Mari never wanted to be a leader, but now she's stuck at a critical point in New Eden, a place that's supposed to be perfect. Fed up with the limits of this utopia, she breaks away, setting out on a journey that will change her life. Her adventure l...
From my hilltop parking spot, the convoy below might look like any other, but these trucks carry the tools that could enslave any ecocity to Megalopolis' will. I can't let that happen. Dust curls them up like spectral fingers in the headlight beams, the road ahead a ribbon of eerie luminescence. The night is alive with the whisper of sands, the haunting echo of my betrayal.
As I grip the steering yokes, a familiar voice invades my thoughts—Akira's betrayal, a sting I can't shake off. 'No way, you really backstabbed me,' I mutter to the empty air, the words bitter on my tongue.
Then, my vehicle's AI, a constant yet unobtrusive companion, broke the silence, "The fleet is proceeding down the primary freeway, towards our hometown." My focus sharpened, jaw clenched, on the approaching vehicles. Surveying the Heads-Up Display (HUD) on the windscreen, I make sure that the rest of my team is with me before growling, "We'll carve our own path. It's time!"
I slam the accelerator; my hydrogen powered car responds with a feral howl, tires shredding dirt, hurling stones like shrapnel as we plunge down the cliff's face.
I acknowledged the convoy from a great view and we need to act fast to stop them. Stalling a Megalopolis Free Market convoy would be a battle of wits, and I had learned a thing or two from their tactics.
Every turn, every drift—it's more than just tactics; it's a dance of defiance. Here in the driver's seat, I'm more than Mari SatoAs I pull a scandinavian flick with a clutch-kick, the world swirls around me, my car goes drifting in a trail of dusty cloud while I look straight ahead to where the convoy will be. I visualise them and strategise my move.
Unlike the bristling war machines of our adversaries, our strength lay in cunning, not firepower.
"Andreas! Do you copy?" Andreas was piloting the older powerful engine, it was like a former drag racer reborn for the modern age. Its gleaming chrome detailing and bright twin air compressors added a touch of class to the ancient, bringing new life to the war-worn, rusted frame chassis.
"I'm here Mari!" he replies.
"Quickly, take the rear. Unsettle them, show our hand. It's time they realised our intent," I said to him through my vehicle commlink.
"Done! I'll be there in a jiffy!" Andreas confirms, the line going dead..
Nour's voice crackles through, tinged with excitement, "Mari, watch the cliffside. I'm ready to give them a real show."
"Oh, you scallywag." I gaze at her through the augmented reality HUD, "Mind you making that landslide into the valley? Much appreciated!"
Her laughter was a bright spark in the dark, "NOW! NOW! NOW!" I can picture her hands a blur as she feverishly punched the keypad, and ... BOOM! Gargantuan piles of earth from each peak slowly began tumbling towards the unsuspecting convoy down below. The joy Nour had!
"It's time to strike!" I squealed over the comms.
Rear tires screech against the dirt as I tear down the hill, each pull of the handbrake and rev of the engine sending me twist and slopping, and I danced on the edge of danger, the ground itself an adversary to be outmanoeuvred. The form of sabotage I had was super dangerous. My vehicle, armed with its makeshift battering rams, was a silent testament to our desperation to head first collide the large hauler truck; it was carrying the rally equipment, the impact should flip to its sides, totalling most of it with no one hurt. I refuse to let my hometown suffer the same fate.
"Mari," AI intones, "the probability of no one hurt at the impact is less than–"
"This is no time to remind me of this!" The plan set in motion, irreversible.
The cockpit glows a warm yellow while the HUD windshield offers a front-row view of Andreas' trouble with the tailing scouts. And just like that, it's showtime. I grip the controls tighter as we drop down low and fast. The accelerator felt like a trigger under my foot, sending a wave of power to the electric engine in a whoosh of hydrogen. The force pins me back into my seat, like an overenthusiastic hug from pressure itself.
Weaving around these trees is no more challenging than threading beads onto a string. The real trick is keeping our momentum through the twists and turns as we drop down this mountain path like we're on some giant motorised slalom.
The cabin alerts this time in red, my body freezes momentarily, taking shaky breaths. Whoa, the ground is waving!
"Mari, imminent impact alert," AI says.
"But I still have a bit of a drive to the freeway," I replied.
"Mari, this impact is with the landslide," AI concluded.
What!? "Nour!?"
"Mari! Ye best be getting down quick-like, the landslide picked momentum towards you!" she bellowed over.
"No way!"
I had no idea that my plan to obstruct the road could end with me and my vehicle engulfed in a raging sea of dirt and debris.
Dodging falling boulders, the car takes a few blows, large chunks of rocks that keep coming down from above.
"Mari, do you copy?" It was Andreas, and I didn't like the tone of his voice. "The rest of the scouts assembled around the hauler!"
Oh, darn it! Got to get things back in order, stat! "Hey Andreas, listen, I need you now to bait the front scouts. I'm in danger of missing our mark."
"Sure thing, Mari, I'm on it!" Andreas replies.
The ground shakes again, and the dirt play is about to happen. I am now at maximum speed, heading straight for the hauler. A thunderous wave of the landslide reaches out the last of the back scouts. This would be the perfect timing to hit all of them in one go.
The windscreen HUD shakes with a new display. "impact alert!" I quickly glance at the angle of impact and make sure everything sounds true on track.
Just as I maneuver to strike, the ground beneath us trembles once more. Ahead, the earth shifts ominously, a dark silhouette against the convoy's lights. "Andreas!" My voice barely cuts through the chaos. But it's too late—the ground erupts, I hit and go flying, crashing with front of the hauler, we explode engulfed in flames and smoke, then darkness swallows everything.
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