Crazy City Folk

As Dakota worked on one of the recovered Wraith vehicles that those city kids had brought in earlier within her garage she couldn't help but wonder just how she got involved in all this bullshit. Oh yeah, cause Saul asked and she was getting soft in her old age.

The 'Mad Coyote' may not be completely toothless yet, but even she'd admit she didn't chew on things as much anymore every since she became a static. An important job to be sure, but she could also admit she just wasn't built for the open road as much anymore due to her age and condition, taking a puff of her oxygen mask as she thought this.

As said though, her job was important to not only make sure that Nomads had Fixers to go to they could trust not to screw them over but to help keep the Badlands' ecosystem balanced, which is why when a Saul called about hooking up a couple of city kids with her to hunt down some Wraiths who bit off more than they could chew she was happy to make use of them.

Unlike city folk, Nomads like her grew up fast so the idea of a couple of teens working as a merc crew didn't surprise her, though she put it on good odds that they were green as grass and would get themselves killed more likely than not.

Still, she had to admit she liked the corpo brat, she knew how to bargain alright without being a totally insufferable bitch like most corpos.

And then there was their leader, Motoko, the girl who Saul himself vouched for and said was pretty damned skilled.

That little flare up from the Wraiths over a couple of their camps being wiped out and their shit stolen? All her.

It was annoying, considering how destabilizing it was to the Badlands for a short time, but Saul assured her that he set her straight and hadn't had a problem with her since. Hell, he even admitted that if she wanted to she could join the family, only turning it down since she already had some in the city and apparently liking air conditioning too much.

Dakota eyed her own AC unit in the corner and snorted to herself. There were some benefits to being a static she guessed.

But yeah, cause Saul gave her some warning she wasn't too surprised when she cleared out a Wraith camp on her on and then called in her friends to clean it out before moving on to the main reason why they were out here in the first place.

Apparently Isaac, that asshole, had done the dumbest thing ever and shot down an Arasaka supply AV. Nothing too important if they were sending a kiddy merc team after them rather than an ops team, but still.

Dakota assumed it was his group that took it down, it would explain all the weird actions his band were taking lately, but she doesn't give information away that wasn't 100% and the kiddies figured it out on their own after clearing the first camp, so it worked out for everyone.

And Dakota was happy to assist them since Isaac was disrupting the ecosystem of the Badlands with putting down major roots as he was and gathering more and more Raffen to his side. Building up a fortress inside of a temp camp like most Wraiths and looking like he was aiming to really make himself a big player in the Badlands. More importantly, a threat to her family.

If this little team could take care of the problem before she had to put out a gig to take care of it, who was she to complain?

Which was why she was working on the Wrath vehicle while Motoko and her gang headed out to deal with Isaac, ideally. She didn't like the idea of sending kids out to die...

"DAKOTAAAAAAAAA!" a whiny and panicked voice screamed into her garage as Jerry of all people fell to the ground in front of her and started hyperventilating. "He-el-el-elp me!"

"Dammit Jerry, what now?" Dakota groaned as she stood up. "Need another place to lay low in? I swear, if we weren't friends..."

"The corps! The army! A monster!" Jerry continued to panic before Dakota smacked him across the face to calm him down.

"Now please explain what the fuck you are talking about."

"Some-something hit the camp I was staying at! Wiping everyone out!" Jerry admitted. "I barely got out of there!"

"What did you expect when you joined up with the Wraiths of all people? Piss enough people off and they'll hit back hard eventually."

"But-but-but they are a monster! Everyone got hacked all at once and then people just started dropping dead! I just ran for my car and got the hell out of there! Lots of the others didn't..."

"Like I said, what did you expect?" Dakota sighed, not having the heart to cut ties with the former Nomad who was more stupid and unlucky rather than malicious.

"But Isaac said-"

"Isaac?! You joined up with that asshole?!"

"My boss did and we just went along with what he said!"

"And now the camp you were at is being hit hard? The one at the old substation?" Dakota asked to confirm.

"Yeah?! Help me before they chase me down!"

"I doubt you even register on their radar, Jerry," Dakota sighed as she already started calling up some help on her agent. "Just stay here while I take care of this."

Because Dakota just had to see this if it was what she thought it was.