Status Updates From Hardwired: 30th Anniversary...

Reading Hardwired - Chapter VII

As Cowboy and Sarah were taking a break in a quiet swale studded with pine, they discussed their next move. Cowboy suggested waiting for the Dodger to send some transport to get them out. Because there was not much fuel and ammunition left in the panzer. Cowboy went back inside the panzer, scanning the broadcast. And his 3D face was being shown on the screamsheet.

Finished Hardwired - Chapter VI

The engine of the panzer purred, and it began to lurch forward. The armoured bow struck the limo dead-on. The white man hiding behind darted to one side. Sarah recognised he was Cunningham's driver. The limo was crumpled like a tin can. The panzer bounded off, headed for the ridge. There, the turret gun moaned again. Turning the unarmoured truck into a beehive, killed the two men.

Reading Hardwired - Chapter VI

The convoy was waiting at a farmhouse set among shade trees. Sarah told Cowboy it was most likely a set-up. But Cowboy seemed to know what was going on. Just when the men were moving the gold to a metal truck. A rocket was launched into Andrei's car, and all hell broke loose. Sarah darted bullets at the assailants in lightning reflexes, but some of them were still hiding behind covers.

Reading Hardwired - Chapter VI

The cowboy rode the panzer at 200 miles per hour on the interstate, slaloming around cargo-carrying trucks. He refuelled in South Carolina and in Virginia. Waiting for the escort in Pennsylvania, Sarah and he had lunch in the Panzer. She was impressed that the ham in the sandwiches was real. Sarah climbed up the hatch, and she loved the view of the rolling green countryside.

Reading Hardwired - Chapter VI

As the five-ton truck finished unloading the goods into the Panzer, Cowboy said hello to Sarah. They climbed the sunbaked armour and entered the steel cabin. Sarah went to sleep in her narrow cot. It was Cowboy's job to get her through his next moment. So she let him get on with his work. The convoy started moving, they hit the interstate, and the escort departed from the panzer.

Reading Hardwired - Chapter VI

Sarah was standing at the edge of the ocean just north of St. Petersburg, where the Gulf is. Cowboy stood next to his panzer as the mechanic explained an auxiliary power unit in the panzer. Sarah started thinking back to the moment when she stepped into the Plastic Girl, how people stared at her, and how she confidently strided inside, neglecting them. The gun boy came and met her.

Finished Hardwired - Chapter V

More and more info was extracted from Chapel. A better and clearer picture was formed in Cowboy's head. He knew Arkady started it as a cause, locating the weak links in the orbital system of distribution, finding people who were weak or bribable, and feeding the system what it needed. He decided not to tell either Chapel or Jimi what he planned to do on reasonable grounds.

Reading Hardwired - Chapter V

Cowboy asked Soderman if he was in for the association. But Soderman gave the same answer as Arnold. One week later, He was at a table with two panzerboys, Jimi and Chapel. Jimi speed monologued about his stories, asking questions here and there, trying to gather as much useful information as possible. Chapel was close to Arkady, so Cowboy aimed to gather up some intel from him.

Reading Hardwired, chapter V.

There was a ten-day celebration for the new legend, Cowboy, who opened the way in Missouri. He was trying to convince Arnold, a panergirl, to join his scheme of rendering the thirdmen obsolete in the coming days. She hesitated, and Cowboy gave her more time to consider. He then met a new girl called Cathy. As Soderman came into the bar, Cowboy excused himself to meet him.

Finished Hardwired, chapter IV.

Sarah ambushed the two boys from a dark room. Weasel gouged through batboy's left eye. The other knifeboy was knocked out by Sarah's forehead. Standing over their bodies, she decided to leave a political message for other streetboys, so Sarah broke some of their bones. The boys' car was taken by Sarah. She drove the Merc to St. Petersburg, sweeping past the gutted shells of Venice.

Reading Hardwired, chapter IV.

As Sarah left the hospital, she booked a cab for her departure. She exited to a back alley, peaking left and right for any bounty hunters. The cab arrived, and she flung into it. There was a car following her, and she knew she was being hunted. She told the driver to go to Venice, the sinking district. In there, Sarah entered a flooded apartment foyer, luring the soldiers inside.

Reading Hardwired, Chapter IV.

The narrative shifted back to Sarach. She stood in the corner of the waiting room of the hospital. Since Duad's condition required an enormous amount of money, she was dying for a new gig. Her hetman, Michael, had a job set up for her. It would be staying in a panzer to keep Michael's cargo safe. She could only accept it. This might be the set-up for the meeting of Cowboy and Sarah.

Finished Hardwired, chapter III.

Cowboy found out there were lots of aircraft waiting at the airport nearby for his panzer to show up. So he decided to take the initiative and crash the party. He crushed and folded numerous planes with his panzer, and he left with a major victory. He arrived at his destination in Kentucky. In his panzer, he made up his mind and was determined to find out who was behind Arkady.

Reading Hardwired, chapter III.

Cowboy tricked the coleopter to run with him at full speed. He slammed in his thrust reversers, the coleopter uncontrollably got ahead. And Cowboy launched missiles, blasting the coleopter to pieces. Cowboy found a long, narrow barn to rest and prepare for the final lunge. There was a pair of a boy and a girl there. He left them some food and drinks before he slumbered in his panzer.

Reading Hardwired, Chapter III.

Cowboy entered a rectenna forest. In there, he fired a chaff rocket, which is composed of aluminium strips which are implanted with a minichip that would play back any radio signal it receives. The chaff decoy confused the hell out of the privateers. Much later, a helicopter was closing in on him, so he shot it down. But his comrade, a coleopter, locked onto its tail like a tiger.

Reading Hardwired - Chapter III

When the Cowboy hit the border of Missouri, the pulsing radars questing out from it. A coordinated diversion was planned by Arkday. Panzerboys hit the plains, tearing through fields in zigzag patterns. Cowboy found a blind spot from the flying radar arrays overhead. He tried to sneak past them through it. But new sensors arrived aloft, so he had to move fast to remain undetected.

Reading Hardwired - Chapter III

Cowboy stripped naked and stuck electrodes to his arm and legs, ensuring his muscles would be exercised by the electrodes to keep the blood flowing. The panzer howled and started its journey to Mississippi. He knew the Privateers were waiting over there, Arkday called, letting him know that he would be in the sky with him. He gave the green light to Cowboy to give them hell.

Reading Hardwired, chapter 3.

Cowboy and Arkady, the thirdmen, stood together, waiting for the panzer to be prepped. The Dodger strolled to them, telling Cowboy to make sure it was trimmed. Cowboy hopped in through the dorsal hatch and plugged into the system. After he made sure everything was ready. He put his head up the hatch, starting to think that maybe he was just a dupe, used by the orbital blocs.

Finished Hardwired, chapter II.

After Sarah transferred the data into a liquid crystal cube in the Princess's room. She left for The Plastic Girl. There, she traded the cube for the drugs Cunningham promised her. She was satisfied with them. After that, she went home, but Cunningham's employer tried to assassinate her with a shaped charge. They failed; however, her brother was seriously injured and hospitalised.