Created G.H.O.S.T. System - A Cyberpunk Story

The change that came about from this latest upgrade was odd in many ways. The NetConnect helped to control all the cyberware a person possessed, acting as a sort of translation bridge between what was natural and what wasn't. It was still possible to use them without it, however; the difficulty ramped up considerably at that point and the pressure on one's brain also increased.

Trace had managed to continue using his military-spec eyes after that EMP pulse he had created months earlier. It had been a strain, especially once he activated the special functions, but he had managed it.

The point was that upgrading the NetConnect made that bridge smoother, shorter, and able to operate at higher speeds. Yet, at the end of the day, the limit was still the cyberware itself.

He noticed the largest change in the NetConnect itself, simply because it was closest to the change. Yet, there was also a small increase in the processing speed of his eyes and arm. Nothing massive, but enough that it was noticeable by an internal benchmark program.

Trace hurried to the bathroom and looked over the latest notifications while he was releasing the stream of silver. He was annoyed to find that the percentage next to nanite destruction had just increased sharply with this little act. It made sense, but they hadn't been diverting excess energy from his brain. They had simply been used.

The sound of voices passing nearby woke him from his reverie, and he quickly cleaned up and joined Monroe and the others outside. They had finished with the wheels and were ready to put them on. He might not have been able to help with what they had been doing before, but he could certainly help with this part.

A short while later, they were back on the road, toward their next delivery site. They were heading to the Air Force Academy scarpo town, and from there on to Manitou Springs. After that, they would head back to Denver with a mostly empty trailer. The only items inside would be whatever they salvaged from the raiders on the way back.

He would need to give Monroe a heads-up about Deckard's warning as well. They shouldn't have any problems, but corpos and the pig-sniffing biscuit lickers rarely played by the rules.

Over the next short while, Monroe gradually picked up speed, while Trace kept an eye on their surroundings and on the tires of the trailer. With less than a half-full trailer, the weight wasn't quite as major of a concern as it had been before. As such, the big man felt comfortable pushing the semi to higher speeds than he had originally estimated safe for the smaller tires.

"Well, on these roads, this speed is fine. As soon as we hit any sort of poor conditions though, you're going to need to slow way down."

Monroe nodded, already knowing that, as he had far more experience driving this sort of large truck and trailer than Trace. "Yup, just making good time while we can. Where did you and Ko run into the raiders before?"

"On one of the off-road portions near the highway closer to the Colorado Springs ruins. We still have a long way to go before we get to that area."

"Is this thing going to be alright with the off-road sections?"

Trace thought the question over before answering, as it wasn't as simple as it first appeared. They had planned on going through those areas with a trailer that drove several inches higher than it currently did. Its current tires were an unwelcome wrinkle that affected more than just their speed or ability to drive over potholes.

"I think we'll be fine," He replied slowly. "All the wheels and tires you three modified were from the trucks, so they were naturally larger in size than the ones from the cars. It might be close in a few places, and we'll obviously want to go slow, but I don't remember there being any truly bad areas." He shrugged. "Then again, it's been a few weeks. Who knows what the colder temperatures might have done?"

"Yeah, it's getting cold alright," Monroe muttered. "If I had thought we were going to be stuck out here overnight, I would have packed more than a few blankets and my coat. Do you have any idea how much my jaw starts to ache in the cold? The portions that needed to be rebuilt and reconstructed just sap the heat from your body. I normally have to sleep on a heated mat just to offset it. You'll want to get a heated sleeve and shoulder joint for your arm before it gets too much colder."

"I've seen what happens to people who can't afford to properly care for themselves," Trace said, remembering his days on the streets. "Have you ever seen someone whose cyberware got so cold that it froze to their skin before?"

He had. It wasn't even uncommon among the street-meat. He had scars around his NetConnect from exactly that. Back then, protecting his neck from frostbite had been far less important than keeping his eyes from freezing in their sockets. That was damage that kids didn't come back from. The surgery cost too much, and street-meat lacked the money for something like that. No longer having the use of your eyes was a death sentence. Pain in the neck and another scar hurt, but it was something that he could and had survived.

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Others had it worse, like those with cyberware limbs. Getting frostbite at the connection point not only hurt, but it also led to further problems down the line. The nerves inevitably became damaged, which affected their ability to use the limb. In turn, the surgery would need to be redone on undamaged nerves. Something that again cost money.

It was cheaper, if not always easier, to protect those areas.

Thankfully, the corporations had finally gotten smart and newer cyberware had mostly fixed this issue. Case in point being Trace's NetConnect and arm, both of which came from Vinna-Kwoi. They came with built-in heaters. His eyes, on the other hand, were made from materials other than metal and were less receptive to the problems caused by the cold.

