Chapter 41: Fallen Ridge
Rebecca goes on a solo mission to destroy a pirate outpost in the morning. She is using her new gun giving it a test run. She cocks the M37A5 to use Klunk's mini thrusters to boost into the air to slam into the opening to unleash a shockwave to knock all the pirates away. She unloads several bursts from her AICW to tear into their bodies with the armor-piercing Tungsten-tipped rounds.
Multiple chromed-out pirates were being dropped like flies with Rebecca lobbing a sticky mini grenade to take out a group of enemies. She pumps the launcher under the barrel to lob another sticky grenade which destroys a hut and kills everyone inside.
She tosses a Gash grenade to kill off multiple enemies with arcs of lasers to slice and burn them into piles of burning flesh, metal, and bone.
She sideways out of the way of a rocket with Klunk dashing her further to avoid gunfire. She shoulders her M37A5 to pepper her foes with high-velocity rounds cutting and slicing into their bodies.
She tackles a pirate and knocks her into a building to fire a cluster mini grenade to blow and unleash a set of bomblets destroying the building and killing everyone inside.
She looks through the red dot on her weapon to fire several quick bursts to take out several pirates. "Watch out, Minotaurs," Klunk detects two robots firing their twin HMGs tearing through the buildings and cover. Rebecca leaps on top of a broken building to lob a cluster mini grenade to destroy one of the two Minotaurs.
She throws an EMP grenade to disable the robot as she lobs a cluster mini grenade to unleash a barrage of explosions to take out the robot clearing out the camp. "Okay, I managed to clean up here," Rebecca said on the comms.
"Good work, we will come in and steal all their goodies. We will take it from here," Mitch said to cut off the line.
"Good work Miss Rebecca, you have done well here. The M37A5 test run is a complete success," Klunk said as Rebecca nodded her head to kiss her new weapon Bonds.
"I know right, this gun kicks so much ass. It's not even fun. I feel like a one-woman army with this thing," she said to sling it on her back along with Guts
"You are going to need more space to hold more ammo," Klunk said as Rebecca was thinking about updating her nomad outfit for combat use.
"You are right. I do have my new jacket but I wanted something more custom for my needs. Those scraps of Mayhem gunship metal alloy will be useful to make the armored weave in my new samurai jacket like the one I used to wear," Rebecca said.
"Interesting," Klunk said as she went over to her bike to ride off back to the camp to rest up for the new mission.
Elsewhere Agent Robinson knows one of the leaders of the Red Tide Gene is located in a mountainous area using this time to cripple the pirates' leadership. "Perfect, I am going to send a strike force to get rid of Hawk's lover," Robinson said as she sent a battlegroup to wipe out the entrenched pirate camp.
She sends Power Armored troopers, Combat Borgs, armored vehicles, and assault gunships to destroy the base and wipe out the second in command of the Red Tide.
Back with Rebecca who is getting a tune-up from Marie. She is sitting on the chair as Marie deactivates her lower legs to open them up to maintain the cyberware inside. "Lots of trinkets around here?" Rebecca asked to see Marie's old stuff from her time on the Trauma Team.
"Yep, some of it is still useful. Lots of medical tools I took from my time there. Also, I kept guns and armor too," Marie shows her old medical battle suit but stripped down to fit her nomad lifestyle. There is a G-58 Dian smart SMG and an Omaha tech pistol for defensive use.
"Damn nice gear," Rebecca said as her lower legs are finished to close them up.
"Okay, you are done," Marie said.
"Thanks, Doc, see you later," Rebecca said to go off to get a drink from the trailer's bar to see V and Panam talking with each other.
"There is my favorite gal beside Pan of course," V said as Panam had a playful look.
"Real smooth V, you have been doing well Rebecca. We only got three keycards left and we can get out of here. I have a plan to get into that mountain base where Militech is hiding. It's going to be so sweet," Panam said.
"Hey V, Cortez talked about you finding out about my old crew," Rebecca said.
