CHAPTER I Glamour

"Saturn is easily the prettiest thing I've ever seen, to shine so brightly in a place with nothing but dark and light is… wonderful." The voice playing on the radio sounded like a young girl's voice. It felt refreshing hearing a new and joy filled voice, if only it wasn't for an ad about cybernetic eyes.

The ad felt so misplaced in this hell hole of a city. It looked almost as beautiful as the moon that reflected in its windows, but looking further out from the waterfront only showed poverty, crime, and ultimately pure violence. Driving on the outskirts of the city reveals her location… in the state; Sonora of the Western States' Republic of America or The R.S.A. to kick some dirt in the mouth of the old United States.

Driving towards a checkpoint outside the city there was a sign. On it you could read "Welcome to New 'River City", it used to say "Arrival City'' but the Ar was removed in a battle that ended up creating a river that split the city into three major districts; the North, Southern, and Corps Island.'River city was a neutral zone made and enforced by various Mega-Corporations the leading ones: Stellaris a space agency and a cybernetics distributor, New Australian Industries, military tech and head of the war horse that was New Australia, and Exa-Com, they run communication from the R.S.A. to the Eastern world.

Now getting back on topic, a major thing about New 'River City was the fact that making a name for yourself came easy here since the government couldn't get involved. The idea is to go on heists, most of which were run by the corporations trying to steal data from each other and countries trying to run espionage. If your name is renowned then you get bigger and bigger jobs or if you're lucky, you get sponsored.

Many big players come from New 'River but I'm coming from Deseret. Deseret is the remnants of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and northern Arizona all coming together back during the 2087 American Civil war.

Entering the city is a big pain since most of the guards there are heavily armed. I haven't even gotten to Sonora, I've got to smuggle in some illegal tech. Military hardware from the old U.S., all I knew was that I needed to get it to the docks and I got paid.

"Get you outta the clouds kid." Said a man in the front passenger, he was staring right at me. I heard people called him Ahanu but I just couldn't see how the name fits. The aura of seriousness he gives off was too infectious; he kills the mood. "Sit and watch over the package or I swear to god yo.."

"Chill out mang." The driver interrupted, her name was Clara, from what I heard she punched the hell outta fixer who crossed her. Put him in a hospital.

"What even is a "mang"" asked Ahanu.

"Clearly you need to watch more movies from 1980s movies." Clara returned with a slight smile.

"Clearly you need to take this more seriously unless you wanna get thrown into the Forge."

"What's the Forge?" I asked

"Prison, they scrap your cyber bits and make you work or use your brain as a processor if you're real bad." Ahanu explained, "Now wait here while I go hand in the paperwork." I leaned back and watched as Ahanu exited the van and walked into a building on the right. One of the guards started their inspection of the van moving around and below it they had a number on their back designating them zero-one, a drone went over to check the roof.

Ahanu came back and he seemed to be more relaxed. Zero-one who was inspecting the van suddenly stopped and stood there for a moment. Two guards moved and stopped Ahanu from moving closer to the van. Zero-one went over and started patting him down, searching.

Ahanu looked like he was ready to kill them if things went south. The guard pulled out Ahanu's gun, the other two stepped away and pointed their rifles at him. Zero-one held up their hand, signaling to the others to lower their weapons. They handed back Ahanu his gun and pointed towards the van. Ahanu nodded his head and started walking back to the van.

Clara had sat up straighter and she had tightened her shoulders. Ahanu got into the van and said, "We're clear to go through" the tension lightened up a bit, "and kid, the guard wanted your number." He said smiling.

"Huh?"

"Never had a woman ask about you before?" asked Ahanu

"Nope," I answered. Ahanu and Clara started laughing, "Jerks." They started laughing even harder. I put in my earbuds and started wondering why I even got put here with these two. Damn fixers don't know how to remotely put together a good crew. Not to mention that guard has my number cause Ahanu couldn't help himself, damnit.

The city was steadily getting closer and closer. The colors were starting to pop out as the sun began to set and the lights started to turn on. You could see the river itself from miles away since it was lined with spotlights. It looked less like a light show and more like they were searching for any planes or helicopters that shouldn't be flying overhead.

The towers of Corps Island were standing tall and there it was in the center, a long segmented rod, each layer had lights with different colors lining them. A space elevator, one of four around the world. I heard it goes up to a spaceport they called Olympus. Many people tried to get there but they always got stopped by one of the corpo regiments.

I'd like to see what Olympus and the world looks like from space. But that's just a small chance in a cold cold hell. A thumping noise caught my attention. There was a helicopter flying low just above the cars, it was heading towards the city, News? I thought, it wasn't a new chopper. It had a mounted gun on its underbelly and rocket tubes on the sides.

"Clara, pull over to the side," Ahanu commanded, "Don't want to get caught in any crossfire." Sure enough moments later a black cloud emerged from the elevator. As it got closer red lights could be seen, their sensors I bet. The chopper opened fire on the cloud with its missiles and gun. The explosions spread out the drones and when they reached the helicopter they engulfed it.

Flashes could be seen and fire and smoke was starting to rise above the cloud. Then a tearing noise, it was awful. It sounded like a can being crushed and twisted only sharper, louder, and the crunching was awful. Finally the cloud dispersed and went back to the elevator, the encounter only took two minutes. The remains of the chopper were on the ground. Ahanu and Clara got out to inspect the wreckage, and I followed soon after.

The wreckage was flaming for the most part. Ahanu signaled for Clara and me to go over to him. He pointed, "Look." There was blood and pieces of bone coming out from this part of the chopper. A feeling welled up inside of me, I felt like I had to vomit but couldn't. I fell back and the world looked like it was spinning.

Ahanu carried me back to the van and Clara entered on the passenger side. "The Hades Suppression System." he said, "The main reason why any other country hasn't tried to take this place over." It was one hell of a show, a brutal one.

"Why?" was the only word I could get out before the world started spinning again.

"One way, shape or form a trade nexus and an elevator is essentially a holy grail that any politician would love to hold." Ahanu explained. To think someplace so pretty had one wicked dagger hiding in its shadow ready to strike. Suddenly 'River City' looked like an almighty fist ready to crush any and all who dared to tame it.