The Megacorp Jobby OverHeartChaptersChapter 1 - PreperationsChapter 2 - The First Of ManyChapter 3 - QuestionsChapter 4 - AnswersChapter 5 - Back In The SaddleChapter 6 - No RestPrologueChapter 1 - PreperationsIn the center of Upper Canterlot the large angular steel skyscraper of Equi-Tech dominates the early morning sky heavily illuminating the foggy city streets below. “Sir, do you have a moment?” a smartly dressed assistant asked as she strode into the room. Behind the large black executive desk in the center of the room a cream colored stallion taps his hooves together in an impatient manner before turning around to face his assistant, a look of annoyance forming on his features. “What is it, this had better be important!” he responded, half shouting. “Yes, the… agents you hired are on the move, their leader has contacted us and they intend to hit the target within the hour” the business pony started to sweat noticeably. The cream colored stallion thought for a moment then said calmly “Good, Be sure to keep an eye on them should they need a quick escape” “Very good, Mr. Sun” the business pony said before turning to leave the room. Sun put a hoof to his mouth in thought for a moment before letting out a small chuckle “Lets see how this pans out shall we?” Access waited for his comrades to leave before barring closed the reinforced door behind them, it wasn’t smart to leave yourself exposed while fully immersed in the Net and he knew that feeling all too well. He started to hyperventilate as he sat back down next to his Cyberdeck and his senses gave way to blinding light, deep immersion always had this effect on him. Gathering his thoughts and shaking off the disorientation that comes with the territory he entered the city sub-net, a sea of neon light that despite its entirely digital nature was similar in structure to a large city complete with streets, shops and the occasional roaming service program. You could find anything you wanted here from media to games and even holidays, some ponies spend nearly their entire lives on the Net but Access was here for one reason, he wanted to gather Intel on their target and call in a couple of favors of his. Picking up speed into a brisk trot he noted the rather high level of security the sub-net had today, some of the guard programs scanned him as he moved past them to which Access gave but a moment of attention. Sub-nets such as this always had Guard programs around to keep the order and to stop the locals from messing with anything they shouldn’t, normally this ended with a painful ejection back to Realspace. Directing his attention towards a nearby set of structures, Access entered one of his favorite spots on the Net, a digital cafe named “Haven” which could house hundreds of thousands of concurrent users in a Virtual Reality chat room with multiple Private and Public areas. It was a popular spot for younger ponies and was almost always abuzz with chatter and very easy to hide a conversation in. Picking out a free booth out of the way of the other patrons he sat down with an audible sigh, you didn’t get many virtual spaces of this level of detail in the Net, despite the rough hewn wood and stone decor being from many decades in Equestria’s past it still felt like home. A far cry from the steel and concrete jungle the city and beyond had become. “Now to wait, she can’t be far off now...” Access whispered to himself, his eyes scanning across the room at the other patrons, the last thing he needed was to see Netwatch whom he was well known by due to his past antics. It wasn’t long until an avatar of a slate gray Unicorn mare arrived in Haven, Access turned to look at her from the corner of his eye and was relieved to see that it was the avatar of his friend and fellow Netrunner, Sheet Rock. “Hey hey! Access!” Sheet Rock shouted in Access’ direction with a big wave of her forehoof. Access jumps at the voice with an audible yelp, he relaxes somewhat as Sheet Rock sits down across the booth from him still with that trademark goofy smile she always seemed to have plastered on her face. “Don’t do that, I’m on edge as it is!” Access pants between breaths. Sheet Rock lets out a playful giggle “Sorry Access, I haven’t seen you around in a while and got a bit excited!” Access laughed alongside Sheet Rock for a while before putting a serious look on his face “Me and the crew have this job, but we need access to Upper-Canterlot’s comms hub specifically the server farm” Sheet Rock giggled for a few moments more before composing herself “I can get you in without much issue so you can disable security, but the boots on the ground I cannot help beyond some maps I’m afraid.” Sheet Rock clearly had gotten these credentials from somewhere shady but he couldn’t bring himself to ask where from, though he knew they’d be legitimate it was likely to be one use only and they wouldn’t likely get a second chance at this. He sat back in his seat a little in thought before saying “Our job is data retrieval, do you know what that comms hub could be storing that would cause a Megacorp to go to such lengths?” Sheet Rock thought for a moment, then a sly smile came across her lips “Rumor has it that its weapons plans or some such, nobody can rightly say.” “That seems likely at the price they are paying” Access said in annoyance “How do you know this?” Sheet rock made a gesture implying that her lips were sealed “Can’t say, you know I gotta protect my sources” Access got up out of his seat to leave but turned his head towards Sheet Rock to speak “Thanks, I’ll be sure you get paid for this, and send me those maps and access codes too” Sheet Rock called up an AR screen and sent over a few files to Access’ Cyberdeck “Sure, Just don’t get yourselves killed over this. It’d be bad for my health if Canterlot officials knew I gave you these” Access nodded with a playful grin and left the cafe with the information he came for metaphorically in hoof, then made the jump to the comms hub’s location on the Net. It was swarming with Passive Defense programs, but the codes Sheet Rock gave him should render all that null and void leaving it wide open. Access sat in wait for his friends to give him the go ahead. In their blacked out van Titus, Cloud Rider and Red Star were safely casing the location from some distance away assessing the level of security and it was just as lax just as they had been told it would be. “Access should have our help by now” Titus stated while taking stock of the amount of security, totaling no more than six lightly armed guards and maybe half a dozen exterior cameras. Red Star nodded and opened a comm-link to Access “Access, Do you have that help yet, we’re waiting on you” “Yeah, it should let us slip right in and from there I should be able to shut off the cameras and locks. Standby for maps of the complex.” “Good, do your thing Access. We’re counting on you!” Red Star despite her usual demeanor looked relieved as the three of them left the van out of sight and made their move towards the complex. They needed to be sure they were not seen as they didn’t have the benefit of doing this at night. The foggy weather would cover their approach but it wouldn’t help them once they were inside, Having gone over the maps Access had acquired the complex had many tight corners and alcoves that could be used for cover once they were beyond the outer fence. In the Net, Access received the signal to commence his attack run, moving quickly through the outer edges of the Comms-Hub's sub-net he came to a dark, monolithic structure. This clearly was the outer walls of the system and inside were the programs he would need to interact with. This would be a simple matter, all he needed to do was enter the codes he was given on the structures display and he’d have some control and most importantly a way to exfiltrate their target data. “CREDENTIALS. RECOGNIZED. BASIC ACCESS CONFIRMED” blared a robotic voice, it had worked! He now had some control over the security but not for long until he was detected. Half an hour at most. Access sent a message through his AR display to the rest of the crew reading “It’s done and I have control, killing the cameras and mag-locks now but don’t screw around we’re on a timer here” The rest of the crew found a timer appear in their AR displays which started to count down from thirty minutes. This was all the time they had until they’d be detected and lose their element of surprise. The Hit was on. Author's Note Things are beginning to hot up for our four friends but are going well, but for how long? For context Augmented Reality (AR) Displays exist in world as implants and in standalone form, they overlay information on top of something else that normally being the users eyes. As always, let me know of any issues via PM or in the Comments. Chapter 2 - The First Of ManyThe approach to the complex was a simple affair as was cutting the unmaintained and rusting chain-link fence, a more careful pony would question why it’d been so easy to even get close but the desperate crew had been blinded with promises of fortune. Past the fencing were four off-white windowless buildings that housed the hub’s servers, power distribution systems and hard-lines out to the rest of the city, three of the buildings were situated in a ring around the central fourth building. One long main road winds its way around the entire ring of building with the roads themselves were surrounded on each side with short concrete barriers with a total of four guard posts spaced out evenly throughout the ring. At the end of the asphalt was the largest building and their target, inside was a complex and power-hungry system that recorded all information that passed through the hub in either direction, it had flagged some anomalous data and had held it for inspection and would soon discard it. All they had to do was get in and snag the data before the system deleted it. Nodding to each other the three split up and began to make their way to the first guard post ducking behind some low walls to avoid being seen, Rider spreads her wings and flies to a point just above the post and lands roughly on its flimsy steel roof, startling the guard inside who grabs his sidearm and begins to back out of the post. Despite no words being spoken among any of them Titus moves into position behind the closest guard and grabs him around the neck, dragging him over the wall he had previously been hiding behind and delivering a rough blow to the guards stomach which incapacitates him. “Rider, can you see the other guards from up there?” Titus whispers through his comm. Cloud Rider was no Bat-pony, but from her vantage point she could clearly see up much of the asphalt road leading towards the central structure and into the other guard posts. “One at the second post and a few others gathered around the third, though we should look for another way into the central structure rather than going that far around” Rider responds. Dropping back to the asphalt from her perch above the guard post Rider rejoins her comrades and they begin to move up the path towards the second post, its careless occupant fast asleep who Titus quickly grabs and lands a sharp strike with the grip of his sidearm to the back of the guards skull. Meanwhile, Access was sifting through the hub’s systems with the limited access he had as well as looking over the maps again in hopes of finding some easier way through. He noted that the complex had a series of utility tunnels that wound their way under the asphalt roads and paths of the complex and they had access points to every building in the complex, they were likely to be locked but he could take care of that. “Where are you guys, There's a hatch just beyond the second guard post that leads into some utility tunnels” Access’ voice crackled through the comm. “We’re at the second post, where is this hatch?” Red Star inquired. “You can’t miss it, should be covered in painted markings.” Getting the attention of the team Red Star looks towards the road; In the middle just after the guard post’s barricade was a hatch cover marked with yellow warning paint. She waves a fore-hoof getting the attention of Titus and Rider who nod in agreement. Keeping close to the ground they make their way over to it, upon tugging on the handle it opens with a smooth hiss. They look into the darkness for a moment then begin to make their way down into the depths. Titus being the last to enter closes it back up behind them, they dive behind some water pipes with weapons drawn and stare up at the hatch in case they had been seen entering. After what seemed like hours they started to relax and laughed nervously between themselves at the sheer luck they were having. “No security down here, we should be good” Titus states turning on a small flashlight which he shines down the tunnel. “Good, We can relax for a little while then.” Rider says thankfully. The three start to walk down the tunnel occasionally stopping to read direction labels on the walls, one of these would lead to their target but it may take some time finding the right one in these winding tunnels. Unlike the clean and sparkling steel and concrete of the complex above the tunnels below looked like they had entered another world, dust, oil and water covered the smooth stone flooring. It was eerily quiet with the only sounds they could hear being their own breath and hoof-steps. While his comrades were navigating the tunnels Access took the liberty of making sure all the hatches they came to would be unlocked and any security systems would ignore them, upon doing so he stepped his avatar back a little and took stock of his surroundings. Normally conditions in the Net would be reflected in the sub-grid’s landscape, but this one was almost entirely flat with no indication of any traffic flow and the defensive programs hadn’t given him much trouble at all. Things were far too easy, something was very wrong. Stepping back inside the tower Access just briefly thought he saw a flicker of light in his peripheral vision, turning around to look out of the entryway he looks around the area for a second time. Paranoia was surely setting in. He started to feel as if he wasn’t alone in the system and the feeling grew and grew the more he stared out at the sub-grid before him. It was easy to hide your signal once you were connected but it was quite a lot harder to simply not show any indication you had connected in the first place. “Hey guys, I think something’s in here with me I swear I saw something jack in” Access said with worry. The team’s nervous laughs could be heard through the comm. “You’re paranoid, just relax!” Titus says mockingly. Access turns around and starts to trot back into the tower but spares a glance over his back to look at where he thought he saw the flickering. Something had in fact just connected and somehow managed to do so without being detected, It’s avatar was glitched and erratic, it looked in on Access from around the corner of the entryway. Malicious intent clear on its features. “I know you’re there, show yourself!” Access shouts. The glitched avatar steps out from the corner and stares into Access’ eyes, whatever this thing was it had known he was here from the very start. Access didn’t care what this thing was but he knew it was trouble, before he could launch an attack against the avatar, it spoke. “You shouldn’t be here, intruder.