The sound of metal on metal could be heard throughout Brandy Snaps’ clinic as he got to work removing Access’ mangled limbs. As soon as he worked each loose from their mounts, he tossed them aside into a rusting pile of other mangled limbs.
“I gotta ask though, Access, but are you okay? Bulwark told me what happened, to you, to Sheet Rock and your little friend.”
“Gonna be honest with you doc, not really.”
“Got yourself in deep again? As your doctor, I have to advise taking it easy once in a while.”
Access sank into the lounger a little. “Well, we’ve earned the attention of Darkspace now, plus whoever else is involved.“
“I’m not going to ask the specifics, but if it’s as serious as you’re implying then I would advise you to walk away. Nobody who ever tangled with Darkspace or any of the other big four got out alive, or sane for that matter.”
Brandy slipped Access’ new forelimbs into place on their mounts, and the sudden neural connection made him wince as a returning rush of sensation flooded his mind.
“How else do you expect a sprawl pony to earn their bread, if not by illicit means. Have you seen it down there?”
Brandy frowned. “Of course, but you two aren’t some two pony army. You’re a pair of young adults playing at things you have no understanding of. Stick to what you do best, cracking systems and making things better for ponies on the net.”
“I think we’re in a bit too deep for that now. And I don’t think our new friend will appreciate us throwing in the towel, after all she did have her life ruined recently.”
While he fitted Access’ new hind limbs into place, he let out an amused scoff. “No surprises there. No wonder why she took to you two so easily. It’s pretty poetic when you think about it, a corpo turned sprawl pony.”
With Access’ new limbs in place, Brandy set about calibrating the new ones for use. A long process normally only done a few times in a pony’s life, but given Access’ habit of destroying his cyberware it was becoming an almost monthly chore.
“You best give Sheet a message while I get your systems ready, she’s likely worried sick. You better get comfy, this might take a while.”
“Snowy, the chits please.” Star ordered.
The synthetic nodded gently and produced two small green chips from a small compartment on its back and presented both to Sheet Rock.
“What are these for? We didn’t carry out our promise, we nearly got you killed!” Sheet Rock protested.
“Miss, if I might interject? Your colleague said he managed to get something of particular interest from Darkspace’s systems, yes? In that case we still owe you payment.” the synthetic remarked.
Sheet Rock shook her head and took the two chips from Snowy and set them down on the coffee table.
“I hope whatever Access managed to pull is worth whatever you put on these chips, he sounded frantic when he mentioned it.”
“He didn’t give you a copy?” Star asked incredulously.
“When we go in together we tend to make another copy for exactly this reason. Unfortunately this wasn’t exactly the most standard of jobs.”
Sheet Rock felt her skull buzz with an incoming message notification, and the name of the sender gave her pause. It wasn’t Access or anyone she knew for that matter, and the sender name itself was horribly corrupted and entirely unreadable.
She considered opening it but was distracted by another notification and this one was from Access, and she put the corrupted message to the back of her mind, now frantic, she answered as quickly as she could.
“Access? How in the moon did you survive that?”
“Luck I suppose. Are things okay over there?”
“Quiet. I think we got away clean, and we weren’t followed either.”
“Good. Out of interest, did you just receive a message with a corrupted header?”
“I did. Did you?”
“Yes, and I did some digging into it given I’m kinda stuck here until the doc puts my new limbs together. While the header is corrupted I managed to find out its origin.”
“And? Spill it.”
“It came from a collection of servers somewhere on EQUI-TECH’s network if the routing IDs are anything to go by. I think X9 might be trying to reach out again, we should read it together somewhere we can contain it if its been spiked.”
“Can you keep on it and confirm if it’s legit? We’ll talk more when you get back, not safe to be talking too openly right now.”
“Sure boss, see you soon. I’ll be maybe a couple of hours max, Brandy’s taking his sweet time.”
Sheet Rock turned to Star and Snowy, who had stood in confusion at Sheet Rock’s sudden lack of interaction, clearly not used to non-verbal communication.
“That was Access, he says he might have had some news from a… mutual friend of ours. Then we can go over the data he swiped.”
“Sounds good.” Snowy replied.
“Take a nap too, you look like you’ve not slept in days.” Star added.
High in EQUI-TECH tower, Bright Sun and his cohort stare at the vidscreens lining the walls as they scroll with recent news.
“Looks like Darkspace have been hit too.” Bright Sun mused.
“Crystal Dynamics and Unreal Dimensions have reported multiple incidents as well. Multiple detonations at key points throughout their infrastructure, as well as attempts on the lives of high ranking employees.” Riot added between glances at his datapad.
Bright Sun looked about ready to burst with anger. “Tell me Riot, who in the hell are we dealing with? It’s like these groups are covering for each other.”
“That isn’t possible. The ones that hit us worked alone, I’m sure of it.”
“Clearly they aren’t. Every time we make a move on one of the groups something happens to draw our attention away, without fail.”
“We should secure our facilities first and the rest of the big four’s facilities second. They wont like it, but we’re stretched thin as it is.”
Bright Sun calmly sat up in his seat and turned his icy gaze onto Riot. “We cannot afford to show any weakness, not now, not ever! I hate to say it, but you may just be right.”
For the first time, Riot actually looked a little worried. “So what should we do?”
“We need to remain levelheaded, this isn’t the first nor will it be the last time we’ve come up against problems like this. Are your spies still in place?”
“Of course. Chilled Coffee has yet to report anything useful beyond the movements of some local scum, and I’ve not heard any word from my agents regarding the stolen data either.”
“We can’t afford any more screw ups, not now Demiurge is on the verge of being ready for its field tests. Double the guard on our key infrastructure, screen everyone, no matter how trusted they are.” Bright Sun muttered.
Access now equipped with his new limbs and cyberware, he was feeling better than ever and approached the dimly lit apartment building under the cover of the morning fog. He crept up the rickety staircase, dodging the broken floor boards and trash lining the stairs where he could.
He felt a sense of nervousness creep up in his chest as the door came into view and he pressed his hoof against the lock, eliciting a short beep from the lock as it retracted with an electronic thud. When the door swung open a strong smell of alcohol hit his nose and he noted the large amount of empty cans that were strewn about the floor.
“I suppose I better clean this up then.” he grumbled to himself.