"Aaaand Quick hack." I said looking towards the row of vending machines. I was hanging out around the Cherry Blossom Market, basically practicing on everything electronic.
Jun was being a jerk so I left the house to give him some private time. Plus I really wanted to grind out my Netrunning.
Pinging the Vending machine let me know that it was actually connected to a small network, that according to the data I got in return, let the owners know when the vending machine was low on stock.
Made sense.
I sent a ping to the next machine.
100 Quick Hack XP Gained.*
100 Intelligence XP Gained*
Intelligence Leveled up!*
I blinked. I didn't feel any different? I checked myself over, but nothing seemed to change. When my Body leveled up it was pretty noticeable, at least at first, so why was intelligence not seeming to make any changes?
I pouted a little as I tried to think but again nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"I've been scammed." I grumbled, as I went back to my Quick Hacks.
At least now I could do more Breach training.
But first. I wanted to level Quick Hacks. I wanted that knowledge download. Bored, I looked around and noticed a guy walking along. He had cheap chrome. I could tell. So I started a Quick Hack on him. If he noticed I would just delta.
Heh Delta. Cyberpunk lingo was so fun.
I started with a scan using my optics. It… Well it took a while. I ended up having to follow him around the market a bit before the scan completed and I got his port info. I activated the program, starting the Quick Hack. It was slow, The guys security was better than a vending machine after all.
Still Slowly as he walked across the sidewalk I could see the ticker doing up and then it pinged him. Letting me know he wasn't connecting to any networks.
100 Quick Hacks XP Gained.*
Quick Hacks skill level up!*
But as I expected. Since I hadn't targeted a person until now, it gave me an immediate XP boost. Since it was something I hadn't done before. While repeating the same thing over and over would keep giving me XP it did eventually slow drastically but doing something new would usually make it easier to gain XP again.
But my mind was a blur. Quick Hacks. Seemed simple, and in some ways it was compared to Breach Protocol. But it was still so complicated!
I smiled as I now simply knew what Quickhacks were. The programs that could be activated on the fly to do so many different things. I hummed a bit as I thought about the best way to level it, and honestly without a lot of people to hack. I was kinda doing it.
But now I had a better understanding of the equipment. I could actually swap out programs now. I knew how to do that, and I had a feeling with a few levels I could spread hacks as well. The knowledge was there tempting me.
Well. I had level 2 Intelligence. Might as well get back to grinding. I grinned as I started pinging people that walked by. Avoiding anyone with serious chrome.
—-
I ended up bored of just sitting on a bench and Quick Hacking everyone, so I started wandering. You would be amazed at how many Camera systems you can see from a sidewalk.
A quick Breach Protocol, which usually ended up meaning I had to find a place to sit as it took a minute. Then I could Quick Hack it surprisingly fast since I already had access to its system. Most of them I would learn were connected to a security system, or a few other cameras.
It wasn't 'interesting' knowledge in and of itself.
But it was also solid XP.
A couple of hours of walking around pinging and Breaching everything I could find had results.
Breach Protocol skill level up!*
1 Perk Point Gained.*
Quick Hacks skill level up!*
1 Perk Point Gained.*
Level 2 Breach and Quickhacks. Nice.
The speed of my improvement from the baby deck I had before was insane. I was so happy I spent the eddies on this upgrade.
Unfortunately while I was getting Intelligence XP alerts. It wasn't enough to push me to the next level. So I was now maxed out until I leveled Intelligence.
But I did have perks!
I started on Breach and for once I was actually pleased by the selection. Lots of options caught my eye.
Wall Breaking. Creates a backdoor in the system after a Breach. Making future access instant.
Powerful Breach. Break through systems much faster but causes an alert if security is strong enough.
Daemon Summoner. Upload a Daemon onto a network instantly after a Breach.
All of these sounded Preem.
In the end I went with Wall Breaking. I liked the idea of being able to set up stuff for later. Instead of being forced to Breach the system on the fly.
I was distracted for a bit as I suddenly learned a lot about creating backdoors into systems. Like a lot alot.
I shook it off and focused on Quick Hacks. What goodies could I find in that list?
Honestly? Some pretty good stuff. Quick Hacks were the Magic in Cyberpunk. The ability to cause someone's brain to melt with a look if you were good enough.
The options were pretty useful.
Quicker Hack. Halves time for a Quick Hack.
Cyber Security. Massively increases time to Quick Hack or Breach your System.
Quick Ram. Ram restores twice as fast.
There was a lot more, And Quick Hacks perks had a lot of pre-req options. Meaning that what I picked now would make a big difference in the future.
But the one that grabbed my attention was probably the least offensive one. Cyber Security. This wasn't a game. If someone hacked me here? My Brain would be melting out my ears, or I would be on the ground twitching very shortly.
So protecting myself sounded like a smart play. Even if I would prefer to be a more stealth build in the future.
Can't shoot at me if you never know I'm there.
I picked it anyways. Smiling as some knowledge slipped into my head on how to buff my security, through a bit of program editing, it was… I knew enough about Quickhacking at this point to be sure. The editing wouldn't work like it should, and yet it did. Was there actually a… Magical component to some perks?
In the end I shrugged I had no way of knowing, and I decided to focus on the good. Anyone trying to Quick Hack me would be massively confused at how difficult it was.
I liked it.
—--
It was time. I had made some calls over the last few days. Getting some lukewarm responses, before I hit on one that actually worked. Someone selling not just what I wanted, but willing to do the alterations I needed.
Hiromi was willing to drive me so we headed out mid afternoon.
"Are you going to finally tell me what this is about?" She kept prodding me for information, but I knew I had to keep it a surprise. She had constantly bothered me about my style. She of course went for Gang Chic.
I was going for something a little different. What would they call it again? Neo-militarism? I smiled yeah that sounded about right. The little shop we were heading to was a little backalley deal. The sort of thing you had to know about, to know about.
Hiromi parked her bike on the street. It was safe enough, there were a lot of shops here, and shopping areas especially those held by gangs were usually kept as crime free as possible. Couldn't make money on the shops if you kept robbing all the customers.
We walked down an alley instead of keeping to the main street. But that was on purpose, a place selling netrunning suits? It wouldn't want to be well known, Netrunners wouldn't trust a shop just on the street. No it had to be hidden with a lot of hacking needed to figure out the location.
Or if you were a normal person you could just ask someone in the know and save yourself some time.
The alley was dark and drippy, Hiromi was looking around like she was ready to stab someone but she still didn't know what was going on exactly.
Finally I found it. A door with that had a weird symbol on it. It wasn't anything I recognized, and was apparently just the symbol for the shop, as explained by the owner when I called to set my order up.
"C'mon Hiromi this is it." I told her as I turned and knocked on the door. I waited a minute before it slid open, a man looking like a real monster opened the door, a machine gun resting in his hands as he looked me over.
"Here for an order pickup."
"Enter." He offered stepping back, and then Hiromi and I entered into a clothing store.
Yeah. Like I said Netrunners had issues. Funnily enough this part of the shop connected to the front of the store, so I could literally see the street as Hiromi and I walked inside. The owner was a little asian woman sitting behind a set of bars smoking from a pipe. The entire shop had a very asian feel to it. Most of her offerings seem to be older style japanese work.
Fancy.
Once inside I waved at the woman behind the bars. "I'm Motoko, here about a special order?"
"Ah. I was wondering when you would show up. You're younger than I thought." She said immediately looking me over and then Hiromi as well who was looking around already checking out the clothing on the racks as if she was wondering if she wanted something.
At least she had been until I mentioned a special order.
"Ooh you ordered something special?" She whispered as I smiled at her.
"You have my measurements, so I doubt you're that surprised." I tell the woman who chuckled a throaty noise.
"You'd be surprised, a lot of girls will chrome out to be smaller. Some guys like that. Alright come around back. Special order I want to make sure it fits." She said gesturing to a door in the back of the shop which I walked through Hiromi following, and the guard following behind both of us.
The backroom was just that, a room obviously where the woman worked on custom orders, she even had a little area for making adjustments while the person wore whatever clothing she had made.
"Alright here it is. Changing room is there." She mentions pointing to a small curtain over a side of the room.
Hardly private, but that was fine. I nodded and took the sealed bag she had given me as I walked over.
"Oooh what is it?" Hiromi asked as always not caring about privacy and following me right into the little area. I rolled my eyes at her as I pulled off my little jacket, and the stupid T shirt I had been wearing.
Never going to need that again, at least on a job. And then I dropped my pants which had a raised eyebrow from Hiromi.
"Don't follow me into a changing room and act surprised." I told her bluntly as I pulled open the bag unsealing it and pulling out something I had wanted for a while.
A Netrunner suit, cut down making it look more like a leotard and armored up. Although the armor was cheap. It had to be a Netrunner suit and not just some off the rack Leotard because of that armor. I needed something flexible and tight for stealth, but also something that would keep my blood on the inside if I got shot.
Plus… The Major. Ghost in the Shell Motoko always wore something like this.
Sure I lost some of the netrunner suits cooling function, but gained more armor. So fair trade.
I grinned as I slipped it on, with only minor difficulties it was incredibly tight, but the Armor weave was able to shift and adjust meaning I could touch my toes or bend over completely backwards without the suit bunching up or limiting my movement.
I gave myself a once over. Adjusting the fit and nodding at how comfortable it was.
"Cool." Hiromi offered but she obviously wasn't super into it. Not enough neon tigers or something I am sure.
With that I slipped back on my pants tightening the jeans leaving plenty of skin around my hips. And my mini jacket was pulled back on.
"Perfect." I muttered staring at Hiromi as I gave her a smirk as I adjusted my holster on the back of my pants.
"You look like a weird Corpo bodyguard or something." She tells me teasing, but I shrug.
"I look cool. The word you are looking for is cool."
"Sure you gonk. That it?"
"Yeah. One sec." I grab the old shirt and walk out noticing the Shop owner was still waiting for me. "Fits perfectly. You do good work."
"I do a lot of customizations. Can't say I've ever seen one cut one into pieces before, but you're the buyer."
"And I am very happy. Thank you." I told her my eyes glowing blue as I sent the money transfer.
"Excellent there is the door. Come back if you ever need more work."
"I will. C'mon Hiromi." I called out to her as she was distracted by something laying on a table but she followed me back into the shop proper, and then out into the streets.
I swiftly threw the T-shirt into the trash as I looked to Hiromi. "Let's go… Do something cool." I tell her, earning an eager smile as whooped.
"Hell yeah! Bad bitches on the prowl!" She cried out racing out of the alley to jump on to her bike which I joined her right after.
The new net suit felt perfect as we roared through the city. I felt like I was actually an Edgerunner now. Actually a Cyberpunk.
I felt like I was a Ghost in a Shell.
—-
In the end something cool was heading to a club.
"Hiromi you gonk." I told her as she pulled up and hopped off the bike with a bounce in her step.
"Motoko is boring. Motoko is boring. Blegh!" She actually stuck her tongue out at me. What a nerd.
I leapt off the bike and pretended to chase after her, causing her to squeal at my sudden move as I pretend chased her towards the entrance to the club. This wasn't the Ho-oh Club. Instead Hiromi knew of a more active dance club that obviously catered to the Tyger Claws.
The whole place was covered in Japanese tattoos and more swords than I thought would be comfortable in a club.
Buzzing high intensity music was playing and Hiromi and I were allowed to entry into the club after the bouncer gave us a long thorough look with his glowing eyes.
Scanning us down. Apparently we were good because he let us through.
Into a nightmare.
So many weebs. Can you call it a period drama when no one was dressed right for the era, but everyone still acted like they were in some ancient Japanese place? The tables are tiny things that you sat around resting against cushions. Some of the flooring was faux tatami which made me giggle.
But the rest of the place was a nightclub. A bar, a DJ up on the stage places for actual live music as well, lights and strobes and people grinding up against each other.
I was fourteen.
How the hell did they let me in here?
"C'mon!" Hiromi interrupted my melt down by grabbing my arm and tugging me through the crowd landing us on the dance floor.
And then she started dancing.
I didn't. Listen I didn't have a dance chip as a certain gun goblin once said. I didn't have the first clue how to dance to this music. It was… Electro Shamisen Quickstep? Hiromi mostly seemed to just be spazzing out.
Motoko.exe fails to run. Restart?
"Stop being a gonk and dance!" Hiromi called out over the music grabbing my hand and forcing me to move along with her.
Ugh.
Fine. If only because Hiromi looked like she was trying to have fun. I had dragged her all the way around the city, at least I could do her thing now.
So I danced. Badly. I wasn't quite Commander Shephard bad. At least I didn't think so. Hiromi was having fun anyways now that I was playing along.
Of course she got tired before I did. She really needed more exercise.. Then again this counted. So I just decided to shut up. We slipped off the dance floor and headed to the bar where I gave her a very stern frown pout and she finally gave in and ordered something non-alcoholic.
We took a seat after and settled in sitting basically on the floor, even if it was cushioned we looked over the crowd.
"Isn't this great?" Hiromi said as she leaned on the table looking over the crowd with a sloppy smile on her face.
"It's fun." I told her, assuring her that I had a time dancing even if this definitely wasn't my scene.
I kinda wanted to go challenge some of the weebs to a sword fight though. With the music and faux Tatami I bet it would be a bitching backdrop.
Probably not a good idea though. My Blades skill was still pretty low.
"You're a new face." A voice called out from behind me far too close.
Whoever it was had half a second to move in before my Unity was pressed against the bottom of his jaw. The fact that I turned and could see him moving to put his arm over my shoulder solidified my desire to pull the trigger.
But I didn't. Because Murder was bad. Even if delicious delicious XP was only a trigger pull away.
Part of me. The secret dark part that I refused to listen to whispered to just do it. That I could probably kill people fast enough that I could outlevel any trouble it would cause.
I stuffed that voice in a box.
"Hey!" A voice behind him called out as I noticed he had approached with a little posse of Tyger wannabes. How did I know they were wannabes? Same as I knew Hiromi was. No ECM tats. And trying too hard.
Before anything could come of it, I pulled down my gun and holstered it before purposefully standing up to slide across to the other end of the table beside Hiromi so I didn't have these strangers at my back.
The guys posse were looking angry, and he looked a little pale.
Like someone had just pushed a gun against his chin.
"Hahaha! You tried to touch Motoko you fuckin gonk! Yo Tomaru how's that? You said you could get any girl you wanted right? How's that working for you?" Hiromi laughed and mocked with absolute delight as I noticed the group of teenagers weren't looking too happy.
"Hiromi as always you look beautiful and then open your mouth and remind us what a piece of rust you are." He says after a moment and his posse laugh at the insult even Hiromi looked a little heated but I just sat there staring.
What was even happening?
"Hiromi? Who's this?" I asked, looking the teenager and his little crew over. The teen was probably a little older than us. Katana on his hip. He was rich. Like Hiromi his clothes were brand new, everything fit, and clean.
The girl beside him. The one that was pissed at me for pulling my gun. No Katana. No gun on her hips. Instead I could tell her arms. Cyberware. Mantis? Yeah I could see the seams. Mantis blades. It wasn't high quality chrome though. Looked old.
Still deadly.
The other two chooms were armed. Guns and a Machete. Not enough eddies for a Katana?
"This annoying kid is Suisen Tomaru. He likes to come down with his groupies and spend his parents eddies while slumming it."
"Could say the same to you Hiromi Mitsunashi."
"Could show you what it's really like on the streets Tomaru, how about that?" Hiromi threatened looking as if she was going to draw a blade and cut him down.
She didn't have her sword on her though.
"How about we ease up. This is a club." I butt in, pulling Hiromi back into sitting from where she had risen up looking for a fight.
"Yeah Hiromi, listen to your Pet street choom." He mocked which seemed to fire up Hiromi, but I wasn't even insulted. Lazy insult. 2/10 at best. I just rolled my eyes as I held Hiromi down.
"If you are just here to hurl insults and try to start something, can you leave? We were having a nice time." I tell him frowning at this nonsense interruption.
"Now why would I do that? I haven't had a chance to talk to Hiromi here in weeks. She is skipping so much I barely ever see her. What was your class ranking again? Last?"
"Better than you where you actually try to please Mommy and Daddy and you are still lower middle of the pack. Moron." Hiromi hissed but the guy just smiled not bothered by Hiromi's insults.
Ugh these children were ruining my mood. I didn't even want to be here!
Considering the angry yelling. Mostly from Hiromi, I wasn't surprised when someone intervened. A much older man, who was definitely Tyger Claws stepped up to the table looking down on everyone. I just gave him a bored look.
"Is there a problem here?" He asked, looking over every one of the kids with a glare. "Because if there is, I will have to take care of it."
"No, no problem. Just a friendly discussion between friends." Tomaru denied with a smile as he turned to Hiromi. "We will finish our 'discussion' another time, Hiromi. Do let me know when you are done playing pretend." He offered before turning. I got a glare from the girl he had been walking with before she too followed after him.
"That was irritating. Thanks." I called out to the Tyger Claw who didn't look like he appreciated having to step in.
"If you cause problems again. We will remove you." He says simply staring at me.
Whatever guy. No need to act all overwhelming.
"Cmon Motoko. I want to dance a bit more, get Tomaru out of my head."
"Sure."
Last edited: Oct 28, 2022
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Seras
Oct 28, 2022
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Threadmarks Chapter 12
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Seras
Seras
Idiot Sandwich
Oct 30, 2022
#2,525
—--
I jogged into the apartment after hitting the gym.
Unfortunately while I got a few body XP alerts while pumping iron. I didn't get anything for an hour of using the punching bag. I think I was running into the end of the diminishing returns for that particular grind.
The idea of finding a fighting pit was getting more and more tempting…
I shook that off and decided to check my stats.
Motoko Kusanagi
Level 2
Body 5
-Athletics 5
-Street Brawler 3
Reflex 3
-Blades 2
-Handguns 3
-Assault 2
-Driving 2
Intelligence 2
-Breach Protocol 2
-Quick Hacks 2
Cool 2
-Ninjutsu 2
-Cold Blood 2
Technical attribute 1
2 Stat point.
2 Skill point.
Perks.
Ambidextrous Blades 2
Quickdraw Handguns 2
Gun Nut Assault 2
Parkour Athletics 2
Grappling Street Brawler 2
Drive By Driver 2
Cat-like Athletics 5
Cool Nerves Cold Blood 2
Danger Sense Ninjutstu 2
Wall Breaking Breach Protocol 2
Cyber Security Quick Hack 2
That Technical attribute was looking real low… But I also knew that it was going to be an expensive stat to train. I didn't have a lot of junk stuff I could mess with, and without a car it's not like I could drive out to the dump to grab scrap.
So I pushed it to the side for now. Soon. Very soon I would set some time down to do some crafting. Cause crafting is broken.
Instead I refocused on my other stats Body was high because it was easy to just exercise.
Reflex was high-ish, but mostly because It had a lot of skills. But it was also not moving a lot.
Intelligence was the same, but it had less skills… So far. Although I had noticed it would pop when I had studied the Netrunner guide. So studying would help… that felt really boring though.
Cool. I shivered the only time it went up was when I killed. I wasn't sure what it's deal was. But I had a way of grinding it. I just refused to do it.
For now.
Then there at the bottom I saw something I had been pretending didn't exist.
Stat and Skill points.
I could level a stat and skill twice. They were just sitting there. My initial thought was to balance out my skills, but that was a trap. Specialization at low levels, jack of all trades at the end.
"I could level Cool." I told myself. The idea of increasing my stealth was… Appealing. It was one of the biggest force multipliers I had. Don't have to worry about getting shot if they never knew you were there.
But was it the right choice? Intelligence might be better. It was… hard to level in a way. More time intensive at least. And I could upgrade my Netrunning. That appealing future where I walk into a group of enemies and they kill themselves without me having to lift a finger was tempting.
Or I could increase my Reflex. Since I had so many skills under that stat it would give me a lot to grind. Not that I wasn't already able to grind most of it.
"Ughhhh." I groaned as I rolled over and put my head into a couch cushion and groaned as loud as I could.
"I've always been terrible about deciding." I reminded myself. Hoarding items or stat points in games until long after I should.
I shook it off. I shouldn't be getting lost in my own head. "I have lots of things to keep grinding." I reminded myself even if my XP was slowing down.
"I need a job. Something to get me out of my head." I spoke up to the empty room. I think I was past the point of hiding in my apartment and grinding basic skills. I think it was time to start acting like a real Street Kid.
I sent a message to Wakako, and Ichi.
Got any Gigs lined up?*
Then I rose up and started doing some Knife training. I probably won't get much from it, but I wasn't going to sit around doing nothing.
—--
An hour later I got a message from Ichi, saying he had nothing currently.
Then I got a response from Wakako about a Gig. I had practically cheered jumping up and down for a moment in the apartment, as I rushed to get dressed in my gear before I checked the message and deflated.
It was a courier run.
I sighed. Slapped my cheeks a bit to focus myself, and stepped out of the apartment.
A gig is a gig. I needed to prove myself still. I was only a kid. Not every job is going to be about sneaking into a Tino chopshop to steal data.
It was incredibly boring, doubly so since I didn't have a car. I picked up the package from a small noodle shop over in Heywood. Took the bus or train up to Kabuki. Handed it off at an old apartment to a girl that didn't even fully open the door along with a chain holding her door closed. Got paid in practically ennys. And walked home.
Package confirmed. Gig is closed.* That was all Wakako sent me.
I was back home and groaning into my cushions within an hour.
—--
The next day I got another Gig from Wakako. This time it was a woman that wanted to get something from her boyfriends apartment after a fight, and wanted protection.
It ended with me pistol whipping the boyfriend. Which did give me an alert for Street Brawling XP which was nice, and the woman got her Shard she had left behind.
Client is happy Gig is closed.* Wakako sent me as I was on the train back home.
—--
Wakako ended up sending me a Gig request without prompting the next day.
A woman had been carjacked and robbed by a small time gang. Some group of chooms that decided that their little family meant they were a gang and had started doing some carjacking in Rancho Coronado.
I wasn't hired to bring back the car. Or get revenge on her car jackers. No, that would have been… fun.
No she just wanted her wedding ring back and was actually paying the fuckers ransom for it. I was the middleman.
I had even asked if they wanted them dead. But nope. The ring was the absolute priority.
I sighed and ended up taking the bus down.
They wanted to meet in a gas station parking lot.
I internally cringed when I read that detail. A gas station? Not an abandoned warehouse or a gang house? A gas station?
I sighed as I stepped off the bus. Taking in the dusty gas station and rundown neighborhood.
This was the place.
With a grimace I noticed five teenagers, the youngest probably younger than me all waiting on the steps infront of the Gas Station.
Dammit. They fit the description. Worse? They definitely noticed me just get off the bus.
Fuck how embarrassing.
What kind of merc took the fuckin bus. There goes my rep.
Unless I flatline them all?
No. They were kids. I sighed, shoulders slumping as I approached them.
"Archer and the… Bad boys?" I grimaced as I asked.
