Hubris Comic Issue 4-Ants and Netrunners
8/11/2277
Capital Wasteland
Gabriel's legs weren't even sore as he made the walk back to the Superduper Mart. However, they were getting near their limit and were starting to burn a bit.
Gabriel was an athlete now, but he wasn't an all star one. But by some sheer stroke of luck, he saw something strange when he returned to the Superduper Mart parking lot.
High in the air and flying around were several ships that looked like ships from a sci-fi holotape. Some ships were getting closer to the ground while others were leaving the atmosphere.
"Amazing." Gabriel said with wide eyes as he stared at the ships with awe and wonder at such an unexpected and enjoyable site. "I need to focus." Gabriel said before he equipped his hunting rifle and started heading towards Grayditch with the help of his Pip-Boy map giving him the proper directions.
Apparently, the village was marked as a geological location from one of the many satellites in space that his Pip-Boy 3000 used to gain regional access to maps and locations.
Now the trip itself wasn't too much of a pain and Gabriel ended up on a cliff overlooking the village and that is when he saw what he was up against. Wandering the streets and passing by cars and sidewalks lit with flames are giant crimson ants…And there were a lot of them as well.
"Fire breathing ants have destroyed an entire community of people…That's another thing that sounds like it comes from a fantasy story or something. But this is reality and I've got to accept it." Gabriel said before he carefully aimed his rifle at one of the ants.
The rifle lacked a scope and V.A.T.S couldn't target an ant from this distance…Actually it could, but the hit chance was a big fat zero, so that means that Gabriel could either practice becoming a sniper from this distance, or he'd have to move in closer. Sadly, both options didn't seem like something that could yield him any success.
"Maybe if I got closer and found a well-protected hiding spot, I could snipe at these monsters with a greater chance of success." Gabriel thought to himself as he tried looking around for another hiding place he could use.
However, Gabriel's search was interrupted by the sounds of gunfire, and when he looked back down at the streets of Grayditch he saw a strange site. Firing at the ants with automatic weapons are two people.
One was a guy and the second was a woman and both are dressed in dark clothing.
"It seems like these guys are handling the ants for me." Gabriel said before he heard a click sound behind him.
"Move and you're dead. Now drop your rifle onto the ground." A voice said from behind him as Gabriel complied and lowered his hunting rifle onto the ground without a fight.
"Good. Now stand up and do as I say." The voice said as Gabriel stood up with his hands raised and turned around to see the person holding him hostage.
This guy seemed to be around Gabriel's age. He has fair skin with an athletic frame underneath a black long coat over some protective armor like mesh and on the shoulders and chest of his outfit is a strange red and white emblem. He has chin length black hair and has metallic lines on his face and his eyes are mechanical with red eyes that have weirdly shaped pupils.
Sasuke Uchiha, Level: 50
Chrome Avenger/Netrunner
The strangest thing about this person wasn't his name, level or title. The strangest thing was that he didn't have a gun and the clicking sound came from his right arm that was completely cybernetic and giving off dozens of sparks as the open slot in the palm had what looked like lightning that was ready to be fired at his command.
"Easy. I'm not trying to fight. I just came here to deal with the ant infestation." Gabriel explained to Sasuke who had a blank expression on his face.
"You're coming with me." Sasuke said and sure enough he picked up Gabriel's rifle with his off hand and guided Gabriel down towards the streets of Grayditch that now sported several fire ant corpses.
"Do you want to explain why you brought a random guy to us Sasuke?" The woman asked as Gabriel looked over both of Sasuke's teammates.
Hinata Hyuga, Level: 39
Hyuga Clan Heiress/Netrunner
Sai, Level: 40
Cyberized Assassin/Netrunner
Both of Sasuke's teammates had cyberized features on their faces as well and are dressed in dark mesh like armor as well. The duo each held a fully automatic assault rifle with large backpacks on their backs.
"He's a merc, but he doesn't have any chrome in his body. I tried scanning him, but I got nothing. He's organic and he claims to be here in order to solve the ant problem here, which clashes with our objective."
"If that's the case than let's just kill him and be done with it." Sai said as he reloaded his rifle.
"Because I think he can be of use to us." Sasuke said back making Sai, Hinata and Gabriel himself a bit confused.
