"Almost to the drop, 30 seconds."
Naomi pulled the rifle off her back, checking the scope one last time before standing ready at the door. May did the same, armed with just a pistol and the monowire in her wrist. The two briefly exchanged glances before the AV pitched its nose up, bleeding off speed and slowing down to a hover above the penthouse roof. The stealth camouflage briefly disengaged as the doors opened, and both operatives leaped out. The AV vanished as soon as it appeared and began circling around the apartment.
"Alright, jacking in," May reported. "Should just take a second."
Naomi knelt down behind May, scanning the air to make sure they were clear as she worked. "Hurry up. We don't have long."
"Wait- shit!" May cursed before yanking out her personal link. "They've got a runner monitoring the subnet. I managed to get out before they saw but… shit! That wasn't part of the plan."
Naomi scowled. "Plans change. You oughta know that by now. Looks like Becker got paranoid on us." She stowed her rifle on her back and unsheathed a katana. "Can you still get in from here?"
"What? You can't seriously be thinking that we're still going through with this?" May demanded, turning to face her colleague with an expression of disbelief. "The risk on this op was too high from the get-go. Now it's pretty much a guarantee that this is gonna go ass-up, we need to call for extraction."
"The hell we do! We've got a mission, and we're gonna finish it," Naomi snapped back. "Now I'll ask again: can you still get into the subnet from here?"
May frowned, turning to the terminal once more and jacking back in. "It'll take me a bit longer, but yes. You'll have to go on without my help for a bit."
"That won't be a problem. Now get to it."
Naomi turned toward the maintenance hatch. Thankfully, it was unlocked- the one thing to go right so far. Pulling a recon grenade from her belt, she gently dropped it down the hatch. Small beams of light went out in every direction from the small metal ball, and an outline of the room below came through to Naomi's optics. But she didn't move an inch until the recon grenade powered down, and she was certain nobody was waiting for her. Moving one rung at a time, she climbed down the ladder until her feet were on the floor. Her only way forward was a door to her left, so she wasted no time in getting moving. They were already on enough of a time crunch already.
Outside the room she was now in, Naomi quickly took note of a guard standing watch and a security camera on the other end of a short corridor. The guard would be easy enough to deal with, but that camera was going to make things difficult, and she didn't exactly have a whole lot of options. She watched and waited as the camera swiveled one way and then back. Naomi waited for the camera to make its pass over the room one more time until the door was out of its sight. Speed was going to be more important than silence, so she made no effort to keep herself quiet as she opened the door and dragged the guard back into the previous room. Her arms fit tightly around his neck until she had the grip to silence him with a quick snap. Once more, her eyes returned to the camera and waited for its lens to pass by, and as soon as she had her opening, she rushed forward with her katana drawn and knocked it off the wall with a quick and decisive slice.
Now that the room was clear, Naomi took a moment to look around. A computer sat on the only desk, with expensive-looking equipment stacked up on each side. Several monitors were mounted on the wall above the computer, and all of them displayed a different feed from the security cameras- except for one, which now had nothing but static thanks to her.
"May, you're gonna wanna come down here," Naomi said with a smirk. "I hit the jackpot for ya."
A few moments later, the door behind her opened and May stepped in. It only took her a few seconds to realize where they were. "A security hub? I didn't even think a building this new would have one as old as this." She sat down at the computer and jacked in.
Suddenly, a realization hit Naomi. "Wait a sec, if this is the security hub, shouldn't the runner be here?"
"If they're not here, then that means they're probably in the penthouse proper. He could even be jacked directly into Becker's comp, and that's bad news for us because it means I can't just fry 'em from here."
"Preem," Naomi grumbled sarcastically. "Can you get in from here or not?"
"I already am," May replied. "Now get moving. The path is all clear. Go through this hallway, and take the left at the other end. From there, you'll have your firing angle."
Naomi nodded and started down the hall in a light jog. She kept herself low to the ground with her pistol drawn. Her eyes shifted toward the windows of the other doors as she passed by. Fortunately, there was nobody to spot her as she crept past. Finally, she hung a left and found herself at her destination. The room was completely empty, and sliding windows replaced the outer walls. Naomi quickly holstered her pistol and pulled the sniper rifle off her back. She stopped at the windows and looked around. The room she sat in was the far-left corner. To her right, the building stretched out a way before a penthouse jutted out from the side. That was her target.
