He walked the dusty path west, AugR navigation giving a readout of the distance to Dennen. The AugR provided other useful data, like optimal walking paths, recent telemetry data, environmental factors, and biometrics. It was a frag town, not allocated to one of the federations, so regardless of it’s attempt at being Fed-linked, it wasn’t. And that’s why he liked it.
Frag towns had that reputation of being little hovels of people avoiding the corporate life, or on the run from whatever their problems were. Dennen was a proper city though, and had lots of traffic destined towards it. Few of the frags could boast ozone shields, but this one was the size of a terminus. It would have been a terminus, had the construction not fallen through to pipe transit lines over the rugged terrain he was now crossing. It was considered cost-prohibitive to run the maglev rails through here for little gain, but that was the Network Relations spin on it. He didn't care what corporation had collapsed or CEO was fired that ended the sprawl construction, but Dennen was the result. It was rough terrain around it.
The edges of the city were either arid wasteland hills or high peaked mountains. Wasteland was common, but large upheaval fields interspersed it where some blast construction had taken place. Explosive excavation was a technique they used when trying to rebuild infrastructure post-Glazing. The sooner you connected to the new infrastructure, the sooner you took positions of power. It's why all the corporations that held terminations became the megapolies they were now. Dennen had a few useful resources, mostly in these mountains, but nothing that couldn’t be traded via skyship.
He wasn't fond of the corps, to put it mildly. He knew, try as he might, he was dependent on their trade systems. Some denizens of the frags were idealogical, boasting their escape from corps, and being independent of the surveillance biome. But he knew. Even the AugR he was wearing was digitally signed with Zeekho's manufacturing stamp and logos. His mask was heavily modified, with the bone connectors and kinetic feedback dampeners, but it was still sourced from a megacorp. They were mass produced in those terminus behemoths, built on the souls of countless humans. He wasn't happy, but it was also not something he could stop by himself, he rationalized. He had his current mission, which required traversing this wasteland in search of some deviant who liked to harvest organs from people who were still using them. At least that's what the job said, and it also stated he was kinetic, and covered with glyph tattoos. A notification of a request for voice communication for "N^x" came up in the corner of his augmented display. He sighed. Even in the wastes, data was readily available, even if he'd prefer it not sometimes.
"Entuex." He answered the voice request.
"Entuex, do you have an update on the wearabouts of the serial harvester?" The synthesized female voice said, in a dull tone that was perfectly formal. He muted the line and sighed, before talking into his throat mic which would then produce a synthesized voice for the person talking to him now.
"I have nothing to report at this time. I will advise you when there is pertinent information."
"There was a report of a kineticist in a waypoint. Is it the target?" She continued, clearly not caring about the implication in his statement.
"It is not the target. If it were, I would have reported it."
"Why did you not disclose this information? It appears very pertinent." She accused. Entuex stopped walking, and clenched his fists a few times.
"I was hired for my expertise in this matter. If you are uninterested in my skills, you may terminate the contract at any point. But if you choose to remain on this contract, you will find in article 7, subsection D that I am at liberty to pursue the bounty as I see fit. Do you understand?"
A terse and clearly irritated "yes" was all that came across before the session was disconnected. Entuex cracked his neck and started walking again. He tried not to irritate clients, especially ones that came from LANDAU, but the brat on the other end was likely some middle tier wage-slave for a Corp, so Entuex didn't particularly care what they thought. But when LANDAU jobs were assigned, he put in extra effort. Being N^x was a special privilege, and he’d strived for over a decade to get the title. During the gap where there was no Log(N), N^x had to pick up extra tasks from the LANDAU work pool.
He wasn't fond of the corps, to put it mildly. He knew, try as he might, he was dependent on their trade systems. Some denizens of the frags were idealogical, boasting their escape from corps, and being independent of the surveillance biome. But he knew. Even the AugR he was wearing was digitally signed with Zeekho's manufacturing stamp and logos. His mask was heavily modified, with the bone connectors and kinetic feedback dampeners, but it was still sourced from a megacorp. They were mass produced in those terminus behemoths, built on the souls of countless humans. He wasn't happy, but it was also not something he could stop by himself, he rationalized. He had his current mission, which required traversing this wasteland in search of some deviant who liked to harvest organs from people who were still using them. At least that's what the job said, and it also stated he was kinetic, and covered with glyph tattoos. A notification of a request for voice communication for "N^x" came up in the corner of his augmented display. He sighed. Even in the wastes, data was readily available, even if he'd prefer it not sometimes.