"That's us Choom. Shit you're just a kid? You our middleman?"
"Apparently Wakako has a sense of humor." I informed them although none understood. I did. Wakako you bitch. Send the teenager to deal with a gang of teenagers? Yeah I got the message.
Maybe she was a little pissed with me bothering her every day? I would have to figure it out later.
"You got the ring?"
"Yeah? Maybe, maybe not. You got our eddies?" the tallest boy. Their obvious leader stood up a shotgun gripped in one hand and resting on his shoulder asked.
"Confirmation of the item first. Payment after. No need to turn this into some XBD action star bullshit. Client wants the ring, willing to give the eddies. Don't make this difficult." I told him a little bored. Honestly. What did Wakako think I was?
He didn't seem pleased at how bored I was, and his little groupies were looking trigger happy, but none of them really worried me.
I was 99% sure I could outdraw them all.
Even if the idea of killing a bunch of kids didn't sit well with me, even with my gamer brain. I sighed. "Just prove you have the ring. I will transfer half. You give me the ring I transfer the rest. You got me outnumbered. I am sure you want the eddies more than you want a ring. Right?"
"Yeah. Guess so." He said glaring a bit. Dug around in his pocket with his off hand never taking his hand off the shotgun before pulling out a little wedding ring. I did a quick check comparing it to the image I had been sent.
Match.
"Alright. Here is half." I said, my eyes going blue as I deposited the eddies in his account.
Honestly it was pocket change. A few hundred eddies. This little gang was probably pretty hard up.
"Alright." He took a step forward and offered me the ring.
When I went to grab it I caught it. A motion out of the corner of my eye.
I almost sighed.
My gun was drawn and pointed into the face of the boy that had been moving up to brain me with a pipe.
I had a gun pointed at me a moment later along with a few pipes and a knife.
I wasn't gonna flatline a twelve year old. I just wasn't.
"You really want it to go down this way?" I prompted as the leaders shotgun was aimed at me.
"Why not. I think we got you outnumbered and outgunned. Bet you have some eddies on you a rich girl like you. Bet you got some other things we can 'use' on you as well."
"Rich? I'm a Street Kid working as a merc. I do odd jobs you gonk. You did see me get off the damn bus right?" I mocked before sighing. "You really want someone to die over this? You are already getting what you want. Don't turn this into a gunfight."
"Maybe I do. Maybe I want that shooter you got. Looks preem."
"Save me from Street kids with more balls than brains." I moaned. I was gonna have to do something.
Fuck it. I pulled the trigger.
At the same moment I rushed the leader. Of course I didn't shoot the kid, shot right over his head, but a bullet going off real close? Causes everyone to jerk and dodge. I hit the leader full bore. I might have been smaller than him, but he was an underfed Street Kid playing Gangster.
I was a Gamer… Wait, that came out wrong. I was The Gamer. Better.
I grabbed his shotgun and pushed it up. Moron was still holding it one handed like some Chromed out borg. The shotgun went off, and he probably just wrecked his wrist. Which is about when I pistol whipped him.
He went down with a yelp blood already streaming from his nose as I held his shotgun. I flinched as a bullet whizzed past my head.
I turned the kid with the gun. He looked second oldest. God was this whole little group just a family of brothers?
His gun was shaking and he was definitely trying for a second shot.
So I did the only thing I could think of that wasn't shooting him.
I chucked my Unity at his head. He flinched another round going off, and I really prayed that he hadn't just shot me in my gonk brain. But he went down a moment later crying out as the pistol bounced off his head with a loud thunk.
"Alright! I think that is enough of that!" I yelled as loud as I could racking the shotgun as I stormed over to the kid securing both pistols as the other boys all flinched brandishing their melee weapons.
"Fuckin batch you bwoke my nose!" The leader cried out as he started to stand back up looking furious.
Until I turned and shot a round of his own shotgun over his head. He hastily dropped back down and the boys were all freaking out.
"You really did this? You turned a simple fuckin' job into a shootout. Well congrats, you are now outgunned and disarmed. The rest of you put those pipes and knives down or else." I growled looking around as the boys were all hesitating and not looking great. The youngest looked like he was gonna piss himself since I had pointed a handgun at him.
I reached down not taking my eyes off them, and picked up my Unity reholstering it and then grabbing the Lexington I realized the moment I picked it up that the kid had.
"Alright. All of you shut up. Stop your moaning. Now before anything else. You Gonk brain. Give me the ring." I demanded waving the shotgun at the leader who looked at me like I was crazy.
I wasn't crazy! I didn't fuck up a perfectly easy ransom deal because I got greedy! That was crazy!
"C'mon stop looking at me, Does it look like I have the ring? No! Hand it over!" I yelled to startle the group.
"Fwuck you." He grumbled as he looked around checking his hands and then his pockets before he realized he didn't know where it was.
"Oh Choom. Don't you tell me you dropped the ring and now you lost it. If it's gone I will flatline you just to deal with my frustration so you better find my target quick fast." I say absolutely level as I cocked the shotgun again, not caring that I sent a shell flying.
I just wanted the noise.
It worked. The teen hurriedly looked around his feet his chooms were nervously looking around but mostly just staring at me.
Finally he found it and wiped it down a bit. I checked it snatched it out of his hand and stuffed it into one of my leg pouches just to make sure it wouldn't disappear again.
Then because I felt like being that sort of bad bitch. I sent the rest of the money. "Next time remember you will just get zeroed if people can't trust you to keep to your word. Now. One last thing you owe me for this bullshit. Ladies car you klepped. Where is it?"
"Down't got it." He mumbled and I rolled my eyes at his words.
"I didn't ask if you had it. I asked where it is."
"Donny's." The second oldest said from where he was sitting rubbing his head from where I had donked him. "Chop shop run by 6th St. We sell our cars there."
"Transfer the deets." I demanded and the teens all sort of wavered before his eyes shifted into a yellow and I got a text.
"Alright. Now learning experience here chooms. You make a deal that earns you some Eddies? Follow through, don't turn a simple thing into a mess. Or people die. Be glad I don't like killing kids." I said before simply turning and walking down the street.
Gotta wait for the fuckin bus. So embarrassing. I settled in near the bus stop across the street and literally watched as the kids picked themselves up and sort of limped out of the parking lot and back home.
What a bunch of gonks.
—--
The ring got left in a dropbox, the deets about where the car was sent to Wakako. Wakako sent a confirmation not long after. Couple more Ennys in my pocket, but not nearly enough to cover dealing with such a massive shit show.
At least I had a shotgun now.
I had gotten an alert during the fight but hadn't checked it.
Annihilation Experience Gained.*
Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*
Annihilation Unlocked.*
Cool. This skill covered Shotguns, and Machine guns. I really needed to hit that gun range again. Jun had been… quiet ever since he came back chromed up. Right now he was out of the apartment. I hadn't seen him in two days. My messages at least were getting a response back, but it was usually something like.
Busy.*
Can't talk now.*
Here is some eddies for food.*
Stuff like that. I was growing frustrated by it all. The Worst thing was I knew exactly what he was doing. The Maelstrom-Tyger Claw gang war was heating up. Tyger Claws attacking Maelstrom back had only pissed off the other gang instead of ending it.
Apparently Maelstrom wanted more territory in Kabuki.
Tyger Claws took offense to that.
It was getting nasty. Not quit at the level of total war on the streets. But gang hangouts or fronts on both sides were getting hit daily.
It was even on the news.
I walked into the apartment after a long awkward ride on public transit. Having everyone staring at me and my new shotgun was super awkward. I had even pretended to make a call so my eyes were glowing yellow just so I could pretend I wasn't paying attention to them.
I walked into the apartment and sighed setting the shotgun on the table and flopping onto the couch.
My anxiety was rising up again. Jun was being a butt. I was tempted to head out and hunt him down and stick to him on his little raids. Watch his back.
But I sighed. I didn't even have a vehicle. It would be stupidly easy for Jun to lose me even if the Tyger Claws would help.
Which I had a feeling they wouldn't. Mid gang war they weren't going to let a kid chase after her brother.
Which meant I had two options. Sit here and spiral into my own mind. Or get up and do some grinding, and maybe be ready to do something when Jun does get in trouble.
The problem is speed. I had been happy slowly grinding up some stats and skills. Enjoying just living. But Jun was forcing me to escalate.
I was looking at the shotgun. Fingers tapping. Foot bouncing. That niggling feeling surging up.
What was more valuable to me? Jun's life? Or the life of a couple Scavs?
That was the thought that convinced me. That crystalized my resolve. The Solo's guide had said to decide on the reasons that would force you to kill. For Jun? To be able to help him? To save him? Yeah I would kill. I would kill a lot.
I was calm. Decided. I needed more stat points, and to use the stat points I already had.
My hands stopped fidgeting. My foot stopped tapping, and I could feel my eyes narrow. I owed Jun. And in a way I owed the Scavs too. I had been afraid, unsure if I could do it. If I could even survive an assault on a Scav den.
If that was the worry? Then I would just have to make sure I would. I didn't need stats alone to ensure a victory. Surprise, overwhelming firepower, and a few tricks would suit me just fine.
"It would be nice if I had a couple grenades don't ya think?" I muttered, an old movie reference that I loved, that probably didn't exist in this world. I did know where the gun shop was… And I had some eddies in my pocket thanks to my jobs for Wakako.
I stood up halfway out the door when I remembered something else. A quick detour to pick up that stupid Burya and I was back out the door.
Still needed ammo and a holster for that monster. Just in case I run into some Borg.
—--
I walked out of the gun shop pocket light on eddies, but full of fun.
Ammo and a shoulder holster for the Burya meant it was secure and hidden under my little jacket. The holster even had a few spots to hold the grenades I had bought.
I was ready. I slipped onto the train and the whole way I was calm. I thought my hands would start shaking or my stomach would do flips, but they just didn't.
It was time to kill some scavs.
Idly I pulled up my stat menu. It was time.
Two points went into Cool. And the two skill points went into Ninjutsu. Bringing them both to level 4. As much as it burned, I was once again maxing out the skill. I needed stealth if this was going to work.
I exhaled as the information slipped into my mind. My body adjusting. A few simple shifts in the way I was sitting. The way I held myself. To better move silently. To better keep my movements from being picked up by the eyes all around me.
To more easily reach for a weapon if someone did notice.
Yeah. I was ready.
1617
Seras
Oct 30, 2022
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Seras
Seras
Idiot Sandwich
Nov 1, 2022
#2,804
Megabuilding H2. Floor 24. Just to make sure there weren't any traps or eyes on the elevator. I went up to the floor above.
Funnily enough it wasn't hard to see what section of the building below that was claimed by the Scavs. As I circled around. Looking down into the massive open drop that made up the center of the megabuildings. I could see the section that they had taken.
The lights were broken, the walls looked like they had been attacked with a sledgehammer. Then there was the smell.
Blood.
As I walked above the area I scoped it out. Marking the holes in my mind as potential entrances. Or killing fields the scavs had set up. I took note of elevator that was stopped right there next to the claimed section. I would bet 50 eddies that they had hacked into that elevator to keep anyone else from using it. A way to transport their… Goods. Up to their hacksaw clinic.
The elevator would likely be watched. An instinctive thought entered my mind. If they had the tech ability to hack an elevator to keep it locked down, then they definitely had cameras for security.
I found the place I was going to slip in. My knowledge of parkour told me this was an easy jump. I climbed over the barrier. What little it was, and simply dropped. Ten feet and I was grabbing onto the concrete barrier of the floor below with barely a sound.
It was a little tough to hold myself from falling, but Body 5 turned it into a simple trick. I hadn't felt a lick of fear at potentially messing it up and falling.
I peeked over the railing still hanging over a few hundred feet drop as I glanced onto the floor. The fact a lot of the apartments had their doors busted open told me a lot.
I guess they had made sure no one else lived on this floor. At least in this section. My eyes narrowed looking for any sign of a camera or alert system.
Nothing. I slipped over as quietly as I could and hurried to the first apartment. The door was already open. Broken in fact and I had to force it a bit just to be able to slip through.
The smell of old blood told me everything that happened here. Broken doors and blood stains tell a frightening story. Unfortunately this apartment wasn't connected to the Scavs 'clinic' so I would have to keep going. I slipped back out and started stalking along the apartments fronts. The hallways splitting off leading to deeper sections were checked with a few quick peeks before I slipped past them. Closer and closer to the section that was obviously their main setup. It was closest to the elevator.
It was also barricaded a bit. Made to look like trash build up, but it was obviously done on purpose. A pile of garbage and old equipment blocking off the walkway that went around the interior of the building.
As I approached I heard voices. Ducking down to hide behind the trash barricade.
Russian voices.
I rolled my eyes. I didn't have a translator chip. So I had no idea what they were saying, but they were walking over to the Elevator from down a hall, and in a few moments the elevator rocked to life and started heading down.
The noise was perfect.
I moved. A bit of Parkour allowed me to swing out over the massive drop to get around the trash barricade without a sound. Now on the other side of the barricade I hurriedly slipped up to the interior wall and peeked down the hallway the scavs had just come from.
A camera was looking down the hall.
Damn.
Looks like I had been right. They kept an eye on the elevator. I considered hacking the camera, but I had no angle to start scanning to get its information much less to start the hack. I would have to go around instead.
As I looked around I noticed my entrance. I could see a hole busted into the wall that looked like they might be using it to shoot out at anyone coming up in the elevator that they didn't welcome.
Like a crew coming to clear them out.
Or the NCPD actually doing something for once.
I needed to get over there.
I looked around before sighing. My Parkour instincts kicking in showing me a path.
A very annoying path.
I walked back along the trash barricade, hit the concrete barrier that would barely keep anyone from falling into the abyss that was the center of the megabuilding and slipped over it. Then I shimmied sideways, until I hit the elevator shaft. The metal had plenty of places to grab, so I climbed on. Down below the barrier the camera couldn't see me as I shimmied my way around the entire elevator shaft until I was on the other side.
Then just a bit more climbing and I was clear of the hallways vision and I climbed back over.
I took a moment hiding behind some garbage to catch my breath and work out the tension in my arms. Couldn't have my arms be tired for what came next.
I moved to the hole.
Peeking in I noticed I was right. An HMG was resting against a table looking outwards.
The room was empty, looked like a bathroom they had smashed apart to make space for their little bunker. I had to be quiet. Slipping in since I was more than small enough to slip through the hole. I did my best not to make a sound as the concrete under my belly shifted and crumbled but I made it through.
I looked to the HMG.
Looked to the door.
Looked to the HMG again.
Tempting. But no. Those things are heavy as hell.
"Next time." I promised it as I shifted up to the doorway. The stupid bead blinds that were popular at least let me see out into the next room.
A Scav was set up on the couch in the next room, a BD wreath around his head.
I slipped through the beads silent as a ghost. Stalking through the apartment, eyes roving every corner just to make sure there wasn't anyone else here.
There wasn't.
My knife slipped out of my sheath without a sound.
The man didn't hear a thing. Didn't feel a thing. Not until my hand was over his mouth to muffle and my knife slipped into his neck.
His quiet gasp muffled and weak death throes were ignored.
I slipped my knife back into my sheath and settled a pillow against the mans neck. Hiding the blood splatter.
500 XP Gained.*
I moved on. My hunt had only just begun.
Besides, right now? I was feeling pretty... Cool.
The apartment wall had been broken out. Connecting the apartments. Into one massive 'hive' of rooms. I slipped over to the hole and started making my way through a dark hole that looked like it had once been a storage area for the apartment.
The next apartment was brighter lit, and the smell of blood hit me.
It also wasn't empty. Bodies stacked up and Ripper doc chair with a corpse. Her chest ripped open like she was in an aliens movie.
And a man walking around the body with some weird device in his hands that looks like an ancient torture device.
The lights were out in the storage room I was slipping through giving me the perfect opportunity to move closer. As the man couldn't see his death.
He looked into the hole in her chest and reached in. Obviously trying to pull something loose.
My hand gripped my knife again.
He was tall. I would have trouble reaching his neck for a strike. I glanced around. My Ninjutsu instinct told me to check every corner. Every angle before striking.
Even as my eyes kept him in sight.
I stalked closer.
He was bent over. Looking into the girls chest. I stalked right up beside him. I could tell the exact moment he would see me.
Ninjutsu had taught me a lot about assasination.
He glanced over at the exact moment my knife slipped into his neck. I had walked right up beside him. So I could deliver my blow. I kept with the blow helping him drop to the floor dragging him away from everything a bit so his death flailing wouldn't knock anything over. After a few moments his movements stilled.
500 XP Gained.*
I looked around. This was definitely part of their main shop. I couldn't leave his body on the floor.
I blinked when I saw it.
Well if it worked for video game protagonists everywhere… I dragged him over to a cold storage fridge. I had a feeling what I would find inside and I was right.
Bodies. I grimaced as I hefted him up. Definitely struggling with his weight.
I really needed more Body. But after a bit of back and forth I dumped him inside. Shutting the fridge.
I took a moment to back off. Back into the dark storage room to rest up against the wall and regain control of my breathing.
A minute.
That's all I needed. Then I was good to go. I moved on. The Ripper room led to a much larger area. It had once been a living room, but everything had been torn out. It looked like… It was a storage room. Full of crates that I bet if I checked inside would be full of Cyberware. I guess I found their stock.
Three people were hanging around the room. One was putting stuff into one of the crates. One was just looking out the window smoking
The third? He was the most dangerous. He looked borged out. I grimaced at the realization they did have some serious muscle to back up their operation.
I looked around. There was no way I could take out all three of them without noise, but as I looked around I realized I could get around them. I smiled as I stalked into the room using the crates as cover to walk to my right towards where the entrance to the apartment would have been.
These apartments had been absolutely broken apart. Obviously the scavs wanted their own path through things, and the large crates wouldn't even fit through the old apartment doors. So walls doors, and huge sections of each apartment had been ripped apart.
Which also meant lights were down. I slipped into a dark section near the old entrance where the wall had been ripped apart. Noticing that I could continue on through a hole they had battered through the concrete. I slipped through moving right past the massive room without a sound.
The room connected was another bunker room. No HMG though, shame.
This one was occupied instead. A BD wreath clad Scav again.
These scavs were making it easy.
He died just as quickly as the last one.
500 XP Gained.*
With that I slipped out the exit to the bathroom bunker and looked around. The next room was full of computers and other equipment. Probably the place they set up their sales and buys. I glanced around no one was in the room, but I could hear cutting from next door. As I walked through something caught my eye and I snatched it up. A Max Doc.
Didn't have any of those. Healing item get.
The computer system was nice. A multi monitor setup attached to a wall with a desk and chair under it. I could try to breach in, but I shook my head. Focus on the job of killing scavs. I could do that later if I really wanted.
I moved past. Following the noise of people sawing at something. As I poked my head into the next room I grimaced.
This time the ripper wasn't alone.
A man and a woman working together to rip off the legs off a dead man.
I really fucking hated these people. My brain was still cool. So my mind swiftly found a path through them.
I drew my knife. And as I stalked into the room. I grabbed an object from a table. A bigger cutting tool, more like a pair of industrial shears than scissors, but it would do.
I attacked. The knife in my right hand sliding right into the mans throat before I left it and swiped at the woman.
500 XP Gained.*
I was off. No. I realized she had dodged too fast to be natural. She had jerked her head back moving almost blurring fast for half a second before she realized what had just happened.
She cursed loudly. Yelling something in russian.
I threw my knife. She wasn't fast anymore. It whistled for half a moment before appearing in her chest with a dull thunk.
She gasped, her legs failing her suddenly.
100 Reflex XP Gained.*
500 XP Gained.*
Okay. Ninja mode disengaged.
I moved. To the next room. A guy was already grabbing a rifle off a desk when I slipped in.
He was scrambling for a rifle on a table across from him when I raised my pistol.
The retort echoed through the apartments as I fired again and again, until the man fell to the floor.
500 XP Gained.*
Level up achieved!*
One Stat Point Gained.*
One Skill Point Gained.*
I dropped the magazine, and reloaded quickly. Well since this Scav was kind enough to pull out something a bit heavier than my pistol. I rushed across the room grabbing the rifle.
Instantly my head knew what it was. Nokota D5 Copperhead.
It was the AK of the future.
I spun. I could hear footsteps approaching.
Heavy footsteps.
I looked around. The room I was in was the last unit in the row. There wasn't a second exit.
So this is where I would have to make a stand.
I raced back across the room. Using the doorway to the Ripper room set up. Rifle raised up and pointed, but I could hear the borg moving. Basically doing the same thing on the opposite doorway.
Intermittent Russian called out as the three scavs talked to each other.
Well if he wanted to post up near the doorway.
I grabbed a Frag grenade from my chest rig. Ripping the pin out with my teeth which actually hurt a bit and wasn't nearly as easy as the movies made it seem, I popped the grenade holding it for half a second to cook before chucking it across the room.
My Reflex and Ninjutsu helped make the grenade land generally where I wanted it to as it hit the doorway and fell into the computer room.
But before it went off, it was suddenly spiraling into the ripper room.
Did… Did the borg seriously kick it? Asshole!
I jerked back and the massive thump of the grenade going off in the room rolled past me. A few moments later something in Russian was called out mockingly.
"I don't speak Russian." I answered back completely flat.
Then a surge went up my spine. Danger Sense. I was spotted? I jerked back landing flat on my back just in time for a massive chunk of the wall I had been standing against disappeared.
I held back a curse. Letting the cool feeling surging through my nerves keep my calm.
Tech Shotgun? Tech Shotgun. I popped a Grenade off my rig quietly pulling the pin.
"Do you understand Russian now?" The voice called back mockingly. A rough older man. Obviously laughing.
He thought he got me. I smiled. I heard his foot thunk. I popped the trigger on the grenade. Letting it cook.
I felt completely calm. My heartbeat didn't even stutter as I held the cooking grenade long past where I should have.
Then as if I had done this a million times I chucked it through the hole he had just blown through the wall.
Half a second was all the time he had. A moment to start cursing in Russian before the Grenade made it through the hole and exploded. I rolled away. Plaster and concrete shattered over me as the wall came down.
My ears were ringing, but I brought up the rifle I had stolen, and as soon as I managed to roll to my knees I started firing into the smoke and dust.
I could see the bullets make divots through the dust but I realized after half a magazine I wasn't able to tell if I was hitting anything. So I leapt to the side rolling until I was behind a desk just in case.
Which was smart because the sound of a double barrel shotgun ripping through the room smashing concrete as it went right through where I had been a moment before told me I hadn't gotten him.
Again more russian was called out, although it wasn't the borg, but I got the gist.
"Kill her this time?"
"No." Nyet was some of the only russian I knew after all.
He thunked into the room like the fucking terminator. Already reloading his shotgun.
I tossed my last grenade.
I didn't pull the pin though.
As he moved to kick it back towards me I rose up.
Burya staring straight at him, his shotgun out of position as he kicked the grenade back.
We had a moment. A simple frozen moment in time as his eyes locked with mine. I could see it. The frozen moment he realized he had fucked up.
