Charter Hill

  November 27th

  2069

  It had been a few days since Sophie began putting together her latest set of gear, and now she’d reached the point of needing to properly test it. Not through simulations, not just through theoretical applications or the occasional stress test. She needed real combat.

  The industrial zones of Charter Hill happened to be nearby and were usually crawling with scum. Gangs, organ thieves, small-time rippers running chop shops or drug labs. There was always someone to find, if you looked hard enough. Unfortunately, the streets were empty.

  Sophie moved cautiously, her boots light on the cracked pavement. She was wearing her usual armor, menpo and cowl but she also had a prototype utility belt around her waist. The belt held the smoke and flash pellets she’d designed earlier in the week, along with extra magazines to augment what she already carried on her chest rig.

  Her new bracers and gloves covered her forearms and hands, offering additional protection and impact for unarmed combat. The reinforced knuckles did add some weight to her punches, but she’d adjusted to that quickly. She could only hope the slight stiffness she could feel in them would disappear after she broke them in.

  She exhaled through her nose, scanning the abandoned warehouses and rusting storage containers. Nothing. No distant voices, no glow of illicit operations tucked away in dark corners.

  A pile of spent inhalers and a few shattered bottles near a barricaded alley told her someone had used the spot as a hideout, likely a gang squatter, but there were no fresh signs of life. Sophie sighed, feeling irritation creeping up her spine. She had been hoping for a clean field test, but it seemed like luck wasn’t on her side.

  After another fruitless sweep of the area, she clicked her tongue against her teeth in frustration and turned back toward her bike. If no one was here, there was no point in wasting time. Maybe she’d have better luck later in the night, or in a different part of the city.

  Just as she decided to call it a night, she heard the deep rumble of an approaching engine. Sophie turned her head, optics locking onto the headlights cutting through the dark street. A Chevillion Thrax, heavily modified, was barreling down the road at a reckless speed. She frowned, stepping back toward the shadows.

  The vehicle swerved wildly, its wheels screaming against the asphalt as it veered directly toward her position. Sophie’s instincts took over, and she dove to the side, rolling across the pavement as the car tore past her. It clipped a rusted dumpster and went spinning before slamming full-force into the side of a rundown warehouse.

  The impact was marked by a loud crunch. Metal crumpled, glass shattered, and within seconds, fire erupted from the front end. Thick black smoke curled into the night sky as the ruined Chevillion hissed and popped from the heat.

  Sophie crouched low, her hand already reaching over her shoulder for her new Achilles rifle. The railgun hummed as she brought it into position, eyes locked on the wreckage which was making strange sounds. A second later, the driver’s side door was slammed open, and something spilled onto the pavement; a figure, twisted and chrome-heavy, dragging itself forward with sheer mechanical force.

  The Maelstrom ganger had lost both of his legs in the crash, his torso twisted unnaturally where the cybernetics had been wrenched apart. Sparks flickered from exposed wiring and white artificial blood poured from the injuries as he clawed forward, dragging his ruined body over the concrete. His face was a mess of synthetic plating and optical implants, his remaining organic skin stretched taut over reinforced skull plating.

  "I ain't going down!" he snarled, his voice a glitching, synthetic growl. He looked at her."You hear me?! I ain't done yet! You fuckin’ Tyger!"

  Sophie held her ground, rifle aimed at his head. The Maelstromer’s sinister red optics flickered erratically, his body twitching as if his internal systems were still catching up to the trauma. Then, without warning, his arms snapped outward, and with a metallic shing, a pair of mantis blades deployed from his forearms.

  Sophie’s breath hitched. He might be missing his legs, but that didn’t make him any less of a threat. The borg lunged forward, dragging himself with terrifying speed. At the same time, he would occasionally pause, his mantis blades slicing through the air towards her even though she always kept a safe distance from him.

  Sophie fired, her first shot punching into his shoulder. The impact barely phased him. Another shot struck his torso, but still, he kept coming even though his movements were jerky.

  "Fucking die already," Sophie muttered, stepping back as she lined up another shot. The borg kept crawling, even as his blood, what little remained in his augmented body at least, left a shiny white smear behind him.

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  It wasn’t until she landed a shot directly through his throat that he finally collapsed, his body twitching for several seconds before going still. Even then, Sophie didn’t lower her weapon until the glow in his optics faded completely.

  She exhaled slowly, shifting her grip on the rifle. That was... strange. And worrying. Very worrying. He seemed to think, in his muddled state, that she was a Tyger. A closer look at the burning car wreckage and she spotted what looked like bullet holes, though the flames made it difficult to confirm it. Actually, what was Maelstrom doing here? Did they just attack the Tygers?

  Her thoughts came to a halt when she heard another engine.

  This time, it wasn’t out of control. Sophie turned her head just in time to see another vehicle approaching from down the street. The headlights caught the gleam of the wrecked Chevillion, and as the new car came into view, she immediately spotted obvious Tyger Claw decals along its side. Fuck!

  She didn’t know if they were connected to the Maelstromer or just happened to be in the area, but she wasn’t about to stand around and find out. Moving quickly, she darted toward the warehouse, slipping inside just as the Tyger Claw vehicle rolled to a stop near the wreck.

  From her position just inside the darkened structure, she crouched low, watching as the car’s doors opened and several figures stepped out. Their voices were a mixture of anger and excitement, annoyed that their original target was already dead but thrilled at the prospect of another hunt.

