Chapter 32: Sisterhood
Yuri and Cortez are in the desert to arrive at the site of a pirate outpost they spot a garage that holds a gas tanker that they can use.
"Perfect, I will cover you," Yuri is wielding an R29 Ranger with a long-range scope, bipod grip, and suppressor to be on a hill to overlook the campsite.
"Okay," Cortez said as he got a call from Rebecca.
"Yo Choom, It got crazy on our end," Rebecca said.
"What happened?" Cortez asked as he checked his Shigure SD which has a built-in suppressor along with a holo sight and foregrip.
"A David clone showed up who is an Arasaka Agent and a Borg preteen girl who is the little sister of the pirate leader Hawk," Rebecca said as Cortez was popping heads of the thugs to drop them with holes in their heads.
"That is nuts. Having a borg like that would be a problem. How are you feeling about the clone?' Cortez asked to check if she was okay.
"I am fine, I was shocked at first. When I confronted him, he told me he didn't care about me. I know for a fact David is dead and that clone is not him," Rebecca said as Cortez was proud of this.
"Good, you were mature enough to know the difference. Some people will go mad making a clone like the original despite they are their persons," Cortez said as he got closer to the garage with Yuri picking off guards with his suppressed battle rifle.
"Yeah," Rebecca said as Lucy was not taking it as well as she was. "I am worried about Lucy. She might do something rash," Rebecca said.
"All you can do is guide her and hope for the best," Cortez said as he looked through the combat sight to put subsonic rounds into the heads of the pirates.
"Okay, we got the key. Leaving 7 more to go," Rebecca said.
"Closer to getting us off this hell pit. See you back at the camp," Cortez said as he entered the garage to hack the vehicle to unlock it to get inside. "Yuri, I got the vehicle. Time to move out of here," Cortez said as Yuri noticed a band of Wraiths appear to attack the camp.
"Better get moving, Wraiths are attacking the camp. I will cover you," Yuri said as several armored cars appeared to assault the pirate outpost causing chaos. He put rounds into the heads of the bandits and pirates.
Cortez connects with a camera outside to begin unleashing Overheat and Short Circuit quick hacks to tear apart groups of enemies. He opens the door as Cortez tosses a smoke grenade to cover up his escape to speed off into the desert.
Yuri can see the fuel truck heading away as he gets into the truck to speed off to follow behind. "That went off like a dream," Cortez said.
"Yeah, and the fuckers are confused in the melee," Yuri said as they head back to the camp to get to the gate to see the nomad guys looking pleased by the haul.
"Good work guys, that would be handy," the guards let them through the gate to enter inside to place the fuel tank in the garage.
"You got a good haul. This will be useful to maintain our fuel reserves," the nomad said as Cortez closed the door to let the others use it.
Stella appears to greet the men. "Hey guys," Stella said still holding her Ashura smart sniper rifle to clean it up.
"Just came back, Rebecca said it got eventful," Cortez said as Stella was worried about Lucy.
"Lucy got frozen up when she saw the clone of her lover. She needs to know, that there is no point in seeking a fantasy like that. Clones are not the same people as their originals. Heavily based on them but not the same experiences mean their souls are not the same as the original," Stella said as Cortez nodded his head.
"Yeah, hope Lucy gets through this and we are here for her," Cortez said.
"I hope so too. We need to rest up until we go after the next keycard," Stella said as Rebecca came running to give Cortez a big hug.
"Yo big guy, I am home!" Rebecca said lightly to show a big smile.
"Hey there, good to have you here in one piece," Cortez said.
"Quite stressful on the last mission. There is more danger here than we realized," Klunk said.
"Yeah, it's crazy. Also, I noticed the pirates got some serious hardware like drones and such," Rebecca said as Cortez thought about this too.
"They might have their big wig giving them all this equipment. We will think about this later. I need a break," Cortez said.
"Me too, let's watch a movie or something. Oh, I need to check my clothing," Rebecca runs over to the trailer to see her underwear and clothing dried by the high sun's heat. "Oh goody, they are dried off," she said grabbing onto clothing, bras, and panties to put them in a basket along with the yellow jacket she cleaned.
"Still thinking about upgrading it?' Cortez asked as they went back inside.
"Yeah, but I think it would be better to use it as a baseline to make a brand-new armored jacket for me to use. To truly make it my own," Rebecca said.
"I see, makes sense," Cortez said.
