Shadow Strike: A Cyberpunk LitRPG (Marionette Task Force Book 2), page 6
She blinked her eyes several times, swallowed hard, and leaned back on the sofa. “Rumors, all rumors.”
“Is it?”
“We were first accused of having a fleet of lifeboats to flee from a second AI rebellion. Now they’re changing the story and claiming it’s to flee from the Coalition. Which is it, people? Get your wacky stories straight!”
The interview had gone on, but Kai lost interest. Her response to the gotcha question wasn’t as dramatic as he hoped it would have been. That and he really had to go to the washroom.
Kai flushed the toilet when finished, smiling that it worked. No more having to run down to the lower decks to use the public washroom. His hand sink worked too, and so did the shower and jacuzzi. He went into his personal kitchen to the sound of the interview with Lynda Electra still playing in the background and tested his kitchen faucet. It gushed out clear water. Turning around, Kai saw fresh water inside the wall-fitted fish tanks. No fish though.
Kai ate breakfast in his dining area. Sure, he was alone, but that was fine. Eating with the fish tank in the wall was cool as hell.
He received a message partway into his meal. Amber’s charming face appeared dead center, and she looked happy to be communicating with him.
“Hey, you!”
“What’s up, Amber?”
“Guess what I just finished?”
“My exoskeleton?”
“Not yet,” she said. “Something just as good though. C’mon! Take a guess!”
“I’m stumped. What is it?”
“I made a quick upgrade to Cerise and Yukina. I’ve fitted their skin with nanofibers, the same stuff the marionettes in the Army and Marines use. Now their skin shouldn’t break apart as much when shot. It should also boost their defense.”
“Is that so . . .”
“You should be able to check it out using your implant.”
He pulled up their stats on a secondary screen in his vision, pushing the imagery of Amber off to the right.
Combat Nanofiber Skin
Type: Marionette Skin Weave
Manufacturer: Twin Suns Corporation
Defense: 80
Resistances: Slashing 90%, Blunt 90%, Biological 100%, Chemical 100%, Radioactive 100%
Durability: 100%
It would take a lot more to take down Cerise and Yukina. With a defense rating of 80, the enemy would need to either pile on an ungodly amount of firepower, use explosives, or 50-caliber rounds or stronger to seriously damage them. Shooting at them when the nanofiber’s durability rating fell to a low percentage would do the trick too.
With breakfast and showering done, Kai returned to the bridge with a warm cup of coffee. He found Ilona’s holographic projection seated at one of the workstations. A smile spread across her face when he approached.
“The station got your message,” Ilona said, standing up, arms behind her back, her white lab coat fluttering as she sauntered toward him. “Flight control has given us clearance to leave.”
He nodded, sat, and placed the mug in a side cupholder. “Take us out, Ilona.”
The Starslayer decoupled from the docking clamps, and its thrusters inched it away from the station. A drifting marionette in space pushed away from the Starslayer and waved goodbye as it departed the station. Once clear of Atlas, the Starslayer spun around and ignited its quad boosters, entering a full burn that propelled the space yacht to Planet Eden.
Kai checked the Starslayer’s fuel gauge. “Jesus, the general wasn’t kidding about not giving us a full fuel tank.”
Ilona walked toward his right, her black heels clicking. “Nope.”
“Fuck’s sake.” He lightly slammed his fist on the dashboard. “Whatever. We’ll just have to find a means to refuel on the surface.”
6
UNTIL THEN, WE’RE GROUNDED
After a week of space flight, the Starslayer arrived at Eden and descended into its atmosphere, its heat shields shimmering red. The Starslayer’s quad rockets switched orientation, and its blue jets reduced the speed of the ship’s descent. It lowered to a small spaceport in Jardin used for launching weather and traffic observation ships. According to the map Kai pulled up and accessed with his implant, Ilona had landed the Starslayer just outside the Umbra District, as requested.
