Nika shuddered as she closed the door of Noah's Hovercraft behind her. A heartbeat later, the vehicle accelerated away and left her worn attire flying in the wind. Heilige Scheiße, this was cold. Especially up here, far away from every central heating system. The towering skyscrapers of Harburg City hung over the horizon like claws trying to tear long lines in the dark, glooming sky, and for most of them that was even true. Clouds of heating water emanated from the tops of the towers, drawing black lines on the night sky, illuminated by the all-encompassing cityglow that all big settlements have. Only a few hundred meters farther, the clouds froze in Hamburg's icy atmosphere, sending regional hailstorms and snow to the levels far below on the surface.
A city, dormant and waiting. Brooding over her fate, even at that late hour pulsing with life on every level. Hovers flying around, men walking the catwalks between the towers, thickly packed in warm attire. A faceless community, filled with working drones that were unable to stand up for their needs. Most didn't even want it, just living their small lives of a hundred years, dying and making way for the next generation, always hoping that their path wouldn't be obstructed by a changing tide.
And she was here to stir them up.
How much had changed since back then... She left her worker's coat flying in the wind, watched it slowly descend down to the surface at least a kilometer below her. Another shudder, and then she turned to the door in front of her.
After she rang the doorbell, Nika halted for a moment to collect her thoughts. She was just another citizen in a black leather jumpsuit. And once she entered the apartment, nobody would have noticed her arriving here. With a bit of luck, her friends wouldn't even come in trouble for helping her. Two last checks on the left and right, a reassuring move of the right leg to feel the hard plastic of the laspistols' holster, and then the door opened. Nika tried her best to offer her friend a charming smile, hiding her pain behind a mask of joy.
