Dodging Bullets: A Cyberpunk Omnibus

By Cameron Walker

New York City, year 2521:

The USA has collapsed. The former United States exists now as four separate nations. The largest and most powerful of them is the Federation of New York. The Federation encompasses most of the Eastern seaboard of the former USA. Centuries of turmoil and population growth have turned the region into one vast mega-city, owned and operated by a single mega-corporation known as TechnoCo. TechnoCo rule with an iron fist through a technocratic corporatocracy, a brutal and oppressive dictatorship. Out of this dystopian future comes four tales that explore the world of Dodging Bullets, from the experiences and perspectives of four very different sets of protagonists.

Incoming: It sounded like a typical routine mission. Infiltrate a base of operations for a group of Syndicate rebels and capture a notorious computer hacker in a simple sweep and clear. For the elite commandos of Revenant Squadron, this should be a piece of cake. Until they discover they're in for a whole lot more than they bargained for, and might just have bit off more than they can chew.

Night Shift: In this Noir thriller we’re taken into the seedy criminal underworld where we meet cab driver Joe Kowalski. A self-confessed loser, washed up tough guy, driver, and part time bag man for the myriad of shady types that make up the criminal underworld. Joe thought he was in for another dull night at work, but things quickly change when it comes to include crime lords, junkies, hookers, gangsters, and seedy corporate executives. It’s certainly not your typical night at work, but maybe it will all work out to Joe's advantage?

Downtown: A tale of spine-tingling Sci-Fi Horror. Vince used to be a hot shot reporter, but now his star is fading as he leaves his younger years behind him. Late one night a stranger shows up at his office, promising a huge story that could change everything. A story that will take Vince and his crew kilometres below the thriving metropolis he’s used to, and deep down into the mysterious, ancient realm of Downtown. It’s a story about a vicious gang war between two very unique adversaries. On one side a horde of horribly mutated freaks with a hunger for human flesh, and on the other, a coven of cyborg vampires out for blood and a little bit of ultraviolence. Can Vince and his crew make it out alive?

Cybertrash: A cautionary tale about the dangers of technology, drugs and addiction. Trip Lawson is an addict, and despite the efforts of his friends and family, just can’t seem to clean up his act. Strain on his job, relationships, mental and physical health just aren’t helping him to kick his addiction. Then he fell in with the wrong crowd and finds himself getting involved with career criminals. Things couldn’t possibly get any worse, right?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cameron Walker
• Release date: Aug 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005512439

Cameron Walker

Cameron Walker is a thirty-four-year-old writer from Sydney, Australia, where he resides with his two cats Bubbles and Einari. He first began writing in 2003 at the age of sixteen, where he quickly became interested in writing fanfiction, and soon went on to participate in chain stories and online text-based RPGs. He released his debut novel, the high seas pirate adventure, Devil’s Eye in 2019, and has since released a short story anthology Tales of the Forsaken (2020), and a novella Revenant: Into the Abyss (2020). He mostly writes speculative fiction in a wide range of genres, but specifically horror, fantasy, historical, cyberpunk, and science fiction. Cameron cites R.L. Stine, George Lucas, J.R.R Tolkien, Robert Louis Stevenson, Joss Whedon, and H.P. Lovecraft as the main influences on his writing. He is known for his eclectic style and willingness to always be experimenting, trying something new, and pushing the boundaries of his work.

Book preview

DODGING

BULLETS

A CYBERPUNK OMNIBUS

Cameron Walker

All Material Copyright ©2021 Cameron Walker / Forsaken Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the prior written consent of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.

First Edition: August 2021

ISBN: 9798461196639

Cover Design by Cameron Walker.

Cover Artwork by Aly Faye.

Print formatting by M.A. Brumley.

To the loving memory of my

grandfather Ken Lee,

taken from us far too soon.

CONTENTS:

Cartridge One: Incoming

Cartridge Two: Night Shift

Cartridge Three: Downtown

Cartridge Four: Cybertrash

Acknowledgements

About The Author

CARTRIDGE ONE:

INCOMING

The gunship descended over the cityscape, passing over the rooftops of countless high rises and office buildings as the sun sank beneath the horizon. Speeders and hover bikes whirled through the skylanes around the maze of colossal buildings whose foundations lay kilometers below in the deep, dark recesses of the old city. The commander of Revenant Squadron, First Lieutenant Gareth Dazitz, looked out of the large portside window at the city below as the gunship sped past overhead. The lieutenant was nicknamed Grim by those who knew him, due to the fact he rarely ever smiled and took everything in life with a disproportionate degree of seriousness. They had been scrambled mere minutes before, donning their polished black battle armour and boarding the gunship. Now they were flying across the city, heading towards the containment zone.

