Glitch in the God Complex (AmpCore #1)

05 - As Above, So Below

extract_6474_messagelog-hardcache111028
networkIdent:[ACCESS DENIED]

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SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – Could someone please explain to me what the FUCK happened? This was supposed to be a discreet operation and now half the docks are on lock down!

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – Techs are still looking at the data. There was some kind of third party override.

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – Third party?

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – Apparently.

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – How is that even possible?

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – We don't know yet. It doesn't make any sense.

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – And the girl?

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – She's alive. Our assets were liquidated by AmpCore operatives on site.

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – So now AmpCore are involved. Fucking fantastic. So where is she now?

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – We intercepted internal academy comms. The responding agents have her in custody. We believe she's being taken to the academy.

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – What the hell for?

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – We don't have any information yet. My people will keep eyes on for her arrival.

SenderID || [ACCESS DENIED] – Keep me informed. Someone's getting their circuits ripped for this fucking mess.

extract_terminated

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So much for wishes.

No matter how much she didn't want to be here, Piper could do nothing to stop the inexorable advance of the AmpCore academy as it loomed larger and larger in her vision. Toran slowed the car to a glide and locked onto an auto trajectory again, stretching his neck from side to side.

Something clicked and he sighed in satisfaction.

She pressed a fist against her mouth, examining the exterior of the academy as they approached. Logos she knew well were plastered across the different levels, flowing over the armoured walls like water. She saw Skiltron Fireware, Code & Vector Inc, Ardenne Industries, Fare Row Transit, Gammaton Avionics, Prometheus Haulage, Hadrian War-Net and a dozen others battling for space. The heavy hitters with more crypts to burn had larger streams and lingered longer.

As above, so below.

Piper's gaze flicked left and right as the car slowed on its final approach, and she could see the faces of the people outside. There were plenty of people bustling around, some wearing the black coats and grey armour, others clad in tight-fit dark uniforms, all of them branded with corporate logos. Owned.

She saw a whole range, from grizzled looking older men and women, to kids that couldn't have been more than fifteen or sixteen hustling back and forth under the direction of their seniors.

They slid to a halt and Piper realised that she really wanted to be sick. This place was too much. If felt like the air was sparking. The car door opened and she slid out, only to find that with nothing as a buffer the sensation was worse. Her bones stung and she could feel the fire behind her eyes.

What's happening to me?

A gentle grip closed on her arm and she jolted in surprise. As quickly as it had come the feeling disappeared and she found herself standing on the sidewalk. People flowed around her, giving her disapproving looks.