Private Zerø Hour on Denon

[Sola Tymon]

The stale air of the starship irritated Sola's nose, making it twitch. With an unbecoming snort, Sola rolled to one side in her sleep and rubbed at her nose with a forearm. The friction of skin and hair on the skin only made it worse. Defiantly, Sola pressed her head deeper into the sofa in a vain attempt to fall back asleep before, with a frustrated and a melodramatic groan, she pressed into the cloth couch to push herself up to a sit. Her head spun from the speed of getting up, forcing her to sit still for a moment to gather her bearings. The time displayed neatly in the corner of her vision - a characteristic of her headset, which was still worn despite being asleep a moment ago - showed that barely an hour had passed.
"No wonder..." she grumbled as she rose to her feet. With her fingers gently pressed to the wall for some reassurance in her stability, she slowly walked across the vessel towards its small kitchen.

The light in the kitchen was dull: a cheap bulb obscured by a mesh of sorts, to keep the room dimly lit. Now with senses restored enough to stand on her own two feet, Sola pressed at a mechanical panel in the wall with one hand while opening the fridge with another. The ambient noise of the ship, only a moment ago unrecognizable from familiarity, gently increased as the stale air was sucked out and replaced with slightly less stale Denon city air in slightly greater volume. Meanwhile, Sola's headset traced faint lines around the few objects in the sparsely decorated fridge. It was certainly in a sad state of stock - even more so once Sola scooped up the leftover bowl of half-eaten takeaway food and absentmindedly heaped it into an appliance to be heated up. As the appliance chimed and began to whirr with activity, the light overhead flickered for a moment, threatening to leave the room in darkness.

Sola stood still for a moment. She had these moments often: the faulty wiring, the empty fridge, the thick air which felt suffocating if you paid too much attention to it, all together brought about a sense of claustrophobia. Sola's head slowly tilted to look out a small window, where she looked up towards the sky-breaching towers which threatened to drown her. Even as she began to feel her head spin and her chest grow tight, she couldn't bring herself to move. The world fell apart around her as the imposing skyscrapers, shortly after replaced by the roof, grew more and more distant.

"Sola, you've done it again. Here."
The familiar, robotic voice brought Sola back to her senses. A robotic hand with two fingers and a thumb - one of four attached to her back - held a small candy to her mouth, offering it to her. With a small huff of resignation, Sola accepted the candy and took it gently between her teeth.
"Thanks..." she replied distantly, as she came back to her feet with the help of the four droid arms. One reached out to the appliance to retrieve the now steaming leftovers, while another pulled a draw open to take a pair of chopsticks. A third opened the fridge to take a bottle of a sugary drink before setting it on the counter and pouring it into a glass.
"I know you're working hard, Sola, but you can't keep doing this to yourself." scolded the robotic voice. The droid sentience which controlled her exoskeleton and the four arms attached to it - fittingly named 4-RM - was Sola's closest confidant, one of very few.
"I know," Sola resisted, interrupting her companion. "I know-"
"Every time I have to catch you, I get to chide you, so quit complaining. You're not exactly light, you know? Now eat, quickly. Ivory is due to check in any moment." 4-RM retorted, pushing her towards the small table with two arms. With a resigned sigh, Sola slowly lowered herself down into the seat as the four arms assembled the meal on the table in front of her.
"Keep this up and I'll install some adware in you..." Sola threatened, the wit of the jab cutting through her otherwise somber tone as she took the chopsticks in hand. The droid emitted an electronic laugh - clearly simulated, but comforting enough to bring out a faint smile in Sola nevertheless.

---

Sometimes, it's almost like Sola never left the slave pens on Nar Shaddaa. She was fragile, too dependent. akkd0g_ on the other hand, the self-made holonet enigma who's run the net for all stripes of sponsors from crime lords to shadow governments? akkd0g_ was strong, sharp, a force to be reckoned with. They were nothing like Sola. The thought gave akkd0g_ comfort as they shifted into their holonet persona. Once again, they jacked into their nest of computers and cables on the starship, and once again their suite of networks, programs, and terminals hummed to life.

akkd0g_ tapped back into the public security cameras surrounding the Zerø warehouse where Niki was being kept just in time to catch Ivory Stroud passing off her coat and weaving through a gap in the chain-link fence. The convenience wasn't lost on akkd0g_, who faintly smirked while blowing a long breath out of their nose. With it went the last traces of Sola - for now.

"You still with me, Akkdog?" came Ivory's voice over the headset, quietly enough for the static to faintly lace itself into the words. It had been a short while since they had spoken. akkd0g_ felt some comfort ease one side of her chest, but likewise some concern in the other. "I'm gonna need a way in the building… what have you got?" akkd0g_ pulled up the floor plan on one side of her vision and the internal camera feed on the other while Ivory spoke. It took a few moments longer than what akkd0g_ would have liked, having to set up the complex set of programs covertly intercepting and reassembling the camera footage, but soon enough she had footage to cross-reference with the older floor plan.
"You've got two options," akkd0g_ began as they flicked through the different feeds, confirming the familiar details they went. "You can go through the loading docks or through the office upstairs. The loading dock has two entrances: through the roller doors, which is way too open, or through a side door, which leads through a garbage disposal room. The side door is locked, but it's an electronic lock. I can deal with it, but it means breaking into the network for real, which puts us on the clock - unless you can slag the slicer or deal with the lock in your own way. The actual inside room is narrow, has lots of shadows, and has low activity. Oh, and uh- don't worry about the smell, it just has a small compressor and a bunch of bins." They paused before continuing to compare footage of the upstairs office and its entrance from the external cameras to the internal cameras. "The second I'm seeing is on the west side of the warehouse, on the roof. There's an office with a window overlooking the neighborhood. There's a street light shining right on it and the window is locked with a latch. I can deal with the light but not the latch. I can do this without breaking in, so it'd keep us off the clock. The inside is a small office which nobody seems to be using, and the hall adjacent is pretty quiet. The slicer's on that second floor, but our mysterious door is closer to the loading dock."

