I flicked on the Blackout module as well as the sonic suppressor for my bike well before reaching the tower. As far as anyone knew, there was nothing in the sky. We had no signature, no profile, and nothing for chrome eyes or sensors to lock onto.

That was the plan, at least. There were still a few lazy potshots taken at us when we passed by a few buildings. They were the kind of shots someone fired off when they saw something move and wanted to feel important.

They weren't even close to hitting us, but each one reminded me of something I forgot about the heights. Chrome wasn't exactly cheap. A lot of people didn't have the implants to even be affected by Blackout in the first place. Blackout wasn't all encompassing like it'd been in the past.

"S-Shiro… can I put a few things on your HUD?" Luna's voice buzzed in the back of my head. At least she actually decided to ask this time.

I wasn't thrilled about the runner running shotgun inside my systems, but there was no denying the benefits. Besides, I still had a kill switch built into my chrome just in case. "Chek. Keep it simple, though. I still need to see."

Red lights bloomed across the building ahead of us. Most of them sat relatively still, though there were a few that roamed around the place. Dozens stood around the building, with only six or seven grouped up around the Node Tower itself.

"What is this?" I pulled to a stop a few blocks away and super far high up in the sky. It felt like I'd inadvertently turned on wall hacks or something. The red dots looked like little ants all over the building.

"L-live tracking. I'm watching them through the Dragonflies and then feeding their positions onto your o-overlay." Luna answered me almost immediately. She sounded much more confident when discussing anything related to the net.

"Can I get some of that too?" Mira asked behind me.

"N-no. You don't have anything to overlay on."

"Damn." Mira sighed and leaned forward to inspect the upcoming tower more. "What's the plan, Shiro? Still want to fly to the top and set that thing up?"

"That will work, right Luna?" I pulled out one of several pyramid shaped devices the girl had passed over to us back in the hotel room.

"J-just connect it anywhere." She paused for a moment. "Try to put it somewhere with cover just in case."

"Right." I stood up and carefully leaned to one side of the bike to give my passenger some space to crawl past. "You take the wheel, Mira."

"You mean the handlebars?" My mikata smirked though didn't immediately move forward across the hover bike. She tilted her head to the side and glanced far below to the tower. "You sure?"

"Unless you want to jump instead?" I patted the bike. I needed to make her Drop Chutes soon, but for now I was the only one with them. I summoned a Spectral Flock crow and tossed it to her. "I'll pop down and then be right back."

She carefully held the crow and moved forward to take the handlebars. I shifted and sat down behind her. "Be careful."

"Of course." I held onto her waist in a complete reversal of how we'd been the entire trip this way. The reverse felt strange, as it always did. When we started nearing just over the top of the tower, I asked Luna, "Who's on the tower? Runners?"

"S-snipers, I think." A few moments of silence passed. I watched one of the Dragonflies in my HUD move up closer to inspect the group. "F-five snipers. Looks like two of them are setting up a m-mortar?"

I watched the group move around. They were trained and all wearing similar uniforms. A PMC company, then? "Are the towers all under the same group's control?"

"No. I've got a different group on tower two." Saint joined the conversation. "They're setting up a Netrunner pod to directly interface with the Node Tower."

Why were so many groups setting up like this? I got the snipers, but mortars and a runner pod? Those kinds of things wouldn't be set up for just a short term contract. There was something more going on here that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Especially with the mortar. Why bring that kind of power to the heights? "Someone check the contracts. Figure out why they're setting up like this."

"I'm on it. So far it's been pretty hush-hush about the heights. Even most of my sources are unaware something's going down." The reporter's voice dripped with confusion. "Maybe whoever's behind this contacted the mercs and PMCs directly? There aren't contracts out for anything… no, wait, looks like a mass mutant break?"

Nova. As if tonight wasn't already a mess. And the lack of information was a pain. We wouldn't be able to- no, wait. I had a new resource I could pull on, chek? "Can you hack their comms and figure out what's going on, Luna?"

"I-if you can take over the tower and connect one of their phones, sure. For now I-I'm running on the bare minimum this far away from the action."

Hmm… taking out the snipers and mortar team would be for the best anyway. The last thing I wanted was to finally find Iris or any other Polar Moon members just to be sniped.

"Moving." I tapped Mira on the shoulder and then jumped off the back of the hover bike.

My Drop Chutes kicked in when I got close. The small thrusters spat out ionized air to stabilize and steer me. Wind and snow slapped me off course slightly, but it wasn't enough to miss the landing. Not after all my experience using them.