“ It sounded menacing and robotic but it didn’t seem like a program, it moved too fluidly and too much with a purpose to be one. “Don’t threaten me, Just who are you?” “You aren’t in a position to be making demands, Leave while you can” Access reached for his comm but was stopped midway by an attack from the avatar, a beam of red light sprang from its body striking just below Access’ hooves. The avatar spoke one more word with much more malice in its words, “Leave.” Access didn’t know what to do, if he warned his friends he would likely end up on the receiving end of a painful ejection, if he didn’t they’d likely be stuck in those tunnels. He thought for a moment and looked as if he was about to jack out but launched an attack of his own against his aggressor. A “Flatline” program was often employed by Netrunners and Systems alike in Net combat, its main function was to directly attack the CPU of a system in an attempt to render it inoperable. The Flatline fired by Access struck the avatar square in its head before it could dodge chipping off a large piece of itself which shattered on the ground as if it were glass. “Fine, I suppose I’ll have to remove you myself!” The avatar booms before launching itself at Access sending multiple unknown programs in succession at him with reckless abandon. Access attempts to dodge out of the way of the shots but multiple hit his body and head leaving substantial holes in his own avatar. This thing wasn’t fighting him with strategy but brute force which worked annoyingly well in the confined spaces of the tower. “Guys, I was right something was here!” Access urgently says through his comm. Outside the Net, the team had found the hatch to the archive building when Access’ message got to them. Titus opens the hatch slightly to check the area while his comrades respond. “Jack out, before it frags you!” Rider says, the worry on her voice evident. “I’m trying, I think one of its attacks is stopping me from leaving” Access states before getting hit with another one of the avatar’s attacks this one making him grunt in annoyance as his vision wavered. He was knocked to the ground by this attack, whatever the avatar had hit him with was interfering with his connection removing much of his ability to move or even fight back. The avatar stood over him before launching one more attack at him destroying his avatar and causing him to scream in pain as his Cyberdeck overloaded causing burns and electrical damage to his neural plugs, painfully dumping him back to Realspace. When access awoke to his dingy Canterlot apartment he struggled to speak for a moment, attempting to stand he goes to warn his friends before he passes out. It was hard to stay coherent, whatever the glitched avatar hit him with before he was booted scrambled his brain somewhat. “Whatever… that was… it got me, I got ejected...” Access manages to slur before falling backwards onto the floor and passing out into a convulsing heap. From what memory he could recall at the time, it was unlike any program currently in use and certainly nothing like the kinds of defenses that systems like the one he was in use. He was lucky to be alive after that encounter, very few tangle with an enemy like that and get out of it with their lives. Titus bashes open the hatch to the archive building leading out to a large room filled with whirring and clicking storage devices, whatever they were looking for had to be here. But before he could climb the ladder both Red Star and Rider stop him. “Whatever Access was fighting in the Net got to him, all I heard was a scream before the link went dead” worried Rider. “What do we do now then?” Titus and Red Star say in unison. “Well, whatever he saw doesn’t seem to have been affiliated with the Crown or Netwatch, so I think it’s safe to say we can finish up here and make sure Access is okay” Rider says with an air of forced leadership. Rider, Titus and Red Star climb the ladder in silence and enter the archival building in what appears to be the main storage room. “Give me a moment, I’ll have to extract the data myself” Rider states flatly. “It better not be locked” Titus jokes trying to lighten the mood. “Thanks to Access’ efforts, it isn’t.” The others nod, taking up positions behind the doorway. The atmosphere had become very heavy and many questions were being asked in the heads of the team, the prevailing ones were “Who or what was that avatar?” and “Who was controlling it?”. “Right… So this should be it” Rider mutters to herself tapping on the terminals keyboard. She puts a storage device into the side of the terminal and begins to retrieve the target data when Titus points a hoof towards the door urgently, a couple of guards were walking towards the buildings main door. “Guys move, get some cover!” Rider takes a spot next to Titus and draws her weapon, she waits for the guards to enter before pointing her weapon at the back of one of their heads. Red Star points her weapon at the other. One of the guards stop dead and put their hooves into the air having been caught by surprise but the other opts to try to land a punch on Red Star who just barely moves out of the way in time, before striking the guard in the chin with her sidearm which sends him to the floor. “Who are you ponies?” the first guard asks wincing in pain from the strike. “None of your business, we’ll be out of your hair soon” Titus responds. “Just don’t shoot us!” the second begs. The terminal beeps indicating the transfer has completed, Titus trots over and grabs the storage drive from the terminal. “Alright ladies, lets bail!” Titus booms. “But first a parting gift.” Titus fires a single shot into each of the guards hind legs, making them yelp in pain and ensuring that they wouldn’t be able to follow them out. Red Star and Rider both shake their heads and glare at Titus for his use of unnecessary force but follow him back into the tunnels while keeping their weapons trained on the guards as they leave. Closing the hatch back behind them they gallop full speed back down the tunnels almost tripping over their own hooves, with adrenaline pumping and reaching the hatch leading to the second guard post all pretenses of stealth are dropped there and then as they burst out the hatch and begin to gallop down the asphalt road leading out the complex. Their escape concludes without incident, after regrouping at a street corner some distance away from the complex they catch their breath while glancing at each other. The tension of the op starts to lift as they start to laugh like mad-ponies. “Holy shit, I can’t believe that actually worked!” Titus wheezed. “I know right!” Red Star giggles. “Guys we should check on Access, See if he is okay” Rider states in an annoyed tone. They all nod and start to trot back to the van, upon reaching it Titus starts its engine and begins the drive back to their apartment. The mood now much lighter at the anticipation of their incoming payday. In the distance a car bearing the logo of Equi-Tech watches them leave, its driver lighting up a cigarette before driving off in the opposite direction towards Equi-Tech Tower. “Reporting in sir, Operation appears to have been successful. Returning to base.” Author's Note The gang manage to pull together and complete the op, but have many questions for their employer though with some luck they might get a straight answer. As always notify me of any issues in the comments or PM. Chapter 3 - QuestionsAccess was surrounded by darkness, this wasn’t the Net or Realspace but somewhere in-between awake and sleeping. He wasn’t used to this feeling and he started to hyperventilate in panic. Many thoughts flashed through his addled mind, his friends, his actions and the state of the world. Things had never been more prosperous than they were now but he couldn’t help but feel something was missing, something important. Access felt as if he was going mad from sounds he couldn’t quite hear, things he couldn’t quite see and feeling things he couldn’t decipher. Everything was numb and yet he felt sore which while it was a strange feeling, the pain reminded him that he was still alive. Slowly he awoke from his post-ejection stupor to his AR display implant buzzing loudly and displaying multiple error messages, most of his implants had been rendered inoperable in the overload, though this was the least of his worries. Pulling himself up off the ground he pulls the charred and broken neural plugs out the back of his skull with his magic with a groan of pain as a sickening crunch could be heard from the plugs. “Okay, lets see how fucked up I am...” Access mutters to himself. He calls up an AR display which thankfully still seemed to work properly and runs a quick diagnostic, reports of multiple problems fill his vision and it was safe to say many of his implants were beyond repair and would need replacing. Checking on his organic parts wasn’t as easy but as far as he could tell, he was fine apart from some burns and disruption to motor functions. He wouldn’t know for sure until Red Star checked him over. He could hear multiple groups of ponies outside the apartment, but couldn’t quite make out who despite the walls being paper thin. The day must be beginning for most right about now, What time was it? Not long after this thought someone started pounding on the apartment door, stumbling to his hooves he makes his way over to the door steadying himself on various bits of furniture. “Who is it?” Access inquired. “Its us you dummy!” Titus says through the door. “Let us in already.” With a grumble Access begins to unbar the door to let his friends in, who swiftly launch into many fevered questions as soon as the door opened. none of which he was particularly able to answer. “By the sun, you look terrible!” Red Star said in shock, pushing him to the nearby sofa and began to look him over while preparing a few burn and stimulant serums. Hospital treatment was expensive and something they couldn’t afford, nor could they explain the injuries in a way that wouldn't make it sound as if they were hiding that they just committed theft and battery. Access had suffered a severe burnout from his fight with the glitched avatar, his neural plugs were charred and the surrounding area had been severely burnt. “Deck burnouts do that to you, Whatever that thing was using it had intended it to be lethal” Access responds. “Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but how come it didn’t fry you then?” Titus asks. “My Deck burned out before I did thankfully, I’ve learned over the years to put safeguards in place for situations like this.” Access points a hoof at his now burnt-out Cyberdeck, though some time had passed it was still smoldering in the corner of the room and was largely a puddle of melted plastic, metal and silicon. “Are you able to travel, we still need to deliver the data.” Rider states. “I am really glad you’re okay, just so you know.” “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine” Access assures with a warm but pained smile. Rider simply smiled back at him though she wasn’t so sure he was being truthful, it felt like he was masking the fact he nearly died with his childish bravado, she wanted to scold him for being so reckless but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. They’d have to take public transport to the central plaza and walk to Equi-tech tower as using the Van would be too risky this soon after what they pulled. Nobody in Lower-Canterlot would rat them out however, even in these times a sense of community was in the minds of the unfortunate and downtrodden. After what they had been through a few hours ago a little bit of rest and relaxation was very welcome, leaving the apartment they head down and out of their building and into the busy streets below. The Sprawl was their home and had been for the majority of their lives, it was many miles of closely packed and run-down concrete buildings, cheap, small and generally very unpleasant places to live but in this district you took what you were given lest someone take it from you by force. The shaded streets were positively alive with activity, merchants plying their trade, foals roughhousing and many groups of ponies laughing and enjoying their morning. Despite the fact they had very little in the way of possessions, money or even a home. But they all still managed in their own little way. Rider looks towards the ground for a moment in thought then begins to speak to nobody in particular “Hey, when we get paid, what are you gonna spend it on?” “New implants and a Cyberdeck.” Access says without missing a beat. “Maybe a new weapon, district is getting more dangerous all the time.” Titus answers. “Medical supplies, Lots of ponies around here could sure use them” Red Star answers with a frown. All of these were good enough responses but Rider found herself torn on how she should spend the money, not that anyone would complain how she went about that. It wasn’t long until they reached the district’s train station, each paying for their own ticket they head out onto the platform to wait. Transportation had advanced by leaps and bounds since the steam-power days, Such a system of automated transports were essential to a city this large and most forms of transport were entirely electric as well as being entirely automated. Some time later the train arrived thundering up the tracks and stopping with a loud screech, upon boarding they opt for a private cabin. “How do you reckon they’ll react when we rock up?” Titus asked. “Considering we’re being expected I should hope they react well enough.” Access grumbled. “Whats stopping them from just shooting us and taking their property?” Nobody had an answer to that, they’d either have to just wing it or be ready to start shooting if things got ugly though that’d likely end up in them getting killed. The trip to the Central Plaza and then Equi-Tech Tower would take roughly an hour, the city had become much larger in recent years almost to the point where the mountain it was situated on was completely obscured. Even the interior of the mountain had been hollowed and used to further develop the city. Passing into a tunnel constructed through the steel ring walls that separated Lower and Upper Canterlot the four friends looked outside their window as the train zipped out the other side to what looked like a whole other world. Dusty, grimy streets gave way to gleaming steel and marble, Lower-Canterlot had its share of artificial neon lighting but Upper-Canterlot used and abused it to its fullest. “What a view!” Titus exclaims. “Never ceases to amaze does it?” Red Star asks. Titus nods “You’re telling me, we’ve spent way too much time in the Sprawl” Access nods before saying “Yeah, would be nice to live here wouldn’t it” “Sure would” Titus says wistfully. Upper-Canterlot was home to some of the richest and most influential ponies in Equestria and was the kind of place you wouldn’t want to cause trouble in, unlike Lower-Canterlot there were security drones and heavily armed police units everywhere, ready and waiting to quell any and all trouble. And just to the north, was the one place the four of them never thought they’d tread. Equi-Tech Tower. The train was now slowing for its approach to the Central Plaza Station and would soon arrive, Rider and Access begin to stand up and make their way to the train’s outer doors. Red Star and Titus follow a little distance behind and begin to talk among the two of them. “You know, ever since Access nearly got fried Rider has been keeping a close eye on Access.” Red Star whispers. “She probably feels responsible, we couldn’t have known what he’d face in there and she couldn’t have either.” Red nods in agreement “Once this jobs over with we should just relax for a little while, poor mare is gonna have a heart attack if she gets a scare like that again.” Rider and Access were stood at the exit to the Central Plaza waiting for their comrades, getting a little annoyed that they were taking their sweet time. “You two finished?” Access grumbles. “Yeah yeah, keep your hair on!” Titus laughs. Heading out of the station they found themselves in the middle of Upper-Canterlot’s market district, many nice smells waft from the street food kitchens nearby as well as many corporate ad screens playing their loud and bright advertisements. The Sprawl had many of the same things, but with a decidedly lower quality though this was to be expected since no corp wanted to spend good money on ponies who’d never be able to buy their products, of course this often didn’t stop them from doing it anyway in some sick attempt to torment them with status they’d never have. To some degree this annoyed Access as he had lived in the Sprawl all his life, even before he met his friends and to see such a divide among ponies even now had rubbed him the wrong way and every pony he walked passed could tell. The more he walked and took in the sights the more he wanted to tear it all down, it wasn’t fair that he and by extension everyone he knew from the Sprawl had grown up on so little when there was such plenty available within a short trip. He had to keep his cool for as long as he was here, Now on final approach to Equi-Tech tower and with all four members of the crew together they enter the Tower. Author's Note Now we are getting into rewrite territory, originally i had intended this to be no more than 6 chapters, but after reading it i found it to be uninteresting so i rewrote it. I can't say for sure how many chapters there will be now, but i can say it will be many, along with some seperate side stories, one of which is already being written. Chapter 4 - AnswersSensing the tension building as soon as they entered, Rider offered to deal with the talking to which there were no objects. Giving the Desk Pony a smile she begins to explain “Hey, your Boss is expecting us, we have a particular object he would love to get his hooves on” The Desk Pony simply raises an eyebrow “And what is this object?” Rider shows the storage drive hoping the Desk Pony would get her meaning, to which the pony simply points at an elevator before stating plainly “Top floor, go nowhere else.” Rider nods then waves over her friends who follow her over to the elevator which opens as soon as she hit the call button, the elevator while clean was far too small for the four of them and they ended up pressed up against each other. Thankfully the awkwardness was short lived as they found themselves on the very top floor of the tower, the elevator opening to a long and wide white painted steel corridor. Towards the end was a set of glass sliding doors. Leaving the elevator the crew slowly walks down the corridor, now acutely aware they were being watched by a heavily armored guard pony visible through the glass. “Overcompensating much?” Titus mocks. “Don’t be an idiot or we die” Access states coldly. The Armored Pony pulls open the door with his magic as the crew approaches, gesturing towards a set of four seats at one end of a board table. “Mr Sun will be with you shortly, please sit.” the Armored Pony says with a hint of aggression. The four sit in the chairs without protest and they each begin to slowly look around the room, it was full of trophies, awards and various statues, no doubt the achievements of this Mr Sun. Among the various awards were weapons and sets of armor in glass cases, including some none of the crew had seen before, likely prototypes or display pieces, clearly this pony liked his