Chapter 139

*That’s a lot of bad guys.* I spoke into the group call as I overlooked the camp. It was mid afternoon and I had walked for miles, climbed up onto a mountain to overlook the Wraith camp and was now hidden in some brush with my Nekomata pointed down.

 

*Dakota wasn’t kidding about the numbers.” Hiromi cut in, and all I could do was nod. I was basically sending snapshots of what I was seeing to my chooms as I took note of things. My Kiroshi highlighting things for my chooms in the pictures.

 

The whole place was just surrounded by vehicles and tents. Obviously the wraiths couldn’t all fit inside, yet, it was obvious like the nomads they were, they were plenty comfortable.

 

Walking through that wasn’t going to be easy. Just the amount of people would make approaching difficult.

 

*I’m more interested in that.* Ichi called out, sending back an image into the chat. One of the massive trucks that were holding basically a cargo container on the back.

 

The truck and container was ancient, but, well.

 

*Think they stored the loot there?* I asked as I looked back at it. The massive truck reminded me of the ones that Nomads used as their main bases. So I wasn’t surprised to see one, but the container made me want to look inside.

 

*At least some of it. Or at least they normally would. They don’t usually stick to one place this long, so.”

 

“Yeah, the fact they are sticking around… Look.* I sent another image, and listened to the chatter about it.

 

The Wraiths were building a trash wall. Although calling it building wasn’t quite right, they were definitely piling up broken vehicles, used tires, and other things all around the exterior towards the road.

 

*They are planning on staying.* Malcolm added, saying the obvious. Which only made the whole situation more confusing.

 

What the fuck were the Wraiths doing? There had to be something here that they didn’t want to move away from, but it was just an old electric substation.

 

*And at least we have confirmation. The Arasaka image is blurry, but look. That’s probably the vehicle that took out the AV.* Ichi pointed out, a Wraith vehicle had a fucking rocket launcher system on the top.

 

*Yeah, that’s it alright.* I muttered already thinking of how I could disable that. I really didn’t want to end up on the other end of a vehicle modified into a light tank.

 

I shook it off. *Okay guys. I’m going to move positions, get some other angles.* I told my team as I backed out of the bushes, and then out of sight of the camp. Continuing my scouting mission.

 

—–

 

I was eating an XXL burrito in the Quadra, filling my stomach and rehydrating as my team and I continued to chat about what we should do, but I was already pretty confident in what I would have to do.

Sneak in. Kill the Netrunner. Access the network. Start murdering Wraiths until I was revealed and then dump hacks on them as I continued to murder all of them.

 

That was really the only option.

 

“You sure we don’t want to do more preparation?” Malcolm asked as he walked over to the Quadra.

 

We had met up a few miles away from the camp out in the badlands using a side road that should keep us hidden.

 

My team couldn’t stay out of this entirely, there were too many Wraiths for that.

 

“I think unless we want to go buy a fuck ton of mines or something, we are as prepared as we are going to get.” I told him, chewing another bite of slop. “I think we can do this.”

“Heh. You mean, you think you can do this.” Malcolm said, but it was only teasing. “We’ll back you up Motoko. Do what you think you need to, and kill them all.”

 

I glanced up into his eyes and nodded. I would do it, because I had to, and because I wanted to.

 

“Good. I’ll make sure we make it out in case something goes wrong.” He pointed back towards Ichi’s van, that also had a Wraith Thorton Colby, parked next to it. The pickup at least fit the terrain.

 

Malcolm had made off from the last gig with his own Wraith vehicle.

I was still surprised he hadn’t grabbed a Quadra, but I guess he liked the Colby more. It certainly gave us more loot hauling room.

 

And if shit hit the fan, all three of my chooms could get in it and run. Ichi might be the better driver, but his van certainly wouldn’t outrun an angry Wraith attack. The Colby might.

 

I wasn’t preparing for me failing, I was preparing in case something went out of control.

 

“Alright choom. Let me finish this, and I’ll head out.” I told him finishing my dinner.

 

The sun was coming down. Sure most optics could see okay in the night, but it still would give me some advantage.

 

“Good luck.” Malcolm offered before moving back.

 

I finished my meal, and stepped out stretching. I was so dusty and dirty, but it was fine. I would take a nice long shower after this was all done.

 

I headed to the back of the Quadra and popped the trunk. As tempting as it was, I left the Uragan and grabbed my Copperhead. The silencer was already attached, and I double checked to make sure it was secure.

 

Good.

 

I was already in my dark armor, so I started grabbing magazines out of the ammo section of the trunk, putting them into the webbing on my armor.

 

A few grenades tucked in as well, and I was armed and ready.

 

I took a breath and let it out, letting the cold clarity of Cool and Cold Blood flow over me.

 

I had an objective, and a path to do it. That was all that mattered.

 

But first I had a long run in the desert to get close to the Wraith encampment. For some reason they never expected someone to just come out on foot.

 

*I’m off. I’ll be out of comms until I clear out the netrunner. Good luck.* I told the group and then headed out into the night. Everyone knew what they needed to do. I just needed to do it now.

 

The run through the desert was easy, I barely broke into a sweat as the desert was starting to cool, and my athletics stat was pretty high. I kept it to a light jog and then into a fast march, just to keep myself from getting too much adrenaline.

