Longer delay and longer piece of text. We started to change the order of unposted scenes and had to fill in gaps.
Quote:Like all doors on Nehalennia, since the computer system had crashed, the lab door had fail-safed to unlocked. It kept people being trapped by system failures and power outages. Ford readied her gun, chambering a round, then clicking the safety off.
She planned to go in ready to shoot.
Cathy didn’t need to be told to get the door, she had trained. Kick it open, get out of the way. Let Ford shoot first, disable Quattro fast. Whatever happened, Quattro had to go down, and down quickly.
Cathy knew from personal experience just how scary-fast that madgirl could be. She had to be some sort of biomod.
“Be careful,” she whispered.
Fords gaze was firm. “I have an idea.”
Cathy nodded to Ford. ‘Ready?’
Ford looked back and grinned. ‘Of course’.
Neither of them said a word. It was communication at a glance. Ford held her pistol at the ready, Cathy brought her foot round in a broad arc, making contact with the door.
It burst open.
----
How the hell did they get here so fast?
That thought sparked through Quattros mind in an instant as she whirled around to face the unknown intruder, drawing her stun-gun with her free hand. There’s should’ve been at least ten minutes left before anyone made it down this far.
In a fraction of a second she saw Cally and that catgirl Teela. Stupid Naoko. Well, they didn’t have long to live, did they? Another moment, and her body would’ve caught up with her mind.
Teela spilled in, ducking low and out of Cally's way. Quattro stared right at the courier, staring right back at her with her pistol already aimed, ready to shoot. The copy in the cradle was just beginning to catch up with what was going on. The copy started to scream.
Faster than any human would ever be able to, she brought her stun-gun to bare on Cally.
Callys pistol fired first.
It can’t possible kill me, Quattro thought, taking reassurance in her design specs. It was only a nine-millimetre.
----
Trapped in her prison, Cathy... copy Cathy... saw it all. She saw the door burst open hard enough to hit the wall with a metallic clang, before spring back to a half-closed position. She saw herself come rushing through the door, Ford chasing behind with pistol drawn.
Cathy screamed, There wasn’t anything else she could do. She wanted to yell out a warning, to let them know that Quattro wasn’t just a madgirl but something far more sinister. She wanted to help. She wanted to break free and go for that smug bitches through with claws and teeth.
But there she was. There she was, looking right at herself, running through the door. It couldn’t be anything else. It couldn’t be a trick. It couldn’t be anything but reality.
It took Ford a moment to get a bead on Quattro. It took Quattro a moment to draw her stunner, and spin round to face Ford.
She saw the gunshot, a sharp flash following a hard crack. She saw the stunner kick out of that bitches hand.
Cathy.... copy Cathy... started to sob.
----
It hit her in the hand.
Quattro felt the bullet bite through her fingers before bursting apart on the metal underneath. Reflexively, she snapped her hand back from the shock of it. An instant later, she tried to grasp at the stun gun, tried to pump the trigger.
The gun was falling. She grasped at it, but nothing happened. No touch, no feedback, just a sudden warning that three of her fingers were now missing.
A moment after that, the pain hit.
Quattro yelped, and spun around, shielding herself with her silver cape.
----
Ford felt a quick moment of elation as she saw the gun spring from Quattro’s hand. Her aunt Irene would be proud. Shooting a gun out of a persons hand was a myth, but shooting a persons hand almost invariably caused them to drop the gun they were holding.
Shooting off three fingers just made certain of it.
Quattro yelped with the pain, grabbing reflexively at her wounded hand.
Ford expected more blood, frankly. Perplexed for a heartbeat, it took her only a moment to notice the metal shining beneath torn skin. It didn’t take her much longer to start pumping the rest of her magazine into Quattros body.
A moment later, her mind caught up with the decision. If Quattro was a cyber like Jet... this was going to go bad real quick. Quattro had to go down fast.
----
Cathy had one advantage over Ford; she’d been in the lab before. It’d been dark, but the place still had a ghoulish familiarity to it. Shapes which had been little more than shadows were clearly visible, and no less incomprehensible. That catgirl, Vivio, was staring at her like she’d seen a ghost, in the middle of having a panic attack.
The door hammered against the wall, Cathy catching it as she slipped past it. The only thought running through her mind was to get out of Ford’s line of fire fast. Keep out of Ford’s line of fire.
