"This is us," grunted the corporate security officer from the driver's seat.

The AmpCore van slid to a halt, its hybrid engine humming gently. Piper straightened up in the rear passenger compartment, stretching her neck from side to side and reaching into her jacket, feeling the reassuring solidness of her amplifier there. A custom model built by Arrow themselves, it had a Skiltron Fireware battery core, Titan Pattern conduit modules, silversteel ribs, copper interfacing, reinforced with tungsten filaments across its secondary and tertiary conduits, It was a work of art and a weapon of war all at the same time.

"You are sure about this, Piper?" Odiye asked as he slapped the release of his autobelt. "I do not think Mattise will be very forgiving if we are wrong."

"I'm sure." She released her own belt and stood up, shaking out the stiffness in her limbs as the van's side door slid soundlessly open.

The smell was the first thing she noticed when she hopped out into Hadrian's street. It boiled together in a weird mix of nostalgia and disgust, her old life violently colliding with the new. Memories of her time on the docks swam in her mind's eye. She could smell the chemical tang of the Hadrian, the scorch of burning petrol and half-maintained electronics, the stomach-growling scent of synth meat cooking on greasy hot-plates.

It had been a simpler time, no doubt about that; a time when the most pressing concern for Piper Russell had been where she was going to scrape up the next few crypts to cover the month's rent.

But she would never go back. Not to that. She might be neck deep in Hadrian's corporate cesspool now, but she wasn't helpless. Whatever else AmpCore had done, it gave her that much. No more dodging gangs, and praying to gods she didn't believe in that some spook wouldn't come and repossess their lives at the drop of a hat.

Piper stepped forward, Odiye and Arrow clambering out behind her as she surveyed the scene. The noise of people crashed over them in an angry cascade, crowds of locals pressing from the left and right towards the corporate cordon. Temporary barriers blocked off the side streets, and the only way in or out was now through the corporate checkpoint.

She could see a lot of corporate heavy on the scene, a mix of security personnel from two or three different corps. Their heavy rifles were clearly in evidence as they stalked back and forth, scanning the groups of swearing, cursing citizens of Hadrian.

If they thought the corps would actually help them, they were very, very naive, she thought.

"Operative Russell?" a voice cracking through the grill of a helmet dragged her attention away, and she turned to the speaker.

The trooper tapped the side of his helmet as he approached. The opaque face plate retracted to the left and right, revealing the man beneath. An anaemic beard ringed his tight-lipped mouth, his pale features flat and hosting dark, inscrutable eyes. The shoulder of his armour bore the stylised golden 'S' insignia of Savant Securities.

She cocked a quizzical eyebrow as a quartet of armed and armoured corporate security moved up to flank him, rather conspicuously keeping their face plates locked in place.

"Just Piper," she said, as Arrow and Odiye moved up to either side of her. "Mattise sent you?"
"He did. Security Liaison Mattellus," he confirmed. "I understand you require an escort."

Piper didn't miss the man's weary tone, and she grinned. "I didn't ask for one, but Mattise insisted."

"I'm sure he did." Mattellus managed a smile of his own. "So you're AmpCore's worst kept secret, eh?"
"I suppose so."

"We have work to do," Odiye cut in, shooting the man a withering glare.

Mattellus raised a hand apologetically. "As you like, operative. I'm just here to show you the neighbourhood." He touched a hand to the side of his helmet, and his face plate slotted back into position. Piper searched for any hint of a human being through the armoured glass, but she couldn't make out a scrap of detail with the naked eye. Were it not for her implants, she wouldn't know if there was even a human being in there.

"Stick close," Mattellus grunted as he turned, making a lazy, chopping motion with two fingers towards his guards. "Things are a little... volatile right now."

"Any particular reason?" Piper murmured as they started walking, the other corporate troopers moving to form a square cordon around them.

"Apparently you know the reason, according to Mattise."

"The killings at the ferry terminal."

"Mhm." Mattellus nodded, his helmeted head swivelling left and right like a turret. "Things were already simmering nice and hot without Cutter Jennings to keep a lid on it."

