July 21st, 2076

Arasaka Tower

David's gonna kill me when he finds out how we got in.

The large room was oddly quiet aside from the random chatter and clacking of keys, but Lucy's hearing was drowned out anyways by the sound of her own heart beating. They were now quite literally sneaking through the heart of Arasaka, hiding in the shadows and dipping around corners as fast as they could. Neither of them had spoken since leaving the bathroom, but they didn't need to as Faolan looked entirely in his element, somehow knowing exactly when and where to move, and she was having a hard time keeping up.

While nearing the hallway to the conference room, Faolan signaled for her to stop behind one of the cubicles. A 'suit was absentmindedly walking closer to their hiding spot while on a call. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, already preparing for the man to scream and alert everyone to their intrusion. Then Faolan made a symbol with his hands, holding it next to his head, like a fist with his pinky and thumb extended. She studied it for a moment before understanding and quickly bringing up her quickhack menu.

"The fuck? Hello? Can you hear me? Shitty Kang Tao receivers…," came the suit's voice from around the corner as his crucial call mysteriously dropped before he walked off with an annoyed huff.

Faolan nodded to her, and she smirked back. Then he gave Lucy another signal and darted forward, with her following close behind. They silently got into the conference room's entrance hallway, where they saw two cameras on either side of the next door. Lucy's continued control over them let her bypass the security scanners and automatically give the two of them entrance permission, sliding the door open and dashing inside. She used another command to forcibly seal it behind them, requiring either a high-level clearance to override or a brick of C-6 to blast it down.

"Huh," Faolan said, "this was a conference room in the Tokyo tower. Looks like whoever is using this one has converted it into their own giant private office."

Lucy looked around to see that instead of a large conference table taking up most of the room, there was a wide and likely absurdly expensive desk placed as far from the door as possible. There were two lounges on either side of it and a large window spanning the entire back wall that looked out to the rest of Corpo Plaza.

I'd almost say it'd be a nice place to work if it wasn't owned by Arasaka. Almost.

"Let's just get this done. I don't want to be here longer than we have to," Lucy said, making her way to the main terminal on the desk.

"I'll cover the door. You remember what to do?" her bodyguard asked.

"Break into their database, figure out which agents are on our case, delete all of their files on us and implant the fake blackmail." Lucy extended her interface plug from the base of her wrist and connected it to the terminal.

Despite him wearing a helmet, she somehow knew Faolan was smirking when he said, "Atta' girl. Your folks are gonna love you."

Lucy's heart beat a little harder, if that was even possible by now, at the mere thought of meeting her parents. She decided to leave that for another day and focused back on what they came here to do. Thankfully this terminal seemed to be used by a supervisor, so finding a list of employees wasn't too hard.

Damn, I knew 'saka was big, but I didn't think they had that many CI agents.

The names of thousands of intel officers, analysts, field operatives, and even receptionists flew by her as she did her best to find anything that would link to David or the crew. Not seeing any recognizable names, she switched up her strategy and began searching for anything revolving around the cyberskeleton. She instantly got a match and spoke up,

"Our guys are Agents Kate and Douglas. They're the ones in charge of the cyberskeleton project. Or at least the ones in charge of controlling the information about it."

"Where are they right now?"

"One moment."

She reopened the camera feed and searched using the agents' biometrics from the employee manifest, finding them in one of the cubicles they had just snuck past.

"Main room, in one of the booths."

"What are they doing?"

"They're watching something. Hold on, let me get a better look."

She swapped cameras and zoomed in on the large screen the two agents were intently staring at.

"They're watching… oh shit."

Lucy kept the camera trained on them while beginning to scour the 'saka net for just the right node, trying to find the transmitter linked to the drone's video feed. Finally locating it and snatching the digital command codes to gain control over it, she linked the video feed to the terminal she was plugged into and displayed it on the screen, the sound of gunfire and explosions coming out of the speakers.

It showed David and the rest of the crew being pinned down by a horde of Militech forces. They had little cover aside from the truck itself, which was lying on its side in the middle of the barren field.

Kiwi must've cracked the truck's ICE with that daemon I sent her and slammed its brakes on.

