This’ll be an interesting day. Anders Hellman, huh. I guess when you work as the Director of Special Projects at Arasaka, you can afford top-shelf protection when you defect. And there’s nothing more top-shelf than a heavily-armed and armored AV.

  These things may look unassuming, but they’re packed to the brim with firepower – drones, automatic missile launchers, omnidirectional scanners, the works. We would genuinely need the absolute finest in weaponry and hacking tech to hope to crack this beast, especially being just two people, only one of which has any real military experience as far as I know. Well, guess we’re gonna wait and see what she’s got in store–AGGH!!

  I tried… to get up…

  Dammit… Johnny…

  “Not feelin’ so good, eh, V?” he appeared behind me as I ran to the toilet to vomit a whole shit-ton of blood, “Might be good if we got a move on.”

  “What… does it look like… I’m doing… You fucking asshole…”

  “Well to me, it looks like you’re jerkin’ around with some nomad chick after jerkin’ around with some techie chick after jerkin’ around with yourself for a few days – think I’m seein’ a theme here.”

  “Oh yeah…? And what… would you be doing in my place… huh?! Gathering more… materials for a fucking… bomb to start… another… Time of the Red… as if we didn’t have enough problems?!”

  “Yeah, yeah, one man’s terrorist, another man’s freedom fighter, blah blah blah. Just get the fuck outside so we can get this show on the road already.”

  “Fine… Fuck…” I shook my head, “What time is it, anyway…”

  “About 11:30.”

  “Perfect… she’s probably… waiting in the garage, then.”

  I grabbed my sword and shakily fixed it onto my belt loop, my hands tingling and nerves firing like crazy… I think it’s getting worse… if that’s even possible… I can’t breathe. Hyperventilating, but can’t… get any air. Feels like I’m underwater…

  I headed outside for some fresh air, though it was hardly what I expected. The late-night mists crept in, blanketing the entire area in a thick fog. It was honestly fairly creepy, all things considered, but whatever, fine. I gathered all my crap out of my trunk and had a quick look around this place – I couldn’t even see the city lights, much less a single AV. That’d be impossible to track without some sort of IR painter in this weather, and fat chance Panam has something like that in her truck, good as she is. Well, let’s just hurry up and get this done before I have another attack.

  Eh, come to think of it, might as well fill my car up while I’m here. It’s not every day I find a gas station selling regular gasoline, after all. Even if it is 150 eddies per liter… fuck me. What an absolute rip. Well, I guess that’s the price you pay for having a car running on a fuel that’s 5 times less common, is it costs 5 times as much. Whatever, fine, now to check up on the woman of the hour, see how she’s making out.

  Looks like I’m not the only one tinkering with my wheels late at night. Guess she needs to get reacquainted, work out all the bugs. Cool, I guess, so long as it doesn’t take a million years. I’m rapidly running out of patience, not the least of which because Johnny keeps making me cough up blood. Probably not ideal for my long-term health. I swear, it feels like I got second-hand smoker’s lung or something…

  “Need some help?” I politely asked Panam as I approached her, still working on her truck. Guess it takes a while for her to get reacquainted, though I don’t blame her. My gut says the Raffen Shiv aren’t particularly stringent when it comes to oil changes.

  “Nah, thank you though,” she replied graciously, “The Raffens left her crooked as a bag of snakes.”

  “What’s the damage?”

  “Eh, the usual. Bent front subframe, torn off skid plate, shocks are bad, fuel contamination - gonna need a full rebuild to get ‘er back up to speed.” She shuffled her creeper out from underneath the truck, standing up and brushing herself off. “That yours?”

  “Yeah,” I looked back at Miyoko, all done refueling.

  “Gorgeous car, not sure how well it’d do out here, though.”

  “Hah, probably not too well,” I chuckled.

  “Sleep alright? Heard you screaming a few times. Having nightmares?”

  “Oh, yeah, sorry. I do that a lot,” I frowned, though I didn’t remember at all what I dreamt about, apart from bits and pieces.

  “Wanna talk about it?”

  “Nah, not much to talk about,” I shrugged, “I don’t really remember much. Or, maybe I just try not to remember, I dunno… Sorry if I woke you up.”

  “Don’t worry,” she knocked me in the shoulder a bit, “I’m accustomed to that sorta thing. When Mitch and Scorpion came back from the War, they couldn’t stop tossing and turning. Still do from time to time, makin’ the same noises you made. Figure that’s all it was, so I paid it no mind.”

  “Appreciate it,” I replied, brushing the oil she got on my shoulder, “You said they were Panzerboys, right? Armored divisions saw a lot of action.”

