Jared wasn’t prepared. It was really that simple. He took the job because it sounded easy enough, get in, get the girl, get out. Pretty straight forward stuff. As it turned out, getting in was pretty easy, the girl, Susan Hatchet, was being held in an apartment in the civilian sector D. Getting the girl? Piece of cake. Her ‘guard’s’ were nothing more than a couple of hired
street thugs.
Minimal cybernetics, minimal armaments and minimal brain power. Didn’t take much effort to… neutralize that particular threat. Getting out was the part of the plan that was currently causing him to reconsider his initial approach. Had he actually done some research into this
operation before rushing into it he might have found out that the apartment the girl was being kept at was only a very temporary holding area. He would, undoubtedly also have unearthed the fact that when she was moved to a more secure location it would not have been the mindless
thugs he’d blown away moving her. No, for that job another set of, slightly less mindless and far more well-equipped, thugs would be employed. Finally, if he had looked into this case with a little more dedication to thorough investigative techniques he may well have known that this second group of thugs would be arriving roughly ten minutes after he himself chose to initiate his rescue operation.
The end result of this complete lack of planning is what landed Jared in his current precarious position: pinned down in the lobby of the apartment
building by several heavily armed men and at least one full-conversion combat ‘borg.
“W-w-w-what was that thing?” Susan, very much a frightened little girl at the moment, which is perfectly understandable considering the circumstances.
“illegal”, was Jared’s simple and gruff reply.
Full conversion ‘borg’s are completely remodeled humans, all vestiges of flesh, save the brain and spinal column, are replaced by mechanical parts. These cyborg’s make perfect weapon’s, the combination of a nigh-indestructible body and the near insanity suffered at the loss of ones natural body results in an unstable killer capable of acts of wanton mass-destruction without consideration spared for such trivialities as Morality or self-preservation. For this reason full-conversions of human to cyborg have been illegal for the better part of 100 years. However there is still a strong demand for the super soldiers, not to mention incredible personal power, supplied by the conversion operation. Thus an underground trade has flourished and advanced technologically in spite of the laws put in place to stop it.
As soon as Jared tried to leave the building with the girl in tow he was fired on by two men in dark clothes, luckily they weren’t expecting him so they missed. Just as luckily, Jared is a quick thinker in dangerous situations and his immediate response was to, rather than duck for cover, return fire sending his assailants running for
cover on the street, which requires more effort than finding cover from the entryway to a bulletproof building. This gave him an extra moment to take stock of the situation before retreating. His sidearm, a small yet powerful energy blaster pistol knocked down a nearby street lamp and neatly punched a hole in the side of the sleek silver transport out of which more dark clothed armed men were climbing. The hole revealed the borg. The 7-foot metal monster climbed out through the wrecked side of the vehicle, pausing with one foot on the asphalt of the street to raise its right arm. The seven barrels of the mini-gun turret on its wrist began whirring. At that point Jared had decided he’d seen enough and ducked back into the building pulling the girl with him.
As the sound of rapid gunfire and ricocheting bullets filled the air Jared tried frantically to think. His thoughts went something like this: Shit shit shit shit, fuck!
He was reasonably certain that these guys wouldn’t kill the girl, unless their ‘borg lost it, but he knew forfact they wouldn’t willingly let him live through the night. He had to figure out something, he was outnumbered and definitely out-gunned, his only advantage at that moment was a superior defensive position. Unfortunately the ‘borg gave Susan’s would-be captors vastly superior offensive capabilities. Shit, shit fuck!!
When the sound of the ‘borgs firing ceased, and he deemed it safe to do so, Jared slowly stuck his head around the cover provided by the buildings doorway to look out onto the street. The great metal man was slowly striding up to where Jared now stand hidden, it’s massive weight pushing its feet into the cracking asphalt with every step it took. Dammit!
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