(Unfinished) Richard Parker, Early History, Part 1

[Richard Parker]

A small pulse through my frame woke me, slowly activating my implants and checking my responses. Enforcements, spine, heart, eyes, supportive brain functions, power armor, RPOS, and finally high-level conscious brain functions. The part that makes me “me” in this sack of meat and technology. The expendable part, the replaceable part, always comes last.

“Suit, systems status please.” An unnecessary sub-vocalization, the suit, my power armor had tendrils of smart matter coupled with my spine and brain. All I had to do was think at it and it would respond, but in a superstitious reflex to being shut down I liked to feel the movement of my throat form my first words.

“Bio functions nominal. Higher brain functions in flux, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and coriticosteroids levels all indicate a state of hyperstress.” The suit responded.

“What do you expect? I’ve been sitting on a roof for Reza knows how long waiting for target acquisition.” I said, “What are my oxytocin levels?”

“Oxytocin levels are two percent further out of norm than 24 hours ago. Rate of change is accelerating at a rate of .25% every 8 hours.”

“Thank you. Patch local NCPD data to this location, passively, and correlate against primary target and target of opportunity data. Maintain neutral body signature.”

Another unnecessary request, even in down time, with the suit effectively shutting down all of my body functions, it continued to follow mission parameters. It woke me up because somewhere in the city, something had noticed my target.

Oxytocin is the natural chemical responsible for inhibiting memory. By using the chemicals that the brain already makes, it's the most efficient way of cleaning out someone's brain of traumatic details. For the last week my brain had been out of whack, producing more and more of the chemical. Almost like there was a battle going on in my head, something trying to push past my subconscious, and something else desperately trying to keep it back. Every 6 months I went in for an overhaul, killing for money is not easy on the mind, and Reza’s technologists were very good at helping people to forget.

“Suit, when is my next overhaul?” I asked.

“Your next scheduled maintenance is set for December 23rd, at 02:20. Exactly three months, twenty two days, three hours, and fourteen minutes from now.”

Only three months in the field since my last overhaul, and already I was in need of a tune-up. As part of my contract, which I don’t remember signing, or ever actually seeing, my first duty was to remain completely out of sight and contact unless there was a biological problem just such as this. Reza didn’t need to know mission updates, and unless I was directly compromised, I wasn’t even supposed to report back in until my maintenance period. NCPD would find any of my targets well before their bodies cooled. The fight going on in my head was a different thing though, and while I didn’t have any dangerous information stored in my head, at least none that I knew about, however, the technology I carried was another story all together. As usual, the meat is expendable.

“Activate passive communications back to headquarters, request overhaul at their earliest convenience.”

A small polyp appeared on the arm of the suit, enlarged to the size of a grape and popped quietly, sending a blast of airbourne messenger nanites into the damp night. They would ride the currents of air until the found a nose that understood them. Most of the CityCom terminals had just such a nose, a few hours at most, a long time considering the technology we had, but I couldn’t jeopardize my position with any form of active communications. Even tight beam laser could be detected. If anyone were bothering to look for me, they wouldn’t have to crack the encrypted beam to know exactly where I was.

With a thought and a blink, I activated my RPOS, overlaying systems status across my vision. In the upper left hand section of my vision, a counter displayed, slowly incrementing targets of opportunity in the vicinity. By changing where I focused my vision and blinking I could activate certain bits of the RPOS to check weapons status, inventory, or even maps.

I focused on the counter, blinked, and a list of names appeared. Each target of opportunity was a criminal in one fashion or another. Around here, on the edges of Via Rosso, most of the crime was fairly petty, primarily embezzlement, the rich grabbing even more of the pie than they could ever possibly use. As a matter of practice, death was the easiest way of capturing the criminals. One well-placed bullet to the base of the neck was sufficient to activate a GeneRep, in the case of most citizens they ended up back at their apartment with little more than a horrible hangover. With criminals however, NCPD rerouted the GeneRep directly to the basement of NCPD headquarters. Their renewed lease on life was greeted by a cold sterile room, and a group of none too friendly doctors preparing to pull all the details of their crimes forcibly from their skulls.

