The Brink and Back - Tinker of Fiction
- Thread starter MetaBettaOmega
- Start date
I mean, given his previous actions... I'd have stuck with the bird? Having it latch on to his back would be a really good accompaniment for his style. Just not, you know, a small bird. Something with the wing span of an albatross that can latch onto his back and serve as an insertion and exfiltration vehicle would really up his options. Maybe give it some breaching missiles for harder targets. After all, who is expecting someone to Koolaid Man their way through an exterior wall on the 20th floor?
Hell, give it a large scale magnetic mortar launcher and it can deliver ammo through walls.
- Location
- Land of Confusion
Because being the skeet in skeet shooting never works out well.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
Tin Mother
(Verified Human)
- Location
- Here
- Pronouns
- She/Hers
Yes, Jackson purchased the rest of the town in the threadmarked post for Chapter 25.
Chapter Thirty Five
New
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We took turns keeping watch, which was little more than peeking over the side of the building to make sure that the Tyger Claws were not suddenly freaking out over anything. Eventually, after another two hours, the sky was as dark as it was going to get, which meant it was time for us to move.
Riggs, Jackie, and I all lined up, our gliders in hand, standing at the far back of our temporary waiting space on the roof. Kaytlyn got herself situated, raising her sniper rifle up over the side of the building. For a long moment, she was silent, adjusting her position slightly. Finally, after nearly two minutes of her just looking through the scope, she finally spoke a single, simple word.
"Go."
Riggs was first to move, followed by Jackie and then myself, each of us pausing long enough to give the first person time to boost off the edge of the roof toward our target. By the time Jackie's feet left the roof, Riggs had activated his glider, the same for Jackie and myself. Just after the sound of my glider turning on filled my ears, the crackling thrumming sound that meant the XCOM tech was working at full power, the rapid snapping of Kaytlyn's weapon echoed across the street.
Ahead of us, on the roof of the target building, we watched as, one by one, Kaytlyn punched holes in the gang members who were keeping watch. The last one had just enough time to turn and raise his weapon before his head exploded.
Seconds later, Riggs touched down on the roof, quickly walking further along to give Jackie and me more room. Without breaking stride, he walked forward ten feet and then fifteen to the right. Then, as Jackie touched down, he placed his glider upside down on the roof. A few seconds later, as my feet touched the roof, he cracked open a red safety cover and flicked the switch underneath. As Jackie and I quickly moved to the far side of the roof, hiding behind an air conditioner unit, Riggs tapped the glider activation switch three times rapidly, which turned on the thruster paddles, pushing the glider down against the roof.
The device set, Riggs rushed over to join us, carefully leaning over Jackie and me to protect us both. Before I could complain that he should be in better cover, the shaped charge I had rigged around the frame of the glider, extra special for this mission, detonated, sending dust and shards of concrete flying as the explosion rattled my teeth.
If anyone had somehow missed the shots Kaytlyn had taken, they had definitely heard that.
When the dust began to settle, I could see that the explosives had worked, punching a surprisingly clean hole down to the floor below. With our way down complete and any security or mounting forces now bypassed, all three of us rushed to the hole and jumped down.
Through the hole was a dust-choked hallway, the tattered remains of two people, and a whole lot of stunned Tyger Claws. Riggs, who was first through the hole, immediately opened fire with his pistols, taking two chunks out of a katana-wielding maniac before he could take a swing.
"Riggs, cover the stairs, Jay, the hall!" Jackie called out as he slammed his axe into the skull of a tattooed Claw as they came out of their rooms swinging.
I nodded and sprayed down the nearest Claw, forcing the rest to take cover as he dropped. I stopped at the intersection of three hallways and peeked out around the corner, barely pulling back in time for a man wielding an M2038 shotgun to blow a watermelon-sized hole in the corner I was hiding behind. I cursed as the pellets and chunks of material scattered off my armor. Rather than risking getting shot by that, I simply pushed my submachine gun around the corner and dumped half the mag. This time, when I peaked, the shotgun-toting man was on the ground.
"Get clear!"
Jackie shouted as he ran past me, pulling me around the corner of the hall I had just cleared. A moment later, his-shaped charged glider detonated, the explosion echoing down the hall. Both of us would have been deafened by the shockwave that kicked up dust all the way down to and past us, but both our helmets protected us from that. We finished off the rest of the claws who were struggling to keep up, before charging back around the corner.
We came around just in time to watch Riggs drop down into the newly made hole, both of us to follow him in without hesitation. As I landed and cleared the drop zone, I saw that Riggs had his mag cannon out, aiming down the hall at a seven-foot-tall chromed-out bastard. The borg was charging at us, shouting obscenities in Japanese as he did. His gorilla arms were bulky and looked powerful, while his legs were the kind of cyberware that looked industrial and brutal. Riggs obviously didn't care to fight him, instead firing a single shot from his mag cannon, driving a doub-fist-sized hole through his sternum, as well as blowing the arm off of a katana-wielding punk behind him.
Riggs fired a second shot, obliterating the borgs head and killing two more bastards behind him, before he quickly clipped his cannon to his back and drew his pistols.
While Jackie covered the stairs and Riggs covered the hall, it was my turn to place the shaped charge. I yanked my glider free from the magnets along the back of my armor, quickly putting it on the ground before carefully activating it.
"Stand clear!" I shouted, running to Jackie and pulling him down the stairs.
As we took cover from the explosion, I got a look at why we were bothering with them in the first place. As Katylyn and Riggs had predicted during our brainstorming session, the floors were separated by rather robust-looking security doors. We would have had to clear them floor by floor, breaking through each security door, which would have slowed us down considerably, giving more time for the Tyger claws to prepare. With the glider-directed breaching charges, we were able to make incredible time and disorient the Claws at each breaching point in one quick move.
We dropped down after Riggs again, who was now grappling with another borg, this one prepackaged model decorated by dragon paints and golden highlights. I didn't recognize the make or model, but if Jackie or I had gone first, they would have been standing in the hall waiting for us. Judging by how Riggs was struggling with him, neither of us would have faired very well, though Jackie did have his sandy.
Thankfully, we had seen that issue coming, and Riggs had gone first, meaning Jackie and I simply shot around him, taking down the borg's support team. They dropped easily, and while Jackie turned to cover the stairs, I watched as Riggs twisted the borgs arm around violently, the gangster's limb unable to keep up with strange angle, its elbow joint crumpling in a shower of white lubricated fluid.
With one arm now useless, Riggs manhandled the borg, slamming his now free hand into its chest, tearing out chunks of parts before he finally gripped something and yanked at it violently. The borg's head jerked back and down, pulling partially into its frame as Riggs yanked half of its reinforced, robotic spine out through a hole he punched in its stomach plates. He followed it up by tearing the borg's other hand free from its shoulder.
"Damn, Riggs," I said once the borg had fallen to the ground. "You got something against spines? Your damn near tore out that scavs too."
"Can't move if you can't communicate with your body," He responded with a shrug.
I snorted before quickly looking around. We had descended enough floors, now we just needed to find the right room. Riggs covered me as I oriented myself, finally finding the right place. I was just hooking myself into the door's controls, ready to use my own enhanced auto-hacker when the thick security door suddenly slid open.
A string of Japanese curses followed me as I dove backward, a muscular Tyger Claw already stepping out of the room. He was wearing pants and a black oni mask, a glowing red katana already swinging downward at me. Despite my surprisingly quick reaction time, he still managed to slash me twice, his body blurring as he activated some sort of speed-enhancing device, probably a Sandy.
Both of his strikes hit my chest, carving an X into the durable metal plating. Even with the multiple layers, I could feel the heat of the blade.
My attempt to dodge threw me across the hall, the far wall dented from the impact. I lowered my hand to grab my weapon, only for the Claw to blur again. I instinctively flinched, raising my arm to protect myself, only for another blur to blitz the Claw, Jackie's ax catching the glowing katana.
"Hey fucker, pick on someone your own speed," Jackie said, winding up and cracking the bigger man's jaw with his armored fist, both of them blurring as sparks and glowing trails flew.
As Jackie fought the fellow Sandy user, I was forced to take his place covering the stairs, spraying a pair of reinforcements before turning my head to look back at Riggs.
"Fuck safe, smash it, Riggs!"
The brutal AI nodded, quickly dispatching a pair of charging gangsters coming from down the hall. He turned to the door, which had closed after the katana-wielding man had crossed the threshold. Riggs ran around Jackie and his opponent, who blurred again, this time whipping around and coming back to normal speed. Jackie didn't fall for it, blurring for a moment before both of them stopped. The gangster's katana was hanging limply to the side, while Jackie's axe was buried in his opponent's neck, deep enough that it flopped at a weird angle from the force of impact.
Before the dead man could finish sliding off Jackie's weapon, Riggs slammed himself into the door, the thick, reinforced paneling buckling and bending under the impact. With a backward yank, Riggs pulled himself free and raised his leg, slamming one, two, three kicks into the door, each one cracking dust free from the building's concrete structure. Finally,l after the third kick, the door gave way, slamming inward and sending sparks everywhere.
Jackie blurred inside, sneaking through the doorway before the door even finished slamming open, leaving Riggs to step into the apartment second and me to slowly pick up the back end, charging in with my weapon raised, just in time to hose down a gangster with a tanto, trying to catch Jackie off guard from his blind spot.
Of course, before Jackie could even realize that I had saved him from being stabbed, returned the favor by shooting past me and taking down a shotgun-wielding punk coming from a room off the side.
"Where's Riggs?" I asked.
Before Jackie could respond, a crumpled mess of what used to be a chromed-out Tyger came flying from another side room, slamming into a window and shattering it, the corpse falling out of view. Riggs stepped out from that room, his chest marked with a few dents and a single line of scoring.
"Akiko is currently locked in the bathroom, alone," He explained. "Didn't want to hurt her trying to get her out."
"Riggs, Jay, hold the door," Jackie said. "Let's hope she recognizes my voice."
Riggs and I nodded, both of us turning to the door. Riggs actually made his way to it to peek outside. He quickly pulled back, reached down to his belt, and pulled out a quartet of grenades, quickly throwing two down each hall. The explosions kicked up dust as the pressure wave washed over us, but this time, when the AI brute looked, he nodded confidently.
"Clear for now," he said. "We-"
A groaning came from behind us, and I whirled, ready to put down any survivors. When no immediate target presented itself, I stepped further into the apartment. Five minutes ago, it would have been a pretty decent place, with more open space than most people in Night City got to enjoy. Now, it was a warzone, with half a dozen dead bodies and a consistent amount of blood and gore. There was also an older man, still alive, with a singular gut shot in his stomach. He was struggling to sit up, collapsed back on a half-broken coffee table. The moment he spotted me, he started choking out words, none of which I understood. Rather than listen to him, I pulled out my pistol, ready to finish him off.
"Wait!" A woman's voice called out. "Please don't."
I rolled my eyes, having foreseen this very problem when we first took the mission. I turned to see Jackie and our target, Carlos's wife, Akiko.
"That's my father," She said, stepping forward with a surprising amount of confidence.
"Right, well-"
Before I could finish, she reached over to Jackie and pulled one of his pistols from its holster. With a pretty fast draw, she put three rounds in the shocked-looking man, two in the chest and one in the head.
"Sorry, I just wanted to do it myself."