"In position. I'll have visual in just a second," Naomi announced in a hushed voice as she set herself down flat on her stomach. She rested the barrel of rifle on the ground and peered through the scope. The first thing she saw was three armed guards standing in a circle on the patio with rifles slung across their chests, and after a brief scan of the area, she realized they weren't alone. "Shit, this is bad. Becker enlisted help- a lot of it," she told May. "I'm not gonna be able to do it from here."
May let out an annoyed sigh. "That's it, I'm calling for extraction. This is ridiculous."
Naomi jumped to her feet. "Don't you fucking dare!" she snarled. "We aren't leaving until Becker's flatlined and his comp is wiped. I'm going in."
She slammed the butt of her rifle against the window, shattering it with ease and allowing her to step onto the ledge outside. Moving carefully, but swiftly, she shimmied along the side of the building. Fortunately, the ledge widened out further on, allowing her to start running until rounded the corner and found herself standing above the three guards on the patio. Slowly fastening the rifle on her back, Naomi unsheathed her katana and gripped it tightly. She took one deep breath in through her nose and pushed it back out through her mouth before dropping from the ledge. In the brief time she had as she dropped, Naomi angled the blade downward, allowing it to pierce the first guard, killing him instantly and allowing her to break the fall. The remaining guards were too caught off-guard to have any time to react before she removed both of their heads with a single slice.
Fortunately, none of the other guards were close enough to have noticed the disturbance, allowing Naomi to sneak into the penthouse. Once she was in, she quickly took note of the six guards patrolling the penthouse, plus the netrunner jacked into Becker's computer. It took her a moment to find the man himself, but sure enough, he was pacing back and forth across the same three feet of space on the opposite end of the penthouse.
"May, I need you to neutralize the runner on my signal," Naomi ordered in a whisper. "Ready?"
"Just say the word," she replied.
Naomi pulled out her pistol, flicking off the safety and centering her sights on the chest of the closest guard. "Now!"
Sparks erupted from the netrunner's head as he began convulsing furiously. As the guards all turned their attention to their comrade, Naomi fired off the first shots. By the time they realized what was happening, the first man had already fallen to the floor, and she had just taken a shot at a second. The remaining four grabbed hold of their rifles and trained them on Naomi. None of them wasted any time in spraying a hail of bullets in her direction. She ducked back down behind cover and crawled along the floor to the end of the counter she was hiding behind. She peeked around the side for just a moment, which was all she needed to take down one more guard.
Naomi looked down at her belt and pulled out a flash grenade. With a smirk on her face, she pulled the pin and tossed it haphazardly over the counter. Once the sharp bang filled her eardrums, she leaped up and rushed forward. All three guards were too busy covering their eyes to notice Naomi as she shot two of them and closed her distance on the last man. By the time he could open his eyes again, it was already too late, and she put a single round right through his skull.
With the guards all dead, Naomi ejected the spent magazine and slid a new one in its place. "Call in extraction, we're done here," she told May over the holo as she slowly made her way over to Becker, who was now curled up in the fetal position.
Now that the shooting had died down, the man looked around, only to realize the only one left alive in the penthouse aside from him was the Arasaka operative. "Y- you bitch!" he yelled. He pulled a pistol out from his waist and aimed it at Naomi, but she was ready for this, and fired a single shot at his hand, leaving him clutching it tightly as blood poured out and he cried in anguish.
Once she was standing directly over him, Naomi pointed the barrel of her pistol right at Becker's forehead. "Sorry, choom. You shouldn'ta gotten caught.," she said before pulling the trigger.
Blood pooled underneath Baker's body as it went limp, allowing Naomi to focus her attention on his computer. She pulled the dead netrunner's link and replaced it with her own. She quickly navigated through the menus until a progress bar appeared on her optics, showing her how long it would take to wipe the data. Fortunately, it moved fast, and within less than a minute, their job was done.
"Data's wiped and so is Becker," Naomi reported. "Let's delta."
"I'm already in. AV's swinging around to come and grab you from the penthouse. Be ready," May told her.
Naomi holstered her pistol and moved back out onto the patio. She heard the AV approaching, but she didn't see it until it disengaged its stealth camo directly in front of her. She quickly jumped on and held tight as it pulled away and flied back towards Arasaka HQ.
