The chemical runoff in Sector Gamma tasted like burnt lithium and rat poison.
Lucian ignored both. The sensory input was a distraction he logged but did not prioritize.
He'd been in this line of business long enough to know distractions killed.
His left leg was gone, sheared off at the hip by a repurposed anti-tank mine. The wound was cauterized by a field med-patch, but the pain was a raw, white torrent only his augmented nervous system could manage. He channeled it into focus.
His focus was on the prize: a titanium data-core embedded in the wreckage of a derelict Hyperion Armored Personnel Carrier.
It contained the complete, unencrypted schematics for the Hydra Drone Forge. For this core, Lucian had spent the last twenty-four hours running.
He had sacrificed his entire unit, leaving their bio-signature trackers screaming lies to the corporate patrols currently closing on the sector. They had been efficient assets.
Now, they were merely decoys.
A sound. A weak, desperate groan from the slick, black wreckage nearby.
Vance, his most reliable lieutenant, crawled into the rain, his optical implants flickering a weak, desperate orange.
"Lucian... we made it, you bastard," Vance coughed, blood bubbling around his lips. He dragged himself toward the APC. "Grab the core. We need get to a safe channel, patch up. We stick to the protocol: No man left behind."
Lucian didn't shift. He ran a systems check on the data-core. Integrity: 99.8%.
"Protocol has been updated, Vance," Lucian stated, his voice a flat, synthesized drone over the vocalizer. "Your wound severity is critical. You are a slow asset, and your tracker is still broadcasting the initial signature."
Vance stopped crawling. His head snapped up, his dying eyes widening in confusion and then dawning, sickening horror.
"What in the hell are you talking about? We've been running this gig for five years! We're brothers!"
"Brotherhood is a temporary resource allocation," Lucian replied, pulling a mono-filament wire from his wrist-rig. He didn't look angry, disgusted, or even sad… just deeply, profoundly logical.
"The core is the superior asset. Your continued existence risks the core."
Vance surged forward, a final, desperate, animalistic scream of betrayal ripped from his throat.
Lucian didn't even activate his defensive augments.
He simply sidestepped the dying lunge, snapping the razor-sharp wire across Vance's exposed neck in a single, clean, practiced motion.
Vance slumped back into the chemical runoff, the blood instantly dissolving the moment it hit the toxic pool.
Lucian calmly secured the data-core to his harness. He looked down at the rapidly cooling body of his former comrade.
The purple rain washed over his face, streaking through his white hair.
He smiled, a faint, chilling curve of the lips that did not reach his eyes.
"Nothing personal."
He began to crawl toward the nearest sewage tunnel entrance, dragging the promise of his new power with him.