CyberPone: Blood Drinkers
CyberPone: Blood Drinkers
By: Dice Warwick
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An earth pony beat down on several old steel drums, each cut to size to make a different resonating sound. A griffin strummed on bass guitar, its tune deep and rithmic. Leading the rhythm was a unicorn on electric guitar, strumming the strings like they came right out of tartarus. But the crown jewel of this band was the pegasus mare on vocals, growing out her lyrics in a wonderfully husky tone.
It all played in a rundown old bar way out in the middle of nowhere, the place one of many stops for those who call the road home, Nomads.
Star Charter tried to enjoy the music, as it did sound good, real good, but there was a glaring flaw. They all cheepend the art by cybrizing their ability to play. Most of cyberware was aesthetics, Star had no problem with that, it was no different then a tattoo to her. Though she still though it was stupid to cut off a perfectly good working leg just because a pony wanted a better looking one with crome.
What Star could see, what she knew they were doing, it was in the subtle moments and how the music was just perfect… too perfect. The three playing the instruments, they moved just like city folk, pre-programed. As for the songbird, if the voice box cyberware was not a glaring sign, the fact she was shit at lip syncing was a dead giveaway.
“Star, let it go, this aint our turf.” Chrome Compass told Star, the older unicorn stallion had been on the road with Star for a long time now and knew when she was about to start trouble.
“We don’t have turf Crom.” Star said, eyeing the stallion with an annoyed look in her eyes. “Anyways, those fucking chip heads are nothing more then robots, who fucking cares if I start shit. Might get them to think for themselves for the first time in their miserable life, do them some good.”
Chrome was not going to let Star start a bar brawl over some stuipid kids pretending to be rock stars. They had business here and the boss wanted any fights to happen after the business was done, not before. “Let me correct myself, we're on Bullet Core turf.”
“No one’s got turf, Crom, not as long as the corpos are in charge.” Star countered, but then sighed. “But I did promise Sanguine I’ll keep a lid on shit till we get the goods.”
Shooting her shitty synthetic beer down her muzzle, she kept a close eye on several ponies who had been watching her and her mates from the moment they trotted in. They were jacked out in cyberwear, and had their guns on full display, clearly yelling “were dangerous” to anypony that gave two shits. Better yet, they had a patch that depicted a neon green skull biting a heat for all to see.
Seeing that patch pissed Star off.
They had tried to get a better position to watch Star and her family without being so obvious, but she had taken a corner table with a clear view of the whole bar. Nothing the cyber upped ponies did went unnoticed by her at all and she knew that these cyber addicts were aiming for what they likely saw as an easy score.
Her family didn’t believe in cyberware, not when good old pony power did the trick. Not that they were above some enhancements when necessary, or a new leg or eye were needed after the natural one was lost. But among all else, they did not want a chip in their brains, and to belong to the family, you either must never have had one in your head, or have it removed as a sign of loyalty.
To her family, having chips and wires in a ponies brain was no different than being a puppet on strings, waiting for the corporations to take control.
So what the chromed up chip heads saw was an all natural earth pony mare, not even a bit of cyberware to be seen on her. To most in this world, it meant she didn't have any cyberware to protect herself. No hidden gun, blades that pop out of the legs, or something to make her stronger or faster. So a normal pony like Star was just simply at a disadvantage in a world where cybernetics made anypony seem superior.
As Star was feeling good and buzzed, two other members of her family showed up, they too eyed the ponies watching her. “Oy Star, the deals finally going down, Boss wants to know if there's going to be trouble?”
“Trouble” Star said as she again eyed the ponies watching them. “Some, but nothing that can’t be easily dealt with. Tell Sanguine that I’ll be bringing in some fresh blood sacks to sweeten the pot.”
The two family members chuckled before trotting off.
Chrome then got up. “I’ll go take a piss, meet you there.”
Star nodded, staying seated as she finished the last beer, taking her time before leaving her seat. For her, now was as good of a time as any, with the buzz she had, so she was going to get a fun warmup before getting to the real business.
Picking up her duffle bag, Star made her way out of the bar and into the cold dry air of the Dretot wastes. The meeting spot was a bit further off, away from the random ponies who might stick their nose where it didn’t belong.
As she trotted, the sound of several heavy hoof steps had followed her out and down the dirt trail.
“What's a pretty mare like you doing trotting off all on her own.” One of the chromed up ponies called out. Two of his friends trotted up ahead of Star, cutting off any way for her to escape if she were to run.
“Noting that concerns some city gang pony like you.” Star said with a sneer as she pur her bag down, placing her hoove on it in a way that the contents inside were positions in the way she wanted. “And what the fuck are you doing all the way out here, shouldent you be sucking some corpo cock?”
As Star hoped, the first stallion got mad, puffing up his chest as growled out. “Do you know who we are? Filly! We are the Blood Drinkers, the baddest of the bad, the real boogie pony of Detrot, wraths of the wastes. You better respe-!”
From Star's bag she fired her high caliber rifle, sending several accelerated steel core bullets right at the cybernetically enhanced pony.
He had no time to even understand what had just happened.
One of the ponies legs exploded, blood spurted from his neck and the ribcage shattered. It all reminded Star of one unavoidable truth; No matter what kind of cyberware a pony has, it could make them stronger, faster, maybe even smarter, but it cannot stop an armor piercing .308 round accelerated by gause coils.
The two other ponies were stunned for a moment, but it was all Star needed to pull out her cut down and modified LMG “Carouser” then take aim at the second pony. Ripping him to sheds before he could react.
As the third pony dashed at Star, she dropped her LMG and pulled out her short combat shotgun “Chantey.” He threw his body at Star, preventing her from getting a hit on him and sending her rolling to the ground.
“I don’t know who you are missy, but you're dead” The last stallion said to Star as he lept at her.
His two forelegs then open up, revealing mantis blades thrusting out at her. Star didn’t try to doge, or defend herself, but had leapt forward, getting in and under the stallion, causing the claws to stick into the ground.
Struggling to free himself, Star took aim and as soon as he got his mantis claws out of the ground, turning to only look down the barrel of Star’s shotgun as she fired. He was then engulfed in flames as each dragon's breath shells found its target, the stallion could do nothing but claw at his own face as the napalm melted it off.
Taking a moment to watch for any twitch or sign that the fight was still going to continue, Star then breathed a sigh of relief when it was clearly over.
Picking up her LMG and trotting over to the first stallion, she saw he was still alive, if barely. Fear was in his eyes as he looked up at Star, who only spat on his face.
She then opened up her red leather jacket to reveal a patch inside, causing the stallions face to go wide with terror. The black patch depicted a green/yellow fanged skull with a heart behind it and a blood drop below it.
“Blood Drinker” the stallion breathed right before Star caved his skull in.
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As Star Charter trotted into the business spot, flanked by Chrome and three others of her family, she could see others from different Blood Drinker families were here, meaning Sanguine’s sisters had shown up.
Though the Blood Drinkers didn’t fight internally, it didn’t mean the leaders of each family would not argue like angry bitches with a taste for blood. It never ended well and was a huge headache for the whole clan.
“Say Crome, I thought our family was in charge of trading with the Bullet Core Nation?” Star asked, a bit annoyed by the crowd.