"I'm sending you a map with the entrances marked, and the best route to each point of interest. Your call, sweetheart - you're the one with mud on your boots." With a faint buzz, the annotated map began its way through the myriad, tendrilled paths of the holonet towards Ivory's device.

 

[Niki Priddy]

DENON
UNDISCLOSED LOCATION​

Objective: Survive

The guards were little more than glorified enforcers. Milling about on blanket orders to keep anyone out that they could. Homeless, street walkers, troublemakers. Didn't matter to them so long as the recipients of the leering threat of violence made them move along quickly.

One or two might have given the homeless the time of day, perhaps even thrown them a scrap of food when no one was watching out of pity. Or delighted glee at their perceived power over those less fortunate. The details mattered little as Ivory snuffed out the life of one of those unfortunate enough to cross her path.

It wouldn't be found quickly.

Most of those present either didn't care for each other, or had little more than a working relationship with those around them. Faces came and went in the shady underside of the gang. People thinking they were smarter than those keeping the books in order met a decidedly quick end. Some figured out what was going on and left for 'safer' waters.

Dedicated enforcers rather than supply guard.

Didn't matter to those on foot patrol. A few of them ambled by the front gate, unaware of what was happening inside. The cameras were slow, whining as they turned to keep their gaze on the ground. Those inside worked in their own little world as they always did.

One in particular kept a watchful eye over their guest before coming back into the room.

Niki's Room

The being stepped inside, tri-clawed feet scraping against the floor as the pleased hiss escaped their teeth.

"Now then. All tuckered out?" The hissing tone reaching her ears. "You've surely learned a lesson now, haven't you?" They cackled, clawed hand reaching out to pull her head up and back.

The sound of pain from Niki made the scale-faced being giddy.

"I didn't. Do. Anything." She didn't beg, didn't plead for it to stop. Stated with wobbly defiance against the being that had questioned her relentlessly.

They frowned, sucking in air between sharpened teeth.

"So you learned nothing. Well. There's a remedy for that. We'll start on that in a bit then." Letting go of her head to let it flop down from exhaustion, they opened the door and stared at her briefly. A sound of annoyance before the door shut behind them as the light flickered before going dark.

It tormented her sense of time. Had she been here a day? A few? She couldn't tell. It was either pain or thirst that woke her.

Ivory Stroud (The Donna)| Sola Tymon
​

 

[Ivory Stroud]

"The window." Ivory responded after considering her options. "I'll handle the latch. Just give me some shade."

A quick survey of the back of the warehouse found an emergency ladder; upon approach, she found it rusted but serviceable. A few of the rungs were bent or missing, but she could easily ascend to the rooftop. Rust crunched beneath her fingers as she began to climb - the blaster rifle slung over one shoulder lightly bouncing against her spine. Ivory finally reached the top & hauled herself up over the lip of the ladder; stepping down the two foot drop and crouching to look about. The rooftop was completed deserted, dark, and lonely. High above her, the upper level of Denon's cityspace did little to offer overhead light.

Ivory checked the holopad on her wrist once more then crossed the rooftop carefully, heading toward the western edge. It didn't take her long to find the window; already cloaked in a tenebrous veil as Akkd0g_ promised. The Shadowrunner knelt, glancing to & fro to ensure she was not being watched, then cautiously peered through the dusky glass into the room beyond. The office, as her Slicer companion had explained, indeed looked unoccupied. With the streetlight now extinguished, it appeared nearly pitch black; a perfect hiding spot.

Ivory closed her eyes, taking a deep breath... then exhaling. A sense of calm settled upon her as she cleared her mind, finding a place of stillness & comfort in the dark.

There was the latch. It held the window firmly shut - secure against manipulation beyond the glass. She could only sense the one, which was good... the building hadn't been designed with security in mind. There were no chinks in its armor; she could not pry the window open without making noise and she didn't want to break the glass for the same reason. Instead, she stretched out through The Force, applying gentle pressure against the small metal lock...

And the latch audibly clicked.

Ivory stood and tentatively gripped the window, sliding it up. The springs protested, clearly having remained untested for a long time. She winced but continued, and their screaming stopped as the window opened fully. Satisfied, the Shadowrunner slipped into the building, dropping feet-first onto the cold floor of the old abandoned office. "I'm inside." She said quietly, pausing a moment to catch her bearings and stretch out into the remainder of the building - allowing her powerful senses to radiate beyond the room into the hallway and beyond.

She could sense the Slicer just two rooms down on the opposite side of the hall. It was a woman, but her presence in The Force seemed significantly dulled - like metal left too long in the sun to rust. She'd be heavily augmented. The Zero Slicer was presently jacked into the warehouse's network... Entirely oblivious.

Ivory reached down toward her boot, the fingers of her right hand finding the cool steel handle of the knife and drawing it from the concealed scabbard, transfering it to her left hand while she reached toward her left armpit. Her powerful blaster, a Madclaw PX revolver, slid free from its holster. Catfooting her way across the office, Ivory reached the door, using the blade of her knife held outward like a spike to peer through a crack into the hallway - her blaster primed & ready to deliver booming death.

