Ette and Lareau presented themselves at the underground quad entrance dressed in upper class business suits. They used fake identification provided by the operative to bypass the initial security and the front door of the Danka corporate offices. From therein, the operation was less then easy. After disabling several security devices and silently moving towards their target, they now find themselves in their first predicament.

Ette whispered in trader’s slang - "Door lock. Haolé réserant?" Translation, The door is locked. Can white caucasian earthling unlock it?

Lareau plugged his cyberboard link into an IO port on the locking mechanism. "Amateurish." Cyberspace rushed forward as Lareau’s conscience left the real world behind. Lareau overran the IO node and entered a second node. Overrunning a node only worked when it was vacant - no SPs. The second node resembled an old fashion combination lock. The background was blood red. An input bus arrived from the retinal scanner and datastore. An output bus departed for the locking bolt. An access SP guarded the node. Lareau programmed and ran a low level password program on the lock’s security program. The door unlocked. He smiled in satisfaction of a job well done and jacked out of cyberspace. Cyberspace withdrawal set in. Colored blotches smeared his vision. Psychedelic noises invaded his ears. Smoke filled his noise. Goose bumps covered his skin. A sour flavor coated his taste buds. A different experience every time.

Lareau was an earth-man with a reputation in the underworld as a master thief. Every week, he earned his six-figure salary the hard way. Good money, but his luck may someday run dry. One lucky shot by a rookie security guard could finish the game.

A barred doorway with criss-crossed detection lasers replaced the opened door. Lareau’s smile turned into a grin of hopelessness. He realized that the first door was there for decorative purposes only. The second door was the real challenge. This door did not have an IO port. Lareau would have to navigate the matrix to hack this door. Not a chance. Lareau liked his brains the way they were. Unfried.

Ette pushed pass Lareau and stared through the bars and lasers at the safe that surely contained the set of disks that they sought. Ette was mavien. Maviens, one of the five major races on MiddleWorld, stand about the same height as earthlings with a much larger build, three inch canines and a rough rock-solid cranial plate. Lareau often referred to his partners as cannon fodder. Ette acted the part perfectly, taking more than his share of bullets.

"Amateurish. Let’see haolé superee door." Translation, amateurish. Let’s see white caucasian earthling unlock this door.

"Funny." Lareau went into a thinking trance. It's just another puzzle. What is the key? You can't get through the door, so you go around it. "The walls..." Lareau moved down the hall about two meters from the door. He tapped on the wall with his knuckles and a hollow sound reverberated. Pulling out a small laser knife, Lareau cut a small 10 cm circle in the wall. Using the knife, he pulled the circle from the wall, revealing a less exhaustive set of criss-crossed lasers. After cutting away a couple-feet of wall, Lareau had revealed a two foot hole between the lasers.

Lareau squeezed between the lasers and into the room. Once in the room, he plugged his cyberboard link into the safe’s IO port. Again, cyberspace rushed forward. Lareau overran the IO node. The second node resembled a pad lock with an input bus arriving from the numeric pad and datastore. An external bus departed for the locking bolt. A black background. Another access SP. Again, he programmed and ran a low level password program on the safe’s SP. The program failed. Lareau dumped his protection program chip and loaded a high-level password-program chip. Dumping his protection program was risky, putting himself at the mercy of any burn programs. The safe unlocked. He jacked out. His eyes burnt with the color white. His ears hummed a constant note. His nose tingled. His taste buds numb. His skin burnt. Cyberspace withdrawal.

An anonymous source had couriered ten thousand loons, a disk and a set of fake Ids to Lareau. If he recovered the disks, another ten thousand loons would be forthcoming. Regaining his senses, Lareau found several sets of disks in the safe. One set resembled the one they ventured to recover.

"Lareau! Grab many disks. Disk worth kala." Kala translates to money. After packing all the diskettes into a carrying case, Lareau passed the case through the hole to Ette. "Shhh!" Around the corner, Ette could here footsteps. "Someone coming."

"Close the door and move yourself around the next corner. Maybe he won't notice the damage." Ette silently closed the door and walked at a fast pace down the hall and around the corner. Only seconds after disappearing around the corner, a security guard carrying a flashlight moved around the corner. He walked down the hallway, flashing his light against every door he past. Halfway to the hole in the wall, luck turned bad for everybody involved. The guard's flashlight lit the hole in the wall. Something the guard would have regretted had he lived to talk about it.