Fords shot slapped painfully in her ear, but she forced herself to ignore it. Every moment of wasted time could be deadly. She pushed in. Get into the room.
She saw an opened crate which would make good cover and threw herself behind it. A stun-gun skittered against the wall nearby and she grabbed for it, taking it for herself. She hunkered down, scanning the room.
The catgirl in the tube was screaming at her. Ford pumped round after round into Quattro’s body, forcing Cathy to cover hear ears. Gunshots drilled through her eardrums. Quattro seemed to curl up under her cape, sparks splashing off the silver material.
More shooting didn’t seem to useful at the moment. Cathy decided to make a run for the catgirl.
----
It took Ford only a few moments to realise her shots weren’t having an effect. She still emptied near half a magazine into that cape before realising it was far more than just bullet resistant.
“Give it up!” she yelled. It was half a bluff, but it’d be enough. She still had eight rounds left.
The madgirl sneered at her from beneath her cape, before slowly slipping out. Golden eyes stared straight through her. There was something deeply unsettling about that gaze.
“Hands behind your head.” Ford ordered, “Nice and slow. Clasp them together.”
The madgirl was still staring contemptuously at her. Ford stiffened her stance, keeping her sights lined up at a point just above the bridge of Quattro’s nose. Her finger was tense on the trigger. She was ready to shoot.
Fluids trickled from Quattro’s broken fingers, forming pinkish rivulets snaking down her arm. Bare metal was exposed, beneath an obvious shroud of synthetic flesh. A cyber? An AI?
Quattro’s eyes flickered for a moment, and the madgirl smirked at her.
“You two are all alone here, and I shot your rescue party down. There’s no help coming.”
“Bullshit,” Ford spat back. “That’s why the whole base looks like an anthill that’s been knocked over, right?”
“They’re cowards.” Quattro assured her. “Nothing more. Human’s are such weak and pathetic little creatures like ants. No matter how many you kill, more will just keep being born. If you were going to shoot me dead, you would’ve done it by now,”
Ford snarled. “What makes you so sure I won’t?”
“You’re not a murderer, even though you tried to kill me. You’re not one of the five OF-8 troubleshooters, so you likely don’t have authorisation. In fact, I don’t think you’re even Great Justice... or you would’ve announced yourself. You’re something else....hmmm?”
Ford tried to keep stonefaced.
“If I was to guess, I’d say a bounty hunter. Which means, if you shoot me dead, you’re the one who goes to prison.” Quattro giggled, “Because, as you can see, I’m unarmed, and I don’t have a bounty on my head,”
Ford glared. “Cathy,” she called out. “You’d say it was self-defence, right?”
The catgirl looked back from the tube door with a smirk, “Of course.”
“Well,” said Ford. “That settles that. So, you’re going to stay right where you are, and when I tell you to, you’re going to walk with us. And if you make so much as a twitch in the wrong direction, I will shoot you down like a dog,”
Quattro gave no answer.
A distant rumble of thunder rocked the station. A moment later, the lights flickered once, then went out. Darkness fell, broken only by stray lights coming off the surrounding hardware. It took Ford a moment to realise she couldn’t see a damned thing.
The next thing she was aware of, was a brick wall smashing into her cyber arm, before she was thrown hard enough against the wall to knock the wind clean out of her.
-----
Cathy was busy with the door when the lights went out, stabbing at the plastic tape with a knife in the hopes it’d come loose. Vivio inside was banging on the plastic, claws gouging into it. It was a crazed maze of shallow scratches already.
What the hell was this stuff?
When the lights went out, it took her eyes only a moment to adjust. She heard Ford hit the wall with a heavy ‘oof’.
Have to free you later, Vivio. She spun round, readying her PPK. She scanned for Quattro.... a hunched shape loomed out of the gloom towards her. Instinctively, she fired once with a bang and a flash, dodging out of it’s way at the same time..
Something thumped her hard in the side, hard enough to sent a shock of pain run across her ribs, and she stumbled to the side. Panting with the pain, she stepped back.
“You can’t get away,” Quattro teased. “And I don’t have time to play nice!”
Quattro lunged again. Cathy was amazed at how it felt to just side-step and trip her up. Thank god for all this exhausting hours at Venus.
The battery backed emergency lights kicked in a moment later.
Copied Cathy watch the fight. She saw Quattro stumble hard against the wall, before recovering with a vicious snarl. She looked strong enough to rip a person’s arms clean off their body, but there was no control. Just brute, untrained force and speed.