The hallway was empty, poorly lit, and quiet. The whole building seemed mostly abandoned - like the Zeros only used certain areas, and not the entire complex for their illicit affairs. The Shadowrunner crept into the hallway and began to move the short distance between the office at the end and the room she now knew held her target.

The door to the slicer's haven was ajar, and a steady stream of comp sounds, digital readouts, and tiny musical alerts made a cacophony of noise and light from within the darkened room. The raven-haired Rebel gently nudged the door open with the barrel of her blaster; stepping inside with an explosive movement, scanning the room prepared to deliver a murderous stab or precision blaster-shot. The Zero Slicer, a short & skinny blonde-haired woman covered in tattoos and augmentations, lay in a Netrunner's chair - jacked into the hardware which littered the interior of the room.

Ivory was, for the moment, ignored.

She approached carefully... violet eyes as hard as durasteel, her face expressionless, jaw set. Every step that brought her closer to the woman was delivered like a stalking predator... slowly, methodically approaching for a sudden violent attack. The woman didn't move.

Ivory stood watching her for few heartbeats... then stowed her weapons, her blade in her boot and her blaster in the shoulder rig. Then, she took up a position near the Slicer's head; head tilted to one side, utterly still.

When she finally struck, it was with overwhelming force.

Ivory reached out, gripping the base of the woman's cyberjack and pinching the releasing pins with her index finger & thumb. The moment she pulled the plug, the woman slammed back into her body from Cyberspace; disoriented, sick to her stomach, entirely uncoordinated, and as helpless as a newborn. The slicer woman bounced up from the chair and Ivory used the cable in her hand as a garrote; looping it around the ganger's throat as the woman began to choke on her own vomit. She held the woman down on the chair as the muscles in her arms and back strained - pulling the cable taut.

Try as she might, her victim had no strength or ability whatsoever to fend off the sudden & violent attack. She died, silently locked into the mystery of her own passing.

The Shadowrunner left the corpse where it lay; sprawled across the chair, features distended, face and lips blue.

"Alright, Akkdog... I've got good news." Ivory said conversationally as she inspected the Slicer's sanctum. "The Slicer's dead, and I can give you full access to their systems."

It only took a few minutes to configure her Hermes Holopad to allow the Netrunner access. With that, Ivory jacked into one of the dataports, providing Akkdog direct access to everything under the Slicer's control - with full Admin Rights, unless Ivory missed her guess.

Niki Priddy Sola Tymon Calligenia Io

 

[Sola Tymon]

"The window. I'll handle the latch. Just give me some shade." akkdog_ was already initializing a remote connection to the neighborhood's electricity station before Ivory could finish her sentence.
"Lights out in 30 seconds." akkd0g_ affirmed. The response was brief and succinct, with the last traces of dramatic flair fading from their distorted tone. It was showtime.

The establishing remote connection chimed with an affirmative tone before abruptly changing shape into the terminal of a distant computer. Text flowed in a torrent down the terminal, detailing the quick-paced steps of authenticating the "technician" and setting up their access, before it finally settled on a single, unassuming line:

] hsap::\\cadpa-d7-pwr04\pwnd\ > _

The underscore at the end of the command line flickered indifferently, prompting akkd0g_ for their input.

The byzantine bureaucracy of Denon demonstrated many things where poor management was concerned, but it certainly didn't demonstrate stupidity. The city lived on literal power as much as it did figurative power and the masters of Denon knew it. For this reason, the central power stations were rigorously secured with sweeping audits and improvements already underway following the terrorist declaration and its effective declaration of war. Every way in that wasn't strictly necessary was locked and those few that were still open were rigorously monitored, audited, and laid with all manners of obstacles and traps: DMZ subnets, intrusion detection, deep inspection, you name it. This was all backed with a 24/7 team of cybersecurity experts and counterslicers to boot, all ready to deploy at the first whiff of trouble or the first sign of a lost little old lady asking where the grocery store is. What Denon bureaucracy did effectively demonstrate, however, was the power of scope creep and budget cuts on a good program. Naturally, when these things happen, cost centers - facilities that don't generate profit, but support others that do - are the first to fall under the ax. While the central power stations are undeniably important, the periphery ones - the ones that just acted as extensions of the central stations and manage the minutia of the day-to-day - could never meaningfully justify their existence to the corporate overlords of the CAD as they were. So they were "streamlined" - remotely managed, automated, anything that could be done to make them ride the apex of a return on investment ratio of 1.75 or greater.

It was for this reason that akkd0g_ didn't hesitate to start unplanned maintenance on street light 7_141_1b. The audit alert generated by this would be checked sometime in the 20-25 business days, if they were even on schedule. Chances are, with the reason for maintenance akkd0g_ had left, it wouldn't even get a cursory glance. It was hard to call it slicing, really.

Watching through the public security cameras, akkd0g_ nodded subtly to themselves as darkness fell over the office window of the Zerø warehouse.
"Lights out. It's all you." she reported as she pivoted her focus. Once Ivory went over the threshold that was the office window, she was on her own - at least, for as long as the internal camera feeds were 30 seconds behind. For now, it was all they could do to keep intercepting traffic going through the local cellular network that hit the bots criteria, and to wait.

The following minute stretched out for far too long in akkd0g_'s mind. It took long enough for akkd0g_ to even pick up internal footage of Ivory moving through the building, where even then it was hard to pick her out in the shadows. There were no reports, naturally, being that Ivory was breaking into a warehouse full of goons. The point of slicing was to control systems and to control information and right now, akkd0g_ had neither - and they hated it.