shiny toys. Another set of glass doors on the opposite wall slides open without warning and out strode a well manicured yellow-maned Pegasus Stallion, this must be the pony they were to see. “Well, I assume some congratulations are in order then?” the stallion spoke with an upper-class educated eloquence. “We have your property” Rider says, removing the storage device from a pocket then pushes it across the table. “Ah, excellent!” the stallion says with a pleased look on his face. The stallion looks over the contents of the drive with one of the terminals set out on the board table, upon being satisfied that everything is present, he begins to speak once more. “My name is Bright Sun, I am the CEO of Equi-Tech but I suspect you knew that already, you have not only completed the task we gave you to a satisfactory level but you have also passed our test too.” “Test?” Access asks in confusion. Access began to think about his contact, Sheet Rock, was she involved too? Or was that merely coincidence, he dared not ask since if he was wrong about her involvement Equi-Tech would likely have her hunted down. It was very likely that she was involved however, things aligned just a little too well for her not to be. “Oh yes, You must have noticed how easy things seemed, this was because we were testing you not for skill but for willingness to do what was asked of you.” Bright Sun explained. Anger began to bubble in Rider, Had this pony really staged the entire job and nearly got one of them killed? “Furthermore, you were in no real danger as every guard onsite were notified of your arrival. I trust nobody was hurt?” This comment made Rider explode in anger which even surprised the normally aggressive Titus Steel, for her it was out of character. “Are you aware Access nearly died because of a Cyberdeck overload that your security caused, something in that system nearly fried him!” “Nothing to do with us, what security are you referring to?” Bright Sun asks with a dismissive tone to his voice, which earned him an angry glare from them all. “Some sort of avatar, glitched and shifting as if it couldn’t keep a particular shape or form” Access blurted. Bright Sun sat back in his chair and stared down the table for a few moments, deep in thought for moment he spoke again in a hushed tone. “Did it say anything specific?” Bright Sun now looked a little uncomfortable and the atmosphere had become somewhat tense. Access began to explain as best as he could remember “It called me an intruder and demanded I left the system and when I didn’t it sent my Deck into overload, which nearly killed me.” “What I’m about to tell you stays between us, it’s existence cannot be allowed to get out.” Bright Sun said with a stern look. “Just what is that thing?” Red Star asks. Bright Sun sighs “Nobody knows for sure, our best guess that it’s a decommissioned AI gone rogue, normally these things are kept on short leashes but someone dropped the ball on this one.” “Hold on a moment, doesn’t this mean that anyone who uses the Net is at risk of this thing?” Titus asks. Bright Sun responded quickly “No, The only attacks so far have been on your friend and some of our elite Netrunners.” “So why would it target me?” Access asks with some worry on his voice. “It’s possible that it saw you as a threat, which regrettably caused its assault on yourself.” Bright sun asserts. Anger, Worry, Sadness, Guilt, A number of different emotions welled up in Rider as Bright Sun was speaking, she could have lost Access forever if that thing had gotten its way. None of them could do anything about it though, they knew too little and had too much to lose trying to fight something many orders of magnitude stronger than them. That was assuming they weren’t being lied to again, which they thought was likely but had no real proof to the contrary. They’d have to believe Bright Sun for now. “For now, all four of you should lay low and enjoy your reward, further I would request you don’t disclose anything we’ve discussed” Bright Sun said with what passes for an apologetic look. The crew looks to each other nodding in agreement. “Fine, assuming you don’t screw us” Rider spat. “Heavens above why would I do that!” Bright Sun said with feigned offense. Four Eurobit chits are taken from a nearby briefcase and pushed across the table to the four crew members. With a wink Bright Sun says “I trust this will be adequate compensation for all the ugliness involved, expect to be contacted in a weeks time.” The crew get up to leave after each grabbing their Eurobit chits, They had their rewards and couldn’t wait until they were free of this entire mess, as they were leaving Bright Sun calls out to Access. “Access, Go to the reception desk and ask to be taken to Doctor Brandy Snaps, they’ll understand my meaning, He’ll take care of your medical needs.” Heading back down to the lobby the crew try to process what they were just told. “Can we trust this guy?” Titus asks. “You can never tell with ponies like him.” Red Star says. “I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.” Access states. “Yeah I agree, I think we should go and think this out for a while, we have money and time to think” Rider says happily. “You guys go, I gotta go find this Doctor he mentioned” Access says as he rubs the back of his head. “Yeah man, seeya later” Titus says as he turns to leave. Red Star simply nods and leaves with Titus, Rider contemplated staying with Access but opted to leave with the others. “Don’t stay too long, let me know when you’re done here” Rider says with worry. Access nods and heads back up to the reception desk to get some directions, he’d rather not go wandering around a corporate HQ. Hopefully this Doctor could help, Access felt helpless without his implants. Author's Note Another chapter done! Seems our motley crew is getting some answers, though not to the real important questions. Chapter 5 - Back In The SaddleAccess thought about taking up Bright Sun on his offer, there was no better medical care than that of a Corp, most of them had and ran medical facilities but none were more renowned than Equi-Tech’s. Despite his almost rigid distrust, he decided he’d take up Bright Sun’s offer of a medical checkup and maybe just maybe they’d gain an ally in the process. “Hey, Mr Sun asked me to inquire about a Doctor Brandy Snaps, something about fixing my implants?” The reception pony raises an eyebrow, rifling around a drawer for a moment before tossing Access a keycard which clatters to the ground. “Go up the stairs behind me and to the general use elevators, this card will take you straight to the floor you’re wanting. Brandy Snaps will meet you up there.” Access took the keycard off the floor using his magic and slipped it into a pocket on his vest with a slight grumble. The Equi-Tech Tower lobby area made liberal use of many high-quality materials used in Upper-Canterlot itself, gleaming steel and glittering glass aplenty. It still bothered him that Lower-Canterlot and beyond looked so run down and dirty. Anger began to bubble within him once more as he reached a bank of elevators, putting his keycard into a slot near one of them which called it down to the lobby after a few moments. While riding the elevator up Access found himself thinking about events so far, while Bright Sun seemed sincere it wasn’t wise to trust the word of a corp nor was it wise to work for them. Him and his crew didn’t have much of a reputation outside Lower-Canterlot so he pondered how Equi-Tech had come to know of them, most of their past jobs involved the kinds of crimes most police forces would overlook. The elevator came to a stop on his floor, upon stepping out a rather large Earth Pony Stallion with a burnt orange coat and beige mane greeted him, he towered over Access by quite the margin and looked as if he’d tower over the rather tall Titus as well. “Ah Hello, I assume you are Access Granted?” The stallion asked. “Yeah, Yeah, That’s me.” Access mumbled in awe. “Excellent! My name is Brandy Snaps, Mr Sun has already told me what happened so you’ll just need a quick checkup and then maybe a bit of implant maintenance, please follow me.” This Earth Pony seemed oddly chipper unlike his colleagues who roamed the halls, all of whom wore the same form-fitting white and yellow striped uniform jumpsuits. Before long they arrive at an immaculately clean and brightly lit medical bay, the centerpiece of the room was what looked like a large lounger covered in cables and various computer terminals, it was likely equipped with the latest in diagnostic hardware and software. “Please, go ahead and lay down and we’ll get started!” said Brandy as chipper as ever. Access did as he was told and laid on the lounger, to which Brandy passed some cables over to him. “Before you jack in let me clean your plugs first, with any luck they should still be working.” Access shows his neural plugs to Brandy who looks at them intently before grabbing some cleaning tools, even though he was an Earth Pony he was surprisingly deft with his hooves and had the plugs clean in no time at all. “You had better not screw me over.” Access said with a glare. “You can trust me! I’m not in the business of doing the Boss’ dirty deeds.” Access grabs the plugs in his magic and slides them into his neural interface, with a satisfying click they fit into place. Surprisingly his systems recognized the connection with a brief alert. “I’m going to run some diagnostics and check over your physical condition, just relax and try not to stress yourself.” Access just nodded and let himself relax a little as Brandy started a diagnostic procedure, It was taking a little while but Access was in no position to complain. Brandy also checked the area around Access’ plugs, some of the surrounding tissue was still severely burnt but was otherwise healing just fine. He also makes a mental note to advise a cell regeneration serum to help things along. Soon after, the report came back and the results were somewhat surprising to the both of them. Brandy began to speak, as politely as possible “Interesting, it appears most of your systems just suffered a critical failure, no damage at all!” “It felt like I was being fried alive, to be fair.” Access states coldly. Brandy gave a small chuckle “You’re very lucky it didn’t cook your brain, let alone your implants.” “I should just be thankful my countermeasures worked then.” Brandy raises an eyebrow and put on a concerned look “Alas where your implants are for the most part fine your nervous system isn’t.” Access looked at Brandy in a confused manner. “Look, I don’t need this machine to say it’s possible that you may have permanent nerve damage, though it’s still too early to tell but you may develop fine motor issues.” Access let his ears go flat against his head at this news before Brandy interjected. “Just take it easy for a little while and you’ll be fine, hold on while I reboot your implants and let me know if everything comes back up alright.” With a few taps of his terminal’s keys Access’ vision went dark, a few moments later his vision was filled with his AR displays boot-up sequence as he watched each status message go by. Sub-dermal Weapon Link: Online Cranial Neural Interface: Online Cortex Response Enhancer: Online Ocular Enhancement and AR display: Online “Looks like everything is good!” Access says with a relieved expression. “As far as the diagnostics are concerned the overload only induced a critical failure, if your systems are communicating with each other then you have nothing to worry about.” Brandy assures. Access pulled the plugs from the back of his head and sat up, feeling much better now his systems had been looked at. Before he could get up to leave, Brandy stops him with a stern look on his face. “Access, Do not under any circumstances let that happen again, you got very lucky indeed and the next time you’re this reckless will likely end in your death.” Access nodded and got up from the lounger, while he was doing so Brandy took a set of seven vials of medicine from a nearby drawer, along with an injector and tossed them to Access. “Almost forget, Take one of these per day for seven days, should heal those burns nicely.” Access turned to leave, heading back down to the foyer and after some moments of travel down to the ground floor he quickly walked out of the Tower’s front doors, thankfully without being watched intently this time. Now his systems were working correctly, he started a diagnostic of his own, though it was less accurate than one done with the proper equipment it’d still tell him if anything was amiss. Waiting with baited breath Access watched the diagnostic progress and when the results came back as “All Good” he began to question his reaction to Brandy’s help. Was he being too judgmental? This thought played on his mind as he walked further and further from the tower, nearly knocking into several passing ponies as he went. Author's Note Some doubt being sown in Access' mind this time around now that things are calming down for the crew, what could be next for them? Chapter 6 - No RestSome hours later at the apartment, Access and Titus were chatting among themselves, going over what had happened at Equi-Tech. The apartment was one of the few places they could talk freely since corporate police and Netwatch very rarely came here without a reason. Titus had dismantled both his and Access’ sidearms and was currently in the process of cleaning them now they had the proper tools, much grime and dirt had built up on the sidearms internals over the last few months. “Are you really telling me you let him root around in your head?” “Yes obviously, it was either that or surgery and I can tell you I wasn’t about to let them cut into me!” Access said with an annoyed grin. Titus tilts his head and glares back at Access. “Hey, I get that and all but I don’t get why you’d let a corp in like that, they probably planted something in your head for all you know!” Access shook his head. “No, its fine I checked everything over and all my implants are fine.” Titus lets out a small chuckle. “If you say so, don’t blame me if you go crazy!” “I feel like I’m going crazy all the damned time around here.” Access grumbles. “You know what I mean, shit is gonna get serious sooner or later and we can’t afford any screw ups!” “I know, now we’re on Equi-Tech’s radar I doubt they’ll let us walk away that easily.” During this little exchange, Access pondered his choice of a new Cyberdeck, given his old one was now only fit for the garbage compactor since nothing was salvageable he’d have to get creative. The thought of retrofitting his portable terminal into a Cyberdeck crossed his mind a number of times, but that was just silly talk as the systems were not at all alike, he’d have to get creative with some spare parts and work his way back up. Both he and Rider could quite easily do any future modification to it so he wasn’t worried about not being able to get the parts he wanted right this moment. “I’m going out, got someone to see about some new gear.” Access stated flatly. “You good? You need backup?” Titus responded. “No, its only a few blocks away.” Access picks up his now cleaned and reassembled sidearm as he leaves, slipping it into its holster. As Titus watched Access leave he let out a small sigh, he figured something was going on with home but he couldn’t quite put his hoof on what and wasn’t in the business of prying into ponies business. Trotting briskly down the street Access called up his AR display, upon scrolling down his admittedly bare contacts list for a moment he started a call to Sheet Rock in the hopes of getting some answers from her about a few things. He stared at the dialer for what felt like an eternity before it connected. “Hey! Access, I see everything went well!” Sheet Rock said in her trademark chipper attitude as it crackled through the call. “Yeah got a question for you actually. A serious one.” “Whats that? The codes weren’t bogus were they?” Access sighed. “No they were fine, it turns out we were being tested.” Sheet Rock took a moment to respond. “By who?” “I think you know who. Did Equi-Tech put you up to this?” Access said in an accusatory tone. “What? No? Are you implying you think I’m working for them or something?” Sheet Rock said slightly in an offended tone. Access was beginning to slow his pace as he was speaking, he tried to hide the annoyance in his voice but wasn’t doing a very good job of it. “Equi-Tech were the ones who set everything up to test us, they were the ones that straight up WANTED us to break into that hub and YOU gave us the means to do so.” Sheet Rock was dumbfounded and took a brief moment to respond. “I don’t know what to tell you Access and all I can say is that we got them from some cracked password lists that showed up on the Net.” Sheet Rock stated. Access snorted in annoyance, but attempted to cool the discussion a little. “I see, this situation has us on edge and I’m starting to feel a little paranoid, I am sorry by the way.” “Don’t worry about it, I totally understand, I’ll give you a shout if I learn anything on our side.” “Good, Stay safe Sheet.” Access ended the call, He wasn’t convinced that Sheet Rock hadn’t been involved but with no evidence he’d have to keep his mouth shut for now. All that would come of blind accusations would be losing a valuable friend and contact. A small, dingy, less than clean shopfront comes into view after