Retribution

[Leo]

The square was more of a boardwalk, with one of the main rivers snaking through the city. The drop to the river was about 100 feet or so with railing protecting people from falling into the river by accident. Just off the boardwalk was a square with a fountain in the center. The area was very busy as people were just getting off of work.

Sixteen hours later, I was above the square looking down at the crowds of people walking around, busy about their day. There were the workers, who were slumped over. There was business men, of whom walked with their backs up right and their communicators to their head. Then there were the government officials, of whom walked around with a constant air of suspicion of everyone around them. I watched each of these people hustle around the square, looking for anyone out of the ordinary.

Then, right when I thought the message was a hoax, there was a woman, blonde standing next to a lamppost looking around at everyone as they passed. I glared at her from the rooftop trying to get a sight on her face, but she was too far away. I casually walked to the stairs and trotted down to the street level and looked in the direction of the lamppost...

She was gone.

Just as this realization dawned on me a ship came up just on the other side of the fence and aimed its weapons at me. My eyes grew wide as I heard the weapons systems powering up. I immediately tore into a sprint across the square. The weapons ripped up the brick as easily as it was snow on a sidewalk. I dove through the window of one of the shops and lowered myself to as low of a profile as I could on the other side. I knew the ship design, somehow: a Raven's Talon. A popular ship used by Merc's, Freelancers, and many others. I concluded that I was currently being hunted by a Merc. I looked at the datapad and cursed myself. It was probably a setup, they sent that Merc to die so I could get his datapad to lure me here into the open.

The ship was more than likely shielded from any kind of projectile or hand blaster technology. There was no point in trying to shoot at it with what I had. My weapons would do nothing and a grenade would just bounce off the hull. I had to find another way to take it out before it took ME out. I slowly peeked around the corner to get a look at the square. The men and women had all but ran off, a few hadn't been so lucky and got caught in the cross fire, their bodies reduced to smoldering slag. Others were hiding behind objects left in the square.

The ship was hovering in the plaza now, its weapons targeting every angle possible. They were waiting for me to re-emerge. I ducked back into the store and hugged the left wall away from the door and climbed into the back. The shop owner was cowering in a corner, hiding his face.

"Please don't kill me!" he screamed "Take whatever you want!!"

"I don't want anything." I replied. "Do you know of anything that can take that ship out? Anything around your shop."

The man looked at me; he stopped shaking but still had his hands up in defense. "There's an old mech near here, it's been in operational for years though. It's two stores open in the old surplus store."

"That'll work, thank you." I said opening the back door to the shop and into the alley way behind the plaza. As soon as I did, I hear the ships engines raise the ship above the building and start moving towards the alley. S*** I thought, they're hacked into the city mainframe. They can see every move I make on the outdoors.

I sprinted two stores down to the surplus back entrance, shot the lock off the door, and ripped it open. The welcoming party wasn't as friendly as I thought it would be, though, I should have thought about this before opening the door. This was a military surplus store...the owners had weapons. As I opened the door I got a blast to the armor plating from a shotgun, knocking me all the way back out the door into the wall on the opposite side of the alley.

"Take that!" yelled the man, and I heard the shotgun reloading. I raised my assault rifle and pointed it at his face, turning off the safety. The whine of the energy charging up in the weapon broke the silence.

"I have in my hand a very powerful assault rifle; you have an outdated shotgun that I can probably take several more shots to the chest with. I'm not your enemy. I'm the one who is being hunted. Let me in before the find me. I am not your enemy."

The man looked down at his gun, to mine, to me, back to his gun, and then he lowered it.

"Alright." He said. "Hurry, get inside."

I got up and clambered through the door. The owner looked out real quick before shutting and locking the it.

"What'd you do?" he asked. "Hunters aren't normally this determined around Manhattan."

"Honestly, I don't know. I don't remember anything before yesterday. You have an old worn down mech in here?"

"Well, yeah, but it's been down for almost a decade, how are you planning on getting it working?"

I smiled.

"I'm not."

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You fear oblivion. Yet you forget. The universe remembers every atom of your being. Even dust hums your name in the dark.

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Starlight Research Consortium | The Banished Legion | Astral
[OOC]Junker Gameplay Loop Suggestion | [OOC]Boneyard Mining Suggestion