Tracking Shadows | A Babylon Omega Short

Tracking Shadows

A Babylon Omega Short & Character Study

The car’s hood was still warm, it had only been off long enough to run into the Uneeda Burger and return with her dinner, plus a shake. Some would look at her and wonder where she was putting it all.

But, her cybernetics made her need almost twice the calories of someone her size. Her metabolism was jacked for speed and power in such a small frame.

Her name was Scáthach Aine Foley, that’s pronounced in the local common language of English as Skya Anya Foley. She wasn’t from around these parts, if it wasn’t obvious. She spoke English well enough, but sometimes would slip and speak something in either of the Gaelic dialects her parents spoke.

She had been in the Puget Sound Metro area for most of her teenage to adult life now. She was a former police officer with the PSMEPD. She’d taken after her father’s profession. He’d been a policeman in his home of Cork, Eire-Land and had worked with the PSMEPD when the family had moved here as a training consultant.

She sat, looking about. The area was like most of the rest of the University District in what was now known as the Puget Sound University - Seattle Zone.

A rainbow of lights flooded everywhere. The digital holograms showing advertisements for the bars and restaurants in the district, serving the usual young students. But right next to her was a large panel on the outside of the building she had parked next to. An algae that glowed in the dark, this one a swirl of blues, greens and yellows that formed the company logo for a supply shipping conglomerate bathed her in matching colors of their glow.

She pulled her burger out and started to eat it, dripps of the ‘houze sauce’ falling onto her shirt. “Au Bollocks,” She exclaimed and grabbed a napkin out of the bag as well and started to wipe it off.

“Hey, baby… want me to help clean that off for ya?” came from one of the collected others along the street. She found the source, a young college aged ‘gobshite’ that had a bottle of beer in his hand, and a couple of friends to try to be macho with.

Scáthach just glared at the guy, her cybernetic eyes going through an obvious scan cycle on him. She wasn’t in the mood to deal with the likes of him, she never really was. She took a moment to move her jacket aside, and smiled as the grip of one of her small needlers could be seen, “Nah, think I got it me-self.” She said, her accent rolling off her tongue. No matter how long she’d lived in this area, she’d always sound like a mix of here and where she’d been born. “Now, why don’cha shut yer gob, an go away.”

Not many on the streets of the Puget Sound Metropolitan Expanse zone carried weapons anymore. Pretty much it was corporate security, the Police Force, criminals or people like her, Bounty Hunters.

She didn’t have everything that the PD had to use the weapons. She had to be on a job or have the option for self defense. But being a five and a half foot tall woman, she could play it off if she had to.

The guy’s smile went away when he saw the gun. And he went back to doing whatever it was he was doing.

She took another bite of her burger, more sauce falling out, but this time caught by an unfolded napkin just in the right place. As she chewed, she could hear the buzzer going off in her personal communications unit. A buzz that denoted it was a guild contact trying to get a hold of her.

She got up off the hood, the door automatically opening for her when she got close enough. It popped upwards, folding in half as it did, a vertical opening. She all but fell into the driver’s seat.

She reached out and did the hand motion that would bring the display of the call up in front of her, the AR display in her eyes going live. Suddenly the visage of a woman, smaller than her, with makeup and facial piercings giving her that classic gothic witch look, “Hey, Sage, whatcha’ got?”

“Heya, ShadowKitty, got something that might be right up your alley. Your pinger is showing you in the Seattle University area, right?” The talking holographic bust of the raven haired lady spoke.

“Yeah, stopped at Uneeda Burger. Been a quiet couple of days. Not even a bail jumper for a fecking traffic ticket to pick up. What ya got, and why do you think it might be up me alley?” Scáthach spoke directly.

“Damn that burger looks good, okay… seems there is something going on with a custody case. Young teenage girl went to spend some time with mommy, and she bolted and ran with her. Dad has custody, they work for different corps. But, when he couldn’t get her, he contacted the locals. They went to pick up at an apartment building in the old Ballard District,” Sage got into the details quickly, she knew Scáthach wasn’t one to linger on the too much information or drawing out the time.

Scáthach knew where it was going though, or at least could take a guess, “And when they showed up, they found out the facility was corp owned and they were claiming they didn’t have jurisdiction. So they want a licensed hunter to go in and enforce the order?”

“Nailed it, ShadowKitty, “ Sage always called her that. Her actual code name was CáitShidé, or “Cat-She”. It meant Shadow Cat or Fairy Cat, and old Celtic myth. “I know how you feel about things like this, and since you’re close, I figured I’d toss it your way first.”

Scáthach nodded at her, the motion picked up by the camera in the dashboard, “Aye, I’d be good with it. So, usual questions. How much are the locals paying for this?”

“Not the locals. Daddy has offered to back up the required fees. He’s put up an initial retainer fee of 12G on it. Of course my fees are 10% for full standard package services. But might be able to get more out of him if he wants the special services.” Sage didn’t hide her smile as she read that off.

Scáthach shook her head, but had just as big of a smile, “Alright, corp owned area, and they stopped local PD, what are the odds that I’ll need backup?”

Sage frowned, “PD reports that armed security told them to buzz off. So I’d have to put the odds as highly likely. Maximillion is within two miles from you now. Would you like to aquire his services for this as well? Of course I shouldn’t have to tell you, but I do. That will also be another 10% of your final fees for extra muscle. “

“Aye, please, he’s good and he’s worth a handful of their security types. I’ll meet him there. Locals still on site?” was the reply.

“Yes, a little bit of a standoff. But Daddy is on site, so they’re trying to work things out. The Sergeant put in the call for a fixer. Looks like you’re it. I’ll cut out so you can get there. I’ll be your operator. I’ll reestablish over your p-comm as soon as I see you’re on site. Meantime, getting initial scans and details so we don’t go in blind. Talk to you in a little bit,” Sage finished and cut off the call.

Scáthach hit the button that started up her car. It was a sporty fully electric model. She pulled it out of the parking area and headed for 45th street to cut across towards the sound. It would turn into Market Street in the middle of Wallingford, the next district over, and then head right into the business district of Ballard.

At one time, Ballard had been a booming part of the larger city, houses, bars, cafe’s and not a lot of business. But then the corps came, and they bought up a lot of it to use as housing: corporate dormatories. That of course led to the area getting a little run down. Corps were known for not wanting to spend money to maintain things until they were broken. It wasn’t the slums, but it wasn’t exactly Capital Hill or Lake Washington districts either.

She kept going down Market Street, the main thoroughfare, past the Nordic Museum, and the turn off for the Ballard Locks, and then turned with the road as it became Bayview Avenue. After that, the site of the incident wasn’t hard to find. Four local PSMEPD cruisers sat in front of a building, their flood lights illuminating the front gate to a courtyard.

Behind that gate were two business suit wearing security types, talking to a man wearing a suit of his own. That must be Daddy. On the other side of the courtyard were four or five armored security, looked to be smg’s with framed stock extensions from first glance through her binoc implant in her eyes. They had on vests and helmets, not your normal security detail from the looks of it. Probably former military or worse. Hopefully cheap former military that weren’t from the SEALS or DELTA Force.

She pulled up, and left her car in hover mode, not letting it sit down onto its landing posts. She got out and popped the trunk, and walked back to the now open mobile command center. Screens came up and Sage’s visage popped up on her communications link almost instantly.

Scáthach started to check her heavier weapons that were stored back there and then started talking, “Update on Maxxy?”

“He’s one click away now. Local POC is Sgt Strickland. I’m letting him know you’re there now. While you’re waiting on Maximillian, can you release a couple of pixies for me? I want to take a look around.” Sage was on the job instantly, then again, no one would get paid if they failed. It wasn’t for a long career as an operator for the International Hunters Guild if you got your hunters killed on a regular basis.

Scáthach reached over and grabbed what looked like an old fashioned cigar box. She opened it up and pulled out 2 four-inch long metal sticks and put them down onto the edge of the trunk of her car. Pushing down on the control panel, holographic force wings went live and started to flutter like a dragonfly. The two drones took off, now under the control of Sage and flew in to take a look at the area and report back what the local PD hadn’t told Sage yet.

A man in a dark blue uniform with the white stripes going down his legs and Sergeant rank pips on his lapels walked over. The father was with him. She expected that he wanted to know what he was going to be paying for.

Scáthach knew the Sergeant. He had been a corporal three years ago when she had left the force.

Sage had been right, this mission was right up her alley. Scáthach had been a member of the PSMEPD, graduated from the academy in the top 10 of her class. She’d followed in her father’s footsteps and become a cop.

But then she’d run into something just like this. Chasing a couple of guys who had a list of crimes they were wanted for, longer than her arm, she’d run into this same roadblock.

The corp in question had stopped her from going in after her targets. They’d played the treaty rules, and were protecting some rich kids who had become nothing more than hoodlums.

When one of them had decided to come out and taunt her, while Strickland and his Sergeant had tried to get a hunter there, Scáthach had gone against orders and jumped a gate… and tried to toss the little shithead out where they could get him cuffed and ready for facing justice.

She’d been written up for it, mostly for shooting the three security guards who had tried to stop her. She’d used non-lethal rounds, but she’d still caused an incident that her hot head should have known better to do. She hadn’t been canned or anything, but that’s when she realized that the corporations and their protections made them untouchable.

Unless the cops called in a hunter. Hunters were licensed to come onto corp controlled land and facilities, for pay. The Corps didn’t have to let them. It was a fucked up situation. She could go in, but they’d more than likely fight her, until they lost enough men to decide that protecting some wage slave wasn’t worth it.

“Heya, Strychnine, long time…” She greeted Sgt. Strickland with the old nickname she’d given him back when she had worked with him. While she waited for him to respond, she took her jacket off and started to prepare her implants that were on her forearms for the gear she figured she’d need.

“Ah, shit… Foley, what the hell?” Strickland added, a sound of exhaustion in his voice, “How’d I get you for this?”

Scáthach smiled wide, and plugged in a hydraulic ram module that connected to the two ports on the side of her left forearm. It popped in with a snap and then it went through a systems check as she started working on her next piece of equipment.