some time of walking, it was one of the only places in the Sprawl to stock electronic parts and would have all he needed to cobble together a new Cyberdeck. The place was called “Bits and Things” a rather on the nose name for a shop that mostly sold junk and random electronics, the inside of the store looked much like a warehouse with metal shelving units holding large bins of sorted parts with the occasional packaged product or refurbished appliance. Entering and beginning to browse shelves, he quickly pulled together all the parts needed off of the various bins and shelving units, passing ponies looked on in awe as Access grabbed what they had considered mere junk. He’d have preferred a pre-built deck but that would require some extensive modifications to make it suitable for his style of Netrunning, but right now he needed to be up and running again as soon as possible. “Memory, CPU, Interfaces… Don’t think I’m missing anything important. No don’t think so.” Access mutters to himself as he inspects each part which earns him a few strange looks from passing ponies. Some time later, having found what he needed among the various bins, shelving and buckets of merchandise he made his way to the front to pay. “Money well spent.” Access grumbled as he pushed his Eurobit chit towards a waiting service drone, it was a miracle it hadn’t broken down sooner as whole parts of its chassis and internals were missing. “Thank you sir!” the run-down barely functional service drone chimes back as it accepts payment. Access grumbled some more as he turned to leave after putting his Eurobit chit back into a slot in his temple, his purchases safely stowed in his saddle bags. Trotting quickly back down the pavement leading to his apartment building he found himself lost in thought once more nearly stumbling into a passing earth pony who shot him a rather nasty glare. It wasn’t long until he made it to the apartment block, heading inside he slowly ascended the stairs to the top floor where the apartment was, upon opening the door and tossing his saddlebags onto the nearby sofa he found that Rider and Red Star had finally made their way back. “What took you two so long?” Access inquired. “Sorry we got sidetracked, besides its not as if the two of you even asked where we were anyway.” Red Star responded pointing to both Titus and Access. “Yeah, I’m especially upset that you didn’t do what I asked either!” Rider chided. “Must’ve slipped my mind, had other stuff to do at the time.” “Slipped your mind? Did that overload scramble your short-term memory or something?” Rider shouted angrily. Access glared at Rider and Red Star for a moment. “Excuse me?!” “You’re going to have to grow up someday Access, You know how bad things can go for ponies like us and you should keep to your promises.” “I’m not going to get involved in this, you three sort out your issues like adults” Titus chimes from the kitchen area. “Speaking of which Titus, YOU ran off and didn’t tell anyone where you were going either!” Red Star said angrily. Things were starting to get heated as they usually did after jobs, Rider and Red Star were the kind of ponies that would be adamant that plans and promises should be kept to but both Access and Titus regularly forgot this. “I think we should… just calm down for a moment.” Access states in an attempt to placate the two angry mares. Both Rider and Red Star nod apologetically as they each sit in one of the free seats. “I should also mention what happened during the doctors visit too, Titus has already heard this more or less word for word anyway and its just you two that haven’t been told yet.” Access pointed out. The others nod in agreement. “Well, he checked all my implants and basically just said that there's nothing wrong, just a simple diagnostic and reboot as well as a burn treatment.” “That can’t be all though, surely” Red Star responded. “You’re right on that front, I got out of that ordeal with nerve damage though I can’t say that's entirely unexpected, it’d explain the outright horrific episode I had after the overload happened.” “Episode?” Rider gently asks. Access fidgets in his seat somewhat. “Yeah after the overload and my last message, I blacked out and found myself somewhere that I can only call a void. Really weird feeling all over my body, almost as if I was floating.” Red Star nods. “Yep sounds about right, Unicorn Netrunners specifically experience that when something like an overload happens, has something to do with how their neural links and magic interact.” Access nods in appreciation, then begins to speak. “Also, My contact reached out again, after a brief fight about it she insists she wasn’t working for Equi-Tech at the time of our little test.” Access states. “She better not be lying to us.” Titus retorted. “Doubtful, she’d gain nothing by doing that.” Access pointed out. Just then, a pounding noise could be heard coming from their barred front door and whoever is currently pounding on it sounds very desperate though they can hear no voices on the other side. The crew take up positions beside the door with Titus looking around the peephole at a slate gray unicorn mare. “Unicorn. Mare. Slate Gray. Anyone know this one?” Titus inquired with a suspicious tone. “Cable for a Cutiemark?” Access shot back. “Yeah, Coiled and Black, kinda looks like the plugs you use.” “Open it! That's Sheet Rock. She must be in trouble!” Access said with surprise. Titus nods and begins to unbar the door with the pounding stopping abruptly, when the door opens the slate gray mare barrels through the now unlocked door and straight into Access landing on top of him roughly. “Oh thank the moon you’re here, I’m being followed!” the mare says with a terrified tone, her ears sitting flat against her head. Access pushes her off of him with a grumble. “So the first thing you thought to do was to bring them here?!” Titus slams the door closed as rapid hoof steps can be heard running up the nearby stairwell and bars the door back up again just as they reach their floor, still looking through the peephole he observes three heavily armored Bat-ponies and one Unicorn walking past. All of their uniforms bare the logo of Crystal Dynamics. From behind the door the crew can here a faint but still audible amount of chatter. “You sure she’s here?” one of them asks. “Yeah, I saw her run in here for sure!” another responds. “You two blockheads need to sweep and clear before you just barge in somewhere, she’s likely gone by now.” the third barks. The third voice sounds modulated and robotic and from the peephole Titus can just make out the pony, a charcoal gray coated unicorn entirely clad in black Plasteel Power Armor. “Retreat, She isn’t worth the trouble.” the Power Armor clad pony states. “But, sir...” “No buts. Hey little miss hacker, if you are still here let this be a lesson to you, hope we don’t find you or you’re dead!” the Power Armored pony booms. They put a few shots from their shotguns into the walls of the corridor, some narrowly missing Titus at the door and setting about creating panic in the building. As they walk away Sheet Rock lets out a terrified whimper and is practically clinging to Access’ neck, the rest of them sigh in collective relief. Access taps Sheet Rocks cheeks before saying “Hey, You’re fine. What the hell was that all about?” Sheet Rock begins to hyperventilate but manages to stop herself after a number of forced long ragged exhales. “I was snooping around in their systems trying to find anything I could use, next thing I know they are kicking down the front doors of my house!” she whimpers out. “Did you find anything that could get them to react in this way?” Red Star runs to grab a bottle of water from the kitchen and throws it at Sheet Rocks stomach, who then clumsily opens it before taking a long drink from it. “Yes, Turns out Crystal Dynamics were transporting something, servers, OLD ones, to Celestia knows where.” “How’d you get here this quick? CD don’t fool around.” Rider gently asks. “My groups hideout isn’t far, a few blocks maybe though last I saw it was in flames, we’ve lost everything and I’m pretty sure a lot of us were killed. I didn’t really stop to check.” Sheet Rock stammers out. “Who was that stallion in the Power Armor?” inquires Titus. Sheet Rock shakes her head. “No idea what his name is but I do know he’s a cruel bastard, butchered at least three bystanders while he was trying to get to me!” “Well you’re okay now, you can hole up with us for a little while if you want?” Titus reassures keeping a close eye on the corridor. Sheet Rock nods now beginning to calm down. “Yes, I’d like that, thank you!” Titus sticks his head out the door and scans up and down both lengths of the hallway, multiple holes had been shot through the corridor’s walls leaving entire chunks missing, not the first by any means but the damage was very noticeable and other ponies in the adjoining apartments were surveying the damage. His expression hardening, he steps out of the doorway and out into the hall without a single word spoken, leaving the others alone for a moment dumbfounded. Sheet Rock points at the now empty doorway with a hoof. “Where is he going at a time like this?” “Probably his instincts kicking in.” Access states. “Instincts?” “Titus was a soldier for a while, saw all kinds of things that might’ve sent other ponies over the edge, stuff like this tends to set him off and we best stay out of his way until he calms down.” The real question on everyone's was why Crystal Dynamics were transporting old equipment as normally it’d just be recycled without a second thought, irregardless of what was on the servers themselves. Something important was on those servers for them to have been moved that rapidly and the team wanted to find out what, it might just be coincidence but it may also shed some light on some of the things that had been revealed to them. That would come later however, they didn’t even know where they had been taken and Sheet Rock had been interrupted before she could gain a location. Author's Note Oh dear, Now it looks like another corp has it out for our heroes! PrologueThe air was musty and heavy with the sound of keys being tapped which seemed to echo in this dimly lit Lower-Canterlot apartment room, almost thick with desperation at the state of this motley crew. It had been some months since their last real job and morale, funds and food were now dwindling at a rather alarming pace, it wasn’t easy to live in Lower-Canterlot with that being especially true in the slums of The Sprawl. With danger around every corner in this district having a well-fed and well-armed crew was your best chance at staying alive long enough to get rich from it all. “We’re low on funds again” chimed Titus for the tenth time in an hour. Titus Steel was the amber maned and chocolate brown coated earth pony Solo of the group, a “do-er of things” and “cracker of skulls”, he wasn’t good with words but you didn’t want to meet him in a dark alley on a bad day. “We know, You haven’t stopped mentioning it for days now!” groaned Red Star, an Earth Pony Med-Techie. Red Star was dangerously close to pulling out her scarlet mane on account of Titus’ now constant complaints; her almost pristine white coat on the verge of stress thinning. “He could stand to shut up as if we don’t know how piss poor our money situation is!” shouted Access Granted from the rather small and dingy kitchen which was piled high with low-quality fast food cartons. Access Granted was the Orange-maned and charcoal gray coated Unicorn Netrunner of the crew, if you need a system broken into, data stolen or a system destroyed beyond repair look no further. “Access, Please stop antagonizing Titus we need to stay focused on getting another job” Cloud Rider grumbled as she looked up from her datapad clearly focused on doing just that. The Sky-blue maned Pegasus Cloud Rider was the groups Techie, it was her that repaired the groups firearms and equipment when they broke down, which given their rather sorry state was often; Her dirty blond coat covered with multiple oil stains from repairs long past. Suddenly a loud rhythmic beeping snapped the crew out of their argument, it was Cloud Rider’s Datapad indicating she had received a message; the crew gathered around the coffee table in the middle of the living room in anticipation of its contents. “This should be our job offer now” Cloud Rider said nervously, “I hope its good news”. Upon opening the message, it was indeed a message about a job but not the scale the crew was hoping for however something stood out as a little strange. Sent: 17/04/2254 19:27:04 From: bsun@et-net.corp You come highly recommended by one of our associates and this should be treated with the utmost care. We have a job for you, we cannot go into much detail in this message but we need you and your crew’s skills in retrieving some critical data that belongs to us, we want it back and we do not care how you go about it. This job should be a milk run and you wont run into any special security measures provided you move with discretion, use this to your advantage, additionally if you are caught within the facility we cannot send aid as the target must not know we are involved in any way. Reply and give us your response, Don’t keep us waiting. The four stared at the message for what felt like an eternity before Titus spoke up. “This can’t be real, Can it?” Titus said suspiciously “Why would they want us out of all ponies?” “No that's definitely an Equi-Tech mail address, Its likely they want to be discreet” Rider responded. “How much are they offering?” Red Star inquired. Access took the pad from Rider and scrolled down the message a little and nearly dropped it in shock much to Rider’s annoyance to whom he gave an apologetic smile. “120,000!?” He stated in disbelief. The room fell silent, that kind of money made the job seem anything but a milk-run. “This doesn’t feel right, this has to be some kind of trap” Titus pointed out. “We can’t just turn them down though, You don’t just simply turn down an offer like this!” Access half-shouted, giving Titus a serious glare. Rider thought for a moment before she broke the silence with an opinion of her own. “I say we take it, we really need the money” Nobody dared disagree and a silent agreement fell over them all, this was their big break and they hoped that it wouldn’t come back to bite them. Working with a Corp was risky but came with a massive payoff which they would gladly take advantage of. The following cloudy and foggy morning came quickly in the tense atmosphere of the crew’s apartment. Rider had been awake before the others and was quietly waiting for a follow-up message from their employer, upon receiving the message some time later she quickly woke the others from their slumber. “Wake up and pile in everyone! Got the details of the job in a few moments ago” Rider barked out. Titus, Access and Red Star fell from their respective areas on various bits of lounge furniture and practically clambered over the remaining furnishings in response to the sudden wake-up call. “What we got boss? They get back to you this soon?” Titus blinked still half asleep. Rider flicked through her datapad for a short moment “Yes, turns out it IS just a milk-run data retrieval job like they said, Seems a rival stole something of great importance to Equi-Tech and needless to say they aren’t happy at all” The location itself was a small unassuming server farm and comms relay in Upper-Canterlot that was the center of the local communications grid and was mostly unguarded apart from a few on-site security staff. “Are any of the staff on site armed?” Access joked. Rider left out a huff before stating “Just the guards, though they have assured us a pickup vehicle will be waiting for us after we complete our objectives, unmarked of course” Access nodded, knowing they would be a larger problem for his team as opposed to him. “Any special objectives or restrictions?” Red Star inquired. “Especially when it comes to engagement” Titus added. Rider shook her head “No, Equi-Tech would prefer they get their property back as soon as possible but I think it’s within our best interests to thoroughly check what we’re up against first.” “Then I guess I’ll scout the place out from the Net while the three of you check the place out physically” Access stated before sitting down on a small sofa where his Cyberdeck was set up and proceeded to jack himself into the net, his neural interface plugs clicking gently into place at the back of his skull. The three others nodded among themselves and proceeded leave the apartment room and headed outside into the morning gloom. Author's Note Ive had this idea knocking around in my skull for some time now since im a really big fan of Cyberpunk fics and have long had the want to write one of my own, only really got it out my brain and onto FimFiction Please let me know of your thoughts in a PM or Comment. Also some explainations on some of the terms used, for those not familiar with Cyberpunk 2020 Solo: Essentially a soldier, specialises in Firearms and Melee weapons, generally the muscle Netrunner: Users of advanced neural implants to access the Net in ways others cannot, generally for Social or Hacking purposes Techie: Mechanics, Electricians and Gunsmiths fall under this role, pretty much maintaining anything thats not a computer. Med-Techie: Like a Techie, but is more like a Medic.
