Unknown
The fog was being held back by the light. He could see every nail he had to walk over.
They pierced his feet. He was bleeding.
This was good. Less blood to weigh him down.
This path was familiar. He couldn't remember why.
The walls were getting thinner. The sky was becoming clearer.
He turned a corner. He walked up to the edge of the exit.
There was a bench there. There was the thing there.
It's tail flicked. It was patiently waiting.
He stared for a time.
He turned. He walked back into the maze.
He needed to find a bench.
—
Rebecca
An electric hum filled the gun. A moment passed as she kept the sight over the center-mass of the soldier.
It was difficult to aim with tech guns, she really preferred standard types. There was none of this 'pull trigger, wait for a second, then the gun actually fires' nonsense. It was a simple matter of pulling the trigger when you line up a shot, and watching gonks get turned into colored rain. Still, it was undoubtedly satisfying when you got the tricky aim down.
The hum burst into life, all of a sudden making the sound of… it was hard to describe. Maybe like a thousand buzzers all going off at once, but only for an instant. The buzz-boom was accompanied by the gun smashing back into her shoulder, even with all the recoil compensation and her cybernetic arms, and her optics giving her a crystal clear visual of the target collapsing.
Quickly as she could, she pulled the bar back to load another tungsten spike, and then waited for another shot. She wasn't going for only headshots, because missing was definitely worse than not killing the gonk in one hit. Her targeting optics definitely helped, but only so much.
Her sniping was not the greatest, really she should be up there right now, but that's not where they needed her. That…
She pulled the trigger as Lucy called out another movement. She held the sights over where the enemy was moving towards, aiming through the corner of that building. The gun started humming. No sign of the enemy yet. She adjusted her aim slightly deeper into the 'wall' of the building.
Buzz-boom.
The bullet put a hole through that wall and the next. She didn't know if she actually hit anything that time. She frowned and quickly loaded another spike. That was the worst part. The lack of certainty from such a distance. She wanted to know she wasn't wasting bullets here.
Lucy called out a flatline. Rebecca nodded to herself and scanned her sightline again from her position at the fortification window. This building was apparently an old strommer hideout, and it looked like it. Lots of random doodads and wires, black leather clothes, BD headsets and such… also a creepy-ass shrine with candles, which she made sure to not get near. It probably had net-viruses.
In the distance, she saw Davey and Spares jump across another 20 foot gap between buildings before sliding down the walls. She focused her gun to that location.
Give her something to shoot at…
Movement, a group without heavy armor were pulling out of the alley and firing side-arms behind them. This wouldn't normally matter, but from what little light she could see, those were smart-bullets. Davey and Spares couldn't just avoid those with positioning, they would have to actively dodge or block.
She readied another shot, pulling the trigger, letting the hum build up. She aimed for the one in the center. The group were about to jump over the concrete barrier there, she'd hit when he hit the ground. The barrier would slow the bullet down enough for the ground behind it to stop it completely.
She lined up her shot. The railgun was about to fire again…
The target hit the ground and immediately disappeared from her sight. Along with the other three members of that group. She almost jerked the gun in a futile attempt to track them.
Buzz-boom. The gun fired, her shoulder jerked, the barrier exploded. She didn't hit anything.
They had speedware, the reason she didn't belong on the frontline. She grit her teeth and released the magazine, loading a new one in as fast as she could.
[Down two mags.] She sent over the group messages, giving the update on how much ammo she had left for her primary weapon. One of those 'information is power' things or something. She honestly thought it was a waste of time. If she was out of ammo, she just needed to grab someone else's gun and keep shooting. It's not like a battlefield in Night City would be low on spares guns.
Davey and Spares did another round of jumping up, to get back to the rooftops. They had to start moving immediately again as a burst of homing bullets shot up from nearly every surrounding alley and street to start chasing them. They had figured out where she was, and weren't showing their heads anymore.
"Fucking cocksuckers." She mumbled hatefully to herself as she scanned her full field of view again, struggling to find something hostile.
…wait, she had allies.
[They stopped showing their heads to me. Lure them out?] She sent out, keeping watch on the early morning streets.