"I will honor the past but keep moving towards the future. That's how I feel and after meeting the David clone, that feeling has gotten even stronger now," Rebecca said.
"Good for you. When we face the clone again. What would you do?" he asked.
"He is gunning for Lucy. I need to put him down to protect her. She is a good friend, I don't want to let her down like Rita did for me," Rebecca said feeling strongly about this.
"I know you will. You are strong-willed and bright. You will manage," Cortez having complete faith in her.
"Thanks, babe. Well, let me do my laundry and then we can watch some movies to pass the time," Rebecca said as she grabbed her skirts, blouses, and shorts to place them into a slot to keep them tidy.
"Those are cute," he commented on her different-colored panties.
"I bet you would call them cute huh? Which one do you like best?" she asked as he pointed to a pair of panties which have dark blue and black striped panties along with a matching bra. "Of course, you would pick the striped one. These are new, I wanted to show them off to you. Feeling all sexy and the like," Rebecca said as she felt her booty getting tipped making her feel very good.
"Doing a preem job there," Cortez said as they shared a brief kiss.
"So bad, I can put them on just for him when I feel like it," Rebecca said as she put away her underwear. "Okay, I am good. Let's watch a movie. I will make some snacks," Rebecca said as she pulled off her hairpins to let down her long hair to spread across her thin back.
"What is on the menu?" he asked.
"I got some these popcorn chips shaped like triangles. They are a healthier choice than potato chips and they are sweet chili flavored. These taste nova, I got three bags worth of the stuff," Rebecca pours it into a bowl to grab one of the chips to pop them into my mouth. "Damn, this is so good. Try it," Rebecca said as she handed him the bowl.
"He grabs one to bite into it as his mouth is tasting the good blend of spice and sweetness on a popcorn chip. "This is pretty cool," he said slyly.
"Very funny but yeah, I love these. So, what are we watching?" she asked.
"The whole Orbital Drift anime series. A true space epic of wonderful scale," Cortez said.
"Good taste big guy, hey tin head. You want to check this out?" she asked.
"No thanks, I will be in my charging dock. Enjoy yourselves," Klunk puts his disk-shaped body on the desk to shut off letting the couple enjoy their time watching the anime series.
Elsewhere Hawk and Gene are talking with their boss Vexx who is the leader of the Pacific Cartel owning several islands and chains in the Pacific Ocean turning them into fortresses to protect his interest. His private army called the Privateers stood over 500,000 soldiers strong to protect his vast criminal empire against governments, corporations, and other criminal groups alike.
"So, seems like you are having a problem," Vexx said.
"I mean it's all sunshine and rainbows on our end," Hawk trying to be tough as he was unnerved by his boss via hologram.
"You are so funny Hawk, but seriously about those nomad rats coming onto your region?" Vexx asked.
"A minor bump in the road. I managed to spread out the keycards for the gate. They are trapped here," Hawk said as Vexx was laughing at him.
"Okay, I think I need to remind you how serious this is. Those rats were led by V the Reaper. The one who defeated Atom Smasher and managed to steal from the Crystal palace while staying alive," Vexx said as Hawk was surprised by this.
"Seriously boss?" Hawk asked not paying attention.
"Also due to his condition, he is raising a new protégé named Rebecca. She was the one who destroyed the HQ of the Bozos singlehandedly," Vexx said trying to tell him the gravity of the situation.
"Are you serious?' Hawk asked.
"Yep, Bozos were my main contact in San Francisco but now they are destroyed. Cutting me off from there, you are one of the operations I still have on the mainland. I need you to take this seriously or I will take you and your boyfriend and make your heads hood ornaments on my car," Vexx being very vicious which made Hawk very sheepishly.
"Okay, okay. We will handle this," Hawk said.
"Yes sir, we will be able to take hold of the situation," Gene said as he pressed his hand onto Hawk's shoulder seeing he was quite nervous.
"Just remember, I am not helping your sister out of charity. She needed to put in work, but she failed to stop Rebecca and her allies from taking the keycard. If you fail, your sister will not be getting the treatments to make sure she is still stable. Remember this," Vexx said to cut off the hologram.
"Shit," Hawk said looking down at this.
"You, okay?' Gene asked.
"Yeah, I am chill. I need some grub. I got the munchy, let's hit it," Hawk tips him on the rear to make him jump to head off masking his pain.
"Damn it, always trying to hide your feelings with jokes," Gene said as he is worried about Maria if this all goes pear-shaped.
