CYS

Sandor lived a quiet life in Etyek while the world was changing. The world did change, Hungary changed and Sandor held onto his mission; turn his pigs into food for the local population.

Etyek was a small city in the outskirts of Budapest that made its living from a very peculiar niche. Tourists would come from time to time to accompany the pig nursery and drink fresh wine. They arrived early and everyone started the day by toasting with a glass of Palinka and going to work. As the family began the event, tourists watched. When they finished working at the slaughterhouse, they all went inside and started the best part of the day: the time to try a dozen countryside typical dishes, involving the manufacture of sausage and the famous cabbage and pork soup with vegetables. However, when the Great Reversal took place, Etyek ended up being ignored by the new Budapest government, so tourists never showed up.

In the early years, Sandor, who was still a teenager, helped his father with the pigs, and even without help from the local government, the community stood together and moved on. One family raised pigs, another chickens and so on, Etyek remained solid for a long time.

Meanwhile, like in any other disorganized group, criminality in the outskirts of Budapest began to increase, transforming cities into dangerous places. The pigs, chickens and crops were plundered during the night, and when the farmers woke up, their goods were gone. With limited food, the people of Etyek began to dwindle.

Although Sandor’s family survived crime, the second wave arrived, and this time no one managed to escape. General Arpad Szabo, high commander of the Budapest military forces, appeared one morning with a giant troop in the center of the village and ordered that, from that day on, Budapest would charge fifty percent of food production as tax.

At first, Sandor’s father believed that this would be the end of local crime, but time passed and outlaws, and when famine hit the door of Sandor’s family, they only had one option left: to move to Nyom.

Nyom was the largest slum that had ever formed in Eastern Europe. A heap of wooden houses and concrete remains were built horizontally and vertically, leaning against the Great Wall, a giant wall that now encircled all of Budapest, on both sides of the Danube. There lived all kinds of people who believed that living near the city would bring more opportunities, but the truth was quite the opposite: no one cared about those people who lived eating rats and insects to survive.

Sandor spent years of his life there, subsisting. Hunting rats and birds was his way of getting food. Beaks here and there were the only way of getting some Cryptos to be able to buy clothes, shoes and, from time to time, taking care of health. The money was not much, never enough to get out of the life he lived. However, one day, Sandor witnessed a scene that served as an opportunity for his life’s future. In an alley in Nyom, a group of soldiers clashed against three favelados (slum dwellers). All three were exterminated within seconds, and their bodies were left there. Sandor took advantage of being there alone and tried to find something useful in the dead bodies.

As he approached the three bodies, Sandor realized that they were not ordinary favelados (slum dwellers) like him, but three heavily armed men. Unlike the people of this new world, who traded body parts for mechanical parts, these three used external orthoses as support for arms and legs in order to increase user strength. They also wore glasses in one eye, which Sandor had no idea what it was for.

Sandor took everything he could from the three bodies home. There were three glasses, two pairs of gloves with mechanism to increase force, two pairs of boots also equipped with equipment that increased leg strength, an assault rifle and two pistols.

It took Sandor a long time to understand how to use that equipment. Using the whole set, boots, gloves and glasses, he was able to jump much higher than ordinary humans did and with the gloves, he could punch concrete walls and pull out pieces as easily as possible. And the main one, the glasses, which in addition to leaving his reasoning skills faster, had a sight assist, which reported with a red dot, where his gun was pointing at. Wearing a bandana to hide his face, Sandor embarked on a new mission: stealing and donating to the poor.

For many years Sandor remained anonymous and helped the poor people who lived in Nyom. But that was an endless mission. The more he stole, the bigger the favela (slum) became.

Things changed direction the day Sandor met Daniel Balazs, a local mechanic, who in addition to servicing cybernetic equipment, specialized in building and maintaining old cars to be used in Nyom.

“Daniel,” said Sandor, one day in the workshop of his new friend. ” With these three cars we can start stealing larger goods.”

“Sandor, ” answered the mechanic, braveless. ” I do not know if I’m interested in challenging the government.”

” You don’t have to do anything, my dear. Give me three of those cars. Add some armor to them. With the guns and some of these outside orthotics I can assemble a group to drive the cars and steal a government motorcade. We would make twice as much. In addition to bringing food to Nyom, we take food from Budapest.

After months of talking, the mechanic decided to help, and Sandor already had his first squad of nine men ready for the assault. And when a convoy arrived bringing food from the local farmers’ taxes, the group attacked with three war-ready cars.

The mission to intercept the food shipment was a success. On a mission that lasted only a few minutes, the three armed cars brought a gigantic load of food to Nyom and many were able, at least for a day, to ease the pain in their stomachs.

Meanwhile, the government of Budapest didn’t let it lie. As the days went by and looting became frequent, the tax collection convoys began to be reinforced with soldiers and tanks.

“People of Nyom,” cried Sandor, raising his hands high in the center of Dunaharaszti, Nyom’s main point. ” I’ve summoned you here today. The more food we bring to our people, the more they want to steal from us. The defenses against our strength are growing and so I invite you to come be a part of my group. Enlist! Let us show them the true power of Magyar, us, the true people of Hungary!

And so Sandor’s band increased and soon began to be known as Magyar Raiders. The more strength Budapest put on the roads of ancient Hungary, the more Magyar Raiders grew and armed themselves against government oppression. More cars were prepared, more guns were stolen and more combat equipment was made for the new soldiers.

The Budapest government needed to do something against Sandor, otherwise, the ones who would start starving would be its citizens. It was then, with outside help, that Budapest put into action its new airport, and with an entourage of planes and others, prepared the final attack against Sandor.

Using several warplanes, Sandor and his men were placed at a dead end. One day of pursuit, and they had to flee by car because a fight against those planes was impossible. During their escape, they were forced to cross the Danube River to the west, and when the whole troop managed to cross the river, the planes climbed up the river destroying all the bridges, finally locking Sandor’s cars to the other side of the river.

” You can keep this side for you, ” whispered Sandor, seeing the pillar of the last bridge fall.  “But this side here will be ours.”

After a few weeks reunited in Etyek, the city Sandor knew well, Magyar Raiders launched the attack that left Budapest in shock. Up the river on the west side, they invaded the city on the Buda side. They blew up the great wall and entered the city, surrendering soldiers and local population.

When the government of Budapest again sent the planes for combat, Sandor was prepared. Hidden among the constructions, they used anti aircraft battery equipment. Half of Budapest’s fleet of planes were shot down that day, and once again, the government solved it in its own way: they broke down the remaining bridges to separate Budapest once and for all. When they realized that the government would pay no more attention to the west side of the city, Sandor declared a new governor for that side of the city and gave in a good part of the anti-aircraft equipment.

However, Sandor wasn’t going to just stand there and wait. Sandor was now a Nomad. The Magyar Raiders now had no home and no roof. They roamed the entire western region, from the ancient region of Austria to the Balaton, attacking government-loyal cities and stealing food to send to the people of Nyom, who were slowly rescued from that infamous slum and sent to live in Buda.

Each day, at sunset, when Sandor smoked his straw cigarette, he looked towards Budapest and let his brain work. One day, he simply had to go in there and finish what he started. But without planes, he wouldn’t have much of a chance. They also needed an airport.

Now Sandor also needed outside help.

Maybe one day, she would finally get to him.

And when that happened, the Siege of Budapest would begin, and it would end the oppression once and for all.