Sweat ran down Cassandra’s face. Her breathing was laboured, heavy, and she could barely contain a groan. Her legs quivered and her entire back tensed up. Her muscles were shaking and straining.
“Come onnnn,” Cass groaned and strained, afraid she was going to lose her focus if this went on for much longer. Her shoulders protested, and she had to adjust her grip. She was looking for that sweet spot Tore had been talking about, but she just couldn’t find it, instead pushing her own body to the very limit. She gritted her teeth and -- oh. Oh. She found it, and her entire body flooded with hormones and exploded with energy.
In the past few months she’d been working on herself, training, pushing herself to the limit, and then, with the help of some downfloor modders and a small cash infusion, pushed herself past the point of human limitation. The biggest issue had been the little chip in the base of her spine. It was expensive, but it was supposed to give her more control over the modifications. Without it, turning them on or off would require a visit to a doctor or a mechanic. The old method, a chip directly in the brain, was easier to work with, but had some very obvious risks. So they’d opted to implant her with a spinal chip, and she realized she didn’t know how to activate it.
Right until now. The adrenaline boosters kicked in, the tensile rev in her muscles booted up and she felt, more than she saw, their activation. Her joints creaked as they tightened up like metal clamps. For her benefit, little green lights popped up on her arms. There were even little bloops. She heard groaning metal and realized with a satisfied grin that the protest was not coming from her own body anymore. She was still in the middle of patting herself on the back when a jolt almost made her lose her grip. Right. Focus.
Cassandra tightened her grip, and made sure not to get thrown off. It wasn’t every day she got to ride on the back of a giant robotic snake. It had been thrashing its head left and right, but had so far failed to throw her off. The reason it hadn’t been more aggressive in working to get her off its head was probably because it didn’t want to damage the twin guns mounted on the sides of its head. Fine, that was its own mistake.
The robotic monstrosity thrashed, but her grip was iron and her muscles were steel, and this time she held back no groans or moans, yelling out loud as she tore the gun emplacement from the thing’s head. It came free with the telltale scream of tearing metal, and the garbled bellow that came from the snake’s mouth tore through her brain like white noise. She found herself falling through the air, and tensed up her legs. Her roll was perfectly executed, and the guns she’d torn off had landed next to her.
The snake screamed again and turned to her, its glowing visors pulsing as it processed the environment. Cass quickly did the same thing. It had sort of… popped out of the ground a few hours ago, its head alone the size of a large vehicle, tearing through several layers of the floor. A lot of people were wounded, but all things considered, the damage was kind of minimal, as long as it didn’t get away. It could destroy a floor through sheer size alone, and when it moved, its giant body grazed against buildings, tearing storefronts to shreds with its various segments. This thing had apparently been some kind of experiment, some yokel had decided to try turning it on to ‘unify the lower floors’ and about two hours later there was an open contract on the thing. A big one, because taking it on was suicide. Which was why Tore, of course, had sent her out on her own. Of course. Its remaining cannon charged up with a helpful little whine and when she dodged to the side as a laser cut the platform in half, she realized that her reflexes were greatly enhanced. Her body reacted faster. She failed to suppress a grin.
Lasers were fast, of course, a line of death at the speed of light, but whoever had designed the thing hadn’t considered the possibility that the giant robot might want to shoot at something it wasn’t directly looking at and had failed to install some kind of turret or swivel, so Cass could predict exactly where it would be firing next. She dodged left, right and finally got her hands on the guns she’d torn off, and picked it up. It was different from the laser it had tried hitting me with, but I was sure it would do damage just the same. Trying to lift something like this with one hand should have dislocated her shoulder. It wasn’t light, but it wasn’t all that hard, either. She felt the implants in her hands make contact with the mechanics of the weapon, and found to her satisfaction that the weapon had a built-in power source. She rolled forward and got up on one knee, the weapon powering up with a heavy whine.
The snake-robot seemed to recognise that she suddenly posed a much larger threat, and opened its maw, exposing the several buzzsaws inside it. It lunged. Cass didn’t move, but tensed up the muscles in her legs. Just half a second before the weapon was charged up, and with the sound of someone hitting a power generator with an electric drill, the massive cannon spat out a stream of superheated plasma, burrowing into the creature’s head. Then she jumped, and the giant head crashed where she’d just been standing. She landed awkwardly on its back as it slid forward, and rolled off, hitting her shoulder against the jagged metal of the floor. Her body armor took the brunt of the hit, but it was still sloppy. The snake turned its head, half of its optical sensors now a glowing, steel mess.
They eyed each other up for a moment. For just a second, neither of them moved to attack, the giant mech not moving its segmented body, the head swaying very gently. Then both of their weapons whined as they charged up, and the snake began to move quickly, coiling its body around her almost too fast to respond to. Cassandra did some mental math and leapt forward, against the closest segment, and then again against another, until she found herself running up the length of the snake, towards its head, still lugging the powering gun along. Her shoulder stung, but she ignored it for now. The snake snapped its head forward, trying to either bite down on her or hit her full in the torso with its laser. She threw the gun forward, angling it up. She got lucky, which was all she needed. The snake’s jaws began to clamp shut, and then immediately stopped when the giant gun kept them pried open. The laser fired off ineffectually.
