"Eagle One to Eagle Two, come in Eagle Two."
"Ruby, she can't hear you."
"Come in Eagle Two, What's your statue?"
"Ruby, she's in the matrix, she can't hear you."
"Oh… So does that mean we're ready for the next step?" She asked, looking over to her sister.
"Just show some patience Ru. Blake will signal us when we're clear." Yang commented, slouching in her seat in the back of the van.
Ruby groaned in annoyance. Waiting wasn't one of her strongest dispositions, and both of her teammates were very well aware of it. She shifted in her seat every other minute, in an attempt to get some kind of comfort. Her left goggle glowed red in the darkness of the van, while the right would flicker every few seconds as the multi-lense frame would rotate over it. She looked around outside the van with her IR lense.
The parking garage was empty for the most part, just a few rats and pigeons that were taking shelter from the heavy rain outside; and the roads matched. No one was on the streets, save one man sitting at a bus stop with an umbrella over his head. A spot flared up from the building next to him, and Ruby recognized it as the small noodle shop she saw when they were pulling in. A rumble from her stomach alerted her that it had been a couple hours since dinner, but she ignored it. They were on a mission after all, so her stomach would have to wait. She put it as a priority though for after they were done, not noticing her tongue licking around the inside of her mouth, both the top lip, and the metal bottom jaw.
Yang sighed, shaking her head at how immature her sister appeared, easily seeing her bend to the wills of her stomach, even if her sister herself didn't realize.
Ruby suddenly froze and pointed to the driver seat, causing Yang to turn too. A flashlight was shining into the vehicle. There was a knock on the glass, and Yang responded with rapping her metal knuckles against her side of the van's wall signalling to the person there was someone inside.
"Your vehicle isn't registered under Architect Company registry. Please exit the vehicle and prepare for a SIN inspection, and potential impounding of your van."
Yang shook her head in mild annoyance as both her and Ruby stood and walked over to the double door. Both put a hand on either handle, and waited for the security guard to round to the back of the van to meet them. Tracking him with infrared vision, Yang nodded for Ruby to have the honor when he was in place. He stood a few steps too far back for a moment, waiting for them. When they failed to show themselves, he pulled a small pistol from his waist and started to approach cautiously.
Despite being a bottom of the chain security guard, both Ruby and Yang knew not to underestimate his fire power. Architect had close ties with Argonaut Enterprises, one of the leading manufacturers of military grade weapons, and no doubt that guard's pistol could take out an engine block with ease.
He wouldn't get the chance to use it though. Once he took his second step, reaching out for the handle, the two steel doors burst open, a metal hand grabbed his neck and the next thing he knew, he was thrown into the vehicle, hitting his head before coming to a stop.
Both sisters slammed the door closed before rushing the man. Ruby's iron grip returning to his throat, squeezing down on the soft tissue. The guard's free hand grabbed her forearm trying to pry it away, but his soft flesh did little to even scratch the steel construct squeezing the life out of him. He brought his other hand up, still holding the pistol, to level the barrel at her head. Another hand caught his before it could become a danger. The grip squeezed on his hand, and he couldn't even scream in pain as both his hand, and the gun he was holding were crushed in what felt like a compactor. He thrashed and tried to free himself, but only the glowing red goggles and a yellow 'V' shaped visor accompanied him as everything went black.
Ruby released him the moment her sensors detected that he was dead, before nodding to her sister. Yang raised her arm to eye level, before flipping up a panel in the forearm. The screen illuminated the metal mask on her face. A moment later a low resolution image of Blake appeared on the screen.
"What is it Yang? I got most of the alarms, just hold tight."
"Guard caught on to us. You need to hurry before someone notices-"
The alarm sounded on cue, causing Ruby to draw her weapon, no doubt excited at the prospect of finally getting some action. Yang let out a sigh, she was hoping they could do this quietly for once in their careers. She stood cupping her hand in her palm. There was a small crunching sound as she imitated popping her knuckles. Ruby opened the door, her heavy sniper mounted on her shoulder as she stepped out with a small skip in her step. Yang followed after before performing a basic weapon check.
