Prologue

  ATLAS

  The Day It returned

  Rain fell on the entire world, the skies, polluted beyond repair, gushed a storm of sadness onto the cities of earth.

  It was a quiet night, midweek and dull just like the few days before. The war in the east had not been spoken of for sometime now and the people were beginning to lose interest in it. The ATLAS corporation had just announced their latest market of cybernetic augmentations and the Earth Marine Corps made a call to arms for the entire grand empire.

  The two announcements came as a shock to us all, ATLAS practically gave away these cybernetics for next to nothing and the EMC began to take anyone they could get their hands on, shoving a gun in their hands before taking their measurements. The actions were immediate and I knew something big was coming.

  Rain fell on the steel streets, coloured by the shroud of light that beamed out the signs plastered across the metal giants around. People flocked to the stands in the hopes that they could get their hands on the ATLAS augmentations. Instead of leaving the hawks' nest on this rooftop, I took my time watching the sheep below herd to the corners and beg for an upgrade. ATLAS had made no further comment on these augmentations, ATLAS had made no announcement at all.

  My sight slipped away from the streets, drifting towards the sounds of angry shouting leaping from the open windows of the building next to mine. I saw the man screaming into the screen just outside the reach of my sight. I enhanced my hearing, tuning the tones just right so that I could only hear his voice.

  “How could this happen? A whole planet was made and burned so that this would not happen!” His neck writhed in ink that failed to hide the veins bulging through his skin, his face, coloured on the left side in tattoo ink, screamed rage.

  I could not hear whoever he was talking to and my interest had distracted me for too long.

  A watchlike item that was fixed into the muscle of my wrist beeped, alarming me of the time. Quickly I readied my sniper, taking aim and steadying myself.

  The rain clashed with my overcoat, hammering its plastic outer layer with a sound that I wish I could forget.

  My target came into view, I tuned my hearing, activated the augmentations in my eyes and I focused. My site fizzled from natural to computerised, calculations appeared like drawings across the road at the bottom of this building and I chose the perfect elevation for my shot.

  A car, faster than comprehension with armour thicker than most tanks, blew down the filled road.

  The sound of its engine hit me first, its accelerator burst with hot energy and it came into view.

  I squeezed the trigger, ending the life of my target with one perfectly placed bullet.

  My rifle oozed a smell at the barrels end which I fought hard not to inhale, I was about to walk away, leaving to collect my reward.

  Until I realised that the screaming stopped and so I came back to stare through the building's window.

  All I could see was blood, it painted the walls, splattering its unique effects across every surface it could reach.

  There was no one inside, it went eerily silent and I could bear it no longer.

  When I returned to the streets they were crowded still with people desperate to have the latest line of augmentations.

  Their addiction to metal will lead to their downfall.

  And I find my escape in the alleyway to my right, for inside it was my getaway, a door, no different to any other was placed behind a set of huge dumpsters, moving them out of the way allowed me to input the code and the green face of the door flashed with blue light, pulling me into its gateway.

  The instant transmission thrusted me back to the ‘merc’s bay’ my jobsite.

  My client was waiting, alone at a round table with a drink in his hand and another waiting for me on a translucent coaster. “I hope it was no trouble” He smirked, evil colouring his grim features.

  “It was boring. I need to get back into the infiltration game, I can't deal with his one shot one kill business anymore” It was true, I loved my old infiltration days more than I can ever explain. There was something about it, something thrilling which I was so desperate to feel again.

  “I would love to see you back Eights. But you know why I can't give you any. The guild won't have it” He shrugged and pretended to care, I knew he didn't, his act pissed me off.

  I sighed to release my anger “So what’s next”

  He turned to me for the first time, locking eyes with mine.

  His eyes were red, the white of his eyes had been purged by augmentation and I could see the enhancements within his iris examining me for any signs of emotion. I hid them well, especially from the augmented. “Payment” He said.

  After his words slithered out of his foul mouth, an amount of money which I could piss away dropped into my account.

  “Always a pleasure” I said, turning to flee the conversation before his enhancements picked up on my anger.

  “Eights wait. I must ask, did you happen to hear of any business taking place in the ATLAS offices nearby?”

  The ATLAS offices? the window, the screaming.

  I could not lie, he had already detected that I had seen something, there was no point in hiding it now.

  “Perhaps, but I can't be sure. Corporate dealings are done under the table and off company grounds” I said, keeping my answer vague so that his response could fill in the gaps.

  “You are correct” He stood and came closer to me “It seems that someone has gone rogue, killed on company grounds. If you happen to know who this may have been, I expect you to turn them over”

  He locked me in place with his gaze “Do you understand?” He hissed.

  I did not reply, then he activated a neural implant forced into me by the guild at the birth of my career. I dropped in agony as my entire being set ablaze with hot pain “I understand” I begged and he released his hold on the switch.

  “Good. I will inform you of your next job in due course. Do your best not to get yourself killed before sunrise, I still have some use of you”

  The bastard sat back in his chair like he had been on his feet all week. I considered blowing his head wide open right here, but I did not want to clean up the mess.

  I left the bar before peak hour hit and went back to my place.

  The next few hours were silent, too silent for my liking. I had never heard the city so quiet, I couldn't bear it.

  I gave a buddy of mine a call and met with him on the bridge that flees the city's edge. He arrived in his car and I on my Tech-bike.

  Its engine whirred with anticipation, usually when I stop it isn't for long, but this time I did not know when I would turn it back on again. This friend of mine has been a brother to me, we have been as close as anyone can be since we were children.

  “Mckenzie” I laugh and go to give him a hug, he responds “God you look awful eights” And I can hear something about his laugh sound off.

