Chapter 17: Whale Hunt
Before the big mission, Lucy gets a check-up with another ripper doc who will be working with her. "Seems like Marie is only reserved for the heavies Cortez and Rebecca," Lucy said getting back to talking with Rebecca and Stella on the holo.
"Yep, but we got two other ripper docs here. How is your cyberdeck?" Rebecca asked.
"Well, my deck was pretty old. I needed a replacement anyway and it's working fine. The data was pretty tightly secured but me and Stella managed to crack it," Lucy said.
'Yes, it's very useful. The whole layout of the ship Kujira aka the whale in Japanese," Stella said.
"So, we are going whale hunting huh?" Rebecca asked.
"Yep. Michiko is coming soon to the camp to set up the plan. She is going to lead the strike team.
"Granma Arasaka is coming again. She is sticking her neck out for this one," Rebecca said.
"Indeed, she wants to impress the people within the company to show she is quite serious about taking on Yorinobu," Stella said.
"She is an odd one. Can't believe we are working with an Arasaka," Lucy said still can't believe.
"She is quite different from what V says. He makes the weirdest friends," Rebecca said.
"That's how he managed to survive Night City. He has a way of seeing people and getting them on his side," Stella said.
"Too bad we didn't have that act of luck," Lucy said.
"Yo choom relax. We are all here and now we can seek out our brighter futures. We are part of a greater whole with the clan," Rebecca said.
"Sorry for being a downer," Lucy said.
"It's okay, we got your back. Myers is not going to get you," Rebecca said.
"Yeah thanks," Lucy said as Rebecca got back into her trailer to see Klunk looking over the plans for the mission.
"This is the big one Rebecca. Assaulting the Kujira will be difficult but the payoff will be huge," Klunk said.
'What is the plan?" she asked.
"Michiko will lead a small team consisting of herself, me, you, Cortez, Stella, and Lucy. We will sneak underwater via mini-sub to go into the sub bay at the lowest level. Then we will head for the mainframe with me fending off defenses while Stella and Lucy enter the subnet to take control of the weapons of the ship. I will delete the AI and replace it to use the weapons against the fleet. Then turning the ship's defenses against the crew killing all of them," Klunk said.
'Sounds simple yet crazy," Rebecca said.
"Panam came up with this. Despite how crazy her plans are, they work out in the end," Klunk said.
"Interesting. Well, I need to rest up. Where Cortez?" she asked.
"He is in the shower," he said as Rebecca stripped out of outfit and underwear to head for the shower.
"Hey my favorite choom, got room for one more?" she asked.
"Be my guest," Cortez said wanting to see her naked petite body on full display showing off her curves and pretty pink tattoos. Her long green hair spread down her back. "Did your hair get longer?" he asked.
"Oh yeah, I wanted to grow it out a little," Rebecca said as she rubbed the water across her small waist.
"You have such beautiful hair," Cortez said as he felt his hand through her hair feeling how silky it was.
"I take good care of it," she said as Cortez grabbed a rug to wash her slender back. "Thank you, honey," she said.
"Anything for you my short queen," Cortez said as Rebecca giggled to feel very happy.
"I am your short queen huh?" she asked.
"Yep, wouldn't have it any other way. Getting nervous?" he asked.
"A bit, we are taking the fight directly to Arasaka. Last time that happened, I almost died," Rebecca said as he kissed her on the cheek to hug her from behind.
"You are tougher and wiser than you were before. Panam's plans are solid. Managed to breach Arasaka Tower and the Crystal Palace. This is nothing compared to those," Cortez said.
"Yeah, I got everyone by my side. We can do this babe. With you beside me, we are a force to be reckoned with," Rebecca said.
"Yeah, you're right." He said to put his arms around her. She grabs his hands to place them between her breasts to feel her heart beating.
"Oh Cortez, let's kick some major ass tomorrow," Rebecca said.
"That is the little imp I adore," Cortez said as she felt safe within his arms.
They get out of the shower to be in their pajamas. Rebecca is in a white tank top and blue short shorts. "Hey, do you want to lay on my lap?" Rebecca asked as she sat on the pullout bed.
"Sure, one of the best places to rest," Cortez said as he lay down and placed his head on her squishy thighs. She has her tiny hand rubbing his bald head stroking it softly.
