Chapter 4-6 The Scalpers

Chapter 4-6 The Scalpers

The Scalpers should be considered more paramilitary death cult than SyndicateAnd Vincentine, if youre watching this, its not a fucking compliment.

Whatever the hells happened to him when he was down in the dark fighting the Low Masters touched him good and deep. Knew him before he went down. Didnt know him after he came back up. Cant say I blame him. The Low Masters only had primal Heavens, but before we go about forgetting, theyre still shells of dead gods.

And theres nothingaint nothingthat can prepare you for facing a god on your own.

Best metaphor I have is like emptying your gun into a hurricane. Inevitable. Just inevitable.

-Quail Tavers, New Vultun Sunrise Interview

4-6

The Scalpers

Shitshitshit, Shred whimpered, eyes flicking between Avo and the door.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Chambers cursed. Janand! Scramble the drones! Scramble now. Avo! Get the bioware and get the fuck out of there. Fucking Scalpersfuck, how the fuck was I supposed to know they were going to be there

Avo tuned Chambers out. The enforcers panic was unbecoming and unprofessional, but his folly was not one to be shared.

Beyond the door shone the accretion of six minds. Six, and an endless sea more of flowing thoughts suffusing the entirety of the block. Five among them were warded, though poorly. The type of quality Avo saw in Conflux enforcers.

Still, if the Scalpers were properly set up for insertion into the room, the momentum would be their advantage. Soft as their minds were, Avos phantasmics were going to be hard-pressed to engage six targets, especially if they were shooting at him at the same time. Worse yet, he knew nothing of the Scalpers equipment, numbers, or even if they had a Necrojack with them.

To his advantage, he had a working Metamind, a functional but outdated exo-rig, and a head start for whatever he wanted to do. Worse comes to worst, he needed to make a killget his Liminal Frame up and running again. Get rid of his Rend and keep from staying dead.

The person outside the door hammered against the door again. Shred? Dont tell me you went and shot up before this?

Avo leaned down next to Shred. Tell him to wait.

Shred nodded, face flush with stale sweat, their body shivering with fear. I-Im clean right now. There was a choking lilt to Shreds voice, his gulps sending out echoes of guitar twangs through his modulator.

Sure, Shred, the ganger said. Their scoffing laugh told Avo that they didnt believe Shred, but belief wasnt needed right now. A delay was. Anyway

Just a second, Shred choked out. ImIm getting the shit. Im trying to get the shitforgot the combination again, alright?

A beat followed. An ebbing flow of disappointment spiked into the Nether. Avo tasted the emotion in the near-waters of thoughtstuff and scowled. He had no idea why their minds were bare, or why they couldnt be bothered to even get some cheap wards installed. It was like bleeding into the water.

Jaus, Shred, get your shit together. Two minutes, alright. We need this fuckin deal done, consangyou set it up. Dont glass-jaw on us now.

Fuck, man, alright, Shred shot back. Just need tojust gotta get it open is all. Just give me time. Thats all I need, okay? Fuck!

Hey, hey, fine, relax. Just get the shit, yeah? We need their imps. Farm's gonna fail otherwise.

Yeah, Shred said, looking down at the ground. Yeah.

Through the door, Avo watched as the sphere of thoughtstuff bobbed away. Muted voices were exchanged. Questions regarding if there was a problem. Hurried assurances that the gangers were professionals, and that the bioware was just being screened to ensure there werent any issues.

A plan formed in Avos head. First thing. Secure the package. He already broke in and committed a transgression against his ethics, no sense in leaving a job half-done as an insult to his professionalism as well.

Please Shred said.

Avo released the ganger. In the corner of the room, the bio-gunner was still groaning in pain, clutching at his neck. The lumbering bruiser continued groping against the tiles of the bathroom, palms smacking hard against the ground. Dont beg. Get mods. I leave. You live. Understand?

Shred nodded. Okay! Okay!

Nice job, ghoulie. So, I scrambled the drones and Im thinkin--

No, Avo snarled. No more thinking. Not from you. I get you the package. I finish delivery. But you have thought enough. Your plan caused this. Your lack of research. Preparation. Sloppy. Unprofessional. Shamed the dive. Shamed me!

A lull of static-charged silence followed. I, uh

Get drones over Gorge. Fly high. Need overwatch. Find how many Scalpers. Find where. Need exfiltration route through alleys. Streets open. Rig light. Direct run too dangerous.

Chambers sighed. Ghoulie

Avo felt his descent lurch as his new parasail caught its first draft of wind. Within the rig, he growled with satisfaction as he felt himself catch a gale of wind, riding upon its currents. His Phys-Sims falling numbers stabilized.

