David Martinez had been on an emotional rollercoaster for a while now.
Firstly, he had bought fake ashes. That pissed him off, those fuckers ripped him off and they did all smiles and like. Those gonkfuckers, he was going to put dirt in their eyes if he ever saw them again.
Next, the rumors that Arasaka buys corpses up for experimentation was proven true. That was sorta nice to confirm, that for every benefit he got from working for them (well, working for Smasher really) they were still pretty fucked up. It was nice to confirm that he wasn't just told lies his entire life.
Then… The fuckers had his mothers body, that pissed him right off. They were going to revive it, that made him so desperately hopeful. It was a complicated set of emotions to feel about the whole situation. He sort of envied Smasher in that moment, because this was just everyday stuff for him. Arasaka brings someone who's been dead for more than a year back to life, ah, clearly I should go kill some gangers. It worked, of course, but David wasn't sure how the concepts correlated.
His mother was back! Her memories were a bit spotty, she had a faint line work of scars across her body, but she was back!
…and he was fairly certain that she had a thing for Smasher, with how acted around him. He… didn't know how to feel about that, so he decided to ignore it. If his mom got with Smasher, oh well, if they didn't then oh well, he was not going to be looking at that if he could help it.
Then on what seemed to be a routine job, he had led Lucy and Becca straight into a fucking landmine (well, less a landmine and more a few tons of C4 in a two-block radius, but same concept) and Lucy…
He clenched his fist and ground his teeth.
…Lucy had died and gotten maimed. She'd be fine, they told him, TT got to her almost immediately and fixing up someone who died literally seconds ago was nothing to those guys. That didn't change the fact that he had let her die. He had to get better, he had to get stronger. He had two choices for chrome upgrades saved up still, he intended on using them. He wasn't sure what he was going to get yet, but he had no time for it. They could be called out to get the gonkfuckers who tricked them so thoroughly at any point, he could get an upgrade after.
"Hey Martinez." A voice called to him. He turned to the source, it was Katsuo with a six pack of drinks in hand, the other hand in his pocket casually.
"Sup Tanaka." He replied, raising one hand.
Tatsuo sat down on the concrete stairs next to him and offered a drink. David didn't like soda, but Smasher told him that it was polite to accept a drink when offered, so he took it anyway. Tatsuo got one of his own and they started drinking.
He and Tatuso were not friends, not really. But they were the only guys of similar age that they knew of. Smasher was too old, and they didn't know anyone else. So the only way he could get 'guy time' was with the guy who used to pick on him. If Tatuso was the same as before he would have punched his teeth in, but he was way more mellow now that he had a job stressing him out.
"You on break?" David asked between drinks. It was cherry flavored, at least, he liked himself a good cherry flavored drink.
"Yeah, mom gave me a fifteen and a pack of drinks and told me to find you. She wants us to be friends because she's friends with your mom now."
"Is she?"
"Yeah, they apparently go to karaoke with some other people from PR."
"Huh, good to hear I suppose."
Then came their ritual conversation. Guy talk. Tatuso had a surprisingly in-depth knowledge of weapons, military compositions, and other war-things. David didn't have as much technical-know how as he did, but he made up for it in experience at this point. So they partook in their main meet-up hobby, hypothetical battles.
"Alright, so thirteen dudes with moderate to little chrome are in a pre-fourth corporate war-era militech concrete bunker, assuming they don't have to worry about supplies, how long could they last against an army of Sovoil soldiers from the same era with little to middling chrome?"
David hummed at that.
"How big is each wave of Sovoil soldiers? That would be the primary factor here I think, if they didn't have to worry about ammo. It would also depend on their loadouts, if they could put enough fire down range in the time required."
"Let's say that the waves are at least double their number in enemy soldiers, let's also say they have a standard compliment for militech soldiers of that era…"
—
"...have a lead on Armstrong. She's apparently holed up in a subway tunnel down in south NC, think you and your kids can go pick her up for us, Smasher?" Came the voice of Kate from near the elevator entrance. David started getting up and going to gear up, he wanted to go punch her in the nose already. Rebecca was soon to follow him, pausing the vid she was watching and leaving his mother at the table eating a sandwich.
Lucy was getting her new limbs put on today, apparently there wouldn't even be a scar left afterwards, but it still ticked him off something fierce. He kept playing that moment over and over in his head, and kept trying to come up with a solution to it. In the end, it came down to Smasher pulling off more preem bullshit to keep her alive.