Chrome looked around, and then pointed out several ponies and other creatures that didn’t look like they belonged. “Not just our Clan, it looks like members of the Stamped Clan and Cloud Trails Clan are here too.”
“Fucking great, the two clans were not activly fighting with right now and their shaking our chassy.” Star said, giving an annoyed huff.
The Stamped Clan were founded by buffaloes, who made their money by offering armored transport out of Detrot and were one of the least aggressive clans in the region. That said, fuck anypony who trys to take their clam of road with their cars being so heavily armed and armored, even if we wanted to take them on, it would not be a fight worth trying.
Then there's the Cloud Trails Clan, all flyers, all assholes. They’re also the only creatures out there that deliver mail between nomads, and make most of their money by being scouts for other clans.
“Strange.” Chrome said as he scratched his chin with his prosthetic leg. “They're both clans who have similar views on Cyberware as us, maybe there's something big going down.”
Star shrugged. “Fuck if I know, or care right now, that’s for Sanguine to deal with.”
A groan came from Chrome as he said. “Well you should care, you are the second in command of this family”
“Ya, ya, I get it. Let's just go see Sanguine, that synth beer is starting to give me a headache.”
Trotting through the larger than it should have been crowd, Star and the other Blood Drinkers made their way to a circle of armored buses that rested in front of a small fleet of big rig trucks. Each one of the big rigs had a large trailer attached to them, filled with a treasure trove of guns, bullets and vehicle parts.
In the circle Star saw Sanguine, next to her were her sisters, Carmine and Vermilion. The three thankfully we're not trying to fight each other, for now at least. The three were a nere identical looking Unicorn triplets, each having a slightly different shade of red coat, and green mane.
Across from them was the representative of the Bullet Core Nation, a large stallion in old military fatigues and tuning a banjo, as typical of them.
Seeing Star, Sanguine trotted over, a pleasant look on her face as she levitated a slice of a pear in her magic. “Star, Star, Star. couldn’t you be any fucking slower!”
Star rolled her eyes at Sanguine as she took the pear slice, “Well I was not expecting you to have a goddess damned family reunion, and what's with the two other clans, this is supposed to be our deal, without others pissing on our leg.”
She then looked over at the two sisters, flashing them a smile and saying “You two look lovely as always.”
“Fuck off Star!” Vermilion shouted back at her.
Sanguine gave Star a flick on her ear. “Don’t start shit right now.”
She then pulled out a data pad to show Star, showing a video of what looked like a wrecked Stampede car, the driver burnt to a crisp inside. It was clear a battle had happened in the video, not some crash. For some pony to take on Stamped like that, they had to be exceptionally bold and well armed.
Star watched the vid as she ate the pear slice, it’s sweetness was far superior to the synthetic crap the city sold to everypony. The Bullet Core ponies liked to grow their fruit just as much as they liked to make guns, so this was alway a treat Star looked forward to when dealing with that nation.
“Looks like some of the other clans are finally making a push to control more roads, likely forming a tribe, meaning that it might be war if this keeps up.” Sanguine explained “Both the Stampede and the Cloud Trails want us to thin out the other clans for them, remind them that their cyberware does not make them any better then a normal pony.”
A smile formed on Star's face, this news ment that they would be going out on more raids, knocking the other nomad clans down a peg or two.
“Then that means we're going to need more guns.” Star said with a hint of glee.
Sanguine nodded, and then turned her attention to the Bullet Core pony. “Speaking of which.”
Strumming his banjo, the Bullet Core pony looked up at us as we trotted over to him. With a stoic look that hid any emotion, he spoke with a southern drawl that his nation was known for. “Your money is good, but you don’t have enough to outfit all three of your families here with what we got to sell, much less those other families of yours that keep themselves hidden.”
“That I know Pear Bread, not like I was expecting my sisters to just rush over here with a need for more guns and bikes to go to war with. That's why I want something a bit different this time, the thing you been holding onto for that big job your familys been asking somepony to do, so don’t fucking say you don’t have it.” Sanguine told Pear.
The stallion played a little tune before responding. “And here I was thinking nopony was brave enough to try it. I’m to trust you will bring it to us.”
“Who elss will we be selling it to, not back to the fucking corpo.” Sanguine responded.
Pear Bread then sighed. “If your clan weren't a believer in good old fashion pony power, there would be no way we’d do business with blood thirsty ponies like you.”
Sanguine smiled wide, showing off a large fang, one of the few body parts she had modified. “Says the ponies who hide in bunkers. When the corpo comes knocking on your big cog shaped door, it will be us who you will turn to and make them bleed.”
“Fare enough.” Pear said with a sigh before getting up and trotting over to one the armored busses behind him, banging on it before yelling. “Bring out the big guns for the big job.”
After a moment several Bullet Core ponies came out from behind the bus, carrying several large containers. Flanking them were two heavily armed power armored clad ponies, who looked like they were ready to fight a war that everypony had either forgotten about, or no longer cared to remember.
Inside the first containers they saw two classic equestrian military rocket launchers, both with a one time use electromagnetic launching mods on them. Even if the first missile fired from these were duds, it would still destroy whatever it hit. With them were two missiles Star recognized. The first was a hull buster bomb meant for breaking into a ship, the second was a system jammer missile made with stealth materials.
It didn’t take Star much thinking to know why they needed these, the thought of it putting a smile on her face.
“We're going after a corpo cargo ship aren't we!” Star said excitedly.
“Better, we're going to get paid by a corpo to rob a corpo cargo ship!'' Sanguine clarified.
This wiped the smile off Star's face. “You can’t be serious, only idiots trust a corpo, and why? We're already going to do it to pay Bullet Core. I’m all for killing some chip head corpo’s, but not on their tums. That’s asking to get a bullet to the back of our heads.”
Sanguine looked over at Pear Bread for a moment, tossing him a bag of international standard bits before returning her attention to Star. “Ya, I totally get what you're worried about. No chip head can be trusted and the corpo’s are the worst of the chip heads. But this is a big paying job that’s giving us the targets full downlow, makes everything easier and adding Soma Tech talansmen computer chips as payment, somethin else Bullet Core wants their hooves on. That would be enough to buy all the guns and bikes we need to not just beat down the other clans, but dominate them. With both the Stampede’s and Cloud Trail’s at our back, we could take over even more of the roads surrounding Detrot.”
Star thought about it for a good moment, weighing the options. It wasn't like she couldn’t say no to Sanguine, she was the second in charge of this family and had the right to veto any ideas that could hurt the family. But the boss was practically a big sister to Star, the only pony she truly trusted. What Sanguine was asking from Star was to fully agree to a job that could kill many family members and deliver the rest right to the corpo’s hooves.
Working for a corpo never ends well, never. Star still remembered how the Corpo repaid her first family for their hard work by torching them from high above, likely drinking synthetic whisky as they murdered hundreds of ponies below. If Sanguine had never picked Star up from the wreckage on the side of the road, she would have certainly been killed by the elements.
The corpo were to never be trusted.
But Sanguine was right. If they were to successfully take down a cargo ship, they could trade all that booty for enough guns and ammo to really put fear into the other chip head nomads. Maybe use it to strike back at the corpo’s.
Star relented, “Alright, But don’t think those corpo’s won’t try something. Also I need more dragons breath and .308 AP rounds, lots more if we're going after a corpo ship.
