Book 1: CyberPunk Londinium

Infiltration

Once we had all left the platform, we split up to search for soldier uniforms. We could've easily taken them from a group, but 3 soldiers being found unconscious together while CyberCorps is searching for 3 people who were deemed enemies of the city. To make it seem less suspicious, Sarah went Downtown, Ron went to the dangerous Suburban District, and I headed on over to Londinium Central. We chose these areas because we knew them extremely well; Sarah grew up in Downtown, Ron came up with Anonymity in the Suburban District, and I had been on many trips to Londinium Central with my mother.

When I arrived, I presumed that there wouldn't be much security inside due to all of the 6R1FF1N rioters. However, upon entry, I saw 3 Superior Guards & at least 12 regular soldiers. As soon as I thought that this couldn't get any more frustrating, a Mecha Guard entered through the ceiling, which was open due to construction. I needed a plan to steal a uniform, and therefore I began surveying the enormous area I had to navigate and work with. You see, whenever I'm in a situation like this, I see the area as one massive canvas, where I'm the artist, and I visualize CyberCorps as those who would try and ruin my work. Using my robotic eye, I scanned one of the Superior Guards and learnt that she had a niece, whom she had been looking after for around 5-6 years. Utilizing this knowledge, I pulled out my phone and connected it into my prosthetic arm, giving me easier access to my hacking equipment. After I had done this, I used the phone to send a fake voice message to the Superior Guard, stating that her niece had fallen ill at school. I saw her explaining this to her troops, as she began to leave the building. The other 2 Superior Guards were a lot simpler. As 1 of them walked past me, I pretended to be shopping for new earplugs (which I ended up stealing for when I was in CyberCorps Tower) and once they had passed me, I snatched a small remote explosive from their belt. Once I had done this, I snuck towards an enormous bit of scaffolding and planted it, and once the 2 Superior Guards were next to each other, I detonated it, leaving 1 dead and the other 1 with both legs broken.

The Mecha Guard should've been easy to defeat, but he had seen me coming. I had pickpocketed a screwdriver from a hardware stand, and mantled up onto a damaged platform above the Mecha Guard. My plan was to jump down and short-circuit the oversized exoskeleton. And if that didn't work, a screwdriver can always be used as a lethal weapon. But as I leapt down, the Mecha Guard reached up and caught me, pinning ne against the wall 15ft in the air. He removed the helmet part of his suit, while keeping me at an arm's length, just to say "I'm supposed to call in backup for people like yourself, but I want to have some fun with you first". After he said this, he once again equipped his helmet for the upcoming battle, and threw me across the Centre, causing me to crash onto the floor. I ran up to him, trying to slide between his suit's legs, but this must've been the same Mecha Guard that I originally saw between those two buildings, as he yelled "NOT THIS TIME!! booting me in the face as he did this. This boot sent me soaring into a pure stone fountain back-first. The force of the attack was so powerful that when I collided with the fountain, it crumbled into pieces. "You ready for more, Jaaaammmeesss" the Mecha Guard asked, tauntingly. This infuriated me, as I didn't want to be called James anymore. I was so angry that once again I was consumed by an uncontrollable rage. I ran at the Mecha Guard, replying with "My name is Maverick!" and as I said Maverick, he tried to crush me, but that's when I found out how strong this prosthetic arm truly was. I miraculously CAUGHT the Mecha Guard's hand. It was too heavy to hold for longer than a few seconds, but it still immensely surprised me. I evaded his attacks until I saw an opportunity to strike. I ran up his arm and leapt onto the back of the helmet section of the suit. "And for your information," I told him, as I jammed my screwdriver into the right side of his neck, leading to him falling onto his front, "I am ALWAYS ready for more.".

Suddenly, upon hearing sounds of destruction and agony, a soldier burst into the room and ran at me. I put my hands up, but as he swung at my gut with his taser, I grabbed his wrist with my left hand and pulled it past me so that his head was just slightly behind my right shoulder. Finally, while keeping a hold of his wrist, I used my right elbow to knock him backwards and causing him to let go of the taser. And while he was dazed, I jammed that taser into his chest until he was fully unconscious. I grabbed his uniform, swapped my phone from my prosthetic arm to my new uniform's gauntlet, and exited the building.

When I arrived outside CyberCorps Tower, I met Ron and Sarah, and we had one final sit down together before we begun our infiltration. "Maverick? What's wrong? You seem..distracted?" questioned Sarah. I paused for a moment before replying with "It's my father. This was his one big dream, and it's finally coming true. It's just a shame that he isn't here to see it happen...to see the Tower fall." I bowed my head, but Ron said "Well, HE isn't here, but something he OWNED is.". I was unsure of what he meant by this. That is, until Ron handed me a device. I instantly recognised it. It was called a "Concealer Ring". It got its name from the fact that it conceals items for you, specifically weapons, and it can even cloak itself. I didn't know what Father had concealed in it, so I put it on. His was modified though; the ring would normally go on the middle finger, but this one was made to go on the little finger. I put it on, and rapidly closed then opened my wrist once. This is what activates Concealer Rings. Doing this revealed a blade strapped to my arm. The blade was mere millimeters from the side of my hand, and had the sharpness of a katana. "I like it," I said, admiring the blade as I sheathed it then unsheathed it a couple of times to get the right feel for it, "but how did you get it?". Sarah told me that after my father was shot in the alleyway, she had seen him (on the cameras that were placed there that fateful night) lightly toss something behind a bin, with a note attached to it. The note read "For Maverick, when the Tower falls". I thanked Sarah and Ron, then I checked the time on my gauntlet. "Right, the patrol patterns should be changing any minute now" I informed Ron and Sarah as I clicked a button on my uniform's neck, which equipped my helmet using nanobots, "so let's get this over with.".

Making it through the entrance and temporarily disabling the cameras was easy enough, but our first minor difficulty came when we reached the elevator. The soldiers must've been changed to Superior Guards when me and my group became wanted by CyberCorps. This wasn't TOO big of an issue though as, since there were no cameras, Ron and I were easily able to tase one and stab the other. We hid the bodies and entered the elevator, tapping the button for floor 26. As we ascended, Sarah suddenly turned to me and said "I know what you said to Ron last night, and I can't let you kill Karim. He must be judged by the law, not by us.". I didn't want to agree, so I just stayed silent and faced the elevator doors as they opened. We exited the elevator and began to head through the corridor towards the server room. When we got to the door, I noticed fingerprints smudged on the keypad that locked the door. 'Real lazy CyberCorps, but I don't mind.' I thought. I entered the code 6749, and led Sarah and Ron to the individual Core Servers, and then proceeded to go to my own one. We each planted the EMPs, and tapped the timer buttons on each one. However, once there was only 1 minute left, the cameras in the room suddenly came on!

We were too late. The alarms had all activated, and soldiers had entered the room. I yelled at Ron and Sarah to get out of here, and we all slipped last the soldiers, using the Data Servers as cover. I signalled for Sarah to run through the door, and for Ron to dive through the window. As soon as they had done this, however, I heard a Superior Guard call out my position, so I dived behind cover and hacked into his rifle, causing it to stun him. I sprinted towards the vent above the door the second that I heard their body hit the floor. I disabled the shield system, and launched myself through the grate. I nearly got to the end of the vent, but a Mecha Guard suddenly punched through the bottom of it and catapulted me onto the floor. Karim was there and he began giving me a speech, but I decided to yell at him, leading to a Superior Guard knocking me unconscious.

What will happen next? I'm not sure, but what I DO know is that I have just woken up in a prison cell without my prosthetics, and I have no idea where Ron or Sarah are. What am I going to do...