The moment my Burya kicked, breaking my arm but sending a bullet with more than enough force to crack his chrome.
He was actually smiling a little as the bullet struck.
1000 XP Gained.*
Then everything was moving again.
I was moving again. Dropped the Burya because my right arm wasn't strong enough to holster the damn thing I raced over to the dropped grenade. Popped the pin with my teeth again.
Owe.
I tossed the grenade with every inch of the accuracy I had grinded. The grenade arced through the ripper room, and into the computer room.
The room that I hoped the two other Scavs were hanging around in waiting for their Borg to take me out.
I breathed for a few moments wincing at the feeling of my arm even as the pain was fading into prickly ice.
And then the thump of the grenade echoed through the building.
I moved. Not waiting for a moment, I dashed through the ripper room power sliding into the room with the computer terminal.
The two scavs were shocked from the grenade, having jumped out of the way to survive it, but they weren't stupid.
Even as my pistol rose up and started shooting.
They shot back.
I winced when I felt a bullet strike me, and then two.
Yet my bullets were hitting them as well. One scav went down.
500 XP Gained.*
Yet the second Scav and I were facing each other, both of us low to the ground. Both of our guns raised.
We started firing. Bullets whizzed past me as I tried to roll to avoid more rounds, my Unity barking over and over until finally it clicked down.
We both were on the ground. I was gasping. As I struggled to move.
That was a lot of blood.
I dropped my Unity even as I felt myself wavering.
I was dying. I coughed, blood rolling out of my throat.
I fumbled with my pocket, finally pulled out the Max Doc with shaking hands.
I inhaled it and instantly the hazy feeling disappeared. I could feel the bullet holes not close, but stop bleeding. Although I could see that they were scabbing over. Healing.
I rose up looking over to the Scav who looked just like I had been a moment before. Leaning up against a desk bleeding out from multiple gunshot wounds.
His eyes though.
He had seen.
He looked at me in horror as I reached behind my back and pulled out a magazine.
I picked up my Unity and reloaded it as I took a few steps closer.
Then I put a bullet in his eye.
500 XP Gained.*
I stood there after just catching my breath. I felt cool, but I also felt tired.
Took a few tired steps out into the large room. The large room full of crates probably loaded with Cyberware.
I flopped onto the couch the Borg had been resting on before and just breathed for a few minutes.
"How am I still alive?" I asked as I zoned out. What the fuck had I just done? I wasn't some elite special operative or something! Okay I could shoot a gun with an okay level of skill, but I had just… How did I know to throw the grenade without pulling the pin?
I hadn't even thought. I just did. Cold Blood had left me without any hesitation. Pain and fear, even anger, hadn't played any part. Just a cold clinical calculus.
I had put in a few points into Ninjutsu before going into this den, but I was actually wondering if I should have put it into Cold Blood.
I raised my hands up to wipe my face only to wince.
While the Max Doc had seemed to give me a gamer style heal. At least enough to put me back to alive status. My arm was still broken. And I still had some bullet holes.
It had stopped me from bleeding out, and healed parts of my holes, but not all the way. I looked down at my chest. At the holes punched through my Netrunner suit.
Dammit. That was going to be expensive to fix. So much for the armor as well.
I rose up and started searching around. They had to have a place with medical supplies somewhere.
And I was right. In a corner I found a med kit and popped it open. Instantly inhaling the Max Doc and sighing as my bullet holes healed up more, although it would be obvious I had been shot still. There were still wounds where I had been shot…
Wait, did that mean I had bullets in me still? Dammit. I would have to get to a ripper to check. How was I supposed to ask that? "Hey Ripper can you tell if I still have bullets in me from these holes that just happened?" I mocked myself before sighing.
"Well actually I probably need to stop at a ripper anyways huh." I couldn't help but admit as I looked over the crates all over the room. I walked over to one and popped it open, only to wince.
"Legs."
I moved on to the next crate. "Arms."
"Synth Muscle."
The next one had little boxes that when I opened up I instantly closed back down.
"Eyes." I muttered with a shiver. I looked over the crates.
"Fuck." That was a lot of product. A lot of Cyberware.
"Okay Motoko you idiot. You cleared out the Scavs. Now how do you get this stuff out of here?"
I realized I hadn't actually thought that far.
Motoko kill scavs and numbers go up!
Fuck. That was about as far as my stupid brain had thought this through. I was going to have to call in help… help that was going to ask questions.
Fuck it. I had nearly died, but no one needed to know that. I could just… Fake it. Yeah.
I would just lie. Alot.
I made a call.
Toko! Save me from boredom! Club?*
Hey Hiromi… Can you get Ichi and the gang together and find a bigger vehicle than your bikes. I need… I need a couple trucks or something.*
Okay I am suddenly very interested in what my cute Motoko is talking about. What is going on?*
It's hard to explain and I don't really want to talk about over the line. Can you do it? I promise there will be eddies in it.*
Well I would come no matter what, but that will get the boys moving. Alright where to?*
Just get to Megabuilding H2, and try to keep it quiet. That would be Preem.*
I'll get the boys moving we have Omaeda's van. That enough?*
No. Rent or hell steal a cargo truck if you have to. We got a lot of shit to move.*
The line was quiet for a moment as I looked out the windows watching the city far below.
I am so interested right now. You have no idea. Okay whatever craziness you got going on I'm in.*
Thanks Hiromi. Really. I appreciate it.*
The line ended and I took a moment to look around. Finding all kinds of stuff that had my looters instincts going crazy. I started bringing it back to the central room until I stumbled upon a shower that still worked. I quickly washed up. Trying to get most of the blood off me, but wincing when I realized that I still had bullet holes all over me.
That was going to be difficult to explain. I quickly zipped up my jacket hoping that it would hide most of the holes. I looked around and found some bandages of all things in a med kit. With a bit of arranging the bullet holes were hidden, and you couldn't see that I had been shot now. It just looked like I was wearing a white shirt under my leotard.
Hopefully no one would wonder why my new Netrunner Leotard had holes in it. Figuring that was good enough I decided to start looting.
Last edited: Nov 1, 2022
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Seras
Nov 1, 2022
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Threadmarks Chapter 14
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Seras
Idiot Sandwich
Nov 3, 2022
#3,285
I was searching through the borg I had flatlined for any goodies he might have in his pocket when I heard it.
The elevator.
It left a quiet rumble through the floor as it settled. The elevator that was locked down so only Scavs could use it. Hiromi and Ichi's crew wouldn't be here yet.
"Here I go murdering again." I whispered as everything went cold.
Instantly my mind had a thought and every part of me was nodding along.
I ran. Sprinted through the different rooms over the dead bodies and through broken walls before I returned to that little Bunker they had set up near the elevator. I crept up and unfortunately whoever had come up had already walked out of the elevator.
But that was fine. I slipped out through the hole as quickly and quietly as I could until I was once more on the Megabuildings outer walkway.
Then I pulled the HMG through the hole.
I wheezed a little at how heavy it was as it caused a twinge in my left arm that made me wince, but I fought through it anyways. How did Becca handle this thing!? Oh right. Cyber arms.
Gonna have to get me some cyber arms.
Because as I walked down the hall I caught the sight of the scav walking into their little den. That room led to the first Ripper room.
Which meant I had about thirty seconds before they realized something was up.
So I hurried down the hall. Not caring too much about making noise. This was their home base. They expected people here.
I crept through the ripper room, my face turning into a gentle smirk as I stopped just before entering the big room.
I took a breath.
Then I walked out around the doorway.
Three men. One was carrying a man over his shoulder.
Fuck. They had a victim…
Fine. I just wouldn't shoot at that one, I adjusted my aim.
And pulled the trigger.
You know in the game the HMG was used every once in a while. It was an okay thing. A heavy weapon you could pick up and carry around for a bit until it ran out of ammo, or you had to do anything else.
It was okay. Not great. Not amazing. Just okay. Fun though.
This? This wasn't a video game.
This was a fucking HMG fired from the hip by a fourteen year old unaugmented girl. I only weighed a tad over a hundred pounds.
Did I forget my broken left arm? Yes. Yes, I did forget my broken left arm. That is until about half a second after I started firing.
Then I remembered it. Oh did I remember it.
So yeah. Firing the HMG instantly fucked me up. Kicking me back and forcing me to push myself into a wall to keep from falling on my ass.
Too bad for the poor Scav that I had been aiming at though.
He turned into fucking hamburger. Turns out these HMG's fired explosive rounds.
500 XP Gained.*
The other two leapt for cover.
Which didn't help when I manhandled the HMG arcing over towards the scav that wasn't carrying an innocent.
Explosive ammunition doesn't care about light cover.
I kept firing. The wall I was pushing the gun against to find any sort of stabilization practically crumbled from the treatment but it did let me arc the fire straight through the second Scav attempt to hide behind an overturned table.
500 XP Gained.*
I dropped the HMG. I couldn't shoot the third Scav without hitting the victim, and I didn't think I could have held it for much longer anyways.
I drew my Unity with my good arm and rushed him.
The Scav was still screaming something in Russian as I leapt over the couch he had been hiding behind.
The poor victim looked like shit on the floor beside him obviously having been dropped like a sack when the firing started. But the Scav? He was cowering.
Four rounds into him before he realized I was there and he stopped moving.
500 XP Gained.*
I breathed. Just breathed catching my breath before I rolled forward and grabbed my arm.
"Fuuuuu-!"
—--
The Victim was still unconscious. I checked them out and they didn't have any shards in their system or anything. Probably just drugged or beaten unconscious. So I hauled them up and put them on one of the newly destroyed couches before settling in myself.
My arm twinged a bit whenever I moved it.
I think I broke, broke it. I needed a nap, but needed to get the crates full of cyberware out first. I sighed hoping Hiromi hurried up.
The bodies were starting to smell… Worse than the room already smelled. While I waited I checked over my stats since I had nothing else to do.
Considering how much shooting I had just done, I wasn't surprised to see my stats had gone up.
A lot.
Annihilation skill level up!*
Annihilation skill level up!*
1 Perk Point Gained.*
Annihilation skill level up!*
I blinked at that one. Guess firing an HMG had leveled me up quick.
I stopped to check out the perks for a moment. This time there was a pretty quick delineation between shotgun perks and Machine gun perks. Luckily just a few options from the top was what I wanted. I picked it immediately.
Recoil Reduction. Know how to best reduce the effect of recoil on aim and your body.
That would hopefully mean when I shot the Burya my arm stopped breaking. I would have to test that though. I winced at that idea. So I moved on.
Reflex Leveled up!*
This was a relief. Reflex was so determined by my skills since I didn't have a direct way to level it. Now I was at Reflex 4. That meant I had even more Reflex skills to level.
Well those that hadn't already.
Blades skill level up!*
Handguns skill level up!*
Assault skill level up!*
Handguns was once more maxed out at Handguns 4. Blades was at 3, and Assault 3. So I still had some grinding to do with those.
Then I looked down a bit more on the list.
Cool Leveled up!*
Cool Leveled up!*
Cool 6. I guess killing all these scavs was pretty cool. I sighed. No wonder I was still calm and collected. Sitting around the dead bodies of the Scavs wasn't even ruffling me. I shook that away looking at the last two skills.
Ninjutsu skill level up!*
1 Perk Point Gained.*
I had only gained one level of Ninjutsu. I guess Cool had leveled up once early on when I was still sneaking around, but since I had stopped using stealth mid fight it didn't have a chance to level along with Cool.
Cold Blood though?
Cold Blood skill level up!*
Cold Blood skill level up!*
Cold Blood skill level up!*
1 Perk Point Gained.*
Cold Blood skill level up!*
Four levels. Cold blood 6.
It was now my highest stat and skill. I rubbed my eyes a bit before opening the perks menu.
Ninjutsu first.
The list hadn't changed much. One or two additional perks that seemed to have unlocked due to other skill trees.
Scrolling through the list I ended up finally deciding to keep focusing on the stealth aspect of Ninjutsu instead of the combat angle.
Which is why I kept circling around to this perk.
Cyber Ninja. After Breaching a system automatically upload a daemon that makes you more difficult to see for members of the network. Increases based on skill level of Breaching.
A combo perk. Breach and Ninjutsu. A perk I hadn't had before. Being able to sneak past people after using Breach on them? That was already something I wanted to do!
But it also meant I really needed to level my Breach and Quick Hack. So I could hack and Breach on the run. I looked around at the room full of Cyberware. I wondered if they had anything here I could use? But I shook that off to refocus.
Because I still had one more perk to choose.
Cold Blood.
I started looking down the list. It didn't take me long to find what I wanted.
Fearless Chill. Fear is a powerful enemy. Good thing your enemies realize you have none. Fear is your ally.
From the description it read more like a diplomacy skill. If while under Cold Blood people realized I wasn't afraid… that might be a pretty strong advantage.
Fearless people were scary after all. You never knew what they would be willing to do.
I picked it, I had already taken a perk to keep my body calm in terrible situations, maybe one to keep my mind calm would be a good combination too.
I looked at my skill points. The desire to spend them was there. But I held off for now. After this I would probably do some normal grinding for a while. I might even have the eddies to try working on my Technical Skill. That would be a nice thing to level. So I would hold off for a bit, figure out what I wanted to raise. Intelligence, or maybe more Cool and Stealth?
Ringing*
I smiled as Hiromi finally called me back.
Hiromi. You here?*
Well I'm at the ground floor in the garage. You said the south side right?*
Yeah the south elevator. You near it?*
It's right here, but the damn thing is broken, choom.*
Yeah they had it locked down. Give me a minute, should be able to send it down from here.* I quickly rose, noticing the victim was still out. And hurried to the elevator. Just like I expected, the control panel on the elevator was completely destroyed having been pulled off and modified.
An absolute mess of wires and connections.
Unfortunately my tech knowledge was zilch.
It was the back of an elevator control panel. I had no idea how or what they had done.
It took a minute of going over the wires trying to find what everything was connected to.
Crafting Experience Gained.*
Skill not unlocked, no XP gained.*
Crafting Unlocked.*
I blinked mid way through as I got the alert.
"Nice but useless right now." I muttered as I continued following the wires until I finally found something strange. A box that wasn't supposed to be there.
It even had buttons. I pushed one of them and nothing happened. Then the other.
The elevator started going down.
"Finally." I grunted as I waited for it to hit the bottom.
Ringing.* Hiromi was calling again.
Hey choom! You sent it down!*
Yeah go ahead and get on, and let me know when you are ready I can bring it up.*
Hah! Our own personal elevator. Hear that Ichi? We got our own ride… What? No shut up Malcolm you gonk!*
The call turned into arguing for a minute before I sighed.
You ready for a lift Hiromi?*
Huh? Oh yeah we are all on.*
I rolled my eyes as I ended the call and pushed the other button, feeling the elevator start traveling upwards right after.
I stepped back as I waited, before quickly looking myself over. I was mostly clean of blood, and the bullet holes in my Netrunner Leotard hopefully wouldn't draw too much attention. I wiped a hand through my purple hair one last time before standing casually putting on a bit of coolness as the elevator finally made it to the top.
"Hi hi!" Hiromi called as the Elevator opened looking around at the destroyed section of the building.
I imagine it looked like one hell of a scene. Garbage barriers. Holes in the walls. Lights flickering in and out. I realized then that there were some bloody footprints from my surprise attack on the second group of scavs walking away from the hole in the wall and then back into the apartment… I must have stepped into a bloody pool when I ran.
Just fly casual Motoko.
"Glad you all could make it. I could use the extra hands." I offered as I flicked my head back towards the apartment.
"What the hell did I just walk into?" Omaeda asked, looking very uncomfortable as he looked over the area. He was even fingering his pistol on his hip as he looked around.
"Don't worry. There are no more threats here. It's safe." I told him directly, trying to sound reassuring.
I don't think it was though.
"Motoko. Choom. Choomer. Choomiest? What's going on?" Hiromi asked, looking around nervously as well.
"Scav den." I answered back. "You are the clean up team." I told her, which to my surprise caused all four of them to tense up and draw their weapons like scavs were going to come out of the walls.
"Fuck Motoko, you can't ask us to his a scav den without letting us know first!" Ichi hissed with a whisper as he started checking the corners nervously. And even Hiromi was looking a little freaked out.
"Clean up. Not extermination." I said after a few moments trying to cut through their freakout. "Place is already cleared. Just needed some hands to move the loot." I explain and while that at least causes them to stop freaking out so much, they were still looking around.
"Who helped you clean the place out Motoko?" Ichi asked, and even Hiromi jumped on me after resheathing her katana that she had drawn.
"Yeah I thought we were a crew! You went and got some other mercs to help out? Or did you join a new crew? You can't betray us like that Motokooooo!" Hiromi whined.
"It was just me though?" I answered calmly. "That's why I called you all in, I needed help looting everything." I told them as I gestured down the hall. "C'mon stop playing around." I said calmly as I turned and walked down the hall.
The door was already open as I entered ignoring the first Ripper room with the dead woman still on the table.
Once we were out of here I would alert the NCPD. I don't know if they would actually do anything or not, but maybe they would.
Either way I had no idea what to do with a body.
I could hear gasps of shock at the sight and whispers breaking out among the group as they noticed the already dead woman.
I wondered what they would think when they saw the main room. I walked in and looked around. It was a bit of a mess. The three dead Scavs were one thing, well they weren't one thing anymore, more a few different chunks… Anyway, you could see the other two in the computer room from where I stopped too.
I turned around only to blink.
No one was there. I looked down at the victim who was still unconscious. "My chooms are a bit… unreliable." I admitted to him before turning around and going back into the ripper room.
The crew was all looking around the room in horror.
"Guys? The stuff is in here." I pointed out my re-appearance causing Malcolm to jerk back from the womans corpse that he had been morbidly looking into her open chest.
"This is crazy." He muttered but he finally followed me and everyone else put down whatever junk they were playing with.
Seriously Ichi, I don't think we need a pair of surgical clamps.
The group followed me into the main room and instantly I could hear Malcolm start cussing.
"Son of a bitch. That's a dead scav!" He called out hurrying over to the legs of the scav I had caught with the HMG. Only to stutter to a quick stop "Err. I mean It's half a dead scav."
"The other half of him is over there." I pointed to the other side of the couch they were standing next to. "Also Omaeda don't touch that. It's mine." I tell him looking over my shoulder to see Omaeda checking out my HMG.
That was going with me.
Omaeda looked up his hand inches from touching the gun before back to the gun and back to me before raising his hands off it and standing up.
"Wait. Is this one alive?" Hiromi asked, having been looking around as well.
"Yeah, that was a victim. They were carrying him up. I think he is drugged up. When we get out of here we need to call the NCPD let them take care of it."
"Damn Motoko. You seriously assaulted a Scav den and took out three Scavs? You got lucky there weren't any more." Ichi mentioned having looked over the couch to see the second Scav I had mowed down with the HMG.
"There were more than three. One in the first ripper room. Two in this room, along with a Borg. One in the last room I think was their boss.. The two that were in the other ripper room… Then these three showed up after… I think that's it? Oh no wait, the two gonks that were scrolling a BD. One in the front, and another down that way." I told them counting on my fingers as I tried to remember all of them. I had been more focused on making sure I got them all at the time than counting.
Besides they were scavs. It took me a moment to actually remember all of them.
The room was quiet as I looked up from my fingers and noticed everyone staring at me.
"What?" They all jerked like they had stuck a fork in a power socket.
"Nothing."
"Yeah, is cool is all."
"Preem." Hiromi offered with a big smile that looked a little off.
I gave them all a flat look but I could see Ichi's group kind of closing off as they stepped away a bit and clumped together. I could hear them whispering to themselves for a while, but I gave them their space. I did sort of drag them into a charnel house.
They deserved a few minutes to sort things out. Hiromi was also distracted, poking her head around a bit checking the room over, looking through some of the crates with a wrinkled nose.
Finally I noticed they were all splitting up a bit to look around and I called out.
"Anyways. Let's move these crates first! I don't want something to happen like the NCPD showing up and not letting us loot them. Crates first. And then we can go around at our leisure to see if there is anything you want. Should be lots of weapons and stuff lying around." I told the group as I walked over to the crate nearest me.
That caused everyone to gather back up, and Ichi's crew seemed more at ease.
"What's in the crates?" Malcolm asked curious and I could tell the others had probably a good idea already but I shrugged and lifted the lid.
"Oh that's a lot of legs."
"The crates are full of the Scavs loot. We are taking it for ourselves." I tell them. Thankfully it wasn't like full hacked off legs, but all the interior cyberware packaged in plastic ready for resale.
"Oh that's why you said bring vehicles with space." Malcolm responded. "I'm surprised you even brought us in. This is a huge payday Choom."
"My arm is a little messed up. So I can't really move the crates myself." I told him, causing Hiromi to squawk as she ran over to me looking me over as if she could see the injury.
"What happened? Did the gonks shoot you or something!?" She talked quickly looking me over but I just raised my left arm.
"I had to shoot my Burya to flatline their Borg. It messed up my arm. It's fine, just stings." Which was the truth from a certain point of view.
"Burya?" She asked suddenly. "What's a Burya and why would it mess up your arm? Jeez Moootooookooooo You are a worse storyteller than Ichi!"
"Hey!"
"Burya is a pistol Hiromi. It has a strong kick. Feels like it's breaking my arm every time I shoot it, but it's good for killing borgs. It punches right through their armor." I explained simply as I finally pushed her hands from my arm to the crate. "Let's get this stuff moved okay? I really don't want to lose all this chrome. Some of it might be usable by us."
"Wait. You mean we can use this?" Malcolm asked, suddenly perking up from where he had been poking around in another crate his face split into an eager look towards me.
"Help me get it out of here and secured, and we can figure it out. I'll get first dibs, but otherwise I don't mind. Just don't go crazy." I told him, and suddenly the three boys looked a lot more eager. Not just eddies on the mind but chrome.
"Pshh most of this is junk. I doubt we will want any of this chrome." Hiromi muttered but I shrugged.
"Still worth eddies somewhere… Maybe? What's the best way to sell Chrome like this?" I asked Hiromi quietly who looked at me like..
Well like I was a gonk.
"Wait, you cleared this den and you wanted us to grab all this junk, and you have no idea what to do with it?"
"I hadn't thought that far ahead… Yet. I'm thinking about it now though!"
"You are such a gonk." She scoffed, "I have some idea's let's talk to Ichi though he has more connections that might help than I do."
"Cool… Wanna help move the crates?"
"Nah. I'll stick with you, let the boys earn their eddies." Hiromi offered me with a fox grin that I couldn't help but chuckle at. We both took a moment watching the boys who were already grabbing crates and hauling them over to the elevator. The three were practically drooling at all the chrome.
But Hiromi stopped paying attention to them once they were far enough away.
"Hiromi?" I asked as she turned to look at me with a serious face.
"Motoko, what happened here? Did you take a job to hunt the scavs? Who even gave you the information. They were probably sending you to die, you know?"
