Augmented War

[LiquidHammer]

(The comments thread to Augmented War is here: startradersrpg.proboards.com/thread/10356/augmented-war-comments-thread )

Augmented War - A Cyber Knights Fan Made Story

Chapter One


Commonwealth, outside the Renrauk Neo-Bar, that's where I am. My lungs are burning up... I'm on the ground being dragged along... Everything looks blurry and... Urgh... Why am I on the ground...?

"GET UP! ON YOUR FEET, BOSS!!" Without taking his eyes off the Cyber Knight, Colt (Gunslinger) shouts over his shoulder to Nelson, a fellow runner (AgentEX), "He's not responding. What the drokk' we go'n do?"

In a blaze of burst firing precision, Nelson dispatches two Los Valentino thugs with his Yakashima manufactured MT Steel Snake, before evading incoming gunfire. "We need to retreat. Colt, can you carry him?"

With sweat dripping from Colt's forehead, he shouts back over the loud gunshots to Nelson, "Where 'we goin'? They got us pinned down 'ere."

"If you can make a break for it and carry him out of here, make your way to Brownstone On Kneeland (Safehouse), through the Downtown Gateway and I'll meet up with you two afterwards..." Nelson leant out from cover and dropped another Los V thug before calmly adding, "You might want to try The King for a taxi ride but your best bet is hiking it. Avoid all gangs and stay safe."

Without saying anything more, Colt slung the heavy Cyber Knight over his shoulder, drew his pistol, which was also an MT Steel Snake and began trekking to the safehouse.


Nelson had worked with Colt plenty of times under their employer. He knew exactly how to get through to Colt without much difficulty which always paid off in sticky situations. Knowing that Colt was on the move, he darted out from behind cover and offered covering fire, running towards a different covering position. Firing with his right hand he reached quickly in his leg belt with his left hand and swiftly snatched up an ammo clip. He knew he was about to fire off his ninth and last round and immediately brought the spare ammunition clip towards the sidearm with speed, off loaded the last round and heard that familiar 'ching...' to signify that the chamber was empty, ejected the clip out and smashed the full clip of bullets into his gun, all in one swift move. He spotted some of the thugs had left this battle to divert and pursue Colt. Nelson did his best to take them down and to make a stand where he was. The amount of bullets thrown his way was too much to handle and he found himself dropping behind his cover that was steadily deteriorating. 'Colt would be okay to deal with anything chasing him', Nelson confidently thought to himself before coming out of cover again to confront the Los V thugs.


Jogging with a heavy Cyber Knight on his shoulders, Colt was keeping his eyes out for any trouble. 'Any one of these scummy thugs could jump us right now', he thought to himself. Gang wannabes would love to report back killing a Cyber Knight, especially an easy target such as Colt's employer. He spotted a busted-up Data Terminal up ahead and made his way to it. He raggedly placed the Cyber Knight down on the cold ground and proceeded to make the call to the taxi driver, The King. Five seconds hadn't even passed by when a bullet from far away glanced Colts shoulder. Feeling the hot pain, Colt ducked down and scrambled toward the Cyber Knight. He muttered to himself, '... Screw this. Fortune waits for nobody.' He reached out to pick up the unconscious Cyber Knight when as quick as he could blink, the Cyber Knight drew Colt's secondary pistol from his waist and fired off four shots into a thug from behind, then passed out again. With no time to waste, Colt grabbed his pistol back off the Cyber Knight and swooped him over his shoulders and made a run for it.

Colt used his citizenship pass to get through inside the security door in Downtown Gateway. The BraveStar Guard looked at him with a sense of unease and told him to hurry on through with no questions asked. Whenever a Cyber Knight was around, everyone knew not to ask questions unless it was on a need-to-know basis. It was safer that way. If you didn't know a Cyber Knights business then you didn't need to be questioned or killed for information. This was the universal practice for many years and this occasion was no exception.