A series of small explosions rocked the drone's camera feed, tiny fireballs popping up around the truck as the Militech tanks tried to shell the crew's entrenched position. Their infantry provided cover fire simultaneously, battering the truck's overturned top with thousands of rifle rounds.

Militech, Arasaka, fucking corpo bastards. I'll make them all pay for this shit, for making us endure all this pain and suffering, for what? So they could pad their bottom fucking line?

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned with fury in her eyes, only to be met with a black helmet.

"Hey, focus on your part in all this. If you don't, then you won't be able to help them," Faolan said.

After a brief look of hate towards him, Lucy sighed deeply and closed her eyes.

He's right. I'm still going to hurt these 'saka bastards, but I can do it in my own way instead of just beating them to death. It'd still feel fucking nova to do that, though.

Faolan let go of her shoulder, "I'll call them and get a status update, you just do what you do best."

Lucy nodded, opening her eyes. However, she did still keep a subroutine running that would listen in on his call while she broke through layer after layer of shitty 'saka ICE.

Faolan: D, how're things on your end?

David: You're a fucking ass!

-BOOM-

D: When the shit is your team going to be here?!

F: Soon, but I need you to calm down and give me a status update. You don't want Lucy to get even more nervous from your yelling, right?

Lucy glanced at the armored merc in confusion, wondering if he knew that she was listening.

D: Ugh, fine. We're running a little low on ammo. Ok, well, all of us except 'becca are at least. Kiwi's doing her best to fuck with the targeting 'soft on the Basilisks and Missile Carriers, so we haven't gotten steamrolled just yet.

F: Anything else?

D: You're a dick.

F: So I've been told. We should be good on our end in just a moment.

D: Good. … Lucy alright?

She smiled.

Such a sappy gonk.

F: Yeah, your output's doing great. Having the time of her life fist-fucking 'saka.

D: That sounds like her. Shit, another squad is tryna' flank. I'll call you back if anything changes!

Faolan glanced at Lucy and shrugged as the call ended.

Yeah, he totally knew I was listening.

Lucy looked back at the multiple programs she'd had running for a few minutes now, each nearing completion at about the same time. She wasn't only going to delete everything these two corpo fucks had on them, but also every other bit of data they had ever collected that was still stored under their name. At the same time, the set of blackmail docs would upload and be stored in the exact same file locations, with date stamps that placed them as weeks and sometimes months old to not give anything away. As the programs neared completion, Lucy checked in on the camera feed and studied the two agents closely.

Douglas was a fairly bulky man with dark skin and a single visor obscuring his two eyes. Honestly, he resembled Maine quite a bit, but with zero emotion anywhere on his face like he was a brick fucking wall. Kate, on the other hand, looked like the biggest bitch Lucy had ever seen. Tall and lanky, with just the right amount of 'I am better than you' gravitas to her where it made the netrunner despise the corpo woman even more. While she was doing her best to memorize their faces in case she ever saw them again, her HUD notified her that the files had finished transferring and after confirming they had, she ran one last string of code. This set a feedback loop through the drones that were watching the fight in the badlands, causing them to overload and fall out of the sky, removing 'sakas ability to monitor whatever happened next out there.

David's safe, for now at least.

Lucy unplugged from the terminal and stood up.

"All done?" Faolan asked.

"Yep, let's delta," she answered.

Just as they started walking to the exit, they both heard the swish of a door opening to their left. They both turned to see an older man in a very well-tailored suit walk out from a hidden room while rubbing his eyes.

"Ahh, so glad I installed that bed. Nothing like a- wha-who the fuck are you?"

Oh you've got to be kidding me. This fucker SLEEPS here too?!

Faolan ran straight towards the threat immediately, but this guy was clearly a lot more experienced than the last 'suit, ducking just in time to avoid the armored merc's tackle. The corpo rat immediately began running to the door, but Lucy had already broken into his ICE thanks to her subsystem access. She ran one of her favorite hacks and watched in joy as the man's entire body convulsed, every bit of cyberware in him shorting out simultaneously. He fell to the floor like a ton of bricks but cracked a small card in half right before passing out.

