The Runners

by DungeonMiner

Chapter 6

Rarity played the recording again.

“Your first job is as follows:” Spike explained, “In the attachment connected to this call, you will find the location of a Flimflam Incorporated warehouse. Specifically their most well-guarded warehouse. As well as holding their Matrix access core, this warehouse also holds the deeds of several lands all across the sprawl. These are to be ignored unless you want to sell some paydata.

“Your target is a gem. A natural citrine that is as large as a hoof. It has slight magical properties, however, it is currently inert. This will make it difficult to locate. In order to facilitate this, you will soon receive a device keyed to the gem’s specific magical radiation. It is suggested that you keep it, as it will be useful in future jobs.

“In order to further facilitate you, I am putting you in contact with a secondary team of my own employees. Due to their status as employees of Harmony Inc, however, they won’t be able to do more than aid you to get in. If you manage to get inside the warehouse without using my team, you will be awarded additional funds.

“Upon retrieving the gem, the Ringo that will deliver the locator device will collect the gem and deliver it to me. The job will be considered complete upon delivery, and credsticks loaded with 10k nubits will be delivered to you for the purposes of restocking.

“As one final note, this is big. Do not save your special tricks for later, use them now, and refresh upon completion. This is not the time to play games. Do what you need to.”

The recording stopped, and Rarity played it again, still not entirely sure she believed her ears.

This dragon. This fraggin’ dragon wanted them to hit FFI’s heart. This wasn’t some satellite location, this was where they kept their Matrix core. The data kept there would be enough to buy-out the company, which meant that FFI had the security to match.

There was no way they were walking out of this alive, not when they were going against one of the Big Six.

It simply was not happening.

Still, Web was already getting to work, breaking down the legwork piece by piece. “Gem, I need you to focus on deliveries to the facility, not listen to our instructions for the sixteenth time," she muttered, glaring at the decker from her table.

Gem sighed, and turned her attention back to the AR displays of camera feeds taken from the streets and the Gold Star police drones that patrolled the area. She had a week’s worth of footage to go through, and she was slowing herself down by watching in Meatspace. The main reason why she bothered was because of the way everypony else could hear how crazy this whole thing was.

“I’m sorry, darling, this is...this is just so insane.”

“It’s our job, and it’s one I think is worth it,” Web said.

Gem sighed.

Considering that this job could payout in a brand new life, she was right. It would be worth it. She just wished it wasn’t going to lead to her probable death.

Besides, complaining felt nice.

She opened her mouth to continue before she caught sight of Steel walking across the warehouse, carrying a belt of grenades, a katana, and a box of silver bullets. The earth pony had been smiling ever since she heard the name of their target and was pouring money into this little venture by purchasing, well...anything.

Rockets for Candy’s RPG; a brand new shotgun with dragonfire, armor piercing, and hollow point slugs; fetishes, charms, and foci for the spell casters: anything and everything that would stick it to Flimflam hard. Her shopping bill was leaving her broke, and Rarity knew it.

Still the be-stetson-ed earth pony continued to spend, stockpile, and prepare.

Rarity closed her mouth.

She really should be looking at the facility footage, anyway.

<><><|><><>

“Alright,” Web said. “We have a plan.”

“The 'we’re-ready-to-go plan' or the 'we’ll-work-through-this-and-then-discuss-more plan?'” Wingmare asked from yet another hammock she hung from the ceiling.

“Depends on how well you pick it apart,” Web, before she nodded to Rarity.

The decker nodded before she quickly activated the holo-table and brought forth the simple 3D map she built from a free modeling app over the past three days. A simple, large, rectangular building with gently sloping roofs that looked like they were made out of corrugated steel.

“The building itself is nothing unique,” Web said, narrating as Rarity slowly spun the building around. “Large, industrial warehouse that was refitted into a large office building that used to hold Matrix servers before the Crash.

“With the move to wireless storage, much of the building freed up, and now it holds their Matrix net processing core. This is our target.”

“I thought we were leaving their data along,” Twilight said. “Besides, we’re after the gem, aren’t we?”