 

Slowly I arced over a hill and saw all the dotted lights of the camp. A quick scan told me not much had changed. The group was too large to really be worried about guards. Who would be stupid enough to attack a Wraith group this large?

 

I slid down the hill using a path I had picked out while scouting, and then I simply scurried from brush to brush, from ravine to gully. As I crept closer. Copperhead held tight so it wouldn’t jostle.

 

I reached the first tent and parked against the shadow it cast for a moment to let myself catch my breath. I needed to be ready for the next part.

 

I slowed my breathing until I was ready and then I moved. Sliding from tent to parked car, slipping through the shadows, my mind already knowing the path. Having scouted out all the security cameras that could see me along the route, I made sure I was always out of sight of their vigilante gaze.

 

I just needed…

 

I stopped nearly sliding under a car as a nomad walked just on the other side. The man smoking a cigarette and just sort of chilling. I started from the dirt as his boots wandered around, and rested against the car I was hiding under. He leaned against it as he smoked, and I wanted to growl, because I needed to move right past him to avoid the camera.

 

So I waited, hiding in the shadows, I did my best to keep from making a single noise against the dirt I was planted against.

 

Slowly the man finished his smoke. Chuckling a little at nothing as he did, probably reading a shard, or something.

 

Then finally he moved off, and I slowly rose up and then moved. Slipping past a few final tents and up to the old fence that surrounded the power plant. I was at the perfect spot that none of the cameras could notice as I leapt right up and over, landing without a sound and then running the last feet to hide among some trash along the wall.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

 

I rested again. Watching the camp from my hidden location to make sure no one was watching, before I leapt again. Landing on the roof in two leaps and then crouching down to hide among the shadows there.

 

My entrance was easy to spot. A door for roof access, as the building kept some of the electrical connections up here. I hurried over and to my irritation the door was locked, but it wasn’t a modern lock.

 

Old lock and key of all things.

 

Luckily I did have the know-how. Not sure whether it came from Ninjutsu, or Tech, but I pulled out a few pieces of wire and within thirty seconds had the door opening. Even with the rusty hinges I kept it as silently as I could and slipped inside.

 

There were only two places a netrunner could be working from. Either the large heavy duty truck the wraiths had, inside the storage container, or from inside the substation connected into an old grid port.

 

I was assuming the netrunner was in here.

 

It’s where I would be no one wanted dust and sand in their gear. So I slipped inside, ancient concrete steps didn’t creak, but I could feel them shift at my weight.

 

Old. This place was really old.

 

The stairs thankfully didn’t lead to the main room, but were actually sealed off with a door. So I could get down and slowly turn the knob of the door open letting me peek in.

 

Dusty. Quiet.

 

There was no one here.

 

What was going on? Why pick this place, if there was nothing here? I slipped out, checking every corner thoroughly for cameras but not finding anything. There was an ancient camera in a corner, but it was hanging from a wire, and wasn’t powered.

 

I scanned around, trying to spot something out of the ordinary, but there was nothing. Just old concrete, a small office to the side, and old electric transformers.

 

The transformers weren’t even active. They had long been turned off, or shut down. I was just starting to wonder if someone was fucking with me, when I noticed it.

 

The front door had dirt trailing in, and the dust was disturbed. In the dark it was hard to see, but Kiroshi were top tier for a reason. I trailed the many boot prints in the dust to one little office…

 

Well now.

 

I followed them in, I hadn’t seen anything when I peaked in, but now that I was following the boot prints I followed them to the corner where the dust ended at a wall. But the footprints didn’t.

 

Huh. Hidden wall huh? I scanned the area, but didn’t get anything.

 

Whatever had made this, it wasn’t 1980’s tech.

 

I couldn’t find any sort of keypad, so I crouched down and looked at the bootprints.

 

Most of the dust had been disturbed in a direct path between the door and the wall, but there were a few dusty boot prints that led around the room.

 

Thanks to my Kiroshi I was able to pick them out and highlight them, leading me into following in their footsteps literally as I walked along with them.

 

It looked like they were searching for something. I followed along until finally the footprints led straight towards the wall.

 

Then I just reversed my steps until I found the last place the bootprints would have stopped at.

 

It was a set of cupboards connected to the office desk. The faux wood was covered in dust, but again a bit of scanning found fingerprints in the dust.

 

I opened the cupboards that had fingerprints until I came to the second one, and stilled.

 

There in the back of the cupboard was a fake backing. It had been left open, revealing a much more modern number pad.

 

“Well well.” I muttered as I looked it over. It wasn’t dusty. I couldn’t scan for fingerprints. How did a Wraith know about this?

 

I shook it off, it didn’t matter. He did, and he had opened it. So I would as well. I pulled my personal link out of my neck and squeezed it into the slot along the bottom of the keypad.

 

Instantly I winced as the defenses started reacting. ICE. Good stuff fought me off, but I instantly went as stealthy as I could. Throwing up some cloudy data to keep the ICE busy, before it realized someone had connected to it.

 

Then I tried to breach in. Using all the skills I had.

 

It fought me. Hard. The walls of ICE were not standard off the shelf shovelware. No, this was definitely a high level military ICE. There was only one reason it hadn’t been able to lock me out, or fry me in turn.