"No one. It wasn't a gig Hiromi. I just… Learned there were some scavs here, and came to clear them out."
"That is crazy." She said slowly before going silent as she looked like she was trying to figure out what to say. "Doing something like this is real Edgerunner stuff Motoko, it's stuff people do that don't care if they die or not. You… You aren't… You've never been able to do something like this. I know you've been practicing with your guns a lot, but this is on a different level than going to the shooting range a couple times."
Hiromi. She was super serious. Looking honestly concerned about what I had done.
"I knew I could do it. So I did. Jun has been doing crazy stuff so I knew I needed more… More experience, more chrome, more eddies. I need to be strong enough to help him when he finally bites off more than he can handle." I answered truthfully.
"That's what the other Tyger Claws are for Motoko! It's what Ichi and his crew are useful for. It's what I am for! That is what chooms do. They do crazy dangerous things together. You shouldn't be rushing into something like this! Especially not alone." She shook her head looking so confused. "Why are you making me be the voice of reason? I'm supposed to be the rich girl slumming it." She said almost growling at the end as she poked my side a bit.
But I wasn't ticklish. Instead I just huffed a bit at her probing finger.
"I don't trust them to keep Jun safe, over whatever goal they have. To the Tyger Claws Jun is just.. Muscle. To me Jun is my irreplaceable brother. I owe him a lot."
"You have to be alive to pay him back." Hiromi retorted, looking at the corpses in the room. "Even if you are somehow really good at this." She looked around seeing the one scav that was literally in two pieces from being cut in half by the HMG. "Seriously good."
"I'll be careful… More careful." I quickly changed what I said as Hiromi looked like she was going to argue.
"I still don't understand how you did this." She muttered and I didn't shrug, or make any notice. I couldn't explain so instead I just stayed quiet, face firm.
"Hey! You gonna help or what?" Malcolm called out suddenly, pulling us from our conversation as we looked. He was looking at Hiromi, irritated. "C'mon Hiromi help out. This thing is heavy!"
"Just move it yourself! Don't worry if you break your back, we will just give you a chrome one!" Hiromi called out joking, earning a rude gesture from the boy as he tugged and pulled the heavy crate across the floor.
This was gonna take a while.
I looked around myself seeing the Scavs on the ground and the idea did reach my brain but I shivered and put it away.
Stripping bodies for chrome was a step too far.
1648
Seras
Nov 3, 2022
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Threadmarks Chapter 15
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Seras
Seras
Idiot Sandwich
Nov 5, 2022
#3,590
—--
When we loaded up the elevator with all the crates, and after everyone had searched through the scav den for extra loot. All the boys now had a new weapon of some sort. Ichi even claiming the DB-2 Satara. I was tempted to claim it myself. I had enough equipment I didn't really need it. Plus Ichi looked so happy when he pulled it out from underneath a table.
We were ready to go.
I had taken a few minutes with Omaeda's help to breach the Scavs computer security as well. The other Netrunner had looked pretty irritated with my 'assistance' in pulling the data, but after a quick discussion, he was going to sell the data off to another Netrunner he knew who would be interested, as long as any data on other scav locations went to me.
Sure I could have pulled it as well, and I likely would have just sold it to Wakako, but Omaeda was Ichi's Netrunner. If I was going to keep using Ichi's crew, I needed to keep them happy.
Although potentially the only reason Omaeda had agreed was because of the looks the crew had given me when they came across the Borgs body. It was back to that fearful side glances.
I used a Burya guys. Stop acting like it's weird. Anyone can kill a borged out Scav with a hand cannon.
We took the elevator down and finally I got to see what the crew had gathered up.
Omaeda had his van, which ended up being mostly useless as the boy had the back filled with scrap already. Which seemed to piss him off when he realized he wouldn't be able to take a crate.
Malcolm had a car, an old beat up Thorton Galena, which was basically a little hatchback.
With the back seats down, and a lot of effort Malcolm with Omaeda's help got a crate in the back.
But Ichi was reliable. He had actually done as asked. A Villefort Columbus. It was basically a 'modern' moving van, and the back was empty.
"I, uh, called in a favor with one of Shobo-sama's lieutenants. I did a job for him that saved his hide a few months back. I asked him for something I could move a lot of stuff around with, and he gave me the key shard for this. I uh… Just don't scratch the paint, or ding it up okay?" He muttered to everyone.
"Sure Ichi. We will be careful. Oh look it even has a little ramp. That's useful." I called out showing everyone my discovery, and with that we were able to load up the five crates of Chrome into the cars.
"I think that's everything!" Hiromi called out wiping her brow.
Despite the fact she hadn't really done anything but 'supervise' the loading.
"Oh! One second. There is something I can't forget!" I called out as I headed back up the elevator. A minute later with a bit of effort I came back down struggling to hold my new baby with one arm.
"Motoko…" Ichi sighed looking at me as I struggled to carry my new HMG to the van.
"She is very important Ichi." I tell him firmly as he sighs and helps me load her up.
Then we all climbed in.
And realized we had no idea where to go.
"Who buys a bunch of chrome?" I asked Hiromi and Ichi from the back seat of his truck as they clambered in.
"Ripperdocs. We could head back to the Ho-oh Club as well. I bet Shobo-sama would buy the chrome off you. Or a Fixer. But make sure to call them first, never a good idea to drop off a job in a Fixers lap without asking first." Ichi replied, his experience on the streets revealing themselves.
"Ripper docs… Actually that gives me an idea, and a chance to meet someone I wanted to have a future relationship with." I told Ichi and pulled up my map system. I ended up unable to find directions to where I wanted to go, but I did find the next best thing.
"Sending you the deets Ichi"
"Misty's Esoterica?" He asked as I sent him the text.
"Not exactly. It's the Ripperdoc behind the shop that I am interested in." I tell him with a small smile. "Trust me." I was forced to add at the confused and unsure look I was getting.
"Alright. Your gig. You're the boss." He said with a shrug and I could see his eyes flash gold as he must have called Omaeda and Malcolm to follow him.
While that happened I went ahead and called the NCPD line and gave them the information about the scav den cleared out and the bodies. Along with a victim still alive but drugged. It was really strange because the bored sounding woman on the line took all the information without showing any actual enthusiasm and then thanked me for the information.
I don't think she actually meant that. Still I turned my attention back to what lay at my feet.
I had so many plans for this baby.
—-
"This is it?" Ichi asked as we parked. Right in front of Misty's Esoterica.
"Yeah. Have everyone sit tight. I need to go around the back and talk to the Ripper. Keep an eye on the trucks. I shouldn't take too long." I asked Ichi and he nodded. HIromi, of course was already out of the truck waiting for me.
I stepped out and looked at the entrance to Misty's Esoterica with smile. Like walking into a dream.
It looked the same.
"Hello?" A quiet voice called out as a woman straight from Blade Runner walked around the corner from the back of her shop. "Oh I was right, I did hear someone. Welcome to my Esoterica. How can I help you today?" She asked looking Hiromi and I over as I smiled at her gently.
"Sorry, I actually have other business, is Doctor Vektor in?" I asked and Misty almost pouted for a second.
"He is.Yours isn't a face I know." She mentioned as she blinked slowly at me.
"No. This is my first time. I'm a new client I guess you could say. Motoko."
"Misty, as you might have guessed. Alright come on, I'll show you the way." She offered with a smile as she guided us through the back and then into an alley. I could see Hiromi starting to frown a bit, but I knew that Viktor was one of the best Ripperdocs in the city. Definitely the best in this area at least.
More importantly he wasn't the type to rip out a kids spine without anesthesia and chip them with a Sandevistan only to not give them the meds they would need.
No Vik was… Honorable. In a city almost completely devoid of it. There was a reason that I had instantly thought of him.
Misty guided us to a set of stairs leading downward lit by a small green light, and I could feel Hiromi tensing up as she drew close to me. Door opening showed just a dark space with some junk on the floor.
The fact she had her sword on her and was gripping it told me she was feeling particularly uncomfortable being led into a dark hole.
I just smiled because I was completely comfortable. We hit the bottom of the stairs and Misty called out. "Vik? You got a new client." She said as she looked through the protective door blocking the way.
"Is that so?" A voice called out and the gate opened as Misty waved us in.
Inside was a small Ripperdoc office. It wasn't perfectly clean and tidy, but there was a sense at least that it wasn't a back alley ripper, despite Viktor being just that.
The man was sitting at a desk as we walked in. Hiromi was looking around like she expected an ambush.
Viktor though, seeing the two of us smiled gently and rose up.
"Viktor Vektor. Nice to meet you." He offered offering a hand even if it was covered in Ripper mods.
I took it casually to make sure I wasn't pricked.
"Motoko Kusanagi, and this is my choom Hiromi. Nice to meet you Doctor Vektor."
"Oh please, Call me Vik, or Viktor, if you must."
"Vik then." I agreed, easily earning a smile, even Hiromi was calming down.
"Now how can I help you? Need something installed, or just a checkup?"
"Neither, both? It's complicated. I have a business proposition for you. I'm hoping you'll be willing to help me out. I heard good things about you, so I am hoping the rumor was true."
The man blinked a bit behind his glasses. "Well I doubt I have too many rumors about me anymore. I keep pretty quiet."
"It was about how you were a good guy. Don't rip people off, or install hacked chrome." I tell him which for a moment he actually seems a little proud of that.
"Well I try to live up to that. What can I help you with?"
"Right. Let me be blunt then. I'm a merc, and I just cleared a scav den."
I heard Misty do a little gasp beside us as she had settled onto the table to watch our meeting take place.
Vik though I watched as his eyebrows snapped together.
"I have five crates of chrome. All sorts of stuff. From bargain bin junk, to, well I don't know. I'm not really a chrome merchant." I say rubbing the back of my head a bit. "I'll continue to be blunt. Most of it is stuff I won't get much from. Even if I tried to find people that would pay in eddies, Most of the chrome isn't great. It's why I came to you. I want to trust you. To believe your rumors, that you are a good guy, so here is the deal. I give you the crates. All of them. Everything in there except maybe some good stuff if me or my chooms can use it. You can do whatever you want with it. Help people that need it. Sell it if that's what you want. But in exchange, I could use a Ripper I can actually trust. And maybe some advice on if any of the pieces are worth chipping in."
I finished talking and let the room take in what I had just said, I could feel Hiromi tensing up next to me, probably wondering what the hell drug I was on.
Giving stuff away in Night City? To someone that isn't even your choom?
Vik was looking me over with a strong stare. The boxer that he used to be seemed to be looking me over trying to figure out the angle of my punch.
There wasn't one though. I just trusted Vik, and considering what he was like in the game, if I gave him a bunch of cheap chrome, I expected a lot of people struggling without, or with failing limbs might find cheap to free chances to get new limbs soon.
At least that was the hope. A guy willing to ignore a 20k debt from a merc. That was the sort of kindness you didn't see in Night City often.
I wanted it for myself.
That sounded kinda selfish, but it was true. If I could become someone Vik likes, then I could have a really good relationship with one of the best.
"Didn't wake up today expecting something like this. Alright. You want to know what kind of chrome you have, and if there is anything worth anything? Let's take a look."
"Great. The trucks are outside Misty's. What's the best way to bring the crates down?"
"Let's back them up to the gate, I can open it up. Try to keep some eyes off." he chuckled as he rose up and actually sort of shooed us out of his clinic. I could hear Misty whispering something, and Vik chuckling a bit as he patted the girl on her shoulder.
We all walked up and out. Hiromi sending me looks the whole time but I threw her a simple thumbs up which made her roll her eyes at me before huffing a bit.
We pulled the boys into helping, and ten minutes later we had all five crates lined up against the inside of Viks clinic. Misty was still hanging around as well, and now the boys were here. Looking around the place as Vik popped the lid on the first crate.
I could hear his soft intake of breath as he looked over the many limbs laying in the crate.
"Yeah. Fuck scavs." I said simply from beside him. There were at least twenty pairs of limbs in this crate alone.
That's twenty people dead, no it was more. Because not all the limbs were paired.
"Yeah." Vik grumbled a bit with a hint of a growl in his throat before he sighed and rubbed his eyes a bit.
"You sure about this kid? This is a lot of chrome, even with its origins."
"It's because of its origins that I brought it to you. Might be able to help some people at least."
"Maybe. Most of this is mid range stuff." He whispered looking through the pile. "Got a few high end pieces. Nothing I can see that is combat rated, but…" He pulled out an arm that instead of the chrome lines, had a black lacquer. "This an Arasaka piece. The sort of thing they hand out to low level corporate. It's quality work."
"But not combat rated?"
"No it's a… Show piece. Lots of bells and whistles, but no good if you want to hit someone with it." He hummed, taking a moment to settle on the right word.
"Is there anything in there that would be useful to a merc?"
"Not this crate. But there is more than enough chrome in here to buy something high end. I can't pay for all this. You sure you don't want to sell it to someone else?"
"I'm sure." I answered simply which did cause the little huddle around Hiromi as the crew were obviously arguing about the lack of a payday.
Idiots. Setting up a connection to a really good RipperDoc, one that uses anesthesia when operating and knows what he is doing? Worth more than a few eddies.
Plus Vik was cool.
He started going through the crates, and there weren't any combat limbs. There was a few things that caught the boys ears.
"Smart link system here. Solid one too. Militech." He called out pulling out the… Well it was plastic bag with the palm of a hand inside it. Thankfully there wasn't any… Meat attached.
I shivered. Fuckin Scavs.
Viktor just kept going through cataloging what we had brought him. The fact that he had found something everyone could use had the whole crew breaking away from their complaining huddle to come see.
Like a pile of puppies when food is put out. I smirked a little at the thought.
In the end, there wasn't much we could end up using. My hopes for the.. Optics. Yeah let's go with that. Saying eyes makes it a little too much. The optics ended up being about on par with the stuff I already had.
"Sorry." Vik offered in the end looking actually apologetic. "Scavs don't tend to go for people who can fight back. They usually scan their target, make sure they are unarmed. Someone with combat rated Cyberware, or Mantis Blades or something they won't even approach."
"Yeah that's why I figured you would get more use out of it than I would." I told him.
"Yeah. Listen. I can't take all of this." Vik said. "You're a bunch of kids. Taking on scavs… You probably risked your lives. I don't have the cash to come close to all of this chrome."
"Your skills as a Ripper are worth more than some eddies." I tell him with a shrug. "If you feel really bad. I think one of the boys wants that Smartlink. Maybe give us a discount on the chip, and we call it square."
"Heh, You're a weird one. Motoko wasn't it?" He asked looking me over for a moment as if he was memorizing my face.
"That's right."
"Alright. Considering how much stock you just dropped off in my lap, I don't mind chipping that in for free, but I can't accept all of this for nothing either." His eyes went blue and a moment later I had a deposit.
"That's too much!" I couldn't help but argue instantly, only to get laughed at by the doc.
"I'm basically scamming you kid even with that. Take it." He refused, adjusting his glasses as he grabbed the smart link… Hand. "Let me do a few scans on this make sure it doesn't have any malware or anything, and whoever wants it?"
"Me!" Malcolm called out instantly, earning looks from the rest of the crew.
"Motoko!" Hiromi whined to me but I put up both hands.
"Don't look at me. Decide amongst yourselves who gets it. Oh also. Here is the pay for the job." I tell them as my eyes turn blue.
Vik had dropped ten grand on my lap. So I passed two grand to everyone. I was now two grand richer!
"You should get it, Motoko." Ichi said even as Malcolm looked like a kicked puppy.
"No thanks." I tell them with a shrug. "I don't use smart weapons. So it isn't really necessary to me, and there is some work I was thinking about doing on my arms first anyways. So might as well wait."
Despite Hiromi looking like she wanted to argue with me. The Crew huddled back together and after a minute there was a general grudging agreement.
Malcolm was pushed towards the doc.
"Alright. Got my patient then. Hop on up. Let's get you chipped."
I smiled at the eager look on Malcolm's face as we all settled in. The actual chrome was a bit of a bust, but Vik was good people.
Plus I bet if I asked him to keep an eye out for some chrome he would be able to help out. We all waited around as Malcolm got his first piece of real chrome.
Not that it really would do much for him, I mean he had optics, everyone did. But they weren't combat optics.
Regardless, after Vik finished chipping Malcolm, and gave him some drugs to take to help adjust to the new hand we all left after I got Viks number and he mine.
—--
"I still can't believe we had all that chrome, and you just gave it away." Surprisingly Ichi had started complaining to me as soon as we hopped into his truck.
"I didn't give it away. I paid a Ripperdoc a bunch of chrome to have a solid rep with him. If I ever drag myself into his shop bleeding from a few holes he will patch me up."
"Rippers do that anyways!" Ichi argued.
"Yeah. I agree with Ichi on this one Motoko. I don't get it." HIromi argued and I sighed.
"Just trust me. Having Vik on our side is going to pay dividends. He's good people." That should reassure them.
It did not reassure them.
"Good people. Ugh Motoko." Hiromi whined putting her head in her hands. "Why did we let her decide anything? She still has amnesia brain… And probably worse since she attacked a Scav den solo."
"It was her gig." Ichi replied, sounding strained just to say it. "Not happy about how it went, but we also didn't put in any risk. I've been paid less for moving crates before."
"Yeah but this could have been a big break!" Hiromi whined looking back at me. "I'm removing your gig choosing privileges."
"You can't." I argue back, rolling my eyes at her.
"I'll tell Jun what you did."
"I would tell Jun what I did, if I ever see him." I told her it sounded a little petulant even to my ears.
That quieted the argument for a minute.
"Sorry Motoko. I know Jun has been… Difficult."
"Yeah." I agree before sighing. I was quiet on the rest of the way back. Ichi pulling up in front of the apartment which I was grateful for. My arm still hurt. I ignored the looks I was getting as I pulled my new baby out of the truck. The HMG really was a monster. I could barely get it around with only one good arm.
I waved off Hiromi's help as I hefted the HMG in my arms and hauled it into the apartment. Getting plenty of looks as I stepped into the elevator.
An HMG, 2k eddies, a pile of other weapons that I had stuffed in a bag I found, and a relationship with Viktor. All for the low price of murdering a group of people and almost dying a few times.
I walked inside. Once again Jun wasn't home. I dropped the HMG on the living room table. Kinda liking how it looked sitting there. Then I flopped on the couch.
My arm still hurt. I laid down and went to sleep.
Wait… "FUCK!" I cursed as I jumped back to my feet. "Fuck fuck fuck!" I cursed myself I was a moron! "I forgot to check if they had any cars parked in the garage! I could have stolen a new ride! Fuck!"
1683
Seras
Nov 5, 2022
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Threadmarks Chapter 16
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Seras
Seras
Idiot Sandwich
Nov 7, 2022
#3,978
I was practically humming when I went for my jog the next day. I had some more eddies in my pocket. I had leveled up, and had a stat and skill point I needed to figure out, and my arm didn't hurt anymore.
I definitely didn't make any massive blunders like not searching for new wheels. Nope. That was some other Motoko.
Definitely.
Knocking over the Scav den was in every respect a good thing. My morals hiding in the corner after I beat them like a red headed step child aside.
Scavs were monsters. So even that didn't bother me too much. Walk through a scav den and see the dead ripped apart bodies of the people inside, and you won't have much difficulties committing murder as well.
Now I just needed to find more scavs. I jogged down the block as I plotted. I had unfortunately run through my knowledge of scav locations.
I considered going to Wakako to ask if she had any info, but it was probably best if I relax and let myself decompress. I did just murder a lot of people. It was probably bad for my mental health to instantly look for more people to kill.
So instead I jogged around the block going slow on my way to the Gym. Every device I walked past I tried Quick Hacking with Ping. Time to train! Even if I couldn't level Quick hacking itself yet, I still needed to grind Intelligence.
Plus after an hour of slowly making my way to the gym, I would have some time to hammer at a sandbag!
—-
Back at home after a shower.
I still had a smile on my face because of my level up at the gym.
Street Brawler skill level up!*
Level 4 felt great. Combined with Grapple, I felt actually pretty confident in a brawl. I mean not against a gorilla arms borg or something, but if a Scav grabbed me, I think I'll survive.
When I settled onto the couch I looked first at my baby, the HMG and then at the radio.
Intelligence. I reminded myself. As fun as playing with the HMG would be.
I really needed to get to the point where I could actually do some netrunning stuff.
Intelligence. I got XP for it whenever I trained Breach or Quick Hack. Which was the most consistent method I had figured out, but it was slow.
I needed to raise Netrunning. I could have handled the fight with the borg a lot easier if I could hack his optics, or just shut his Cyberware down.
So I headed out into the city. Pinging, and Breaching every Vending machine I could find again.
—--
That night I gained four Intelligence XP alerts.
But not a level.
It was just on the edge of being too mindless for me to enjoy the grind. But every time I got the alert it made me feel better.
Plus since I was literally breaking into every vending machine I walked past. I did get myself some treats from time to time.
Over the next two days I really didn't do much more than grind.
I had even taken to trying to sneak around while breaching. Training myself on how best to move while hacking to keep myself out of sight.
I hadn't earned anything for Ninjutsu yet, but considering I was pretty visibly walking down the street and pretending to sneak around…
I just did my best to pretend no one could see me acting like a massive dork.
It even let me work some athletics training in, as I was jogging around the city.
But grinding can't go on forever.
I was mid Breach on a vending machine when it happened. I got a text.
Wakako: Come to my parlor. We need to talk.*
That was it. Not a woman of many words Wakako. I shrugged, finished up my breach and rose up from where I had been crouching behind a trashcan. Ignored the old guy next to me that was fencing stolen clothes by the looks of it, pretended he didn't exist as I walked casually down the sidewalk.
I was pretty far from home, would have to take a train on the way back.
But I wondered what Wakako wanted?
A short train ride back to my area I walked down Jig-jig street, bypassed the dolls, and ignored the lecherous looks from the gonks, walked into Wakako's parlor.
"Good you're here. Come in, stop wasting time." Wakako called out before I could even walk up to her receptionist. Shrugging, I passed through Wakako's bead door.
To my surprise though, Wakako wasn't alone.
A man was lounging in the chair in front of Wakako, looking bored. Although as he looked over his shoulder his eyes shot up.
"You're kidding. She's a kid."
"I am not." Wakako said bluntly. "You wanted a gun for hire. Here she is." Wakako answered as she pointed a well manicured finger at me. "Meet Motoko Kusanagi. Fourteen. Three days ago she raided a Scav den. Alone. I verified this myself. No footage unfortunately, but 11 scavs were recovered from the site."
"Twelve." I couldn't help but admit after Wakako finished. She looked at me suddenly, eyes hard. "I uh… Stashed one in a fridge. They probably just thought he was a victim."
Wakako nodded in acceptance of my words and turned back to the man.
The man hummed a little but shook his head. "That's great, impressive and all. I don't work with kids." He answered flatly, pointing at me.
"I don't even know what is going on." I interrupted again, looking to Wakako. "Can I get brought in on the sitch?"
