Chapter 443 - The Bigger They Are

I flicked my sword forward, and carved out a small chunk in a support pillar. With a spot carved out, I wrapped a small explosive around a Graviton Bolt and shoved it up into the support pillar. Usually I’d have to worry about setting up a fuse or receiver to blow it, but Luna could take care of all that using some net wizardry.

The Gaviton Bolt got its power more so from the projectiles than the weapon. The weapon itself was really cool with its gravitic powered shots that had zero gravity fall off, but the destruction itself came from the purple projectiles that carried the weapons name. That meant I didn’t necessarily have to fire the gun to get its destructive power.

“Why not just shoot from the apartment building?” Luna asked as I finished rigging the tallest building in the city.

”Becasue the projectiles are slow as hell.” That, and I’d lose the element of surprise if everyone saw me slowly whittling away the support pillars of the tallest building in the city. ”How are we looking?”

”Sixty three left… over fifty are here in the city already.” Her words were punctuated by constant gunshots and explosions from beyond the walls of the tower.

While I was rigging the place to blow, I hadn’t gone uncontested. For the most part, though, I actually avoided combat when someone came here to get the height advantage and just kept back. Whether I flatlined them now or later when the building came down didn’t matter. ‘Sides, from the sounds of things, the eight or so people who went up hadn’t exactly gotten along.

”That should be the last of them.” I turned on Weakness Wrangler with a thought, and one of the pillars glowed a dark purple. It was already one that I’d hit. Although the Perk was effective, only showing the largest weakness meant I couldn’t keep reusing it to find more weaknesses.

”Are you sure this thing will go down?”

”I mean… yeah?” I checked through my makeshift Graviton Bolt bombs one last time. If I did it all right, it should be a pretty standard controlled demolition to make the building collapse. Err—maybe not standard considering the goal was to get the building to topple out onto the city and hopefully cause even more chaos. “Just need to find a safe space to watch the fireworks—“

Footsteps from behind made me go silent, and I slunk back into an open door. I went perfectly still as the single set turned into two. Voices quickly followed. The first to speak was almost timid? “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

”’Course I’m sure. The height advantage always wins.” A gruff man’s voice echoed. “Grow some balls, man.”

”Still… won’t this place be the primary target? Just one missile could bring this entire thing down.” The first guy actually had a good point. Aside from what I was doing, once some of the better looted people started to use their weaponry, it was only a matter of time till half the city collapsed.

”It’s two Operators, Shiro.” Luna pinged them through the wall. They stood shoulder to shoulder, and were slowly coming my way.

”Teaming?” I asked across our private channel. “Is that allowed?”

“It’s not explicitly forbidden. There can only be one winner, though, so…”

Ah, just temporary teammates then. My hand dropped onto the hilt of my sword. Do I take them out now? Hmm… no, better to let them pass. Once this tower came down, it’d be more points for me.

I held perfectly still as they approached. The gruff man stopped in the doorway I hid in, and held up his arm. “Wait—my runner’s saying there’s someone nearby.”

“Luna?” I whispered. Every fiber of my being said to draw my sword and charge, though I held perfectly still. Nothing like movement to destroy the advantages Stalk gave me and draw their attention.

”Not us. I’ve fought off every scan,” she said. “No one should know where we are. Especially since I fixed the streaming issue. There isn’t anyone aside from them, either.”

“Someone’s down there at the end of the hall.” The gruff man immediately contradicted Luna, and slowly lifted his rifle. Was it someone she missed? Wait, no, that shouldn’t be possible. No way this guy’s runner found someone Luna passed over. She was a terror on the net.

“I’ll take point. I have better subdermals.” The timid one moved ahead of his teammate with his gun held up and ready to go—

Rat-tat-tat!

Gunfire erupted—only, it wasn’t from the end of the hall. The moment the first guy stepped forward, his teammate turned on him and blasted him in the back of the head with his assault rifle. The muzzle flashes lit up my obscured form in the dark room, though he was too buzy turning traitor to notice me.

A firewall surged up around the first guy, and blocked most of the bullets. Before the second could even hope to finish the job, his body locked up and collapsed backward. Electricity jolted out of chrome arms, and toxic acid poured out of the sensitive parts. “EuGH!”

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“You really think I’d fall for that, dumbass?” The timidity in the first guy’s voice vanished entirely. His back straightened, and the weak vibe that’d surrounded him faded away. “Seriously, do you think they let just anyone into this?”

The traitor twitched, and tried to go for his gun—only for his arm’s strength inhibitors to shatter and the limb to fold in on itself. Although this was all in the net, the pain sensations were one to one with reality. “ARGH!”

”Thanks for the points.” The first guy moved in front of the doorway, and pressed his gun to the downed man’s temple.

“That’s my line,” I whispered from the darkness. The moment I spoke up, the first guy flinched up toward me.

My vision cut out, and strobe lights seared my brain as I was instantly hit with a quick hack. It was fine. I still had a mental map of everything. My loss of vision didn’t totally ruin me, and I Burst Stepped forward—

Bang!