"How so?" Hinata asked.
"Our target is Weston Lesko and he undoubtedly protected himself against Netrunner's like us via cybernetic Daemons and Cyberware attacking defenses. This merc however lacks any Cyberware and can bypass the defenses for us."
"We already know about the possible defenses the scientist has. Our plan was to destroy the defenses and take out the scientist." Sai replied.
"That was the plan, but this is a more cost-effective way to achieve our mission. It saves us resources and time." Sasuke replied.
"I'm not going to help you kill someone." Gabriel said back as Sasuke scoffed.
"Even after seeing what the scientist has done. Who do you think mutated the giant ants in the first place?" Sasuke asked as Gabriel went silent.
He didn't know if Sasuke was lying or telling the truth, but he also didn't know much of anything in the wasteland that he could use to call Sasuke out on the possible lie.
"Sasuke, I believe this guy is a real deal vault dweller. He looks too soft to have stolen or kill for the armor, and the Pip-Boy. Especially since the Pip-Boy itself connects to the user's nervous system and most cybers can't sync up with it after getting upgrades." Hinata said bluntly as Sasuke glanced at the Pip-Boy 3000 on Gabriel's forearm.
At that moment Sasuke deactivated his cybernetic arm and let Gabriel lower his arms and hands for a moment.
"Seriously, who are you people?" Gabriel asked before Hinata spoke up again.
"Were Netrunners for the Root organization. That's all you need to know for now. So, tell me vault dweller. Are you going to help us get the scientist or will you just run away?"
"I don't really have a choice. If I run, you'll kill me." Gabriel said back as Hinata smiled.
"You learn quick. So, here is what's going to happen since you don't seem to understand just how the wasteland works. You're going to enter the houses that are still standing and see all the information on their computers and notes about what happened in this community, and if you still feel strongly about not helping us get rid of this scientist. We'll be kind and let you walk away from this without being killed. So, what do you say? Are you really in for this or not?"
"I'm in." Gabriel replied to the girl as Sasuke handed Gabriel his gun back.
"Hinata, you take point with him and show him the data we gathered. Sai and I will wait out here." Sasuke said as Hinata led Gabriel to one of the houses and Gabriel was horrified at what he saw.
A giant fire ant was dead on the ground next to a burnt and mutilated corpse. Luckily his perk Gamers Mind stopped him from just puking at the sight and smell, but it didn't make it any less disgusting.
"This guy had a kid who ran off a short while ago, but what you really need to see is up stairs in the master bedroom." Hinata said as she and Gabriel made their way up and saw the computer in the bedroom was still on. So, Gabriel sat down and looked over at the files/journal that Bryan's father wrote down about the community and the scientist that had moved in.
Then they moved to another house and another until they made the last stop inside of the scientist's shed where he lived and wrote down several notes on his experiment with the giant ants.
Gabriel wasn't pleased at all with the scientist after reading about what had happened.
The man called Weston Lesko genetically altered the eggs of a giant ant queen in order to try and minimize the size of the ants, which itself wasn't wrong. However, what was wrong was the fact that he didn't bother with any safety precautions or even test out his theory in a controlled environment like any ethical scientist would.
Instead, he just made a mixture with something called F.E.V and hoped for the best…The man's recklessness caused an entire community to get wiped off the map, and now he was hiding out in his base near the queen ant while continuing with his experiments.
Gabriel shut off the man's computer and leaned back in his chair with his hand over his mouth as he took a deep breath and truly thought over everything he had read and saw today.
"Do you get it now? This is the wasteland. People like Lesko do bad shit and try to justify it with good reasons and the united solar systems doesn't do jack shit. So, its up to people like us to try and enforce some laws." Hinata explained after Gabriel stood up and made his way towards the door.
"The man did try to do something good, but in the process he did so much bad…I just don't know how to feel about it." Gabriel admitted before he left the shack with his rifle being held in his off hand.
Gabriel looked over his weapon with a sad expression and found himself wondering if a weapon could answer this problem for him.
In the old holotapes of western stories and movies. A gun helped enforce the laws on the lawless along with the help of a virtuous sheriff or bounty hunter that came across a town in need. But those were simply stories and in real life, a gun could put down bad people but that didn't mean it made you a good person either.
