Chapter 7: Remembrance
Michiko has contacted V to tell him the bad news. "V this is Michiko. I need to tell you about Falco. He is dead," she said as V is surprised by this.
"Seriously?" he asked.
"Yes, I have seen the security video. Myers was there with her FIA agents. She murdered him by her own hands. Militech secured the house now," Michiko said.
"Damn it, Myers," V said.
"Well, things get worse. Myers is seeking out Lucy, this is pretty bad. Songbird is lost to her and now she will get the next best thing," Michiko said.
"Trying to fuck with the Blackwall?" he asked.
"Yes. Trying to use it to push America to be number 1 once again. it's insane, why even bother at this point? No one is alive to see what America was like before the Collapse," Michiko said.
"She is going to turn Lucy into an AI weapon," V said as Falco told him about his crew and what happened to them.
"Yes and if she gets her hands on her. She wished she would be back at Arasaka. Lucy is in the lunar city of Wells. I am going to set up a personal shuttle to get there. I need your best guys to help me get her out of there," Michiko said.
"You are going too?" V asked.
"Of course, I want this to go off without a hitch. Who do you have?" she asked.
"Cortez and Rebecca. They are my Heavies. They will aid in the mission to save Lucy. It's going to get rough there, Keep you posted when the mission begins," Michiko said as she cut off the line.
"Rebecca is not going to be happy about this," V said as later that day, Rebecca and Klunk were sent to wipe out a group of Wraiths at an old airport that was left abandoned decades ago.
"So many rusted pieces of junk here," Rebecca said as she used Klunk's mini thrusters to land on top of a roof to overlook a bunch of Wraiths.
"This place used to be a good way to reach the East Coast but it's left forgotten here. Just a den of bastards now," Klunk said as Rebecca loaded electro slugs into her shotgun Guts to toss EMP grenades to hurt and stun the enemies with Rebecca lining up shots with her slugs.
"Knock, knock. Motherfuckers," Rebecca leaps down to fire into their heads to see them disappear. She dashes to the side to avoid a series of bullets to put holes into the bandits.
"Miss Rebecca, there are a few on the roof of that building over there," Klunk said as Rebecca dashed away to switch to her scoped revolver Love to look through the scope to place shots into the skulls of her enemies.
She tosses a Frag Grenade to take out a group of enemies. She charges up energy into her fist to pound onto the ground to emit a shockwave to blast apart Wraiths around her. A few Wraiths were wielding machine guns to pepper her with bullets.
She took some hits but she activated her Adrenaline Rush to increase the thickness of her skin to tank more shots and heal up her wounds. She begins to dual-wield both Love and Blood to shoot out multiple enemies with Love pulling off headshots and Blood littering Wraiths with bullets.
Rebecca strikes the car with a punch to launch it into a group of enemies to crush them on impact. "I detect no Wraiths in the area. The area is secured," Klunk said as Rebecca took a breath.
"All in a hard day's work. Mitch, I managed to clear out the old airport. You can take what's inside," Rebecca said.
"Thanks, Spitfire. You are doing good work for us. Keep it up," Mitch said as she got back onto her motorcycle to head back to the Aldecaldos camp.
'Impressive. Too bad Cortez was on another mission," Klunk said.
"I can handle myself but having a sweetheart around never hurts," Rebeca said.
"Very smitten huh?" Klunk teases her.
"Of course, he is my first real boyfriend," Rebecca said as Klunk remembered about her situation.
"Right, you had your first date not too long ago," Klunk said as Rebecca was smitten with him.
"That was very sweet. I am so lucky, let's head back to base camp," Rebecca said as she zipped onto the dirt road to get into the camp to get into her trailer which V had called her on the holo.
"Rebecca, this is V. I need to speak with you," V said.
"Sure boss, you need something?" she asked.
"Rebecca, your friend Falco is dead. I am sorry," V said as this made her heart sting from faint pains.
