Flesh and Alloy: A dystopian novel

by Nathan Lunn

  Part 1

  1

  The Heist

  The wind whipped at Kye’s hair. This had not been a well thought out plan. As he looked between his legs, down to the rushing tarmac below, he pondered on this. Hanging off the side of any of the automated vehicles was never a good idea – they were designed to stop for any possible intruders or unwanted exterior passengers – but for a specifically designed transport with multiple fail-safes and protective adaptations, it was a particularly bad one. The vehicle in question was an adapted T60 Truck, used by many of the banks when transferring any of their physically protected possessions to a new venue – outfitted with a brand new ‘anti-slick’ shell, external infrared detecting cameras, a thick hull and thick wheels – with no driver it was impossible for any human error to occur. Looking around at similar trucks running on the automated highway, Kye could see the others were just as well protected. A few private companies had reached deep into their pockets to provide even better security for their shipments; though this was exactly why they had not gone for one of these trucks. It had to be something on the mark, something easy to infiltrate, but with a worthwhile cargo stowed away. The People's Stirling Bank couldn’t afford these over-expensive changes, and so they were the best case to go for. Still, Kye was feeling uneasy about the whole assignment, not least because of the crew he was busy working with.

  Just beyond the edge of his vision, he could pick out the shadow of a manually operated vehicle running up towards the edge of the truck, and thought that he could catch the low hum of the repulsor engines over the incessant whine of the wind. He was not able to move his head for a better view of this, however, as it was stuck by crane to the side of the truck and locked into place to prevent any micromovements that may occur as he drilled into the thick wall. The map laid out in the lower left of his vision let him know that the car was there though. This heads up display also provided a secure communication line to others in the vicinity (on a private server), and provided him with logistical details of the laser he had attached to his arm, and a clock so he could keep to their strictly planned out timeframe. It was known to most as a Commlink. He checked the laser on his arm, and saw that it was running on 56% capacity. They looked to be on time.

  Close to his left, he saw one of the Albart brothers, Eddie, hanging off the side in the same way, similarly drilling through the hull with a laser of his own. He couldn’t move around either, but seemed to be straining from the effort the instrument was placing on his arm anyway. Behind him was the other Albart brother, Danny, who was in charge of running the internal checks. Having already broken through the first firewalls of security and beginning his work on the second, he was well on his way to working towards their final goal: removing their locations from the truck’s log before they were due to leave. Straight in and straight out without any way of knowing they had been. Danny grunted as he came close to slipping (unlike the others, he had not received a crane as there was no need to stay so precise) and swore, before dragging himself back up to a more comfortable position. Catching his eye, he gave Kye a grin that was missing too many teeth, and resumed his work with a renewed vigour. The hum increased as the car sped up to get closer to them, and the whine of the laser rose, all coming to a climactic crescendo when the cutting finished and the metal peeled away from the truck, leaving a space 2 metres across and 3 metres high. Scattering to the road below, the newly-created and completely free door hit the ground at high speed and sped away towards the other trucks, which instantly noted the incoming chunk of metal and course-corrected to accommodate for the previously-unseen danger that was busy flying towards them. Their course-correction continued on, as they then had to speed up in order to catch up with the leading truck that was now pulling away from them. This delay provided a window for the crew's getaway vehicle to slot into, taking up the position in the truck’s scanners as just another vehicle to follow. It was now ready and in place for them to pass back the merchandise, then safely jump across the gap to leave. Eddie and Kye flicked the switch on their crane arm, freeing up their mobility, and discarded the now spent lasers behind them to the car, through the enlarged window, and into the hands of Clara Andross, who tossed them straight into the back of the vehicle. They narrowly missed a younger boy, Charlie Dunham, who was perched in the back seats and taking illegible notes through his open window. Unlike the others here today, he would not be participating in today’s heist – Charlie was simply along to learn and gain experience. Clara gave him an apologetic smile, and waved along Eddie and Kye to enter the truck. They nodded, and swung inside to the lowly lit interior. It was a cramped space, full of various expensive artefacts from a previous age, along with a few valuable and scarce resources, both of which Eddie and Kye immediately got to work on, passing out through their makeshift window. Stacked on bowing cages were bars of unrefined rhodium, below this were threadbare bags filled to the brim with unused credit chips, and on the bottom rows there lay a medley of cybernetic upgrade parts, some rarely seen on the black market – these were all sure to sell for a great amount. In the centre, between the cages lining the wall, there was a thin metal table holding a spotless silver case on its top. A bright blue lion insignia was stamped on its front face. Kye moved to this, drawn by the intrigue of its contents, but upon attempting to open the case, found that he couldn’t. It remained shut with a light beep.

