Chapter 40: Family Ties
Maria is on top of a tower overlooking an outpost, thinking about the situation. Her brother Hawk is on edge lately as the Nomads were destroying his major regional bases. His little game has become his downfall as the Red Tides are getting weaker by the day.
"I wish I could do more," Maria said as the outpost was on alert with the Nomads launching an attack with cars and trucks coming with a single Basilisk backing them up.
"We are being raided," the base commander said as nomads rushed in to kill off a bunch of pirates. "They are going to steal our supplies," the base commander said as Marie grabbed her gun to prepare for its defenses. "Shit, those bastards are better than we thought," the base commander said as a building gets blown up to hear the radio get cut off.
"It's that borg girl again," Stella said as she turned the turrets against her to fire at her. She lobs grenades to take out the turrets with the bullets hitting her skin and damaging her a bit.
Rebecca comes in and kicks the girl to send her flying into a tent. "You are not dropping me this time," she fires her Guts to shoot slugs.
Stella begins to hack into the girl's ICE property. "Keep her busy, I am hacking into her systems," Stella said as she hacked her borg body to see it thick with defenses but with time and patience. "Not this time girly, I am going to crack you like an egg," Stella said to get into a safe position to do her work.
Maria feels her systems are getting compromised as this distraction makes Rebecca tackle her to knock her into a wall. Maria gets onto her feet to use her enhanced reflexes to dodge her incoming slugs. She rolls under her buckshots to kick Rebecca in the chest to knock her into the air.
Cortez fires a mini rocket to slam into Maria to knock her away as he pours a ton of bullets from his SAW hitting her borg body. "Shoot," Maria said as Rebecca regained her balance and kicked the little borg in the face. She briefly goes into Berserk mode to use her boosted super strength to deliver a powerful punch onto her face to crack it and send her across the sands.
"You okay," Cortez said as he hacked the turrets to keep the little borg busy.
Maria feels intense pain in her skull as she dodges incoming grenades to shoot them up. She sees Stella is almost done cracking her ICE. Cortez gets hit with a riot grenade with Maria rushing towards him about to strike him.
"No, you don't," Rebecca said as she tossed an EMP grenade to disable her Kerenzikov to punch her in the chest and fired several shots from her Lexington. Stella managed to hack into her systems to turn off her Kerenzikov for this caught the girl by surprise. Rebeca's mule kicks her while Cortez fires another mini rocket to damage her further.
"Shoot," Maria is getting ganged up with her taking a lot of damage.
"How about you retreat and not get hurt further," Rebecca said not wanting to kill the little girl but she will defend herself if she does anything further.
"You are putting my brother in a bad spot. Ruining his operations here, Vexx is not happy," Maria said.
"Good, we need to get out here. You all are getting in our way," Rebecca said to hold her pistol.
"I will protect my brother and you will not hurt him," Maria said as his body was acting up with Stella hacking into her body and disabling several combat cyberware. She drops her weapon and has a big headache. "No, not now," Maria said as Rebecca looked worried.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"My treatments, I need my treatments," Maria freaks out as she speeds away to get into a truck to speed away back to the base. The remaining pirates retreat with the rest getting killed by the nomads.
"Alright, we managed to capture their outpost. Steal their supplies and go back to base," Cortez said as Rebecca went over to grab Maria's M37A5 AICW combo gun to see the beauty in her hands.
"Finally, I got one and I will add it to my loadout," She said to sling it on her person with a total of 4 weapons on her.
"Got your ideal gun now, what are you going to call it?" he asked,
"Guts, Blood, Love, and Bonds. I will call it Bonds for my clan, my friends, and you. I am going to need to trick it out for my needs," Rebecca said as they took the supplies and weapons for the clan's needs.
Elsewhere Maria heads back to the main base as Hawk and Gene are not pleased with what is happening. A lot of their airpower was destroyed on the oil rig and their outposts are getting raided by Nomads. Militech has been attacking their outposts and bases as well.
"Well babe, this isn't good. Vexx is getting restless and Maria needs those treatments," Gene said.
"I know, I know. Those fuckers are better than I thought. That short rat destroyed a cyberwalker. That thing was a beast and turned it into a flaming heap," Hawk said as Maria returned to see her gun was missing and she was badly damaged.
"Guys, I am sorry," Maria said as she was on her knees.
"Oh fuck, you are beaten up pretty good there. I need you to get into the medical bay," Gene said as Hawk looked on to see his little game had gotten out of control.
