The Swindle
It was going to be the heist of the century, a career defining caper, the biggest job London had ever seen, The Swindle. Months of training, preparation, research and good old fashioned pilfering had finally come to a head and now, with one day to spare, there it was: The Devil's Basilisk gleaming back at me from its, heh, not so well defended any more, perch.
We'd been here before of course, a couple of weeks ago one of my cohorts had made it this far... stood where I now stood. They even made it to the open doors of their drop ship before a particularly vicious police gunship had riddled them with holes. Fortunately the techies in the crime science lab had invented some kind of hi-tech widget and bought us a few more, much needed, days. The coppers were wise to us now though, and running it was becoming, excuse the pun, criminally expensive. No, this was it, if our dreams were to be realised and London to become a crime utopia for those of a looser moral persuasion to lord it over the plebs, it had to be now.
My heart pounds as I go over it again and again in my head, it had all gone well so far. A few well placed charges had made short work of getting to security stations and hacking had been simple enough. Some, not undeserved, brutality had made short work of the surprisingly light police presence and a final emp blast though the floor of the basilisk lab itself had taken out the final guards - Probably should have shielded that shouldn't you copper?! I'd even practiced the run to the exit, a quick leap, a run through the basement, up a wall and through a couple of windows i'd dealt with earlier to... freedom! We'd invested in the latest steam purge tech to help deal with those gunships too, although the boss had been a little bit vague about how well that was actually going to work.
My hands clasped the Basilisk's metal frame, palms sweating,
I pause...
3... 2... 1...
... and in one swift motion I wrench it free then leap toward my escape, I felt elated, I could taste the future and it was beautiful...
Splat.
As consciousness faded my anger rose; with the world, with the police, with stupid society letting themselves be controlled like puppets. Mainly though, mainly, mainly with me, and my own fatally stupid rushed leap.
Wait, what's this?! Bug earnings while on that raid had put bank account over the required amount for Police district security clearance and we still have that last day. Edith F. Q. Weedkiller, the future is yours. Take it, just don't forget to press X to land.
What on earth did I just read?
This is a little piece of fan-fiction for The Swindle that I was inspired to write after yet another failure to win the game. I wanted to give it a home somewhere I wouldn’t forget about it.
As you can probably tell i’m no experienced writer, in fact, this is my first piece of creative writings since, errm, school (a while ago!) I would like to get better at writing though and might, if I ever get time and inspiration again use this blog to practice.
If by chance anyone reads it let me know what you think, its the only way to get better!
Also, buy The Swindle. It’s a brilliant, stealthy platformer which will give you hours of joy (and frustration at your own lack of coordination).
Joe