"Alright, Akkdog... I've got good news." Ivory's voice prompted akkd0g_ to let out a quiet sigh of relief. "The Slicer's dead, and I can give you full access to their systems." akkd0g_ straightened up a bit in their netrunner's chair, perhaps a little surprised but certainly a little curious.
"Great. I'll connect to you and let myself in..." It took another 30 seconds for the camera feed to catch up and show akkd0g_ what had happened, then longer again for akkd0g_ to see what Ivory was doing. While akkd0g_ waited, they felt a gentle pressure on their neck and tightness in their throat. It was hard not to sympathize with what was undoubtedly a slicer's greatest fear short of drowning. The thought reminded them of the slicer from the apartment. It gave them a chill.

Suddenly, the terminal gave way and the connection went through, bringing akkd0g_'s mind back to the present. Moving through the jack in Ivory's device and into the slicer's live session from there was child's play. The helplessness that had began to knot in their chest quickly gave way to confidence as akkd0g_ claimed the slicer's rightful line:
"I'm in." The dead slicer's monitor flickered for a moment, cutting out and leaving the room largely in darkness for a moment before it suddenly came back. This time, terminal sessions and windows began to open themselves as malware and bots alike were injected into the network to seize control and comb for information alike - undoubtedly akkd0g_'s distant, invisible hands taking the system in a strangehold. akkd0g_ felt a slight smirk coming to their face as they worked; it was moments like these where it felt like the entire holonet was at their fingertips. "I've got live camera feeds, files, communication logs, a current floor plan..." akkd0g_ paused as a new window opened on the screen in front of Ivory. Several lines of programming abruptly appeared in the window, undoubtedly copied in, before the invisible hands began tinkering with it and pointing lines of code to files and directories in the computer. With a sudden torrent of executing code, a gentle chime from Ivory's holopad called for her attention, offering her access to a file with a name made from arbitrary numbers, letters, and symbols. "That's a live floor plan, with any movement on the security cameras mapped to it. It'll help you keep track of the goons." There was another pause as more malware popped up on the dead silcer's monitors and began to execute, which was promptly interrupted by an older window putting itself over the top of it. It was a report on communications matching at least two keywords from "girl", "interrogate", "blood", and "Niki", among others. Before any typical layperson could have reasonably had a chance to read the contents, akkd0g_ let out an audible 'hah' over the comms line.

"...and gotcha'. She's behind our mystery doors downstairs." The report showed a conversation log of the slicer talking over an encrypted channel to some other manner of counterpart. Clearly, they didn't want the message intercepted - but judging by the logs being stored locally in plaintext, it looks like they weren't anticipating an infiltrator. "Judging by these logs, it looks like she's still hanging in there, but she's been here for a while now. Not to mention, our 'friend' behind you was keeping someone else in the loop. I'm not sure how much more time we have. I can call for a medic or transport to one now if you want - they might even be on-site before we wrap up."

"And now for the burning question- how do you want it, IV? Loud or quiet? I've got a few new toys that'll help us seal the deal on this job."

Ivory Stroud Niki Priddy Calligenia Io

 

[Ivory Stroud]

“Oh, baby.” Ivory grinned, turning her back on the bank of computers & screens and walking toward the door she’d entered from the hallway. Behind her, the corpse of the Slicer woman twitched - dead synapses still firing on overdrive. “Let’s wake up the neighborhood.”

Her own custom Cantonica Keyboard hung from her shoulder on a beautiful embossed leather strap; she reached up, un-slinging the beautifully crafted death machine, and flicked a switch. The weapon hummed softly in her hands as she looked it over… admiring, for a moment, the gold inlay and white paint, its elegant curves, and comforting weight. The plasma rifle was primed & ready to deliver Death to her enemies.

akkd0g_ let out a quiet sigh of relief at the jests. It broke the tension of it all, which weighed on their mind in no small amount. Not only was it comedic relief, but it was finally time.
“Careful what you wish for, now.” akkd0g_ goaded, as the slicer’s hijacked screens flickered and changed behind Ivory as she left. The screens cast blue and white lights across her back and over her shoulders, painting her silhouette on the wall in front of her as she admired her weapon. It was surely a menacing sight. “Because now I’m expecting to be impressed - and do you really feel like you’re capable of that?”

The building shook as the abruptly began to violently flicker. The soothing blue and white lights turned into a violent and haphazardous mess of blues, reds, and yellows. Throughout the building, and to some extent the broader neighborhood, the ambient sound of electricity boomed - shaking the window frames and throwing dust down from the roof - before fading down towards the lower bass tones, then turning into nothing. Throughout the building the lights, whether properly mounted or half hanging from the ceiling, flickered in their attempts to claw their way back to life, each sporadically casting half-hearted attempts of light across their rooms at their own pace. Distantly, car alarms rang and shouting voices cast their frustrations out into the street.