  “Yeah… they did. Don’t really talk much about it, though.”

  I idly slipped my hands in my pockets, “I understand… Out of curiosity, what about you?”

  “Me…? Oh, what, like did I fight in the War?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well… yes and no,” she waved her head around a bit, “I wasn’t enlisted or anything. Instead I helped our leader, Saul, evacuate civilians from the front lines. Albuquerque, Phoenix, Sacramento, that sorta thing. Good smugglers aren’t restricted by borders, y’know.”

  “Hm, honestly a way more noble pursuit than me,” I smiled at her, “Appreciate what you’ve done.”

  “Likewise with you,” she nodded, “Anyway, onto the plan.”

  “Right, so what’ve you got?”

  We walked over to the workbench, where Panam laid out a series of tools to illustrate her meaning with a diagram. Though I just preferred the straight-up speech, myself. “Right, so, main question is, how do we get an AV to bury its nosecone in the dust on-demand.”

  “Well, your average HMG is out of the question,” I elaborated, “Gonna need a shaped-charge warhead to even dent it. So what do you have in mind?”

  “A different approach,” she grinned, “We don’t take it with warheads or anything of the sort. We hit it with an EM bomb.”

  “A– what?” I reeled back a little, “What, like we try and fry its electrics? You’d need some serious wattage to do that, you do realize that, right?”

  “Sure, but look at the itinerary again,” she stopped me, “AV’s route takes it over the satwave power station.”

  “Yeah, so? It’s not like we can just hotwire it to generate that kind of pulse on-command,” I insisted.

  “Would you like to bet me?” Panam grinned, “We drive up to the power station, break in and override the controls, lift any limiters. As soon as the AV’s in range, we set off an EM turbopulse with grenades wired in parallel that’ll overload the circuits. That should smoke the AV’s systems.”

  “So the drive systems, nav suite…”

  “Communications. Everything. Out like a light. They won’t stand a chance in Hell!” she gloated.

  “Alright, well we only got a few hours to do this, so let’s get to it,” I insisted, “Gonna go get my equipment.”

  “Sounds good, I’mma fill the truck up with CHOOH2 and get us on the road.”

  I collected my field jacket from the trunk, it’s cold as hell in the desert at night, even in June. But it was undeniably beautiful out here. One of my weird little obsessions growing up was that I loved astronomy – looking up and counting the stars. Not looking for constellations or anything specific, just… counting.

  I still wonder, some nights, how many of those are actually stars, or just satellite installations left over from all the wars we fought. What an incredible waste of something we should’ve revered. The Heavens once belonged to the Kami. Then we raped it all, as we’ve done this world. I guess we’ll never learn.

  Well, if there’s one thing I can do, it’s bring down a single AV. Come on, you got this. Just a few more steps…

  Panam disconnected the fuel pump and we hopped into the truck – time to set off. “Wonder who owns the power station now,” I muttered, “Petrochem, Night Corp…”

  “Who knows, who cares. Look around,” she motioned over the steering wheel, “Everything we see is owned by a corp. Oh sure, people say it’s a government but we both know who’s really pulling the strings, I mean, come on.”

  “Sounds like somebody likes to mess with corporations.”

  “Heh, what ever gave you that idea,” she smirked at me.

  “Hm. Or, wait… Rogue. Nash, the Raffens…”

  “Treadin’ on thin ice, V.”

  “Anti-authority complex, hm?”

  “Pretty much par for the course with us nomads.”

  “Well I guess it’s a good thing we’re on the same side for a change, right?” I laughed.

  “Uhh-huh.”

  “...Okay, topic change,” I fired away to keep the momentum going a little, “What’s the weirdest thing you ever transported? For me, it’s carrying a real iguana egg out of a job.”

  “Seriously? What-how?”

  “Yeah. My partner and I. He wrapped it up in a bunch of towels and stuffed it in his jacket pocket for safe-keeping. By some utter miracle the thing didn’t break. Sitting at my apartment now under a light, hoping it’s still viable but no way to really know.”

  “Hah! That’d be an impressive pet to have if it actually hatched. But I think I gotcha beat – the Deputy Finance Director of Kaukaz.”

  “The truck manufacturer? – Hm. Okay, call it a tie.”

  “Dead. In the trunk.”

  “Okay, you win,” I giggled.

  “Anyway, I take it you noticed the HMG on the roof?”

  “No, I completely missed it,” I winked at her sarcastically, “What use would it be against the AV, though?”

