Author's Note




SONS OF WAR SEASON ONE

SET IN A FUTURISTIC DYSTOPIAN WORLD WHERE AI , ANDROIDS AND HUMAN ENHANCEMENT AND FINE TUNNING HAS GONE TO HEIGHTS NEVER IMAGINED.


SYNOPSIS BOOK ONE THE PROPHET

JOHN RIPPER 2167 must stop a mysterious designer and his AI virus from wrecking havoc and carrying out a terrorist attack at a time tensions are beginning to grow over the incessant and almost uncontrollable activities of the retributors and talks of clampdown amidst the election of a new state trooper who has a personal vendetta against all retributors.




"I'm sorry, but you don't understand. These are robots - and that means they are reasoning beings. They recognize the Master, now that I have preached Truth to them. All the robots do. They call me the prophet."

‒ Cutie (QT-1 robot), 'I, Robot'.

kindly check out my recently finished work, thanks

https://www.nairaland.com/6726111/modern-joseph-completed-finale

"Think about the Machines for a while, Stephen. They are robots, and they follow the First Law. But the Machines work not for any single human being, but for all humanity, so that the First Law becomes: 'No Machine may harm humanity; or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."

‒ Isaac Asimov, 'I, Robot'..

"He was a primitive robot, and to him people were people. … It did not surprise him that human beings had grown so civilized and humane. His circuitry forced him, in any case, to view all human beings as civilized and human; even as god-like, to use an old-fashioned phrase."

‒ Isaac Asimov, 'Robot Visions'..

"The retributors have been around for 60 years, we have been the long arms of justice as led by the council, we have brought peace and stability to states across the world, do you really think it's in the best interest of the council to stop us now? - STELLA COX "assistant director of s.o.w" .

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Draft is almost complete guys, john reaper is coming together.


Feel free to book your seats for the sci-fi fantasy gritty story.

And I am back who missed me lol
S.O.W is ready guys!!! Cyberpunk got me thinking about this one big time!

CHAPTER ONE - PART ONE

Narrator :Over the past few years, technology has skyrocketed in new and incredible ways, advancement that has made us over colonized the moon and planet mars, advancements that are leading us to the first off-world artificial space inhabiting area (O.A.S.I.S), with many of these achievements never thought would be possible especially after the world ending cyber virus attack that crippled the digital world forty years ago.

Even now after so many years, cyber terrorists and gangs have constantly posed as a never ending threat to a truly great and advancing new world under the world government of Binethical Global Industries, each day a new form of cyber terrorism rises, blackware trafficking, bodyswapping, cyberprints theft, cyberware hacking, cyberID thefts, cyber-lary, bio-hacking, you name it.

And cyber gangs like the typhoon gangs would never seize to learn that there are those whose purpose and sole duty is to stop them whatever the cost.


SCENE: M.D.S. - MANUALS DECOMMISSIONING SITE 24 – SKY CITY – SECTOR 1


The peace of the inoperable manual decommissioning site 24 located somewhere in sky city, sector 1 is suddenly disturbed by a pulse blast that wrecks the heavy doors, blasting them open with such violence that caused the earth around the facility to tremble, of course that could only mean the typhoon gangs came prepared with a pulse-weaver blaster specifically designed for powerful blast, specifically designed for the task.

“what did I tell you guys, this is going to be an easy score!” Typhoon laughed maniacally as he and his gang members gained access into the facility.

“Boss, we got a small problem, I just completed a scan, there are 3,148 decommissioned M1s here, with no ID we can’t find what we are looking for, not if we want to make it out fast and alive. ”

His second in command quickly pointed out something from his peripheral display
This was a real concern but typhoon had been on the sidelines for a long time, with a haul promised upon completion of this little assignment, it was pretty obvious he was going to damn the consequences.

“I don’t care what you have to do, the M1 we are looking for must be in pretty bad shape and must have … (thinks restlessly for a moment or so) must have had a huge gaping hole in its chest, at least we know that, don’t we?

Search the facility Database while we go Find that M1,tip us off when you got something, we have to find that scrap metal, ASAP, this is a low level security threat site, we shouldn’t be expecting any trouble but be on the alert, we don’t want no retros on our ass!”

Typhoon and the other gang member totaling eight took up their arms and gadgets and began to go searching in teams of twos to the various storage lockers whilst his second in command decided to hack the facility’s database for records as ordered.

“Now where exactly are you, you scrap metal, there has to be a record of you somewhere in this dump!....yes, yes, I found it, gotcha!”

the techie continued to interact with the site’s A.I data control unit and for a moment which made him missed the sounds made by two objects that appeared almost out of nowhere.

A pair of small impact concussive grenades (S.I.C.Gs) roll into the scene and up to the gang member1’s feet, who turned to see the last seconds of the grenade’s five seconds countdown.


“sh*t!” the resulting explosion sent a loud and terrifying bang across the facility that got typhoon and the others running out, just enough time to see pieces of their comrade splattered across debris of smoke, dust and flames.

A piece of the SICGs identified quickly got typhoon and the others on high alert, for SICGs were easily identified as retributors standard weapon issued explosive devices for combat.

“switch to night visors, Keep your eyes open, we got company, shoot anything that moves, I have got something else I need to do…you, take the pulse weaver, handle my baby rough and I will f*ck you up spumk, kill the retro!”

typhoon ordered handing over the pulse weaver to one of the eight before leaving his scarred men to figure out who was preying on them.


“come out, you spumk retro, we are not afraid of you, come out and play, spumk!” the one with the pulse weaver suddenly felt bold kicking the beast of a machine gun type-blaster into life.


It didn’t take them any second more before the hunter pulled out of the shadows, towering just above 6’2 feet tall, fully armored to the teeth, S.O.W premium combat polymethium combat gear equipped dawning a sergeant purple barge on the breast plate.


His reaction time took them so unaware they were also frozen in time as he fired multiple target locked SCRs, tearing three targets within seconds into bits and pieces.


The gun battle kicks up when the pulse weaver is fired, a weapon capable of dishing over 2000 SCRs within seconds is not to be trifled with not even a bi-nethical polymethium armor can stand up to the heat, dead on.


“I don’t know who you are but you are going to be sorry you did that, A heavy smell of polymethium powder and heavy shells of SCRs filled the scene quickly, once typhoon’s pulse weaver heated up and went offline for a quick recharge having expanded over 1500 rounds, out of curiosity the others also stop for a quick recharge and to investigate the scene certain they had vanquished their supposed attacker.
But the smoke filled scene only made things worse for the cyber criminals whilst the retributor was all but disadvantaged by the scene.


“I can’t see anything!” one of the gang members complained as he drew near and out of his safe zone; a choice he paid dearly for, quickly.


The retributor fired even more multiple rounds that took out the curious cyber terrorist out of commission, slumping to the ground, headless

“shit! I will kill you for that!”


Tar! Tar!! Tar!!!


