Sol 730
A soft and warm light crept over Anna, bathing her in a pleasant fuzzy feeling. Smiling in response, she stretched as she opened her eyes and blinked off her sleep. The automated blinds across the room from her were slowly drawing upwards, revealing to her the full brilliance of the Martian sunrise outside.
The skies were pastel blue and pink, but as pleasing as the view was to look at, Anna was far more preoccupied with the beautiful tangle of snow-white hair lying on the pillow next to her. She pressed closer to Elsa and snuggled her more tightly, humming in satisfaction as she did.
"Good morning," Elsa croaked, her voice rough and husky from evidently having just woken up as well.
Anna didn't have to see Elsa's face to see the smile that was there, and instead she leaned over and placed a few gentle kisses on her neck, working up to her cheek. "Morning, sunshine," she whispered. "How'd you sleep?"
"Good," Elsa rolled over to regard Anna, her blue eyes bright and sharp. "Yourself?" she came forward and kissed her on the forehead.
Anna wiggled her metal left arm out from underneath Elsa's waist and ran her cool fingers through Elsa's hair, chuckling to herself. "Real nice," she replied, letting a strand of hair flow across her hand as she studied it. "You know, maybe the best thing about my arm now is that I can cuddle you all night without worrying about it falling asleep."
"Hmm. The wonders of the twenty-second century."
"We really are living in the future."
Elsa giggled at that and leaned closer in, resting her forehead against Anna's. For the next several minutes, they simply lay together in bed, basking in the quiet glory of the new dawn on the new planet where they had made their home.
The year was 2101, two years since they had left New York in search of a better life. Two years since they settled down in the colony of Arcadia, a city situated in the Hellas Basin of the planet Mars. Two years since Anna and Elsa discovered their love for each other. Two years, or seven hundred and twenty-three days – that is to say sol, the Martian equivalent of an Earth day – since they had found hope and salvation in each other.
It had taken nearly all of the small fortune that Anna had been paid two years ago by Matilda Rosenthal when everything first happened, which they spent on a nice apartment, as well as new identities and credentials. To Arcadia, the red-haired woman was Rachael Deckard and the white-haired woman was Joy Wallace. To each other, they were simply Anna and Elsa.
After a few more peaceful minutes, Elsa carefully extricated herself from Anna's arms as she climbed out of bed. "I'm going to brush my teeth," she tweaked Anna's ear as she slipped out of the covers. "Are you joining me?"
"Hmph," Anna yawned and wrapped herself in the covers more snugly as she waved Elsa off. "Five more minutes."
"Typical," Elsa shook her head and couldn't suppress the mischievous grin the spread across her lips. "It's almost eight o'clock, you'll be late for work."
"Okay, so, I'll be late," Anna wiggled beneath the covers and hid herself from sight. "Or I'll find a new job, whatever."
"Anna," Elsa placed a hand on her hip.
"Elsa," Anna mumbled from beneath the covers.
"Are you going to make me do this? You're getting too old for this kind of thing now."
"You mean we. We're the same age, remember?"
"Yes, and I imagine a twenty-seven-year-old woman should be able to get out of bed on her own by now," Elsa sighed. "Okay, if you aren't coming out, I'm coming in."
Anna pushed down the covers, a look of alarm on her face. "Wait a minute, just-"
Elsa eagerly pounced on Anna, straddling her by the waist as she reached down to her sides and beneath her shirt. Anna barely reacted in time before she broke into fit of goofy laughter when she felt cool fingers prance up and down her waist and stomach. She was being tickled relentlessly, which as much as she pretended to hate, she loved being dragged out of bed like that.
"You fucking- that's not fair!" Anna squealed and laughed in delight as she tried to roll away. "No, come on! Okay, okay! I'm getting up, I'm up!" she rose and grabbed Elsa by her shoulders, flipping them over so that Anna was now on top.
"Feisty this morning, aren't you?" Elsa grinned up at Anna.
"Give me five minutes and I'll show you how feisty I am," Anna said as she leaned down over Elsa, trapping her in place between her hands.
"Just five minutes? Oh, well that's great, I won't even have to get my top off."
"Ugh. I remember when I used to be the funny one."
Elsa wrapped her arms behind Anna's neck and pulled her in, kissing her on the nose. "I did learn from the best."
"Hmm," Anna nodded, then came in to kiss Elsa on the lips when she was stopped by a single finger pressed against her own.
"No, morning breath," Elsa turned Anna's head towards their washroom. "Washroom, toothbrush, you and I, now," she ordered. "Then breakfast, then we need go to work. You're going to make me run late if you keep this up."
Anna rolled her eyes and acquiesced as she finally got out of bed. Together, she and Elsa made their way to their shared washroom where they began preparing for their day. There, they examined their reflections in the mirror as they brushed their teeth.
Elsa remained as beautiful and radiant as ever, with her body toned and muscled. As for her snow-white hair, it remained as lustrous and had been cut short, styled into a bob haircut. Her eyes, cybernetic now, were as blue as the ocean. The scar on her left palm was still there, as was the scar from the gunshot wound on her torso.