  “Could be useful in case we run into a jam, wanna connect you with the turret,” she pulled over on the bridge leading up to the overlook, “Go ahead, jack in. Just watch the input, gonna have to jiggle the Personal Link around a little bit.” Alright…

  I did as she asked, connecting to her truck’s software.

  “Shit, diagnostics keeps giving me an error… weird…” Ah. I think I know what that is. And he’s got a name…

  “And now Panam, heeere’s Johnny!” the lovable rockstar suddenly appeared in the backseat, “Out in the middle o’ bumfuck nowhere. Again. Great work, V.”

  “Not now, Johnny…”

  “Hey, uh… I think your implant has a virus,” Panam said worriedly, “The one in the nape of your neck.” She turned on the overhead light to take a closer look at the jack and make sure everything was good on my end.

  “Uh… If you’re worried that the connection is secure, it is… It’s a bioprocessor that operates independently of me. Probably why your system diagnostic flagged it.”

  “Mhm– Wait, what?”

  “Look, it’s complicated, but don’t worry, it’s not gonna be an issue,” I reassured her.

  “Fine, I trust you won’t fuck any– wait, you don’t have cybereyes, either?”

  “No… Why, that a problem?”

  “Fuck me, didn’t even know soldiers could opt outta cybereyes…” she shook her head incredulously, “Whatever, uh, nah, just gotta use the screen to aim the turret manually, I guess.”

  “I mean, I can drive if you’d pref–”

  “Outta the question.” Yeah, I figured.

  “Oh, the wonders of being a cripple,” Johnny teased me, “Gonna get your disability pension soon?”

  “Shut up, Johnny.”

  “Well shit, that saves me a heap o’ time gearin’ this rig up for ya,” she laughed, “Could’ve just told me that from the start.”

  “Skipped my mind,” I shrugged, “By the way, your software’s all hopelessly out-of-date by the look of it. Mind if I ask why?”

  “Because it works when I need it to, that’s why,” she grumbled at me, “Same reason you got natural eyes, I imagine.” Yeah, can’t fault that logic.

  We pulled up to the power station about five minutes later via the scenic overlook. Place seemed oddly serene, considering what we’re about to do.

  “Sabotage a corpo power station, down and jump a corpo AV, kidnap a corpo suit,” Johnny counted on his left hand, “Know what? Startin’ to remind me of me. Fifty years back. Minus the charisma – and impressive cock.”

  “Great, pass me the knife, will you, Johnny? Suddenly feel the overwhelming urge to repeatedly stab myself.”

  “Come on, V, gotta admit, maybe we can just get along.” I stopped to consider what he was saying for whatever reason… And honestly, he’s not wrong here. This really is something I could picture the actual Johnny Silverhand doing, and for similar reasons.

  “Okay, lewdness aside, you’re right about it in this case. I won’t compromise who I am. But our principles happen to be in alignment, at least for the time being. So let’s agree to live and let live for now, okay?”

  “Nah, you’re more like me than you think,” he shook his head, “You’ll see.” That thought made me shudder.

  “Mhmm, except neuroplasticity works both ways, remember? Maybe it’s you becoming more like me.”

  “Nah, no way.”

  “Why, because I’m not about to dress in some syn-leather getup and start blasting my handgun into an audience of–”

  “V,” Panam got my attention, “You okay? Been quiet for a minute there.” Johnny was gone. Figures.

  “Yeah, just… lost in thought, I guess. Psyching myself up for the mission.”

  “You good now?”

  I nodded and scrunched my brow, “Yeah. Let’s get to it…” I leaned out the window to observe the power station. “No patrols… no sentries. Place isn’t deserted, seems business as usual.”

  “Perfect, then we gotta hit the collection tower in the middle,” she elaborated on the plan, eyeballing the antennas. Each antenna collects microwaves from satellites in orbit, using a system of thermal generators to convert it to useful power.

  “So we overload one of those towers and the resulting EM explosion fries the circuits of the AV as it passes overhead, right?”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Pretty much,” she nodded, “Each antenna goin’ down the highway should emit its own EM burst. Prolly disable half the city grid with this shit.”

  I could practically hear Johnny behind me saying something like, “Fuckin’ metal,” or whatever.

  “When we arrive at the station, you overload the systems,” she instructed me, “I’ll set up a bypass link for the detonator.”

  “Alright, got it. I’ll throw a wrench in the works by frying the transformers. Should mess with input-output voltages, create a cascading effect.”

  “Yeah, good idea, it’s just–”

  “I know, the converters. Don’t worry, if I crank it up past max, they won’t be able to handle the trickle downstream. Few moments, it’ll be like bursting a dam with how many circuits are blown.”