Wait, was that a-

The lights in the room flicked to a deep red and a monotone voice came over the intercom.

"This floor is now in lockdown mode. All non-security personnel are to proceed to the nearest exit in a safe and orderly fashion. If a security member orders yo-"

She'd only barely managed to turn off the alarm, desperately hoping that everyone else on the floor would assume it was just a technical glitch. They weren't that lucky. Lucy heard a gruff voice yell from the other side of the main door,

"Security! -THUMP-THUMP-THUMP- Open up, now!"

"Fuck." Faolan grabbed Lucy by the arm and pulled her back to the desk, kicking it over and sitting them both behind the cover he'd made.

"What are you doing?!" Lucy asked him as she felt that same thumping deep in her chest, a twinge of fear returning to her.

Faolan leaned down close to her and did his best to shield her body with his as a deafening blast rang out, shards of metal from the door flying out and hitting the ground next to her. She looked up once the dust had slightly settled, hearing a series of heavy footsteps from the other side of the table.

"Elite security team, too many to just run past. Gonna have to hold out till backup gets here," Faolan said.

"Arasaka security! Surrender now or die!" boomed a deep voice.

Lucy saw the merc take out one of his knives, seemingly preparing to ambush the guards. Even though David had told her to trust in his skills, an entire 'saka security team might be too much. Lucy pulled up her quickhack menu to see what she'd be able to do to help, but all of her RAM was being taken up by keeping control over the security cameras. Besides, even if they took out the first wave, there was an endless stream of security bots, guards, and ninjas in this damn tower that would eventually zero them.

If I'm going down though, I'm taking some of these 'saka fucks with me.

Lucy reached to pull out her monowire when she saw Faolan look away for a moment, seemingly listening to something in his helmet. He turned back to her and put his blade away.

"Backup's here," he said lightheartedly.

Faolan gestured towards the window, causing her to look out and see a slight glint on a rooftop in the distance.

One of the guards yelled out, "This is your final warning! Surren-" He never finished his demands.

Lucy heard several heavy thuds in quick succession and, after the room went quiet, looked cautiously over the edge of the table. She saw five dead soldiers wearing heavy armor, blood pouring out of their throats. Whoever had taken them out had been able to hit every single one in the exact same gap between their helmet and torso armor in under six seconds . She stood up and looked back to Faolan in astonishment, who just laughed as he saw the carnage. He raised his hand and waved towards the window, which had five small holes in it.

"Thank you, Annie," he said.

Faolan connected Lucy to the call, letting her hear the surprisingly comforting voice of a country-born woman responding,

"Anytime boss, now you two need to get the fuck outta there. Sending a line your way, ya still got your hook-up?"

The armored merc took out a short rope with a hook-like ring on the end of it, attaching it to his belt as he responded,

"Yep."

He walked to the window right when a large spike latched into the exterior wall just above it. A taut line of cable was connected to it at a slight downward angle and extended out between the Militech and Biotechnica towers, into the distance, and eventually reaching a lower rooftop at least a mile away. Faolan used his sword to make two quick slashes on the window and then kicked in the center of the 'X' he had made, causing it to shatter into millions of tiny glass shards.

"What now?" Lucy asked, glancing back down the hallway when she heard more guards yelling in the distance.

"Now," Faolan said as he hunched down and leaned his arms back, "you need to hold on."

I fucking hate him so much.

Lucy relented, not having any other options for escape, and climbed onto Faolan's back once again. He hooked them onto the cable and looked back to see more 'saka troops storming into the room. The merc took a step and pushed off the ledge, the two of them rapidly descending down the zipline and away from certain death. Lucy glanced over her shoulder towards the tower in defiance.

Some of the guards saw the two intruders trying to escape, but each time one of them stepped up to the window to fire on them, blood would splatter on their armor as their windpipes popped. One of the poor gonks even tripped forward as he got hit, the body tumbling down and falling out of the window, probably scaring the shit out of someone below.

