Chapter 12: Drive

Ben zoomed around the Doc's shack, testing out the new fission thrusters he had just installed. He was like a certain cyborg sidekick of a overpowered bald man. The kinetic force that can be stock up in the converters now basically makes each of his punches and stabs more devastating.

"Ben! We need to drop off the copy cat with Miss Ann and leave for Glasgow!" Ben stopped as he heard shouting from inside Docs shack and decided that the testing was enough. Once he was inside he was greeted by Sam, who was functioning much better than yesterday, and was holding the drone in his arms.

"You done?"

Ben nodded. "The thrusters will allow me to deal with any time-dilation cyberware. Only problem is my reaction time is a tad too slow for fighting with the thrusters on. It's more for running away and barreling into my enemy's, damn I wish I had a nervous system...."

"You'll be fine. Let's go drop this off with Miss Ann and hitch a ride to Glasgow."

Once they arrived at Camelot, they found Annabel sitting at the bar as usual. "I'm assuming that you got what I asked, yes?"

"One of them, here." Sam handed her the bag that held the drone.

"We need a ride to Glasgow for one of the other misplaced products." Sam was conversing with Annabel while Ben was off conversing with the other mercs in the underground bar, building connections and what not.

Then he was approached by a net-diver in blue overalls. "Yo! Names Vincent, was wondering if you have any need for high end malware?"

Ben shook his head. "I make my own malware."

"Like you make your own cyberware?"

Ben sighed. "Doc?"

Vincent nodded. "He was spouting off about this young new merc who retrofitted a pair of stingers and joint energy convertors into a faster stabbing machine and then later on, added a railgun to the mix."

Ben still had the malware on Doc when they first met, but the malware would only activate if Doc spouted off his identity to anyone. People don't take kindly to sentient robots these days, but now Doc is spouting off to everyone about his cyberware, which is equally dangerous.

"Hey Vincent, how about I sell you this new malware I've been cooking."

Vincent caught on easily to Ben's game. "Sure! Can I interest you in any discounted cyberware? Ones that don't come from Doc?"

Ben smiled. "Sure."

When Sam was finished conversing with Annabel, he looked around for Ben only to find him haggling with a group of net-divers and techies on the other side of the bar. Annabel looked over at what Sam was seeing and just sighed at the chaos that Ben was making.

Sam sighed and went over to pull Ben away from the chaos so they could get going to Glasgow. "Ben we have to leave soon-"

"Sam I know, chill out. We don't even have a plan yet for what we're going to do when we get there so why the hurry? Plus this is the time for me to make a little change to my weaponry." Sam sighed and waited for Ben to finish.

…

"Ben, I must warn you that some of Satoshi's men were here two days ago asking for you. So be on the lookout for them." The duo was sitting with Annabel getting updated on any changes to the heist they were planning on the Minutemen.

Ben nodded and walked out of Camelot with Sam loaded with all kinds of stuff in his backpack that he bought along with all of the other things.

The two began their hitchhiking to Glasgow at a slow and steady pace, getting help from an old trucker that let them sit in the back of the truck.

"It's going to be about seven hours so best to get comfy."

"I'm gonna work on a few things."

About an hour into their journey the trucker had decided to try and conversate with Ben. "So~ where you headin?"

"Glasgow. A friend of ours is in need of help moving a few things."

The trucker nodded. "Names John, what's yours?"

"Amon." Ben answered.

The trucker's brow went up as he exclaimed. "Not what I would have picked for you but if that's your name, that's your name."

Ben looked outside the truck into the vast open fields plagued by smog creating factories and acres upon acres of greenhouses and slaughter houses littered the plains and were all managed by WOTF.

"Didn't know the government let WOTF do this."

"Yeah the government sold all of the land to WOTF and they moved in about five years ago I believe, they took all of the open fields that England had left, now all that's left is the company managed factories."

Ben shook his head at the comment while he got to work on the things he bought in Camelot. "If you think this is bad, go look at America and Russia or even better the African Confederation. All of their plains are taken up by laboratories, factories, prisons, and nuclear testing. I would say England got it way better than those three right now."

"Have you been to any of those places?"

