[color=darkkhaki][i]"We're not fucking friends you sexy piece of shit!"[/i][/color] yelled Giggles in Anya's wake. [colour=darkkhaki]"Marco, [i]move![/i]"[/colour]

A gunsmith, a nerd, a captain, some prep with bullet holes, his badass girlfriend, a mechanic and his dog. All in all, that was pretty good networking.

Giggles flipped himself onto the car with one hand, wedged his heels up against the rear crossbar and his machete against the fore. [color=darkkhaki]"Go! Move! There's more comin'!"[/color]

He was more right than he knew.

A shadow passed over the sun.

[hr]

[i]Two pilots whitened their knuckles on controls. Plasma burst at the edge of the screen and they swerved blind, working as one.

One pair of eyes widened. "Canal sector twelve! They've lost AA-2C drone support on canal sec-"

Rachida didn't wait. The ship swung, pitching its crew hard against their seatbelts.[/i] On it, [i]she thought grimly, pushing down the nose of her craft.

She wasn't planning to come back to it anyway.[/i]

[hr]

[i]Seong cracked open an eye. It wasn't the first time he'd woken up in a puddle of blood, but he was happy to see a comrade at his side.

"Hey, Shan," he mumbled with broken lips. Shan worked rapidly at his helmet, trying to take off the visor before it cut any deeper. Too fast. Too hasty. "Wha-"

"We have to go." The mercenary picked up her teammate bridal style, eyes flicking skywards. "We have company. Something they did pulled down smugglers. They're heav-"

The air turned to fire. Shan started running. The last image in Seong's drooping eyes was the door of the APC, burning as it flew off into the river.[/i]

[hr]

Giggles watched flames plume up on the other side of the river as the [url=https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/314921563206189058/324090299448033281/calm_horizons_by_schism_walker-d94r2pt.jpg]ship[/url] howled above them and crashed into the dense buildings with a sound that split the heavens.

[i][color=darkkhaki]That's our ride.[/color][/i] 

[hr]

[i]"There's a confrontation. Heavy cavalry on west side, possibly hostile-"

"Got it," said Rachida, obliterating the armoured car in an instant of pulsed laser fire. No risks. "Landing."

The smuggler's frigate was more than capable of flying backwards and could afford the loss of a rear wing. Rachida ploughed into a biosynthesis warehouse, leaving great sheets of torn metal and pools of thick brown fluid to show for the impact. With the engines still running she undid her bindings and leapt out of the cockpit.

Chunky lifter-bots worked mindlessly in the hold, unloading huge crates of illegal tech; Rachida ducked around them. The security gang was already gone, setting their turrets and firing nests without a blink, the crash nothing but a momentary blip in their operation. True professionals.

Rachida had nothing in common with them. She kicked open the secret hatch in the prow and leapt out alone.

Private security and the police state overlapped on Frixion Prime. Whatever had brought down the flock of corporate drones had done the same to the government's. Only now were the Mogul's airships starting to converge on the frigate, opening fire on gang shields with light-gas and SWAT team rifles.

The pilot switched on her heel motors and skidded out of the back of the fight without a care.[/i]