Lucy lost sight of the guards as they neared the end of the zipline, at which a small piece of metal on the cable gradually slowed their descent until they were about to reach the top of a large parking deck. Once they were only a few inches off the ground Faolan unhooked from the line and let Lucy down. Then he walked over to a large tripod-like device that was anchored into the concrete and held the end of the cable. He pressed a button on it, Lucy watching in surprise as it suddenly retracted the line all the way from Arasaka tower and back into a reel at the base of the anchor. Then just as it finished retracting, which only took a few seconds, Lucy heard a noise from above her.

Glancing upwards, she saw a woman wearing charcoal and dirt colored armor, similar to Faolan's, but far more streamlined. She was climbing down the side of the larger office building they were next to, but despite having to jump from ledge to ledge and clamber down sheer surfaces, didn't seem fazed in the slightest.

Once the woman had landed on the roof next to them, Lucy got a better look at her. She had slightly auburn hair that went down to her hip, tied into two long braids. One of her eyes was obscured by an armored-up Ocuset device, but the other stared back with a warm brown that, along with her comforting smile, made Lucy's heartbeat relax a small amount. Then she noticed that the woman was carrying a highly customized Tsunami Nekomata rifle in a sling on her back and a more basic Unity pistol in a thigh holster.

"Nice shots back there," Faolan said, shaking her hand.

This must be Annie.

"Eh, if I had more time I could've done better," she responded shyly.

Do better than nailing five 'saka guards in the throat from a mile away?

The woman's gaze met her own, "Ah, you must be Lucy. My boss has been obsessin' over you for way too fuckin' long."

Lucy chuckled, "Oh trust me, I know. You Annie?"

"That'd be me."

Unlike her boss, Annie definitely had some serious chrome. Lucy could visually spot several pieces of optical cyberware along with a pair of cybernetic feet that looked like they could grab onto any surface you could think of. There was also a metal seam line that separated her right forearm from her wrist, but with the limited knowledge Lucy had on the entire world's list of chrome, she could only guess as to what its purpose might be. Faolan's voice broke her train of thought,

"No time for introductions right now-"

Shit, David's still in that firefight!

"-we need to delta, now." He turned to the sharpshooter. "You have a way out prepped?"

Annie nodded and gestured for them to follow, leading them to a Mahir Supron FS3 that was parked in the lot, the sad, little van contrasting almost comically bad with the heavily-armed mercenaries. The driver-side window of the car was smashed in and the engine was already running. Despite the humorous thought of international mercenaries still having to steal a shitty plastic car, Lucy's mind was now laser-focused on getting to her lover as fast as possible.

Please let that gonk be safe. I can't do this without him.

As Lucy climbed into the car Faolan stopped Annie and asked, "So, where's the rest of the team?"

"On their way to go save that girl's input. They said they'd make sure their entrance was loud and dramatic."


Eastern Badlands, Night City

Oh, we are so going to die.

David slammed another magazine into his M-76e Omaha and racked the slide, noting the irony of using a Militech pistol to fight against what felt like the entire Militech army. Their raid on the convoy had gone as planned, the Animals had split up the vehicles enough to where they were able to ambush the cargo van and take out the guards. Things almost went poorly when they discovered the van had no driver to shoot and take control from, but Kiwi was able to crack its ICE and force the truck's brakes on, which caused it to tumble and land on its side. Thankfully this meant it also served as a great piece of cover for when Militech's forces did arrive, and arrive they did. Militech had brought an entire battalion of assorted military-grade shit, and they were clearly playing for keeps. The sound of the never-ending stream of thousands of rounds of ammo being fired at the van and bouncing off the metal filled his ears.

Never thought I'd say this, but thank fuck for Arasaka engineering.

Earlier at the hideout they had discussed just letting Militech take the cyberskeleton and being done with it, but after Faolan told them more info on its honestly absurd capabilities, they realized that nobody should have that kind of hardware. Not to mention the fact that this fight would, in theory , act as a great cover for them to "die". Right now though it was looking more and more like their deaths were going to be very real instead.

"Fucking corpo scum! Why can't they leave us the fuck alone!" Rebecca screamed, firing another burst of her Defender at the closest group of infantry.