  “Brother it has been too long” He pats my back and walks over to his car. I join him and we lean against its bonnet as we both stare off the bridge's edge.

  He sparks a cigarette and hands me one, its weight in my hand fills the gap that has been missing and I take the biggest drag I possibly can.

  The view is obscured by my exhale of smoke, my lungs flutter with excitement and for a split second my mind goes quiet. The peace stays and I breathe and take another drag.

  “Where have you been eights? It's been a year now. What’s new” Mckenzie’s voice is filled with a boyish excitement that I cannot remember the feeling of.

  I sigh “Oh god dont get me started” I take another drag “Man, this whole merc thing. Not as fun as it was at the start”

  Mckenzie laughs and nods his head “Why do you think I got out of that business man. You need to do the same. Why don't you just stop taking jobs?”

  His voice, as happy as it may sound, grows weak in my ears and my attention fades.

  “I wish I could Kenzie. I really wish I could” My train of thought drifts and I realise that he doesn't know about my inhibitor. While staring at the void black view that is decorated at its sides by the rival lights of two cities, I continue to smoke.

  “Do you remember that job we did when we were 14. Umm…The infiltration op” I pause to think.

  “On the military base” We both say at the same time.

  “Yeah you came out with around fourteen confirmed kills that day” Mckenzie speaks of it as if it's an award.

  “Yeah…well they stuck me with an inhibitor that day, decided that I would be their personal grim reaper for the rest of my life”

  His expression switches from proudly reminiscent to empty. He stares at me as if I have just told him I'm dying and he turns back to the view.

  “You know over in my city I know a guy that could take it out” He says, keeping an eye on my expression.

  “Its an inhibitor mack, one wrong move and i'm dead”

  “Yeah that's right, I guess we’ll just do nothing so you can die anyway”

  His response is like a slap in the face that wakes me up from a trance, all of a sudden my fear of death is gone and all I care about is my right to have a choice.

  I can't say anything, I try to talk but I can't.

  And so I stare off into the darkness, wondering what life would be like if I had the opportunity to live it my own way. The skies of earth, though pitch black and thickly polluted, shine with

  one single light breaching the layers of smog above. The star winks at me, blinking in and out of sight.

  It is over a million miles away and it would take me an infinite amount of lives to walk to it. I would be dead before I could travel that far, but atleast I would be able to make that choice for myself.

  I think to myself, fuck it.

  “Fuck it”

  Mckenze smiles and turns his head slowly, facing me with a perfectly comedic look on his face that almost makes me laugh.

  “I know that face, fuck, oh fuck what now?” I burst out laughing and he does too.

  He hands me another cigarette, we both light and smoke and he finally tells me.

  “Without your inhibitor you can do anything you want, including Infiltration ops”

  Before I can wonder if he has baited me into removing the inhibitor just so I can go and do a job with him, I am already on my bike and trailing behind his car as we speed as fast as we can down the roads of his city.

  It's odd, my memory fails me, maybe it is because of the procedure but all I can remember next is waking up in this frost bitingly cold chair. Blood streams down my neck and drips off my shoulders and Mckenzie shoves a smoke in my face.

  “Here it'll help” He lights it and steps backward while his cybernetics junkie pal blasts me in the face with a light.

  “It always does” I laugh and throw my head back onto the chair’s headrest.

  The procedure that will undoubtedly change my life has been complete, I feel no different, look just the same, but there is something about the way I view life that is new.

  “Come on get your fat ass up, we have a job to do” Mckenzie kicks my chair making it jolt and forcing my eyes wide open.

  “Damn you won't let me rest for a second?” My throat feels dry and it sounds in my voice.

  “Ain't no rest for the wicked”

  Mckenzie moves out of the surgical area and through a set of doors that slide open with a whine of old metal, inside the room a table waits for us, as do three other members of his crew.

  “Eights. This is my crew. I would tell you their names but I can't remember them” He laughs at his own joke and allows them a moment to introduce themselves.

  The first stands, she is a girl, thin bodied and adorning thick clothed clothes which are all black, she throws on her leather jacket that has fur around the collar and flicks her purple hair to the side.

  Her eyes are robotic and are purely ice blue. “Name’s Cop, nice to meet you eights” She looks at me like I am a three course meal with drinks on the house, she holds her stare and moves closer to me.

  My first reaction is to break her hand and spin her around to slit her throat, as you can tell I have never experienced this kind of human contact before and so I withhold myself from doing that and I simply smile.

  She moves away and the next one is staring at me, she is tall, thin and attractive. She has a sharp jawline with tattoos climbing up the edges of her face. Her lipstick is black, her stare is cold and her face is perfectly decorated with an array of piercings.

  “Eights huh? Why the numbers?” Her voice crawls into my ears like a hissed poem.

  “Never had a name, it's just what they call me”

  Her face drops into a pout “Well mines Zoey” she rolls her eyes and turns away.

  The last member of the crew announces himself as a man called TB.

  I laugh and Mckenzie knows why, he joins and I compose myself when I see his face. He stares at me with a rageful glare and I get the urge to kill him. “Eights” He scoffs “Stand for eighth place by any chance?” His voice is forcibly low, as if he is trying to make it sound deeper and he reeks of insecurity.

  “Good one” I laugh And he just stares at me.

  “Well enough of the introductions, I have a lot of money that I want to spend tomorrow and I need your help to get it” Again Mckenzies voice is boyish and boasting, he steals our attention and then presses the activation button on the holotable. “This is the target”

  The room is illuminated by a yellow humm that paints the graffitied walls, the image bobs up and down, floating in place, I look at the matrix, staring at it for sometime, knowing that I have seen it before.