Gabriel didn't like having this information in his head, but he knew that he would be wrestling with these decisions from now on and thought back to the people he had killed in his home of Vault 101.
"A gun doesn't make a person strong. What makes a person strong is their virtues and integrity but how can those things exist in this kind of world?" Gabriel asked himself before he thought about the community of Megaton and how it managed to last this long.
What made a good man like the sheriff on equal terms with a bad man like Moriarty? Is the answer money? Popularity? Influence among the townspeople?
Gabriel didn't know and that stung in an unexpected way.
"Wake up vault boy. If this thing shakes you up so badly, you won't last long in this world." Hinata said before she led him past several buildings before, they stopped on a street that led to an underground subway station.
The problem was there were three giant fire ants on the street, and they were heading towards the duo. Now Gabriel activated his V.A.T.S and saw a good hit percentage on one of the ants heads and took a shot with his hunting rifle.
Thankfully the bullet made the ant stagger with blood coming from its wound before Gabriel shot it again and this time saw the ant's head pop like a gourd in a disgusting gooey mess.
Hinata fired her assault rifle at the other two ants. One was down and the other was on its last legs before Gabriel finished it off with another headshot before he had to take a few deep breaths.
Using V.A.T.S did drain him after all, and it seems that fast-moving targets drain more AP to compensate.
You have gained the [Rifle Mastery] skill!
Gabriel ignored the skill screen and the screens informing him about the EXP he gained and the Ant meat and pheromones he looted as he reloaded his rifle.
"You're not a bad shot. Especially since you lack any cyberware." Hinata said back to Gabriel.
"It was nothing. So, are we really going to go into a dark subway station full of giant fire ants in order to talk with an unethical scientist?" Gabriel asked with uncertainty.
"Yes, we are. Now from now on your taking point. Disarm any traps that attack my cyberware, and if you don't, I'll alert my friends about you trying to kill me." Hinata replied back as Gabriel rolled his eyes with a sigh.
"I understand." Gabriel said back before the duo made their way into the subway station and saw that it was dimly lit with flickering florescent lights. They also saw an ant or two on the broken subway tracks as Gabriel took his shots without V.A.T.S and managed to hit the bodies of the two ants before they started getting closer, which got Gabriel to fire again and put down both ants before they got close enough to breath fire on them.
Hinata did notice that Gabriel's aim was now off compared to what he demonstrated earlier, but she simply didn't mention it. She didn't need him to try and overcompensate and waste ammo needlessly.
"How much ammo do you have left?" Hinata asked as Gabriel held his rifle firmly.
"Not much I'm afraid. I can shoot a few more times before I run dry on ammo." Gabriel admitted since he saw no point in lying about something so important as the duo started walking forward through the station before they came up to their first trap where Hinata stopped Gabriel from moving as she pointed towards the wall on the ground where Gabriel noticed a small device.
"That's a short ranged EMP burst mine. It's designed to temporarily short circuit electronics." Hinata said as Gabriel nodded and slowly made his way towards the device and looked it over.
Hinata thankfully gave him clear instructions on how to disarm the device, which he did as he stuffed the object in his pocket but secretly, he put it in his inventory before the duo moved on and came up to a massive underground space of the station where several ants were located.
"Damn that's a lot of ants." Gabriel commented as both of them stayed low to the ground and made as little noise as possible.
"Yeah, even if you shoot a few of them, the others will swarm us quickly. So, what's the plan big guy?" Hinata asked as Gabriel thought through his options for a moment.
"If we rush in, we'll get swarmed, and odds are strong that these hallways have giant fire ants in them that can trap us in the narrow halls and cook us alive. The best thing I can do now is attack the ants in front of us without holding back. Meaning I need to use my mass effect energy." Gabriel explained before he took careful aim at one of the ants after Hinata backed up a bit.
He kept looking over his shoulder in case she decided to try something as Gabriel fired at one of the ants with the help of V.A.T.S and managed to take its head clean off, altering some of the other ants.