"We should go to the beach after taking the Kujira. Enjoying ourselves," Rebecca said.
"That would be a Preem idea, seeing you in a bikini would be a real treat," Cortez said as she kissed him on the forehead.
"You see me in my underwear all the time silly," Rebecca said as Cortez reached out to feel up her slim stomach.
"I know, it would be nice all the same," Cortez said.
"Of course, I got something nice for you to gaze at," Rebecca said as Cortez grabs one of her boobs to give it a nice squeeze. "Hey choom, watch it," she protested but her smile showed she loved him touching her making Rebecca feel special.
"I cannot resist these. I can't get enough of your cute body," he said.
"Such a sweet talker but we house get some sleep. Got a big mission tomorrow," Rebecca said as the couple entered under the sheet to embrace each other to fall asleep.
Morning has come and the mission is underway. Cortez goes onto his gear and armor to grab an AKR-20 LSW machine gun along with a VST-37 Pozhar full auto shotgun and a Metel revolver.
"Going for Soviet huh?" Rebecca joked about being in her nomad outfit to carry her weapons, grenades, and health packs.
"You bet, they are strong and reliable guns," he said as he put on his combat helmet to cover his whole head including his face. "Time to go to work," Cortez said as they got outside to get into the truck. Klunk gets on Rebecca's back to go inside the truck.
"We need to head for the docks in San Francisco. The others are at the chosen spot," Klunk said as they went on the road to the head of the city docks.
They park nearby as they see Lucy, Stella, and Michiko who are geared up for the fight. "You look like you are in for a fight," Rebecca said to Stella who was in her tactical bodysuit wielding a Shingen smart SMG and a Kappa smart machine pistol.
"My gear is still useful. Had to adapt to Nomad style," Stella said.
"Looking nice Lucy," Rebecca said as she was wearing a purple leotard with white short shorts and black knee-high boots along with a white crop jacket.
"Got to fit with the nomad lifestyle now," Lucy said wielding a Yukimura smart machine pistol and still having her mono-wire implants into her wrists.
"Okay, I am ready to go," Michiko said as she was in her battle suit along with her remarkable cat ear helmet. She is wielding her Raiju tech SMG and M-179e Achilles tech precision rifle.
"Choom, I can't believe you got a fucking cat helmet," Stella said as she wants to laugh at this.
"Trust me, if you saw my operatives in their prime wearing these. You would be too dead to laugh," Michiko said with a cold tone as this made Stella shiver.
"Still Arasaka despite how nice she is," Lucy said.
"Anyway, this is the mini-sub we are going to use to sneak into the supercarrier. It has an ID which will mask us as friendly so we don't get shot instantly," Michiko said as they went over to enter the sub from the top.
"We got some room here," Cortez said as they sat down in a compartment. Michiko begins to get onto the controls to go deep within the water to head for the supercarrier Kujira.
"Hey Rebecca, Lucy said you were almost killed by getting split in half. How are you alive?" Stella asked sounding curious.
"Nanomachine Stella, nanomachines fix everything," Rebecca said lightly. "But seriously, Trauma Team used biotechnology including nanobots to fix me up. Restore my brain to normal and reinforce my bones and skin with powerful Bioware to make me better than before. All for Bismarck's sick games," Rebecca said.
"Well, I am just happy you are alive and well. To be friends again," Stella said.
"I am happy it happened and I can meet you again," Rebecca said giving her a warm smile. Michiko looks over to see Rebecca is quite tight with the two women.
"Wish I had that but Myers took that too," Michiko feeling bitter that her old life was destroyed by the paranoid NUS president/dictator. "Get ready, when we go into the sub bay. It's going to get hot. We make a beeline to the mainframe," Michiko said as they approached the fleet of Arasaka ships.
Cortez is checking his weapon and adjusting his helmet before the big fight on the crown jewel of the Arasaka navy.
"Okay, I got clearance from the control tower of the Kujira. We are good to go," Michiko said as they could see Kujira along with 8 other support ships around it. "We are docking right now," Michiko said as the mini-sub got into the sub bay.
"I am detecting several Arasaka marines nearby," Klunk said as Rebecca came out first.
"I will take point," Rebecca said as she leaped out of the hatch to swiftly punch the marine in the head to cave it in killing her instantly.