"This is Scorpion, a Nomad. Due to some circumstances he came to me for help on a gig." Wakako said simply waving at me. "You don't have time to overly argue about what help you can get. You wanted someone that could watch your back for the eddies you offered? Out of my pool of talent few would even hear you out at the price you offer. The girl has proven herself that I am recommending her for your job. Here is my offer. Take it or leave it."
"What's the gig?" I interrupt again. "Before he hems and haws about it, maybe I should find out if I'm even willing to take it?" I turn to look at the man. "No offense."
"None taken." He grumbled looking to Wakako and she once again pointed to me. "Fine. Here are the deets. I got a deal going on. Gotta keep it… Low. The family wouldn't like it. Basically got a Raffen Shiv that owes me a favor. Saved his life a year back. Despite all the bad blood… he used to be an Aldecaldos. Knew him as a kid. Little snot-nosed brat." The man sighed rubbing at his bald head.
"I get it." I prompted and the man got himself back together.
"Yeah well, I saved his ass during a storm. We talked some shit. He won't be welcome back, but… He got in contact with me a week ago. Said the Raffen found something preem. Something I would very much like. Now it's not that I trust him. I don't, but I don't think he is trying to ambush me either. He has something I want, I have some eddies and… Well family stuff. Anyway. I'll need someone to watch my back. Just in case, we are going to Raffen territory after all."
"So since you can't bring the Aldecaldos into it, considering you came to Wakako to hire a gun." I confirmed.
"About sums it up."
"What's the pay?"
"Not really sure it matters."
"You need someone you can trust at your back in a potential firefight. I might be a Street Kid. But I'm a professional. I'll fight to get us both out of there if something goes bad." I answered simply. "That of course depends on the pay." I add in at the end with a shrug.
"Two-thou." He offered but I sensed it immediately.
We were haggling.
"Three. You are putting me in the path of the Raffen." I added. The fuckin Scav nomads. Or better they were crazy Mad Max villains traveling the dusty roads and thieving murdering and raping their way through the desert.
"Two-two. Good chance it will just be a long quiet drive and a nice paycheck."
"Two-three. And I'll not ask you for ammo pay." I countered.
He was quiet for a minute before he sighed. "Two-three." Agreeing to bring me along.
"Excellent. Now both of you. Get out." Wakako ordered with the irritation only an old woman can give when forced to stay around younger people.
"Thanks." Scorpion offered with a roll of his eyes at her, but his eyes went blue a moment later and Wakako nodded.
Seemed she got her payment.
I followed Scorpion out of the Parlor before he turned on me. "Listen… It's against my better judgment to bring you on. I don't… The nomads don't bring kids into dangerous situations like this."
"I've gone solo into a Scav den. It's not my first gig."
"Right… Alright, listen it's already late, and I'm not looking to have to camp out in the desert. So we will head out tomorrow morning. Sounds good?"
"Yeah, it sounds fine." We flashed each other our contact information. A weird feeling that I was starting to get used to.
"Perfect." He grumbled as he headed out into the darkness of Jig Jig street.
"Raffen huh. Fuckin scavs." I whispered thinking about this gig. The Solo's guide said I should determine what level of violence to bring to a table for every Gig. And prepare to kill if necessary.
Yeah I think I was ready to kill in this case.
I went home and sent Jun a text asking if he would be home tonight.
I never did get a response.
—--
The next morning Scorpion and I confirmed after a quick back and forth how our meetup was gonna go.
He was not pleased that I didn't have a ride, and he had to come pick me up.
Nomads. Practically married to their rides and expect everyone else to be too.
Of course I got to see his irritation at waiting out on the sidewalk for me disappear into a sort of awed shock.
Because I was bringing my new baby.
With two arms it wasn't too bad to walk out of the apartment much to the fearful gaze of all the people I walked past as I carried my HMG at my side. SMG around my chest all fully loaded and ready for war.
Honestly I think Cold Blood was active, because I felt completely calm as I walked around Scorpions cute little hatchback car.
It was a Thorton Galena according to the information that I had picked up from living in the city, but it was heavily modified.
Obviously.
"Damn." Scorpion muttered looking me over, as I settled my baby in the back seat. Before pulling the seat back in place.
"I like to be prepared. Just be happy you aren't paying for ammo." I told him as I settled into the seat.
It was then I noticed.
He had his jacket hood up. I shrugged. If he liked driving around with a hood over his head, I wasn't going to comment.
"Alright then." He uttered, actually sounding a little impressed, "Well get comfortable, it'll be about four hours for us to hit the meeting site… And it might be a while before he shows up. So I hope you ate."
I sighed at his words and gave him an apologetic smile.
We stopped at a diner before leaving the city limits.
—--
Other than needling each other about our choice in music stations it was a quiet drive. Scorpion was obviously used to driving alone. So I kept that in mind, besides even if this was the easy part, I was on a job.
I kept my eyes out on the world around us and myself prepared for a battle. I had thought keeping focused for so long would be difficult, or draining, but it wasn't. I simply felt that coolness in my mind that made it so easy to stay focused and alert.
I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to stay cool forever. Yet. But it would last more than long enough for this gig. I would relax more on the way back.
Eventually a few hours into the drive as we drove through long desert roads Scorpion broke the silence.
"So what made you into a merc? Not a normal job for a kid your age."
"A couple things I guess, but really it just felt right. I have some skill, and I wanted to do something with it." I offered with a shrug. "Better than sitting around doing nothing I guess."
"Crazy. Mercs die you know?"
"Everyone dies." I countered looking over to him. "I don't go out to die, but I know it can happen. Honestly I was more afraid of killing someone else, than dying myself at first. Or having someone I care about die. So that's what drives me. If I can get better, get good equipment, get good cyberware. I'm more likely to be able to save my friends and family when something goes wrong."
"You sound like a Nomad." He offered with a chuckle.
"Nah. I like putting my feet up in my air conditioned apartment too much for that."
"Low blow about the AC." He said quietly a moment later and I couldn't help but chuckle. I guess hanging out in the California desert every day could get a bit warm sometimes.
"Sorry."
"Nah it's alright." He chuckled and we fell back into listening to the radio as we drove through the dust.
—--
Scorpion, Driss Meriana
"Alright. I called Connor, should show up in about an hour, he isn't happy about how late I am, but." Scorpion shrugged it didn't matter. Connor would get over it.
She gave a single nod after hearing him before continuing her walk around. Scorpion had to admit. The girl was… Professional. They had stopped off at a pretty common halfway house. A place to hide out in a storm if necessary.
She had immediately cleared it, and then began walking a perimeter. Checking over the area. Scorpion had to admit, it was nice to know she was at least reliable.
Then again he wouldn't really know how reliable she truly was until the bullets started flying. No, shook his head, throwing away the thought. If the bullets started flying. He trusted Connor not to betray him here.
Not when he was also carrying letters and pictures from home along with his eddies.
It would be the first pictures Connor would see of his niece.
The girl his Merc, which still embarrassed him to have actually brought along, was doing a solid job of looking around. She moved… She moved like she had military experience. He would know. The unification war had left its marks on many of the Aldecaldos himself included. He still sometimes woke up in the middle of the night reaching for the controls of his Tank.
It would usually take a few minutes of holding onto the steering wheel of his Gecko before he could relax.
But this girl was way too young to have been in the war. What did Wakako say? Fourteen? She would have been nine then.
Far too young for even the corps to draft her.
Although there were a hundred other options that could cause her to move like a trained soldier.
Scorpion decided to push it out of his mind. Wakako had recommended her, and he hired her.
He settled onto the hood of his Gecko to wait, watching as the girl finished her perimeter check before she actually climbed up the side of the way house, settling in next to a piece of the wayhouses AC unit that caused her to practically disappear from view.
Damn.
He shrugged it off and waited. Time ticked down as he simply enjoyed the peace of the desert. Unfortunately as always things can't go easy. Before he saw connor he saw the storm.
"Hey! Storms coming in. If he doesn't make it before it hits, we will need to get inside." He called out as he noticed the dust cloud building up from the south.
Wouldn't be long.
Fortunately only a minute after that he heard wheels.
He knew the sound of every engine in the desert. Which is why he relaxed A Thorton Colby, Connors ride. He settled in signaling the girl with a thumbs up. Which he saw she returned poking up from the roof.
Damn she was hard to see.
Connor's ride pulled up. And Scorpion had to wince. The Raffen symbols and alterations covered the older Aldecaldos images.
You could barely see them.
The younger man that slipped out was just a teenager. Barely eighteen really. Scorpion sighed.
"Connor."
"Driss. Good to see you, you old Scorpion." He offered with a smile that didn't quite meet his eyes.
"You got it?" Scorpion asked, looking at the little trailer that Connor was pulling.
"Course." He said popping the hatch and showing off the preem Brennan Apollo. A motorcycle that Driss had been trying to get a hold of for a while.
He always wanted a bike.
"Alright." He pulled out the shard from his pocket. "Letters, pictures, videos, everything… Your mom forced me to tell you this. Make sure, you take care of yourself." Driss added as he handed over the shard.
"Yeah. She would say that." Connor added sounding quiet as his shoulders slumped.
Getting expelled from the family never came easy. Sometimes it was a relief to the family. Sometimes… Well sometimes kids did stupid shit.
"Thanks Driss. Alright. Give me the eddies and this thing is yours." Connor added quickly. "I want to get out of here before anyone notices. You threw off my schedule. We were supposed to meet up yesterday."
"Sorry I had to run to Night City wanted to… Ah it doesn't matter." He shrugged. His eyes shifted to blue as he transferred the eddies.
"Cool." Connor said with a sigh of relief as they both hurried over to the trailer pulling it off Connors pickup, and wheeling it over to Scorpions Gecko.
The storm was getting close.
"Might have to camp out." Driss offered seeing that the storm was getting close.
"Nah. I need to hurry back. Hopefully no one will even notice I was gone. You don't… Well you kinda know, but you don't really know what the Raffen are… You hear that?" Connor offered turning as his face went white.
"Engines." Scorpion agreed. Looking concerned himself. "That's the same direction you came from."
"I recognize that engine. Fuck. They followed me." Connor said, suddenly rushing to his ride. "Get out of here. I was never here!" He yelled out quickly as he jumped into his truck and took off.
"Fuck." Driss cursed, he was still holding the trailer not even finished attaching it to his gecko.
But suddenly another pair of hands were there. "Leave it. We need to go. Five vehicles." The girl said as she appeared beside him. Her voice was completely calm as if talking about the weather. Pushing the trailer hitch off the Gecko and leaving them free to run.
"Dammit your right." He growled, dropping it and rushing to the driver seat. He slipped in seeing the girl pushing the passenger seat forward and was maneuvering her big ass machine gun.
"I guess it was a good thing you brought that after all."
"We'll see." She said calmly as if everything that was happening didn't concern her in the slightest.
They peeled out. Scorpion flooring it to get out of here.
But it was too late. By the time they heard the vehicles they were too close.
"They see us." She said as she was looking out the back window.
"Yeah. Hold on. I'm aiming for the storm. Hopefully we can lose them in the dust." He called out, swerving off the road heading towards the wall of dust coming closer and closer.
She didn't say anything after that and Scorpion focused on driving.
Ramping off dunes, dodging dips, he used every ounce of skill he had to try and lose them.
But the Raffen were just as good. They were just as used to the desert as he was.
They even had two bikes with them. The sound of their engines growing closer and closer.
"I'm rolling down the window." She said suddenly and he looked over as she poked her head out and suddenly her SMG went off a few moments later he could hear the sound of one of the bikes crashing into a wreck.
She jerked back into the vehicle as he heard bullets start arcing up the back of his car.
"Dammit they are shooting at my baby!"
"They are shooting at us too." She muttered flatly before peaking out again and another rapid fire exchange.
The second motorcycle peeled off to Scorpions relief, but suddenly he jerked. His gecko started dragging through the sand instead of skimming over it.
"They shot your tire." She said flatly as she slipped back into the back seat. Her SMG dropped onto the floor as she grabbed the HMG in the back. It took her a moment as she looked around trying to figure out the best way to do it, but then she grabbed a seatbelt, a few moments she had it wrapped around her right arm, as she held the HMG on her left. Then she opened the passenger door.
The wind nearly slammed it shut but she pushed it back open with the butt of the machine gun.
She damn near stepped out of the car while he was going through dunes and Scorpion was sure this merc was insane, but she siddled out carrying the HMG.
And then she started firing. He winced the sound was thunderous, and he could see the way she was resting the guns back against his passenger door.
He could see the bolts holding the door together strain as she allowed it to handle some of the recoil.
Dammit.
But a moment later in his rear view mirror he saw one of the Raffen trucks, with its entire front covered in bullet holes slide sideways and start crashing.
She kept firing.
Damn. He was gonna have to thank Wakako for introducing him to the only merc in the city that walked around with an HMG wasn't he?
Unfortunately his luck didn't hold out.
His tire must have finally finished shredding itself apart as his gecko bucked at just the wrong time.
Instead of sliding over dune he smashed into it.
The loss of the tire, the fact he was gunning it to try and escape.
Too late.
The Gecko flipped.
He lost track of everything as the car started rolling. Eventually everything stopped.
He was dizzy and forced to blink the growing dust out of his eyes as he looked around.
He was alone in the car. Girl and her HMG were gone. He reached down… Up. And slowly popped his seatbelt off. Grunting as he fell onto the roof of his baby. He winced at the glass that was coating his landing pad, he reached down to pull his gun as he tried the door.
It was jammed. With a grunt he slipped out of windshield, forcing himself to move, because he knew what came next.
Unfortunately by the time he crawled out of the car there was already a shotgun pressed against the back of his head.
He dropped his pistol.
He knew this was over.
His gun was slipped from the sand and he was forced to roll over, wincing as he was pretty sure one of his ribs were broken he looked up into the gas mask and goggles of someone he didn't want to see.
"How's it going Frank."
"Well well. Look who I finally caught. Scorpion you son of a bitch. I'm going to enjoy bartering you back to your family. Get him up." Frank ordered and Scorpion sighed as his arms were grabbed and he was hauled up.
Suddenly shots rang out.
Bullets started flying and the Raffen moved as one grabbing weapons and firing into the dust.
It took them a moment to find their shooter.
The girl.
She was on her belly, face covered in blood, a pistol in one hand as she looked like she had crawled over to start firing.
He tried to call out. To tell the Raffen to leave her alone, but it wasn't going to happen. A few rounds shot back at her, but eventually they all heard it even over the sound of the storm kicking up.
Her gun clicked as it was out of ammo.
Immediately one of the Raffen charged, as he watched her struggle to reload. Seeing the man approaching she hefted herself up on her knees as she rose to meet him, the man going to knock her out found a knife instead as she whipped it free and stabbed him in the leg.
His scream was loud, and it cut off a few moments later as she seemed to crawl over stabbing as she went and then sliced his throat.
She was grabbing the Raffens rifle when a shot rang out. A small cloud of blood burst from her back as she fell backwards rolling into the sand and down the dune.
Scorpion looked away, Frank had grabbed his own rifle and taken a shot blowing a hole through her chest.
"Get him up. I've lost enough people over this shit." Frank grunted, sounding not at all pleased with the situation.
"Sorry kid." Scorpion whispered. All he could do for her. He now had his own problems.
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Seras
Nov 7, 2022
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Threadmarks Chapter 17
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Seras
Seras
Idiot Sandwich
Nov 9, 2022
#4,345
Ichinose
The night after the Scav Den Raid.
Ichi was drinking. What else could he do? He just made more eddies in a few hours of work, than he had in any span of days working for Shobo-Sama.
But he knew he couldn't do the same job that Motoko had done. He talked to the older Tyger Claws when he was playing gofer, or doing odd jobs for them. They often liked to talk. About previous gigs they had done. Of the firefights they had been in.
So he knew exactly how dangerous it was to hit a scav den. Sure if you were properly borged out, you could do it. Scavs often weren't the best fighters, or the best equipped.
But they were all armed, all ready to murder you. Gunfights sounded cool until you were in one and the other guy was firing back.
"What's up kid, you've been glaring at the bottom of your drink since you got back." One of the very same older Tyger claws asked as he plopped his can of Asahi on the table beside Ichi. "Seriously, you look like you're going to kill your beer."
"Hatake… I took a gig from a friend today. And…"
"Ah. You lost someone? Went bad?"
"No. No the opposite. It was over before I even got there, I was just… The cleanup crew. Nothing more."
"Huh. So you made some easy eddies. What's got ya down?"
"The friend that called me into the job. She's… Ugh. It sounds so stupid. I'm jealous! She went from being in the hospital to running jobs that I couldn't pull off. She is younger than me! How does a fourteen year old clear an entire scav den by herself!? I don't get it!"
"By herself? You sure?That's…"
"Yeah I'm sure, she didn't even call us in until it was all over. We are supposed to be her chooms. I mean if she said she was going to try and hit a scav den I would have had Hiromi sit on her, because it's dumb!"
"Ah I get it. She did something impossible. Something beyond what you think you could do."
"Yeah." He grumbled glaring at his beer.
"Well kid. I'll be honest. A kid your age? A fourteen year old able to do a job like that? That ain't normal. She's an edgerunner for sure."
"I know. She…My goal was to be an edgerunner, not her. Motoko never wanted that before, and now? She is already doing it."
"Don't be stupid kid. You don't want to be an edgerunner. They burn bright, but only a quarter as long. Your choom? She'll be dead before she's twenty. Hell if she is already doing this shit? Before sixteen. Don't live your life like that Ichi. Burn slower, and longer. Trust me. As a guy in his forties. I've seen a lot of chooms, men and women better than me at fighting, but also better than me at dying." Hatake offered taking a swig of his beer.
"I don't think I can help it. Feeling jealous."
"Yeah, well. Just remember becoming an edgerunner has a cost. That level of skill. That willingness to put your life on the line?" Hatake shook his head. "If she is your choom, then do your best to help out, but make sure you know the line. Edgerunners don't always realize what is dangerous for normal people. The closest I ever got to getting flatlined was when I backed up an edgerunner choom. Got shot up for my trouble."
"What if I want to do that? Become an Edgerunner. Make it big, and prove that I'm not just a Gofer?"
Hatake sort of nodded his head for a moment before sighing. "Then be ready to be used up kid. Used like a tool. Used as a weapon. Being a gofer aint bad. At least you know you'll come back home after a days work. Instead of being thrown into the trash because it's convenient." Hatake sounded like this advice was personal. That this advice came from experience.
Ichi wasn't sure if he could accept it though. To give up on his dream of making it big. Of becoming more.
—--
I grunted as I heard the trucks drive off. This storm was starting to piss me off.
With shaky hands I reached into one of my thigh pouches and pulled out a max doc. I had found a few of them in the scav den, and since I now knew how useful they were, they were standard kit.
I huffed it and a moment later my body didn't feel like I was dying.
I grunted as I sat up, crawling over to a nice rock that I could rest against as I caught my breath.
Getting thrown from a fast moving car into the desert? Not fun. Smashing into a rock on the way? Ow.
Getting shot again? Double ow. I winced as I reached behind me and felt the hole in my Netsuit. Yeah the bullet had gone right through.
Fuck.
I was gonna have to start crafting soon just to repair my clothes. Why did people keep shooting me! I sighed. Coughing a bit at just how much dust was swirling around me. I could barely see through how thick it was getting.
And it was starting to get hard to breathe.
I rose up unsteadily, and then even less steadily as I nearly fell. My leg wasn't great. I messed it up when I went flying from the car. Worse, the wind was getting strong. I fought against it as I climbed back up the hill towards Scorpions car.
Might be able to take shelter inside until this storm was over.
I clambered up the hill and just at the top I tripped.
Coughing a bit I pulled myself up and realized I had tripped on a corpse.
Oh yeah. The guy I stabbed. Instantly I noticed something I needed. Rising up and heading back to grab the goggles from his head. After a minute of struggling to get them clear enough of dust to see I put them on and while it wasn't great. At least I could open my eyes.
Then I grabbed the guys dust mask.
It was gross. But as I put it on, I could breath a lot easier.
I continued searching him, gotta get loot after all. I smiled as I found my knife. That went into my sheath. A little more digging I did find my pistol as well. I was honestly super relieved. That had been a gift from Jun. I didn't want to lose it.
Okay. I could see, breath, and I had a weapon.
Let's get to work.
—--
Scorpions car was a wreck, even if I did have the key shard I wouldn't get it moving.
I sighed. As I looked outwards. I knew the general path. My eyes GPS meant I knew exactly the direction to get back to the wayhouse.
So since I didn't find anything of value. I started walking. Trudging through the desert. First I would get to the wayhouse. Then I would start searching for the Raffen base.
I had considered just sitting tight, hitchhiking back to the city.
But I had been hired for a job.
The Solo's guide had mentioned that some gigs would blow up in your face. That you would have to make a decision about what kind of Solo you wanted to be. The sort that once the job gets out of control walks away. The ones that lived long lives, but were never respected.
Or the one that when shit blew up they stood up and got to work.
Considering how pissed I was? Yeah. I think I'm the kind that got to work.
It took almost an hour to reach the wayhouse. Trudging against dust and sand up and over dunes. I noticed that the trailer with the motorcycle that was what caused all of this was gone.
Connor was going to be answering some questions next time I saw him.
I hauled myself inside. Taking a moment to pull off the dust mask and the goggles. I headed into the bathroom and found the sink. Running water.
Thank god.
I washed my face allowing my eyes to stop aching from all the dust for the first time in over an hour. Then I washed the goggles and the dust mask as best I could.
Drying them a bit. I wiped them down and put them back on.
I felt like I could actually fight now. I did throw a bandage that I ripped out of an old sheet around my shoulder. Didn't want people to see the hole that was still there even if it was mostly closed after the Maxdoc.
Ow.
I was just getting ready to head back into the storm, to stumble around in the direction of where I had seen the sand trails the Raffen vehicles had left as they chased us, but I heard it over the howl of the wind.
A car.
I slipped into a dark corner, behind the door Unity ready.
The engine cut off, and I could hear cursing but I didn't hear the engine start again. Instead I heard it. Someone coming up to the door.
Someone opening the door.
Someone stumbling inside.
Someone familiar.
"Fuckin' storm. Fuckin Frank! My bike! Bastard klepped my bike." He moaned as the door closed behind him as he took off a mask and goggles like the set I had, and spat dust out of his mouth.
I struck, a kick right to the back of his knee, arm hooked around his own.
Ow. My shoulder wasn't happy with the movement.
But it worked, sending him slamming into the floor on his back. I settled on his chest. With my Unity pressed against his mouth.
"What the fu-Ack!" He squealed when the barrel of my unity slipped past his teeth.
"No talking." I said simply as he stilled. Feeling my gun in his mouth did a great job shutting him up. "I have two questions for you Connor, you are going to answer them very clearly. Because otherwise you get to repaint the floor. Did you set up Scorpion?" I asked as I gently pulled my gun out from his mouth.
"No! I told him! I told him he was late! If he had shown up at the time I told him it would have been fine! He was supposed to be here yesterday! Frank and the others were busy there was a boxing match everyone was watching! But Scorpion was late!"