"What, you a fan?"

He snorted in derision. "Hardly, but at least the other rats around here didn't get any big ideas of their own with him around. We only had one knuckle-dragger to deal with." He glanced back at her, and though she couldn't see his face, she got the sense that he was smirking. "Thanks for that, by the way."

"You're very welcome," Piper sneered, anger warming her implants. The memory of Cutter Jennings unfortunate demise was seared into her memory, because she'd killed him herself. And not just killed. She'd paid the self-proclaimed lord of the docks back tenfold for years of fear and exploitation.

Not helpless anymore. Cutter Jennings found that out the hard way.

"So are we going to the terminal?" Arrow interjected before the exchange could get any more heated.

"Yeah. Maybe you'll be able to find something we couldn't."

"So you saw it?"

"What was left of it." Some of the bravado seeped out of Mattellus's voice and he shook his head. "Nasty shit. Someone cut those bastards up good and proper. No-one I'm liable to miss, but still."

"So what about all these... people?" Odiye asked, gesturing to the groups of locals gathered at the barriers, shouting and pleading against the unhearing ears of corporate security. "What are they doing here?"

"Well, it's not just what happened out at the riverbank," Mattellus admitted. "Since then, apparently more people than normal have been going up in smoke around here."

Piper felt the creep of unease on her skin. "How many is more than normal?"

"Shit, I couldn't tell you a number. I'm not even sure it's true." He shrugged. "Local law never had a grip of this place anyway. What do you think we're doing here in the first place?"

"I don't know. What are you doing here?"
"Cleaning up this shitheap." The disgust in his voice was almost palpable. "I'm not here to go digging through every bolthole. We're here to find a few stupid bastards who think they're going to take Cutter Jennings throne, and show them the error of their ways. Then we'll get someone who sees a little more... eye to eye with your friends on high to stamp a bit of common sense on this place."

"So, a new Cutter?"

"If you like. But minus the attitude."

Piper opened her mouth with the intention of telling just what a terrible idea she thought that would be, but before she could speak, a scuffle to the left of the group caught her eye. One of the temporary barriers had been shunted aside, and before the line of troopers could stop him, one man surged through the narrow gap.

Gangly and malnourished, his hair was peppered with grey, and he wore a ragged overcoat, with a scorched docker's t-shirt clinging to his ribs beneath. He didn't get very far – maybe a couple of meters – before one of the security personnel lunged back, snagging him by the collar of his coat.

"Please!" the man howled. "My daughter! You have to help her!"

Piper caught his wild-eyed stare, even as he was dragged backwards. He saw her looking back, and squirmed to get free.

"You, you, you!" he shrieked. "You're AmpCore! You can find anybody – anything! My daughter, someone took my-,"

"Back in line," the closest corporate trooper grated, giving him a firm shove back into the crush of angry bodies.

The man stumbled back into the crowd, before gathering himself, staring pleadingly at Piper. Looking back at him, she didn't know what to do. For all she knew the guy's kid was already dead and buried. But something plucked at her, right in the ribcage, making her freeze for just a moment.

Do you want to help him? Cassie's voice slipped unbidden into her mind.

I don't know, she answered. I don't know if I can.

Maybe it is best if we continue on. You cannot chase every lost soul.

I know. I know. As the words rattled through her synapses, she hated herself for that moment. She couldn't save everyone, though. AmpCore or not, she was just one person in the morass of Hadrian. Piper gave him a faint, apologetic smile, then turned away, falling back into step with Mattellus's guards.

It didn't help de-escalate matters.

"If you're not going to help us what the fuck are you doing here?!" the man raged, stepping forward again undeterred.

This time he got a punch to the gut for his troubles.

She heard the blow as the guard's solid armoured gauntlet struck. There was a cracking sound, closely followed by a spluttering howl as the man went down clutching his stomach. A few nearby men and woman surged forward briefly to try and help him, only to find themselves staring down gun barrels from the corporate soldier's comrades.

