This is a crossover story between the world of SR and Earthsong, a fantasy webcomic. Katklaw's a street samurai character of mine, and if anyone wants to know his (converted to SR4) stats, I'll be more than happy to post them to justify anything he does.
Watch your back. Shoot straight. Conserve ammo. And never, ever deal with a dragon.
-Street Proverb
I wake up. A sky of electric blue. A field around me. I see a tree. Don't recognize the type, but I'm no expert.
A voice out of nowhere. Sort of feminine.
"Nanashi, quickly. He's arrived, and we can't let the Mandragoras get him."
The electronics in my headphones can't pinpoint the location. It must be magic.
I hope its not a dragon.
I hear someone coming. They're behind some bushes right now, but getting close.
I must hide. Grabbing my rifle, I dash to the tree, scale it, and activating the ruthenium polymer in my coat to blend in.
The people emerge from the bushes. I set the microsensors in my helmet to scan them, as my vision enhancement picks out and labels various objects (and people) with arrows.
HUMAN FEMALE: ID UNKNOWN
NO COMMLINK> CANNOT CONNECT
FEMALE: ID UNKNOWN
EQUIPMENT: VAMBRACES
IMPLANT:
I notice the "No Matrix connection" icon in the corner of my vision. Must be in a deadzone somewhere. I continue scanning the information.
It highlights the metal bracers, covered in gemstones that she's wearing as armor, but I'm more interested in another feature common to the three humanoid forms: a strange implant. It appears to be some sort of star shaped metal formation, located in the chest cavity, next to the heart in two, but on the surface of the female human. Somehow, it seems fused with her clothes.
ELVEN FEMALE: ID UNKNOWN
NO COMMLINK> CANNOT CONNECT
IMPLANTS: Cosmetic:
*Hair- metallic structure
*Heels- bone spurs
*Elbows- bone spurs
*Full body dye
Bodyware: UNKNOWN DESIGN
BRACELETS- value unknown (CANNOT CONNECT TO APPRAISAL SITE, PLEASE CHECK YOUR MATRIX CONNECTION)
UNKNOWN METATYPE, FEMALE: ID UNKNOWN
NO COMMLINK> CANNOT CONNECT
WEAPON DETECTED: MACE
WINGS: NOT CYBERWARE- POSSIBLY BIOWARE (53%), POSSIBLY SURGE (47%)- NOTE: NO KNOWN CASES OF SURGE WINGS. CANNOT LOCATE REPORTS OF BIOWARE WINGS. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.
It then began displaying similar reports for her scaly armor, horns, tail, and digitigrade legs (though all of those lacked the warnings regarding the lack of bioware or known SURGE expression), as well as the printour regarding the unknown implant.
FINGERS: 2> ANOMALY
So, I thought, whatever she was, she's so heavily modified that whatever she was is no longer evident. Brilliant.
All of that was evaluated in about a second.
They began looking around the clearing I arrived in. Fortunately, the ruthenium trenchcoat I wore made me next to invisible. I hefted my rifle, running it through its diagnostics before connecting its smartlink up, and projecting its targeting reticle onto the 'gargoyle' gillette, figuring as she's probably the biggest threat.
Then the elf chick whispered to the human.
"Nanashi, isn't this where Earthsong said the new child would be arriving? I can't see anyone!"
So the human's name is Nanashi, I thought, amending her entry.
"He must be hiding," she replied, before turning and speaking more clearly into the open. "I know you must be afraid, but you can come out. We won't hurt you. I promise."
Frag that.
After a few seconds, she touched a stone on her bracer, and her eyes started glowing white.
Drek. A mage. Those bracers are probably foci.
I quickly switched targets, lining up the glowing green dot over her chest.
She looked right at me. Whatever magic she's doing, she found me.
"Why don't you come down from the tree? I promise that we won't hurt you," she said.
"Frag that. I don't know who you are, and if you try anything, mage girl, I'll ventilate your chest, and piss on your corpse, after I off your allies."
The vatjob seemed to loose her temper then.
"Don't talk to Nanashi like that! She's a good person, you fucking toss! Why don't you come out of your tree and fight me like a real man, huh?"
I smirked, though they wouldn't have been able to see it through the helmet.
"Sorry, honey. I prefer to stay out of the clutches of vatjobs. Don't think I can't kill you from up here, though."
"Why, you miserable little-"
At this point, she began spreading her wings and crouching as though to take off, but Nanashi stopped her.
"Calm down, Felucca. Let me handle this."
She then turned back to me.
"I understand that this is very frightening for you. Do you know your name?"
"Of course I do, you stupid slitch."
"What is it then?"
"It's... umm..."
It was at this point that I realized that I couldn't even remember my street name. I did, however, remember engaging in a text conversation with my teammates before I got dumped here, so I pulled up the records, and took a look at the messenger program setting to get my screenname (and, I reasoned, my street name as well).
"Katklaw. My street name is Katklaw."
At this point, Nanashi looked honestly surprised for the first time.
"That's a first. Normally, people can't remember their names when they come over. Well, then, Katklaw, why don't you come with us? We've got food and warm beds. Much better than spending your time in the wilderness."