Sanguine chuckled. “Naturally.”
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A day had gone by and the sun was already setting, the Blood Drinkers having spread themselves out among their hiding spots awaited for a signal. Every pony knew their role in this raid, knew the risks and knew what would come after if they were successful.
Star looked over her bike a third time, making sure everything was in working order. The dusts of the wasteland was murder on any engen if not properly maintained, and Star prided herself on keeping things clean.
It was a custom built off road motorcycle that was larger than most of the motorcycles the family used. She had put a lot of work into it, resulting in a mechanical monster that was capable of running down other vehicles within its own weight class and could comfortably sit a second pony if the need arises. It’s coloring was a deep red with gold trim with many hidden lights to give it a ghostly glow when showing it off.
Those who have seen it in action called it the Crimson Queen.
With Star were several members of her family, Chrome Compos included, who were double checking their tech. They would be taking the jamming device with them, which should delay the response from the corporate security when the attack starts.
Rusted Wrench, an earth pony stallion and expert mechanic was tuning up the last of our bikes. All were souped up dirt bikes made to go fast, the life line for the Blood Drinkers in the dead lands of equestria. The things were small enough to keep hidden from unwanted eyes, and could easily maneuver through the streets of Detrot whenever they needed to take from the city itself.
It was such a simple tactic, weaving through the city on dirt bikes, yet no pony did it better than the Blood Drinkers, Star thought. Though for her, the Crimson Queen was too big, insted it made an excellent transport for the boss.
Or for a second pony to hold a big gun while Star drives.
The crackle on the short wave radio alerted Star as Sanguine’s voice came through.
“Get ready Star, thirty minits till the cargo ship passes over.” Sanguine cracked through.
Taking the radio, Star responded. “Any new information on the target, we're still blind here.”
A moment passed before Sanguine awncered. “Something called Tortoiseshell Security, some small company from another city. And before you ask, I know, there are no such things as a small corporation, likely this is a branch company.”
“And who wants us to make them dead?” Star again asked.
“Who do ya think, the big security corp in Detrot, Bezulel. My best guess is they're just keeping competition out and stealing some important documents.” Sanguine voices sound flat, but Star could hear the slight inflection of suspicion in her boss's tone.
Star then asked, “You think this is a setup, don’t you?”
A laugh came from Sanguine before wandering. “Like my ma and pa always told me and my sisters, the corporations are always up to something, no exception. But like fuck will we let this little oppertunity pass us by. I don’t know what their aim is, but if it guarantees we have more time before their security drones come to rain fire down from the sky, then we're taking what we can grab. Just remember the plan and get moving!”
“And that's why you're the boss, Sanguine!” Star said over the radio before putting it down.
Turning around she already saw her family members waiting for their orders, having listened in on the conversation, each with a smirk on their face.
Clearing her throat, Star then spoke clearly. “Less than half an hour till we ride, remember to strike hard, and starke fast. We got one shot at this, so let's not make the others pick up our slack.”
Everypony cheered… until Star asked. “Who's riding gunner with me?”
All the stallions avoided eye contact. Star's bike was set up to have the passenger become uncomfortable close to the mare. Star knew this, but didn’t care all that much, rather enjoying to see how brave any pony was going to be with her.
“Oh fucking fine you pussys.” The mare Cutting Winds spoke up, a gruff pegasus who had lost her wings long before joining the family, now enjoyed flying by riding fast. She was one of those who had her cyberware brain chip port removed as a sign of loyalty, but also as a way to hide from the repo ponies coming to take her legs. As long as she didn’t have that chip in her brain, the Blood Drinkers were good with her keeping the cyberware legs. a pony still needs to trot.
Getting on the bike, Winds made sure to hug Stars hips tightly as she winked at the other members of the family. “You know I could always get myself a dick from a chop dock, then I could ride you as you ride the bike.” Winds coyly said.
Star rolled her eyes. “Why butcher your body more than it already is ya cunt. Anyways, a good old sex toy would be fine enought to try. Wouldn't be my first, so what ya say, after this raid we give it a shot.”
Cutting Winds face went red as the other members of the Blood Drinkers began to laugh. “That’s too much Star.” she then said embarrassedly.
Star then sneered as she lodead her shotgun, holseting it on her hip. “Then don’t fuck around with my ass if you not going to follow through. Now grab the guns and get ready.”
Both Rusted and Crom hoofed over the rocket Launcher to Cutting, making sure everything was in working order before returning to their bikes.
Minutes ticked away as they sat there, tension growing and the sun dipping over the horizon.
Then the radio blasted a signal. Star looked back at her passenger, bumping Cutting with her rear as the mare held her hips tightly. “Offer still stands, so you better not get yourself killed.”
Star could see a smile from under the pegasus face mask, though she was unsure it was because of the adrenaline or the invitation, not that it mattered. Star was going to need some sort of celebration once this was over, and nothing was better then sex at over a hundred miles per hour.
Revving the engine, the Crimson Queen launched itself out of their hiding hole and into the night air. The wheels dug into the dust, sending out a cloud behind her as the rest of the Blood Drinkers spread out to get out from behind the dust cloud.
“Is the jammer ready?” Star asked over the coms.
“Just give the word.” Chrome awncered.
Star looked through her rear view mirror, seeing the cargo airship high above them in the distance, the dust cloud obstructing it just a little. It was moving fast, and sould soon overtake them if they didn’t act quickly.
It was the only way corpos could safely transport anything, to keep out of the reach of nomad’s hooves. It also met that if we shot it out of the sky it would destroy everything inside, so most normal nomads would just let them pass high over without much trouble.
But the Blood Drinkers were no normal nomad family.
“Do it now!” Star ordered and Crom activated the jammer, then shot it in the air.
It was a simple thing, a small laser guided missile that would attach itself to the hull of the airship and blind the ship's onboard defensics. As a bonus, it disrupted any communication the ship could attempt, further slowing the response of the security company.
After a long moment, Chrome spoke “A success!”
“Your turn Cutting!” Star again commanded.
The former pegasus pointed the rocket launcher up at the ship, it too using a laser guidance system held by their other family members, then fired. With an explosion the rocket was off, flying right at the airship.
They watched as the missile streaked through the air at a speed no pony could ever hope to match and within a moment, it hit the target. A flash followed by a trail of smoke came from the back of the cargo ship, then it began to rapidly descend.
“You sure it’s not going to just crash and burn” A younger family member asked nervously
“Right, you never done an airship raid before,” Chrome began his explanation as they all watched the ship become bigger. “The copro’s have a metric shit ton of flight redundancies and subsystems to keep it airborne. But let's say if it’s guidance system is being jammed, and the main engine is blown, then the dumb vurtual intelegence piolet program will take an emercancy landing procedure over mainting flight. This will give us a window of opportunity to get on board before the mane engine comes back online.”
Star watched the ship rapidly descend, almost nose diving to the ground as evey system inside meant to keep it in the air was too confused to know what was up or down. But like Chrome had said, the ship was not completely dead, and as it hit terminal velocity, it slowly began to bank up. Small jetts used for precision docking flared on, and small wings extended out, all to guide the ship to a more stable descent and prepare for a landing.