The Pulse weaver in its magnificent rolled out even more SCRs this time, fully charged, tearing up the shelter of the retributor, reducing the thick blockade into pieces of dented and scrapped metal.


“hey retributor, you must be lost or something, imagine coming to fight the typhoon gang and you decided to come take us all on your own, I feel insulted really, you guys might be bineth’s lab rats but that doesn’t mean you can take us all on your own!”

typhoon came out of the storage container, this time, in the cockpit of an TWARR-M3.

“Target found!” the A.I voice over of the TWARR was quick to spot the retributor in his hideout.

“found you, now let’s see what this baby can do!”

typhoon pressed hard on the weapon’s joystick, releasing dozens of SCRs with so much pleasure, he was always one who loved the violence of cyber warfare and if there was anything like a cyber warfare, it was better having the most powerful and destructive weapon-wares and there was a time the likes of the Tactical Weaponized Assault Response Robot Vehicles were the biggest and the sickest, these seemingly indestructible metal beasts towering 20feet tall could pummel an entire legion of nobodies and a small colony to dust within minutes with its weapons haul and even though he was riding a no-good and out of commissioned TWARR, its available weapons could still do a clean job.


The shells came running down as the retributor kicked into a defensive position, generating a seismic proton shield that deflated the bullets as fast as they came, causing a quick depletion of the armor’s power.

Out of nowhere, another retributor joined the scene, landing on top the TWARR and smashing the heavy shelled structure with simultaneously blows that immediately destructed the TWARR letting the other retributor take off the other cyber criminals as quickly as possible.

Typhoon is able to escape out of the cockpit as the TWARR crashes to the ground under heavy blows, he is quickly reunited with his pulse weaver and continues fighting.

“I am not going anywhere you spumks! If I die, you all are coming with me!” he blasted more rounds even killing one or two of his men in the process yet without a care in the world.

One of the retributors pulls out an eight ton machinery out of the wall with his mechanized hands and hauls it at typhoon who tears it apart with his laser eye beam but that was the distraction allowing the other retributor to close the distance in a short bust of insane speed, dropping kicking the pulse weaver out of typhoon’s hand and launching his fist into the throat of the cyber terrorist.

The impact throws typhoon off the ground and far back into some piece of machinery but typhoon isn’t given a second chance for a comeback, the retributor is quick again to dodge typhoon’s eye laser beam aimed at him, rocketing a leg kick into the face of the terrorist, the impact totally crushes the head of the criminal spewing nuts, metalic fragments, blood and bone.

“f*vking spumk!” his voice box altered in a dreary and painful chromatic tone before his power box went offline completely.



TO BE CONTINUED.

I am still heart broken about yesterday match lol okay guys let me drop the update, sorry for been late.

Chapter One - Part B



CHAPTER ONE - PART 2


"Who the fvck are you, greenie?" The sergeant asked taking off his helmet, realizing his back up was a freshman and not a seasoned retributor.

"My name...my name is Mace 11-230, I only responded to the emergency..."

"Kid, that was a security level 2 threat emergency call, don't you fvcking spumks read the handbook anymore?" Midas asked irritatingly, drawing closer to the greenie who was still covered in typhoon's blood and biomaterials.

"Am sorry...I didn't...."

"Oh forget it, I would have been a mess sitting here all by myself, those guys really went wild with that weaver, didn't they?"

Midas scoffed as he began to ran his armor diagnostics.

He seemed taken aback by the level of damage he managed to take under fire a while ago.

"Kid lemme have your back up power core, My armor is depleted!" Midas said taking off his dried out power core from his armor whilst the greenie checked for his spare.

"Oh ehm, I don't have any spare, you see I was on a routine surveillance..."

"The Emergency Scene Response and Clean up Team will be around (checked his time) in 15 minutes, you will be fine, lemme have your power core, kid" midas asked unblinkingly.

"Yeah well but the handbook says that..."

"Fvck the handbook, who reads the handbook? Kid I got somewhere else to be, do you want to disobey a commanding officer or follow orders and take credit for this mess, am sure they will reward you with a few tags high up on the scale," midas scoffed as his junior reluctantly gave him his power core after de-armoring but it was that moment Midas had powered up his armor that a whoosh sound followed by a rocket propelled concussive grenade RPCG had been fired, sweeping the freshman off the ground in a blink.


a chance event had given midas a small opening to swerve and hit the ground safely before raising his armor's shield, the greenie unfortunately with no armor didn't stand a chance, blown to infinity, armor and flesh scattered up in the air.


"Gru, easy with the RPCG, we need the other one alive, he needs to be alive if we want his Binets!"

Shark, the leader of a much sophisticated cyber gang and his men appeared almost out of nowhere as midas came under fire from all direction.

"You all are gonna regret killing greenie, I will kill you all!" Midas said angrily, behind his fast depleting shield.

"Security threat level reanalyzing.... Level 3....Binets activating!" Midas grinned scornfully.
He could feel his wickedness surging through his veins, the power flowing through his muscles, his armor been absorbed by his bodyware, in an instant Midas Binet came online.

"Now you spumks are screwed!" Midas lowered his shield,
Letting His binethically armored bodyware ricocheting the SCRs with no damage taken.

"That's not all I can do, babies!" He grinned, morphing his hands into much meaner and powerful mechanized arms.


He created a powerful shock wave just slamming both arms together, the impact shock wave. blew the gang apart



Shark swerved out of the way and landed clumsily on one of who he thought was his.

"Get up and stop him!" He ordered angrily turning to face the masculine behemoth that seemed 7 feet tall , the character looked like a much vicious Wesley snipe's blade character, bulky, sturdier, definitely powerful and eyes that glowed red, an indication of a neural bodyware modification.

"What the hell..."

John executed one of the most brutal take downs that crippled the cyber terrorist in flash seconds.

He delivered a splitting kneel kick into shark's jaw ripping his modified shark jaw off his head, before pushing his feet into shark's chest, kicking out pieces of his spine through the back.

Shark went offline immediately.

"What the hell?" One of the cyber terrorist asked in confusion, tightening his grip around his weapon.

John released his binethically neural linked Kasaber sword.

Gun fire filled the atmosphere and with John, cyber terrorists tried to match the odds.

Now a note on John's sole weaponry.

The kasaber weaponry is the last of a class of weapons first designed to combat heavily armored cyber terrorists in The Asia country of Ashenia.

The sword like weapon was built for all kinds of combat protocols.

Its ever constant morphing matter state allows it to change size and shape, soon outdated due to the expensive and production limits.


With neural enhanced binethic capability, john had showed great skill and versatility as a modern cyber retributor.

He levitated the sword using his neural link, spinning it so fast, it was too easy for the rotating blades to deflate the bullets as they came.

Making a copy and sending that copy across the field, decapitating the hands of two cyber terrorists and plunging the duplicate into another's skull.


"About time you dumb ass!" Midas said as john joined the fight, sending spikes of blades across the battle field.

In less than 3 minutes, john and midas were done just as ESRCT drones and personalities arrived on scene.