Tonight, my target was a criminal of another sort. Lupus Reed had been identified passing information to the Fallen Angels, a group of renegade technologists. The Fallen Angels were a subversive organization, supplanting their ideologies into the heart of Neocron at every turn. They tampered with forbidden technologies stolen from the archives of the Ceres Disks, and each member of that organization was hardly worthy of the ammunition required to remove them from the city.

Reed was expected to meet a contact from the Fallen Angels sometime tonight. My primary target was Reed, and my secondary target was his contact. I had no details beyond an approximate time and location, Reed could be passing on a recipe for cookies for all I knew, but if CityAdmin had targeted him as a threat to security, it was sure to be something a bit more important. Fortunately their choice of location was secluded, and one of the quietest parts of the city at this time of day. All the shops in Neocron stayed open 24 hours a day, but that didn’t mean they had customers.

Nothing to do now but wait.

***

A flash of red in my RPOS indicated that Reed had been spotted by an automatic system nearing the vicinity of my position.

“Suit, expand details on current location of target.” I said.

My RPOS flickered as a new stream of information was passed in from security sensors around the area.

“Target has been spotted exiting from Hovercab, and is proceeding toward this location. ETA is 7 minutes.”

“Suit, current status of target.”

Once again, my RPOS flickered. Security sensors in the vicinity of Reed sampled the air, reporting on his defenses, current health and emotional state.

“Target is in good health, negligible stress levels. Defenses are limited to a standard pinfire nailgun, and a plasma weapon of unknown origin. Target currently has a Law Enforcer installed. Soul Light levels are high.” Reported the suit.

A criminal of this sort normally has exceptionally high stress levels, and outstanding defenses. Of course the man could just be stupid, what was more troubling is the Soul Light levels, and the presence of a Law Enforcer.

The Law Enforcer was Reza’s gift to the people. Dedicated citizens of Neocron kept the device implanted in their brains, it prevented them from killing other citizens, and other citizens from killing them. In my line of work I didn’t have the luxury of such a device.

Soul Light was a reflection of the level of criminality of the individual. The RPOS would identify people with low ‘SL’ as criminals, highlighting them in red. It was an excellent way of judging the quality of people you were associating with.

Reza knows best, there were ways of getting around Law Enforcers and Soul Light. The presence of either does not necessarily indicate that the man is free of sin.

“Suit, power up rifle, ammunition, Cocktail #1.”

The suit mindlessly took me through the setup of my rifle, arms moving as if they were possessed, and pieces of the weapon flowing from my pack to my hands. I knew the weapon by heart and could assemble it blindfolded, but it was always fascinating to watch. Stock to chamber, chamber to barrel, stand to barrel, now the silencing cowl over the entire device, and finally the ammunition.

Cocktail #1 was a small compressed packet of nanites, seated on the end of a 7.62mm round, designed originally for weakening the structure of heavy armor. It met with limited field success, falling short of the promises of “turning armor in to jelly” as the original adverts had claimed, until someone discovered the strange effects it had on diamond. When the nanites infiltrated the carbon structure of a diamond, such as the kind used in windows throughout Neocron, the structure of the diamond began to break down. Windows became brittle, and when either high current or a plasma field was passed through them, the exploded violently. Extremely useful for crowd control, a spray of diamond fragments tends to make a mess of flesh, and quickly takes the fight out of people.

I moved to the edge of the rooftop, powered up the rifle and sighted down across the shop fronts. One by one, I targeted each window, firing a single round into each. With every shot, the silencing cowl flared, sapping the energy of the round, converting the explosive flash and out gassing from the rifle into ash, and reducing the speed of the such that the only sound that was heard was a quiet thump of the round hitting the window. It sounded vaguely like someone tossing pebbles at a window, and with no explosive flash from the rifle; I could safely fire shots from my position all night long.

“Suit, activate Nem. Report on ETA of primary target.” I said.

“Acknowledged. ETA is three minutes. Target will be arriving from south zone border. Nemesis coming online now.”

Nem was my baby. Top of the line drone, fast, good armor, with a wicked array of energy weapons. I had dispersed several drones across the rooftops of the area earlier. I controlled Nem, and she controlled up to 6 other drones.

My RPOS showed the status of Nem’s systems, for quick control, I could dive my mind directly into hers. It left my meat sack totally unprotected, but the sheer power of the drone was an intoxicating joy. For now, I would let her do her thing while I watched from above.

