Jaco’s armor had a lot of flash and pomp, and it protected him, but it lacked the versatility of true mobile fortress armor. A suit of heavy armor like his came with some synth muscle woven through everything to help the wearer actually move under the weight of the armor. Something that Trace was initially unaware of.

  That was all a normal heavy armor had going for it. They could, of course, be modified for the right amount of credits, and this one had been. A pair of thrusters had been added to the back of the legs, along with a single one for stabilization purposes on the left arm.

  Jaco ran toward the hole, and without waiting for anyone else, jumped down it. The sound of his thrusters activating in short bursts rapidly grew fainter and fainter until they vanished entirely.

  It was the wraiths in their suits that Trace truly wanted to see. He wanted something to begin basing his own armor suit around. Catching a glimpse of a wraith when they were actively on a job was nearly impossible. During a combined planning session such as this, which rarely happened, was his best bet.

  Sure enough, there were two of them. Trace zoomed in as much as he thought he could get away with and began recording everything. One of the wraiths still noticed him, but Sabine was there to run interference for him. It seemed like Monroe really had been talking about him to her.

  The suits of armor they wore were skintight and covered in light armor. One of them had armor so dark that it appeared to drink in the light around it, while the other was a more normal mix of mottled gray, dark blue, and black. Both had short, tattered cloaks that broke up their figure and shadow.

  The final item was the helmet, which they both wore, but was different for each. On the first wraith, it was a simple blacked-out full-helmet with a rebreather attached. Even the eyes couldn’t be seen. Everything was a hollow void. It was honestly more than a little unsettling.

  The second wraith had most of their helmet hidden by the hood that was attached to their cloak. It cast much of their face in shadow, except for the eyes, which had a slight glow to them.

  Trace dug that particular look, though he wasn’t sure how viable it was for sneaking around.

  Either way, it at least gave him a few ideas that he could work with. It wouldn’t be up to the official standards, but it would be better than what other people in his tier were using.

  Closing his eyes, Trace began to make some notes on everything that he needed and wanted to do. The items were added to the ever-growing list he had found himself making since the nanites and Deckard had come into his life. With the enhanced teaching modules he was using every night, he had made great leaps in his ability to understand different subjects.

  Though he did have to go through certain information-based ones multiple times. No matter how well the information was taught, or instinctual parts of it were, he was still new to that style of learning. It would take some time for his mind and brain to adapt to the constant influx of knowledge. Until then, he would just have to do his best and understand that a lot of what he learned would be forgotten over the coming days.

  It was for this reason that he hadn’t yet moved on from the basic courses in electrical and mechanical engineering. He had completed both modules three times by that point and was getting close to where he felt comfortable going up to the intermediate module. One more time for both would do it. Which wouldn’t take too long, since he was already deep in both courses by that point.

  Another day or two, and then he could move on. Or he could wait another couple of days and use the knowledge upgrade pack as well when it was available. It didn’t really matter on that one.

  Either way, having a solid direction to go with everything was nice.

  The floor around him trembled, prompting him to open his eyes. Sabine was approaching.

  “How come you’re still hanging around?” She inquired. “I would have thought you would be one of the first gone. You looked, and still do look exhausted.”

  He pointed a thumb at the rig behind him. “I forgot to grab the key from Monroe when I sent him off with emergency services. It’s locked and everything.”

  “You going to be okay for the night?”

  Trace stared up at the clear night sky and nodded. “I’ll head inside the trailer and curl with my bag and armor. I’ve slept in worst places and in far worse conditions.”

  “Wait here,” Sabine slipped out of her armor with a hiss and ran to her truck, returning a moment later with a small, compressed sleeping bag, which she tossed to him. “Here, it’s an extra. You can use it tonight. Just uh, wash it and then give it to Monroe, and he’ll return it for you.”

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  Trace looked down at himself and nodded. He was too tired to even be embarrassed at how dirty he was. “Thanks. I’ll make sure it’s nice and clean when I give it to him.”

  She climbed back into her armor. “Oh, and next time, be more careful when recording wraiths. They get jumpy about that sort of thing.” She winked at him, right before it sealed her back inside, hiding her from view.

  He groaned and shook his head.

  Over the course of the next few minutes, everyone who had arrived as backup began to enter the dark pit. By that point, it was nearing midnight and the only light any of them had to see by was from flashlights, modified eye cyberware, and the floodlights attached to Sabine’s mobile fortress.

  Trace spent a few minutes scraping himself as dirt-free as he possibly could. The sad fact of the matter was that with how tired he was, his fleshware arm was trembling so much that it was useless. His mind was a little better, but his control over his cyberware arm was starting to suffer as well.