Apparently, from what little briefing Grim had received upon being deployed, a group of computer hackers belonging to the Syndicate had been tracked to a location not too far from here and were quickly intercepted by the police. The hackers weren’t alone, however. They were accompanied by a squad of heavily armed insurgents. As a result, the police had been forced to call in the big guns, which was Revenant Squadron, consisting of Grim and his team of elite commandos.

It wasn’t often that Cyberwatch, the department in charge of computer and cyberspace security, managed to get a bearing on the hacker’s position. Often when they did the Syndicate rebels managed to flee the scene before the authorities arrived. To have finally tracked them down and blocked off the area before they could escape was a major achievement. Proof that Cyberwatch, and the police force’s new methods to track hackers and hunt down Syndicate cells were beginning to show results.

Grim sat staring out the gunship’s window as the vessel raced towards their destination, the other men in his squad chatting among themselves. He studied a large billboard that displayed the words Say no to anarchy! Report any suspected Syndicate sympathizers to the police! He felt his jaw tighten as he read the sign. The Syndicate had been causing all sorts of trouble for the government ever since rearing its ugly head four years ago. A group of disgruntled anarchists had chosen to rebel against the government by forming a terrorist network aimed at disrupting the social order and spreading lies and misinformation about the civil authority. For TechnoCo, the owners and government of the nation of New York in the former United States of America, the Syndicate was public enemy number one.

Grim was no lover of politics, but it really boiled his blood to have the company who clothed, housed, fed, protected, and employed a billion citizens derided as being oppressive, tyrannical bullies. Those idiots who spoke out against TechnoCo would be helpless without them. Scream civil liberties and democracy all you want. They were nothing more than unrealistic, spiritual pipedreams that had proven to be ineffective in governing a nation and ensuring the survival of a civilization. He looked around at the other commandos in the passenger bay, sweeping his gaze across the hold. Even when they wore their helmets, he could tell who they were by the way they held themselves. In full battle armour the six commandos of Revenant Squadron looked almost identical, the exception being the insignia that displayed their ranks.

Cram, the squad’s sabotage and demolitions specialist, sat hunched over in his seat with his elbows resting on his knees. The commando had his hands folded over the butt of his blaster rifle that he used to prop up his arms, the weapon’s nozzle pressed firmly against the floor of the passenger bay between his feet. When he had first taken command of the squad Grim had been quick to reprimand the commando on his lazy and carefree demeanor. An action that he soon realized hampered the sergeant’s combat effectiveness. Reluctantly, at the urging of Cram’s former commanding officer, he had relented and let him do things his own way. On the condition it didn’t impede on the rest of the team. Cram’s performance greatly improved when left to his own devices, and despite the unorthodox way he went about things, he met and surpassed the standard expected of the commandos.

Grim still found himself occasionally irked by the commando’s conduct. Going into missions, Cram often looked disinterested and in a daze, like he was about to fall asleep. Next to him, also looking carefree, but in a more relaxed and easy-going fashion, as opposed to lazy, his other sergeant Cash lounged back in his chair, one arm draped over the headrest of the vacant seat next to him.

In terms of character Grim and Cash couldn’t have been any more different. Yet somehow the two of them were the best of friends. Grim was the no-nonsense, stern-faced officer who took everything seriously, and had a reputation for being somewhat anti-social. He was the textbook definition of the stereotypical military officer who put his career before everything else, to the point where it became an obsession. Cash by comparison, was considered something of a joker, who aside from his work didn’t seem to take anything with any degree of seriousness. He was young, handsome, and charming, the perfect poster boy for military recruitment programs. Cash was known as something of a womanizer who loved to mingle and was the life of any social event he attended, which stood in stark contrast with his chosen profession. According to the other commandos, Cash was the epitome of what was cool, hip and trendy. Although they were foreign concepts to Grim, who for all intents and purposes appeared disinterested in anything that wasn’t related to warfare.

The three of them were the only original members of the squad left. The other three positions had changed hands a couple of times in the two years since the squad had been formed, and as a result they were hesitant to let any of the other team members into their private circle. Outside of missions and training the three men kept to themselves and didn’t really socialize with the other half of the team. Hutch had been the only one in the past year who had joined their circle, and he had been killed on their last mission.

One of the two corporals, Dex, lingered near the gunship’s starboard door, gripping the overhead handrail with one hand, and clutching his blaster rifle in the other. Apart from Grim and the two sergeants, Dex was the longest surviving member of the squad, having been with them for almost a year now. Cram and Cash had spoken before being assigned this mission and decided that if Dex survived and did well, he would be accepted into their inner circle.

