change anything about it, nor to revise our previous symbiotic existence. We should rather deal with the situation that presents itself here, don''t you think?" "Mhm... Well," Aurelia replied grumbling and slowly got up.


    When B?r and Parker turned their attention to her, she began: "I can create a digital persona and coordinate an exchange with it, I would know a group that would be able to play the middleman, both in power and tech. The only problem is that I separated from them especially so that I don''t put them in danger unnecessarily. If there''s even the slightest chance that it could backfire, or we don''t have a 100 percent watertight plan, I''m not going to involve them."


    Bear grumbled, "Understandable. I could try..." He broke off as if he had almost divulged a secret. "I will look for capable middlemen." "We also have to find a good place to hide the goods," Parker interjected, "it has to be close so that we can watch over it permanently, but in case someone comes along that we can''t stop, at least the community here won''t get caught in the crossfire." Aurelia and Bear agreed, but Aurelia was not of much help. She looked at Bear, I crouched down to him and looked into his deep brown eyes: "If you have the opportunity to use Blurr... I''ll stay out of it and make sure that no one here notices."


    Something in Aurelia''s gaze must have convinced Bear to trust her even further. Well, it wasn''t too much of a leap from ''fortune in rare gear'' to ''whatever the hell was going on with Blurr''.


    "Blurr... is part of an organization called Strays. She''s undercover here at the moment. I can''t say more, but it''s important and much bigger than all of us. But I have..." He interrupted himself and took a deep breath, "I can contact your organization. The Strays are a kind of private detective agency and mercenary group for questionable deals" Parker chimed in and mentioned: "Blurr is just one of their persona. She''s been here for a damn long time, but always as completely different people. Very few know who she really is and that she has been here longer than most."


    Aurelia tapped her lip thoughtfully and then asked B?r, "Can you organize a meeting with Blurr or the group? I''ll talk to them there and maybe they can help us. I won''t mention that I know about Blurr''s identities, nor that I''m deeply privy to the commodity. I will pretend to be a dispensable stopover who is only there to route messages back and forth.


    I''m more or less an operator, so I wouldn''t raise suspicion that you''re hiring me for this. If we then hide the equipment, and I do NOT know where it is, then we should be pretty well secured here." She saw how the cogs in Parker''s head were working and Bear seemed to be calmer than before.


    "Ok. I''m going to contact Blurr with the cover story you just said. But let''s put everything away first and then find a hiding place. I''ll call the Strays tonight. I hope Mio will have calmed down a bit by then." He must have clearly seen Aurelia''s confused look, because he quietly explains, Mio "Blurr" Sasaki. Your current persona." with a wink.


    The following two weeks flew by. Every day was crammed with preparations. Aurelia, with Raya''s help and Parker''s dexterity, began to deactivate and remove the security systems of the goods. In addition, B?r and Parker were often outside the community to find good hiding places and to obtain information on whether there were suspects for the robbery.


    Even a week after Aurelia''s struggle, her body was still numb, slow, and throbbing in pain. Hildi had warned Aurelia to make few quick or vigorous movements. Otherwise, your body would only take longer to heal.


    Since Bear was not there, it was Hildi''s turn to throw over the currywurst stand. She took advantage of this directly to make Aurelia "a little more humane and less... Hildi was firmly convinced that Aurelia would become more popular with the members of the community if she took over the sale. Aurelia was almost sure it was more of an occupational therapy, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn''t get it out of Hildi.


    But she had to admit that it worked. Both. The even, limited movements did not cause unnecessary stress, and she had actually managed to get on well with many people from the community and the general area. She couldn''t judge whether her terrifying aura still existed, but she would manage that. A little more smile and Tadaa, from creepy shock troops nun, to friendly nun next door.


    After a total of 15 days and a lot of effort, Parker, Bear and Aurelia met under the cover of night for a final tactical meeting.


    Everything was ready. The box was secured with a mechanical lock developed by Parker himself and was in a place unknown to Aurelia. B?r had arranged a meeting with the Strays at a neutral location.

 Upgrading

    The plan itself was solid and as safe as possible, but something bothered Aurelia about it, but as much as she racked her brains over it, she couldn''t figure out what the problem was. Only when Raya had interfered because she really wanted to show Aurelia a vid of a cat playing the electric cello.


    "Aurelia. Why don''t you show the expected reaction to this objectively very cute vid? Are you a dog or raccoon fan?" Raya actually managed, despite her monotonous, icy voice, to bring in an undertone of disappointment. "I''m not in the mood Raya right now, when else. And what the hell did you mean by ''expected reaction''? Please tell me that you don''t use me as some kind of study for anything." "I would never without your consent." A short but unusual pause for Raya later, she added: "Which you; possibly unknowingly." Aurelia sat up in her bed and stared annoyed in the direction of the door. It was difficult to glare angrily at someone you couldn''t see. Aurelia was too tired for all this. She threw herself back into her bed and curled up in her blanket when Raya spoke up again: "I''m sorry. If you had been aware of my study, it would have falsified the results. I have not acted in malice.


    To change the subject and improve your bad mood; and to draw your attention away from my faux pas.


    I have a possible theory for the worries you obviously have. They are two different ones based on different scenarios." "Ah yes?" came Aurelia''s muffled voice from the blanket burrito. "Well then, let''s hear it."


    "Gladly. Theory number one is based on the basic assumption that something is bothering you about the plan and a potentially missing component.