This was where the second phase in the raid started. With each passenger on the bikes armed with a harpoon, they all sped up to keep pace with the falling airship. Closer, it’s nose began to bank up and the danger of it simply smashing to the grond passed as it began to lift a little, but it was too late as it scraped on the ground. Smash an old house that stood in its way, the howling of the jets defended everything as the winds they made threatened to blow the Blood Drinkers away as they rode up along the side of the ship.
With a smile on her face, Star gave the next order. “Board thee ship you scallywags!”
Each passenger fired their harpoon, spering the side of the ship above a walkway on it’s side.
A deafening roar thundered through everypony as the ship's main engine came back online, and now the ship slowly began to ascend.
Locking the sterling bars of the Crimson Queen, Star took hold of her gun case and the harpoon line from Cutting Wind. “I’m trusting you with my bike, so have fun with it, but don’t fucking wreck it okay!” Star told Cutting.
The mare nodded. “Alright, and I’m taking you up on that offer, I’d be a fool not to ride that fine flank of yours?”
An annoyed sounding Chrome spoke up over the coms. “Can you not talk about getting fucked over coms, it's weird.”
Star just laughed as the rope tightened and she lifted off the bike. Slinging her gun case over her back, Star began to climb up to the Airship. “Remember everypony, hit them fast and hit them hard, spare not a soul. We can’t afford to take this slow and steady.”
Pulling herself aboard the outer walkway, Star Charter quickly made her way to the bridge. They needed to take control of the ship before it got too close to Detrot and the security drones would come by to check on the situation. Galloping, she made her way to the outer hatch, the thing locked.
“I got this Star!” Chrome yelled as he rushed over, a hacking tool alred out. The stallion jammed the tool into the universal port and turned it on.
After a few beeps the door hisses and unlocked. Jumping in, Star saw two ponies in stupid looking turtalshell print corpo uniformes, both still shaken up from the near crash. They looked at Star, Star looked at them, then Star threw her gun case at the closest corpo as she pulled out her shotgun.
The second corpo pony was engulfed in flames as the dragonbreth round hit them, screaming in confused agony as she ducked and rolled.
The first corpo pony stood back up in a dase, only to see Star attach a bayonet to her shotgun. With a thrust, the stallion was stabbed through the eye socket before she fired again, setting the ponies brain on fire.
A whimper came from the second corpo pony, she managed to put the fire out, but was still smoldering. She only had a moment to register what was about to happen before Chrome finished her off with a pistol shot to the dome.
“The ship’s bridge is in the next section up, we should have a few minutes before the security system activates.” Chrome told Star as he watched her unpack her LMG, then asked. “Why do you even use those old style guns?
Both her LMG “Carouser” and shotgun “Chantey” were of an outdated design that she had purchased from Bullet Core at a severe discount. Most ponies wanted the newest guns, the kind with all the high tech bells and whistles. But to Star, they did the job they needed, though she did have them both updated with gaus tech to make them shoot harder.
“Their a fuck ton reliable.” Star said as she lifted up her combat shotgun, loading two more brass shells into the gun, and two along the guns side for quick access, she then ran her hoof along the grated heat guard that also housed the gaus coils. “This aint going to fail me ever, and even if it only holds five shots, it’s all I need before the chip heads get in stabbing range.” Slinging the shotgun over, making sure the blade pointed outward.
She then propped her Carouser on her shoulder, pulling out four, twenty round magazines from the gun case and a one hundred round drum magazine. “Anyways, how can you not argue with the results.” Putting a fifth twenty round magazine into the rifle, she racked the charging handle bar then slinging it onto her back. “Now less asking, more killing.”
Chrome just nodded as he turned to the next door to hack it.
The bridge proved to be better prepaid as the crew on the ship had their guns ready firing as soon as Star poked her snout out, but their aim was terrible, firing wildly. They also had several security drones backing them up, firing pink beams in predictable intervals.
Pulling out Carouser, Star then winked at Chrome, waiting for the drones to fire their load and giving her a few second window to attack.
Rolling into position, Star unloaded the twenty rounds down the hall and into the bridge. The security drones stood no chance as they were ripped to shreds and exploded, lighting up the bridge in a shower of shrapnel.
Slinging the LMG back over her shoulder, Star and Chrom rushed in. Several injured ponies attempted to stop them, firing small caliber pistols wildly at them as they charged. They may have been ready for this attack, but by no means were they ready for the level of savagery the Blood Drinkers could bring.
Chrome’s aim was true, knocking out two ponies who were actually using cover, but had left their heads exposed. Star got right in the closest ponies space, sending a bayonet into their neck and lifting him up as a meat shield. The smaller caliber rounds could not get through the now dead corpo pony’s corps and as soon as she let him drop, she rapidly slam-fired Chantey into the still standing corpo ponies.
Flames spread and the corpo ponies screamed as they crumbled to the ground in burning heeps. With the corpo ponies now unable to fight back, Star trotted over to them, using her bayonet to finish them off.
Last was of course the captain and as Star trotted over to where he sat, a griffon swiveled around in his big obnocuse captains chair, a pistol aimed at her.
“You think I was going to let you savage nomads take may ship, you will-” Interrupting him, Star threw an empty magazine at the griffin's face and dashed to the side.
Firing, the captain managed to clip Star's leg, causing her to stumble. A smirk formed on the griffon's beak as he took aim. “Now die you-” another gunshot rang out, and the griffon's tallon blasted apart, sending his gun falling to the ground. Looking over, the captain saw a line of smoke wafting out of Chrome’s pistol.
Before the captain could make another attempt at defending his ship, Star jumped in at him, Spearing him with her bayonet. Trapped on his chair, the captain watched as Star loaded another shell into Chantey. “Look at me, I’m the captain now!” Star Said before firing. The blast ripped his neck apart and set his face on fire.
Satisfied, Star pulled the blade out, letting the dead captain to fall.
With the fight over, Chrom got to work hacking the ship's navigation route. Though it would go faster if he could jack in with his brain, it was not the Blood Drinker way, also didn’t risk the corpo’s frying his brain in retaliation, or worse hacking into him to take him over.
The Blood Drinkers also knew that ships like this was full of traps for those who dive into the ships systems. Lucky for them Blood Drinkers never dive.
Plugging a hard case computer into the ships VI, power began to fluctuate on the ship. Coms then came alive with the voice of Rusted Wrench “Back end of the ship is clear, easy as pie.”
“Good, we got the bridges, just reprogramming navigation now. Did you see anything odd Rusted?” Star then had asked.
“Odd, no… wait, the security drones they were using were all old ones, like spright drones, not any of the more modern ones. This corp must have been really cutting back on expenses to use those old rust buckets.” Awncered Rusted.
Chromes ears perked up. “Spright Drones, now those are old. Bezulel originally made their money by repurposing the Spright bots from the great war into security drones. They only really used to keep ponies out of condemned buildings nowadays.”
A loud beep came from Chrome's computer and the ship lurched to the side, announcing that we had taken control of the navigation. With it, red flashing emergency lights turned on, and an “intruder alert” warning flashed across the screen.
“Chrome, Can you turn that off!” Star asked.
“Just give me a moment.” He responded.
A less than a minute passed befor the “intruder alert” ended, but Chrome looked annoyed.
“Looks like the corpo’s know we're here, an area denial Drone is on its way.” He said.
