Silver Sahara

Chapter 3: Kranos Inc.

Cold, pale blue ceiling lights rush overhead. Cool air brushes along the woman's face. Her eyes faintly open. She feels the sedatives wearing off. Each chemical bond dissipates as she becomes more aware. She tries to move yet can't. Bound to a bed faceless automatons race her through a seemingly endless hall, with dim gray walls, and the red logo of "Kranos Incorporated" painted upon the upper portion of the halls every few minutes. The word whirls in her head. Yet she only draws a blank to its familiarity. Before her mind could unravel the dazing lights she is brought beneath the invasive gaze of a soulless operator. Syringes, bonesaws, blood bags, and metallic claws floating above her. The robotic eye slithers towards her. She feels a prick in her arm, a syringe full of strange fluid. The liquid burns throughout her body. She feels as if her eyes won't close and the lights grow even brighter. Hours upon hours of screaming, crunching, and welding. The woman feels her body warp and contort despite the rigid constraints keeping her bound to the bed. An eternity of torment for a body without recognition. The eldritch surgeon attentively separates the flesh from her bones as if it were a sadistic vulture. Every few hours she gains the courage to glance at the writhing mass of thin metal gorging upon her flesh. Spindly bonelike appendages separate the nerves only to attach wires and coils. She catches the ghastly sight of a hollow cavity within her thigh. If it weren't for the mysterious fluid flushing through her veins, she would have fainted at the horrid sight alone. The alloy beast fixates its gaze upon her. It rapidly moves to her face. It raises two claws just above her eyes. The automoton's single eye eagerly observes her expression as it reaches the claws towards her eyes. The woman screams in fear as the claws consume her vision. Enveloping pain followed by complete void, seeing lingering embers of the room as if envisioning the room though shadowed pupils."AAAH!" The young woman rises with rage from her sy-bench. Hands shaking ravenously she gasped for air attempting to compose herself. The woman looks around her office cell. Across from her is the sturdy steel door, the light above it displaying an orange glow indicating the door is locked. She gives out an exhale of relief upon realizing she was simply in a dream. The woman disconnects a series of cables attached to her augments, reaching from her legs to her neck. The cybernetic augments wrapped around her neck like thin armor. A bright dark steel vertebrae partially protruded from her spine. Her right thigh appears to be removable, with a thin line defining a rectangle with a rim of alloy and dim orange light. Around her ankles was reinforced plating that made her stand a few inches taller. A thin slick blade almost seemingly extends from her mid forearm and ends a few inches past her elbow. The ends of her fingers were moderately sized metallic blades.She leans to inspect the side of the sy-bench. "Low on dopr-weave. Damn brain has to panic and recall bullshit." The woman leaves the sy-bench. She carefully places her hands to rub her spiraled iris eyes. She quickly stopped when feeling her implanted talons lightly cut a fine line beneath one of her brows."Hopefully I'll get my promotion soon. I can have a neural dampener installed." The woman steps over to a terminal beside the sy-bench.She lethargically searches through the device. A variety of options display upon the terminal. All forms of breakfast available in three forms; cafeteria, paste, or compressed. She apathetically chooses "eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns— compressed." The same breakfast she has selected every morning for the past several years.A small handheld canister releases from the side of the terminal. The woman retrieves the canister and presses the nozzle into an opening in her neck. The canister hisses as it releases gas into the woman's body. She groans in discomfort as the compressed meal enters her body. The woman calmly inspects her augmented thigh. Her leg opens to show a holstered gun and a series of bionic threading. She pulls the gun from the holster and checks for any imperfections. Upon seeing nothing wrong she places the gun back into her leg cavity. To which it promptly closes.She begins to get dressed. As she wearily chooses and puts on clothing, her cybernetic eyes read over her contract list given by Kranos Incorporated the moment she woke up. A number of targets planned for the day with bonus pay attached to live captures. The closest target is straight South of Kranos' Western territories. The young woman rushes from her cell eager to complete her triplist. As she makes her way toward the facility elevator another woman rushes to her side."Good morning Alex. Sy-bench treat you well?" The woman starts."Morning Jane." Alex says with a tired expression. "Damn bench ran out of dopr so the memories came back."Jane gives a concerned expression. "Oh no, I hate when that happens. The body likes the augments while the brain makes it a horror story."Alex gives Jane a confused expression. "You make it sound like nothing happened.""Did anything happen Alex? I have my augments, what else matters?" Jane's piercing eyes darted towards Alex. "All that matters to me is the contracts." Jane produces a coy smile.Alex shrugs dismissively."Speaking of my triplist, I have a contract in New Marrakesh! I heard there was a wedding in 'Moonie's' tonight. I've never seen kesh rats get married, I often thought that was a luxury for aristocrats.""Moonie's?" Alex visualizes her confusion with her brow.