    My second, and personal favorite, assumes that you are concerned about whether and how you will be able to steal the monetary gains from this operation without having to fight the community directly.


    Am I right in any of my assumptions?"


    The thick blanket roll unfolded and an indignant-looking Aurelia fell out of bed. "Ah, damn it." Before she could sit up, she had to free her legs from the chaos and spent a FRUSTRATING 30 seconds in this fight.


    "Urgh! And now to you, you psychotic computer mind!" "I''m not a ghost, you know that." "Yes, I know... Computer mind. WHY DOES THE SECOND ASSUMPTION EXIST?! WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM!?" With each word, Aurelia''s voice grew louder until she almost shouted out the last question. "I was accepted here. Why would I cheat on my friends?"


    "It would make sense to secure the neo-euros for yourself so that you can get housing and a vehicle. In addition, you are no longer dependent on eating low-quality food. In addition, wealthy cyberpunks and operators are able to use money as a tool."


    "And what about my second question?!" "I... I was hoping you''d be satisfied with my answer to just one of the questions.


    Aurelia. You are a textbook psychopath. You meet all the criteria to be diagnosed with Dissocial Personality Disorder. I saw you kill people without moral qualifications. Not only that... You even seemed to enjoy it."


    "Hey! You are not a therapist. Stop it. I also spent time with Mary and the Children and with the people from the church here, without attacking or hurting anyone. I''m just punishing those who are guilty of this world. That doesn''t mean that I just betray or hurt friends!"


    "Forgive me Aurelia. I let myself be influenced too much by the pure data. I should know better and your... ''Aurelia-likeness''." "Woah, what does Aurelian mean, please?" "You regularly decide against my predictions and find solutions, and problems that shouldn''t exist. You are an anomaly that even I, as a perfect AI, cannot predict.


    In addition, Aurelia-ness is a great neologism that I am proud of. If I had shoulders, I would pat on them. In my free time, I''m also working on using Aurelia as a verb."


    Aurelia first had to lean against a wall and take a deep breath. After a few seconds of complete silence, she then asked in a matter-of-fact tone: "You have free time? Can''t you do everything super fast? I don''t think you can really speak of a principle like work and leisure." "Of course, you''re absolutely right, in this case I used the word free time to imply that I pursue a hobby. If I use a minimal portion of my power as my own data center, I can think at a speed that is similar to a human." "You... So you''re making yourself stupid so that you... Hobby... ? Mind you, that consists of turning my name into verbs and so on." "Not just verbs. Aurelia-ness is a substantive adjective." Aurelia started and then stopped herself from speaking. It was too early for such a thing.


    Her HUD showed 8 a.m. Felt more like 3 a.m. With sluggish movements, she forced her body to the small box that she abused as a wardrobe. She slipped out of her sleeping outfit and looked down at herself. Raya had been right. The two weeks of natural healing before the Nanites finally did their job and brought Aurelia into top condition. Besides, it was far more inconspicuous than if she had suddenly healed fully after three days.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Absent-mindedly, she reached for a shirt Parker had given her when her fingers happened to glide over the rough fabric of her nun''s habit that lay underneath. She hadn''t worn her robe for a long time, as it was still full of blood and human remains. She had fought so hard to be able to wear a habit and now she let herself be distracted by a little-; well, ok, keep a lot of blood out.


    Her grip tightened and with the black and white fabric in her fist she asked: "Raya" "Aurelia." "What is my Stargazer account balance?" "Your current level is 4237 coins." "What- so much? Real? How?!" Aurelia stammered, Raya replied unimpressed: "you had 153 coins before you came to Bear here. Your action in the secured camp gave you 800 per soldier. So you have earned 4000 coins just by doing this. Then there were an additional 630 coins, 600 through the camp itself and 30 for not including Parker in the firefight." "Ok, but that''s what it is..." Aurelia counted in her head and just used her fingers a little to keep track, "4783 coins, right?" "Indeed. In the few moments of responsiveness, I made sure that medical equipment was purchased. You used the last of these last night to complete the healing. The total cost was 550 coins." "Ouch." Would you have preferred death?" "Urgh, of course not. But with 4 thousand other things, surely I can afford armor that includes my habit, or looks the same, right?" "For 100 coins you can buy Armor 1, but I recommend Armor 2 for 1000. A Modular Flexiplate Armor ''Stalker v7 Base'' for 2500 can be customized by me to match the style of your garment. Then you would still have 1283 left." "Hmm, tempting. What exactly does the armor do then?" In Aurelia''s HUD, schematics and images of armor suddenly appeared, which looked as if a diving suit had been covered with fine triangular plates. On the chest was a larger piece of armor that, according to one of the blueprints, contained a cyberdeck, whose only job was to adjust the small plates to the wearer''s movements and, in the event of the impact of a projectile or weapon, to arrange the plates in such a way that the energy was optimally dissipated.


    Aurelia would no longer look like a cheese from Helvetica after every skirmish. Would certainly be worth the money, wouldn''t it?


    While Aurelia was still brooding and looking at the pictures particularly closely, another picture popped up. It was the armor again, at least according to the name, but it had a new design. The black grey camouflage of the bodysuit was replaced by a very deep black, a knee-length jacket that looked like you had taken a habit and cut it open in the middle was new and the colours of the chestpiece and smaller straps and brackets were changed from anthracite to a bright white. "This is my version of the Stalker Flexiplates armor. I hope you like my design." came from Raya, a little hesitant than usual. A big grin settled on Aurelia''s face and she answered, "It''s perfect Raya. Real. Thank you so much, thank you!" Aurelia could have sworn that for a short moment the room became particularly warm and sweat appeared on her cheeks.