When the guard trained his flashlight on the hole, Lareau popped his head out, pointed his blaster at the guard and scatters a three-bolt burst across his chest. With reflex unexpected from a mavien, Ette jumped around the corner and unloaded another four blaster bolts at the security guard.

The security guard's body flew backwards as bolts bombarded his body. He did not have the time to unholster his revolver or signal for backup. Ette charged towards the security guard sending five more blasts in his direction. Meanwhile, Lareau squeezed out of the hole and started their retreat. Ette ran past the dead guard's body. Lareau followed. Now that they had made a little noise, it would only be time before a group of security guards would catch up with them.

Lareau remembered the last time they blasted their way out of a corp quad. It wasn't pretty and they lost a good friend. Why did it have to be so difficult? Didn't these security guards know they served as canon fodder in these battles. Three guards will fall for every runner killed. These were not good odds. Maybe stupid mundanes make the best cannon fodder.

At the first corner, Ette stopped and peeked around the corner. When he saw the empty corridor, he motioned Lareau forward. Lareau ran around the corner and down the hall to the next corner. There, he stopped and peeked. When he saw the empty corridor, he motioned Ette forward. Seven more corners and they would be at the exit. Ette forward. Lareau forward. Ette forward. Stop. Trouble. Ette held up seven fingers. What? Lareau thought to himself. Seven guards in a cluster. This had to be a setup. Rarely is their ever seven guard in the entire quad. Whoever wanted these disks, is now going to have to pay a premium for danger pay.

Ette pulled a grenade from his belt. He looked back at Lareau for his approval. Lareau waved negatively. Ette threw the grenade anyway and ran back towards Lareau to escape the blast. As Ette ran around the corner, the grenade exploded and body parts and equipment splattered down the hallway. Lareau ran forward to regain the position Ette had abandoned. Ette stayed behind to cover the rear.

Lareau fell to all fours and peeked around the corner. Walls had disintegrated and blood stained the few walls that remained. No guards were visible, but the smoke had not yet cleared. Lareau waved Ette forward and pointed to the opposite side of the hallway where Ette could take position. Ette ran across the open hallway and took position at Lareau's opposite. On all fours, Lareau crept forward to a door blasted inward. He took position in the doorway and waited for the smoke to clear. When the smoke cleared, it was apparent that Ette had killed the seven guards.

Eight guards dead and not a scratch. Ette imagined himself carving eight more notches into his bed post. This run proved more difficult then he had imagined, but so far with a little luck they have escaped harms way.

Lareau motioned Ette forward. Ette ran to the next corner and peeked. Nothing. Lareau forward. Nothing. Ette forward to the entrance of the lobby. Nothing. Lareau ran down the corridor to the lobby, past Ette and through the office lobby towards the only exit. Halfway to the exit, the door swung open. Shit. !@#$%^&*(). Lareau threw himself to the ground and looked in every direction for cover.

Two security guards opened fire from the doorway and littered the room with bullets. They carried old-style submachine guns. The bullets scattered throughout the lobby as Lareau rolled feverishly towards the cover of the reception desk. Unable to take cover in time, a half dozen bullets bounced off his armor and a couple found seems in his right arm and right leg. Blood burst from his wounds as he finally found his way behind the reception desk.

Lareau reacted immediately, tearing off some of his armor and clothing to bind his wounds. He grabbed a couple slap patches and slapped them onto the wounds. The pain was intense, but the pain killers in the slap patches soon took their effect and numbed the pain.

Meanwhile, Ette aimed his blaster at the doorway and opened up on fully automatic sending a barrage of fifty bolts. The doorway burst into an immense inferno, sending the security guards into retreat. One guard failed to retreat in time and his body fell to the floor charred from the attack. Ette counted nine and loaded a full energy cartridge.

Then, Ette and Lareau heard the bouncing sound of a grenade. A grenade? Security guards rarely, if ever use explosive grenades. Lareau and Ette stuck plugs into their ears and pulled on air filtration masks. They came prepared. The immense noise of the grenade would normally knock everyone unconscious, but Lareau and Ette had plugged their ears in time. The effects of the grenade simply dazed the two runners for a second.

As Ette regained focus, he peered around the corner and opened fire on two guards storming the room. Ten bolts finished the first guard, but the second was able to take cover on the opposite side of the reception desk from Lareau. Ette pressed speed dial on his wrist phone. Every second or two he shot a three-bolt blast in the direction of the surviving guard, while he waited for Lareau to answer his call. Lareau removed his ear plugs, lowered the volume on his wrist phone and answered.

