No matter what I had thought about my readiness to do whatever necessary to win fights, this one in particular, the tactic Technica laid out had floored me with her sheer ruthlessness. I took a bit of pride in ending fights as fast as possible, even if I had to fight dirty in order to do so. Fairness, honour and fair-play were great for friendly competitions but once something relevant was on the line, other things became more important.

Technica, however, took that concept to another level. For her, the best fight was one in which the other party had not been told about the fight and the first indication of the fight was that it was over, with them the losing party. In a way, she followed the wisdom of Sun Tzu to the letter when it came to the idea that the supreme art of war was to subdue the enemy without fighting. But, in her eyes, that meant, take them down before they are awake.

She had made a sedate descent with the helicopter, a couple of kilometers from the farm-house away before flying us closer just a few centimeters above the trees, if that. I could hear some branches scratch the hull from time to time. Before we got too close, she landed in a clearing, started a small drone and shut the helicopter down. On her orders, I linked into a network radiated out from the drone that let both of us continue to communicate with this drone and the other drones around the farm. In addition, she put on a backpack quite similar to my plasma-cannon, just hers had two muzzles and seemed to use air to launch something, most likely grenades.

Her plan was as simple as it was brutal. We knew, thanks to her scanners, what the house was built out of. That meant, we knew just how my rail-rifle slugs would deflect when going through the walls, or we could calculate it without too much trouble.

My job would be to shoot everyone with a weapon from a nearby copse of trees, using the drones and my rail-rifle. Technica would move in, take down everyone else and secure the bomb while I would follow up and get Sophia.

No warning, no mercy, no quarter. I finally understood the difference between the Guild, especially the highest level, and the various Powered organisations. The Guild saw itself as the last line of defense, if they got involved, things got dealt with, period. Collateral damage would be avoided if possible but if not, so be it. I also understood why they were not called in, unless things got out of hand. They were not a police-force, Technica’s plan made that clear. But, right now, I would have made a deal with the devil to get Sophia back.

We had to wait until no target was in the room overlooking our approach and once the coast was clear, Technica quickly advanced the maybe eighty meters from the copse of trees we had hidden our approach with and once she was maybe ten meters away she sent the signal to begin and at the same time, the drones around the house caused a strong jamming-field to go up.

Calculating a firing solution was not too complicated and the rifle was directly linked with my mask, allowing for easy aiming, without a scope, just using my HUD.

Blam! - the first slug tore through a window and ripped apart a body inside, splattering the remnants of the chest all over the place.

Technica continued moving, towards the house.

Inside, some people started in surprise, others were rudely awakened.

Blam! - the second slug tore through part of the brick-wall, deviating slightly from the straight line, right into the chest of another target.

Technica got to the fence that surrounded the house and tossed something against it, causing a strange blue flickering.

Inside, people started screaming, some trying to get order, others shocked about the sudden gore.

Blam! - the third slug tore through the same brick-wall, a different deviation and a different target got ripped apart.

Technica was over the wall and her backpack-launcher coughed four times.

Blam! - the fourth slug ripped through the house, this time taking two targets down at once. They stood too close together.

The grenades Technica had shot into the windows exploded, two in the bunk-room another two in what might be a recreational room, ripping multiple people inside to shreds. Again, there was a strange blue light flickering around the fence-line but it vanished as fast as it had appeared.

Blam! - the fifth slug went through two walls, each time deviating and the first sort-of miss happened. My target was only hit in the arm, the arm was shredded thanks to debris from the walls and the target went down, but still, it was not the center-mass I aimed for.

Technica was now at a window and went inside. I could still follow her progress.

Blam! - the sixth slug, the last opponent that might have had a gun went down and I started moving towards the house, while Technica made sure that everyone inside was down and stayed down.

In the maybe ten seconds I had taken to sprint over to the house, the only heat-source that was still upright was the one we were sure was Sophia. I was not quite sure what Technica had in the blasters mounted on her wrists, but the result was sobering. Not that those I had taken down looked pleasant.

Trying to ignore the absolute massacre we had wrought, I made my way to Sophia, trying not to slip in the copious amounts of blood we had spilled. One of the corpses was dressed in a familiar fashion and after a second, I realised that it had been Omecron, previous leader of the Omega-gang. His telekinesis had not helped him in any way, when one of my slugs had turned his chest into bloody mist.

But once I got into the room Sophia was in, the massacre ceased to matter. My only wish was, that they could have died slower and in more pain. Sophia was strung up, naked, between to concrete pillars, held by metallic ropes set into the pillars. That should not have been able to hold her, not in the slightest. However, they had put a gas-mask onto her face and Galatea highlighted the canister and informed me that the name on the label was a muscle-relaxant.

That explained how they had been able to do to her what they wanted. And it seemed, what they wanted to do was cause pain. There was a generator, still running, with an attached cable and the end of the cable was stripped of insulation.

It explained the burn-marks all over her front.

In a corner was a large metal rod, looking almost bent and dyed red. I had no doubt that I would find a lot of bruises and broken bones on her.

On a table was a whip, a cat-o-nine-tails, only that the tails were made out of barbed wire and tipped with glinting, sharp metal shards. It was dripping with blood and explained the puddle below Sophia. Someone had used the cursed whip and ripped her back apart, turning it into ground meat.

I managed to stop myself from throwing up but only barely. Rushing forward, I ripped the mask off, while thinking how to free her the most gentle way. After a second, I stepped close, holding Sophia up with my right arm, trying to take as much weight as possible onto me, without putting pressure on any of her wounds. Not that I knew where they all were.

Shaking off my left gauntlet, my silverarm was freed and I placed it around the first rope, using the nanites to take the metal apart.

“Alex?” a weak voice whispered next to my ear.

“I am here, everything will be fine.” I told her, trying to keep her calm.

“...bomb… said, if you come, you die…” she whispered and the nanites checked the metal closely. There was a second layer, hidden inside and it seemed to be an insulated circuit. If the rope was broken, it would interrupt the circuit. I suspected that the bands around her arms were similarly trapped.

I felt Sophia turn slack again, apparently she had spent all her strength warning me.

“Bomb disarmed.” Technica told me over com. Knowing that, I breathed a sigh of relief but checked back with her about the trap-circuits. She assured me that the bomb would not explode until she wanted it to. There was a slight offended undertone in her voice, but I ignored it. Some things were important enough to clarify.

So, I was free to dissolve the metal ropes, letting Sophia drop onto me, causing her to groan in pain. Due to her condition, I was afraid to change her position, spinal damage was no fun after all but there was no convenient stretcher in the area, so I had to improvise. Only the few nanites that were desperately needed in my left arm remained, the rest of my left arm, alongside all dispensable nanites from my body, were spread out over her back, forming a solid layer while cleaning and disinfecting the wounds she had sustained.

Carrying her with just my right arm was rather difficult but it was not impossible and I would go to hell before putting her down in this hell-hole.

I told Technica over com that I had Sophia and she ordered me to head to the helicopter. Carefully, I left the carnage behind, my mind wholly focused on the task of getting Sophia out. The drones outside gave me an overview, showing me that nothing bad was awaiting us.

Just before I got to the helicopter, Technica caught up to me, looking me over for a second.

“Do you have everything you brought with you?” she asked, her voice serious.

“Everything but the slugs I shot, yes.”

“Good.”

Behind us, the sky was bathed in orange light and the earth shook under our feet as a blastwave rolled over us.

“No evidence, no survivors. Easy to deny.”

Wordless, I carried Sophia into the chopper, carefully laying her down, stroking her hair.

Turning to Technica, the only words I could say were, “Thank you, mother.”