  “Inside the ATLAS facility off the borders of our good friend eights’ city. Is an object that is going to make us all so rich we can buy our own planet and hide from the damned bastards for the rest of eternity” Mckenzie raised his palms out to the sides in preparation for an applause, he did not receive one.

  Cop walks closer, her eyes lingering on me as she walks by “That is all perfect and great, but how do you expect us to get in there?” She rests her elbows on the table and squeezes her chest while her finger subtly plays with the smoothness of her bottom lip.

  Mckenzie smiles “Oh yeah did I not mention?” And he too stares at me.

  I hate this feeling, I hate being seen. I look down trying to hide my face.

  “Eights, tell them” Mckenzie says with a soft tone.

  I sigh and reluctantly begin to speak “The blacksite is no facility, it's an outpost for experimental weapons. I did a job for a guy who runs the place a while ago, a security detail. I still have the uniforms”

  “We have to go all the way back to this shitbag’s place just to get the uniforms?”.

  “No, it's techwear. Its copied”

  “Copied onto what?” TB says, throwing his hands down onto the table.“Onto my retinal augments”

  TB shrugs his shoulders like he is trying to pop both his arms off “The fuck does that mean?”

  “It means, TB, that as long as you do what I fucking tell you to do, you wont get a bullet in your dick”

  I didn't realise it but I had drawn my gun, it was only resting in my hand, but I had still drawn it nonetheless.

  That seemed to get Cop off because she stared at me and bit her lip.

  “Kenzie, just quickly, why an ATLAS facility”

  He looked at me confused. “Why not?”

  “Because it’s on company grounds, the guild wont allow this” I said and they all fell silent.

  They avoided looking at me and acted like children embarrassed by a lie they had just told.

  “Oh you didn't tell him?” Cop says, her voice sarcastic and yet sensual “We don't work for no guild Eights”

  I couldn't believe it, they were freelancers, the worst kind of Mercs. It wasn't right, it was illegal, I couldn't go through with it.

  “Look at the little bastard, he's scared. Should've left him in the pit that he crawled out of Mack”

  The sound of TB’s voice angers me so much that I want nothing more than to rip his throat out.

  “So, you gon’ leave us now little bitch?” He says.

  TB’s insult makes me realise that I am being a little bitch, but I won't let him know that.

  “Well, it's like the lady said. We do what the fuck we want”

  Mckenzie’s relief bursts out his mouth in the form of a burped laugh and he comes to my side “That’s my man! Let’s fucking do this”

  Mckenzie twirled the table's visual controls, displaying the target city that housed the black site.

  “Grid” Mckenzie said and swerved to look at me side on “Your city. A city of scum, villainy, the corporate breeding grounds of ideals that serve to plague our species. This the place where we will find” Mckenzie dragged the last few words of his sentence, elongating them as he enhanced the image, locating the blacksite.

  “This” He says, crossing his arms and examining the site.

  “The installation is guarded all day long and throughout the night” I come closer, continuing with my speech “The outer walls are three metres of pure titanium alloy that has been enhanced with heat resistance, living metal fibres and an auto defence system. Sentre guns will be placed at the top of all four walls separated by three metre intervals. Those gaps are filled by two cyber enhanced guards. Their tech enhances their senses, reactions and brutality”

  Cop’s words cut through mine “How the fuck do we get through?” Her seductive demeanor has faded as she wonders, somehow I find her more attractive this way.

  “The walls are too high to climb, these doorways have retinal scanners and DNA sensors, anyone not within the ATLAS defence database will be denied entry”

  Cop shakes her head, doubt is all I can see scattered across her face and it makes me desperate to find a way through.

  “We will figure it out” The words just slip out of my mouth without warning and I realise that I am desperate to see this through, desperate to experience my first real chosen path.

  “The big man said it loud and clear” Mckenzie bats my back with his palm, knocking me a step forwards “Get your shit and start moving, I ain't’ waiting on nobody”

  They all spread like frightened birds and collect their gear.

  Yellow cast light pulsing from the spinning image above the table decorates my iris with the brunt of its colour, I, for some reason, cannot turn from it.

  ‘J-888 Designation ‘Eights’ and I repeat that sentence in my head over and over again until it is woven with the fabrics of my being.

  “Eights, here. This might be of some use for you” Cop says as she brushes past me, her hand meets my chest and slides down to my abdomen and she turns “50 cal, Dotted sight. Laser pointer and a daggered barrel” The warmth of her breath caresses my cheek and slithers into the canal of my ear, sending a delightful yet foreign sensation dancing down my spine.

  “It's yours now” She whispers and leaves me to examine the cannon in my hand.

  Taking my time I held the weapon in my hand as if it were a newborn. It sat perfectly in my palm like it was meant for my hand, the gun's metal was cold and its weight was noticeable. Across its right side was an engraved word ‘Mercy’ . I chuckled and spun it around my finger before resting it on the holo table's flat surface.

  “Here. This is what you’ll wear until the uniforms are activated”

  Mckenzie tossed a set of EMC special operator gear. The harness was plain black and was fitted with a sonic shield, a bubble of dense vibration hummed with life as I slid it on.

  The knee pads and helmet fit just like any other and they served no real purpose other than to fit the look.

  I have to admit, discarding my clothes in place of this lethal gear made me feel deadly.

  I retrieved ‘Mercy’ and slid her heft into the holster on my leg. “You look good” Mckenzie said, I turned to see him wearing the exact same gear as me. His muscular build struggled to sit comfortably in the equipment but it sat around him regardless. “You look interesting” I said.