Chapter 1 - PreperationsIn the center of Upper Canterlot the large angular steel skyscraper of Equi-Tech dominates the early morning sky heavily illuminating the foggy city streets below. “Sir, do you have a moment?” a smartly dressed assistant asked as she strode into the room. Behind the large black executive desk in the center of the room a cream colored stallion taps his hooves together in an impatient manner before turning around to face his assistant, a look of annoyance forming on his features. “What is it, this had better be important!” he responded, half shouting. “Yes, the… agents you hired are on the move, their leader has contacted us and they intend to hit the target within the hour” the business pony started to sweat noticeably. The cream colored stallion thought for a moment then said calmly “Good, Be sure to keep an eye on them should they need a quick escape” “Very good, Mr. Sun” the business pony said before turning to leave the room. Sun put a hoof to his mouth in thought for a moment before letting out a small chuckle “Lets see how this pans out shall we?” Access waited for his comrades to leave before barring closed the reinforced door behind them, it wasn’t smart to leave yourself exposed while fully immersed in the Net and he knew that feeling all too well. He started to hyperventilate as he sat back down next to his Cyberdeck and his senses gave way to blinding light, deep immersion always had this effect on him. Gathering his thoughts and shaking off the disorientation that comes with the territory he entered the city sub-net, a sea of neon light that despite its entirely digital nature was similar in structure to a large city complete with streets, shops and the occasional roaming service program. You could find anything you wanted here from media to games and even holidays, some ponies spend nearly their entire lives on the Net but Access was here for one reason, he wanted to gather Intel on their target and call in a couple of favors of his. Picking up speed into a brisk trot he noted the rather high level of security the sub-net had today, some of the guard programs scanned him as he moved past them to which Access gave but a moment of attention. Sub-nets such as this always had Guard programs around to keep the order and to stop the locals from messing with anything they shouldn’t, normally this ended with a painful ejection back to Realspace. Directing his attention towards a nearby set of structures, Access entered one of his favorite spots on the Net, a digital cafe named “Haven” which could house hundreds of thousands of concurrent users in a Virtual Reality chat room with multiple Private and Public areas. It was a popular spot for younger ponies and was almost always abuzz with chatter and very easy to hide a conversation in. Picking out a free booth out of the way of the other patrons he sat down with an audible sigh, you didn’t get many virtual spaces of this level of detail in the Net, despite the rough hewn wood and stone decor being from many decades in Equestria’s past it still felt like home. A far cry from the steel and concrete jungle the city and beyond had become. “Now to wait, she can’t be far off now...” Access whispered to himself, his eyes scanning across the room at the other patrons, the last thing he needed was to see Netwatch whom he was well known by due to his past antics. It wasn’t long until an avatar of a slate gray Unicorn mare arrived in Haven, Access turned to look at her from the corner of his eye and was relieved to see that it was the avatar of his friend and fellow Netrunner, Sheet Rock. “Hey hey! Access!” Sheet Rock shouted in Access’ direction with a big wave of her forehoof. Access jumps at the voice with an audible yelp, he relaxes somewhat as Sheet Rock sits down across the booth from him still with that trademark goofy smile she always seemed to have plastered on her face. “Don’t do that, I’m on edge as it is!” Access pants between breaths. Sheet Rock lets out a playful giggle “Sorry Access, I haven’t seen you around in a while and got a bit excited!” Access laughed alongside Sheet Rock for a while before putting a serious look on his face “Me and the crew have this job, but we need access to Upper-Canterlot’s comms hub specifically the server farm” Sheet Rock giggled for a few moments more before composing herself “I can get you in without much issue so you can disable security, but the boots on the ground I cannot help beyond some maps I’m afraid.” Sheet Rock clearly had gotten these credentials from somewhere shady but he couldn’t bring himself to ask where from, though he knew they’d be legitimate it was likely to be one use only and they wouldn’t likely get a second chance at this. He sat back in his seat a little in thought before saying “Our job is data retrieval, do you know what that comms hub could be storing that would cause a Megacorp to go to such lengths?” Sheet Rock thought for a moment, then a sly smile came across her lips “Rumor has it that its weapons plans or some such, nobody can rightly say.” “That seems likely at the price they are paying” Access said in annoyance “How do you know this?” Sheet rock made a gesture implying that her lips were sealed “Can’t say, you know I gotta protect my sources” Access got up out of his seat to leave but turned his head towards Sheet Rock to speak “Thanks, I’ll be sure you get paid for this, and send me those maps and access codes too” Sheet Rock called up an AR screen and sent over a few files to Access’ Cyberdeck “Sure, Just don’t get yourselves killed over this. It’d be bad for my health if Canterlot officials knew I gave you these” Access nodded with a playful grin and left the cafe with the information he came for metaphorically in hoof, then made the jump to the comms hub’s location on the Net. It was swarming with Passive Defense programs, but the codes Sheet Rock gave him should render all that null and void leaving it wide open. Access sat in wait for his friends to give him the go ahead. In their blacked out van Titus, Cloud Rider and Red Star were safely casing the location from some distance away assessing the level of security and it was just as lax just as they had been told it would be. “Access should have our help by now” Titus stated while taking stock of the amount of security, totaling no more than six lightly armed guards and maybe half a dozen exterior cameras. Red Star nodded and opened a comm-link to Access “Access, Do you have that help yet, we’re waiting on you” “Yeah, it should let us slip right in and from there I should be able to shut off the cameras and locks. Standby for maps of the complex.” “Good, do your thing Access. We’re counting on you!” Red Star despite her usual demeanor looked relieved as the three of them left the van out of sight and made their move towards the complex. They needed to be sure they were not seen as they didn’t have the benefit of doing this at night. The foggy weather would cover their approach but it wouldn’t help them once they were inside, Having gone over the maps Access had acquired the complex had many tight corners and alcoves that could be used for cover once they were beyond the outer fence. In the Net, Access received the signal to commence his attack run, moving quickly through the outer edges of the Comms-Hub's sub-net he came to a dark, monolithic structure. This clearly was the outer walls of the system and inside were the programs he would need to interact with. This would be a simple matter, all he needed to do was enter the codes he was given on the structures display and he’d have some control and most importantly a way to exfiltrate their target data. “CREDENTIALS. RECOGNIZED. BASIC ACCESS CONFIRMED” blared a robotic voice, it had worked! He now had some control over the security but not for long until he was detected. Half an hour at most. Access sent a message through his AR display to the rest of the crew reading “It’s done and I have control, killing the cameras and mag-locks now but don’t screw around we’re on a timer here” The rest of the crew found a timer appear in their AR displays which started to count down from thirty minutes. This was all the time they had until they’d be detected and lose their element of surprise. The Hit was on. Author's Note Things are beginning to hot up for our four friends but are going well, but for how long? For context Augmented Reality (AR) Displays exist in world as implants and in standalone form, they overlay information on top of something else that normally being the users eyes. As always, let me know of any issues via PM or in the Comments.
Chapter 2 - The First Of ManyThe approach to the complex was a simple affair as was cutting the unmaintained and rusting chain-link fence, a more careful pony would question why it’d been so easy to even get close but the desperate crew had been blinded with promises of fortune. Past the fencing were four off-white windowless buildings that housed the hub’s servers, power distribution systems and hard-lines out to the rest of the city, three of the buildings were situated in a ring around the central fourth building. One long main road winds its way around the entire ring of building with the roads themselves were surrounded on each side with short concrete barriers with a total of four guard posts spaced out evenly throughout the ring. At the end of the asphalt was the largest building and their target, inside was a complex and power-hungry system that recorded all information that passed through the hub in either direction, it had flagged some anomalous data and had held it for inspection and would soon discard it. All they had to do was get in and snag the data before the system deleted it. Nodding to each other the three split up and began to make their way to the first guard post ducking behind some low walls to avoid being seen, Rider spreads her wings and flies to a point just above the post and lands roughly on its flimsy steel roof, startling the guard inside who grabs his sidearm and begins to back out of the post. Despite no words being spoken among any of them Titus moves into position behind the closest guard and grabs him around the neck, dragging him over the wall he had previously been hiding behind and delivering a rough blow to the guards stomach which incapacitates him. “Rider, can you see the other guards from up there?” Titus whispers through his comm. Cloud Rider was no Bat-pony, but from her vantage point she could clearly see up much of the asphalt road leading towards the central structure and into the other guard posts. “One at the second post and a few others gathered around the third, though we should look for another way into the central structure rather than going that far around” Rider responds. Dropping back to the asphalt from her perch above the guard post Rider rejoins her comrades and they begin to move up the path towards the second post, its careless occupant fast asleep who Titus quickly grabs and lands a sharp strike with the grip of his sidearm to the back of the guards skull. Meanwhile, Access was sifting through the hub’s systems with the limited access he had as well as looking over the maps again in hopes of finding some easier way through. He noted that the complex had a series of utility tunnels that wound their way under the asphalt roads and paths of the complex and they had access points to every building in the complex, they were likely to be locked but he could take care of that. “Where are you guys, There's a hatch just beyond the second guard post that leads into some utility tunnels” Access’ voice crackled through the comm. “We’re at the second post, where is this hatch?” Red Star inquired. “You can’t miss it, should be covered in painted markings.” Getting the attention of the team Red Star looks towards the road; In the middle just after the guard post’s barricade was a hatch cover marked with yellow warning paint. She waves a fore-hoof getting the attention of Titus and Rider who nod in agreement. Keeping close to the ground they make their way over to it, upon tugging on the handle it opens with a smooth hiss. They look into the darkness for a moment then begin to make their way down into the depths. Titus being the last to enter closes it back up behind them, they dive behind some water pipes with weapons drawn and stare up at the hatch in case they had been seen entering. After what seemed like hours they started to relax and laughed nervously between themselves at the sheer luck they were having. “No security down here, we should be good” Titus states turning on a small flashlight which he shines down the tunnel. “Good, We can relax for a little while then.” Rider says thankfully. The three start to walk down the tunnel occasionally stopping to read direction labels on the walls, one of these would lead to their target but it may take some time finding the right one in these winding tunnels. Unlike the clean and sparkling steel and concrete of the complex above the tunnels below looked like they had entered another world, dust, oil and water covered the smooth stone flooring. It was eerily quiet with the only sounds they could hear being their own breath and hoof-steps. While his comrades were navigating the tunnels Access took the liberty of making sure all the hatches they came to would be unlocked and any security systems would ignore them, upon doing so he stepped his avatar back a little and took stock of his surroundings. Normally conditions in the Net would be reflected in the sub-grid’s landscape, but this one was almost entirely flat with no indication of any traffic flow and the defensive programs hadn’t given him much trouble at all. Things were far too easy, something was very wrong. Stepping back inside the tower Access just briefly thought he saw a flicker of light in his peripheral vision, turning around to look out of the entryway he looks around the area for a second time. Paranoia was surely setting in. He started to feel as if he wasn’t alone in the system and the feeling grew and grew the more he stared out at the sub-grid before him. It was easy to hide your signal once you were connected but it was quite a lot harder to simply not show any indication you had connected in the first place. “Hey guys, I think something’s in here with me I swear I saw something jack in” Access said with worry. The team’s nervous laughs could be heard through the comm. “You’re paranoid, just relax!” Titus says mockingly. Access turns around and starts to trot back into the tower but spares a glance over his back to look at where he thought he saw the flickering. Something had in fact just connected and somehow managed to do so without being detected, It’s avatar was glitched and erratic, it looked in on Access from around the corner of the entryway. Malicious intent clear on its features. “I know you’re there, show yourself!” Access shouts. The glitched avatar steps out from the corner and stares into Access’ eyes, whatever this thing was it had known he was here from the very start. Access didn’t care what this thing was but he knew it was trouble, before he could launch an attack against the avatar, it spoke. “You shouldn’t be here, intruder.“ It sounded menacing and robotic but it didn’t seem like a program, it moved too fluidly and too much with a purpose to be one. “Don’t threaten me, Just who are you?” “You aren’t in a position to be making demands, Leave while you can” Access reached for his comm but was stopped midway by an attack from the avatar, a beam of red light sprang from its body striking just below Access’ hooves. The avatar spoke one more word with much more malice in its words, “Leave.” Access didn’t know what to do, if he warned his friends he would likely end up on the receiving end of a painful ejection, if he didn’t they’d likely be stuck in those tunnels. He thought for a moment and looked as if he was about to jack out but launched an attack of his own against his aggressor. A “Flatline” program was often employed by Netrunners and Systems alike in Net combat, its main function was to directly attack the CPU of a system in an attempt to render it inoperable. The Flatline fired by Access struck the avatar square in its head before it could dodge chipping off a large piece of itself which shattered on the ground as if it were glass. “Fine, I suppose I’ll have to remove you myself!” The avatar booms before launching itself at Access sending multiple unknown programs in succession at him with reckless abandon. Access attempts to dodge out of the way of the shots but multiple hit his body and head leaving substantial holes in his own avatar. This thing wasn’t fighting him with strategy but brute force which worked annoyingly well in the confined spaces of the tower. “Guys, I was right something was here!” Access urgently says through his comm. Outside the Net, the team had found the hatch to the archive building when Access’ message got to them. Titus opens the hatch slightly to check the area while his comrades respond. “Jack out, before it frags you!” Rider says, the worry on her voice evident. “I’m trying, I think one of its attacks is stopping me from leaving” Access states before getting hit with another one of the avatar’s attacks this one making him grunt in annoyance as his vision wavered. He was knocked to the ground by this attack, whatever the avatar had hit him with was interfering with his connection removing much of his ability to move or even fight back. The avatar stood over him before launching one more attack at him destroying his avatar and causing him to scream in pain as his Cyberdeck overloaded causing burns and electrical damage to his neural plugs, painfully dumping him back to Realspace. When access awoke to his dingy Canterlot apartment he struggled to speak for a moment, attempting to stand he goes to warn his friends before he passes out. It was hard to stay coherent, whatever the glitched avatar hit him with before he was booted scrambled his brain somewhat. “Whatever… that was… it got me, I got ejected...” Access manages to slur before falling backwards onto the floor and passing out into a convulsing heap. From what memory he could recall at the time, it was unlike any program currently in use and certainly nothing like the kinds of defenses that systems like the one he was in use. He was lucky to be alive after that encounter, very few tangle with an enemy like that and get out of it with their lives. Titus bashes open the hatch to the archive building leading out to a large room filled with whirring and clicking storage devices, whatever they were looking for had to be here. But before he could climb the ladder both Red Star and Rider stop him. “Whatever Access was fighting in the Net got to him, all I heard was a scream before the link went dead” worried Rider. “What do we do now then?” Titus and Red Star say in unison. “Well, whatever he saw doesn’t seem to have been affiliated with the Crown or Netwatch, so I think it’s safe to say we can finish up here and make sure Access is okay” Rider says with an air of forced leadership. Rider, Titus and Red Star climb the ladder in silence and enter the archival building in what appears to be the main storage room. “Give me a moment, I’ll have to extract the data myself” Rider states flatly. “It better not be locked” Titus jokes trying to lighten the mood. “Thanks to Access’ efforts, it isn’t.” The others nod, taking up positions behind the doorway. The atmosphere had become very heavy and many questions were being asked in the heads of the team, the prevailing ones were “Who or what was that avatar?” and “Who was controlling it?”. “Right… So this should be it” Rider mutters to herself tapping on the terminals keyboard. She puts a storage device into the side of the terminal and begins to retrieve the target data when Titus points a hoof towards the door urgently, a couple of guards were walking towards the buildings main door. “Guys move, get some cover!” Rider takes a spot next to Titus and draws her weapon, she waits for the guards to enter before pointing her weapon at the back of one of their heads. Red Star points her weapon at the other. One of the guards stop dead and put their hooves into the air having been caught by surprise but the other opts to try to land a punch on Red Star who just barely moves out of the way in time, before striking the guard in the chin with her sidearm which sends him to the floor. “Who are you ponies?” the first guard asks wincing in pain from the strike. “None of your business, we’ll be out of your hair soon” Titus responds. “Just don’t shoot us!” the second begs. The terminal beeps indicating the transfer has completed, Titus trots over and grabs the storage drive from the terminal. “Alright ladies, lets bail!” Titus booms. “But first a parting gift.” Titus fires a single shot into each of the guards hind legs, making them yelp in pain and ensuring that they wouldn’t be able to follow them out. Red Star and Rider both shake their heads and glare at Titus for his use of unnecessary force but follow him back into the tunnels while keeping their weapons trained on the guards as they leave. Closing the hatch back behind them they gallop full speed back down the tunnels almost tripping over their own hooves, with adrenaline pumping and reaching the hatch leading to the second guard post all pretenses of stealth are dropped there and then as they burst out the hatch and begin to gallop down the asphalt road leading out the complex. Their escape concludes without incident, after regrouping at a street corner some distance away from the complex they catch their breath while glancing at each other. The tension of the op starts to lift as they start to laugh like mad-ponies. “Holy shit, I can’t believe that actually worked!” Titus wheezed. “I know right!” Red Star giggles. “Guys we should check on Access, See if he is okay” Rider states in an annoyed tone. They all nod and start to trot back to the van, upon reaching it Titus starts its engine and begins the drive back to their apartment. The mood now much lighter at the anticipation of their incoming payday. In the distance a car bearing the logo of Equi-Tech watches them leave, its driver lighting up a cigarette before driving off in the opposite direction towards Equi-Tech Tower. “Reporting in sir, Operation appears to have been successful. Returning to base.” Author's Note The gang manage to pull together and complete the op, but have many questions for their employer though with some luck they might get a straight answer. As always notify me of any issues in the comments or PM.
