The last hundred metres to the Residence 90-100 she had to walk. Dee let past some sort of heavy walker thing seemingly made from semi-transparent crystal instead of metal - and rode an escalator to the 2nd level. A happy-looking couple was standing on the second-level walkway holding hands and engaged in a lively conversation. The one facing her, a girl, pretty, 20yo looking, with shiny black hair, predominantly Asian features and a section of her face covered by an integrated visor smiled and waved as Dee passed by. She must have been military or the like – as a quick scan revealed signs of extensive bio-and cyber-implantation. At a guess, purely judging by mass - exceeding Ultraviolet's own firepower. Ultraviolet smiled and waved back casually and stepped over someone's legs – he must have been a major simulspace addict, given his stiff, unmoving stare and and nothing less than a mobile mainframe on his lap, plugged into an utility port on his wrist. Dee liked simspace herself, in particular The Armada, Azeroth Reborn, and even had taken to Steam & Brass after the Fingerforge Nexus upgrade and so wasn't exactly in position to criticise. She just muttered something about Titanian excess -and top grade tech in the hands of complete randomers.
She approached the automated door and was going to retrieve the door code – but the doors opened on their own, accompanied by the voice of the security computer.
'Signature recognised. Welcome home, miss Verna. You have a message on the terminal.'
Something was decidedly wrong. The security system must have been hacked. It was dark inside, except the outer wall screen coating obviously wired to outside sensors and projecting rare, rapidly moving, wind-torn clouds in faint starlight.
'Lights!' Dee commanded, readying and unfolding her lasers and extending the wolfram-edged claw of her left hand.
The lights slowly came on and she stepped into the hallway. She scanned the area in radar and electromagnetic bands, without retrieving conclusive data on someone's presence. In the main living area there was a terminal, switched on. The unwelcome visitor could not have been gone for long. She did not detect any movement – so all she could do was to check out the terminal.
Salut, V
Impressed. You're always getting cuter and cuter. If you go on like that – I might fall for you. My personal preference is still your old one but not by much and that's just me taking time to get used to things.
Now the bad news. I could not fix that VR, the main circuit non-responsive – it was only a Nimbus-R, I'd recommend Xtech over the overpriced Nimbus any time of day.
Keep rockin',
/Kim Yeong
Mesh Architecture Solutions (media)(media)(media)/
)))))In reply to:
))Hej admirers and jealous rivals
))I'm speccing up tomorrow, business reasons – so got to make sure you recognise me. Xcuse me for clumsiness a couple of days while I get used to it.
))My new looks: (media)
))Ah yes and can you necro my VR or is it gfg?
))XXXXXXXXXXX
))Verna R.
))/A generally good person/
The terminal auto-loaded the holoprojection, leaving Dee speechless. It was a VR shot of her very own morph. Her custom-tuned Lunar Steel, sheath, lights and all. It slowly began to dawn on her this was a setup.
'Don't even try. Stand up to the wall, facing it,' a metallic, synthesised voice came from above
'Verna, why…I genuinely liked you,' was all Dee could think of. She had not yet had time for the betrayal to even fully register.
Then she did not need to think. The radar clearly displayed the enemy position and in the lower-than-standard Titanian gravity she technically could try…
But she was already on the way. Jump, spin, bounce off the ceiling. It wasn't her first time of low and zero G combat. An explosive gunshot tore the skin off her shoulder, her safety circuits cutting out the pain. Niiiice. How did the sod even manage to smuggle that in – military rifles even without explosive ammo were outlawed on most habitats. It was the reason why her own specialisation was in lasers - admittedly weaker but generally overlooked by authorities because of next to no structural damage.
As Ultraviolet landed she immediately struck out with her claw-blade extended from its sheath within her forearm through an opening on the edge of her palm. The opponent's weapon went flying together with their hand, sliced off at the wrist. Her opponent was also a synth, unmasked, their camera eyes following the point of her blade. The offender stepped back, obviously feeling no more pain than Ultraviolet did and extended a blade of their own.