I slammed into a wall. With the speed of my ThunderGod Greaves, and the durability granted to me thanks to the subdermal armor, I slammed right through it and exploded out into the hall. Bullets trailed after me, and a burst of them slammed into my body. They caught just below my skin, and were totally stopped by the subdermals.

”Luna!” I shouted and darted wildly toward the guy’s position with a heavy slash of my sword. It cleaved through several walls, though the effortless slice of the monomolecular blade made it hard to figure out if I hit something important or not.

“Got it!” My vision instantly snapped back, and a notification on my HUD popped up.

[StrobinOff - Cleared]

[Overload - Cleared]

[Cripple Movement - Cleared]

[Harriat’s Acid Dump - Cleared.]

I blinked, and spun around to face the guy throwing hack after hack at me. He’d retreated at some point, and was right in the middle of reloading. I Burst Stepped toward him and immediately cleared the distance. While I was moving down the hall, I slashed my sword down and ended his traitorous teammate to secure the points.

”I thought you said these were foolproof!” The man shouted at his runner, and tried to open fire on me once more. It was already too late though.

My sword slashed up, and cut cleanly through his rifle. A bullet in the chamber backfired, and the back half of the receiver exploded. It jerked the man to the side just in time to avoid a decapitory strike that would’ve ended the fight.

He scrambled backward, and swung his leg over my own. His foot caught my knee, and he jerked my leg out from below me. Before I could regain my posture, he grabbed my legs with his own and twisted to shatter my balance in a martial technique I’d seen on TV before.

I threw out my arms to catch myself, and rolled with him. My knee jerked up and slammed into his groin with the full strength of the ThunderGod Greaves. A sharp, shrill scream erupted from his throat. My chrome wasn’t made for strength as much as it was for speed, though, and that showed. I kicked backward, and slammed my foot into him over and over before he could react.

By the time I got back to my feet, he was a battered, broken man with tears running down his face. A slash of my sword sent him off, and three more points were credited to me by Monarch.

I flicked my sword to the side to clear off the blood. “What the hell was that, Luna?”

”Sorry. He hit us with so many hacks I had to let one of them slip through to catch the others.” Her lupine avatar appeared just beside me, and checked me over. “You handled that well.”

I rubbed at my head, and leaned back as it throbbed. The StrobinOff hack was a combination of a blind and headache inducer. “Doesn’t feel like it.”

”We’re back up to fifty-six points.” Luna pointed out. I’d used all but fifty rigging this place to blow. “Want to set some more Graviton Bolt charges?”

I looked up and down the hall, and sheathed my sword once more. “Probably be a good idea. Red Furry still in this thing?”

“Yeah… I could get a precise ping from the Node with some more points.” Luna shuffled around me, and her avatar disappeared into pixels once more. “Should I?”

”No, keep fifty.” We’d be getting some more points before too long, anyway. I just had to hope the guy could survive until then. “Save any more we get from that ping, though.”

”Roger.”

I quickly looted the two corpses for all of their explosives, and set off to continue sabotaging the city. Once the Node fully collapsed in toward here, this whole battle royale would go off with a bang.

— — —

Saint watched his stream for a moment before glancing back at a side monitor to keep up with Shiro and Luna’s progress. Out of all of them, he actually enjoyed watching them the most. Part of that was probably thanks to knowing them. Shiro also just had fun antics while the rest of the Operators moved around super carefully.

| ShadowRun: Did you see that shot! Shadowshot supremacy! Shadowshot supremacy!

| Cyberpunk_Blue: This guy might even give Nathos a run for his money when he shows back up.

| DistinguishedGentleman: Nathos is dead.

| Cyberpunk_Blue: @DistinguishedGentelamn I’ll believe it when I see his corpse.

“He’s right. Nathos died just outside of Aythryn City about a year ago.” Saint refocused on the stream. Shadowshot just pulled off a shot from the top of the mountain clear down into Drastov City.

Although Saint wasn’t totally sure who was responsible for shutting off the snowstorm, he had a good feeling it was Shadowshot’s Netrunner. ‘Course the sniper would prioritize having clear sight lines. Since the skies cleared, he’d been jumping up in kills to the point he was clear kill leader. It’d take a lot of effort to take the position from him, especially with only sixty Operators left.

”That brings him up to twenty-three kills. Shadowshot has single-handedly taken care of over ten percent of the lobby.” Saint flicked out to a larger map. Shadowshot had been pressing it close so far and keeping to the edge of the ring instead of moving in toward the middle. “The Node’s pressing in quick, though.”

Just as he finished speaking, Shadowshot stood up from where he’d half-buried himself in the snow to conceal his presence. The man stretched out, and wings popped off his back. Sentinel’s Icarus Ex-37 Wings, to be exact. They were an experimental personal flight tech that the Valkyries used.

Shadowshot took a running start, and then jumped off the side of the mountain. The wings snapped back, and he soared out onto open skies without missing a beat. The gravitic chamber built into the wing’s back ensured gravity had reduced sway on him, allowing the mercenary to fly freely toward the largest tower in the city.

Saint shook his head and looked back through the rest of the mercs. Of the sixty remaining Operators, all of them were tightly pressing into the snow-buried Drastov City. It was about to be a powder keg, and he had a feeling he knew just what would set it off.