A few nights ago there was a massive party down at Electric Vibes. It’s one of those parties that you just can’t write about, as you just simply had to be there. I tell you, the atmosphere was buzzing. There was beer, there was dancing, and there a very special A-List of celebrities present. If you weren’t there, then that’s too bad.

That was until the Techhaven Sensors alerted runners to a new, massive, threat at Desert Racetrack. I expected everyone to ignore the warning and carry on partying. Instead the club emptied, as runners grabbed their guns to give their own reply to the latest threat. It was obvious that no-one expected City Administration to deal with this latest incursion.

As soon as I arrived at the Desert Racetrack it was clear there was a big problem. Runners had a hard time fighting the mass army of Mad and Amok CopBots that had surrounded the GeneReplicator building. To begin with, a lot of runners appeared to be suffering from both the effects of Synaptic Impairment and too much alcohol. For an age, we were pinned down in the GeneReplicator building. I had to keep my head down, as if I even raised my head one inch, I would either have had bullets or laser beams shooting over my head.

There was one bizarre moment during the fighting when a runner decided to drive his flashy new car right through the piles of CopBot corpses with no regard for his safety and ask, "Is this the GR I have to activate?" How he managed to avoid taking a bullet to himself and avoid getting his car scratched will remain one of those mysteries.

Eventually the under-siege army of runners decided to break cover and charge towards the racetrack grandstand. However, no-one had spotted the CopBot Renegades and Defectors that had taken up position on the bridge.

When the runners charged, the CopBots opened fire and forced the group to split in two. One group dived back into cover in the GeneReplicator building while the other group managed to ran under the cross-fire to the cover of the racetrack building.

With the group split it was feared the groups of CopBots would just gun down the remaining force. However this unexpected split proved to be a brilliant flanking manoeuvre. The group down at the GeneReplicator was able to provided covering fire while the other group stormed and took control of bridge over the racetrack.

Now that the runners were in control of the bridge they pushed onwards to the end of the bridge. Renegade or Mad CopBots were either blown to a million pieces or quite simply pushed over the edge to plunge to their deaths. Finally there was only one remaining, a S.T.O.R.M Unit that was clearly malfunctioning as it opened fire on the group. However it was no match for the ensemble group of runners. As the Malfunctioning S.T.O.R.M Unit fell to the ground several runners ran quickly towards the smoldering corpse to scavenge it for parts.

The fight was over. Runners sat down to dust their armour down and reflect on the latest battle. Then they all started to ask the same question over and over again...

After the Maulers and the other recent incursions, when is this madness going to end?

Eddie Walker

Neocronicle