"Alright. I'll give you a pass on that. Next question. Where did they take Scorpion?"
"It's an old gas station nearby! Here! I can send you the location! Just don't kill me!"
My eyes flashed as I received the text with the GPS coordinates.
He was right. It was close. "Now get ready, you are giving me a ride."
"No." He squeaked out. I pushed the barrel of my Unity just a tad deeper against his face.
"No?"
"I can't! They'll know if I get close! They have sensors all over the desert looking for vehicles. If I bring you close they'll kill us. Both of us! I already need to get out of here!" He whined pathetically at me.
I sighed. "Fine." I stood, up and stepped back into the storm. Leaving Connor on the floor to his fate.
Sure I could have waited. I could take a nap and get my leg back into shape, but I wasn't sure how long Scorpion had before the Raffen killed him. I don't remember super well the Raffen missions from the game, but I do remember they weren't gentle on their captured people. I didn't have time to take a nap.
So I pointed myself towards the GPS marker I set up and started trudging. Hopefully I would actually find them, and not just be led into a trap.
—--
I was in luck.
The little setup that looked like it used to be a gas station with a few little stores all around it was now covered in Raffen Shiv markings. Mostly "Wraith" graffitied over the old concrete that I only could barely make out in the storm.
I settled against the wall letting myself think this through. I found them. Scorpion was inside, along with a small army of Raffen.
Since I was here, alone, with someone I needed to rescue. I had to do this right.
The Wraith that I had killed before, Both the one on the Bike that I had blow apart with my baby… Which was now long gone.
Dang. I just realized my poor HMG was somewhere in the desert. Dammit. I shook it off focusing back on my current issue.
Between the biker and the Wraith I had stabbed to death I had leveled up. That meant I had two stat and skill points.
So I spent them.
Cool 8, and Ninjutsu 7. I had been planning on spending my points on Intelligence and Breach, but in this case. I once more needed stealth on my side. So I dropped both points.
I shivered a bit as it felt like my mind grew a little bit colder. No more like I was just that much more capable of ignoring anything but my objective. Pain, emotions, fear. All of it simply frozen solid.
I rose up to my feet. Ignoring the limp I had been battling with the whole way as I walked around the edge of the brick wall covered in graffiti.
I slipped into the compound like a ghost. It was almost startling how simple it all felt. To move without making a sound. The storm which I had been fighting through the entire path was simply accepted. Instead of fighting it I let it flow through me. Helping instead of hindering.
My senses felt sharp as I started hunting.
I had no idea how many Wraiths there were in the compound. So I would simply have to clear them out. One at a time.
The first thing I found wasn't a victim.The feeling of my danger sense was what alerted me. Told me I was about to be seen. I slipped backwards instantly looking around the corner of the building I had just walked out from. It was a camera. Set up in the ceiling looking out over the center of the little bundle of buildings. I smiled as my eyes shifted to gold. I started breaching. It took a few minutes, but when it was done. I was through. Then I sent my Ping Quick Hack.
My eyes shone as I got small little alerts over my hud telling me general where everyone was. It wasn't like in the game. I wasn't seeing people through walls. Instead it was like a little icon showing me generally where they were.
But it didn't matter.
I saw enough. The Wraiths were all connected to the security system. I could see the few wandering around, but most were bunkered up to wait out the storm.
My first Victim was quickly chosen.
A tarp covering a door to keep the dust out of a smaller room that had their security systems. I peeked in through the window knowing exactly where to best do so to remain unseen.
There was one man inside, grumbling to himself about the dust as he watched some TV on one of the monitors. The rest showed only dust.
I crawled in without even ruffling the tarp, With Ninjutsu 7, I no longer felt like a kid playing hide and seek. No, I had training. Years of reflexes and instincts, muscle memory and not quite memory, but just an understanding of what to do.
The man was eating some instant noodles. I let him finish slurping his last bite, chewing it and swallowing before my knife slipped through his throat. He gurgled weakly for a moment, his arm trying to reach for an alert, or trying to save himself.
I didn't let him.
100 Ninjutsu XP Gained.*
500 XP Gained.*
Blades skill level up!*
Hmm. Blade 4. Nice.
I reached behind my neck and grabbed my connection port. Pulling the cord free I clicked it into the computer system.
Breaching the system directly… It was harder. Breaching a single camera's security was easy. Breaching into an actual security setup? If I hadn't just murdered their security guy I had a feeling I might not have even succeeded. I could see the computer sending an alert popup about an intrusion. Even as I worked.
Luckily there was no one to see the alert.
And after a few minutes I was in. Their system was completely under my control. More importantly, I finally got the alert I had been waiting for.
Intelligence Leveled up!*
Intelligence 3! Yes!
Instantly a daemon was uploaded. Something I hadn't even thought of, just an instinctual reflex. It was sent out to all the Wraith attacking their network.
Their optics would suddenly have difficulty spotting me as the Daemon would try to blur me out of their sight.
There. I breathed out as I slipped back into the storm. Time to ghost this gig.
—-
Frank Elder
Raffen Shiv: Wraith
This show was dumb. Frank decided as he flicked off the channel. With the storm going on he had come down to his little underground home away from home.
Well it was just his home now.
He stretched. He could hear the storm finally letting up. Might actually be able to get something done today. He rose up from the old beat up couch that he probably would need to get replaced soon.
The Blood stains were getting a little much.
Scorpion was still hanging around. He smiled looking towards the man. He was hanging from his wrists by a set of chains.
"Hang in there Scorp! We'll think about reaching out to the Aldecaldos in a few hours… Maybe!" He laughed at his joke as he walked past the man, The glare he was getting for his words caused him to alter his path, a heavy fist into Scorpions stomach reminded the man that he was a prisoner. Scorpion's heavy cough told him he would need to let up soon. Didn't want to kill the guy he was a chance for a payday after all.
Well, didn't want to kill him yet. If he could work it out, he would get the eddies and kill old Scorpion as well. That would be a nice bonus.
"There. A reminder of where you are." He told Scorpion reaching up and slapping his cheeks a bit, laughing as the nomad moaned at Frank's roughness on his his bruised face.
Feeling a little upbeat at the situation he walked up the stairs. Sure Connor had turned out to be a bitch. Dealing with his old family was a big no no. Especially since he hadn't told Frank. If he had, they could have ambushed Scorpion.
Instead they had to chase him down. Losing people, equipment. It was a mess.
Ah well. They would get a nice paycheck for ransom, and Connor… Well he had nowhere to go now. The Aldecaldos wouldn't harbor him, and now the Wraiths would know he was weak.
Frank smiled. He would quite enjoy ripping the boy apart. It would be a good way to remind the others not to go against his will.
He walked into the upper floor and was surprised no one was around.
"Harold! Where you at? I want that windshield fixed on that Revenant! Harold!?" He looked around confused. The garage was empty. "Harold!?"
He walked out of the building looking around the courtyard. "Where the hell is everybody! HEY! I want everyone back to work! These cars are still full of holes!" He roared.
But other than the wind. No response came back.
He drew his Overture. The big revolver was a good weapon. The noise and power gave him a certain respect whenever he had to shoot someone acting up.
"Someone better be on the cameras." He growled rushing across the dusty courtyard to the security room.
He walked in and stopped.
"David?" He called, noticing the body slumped over. He rushed up and saw it.
Throat was slit.
"Fuck." He reached over and hit the alarm button.
Instantly a noise echoed through the area. It lasted for a few seconds more than long enough to alert everyone.
But as Frank headed back into the courtyard nothing happened.
He looked around waiting for his men to show up.
Slowly he realized there weren't the usual hoots and hollers of his men. No gun fire. Not the sound of engines starting up, or even boots rushing around.
It was a ghost town.
He jerked around searching for anything.
Not a thing moved but the dust.
He moved. Rushing into the barracks. The boys would be fuckin' around on some BD again. Surely that was it.
He entered into a charnel house. The floor practically pools of blood as four of his boys lay dead.
Henry was in his bed, BD wreath still active even with his throat opened.
Kengo was slumped in 'his' big ass chair. It was comfortable, and Kengo had hauled it across the entire desert ontop of his little packrat of a car.
Someone had stuffed a screwdriver into his ear.
It was still quietly dripping blood down the handle into the growing puddle.
The other two were slumped over the back of the couch.
He didn't need to look any further. He knew they were dead.
Who the fuck was doing this? Sure the Wraiths made enemies but this was crazy.
No one in this desert had this kind of skill. No one took out a room with four men without setting off an alarm. That was Corpo Intelligence type shit.
He left the room in a hurry searching.
Every room he came across that was supposed to be occupied was now only occupied by the dead.
Boomer. The crazy bastard who had been with Frank since the beginning. A friend from his old nomad family that had left right alongside him, and to this day still carried far too many grenades had his head caved in by the looks of it. A fucking carpenters hammer stuck in the back of his head. His body slumped over his workbench.
His empty workbench.
Frank swallowed as he looked around.
No one.
Who had done this?!
He was losing his cool. He knew it. His gun was starting to get a little twitchy as he held it out infront of him. Then he came to a decision.
Fuck this.
He was going to get to his car, and floor it. He would join the other Wraith group at the cement factory. Sure he would have to shut up and take it from that asshole Hook. But fuck it. Better to lick boots, then get murdered by some Arasaka ninja.
They hadn't even hit an Arasaka shipment!
He slipped into the garage, breathing out a sigh of relief that his Reaver was still where it should be. His baby was fast. It would get him out of here in a hurry. He was done with this shitshow.
He made it three steps before suddenly gunfire erupted around him. He cursed ducking down and was only saved because of the Subdermal armor he had chipped in a year back. The bullet that just knocked into his back would have been it.
He fired blindly towards where he thought the gunfire came from his Overture barking as he ducked behind the cars deeper into the garage.
"I don't know who you are!" He yelled out as he kept moving he just needed to get to his car. "But I don't want any of it! Whatever you want! Just take it!"
He crouched down. Not a sound reached him.
Fuck whoever sent some sort of corpo assasin after his gang. Who the fuck did he kill to deserve this? He couldn't think of anything that would bring this level of heat down on him.
He slowly snuck around his Reaver. If he could just get in the door. But as he was reaching for the door a gunshots bark echoed through the garage. The noise made his Overture sound like a puppy.
He had noticed it. The gunman a blur in the corner of his eye and dropped which was the only reason he was still alive.
Boomers van now had a hole in it that looked like someone shot a sniper rifle at him.
Fuck was that a Burya!? He reached up and fired twice in the direction that he had seen the blur and rushed out of the garage as fast as he could.
No way he could get in his Reaver and start it up without that handcannon blowing a hole through him.
He dashed into the rec room. The stupid arcade games giving him a bit of cover as he poked his gun back around wall and fired his last two rounds. Quickly reloading as he listened for any noise.
But there was nothing. Not a sound other than the electronic noises of the arcade machines.
Reloaded Frank stood up and moved towards the window peaking out through the metal shutters.
Nothing. No movement. No sound.
He shivered. He just had to… Draw them away and double back to the car.
If he couldn't get out of here he was dead.
He moved out through the building, glad that they had made paths through the stupid shops that used to be here before they took it over. Let them move around without having to go outside during a dust storm.
Now it may be saving his life.
As he thought that he heard it. A noise behind him.
He turned and fired. Every round slamming through the thin walls towards the Arcade room.
He had definitely heard something!
He once more reloaded grumbling to himself. Reloading a revolver in the middle of this shit was stupid.
He would get a smaller gun when this was over.
Ducking through to another shop he continued moving. Hopefully whoever this cocksucker chasing him down was, they would lose track of him.
Although the fact he hadn't even gotten eyes on them yet?
Fuck.
He crept up to a window to take another peak. But again his dusty little former gas station was quiet. Not a thing moved.
And not a soul other than him and this ninja was alive.
He hunkered down for a minute simply staring out the window. Come on, where are they? They had to be somewhere!
But Frank couldn't see anything, nothing moved.
Then suddenly that roar echoed out. And he yelped. The wall he had been standing against now had a hole in it, and it had nearly blown a hole through him.
He started moving again.
Fuck fuck!
They were definitely tracking him. Probably high powered optics. Which meant he wasn't going to be able to sneak away.
Fine. He called up his Reavers auto drive system, and ordered it towards the entrance of their little setup. He was near there now, he would rush into the car and speed off.
It had to work.
He heard the engine start up with a roar and it started moving, driving out of the garage towards the entrance.
C'mon faster! Fucking auto drive!
Then he heard it. Beep. That means the door was open and it was waiting. He moved. Jumping out a window and rolling just to keep his momentum, he had to be a small target just to survive.
He leapt into his car practically jumping into the passenger seat he was so desperate. His hands fumbled to push him into the driver seat, he dropped his revolver just to grab the wheel but then to his horror.
The passenger door slid open.
Standing there was a… Girl? A child? But no, not just a child, because that was a big fucking gun.
Wait. "Wai-"
The sound deafened him as much as it blew him out of his own car. He came to weakly coughing up blood and he realized he had a hole in his chest.
"Fu-" he couldn't even curse, blood flowed out from his lungs.
"You just had to try to run. Note to self Motoko. Kill them all without letting them realize what's happening, it makes this job so much easier." He heard the soft voice of the girl as she walked around the back of his ride. His attempts to talk were met with failure as he coughed blood that just didn't seem to stop.
"I was trying to find your rifle, you know? You shot me earlier with a rifle, and I wanted to repay the favor, but then I couldn't find it. It took so long you ended up realizing what was going on. My mistake. I don't like playing with my prey." She said as she knelt beside him. She wasn't just holding a Burya, she had his Overture.
"Alright. You've made me shoot this stupid thing enough my arms are hurting. Well I'm not one for letting someone suffer. Even a scav. Err. Wraith. Same thing really." She commented simply as she raised his revolver.
"Oh. Shit. Stupid. Almost forgot. Stupid Motoko!" She lowered his revolver which made him want to gasp in relief, even if he realized he was dying.
Too far for a hospital. No medical attention, and no one to do it anyways.
She reached behind his neck and started forcing shards out of him manually.
"Fu-" he gurgled again wanting to tell this kid to fuck off. How did he get killed by a kid? He murdered girls like her before breakfast!
"There we go." She muttered pulling out… That was his rides key shard. "I've been without wheels of my own for long enough don't you think?" She asked waving it around before slotting it in.
Instantly she raised his Overture once again. "Now I don't have to worry about damaging the shard. Good bye."
Last edited: Nov 9, 2022
1846
Seras
Nov 9, 2022
View discussion
Threadmarks Chapter 18
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Seras
Seras
Idiot Sandwich
Nov 12, 2022
#5,083
750 XP Gained.*
I nodded as I turned away from the corpse. I slipped into the Quadra Type-66. The "Reaver" Variant. It was a design that altered practically everything to make it a vehicle that can survive in the desert.
But then again. It was still basically a muscle car. It looked… well the base model was awesome, but this one looked a little worn.
I shrugged still a car. Still cool.
I quickly took control and reversed it back towards the gas station that had the underground basement. What kind of gas station had a basement? I had been looking for twenty minutes for Scorpion, only to find out there was a basement when the gonk I just flatlined had come up probably looking for a snack or something. I was lucky I had been able to jump behind a cabinet as my danger sense alerted me to him coming up.
Then of course he had subdermal armor which made my Unity nothing but a pea shooter against him.
Ugh. I was really getting tired of dealing with people in armor.
My wrist hurt. It wasn't broken, not this time at least. I could actually fire the Burya without breaking my arm thanks to Recoil Reduction giving me some serious tips on saving my bones. But it still hurt!
I shook my irritation away. Pulling up to the building I jumped out and rushed downstairs. My limp was starting up again now that I wasn't in combat and the adrenaline and Coolness flowed away.
I was going home, taking a shower, and taking a nap. Right after I rescued Scorpion. I walked down the steps into the little basement section I hadn't known existed.
I winced as I saw him. Scorpion looked bad. Hanging from the ceiling by his wrists, and it looked like they had worked him over bad. His face was a mess.
"Fuck Scorpion. They really took you apart." I told him as I approached looking for the controls to drop him down.
"Whazt?" He jerked awake a bit looking up through only one eye that wasn't swollen shut and I saw as he realized who was there, could see the shock in his eyes.
"Mot'ko?"
"Nice to see you survived as well Choom. C'mon let's get you out of here. I don't suppose you know where the Aldecaldos are camped? You are gonna need some medical attention." I told him as I finally found the release for the chains and grunted as I did my best to slowly lower him but it wasn't easy. He weighed a lot more than I did.
Finally he was on the ground and he was looking at me like he had seen a ghost. "C'mon now Scorpion no time for naps. Here huff this." I pushed a Maxdoc I had found in the camp into his mouth and after that at least he seemed more alert even if it was obvious I was now on a time limit. He was bleeding bad. "Let's get you moving." I told him as I did my best to heft an arm over my shoulder.
Only to wince as he brushed against the gun shot wound.
Yep, that was still there.
"You g' shot."
"Just a flesh wound." I assured him as I hauled him up and started dragging his weakly working legs.
It was a struggle up the stairs but I got him in the passenger seat and settled in myself.
"Now Scorpion, where do I take you?"
A few moments later his eyes shifted yellow, and I got a text.
Coordinates I could use in my GPS.
Cool.
And with a nice purr that I could get used to my new car rumbled to life and I hit the gas.
Seriously, Scorpion needed a doctor. He looked like shit.
—-
He passed out on me during the drive even as he moaned in his sleep at the rough terrain.
Nothing I could do about that. The roads out here were more suggestions than anything.
Still having a GPS meant I could zone out and focus on everything that had happened.
I had killed a lot of wraiths in that camp.
Eight men had died without any alarm being sent. Eight men that I had murdered as quickly and completely as I could. My knife had seen a lot of work, but so had anything I could get my hands on.
I was kinda proud, in a horrible way, of the screwdriver kill. That had been a tricky set of movements that I only barely managed to get through without anyone screaming.
I looked through the stack of alerts and sighed.
Street Brawler skill level up!*
1 Perk Point Gained.*
I guess the improvised weapon counted as brawling, and now I was at Street Brawling 5.
Reflex Leveled up!*
This must have happened early, because now that Reflex was at 5, my Reflex skills got room to advance.
Blades skill level up!*
1 Perk Point Gained.*
Blades had maxed out at 5 as well. I guess it made sense considering how many throats I had slit.
But killing had repercussions.
I had gained 4750XP for killing everyone in the compound.
Level up achieved!*
One Stat Point Gained.*
One Skill Point Gained.*
And now I was level 5. I shivered a bit as I thought about what that meant, but also how awesome it felt. Gamer brain loved leveling.
Motoko loved leveling too.
I sighed.
I liked Murder.
It was fun. Challenging. Thrilling. I pushed away the stat menu to focus on the road.
Fine. I liked Murder. I liked killing.
But I liked killing bad people. That was the part that I could accept. I wasn't killing innocent people, and I wouldn't. I killed the worst sorts. The ones that prey on others.
Just because I enjoyed it… Doesn't make me a bad person.
It didn't.
—--
Pulling up to the Aldecaldos camp in a Raffen Shiv Wraith marked car might have been a bit… Well I could have done it better. I had just been in a rush.
But now I had an army of angry nomads all pointing rifles at my car as it came to a stop inside their camp.
Probably should have stopped outside.
But then again Scorpion looked really bad.
I turned off the engine letting the Nomads hear it die out as I popped open the door and slowly revealed my glove clad hands. Showing I didn't have a weapon in them.
Not that it mattered. Quickdraw could handle that easily enough.
"Scorpion is in the passenger seat! He needs some medical attention." I called out once I was out of the car and the nomads could see me.
It took a moment but someone came up behind me putting a gun against my back as they peeked into the car.
"Fuck! Get that door open! Scorpion needs help." A gravely voice called out behind me and I just waited as a few Nomads rushed up and opened the door and quickly started hauling their family member out of the car.
"You gave us all a scare… girl." The voice behind me said although not unkindely.
"Yeah sorry. Was in a bit of a rush. Scorpion passed out on the way over and it worried me." I could feel the gun removed from my back then and most of the nomads lowered their weapons as well, although a few kept their guns aimed.
I turned around to see a cowboy.
Look he had an Overture and a cowboy hat. He was a cowboy.
"Motoko Kusanagi. Merc." I introduced myself as I slowly lowered my arms.
"Cassidy Nomad. Thanks for bringing Scorpion in, what happened?" He asked in a drawl that I couldn't help but pay attention too, he had a nice voice.
I sighed. "Long story. I'm a merc that Scorpion, well I'll let him tell that part. We got noticed by some Raffen, and chased down. They caused us to crash, and well. I couldn't kill all of them before they put a bullet in me." I gestured to my shoulder which had the bandage bleed through a bit with all the work I had been doing.
"Need a Ripper, least we could do for bringing back our boy." He asked but was already sort of trying to guide me over.
Guess looking like a kid did have some advantages.
"No. No thank you. I'll head back to the city. I have my own doc I trust." I countered instantly. I didn't want to get into that rabbit hole. It would just be easier to heal after a nap. "Anyway they left me for dead and took Scorpion. I bet you would have heard from them sometime soon asking for a ransom."
"Yep, likely." He said simply although I could see he wanted to argue with me still, but I continued my story.
"Anyway I tracked them down, took them out, and pulled Scorpion out. He gave me the coords for your camp. Here we are." I answered of course instantly glossing over everything that I had done. Which Cassidy obviously noted.
"Well thank you for pulling Scorpion out of a bad situation. We won't forget it." He said with a tip of his hat and I shrugged.
"I was hired and contracted to be his security. It was my failure that left him captured in the first place." I waved off any appreciation for what I had done.
Fuckers deserved it. I noticed, but didn't pay any attention to the mans raised eyebrow.
"Oh here." I looked to him and felt my eyes go gold as I sent him a text. "That's the camp I cleared. Might be useful to grab some stuff yourself. I know there were more vehicles parked in their garage, and I didn't get a chance to loot much once I noticed that Scorpion was in bad shape." I offered after the message went through.
"Mighty kind of ya." Cassidy agreed, looking me over again. "You sure you don't want to see our doc? We don't have the best gear, but he is competent. It's a long drive back to the city…"
"Nah. Other than the fleshwound I'm fine." I told him, gesturing at the bloody hole in my shoulder. I could see that there were plenty of nomads listening in as we talked, and since I had passed on everything I felt like sharing I gave him a final nod.
"Well that's my job done. I'm outta here." I told Cassidy as I moved to slide back into my ride. Cassidy moved to stop me but didn't quite finish the action.
"You're an odd one, since you ain't accepting any help, drive safely. The Aldacaldos will remember what you did for them today." He offered as he bent down to talk to me as I belted myself into the drivers seat.
"Thanks Cassidy, but I just did a job. Nothing more." I answered as my new car came alive in a rumble, Cassidy pulled back and gave me room as I pulled out of the Nomad camp.