"Oh yeah, I was curious about it. After Falco gave me his jacket, I called up Rogue to tell me about you and the others. It wasn't much but I got a lead. Went on a little quest to find out more about you until I met with Falco himself. Told me the whole story," V said.
"Why did you do that?" Rebecca asked.
"I know the feeling of not wanting to be forgotten. So, knowing your story, makes me understand you guys better and take what mistakes you all made and use it to learn better," V said.
"To not be forgotten, my life is a big rollercoaster guy. I am glad you did this for me and gave me a second chance for happiness," Rebecca said with a big smile.
"We are glad to have you on board. Now onto the sixth keycard which is located on the side of a mountain. Go in, steal the keycard, and get out. After this, Militech needs to be dealt with which will take a lot of time to think through," Panam said.
"Of course, getting closer to Nexus," Rebecca said.
"Get your things, Cortez is already told about it," V said as Rebecca went back to the trailer to grab her weapons including her new one to put on her yellow jacket. She slings Guts and Bonds on her back with Klunk there as well. She grabs a bunch of ammo to put them in her pouches on her person and in her jacket.
Rebecca comes outside to meet Cortez at the truck. "Looking like you are ready for war," Cortez said as Rebecca had all her four weapons on her.
"Yep, things are going to get serious," Rebecca said as Cortez had an AKRB-20 assault rifle with a short-range scope and foregrip and an M2045 Diplomat shotgun.
"Yeah, we are almost there," Cortez said.
"I am hearing traffic of Militech moving within the area," Klunk said.
"We need to make this quick," Cortez said as they sped off to the pirate base near the mouth of a mountain. The giant shadow looms over the base of the mountain. "Quite the setup, we need to locate the keycard, grab it, and get out of here," he said as they parked the car nearby to begin approaching the base.
"Lots of weapons' emplacements," Rebecca said as they split up to cover more ground to begin going through holes in the fences.
"Very helpful if shit hits the fan," Cortez said as Rebecca grabs a nearby pirate to snap his neck and dragged his corpse into the crate to hide it inside.
"Nothing yet," Rebecca said as Cortez dragged a pirate into a container to hide his dead body.
Elsewhere within the base, Gene is overlooking the operation to ease Hawk's worries. "Gee, don't be a worrywart. I will be fine. I need to prepare for an attack by Militech, they are coming in hot here. I got a surprise from him," Gene said with a big grin with a powerful machine under his control which would wipe out the megacorp forces.
Back with the couple, Rebecca boost jumps on top of a building to leap down to snap her neck with her meaty thighs. She finds a piece of paper that has a marker for the keycard as a reminder.
"Hey babe, I found it. It will be on the far side of the base," Rebecca said.
"Good, we need to meet up there and take the key," Cortez said as then suddenly there was an explosion going off. "Oh shit," he said as Militech forces are coming in with armored vehicles, power armor troops, and gunships.
"Well, this is the worst time for this to happen," Klunk said.
"Death to the rats. Wipe them out," the field commander said as Militech clashed with the Red Ride turning the area into a battlefield.
"Gee, this is a mess," Rebecca said as she pointed her shotgun to turn the top half of the pirate into a red paste on a wall.
"Damn it, those Nomads are here too," a pirate said as Cortez pops him in the head with his semi-auto rifle to end him.
"Time to make a mad dash for the keycard and get out of here," Cortez said as he hacked a turret to turn on the pirates causing more confusion. He fires several shots to put them in the head of several pirates. They hear the gunfire and explosions getting closer.
He switches to his shotgun to rapidly fire his buckshots at the cyber dogs to blow off their heads. He uses PLS to blow up a hut turning it into a pile of rubble.
Then he hears Militech has gotten too close to the area. One of the Full Borg soldiers appears to slice at Cortez to block it with his rifle but it gets cut in half. "Oh Cortez, you are here of all places," the FB soldier said.
"Miss me that much?" Cortez asked dryly.
"We all see you as a traitor to the cause. All American traitor," the FB soldier said to sport his mantis blades from his forearms.