Anna on the other hand, used to be quite scrawny and slightly undernourished when she lived in New York, but now, she was at a much healthier weight. Her crimson hair retained its shine and was tied into a top knot with the lower half of the sides and back shaved in an undercut style. Her body still carried her scars from her difficult life, including the most recent ones on her face she had gained during an attack by a mutated wolf back on Earth. Her eyes were also cybernetic, but remained teal.
Following that, they each got dressed for the day, making idle conversation as they did.
"You know, I was thinking we could hit up Elysium park this weekend," Anna suggested as she pulled on a pair of jeans. "I heard they'll be unveiling the new tiger exhibit at the zoo. What do you think?"
Elsa wiggled into her blue techweave bodysuit and zipped it up. "Yeah, that sounds fun," she nodded her agreement. "A tiger, hmm. I thought they had gone extinct."
"Apparently not," Anna slipped into a t-shirt with a faded band logo. "It is a Friday though, maybe we could go today even."
"Not today, sorry," Elsa apologized. "They need me down at the factory. Something wrong with the robots on the production line."
"You can't fix it remotely?"
"Apparently not. I'll probably be home late."
"Oh, well that's okay," Anna nodded. "Never a dull moment for a netrunner, huh?"
Elsa put on a pair of baggy streetwear pants to wear over her legs on top of her bodysuit. "It certainly keeps me busy," she agreed. "What about you, any breaking news stories?"
Anna snorted as she stood up. "I wish, no, I'm still just a glorified media intern. I'll probably just finish up that small piece about the new Keller designs for their protein farms."
For a living, Anna worked for ACN – Arcadia City News – which fit more or less in line with her previous experience as a private detective. As for Elsa, she was a net systems engineer, taking after her deceased friend, Theodore Sorkin. She worked for Teng-Lao; a heavy industries corporation based in Arcadia. It hadn't been easy at first gaining employment, but with their falsified identities, some bribes in the right places, and with a few connections to some seedier characters, they had been able to do so.
After all, Anna and Elsa had only managed to get into Arcadia with the help of Flynn, a smuggler and associate of K, Anna's closest friend from New York.
When they were both dressed, they exited their bedroom and went into the kitchen. Their apartment was located in Little Japan, one of the nicer areas of Arcadia. The design of the apartment itself was minimal and restrained. It had a single bedroom with an en suite washroom, a living room with a partially sunken sitting area, an office off to the side which contained a netrunning station for Elsa and a workbench for Anna, and a kitchen with all the requisite accompaniments.
For breakfast, they each had a bowl of rehydrated freeze-dried fruit along with a cup of coffee. As they ate, they kept their holo-television playing in the background. Most of the channels were all the same, filled with one advertisement after the next, all of which were overbearingly hyper sexualized, loud, or just plain obnoxious.
Elsa's omni-pad lit up with a notification, which she brought up on the holo-display as she swiped through the screens. "Oh, that's me," she said with a slight frown. "They need me on site now, I've gotta run," she stood up from her chair and put away her bowl then returned to Anna to place a coffee scented kiss on her lips and cheek. "I'll see you tonight. I love you," she started making her way out of the apartment.
"Okay, love you too," Anna called after her. "And don't forget your bag!"
"I won't!" Elsa called back as she grabbed her samurai bomber jacket and bag in question from the closet before stepping out.
As soon as she was gone and after the door shut, Anna brought up her omni-pad on her cybernetic arm and pulled up the security camera footage. Next, she swiped towards the holo-television to transfer the displays and casually set her feet on the kitchen table as she ate her fruit salad. On the display, she watched as Elsa entered an elevator to head down to the parking garage.
While she was standing in the elevator, Elsa adjusted her bag around her shoulders then opened it to look inside. At that moment, Anna made a gesture with her fingers and zoomed in on the bag, seeing that Elsa's sidearm was still tucked inside.
"That's my girl," Anna nodded in approval and continued to observe Elsa.
Once the elevator made it down to the parking garage, Elsa stepped out and starting walking towards her car. Anna snapped her fingers and switched over to another camera feed, one that showed where their respective vehicles were parked.
Elsa drove a model 43 Nøkken, produced by Kjellfrid Motors, a Scandinavian car manufacturer. It was a sleek muscle car with a matte black finish, bulletproof windows and tires, and a rear spoiler at the back. Parked next to it was Anna's vehicle of choice, a CTX-67V Kijimuna, produced by Daimyo, a Japanese motorcycle manufacturer. It was a sports motorcycle, with a sloped aerodynamic design and a shiny crimson finish to match Anna's hair.
Once Elsa climbed into her car and drove away, Anna released a small sigh of relief. She didn't watch Elsa so closely because she didn't trust her, far from it.
Anna knew that Elsa was completely capable of taking care of herself, however, ever since their time in New York, she had become a much more cautious person. When Anna had nothing to lose, she never cared if she lived or died. Now, with Elsa, she had everything to lose, and she would never let anything happen to the one person she cared about most in the world.