Her hands and forearms warmed up as the small ports along them started to let energy flow through. Solid yellow hard light panels formed above her arm and the individual finger joints. Her fist clashed together, causing sparks to erupt as the hardlight met, but remained solid. After checking the durability she grinned to herself glad everything was in working order.
Ruby's rifle opened up and the scythe blade extended to its full length before becoming enveloped in a solid red hardlight. She slashed it back and forth, the blade easily passing through the concrete floor each time. When she was satisfied with it, she let the blade collapse before returning the weapon to her shoulder.
"Blake, give us some details before we start heading up." Yang asked as they walked through the parking garage toward the closest door into the building.
"Our target is on the thirty-second floor. Floors thirty to thirty-two are all connected to Aurora's VR Matrix. The tech on those floors is ancient, I don't know who she is, but she's been in that system for a very long time." Blake explained over the communicator.
"You hear that Ruby? Check your fire-"
"I heard." She replied with some hostility, upset her sister wouldn't think her to be able to show some degree of responsibility.
"Blake, what are we looking at for security forces?" Ruby asked grabbing Yang's arm so she could speak for herself.
"Typical low grade security guards. 'Flying Star, Special Tactics' forces have been called and will be enroute shortly, but we should be out of here before they arrive if we hurry. I recommend using the stairs. Elevators are working but if they realize you're using it, we will be delayed too long."
"Roger that. Meet you on the thirty-second floor"
"Will do."
Ruby turned on her heel and took off toward the nearest door to inside the building, the red scarf around her neck flowing behind in the tail breeze. Yang followed closely, before taking the lead when her sister found the door they were using to already be electronically locked.
Ruby stepped to the side, giving Yang the clear to force it open. Her fist slammed into the door, right above the handle. When she pulled away, the steel was caved in around where her fist was. Even without her hard light gauntlets the steel was of a poor quality, clearly not meant for actual security or defense.
Another fist crashed into the door, this time slightly below the handle. The lock held firm still, but both Ruby and Yang expected it would. Using the dents as hand holds, Yang started to pull the door to the side. It held for a bit, but after a grunt of effort and a second pull, the metal whined as it yielded to her strength. With one last pull the lock slid out of the hole, letting it swing open with even the smallest force.
The shorter of the two entered first, leveling her rifle at her waist. A targeting screen formed on her visor, showing the bullet trajectory when fired. Yang followed up activating her gauntlets making ready for anything that might try to jump them.
Metal clanked on cement as the two sisters ascended up the building. A camera on every flight of steps tracked them as they walked by, but they didn't care. The security forces would know where they were if they took out the cameras anyways, plus they weren't any real threat for them. That wouldn't stop them from trying though.
The door a level up was thrown open as several pairs of feet stormed their way in. Both girls took combat stances, activating their weapons in preparation. Red hard light panels formed alongside Ruby's rifle as she powered it up to fight. Leveling it at the bend just behind them she let the "gun-eye" targeting system adjust her aim, using the system to line it up once the first guard rounded into sight. Yang prepped her gauntlets to launch a hard light slug as a follow up shot. Hard light dissipated very quickly if it didn't have a consistent supply of energy, making them close range projectiles at best, but even here at the edge of her range they could still knock someone flat on their butt.
The footsteps slammed on the concrete right above them. Ruby's IR showing they were armed with SMGs or machine pistols. Looked like they were already under code red if they were going lethal.
The vanguard rounded the corner and Ruby fired her shot before he even noticed her. Her rifle roared like a cannon, echoing up the whole stairwell. The heavy round impacted the man in his flank causing him to be lifted off his feet before slamming into the wall. Her left goggle with it's normal vision saw that she made a mistake. The IR didn't pick up that he had an orange, hexweave, hardlight riot shield on his arm. The shot would have killed a normal person with ease, but against the dense hard light, it simply detonated on impact doing no real harm.
"Contact!" the one behind him called leaning over the edge of the rail, his gun leveled at them. Yang's slug connected with his face knocking him back. A second shot sounded from Ruby, causing Yang to turn to see what she was shooting at.