Gabriel fired his rifle at the other ants before he stood up and activated his Mass Shield which stopped the fire ants from burning him for a while before Gabriel cast his shield twice when it started to crack before he activated his Push ability and sent the five ants flying backwards onto each other.
The moment his shield lowered, Gabriel took the chance to reload his rifle and fire at the ants again, but his weapon had suddenly jammed out of nowhere.
"Shit." Gabriel cursed, but before he could try and switch weapons, he saw an object fly past him as Hinata grabbed him and pulled him back a bit as the object exploded near the ants in a fiery burst of sound that left a ringing noise in Gabriel's ears.
Gabriel clutched his ears for a moment before he slowly started to hear things normally again as he saw the various ants had all been killed by the explosive and gave him some items and EXP which was enough to get him to level up.
You have leveled up! Level: 6-7! You have gained 5 Stat Points and 1 Perk Point!
Your HP, AP, and MP have been fully restored!
"Impressive display of mass effect energy. But the question is how can you use it without any implants? Theoretically you could have been given the necessary exposer in the womb, but vaults were built before the discovery of mass effect energy, which makes that unlikely." Hinata said as Gabriel stood up and shook his head a bit.
"You have your secrets and I have mine. Let's leave it at that. Also, you could have warned me that you were using a grenade."
"I could have but that wouldn't have been any fun. Now let's get a move on." Hinata said before the duo made their way through the ant infested station as Gabriel checked his rifle over and over again to unjam it and make sure that it wouldn't get jammed again.
However, when he did that. He and Hinata had come up to one door and opened it to see the scientist that they were looking for.
"Oh dear." Lesko said with a scared and worried face.
"Greetings doctor. We have a lot to talk about." Hinata said before she pushed the doctor back into his laboratory as Gabriel dropped his rifle and quickly stood between Lesko and Hinata.
"Stop. We can still talk this out without jumping straight into violence." Gabriel said to both of them.
"Are you serious? After everything you saw you still think you can reason with him?" Hinata asked with some agitation.
"Lesko, I think you tried doing a good thing, but you went about it the wrong way, so your experiment needs to stop." Gabriel said to the doctor who quickly stood up and got off of the floor.
"Are you crazy? I can't stop my experiments now. I am close to a breakthrough and soon enough I will have perfected the scientific formula needed to reduce the giant ant's size by roughly forty-five percent." Lesko replied before Gabriel spoke up again.
"You're going about things the wrong way. You're putting lives at risk and you're not even conducting your experiment in a safe and stable environment. Your ants wiped out the entire city and are threatening to spread out and form new colonies. Don't you feel the least bit responsible for what you've done?"
"For science to advance there has to be sacrifices. It is unfortunate that people died but for the sake of the collective world my research must continue. But I doubt you'd understand and let me continue, so why don't I help you see things my way." Lesko said to both Hinata and Gabriel.
"What are you talking about?" Hinata asked with narrowed eyes as the implants around her eyes pulsated and her eyes became pure white, showing that they were mechanical like Sasuke's.
"If you both kill the nest guardians protecting the queen. I can inject the egg clutch with the newly refined formula that will not only shrink the ants, but it will also permanently disable their pyrokinesis abilities." Lesko explained. "And in exchange I could grant you both experimental cybernetic implants with the help of my auto-doc. The implants were conceived by experimenting with the ants and the implants I can offer will either enhance your bodies natural perception and give you a greater sense of your surroundings, or I could give you implants that strengthens your bodies natural strength comparable to some bulkier cyberware that puts more strain on your body in comparison."
Gabriel and Hinata glanced over at the auto-doc machine in the corner of Lesko's lab but before Gabriel could respond, Hinata spoke up.
"You think you can just buy us off with some bullshit cyberware? My job here is to kill you for what you've done and for crossing the Root organization old man. Danzo has ordered your death, and his words are absolute." Hinata said as she walked over and picked up Lesko by the neck.
"Hinata wait! The giant ants are a bigger concern right now. If we can stop them from breeding, then we have to try and stop them." Gabriel quickly said to the woman who gave him a scowl.
"You just don't get it. What makes you think this man will even keep his word and give you implants instead of just using the auto-doc to kill you during surgery?" Hinata asked back.