"It's a little bar a few miles from Kesh." Jane says dismissively.

"Crashing a wedding outside of town." Alex contemplates the offer.

"Yeah it seems fun. You know how to have fun right?" Jane mocks.Alex glares at Jane. "I have a target nearby. I'll go as long as you're buying enough drinks to rust my liver.""Liver ruster got it." Jane nods. "I'll see ya around Alex I have contracts to fill." Jane runs off down a wide corridor nearly running into another agent."Moonie's tonight." Alex sighs. "At least I'll get a drink." Alex continues walking, her boots creating a metallic thud as she steps upon the cold corporate steel flooring. "Hopefully their whisky doesn't taste like piss."Alex steps into the elevator and selects floor zero. With a sudden jolt she feels her stomach crawl as the elevator lowers down the immense facility. The glass surrounding the elevator displays the vast industrial tower. The central lobby glows a bright red and yellow hugh emitting from a large dark alloy statue displaying four nude humans with immaculate physiques. Three men and one woman. Each one using an arm in a joint effort to hold up the letters "Kranos Incorporate." All four of the statues hold a unique item within their free hands. The woman holds a golden laurel wreath while every man holds one item each; a golden crown, a golden club with a tinge of reddening tarnish on the end, and a golden shield respectively. Alex (along with most others) saw the statue as a grand display of Kranos' awe inspiring power. Though the elevator makes Alex nervous, she finds herself inspired every time she rests her eyes upon the gargantuan statue.Floor zero is nearly empty aside from a few operatives using terminals to claim strider bikes, frontier chariots, and triumph tanks. Alex walks to a terminal. Her face was stained with unease and agitation. After a short delay the terminal beeps and says "thank you Styx unit AL-305x, Strider model 3829 dispensing... Kranos issued anti-material railgun (AM-R) dispensing." The terminal opens its side to reveal a long thin sleek rifle. The floor in front of the terminal opens and a dark hexagon patterned strider bike rises from the floor. Alex swiftly takes the AM-R and attaches it to the strider bike. With everything ready, Alex peels out of the Kranos facility. Entryways low and high materialized the idea of an enormous hive teaming with black and red wasps, venturing forth to claim their blood money upon the frontier. Kranos' West African division worked solely from several monolithic towers bordering the coast line. All not too far from one another and fashioned with the same commercial design. The over 20 story buildings warped all ideas of place, gazing upon the megastructures disturbed the mind. A testament to power even as a far off stygian blur on the horizon. Be it just beneath the nearly inhuman obelisk or far beyond its monumentous presence, conveyed just how indomitable Kranos truly is. As Alex drives the tower's bright neon lights advertise Kranos' products and benefits wrestles against the luminous sunrise. There were no paved roads leading out of the enormous castle-like facility. Instead short stretches of pathways formed just below Kranos vehicles. Smoothly rising and lowering, thin robotic joints shape through gray sand to lift Kranos operatives if needed. Encircling the entirety of Kranos' domain is a thick gray sand. With a thought, operatives could command the gray particles to morph, creating short lived roads, ramps, or sudden make barriers. Alex demanded a path and the sand complied. It shaped a road with ease, as quickly as they constructed they dissipated once again. Every grain besides the newborn road remained still despite the draft caused by Alex's strider. The miniscule gray fibers were reactive to thought and code, not by nature or any macination of wind.Far to the right resides the Atlantic ocean. Cargo ships dock upon an intricate hub of trade. Large cranes, mountainous shipping containers, and airship deliveries; the harbor teems with life, from entire cyberframes to regs conducting all manner of business with Kranos. The port supplied the towers with meat and metal for their wars while exporting the currency earned from such endeavors. A complex business done with ease, no concern for politics or pride all there is to mind was how much money could be pilfered. Alex rarely paid notice to the harbor. To her it was an elaborate resupply, where Kranos' seemingly endless ammunition and weaponry came from. Just another distant sight more akin to a backdrop to her endless corporate tedium. Besides, the sunlight reflected harshly off the shifting turquoise blue waves. Its illustrious shimmer blinds her vision and induces a migraine. If there was a contract going West, toward the big blue, perhaps then she would pay it mind. Until then it simply did not concern her.