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

It took Monroe only a couple of minutes to back the trailer into position. There was nothing to hide the truck and trailer behind, which meant they needed to leave it parked on the road, where it was in full view of anyone who might pass by. It was annoying, but the only thing they could do to offset that was to investigate what Trace had seen as quickly as possible.

A few hundred feet into the brush, they came across a cavity that had been filled with rocks and dirt.

"Can you find a place to stash the truck and trailer that's out of sight?" Trace asked, squinting at the area in front of them. "This will take a bit to clear out."

"Do you know what it is?"

"Kind of…" He muttered. "It's in the shape of a door, and there seems to be a tunnel behind it."

"Is it corpo?"

"No, no, I don't think so. The construction looks old," He shook his head. "I can't get any fine details using that vision mode."

"Someone's old bunker, then?" Monroe said. "Alright, well, it's been here for this long. Let's finish delivering the supplies first. Then, on our way back, we can stop here again and look at what is here."

"Alright, I can agree with that." Trace placed a marker on his map and then headed back to the truck with Monroe.

A few minutes later, they were back on the road and heading towards the Air Force Academy scarpo town.

Monroe was silent, his fingers drumming the steering wheel in thought. "Is what you said about the aberrations and the animals true?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I don't know, something about it is bothering me is all." He shook his head. "Whatever, I'll ask Revlock later, like you said. It looks like we're coming up on an area where we need to leave the highway."

Trace snapped his head around, his attention turning from the side he had been watching to the road ahead. "That's not right. At least, it wasn't this way when we came through this way before. We should have had another few miles before reaching the turnoff."

Monroe slowed and Trace prepped his railgun as they drew closer to the blockage in the road.

"Well, that definitely looks manmade," The man driving said as the truck sat in front of it.

Large boulders and old burned tree husks had been dragged onto the road, blocking it and making it impassable. The sides were blocked as well with smaller pieces of rock. It was one hundred percent made by someone and not a natural occurrence.

"If ever there was a more obvious trap…" Trace muttered. He leaned inside a bit to get a better look at both mirrors on the cab, making sure no one was behind them. "If you want to back up a bit, I'll blow everything away." He said, patting the railgun.

"Sure, I can't wait to see how the raiders react when they discover their little trap has been destroyed."

Trace snorted. "I would love to be there when that happens. However, with any luck, we'll be far away from here when that happens."

As soon as Monroe had backed the truck and trailer up far enough, Trace hopped out with his railgun at the ready. He upped the power of the gun by a few degrees and then put his finger on the trigger, charging the capacitors. As soon as it was ready, he aimed and fired at the largest of the boulders.

It took him three shots to clear the road enough for them to pass through. It could have been done with less, but he didn't want to damage the road more than he needed to. As it was, the boulders and tree husks had been destroyed, leaving only small rubble that their tires could roll over without issue.

With that taken care of, they continued on and when the time came left the highway at the same point Trace had done so before. Beyond that area, the road actually was damaged and unpassable. There were no simple traps or other tricks to be found, just actual damage caused by age, weather, and past occurrences.

True to their needs, Monroe kept the speed of the truck down as they traveled off-road, doing his best to navigate around the visible holes. All of the raiders seemed to have gone to where they expected people to appear or were sleeping, as they remained undisturbed.

A short while later, they were nearing their fourth town and this time there was no one to complain that they were late this time. Without access to the network, they hadn't been able to provide them with an actual time. As far as anyone there knew, they were right on time.

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***

"Despite what happened to them, Manitou Springs was actually a pretty nice little town," Trace said as they were making their way back after dropping off the last load.

The trailer was now empty, save for the items they had gathered from the bandits earlier and all the tires. The Air Force Academy had possessed the last of the trailer tires they needed to fully replace them. While the members of the town were unloading the supplies, he and Monroe had worked to swap them out.

Night had fallen, and they were nearing the off-road section that worried them the most.

"What are the odds the raiders are going to be waiting for us?" Monroe asked.

Trace grabbed his helmet and slipped it on. "Not a doubt in my mind. Let me get on the roof and tied on before you really get moving." He grabbed his bag, tightened the belts, and with some ropes in hand, climbed out the window and onto the roof for the second time that day.

As soon as he had tied himself into place, he smacked his hand onto the roof of the cab, signaling Monroe that he could pick up speed. A minute later, they turned off the highway and onto the dirt road that had been formed through the hills to the side. There were remains of old roads, ancient houses, driveways, and more, all of which had been made use of for this road. It didn't matter how long or winding the path became, the entire point was to not dig a new path through the hills.