The safehouse was just ahead and Colt slowed down and ensured that the path was clear. Everyone was staring at him carrying the wounded and unconscious Cyber Knight. He was exhausted and his breathing was heavy. In his mind he could hear the Cyber Knights voice telling him, in the harsh, raspy tone of voice that he recognised was his employer, 'Breathe and focus. Tiredness will slow your mind down. Take a moment and breathe.' He knew he needed to get inside quickly before things could get any worse and so he decided to charge in instead of taking the Cyber Knights advice. He reached the door, bolted in and kicked the door shut. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Foggin' heck." Colt threw the Cyber Knight down on the sofa and stared at the Cyber Knight for a few minutes. The Cyber Knight was in bad shape. A drone had rapidly smashed a whole load of bullets into his chest. It had taken us all by surprise and it was bad luck that the Cyber Knight had no time to react. Colt snapped out of his thoughts. He just needed to sit down and wait for Nelson to come in and for the Cyber Knight to wake up. He did the best thing he could do which was to check his ammo and raid the fridge for some food.



Chapter Two



A Knight Horizon sniper, Lieutenant Flo, stepped out of the bar from Sally Mustang's. She needed to get some air before heading off to work. "Thanks, Sally Jo. I'll see ya in a couple of weeks after I come back." She was relocated to the Drone Factory, in Charles Canal, where the Knight Horizon security forces had to make up the numbers. The recent defensive operation against a band of highly armed Los V mercs had left Knight Horizon with fewer numbers and now, recruitment of new meat had begun for training.

The air over in the Aztek Work Isle (A12) was hot and grainy. The whole sector, currently under construction was bustling with a zombified-like workforce. Pale, lifeless faces. The majority of people here looked ill. Lt. Flo only had a handful of friends, one of which was Sally Jo, the bartender at Sally Mustang's. Flo always secretly missed her friend whenever she had to leave for work. Her job required her to work all over the New Boston Zone (NBZ), observing from a distance, being the eyes in the sky. She didn't mind it too much. She wasn't much of a conversationalist nor was she the type for chatting with the average goon that always had something negative to talk about. Lt. Flo preferred to work alone, in quiet.

Flo looked over to where she was headed, a boat that was docked, waiting to take her out of the A12. Her sharp eyes locked onto what looked like an investigator, shiftly standing over by the Green Giant’s Club that sells chems at cheap prices and serves refreshments. No doubt this man doing his best to look like he was enjoying the view is working for BraveStar, the rivalling security firm. They were always sniffing around for any data they could find on Knight Horizon. It was how a faction stayed ahead of each other and they paid a lot of credits for it. This was all part of the ongoing war, the fights, pay-data, hacking of the Online Matrix, everyone had their roles in the drekk hole. She had always kept her reputation clean so she knew she had nothing to worry about with anyone. She gave one last look over to the man and then set off towards the boat. She didn't have time for confrontations. She just wanted to get on with it.



Chapter Three


... By the dome... My body feels like its been pulverized. What happened? ... Where am I? I take a quick scan of my surroundings. No decor, no luxury ceiling mounted fan, worn wooden floor, the smell of sweat with a hint of blood... I realise that I'm in a safehouse, which one though I can't remember right now.

A muffled voice, the sound of a mouth stuffed with food came from the kitchen. "Boss?! Boss, you're awake! I did my best to patch you up. Things were messy back there."

"Where's Nelson?" I'm trying my best to hide the pain. All I can muster up is a grimace. "And why are we here?"

"Boss, we were screwed over. They were waitin' for us. Some mutha'fragga sold us out. Nelson told me to bring you here, said he'd catch up with us later."

Colt looked like he'd ran a marathon. Sweat was pouring from his red Mohawk styled head, he looked how I felt.

"Since when did a Los V gang have drones?" Asked Colt, still aggressively chomping a 4 day old pizza.

"They wasn't operating alone." I pulled myself up and sat up on the soaked sofa and tried to remember the events that took place in the failed job... "The thugs were armed better than what Intel gave us. Someone wanted to cut me loose."

A big gulp and slurp filled the room before Colt took a serious tone and said, "Tha' drone tha' knocked ya down... I didn't see any of the thugs operatin' it. Whoever was operatin' it was well hidden. It ended in bits after Nelson locked his sights on it though."

"Colt.. The drone looked brand new. I'm guessing it came from a Knight Horizon facility. If we can track down the seller, we might get somewhere."

"What about Nelson?"

I grab a stimpak and throw it over to Colt. "We find him. Stim up." BraveStar territory, Downtown Gateway, that's where I am.

