Through the Glass Darkly

[arcanus]

Sumitomo , Los Angeles - 2019

Divergence Point: The Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbour destroys the US Pacific carrier fleet.
This leads to a Japanese Invasions of Pearl Harbour, Midway, Siberia, Austria and India, the US are unable to aid Russia and
Great Britain and Germany wins the European War.
German Submarine missions to Japan are successful in equipping the Japanese air force with Jet Fighters, faced with overwhelming
odds despite their production capacity the US sue for peace.
The Reich collapses to internal dissent in the 1980s, while Japan establishes itself as a World Dominant Megapower.
The world is now gripped in a desolate cyberpunk dystopia with Japanese Zaibutsu corporations Controlling most of the globe.

Looking along gleaming corridors, full of silvered glass, hard machined lines and data consoles.
Earl Cartwright readied himself, the intruder was moving rapidly in his direction through the labyrinthine corridors of the 62nd floor of the Sentou Kiun Zaibutsu’s Los Angeles tower.
The bulk of the corporations duty security forces were Shepparding their raider toward the fortified West wing and its drone guardians, Earl a second class American prepared by instructing the anthropoid guard drones to cover the corridor.

The silence of the tower was always eerie, its mirror polished surfaces literally so free of static that a pin could be heard to drop, a sterile vacuous space.
That frozen quiet was suddenly shattered as the intruder sprinted around the corridor, Earl’s eyes widened in horror, the figure ran not upon the floor but along the walls and even across the ceiling and down onto the opposite wall.
“St st st STOP Hi him” blurted Earl, he felt an uncomfortable warmth feeling spread across his groin, if it weren’t for his abject fear for his life he’d take that as a significant blow to his pride.
The drones sped forward, barrelling him out of the way, their imperative being the Japanese masters of the tower, the figure didn’t falter once again sprinting from the floor across the wall, as he did so he drew two large pistols.

The guns emitted little noise a small clicking sound, followed by a slight whistle accompanying a succession of rounds tearing through the drones, Earl stared in shock as the automatons shuddered and collapsed, there was no way that a few bullets should have stopped them.

Earl hissed into his datacom “The Intruders got a beam weapon”, then he wept

Midnight vaulted the collapsing mass of machines, leaving the whimpering guard as he sprinted on, the schematics of the building indicated this to be the most built up section, but also that the West Wing had a clear view of the New York skyline.
However the Japanaese corporations security had responded a little faster then anticipated and it wasn’t his style to fight an army, in and out that was the true way.

He rounded another corner, more guards, each bringing their weapons to bear once they’d composed themselves, he vaulted bouncing off the wall and rotated into an almost gymnastic body twist guns pointed forwards he fired as he corkscrewed through their volley of fire.
Midnight had no compunctions about killing however unlike the majority of his race he had little interest in depriving the families of mere security guards from their loved ones.

Contrary to what his pointy eared hearing had overheard the last guard whispering he wasn’t carrying an energy weapon, he had on occasion carried contraband equipment but he’d seen firsthand the untold damage his own people had wrought having obtained high technologies from other World lines.
Infinities secret was a good thing, no his equipment was comparable to this World lines but carried enough differences to cause their technology issue.
From EMP rounds to the inertia gel rounds that blew the guards off their feet and left them moaning upon the ground.

Despite the extreme level of fitness that came from inhuman musculature and rigorous training he was tiring, time was ticking as he spurred himself forwards towards the Towers West wall.

[arcanus]

Sumitomo, Los Angeles - 2019
The apex of the Sentou Kiun Mother tower held the senior executive suites and culminating in a To Pagoda, it was within this ornate Meiji style building that the power elite of the Zaibutsu assembled for their power soirees.
Divisional Head Kashiko Teito bowed a full waist deep bow a sign of deepest respect to divisional president Yukato Keisai Uri, the older man returned a faint smile of obvious superiority.

Pleasantries exchanged Kiun breathed a sigh of relief, such gatherings were akin to ritual slaughter, where not only careers but spirits were broken for the merest slight or even showing too much initiative.
He frowned as having just picked up a glass of champagne and sushi canapé, his microcom purred within his ear, his frown deepened as his divisional security head met his gaze, having seemingly received a call herself.

His eyes widened as he received the report, under the cover of the Noh Ballet dancers entering the centre floor they both discreetly excused themselves.

***
Los Angeles, Street Level - 23.07 PST
From shadowy corners they broke cover, hover boards whirring to life, miniaturised turbo fans providing lift and thrust.
Like ghosts in the night they moved with predatory purpose, past manhole covers spewing odious steam, past gaudy neon signs spluttering to maintain their light, piles of trash and avoiding the myriad of surveillance sensors.