  When he crawled into the back of the trailer, he looked a little less like a person made entirely from dirt, and more like someone who had once stood near a bath and chosen to spit in its direction. Regardless, he was so dirty that he didn’t feel comfortable using Sabine's offered sleeping bag.

  Placing the clean item to the side, he gathered up some of the armors they had retrieved earlier that day. Curling up beneath them, he wrapped his arms around himself and fell asleep within moments.

  ***

  The heat from the morning sun had just started to warm the trailer when Trace woke the next morning. There was noise going on everywhere outside, and several new messages were begging for his attention.

  Peeking his head out the back of the trailer, he gulped and retreated back inside to check the messages in a panic.

  The first one was from Ko. ‘Hey, Trace, I just heard about Monroe from Sevorah. I hope you are staying safe down there. WEAR YOUR REBREATHER! According to her, he’ll be fine. Mercury vapor poisoning usually isn’t this serious as the body will clean it out with, same as everything else. Her guess is that the mix of other poison gases down there made the reaction far worse than normal. Anyway, I hope you are doing okay. Also, I went over and spent some time with Deckard.’

  He couldn’t help but grin at her message the way she mentioned Deckard in them, always made him sound like a pet.

  The second message was from Sevorah, more or less reiterating what Ko had already told him. The third one, however, was from Monroe.

  ‘Sorry, I’m still mostly out of it, but I just realized that I never gave you the key to the semi. Attached to this is a temporary key you can use to access everything. It should be good for seven days. The crystal key generated it automatically, so after you accept the key, the handshake with the semi should be automatic. I’ll see you when I get out.’

  He accepted the key and heard the semi beep in front of him. The last message was from Stick-Point.

  ‘The corpos have heard about what’s going on in that hole, and they are declaring the site off-limits. You need to leave NOW!’

  That message had been said a few minutes earlier, after which Stick-Point had tried to call him three times in a row.

  Trace grabbed his equipment and strapped everything on, answering the fourth call as it came in a few moments later.

  “I just saw your message and am about to head out now.” He said quickly to Stick-point before hanging up, not giving the man a chance to say anything.

  Jumping out of the trailer, he slammed the doors shut and locked them. Taking a moment to look around, he saw general mayhem and chaos as everyone packed up in a rush and tried to leave. Nearby, he saw the gate to Sabine’s truck open and jogged over to it. He might as well give her back the sleeping bag, since he didn’t end up using it.

  “Whoa, sorry about that,” Trace spun right back around after reaching the opening back end.

  Sabine had been standing underneath a sani-spray shower in a skintight leotard, washing herself off. She was clothed, but with how skintight it was, it still felt like a private moment.

  A few moments later, she poked her head around the corner and looked at him. She was now wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants, though still barefoot for the moment. Not that it mattered, considering both her legs were cyberware. From the short glimpse he had seen, the right one appeared to be a full replacement from the hip down. While the left was only from the knee on down.

  It was rare to see someone with two legs done like that, which didn’t match. The non-matching nature of the cyberware could exert extra pressure on a person’s mental health. Or having that little extra of their original leg could be what helped them.

  Everyone was different, and his limited exposure to the subject was by no means enough to make him an expert.

  “Are you packing everything up?” Trace asked, stepping close enough to see inside the back of the truck.

  Her mobile fortress unit was secured to a pair of arm mounts along the rear wall. The armor had a few new scrapes and gouges in its weaker armor sections, but otherwise looked the same as the night before.

  She nodded. “Are you going to be alright with that rig, or do you need a ride?”

  Trace shook his head. “Nah, Monroe sent me a temporary key for it sometime in the middle of the night. So, I can drive it away now. Actually, here. I wanted to thank you for this. It was a nice offer, but, uh, with how dirty I was, it just didn’t seem right getting it all dirty, so I never actually used it.” He handed the small compressed sleeping bag back to her. “Speaking of last night. How did things go down there?”

  Sabine opened her mouth to answer, only to snap it shut as the sound of a shuttle approaching overhead reached their ears. “Later, get in your truck and book it. I’ll follow you back to the city. GO, GO, GO!”

  Trace ran to the semi, as all around the area, everyone dove into their vehicles and peeled out of the ancient parking lot. It no longer mattered who or what was being left behind. No one wanted to be there when the corpos arrived.

  The corporations knew that the edgers had been working the job already. However, they had declared the site off-limits, which meant all the edgers should have left immediately. As long as they were a few hundred yards away from the site, then they were golden.

  Climbing into the driving seat, he placed Monroe’s assault rifle on the floor, and his courier bag on the passenger seat. Disengaging the main parking brake, and the trailer brake, he quickly checked the connections and the pressure on everything. Then, shifting the behemoth into drive, he pressed on the pedal. It was a good thing he had watched Monroe go through the process several times already.

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