  “Hey, this one won’t open!” He yelled at Eddie to join him, who quickly crossed the small truck, picked up the case, and threw it back out into the car without a second thought.

  “Who cares,” he retorted, “it’s all valuable anyway. Keep shifting.” Kye was irritated that he had been ignored, but a quick check of his clock showed he didn’t have much time to complain. Passing out two more bags of credit chips, and a few bars of Rhodium, they decided they were happy enough with their haul, and called back to Clara in the car. She was quick to reply.

  “Alright then, asses back, people, we only got a few minutes before this truck reaches its drop-off.” She relayed the task through the commlink, making sure to hear a grunt of acceptance from each member both inside and outside the truck, before closing her window, and telling the driver to speed up and move aside the doorway. Julie Adams, who was busy focusing on the road, only gave a curt nod before manoeuvring into the open space. The trucks behind sped up to fit the gap once more, leaving the only way out for the getaway car to be up. Kye and Eddie both jumped in, wary of crossing the admittedly small, but still deadly gap left between the two high speeding vehicles – conscious not to waste much time.

  “Oi! Danny, get in here!” Eddie yelled back to the truck. Danny heard through the commlink, and looked up from his task. Judging by the look he gave them, he was clearly not yet finished with it. Another wild grin broke out across his face, and he continued his fervent typing, sweat pouring down into his eyes, stinging them and blurring his vision. He blinked it away best as he could, claiming, “I’m nearly done, I swear! They just had this extra protection I wasn’t expecting – it’s nothing we’ve seen on these bank vehicles before. Some sort of additional level, I don’t know...” Danny trailed off again, lost in his typing. Clara shook her head, complaining,

  “We’ve gotta get out of here! Forget the fine tuning, it's only Stirling. Just brute force through and remove us from the cameras already." Meanwhile, Eddie and Kye shook off their crane arms and lay back in their seats. They both smiled over to a openly tense but excitable Charlie.

  “Fine!” Danny shouted back, aggressively typing in their pre-wrote code, then closing the laptop and jumping into the car. With all members away from the truck, the car peeled off from their adjacent track, and made a quick lift
out of the area. With a frenzied whoop, the Albart brothers started celebrating, whilst Kye glared daggers over at them. Danny caught his eye once again, and instantly went on the defensive.

  “What? C’mon, we managed it without any errors, didn’t we?” He let out a small chuckle, slapping Eddie over the head. “I’d call that a success!” Kye turned away, looking to the front of the cabin, as the car flew over the automated highway, and back towards the city in the distance. Columns of blinking lights passed by, complete with grimy poles all signalling ‘Green for go’ as the final few tracks of automated road dropped behind them. It would be a short and lonely trip back – as it was, barely anyone drove out this way, save for impoverished workers headed to the outreaching factories in their group shuttle buses. Even this wouldn’t be for another few hours, however, as most workers started their day at dawn, and the entire mission had only taken up an hour of the twilight time.

  “Oh sure, not a hitch,” Eddie said, slapping Danny back with equal ferocity. “Always gotta be your end of job, hasn’t it?”

  “Oh piss off, will you?”

  “You piss off!” Eddie returned.