The door next to them blasted open, a new hole where the handle was, with her sister rushing through a moment later. Yang moved to follow, till a hard impact struck the small of her back mid stride. Her arms moved reflexively to catch herself as she fell to the ground. She kicked off the concrete flat as another blast shattered the ground where she had been a moment before.
They entered into the main part of the building. Large glass panels made up the wall, showing a view to the city. The gold lights shining from the many skyscrapers illuminated the night, letting one easily make out the black clouds overhead as they continued to let rain fall, slamming on the transparent surface that separated them from the outside.
Yang ran down the hallway the door lead to at full speed. Ruby had spead ahead, and the curve of the hall as it bent around the edge of the building, kept her out of sight. Her body did a quick scan of her systems and confirmed she had been hit with a shotgun of some kind, but the metal carapace that enclosed her body hadn't been penetrated. Despite that though, she was glad she brought her brown combat vest, as she she would prefer not to rely on luck when it came to things like that.
Her sensors sent out a ping and after a moment the echo revealed the location of both Ruby further up the bend smashing the button for the elevator, and Blake higher up in the building probably already waiting for them.
Yang flipped open the panel in her arm, a pixelated blake show up up almost immediately.
"Blake, stairs are over crowded we're going to take the elevator up."
"You're only on the 8th floor. If you get in the elevator they will have plenty of time to stop you."
"That's why I'm calling." Yang stated with a neutral tone.
"What do you expect me to do? Just go in the matrix and fight off everything trying to take control of the elevator?" Blake asked demandingly.
"Actually I was going to say could you just destroy their system, but your plan sounds easier, so let's go with that." Yang smiled at Blake's irritated groan, but knew that she would comply.
Yang finally caught up with Ruby, who was still pressing the button for the elevator fast enough to break it, assuming it wasn't already broken. The button continued to be smashed till the soft ding of the door opening stopped her. Even before they were fully open Ruby dashed inside and took a look at the inside panel. She paused on what to do as she counted up the floors to twenty-five, before it skipped to thirty five.
She continued to stare before finally Yang went past her pushing the one reading twenty-five.
"Freeze!" Shouted a guard leveling a heavy pistol at them. He was still several feet away, his body slightly obscured by the curve in the hallway.
Yang responded with flashing him a peace sign, as the sound of the doors closing told her they were home free. Ruby though raised her rifle and fired a perfect shot into the man's exposed shoulder. The bullet easily passed through his light armor. As it pierced his flesh a small trigger in the round activated causing it to detonate mid flight. His arm was torn from his body as the whole side was reduced to gib. The corpse hit the ground a moment before the elevator doors clicked closed.
"That seemed a little unnecessary don't you think?" Yang asked her sister as they felt the elevator starting to ascend.
"Didn't want to risk it. Just because they're weak doesn't mean we should go easy on them."
"Ruby just because they promoted you to a squad leader doesn't mean you suddenly have to take everything about the mission so super serious." She commented, letting her metal arm come down on Ruby's steel shoulder plate to give her a small shake.
"I know, I'm just… I'm just nervous. I want to impress them, show them I can do this." She started letting out a deep breath.
"Just because they are watching doesn't mean you have to get so uptight about it."
Ruby was about to respond, but the elevator suddenly stopping threw her off. Both stumbled a moment to keep their balance before looking around. They were only on the twenty second floor, plus the doors weren't opening. Which meant they had manually stopped the elevator to stop their ascent.
Blake danced between the wire grids of the matrix as she slashed her way through all the security systems. A giant spire of light pierced into the eternal black void one could consider a sky behind her, several more off in the distance pierced the blackness with a variety of colors. Blake wasn't interested in those though. The one behind her controlled the elevator systems that Ruby and Yang were insisting on using despite her protest. She'd chew them out later though, the most recent wave of IC Killers managed to slip past her and deactivated the system.
Her avatar stepped up to the panels as she tried to force it back on. The avatar looked exactly like she had, before she got all the chrome additions, plus a pair of cat ears because why not; they were cute.
After a moment a burst of light came from the spire before raising up, causing it to glow bright. Knowing it was back on, no doubt the system would send another wave of IC forces to try deactivating it again.