I looked at her for a moment while she passed Jackie his gun back, who accepted it back with an equally stunned look on his face. After a moment, the sound of Riggs firing his mag cannon, as well as the accompanying explosion of noise, kicked me into high gear.
"Great, fantastic, I assume Jackie explained the situation?" I asked, waiting for her to nod. "Wonderful, in that case…"
I made my way to Riggs, grabbing the wound and bound mass that was the emergency escape suit I had built, pulling it off his back. I unbuckled several straps, flicking the metal and cloth armor open before passing it to her.
"Put this on, it's one size fits all armor to keep you from getting hit by a stray," I explained, watching her look at it with a raised eyebrow. "Please? We are technically on a schedule here, so..."
She winced and started pulling on the armor, struggling a bit before I helped. When she was wearing the very baggy pile of metal and cloth, she gave me a look like I was an idiot. Rather than correct her, I tapped the controls along her back, and the suit tightened and sealed itself in seconds, pulling all of the bunched slack to her back. The last bit to tighten was the hood and mask, giving me a chance to adjust and fix it as it seated itself on her head.
It looked dumb as hell, but she was protected and wasn't going to get insta popped by gonk with bad aim.
"Alright, Jackie," I said, giving him a thumbs up. "We are ready to rock."
"Okay. I'll call her in."
Jackie pulled out his radio and started talking to it while I switched places with Riggs, covering the door. At this point, the hall was more broken than intact, with massive chunks of the building blown out by Riggs' mag cannon. I turned to watch as Riggs unloaded his weapon, dropping the cylinder magazine, and pulled another from his back, slapping it home in one fluid movement. He quickly kicked the balcony door open, raising his weapon and looking down to the grounds of the compound. I could see him through the door as he opened fire, raining down lethal power from on high like a fucking meteor.
"Okay, She is on her way, one minute!" Jackie said, looking out of the balcony and guiding Akiko to the open space. "How we looking, Riggs?"
"... clear enough." He said, after firing two more rounds.
I reached down to my belt and grabbed a pair of grenades, throwing them down the hall, just as Riggs had done before, mostly to discourage people from rushing in the next fifteen seconds, before turning and jogging to the balcony, the explosions rocking the building as the grenades went off.
"Jackie, how are we getting down?" Akiko asked. "You got a rope or-"
Riggs reached around the small woman, firmly grasping a reinforced loop especially built into the armor. Then, while holding her up and out, he rolled over the railing, grabbing the edge with his free hand. While Akiko screamed, Riggs dropped, falling two floors before he snagged another balcony edge, stopping just enough to absorb the sudden deceleration before repeating the pattern. Jackie and I watched them both descend, leaning over the railing.
"You sure the jump kits can handle this height?" Jackie asked calmly.
"Of course I am," I answered. "I just wasn't sure one could handle Riggs and a passenger."
"Fair."
I laughed before jumping up and over the railing, letting out a whoop as I fell. I could hear Jackie doing the same, right behind me, angling slightly so we wouldn't hit each other. Our jump kits activated just as Riggs reached the ground, Princess carrying Akiko through the corpse and rubble-covered compound front entrance. As the G-forces made me sag, I idly noted I could see where each one of Riggs's mag cannon shots had impacted, destroying the front gate, four guards, and three cars.
My feet touched the broken and cracked asphalt a moment before Jackies did, so I pushed forward, rushing past Riggs as he made his way through the front gate, still holding Akiko. Our rescue target had sagged, hanging limply enough that I was pretty sure she passed out. Before I could even worry that maybe something worse had happened, she began to stir, jerking back to consciousness and wildly looking around, breathing heavily and panicking.
"What? How? Wh…."
"It's alright Akiko, hard parts over," I called out as I covered the streets, spotting Kaytlyn driving the Emperor. "Just keep it together for another five minutes."
Kaytlyn screeched to a stop in front of the compound, reaching over to throw the doors open. Jackie ran past and climbed into the front seat, while Riggs popped the back seat open and practical threw Akiko inside. I jumped up and over the Emperor, climbing into the opposite back seat. As I climbed in, I could feel the whole vehicle sink slightly, and I looked back to watch Riggs climb into the truck bed.
"Alright, Chica, go!" Jackie shouted, and Kaytlyn put her foot down, the large, imposing vehicle lurching forward.
Akiko, still recovering from our hasty escape method, was clawing her way into a proper sitting position. At the same time, Kaytlyn pushed our behemoth of a truck to its limits, flying down road after road. After Akiko slammed into the side of the truck because Kaytlyn clipped a smaller car on a turn, I spoke up.
"Let's get you buckled in, Akiko," I suggested. "We are at the home stretch. It would suck for you to get ejected from the car or something stupid like that."
She nodded and, with my help, got strapped in. Her movements were slightly more restricted by my suit than I intended or realized they would be, but that hardly mattered once she was securely buckled. Just after I finished clipping her in, something slammed into us from the side.
"Fuck! Tygers from your side, Jay!" Kaytlyn shouted, prompting me to look out my window.
Sure enough, a van with damage along its front bumper, probably matching damage to our side, was following along beside us. Just as I spotted it, the side door began to open. With a curse, I smashed the window and opened fire, my mag submachine gun pumping out a spray of rounds that dimpled and punched through the van, from the passenger seat all the way to the back tire, which exploded into a spray of rubber and sparks.
The Tyger vehicle swerved away from us, the driver screaming as he lost control, blood pouring from his leg as the man opening the back side door fell out of the vehicle, limp and bleeding. Before he could recover, the vehicle slammed into a line of parked cars, vanishing behind us in an instant.
"Not done yet! One from-"
The sound of Riggs' mag cannon slammed into us, echoing in my ears. Behind us, I could hear the sound of destruction, tempting to me to peek out the window. Behind us was a car with its front end crumpled, like it had struck an invisible, unmovable pole, with a fist-sized hole through the radiator.
"-behind. Never mind, nice shooting," Kaytlyn finished with a chuckle. "Keep your eyes open, we have two minutes before we are out of Tyger territory."
Three more times, we were ambushed, two of which were immediately obliterated by Riggs, while the third was taken down by Jackie, who used a short burst of accelerated speed to line up the perfect shot on the driver of an open-roofed car. The driver's head exploded, the vehicle swerved and drove right off the road, slamming into a concrete pillar that held up the road above us.
The rest of the ride was tense, but eventually, we left Night City behind, passing under the highway street lamps. Eventually, we turned off that road to the lone, two-lane asphalt strip that led to Rocky Ridge. By then, the tension had started to lessen, though it was nowhere close to disappearing. When we finally pulled into our town, all of us quickly exited the vehicle, Riggs jumping out of the back.
"Murtaugh, everything alright?" I asked, pulling off my helmet and letting out a long sigh of relief.
"All is well, sir," He responded with a salute. "All patrols have been increased, we have held back salvage trucks for the night, and all specters are charged and activated, ready to reinforce the patrols if necessary."
"Good. I'm sorry to do this, but I would feel better if you were keeping an eye on the security feeds…"
"Of course, I was simply waiting for the group to return."
"Thank you, Murtaugh. I appreciate all the hard work you've been putting in," I said, patting his shoulder.
"Happy to serve, sir," He responded with a nod. "Carlos is waiting for you in the BD Shack."
He saluted again before rushing to our temporary security building, heading inside to keep an eye out for intruders or aggressors. Meanwhile, I turned to find that Jackie was helping Akiko out of her protective armor. As she stepped out of the cloth and metal, I approached.
"Well, it seems we made it out, why don't we get you inside," I said, guiding her away towards the front entrance to the shack.
"We should keep moving," She pointed out with a frown. "The longer we stay here the more likely we are going to get caught."
"This place is much better defended than you realize," I assured her. "Just relax and let us take care of it."
She chewed her lip but nodded, letting me guide her into the shack. Carlos nearly jumped out of his seat as we entered, charging across the room to wrap his wife in a tight, spinning hug. They kissed and whispered to each other, continuously reassuring each other that they were okay, that everything was alright, and that it was finally over.
After a few minutes, when both husband and wife had calmed down, they sat down at the table, along with Jackie and Myself. Kaytlyn had happily returned to her nest, keeping her own watch over the desert around us.
"Thank you, thank you so much," Carlos said, almost gushing, the relief and happiness dripping from every word. "I, oh god, I was so scared I would never see you again."
He turned back to his wife, who was leaning against him, her arms around his, her head on his shoulder. He seemed to get lost for a moment, eventually turning back to Jackie, his eyes glowing.
"Here is the full payment, as promised," He said, his eyes glowing for a few seconds before fading. "I… I don't think I could ever really repay you, but this is the best I can do."
"I'm just glad we can help," Jackie said with a smile, patting his old friend's shoulder. "You guys going to be good?"
"Your offer to stay the night was generous, but our daughter has been with our neighbor for long enough," Carlos explained, shaking his head. "I bought a junker that should get us home, and I'll be autopiloting most of the way so we can rest."
I frowned, listening to their plan. I pulled out my radio and whispered a few orders. After that, we only had to wait a few minutes before a MRVN unit carrying a box arrived. The low-level AI put the plastic box on the table, and I began unpacking it, revealing two pistols and a machine gun to the couple, as well as a few clips of ammo. They were just a few random guns we had collected and kept, inferior in nearly every way to what I could make, but perfect for handing out.
"Take these for your trip back, so you can defend yourself," I said, Carlos nodding while Akiko expertly picked up one of the Lexington and checked its slide. "And… Let Jackie know when you've gotten home safe."
We talked a bit more, including a rather unhappy conversation about how we had descended the compound, which Akiko had momentarily forgotten after seeing her husband. I assured her it was the quickest and safest way we could get her away without having to fight through hundreds of converging Tyger Claws. She reluctantly agreed and asked us to thank Riggs and Kaytlyn for their help.
After sending Padre confirmation that the gig was closed, Akiko and Carlos quickly packed up and climbed into the beat-up car that Carlos had bought. We gave them some water and some basic food, and the couple left, bound for their own home, eager to see their daughter.
"I hope they make it," I said with a frown, watching them drive off. "The whole family."
"I do too, Choom," Jackie agreed. "I do, too."
When the car disappeared from sight, we both headed off for bed, tired from a day of work. I managed to make it all the way to my trailer, climbing into bed. For a moment, I lay there, whistling for Duke to come join me. He quickly jumped up onto the bed, laying down beside me, letting me pet his head.
Watching the married couple's reunion had been tough, reminding me of my own family, though admittedly only by approximation. I hadn't left behind a girlfriend, wife, or, thank god, any children. Still, thoughts of my old life danced in my head as I lay there, waiting for sleep to take me.
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We took turns keeping watch, which was little more than peeking over the side of the building to make sure that the Tyger Claws were not suddenly freaking out over anything. Eventually, after another two hours, the sky was as dark as it was going to get, which meant it was time for us to move.
Riggs, Jackie, and I all lined up, our gliders in hand, standing at the far back of our temporary waiting space on the roof. Kaytlyn got herself situated, raising her sniper rifle up over the side of the building. For a long moment, she was silent, adjusting her position slightly. Finally, after nearly two minutes of her just looking through the scope, she finally spoke a single, simple word.
"Go."
