Afterlife (Edgerunners)

Memory: First Steps

Luis Hartmann

We had slotted the prototype shard into the exoskeleton, and I think we're finally going to get our results.

"Hartmann! Come on over here!" Anders had called me to him.

"Yeah what is it?"

"Well you're the one who was working the most on the exo, c'mon, slot it in."

We had stood in front of his console, with the controls for a mechanical arm to slot the construct into our new pet project.

"Well?"

Anders seemed happy for once, it was rare, and quite welcome actually.

But of course, problems.

Biggest megacorp and we still have faulty tech in the engineering division.

The arm was malfunctioning, so naturally, I had to do it manually.

"Is this fuckin' tech from 2011!? Fucking abysmal that is." Owens had blurted out, was surprised considering he's normally the last one you'd hear talk.

I had to be careful with slotting the chip in, making sure it didn't snap, although that is unlikely.

Annnnnnnd, bingo.

Chip slotted.

"Hey Hartmann, firing him up now."

"Thanks Anders, and Owens, could you turn that damn radio on? Fucken mechanical arm over here is doing my head in."

"Hey Hartmann, DM4 is about to be up and walking, so if you wanna be the first face it registers in scanners, go for it now." Anders seemed to actually be proud of this, as was I.

Gooooooood Evening Night City!

"Luis Hartmann, Age 34, Engineering division, it's a pleasure."

"H-hello! Can I just get a quick designation?"

"DM MK.IV, I'm designated to espionage and the testing of cyberware. Although downloaded, Biochip construct is currently inactive."

"Hartmann! Firing up the construct now! We'll start running interference, just keep him distracted."

"Biochip construct activated, Construct, One Da-"

And for only 250k... A trip to the moon can be yours! And celebrating 100m streams this year already... We present across all stations a playing of-

"Fuck! Owen, turn that fucken thing off, his neutrals are flaring up all over the place!"

Anders and the screams of all the staff are now echoing all across the room, although, that voice still stood out above the rest.

"Sir, you seem scared."

"I... No, no I'm not scared I'm fine."

"It will be fine sir, I will escort you out-"

"I don't think there's a need for-"

All of a sudden my throat had lost airflow, and not even a blink later, I couldn't feel anything below it, and I was on the ground.

"LUIS!"

A foot came crashing down.