Not again. Not after everything they endured and suffered through.
"Whew, okay," Anna finished her fruit salad, downed the rest of her coffee, then stood up and carried them to the sink. "Elsa's off to work and I need to get running."
She made her way over to the office, which in fact was more of an armory. The walls were lined with foam inserts that held numerous weapons, one of which was her trusty hand cannon manufactured by Ronin, the Japanese arms company. Anna pulled it out from its slot, then opened the oiled cylinder to ensure that it was loaded. Afterward, she snapped it shut with an easy flick of her wrist and put away in behind her back in the waistband of her pants.
Next, she reached up and pulled down one of two katanas, also produced by Ronin, and strapped it to her waist. Hers was a kitsunebi thermal katana, which held along its edge a nanofilament heated blade that could turn ripping hot with the press of a button on the handle. Kitsunebi translated to fox-fire, aptly named after the yokai spirit to illustrate the incendiary properties of the weapon. Conversely, the other one belonged to Elsa and was a Yuki-Onna cryo katana, which was opposite to the thermal model in that the blade could drop to hypothermic temperatures via a liquid nitrogen cooling system. Yuki-Onna literally translated to snow woman, making the cryo katana a perfect accessory for Elsa.
In addition to their new identities, Anna had also been insistent on acquiring an open-carry permit as well as a concealed carry-permit for their weapons. Arcadia certainly wasn't New York and certainly wasn't as dangerous. Still, it was a city, and like any other, it had its unpredictable elements.
Now appropriately armed and ready for the day, Anna made her way out of the apartment and grabbed her long coat along the way, pulling it on as she stepped out the door. It was her favorite article of clothing and was as much a fashion statement as it was a tactical garment. The coat was made of thick fabric and had a high collar. Since New York, Anna had modified the lining with ballistic fiber and layers of insulating material to provide better protection from small arms fire, especially against flechettes.
Anna went over to the elevator, got inside, and descended to the parking garage. There, she climbed on her motorcycle, put on her helmet, turned on the engine, and sped out into the city.
As she drove through the streets, Anna looked up and observed the morning skies unfurling above the city. Since Mars didn't have a breathable atmosphere, Arcadia was situated beneath a large biodome that contained all the life support systems necessary to survival. Furthermore, temperature control and artificial gravity were all regulated by power generators buried beneath the surface, fueled by geothermal energy.
Indeed, technology that once seemed the realm of science fiction was now a reality thanks to over a century of constant innovation and human advancement. Mars as well as Earth's moon had undergone extensive terraforming ever since the establishment of the first extraterrestrial colonies. In terms of transportation, while the skycar was easily the most efficient form of travel, the airspace in Arcadia was limited due to the biodome. That meant only the Russian and Chinese government, the Arcadia city police department, and the wealthy elite had access to them.
For everyone else, they got by with cars, trucks, and motorcycles like in early twenty-first century. Therefore, Arcadia had roads, streets, highways, and parking lots to accommodate them. Additionally, buildings and other structures were limited to a certain height, lest they scrape the biodome or interfere with air traffic.
Anna sped her way through Little Japan, easily weaving in and out of traffic while confidently navigating the streets. All around her, adorning nearly every vertical surface were holographic signs and neon advertisements, a rather common feature of cities by that point in time. She eventually crossed over into corpo plaza, the main center of business and commercial activity for all of Arcadia. There, she pulled into the lot of the ACN building and parked her motorcycle before heading inside.
She entered the lobby which held a security checkpoint where she was stopped by robotic security guard. Robots were different from androids in that they weren't designed to resemble humans at all beyond the basic human figure. Their bodies were all metal parts and circuitry with sharp angles and steep slopes. They were quite simple in their programming, equipped with only basic functions which relegated them to often monotonous tasks. Compared to the androids produced by the now-defunct VanirCorp, they were much less advanced, though, easier to control.
"Stop there, ma'am," the robot said. "Your identification badge, please."
Anna, already familiar with this routine, reached into her pocket and pulled out her staff identification, which she held out to the robot.
"Scanning," the robot said as it trained its single optic lens on the badge. "Confirmed. Welcome, Miss Rachael Deckard. Please submit your weapons for inspection."
Doing as she was told, Anna pulled out her hand cannon and her katana and set them down on a nearby conveyer belt. As they rolled ahead, she walked through another scanner which passed over her from head to toe. On the other side, she was met by another robot guard who allowed her to retrieve her weapons before continuing on.
She entered an elevator, shuffling inside with a few other staff members who either gave her a sparing glance or ignored her entirely as they busied themselves with their omni-pads. Anna paid them the same level of courtesy, then once the elevator reached her floor, she stepped out and made her way to her office.
Along the way, she passed by her supervisor, Shang, who was one of the upper-level brass members at ACN. He was currently chatting up one of the female staff members and when Anna entered his peripheral vision, he raised a single finger for her to stop while he continued conversing, not even sparing a cursory glance in her direction.