"Are you guys okay?" Saxo, S.O.W's ESRCT Director came through to the duo through their comms.

"We got a casualty, a freshman," midas said.

Taking an eye off the drones and letting them run through john's frame; sludged down besides the dead freshman, investigating.

"His power core is missing!" John said turning to Midas as Saxo listened on the conversation.

"He dried it out before those spumks came in, poor kid, didn't see the missile coming !" Midas lied under a hard stare by john.

"Isn't that like the third greenie we have had going under within the month, Cox is going to flip her lid when she hears this, alright the ESRCTs can carry on from there, you lads return to base," saxo cut the line.

"John, we should talk!" Pluckett came on line via john's private comm channel.

"Pluck, what do you want?" John asked still investigating the scene of the crime.

"I found a lead who can get us to the buyer, he is a bit of a tricky spumk, I need a backup" pluckett revealed.

"Get one of the daughters, pluckett I got a situation of mine,"

"I will send you a file on a nut-job, cool guy with very oddly powerful bodyware you might be interested in," pluckett said terminating the call.

The sent data display came up quickly attracting midas to the scene.

The display centered on a gang war between the cyber rivas and the hardwires, the object of focus was faux, leader of Rivas, a nut job and bodyware-addict, his latest bodyware was a full binethically enhanced left arm.

"Did he just shoot purple colored lasers out of his hand?" Midas asked.

"Yes, he did!" John said.

Nothing surprising about this except that colored laser was unique to a retributor by the name McCain Ellis who was found killed and decapitated, his bineths were said to be missing.
It came as a surprise earlier that month and had taken sky city aback.

Bineths were personalized down to the user's DNA making them unaccessible and unusable by anyone else.

"Shark and his gang, they were saying something about keeping me alive for my bineths , they wanted me alive, is it possible that..."

"I have to go, I will catch up with you later ...." John turned to leave and then stopped.

"Mid, its a shame the greenie died, wasn't it?" John asked, he didn't wait for a reply but rather left the scene soon afterwards, leaving midas wondering if he knew what he had done.

Yh

AUTHOR


Something special might be coming this june

CHAPTER ONE - PART 3




“still trying to get drunk, i see!” john announced his presence coming from behind as pluck downed a fourth glass of whatever the bar robot had served; something many wouldn’t dare let down their throat.

Pluck was a female and formidable cyber super soldier with a strange nack for violence.

The feamle retributor spotted her own hybrid polymethium carbon exo-armor and kept her eyes from the view of the general public with a visor which made her quite intimidating when she wanted to be.

“38 down and eternity to go, i tell you the black coffess still has the best service in the whole of this dump,” she welcomed him.

“no drinks,”

“(laughs)your lose john, still grumpy as always, can we...anyway (clears throat) straight to business then,”

She got up and for a moment almost stumbled prompting an on looker to attempt helping her but john had intervened holding up the stranger’s hand so he didn’t.

“you really don’t want to do that!” John replied as the drunk pulled his hand out of john’s grip.

“Get off me, you stupid spumk!”
Pluckett made one swift turn, landing a left hook on the jaws of the stranger; ofcourse her left hand was a full polymethium body ware.

“i had it under control, pluckett!”

“what? You had it under control but he was about to pull out another foul word on you, i should have killed him but there is alot of that tonight once you hear me out, so come on, back stage!”

They made their way out to a more private spot where no one could spy on them, there pluckett beamed the previous sent data.

“faux is our man, multiple confirmations put him as the buyer of mccain ellis’s binethical arms, somehow there is a new market and we are the products, john,” Pluckett said in a distasteful manner .

“if we can find a buyer then we can find the supplier and if we can find the supplier, perhaps we can force bineths hands on further production of binethical nanites,”

“(laughs sarcastically) poor john, you think big corpo would shut down their most advanced technological invention because of some lab rats who couldn't keep their toys? (laughs) listen johnny boy, we retros look out for retros, you know that better than anyone else do, we got to get to faux,”

“ i am guessing you have...”

pluckett beamed a map with an active moving object that caught john’s eyes. “ how did you get those coordinates?”





“not my coordinates, those are ghosts, they got faux, somehow those spumk bastards managed to get faux, it happens they have been on the spumk for some time, got their CRS-Xs to do the heavy job tonight, they are already transporting him to Death Haven,”

“if they are already doing that, then we can’t do shit, can we? rules of engagement keeps us from...”

“(laughs sinisterly) the rules say we can’t interfere but it didn’t say we can’t interfere if suddenly the ghosts are ambushed by faux’s men after been tipped freely by an unknown source, then suddenly another faction of cyber terrorists can just breeze in and take out faux and his men and a bunch of ghosts in the process, butch would have an headache explaining how retros got involved in that shit,” pluckett grinned.

“sounds like you got it all figured out,”
“i got it all figured, it’s gonna be like old times johnny boy, you got my back and i got yours, but i do the interrogations this time, i got a bone to pick with faux,” pluckett said vengefully.

***************


“what the f**k, where the hell is john? Where is he?” Saxo asked as mildas checked himsef into the weapons observation center.

“his girlfriend called,” mildas said dumping the pulse weaver into the observation chamber that began to run a series of analysis whilst the duo watched.

“which do you think is worse, watching you work or watching your gadgets do your work?” mildas grinned.

“my work keeps you guys safe,”
“no kidding, classifying a threat worth level 3 as level 2 is one of your many great feats, remind me to give you a medal for trying to kill me more times than my crazy ex-wife,”

“me? Kill you, isn’t that cox’s work, the lady has been screaming her head over butch’s revelations all morning,”

“butch, who still listens to that crazy pyscho,”

“alot of people, in fact butch’s personal streaming channel has gone up a notch, he is climbing fast, the people want someone to blame, they can’t unfortunately blame the corpos so they go for easier targets and you guys aren’t making it so hard for them...”
There was some sadness in saxo’s voice as he turned on the TV where a reported beamed at mildas’s face.

“RETRIBUTOR LOSSES CONTROL IN FREAK CAR ACCIDENT, KILLS 8 AND INJURES 21”

“Well, they can bark and cry for all i care, we are still the spumks who keep the f**king city clean, so they can all kiss my...”

“hold on, where did you get this pulse weaver?” saxo interrupted, he had that face that told mildas he was on to something; damn brilliant techie he was.

“from where you almost murdered me, deepsh*t, the leader had that strung around his neck like some psycho lead guitarist, he played death!”

“(chuckles) nice one, i see you are trying to improve on your jokes, no seriously, where did you get this piece of hardware?” saxo beamed out a section of the pulse weaver into a floor screen which projected a 3D digital imagery of the part for clearer observation.

“what are we looking at, saxo and use words not techs, i have got to understand what you are sending that devil of a woman before she blows this to sh*t,”

“this is has been modified and upgraded, someone modified and upgraded a military class 3 hardware using barely standard issued parts,” saxo said, almost impressed as he went deeper into the scanned imagery, separating parts from parts, studying the connections and connectors.