"I don't care about cyberware or whatever. I just want to keep my word to the little boy who was forced to abandon his home here. I want to stop this giant ant infestation before they spread out and attack other communities and kill more people." Gabriel said back defiantly as he stared down Hinata for a moment that felt like hours before Hinata dropped the man on his behind on the ground.
"You're a fool…Fine we'll get rid of the source of the ants but you're doing it alone. I'll stay here with the good doctor."
"And what makes you think that I trust you to keep the scientist alive while I'm gone? I can't trust you." Gabriel replied as Hinata smirked.
"Now you're starting to learn. You can't trust me, but this is the best compromise you're going to get. I'll set a timer and if you don't return in time, I'll kill Lesko and leave you behind." Hinata said back as Gabriel balled up his fist with a scowl.
"Lesko, how many nest guardians are surrounding the queen?" Gabriel asked as Lesko slowly stood up holding his throat with one hand and coughing a bit.
"There are five in total, and they are much more dangerous than the worker and soldier ants you've must have killed to get here. So, you'll need this." Lesko said before he went over to his desk with Hinata and Gabriel behind him as he took out a laser weapon.
More specifically it is a Recharger Pistol that has seen better days.
"This pistol is relatively weak compared to other energy weapons, but the ants are weak against laser weapons compared to ballistic ammunition, and a fully charged shot will take away chunks of the ants. Sadly, the pistol isn't in the best of shape, and it can jam or misfire, so be careful with it." Lesko said before he gave the weapon to Gabriel who saw just how old and beat up the weapon was.
1x Weathered Recharger Pistol
"Thanks, I guess." Gabriel said before he put his rifle down on a nearby table. He could have put it in his inventory, but he didn't want to do that in front of Lesko and Hinata since he had no idea how either of them would react.
"The nest is just through the door. You'll have to go down and be careful. The hive is narrow, and the ants have the advantage." Lesko warned before Gabriel walked over to the other door at the end of the lab.
"Don't worry doc. The angels haven't sounded their horns for me yet." Gabriel said before he walked out and made his way down into the large hole that led into the ant nest.
Now the nest was underground obviously, but Gabriel had no clue how far since he had to climb down a long latter to reach the ground of the hive and saw it was a small tunnel system and he could hear an ant chattering nearby, so with his energy pistol at the ready, Gabriel walked down the path in front of him and turned the corner to saw the first nest guardian.
Giant Fire Ant, Level: 22
Fire Ant Nest Guardian
The ant dwarfed the other ants that he and Hinata had been killing in order to make it this far. It is halfway above Gabriel's stomach and when it looked at him, Gabriel quickly activated his shield before getting blasted by a strong burst of flames that nearly destroyed his shield in one shot.
In response Gabriel kept casting his skill in order to keep it active as he fired the pistol with the aid of V.A.T.S and after a fully charged shot, he took off the monstrous ant's head.
The skill [Mass Shield] has leveled up! Level: 3-4-5!
The skill [Small Guns Mastery] has leveled up! Level: 2-3-4!
Gabriel ignored the screens as he made his way through the twisting cave system before he managed to take out the remaining nest guardians but at a cost.
His shield could take some damage but when he got flanked by two of the guardians at once, he barely survived. He killed both ants at the cost of his vault security uniform becoming trashed and rendered as tatters of clothes. He also had first degree burns on his lower back, stomach and hands as a result of the fight, however despite the pain it did give him a small perk as a reward.
[Fire Resistant
Rank: 1
You have taken the heat of flames and gained a small resistance to burning.
You can now resist 10% of fire damage]
When Gabriel killed the last ant, he narrowly avoided getting hit in the head with a ball of acid from the nearby passageway. The acid hit the wall and melted through it as Gabriel went low to the ground and peaked into the passageway to see the massive Queen ant along with several computers and lab equipment.
The queen spat out another blast of acid towards Gabriel who retracted his head and made his way back towards the ladder he used to get down into this tunnel.
"The only upside is that I finally understand the importance on weapon maintenance at least." Gabriel said as he climbed up the ladder slowly while ignoring the pain, he was in. "However, you also need to keep up maintenance on your armor as well. And understand the environment that you're in…This is going to make a hell of a note if I survive long enough to give it to Moira."