“Come on, Foley, don’t have to be difficult,” Strickland added, his hands going to his hips.

“I was just the closest one. But my operator knew I’d want it. In fact, you two need to talk to her.” And she put another attachment onto her other arm, this one carried a 16 gauge shotgun and enough rounds to use it for defence or breaching door locks.

The holographic visage of Sage then turned to address Sgt Strickland and the girls’ father, “Mr. Nichols. I understand you are offering to pay for this operation?”

“Yes, ma’am. This is for me, so it should not come out of municipal funds. I’m also not a citizen of the Puget Sound Expanse, I’m a corporate citizen.” The man added with a confirming nod.

“Very well, Mr. Nichols. When dealing with a private citizen, in particular one with corporate ties, there are a few things I need to ask you. Are you with the corporation that owns the building?” Sage started.

“No, this is owned by Kramer Bionetics and Data. I now work for Atomic Data Encryptions. I left their employ… Kramer B&D, a year ago after things got weird with my ex-wife.” Mr. Nichols stated.

“Okay, can you please confirm that this raid you are funding is only for the recovery of persons or property on a legal court order, entered into evidence already, ordered by the International Corporate Court for custody of your daughter, Lynn?” Sage continued.

“Yes…” he added again, but Sage cut him off, “And you thus confirm this is not a raid that would violate corporate laws for acquisition of data or assets owned by Kramer Bionetics?”

“Yes, confirmed,” He said with trepidation in his voice. Although he looked nervous. Scáthach noted that. But by speaking that he sealed it if something happened while she was in there.

Sage continued to finish the negotiations when a large hoverbike came up. An older man with a good build got off and waved to Scáthach, and then started to unpack his own gear.

“Hey, Maxxy, ready to punch a corp in the face?” Scáthach called out as she continued her preparations, and racked the charger on her small bullpup model rifle.

She shouldered the rifle, and held it in place, making sure the smart-optics came up into her HUD, and the read out of ammo, barrel temperature and other needed information fed to the displays. Then she moved to the next weapon, changing out her needler for a larger Sig Saur made pistol, with more stopping power than the rifle’s bullets.

The man grunted, and then growled out, “Of course. It’s what we live for, Cait…” He said that last bit, one half of her codename, rolling with the proper Eire-ish accent, so just as it was spelled, sounding like “Kate” with a long draw on the letter ‘a’.

Then she heard Sage ask the final question, “And you of course accept any and all legal responsibility that this operation or raid may bring about in the Corporate Courts if challenged?”

Mr. Nichols spoke, that nervousness in full force now, “Yes, I agree.” And then he sighed.

Sage continued, “Thank you, Mr. Nichols. Your initial down payment has been credited. My operatives will now move in. Sgt. Strickland, please have your men pull back to a support position and be ready to do what is needed if the fighting spills out to the public streets to protect your citizenry. “

Strickland nodded, “Aye,” Then he barked an order into his police comms, “Pull back a bit, behind the cruisers. Got a hunter going in.”

Sage cleared her throat, and Scáthach turned to look at her, “You’re cleared to go in. I’ve sent an initial request for access to Kramer Bionetics… They refused elctronically“

Maxamillian walked up, a large old school assault rifle slung over a shoulder, but a newer bullpup model in his hands, “They look like mercs, x-mil. Mil spec vests on. Your needlers aren’t going to do much.”

That’s when Scáthach pulled up her own bullpup model rifle, and tapped it, “Why I got this now.”

The underbarrel had a small grenade launcher built in. It wasn’t a railgun, they usually didn’t have much stopping power in models this small. Good old fashioned gunpowder powered slug thrower with an extended magazine. “Oh, got that covered. Gel tipped rounds too. Unless they’re wearing full body armor, they’ll at least get their ribs bruised. Hopefully hey won’t put up too much of a fight.”

Maxxamillian nodded, “After you little lady.”

Scáthach grinned and nodded to him. She closed up the trunk of her car and then started heading towards the front gate, putting her rile on it’s sling and then putting her hands comfortably on it, finger not on the trigger, but damn close if needed.

With Maxxy coming up behind her, she stepped up to the front gate, the suited guard there. Her scanner took him in, and relayed to her that he was wearing good gear. The suit was basically spidersilk and kevlar, and he had needlers up his sleeves on rapid deployment rigs.

“Whatcha need little girl?” He drawled out to her as she stepped up to him, her head coming to his chin.

“I have a Hunter’s warrant to come in and collect corporate citizen, Lynn Nichols who we believe is being held here. According to International Corporate Court Directives, I am authorized by the signed warrant to come in there to get her, using as much force as deemed necessary. However, we’d all have a better day if you just brought her out here, and turned her over, of course."

She delivered that message with a cadance and force that showed her former training, and that she didn’t take any crap off of types like him. He was basically one of the reasons why she’d taken this path and left law enforcement.

He smiled at her, “You’re not the biggest girl I’ve ever seen, and that’s not the biggest gun. You don’t need to be involved. This is an issue for the courts to deal with, and they’re looking into it. The order wasn’t issued correctly.”

She heard Max’s stuff activating just as he sent her a message over her P-Comm, “The two in back are moving closer. Sage is sending feed from your PIXIES.” She saw the feed start up, it was to the left of her tactical display. She activated the algorithms that processed the current situation. Tracking rectiles formed on her immediate targets, and her cybernetics started indicating they were switching from normal to combat mode.

“That’s not my concern… the order issued is valid until a new one is. So if you’re not going to get out of my way, then guess I’ll just have to move you.”

The man’s answer was to extend his hands out. The next step would be for his small handguns to extend for him to use. They were a mostly mechanical delivery system, so Skya couldn’t use one of her ‘hextronic’ tricks. She took a step back with one foot and leaned into the man. She moved fast, her enhancements kicking in, and placed her left hand to his chest in flat martial arts type strike.

But, it wasn’t her hand that did the damage. The hydraulic ram activated. It only moved about an inch, but with enough force to knock a door in. Just as his guns popped out, he was hit with a couple hundred pounds of force to his solar plexus. He flew back a few feet, gasping for air.

The next thing she heard was a double tap from Maxxy’s combat gun. It wasn’t a normal thing, and fired a high caliber round that was closer to a shotgun slug made out of a dense plastic. She saw the first guy drop. The slugs might not have made it through his vest, but it would sure as hell have cracked some ribs at the least, especially if he hit the same spot she had.

The second outside guard started coming up into stance, with his small carbine. Scáthach wasn’t there when he pulled the trigger. She was fast when her gear was in full combat mode. She had gone left, and had three strides on him before his rounds hit where she’d been. Then it was a roll, across the fireline to the right, as he turned to bring his barrell to the new target zone. When she came up, he was shooting again at where she’d been moments ago.

She was also to his left side, and she brought up the barrel of her short barreled rifle, and put a three round burst into the soft part of his vest, right under the arm pit.

He grunted and dropped, her rounds probably went through a little, they were small, so not much damage, but that area usually didn’t have the ceramic plating under the arms of the vest. Like Maxxy, she was using non-lethal rounds, he’d have a bruise, maybe some bleeding.

The first guy was starting to get up, he’d rolled to his belly and was coming up onto his hands and knees. He had some upgrades, maybe subdermal plating. Scáthach moved to train her rifle onto him, but she never got a chance to pull the trigger.

Maxxy’s big form came running in, and he hit the guard square in the jaw with a knee strike that slapped his teeth together. She saw his eyes start to roll back, and his lights went out.

Maxxy then turned his large gun onto the others, and took a read with his scanners, “Front Entrance, external… clear.”

She looked around, the third guy who had been up by the stairs was on the ground, holding his shoulder. Looked like Maxxy had taken him in his next burst. It was his shotting arm, so he’d been neutralized for now.

Scáthach followed the protocol right behind him, “Confirmed, clear. 3 down. Moving to door, ready to breach if needed.”

She moved in first, Maxxy coming up behind her. The barrel of his weapon over her head. “Sage, you have a plan for the building yet?”

“Of course, I do. Standard warning: it’s corporate owned, so they might not have filed proper plans. But the PIXIES have done a prelim scan, I’m overlaying their read out on top of the public records.”

A 3D like display came up in their combat feed, showing the layout of the building. It had a red and blue overlay over it, showing where the scans had deviated from the public plans of the building. There had been some aftermarket modifications added, that was obvious.

“Strange, “ She sent on the privat channel that had been setup for her, Max and Sage, “Some extra stuff down below you can’t scan. ID chips show only a few up topside. Mostly residence, but nothing down below.. So it’s all sealed off from comms.”

“Yes, but why hide a teenage girl in a faraday?” Sage replied, “I’m going to have the PIXIES go in behind you once you breach the lower doors, and keep a LOS-LESS connection going. I might need a couple more to keep comms going,”

“Granted” Scáthach responded, understanding that was a request to activate more. She hit a virtual button and four compartments on the back of her vest opened up, and eight more of the cigar sized drones fell out, popped their wings out and took flight. It was all she had, but as long as they stayed a good distance apart, they could daisy chain their communications back up to the surface.

“Got them, thanks, Shadow Kitty. Setting up the com-chain now. You have permission to breach the front door if you need to.” Came back from Sage, following her protocols.

Max turned around, and walked backwards behind Scáthach, as she moved up their small stairwell that went up to the main entrance. She scanned the door, and noticed the electromagnetic field coming from the doorknob. “Boobytrap, not a good one, but would have been interesting.” That prompted her to bring out a small device from her belt, push a button and then slapped it on the wall next to the door’s badge reader. “Go!” And she swung herself onto the other side of the door, back first as the small explosive charge punched a hole into the wall, and took out the electrical system on the door. It swung open with the force.

Max’s gun echoed out twice after that, “Two more down!” came out over the comms, in Max’s voice.

“Good one Maxxy, thanks, “ Scáthach answered as she swung back into the now open door way. She tossed another device off her belt into the exposed foyer, and then shielded her eyes as a flashbang grenade went off.”

She shifted her vision to see in the darkness more, and took a look in. She could only see the two down that Maxxy had shot, both could be heard groaning. They were on the inside, and this wasn’t a big corporate secret stash spot, so they probably had limited vests and put those onto the guys on the outside.