A smirk formed on Star's face as she pulled out a bandage. “Alright, then stick to the plan, I’ll go lead the welcoming party.”
Chrome Frowned. “You sure about that, you did just get shot?”
Star nodded as she bandaged up her bleeding leg. “Didn’t hit anything vital, so I’ll live.”
A sigh came from the older stallion. “You're a monster, you know that, Star.”
She smiled, showing off her own artificially elongated fag. “Happy to hear it.”
Taking a painkiller, Star then trotted off to the cargo hold, making sure she didn’t show any sign of pain.
Meeting up with Rusted Wrench and two other Blood Drinkers, Star trotted to the ship's loading bay. Several corpo bodies laid around, and a shit ton of scraped sprite drowns, slaughtered by her family.
Over coms Chrome spoke. “We're over the designated point, lowering the ship now.”
Opening the doors of the loading bay and lowering a platform, Star could see the ground become closer, this time slow and steady. A caravan of Blood Drinkers waited below, along with several old anti-air guns attached to the back of a few trucks. It was a risk, but Sanguin planned on shooting the area denial drones out of the sky before they could attack us. Those drones had some nasty armaments, but were not made for any real fight, just dangerous enough to drive off any nomads until the corpo can come to pick up whatever survived.
With the Ship still, the Blood Drinkers loaded onto the large platform, vehicles and all, including the Crimson Queen. Once they were all aboard, Star raised the platform, where a very happy Sanguine met her eyes.
“Star, you are just wonderful, you know that.” Sanguine said with praize.
“I am amazing.” Star gloated.
Patting her on the shoulder, Sanguine then turned to the rest of the Blood Drinkers. “Thanks to Star here, we got this shipin our hooves, and are another step away from showing those corpos why they must fear us. Now to get to work, I need those AA-guns ready to intercept the drones, and all the tracking devices found and scrapped.”
She then turned back to Star and looked at her injured leg. “You got hit!”
Star rolled her eyes. “Only a small caliber, no arteries hit, so I’ll be fine.”
A sigh came from Sanguine as she shook her head. “Then let's not waste time and get that damned Corpo package out of here.” She then turnd on coms “Chrome, Sanguine here, have you located our stupid package yet?”
A quick moment passed before Chrome awncered. “Yes, it’s further back in Storage room D. Looks like they got some serious tech keeping it locked, I should join you there.”
“Do it, and pick up some extra hacking tools just to be safe.” Sanguine ordered.
Trotting through one of the cargo rooms aboard the ship, there was scattered product all over from when the ship nose dived. Star seeing an upside down half sphere with legs, she turned it over, seeing a robotic tortoise on tank treads.
“Thank you for helping, present ID!” said the robotic tortoise in a confedanced filled mare’s voice.
Both Star and Sanguine looked at it with a bemusement.
A buzz came from the tortoise. “No ID found, please remove yourself from the premises, this place is restricted to those without ID, Authorities will be called-”
Star knocked the robo tortoise back over, the thing giving a pathetic weak cry of distress.
“Enough messing, that stupid case is in the next room.” Sanguine said with a huff.
Entering cargo room D, There was some hardware that could interest ponies on the black market here, mainly standard parts for drones. Wings, gears, legs, weals, and chassis were all here and ready to be put together.
Star gave an impressive whistle. “A rigger would have a field day with all this shit.”
“Not too sure.” Sanguine commented as she looked at the drone parts. “They're all fairly common parts, nothing top of the line. No weapons too, just generic parts. Didn’t see anything of exceptional value in the other cargo room either, unless Detrot is in desperate need for low tear security bots and drones.”
“But this, this looks interesting.” Sanguine said as she stopped in front of a large cage, with a far higher security lock than anything else here. Inside was some large container crate and a security chest that likely held our case.”
Trotting over from behind us was Chrome, dragging a box behind him. “Shouldn't this room at least have standard drone weapons in it?” He asked as he looked around.
Sanguine sighed, “I said the same thing. This ship must be on a basic supply run, other than whatever is in this cage.”
Pulling out a jury rigged hard case computer, Chrome opened it up and proceeded to connect some cables from it to the security cage. “Corpo’s like to be sneaky, so maybe whatever it is in here is the real cargo and everything else is just camouflage. I mean we do similar shit to keep out of the corpo’s eye. That said, are you really sure about this raid, taking the whole ship itself? That’s like putting a fucking spotlight on us Boss.”
“That's why we brought all that tech and guns to keep the fucking corpos from following.” Sanguine responded with a devilish smile. “Anyways, not like we're keeping the ship, it’s Bullet Core’s problem once we sell it to them. If they want to be a big fucking target, then let them, we Blood Drinkers suvive by keeping to the road and staying in the shadows. But with all those guns, if we wanted to we could set all of Detrot on fire.”
“Oh, that sounds fun!” Star responded with a grin. “I always wanted to level one of those Corpo towers.”
A beep came from Chrome's computer as he rapidly tipped on the keyboard, the stallion looking worried.
“Report!” Sanguine ordered.
Chrome grunted in annoyance. “This fucking cage has top of the line tech keepin me out, like nothing I’ve seen befor. It also has several defenses that could kill us all if I trip them.”
Sanguine narrowed her gaze at him and asked. “Can you do it?”
“If I can’t, then we're all dead.” He said as he pulled out another hard cased computer, plugging it into the first computer. “Lucky the copros never have much protection from a networked hack right on their doorstep.”
“That’s because no pony is crazy enough to carry several computers with them to do a single hack!” Star chuckled.
A third computer was brought out. “Well no pony is crazy enough to try and steal a whole corpo airship, but here we are.”
A beep rang out on all three hard cased computers and the lock to the cage clunked open. Chrome was still typing away at one of the computers, code blazing across his screen. “Alright, I got the system confused for now, grab whatever shit is in there and go, it’s not going to be happy to find out we got in.”
Entering the cage, Star quickly opened up the security chest to find a single black polymer case with a high tech lock on it. Taking it and trotting out of the cage, Star slammed it shut. “So we're good to go then?”
Sanguine nodded. “Ya, lets get this shit out of her and see how the Corpo will try and fuck us over.”
Unplugging his computers from the security cage, the thing began to flash a red warning light. “We got a minute until it’s defenses will turn on.”
All Three rushed out of the room, closing the door before hearing an electrical pop and what sounded like a flame thrower.
Star then hoofed over the case to Sanguine.
“So any clew to what the fuck is in here?” Star asked.
“The fuck I know.” Sanguine said as she shook it. “My guess, probably a data chip with blueprints for some new tech on it.”
Chrome scratched his chin. “Sounds logical, but why all the trickery?”
The sound of tearing metal then caught the ears of all three ponies.
Star opened the door to peek. From the large crate that was inside the security cage had emerged what looked like a bear. A big robotic bear with cannons on its back. The whine of the canons charging was all Star needed to hear to know it was time to go.
“FUCK RUN!” she yelled and the three Blood Drinkers bolted.
Two bright red beams of energy cut through the steel door like paper, just missing the Nomads as they retreated.
Activating Coms, Sanguine gave an order. “Guns out, we got a war bot on our asses!”
Bursting through to the loading bay, they were ment by their family members, all armed with heavy guns, ready to fire. Joining them Star pulled out her Carouser and readyed it for the gunfight.