"Shit, if Gene or Maria die due to this nonsense. I am going to lose my shit," Hawk said trying hard to hide his vulnerability and keep a brave face for his pirate gang.
Elsewhere Rebecca is in the trailer working on the Militech weapon which is quite compact and sleek. It has the bigger P90-like shape, being a bullpup over/under weapon with a built-in pump action grenade launcher under the barrel to hold 4 mini grenades. It has 150 rounds of 4.5mm rounds in a long P90-style magazine sitting on top.
It has two triggers on the thumbhole stock with the front one for the over/carbine and the back one for the under/grenade launcher.
She paints the gun pink and green like the rest of her guns. She slaps a red dot sight on the railing since It's good up to 400 meters along with a laser sight on the side and a muzzle brake to make the recoil more like a laser beam keeping on target.
She puts a butt pad on the buttstock to make it more comfortable for her to use via the shoulder. She sees a foregrip attached to the handguard which is the pump action of the integrated grenade launcher.
"Perfect, Bonds is ready to go," Rebecca said as she got magazines and mini grenades for Bonds. She looks to see the grenade launcher load like a normal shotgun to slide the mini grenade into the internal magazine.
"Damn Spitfire, you have been in here for a while now," Cortez comes back into the trailer.
"Oh, hey baby, I was working on my new gun. It's ready," she said with a big smile to show her new masterpiece.
"Damn, a pretty piece of kit there. Green and pink goes well with it," Cortez said as she looked at the ammo 4.5mm which is a small round made by Militech to achieve high velocity, flat trajectory, and good penetration with low recoil.
"I fell in love with this thing when I was rescuing you from those killer clowns. Now I got my hands on this baby and I am not letting it go," Rebecca said.
"Lucky that girl dropped it when she did," Cortez said as Rebecca thought about the young girl. "What's wrong?" he asked.
'That girl reminds me of myself. Both of us lost our way, lost our innocence and became killers," Rebecca said as she lost her dream to become a Social Worker, and Marie lost her chance to have a normal childhood by becoming a Borg.
"Yeah, life is rough here. Her being sick turned her into a living weapon. Quite sad but we need to deal with her at some point," Cortez said.
"I know. The last keycard is going to be on their island base. Their main HQ, she is hellbent on protecting her brother," Rebecca said.
"Well, we will get there when it happens," Cortez said as he looked upon the weapon to remember certain soldiers in Militech wielding this. "Lots of Militech special forces users use this like the Jumpers, Cyber Commandos, and even Shock Troopers," Cortez said.
"Shock Troopers?" Rebecca asked.
"They use suits of armor with the protection and maneuverability of an ACPA while being light enough for stealth operations. Giving them enhanced strength, speed, and reflexes while being heavily armored. They are called EMA-3 aka Enhanced Mobility Armor MK 3 or Softshell," Cortez said.
"Like those super soldier space marines from that game series?" Rebecca asked.
"Yeah, like that and they are very hard to kill," Cortez said.
"Militech is insane," Rebecca said as she placed the gun on the rack to leap onto the bed to rest up.
"Yeah, they are. You want to try out your gun outside?" he asked,
"Not now, I need to relax from all that work," Rebecca slipped out of her outfit to only be in underwear consisting of a blue sports bra and grey boy shorts. "Oh boy," she lets out a big yawn to let her back melt against the softness of the pull-out bed.
"We can just relax and watch something," he said.
"Yeah, I need something to watch. Thank goodness, we got a shit ton of good shows and anime to watch," Rebecca said as Cortez sits down on the bed to enjoy a few movies together.
Elsewhere Maria is put in a medical bay, and Gene is looking over her condition to see, she is not doing okay. "Her ICE got cracked and her systems are destroyed. I need to inject some nanobots to fix up the damage. Those medicine drugs need to maintain her mental stability," Gene said as Hawk looked down to be upset with Marie in this state.
"Shit, this is nuts," Hawk said as Gene sees she is stable.
"I am going to need to man the defenses of the sixth location. We need to need this," Gene said as Hawk stopped him.
"I don't want to lose you to those desert rats," Hawk said as Gene kissed him on the lips.
"Don't worry, I will be fine, just don't do anything rash," Gene said as he went off to protect the sixth keycard.
"I doubt it, that little midget always seems to be there to shit on my fun," Hawk said as he prepares for the worst.
Back with the couple who finished their movie watching. Rebecca finished her beef jerky to enjoy their salty crispy goodness. "Oh, that hits the spot. That was a nice watch," she said.
