"Bullseye!" Yelled the Augmented bandit, lowering his still smoking arm, as Ryan's corpse fell to the floor, a gaping hole in his chest. "That's what four force runes will do to an un-altered bug." He continued, looking back to the six men he had cornered us with.
"Normally you can use a lot less power and still kill em, but if you wanna make sure their dead, but there's no evil in overkill." The man in front of Taylor was nearly forty percent metal, meaning he either had the money, support, or clout to afford replacing his heart with that of a Natural. Otherwise the magi-tech augments and spells he was using would have overloaded and killed him. "One rune of movement and one of force usually does the trick. Watch!"
As the sickly green beam of energy trailed into Taylor's chest, searing her flesh and launching her backwards, life seemed to flash behind her eyes.
Life in a Remnant City wasn't easy for anyone after the race war between Naturals and Humans, or Augmented as they divined to call themselves, reduced most of the known world to rubble.
The war tainted large swaths of land and caused those caught unprepared to become distorted and malformed monsters, also known as the Warped. But the war was long over, Naturals were an exceedingly rare breed, and a majority of the Warped either roamed harmlessly in the wastes or were wiped out by the remaining Augmented.
But just because the war was over, that didn't mean the world had any chance of returning to normal. Absolute power attracts the absolutely evil, and once people had a taste of the extra-human abilities that magi-tech offered them, the world was forever altered.
Being born from a low-end Augmented Scrapper and a whore, Taylor and her older brother had to fight to survive. Picking up the "family business" of raiding outposts and scrapping old and new world tech from the moment their bodies could do work. It's not as if Tyler, their father, had no love for his children, he just loved money more.
Yet after another Augmented turned Tyler into scrap and their mother ran away to a place six feet underground, Taylor and Ryan had to start surviving together.
The large cargo ship that fell out of the sky was meant to be their big break, if they could get to it and leave before any of the bigger gangs, the money could allow them to make the voyage they both dreamed of, out of the Remnant City known as Oro and move to the city of revival and hope, Phoenix. But like every moment in the last twenty years, life had other plans.
The sharp pain shooting through her chest, and crashing through the flimsy interior metal of the ship wrenched Taylor back to reality.
Yet while the pain in her chest and back screamed into her skull, it wasn't enough to keep her feeble tether to consciousness.
As the gentle beam of moonlight pierced through the veil of clouds, finding itself shining directly into the eyes of Taylor, she was roused from her unconscious state.
I'm still alive? Was the first thought that raced through her mind. But when he shot Ryan with the gun in his arm, it went right through? Why?
Coughing and sitting herself up, it was obvious that the scrappers had left her to rot, serving as a warning to others to not trespass on gang territory again. However, something strange filtered into the mind of Taylor.
The pain that had permeated her chest and back had vanished, replaced by the cold having nothing covering her chest, and a slight chill in her bones. Feeling up and down, the burns that had been there mere hours prior were gone.
What the fuck? I was no better than charred meat when that beam hit me. The mana infused in one of those- In that very moment, a thought raced through Taylors mind, a fanciful dream that had once existed and perished like the rest of her childlike delusions.
Reaching into her pocket and retrieving a small knife, Taylor grit her teeth and made a small incision on her arm. To her shock first and ecstatic joy after, the small cut began to heal before her eyes. In mere minutes, tender pink flesh replaced the cut.
I'm a Natural! Taylor's mind shouted at her, causing her to immediately scan her surroundings to make sure no one was still around.
Naturals, also known as Human's who are born with the inherent ability to use Magic, heal at a rate much faster than normal humans, due to the small crystal within their hearts that constantly circulates mana within their blood. This mana not only allows them to cast spells, but also heals any wounds by draining the stamina of the wounded.
Standing up, the cold air of the night attacked Taylor, even being under the ruined cover of the wreckage did little to protect her from the elements. Looking around the wreckage, a sense of dread began to creep into her. After a minute of looking around, the questions couldn't help but pile up, as she was forced to face the truth.
Why? Why would they take Ryan's body, but leave mine? Taking one corpse wouldn't be strange, but they left my body, and most of the mundane objects on the ship. Clothes, silverware, bedding, the shit that would sell on any street market.
Strangely enough, the entire ship was picked clean of every piece of technology, from simple copper wires to batteries, all the way to the ships navigation hub was taken. Yet, the rest of the loot seemed eerily untouched.
Raiding the previous crews wardrobe, Taylor replaced her burned through shirt with a new undershirt, deep blue vest and hooded jacket.
It sucks that there were no female members of this crew, but guy clothes are better than just having my tits out.
Moving from the wardrobe into deeper parts of the vessel, Taylor's earlier assessment remained true. There was not a single speck of technology left on the metal husk. Navigating from the living areas, the working areas, and finally to the cargo storage, there was nothing worth taking. They even went as far as to strip the corpses of any augments before leaving.
Taking whatever she could, Taylor returned to where she and Ryan had buried their mode of transportation, a hobbled together hoverbike. It never hurt to play it safe and stop anyone from taking their ride while they junked something. Loading her meager haul onto the back, Taylor started the lonely drive back to Oro, with a new purpose in mind.
I've got to find out how magic works. Buying a piece of gear to be able to use it used to be a pipe dream. But now? I don't need any of that shit. All I want to do is find that cyborg motherfucker.