They’d not been expecting this to escalate further, it was a simple custody battle,

The PIXIES all flew in other directions, flooding into the apartment complex, and scanning everything they came by, “I’m not showing too many here, actually. This isn’t showing as being… on the up and up,” Sage suddenly added.

It was cut off by Maxxy’s big gun going off, over and to the side from Scáthach’s head. Her ears automatically adjusted to not get the ringing they should have from that big thing going off.

What he shot though, didn’t fall. The man was wearing highly advanced tactical gear… battle armor

Scáthach’s carbine opened up, she could see the small rounds bouncing off the guy’s armor. Then she noticed his hand coming up, and the triple barrels alongside his arm. He had implants like hers, and he, or she had a high end ballistic weapon, probably a full automatic.

Oh the barrels started to spin and the flechettes started to fly. It was a railgun, firing small steel ‘pins’. She rolled, and came up, ramming a door with her hydraulic punch, then fell into the empty apartment, as they took aim at her.

She then heard two standard clicking noises, one was the ejection of a magazine, then one going back in. It was Maxxy’s gun.

She heard the flechettes cut across the area, and then impact Max’s armor. It only lasted for a second, as his gun then rang out with an even louder sound from before. He’d switched from non-lethal to bunker buster rounds. He used them for breaking down reinforced doors, but this wasn’t a door.

But it was reinforced. The sound of high density ceramic getting a metal impact came, and then a sick thud. It was basically a 4 gauge slug round, an elephant gun.

Scáthach took a look, and saw Maxxy up against the wall. He’d braced against it, the recoil from using that type of round would even push someone his size back.

Max winced as he brought his weapon down off his shoulder. That had hurt. But the now headless assailant laid on the ground, next to one of the doors the PIXIEs had scanned before. The door started to close, maybe automatically.

Skya moved quick, and grabbed the body of the now fully dead guard, glad they had waxed the floor. She slid him the last few feet, and let his body become an obstacle to the door closing..

Maxxy came up behind her, his hand on the magazine, “Should I switch back over?”

“This isn’t normal…” both Scáthach and Sage said at the same time.

She then shook her head and looked up to him, “Don’t think so, if this was guarding this passage, then what’s behind it will be similar. Id prefer to punch holes and not get punched. Sage?”

A PIXIE floated over and went through the door. “Scanning.” was the response from Sage. “That is going all the way down to a sublevel that is Faraday’d off. They have a private network, going to see if I can tap in.”

“Alright, how the defenses look?” Scáthach added.

“Rest of the guards are lightly armed,” Sage again spoke to both of them. “This is not looking like a typical corporate issue. Well, not something we should be getting into. I’ve scanned the ID chips for everyone in the building, and the girl is not anywhere I can find. That leaves… only the basement area through that door.”

Then a few shots rang out from below from lower caliber weapons, small assault carbine rail guns. They had seen the drones and tried to take them out. Maxx looked to Scáthach and grinned, pulling a larger grenade off his bandolier. As soon as he popped the lever, some gas started to come out from it. He dropped it down the stairs and started billowing out. It was old fashioned, something not many used anymore… and not many were prepared for. Good ol' tear gas.

The first of the guards below, coughing hard, started to come up the stairs. He carried his carbine loosely. It was still on a sling, but only one hand had it, as the other felt around for the safety railing for the stairs.

Scáthach shifted to an infrared view, and could see him by his heat signature, as the gas cooled the space below. She pulled her rifle up and let loose a double tap burst of six rounds. They all hit him in the chest, and he slipped down the railing.

Maxxy just about jumped down the stairs, and slammed into the guy as he moved to adjust. Max had an old school rebreather in his trachea, and wouldn’t be affected by the gas, and his cybernetic eyes wouldn’t burn. It’s why he still liked to pick up old grenades from army-navy stores around the metro.

He’d hit the guy in the chest with the butt of his weapon. She heard the ceramic plate crack. Well she hoped it was the ceramics in a vest. If it was his ribs or sternum, he was in trouble.

Scáthach then heard the air recirculating system kick in, the CS gas had reached a sensor that had triggered, and it was pumping good air in and the bad stuff out. That meant she could head down, as she didn’t have a mask on or a built in rebreather.

She got to the bottom of the stairs and looked around, her rifle up to her shoulder, using her cybernetic eyes and the feed from the barrel sensor to make sure she wasn’t missing anything that needed to be shot at.

“Got something interesting coming up. Looks like a full medical lab, not sure what’s going on here,” Sages voice came in from the feed off the daisy chained drones. Scáthach could see a few of them fluttering up ahead next to a door that wasn’t in the original plans of an apartment building. The door was reinforced and had an electronic lock on it, with a scanner for ID chips.

The car’s hood was still warm, it had only been off long enough to run into the Uneeda Burger and return with her dinner, plus a shake. Some would look at her and wonder where she was putting it all.

But, her cybernetics made her need almost twice the calories of someone her size. Her metabolism was jacked for speed and power in such a small frame.

Her name was Scáthach Aine Foley, that’s pronounced in the local common language of English as Skya Anya Foley. She wasn’t from around these parts, if it wasn’t obvious. She spoke English well enough, but sometimes would slip and speak something in either of the Gaelic dialects her parents spoke.

She had been in the Puget Sound Metro area for most of her teenage to adult life now. She was a former police officer with the PSMEPD. She’d taken after her father’s profession. He’d been a policeman in his home of Cork, Eire, the county that used to be called Ireland, and had worked with the PSMEPD when the family had moved here as a training consultant.

Right now, she sat, looking about. The area was like most of the rest of the University District in what was now known as the “Puget Sound University - Seattle Zone”.

A rainbow of lights flooded everywhere. The digital holograms  showing advertisements for the bars and restaurants in the district, serving their usual clientele, young students.

But right next to her was a large panel on the outside of the building she had parked next to. The panel had a photoluminescent algae, this one a swirl of blues, greens and yellows that formed the company logo for a supply shipping conglomerate bathed her in their glow.

She pulled her burger out and started to eat it, dripps of the ‘houze sauce’ falling onto her shirt. “Bloody hell,” She exclaimed a mild grunt that comprised an inaudible gaelic curse, and grabbed a napkin out of the bag as well and started to wipe it off.

“Hey, baby… want me to help clean that off for ya?” came from one of the collected others along the street. Some young punk of a bar patron, who had a few bits of liquid courage in his system.

Scáthach just glared at the guy, her cybernetic eyes going through an obvious scan cycle on him. She made it obvious, too. Her eye lights came on  and tight beams of laser light came out, and went down his form.

She wasn’t in the mood to deal with the likes of him, she never really was. She took a moment to move her jacket aside, and smiled as the grip of one of her small needlers could be seen, “Nah, think I got it me-self.” She said, her accent rolling off her tongue. No matter how long she’d lived in this area, she’d always sound like a mix of here and where she’d been born. “Now, why don’cha shut yer gob, an go away.”

Not many on the streets of the PSME zone carried weapons. Pretty much it was corporate security, the Police Force, criminals or people like her, Bounty Hunters.

She didn’t have everything that the PD had to be able to use the weapons. She had to be on a job or have the option for self defense. But being a five and a half foot tall woman, she could play it off if she had to.

The guy’s smile went away when he saw the gun. And he went back to doing whatever it was he was doing as he walked down the street.

She took another bite of her burger, more sauce falling out, but this time caught by an unfolded napkin just in the right place. As she chewed, she could hear the buzzer going off in her personal communications unit. A buzz that denoted it was a guild contact trying to get a hold of her.

She got up off the hood, the door automatically opening for her when she got close enough. It popped upwards, folding in half as it did. She all but fell into the driver’s seat.

She reached out and did the hand motion that would bring the display of the call up in front of her, the AR display in her eyes going live. Suddenly the visage of a woman, smaller than her, with makeup and facial piercings giving her that classic gothic witch look, “Hey, Sage, whatcha’ got?”

“Heya, ShadowKitty, got something that might be right up your alley. Your pinger is showing you in the Seattle University area, right?” The talking holographic bust of the raven haired lady spoke.

“Yeah, stopped at Uneeda Burger. Been a quiet couple of days. Not even a bail jumper for a traffic ticket to pick up. What ya got, and why do you think it might be up me alley?” Scáthach spoke directly.

“Damn that burger looks good, okay… seems there is something going on with a custody case. Young teenage girl went to spend some time with mommy, and she bolted and ran with her. Dad has custody, they work for different corps. But, when he couldn’t get her, he contacted the locals. They went to pick up at an apartment building in the old Ballard District,” Sage got into the details quickly, she knew Scáthach wasn’t one to linger on bullshit.

Scáthach knew where it was going though, or at least could take a guess, “And when they showed up, they found out the facility was corp owned and they were claiming they didn’t have jurisdiction. So they want a licensed hunter to go in and enforce the order?”

“Nailed it, ShadowKitty, “ Sage always called her that. Her actual code name was CáitShidé, or “Cat-She”. It meant Shadow Cat or Fairy Cat, and old Celtic myth. “I know how you feel about things like this, and since you’re close, I figured I’d toss it your way first.”

Scáthach nodded at her, the motion picked up by the camera in the dashboard, “Aye, I’d be good with it. So, usual questions. How much are the locals paying for this?”

“Not the locals. Daddy has offered to back up the required fees. He’s put up an initial retainer fee of 12G on it. Of course my fees are 10% for full  standard package services. But might be able to get more out of him if he wants the special services.” Sage didn’t hide her smile as she read that off.

Scáthach shook her head, but had just as big of a smile, “Alright, corp owned area, and they stopped local PD, what are the odds that I’ll need backup?”

Sage frowned, “PD reports that armed security told them to buzz off. So I’d have to put the odds as highly likely. Maximillion is within two miles from you now. Would you like to aquire his services for this as well? Of course I shouldn’t have to tell you, but I do. That will also be another 10% of your final fees for extra muscle. “

“Aye, please, he’s good and he’s worth a handful of their security types. I’ll meet him there. Locals still on site?” was the reply.

