“You call her?”
“Messaged, I’m not in the mood to be talking at length.”
“Scarlet, you can’t hold onto this grudge forever, it’s bad for your health.”
“Did you forget that they led those freaks to what was supposed to be a safe haven for the lot of us?” Scarlet grunted out. “Now all our gear is in the hooves of the same set of freaks and we’ve lost the last safe haven we had.”
“Didn’t you just tell me they were gonna return it to you?”
“Yeah, I did, but would you just accept that at face value knowing they could’ve slipped some soft into the system?”
“I don’t suppose I would.” Jackie admitted. “You should consider that at least one of them probably isn’t on the up and up, knowing his track record.”
Scarlet let out a small snort of irritation, as the last thing she needed was a handout from Riot and his posse. After all, it was their fault they trashed their hideout in the first place, only to then turn around and insist that it was all a mistake.
“I will admit they replaced the gear they damaged and returned what they didn’t break. Bulwark looked pretty damned happy about his new terminal to be honest, but I’m not that easy to buy off.”
“Have you ever made a mistake, Scarlet?” Jackie remarked accusingly. “Stole something you shouldn’t, ruin a life or two?”
“Yeah, yeah, point taken.” she growled in return.
Not drunk but not exactly sober, Scarlet continued her little tirade for a little longer, at least until Sheet Rock appeared in the bar’s doorway. At that point she quieted down considerably but would not make eye contact.
“Hey Scarlet, how you holding up?”
“About as well as can be expected.”
A short and curt answer as expected, though that might be the alcohol speaking. Sheet Rock noticed a chip resting on the bar top and pointed it out.
“That for me?”
“Just some intel for you.” Scarlet stated before she let out a loud sigh. “I was in Upper Canterlot a little while ago, shocker I know, and I happened across something interesting.”
“Go on.”
“Have you ever considered why the Thestrals left to found their own little city?”
“War, I would assume. It’s a toss-up between that or money.”
“True enough. They built the Arcology so that they’d have somewhere safe to live, free of us, the Megacorps, and whatever else that’s still out there.” Scarlet remarked. “Turns out they thought you were someone else and got spooked, that’s why they shot you down. Had a couple of friends do a little digging, turns out Arcology staff got a bit sloppy.”
“Who?”
“Obviously someone in their command structure had an axe to grind, though I couldn’t tell you who that axe was meant for.” Scarlet admitted. “I did try the usual sources on the Net as well, but I didn’t really get anywhere.”
“You know Phantom, right?” Sheet Rock asked. “She’s on her way here, something’s going down and it could easily be related.”
“THE Phantom?” Scarlet replied with a hearty laugh. “She’s the last pony I’d ever expect to step out from whatever rock she’s hiding under, let alone give you something that probably took real effort to obtain for free.”
“She’s not given me a reason to doubt her yet, it was her that mentored us after all.” Sheet Rock stressed. “Besides, you just gave me something for free.”
“That’s a fair point, and I’ll trust that you’ll not hold that against me.” Scarlet admitted. “Can I crash at your place tonight? Bulwark’s out taking care of some errands and walking through Lower Canterlot alone freaks me out. We can use the time getting to the bottom of this.”
Sheet Rock nodded and took the chip from the bar-top, laying a surprisingly fresh twenty Eurobit bill under her glass. Realistically speaking it barely made a dent in her already massive tab, but the effort toward trying to pay it off was always appreciated nonetheless.
She slot the chip into her head as she left in order to let the data be indexed by her neuralware. Much of it was a collection of transit logs, camera footage, and even a few emails and instant messages sent by Thestrals inside the Arcology, the bulk of which were from the rank-and-file.
Like Scarlet had mentioned, they were initially mistaken for someone else. It was thought that their AV belonged to a group known as the Crimson Lodge, but were later informed of the aircraft’s true owners after they had been shot down. The name wasn’t familiar, and no information was available on the chip beyond some speculative assertions.
The only question Sheet Rock had for the moment was actually how Scarlet had come across this information. When asked, Scarlet merely remarked that she had her ways and means and that it would be best not to inquire further.
Fair enough.
One more thing caught her notice just as she and Scarlet were about to leave, a compressed file archive named “The Midnight Protocol”. The total space used by the archive was substantial, larger than any of the other files on the chip.
She picked one at random, what appeared to be an anatomical report taken about a month ago. The file show the skeletal, nervous, and internal organ structure of a Unicorn, with a few marked differences.
At first, Sheet assumed it to be Matterhorn, but a glance at the Pony’s jaw gave her pause. The subject had fangs, not completely unlike those of a Thestral, though they were somewhat larger and in an entirely different place in the jaw. The subject was noticeably taller than your average garden variety Unicorn too, sporting long and thin leg bones as well as a slightly elongated and lanky body.