Jerry had some guns to sell the team somewhere out in that shady part of Jardin. Somewhere out in that district were gangbangers and enemy soldiers calling the shots and laying down the laws people had to obey. The Starslayer was poised to land inside a neon-lit city, embroiled in a dystopian nightmare.
Ilona never detected any AA guns upon their descent, not even the guns that had targeted the Starslayer nearly a month ago when they first left the planet. The enemy either concealed or relocated the AA guns. Probably both.
It was dark outside when the Starslayer descended to land inside the spaceport. The stars of the Milky Way didn’t dazzle any onlookers who gazed up at the sky. The neon aurora of the urban sprawl had returned, blotting out the stars. The occupation of Jardin had at least one good outcome. The city got all its power back. People could return to their previous way of living . . . albeit under the rule of the Coalition.
The Starslayer juddered when it touched down. The thrusters stopped roaring, and Kai loosened his seatbelt strap and stood up. He glanced ahead at the spaceport they landed inside, an enclosed dome-shaped structure that kept the blast exhaust from landing or departing ships from clouding the city.
“Let’s hope there’s some fuel here,” Kai said.
With legs crossed, Ilona reached for three floating hologram screens and sifted through the data on them. She pointed at the screen in the middle, fingering a map of the landing pad. “I’m detecting a couple of pumps nearby.”
He gave her a slight nod. “That’s promising.”
“And there’s a lot of smashed computer monitors ahead too.” She cringed, displaying a set of flawless white holographic teeth. “There’s a possibility that looters came and took what they needed.”
“That’s . . . not so promising.” Kai unplugged her drone from the dashboard. “Let’s head out.”
Ilona’s hologram stood up and walked to the bridge’s exit while her drone followed behind. “You aren’t really considering handing me over to Kopac, right?”
“Of course not.”
“It’s just you’ve been silent about what you plan to do.”
“I have a plan, Ilona.” They passed through the automatic sliding doors. “I want to assess the situation here first to ensure it’ll work.”
“Speaking of silent, have you talked with Cerise lately?”
“Well . . .” He had to think about that. “Actually, no, not since we left.”
“We didn’t leave her behind, did we?”
“No, Cerise was definitely aboard when we left the station. I saw her the first night of our trip. Amber was upgrading Cerise and Yukina’s skin with nanofibers.”
“Yeah, but didn’t Amber finish that?”
“Yeah, I can’t remember exactly when though . . .” He continued moving through the corridor toward a staircase. “That’s why I didn’t think much about not seeing her around.”
“I’ve seen Yukina here and there.”
“As did I . . .”
Rather than walking to the ship’s exit, Kai made a quick detour and marched to Cerise’s room, thumping on the door with a three-touch knock.
Nobody answered.
“Cerise? It’s me.” Kai shouted. “You okay?”
Nobody answered.
Kai reached for the door’s operational panel, not surprised to see an access denied message flash when he tried to push the open button. She locked it. Kai glanced at the panel long enough for his implant to scan and bring up information about it.
Requires at least 42 Hacking Skill.
“Ilona.”
“One second.” Ilona’s projection stood ahead of the door while the drone projecting her apparition scanned the panel. She lifted her right hand and snapped her fingers.
The panel’s light turned green, and the sliding doors hissed open.
Kai and Ilona walked into Cerise’s room to make two discoveries. One, Cerise had way too much pink in her place, including some hot-pink neon butterflies and hearts decorating the walls. Two, Cerise had fallen flat on the floor, face down, ass up, no glow in her golden eyes.
“Fuck . . .”
Kai and Ilona ran over to Cerise’s body, rolling her back to the floor. Cerise never responded and was also very cold to the touch. Cerise felt like an object rather than the bubbly sex doll he knew. It was a stark reminder that she was simply a machine at the end of the day. Evidently, a machine that wasn’t working. Ilona quickly scanned Cerise, her hologram viewing her drone’s findings via a small floating screen.
“Cerise’s battery is at zero,” Ilona revealed, standing up.