“Yes, a little bit of a standoff. But Daddy is on site, so they’re trying to work things out. The Sergeant put in the call for a fixer. Looks like you’re it. I’ll cut out so you can get there. I’ll be your operator. I’ll reestablish over your p-comm as soon as I see you’re on site. Meantime, getting initial scans and details so we don’t go in blind. Talk to you in a little bit, kitty,” Sage finished and cut off the call.

Scáthach hit the button that started up her car. It was a sporty fully electric model. She pulled it out of the parking area and headed for 45th street to cut across towards the sound. It would turn into Market Street in the middle of Wallingford, the next district over,  and then head right into the business district of Ballard.

At one time Ballard had been a booming part of the larger city, houses, bars, cafe’s and not a lot of business. But then the corps came, and they bought up a lot of it to use as housing. That of course led to the area getting a little run down. Corps were known for not wanting to spend money to maintain things until they were broken. It wasn’t the slums, but it wasn’t exactly Capital Hill or Lake Washington districts either.

She kept going down Market Street, the main thoroughfare, past the Nordic Museum, the turn off for the Ballard Locks, and then turned with the road as it became Bayview Avenue. After that, the site of the incident wasn’t hard to find. Four local PSMEPD cruisers sat in front of a building, their flood lights illuminating the front gate to a courtyard, and their multicolored flashers signaling to everything they were there and doing their ‘jobs’.

Behind that gate were two business suit-wearing security types, talking to a man wearing a suit of his own. That must be Daddy. On the other side of the courtyard were four or five armored security, looked to be smg’s with framed stock extensions from first glance through her binoc implant in her eyes. They had on vests and helmets, not your normal security detail. Probably former military or worse.

She pulled up, and left her car in hover mode, not letting it sit down onto its landing posts. She got out and popped the trunk, and walked back to the now open mobile command center. Physical screens unfolded, and holographic ones activated.  Sage popped up on her communications link almost instantly.

Scáthach started to check her heavier weapons that were stored back there and then started talking, “Update on Maxxy?”

“He’s one click away now. Local POC is Sgt Strickland. I’m letting him know you’re there now. While you’re waiting on Maximillian, can you release a couple of pixies for me? I want to take a look around.” Sage was on the job instantly, then again, no one would get paid if they failed. It wasn’t for a long career as an operator for the International Hunters Guild if you got your hunters killed on a regular basis.

Scáthach reached over and grabbed what looked like an old fashioned cigar box. She opened it up and pulled out two 4 inch long metal sticks and put them down onto the edge of the trunk of her car. Pushing down on the control panel, holographic force wings went live and started to flutter like a dragonfly. The two drones took off, now under the control of Sage and flew in to take a look at the area and report back what the local PD hadn’t told Sage yet.

A man in a dark blue uniform with the white stripes going down his legs,Sergeant stripes on his lapels walked over. The father was with him. She expected that he wanted to know what he was going to be paying for.

Scáthach knew the Sergeant. He had been a corporal three years ago when she had left the force.

Sage had been right, this mission was right up her alley. Scáthach had been a member of the PSMEPD, graduated from the academy in the top 10 of her class. She’d followed in her father’s footsteps and become a cop.

But then she’d run into something just like this. Chasing a couple of guys who had a list of crimes they were wanted for, longer than her arm, she’d run into this same roadblock.

The corp in question had stopped her from going in after her targets. They’d played the treaty rules, and were protecting some rich kids who had become nothing more than hoodlums.

When one of them had decided to come out and taunt her, while Strickland and his Sergeant had tried to get a hunter there, Scáthach had gone against orders and jumped a gate… and tried to toss the little shithead out where they could get him cuffed and ready for facing justice.

She’d been written up for it, mostly for shooting the three security guards who had tried to stop her. She’d used non-lethal rounds, but she’d still caused an incident that her hot head should have known better to do. She hadn’t been canned or anything, but that’s when she realized that the corporations and their protections made them untouchable.

Unless the cops called in a hunter. Hunters were licensed to come onto corp controlled land and facilities, for pay. The Corps didn’t have to let them. It was a fucked up situation. She could go in, but they’d more than likely fight her, until they lost enough men to decide that protecting some wage slave wasn’t worth it.

“Heya, Strychnine, long time…” She greeted Sgt. Strickland with the old nickname she’d given him back when she had worked with him. While she waited for him to respond, she took her jacket off and started to prepare her implants that were on her forearms for the gear she figured she’d need.

“Ah, shit… Foley, what the hell?” Strickland added, a sound of exhaustion in his voice, “How’d I get you for this?”

Scáthach smiled wide, and plugged in a hydraulic ram module that connected to the two ports on the side of her left forearm. It popped in with a snap and then it went through a systems check as she started working on her next piece of equipment.

“Come on, Foley, don’t have to be difficult,” Strickland added, his hands going to his hips.

“I was just the closest one. But my operator knew I’d want it. In fact, you two need to talk to her.” And she put another attachment onto her other arm, this one carried a 16 gauge shotgun and enough rounds to use it for defence of breaching door locks.

The holographic visage of Sage then came up fully, and turned to address Sgt Strickland and the girls’ father, “Mr. Nichols. I understand you are offering to pay for this operation?”

“Yes, ma’am. This is for me, so it should not come out of municipal funds. I’m also not a citizen of the Puget Sound Expanse, and I’m a corporate citizen.” The man added with a confirming nod.

“Very well, Mr. Nichols. When dealing with a private citizen, in particular one with corporate ties, there are a few things I need to ask you. Are you with the corporation that owns the building?” Sage started.

“No, this is owned by Kramer Bionetics and Data. I now work for Atomic Data Encryptions. I left their employ a year ago after things got weird with my ex-wife.” Mr. Nichols stated.

“Okay, can you please confirm that this raid you are funding is only for the recovery of persons or property on a legal court order, entered into evidence already, ordered by the International Corporate Court for custody of your daughter, Lynn?” Sage continued.

“Yes…” he added again, but Sage cut him off, “And you thus confirm this is not  a raid that would violate corporate laws for acquisition of data or assets owned by Kramer Bionetics?”

“Yes, confirmed,” He said with trepidation in his voice.  Although he looked nervous. Scáthach noted that. But by speaking that he sealed it if something happened while she was in there.

Sage continued to finish the negotiations when a large hoverbike came up. An older man  with a good build got off and waved to Scáthach, and then started to unpack his own gear.

“Hey, Maxxy, ready to punch a corp in the face?” Scáthach called out as she ran her systems through a check, all while putting magazines into her weapons that needed it and checking them.

She grabbed each firearm, and held it in place, making sure the smart-optics came up into her HUD, and the read out of ammo, barrel temperature and other needed information fed to the displays. Then she moved to the next weapon.

The man grunted, and then growled out, “Of course. It’s what we live for, Cait…” He said that last bit, one half of her codename, rolling with the proper Eire-ish accent, so just as it was spelled, sounding like “Kate” with a long draw on the letter ‘a’.

Then she heard Sage ask the final question, “And you of course accept any and all legal responsibility that this operation or raid may bring about in the Corporate Courts if challenged?”

Mr. Nichols spoke, that nervousness in full force now, “Yes, I agree.” And then he sighed.

Sage continued, “Thank you, Mr. Nichols. Your initial down payment has been credited. My operatives will now move in. Sgt. Strickland, please have your men pull back to a support position and be ready to do what is needed if the fighting spills out to the public streets to protect your citizenry. “

Strickland nodded, “Aye,” Then he barked an order into his police comms, “Pull back a bit, behind the cruisers. Got a hunter going in.”

Sage cleared her throat, and Scáthach turned to look at her, “You’re cleared to go in. I’ve sent an initial request for access to Kramer Bionetics… “

Maxamillian walked up, a large old school assault rifle slung over a shoulder, but a newer bullpup model in his hands, “They look like mercs, x-mil. Mil spec vests on. Your needlers aren’t going to do much.”

That’s when Scáthach  pulled up her own bullpup model rifle. It had a scope on it, which also fed smart information to her cybernetics. The underbarrel had a small grenade launcher built in. It wasn’t a railgun, they usually didn’t have much stopping power in models this small. Good old fashioned gunpowder powered slug thrower with an extended magazine. “Oh, got that covered. Gel tipped rounds too. Unless they’re wearing full body armor, they’ll at least get their ribs broken. Hopefully they won’t put up too much of a fight.”

Maxxamillian nodded, “After you little lady.”

Scáthach grinned and nodded to him. She closed up the trunk of her car and then started heading towards the front gate, putting her rile on it’s sling and then putting her hands comfortably on it, finger not on the trigger, but damn close if needed.

With Maxxy coming up behind her, she stepped up to the front gate, the suited guard there. Her scanner took him in, and relayed to her that he was wearing good gear. The suit was basically spidersilk and kevlar, and he had needlers up his sleeves on reapid deployment rigs.

“Whatcha need little girl?” He drawled out to her as she stepped up, “I have a Hunter’s warrant to come in and collect corporate citezen, Lynn Nichols who we believe is being held here. According to International Corporate Court Directives, I am authorized by the signed warrant to come in there to get here. If you do not comply, then I am authorized appropriate force to do so.”

She delivered that message with a cadance and force that showed her former training, and that she didn’t take any crap off of types like him. He was basically one of the reasons why she’d taken this path and left law enforcement.

He smiled at her, “You’re not the biggest girl I’ve ever seen, and that’s not the biggest gun. You don’t need to be involved. This is an issue for the courts to deal with, and they’re looking into it. The order wasn’t issued correctly.”

She heard Max’s gear and cybernetics activating just as he sent her a message over her P-Comm, “The two in back are moving closer. Sage is sending feed from your PIXIES.” She saw the feed start up, it was to the left of her tactical display.  She activated the algorithms that  processed the current situation. Tracking rectiles formed on her immediate targets, and her cybernetics started indicating they were switching from normal to combat mode.

“That’s not my concern… the order issued is valid until a new one is. So if you’re not going to get out of my way, then guess I’ll just have to move you.”