  “Yeah” He laughs “I don't feel as good as I look”

  “I didn't say you looked good, I said you look interesting”

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  Guns click with the presence of full magazines. Our augmentations whirr with a murderous excitement and I stand ready with my hand waiting near the grip of ‘Mercy’.

  I cannot wait to use her.

  The rest enter, all wearing similar gear and I activate my retinal scanner.

  The uniforms coat us in a hexagonal net of evolving colours, they parade over us, shrouding our figures in coats of blue energy until the clothing of the ATLAS sentinels has taken form. I noticed Cop first and god, I cannot say a word.

  I don't fully understand this feeling, It is foreign, unheard of within my system before this day.

  For some reason all I want to do is be next to her, I see the look on her face and I get the sense that she feels the same. Then I realise we have both just been staring at each other in the yellow haze of this dump.

  Unease settles into my bones forcing a shudder to surge throughout my body.

  It stops when Mckenzie crashes his hand into my back “Fucking perfect, come on lets go”

  He leads us out to a truck which adorns more armour than anything else and we set off.

  Mckenzie and Cop take the front seats, I and TB sit in the middle two while Zoey throws herself across the three seats in the back.

  Mckenzie drops into the driver's side and hooks his neural implant up the vehicle, connecting his mind with its controls. He lets out a psychotic cackle, then slams the accelerator.

  Our eyes cannot focus on the world outside the doors to the truck, it is moving so fast the blur of what surrounds is too much for our augmentations to handle.

  A clashing array of neon advertisements mix into a flowing gust of yellows and pinks as the steel visage of the city around fades underneath an eternal dark blanket.

  “Kenzie, Why this specific job?” I shout the question over the hard beating music.

  “Come on!” He says “It’s fucking ATLAS. These bastards have done nothing but turn earth into their home office for the last decade. It's time someone hurts them” He fills with laughter and effectively howls as it pours out.

  Cop joins him and Zoey lets a slight chuckle slip.

  “Do you know what it is?” I ask.

  “What, the matrix? No idea. The guy who wants it made a no questions asked kind of deal with me. He gets the cylinder and I get the fuck out of this damned system”

  I nod and refuse to press any further, regardless of how curious I am and I turn my attention back to the window.

  The inside of the vehicle is almost an exact copy of the room we were all in before. Sprayed lines of paint coat the interior, decorating the darkness with a coloured palette of signed names and callsigns.

  The view of the outside steals my attention, captivating me as we come flying down the bridge. “Inject it C” Mckenzie shouts.

  Cop, in response, raises her right arm. It transforms, peeling away at itself before a giant

  needle-like point shoots out of where her hand was a moment prior. She stabs the car, injecting a living code into its hybrid heart, giving it the appearance of whatever truck she wants. All she has to do is imagine it and the truck obeys.

  Grid’s lights peer over the edges of the void like stars that peek through the sheets of clouds in the night. Their peaks are steep and pointed and we are soon soaring between the buildings.

  “Woah, check this out” TB says, pulling my attention to his window “Look at them, what the fuck are they doing?”

  As we blew down the length of the overpass we were blessed with the advantage of height, giving us a view of the entire northern sector of Grid. Down in the streets by the freshly erected ATLAS augmentation stands were crowds of people who seemed to shake violently in place.

  I had seen something similar to this before, it was the effects of a drug known as ‘night’ its symptoms were almost exactly like this.

  The only difference was that what it led to was fatal, these people however were not dropping. No, instead they quaked in a forever state of perpetual agony that refused to let them go, I could see the jaws of death opening to engulf the crowds below, however it never took them, instead they were left to suffer.

  “Better them than us, huh?” TB says and he sees the disgust on my face “Oh fuck you man, you wanna go and save em?!” Like a gorilla he grabs me and swings his door open. The truck is blowing down the overpass at over two hundred miles an hour, barely half its top speed and TB goes to throw me out.

  “Drop him now!” Cop screams.

  Zoey jumps up from the seat behind TB and hooks her arms around his neck “TB let the bitch go” she snarls.

  He keeps me by the door, holding me there, slowly inching me forwards. The funny thing is, my aim is perfect, if he throws me out, I will survive the fall.

  I am yet to see the power of ‘Mercy’ and I am desperate for a reason to use her, I will not miss, he will not survive.

  Zoey pulls with all the strength she has, her cybernetics whine and clamp around his throat turning his face purple.

  After a few more moments he releases me and I dive back into my seat just to watch the sick bastard laugh.

  The corners of his mouth pull apart and he smiles, but it's hollow, forced “Pussy”.

  “You good?” Cop asks, her head half turns so she can see me through the passengers headrest.

  I nod and she winks.

  Three beeps alert us, warning that a hostile presence is ahead.

  We are here.

  “Stop!” I ordered.

  The bellowing cries of distant clubs that were filled to the brim had slipped away with the increasing winds. Ahead, down the curved dirt path and hidden behind mounds of the last surviving pocket of nature, lay the blacksite.

  “Dump the car here” I said.

  My order was met by a group of confused faces, I had no time to explain it and so I jumped out of my seat.

  Mckenzie yanked the plug free from his head and stepped from the truck, the rest soon followed.

  By the time they had all readied I was ahead of the truck, peering down the way with the aid of my cybernetic visual enhancements. I could see through the walls with their guide and what I saw bordered on the brink of impossibility.

  “I count at least a thousand” I said to Mckensie, I then tuned my audio receptors to pick up on any local communications chatter.

  I could hear nothing “They’re not communicating on the local relay, it must be on a private network”

  “How do we get in?” Mckenzie asked, his words were riddled with doubt.