“a mod-pulse weaver, really? I did thought for a moment that thing was beaming alot of scgs, wait does that mean you also failed to analyzed the situation and put it up on a level 3, jeez, did i just escape death again?” mildas asked, almost thoughtfully.

“nah, i am sure you would have been fine, see this (drags a part out for mildas to see) that is a Scithium cooler, meant for smaller gadgets, if he had decided to fire the weaver just one more, he could have lost his face, hands and limbs, this cooler was already gone as you see but the intricate programming and engineering of this weapon is quite brilliant, this is really good work,”

“sometimes i wonder who you work, the bad guys or the good guys!”

“me, i am just techie, techies got no sides except cox is picking a side,” saxo smiled before dismissing mildas who walked out, quite uncertain about saxo’s current mental health.

Chapter One Part 4


Somewhere in the undernet, beyond the long arms of the laws and retributors, the criminal underlings and their sponsors and benefactors thrived, the ever tight knit cyver meta verse careened the efforts of designers and modders of various ages and for various purposes to what it was today.


A virtual space unaccessible to the majority of neon city, a safe haven for all who had something to hide.

Speaking about neon city, over the last courses of events such as the fourth world war, horde devastation, five names have stood firm and struggled for ultimate power and recognition in the undernet-world , The cyber- sakuga, led by Tochi Kazawa; a firm grisly character who started out as a police trooper before turning rotten , led the cyber-gang with a strong arm that demanded loyalty above all else, his name topped the list of lists of baddies with a huge bounty of 150 million digits, slightly behind trailed The Chromaes led by Austin Cage, An old mysterious figure said to have made his digies as a protégé designer, in fact there were links he had something to do with the horde virus at some point, of course cyber hacking was his and his gang's domain and for some reason, even most retributors seem to shudder at the top of claiming his bounty, a whopping 120 million digies.


The Roulettins has always been a tight family business ran by a once wealthy Russian family, the russevs, they had fallen prey to a cyber -fraud that impoverished the head boy, Mr. Russev Almatov, he died in a mod room wanting to sell his organic parts for a bit to feed his family, 15 years later, The new head is Sakav Roulettins, A woman of chroma infussed double pantheon steel literally, sakav have over the years made millions of digies in the illegal trading of organic body parts, anyone ever wanted meat, you get it for the right price whilst her many operations could have been pushed off the top lists of criminals, her repayment schemes for disloyalty, betrayer, lies and deceit (a trait that can't be helped in the undernet) included all the terrible things many refused to talk about alias the slogan "don't f**k with a Roulettin, you won't live to see the outcome!", The Bastard five, comes in forth, a total reject by the retribution cooperation, Alan Gokov, Martin Ornelli, Screw Binger, Foxy-Nine and Blackin the founders of this cyber terrorist group could be describe as the house sweepers in the undernet, with no specialty or choice of operations, the bastard five is a reject even by the top criminal elements of the undernet for lack of some sort of ethical codes, the so called " honor among thieves "

Bastard five has long been a thorn in the hearts of all, their many operations steamed from the dirtiest and laziest to the most sophisticated and cleanest operations, cyber hacking, nets swapping, body trading, cyber-offloads, even burglary was never out of the question.

They among others had the largest followings and gang members activity making them a popular treat for retributors however over the recent years, there has been a notion of their activities been funded by overzealous private entities and then there is Roman Dest aka Robin hood ; a new age not like the oldies before him, said to be the illegitimate son and heir of one of the biggest cooperations in the world, Permatech Globals, Roman has made an unusual name for himself in neon city for his cyber hacking skills and authentic high class designer gears and mods that many says rivals those of Austin cage and his gang, Roman a one man rule the world has been a voice to the poor and totally forgotten in the city, attacking private entities and their many secret off net accounts to feed off the poor and needy hence the name Robin hood, robin hood is an exceptional case of an anti-hero who has been known to help all sides of the law provided he was credited for the job, a genius level hacker with a sense of pride and a code of morality if you may call it, these five have battled for supremacy until the now.

"If this is some joke, I can promise you by the Time I am done with you all, none of you will be laughing!" Sakav Roulettin warned.

The scene had startled her, it was one she hadn't seen for quite a while, right there in the undernet space , all other nine (counting all members of the bastard five) were present within that space, they even seemed not to be arguing or threatening chaos.

"Madam sakav, we have been waiting, come take a seat!" Austin Cage asked, quite a polite spumk he was.

"What is this? If this is some..."

"I can assure you, anyone of us would rather be f**king with some hordie than seating here in the same space with you all!" One of the bastard five outrightly said.

Such was the tension in this near life digital space all five suddenly found themselves in.

"Are we all calm the f**k down?" Tochi said finally, he held some sort of authority here and his due respect was given by the others , who nodded silently.

"Two weeks ago, a division of my crew got a hit, it was supposed to be an easy job with a good price tag on it, around 25 million digies, an HSC (hit 'n' swap 'n' clone) job, I sent in my too boys, they got it done in record time only for them to be hijacked on their way out, someone hacked their modd and instantly made them
Bait for every gang across a mile stretch, none of them made it out." Tochi concluded.

"I got a job around same time, some private corpo head needed some files erased from the cooperation's database to clean his money laundering trail, I got one of my boys to do it, the pay out was good enough, It was a level 5 system security encryption database, meaning the only way in was within..."

"Huh!?" Roman scoffed, drawing everyone's attention to him for a moment, there was the uneasiness between roman and Austin that announced their rivalry wherever they went or were, even now it couldn't be helped.

"...as I was saying, he got in, cleared the files, stole some , replaced some and took his leave but not before something or someone tried by passing his neural firewall and hacking him, in the end, my people use my tech to delimit bypasses and designers hack yet someone or something tried it," Austin explained.

There was a bit of silence before Roulettin and the others relieved themselves of almost similar cases that had happened to them, supposedly small jobs with big rewards botched by some unexpected and undetermined entity, even roman was not left out of the saga.

"I reached out to Tochi who reached out to the bastard five and you all seated here to confirm out suspicion!"

"What is that? You think someone has finally decided to grow some liver and take us all down at a go?" Roulettin asked, with some mockery in her voice.

"Let them try, they won't see the night of the day!" Another of the bastard five boasted.

"I would like to propose a truce between all five of us for now, you all may not like it but if there is some one targeting our operations with such sophistications that rival ours, we will need to be cautious and be on the lookout, it is possible, those attacks will not be the last, we need to know who or what this is about, Austin and roman..." Tochi paused and sent his accident data file across the space which both cyber hackers downloaded automatically.

"..that's my accident file, don't try to f**k with me, it is been cleaned already, use it, see if you can find anything,"

The others soon released their accident files as well, the two cyber hackers were frenemies at this point, bonded by a common cause.

"Stay on the alert, those retro spumks might be on to something this time around, keep your eyes out, do the rounds before you take a job, its bad business if it smells good money, we will converge here when Austin and roman call us up!"