She assumed the pony had some extensive bio-modification work done, a common, but markedly more expensive alternative to Cyberware. You could change nearly anything about your body and its biological processes with specific biological therapy packages. You could alter your eye, coat, and mane color without chemical dyes, gain the properties and abilities of other creatures, edit out undesirable neurological and physical traits, even going to the extent of adding whole new body parts entirely.
That’s what this pony seemed to have underwent at some point. His total height was too great, horn too long, body structure too thin and refined to be natural. On the bottom of the scan was the unmistakable logo of Genetech, a biotech firm.
Before she could lose herself further in the data, Sheet Rock roughly bumped into the door frame leading out of the bar with a loud thud.
“Pay attention, Sheet. Jackie won’t forgive you if you damage something again.”
“I know, I know.” Sheet Rock groaned. “Have you looked at these files at all?”
Scarlet stepped out into the dimly lit alleyway with a slight shiver as the cold air met her face. “A bit, enough to know it would be of interest to you, why?”
“There’s a massive archive of data from GeneTech on here, something pretty juicy if I’m honest.”
“The one with the build-a-pony bio-scans and what not?” Scarlet inquired. “Yeah, I included it because GeneTech have their largest lab in the Arcology. Okay I specifically didn’t, but I had everyone I put to work on the chip put their heads together and that’s what one of them came back with.”
“The Arcology’s cut off from the rest of the net, how’d they do it?”
“Turns out the hypocrites have the hardlines they use for command and environmental control serving double duty as net access points.” Scarlet sighed. “There’s a couple of points where the cables branch off toward Canterlot and Rift City.”
“Bullshit, everyone knows the Arcology is isolated, that’s the entire point.”
“You could always go and verify that, heck, Phantom’s probably gonna ask you to anyway.”
“How do you figure?”
“Intuition.” Scarlet admitted. “If that scan is real, and the Arcology does actually have secret hardlines giving them Net access, that would actually be quite interesting, wouldn’t it?.”
“Would also explain why they shot us down, actually. Didn’t want whatever we might’ve seen inside getting out to our bosses.”
“Corps tend to get antsy when something gets leaked, and every Runner on the net will be trying their luck if this turns out to be real.”
“I’m not about to put Access into danger again, so if you think that-”
“I’m not asking you to do anything. I’m saying that you should be very, VERY careful who you accept jobs from now on.” Scarlet groaned. “If we’re going to pursue this thread, then I expect you to involve us and ONLY us. This means no corps, no bullshit, okay?“
“Fine.”
“We shouldn’t really be talking, not right now.”
“I know, dad, but it’s important.” Star remarked into her computer. “What really happened?”
“This information does not leave this call, understand?” Rain Noir said after several seconds of silence. “The director will skin me alive if she finds out. That would constitute a gross breach of security, especially given the rising tensions in the city.”
“The connection’s secure, I promise.”
“The last pings we got from Matterhorn’s transponder were from a location deep in the Everfree, it didn’t move for a good hour or so until it abruptly vanished. In that time, we haven’t picked his signal up again, meaning his transponder beacon has been jammed, destroyed. or removed somehow.”
“And Lucky’s?”
“Deactivated and surgically removed, as per the Crown’s decommissioning procedures.” Rain Noir replied. “In short, fired. She’s lucky to have not been executed.”
“Can I ask a favor, a big one given all that’s happened?”
“What is it?”
“We need a new hideout, could you pull a few strings for us?”
Rain Noir sighed loudly, initially a little annoyed by the request but quickly regained his composure as he started to speak again.
“I can try, but you’ll need to wait a little while, maybe a few days. I can’t get the kind of eurobits you’ll need on a whim, but even the most surface level explanation will satisfy the suits down in accounting for a time.”
Sheet Rock wont be happy that Star had gone behind her back on such a large decision, but she wasn’t about to let them get jumped when the shit hits the fan. Which it will, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually there will be a threat that retreating to the lower city wont work on.
Adding to that, Star hadn’t heard hide nor hair of those two since their little pow-wow at the bar. She was sure they hadn’t left on a job again, although it was hard to tell whose noises where whose given the walls were little more than what felt like damp cardboard.
Net access was fast enough though, she could see one of the neighborhood’s net antennas from her window nearly folded in half in the increasingly violent winds. Storm warning sirens hadn’t sounded yet, assuming they worked at all, but they were in a decently sheltered area so they would likely miss the worst of it.
“Another thing too. Lay low and stay inside.” Rain Noir remarked darkly. “I don’t like the look of those skies.”
“I don’t either, dad. Be glad you’re underground.”