Shadow Runner [LitRPG]

It was a sad state of affairs, but not a single faction involved in the conflict to 'cleanse' the slums actually cared about the residents of said area. Not the Zerx, certainly, and not any of the mercenary companies either.

Not even us. We were focused on one thing and one thing alone: the destruction of the Zerx.

Which, at this moment, meant taking back the formerly impressive building ahead of us.

Once upon a time, the Cattery had stood for stability in the slums. Just about everyone had admired the clean, orderly building and the people who went in and out of it. Sure, those people were gangers. Sure, they weren't the most law-abiding of citizens. People still preferred living in their vicinity if at all possible, since most of their violence was directed towards those who deserved it.

At this point, though? The Cattery looked rather… decrepit.

There were too many marks on the surface of its walls, from bullet pits to splashes of dried color which I suspected were blood, vomit, piss, and worse. And, of course, the Zerx symbol was prominently painted all over the marks of the building's former owners.

People without gang dress were also decidedly scarce. I couldn't see a single one, actually.

That was good. Preferable, even. It made what we were planning to do much less morally dubious.

"Bomb carriers, in."

Mela's words were followed by six unnaturally muscular individuals jumping out of the two transport vehicles we had advancing ahead of our van. They instantly broke into sprints, moving at speeds which no normal unenhanced human could ever hope to match. Even lower-end cybernetics would falter in trying to keep up, and the Zerx rabble blocking the street didn't even have that.

The Zerx still struggled, of course. Bullets bit into our enhanced drones, tearing away skin and shedding bursts of blood. But most of the damage was absorbed and mitigated by the steel-like muscles of our 'shock troops.' They had no trouble reaching the line of Zerx defenders.

One by one, explosions ensued.

The drones could still follow preplanned instructions, so their detonations were sequential. The first tore a hole through both the hastily assembled barricades and the front lines of Zerx. The second claimed far more lives, going off in the middle of the enemy ranks.

The next two were sort of overkill. They scattered the Zerx mob and sent gangers fleeing back towards their HQ. Seeing as our merc drones were still firing at will, that didn't really work out for the Zerx. The majority were gunned down in the first few seconds of their attempted retreat.

That left the last two of our enhanced drones charging straight for the HQ, where they hit the wall and detonated together.

The entire building shook. In a rather ironic twist, I was reminded of that moment so long ago when the Zerx had attempted to take the Kittens down. They, too, had blown an entrance into the building.

I couldn't hold back a bloodthirsty smile as I watched a good section of the building's façade crumble. The new hole revealed all the pathetic Zerx waiting within, watching us with wide, terrified eyes.

No sign of the gorilla squad yet, though, so I couldn't let myself drop my guard.

"Everyone in. Full assault," Mela announced coldly, relaying the order to our entire force of mercenary drones.

Their numbers had diminished a little. We'd lost about thirty of them, their bodies already loaded up in a separate transport and carefully kept out of sight.

Sure, Amelia's abilities meant we could get brand-new drones with relative ease. But it would be a pain to account for so many new people suddenly joining the company, not to mention sorting out their identity and various permits for merc work and similar shit.

Instead, we'd come up with a simple solution.

Since Amelia could do so much to alter people's bodies, why not just get replacement drones and then perform a little bit of cosmetic surgery to make them look exactly like the ones we'd lost? It wasn't like the drones had any kind of social life left. Swapping out people with identical faces wouldn't be all that difficult.

Shaking my head, I abandoned my musings on our sketchy approach to identity theft and body horror. I needed to focus.

The battle continued to rage on. Our mercenary drones pushed their way down the street, mopping up the last remnants of the Zerx and snatching up any survivors to deposit them in our 'prisoner' (cough, experimental subject) transport. Then, finally, they advanced on the building.

The Zerx were not amused, obviously. Their rate of fire would have discouraged anyone but the most suicidal of individuals from making a straight break for the entrance opened by our enhanced troops.

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Luckily, all of our drones had exactly zero self-preservation instincts!

We lost a good third of our mercs in the charge, sure, but the others managed to reach the opening. They plunged inside and took the fight directly to the Zerx.

That's when Mela, Amelia, and I stepped out of the van, flanked by another four hulking figures. We all broke into a sprint immediately.

I winced as the Zerx opened fire on us. Hefting a large, reinforced riot shield in front of me, I pushed Clairvoyance as far as it would go. Thankfully, the bullets either met our shields or the bodies of the enhanced drones, all four of which were protecting us and providing cover as we ran.

But that didn't stop my heart from trying to jump out of my throat every time I glanced at Amelia.

"I still think this is insane!" I shouted. "You could have waited in the van!"

"You will not convince me to leave you alone!" she snapped, her fingers clenching and opening as she huddled behind two enhanced drones. She'd protested my demand that she have two defenders, but if there was one rule I was going to insist we follow, it was this: protect your healer. "Every time I let you out of my sight for too long, you get hurt! Well, now I'm gonna be right here to stop that and heal you if something does happen!"