It was a twisting, dizzying path, but it worked, even though the old crumbling roads had long since begun to turn to dust and potholes.

No matter where you looked, there were signs of offshoots. Nature reclaimed roads, driveways that still appeared to be in use, and more. No matter how old everything in the area was, signs of tires were constant and heavy.

Due to all those signs, it was impossible to guess where the raiders might appear from, or where their main base could be.

All they could do was keep moving at the same constant pace, while Trace kept his eyes peeled for movement from above. The truck with its headlights was a clear marker for anyone on the lookout. Granted, Trace could have driven it with all the lights off. However, it was almost a full moon and there were few clouds at the moment. In other words, the truck would have been fully visible either way.

It was better to have the more experienced driver behind the wheel, and the one who could actually see up top with his weapon.

With the gain on his eyes raised, Trace studied the surroundings, his helmet quiet save for a constant, annoying whistle near the area where it attached to the rest of his suit. Apparently, he hadn't created a perfect seal and there were small gaps left over. Then again, it had taken a bit of a beating that day. The entire suit was going to need to be fixed once he got back. That was just at a minimum though. Upgrades to the armor, among other things, needed to be performed.

It hadn't been among his original plans, however, now that he had a sudden influx of credits creating a new enhanced suit might be in order. He had collected hundreds of plans from his short time in G1gl3Myte's tower. Nearly all of them had been incomplete. That said, the information had been useful to Deckard. The few complete schematics had been even more valuable, though only in the sense that knowledge was valuable.

Trace had spent some time with Deckard going through the information and had the beginning design of a new, enhanced suit sitting on his desk computer. The new suit would contain synth muscles, armor, a full rebreather, and of course the stealth enhancements, among other things. It was bulkier, made for battle, and came with appropriate costs.

He hadn't been intending to make it anytime soon due to costs and the difficulty of procuring certain parts. Now, he was thinking he might need to focus some more on the schematic and see about completing it.

Thinking about all of that was a nice way to keep his mind occupied until he finally saw some vehicles sneaking closer. Trace tapped the roof, one time for each vehicle he spotted. He double-checked the power-setting on the railgun, and with his finger on the trigger, began charging the super-capacitors.

He would wait until they were closer before making his move. The gun was loud, and each shot would highlight the barrel with a brilliant light.

Monroe continued driving, acting like he had no concern in the world. He knew Trace would handle it the best he could, and if the time came when he couldn't handle it, then he would let Monroe know it was time to stop and step in. He didn't see that happening though, not once the raiders got their own first hand experience with the railgun. The pure destruction it could bring to bear was terrifying, and he never wanted to be on the other end of such a weapon.

The first car, a lifted four-door affair, broke cover. As though that was the signal, the rest lurched to life, their oversized tires spinning in the dirt for a second before throwing the cars violently forward.

Still, Trace held his fire, waiting for them to get a little closer, or for the first idiot to try and shoot at them.

They still wanted to collect some more goodies from the raiders, if at all possible. That didn't mean they wanted to walk more than needed while collecting everything from the vehicles Trace partially destroyed.

The first raider raised his rifle, and before he could fire, Trace sent a bolt straight through the front section of the car. It destroyed the axle and motor, plunging the front end into the ground and flipping it into the air.

He switched targets and shot the one that had been nearest it. Each time he fired, the front portion of a car would vanish, and it would begin to flip through the air. The people inside would then get dizzily flattened or thrown free, as the case might be. Either way, they rarely escaped without injury, as even the raiders that were now scattered across the area now had broken limbs or malfunctioning cyberware. The impacts they had suffered were too strong for the parts they had.

It took Trace eliminating three cars ahead of them on the right before the rest in that area began to get the hint. With that side taken care of, he began to work on the left. Unfortunately, the people on that side were not as smart as their friends on the right had been. He had to destroy six cars before the rest fled, not that there were many of them left by that point.

With that completed, he cut the ropes tying him to the roof and carefully ran across the cab's top. With a powerful leap, he jumped onto the trailer. From his new vantage point, he spotted another four pursuers. These were in trucks instead of cars.

Sliding to a stop, Trace felt his perk 'Overdrive 1' activate as his brain dumped adrenaline into his body. The world slowed as he aimed, squeezed the trigger, and repeated the action, again and again. Four times.