Chapter 5: Heist Lite
V sat in the rear seat of the Ragnar SUV Jericho had stolen a few days previously. Asher sat in the front passenger seat next to Hildegarde, who was driving. The drive was calm and corners were taken at normal sane speeds. Johnny sat in the seat next to V, his legs kicked up onto the seat in front of him, his shades were down and he idly smoked a holographic cigarette.
"...And then he takes corners at full speed, as fast as he bloody can without flipping the car over... The gas pedal is the 'on switch' and the brake is the 'off switch'... If you're lucky, you won't end up in a pile of mangled cyber-limbs when you get to your destination...", Hildegarde was rambling about Jericho's driving skills, or lack thereof. She wasn't wrong. Hell, Jericho's flying skills were even worse if the dash-panel of their old AV was any kind of proof. Some warning lights shouldn't ever be ignored.
"Mmm-hmm. Yeah, He did that earlier. V touched my boobs.", Asher added. Hildegarde just stared at V through the rearview mirror in disgust.
"Once we get our Panzerboy back, we won't have to worry about Jericho inadvertently killing us in the planet's worst auto collision.", Hildegarde noted.
"But... He's drunk all the time..."
"Yes, but somehow he's still better at driving than Jericho..."
V just sat quietly, he didn't really have anything to add to the conversation. He turned and looked at Johnny.
"Why do you even bother to use the seats? You're not really here, Johnny. You don't even have to walk. You're just a projection I'm seeing in my head.", V mused.
"Ehh, old habits die hard, V. Besides, I can still feel everything you're feeling. And hey, I was poking around with that Chipset. I think I might be able to borrow your body again, think you could visit Rogue again sometime?"
"No, Johnny. You're not borrowing my body to satiate your appetite. Just keep digging around up there, see if there's anything you can find that'll help me- us impress Hildegarde."
"Look, if you had any idea what I'm seeing in here, you'd have a bit of sympathy. It's not like there's a big control panel with pretty buttons and flashing lights..."
"What do you see?"
"Whatever you're seeing. There's a nice HUD overlay on top of everything. Not much else."
"Preeeem..."
V caught Hildegarde staring at him again, she looked a bit puzzled.
"V, do you always wave your arms around like you're having a fit? You look like you're trying to converse with an imaginary friend back there.", Hildegarde noted.
"Oh, yeah. That's because I am. Jericho stuffed an 'AI' into my head along with that Chipset. His name is Johnny Silverhand and he's a raging asshole."
"Hmm... You might be alone in that situation. Are you sure you're just not going completely bonkers?"
"You know, I don't really know anymore."
"Oh goody, just don't make an ass out of yourself or I'm going to have to tell Jericho that your greatest skill is making an ass out of yourself.", Hildegarde mocked.
V just sighed. He was actually wondering idly how Hildegarde managed to both keep an eye on the road and stare icily at him while driving with only one eye.. He felt like asking, but then thought that was a bad idea.
"You know, V. I met a joytoy once that only had one eye. She had this cool skill where she could sing while giving the best blowjobs, it wasn't until I turned on the lights that I found out she only had one eye...", Johnny waxed. Johnny had lived a very interesting life.
"I seriously doubt that Hildegarde does that. I'm not even going to ask that, because I don't have a death wish."
"Heh, V. You gotta try and live someday."
The Militech Ragnar eventually pulled into a disused parking lot close to the old powerplant. V looked around and noticed a few Maelstrom gangers and Scavs digging through scrap. They didn't seem to pay much attention to the massive truck. Hildegarde simply exited the vehicle, Asher did as well, but walked around to the rear section of the Ragnar and hopped into the back. She locked the door behind her. V hopped out as well, also locking the door. As it sat, the keys and Asher were all locked inside the vehicle. V hoped that Asher had some kind of decency to unlock the doors if everything somehow went tits-up during this basic gig.
It wasn't long before Asher had cracked the subnet and entered their comms. It would've been more handy if she'd waited until both V and Hildegarde were farther from the vehicle before testing the system, though.
"Hello? V? Can you heeaaar meeee!?", Asher yelled into the comms system, blowing V's eardrums out.
"Agh! Asher, I'm right outside the door! Wait until we're inside!"
"But you can hear me, right?"
"I could hear you regardless! You're less than 3ft from me."
