Durgama Takeover

No one could have said the mission had gone as initially planned; they’d cracked the door on the armory and begun searching for evidence… but then a glut of 360 degree Maya-net camera drones ringed the place, then reports of contact with an unknown enemy unit. Some kind of private military company, the Shang Ji had muttered disdainfully over voice-comms, five seconds before the suit of invincible armor crumpled against the jamb of the southern door. What could do that?

For Makoto, the firefight after was a blur of action, the State Empire’s loyal soldiers applying overlapping suppressive fires to every enemy approach. The second Shang Ji guarding the western door crashed to the ground, his helmet gouged by armor-piercing rounds. But textbook doctrine held, gunning down the undisciplined rabble of the mercenary forces. With three ingress covered, the only way the enemy could possibly dislodge them would be…

“Too slow, lady.” she hears the drawl before she can turn her combi-rifle to their northern line of retreat. A man in a dapper coat stands over their unit’s Guilang rearguard, his custom marksmen rifle trained on her. A buzzing noise from above, one of the camera drones had followed its star into the facility itself, recording his every maneuver for the holovids. She wanted to laugh, to fight in countless black-book operations for the State yet die at the hands of a vulgar celebrity like HIM…

“AND CUT! You were great out there Hannibal baby, you were magic!” a voice cried out from a speaker on the drone, hovering lower to float just over the shoulder of the man himself. “We’ve got the content, get back out of there in one piece. Hey, YOU, go pull Bill from out of that car…” the director’s voice faded as he walked away from the comms to harangue support staff.

Rifle shouldered, Hannibal leaned against the door and gestured for her to pass. “That’s it, we’re free to leave?” she asked.

“They pay by the hour, lady. And the hours up.”