Chapter XVIII: Mouth of the Dragon

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

I wasn't sure if I wanted to have this happen or just leave it alone, but I ended up finding it fun enough to give it a go. Enjoy. :)

It is a bit short, but the pacing of the next events didn't work as part of this chapter, so c'est la vie.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

We'd gotten Nathan back in my head quickly and, reading my mood, Max and Chloe took on a lot of the work of getting us ready to leave. We helped the pilot send a message back to the Queen of Asamando, made sure the lab was locked down. Scavenged what equipment we could.

And when we were ready and all aboard, we headed off to Germany and into the mouth of the Dragon.

—

The pilot set down in a random patch of greenery amidst the silver-glass towers of Central Corptown, Neu-Essen. I had no idea what they actually called the place, but it was utterly indistinguishable from any of the megacity corp neighbourhoods back home, so Central Corptown just felt rather apropos. Corpstadt, at a push.

"You want me to circle the block?" The pilot asked us. He laughed. We didn't. "I'll stay out of the way. Let me know when you want exfil."

We hopped out and walked in silence. The sprawling parks were your typical corp fare at first, but the moment we saw the giant topiary dragon, we knew we'd reached the place. The Saeder-Krupp Headquarters Complex was massive, looming like its draconic master over everything around it. Damn parasites.

We headed over.

The place was a fortress in concrete, chrome, and shining glass. And the floors - ye gods they were spectacular. The flecks in the black stone glittered like gold.

Nathan suddenly flickered into sight. I almost tried to grab him and pull him out of sight. Then I remembered - Corp hub. Cameras. Everywhere. There was no out of sight here, not to them. But to us… "Can you scan anything?"

"Oh yeah. Codes let me through everything." He laughed again. "Like takin' candy from a baby. Goddamn, Dad. You really let shit go. There's-" The image suddenly flickered. "No, I- it can't- you-" He just began babbling nonsense, pointing at things only he could see behind the walls.

"Hey, hey!" I tried to grab his attention, in lieu of grabbing him. "Stay on task!"

"No, no- We can't do this, we-" His hands swung and shook, swapping between horrified pointing and gestures I couldn't recognise.

"Hey!" I got up in his face, "What's gotten into you? What did you see?"

He avoided my eye, shook his head emphatically - "No, no. Can't-"

Oh for the love of… the damnable Matrix Spirit thing was more understandable than he was being right now. "Hey! Look, it doesn't matter. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter. You know why? We have the codes. We have the talent. We have Max's weird drones out seeing every inch of this place. Whatever it is, we can take it. And it's worth it. We're here for a reason, remember? Revenge, all that."

"Ri-right." The image flickered again, and he finally met my eye. There was less than a hint of reaction there. He stared at me like he was seeing right through me. The thousand-yard stare. "I….. need a minute." He vanished.

My shoulders slumped. Damnit. "Max? Anything on your end?"

Her voice was… I couldn't really identify what that feeling was. "Actually… yes. I can't even… I have it on a screen. You… should come see."

—

The woman was on the roof. The roof! Long, lithe, lanky. She lacked her usual armour, but she'd found some herself - judging by the Saeder-Krupp Logo, found was really more stolen. She had a tiny machine pistol, and was blasting away at drones slowing pushing their way up the stairs after her. They moved like a slow flood, ascending even as they were blown apart.

Max snorted, even as she and Chloe both were eyeing the figure on the screen with an emotion I couldn't recognise. "Cool tech. I'll enjoy fragging that drek." She tapped a key, and her drone spat out what looked like a ball of lightning. The flood flew apart, leaving parts slowly draining back down the stairs.

Rachel turned to look at us - the drone, I mean. "Thanks."

Max's voice came through. "No worries, Rachel."

She blinked in surprise. I really enjoyed that expression. "Max?" She shook her head. "Is- is Chloe with you?"

"Yes. Give me a moment." The Drone spat out a length of cord. "Clip on to the rail and come down. We'll meet you by the base. Though we are here to break in. You okay with helping us do that?"

After a moment, the surprise vanished behind another flirty little smile and teasing look in her eye. Now that was her familiar armour. "Thrilled. It'll be just like old times." She clipped the rope to something on her armour, then another couple of hardpoints on the roof. And then she took a deep breath, raised her hands, and fell back from the roof, twisting into an aerial pirrouette that lead her into a roll down the glass.

And then she took a fucking stroll down the building.

And she made it look like a fucking catwalk.

Bitch.

We waited the few long minutes for her to reach us, and she hopped off the building with a graceful little twirl then flew over to us. She paused briefly on seeing me, then smiled, "Hi Boss. Was I really such a good employee that you came to rescue little old me?"

I growled at her. "You were just a happy little accident. We're here for a bigger fish."

She raised her eyebrows. "Yes, Maxie did say you were breaking in here. Looking for anything specifically, or were you just in the mood for something shiny?"

"Listen. That bastard drekhead wyrm upstairs took my company, so I'm working on a plan to kick that fucker in whatever passes for balls on a dragon. You can either help, or get the hell out of my way. Understood?" I jabbed a finger into her chest, and she smiled.

She looked between us, "You're playing the Shadows, then?"

I nodded. She smiled again. "I always knew you had it in you, Vic." She reloaded her gun. "Well? What are we waiting for? Lets go fuck with a dragon."