Immediately, the robot started to shake its head, trying to remove the obstruction in its mouth, but it was too late. Cassandra held on to dear life with a cocky grin. The gun was fully charged, stuck in the snake’s mouth, and pointed straight up at its neural matrix. The horrible sound came again, and in a burst of blue light and molten metal, its brain exploded. The mech froze, and then began to collapse. Cass held on as it collapsed onto a series of houses, and only let go once it had finally stopped moving, hopping daintily down onto the rooftop. She beginning to climb down the fire escape as she contacted Tore.
“It’s done,” she said into her earpiece, trying not to sound smug. She knew it had been a test, her first solo mission, but she also knew Tore would find several ways to punish her if she let it get to her head. They both knew she’d succeeded. She could practically hear the proud smile on the other side of the line.
“Good girl,” Tore said. “I knew you could do it.” Every time Tore called her that, she had to resist squirming. The woman was much too powerful, and she was fully aware of it. “Maybe you can take Mordecat with you next time.” There was a muffled protest in the background, which Tore promptly ignored. “I will call it in so nobody snipes the contract, but you are going to have to confirm. A scan ought to do it.” There was a soft pause. “You did it, didn’t you?” Cassandra’s face split open in a wide grin. She couldn’t pretend not to be happy about this anymore. She hit ground floor and scanned the creature and its power-core, and sent the data through.
“I did,” she said. “Full access.”
“I am proud of you, pup. Hurry home. I made that thing that you like so much.” Cassandra’s eyes grew wide with excitement.
“You made chocolate cake?”
“Mm-hmm. So hurry. I do not know if this thing is supposed to be eaten hot, but… it is getting cold.” Cassandra chuckled softly to herself.
“Put it in the freezer, Tore. I’ll be right over.” She was stopped when she saw a vehicle with flashing lights descend to street level. She recognized the black-on-white numbers that indicated that this floor was under protection of one of the major gangs. The Queen, she gathered. She wasn’t super up to date on the politics of floors below fifty-five, but she’d heard of someone who ruled this area with a just but iron fist. Presumably the person who had issued the contract.
Two people jumped out in full body armor and helmets with clear visors, which they took off when they approached her. She moved her mask up a little bit. It had obviously slid down during the fight, but she liked to keep everything but her eyes covered. When she was out here and she did well, she could be Tore, keep the name of the legendary bounty hunter intact. If she messed up, she could show her face and call herself Loki. Not that she messed up. She tipped an invisible hat at them, a gesture they returned with a little confusion. She smiled behind her mask.
“Afternoon,” she said and pulled her hood up. Her hair was already soaked from the downcity rain, but the shelter gave her a sense of comfort. For dramatic effect, she hoisted the giant gun onto a shoulder. As she did, she felt it -- the shoulder, not the gun -- protest a little bit. The landing earlier had definitely bruised something.
“Hello there,” the man at the front said.
“General,” Cass said. He frowned in confusion, and she shook her head. “Never mind, private joke. Can I help you?” The guard smiled softly and nodded.
“The opposite. The Queen would like to offer you a ride, free of charge. You did us a great favour.” Cassandra looked at the little car. She’d be uncomfortably squashed in there.
“That depends,” she finally said. “Does it go up to fifty-two?” The other guard shook their head. Cass had kind of hoped for that answer. Easier that way. She had a small bike that had all the right clearances, codes and cloaking devices necessary to make it past the various blockades that inhibited passage between the next ten floors up. “In that case, send the Queen of Black-62 my regards. I’ll just take the contract, thanks.”
The man nodded. “Tore, right?” Cassandra nodded, like a liar. “You probably don’t remember me. We met a few years ago when you did a contract down here. You look different. Younger.” Uh oh. She pretended to laugh it off.
“Sorry, memory isn’t what it used to be. But I had some work done.”
“That makes sense,” he said. He was right, it did make sense. He nudged his partner. “That’s a living legend, right here.” The partner nodded and looked up at her in amazement. Being looked up to, literally or figuratively, was definitely a new experience, and she did not hate it.
“I can believe it,” they said. “You just took down that thing on your own?” Cass nodded, trying to seem casual about it. “Holy carp.” They looked at the giant metallic snake, glistening in the neon rain. “Who even makes something like that?”
“I’m afraid that’s not my ballgame. You two got it from here?” The two guards nodded.
“Scavvers are probably going to start cutting this thing up in minutes. By tomorrow, it’s going to be a bad memory,” the shorter one said. They shot another look of admiration at Cass, and then began to write up a report on their pad.
Cassandra smiled as she walked to her bike, and briefly debated bringing the giant gun with her, but it was just going to slow her down. Besides, what she wanted was a hammer like Tore’s. And back home, a chocolate cake was chilling in the fridge just for her. She was going to have to thank Tore, profusely and repeatedly, when she got there. She looked forward to that just a little bit more than the cake.
Cass SMASH!
Oh my, Cass is very bold. In many ways.
A giant snake robot with plasma cannons, lasers, and buzz saws? Someone definitely had too much time and money on their hands lol
GENERAL KENOBI! YOU ARE A BOLD ONE.
Hell yeah cass got swole and full of cool mods
GOD CASS IS SO COOL. I LOVE HER SO MUCH.
noooo Cass talk to your employer she has Gay News!!!!
I also feel the politics comment might be an implications that the queen of black-62 is newly established at this time?
“Holy carp.”
Is that a typo or did Cass not catch this earth-ism? Because I seem to recall Ellis saying holy carp in the past.
Mordecat. God I love this story so much