Cyberpunk Fantasy

[Sympathy]

Author's note: this is intended to be a short story. it will be concluded in three to four posts. i did all writing and editing on a cell phone, so the formatting might have some glitches. Erfurt, Germany and the theater are real places, everything else was made up, including Erfurt's geography. also, i italicized the dialogue that takes place over the neural comm, but it didn't translate here and i'm not doing it again

edit: frelling cocksucking censorship

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Erfurt, Germany. 2115. The GRUR summit was being held in the Theater Erfurt, and roughly 200 dignitaries from several nations were gathered there. The theater was at the head of a road in the center of town, with a cross street running in front of it. Tall buildings surrounded the theater, which was relatively short - three stories. There was a fleet of black helicopters on the roof of the theater, each bearing insignias of different heads of state. A sheath of fluffy, loose snow covered most surfaces, and more drifted lazily from an overcast sky. Traffic was light outside the theater, both vehicular and pedestrian.

DSP was running security from the shadows, putting no grunts in the area to maintain an air of peace. The dignitaries all had their own bodyguards, and the Chancellor didn't want them feeling on edge with an overbearing national police force. DSP Section 6 operatives were on rooftops surrounding the theater.

Alexis Lindemann sat on her haunches overlooking the street from the roof of the theater, her elbows resting on her legs and her hands hanging loosely between her thighs. She scanned the street using her augmented vision, zooming on faces and using facial recognition software to run cursory background checks.

Find anyone suspicious? Richard's sarcastic voice came over her neural comm.

If you find parking tickets suspicious. Did you bring enough firepower, Zecks? There was a pause. She could envision Richard admiring his new acquisition, a recoiless shoulder-fired cluster-missile launcher.

Just your standard issue big gun, boss. Alexis smiled and continued her scanning.

2

Did you bring enough firepower, Zecks? Richard heard on his neural comm. He grinned and looked over his new toy, the HR10, which was lying in its open carrying case. He wasn't expecting to use it on this security job, but he couldn't deny that he felt safer with it near him.

Just your standard issue big gun, boss, he responded. He was leaning against a vent pipe on the roof of a building across the street from the theater, reading the latest issue of his favorite manga.

You really think you'll need it? This was Chris Links' voice, the rookie.

You never know, Godzilla just might make an appearance, Richard teased. Finster talking your ear off yet, rookie? Silence. He imagined the rookie looking nervously at the sniper he was assigned to shadow and smiled.

3

Finster talking your ear off yet, rookie? Finster grunted laughter. He was lying prone and looking through the scope of his anti-material rifle, down at the streets. Chris favored him with a nervous glance.

Yeah... he replied. In fact, the elite sniper had said nary a word since they got up here. Chris was beginning to wonder if Finster didn't like him, or if he was this quiet with everyone.

Chris stood behind and to the left of Finster, holding his standard issue bullpup PDW close to his chest. Hey boss... Why'd you pick me over the other candidates?

4

Hey boss... why'd you pick me over the other candidates? Alexis heard over the comm.

Because you're an open canvas with no specialization. You have all the necessary training to fill any role. Overspecialization allows for weakness.

Cut the chatter. Hanz Felsch, intelligence officer of DSP Section 6. He was in a nondescript van at street level, monitering various comm signals in the area.

We've got a bogey in the no fly zone.

Check its registry, Alexis sent.

Way ahead of you, boss. It's an old cargo chopper registered to a private chemical company, Hetzer Biotech. It's ten kilometers out and heading this way from the east at 200kmph, altitude 7,000 feet and dropping.

Hail it and tell it to divert - Alexis began when her background check software alerted. She was zoomed in on a young man in a black blazer. He was wearing dark aviators and carrying a gym bag. He was just outside the security cordon.

Terroristic activities, the software reported. Alexis zoomed out and quickly looked over the security cordon. She noticed several other men in the crowd carrying the same brand gym bag.

Chris.

Y-yeah?

Suspicious persons at the security cordon. They're carrying gym bags. Switch to infrared and get a look at what's in them.

Sure. Chris zoomed in on the cordon and saw one of the bag-carriers. He zoomed further in on the bag he carried and switched to infrared.

Hanz came over the comm. No response, boss. It's half a kilometer out and at 2,000 feet.

Chris' panicked voice bursted over the comm. Gun! It's a gun! Alexis stood.

