Light Sleeper
Anastasia awoke to the sound of a click coming from the lock on her apartment door as it shut. She opened her eyes and focused on her bedroom door, cracked open slightly. She listened closely, tuning her cyberears' sound filters and spacial recognizer to listen for voices or footsteps. Sure enough, she counted one... no, two uninvited guests on the first floor of her apartment. So much for paying all that extra nuyen for the enhanced security this complex advertised, she thought. She slid her hand quietly under her pillow, gripping a silenced Hammerli 620S light pistol and clip.
Without disturbing her blankets, she slid out of her bed toward the far end of her room and crouched, staying out of view from the perspective of the doorway. She looked up at her nightstand for her commlink to send out a signal for help, but it wasn't there. She must have left it downstairs. She loaded the clip into her pistol and attempted to get a smartlink connection with her gun. The error message that flashed across her vision indicated that her company must be using some type of signal jamming. She quickly shrugged off the disappointment. She didn't need smartlink anyway; and she was no longer disappointed about her commlink either.
She stood from her hiding spot and walked carefully across the side of the room, her steps light as a feather to avoid causing any floorboards to creak. She could hear one of the burglars climbing the stairs. By the sound of it, someone of considerable weight and not very good at sneaking. The intruder approached the door and nudged the door further open. The hinges on the door squeaked ever so slightly. Moonlight poured into the bedroom from the skylight from the loft as the door opened. Just before the door revealed Ana, she delivered a swift kick to the intruder, dislodging the Ares Predator he was holding out in front of him and causing him to step back in surprise.
She stepped into the moonlight, her gun pointed squarely at the forehead of the rather muscular intruder before her. "Don't move," she ordered, while quickly scanning the area for the other intruder. He wasn't immediately visible but he gave away his position by knocking over some items from the bathroom to her left. Operating on instinct and afraid of being blindsided, she turned 90 degrees and fired two shots, both hitting the second intruder, who she could now see was a dwarf, squarely in the chest. He called out in agony and slouched to the floor in pain.
She rotated back to the orc street samauri, unloading 4 more shots as the orc lunged forward, dodging two of the shots and taking two bullets against his well protected torso. His strength was clearly superior as he batted her arms and her pistol away and secured a tight grip around her. He drew a knife from his cyberarm and laughed as he pressed it up against her neck. "You'll pay for that..."
She wrestled one arm free just in time to push back on her assailant's arm, preventing him from slitting her throat right there. It took her a few more seconds to free her second hand, and she landed a swift kick to finally free herself from his grip. Frustration mounting, he tossed her to the side like a rag doll, her body impacted with the hallway wall causing a sizable gash. As he walked over to where she lay dazed, she tried to fight back again. He easily dodged punches before grabbing the back of her flannel pajamas and tossing her over the railing, sending her crashing onto her kitchen table one floor below, splitting it in half as it broke her fall.
Once again she lay dazed and took a few seconds to regain her composure. Her platelet factories were hard at work, repairing some of the cuts and bruises she had received. She soon realized there must be a third intruder as well, because someone was approaching her from the apartment's front door. She clutched a piece of splintered wood from the table as the man approached. "Careful boss, she's not worth anything if she's dead," the man said as he bent over to check her pulse. She focused every ounce of energy into her next action: she leapt up from her prone position with a jagged chunk of the table, smacking the man across the back of the head with it knocking him out instantly. She regained her footing and caught the man as he slouched, letting him drop to the ground only after she drew the man's pistol, and much to her delight, submachine gun from their holsters.
From the stairwell, the street samauri opened fire, sending her dashing to the kitchen for cover. A few of the shots grazed her shoulder and torso, causing pain but no serious damage. Great, now there's a price on my head? Ah, nice gun, she thought to herself, checking clip on the HK Urban Combat submachine gun. She raised it above the countertop and fired several shots blindly toward the stairway. She ducked back behind the counter as he return fire, sending fragments of the countertop and cabinet woodwork splintering in various directions.
She reached up onto the countertop and grabbed her commlink, thumbing through menus and finding the signal in the area was still jammed. She couldn't call for help. She looked around for ideas and spotted the security console next to the apartment's front door. There was no way to get to it without exposing herself to the line of fire. She picked up the pistol she had taken and pointed it at the console, letting one bullet fly. It shattered the controls, and the damage was sure to alert the building's security.
Suddenly more gunfire erupted. She heard one of her windows shatter. Seconds later, she watched as the man that lay unconscious by the kitchen table had his life put to an end by several bullets to the top of his head, spewing an undesirable amount of blood onto the carpet and furnishings immediately surrounding. The samauri had decided to abort the mission. With his dwarven companion on his back, he leapt out the window. Ana had the opportunity but held her fire. They were just runners that had a bad day on the job. She had been there before. There was nothing they knew that could help her.
She sighed, tossed the guns to her side and sat patiently on her kitchen floor, waiting for security to arrive.