"Yeah, it was pretty good. Wanted to watch that, lots of explosions in there," Cortez said as Rebecca remembered there was a pretty lady as one of the lead characters.
"So, babe, who has better tits. Her or me?" she asked as Cortez lovingly looked down at her sports bra holding in her small breasts.
"Yours of course," Cortez playfully pokes her right breast to see it giggle slightly under her underwear.
She kisses him on the cheek. "Good answer," she said as she was thinking about something.
"Hey I wonder where did you get Guts from?" he asked.
"Oh right, my brother gave it to me as a gift for my first days as an Edgerunner. I needed a bigger weapon. Since I got no support from the Mox anymore. Just me and my brother from the beginning," Rebecca recalls her first days as an Edgerunner with her brother by her side.
-Flashback Begins-
Rebecca is in her room to check her Unity pistol thinking she needs a new gun for her new life as an Edgerunner. "Well, this is a new day for me. Time to put my skill to work," she thought as she got out of her room to see her big brother holding something.
"Yo choom, I got something for you. You need to upgrade your wares and I got this for you," Pillar gives her a Carnage shotgun.
"Bro, are you fucking kidding me. It looks like a bit of junk," Rebecca said.
"Yo, don't underestimate it Choom. This big girl is a 4-gauge beast, it split a man in half with ease," Pillar said as Rebecca grabs the gun to cock it to hear a powerful thud from the chamber.
"Interesting," she said.
"Well Rebecca, I got you a job. It's pretty simple, you are going to get into a Scav hideout and take out a car they stole. Our client wants it back," Pillar said.
"Seems simple enough," Rebecca said as Pillar gave her a device.
"You are going to need this. This will scramble the data on the car and wipe out any locks the Scavs put in it. I am sending you the location, good luck little sis," Pillar said with a dumb grin on his face.
"Alright, hope this doesn't blow up in my face," Rebecca said as her eyes glowed to summon her bike to get on top to speed off to her mission objective. She rides across the streets of Night City to see the crime and corruption spewing at the seams of this wretched place.
"This is my life, doing these types of jobs and earning a living like this," Rebecca feels somber at this but she is focused on her new life and making the most of it. "Time to fetch this car," she said as she went to a warehouse area nearby where the Scavs are located.
She parks her bike as she wields her new gun the Carnage to head into the base of operations. She leaps through the window to see two Scavs nearby let out two buckshots which destroy the gangsters. The thunderous cracks echo throughout the area and the Scavs know someone is in their base.
Rebecca looks to be impressed with the gun. "Hot damn, this is better than I thought," Rebecca said with a big smile on her face. She gets to work as several thugs are coming into the room trying to kill her.
"Get the midget now," the leader said.
"Oh, you piece of shit," Rebecca tosses a frag grenade to take out a group of them with ease. She fires a slug to blow off the Scav's head as she reloads the shotgun. She pushes a table to launch it into a Scav to crush him against the wall killing him instantly.
Rebecca slides behind cover to dodge waves of bullets and grenades. She fires a buckshot with the depleted uranium pellets tearing into anything in their path killing three gangoons quickly.
Rebecca sees the Masamune assault rifle to see it has 24 rounds of 6.8x43mm having good stopping power and accuracy at medium ranges with a deadly 3-round burst. "Oh nice," she said adding to her arsenal to see it has a low power scope to aid in sniping targets.
She begins to use it as she puts precise headshots into the skulls wiping them out with ease. "Eat that fuck faces," she taunted them as she heads for the garage to see more Scav thugs trying to kill her.
She pulls out her Unity pistol to blast them while rushing through the area getting in headshots. She slides under a table to punch a guy in the knee and puts her pistol at his skull to cut through it with a .45 ACP bullet.
She tosses a frag grenade to kill a bunch of gangsters as Rebecca laps onto a woman's head to twist her neck hard with her meaty thighs. "Good night asshole," she said as she killed the last guy with her new Carnage. "Goodness, I like this thing a lot," she said to kiss the barrel to see the car she needed to take back.
"Perfect," she pulls out Pillar's device as it wirelessly hacks into the systems to clear it of problems allowing her to gain control of it. "Oh okay, you did something good Pillar," she said as she entered inside to get out of the hideout to get on the road.
"Yo bro, I got the car. Having for the location to deliver it," Rebecca said.
'Excellent Becca. Seems like cake for you. My device works like a charm," Pillar said.
"Yeah, it did, seems like your time in the technical offices wasn't a waste of time," Rebecca said.