  “Hah! Seems we think alike,” she smiled, “Right, wake me up when the sun starts comin’ up.”

  “Sure.”

  –

  “You ever done anything like this before?” Panam asked me as we started driving again, “Since you mentioned you based outta one of these towers.”

  “Do what, transform the grid into a giant electomagnetic fishing net to catch an AV? Nah… I can pretty comfortably say that’s a first for me, heh,” I laughed at her question, “What about you? Ever do anything like this with your clan?”

  “No… we did take back one of ours from a convoy once,” she elaborated with a gentle shrug, “But that was nothing compared to this. Nah, we haven’t done shit like this since the War.”

  “Do you miss it?”

  “What, jobs like this?”

  “No, the clan, the family.”

  “I could ask you the same,” she briefly turned her head to me, “How do you feel out here, all on your own?”

  “I think…” I took a moment’s pause, “I think at first I was scared. You know? Of the whole situation. For the first time in my life, I was alone. Didn’t speak a word of English. Had very little concept of any of the States’ general cultures. But I knew nomads from back home, so Arasaka dropped me in anyway. Guess they thought I’d just figure it all out myself, anyway, since that’s what I was trained to do. But the reality was that I was just a scared 17-year-old kid.”

  “Shit, that’s rough…” she mumbled, “Fuckin’ corps… But would you go back? Given the chance?”

  “Thought about it,” I told her honestly, “But I don’t think I could. The price was too high to leave. Going back would be… Well…”

  “I understand,” she nodded. Guess that answered my question as well. “Alright, comin’ up on the gate now.”

  Okay, game face on…

  Panam gunned the engine and slammed through the main grate, shattering it into a million pieces with the truck’s reinforced titanium bumper. “V! Turret!” she yelled at me, drawing my eyes down to the center console. Multiple drones were on us, but they were no match for the 20mm Mk31 she mounted to the roof. Easy as swatting flies.

  “Alright, now for the fun part…” she spun the truck around to face the cargo hold for the central tower, a large garage door down a central ramp used by trucks for unloading power cells, most likely.

  “Panam…?” I spoke to her as she firmly clutched the wheel, revving her beast’s engine like a madwoman.

  “Sorry ‘bout this, baby,” she whispered to the truck before releasing the brake, launching us forward with enough force to pin us to the seats. All four wheels kicked up a sea of smoke as she plowed straight through the garage door, heavily-denting her truck in the process before instantly slamming on the brakes to prevent us from dropping straight down into the heat sinks below our feet.

  I leapt out and started sprinting for the first node, not waiting on her account whatsoever. She’s handling the detonators, just hope it’s not a rush-job like before…

  I count… three of them. A rotunda with no clear bottom floor. No other nodes above us, either. This should do the job.

  Node A… Set to overchaAAAGGH!! FUCK!! My h-HEAD!!

  “Scream…”

  Fuck… nonoNONONO!

  Node B… OverchNNNGGHNNHGH!!

  “SaAA@murai…”

  I cAaant– thiIInk

  What iss

  Noiiooooffuuck–

  Easy… Refocus…

  Eyesight’s gone… Come on… Right eye’s still heEEere…

  Uuughh… nnnnnn… fooo–

  ThHriird bnnoode – C– ovverCHHHA–

  –

  “What is your name?”

  53657473756B61

  Mom…? I’m so cold…

  “Sayonara, Miss V…” Dex spoke to me in his gruff, low voice.

  “Jackie, nice to meet you, couldn’tve been at a worse time though, hehe…”

  “Check it out… you see that?” Jackie said to me as we sat beneath the night sky for the third time in a row… I was so thirsty… “That’s Vega.”

  “Vega? We called it Orihime.”

  “Princess… Ori?”

  “Yeah! See? You’re getting Japanese after all!”

  “Heh… not so hard, people always make it out to be this stupid-difficult language. Just gotta think of the words as bein’ framed in little boxes instead of big long sentences.”

  Never heard of it put like that, but Jackie was riGGHT–

  –in the back of a van. Again. Least this one has a mattress inside. JAAhaAHkie said he was going hunting but God knNNows what’s even out here. Hunting for TTtumbbbleweeds, mMMMaaybb– ”V…”

  “V…”

  Dad…?

  “JohnnTRy…”

  J-Johnny…

  “V, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!”