In the lower floors of the warehouse, a young human - a man with a weasley and sinewy frame, and a scarred face which divided an eyebrow in two - cursed in Huttese as he flicked his cigarette underfoot. His boot came down onto it, gently crunching down on it as he drew his blaster pistol from the back of his waistband.
“Hey, what gives?” The voice wasn’t his own. Recognising the voice, the human turned towards the source of the voice, where another goon - another young man, an Aqualish - looked to him with a mix of confusion and expectation.
“I dunno’, but I sure don’t like it.” the human replied. He lowered his blaster at the sight of his friend, letting it hang a little more idly by his side. With a few steps towards the nearest electro-lock door, he grabbed at the handle to open it. When it didn’t budge, he shook at the handle before he scoffed and half-heartedly kicked at it in frustration. “Hey! Did the door over there open with the power out?” There was a prolonged pause and a few footsteps before the Aqualish called back.
“Nup!” came the voice, echoing through the hallways. A little too loudly.
“Kark!” the human swore, his voice just as loud. A sense of claustrophobia began to knot in his stomach, prompting him to try and swallow it down. “Cheap-ass doors… aren’t they meant to open up when the power goes out?”
“Hey, don’t forget they’ve got that red-haired suit locked up! They probably turned it off for the building!” the Aqualish shouted back. The human swore again, under his breath this time. The sense of claustrophobia continued to rise in his chest, building towards a crescendo. He began to pace, visibly uncomfortable - until the lights throughout the building suddenly came to life, burning brighter than they ever had - some even blowing at the intensity - before abruptly cutting back to dim flickers once again. Blinded by the sudden flash of light, he grasped at his eyes with his free hand as he stumbled back.
With a faint vibration, a timer appeared in the top-right corner of the map akkd0g_ had sent through to Ivory’s holopad.
“Listen, honey.” akkd0g_ began, taking on a bit more of a serious tone - not that it stopped them from slipping in a jab in there. “I’ve just set up that map with a new toy. It’s a timer. Every time it hits zero, every light bulb, alarm clock, and unsecured holopad in that building is gonna’ light up and blast like you’re probably about to into every thug in that building. The idea is that it’ll mess with their senses, hopefully giving you an advantage. When it’s not at zero, the lights are going to be dead or flickering. It should give you just enough light to be able to piece together where they are combined with that map. Do me a favor and close your eyes when it gets close. It’ll vibrate when it’s almost time.”

akkd0g_ paused before continuing, giving Ivory a moment to check the timer and process the information.
“I’ve overridden the fail safes on any door with an electric lock, so they’ll stay locked. I’ve rerouted power in such a way that I’ve still got cameras and that I can still open the doors, so I’ll open them ahead of you and lock them behind you. This’ll keep the mooks spread out for a few minutes; and hopefully, it’ll mean you’ll be the first to get into Niki. I’m not sure if these doors are nice enough to be fit with mechanical overrides, but I don’t really want to hang around and find out.”

The timer ticked down to zero and true to akkd0g_’s word, every light in the building surged before cutting out yet again. Distantly, a voice yelled an expletive.
“I’ve drawn a few different routes to Niki on your map. Any questions?”

Shouldering her Plasma Rifle and falling into a combative forward lean, Ivory grinned at her partner’s ingenuity. “Nope.” She replied, and immediately surged forward - driving into the hallway, swiveling to the right, and making for the staircase visible on her wrist-mounted holopad.

The small office hallway opened out onto a staircase which led down to the floor of the building, and she reached it quickly - timing a pause at the top of the staircase to coincide with a sudden blast of light from every device in the building. She crouched, closing one eye, and peaking around the corner - only closing it long enough for the pulse to pass. The warehouse building was immense - filled with boxes and detritus built up over months of use and little maintenance. She glimpsed movement just below the staircase; one man, swiveling to look around the building. His back was facing the staircase, and she could see he was clutching a blaster - pointing it about in fear and confusion. Rather then descend the stairs, she waited until the lights went dark, reached out to grip the railing, and vaulted over it - falling nearly 15 feet to land directly on the Zero’s back. The sudden impact, coupled with the heavy blaster rifle in her hands, drove the man to the ground and knocked all the wind from his body.

Without wasting a second, she was up & moving again.

She intended to make a wide circle; clearing part of the building and sticking to the shadows and boxes for cover before approaching her objective - the door, and likely Niki beyond. The flickering lights and angry voices calling out from across the warehouse gave her everything she needed: just beyond a stack of boxes, a loud voice called out for one of his friends. Like a stalking Vornskyr hunting by feel alone, she closed upon the sound.. Pausing at the sudden vibration on her wrist.

Flash.

Then, she rounded the corner of a stack of boxes, her rifle extended in-front of her like a vengeful accusation. The blaster barked, spitting bright emerald-green gouts of light - with her target only a few feet away, she did not even have to aim. Four bolts struck the Zero in the center of his chest, searing away his flesh and dropping him to the ground.

Two down. Ten to go.

The cries of the Zero Gang spaced out around the building were suddenly louder; the report of her rifle unmistakable and sending the group into panicked reaction. They knew they were being hunted now… But that would not save them.

Distant voices echoed throughout the warehouse.
“Quick, group up on the spice! We can’t let them get to the product!” yelled one voice - a sterner one, perhaps with some measure of authority.
“We can’t - the doors are locked down! All of them!” called back another, from a ways across the first floor.
“Then shut up and find a door with an override!” the first voice asserted, shouting through the walls. “You whinged enough about not having a scrap and here it is, so quit your whining and do it!” From almost a world away, akkd0g_ let out a quiet huff as they reached over to a small vial of white powder sitting on a small table beside their netrunning chair.
“That was fast…” they mused quietly, as they tore the fim covering the vial off with their teeth then fit it to the rim of their nose. A long breath flowed out from their mouth before they leaned their head back, rocking it against the chair, and inhaled deep through their nose. The thin granules of spice dragged through their sinuses, pricking the back of their eyes, before the discomfort began to fade as the powder moved on towards its true destination. akkd0g_ tossed the almost empty vial aside as they refocused. “...can’t let that happen.”