Riggs was first to move, followed by Jackie and then myself, each of us pausing long enough to give the first person time to boost off the edge of the roof toward our target. By the time Jackie's feet left the roof, Riggs had activated his glider, the same for Jackie and myself. Just after the sound of my glider turning on filled my ears, the crackling thrumming sound that meant the XCOM tech was working at full power, the rapid snapping of Kaytlyn's weapon echoed across the street.
Ahead of us, on the roof of the target building, we watched as, one by one, Kaytlyn punched holes in the gang members who were keeping watch. The last one had just enough time to turn and raise his weapon before his head exploded.
Seconds later, Riggs touched down on the roof, quickly walking further along to give Jackie and me more room. Without breaking stride, he walked forward ten feet and then fifteen to the right. Then, as Jackie touched down, he placed his glider upside down on the roof. A few seconds later, as my feet touched the roof, he cracked open a red safety cover and flicked the switch underneath. As Jackie and I quickly moved to the far side of the roof, hiding behind an air conditioner unit, Riggs tapped the glider activation switch three times rapidly, which turned on the thruster paddles, pushing the glider down against the roof.
The device set, Riggs rushed over to join us, carefully leaning over Jackie and me to protect us both. Before I could complain that he should be in better cover, the shaped charge I had rigged around the frame of the glider, extra special for this mission, detonated, sending dust and shards of concrete flying as the explosion rattled my teeth.
If anyone had somehow missed the shots Kaytlyn had taken, they had definitely heard that.
When the dust began to settle, I could see that the explosives had worked, punching a surprisingly clean hole down to the floor below. With our way down complete and any security or mounting forces now bypassed, all three of us rushed to the hole and jumped down.
Through the hole was a dust-choked hallway, the tattered remains of two people, and a whole lot of stunned Tyger Claws. Riggs, who was first through the hole, immediately opened fire with his pistols, taking two chunks out of a katana-wielding maniac before he could take a swing.
"Riggs, cover the stairs, Jay, the hall!" Jackie called out as he slammed his axe into the skull of a tattooed Claw as they came out of their rooms swinging.
I nodded and sprayed down the nearest Claw, forcing the rest to take cover as he dropped. I stopped at the intersection of three hallways and peeked out around the corner, barely pulling back in time for a man wielding an M2038 shotgun to blow a watermelon-sized hole in the corner I was hiding behind. I cursed as the pellets and chunks of material scattered off my armor. Rather than risking getting shot by that, I simply pushed my submachine gun around the corner and dumped half the mag. This time, when I peaked, the shotgun-toting man was on the ground.
"Get clear!"
Jackie shouted as he ran past me, pulling me around the corner of the hall I had just cleared. A moment later, his-shaped charged glider detonated, the explosion echoing down the hall. Both of us would have been deafened by the shockwave that kicked up dust all the way down to and past us, but both our helmets protected us from that. We finished off the rest of the claws who were struggling to keep up, before charging back around the corner.
We came around just in time to watch Riggs drop down into the newly made hole, both of us to follow him in without hesitation. As I landed and cleared the drop zone, I saw that Riggs had his mag cannon out, aiming down the hall at a seven-foot-tall chromed-out bastard. The borg was charging at us, shouting obscenities in Japanese as he did. His gorilla arms were bulky and looked powerful, while his legs were the kind of cyberware that looked industrial and brutal. Riggs obviously didn't care to fight him, instead firing a single shot from his mag cannon, driving a doub-fist-sized hole through his sternum, as well as blowing the arm off of a katana-wielding punk behind him.
Riggs fired a second shot, obliterating the borgs head and killing two more bastards behind him, before he quickly clipped his cannon to his back and drew his pistols.
While Jackie covered the stairs and Riggs covered the hall, it was my turn to place the shaped charge. I yanked my glider free from the magnets along the back of my armor, quickly putting it on the ground before carefully activating it.
"Stand clear!" I shouted, running to Jackie and pulling him down the stairs.
As we took cover from the explosion, I got a look at why we were bothering with them in the first place. As Katylyn and Riggs had predicted during our brainstorming session, the floors were separated by rather robust-looking security doors. We would have had to clear them floor by floor, breaking through each security door, which would have slowed us down considerably, giving more time for the Tyger claws to prepare. With the glider-directed breaching charges, we were able to make incredible time and disorient the Claws at each breaching point in one quick move.
We dropped down after Riggs again, who was now grappling with another borg, this one prepackaged model decorated by dragon paints and golden highlights. I didn't recognize the make or model, but if Jackie or I had gone first, they would have been standing in the hall waiting for us. Judging by how Riggs was struggling with him, neither of us would have faired very well, though Jackie did have his sandy.
Thankfully, we had seen that issue coming, and Riggs had gone first, meaning Jackie and I simply shot around him, taking down the borg's support team. They dropped easily, and while Jackie turned to cover the stairs, I watched as Riggs twisted the borgs arm around violently, the gangster's limb unable to keep up with strange angle, its elbow joint crumpling in a shower of white lubricated fluid.
With one arm now useless, Riggs manhandled the borg, slamming his now free hand into its chest, tearing out chunks of parts before he finally gripped something and yanked at it violently. The borg's head jerked back and down, pulling partially into its frame as Riggs yanked half of its reinforced, robotic spine out through a hole he punched in its stomach plates. He followed it up by tearing the borg's other hand free from its shoulder.
"Damn, Riggs," I said once the borg had fallen to the ground. "You got something against spines? Your damn near tore out that scavs too."
"Can't move if you can't communicate with your body," He responded with a shrug.
I snorted before quickly looking around. We had descended enough floors, now we just needed to find the right room. Riggs covered me as I oriented myself, finally finding the right place. I was just hooking myself into the door's controls, ready to use my own enhanced auto-hacker when the thick security door suddenly slid open.
A string of Japanese curses followed me as I dove backward, a muscular Tyger Claw already stepping out of the room. He was wearing pants and a black oni mask, a glowing red katana already swinging downward at me. Despite my surprisingly quick reaction time, he still managed to slash me twice, his body blurring as he activated some sort of speed-enhancing device, probably a Sandy.
Both of his strikes hit my chest, carving an X into the durable metal plating. Even with the multiple layers, I could feel the heat of the blade.
My attempt to dodge threw me across the hall, the far wall dented from the impact. I lowered my hand to grab my weapon, only for the Claw to blur again. I instinctively flinched, raising my arm to protect myself, only for another blur to blitz the Claw, Jackie's ax catching the glowing katana.
"Hey fucker, pick on someone your own speed," Jackie said, winding up and cracking the bigger man's jaw with his armored fist, both of them blurring as sparks and glowing trails flew.
As Jackie fought the fellow Sandy user, I was forced to take his place covering the stairs, spraying a pair of reinforcements before turning my head to look back at Riggs.
"Fuck safe, smash it, Riggs!"
The brutal AI nodded, quickly dispatching a pair of charging gangsters coming from down the hall. He turned to the door, which had closed after the katana-wielding man had crossed the threshold. Riggs ran around Jackie and his opponent, who blurred again, this time whipping around and coming back to normal speed. Jackie didn't fall for it, blurring for a moment before both of them stopped. The gangster's katana was hanging limply to the side, while Jackie's axe was buried in his opponent's neck, deep enough that it flopped at a weird angle from the force of impact.
Before the dead man could finish sliding off Jackie's weapon, Riggs slammed himself into the door, the thick, reinforced paneling buckling and bending under the impact. With a backward yank, Riggs pulled himself free and raised his leg, slamming one, two, three kicks into the door, each one cracking dust free from the building's concrete structure. Finally,l after the third kick, the door gave way, slamming inward and sending sparks everywhere.
Jackie blurred inside, sneaking through the doorway before the door even finished slamming open, leaving Riggs to step into the apartment second and me to slowly pick up the back end, charging in with my weapon raised, just in time to hose down a gangster with a tanto, trying to catch Jackie off guard from his blind spot.
Of course, before Jackie could even realize that I had saved him from being stabbed, returned the favor by shooting past me and taking down a shotgun-wielding punk coming from a room off the side.
"Where's Riggs?" I asked.
Before Jackie could respond, a crumpled mess of what used to be a chromed-out Tyger came flying from another side room, slamming into a window and shattering it, the corpse falling out of view. Riggs stepped out from that room, his chest marked with a few dents and a single line of scoring.
"Akiko is currently locked in the bathroom, alone," He explained. "Didn't want to hurt her trying to get her out."
"Riggs, Jay, hold the door," Jackie said. "Let's hope she recognizes my voice."
Riggs and I nodded, both of us turning to the door. Riggs actually made his way to it to peek outside. He quickly pulled back, reached down to his belt, and pulled out a quartet of grenades, quickly throwing two down each hall. The explosions kicked up dust as the pressure wave washed over us, but this time, when the AI brute looked, he nodded confidently.
"Clear for now," he said. "We-"
A groaning came from behind us, and I whirled, ready to put down any survivors. When no immediate target presented itself, I stepped further into the apartment. Five minutes ago, it would have been a pretty decent place, with more open space than most people in Night City got to enjoy. Now, it was a warzone, with half a dozen dead bodies and a consistent amount of blood and gore. There was also an older man, still alive, with a singular gut shot in his stomach. He was struggling to sit up, collapsed back on a half-broken coffee table. The moment he spotted me, he started choking out words, none of which I understood. Rather than listen to him, I pulled out my pistol, ready to finish him off.
"Wait!" A woman's voice called out. "Please don't."
I rolled my eyes, having foreseen this very problem when we first took the mission. I turned to see Jackie and our target, Carlos's wife, Akiko.
"That's my father," She said, stepping forward with a surprising amount of confidence.
"Right, well-"
Before I could finish, she reached over to Jackie and pulled one of his pistols from its holster. With a pretty fast draw, she put three rounds in the shocked-looking man, two in the chest and one in the head.
"Sorry, I just wanted to do it myself."
I looked at her for a moment while she passed Jackie his gun back, who accepted it back with an equally stunned look on his face. After a moment, the sound of Riggs firing his mag cannon, as well as the accompanying explosion of noise, kicked me into high gear.
"Great, fantastic, I assume Jackie explained the situation?" I asked, waiting for her to nod. "Wonderful, in that case…"
I made my way to Riggs, grabbing the wound and bound mass that was the emergency escape suit I had built, pulling it off his back. I unbuckled several straps, flicking the metal and cloth armor open before passing it to her.
"Put this on, it's one size fits all armor to keep you from getting hit by a stray," I explained, watching her look at it with a raised eyebrow. "Please? We are technically on a schedule here, so..."
She winced and started pulling on the armor, struggling a bit before I helped. When she was wearing the very baggy pile of metal and cloth, she gave me a look like I was an idiot. Rather than correct her, I tapped the controls along her back, and the suit tightened and sealed itself in seconds, pulling all of the bunched slack to her back. The last bit to tighten was the hood and mask, giving me a chance to adjust and fix it as it seated itself on her head.
It looked dumb as hell, but she was protected and wasn't going to get insta popped by gonk with bad aim.
"Alright, Jackie," I said, giving him a thumbs up. "We are ready to rock."
"Okay. I'll call her in."
Jackie pulled out his radio and started talking to it while I switched places with Riggs, covering the door. At this point, the hall was more broken than intact, with massive chunks of the building blown out by Riggs' mag cannon. I turned to watch as Riggs unloaded his weapon, dropping the cylinder magazine, and pulled another from his back, slapping it home in one fluid movement. He quickly kicked the balcony door open, raising his weapon and looking down to the grounds of the compound. I could see him through the door as he opened fire, raining down lethal power from on high like a fucking meteor.