  “The sentinels patrol the outer walls in groups of three, I can ping an order to draw a single squad away, allowing us a second or two to slip in and replace them”

  Mckenzie nodded “Do it”

  “Already done” I replied.

  He waved his hand, beckoning the others to follow as we raced through the trees and towards the front gate.

  The front face was similar to that of an iron fortress, its gate was like an electrified cage and the guards posted out front were heavily armoured than any other that patrolled the wall.

  We made our mark and followed the path that my visual enhancements had plotted by scanning recent bootprints.

  And we simply blended in.

  We marched, our eyes fixed to the front, however my focus lay on whatever was around.

  I could sense the impending realisation that we were infiltrators would soon come to pass, we had to move faster.

  We ebbed like water, understanding our environment within an instant and found our way through. Before we could be noticed all four of us were standing outside of the side entrance.

  The doors opened and a pad stared at me.

  “What the fuck?” Mckenzie hissed “You need to place your hand on this thing”

  “I cant” I snapped “The single moment we are denied access this whole place will know we are here”

  Mckenzie shook his head and huffed “Well then we’re fucked because we have no other choice”

  Mckenzie snapped around and ordered TB and Zoey to cover our backs, their rifles became their eyes and they watched, eagerly waiting for a firefight.

  I scanned the door, picking apart its internals with my enhanced layers of vision.

  Its components were all wired and all random, my hand came up to the pad and its red hand shape fizzled yellow.

  The next thing I know it sucks my palm onto its face and I pull against it with everything that I have.

  My limbs are not enhanced, they are still meat and bone and I cannot resist the pull.

  For a brief moment I expect the alarms to sound and the following gunfire to boom behind me, instead the door accepts my print and opens.

  Mckenzie snaps back to the door thinking we have been made, his face shines with relief and he storms through the doorway “Have you got a guy on the inside?” He asks.

  The panel’s palm print fizzles into a shape that resembles a perfectly circular face. For a split second, it just stares at me.

  Then it falls black.

  I am the last to enter and we move through the wide corridors like we know exactly where we are going. Each one of us has to physically force ourselves to blend in as much as possible, restraint was our only ally inside these walls and we bent our thoughts to our will, controlling them without fail.

  Special Operatives from the ATLAS death squad program march next to us and they notice nothing, that is when I realise that we are clear, nothing can stop us now.

  My audio receptors continue to try to locate a communication line that it can infiltrate, while I march, noise sparks within my ears and I listen intently.

  -Sector N-alpha under control. Sectors B-alpha and C-delta are lost to us sir-

  -Are we aware of the threat?-

  -No sir. However, troops in the northern region have noticed a lack of cybernetic augmentation software. The ATLAS launch seems to be the cause of this outbreak-

  -Solid copy-

  My mind explodes with flashes of the crowded streets, I fixate upon the violent quaking corpses that stand and beg silently for death.

  It is the only connection, I cannot think of another. The explanation of ‘night’ being the cause has now been proven incorrect, something else is at play, something bigger.

  The installation soon stirs with life, the troops around become more rapid and their march becomes urgent. We are the only ones who are walking, we are the only ones who do not know what is happening.

  Mckenzie looks back to me and his face says it all.

  I can see fear in his eyes, it is pure, it is potent and I can tell it is controlling him.

  Alarms blare, the crimson warning of a new war sings, deafening us.

  “Come on!” Mckenzie screams over the whining and sprints down the path.

  We turn the corner and are met by the special ops squad “All units to the front gate” The sergeant roars in our face.

  His attention is torn from us as one of his troops collapses, the others stare at him as he spasms and gargles on his own cries for help. Mckenzie steps back and the sergeant's eyes lock onto him.

  I scan the Special Ops sergeant, searching for his neural implant.

  He does not have one, but the operative on the ground does.

  I can see his nervous system connecting with its port, however its connection nerves are plagued, they are black, something is infecting them.

  The sergeant has made us and I am the first to fire, the bullet let loose from ‘Mercy’ comes as she snaps up with the whip of my arm. Its outer layer nears his head, it cuts his cheek with its tip, then as it is about to soar by his ear it detonates, blowing the sergeant's upper body to pieces.

  “Fuck!” Mckenzie shouts and then hammers the trigger of his rifle.

  We clash with the special operatives, tearing them apart with the ferocity of our arsenal. ‘Mercy’ clicks empty, I go to reload and as I finish I bring her up to aim, but there is nothing left to kill, nothing but body parts.

  “What the fuck is happening” TB cries, he spins around and storms at me “What the fuck did you do?!”

  I am a split second away from blowing his kneecap clean out, but I restrain myself “Local comms are going wild in the city. Whatever we saw on the overpass is an outbreak”

  “It's a perfect distraction” Mckenzie says, he winks as if this were planned, then he runs.

  Our group murdered our way down to the sublevel, leaving blood soaked halls in our wake with enough gore filling their lonely innards to turn a lion's stomach.

  Not even I could comprehend the amount of blood.

  Cop spots a sentinel to our left, her arms buzz and her skin pulls back as the panels on her limbs contort. Two scythe-like blades appear and she cuts the man to pieces before he can even scream.

  She stands, turns with his blood dripping into her mouth and she smiles like a child.

  “Zoey, you’re up”

  In Front of me sits a chamber, through its ballistic resistant windows I can see what I would imagine the heart of a starship to look like.

  There is a research chamber that leads through to another, inside the furthest is the ball of scientific wonder. My eyes blur as I stare at it.

  In its centre the ball of pure yellow energy pulsates and the surrounding wires that connect it to the installation have lightning crawling across their shape.