With that Tochi had went off the undernet, likewise Roulettin, and the bastard five. Yet Austin and roman stayed for a bit more.

"What was that at the start of my speech?" Austin asked.

"I don't know what you are talking about?" Roman lied.

"You think there was a better way other than a neural hacking, didn't you? ...."

"Of course there is always better way than your way, its why I get the job done and I know what happened to your boy, that so called attempt, you may have lied to save your reputation but I know your boy got wiped off his data, the attack on your boy swept him off, trying to save face here isn't going to help you but I am not going to snitch you out on that, soon everyone would realize you and your chromaes got nothing to offer to the new world anymore, see you soon!"

Roman went offline, leaving Austin to ponder deeply upon the kid's words. He grinned dully and remained in the space long enough to download a mysterious cache file off roman's absence space.

"Kid, even the new world isn't ready for what I can do but I hope you are!" He concluded.

Chapter One Part 5


"Hey Johnnie boy, listen I am sorry I wasn't planning on melting the spumk, he was trying to get away and the CSRs weren't..."

"We hit another dead end tonight, I can't keep you on a leash pluckett and that's gonna hit us differently each time we are on a job and I am running out of jobs with you, we needed him Alive, that easy, so you fix this, call me when you got something, for now, lay low, butch and his gang of troopers would be sniffing up the entire scene and soon after every damn retro in the city!"

John cut off comms before pluckett could say anything, the mission was a complete disaster, somehow the CSRs were better armed and prepared for the transport than Any of them were.

Whilst he drove down town, Fredd called in; a trooper down district II who owed him a favor for life and had been a great help and a great friend along his line of duty.

"Johnnie, we got the kid again, yeap! was found on 2nd street spray painting private property and causing public disturbance, he is climbing up the ladder fast!" fredd revealed.

"Okay, I am on my way, get him off the impound, Mrs Pearson would bark her head off if anything happens to the kid!"


John replied, his conversation with fredd had been threatened by incoming calls by mildas still has paid no attention to it, tonight had been quite uneventful, trip back to headquarters wasn't on his play card so he switched gears and increased his speed down the lane.

A few more minutes passed by before he arrived at the district's impound.

Where everything impounded was kept waiting upon fulfilment of various fines before release. Fredd's man at the impound had been waiting quite impatiently, john wasn't the only one did business with hence his impatience.

"I want to go back home, now!" Rolland groaned annoyingly.

"Shut the hell up for the seventh time I say! You are one f**king spumk I tell you, you had ..."

"I will be taking the kid now!" John replied announcing his presence as Rolland sensor's picked him up.

"Uncle Johnnie, you are here, did mummy send you to get me?!"

"Get into the car!" John replied as the car door opened to which Rolland strolled to, happily.

"I know a friend of a friend who can get you a much cleaner deal than that piece of tin can, its not worth a memory chip inside, causes a lot of..."

"Thanks but I am good!" John returned back to the car, it was going to be long ride back, a familiar one though riddled with questions about everything except the obvious fact that he was an outdated and obsolete robot series fitted with an improved bio- memory chip of a 12 year old.

Such was the strangeness of the cyber dystopian.

Nothing really was ever lost and for old Mrs Pearson his caretaker and next door neighbor, the horrific accident that led to her son's death had opened up a new experience for her, adopting all forms of cybernetic life forms including Rolland, a manual who had been poached for parts but somehow found haven in Mrs Pearson's arms.

Rolland was cherished by Mrs Pearson and somehow the manual seemed a little bit more than he truly was even to him.

"Uncle johnnie, what does spumk mean?"

"Why are the neon lights so colorful?"

"What's better a landcraft or an hovercraft?"

"Have you been to district 3 before?"

The questions could go from endless very intelligent to plainly obscure and strange yet it asked with such innocence and desire for the truth, it felt human most times.

More human than the most advanced androids that walked to and fro the streets of district 3.

After handling Rolland over to his mom, refused to stay for tea, refused to have a plate of apple pie and refused to be drawn into issues bothering the society, Mrs Pearson had said her thanks and he was free to get back to his life.

He found his self back In his apartment pretty quickly and undressed; his bathtub was ideal for him to enjoy whatever moment he could.

"Hey, John, cox wants you in first thing tomorrow, she is blowing a lot of lids over the greenie who died on mission with mildas, she wants a full debriefing and a trauma evaluation report, she thinks mildas must have f**ked the poor kid up!"

"Okay, got it, did you burn the F.C.W.Rs?"

"Of course I did, why do you think she is asking you to come in, mildas definitely f**ked the kid up, cox is gonna be so mad she isn't getting anyone to pin the mess on!" Saxo chuckled.

"Good job, stay on her, will you and what about the old man?"

"Old man has been silent, got retirement on his mind, maybe I mean cox is everywhere, what do you think the old man will be doing once he retired, play golf on Sundays, that's just terrifying!"

"See you tomorrow saxo!"

It didn't really matter whatever had happened, a retirbutor's life was marred in violence and enough gore to last a lifetime.

That thick skull would get in a lot of trouble if he wasn't around to clean his mess, he sighed dully and let the water swallow him up to his waist line, a cold beer sounded just right , somewhere in the room, he managed to turn on the music, the old world had great music taste.

"Night Spills by Punk kid" rented the air over the player blasting a funky ethereal sound as the lone retributor sunk into his darkness.

Chapter Two Part One



Somewhere in district II, The car park elevators sluggishly cranked open. The visitor had just installed a new organ mod to better suit his other needs.

"The SE-8X is an copy upgrade of a prototype stolen off permatech corporations, I got one of them Chromaes to sell out, if you want it you gotta pay big, 12k digits, more but no less!" The designer revealed fancying the mod before the visitor; an ex-retributor turned bounty hunter by the name miles Hank.

He made his way out of the elevator still feeling a bit screwed up, the pain inhibitor drugs pumped in hadn't really done enough to minimize the after effect of the 18minute mod operation still it was worth it, he thought.

He connected to his car and seemed to wait for a signal but the car hadn't responded but this hadn't tipped him off yet that something else was going on down the dark and lonely car pack.

For his craft had been begging for some massive repairs and upgrades; changes he had delayed over the course of the last three months.

He groaned dully and continued to walk past the rows and sections of hovercrafts and landcrafts.

"What the hell is going on here?" He murmured suspiciously as he began to realize his vehicle was neither where it ought to be.

"Miles hank,"

The female voice was as cold as steel, ominous and much to be revered, its echo seemed to bounce off every steel components that formed a mod off the ex retributor's body.

He turned quickly, producing a standard SCR-glock.

His scanners attempted finding the source of the voice but quickly turned up scrambled.

"Who said that?" He growled cautiously turning around, eyes pitched to pick even the slightest movement.

A dark chuckle emanated from somewhere as footsteps trailed his presence.

"F**k this!"

He broke his composure, there was really no confidence to stand his ground and with the elevator door still close by, safety was to be found in numbers he concluded.

