Ashen Silence: Memory Leak
Previous: 3. Thief
4. Soldier
Wasteland gear was cumbersome and unpleasant to be in, but a sealed riot system was something else. Even with the armor’s motorized movement assistance, every action took a bit more effort than you would expect.
I struggled to keep myself together. My breath was ragged. I needed more blood than I had. I had to get to the end. I had to see this job through. They sat me in a swivel chair and put me in front. We had taken a break to steel ourselves. I was finishing a natural joint that my neighbor rolls, and Arina and Temperance were snorting lines of red powder. Dorian sat quietly with his eyes closed. Meditation?
The break only lasted a few minutes, but it felt like paradise on my weary muscles. I put on my helmet, and held up my shield. I looked at the others through my visor. We were quite the sight in shining armor.
I gave the go. Arina got the door. We were back out in the brightly lit courtyard. The sky above was dark, night again. I made a more deliberate motion to check the area than I would have had to without the helmet limiting my vision. No life detected. A couple of drones that didn’t care about us. I suspected the staff was asleep. The guards… “They’re in the villa. Let’s go.”
We moved in a tight formation. Me in front, Dorian to the left, Arina to the right. Temperance was in the back, we couldn’t find leg armor for their shape. They pushed my chair. In no time at all, we made it to the doors. Locked this time. “T, got an in?”
“You know it.” They moved around us and started fashioning a small brick of something against the ornate knob. “Get back!”
The crew took 20 paces back and dragged me with them. We all crouched behind the shields. The explosion would have been ear-splitting if we didn’t have hearing protection. Flame and wooden splinters flew in all directions. A scream of terror rose from within.
We went inside. There was a lot of scarlet and gore. One of the guards must have been next to the door. On the floor was the one who had been standing sentry to the entrance earlier. His left leg and much of his lower torso had been blown off and half-cooked. He was choking on blood. Another scream, I looked up. The mistress was cowering, terrified.
“Stay down!” Arina barked. The low voice was getting better.
I looked at the guard. I felt a sympathetic phantom pain where my own left leg had been. Mine was a cleaner wound though. This…
I unholstered my pistol and shot him in the head. Mercy, of some kind. Temperance bent down to burn him. “No time.” I insisted. “Let the survivors sort the dead out. Let’s go!”
No one was questioning me. For a second, I pondered what life would have been like if I had stayed in the army. Maybe I would have made a good officer. There was a loud clattering from an adjoining room on this floor. “A, can you check it out?”
*****
Arina confirmed and broke off from the group. Her heart was pounding. She tried not to think about the blood she just stepped in, or that was all over the walls. The drug in her system took over. Now she was less concerned and more disgusted. How DARE this fucker bleed all over her good boots. She’d kill him if the boss lady hadn’t already done it. She bared her teeth and resolved to body the next motherfucker who got in her way.
Dotty hovered over her shoulder, programmed to follow the tablet on her hip. When she was out of the others’ line of sight, she did another bump of her drug of choice today. They called it The Red. Stimulants weren’t usually her thing but she had some from a party, and it had been a hell of a day. Kicked like a mule. Instant, aggressive mania.
The door where the noise was coming from was off in a hallway. Too small to be a bedroom. Too big to be a closet. An office maybe? Didn’t matter. She kicked the door in and ducked to the side. Tablet out, Dotty did a horizontal pass. Resographs only gave the outline of the Threads of reality around a person, but there was indeed a person. They were frantically trying to grab something.
She popped out, rifle up. For an elek, time didn’t move the same. Sometimes if they focused enough, it could slow down a bit. So when she raised her gun and saw the janitor from earlier charging her, she wasn’t terribly surprised. Must have gotten a healing treatment. She saw the ornate sword in his hand, glanced up at the display case on the wall above the desk, and she put two and two together. Not enough to stop him from tackling her, but enough of an edge that she knew how she’d play this.
They wrestled for what felt like ages to her but must have only been ten seconds. Her rifle went off. He knocked it out of her hands. She scratched at his neck, as high as she could reach. He ripped her helmet off. Normally, a human man would easily overpower her. The Red coursing through her veins gave her the strength to kick off. He swung the blade at her, and she felt a sharp pain across her mouth. Her focus faltered and time returned to normal.
She went all in center mass, headbutting his unarmored gut. He doubled over and she ripped the sword from his hands. She kicked him over and held the tip of the blade to his neck.
“Please no! Please! Please…” He blurted out.
He was begging. Did he think that would work? He thought she was weak. Everyone thought she was weak! They all talked to her like she was a little kid. She was fucking sick of it. How fucking dare he disrespect her? She was a fucking Varan. The Red did the thinking for her. She taught him who he was dealing with, and started stabbing. She brought the blade down again, and again, and again. Long after he stopped moving.
She stood up and held the dripping sword in her shaking hand. Dotty stared at her, unmoved. She felt her lips, she was bleeding. Not bad enough to care right now. She grabbed her rifle, put back on her helmet, and left the sword by the corpse. She took one more bump for good measure, stepped over the corpse, and closed the door behind her.
*****
Arina rejoined us and told us the problem had been handled. She had this frenetic energy about her. I figured it was fine, whatever gets the job done. We made it to the stairs, I wobbled out of my chair and began our march up. I held my shield up and everyone did the same. No way they weren’t waiting for us up top.
