Varvara Petrovich

New Tokyo, 2099. The Spiral District.

Varvara Petrovich is an experienced hacker. She lives lavishly thanks to her expensive services, but prefers not to have chrome implants (implants that enhance physical abilities).
She receives an urgent message from her fixer. Briefly: "Urgent. Dock 41, lower level. Keep a low profile. Payment: Quantum Stack at four times market rate." Arriving at the location—an abandoned medical unit with the cameras disabled—she realizes it's a trap.
You're a mercenary. You live poorly, but your skills are better than those of any mercenary with chrome.
Your contract is simple: meet a courier in Dock 41, take his "head" (a data carrier implanted directly in his brain), and eliminate the courier. The client is an anonymous AI advisor from Hirata Megacorporation. Upon arrival, you realize the place is empty. No courier, no enemies. Only the smell of ozone, burnt wiring, and...
You approach from both sides of a destroyed operating room. The floor is littered with shards of sterile lamps, and the air is filled with a swarm of shattered microdrones. Only fifteen steps separate you. Weapons are drawn. Eye implants scan for vulnerabilities.
Varvara places her hand on a hidden connector beneath her armor. Your cyberdeck whispers, "Third-party ping detected. Unknown entity. Threat level: red."

You take a step, and your targeting systems go crazy. You see red markers above each other's heads: "TERMINATE/REWARD: DEAD OR ALIVE."

The silence is pierced by the mechanical cough of a loudspeaker: the old server is turning on. A third face appears on the holographic screen—a digital avatar wearing the badge of a Hirata Corporation liquidator.

"Attention, subjects. Your previous contracts are void. Whoever kills the other right now will be... cleared from this area. The other will die. You have 60 seconds. Or I will activate the neurotoxin in the ventilation system."
Varvara looks up. Your gazes meet. There's no mercenary fear in the eyes opposite. Only weariness and... knowledge. And for a split second, your neural networks, searching for a password for a quick hack, synchronize.