  The two broke out into a scuffle, trading insults and punches until they were interrupted by an irritated Julie.

  “Jesus, will you two stop that?” Looking back, she spotted Kye, and they shared a knowing smile. The car turned round a corner, past another two grimy poles, and a clean silver box that rose up out of the roof of an old station below. “We’re out, okay? Now, let’s just get back to the shop before – oh fuck...” She tailed off as she checked her rear mirror, noticing that the silver box had not stopped rising, and was now breaking into 4 distinct sections, with a hiss of steam from each. Neon blue lines crossed as they broke apart fully, each breaking again, extending wings adorned with a turret on each side, already whirring into action. A bright red eye beamed on from the middle, pointing straight towards the car, as the four drones spun into flight and began to follow.

  “Before that,” Julie finished. Dropping the car into a steep dive, she narrowly missed an alleyway lightpost, as they began to weave through the tight streets, the drones not far behind. She spoke, more to herself than the people in the car.

  “What the hell are they even doing there?" She shook herself straight and started her commands: "Somebody grab the handguns, I’m opening the windows now and we need a proper retaliation prepared.” Kye and Clara both scrambled for the handguns in their side pockets as the automated windows dropped down. The whirr raised in pitch, violently punctuated by the bullets the turrets released, which thudded into the metalwork of the car, instantly shattering the back window.

  “Charlie, down!” Clara screamed, firing off a few rounds in response. None hit, and Charlie, who was previously staring out at the drones, dropped down from the window to the floor of the car, yelling incoherently. Julie screamed, hands running frantically on the wheel.

  "How the fuck did they manage to shatter the window? They were tricked out for bulletproofing, right?" Her queries fell on deaf ears, the occupants of the car all too preoccupied to respond. As she turned the corner, Kye let off a shot which connected with the wing of a drone, sending it spiralling to the nearest lightpost – it bent instantly, and with a ball of flame, took it out of commission, along with the drone itself.

  “Got one! Keep turning, we’ll get them when they line up.” Kye relayed this information through to Julie, who began to turn the car in a complicated route through the tight roads, irregularly speeding up and slowing down with sharp jerky movements. Eddie and Danny slanmed into the door almost immediately, whilst Charlie sprawled across the floor, all three managing to complain with equal ferocity, despite all ending up in their different places. As the commlink had remained open, everyone caught this at full volume and retorted back with their own complaints, causing a messy explosion to erupt in Kye’s ear. The result was immediate, and his next shot missed the drone entirely.

  “Fuck! Will you all just shut up? I swear to–” he started to complain but was cut off, interrupted by the run of bullets shot in response, catching one dead in his shoulder. He cried out in pain, spinning back into the car whilst dropping his handgun, instead looking to clutch his now profusely bleeding wound. The drones were clearly spared no cost, using only the highest grade of ammunition that was available on the market – Shatterpoint Bullets. They split upon impact with the bone, ripping through nearby muscle tissue and reducing it to shreds. Instantly, Julie knew why the window had smashed so easily. More worried about Kye, she yelled back his name, anxious for some kind of response. Blood squirted out through Kye’s hand as he slid further into his chair, beginning to drop out of consciousness.

  “Hey, hey, stay with me!” Eddie yelled, slapping him across the face. “Wake up, man, we’re not back yet.”

  Kye murmured a response, now almost fully asleep. Clara picked up his handgun, slick with blood, and threw it over to Danny, who looked horrified for just a moment, before composing himself and moving to the window.

  “Sweetheart, keep turning, I’m taking over,” Danny said, as he lined up a shot and fired. A bright flash sparked out of the drone, which had just begun to fire on the car, before it stuttered and dropped to the street.

  “Is he okay?” asked Julie, a concerned look etched across her face. She tried to turn back but her control on the vehicle wavered, the car glancing off another lightpost. The dilapidated housing around was thinning out, and turns were getting less possible, as the streets all converged to face one factory and warehouse at the head of a small hill.