Finster, cover me. Richard, take care of that chopper.

Roger.

You got it, boss. Alexis stepped off of the edge of the roof and activated her optical camo.

5

Richard jammed the manga into his back pocket and walked over to his weapons case. He was delighted to have a chance to use this thing after just having aquired it. He picked up the HR10 and shouldered it, facing the east. He looked through the viewfinder and immediately spotted the chopper what it was carrying. Oh, frell.

6

The chopper closed in on the theater. The pilot had been instructed to drop its payload on the roof. It was in sight when his aftermarket tactical computer lit up red and started blaring "Warning: Incoming. Warning: Incoming." The pilot smashed the countermeasures panel with his palm just as he saw a missile approaching. The flares ejected, and the pilot thought he'd been just in time. Suddenly the missile separated into 10 smaller missiles and flew apart from each other. The pilot pulled the cargo release lever. Several of the missiles were redirected away from the chopper by the flares, but most made a direct impact.

7

Alexis landed in front of the theater with a loud thump. Several security guards looked around, and when they couldn't immediately see the cause, they resumed trying to look intimidating. Just then a loud explosion could be heard down the street directly facing the theater.

Boss, get out of there! It's a tank! Richard sent over the neural comm. Alexis zoomed her vision down the road and saw the wreckage of the downed chopper. Flames licked up off the carcass of the chopper, obscuring her vision of what was beyond it.

Suddenly a massive, cream colored armature appeared from the flames. Then another. The tank crawled out of the flames, climbing over the wreckage of the chopper. It had six bulky legs in lieu of treads, three on each side, and two utility arms protruding from the front. Each arm had three flexible fingers circling a six-barrel vulcan cannon at the end. At the back of its flat body was a turret with a massive barrel protruding from it. Alexis identified the tank as a Japanese prototype mobile artillery platform.

How the hell did they get their hands on that? Alexis zoomed out and saw that the bag-carriers were reaching into their sacks and producing small machine pistols. She had grossly underestimated their numbers - she now saw there were nearly thirty of these men.

Staying low, she dashed between two guards just as they starting going for their sidearms. The terrorist wearing the dark aviators wielded his machine pistol one-handed and opened fire on the guards. 10mm AP rounds sailed over Alexis' head, ripping into guards. A pattern of red, grape-sized holes appeared in their chests and they collapsed into limp heaps.

The throng of pedestrians had been staring dumbly at the tank approaching the theater, some even taking our their cellphones to shoot video. At the sharp report of the terrorist's machine-pistol, they broke out in shouts and screams and began a mass exodus of the general vicinity.

Alexis dashed up to the terrorist who had shot the security guards and was now in the process of reloading his gun. He looked up and saw footprints in the snow rapidly approaching him, a light crunch accompanying each footfall. He panicked and rammed the new magazine into place, then pointed his weapon in the direction of the footprints just as Alexis came upon him. She shoved the heel of her palm into his chin with her left hand. There was a dull crack as his jaw broke. She seamlessly grabbed his left wrist with her right hand and moved under arm to his back. The terrorist moaned in surprise, involuntarily squeezing the trigger of his machine pistol. It ejected bullets into the snow-covered road, its reports echoing off building faces. Still holding his wrist, she booted the back of his leg and he buckled, falling to one knee. She placed her left hand at the back of his elbow and pressed, simultaneously yanking back on his wrist. There was a popping sound as his elbow joint separated and his arm was bent backward. He screamed through his shattered jaw and Alexis shoved her boot into his back and pushed him face first to the ground. All of this took place in roughly four seconds.

Alexis turned her attention to the terrorist's comrades, who had witnessed him be systematically disabled by an unseen assailant. The closest ones started pointing their guns in her general direction. Alexis simultaneously dropped to one knee and drew her sidearm, a massive 8-round .50 caliber magnum revolver. She took it in both hands and fired three times in rapid succession. The tops of the three closest terrorist's head were vaporized. The rest retreated to nearby vehicles to take cover. Alexis shot two of them in the back before hearing the cannons on the tank spin up.

Richard's panicked voice came over the comm.Take cover, Alexis!

She dove behind a thick concrete block that made up part of the security cordon just as the cannons opened up. They roared and the concrete block began disintegrating from the pummeling of 200 rounds per second.