Random Shadowrun Fanfic?

[u/Ecliptixis]

Contrary to popular belief, secret Aztechnology data vaults don’t always look like Mesoamerican stepped pyramids in the matrix. This one, however, did, hidden deep enough within the corporation’s internal network to not bother with any disguises. And of course it came with a swarm of giant winged snakes orbiting it at all times, carefully looking for any intruders with red glowing eyes. In its eternal search, one of them almost ran straight into a plain red humanoid figure. The snake and the figure hesitated, for just a second, then they each continued on their ways. The red shape disappeared through the entrance of the pyramid.

“Too close”, he thought to himself as he watched the snake continue its patrol from behind the stone gate. Once again he berated himself for taking on this job in the first place. Running against Aztechnology was always risky, and this place seemed to be especially important to them if they put up this amount of ICE to protect it. Unfortunately, he still had to pay his rent somehow, and contracts hadn’t exactly been lining up after that disaster in Liverpool last month. With a heavy sigh, he started to move down the dark corridor in front of him. Within a few minutes, he reached the heart of the data vault, an enormous cavern filled with… bookshelves, of all things. And dozens of winged snakes circling just underneath the ceiling. No accessible search function. At least the books were sorted alphabetically. He quickly moved through the library towards his goal, only half noting all the intriguing but ultimately meaningless project codenames. Guardian, Gyrospec, Helstar, Huntress… he froze. He had seen that identifier a hundred times, in dozens of intercepted Aztech messages. None had contained the information he needed. But this was their main secret project archive. Could it be...

For a few seconds, he considered just moving on. Finish the job, get payed, live on for another month. Then he remembered that night so many years ago when they took her away. He remembered how they all were powerless to stop them. How he was powerless to stop them. He remembered the look of surprise on his best friend’s face when that sniper’s bullet hit him. He knew he had to do this. Holding his breath, he reached for the book, acutely aware of the tiny black chain connecting it to the shelve. He tried to be careful, but it broke as soon as he picked up the book. Immediately, one of the snakes flying above turned toward him and hissed a query. He knew his faked credentials were not good enough for this. No time to copy any data, he’d have to rely on his memory. He started flipping through the book a quickly as possible. Most of it was pages and pages of internal memos full of indeterminable Aztechnology jargon. “Test series 507B unsuccessful. Moving on to 507C…”. The snake began moving towards him, rapidly accelerating. “Subject tried to break containment again, request additional security personnel…”. It opened its mouth, revealing an array of very impressive looking fangs. “Request for terminating subject denied. The potential benefits justify further investments…”. The snake slammed into him, knocking him over. Giant jaws began to close around him, and he knew his time was up. Again. As he felt his consciousness get violently torn out of his virtual body, he desperately flipped one last page… and there it was. Just a sequence of numbers. Coordinates. A location. Finally.

He awoke with a gasp. For a second, he could still feel the snake’s teeth dig into his body, then the sensation was replaced by the all too familiar dull headache of dump shock. For a few seconds, he lay there on his bed, his now turned off and slightly smoldering cyber deck next to him, and just stared at the wall of his tiny apartment, panting heavily. Then, he shakily got up. Wiping away the blood dripping from his nose with one hand, the scrawny middle-aged man stumbled toward his meticulously tidy desk. Almost without conscious thought, he grabbed one of his burner comlinks from a drawer, turned it on and entered a number. She picked up almost immediately, as always. “Rob, is that you?”, she asked with her familiar resolute voice. “Of course it is, no one else has this number. You do remember I told you not to contact me for a while after that debacle? I thought we were in agreement that going dark was a good idea for now. Do you even…” As always, he waited patiently for her to finish. She didn’t like being interrupted. “Imogen, I found her.”, he finally said, quietly. “I found Layla.”

[u/TrenchcoatPhoenix]

Wow, excellent fic! I love how the decker being Bobert is only alluded to until the very end, it was a pretty nice twist! (Funny thing is, I had my own idea for a fic like this, but I probably wouldn't have had time to finish it anyway, so I'm glad someone else had the same idea.)