Dude got angry and every scav in the area that Arasaka soldiers surrounded fucking melted in their own chrome. If he could pull shit like that off, why did he even bother fighting most people? Well, no, David knew exactly why he didn't do that all the time. Firstly he was teaching David, Lucy, and Becca how to actually fight, and none of them could do stuff like that. Secondly, Smasher liked fighting and killing things, it was his favorite hobby, if he just melted everyone then he would never get a fight in.
"We can. Load up kids!" Adam snarled out to them, unaware that they were already slipping into their fancy gear. Adam always sounded like he was furious at whatever he was talking to, but he wasn't far as David could tell. That's just how the dude sounded, no wonder everyone was scared of him all the time. Well, sometimes he sounded tired or egotistical, but those weren't as common as angry.
David was already halfway through getting everything on. The Arasaka light tactical jacket fitted over him snugly, the helmet he had to stuff his hair into, the boots and pants were already on from when he woke up this morning. The underlayer of this stuff was surprisingly comfy, he had taken to just wearing it around the flat. It was protection that didn't slow him down any, so he didn't mind wearing it.
He grabbed his shotgun, he loved this thing. Something about running around, flanking targets, and blasting people with chunky meatshots appealed to him on a fundamental level. He had to restrain himself from mocking them as they died, he wasn't quite sure why. He grabbed his pistol and knife as backup weapons, but he wasn't sure if he needed them for a…
This was technically a kidnapping mission, huh? He didn't feel guilty about it, but the realization that he was about to kidnap someone on Arasaka orders was a strange one. He didn't know how to feel about it, so he ignored it. That has been working for him so far, so he trusted the decision.
Becca wasn't using her big railgun this time, they wouldn't have time to set up a sniper situation for her in this mission. Well, they would, but it would be better to have some more guns and armor on the frontlines as opposed to firing support. This was a hit and run rain, not a search and destroy, they'd be going in and trying to get out as fast as possible here.
She was using… some sort of technical, a vehicle mounted weapon that they just pulled off a truck and gave to her. It looked like the bullets were anti-armor .50 caliber or something in that range. Still an anti-armor weapon, just far faster but less damaging than her 'Yumi-chan'. It would be more useful for a raid like this.
They finished loading up within a minute, and made their way to the door. His mom was there and was scolding Smasher for something.
"...be more polite, Adam, I'm sure she works very hard to help you."
"I will not be polite to a meatbag with such a garbage hairstyle."
Kate recoiled at this, and a hand went up to her hair. David had to agree with Smasher on this one, it wasn't looking very good, and her optics didn't really help her out here.
"...garbage hairstyle…?"
Adam ignored her, and gestured for them to follow him into the elevator. The last sight they got of Kate was mom putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. That was kinda mean Smasher. Completely harmless in a technical sense, sure, but still kinda mean.
Soon enough they were out in the streets, and approaching the entrance to the tunnels that Armstrong was holed up in. Every entrance was surrounded by Arasaka guns, they didn't want this one slipping away, but a strike force might just get mulched uselessly inside. It was far more efficient to just send Smasher down to deal with everyone inside in most cases.
It was strange to think of just how many scavs he's killed and buildings he's inadvertently gotten destroyed on behalf of Arasaka already. His scav killcount was solidly over a hundred at this point, and at least two buildings have collapsed while he was in the area. It… He had heard of agents doing stuff like this on the streets and being called monsters, but it was just another job to him at this point. He didn't know how to feel about it, so he pulled out ol'reliable and ignored it.
They were moving through the tunnels, Smasher in front to tank anything that came their way, himself in the middle to act as support for either end, and Becca in the back to act as fire support and backline protection in her ACPA. They probably knew that they were here, and soon enough they were gunning down scavs who tried to slow their approach.
~One, two, three, four. How many scavs will die before. I get bored.~
Huh, this music making stuff was pretty fun after all.
They were entering into a larger cistern area, a wide open room filled with columns and a solid pool of ankle-height water. This was solidly a bad place to be in, so they moved along the edges, every now and again there would be some electronic in front of them that burst into flames and then got doused by the water. Was Smasher 'running all the traps that the scavs set up along their path? That was convenient.
There wasn't any guns in the area pointed at them. It was slightly concerning.
In fact, the whole area was completely silent outside of their own footsteps…
David paused briefly, and heard something in the distance that would have corresponded with his next step. He glanced down quickly as Smasher and Becca also stopped, looking at the ripples in the water.
A solid second of waiting.
Then two.
Then a ripple came from deeper into the cistern to gently crash against his foot.