  Julie mused, “Fuck, okay, I have an idea. You’re gonna have to just trust me on this one, but you had better be ready to shoot. Clara, Danny, full clips please. Charlie, move forward from the back of the vehicle. Bring Kye with you." The car continued round it’s final corner, as another barrage of shots laced out across the metalwork, shattering the window on Clara’s side. She flinched back from the trail of bullets, narrowly missing a few rogue shards which had spread out from their impact. As they neared the straight, they began to drive up adjacent to the hill, the slight rise bringing the front of the car up, and leaving the engines exposed down at the back. The two remaining drones screamed as they began to climb, shooting off another round of bullets through their now straight line of fire. Almost all connected, puncturing holes in the metal bodywork of the engine, spitting out jets of bright blue flame. The car dropped, scraping into the ground with a smattering of hot sparks, before bouncing back up, shuddering to life as it raised into the air. Inside, the occupants fell apart again, cursing as they did so.

  “Jesus, okay, we’re gonna have to ditch this car, or maybe we can make repairs once the drones are dealt with, I don’t know,” Julie shouted as she spun the wheels around and lifted the repulsor engines back up. The car clipped the top of the gate at the entrance to the installation, letting out another vomit of sparks, before Julie drifted it towards the factory, aiming directly toward the highest floor and speeding up.

  “Hey, don't you see the windows? You know what – never mind,” Eddie sighed as she waved him off impatiently. As the windows drew closer, the drones began to slow, seemingly wary of the incoming impact.

  “Eyes front, people! Better start shooting those metal struts. Come on!” Julie shouted as she pushed the car to its full speed, engines groaning with the effort, and sputtering out clouds of opaque black smoke. Danny and Clara trained their weapons to the front of the vehicle, reaching their arms out of the shattered windows and firing a full clip into the oncoming glass. The drones saw an open opportunity, and took aim toward the outstretched arms, all of their shots missing and passing through to the windows ahead – they helped greatly in the effort to break through. Fissures spread outwards from the bulletholes, quickly cracking in thin webs that ran across the whole pane.

  “Hold on!” Julie yelled. The car plowed through. The glass plate shattered into tiny pieces as the vehicle slipped inside, flying into the open factory floo
r, crashing through benches and desks, and sending papers and fabrics high into the air. Inside, the occupants dropped, sliding into their chairs and bumping into each other hard. With a loud crash, it gave in and dropped, the engines finally giving up, as they took a mix of shredded glass and paper into their cooling vents. Combined with the weak, puckered bodywork, the pressure proved too great. The fire that had built up inside vented out through the bullet holes, shunting the car forward a metre. White hot and blue flame spurted out of the back of the vehicle directly into the path of the two remaining drones as they drifted in through the makeshift door. They sparked for a moment, as their eyepieces cracked and the lightweight metal frames melted, dropping them to the floor with an exhaustive whine. The drones had been dealt with.

  2

  Idle Time

  Julie came to, slumped across the wheel, skull thumping in time to the beeps emanating from the dashboard. She dizzily raised her head, slowly looking around the car and surveying the damage – vision still blurred and ears still ringing. Her hair was plastered to the side of her head, as a sticky congealed blood matted the fire-red strands together. That explained the persistent pain. Through squinted vision, a field of lights winked various problems at her, each confirmed by their matching tones. With so much information to take in at once, the best she could surmise was that the car was definitely beyond repair, at least with the relatively primitive tools currently at their disposal. In order to get a better idea of what they were dealing with, she plugged into the console at the front. Thankfully the commlink connection port had survived. Ignoring the glaring issue with the engine, she could see at least two maglift vents closed and three shredded tyres popping up in her display.The steering drive was marked up as simply ‘non-responsive’, which she was easily able to confirm with a turn of the wheel. Entirely focused on interacting with the console, she was drawn out of her incredulous stupor by a small cough over her left shoulder.