Anna stopped in place and suppressed the urge to sigh and scowl as she waited for Shang to wrap up whatever they were talking about. She rolled her eyes when the other woman laughed at something particularly funny he had said, then she went on her way. Shang stared after her as she left, shamelessly ogling her rear using the zoom function in his cybernetic eyes before finally turning around to Anna.
"Raquel, I've been waiting all week for that Keller report," Shang frowned. "I need it on my desk by today, or I'll find a new intern."
"Yes, sir," Anna nodded. "And it's Rachael by the way. I've only been here for a year now," she said, barely keeping the sarcastic edge off of her voice.
"Yeah whatever, Raquel," Shang made a dismissive gesture and brushed past her, giving her a slap on the rear as he did. "Hop to it. Keller report, my desk by end of day," he walked away, whistling a jaunty tune.
Anna sighed in frustration and had to resist the urge to gut the man then and there with her katana. Even though she was quite literally armed to the teeth, many other residents of Arcadia were similarly equipped, whether with cybernetic implants or weapons of their own. In New York, they were a practical consideration that one had to carry at all times, but in Arcadia, they were flaunted as status symbols. Additionally, it didn't do well to start the weekend with a workplace bloodbath, so Anna shook her head and continued on her way.
Once she made it to her office, she opened the sliding door and stepped in. Except, office was an understatement, as her workspace was more like a dark and cramped utility closet that had been repurposed into a communal open plan type situation. Anna's desk was tucked away in a far corner and she had to share the space with five other interns.
"Hey, Rachael," one of the interns looked up and greeted her as she entered. "Made it in okay?"
Anna shrugged off her long coat and put it on a nearby rack. "Oh, just peachy keen, aside from the casual workplace sexual harassment," she replied. "One year and Shang still calls me Raquel. I'm pretty sure he's doing it on purpose at this point. What about you, Yasmine?"
Yasmine stopped typing on her holo-display and chuckled. "That asshole still gets my name confused with Jasmine, and I'm pretty sure when I got his coffee today, he was zoomed in on my tits."
"Ugh, typical," Anna shook her head and made her way past towards her desk. "But Jasmine, with a rack like that, how could I keep my eyes off of them?" she parroted one of Shang's first comments he had ever said to the woman.
Both Anna and Yasmine shared a laugh. They had started at ACN as interns at the same a year ago and in that time, they had not yet reached the status of full-time staff members. Their work had mostly been unrewarding, unfulfilling, and unsatisfying, not to mention all of the internal office politics they had to endure.
"It's why I started wearing turtlenecks," Yasmine said, looking down at herself.
"Uh huh," Anna sat down at her desk, setting her katana aside and placing her hand cannon by her terminal. "Because that's gonna stop him. He'll probably just upgrade to Adamantius optic scanners for his eyes and that way, he can ogle your chest from across the damn building. Probably spring for the x-ray vision too while he's at it."
"You think I should get one of those breast mounted taser launchers? Maybe that'll finally teach him not to stare."
"You wanna shoot tasers from your boobs?"
"Why not?"
"Yeah, okay, good point. It's your body, girl, do whatever you want."
Yasmine seemed encouraged by that as she smiled and returned to her work.
Anna activated her holo-display and pulled up the Keller report she had been working on with an easy gesture. Then, she held up her metal hand, and pulled out the neural cord from her wrist, jacking into the terminal to sync with the ACN network. Her own cybernetic eyes flashed in response and once the sync was complete, she set to work.
There had been a time when Anna eschewed the usage of implants, given her suspicion of all things synthetic, but since moving to Arcadia, the advanced technology that was present required a minimum degree of bodily modification. Aside from her cybernetic arm which had been necessitated due to one gruesome encounter with a mutated wolf back on Earth, Anna had installed a neural cord in her left wrist, cybernetic eyes, a chip slot just behind her right ear, and a standard operating system nestled at the base of her neck. It provided her with a neural interface which contained a suite of software directly linked to her brain, including a heads up display.
Even as subtle as they were, especially in comparison to some others, cybernetic implantation was still an invasive and often irreversible procedure. Elsa had undergone similar modifications to Anna, enhancing some of her already enhanced capabilities. Still, in terms of physical abilities, Anna and Elsa were or less on the same ground now. Both of them preferred to keep as much of their organic parts as possible, retaining their humanity where others have fully committed to the metal and chrome.
For the next few hours, Anna worked on finishing the Keller report, though it was a difficult task as she repeatedly stopped to mess around on the net or send a text message to Elsa on her omni-pad. Given the proximity to the weekend, Anna didn't really feel much like doing anything productive.
At the moment, she was exchanging a back and forth with Elsa, who was at work at the Teng-Lao factory.
Me: I'm so fucking bored right now. What's going on with you? Please distract me.
Ice Queen of my Heart: Nothing terribly exciting. The problem is more serious than I thought. Someone broke through Teng-Lao's ICE last night, messed around with the robots, shut them off. I'm diving into the net soon to find the source of the issue.