"Entuex." He answered the voice request.
"Entuex, do you have an update on the wearabouts of the serial harvester?" The synthesized female voice said, in a dull tone that was perfectly formal. He muted the line and sighed, before talking into his throat mic which would then produce a synthesized voice for the person talking to him now.
"I have nothing to report at this time. I will advise you when there is pertinent information."
"There was a report of a kineticist in a waypoint. Is it the target?" She continued, clearly not caring about the implication in his statement.
"It is not the target. If it were, I would have reported it."
"Why did you not disclose this information? It appears very pertinent." She accused. Entuex stopped walking, and clenched his fists a few times.
"I was hired for my expertise in this matter. If you are uninterested in my skills, you may terminate the contract at any point. But if you choose to remain on this contract, you will find in article 7, subsection D that I am at liberty to pursue the bounty as I see fit. Do you understand?"
A terse and clearly irritated "yes" was all that came across before the session was disconnected. Entuex cracked his neck and started walking again. He tried not to irritate clients, especially ones that came from LANDAU, but the brat on the other end was likely some middle tier wage-slave for a Corp, so Entuex didn't particularly care what they thought. But when LANDAU jobs were assigned, he put in extra effort. Being N^x was a special privilege, and he’d strived for over a decade to get the title. During the gap where there was no Log(N), N^x had to pick up extra tasks from the LANDAU work pool.
But after wandering the globe several times, N^x had learned that no amount of prestige would ever insulate him from incompetence. What he could hope for, though, was that the new Log(N) would start cherrypicking more of these and let him return to his preferred work.
He realized he was still standing in the desert. It was still some 20 kilometers to Dennen’s gates, and he was winding across a foot-traffic only path. The sun was going down, but that was no major issue for the AugR to change. Besides, he could also feel his surroundings. As he started walking, he absentmindedly scoured a few rock surfaces to try and extract precious metals. Even a few milligrams of silicon would be useful for trade.
It was now an hour after sunset, and the last of the bright light had faded into a crecent moonlit night.The high pitched whistling led the projectile by milliseconds, so N^x didn't have time to react as the high density round impacted into his shoulder and he slammed to the ground. Thankfully milliseconds were enough for his mitigation systems on the bodysuit to place safeguards up. Kinetic dampeners flared before the impact zone, distorting the round into a flattened disk. Antiviral and anti-chemical solvents bled from him suit and attacked the impact spot. As N^x hit the ground, virtual overlays provided him the trajectory of the shot just as the second thudded squarely into his back. His black rucksack was dropped to the side, and appeared unharmed. Weapon countermeasures continued to assess the rounds on him.
As the third shot came in, N^x reached out though his kinetic sensory and churned up the dust around him. Sand, especially this metalline range, was easy to will. As the third shot came in, the spinning field made a sense net for him wide enough that the bullet disturbed it, like a fly on a spiderweb, and he reacted. Well trained in this, N^x was able to redirect the kinetic energy of the round to impact the stone behind him, causing more debris to fly up into his miniature dust devil. He moved easily within this net, activating his camouflage, radioflage, and thermoflage, and deftly gliding to an outcropping that provided cover from the trajectory.
Spending a few seconds to reassess now that a fourth round hadn’t been discharged, he reviewed the data. Ballistics placed them as 800 meters, high vantage point. Single round shots, but with uneven spacing meant it was likely a human out there controlling the weapon, and not a drone. A drone may be providing additional telemetry for the shooter though. He couldn’t see the impact spots directly, but having the impact dampeners fire meant his *-flage was likely compromised.
This was not something he could easily slink away from, and furthermore, N^x was mad. He was still irritated at the wage slave, he was irritated that he was walking the wastes here to Dennen, trying to impersonate a kineticist looking for a friend and lure out his would-be organ snatcher. And he was mad now because he would have to repair the armor. Organ Snatchers usually don’t use high-caliber weapons like this, so it’s doubtful it was his target. But better be cautious.
He tapped into his drone network, pulling the closest one to the shot origin into alignment to get visuals. The rest he fanned out and set them to jamming. If there were enemy drones, he wanted them offline, and no record of this. Thermal showed nothing, but visual caught sight of the oblong barrel of the rifle before pulsed countermeasures disrupted the drone and it scrambled. It was still online, so the assailant didn’t have bleeding edge tech. A quick search revealed potential rifle matches, and the makes were midrange. A frag bounty hunter at best, or a sport hunter trying to make some money. If he had caught the show in the waypoint, he knew N^x was carrying some substantial resources for a pedestrian.