The digital world came into sharper focus as the spice settled in akkd0g_’s system. Images were clearer, their responses faster. Information, ideas, and concepts settled in and moved through their mind faster than they could truly think of them. The usual muse came to them as they tracked down the assertive voice and marked their map icon with an exclamation mark on Ivory’s map: in this state, it was the closest they could ever be to the machine; to being akkd0g_.

“I’ve got it!” a voice called out, as one of the more modern doors in the building slid open. Unlike the older, retrofitted doors with electronic locks, this door was a complete assembly. It wasn’t nearly as durable or airtight, but it resembled an airlock or a ship’s breech. “I’ve got i-!” The lights pulsed, filling the room with blinding light, as shrill screaming rattled through the warehouse. The man’s companion rubbed at his eyes aggressively in a desperate bid to soothe them, only to open them and feel his stomach sink. His companion, a friend of many years, was stuck in the door. Stuck didn’t quite do it justice: the door had viced itself around him, rending bone and flesh just enough to gore him, but not quite enough to kill him. “Help!” he cried, his voice crackling with moisture as blood sept into his lungs. “H-Help!”

The trapped man’s companion shoved his blaster pistol into the back seam of his pants as he clawed at the nape of his neck. With as deep breaths as he could manage, he drew out a long cable - a neural datajack. With the plug in the datajack poised by the port in the door controls, he hesitated. His hands began to shake and his skin began to pale. He knew the risks. He learnt them early, which is why he stopped. But as he looked up to see his childhood friend reaching out for him, gored in between the door, he steeled his resolve and jacked into the door controls.

] you shouldn’t have jacked in, kid.

It was a mistake.

The dropout slicer gasped as the text scrolled across the center of his vision - across his cybernetic eyes. He snatched for his data-jack, hoping to tear it out - dump-shock be damned - but his arm, cybernetic like his eye, refused to obey. He tried again, willing it to move and take his own freedom, but it was distant, as if he’d slept on it overnight. Instead, it began to move towards the back of his waistband. It moved slowly, like a poorly calibrated droid, but it ultimately moved. He gasped again as he realized where it was going, where he then began to hyperventilate.
“N-No, stop!” he begged, watching in terror as his own limb refused to obey. “I-I-.. I’m just trying to get him out of here! We’ll leave! No credits is worth this!” His cybernetic limb grabbed his blaster, tugging it out of his pants as he begged. He could only watch as the barrel leveled towards his childhood friend.
“No!” he wheezed, struggling to breath under the weight of his panic.

] sorry kid. just business.

The room flashed red as the blaster fired. The dropout slicer could only watch as, with his own rogue hand, he had shot and killed the same man he’d played with on the street no more than 15 years ago. He gasped again, this time with that wet crack that betrayed oncoming tears, before the blaster began to turn around. Despite his efforts to resist, the barrel pressed through his teeth and settled on the roof of his mouth.

] your boss shouldn’t have messed with the big leagues.

The room flashed red again.

“Ivory,” akkd0g_ began, shifting their focus now, “I’ve marked someone who I think has some command on your map. They’re only on one of the paths. Also keep an eye out on the newer doors, the ones that slide in from both sides. They have mechanical overrides. I’ll rig them to try and trap anyone that goes through, but I wouldn’t count on it.”

“Roger.”

The Shadowrunner was already moving in the direction of the blip on her HUD; a quick check of the screen attached to her wrist showed the area where her target lay. On a whim, she doubled back - passing a long metal table near the center of the warehouse - when a blaster bolt ripped through the air. It spanged off the metal table, reflected by the surface, and whined toward the ceiling at an angle. Ivory spun, fluidly dropping to one knee and shouldering her rifle, then tucked her shoulder and rolled as two more blaster bolts pierced the space she’d just occupied. One of them had passed so close to her, she could smell the distinctive tang of ozone as she came to rest. The Shadowrunner punched the trigger, unleashing a torrent of plasma in return - rising to her feet and shooting on the move. Each bright green bolt lit up her surroundings like giant, furious fireflies.

The Zero who’d been shooting at her stepped from around a durasteel pillar to reacquire his target and he took the burst directly to the chest - crumpling like a marionette with its strings suddenly cut. His body disappeared into a well of shadow, lost to the abyss.

The air around the barrel of her rifle shimmered in a heat-haze; already warm from the short burst.

She glanced down at her wrist as she began to make her way toward the opposite end of the warehouse. Shouts echoed throughout the building as the lights continued to flash. Ivory assumed some of the Zeros were already cutting their losses and fleeing for their lives.

As the timer on her HUD completed another cycle, all the lights in the warehouse pulsed brighter than a supernova, and Ivory tucked her head into her left shoulder as she pivoted around a steel cabinet; shielding her vision long enough for the blinding flare to dissipate.

She’d expected to find whomever Sola Tymon had marked, but instead, the litter-strewn concrete floor was empty.

She snarled, creeping forward in the staccato strobe-light, then realized that directly in front of her was the door they’d been searching for. “I think I found the door, but not the Boss.” She said, her heartbeat pounding in her ears from the adrenaline coursing through her system.

Without wasting another moment, she was moving again - driving forward with aggression. Niki Priddy was only a few yards away.

 

[Niki Priddy]

DENON
WAREHOUSE​

Objective: Survive

The guards for their credit did what they could. But training had never been covered for someone with actual skill coming in. They figured another gang would try something stupid or attack with a lot of numbers rather than a specialized person.

The speed of the attack, along with the disorienting lights played tricks on the majority already lightly fuzzed by the spice around them. Their expectations of a grand fight to be met with a diminutive response from the slicer and the wet-work operator in their midst.

