2013-09-15 - lthr_jock - Cybershock - Chapter One

Author: lthr_jock
Title: Cybershock - Chapter One
Date: 15 September 2013

Jared looked down from his office at the seething streets of the Metroplex below him. On the 75th floor, he was too high up to see individuals but he could see the constant lights of the traffic below, the huge floating advertising hoardings that constantly bombarded the street-dwellers with their messages and he could imagine the constant noise and smell. He had to imagine it, as he had never seen it for himself. Since he was born, he had been one of the elite. Raised to rule the scum down below, he would never know what life was like in their constantly rainy streets. He gave a light shudder. The worst he would ever have to deal with was an argument in the board room or the excitement of a hostile takeover. He smiled as he thought about the victory he had enjoyed just that afternoon - a particularly vicious destruction of an opponent. Poor Royce. That would teach him to face off against Jared. Royce would be lucky if he did not end up on the streets himself.

A beeping from the commlink on Jared's wrist roused him from his reverie. Time for dinner with his fiancée. He walked across his opulent penthouse towards the hover dock, his vat-grown muscles moving lightly under the unbelievably expensive synth-weave suit. He caught a glimpse of himself in the brushed steel surface of the elevator door. Although he was 50 years old, the anti-aging treatments available to him made him look as though he was no older than 25. He was 6ft2' tall and perfectly muscled although he hadn't done a day of exercise in his life. His eyes were a piercing blue and his hair was blonde and coiffure perfectly. His royal blue suit was tailored to show his body off to perfection. His commlink was encrusted with nameless jewels mined on the asteroid belt and he wore rings glinting with the same.

Jared stepped into the lift and was transported swiftly to the hover dock. There he sat in the back seat and curtly instructed the computer to take him to Trivago's Restaurant. With barely a whisper of sound, the car lifted off and jetted across the Metroplex towards his destination.

A chiming from his commlink indicate an incoming holo-message. He accepted it and a screen appeared in front of him - a screen filled with the hate-filled face of Royce.

'Royce, my dear fellow. No hard feelings I hope?'
'Hard feelings? You destroyed my company, Jared. I lost millions of creds and had to sell my home. Of course I have hard feelings, you bastard.'
Jared raised an eyebrow and leaned back in the synth-leather flight chair. He plucked an imaginary speck of dust off of his knee. 'Now, now, Royce. You know it was nothing personal. It was only business. Now, if you only called to rant I have a dinner engagement with Fiona.'
Jared moved to terminate the call.
'Wait...there is something else, Jared.'
Jared paused 'Well? What is it?'
Royce smiled 'Revenge.'
The holoscreen disappeared as the link was severed from the other end. Almost immediately, the hovercar was rocked by an explosion and it lurched to one side, throwing Jared against the door. He looked outside and saw the Metroplex, this time spinning wildly as the hovercar spiraled down towards the streets below. Jared started yelling at the computer to regain control of the car and as he looked into the cockpit, he could see emergency lights and messages flashing all over the screens. As the surface approached at breakneck speed, Jared heard a calm computer voice saying 'Prepare for crash. Activate beacon. Please do not panic.' Nozzles opened in the cabin of the car and started to spray a white liquid into the air. As the liquid contacted the air, it immediately started to solidify and expand and in less than 5 seconds the entire cabin was filled with a soft white substance that held Jared tightly in place. He recognised it as crash foam. The foam covered Jared completely, blocking his eyes, ears and mouth but still somehow allowing him to breath. He could still vaguely hear the computer:

'Impact in 5....4....3....2....1....0'

There was a lurch, but the crash foam did its job and prevented the impact from injuring Jared. All he felt was a slight bump. Clearly the car had crashed but now Jared was trapped. All he could do was stay where he was, trapped in the crash foam like a fly in amber. Jared was not worried. The beacon had been activated and the Enforcers would be with him in minutes to cut him free.