  –

  “V! Come on, you gotta help me!” Panam screamed as she pulled V’s seizing body towards the truck. Out of sheer, blind impulse, the remnants of V’s brain ushered enough strength to allow her to crawl forwards, zombified by the failing nanites holding her brain together. Johnny continued screaming into the empty void in her mind, ushering her with all his might to move as fast as she could. The EMP had completely disabled most of the nanites, with the rest rapidly failing – it wouldn’t be long before her medulla was compromised and her heart stopped.

  Flashes of memories echoed in V’s mind like a skipping film reel suspending images on shredded cloth, unable to make out anything but whispers and ghosts. She instinctively clutched onto her sword, her body sensing danger and getting ready to defend itself almost independently of her mind. Her muscle memory was so utterly ingrained into her that vague flashes of her mother came flooding back as her hand brushed the sword’s handle.

  –

  “Faster.”

  “I can’t…”

  “Listen,” my mother bent down to address me up-close, “If you cannot handle this heavier sword, then how do you expect to handle your own swo0or…”

  “Again. Faster.”

  “Smoothness. Fluidity. Momentum…” she paced around me, “The sword is a living, breathing thing. Demanding respect. An instrument of many pUuurposes. A meEeEEetronome. A battle is a dance, set with a TTttempo. Whomever sOolves the pattern, solves the tempo. Whomever contrtrrols the tempo, controls the battle.”

  “Faster.”

  “The soul of the sword is the SoouuUl of our people. Your people. Honoring what has come before and since. The sssworrrod evolves. Changes shape. Trajectory. Speed. Impact. But itsSs soul is eternal. It embodies a spirit, an idea. It knows no technique. It only knows self-cultivation…”

  “Scream…”

  V…!

  “V! Wake up!” Panam riled me awake on the shoulder, “Fucking– fuck me! Are you okay?!”

  “Uuugnnhn…” I groaned… I tasted blood… My eye… I was blind again… the nanites shut off…? Fuck… EMP…

  “V, fuckin’ A,” Johnny shouted from the backseat, his image flickering on and off, “Thank fuck for Panam, you nearly flatlined right then’n there.”

  “I… I’m okay,” I shook my head, my vision starting to return already. Guess the nanites were still in their original positions, just needed to be turned back on… “What’s our status?”

  “Shit, you got a pacemaker you didn’t tell me about?!” she yelled at me, “Fuck… Alright, let’s get this done…”

  “How’s the detonator?”

  “All set, not even a drop in the signal strength,” she smiled, pulling over to the side of the road, “Here, care to do the honors?” Interesting, a radio detonator…

  “Always wanted to use one of these things,” I grinned, eagerly accepting it. Vision’s back to normal… Alright… crisis averted. Though I should still see Vik about this…

  “And by the way…”

  “What’s up?”

  “We are about to knock a multi-million eurodollar Kang-Tao asset clean outta the sky,” she spoke with a military-esque tinge to her voice, “How’s that make you feel?”

  “Heh, honestly, feels pretty awesome when you word it like that,” I laughed, “Let’s just not screw this up.”

  “Don’t worry, screw-up isn’t part of the plan we set up today.”

  We sat in the truck in silence, awaiting the AV… a comfortable, peaceful silence.

  “I just noticed…”

  “What?” she asked me.

  “The silence. None of the constant hum of the city. The smells. Not even the screams in my head… it’s peaceful… I think I realized… I forgot what silence sounded like…”

  “Mhmm, though maybe not the smells,” she chuckled, “I mean, the coyotes… kinda hard to miss.”

  “Oh? Here I thought it was just the air-freshener in your truck.”

  “Oh, har-har.”

  “Yeah, but they do make a good stew, heheh…” I paused and squinted my eyes, “Shit, is that ours?”

  Panam suddenly turned and focused her binoculars on the AV coming in from the north. “Yeah, that’s it! Coming from Pacifica… alright… one more second… one more… NOW!”

  “Boom.” And… nothing.

  Try again… still nothing.

  “Shit! What’s happening?!” Panam shouted as I frantically clicked the detonator.

  “I don’t know, did you take the safeties off the charges?!”

  “Of course I did, must be th–” Ah. There it is…

  The entire tower erupted in a plume of smoke, a set of electrical discharges emanating from the base all the way up to the tallest point, striking the AV like a lightning bolt coming from the Earth.

  A great, powerful shockwave and sonic boom rocked the truck back and forth as it hit us – yet somehow, this fucking thing still remained airborne. Must be flying on manual controls alone… Their tenacity is impressive, I’ll say that much.

  “Panam, come on! We gotta go after it!” I shouted, “Their engines are still running!”

  “They’re going nowhere,” she scowled.

  “But Panam–”

  “One moment…” she opened up her door– wait, where the fuck is she going?!