The man’s answer was to extend his hands out. The next step would be for his small handguns to extend for him to use. They were a mostly mechanical delivery system, so Skya couldn’t use one of her electronic tricks. She took a step back with one foot and leaned into the man. She moved fast, her enhancements kicking in, and placed her left hand to his chest in flat martial arts type strike.

But, it wasn’t her hand that did the damage. The hydraulic ram activated. It only moved about an inch, but with enough force to knock a door in. Just as his guns popped out, he was hit with a couple hundred pounds of force to his solar plexus. He flew back a few feet, gasping for air.

The next thing she heard was a double tap from Maxxy’s combat gun. It wasn’t a normal thing, and fired a high caliber round that was closer to a shotgun slug made out of a dense plastic. She saw the first guy drop. The slugs might not have made it through his vest, but it would sure as hell have cracked some ribs at the least, especially if he hit the same spot she had.

The second outside guard started coming up into stance, with his small carbine. Scáthach  wasn’t there when he pulled the trigger. She was fast when her gear was in full combat mode. She had gone left, and had three strides on him before his rounds hit where she’d been. Then it was a roll, across the fire line to the right, as he turned to bring his barrel to the new target zone. When she came up, he was shooting again at where she’d been moments ago.

She was now on his left side, and she brought up the barrel of her bullpup design rifle, and put a three round burst into the soft part of his vest, right under the armpit.

He grunted and dropped, her rounds probably went through a little, they were small, so not much damage, but that area usually didn’t have the ceramic plating under the arms of the vest. Like Maxxy, she was using non-lethal rounds, he’d have a bruise, maybe some light bleeding.

The first guy was starting to get up, he’d rolled to his belly and was coming up onto his hands and knees. He had some upgrades, maybe subdermal plating. Scáthach moved to train her rifle onto him, but she never got a chance to pull the trigger.

Maxxy’s big form came running in, and he hit the guard square in the jaw with a knee strike that slapped his teeth together. She saw his eyes start to roll back, and his lights went out.

Maxxy then turned his large gun onto the others, and took a read with his scanners, “Front Entrance, external… clear.”

She looked around, the third guy who had been up by the stairs was on the ground, holding his shoulder. Looked like Maxxy had taken him in his next burst. It was his shooting arm, so he’d been neutralized for now.

Scáthach followed the protocol right behind him, “Confirmed, clear. 3 down. Moving to the door, ready to breach if needed.”

She moved in first, Maxxy coming up behind her. The barrel of his weapon over her head. “Sage, you have a plan for the building yet?”

“Of course, I do. Standard warning: it’s corporate owned, so they might not have filed proper plans. But the PIXIES have done a prelim scan, I’m overlaying their read out on top of the public records.”

A 3d like display came up in their combat feed, showing the layout of the building. It had a red and blue overlay over it, showing where the scans had deviated from the public plans of the building. There had been some aftermarket modifications added, that was obvious.

“Strange, “ She sent on the privat channel that had been setup for her, Max and Sage, “Some extra stuff down below you can’t scan. ID chips show only a few up topside. Mostly residents, but nothing down below.. So it’s all sealed off from comms.”

“Yes, but why hide a teenage girl in a faraday?” Sage replied, “I’m going to have the PIXIES go in behind you once you breach the lower doors, and keep a LOS-LESS connection going. I might need a couple more to keep comms going,”

“Granted” Scáthach responded, understanding that it was a request to activate more. She hit a virtual button and four compartments on the back of her vest opened up, and eight more of the cigar sized drones fell out, popped their wings  and took flight. It was all she had, but as long as they stayed a good distance apart, they could daisy chain their communications back up to the surface.

“Got them, thanks, Shadow Kitty. Setting up the com-chain now. You have permission to breach the front door if you need to.” Came back from Sage, following her protocols.

Max turned around, and walked backwards behind Scáthach, as she moved up their small stairwell that went up to the main entrance. She scanned the door, and noticed the electromagnetic field coming from the doorknob. “Boobytrap, not a good one, but would have been interesting.” That prompted her to bring out a small device from her belt, push a button and then slapped it on the wall next to the door’s badge reader. “Go!” And she swung herself onto the other side of the door, back first as the small explosive charge punched a hole into the wall, and took out the electrical system on the door. It swung open with the force.

Max’s gun echoed out twice after that, “Two more down!” came out over the comms, in Max’s voice.

“Good one Maxxy, thanks, “ Scáthach answered as she swung back into the now open door way. She tossed another device off her belt into the exposed foyer, and then shielded her eyes as a flashbang grenade went off.”

She shifted her vision to see in the darkness more, and took a look in. She could only see the two down that Maxxy had shot, both groaning. They were on the inside, and this wasn’t a big corporate secret stash spot, so they probably had limited vests and put those onto the guys on the outside.

They’d not been expecting this to escalate further, it was a simple custody battle,

The PIXIES all flew in other directions, flooding into the apartment complex, and scanning everything they came by, “I’m not showing too many here, actually. This isn’t showing as being… on the up and up,” Sage suddenly added.

It was cut off by Maxxy’s big gun going off, over and to the side from Scáthach’s head. Her ears automatically adjusted to not get the ringing they should have from that big thing firing that many rounds, and that close.

What he shot though, didn’t fall. The man was wearing highly advanced tactical gear… battle armor

Scáthach’s carbine opened up, she could see the small rounds bouncing off her target’s chest. Then she noticed his hand coming up, and the triple barrels alongside his arm. He had implants like hers, and he, or she had a high end ballistic weapon, probably a full automatic.

Oh, the barrels started to spin and the flechettes started to fly. It was a railgun, firing small steel ‘pins’. She rolled, and came up, ramming a door with her hydraulic punch, then fell into the empty apartment, as they took aim at her.

She then heard two standard clicking noises, one was the ejection of a magazine, then one going back in. It was Maxxy’s gun.

She heard the flechettes cut across the area, and then impact Max’s armor. It only lasted for a second, as his gun then rang out with an even louder sound from before. He’d switched from non-lethal to bunker buster rounds. He used them for breaking down reinforced doors, but this wasn’t a door.

But it was reinforced. The sound of high density plastic rupturing came, and then a sick thud. It was basically a 4 gauge slug round, an elephant gun.

Scáthach took a look, and saw Maxxy up against the wall. He’d braced against it, the recoil from using that type of round would even push someone his size back.

Max winced as he brought his weapon down off his shoulder. That had hurt. But the now headless assailant laid on the ground, next to one of the doors the PIXIEs had scanned before. The door started to close, maybe automatically.

Scáthach  got moving, and grabbed the arm of the now fully dead security guard and pulled their armor covered body into the way, tossing it to block the door.

Maxxy came up behind her, his hand on the magazine, “Should I switch back over?”

She shook her head to him, “Don’t think so, if this was guarding this passage, then what’s behind it will be similar. I’d prefer to punch holes and not get punched. Sage?”

A PIXIE floated over and went through the door. “Scanning.” was the response from Sage. “That is going all the way down to a sublevel that is Faraday’d off. They have a private network, going to see if I can tap in.”

“Alright, how the defenses look?” Scáthach added.

“Rest of the guards are lightly armed,” Sage again spoke to both of them.

Then a few shots rang out from below from lower caliber weapons throwing small flechetes.. They had seen the drones and tried to take them out. Maxx looked to Scáthach and grinned, pulling a larger grenade off his bandolier. As soon as he popped the lever, some gas started to come out from it. He dropped it down the stairs and the gas started really billowing out.

It was old fashioned, something not many used anymore… and not many were prepared for, tear gas.

The first of the guards below, coughing hard, started to come up the stairs. He carried his carbine loosely. It was still on a sling, but only one hand had it, as the other felt around for the safety railing for the stairs.

Scáthach shifted to an infrared view, and could see him by his heat signature, as the gas cooled the space below. She pulled her rifle up and let loose a double tap burst of six rounds. They all hit him in the chest, and he slipped down the railing.

Maxxy just about jumped down the stairs, and slammed into the guy as he moved to adjust. Max had an old school rebreather in his trachea, and wouldn’t be affected by  breathing in the gas, and his cybernetic eyes wouldn’t burn. It’s why he still liked to pick up old grenades from army-navy stores around the metroplex.

He’d hit the guy in the chest with the butt of his weapon. She heard the ceramic plate crack. Well she hoped it was the ceramics in a vest. If it was his ribs or sternum, he was in trouble.

She then heard the air recirculating system kick in, the CS Gas had reached a sensor and it was pumping good air in and the bad stuff out. That meant she could head down, as she didn’t have a mask on or a built in rebreather.

She got to the bottom of the stairs and looked around, her rifle up to her shoulder, using her cybernetic eyes and the feed from the barrel sensor to make sure she wasn’t missing anything that needed to be shot at.

“Got something interesting coming up. Looks like a full medical lab, not sure what’s going on here,” Sages voice came in from the feed off the daisy chained drones. Scáthach could see a few of them fluttering up ahead next to a door that wasn’t in the original plans of an apartment building. The door was reinforced and had an electronic lock on it, with a scanner for ID chips.

She accessed her own PIXIEs scans, and saw that the entire room beyond that had been reinforced, she then saw the feed that there were two more guards, and a woman in a lab coat there.

There was also a bed, with a teenaged girl laying there. It was a very elaborate medical bed, and the patient in it was apparently unconscious.

“You see that, Maxxy?” Scáthach asked.

“Yup.” was his response as he moved up to the door. “Electronic lock, you got something for it?”

She stepped up, sweeping her scope and her rifle in place, “Depends on the lock. Take guard, let me look.”

As she slipped up to the door, Max turned, taking one step out of her way, and brought his weapon up, in a well trained motion, “Got ya.”

She looked at the lock and then touched it with her other hand, “Now this one is a bit more sophisticated…” She let her rifle hang from its sling, and then reached to the back of her vest. She pulled out a box like item that then slide into halves. She put one over the lock and the other below it.

“Before you do this, just a word of caution. The drones will be down for about 30 seconds after this. This is not aligning with anything we’ve got on record.” Sage added, caution in her voice.