Elsewhere Militech forces are dug into the old base within the mountain as Agent Robinson is within her command room to look over the situation within the region. "We got ourselves some rat race here," Robinson said as Aldecaldos, Wraths, and Red Tide were fighting each other while an Arasaka Agent was within this as well.
She looks over the assets she was given by command with several vehicles and robot units. "I need to test the defenses of the encampment and send in troops to capture Lucy. I don't want to stay here forever," Robinson said as she looked over a hologram with an MBT which is her ace in the hole. "A pure beauty, the new MT-5 main battle tank from our Militech factories," she said.
She looks over the design to see it sporting a railgun in the turret. A 25mm autocannon mini turret, mounted HMG MK 31 and ATGM pod on the main remote turret. Sporting some of the best defenses Militech can make on the market. Rugged, weighing 45 tons, and fast on tank treads.
"This will slice their hover tanks like they are nothing," Robinson said as she was preparing for the raid on the nomad camp soon.
Back with Rebecca and Cortez who finished their 13-episode series with night coming over the area. "Damn, that was crazy going through that in one go," Rebecca said for they were close on the couch and getting cozy together.
"Yeah, it was fun. We kill a lot of time," Cortez said as their bowl of popcorn chips was empty.
"So yummy," Rebecca lets out a big burp. "Fuck, excuse me," she said to get off the couch to go over to the kitchen section to wash it off.
"So willing to tell me about more stories with the Mox. We got some time left?" Cortez asked.
"Of course, at that point, I was within the Mox for a year now but the Unification War was at Night City's doorstep. I saw on the news about the NUSA and Militech forces encircling the city. Even sending in a military force to claim land in Pacifica as a staging ground," Rebecca said.
"Kurt Hansen and Dogtown," Cortez said as V recalled his misadventures there when he was still an Edgerunner.
"Never came the invasion, everything went back to normal but everything got more tense than," Rebecca said recalling her 1st year being in the Mox.
-Flashback Begins-
In the year 2070, the Unification War just ended in a weird whisper. Night City barely survived the siege due to Arasaka's fleet protecting them from the wraith of the NUS government military along with their Militech support.
Calm returns with 17-year-old Rebecca waking up from her bed to get ready to go to work at one of the brothels as a Joy Toy. She looks at the TV to see the news network talking about Arasaka and giving them praise for helping broker peace between the NUS and the FSA.
"Gee, all those noises and it ends like that," Rebecca said as she comes into the kitchen with Pillar being pissed with his boss calling him via holo.
"You can't be serious. I have been busting my ass and they keep increasing my hours," Pillar said as he shuts off the line.
"Having problems big bro?" Rebecca asked lightly.
"Oh yeah, I do. They keep pushing to do more with less. It's getting annoying," Pillar said as he is getting upset with his job screwing him over.
"Well hoping you can look for a better one," Rebecca said as she cooked up grilled cheese sandwiches for them.
"Yeah, yeah. I doubt it, it's getting nuts. After what happened with the war, business is getting dodgy and keeping their eddies to the chest," Pillar said.
'I will keep pulling in eddies to pay for this place," Rebecca said.
"Speaking of which, how are things at the Lizzy's Bar?" he asked.
"Doing well. I am servicing clients and doing some missions but I am getting my pay cut all the time. 60 percent of my money goes back into the Mox. Must double up to make a decent amount of eddies," she said.
"Keep it up but be careful. Chomba, those guys can be quite rough," Pillar said as Rebecca pulled out her Unity pistol.
"I have this with me just in case," Rebecca said as she felt comfortable with shooting guns to the point of enjoying fighting and taking out gangsters a little too much.
"Preem," Pillar said as Rebecca finished cooking to give him the grilled cheese.
"I am taking this with me. I am going now," Rebecca said as she heads to the brothel owned by the Mox to serve her clients who need a cute schoolgirl they want to screw.
Within the past 3 hours, Rebecca served over 10 men doing various sexual tasks for them. She has managed to collect 2000 eddies to be cut down by 60 percent to be reduced to 800 eddies. "Fuck me," Rebecca said as the last man has a cheeky smile with Rebecca feeling creeped out.
"Nice work little lady, I will tell my friends to enjoy some high school pussy here," the man walks away as Rebecca is used to this now. She copes with this by thinking about her ideal guy while she is fucking these pervy weirdos. Rebecca puts on her school outfit to get out of the room.
"Yo Becca, you good?" Rita comes by to pick her up.