  “Panam, get back in the tr–truck…?” Oh… so that’s where she was going… Fuck me, that’s a Techtronika T40 Uragan?! Where the fuck did she get that?!

  The Uragan’s blast wave sent a plume of dust and debris into the air as the missile soared to its intended target, tracking the disabled AV with ease. These weapons were designed to take down far deadlier adversaries, typically with a top-down strike as Panam so eagerly demonstrated to me first-hand.

  The shotgun-like flechettes deployed just before impact, showering the front-portside engine with a lethal blend of shrapnel and high-explosive, bursting the entire left side of the craft into flames. No way it was leaving, not after sustaining a strike from a SAM launcher. “THAT’S how you do it!” she celebrated, tossing the spent tube in the back of the truck.

  “Okay… guess I stand corrected,” I blew out a load of dust from my lungs, “Nice shot.”

  Panam took off like a madwoman, racing after the AV as it rapidly lost altitude. “Damn straight!”

  “...You catch that? Over,” a voice echoed over Panam’s portable radio.

  “Mitch?!” she paused, still speeding to where we predicted the crash site would be

  “...Yup, AV, unmarked… losing altitude… there…”

  “Scorpion – shit! They’re gunnin’ for the AV!” Panam shouted at me in a panic before reaching for the radio set.

  “Mitch, Scorpion, do not go for that AV, I repeat, DO NOT GO FOR THAT AV! It’s Kang Tao!! – FUCK!” she slammed it on the dashboard, “They can’t hear me!”

  “Then we have to get there first!” I yelled, “Step on it!”

  “God dammit, drones!” she directed my attention to the screen, “Three of ‘em! Tryin’ to slow us down!”

  “On it!” I jacked back into the truck, frantically scrambling through menus to get to the turret – but it didn’t budge. “Panam! The turret – is it locked?!”

  “What?! FUCK! Going on autopilot!” she smacked the dashboard and opened up a roof access hatch, “Wrench!”

  I handed her the only one in arm’s reach, but apparently it was good enough as she didn’t protest. I just heard clanking from the top, then bullets raked across the roof– FUCK!

  “Panam?! PANAM!” I screamed as she clutched onto her stomach. “Shit, let me see it!”

  “It’s nothing… uh… should work now.”

  Fuck it… “Right,” I turned on the screen again and the turret fired up to life, blasting all three drones out of the sky in seconds. Fantastic… Another friend wounded. Looks like a gut shot. She’ll need surgery as soon as we get back, no question. Let’s just hope that Mitch and Scorpion didn’t suffer similar fates…

  “Panam, are you okay?!”

  “Fucking… ricochet…”

  “Panam!”

  “I’m good… heh, been through worse, don’t worry,” she grinned at me, taking the pain with apparent ease. Wait – are those gunshots?! Fuck… Mitch and Scorpion must’ve beaten us to the punch…

  “Fuck, you hear those shots?!” Panam shouted, “V, somethin’s not right. Mitch and Scorpion, they stopped responding…”

  “Alright, pull over here,” I implored her, pointing to a large rocky outcropping, “I’ll check it out on foot.”

  “Hang on…” she dug underneath the seat, pulling out an airhypo, “Looks expired…” she muttered as she thumbed the trigger, “Fuck it.”

  Panam’s body flooded with endorphins and suddenly she was sharp as a tack once again. “Right, I see the downed AV, no sign of Scorpion or Mitch… Fuck, they could’ve gotten to ‘em, you think?”

  “No way to know for sure until I can get boots on the ground,” I replied bluntly to her, sensing she’d do better with straight-up honesty, “Hang back with that rifle of yours, okay? Keep me covered.”

  I gingerly exited the truck in case Kang Tao have deployed any acoustic search protocols. Multiple fires… Not all of them could possible have come from the wreckage. Hmph… Cars.

  “I see Aldecaldo vehicles…” I muttered into my phone, “No survivors… Not one is operable.”

  “No… no no no…” Panam thought out-loud, “What about Mitch? Scorpion?”

  “Still looking… Multiple burned bodies. Surrounded by drones. We can’t get close, not with the truck. Rocket launcher grid is armed, it’d detonate us in seconds. We need to take out the drones one-by-one, then converge on the AV on-foot.”

  “Shit… alright, I’ll circle around the left. You take the low-ground to the right.”

  “Got it– wait, I see Mitch,” I mumbled, “Looks like he’s a hostage. Hands are up, held at gunpoint by a drone.”

  “He’s alive?! Thank God… Alright, he’s our priority. First we gotta take down that grid. Think you can do it?”

