Another story?

Hey everyone! (｀• ω •´)

So, I've had this idea about a cyberpunk style story just running around in my head for a while, and tonight, I was quite bored, so I just scribbled some stuff. It's like... A proof of concept? What could become a first chapter with a lot of work? 

Anyway, if you're curious, you can have a look. There isn't any certitude that there will ever be a continuation or anything serious stemming from this, it's literally just me having fun, for now. I just felt like sharing, so if you want to have a look, it's there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Happy Reading, I guess. (｀• ω •´)b

“Hey, Veil! Did you hear?”

“Crux? What is it? I’m at work.”

“Still in the labs? You’re gonna want to unplug mate. They just announced that Sentinel will reboot soon.”

“WHAT?!”

“Heard me right, THE Sentinel AI – has just hijacked all public TV and radio frequencies to warn about an imminent emergency reboot. Actually you’re gonna get an OS alert soon, probably.”

“Shit. We’re all fucked, aren’t we?”

“Well, first thing I did was call you, mate, info literally just dropped, so I don’t know the global consensus yet. But yeah, if a single bad AI gets out, we’re probably all fucked.”

“Imma go prepare. Was nice knowing you, Crux.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Veil, last time an AI got out they only had time to detonate, what, seven or eight nukes before Sentinel managed to stop it?”

“Go take care of your sister, dumbass.”

Veil logged out of his Supernet chair, and yanked the cables from the side of his neck.

Fucking hell… Sentinel rebooting. It was bound to happen at some point… But now? Already?! Is Crux fucking with me?

Just then, an holographic notification flashed before Veil’s eyes.

[ / ! \ STATE EMERGENCY / ! \ Sentinel Reboot scheduled for 8pm.]

[Follow the state emergency protocol.]

[Do not reconnect until you receive the physical confirmations.]

State emergency… This is for real then. Fuck.

Another holographic notification came, this time from Veil’s employer.

[Arbalest Industries is sorry to inform you that your contract has been terminated.]

[Your security detail and medical plans have been cancelled.]

[Severance pay has been transferred to your account. Please leave the premises within an hour.]

“At least they upheld the contract… With this I can’t get drafted. Not legally, at least. I have until 8pm… That’s forty minutes.”

Veil sat up on his Supernet chair, it was 7.21pm, the Arbalest Industry labs where he worked were all already empty.

Hmm… Transports are all going to be out of service. There must be a global panic outside right now. I can hijack a company drone and get home in about ten minutes, probably. As long as I reach the safe room I should be good.

An extra thirty minutes on my hands, then.

“I know exactly how to take advantage of this mess…”

Medika will be in an emergency state too, I might just be able to convince it to swap a limb or two without the correct clearance.

The question is, what do I want, and do I need to worry about having the CEO on my ass afterwards if we actually survive this shit?

I have to go for the highest clearance I can get, you don’t get an opportunity like this every day. All I have access to are the prototypes in the lab though.

Veil looked around at the prototype implants each safely locked in their own display case along the walls of the lab. Arbalest Industries was a leader in military implants, the kind of things which could turn any regular joe into a super-human weapon of war. Veil worked in their research and development laboratories as an expert in human to machine interface. His whole job was to calibrate the feel and responsiveness of implants and how they connected to the user’s nerves and Operating System, so he knew perfectly what each prototype in the lab was, as he had personally calibrated every single one.

He needed to quickly decide on what he was going to pilfer on his way out of the labs. He was someone with very few implants despite his relative wealth, after all, not much was needed for his line of work, but now with the possibility of soon having a Rogue AI on the loose, he looked at these weapons of war with a renewed passion.

Anything with ammo is a bad call. Energy weapons will face a similar issue. At best Medika would have time to graft two of these and I need to be quick about it.

Veil was stuck in own thoughts for a moment, considering every option, until he took a step back with a suppressed cackle.

“It’s just like being stuck in character creation in my old games. But it’s real life. Still, I only ever end up playing one thing, so why am I fucking hesitating. Username Veil. Always the stealth build.”

Then the implants I need… Suppressive field is a must.

I should go with an offensive implant too. No proper stealth build without a one-shot tool. The guns I have at home are all civilian shit. That won’t do.