Review of the drone enhanced a different symbol on the rifle barrel. It was a modified equilateral triangle, with sharp, elongated vertices and incomplete circles partially obscured behind it. The center held more interlocking triangles with a black “X” in the center. N^x drew a ragged breath, his anger growing. He quickly willed the spent rounds off his body, telling the suit to jettison the associated plates too. That symbol was used by the Nanhedron, an anti-kineticist radical group. Whether this person was a member of their ranks, or just bought one of their weapons, N^x didn’t care. This was not his target, it didn’t match the data, and this person just picked the wrong kineticist to try and lynch. He figured those rounds likely had all sorts of chemicals designed to ensure he died when they made contact, and probably planned on any skilled kineticist to shred the round, which would still let pass the rest.
N^x reached out and willed his bag to him. It wasn’t a far distance, and he still held his dust web. Once in his grasp, he opened the main flap, and drew out a long rectangular block, with a black grip recessed in a cylindrical end. Once in his hand, the thing opened up. Leads and stabilizers locked into his gauntlet, and the length of it split open like a hungry jaw. Rows of metallic ridges were angled like reverse shark’s teeth, and the weapon began to hum.
He held his free hand palm down, and deep black metallic splinters grew from the ground like quills on a porcupine. The needles, now nearly 40 centimeters long, broke free from the earth and the swarm of them flew high into the air with a flick of his finger. He summoned another drone to get him an immediate visual, and prioritize visuals over preservation. With concentrating on the needles, he let drop the web of dust and willed the needles higher into the air, hoping the minimal moonlight would obscure them.
As soon as the drone caught the inorganic edge of the rifle and the vague outline of a figure trailing N^x’s path, he reoriented the needles and launched them in an arc towards the figure. With their shape, they’d be nearly silent as gravity pulled the metal homeward. The drone showed the figure snap the barrel around to face the drone and pulled the trigger. He heard the report of the gun just after the drone went silent, but it was sufficient. He had precious seconds of footage now, and the needles were about to impact. The next drone was conjured over to review the damage and see if any landed, while he sprinted back down the path towards the assailant, who he now saw was a scrawny man wearing mismatched wasteland gear and mask, hiding under a long *-flage cloak. As he rounded the path, noting he was within 300 meters of the target now, he saw confirmation that one needle had grazed the target, ripping the cloak and wounding his leg. He was pulling his attention away from the new drone and towards N^x, swinging the rifle to bear as well.
His movements were too slow though. N^x vaulted over the rock outcropping, coming up higher than should have been possible and closer to the target than he expected. The first shot he lined up to smash through the gun. The sharp report of the weapon N^x held was like a rubber band being snapped against metal. The crack as a concussive pulse ripped through the air and splintered his enemy’s weapon, sending fragments into his hands and a howl of pain into the night.
N^x’s next shot ripped the man’s dominant arm from its socket, and sent him sprawling. Now properly cowed, N^x strode to the man, and looked down at his beaten frame. Voice modulation in place, he asked: “Are you one of the Nanhedron?” The man continued to writhe in agony. Clearly he didn’t have any endocrine mods, unless this was a very elaborate act. N^x brought the gun up to bear again. “Last chance.”
The mask finally looked up towards him. It was a blank sphere, no visual indicators of the face, just an inscrutable metal sheet. After a second, a fully synthesized voice replied “You will die like all the rest, freak.” and the emblem of Nanhedron appeared over both eyes. He probably had a dead man’s switch on him, hoping to take N^x down as well. Instead of pulling the trigger, N^x liquified the dirt below the man, his body scrambling at the sudden fall as he dropped into a sea of dirt that swallowed him up. N^x let it return to solid half a second before the detonation happened. If he weren't already linked with the ground, the sudden explosion would have knocked him off his feet. The dirt and sand fountained up, but N^x willed a small sphere of safety around him, in case any other chemicals were embedded in the explosive. He pulled the dirt back into place, trying to sculpt a natural formation. N^x gathered his gear, disintegrated the needles and what wasn’t worth restoring, and grabbed his rucksack. Surveying the land, he tried to make it as close as possible to what his original visuals of the place had, as well as he could in the dark.
The Nanhedron assassin, if that’s what he was, had an unmarked tomb. N^x smiled.
No comments:
Post a Comment