Ette's voice came across the wrist phone - "Kané other side desk." Kané translates to man. Lareau thought for a moment, then chose his course of action. He put the blaster between his legs, pointing it towards the most likely position of the security guard. He was going to shoot through the desk and hope his lower legs protect him from the debris. Armored chin pads and boots shield his lower legs. Lareau set his blaster on fully automatic and with 15-20 bolts he blasted through the desk and charred the security guard taking cover on the other side of the desk. Lareau's chin pads blew off in the process and his skin burnt and tore. Lareau fell back, half dead, waiting for his time to come.

Ette took the opportunity to charge for the reception desk to help his friend. Sending a volley of fire towards the door, the guards backed off and the trip was uneventful. Ette splashed down beside his half dead friend and pulled out slap patches to cover the leg wounds.

Ette popped back up and emptied Lareau's blaster into the doorway. This time, the door frame collapsed and another guard found himself facing a truck load of bolts. The bolts connected with the guard's face and one more imaginary notch appeared on Ette's bed post.

Ette asked Lareau - "Haolé helé?" Translation, can earthling walk? Ette handed Lareau the empty blaster and he popped back up again and laid one blast at the foot of the door.

Ette cried out again - "HAOLÉ HELÉ?"

At that moment the sound of blaster fire erupted from the direction of doorway and Ette covered his head in fear. The blaster fire was not aimed in their direction. Where were they aiming? Ette rolled through the blast hole in the reception desk to get another view of the doorway. From there, he still did not see anything. Curiosity drove him closer to the door until he was upon the remains of the doorway. Looking into the quad opening, he saw three more dead security guards. He rushed back towards Lareau.

Lareau was trying to get up, but couldn't. Ette helped him to his feet and aided his walk as they moved towards the exit. Ette moved slowly with a blaster in one hand and his other arm holding up his friend. As they moved through the doorway, Ette saw where the blaster fire had come from. One floor down, an old durfen was waiving a white towel. The durf motioned Ette to go downward. Going down was not part of the plan. The planet's surface was upward and the only exit from this quad is also in that direction, but Ette had no choice and needed help badly. He took the escalator down one floor.

Ten thousand underground buildings formed the surface of MiddleWorld. These underground buildings also known as quads, serve as residences, commercial centers and corporate headquarters. Today, Lareau and Ette found themselves breaking into the offices of Danka corporation, a small trading firm that dealt primarily in the exchange of information.

"Did ya get the disks?" The durfen asked. Durfens were a short but stocky race typically 4 to 5 feet tall. This durf was old and gray, with experience written all over his obviously fake cyber-replacements. He carried a blaster and backpack. He wore heavy plates on his legs, arms and torso for protection.

Ette handed the case of disks to the durf - "Ka viraka?" Translation, who are you, durfen?

"I'm ‘ere for backup."

"Helé dehors?" Translation, how are we going to get out of the here?

"We, me and you’ll fight our way out the front door. Lareau and the disks’ll stay ‘ere and the numat’ll take care o’ him." A numat emerged from the shadows. The numat race’s homeworld was destroyed by maviens. The very few surviving numats scattered across the galaxy on the different homeworlds. Numats closely resembled earthlings, but stand three to four feet tall with the pointed ears similar to gands. The most important thing to remember about numats is that they tend to specialize in one thing to the detriment of everything else.

"Why don't we ramer and wait heat clear?" Ramer translates to wait.

"If ya don't make a break for it, the security’ll browse this quad ‘til they find something. We don't want that. We want ‘em to think we're out’a ‘ere." Old and gray durvens tend to be wise and very stubborn. Ette figured there was no use arguing with someone stubborn who probably knew better anyway.

"E helé kaua." Translation, let’s go. Ette darted out the door and scrambled in the direction of the escalators. Staying in the shadows he made his way around the quad opening, followed closely by his new found durfen companion.

"Don't worry, we'll be out’a ‘ere ‘n no time." The durf followed but had a hard time keeping pace with the mavien that was obviously use to quicker friends. They moved their way to the base of the escalator and crawled along the inside edge to avoid detection. Before they made it half way up the first flight, a couple of security guards walked into the open at the top of the escalator. Ette motioned the durf to stay low in the shadows of the escalator. The guards had obviously written off the possibility that the burglars had moved down one floor. The two guards past without incident, but it became apparent that the confrontation was going to start at the top of the escalator. Ette was ready to pounce on the enemy. Ten meters. Five meters. Pounce.