Me: Ooh, sounds exciting. They leave behind any juicy malware or did they hijack the robots to create a cyberpsycho killer army?
Ice Queen of my Heart: Not sure yet, though if that happens, you'll be the first to know.
Me: Cool. Hey, I wanted to ask, did you forget your katana?
Ice Queen of my Heart: I didn't forget, I just didn't think I needed it to solve a net issue.
Me: I'm not so sure about that, I mean, you could give it a try. There's no way it wouldn't not work. Wouldn't not work, is that right?
Ice Queen of my Heart: Next time then. Oh, I've got to dive now. We'll talk later?
Me: Yeah, okay, don't mind me, I'll just be bored over here. Have fun in the net! Don't watch any kinky porn without me!
Anna leaned back in her chair and rubbed her eyes, staring through blurry vision at her report. It was mostly finished now and only required some minor revisions. Deciding to push through and finish early for the day, she made the necessary adjustments, then sent off the finalized report to Shang through the company net. Shortly afterwards, Anna received a notification from Shang, confirming the conclusion of her task, which was followed by a rather lewd message which asked if her curtains matched the drapes.
Ignoring it, Anna shut off her terminal, gathered her weapons, and made for the door, grabbing her long coat on the way.
"Finished for the day?" Yasmine asked.
Anna nodded. "Yeah and, well, we don't have full-time hours so why stay for full-time work?" she replied. "I'm gonna head out, maybe grab a bite. You wanna come?"
Yasmine shook her head. "No, I gotta finish this culture piece first. I'll be wrapping up soon though, don't worry about me. Go on, enjoy your weekend."
"Okay, see you Monday then, taser tits."
"Ha! Good one. Catch you later, fire crotch."
With that, they waved goodbye to each other and Anna departed from the ACN building.
… … …
Anna was leaning against her motorcycle, pulled off to the side nearby a food truck where she was wolfing down a slice of locust pepperoni pizza and taking sips from a can of orange Pep-Up soda. When she was done, Anna easily crushed the can into a ball with her cybernetic hand, then discarded of her garbage in a nearby trash can.
As she started walking back to her motorcycle, her omni-pad lit up with an incoming call. Excitedly, Anna picked up, thinking it was Elsa when another recognizable face appeared on the holo-display.
"Rachael, you busy?" Mulan asked.
She was a Chinese woman with short jet-black hair that was shaved on one side of her head. Adorning her face were subtle lines of circuitry that connected to a focusing lens over one eye. When Anna and Elsa first moved to Arcadia, it was Flynn who put them in contact with Mulan, who in turn helped them with setting up their new lives.
Anna casually leaned against her motorcycle. "Sure, I can talk. What's up, M?"
Mulan nodded approvingly. "Got some work, should be perfect for someone of your skillset."
She was a fixer, a person who connected clients with able-bodied mercenaries to carry out whatever job they needed done. Compared to her work at ACN, this was something Anna actually enjoyed for it was what she knew she was good at, even if it was rather illicit and held an element of danger. In any case, it was certainly more exciting than being a media intern, that and the fact that it paid more handsomely as well.
"I'll bite," Anna nodded. "What's the gig?"
"My client is looking to repossess some stolen property and needs some capable hands to get it back. I figure you're the best fit for this gig, so, ready to put on your detective hat?"
"Yeah, okay. The deets, hit me with 'em."
Mulan looked down at her omni-pad and swiped over a file to Anna. "Target location is down in the sub-city, you'll need to head underground," she explained. "Property in question is a cybernetic eye and my client needs it back for obvious reasons."
"Your client had their eye stolen?"
"Along with their pride. Might be some wetwork involved. Currently, the eye is possession of brutalikorps gangers."
"Brutalikorps? Those neo-Nazi fascists?" Anna tapped the hilt of her katana. "Shit, that's all you had to say. I'm always ready for wetwork."
"Alright then, sending you the location on your map," Mulan made a quick gesture and a new waypoint appeared on Anna's omni-pad. "When you've recovered the eye, deliver it to this drop point. Happy hunting. Out," she dropped the call and faded from the holo-display.
Anna studied the highlighted location and checked the time. It was only just past noon and since she had finished work early, she had some time on her hands, especially since she knew Elsa wouldn't be home until later.
The location in question was deep within Arcadia's sub-city, which as the name suggested, was an underground city buried beneath the surface. Economic and social stratification in Arcadia was best illustrated with how the entire colony was arranged. On top, closest to the surface beneath the biodome were the wealthiest citizens. They got to enjoy real sunshine, safety, security, and comfort. With each sequential layer beneath the surface, the sub-city became seedier, less regulated, and more dangerous.
Every city had its pleasant charms and sinister secrets, Arcadia just had theirs literally buried. The deepest parts of the sub-city were nearly lawless, ruled by gangs not unlike New York. For Anna, places like that were where she had spent most of her life and where she felt most at home. Due to that fact, she decidedly kept Elsa uninformed about her alternate stream of revenue and her secret double life as a mercenary.
