Rogue Circuit
Uploaded by
frasmoticRogue Circuit
Uploaded by
frasmoticRogue Circuit
Dust swirled through the neon-lit streets of Neon Shroud, a sprawling megacity where
corpos ruled from skyscrapers and runners like Dax fought for scraps in the gutters.
Dax sprinted across a rusted catwalk, his cybernetic leg sparking with each step. In
his grip was a stolen data shard, its contents—a kill-switch for the city’s surveillance
grid—hot enough to burn his name into every bounty board. Behind him, three
Enforcer drones whirred, their red optics locked on his heat signature.
“Move, Dax!” hissed his comms. Vix, his hacker partner, was jacked into a terminal
two districts away, her voice sharp. “Drones are pinging your location. You’ve got sixty
seconds before they deploy shock nets.”
Dax vaulted over a gap between buildings, landing hard on a flickering billboard. The
shard pulsed in his jacket, a ticking bomb. He’d swiped it from a KuroTech lab, dodging
laser grids and a cyber-hound to get it. If he could deliver it to the resistance, they’d
cripple the corpos’ stranglehold. If not, he was scrap.
The drones closed in, rotors screaming. Dax slid down a maintenance ladder, hitting
the alley below. A net whizzed past, singeing his arm. He cursed, drawing his pulse
pistol—a jury-rigged piece of junk, but it’d do. He fired, clipping a drone’s rotor. It
spiraled into a wall, exploding in a shower of sparks.
“Vix, I need an out!” he growled, weaving through market stalls. Vendors scattered,
their holo-signs glitching as another drone’s EMP pulse rippled out.
“Working on it!” Vix snapped. “There’s a mag-lev tunnel three blocks east. I’m
overriding the gate. Run!”
Dax’s lungs burned as he shoved through the crowd. The second drone fired, its
rounds chewing up pavement. He dove behind a dumpster, the shard digging into his
ribs. The third drone flanked him, its net launcher humming. No time to think. He
rolled out, blasting the launcher. The drone wobbled but didn’t drop.
Footsteps thundered—human, not machine. A KuroTech Enforcer, clad in black exo-
armor, rounded the corner, railgun raised. “End of the line, runner,” the Enforcer
barked, voice modulated.
Dax grinned, reckless. “Not yet.” He hurled a smoke canister from his belt, the alley
filling with choking haze. The Enforcer fired blindly, rounds punching through stalls.
Dax sprinted, his cyber-leg screaming under strain. The mag-lev tunnel loomed ahead,
its gate half-open, sparks flying as Vix’s hack fought the system.
He dove through the gap, the gate slamming shut behind him. A drone crashed into it,
frying itself. The Enforcer’s roar echoed, cut off as Dax hit the tunnel floor. A mag-lev
train roared past, its draft nearly pulling him under. He crawled to the side, panting,
the shard still secure.
“Vix, I’m clear,” he gasped.
“Nice work, hotshot,” she replied, smug. “Resistance is waiting at the drop. Don’t get
cocky.”
Dax smirked, limping into the dark. The city’s pulse thrummed around him, but for
now, he’d won. The shard would change everything—if he could stay alive to deliver
it.