Chapter 43: Breaking Grounds

Nomads noticed something weird had happened to the main pirate base on the island. They see the place had been destroyed with many pirates lying dead. "What the hell happened here?" Mitch commented.

"Seems like something bad has happened here. The best shot to secure the keycard while the pirates are in disarray," Panam said.

"Also taking all the supplies left behind we can use," V said.

"Perfect, we will send in a team with V leading the charge. Wipe out the rest and get the keycard," Panam said as V went over to the restored War Commando ACPA to open the hatch to slide inside.

"Systems online," the computer voice said as V wielded an L-69 Zhuo Smart Shotgun to sync it with the smart link within the suit to aid in targeting.

"Ready to go. Mitch?" V asked as Mitch and another nomad were piloting one of the Basilisk.

"Ready to go," Mitch said.

"Cortez and Rebecca?" V asked on the radio to see the duo along with Klunk in Cortez's armored truck.

"Ready to go boss," Rebecca said.

"Let's sweep in and take that keycard," V said as they went off to the island base to sweep up the rest while securing it.

Within the hour, they reached the bridge to see the destruction ahead. "Shit, what happened?' Rebecca questioned.

"Nothing good," he said, noticing they were a bunch of Creepers eating all the corpses. "Great bugs," V locks onto 8 targets with his L-69 and fires all 8 smart rounds to take out the bugs.

Mitch fires rockets to blast a bunch of Creepers while Cortez fires his truck's HMG to slice into the flying bugs to clear them out.

Rebecca comes out of the truck to use her Lexington to pop the bugs in the head while tossing gash grenades to take out several bugs with arcs of lasers. She loads pyro bullets into her Lexington to fire rounds to set the bugs on fire on impact.

Rebecca rides in the back to switch to her M37A5 to put in accurate shots with the HMG clearing out a ton of Creepers.

"They are going to turn this place into their nest. Better find them or other Creepers show up," V said as he stomped onto the ground to unleash waves of flames to burn up the large bugs.

Rebecca noticed something behind swarmed by the bugs. "Survivors?" she wondered rushing over to fire her assault rifle to tear into the Creepers to get them off someone. "Oh, it's you," Rebecca said to see Maria lying on the ground with her borg body beyond broken. Her head has cracked open her brain is slipping onto the dirt, her limbs broken in different places and half her body is severed. "This looks very familiar," Rebecca said as she was this broken after she almost died to Atom Smasher.

"You are here," Maria said as her eyes were empty, hollow, and badly damaged.

"What happened here?" she asked.

"When you killed my brother. His second-in-command took over and wanted to kill him. The mental toll that you had done, I went into Cyberpsychosis for a while. I went on a killing spree and let my darker thoughts take over," she said as Rebecca looked around to see all the damage she had done.

"You did a number on them. You are still Cyberpsycho?" she asked as Maria nodded her head.

"Yes, I feel so weak. I can hear my brother's voice now. I am going to see him soon," Maria said as she was dying with her skull exposed.

"You love your brother and I killed him," Rebecca said.

"He made his choice and like always he died doing something rash," Maria said.

"You know, I had a brother too," Rebecca said trying to relate with the dying little preteen. "He was annoying as hell but he took care of him. He also died doing something very rash and it deeply hurt when that happened," Rebecca showed empathy with the girl.

"Do you miss him?" she asked as Rebecca's face showed a hint of sadness.

"Every day. I am sorry this happened. I wish we didn't go through this," Rebecca said.

"It's okay, life is quite hard. We don't always do what we want. I was so sickly and my brother did everything within his power to save me and keep me happy. I wanted to make him happy too. I am a terrible sister," Maria said as Rebecca felt powerless to save her brother against a Cyberpsycho.

"Yeah, I was too weak to save him," she said.

"I am sorry. Oh, you are using my gun, I am happy that it's being used in the right hands," Maria said as Rebecca was happy to hear this.

"I wanted this gun, I will put it to good use," Rebecca said as the girl had a faint smile for the lights within her cyber eyes went dark. "There she does. She is like me but I got lucky," Rebecca said as she closed the girl's eyes.

"Well, the girl is no more. Quite sad," Cortez said to drive nearby to let Rebecca on the back.

"Yeah, dumping her in the ocean would be good to avoid being eaten by those monsters," Rebecca said giving the girl's death some dignity which this world denied her.

"We cleared out the bugs and we found the keycard," Cortez said to show her the seventh keycard.

"Cool," Rebecca pulls in the pieces of the young girl. "Drive me to the beach," she said.