After a long climb back up, Gabriel returned to Lesko's lab and saw both Hinata and Lesko waiting for him.
"Congrats kid. You made it just in time." Hinata said with her arms crossed as Lesko appeared to be sweating bullets. "Need a Med-X?"
"I don't suppose you'd have any to share?" Gabriel asked in clear need of the pain killer before Hinata walked up to him and took out one of the pain killing drugs in the form of a syringe pull of purple liquid. She stabbed it into his arm and injected him.
As usual Med-X felt like it took forever to kick in whenever Gabriel got hurt bad enough to need it, but after a minute or so, the drug kicked in and the pain was fading.
"Now, its time to deal with you." Hinata said to Lesko before she walked up to the man who backed himself into one of his tables. "That kid just risked his life for the sake of a community you killed. You're also wanted by Root for the crime of betrayal and you're never going to be able to finish your research. So, here is what's going to happen. You're going to use your auto-doc to patch the kid up and outfit him with that implant you were talking about. And you're going to do it for free and give him the chems he needs to help with the implant symptoms." Hinata said coldly to the doctor before she raised her rifle and pointed it at Lesko's neck. "Understood?"
"Yes. Of course." Lesko said before he helped Gabriel into the auto-doc. "Now you've already taken a Med-X, but the auto-doc will give you some chems to knock you out while the surgery is underway. Now which implant would you like. The ant sight or the ant might?"
"The ant sight one I guess." Gabriel said weakly.
"While you're at it, throw in a basic nervous system unit. His Pip-Boy already has processing and hacking powers, so you don't need to go over the top, but do give him access to the standard call functions and net access." Hinata said back as Lesko quickly swallowed a lump in his throat before beginning the process as he closed the auto-doc and Gabriel felt himself get pricked again by a needle before he passed out.
1
"Damn my head." Gabriel said as he woke up and saw several bizarre things, and not just the usual RPG stuff he had gotten used to.
[Nervous system implant active…System operational…Call function active…Net access granted…Daemon protection software granted…Installation of the 'WNN' implant is a success.]
"What the hell?" Gabriel asked as he stepped out of the auto-doc and saw that Hinata and Lesko vanished before he suddenly felt a vibration in his head before an image of strange plant appeared in the upper left side of his vision.
'Greetings kid. I have got to admit you had some serious balls to risk your life like that. So, consider this my way of getting even. I added myself to your list of contacts so we can keep in touch. It'll take you some time to get used to your implants, but that's why you got a bag of chems on the table near the auto-doc.
Now don't worry about anymore ants. Lesko was kind enough to activate a sound wave emitter in his lab to kill all the fire ants within a 2,000-meter radius. So, goodbye and good luck. Also, I'll hit you up with messages occasionally. Just to see how things are going.
Later.'
The voice in his head belonged to Hinata and it took Gabriel a moment to fully adjust to not only the new bizarre implant, but also to the second implant that changed his perception as the world around him now felt different.
Like the world around him felt more alive and his senses were fully awake for the first time ever. Gabriel felt overwhelmed but once again Gamers Mind kicked in and he was able to stay on his feet as he saw a small bag of chems near the table.
He picked up the bag and put them in his Inventory before he made his way out of the subway system and back into the outside world as he equipped his basic vault suit before heading back to Megaton.
This little adventure had taught him a lot of things. His rifle which sat in his inventory was good but without being maintained it could get him killed and that lesson applied to his other weapons and armor.
He learned that some Root organization was in the wasteland, and they are not to be trifled with. He also learned that goodmen can do bad things if they think its justifiable.
Lesko deserved to be punished for what he did, but does that mean his intentions were wrong? Did he deserve to die because he wanted to help change something in the wasteland?
Gabriel didn't know the answer to the question and sadly. The answer to such a question would never come to him.
END!
A/N: Wooo. I love Cyberpunk and after seeing some images of Naruto characters in the Cyberpunk world I couldn't help but throw them in and change things up.
Hinata is drastically different from her canon counterpart, but wasteland would eat up a shy maiden like her, so I made her rougher, especially since she is in Root…So, who knows where this crazy train is headed? All I know is that it's too late to stop things now.
Please remember to fav, follow and review because it helps a lot.