  Zoey picks the lock and stands as the door opens. Before any of us can speak a lone straggler stands within the room and raises his weapon, locking Zoey in the confines of the rifle's scope. The drum of a close range cutter gun hammers my ears and Zoey's blood paints the doorway.

  TB throws himself into cover by grabbing me as if I were a shield before running to the side. He drops, throwing me aside and huffing deep gasps of air “Thanks” I say, grateful for him saving my life.

  “The fuck are you thanking me for?”

  His eyes shimmer the dreaded glossed look of terror, his hands tremble, he is sweating.

  TB is not fit for a situation such as this and so I turn my head, locking eyes with Mckenzie who was already staring at me.

  He nods, I understand, we both reposition.

  Me, I drop to one knee and fire into the doorway, the colours of the inside reach out toward me as if trying to drag me in.

  Mckenzie darts inside while I have the defender's focus, then I hear the cybernetics of his fists hammering the thickness of a skull, smashing it into dust.

  TB stands the moment Mckenzie shouts “Its clear” he shoves me aside as he strides in “Poor bitch” He says sarcastically and he trods on Zoey's corpse.

  I check on Cop who is staring at Zoey “You good?” I ask, trying to sound sincere.

  “She was mean. But she didn’t deserve that”

  I was uncomfortable in this situation, I had no idea what to say. Cop’s eyes fill with sorrow as she looks up at me, my left side burns and I turn to see TB and Mckenzie both looking.

  I hate this, I hate being seen.

  I drop my head and walk in hoping that they will turn their attention elsewhere.

  “What the fuck do we do now?” TB bellows, throwing his hands around as he blindly wanders around the chamber.

  Scattered research papers decorate the desks, lines of code vanish down the screens borders and at the chambers end sits a console.

  The console is dormant as the matrix within continues to birth a new being, the connection between it and the pulsating ball beyond the borders of the reinforced windows is felt immediately. I see Mckenzie moving towards it, his eyes fixed upon the outpoking handle.

  “Wait” I say, but my voice is weak, my words fall from my mouth and die the moment I speak them.

  My vision fades, the chamber around has gone and what I see before me is new, different, I see red sands, A figure looms off in the distance and she turns.

  Her eyes are a perfect ice blue and their allure pulls me in, but I see pain in her eyes, death and as she reaches out her hand I freeze.

  Her palm touches my face, it is cold and for a split second I feel relaxed.

  But it does not last, the pains of a million minds, all claimed, connect with mine. I see a fragmented soul swimming in the depths of an undiscoverable ocean, its core beams like a beacon. It sees me, it connects, my implant reforms within my body, remade by it.

  The ocean dies and is purged as its smile grows wider, then darkness comes to consume us.

  The eternal void around beats with the distant drum of a heart, I look around and see a light batting in the distance, it has tendrils protruding from its cylindrical face, a million of them reach out beyond the realms of connection and steal the lives of many. The hands returns and pulls my face back to it, I am staring into her eyes and with a look she says ‘run’

  I hit the ground hard and the fear of what I have just witnessed is quaking every fibre of my being.

  “Eights, what is it?” Mckenzie asks, his face drained of its colour.

  I see the dread in him and I can do nothing but confirm it “Stay back, Stay away from it. Don't go any closer” I plead as I try to stand, stumbling with each attempt.

  “What? Eights I-

  The words oozing from Mckenzie’s mouth die in the appearance of mine “Do not go any closer”

  My glare is not on my friend, but is instead glued to the matrix at the far end. With each second that passes, each beat of my heart that thumps in the back of my throat, I feel another soul be ripped from its vessel. “I…I will do it” I say.

  “What?” Cop snaps “This fucker?”

  I stand, free from the restraints previously halting my advance, and I stride towards it. The heart floating above the ground in the room ahead flutters and blasts the area with a shockwave of crawling energy.

  I burst through its attempt to withhold me and come closer. Each step I take it returns by trickling electric fear, it blasts me again and the veins of power crawl over my body, frying every circuit in my system.

  I still continue.

  I am a foot away and the entire chamber lights up, flooded with a power I have never before seen, My hand comes to it and a bubble of pure energy appears around the handle. The tips of my fingers touch the bubble's edge and it is agonising. I want nothing more than to be free of this pain, but something is guiding me, pushing me. I press harder, piercing the bubble and my hand slowly crawls through. This time the energy filling the room fizzles and directs its focus onto me. Each tendril of lightning, each web of burning hot energy, each extension of the thing beyond attacks me all at once. I feel the raging hot agony of a star and it burns every nerve in my body, scarring even my soul. I am an inch away, my fingers come to surround the handle and finally, finally I clamp around it and yank it from the console in one clean motion.

  The presence of an almighty being blinks out of existence and I drop, loosely hanging over the console with the Matrix in my hand.

  “Oh fuck yes” TB squeals “Alright! Now lets get the fuck out of here”

  “Wait!” Cop shouts and she runs over to me, her hand lands on my back and she kisses the side of my steaming head.

  I think she is about to mourn me when instead the Matrix is pulled from my grip and falls into the desperate hold of her own “Alright, now we can go”

  Cop’s face is stripped of its excitement as I stand, oozing black smoke from the curve of my upper back. She stares at me with a blank gaze, her look is recognisable, as is the blue light in her eyes.

  Before I can say anything she places the matrix on the flat of her stomach, her skin vibrates as the clothing parts with the pull of her body's panels, which then engulf the Matrix.

  “Holy shit. Can you do that with anything else?” TB winks at her, Cop sees it and snarls.

  “What about eighth place? Wanna do that with some of him?”

  I can see that his mere voice is enraging her, and it’s not just her that is growing tired of this.