Returning to her motorcycle, Anna checked the time once more and looked up to the sky. "Should be a quick job, in and out," she muttered to herself as she reached for her helmet. "Elsa won't be home until later on and I got time. Yeah, I've got time."
With that, she revved the engine and sped off down the road, heading beneath the Martian surface.
… … …
After she exited the freeway, Anna took the ramp heading underground and passed through some streets running by a series of waste processing plants, water treatment facilities, hydroponic farms, oxygen recycling, air conditioning, and geothermal energy stations. They were all integral to life support systems for Arcadia and for that reason, each one of them had a number of redundancies and emergency protocols that would engage in the event of a catastrophic decompression caused by a rupture in the biodome. To that end, multiple shelters were present throughout the entire city, both on the surface and below that would provide oxygen, EVA suits, food, and water.
Despite how it would seem, the Arcadian sub-city was rather spacious and the ceilings were supported with a number of pillars and structures to prevent cave-ins. Additionally, they were affixed with light panels to simulate day and night cycles, though due to how tight the airspace was, skycars could not be safely flown in the sub-city.
Anna easily navigated the streets as she drove towards the waypoint on her map, weaving in and out of traffic while drifting around corners. Along the way, she passed by an unremarkable abandoned warehouse where just ahead, further down the street, were a group of three gangers.
Those are brutalikorps boys, Anna thought as she followed after them. I'm nearby the location Mulan sent to me and it looks like we're headed in the same direction. I ought to do a loose follow.
She decelerated her motorcycle somewhat to follow the gangers from a more discreet distance, noticing that wherever they were going, they appeared to be in a hurry. Additionally, either they were drunk, high, or some combination of the two because none of them could walk in a straight line, stumbling and tripping here and there as they limped their way back to their car.
Anna watched as they climbed into their car, which then began to drive off in an erratic pattern down the road before eventually stabilizing. She surmised that due to their current state of inebriation, the auto-drive feature of their car had taken over and was now driving them back home.
Most vehicles in 2101 were equipped with an onboard auto-drive or autopilot feature, Anna's motorcycle included. It enabled the owner to summon their vehicle to their location and could function on its own without any input needed, which was certainly a useful in many cases.
The gangers made a few turns down some dark streets, while Anna followed a safe distance behind. Eventually, after entering a secluded industrial park, they came to a stop near what was quite clearly their hideout inside of a large warehouse. Adorning the walls outside were graffiti of Nazi swastikas while roaming the parking lot outside were numerous gangers, fully clad in black leathers, silver chains and visible cyberware that covered their bodies.
The brutalikorps were a gang comprised of the remnants of the Third Reich before Germany was split between the west and east. While democratic West Germany consolidated power to form the European Republic, East Germany was folded into the communist regime underneath the New Soviet Union. In that time, the brutalikorps was formed by disenfranchised veterans of the second world war, retaining none of their former glory but keeping all of their racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic, homophobic, and violently intolerant ways. That much was already evidenced by their very clear sign that was posted outside the entrance to their hideout which stated that all trespassers would be shot on sight.
Anna pulled off down a lonely alley where she parked her motorcycle and removed her helmet. There, she settled into a crouch as she hid behind a wall, observing the target location while remaining hidden. At least six gangers were outside the warehouse and the recent arrival of the ones she had been following made nine. She was unsure how many more could be inside, so she didn't want to risk running in guns blazing.
"Gonna have to play this one quiet," Anna muttered to herself. "And smart. Let's see what I'm working against."
Pulling out her rangefinder from the inner pocket of her long-coat, Anna zoomed in on the warehouse and activated the microphone so she could both see and hear from a safe distance. As she scanned the surroundings of the warehouse, she was able to eavesdrop on the gangers.
"What the fuck did you guys get into?"
"We got peppered with stingers is what happened. Can barely see fuck-all right now!"
"Ha! How in the hell did that happen?"
"Tried to break into some corpo car, only we didn't know it was a corpo car."
"Stupid fucks. Should know better than to fuck with corpo shit."
"Yeah, and what about that eye you guys lifted?"
Anna narrowed her brows as she zoomed further in on the conversation between the gangers. "Here we go," she said. "Now we're on to something. Tell me where that eye is."
"It's with the kommandant," one ganger replied, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder towards the warehouse. "He's in his room. Apparently, he wants to sell it some rippers, figures we'll make some decent credits for the eye."
Rippers were another gang in Arcadia, whose main trade was harvesting organs or cyberware from often living and unwilling patients.
"Just the one eye?" another ganger scoffed. "What is it, an Adamantius?"
"Yep."
"Shit, that is some top-of-the-line stuff then."
"Well," Anna put away her rangefinder. "Looks like I need to go an pay this kommandant a visit."
Sticking to the shadows, she stealthily crossed the street and made her way to the empty lot adjacent to the brutalikorps hideout. There, Anna passed through some trash and detritus as she headed towards a few empty shipping containers nestled next to a perimeter wall. She climbed up and on top, she found herself at a higher vantage point that offered a strategic view of the entire warehouse.