"Not again, I just saw him before I left the city," Rebecca getting very angry at this.
"Myers was the one who zeroed Falco. Saw it on the feed. Michiko went there and got the data from his house systems," V said.
"Damn it, I am going to kill that bitch," Rebecca said as V has the same feeling.
"There is more, your friend Lucy is in grave danger. After what I did, Myers wants someone to continue her AI research into the Blackwall. Lucy is her key to this," V said.
"Seriously. After all the shit we went through and Lucy is still in danger," Rebecca said.
'Yes, and it's much worse than you can imagine. What Myers is doing with the Blackwall is deeply illegal. Once the other superpowers like the EEC, Soviet Union, Japan, and China find out about her little experiments. She would be a traitor to humankind. They would want her removed or they will force her to be removed," V said as Rebecca knows how much deep shit that would be.
"It would be World War 3," Rebecca said coldly.
"Right, nuclear hellfire everywhere. Once we deal with Miss Arasaka's little civil war with her uncle. She will use her connections to set up and get rid of Myers for good. Getting her off our backs and making the world safer. Everyone wins except for Myers of course," V said.
"That is insane," Rebecca said in an outburst.
"Well, her ambition overrides her common sense but she was a former Militech CEO. So just another Corpo to take out," V said.
"Damn straight, I will help any way I can. Boss," Rebecca said.
"Well. Within a day. You, Cortez, and Klunk will go with her to the moon to aid in your friend Lucy and escape back to earth," V said as Rebecca laughed at this.
"Man, never think I would be fighting beside an Arasaka in saving Lucy. Gee, that woman's past always haunting us," Rebecca said.
"Indeed, Michiko told me about Arasaka's experiments with the Blackwall. Lucy was part of this abandoned project, Searching the old net for secret lost data and finding all sorts of Rouge AI," V said.
"Lucy doesn't talk about her past," Rebecca said.
"I thought you were Chooms?" he asked.
"Well, we were more like co-workers than friends. I wanted to know her better but she is just being an ice queen to everyone except her boyfriend," Rebecca said.
"Right, we both have something in common. Aiding a mysterious net runner with dubious motives and sending them to the moon with so much on the line. I have been there, trust me," V said as Rebecca deeply admired him ever since V's exploits were on the news and underground rumors.
"You have quite a colorful career," Rebecca said as V laughed at this.
"You have no idea how much craziness I got at in Night City. Enough to last three lifetimes," V said as Rebecca was curious about something.
"I was wondering, how did you beat Adam Smasher? He seemed so strong," Rebecca said as she didn't stand a chance at the time
"Trust me, Rebecca I have seen things that Adam Smasher look like a puppy," V said as fighting the Chimera and seeing Songbird's Blackwall abilities shake him to his core.
"You truly are something else, can you tell me the story?" she asked.
"Tell you all about it. Hope it gives you the closure you seek," V said as he recalled the story of the Aldecaldos' raid of Arasaka with Saul, Panam, and V working together to crave their way to Mikoshi.
-Flashback Begins-
Within the guts of Arasaka Tower, V, Panam, and Saul are approaching the chamber of Mikoshi. "Not too far from here," Panam said as the door behind them exploded to reveal the boogeyman of Night City Adam Smasher.
"Saul," Panam said as he was on the floor holding his shotgun.
"For the Aldecaldos!" Saul shouted to fire full-powered double slugs to pierce through Adam's armored body.
"Waste of meat," Adam Smasher crushes Saul's skull with Panam bursting in deep rage.
'Saul! I am going to kill that bastard," Panam showing no fear of wielding her Nekomata Sniper Rifle.
"Panam, I got this," V said as he pulled out his Mantis Blades to feel the power surging in his spine.
"Okay, I will hold off the troops," Panam said to kiss him for luck with Adam Smashing laughing at this.