"I'm a loner, but thank you for the offer."
"Listen, if you don't come with us, our enemies will find you, and they won't be nearly as nice about you coming with them as we have been. When they get you, if their leader decides that you aren't of use, he'll kill you, and if you are, he'll force you to fight under the threat of killing you. You want that?"
"Wait a moment- are you guys at war or something?"
"Yes, we are."
"What sort of compensation are we talking about?"
Now it was her turn to be confused.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm a professional. I don't work for free. How much are you willing to offer?"
"Well, we don't really have much in the way of money, but I'm sure that you could come to some sort of an agreement with our leader."
I jumped out of the tree, the hydraulic jacks in my cyberlegs absorbing the impact safely.
"Lead on, but if you betray me, you're all dead."
So I followed the three women. And we walked, and walked, and walked. Apparently we were going to their base. I had my commlink run an inventory on my equipment as we did so. It looked like everything was functional: My custom sniper rifle, the Cat's Claw, my (disassembled) HK XM30 Modular Weapon System (it's a machine gun, grenade launcher, shotgun, assault rifle, submachine gun, and sniper rifle all in one, even if not at once), my Yamaha Sakura Fubuki pistol (much better than your run-of-the-mill Predator in my opinion, though heavier on ammo costs) in its arm slide, my Ares Antioch 2 grenade launcher in its, the assorted minigrenades in my harness, my assorted B&E tools... looking good, all up.
After that was done, I spent the rest of the trip ogling the women with my millimeter-band radar. Excellent at detecting concealed weapons, cybernetic implants, and seeing through women's clothes without even looking in that direction. I was saving all of this to a file on my commlink, of course. Sure, I'm not all that into voyeurism, but I was bored, and who knows? I might be able to make a few nuyen from the sale of the video once I get back to Seattle.
Some hours of footage and a sunset later, we finally reached their base. Looks like something out of a fantasy trid: a little castle-thing about 5 meters tall (with a lone tower going to double that) in a little depression in a mountainside. Looks like the only way in is through a little archway in the stone wall surrounding it. So, I start walking in, when I get knocked backward by a gust of wind.
"What the frag do you think you're doing, mage girl?"
"See that gate?" Nanashi asks me, pointing at a glowing gate that became apparent as soon as the dust cloud settled.
"Do I look blind to you?"
"Well, it's made of energy, and it can only be seen when something's discharging that energy. If you walked into it, you'd be unconscious, and if you did it again, you'd be dead."
"Then I suppose you have my thanks, mage girl. Now, how about doing something useful, like opening it?"
Then she muttered something.
Was that Arabic?
I grab the recording, load up my Arabic linguasoft, and play it.
"Open sesame."
Yep. Arabic.
"So nice to meet someone who knows Arabic."
I laugh at Nanashi's look of surprise.
"You're from Earth?"
"You can bet that sweet little tush of yours on it."
"Well, I guess we'll talk about it sometime then."
"Sure thing, babe. Any other booby traps I should know about?"
"No, there aren't."
So, we walked in.
"Earthsong is that way," Nanashi said pointing to what looked like an empty room, with this funny-looking throne with some sort of robe on it.
So, I walk in.
Huh. The robe's got this massive gemstone in a broach. That's gotta be worth a pretty penny to a fence.
So, after scanning the area with my millimeter band radar, I reach out, intending to pry it loose of its holding with my hand razors.
That hurt! The fragging thing shocked me.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when it shocked me.
Then the whole ensemble animated at the translucent figure of the arms, chest, and head woman appeared out of the robe.
It figures I'm working for a free spirit. I've got a gut feeling they tend to pay well, as well. Half-remembered memories? I dunno. I'll look up any business I've done with them before from the records I've got stored in my left hand's retracable hand razors. I figure they'll be fairly safe there because noone will bother looking.
In any case, the spirit introduced herself as Earthsong, the soul of this world, how everyone I met are aliens, how I'm going to develop magic powers because of this 'soulstone' thing I've got growing in me (I doubt that, given the overall negative effect that cyber has on magical ability, and how wired I am, but I'm not going to start complaining), how this planet name Beluosus invaded, blah blah blah. I figure I can probably sell all of this to a magical group for a decent amount of money.
Especially given that it seems like it might be possible to summon the spirit of Earth if you've got some radical iron formed into one of these 'manifest stones', and that 'magic' is the result of the planet 'turning up' the power of our blood for some reason.
So, after a decent explanation as to what's going on, and a deal that she would give me a small amount of metal in exchange for my services, I go to the bed that Felucca directs me to.
I'm going to be stinking rich. Oh yes, I can smell the nuyen from orichalcum sales already.
So, once I get there, I disassemble the Cat's Claw, put the pieces in my harness, drop the harness and my helmet next to the bed, and put the pistol, grenade launcher, mirrorshades, earbuds, and headphones on the bedside table. I then turn off the simsense feeds from my eyes and ears, routing them to my commlink instead, and go to sleep with both eyes open. Even in a place like this, it's best to be paranoid.