"Keep moving," Matellus said, barely glancing at the altercation.

"Didn't have to break the poor bastard's ribs," she muttered.

"Last thing we need is these dock-scrapers getting in the way," he shot back. "We have a job to do. I'm not paid to make people feel better. If he's smart, he'll stay out of the way from now on."

Piper rolled her eyes. "All heart, eh?"

"I haven't got time for it."

"Fucking corps!" someone screamed, and several more voices took up the chant. Then she heard the sound of glass shattering.

Twisting, she saw the trooper at the back of their protective cordon pivoting to their right, rifle stock pressed to their shoulder. Broken shards of a bottle sloughed harmlessly off the heavy armour, and she saw the targeting assist in the helmet flash into life as the soldier hunted for the culprit.

Two other corp enforcers plunged into the nearest group behind the barriers and hauled a shaven-headed woman loose, kicking and flailing and screaming as she went. The crunch of a rifle butt to the skull silenced her.

More missiles began sailing out of the crowds. Lumps of stone, bottles, cans, rocks, dirt. At first the guards just started yanking out anyone they could get their hands on, but there were far too many people involved, she could see that already.

Piper's tugged her amplifier free just in time to swat away a brick that had been coming at her in a perfect arc. She sent it clattering harmlessly to the ground and looked over to Arrow. They had their own wand free, the air around them distorted by the tell-tale shimmer of a barrier.

"This is getting out of control, Mr Mattellus," Odiye said flatly.

"Alright, enough!" Mattellus growled. "Disperse these fuckers. Now!"

The order carried out over his radio, and Piper watched, stunned, as Hadrian's corporations made it clear exactly who was in charge.

The rifles seemed to be loaded with something non-lethal, but that probably wasn't a lot of comfort to those on the receiving end when Mattellus's troops opened fire. Gunfire crackled to the left and right, and in an instant more than thirty people went down shrieking.

"You three," Mattellus barked. "Keep moving."

Piper squared her shoulders, fingers clenching as a barrier of her own snapped into existence. She heard the sharp crack of gunfire from deeper within the crowds, and saw the corporate soldiers crashing through groups of men and women, hunting for anyone who'd been dumb enough to take a shot at them.

Fists and blunt objects smacked harmlessly off their top-of-the-line body armour. It would take proper hardware to put a dent in the equipment Mattellus and his comrades were sheathed in. In a matter of moments the side streets were cleared of crowds, instead full of groaning, would-be rioters and the sound of running feet. The corporate soldiers didn't bother chasing them.

Their point had been made.

They followed Mattellus clear of the clean up, pausing at a quiet junction to regroup. Piper glanced around, her eyes finding one open bar across the street, with a few locals sitting outside it, eyes wide and drinks clutched tight. Beyond that, the place was virtually lifeless, the high-rise pre-fab resident blocks dark with sealed shutters.

"Everybody alright?" Mattellus asked. The guards nodded; none of them looked overly concerned by the outbreak of violence.

"We're fine." Arrow's face was a picture of confusion and anger. "Is it always like that out here?"

"Nah, you're here on a good day," one of the guards chuckled.

Odiye fired him a disapproving look. "We are supposed to be protecting these people."

"If that's what the brochure tells you."

"That man," Piper muttered, shaking her head as she slipped her amplifier back into its sheathe. "He wanted my help."

"You were right to walk away," Arrow told her, thought she could hear how reluctantly the words came out of their mouth. "If we really want to help these people, we should get to the root of the problem."

"So stupid. I shouldn't even have looked at him," she replied. "Damn it, I should have just walked right on by. I made him think..."

"Oh, spare us, Russell. It's not your fucking fault," Mattellus sneered irritably, wiping a smear of dirt and glass off of his shoulder pauldron. "You think this is the first time that's happened? Fear is making these fuckers rabid. Your friend's right. Now come on. The sooner we get to the bottom of this mess, the better for everybody."

Except for the people who live here, Piper thought glumly as she fell back into line.

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