"Better to be a traitor than to be a murderous baby killer," Cortez said.
'Those savages had it coming," before the blade borg said anything more Cortez fired his PLS to strike him and the blast sent him flying across the field.
"I will have no trouble killing any of your fuckers. Every single one of you good old American killers," Cortez said as he turned on a turret to lock onto the blade soldier to keep him distracted.
You can't hide from you Cortez," the man is deflecting shots with his arm blades.
"It's called a chess game dumbass," he hacks a nearby truck to make it drive towards the full borg. The soldier is caught off guard by getting hit and shoved into a building. Cortez snaps his fingers to trigger the car to explode heavily damaging the Borg soldier.
He hacks into his systems to give him a painful shock as he aims a turret to tear into his wounded body killing him on the spot.
"Stupid gearhead," Cortez keeps going with Rebecca using her new combo gun with bullets hitting her armored jacket which protected her.
"Good investment," Rebecca said tossing a Gash grenade with the lasers slicing and burning into pirates to clear the way.
"Rebecca, Cortez has encountered Militech soldiers here. Be careful," Klunk said.
"Fuck, gets more complicated," Rebecca hops on top of a building to use her mini grenades to blast apart groups of pirates.
Cortez goes into a building to avoid an explosion to see a weapons cache there. "Perfect," Cortez grabs a full auto anti-material rifle called the Osprey chambered with 50 BMG armor-piercing explosive incendiary rounds. "This is nuts," he said to grab some ammo to go outside to see he is with a Dragoon unit, a full Borg super soldier.
"So, the traitor is running around with these rats," the Dragoon soldier said as his head was covered in an armored head filled with sensors for, he is nothing but a brain and spine in a robotic shell.
"Nomad life is better than your heartless creed of the nation," Cortez said as he hacked the turrets to fire at the Dragoon soldier. He pops out his arm cannon to blast the turrets apart while Cortez hacks a truck with an HMG on top to slam into the cyborg.
The Dragoon stops the truck with his hands but the HMG is shooting at him in the head and chest doing some damage. Cortez snaps his fingers to make the car explode damaging the armored hull of the Dragoon. He moves away to hack the turrets and trucks to keep him distracted.
He gets a good angle to fire a three-round burst to slam into the arm of the Dragoon to blow it off. The three explosive rounds hit their mark to sever his right arm.
"Your Dragoon is powerful but it has its limits," Cortez attacks the Dragoon directly with hacking to see he has ICE but it's breakable. "Need some time to crack that," Cortez said,
"Where are you coward," the Dragoon said as the turrets were wearing him down to be picked off one by one. Cortez managed to crack the Dragoon's systems to deliver a combo of Cyberware Malfunction and Cripple Movement which screws up his armored body. "Damn it," Dragoon said as Cortez pops out of cover to fire bursts of explosive 50 BMG into the head of the Dragoon to destroy it killing off the Borg super soldier.
"Finally," Cortez said as he saw a Mayhem flying above to fire his last three rounds to take out the back blades to make it lose air and crash into a building. He reloads the Osprey to strike down incoming pirate trucks to punch through their armored hulls with ease.
Cortez finds a new weapon nearby called the Piercer, a military-grade two-handed nail gun-like weapon holding 20 14mm depleted uranium spikes in a helical magazine great at punching through armored targets.
Another Dragoon unit appears as he has a perfect test dummy. "You are not getting away Cortez, all traitors must die," the Dragoon said as he leaps towards him. He rolls out of the lunge as he fires several spikes to dig deep into his body negating his tough armored hull.
"Better to be a traitor than a murder machine for Myers," Cortez hacks a huge truck to use it like a makeshift battering ram. The huge truck slams into the cyborg to send him flying into a building to collapse on top of him.
Cortez reloads his weapons to prepare for another fight. "This is getting annoying," he thought as he dealt with these Dragoons before as a Militech Cyber Commando. Killed a bunch in the past and knows how to kill them off properly to fire in full auto to dump the explosive rounds to tear into the cyborg's thick armored hull.