Niki's Room

The Trandoshan was alarmed when everything had suddenly gone sideways. They hadn't been told of any group thinking about attacking their depot. They'd had it long enough now that it should have been a hitspot before they had-

Realization dawned when he glanced to that door behind him, teeth set in a growl as he figured the error of their tactics.

No information had been shared about her connections. The black haired woman tied to the chair had seemed little more than a blip on the galactic radar of who's who. Barely even a footnote of a manufacturing service.

So who had come to get her?

The fact mattered little as he tried the door. Finding it locked, frustration forced him to shove his whole body into the frame as it groaned and buckled against him. She was staring from beneath her brow as he came in.

Had she planned this from the beginning? Or coincidence?

"Seems you brought some company to us? Care to share?" The hissing tone reaching her ears.

"Dunno. Not mine." She managed as the world slowly swirled with the flashing lights and gunshots. It was unbearable to her ears. The fractal panes in her mind shifting and twirling in an unseen pattern as the light threw it one way and the sounds of gunfire another.

She felt like she was tumbling through her own existence. And a worrying thought of how fragile she felt in the moment brought her closer to the edge of madness.

"You' didn't call them? I doubt that." The talons on their feet scraped the floor, the panes in her mind stretching as they clawed closer to her.

Was her mind going to break?

"How would I?" She mumbled, feeling the claws reach for her once more.

"Ear device. Scalp device. You've something on you. I'll try to find it before your friends arrive." The Trandoshan cackled as a claw began to dig into her shoulder.

Pain pushed her back into the seat. A scream let loose from her mouth as the technicolor nightmare of her mind spun wildly and tossed her senses about.

Ivory Stroud (The Donna)| Sola Tymon
​

 

[Ivory Stroud]

A terrified scream echoed through the claustrophobic hallway beyond the door as Ivory dove into the darkness. The timer on her wrist suddenly buzzed and she closed her eyes long enough to avoid a pulse of bright light which was almost painful even against her eyelids; her heartbeat thudding in her ears, fueled by adrenaline & blood lust. When she opened them again, she found herself in a long hallway - individual doors on either side opening out into what had likely been offices, but were now all but entirely empty. "I'm close, partner. I need good light." She hissed, and a few moments later (just as the timer was about to buzz again) the lights flickered one final time, died completely, then came back on again.

The lights seemed to be barely working as it was, but she felt better now that she could see. Ivory made a mental note to stay on Akkd0g_'s good side... whoever they were.

Believing the space too confined to easily manipulate the powerful plasma rifle buried in her shoulder, she took a moment to sling the gorgeously lethal tool over her shoulder. Each movement appeared efficient & practiced; the fingers of her right hand found the butt of the powerful Madclaw-PX Revolver holstered beneath her left armpit, and as she drew it, she crouched slightly - drawing the Journeyman's knife she always kept in reserve from her boot. With her blaster in her right hand, and the blade in her left - held point-out & connected at the wrists - she resumed a cautious walk down the hallway.

Following the sensation of rage, pain, and fear like a Vornskyr tracking prey, she knew immediately where to go.

At the end of the hallway was a set of large double-doors which she reached in moments; recognizing in the murky lighting that they'd been bent and forced open. They hung, now unsecured but closed - likely thrown shut to provide one more barrier to whomever had invaded the Zero Gangs' inner sanctum. Her jaw set, Ivory reeled back on one foot and slammed a booted foot directly in the center of the broken doors. The force of the blow sent them both flying open, and she was immediately in motion - stepping into the room beyond.

The first thing she noticed was an empty chair in the very center of the filthy old room, and a single light swinging above it.

The second and third things (and the most important) was two shapes grappling in the small pool of light filtering down from above; one taller & stocky, and the other smaller. A wordless cry of surprise mingled with muttered expressions of pain greeted the Shadowrunner as she strode into the room with her weapons leading the way.

The Trandoshan spun around; green scaly skin & yellow eyes narrowing in Ivory's direction as a clawed hand gripped a woman's throat. Even in the dim light, Ivory recognized immediately thin trails of blood streaming down what she assumed was Niki Priddy's throat... The Trandoshan's other hand gripped the young woman's arm, holding her tightly against his body. He hissed loudly, staring at the raven-haired avenging angel of death...

A low rumble filled the room as the lizard growled low in his throat. He tucked his head back, using the smaller form of his bruised & battered hostage as a shield.

"Ssss... You..." It said, peering over Niki's shoulder as it took a shuffling step backward, dragging her along.

Ivory said nothing, her blaster unwavering. With a slight shift of her thumb, she tapped the backstrap of the revolver, and after a moment, the soft blue light emanating from the read-out switched to a golden yellow.

"I will kill her." The Trandoshan growled. Niki's muffled whimper of pain followed and the woman's eyes shot wide - seeing for the first time her rescuer framed in the light of the hallway beyond.

"Let me go. Or she dies."

Ivory stepped to one side, following the Trandoshan's movements... mirroring him. "All your friends are already dead."

"Sss... Maaybe... but you come for a corpssse.." Then, he stepped again... framing his taloned foot and knee perfectly between Niki's legs.

"Yes. But not hers."

A torrent of adrenaline raced through Ivory's body as she gathered her willpower, flooding every cell in her body with a rush of blood. Her next heartbeat slowed, and everything in the room began to move at a crawl as her perception dialated - power coursing through her body as she directed every ounce of her awareness into her following movement. Just as the lizard began to shift his foot to carry through his step, her revolver clutched in Ivory's fist lowered slightly; her finger depressing the trigger one millimetre at a time until the blaster barked violently.