"You could have —"

"HELLOOOOOO BOYS AND GIRLS! MOMMA IS HOME!"

My words were cut off by Mela's bellowing voice as she suddenly surged forward, her entire body lighting up with Behemoth skills. The crazy idiot didn't even go for the hole opened by our explosive-enhanced drones. Oh no, she ran right up to the stretch of wall next to the hole, reared up on her left leg, and then stomped her right foot forward.

The tremor that followed shook the entire building. I blanched, briefly fearing that the whole structure would collapse. Thankfully, it was only the wall that exploded inwards, showering debris over everyone unlucky enough to find themselves behind it.

I scowled when I saw that two of our drones had been downed by the deluge of crap caused by Mela's impromptu attack. Still, my frustration was tempered by the fact that the cluster of Zerx had also been taken off their feet, if not taken out entirely.

"MELA! BE FUCKING CAREFUL!"

My scream was at least partially drowned out by her cackles. She dropped the shield she was carrying and pulled out a pair of guns, unloading on the stupefied Zerx. My stomach did a horrible flip when Clairvoyance showed me several shooters turning in her direction, only to settle when an enhanced drone suddenly interposed itself between the Zerx and Mela. It soaked up the enemy fire and a few of Mela's shots in the process.

I fought down the urge to screech in frustration. Engaging my Stealth, I slipped through the wall opening to try and flank the defenders in all the chaos. I also engaged both Breach and Ping, taking over the camera system. I frowned when I realized I only got access to the cameras on the ground floor, but I shrugged and fried them anyway.

I wasn't letting the assholes perv on us as we tore apart their defenders.

Between the fading dust clouds of demolished walls, the merc drone assault, Mela's insanity, and the panic within the Zerx ranks, I had a fairly easy time sneaking around. My claws tore through everything in my way. For the time being, my Stalker instincts and my desire to stay as inconspicuous as possible both worked to make me favor melee over guns.

I couldn't lie. In that moment, dancing along with my Stalker skills and relying on Clairvoyance to guide my path, I felt… elated. Delirious, almost. A part of me latched onto blood and death and reveled in it, sighing with delight every time a life was extinguished.

I had to work hard to maintain control of myself. Just about the only thing that made that possible was Amelia.

Even as the world went crazy around me, I couldn't help but keep an eye on her. Every time Clairvoyance told me one of the Zerx was about to take aim at her, I threw myself at them, ripping and tearing. Every time a bullet meant for her hit one of the enhanced drones instead, my heart stuttered.

It helped that in this new chaotic world of screams and spraying blood, she looked like a stoic, untouchable goddess.

Sure, it was probably my bias talking. But she was strolling through the carnage with a gleam of interest in her eyes, perusing the dead and unconscious Zerx more like a person picking out furniture than someone trying to survive a battlefield.

One of the Zerx, apparently not quite as downed as he appeared, surged up and tried to grab her. Amelia just swatted at him carelessly. Her hand rippled through the flesh of his face, and then the Zerx was on the ground, floundering and spasming.

He briefly twisted around, affording me a view of his face, and I had to blink away my shock.

His facial features looked like someone had taken a smear effect to them in one of those photo editors. His eyes were stretched out and probably nonfunctional. His nose was some crooked vestige of its normal human shape. His mouth was completely sealed shut. I didn't think he could breathe anymore, a theory confirmed by his desperate clawing at his mouth, nose, and throat.

I turned away as a shudder went down my spine. My eyes briefly strayed to Amelia in a way that would have made her flush if she'd caught me looking.

All too quickly, however, the battle started to die down.

The ground floor of the Cattery was once again covered in blood, gore, and body parts. But this time, the right side was the one left standing in the wake of combat.

Mela looked to be on cloud nine, a massive smile splitting her face as she took in the destruction she'd wrought. Amelia was already walking around and patching up the merc drones as best she could. Said drones were now moving to line up in front of the stairs and elevators of the floor we'd taken over, prepped and ready for anyone trying to catch us off-guard.

There was something bothering me, though.

"Where are their actual members? This was just chaff," I groused, kicking one of the prone Zerx. They weren't dead, just debilitated by the pain of missing both of their legs. They would have bled out if Amelia hadn't casually sealed the wounds earlier, like she'd done for most of the downed gangers she managed to reach in time.

"Maybe they evacuated?" Mela sniggered, clearly on some kind of a combat high. "This is nowhere near the core of their territory, and ya fried their shit and stole their credits already."

"I guess… or they could be lurking upstairs. You do know how much easier this whole thing would be if we just… you know… levelled the building?" I ventured carefully, wincing when Mela narrowed her eyes at me.

"No. I was fine with the wall-busting plan, but we ain't destroying this place! We can still fix it up once we're done with the Zerx. Probably."

I said nothing. I'd noticed during planning and the assault itself that Mela was rather… fixated on taking back the Kittens' territories. Still, that was a problem for another time.

For now, we had to clear out the rest of the Zerx from their stolen HQ.