Web nodded. “We are, now, if you could tell me where they’re keeping the gem?”

“Ah…” she replied.

Web continued. “Using their matrix, and by coming in close to the processing center, I’m told that this will make it easier for Gem to get into the archives, where hopefully, she could locate the gem.”

“So the processor room’s the entry point?” Steel asked.

“If it were next to a wall, I’m sure we could arrange that,” Web said. “Unfortunately we’re not sure where it is.”

“The only available blueprints were from before the crash, so we have no idea what it looks like in there now,” Rarity explained.

Steel nodded.

“So, the first step of the plan is infiltration, reconnaissance, and scouting,” Web said. “Luckily, this job just so happened to coincide with their biannual security check-up.”

Wingmare sat up. “That’s...too convenient.”

“Why do you think we just got the call to go now?” Candy said. “If I were a super, nigh-omnipotent dragon, this is when I would send the ponies I pulled into a life debt in.”

“Thanks for the input…” Wingmare muttered.

“The point is, they need to have a few ponies onsite to check their security, and that’s our way in,” Web said.

“So how many of us can go in?” Steel asked.

“Two before they get suspicious,” Twilight said, “and Gem would have to be one of them. Showing up without a decker would set off every alarm bell they have.”

Wingmare turned to Twilight. “Really?”

She nodded. “Any security consultant worth their salt only needs to send two consultants, and there’s no way Flimflam Inc. Isn’t hiring the best.”

Web smiled. “Way to be useful, Rookie.”

“Hey…”

“Now, we know that Gem needs to go, and we’ll deal with who else needs to go in a moment, but first—”

“I’ll go,” Steel said, raising her hoof.

Web blinked. “A-are you sure?” she asked.

Steel nodded.

“But you never volunteer for infiltration.”

“Eeyup.”

Web blinked again, before turning to Wingmare. “Any objections?”

Wingmare stared at Steel. “Nope.”

Web sighed. “Alright! Steel you’re in. In the meantime, we need to discuss Exmoor Security.”

<><><|><><>

Rarity sat in the van, using her cybereyes like a pair of binoculars to watch the car coming toward them. It was a white, Saddle-Kurpp Pferdwagen that had been dressed to the nines in a mess of Exmoor Security logos, AR advertisements, guarantees, mottos, and operating hours. Just looking at them, Rarity could tell that they were either very in love with their own brand, or very desperate for attention. However, considering they had been hired by one of the Big Six for a consultation, she was willing to out nubits down on the former.

The Pferdwagen rumbled along, past Candy’s ridiculously decorated van. Sliding down the street as any Saddle-Kurpp car should, even if it was their cheapest model, the corporate van slowly pushed its way through traffic to their next stop, a gas station for refueling before they moved on to the Flimflam building.

It was where they were most vulnerable.

Their plan was simple, which meant fewer things could go wrong. They were going to go in, have both spell-casters use their influence spells to get the security mooks out of the car and somewhere quiet, before knocking them out and leaving them behind as Rarity and Steel both began their recon in earnest.

“Are you sure the Rookie shouldn’t go at least?” Web asked, regretting her quick decision to accept Steel’s volunteer service for this mission. “They’ll probably want someone to check on the magic system they have set up.”

“Exmoor doesn’t do magic,” Rarity said as Candy’s van pulled behind the Pferdwagen. “They say it’s too unpredictable. They prefer to put their guarantee behind tech than spirits.”

“That’s still a massive hole,” Web said.

“It’ll be fine, Web.” Steel said. “‘Sides, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

The vans both pulled into a FeedBag, the combination convenience store/fast food restaurant/gas stations that built the base of the Flimflam empire. Steel simply nodded at the thought of taking out the pair there.

Something about foreshadowing.

Rarity was fairly certain she meant an omen because this wasn’t literature, but she wasn’t going to correct the earth pony. Not right now, anyway.

“Do we really need to kill them?” Twilight asked.