"Who the fuck?" a marine grabs his rifle but Rebecca tosses the corpse to crash into the marine to kill him on impact. Rebecca pulls out her revolver Love places 6 shots into the remaining marines to put them down.
"It is cleared," Rebecca reloads her sidearm as the strike team exits into the sub bay to begin to assault the huge vessel.
'Time to give them a surprise. We will split up to divert their attention and head for the main frame," Michiko said.
'Sounds like a plan," Lucy said as they split off with Stella and Lucy as part of Group 1, Rebecca, Cortez, and Klunk are in Group 2 and Michiko goes alone.
"Shit, we got invaders on the ship," a marine said as the alarms go off with drone defenses activating with auto turrets and Wyverns seeking out their targets while Arasaka marines took their weapons to kill the enemy.
"Seems like the traitor has made her move with the savages," the captain of the Kujira is overlooking the situation via cameras.
Michiko is popping several bursts from her Raiju SMG to tear through their armor quite easily. She tosses a Gash grenade as the arcs of lasers slice and tear into burning flesh scattering them onto the floor.
"Kill the traitor," the Arasaka Marines fire their Masamune and Nowaki burst rifles. Using her sword and reflexes to deflect and block incoming fire to activate her sandy to swiftly destroy a group of marines to leave them in piles of gore. Michiko is chopping and slicing up marines into bloody pieces.
"Should be the other way around," Michiko said as she kept going to see Wyvern drones firing their guns at her. She ducks under to use her Raiju to put several shots to take them out.
She tosses another Gash grenade as the laser beams burn and slice into her enemies to clear a path.
Lucy and Stella are quick hacking and using their smart weapons to cut down the Arasaka marines. Lucy saw some of the marines were Sandy users. "One trick pony," Lucy triggers a combo of Cyberware Malfunction and Cripple Movement to make them helpless to smart linked headshots and mono-wire slashes killing them off quickly.
Stella spreads out Contagion to fire pyro bullets to strike the poisoned targets causing the toxics in their cyberware to explode reducing them to bloody bits. "Holy Shit, nice combo," Lucy said.
"That's how you deal with scum bags," Stella said as she keeps spreading Contagion while Lucy is shocking their systems to give them great pain. They line up their smart bullets to score them in their heads to clear a path.
Turrets pop up to fire at them as they duck behind cover to begin hacking the defenses. Then Wyvern drones show up but get gunned down by hacked turrets. They fire their smart bullets into the floating drones to take them out.
Rebecca leaps over a wave of bullets to slam her palm into an Arasaka marine to send her into a wall breaking her spine on impact. She uses Guts to turn enemy troops into piles of broken bodies.
He stuns marines with cripple movement to easily get shot in the head via Rebecca's slugs or Cortez's explosive shots from his Metel. Rebecca dashes forward to enter into a slide to get close to blasting an Arasaka marine to pieces with her shotgun.
Cortez switches to his auto shotgun to have a drum mag filled with 24 rounds of buckshot. He begins to pepper the hallways with walls of fiery pellets of death to set the enemies on fire.
"An artful performance choom," Rebecca said as it got her juices flowing seeing how cool and deadly he is.
"I aim to please, come on. We need to keep pushing," Cortez said as Klunk boosted Rebecca up to avoid a shot from the last marine's Masasune. She hovers in the air to fire a frag round from Guts to reduce the marine's upper half into red mist.
The Captain looks on and sees the five cutting through his forces. "Shit my troops are so useless, they are heading for the mainframe. They got netrunners here, they are going to hack the ship," the captain said.
"Don't worry about it, the ship's AI will fry their brains before they get the chance to hack our systems," the head marine said as he was within a large power armor ready to confront the invaders. "Those fuckers will not mess with Arasaka," the marine commander said.
Elsewhere Rebecca and Cortez are within a huge space filled with crates and marines to have a big firefight taking place. "This is pissing me off," Rebecca said as she fires a slug from Guts to split a marine in half.
Cortez is setting marines on fire as he is firing an AKR-20 LSW machine gun to pepper enemies with accurate streams of bullets to take them out. They just keep coming and Cortez is knocking them down with precise bursts of AP rounds blasting their bodies apart.
"Fuck babe, you got like 25 guys in a row. Crazy killstreak," Rebecca said being impressed.