A wave of missiles appears with him rolling behind cover to avoid the blast. He tosses a Riot grenade to unleash sticky foam to latch onto the Dragoon making it hard to move. "Got you," he fires several explosive 50 BMG rounds into his head and chest delivering great damage.
"Worthless traitor," Dragoon soldier raises his arm cannon to unleash a volley of rounds. Cortez fires a round into the arm cannon to make it explode which blows his arm off.
"You are a worthless piece of junk," Cortez said as he hacked a big truck to slam into the cyborg and made the truck explode. He can see his ICE has been damaged and strikes him with Overheat making his body catch on fire.
"Traitor!" the Dragoon rushes at him as he dodges his kicks and punches. He wields his Piercer to put spikes into his chest and neck. He slides between his legs to fire into his spine as the DU spikes cut through them. "Damn it," the Dragoon is beginning to lose his ability to move his body.
"Your spine is damaged and this makes it harder to control your borg body," Cortez said as he hacked more turrets to fire at him. The heavy rounds tear into his broken body but he keeps fighting. "Just die already," Cortez fires several spikes into its head slicing through the brain and killing the borg instantly. "Great, no time to lose," Cortez keeps the weapon just in case more Dragoons show up.
Rebecca is blasting her way through cyber dogs, armored trucks, and heavies. Her new weapon is putting in work to wipe them out in short order. "What is going on?" Rebecca wondered.
"Cortez was fighting Dragoons and destroyed them," Klunk said as Rebecca was shocked by this.
"He killed Dragoons, that insane," Rebecca said.
"Well, if you remember Adam Smasher uses a highly modified version of the Dragoon hull. Militech and the NUSA armed forces combined have about 1000 Dragoon units on standby, some even surpassing Adam Smasher's model," Klunk said as Rebecca was blown away by this.
"Seriously?" Rebecca asked as fighting 5 Adam Smashers at once would be a complete nightmare.
"Cortez has destroyed them in the past. They are quite common on modern battlefields. As long as you have the heavy military-grade firepower, you can deal with them," Klunk said.
"Oh boy, Military threats are at a different level," Rebecca said as she kept pushing forward to see a gunship nearby fighting onto pirate positions.
"Seems like I need to deal with this," Gene is on top of a building to snap his fingers to reveal his trump card. A large walker pops out of the sands to unload its railgun on top to rapidly pick off the Dragoons and War Commandos with ease. Missiles and heavy rounds tear into the other armored vehicles and blow up gunships seeing them falling out of the air.
"Oh damn," Rebecca said.
"Daisasori Urban Combat Cyber Walker, a powerful Arasaka 4-legged combat walker designed to take out Militech's latest weapon platforms like power armor, vehicles, and aircraft," Klunk said as Rebecca was dumbfounded how powerful these weapons are.
Klunk gives her the stats of this walker equipped with a 37mm cannon, 50 cal machine gun, twin grenade launchers, and ATGM launchers. Rebecca just feels underequipped to take something this powerful out of commission.
"The fuck, destroy that cyber walker," the commander gets nailed by the railgun to blow up his vehicle killing him and his crew instantly.
"So, you have come for the keycard as expected," Gene said donning his Netrunning suit and wielding his Warden smart SMG. "Let's have a bit of fun before you die," Gene disappears to summon holograms of himself around Rebecca.
"Oh crap," Rebecca shoots the hologram to get a painful shock.
"He is displaying fake images. Targeting the fake ones will do damage to you via shock," Klunk said as Gene hacked Rebecca's eyes to blind her. He hits her in the head with smart rounds to knock her onto the ground. The holographic decoys are keeping her off balance.
Klunk pulls out a link and puts it into her neck slot to get rid of the quickhack to restore her sight. "Thanks, Klunk," she said.
"No problem, I am detecting he is on top of a building behind you. His Optical Camo is not the best," Klunk said to laugh to himself.