Ette and the durf jumped into the balcony that served as the top and bottom landings of the escalators. The two guards waited there, with their backs turned. Ette and the durf opened fire on the two unsuspecting guards and blasted their bodies across the corridor into the destroyed office doors. After unleashing a deadly burst that drained their weapons, they changed cartridges and moved into cover. The bodies of the dead guards charred beyond recognition.

Blaster fire crossed the path previously occupied by the burglars. The fire blasted the walls, carpets and railings, but failed to hit Ette and the durf as they had already taken cover behind the escalator. The durf unpacked his backpack and removed a portable rocket launcher that was pre-loaded. Five seconds later, the durf was repacked and ready with his new weapon.

"What viraka doing?" Said Ette.

"Blow an ‘ole through the roof." The durf was readying the controls of the rocket launcher and positioned himself to make a run into the opening on the opposite side of the escalator. "Then we fly right through the opening."

"Fly through the roof?"

The durf raced off to the other side of the escalator and moved into the opening to position himself to launch the rocket. He aimed the rocket. With the push of a lever, the rocket's engine ignited and sent it hurdling towards the roof. Several guards opened fire on the exposed durf. The rocket headed towards its destination. The durf dove for cover. The rocket impacted the roof. Blasts impacted the durf. The roof exploded into a bright ceiling of fire and debris. The impact of the blasts from the security guards knocked the durf off his feet. Large and small pieces of the roof began pouring down into the quad. The durf took another blast and flew back into the wall. Ette moved back from the edge of the quad and into the office they had invaded earlier. Debris continued to rain down the quad, striking some of the security guards not covered by walk-ways. The durf fell unconscious against the wall. Guards fell down the twenty story pits that made up the center of the quads. The escalator partially supported by the falling roof, pulled away from the walkways and fell across the quad where it wedged into walls.

When the commotion stopped, smoke filled the air. It became impossible to breathe. Ette pulled his air filtration mask from his equipment. After a quick check, he determined it was still in working condition. Putting the mask on, he ran down the corridor towards the durf. It was impossible to see through the smoke, but when Ette finally got within sight of the durf, things changed drastically for the worst. A beam from the escalator had wedged itself into the chest of the durf. He was dead. His innards, half electronic hung out of his back and his back had broke in two.

Ette spoke softly - "Bad move, viraka." Ette attached his grappling wire to his belt and aimed in through the ceiling of the quad. The grappling line shot through the roof and attached to something on the surface. Ette tugged hard on the grappling line and felt certain that it held secure. He flung himself across the quad. The grappling line started to retract, pulling him up towards the ceiling. A guard shot a blast at the commotion missing with the blind shot in this smoke filled quad.

Ette's grappling wire had pulled him nearly to the top when the hook unexpectedly loosened. Before Ette plummeted down the twenty-story pit of the quad, he saw the face of the security guard that had cut his wire. Falling towards the bottom of the quad, Ette shot a long burst of blaster fire towards the security guard that had finally "done him in". As the floors rapidly sailed upwards, Ette's final action was to call in some of the favors he was due. With the push of a button on his wrist phone, messages sent around the phone net informing all of his contacts of his whereabouts. Unfortunately, there was little chance they could stop his fall. Plumb.

His body lay unconscious on the grassy lawn that made up the basement of this quad. His life signs were fading. Thump thump...thump thump......thump.........thump...silence.

Waking up in a hotel room to the sound of the AV player, Lareau wondered how he had arrived here. He looked around to see if anybody else was in the room. Confident that he was alone, he relaxed for a second. What? His legs felt weird. He pulled the covers off his legs and to his surprise artificial legs replaced where he previous had flesh legs. Checking the rest of his body, he discovered that part of his right arm looked like cyber-garbage.

The planet extracted a price from its inhabitants. A leg here, a friend there. The fairy tales published back on Earth about a romantic and adventurous MiddleWorld were less then truthful. This planet provided great background, but nobody survives on MiddleWorld. You die a little bit more each day. MiddleWorld, a spherical ship the size of a small planet that malfunctioned and settled into the voids, far from any solar system. The planet that had not seen sunlight in the century since.

The AV player was playing an old earthling audio track from a second millennium musical group named Chicago.

Lareau thought aloud - "How did we end up with this shit-hole called MiddleWorld? Can’t stand it no more. It better end soon, my friend." Imagine the wind chimes announcing the start of another revolution?