Chapter 3 - QuestionsAccess was surrounded by darkness, this wasn’t the Net or Realspace but somewhere in-between awake and sleeping. He wasn’t used to this feeling and he started to hyperventilate in panic. Many thoughts flashed through his addled mind, his friends, his actions and the state of the world. Things had never been more prosperous than they were now but he couldn’t help but feel something was missing, something important. Access felt as if he was going mad from sounds he couldn’t quite hear, things he couldn’t quite see and feeling things he couldn’t decipher. Everything was numb and yet he felt sore which while it was a strange feeling, the pain reminded him that he was still alive. Slowly he awoke from his post-ejection stupor to his AR display implant buzzing loudly and displaying multiple error messages, most of his implants had been rendered inoperable in the overload, though this was the least of his worries. Pulling himself up off the ground he pulls the charred and broken neural plugs out the back of his skull with his magic with a groan of pain as a sickening crunch could be heard from the plugs. “Okay, lets see how fucked up I am...” Access mutters to himself. He calls up an AR display which thankfully still seemed to work properly and runs a quick diagnostic, reports of multiple problems fill his vision and it was safe to say many of his implants were beyond repair and would need replacing. Checking on his organic parts wasn’t as easy but as far as he could tell, he was fine apart from some burns and disruption to motor functions. He wouldn’t know for sure until Red Star checked him over. He could hear multiple groups of ponies outside the apartment, but couldn’t quite make out who despite the walls being paper thin. The day must be beginning for most right about now, What time was it? Not long after this thought someone started pounding on the apartment door, stumbling to his hooves he makes his way over to the door steadying himself on various bits of furniture. “Who is it?” Access inquired. “Its us you dummy!” Titus says through the door. “Let us in already.” With a grumble Access begins to unbar the door to let his friends in, who swiftly launch into many fevered questions as soon as the door opened. none of which he was particularly able to answer. “By the sun, you look terrible!” Red Star said in shock, pushing him to the nearby sofa and began to look him over while preparing a few burn and stimulant serums. Hospital treatment was expensive and something they couldn’t afford, nor could they explain the injuries in a way that wouldn't make it sound as if they were hiding that they just committed theft and battery. Access had suffered a severe burnout from his fight with the glitched avatar, his neural plugs were charred and the surrounding area had been severely burnt. “Deck burnouts do that to you, Whatever that thing was using it had intended it to be lethal” Access responds. “Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but how come it didn’t fry you then?” Titus asks. “My Deck burned out before I did thankfully, I’ve learned over the years to put safeguards in place for situations like this.” Access points a hoof at his now burnt-out Cyberdeck, though some time had passed it was still smoldering in the corner of the room and was largely a puddle of melted plastic, metal and silicon. “Are you able to travel, we still need to deliver the data.” Rider states. “I am really glad you’re okay, just so you know.” “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine” Access assures with a warm but pained smile. Rider simply smiled back at him though she wasn’t so sure he was being truthful, it felt like he was masking the fact he nearly died with his childish bravado, she wanted to scold him for being so reckless but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. They’d have to take public transport to the central plaza and walk to Equi-tech tower as using the Van would be too risky this soon after what they pulled. Nobody in Lower-Canterlot would rat them out however, even in these times a sense of community was in the minds of the unfortunate and downtrodden. After what they had been through a few hours ago a little bit of rest and relaxation was very welcome, leaving the apartment they head down and out of their building and into the busy streets below. The Sprawl was their home and had been for the majority of their lives, it was many miles of closely packed and run-down concrete buildings, cheap, small and generally very unpleasant places to live but in this district you took what you were given lest someone take it from you by force. The shaded streets were positively alive with activity, merchants plying their trade, foals roughhousing and many groups of ponies laughing and enjoying their morning. Despite the fact they had very little in the way of possessions, money or even a home. But they all still managed in their own little way. Rider looks towards the ground for a moment in thought then begins to speak to nobody in particular “Hey, when we get paid, what are you gonna spend it on?” “New implants and a Cyberdeck.” Access says without missing a beat. “Maybe a new weapon, district is getting more dangerous all the time.” Titus answers. “Medical supplies, Lots of ponies around here could sure use them” Red Star answers with a frown. All of these were good enough responses but Rider found herself torn on how she should spend the money, not that anyone would complain how she went about that. It wasn’t long until they reached the district’s train station, each paying for their own ticket they head out onto the platform to wait. Transportation had advanced by leaps and bounds since the steam-power days, Such a system of automated transports were essential to a city this large and most forms of transport were entirely electric as well as being entirely automated. Some time later the train arrived thundering up the tracks and stopping with a loud screech, upon boarding they opt for a private cabin. “How do you reckon they’ll react when we rock up?” Titus asked. “Considering we’re being expected I should hope they react well enough.” Access grumbled. “Whats stopping them from just shooting us and taking their property?” Nobody had an answer to that, they’d either have to just wing it or be ready to start shooting if things got ugly though that’d likely end up in them getting killed. The trip to the Central Plaza and then Equi-Tech Tower would take roughly an hour, the city had become much larger in recent years almost to the point where the mountain it was situated on was completely obscured. Even the interior of the mountain had been hollowed and used to further develop the city. Passing into a tunnel constructed through the steel ring walls that separated Lower and Upper Canterlot the four friends looked outside their window as the train zipped out the other side to what looked like a whole other world. Dusty, grimy streets gave way to gleaming steel and marble, Lower-Canterlot had its share of artificial neon lighting but Upper-Canterlot used and abused it to its fullest. “What a view!” Titus exclaims. “Never ceases to amaze does it?” Red Star asks. Titus nods “You’re telling me, we’ve spent way too much time in the Sprawl” Access nods before saying “Yeah, would be nice to live here wouldn’t it” “Sure would” Titus says wistfully. Upper-Canterlot was home to some of the richest and most influential ponies in Equestria and was the kind of place you wouldn’t want to cause trouble in, unlike Lower-Canterlot there were security drones and heavily armed police units everywhere, ready and waiting to quell any and all trouble. And just to the north, was the one place the four of them never thought they’d tread. Equi-Tech Tower. The train was now slowing for its approach to the Central Plaza Station and would soon arrive, Rider and Access begin to stand up and make their way to the train’s outer doors. Red Star and Titus follow a little distance behind and begin to talk among the two of them. “You know, ever since Access nearly got fried Rider has been keeping a close eye on Access.” Red Star whispers. “She probably feels responsible, we couldn’t have known what he’d face in there and she couldn’t have either.” Red nods in agreement “Once this jobs over with we should just relax for a little while, poor mare is gonna have a heart attack if she gets a scare like that again.” Rider and Access were stood at the exit to the Central Plaza waiting for their comrades, getting a little annoyed that they were taking their sweet time. “You two finished?” Access grumbles. “Yeah yeah, keep your hair on!” Titus laughs. Heading out of the station they found themselves in the middle of Upper-Canterlot’s market district, many nice smells waft from the street food kitchens nearby as well as many corporate ad screens playing their loud and bright advertisements. The Sprawl had many of the same things, but with a decidedly lower quality though this was to be expected since no corp wanted to spend good money on ponies who’d never be able to buy their products, of course this often didn’t stop them from doing it anyway in some sick attempt to torment them with status they’d never have. To some degree this annoyed Access as he had lived in the Sprawl all his life, even before he met his friends and to see such a divide among ponies even now had rubbed him the wrong way and every pony he walked passed could tell. The more he walked and took in the sights the more he wanted to tear it all down, it wasn’t fair that he and by extension everyone he knew from the Sprawl had grown up on so little when there was such plenty available within a short trip. He had to keep his cool for as long as he was here, Now on final approach to Equi-Tech tower and with all four members of the crew together they enter the Tower. Author's Note Now we are getting into rewrite territory, originally i had intended this to be no more than 6 chapters, but after reading it i found it to be uninteresting so i rewrote it. I can't say for sure how many chapters there will be now, but i can say it will be many, along with some seperate side stories, one of which is already being written.