He turned quickly and made for the door only to have zapped by something that seemed to disarm him in one instant, wasn't a human, an android or something else he cared not as he intensified his push for the door.

"Running away so easily, I am disappointed!" The voice came from behind.

Her speed was unparalleled by anything within the area.

In a blur, she had reaped hank's head , allowing his body to slump on the elevator door and fall to its doom.

Kath, stood proud of her execution, their mission had been a success.

"Get the body, We will pry it off any mods that's worth a dime!" She said.

Her cohort only revealed when he walked into the flickering light in the car park, stood over 7.8 meters tall, a hulk of a man, a total disjointed piece of flesh and metal, a horrible cyber freak show that scared the shit out of any man; Grundy was a sad story much too familiar on the streets of the city.
Once a metal worker turned mercenary for hire, his lack of intelligence had made it quite an ordeal to carry out reputable jobs all by himself and had found no relevance in the under net world but there came Kath, ex trooper, ex-retributor and private militia personnel, the smart one who had given his muscles purpose.

They dragged the body off the scene and light out a mild-EMP grenade wiping off whatever evidence that could have been left off the scene.

They were ghost workers working for a ghost with an unusual shopping list that paid them handsomely upon each success they had and tonight was just one heck of a successful night.


It would take another fifteen to thirty minutes before the state trooper or private emergency teams would be called to the scene , another scene that was getting swept cleaned by members of the state trooper force was a rather bizarre that had happened some hours ago.


Butch Hartman was a sturdy cowboy character whose face was as unique as the scar that ran down his eye lid to his chin, he was an authoritarian and pacifist whose dealings with the law had been somewhat obscured by hatred and phobia for the retributors and private bodies, his gaze fixed on a mix of Brain matter in a putrid bloody mess.

It was a cyber gang member whose skull had been left with a gaping hole, it seemed the scene was littered with such and assault robot personnel and vehicles belonging to the ghosts and their would be attackers.

"How many minutes do we have left?" He asked wiping his nose off as he made to go check on another bloody mess.

"Not enough, sheriff, they are probably 10-15 minutes away!" his subordinate replied.

There was never enough time but he was adapting really fast, according to the first Correspondence emergency laws, he had the scene for as along as the retros hadn't arrived yet and thanks to one of his many tip off channels that poured in dozens of tips for a little dime or more he had secured this scene as the first correspondent, but a quick breakdown of what had happened seemed inconclusive even now.

A 3D holographic after-event map had only rendered just about what they thought; members of the cyber gang leader been transferred by the ghosts had hijacked transport and that had led to a gun battle.

The massacre was an eye sore.

"Just look at him, he must be so over the moon barking orders and taking charge over nothing!" An older colleague or Reece Willson; a greenie of the state trooper force whose first job happened to be that night.

"what? You mean butch?"

"No, I mean that sack of bagels whose gonna get us in a lot of trouble in the next few minutes if we don't leave this damn scene?"


"But he is doing the right thing after all, we are here, everyone is working, when was the last time troopers had sh*t to do in the city apart from sitting around in the offices and..."

"Sitting around in the offices keeps us safe, sitting around in the offices ensures we don't lose our limbs, heads or lives over retro business, kid, if you have been here long enough you would know there are reasons while there were amendments to the State Security bi-laws eons again, we troopers are just desk officers, passengers in this rot of a city like everyone else, butch is just using us for his personal glory and fame, putting us in the direct line of unnecessary attention and trouble!"

His older colleague seemed to have unpacked just what about many of the troopers had come to agree; butch was no saint.

"Well at least he got us working again, this uniform stands for something after all, the state troopers have been..."

"Kid, the state troopers have been what they were even before the bi-laws were passed, unprepared and unequipped for these no good cyber terrorists, do you know how it felt going to work, each day felt like it was our last, we were no better than the civilians we swore to protect and even now we sure ain't sh*t but maybe you will, as for me, I have seen enough come and go to know butch's crusade against the retros is just asking for trouble, and when fools make trouble, do you know who pays for it? Everyone!"

Trooper Reece stood there without a reply, sadly elements of truth were etched in his colleagues words about the dangerous lives troopers lived.

He would know a lot about it; his father and mother served this very city till they dropped, it was why he put on the badge, to serve.

Chapter 2 Part 2


S.O.W HEAD QUARTERS - DISTRICT II



"frankly some horse sh*t is going on around here and I don't like it you know why...?"

Cox asked without waiting for an answer from any of the two.

"...because I am loosing money, the S.O.W can not run like this every time, what is this huh? Some sacrificial house for greenies? "

Cox was feigned her surprise very well but she knew john and mildas saw through her charade in fact it was quite the opposite, she had hoped to get a scape goat all week long but each one had threaded with much care in operations and case filings and now she was taking her frustration on her two most beloved operators.

Cox Giovanni was the second in command at S.O.W behind the old man who until now played a more active role, now cox bullied her way into everyone's thought at the corporation.

She had a chromium steel plated jaw that also ran down her throat and down her spine.

Legend has it that, she possessed an uncanny body ware that rivaled the likes of the old man back then, such reports were considered myth and legends in the world of retributors where the old man considered one of the first and greatest pioneer of modern day retributors existed.

Cox was a no nonsense "get the job done" woman who would gladly sacrifice just about anything and anyone for the course if it demanded, she gave no smiles at all and always made it seem she was after everyone; she was after everyone, indeed but she was right at heart, a Darling if she ever wanted to be and a Shepherd the retributors could count on to stick with them and stand by them.

"Boss, it was..."

"Shut the hell up, mildas!" Cox reacted her eyes towering over the two men in her office.

"You guys are getting cocky than the spumks we are trying to clean off the streets, you lads better be careful now, I will not hesitate to cut anyone down who decides to play psycho in the line of duty, I am watching out for all of you and you know it, get the hell out of my office!" Cox commanded indifferently.

Both retributors used the door and came almost face to face with saxo, mildas calm and easy go facial expression exposed his obviously safe ass considerable cox found nothing to make a mess out of.

"I take it she flipped her lid and gave you both some stern warning?" Saxo asked.

"Something like that and maybe a bit more!" Mildas replied.

"Oh that's good meaning she is going to go easy on the rest of us then, alright you ate not gonna like this but..."

Saxo beamed footage of one of the Wait rooms; showing a well suited gent with the bineth global corporation logo on, waiting.

"Who is that?" John asked.

"Helson Olga, New Head of district I operations for bineths, he is here for mildas over his reports!" Saxo revealed.

"My report, What report?"

"Dude, you said the second gang seemed to have said something about keeping you for your bineth, what were you thinking, you somehow work for these rich motherf**kers of course they are gonna come, asking you questions!" Saxo replied with some justification for he had warned the brute over the issuance of his report.

S.O.W reports over the past few months were directed to be shared between S.O.W and their parent company, bineth globals for "research and survey purposes" and whilst they (bineth) seemed not to Interfere over the course of this little adjustment, of recent it had became a normal occurrence to see one of the men in suit walk into the headquarter over something found in one or two reports.

