Chrome Symphony - Chapter 3

"Hand over your valuables..." grumbled one of the thugs.

Shell kicked the thug in the stomach, sending him flying back into another gang member, taking him down in the process.

Jess swung her sword toward their leader, making him fall into the water. He pulled out a knife and lunged toward Atlas. Atlas grabbed the leader's arm, twisted it in an unnatural position, and broke it. The leader screamed in pain.

Shell jumped into the air and landed on the shoulders of another large gang member, who was holding a machine gun. While she was perched upon his shoulders, she swiftly kicked his head, knocking him unconscious. Shell picked up the machine gun and emptied its ammo clip.

"Let's get out of here before more of these goons show up," Shell said to Jess and Atlas.

The three of them fought off a few more gang members as they hurried toward the entrance to the abandoned subway tunnel.

Through a large crack in the tunnel wall, they discovered the subway station, in quite a state of disrepair. Atlas used his flashlight to illuminate the large, eerie area. "Looks like Cleveland on a good day," Shell whispered.

"Cleveland? Cleveland, Ohio?" asked Atlas.

"Never mind, I was just making a joke," responded Shell.

Suddenly, a group of gang members, armed with machine guns, poured out of one of the abandoned subway trains. They took aim at Jess, Atlas, and Shell.

As they were about to fire, a sudden, violent burst of lightning exploded in the room, electrifying the machine guns and shocking the thugs, knocking them all out. A shadowy figure walked over the gang members and into the beam of Atlas' flashlight. It was Duncan.

"Looks like my tracking beacons still work in those communicators," said Duncan.

Duncan walked over to Jess, Atlas, and Shell, who had been fighting off gang members earlier.

"We need to get moving," Duncan told them. "We've managed to get ourselves targeted not only by the Herei Mob Army but by the military."

"What?" asked Atlas. "Why is the military after us? They've already captured Renk."

"Right," replied Duncan. "Apparently a corrupt general is running things with the military locally. Their headquarters have been compromised, too."

"I knew it!" exclaimed Jess. "The military seemed to be pulling some strange ops recently!"

"Come on, let's hurry out of here," Duncan told them. "I rented a maglev car. It's parked over yonder so we can get ourselves out of here without having to deal with any more of these sewer punks."

The four of them walked over to the car, which was parked just behind a junked subway train. Duncan flew them through the subway tunnel. Some gang members on hover bikes appeared behind them, in hot pursuit.

"Good gravy," muttered Duncan. "These guys are persistent."

Atlas looked out the back window. "There's three of them. Looks like they have high powered rifles."

Duncan steered the maglev car in random directions to make it hard for the gang members to target the car. "Hang on, folks. Hope none of you get easily motion sick," he told them.

The maglev car pulled further ahead, getting slightly out of range of the gang's bullets. "Listen, we need to get back to the Velvet Room," Duncan said. "I've arranged a meeting with an android proxy for Camay. She's going to give us some specifics on the mission to the EMA facility for the extraction run."

Atlas continued to watch their pursuers. "They're catching up, Duncan. How soon until we can go topside?"

"About ten more miles, guys," Duncan replied. "There's a subway station near the city where I can fly us up to ground level."

Atlas turned back around. "About that mission, we need to extract Renk, too."

Duncan swerved the vehicle to avoid a bullet. "I see. I was thinking that, too."

Jess sighed. "Okay, fine..." she mumbled.

Atlas looked at Jess. "Look, Renk will greatly increase our chances of success. It's not just about rescuing my army buddy," he said.

"I said it's fine," Jess grumbled. She crossed her arms and looked out the window.

"Let's try to stay focused on our objectives and not fight among ourselves," Duncan remarked.

"I understand," said Jess, after a few minutes of silence. "He offered us his assistance so it's the only right thing to do."

The flying car slowly emerged from the subway tunnel at an old station on the outskirts of the city. Jess jumped out of the car and swung her sword at the wooden planks that had boarded up the entrance to the station. She got back inside the car and Duncan flew it out of the station and into the sky over the city.

A few moments later, the car landed in a large parking lot a few blocks away from the "bad" part of town, where the Velvet Room was located. The four of them made haste, on foot, back to the Velvet Room and entered the dimly lit bar.

"I'm sorry but we're closed right now," said Callahan, who was tending the bar and polishing some wine glasses.

"Actually, we're here to meet with someone in one of the private rooms," said Jess.

"Oh, yes," replied Callahan. "Normally we don't allow reservations outside of normal business hours but we made an exception since Elise sent us an advance notice. Apparently this is an important meeting."

Callahan directed the four to a private meeting room in the back area of the establishment. "There's a proxy android due to arrive soon, according to the message we received. Please make yourselves comfortable. The rent has already been paid, so don't worry about that."

Callahan started to exit the room but stopped in front of the door. He turned back around and faced the group, who was now sitting around the table.

"Actually... may I ask you all a question?"

"Yes, of course," replied Duncan.

"Have any of you had contact with Elise since last night? After she notified us that a special conference was scheduled here, we never heard back from her. She was supposed to show up here a few hours ago to help prep some of the rooms. She's never, ever late or absent from work without prior notice."