"Should get a nuke right now," Cortez joked as they saw two drones which are LAWs firing their auto grenade launchers to halt their advance.
"Shit, we need something to take them out," Klunk said as Cortez triggers Short Circuit to damage the first one.
"Cook and light them up," Cortez sees a red container nearby to use a quickhack to make them explode taking out the first LAW and the last one remaining.
Rebecca jumps on top of a container to use a slug at the drone to knock off the launcher onto the floor. The LAW switches to its front-mounted dual machine guns to fire at Cortez. He takes cover as Rebecc double jumps and air dashes to the fallen auto grenade launcher.
"Nice," she grabs the weapon to fire a single shot which destroys the drone to see more Arasaka marines coming onto the floor. They fire on Rebecca she hardens her skin to block the shots to turns her new toy onto them. "Say hello to my little friend," she unleashes rapid volleys of grenades to turn the floor red with the enemy's blood and guts.
She killed off 50 marines to hear her toy is empty. "Well, that didn't last longer than my toys. Almost as fun too," Rebecca said to toss the empty gun away.
"So, you think you can get away with killing my marines," a man's voice echoed to smash through a wall to unleash a wave of bullets to strike at Rebecca to send her flying across the room. "Curious, you didn't instantly die from my bullets," the marine commander said, donning a large Arasaka-modified DaiOni power armor littered with weapons.
"Damn, they are bringing out the big guns huh?" Rebecca questioned.
"We need to keep moving," Cortez said.
"No, I will take this guy. You go with the others," Rebecca said to toss Klunk to Cortez.
"Okay, go kick his ass," Cortez said feeling faith in her as he takes Klunk with him to head for the mainframe of the ship.
"I will babe. Okay choom, you are going to fight me," Rebecca said as Klunk left her present which is an outline of the giant warehouse holding all sorts of weapons.
"Sorry, little missy. You are going to die under all this firepower and I am going to avenge my men and women you ruthlessly killed," the marine commander said.
"That sounds like your problem to me. I am going to wipe you out despite that hunk of metal on you," Rebecca said as she performed a double jump backward to avoid a wave of bullets that left huge holes on the floor.
"I am Marine Commander Ken and I will not let you destroy the honor of the Arasaka Marines," Ken said as he fired a shoulder-mounted minigun to slice through the thick containers. She took a few shots to brace the hits as she jumped on top of a platform to fire a shotgun to do no damage against the heavily armored power armor.
"I need something heavier," she tosses an EMP grenade to slow it down slightly but it quickly restarts its systems to continue pursuing her.
"RPG-A, is here somewhere?" she thought as she grabbed a red container to toss at the mech to fire on it to set off a blast to do little damage.
"Try again little missy," Ken launches several rows of missiles to pepper the area. Rebecca gets pushed by the blast to slam into a crate. "Die!" the DaiOni latches out with wrist-mounted mono blades.
"Shit," she ducks to see the huge mech slice the big metal crate in half. She fires a few point-blank slugs to do more minor damage. She slides between its legs as she fires on the missile pod on the back to destroy it with a well-placed frag shell.
"You little shit," Ken swings his blades managing to barely cut Rebecca across her arm to see it bleeding. She is surprised at how fast this big power armor is moving. She grabs a health booster to infect nanobots into her cyber arm seeing it rapidly heal her wound.
"Rebecca, Cortez told me you are fighting DaiOni power armor. That is the same suit Atom Smasher used against Morgan Blackhand during the Arasaka bombing in 2023. Be careful," Michiko said.
"Interesting, something to add to my list of feats when I retired," Rebecca said as she double-jumped away from a mighty attack.
"Can't believe the traitor is working with nomad rats. I have the will to purge you all off the face of the earth," Ken said as Rebecca kicked a red container to roll it toward the mech. She fires the red container with her pistol to set off a big blast weakening it further.
"Gee he keeps coming," she thought as she kept dodging his attacks. "The nomad has more honor and respect than Corpo bastards like you," Rebecca said as she fired a set of red barrels to make them explode to hurt the suit.
"As if, you are rats that need to be purged. Upsetting the world order by your mere presence," Ken said as he unloaded explosive rounds to tear up the area. She jumps over a crate to see an RPG-A launcher.
"Perfect," she jumps onto the container to fire the rocket to slam into the power armor but it doesn't do enough damage. "You got to be fucking with me," she said as she reloads the launcher to fire again and the results are the same.
