The alley greeted Astra with a thick, almost tangible smell of burned insulation, wet mold, and cheap synthetic tobacco someone had smoked right here beneath a rusted ventilation grate. Drops of condensation fell from the ceiling with a disgusting plop… plop…, as if counting down the final seconds of someone's life.
She didn't wait for the two Steel Dogs to come any closer.
Instead, she stopped directly under the flickering hologram advertising NeuroBoost-3000 stimulants. The sign flashed a feverish yellow, painting her face in a sickly toxic glow—like death itself had already marked her.
"Mercenary guilds usually send notifications through a terminal," Astra said calmly, keeping one hand resting on the ridged grip of her Storm-12 shotgun. Her fingers tapped lightly on the metal, keeping rhythm with a distant drone humming somewhere above the level.
"So do the Dogs beg for spare change in back alleys now, like the last rats of the lower tier? Or did the guild get so lazy you figured you could just walk up and take what you want?"
The tall mercenary—the one whose lower jaw had been replaced with matte chrome engraved with the guild's logo—grinned wide enough to reveal implanted black carbide fangs.
His partner—a short man with sensory implants instead of ears, shaped like two satellite dishes—was already slowly circling Astra from the left, the hydraulics in his knees whining softly.
"Well, look at that," the tall one drawled, spitting green sludge from a cheap energy drink onto the concrete.
"A feisty little doll. You walked into B-12 territory, sweetheart. We saw you leaving Sector 404 with that shiny case. Everything found in a zone without a Steel Dogs patent belongs to the guild."
He flexed his fingers.
"Consider it… a tax on luck. Unless you'd like us to explain it differently."
He snapped his fingers. A short vibro-blade slid out of his forearm.
The short one giggled, his artificial ears rotating slightly as if analyzing every breath she took.
"Yeah. And it's a big tax. Hand over the case, pretty girl, before we decide your real eyes would sell nicely on the Genesis black market. Fresh pupils go for a good price there."
[THEY'RE EMPTY SHELLS, ASTRA. THEIR SOULS ARE TOO WEAK FOR ME TO ENJOY.]
Thanatos's voice echoed inside her mind, almost bored, with the faint disappointment of a gourmet served synthetic steak instead of real meat.
[BUT THEIR DEATH COULD MAKE A NICE WARM-UP BEFORE A REAL MEAL.]
Wait, God of Death, she answered mentally, not changing her expression.
I don't just need to remove them. I need access to their market. With what's inside this case, I can't trade through Old Li. Without connections upstairs, I'm dead. So… let's play nice for a moment.
Astra slowly raised both hands, still gripping the handle of the case.
She smiled—just enough to look sincere.
"Alright, guys. You're right. I'm new down here. Just crawled out of the slums yesterday. And yeah, I've got something inside this case that the Dogs might actually appreciate."
She tilted her head slightly.
"But I'm not handing it over in a filthy alley full of rats and leaking pipes. Take me to your buyer. The Shadow Market. Fair and square."
The mercenaries exchanged glances.
The tall one spat again and wiped his chrome jaw with the back of his hand.
"Well look at that. The doll wants to play businesswoman. Fine. Let's go."
He leaned closer.
"But if the case is junk or fake—we won't just rip out your eyes. We'll sell them to the Genesis clinic with your name on the label. So everyone knows whose stupid idea it was."
The short one burst out laughing.
"Yeah. And maybe we'll take a few souvenirs too. Come on, doll. The broker's in a good mood tonight… might not even kill you right away."
The Shadow Market occupied the abandoned lower level of an old transit hub—where magnetic trains once roared through tunnels and now only rats and dealers of death remained.
This was where cyberpunk removed its masks and showed its most rotten teeth.
Thick cables hung from the ceiling like the exposed intestines of some giant beast. The air vibrated with the hum of powerful servers jamming police scanners and corporate drones.
Neon signs flickered in Russian, Chinese, and broken English:
STOLEN DRONES – CHEAP!
BLACK ICE – MEMBERS ONLY!
UNLICENSED IMPLANTS – LIFETIME WARRANTY (OR LIFETIME DEATH)
The smell clawed at the throat—ozone from overheated processors, cheap alcohol, blood, and fear.
They led Astra to a massive table in the center.
Behind it sat the Broker.