Too bad I hadn't seen Panam, she was cool.
And I hadn't managed to loot the Raffen camp. I sighed, saving Scorpion was more important. And I was at least an hour away from the camp now. Might as well just drive home. Recover. Besides, I revved the engine a bit as I put my foot down.
I got a nice bit of loot.
—--
I drove fast on my way home. The long roads let me absolutely gun my new car.
Which is how I learned I got more Driver experience driving fast. Which was cool.
Half way back to the city I got a Driving level up. Putting me at Driver 3. Which was pretty helpful, because future cars were not the same thing as cars I am used to. At all. At least it was fast. I sailed over the dunes and into the city without any trouble as I pulled into the daily grind in the city.
I got some looks as I drove through the streets. The side of the car was painted with "Wraiths" after all. But as long as I wasn't pulled over I didn't care.
I had sand in places I didn't want to have sand. Shower first.
I pulled into the parking garage near our home and paid out a bit for a permit to actually park there.
I took a moment once the car was off to just sigh and breath.
I was home. Not dead. Job done.
I rose and headed into the apartment stopping to grab a snack from mystery meat stick guy as I headed inside. I knew I was getting looks. Sure I had washed my face in the wayhouse. But I still had blood caked to the side of my head, and I looked like I got in a fight with a dust devil.
And lost.
Everything was going to need to be washed after this.
That and repaired. My poor Netrunner Leotard was getting a little rough.
I felt that small surge of hope as I entered the apartment looking around for Jun, only to find out once again he wasn't here.
I sighed and walked into the bathroom. The first blast of water came off red and brown, and it took a minute before it started showing at least mostly clear.
I checked out the bullet hole that went through my shoulder and winced.
Yeah that was bad.
I was really glad I could recover with a nap. Otherwise I probably would have died. I can just imagine how much dust and grit got in the wound over the hours trip through the dust storm.
I shook it away. Nap first. Deal with my situation after.
—--
I woke up hungry.
Made sense. I barely ate the day before and I had gone through some shit. I stretched as I slipped out of bed and groaned pleasantly when nothing ached. My leg was fine. My shoulder was spotless.
I grabbed some clothes wincing at how dusty my jacket was.
I decided to leave that on the floor until I could give it a deeper clean. Instead I was wearing some older clothes as I slipped out of the apartment.
I wanted Ramen.
I walked over to Cherry Blossom market. Down the stairs and slipped into a chair at the counter ordering what sounded best as I settled in for lunch.
Figuring I might as well, I sent a text to Scorpion.
Hope you're still alive. I did see the trailer with your bike at the Wraith Compound. So if your people went, and picked the area clean you should at least have your Preem ride.*
I was just stuffing some noodles into my mouth when I got a return text.
Scorpion: Still alive. Bike was secured. Bit of an awkward explanation about everything. Heard from Cassidy you left before you got patched up. You already get looked at?*
I'm preem. Gonna spend a bit of time taking it easy. Eating Ramen right now. After I think I'll go home, put my feet up and enjoy… The AC.*
Scorpion: You just had to say it! Joking aside, glad you're okay. Thank you. Really. Not a lot of people, mercs or not would have come back to pull my ass out of that. I've seen the pictures of the Wraith camp. Wakako undersold you. If you ever need backup. Call me. I owe you.*
Just doin my job.*
Scorpion: I'm alive. Not many Aldecaldos get to say that after getting captured by the Raffen. So again. Thanks. I'll message Wakako that the Gig is over. Also Saul, wants to thank you. I passed him your number, so you might hear from him soon. Take it easy Motoko.*
Anytime.* I left my last message back short as I slurped the last of my Ramen. Dropped a little tip to the chef which earned me a bow as I headed back out. As much as I wanted to go do some more netrunning grinding, there was something I really couldn't put off anymore.
"Excuse me. Do you know where I could pick up some clothes patches and tools… And maybe some advice for fixing bullet holes?" I asked one of the ladies selling self adjusted clothes in the Market. Earning an odd look before I explained I was a merc.
After that I got some brief explanations, and after a small loss of eddies I had everything I needed to do it myself. The lady even sat me down and started me on how to do it on some scrap cloth she had. I definitely overpaid for the equipment she gave me, but the instruction sped things up. It was definitely worth it when after a few minutes I got an alert.
100 Crafting XP Gained.*
I couldn't help but laugh, forcing myself to wave away the lady who had been helping me learn. I was in a Cyberpunk world, but I was gonna get my first level because of sewing?
Hilarious.
I smiled as my attention refocused. Let's see what I could do once I get to Crafting 1.
I didn't quite make it. Practicing with old cloth and making stitches meant I wasn't getting alerts super fast. But the lady kept helping me out until she decided it was late and time to close up.
I was only one more alert away!
I sighed, thanked her and took my new tools back home.
I had plenty of old clothes to mess with after all.
—--
Wakako Okada
Wakako had been a fixer in Night city for decades. She had seen it all. She had seen the fall of Arasaka tower. Had been alive before the Data Krash.
So when she sent out a young girl with a bit of potential out on a gig it was mostly because Wakako needed someone rookie enough to handle a bodyguard job for low pay.
Edgerunners didn't take bodyguard gigs for low pay. Bodyguard was one of the hardest jobs to do. Especially when your client was running straight towards danger.
Wakako hadn't lied when she said Motoko was her suggestion to take along. She just hadn't informed the man she was his only option. A rookie like her could do well on a job like this, long travel times low pay, high risk. It was the perfect chance to teach the girl not to jump on every gig offered, and learn when to say no.
Wakako wouldn't ever feel a connection with the girl. Wakako and Natasha's… Friction made that impossible.
But Wakako was old. She wouldn't hold her mother against the girl.
But this was out of her expectations. First came a text from Scorpion long after she should have gotten an update on the gig.
Gig is finished. Here is the final pay. Wakako. Thank you. Motoko saved my life out there, and I know if you had sent me anyone else they wouldn't have bothered coming to my rescue. Make sure your girl is taken care of. Not many people would have walked into a Raffen Shiv camp alone to save someone.*
Wakako was a woman that knew things. It was half the job of a Fixer. A good one anyways.
So this created questions needing answers.
Explanation is requested. Motoko hasn't contacted me yet.*
It took a while and this time Wakako was tapping her fingernails along her desk. She was not used to being kept waiting, and even less used to waiting for something that actually sparked her interest.
Then a bigger message came through. Full of images, but not just images. It looks like the Aldecaldos had looted the place to the bedrock, but also had poked into everything doing the same thing Wakako was. Trying to figure out what had happened.
Scorpion had even added in a file that he must have made after Wakako asked about what happened a text document recounting his experience. To her amusement it read like an army report.
She read it all, Scorpions account. The images, the Aldecaldos scouts looking over the absolute carnage a Raffen Shiv camp had been left in.
Wakako had to admit the sight of a man with a screwdriver in his ear in a room full of dead bodies gave her a feeling she didn't often have.
She was impressed.
Motoko had run into the sort of luck most Solo's pray never to find a mission going completely out of control. Yet the girl hadn't bailed out. Hadn't given up, or even called in reinforcements, or even Wakako herself to update.
She had just gotten up after being shot and hunted down a pack of Raffen scum.
Motoko's first mission had given Wakako reason to give her some minor tasks. Going through a scav hideout had opened the girl up for more dangerous moves. This job had been a test, to see if she was worth giving any trust.
A Fixer needed to trust a solo can do the job. A solo needed to trust the Fixer not to screw them over. It was a relationship, and it was important.
Wakako had been throwing the girl a bone with barely any attention, because she didn't' expect anything from her. She had seen a thousand Motoko Kusanagi's. A thousand young men or women that came to her looking for work. Some even with a modicum of skill or potential.
But this?
This altered Wakako's entire understanding of Motoko Kusanagi.
That was unacceptable. Wakako prided herself on knowing who she had working for her.
So she sent out a message.
Gig closed. Confirmation from the client they are very happy. I have questions. Come to my office.*
—--
So I was heading into Wakako's office wearing a new bandage that I had bled on a bit from the inside to pretend to still be injured.
Dammit, I hadn't expected Wakako to want a face to face.
I slipped into her office making sure to keep my arm rigid as I had it in a homemade sling.
"Wakako."
"Motoko. Sit." The older woman demanded as she looked me over with sharp eyes. "I've heard about your gig from everyone but you. Explain."
"Uh… Sorry I was taking a nap after getting checked out. I got shot you know?" I offered trying to defend myself.
"I am aware. Next time message me when a gig is finished regardless… It was foolish. To go back after him. You do realize that don't you?" Wakako asked me as she put out a cigarette into an ash tray. "No. I see that you don't. Taking a mission for two-thousand eddies isn't the sort of job you should be risking your life on."
"I was hired to protect him. So I did." I mumbled a bit. Not sure what else to say. I had a job to do, so I did it.
"I see, you will end up used up until you die then. That is your future if you keep going down that path, but you are your own person. Do as you like. Until you end up dead in some blaze of glory though, I will use you. Congratulations Motoko Kusanagi. You are no longer someone I consider a minor agent. I will have work for you. Dangerous work. But work that will leave you with more than two thousand eddies for risking your life."
"Oh… thanks?"
The older woman chuffed at my response as she looked me over. "One last thing, I need to know what you can do if I am going to set you up on jobs. You've used stealth to your advantage. The scavs, and now the Raffen. If I asked you to sneak into a highly secure building could you do it?"
"I don't know. Maybe. I guess it depends on how fast you need it done…"
She waves me off. "It's not a real gig. But I need to know if your talents lay in espionage more than combat. You hacked into the Raffens security. Uploaded a Daemon. A nasty one too from my reports."
"Ah it's…" I hesitated, not sure how to explain how a rookie netrunner like me has something so good. Daemons were… weird.
"No, don't explain you don't have to. From everything I have heard you made it through the whole camp without alerting anyone until the end. Could you do that with a corporate factory? An office? An apartment building?"
Ah. I realized Wakako wasn't asking for details. She wasn't asking for my stats. She was asking if I had faith in my own abilities.
"Yes. I am confident in my stealth. I'm good at it." I assured her showing every ounce of confidence I could convey.
"I'll keep an eye out for a job for someone with those skills. If you can accomplish it… I don't have anyone with that skillset under my employ currently. Prove you have what it takes and I will have more work than you can ever accomplish for you."
"I will."
"Good. Rest. Recover. I will be in touch soon." She offered before waving me away.
I slipped out of the chair and left feeling pretty good. Stealth missions could be fun!
--
A/N
Couple things here at the end. Probably going to be every two days update schedule. I'm catching up on my backlog a little fast.
The newest Omake Scorpions Angel of Death is side canon to this Massgamer was kind enough to want to write an omake about the Nomad reaction and POV so I gave him a bit of information so it would be fairly close. It's a fun read!
Last edited: Nov 15, 2022
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Seras
Nov 12, 2022
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Seras
Seras
Idiot Sandwich
Nov 15, 2022
#5,728
I decided to spend the next few days quietly. No jobs. No running around with Hiromi, although she was at school for the next few days anyways.
I was still sort of coming to terms with my own ability in murder, and I thought some time away from missions where I had a gun in my hand was needed to sort myself out.
The plan was simple. Stay out of trouble and pretend to 'recover' from the gig, so I would mostly stay out of sight of anyone that knows me.
Lot's of things kept me occupied though. Crafting for one. The gig I had just accomplished. Everything in between.
Plus it didn't help that I had a lot of time on my hands as I drove back out into the desert. Part of the desire was pure XP grind. Being able to really gun the engine on my Quadra Type-66 was amazing. Leaving me giggling at points as I caught some air, or came around a corner of a dune a little too fast and drifting a little.
Little XP alerts came in, but it wasn't a lot. I wasn't doing anything truly crazy.
But I was on my way to get something I had left behind.
I soon came up to the location. Slowing down as I came up to the wreck of Scorpions ride. Or at least pieces of it. The Aldecaldos must have already come by from the look of it. The car itself was gone, but I could see bits and pieces of metal left behind.
Plus the GPS told me this was it.
I came to a stop and started searching. The desert didn't like giving back what it had taken and after a long hour or searching that area of the desert I finally found it.
Like hell I was going to leave behind my HMG! I love that thing! I shot it out of a moving car! It's like I was in an action movie!
Its barrel was all I could see as I was sticking out of the desert, and as I slowly dug it out I winced.
"Poor girl." I could instantly tell how bad of a condition it was in.
You see. I had a very special alert from the night before.
With a grin I once again looked at my menu.
Crafting skill level up!*
I managed to get Crafting 1 from sewing that last night. Although I had stabbed my finger more times than I really wanted to admit.
I remember thinking that Breach was the most information dense of any of the skills I had taken so far.
I was wrong.
Crafting made Breach seem like elementary school math compared to Calculus. It was so dense, with little bits of knowledge in how to craft tons of things. Explosives, weapons, clothes, armor, vehicles, everything. Plus tool knowledge for tons of pieces of equipment, and the instincts on everything from making something to unmaking it.
I could also feel a big blackness in the knowledge like it was reaching for knowledge that wasn't there at points. Knowledge I already knew would be Engineering.
Two sides of the same side. Crafting was doing it by hand. Engineering was closer to design work or maybe understanding more complicated crafting? I guess I would find out when I unlocked it.
Even without the knowledge though, I could feel the sort of impact it will have on my understanding of tech.
It was kinda exciting.
I realized quickly last night that sewing wasn't going to give me much experience, even if it was really useful. I still needed to figure out a way of making patches for my Leotard. I might need to buy a new one, or just buy a Netrunner suit to cannibalize.
Still I had a feeling I would know a good way to do it once I explored Crafting a bit more.
But between Crafting and Gun Nut, I had a solid understanding as I pulled my HMG free of the desert. I knew she was dead. When she had been thrown from the car, she had hit something solid, a rock probably. There was a good chunk of her receiver smashed in. Her barrel didn't look too bad, visually, but Gun nut told me it wasn't straight anymore. The pieces that let the barrel slide back after firing and be pushed forward with a spring were wrecked.
I sighed as I held her up. Coming all this way only to find out she had died. It was sad.
Not a waste, but just… sad. She had really done work against the Wraiths, and we would have chewed them up if not for the car crashing.
I hefted her up and felt the sand pour out of her. I had come all this way. It would be wrong to just leave her though.
I nodded. I wouldn't just leave her. "I'll fix you someday. Who knows. Maybe I'll even be able to give you a nice upgrade." I told the gun as I shook her out a bit.
"Bitches do love cannons after all." I muttered giggling a little at myself as I carried her back to the car. She would sit in my passenger seat while I drove home.
Well… not quite home.
I had learned more than just how to craft from my level up. In fact I learned what was probably the most important part of crafting.
Deconstruction.
I now knew how to take something apart to get at the useful bits.
Which gave me an idea. Especially since I now had wheels.
In the morning I had gone down to the market to the same repair lady that had once basically called me an idiot for not knowing about the map function in my eyes.
She was kinda a bitch, but she was closeby.
"Tools?" She asked looking up from… Oh I recognized it now. It was an internet port for home use. Hook your TV or other devices into it to watch TV or get local web.
"Yeah. I'm looking to get into scrapping, repair, and maybe some tinkering. Best place to get tools for it?" I asked, earning an odd look from the lady. Thankfully I guess getting my haircut and colored made me look different enough she was willing to talk.
"I'll give you a kit sure, thousand eddies." She offered brazenly as if it was just a thing.
"That's robbery for a tool kit. But I'll tell you what. I'll pay a thousand, if it's a complete kit. If everything I'll need is inside it. If it isn't… Well I know where you work." I said, trying to put on my coolest stare.
"Don't go trying to threaten me, kid. Market security will be more than happy to have you thrown out." Something about the way I spoke seemed to work as the woman sounded a little spooked despite her tough words to the contrary. But after a moment she nodded. "But yeah. I'll make sure it's a complete kit. 1000 eddies."
A minute later I watched as she started putting a variety of tools from kits that she was selling into a single box. Although a few of the electronics she placed inside looked like personal equipment, something she looked at shrugged and threw it in.
I really couldn't tell now if she was scamming me. But, well better to just get what I need and lose some eddies than have to spend a few days going to different stores trying to find the basics. Besides, if I found out later she scammed me.
I did know where she worked.
"Here. This is everything someone doing some scraping, salvage, or repair needs. I'm not here to teach you so if you don't know what something does, that's on you." She offered, handing me the tool box.
"Thank you." I agreed. My eyes going blue as I transferred the funds. A thousand bucks seems like a lot, but tools are always expensive.
I had hurried home and after opening the box and poking around. It took me a while to check over everything, but my Crafting 1 knowledge dump did give me an idea of how almost everything works. Some of the stuff was esoteric.
With that done and a firm understanding of what tools and things I had. I was actually pretty sure the lady hadn't screwed me over. Overcharged me? Sure. But she had put in just about everything I would need.
With that I went into my room and put on some older clothes, things I wouldn't mind ruined, I found an old pair of gloves that I think once belonged to Jun, and an older pair of boots.
The glitzy ugly things I had no problem with ruining.
Then I took my toolbox out to my new car.
I had headed out to scrounge over the battle site. Not much had been left, and I was lucky to find my HMG still left over, but not my SMG. That was a pain. So instead of wasting more time. I settled my HMG in the seat, walked around to the driver side, patted my cars hood, and started up her engine with a roar.
"Let's go to the dump!"
—--
"Oh god it stinks." I whined as I climbed another pile of trash looking for electronics, or anything else I could take apart.
Seriously, why did I come here!? Who was the idiot that said I should come to the dump!? I'll kill them!
No wait Motoko murder was still wrong against anyone not a scav, or a Wraith, or a bad guy in general.
Was telling someone go to the dump an evil act?
As I almost slipped and felt my foot fall into something wet and gooey, I decided yes. Yes it was.
Too bad the evil person was me. I did this to myself.
Puking a little in my mouth I continued to work. If nothing else there was a lot of stuff here to scavenge.
I had already found a ton of stuff to work with. I didn't have any grand plans, honestly I was mostly looking for stuff I would definitely be able to fix, or at least take apart for parts to fix something else.
Grinding my Crafting skill was less about making something useful right now, and more about making something at all.
Really my big goal was just not to spend any money on this… Well any more money.
Eventually I could even make grenades and such. I did have a bunch of them from that Wraith guy I killed. Crazy bastard was practically covered in them, I had klepped them all, and there were even some parts to make more.
I just wasn't going to try until I was sure I wasn't going to blow my face off.
But until then I was looking for good scrap.
And trying not to puke.
I grunted as I slowly came back down the side of a trash pile with an old laptop in my arms. It had a bullet hole sure, but I could get a ton of stuff out of it.
Which is when I looked to my left and stopped.
No it couldn't be.
I looked around and I realized this area did look… familiar.
I dropped the broken laptop. Focusing instead on what I was looking at.
A fridge.
A very familiar fridge.
I walked over and with a hesitant hand I lifted the lid.
Immediately I closed it ran a few feet away and lost my lunch.
Oh god that smell!
Yep. That was a decaying Rache Bartmoss. As I heaved out my guts my brain was processing what I had just found.
V had found him in 2077. But it was still 2075. Had no one found him in two years? Really?
I finished clearing my mouth and hurried back this time I opened the fridge without breathing I reached in and grabbed his Netdeck.
Quickly took a picture of the inside of the fridge, and slammed it shut.
Then I ran away. Gasping a dozen feet away as I tried to breath without smelling rotting corpse.
The Netdeck still smelled too though. I shivered hurried back to the car. I was gonna stuff this in the trunk and not open it again until I had a plastic bag or something to seal it in.
Fuck. I had found Rache Bartmoss.
—--
So I now had a plastic bag with Rache Barmoss's netdeck sealed inside, hidden in my room.
That was… Gonna be something I deal with later. No way I had the ability to check the insides without having my brain melted.
And honestly? I didn't trust Nix. In the Game you take it to the Afterlife where a Netrunner called Nix hacks into it. He nearly gets brain fried but you rescue him.
Afterwards he tells V there wasn't really anything interesting inside, gives you some special Quickhacks and sends V away right after.
Rache Bartmoss basically created Netrunning. He was… The greatest. Period.
I always got suspicious in the game dealing with Nix. He always treated V like an amateur even after saving his life.
So I was going to skip that entire thing. I'll grind up my skills and crack the netdeck myself someday.
Until then?
Well I thought about talking to Wakako about the fridge, but… It will keep. Literally.
If no one would have found it in two years I think it's safe where it is. Especially since I already took the valuable bit.
So I pulled out my haul from the dump and grabbed my toolbox.
Time to get to work.
First My HMG was settled onto the living room table to get a good cleaning and going over, once it was at least clean I set her in my room for now.
Then considering that leveling Technical Attribute was just as slow as Intelligence, I decided to combine them. While I was slowly taking apart the old electronics and other toys I had found. I was also listening to my Mothers Netrunning guide, and hacking the radio.
100 Technical Attribute XP Gained*
—--
While grinding hacking was kinda boring in a way since for the most part it was just going through code as you tried to slip through the security. Grinding Crafting was more interesting.
Like sure it was slow, but you were getting more than just the XP.
Every time I took apart something I was getting equipment for more stuff in the future. I was finding neat little surprises inside expensive pieces of equipment that still worked despite the ruined exterior.
So it kept my interest a lot longer. Although even so I did get bored eventually.
Stretching, I decided to stretch my legs and grab a meal. Besides it had been a few days of playing around with tech I hadn't really talked to anyone since I got back from the Badlands.
So I started sending off everyone I knew a text.
Hey Hiromi, still in school? Is it at least interesting?*
Ichi, how's work? Are you still stuck at the club for extra protection?*
Dr. Vik. It's Motoko, haven't had a chance to talk to you since we met up. I hope the chrome has been useful. I've actually been looking for some stuff, I was wondering if you could help? I need to update my optics, I'm thinking Kiroshi. Let me know if you have any deets on where I could get a set? Thanks Vik.*
With that I felt at least that I wasn't hiding away from the world entirely.
Even if I did things kept changing.
The Claw-Strom gang war had been expanding. Mostly I've been kept up to date on the news which I would let play while I was taking stuff apart.
The war had spread. It was becoming a full out gang war. Because when you are shooting people on the streets sometimes you get some collateral.
Right now The Valentino's were shooting both sides whenever they came into their territory. Turns out someone well loved in the Tino's had been killed in the crossfire between Strom and Claws.
Tino's were pissed.
6th St were also shooting on sight, but purely to keep Claws, or Strom from moving into their territory.
This of course meant the Moxes were started to buckle down as well. The Claws getting hit hard which made them hyper aggressive.
Mox girls and boys were paying for it. So they were arming up as well.
The entire north side of the city was turning into a warzone.
Damn.
I was firmly staying out of it. Other than Jun I had no connection to the entire trouble.
Which reminded me. I sent out one more text message.
Jun. Please still be alive.*
I hadn't heard from Jun in a while. Once again he was not responding to texts or calls.
So with that done I headed outside. I was just buying my routine mystery meat skewer when I got a text in return.