Good. At least Janand did good work. All he needed to do now was

A flashing mote of light tore out from a distant alley and struck Avo in the chest. An impact trajectory manifested, but before Avo even saw the redness that was its color, the micro-missile detonated against his chest.

The rig screamed, integrity exploding in a tide of orange, armor warping before the blooming shockwave. Inside, Avo felt his muscles absorb the impact the inner rig lining couldn't. Tendons snapped. He felt something inside him fracture. The bio-sail he was gliding on disintegrated, torn from his back as he was blasted back into the Gouge.

Spinning, tumbling, limbs twisting, and armor hissing, Avo crashed through two walls and scrambled on hands and knees into a room. People were screaming around him. Blurring feet and fleeing shadows shot past him. Children were sobbing.

Looking up, he found himself in a cramped living room, the haggard faces of a family staring back at him.

Avo drooled blood over himself and groaned, trying to shake off the dizziness. Chambers was cutting in and out. The HUD was flickering. Cracking with glitching errors. Half the optics were gone. Sorry. About the room.

Dazed, he pulled himself up using the walls and a stump-like holovision stand.

Another flechette crackled down through the ceiling, and the holovision burst apart. The family screamed. More shots followed from above, the room was coming apart. Stumbling, Avo moved for the doors, smashing through as the family kept screaming.

Growling, he stumbled deeper into the structure, skull throbbing, flesh aching. External air was whistling into the rig. The armor had prevented the missile from punching through, but at a cost. Petals of twisted metal dangled free from his chest, the glow of a sparking power grid exposed. System errors rang through his mind as he pushed further down the hall turning.

Behind him, he heard whistling. Two dagger-sized drones swooped around the corner. They scanned and marked him. He, in turn, used his still functional Phys-Sim to make up for his rigs failing systems and fired his precision cannon.

The shot threaded through both targets. The recoil-balancer pulsing from the back of his cannon cut a clean slice through the wall behind him. A good shot, though still a waste, obliterating two drones with a precision cannon made to kill light vehicle platforms. Of course, it would have been a bigger waste if he ended up dead.

More voices rose into screams. Men. Women. Children. Animals. He was trapped in a gunfight among the choiceless. He didnt want this. He didnt

Someone burst down through the ceiling above him, blades flashing.

On instinct, Avo fired his reflexes, and hellfire exploded through his nerves. He ducked back, barely evading the first slashes. The armor didnt work well with his Celerostylus during the best of times, and now it was like trying to keep focused while molten metal licked pain through his veins.

The Scalper that assailed him had two vibrating frequency blades extended like scythes across their shoulders. Their rig was the shape of a skeletal grasshopper, legs bent, arms jagged with autocannon barrels. With how fast they were moving still, they mustve had some kind of reflex booster as well.

Probably one that worked with the rig, and didn't make them feel like they were coming apart from the inside.

The Scalper drove forward, barrels raised, blades rearing.

Avo, too consumed by agony to play fisticuffs, slammed his Whisper into their wards againthis time bearing a thought-shiv as a spear tip. His phantasmal dagger sank past their wards before they could bury their frequency blades into him.

GHOSTS - [41]

The Scalper cried out, toppling as their thoughtstuff shattered free like a dish breaking against a wall. Avo released his Celerostylus. He tried to right himself but ended up vomiting inside his rig instead. His limbs were twitching despite his struggle to control them. At his feet, the Scalper began to whine, a low keening of madness signaling the death of their personhood, their descent past the jaws of madness.

Lining a firing trajectory with his Phys-Sim, Avo put the Scalper out of their misery. The shot bifurcated clean through their head in a spraying mist of brain matter and titanium. Avo made it three more steps past the body before he toppled over himself.

Faintly, he could hear the whining servos of more rigs approaching along with the low hum of gauss guns spinning tungsten along their barrels. He tried to stand. His nerve clusters screamed. His skull screamed. His insides stung.

He was going to die here.

He was going to

THAUMIC CYCLER: 30 thaum/c

SOUL ONLINE

ENGAGING THAUMIC CYCLER: 30 thaum/c

HEAVEN [SANGEIST] ONLINE

MANIFESTING HELL [FIRST CIRCLE]

HELLVENTS ACTIVATING: EJECTING REND

And, like an entropic flame tearing free from an alloyed cocoon, a gusting shroud of darkness poured loose from Avos very being as matter around him began to decay and dissolve. The floor flaked and crumbled away beneath him, peeling out of existence along with pieces of the Nightmantis.

Avo fell.

REND CAPACITY: 81% AND DROPPING