  “Imagine feeling all of those wires wrapped around the tip of your-

  Mckenzie hits TB with a mean hook, breaking his jaw. He grabs his face, squeezing the broken bone “One more fucking word, that’s all I need” He growls.

  Cop bursts out with laughter that is so loud and forced that it is nothing but obnoxious.

  “Enough” Mckenzie shouts “Come on, we have what we came here for. Let's go”

  The two storm out and Mckenzie comes to my aid “What the fuck was that?”

  I laugh, cough and reply “I wish I could tell you” And as I look into his eyes I see something wrong with his gaze, there is a flicker of guilt, the tiniest show of regret.

  Mckenzie drops the look and moves away.

  I match his pace and walk alongside him. “Do you know what it is?” I ask, curious to understand what it was that I had seen in his eyes.

  But he is silent.

  “Come on, Kenzie, you are seriously telling me that you don't want to know what that thing is?”

  He shakes his head “No, honestly I couldn’t give a fuck what it is. It could be a dick remover or a nuclear warhead for all I fucking care”

  “How? How can you not be curious?”

  He sighs, releasing his pent up anger out with one huff of air “Because, all I want is to be off this shit-rock and somewhere else. Earth can shrivel up and die for all I care, and I guarantee you everyone else in this hell feels the same” He catches my uncertain look “Do you?”

  I look away, unsure of what to say “This planet has been nothing more than a jobsite to me. I just didn’t expect that from you”

  He snaps “Times have changed, so have I. This planet has drained me of my fucking soul, it almost did the same to you until I came along. I want to escape, I am desperate to be free. That’s why I don't care, because a small part of me hopes that whatever this thing is, it’ll destroy this planet for good”

  His words were nothing but truth bred by experience, I could feel the pain in his voice and I just accepted it.

  “This way” He says, pulling us down a separate set of pathways “It’ll bring us straight back to the centre of the installation, we’ll make an easy escape from there”

  A set of solid titanium blast doors greet us as we round the last corner, the stairs leading to them are ghastly, empty, cold.

  A shiver crawls up my spine as the roaring of tedious gunfire creeps into my ears, battering my audio receptors like a drum. I outstretch my hand, my palm hovers over the panel and I hesitate, for some reason I don't want to see what waits for us outside these doors.

  “What?” Mckenzie says with a slight sense of worry “Come on, don't pussy out on me now. We almost have this”

  I can't bring myself to touch the panel, whatever it is that is withholding me is overpowering every fibre of my being. And as my hand hovers there I see it shake ever so slightly, I couldn’t tell why, but I was afraid.

  TB’s annoying little voice sounds from behind us “Come on fucker, open the door”

  I don't know why everyone was whispering, we could only slightly hear the gunfire through these things, there was no chance our voices could be heard.

  “Alright fuck it, Move through the doors, blend into the firefight and rally at the truck. Then we leave this place behind”

  “Dont look back” Cop says to me, her voice as soft as silk.

  Mckenzie shoves me aside and opens the door.

  The metal scraping sound fades immediately, then all we could hear was screaming.

  Their voices were a crescendo of agonising deaths and our confusion was just as potent as the smell that hit me.

  Cybers, the people who have fallen victim to the addiction that is cybernetic augmentations, are murdering everything that moves.

  The ATLAS sentinels do not stand a chance, the courtyard is filled with guards, none of whom are alive.

  Blood has begun to coat the dirt and we sprint through the yard, hoping to find a way through.

  The Cybers however are everywhere, they are like a horde of mindless rampant animals, utilising their enhancements for bloodshed.

  They crawl across the ground like spiders, sprinting on all fours like dogs and are snapping at us by barking in beats of gurgling rage.

  I fire three times, blasting the upper torso of my attacker to shreds, but it doesn't stop.

  It keeps coming at me, the look on its face, the emptiness, the cold, it is a void of sensation and all I can see in its eyes is death. As it lunges I spin on my heel, throwing out my fist and bashing it aside. It cracks against the ground, rolling through the bloodied dirt, its robotic body begins to force it into a standing position. The bones crack into place, contorted beyond their brink by the control of another, its spine fixes straight and as it lays there on its back it makes no noise, but shows its silent pain through the look in its eyes.

  It stands, snapping up in a single moment and my body moves beyond the extent of my control. I do not realise it but somehow my arms have lifted my gun and I have fired it twice at the man's head. The bullets burst his skull like a zit, scattering brain matter across the yard in all directions.

  -RUN-

  It is not a word, more like a command which my body obeys without question. My legs move faster than ever before, all the while I slaughter the rabid cybers in my way.

  “Come on” I wave my hand at the group “Lets get the fuck out of here!”

  TB and Cop see me, TB launches his boot into the side of Cop's leg, dropping her so that he can escape. As he runs three Cybers gain on him and they are much faster than him. I watch as two of them sprint on all fours across the walls of the surrounding installation while the other sprints on two legs with blades coming through its palms.

  He nears me and I think about covering his escape, before I think to move the two running across the wall's pounce, tackling him to the ground.

  He rolls with them, screaming, all three of them proceed to tear him apart.

  Spurting strays of blood gush from his wounds, the one with blades on its hands discard its weapons and grab his torso, ripping the skin before rummaging around his ribcage.

  His screaming continues through the feral barking of his three attackers and his traumatising death serves to be the perfect distraction for Cop.

  She makes it to me at the gate, looks down to the side at TB “You make a good meal” She shouts “Such a shame they won't eat you” And she smiles then turns away from him, walking with a skip in her step.

  “Eights!” Mckenzie’s voice booms from my side “Close the gate, lets fucking go!”

  I slam it shut and run, sprinting for the truck.