"Alright," Cortez said driving to the beach with the rest calling in the nomads to gather up all the gear that was left behind.

Rebecca gets out of the truck to grab a rowboat to put the pieces of the girl on it. "Rest in peace Maria," Rebecca pushes the boat into the water to let it float towards the ocean until the waters claim her.

"Very sentimental," Klunk said.

"I wished someone did that for me if I kicked the bucket," Rebecca said as she got onto the back to drive to the base camp.

Elsewhere Agent Robinson has gotten reports about the destruction of the leadership of the Red Tide caused by a young girl. Robinson can't help but laugh at this along with her troopers.

"Fucking seriously, a little borg girl went Cyberpsycho and wiped them out. How embarrassing," Robinson said.

"Well, at least the pirates are dealt with. We need to finish off the nomads and grab Lucy from them," the trooper said.

"We need to prepare for the assault. Use everything, we got, crush them and wipe them out. Claim Lucy as our prize, then I will get that huge promotion I was going for," Robinson said to plan to wipe out the nomads within the week.

Back with Rebecca playing some VR games like Edgerunners INC with Cortez to relax after their last mission. They were on a tower defense mode protecting the warehouse against a wave of robotic enemies. "So, what is the plan to get the keycard in the Militech base inside the mountain?" she asked.

"Well, we got spies within the area and we need to this quiet. They have a sizable force and going all out would be a death wish. So, we got roles. I will go to the security center in the base to take control of the automatic units while going to turn the generator to overload it killing everyone inside. You will take some C5 to go to the bottom of the base to trigger an explosion to break open an entrance to a nearby Creeper hive while they keep the corpos busy, you go grab the keycard," Cortez said.

"Sounds like a plan. They have too much Military grade hardware to go on a full-on assault. Sneaking is the best idea," Rebecca said.

"Figure you would be the shoot first, ask questions never type," Cortez teases her.

"Well yeah, but some jobs require a bit more tact to pull off. I am a team player," she said.

"Speaking of which, tell me more about your early days as an Edgerunner?" he asked.

"Well, it's been a year since I joined with my brother as a gun-for-hire duo. We got some decent money but our landlord keeps charging us. It's fucking stupid," Rebecca said recalling those times that seems like a lifetime ago.

-Flashback Begins-

Within the year 2072, Rebecca and Pillar have been Edgerunners for a whole year and Rebecca has turned 19 on March 26. It's summertime and Night City is beyond warm with Rebecca putting on a fan next to her bed. She is only in her underwear, not bothering to put on nightwear.

She looks over her collection of weapons to see her first shotgun Guts helping her along the way in becoming a merc for hire. She grabs a Copperhead assault carbine to see the magazine filled with 40 rounds of 4.6x36mm rounds fitting neatly inside.

"Interesting, this round replaced the 5.56 in modern rifles due to the new round has low recoil, low weight, a flat trajectory, and a greater stopping power while holding more ammo per magazine making the 5.56 outdated," Rebecca recalls from her research with her becoming a gun nut over the years tricking out her guns for her jobs.

She puts on a combat scope and suppressor to use it to pick off threats from mid-range. She grabs another weapon she had gotten which is a Guillotine SMG chamber for the .45 ACP holding 32 rounds. She grabs a 64-round drum magazine to switch out in the gun.

"Gee, like those old Thompsons back. This is like the new Tommy gun for modern gangsters," Rebecca said as she felt annoyed by the heat. "Yo, bro. Where is the fucking air conditioning?" Rebecca asked.

"Sorry, they were upgrading it and now we are shit out of luck," Pilar said as Rebecca sighs at this.

"Just fucking great," Rebecca looks at their Eddie count to see they are running low from paying off the rent among other things like ammo and repairing their vehicles. "Damn it, I have a bunch of jobs I can complete to get some extra money," she said as she lit up her eyes to check her list of gigs.

"Yo, bro. You up for a gig?" Rebecca asked.

"Sure, why not, I getting bored," Pilar said as Rebecca handed him a Unity pistol. She arms herself with a Guillotine SMG with a 64-round drum magazine a muzzle brake and her Guts shotgun.

"Alright, I will be providing tech support," Pilar said they went outside to enter a car to head for the docks where their gig was taking place.

"We need to wipe out Maelstrom gangoons here and clear it for the locals," Rebecca said as they arrived at the docks in Watson with the

"I should seek out the maintenance room where I can control the power. Give you an edge if their defenses come online," Pilar said as Rebecca cocks her Guillotine to approach the warehouse to go up the ladder to get to the higher level.

