Protein Grenades
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Logging out...
Logged out. You may now remove your headset.
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Euri lifts both her hands up from the cushioned armrests of her VR Cabin and pushes up the VR Headset revealing the fading glimmer of the sun over the horizon. She picks up the clear AR Glasses and the microfiber cloth next to it, gently blows warm air to condense some water onto the glasses, and wipes them clean before sliding them on. Euri leans forward, and the reclined VR chair straightens up slowly, maybe for the last time. Euri stands up from the worn out padding, stretches, and heads to her closet to change into her one piece mechanics suit.
After deploying the clean suit over her pink pajamas, too lazy to take those off, Euri picks up a black backpack, picks out several change of clothes as well as some daily hygiene necessities into the bag. She then presses on the small mic icon of her HUD.
"Tina, please pack the rest of rest of the food, 10 litres of water, and my VR Headset into the car and move all my local data stores onto the ship as well. While I'm gone, if anyone asks for me, tell them there's no Euri D'Cia here."
"Understood. Good luck and safe travels Ms. D'Cia." A female voice sounds out from the embed speakers of the apartment. A blue dot begins to spin on her HUD indicating data being transfered onto her ship from her apartment.
Satisfied with her arrangement, Euri heads to the garage as a few drones fly around the apartment to carry out her order. Euri slides open the hatch of her hovercraft and puts her backpack into the passenger seat. Her hovercraft looks like a classic HT-550X two seater from 100 years ago, with streamlined aerodynamic fins and a larger main thruster instead of the standard dual thruster design. However, under the hood, it is an entirely custom job. Euri was able to acquire several ASL prototype mini-fusion generators along with a last generation cooling system allowing this particular hovercraft which she named the Red Demon after a certain VR racing game's fastest ship. The seats are however as old as the shell, and despite careful maintenance, there are many patches of missing synthetic leather. Not having the patience to continue keeping the seats in top condition, Euri opted to simply cover it with interchangeable seat coverings. The current one being that of a white lotus flower, her dad's favourite flower.
Download Complete
As the notification appears on her HUD, Euri takes in one last look at her rather empty garage before buckling herself into the seat.
"Tina, take me to work please." Euri commands.
"Right away" The disembodied female voice replies promptly. The garage door retracts in front of Euri, displaying a gorgeous night view of the residential district. Rows of cars at various elevations appear and in smaller channels are delivery drones carrying packages of various sizes. As the click indicating the door is fully opened sounds, the Red Devil is lifted onto a track and rolled out of the room and placed onto a liftoff rail. Following which, the ion-thruster begins so sound and a ring of bright blue appear at the back of the thruster. Immediately, the craft accelerates to the desired velocity and takes off from the rail and entering the not too busy traffic of the city.
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Arrival: at 20:45
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The windshield of the craft has its own information displays, along with virtual arrows overlayed on the aerial pathways indicating the path chosen by Tina, Euri's assistant AI.
Might as well get some studying in. Euri thinks as she presses a few buttons on the touchscreen of the dashboard, bringing up some sample questions for the exam in two days as well as some more ancient classical music.
As the Red Devil exits the airspace of the residential island from the west, the noise of the city fades away. Having realized this, Euri looks up from her questions to look towards the Entertainment District island. In the distance, large holographic images are displayed high in the sky above the city advertising the latest games and holofilms. When was the last time I actually sat in the audience of a holo? Her mind began to wander and reminisce. Maybe I'll take Lin to see one tonight. After tomorrow we won't have many opportunities.
"Ms. D'Cia" Tina began, snapping Euri back to reality. "There seems to be a vehicle following us. Estimated likelihood: 45%"
Euri quickly taps the dashboard to bring up the rear camera. On the screen in front of her is now the view from behind the Red Devil, and indeed, there is a black hovercraft slightly larger than hers with tinted windows. This feels like the beginning of a terrible movie. Euri quips at herself. "Tina, descend to slower traffic lane. If our tail passes us, then it's probably a coincidence."
Suddenly, the Red Devil's noise begin to point downwards and heading towards a line of leisure crafts who either do not have the permit or ability to fly at the higher altitude high speed lane. Unfortunately for Euri, the tail also began its descent a few seconds later.
Shit. Euri curses. "Tina, switching to manual mode." The instant the command left her mouth, Euri activates several cameras to get a full view of her surroundings and secures her exits. She then grabs the joystick in front of her and pulls the Red Devil starboard side in a 45 degree angle while using gravity to assist in her acceleration. Unprepared for the sudden maneuver, the black ship reacts a few seconds later and also accelerates away from traffic towards the Red Devil, now only a dot in the distance due to the head start.
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"Sir, the target has noticed us. Permission to engage?" A pilot in black asks into his headset.
"Permission Granted." A voice promptly replies. "Retrieve the item at all costs."
"Yes sir!" With this new command, the pilot pushes his joystick forward causing the twin thrusters to glow brighter, quickly accelerating forward towards the Red target ahead.
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Seeing her tail also accelerating, Euri can feel her heart rate spike. After a few seconds, Euri grins as she thought of an idea. "Tina, load the protein shakes into the bottom hatch!" Following which some mechanical whirring can be heard under her moving the stored protein shakes around. Euri then pulls the joystick backwards pointing the nose skyward as she makes a vertical U-turn. The moment the Red Devil is once again parallel to the ground, albeit upside down and backwards, Euri rights the ship. Gauging the distance quickly in her head, she presses the "Dump" button on the joystick.
Clunk! Fwip fwip fwip
The bottom hatch opens with a sharp metallic sound following which a bundle of white containers scatters in the wind.
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Noticing the Red Devil rising in the air, the pilot follows suit. However, as the craft is merely a standard issue, it pales in comparison to the speed of the Red Devil in aerial maneuverability. As the pilot's craft rose to 1/3 of Red Devil's elevation, there's suddenly dozens of white dots in the air in his field of view.
What are th- However, before the pilot could react, the white dots grew larger and broke upon impact with his ship. The thick liquid sticking to the cockpit window and several of the peripheral cameras instantly dry in the night air creating a layer of crust. Warning signs begin to sound in the cabin as the pilot panicks.
"S-sir, the target has dropped a load of white liquid on my ship, lost all visuals. Activating safe descent."
"..."
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With the tail now disabled, Euri laments her next shopping list as she veers the Red Devil in a horizontal U-turn to return to the high-speed path to her friend. I hope that's the last of it. She thinks as she slows down her breathing.
"Great work Tina. Please take over again."