“If we don’t they’ll report that a bunch of heavily-armed ponies hijacked their uniforms and van,” Web said. “That means that they’ll report it to all their clients, including Flimflam inc, which means our whole plan goes up in smoke. If you want to leave them alive, then we might as well shoot ourselves and save Flimflam the ammo.”

“I’d much rather cost them as much as I possibly can,” Steel said.

“They’re just doing their job,” Twilight argued.

“So are we,” Web pointed out. “Honestly, I’d much rather leave them alive. Personally, I want them alive, the job needs them dead. At this point, the best we can do is make it quick and painless.”

Twilight sighed. “It just seems like a waste.”

Web shrugged. “That’s the life of a Runner, now we need to move. It’s almost time for us to get to work.”

The two security ponies stepped out of their van and were already filling the Pferdwagen with gas.

Candy’s van pulled up to the opposite pump, and the door slid open for Web and Twilight, who both went through the motions of getting gas themselves. Steel got out and began to wander over to the building. Meanwhile, Rarity sat in the back of the van, her deck open, ready, and probing the Pferdwagen’s digital defenses.

Not three minutes later, the two security ponies both simultaneously decided that heading to the back of the FeedBag was a better use of their time.

They walked in step with each other, oddly coordinated as they made their way behind the cheap, rockcrete and drywall building. They walked all the way to where Steel was waiting for them, with a silenced pistol in her cyberhoof.

By the time the spell broke, both security ponies were dead and were being stripped of their uniforms. “You ready with the van, Candy?” Steel asked, as he slowly took the uniforms off the dead ponies.

“Comin' around!” Candy sang into the comm.

“Let me off, first.” Rarity said, before jumping out of the van to hug the Pferdwagen.

She sighed and began filling their new van as Steel made her way toward them. “Everything’s running smooth,” she said, tipping her stetson at the decker.

“You have the uniforms?” Rarity asked.

“Tucked away someplace safe.”

“And the other two?”

“Candy’s pickin’ em up right now.”

“Perfect. Climb in and get changed. I’ll have to take care of the GPS tracker before I even think about it.”

Steel nodded and hopped in, before Rarity finished fueling the van, and leaped into the back. The moment she hit the tool-packed space of the van, her deck was out, and she was typing away. Checking the inside of the van for serial numbers and AR tags, Rarity quickly spoofed the GPS tag. She kept the spoof running, at least for now, but she was ready to send it in to the sprawl in a heartbeat.

The plan was to make it look like the van was stolen by a go-gang after visiting the warehouse. It wasn’t unheard of for the biker gangs to hijack vans and other vehicles, and Rarity certainly knew a few bad neighborhoods they could leave it to be scavenged. That was an easy sell.

“Alright, I have the GPS marked, I can turn it off at any time.”

Steel nodded. “Great,” she said before her cyber arm popped open a hidden compartment, and one of the stolen uniforms exploded out. “Here’s your uniform, get dressed.”

Rarity picked up the navy blue jumpsuit with black trim and groaned.

“What?”

“Must I wear this? There are so many faux pas…”

“Gem…” Steel began.

“I know…” she sighed. “The sacrifices I make for this team…” she muttered.

“The sacrifices you make?” Candy said. “I have two bodies in my van!”

“My street doc’ll take him,” Steel said.

“Wait, really?”

“He’s an organlegger in his spare time.”

“That’s...slightly unsettling but useful,” Web said.

“Organlegging?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, you sweet thing…” Web said, shaking her head.

“Focus, girls,” Rarity said, “remember, no communication once we’re three hundred feet. Steel and I will be recording everything with our cybereyes for the duration. This is what we’ll use to rebuild our model. After that, we ditch this van in the sprawl and book it back to base. I will do my best to sabotage their matrix defense as silently as I can, but chances are this is just recon.”

“Roger,” Web said.

“Once we go to radio silence, I need you girls ready for extraction. If either of us calls you before we leave the warehouse, that’s your signal that we need immediate help.”

“Got it.”

“Alright, let’s do this, girls.”