“Nem, enable blanket stealth. Take up position, 25 meters above central square. Deploy medico drone 30 meters above passageway from southern zone border. Deploy one gatling to either side of the square under cover.” I said.

Through the sight of the rifle my RPOS highlighted the black shape of Nem quickly rising above the square. The crescent moon shape of the gatling drones each shot swiftly to positions low to the ground and found dark places to the eastern and western sides of the square. The Medico drone was out of sight, but New knew her job well, and while the blanket stealth wouldn’t stop someone from visibly seeing the drone, it kept the drones from being passively identified by personal security systems. To most people, if an RPOS system couldn’t find it, it wasn’t really there, and few people had active scanning systems.

“Target has entered visual range.” Reported the suit.

“Nem, pace the target with Medico. Approach target with drone 5 meters from entrance to the square. When target enters square, deactivate Law Enforcer.”

Using the rifle to spot Reed, I could follow his progress towards the square. He moved without obvious concern, long package under his right arm, and long black hair braided and pulled into a tight bunch at he back of his head. Of normal height and build, he looked more like a scientist than anything else, and while his clothing was of better quality than most, his eyes flickered behind his glasses in such a way that revealed he hadn’t been able to afford an upgrade to his frame and RPOS systems yet. It was obvious he had come into money, just not enough to upgrade his hardware.

The Medico quietly came up behind him, sprayed the back of his neck with a local anesthetic and fired a single hypo shot into, and moved back to safety. The needle sunk into the back of his neck directly between two vertebrae and injected a series of nanophages that were specifically targeted to the electronic scent of a Law Enforcer. Within thirty seconds the Law Enforcer would be a burnt out ruin of an implant in his head, and the nanophages will have replicated the apparent effects of the Law Enforcer.

“Nem, on my mark, lay down a suppressive fire around the target with the gatling drones. Do not hit the target.”

As Reed entered the center of the square, I squirted off a tight radio pulse aimed at his skull, disabling the nanophages. Reed staggered back a few steps, lifting his left arm to his head as his internal systems screeched warnings about the failure of the Law Enforcer.

“Nem; Mark.”

The two gatling drones rose to head height about 2 meters from Reed, and with a high pitched whine spun up their guns and started firing hundreds of rounds per second past him. The box under his arm fell to the ground, scattering its contents underfoot, and he reached into his jacket and pulled out his plasma pistol.

“Nem, maintain covering fire, position gatling drones in front of the shop windows. Drop each drone as soon as target fires his weapon at it.”

Reed ducked to a crouch, and targeted the first drone. With a crackle and muted roar Reeds plasma pistol fired, sending a ball of superheated plasma straight at the drone, which immediately powered down, and dropped to the street, the ball of plasma passing through the position it had held. The discharge from the weapon hit the first window, which exploded inwards, peppering the shopkeepers inside with deadly shards of diamond. Two shopkeepers died instantly, the blood from their bodies misting out into a cloud, which quickly covered their wares in a red blanket.

Reed turned on the second drone. Fired, and two more shop windows exploded. Two more shopkeepers, a waiter, and a couple having diner crumpled to the ground looking like raw meat.

My RPOS showed him move from green, to amber, to deep red as the GeneReps calculated the death toll at his hands. A look of understanding crossed his face and his head dropped, chin to chest. The plasma pistol fell from his grasp amidst the contents of the box he had been carrying.

“Nem, move to head height, and relay message immediately.”

The drone dropped gracefully from the sky two meters from Reed and bobbed gracefully at the level of his head.

“Lupus Reed, you have been identified passing sensitive information to unwholesome factions outside of Neocron. These actions are intolerable. The penalty is death, followed by complete erasure of all memory and genetics records from all archives.”

As Nem played back the recorded message, I loaded a fresh clip of explosive rounds into the rifle and drew a bead onto the back of Reed’s neck.

“Wait, please!” implored Reed, “It’s not what you think! They’re just –“

The cowl rippled around the gun as I fired. The first shot pierced the back of his neck, severing his spinal column from his brain. Death was instant. Two more shots, one passing through his chest destroying his heart and lungs, and the second as he crumpled to the ground severing the base of his spine from his torso. There was no way to put him back together.

“Nem, recall drones to a safe location. Create a record of the incident.”