"This will become a slaughterhouse, I hope to make this quick," Adam Smasher said as V was not amused to hold his combat stance. V can see weak points via the special Militech program Songbird gave him to increase his combat skills to the next level.
"Sorry, I don't talk like a supervillain. Let's do this," V said as he rushed forward to see Adam using his Sandy. V answers with his own Apogee Sandevistan implant to match his speed.
"Basic implant," Adam said.
"Basic bitch," V said coldly to activate his Optical Camo to slide and avoid Adam's close-range strike. Adam is bothered he didn't detect the camo sooner while V slides between his legs. He bounces up from behind and uses a Sandy-enhanced barrage of slashes with his arm blades to strike the weak points on his back giving Adam Smasher intense pain.
Adam is a bit surprised as V dashes forward to use Guts to blast into his back to hit another weak point doing more damage. "How are you?" he wondered.
"Militech software, a good friend of mine gave me some top secret government upgrades. More than basic implants," V mocks him as he begins to dash around while using his powerful optical camo to distract and confuse Adam Smasher. V uses the MA 3516 aka Johnny's hand cannon to fire from a distance to strike his weak points which are exposed to him.
"Interesting," Adam Smasher said as he resumed the fight with him unloading hails of bullets. A few bullets hit Adam's machine gun to make it explode to stun him. V swiftly uses his Apogee Sandy and his Mantis Blades to slash all his weak points over 100 times to appear behind him.
Adam took all the hits to be further damaged to be surprised this young merc is this skilled. V uses his Apogee, Optical Camo, Mantis Blades, Guts, MA 3516, and Militech upgrades like tools to pick Adam Smasher apart bit by bit.
"Enough," Atom Smasher goes to punch and tackle V who is dodging and weaving to pull out a grenade. Atom Smasher catches him as they grapple with their hands but V shows the flashbang to close his eyes. The big flash stuns Atom Smasher for a moment with V loads a slug into Guts to blow off his right arm.
"This feeling of pain, I haven't felt in a long time since I fought Morgan Blackhand," Adam Smasher said as he leaped on top to summon troops to aid him in combat.
"What's wrong, hiding behind your goons," V mocks him as he can tell he is getting under Adam's skin.
Panam looks on in shock to see V gaining ground on Adam Smasher. "The Reaper indeed," Panam feeling proud of him while holding back squads of Arasaka commandos. Killing them off with precise headshots as she tosses a grenade to blast apart another squad.
Panam can see Adam Smasher unleashing waves of missiles to crash onto the bottom level. V dashes away to avoid the barrage. "Son of a bitch," Panam fires a charged shot from her Tech Sniper Rifle to destroy the shoulder-mounted missile pod.
"Disgusting piece of meat," Adam Smasher said as V tossed a flashbang ahead to use his Sandy to use his speed to jump onto the upper level. Panam can see Adam leap towards her but the flashbang explodes blinding him to throw off his jump.
"Oh, hell no," V jumps up and grabs Adam around his back and piledrives him into the floor below.
Then over 200 of Adam Smasher's elite commando unit appear trying to help but V goes into overdrive to go into his hunting mode using his dashing and Optical Camo to begin picking apart the troops within his favorite tastic. Controlled Chaos allowing him to manipulate the battlefield to his liking and strike at the opportune moment.
"Shit, this is the Reaper. He managed to down Adam Smasher. What do we do?" the commando questioned as all of his comrades were blown up via grenades, vaporized by Guts, heads shot up by MA 3516, sliced to ribbons with mantis blades, or getting their necks snapped via camo stealth kills.
"Hold the li.." before the commander says anything V slices him in half with gore covering up the clean sleek floors painting them red with their blood and guts. V tosses an EMP grenade to shock the remaining soldiers to use Guts to spread their broken bodies across the floor.
Panam looks on to see how scary it is to fight V who looks like a cold seeker of death. Not wasting any movements to only use what is necessary to put down his enemies.