An 11.5x20mm slug exited the barrel with enough force to penetrate the armored hull of an infantry vehicle, traveling the short distance in a fraction of a second; striking the Trandoshan's foot just above the ankle and annihilating the limb entirely in a cloud of blood & bone matter.

The creature screamed as it fell, pulling down Niki atop him; but before he could rend the woman's throat in a dying act of vengeance, Ivory released her grip on the knife she'd held in her left hand, made a fist, and pulled. Niki was torn away from the creature's grip violently, heaved to the side as the beast made a frantic grab to reclaim his leverage. But she was too far away... and he was on the filthy concrete floor.

In a burst of speed, Ivory crossed the distance between them until she was close enough to smell the creature's blood; aimed, and then fired a second armor-piercing slug directly into the Trandoshan's open fang-filled snout. His head disappeared entirely from the close-range blast, eliminating whatever final thoughts of blood-fueled vengeance he might have had in an instant. The body began to twitch as all his nerve endings began firing at once...

But it was over.

Time slowly filtered back in and returned to normal, and Ivory knelt by Niki's side, reaching out to brush the woman's matted hair from her face and quiet her sobbing. "It's okay... You're okay..." Ivory muttered, checking the woman over at a glance for severe injuries. "My name is Ivory. I'm gonna get you out of here... you're safe."

"Akkdog... I've got her. We're on our way out."

Ivory retrieved her fallen blade, severed Niki's bonds, then stowed her weapons and heaved the woman onto her shoulders. Then, she made a quick call to her enforcer, not far away, with an order to meet them outside with the speeder.

The warehouse was completely empty as they made their way out. Any surviving Zeros had turned tail & fled for their lives, leaving the place completely abandoned and in a state of total chaos.

Niki Priddy Sola Tymon

 

[Sola Tymon]

Niki Priddy Ivory Stroud

"I'm close, partner. I need good light."
If the stakes were any lower, akkd0g_ might have noticed the brief temptation to trade banter; but alas, this was the peak of the operation. The semi-holographic screens flickered and moved as akkd0g_ moved deftly between them. Even with access to the building's network and the local power station's network, localizing the light show to only a select room or even only one circuit was easier said than done. So instead, akkd0g_ restored power to a few neighboring buildings, then the Zerø warehouse, then some others in the district. On the off chance that the authorities decided to dig a little deeper, it would hopefully throw them off the trail for a little bit longer. At least Ivory's 'radar' would be a little more accurate.
"Lights on, IV," akkd0g_ affirmed, their voice slightly distorted by the many labyrinthine pathways of the holonet, "it's all you."

As Ivory moved, akkd0g_ watched through the cameras: they anticipated every step, run, and turn, while keeping an eye on the neighbouring rooms and corridors on the other side of their headset's display. Now the fireworks were done, it would be significantly easier for a lucky ganger to try and get the drop on anyone, so this is where they would come in. Not that it was likely, akkd0g_ mused as they watched, but they'd seen the best taken down by a spot of bad luck before. akkd0g_ watched as Ivory sent the last door, the last obstacle between them and Niki, in through it's frame, then watched as she disappeared out of the camera network's reach.

akkd0g_ took a sharp breath in as they shifted more of their focus to monitoring the rest of the warehouse. The glory of being high as they were was that, as each passing moment lasted longer in their mind, they could achieve more in each moment: write more code, plan more moves, take in more information or deploy more programs to get it for them. The only problem with this, other than the crash that came later, was waiting. Each moment dragging out for that much longer made each moment of waiting so much worse. Somehow, the lack of anything - blaster fire, scuffles, or flashes of movement through the doorway - made it worse again. While focusing on the rest of the complex helped, tracking the movements of broken and fleeing gangers to make sure none had any bright ideas, the anxiety continued to fester and gnaw at them from the pits of their stomach. Combined with the pin-prickling sensations of the spice on their skin, it felt awful. It was-

Then came the flash. It felt like the rest of the world took a step away for a moment. In the extended moment in her mind, akkd0g_ picked at the details of the flash, but it was difficult to read. Whatever it was, it wasn't conventional. Then came the second. akkd0g_ chided themselves in their mind over the temptation to ask if they were alright, at risk of distracting them. They steeled their nerves, refocusing on tracking the gangers movements, but the anxiety began to twist into dread. What if-

"Akkdog... I've got her. We're on our way out."
The dread turned to relief, which washed out of akkd0g_'s skin through the pin-pricking sensations of the spice. The sensation was otherworldly, enough to make them shiver. With focus coming more naturally to them now, they changed terminals again.
"Got it. All the gangers are hightailing it out of there, so resistance will be low to none. I'm mapping you a route to the nearest good medic and clearing traffic on the way there."
akkd0g_ let out a long, slow breath as they let themselves into the district's traffic management system. The hard part was done, but it wasn't over yet.

---

Calligenia Io

The innocence of the device's chime betrayed the tone of the message that it heralded. The number that sent the message to Calligenia's device of choice wasn't private, but the next best thing to entirely random. There was no message history, no caller ID, nothing that would be helpful in picking the identity of the sender. There was only the message:
[ two more patients coming your way. look after the both of em please, they've both had it rough tonight. ]
Another chime heralded a payment coming through to Calligenia's account. It certainly wasn't a generous amount of credits, but it certainly wasn't meagre either. Another message followed shortly after:
[ that's a down payment. they'll be good for the rest. they should be there in 4 minutes. -ak0_ ]

Shortly after the messages arrive, an automatic notice appeared at the bottom of the series:
[ This number is out of service. Please check the number and try again. ]