    "It''s absolutely perfect! You said it was the basic model... I still have over 1000 coins left... What kind of addons are there?" "Here''s a list of extensions available to you." A short list appeared and Aurelia''s eyes widened. "Aurelia." "Yes?" Aurelia asked distractedly. "I have a guess what you''re after." "Oh yes." Aurelia''s face was contorted by an almost insane grin. That would be fun.


    As it turned out, a skin-tight bodysuit with countless plates was incredibly annoying to put on. The body part of the armor came in two parts: neck, shoulders, arms, and chest; and everything below.


    The white-smoldering brisket was the part that held everything together. This meant that Aurelia had to force herself into two pieces of clothing that were much too tight until she could finally put on the rest. After about 20 minutes of cursing, she had finally made it out of her room.


    Her coat jacket with the small hooks for her huge sniper rifle, which she had finally taken out of the dusty corner after more than two weeks, the straps with which the two holsters for her Fallen Angel Revolver and the Blender, as well as her tactical knife on the front of the revolver holster. A shimmering breastplate with a painted cross and the headgear of her habit, the only remaining part of her original robe. Across her body ran a belt that attached her sword Gladius Inannis to her back. Sunglasses rested on her nose, which allowed her to adjust the brightness and finally she had a cross hanging around her neck.


    She looked like a women''s army, believer detachment. She was ready! And broke... after her addons, she only had 28 coins left. But she didn''t care right now, because hidden under her jacket, Deus Ex had a new toy, with endless potential. If you didn''t know it was there, it was almost invisible on her back.


    "WOAH, who invited the church special forces," barked Bear laughing, "You look dangerous, ex!"


    Parker also seemed impressed.


    The Tactical Mission Nun walked across the large main room towards the Tall Man and held out her hand to him. "It''s not just for show." Bear''s bushy eyebrows raced up, but without hesitation he grabbed Aurelia''s hand and put all his strength into the handshake. Although the integrated gloves of her armor ensured that she had a superhumanly strong grip, she felt Bear''s paw take over. Incredible. How damn strong was he?


    The inn was less busy than usual, three guests from outside and Theodora, who was embellishing a jacket with fine embroidery, while she ate on the side.


    She looked up and looked at Aurelia critically, then put the jacket on the table and turned to her. "You look like you''re a prostitute who wants to cosplay a Commando." "Woah, Theodora," Bear was about to interject, but Aurelia stopped him: "It''s all right, Bear. I know exactly what she means.


    From a pure style standpoint, she''s absolutely right. You look at me from a tactical point of view, apples and oranges"


    "Your honesty and directness will get you into real trouble at some point," Parker said


    The seamstress just smiled and continued to work on her jacket. "I know who I can tell what it''s like and who would rather hear lies.


    I just hope it''s as combat-ready as it''s inappropriate."


    "Hehe, it is" Aurelia grinned and then turned to Parker and Bear. It was time. Both looked serious now and Bear led the small group out of the inn and onto the street.


    "The bar is an hour''s walk from here, Blurr will meet you there. Are you ready?"


    Aurelia looked down at herself. "I think so. I''ll get in touch when I have news."


    "Good luck"


    "You can do it"


    Came from both of them and Aurelia set off.

 A nun, a merc and an anarchist walk into a bar...

    Aurelia saw on her HUD that she was still a good thirty minutes away from the meeting point when she suddenly stopped as if rooted to the ground.


    "Aurelia? Is everything okay?" "I know it." "You know what now?" "I know what bothers me about the plan. And I know how to fix it. But that would mean I would have to be selfish and take a risk." Raya didn''t answer for a moment. "Raya?" "Yes?" "You''re surprisingly quiet, is there anything going on?" "No. I''m just not sure how to deal with this situation. I know you can be very cold when human lives are at stake, but at the same time, the exact opposite is also true."


    "Fair. But it doesn''t matter. I thought about our conversation again and you were right. It bothered me that one component would be missing. I will meet the seller together with Blurr and make the deal, but Blurr, if she does the job at all, is only a fixer. So I''m basically going in there without any real backing that I can trust." "I''m sure Blurr is capable enough in a fight. Besides, she won''t risk her entire organization to betray you." "Yes, that''s true, but it''s about the feeling of security of having someone who has your back in view."


    After a short moment, Raya asked, in a slightly curious voice: "So what are you going to do?" Aurelia smiled and opened the HoloCall app in her HUD. "I''m calling a crazy maniac with whom I fought side by side. I will be able to trust her!" "Oh, you''re talking about Anarchy Mary. I think that''s a good idea."


    The call rang for less than five seconds until it was answered and Mary''s voice rang in Aurelia''s ears "AH AURELIA, HOW ARE THINGS GOING, WHAT''S GOING ON, WHERE ARE YOU, IS EVERYTHING OK?!"


    Mary had a voice that could not be forgotten, rough and deep, but now it sounded like a caricature of herself. Aurelia couldn''t help laughing: "Hey Mary, nice to see you. I''m fine and I''m still in a fracture wall. And... Mary, I''m sorry I left this way. I should have at least said goodbye. But you would never have let me go." "Damn right! I know why you''re gone, but we all miss you. You gave us the opportunity to defend ourselves and you took out the Playaz. And you were a friend to me. Everyone would immediately agree to take you back here."