Then a scream of metal crashing into metal rang out as Smasher was between him and a chrome foot with pistons on the sides. Smasher threw the foot back, deeper into the cistern, and a robotic figure touched down in front of them.
It didn't make a sound, even its landing only revealed itself via the ripple of its feet touching the water, smoothing touching the ground and lowering itself to bleed off the impact without any noise at all.
The figure raised itself to its fullest height, either a robot or a full borg, standing about six feet in old looking chrome. Its face was stylized to look like those buddha statues he sometimes saw on the streets. It wasn't wearing any gear on its body.
The figure spoke in a calm, male, and utterly robotic voice.
"You have successfully foiled my ambush, congratulations."
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am The Remnant of Chandra-Gupta 42, Grandmaster of the Ordo Panzer, bearer of the word Void."
Smasher rose to his own full height, towering over the borg that came for them. A moment of silence before he spoke.
"You two are to continue, finish the mission."
"What are you talking about, Smasher? let's scrap this borg and move on."
"This one will butcher you both. We have a mission to complete, I will catch up."
David glared at Smasher a bit before he looked at the sword in his hands. It took about six good hits before one of his five swords broke on him using panzerfaust normally. He recoiled a bit, the sword looked like it was already almost halfway broken in just that one strike.
The borg spoke up at that. Head tilted inquisitively.
"Are you so confident that you can defeat me, Adam Smasher?"
Smasher growled out at that.
"I'm Adam fucking Smasher."
Becca scoffed a bit, before firing a burst at the borg. David activated his sandy. The borg didn't dodge. Its hands blurred faster than even his enhanced speed could detect, and stood completely still outside of its rapidly moving arms.
Then the moment was over, Becca stopped her burst of fire. The borg slowly opened its hands to let all six bullets fall out and drop into the still water at its feet. Becca gave out a quiet 'what the fuck.'
"I'd advise you to listen to your teacher. This battle is beyond you both."
"I'm gonna be pissed if you die to some borg in the sewers, Smasher." David said before he started moving on, Becca shortly stomped behind him. They had a job to do, capture this Armstrong lady. Heh, the bitch was already bagged, she just didn't know it yet.
—
They were entering into another open area, this time it looked to be some sort of attached office/repair area. It was well lit, mostly clean and furbished, and the smell didn't get here as badly.
They just had to shoot their way through another few dozen scavs to even get here, they were running low on ammo already. He had one full reload of shotgun bullets, and Becca was almost down to her sub-weapons, two normal sized machineguns.
Armstrong was in a chair in the center of the room, face leaning on one of her oversized chrome arms, utterly relaxed as she saw them enter and point guns at her. The bitch had the audacity to look bored when she saw it was only the two of them. David tried his best to look at her face, but the fact that she was only wearing a struggling sports-bra was making that difficult.
"...where's Adam Smasher?" She eventually. Her voice was smooth like velvet but hard like steel. It was downright entracing to listen to, or it would be if David wasn't pissed at the implication that they couldn't handle a single non-borg without any guns.
"Scrapping your 'borg friend, he'll catch up in time to see us stomp you flat." David challengingly replied, this was the pre-fight banter, and it was crucial to make a good scene. At least, that's what Mrs. Tanaka told him.
She smirked at them, before laughing a bit. It was strangely non-mocking, just genuine amusement. She stopped after a moment and smiled at the two of them as she stood. She rolled her shoulders and bounced a bit to warm up her leg muscles. It did very distracting things to her chest.
"I suppose I can play with you two while Adam Smasher deals with that bucket of scrap. We'll have our fight after he breaks him."
This was a bit strange to him, so he asked about it. "You don't think your friend can win?"
Armstrong scoffed. "He would not be Adam Smasher if any random borg could do him in. The scrapbucket is delusional if he thinks he can actually succeed there. He isn't my friend either, just some relic that approached me with a request to help me organize the scavs."
"Regardless, he will win and then I will be able to test myself against him. It will be fun no matter who wins."
David paused, he wanted to ask more but… he had a job to do. He activated his sandy and blurred forwards to land a shot at her legs. He needed to disable her.
To his slight astonishment, she had a sandy too. She sidestepped his shot and punched at him. He was able to dodge, but the blow still buffeted him with the air pressure. If that hit him, he was losing something for certain.
Their sandies wore out as he jumped back. Landing on his feet, crouched and one hand holding his shotgun, he watched her practically twirl around Becca's burst of bullets before grabbing the heavy chair she was sitting on and spin-hurling it to crash into Becca and send the five-hundred pound ACPA crashing against the far wall.