David glanced around the left side of the van to see the familiar large line of Militech trucks staring back at him, including at least two dozen transports, two Basilisk tanks, and two Missile Carriers. Thankfully the more significant of their firepower, the tanks and artillery, had been held back by Kiwi fucking up their targeting software. Every time the corpos would try to shell the crew's position, their shots would either just slightly miss or not be able to lock on to a target at all. David looked over to Kiwi to see her kneeling on the ground, clearly in high concentration as she kept holding off their timely demise.

If she wasn't here helping, we'd all be dead. I'll have to thank her later, assuming we make it out of this.

Then he checked on Falco, who was near Rebecca on the right side of the van and taking potshots at any Militech soldier who ventured too close with the Overture revolver that David had lent him. The crew had, somewhat surprisingly, done a good job at taking out any stragglers or small units that tried to flank them. That was partially due to Rebecca's duffle bag of firepower giving them a bit of an edge over your average corpo grunt, but also because it turns out Falco was a preem shot with a six-shooter.

"Ha! Got another," The driver reported, David looking to see another dead grunt out in the field at least a few hundred yards away.

Damn, I really wish we'd given him some iron before.

Then his hopes came crashing down as Falco added, "Shit! Out of ammo."

A strange noise from above David was added to the cacophony just then, and he looked skyward to see an Arasaka drone falling out of the sky, impacting into the dirt and exploding into a fireball.

Lucy did it.

Partially reinvigorated at his lover's success, David leaned around the left side of the van and opened fire with whatever rounds he had left. Sure his pistol wouldn't do much damage at this range, but the longer they could keep Militech at least suppressed, the longer they had to live. He just hoped that-

"Agh!"

David whirled around to see Kiwi doubled over in pain, holding her left shoulder. Blood was pouring out between her fingers, and a stain of dark red was forming in her jacket around the bullet hole in her back. David turned to see where the shot had come from, only to see a tiny hole in the truck itself.

Sniper. Must've used a tech-rifle to puncture the armor.

Kiwi looked through the hole as well and searched for the bastard marksman, quickly finding her target and frying his synapses. David could faintly hear a scream in the distance as the sniper's head was engulfed in flames.

"He's down. Fucker must've traced me in the net to target me through the truck," Kiwi said, groaning in pain.

David knelt down next to her and checked her wound, the round had gone straight through her back shoulder blade and out her front, near her clavicle. His mother had tried to teach him first aid on several occasions, and he did try to listen a few times, but only because she said he would be left alone for a while if he did. Usually, though, he just tuned them out. Fortunately, his far more recent experience as an Edgerunner had forced him to relearn a few of the things she had said.

"I got you Kiwi," he said, instinctively pulling out his knife and cutting a yellow and white cloth strip off from his mom's EMT jacket.

Kiwi apprehensively moved her hand off of the wound, watching intently as David wrapped the makeshift bandage under her arm and around her torso, tying a knot between the two ends once he was done. She put her hand back over the wound and applied pressure. It wasn't perfect, but it'd stop her from bleeding out.

"You alright?" David asked, checking her over for any more injuries.

The older edgerunner gave him a look that he couldn't decipher. It was somewhere between hate and total confusion, and for only a brief second, David could swear he saw her tearing up. The look was gone in an instant as Kiwi responded,

"I'll be fine."

Rebecca interrupted their moment with a yell, "Dee! Got a huge fucking problem!"

David ran over and joined Rebecca in peering over the right side of the van, spotting the turrets of the Basilisk tanks moving to adjust their aim.

Kiwi's hacks must've worn off when she got hit.

David looked around for any other option, any way out. A stray thought entered his mind of getting into the van and actually using the cyberskeleton. Maybe he could control it, mayb-

No. I've seen that nightmare already. I'd rather die than let it become real.

"Any ideas?" Falco asked, bringing David back to reality.

Kiwi joined them just then to see the launchers on the back of the Missile Carriers raise up high into the air.

"Maine and Dorio went out fighting," David said, causing the rest of the crew to look at him, "so even if this is it, I'm glad we got to kick some ass before we flatlin-"

"Wait, what the fuck is that?" Rebecca interrupted, pointing into the sky.