Anna activated her cybernetic eyes and scanned the surrounding area, looking for clues to where the kommandant could be. Though she wasn't a netrunner and was not proficient at launching quick-hacks, she could still see all electrical devices that were connected to the brutalikorps local net. From the amount of traffic that was being funneled into one central location on the upper floor of the warehouse, Anna surmised that to be where the kommandant was.
Across the way from her position were all manner of crates and barrels that offered excellent cover so she could approach unseen. Outlining her route, Anna silently drew her katana then vaulted over the wall, landing quietly inside of the brutalikorps hideout. She then proceeded to sneak her way forwards, sticking to the shadows while using various objects for cover.
Once she managed to clear the perimeter, she approached the base of the warehouse and climbed onto a shipping container before getting up to a lower section of the roof. There, she quickly scanned the ground below and was relieved to find that so far, none of the gangers roaming around or lounging about had noticed her infiltration.
"Okay," Anna whispered to herself as she crept away from the roof's edge and looked up. "So far, so good."
Above her was a second tier to the warehouse, though it was a sheer vertical surface with no other way to climb up. Instead, Anna raised her cybernetic arm and shot out a grappling hook from the top of her forearm, which easily caught the edge and anchored itself firmly. With that, Anna retracted the cable into her arm, zipping her up towards the rooftop of the second floor.
As soon as she climbed over and looked around, she immediately froze when she spotted a lone ganger patrolling the rooftop with a rifle held in his hands. The ganger was currently facing away from Anna, but a second later, he began to turn back towards her position.
Acting quickly, Anna quickly shot out her grappling hook and pierced the ganger through his shoulder, then easily dragged him towards her. Surprised as he was, the ganger could barely grunt and as soon as Anna was within striking distance, she stabbed him in the chest with her katana, snuffing out his life instantly. After setting his corpse on the ground, Anna shook the blood off her katana with a flick of the wrist then continued forward. She approached a series of skylight windows and carefully looked in, finding that the interior of the warehouse was being used as a garage for numerous motorcycles. A few gangers were working with power tools, filling the interior with a deafening cacophony of machinery.
Just below Anna was a raised catwalk on which a lone ganger was patrolling back and forth. Knowing that the noise she created would be masked in the din, she quietly opened the window then waited until the ganger was directly below her. Once he was, Anna pounced on him from above, landing behind him while burying the full length of her katana down through his collarbone and into his body, piercing his heart and lungs.
The ganger gave a strangled gasp then crumbled beneath Anna as she gently laid his corpse to the floor. After that, she dragged his body into a shadowy corner behind some crates, then crept along the catwalk until she approached a door that led into the main office. Anna slid open the door just an inch to peek inside and when she saw that the room was empty, she slipped through and shut it behind her.
The floor was covered in all manner of cables and wires, not to mention empty bottles of various alcohol. At the far end, opposite to her, was the kommandant, sitting in a chair and hooked into the net. He wore black leathers like the rest, but he stood apart due to his uniform that was more like a cross between a gimp and a SS officer.
Jesus, these guys really lean into the whole Nazi BDSM thing, Anna thought as she silently approached the kommandant, katana at the ready.
Once she was close enough, she could see that his eyes, while they were open, were glazed over and glowing, indicating that he was quite dead to the physical world around him while his mind was completely elsewhere. With that, Anna silently tip-toed her way around him and examined the room for where the package she was seeking could be.
After a minute of searching, she found a fridge nearby the terminal, then took another cautious look around before sneaking towards it. Opening the fridge, she found the cybernetic eye in question that she had been tasked to find, stored inside of a cooled containment unit. Once she confirmed it, she reached in and grabbed it, which was exactly when an alarm was triggered.
"Fuck!" Anna hissed as she snatched up the container and turned around.
The kommandant had immediately surfaced from the net, throwing a murderous glare at the intruder in his office. "Who the fuck are you?!" he stood up from his chair, his body glowing with cybernetic implants and his synthetic muscles bulging beneath his leather uniform. "What the fuck do you think you're-"
Anna didn't give him a chance to advance any further when she raised her cybernetic arm and activated the flamethrower on top of her wrist, blasting the kommandant in the face with a concentrated burst of fire. He recoiled immediately and shielded his face from the heat, though his face had already been severely burned. Elsewhere in the warehouse, the gangers began to shout in confusion as weapons were drawn.
"Did you hear that?!"
"The kommandant's in trouble!"
"Oh crap," Anna swore as she sheathed her katana and drew her hand cannon while in her other hand, she held onto the container tightly. "Time to cheese it!" she started running for the exit.
As she burst out of the office, she encountered two gangers rushing towards her position on the catwalk. Before they could raise their weapons to shoot at her, Anna immediately dropped them both with a headshot from her hand cannon. Down below, other gangers sighted her and opened fire immediately, shredding the catwalk with a hail of bullets.
