Mai paused as she entered a dimly-lit street. Dimly-lit wasn’t unusual for Nether City, and especially not for the rebel-held areas, but when she’d last come down this street, all of the lights had been functioning. Now, there were pools of darkness. And something which truly made her teeth itch was the fact that there were no locals on the street.

What the hell? She pushed herself back around the corner, dropping to her knees and poking her head around the corner to take another look. People never expect a head to appear low down around a wall, so it’s less likely that the person trying to remain unseen will be spotted.

She activated her STREET SMARTS. Adding to that, she activated her URBAN CAMOUFLAGE.

Shit, shit, shit, she spotted movement in one of the darkened areas of the street. Looking down further, she saw a barrel pointing out of a window in a derelict building. Ambush. What the hells?

Moving slowly back around the corner, she pressed her back against the wall. Typically, the street was the only way back to the rebel section of the city, thanks to her designing it that way when she’d expanded the base. At the time it had seemed a wise tactical strategy, now she was beginning to regret it.

Personal note, build in a secret tunnel. She had two options. Run away and hope that the ambushers would get bored, and she could return to safety. Which was unlikely, if they’d gone to so much effort to set up the ambush there was no way they wouldn’t just wait it out.

The second option was she forced their hand and hoped that the rebels would be able to get to her before she was killed. Neither option really appealed.

“Where the hells is that bitch?” Mai practically jumped out of her skin, the voice had come from a window just above her.

“Quiet! We don’t get the damned bounty if she hears you, you moron!” hissed another voice.

Mai rose to her feet, muscles straining as she straightened as slowly as possible, barely daring to breathe. The first voice had come from a window just above her, clearly looking out from a flight of stairs. The second voice had come from further up, in an actual room.

Gritting her teeth, she formed an SMG and pistol combination. Activating STEALTH, she slid along the wall, heart hammering so hard she thought it would burst. Weapons raised, she moved away from the wall.

“Wha..?” her weapons spat.

HIT!

HEAD SHOT!

INSTAKILL!

Activating FREE RUNNING she dove through the window, tucking into a roll and coming to her knees.

HIT! 15%

BLEED @5% PER SECOND

PANIC!

Wailing, the other ambusher tried to turn and run, presenting her with the perfect kill shot.

CRITICAL HIT! – 95%

KILL!

Chest heaving, heart thumping so hard she could hear, she tried to collect herself. Looking down at the bodies she realised that they weren’t regular gangers either. Their clothing and equipment were too good. So someone had issued a bounty and either these were out town bounty hunters, or members of the gangs already here who had decided to get in on the action.

Teeth grinding in frustration at not being able to work out what was happening, she removed the pins the gangers wore to identify their gang affiliation.

Hopefully, Dakota will be able to tell me what gang they’re with. They’re rich too, the clothes that the gangers were wearing were light years ahead of the tat the low level gangers in Nether City wore.

Moving through the building, she strained her ears for signs of other ambushers. All she could here was her heart hammer. The adrenalin was making her stomach churn, chest heave, and legs feel like jelly.

Sliding a window open, she lifted herself as slowly as her limbs would allow before folding over and dropping into the alleyway beyond.

Her STEALTH and STREET SMARTS still active, she snuck along the alleyway to a door. Testing it to see whether it was locked, she breathed a sigh of relief as the handle turned.

Cracking the door open, she slipped through and dropped into a crouch. A cough, through the room, to her right.

Slowly, keeping low so as to not be framed by the light, she crept through the darkened dwelling. Her foot nudged against something and she bit down on a cry of surprise. Placing a hand down, she ran it over what could only be the body of one of the previous inhabitants.

Bastards have killed everyone in the street! Bile rose into her mouth. These people had died because someone had put a bounty on her head. A bounty from her actions, although she couldn’t tell if it was from what she had done at the cotton factory or the squink factory.

I didn’t think anyone knew it was us that did it!

A cough, muffled in someone’s sleeve. Just a few paces into the next room. Sibilant whispers, the speakers not knowing that whispers carry further than low murmurs, especially when sounding letters like ‘s’.

More than one, likely another pair.

Dropping onto all fours, she slowly crawled along the floor, not wanting to move across the windows lining the wall onto the street.

Thanking Buddha for the open door, she poked her head around the door, inch by inch until she could see her potential ambushers.

Two. A big one and a little one. Big one further away. Four paces. Little one two paces.

Shoot the big one, subdue the little one, get some bloody information.

STEALTH and STREET SMARTS ran out. They wouldn’t be available for minutes now. Too long for her to wait and count on the ambushers not realising she was so close to them.

Absorbing the SMG, she formed a knife. Rising to her knees, she slowly got to her feet, staying low, bracing herself for what was to come.

HEADSHOT!

INSTAKILL!

“Jo!” gasped the little ambusher as her friend suddenly collapsed. Mai surged forward, kicking the woman in the back of the knee, folding her backward and into Mai’s arms.

DAMAGE! 5%

Mai hissed in pain as the woman’s fingers scratched at her face. Absorbing her pistol, she wrapped a hand around her opponent’s mouth. As she did that, she activated UNARMED COMBAT and DIRTY BOXING.

Little ambusher’s hand suddenly dropped from Mai’s face, reaching for something below her belt. She bucked, trying to throw Mai over her shoulder. Mai automatically hooked her leg around the ambusher’s jamming the attempt.

DAMAGE! 10%

BLEED @5% PER SECOND

Pain lanced up her thigh. Brain racing, Mai realised that she’d been stabbed.

DAMAGE! 15%

BLEED @4% PER SECOND

INTIMIDATED

Snarling, eyes watering with the pain, knife blade jammed into her femur, Mai ripped her blade across her opponent’s throat.

CRITICAL HIT! 90%

BLEED @15% PER SECOND

Gasping, stomach heaving as waves of pain washed over her, the knife still embedded in her thigh, Mai shoved the ambusher away from her, both of them crashing to the floor at the same time.

Sobbing, Mai grasped hold of the knife, took as deep a breath as she could manage, then ripped it out, shoving her hand into her mouth as she screamed. As the room darkened around her, she activated her HEAL SERIOUS INJURIES, then slumped to the floor.