He turned, "Wha-"

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT

David was pretty sure he was deaf now, but his eyes still worked, and what they saw was glorious.

Nearly half of the Militech forces, including the Missile Carriers and Basilisks, were either on fire or simply not in one piece anymore. A large, military-style aerodyne had flown over and fired a huge burst of what must be some giant-ass round, as there were still clouds of pink mist dissipating in the wind where soldiers had been standing just seconds ago.

The rest of the corpo forces began engaging the craft, which made a sharp U-turn and descended lower to the ground until it approached David's position. It looked similar to the AV transports that MaxTac used, although with two larger rear engines, thicker armor, and painted a gun-metal gray with orange accents. As it got closer the side door opened, revealing a woman manning a door-mounted 30mm Gatling Cannon.

"Get down," her authoritative voice boomed.

The crew quickly dived to the ground as the weapon opened up, spewing thousands of rounds per minute at the remaining Militech forces. David couldn't exactly see what was happening, but based on how fast the woman was moving the turret left and right, she wasn't missing. About twenty seconds later the shooting stopped and the woman slid the weapon on a track in the floor of the AV, moving it out of the doorway.

David looked up, immediately drawn to the subzero stare coming from the much shorter woman's silver eyes. There was just something about the way she looked straight through him like she knew every sin he'd ever committed that made him instinctively fear her. Even though less than a minute ago he'd been staring down death itself without batting an eye. She was wearing a dull black and tan combat suit that covered her body from halfway down her slightly tan face to her toes, the weathered and highly-used outfit contrasting with the locks of emerald green on her head. The woman stepped off the craft and said, with a far more serious tone than he had expected,

"So, you're the one banging the girl we're here for?"

David sheepishly smirked and heard Rebecca fake gag behind him.

So, this is Faolan's team. Wonderful.

He did his best to look her in the eyes and say,

"That's me. Name's David."

"Kalina." She outstretched a hand to him.

David shook her hand, noticing how surprisingly strong her grip was before asking,

"So, what now?"

Kalina turned and yelled into the AV, "Yo, sardine! You're up!"

An absolute giant of a man stepped out of the AV's back compartment and into the light. He was wearing an armored suit that covered his entire body, similar to a linear frame, but with significantly more armor plating and reinforcements to every servo. It appeared to have been scrounged together from various military and corpo units, with the aesthetics of some parts being the polar opposite of others. Despite its haphazard construction, the whole ensemble was painted in the same speckled white and gray winter camo, with areas of dark navy blue undercoating it.

The suit looked heavy , but based on the ease with which the bulky man hopped off the AV while holding a huge duffle bag, it didn't bother him in the slightest. He landed with a heavy thud and rose up slowly, easily standing at least a foot and a half over David's head. The strangest part, though, came when a warm and cheery voice spoke out from within the armor.

"Hello there!" He waved to them.

His voice sounded like he didn't have a single hateful bone in his body, despite the fact he was encased in a 600-pound death machine. Rebecca warily waved back, having to crane her neck to look up at him when he walked past them towards the overturned van. David could hear the gears and servos inside the suit moving as he walked, each step reverberating like a mechanical press slamming down on a slab of metal.

"That's Garth. Looks intimidating, but he's a teddy bear. Mostly," Kalina explained.

They watched as Garth walked up to the van's sealed rear door, slammed his fist into the metal, and yanked it off the hinges like it was nothing.

That's one strong fuckin' teddy bear…

The armored giant moved to the side of the van and let the door fall, landing with a loud crash.

"Garth is going to plant explosives in the van," Kalina detailed, "and on your wheels. We'll fly out of here as fast as we can so we aren't seen when the two of them go up in a fireball. Should be good enough to cover your tracks."

"You sound like you've done this before," Falco said, quenching the part of him that wanted to protest his car being blown up.

"I've never faked someone's death to help them survive , but I've made plenty of assassinations look like accidents. The principles are about the same," Kalina responded nonchalantly.

That somehow makes me feel more and less nervous at the same time.

"Boss!" Garth yelled.

