Strictly Business

Chapter 10

Sola walked out of the 15th Division Headquarters. A Shredder slung over his back, secured tightly by cords. He had been granted access to test out the Experimental Weapons in the field. Along with several other soldiers, they were to be stationed at the docks, where they were supposed to intercept a shipment of illegal weaponry.

There are many different armament manufacturers in Neon City. Butchton, Grande, Coiler, to name a few. Each manufacturer specializes with different weapons and firing systems. Butchton make old-school weapons - such as revolvers with 6-round barrels that you have to flick up and manually reload. Grande are the 'everyman' manufacturer. They make guns for self-defence. Accessible firearms. Like SMGs and shotguns. I own a Grande 550. Then there are a few other manufacturers - Coiler make electrically powered weapons, Solar Co are the official manufacturers for the Solar military, PAX make the best hydraulic firearms in the city, and Balrog make quirky guns like flamethrowers that spurt acid, bouncy grenade launchers and sludge pistols. Neon City is a gun haven.

Sola, however, was not equipped with all the professionally tested guns that circulated the Neon streets. He merely had a thermal pistol, courtesy of Solar Co. and an experimental Shredder, that had a 55% change of backfiring with every shot.

But it would do. The military hoverbikes glowed eerily under the starlit sky, which was covered by a thick blanket of steel. The Closure. It was such a pity that most Neon citizens (Neonites, as they were called) would never get to see a starry sky unless they left the comfort of The Dome. Neon City was one of many cities that made up the main empire that governed most of the Western part of the world. An empire known as The Confederation. The Confederation was a large continental empire that ruled what was formerly Western Europe, South America, Alaska and Canada. Most of North America was owned by The Liberation, another rival empire which was purely American. 

Sola zoomed down the highway on the hoverbike, propelled only by heavy duty antigravity magnets that enabled the hoverbike to...well, hover. Hoverbikes are an engineering marvel, a feat of genius, proof that scientific theory can be practical. You see, the planet has a natural magnetism that surrounds it - an all-encompassing magnetic field of sorts. Antigravity magnets basically have their own anti-magnetic field that conflicts with any magnetic field in its presence. The result is a form of magnetic stasis, which causes the two magnets to cancel each other out and create a hoverfield, where anything in between just sort of hangs there, untethered. Apply this to a larger force, i.e. the frame of a hoverbike and the hoverfield allows the bike to float. It then becomes simply a matter of angling the magnets and adding thrusters for the bike frame to move and turn; with the results being a hoverbike.

Sola reached the dock in mere minutes. He had taken the highway, and driven at speeds that broke the limit. It didn't matter, though, since there was something about to go down. Hard.

Illegal weaponry is dangerous. Real deadly. Which is why making sure no one gets it is one of the thing military officers do. Normally, Lunar soldiers would be assigned to a night duty like this, but Sola and his crew had been monitoring dock activity since morning, and henceforth felt it was their duty to see this through.

The vehicle came to rest by a neon tree. Its artificial bark glowed with a faint cyan, and the synthetic leaves swayed in the slow breeze. Sola removed his safety helmet and hung it on the handlebars where it lay suspended. He spotted a few shadows in the distance and moved towards them.

His crew. Drake, Fray and Harriet. Drake was big. Had a tattoo of an anchor on his left arm, which made him look tough as anchor tattoos so often did to big people. His grey hair was cleanly shaven, as if he were some new age monk.

Fray was younger. He wore a gas mask of sorts with two ventilated airways that branched off the mouthpiece to filter gases in and out. His dull yellow jumpsuit was corrosion resistant. His hair remained hidden from view, along with the rest of his face.