The Unstoppable Truth

[Reverend Del]

It was time, all the preparations were complete. They had acquired everything they would need to acquired, including A-Tech uniforms and ID’s. Tank and Silverfire had gone to intercept the van, whilst Nymph and Fastjack stowed the last of the kit into holdalls.

“Ready?” Fastjack queried.

“Always. This is what we were designed for.” Nymph smiled.

Fastjack merely nodded his agreement, it was true. They had been modified, some of them to a genetic level, to do this, to prove to the common folk that Liberty was unable to protect them from a force it’s own government described as foolish and lunatic, to acquire information, to destroy the heart of corruption festering at Liberty’s core, for no greater purpose than the liberation of an entire populace.

“We’re here. Time to roll.” Tank’s voice over the short burst comms.

The van pulled into the compound; Fastjack presented the four IDs and hoped like hell they were good. The guard merely asked to check the back of the van, so Fastjack popped the doors whilst Tank allowed them easy entrance to the equipment. The guard thanked them and cleared them for entry. Fastjack was impressed, Fixer had come through. The ID’s were good.

Pulling up they grabbed their gear and entered the Archive. Approaching the reception desk Nymph stepped forward, flashing her most winning smile she politely enquired as to the location of central archive # 2. She was informed that she would have to go through the security checkpoint and on to the second floor, from here they could access an elevator that would take them to their destination, once there they should ask the security guard at the next checkpoint and he would lead them. Nymph thanked her and led the team to the first checkpoint.

As they headed through, no more than a cursory glance was given, Tank’s cyberware setting off the alarms, but that was attributed to his visible arm not anything else he might have been concealing. They found their way onto the next floor to find an elevator lobby with a display stand showing some of Ageira’s latest racing bikes, clearly designed to give the folks who lived here something to coo over. Everyone except Fastjack ignored them and the crew headed for the elevator that would take them to the 52nd floor. Fastjack activated his AR cortex interface, whilst not as quick as a full VR dive, it would enable him to fool the scanners and loop the video feeds whilst they were in the Archive room. This would make the job easier.

The elevator ride was calm and the team were prepared now, prepared in case things got unexpectedly hot. They exited the lift and headed for the room, two more checkpoints awaited them and they had as much trouble as they had had with the first, none.

They were escorted to the Archive room and left to their business. Each member headed to a terminal and proceeded to remove the tools that would enable them to pretend that they were doing the right job. In fact each of these tools was a shaped charge of military grade explosive, to be placed within each terminal. They would be detonated when the team was clear of the blast radius. Fastjack went to the terminal he needed and immediately set to work, plugging himself directly into the terminal he began the hunt for the specifications of the gunboat. He found them without issue; erasing the logs of his theft he found to be the first snag. The logs were designed to be read only; they could not be tampered with without setting off the alarms. This was an issue. He jacked out.

“Tank, I’ve got a problem, I can’t erase the logs without raising the alarm. I can’t fake the clearance necessary to do it. Phasing it out or not they still want to know who accessed what.”

Tank pondered for a moment. If the logs were not erased it was likely that the Liberty Navy would know what they stole, if they pieced two and two together they might figure out why. This was not a chance they could take. Greerson was too worthwhile to the cause to risk.

“Prep your weapons people, this is about to get hot. Fastjack, give us five minutes then do it.”

“Roger.”

The team began removing the components to their weapons, quickly and efficiently setting them up. Tank completed the HMG and hefted it, testing its weight. He turned to check that his team were ready. They were.

“Let’s roll folks. Fastjack, bring the noise.”

Fastjack smiled, jacking back in he found the logs and with a simple flick of his talent erased them. Then the alarms went off. Loud claxons blared in the room. Tank dropped an IR smoke grenade at his feet, and the room filled up quickly, shrouding them all in thick vapours. The sound of booted feet could be heard in the corridor outside. The doors burst open and guards entered the room. Tank wasted no time. He pulled the trigger on the HMG spraying laser fire. The sound of bodies hitting the floor was his only reply.

“Move!”