"You think that puny thing can stop the DaiOni power armor? Don't make me laugh," Ken rushes in and leaps at her about to crush her.
"Shit," Rebecca gets tossed onto the floor as the DaiOni is going to stop her but she grabs onto her foot. "Fuck this," she triggers her Berserk state to push her body to its limit to use super strength to lift the metal foot off of her.
"What the hell?" Ken questioned as Rebecca shoved the foot away to leap up to go into a full-body tackle to knock the power suit back. She sticks grenades onto the body of the monstrous armor to set off a chain of explosions to cause a distraction.
She deactivates her Berserk State to look around for something else. "Michiko, the RPG didn't work," she said on the radio.
"There is a weapon which will be perfect. Look for Mayhem which is a launcher that spits out a molten metal orb from a railgun-like system. It was based on an old American weapon project that was lost in the DataKrash," Michiko said as Rebecca looked for the launcher to see the DaiOni turn towards her.
"You little bitch, you are going to pay for that little stunt," he fires his minigun to pepper explosive rounds. She wields her revolver to fire onto the minigun to disable it. She is jumping and dodging to avoid the incoming missiles and bullets tearing up the warehouse area.
She hardens her skin to be caught in a blast to knock her in the air to get punched by the DaiOni to send her flying into a wall causing a small dent to be made. "Fuck!" Rebecca cursed to spit blood onto the floor. "Shit," Rebecca pulls out a health booster to stick it into her chest to mend her wounds via nanobots.
Her enchanted healing factor along with the nanomachines are rapidly healing the damage. "You are quite the cockroach are you," Ken said as Rebecca sneaked behind some cover to avoid line of sight to search for the weapon. "Wait a minute, I remember you. You were part of that group of cyberpunks who assaulted Arasaka Tower in 2076. Goodness, that was the best sight of stupidity I have ever seen. It was funny to see the feeds of you struggling against Atom Smasher, it was the height of comedy," Ken mocks her efforts to save Lucy.
"Fucking bastard," Rebecca said as she finds the crate saying Mayhem. "Perfect," she grabs the launcher to see it shoulder-mounted and has a slot in the front for the projectile.
"You are just Edgerunner turned nomad. You should have rotted in Corpo Plaza on that day. I will finish what Adam Smasher failed to do," Ken said as Rebecca leaped on top of a crate.
"Not happening," Rebecca fires the launcher to see a bright fire orb speed at Mach 10 to slam through the arm to easily sever it. Ken is beyond surprised by this as he thought his power armor would give him an unbeatable advantage.
"What the hell?" Ken questioned as the DaiOni was missing its left arm.
"Damn," she puts in another pod in the front of the launcher.
"Shit, she has the Mayhem," Ken leaps at her with surprising speed to tackle Rebecca to knock her away. She catches herself to aim with the Mayhem.
"Enough of this you piece of shit," Rebecca fires the Mayhem for the red hot metal orb strikes down the middle to implode inside melting the pilot. Ken is screaming in pain as he's being burned alive until his screams shortly down. "Fuck, this is nasty," Rebecca said as the hot metal orb busted through the thick armor of the DaiOni like it's nothing.
"Yes, Mayhem is the next generation of armor-busting. Power Armors and tanks can be cut through with ease to melt its insides but it's very costly to make," Michiko said on the radio.
"I am going to the mainframe," Rebecca said as her body was rapidly healing to rush through the halls to still hear fighting in the distance. She draws her Lexington to blast incoming troopers with headshots and body shots.
She grabs a soldier to use him like a battering ram to tackle through groups of enemies to smash them on impact. She tosses the broken body into a crowd to leap at them to emit a powerful shockwave to kill them off.
"Holy fuck Rebecca, you managed to take out a DaiOni which is made to fight entire battalions," Lucy asked on the radio being truly impressed by how far Rebecca has come in terms of skill.
"Yeah, it was so tiring but I managed," Rebecca said sounding good about herself.
"Damn, you have truly suppressed the old crew. Becoming a one-woman army," Lucy said giving her some good praise.
"That's nice. That is my job being a heavy, fighting crazy odds for the sake of the clan and all of you," Rebecca said as Lucy smiled.