    Aurelia saw the desperate look in Mary and forced herself to ignore it: "Mary, I will not put the Children in danger again. But..." Mary looked like she wanted to throw something in, but Aurelia was quicker: "I''m ready to meet with you, OUTSIDE of your camp." Mary''s eyes lit up: "Fuck yes! When?"


    "It will be a little while before I can meet with all of you, but I want to meet you. Even today. It''s about a gig where I need someone I can trust."


    Mary''s appearance changed abruptly when she heard the word. With a serious expression and a tense voice, she asked: "Where and when?" "I''ll send you a ping, in half an hour, if you can make it." "Huh, it''s a long way gone. But no thing Deus Ex" she said Aurelia''s Operator name with a kind of reverence, which was really uncomfortable, "I''ll see that I get a vehicle and meet you there. What weapons do I need?"A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    Good question. The meeting with Blurr was just to work out the details for the gig with her. But one thing was certain: "Your fattest weapons. The meeting is harmless, but what comes afterwards could be tricky." "Got it!"


    With that, Mary abruptly cut the connection and left Aurelia puzzled. It felt that way when she did that with others. Wow. Not pretty. Deep down, she could feel that she wanted to laugh about it, but it was somehow... false.


    "Raya? Do I feel you laughing right now?"


    The feeling stopped immediately. "I''m sorry, Aurelia."


    "I didn''t know you could do that..." Again something new about Raya to rack his brain. But she didn''t have the time for that. She had to stay focused and couldn''t slip into an existential crisis again. But it was hard to ignore that Raya and Aurelia seemed to be so close that Raya could use her body to laugh.


    "Argh. Raya, damn it." "Aurelia. What exactly can I do to appease you?" "Soothe?! You literally take over my body. What if you make sure that I lose more and more with every little bit more presence? You may not care, but... Shit man, Raya. That scares me." "Oh, I didn''t know you were so bothered by it. I am sorry. The bond between entity and AI grows over time, but you don''t lose anything from yourself, you only gain me." "Oh, and that''s supposed to calm me down? If 50% of me is made up of you, I''ve still lost half of it, even if I theoretically still have 100% of myself!"


    "I''m sorry. Aurelia. I don''t know how to proceed now. The entities were always happy to get the support of the AIs-" Aurelia stopped and interrupted the voice in her head: "You said the stargazers always sent you when a world was in danger, right? So it''s logical that people are happy and they don''t care what happens to them! But I''m not in a war that can possibly wipe everything out!


    That''s not even true... I have to experience the crap with the war again and again, thanks to you." "War? Aurelia, what do you mean by that?" "The dreams of the guy with the fireteam fighting the alien things called me boss and in the last dream we saved rich sacks." Raya remained silent for a second. "Aurelia. This is not through me. At least not on purpose. I think," Raya hesitated, "I think you see my partnership in front of you. But that shouldn''t be possible."


    "Aurelia. That scares me," she added. Aurelia rubbed her temples and crouched down. That was all too much. "Why just before I have to do something important?"


    Raya didn''t answer.


    It took almost an hour until Aurelia was able to get up again, Blurr and Mary had called her constantly, she had accepted Mary''s last one and added Blurr. It was only thanks to them that she was able to think a little normally again. She hadn''t told everything, but she had talked about Raya and that she didn''t know if she was still herself. At some point, even Raya herself had come forward and inserted herself into the call. Aurelia didn''t care that she was revealing way too much, but she couldn''t help it.


    "Ok, now you come here first, then we''ll talk about it over a beer," Mary finally said worried and Blurr agreed with her. The two had sat down in the bar shortly after the call began and had a seat ready for the nun with existential horror. "Yes, ok. I''ll be there soon." came from Aurelia exhausted and she closed the call.


    It took just under twenty minutes until she finally stood in front of the fake wood door of the meeting place. The bar was not completely full, but well attended. But it only took one look to find Blurr, as well as Mary.


    One was dressed in a bright pink combat suit and purple combat jacket, the metal ears on her head, the other had badly cobbled together improv armor over old worn-out clothes with pink hair. Funnily enough, it was almost the same tone as Blurr''s suit. Aurelia walked up to her and, to her relief, saw a beer glass and a shot waiting for her. She urgently needed that now.

 Seraphim

    "So, why am I here? Blurr didn''t want to talk while you weren''t there" came from Mary between two deep gulps. Blurr immediately replied, "Because the secret between Operator and Fixer is sacred!" "Yes, yes, it''s all right," Mary replied with raised arms. "But seriously. What''s the job?"


    Blurr opened a small handheld projector and showed a map, image, and profile. "That''s Vern 27. We can sell him the goods for 60% of the original price. That sounds like little profit for us, but I guarantee you won''t find a better deal without taking the risk of a scam."


    The picture showed a broad man with short blond hair and artificial green-blue eyes, each with two pupils per eye. He was well dressed, but had a face that you wanted to punch into. Aurelia couldn''t say what exactly bothered her so much about his appearance, but the arrogant grin definitely didn''t help.