They complied, Tank leading the way into the corridor, ready to open fire at a moments notice. He was greeted with standard Liberty Navy weapons fire; a shot scorched his shoulder, where it burned away the clothing and flesh it revealed yet more chromed metalwork beneath, exposing his other cyberarm to view. He laughed, a deep throaty laugh as he opened fire with the monstrous weapon he held like some toy. The Navy died without a scream, although some were merely too injured to carry the fight to the madman. Tank stomped down the hall taking a moment to smash the scanners as he passed them. All hell had broken loose behind him as more guards had rushed into a blistering hail of fire from the other three team members. Tank stood by the elevator doors. Fastjack ran up to his side and re-activated the AR interface.

“They’ve got the elevators on lock-down but I can override it for this one. Not a problem.”

“Do it.”

Fastjack did as he was told and they re-entered the elevator they had come in by. Tank stabbed the button for the third floor, he expected them to gather on the second and he didn’t want his team cut down before they could exit. The lift stopped and Tank stepped out, he was somewhat surprised to find his idea had worked, but the effortless stupidity displayed by any branch of the Liberty armed forces was almost a tradition.

He motioned the others to follow him and made his way to the service stairs. He was unsurprised to find that they had however anticipated this. He reached inside his holdall and pulled out the detonator for the charges they had placed upstairs. He pressed the button.

The explosion ripped through the terminal room destroying all evidence of their crime. The explosion aside, it would be impossible for them to trace who had supplied the information and kit necessary to perform this run. The last cost of Fixer’s participation. It shook the building enough to give Tank the opening he needed, kicking open the door he threw a grenade into the stairwell. The door slammed shut as the grenade went off, then it was Silverfire’s turn, she burst through the door her reaction enhancers operating at full efficiency, she swung her SMG round to face her opponents and began to fire, her targeting software matching every shot to a vital component of each targets anatomy. When she was finished and the stairwell filled with the moans of the dying she motioned for the others to continue on. Carefully they navigated their way through the corpses and the injured; as Nymph passed each one she shot them with her pistol, to ensure they could not impede the team’s progress any further.

Silverfire reached the stairwells lowest door and checked, yes there were guards outside. She motioned Tank to take the lead. He stepped out and opened fire with the HMG; he wasn’t aiming at anything specific, just trying to buy the team time to take cover out in the lobby. They all dived for the cover of the display stand and readied themselves for a fire fight.

“Tank! These bikes are operational, buy me some time and I can get them running, it’s our way out.”

“Roger that, Plan B coming right up.”

The one feature of cyber-limbs that was exceptionally useful in this sort of environment was that they required no musculature to support, servos and electronics did the work of moving them, this left an awful lot of space within their frame, and a wise man used it well. Tank’s thighs opened at the sides and two cyber-holsters each with micro SMGs appeared. He removed the weapons and checked their ammo counts. 2000 shots in each. Standing up he aimed and pulled the triggers, the shots were exceptionally high velocity tearing through armour, flesh and anything else that got in the way. The return fire was equally brutal, smashing into Tank and revealing yet more chromed metal beneath his chest. Silverfire and Nymph did their best to keep Tank from getting shot too much, despite his frame he couldn’t withstand this for too long, someone would get the shots in that would kill him, professionally they picked off their targets and all the while Fastjack hacked the bikes on the display stand.

“Done, they’re operational. Keep them distracted!”

Fastjack ran over to one of the big glass windows that looked out onto the street below, he placed two charges at the base of the glass and hoped that these were only rocket proof from the outside. He ran back to the team.

“Fire in the Hole!”

The shockwave knocked Silverfire off her feet. Scrambling to get back in place she realised that there were just too many of them, she’d vastly underestimated the number of goons that this building had to offer. They must have been hiding, she thought, but no matter they had the data all they needed to do was get it back to Ouray, piece of cake. She cringed. Yeah, right.


“Get on the bikes and get out of here, now!”

Silverfire turned to him, not again, not this time. She wouldn’t allow it, she wouldn’t.

“No. If you’re staying we’re all staying.” She stomped her foot.

“This isn’t a discussion girl; right now the only important thing in this building is what’s in Fastjack’s head, now you get him to Ouray. I’ll buy you some time to escape.”

“But… no…” Silverfire looked distraught.

“What the hell is this, some group love in? We live for the cause, we die for the cause! Now get out of here.”

