Eugene Stromberg was a hulk of a man, he sat across a small breakfast table from Lainy Dolton. He stared at her with a dead stare, his plasipolly face belied no emotion. She saw the cogs and gears whirring beneath the translucent skin, mingled in was the acrid smoke from the cigar that was ever present in his mouth. " I could get in big shit, why should I help you." Resting his cigar on an ashtray on the table, he said, his voice tinny but still strongly accented. Lainy had gotten used to it but she could see Ryder gaping at the sight, its not often you see a cyborg with a head apparatus.

"Old times sake?" Lainy said. "We go way back, I need a favor." She got up and crossed the room to a fridge. "You mind, I haven't had much sleep, I need a drink." Eugene waved a hand in a affirmative gesture. Lainy pulled out three beers and popped the tops, handed them out to each of the smoky rooms occupants.

She pulled on the beer, an excellent mars IPA, stood at the rooms only window and looked out at the crumbling, overgrown old nyc.

"Alright, we need to leave asap." Gene said, he went to stand, reaching to grab the ignistick for his space cab. "What about broseph over here, he coming too." He nodded his head towards Ryder, not looking at him.

"We can trust this guy?" Ryder asked

"I was gonna ask the same thing, kid." Gene spat, Lainy smiled to herself and raised her bottle to he mouth for another swig.

Suddenly the bottle exploded in her hand, sending shards of glass into her face and hand, slicing shallow cuts. Everything slowed, the shards fell in slow motion, she saw out the window, another muzzle flash and Eugenes chest opened up in a geyser of blood. He fell back in his chair, he kicked the table over on the way down. Everything went flying, beer bottle, ashtray and cigar, newspaper and ignistick.

She yelled." Down, Ryder down!" But he was way ahead of her, he was crawling toward the window gun drawn. Lainy reached out and snatched the ingistick out of the air, all this happening within seconds.

Ryder quickly peeked his head up over the widow ledge and there was another flash and the frame burst into splinters. He dropped back to the floor while another bullet slammed into the wall outside. Ryder jumped up gun outstretched and fired a few shots in the direction of the flashed.

"Go, run! I'll cover you." Ryder fired a couple more times. Lainy ran. She burst though the door, and into the hall, almost tripping on a loose piece of linoleum, turned back and saw Ryder coming up behind.

"His cabs in the basement. We need to find out what the fuck is going on, this shit is getting old, quick!" she stopped at a gaping open elevator door and looked down. "Is it clear all the way down?" She yelled. Ryder slid to a stop, his black dress shoes afforded no traction. He looked down, his yellow eye shining brightly, his long black hair hung around his face, now no longer neatly slicked back.

"Yeah." He said, sliding his hand through his hair to pull it back away from his face.

"Grab on to me around my shoulder." Lainy commanded, as she heard pounding footsteps coming up the nearby stairs.

"But wh..." Ryder began

"Just do it!" She yelled

He did. She leaned out and grasped the black, greasy cable with her cybernetic right hand and swung into the shaft, wrapping her enhanced legs around as well. She slid down, Ryder clinging tightly around her neck.

Lainy gripped tightly around the cable to slow the descent, they still reached the bottom quickly. When she let go of the elevators cable, she looked at her hands and the skin was gone and shining, carbon fiber alloy bones were visable beneath.

They ran hand in hand, to a door in the wall across from the elevator. Lainy waved the ignistick in front of it and the door slid into the wall. Inside was a huge open space filled with a mid sized, sleek modern and of course yellow spacecab. It was roughly tear shaped, short wedge shaped wings raked forward on each side. It stood on two short stilts that literally looked like feet. A long tinted cockpit window sweeping across the front and two small round windows dotted the side.

There was no other furnishings or anything in the space. Ryder grabbed her arm and said." Come on. We have to go. It takes a couple minutes to get these things going." She followed him, handing the ignistick to him.

They got in and strapped into the two front seats, Ryder slid the ignistick into a triangular port on the right side of the control stick, turned knobs, flicked switches and tapped on some gauges. Lights flicked on and a low, deep whine began to emanate from the ship. It shuddered and a slight vibration was felt. Ryder flipped a switch labelled "grav init."and Lainy could feel a weightlessness. A door that stretched the length of the opposite wall opened.

"Alright here we go. Next stop the MOSS." Ryder said with a crooked smirk. "Please place your seats upright and in an emergency your exits are here and here." He burst out laughing and Lainy thought it was going to be a long 12 hours.