"Got it, don't get killed," Rebecca said as she reached to the floor to get inside via the window.

"Right back at you little sis," Pilar said as he went into a room which has a generator connecting to the area. "Finally, time to give Rebecca some cover," Pilar said to turn off the lights. The thugs were confused by this as Rebecca began to fire her SMG to let the pistol rounds tear into the bodies of the enemies.

"Who the fuck turn off the lights," a Maelstrom thug said as he gets shot in the shot by Rebecca.

"Screw off, who is killing us?" a woman said but she gets peppered with .45 ACP rounds.

"Me, that's who," Rebecca said as Pilar turned off the defenses except the one nearby location. He rewrites the turret to protect the room he is in.

"Perfect, Becca the turrets are off. Go nuts," Pilar said.

"Gee, you don't have to tell me twice," Rebecca said as she slid to cover to toss a frag grenade to blow up a group of Maelstrom thugs. She swings to her shotgun to clear out the thugs in the warehouse to head for the last warehouse where the gangsters up their defenses but Pilar turns them off except for the one protecting his position.

Several Maelstrom members tried to head for the power room but they got cut down by the turret. "Sorry assholes, I figured you would do that," Pilar said as he overloads the turrets with power to make them explode killing off several members.

Rebecca uses frag shells in her Guts to blow apart gangsters with explosive shells seeing piles of gore across the floor and walls. She switches to her SMG to rush through the window to mow down enemies. Her pistol rounds slice and tears into the thugs' bodies to wipe them out

The leader of the Maelstrom is trying to kill her with a PLS but she slides behind cover to avoid this. She uses a flashbang to blind the big brute to put several shots into his head to kill him off to clear the docks.

"Okay, we managed to clear the docks of these motorheads," Rebecca said via holo calls with the dock workers.

"Thanks, little missy, we can work in peace and get it mauled to death. Your eddies will be transferred to you," the worker said as they got 5000 eddies for their troubles.

"Good work bro. You were useful today," Rebecca said.

"My tech knowledge always comes in handy. So, you are going to get pizza with me?" Pilar asked.

"Why not? Not that Buck o' Slice shit. Their stuff tastes like cardboard," Rebecca said as they got into a car.

"How would you know that little sis?" Pilar teased.

"Fuck off, let's get something to eat," Rebecca said as Pilar looks over to see Rebecca got a bullet cut across her arm.

"Oh, your arm is damaged," Pilar said to see a bullet cut across the cyber arm.

"It's nothing," Rebecca said.

"Watch it little Choomba, you are not Supergirl. I need to check if something is wrong," Pilar stopped by a corner to scan the arm to see if something was wrong. "Good, nothing serious," Pilar pulls out a health booster to stick it into her cyber arm to let the nanobot repair the damage.

"Okay thanks, Pilar," Rebecca said.

"Yeah, I have seen workers at the construction company get overworked, putting stress on their cyberware and then a weird glitch happens. Then they snap and kill a bunch of people before Max-Tac comes in and wipes them out. Be careful, always maintain your cyberware and keep it in top shape," Pilar gives her words of advice.

"I will be wary of this," Rebecca said.

"Good, now. Time to get some pizza, I know this little diner in Watson who can hook us up. Chooms there serve some killer pizza. Pepperoni locust pizza got my name on it," Pilar said.

"I see, some pepperoni would be preem," Rebecca said as they went off to the diner to get some well-deserved rest for a job well done.

-Flashback Ends-

Rebecca sighs at this nice memory. "He can be so annoying but he does put a smile on my face. Seeing his head getting blown off hurts to see," Rebecca said with a frown.

"Well, you are healthy and living. He would be happy to see you like this," Cortez said as Rebecca nodded her head.

"Yeah, he would. I would love to name our child after him one day," Rebecca said as Cortez tenderly held her tiny hand.

"That is a nice thought Spitfire. Come on, we should get some sleep. We have a big operation coming up tomorrow. The last keycard and we can get out of this hellhole," Cortez said to strip out of his clothing to be in his boxers.

"Yes, we can do this. Together, no one can fuck with us," Rebecca said feeling excited to head to Nexus to strip down to her blue underwear to get into the bed together. She spoons up with her sweet boyfriend to embrace him. "Good night, baby," she said to kiss him on the lips.

"Good night, Spitfire,' Cortez said as they both peacefully slept within each other's arms for the final battle to leave this accursed region was about to begin.