Cathy rolled out of the way of the third attack. The catgirl found herself willing herself to stay ahead of that bitch. She didn’t want to watch herself die.
Ford slowly hauled herself back to her feet, swearing as something fell off her arm. The metal glinted in the light. A few artificial warnings intruded on her mind, letting her know just how bad the damage was. A blow like that to her other arm would’ve broken it.
The fingers of her real hand still clasped tightly around the grip of her pistol.
“I still have the gun!” she yelled.
“I’m going to kill you both,” Quattro promised. “I don’t have time to do this cleanly,”
Quattro lunged at Ford. Ford shot her again. The madgirl stumbled a little, catching the bullet somewhere in her chest. Quattro swung wild with her arm, trying to take the bounty hunter’s head from her shoulders.
Ford had little trouble dodging.
“She’s crap!” Cathy called over. “All strength. No training.”
But still bloody dangerous if she connected with anything.
“I’ll show you!” the madgirl screamed.
She was built by Agatha Clay. She was built to beat the best. Beyond human reaction. Beyond human intelligence. Beyond human strength and speed. She was the best. Better than all of this vermin.
Cathy sprang back out of the way, landing delicately.
Ford shot Quattro again. grazing the back of her leg. It did little more than rip open more of the artificial flesh. Quattro stumbled, before catching herself. It bit like a mite.
“Give up, you cannot win this” Ford yelled.
Quattro ran between both Ford and Cathy. Maybe they’d shoot themselves.
Ford held her fire. No use risking it. Cathy put another round into the madgirls back with the PPK.
----
Jet ran like hell through the corridors of Nehallennia. She ran faster than any human, flat linear electric actuators powering her along at speeds an athlete might only be able to dream off. Jet ran so hard, her feet were cracking the floor, throwing up spalling shards of rock.
Her footsteps made a sound like a rapid-fire hammer beating on solid steel, ringing off the walls
A pair of IR camera’s mounted to her helmet allowed her to see near perfectly, despite the gloom. Cybernetic hardware merged both digital image, Jets natural vision and a computer generated HUD into one image.
Patterns of hot and cold light revealed hidden details behind walls and underneath floor; details which washed through Jets mind, quickly acknowledged and unconsciously filled away.
The information flow through her mind was well beyond what was possible for a human being. It was still nothing compared to a full-speed tunnel run at rush-hour. She was rigged for speed. Reactions designed for Mach 1 flight, and honed dodging trucks and buildings at Mach One allowed Jet to move faster than any security system could keep up.
The trick to taking right turns fast was to not slow down. That wasted time braking, then getting back up to speed. Instead, Jet launched herself towards the wall at the last second, aiming for what she could see was a strong point in the wall.
Hitting with her foot, she sprang back off it with a flash of her engines and a spray of rubble, shooting forward down the next corridor, barely losing speed. The technique was jokingly referred to as ‘Gran Turismo’.
She met a zwilnik running in a wild panic, lost and crying out for her friends. Unnarmed, no threat. Jet had gone past her before she even realised Jet was there, blades glinting in the red light. A faceless, armoured death tearing passed her riding a was-and-steel-smelling draft.
The zwilnik fainted when she realised she was unharmed.
A few distant gunshots cackled in the distance, chased by a muffled explosion.
“Engel one, Engel four. Target Gamma secure.” Jash voice crackled in her ear. The metallic rock was playing havok with the comms.
“Four, One, acknowledged,” she barked back.
Jet wasn’t panting. Jet wasn’t even breathing. Life support systems were running on direct injection to meet the demand of her biological parts. Her power cells were pushing out maximum power.
Hardware generated estimates put her as less than a minute away from Quattros lab. The exact instantaneous figure was 56.5345 seconds. This was Jet going full bore.
She came to a T-junction. Her route map told her she had to make the turn-off. Ambush, her instincts warned, fractions of a second before she committed. No going around. No slowing down. Every lost second was a second extra for Quattro to escape.
She hugged the wall, in tight to the turn, before spring across to the far side, aiming for a point which would give her a straight shot down the next corridor. She launched herself into the air, engines spooling up on their starter motors.
She saw the barricade, before those behind the barricade saw her. One, two, three for and five, armed with shotguns and light pistols. She picked each one out in a heartbeat. There was no way through them without fighting them, no avoiding the encounter.
They seemed determined to make a fight of it.