Chapter 4 - AnswersSensing the tension building as soon as they entered, Rider offered to deal with the talking to which there were no objects. Giving the Desk Pony a smile she begins to explain “Hey, your Boss is expecting us, we have a particular object he would love to get his hooves on” The Desk Pony simply raises an eyebrow “And what is this object?” Rider shows the storage drive hoping the Desk Pony would get her meaning, to which the pony simply points at an elevator before stating plainly “Top floor, go nowhere else.” Rider nods then waves over her friends who follow her over to the elevator which opens as soon as she hit the call button, the elevator while clean was far too small for the four of them and they ended up pressed up against each other. Thankfully the awkwardness was short lived as they found themselves on the very top floor of the tower, the elevator opening to a long and wide white painted steel corridor. Towards the end was a set of glass sliding doors. Leaving the elevator the crew slowly walks down the corridor, now acutely aware they were being watched by a heavily armored guard pony visible through the glass. “Overcompensating much?” Titus mocks. “Don’t be an idiot or we die” Access states coldly. The Armored Pony pulls open the door with his magic as the crew approaches, gesturing towards a set of four seats at one end of a board table. “Mr Sun will be with you shortly, please sit.” the Armored Pony says with a hint of aggression. The four sit in the chairs without protest and they each begin to slowly look around the room, it was full of trophies, awards and various statues, no doubt the achievements of this Mr Sun. Among the various awards were weapons and sets of armor in glass cases, including some none of the crew had seen before, likely prototypes or display pieces, clearly this pony liked his shiny toys. Another set of glass doors on the opposite wall slides open without warning and out strode a well manicured yellow-maned Pegasus Stallion, this must be the pony they were to see. “Well, I assume some congratulations are in order then?” the stallion spoke with an upper-class educated eloquence. “We have your property” Rider says, removing the storage device from a pocket then pushes it across the table. “Ah, excellent!” the stallion says with a pleased look on his face. The stallion looks over the contents of the drive with one of the terminals set out on the board table, upon being satisfied that everything is present, he begins to speak once more. “My name is Bright Sun, I am the CEO of Equi-Tech but I suspect you knew that already, you have not only completed the task we gave you to a satisfactory level but you have also passed our test too.” “Test?” Access asks in confusion. Access began to think about his contact, Sheet Rock, was she involved too? Or was that merely coincidence, he dared not ask since if he was wrong about her involvement Equi-Tech would likely have her hunted down. It was very likely that she was involved however, things aligned just a little too well for her not to be. “Oh yes, You must have noticed how easy things seemed, this was because we were testing you not for skill but for willingness to do what was asked of you.” Bright Sun explained. Anger began to bubble in Rider, Had this pony really staged the entire job and nearly got one of them killed? “Furthermore, you were in no real danger as every guard onsite were notified of your arrival. I trust nobody was hurt?” This comment made Rider explode in anger which even surprised the normally aggressive Titus Steel, for her it was out of character. “Are you aware Access nearly died because of a Cyberdeck overload that your security caused, something in that system nearly fried him!” “Nothing to do with us, what security are you referring to?” Bright Sun asks with a dismissive tone to his voice, which earned him an angry glare from them all. “Some sort of avatar, glitched and shifting as if it couldn’t keep a particular shape or form” Access blurted. Bright Sun sat back in his chair and stared down the table for a few moments, deep in thought for moment he spoke again in a hushed tone. “Did it say anything specific?” Bright Sun now looked a little uncomfortable and the atmosphere had become somewhat tense. Access began to explain as best as he could remember “It called me an intruder and demanded I left the system and when I didn’t it sent my Deck into overload, which nearly killed me.” “What I’m about to tell you stays between us, it’s existence cannot be allowed to get out.” Bright Sun said with a stern look. “Just what is that thing?” Red Star asks. Bright Sun sighs “Nobody knows for sure, our best guess that it’s a decommissioned AI gone rogue, normally these things are kept on short leashes but someone dropped the ball on this one.” “Hold on a moment, doesn’t this mean that anyone who uses the Net is at risk of this thing?” Titus asks. Bright Sun responded quickly “No, The only attacks so far have been on your friend and some of our elite Netrunners.” “So why would it target me?” Access asks with some worry on his voice. “It’s possible that it saw you as a threat, which regrettably caused its assault on yourself.” Bright sun asserts. Anger, Worry, Sadness, Guilt, A number of different emotions welled up in Rider as Bright Sun was speaking, she could have lost Access forever if that thing had gotten its way. None of them could do anything about it though, they knew too little and had too much to lose trying to fight something many orders of magnitude stronger than them. That was assuming they weren’t being lied to again, which they thought was likely but had no real proof to the contrary. They’d have to believe Bright Sun for now. “For now, all four of you should lay low and enjoy your reward, further I would request you don’t disclose anything we’ve discussed” Bright Sun said with what passes for an apologetic look. The crew looks to each other nodding in agreement. “Fine, assuming you don’t screw us” Rider spat. “Heavens above why would I do that!” Bright Sun said with feigned offense. Four Eurobit chits are taken from a nearby briefcase and pushed across the table to the four crew members. With a wink Bright Sun says “I trust this will be adequate compensation for all the ugliness involved, expect to be contacted in a weeks time.” The crew get up to leave after each grabbing their Eurobit chits, They had their rewards and couldn’t wait until they were free of this entire mess, as they were leaving Bright Sun calls out to Access. “Access, Go to the reception desk and ask to be taken to Doctor Brandy Snaps, they’ll understand my meaning, He’ll take care of your medical needs.” Heading back down to the lobby the crew try to process what they were just told. “Can we trust this guy?” Titus asks. “You can never tell with ponies like him.” Red Star says. “I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.” Access states. “Yeah I agree, I think we should go and think this out for a while, we have money and time to think” Rider says happily. “You guys go, I gotta go find this Doctor he mentioned” Access says as he rubs the back of his head. “Yeah man, seeya later” Titus says as he turns to leave. Red Star simply nods and leaves with Titus, Rider contemplated staying with Access but opted to leave with the others. “Don’t stay too long, let me know when you’re done here” Rider says with worry. Access nods and heads back up to the reception desk to get some directions, he’d rather not go wandering around a corporate HQ. Hopefully this Doctor could help, Access felt helpless without his implants. Author's Note Another chapter done! Seems our motley crew is getting some answers, though not to the real important questions.
Chapter 5 - Back In The SaddleAccess thought about taking up Bright Sun on his offer, there was no better medical care than that of a Corp, most of them had and ran medical facilities but none were more renowned than Equi-Tech’s. Despite his almost rigid distrust, he decided he’d take up Bright Sun’s offer of a medical checkup and maybe just maybe they’d gain an ally in the process. “Hey, Mr Sun asked me to inquire about a Doctor Brandy Snaps, something about fixing my implants?” The reception pony raises an eyebrow, rifling around a drawer for a moment before tossing Access a keycard which clatters to the ground. “Go up the stairs behind me and to the general use elevators, this card will take you straight to the floor you’re wanting. Brandy Snaps will meet you up there.” Access took the keycard off the floor using his magic and slipped it into a pocket on his vest with a slight grumble. The Equi-Tech Tower lobby area made liberal use of many high-quality materials used in Upper-Canterlot itself, gleaming steel and glittering glass aplenty. It still bothered him that Lower-Canterlot and beyond looked so run down and dirty. Anger began to bubble within him once more as he reached a bank of elevators, putting his keycard into a slot near one of them which called it down to the lobby after a few moments. While riding the elevator up Access found himself thinking about events so far, while Bright Sun seemed sincere it wasn’t wise to trust the word of a corp nor was it wise to work for them. Him and his crew didn’t have much of a reputation outside Lower-Canterlot so he pondered how Equi-Tech had come to know of them, most of their past jobs involved the kinds of crimes most police forces would overlook. The elevator came to a stop on his floor, upon stepping out a rather large Earth Pony Stallion with a burnt orange coat and beige mane greeted him, he towered over Access by quite the margin and looked as if he’d tower over the rather tall Titus as well. “Ah Hello, I assume you are Access Granted?” The stallion asked. “Yeah, Yeah, That’s me.” Access mumbled in awe. “Excellent! My name is Brandy Snaps, Mr Sun has already told me what happened so you’ll just need a quick checkup and then maybe a bit of implant maintenance, please follow me.” This Earth Pony seemed oddly chipper unlike his colleagues who roamed the halls, all of whom wore the same form-fitting white and yellow striped uniform jumpsuits. Before long they arrive at an immaculately clean and brightly lit medical bay, the centerpiece of the room was what looked like a large lounger covered in cables and various computer terminals, it was likely equipped with the latest in diagnostic hardware and software. “Please, go ahead and lay down and we’ll get started!” said Brandy as chipper as ever. Access did as he was told and laid on the lounger, to which Brandy passed some cables over to him. “Before you jack in let me clean your plugs first, with any luck they should still be working.” Access shows his neural plugs to Brandy who looks at them intently before grabbing some cleaning tools, even though he was an Earth Pony he was surprisingly deft with his hooves and had the plugs clean in no time at all. “You had better not screw me over.” Access said with a glare. “You can trust me! I’m not in the business of doing the Boss’ dirty deeds.” Access grabs the plugs in his magic and slides them into his neural interface, with a satisfying click they fit into place. Surprisingly his systems recognized the connection with a brief alert. “I’m going to run some diagnostics and check over your physical condition, just relax and try not to stress yourself.” Access just nodded and let himself relax a little as Brandy started a diagnostic procedure, It was taking a little while but Access was in no position to complain. Brandy also checked the area around Access’ plugs, some of the surrounding tissue was still severely burnt but was otherwise healing just fine. He also makes a mental note to advise a cell regeneration serum to help things along. Soon after, the report came back and the results were somewhat surprising to the both of them. Brandy began to speak, as politely as possible “Interesting, it appears most of your systems just suffered a critical failure, no damage at all!” “It felt like I was being fried alive, to be fair.” Access states coldly. Brandy gave a small chuckle “You’re very lucky it didn’t cook your brain, let alone your implants.” “I should just be thankful my countermeasures worked then.” Brandy raises an eyebrow and put on a concerned look “Alas where your implants are for the most part fine your nervous system isn’t.” Access looked at Brandy in a confused manner. “Look, I don’t need this machine to say it’s possible that you may have permanent nerve damage, though it’s still too early to tell but you may develop fine motor issues.” Access let his ears go flat against his head at this news before Brandy interjected. “Just take it easy for a little while and you’ll be fine, hold on while I reboot your implants and let me know if everything comes back up alright.” With a few taps of his terminal’s keys Access’ vision went dark, a few moments later his vision was filled with his AR displays boot-up sequence as he watched each status message go by. Sub-dermal Weapon Link: Online Cranial Neural Interface: Online Cortex Response Enhancer: Online Ocular Enhancement and AR display: Online “Looks like everything is good!” Access says with a relieved expression. “As far as the diagnostics are concerned the overload only induced a critical failure, if your systems are communicating with each other then you have nothing to worry about.” Brandy assures. Access pulled the plugs from the back of his head and sat up, feeling much better now his systems had been looked at. Before he could get up to leave, Brandy stops him with a stern look on his face. “Access, Do not under any circumstances let that happen again, you got very lucky indeed and the next time you’re this reckless will likely end in your death.” Access nodded and got up from the lounger, while he was doing so Brandy took a set of seven vials of medicine from a nearby drawer, along with an injector and tossed them to Access. “Almost forget, Take one of these per day for seven days, should heal those burns nicely.” Access turned to leave, heading back down to the foyer and after some moments of travel down to the ground floor he quickly walked out of the Tower’s front doors, thankfully without being watched intently this time. Now his systems were working correctly, he started a diagnostic of his own, though it was less accurate than one done with the proper equipment it’d still tell him if anything was amiss. Waiting with baited breath Access watched the diagnostic progress and when the results came back as “All Good” he began to question his reaction to Brandy’s help. Was he being too judgmental? This thought played on his mind as he walked further and further from the tower, nearly knocking into several passing ponies as he went. Author's Note Some doubt being sown in Access' mind this time around now that things are calming down for the crew, what could be next for them?
