<offline... reboot? Y/N?>

Red groaned and tried to pull his arms up as his eyes drifted open. His arms flopped against his sides. His head-up-display wasn't responding because it was offline. It would take at least ten minutes to restart. His hands were cuffed behind his back, he was laying on his side, his cheek pressed against the cold metal floor. His last memories came flooding back...

Dag, scandroids...

"Red! Take it easy..." Dag's voice came from behind him.

"The others?" Red rasped, he gagged over his parched throat as he put his head back down.

"Escaped."

He could hear thumps behind him. Dag was trying to move closer. He couldn't see him, but he could hear the melancholy tone in Dag's answer.

"What are you doing here? I had a plan. You aren't supposed to be here."

"Your plan sucked."

Red sighed and tried to roll over, but gasped as a searing pain rippled through his abdomen.

"Careful, you'll tear the stitches."

"The what?"

"They took out your last resort bomb." Dag bumped into his backside. "At least you were out cold when they did," Dag continued, his voice shuddering as he spoke. "Not everyone was so lucky."

The pain began to cool to a bearable sting. There was a red line across his white shirt, but it was crusted over, not new. His augments would soothe the pain in his body as soon as they came back online.

He waited, cheek pressed against the cold metal floor. 

He felt a familiar tingling in his head, the connection between his added sensors and the parts of his brain altered to interpret them. He sighed and waited another full minute and then slowly pushed outward with his scanner testing the circuits. His vision developed a blue haze as they came online. His HUD display flashed in front of his vision. 

The searing pain in his gut faded away, the muscles relaxed. Relieved he sat up.

"We're in a large empty transport room, systems locked, encryption is high-end." And it was quiet, he added inside his own head.

"There are... three guards, no augments. Easy to take."

"Don't get cocky, they got EMPS," Dag said. "These guys aren't messing around."

"They got cameras in here?"

"Not that I know of..."

Red sighed. Nothing is ever easy.

Their prison shuddered. Dag tensed beside him.

Red fixated on the door, there were at least three people behind it.

Keys jangled. Keys? He wasn't sure if that was the right thing to call them. They were old tech, super old, ancient.

The door opened and bright artificial light poured in. 

Orion's Reach. That 7 point insignia on their shoulder marked them as fanatics of the pure human movement. The same cult that had eventually warped public opinion of augments to the point they were put in jail for simply existing. Their only crime was to be flesh, circuit, and bone.

Three men, he snorted even as he pulled against the cuffs. His brain mapped out a plan in nanoseconds, taking in their physical weaknesses. It wasn't even half a challenge. 

"Stand up," the first man barked at him. The man's voice quavered for all of his bravado. He was afraid.

Red moved forward towards the closest man. They had three EMP guns shockwaves on them. He needed more space. He followed the man out and found himself outside the metal box in the middle of the group. They were in a cargo hold with many other similar metal prison transport boxes. 

This would do. He threw his shoulder into the one man on his right knocking him aside. Over balanced the barking guard fell, but Red was already moving. He didn't have his hands, but his legs still worked, even if they were a bit stiff. The second man rushed in instead of pulling the trigger.

Interesting. Someone wanted to talk to him.

Even cuffed, Red managed to slam his foot into the man's leg, bone shattered and the man screamed as he dropped the EMP. Red kicked him again knocking him to the floor, blood flew out of the unfortunate guard's mouth as well as a few teeth. But it silenced him. 

He heard a thunk and turned around seeing Dag ram the last guard into the wall.   The man gasped as the wind was knocked out of him and he dropped as soon as Dag stepped back. Dag delivered a kick to the head that knocked him unconscious. 

They turned to the last man, the only threat still registering on Red's head up display. 

The guy had pissed on his gray uniform. 

"Keys," Red said, as he scanned the cargo bay. No sign of anyone yet, but he put his scanners on full blast just in case. The ship was ridiculously empty of camera feeds, systems, etc.

Old tech, damn it.

He sat down pulled his hands underneath him and pulled them up in front of him ignoring the pain it caused his gut. The guard tossed him a ring of jangling keys and Red held them up in front of him staring at the odd contraption with a raised eyebrow. They fit his cuffs however and that was all that mattered. His hands now free he turned to Dag. 

"You mind?" Dag said turning around so Red could undo his cuffs. 

"You know, I can't take you anywhere," Red muttered as he pushed the key into the cuff hole. They opened with a snap and Dag dropped them. 

"Shit Red, you are bleeding."

Red looked down at the fresh burgeoning red line.  "One problem at a time, Dag." He couldn't feel anything right now anyway. 

He stiffened as his scans picked up radio chatter. There were more guards coming.   

Red paced. He looked with regret at the last of the EMP guns. They were short-range and the bane of an augments existence. He knew what they felt like, being forcibly disconnected from your augments was disconcerting and also painful. Being knocked offline took out more than just the cybernetic parts. You easily lost consciousness as your brain tried to figure out what was going on.

But they wouldn't work on the normal human. That's what made them so handy, augmented humans and autonomous AIs didn't stand a chance. 

"Shit," Red said. "They are sending twenty guys... and this time they are bringing the real guns." Orion's Reach kill augments. Why are we still alive? What is this?

There had to be somewhere to hide. They were sitting ducks, whatever that expression meant. Did ducks sit? What the hell was a duck?

"Do we have anything resembling a plan?" Dag asked moving to stand next to him, keeping his gaze sweeping around the cargo bay. It was ridiculously empty. Suspiciously so. Red wasn't sure if they'd gotten lucky or were allowed to escape.

"Right now the plan is not to die," Red said, running his fingers over his hair frustrated. There was only one place he knew that Orion's Reach would be taking them. He planned on being off this boat before they landed him on the zit of the ass end of the Neo-Tokyan empire. Fuck that shit.

"Did I mention your plans suck?"