"Okay, She is on her way, one minute!" Jackie said, looking out of the balcony and guiding Akiko to the open space. "How we looking, Riggs?"
"... clear enough." He said, after firing two more rounds.
I reached down to my belt and grabbed a pair of grenades, throwing them down the hall, just as Riggs had done before, mostly to discourage people from rushing in the next fifteen seconds, before turning and jogging to the balcony, the explosions rocking the building as the grenades went off.
"Jackie, how are we getting down?" Akiko asked. "You got a rope or-"
Riggs reached around the small woman, firmly grasping a reinforced loop especially built into the armor. Then, while holding her up and out, he rolled over the railing, grabbing the edge with his free hand. While Akiko screamed, Riggs dropped, falling two floors before he snagged another balcony edge, stopping just enough to absorb the sudden deceleration before repeating the pattern. Jackie and I watched them both descend, leaning over the railing.
"You sure the jump kits can handle this height?" Jackie asked calmly.
"Of course I am," I answered. "I just wasn't sure one could handle Riggs and a passenger."
"Fair."
I laughed before jumping up and over the railing, letting out a whoop as I fell. I could hear Jackie doing the same, right behind me, angling slightly so we wouldn't hit each other. Our jump kits activated just as Riggs reached the ground, Princess carrying Akiko through the corpse and rubble-covered compound front entrance. As the G-forces made me sag, I idly noted I could see where each one of Riggs's mag cannon shots had impacted, destroying the front gate, four guards, and three cars.
My feet touched the broken and cracked asphalt a moment before Jackies did, so I pushed forward, rushing past Riggs as he made his way through the front gate, still holding Akiko. Our rescue target had sagged, hanging limply enough that I was pretty sure she passed out. Before I could even worry that maybe something worse had happened, she began to stir, jerking back to consciousness and wildly looking around, breathing heavily and panicking.
"What? How? Wh…."
"It's alright Akiko, hard parts over," I called out as I covered the streets, spotting Kaytlyn driving the Emperor. "Just keep it together for another five minutes."
Kaytlyn screeched to a stop in front of the compound, reaching over to throw the doors open. Jackie ran past and climbed into the front seat, while Riggs popped the back seat open and practical threw Akiko inside. I jumped up and over the Emperor, climbing into the opposite back seat. As I climbed in, I could feel the whole vehicle sink slightly, and I looked back to watch Riggs climb into the truck bed.
"Alright, Chica, go!" Jackie shouted, and Kaytlyn put her foot down, the large, imposing vehicle lurching forward.
Akiko, still recovering from our hasty escape method, was clawing her way into a proper sitting position. At the same time, Kaytlyn pushed our behemoth of a truck to its limits, flying down road after road. After Akiko slammed into the side of the truck because Kaytlyn clipped a smaller car on a turn, I spoke up.
"Let's get you buckled in, Akiko," I suggested. "We are at the home stretch. It would suck for you to get ejected from the car or something stupid like that."
She nodded and, with my help, got strapped in. Her movements were slightly more restricted by my suit than I intended or realized they would be, but that hardly mattered once she was securely buckled. Just after I finished clipping her in, something slammed into us from the side.
"Fuck! Tygers from your side, Jay!" Kaytlyn shouted, prompting me to look out my window.
Sure enough, a van with damage along its front bumper, probably matching damage to our side, was following along beside us. Just as I spotted it, the side door began to open. With a curse, I smashed the window and opened fire, my mag submachine gun pumping out a spray of rounds that dimpled and punched through the van, from the passenger seat all the way to the back tire, which exploded into a spray of rubber and sparks.
The Tyger vehicle swerved away from us, the driver screaming as he lost control, blood pouring from his leg as the man opening the back side door fell out of the vehicle, limp and bleeding. Before he could recover, the vehicle slammed into a line of parked cars, vanishing behind us in an instant.
"Not done yet! One from-"
The sound of Riggs' mag cannon slammed into us, echoing in my ears. Behind us, I could hear the sound of destruction, tempting to me to peek out the window. Behind us was a car with its front end crumpled, like it had struck an invisible, unmovable pole, with a fist-sized hole through the radiator.
"-behind. Never mind, nice shooting," Kaytlyn finished with a chuckle. "Keep your eyes open, we have two minutes before we are out of Tyger territory."
Three more times, we were ambushed, two of which were immediately obliterated by Riggs, while the third was taken down by Jackie, who used a short burst of accelerated speed to line up the perfect shot on the driver of an open-roofed car. The driver's head exploded, the vehicle swerved and drove right off the road, slamming into a concrete pillar that held up the road above us.
The rest of the ride was tense, but eventually, we left Night City behind, passing under the highway street lamps. Eventually, we turned off that road to the lone, two-lane asphalt strip that led to Rocky Ridge. By then, the tension had started to lessen, though it was nowhere close to disappearing. When we finally pulled into our town, all of us quickly exited the vehicle, Riggs jumping out of the back.
"Murtaugh, everything alright?" I asked, pulling off my helmet and letting out a long sigh of relief.
"All is well, sir," He responded with a salute. "All patrols have been increased, we have held back salvage trucks for the night, and all specters are charged and activated, ready to reinforce the patrols if necessary."
"Good. I'm sorry to do this, but I would feel better if you were keeping an eye on the security feeds…"
"Of course, I was simply waiting for the group to return."
"Thank you, Murtaugh. I appreciate all the hard work you've been putting in," I said, patting his shoulder.
"Happy to serve, sir," He responded with a nod. "Carlos is waiting for you in the BD Shack."
He saluted again before rushing to our temporary security building, heading inside to keep an eye out for intruders or aggressors. Meanwhile, I turned to find that Jackie was helping Akiko out of her protective armor. As she stepped out of the cloth and metal, I approached.
"Well, it seems we made it out, why don't we get you inside," I said, guiding her away towards the front entrance to the shack.
"We should keep moving," She pointed out with a frown. "The longer we stay here the more likely we are going to get caught."
"This place is much better defended than you realize," I assured her. "Just relax and let us take care of it."
She chewed her lip but nodded, letting me guide her into the shack. Carlos nearly jumped out of his seat as we entered, charging across the room to wrap his wife in a tight, spinning hug. They kissed and whispered to each other, continuously reassuring each other that they were okay, that everything was alright, and that it was finally over.
After a few minutes, when both husband and wife had calmed down, they sat down at the table, along with Jackie and Myself. Kaytlyn had happily returned to her nest, keeping her own watch over the desert around us.
"Thank you, thank you so much," Carlos said, almost gushing, the relief and happiness dripping from every word. "I, oh god, I was so scared I would never see you again."
He turned back to his wife, who was leaning against him, her arms around his, her head on his shoulder. He seemed to get lost for a moment, eventually turning back to Jackie, his eyes glowing.
"Here is the full payment, as promised," He said, his eyes glowing for a few seconds before fading. "I… I don't think I could ever really repay you, but this is the best I can do."
"I'm just glad we can help," Jackie said with a smile, patting his old friend's shoulder. "You guys going to be good?"
"Your offer to stay the night was generous, but our daughter has been with our neighbor for long enough," Carlos explained, shaking his head. "I bought a junker that should get us home, and I'll be autopiloting most of the way so we can rest."
I frowned, listening to their plan. I pulled out my radio and whispered a few orders. After that, we only had to wait a few minutes before a MRVN unit carrying a box arrived. The low-level AI put the plastic box on the table, and I began unpacking it, revealing two pistols and a machine gun to the couple, as well as a few clips of ammo. They were just a few random guns we had collected and kept, inferior in nearly every way to what I could make, but perfect for handing out.
"Take these for your trip back, so you can defend yourself," I said, Carlos nodding while Akiko expertly picked up one of the Lexington and checked its slide. "And… Let Jackie know when you've gotten home safe."
We talked a bit more, including a rather unhappy conversation about how we had descended the compound, which Akiko had momentarily forgotten after seeing her husband. I assured her it was the quickest and safest way we could get her away without having to fight through hundreds of converging Tyger Claws. She reluctantly agreed and asked us to thank Riggs and Kaytlyn for their help.
After sending Padre confirmation that the gig was closed, Akiko and Carlos quickly packed up and climbed into the beat-up car that Carlos had bought. We gave them some water and some basic food, and the couple left, bound for their own home, eager to see their daughter.
"I hope they make it," I said with a frown, watching them drive off. "The whole family."
"I do too, Choom," Jackie agreed. "I do, too."
When the car disappeared from sight, we both headed off for bed, tired from a day of work. I managed to make it all the way to my trailer, climbing into bed. For a moment, I lay there, whistling for Duke to come join me. He quickly jumped up onto the bed, laying down beside me, letting me pet his head.
Watching the married couple's reunion had been tough, reminding me of my own family, though admittedly only by approximation. I hadn't left behind a girlfriend, wife, or, thank god, any children. Still, thoughts of my old life danced in my head as I lay there, waiting for sleep to take me.
Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
Someone's gonna wonder what the fuck just happened lol, after all that job would have cost hundred thousand eddies minimum probably so people are gonna be wondering just what asset the typers had that required a fucking spec ops team with cutting edge gear to bust in to nab. Obviously the runaway daughter answer is a smokescreen for who they were really hiding lol, unless she was planning on turning over massive corpo secrets or flip to a rival gang and expose some major tyger operation or some such. Can't wait to see the fallout, especially as word gets around that this wasn't some corpo hit squad but a brand new edge runner group
Chapter Thirty Six
New
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Waking up to the sound of my radio calling out to me and Duke barking loudly was not what I would call a good way to start the day. Up until that point, I had been sleeping pretty well, a combination of completing a hard day's work and the knowledge that we had helped someone in need. Of course, we had killed a lot of people to do it, so my immediate assumption, as gunfire erupted not too far away, was that the Tyger Claws had come for us.
"Jackson! Come in, Jackson!" Murtaugh's voice said, calling from my radio. "We have incoming! Sending more specters to reinforce and bring you back to the garage!"
I rolled out of bed and quickly started putting on my equipment. Luckily, with how tired I was after our rescue gig, I hadn't even bothered to go back to the garage to take off my undersuit and armor, instead just kicking in a pile by my bed. As I was pulling up my suit, I snagged the radio and shouted into it.
"I copy Murtaugh, but I have my armor and suit with me," I said into the radio. "Repeat, I am a combatant, not a VIP. Put the specters to better use!"
After that, I got dressed as quickly as I could, though it was hard considering my armor and undersuit was just tossed to the corner of my room. I cursed as the sound of running motors got closer and closer. When I was finally ready, I kicked open the door and let Duke out ahead of me, several bullets skipping off his armor plating as he ran.
"Get 'em, boy!" I shouted, watching the robot charge off to the left.
With a general location in my mind, I dived out the door, my pistol up and ready. As I moved, I looked around, first spotting a trio of specters ruined by gunfire. I kept scanning as I ran, expecting to see Tyger Claws coming to get their girl back or just to get revenge. What I saw instead were several vehicles, all nomadic versions, painted black with blood red and electric blue highlights.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I shouted, diving into cover as one of the vehicles swung around, unleashing another barrage of bullets. "Wraiths? Now?"