The commando stood straight backed in contemplative silence, his mind no doubt on the mission to come. Dex was the team’s sniper; and was methodical to the degree of a finely tuned machine that had been designed for war. As far as effectiveness and efficiency went, he was second to none, and added that touch of text-book professionalism to the team that Grim could admire for the rest of his life.

Across from him on the other side of the passenger bay, the other corporal, Wes, the team’s medical officer, sat pressed back into his seat with his blaster rifle lying across his lap. Wes had proved himself to be quite proficient in his role as the group’s medic; but had yet to show signs of being anything more than an average soldier. Still an adequate commando was a dangerous opponent. His reliability and aptness with technology had proven helpful, his resourcefulness allowing the other commandos to overlook his limitations as a combatant.

The lieutenant gripped his helmet with both hands and placed it upon his head, setting his mind on the mission to come. The helmet’s heads up display came to life the instant it settled onto his shoulders. Listen up! We’re coming close to the containment zone, Grim said over the helmet’s commlink, turning his attention to the other five commandos in the passenger bay.

The two commandos that didn’t have their helmets on quickly followed suit and activated their helmet’s systems.

Grim picked up his heavy blaster rifle and flicked the weapon’s activation switch, an electronic whirl verifying the power up sequence. The other commandos in his squad did the same with their own guns and began adjusting them to their preferred settings.

The police have blocked off the building where our targets are hiding and secured the surrounding neighbourhood, he informed his squad. Cyberwatch managed to intercept and hunt down the Syncs before they could log out of the system, and traced them to the Acacia Avenue Apartments, or Triple A as it’s more commonly known to the locals, Grim said, continuing his briefing of the mission parameters. Law enforcement were able to scramble containment crews and seal off the premises before they could close up shop and high tail it, Grim said, as his eyes flicked around inside his helmet, selecting options and feeding the data to the HUDs of the other squad members. He verbalised the data read out as it scrolled up the inside of their helmets. According to Intel, the six Sync hackers are not alone. There is a group of eight to half a dozen other heavily armed insurgents keeping them company. I think it’s safe to assume that this isn’t just a temporary hide out, but a base of operations for the Syndicate, Grim asserted with a nod, convinced that his suspicions were accurate.

Mission objective? asked the trooper seated next to him. A kid named Jet who was fresh out of boot camp and had assigned to the squad as a replacement for Hutch, who had been killed in action several weeks before. The squad didn’t feel so optimistic about taking a raw recruit into their team, which was made up of veterans. Having a green private among them was a new and slightly uncomfortable experience.

The hackers are to be extracted and detained for interrogations, if possible, Grim explained. Intel has reason to believe that the hacker known as Cyrus is among them. If so, he must be brought in alive.

Dex whistled. They really think Cyrus is one of em? he asked incredulously. They’ve been tryin’ to catch that guy for years with no luck.

Grim nodded. Yeah, according to Intel he’s there. I don’t know how they know these things, but that’s not our job. We’re to go in and take him alive.

What about the insurgents? pressed the rookie.

Grim sighed and rolled his eyes. Jet’s constant questions got on his nerves. The kid required everything to be spelled out to him. Whether it was from an overzealous desire to please his new squad mates and prove himself worthy, or if he was just an idiot, Grim didn’t know. Nor did he care. He just hated having to explain every small detail of a plan that was relatively straight forward. He wasn’t used to that sort of thing. He was used to dealing with seasoned veterans who knew what was required of them. Jet had been transferred into their squad because he had finished at the top of his class at the academy, despite not having any real field experience.

The insurgents are to be eliminated, simple as that.

Before Jet could ask another question, the gunship’s pilot spoke up from the cockpit. We’re almost there sir, e-t-a thirty seconds, he said, looking back over the partition that separated the cockpit from the passenger bay.

Okay boys, this is it, lock n’ load! Grim said, rising from his seat and cocking the secondary weapon on his blaster rifle with two loud, grinding clicks. The sound echoed throughout the cabin as the other five troopers copied him and cocked their rifles. Grim grabbed the overhead handrail and pressed the button that opened the gunship door. The hydraulics emitted a soft hiss as the door slid open, exposing the commandos to the outside world where they could see the Acacia Avenue Apartment building roughly two kilometers from their position.

The Triple A was an older building that was starting to fall apart from years of neglect. Not that it stood out in this neighbourhood. The entire suburb was one of the older ones in the megacity, one of the first to be developed on top of the remnants of the old New York City.

