HAWK

CHAPTER SIX: DESCENT (5/5)

The stolen ship touched down beneath a wide concrete bridge, one of seventy that were fanned out across the city due to its rich network of stone rivers that had dried up centuries before.

Yun-Ko used to be a respectable district for trade and manufacture. Its close proximity to the sea had given it prominence in its early days, back when ships were the kind that went in the water. The older generation of locals had long since evacuated, either by death or migration, leaving it to the youth to do with what they will.

To Kas's generation, it was skid row.

Even in the better parts of town, there were dark corners aplenty, kept shaded by the various organised crime groups that had planted their roots when the soil was still virgin. Because of this, people in Yun-Ko were not the most trusting. Everyone was constantly on guard, eyes down and bodies tense like they were looking out for tripwires with every step. Even caps tended to stay away, figuring the city a lost cause not worth the fight. Yes, to say you were from Yun-Ko was to say that you were desperate.

The sun was just breaking over the horizon when the X1 emerged from beneath Lanegan bridge and proceeded west along the river towards downtown.

Six members of the Zijan gang, each armed to the teeth with low tech, high damage weapons, happened to be walking the other way when the X1 stepped out in front of them. They had taken one collective look at the big black killing machine and fled like wayward children, scattering themselves like ashes across the city. Hik just kept on strolling, perhaps taking in the particularly fine weather the city had been enjoying the past fortnight.

The few daring civilians who did stick around to watch the X1 certainly didn't pay any attention to the black woman with a mohawk following a couple of hundred feet behind, nor the small, mousy blonde girl accompanying her. Kas figured word of the X1 had spread like an Ardasian rash because the streets ahead were as clear as though a live bomb was being paraded through the city. By the time they reached downtown, even the cars were pulling over and turning back.

When Hik finally came to a stop, it was outside a dingy, easy-to-miss doorway topped with a faded blue neoglow sign that read: 'Dante's Digiverse'. The twin metal doors were propped open, revealing a dark stairway that twisted down beneath the street. Hik just stood there looking blankly into it, waiting until his two pursuers caught up and joined him. When all three were back together, they proceeded as one through the yawning metal doors and moseyed down the winding steps.