"David would be proud of you. Just like I am," Lucy said as Rebecca felt happy to hear this.
"Come on, let's finish this mission," Rebecca said.
"Let's," Lucy said as Rebecca headed into the door to be within the mainframe room which is quite spacious.
"Good timing. Those three are going to crack into the ship's network. Tin Man is going to fight off the ship's AI while Stella and Lucy net run to mess with their systems," Cortez said as he showed her an HMG. "You are going to need this. We set up defenses here," Cortez said as there re auto turrets hanging from the walls which is under their control.
"Nova, let's do this," Rebecca said as the duo got on top of a platform that could be used to suppress the incoming foes.
"Okay, let's do this," Michiko said as she grabbed her Achilles to aim at the walls to see if they were coming down to assault them.
'Shit sir, the marine commander is dead by that tiny nomad rat," a sailor said as the captain is not pleased with this.
"Send everything, we got. Don't let them breach our systems," the captain ordered as all the marines were trying to crowd into the area to stop the traitor and her nomad allies trying to take over the ship.
"Pinging targets," Stella said as she showed the incoming troopers heading their way.
"Breaching systems," Klunk said as he distracted the AI while the two netrunners were plugged into the systems trying to crack the powerful ICE onboard the systems.
"Gee, lots of ICE. It's going to take time to get through this," Lucy said as the trio worked together to breach the systems while Michiko, Cortez, and Rebecca were holding back groups of Arasaka marines trying to enter the mainframe room but getting cut down by tech charged shots and hails of machine gun fire.
Cortez is setting them on fire or shocking them to death. He is laying down rapid fire from his AKR-20 LSW light machine gun. Rebecca is putting out explosive rounds to take out cover to blast soldiers apart.
Michiko's tech weapons are eating through walls and picking off targets behind cover and outside in the hallways.
"Damn it, drones," Cortez said as Wyverns come hovering inside to give the soldiers cover. "No, you don't," Cortez hacks one of them to make it into a makeshift missile to crash into a group of marines to kill them in a fiery blast.
Cortez overrides the Wyvern's friend/foe ID to make it switch sides to fire on the Arasaka Marines. "They keep coming," Rebecca said as there was a pile of bodies in the room stacking up.
"Almost there," Lucy said as the netrunner duo managed to reach the end to take control of the ship's systems. "Purging ship AI," Lucy purges the ship's AI to leave it empty.
'Perfect, that AI was beyond boring. I will take over," Klunk said as he fully took control of all of the ship's weapons inside and out. "Time to wipe you out," Klunk turns all the defenses on the crew killing them very swiftly.
Then Klunk launches anti-ship missiles at the support ships in the fleet to begin sinking them to the bottom of the bay.
"Fuck, they took control," the captain was gunned down by the auto turrets to be dead on the floor.
"Hope you like fireworks," Klunk said as all 8 ships in the fleet were sunken via powerful blasts.
"Indeed, I do," Rebecca said as everyone calmed down for the mission was complete. "We did it, we won," Rebecca said feeling beyond excited to hug Lucy and Stella to then kiss Cortez and pat Klunk on the head. "Good work Klunk," Rebecca said.
"All in a day's work Miss Rebecca," Klunk said.
"We fucking did it, we captured the crown jewel of the Arasaka fleet," Rebecca said trying to calm down. "Goodness," she said.
"It's okay, we managed to do something insane, and it worked," Lucy said.
"Never question Panam's plans. They always work out despite how insane they sound," Cortez said.
"Well, now the people in the company will take me seriously after this mission. I will get my people to take it over and bring it to a safe port. Good work guys, this partnership is quite fruitful," Michiko said as they waited for her backup to come and take the ship over.
Cortez, Rebecca, Lucy, Stella, and Klunk got on a speed boat to head back to the San Francisco docks.
"We got a fat reward," Rebecca said as the clan gotten a huge 25 million Eurodollar reward along with their own cut for doing the work.
"Holy fuck, we can get some nice things that," Cortez said.
"We can get some Militech Hellhounds. Those armored cars can be used to protect the camp and go on patrols," Stella said.
"Good idea. We can get some serious hardware to boost our fighting strength," Cortez said.
"Cortez, some power armor of your own would be useful," Klunk said.
"Yeah if I can find some," Cortez said as everyone is happy with the mission to rest easy for a while.