On cue the security forces started to arrive. They were just metal boots, armor, and gloves all connected only by a thin red wire. Upon seeing her standing in the open they stopped and produced blades from their forearms.
"Intruder, identify yourself." All of them taking defensive stances.
Blake smiled and raised her weapon. The small pistol was a mirror to the one she had in real life, though instead of shooting small caliber bullets like the actual one, this one used data charges that could overload the systems that it hit. she quickly fired off a volley, easily felling the systems with minimal effort. Recognizing her as a threat they all charged forward taking basic maneuvers to make themselves harder to hit.
Against a less skilled shooter this might have helped, but for Blake, their efforts were pointless. She continued to fire her gun, not worried about ammo, only by the number of bodies coming toward her. Blake fired as fast as she could , dropping more and more of the IC Killers. As the first one neared the pistol pixilated into a sword, letting her block the attack with ease. A simple twist knocked its arm away enough for her to deal a critical strike to its center.
It burst into a number of polygons that floated away in random directions, clearing the way for the next one. A wide slash from the side was avoided by leaping in the air. As she passed, she flicked her blade through its helmet, causing it to burst like the first one. A downward slash as she landed stopped a third, then a follow up swing to the right took out a fourth.
One of the IC Killers started working on the the elevator system while three more took defensive positions around it. The rest seeing their objective secured turn to focus on Blake. Their steps made no sound as they charged her, arm blades ready to rend her avatar apart, and dump her from the system. Those not in immediate charging range exchanged their blades for ranged weapons. Their hands being replaced with gunbarrels.
Blake's own pistol reformed in her hand so she could fire on the charging enemies. The first one dropped like all the others before, as did the second. The third had its arm blown off mid swing as Blake rolled away. Stopping on her feet she took out a fourth before finishing the third. Digitized bullets whipped past her face, leaving an electric crackle in her ears as they passed. Her blade reformed letting her block several more shots.
The volley persisted, forcing Blake back while the rest of the IC systems maneuvered around to flank her. Finally a small window in the deadly shots appeared, and Blake immediately took it.
Throwing her hand out, she focused on augmenting the systems around her. She waved her hand in front of her vertically, before having to move as an IC blade slashed at her neck. Four points on the grid wiring that made up the ground and terrain lit up with a soft glow before moving upward. The lines stretched as a one by four wall rose up blocking sight between her and her ranged opponents.
With a much more secure position, Blake flipped away from the guard firing off more shots. This Intrusion Countermeasures program was top quality for sure, but was horrendously out of date, rendering that fact obsolete. Normally the programs used to counter hackers and other intruders could take more abuse than this, but these things burst in a single hit.
She continued to slice down several more of the IC Killers before finally getting around to gunning down those that had switched to ranged. Only the last four by the terminal were left. She stepped up to the wall and let the grid box she was on raise up so she was standing over it. Three were still standing in a position around the fourth like how she had left them. Though they were still armed with didn't seem to see her, causing her to wonder if they had bugged out, or if they were really so old they couldn't comprehend elevation within the Matrix?
Blake shrugged to herself before quickly dispatching the last four bots. With the enemy dispatched, she waved her arm causing the wall and pillar she was on to sink back to their normal state. There was a small buzz in her left ear, which immediately followed up with the ear itself blinking red like a car's turn signal.
Blake took a deep breath as she jacked herself out of the matrix. Though normally they had no way to connect with each other while she was in the digital world, her and Yang had set up a way for them to contact her if it was important. The space in front of her started to pull away, leaving black void behind it. After a moment she was eclipsed in darkness, a moment after that she realized her eyes were closed. Back in the real world, Blake quickly unhooked herself from the port she was using, letting the small cable slip into her wrist, as she she flipped the panel on her arm for the second time.
"Blake, the buttons skip from twenty five to thirty three. what are we supposed to do?"
"There is a second elevator in the center of the building you can take. I already locked off the system before you had your cover blown so it should be fine to go up. the thirtieth and thirty-first floors are all computer systems, the thirty-second appears to be a lab of some kind with the back room holding our target. We'll have to use stairs on the thirtieth floor."
"Roger that, meet you at the elevator then." Yang stated, closing the panel just as the elevator door dinged for their arrival.
