The rain poured down in thick sheets as the Lone Star police cruiser touched down on the landing pad of the Shiawase Tower in downtown Seattle. Detective Marcus “Tex” Alvarez stepped out, adjusting his leather duster against the cold drizzle of the Seattle night. His boots clicked on the sleek landing pad as he glanced up at the towering skyscraper cutting through the clouds.
It had been two years since Tex last set foot in Seattle. Back when he and Maria, his estranged wife, were still trying to patch things up. She’d become a hotshot corporate exec at Shiawase Corporation, while he’d kept the peace as a Lone Star detective down in Texas. The rift between them had grown wider, but now, she’d invited him to the Shiawase New Year’s Eve gala. Maybe it was her way of extending an olive branch, or maybe it was the same corporate obligation he’d come to despise.
He wasn’t much for parties, especially corporate ones. But Tex had a gut feeling something more was going on tonight. His instincts, honed over years of chasing down perps and solving messy cases, were setting off alarms before he even stepped inside.
The elevator ride to the 57th floor was silent. He tried not to think about what to say to Maria, how to approach the growing distance between them. As the elevator dinged open, the corporate gala unfolded before him. The floor-to-ceiling windows offered a stunning view of downtown Seattle’s skyline, neon lights glimmering against the night. The room was filled with Shiawase execs and their partners, all sipping champagne and laughing as if the world outside didn’t exist.
Tex spotted Maria near the bar, talking to some suits. She looked stunning in her formal dress, but there was an air of tension about her. She’d changed since their early days, but then again, so had he. His rough exterior no longer fit in this polished world of corporate power.
Before he could even take a step toward her, the lights flickered—and then cut out.
Tex’s hand instinctively went to the Lone Star-issued pistol holstered beneath his jacket. Emergency lights flickered on, casting a pale glow across the room. The partygoers murmured, confused, but it didn’t take long for the situation to escalate. Heavy boots thundered down the hall, and within moments, the sleek, corporate ballroom was filled with heavily armed figures in black tactical gear.
Shadowrunners.
They moved like professionals, sweeping the room, herding the guests and staff into one corner while securing key exits. Tex’s heart pounded as he slipped back into the shadows, watching the scene unfold.
A leader emerged from the group—a towering ork in high-tech armor, his face obscured by a tactical mask. He spoke into a microphone, his voice grating through a voice modulator. “Ladies and gentlemen, you’re now guests of the revolution. We’re here to liberate you from the corporate machine. Stay quiet, and this can all go smoothly.”
Tex narrowed his eyes. Cyber-socialists. These freaks had been making waves recently, using violent methods to take down corporate infrastructure. They preached the end of corporate dominance, but Tex had seen the bodies they left in their wake. Idealists, sure, but their brand of revolution was anything but clean.
He couldn’t act just yet. He needed more information—what were they really after?
Moving quietly, Tex slipped into a service hallway, taking the maintenance stairs up to the security center. If they had taken over the building’s systems, he’d need to figure out how deep the hack went. As he climbed the stairs, his commlink buzzed. He tapped into the emergency line, using Lone Star encryption to access the tower’s surveillance systems.
He scanned the feeds. The runners weren’t eco-terrorists, as they claimed. Their movements were too calculated. They weren’t there to preach revolution. They were targeting a specific area: the top floor, where Shiawase’s latest research project was housed. The astral communication prototype—cutting-edge technology that allowed communication between the Matrix and the astral plane. If that got into the wrong hands, it could shift the balance of power in the corporate world.
Tex worked quickly, pulling up the building’s blueprints and security logs. But then something caught his eye—Saeder-Krupp credentials embedded in the system’s code. It was subtle, but unmistakable.
“Fragging Saeder-Krupp,” he muttered under his breath. It all made sense now. The cyber-socialist angle was a front, a distraction to throw off suspicion. This wasn’t about revolution. It was a corporate heist, engineered by one of the most ruthless megacorps in the world.
And they weren’t planning to leave anyone alive to tell the tale.