As Nem photographed the scene and relayed the information to the datacube wired to my suit. I made a visual scan of the contents of the box he had dropped. Flowers, it was a bunch of flowers.

“Suit, identify flowers around corpse of target please.”

“Three dozen gerbera daisies, hot house grown.” It replied.

“Nem, scan daises for any known biotoxins or other anomalies, genetic or otherwise. Suit, report findings.”

“The gerbera daises are a common strain of flowers found in most florist shops throughout the world. There are 23 different hothouses that specialize in this flower. No biotoxins or anomalous data found.” Said the suit.

“What the fuck?” I said incredulously, “Suit, pull up pictures downloaded from Nem.”

A window in my RPOS appeared, clicking one by one through the pictures taking by Nem. One of them showed the box and it’s contents up close. I blinked and tracked a targeting reticle across the image, zooming in on the contents as I did. There was a small note that said simply “Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad”. I closed my eyes and shut off the RPOS.

“Good lord, what have I done?” I said aloud.

The cold muzzle of a gun pressed itself to the back of my neck, sending a shiver down my spine.

“Your job.” It was a woman’s voice. I heard the creak of springs tensing inside the weapon, a click and one very loud, very short bang.

***

“Open your eyes.”

“Open your eyes.”

“Open your eyes…”

[Richard Parker]

Minor spelling and grammer changes will be posted later today.
Part 2 is complete, will be posted today.
Part 3 is about 20% complete, will likely be posted this evening.

[Ressi]

Loving it, this is soooo great

[Richard Parker]

Got a bit distracted by building a 4 slot RoLH, and then the necessary testing.

Okay, a little clarification, that should have read "sleep cycles", my "days" don't match with what most people consider "days"

[Dr J Zoidberg]

richard.....

i got bored reading the first apart ... then i gave up reading it coy i saw the scroller


WTF!!!!!

[Richard Parker]

I'm sorry your attention span can be likened to that of a gnat.

If you have nothing good to say, kindly shut your pie hole.

[Dr J Zoidberg]

i am a knat....
and i have read it now...

good stuff!!

hehe

and i do ahve a pie hole!!

<--- pie goes in here

[Morpheous]

Paart 2!!!

Richard = Uber


11111!!!!!ONEONEONE11!!1111ELEVENELEVENONE!!!111

[Morpheous]

Whens part 2 coming? Or part 3....


Neeeeed more RP stories and I can't be bothered to write the sequel to Sentinel...

[Ressi]

Richard, dear, we are all waiting for part 2 and we are getting desperate

[Richard Parker]

I know

Okay, here's the deal people,you may have noticed I haven't been seen around TH much lately. Well, my wife is back in town, I haven't seen her in about 3 months, so I'm spending a lot more time with her than I am in front of the computer. This means more time curled up on the couch watching movies (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen sucked ASS) and less time both writing, and playing NC.

So, here's where the story stands so far. Part 2 has been mostly rewritten. While the detail in the original Part 2 is important, the storyline didn't have exactly the feel I was looking for. So instead of cramming all the detail into one vignette, I've broadened it, and made a bit longer of a story out of the entire thing. Right now there are at least 4 parts on the drawing board, 2 is mostly complete, 3 and 4 have scenes done and are sketched. Because of the length of part 4, it might get split into 2 parts (part 4 and 5 respectively) and if I may add a nice note of tension, that's where the shit really hits the fan.

In fact, it's actually the final part of the story that started me off on the history kick. It's been plaguing my RL dreams for months now, and I really hope that I can make it as cool in type as it is in my head.

Part 2 introduces some familiar faces, though you may not recognize them at first. Pi is also introduced, since he's Richard's brother I felt it important to develop him into the storyline, and he's actually an integral piece of part 3 and part 4/5. From part 3 onwards expect to see a lot of faces you might recognize.

And that's all the sneak preview you're getting for now.

In a nutshell folks, I am working on it, and it is coming. The story is so much a part of my active thought that if I don't get it out, it will plague me forever. I'm very glad however that I didn't deliver part 2 on time, I wasn't exactly as pleased with it as I am with Part 1, and I'm happy that I've had the chance to rewrite it.

Your patience will be rewarded

[Dr J Zoidberg]

its been two month now WHERE IS PART 2 ????