Quickly grabbing her silenced pistol, Lucy stood up from her chair, took her rectangular communicator in the other hand, clipped it to her belt, and started heading towards the exit.
The exit, an air vent, was about 3.5 meters from the ground. A height too high for a normal human to reach, but short enough for someone with cyberware implants.
Positioning herself under the vent, Lucy gave a slight push, using her hydraulic propulsion implants. She quickly dislodged the grille and fell back down. Repeating the action, she this time grabbed the edge of the vent.
"Grrr, I'm going to have to crawl like a worm, but I don't really have a choice if I want to avoid the guard patrols, sigh," she murmured in an irritated voice, looking at the long, dark duct that had just enough space for a slim person. She could see it turning left further down, where a red light blinked at regular intervals.
Lucy took one last look at the office, which had a perfect view of the entire server room, with drones repairing and transporting various pieces of cyberware.
She quickly turned away and hurried, forgetting that she had been detected on the floor but not exactly where, which gave her a bit of a reprieve. Retrieving the grille, she slid into the duct and closed it behind her...
<<<>>>
He shouldn't have accepted this mission.
Taking cover behind a wall in a long corridor littered with robot parts and bullet impacts, this is what Poco, a Merc from Boston, one of the best, thought to himself. The second best, to be exact.
Poco was born in one of the poorest slums of Boston. He grew up, fought, proved his worth, integrated cyberware, and became an elite Merc. His story was neither extraordinary nor boring. He did what he did to get out of that rat hole, where many others became the stepping stones for others.
He accepted this mission to earn enough money to buy a diamond ticket for two to the Crystal Palace, where they say life is paradise.
But that was before this mission turned into a fiasco...
*clack*clack*clack*clack*clack*clack*
*clack*clack*clack*clack*clack*clack*
"I told you this would go south!" shouted his partner Johma, one hand on his injured shoulder, firing an RT-46 Burya. His long-time friend and partner, they had faced life and death together. They had ventured into the mercenary world together.
it was together that they chose this mission, even if Johma had doubts
"I know, but I had no choice!" Poco shouted back at the top of his lungs to be heard behind the wall where he was taking cover from the fire of automatic turrets and combat drones.
Yeah, it was supposed to be a simple infiltration mission. He was scared, very scared at first, because it wasn't just any corpo, no, it was the most powerful one! He was going to refuse, of course, he was crazy but not suicidal.
But they promised him a considerable sum, too good to be true, along with a virus to avoid detection for 10 minutes, enough time to complete the mission given to the blue-haired girl and get out of there where a hijacked transport was waiting to take them out of the city...
*clack*clack*clack*clack*clack*clack*
"Ahhh!" Johma's scream snapped him out of his reverie. Poco could see his long-time choom lying down, a bot on top of him pointing a shotgun at his face...
clack
The bot fell to the side with a hole in its head, sparks and yellow fluid coming out.
"Get to cover, Johma!" Poco quickly holstered his still-smoking rifle on his back, stepped out of cover, and detached an EMP grenade with his cybernetic arm. He threw it with all his might, producing a sonic boom and exploding among the gathering of robots.
*KHH*KHH*KSCHHH
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
The last five robots fell like dominoes, and the turrets dangled, no longer targeting them.
"I knew that military-grade EMP was indispensable! Ha haha," Poco exclaimed in the now silent and dark corridor after the EMP explosion, striking a superhero pose.
Keshh
[zzz... This is Lucy, I'm heading to your position...]
Poco looked at his old communicator on his hip, given for the mission to avoid communication hacks. He unclipped it and replied in a triumphant voice.
"This is Poco, we've dealt with the attackers on this floor, but it looks like we're going to have more company. We're heading to the elevator with Johma, we'll meet you there."
[Zzz... Roger that, I'm on my way...]
Tap
"Sounds like she's in an enclosed space, doesn't it?" a hand rested on Poco's shoulder. He quickly turned around to see Johma giving him an arrogant smile with his gold teeth, knowing full well he had scared him, thinking it was the enemy.
"Yeah yeah, Mr. Smartest, but that's not all, we need to move. My sensors are picking up another patrol approaching," Poco's irritated voice echoed in the corridor. Pushing his choom's hand off his shoulder, he paid no more attention to him and started heading towards the elevator, two corridors away.
"Hehehe, whatever you say 'BOSS,'" Johma took one last look at the corridor littered with debris and followed his boss.
"Ouch! Wait for me!" he held his still-injured shoulder and ran after Poco, not wanting to be left in that creepy corridor where he could have sworn he felt eyes watching him in the dark.
<<<>>>
Whoosh
Whoosh
A shadow sped through the corridors at high speed, leaving only afterimages whenever it had to turn or descend stairs.
[Detection... detection... detection...]
[Targets found, initiating biometric tracking of targets...]
"How did these insects get past my sensors?! Rhaaa!"
The shadow darted across a glass suspension bridge where, a millisecond later...
Boom
It exploded, creating a rain of crystal, pouring into the bottomless ravine of concrete and metal...