I slid into cover behind a concrete barrier, bullets pinging off the thick material, bullets streaming from their vehicles, showering me in dust and shards of stone. After a few seconds, the gunfire stopped, and I could hear people moving around, quickly climbing from their cars. I peeked my head up, quickly spotting people disembarking from two cars and a truck, armed with a range of weapons. Three of them were focused on Duke, who had been chasing the vehicles as they tried to shoot me. They opened fire almost immediately, catching the attention of everyone else.
Seeing the opening, I stood, targeting the closest Wraith and opening up, quickly taking down two of them before all of their attention shifted back to me. I dropped back behind cover, only to hear someone call out about a grenade.
I peeked out around my cover just in time to see one of the Wraiths, a woman with a black metal arm, overhand a blinking, cooked grenade in my direction. I could see the slowly blinking light as it soared through the air. Before I could even think about what I could do, a blur intercepted the grenade, slapping it back toward the Wraiths before diving behind cover with me. Jackie ducked low, having a bit of a more challenging time hiding behind the concrete barrier due to his larger size.
"Thanks for the hand," I said, slapping Jackie's shoulder. "Took you long enough to wake up."
"What can I say? I'm a heavy-"
The grenade he had swatted away detonated, and a breath later, we both popped up over cover, firing as fast as we could manage, driving the remaining Wraiths near us to the ground. The only ones we didn't kill were the ones Duke took down by himself, jumping over the back end of a truck as we opened fire. His armor was dinged up, and one of his eyes was a broken mess, but he still tore the neck out of one Wraith, before tearing at another one's leg, both of them bleeding out in seconds.
"Heavy sleeper," He finished with a smirk. "You good?"
"Never better," I responded, whistling once. Duke perked his head up immediately, rushing back to my side, blood on his face. I pulled out my radio and clicked it on again.
"Murtaugh, Jackie, and I cleared a batch of Wraiths on our side. Are there any more coming in on yours?" I asked, ignoring Jackie as he double-tapped the nomad gang.
"Several Wraiths are taking cover in the northeast part of the town. They have a mounted technical and have already destroyed most of our specters," Murtaugh answered. "I have disabled the primary vehicle, but they are out of our view."
"Okay, moving forward to handle it," I said, nodding to Jackie, who was pulling grenades off of the Wraiths we killed. "Where are Kaytlyn and Riggs?"
"I'm at the BD shack, keeping the fuckers from running," Kaytlyn said with a surprising amount of vehemence. "They caught my leg, so I can't help. Riggs… Riggs carried me to cover. He is down."
I cursed, looking at Jackie, who froze. Unless Riggs got hit directly in his head by something armor-piercing and big, then it was unlikely his AI core was destroyed, meaning I could probably fix him. But Kaytlyn had no idea he was an AI, so if he shut down from damage, she must have assumed he was dead.
"Copy that, cover us as best you can, and stay safe," I responded. "Murtaugh, how many specters do we have left?"
"Eight."
"Alright, keep them up tight to protect everyone," I ordered. "We can handle these guys."
"Sir, May I suggest a distraction?" Murtaugh countered. "I can send a pair of specters out in two minutes, right down the front. It should give you a moment to work unhindered."
"Good call," I responded. "We will go on your signal."
The AI strategist confirmed my message, and Jackie handed me a pair of grenades, which I then pushed into my utility belt. Together, we immediately started pushing northeast, taking cover behind trailers, dumpsters, vending machines, and anything else along the.
"Is Riggs…"
"I don't know," I responded, shaking my head. "It depends on where and what hit him."
After that, we both went silent, focused on making sure none of the Wraiths got away with attacking us. As we moved, occasionally, the sound of gunfire echoed from in front of us, usually followed by the sound of Kaytlyn's sniper rifle immediately firing from around the BD shack area. Finally, Jackie peaked around a corner and immediately pulled back.
"Found them," He said quietly. "Three houses down this road."
"Good," I said. "We have like thirty seconds left, let's get as close as possible."
He nodded, taking the lead as we moved across the back of the trailers, now moving even slower than before. We jumped two fences, easily clearing them with our enhancements suits, getting into position with seconds to spare. Only a hundred or so feet away, I could see the trailing remains of several specters, most of them obliterated by a heavy weapon of some sort, leading back down the road and out of view behind trailers. We could also hear the Wraiths, who were all suitably panicked about being pinned down and unable to run.
Just as a few of them started talking about abandoning their cars and running on foot, I could hear specters running down the road. They were dodging and weaving, running in zig zags while firing at the exposed vehicles wildly. The first one barely lasted long enough to see the technical, which was just a truck with a stationary HMG in the back, before being obliterated. Immediately, Jackie and I rushed around the corner.
While I brought my pistol up and fired, aiming for the most dangerous person, the Wraith standing behind the HMG, Jackie blurred and sped forward, zipping to a position with a better angle. I got three shots on the technical gunner before Jackie opened up with his pistols, firing at the surprised gangers.
With a whistle, as I lined up my next target, I sent Duke out, who charged the nearest psycho at a terrifying speed. Intellectually, I knew that he was capable of moving with some impressive acceleration and quickness, but watching him tear furrows out of the asphalt as he moved was something else entirely. As I pulled the trigger, my undersuit handling the recoil as I triple-tapped another Wraith, Duke slammed into his target, knocking him off his feet.
We finished the group off quickly, the only issue rising when the last one panicked and ran, dropping his gun and slipping away between two trailers. Rather than try and chase him down, I gave Duke a whistling order, the metal canine bolting off to run him down. The eager canine robot returned not long after with blood dripping from his metal teeth.
After going around and double-tapping everyone, Jackie and I hoofed it back to the town center, both eager and scared to see the damage. As we approached, the first thing I could see were the four wraith cars on the road. One was lightly crashed into the concrete barriers of the parking lot, while the other three were parked out by the entrance.
I could also see that Kaitlyn's car was dotted with bullet impact spots, dents, and holes depending on how much armor they had run into. As we walked past that, I finally found Kaytlyn and Riggs.
The former was leaning against her car, her sniper rifle up on the hood, aimed toward the targets we had just eliminated. Her leg was wrapped and taken care of, with Frank learning over her to patch up a cut she had on her cheek. I couldn't help but notice that her eyes were red and agitated, as if she had been crying.
Laying on the ground next to her was Riggs, unmoving and deactivated. He had several massive dents and bullet holes in his torso, legs, and arms, which could really only have come from the HMG. Most worrying was the head wound, a large hole that punched through the back of his helmet and out the visor. I quickly knelt down beside my friend, doing my best to lift his body up into a position where I could more easily access his head. I peered into the hole, doing my best to see inside. There was definite damage, but I couldn't tell how bad. I cursed and grabbed my radio.
"Sam, you okay, buddy?" I messaged, immediately getting a response.
"We are okay, Jackson," He said. "Noah, myself, and all but one of the MRVNs made it to the Molly Maker room and are unharmed."
"Good, glad to hear it. Look, Riggs is down. I need you to bring my toolkit to the Shack as quickly as you can," I explained.
"I will arrive shortly."
I continued to diagnose Riggs as best I could, checking the over two dozen impact and bullet holes. My primary concern, beyond the head damage, was whether or not his power core was stable and undamaged. I had worked hard to make my power nodes as safe as possible, but Elerium was, under the wrong circumstances, a plasma bomb ready to go off at any second. I was really sure they hadn't breached the Elerium node, though, so there are no explosions yet.
About a minute later, Samwise arrived and started handing me tools, allowing me to carefully remove Riggs' outer armor parts, starting with the helmet. Once his outer layer of armor was removed, I could better see the damage.
The bullet had punched through the back of his helmet and slammed against the Alien Alloy armor plating around his central core, which was his inner "head," which looked identical to Murtaughs. It had not penetrated the interior plating, but it had created a significant dent before punching back out the visor, meaning a lot of energy had still been transferred.
The ALEO units had a lot of protection against kinetic energy transfers like that, but it could only go so far. I would need to crack open his head, remove his central core, and scan it for faults. If there weren't any, or they were minor enough, I could repair the rest of his systems and turn him back on. If too much was damaged… Riggs was already gone.
"Okay… this could be worse," I said. "If the bullet had penetrated here… it would be bad, but there is a chance that he is okay."
"What? How? The bullet punched through his head! There's not enough room in that casing to protect him from that much damage," Kaytlyn said. "I've seen that before, Jackson. That's too much trauma for the brain to handle."
"Yeah… Listen, Kaytlyn… I'm about to let you in on a big secret," I explained, using a specially design tool to unlatch a security port, which gave me access to securing screws. "Riggs is not a Borg. He is a centralized AI, designed by yours truly."
She looked at me with wide eyes, watching as I unsealed Rigg's head, revealing not a brain as she would have guessed, but the exterior processing chips. A few more seconds later, I was passed them, too, revealing Riggs' central processing core. His entire being.
"No… wait, he wasn't alive?" She asked, sounding a bit hysterical.
"Riggs is an AI," I repeated. "And judging by the internal damage… he very well still might be. Samwise, Murtaugh, please carry Riggs' frame to the garage and hook it up at the drone station."
I ordered, reaching down and carefully extracting the central core. Very carefully, I held it in my hands, standing slowly.
"An AI… Wait, does that mean Murtaugh is an AI, too?" She asked, looking at Murtaugh, who was waiting by the security building.
"He is," I responded, making my way back to the garage.
"Are all the robots AIs?" She asked as I walked away.
"The specters are not, nor are our pets," I explained. "Some of the early MRVNs are very young, slow-growing AI, while Samwise, Noah, and Frank are more advanced. As are Murtaugh and Riggs."
"How- No, wait, how is the easy part, why?" She asked, following behind me. "Do you have any idea how dangerous AIs can be? And how heavily Netwatch comes down on people who figure out how to make them?"
"The AIs I create are different," I assured her. "They are more in touch with humanity than the crazies behind Black Wall because they have physical bodies that can be destroyed. Riggs… if Riggs is okay, then he is basically as lucky as a human who took a bullet to the head. As for Netwatch, why do you think I've been keeping it a secret?"
"Did you know about this?"
I looked over my shoulder to see that Jackie had helped Kayt to her feet and was helping her follow after me. Not far behind them were Samwise and a pair of MRVNs carrying Riggs' body.
"I knew it was something like that, but I never asked," Jackie responded. "I never cared. They seemed alive enough, so I treated them like they were alive."
I quickly sat down at my workstation, carefully laying down Riggs' central core. While Jackie was helping Kaytlyn sit down, I was grabbing spare processors and other parts, quickly linking them together to run alongside Riggs's core, allowing him to function without his primary body. As Samwise got his frame hooked up to the drone bay, MRVNs were already starting to pull off parts and remove his outer layer of armor. I activated his core, slowly running a scan at first to make sure that there was nothing damaged. When the first scan came back clean, I ran it twice more, just to be safe.
"Okay, scans are coming up clean... I think he is okay," I said, everyone letting out a sigh of relief, though I could feel the conflict in Kaytlyns. "The computer has a mike and a camera, so he won't just be in a void… Just need to write a program for him to access it…"
I quickly whipped up a simple program giving Riggs's central core access to my computer, which, if I left open, would be a massive security risk, but for now, it was fine. Once everything was set, I slowly began giving his core power, waiting for it to finally initialize. It took a moment, not surprising considering the massive amount of data he was processing, but finally, the AI core locked into the program I had created, and he spoke.