  “I used to do this for a living,” I grinned, unsheathing Shinden, “Just take out any drones coming up behind me.”

  “Sure thing… Fuck me… Mitch…”

  -

  “In position,” Panam relayed as V silently approached, using the shaded rocks as a backdrop to avoid skylining her distinctive black hair amongst the shrubbery. Optical sensors are distorted by untrained movement patterns – tumbleweeds, whipping wind patterns in canyons, dust and sand – all conditions they faced now. V followed the easterly breeze as it swept up a plume of dirt, landing her about 50 meters away from the AV. She backhand-palmed her sword and steadied her grip, not letting its natural sheen potentially alert the enemy.

  Drones have few weak points for her to exploit, though they did exist – namely, the wiring harness leading to their main circuit boards. Unlike in humans, their command functions were stored in their chests, with the battery housed where the liver would be, far away from optical sensors to avoid distorting the image with radiant heat. The thermal sensors had to maintain extreme cold temperatures to remain sensitive, otherwise they would detect almost anything as a potential heat signature. Of course, with V’s thermal camouflage granted to her by her suit, she blended right in with the background, leaving the drones entirely reliant on visible-spectrum lightwaves.

  She kept track of each individual drone, maintaining absolute awareness of her surroundings as she carefully closed in, keeping the burning wrecks of cars between herself and the AV to mask her approach. The pit in her stomach quietly gave way to acorns, then tangerines, sinking her deeper into the muck as she crawled through the brush – this was all too similar to some painful memories for her. Though she carried on, knowing her skills were no longer being put to use to further a corporation’s agenda, a moment she never thought may ever come.

  She waited patiently… 30 seconds turned into a minute. A minute to two. The enemy was waiting for reinforcements, she was sure of it, and rapidly running out of time. But then, in a single instant, an opportunity presented itself. An isolated drone steadily approached her position from the north. V quickly lunged out, smashing its optical sensors with the blunt end of Shinden and tackling it to the ground. She spun around on her feet and rose as quickly as the wind, jabbing her blade directly into its central processor.

  The drone erupted in a shower of sparks and electrical discharges, alerting the rest of the base, but it was too late. She sprinted inside the rocket launchers’ envelopes of fire to the dead zone at the base of the AV. Gunshots rang out in the distance as drone after drone fell, Panam’s APDS rounds making quick work of the surviving assets.

  V closed in on the rocket launcher control module, easily deflecting the incoming rounds from the enemies’ smart SMGs. With perfect accuracy comes perfect predictability, and V barely had to lift a finger to redirect the drones’ fire into the AV’s exposed circuit boards, disabling the rocket launchers. She rotated the blade with the same finesse as a gardener controlling a fire hose, striking each drone in-turn with utter impunity, thanks to Panam’s cover fire.

  “Fuck me, that’s some fuckin’ skill you got there,” Panam complimented as V bisected the last remaining drone, its component parts falling upon one of the many Aldecaldos corpses littering the canyon. As she scanned around, however, she saw no signs of Mitch, having lost track of him during the brief but eventful skirmish.

  –

  “I guess that military training paid off, huh,” Johnny smiled approvingly.

  “They didn’t call us the Desert Rats for nothing,” I laughed, thoroughly out of breath… Okay… relax. Adrenaline’s still high, calm down… First thing’s first – casualty count.

  I heard Panam pull the truck up behind me, getting out to observe the damage personally. “Fucking Kang Tao…” she muttered, “They’re dead… they’re all dead…”

  “Panam, focus! Mitch was still alive when we last saw him,” I implored her, “Chances are he’s still out there. Take the rifle up to the top of the AV for some high-ground and scan for him – I’ll see if I can pry this thing open.”

  “Yeah – yeah, alright, okay,” she muttered, looking for a way up top as I approached the side of the AV’s doors– SHIT!

  The pilot was still alive – nearly took my head off with a shot from his pistol. “Step back!” he shouted at me, “Back!”

  Fuck… he has Mitch.

  I gave Panam the hand signal to hold fire and move around the left side of the AV, to which she immediately obeyed. Glad she understands that language… Right, let’s see… Can’t throw my sword and take him out. Too risky to charge him. Fuck, I have no chance. I’m fast, but not that fast…

  “TOSS YOUR WEAPONS OR I SHOOT!” the pilot screamed insistently. I backed off the AV, knowing damn well he meant it. Hopefully Panam’s as good a pistol marksman as she is with the rifle…

  I gave her the hand signal, “Open fire.” With a nod, she rotated around and faced her adversary, the pilot holding a Chao smart pistol to her friend’s head. “I repeat!” he shouted, “Toss your weap–”

  Panam interrupted him mid-sentence with a bullet. First mistake people make is to expose their heads to the enemy. Typical movie trope is to either talk them to death or pretend like they aren’t leaving themselves wide-open. I guess Panam never got that memo. Mitch launched himself forward and out of danger as the pilot slumped in between a pair of empty seats. That’s all she wrote… Finally…

  “Jesus…” Mitch breathed out, cool as ice considering what he just went through, “Helluva shot, Panam.”