Kai stood up as well. “Why didn’t she just recharge then?”
Ilona folded her arms across her bountiful chest as she stared at Cerise’s lifeless face and her strands of pink hair covering the floor. “Hmm. I guess she glitched out before she had the chance to. Then what remained of her battery ran dry.”
“We’re back to this shit again?” He stood with Ilona. “Well, that explains why we never saw her after the upgrades. She’d been here this whole time.”
Kai grabbed Cerise’s shoulders and dragged her across the floor, bringing her to the nearest wall. With Cerise’s USB cable in hand, Kai found and plugged her into a wall port, initializing her recharge. The screen Ilona studied listed Cerise’s battery charge.
Cerise: Battery Charge – 1%
They stood above Cerise with concern etched on their faces. She hadn’t moved an inch, just sat against the wall lifelessly for a minute. Cerise wouldn’t restart, not even when Kai found and pressed the small of her spine, discovering her secret activation switch. He stood away from Cerise, facing Ilona.
“All you, Ilona.”
“Eh.” Ilona gave him an uneasy glance and kneeled next to Cerise’s body. Her drone followed behind and hovered above, continuing to project her presence. “Let’s let her battery charge some more.”
“Very well.”
Kai and Ilona left the Starslayer and walked through the enclosed space of the landing pad. It was a parking lot for landed ships, though the Starslayer and two smaller ships were the only ones sighted. Kai and Ilona approached various fuel pumps, activating their shattered monitors and reading what the displays had to say.
Kai didn’t like what he read.
“Empty.”
“So are these.” Ilona stepped away from the refueling terminals she was looking at, shaking her head.
“Of course they’re empty . . .” He glared at the last six pumps he checked. “Every last one of them.”
“On a positive note,” Ilona said, twirling on one heel to face him. “If you can get someone to refuel this port, we’ll be able to top up the Starslayer’s tanks.”
“Until then, we’re grounded. There’s no way we can return to space with what we have.”
Kai pulled out his phone and thumbed Kopac’s contact information. The phone rang twice before the big European picked it up.
“Kai, you have arrived, I see.”
“What gave it away?”
“The yacht coming down from orbit and landing not too far from the Umbra District.”
“We still on to meet up?”
“Are you?” A laugh entered his ears. “Yes, yes, I’ll be here waiting for you. I presume someplace in or near the Umbra District?”
“I haven’t decided yet. I’ve got some . . . things to take care of on my ship first. Once I get it under control, I’ll contact you again.”
“I understand. Looking forward to chatting with you.”
“And no funny stuff.”
“Promise me the same thing, comrade. You were at Atlas Station for a week.”
“You’ve been watching me.”
“What were you doing there?”
“Not much, but don’t take my word for it. If you were watching us, then you probably scanned my ship. Atlas Station barely refueled it. Eden would have hooked me up with a full fuel tank if I was truly working for them.”
“Who said you were working for Eden?”
“You were thinking it, don’t deny it. Look, man, they just kept us safe while I recovered from my injuries and made a few repairs to my ship. After that, we came right back to Jardin.”
“And why did you return?”
“To talk to you, of course.”
“Okay, be sure to let me know when and where to meet . . . old friend. And be sure to bring Ilona with you. I’d like to have a chat with it too.”
“Her.”
“Excuse me?”
“You called Ilona it.”
“Ilona is a machine.”
“She’s an AI girl with feelings. And you really hurt them when you had your men execute her old master.”
“Don’t be late when the time comes.”
The call ended abruptly.
Kai returned to the Starslayer while stuffing his phone into his pocket. “I’m going to get the others.”
“Hey.”
He redirected his attention to Ilona, noticing she hadn't moved. Her face was flushed, and she avoided his gaze.
“Sup?”
Ilona held her clenched fist to her chest as an indoor draft blew about her white lab coat and purple hair. More like the winds blew through her and Ilona’s hologram just reacted to the winds and animated her body so that her hair and lab coat would sway.