  Behind us the Cybers come, throwing themselves over the installation's high walls with the use of their enhancements. They hit the ground and the snapping of their bones rings in my ears like the falling of rain. I spin, walking backwards and firing what ammunition I had left. I discarded magazine after magazine, emptying every bullet I had into their horde.

  ‘Click’ My gun was empty.

  Mckenzie pulls me and fires his weapon covering my exit as we both charge for the truck.

  It comes into view and Cop throws open the passenger door, the turret in her hands gives us no time to evade its beam of bullets and while she fires she cackles like a witch.

  Mckenzie throws himself into the driver's seat, leaving the door wide open, he inserts the cable into his implant and the car's wheels spin.

  I look through the window and see the encroaching pink mist, their bodies burst like blood balloons as the bullets hit them. Most are torn apart, bearing the mark of the turret's fury, yet they still come at us.

  Finally the truck jolts, Mckenzie laughs “Yes!” and we speed down the dirt track, away from the slaughter.

  Mckenzie says nothing as he commands the truck down the highway, Cop is humming the tune of a song to herself and I, I sit there, staring out the window at the city.

  I can't see much, not anymore. Grid has gone dark, the city has effectively fallen. Cybers, the mindless, spread like wildfire throughout, infecting the lesser enhanced with the living virus.

  I cough twice, my throat is dry and my heart will not cease its rampant beat.

  The tyres screech to a halt and Mckenzie yanks the cord from his implant.

  “What the fuck…What the fuck!” He screams, traumatised by the events.

  I exit, my boots hit the ground and I walk around the truck and stand there, watching him lose his fucking mind.

  “How…How the fuck did this happen? What the fuck just happened?”

  Cop is still in the car, ignoring us both as Mckenzie falls into the abyss of insanity. “I…I don't understand. How? This makes no fucking sense”

  It seems that in his days of ‘freedom’ he has gone soft.

  I have not, the events have not bothered me, if anything I am intrigued.

  “Kenzie” I say, hoping that I can bring back his mind.

  He ignores me, overpowering my voice with a series of inaudible howls into the night. “Kenzie!” He ignores me again and this time I simply grab him and throw him against the side of the truck “Mckenzie, listen to me!” I scream in his face, spitting droplets of saliva while doing so.

  His eyes narrow and his face fills with shock. “We have the matrix” I say, breathing heavily “Nothing else matters now. You said it yourself, this place can burn for all you care”

  I let the straps of his vest go and he slips down the truck's side only slightly “What has happened, has happened. No changing it now. And whatever the fuck this is, doesn’t matter. As Long as it doesn't get us”

  I batter him with words, shattering the fear encasing him and for a moment I set him free.

  He stands with his hands rubbing the sides of his legs, terror is in his eyes, it is all I can see on him. And as he walks closer to me, coming near the barricade of the bridge that I had not yet realised we were on, the truck's tyres spin and the vehicle takes off over the curved horizon.

  Neither of us say a word, Cop’s betrayal is completely ignored, our attention is on something else.

  In the reflection of Mckenzie’s wide eyes I see lights in the night sky, the sounds of blades batting the air hit me, fluttering off from a far and I turn to look into the night.

  On my right is my city, Grid, and its streets are aflame, lit with chaos.

  To my left is its neighbour, Colonia, its borders are closed and from its horizon comes a fleet of aircraft.

  A hilarious chain of misfortunes have struck the ATLAS corporation, the city that I unfortunately have to call home, Grid, is one riddled by villainy.

  Which has made it the perfect ground for testing their new ‘enhancements’

  However this time it has blown up in their faces, that twisted fucking corporation has lost their hold on grid.

  Now that the EMC is here, the whole city will be placed in lockdown.

  Nothing in, Nothing out, for as long as required.

  Grid, for the foreseeable future, is now lost to the wider world.

  The night craft enter its airspace and launch a storm of marines from their bellies, as they descend their jump packs activate, enabling them to experience a soft landing.

  Gun fire erupts, I can hear it all the way from here, the bullets sing into the night, rattling my ears with a sound like howling banshees.

  I cannot take my eyes off of the sight and so before the quarantine net can be activated I feel a surge of energy course through my body and a word enters my mind.

  -FRAGMENTS-

  My heart races, denying the calming effects of the thumper enhancement entombing my heart. Adrenaline spikes and I am filled with a sense of impending doom. The urge to enter Grid is far too powerful for me to deny, even though I am clueless as to why it is present.

  My legs move, instantly I break into a sprint as words fall from my lips.

  “My fragments!” I scream, though I don't know why.

  Inside my legs are blood bumpers, devices that recycle blood far quicker than my heart, allowing my muscles to perform at peak efficiency without experiencing fatigue. It gives me the opportunity to run as fast as I can for as long as I need. Without warning they activate and I am now charging down the bridge's length, back towards Grid.

  Giant spires are erected within Grid’s centre and from their extending panels come a growing ball of hard light energy.

  It descends, growing in its arch before covering the entire city. I break through the bridge's end, making it back into Grid before it is locked off to the entire world, and behind me stands Mckenzie who still can't speak, but has joined me nonetheless.

  In his eyes I see confusion, my retinal augments scan his anatomy indicating hostile intent as the rays of curious information course over his heart. He is staring at me without saying a word.

  “I don't know why I came back”

  Mckenzie shakes his head “I do” He says.

  “Kenzie”

  He cuts me off “Save it” He half turns, keeping me only in the corner of his eye “Lets move”

  The bubble of energy touches down a metre behind me, thumping with a sound of activation.

  I hear the zaps of its border spike as the air around it burns and I follow Mckenzie into the city of death.