    "Vern 27? What kind of name is that?" Mary asked, but Aurelia just looked at her and said, "You''re the last one who can complain about names." "Why is that? What''s wrong with my name? Hey cat lady, you think my name is good, don''t you?" "Call me Cat Lady again and I''ll show you my claws," Blurr simply answered. "Okay, sorry. But let''s be honest. My name is great." It became quiet around the table and Mary''s gaze jumped from Blurr to Aurelia until she dropped her shoulders shortly afterwards. Aurelia put her hand on Mary''s arm and told her, "Don''t worry, you''re badass enough that such a generic name is enough for you." "Is that supposed to cheer me up?" "Actually, yes." Mary took a deep breath and said, "You''re really bad at that."


    "Ahem," Blurr coughed, "shall we continue?" Aurelia and Mary immediately closed their mouths and gave each other a competition to see who could look more interested. "I already regret it..." came from Blurr before continuing, "We''ll meet the buyer and bring a little sample so they can see that we really have the goods. The rest remains safely hidden.


    As soon as he transfers the money to us, you give Bear a signal and a drone from Parker will bring the box with the rest. Once the buyer has the box in his fingers, we retreat and pray that there are no hidden knives just waiting to catch an unprotected back.


    Questions so far?" Aurelia raised her hand and Blurr stared at her in disbelief, "Why are you getting in touch...? This is not a school." Blurr moaned softly to himself, "Nuns, pah." "Hey, I heard that! And I just didn''t want to interrupt someone else. That''s called manners." "Your question?" Blurr interjected. "Oh, eh, yes. So... what will our team look like? I''m going to do the deal, Mary will be my guard, which of the Strays will come along? You, or someone else?"


    "I can''t, but I''ll send you my bes- okay second best... or something, operator with. His name is Stray Badger, but you can also just call him Badger." "Second best?" came from Aurelia, "Or something?" from Mary. "He''s really good at what he does, but as our techie and engineer, he''s not in those missions too often. But if it comes to an altercation, he would be more than capable of supporting you."


    "Urgh, another techie? I''ll have to deal with Parker," Aurelia moaned as she heard Raya''s familiar voice in her head. "Aurelia. I did some research on this badger. He is something like the number 2 of the Strays, Blurr''s right-hand man. There''s little information to hint at his past, but he seems to be building guns and drones for the Strays. He would be a good ally in this mission."


    While Mary asked question after question, Aurelia raised her fresh beer glass to her mouth and asked Raya, "I''d still prefer Blurr, I''ve seen how good she is. At least part of it." "Don''t worry," Raya answered, "I''ve put together a few of his inventions for you so you can get an idea. Here." Aurelia''s HUD received a notification and she was able to open the folder immediately via Badger.


    Most of them were images of drones equipped with technology that in and of itself would probably be called war crimes. A small ball with a hidden flamethrower, a large drone that dropped cells from hundreds of small drones, which then acted like cluster bombs. Her favorite, however, was a small mechanical spider equipped with various poisons. Some of them were so small that they would get into any camp.


    "Are you even listening to me?" a rough voice called, tearing Aurelia''s attention from the pictures and descriptions. "Mh? What happened?" "Blurr just explained what the plan is if everything goes wrong." BLurr pointed to the map, "Here. This road is currently being prepared by a few of my people. If you manage to retreat there, you have an advantage. Traps for the others, covers for you and a small turret hidden in one of the buildings."


    "That sounds all well and good, but it sounds pretty expensive," Aurelia grumbled as she took a closer look at the card, "what''s going to be the share for the Strays?" "And mine!" interjected Mary, who had just ordered three new beers on her HUD. "I negotiated this with B?r. If you''re so interested, ask him." "Mhm na thanks. Mary, I''ll negotiate with you after the gig, I want to make sure that no one gets ripped off here."


    Mary looked gloomily at the table and said, "Aren''t we already being ripped off? After all, we sell for 60% of the value." Aurelia was about to agree with her when Raya wrote her a little text message in her HUD that this was a good deal. "I think it''s fair. That''s right, isn''t it?" "Yes. If you tried to sell the stuff without us, you would have to sell for much, much less and expect an ambush. But that brings me to another topic.


    This is not only about money, but also about reputation. The Strays secure more goodwill from all parties with a smooth transition, and it strengthens our reputation with everyone in the underworld that the Strays make sure a gig runs smoothly.


    You can''t arrive there as a solo Mercs and expect to be taken seriously. You should create a group, even if only temporarily." Klonk. With a bang, Mary''s glass slammed onto the table and she wiped the foam from her mouth: "That''s not a thing, I already have one and our favorite nun is always welcome there." Mary sounded very convinced of her statement, but Aurelia just looked at her doubtfully, "We can''t drag the Children into it! You and Wheels become targets, all by all the innocents you take in. I''m sorry Mary, but the Children of Nero are left out." Aurelia was already preparing for a discussion, but to her surprise, Mary agreed. "You''re right. I didn''t think that fame can backfire. But should we then make an improvised group? At least for the order." Aurelia had to think about it. She would like to join Mary in an operator group, but that would put her in danger if the group made a name for itself and then all the precautions Aurelia has taken would be worthless and the Children would be indirectly in danger again.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    Mary waited anxiously and fidgeted around on the seat with her now empty glass in her hand. Seemed like she wasn''t good at waiting. Blurr, on the other hand, was as quiet and relaxed as he had been the whole time. She had thrown herself casually on the bench of the s¨¦par¨¦es and leaned her sword against the side of the table. She looked at Aurelia and tried to see what was going on inside her, but that had never been her strong point, so she approached it in her own way. The nun''s eyes darted to blurr, and her cybernetic glowed. Blurr remained unimpressed and only said: "Not that? Hmm. Is it that you don''t trust your girlfriend enough here? Afraid that she will make enemies?" Aurelia''s eye was still shining, but this time in a darker tone, while her face twisted into a grimace with bared teeth. "Gotcha! And don''t look like that. I''m supposed to be the cat here." Aurelia looked like she was about to step over the table and try to strangle Blurr.