'Who are you?'
The opponent just laughed, a synthesised maniacal laughter.
'Your warranty's void. We are the emergency tech support,' he said
Ultraviolet jumped down, over the railing, followed by her pursuer. But when he landed, Ultraviolet was nowhere to be seen. He looked up, in time to see both of her cyberclaws pierce his light armour where a human would have collarbones - and disable both arms. She released her prehensile toes from the railing with a push, and gracefully landed on her feet.
'Now ….i think i am going to repeat my question, in hope you might be more disposed to answer…'
The door opened and several people burst in.
'No, not a chance. We're switching you off – and when you're turned back on, you'll be back in the hands of your rightful owner. It's not up to us to decide what to do with you. We merely provide a service….'
Dee severed the neck connections and the android collapsed in a pile….there were three more movement signatures, possibly a fourth by the door. All matching on IR – meaning either sheathed synths or bios. She had the visuals of the first two. Furies, armoured, military grade, one of them male to that – she shuddered to think what 'teamwork' meant in cooperation with an instinct ridden alpha psychopath with a dominant spinal brain - which male Furies tended to turn into. There was a good reason they were even more rare than Futuras, another spectacular screwup of a morph - although less deservedly considered such in Dee's opinion. Because it was specifically growing up in a Futura not the everyday adult life which messed you up.
Ultraviolet jumped, in flight opening fire from her Gatling gun, leaving the nearest fury, the female one with a singed chestplate and side of her face. They both retaliated with suppressive fire.
'Keep it down. Accursed thing, either the intel was wrong or indeed the message on the terminal was real. This is not a bio, which never made sense anyway – it's a machine, just masked. No pain, high speed. As for the upside, the police bought our AR tournament story – so play it safe and do not take chances.'
'Understood'
'It dieeeees' the male Fury commenced another full auto burst. Dee sensed the other one approach her from the side and increased radar frequency for precision. Still lying behind a massive sofa she raised her arm and fired a burst going by radar – the scream notifying her she did not miss entirely. Not enough to stop an armoured Fury who had extended her own blades, in her case from elbows and landed on the top of Ultraviolet, slicing her armour and leaving a burrow in her synth flesh, not quite cutting through the internal layer of armour. Ultraviolet reciprocated with a strike at Fury's ankle, similarly failing at her reinforced skeleton. A massive kick sent Ultraviolet flying and out of her cover. She felt one of her legs going numb, the other opponent's gunfire piercing its metal plates. Dee rose to her feet but instead of preparing her blades to the closer opponents attack she spun up the gun and directed laser fire in the male Fury's face.
She wasn't counting on massive damage unless she got lucky and damaged one of his eyes – but that wasn't her objective. The hitman – or whatever he was - screamed and unleashed another full clip burst, targeting her. Dee's gun hand hung lifelessly, the elbow half severed by the female's implanted sword. She barely ducked a backwards stab of the other blade and locked herself in a clinch – with no chances against a stronger opponent with both arms operative. But the squadmate of her adversary didn't let Dee down, his targeting systems locked dead on her he stubbornly continued to fire. The Fury's grip loosened and she slid down to her knees. Still using the dying female as a shield Ultraviolet tried to decide the next move when…
'Idiots. Incompetent, useless waste of brain tissue. TWO morphs fried? This is enough. Stand aside.' It was the smiling girl Dee had passed at the door, her visor and eyes now burning crimson. 'I'm cutting the losses'.
She raised her palm, her body mechanics shuffling , a diaphragm opening a hole in her palm and turning her entire arm into a barrel. Ultraviolet saw only the blue rocket flame firing back from her shoulder. Taking her last chance she leaped aside and forward hoping for the shockwave to propel her towards the door. Which did not happen. There was merely a blue flash of light behind her back – and her leap turned out considerably shorter than planned. And when she landed her body was lifeless and inert. Her last memory was of immensely strong hands breaking her neck and tearing at the base of her skull. Her consciousness mercifully faded.