I hit the top of the tower, stopping onto a radio dish that creaked and groaned under my weight. Originally, I wanted to land on the small platform with all the buttons and switches for this tower. The different snipers were set up there though, so maybe up here was better.

"I'm changing the symbols." Luna's voice crept into my mind. The unassuming red dots shifted, turning into small red symbols. Five of them turned into crosshairs, the two setting up into mortars, and the rest below into rifles.

I silently tapped all over the top of the creaking tower, getting a better understanding of its workings. After a bit more, I set up a Sonic Suppressor array around me and drilled bolts into the side of the tower to hook the pyramid up to. It wasn't pretty, but it did the job holding it.

Actually hooking it up was a bit more complex. I cut out a portion of wiring and rewired the tower through the pyramid device. The wires sparked with live electricity, but that hardly mattered to me. Unfortunately—or fortunately—the current wasn't nearly as strong as whatever Luna used. It made me feel warm, but didn't take over my brain with waves of soft comfort.

With the pyramid in place, I regathered my supplies and turned my focus to the three snipers on the platform directly below me. The rest of the seven were down near the base of the Node Tower, so as long as I played my cards right I'd be able to eliminate these three without anyone knowing.

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The snipers just below occasionally took shots at something in the heights I couldn't quite see. As far as I could tell, they were indiscriminately shooting anything that moved. They had suppressors on, of course, though that hardly mattered. Every shot caused loud cracks as bullets broke the sound barrier.

"Mira. Check my back saddlebag on the left side. There's a prototype coil-rifle in it." I muttered quietly. I was pulling out all the stops for this one. All my tech, half-finished, prototype, or otherwise was at our disposal. What didn't fit in my saddlebags awaited in the aether bunker.

"Awww for me? You shouldn't have." Although she was joking, she couldn't hide the excitement in her voice when she found my coil-rifle.

"I didn't. It's mostly untested, so be careful." I quickly walked her through the features of the weapon. Unlike my pistol, the rifle barely got out of my workshop. I built it a while ago, I just never really needed it. It was heavy and clunky, and I preferred to do things up close. The pistol was just better and could be concealed.

That being said, it still had all the benefits of the pistol and more. With more coils it could pump out way more damage at the cost of battery life. The battery life issue was one I was still working on, but it wouldn't be a problem up there. I walked her through plugging it into the bike to draw on the hover bike's battery.

"This thing is seriously badass, Shiro." Mira was still gushing over the new weapon. I had a feeling I wouldn't ever see it again after this. Or, if I did, it'd be locked in Mira's collection of weapons. "Right, what did you want me to do with it?"

"Can you get a clear shot? Flick on whisper mode." I wasn't a hundred percent confident in my ability to wipe all seven of them by myself without drawing the attention of those inside. Not with them all clumped up. "If I'm noticed, take out the bottom four."

"Roger." I felt her reposition above me. The bike moved down and to the side, giving her a better angle. "Ready when you are."

I took a breath and then dropped from above directly onto one of the snipers. Looking through her scope, she was taken completely unaware by me. Before she could even react, I slammed the coil-pistol's barrel into her head and pulled the trigger.

Time slowed thanks to Dexterity, giving me precious speed while the other two were just starting to look over. A quick shot downed the second. The metal projectile pinged through the side of his head in a spray of blood and bone fragments.

The third activated some kind of speedware of his own just before I could turn on him, completely neutralizing Dexterity. It was a low-level speedware though. He didn't surpass my speed, just met it. That hardly mattered as he brought up a pistol and aimed at me.

I stepped sideways to dodge a spray of fire from his pistol, using Burst Step to move away from the barrel. His gun clicked empty, though the damage had already been done. I ducked a haymaker from a metal arm and drew a knife, slamming it into his groin. Electricity arced down the blade to ensure maximum damage.

"Hiiiii!" The man immediately collapsed like a twitching puppet with its strings cut. I put another shot into his head to end his misery and ripped my knife out.

— — —

Saint shuddered as he watched the mercs get flatlined. The first two were okay, but the third sniper? Any man watching that would feel sympathetic pain. Even as he internally lamented, his hands didn't stop flying across the keyboards of his deck. "You have it yet?"

Luna didn't even look up from her deck. "T-trying. Do y-you have any idea how much ICE they dumped into this thing? It's already difficult enough to hack on the c-complete other side of the city. M-my ping is through the roof right now!"

"Right, well… they're done clearing it." He watched the last four down below get taken out by Mira. Shiro wasn't lying when she called her a dead shot. In just three shots with a brand new weapon, she took out all four of the guys before they could even react to the fight above.