We were right. Bullets started flying into our shield wall as soon as we were in sight. Three of them, behind deployable cover, in sealed armor. We settled in our position and crouched. Temperance threw a glass sphere over our heads. It landed in the middle of their defenses in a whoosh of flame. One of them caught fire and started howling. Shields down, we opened fire. Two of them went down easily. Bullets across their torsos. The third got a shot off and I heard Dorian exclaim. Arina retaliated with a shot to their neck. They went down suffocating.
6 guards down. That should be them all. I turned my whole body to face the enchanter, “You okay D?”
He was clutching his arm. “Grazed my arm. I’m fine.” He clenched his teeth. “Fuck! Stings though.”
Temperance set another charge on the door to Kanra’Las’ room. It blew open and we charged inside. No one.
“Did he leave?”
Arina adjusted her slate. “Dotty still sees the car in the garage. If he did, he didn’t go that way.”
I started walking around. I took my helmet off. “Intel says there’s a panic pod in the room. Start searching the floor and walls.”
We started doing a thorough search of the place. Trying for buttons, levers, and switches. Anything that would reveal a pod an elek could hide in when he got scared. Finally, a decorative wall panel came loose. I ripped at it until it gave way. Then all four of us pulled the pod out. I looked for an opening mechanism. It was tied to a keypad. Fuck.
“Did anybody see a code? This wasn’t in the briefing.”
We kept searching the room, except for Dorian. He got out of his riot gear and worked on his gauntlet. “Allow me.”
He took out a set of arcane tools, and began to tinker with the keypad. “I haven’t had a chance to actually use this all trip. It’s what I went to school for, you know.”
It was hard to pretend I wasn’t impressed, “Enchanters are something else.”
“I prefer the term arcane engineer… Got it!”
He stood back, and a spectral image of Kanra’Las’ hand appeared and punched in the code. Dorian snapped his fingers and it repeated in a loop. Object memory, I think it was called.
I punched in the code. The pod was unsealed and opened. Kanra’Las was inside cowering, protecting his face. “Whatever it is you want, I can pay you!”
“We’re already getting paid.”
“I can pay you more! I’m well connected.”
“You shot me.” I rubbed my abdomen.
He waved his hand. “And clearly that didn’t stop you! Good for you for rising above such a setback.”
“I think we’re just going to keep robbing you.”
“Wait! Wait! You’ve already devastated my property and killed my guards. I-I could hire you on as my new security team! Clearly, you’re better in a fight. Never know when you might need that.” A desperate, nervous laugh.
I looked at Arina, “Does he need to be awake for this part of the process?”
Arina shrugged and walked over. “Nah.” and she punched him out.
We lifted his limp body out of the pod and put him face down on the bed. Arina grabbed the rigged memory cartridge and inserted it into a metal port at the base of his brainstem.
While we waited, I pondered exit routes. No real opposition left. Any support they could have called in was still hours away. We could just walk out the front if we really wanted. Arina stood up, sealing the memory cartridge in a protective hard case. “We’re fucking set!” She cheered, and Temperance joined in. Even Dorian looked a little happy.
My mind went to the fantastic loot that was all over this house. A grin stretched across my face. We were going to get fucking paid.
5. Epilogue- Scavver
My radio clock woke me up to the familiar chaos of Dr. Swell’s morning show. I wasn’t sure when, and if, he ever slept, honestly. I moaned, rubbed my eyes, and sat up. The side where I’d been shot ached a bit, and was plenty red still. Probably would be for a long time.
I listened to the radio. Normally, it was music this early, but he had taken a break for a special news bulletin. Something about a group of raiders hitting an estate in corplands and absolutely massacring the inhabitants. Casualties included the entire security team and at least one civilian. He went on to talk about how the government was characterizing the assailants as ‘chem-addled.’ Swell further alleged that this was a false flag operation to further discredit drug use, which the Empire had been working towards recently. He kept going, and I swapped to a folk station.
I remembered what day it was and hopped to my feet. I washed my hair and brushed my teeth. I glanced at my neglected razor and thanked the gods I’d been able to afford some natural hair removal treatments.
I got dressed and remembered to put my clubwear from last night in my hamper. Temperance, Arina, and I still partied every now and then. Dorian joined us for a night, but no sign of him since. That was okay, I didn’t really think we were friends. I was pleased with them all, though. I’d work with that crew again any day. Maybe no good as thieves, but a fine strike team. A valuable skill, in its own right.
Today, I had a different kind of job. I’d reached out to Oren, and told him I was getting back in the scavver trade. He told me about a professor at the University who was looking for someone not afraid to deal in Parathan relics. I said I was the girl for the job.
So I got my first contract since my accident a year ago. I stared at my shiny new gear like the hard-won prizes they were. I got suited up. I even got this cool open-visor helmet that was just my shade of purple. It was magnificent, I loved it all so much. I loved what it meant for me even more. I was a scavver again. A real scavver.
I stepped out into the rest of my apartment. Like the rest of The Stacks, it was a modified storage container that I’d been living out of since I was paying my own rent. I fed the fish, watered the plants, and ate a quick breakfast. I made my way towards the door and remembered something. I stopped at the entryway table and opened a small crate. Inside was another drone, this one orange with olive-green stripes. A gift from my girlfriend.
I picked it up and set it gently in my bag. The front hatch to my place hissed as it unsealed. I took a deep breath, and I got back to work.