Their destination was but a few blocks away, no corporation would be guarding it, however as they sped through various alleyways it was soon apparent that a local rippergang had set themselves up.
Time was of the essence, the danger presented irrelevant honour and lives were at stake.

Kicking the back of his board, Melko caught it and then strolled out into the ferrocrete yard standing before the substation, the Rippers immediately adopted their threat stances, blades sliding from their fingertips.
That said a degree of caution was evident in their movements as they fanned out to surround the solitary black figure, the urban legends surrounding the Dancers were numerous, tales of them not being entirely human, capable of superhuman feats.

For his part shrouded in his black slimsuit, armour and head mask, Melko moved in a series of slow steps, the first ripper finally broke and he spun a balletic rotation that ended with launching the ganger into a wall.
The next seconds were a blur of motion, Melko dancing around the attacks as they attempted to mob him, a ridiculous mixture of street dance, waltz and Capoeira, countering attacks and battering the gangers.
As some of the Rippers staggered to their feet, they began to draw their pistols and smgs, Melko bowed much to their surprise as the substation roared, a small explosion tearing through unit.
As the smoke cleared the black clad dancers had vanished.

***
Downtown LA Airspace - 23.08 PST
Darkness travelled across downtown Los Angeles as similar acts of sabotage on power sub-stations bottlenecked and overloaded the main board, plunging thousands of residences and small businesses into darkness.
A cacophony of alarms arose filling the city sector with painful noise, the only sources of light now visible the corporate skyrakers running on their own grids.
“HERB TELL ME YOUR GETTING THIS!” bellowed Akiressa Brookman, the cybersnoop’s name came from the popular trend in the 90s to anglicise Japanese names, she was almost bouncing in the seat of her Pacific Broadcasting Agency microcopter.

“Naturally” purred a voice gravelled by years of nicotine abuse
Composing herself Akiressa mentally instructed the aircraft to sweep her across the vast blacked out streets, her implanted Ultra Definition cybercam capturing more and more buildings plunging into darkness.
Her cranial computer sending digital messages to her editor waking him up, the same unit tracking the four PBA remotely piloted vehicles, each carrying an arsenal of camera and recording sensors.
An explosion drew all of the cameras attention “This gets better and better” grinned Akiressa.

***
Sentou Kiun San Tower , Los Angeles – 23.09 PT.
“MOVE” bellowed the squad commander, two hundred kilo human tanks powered up flights of stairs at inhuman speed, the first of which torn apart as high explosive micromines detonated.
Leaping into a rather unorthodox posture Midnight landed on his back sliding along the polished floor of a large atrium, his sub-machine guns spewing out rounds, passing between two huge corporate soldiers.
Gunfire was erupting from every direction as more soldiers burst from stairwells across the floor, things were getting tight, he could feel rounds slamming into his enhanced armour.

He snapped off two further bursts slamming the soldiers heads back, alarmingly despite having suffered flesh torn from their faces both soldiers recovered, too late as the following mines he thrown detonated tearing them apart,
For good measure he cast several dozen across the office space into the midst of the cybernetic monsters, despite the rending of metal and screams, far too much automatic fire cut through the smoke.
Rich dark blood oozed from several fortunately shallow wounds, his back against sealed security doors, Midnight’s inhuman eyes flashed a predatory crimson however he was vastly outnumbered and it appeared that his backup had failed.

He gasped as a sensation of freezing cold passed through him, sucking the air from his lungs.
A cloud of vicious indigo ripped into the office space and then exploded as she manifested, at a meter long and indigo black the small dragon screeched her fury, a concussive wave tore across the office space, four meter high plexiglass windows erupted, munitions exploded as cyber soldiers were jettisoned from the floor to fall hundreds of stories to their ultimate demise.

[arcanus]

Sentou Kiun Virtua System
<We’re in> the electronic voice conveyed no emotion, she knew that this was the same in reality.
The backdoor swung open, a heavenly portal of light within perfect darkness, its opening enabled only by the shutdown of a quarter of the Downtown core, she wondered if its creator had had any idea that someone would go to such lengths to trigger it.

She screamed into the pathways of the corporations Net, its defensive ICE forming walls, barriers and firing lethal biofeedback at her, the attacks caused her no harm, she passed through the barrier like a ghost.
The system had gone into meltdown, alarms flashed in psychedelic chaos, the Net security overwatch trying everything to compensate for the physical damage occurring on the upper floors and now her intrusion.