"It's their fucking lose, those idiots," Pillar said as Rebecca got to the location to deliver the car to get paid with 2000 eddies.
"This is okay," Rebecca summons her bike to get onto it and speed back home. Soon enough they enter her home to see Pillar watching some TV.
"So how was the shotgun?" Pillar asked as Rebecca felt good about it.
"You know, you can do something good once in and while," Rebecca said trying to hide her feelings but Pillar knew she was happy with his pick.
"So, you going to name that thing?' Pillar asked as Rebecca looked at the shotgun to have a good name in mind.
"Yeah, Guts. That's what it's going to be called," Rebecca said.
"Right to the point as always. Come Killer 6 is on," Pillar said as Rebecca smiled at this.
"I will make some popcorn and we will enjoy the movie," Rebecca went over to the kitchen to use the microwave.
"Damn straight," Pillar said as Rebecca is making snacks to feel happy Pillar is there for her at this tough time in her life.
"Brother, don't change," Rebecca said as she enjoyed a movie night with her brother.
-Flashback Ends
Cortez nods his head to have a smile on his face. "That is a very sweet gift. Your gun Guts is a present from your older brother," Cortez said as Rebecca looked over at the green and pink shotgun with fondness.
"I miss that idiot. He is always there for me. That gun served me well back then until I departed ways from it for a time. Until you gave it back to me," Rebecca said.
"Yeah, V was using your gun throughout his quest through Night City to save himself. He killed so many people with it. Gangoons to Corpo soldiers to Special Forces of the NUSA to killing Adam Smasher and taking out troopers on the Crystal Palace. This gun truly has a story to tell," Cortez said.
"V found it at Corpo Plaza, how did he find it?" she asked.
"He just found it when he was checking out the place. It was under a bunch of bushes when he found it," Cortez said recalling the story V told him about finding Rebecca's ironic shotgun Guts.
-Flashback Begins-
V is within Corpo Plaza taking a break from his gigs to get money to improve his weaponry. V has gotten a Masamune which is a great weapon for any situation but he needs a close-range monster that suits his needs.
"I need a good shotgun for me to use," V said as Johnny popped out of nowhere to sit on a bench.
"Well, you need some sunshine and toxic air to clear your mind about this," Johnny said in a dry tone.
"Shut it," V said as he walked over the bushes to see something interesting. "What the hell?" he wondered to see a pink and green Carnage shotgun under the bushes.
"Strange as hell, there is a shotgun laying down here in the middle of Corpo Plaza," Johnny said as V grabs the gun to see it looks quite worn and it has the words PK Dick on the side. "Oh, what a piece of shit. These Carnage weapons are quite frontloaded, Only crazy fuckers would use this thing," he said.
V looks on the back to see the words Guts by Rebecca. "Rebecca, I think Rouge said she was part of David's Crew," V said as he met Falco by text and talked very little about David's old team. He went to Rouge and told him about them being there at the Afterlife and finding the little one Rebecca quite amusing.
"Quite the firecracker that one; makes sense she would use this. I wonder if we can find out more about David and the others' fates," Johnny said getting more curious.
"Yeah, when we got the time. Looks like I found my gun with some interesting history," V slings Guts on his back to make it his main shotgun. "Let's make some more memories with it," V said as he and Johnny went off to do a new Gig to test out this new weapon of his.
-Flashback Ends-
Rebecca is happy to hear Rouge remembers her when she went to the Afterlife so many years ago. "So, V was tracking down info about us?" she asked.
"He was curious after Falco gave V David's jacket as a show of respect and reminding him of David. He managed to track down David's Sandevistan and your Niches at the Columbarium. Then he confronted Falco and told him everything about you all," Cortez said.
Rebecca feels happy to know she wasn't forgotten and someone cared about their story. "Oh V," she said as her heart swelled to know this. "Gee V knows everyone huh?" Rebecca asked as she was surprised V knows Rouge.
"Oh, they are good friends. Even work on gigs with her as his Fixer," Cortez said.
"Damn, wish Rouge was our Fixer. She is a legend in Night City. Professional to a fault. We got a dirtbag of a fixer named Faraday, who ruined everything," Rebecca feeling sour about that.
"That is in the past now. Now you are here and in a better place," Cortez said as Rebecca went up to him to give a deep kiss on the lips.
"A much better place. Let me clean my stuff," Rebecca said as Cortez was willing to help her out. Rebecca looks at Guts to feel happy her brother brought it for her able to make a difference for her and V on their quests to seek their happiness.