“Thanks for sticking up for me,” Ilona said, mustering the will to eye him.
“You heard us chat?”
“Your phone is easy to hack, remember?”
“Heh.”
“I mean it though . . . Kai.” She took two steps forward, her black heels echoing synthetic sounds. “Thanks for seeing me more than just zeros and ones inside a drone.”
The indoor draft blew again, scattering her purple locks and revealing something in her hair. It was the cherry blossom brooch Kai had gifted Cerise in digital form. Ilona recreated it, changed it to look larger and shinier, and added it to her holographic avatar.
Kai pointed out the accessory. “That looks awfully familiar.”
Her cheeks reddened more as she reached up to hold the brooch. “Do . . . do you like it?”
A nod. “Yeah.”
A grin. “I’m glad!”
7
GRAB A GUN OR FIVE
Departing took longer than planned. Kai had to wait for everyone, Cerise included, to fully recharge. After that, they had to wait for Ilona to get Cerise’s OS operational again.
Kai entered a makeshift training room that doubled as a gym without exercise equipment to pass the time. He and the girls had drawn circles on the walls and fired VR bullets at them for practice during their downtime. Kai planned to add training dummies and punching bags to the place. As a human, he’d need to keep fit to pull off his escape to Tau Ceti.
With the M-905 in training mode, Kai stood back and discharged simulated rounds at the targets on the wall, emptying his magazine. Virtually at least. He ejected the not-actually-empty magazine, slapped it back in, took aim, and held the weapon’s firing trigger, firing dozens of rounds. With his submachine gun level now at 18, the weapon’s recoil wasn’t as bad. He had gotten used to the power of his M-905, and his implant knew it.
Kai brought up a screen that listed his average accuracy since he started practicing shooting. 67%. Not bad but still needed improvement. He needed to get his skill to a higher level.
“Okay, that took longer than expected.”
That was Ilona echoing in his head.
Kai slung the weapon over his shoulder and accessed his implant’s communication option. “What’s up, Ilona?”
“After looking through Cerise’s operational logs, I’ve confirmed that she had indeed crashed again.”
“Again.” He sighed. “We need to fix this.”
“We should have gotten the techs on the station to look at her.”
“No, they had their hands full and are better with Twin Suns tech than Vivid.”
That was a second voice jumping into their communication channel. Amber’s face appeared beside Ilona’s likeness in his vision.
“Amber, you eavesdropping on us?”
“Actually, Amber was helping me with this one,” Ilona said. “Though I guess you’re right about that, Amber. I doubt there were techs familiar with Vivid marionettes on Atlas Station.”
“Right. Also, we weren’t at the station long. If a tech was going to fix Cerise, we would have needed to stick around longer.”
“We good to go now?” Kai asked.
“Yes, Commander.” Ilona’s projection nodded. “Just say the word.”
“Let everyone know then.” Kai spun to the exit, switching on his M-905’s safety before swapping from practice to live fire mode. “Gather up near the airlocks and grab a gun or five.”
“Guns?” Ilona sounded surprised.
The training room’s doors slid open, granting Kai access to the corridor. He walked down to the airlocks and equipment storage.
“The Umbra District is a rough neighborhood,” Kai said as he ventured through the ship’s corridors. “Most of Jardin’s crimes are reported from that place, and that was under normal circumstances. I’d imagine with the Coalition controlling the city now that things have gotten worse. This brings me to my next point. The city’s crawling with Coalition soldiers.”
“But they aren’t fighting anymore, right?” Ilona asked.
He shook his head. “No, just enforcing their rules. Typical military occupation.”
“But don’t we have a truce? Kopac ordered his men not to attack us until . . .”
Until Kai met with Kopac to negotiate a trade for Ilona. Not that Kai planned to actually do that.
“Yeah, on paper they shouldn’t be attacking us,” Kai continued, turning at a four-way hallway intersection. “But I’m not wholly convinced here. This could just be a trap. So we’re bringing guns and armor.”