Adam Smasher comes back onto his feet to see all of his troops were murdered by V. "So is this the slaughterhouse you were talking about," V coldly mocks him.
"Impressive but you are still going to die," Adam Smasher said as V disappeared using his camo to merge into the background. "Why are you hiding?" Adam asked.
"It's called tactics dumbass," V said as he set up proxy grenades all over the field within corpses.
"Only the strongest win in the end," Adam Smasher said as V sighs at this.
"Sounding like a true meathead. I want to ask you a question. Who wins in the end, the T-Rex or the Ant," V said trying to share some philosophy. "Panam, I need you to get into position to strike his heart. We need to end this," he said via radio.
"Of course, I got this," Panam said as she set up her rifle to wait for the signal.
"Well, it's the T-Rex of course," Adam said as V shook his head expecting this answer.
"You are a dumb brute," V said as Adam stepped on a corpse to hear a few beeps for the proxy grenade to go off stunning him. V swiftly slices his other arm to sever it leaving the cyborg armless.
"What?" Adam screamed as he was beginning to lose his cool and getting desperate.
"The T-Rex is long dead but the ant remains. Because the ant adapts and changes with the times but the T-Rex can't change. I am the Ant and you are the T-Rex. Like the T-rex, you will be ancient history soon," V moves in and lunges at Adam Smasher to drive his Mantis Blades into his heart to pump electricity into it.
Adam is groaning in pain as Panam holds the charge on the rifle. "Get off me," Adam shoves V off of him as V gives Panam the signal.
"Eat this, you bastard," Panam fires the charged projectile to pierce the cyber heart putting Adam in a critical state.
"This ends now," V activates the full power of the Apogee Sandevistan to have everything stop moving around him. He focuses on this one attack as he managed to slash Adam Smasher over 200 times in less than a minute striking at all his weak points multiple times.
Panam looks on to see V is just a blur who got behind Adam as Adam Smasher violently explodes. He is on his knees to be a flaming heap of scrap. Being barely alive. V pulls out Rebecca's shotgun to cock it and put the barrel to his skull.
"Nothing but a dumb brute," V said before Adam could say anything V used Guts to vaporize his head. "Fucking finally," V said as he and Panam approach the chamber of Mikoshi with Adam Smasher being no more.
-Flashback Ends-
V finished his story with Rebecca being very impressed with her boss's exploits against Adam Smasher. "You fared tons more than David did using your skills and gear alone. I'm thankful that you used my shotgun to end him," she said.
"It was a good gun, carried me throughout my time in Night City and beyond," V said.
"And beyond?" Rebecca asked.
"Well, that mess with Mikoshi. I got rid of the Relic but its damage was going to kill me in 6 months. Panam sought out a way of curing me and we found it in a guy named Mr. Blue Eyes. Steal data from the Crystal Palace and then I get my cure," V said as Rebecca was dumbfounded by this.
"You raided the Crystal Palace and lived to tell the tale?" she asked.
"Yep," V said as Rebecca was even more impressed by this.
"Wow, truly insane. I thought that was a crazy rumor but you are truly a Night City Legend. Among the best in history," Rebecca said as V felt humbled by this.
"Well at that point. I didn't care about the glory anymore. I was fighting for something more than myself," V said as Rebecca related to this.
"I know the feeling too well. This whole thing is a big eye-opener for me. I was always living on the edge and now I have something worth fighting for. My new life as a nomad," Rebecca said.
"I am glad you see it that way. Relax and prepare. Tomorrow everything should be set up for you to head for the moon to save Lucy," V said.
"Hey, can you tell me more stories about your time as a Solo? Like the Crystal Palace Heist?" Rebecca asked.
'Of course, when we have the time. See you later," V said to cut off the comms as she spread out her limbs to hop onto the couch.
"Gee, Lucy. Always with the secrets and biting us in the ass," Rebecca said as Lucy's secretive nature made everything wrong for David and the others. "I saved her for his sake," she thought as she looked on her phone to call in a delivery.