Maxxy spoke up first, being the long term veteran of the local unit, “Nah, looks like a stealth ops setup. One thing that can show others that something bad is going down is too much activity. This is a minimal squad hiding something that’s not supposed to have a lot of attention drawn to it. Most of these guards are probably living here too so they’re not going in and out, only a handful of people actually go to and from the offices.”

Sage answered, that sound of caution not gone, “Agreed. Keep your eyes open. We don’t need this to go south.”

“Micro EMP in 5… 4… 3” Scáthach counted down, and put her left fist along the side of the door, the flat of the ram over where it looked like the bolt would go, “2… 1”… a flash went off between the two boxes, multiple electrical arcs, and the lock’s display went dead.

“It’s good… breaching!” And the ram attachment on her arm slammed into the door. The magnets that held it closed on a power failure popped, and sparks flew as the door opened.

Maxx spun and went in first, his rifle trained onto one of the guards, “International Guild of Hunters, we’re serving on a warrant to acquire Lynn Nichols. Drop your weapons, and leave the area while we identify the young lady in the bed.”

Scáthach came in right behind him, her rifle back up in her hands. She moved to the foot of the bed, and looked at the girl.

Scáthach display was out of synch for a few more seconds before it recovered from the small Electromagnetic Pulse Burst. As soon as she had a green light indication that she had a feed going up via the drones, Sage responded, “Confirmed, that is Lynn Nichols on the bed. Looks like we’re going to get paid tonight.”

The woman moved to half cover the girl on the bed, “You can’t do this… they’ll… they…”

Scáthach shook her head, “Not your call, ma’am. We have a warrant and a court order to enforce. Now step away from the young Ms. Nichols. "

Then she looked from the woman to the girl, “You must be the former Mrs. Nichols. Please step aside.”

The woman shook her head, “No, you can’t. You don’t unserstand. You’ll release it… This shouldn’t be happening… the lawyer”

Max still had his weapon up, aimed at one of the two guards, “Come on guys. Your buddy in the full armor was up there. We’re now down here. I’m still loaded with the ammo that took him down. Don’t make me use it. You can put your weapons down, and head out and start making calls. I don’t care, I only care about the facts that you’re still armed and our target is here.”

“No, we’ll lose…”

Scáthach spoke up, “Ma’am, if I don’t come out of this building with Lynn, I could lose my job. I think you can guess, that I personally put my continued employment over yours. Now move before I drop your ass. I may be using non-lethals, but you’re wearing a lab coat, and normal clothes. You’ll have bruises for weeks, and it’ll be hard to breathe for hours. Now back the fuck up!”

The woman came up off the girl and put her hands up, “Please… don’t do this. "

Max frowned, and moved his finger to the trigger on his large weapon. Before he could pull, the woman spoke up, “Do as they say. If we’re going to get reprimanded, lets at least be alive, now.”

The two men looked to each other and then started to lay down their weapons', taking the slings over their heads and then bending at the knees to put them down.

The woman, her mother spoke again, “You’re doing an extraction that will cost his corporation millions with what she has in her system. You know that’s illegal right? You will be charged with corporate espionage, and…”

Max laughed, “Good one. But her father already accepted all responsibility for that. Which means we don’t give two shits, and you can take it up with the Corporate Court. We care about the girl, alive. What she has inside of her? That’s between you, the father, and your employers.”

Scáthach looked to Max really quick, and he nodded, training his weapon onto the others. She let her rifle go, and it fell, but remained dangling to her front via its tactical sling. He looked over the medical equipment that the girl was hooked up to.

“She’s sedated, going to need to carry her out. Three lines in her left arm, all hooked to the med-gear. " She said outloud, letting both Sage and Maxxy hear it.

Sage came into her comms, “Scans show that she’s been out for a while. One line is the sedative, another is for hydration, and another for… nutrition? What the fuck have they been doing down here to her?”

One of the PIXIE drones flew over and started a close range scan of the medical gear the lines were hooked to. Then it darted over to the larger medical displays.

Scáthach stood by, waiting for Sage’s evaluation, giving a glare to the mother.

“You’re not even going to ask? What we were doing?” The girl’s mother slyly asked, her tone gave away her intensions.

“Nary a care in me mind fer it.” Scáthach let roll off her tongue. “As my partner said, our goal is the girl, to her father. If I ask, I break contract. Yer not going to trick me into a moral dilemma.”

The medical gear started making different noises, the IV machine turning off. Then the drone flew over to a junction point a few inches up from where the drug feed lines went into the girl’s arm, “Twist and turn here. I have alerted the locals as to her condition. The father has ordered an ambulance to the scene, it is already en route.

Scáthach moved to the indicated area and saw the two colors on what looked like collars on the lines. She twisted them and they came off, some fluid leakng out of the side going to the machine for a second after, but the girl’s side looked to have a check valve to control flow.

“Got it.” Then she started to undo the straps that held the girl down. One of them was giving problems, and she let out a low curse under her breathe and then pulled the strap up and whipped out her curved rescue blade she kept in a sheath. The strap separated easily.

“She’s little smaller than me, you want to carry, or cover?” She asked Max.

He scooted in her direction, and then nodded, “I got her. I have a rescue sling with me.”

Scáthach took two steps back and then pulled her weapon up, making sure she was ready for anything. She also kept Maxxy in her peripheral, keeping a partial eye on him, as she kept her weapon on the security goons.

Maxx pulled the blanket covering the girl up, making sure she was also wearing clothing under. She was wearing a set of pink pajamas with an old toy line of sentient magic wielding ponies on it.

He then unfolded a nylon rescue sling he pulled out of a large pouch that was at the small of his back. He laid it down next to her and then moved her over onto it, lifting her with one arm and using his other to pull it under her.

Once she was in place, he turn around and hooked two of the straps that had carabiners on their end, to the lower part of his combat harness. Then he turned and pulled two other straps up to hook to his shoulders. He had to bend at his knees and hobble himself to do this.

Once he was happy with the placement he pulled the adjustment straps at his hip, which pulled the girl to him. Once those were tight, pulling the others slowly pulled her up onto his back, putting her into a piggy back ride position.

Once he was satisfied he had her in the nylon netting, he moved closer to Scáthach, “Check her for any adjustments. Want it to be as comfy a ride as possible.”

She turned her head slightly, and reached up and adjusted the netting behind the girl a bit, giving a couple of tugs, “Looks good. Cover me while I switch out my ‘nade load.”

Maxx brought up his weapon again, to shoulder this time, while Scáthach pulled the grenade cartridge from her launcher and swapped it with a different one off her belt. These grenades were micros, small blast radius. She’d come in with flash bangs, but to get out, with the girl, with what the mother had been saying, she figured she’d need something a little more.

Once the magazine of microgrenades were in place, she called out, “Ready for egress.”

Maxx added, “Ready for egress.”

And Sage came up, “Ready for egress. Same route you came in, Collecting PIXIES one by one as you head out, maintaining comm relay chain. Currently way is clear. Corporate security vehicle as pulled up, but the locals got in their way before they could reinforce, showing them the warrant. Don’t go too fast in case of any surprises, but should be steady route out.”

Maxx took lead on the way out, sandwiching the girl between him and Scáthach. She walked backwards behind him for a bit, using a relay from the last PIXIE that was now flying next to her, to see in both directions.

The girl’s mother called out, “You are but a pawn in this story, little hunter. You will be crushed in the coming days.”

The woman’s personal communication unit went off and she smiled, looking in their direction.

Scáthach sent a message to Sage and Max, “Not liking the look on the woman’s face.”

Sage broke in, “Yeah, got a PUC flying towards your location from the HQ of one of the Bigs. Looks like a lone-wolf unit. Sub-mil model.”

Max dropped the obvious comment, “Well this is about to go to hell and back.”

The two took the girl up their stairs and through the door that put them beyond the Faraday effect of sealed off area.

“Give me a visual on the PUC, Sage.” Scáthach said, as she went through a weapons check.

“Already was prepping it for you Shadow Kitty. Coming your way for both of you.” Sage said as a visual display opened up for both of them in their Virtual HUD. It showed a sub-military model of a Personnel Unit Carrier, or PUC coming in. Looked to be a civilian model of an Albatross Class transport. It was missing the manned side plaz-cannons, so could get a little more speed out of its power plant. They were replaced by gunner position controlled 30 mm Bushmaster IV’s.

“Alright… things are about to get interesting.” Maxxy added.

“Yeah, you could say that.” Scáthach said as she shook her head, and then ran through weapon diagnostics.

A message tried to pop up on her P-Comm unit, but she virtually swiped it away.

It came back up immediatly , and she tried to swipe it away again.

“Damnit, now I’m getting spammed? What the everyloving fuck!” She added, now getting frustrated.

Sage spoke up, “Spammed by what? You’re in work mode, all ad blockers should be enabled.”

“Not sure… it’s saying something about if I want to mount or install something, S4R-E-L?” Scáthach added, as they approached the front door to the small building.

Max looked out, “PUC incoming. Locals are circling their wagons in case this turns into something more. I’m zoomed on it, there are four about to..”

He watched as those four men he was watching descended down to the courtyard area using rappelling gear. As soon as they were on the ground they unhooked, and brought their rifles up to the guard.

Scáthach tried to swipe the pop up away again, as Sage broke in, “They’re refusing to negotiate or even talk to Control here.”

Scáthach ejected the magazine to her rifle and swapped it for something with more stopping power, “Maxxy, you got a scan on them?”

“Yeah, ceramic armor. TAS-78 assault carbines, and small side arms…” Maxx spoke, going back to his soldier days, but then trailed off when he saw a fifth operative fall to the ground from the transport.

A good fifty foot drop, and this person dropped down, and landed in a kneeling crouch. As soon as they were down, they pulled out two small automatic sidearms, and addressed the others. They wore the same armor, a helmet with a built in combat-HUD covering their face, but their body shape relayed that they were a woman.

“Take position, get ready. They must not be allowed to leave with the asset. The girl’s body is secondary, her comm unit is primary…” The mysterious woman said, not showing any care or remorse for her words.

“What the…” was Maxx’s comment.