"Okay, cool. I've got comms then. Also, I'm picking up a lot... A LOT of movement inside the main building. Looks like Scavs."
Hildegarde just grabbed V's arm and pulled him along. They did have a mission to complete, after all.
"Just ignore her for now. If anything happens, she'll let us know.", Hildegarde reassured.
V and Hildegarde proceeded with caution towards the front door of the main building. If Jericho's map was accurate, the fuel storage was down a short hallway in the reactor hall not far from the main office. The control room was their next destination after that if Asher was unable to hack the storage pools themselves and grant access. V stepped up to the main door and tried the handle. It was locked.
"Damn. We'll have to find another way...", V noted, now searching for an alternate entrance.
Hildegarde just stared at V for a moment before backing up a few feet and charging forwards, kicking the doors open and alerting every Scav in a hundred-mile radius. At least 30 Scavs rushed the main doors with V barely having enough time to pull out Dying Night. He let off several dozen shots, most of them scoring headshots on the Scavs and dropping them easily. He activated his Ballistic Coprocessor and bounced bullets off the floor and walls to score some more grazing hits.
Hildegarde fired her own gun, which made a soft pfoom every time it fired. V noticed that for a brief second before firing, it glowed violet for a second before launching another projectile. The somewhat triangluar pistol fired through cover and walls as the outlaw took down multiple Scavs in one shot. It was some kind of Tech Pistol, V was sure of it. Hildegarde was also a significantly better marksman than he was. A Scav tossed a grenade their way, Hildegarde catching it in mid-air before sending it back home to its thrower, the resulting explosion lauching Scav bits everywhere. She dove sideways, letting off a frenzy of shots that all met their targets squarely in the face. It wasn't long before the stench of blood filled V's senses and the room lay quiet.
"Not bad. Needs work, though.", Hildegarde mused. She patted V on the arm and headed farther into the complex, stepping over dead Scavs as she went.
The complex wasn't entirely abandoned, a few rooms had barred doors and alternate entrances. V could see some workers inside the rooms operating the plant itself. He presumed the alternate entrances were there to aboid any conflict with the prowling Scavs that inhabited the abandoned portions. V crept by the occupied rooms stealthily, Hildegarde ignoring the workers entirely as they couldn't really do anything anyways.
"Down here. Core 1, the second core is still in operation. From Jericho's notes, the old reactor hall is being used as fuel storage.", Hildegare noted. She tossed V an Anti-Rad hypo, which the hapless edgerunner injected. Tingly.
"Guys!", Asher exclaimed.
"What? What's going on?", V whispered.
"I was just wondering what you're going to spend your Eddies on."
"Really? You're asking this right now?"
"Yeah. I'm going to use mine on breast implants. Big ones. Like bigger than my head."
"Wait, seriously?"
"Hah! Nope! But now you can't stop thinking about that, can you Veeeeee!? Booya, I just hacked your brain!"
Hildegarde just glanced at V who looked fairly disgusted with whatever had just transpired.
"Is your imaginary friend bothering you again?", Hildegarde asked, half-mockingly.
"Nope, it's Asher."
"Good. I thought you might be pondering the meaning of being alive or something."
Hildegarde just waved V onward. The hallway opened up into a large chamber, the old reactor hall. It was a Soviet design, a high ceiling with a large somewhat circular series of panels that covered the decomissioned reactor core. A series of metal boxes were stacked against the far wall, just sitting out in the open. Hildegarde walked over to the boxes and examined them for a moment before moving on. "These are empty. Better keep looking."
V scanned the room, there weren't any Scavs or other gangers in here. They probably had more sense than to rifle around nuclear waste. He spied a door on the far side that read 'Fuel Storage' and walked over to it. Once again, the door was locked and it appeared to be a slding door instead ofa swinging one, which meant that kicking it down wouldn't do much good. "Over here. Fuel storage."
"Asher, open the door. We're in position.", Hildegarde called.
"Okay... Gimme a sec... Just a moment... Hmmmmm...", Asher stammered.
"Asher... As much as I love standing around inside nuclear reactors, this door isn't opening."
"Working on it... Just give me a sec..."
"Asher... If you behave, I'll buy you an icecream cone..."
"Okay. Got it! Oh and by the way, I might've maybe possibly activated all the alarms in the building as well. No worries though!"