It was a moment before there was a response from Lucy. [Rebecca, fire at 2:33]
Rebecca narrowed her eyes, bringing up her optical compass, and lining up the shot with what looked like just a building.
Pull the trigger. Hum. Buzz-boom.
A second explosion followed after the first. She was confused for a moment, before realizing what Lucy had her do with a grin. One of those pressurized gas canisters Night City used for… some industrial thing, she wasn't sure, had just been turned into an improvised bomb by her shot.
[Two flatlines.] Lucy called out. [Rebecca, 11:21]
Immediately she adjusted her aim and pulled the trigger.
Hum. Pause. Buzz-boom.
[One flatline. Damnit. They're just pre-shooting all of those now.]
"Fucking rimsuckers." she muttered, and unzoomed her teleoptics again, scanning the horizon for anything to blow up.
"Bosslady, movement nearby!" A strange voice caused her to jump for a moment, before she realized what it was. It was that little AI-scope thing that old ninjaman bought them a while back on her 'Saka bullpup. She had almost forgotten about the…
She threw herself backwards as a hail of bullets rained down at where she just was. The windowsill was turned into swiss cheese as a rain of glowing orange metal punched about a hundred holes into it at an angle she wasn't comfortable with.
She gave a dignified grunt of frustration and lined up a shot with about where she thought the bullets came from, pulling the trigger in the middle of the motion.
Hum. Pause. Buzz-boom.
The stream of bullets cut off. A moment later a body fell off the roof, passing in front of the window in front of her. It was missing most of its torso and one leg. Two bullets left in this mag.
She pulled herself up and began to move. Her position was compromised, and all she had to protect herself was a gun, an armormesh bodysuit (it looked really good on her, made her little curves stand out), and that skinweave Big Guy got them a while back. She wouldn't be stopping bullets like that anytime soon. She had to move and take them out before they could get a bead on her.
She dropped her sniper and pulled out the bullpup. Too much weight would get her killed, and she'd combat back for the big gun later.
[Lucy, they found me. Net support when possible?]
There was no response. Rebecca grit her teeth in worry and buried the feeling.
[Davey, Spares, holding up?]
A pause before David responded.
[They were ready for speedware. They're using lasers and smartguns now. Will manage.]
"Fuck!" She cursed to herself, before realizing her mistake. She threw herself forwards in a roll, flipping over on her left arm as another molten shower streamed through the roof where she just was.
There was at least one more gonk on the roof. Probably more than one, and they were shooting down at her. What did she have?
Assault Rifle, the scope, some grenades and her arm-missiles…
…her heat-seeking arm missiles. She gave an evil grin before stomping on the ground loudly and then rolling towards the window.
Hot bullets rained down where she was. Her arm stuck out, through the hole in the wall. Her forearm opened up, and four missiles shot out and above the roof. A moment later, they swerved around the corner and crashed into something she couldn't see.
She knew it worked because of the scream of pain. Quickly she grabbed the ledge and threw herself up, her cybernetic arms easily pulling up her small frame and letting her quickly climb to the roof above.
Two more guys, both in armored bodysuits and partly obscured by some sorta stealth-shit. Too bad missiles don't care about stealth! She raised her other arm and fired off two more missiles, hitting them just as they were about to start firing.
They screamed, she smiled.
Her smile didn't last long, as a bright light blinded her briefly. Flinching as her anti-dazzle adjusted, she looked up to see an AV gently swinging in the air around the corner…
It's main gun trained on her. Instinct took over as she jumped off the roof.
A stream of direction-destroying slugs turned the roof into molten rubble. She used her arms to grab whatever she could to slow her fall, but still had the wind knocked out of her as she hit the ground a story down.
She could hear the gentle whirr of AV thrusters now, it was way quieter than it should've been.
Those fuckers had an AV!
She ran into the building from ground level, trying to come up with a plan.
A stream of molten lead turned the doorway behind her into slag.
[Lucy, David, Spares! They have a fucking AV on me, I'm pinned!]
No response.
She almost screamed in frustration.
—
Gloria
The worst part was the waiting. Quietly, she sat and watched a screen she didn't understand, relaying information she couldn't use, listening to the sounds of bullets and explosions in the distance, and not being able to do anything.
