Chapter 110

Second site of the night.

The first location hadn’t even been a real Scav Den. Just a small storage unit that three gonks that were definitely not official Scavs, just fuckers willing to do horrible things to people.

They were all dead now, and I had the XP to prove it.

*500 XP Gained.*

I don’t care if you were official Scavs, or just some assholes ripping people apart for eddies. They were all fucking trash in my opinion.

But that had just been on the way to Heywood. The building I was parked just down the street from was the bigger place I had ended up skipping to go to the Maelstrom meeting.

Once again. I accessed the system. Pinged them all, and had the entire place scoped out.

I was once again stacked up on the door. I waited half a second to see if Jun would call me to interrupt again, but it never came.

Go time. I surged through, rifle leading the way. I couldn’t just shoot through the walls this time. The basement they were hiding in was all solid concrete.. Unless I was using my Nekomata or my Burya I wouldn’t get any rounds through.

But I didn’t need that.

The first room was a garage. Two gonks inside. One working on a van. Obviously their meat wagon. The other was sitting in the driver seat obviously helping out.

Both were too slow to avoid my Copperhead as I unloaded on them both as I rushed them. The driver coated the windscreen in blood and the mechanic fell into his tool box very dead.

I didn’t pay attention to the noise of my system telling me I had gotten XP.

*500 XP Gained.*

I didn’t slow down. I still had half a magazine and more Scavs.

Obviously the gun shots would alert them. So I didn’t slow down. At the back of the garage was a door that led into the basement area itself. This building had once been some sort of shop. The top floor had big open windows and butted against the street. Obviously they didn’t use it, but this basement was basically a loading and storage area.

The next room now was just a big empty space full of Scavs, and dead bodies. And all their equipment to rip people apart.

I leapt into the room using all my strength and my chrome ankles bouncing well past the door where instantly a few of the Scavs fired trying to kill me.

They missed. Then their guns stopped firing as I shut that down with a toothy grin.

I loved being a Netrunner. One of them I noticed did respond. A faint effort to fight back against the hack on the digital scape, but he was far too slow to stop it as it pinged him, then his chooms, then him again and again and again.

I rolled along the concrete, until I slowed enough. I rose up. Lines of golden light already telling me where to aim.

I popped up and three rounds echoed through the room, The light I was using as a guide post vanished, along with earning an alert.

*500 XP Gained.*

I rolled, slipping out of view behind the plastic sheets they had hanging from the ceiling all over the place to section off Ripper chairs.

To keep the blood splatter down.

Yeah it would still be useful now.

I flipped around, lined up my rifle with the golden lights and just started plugging away.

I got another one, before the others ducked behind cover realizing their weapons were dead.

*500 XP Gained.*

“Who the fuck is attacking us!?” A voice called out sounding terrified and I could practically hear the noise of metal on metal as he desperately tried to get his malfunctioning gun to work.

“Some bitch! Watch out for more! They got a Netrunner!”

“Don’t worry!” I called out in return, using my sexy Motoko voice as well, I was recording after all. “I’m the one who is going to send you all to hell!” I yelled out excited for what came next.

I shifted back up to my feet still crouched and then leapt.

The plastic sheet kept me from view until the last moment when I hit it at the apex of my jump and then ripped through.

They freaked, leaping out of cover desperately pointing weapons that weren’t functional. Only one had a smart idea and grabbed a big fucking machete knife and charged at me.

I hit the ground, rolled forward and he reached me just as my rifle was brought up.

I unloaded on him, easily blasting him away from me with the remainder of my magazine.

*500 XP Gained.*

I dropped the rifle. Reload would take too long, and I had other options.

Lexington was quickdrawn to a position right against my chest as I turned and unloaded into another Scav that was trying to attack me from behind. He cried out as his chest turned into swiss cheese.

Then he died.

*500 XP Gained.*

I started chasing the rest, killing another one who was hiding under a table as if he could just disappear there, and then to my irritation two of them were smart.

*500 XP Gained.*

They delta’ed. I ran at a door that the two had slipped into and was brought to a complete halt as I slammed into it and it didn’t budge.

I slammed the handle again and pushed but the door barely budged.

They had thrown something heavy on the other side.

“Fuckers!”

I turned and ran. I would have to head out the garage and get around the building. They were escaping out the front!

Even with all my speed by the time I made it to the front of the store their car was already nearly down the street, their golden lines fading away as they got too far away from the building net, and already well past the range I could quickhack as I could see them directly.

My Quadra was parked around the back. It would take too long to get into it, and then chase them.

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Two escaped.

Two Scavs escaped me.

I had done this because I wanted to practice going loud. But I let two Scavs escape!

I should have blinded them. I should have shown up with my HMG.

I should have stealthed the whole group.

I should have… I should have…

I stepped back and pushed myself against the front of the old boarded up storefront.

Cool.

Get cool.

I exhaled arctic air and suddenly the absolute fit I had been half way into stalled out.

“I’m okay. Mistakes happen, and we learn from them.” I told myself. I had almost just had a complete freakout over letting two Scavs get away.

Yeah that wasn’t a healthy sign.

“Fuck.”

—–

I ignored everything as I headed home.

I still had more Scav dens I could hit, but I was obviously not handling this whole situation as well as I thought I was.

The apartment was quiet as I stomped in flipping off my boots at the door with a few wobbling bounces as I then stripped out of my armor letting it just drop to the floor.

There was a ton of floor space. Plenty of space to leave things for later.

I stripped out of my Section 9 clothes, the armored weight feeling far too restricting right now. Both jacket and pants were thrown onto the floor leaving me feeling a lot cooler as I wiped some sweat off my head.

Then I flopped face first onto the couch.

The couch wasn’t right. It was too cushiony. It didn’t smell like home either.

I screamed into the cushion slamming my fist down into it over and over until I was out of air.

Then I rolled off the couch and stood up. Annoyed at the stupid inset couch I had to climb out of just to get back on the floor.

I ran into my room. There was only one solution to this frustration I was feeling.

I grabbed my guitar and my music box.

I could have stayed in my room, but I didn’t want to be in there right now. So I hooked myself into my Music box and dropped the box onto the couch as I paced around the back of the couch.

I wanted something angry. Something fitting, but I wasn’t sure what to play.

I felt frustrated. Burned on the inside because everything that was happening just…

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