"Asher. I am going to tear your limbs off and force-feed them to you when I get out."
"Ah haha... But I've got the keys to the car and I'm locked inside nice and snug."
"If you run. I will find you. And I will never stop hurting you."
"Okay, jeez. Um. I'll try to keep security off of you by locking the doors in their path."
"Good. Great. See you soon."
Hildegarde looked rather pissed, but V had other issues to deal with at the moment such as a loud klaxon that began blaring as soon as the door had begun to open. He rushed forwards into the room and began grabbing as many canisters as he could carry. Hildegarde joined him and knocked the canisters out of his hands, she walked over to a different pile of canisters and grabbed two of them before turning on her heel and leaving the room.
"Time to go, V.", Hildegarde added before tearing off in the direction of the front door. She moved with insane speed and left V in the dust.
V just ran. He attempted to catch up with Hildegarde, but she was moving far too fast for him. Some of the workers from the rooms they'd passed earlier had entered into the hallway only to be roughly shoved aside as the outlaw ran through them. V jumped over a few fallen scientists and kept running. The alarms kept blaring and the hired Militech security had broken through one of the doors that Asher had 'locked'.
"Shit...", V cursed. A Militech combat drone had just entered into the derelict main building.
Hildegarde just slid between the drone's legs, sliding and jumping back upwards and exiting through the broken front doors. V's eyes just widened as the combat drone targeted him and began to fire off its chaingun. He dodge around it, taking cover behind a few concrete barriers before running for the door as well. The drone was too big to fit through the smaller office doors instead opting to fire off a rocket which followed V.
"Oh shiiiit!", V screamed as the rocket trailed him. It made impact with the ground just behind him and launched him into the air. He soared through the sky and landed face-first in a pile of agony near the Ragnar.
Hildegarde just grabbed V's shoulders, opened the rear door of the SUV and threw V inside, V's head landing firmly into Asher's lap. She ran over to the driver's side door and jumped in, slamming the vehicle in reverse and spinning around to face the opposite way. She slammed the accelerator pedal and took off in the direction of Night City.
"You don't think you could've avoided setting off the alarms!?", Hildegarde yelled.
"Hey, you were yelling at me to hurry up! And I also wanted that icecream cone...", Asher added.
"Asher, the only Icecream you'll be getting is the Black ICE that comes and fries you when you do this during our actual heist. And when you do, I'll be laughing."
"Hey... Don't be mean..."
"Hey, look. We made it out. Militech isn't chasing us. We're good.", V reassured. Hildegarde just shot him a glance and sighed.
"Yes. We're alive. Yes, we made it. Yes, we also got the goods. However, now Militech knows there are some new and interesting mercenaries in town, one of which is supposed to be dead.", Hildegarde sighed. She'd calmed down slightly since the flashing lights of the Militech trucks had disappeared behind them. Perhaps it had helped that they were actually driving a Militech truck as well.
"You keep saying that like it's a bad thing. I mean if Morgan Blackhand suddenly came back, everyone would be thrilled.", V noted.
"Morgan Blackhand had a... different set of ideals. This is more like Adam Smasher has just come back from the dead and has decided to open a flower shop. I don't do petty crime, V."
"So what do you do? Murder? Mayhem?"
"Yes, V. Murder and mayhem await..." Hildegarde mused. "If I wasn't carrying your carcass around, I would've slagged every last one of them. But, babysitting the newbie is what Jericho wanted..."
V scoffed. He knew he was good. He'd raided Arasaka. He'd led a group of Nomads into the heart of the corpo underworld and come out alive. Oh well. New group, new challenges. He just settled down in the back of the SUV and sighed. Asher looked at him for a moment before going back to watching the skylines of Night City pass by.
The small garage came into sight. Hildegarde backed the SUV up into a spot closer to the garage itself and hopped out, grabbing the two fuel canisters from the passenger seat. She didn't bother letting V and Asher out and instead just headed for the door, kneeling for a moment to open it. V and Asher left themselves out and followed behind at a distance.
"Oh, good job, Hildegarde. I knew I could count on you.", Jericho stated, giving the outlaw a quick kiss. Hildegarde grinned and set the canisters down on the workbench. "And the others? Did they survive?"