An assortment of police speeders and security vehicles had created a containment zone in a three-hundred-meter radius around the building where the Syndicate agents were hiding. As per standard procedure the traffic had been redirected away from the area and the twenty floors above and below the one containing the suspects had been evacuated by security personnel.

Here’s the drill. Two three-man teams enter the building from South and North vectors respectively. Team one will ascend via the stairwell while team two goes up the elevator shaft, Grim ordered. Jet and Cram you’re with me. Dex and Wes, you’re with Cash, the lieutenant said, gesturing to the troopers in turn.

In their polished black armour the commandos looked a lot like high-tech versions of medieval knights. The sight of the black armoured commandos caused enemies of the state to panic. Their lifeless, polished black visage a symbol of their imminent demise, and the power and authority of the state.

The commandos arrayed themselves into their assigned teams and prepared to disembark the gunship. The six commandos grabbing hold of the overhead handrails to brace themselves as the gunship dropped towards the cordoned off area of the building, sinking into the city streets below as the jungle of steel rose and engulfed them. Crowds of spectators outside the containment zone watched on from windows and balconies as the gunship zoomed past.

Grim activated his sidearm and holstered it on his thigh. They did this for them, the citizens of the Federation. Their freedoms as such had been replaced with sensible and appropriate security measures to ensure their safety and general wellbeing. Why anyone would want to compromise that, he couldn’t guess. But then the syndicate was made up of dangerous criminals and anarchists, people who wanted to see their great society destroyed.

The gunship slowed as they came within the last two hundred meters of the building, the docking bay having been secured by city security and reinforced by the police.

Three minutes, Grim said to his sergeant Cash. Once you’ve been deployed wait three minutes, then follow us in.

Copy that, Cash confirmed. Let me guess; you’re the distraction while we make our way up the elevator shaft and catch them off guard on the hacker’s level? Cash asked, guessing at the lieutenant’s strategy.

Right, Grim confirmed.

Security had shut off the power before the commandos had arrived, so no elevators would be moving up and down the shafts, granting the stealth team a safe and uninterrupted journey to spring their trap.

Just give us time to get well inside and start causing a scene, Grim said.

Roger. Three minutes, Cash confirmed once more as the gunship landed within the docking bay.

The lieutenant, with Jet and Cram in tow, leapt out of the gunship. The commandos raced across the docking bay, weapons clutched and ready for action. They made their way over to the entrance to the bay, ignoring the security forces holed up there.

Cash watched as they left and wished he was on the lieutenant’s team. Infiltration wasn’t his specialty. He would much rather be with the lieutenant, killing everything in sight. He preferred the direct approach as opposed to all this sneaking around. Still, he would do what was asked of him without complaint, because that was why they were here, personal preferences aside. Alright, ready your harpoons and climbing gear, Cash said, addressing Dex and Wes as he attached the harpoon device to his blaster rifle. He selected the suit of armour’s zero gravity setting to help their ascent up the elevator shaft and left it on standby as they waited to be dropped off at the opposing docking bay on the other side of the building. The mode was meant to be used for operations in space, but it proved to be equally as effective when it came to tasks such as walking up walls.

Grim led his squad out of the fortified zone and into the corridors of the building, activating the helmet’s night vision so that he could see clearly in the dark. All the lighting and electrical systems inside the building had gone off when the police had cut the power and the building was engulfed in darkness. The hallways and adjoining apartments were empty as they moved deeper into the building with their weapons held at the ready for the first sign of trouble. The three troopers activated their helmets’ infrared scanners to search for lifeforms on this level as they made their way to the staircase that wound its way up through the inside of the building. They cast glances into the apartments as they passed and scanned the interior, before making their way up another level. The apartments’ residents had been ordered to leave the doors open upon evacuating to make it harder for the insurgents to hide and mount any possible ambush.

As they made their way up the staircase Grim checked the status read-out on his helmet’s scanners, there wasn’t anyone lying in wait on this level either. The nearest life forms registered were still another five levels up from them, a further four floors below the one where the hackers were hiding. Not that it meant there was no one waiting to spring a trap on them between here and there. Despite the helmet’s scanning and tracking abilities, there was stealth technology that could either interfere with or trick the scanner equipment into not registering a target. Grim doubted the Syndicate had access to that sort of technology, but you never knew with these terrorist groups, they could be surprisingly resourceful.

The lieutenant looked past the transparent data read out on his helmet’s HUD and into the long winding hallway beyond as he led the other two commandos onto the next floor. Checking the time in the bottom right-hand corner of his helmet’s statistical read out he noted that Cash and his team would be moving out to join them. Even though they would be scaling the walls of the shaft the commandos would move quickly thanks to their anti-gravity equipment and harpoons, that would assist them in ascending the elevator shaft.