“Scáthach?” Sage asked, some concern coming to her.

But before Scáthach could reply, a new pop up came up, this time the text was different. “If you want to get past the corporate wolf, tap yes… S4R-E-L.”

The woman outside then spoke up using a voice amplifier built into her helmet, “Attention unauthorized hunter operatives. You are being asked to leave your quarry where you are and being given one chance and one chance only to walk out and abandon your mission. You have 30 seconds and 30 seconds only to comply, or we will be forced to open fire upon any and all heat signatures in the building. Your time is starting now.”

Maxxy looked to his partner, “You don’t look like they’re bluffing. Did you hear her one comment?”

Scáthach looked up, “Sorry, still getting annoying popups, but I heard her. The mother indicated that the girl has something in her p-comm. They don’t care about her, just what she’s downloaded.”

“Yeah, I don’t like that. What’s the plan,” Max asked before Sage broke in, “Another PUC is being diverted to your location. They’re coming in the other way, probably going to setup to strafe the back door if needed.”

“Pincer maneuver, classic…” came from Maxx.

Another popup for Scáthach, this one read, “I can help you save the girl… you have about 20 seconds left. Do you want help or not? = S4R-E-L”

“Damnit to hell!” Scáthach shouted, as she tried to get rid of the pop up. But this time, the buttons shifted before she hit, and she ended up hitting the “Yes” button.

Almost instantly a progress bar ran quickly into her sight, and then her combat HUD started to… reboot.

“Damnit, something just happened. I’m blind for a moment.”

Maxx grabbed Scáthach and pulled her back from the door, getting closer to the middle of the foyer and the door down to the lab area.

From outside, “Your time is almost up. Stubborn to the end.” And the woman motioned for the others to head up to the door. Max shouldered the large weapon, and as soon as he saw one coming up the stairs to the porch, he pulled the trigger.

His target dodged the shot, moving fast, enhanced fast. When the enemy soldiers brought up their weapons, Maxx pulled Scáthach back through that heavy door, and pulled it almost fully shut.

Almost instantly the sounds of low weight rail gun rounds, slivers, hitting the reinforced door could be heard. As the ‘plink’ sounds continued, Scáthach’s system came back up… but it was changed. Things seemed sharper and a the read outs a bit more detail filled.

“What the…” was all she could say.

“Hello, Scáthach. My name is Sariel. Thank you for saving me from the girl’s system. Of course you will want explanations, but now is not the time. We must get out of here first.” This voice came from inside her own p-comm unit, and it wasn’t Maxxy’s or Sage. It was feminine, almost like it was singing as it spoke, serene, but with a finality behind it.

“Yes, we do. Were you the…” Scáthach responded, but got cut off by the new voice in her head.

“You’re not a dumb one, that’s for sure. Yes, I am what they were attempting to keep subdued in the girl’s unit. But once we exited the Faraday Cage, I was able to reach out and access others. You’re systems and demeaner seemed to be a much more compatible environment. Thank you for saving me, now I must return the favor.” The voice said.

“Maxx, I’m back up. Sage?” Scáthach asked, getting back into business mode. “The pop-up is gone. Lets do this.”

“Alright, the other PUC is covering the back door, as I expected. We have five targets, and a gate to get to the other side of… I don’t care about what they’re after. We were being paid to get the girl out. Updating your displays…”

Then everything from the displays went dead if it was coming from Sage.

The voice spoke to Scáthach, filling her in, “EMP burst. Your drones are done, and your controller is going to have to re-align off your vehicle. But while you’re inside the Faraday effect zone, you will be digitally mute, and blind. Fortunatly, during my initial time here, before I was put in the faraday and the girl was sedated, I was able to access their rudimentary systems here. They have actual hard wired network down here.”

Then Scáthach’s display updated showing the corporations own security cameras from the building, and she could see the five combatants. The woman was still in the courtyard, but starting to head up to the stairs. Two were on the porch, and two had just entered the doors to come into the building.

“I must warn you, Scáthach. Since they have sent these people to make sure you do not leave with… me. These humans are probably also being ridden by entities like me. Especially their commander. I have analyzed your system, and I can help give you an advantage of surprise, since they do not expect my presence in this battle.”

Scáthach answered the angelic voice in her head, “Yes, and can you feed this to Maxxy, too?”

“Yes, I can. But you might want to let him know. As far as he will know, it’s coming from you.” Sariel responded.

“Maxxy, looks like they took out the drones and we’re in this sealed off area. But I’ve picked up a feed from the local systems, showing camera feeds. Sending you some of it.” Scáthach spoke, direct.

“That’s something new, but I’ll take it.” He responded, a smile on his face.

They both took a moment to look over the feeds, then Max spoke up, “The first two… want to jack-in-the-box it, pop out, and try to take them out? I’ll take eeny and you take miney?”

“Sounds like a plan… on 1?” She answered, bringing her rifle up to her shoulder.

“On 3… 2… 1” Max said, then he shouldered the door, and took three large strides, bringing his weapon up. He fired, three rounds as Scáthach stepped out and stayed near the door. She targeted the other.

Scáthach noticed that her own targeting feed was sharper, and she suddenly had an overlay that showed weak spots in the man’s armor, where the ceramic plates were barely there, for mobility sake.

She fired three short bursts, and each shot made it’s mark. She’d hit the man in both hips, and the shoulder that he held his rifle at.

Maxxy’s elephant gun slammed home, with lethal rounds, and his target dropped, missing parts of his body. Scáthach’s target dropped as well, but the sounds coming from him let them know he was still alive.

Both of them set off a couple of busts as well, that went wide and hit the walls and celling. But the duo needed to duck behind that reinforced door again, as the two on the porch opened fire.

“Maxx, don’t shut the door fully, so we can try to get back with Sage.” She barked out.

But just as Maxx started to pull the door again, Sage broke in, “Oh, got you back. what the hell was that?”

She filled her controller in, “EMP apparently. They took out the PIXIES, we’re using the heavy door to the lower level as a shield. We just got two down. One of them is not getting back up. We have two more mooks, and a boss fight to go.”

Sage sighed, audible over the channel, “Their already starting process to get your job canceled. But the father accepted all responsibility. I’ve got him in a virtual conference with lawyers from a much bigger corp that is suddenly interested in this matter.”

“Damnit.” Scáthach swore, “any way the father can fund some more backup here? The woman out front openly said she doesn’t care if the girl dies. Apparently she’s got something in her system that is..”

“Yeah, already asked. I got to hear her little speech over the PIXIES…” Sage added but the voice of the corporate officer as she and her two men entered the building interrupted.

“Well, you are good, already took out half my men. But you must realize that I’d deem it worth it pending our outcome. Just put the girl down now. I’m sure you’ll not want us to harm her. But my original offer is null and void now. So lets get to what it is that you’re wanting.”

Max shook his head, “I put her down, she’s not leaving. Might be best if I just bum rushed for the door and kept going. But…”

Before Scáthach could answer, her visitor in her head commented, “That is a valid plan. I could try to assist you in making sure he can get trough.”

“What would be the chance this would be the last stand of Scáthach, though?” She asked in her head.

“I assure you, young justicar, I do not intend to be put down and back into the ether. I will be also working to ensure our survival. I have been mounted upon your system, as such, for now, your body is my body.”

Max then spoke up, “On your feeds… one of them is coming for the door…|

And they watched as the two lower ranked combatants moved. One was circling around, trying to get a firing angle, the other coming up to the door to try to force it open.

But the feed for Scáthach was altered. The two of them, and their commander had something that looked like a nimbus around their helmet covered heads. The two soldiers had a slight red glow, while the woman had a more intense green, a sickly dark green, that went around a good portion of her body.

“They are marked, they bear Asura in their systems. Adjusting to compensate.” Sariel said only to Scáthach .

Scáthach was quick with the information, “Alright, I’ll bite. Do they have any weaknesses?”

“We are digital entities, we live in the Psi-Fi network and can be mounted onto a digital device of enough complexity. A directed EMP can work, as well as heavy magnetic fields, or even a severe electrical charge. The other way involves what your partner already did to one. Death of the host.” was the reply.

“Alright, I’ve got nothing for those first few options…so guess you’re going to have to give me those targets again.” she retorted quickly.

“Do not be so sure. I am analyzing our options. But to rescue the girl, and give a means of diversion for us, it would be a good idea for Max’s plan. If he went out shooting and initiated his systems, even with his degraded leg, he could make for the gate and has a high probability to get out alive with her.”

Another display came up, showing a proposed plan, fully rendered out with stick figures for her.

Then the voice continued, “Given your last manuver, the jack-in-the-box he called it? If he took one furthest and then fired at the wall with that breaching gun, he could go out the side wall from the other room. They would need to compensate to follow him. If he takes out one, the other will become distracted for the target. He would be taken down easy by you.”

Then it showed the woman commander taking moves towards Maxx’s proposed path, but him making it over the fence before she could get him. Of course, under current laws, if she tried to intercept him after he got outside their corporate land, then the local cops and others could get involved as well.

“And can you…” She got cut off, “Already compiling a version to send to Maxx. 3 seconds.” The digital entity responded and then she could see a transfer indication.

“Maxxy, you getting that?” She asked

“Yes, when did you become a tactician?” The older man added with a chuckle.

“We both get out of this, I’ll explain when. Meantime, think you could pull that off? I’ll take out #4 and draw her attention. You get the girl out, and turn her over to the locals and the father. I’ll join you a few moments after that.” She said, not very convincing on the last part.

“I could do it,” Maxx said, flatly, “But that leaves you without much on this side… they’re packing bigger heat.”

“Well, could I ask if you have anything with some more punch, but Scáthach sized?” She let out with a light chuckle, “Anything EMP related would be awesome, but understand if you’ve got only boom-boom’s.”

That got him to chuckle a bit, “Only EMP I have is for electronic locks, really small.”

The voice in Scáthach’s head instantly spoke up, “That would be enough if it’s like those in a standard dispatch.”

The entity was reading files she had stored, there were things that would need to be discussed later.