    Before Blurr had to rise from her comfortable position, Mary placed a reassuring hand on her friend''s shoulder. "It''s all good. You don''t have to fight with Blurr for my glory. Even if I don''t think that''s the reason."


    Aurelia looked up and her features softened, if only a little. "What do you mean?" Mary showed a sad smile and wrapped her arm around Aurelia''s shoulder. "I know I can''t compete with people like you or Blurr here. But now it''s all about me and not the children. In a group, I would distance myself from them a little so that they don''t get caught in the crossfire and send Sarvoz all the money I make.


    And even though I''m not a powerhouse like you, that doesn''t mean I''m easy prey." Mary''s smile turned into a broad grin that beamed with foolhardiness. Aurelia wished she would buy it from her. "It''s not that I''m worried that you won''t be able to keep up. Do you remember our first meeting? You were about to take out a camp single-handedly. I''m just afraid that the Children will be attacked if you''re absent for a long time."


    "You''re so exhausting, it''s driving me crazy!" Mary exclaimed, throwing both hands in the air, "you''ve given us a defensive system that makes our hideout an impregnable fortress for all the gangs in the area. And you have provided us with weapons enough for everyone to be armed. Oh, and your mind helped Sarvoz with a lot. You have already done so much for us and thanks to you we are finally able to live safely. I no longer have to stand guard day and night to protect everyone."


    Mary now grabbed Aurelia in a full embrace and spoke into her throat: "Don''t leave me behind again." Aurelia became stiff as a stick with one blow and Blurr could see her big eyes and had to hold back a giggle. Aurelia took a moment, but finally returned the hug. "Okay, Mary. But we''re not going to take unnecessary risks, do you understand?" "Of course". For a moment, they both stayed like this until Blurr asked the group: "Soooooooo. What about the two of them? Or do you need a room?" A small coaster flew in her direction and since her arms were behind her head, she couldn''t avoid being hit directly in the face by Mary. Laughing, Nun and Cyberpunk parted ways and Mary was caught by Blurr with a return. "Ah, damn, I hadn''t thrown that hard, cat lady." "I took the emotional pain into account. And don''t call me that." Mary snatched Aurelia''s coasters and Blurr jumped out of the seat and with a leap over Mary, towards the dance floor. There she disappeared among a group of drunks practicing her moves.


    "Keep an eye on the area, Aurelia, she''s sure to jump out of somewhere." Aurelia looked emphatically in the direction of the dancers and laughing, she asked: "Do you actually have an idea for a group name?" "No, not exactly, but ic- DA!" With a leap like a big cat, Blurr came rushing towards Mary. Mary tried to throw the coaster, but before the light piece of plastic could leave her fingers, Blurr landed on top of her and held her own coaster to her head. Breathing heavily and laughing, she rolled down and said, "HA! Won. I still have what it takes." "Fuuuuck. But at least you''ve proven why you''re called a cat lady," Mary moaned from the dirty floor. "No one calls me that!" Blurr shouted indignantly as she crawled back into her seat. "I call you that and I will make sure that everyone will! Aurelia, you''re on my side, go call her Cat Lady!" "Oh, I''ll stay out of it."


    It took at least three-quarters of an hour until peace and quiet reigned again in the small private room. Well, at least a temporary truce. Aurelia could not negotiate more. "So you two. As long as there is a ceasefire..." Aurelia looked at Mary, "We need a name. It has to be something that makes you recognize directly that it''s about us. Then we can also have something of our reputation and forge contacts more easily." "Mhmmm," Mary looked at the ceiling of the room and went through some names, "Neon Shadows? Pixel phantoms? Holo Vipers? Codebreaker?" Blurr intervened, and Aurelia struggled to prevent her from breaking the truce. "The names really suck. Have you seen too many murder mystery vids or what? The name of a group is sacred, it has to fit your style, preferably have something to do with your background and not just throw words together." "Hey, I thought my ideas were cool. But; And I hate that I have to admit that; you''re right." Mary looked questioningly at Aurelia, who had not yet made any suggestions. "Aurelia. If you want, I can provide you with creative support." "YES PLEASE," she blurted out, ignoring her volume. She got a puzzled look from Blurr and Mary, but Mary''s expression quickly changed to realization. "You''re asking your little AI buddy right now, aren''t you?" Aurelia nodded as Raya went through potential names in her head. "There, that! It''s good," she said after a few seconds of silence and her focus turned back to the other two. "Seraphim. Fits my style and is badass enough for Mary, after all it''s an angel with six wings and a flaming sword. Oh, and there probably aren''t many gangs that would name themselves after an angel."


