About an hour passed with Dust and I talking and going over the layout of the hotel. If the map from "Trusty" Tony was correct, the Howlers had some actual security set up with a couple Ares-make turrets and surveillance cameras. Probably from their backers in Humanis; too bad for them that Humanis didn't set up the sight lines. There were blindspots that anyone who'd ever done a run could find at a glance.

"Going to give Trix a buzz, let her know we're gonna get to it. Hey, you ready for this, Burnout?" Asked Dust. 

I pulled out the patch of Banshee and pressed it against my upper arm. Like Sylvia said it didn't hurt, it actually felt pretty good. Dust put her commlink back in one of the pouches on her combat gear.

I nodded. "Yea." 

"Trix says she'll be ready to get us out of there if things go sideways." Dust turned to cross the street, I followed. "She also says she's going to probe their systems wirelessly." 

"If they're as sloppy as their lines of fire, she can probably seize their system." I cracked my knuckles and tensed the blade deployment systems, feeling the steel slide out just slightly before retracting it. "Any idea how many are in there? I saw the cars, but couldn't get a good look at the amount inside." I asked.

Dust shrugged as we approached the building. "Maybe a couple dozen. Hey look at that." She pointed to a camera on the edge of the building briefly dip. "I guess she's in, we're up." Dust broke into a sprint.

I followed after her and watched her back while she placed a couple bricks of explosives on the Howlers cars and a couple of the walls. She looked up at me and pointed at a door further down with the tip of her shotgun. I nodded and deployed my arm blades. She ran off towards her point of entry.

I looked at the flimsy wooden door and tried to knob. "Locked, not an issue, but for once…" 

I pulled back and put my foot through it, my artificial muscle giving me the power to split it in two. The hallway was a mess with boxes and trash strewn about on the dull blue carpet. Wires hung clipped haphazardly to the ceiling. My appraisal of the location was cut short by the sound of movement and voices in a nearby room. 

"What the drek was that?" Came a man's voice from the room to my right.

I took position to the side of the door and waited for it to open. I saw the knob begin to turn and kicked on my adrenal pump. As the latch clicked open I dashed forward through the door, knocking the open behind it to the floor. I quickly buried a blade in his throat before turning to another man. He was holding a pistol and fired. The muzzle flash bloomed in slow motion as I rushed forward, spun and severed his hand with a fluid motion. He screamed briefly before I was able to use my momentum to swing the tip of my other blade across his throat. He crumpled in a heap on the floor. I scanned the room quickly before dashing back out into the hall. 

The sound of shotgun blasts roared from where Dust had entered. "Gotta keep up." I said.

Another Howler ran into the hall, his back to me, I shoved my blades through his ribs and pulled them apart. 

Bang!

A bullet caught me in the side of my torso, but I barely felt it as I turned to face my new attacker. He dropped his gun and put his hands up. The guy couldn't have been more than sixteen. 

My heart was racing. "Smart." I picked up his gun. "Sorry, kid. Can't have you following me." I shot him in the knee, tore the trigger from his gun and tossed it at him as he writhed. "Make better choices." I said as I ran further into the building. 

As I ran further I heard more shotgun blasts and then the unmistakable sound of an Ares field turret firing on full auto. I briefly stopped as I passed the hall it was set up in. Trix had gunned down what looked like six of them. It was hard to tell, rounds that caliber do a hell of a number on bodies. I continued towards the center of the building and met up with Dust. 

"Burnout, you are covered in blood," She stated.

I looked at her. "And you are very clearly not. Also, most of this blood isn't mine." As if on cue the bullet that had lodged in my side was pushed out by the effects of the Banshee and clattered to the tile floor.

Dust blinked. "What."

"Side benefit to the patches." I explained. 

"Okay, talk about that later. I got eight on the way here. You?" She asked.

"I got four and saw six that Trix got. I think six, the bodies were a mess." I shrugged.

"We still have the office to check." Said Dust.

We approached the office and I peeked inside. The room had been nice before one of the other turrets tore it up, but there was no blood. There was however a god damned bank vault. 

"You've gotta be kidding me." I motioned for Dust to come and look at it. "I guess you don't have enough on you to beach that, do you?" I asked.

She stared at the vault, then me. "No." She cracked her neck. "Going to message Trix, it's time we got out of here."

"Yea.” My attention was caught by a distinct sound that was getting nearer. “Hey, do you hear sirens?" I asked. 

Dust blinked. "What?"

The distinct whine of a megaphone being turned on came from the front of the building. "This is Lone Star, you are under arrest. Come out with your hands up." 

"Shit." We said in unison.

Dust turned to me. "What the fuck is Lone Star doing here?"

"They shouldn't even be around this part of Renton! There's no money in it," I said.

A bullet whizzed by and embedded itself in the wall. "They're definitely here now," replied Dust.

"Yea, no shit. What do we do now,” I asked.

Dust reached into one of the pouches on her pants and produced a detonator and a couple ear plugs. She put the plugs in and flicked the cap up. I covered my ears. She smiled wide and pressed down on the button. A moment later an explosion rocked the whole building. Plaster fell from the roof and I felt the shockwaves from part of the back collapsing. I removed my hands from my ears in time to hear the sound of some of the Lone Star cars starting and circling around the back.