"Ah, sh*t!"

"That's what I said when you decided to play smarty pants with your reports," saxo replied.

"Go talk to them, if you need a shoulder to cry on to, call cox, am sure she would be more than willing to lend you hers, I will be at the training facility when you are done, find me there!"john took his leave.

" and I will be at..."

"Nobody asked you, spumk!" Mildas cut saxo off as he took the way to the waiting room.

"That's the irrational and unhealthy work relationship I will never get used to, enjoy your day,filling files and debriefing your entire history with that f**ker, mildas!" Saxo blasted, his ego quite hurt it seemed.

John hadn't settled down for action when he received a call from the boss himself.

He took the elevator and went straight to the top office building that saw little to no action; the other one person who frequented this section was cox herself.

Hogan drifted slowly and almost lifeless in his support tank a part of him and his entrails remained submerged and ever under constant and careful observation by socket; a level 7 medical care-driod, one of bineth's finest fully custom made, tailored to serve whatever medical purpose it was programmed to.

"Take a seat, john!' The old man's voice came from one of the speakers neural linked to the old man's brain in the office.

"Care for a drink?" Circuit served a glass of whiskey to which john took.

The current state of holgan was not really or fully understood or known by many except for a few within the S.O.W.

Holgan was sick and slowly dying, he had suffered a defect in one of his internal body ware that led to excessive radiation leak into his organs that had slowly caused him to a type-7 synthetic cancer; damage irreparable just managed barely, he was way too old to undergo a transplant to a new body, the prospects was slim considering the delicate nature of his brain.

In medical terms, he was living his best option in the tube and so it stayed whilst cox handled the majority of the operations.

"How have you been boss?" John asked raising a glass to his health.

"Been worse, the usual but circuit has been a real piece of ass lately still I owe it my life," Hogan replied, there was a bit of sadness in his voice.

"We all owe someone our lives, and they all owe bineth shit!"john revealed.

" hahaha, yeah bineth still been a d**k as ever, anyway I got something I need you to handle for me, I want it off the books, John, strictly for your eyes only"

There it was, John's relationship with hogan hadn't really started off on the right foot in fact they barely saw eye to eye until the old man was regulated to a life in a tank then by chance they met and over those times, john had formed an almost unbreakable bond with the top man, this little side gigs comprised of the jobs he did secretly for the old man, nothing much really, some old cases that never got finished, some more personal than the others.

"ST. RUS's orphanage, district 1, some kids totaling 4 have been reported missing over the last two weeks, there is a general suspicion of meat poachers been at work here, normally I would suspect the rouletins but the manner of operations Here have been somewhat secretive and hushed away from the ears of everyone, i did a little bit digging and turns out there has been a series of such; three or four kids taken out of orphanages over the last two months, I need you to find and stop whatever this is, get to it Johnny!" Hogan commanded.

"You got it boss..."

"And Johnny, if you ever consider climbing a bit higher, don't hesitate to let me know, you have been a solid and a great performer, sure the boys would love it to see one of their own climbing up the ladder!"

"Pretty sure the boys would love it but cox is doing a swear of a job and the boys? we love her besides sitting behind a desk isn't my thing, I love getting my hands dirty!" John replied.

"Haha, good luck kid, I want this done off the map and off the record, you hear me, stay safe kid!"

John took his leave and made his way into the busy streets of district III, a district I train station was a few miles ahead.

Chapter 2 Part 3




Rolland waited just the right moment for Mrs Pearson to take her sleeping dose before sliding out of the house without notice, he was already good at evading even the most sophisticated robot in the house, Big-AO and hence when he reached the last block down the street on his skateboard, he seemed satisfied with himself.

"Hey Rollo, you made it, let's go there is no time!" Chloe replied.

Rollo gleaned cheerfully at Chloe; many hadn't realized it but Rollo did like Chloe; his sophisticated chip allowed him to inhibit a few emotions such as love, anger, confusion and even fear.

Chloe was a 15 year old street girl, the leader of a rag tag group of orphan kids who went by the name deserters, by day they worked for less and tried to earn a living whatever means or manner that came but by night, the deserters poached old and abandoned factories and buildings belonging to the old world, such where they hope to find enough treasure to last them a lifetime and maybe live a happy ever life on the off space station world or moon base or even better with the wealthiest of the wealthiest on planet mars.

"Hey, why is he with us tonight?" Choco asked quite upset about Rollo's presence.

Choco was fairly new, another member of a rival gang who had found out he was better off with Chloe and her crew yet he detested Rollo for what he was; a non organic life form, a scrap metal l to be sold.

"Do you have any problem with Rollo?" Chloe asked as four more members joined them.

"Just don't want him screwing us up like the last time, that's all!" Choco lied; in fact he had been the one who made it happen so members of the gang were caught when a trooper came by.

"That wasn't me!" Rollo defended himself.

"Its okay, we know it was you, come on let's go, we don't have much time, we need to beat the other gangs to the place, pretty sure words have gone out already!" Chloe stressed.

She turned up her skates and rocketed out of the scene.

"The last one is a spumk!" She taunted in the distance.

And so the crew zapped through the street, mowing everything and anything they fancied much to jeers from onlookers and concerned citizens; not that they cared it seemed.


They arrived soon after at the location and it seemed anything but promising, a demolished decommissioning building yet the deserters held out hope for something worth their time.

"We all go in twos, so who's coming with?" She asked.

"I will go, I figured you may need some muscles..."

"Pick me, pick me!"

"Super! Rollo let's go!"

Choco stood there dumbfounded for a moment, it was the third time he had been overlooked for a tin can and how he hated it.

'Very soon, I will have my day!' he thought to him self.

Chloe and Rollo blasted their rocket powered skates into the building and with Rollo's PGM ( promixity geomapping ) they had an edge been able to determine hidden or forgotten compartments of the building.

"So it seemed your mom got you out of impound, I was worried about you!" Chloe revealed as they went in deeper.

"Oh no, Johnnie got me out!" Rollo replied.

"The retro?"

"Yeap, the retro, he does it so that my mom can lay off his business, she has a way of getting into everything about you but in a good way and only if she likes you!" Rollo reminded her.

"You mom sounds nice, I wish I had a mom!" Chloe revealed.

"Well, You can get one!"

"Haha, too expensive plus the latest caredriods unit suck but if we find a big haul which I doubt we will tonight I will get a mom, dad and a brother..."

"what about a boyfriend!?"

"What?"

"Ehmm!" He hadn't thought about that before saying it loud but there it was, his hidden affection for her and he certainly wasn't ready to leave with the nightmare that followed for he was still a teenage boy and he felt just about everything one would feel, the awkwardness and guilt, thankfully something had interrupted.

"What's that?" Chloe asked suddenly, Rollo's projected map had started to beep a signal that meant something was ahead.

They got to the spot quickly and as soon as Chloe called on the others to track them, she and her Rollo continued to investigate the scene.