Nelson had reached the Downtown Gateway but was still being pursued by the Los V. The more distance he gained, the more thugs and their hunds joined the chase. Nelson knew all too well that trying to outrun a hund was very difficult without heavy augmentation. These particular hunds had Shock Maws implanted in their teeth, delivering high voltage damage from each bite from an already fearsome jaw. Bullets started flying from behind him and the nearest cover was too far to reach. As Nelson's employer would say; 'you need to breathe.'

Stepping out of the safehouse, Colt and I immediately felt something was amiss. Citizens fleeing to their homes and businesses and BraveStar security forces gathering over by the gate at the south. As if things couldn't get anymore obvious, gunshots could be heard from the other side of the wall, separating the gang lands from the corporate areas. A captain was organising his security forces into strike teams. Armed with their riot shields, they were ready to go out there. "Colt. Lets go." I had a feeling that Nelson was over there where the noise was coming from.

Colt and I briskly headed over to the captain when an officer steps out to speak to us. "Excuse me gentlemen, this area is temporarily off limits..." Says a nervous BraveStar officer who probably by now already guessed that he was speaking to a Cyber Knight. "Erm... Would you two just wait right there, please? I'm just gonna go grab the captain..."

"Well..." Said a bemused Colt, "He looked comfortable... You'd think he'd never seen a Cyber Knight up close, eh?"

"I think he was more nervous about the fact that you drew your pistols." Colt always drew his weapons whenever he felt danger was around the corner. "At ease. Stay focussed."

"Sorry boss. Bad habit." Said an embarrassed (and very full up) Colt.

The captain looked over at the two of us, then quickly approached us. He looked me up and down and asked, "... Do you know anything 'bout what's goin' on out there, Knight?"

I could lie and say no, making up something and earning brownie points with BraveStar, by declaring that I'd be some damn hero and save the day.... No... I'll tell him the truth. "The one being hunted, he's one of mine..."

"And also one of yours too..." Interrupted by Colt.

"He's an agent of BraveStar that I've hired out to work for me, Captain. If you don't mind I would like to go out there and retrieve him. We can take it from here."

I could see that the captain didn't want to risk the lives of his men for the sake of a gunfight. Its deep within his eyes. Battles, kidnapping, assassinations... It's all common within the NBZ. This would be no exception.

The captain made up his mind. "Okay, but make this quick. My superiors will toast my ghoulies if they knew we didn't go out there and handle it." The captain turned around and gave a signal to open the Gateway door, then turned back to face the Cyber Knight. "Knight, do you need any support?"

Before I could give an answer, Colt had already primed one of his favourite lines. "We'll be alright, chummer. I'm the support."

I took a deep breath and waited for the blast door to begin opening, then I ran straight for the gap that emerged, followed closely by Colt.

With the momentum carrying Nelson in the direction that he was sprinting, he leapt forward and spun himself around 180 degrees with his pistol aiming out. The stims had worn off long ago and he knew that he needed all the strength he could draw from his willpower to survive this relentless onslaught. He let off two shots and dispatched a hund. Landing awkwardly, Nelson fired off a third round toward the gang leader which missed but skimmed a thug before steadying himself. The Los V gang opened fire and Nelson called upon all of his confidence and agility to move as fast as he could. He swiftly switched stances; ducking down, rolling, coming up to stand side on, then spinning and moving sideways before sharply changing direction in the opposite direction and getting back into a firing stance (something that he'd observed Colt do many times on previous job runs). Some of the thugs were left surprised by how fast Nelson had moved. It was as though they were shooting at a ghost, nothing was hitting him. Nelson ignored the panic and screams coming from shocked onlookers. He needed to stay focussed and he couldn't afford to slow down for one moment. Reaching down to his ammunition belt with his left hand, Nelson clumsily fumbled an ammo clip and it fell on the floor whilst dodging two pouncing hunds. 'Leave it. Keep moving!' The voice of his employer shouted at him in his mind. Nelson's training took over and he spun himself around and ran towards the security door that he only just noticed was beginning to open. "By the dome!" Nelson couldn't believe his luck and used all his strength and athleticism to accelerate himself toward to door.


(I haven't finished this 3rd chapter yet. I'm currently still digesting all the Christmas food I pigged out to. So, a finished chapter three + Introduction + refinements to the first two chapters will be on there way...)

(I hope you've enjoyed this so far. If not then I hope you don't shoot me. Thank you.)