Chromium

4.4

The welcome committee consisted of two or three dozen thugs; a poorly armed rabble whose strength lay in numbers.

Most of them carried old laser muskets---single-shot guns well-known for their short range and terrible reload speed---or archaic weapons like old shotguns and rifles dating back to a time when the laser technology wasn't widespread as it is now.

Of course, none of that mattered since they were ten times more than them. Even worse, those street-thugs were in a good position, waiting for them over the balconies of the hovels all around them, hidden behind their windows or the piles of trash and debris scattered on the street.

"Stay still" Omen whispered from beside her when Dia started to raise her gun. "There are too many of them."

She did as asked and lowered her rifle, though her instinct was screaming, telling her to pick a target, and start shooting.

"Throw your guns down" Someone ordered. Dia couldn't tell who. That heavily-accented voice came from above, behind one of those windows.

"Now, now." Reyes said, stepping forward with his hands up. "We are all friends here. There is no need to get all worked up." He continued, his tone friendly and mellifluous. "I am sure we can reach an agree---"

"Shut the fuck up, Reyes!"

Reyes stiffened, his smile faltering as he looked up.

Dia followed his gaze, seeing a man coming out of the building in front of them.

"The time when the Umbra and his goons could order us around is over. We work for ourselves now."

Reyes squinted his eyes, recognition dawning on his face.

"Howkins." He said quietly. "Do you know what you are doing? Who are you dealing with?" He asked, his words closer to a threat than a question.

But Howkins just smiled like he didn't care.

"Throw your gun down, Reyes. I don't want to kill another of the Umbra's goons." But judging from his voice, it seemed he looked forward to that.

"It sounds like it isn't the first time you have done that." Reyes said, his voice shaking with anger while his hands went back where Howkins couldn't see them. Dia blinked when he raised his index finger before closing his hand into a fist. It was a military signal, the army's way to mark a target. Reyes was telling them Howkins was the first person to take out.

"It isn't the first, and it won't be the last" Howkins replied.

"And the Umbra knows about this, Howkins? Does he know you're trying to rebel?" Reyes said while he opened and closed his hand twice. Another signal, the one indicating a diversion.

"This isn't the Umbra's territory, Reyes. It never was."

"All the planet is the Umbra's territory, Howkins." Reyes countered, but Dia wasn't listening to him anymore. She heard something, a noise so low that she would have never heard it if it wasn't for her new augmentations.

It sounded like...a beep? She kept listening, until she heard it again and again. The interval between the sounds was becoming shorter.

And then Dia understood what it was: a bomb, Omen's idea of a diversion.

"Enough of this, Reyes. Throw your guns or..." Howkins started when Reyes suddenly opened both hands before closing them. The signal of attack.

Howkins was still speaking, his mouth half-open when Dia shot, the energy blast opening a hole in his forehead.