Tex cursed and moved faster, grabbing gear from a storage room on the 60th floor—combat drones, an assault rifle, and a basic cyberdeck. If he was going to stop these runners, he’d need firepower. He linked the drone to his commlink and sent it scouting ahead while he made his way toward the executive suite level, where the runners were setting up explosives.
As Tex approached the top floor, gunfire echoed through the halls. His drone’s feed showed two runners—one a decker, the other a mystic adept—guarding the final vault. The explosives were primed, and the clock was ticking.
He moved quickly, slipping behind a support beam as the mystic adept shouted commands. The decker was already deep in the system, and if Tex didn’t act fast, the tower was going to be vaporized.
He leveled his rifle, firing at the decker. The shots ripped through the air, and the decker went down in a shower of sparks. But the mystic adept was already moving, throwing up a mana barrier to block the incoming rounds.
Tex cursed under his breath as the adept closed the distance between them, her aura flaring with raw astral power. With a quick flick of her hand, she sent a bolt of energy flying toward him. Tex dodged to the side, returning fire with his rifle as the combat drone swooped in, firing suppressive rounds.
The adept snarled, her eyes blazing. “You think you can stop us, Lone Star?”
Tex smirked, his voice low and steady. “Stopping you isn’t the problem. It’s cleaning up the mess after I do.”
She lunged at him, but Tex was ready. He fired off a burst, shattering her mana shield and landing a solid hit to her shoulder. The adept stumbled, but she wasn’t done yet. Her hand crackled with energy as she prepared to launch another spell, but Tex was faster. He pulled out his combat knife, rushing forward and driving it into her side, cutting through the armor plating.
The adept’s spell fizzled as she fell to the ground, blood pooling beneath her. Tex wiped the sweat from his brow and checked the countdown on the explosives. Three minutes left.
Working quickly, Tex hacked into the remaining security systems, disabling the charges just before the timer hit zero. He let out a deep breath, collapsing against the wall, exhausted.
But it wasn’t over yet.
The elevator doors dinged open, and Tex’s heart skipped a beat. Out stepped the ork leader, flanked by two combat drones. His mask hid his expression, but Tex could feel the fury radiating from him.
“You really think you’ve won, pig?” the ork growled, raising his assault rifle.
Tex grinned, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. “No. But I’m sure gonna make it hurt.”
The room exploded into gunfire as the two exchanged shots, Tex ducking behind cover as the ork’s drones opened fire. His own drone zipped around the room, returning fire, but it wasn’t enough. The ork’s firepower was too much.
Tex scrambled for a better position, firing off rounds from his rifle as he ducked and weaved through the chaos. One of the ork’s drones went down in a burst of flames, but the second kept coming, its targeting systems locked onto Tex’s every move.
Thinking fast, Tex grabbed a nearby cable and hurled it toward the remaining drone, shorting out its circuits with a burst of electricity. The drone sputtered and collapsed to the floor, sparking.
But the ork was still standing.
He charged toward Tex, a growl of fury echoing through the room. The two collided in a brutal melee, fists and knives flashing in the dim light. The ork was stronger, but Tex was faster, landing a solid punch to the ork’s throat before driving his combat knife deep into the ork’s side.
The ork staggered back, blood dripping from his wounds. He glared at Tex with fury burning in his eyes. “You can’t stop what’s coming.”
Tex wiped the blood from his knuckles, his voice low and steady. “Maybe not. But I sure as hell stopped you.”
The ork collapsed to the floor, and the room fell into silence.
Tex took a deep breath, leaning against the wall. He was bruised, bleeding, and exhausted, but the tower was safe. For now.
As the sun began to rise over the Seattle skyline, Tex made his way back down to the party floor. Maria was waiting for him, her face a mix of relief and disbelief.
“You’re still the biggest pain in the ass in Seattle, Tex,” she said, managing a small smile.
Tex smirked, his voice tired but steady. “You can thank me later.”
As the sirens blared outside, Tex knew there’d be hell to pay—investigations, questions, retaliation. But tonight, he’d stopped a corporate heist, saved lives, and maybe, just maybe, taken a step toward mending the pieces of his broken life.
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