David and Kalina both glanced over to see him pointing at about a half-dozen more vehicles approaching them from the North.

Militech must've had a response force waiting nearby.

Kalina spat out, "Kurwa, Monarch!"

Monarch? Where did I hear that name before… didn't Faolan say something about not letting him fly too fast back outside the Afterlife?

Half a second later an armor plate on the AV's roof slid back, revealing an inlaid missile battery that fired exactly six times before covering back up. David watched in awe as the missiles arced through the air and hit each vehicle exactly in the driver's cab, six loud booms resonating through the desert as they were simultaneously obliterated.

Alright then, gonna go ahead and assume Monarch is their pilot.

Kiwi spoke up for the first time since Faolan's team had arrived, "Can we delta now? Still bleeding here."

Kalina, like she was on autopilot, brushed past David and silently inspected the blonde's wound. She hummed and then, as if she'd said it a thousand times before, said,

"Clean entry and exit, no arterial bleeding, you'll be fine." Kalina looked at David. "Nice field bandage."

He nodded appreciatively.

Kalina turned to the rest of the crew, "Alright, load up, don't have much time before they send some serious hardware our way."

If an entire battalion of trucks and tanks isn't serious to these guys, then what the fuck is ?

Clearing his head with a shake, David went to help Kiwi into the AV, putting her right arm around his shoulder and supporting her weight.

"I can do it on my own…," Kiwi said.

David knew that normally he would've backed off and let her, but she was doing a terrible job at hiding the pain. Beads of sweat were rolling down her face and her eyes were shut tight as she cringed from the sharp stabs in her shoulder. He ignored her protests and kept walking her into the AV, taking the step up inside he helped her to sit down on one of the interior seats along the wall. Kiwi gave him a silent look of appreciation and then lightly pushed him away from her while saying,

"Thanks. Now get off me."

Well, looks like she isn't as cold as she claims to be.

Falco was the next inside, taking a seat next to Kiwi, with Rebecca following shortly after and sitting next to David on the bench opposite the two senior citizens. The crew all looked at each other, seemingly sharing the same thought:

How the fuck did we survive that?

In a way, the entire idea here was that they didn't survive this fight, so the absurdity of their actual survival would only add to the effectiveness of their scheme. David smirked to himself, but his brief moment of respite was interrupted by Kalina.

Peeking her head inside the AV she said, "Need some of your shit."

"What?" David asked.

"We need to make it look like you all got eviscerated in the blast, leaving no remains of any kind would raise too many questions."

"And what the hell do you want us to toss, choom?" Rebecca asked.

"Anything… iconic. Something that other people, or at least Arasaka, would know you by. Something they can find smoldering and in enough pieces that they'll think you went up with it."

Falco spoke up indignantly, "You mean blastin' our wheels to smithereens isn't enough?"

Kalina shrugged, "Sorry. Nice ride though."

"Fuck yeah it is," the ex-nomad huffed.

Rebecca stood up from her seat then and walked to the entrance, holding her customized Carnage shotgun that the rest of the crew had fittingly nicknamed 'Guts'.

"Here," she said, handing Kalina her weapon, "just make sure it's actually blown apart, I don't want some dumbass ganger getting their hands on this beaut."

The taller woman nodded, tossing the shotgun to Garth who put it in the back of the van. Kalina then turned back and said,

"Anything else? One piece of evidence isn't going to cut it." She glanced towards Kiwi. "That mask removable?"

"Fuck. Off." Kiwi glared back with ice of her own.

An idea flew into David's mind, one that threatened to remove a part of his past. Despite his desperate want to remember that history, he knew that it would be the best way for anyone to believe that he was dead. Rising to his feet, he pulled his mother's jacket off his back and walked over to Kalina. Eyeing it curiously for a second, she noticed the neon-green stylized 'ER' painted on the back that contrasted with the silver 'EMERGENCY' stitched on the jacket's collar.

"You an EMT?" She asked.

David did his best to remain cool, "My mom was."

Kalina's eyes flashed with something other than pure ice for a brief moment, akin to the look a parent gives a hurt child. She nodded to him and walked off with the jacket, putting it with 'Becca's shotty in the van.