Unfortunately for them she wasn’t using hardware to infiltrate their system, nothing within their arsenal could stand against her, rapidly finding the main core she quickly disabled the security locks on the upper floors before searching for her main objective.

***
Sentou Kiun San Tower , Los Angeles – 23.10 PT.
Smoke pervaded the office space of the Western wing of the 62nd story, polished columns stood shattered, shards of glass and polymer covered the floor and there were bullet holes everywhere.

Along with a ragged collection of security guards Earl staggered into the mess, blinking away the stinging smoke and taking in the destruction, none of them had seen anything like it.
As they began to gain their bearings several of the guards noticed the small form laid amongst the wreckage, a sinuous black reptilian form prone and seemingly unconscious.
Bewilderment started to galvanise into anger, rage that their domain had been intruded upon, their comrades brought low and most of all that their orderly status quo broken.

They gathered around the winged reptile, which stirred slightly.
“What the hell is it” said one
“Some genetech monster” muttered another, venom evident in her voice
“Whatever it is, it ain’t going to see another night!” said a larger man, who stepped forwards, raising his boot over its head, as his foot descended his whole body lurched forwards slamming into the ground away from the creature.
The guards fell as silent autofire cut them down, Midnight stepped from the shadows, they’d live to see another day having swapped his ammo back to gel rounds.
Stooping he gathered up the form, shaking his head in admonishment “Cut that a little too close girl”, the sounds of further pursuit reached his pointed ears and with that he took off once again.

***
Sentou Kiun Zaibutsu LA Airspace - 23.11 PST
The PBA Drones encircled the Skyraker, Akiressa swung around in a tight arc, her systems on broadcast mode.
<Live from LA Downtown, we have a Street Op of the most dramatic level, Sentou Kiun Tower One has been the scene of a major fightfight, the tower itself showing wide scale damage>
Multiple feeds shredited by virtua avatars streamed a huge panoramic vista of the damaged tower with the backdrop of the blacked out downtown core.
She knew that the other syndicates wouldn’t allow her scoop to remain PBAs for long, even now the microcopters sensors were picking up inbound drones.

Either they would arrive to steal the scraps or the Zaibutsu would pressurise the syndicate to cut their report.
The night sky was once again illuminated by a streak of fire, one that terminated in blowing out the windows on three floors of the west face.
<A rogue force has a definite grudge against the Sentou Kuin this night, as you can see further attacks have been launched from neighbouring buildings and what’s that, my god it’s a man leaping from the flames!>

***
Sentou Kiun Zaibutsu LA Airspace - 23.11 PST
The megacorporate chopper floated over the scene, Kashiko Teito sat in numbed silence this was his tower, his Divisions headquarters, the West face around the 60th floor was ablaze.
The Vice President appeared upon the holoscreen in front of him.

卿何と言っていいのか分からない (Sir I don't know what to say) he rasped
The VPs face was stony “私達の競争からの大胆な攻勢” (A bold offensive from our competition)
Kashiko glanced as a further explosion tore through a series of offices on the North West corner of the 62nd floor
しかし、コンパクト (But, the Compact) he snarled in frustration
従業員小舘 (EMPLOYEE KASHIKO!) The VP barked, 私たちの競争が弱いとして除算を見たかの質問です (The question is why our competition saw your division as weak)
Kashiko blanched and said nothing, the VPs face was grim あなたの解像度は、会社の名誉を満たす必要があります( Your resolution must satisfy the Companies honour), the screen went black

“WHAT IS THAT!” he screamed at the pilot, his bodyguards jumped, as Kashiko watched a figure leap through the flames and plummet down into the dark abyss of blackened street level.
その愚かな人を殺す(Kill that fucker) he roared, the helicopter pitching downwards in pursuit

***
“ANYTIME NOW WOULD BE NICE” Midnight roared over the blasting wind he was hurtling down into, his draconic companion however was still out cold.
'Typical' he mentally muttered 'If you want something done', had he not have been plummeting at terminal velocity he'd have chastised himself for thinking too humanly.

Cold detachment passed over him, fortunately the buildings external weapon systems had been deactivated, he angled his descent in towards the windows of the Skyraker, his free hand drawing his grapple gun.
Bracing himself he fired, the line spooling out and driving into the ferrocrete behind him, he readied himself and then tensed as the joint popping jolt slowed his descent, this did however allow him to swing his feet down onto the glass, clipping the grapple reel to this belt he then proceeded to sprint down the side of the tower.