It seemed like the most trashed and damaged area of the building, the repairs and automation section yet the beep hadn't come from there but beneath the surface.

"It's coming from beneath!" Rollo replied.

They soon set out to work, Rollo was a natural in this things, he had inherited some sort of residual intelligence for all things electronics.

He found a damaged power outlet and brought it to life, sharing his power and then went on to patch into the building's AI system or whatever that was left of it.

"What's going on here?" Choco asked as he and others turned up.

"We found something, a hidden part of the building which isn't in the building's blue print, Rollo is..."

Chloe hung up as a secret elevator opened just behind a set of damaged shelves.

"...now that's a good boy!" Chloe beamed with a smile that made Rollo excited the more.

The crew went in and and descended into the unknown and soon after they arrived at yet again another section that housed a massive collection of older robots, antiques, gadgets and prototypes of unknown origins, yet they hadn't realized the danger they were in for their presence had tipped off a group of very high profiled mercenaries.

"Yes! Look at all this, wow! Yes!" Chloe beamed with gladness as they walked into the large space filled with bots and nuts, each with a price tag that would get a citizenship on mars if they wished.

"Rollo you did it!" she placed a kiss on Rollo's cheek sending a massive overload of current down the spine of the bot.

"That's a ASPR-prototype, my big brother says an ASPR could fetch around 360k digits a prototype would sell triple the amount! Do you understand what this means?" Choco asked half ecstatic and half shaken by the loot.

"Well it means, the next time you see me, I am gonna be mod up in platinum bodyware 100%, I am gonna be on Mars, maybe own a couple of businesses in district III and maybe on the moon or on the..."

"Guys, look at this!" Rollo called out, soon after he regained his self from a kiss he had been drawn to something else hidden from plain sight.

"What is that?" Choco asked.

"I don't know, it looks like a prototype of some chipset, its still in its cryo tube" Someone replied.

"Yeah but look at the frame, it says..."

"Bineth Industries!"

"Bineth industries, that can't be right bineth is a mega global corporation..."

"Well according to their database, a little history dating back to close to the end of the fourth world war and the threat of a fifth, Bineth first came into existence as a small time weapon manufacturing industry for the..."

"Wait, does this mean?"

"It would appear, we may have just stumbled into one of Binet's older facility dating back to..."

Phiash!

Lazer bullet cut off the arm of choco before anyone could react, his scream came consequently as they all came under huge gun fire that instantly killed another member.

"Take choco and go, I will cover you all!" Chloe said mounting her stun whip blaster on her hand.

"No, you go, I will..." Rollo's words fell into chaos as someone threw a stun grenade into their midst.

The resulting explosion rendered all of them unconscious quickly.

chapter 2 part 4


The city trooper headquarters had suddenly come into spot light for Mr. Osazuki Morusaki, Head of The Ghosts Retribution.

It was quite rare to see one of these top boss walk into a trooper headquarter but there he was in the flesh; literally for osazuki was one of the few known retributors who solely relied on external weaponry; a strong believer and follower of the fleshist Movement, a group who believed bodywares were a disease and a corruption to the human soul.

He was of good age to be considered retirement but there is a popular saying "it is better to try and outrun 100 cyber terrorists than 1 old retirbutor".

" why is Mr. Osazuki, here!?" Reece asked his older colleague, much too confused about the old man's presence.

"Well, butch certainly bleeped it up it seems, remember their scene we cleaned, I don't think the old man is happy about it!"

Osazuki went straight to butch Hartman's office uninvited; the chap had just conducted one of his many anti-retributor on-net session when his visitor walked in.

"Mr. Osazuki!?"

"Mr butch, so good to see you!" Osazuki took his seat, eyes steady on his host.

"To what do I own..."

"Do you know why 85% on-field retributors I employ and work with daily are androids, humanoids and robots, Mr. Butch?" Osazuki asked.

"Ehmm, well I figured it must have been because of the accident..."

"F**k the accident, do you think my last 8 years have been motivated by self pity or a need to prove something if you think so then you are clearly mistaken, Loyalty, Efficiency and Neutrality, If you pay a retributor well enough, tell them how nice and special they are, maybe they won't sh*t on you, maybe they can just be loyal and efficient but neutrality, the ability to act without compromise or sentiments, hah alas, a human's greatest weakness and it is why I..."

"Ghosts..they are invincible, oh they are neutral, I see..."

"You finally see it, I have been watching you for some time now, Mr. Butch, in fact I am an ardent follower of a few channels, I may have my personal opinions about your Inquisition about retributors in general but none the less, I do not see you as an enemy hence I decided to drop this message for you, I know you and your men sought to reclaim this city, pry it out of our hands, I have no problem with such, competition is good business but let me warn you, the next time you compromise my employees either dead or alive, on scene or off-scene, on-net or off-net , I will make sure to give you a well deserved reply, do I make myself clear?" Osazuki's words could have cut through polymethium steel.

Butch gulped harder than usual, even the sweat off his face seemed to have defied time out of fear.

"It was a slip of...I mean I gave the order but I can assure you that ...I will have them deliver your bots to you personally, I just wanted to be..."

"You have 2 hours, to get every nuts and bots, parts and piece of scrap metal registered to me and my company which you took off my scene returned to me, Mr. Butch!"

"Wait, there is something I think may be helpful to you sir, I mean ..."

"What is it?"

"The scene, we found traces of bineth in what killed the primary target, the analysis came out some minutes ago, your team was set up, someone hacked and leaked your intel, a cross-retro job maybe, I think we can help each other Here if I do say so my self,"

"And here i thought there was a man who could be neutral, without sentiments even, 1 hour and 57 minutes remaining, Mr. Butch!" Osazuki took his leave leaving butch to wonder if he did listen to anything he had to offer.

But of course osazuki knew all this even before the attack had began, it was quite unfortunate the primary target was already enroute to death haven and communications had been compromised, even now he was close to finding out who took out one of His top teams and killed his prize target.


Meanwhile somewhere in district III

"Talk!" Mr.Olga barked at the unidentified incoming caller.

"There is a small issue needed reporting,"

"So, report!"

"there was a short circuit hack at one of the old towers, a power grid tap was registered some hours early,"

"What district is this and can you verify the source?"

"District II and negative, it was primitive and quite insufficient for geomapping, what would you want us to do?"

"There are 8 facilities within the district, send some maintenance drones, find out if it was some glitch or something else then report back to me!"

"Yes Sir,"

"And listen, keep this under wrap, nothing goes to the heads until I say so, we good?"

"Loud and clear!"

Mr. Olga took a back seat, it was days like this that made him wish he was off world, from a crazy bastard spewing nonsense about possible bineth poaching to this yet his new job was worth the hefty pay check, he agreed.

He veered off road into much of the lesser known parts of district III, where the real fun was.

So work is about to resume and I may decide to slow the pace once more. Thank you all for reading. Hopefully, I will be here more often. To drop updates for you all.