Raymond’s Entry In March’s Writing Challenge!

Managed to smash this one out before the start of 3BIAB. I think it’s pretty solid, a little short than what I usually write.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. And hope it inspires you to write something of your own.

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Matrix Garden

The silent pulsing yellow and red light was all that illuminated the surrounds. A black concrete room lined with server banks. The frozen air and ceramic dust float through the breached hole in the roof. Crop-sec had figured that the gang of intruders had been trying to loot the vault for cash. That was simply payment. Peering down into the server room from the vault above was ring of five heavily armed and well equipped thieves. The server data was the mark.

Only one member of the crew dropped into the server room. Setsuka was more than just a hacker; she was, is a living matrix weapon. A series of military and corp experiments had left her with a body full of M-tech implants. No deck required.

She shed her helmet as she approached the access terminal; revealing a bald head, inlaid with wires and organic circuitry. Her clockwork sapphire eyes pulsed with an unnatural light as she placed her bare hands on the terminal in front of her. She could literally feel the danger inside the box. Her fingers sensed the dense layers of electricity, the high end components, the strange unfamiliar upgrades. She snatched the M-cable out of her breast pocket and jacked it into the port on her left temple. She hovered over a similar port on the terminal…hesitant for just a moment.

Then she jacked in.

Her mind burned like thunder, vision stinging like a bad taste. All she could hear was the ugly yellow from some horrible place half forgotten. The inside of Setsuka’s head felt like it was having the very void itself crammed inside of it. An emptiness to vast and massive to fit inside even her exceptional brain.

Then suddenly, in an instant eternity Setsuka’s mind cleared. Her eyes opened, and before her was heaven. A sheltered garden, within an expansive ring of jagged rock. Bushes, trees and flowers spread out all around in more colours than Setsuka had ever thought existed. It wasn’t just plants though, she could hear the tweeting of birds, the bubbling of water over rocks, and not far from her sat a large lion. Lazing in the sun.

At the centre of it all stood a small building. Opulent but thin. A red timber bridge lead to it, crossing shallow streams, and cutting a line through the foliage. Her feet and mind wandered down the path until she stood before the strange boxy building with it’s short middle tower. Setsuka stood their for a moment before, without warning the building spoke.

The very moment sound echoed out of the building she remembered every reason she was her, and felt immediately stupid for having been taken in by the construct of the martix.

“You are very interesting Setsu. I was meant to destroy your mind, but you are such a special specimen. I think I’ll keep you here with me instead.”

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I hope you like reading that at least as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you’d like to see the art that inspired it, you can check it out here.