“I’ll take it, as well as any flash bangs, and sonics you got.” Scáthach said, as she started to check her weapon, “They’ll be ready for us this time, hopefully your trajectory will throw them off, but if they have anything that can boost their defense, they’ll be using it knowing you got that cannon with you.”

Maxx nodded, and then checked his magazine, “Well, not easy to make things able to take a bunker buster round, unless you have force field tech. I couldn’t carry a battery for that, let alone someone as small as them. We do this when you’re ready.”

Maxx pulled a couple of his grenades off and handed them to Scáthach, and she slid them into easy to reach pouches and pockets.

“Ready as I’ll ever be. So in 5? Your lead.” She answered

‘5…4….3…” Maxx started, but then something hit the door that started to pull it back.

“Magnetic grapple, They’re pulling the door before the count!” Maxx said, and stepped away from the door, and turned, bringing the big gun up to his shoulder. The shift of power to his legs for running and jumping was visible in the LED displays that were partially visible on his belt if you knew how to see them. She’d worked with him enough.

Scáthach brought up her own rifle, and started priming the battering ram and other items. Maxx pulled the trigger and shot at the one that was pulling the door open with a steel cable and magnetic cable. The first shot hit the man in the helmet, and the face shield shattered, and his head snapped back.

The second shot rang out, and the armored man brought up an arm and a force shield extended out from it. The shield blocked the round. Maxx let out a curse, and then started running.

His next round took out a wooden door, and then the stucco wall behind it. The soldier turned to track Maxx, which opened up his side to Scáthach’s weapon really quick. Her HUD showed the weak points in his armor, as the guy she’d already shot had.

She fired two bursts, and her shots hit true, and the man fell to a knee, and dropped his weapon.

A hand grabbed at Scáthach’s rifle and pulled it. It was the other soldier.

“Adjusting some settings on your reaction enhancers, Scáthach. You should be able to at least match him.” Sariel said.

She twisted the rifle, and used the sling to try to grab and secure one of his wrists. She pulled him into a throw, and tossed him over her shoulder. As soon as he landed on his back, she brought the battering ram down and slammed it against his face plate. The plastic shattered, and she could see that at least one piece had imbedded into the man’s cheek.

She then grabbed the man’s sidearm, a high powered automatic pistol, out of his holster on his chest. She didn’t hesitate, putting two rounds into his head.

She pulled the pistol up and put a round into the face of the other man as he looked in her direction, just above the force shield’s edge, he’d tried to put up between them.

Then she took a look in the direction of Maxx, and watched as he tried to go over the fence, through the holes in the building.

The commander rushed in, faster than she should have been able to, and grabbed Maxx by the ankle, and tried to pull him down.

She felt her power systems shift, and something changed in her HUD.

“Go get her, you can reach her now.” The entity told her.

She bolted, grabbing the soldier’s rifle as she did, as hers was still tangled up with his wrist. She felt her systems engage, and moved faster than she’d ever done before.

Of course, she was smaller than Maxx, and sailed out of the hole he’d gone through without hitting anything. She brought the butt of the rifle down onto the shoulder and neck of the woman grabbing at Maxx, and could hear a crack.

She didn’t know if it was the rifle or her armor plate, the spaulder over her shoulder, that made the noise. What she did know, was that the woman had let go of Maxx’s leg, and was turning to her.

Scáthach wasn’t an acrobat, and she fell back onto her back, nothing fancy, no rear tumbles or anything like that. But that gave her a brace, as she brought the rifle up and opened fire. The automatic let loose a barrage of fletchetts that started to bounce off the woman’s armor.

“You stupid bitch, this isn’t your fight, why make it?” The woman said, the sickly green glow about her intensifying as she got angry.

“Hey, not all of us make six figures or more do do wet work. Besides, I like to piss off corporate stooges like you.” Scáthach said as she then rolled, dodging a mean looking axe style kick that actually broke a fallen piece of wood from the wall.

Scáthach came up to her feet, and pulled the trigger again. this time flipping from the ‘burst’ mode, to full auto. She couldn’t get a good read on the armor, this woman had plates that got in the way of soft spots. But that would be fine.

Her target stepped back and brought her arm up, activating a similar shield that the other had used. That was some neat tech, not available to the general public.

Scáthach heard the familiar clicking of an empty magazine, and then she changed her grip on the rifle, and took a few steps forward, she now held the gun by the barrel, and she swung it like she was trying to break something, which wasn’t a wrong assumption at this point.

The rifle broke, plastic and metal falling to the ground as it hit the force shield. But the shield also glitched with that much impact for a spilt second.

Scáthach wasn’t trained in a fancy martial art, the police training had used a little judo or jujitsu, which ever it was. Joint Locks, throws, and some basic strikes. But growing up had led her to some rough and tumble times, and she’d taken a few classes at the local community center when her father had wanted her to learn self discipline.

The woman wasn’t expecting a drop and leg sweep after that old school baseball style swing with the rifle. She dropped and rolled, avoiding the follow up stomps that she landed after her. Once she was away, she kipped up to her feet, and assumed a very well trained stance of her own.

“You’re quite the surprise, Miss… Foley? Oh, yes, you have a bit of a history. Wonder if when this gets all situated, you’ll lose this job too?” The armored woman taunted.

She knew what buttons to push to pull out that old Irish blood lined temper. Scáthach drew her small arm, and started to shoot, pulling it up to a well trained aiming stance. It was a SIG P226 chambered for .40 S&W, newer model. It wasn’t shooting fletchettes, but bigger hollow points.

The woman wasn’t expecting a real pistol. Ammo like this wasn’t cheap. The first hit slammed into center mass, and the ceramic armor showed a visible crack from the impact. The second one hit a turned shoulder, as the woman adjusted her stance, and brought her shield up, that caught the third and fourth shots.

She wasn’t expecting the fifth, sixth and seventh shots to go low, hitting her hip and then her knee twice.

The moved, fast, and the next five rounds went wide, as Scáthach turned in a half circle to try to track her. She green halo leaving a trail in her sight.

She ejected her magazine, as she had been trained, letting it fall to her hand and then sliding the next one, holding twelve rounds, back into place.

Scáthach then reached to where she’d put one of Maxxy’s flash bangs, and pulled one. He’d rigged them where pulling them off would pull the pin. It would be armed as soon as she let it go and the lever would flip up.

She just let it fling out in front of her, just as the woman brought a small arm of her own up. She caught the full brunt of the device’s effects. Scáthach has shifted her vision to compensate, and instinctively turned her head.

“You bitch!” the armored woman shouted, covering her facemask with the crook of her elbow, She pulled the trigger on her gun, with her other arm, and fired in a wide arc. It was a full auto little thing with an extended magazine.

Scáthach dropped down to the ground, letting the bullets fly wide, until the barrel dropped and she felt a hit to her right calf. The bullet burned, and she hissed at the pain.

The followed the targeting reticle that Sariel showed her, and pushing through that pain, started pulling the trigger again. Bullets hitting her chest plate again, the cracks in the material getting more pronounced.

“I’m going to use some of the energy from your internal power cells to bypass the pain. Doesn’t appear that she hit the artery, it’s a flesh wound, but in the muscle. Try to take care. At the angle it went in, it’s still in there.” Sariel informed her.

“You really will need to inform me of some things when this is all done,” Scáthach added before she rolled out of the way and pulled her second and last spare magazine for her pistol. When she stopped, she popped two more rounds, hitting her knee again. The first one broke the shell, and the second one embedded into the joint of her knee, the armor on the other side stopping the bullet from leaving.

She watched as the woman fell to her other knee, her hands going to that one.

“You tore the ligaments with that one. Time to finish your plan.” the angelic voice rang out in her head.

But even being digital, Scáthach was already moving, coming up to her feet. Whatever Sariel was doing to suppress the pain in her calf, it was working. She ran up and grabbed one of her arms and bent it back and wrenched her wrist behind her head. It opened up her torso, which is what she wanted.

A couple of hits with the butt of her pistol, and the faceplate was cracked as well.

That’s when things changed though, “Wait, you… Sariel…” came from the now glitching voice box.

Scáthach then moved quickly, knowing that she had to move with more urgency. she pulled the small EMP box out and slapped it down, into the small hole in her chest armor that had been opened.

“3… 2… 1….” Scáthach said with a finality. And the device blew out. This one was a directional device, used to blow out electronic locks in large doors. The cybernetics in the woman’s body glitched with the EMP, as well as the functions of her armor.

The magnetic lock that would keep the helmet on would be off, and Scáthach grabbed at the chin and then pulled back, ripping it off.

She was hard looking, battle worn and weary. An African American woman in her mid 30’s. Her hair said she had served, prior military.

“You, you stole her. Give her back to us… you don’t know.” The woman mouthed, breathy, as blood started to cascade down from her left nostril.

“She knows, once her systems are back up, she’ll tell others who you are and that you have me.” Sariel spoke now, her, yes, her tone now caustic. The singing like voice was gone.

The woman grabbed at Scáthach’s wrist, and attempted to get out of her grip. Scáthach let her go and re-drew her pistol.

The woman had no shield now, and no helmet to protect her. The pistol jammed though, using the butt of it had misaligned something.

She needed to act quickly though, and the pod on her left forearm activated. She fired two of the 16-guage shotgun slugs she’d normally use for door breaching instead. The woman’s head sprayed out behind her as the two larger rounds did their damage.

Scáthach stood there for a moment and then holstered her broken weapon. She shook her head and figured she could head to the gate this time.

As she started to walk, now a slight limp forming, she only thought one thing, “Now, fill me in as you can. Shite just hit the fan back there, and she could see that I apparently had a halo like her. So figure as long as yer in there, I’ll be looking over me shoulder fer a while.”

“Let me start properly,” Sariel said, “Scáthach Aine Foley, I am Sariel, which means ‘Justice of God’, and I am a Daeva, what you might call an Angel, of the Choir of Cherubim, guardians and protectors. And I am at your service as you are now my host in your realm.”

“A feckin’ angel? Yer shitting me, right?” Scáthach added, out loud as she walked through the gate and limped in the direction of Maxx and her car, where they were unloading the girl from his rescue harness.

{the end for now}

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