Chapter 6 - No RestSome hours later at the apartment, Access and Titus were chatting among themselves, going over what had happened at Equi-Tech. The apartment was one of the few places they could talk freely since corporate police and Netwatch very rarely came here without a reason. Titus had dismantled both his and Access’ sidearms and was currently in the process of cleaning them now they had the proper tools, much grime and dirt had built up on the sidearms internals over the last few months. “Are you really telling me you let him root around in your head?” “Yes obviously, it was either that or surgery and I can tell you I wasn’t about to let them cut into me!” Access said with an annoyed grin. Titus tilts his head and glares back at Access. “Hey, I get that and all but I don’t get why you’d let a corp in like that, they probably planted something in your head for all you know!” Access shook his head. “No, its fine I checked everything over and all my implants are fine.” Titus lets out a small chuckle. “If you say so, don’t blame me if you go crazy!” “I feel like I’m going crazy all the damned time around here.” Access grumbles. “You know what I mean, shit is gonna get serious sooner or later and we can’t afford any screw ups!” “I know, now we’re on Equi-Tech’s radar I doubt they’ll let us walk away that easily.” During this little exchange, Access pondered his choice of a new Cyberdeck, given his old one was now only fit for the garbage compactor since nothing was salvageable he’d have to get creative. The thought of retrofitting his portable terminal into a Cyberdeck crossed his mind a number of times, but that was just silly talk as the systems were not at all alike, he’d have to get creative with some spare parts and work his way back up. Both he and Rider could quite easily do any future modification to it so he wasn’t worried about not being able to get the parts he wanted right this moment. “I’m going out, got someone to see about some new gear.” Access stated flatly. “You good? You need backup?” Titus responded. “No, its only a few blocks away.” Access picks up his now cleaned and reassembled sidearm as he leaves, slipping it into its holster. As Titus watched Access leave he let out a small sigh, he figured something was going on with home but he couldn’t quite put his hoof on what and wasn’t in the business of prying into ponies business. Trotting briskly down the street Access called up his AR display, upon scrolling down his admittedly bare contacts list for a moment he started a call to Sheet Rock in the hopes of getting some answers from her about a few things. He stared at the dialer for what felt like an eternity before it connected. “Hey! Access, I see everything went well!” Sheet Rock said in her trademark chipper attitude as it crackled through the call. “Yeah got a question for you actually. A serious one.” “Whats that? The codes weren’t bogus were they?” Access sighed. “No they were fine, it turns out we were being tested.” Sheet Rock took a moment to respond. “By who?” “I think you know who. Did Equi-Tech put you up to this?” Access said in an accusatory tone. “What? No? Are you implying you think I’m working for them or something?” Sheet Rock said slightly in an offended tone. Access was beginning to slow his pace as he was speaking, he tried to hide the annoyance in his voice but wasn’t doing a very good job of it. “Equi-Tech were the ones who set everything up to test us, they were the ones that straight up WANTED us to break into that hub and YOU gave us the means to do so.” Sheet Rock was dumbfounded and took a brief moment to respond. “I don’t know what to tell you Access and all I can say is that we got them from some cracked password lists that showed up on the Net.” Sheet Rock stated. Access snorted in annoyance, but attempted to cool the discussion a little. “I see, this situation has us on edge and I’m starting to feel a little paranoid, I am sorry by the way.” “Don’t worry about it, I totally understand, I’ll give you a shout if I learn anything on our side.” “Good, Stay safe Sheet.” Access ended the call, He wasn’t convinced that Sheet Rock hadn’t been involved but with no evidence he’d have to keep his mouth shut for now. All that would come of blind accusations would be losing a valuable friend and contact. A small, dingy, less than clean shopfront comes into view after some time of walking, it was one of the only places in the Sprawl to stock electronic parts and would have all he needed to cobble together a new Cyberdeck. The place was called “Bits and Things” a rather on the nose name for a shop that mostly sold junk and random electronics, the inside of the store looked much like a warehouse with metal shelving units holding large bins of sorted parts with the occasional packaged product or refurbished appliance. Entering and beginning to browse shelves, he quickly pulled together all the parts needed off of the various bins and shelving units, passing ponies looked on in awe as Access grabbed what they had considered mere junk. He’d have preferred a pre-built deck but that would require some extensive modifications to make it suitable for his style of Netrunning, but right now he needed to be up and running again as soon as possible. “Memory, CPU, Interfaces… Don’t think I’m missing anything important. No don’t think so.” Access mutters to himself as he inspects each part which earns him a few strange looks from passing ponies. Some time later, having found what he needed among the various bins, shelving and buckets of merchandise he made his way to the front to pay. “Money well spent.” Access grumbled as he pushed his Eurobit chit towards a waiting service drone, it was a miracle it hadn’t broken down sooner as whole parts of its chassis and internals were missing. “Thank you sir!” the run-down barely functional service drone chimes back as it accepts payment. Access grumbled some more as he turned to leave after putting his Eurobit chit back into a slot in his temple, his purchases safely stowed in his saddle bags. Trotting quickly back down the pavement leading to his apartment building he found himself lost in thought once more nearly stumbling into a passing earth pony who shot him a rather nasty glare. It wasn’t long until he made it to the apartment block, heading inside he slowly ascended the stairs to the top floor where the apartment was, upon opening the door and tossing his saddlebags onto the nearby sofa he found that Rider and Red Star had finally made their way back. “What took you two so long?” Access inquired. “Sorry we got sidetracked, besides its not as if the two of you even asked where we were anyway.” Red Star responded pointing to both Titus and Access. “Yeah, I’m especially upset that you didn’t do what I asked either!” Rider chided. “Must’ve slipped my mind, had other stuff to do at the time.” “Slipped your mind? Did that overload scramble your short-term memory or something?” Rider shouted angrily. Access glared at Rider and Red Star for a moment. “Excuse me?!” “You’re going to have to grow up someday Access, You know how bad things can go for ponies like us and you should keep to your promises.” “I’m not going to get involved in this, you three sort out your issues like adults” Titus chimes from the kitchen area. “Speaking of which Titus, YOU ran off and didn’t tell anyone where you were going either!” Red Star said angrily. Things were starting to get heated as they usually did after jobs, Rider and Red Star were the kind of ponies that would be adamant that plans and promises should be kept to but both Access and Titus regularly forgot this. “I think we should… just calm down for a moment.” Access states in an attempt to placate the two angry mares. Both Rider and Red Star nod apologetically as they each sit in one of the free seats. “I should also mention what happened during the doctors visit too, Titus has already heard this more or less word for word anyway and its just you two that haven’t been told yet.” Access pointed out. The others nod in agreement. “Well, he checked all my implants and basically just said that there's nothing wrong, just a simple diagnostic and reboot as well as a burn treatment.” “That can’t be all though, surely” Red Star responded. “You’re right on that front, I got out of that ordeal with nerve damage though I can’t say that's entirely unexpected, it’d explain the outright horrific episode I had after the overload happened.” “Episode?” Rider gently asks. Access fidgets in his seat somewhat. “Yeah after the overload and my last message, I blacked out and found myself somewhere that I can only call a void. Really weird feeling all over my body, almost as if I was floating.” Red Star nods. “Yep sounds about right, Unicorn Netrunners specifically experience that when something like an overload happens, has something to do with how their neural links and magic interact.” Access nods in appreciation, then begins to speak. “Also, My contact reached out again, after a brief fight about it she insists she wasn’t working for Equi-Tech at the time of our little test.” Access states. “She better not be lying to us.” Titus retorted. “Doubtful, she’d gain nothing by doing that.” Access pointed out. Just then, a pounding noise could be heard coming from their barred front door and whoever is currently pounding on it sounds very desperate though they can hear no voices on the other side. The crew take up positions beside the door with Titus looking around the peephole at a slate gray unicorn mare. “Unicorn. Mare. Slate Gray. Anyone know this one?” Titus inquired with a suspicious tone. “Cable for a Cutiemark?” Access shot back. “Yeah, Coiled and Black, kinda looks like the plugs you use.” “Open it! That's Sheet Rock. She must be in trouble!” Access said with surprise. Titus nods and begins to unbar the door with the pounding stopping abruptly, when the door opens the slate gray mare barrels through the now unlocked door and straight into Access landing on top of him roughly. “Oh thank the moon you’re here, I’m being followed!” the mare says with a terrified tone, her ears sitting flat against her head. Access pushes her off of him with a grumble. “So the first thing you thought to do was to bring them here?!” Titus slams the door closed as rapid hoof steps can be heard running up the nearby stairwell and bars the door back up again just as they reach their floor, still looking through the peephole he observes three heavily armored Bat-ponies and one Unicorn walking past. All of their uniforms bare the logo of Crystal Dynamics. From behind the door the crew can here a faint but still audible amount of chatter. “You sure she’s here?” one of them asks. “Yeah, I saw her run in here for sure!” another responds. “You two blockheads need to sweep and clear before you just barge in somewhere, she’s likely gone by now.” the third barks. The third voice sounds modulated and robotic and from the peephole Titus can just make out the pony, a charcoal gray coated unicorn entirely clad in black Plasteel Power Armor. “Retreat, She isn’t worth the trouble.” the Power Armor clad pony states. “But, sir...” “No buts. Hey little miss hacker, if you are still here let this be a lesson to you, hope we don’t find you or you’re dead!” the Power Armored pony booms. They put a few shots from their shotguns into the walls of the corridor, some narrowly missing Titus at the door and setting about creating panic in the building. As they walk away Sheet Rock lets out a terrified whimper and is practically clinging to Access’ neck, the rest of them sigh in collective relief. Access taps Sheet Rocks cheeks before saying “Hey, You’re fine. What the hell was that all about?” Sheet Rock begins to hyperventilate but manages to stop herself after a number of forced long ragged exhales. “I was snooping around in their systems trying to find anything I could use, next thing I know they are kicking down the front doors of my house!” she whimpers out. “Did you find anything that could get them to react in this way?” Red Star runs to grab a bottle of water from the kitchen and throws it at Sheet Rocks stomach, who then clumsily opens it before taking a long drink from it. “Yes, Turns out Crystal Dynamics were transporting something, servers, OLD ones, to Celestia knows where.” “How’d you get here this quick? CD don’t fool around.” Rider gently asks. “My groups hideout isn’t far, a few blocks maybe though last I saw it was in flames, we’ve lost everything and I’m pretty sure a lot of us were killed. I didn’t really stop to check.” Sheet Rock stammers out. “Who was that stallion in the Power Armor?” inquires Titus. Sheet Rock shakes her head. “No idea what his name is but I do know he’s a cruel bastard, butchered at least three bystanders while he was trying to get to me!” “Well you’re okay now, you can hole up with us for a little while if you want?” Titus reassures keeping a close eye on the corridor. Sheet Rock nods now beginning to calm down. “Yes, I’d like that, thank you!” Titus sticks his head out the door and scans up and down both lengths of the hallway, multiple holes had been shot through the corridor’s walls leaving entire chunks missing, not the first by any means but the damage was very noticeable and other ponies in the adjoining apartments were surveying the damage. His expression hardening, he steps out of the doorway and out into the hall without a single word spoken, leaving the others alone for a moment dumbfounded. Sheet Rock points at the now empty doorway with a hoof. “Where is he going at a time like this?” “Probably his instincts kicking in.” Access states. “Instincts?” “Titus was a soldier for a while, saw all kinds of things that might’ve sent other ponies over the edge, stuff like this tends to set him off and we best stay out of his way until he calms down.” The real question on everyone's was why Crystal Dynamics were transporting old equipment as normally it’d just be recycled without a second thought, irregardless of what was on the servers themselves. Something important was on those servers for them to have been moved that rapidly and the team wanted to find out what, it might just be coincidence but it may also shed some light on some of the things that had been revealed to them. That would come later however, they didn’t even know where they had been taken and Sheet Rock had been interrupted before she could gain a location. Author's Note Oh dear, Now it looks like another corp has it out for our heroes!
PrologueThe air was musty and heavy with the sound of keys being tapped which seemed to echo in this dimly lit Lower-Canterlot apartment room, almost thick with desperation at the state of this motley crew. It had been some months since their last real job and morale, funds and food were now dwindling at a rather alarming pace, it wasn’t easy to live in Lower-Canterlot with that being especially true in the slums of The Sprawl. With danger around every corner in this district having a well-fed and well-armed crew was your best chance at staying alive long enough to get rich from it all. “We’re low on funds again” chimed Titus for the tenth time in an hour. Titus Steel was the amber maned and chocolate brown coated earth pony Solo of the group, a “do-er of things” and “cracker of skulls”, he wasn’t good with words but you didn’t want to meet him in a dark alley on a bad day. “We know, You haven’t stopped mentioning it for days now!” groaned Red Star, an Earth Pony Med-Techie. Red Star was dangerously close to pulling out her scarlet mane on account of Titus’ now constant complaints; her almost pristine white coat on the verge of stress thinning. “He could stand to shut up as if we don’t know how piss poor our money situation is!” shouted Access Granted from the rather small and dingy kitchen which was piled high with low-quality fast food cartons. Access Granted was the Orange-maned and charcoal gray coated Unicorn Netrunner of the crew, if you need a system broken into, data stolen or a system destroyed beyond repair look no further. “Access, Please stop antagonizing Titus we need to stay focused on getting another job” Cloud Rider grumbled as she looked up from her datapad clearly focused on doing just that. The Sky-blue maned Pegasus Cloud Rider was the groups Techie, it was her that repaired the groups firearms and equipment when they broke down, which given their rather sorry state was often; Her dirty blond coat covered with multiple oil stains from repairs long past. Suddenly a loud rhythmic beeping snapped the crew out of their argument, it was Cloud Rider’s Datapad indicating she had received a message; the crew gathered around the coffee table in the middle of the living room in anticipation of its contents. “This should be our job offer now” Cloud Rider said nervously, “I hope its good news”. Upon opening the message, it was indeed a message about a job but not the scale the crew was hoping for however something stood out as a little strange. Sent: 17/04/2254 19:27:04 From: bsun@et-net.corp You come highly recommended by one of our associates and this should be treated with the utmost care. We have a job for you, we cannot go into much detail in this message but we need you and your crew’s skills in retrieving some critical data that belongs to us, we want it back and we do not care how you go about it. This job should be a milk run and you wont run into any special security measures provided you move with discretion, use this to your advantage, additionally if you are caught within the facility we cannot send aid as the target must not know we are involved in any way. Reply and give us your response, Don’t keep us waiting. The four stared at the message for what felt like an eternity before Titus spoke up. “This can’t be real, Can it?” Titus said suspiciously “Why would they want us out of all ponies?” “No that's definitely an Equi-Tech mail address, Its likely they want to be discreet” Rider responded. “How much are they offering?” Red Star inquired. Access took the pad from Rider and scrolled down the message a little and nearly dropped it in shock much to Rider’s annoyance to whom he gave an apologetic smile. “120,000!?” He stated in disbelief. The room fell silent, that kind of money made the job seem anything but a milk-run. “This doesn’t feel right, this has to be some kind of trap” Titus pointed out. “We can’t just turn them down though, You don’t just simply turn down an offer like this!” Access half-shouted, giving Titus a serious glare. Rider thought for a moment before she broke the silence with an opinion of her own. “I say we take it, we really need the money” Nobody dared disagree and a silent agreement fell over them all, this was their big break and they hoped that it wouldn’t come back to bite them. Working with a Corp was risky but came with a massive payoff which they would gladly take advantage of. The following cloudy and foggy morning came quickly in the tense atmosphere of the crew’s apartment. Rider had been awake before the others and was quietly waiting for a follow-up message from their employer, upon receiving the message some time later she quickly woke the others from their slumber. “Wake up and pile in everyone! Got the details of the job in a few moments ago” Rider barked out. Titus, Access and Red Star fell from their respective areas on various bits of lounge furniture and practically clambered over the remaining furnishings in response to the sudden wake-up call. “What we got boss? They get back to you this soon?” Titus blinked still half asleep. Rider flicked through her datapad for a short moment “Yes, turns out it IS just a milk-run data retrieval job like they said, Seems a rival stole something of great importance to Equi-Tech and needless to say they aren’t happy at all” The location itself was a small unassuming server farm and comms relay in Upper-Canterlot that was the center of the local communications grid and was mostly unguarded apart from a few on-site security staff. “Are any of the staff on site armed?” Access joked. Rider left out a huff before stating “Just the guards, though they have assured us a pickup vehicle will be waiting for us after we complete our objectives, unmarked of course” Access nodded, knowing they would be a larger problem for his team as opposed to him. “Any special objectives or restrictions?” Red Star inquired. “Especially when it comes to engagement” Titus added. Rider shook her head “No, Equi-Tech would prefer they get their property back as soon as possible but I think it’s within our best interests to thoroughly check what we’re up against first.” “Then I guess I’ll scout the place out from the Net while the three of you check the place out physically” Access stated before sitting down on a small sofa where his Cyberdeck was set up and proceeded to jack himself into the net, his neural interface plugs clicking gently into place at the back of his skull. The three others nodded among themselves and proceeded leave the apartment room and headed outside into the morning gloom. Author's Note Ive had this idea knocking around in my skull for some time now since im a really big fan of Cyberpunk fics and have long had the want to write one of my own, only really got it out my brain and onto FimFiction Please let me know of your thoughts in a PM or Comment. Also some explainations on some of the terms used, for those not familiar with Cyberpunk 2020 Solo: Essentially a soldier, specialises in Firearms and Melee weapons, generally the muscle Netrunner: Users of advanced neural implants to access the Net in ways others cannot, generally for Social or Hacking purposes Techie: Mechanics, Electricians and Gunsmiths fall under this role, pretty much maintaining anything thats not a computer. Med-Techie: Like a Techie, but is more like a Medic.