  “Are you alright?” Panam asked, pocketing her piece.

  “Yeah, yeah, just some scratches… Hey, V – what’re you doing here–”

  “You fucking morons!” Panam yelled at him, shoving him before reeling over a bit from her prior gunshot wound.

  “What? I– Panam, did you get hit?! Hang on, girl, I’ll patch you up.”

  “It’s nothing…” she shook her head. I could tell that she was about to break down sobbing.

  “We couldn’t retreat… had no idea what we were getting into. They regrouped so fast, started shooting rockets n’ shit, we lost everyone,” Mitch sighed, kicking over a loose piece of debris.

  “Everyone…? Scorpion? Is he…?” Panam’s face swelled as tears started streaming down. Mitch’s silence spoke volumes. She already knew the answer.

  “Panam, I’m sorry. We tried – I couldn’t get here in time–”

  “No–! No…” she sat down on a piece of debris, trying desperately to absorb this. “Are you sure…? No… he couldn’t… he can’t… he… he can’t be…” she shouted to herself, rocking back and forth and hyperventilating.

  “Panam, I’m sorry,” Mitch somberly muttered, “He was a wonderful person. And he was always fond of you.” We both knelt down beside her in solidarity. I understood the pain she was going through all too well. Not to mention the fact that she didn’t even see him die… she was helpless. And none of it was her fault. An absolute tragedy. I felt for her, and in that moment, knew that she valued loyalty and trust above all else. I wish I could’ve gotten to know her friends better. Both of them…

  “I should’ve stopped him,” she finally muttered to herself beneath her breathless crying.

  “Panam, there was nothing we could do…” I reassured her, “You tried. You contacted them multiple times but the radio was down…”

  “That fucking EMP, I know… But… I should’ve… told them where we were going… and I didn’t…”

  “That’s not on you, Panam,” Mitch interjected, “He would’ve insisted to come along for the ride anyway. You know he wasn’t good with being told not to do things.”

  “Stubborn bastard…” she muttered, “Stupid fucking AV…”

  “Why were you out here anyway, V?” Mitch asked me.

  “Firstly, are you okay?”

  “Fine, thanks for savin’ my ass.”

  I held my head down. “Sorry that we couldn’t do more than that. Like I said, we tried.”

  “It’s okay,” he nodded, “Thanks, though.”

  “Anyway… uh… I’m here for the VIP this AV was carrying, did you see where he went?”

  Mitch nodded and pointed over the horizon. “Took ‘im with. In our cars.”

  “Where?”

  “West. Small unit. Counted maybe 7 or 8 personnel, down by the airport.”

  “Good, then that’s my territory,” I patted him on the shoulder, “Was stationed at the control tower during the War. I know the land well. Should track them in a hurry.”

  “Perfect. How’re you feelin’, Panam?” Mitch asked her as I sat down to look at her wounds up-close.

  “Fine. Just a flesh wound.” It seemed that way. Despite being a heavy cartridge, the ricochet displaced most of the energy. Seemed like it was just shrapnel beneath her skin.

  “Good, you stay here with Mitch, I’ll track them down,” I told her.

  “Nn-nn. I’m going with you,” she glared at me, “For Scorpion.”

  “Don’t argue with ‘er, V. Waste of time.”

  “Heh, I’ll bear that in mind,” I nodded. She definitely had that look in her eye. I was never gonna convince her otherwise. If it was Jackie right now, I doubt that anyone could convince me, either.

  “We’ll go by bike,” she told him, “Take my truck, just watch the gun, it likes to jam.”

  “Sounds solid. Meet you back at camp,” Mitch said reassuringly before turning to me, “Take care of ‘er, V.”

  “Hah, sounds more like she’ll be taking care of me,” I smirked as Panam left to go check on the motorcycles, “That Kang Tao AV’s likely flagged as down. They’ll know we’re coming.”

  “Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll see what I can do,” Mitch told me softly, “Don’t worry. We know what we’re up against this time.”

  “Alright, good luck.”

  “You too, V.”