Leave it

Jax's pistol was instantly in hand. Lyra drew her own sidearm, adrenaline surging anew. Eris pulled down her visor and tapped something; Lyra knew she was likely checking any local camera feeds.

"What's happening?" Lyra whispered.

Eris's voice was strained. "Multiple heat signatures... they've found us. Looks like... drones and at least a half-dozen troops at street level."

Lyra's stomach clenched. "Prysm-Sek?"

"Unless someone else decided to crash this party," Jax muttered. "They must have tracked the shard's signal or our bike." He cursed under his breath. "Alright. Change of plan. Back way out, now."

Eris pointed frantically to the far end of the platform, where darkness swallowed the tunnel. "There's maintenance access that way. It should lead up to the surface a couple of blocks down."

Another gunshot rang out, accompanied by the splintering crash of something in the station lobby. They were breaching.

Lyra grabbed Eris by the arm and ushered her towards the tunnels, while Jax took the rear, covering their retreat with his weapon raised.

Eris hastily scooped up the last device—a slim laptop still tethered to the generator. "Leave it," Jax barked, but Eris shook her head.

"I need it—it's got the data!" she insisted, yanking the cord free. The generator died, plunging the station into near-darkness. Only faint daylight from the stairs and the glow of Eris's visor illuminated the scene now.

They dashed into the yawning tunnel mouth. Lyra switched on a small flashlight attached to her jacket. The beam cut through the gloom to reveal a clutter of debris and old rails. Water dripped steadily from the ceiling, and the air was thick with decay.

Behind them, flashlights danced in the station. A metallic voice called out, amplified by a helmet speaker: "This is Prysm-Sek Security! You are ordered to surrender immediately!" The words echoed eerily, making it hard to tell how close the enemy was.

"Not a chance," Lyra hissed under her breath. She pressed forward, half-leading, half pulling Eris, who clutched her duffel and laptop tightly.

The maintenance door Eris mentioned was somewhere along the tunnel wall. Jax swung his light around. "There!" A rusted metal door was set into the brick, with a faded sign that might have once read 'Service Access'.

Jax shoved the door. It held firm—likely locked or rusted shut. Without hesitating, he slammed his shoulder into it. The old hinges groaned. A third hit and it burst open, scraping loudly.

They slipped through into a narrow concrete corridor. This path angled upward via a ramp. If Eris's memory was right, it would emerge on the street through a utility manhole or shed.

As they hurried upward, a clattering sound echoed from the tunnel behind—the security team reaching the platform, perhaps encountering the junk left behind.

A burst of gunfire followed, bullets whining off the tunnel walls. The pursuers were shooting blind into the dark, but they had rough direction.

"Go, go!" Jax urged. He tossed something back down the corridor—a small round device. Lyra recognized it as one of his homemade flashbangs.

"Cover your ears!" she warned Eris. They ducked around a bend just as a concussive thump and searing white light filled the passage, followed by shouts of disorientation from behind.

It bought them seconds. They reached the end of the corridor where a ladder led up to a heavy hatch. Lyra was the first to start climbing, pushing at the circular metal cover above. It screeched open, and fresh air flooded in.

One by one they emerged into a narrow alley between two buildings. Rain had started to drizzle, masking them in sound and sheen. Lyra quickly scanned for threats. The alley was empty except for overflowing dumpsters and a sleeping vagrant under a plastic sheet who didn't even stir.

Jax helped Eris up last, then he heaved the hatch shut again, piling a broken pallet on top for good measure. "That won't hold them long," he said, voice tight. "Move."

Eris fumbled for a small device in her pocket and pressed it. "I just pinged my van. It's parked a block away. It should autodrive to us."

They rushed toward the mouth of the alley. Lyra peeked around the corner to the street. A few startled pedestrians were looking back toward the station they fled, where muffled commotion continued. Already sirens in the distance suggested either corp or police mobilizing.

Within moments, a dark blue van skidded around the far corner, driverless, and rolled to a stop in front of them. Eris pulled open the side door. "Get in!"

Lyra jumped in, immediately taking position by the rear door to cover Jax. He slid in after, and Eris dove into the front to take manual control. No sooner had she done so than a trio of sleek black drones appeared over the rooftops, homing in on their position with a high-pitched whine.

"Found us!" Lyra shouted. A bright line of tracer fire spat from one drone, stitching holes into the side of the van.

Jax slammed the side door shut and slapped a command on the interior panel. Metal shutters deployed over the van's windows with a clang. "Armor up!" he called to Eris, though she was already slamming the accelerator.

The van lurched forward, tires squealing on wet asphalt. Lyra braced her feet and ejected the magazine of her pistol to check ammo. Not many rounds left. She glanced at Jax. "We have a plan to deal with those?"

He was retrieving something from a duffel in the back. He handed Lyra a compact submachine gun—likely Eris's, stashed for emergencies. "Spray and pray?" he offered with a humorless smirk.

Lyra accepted it, racking the slide. "My favorite strategy."

Eris swerved the van sharply as they barreled down the street, avoiding a delivery bot trundling along. The drones pursued relentlessly, bobbing and weaving above, taking potshots. Sparks flew as bullets ricocheted off the armored panels.

Lyra risked a peek through one of the firing slits just as a drone swept low behind them. She squeezed the trigger. A burst of gunfire peppered the sky, and one drone exploded in a shower of sparks, its debris clattering off the pavement.

"One down," she muttered.

The remaining two drones accelerated, positioning on either side of the van. One pulled ahead and angled down, trying to cut them off by firing at the engine block from the front.

Eris cursed and made a hard left turn down a narrower avenue lined with market stalls. The midday crowd scattered in panic as the van plowed through, scattering crates of vegetables and knock-off electronics. An old woman selling noodles yelled angrily and dove out of the way.

"Sorry!" Eris yelled over the chaos, though it was doubtful anyone heard.

Jax threw open a small roof hatch and, balancing himself, popped up with an assault rifle in hand. He unleashed a controlled burst at the drone attempting to head them off. The bullets tore through its rotors. The drone spiraled out of control and smashed into a parked car, exploding in a fireball.

Lyra shielded her face as a wash of heat rolled through the open hatch. Jax dropped back down, coughing at the smoke wafting in. "That leaves one."

The last drone was tenacious. It fell back momentarily but now reappeared above, lining up a shot at the rear. Lyra could hear the whir of its auto-cannon warming.

"Eris, brake!" Lyra shouted on instinct.

Trusting her, Eris hit the brakes hard. The tires shrieked and the van fishtailed. The pursuing drone overshot its target by a hair, firing a burst that went wide, shattering the front window of a closed storefront instead.

Lyra and Jax both leaned out of the back, guns up, and fired simultaneously at the hovering machine now directly ahead of their stalled van. Pockmarks dented its sleek chassis; Jax's heavier rounds punched through and its core sparked. The drone blew apart with a muffled boom, raining shrapnel across the street.

A tense silence fell inside the van, broken only by the labored breathing of all three and the distant cacophony of the city.

Eris was the first to speak, voice shaky but relieved. "All drones down. But we have to keep moving before ground forces catch up."

"Head west, toward the heliport towers," Jax said, slamming the hatch shut and re-engaging the interior locks. "They won't expect us to go into CorpZone territory."