A thud rippled through the ship, then a second and a third. The Blood Drinkers watched as the heavy steel door to the next room buckled, the robotic bear beating its way through. With a loud clunk, the door went flying, crashing into a box filled with car wheels.
Stomping into the Loading Dock, the robotic bear stood over fore ponies tall, and roared like a monster out of tartarus that ate rusted metal. On its head was a plate that said Bezulel Security.
Every Blood Drinker opened fire on it, but the heavy ammunition impacted on a magical shield, not leaving a scratch on the monster. Another whine from it’s canons was followed by a bright pink energy blast, which toure through a line of Blood Drinkers, leaving only ashes behind as it melted a line across the inner hull.
Seeing members of her family disintegrated by a robot boiled her blood, but her inability to even hurt it frustrated her even more.
“The fuck, that thing has Celestia damnd ship sheild and energy cannons on it’s back!” Rusted Wrench yelled as he pulled out an RPG. But before he could fire the thing, one of the bear's claws rocked out from it’s arm, colliding with him.
Star watched as Rusted was split in two, sheer shock on the stallion's face. Rusted was the pony she could rely on to properly fix up the Crimson Queen and now he was torn in two, the life quickly draining from his eyes.
The rocket claw returned to the Bear as it then scanned the room, it’s robotic eyes falling on Sanguine.
“Sanguine, Watch out!” Star yelled in a panicked over the coms
Lurching forward, the bear then leaped at Sanguine with enough force to dent the floor where it had been standing.
Tossing the case to another Blood Drinker, Sanguine had dashed out of the bear's way just in time to avoid being crushed under its claws. A line of blood followed her as she slid along the ground, a large gash on her side. Pulling out her .50 caliber pistol, ready to fight, but paused as the bear turned away from her.
It’s eyes fell onto the pony holding the case, and with one swift motion, the bear dashed into the poor pony. Crushing him into the ground, sending blood and gore flying, along with the case went flying.
The Blood Drinkers watched as the bears head perfectly tracked the case as it landed on the ground and slid along the floor.
“Fuck! It’s tracking the case.” Sanguine said over coms. “What the fuck even is that thing.”
“Must be some new Security bot from Bezulel.” Chrome said as he jumped into one of the trucks and took control of the turret on the back.
A blaze of high caliber and expensive gunfire slammed into the robo bear, but the monster didn’t flinch. Still, the shields that protected it seem to strain under the assault, but it was not going to be enough to finish the job.
Star jumped over and picked up Rusted’s RPG and took aim, hoping that the high explosives might do the trick. “Ain’t Bezulel the ones who wanted to raid this ship! Never trust a fucking corpo!”
The Bear’s head locked onto Star right as she fired. Impacting onto the already strained shields with a fierce explosion, the Blood Drinkers saw the bears shield fliker for a moment as several bullets got through, making some sizable dents in it’s armor. It wasn’t enough, but they had gotten through.
Again the bears canons whined, Star quickly jumping out of the way as two beams chased after her, cutting through the hull itself and sending pieces of the ship down onto some of the Blood Drinkers.
“Looks like that thing has high impact pinpoint shielding, we're not going to get anywhere with balisticks.” Chrome stated over the coms. “Only way through is either something slow, magic, or what Star just did but more powerful.”
“So we need to blow the fucker up, how much did we bring with us?” Star asked.
“Enough to blow up this airship, so enough.” Chrome awnchered.
The bear stood over the case as it’s claws rocketed out again, one slamming into a container several Blood Drinkers hid behind and the other nearly catching Star as she lepd out of its way. The rent claw flying off and ripping through the hull before returning to the bear.
“If we're going to blow that fucker up, then we need to lure it away from the ship, otherwize we all die along with a chance at winning this coming war.” Sanguine pointed out before asking “Any pony wants to be a decoy?”
Galloping over to her bike, Star jumped onto the Crimson Queen. “Open the docking bay and throw me the damn case, I’ll lead the fucker away!”
“You sure?” Sanguine asked.
“Just do it!” Star demanded as she started her motorcycle’s engine.
Sanguine nodded. “Get the ship low and the doors open.”
Star's stomach lurched as the Ship again banked down, causing everypony to stumble and the case to slide out from under the robo bear.
Looking through the open cargo bay door, the ground quickly became bigger and Star readyed herself to ride. “THE CASE!” she yelled, looking back to see Cutting Wind and taken the initiative, diving for the case and grabbing it with her hooves.
The pegasus was fast on her hooves and jumped gracefuly through the air. But the bear was faster, catching her in its mechanical jaw. She managed to toss the case over to Star right before the bear ripped her apart, sending blood, gusts and her outdated cyberwhear flying.
Catching the case and securing it behind her, Star gritted her teeth as she pushed the steering wheel forward and launched out of the ship. As she fell, all that she could think was that the corpos had stolen another family member of hers and they would only take more as long as they existed.
Hitting the ground with force, the Crimson Queen whined as it struggled to recover from the impact. But the bike was tougher than most, and the engine quickly roared back to life.
A loud bang quaked the ground unde Star, followed by a dust cloud that was quickly blown away by the wind. The bear stood up, it’s mechanical eyes now locked onto Star. Staring back at it, Star said with a smile. “Lets see how fast you are!”
Sending dust flying, the Crimson Queen accelerated away, going from 0 to 100 within but a few seconds. The acceleration rippled through Star's body, something a normal pony would not be able to handle, but she was a Blood Drinker, she knew how to push to the limits of her natural body and then push them beyond that.
But the motorcycle whined as it accelerated even faster, and something rattling inside, likely having come loose from the drop. “Just keep up the speed girl, I’ll have you good as new once this shit is done.” Star pleaded with her bike as she made her way onto the old highway.
Looking in her rearview mirror, Star was shocked to see the mechanical bear keeping up with her, it leaping with great power with each galop. The thing was far faster than it looked like it should be, with most large robots of its size more like slow tanks. Still, the Crimson Queen was still too fast for the bear to catch up, but whatever damage the drop did prevented it from going even faster.
A bright pink light from the bear's cannons gave Star enough time to take evasive maneuvers, just avoiding the two beams of energy by a hare's breath as she drove off the road in a near slide and was back onto the unpathed wasteland.
The burning pain on Star’s back leg made it clear that she could not outrun the bear, it’s cannons would anilant her if this chase went on too long. What she needed was something to put between her and the robot.
“Anypony still on comes, I need some fucking place to put beteen me and robo bear!” Star said over com.
Over her helmet’s coms came the voice of Chrome. “There's an abandoned town several clicks three’o’clock from you. Use that to keep that monster distracted, we're coming to help.”
Star turned hard right, struggling not to flip the bike, then told Chrome, “Forget me, just focus on the plan, we lost too much family alone to worry about me.”
“Fuck you Star, we lost too many family members to abandoin you, just keep that fucking monstrosity of a bear distracted an wait for help.” Sanguine ordered over coms.
Gritting her teeth, Star banked to the side as two more energy beams came at her, the heat stinging her other back leg as she kept up the speed.
It didn’t take long to find the town, and with it she saw a banner depicting three cybernetic wolves howling at a cybernetic moon. Star smiled with a wide grin as she blasted into the Cyberwolves territory, knowing that she’d get to fuck off theis freeks one last time.