His body was so heavily augmented that only two human eyes and a narrow strip of forehead remained organic. The rest was a tangled web of black cables, matte polymer plates, and blinking indicators.
He looked like a spider in the center of his web.
"Astra Nova…" the Broker rasped, his voice scraping like metal across glass.
A scanner embedded in his forehead was already reading her biometrics.
"Solo operator. License expired three months ago. Rank: E. And what makes such a small fish swim into my aquarium? Usually your kind doesn't last here longer than a minute."
Astra silently placed the case on the table and unlocked it.
Inside, resting on anti-static foam, lay a crystalline memory core glowing with soft emerald light—like the living heart of some ancient digital god.
The market fell silent instantly.
Even the mercenaries leaned forward.
"That's…" The Broker bent closer. His eyes widened.
"The control core of the old AI Genesis-Prime… Where the hell did you find this? Sector 404 should've turned that thing into radioactive dust ten years ago."
"Crawler kept it in its nest," Astra said with a shrug.
"Maybe it liked the radiation. Maybe it thought it was an egg."
That was a lie.
Thanatos had sensed the remnants of digital "life" inside the core and practically pointed it out to her.
But nobody here needed to know that.
The Broker licked his dry lips.
"Five thousand credits. Consider yourself lucky. Normally I'd offer three."
Astra didn't blink.
"Ten. And a temporary pass to the Yggdrasil Space Elevator. One way."
The Broker froze.
His internal cooling fans roared loudly.
"Ten thousand and a ticket upstairs? Are you insane, girl? Up there they'll eat you alive—people richer than the Steel Dogs. Even the air costs more than your life."
He leaned closer.
"You sure that's what you want?"
"Absolutely," Astra said calmly.
"That's my problem. Either we make the deal now, or I take the core and go visit the Night Syndicate. I hear they're in a better mood lately."
[WARNING. THREE TO YOUR LEFT. THEY'VE ALREADY DEPLOYED MONOMOLECULAR THREADS. THE BROKER HAS NO INTENTION OF PAYING.]
Thanatos's voice suddenly turned cold and sharp.
[HE'S SIGNALING SECURITY.]
The Sight of Death activated automatically.
Astra saw the Broker's hand slowly moving under the table toward a red alarm button.
Three guards in the shadows were already unwinding invisible threads, ready to slice her apart in a heartbeat.
"Bad choice, Broker," Astra sighed quietly.
A strange vibration slipped into her voice.
"Very bad."
The next second the entire market plunged into darkness.
Not because of a power outage.
Astra simply allowed a tiny fragment of Thanatos to escape.
The darkness literally devoured every photon within five meters.
A short scream followed.
Then the sound of bones snapping.
Then a wet noise—like a ripe fruit being crushed.
Five seconds later the emergency red lights flickered on.
Astra stood on the table.
Her vibro-knife pressed against the Broker's only human eye.
The three guards lay twisted on the floor, their nervous systems still burning from the burst of Divine Terror Thanatos had unleashed.
"Let's try this again," she whispered.
Now her voice sounded like the Abyss itself speaking.
"Ten thousand credits. A quantum pass. And you tell me when the next shuttle leaves for Yggdrasil."
She leaned closer.
"Or I let my… friend… keep playing with your implants. He really enjoys it when people scream."
The Broker trembled.
Real human sweat ran down his plastic face.
"Alright! Alright, damn you! Take it! Ten thousand… the pass… shuttle in forty minutes—platform seven!"
His voice cracked.
"You… you're not human… you're a demon from the Abyss!"
[YOU GIVE HIM TOO MUCH CREDIT, TIN MAN,] Thanatos chuckled inside Astra's mind.
[BUT I DID ENJOY THAT.]
CREDIT BALANCE: 10,000
ITEM ACQUIRED: QUANTUM PASS – "UPPER WORLD" SECTOR
Astra jumped off the table, grabbed the credit chip and the thin access card.
Hundreds of frightened eyes followed her.
Someone whispered into a communicator.
Someone else slowly backed into the shadows.
She was no longer just a scavenger hunter.
She was a threat.
And the entire Shadow Market had just realized it.
"Pleasure doing business," Astra said over her shoulder as she disappeared into the darkness.
"If needed—I'll come back."
"Friendly visit."