"Yep. Being a whore like always," Rebecca said with a fake smile.
"Good, I need you to come with me. There is a group of Scavs who have attacked one of our brothels. We need to send a message," Rita said as they drove to a warehouse where the Scavs who attacked came from.
Rita checks her weapon's loadout, a Tamayura 10mm pistol with reflex sight and a muzzle break and a VST-37 Pozhar auto shotgun.
Rebecca can see a D51 Pulser PDW on the dashboard. "You are going to need that. Cover my six while we deal with these assholes," Rita said as they arrive at the location.
"Got it," Rebecca said slinging the gun on her back to follow behind Rita to see a couple of Scavs guarding the entrance.
"Frontal assault, here we go," Rita tosses a Frag to blast apart the guards in front. She blasts rapid shotgun blasts to tear the enemies in half. Rebecca comes in with the Puslar and lets it chew through the enemies enjoying the thrill of a fight.
"You fucking gonks, time to face the wrath of us working girls," Rebecca said as she tosses a flashbang to blind the gangoons to place headshots to bust open their heads.
"Split up, guard my back," Rita said as Rebecca nodded her head to hop on some crates through a window to use her Unity pistol to blast Scavs in the head. She tosses an EMP grenade to stun them and disable their cyberware to score headshots.
"Good thing I got better cyber arms, they are coming in handy," Rebecca said as she felt stronger with these new cyber arms giving her increased strength.
Rita punches through a thin wall to grab onto a Scav to snap his neck to use her Tamayura to blast the chests and heads of her enemies. She took several shots in the chest as her subdermal armor held up to keep pressing deeper into their base.
Rebecca is at a window near a courtyard to overlook a group of Scavs along with their leader. I got you covered, I am in a higher position," Rebecca said via holo.
"Good, shoot them and cause a distraction," Rita said as she wielded her auto shotgun to see Rebecca raining down bullets to take out a few guys. Rita swiftly moves out the door to take out several enemies while she punches the leader of the hideout. She then pulls out her Tamayura 10mm pistol to execute the guy.
"Wow, you wipe them out," Rebecca said being very impressed by the Mox Solo who has killed most of the 22 Scav gangsters.
"You help too you know. Killed about 5 guys, not bad. You can be a Solo just like me in no time flat," Rita said as they wiped out the Scav hideout. Rebecca felt happy she was helping the Mox in any way she could.
-Flashback Ends-
Rebecca recalls her experiences within a year of the Mox because it was going well despite everything else not being as good. "Rita was a good teacher but she didn't help me when I needed her most," Rebecca said.
"So, you don't want to let Lucy down now," Cortez said.
"Yes, I need to be there for her. So many people want her. Militech and now this clone working with Arasaka. She needs to know people are there for her like me, Stella, and others," Rebecca said feeling strongly about this.
"I see, you are a good friend," Cortez said as Rebecca's cheek got rosy from his praise.
"Well, you got to be a good Choom in these trying times. Come on, we watch another show before heading for bed," Rebecca said as they continued watching films until they went to sleep together.
Stella goes over to Lucy's tent near the HQ building to check on her. "Hey, you okay?' Stella asked as Lucy was staring up at the moon to be distracted.
"Not really, when I heard his voice and saw his face. It shocked me, I am sorry for freezing out there," Lucy said.
"Don't worry about it but I hope you don't dwell on this too much. You know he is gone and no clone can replace him," Stella said sitting beside her.
"I know but," Lucy cups her face trying not to cry again. "It's just nice to see him again even if it is a clone," she said.
"I am sorry Lucy. I do?" Stella asked.
'How would you feel if Bill came back as a clone?' Lucy asked.
"It would be nice but that version of Bill never married me, didn't take me on dates, or go on vacation to Hawaii. The clone is a reminder of what I lost and makes me want to move forward," Stella said to place her hand on her chest.
"Damn it, I am so weak. You and Rebecca are so mature while I am a mess," Lucy said as Stella gave her a big sisterly hug.
"Don't worry about it, everyone copes differently. I know you will get over this. We will all help you," Stella said.
"Thanks," Lucy said.
"No problem, I just wanted to check on you. Rebecca was worried too. Get some rest," Stella said as she walked away.
"There is one thing for sure. David's DNA is being used by Arasaka. He has become a slave to the company just like I was. The best I can do is destroy his DNA template to free him from their control. Just like you helped free me, my love," Lucy has a new resolve to save David by destroying his DNA enslaved by Arasaka.