-----
“It’s bulletproof” Ford yelled at her.
Cathy swore. Quattro lunged. Ford dodged out of the way. Just a fraction to slow. She yelped as she was cannonballed into the wall, taking the brunt of the impact on her back. She heard her pistol skitter across the floor.
“I’ve got you... I’ve got you!” Quattro squealed, with a savage grin on her face.
Ford brought her knee up to Quattro’s crotch. It was like hitting an anvil. It hurt like a sunovvabitch. The pain in her shoulders reached a peak as Quattro began to pull... raw, brute cybernetic strength.
“Get off!” Cathy screamed, coming it with a flying kick.
The force sent the pair of them tumbling. Cathy landed on her feet. Quattro kicked out. Cathy didn’t even have time to look before the blow caught her in the stomach. Her eyes seemed to bulge as she crumpled over into herself, flying backwards into a Quattro’s computer terminal.
The displays died in a moment. Cathy’s mind just swam as she braced herself, feeling like she was ready to throw up.
Ford was painting as she got to her feet. Quattro was between both of them. Christ all Friday that madgirl was strong. And she didn’t even seem tired.
Quattro turned to face her, a crack like lightning across the lens of one of her glasses.
How long can we keep this shit up?
----
They heard the footsteps hammering along the corridor.
“That’s not human,” Laura whispered, shrinking down as far as she could go.
Edward shushed her sharply. He crouched down, leaning his weapon on the top of the barricade. “Whatever comes around that corner,” he said. “We start shooting, and don’t stop until it’s dead.”
Ebony couldn’t help but feel he was being optimistic. She was shaking, she was visibly shaking. Her Makarov seemed to rattle in her grip as she aimed it at the corner.
Himei stood planted and firm and tall, Remington held down by her hip. Someone clearly thought they were an action star, and they were action ready.
Laura held an old Sig with armour piercing rounds. Good quality, it had been a gift some time ago. She never expected to be actually using it.
Cobs taser whined as it’s capacitors charged. A waved model, it could probably shoot lightning bolts enough to knock a man clean out unconscious. It was a not-quite-death ray. It was their best chance.
Ebony saw it coming, ricocheting against the far wall shattering the rock, before launching forward riding a turbine scream. Big, white armoured, faceless, with shining blades mounted to its forearms.
It seemed to be diving through the air towards her. It was halfway down the corridor before she even had time to blink and realise the clatter she’d heard was her Makarov hitting the floor.
“Shoot it, Shoot it now!” Edward bellowed.
It jinked out of his line of fire. Edwards gun boomed. Ebony swore she saw the slug spiral through the space the attacker had occupied an instant before.
Himei screamed. She was squeezing the trigger, pumping it with her finger. Nothing was happening. Himei never got the chance to realise she’d left the safety on.
Laura’s mind just locked up.
Cob screamed wordlessly as he fired of his taser. Two wires sprang out, lightning crackling and arcing between both bare cables. They skittered uselessly off a wall and missed.
Ebony hit the ground screaming, screwing her eyes tightly shut and hoping in the name of hope that whatever this thing was would just leave her alone.
She felt it pass over with a hot blast, chased by a wet crunch that reminded her of the time her younger brother had stood on her pet tarantula. Go away! Go away! she begged. Something hot and sticky sprayed across her body. She thought she heard Himei scream for a moment, before it was cut clean off. Something heavy and hard landed across her back, followed by something wet and soft and distinctly.... meaty.
Then nothing but her own whimpering, and the same hammering footfalls receding into the distance and the smell of a slaughterhouse lingering in the air.
“Idiots” she whimpered to herself. “Idiots,”
She opened her eyes.
What she saw, would linger in her nightmares for years.
----
50.2231 seconds.
Blood streamed off Jets blades as she ran. She ricocheted around another corner, dislodging a slab of steel off of the wall. Four down. One left behind, she’d thrown her gun down. No time to stop. No time to demand surrender. Blasting past, leaving them alive would just have given them a chance to shoot her in the back.
She confirmed with herself, it was justified.
Time was everything. Quattro was everything. Ford was everything. This mission was getting within a hairs breath of being a total bust. And where was Ford?
“One, Three,” Lenneth called over the comm, “Target Beta secure. No sign of Vidkun,”
“Three, One. Copy,” Jet responded. “If you can get control back, send our message,”
“One, Three, Wilco.”
Jet kept running.