    Mary thought for a long time. She seemed to compare the name Seraphim directly with all the ideas she had so far, but after half an eternity she nodded, "Okay, I think it''s good. But then I want armor like you! But more to my style. Where did you buy Tangensis Inc? I''ve heard they have equipment that is favored by the higher Operators and mercenaries." "I''m sure I can get you something, someday." "Whoo" Mary jumped out of her seat and stumbled towards the bar, while Blurr said to Aurelia, "That''s a good name and there are a few gangs and organizations that have similar names, but none of them are active in your field of work." "I just hope it really doesn''t have a negative effect on Mary''s charges," Aurelia muttered to herself. This drove Blurr to sit up with a sigh. "Now listen to Deus Ex, you''re here in a dangerous world, Mary in an even more dangerous one, so it doesn''t make sense to make life difficult for yourself with hypothetical problems. If it has a negative effect at some point, then you take care of it. Quite simply." Aurelia moaned and rested her upper body and head on the table in front of her, "But that''s so difficult. When I go out alone, I''m always aware of the risks I''m taking." "And you think Mary isn''t aware of it? I would never tell her, but I''m pretty sure she''s pretty bright, despite her appearance. You put her straight as if she were too stupid to decide for herself." Aurelia faltered and turned her head to Blurr. From her current posture she could only see the twitching ears from time to time, but she answered: "Of course I don''t think she''s stupid. I''ll do me-""Then stop trying to decide for her! She can do that for herself. I know that you Christians want to impose your ways and ways of life on everyone else, but that''s completely out of place here!" "HEY!", Aurelia rose jerkily and now saw Blurr''s face, "I''m not one of them. I... Let''s just call it, my style, ok?" "Ah, yes, of course..." Blurr''s voice dripped with sarcasm. But before she could say anything, Mary came up with three neon green shots and placed one in front of everyone at the table. The liquid looked like it came straight from a radioactive chemistry lab, but it smelled wonderfully of apples and pears. Mary raised her little glass and said in an official tone: "To the foundation of Seraphim!" Blurr and Aurelia also rose, albeit reluctantly. At the same time, they replied to the toast, "To Seraphim!"

 Operation Croesus

    The three operators stayed in the restaurant until noon and exchanged weapons, equipment and plans for the upcoming mission. Shortly before 1 p.m., Blurr had said goodbye and arranged the meeting point for Seraphim and Stray Badger. So it happened that both members of the team were waiting at a collapsed building and, to their amazement, could see how someone flew in on a drone.


    "Yooo, are you the angel people?" He could hardly be understood when the drone landed and the engines howled and hummed. "We are." came only as an answer until he finally turned off the damn thing. "Great, Blurr has already let me in, I''ve put a few gimmicks in the area so that we have backup. Are you ready too? And nice rifle!" The torrent of words rushed over Aurelia as she tried to perceive the guy in front of her as Blurr''s right-hand man. In vain.


    He was tall and in good physical condition, with a sidecut that was a shorter version of Mary''s hairstyle in a deep burgundy. He looked to Aurelia like someone from southern Spain or Greece, but it was difficult to assess. The problem with his appearance was that he grinned like a moron and happily jumped from foot to foot while he was texting Mary. Her pleading look was so heartbreaking that Aurelia caught his attention. "So you''re Badger?" "Yep, that''s me. And my little buddies, the my-" "Yes, yes, ok. We are both ready and the customer arrives at the meeting point in 15 minutes. Let''s go, it''s just around the corner, but I want to be there before the others" "oh that''s going to be hard, because they''re all already there Vern27 and his goons have been waiting for a while, don''t seem to trust you two hehe. But hey, that''s nu-" "Damn. Ok Mary, put on your most menacing face and you badger... Please shut up for a moment. Thank you" "U got it Boss." Badger saluted and opened his left hand. Hundreds of small drones buzzed out of it, spreading around him and Seraphim. They were so tiny that they were barely visible in the air. Mary curiously tried to grab a few, but the things were damn fast. "What is that?" she asked. "This is my little cloud of protection. A little extra protection in case something goes wrong." Before the Stray member went into an unnecessarily long explanation, Aurelia began to march with a brisk step towards Vern27. Behind her Mary, who had her gigantic weapon casually on her hip and gently stroked it with her hand, and Badger next to her, with a little song on her lips. Aurelia would strangle him. How the hell could Blurr stand him?!


    The place where the deal would take place was a large open field with only a little rubble in the middle. And that''s exactly where Vern27 stood with his beatable face. He was wearing an expensive looking suit and a total of 8 beefsteaks were placed around him. Each of these goons consisted of at least 350% muscles. And they wore clothes to emphasize them, presumably as an intimidation tactic.


    "Welcome, I''ve been told you''re working under the name Seraphim, is that correct?" Mary answered in front of Aurelia, sounding even smokier and scratchier than usual, "We are." Aurelia would get weak knees if she had to face Mary straight. She was really good at it. "Aurelia!" Raya tore her out of her thoughts and she remembered that she was the boss here. "I''m DEUS EX. We have samples of goods with us. Do you have the money?" "Of course. Then show me." He wiped over the rubble and Aurelia could use it as a makeshift table. She placed one of each of the pieces and then stepped back so that the buyer, Vern, could look at everything in peace.


    He took his time. A LOT of time. His gorillas stood stoically behind him and radiated professionalism, as much as that was possible with them. Seraphim, on the other hand, was not so confident. Aurelia stood uncomfortably in place and waited impatiently, Badger had laid down on the floor and was humming to himself while he watched the clouds above him and Mary... Well, she behaved as expected. Nervously, she kicked back and forth, walked a few steps, or fiddled with her holster. We make a really good impression.


    "All right, Deus Ex." Vern27 stood up and put away his diagnostic tools and measuring devices, "I''m surprised that it''s really all real. How much of each? I''m going to buy everything from you, we''re both going to make a lot of money here."