"I take it I've been damaged badly?" He asked, the familiar and welcoming voice coming from my computer. "Is Kaytlyn okay?"
"I'm okay, you big… you big lug," She responded. "Are… are you going to be okay?"
"I will be fine," He assured her. "My primary core is undamaged."
"Just give us a few hours to get your parts printed out and installed, and you'll be good as new," I assure him with a smile, sniffing back my own happiness that he was okay. "In the meantime, would you prefer to stay attached to my computer so you can interact with us, or would you prefer to power down?"
"I would prefer to sleep, sir," He responded. "But first, I… want to apologize to you, Kaytlyn. I am sorry I hid what I am from you. And you as well, Jackie."
"I… don't like being lied to, even if it's just by omission," Kaytlyn said. "But I can understand why."
"Thank you."
"No, thank you for saving me, Riggs," Kaytlyn responded, sniffling and rubbing her eyes. "You put your life on the line to save me. Thank you."
"Umm, Kaytlyn, why don't you sit here and talk to him for a bit," I suggested, standing up from my stool and offering it to Kayt. "You can sleep later, Riggs, unless…"
"I would not mind talking for a while."
I nodded and helped Kaytlyn into my seat before nodding for Jackie to come with me. We stepped just outside, giving them some space.
"Samwise, I want you to focus on Riggs," I said, the AI nodding in agreement. "Before that, though, get most of the MRVNs working on gathering the destroyed specters. I want all of the easy fixes up and running ASAP. The rest they can scrap. Noah!"
Noah, who had been waiting inside the garage addition, made his way to us as we stood just outside the second garage door, under the shade of the CHOOH2 station hood.
"I want you to spin up production on defenses, getting going now, ahead of time. I want turrets ready to install the minute the concrete is stable and the armored cover ready not long after that. Then you're going to switch to specter production. Oh, and get the MRVNs to move the corpses out of town."
"Of course, Sir."
"Jackie, I want you to call Dakota Smith and explain what just happened," I said, the larger man nodding. "Ask her where the hell our warning was and if a couple of cars and some guns is enough payment to get a few guys down here to help watch over the place until we are at full strength again. Not all of the cars, though. I want a few of the better ones to work on.
"You really want people wandering around?" He asked, scratching his head.
"No, I don't, but until the hard points are finished, I'm not sure we have much of an option," I responded. "If a bunch more Wraiths decide to come and finish us off tonight, I don't know how we would handle them by ourselves. Also, tell Dakota that I have an offer she might like to hear at some point as well."
"You're going to have nomads move in, aren't you?" He asked. "It's not a bad idea, better than the gangs."
"It's a good option, but they won't be the only ones moving in," I responded, waving away his curious look. "Don't worry about it for now, I'll explain later."
The group separated after that, and I made my way to the temporary security building. I wanted to know what had happened and why we didn't get more of an advanced warning. When I stepped into the cool building, I found Murtaugh sitting at the security computer, pouring over images and sensor readings.
"Murtaugh, how are you doing?" I asked, giving him a look over.
"Sir, I am functional, but-"
"Let's start by going over what happened, Murtaugh," I said, cutting him off. "Then we can start handing out blame."
Together, we went over the attack. Apparently, the Wraith had first come from the southeast, splitting off into two groups. One group had gone around, that was the batch that Jackie, Duke, and I stamped out. The other group was much larger and had come in from the front. Murtaugh and I could only assume that they had meant to overwhelm us, but they hadn't expected Riggs to obliterate two of their vehicles before they could even get into the town.
A wave of vehicle-mounted gunfire had stunned Riggs, breaking his weapon and forcing him to take cover behind Kaytlyn's vehicle. Even with his Mag Cannon destroyed, Riggs, Kaytlyn, and the specters had managed to take down three more cars and the Wraiths within them. Unfortunately, this was when Kaytlyn was injured.
Rather than getting pinned down, the technical and a couple other vehicles drove off, most likely to come around and attack again from a better angle. In the process of pushing through, the technical got a full view of Kaytlyn. Before the mounted HMG could turn her into a paste, however, Riggs charged in and took the barrage, carrying her to better cover as the truck drove off.
Kaytlyn wasn't having that, though, and managed to disable the technical and one other car, forcing the group to stop. Murtaugh then tried to finish them off with a rush of specters, but the HMG more or less wiped them out. Then Jackie and I came along and caught them from the side, wiping them out in turn.
"I don't think this is your fault, Murtaugh," I said, shaking my head. "I think we overestimated how powerful the specter unit is, but more importantly, I think we assumed our better tech would let us come out on top no matter what we got challenged by. With defenses finishing in a few days, I will feel a lot better about it, but… well, I'm hoping to redesign the specter unit, maybe with the help of my next tech tree. Between that, the defenses, plus having a chunk of the town filled with other people, I'm hoping we can be a bit safer."
"We will have to watch the people," Murtaugh Pointed out. "The nomads might owe you, but that won't stop people from being nosey."
"I have an idea for that as well," I assured him, shaking my head. "I need some time to put it together, but with any luck, I'll have someone to watch over them."
Having gone over exactly what happened, we started talking about our options. Riggs would hopefully be back online within an hour or so, and three specters had already been repaired by mixing and matching parts from different broken ones. With some help from Dakota, I was hoping that would be enough to hold off any retaliation attacks until we could get our defensive line set up.
From what I could tell, the majority of our losses boiled down to basically fighting from a seriously disadvantageous position. The specters did not have nearly enough satisfactory cover, and what cover they did have was soon made pointless as the vehicles drove around them. Between the HMG and the other car-mounted weapons, they were torn to shreds. The only reason we managed to stage a defense at all was because of our early warning system, which had spotted the Wraith coming, allowing us to start moving ourselves in to position. Or in my case, manage to put on my undersuite and armor.
Once I left the security building, I leaned back against the door for a moment, running my hand through my hair. This had been one hell of a way to wake up, but the adrenaline and excitement were now fading completely.
This entire morning had been way too close for comfort. We had come out on top, but if Jackie and I hadn't brought our armor to our trailers, both of us would have been in a much more awkward position. Who knows what would have happened if we hadn't been able to fight off the attack coming from our side?
This was skin of our teeth territory, and it frankly scared the shit out of me. Before I could even start making my way back to the garage, Jackie flagged me down.
"Dakota is on her way," He said, walking alongside me. "Apparently, they were already mounting up."
"Lockdown the garage and the addition before they get here, get a specter at each entrance," I said, scratching the top of my head. "Wait, you mean Dakota herself is coming?"
"Yeah. She sounded intrigued by your offer of a deal," He said with a shrug. "Guess you made an impression."
True to the message, Dakota and a small crowd of her people showed up only two minutes after Jackie warned me. Her people pulled their cars and trucks around to form barriers and cover while the woman herself headed for the BD shack, where Jackie and I were waiting. Her bodyguards stayed outside, a show of respect I hadn't expected.
"How many did you lose?" She asked, sitting down at our table.
"We are down about seventy-five percent of our defenses," I explained. "But that should be back up to fifty within the next hour. Thankfully, that was all drones. We did come within an inch or two of losing Riggs, though."
"Not bad, considering," she said, shaking her head. "You got the short end of the stick here, Jackson. Bad luck, to the core."
"What happened?"
"A shift in leadership," She explained, shaking her head. "Last night, the previous leader of the local raffen shivs, the Wraiths, got into a fight with one of their lieutenants. I don't know much of the details, but the leader got flatlined, and the lieutenant took over. To… 'celebrate,' they decided to go on a raid. It was between you and the Aldecados camping to the East, and they bet on you being an easier target. Considering I spotted the lieutenant getting dragged around by one of your worker bots, you know how well that bet went for him."
"And you didn't see this coming?"
"How come we didn't see a random lieutenant getting lucky and somehow zeroing his boss coming?" She asked, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "Or how come we didn't see that lieutenant being a fucking nutcase and immediately going on a raid? We keep an eye on them as best we can, but we can't read the future."
She didn't sound angry about my question, as I could imagine she understood my frustration.
"I'm loaning you some muscle," She said. "No cost. How long do you need them for?"
"Two, maybe three days," I responded. "We are literally in the middle of upgrading our defenses, with hardpoints and turrets getting set up here. What's going to happen with the rest of the Wraiths?"
"We don't know," She responded, shaking her head. "It'll take a few days and a few busted heads, but someone is going to take control again. How they react to you taking so many of them out is a lot less predictable."
"Great, uncertainty. Just what I wanted," I said, rubbing my face. "Well, I do have an idea, something that should help keep nomads and us safe."
"...I'm listening."
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Waking up to the sound of my radio calling out to me and Duke barking loudly was not what I would call a good way to start the day. Up until that point, I had been sleeping pretty well, a combination of completing a hard day's work and the knowledge that we had helped someone in need. Of course, we had killed a lot of people to do it, so my immediate assumption, as gunfire erupted not too far away, was that the Tyger Claws had come for us.
"Jackson! Come in, Jackson!" Murtaugh's voice said, calling from my radio. "We have incoming! Sending more specters to reinforce and bring you back to the garage!"
I rolled out of bed and quickly started putting on my equipment. Luckily, with how tired I was after our rescue gig, I hadn't even bothered to go back to the garage to take off my undersuit and armor, instead just kicking in a pile by my bed. As I was pulling up my suit, I snagged the radio and shouted into it.
"I copy Murtaugh, but I have my armor and suit with me," I said into the radio. "Repeat, I am a combatant, not a VIP. Put the specters to better use!"
After that, I got dressed as quickly as I could, though it was hard considering my armor and undersuit was just tossed to the corner of my room. I cursed as the sound of running motors got closer and closer. When I was finally ready, I kicked open the door and let Duke out ahead of me, several bullets skipping off his armor plating as he ran.
"Get 'em, boy!" I shouted, watching the robot charge off to the left.
With a general location in my mind, I dived out the door, my pistol up and ready. As I moved, I looked around, first spotting a trio of specters ruined by gunfire. I kept scanning as I ran, expecting to see Tyger Claws coming to get their girl back or just to get revenge. What I saw instead were several vehicles, all nomadic versions, painted black with blood red and electric blue highlights.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I shouted, diving into cover as one of the vehicles swung around, unleashing another barrage of bullets. "Wraiths? Now?"
I slid into cover behind a concrete barrier, bullets pinging off the thick material, bullets streaming from their vehicles, showering me in dust and shards of stone. After a few seconds, the gunfire stopped, and I could hear people moving around, quickly climbing from their cars. I peeked my head up, quickly spotting people disembarking from two cars and a truck, armed with a range of weapons. Three of them were focused on Duke, who had been chasing the vehicles as they tried to shoot me. They opened fire almost immediately, catching the attention of everyone else.
Seeing the opening, I stood, targeting the closest Wraith and opening up, quickly taking down two of them before all of their attention shifted back to me. I dropped back behind cover, only to hear someone call out about a grenade.
I peeked out around my cover just in time to see one of the Wraiths, a woman with a black metal arm, overhand a blinking, cooked grenade in my direction. I could see the slowly blinking light as it soared through the air. Before I could even think about what I could do, a blur intercepted the grenade, slapping it back toward the Wraiths before diving behind cover with me. Jackie ducked low, having a bit of a more challenging time hiding behind the concrete barrier due to his larger size.
"Thanks for the hand," I said, slapping Jackie's shoulder. "Took you long enough to wake up."