New materials, and built-in heaters, those were their solutions. It had taken them a long time to get there, but they had finally managed it.

Of course, that didn't mean he was going to put his trust in them completely. It was better to be safe than sorry.

"I've got stuff for my eyes and neck, obviously. I still need to prep the one for my arm and shoulder." He admitted, deciding not to mention that it had a heater built-in. No reason to make the big man jealous.

"Well, you still have a couple of weeks left before it starts to get really cold."

The cab fell back into silence as the miles fell by. It was getting late in the day, and despite them being several hours late by that point, it felt good to be back on track.

"We're about to leave the range of the network," Trace announced moments before their ability to send or receive any form of message vanished.

"Wait, what?" Monroe jerked the wheel in surprise. "We barely even lost network when we entered the badlands in Wyoming. How did we lose here just a few hours outside of Denver?"

"You want the answer I was told, or the one I actually believe?"

"Which one is more believable?"

"Eh, I guess it depends on how gullible you are."

"Whatever, just tell them both to me."

"Fine, the network towers in the area were destroyed during the war and never repaired."

"Nope, the towers haven't been used for anything but power for a very long time. Even then, most of them are redundant. It takes something on the scale of the badlands wiping them all out to eliminate the power coverage. Our network comes from above, using satellites that the Steel goddess has let us keep using."

Trace nodded pointedly.

"Ah, so that was the gullible part, right? What is it you believe is responsible?"

"I can't say for certain, but we always hear about the hidden corpo labs. I think there is one out here and they're blocking all communication in order to keep it hidden."

"Well, that certainly makes more sense, at least." His fingers strummed the steering wheel. "What are the odds that the raiders out here are connected to them?"

Trace glanced sharply at him; the idea hadn't occurred to him before that moment. It did make a twisted sort of sense though; he supposed. They could be used as a method to ensure no one lingered in the area for too long and to cut down on extraneous traffic, among other things. There was also the idea that they could be used to gather test subjects, depending on what they were doing out there. Really, there were a lot of benefits to such a cooperative existence.

"That is a terrifying thought, and one that also makes a lot of sense." He finally admitted. "Let's not spend more time in their territory than we absolutely need to, yeah?"

Monroe nodded sharply; his eyes glued to the road. They still had some time before they reached the expected raider zones, but just because that was where they usually roamed didn't mean that was where they always stayed.

Trace went back to studying the deadfall and new growth, while occasionally flicking through a few of the different modes in his eyes. He had yet to find anything, but the visual range on most of those modes wasn't exactly the greatest either. They were great when he was inside a building, but in a wide-open area like this where he could potentially see for miles around, their limitations quickly became obvious.

That didn't stop him from trying to use them, as that would be stupid. It simply meant that he didn't truly expect to find anything.

Which was indeed the case, right up until he did… find something, that is.

"Hold up, stop the truck. I just saw something on my infrared heat scan." Trace said, twisting his head as he tried to catch sight of what he had glimpsed moments before.

Monroe took his foot off the accelerator but didn't press the brake just yet. "What was it? There are plenty of animals in this area, you know."

"Regular animals don't show up on IR scans anymore," Trace told him distractedly. "It's a side effect of the changes which created the aberrations. They became like that, while normal animals have adapted in their own way."

The corrupted nanites obviously hadn't been content to simply stay in just one place. However, after the initial burst of uncontrolled changes, they had become calmer in a way. Slowly infecting the rest of the animal kingdom with its own unique strain of the corrupted nanites. One that everyone with the appropriate knowledge feared could someday be activated and turn them all into aberrations.

Unfortunately, the density of nanites inside the animals was so low that the corporations had given up on using them as test subjects.

"What do you mean it's a side effect caused by the changes that created the aberrations? You mean the radiation? What aren't you saying, Trace? What do you know?" Monroe demanded, suddenly slamming on the brakes.

The wheels of the trailer locked up, and it began to jack-knife before he let off the brakes and pushed the accelerator, jumping the semi forward a few feet. It was rough, and it jerked them all about, but it worked to break the locked-up wheels free.

"Talk to Revlock sometime about the subject," Trace told him. "He's the one I found out a lot of this from. All I'll say is that the corporations have been running tests on aberrations for a while now. Remember that bear that broke into my basement?"

"Right, I had actually forgotten about that thing. There were so many annoying unanswered questions that I forced myself to forget about it, otherwise it was going to drive me crazy."

"Well, I can't answer your questions. I've promised others I won't talk about certain things. But depending on what I saw, maybe you'll still learn a few things. Or, when we get back, you can just ask Revlock."