Rebecca jumps on top to tackle Gene and kicks him across the face. "Thanks for the hint," Rebecca said as Gene wiped the blood from his mouth. "What's wrong pretty boy, your tongue got ripped off," she taunts him.
"I am going to enjoy killing you. You hurt little Maria, I can't forgive you for that," Gene said to disappear to use a flashbang to blind her.
"Fuck," Rebecca said as Gene hacks a turret to make it fire at Rebecca. The 50 BMG rounds hit Rebecca several times to knock her off the building and crash into a hut. "Gee," Rebecca got hit in the jacket which holds up well.
She pulls out her scoped revolver Love loaded with explosive rounds to take out the hacked turrets. She tosses a frag grenade which hits Gene as she fires a few shots to blow off his arm.
"Fuck you, little bitch," Gene said as Rebecca reloads her revolver.
"I will be taking that keycard," Rebecca said.
"You are a threat to our operations here. I am going to be the one to wipe out my love's worries away," he summons the walker via remote control to crash through a building to tackle Rebecca to knock her away. "Wipe her out," Gene commands the walker as Rebecca runs away to avoid the series of explosions and gunfire tearing into the buildings trying to hit Rebecca.
"It's ganging on you," Klunk said as he boosted Rebecca onto a car to leap through a window. The walker smashes through the building trying to turn her into a red strain. This 4-ton machine uses its leg to knock Rebecca into a wall.
She fires 4 mini grenades at the walker but it does nothing. She reloads Rior grenades to lob them at its legs to slow it down.
"Miss Rebecca, I think you should use C5 explosives," Klunk said
"C5 explosives," Rebecca said as she began to run to find some since none of her weapons were working.
"You can't hide from my walker. Destroy her," Gene controls the walker through his eyes can see Rebecca running away.
Cortez managed to find the keycard to secure it. "Babe, I got the keycard. Where are you?" Cortez asked.
"I am busy now. This walker is trying to kill me," Rebecca said on the radio.
"No wonder the explosions stopped. That Arasaka Walker wiped them out," Cortez said as Klunk sent him the data of the Daisasori, or the giant scorpion in Japanese. He can see Gene on top of a building controlling the cyberwalker. He aims his Piercer to fire a spike which gored into his shoulder.
"Damn it," Gene looks over to Cortez to summon holograms to distract him. Cortez not bothered by them, heads for the Netrunner.
Rebecca finds a pack of C5 plastic explosives and a trigger to rush out to confront the monstrous Arasaka walker. She uses her Berserk mode to tank all the grenades and 50 BMG rounds to toss the C5 onto the legs.
She deactivated her Berserk mode to set them off to destroy the legs and fall onto the ground helplessly. She tosses the rest of the C5 onto the back to watch the machine get destroyed by a big explosion.
"Finally," Rebecca said as she went to confront Gene.
Cortez is chasing after the pirate Netrunner to get hit by his smart SMG to strike his chest but his hard metal body armor protects him. Rebecca comes in with a wicked smile to use Guts to fire a slug to punch through his skull killing him instantly.
"That's what you get fuck face," Rebecca said to hold onto her shotgun.
"Good work Spitfire, killing that cyber walker is no easy feat," Cortez said.
"Right back at you, big guy. You killed two Dragoons," Rebecca feeling impressed to see how deadly he could truly be.
"Oh, it's nothing Spitfire. Let's get out of here. Death lingers in this place," Cortez said as the trio got back to the truck to secure the sixth keycard with only 2 left.
Elsewhere Hawk hears the news about his lover being killed by Rebecca. This made him pissed at the little lady wanting to get revenge on her. He looms over Maria who is not feeling good as her medicine is all used up.
"Gene is dead," Maria said as she disbelieved that Gene was gone.
"Fuck, fuck," Hawk said as Maria wants to comfort him but he shoves her away. "I will take care of this. Just rest," Hawk leaves her behind as Maria is not mentally holding up. The news messed her up and she is beginning to lose herself within her borg body.
"Gene," she said wanting to cry but she couldn't have her mind slipping in and out of reality.