My commlink buzzed in my pocket. It was a message from Trix. Signal loud and clear, gonna come through the front. You might want to get behind something. 

“Dust, we need to duck. Now.” I fell to the floor.

Dust followed suit. “So she’s going t-” 

She was interrupted mid sentence by the whirr of the van’s turret. A hail of high caliber rounds blew through the walls above us and presumably through the Lone Star officers in front. Dust and I nodded to each other then stood up and broke into a dead sprint. She went left and I went right, our boots crunching on shattered glass as we ran through the destroyed lobby. Ahead of us were several Lone Star vehicles and personnel riddled with holes from Trix’s assault using the van’s turret. 

Dust hopped over a corpse as their earpiece crackled. “Multiple explosions and heavy weapons fire in Renton. Backup requested.” 

One of the officers that was still alive raised a pistol before being shot by the van’s turret. I winced as they were pulped, but kept running, Dust and I needed to get in the van as soon as possible and get out of here. 

Dust got closer to me as we neared the van. "Hey, Burnout." She slid over the hood of a cop car. "It's never a milk run, is it?" She laughed.

I almost tripped over a upturned asphalt before righting myself. "No, never… wait, the one just before this."

We had almost reached the van.

Dust pulled open the driver side door and looked to me. "You passed out from blood loss during that run."

I shrugged. "Yeah, I did." I opened the door to the passenger side and got in. "Still, it went pretty well."

Dust rolled her eyes. "If you say so. Hey Trix, let me drive."

The stereo crackled. "Fine, you should be able to steer now." The turret flipped down from atop the van, filling the cabin with the scent of hot metal and gunpowder. “We’re out of ammo and I think a barrel is warped,” said Trix from her own body as she slowly rose from her position in the back.

Dust backed the van out onto the road. “Yeah, the fourth barrel is pretty much fucked.” She sighed and revved the engine. “Let’s get out of here.”

We sped off and were quickly followed by a handful of Lone Star cruisers. Dust took a hard left down one of the more clear alleyways we'd walked past earlier, out van barely fit, the same went for Lone Star. One of their vehicles tried to thread the needle and jammed itself against the sides of the buildings while the others shot past to go around. 

Once we exited the other side I turned to Trix. She had been slammed to one side by the sharp turn moments before and was steadying herself with one of the handles inside the van. "Any idea what the fuck Lone Star is doing out here?"

Trix stood up and pulled the back of my chair down. "Your guess is as good as mine, now get back here. I doubt they're just going to give up." She held out a hand for me to grab onto.

I placed my hand in hers and she helped pull me into the back cabin. Dust took a hard left making the tires of the van screech. I fell sideways and reached out for something to grab onto and my hand whiffed the lowest barrel of the turret. My body twisted and Trix caught me, but she had to let go of the handle she was holding onto to do so and we both tumbled to the floor. 

“Sorry, we’re making another detour, they’ve got a drekkin’ barri...cade… set. I’ll leave you two to it,” said Dust as she turned her focus back to the road. 

I looked down and saw I was holding one of Trix’ hands with the other pressed against the carpet of the van, looming over her. Her long multi-hued hair was splayed out across the floor. She rolled her eyes. “Let me up, they’re going to start shooting at us, Burnout.” I stood up and helped pull her up. She readied her own gun, her eyes focused on the handgun on my thigh. “Still remember how to shoot?”

I pulled out the guardian and cocked it. “Hopefully? It’s been a while since I’ve actually fired it.”

“I hope you two are ready, we’ve got two on our tail,” shouted Dust.

Trix grabbed one of the door handles and slid it sideways. The air rushed into the cabin, tossing around some of the trash from Trix’ love of fast food. She leaned out and leveled her pistol at the approaching Lone Star cruisers before firing off a few rounds and ducking back inside. I slid open the door on my side and leaned out. Trix had hit the windshield of one of the cars pretty solidly, the glass had spiderwebbed and the driver had to stick his head out the window. I took aim and shot. The round connected with one of the front tires making the car turn and skid as they slammed on their brakes. 

"Hey, nice shot lady," called Dust from the front.

I briefly considered mentioning I had been aiming for the man's head, but thought better of it as bullets whizzed by. Trix took another chance and shot back at them once there was a lull. She pressed herself against the inside of the van and ejected a spent magazine before slamming another inside the butt of her pistol. Trix smiled at me before she stuck her arm back outside popping off several more shots. Another patrol car joined the first and announced its presence with a smattering of gunfire that pinged off the van's armor. 

"Dust, can't you lose these assholes?" I leaned back out and lined up a shot.

"It would be a lot easier if the turret worked," she called from up front.

I took my shot and it caught one of the officers in the shoulder, right through the windshield. His gun fell from his hands. Slowly, I moved my aim to the right, towards the driver and I pulled the trigger. I moved my aim to the right, towards the driver and I pulled the trigger. 

Towards the driver and I pulled the trigger.

I pulled the trigger. 

I pulled the.

I-

Something was wrong.

Someone screamed my name.