The Cyberwolves were a massive tribe that could be found all over Equestria, made up of ponies who wanted to be more beast than pony. Wolves seem to be most popular among them, but any critter to look like was accessible among them. Using cybernetics to achieve this goal they modified their own flesh to become something they were not. Due to their heavy reliance on cybernetics, the Blood Drinkers did not have a good relationship with them and Star found them creepy, even if one turned out to be a good lay.
This was a good opportunity to thin their numbers a little.
Several Cyberwolves popped their heads out, seeing the crimson queen speed by, followed by the bear and rang their alarmes. Soon guns were pulled out and Star became target number one for them, her bike and skull a prize worth her weight in cyberware.
The mechanical bear on the other hoof was a factory made nightmare, catching them all off guard.
A hard turn down one run down street had the bear just plowing through a decade house, struggling to make the tight turn and sending the cyber wolves inside flying.
Another hard turn around a parking lot had the bear tear through a line of bikes, causing Star to laugh.
Soon her coms were filled with pitiful shouting. “FUCK YOU BLOOD DRINKER, WHAT MONSTER DID YOU BRING ONTO OUR PACK!”
Chuckling, Star responded. “Sorry, we had a bit of a problem I thought you could deal with, turns out you’re still pathetic at defending what's yours. Maybe you sould stop relying on fucking cyberwear and act like real ponies for a change.”
A gowling scream from a stallion came over coms before it cut off.
What followed was several biker ponies taking chase, they so cybered up that they looked more like a wolf then a pony. It disgusted Star with how much they threw out their own equine-ness to look like some beast, it almost as bad as how much metal replaced their body needlessly.
Riding up next to the bear the cyber wolves attempted to stop it, firing their cheap SMGs at it. The bear didn’t fling, just swiping its claw, causing the cyberwolves to fly off their bikes and streak across the ground, buying Star a few seconds.
It was funny to Star, seeing them turn to roadkill, but she knew that those chip headed nomads would live, the one and only atvantage of having a fuck load of cybernetics. It made a pony harder to kill.
Passing through another cluster of Cyberwolf bikes, Star found herself on the other side of town, the bear having been slowed down a bit, giving her some space between it.
“Shit that's a lot of damage! Good job.” Sanguine called out over coms, as a Blood Drinker Truck came into view from the side of Star. “Can you do a loop, get in line with us, I have a plan.”
“You sure, this thing is fucking unstopible!” Star retorted.
Sanguine Laughed. “Anything can be taken care of with enough explosives so just trust me.”
Star sighed. “All right, curcaling around to match you, but we barely have any time to do shit with this fucking thing on my ass.”
Banking to the side, Star made a wide circle, the bear unable to correct enough to over take her, it simply followed. Even it’s attempt to hit her with the beam cannons could not connect as they both made the hard turn and fortun struck as the bear stumbled and slid along the ground.
With speed Star bounced back onto the highway, lining up with the Blood Drinkers Tuck. On it Sanguine and Chrome were waiting for Star, the stallion holding a lager case labeled “Danger”
Sanguine then explained. “The plan is to detonate several pounds of plastic explosives onto that robotic bear, but we need it right up close to make it work. Unfortunately it’s chasing that fucking case you have, so it’s going to be tricky. We're thinking you can drop it in its way.”
Star shook her head. “It’s too fast, we need something to slow it down…” She then furrowed her bow as she growled in frustration. “I got an idea, pass me the explosives and you hold onto the case. Just be ready to turn round fast, okay!”
“I know what you're thinking and no,” Sanguine told Star.
“We don’t have the time to debate, just do it Sanguine! I can do it, trust me.” Star demanded.
After a quick moment, the two exchanged cases. With a quick bank to her side, Star watched as the attention of the bear changed to the souped up truck, leaving her alone.
Going as fast as she can make the Crimson Queen, Star blasted back to the now wrecked town and skidded to a stop at its border.
Armig the explosives, Star sighed as she patted the Crimson Queen. “Sorry girl, you’re the best bike I’ve ever had.”
Star then said over coms “Send the Bear back my way, were ending this fucking joke of a job.” she said over coms.
“You better make this worth it, that bike is too gorgeous to waist!” Sanguine told her.
Star just laughed. “Ain’t it a beauty, but I can always make a new one, but our family is irreplaceable. Now let's get some revenge!”
Sanguine chuckled over coms. “Let's never forget that, we're coming your way now!”
As Star waited, she could see the truck and Bear coming thar wat. Revving the engine, she locked the steering and let the bike go without restraint. The legend roared with power, parts inside wined with straine, and again the acceleration rippled through Star's body.
She was sure this colliton was going to be epic, a glorious farewell to her favorite bike. So as she got closer, Star stood up, then jumped off at the right moment and into Sanguine’s hooves. The two slamming into the back of the truck, saved from harm by a mesh net.
Both robotic bear and motorcycle collided, the Crimson Queen bucking under the robot, but staying together enough to stop the bear in its tracks. As the crumpleing bike dug into the bears chest, the two dug a line into the road for a brief second. An explosion engulfed both machines, fire and dust surrounded the epicenter of the impact and the truck just barely escaped the blast as the shockwave rippled passed them.
Rolling to a stop, Sanguine hopped off the truck, looking at the dust could. “Pull out Carouser, Star.” She said sternly.
Taking her LMG into her hooves and loading the hundred drum magazine, Star took aim from the back of the truck. When dealing with cybernetics or magic, the motto of the Blood Drinkers was that no kill was better than overkill. Making sure whatever they killed was truly dead, even if they must level a hole bilding to kill a pony. It was how they survived, how they won.
From the dust cloud a twisted roar came from the mechanical bear as it’s damaged from then stepped out into view. One of it’s cannons was twisted beyond use and an arm missing. The metal frame was bent and rittle with shrapnel, with a back leg struggling to move.
“FIRE!” Sanguine order as the bear charged.
Holding down on the trigger, Carouser roared, the accelerated armour piercing ammunition slamming into the bear. Some shots hit the flickering shield, the rest made contact, tearing off pieces of the bear bit by exploding bit. Still the bear got closer and closer, up until a leg came off and it fell over. The rest of the shots chewed up it’s head, but still the bear moved, the remaining cannon on it’s back wined and sputtered as the deep red light grew bright/
“Finish it off!” Sanguine demanded.
Dropping the hundred drum magazine, Star landed one of her twenty round magazines. The LMG’s barrel had already turned red hot, making everything blurry in front of her.
Sparks flew as the bullets finally broke through the bears thick skull, entering the more delicate parts inside.
The cannon whine became ear piercing as the red light permeated the robot's damaged body. With a bright explosion, the bear and the ground surounding it turnd into nothing but a crater of molten glass and slag.
The two Blood Drinkers looked at the new hole in the grond for a long moment, disdain in their eyes, letting the moment sink in.
From the truck Chrome held the case they were being paid to take. “So are we still taking this back to the corpo’s” the stallion asked.
A smile formed on Sanguine's face as she looked at the case and asked. “Can you open that without any pony knowing we peeke?”
Chrome also smiled. “Just give me a few minutes and I’ll have this singing Equestria the beautiful.”