"We're alive, Jericho.", V added, now entering the garage after viewing Jericho's uncharacteristic show of affection.
"Good. Hildegarde, did V perform well?"
"He did adequately. Asher failed horribly and set off every alarm in the entire complex.", Hildegarde mused.
"Ah, Asher... It was to be a simple job. At least you got the fissile materials. Please try to be more careful next time, bigger things are in motion.", Jericho lambasted.
Hildegarde just opened the side door and disappeared. Asher followed and Jericho just nodded to V before also entering the living quarters.
"Ugh. Well, looks like she's taken. Don't have to worry about that, at least. Hell, she's probably better off with him.", Johnny added, appearing inside the garage at the workbench.
"Johnny, I'm not even attracted to Hildegarde. She's... creepy.", V added.
"Creepy? Nah, V. I think you're afraid of her. Afraid of PsychoBitch and RoboCock... And whatever they're planning."
V ignored Johnny's mockery for now and walked through the door into the living quarters. Asher was back on the computer again, reviewing more data. Jericho sat next to Hildegarde on the couch and Hildegarde sat next to Jericho. She'd taken her top off and sat half-naked next to him, her gloves were still on despite the fact that her body-suit had been pulled down revealing her ample bust. She was applying some kind of cream to her body. She looked up at V for a moment as he entered.
"It's nothing you've never seen before, V. At least I hope so.", the outlaw mused not caring that V was seeing her breasts in all of their perky glory.
"Holy fuck, V. Those are huge.", Johnny added, now appearing standing over Hildegarde and ogling her assets.
"Shut. Up. Johnny."
"Well then, V. You're free to go about your business. I have nothing more for you at the moment. I will call you when I am ready to retrieve our wayward Panzerboy. Since you are familiar with Nomads, you will be the one to retrieve him. I will also send Hildegarde as it seems you two have been getting along well.", Jericho noted. He had his arm around Hildegarde an idly ran his fingers through her hair.
"Preem. I'll take some time off, then. Maybe take a few gigs here and there."
"Good idea V. And here's your payment. I appreciate everything you're doing.", Jericho concluded. He wired V the 50 thousand Eddies as promised.
V nodded and left the room, taking a sudden interest in the ceiling tiles as he left. He opened the garage door and headed outside. The Porsche was still parked here, in its spot next to the Ragnar. He climbed inside and fired up the engine, giving a few quick revs before backing out of the parking lot and hitting the highway back to his apartment. Johnny sat in the passenger seat as usual and V had the sneaking suspicions that he was about to say something.
"Hildegarde moves pretty good for someone so top heavy..."
"Yeah, I noticed."
"Did you notice her perky-"
"Yes. Johnny... I noticed."
"Heh. Too bad she's with that cyber-dick and not you. Can you imagine that?"
"Yes. Johnny."
V wished he could shut his ears off. Johnny's converstaion proceeded to devolve into the Rockerboy reminiscing about old girlfriends and all the lewd things he'd done with them. All the interesting positions they'd tried. All the times he'd banged Alt. All the things all the times everything. It was a one-sided conversation as Johnny continued to talk. The Rockerboy finally shutting up as V pulled into the parking garage of his apartment rather too quickly and stalling the car as he came to an abrupt stop in his parking space.
"V. Be gentle. This car's like delicate lady..."
V just ignored Johnny and proceeded into the elevator. The N54 news blared loudly about a break-in at the old nuclear plant and speculated what the intruders had wanted with the toxic waste stored there. The host made some joke about glowing green cyberpsychos. V just shrugged, they'd made the news, but it didn't seem like Militech knew who had actually broken in. Good. He trudged up to his apartment, opened the door and fell face-first into his mattress, once again not even trying to orient himself on the bed and fell asleep with his lower body hanging off the side.
Chapter End. Slow but steady.
A/N: I've got the story already storyboarded. Just need to put the pieces together and add all the fluff. My previous problem with writing was actually remembering what I'd written before since my method involves 5.9% 'Writer's Juice'. I have sought help and now do not use as much 'Writer's Juice' to fuel my creativity.
As far as characters go and what their voices sound like, Jericho sounds like Zhongli from Genshin Impact, Hildegarde has the same voice and accent as the female Sith Inquisitor from SWTOR, and Asher sounds like Louise Belcher from Bob's Burgers.