  "Someone hit the borg first. They have to be close. No way he bled out that fast."

  "Spread out. If they saw anything, the boss will have our heads." Those words seemed to sober the others up while annoying Sophie. Motherfuckers. They wanna flatline me just ‘cause I saw this shit? Fuckers are really gonna look for me cause they think I saw something.

  Leaning just slightly from her hiding spot, she examined the four men. The leader, a muscular man with tiger-stripe tattoos running up his arms and towards his exposed metal jaw, had an unfamiliar, possibly modified, rifle slung across his back.

  The second was a classic Tyger Claw samurai with a katana strapped to his waist though he was moving slowly. A closer look showed her a wound on his leg, not entirely crippling but enough to slow him down.

  The third, a heavyset man with reinforced cyberarms, carried a massive shotgun. The fourth, shorter and smaller than the others, carried a smart gun, the TKI-20 Shingen.

  Sophie’s current situation offered two choices. She could run away and not risk the fight. Or, she could use the Tygers in front of her as test subjects for her new gear. I think I can take them…Yeah. Definitely.

  With quick movements, she darted inside the warehouse properly before climbing onto one of the horizontal support beams overlooking the main open space. From there, she could see the Tygers moving in a loose formation as they entered. The leader went first, walking confidently.

  "Scent is still fresh," the second Tyger muttered. "Whoever it was didn’t go far." What are you, a fucking dog!? Or do I just stink?

  They reached the center of the room, scanning their surroundings. Sophie took a slow breath, rolling a handful of flash pellets between her fingers. Timing was everything. The moment all four were in the perfect spot, just below her, she let the pellets drop.

  The grenades exploded with a burst of light, searing white filling the room. Even with her eyes tightly shut, she felt the intensity of the flashes. The Tygers weren't as lucky.

  "Shit!"

  "What the fuck was that?!"

  Sophie wasted no time. Before their sight could recover, she tossed several smoke pellets into the mix. Thick, choking fog began to fill the room, swallowing the Tygers in a gray haze. She frowned, then threw out another handful. There wasn’t enough smoke in the first round. Then, she moved.

  Leaping from the beam, she crashed down onto the nearest Tyger, the shotgun wielder, with her katana. The impact knocked the air from his lungs as the blade pierced cleanly through the back of his neck, severing his spine. He dropped, dead before he hit the ground.

  The others heard the noise. Two of them were still blinded and disoriented by the lingering flash effects, while stumbling through the smoke. But the third was different. His eyes seemed to glow a baleful red as he stared directly at her through the smoke. Thermal optics.

  Before Sophie could react, the man fired. The bullets tore into her, slamming into her armor with bruising force. The impact sent her staggering, pain flaring across her side and shoulder. Her vision blurred as she dived behind cover, gritting her teeth.

  Blood dripped down her biological arm. She forced herself to push past the pain, stealing a glance from cover. The man with thermal optics was helping his teammates get out of the smoke. That meant he was distracted. Good.

  Without giving him time to breath, Sophie pulled a frag grenade from her belt, primed it, and threw.

  "Grenade!"

  Too late. The katana guy didn’t react in time. The explosion ripped through the space, shrapnel shredding into the unfortunate Tyger, dropping him instantly. The other two managed to dive away, escaping the worst of the blast.

  She still didn’t relent. Lifting her Achilles, the rifle humming as she charged a shot. The energy built up, and when she fired, the round slammed into the thermal-eyed Tyger’s right arm. His cyberware sparked as his limb nearly detached, leaving him stumbling in shock.

  Despite his wounds and nearly-severed arm, the Tyger with thermal optics was still trying to fight. Sophie pushed forward, pressing the advantage. She took careful aim, lining up the shot to finish him.

  Then, her vision glitched.

  Her optics scrambled, her HUD vanishing into a mess of static. Worse, her right arm locked up, completely unresponsive. A deep chill ran down her spine.

  She moved on instinct, diving for cover behind a stack of metal drums just as the smartgun user opened fire. The rounds homed in, even as she scrambled behind debris, each impact sending sparks flying around her. Pain shot through her side as one bullet grazed her ribs, another tearing through the fabric of her netrunner suit.

  Her optics flickered, then restored though they were still glitching slightly. Still no movement in her right arm, but she didn’t need it.

  With her left hand, she threw another flash grenade towards the netrunner before pulling one of her pistols free.

  "Shit-!"

  The flash detonated, buying her the second she needed. She squeezed the trigger, the pistol kicking as she fired. The first shots missed, her vision still compromised and despite being stunned, the netrunner was quick. But then, she got a lucky hit. A round punched through his eye socket, and he collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

  Sophie didn’t relax though, rushing over to the last place she saw the heavily injured Tyger. She found him, panting heavily as he tried to wrap a bandage around his arm. He looked up, into her eyes. His head exploded.

  Silence filled the building.

  Sophie remained still for a moment, her breath ragged. Blood dripped from her wounds, her body aching from the damage she had taken. Her fingers tightened around the pistol before finally lowering it. She exhaled sharply, glancing around at the bodies.

  She let herself sink against the cover for a moment, catching her breath. Then, ignoring the pain, she pushed herself to her feet. Time to loot what was left and get out before someone else showed up.