Behind her, the kommandant had recovered and was limping after Anna. "The bitch just tried to burn me alive!" he shouted in rage. "I want her fucking flatlined!"
Anna returned fire at a few gangers where she could, then sprinted ahead and slid into cover behind some barrels. From there, she looked around and saw that she was currently being surrounded and overwhelmed as the gangers rushed her position or kept her pinned down with bullets. Thinking quickly, Anna raised her cybernetic arm and fired the grappling hook through the skylight, ascending to the rooftop to break lines of sight.
"She went up to the roof, get up there!"
"Cut her off from outside!"
"Talk about an eye for an eye," Anna said as she ran towards the rooftop's edge, summoning her motorcycle on her omni-pad as she did. "I need to get out of here!" she jumped down to the lower level of the rooftop and rolled to preserve her momentum.
Ahead, at the entrance to the brutalikorps hideout, Anna's motorcycle sped through and raced towards her position. Anna jumped off the warehouse and before she struck the ground, her motorcycle turned in a wide circle and placed itself directly beneath her, cushioning her fall. With that, Anna secured the container to the magnetic baggage holder behind her seat, then peeled out of the hideout, tires squealing and rubber burning.
Just as she made her escape, a few of the brutalikorps gangers mounted their own motorcycles and gave chase, firing pistols off in her direction. Anna easily drifted around a street corner then sped off down a long straightaway, leaving a trail of smoke in her wake. Meanwhile, at least five gangers on motorcycles were hot on her tail, the kommandant included.
"That's my property!" the kommandant shouted after Anna as he fired his pistol.
With one hand steering, Anna turned around and responded in kind with her own hand cannon, succeeding in shooting one of the gangers chasing her. She then adjusted her aim and placed a single shot into the front wheel of another motorcycle, destroying it completely and sending both the vehicle and the rider tumbling through the air. When Anna adjusted her aim to fire at another ganger, she pulled the trigger and her weapon clicked empty.
"Oh, of course," Anna let go of the handlebars to let the auto-drive takeover while she reloaded her weapon.
Meanwhile, the kommandant and the two remaining gangers sped up towards Anna, no longer shooting at her for they had run out of ammunition as well. Before she could finish reloading, they drew machetes and closed in on her from either side, intending to bash her with their motorcycles while cutting her apart.
Anna had seen this on her rearview mirrors so instead of reloading, she put away her hand cannon and drew her katana, activating the thermal edge which caused the blade to glow red-hot. She then applied the brakes, squealing as she decelerated while her foes sped past her, unable to react in time. From her new position behind them, she adjusted the gears by her feet and accelerated ahead, catching up to trio.
Once she was between two of the gangers, she ducked down to dodge a swipe of a machete then leaned back to evade the thrust of another. Anna then retaliated by getting close to the ganger on her left before slicing off the handlebar of his motorcycle with her katana, removing his hands in the process.
A shower of orange sparks flew out from his vehicle while he screamed in pain. Shortly afterward, his motorcycle spun out of control and veered off into a nearby pillar where it exploded into a fireball of twisted metal.
Anna looked over to her right just in time to block the machete swinging towards her face with her katana, cutting the blade in half. Next, she reversed her grip on her weapon and thrust it into the chest of the last ganger, burning him from the inside out. Anna ripped her katana free, unseating the dead ganger when she was nearly unseated herself as she was violently jostled from a sudden force coming from the side.
To her left, the kommandant swung his machete at Anna's head which she blocked using her cybernetic arm. As he came in for another attack, Anna caught his wrist and pulled him in, ripping the machete out of his hands in the process. They grappled with one another and Anna veered off to the side to disentangle themselves but the kommandant jumped off his motorcycle and latched onto her, holding tight.
They struggled against each other and close as they were, Anna was unable to bring her katana around to finish him off. The kommandant brought his burned face towards Anna and sneered as he tried to wrestle her weapon out of her grip.
Anna on the other hand, retaliated by headbutting the kommandant before drawing back her metal fist and punching him in the face, breaking his nose. The kommandant shouted in pain, which turned into an exclamation of panic when he was suddenly unseated after Anna kicked him off. As he flew through the air backwards, she launched her grappling hook and pierced him through the chest, bringing him back down to the street as he was dragged along.
"Agh, you goddamn cunt!" the kommandant yelled, holding onto the cable as he rolled and tumbled over. "I'm gonna skullfuck you!"
Anna scowled, baffled that he was still alive. "Why can't you just fucking die already!" she turned towards a light post, dragging him behind over the pavement and smacking him into it.
The kommandant stubbornly clung to life, so put him down for good, Anna released a jet of flame from her cybernetic arm, both incinerating him and raking him over the rough surface of the street. He continued to scream for some time yet until eventually, the blackened husk of his body smacked against another light post headfirst, finally killing him.
With that, Anna breathed a sigh of relief then cut the cable of the grappling hook. She sheathed her katana and gripped the handlebars with both hands once more, heading to the drop point to close out another successful gig.