<><><|><><>

“Hello, I’m Miss Silicon Chip, and this is my associate, Power Pack, and we represent Exmoor Security,” Rarity said, as she handed over her comm with the Silicone SIN. It was one of her best, good enough to live on if she had the cash, or as long as no one had found the body of the last mare who had it.

The pony and the gate checked te SIN, before looking back up at “Silicon.”

Rarity smiled.

The gate guard checked again, before handing back the comm. “Follow the drone to the parking spot, a representative will meet you there.”

Rarity nodded. “Thank you dear.”

The gate lifted, and the van pulled through, as a small roto-drone led them through the parking lot. Pulling up to the spot, Rarity took one last breath and looked over at her partner. “Are you ready, dear?”

Steel glanced down at her hidden gun leg. “As I’ll ever be.”

“Then let’s go,” she said, slipping out of the van, and closing the door behind her.

A pony in a poorly-fitting suit and a power tie met them. “Ms. Chip! It’s good to see you! How long has it been?”

“Too, long, dear! Too long!” Rarity said. “Any major problems since last time?”

“I’ll tell you inside, but in the meantime, how are you doing, Ms. Pack?”

Steel stared at the pony in the tie. “Fine.”

“Good, good. Was the ride long?”

“Nope.”

“You know she isn’t much of a talker, dear,” Rarity said. “Now, of course, the first thing we need to do is talk rates.”

“I thought we negotiated this already?”

Rarity nodded, while mentally sighing in disappointment. “Oh, we did. I’m talking about what you’re willing to spend. Electricity, personnel, etcetera. As per usual, Exmoor is always willing to provide on-site protection, armored personnel, and more.”

“And while we appreciate Exmoor’s willingness to stand for the cause of safety, Flimflam Inc. has only allowed so much for the security budget.”

“Oh, of course, of course. Still, the option exists. Now, let’s see what you have, why don’t we?”

The pony in the tie and Rarity moved forward, maneuvering expertly in the delicate dance of negotiation, and Steel followed behind.

The pair continued to walk forward into the building, and the moment they stepped inside, Rarity found herself surrounded by thin drywall. Making sure that her eyes were recording what she saw, she was led through the building. Up a flight of stairs, and down a hallway, up towards her target before she suddenly realized that Steel wasn’t following her.

“Where’d Ms. Pack get to?”

“Oh, she’s just checking up on your security. After all, if a mare can just walk through your warehouse it’s not much for security is it?”

“I see…” the pony in the tie said as Rarity was doing her best to hide a panic attack. “Let me just inform my security teams not to kill her.”

“It’s appreciated,” she said, resisting the urge to run looking for their street sam.

“Now, where were we?”

“You were letting me know the best way to access your Matrix system was so I could check it for you,” she said, still wondering where Steel was.

“Ah, yes, of course, follow me.”

<><><|><><>

Steel walked down the hallway, past all the wage slaves owned by Flimflam Inc. She ignored most of them, moving past the poor saps that were under the undeniable rule of the megacorp. She moved down the hall, counting the rooms as she made her way down.

And then finally, she came up onto cubicle 23-B.

She took a deep breath as she looked into the small apartment/office, and stepped inside. She heard the clicking away of a keyboard, along with the hum of an old, physical monitor. The large, red-furred earth pony that was sitting at the desk hadn’t seen her yet, and she was somewhat thankful for that.

“H-Howdy, Big Mac,” she finally said.

The earth pony spun, and stared at her. “AJ? What’re you going here?”

Steel sighed. “I’m on a job.”

Big Mac stared at her. “Oh,” he said, before he blinked, suddenly realizing exactly what she said. “Oh! Are, are you serious? Here? This’d get you ki—”

“It could get us the farm back.”

Big Mac blinked. “A-Applejack, that’s...that’s crazy… that deal’s too good to be true. There’s no way—”

“I have it on good authority that this deal will go through, Mac. I wouldn’t risk this otherwise.”

Big Mac blinked and shook his head. “This is crazy, AJ. This is so crazy.”

“I know,” she said. “I know it’s crazy, and I know it's dangerous. That’s why I need your help, and why I need to warn you.”