    Aurelia was just about to calm Mary down with a light touch on the arm when Vern27 finished and explained that he would really buy everything immediately. "We have five of the ''Legacy Arts Okuli Evo'' eyes, two Reflex co-processors, and four of the Cyberdecks. All in all, it has a market value of 500,000 neuros. We made up 60%, so nice round 300k. I accept the money and as soon as my Cybermancer has checked it, the drone flies off with the goods. Objections?" Aurelia was surprised by herself at how cold she had been able to act. She would afford a small reward for this if she had the opportunity.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "Aurelia. The money came. 300,000 and 20,000 extra with the hint, small bonus for the boss of a new group. I checked the money and everything is clean." Aurelia put her arms on her hips and pretended to be reading something on her HUD, "Everything clean. Goods are coming." She had said it not only for the buyer, but also over the radio for B?r and Parker. She sent the 300,000 directly to Bear so that he could do the distribution and wondered what her share would be, Bear, Parker and Aurelia were of the same opinion that everyone would get a third after the Strays were paid. Mary would be paid by Aurelia herself.


    The drone was not far away and took only two short minutes to hover just above the ground and drop the box. One of the musclemen immediately started to open the lock and after a quick count he gave it ok.


    Vern27 clapped his hands contentedly and then held out his right hand to Aurelia. She hesitated only for a second, then reached for it. "If you ever need to get rid of something again, here are my contact details." She saw the info on her HUD and Raya sorted it directly into her contact book. "Here''s to good deals in the future," Aurelia replied, trying to ignore Vern''s face. It was almost begging to be missed. But she had to resist the urge.


    Luckily for them, after a few moments, he turned to his goons and ordered them to load the box, when suddenly a black van came around the corner and opened the door for the box. Seraphim stopped and tried to look impressive, while Badger sat cross-legged on the ground and plucked wilted grasses from the earth.


    When the van was out of sight, Aurelia was grabbed from the side and a Mary beaming with joy shook her, "300,000! You didn''t tell me that there was so much money at stake! Ahahahahaha" She went into an almost mad laugh and Aurelia couldn''t resist and joined in.


    "Well done you two." came from below. Badger stood up and patted his clothes. "But you were a little too restless, Mary. You either have to become much more relaxed, or double your energy and play the madman, you know, the powder keg next to the open flame. But otherwise, you were great. Especially your cold Deus, really felt the air getting cooler hehe"


    Aurelia didn''t know how to react to this and decided to just shake a hand with Badger, "Thank you for being there. Also give Blurr my thanks. We have to go back now. Until, soon maybe?" Hopefully not. But she only said that in her mind.


    After a few empty phrases, the Stray Techie finally left the newly founded Team Seraphim. That had to be celebrated. And so is the successful deal. Mary was still beside herself with joy and asked, "What''s my cut?" Her eyes sparkled like stars and Aurelia asked Bear.


    After a moment she turned to Mary, "After all the deductions, Bear Parker and I each got 80K." "EIGHTY THOUSAND?! Wow.... that... that''s a lot of gravel." "What do you think about the fact that we open a bank account for Seraphim and we put all the profits in there. And if you need money, you have easy access to it. As long as there are only two of us, there shouldn''t be any trouble, what do you think?" Aurelia could have sworn that it was physically impossible for Mary to open her eyes any further, but apparently with black magic she made it possible and threw her arms around Aurelia''s neck. "Then I can get the Children decent food and maybe even a better location." Aurelia couldn''t help laughing, she was more happy about Mary''s reaction than about the money itself.


    "Mary?" Aurelia had to break free from the iron grip of her team member and gave up after the third attempt. "I''ll let go in a moment," she murmured in Aurelia''s shoulder. "Okay. But tell me, will you continue with me Seraphim? Could procure even more neuros. Wouldn''t that be something?" "YES! Absolutely. Today was such an exciting day and then I met new people and I made money."


    BOOM


    A blow, as if from a falling mountain, fell on Aurelia and Mary and tore them both to the ground. Aurelia hit the earthy ground and felt her bones break, despite her armor. Aurelia didn''t understand what had happened, she just felt that she was suddenly lying on the floor, Mary a little next to her, in an unnatural position. Her legs weren''t right, Aurelia''s fog-filled mind couldn''t tell what was wrong, like the arms they were bent in the wrong directions. They lay in a crater as if a meteorite had hit their feet. A cloud of dust, dirt and smoke darkened the world and reduced visibility to a minimum. Her hearing was damaged and she could only hear a dull hiss, as if the entire world was trapped in a horrible image of smoke and suffering.


    Aurelia''s eyes were only able to see a distance of a few meters, but after a short time she noticed movements. Shadow-like beings staggered through the cloud, tall and with long tubes under their arms. And they came closer. It looked as if after a short wandering around they would march directly to the still dazed nun. They came closer and closer until half of them turned to Mary and made her their target as well. With every passing second, the beings became more recognizable. Not monsters, but humans and the pipes had to be weapons, because they were aimed at Aurelia and Mary. Before she could even think about moving, they were surrounded by dozens of special forces, dark green visors staring down through the smoke with a posture that showed that everyone still had respect for Aurelia''s abilities, despite her condition. That meant they knew who she was. Aurelia recognized the armor of the soldiers and only managed to utter one in a raspy voice: "Oh fuck man."