"Calling for pizza?" Klunk asked.
"Yep, give me and the big guy a treat to snack on," Rebecca said as she stripped out of her nomad outfit to be in her underwear. "Yes, can you get me a large zesty cheese pizza with some garlic bread bites? If you don't get here in time, you are not getting a nice fat tip," she said to cut off the phone.
"Is that needed?" he asked.
"Yes, you got to put them on a timer and then they get here very fast," Rebecca said sounding like words of wisdom.
"I will take your word for it," Klunk said as Cortez came in to see Rebecca in her underwear consisting of a black sports bra and black panties hugging her curves like her wide hips and big booty.
"Damn, always nice to have wonderful sight to greet me when after a mission," Rebecca jumps to him and hugs him to kiss him on the kiss while on her tiptoes.
"Here there baby, hear about the mission?" she asked.
'Yep. This is the big one, I hope you are ready for this?' Cortez asked as Rebecca was both psyche and nervous.
"Yes, Lucy is in danger and we are going to save her," Rebecca said.
"Love the boldness but Myers is beyond precise yet batshit crazy. Be ready for anything," Cortez said.
"Don't worry about your bald head. We got this," Rebecca said as Cortez smiled at this.
"Your brightness is a comfort for me in these trying times," Cortez said.
"I try my best, also I got us some pizza to chew on," Rebecca said.
"What is made of?" he asked.
"Zesty cheese," Rebecca said.
"Good choice, we need to unwind before the mission tomorrow. How was your raid on a Wraith base?" he asked as he pulled out some beers to drink.
"Those guys are nasty pieces of work. Rapes, ripping out lungs and chrome. All sorts of crazy stuff," Rebecca said as she took one and drank it up.
"Yeah, we had to deal with them for a while now. Once we go out of the Northern California region. We shouldn't be seeing them anymore once we leave the area to go north," Cortez said as they heard the door ringing.
"Delivery," the driver said.
"That was quick, told you it works," Rebecca said as she grabbed a bunch of Eurodollars to hand them to the driver at the door. "Thank you and here is a meaty tip for you," Rebecca said as she handed him 30 eddies with extra. She grabs the garlic bites and pizza to bring it inside. "Time to eat up, we should watch a movie," Rebecca said.
"How about this setup? Vicious 5, an action movie classic," Cortez said as she liked this.
"Blood, guts, and explosions, I like the way you think," Rebecca said.
"Seems like brain rot to me," Klunk said.
"You don't understand. Sometimes all a person needs is sex and violence to be distracted," Rebecca said.
"Yeah it appeals to your lizard brains," Klunk said lightly.
"Indeed, but I got that in a cute little package," Cortez taps her on the ass making her jump.
"Ah, that is so sweet," Rebecca said as she rubbed his bald head to kiss him on the lips. "Here I got the pizza and garlic bread bites. So tasty," she said as she grabbed two slices out of 8 and took 4 bites out of 16. "Enjoy baby," Rebecca said as she took her plate and sat on the couch to look at the movie.
"Thanks," Cortez takes his share of food to sit beside Rebecca to watch the action movie. "After the movie and food, I need to set up my gear to use on the moon," he said.
"Gee, we should go to the moon for a vacation or something," Rebecca said.
'Could arrange something if we got the time," Cortez said.
"Beach would be nice too," Rebecca said thinking about wearing a cute bikini.
"Yeah would be a nice thought to see you in something sexy but let's not swim toxic waste," Cortez said as he thought about Rebecca in sexy swimwear.
"You will very soon. Come on, snuggle up. We got a movie to finish," Rebecca said as they relaxed and enjoyed themselves before the big mission.
Rebecca looks out the window to see the moon hanging in the air. "Lucy, we are coming to save you," Rebecca thought as she mentally prepared for her first big mission as a nomad.