I attached the new motherboard into its slot in the ship, grabbing the screwdriver out of my mouth to reattach the screws. I descended the step ladder with a sigh after placing the panel back on the ship.

I entered my ship, taking a thorough look around. The observation deck was spacious and empty, with a massive half-dome window giving a view of everything in front of the ship. At the back of the observation deck there were two halls and a door in between. The door led to the flight deck, but I hadn’t been down the halls before. I decided to take the hall on my left. The hall was thin, with hatches leading to gun mounts lining its left. There was a room to the right further down the hall, a small couch and an empty mini bar furnished the room. I continued to end of the hall. The room at the end of the hall looked more like a living room than the previous room, a large couch stretched across the left wall, a window looking out the side of the ship directly above it. In the centre of the room was a holo-media display. The wall to the right had a door leading to an empty room, the window looking out the right side of the ship being the only thing to furnish the room. There was also an ensuite and walk-in closet attached to the room. I went back to the observation deck to explore the right hall. There was a staircase leading down into the engine room adjacent to where the guest room would be. There were many more rooms down the right hall, but they all looked the same, two simple bunks lining both sides of the room.

I headed back to the streets of Zone 265, looking for a furniture store.

As I walked down the street, I saw a fashion store. While some of the women were wearing dresses, I thought that I would probably feel more comfortable in something more casual. I entered the fashion store, taking a look at the clothing on display. While there were a lot of enticing cloths on offer, after trying on a variety of clothing, I finally decided on what I was going to buy.

I purchased a leather tank top with brass-coloured ornaments that resembled buckles, the sleeveless design making my shoulder movement feel fluent. I also got a pair of jean shorts, full length jeans feeling stiff, and thigh high leather boots that felt natural to move in. I added a leather belt with a bronze-coloured buckle to match the tank top.

I paid at the counter, watching as the amount of money on the disk slowly depleted.

“Can I change in the dressing rooms?”

“Don’t let me stop you.” The girl behind the register smiled.

After changing, I headed down the street once more. As I was just about to approach a furniture store, an announcement was made throughout the city.

“Please all citizens of Zone 265 be advised. There is a hostile, high threat target in the downtown area. Please calmly evacuate the area. All mercenaries and bounty hunters, the price for the target’s capture or termination is ten million gold.”

Every store across the block were evacuated, the citizens calmly walking in a singular direction.

“Oi. Girl!” The mechanic pulled me to the side of the street. “You look like a lost child.”

“Oh, sorry.”

The man sighed. “Follow me, I’ll take you out of the downtown area.”

Just as he said that, an explosion was triggered on the same floor as us, just down the street. Nobody was caught up in the explosion, as all of the civilians had evacuated the area.

“Wait! Isn’t that your shop?” I pointed out.

“Don’t worry too much about it. My insurance is still valid.”

Once people were far enough away from the downtown area, people started spectating the fights between mercenaries. The perpetrators seemed to be a three-man team comprised of a man equipped with an array of different guns, a woman lobbing grenades carelessly from a grenade launcher, and a cyborg keeping mercenaries at bay with an extremely potent flame thrower.

I stopped for a second to spectate as well, watching as a violent stalemate raged on. No mercenary dared come to close to the perpetrators while they slowly retreated.

As I was watching, a wire shot past me attaching to the bottom of the street above me. I stepped back a bit before the wire detached from the ceiling, a dark figure quickly ascended to perch on the railing in front of me. All I could see in its helm were my own blue eyes reflecting back at me. His skin was dark in colour almost like a coal black and it formed around his fibrous, wiry muscles. His back had many small exhausts, and his spine was chrome in colour. His hands were robotic in nature while his legs and arms looked almost organic apart from the colour and the artificial muscles, and above his right shoulder was a small battle drone. In his right hand was a custom-built pistol of unknown origin.

The figure disappeared, traveling at such a speed that I couldn’t follow his movement. He ran towards the group of mercenaries with a speed no living creature could possibly match. When it reached the mercenaries, he cut through their ranks, creating a downpour of bullets from above.

“Keep up darlin’.”

I pulled my gaze away from the fight, continuing to move out of the downtown area.

“What am I going to do now?” All my plans had evaporated due to the chaos.

“Were you planning to buy something else? If that was the case, I recommend heading to Zone 266. Although more expensive than anything you might find here, it’s a much better alternative to Zone 264. I’ll call a taxi for you.”

“Thank you so much.” I bowed.

“It’s really no big deal.” The mechanic looked slightly confused.

“Oh! Sorry.”

The mechanic called a taxi for me once we reached a public transport terminal. The taxi door automatically opened for me, and as I got into the vehicle, I waved goodbye to the mechanic.

“Please state your destination.” The taxi’s AI requested.

“Zone 266. Can you get me close to a furniture store?”

“That will cost you 10,000 G. Will that be through token or credit?”

“What’s the difference?”

“Will that be through token or credit?”

I sighed. “Let’s go with credit.”

“Please state your recorded name, or name used when entering the city.”

“Bobby Calmi.”

The taxi started to move, flowing through traffic towards the destination. The further I got from Zone 265, the fainter the sounds of gunfire became. Hopefully Earth won’t be as chaotic.

[Calmi family photo]