His attention shifted to one of his other decks. The livestream he had up on City of Sorrow had already amassed a massive following from all sorts of bored people. Not just in the city either. He had connections from all over the world drawn by the 'massive conflict'. Of course, his contacts in Inverse were partially to thank for pushing his site's popularity.

All the cameras were accessible to the public so they see the fights and chaos all over the heights, but only one was the 'main' camera. That was the one that would be telling the story tonight. The story of the Street Dogs… name pending. He still had yet to come up with a good one.

Shiro definitely had something that killed the eyes of cameras on her. Perhaps so their teamwork could be better, she hadn't turned on her personal device. He could still track her through the Dragonflies without any issue.

The streams had a delay of thirty minutes. Using that delay, he edited out the shape of Shiro and replaced her with an overlay of an empty black space. It was a bit lazy, so he on the fly adjusted the overlay to look more humanoid like some kind of shadow demon. As a finishing touch, he added on a halo of solar fire to really draw the eye. The adjustments made it all the more terrifying when she dropped from above and executed the first sniper.

With those adjustments, her identity was kept entirely hidden. Of course, he made some minor edits here and there to hide abilities and certain bits of tech. He'd rather not have Shiro turn on him when she got back and saw everything. He rather liked the kid, and it wasn't worth sabotaging the future for a few moments of fame.

He approached everything with the utmost care. Nothing could go wrong. There was so much to do, especially since he was still actively helping the team figure out the plan and what was going on. This kind of challenge was nice though. Sure, talking to people was alright, but he truly excelled in the editing booth. It brought back memories of is time with his band.

"We're in." Luna clapped her hands excitedly and spoke up through the ring. "I-I've got all the connections. I'll ping them for you."

Shiro shot down the offer for help. Her voice had been a bit shaky a few hours ago, but now she came off as calm and collected. "Don't bother. There's too much going on tonight to keep track of everything. Just look for your team and cover our tracks. We'll need a starting place when we get done with the other two towers."

"R-right… I'll mark high-threat areas, at least. Just in case." Luna sighed slightly and shook her head. "A-ll sorts of named mercs are out tonight. L-looks like the mutant waves are from a Savant Lab. Be careful. It's n-not just humans on the streets anymore."

"We shouldn't need to be on street level with my bike, so it should be fine." Shiro sighed deeply. "Keep us posted about the Savants though. They're an unexpected variable."

"Fucking Savants." Mira's voice came across their connection followed by a loud spitting sound. Her disdain was palpable even across the entire city. "Lucky we have a job tonight or I'd pop down personally."

The Dragonflies watching Shiro saw her teleport away. Saint scrambled to hide the ability while swapping the main camera to a massive battlefield on the other side of the city. A woman in a power armor looked like she controlling a group of mutants to fight against another group of mutants. Fifteen elite guards stood around her in perfect formation.

After digging around for a moment, he popped her information onto the livestream as well as her bounty. Although she was a named merc, it looked like she'd pissed off quite a few people. 'Mind Freak, wanted dead, 500,000 Rayn, extremely dangerous'.

She was one of the dozens of high-threat zones that Luna would have to keep tabs of. Thankfully, with a third of the height's cameras under their control and the rest coming soon, they had enough eyes to watch everything.

With the stream set up to keep moving, he churned through the dozens of Dragonflies and hundreds of cameras Luna just sent him access to. The combat was good and all, but he needed a story. He wanted to follow the retrieval of Polar Moon, but that would take some time before they were in position to start that.

For now, he zoomed in on the mutants and quickly found the lab. The lab break was the perfect place to start. He'd just put up a warning about the dangers of Savant Labs, and now was the perfect time to double down. Sure, labs would always be run. If he could get the corps to stop putting them in populated cities though, that'd be a win in his books.

"What about Road Rage?" Saint idly called while manipulating a Dragonfly to get a better look at a gnarly looking dog mutant.

"J-just use a name generator at this point, bro." Luna sighed. At the very least, his chatter seemed to drop her guard around him a bit.

He shook his head repeatedly. "It's not that simple. That'll feel inauthentic. My viewers can tell with that sort of thing."

"H-how about Dark Moon?" Luna offered a suggestion of her own and turned around in her rolly chair. Even turned around, the deck was still flying with information from where she jacked into it.

"Nah, too similar to Polar Moon. We can't name everything Moon." The guy shook his head and glanced through the comment section of the stream. It was fully of wackos drawn by the blood sport-like stream.

"T-then Shadow Moon- wait, t-that has the same issue." Luna sighed and turned back to her work. "Y-you'll figure it out e-eventually."

"I sure hope so." He manipulated the 'main' stream to watch Shiro once more just as she jumped down to take care of the second tower.

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