"What can I say? I'm a heavy-"
The grenade he had swatted away detonated, and a breath later, we both popped up over cover, firing as fast as we could manage, driving the remaining Wraiths near us to the ground. The only ones we didn't kill were the ones Duke took down by himself, jumping over the back end of a truck as we opened fire. His armor was dinged up, and one of his eyes was a broken mess, but he still tore the neck out of one Wraith, before tearing at another one's leg, both of them bleeding out in seconds.
"Heavy sleeper," He finished with a smirk. "You good?"
"Never better," I responded, whistling once. Duke perked his head up immediately, rushing back to my side, blood on his face. I pulled out my radio and clicked it on again.
"Murtaugh, Jackie, and I cleared a batch of Wraiths on our side. Are there any more coming in on yours?" I asked, ignoring Jackie as he double-tapped the nomad gang.
"Several Wraiths are taking cover in the northeast part of the town. They have a mounted technical and have already destroyed most of our specters," Murtaugh answered. "I have disabled the primary vehicle, but they are out of our view."
"Okay, moving forward to handle it," I said, nodding to Jackie, who was pulling grenades off of the Wraiths we killed. "Where are Kaytlyn and Riggs?"
"I'm at the BD shack, keeping the fuckers from running," Kaytlyn said with a surprising amount of vehemence. "They caught my leg, so I can't help. Riggs… Riggs carried me to cover. He is down."
I cursed, looking at Jackie, who froze. Unless Riggs got hit directly in his head by something armor-piercing and big, then it was unlikely his AI core was destroyed, meaning I could probably fix him. But Kaytlyn had no idea he was an AI, so if he shut down from damage, she must have assumed he was dead.
"Copy that, cover us as best you can, and stay safe," I responded. "Murtaugh, how many specters do we have left?"
"Eight."
"Alright, keep them up tight to protect everyone," I ordered. "We can handle these guys."
"Sir, May I suggest a distraction?" Murtaugh countered. "I can send a pair of specters out in two minutes, right down the front. It should give you a moment to work unhindered."
"Good call," I responded. "We will go on your signal."
The AI strategist confirmed my message, and Jackie handed me a pair of grenades, which I then pushed into my utility belt. Together, we immediately started pushing northeast, taking cover behind trailers, dumpsters, vending machines, and anything else along the.
"Is Riggs…"
"I don't know," I responded, shaking my head. "It depends on where and what hit him."
After that, we both went silent, focused on making sure none of the Wraiths got away with attacking us. As we moved, occasionally, the sound of gunfire echoed from in front of us, usually followed by the sound of Kaytlyn's sniper rifle immediately firing from around the BD shack area. Finally, Jackie peaked around a corner and immediately pulled back.
"Found them," He said quietly. "Three houses down this road."
"Good," I said. "We have like thirty seconds left, let's get as close as possible."
He nodded, taking the lead as we moved across the back of the trailers, now moving even slower than before. We jumped two fences, easily clearing them with our enhancements suits, getting into position with seconds to spare. Only a hundred or so feet away, I could see the trailing remains of several specters, most of them obliterated by a heavy weapon of some sort, leading back down the road and out of view behind trailers. We could also hear the Wraiths, who were all suitably panicked about being pinned down and unable to run.
Just as a few of them started talking about abandoning their cars and running on foot, I could hear specters running down the road. They were dodging and weaving, running in zig zags while firing at the exposed vehicles wildly. The first one barely lasted long enough to see the technical, which was just a truck with a stationary HMG in the back, before being obliterated. Immediately, Jackie and I rushed around the corner.
While I brought my pistol up and fired, aiming for the most dangerous person, the Wraith standing behind the HMG, Jackie blurred and sped forward, zipping to a position with a better angle. I got three shots on the technical gunner before Jackie opened up with his pistols, firing at the surprised gangers.
With a whistle, as I lined up my next target, I sent Duke out, who charged the nearest psycho at a terrifying speed. Intellectually, I knew that he was capable of moving with some impressive acceleration and quickness, but watching him tear furrows out of the asphalt as he moved was something else entirely. As I pulled the trigger, my undersuit handling the recoil as I triple-tapped another Wraith, Duke slammed into his target, knocking him off his feet.
We finished the group off quickly, the only issue rising when the last one panicked and ran, dropping his gun and slipping away between two trailers. Rather than try and chase him down, I gave Duke a whistling order, the metal canine bolting off to run him down. The eager canine robot returned not long after with blood dripping from his metal teeth.
After going around and double-tapping everyone, Jackie and I hoofed it back to the town center, both eager and scared to see the damage. As we approached, the first thing I could see were the four wraith cars on the road. One was lightly crashed into the concrete barriers of the parking lot, while the other three were parked out by the entrance.
I could also see that Kaitlyn's car was dotted with bullet impact spots, dents, and holes depending on how much armor they had run into. As we walked past that, I finally found Kaytlyn and Riggs.
The former was leaning against her car, her sniper rifle up on the hood, aimed toward the targets we had just eliminated. Her leg was wrapped and taken care of, with Frank learning over her to patch up a cut she had on her cheek. I couldn't help but notice that her eyes were red and agitated, as if she had been crying.
Laying on the ground next to her was Riggs, unmoving and deactivated. He had several massive dents and bullet holes in his torso, legs, and arms, which could really only have come from the HMG. Most worrying was the head wound, a large hole that punched through the back of his helmet and out the visor. I quickly knelt down beside my friend, doing my best to lift his body up into a position where I could more easily access his head. I peered into the hole, doing my best to see inside. There was definite damage, but I couldn't tell how bad. I cursed and grabbed my radio.
"Sam, you okay, buddy?" I messaged, immediately getting a response.
"We are okay, Jackson," He said. "Noah, myself, and all but one of the MRVNs made it to the Molly Maker room and are unharmed."
"Good, glad to hear it. Look, Riggs is down. I need you to bring my toolkit to the Shack as quickly as you can," I explained.
"I will arrive shortly."
I continued to diagnose Riggs as best I could, checking the over two dozen impact and bullet holes. My primary concern, beyond the head damage, was whether or not his power core was stable and undamaged. I had worked hard to make my power nodes as safe as possible, but Elerium was, under the wrong circumstances, a plasma bomb ready to go off at any second. I was really sure they hadn't breached the Elerium node, though, so there are no explosions yet.
About a minute later, Samwise arrived and started handing me tools, allowing me to carefully remove Riggs' outer armor parts, starting with the helmet. Once his outer layer of armor was removed, I could better see the damage.
The bullet had punched through the back of his helmet and slammed against the Alien Alloy armor plating around his central core, which was his inner "head," which looked identical to Murtaughs. It had not penetrated the interior plating, but it had created a significant dent before punching back out the visor, meaning a lot of energy had still been transferred.
The ALEO units had a lot of protection against kinetic energy transfers like that, but it could only go so far. I would need to crack open his head, remove his central core, and scan it for faults. If there weren't any, or they were minor enough, I could repair the rest of his systems and turn him back on. If too much was damaged… Riggs was already gone.
"Okay… this could be worse," I said. "If the bullet had penetrated here… it would be bad, but there is a chance that he is okay."
"What? How? The bullet punched through his head! There's not enough room in that casing to protect him from that much damage," Kaytlyn said. "I've seen that before, Jackson. That's too much trauma for the brain to handle."
"Yeah… Listen, Kaytlyn… I'm about to let you in on a big secret," I explained, using a specially design tool to unlatch a security port, which gave me access to securing screws. "Riggs is not a Borg. He is a centralized AI, designed by yours truly."
She looked at me with wide eyes, watching as I unsealed Rigg's head, revealing not a brain as she would have guessed, but the exterior processing chips. A few more seconds later, I was passed them, too, revealing Riggs' central processing core. His entire being.
"No… wait, he wasn't alive?" She asked, sounding a bit hysterical.
"Riggs is an AI," I repeated. "And judging by the internal damage… he very well still might be. Samwise, Murtaugh, please carry Riggs' frame to the garage and hook it up at the drone station."
I ordered, reaching down and carefully extracting the central core. Very carefully, I held it in my hands, standing slowly.
"An AI… Wait, does that mean Murtaugh is an AI, too?" She asked, looking at Murtaugh, who was waiting by the security building.
"He is," I responded, making my way back to the garage.
"Are all the robots AIs?" She asked as I walked away.
"The specters are not, nor are our pets," I explained. "Some of the early MRVNs are very young, slow-growing AI, while Samwise, Noah, and Frank are more advanced. As are Murtaugh and Riggs."
"How- No, wait, how is the easy part, why?" She asked, following behind me. "Do you have any idea how dangerous AIs can be? And how heavily Netwatch comes down on people who figure out how to make them?"
"The AIs I create are different," I assured her. "They are more in touch with humanity than the crazies behind Black Wall because they have physical bodies that can be destroyed. Riggs… if Riggs is okay, then he is basically as lucky as a human who took a bullet to the head. As for Netwatch, why do you think I've been keeping it a secret?"
"Did you know about this?"
I looked over my shoulder to see that Jackie had helped Kayt to her feet and was helping her follow after me. Not far behind them were Samwise and a pair of MRVNs carrying Riggs' body.
"I knew it was something like that, but I never asked," Jackie responded. "I never cared. They seemed alive enough, so I treated them like they were alive."
I quickly sat down at my workstation, carefully laying down Riggs' central core. While Jackie was helping Kaytlyn sit down, I was grabbing spare processors and other parts, quickly linking them together to run alongside Riggs's core, allowing him to function without his primary body. As Samwise got his frame hooked up to the drone bay, MRVNs were already starting to pull off parts and remove his outer layer of armor. I activated his core, slowly running a scan at first to make sure that there was nothing damaged. When the first scan came back clean, I ran it twice more, just to be safe.
"Okay, scans are coming up clean... I think he is okay," I said, everyone letting out a sigh of relief, though I could feel the conflict in Kaytlyns. "The computer has a mike and a camera, so he won't just be in a void… Just need to write a program for him to access it…"
I quickly whipped up a simple program giving Riggs's central core access to my computer, which, if I left open, would be a massive security risk, but for now, it was fine. Once everything was set, I slowly began giving his core power, waiting for it to finally initialize. It took a moment, not surprising considering the massive amount of data he was processing, but finally, the AI core locked into the program I had created, and he spoke.
"I take it I've been damaged badly?" He asked, the familiar and welcoming voice coming from my computer. "Is Kaytlyn okay?"
"I'm okay, you big… you big lug," She responded. "Are… are you going to be okay?"
"I will be fine," He assured her. "My primary core is undamaged."
"Just give us a few hours to get your parts printed out and installed, and you'll be good as new," I assure him with a smile, sniffing back my own happiness that he was okay. "In the meantime, would you prefer to stay attached to my computer so you can interact with us, or would you prefer to power down?"
"I would prefer to sleep, sir," He responded. "But first, I… want to apologize to you, Kaytlyn. I am sorry I hid what I am from you. And you as well, Jackie."
"I… don't like being lied to, even if it's just by omission," Kaytlyn said. "But I can understand why."
"Thank you."
"No, thank you for saving me, Riggs," Kaytlyn responded, sniffling and rubbing her eyes. "You put your life on the line to save me. Thank you."