She wasn't a netrunner. She wasn't a merc. She wasn't anything that could help right now. She was the plan B. The backup option. The woman who was waiting for an emergency to break the metaphorical glass and let someone else solve the issue.
'I've done what I can for him. Now it's time to leave it up to him. I'll just drag him down by sticking around.'
That was… that was fine with her. She was a non-combat medic in Night City, a glorified hearse driver really. There usually wasn't anything to save by the time she got there.
The last few months had been a whirlwind of emotions and events, most of them stressful, and this was no different. She had some combat training courtesy of David's mentor, but it clearly wasn't enough to actually make a difference out there.
A distant explosion boomed, causing her to flinch. She frowned and looked at the screen in front of her with all the fancy net-stuff she wasn't trained for, before sighing and standing up from Chica's chair. It was all just numbers to an old lady like her.
She checked her gear again, knowing none of it would probably matter. Flak vest, bodysuit, microwaver with that sweet little scope, four grenades on her waist. Disable and throw was about the best strategy she could hope to do as she was. She needed something more, maybe one of those smartguns if she could afford it…
She realized that she was stupid a moment later. She probably could afford one now, couldn't she? It had been so long since she had any spare eddies to spend on anything.
She paced the room for a few moments, anxious to do something, anything. But there wasn't anything she could do right now for them. Nothing but sit, wait, and hope they pull through again. She growled to herself and kicked the wall. This was gonkshit.
There was a knock at the door. She froze, before glaring and pulling out her microwaver. "Who is it?"
"Miss Martinez? It's Grayson. You doing alright up here?"
She almost opened the door for him… before deciding otherwise. She… she didn't know how trustworthy he was. "I'm doing fine, did you need something?" She replied, trying her best to not sound tense. She got a reply a moment later.
"Just telling you I'm heading to the lower decks to sit this out. The intercom on the ship needs to be replaced, so I can't tell you that way. Anything you need before I go?"
Lower decks… yeah, that sounds about right. He wasn't a merc as far as she was aware, well, not a combat-merc. He was apparently someone Adam hired to manage his storage, so he probably was in the same metaphorical boat as she was.
She nodded, actually relaxing, before replying. "I'll be fine. See you later." She politely dismissed the practical stranger and was glad to receive a reply and hearing steps walk away. You could never be too careful in Night City, not as a woman. He had been nothing but professional so far, that might just mean he was more dangerous than normal, or it might mean he was exactly as he said he was.
She slowly pulled from the door and started pacing again, eventually deciding on looking at the numbers she couldn't understand again.
There were three lines of random numbers and letters, occasionally one of them would flicker and vanish, only for a horizontal line of numbers and letters to flash and for that line to shortly reappear. There was a window to the side that had four sets of three numbers, some of which were going down rapidly, others that were going down slower. There was another window that had a web-like diagram of various number-letter combinations linked together, some of them were red, some of them were orange, some of them were yellow.
And yet more windows with more numbers rapidly increasing and decreasing, and diagrams that were shifting and moving. She didn't have any context for any of it. She couldn't understand any of it.
All she could do was watch the numbers, and try her best to make sense of it all to pass the time. She put her head in her hands and rubbed her temples.
"Ah! Movement detected!" An unfamiliar voice called out, prompting her to sit up rapidly and search for it. It was Chica's little gun-girl, currently hooked up to the computer and no longer typing away at her little hologram computer.
"Movement?" She asked quickly, both in worry and for lack of things to help with. The little gungirl looked at her for a moment and pursed her lips.
"...You are not user…" the little gun sounded shy. Gloria bent down to her level and spoke gently but quickly.
"I am friends with your user though, little one. I want to help her if I can. Can you help me help her?"
The little AI looked away for a moment, before responding. "There's things coming in underwater, near the dock gates. User told me to watch it."
Gloria nodded and smiled "Thank you little one." Before standing up and freezing.
There was movement in the water. The gates that were blown open last night.
There was something coming for the ship.
She walked for the door and reached for the lock, before freezing. Her hand hovered near the handle. It was shaking slightly.
