Malfunctioning Utopia

Chapter 6: Bullets Fly

The once-intimidating metallic corridors that had trapped Sun Jack were now completely twisted and deformed. The impact of the space station hitting the ground had been tremendous; scorch marks in some areas bore evidence of fires that had raged during the crash.

Various components that had floated in the air now lay scattered across the floor, including damaged robots. They were broken beyond repair, with pieces strewn everywhere. Rain dripped continuously through the cracks, and the accumulating water was already forming puddles on the ground.

Sun Jack, barely alive, pressed on through the wreckage with his robot companion, Tapai. Their goal was simple: get out of here before the "psychotics" Tapai warned him about arrived.

However, they were moving too slowly. A deafening roar came from above as a ship tore through the rain and descended toward their location.

The craft resembled an oversized, wheelless sports car, its surface covered in garish graffiti. What shocked Sun Jack the most was the sight of a decayed corpse, arms outstretched, tied to the front of the ship.

He wasn’t mistaken—it was a corpse! Maggots wriggled from bullet holes in its face.

At that moment, Sun Jack gained a terrifying new understanding of the so-called cyber psychotics Tapai had described. One thing was certain: he absolutely didn’t want to be discovered by them.

“Quick! Hide!” Sun Jack hissed, pulling Tapai into the cover of a metal wreckage.

The corpse-adorned ship roared past, but shortly afterward, a battered helicopter arrived. As it hovered about ten meters above the ground, its side door swung open.

Out leaped a man with a mohawk, dual-wielding pistols, his body covered in skull tattoos. He laughed maniacally, his gold-filled teeth glinting as he shouted, “nunarjuaq tittinaqtillugu!!” while firing wildly in mid-air.

As he got closer, Sun Jack noticed the man’s legs and feet gleamed silver—they were clearly prosthetics.

With a heavy thud, the mohawked man landed in the wreckage of the space station. Moments later, several similarly dressed individuals jumped out of another hovering vehicle.

Their voices carried over, but Sun Jack couldn’t understand a word.

“What are they saying?” he whispered to Tapai.

“They’re syncing to the local subnet, mapping the area, and deploying drones. They’re saying this is a prime haul. Whatever falls from the sky must have something valuable, and they want to grab it before the others arrive. If they’re too slow, they’ll only get scraps,” Tapai translated.

Before Tapai could finish, a missile screamed through the air from an unknown direction, slamming into the flying craft. It erupted in a fiery explosion.

“Holy sh*t! They’re not even bothering with words—they just started shooting! These people are completely insane!” Sun Jack exclaimed. Seizing the cover provided by the explosion, he and Tapai hurriedly moved away from the chaos.

The space station’s wreckage had turned into a full-blown war zone. With the sounds of explosions echoing, more people began arriving, turning the ruins into a battlefield.

“Boom!” Another explosion erupted nearby, sending a massive fireball crashing to the ground, grazing Sun Jack and Tapai’s heads.

Danger loomed everywhere. Sun Jack’s nerves were stretched taut as he surveyed the battlefield. His heart sank. “Why is my luck so awful? Wherever I go, trouble follows.”

“Tapai, is there a weapon nearby?” he asked. In a situation like this, being unarmed meant certain death.

Tapai’s screen flickered for a moment before it started walking toward the left side of the wreckage. “Yes, over there—it’s the security room.”

After rummaging through the wreckage for a while, Tapai handed Sun Jack a gray, metallic rifle.

“What’s this?” Sun Jack asked, hefting the cold, heavy weapon in his hands.

“Model: SOR-11:3 Technical Assault Rifle. Runs on electricity.”

“How do I use it?” Sun Jack’s breathing quickened as he examined the deadly weapon in his grasp.

“Hold it steady with both hands, brace it here, and point the muzzle at the enemy. Just pull the trigger. In close-quarters combat like this, there’s no time to aim carefully—whoever shoots first has the advantage. This rifle has an auto-stabilizing reticle, perfect for beginners.” ꭆÁNÒꞖЁ𝐬

Sun Jack mimicked holding and aiming a few times. The weight of the weapon gave him a slight sense of security, though he still hoped he wouldn’t have to use it.

“Let’s go. How much longer until we’re out of the space station?” he asked.

“Based on my radar and current speed, about twenty minutes to reach the outer perimeter.”

Before Tapai could finish, a sharp whistle pierced the air. Sun Jack felt a sudden heat near his left ear, followed by a numbing sensation.

“Enemy attack!” Tapai’s blue display instantly turned red as it fired rapidly toward the direction of the shot.

“F***!” Sun Jack swore, clutching his ear as he ducked behind cover. When he pulled his hand away, his palm was smeared with blood.

A bullet had grazed the top of his left ear, carving out a half-circle. If it had been just slightly lower, his head would have been blown off!

Gritting his teeth, Sun Jack cautiously peeked out from behind cover to spot the attackers.

They were hunkered down behind their own cover, firing at Tapai. They looked like gang members, covered in tattoos of various designs, cursing loudly in a language Sun Jack didn’t understand.

The only consistent mark they bore was a branded upside-down cross on their necks.

Like the others they’d encountered earlier, these attackers also had visible metallic prosthetics integrated into their bodies.

Seeing their bullets ricochet off Tapai’s frame, sending sparks flying, Sun Jack raised his rifle, bracing it against a slanted piece of fireproof metal. He fired back rapidly.

At first, the rifle’s recoil sent his shots skyward. But Tapai was right—the rifle’s stabilizer made it easy to handle. In moments, Sun Jack landed a shot, hitting one attacker square in the head and snapping it backward.

It was Sun Jack’s first time killing someone, but he had no time for moral anguish. In this situation, it was kill or be killed. He only wished he could take down more of them.

“Tapai! Find cover!” Sun Jack shouted to his robotic companion.

Seeing that Sun Jack was temporarily safe, Tapai, riddled with bullet dents, quickly retreated to his side.

“Boom!” A massive explosion rocked the area, sending debris flying and leaving both Sun Jack and Tapai in disarray behind their cover.

“They’re too heavily armed! We can’t win this! We need to find a way to retreat!” Tapai yelled over the cacophony of gunfire and explosions.

“Obviously! I know that already! But how are we supposed to escape in this mess?!” Sun Jack shouted, firing off another burst from his rifle. Turning and running now would be a pure suicide move.

But staying and holding their position wasn’t an option either. The attackers, seeing there were only two of them, had already started splitting up to flank them.

As panic swelled in Sun Jack’s chest and he desperately searched for a solution, the sound of intense gunfire erupted from the ruins to their left.

Hearing the commotion, an idea struck him. “Tapai! Let’s fall back in that direction. Let them fight each other! We’ll slip away during the chaos!”

“Will that even work?”

“You said they aren’t exactly rational, right? Now’s the time to prove it! Unless you’ve got a better plan?” Sun Jack retorted, firing his rifle while starting to retreat.

After a few tense minutes of exchanging fire and falling back, the sounds of gunfire grew closer. Sun Jack could even catch glimpses of shadows darting through the wreckage behind him. However, the two groups still hadn’t started shooting at each other.

Instead, they seemed to operate with an unspoken understanding: each fought their own fight, neither engaging the other.

A battered Tapai huddled beside Sun Jack. “I told you this wouldn’t work. They’re insane, not stupid.”

Sun Jack nodded grimly. “You’re right. That’s why we need a little bait to nudge them into shooting at each other.”

With that, Sun Jack turned to Tapai, giving his shoulder a heavy, almost comradely pat.

Tapai’s display screen immediately flashed a new expression: ⚆_⚆.