Both girls readied their weapons as the doors slid open fully expecting resistance on the other side. There were about a dozen people, but no resistance. Both pairs of eyes went wide and jaws slightly dropped as they took in the sight.
Red splattered the walls and ran along the floor. Corpses of the recently dispatched littered the small hallway. Security guards were minced, most of them still having their weapons holstered at their sides. Among them were half a dozen individuals in white lab coats and a variety of chrome enhancements from hands to eyes. A couple were in the same state as the guards, cut into a dozen different pieces, most though seemed to only have their necks sliced open, or their stomach cut. As the two tip toed through the mess of blood and organs, Ruby noted most of them had looks of shock or fear.
There were a pair of elevators that lead up just up ahead. Ruby was about to dash to them when Yang held her hand out to stop her. She was about to ask what was up, but noticed it herself. A pair of bloody footsteps walked away from the carnage before ending in the blood covered boots of the killer. Only there was no one there.
Ruby switched to her IR vision and easily made out the figure. Going by their build it was a man, probably mid thirties if she had to take a guess. The fact her naked eye couldn't see him meant he had some kind of advanced cloaking device on.
The elevator doors in front of him opened up and he stepped inside, hitting the button as he passed. Ruby and Yang kept their weapons leveled at him the whole time, waiting to see if he was hostile or not. When he did turn to face them he quickly pulled a pair of what appeared pistols of some kind from his waist, and quickly adopting a combat stance.
The two sides continued in their stand, neither willing to take the first shot. Neither knew what the other was capable of, and didn't want to risk engaging. The doors to the elevator slid closed cutting sight between the two. It wasn't till the elevator started going up that Ruby and Yang lowered their guard.
"I'm guessing from the corpses, he isn't part of the security team." Yang commented as she started jogging over to the elevator.
"Do you think he's after the same target?" Ruby asked, following her to the slid doors.
"Well if he is," pausing as she put effort into prying them open, revealing the inner workings of the shaft, "We can't let him get to her, now can we."
Along the back of the shaft was a thick metal wire cable. The same cable that was currently pulling up the box after looping around a pulley at the top. Ruby opened the bolt in her rifle, and manually removed the round from her weapon. The bullet was placed in the small pouch on the back of her waist, and replaced it with one of her many custom made "Reaper Rounds" she had decorating her belt that held the pouch in place.
The sound of the shot being fired was less of a bang, and more like a screech. The effect it had though was just as she desired. The cable easily split in two, as well as the cement wall behind it looking like a bomb just went off. The sudden loss of tension caused the heavy steel to lash out, but they were too far to risk taking off either sister's head.
The girls stood casually, fiddling with their weapons or adjusting a few locks of hair as they waited. A moment of patience was rewarded with the elevator rapidly speeding pass them. As they reentered the elevator shaft a loud crash echoed up past them. Looking down it looked like the elevator had smashed into the bottom of the shaft another couple floors down and went through it another level or two. If it wasn't for the fact the building was in lockdown Ruby would have been surprised if no one had gotten hurt.
An emergency ladder was carved into the side of the concrete, and Yang started her assent while Ruby pulled out the walkie-talkie she had tried contacting Blake with before the alarms went off.
"Blake, have you seen any strange activity?"
"What do you mean?" She returned after a moment's pause.
"There was a guy taking the elevator up after killing a number of scientists and security guards. Did you detect him in the matrix?"
"Not directly, but the whole system is really weird. I'm not sure if it's because it's really old and out of date, or if the company matrix itself has been attacked, but something like that would take either a long time, or some cutting edge tech. Why? Did you recognize him?"
"He had a state of the art cloaking system, and with what you just said, I don't think he's just a simple runner like us. I think he might be a Phantom Blade."
"If he is, we better get moving. I'm not confident in our ability to take on a Phantom Blade without proper preparation and planning."
Ruby agreed before returning the small device to her pouch. Rushing up the ladder she instructed Yang to hurry in their ascent up the long elevator shaft.
So thanks for reading so far. Make sure you leave a review and follow so you'll know when the next chapter is up. Cheers.