She swallowed, clenched her fist for a moment, before throwing the door open wide and quickly bursting out with her gun.
Nothing was around her. She quickly got up, slightly embarrassed, and looked out to the dock. There was something in the water, but she couldn't see in the dim light of the early morning like this. It was all black to her.
She evaluated her options for a moment, before reaching for a grenade. She couldn't aim at what she couldn't see, and grenades work underwater, right? Straining slightly to pull the plug off, she threw the grenade over her head and towards the water.
A few seconds later, it exploded, kicking up a shockwave of water. She threw a second grenade for good measure. It exploded as well, but she couldn't see if that had done anything.
She swallowed nervously, before raising her Microwaver and waking her up with a button tap. Silencing her with a hushed lips motion, and starting to walk towards the balcony to get a better look out into the water.
Nothing.
She grabbed her gun in both hands to lessen the shaking.
She needed… to throw another grenade? Maybe they got closer, it would be better to drop it at this distance, probably. She took out another grenade and pulled the pin, dropping in the murky water.
A moment passed.
Someone burst out of the water. She raised a hand to defend herself and stumbled back.
It was the grenade she dropped.
Her world disappeared into white pain and heat.
She couldn't think.
She coughed, doing her best to blink away the agony.
She was on the floor… When did she get here?
She pushed herself up…
She couldn't feel her arm.
Shakily, she glanced at it.
Her left arm was gone.
Oh, she was in shock. She needed to take advantage of that to treat herself.
She reached for her speedheal and jabbed it into the stump, letting the dose of adrenal chemicals and nanosurgeons into her body closest to the wounded site. This would numb the pain and help to stop the bleeding long enough to receive proper treatment. She looked over, seeing a beeping gun.
She needed to do something, get to…
Get to Adam… he was in the captain's room. That was… up the stairs. She pulled herself up, only to stumble over and hit the ground again.
She pushed herself up again, the adrenal compounds doing their work. She pushed herself up on her right arm, and started to half-crawl, half-walk up the stairs on her left.
The sound of something hooking into the railing behind her made her crawl faster.
The pain was beginning to come back, and with it a sense of urgency and anger.
She pulled herself up, ignoring the burning in her left shoulder.
She stumbled forwards, swaying and then slamming into the wall. She bit back a scream as her missing arm smashed into the wall. She grit her teeth and moved forwards, dragging along the wall until she reached the door. She quickly opened it, falling inwards and collapsing.
She reached up, struggling for a moment, and managed to re-engage the lock on the door just as she heard boots hit the deck. She took a moment to muffle her groan of pain, and injected another dose of speedheal. One more and she'd be well above the daily healthy limit on such treatment.
She pushed herself up and staggered over. The sleeping form of Adam Smasher in his grey body on that reinforced bench of his. She practically sank to her knees as she reached for the medicine bottle to open it.
It was a squeeze-twist open plastic bottle.
She glanced down at where her left arm should be.
She wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. She compromised by getting angry instead.
"Fucker!" She growed, blinking through the pain and bringing the bottle up to her mouth, trying to bite and twist it off that way..
Her hand was shaking and bloody. She bit down hard enough to hurt her jaw, trying desperately to twist the stupid fucking bottle.
Her hand kept slipping. She tried harder in frustration. The bottle, slick with blood and salivia, slipped from her clenched teeth, landing a distance away and making her bite her tongue. She stared for a moment before slamming a fist on Adam's chest in frustration.
It only hurt her hand.
Frustrated tears began to pour out.
"Stupid! Worthless! Fucking! Bullshit!"
Each expletive was accompanied by her fist crashing down on his armored chest again. It only made her hand hurt more. It only made her everything hurt more.
Her fists grew weaker and weaker as anger gave way to despair.
Her head collided with his arm, causing her temple to start bleeding. The blood mixed with tears.
She banged her fist on his chest again.
There was noise outside the door.
This was…
She hated this…
...so much…
"Oi…"
Her gasping sobs cut short for a moment. She forced herself to breathe.
"Woman..."
She looked up…
"Shut the hell up."
Two glaring red eyes.
They were some of the most wonderful things she had ever seen.