"Umm, Kaytlyn, why don't you sit here and talk to him for a bit," I suggested, standing up from my stool and offering it to Kayt. "You can sleep later, Riggs, unless…"
"I would not mind talking for a while."
I nodded and helped Kaytlyn into my seat before nodding for Jackie to come with me. We stepped just outside, giving them some space.
"Samwise, I want you to focus on Riggs," I said, the AI nodding in agreement. "Before that, though, get most of the MRVNs working on gathering the destroyed specters. I want all of the easy fixes up and running ASAP. The rest they can scrap. Noah!"
Noah, who had been waiting inside the garage addition, made his way to us as we stood just outside the second garage door, under the shade of the CHOOH2 station hood.
"I want you to spin up production on defenses, getting going now, ahead of time. I want turrets ready to install the minute the concrete is stable and the armored cover ready not long after that. Then you're going to switch to specter production. Oh, and get the MRVNs to move the corpses out of town."
"Of course, Sir."
"Jackie, I want you to call Dakota Smith and explain what just happened," I said, the larger man nodding. "Ask her where the hell our warning was and if a couple of cars and some guns is enough payment to get a few guys down here to help watch over the place until we are at full strength again. Not all of the cars, though. I want a few of the better ones to work on.
"You really want people wandering around?" He asked, scratching his head.
"No, I don't, but until the hard points are finished, I'm not sure we have much of an option," I responded. "If a bunch more Wraiths decide to come and finish us off tonight, I don't know how we would handle them by ourselves. Also, tell Dakota that I have an offer she might like to hear at some point as well."
"You're going to have nomads move in, aren't you?" He asked. "It's not a bad idea, better than the gangs."
"It's a good option, but they won't be the only ones moving in," I responded, waving away his curious look. "Don't worry about it for now, I'll explain later."
The group separated after that, and I made my way to the temporary security building. I wanted to know what had happened and why we didn't get more of an advanced warning. When I stepped into the cool building, I found Murtaugh sitting at the security computer, pouring over images and sensor readings.
"Murtaugh, how are you doing?" I asked, giving him a look over.
"Sir, I am functional, but-"
"Let's start by going over what happened, Murtaugh," I said, cutting him off. "Then we can start handing out blame."
Together, we went over the attack. Apparently, the Wraith had first come from the southeast, splitting off into two groups. One group had gone around, that was the batch that Jackie, Duke, and I stamped out. The other group was much larger and had come in from the front. Murtaugh and I could only assume that they had meant to overwhelm us, but they hadn't expected Riggs to obliterate two of their vehicles before they could even get into the town.
A wave of vehicle-mounted gunfire had stunned Riggs, breaking his weapon and forcing him to take cover behind Kaytlyn's vehicle. Even with his Mag Cannon destroyed, Riggs, Kaytlyn, and the specters had managed to take down three more cars and the Wraiths within them. Unfortunately, this was when Kaytlyn was injured.
Rather than getting pinned down, the technical and a couple other vehicles drove off, most likely to come around and attack again from a better angle. In the process of pushing through, the technical got a full view of Kaytlyn. Before the mounted HMG could turn her into a paste, however, Riggs charged in and took the barrage, carrying her to better cover as the truck drove off.
Kaytlyn wasn't having that, though, and managed to disable the technical and one other car, forcing the group to stop. Murtaugh then tried to finish them off with a rush of specters, but the HMG more or less wiped them out. Then Jackie and I came along and caught them from the side, wiping them out in turn.
"I don't think this is your fault, Murtaugh," I said, shaking my head. "I think we overestimated how powerful the specter unit is, but more importantly, I think we assumed our better tech would let us come out on top no matter what we got challenged by. With defenses finishing in a few days, I will feel a lot better about it, but… well, I'm hoping to redesign the specter unit, maybe with the help of my next tech tree. Between that, the defenses, plus having a chunk of the town filled with other people, I'm hoping we can be a bit safer."
"We will have to watch the people," Murtaugh Pointed out. "The nomads might owe you, but that won't stop people from being nosey."
"I have an idea for that as well," I assured him, shaking my head. "I need some time to put it together, but with any luck, I'll have someone to watch over them."
Having gone over exactly what happened, we started talking about our options. Riggs would hopefully be back online within an hour or so, and three specters had already been repaired by mixing and matching parts from different broken ones. With some help from Dakota, I was hoping that would be enough to hold off any retaliation attacks until we could get our defensive line set up.
From what I could tell, the majority of our losses boiled down to basically fighting from a seriously disadvantageous position. The specters did not have nearly enough satisfactory cover, and what cover they did have was soon made pointless as the vehicles drove around them. Between the HMG and the other car-mounted weapons, they were torn to shreds. The only reason we managed to stage a defense at all was because of our early warning system, which had spotted the Wraith coming, allowing us to start moving ourselves in to position. Or in my case, manage to put on my undersuite and armor.
Once I left the security building, I leaned back against the door for a moment, running my hand through my hair. This had been one hell of a way to wake up, but the adrenaline and excitement were now fading completely.
This entire morning had been way too close for comfort. We had come out on top, but if Jackie and I hadn't brought our armor to our trailers, both of us would have been in a much more awkward position. Who knows what would have happened if we hadn't been able to fight off the attack coming from our side?
This was skin of our teeth territory, and it frankly scared the shit out of me. Before I could even start making my way back to the garage, Jackie flagged me down.
"Dakota is on her way," He said, walking alongside me. "Apparently, they were already mounting up."
"Lockdown the garage and the addition before they get here, get a specter at each entrance," I said, scratching the top of my head. "Wait, you mean Dakota herself is coming?"
"Yeah. She sounded intrigued by your offer of a deal," He said with a shrug. "Guess you made an impression."
True to the message, Dakota and a small crowd of her people showed up only two minutes after Jackie warned me. Her people pulled their cars and trucks around to form barriers and cover while the woman herself headed for the BD shack, where Jackie and I were waiting. Her bodyguards stayed outside, a show of respect I hadn't expected.
"How many did you lose?" She asked, sitting down at our table.
"We are down about seventy-five percent of our defenses," I explained. "But that should be back up to fifty within the next hour. Thankfully, that was all drones. We did come within an inch or two of losing Riggs, though."
"Not bad, considering," she said, shaking her head. "You got the short end of the stick here, Jackson. Bad luck, to the core."
"What happened?"
"A shift in leadership," She explained, shaking her head. "Last night, the previous leader of the local raffen shivs, the Wraiths, got into a fight with one of their lieutenants. I don't know much of the details, but the leader got flatlined, and the lieutenant took over. To… 'celebrate,' they decided to go on a raid. It was between you and the Aldecados camping to the East, and they bet on you being an easier target. Considering I spotted the lieutenant getting dragged around by one of your worker bots, you know how well that bet went for him."
"And you didn't see this coming?"
"How come we didn't see a random lieutenant getting lucky and somehow zeroing his boss coming?" She asked, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "Or how come we didn't see that lieutenant being a fucking nutcase and immediately going on a raid? We keep an eye on them as best we can, but we can't read the future."
She didn't sound angry about my question, as I could imagine she understood my frustration.
"I'm loaning you some muscle," She said. "No cost. How long do you need them for?"
"Two, maybe three days," I responded. "We are literally in the middle of upgrading our defenses, with hardpoints and turrets getting set up here. What's going to happen with the rest of the Wraiths?"
"We don't know," She responded, shaking her head. "It'll take a few days and a few busted heads, but someone is going to take control again. How they react to you taking so many of them out is a lot less predictable."
"Great, uncertainty. Just what I wanted," I said, rubbing my face. "Well, I do have an idea, something that should help keep nomads and us safe."
"...I'm listening."
About time to have Widow Mine as your Defense. The one that only visible when they fire, pre nerf. Because yep, not many do look down, or even behind. Even better if you can build Vulture Bike and Spider Mine Dispenser upgrade with it, allow you to build more of those mines that pack enough Explosive to off most Protoss medium unit in 2 hits.
That, or Nod Defense Hub that can quickly repair their branches when destroyed if the hub wasn't busted.
That, or Nod Defense Hub that can quickly repair their branches when destroyed if the hub wasn't busted.
Cue the ToF system knee-jerking straight into Battlemechs, or even better SupCom.
- Location
- Lost to the Depths of the Deep Web
What about Total Annihilation or Planetary Annihilation?
Would there even be a lower end to that tech tree to build up from? The two I mentioned have the background to be definitely reached from a modern-day tech level (being only on the order of thousands of years ahead from a human base), so inherently more useful.
lmao get the fucking forerunner tech tree, or something like the stellaris tech tree
tfw it's so advanced you literally cant even make the tools, to make the tools, to make the tools, to build even the most basic item
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- Location
- Australia
Heh. He still has to build to understand and the T1 units of SupCom are clarketech, never mind an ACU. Mind you even merely the foundational wormhole technologies that began it all would be huge. Per the lore, Earth went from "in 2032 we just teleported a milligram of iron to the moon using the combined output of 25 fission reactors" to "in 2284 we've connected Earth and sixteen extra-solar colony worlds via a network of quantum gates we can send entire spacecraft through". Wireless matter/energy extraction/transmission, actual (but very power-hungry) teleportation, cheap and plentiful fusion power, AI, artificial wombs/creches, genemods including skill encoding, advanced robotics, nano-fabricators (the SupCom equiv of molly-makers). And that's just the first quarter-millenium of progress, the games are set another fifteen hundred years after that!
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Tisaku
Head Chief Thinkomancer
past
Nomads
Nomads
undersuit
Lock down
Raffen Shiv
Nomads
It's the matter/energy trasmission and creation systems I'm looking at. Even reaching the most basic level of those is a total game changer.
Now, now. Let's not jump the shark here. Space based systems would accelerate things too quickly. He'd suddenly have tech that Cyberpunk couldn't keep up with. After all Rods from God are hard to argue with. Which would kinda ruin the story without ROB throwing in aliens of some sort, or going to war with a corp immediately. He can manage well enough over gunning just with what is already available. Especially if he's willing to franken-gun his turrets into something with a little bit of everything damage wise.
An anti-infantry weapon, strapped to a anti-vehicle heavy caliber weapon, strapped to a anti-air Rocket/Flack system. Maybe an array of systems all grouped up? Just because a game can't have a multi role turret doesn't mean you cant. Heck even just a long range direct fire turret with a launcher strapped to it would help.
Instead of going up tech wise, why not hit a development board and pull in some weapon ideas? Throw the idea out onto the "net" and ask a bunch of cyberpunk gamers what they'd do? Maybe there's a SV board still up he could poke into? Wouldn't be the first time I've seen a writer tap the 4th wall like that.
In the end Overgunning the facility would work out just fine without slapping on something like Planetary Annihilation or Stellaris.
An anti-infantry weapon, strapped to a anti-vehicle heavy caliber weapon, strapped to a anti-air Rocket/Flack system. Maybe an array of systems all grouped up? Just because a game can't have a multi role turret doesn't mean you cant. Heck even just a long range direct fire turret with a launcher strapped to it would help.
Instead of going up tech wise, why not hit a development board and pull in some weapon ideas? Throw the idea out onto the "net" and ask a bunch of cyberpunk gamers what they'd do? Maybe there's a SV board still up he could poke into? Wouldn't be the first time I've seen a writer tap the 4th wall like that.
In the end Overgunning the facility would work out just fine without slapping on something like Planetary Annihilation or Stellaris.