“Warn me? Warn me of what?”

“We’re gonna hit this place in a few days, you need to take a vacation—”

“AJ, I told you, there’s no reason to do this. Why do you think I’m working here?” he asked.

“Mac…”

“That’s why I’ve been sending the money back to you and Applebloom—”

“Applebloom is gone, Mac,” she said.

The large, red earth pony stopped. “What?”

“We never got your money, we were broke, moving from homeless shelter to homeless shelter. I could barely keep the two of us afloat, and one day...one day Applebloom just wasn’t there anymore. She’s gone.”

“I…”

“I’m just trying to get us back home, Mac. That’s all I’ve ever been doing.”

Mac shook his head. “We both know that ain’t the case, AJ…”

Applejack didn’t reply.

“Applebloom’s gone?”

“I’ve looked for her everywhere. She wouldn’t come home, she wouldn’t answer her calls. For all I know, she a joygirl on some street corner.”

Big Mac shook his head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We tried,” Applejack said. “Didn’t you notice you weren’t getting letters anymore.”

Big Mac sighed. “They just told me the censors were taking their time…”

“And it didn’t tip you off that they openly admit to having censors?”

“It’s too keep the materials here safe,” Big Mac said.

“Look, it’s not important, the important thing is that you’re the only family I have left, and I want to make sure you get out of here alive,” Applejack said. “That...and you wouldn’t happen to have a map, would you?”

Big Mac sighed, tears in his eyes, before he turned back to his desk, typed away on a few keys, before a datachip popped out of his computer. “It’s just the fire emergency exits, but it should be enough.”

Applejack took it carefully, before she sighed, and hugged the pony as he sat as his desk. “Love you, Mac, stay safe.”

“I will, but I need to get back to work if I’m going to get those vacation days.”

With one final squeeze, Applejack turned, and left the cubicle-room, becoming Steel once again.

<><><|><><>

Rarity sighed.

Their Matrix system, while not airtight, was still good enough that she couldn’t mess with it.

It offered her a way in, though, and she gladly made sure it was ready for when she got back.

Of course, this was overshadowed by the fact that Steel was nowhere to be found. The only good sign was that security wasn't coming down on them in droves. It meant that she hadn't blown their cover, thank Celestia.

“So I trust everything was satisfactory?” the pony in the tie asked.

“Well, as you well know, I can't release the details until the full report is ready, but, I will say that you are doing well.”

“Well, of course, we are, quality is the Flimflam guarantee.”

“Of course, dear, of course. Now, have you seen my com—”

“Silicon, there you are!” Steel said, coming around the corner.

“Ah! Pack! There you are. Did you find everything you needed?”

“Eeyup!” she said with a smile.

“Excellent. Well, It was a pleasure, sir. You'll receive a full report soon, I’m sure.”

The pony in the tie nodded and saw them off.

Climbing back into the van, Rarity turned to Steel. “Where did you go?”

“I was getting us a floor plan.”

“A floor plan? How’d you get a floor plan?”

“I know a guy inside.”

“What? You have an inside man and you didn't tell us?”

“Any contact that wasn't face-to-face would be monitored. I haven't spoken to him in years.”

Rarity sighed. “Whatever. We don't have time to argue. We have to ditch this van and regroup.”

“Then let's not talk about it, and go.”

They pulled away and were quickly followed by a van with heavy metal album art painted on its side. They made their way down to the poor side of town and found an empty sidewalk to park on.

Stepping outside Rarity quickly took the opportunity to change the digital logos, forcing them to read “please don't take my parts,” while Steel spray painted the same on the sides.

It was nothing more than axles and a GPS sensor in an hour, and the team was long gone.

Comments

[Iron Comet]

Poor Applebloom. I wonder where she ended up?

[djthomp]

Applejack is too emotionally invested in this job.

Probably justifiably so, with Mac there as a wage slave, but still.

[Thunder Quill]

Shadowrun, huh? Man, it's been a while. I had a lot of fun with this system, with my Hermetic Mage, Danny Denim.