Jack didn’t bother to check for cameras, they were either deactivated already or he was royally fucked in more ways then one.

  He first stretch was clear, all the wandering enforcers obviously joining into the main fray leaving these back routes almost completely unguarded, almost being very important here.

  Around the next corner would be the real deal, a basic windowed office for a security specialist, and an alternate route most probably guarded.

  There were no fancy tricks here, Jack just kept as quiet as he could, crawling beneath the windows sight lines. His cyberdeck was currently quieted, not allowing anything in or out to prevent a random ping from revealing his location .

  He could hear some stray shots impact a wall nearby, and a couple muffled footsteps joining them.

  Hugging the wall before a corner Jack hacked a nearby security window, one he recognised as having the favorited one way mirror function, to activate barely shifting itself before two guards made their way down the stretch of reflected corridor, only then moving ahead when he was certain that no one was lingering behind.

  The longer this took the higher the risks, Jack needed to get out fast before the forward group was overrun.

  The reason Jack had been sent this route in particular was, according to the building plans, that there was a “necessary” security flaw. To prevent lowly maintenance workers from ever interacting with the higher class Arasaka agents traversing the site, a side panel was installed into one of the elevators.

  That same superiority complex will be his free ride to the upper floors.

  All Jack had to do was wait as a pre-compiled Daemon unlocked the latches freeing Jack to squeeze into the overlay elaborate lift.

  He could actually hear the two over chromed muscle standing guard just outside its doors while he casually tapped the 21st floor on the terminal.

  #zts-We have contact!...zzt- Coming up the elevator#, roll ‘im up if possible! ##

  #zzt-Copy that”

  ‘...Yeah that sounds like a problem.’ Jack cursed internaly.

  This is where the difficulty really spiked.

  With fingers twitching on the trigger, all aimed towards the elevators doors, there could be any number of armed forces, merc or otherwise. In such a narrow space, Jack couldn’t rely on waiting for LAG’s delay to help, seeing him separate from his real position doesn’t mean much when they can simply fill the hallway full of bullets.

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  This group would be separate from all the fighting around the bottom, as no one has really used the elevators yet, so hopefully they aren’t so high strung to shoot first ask later.

  In the few moments Jack had to prepare, he had LAG pre compile a view of himself to overwrite their vision as the elevator doors opened.

  Jack would need to be quick, only having a moment before someones cyberware could activate a counter attack, and before he fried himself from running LAG overclocked.

  Because overclocking his cyberdeck was probably the only way Jack stood a chance against more than two enemies.

  Waiting, 4 high powered assault rifles trained on silver doors of the elevator as the floors listed above slowly ticked up.

  The guards fidgeted from an overwhelming unease, amplified from the almost casual comical nature of the raid. Theses mercs were hardly known names or had even shown the type of brutality the tough gangs could muster to tear their way through a minorly guarded facility such as this one.

  The punk climbing the floors now was thought to be of the exact same stature, just some lowlife, but everyone knew the tales.

  Anything could be waiting behind those chrome coated doors, and until they opened, their survival was just as uncertain.

  Metal doors slid cleanly apart to a young civilian looking ‘ganic standing stock still with his arms already raised in surrender.

  “STAY TRAINED POSSIBLE NETRUNNER!!”

  “You have 5 seconds to comply oth-

  BANG BANG BANG

  Bullets tore through their heads from below.

  None of them had the required cyberware to react nor much protection below their skull to stop them. Maybe the real Arasaka tower grunts would have impenetrable skin, but this place was a mere imitation of that corporate glory.

  Jack rushed onward, silently dropping just before this floors office room, a oppressive designed space with one huge wall covering window, curved like political environments of old.

  Leaning on the desk with her back turned was the biggest threat of the raid. A real named merc hired for absolute protection, with an extensive record of odd jobs and quite the toolkit of chrome, she was what qualified for at the bare minimum a successful Solo.

  Chrome plating shined in the low sun, reflecting onto the darker walls, light splitting around the edges in an almost deliberate chromatic show. She seemed jittery, even though there was not a single wasted twitch within her meditative state.

  “...The gonks outside haven’t bothered me in a bit...could one of those cheap punks actually have gotten though the lot of them?”

  She had yet to move but it was obvious Jack was running out of time.

  There was no lasting a half second against her in any remotely head on scrap so he needed something more exotic and swift.

  That dataslate the hit centred around was a dark, nondescript block... not too dissimilar to his personal terminal Jack realised. Quickly blocking in the terminal into LAGs system, Jack silently prepared for an all or nothing tactic.

  ‘Just think of the upgrade... you have backups.’

  A mere moment later, the solo bursts to attention as a roughed up ‘ganic kid outfitted with seemingly nothing but a Sandevistan dashes up and past the dataslate.

  Iron spins up into her grips with practices ease.

  He crashed through the window, 21 stories up before the first bullet leaves the chamber, a certain hit from what she could see.

  ‘A Sandy!?!’ She screamed inside her mind, ‘I gotta catch that fucker before they burn my creds! I got the tech up for w-’

  BANG

  The bullet drilled clean through her head as with just a little push her body pitched out of the shattered glass, chrome ringing as it hit protrusions the long way down...

  ‘Had that terminal for 7 years...’

  It almost seemed too easy.

  Wasn’t even subdermal armouring to catch the bullet.

  Jack scooped up the untouched data slate, sliding it into one of the jackets larger pockets, taking one last look out the skyline view of Pacifica framed by a kaleidoscope sunset before turning back.

  “This is giving me one hell of a headache.”