Ben nodded. The trucker wouldn't be able to derive much just from where he has been.

"Hmm~, I didn't think anyone other than corpos were rich enough to get out of this country. I am actually saving up for me and my daughter to do so."

"Where are you going?"

"Switzerland." Ben laughed and shook his head. Even through all of the shit in the history of the world and the present day society, Switzerland still holds true for peace on this cold dead grey Earth.

"You laugh but I am almost there! Soon I won't have to worry about my daughter being mugged, raped, or just straight killed out on the street. I won't have to worry about being taken advantage of for my old age."

"You do you old man. You do you. Just know that wherever there are humans, strife and death will be prevalent."

The pessimistic thoughts and overall negative view of humanity had cemented itself into Ben after his death. He found that where there would be profit, there would be mass death. Mankind simply didn't have the control to stop themselves when it came to such things.

They traveled for a bit longer before John made a pit stop and had to drop off the duo. "I ain't going all the way to Glasgow so this is as far as I can take you before I am late for my shipment."

"Where are you going with your next shipment?"

"Don't know."

"Alright see you around John." Then Sam and Ben watched as the trucker drove off into the distance.

Sam turned to Ben as he found himself confused. "Are you bipolar?"

Ben was unprepared for such a question. "No. Wait, maybe? Why do you ask?"

"Because I took you for a merc who liked killing."

Ben shook his head. "I don't like killing, I like the adrenaline that comes with the fight that results in killing, It's just that there's not much one can do other than kill the person that's trying to kill you. I mean You can't act robotic, you've got to savor every moment in this life, because it'll be over before you know it...."

"That's some surprising wisdom from someone who is supposedly only a few days old. But its a good mentality to have nonetheless. Come on let's go look for a new trucker that'll be willing to take us." Ben nodded and followed after Sam.

…

The new trucker had only allowed them to come aboard if they sat in the shipping container he was haling

Five hours into their journey Ben felt the truck was stationary as he woke up and went to wake Sam. "Sam we've stopped."

Once they got out of the truck they were greeted by a road blockade of cybernetic gangsters who had the trucker dead in their midst. His body was riddled with holes of bullets, his arms smashed by cyberware and his face was burnt off, he was horribly tortured. After the gangsters saw the duo they walked up to them threateningly.

"Boys look at what we have here, a couple of hitchhikers! Not something you see everyday. Oi, you two, pay up the toll if you want to pass."

Ben looked down at the dead trucker's body then back up at the gangster and sighed. This was life in this cutthroat world. A world where children are orphaned and become killers, a world of pollution and greed run rampant, a world where normal human dignity was thrown in the trash so that they could become a 'better' version of themselves.

These 'better' versions slowly replace the organic bits making one closer and closer to a cold unfeeling robot.

Ben looked up at the group, unworried of their numbers. He simply asked a question. "Did you have to kill him?"

"Huh?"

"The trucker. Did you have to kill him, was it of such importance that you end his life?" Ben wasn't being hypocritical about killing, yes he has killed a lot of people in the short time back on Earth but all of those deaths were warranted as each of those people sought to harm him one way or another.

"What the hell you on about, of course I had to kill him since he pissed me off."

Ben nodded and activated the malware he had planted, frying all of their circuits. Then he picked up the trucker's body and put him in the truck's backseat, letting Sam drive the truck the rest of the way while he worked on his cybermask.

Once they made it to Glasgow, Sam dropped the truck off with the trucker's body at a police station. Then they made their way to the targets location.

Ben walked the once largest seaport of England with his backpack loaded with goodies. "Sam, if we don't really have a plan, why don't we come at this situation differently."

"What do you have planned?"

"Espionage or at least we don't shoot our way in, we buy our way in?"

"But that would take too long."

"Well let's find a motel and hunker down for the night so we can think up a plan in the morning." Ben and Sam made their way to the nearest motel when Ben glanced at a billboard hologram showing the recent news.

[Trucker John Fort, was killed in a shootout between the merchants and gingers on-]

"A cold and unfeeling world...." Ben looked away and continued his march through this chaotic world so that he could see the two people who made living life worth it...…