Chapter 6: Talk Tough, but Bring a Gun

“You’ve been through this sort of thing before?” Aijin asked when she finished rearming and armoring herself when all the loot they’d found had been split evenly between them.

Megan shook her head. “First time,” she said. “I’m just kind of, um, on borrowed skill.” She tapped the side of her head. “You know?”

Aijin nodded. “That makes sense. Okay. Follow my lead. We’ll sneak up on them and try to flank them. Don’t shoot until I tell you.”

Megan nodded. “They’re currently working on the door. Two of them are actively working on it, the other two are taking up defensive positions. The door is inside one of the labs, so they’re covering the only other entrance.”

“That’s not ideal. We need something to help us out. Some kind of edge.”

“I was thinking about that,” Megan said. She gestured to Aijin’s uniform. “You look just like them. If you were bringing me in as a prisoner, that might buy us a bit of surprise.”

“Maybe,” she said. “But they’re probably in contact on the radio, so they know that the others are down and have surrendered.”

“There’s at least one who didn’t. Maybe two. I know one of them was named Hal. I put him down with stun damage. Just pretend to be him. Deep voice, tap your ear to show that your radio isn’t working, and tell them that I did it.”

“Won’t that leave you unarmed? Getting the drop on them isn’t going to help if we have only one shooter.”

“All we need to do is get inside the lab and behind cover. So how about you throw me through the door to get their attention.”

“What if they shoot me?”

“Don’t come in right away.”

Aijin thought about it. “Okay,” she said. “I think we can make this work. Put your gun in your inventory.”

They paused outside the door of the lab, not moving and not making a sound. Megan watched over the camera as the radicals listened for them, aiming at the door. They waited for a few minutes, and the radicals started to relax.

Aijin frowned. She’d been hoping they would go out and investigate the noise the two of them had made. Ideally, they’d send just one of them out to do it, and they’d be able to even the odds even more. But they’d made enough mistakes already, and it didn’t look like they were going to make another one.

Megan looked at the layout of the room and aimed herself at some cover. She gave Aijin a look, and when the other woman nodded, Megan threw herself through the doorway.

The noise made the radicals jump to attention, but they didn’t shoot at her.

“What was that?” one of them asked. “Whoever you are, hands up.”

“Bitch can’t put her hands up,” Aijin said, her voice deeper than before. “After she shorted out my radio, I bound her hands together. I’m coming in now. Don’t shoot me.”

She opened the door but didn’t stand in the doorway. Then she walked in, gun pointing upward, moving slowly. She started to move across the room, in the opposite direction of where Megan was pulling out her own gun and getting ready.

“Who is that?” the radical asked.

“Hal,” Aijin said.

“Hal who?”

Megan sighed. Not exactly a thrilling conversation anyway. She leaned around the workstation she had been hiding behind and fired a burst at the radical who was speaking.

Aijin wasn’t waiting for a signal and was just as aware that the ruse wasn’t going to work any longer. She was also firing at the same time.

Between the two of them, they put the one radical down with that first burst fire.

“You guys been talking to your boys over the radio?” Megan yelled as she ducked away from the return volley. “You know about the ones that surrendered?”

“We don’t need to kill you,” Aijin said, taking another burst shot at the one radical shooting back. The other two were still working on the door and seemed to be making progress.

Megan switched again to the single shot and took aim at one of the men at the door. She shot the sole of his boot, and he screamed as she blew a hole in his foot.

She kept herself as covered as she could, even with the massive amount of HP she had. These guns, used perfectly, could do enough damage to still kill her in one well-placed volley, so she didn’t want to risk it.

Aijin was a bit less concerned and took a shot to the chest as she traded fire with the other radical. Neither of them went down but Megan could see that Aijin’s health bar was under half, while the radical was still at three-quarters. She turned and shot him in the leg, more or less evening the two of them out.

“You can’t win,” Megan said. “Corporate security backup will be here within the next few minutes. There’s no way you’re getting out of here with the prototype.”

“How do you know about the prototype?” the radical still working on the door said.

“Surrender, and I’ll tell you,” Megan said. Then she thought of an idea and looked through the cameras. The men didn’t have anything identifying about their appearance, but she was able to get a good look at the door over their shoulder. “I know you have the first three numbers solved, but you’re not going to solve four and five before we take out the rest of your friends.”

“Give up,” Aijin said. “If backup gets here, their orders will be to give no quarter. We’re at least offering you a chance to survive.”

Megan smiled. “Even to get away. If you empty your inventories, you can just leave. Run and try to get to safety. If you’re quick and lucky, you won’t even end up in prison.”

There was a moment of silence. Then the radical said, “I have your word?”

Megan tracked them as they ran, watching the camera feeds. It looked like the one who hadn’t been injured might actually make it to freedom. The two walking wounded were too slow, though. If the other one left them behind, he might make it out.

QUEST COMPLETE: Tutorial mission. You have successfully defended the lab. Reward: 2000 XP, Cybernetic upgrade coupon, 2000 digital coins.

Megan saw that the rewards were not split between them, which was good. She saw that the experience of the quest, combined with the defeat of four more of the level six radicals, just barely edged her over into the next level.

She put the level into researcher. It automatically gave her four points of Intelligence and two points of Wits. The other three points she split between Strength, Agility, and Willpower. The single skill point she gained she put into Jury-rig, and was happy to see that her Subterfuge had also increased.

Megan Proxy, Level 6 researcher/Level 2 ????. Experience 200/9600. HP: 460/460. Stamina 100/100. Technology Points (TP): 100/100. Cybernetics: 0/5. Abilities: Strength 4, Agility 8, Toughness 8, Willpower 5, Wits 8, Intelligence 14, Charisma 8, Luck 10. Skills: Guns 3/5. Intimidation 1/10. Research 2/5. Jury-rig 3/20. Stealth 6/10. ??? 2/10. Talents: Quick memory 1/10. Collected 3/25. Subterfuge 3/10. ??? 2/25. Defenses: Physical 6, Technological 11.

“Seems like we work pretty well together,” Aijin said. “Would you be open to more?”

“I want to get to know the game better before I commit to anything,” Megan said. “But we could be friends, maybe see if there’s something we can do later?”

Aijin smiled. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll send you a request. I’m supposed to go report to my superior now, so I think my quest line is still going.”

Megan smiled. “We’ll talk later,” she said.

Then she noticed that she also had a quest that was still going.

QUEST: Debriefing: report to Manager Kia’s office, 29th floor, for a debrief on the assault and to receive accolades. Reward: 500 XP, Special.