That wasn't enough to hurt Becca, he knew, she was too well armored for a thrown chair of all things to actually hurt her. But the fact that Armstrong was able to do what she had just done was still… It was a bit daunting. A pause came over the battle.
"Why are you surprised boy? A sandevistan is a rudimentary implant, every high-level combatant who is serious about battle has one."
"I'm beginning to realize that." He replied. They both ignored Becca's cursing as she shoved the chair's broken form off of her and stood up. He sent Becca a message and a plan was formed for their next attack.
Becca opened with a burst of fire to get Armstrong moving. David activated his sandy and moved forwards with a meatshot this time. Armstrong activated her own sandy, used her oversized chrome arms to block the bullets coming from her side, and moved to punch him as he approached.
David let his legs give out completely as he dropped to the floor, now under her extended arms. A single meatshot on her abdomen caused her to flinch (she should be way more hurt than that, this is bullshit) before she kicked him.
His vision went blurry as he crashed against his own far wall. Holy shit that hurt. He looked up to see that she was right there, and his instincts told him to dodge.
David flung himself to the side as her fist shattered the wall he was just leaned up against. That blow might have killed him outright if he took it.
He got up and looked at the damage he inflicted with his well-placed shot. Armstrong was bleeding slightly, and the area around where the shot hit was beginning to turn into an ugly bruise. She was smiling at him.
"Excellent you two! That was a good plan!"
David was confused at this, why was she happy? Becca spoke up at that.
"Why so cheery? Davey just put a shot into you? Doesn't that hurt?"
"It hurts a great deal, in truth. That pain tells me that this fight is good. Drink fine wine, eat good food, fuck handsome men, fight powerful warriors, this is the life I enjoy most of all."
"Well then, no hard feelings when we knock you out, huh?"
"Not at all!"
David activated his sandy, and Armstrong did the same. He moved like he was going to do the same trick again, but instead of dropping he leapt upwards above her. She tracked his movement like a hawk.
She didn't punch him, she stepped forwards out of the way of his shot, grabbed his leg, and David knew he was in trouble.
She slammed him, back first, directly onto the concrete floor. David heard something crack and he wasn't sure if it was the floor or his bones as his vision went white. She then lifted him and he was sent sailing through the air. His sandy deactivated as he crashed into Becca.
They didn't get a chance to react, because Armstrong was there again. Becca threw him off of her as the fist crashed into one of her arms. Becca's right arm all but snapped under the force of the blow, weakened already by the heavy-chair from earlier.
But of course, Becca came in clutch and grabbed Armstrong with her other arm. David took the chance to shoot her with another meatshot, this time to the back. Armstrong gave a distinctly feminine grunt as she grabbed Becca, ACPA and all, and bent backwards in a perfectly executed german suplex.
Becca crashed onto the ground and didn't move again. David could tell that she was still alive from the vital monitor, but she didn't seem conscious anymore. The situation was getting distinctly bad for them.
"You both did very well, but I am Victoria Armstrong." She boasted in a very familiar way.
David wasn't about to lose, it was only a question of how the hell he was going to win at this point…
Her right arm was heavily damaged. Between Becca's AP shots from earlier and punching a completely stone wall, it wasn't looking good.
David let out a slow breath, relaxed a tad, and got into a familiar stance. He waited for her to approach him. She grinned at that challenge, and activated her sandy to punch him full on.
David activated his own sandy. The punch came for him, he twisted around it, did a full rotation, vibrated his leg, and kicked. Not her, but her arm.
Her chrome arm broke from the kick, rendered non-functional as it slumped to her side, now a useless weight holding her down.
Her other arm was coming at him now, now was his chance to finish it. He stepped into the blow, using his left arm to deflect it over his shoulder and to his side. His left arm shattered under the blow, but it worked, he was in her guard now. Her sandevistan wore off.
David dropped a tad, and rose in a panzerfaust-uppercut directly to her chin. Adam taught him this one. The chin acted as a rudimentary lever that amplified concussions, forcing the brain to essentially reboot if struck hard enough from below. As superhuman as she was, Armstrong was still human.
She collapsed with a tremendous boom from the weight of her arms hitting the stone floor.
David stood, one arm raised, the other arm completely reduced to scrap.
Goddamn this hurt a whole fucking bunch. He crouched and grabbed at the socket before he remembered he could turn the pain off in a limb. Fuck, that's much better.
Mission complete, let's see if he can tie her up with a single arm. That, and see if Smasher was doing well, he certainly hoped so.