The three commandos emerged onto the next floor and made their way across the hall with Jet bringing up the rear. Look out! the rookie shouted as he dove for cover behind the corner, a shower of blaster bolts blowing scorched holes in the wall behind where he had stood an instant before.

Cram and Grim took cover on the opposite side of the hallway intersection, narrowly avoiding being hit by the volley of blaster fire.

A metallic spiderlike object flew through the air and landed in the middle of the hallway, not far from where the commandos were taking cover.

Grenade! Grim screamed as he threw himself to the ground, wrapping his arms around his head.

The other two commandos did the same as the fragmentation grenade exploded in a hail of lethal shrapnel that tore the hallway apart, shredding the walls, floor, and ceiling. Jet heard the shrapnel from the grenade blast peppering his armour, leaving its polished surface pock marked and scarred.

Another volley of weapons fire screamed past the commandos and into the door leading to the staircase behind them, blowing it to pieces.

Shit! That was close! Cram exclaimed, clutching his blaster rifle with both hands. Where the fuck did they come from?

The elevator. They were lying in wait behind the doors for us to come up the stairwell, Grim explained, taking a probe off his utility belt, and tossing it out into the hallway. I managed to sneak a glance as we took cover. I think there are two of them in there, he said, activating the small probe droid from his helmet as he selected options and hit the activation command.

The little droid buzzed to life and rotated itself around to point its camera in the direction of the two ambushers. Grim could see the droid’s point of view via his helmet’s display and studied the situation before them. Two Syncs had barricaded themselves inside the elevator with the door’s half open to provide them with cover as they leaned out and took potshots at the commandos as they came up the stairs and into the main hallway. Luckily for them the shooters weren’t the most accurate or fastest marksmen, otherwise all three of them would be dead by now. As would have been the case had the roles been reversed. Grim snickered at the way the insurgents operated. How did they expect to launch a successful rebellion with such poor combat skills? The rebels weren’t soldiers. They were miscreants, ex-cons, wanted men, terrorists and misguided freedom fighters who thought they stood a chance against commando units like Revenant Squadron.

The continued assault from the insurgents’ weapons fire was quickly chewing apart the walls the commandos were taking shelter behind. The elevator’s doors soaked up the return fire the commandos threw at them, rapidly being torn apart by the squad’s blaster fire. The two would-be assassins were able to pop in and out at will, firing off a hail of rounds before ducking back inside the elevator.

Grim grit his teeth. They could not stay here and delay while Cash’s squad moved on to apprehend the hackers, they had to get past these two and move on to their main objective as soon as possible.

The shooters were poking their guns out from behind the doors and firing wildly into the corridor.

Formulating a plan of attack, Grim jumped into action. Cram, ready a grenade! Jet and I will lay down some covering fire! he instructed the other two commandos.

Yes sir! Copy that! came the responses over the helmet’s comm system.

Cram flicked the switch on his rifle to change from the blaster’s primary to secondary weapon and clutched it in both hands, waiting for Grim to give the word.

On my mark.

Grim waited for the latest volley of laser fire to recede, and as soon as it did, he leapt out into the middle of the hallway. What little remained of the elevator doors began sliding shut as the lift began to move up to the next floor. Go! Go! Grim ordered, taking the lead.

Jet joined him a fraction of a second later as they began to pour blaster fire at the elevator, the steady high-powered whine of the blasters filling the hallway with smoke and red bolts of lethal superheated energy.

Cram rolled out into the hallway and came up onto his knees with his rifle aimed at the elevator doors. Fire in the hole! he cried, pulling the heavy rifle’s trigger. The grenade burst forth from the lower, much larger barrel, rocketing down the hallway, leaving a trail of spiraling smoke in its wake as it spun in a frenzied circle. It slipped between the gap in the doors just before they closed, and the elevator exploded in an inferno of flame and flying shrapnel.

Grim didn’t blink twice as the wall of fire roared down the hallway to consume them, and came inches from where they stood, the intense heat of the flames warming their skin through their armour.

Clear! Cram remarked, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Jet chuckled in response. Nice work, lethal.

Can the chatter you two. Let’s get moving, Grim said, motioning for them to follow him. Without looking back the lieutenant led the way up to the next level, the other two commandos following close behind.

Cash flinched inside his armour as a massive ball of flame burst into existence above them and rained debris on the three commandos.

What the fuck? someone declared over the squad’s commlink, voicing the surprise they all felt at the sudden explosion as they came to a