Minutes passed. Nothing happened and he began to get concerned. His commlink detected his increased heart rate and he felt the familiar warmth of a relaxant being pumped into his system. More time passed. He heard the chime of an incoming message. Although he could not see the holoscreen, the sound was transmitted by the implant in his skull.
'Jared, old chap.' Jared recognised Royce.
'By now you should be at ground level and waiting for the Enforcers to arrive. Sorry, old chap, but they don't actually know you've crashed. I had one of my more talented cyber-travelers hack your system and stop the beacon from activating. Now you're probably worried that you'll sit there in the foam until you eventually die of hunger. Nothing to worry about, old chap. I've arranged for some business associated of mine to collect you. Have fun.' The commlink beeped as Royce terminated the call.

Jared tried to yell, but the crash foam pressed tightly against his face prevented him. He desperately tried to reach his commlink to call for help, but the foam again stopped him. His levels of frustration and panic mounted and his commlink adjusted the level of drug in his system, rendering him almost completely unconscious.

Time passed unnoticed by Jared as the drugs continued to maintain his level of calm. He became aware of a glow through the crash foam and then his vision slowly cleared as the foam was melted away by someone spraying a melting agent over it. His vision was still blurry as he felt the foam melting away from around his body and the hands of his rescuers pulled him out of the wreck of the hover car. He was pulled out into the pouring rain, the sudden chill and wet making him shiver for the first time in his pampered life. His expensive hairstyle was flattened against his head and he reached up to wipe his eyes clear and look around him. As he did so hands grabbed his arms and pulled them behind him and he heard the click of steel as cuffs secured them together. With a whirr the cuffs then tightened pulling his wrists tightly together and he felt other metal bands tightening around his arms above and below his elbows. His arms pinioned tightly behind him, forcing his chest out in front of him. Jared started to shout a complaint, but before he could do so a rubber ball was pushed into his mouth. In seconds it swelled to fill his mouth and then he felt it flow over his chin and around the back of his head to form a secure gag.

Jared peered at the blurred figures around him. Something was wrong - these were not Enforcers. As his vision cleared he could see that the people stood around him were dressed in the mixture of rubber and leather typical of street gangs. He started to yell into the gag and struggle and his commlink helpfully dumped another load of anesthetic into his system, nearly putting him unconscious. As his legs crumpled, he felt himself held up by whoever was stood behind him. They spun him around and he found himself face to face with a troll. Jared had heard of gangers doing this to themselves - a mixture of surgery, drugs and DNA splicing allowing them to grow to over 7ft tall as well as making them massively muscled. The tusks were almost certainly implants, but they certainly looked real as the troll chuckled at Jared's horrified face.

A voice from behind Jared, cracked out. 'No playing with him here, Karlo. Let's get him ready and bagged.'
Karlo grunted. He held Jared steady with one hand and with the other one ripped his synthweave suit off of him. In seconds, he was naked and shivering in the rain. Karlo then picked up Jared and carried him over to a nearby doorway. He held him up while two of the other gangers rolled out a thick synthleather sack and started to feed it up over Jared's naked body. The sack was loose over his feet and legs and they pulled it up to Jared's neck where it was fastened on with a thick buckle. Jared stood there helpless as one of the gangers moved forward. Similar to Jared in height and physique, he was wearing a long synthleather greatcoat under which Jared could see the gleam of rubber. The bottom half of his face was hidden behind a rebreather, but his head was shaved bald and his eyes were a cold, merciless blue. He took out a data pad and typed some instructions into it. As he did, the synthleather sack tightened around Jared, pulling his feet and legs tightly together, and allowing his muscles to be visible through the skintight layer of synthleather. Jared felt his commlink go dead and realised that circuitry within the sack must be nullifying it. He hoped the same would not be true of his ident chip.
Karlo then picked Jared up and threw him over his shoulder, leaving Jared with a view of the troll's massive back. The other figure stepped up and ran his gloved hands through Jared's blonde hair. 'Nice. He will fetch a good price.' Jared grunted a question into the gag, but the man ignored it, instead sliding a blindfold over Jared's eyes.