Hiromi: I'm free bitch! We going partying!*
Sorry Hiromi. I'm not really up to a party tonight. Glad you are free though.*
Hiromi: Uuuuugh you are the boringest crazy person I have ever met!*
Hey, I'm not crazy!*
Hiromi: Scav Den. SOLO.*
Which I did fully trusting that I could do it and survive. Mostly.*
Hiromi: Hence the crazy. Any news about Jun?*
Nothing.* I sighed as I walked around the block mostly just to do something other than stand around as I got some 'fresh' air.
Hiromi: I'll ask around some of the Claws I know. I know the war is getting pretty bad, so he's probably just busy.*
I hope he's just busy. I really do.*
Hiromi: Alright enough about bad stuff. What have you been doing? I talked to Ichi and he has been jobless since his glorious Shobo-Sama is keeping everyone close to the club. So I know you haven't done any jobs with Ichi. No more scav dens right?*
I didn't know how to respond, technically I hadn't hit a Scav den.
Technically.
Hiromi: RIGHT?*
Not a Scav den. I did some work for Wakako involving a nomad. It kinda blew up.*
Hiromi: WHAT THE FUCK MOTOKO! I'm coming over!*
Okay I'm just walking the block.*
I laughed a little. It was nice to talk to Hiromi even if she was very… Hiromi. She was my best Choom after all.
I ended up getting back to the apartment and camping out waiting at the entrance for Hiromi to show up. The roar of her Kusanagi was something I could hear long before I saw her, and I was groaning because I could tell she was speeding like crazy.
"Hiromi… Slow down you gonk." I grumbled as I waited for her to come around the corner nearly drive into a lamppost, miss it by a bit and skid up onto the sidewalk in front of the apartment.
"MOTOKO!"
"Hello Hiromi. Do we need to talk about speed laws?" I asked but she ignored me as she jumped off her bike and started looking me over. Her hands poking and prodding.
"I'm fine." I told her earning a glare from Hiromi.
"You did something stupid again!"
"It was a gig! An official gig! It went bad when the Raffen Shiv showed up. But it turned out alright." I told her with a shrug. "Well, except my new baby got destroyed. They got pissed when I was firing the HMG out the side of the car and we ended up flipping. My HMG Died Hiromi. I'm Sad." I whined a bit at her.
"What the fuck Motoko! You… That's fuckin' Nova. You fired that big ass thing out the side of a car? A moving car?" She asked suddenly perking up as I gave her a tidbit about the story.
"Oh it was way more Nova than that, they were behind us so I opened the passenger door rested the gun against the door and was firing backwards halfway out the car."
"That is the preemest shit I ever heard. You crazy girl!" She pulled me into a massive hug squeezing as hard as she could. "I'm gonna have to stick to you from now on, cause you are gonna get flatlined doing such preem shit."
"It wasn't that bad. C'mon let's park your bike in the garage… I want to show you something." I grinned as I urged her back to the bike and hopped on patting the seat infront of me so Hiromi would get on.
She did, looking like she wanted to keep hugging me or lock me away in a dungeon so I could stop doing 'Preem shit' and get killed.
When we pulled into the garage Hiromi parking right next to my car which was in Juns spot. Hiromi was actually grumbling about it as she parked next to his spot.
"Who's in Jun's spot?" She grumbled to me and it was only by pulling her back that I stopped her from kicking my car as she got off her bike.
"I am." I told her once I pulled her back as I walked up and opened the driver's door. "Want to go for a drive?" I teased her as I slipped inside.
"Bullshit. This is a Wraith car, it even has their markings on it."
"Yeah I need to get it repainted. The previous owner won't mind." I hinted as I cocked my head to the passenger door.
"Wait, you're being serious?" She asked, suddenly looking from me to the car.
Which is when I started it up. It roared to life.
Hiromi happily jumped into the passenger seat a moment later looking around as I closed my door and pulled out.
Last edited: Nov 15, 2022
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Seras
Nov 15, 2022
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Seras
Seras
Idiot Sandwich
Nov 18, 2022
#6,314
Of course, unlike Hiromi I wasn't crazy. I followed all the traffic laws.
"Ugh, why are you the most boring crazy person ever!?" Hiromi whined at me as I pulled out onto the street going a normal speed as I started driving around. Mostly just enjoying driving my new car with my best choom riding with me.
"We should stop by the club. Ichi will lose it when he sees your new ride."
"Really? Why? He already has a car."
"Oh my god Motoko. You are such a gonk. This is a Quadra Type-66! It's a preem ride… Well I mean not this one exactly. The Wraiths did a hack job on it, but it still is a monster. What's the top speed on this thing?"
"Don't know." I muttered although I was shifting a little as I lied.
I didn't know the exact top speed, but there was nothing but open roads on the drive into the city.
"Ooh did my cautious driver Motokoooo drive fast?"
"Only out in the badlands."
"How fast did you get? No, don't give me that flat look tell meeeee!"
"Fine. I hit about one-eighty before I let off the gas and coasted back."
"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! This thing can go! C'mon hit it."
"Hell no Hiromi, I'm on a road with traffic!"
"Fuck 'em!"
"Not a chance choom."
"Ugh boring."
"But we can stop by the Ho-oh club and show off to Ichi."
"Yeees!" Hiromi said breaking into giggles as I maneuvered to hit the freeway connecting Little Chinatown and Kabuki.
I smiled as I got a little alert for driving XP. I was smiling as we turned stopped out on the road to the Ho-oh club. They had actually blocked off the little alley entrance which led to the club.
Instantly as well I could see Tyger Claws looking alert and concerned.
Wraiths weren't often seen in the city. But it's not like anyone living in the city wouldn't have heard of them.
Thankfully as usual, Hiromi took care of that, popping out of the car and waving around and acting like all the Tyger Claws knew who she was.
"Hey hey! Where is Ichi! He has to see this!" She called out practically dancing towards the entrance to the club.
I stepped out and settled against the car Ichi would be out soon, and I didn't want to leave my new car alone in the middle of a Tyger Claw club.
I got some odd looks from a few of the people hovering around.
Obviously they were guards. Looks like the club really had pulled in more people to guard it.
Shoba either was paying the Claws to do it, or his club was more important than I expected since there was a gang war going on.
I was distracted from waiting when I got a text.
Vik: Hey kid. Sorry it took so long I decided to check in on your request. Took a bit but I found what you were looking for. Come on by. But I need to say this. The chrome you dropped off has been going to a good use. I have to admit I kept expecting some kind of trick in the days after like you would show up to try and force me to pay more or set me up against a gang, but I was wrong. Listen kid. You did a solid good deed. I'll send some pictures just so your good deed doesn't just disappear into the wind.*
I blinked in surprise at the heartfelt message.
Then I started getting pictures. Little kids with new chrome. Chrome I recognized. Little kids that looked poor, but now had legs. Where in the picture before they had none.
A boy who was showing off his arm to his mom. His obviously full prosthetic arm.
And they kept coming.
I had been right. When it came down to it. Vik was the sort of guy that did real honest good, in a city that had almost no one doing that.
Damn. I wasn't crying. You're crying!
"See Ichi! Look at Motoko's new ride! I told you it was preem, Sh-Motoko?!"
"Wha? Oh. Jeeze Hiromi you startled me." I snorted trying to keep my nose from running.
"Why are you crying! Was someone mean? What happened?... Jun?" She asked quietly as she hurried up close to me.
"No No." I waved my hands as I wiped my eyes stupid sudden rain showers getting my eyes wet. How rude! "I just got a message from Vik. It's good news."
"Who?" Hiromi asked and it took Ichi a minute to remember.
"Wait, that weird Ripper?"
"He isn't that weird." I grumbled at them, my eyes turned yellow as I forwarded the pictures to both of them. Bombarding them with tons of pics.
Hiromi went silent for a bit as she looked through them, Ichi just seemed to glance over them confused.
"Okay?"
"Those are the people that we helped by handing over the Chrome we didn't need." I informed him, but he just seemed to shrug.
"It was your chrome. I still would have preferred selling it."
"Huh. I didn't expect this." Hiromi said after a bit looking me over as if she had never seen me before. "I honestly never took you for someone that would do something like that. Or get tearful about it. You've changed so much Motoko. Sometimes I forget, then moments like this happen." She snorted a bit before waving it off. "So Ichi what do you think of Motoko's wheels?"
"Preem. I'm jealous. I'd ask where you got the money for it, but considering I don't think you paid for it."
"Not an enny." I offered with a smile he snorted.
"You hit a Wraith driver?"
"He hit me first, I hit him last." I said a little darkly before shrugging a bit. "It's a long story. I was on a job for Wakako. I was an extra to cover my clients back. Things got… a little out of control."
"She fired that HMG she found, out the car, while running away from Wraiths." Hiromi added. "She's been quiet about the rest though. She is terrible at telling stories."
"Really? That's… Nova." Ichi offered blinking as his eyes went a little distant imagining. "I've been stuck here. You really got a job from Wakako? The Wakako?"
"Yeah. It wasn't that hard. I walked in and asked if she had any work that needed doing. Then I had to break into a Tino' chop shop and steal an info shard. It got a little-"
"Out of control?"
"No, I kept control just complicated. I can't say much but let's just say another fixer was involved."
"Ouch. " Hiromi winced at that. Probably imagining way worse than it was.
"It was okay. I got in and out without any trouble and Wakako was impressed."
"Damn." Ichi whispered, his voice sounding a little rough as he seemed to shake it off. "So you're gonna let me drive this thing right?"
"Hahaha. No." I deadpanned which he tsked at.
"Damn."
"I mean you are a better driver than Hiromi."
"Hey!"
"Nah. Hiromi is better than me, you just have to get her drunk first." Ichi said and it took me a second before I realized he was actually being serious.
"Being drunk doesn't make you a better driver!"
—--
After we hung out with Ichi for a while we split up. Ichi was still on the clock in a way, and Hiromi and I now had an appointment.
"No way am I letting some back alley Ripper work on you and not be there to keep an eye out." Hiromi argued as she refused to let me drop her off back home once I told her what Vik had told me through text.
"Vik isn't like that. He's good people. And a good ripper. I'll be fine."
"You aren't going without me. Besides we are almost there so stop arguing. Gonk." She pointed out as I sighed and nodded simply driving quietly through the city towards Misty's Esoterica.
We pulled up out front and Hiromi and I headed in. Before we slipped through the back gate though I wandered into Misty's shop.
"Hi Misty!"
"Oh Motoko. And… Hiromi?" She hesitated as she tried to remember Hiromi's name.
"Yeah you got it." Hiromi confirmed although she was still not being friendly.
"Hey Misty, I'm going down to see Vik, but can you keep an eye on my car? It has…"
"A bunch of gang ink?" She asked with a kinda stilted smile.
"Yeah. So can you make sure no one damages it? I really need to find someone to repaint it. Or do it myself."
Misty looked a little conflicted, before she nodded. "I'll try to warn anyone away. Might be a good idea to get it painted though… You're not a Wraith… Are you?"
"No way!" Almost shouted waving my hands a bit. "I was on a job working for a nomad, and we got jumped by the Wraiths… Its previous owner doesn't need it anymore."
Misty nodded, releasing a sigh of relief. "I'm glad. You kinda scared me for a minute." She smiled at me as she waved me towards the back. "Go on. I'll make sure everyone knows you klepped it from a Wraith if they come around."
"Thanks Misty, you're preem."
Hiromi followed me as I practically hopped along. Finally going to get a good set of eyes. I was gonna be able to see through walls! and my hacking would be so much easier! My current set of some no-name company eyes or whatever were okay. For Civilians. They had the basic stuff, and even let me do the calling thing without needing a phone.
Jun must have splurged to make sure I could do that. My guess was that my old ones before the scavs had the same functionality and Jun wanted to make sure I could still do it.
Anyways, Kiroshi were the top of the line optics. There simply wasn't much better than a set. Scanning mode. Near instant net code connection. Hookup for Smart weapons.
Color options.
My current eyes couldn't change the eye color. They were the color Jun must have chosen for me when he bought them. A sort of blue.
Maybe it was my natural eye color? Or maybe Jun thought I would like the color? Anyways. I couldn't actually change the color of this set. I would have to go to a ripper and have them take them out to change the color.
They were cheap optics. Like the bargain bin phone at a phone store. Sure it might be a smart phone, but it had none of the options a real smart phone would have.
I hurried down the steps to the clinic, kind of excited.
Sure having my Cyberdeck installed had been awesome as well, but it was like… It barely made any impact. I just had a little port hidden on the back of my head now.
This was new eyeballs.
Not just new ones, but some of the best I could get. A real serious upgrade. My first step on a path that I was going to have to come to accept.
Transhumanism.
It made me want to ask a question that many Motoko before me had asked.
I had a Ghost. Right? No matter how much of myself I carved away my soul would still be there. A human had a ghost, a sentience, that couldn't be removed by simply stripping the body away piece by piece.
It was the very essence of what made Motoko… Special? Well Special-ish. She wasn't alone in being a nearly complete cyborg. It was her talent that pushed her to be amazing. But it was her Ghost. The question if she had one, if she was really the same Motoko as she had been born as that made her… Compelling.
"Motoko?" Hiromi asked, I had stopped before I entered the bottom of the steps. I had gotten lost.
Did I have a ghost?
I shook my head. This wasn't even the Ghost in the Shell universe. So in the end. Who knows?
"Nothing nothing. C'mon Hiromi." I take the last step down the stairs.
"Vik? Are you in?"
"Oh? Motoko. I was wondering when I would see you." His security door opened and I walked in smiling as he gave me a nod of his head. "Come take a look."
The small thermos like object held a set of eyes. Not that I could see it as it was sealed until they were installed.
"Kiroshi optics."
"Mk1's So don't fall totally in love. I'm not a miracle worker." He chuckled. As I looked the thermos over.
"No way. This is a miracle for sure. Thank you Vik. I honestly wasn't expecting you to have them so soon."
"Well I owed you one." He offered simply before pointing me at the chair. "So ready to get chipped?"
I took a deep breath and released it.
"Yeah I am."
—--
I slowly came to as I blinked my eyes.
"You might feel a little discomfort at first. Blurred vision, low contrast, glitches…"
Alerts were popping up in my mind as my eyes were connected, but I didn't really have any issues as Vik finally pulled back. I slowly looked around. Everything was so clear.
"Well, how's it look, feel alright to you?" Vik asked as he seemed to look me over.
"Feels alright. No pain or anything." I answered, sounding a little distant. I was distracted.
Imagine living your life seeing in 720p, and suddenly you were in 4k.
Everything. I could see everything! Darkness barely stopped me. I could see the dust in the corner from across the room.
"You doin' okay Motoko?" Hiromi asked as she walked up she was still looking a little skeeved out about the back alley ripper.
"Yeah. Sorry I just can see everything now. It's kinda… Distracting."
"Yeah your new eyes are on another level. I didn't know you were using a set of Arasaka Rainbow With a name like that you expect a lot, but these were bad long before they ever came out." Hiromi mentioned as she looked me over. I blinked. My old eyes were Arasaka make? Huh.
"Yeah. I guess I hadn't really considered it. I mean they were my eyes."
Vik gave off a chuckle as he nodded, taking the pair of… My old eyes. To put into another thermos. Waste not want not I suppose.
Weird. It was kinda weird to know that he was walking away with something I had considered a part of me. Then again they weren't my 'ganic' eyes anyways.
It still felt weird.
"So. What color are you gonna go with? I still think Neon green would suit you." Hiromi offered as she came up close to check my new eyes out.
"I'm not copying your hair Hiromi… I'm thinking a reddish purple color… Yeah I have the exact color I want in mind." I said smiling as I imagined "The Major" And her eye color.
Man I was getting pretty close to her in looks now. Just needed the fully borg body.
"Well alright. I'll admit. This guy isn't as much of a back alley ripper as I expected. He was… competent." Hiromi whispered as she kept close. "How did you even find this guy anyways."
"Vik is kinda a legend Hiromi." I whisper back although I was still kinda distracted because I could see Hiromi's pores crystal clear.
Seriously, super vision was kinda distracting. Also it was weird, blinking felt… Weird.
"Hey Vik. It feels kinda weird when I blink."
"Yeah that's normal. Kiroshi have a water protective layer on top of the eyes. On one hand it means your tears won't lubricate your new eyes, makes em feel a little smooth when blinking. On the other hand, in serious situations you don't have to blink." He offered as he wheeled back over.
"Now let's make sure everything is as it should be. Go ahead and try the scanner." He asked as he seemed to settle in in front to of me.
I blinked and my eyes just… Did it. A flick of a thought and my vision went red, and everything became so much more. I looked around, sweeping my eyes over Viks clinic. Almost everything highlighted at first, but as I ignored pieces of his equipment I didn't need to know about, or Viks TV on the desk it unhighlighted.
"It might take a few seconds to adjust, but first time is rarely the charm…" He stopped whatever spiel he was about to say as he seemed to look at me and Hiromi, before shaking his head. "Never mind. "Scanner should eventually sync with your thought processes an' read your intentions."
As I looked around I caught sight of Hiromi, and instantly I realized I could send a quickhack at her. No messing around waiting for my eyes to get her net code. The scan was nearly instant. Man I had forgotten how much easier Quickhacking was in the game, but really it was just because of these eyes. A second glance and I had Hiromi's information ready and able to send a Quickhack her way.
"What?" She asked as I shook my head.
"Nothing just amazed at how quickly it pulled up your information."
"Speaking of, I'm injecting an NCPD file search." He mentioned as my eyes suddenly showed an install bar as something updated. "Run into any ne'er-do-wells you'll know exactly what they ne'er-did-well." He said almost laughing a bit at the end, an often used joke I think.
Hiromi was fake gagging behind his head.
"Thanks. That will help me collect bounties." I muttered, the idea wasn't bad I could get around the city and start taking out anyone with a price on their head.
Vik was looking a little pale as I said that. "Maybe, just use it to run away from the bad guys. Kids should know how to use a gun, sure, but best to avoid trouble." He offered, and I didn't argue despite the fact we both knew I wasn't going to do what he said.
"Thanks Vik. For everything."
"Now don't say it like that. You'll make me feel like that's a goodbye. Sides still need to cover a few things about your new Mk1. You've already been introduced to your new scanner, but the Mk1 also has a built in External Lens Disruptor. In layman's terms, any surveillance cam will catch your face as a blur. Just remember. Your body'll show up crystal clear."
"Really? I didn't know that." I muttered, was that a thing they did. I don't remember that ever being mentioned in the game. Then again Cameras were more alarm systems in the moment, rather than something that bites you a day after you got spotted.
"Cool." Hiromi offered grinning a little widely. "I got a few ideas for where that will come in handy~" She practically purred as she looked like a cat that caught a canary.
I instantly put my hand up. "Not a chance. I'm not a thief Hiromi… Unless I'm stealing for a Fixer I guess… Does looting count as stealing?" I asked her, and I could hear Vik do an aborted chuckle beside me as he was checking some diagnostic on his screen.
"Course not. Klepping is only klepping if they are still alive. The moment they flatline it's not klepping." Hiromi answered simply.
"Right." I chuckled at bit at Hiromi's blunt explanation.
"Also here." Vik handed me a Max Doc, or at least something similar. "Take two whiffs now, and another two in an hour." He urged me on until I took my whiff. "Good. Don't forget."
"I won't! I'll even set an alarm." I assure him doing just that with my new Kiroshi's. Man that was kinda cool.
"Preem, we done?" Hiromi asked sounding a little bored now that the fun stuff was over.
"Yep I'm finished, unless you want something else chipped in, but I would say wait."
"No. That's what I wanted today. I'll get used to these before I start messing around."
"Excellent. Good call."
"Now last thing and probably the most important." I told Vik, getting an interested look. "How much do I owe you?"
—--
"I can't believe you paid him full price." Hiromi grumbled at me as I walked
"Course I did. Vik does good work."
"He owes you thousands of eddies from that Scav loot." Hiromi reminded me as we passed through the alley towards my car.
"No, he got that for a low price, but that loot was for rep."
"Ugh you are the wooorst." Hiromi whined at me as we climbed into my Reaver. Giving Misty a wave as I did which she returned. Looks like she had done a good job keeping the care unbothered.
"It's good business. Besides, I got Kiroshi optics." I reminded her as I set out, driving was kind of wild. Everything was so clear, but it was more than that. I could literally tell how fast a car was going compared to me. It just popped into my mind with a glance.
As I maneuvered through the city I actually felt really comfortable behind the wheel. So much so that I was even driving a bit faster than normal. I suppose it was inevitable that I got an alert.
Driving skill level up!*
I smiled, Driving 4. I wonder what Perk I would get next level?
"What's got you so happy?"
"Nothing. Just enjoying my new optics."
"Is' cute, You being all over the moon for some Chrome. You used to be way worse before. Course you never had anything as high end as Kiroshi."
"Oh? Was I big into Chrome?"
"Of course! Why do you think you got… Let's talk about something else."
"Think I got targeted by the Scavs?" I asked and Hiromi looked away from me instead of answering.
"We can drop it." I assure her, not bothered in the least. I wasn't exactly afraid of scavs. Not with how many of them I had already murdered.
"Good. So where are we going?" She finally asked and I just shrugged.
"I'm honestly just driving around enjoying hanging out with my choom." I told her as I decided to slip onto the freeway towards home.
"You're such a gonk. I know you don't want to hit a party so let's head back to your place. Food and a movie sounds good."
"Sure! That sounds fun! I can show you what I've been messing with in the last couple days!"
"What?"
"Well I decided I wanted to try doing some tech stuff. I want to try making some gadgets for when I'm on a gig. Plus I want to be able to keep my guns ready to go. And maybe mod them out a bit."
"Huh. Playing Techie huh? Alright cool. You will have to show me what you have so far."
"Not much. I hit the dump yesterday to find some stuff to take apart."
"Eww Gross Motoko! If you want Tech stuff just hit up a shop or something."
"But it's cheaper to do it myself."
"But it's cheaper." She mocked back at me. "Coming from the girl who just gave a Ripper money when he was planning on chipping you for free."
"I owed Vik for his services! He is super talented!"
"Okay Motoko. Do you… Like have a crush on the guy or something? Is that your type? You know old?"
"Hiromi!" I screeched, actually feeling my face flush. "I do not have a crush on Vik! He's old!"
"Yeah I know which is why I'm askin-"
"Nope! We are done with this topic. We are driving home and watching a movie. I do not have a crush on a guy old enough to be my…. Grandfather? I'm not sure exactly how old he is, but he isn't young."
"Pfft! Oh man I am going to tell every-one." She drawled it out slowly as she continued to tease.
"Don't make me kill you… They will never find the body." I glared at her, earning a smirk which slowly disappeared as I kept my unblinking stare on her as I drove.
I had wider vision with my Kiroshi, so it was safe.
Hiromi coughed a bit. "Alright, you win."
Last edited: Nov 18, 2022
1713
Seras
Nov 18, 2022
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