“Guys, seriously, we’re getting shot at.” Fastjack was getting nervous. Nymph unemotional as ever carried on firing at the guards.

Silverfire turned and glared at him, without looking, she shot one of the guards square between they eyes.

“I know.”

She turned back to Tank and reached up planting a kiss on his cheek.

“Kill them all. Fastjack, Nymph let’s get out of here.”

The three of them mounted the bikes and gunned the engines; with a tearing sound they detached themselves from their fastenings and speed off, heading for the now open window. Tank waited until he heard the loud thumps hitting the floor and the sound of engines roaring off.


Now he could really cut loose.

“Execute Program: Dot Increase.”

Suddenly all his systems came online, everything the best techs in Sirius could
implant was at his disposal. He stood up. A shot glanced his temple, once again showing more metal, he simply laughed.

“Will someone please kill this mother frakking son of a bitch!”

Tank’s full in body armaments were online selecting the most effective one for the job. His forearm cavities opened and a weapon arose out of each connected by a hose that went back into his arm. These were only good for a few seconds, but they were damn effective. He walked towards the knot of guards that had developed all firing at him, shots impacted on him burning away yet more synthetic flesh, revealing him for the metalwork monstrosity that he was. Great gouts of flame emerged from the weapons in his arms, setting fire to the floor and walls and the guards alike. Screams perforated the atmosphere as they were engulfed in flame. When the flamers had run out of fuel he closed into melee range and began to punch and kick, the ferocity of his blows doing incredible damage. The guards were almost powerless to resist his savagery but little by little they were doing damage to him.

The sound of attitude thrusters filled the air and Tank immediately recognised their sound, he dived for cover as huge laser bolts began to strike the walls of the area, gouging huge chunks from the plasterwork. Tank looked up from his position to see a fully armed Patriot light fighter, modified for long term atmospheric work. He gauged the distance and began to run. The pilot was unused to such a small target, and was unable to get an adequate lock. However as Tank prepared to launch himself at the vessel, the pilot took a chance. Tank was prepared, he knew he presented a target and he knew how to avoid the deadly weapons fire. As the next shots were fired he pushed himself off, they seared under him burning the clothing and flesh from his feet, his internal diagnostics registered monumental damage to his legs and shut them down for nano-repair work. It didn’t matter, the force of the laser fire impacts pushed him towards his target and he landed with a thump on the cockpit of the patriot. He began to pound on the cockpit, the force of his blows fracturing and perforating the glass, the pilot manoeuvred to shake the madman off, but it didn’t do any good. Tank crashed though the cockpit and grabbed the pilot by his neck, smashing his head against what remained of the canopy, smearing blood down the glass, the ship began to spiral out of control and Tank used his strength to push himself backwards, he was aiming for the building again, hoping that we could control his fall. The patriot hit the ground and exploded, carrying Tank into the building he was aiming for. However the impact form the ground damaged even more vital systems he was registering massive failures in all limbs, and the bioelectric energy fuelling his nano-repair units was fading fast. He was done for and he knew it. He laughed, so long as Fastjack was away it didn’t matter a bit.

The firing stopped and Tank could here the sound of approaching footsteps from behind his head. His vision was filled with two guards pointing their weapons at him before they were able to fire, Tank heard a voice.

“Negative, stand down, I want this one alive, if he’s no longer dangerous we can extract information.”

Tank just laughed more.

One of the guards jabbed the muzzle of his gun into Tanks face, or what remained of it.

“Stop laughing frakker, we’re gonna find out all about you and your friends, we’re going to find out everything you know.”

Tank laughed more, this would be amusing to say the least, damned idiots couldn’t even guess as to what was coming next.

“Why are you laughing?” The voice that had demanded he not be killed.

“Because….I…still have…one last present for you…” He chuckled

“Oh yes, and what would that be my terrorist friend?”

“I’m glad…you asked. Execute…Program…dot kill….Tank”

The command was a top priority one; it immediately activated the device hidden behind his heart, using that organic matter as the catalyst the micro fusion device in Tanks chest exploded.

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Saint Del is considered a holy healer of diseases of children, but also as a protector of cattle.