Jess scratched her head. "I didn't hear anything further from her. You should be made aware, if it's safe for me to say so, that we've become targets of some corrupt elements lately."

Callahan stifled a laugh. "Oh, if anyone tried to capture Elise, they'd be splattered all over the pavement. I highly doubt the guys giving you all trouble would stand a chance against her."

Atlas looked around nervously. "I hope we're not being set up for a trap."

Callahan shook his head. "Listen, for arrangements such as this, Elise and I vet our clients very well. What happened the other day with those idiots was a fluke. I assure you that we take security here very seriously."

Callahan lowered his gaze toward the floor. "Still... Elise is the core of our amazing security. If there's any trouble, I would strongly prefer she be around."

[OOC: Sorry for posting again so soon but I wanted to advance things just a bit]

"I never heard from Elise since she left my house late last night after we exited the 'net dive," Duncan replied.

"I'll let you all get settled in. Feel free to order drinks or something to eat. Our client has agreed to cover all expenses, so use the touch screen menus in the table to place your orders and I'll bring them in here when they're ready," said Callahan.

Duncan sat back. "Well... this is probably the best time to work out our plans, folks," he said to Jess, Atlas, and Shell.

Shell and Atlas scrolled through the menus. Atlas poked at some food items and Shell looked through the wine list.

Duncan leaned forward to the table and had a quick glance at the desserts. "We'll be working on two extraction missions today, from the looks of things. If Renk's being held at a makeshift temporary base, they're not likely to have the best security."

Atlas nodded. "It shouldn't take long. As long as they aren't using drugs on Renk to suppress his abilities, all we'd need to do is distract the guards long enough for him to break out. We'll need you to hack the cell and gate locks, of course," he told Duncan.

"I could distract the guards and make them chase me, buying you some time to do that," said Shell.

"The types of locks used in mobile bases use relatively weak encryption..." Duncan said, as he scanned the 'net for anything resembling a military type server with signatures resembling mobile units.

Jess cleared her throat. "So we make a stop at this base and then directly on to that EMA facility? Where was that located, again?"

Duncan aborted the scan, not finding anything useful at the moment. "The EMA facility? Camay can tell us that. As for Renk, I gave him a communicator with built-in tracking, courtesy of my snooping habits, " he chuckled. "I'll get his position - or at least the position of his communicator - in just a few seconds."

Duncan accessed his communicator tracking utility and instantly found the one he had given Renk. Luckily, it was still on from earlier that morning, when the unknown voice demanded Duncan's identity over the comm link.

"It looks like the communicator is about three miles on the Western edge of the city, where there's a hydroelectric facility," Duncan said. "There's a good chance that Renk's being held inside of there."

Atlas pulled up a map of the hydroelectric facility and examined the floor plans. Due to his military status, Atlas still had access to some top secret maps as his access was never revoked, possibly due to an oversight.

"Right, it's sometimes used for military operations. Can you access the security system from here," asked Atlas.

"I probably can. Hang on," replied Duncan.

Just then, the door to the private room opened. A female android walked in and introduced herself. "Thank you for meeting me here, everyone. I'm Camay Thameh, a scientist from the L1 colony. We met last night inside the 'net regarding a mission to an EMA facility here on Earth."

Duncan stood up and greeted her. "Nice to meet you again."

Camay sat down at the table. "I have sent you all the coordinates of the facility. There is a window of opportunity tonight at 21:00, when they will be conducting a security drill. If you can disable the locks on the southern gate at 21:11, you will likely be able to get access to the area where our person is held. Extract him during the drill and you'll probably be able to get out undetected."

Atlas looked at Camay. "How long will this drill last?"

"Around fifteen minutes. You'll have to move very quickly," replied Camay.

The group continued to discuss the specifics of the mission. Callahan entered the room to deliver the food and drinks they ordered, greeted Camay's proxy android, and left them to continue their meeting.

"We're being pursued by multiple parties," said Atlas. "Camay, one of our comrades was apparently captured last night. We're planning to extract him first. He would be extremely valuable in this extraction mission, to put it conservatively."

"Lieutenant Renk? We were made aware of his capture this morning," replied Camay.

"Is it acceptable that we take a detour to rescue him first," asked Jess.

"You were all selected because you possess certain skills as a group. We would actually insist that he be a part of this mission," said Camay.

"Just to be clear, I'm on a mission to rescue my father from NEA726," added Jess. "Once we deliver your man to the L1 colony, might you arrange us transport to and from the asteroid?"

Camay's android proxy was silent for a moment. It was clear that she was performing calculations on the 'net where her true self resided. "While that wasn't part of the original arrangement," Camay replied, "that would be an acceptable method of recompense. We will, of course, still pay you all for your efforts in addition to that."

Atlas checked his watch. It was close to 14:00.

"We shouldn't waste any time. We'll need to brief Renk on this mission as soon as we extract him," Atlas said.

"I think the plans are clear enough. If you have no other questions, I'll leave you all to it."

Camay's android stood up and walked toward the door. "This won't be easy. We are, however, all counting on you. The outcome of this mission will have a profound impact on future developments," said Camay, somewhat cryptically. The android walked out of the room.

Atlas finished his pie and stood up. "Whelp, let's go be heroes."