David didn't move from his spot at the edge of the AV's entrance, holding on to a metal handle, as Garth exited the crashed truck and returned to the transport. He didn't notice when Rebecca walked up beside him or when Kalina returned to the craft as well. There was a shout, a command, and they began to rise into the sky, the sunset basking the horizon in an orange glow. The door shut in front of him, but mercifully there was a window built into it that let him continue to see out.

Falco joined them at the window, all of them silent as the desert become much smaller below them. David heard the faint breathing of Kiwi's mask from his right as well, the entire crew now ready to watch their own deaths.

Strange feeling. It's like I'm a spirit escaping from the dead and floating away.

Another command rang out from behind him, and David had to cover his eyes from the bright flash as everything in a 100-meter area around the van was engulfed in a giant cloud of fire and smoke. A moment later the AV rumbled as the shockwave hit, and as the dust slowly settled, through the smoke, David could see the blasted and charred remains of the van. Chunks of metal were still raining from the sky, along with a tiny strip of yellow cloth that was dancing in the wind, burning up as the ash clung to it.

David felt a lone tear streak down his face as he silently said something he hadn't been able to back on the freeway three months ago.

Goodbye, mom.

Nobody said a word as the AV began to accelerate away from the burning wreckage and bloody bodies. Eventually, David faintly heard one of the crew, probably 'Becca, ask where they were going.

"Rocky Ridge. Small abandoned suburb at the edge of the city's borders. We'll regroup with Lucy and Faolan there," Kalina answered.

Back to it, then.

A smirk came to David's lips as he finally got to ask Kalina the one question he'd been dying to since they met.

"Hey," he said, getting her attention, "would you happen to know why your boss is such a jackass?"

She burst out in laughter.

"Kid," Kalina said, trying to get her breath back, "we wish we knew too."

David smiled as he felt as though a chapter of his life had closed, and that a new one was about to begin.


Several Hours Later

Arasaka Tower

The desk jockey groaned as he woke up, feeling like a truck had run him over. Reaching up and rubbing his left temple, he remembered where he was: Counter-Intel level, bathroom stall. That big bastard in the armor had knocked him out cold, and who the hell was that girl he was with? They certainly didn't look like Militech raiders or Kang Tao spies, so they must've been hired independently or weren't working with a corp.

The last time a random merc raided 'saka tower, a nuke went off. I should really get out of here.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud knocking on the stall door.

"Security, open up!"

The man quickly scrambled to his feet and opened the door, raising his arms high above his head as he came face-to-face with an Arasaka Soldier that had a Masamune rifle aimed at the new recruit's head. Glancing at the clock on his HUD, he discovered he'd been passed out in the stall for about three hours now.

"Why are you still in here?" the soldier questioned.

Shit. Gotta make something up.

"Boss told me to clean up the bathroom as punishment, and never told me to come back out."

There, now the blame's on that dick and not me.

"What's your position, desk jockey?"

Do I really look that much like a-you know what, nevermind.

"Counter-Intel analyst just assigned to agents Kate and Douglas," he answered.

They'll get me out of this, I've done plenty of good work for them so fa-

"Your bosses are gone. Give me your badge for scanning."

Oh, shit.

The man reached into his shirt pocket and quickly did as the soldier had requested, who then inspected his badge closely in his offhand, probably doing a background check in the Arasaka database to make sure he wasn't bullshitting. After a moment the guard nodded, lowered his weapon, and handed the badge back over to him, causing the suit to breathe a sigh of relief and calm down.

He hadn't been in counter-intel for long. Sure he may have proved himself as a quality analyst a few times, but the idea that all the progress he'd made could be snuffed out so easily terrified him.

I didn't work all the way up the 'saka corporate rungs from down in their stupid academy to fuckin' counter-intelligence for it to just be snatched away like that. No, I'm special, I know it. I will work all the way up to a full-on agent, and then even further. Show them all what I'm really capable of.

The soldier stepped aside and let him walk out of the stall, making one final comment,

"You're free to go, Vincent."