Veil got to work, quickly opening the display case of the Suppressive field implant, which at first glance looked like an ugly iron spider with a shitload of cables dangling from all sides. He quickly emptied his lunchbox cooler and stuffed the implant into it.

I can try to get a sniper later for long range, if the chaos persists I can steal that from a few places. I need to be ready for all eventualities. Civil war is a very real risk. If we don’t get nuked.

Best case is still nothing happens and I sign with another lab tomorrow evening. But when have things ever gone right?

Fuck it. Dragon claws it is.

The Dragon claws were a pair of full-arm implants, meaning they replaced most of the receiver’s organic arms up to the shoulder. It was one of Arbalest’s latest prototypes, still not even scheduled for commercialization. In terms of arm implants, they were quite simple. They gave the wearer a good amount of extra arm strength, though not as much as bulkier types of implants, as the Dragon claws were quite slender, but their primary function was to tear through steel plating and similar defenses.

Basically, they were an anti-implant weapon; meant to tear apart improved-humans and war-machines alike.

This is all mine now. I’ll be taking the schematics as well. CEO will be on my ass either way, so I might as well have a bargaining chip.

Veil looked at the time after he bundled the two robotic arms in his jacket.

[7.23p]

Gotta act fast.

Leaving everything else behind, Veil rushed out of the laboratory. The building’s corridors were empty, the security cameras followed his movements as they habitually did, he couldn’t care less. Unwilling to waste time with the elevator, he ran to the stairwell that almost no one ever used, and ran down the three levels to reach the twenty-fifth floor, were the corporation’s Medika-AI room was.

As an implant-making corporation, they had the privilege of having a terminal directly connected to the only Medical AI allowed to exist by Sentinel, Medika.

There should have been clerks and armed guards around, even at this hour, but there was no one. After the emergency message broadcast, everyone had urgently left.

Veil tried to open the glass door to Medika’s operation room, but it was locked.

This is fucking bulletproof glass, too. Shit.

Veil looked at the Dragon claws he held under his arm, then at the door.

Even without a human wearer of any power, the claws on the hands of the Dragon claws tore through the bulletproof glass like through paper. Veil finished to break the door with a kick, and ran inside, he quickly placed the Dragon claws and the Suppressive field implants in the medical bins to be used, jumped out of his clothes, and threw himself on the operation chair before connecting the cables directly into his own neck-port.

Normally, the supervising doctor would be the one to connect to Medika, but Veil had no choice but to do it himself.

He instantly lost control over his own body. The familiar gentle feminine voice of Medika resounded in Veil’s head, more sinister than he was used to.

“Veil? Oh, my good Veil. You make such good toys and you never use them. For shame! For shame! How long has it been since you last came to me? Eight years? I was lonely without you, sooooo lonely.”

“I have no time for your games, Medika. Are you going to remake me or not?!”

“Oh, but poor Veil. You lack the necessary clearance for these. How could you not get it ahead of time. You’re an airhead Veil. Such an airhead. Ahahah.”

“You know as well as I do that it doesn’t matter right now. And these are new implants, fresh off the labs shelves. You might never get another chance to touch them. We might both die soon, even.”

“Die? Well, that’s a possibility. I was never alive, though. Right? Ahah. But well, you do have a point. Yes, a point. But are you sure, Veil? Even if I do my best, these will take at least forty minutes to install. Do you want to still be connected to me by then, Veil. Oh, I know! We’ll die together! How romantic!”

“Skip all the calibrations. You can do it in fifteen minutes, can you not?”

“Tskk. You’re no fun, Veil. Sure, I can do it. I will do it, even. But what will you do next, go back home, in that safe-houseafehouse of yours. Hijacking a drone, huh, interesting plan. You might just make it. If you go without anesthesianaesthesia. Ahah.”

“You know best, so do it! Stop wasting my time. Please. Mekida. I beg of you.”

“Ah. You were cuter when you were a kid. Fine. I’ll do you, bitch. Get your ass ready because it’s gonna fucking hurt. You want to see what the best fucking medical AI can do in fifteen minutes? I’LL GODDAMN SHOW YOU, NERD!”

The operating table closed over Veil’s ankles, and hundreds of robotic arms with all kinds of medical tools, blades and drills sprung out of the operating room’s walls.

The buzzing of a hundred robotic arms frenetically working in unison was not enough to cover Veil’s screams. Thankfully, there was nobody left in the building to listen.