_______________________________________________________
As the limousine landed at the meeting place, Digital Flowers nervously drank his prance imported sparkling wine, the bottle costing him a month's worth of pay, it the only comfort he had at this moment.
“Everything has gone wrong, every Luna damn thing.” Digital mumbled to himself
It was meant to be a simple live test of the new security systems Digital had presented to the CEO’s himself, it was to be his rise to the top of Bezulel. A fail proof recovery system meant to weather keep sensitive cargo safe, or make sure they can be recovered. All he needed was to show the system in action, have them be killed by the security cages defensive system, and when they try to brute force their way in, have our new model of combat drone kill them all. Once approved we were to sell the new systems to all the other corporations, it was going to make trillions!
Yet the Nomads had beaten everything thrown at them.
With gritted teeth he ordered the limo’s security detail to secure the area. Digital had no plans on paying them, he didn’t even have the chips he promised. They were meant to be corpses and the case was supposed to be delivered to him by one of his own drowns. Now he didn’t know what to do, but he had to recover that case no matter what.
The case housed a chip that would help salvage some of what he lost, it having the blueprints of several new drones he planned on promoting to the CEO’s. Cheap and effective attack drones to replace their current models used by the police. It was nothing special, only a cost reduction to production that they can keep selling at the same price as the older models. At the very least the CEO’s would show him mercy and just demote him after this disaster.
“Fucked up again, Digital!” The hateful voice of Hardlight spoke over the network, his rival in Bezulel, a mare waiting for this very moment to prove she was his better. Digital was going to get her one day, not today, but someday she was going to get zero’ed.
“What do you want?” He spitfuly asked Hard Light.
She smugly smiled back at him. “Just looking over the video of how you lost the tortoiseshell ship due to your incompetence. Shell company or not, that ship alone was worth more than any of us could hope to afford. Not only that, but your idea for a security cage failed, and you used one of our combat war drones as a security guard! That damn thing was not made for on ship fighting you retared! I wonder what the CEOs are going to say if they learn about how badly this went down?”
If there was anypony who could spin this disaster it was Hardlight, meaning if he agreed to her terms, he may be able to keep his position in the company.
“Fucking fine, what do you want, just tell me and you have it? Please save me!” Digital pleaded, his life on a thred.
“Full access to your private server, I know you got some good shit on that and I want it, all of it. Even what in the damn case of yours. Then I’ll save your juicy ass.” Hard Light demanded.
The corpo stallion knew what this meant, he would be her slave until the day he died if she had access to all his secrets and projects. But so long as he could hold onto his position, he could have the opportunity to get rid of her, it would just take time. So slavery or death was his only options now.
“Fine, I’m sending you the security code now.” Digital said in a defeated sigh, knowing that he just needed to keep his head down and obey.
“Now that you have every damn secret I know, can you help me with the damn Nomads?” Digital pleaded.
Hardlight paused for a moment before smiling. “You want them dead right… Now, it pisses you off more to actually give them what you promised.” She then clapped her hooves together. “Right, we can call it a live stress test of my new security systems, throwing some dangerous raiders at it to see how they would fail. As expensive as it was, this failure does show where all the flaws are. Thank you so much for this opportunity Digital Flowers.”
The stallion's face dropped as he realized that he could have salvaged all this just like that, but he just gave it away.
Defeated he trotted out of the limo, seeing several nomads who were wearing black face masks that had greenish yellow glowing skull faces over their muzzles.
One of the nomads held up the case and demanded. “Give us our damn payment!”
Digital Flowers grimised. “Fine, just a moment.”
After what felt like an eternity a drone flew over from on high, a case in it’s pincers, as it landed in between them.
The drone placed it’s case on the ground, opening it to reveal the payment, fifty high quality Soma Tech talansmen computer chips. The things nearly impossible to get even on a good day, worth millions on the black market. Satisfied, the nomads slid their case over to Digital, the stallion just barely catching it under his hoof.
Not wanting to be there any further, the corpo stallion got into his limo, ordering the security delta to pull back and charted the limo to return to the Bezulel’s Detrot office, taking a direct route to it
Grabbing another glass of bubbly wine, Digital nervously drank it down,
“Oh you will owe me for helping you out there and I know exactly what I want from you” Hard Light gloated.
Defeated, Digital just nodded as he hugged the case.
“First off, I got this little red dress for you, then I’ve fallen behind with the winter reports, you can do them for me.” She continued to gloate.
Seeing the corporate building come in sight, Digital sighed, deciding to open the case to see what could have been his future one last time. Gas rushed out, it having a putrid metallic smell to it, making the air taste like… waffles?
His vision flickered for a moment as he looked down to see a bunch of gray clay inside the case. Confused, the stallion slammed the case shut, whimpering “Why’s it not there?!”
Hardlight cocked an eyebrow, the screen she appeared on flickering. “Whats going on, I’m getting interference from your end?”
“The data chip, it’s not in the case! The damn nomads stole it!” Disgital said with a pain filled anger.
Actual surprise formed on Hardlight’s face. “What do you mean it’s not there, that's a state of the art Bezulel security case. Even if those motor heads could get through all your stupid tech, that one is of my own creation, perfect!”
Opening the case again, Digital turned it around to show Hard Light. “They filled it with clay.”
Hardlight’s eyes widened in shock. “You fucking moron, that’s not-”
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Hardlight’s video feed cut out as an explosion rocked the building, Digital Flowers had just arrived inside the limo docking area when the plastic explosives went off. She could only imagine the cost of the damages, not just to the building, but the PR that was to come.
A bomb should not have even gotten that close to the building without security knowing about it. Those nomads must have used some sort of jamming device, it would explain why the video feed was having issues.
Worse, if this ever got out, then everypony would know her security cases could be cracked and she'd have to pay for every recall out of her own pocket. It was a multi layered disaster she needed to get in front of before any other pony catches wind of her involvement.
Ponies were already starting to rush about as the phones rang off the hood and a fire alarm blared annoyingly.
Annoyed, Hardlight called to her Virtual Intelligent assistant. “Bring up the video feed from Digital Flowers eyes from several minutes ago.”
On her screen she could see through the eye of what Digital had seen before he had died. Before her were the nomads that he had contracted. “Computer, anything identifiable on them?”
After a moment the VI responded by zooming in on a black rectangle patch showing a yellow/green skull with a heart behind it and a blood drop under it. Then another symbol appears next to it, a similar but a brighter in color version of the first. “The Anti-Corporate Blood Drinkers Organization, known anti-corporate economic terrorist group that was exterminated during the corporate war.”
Hardlights ears flattened with annoyance. “Blood Drinkers, that sounds familiar, anything on that name, computer?”
The VI again responded. “Blood Drinkers nomads, known to be scrappers, raiders and pirates. Seen around Detot. No other information is known about them.”
Grabbing her screen, Hardlight threw it across the room. “FUCKING USLESS” she yelled.
“Computer, I want a dossier on the Blood Drinkers, get any available agent to look into them, place them at a priority one for extermination. We cannot let this insult stand!” Hard Light growled.
Sitting back in her chair, the mare pulled out an inhaler, breathing the drug in deep to calm her nerves. She could still smooth things over with the CEO’s, but they were going to demand blood, and if blood is what they want, it’s blood they will get.
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Cyberpon: Blood Drinkers.... End of Line.