Chapter 140

The bipedal remote controlled robot smashed into the dirt as it stepped off the large container truck and started spooling it’s HMG’s up looking for whoever was attacking.

 

Yeah no.

 

Fuck that.

 

I instinctively tried to slip a weapon glitch in, but the Minotaur had amazingly good ICE that fought me off.

 

Worse it alerted the driver to my location. He turned towards me, and I ran. Leaping off the other edge of the building as dual HMG’s roared into the night, absolutely shattering the old concrete as it sprayed the roof.

 

“YOU CAN’T HIDE! THIS IS TOP OF THE LINE!” The man who was driving the damn thing roared out and I just scoffed.

 

I couldn’t attack the Minotaur, but the pilot was literally right there.

 

I considered drawing my Burya and just punching a few rounds into the container where his light was pointing, but…

 

I kinda wanted it.

 

The Minotaur. I wanted it. Stompy bot! I must have it!

 

I slipped into the building and slid through the shadows reaching the other side and peaking through an old window to see what was going on.

 

Ah. The Driver wasn’t a total gonk. He was wandering around in front of the container. Probably not caring if he gave away his own location as getting past a Minotaur wasn’t going to be easy.

 

I checked my webbing but I only had frag grenades. An EMP grenade would be a nice addition for the future.

 

I moved my hand away from the explodey bits though. I didn’t want to destroy the thing. It wasn’t on the short list of what needed to be returned to Arasaka after all.

 

I jerked as it started firing. But to my amusement, he was shooting at one of the Wraiths trying to drive away. The Smart HMG round pelted the fleeing vehicle until it gave in and just rolled off into the brush.

 

Kill steal!

 

I looked towards the light leading to the pilot and shrugged. His Minotaur might be protected, but was he? So I assaulted him again with a Short Circuit, wondering if it would work. Then I started running.

 

Instantly the building was filled with buzzing bee-like rockets that went wild as they entered the building without a direct lock, and I slipped back out the other side again. Putting a whole building between us.

 

I glared as I watched my upload be blocked.

 

Yeah the driving system of the Minotaur must have some good Arasaka ICE as well.

 

I ignored the continued yells from the pilot as I looked around for something.

 

Then I spotted it.

 

Isaac’s Mizutani Shion was parked right there. The one with the Rocket Launcher on top.

 

I definitely heard the pounding of my heart in my ears, and felt some drool slipping down, but shook it off. No! I wanted my stompy bot!

 

But… It could be a good distraction.

 

I had klepped the guys’ shards downstairs. I searched my pockets until I found his key and slotted it. Annoyed that my Neural Link was getting a bit full. Gonna need an upgrade soon.

 

Then I ran over to the car and slipped into the driver’s seat.

 

I still didn’t want to blow shit up… But a distraction… Could I do that? I considered it, and then shrugged. It should be possible. I slipped into the car’s navigation computer, and quickly set out a few GPS coordinates that it should drive to going max speed, removing the limiter that kept the autopilot from refusing to go too fast. Then I jumped out, and booked it.

 

The Shion’s wheels ripped up dirt as it took off into the night. I raced to the building, jumping from ground to trash pile to the roof and then raced across. I was trying to outrun a car, and I made it just in time. The Shion raced pretty close to the Minotaur, causing the bot to jerk over and spool up its weapons before it simply didn’t fire.

 

Yeah shooting at your boss? Quick way to get flatlined. I leapt. Arcing into the night while the bot was distracted and landing on top of it, then leaping again. Sending me careening right into the storage unit on the truck. I grunted as I hit crates of junk, but I didn’t let the pain slow me.

 

I could hear the roar of the bot as the driver realized what had happened, and I jumped again, sending me over the crates, and into a small cubby section that a gangly fuck was fully distracted by the headset he was wearing.

 

I didn’t shoot, instead reaching out and ripping the headset off, causing him to scream and as he lost his control.

 

The knife sunk deep into his neck as he desperately tried to fend me off.

 

“Nice try choom. You gave me the most trouble out of all your people.” I offered him. A weak platitude as he slumped bleeding out from his torn apart neck.

 

“Robo getto!” I proclaimed grabbing the headset and then sighing as I put it back down.

 

I didn’t have time to figure this out. I walked back out. To hunt down the last few gonks that were still alive in the camp.

 

—–

 

I was sitting up on top of the building waiting for my chooms to arrive as I looked over my system alerts.

 

So many alerts!

 

I felt my smile spread across my face, stretching from ear to ear.

 

I hadn’t just gained one level.

 

I had actually gained two.

 

*Level up achieved!*

 

*One Stat Point Gained.*

 

*One Skill Point Gained.*

 

*Level up achieved!*

 

*One Stat Point Gained.*

 

*One Skill Point Gained.*

 

That gave me three stat points to play around with, and seven skill points.

 

Although a large part of me wanted to keep them either for future chrome, or to put them into Adaptation now. I think…

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

 

I think it was time to go beyond.

 

Intelligence 10 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

 

That was what my stats currently looked like with Intelligence.

 

Three stat points…

 

I shook it off, seeing the van and my Quadra driving down the road. I would do it. Soon, but not right now. Who knows what going beyond 10 would do to me.

 

I stood up and waved at my chooms as they turned and drove through the destroyed camp to park not far from the building.

 

I leapt as soon as they were parked, landing with a quiet puff of dirt as I rushed forward grabbing Ichi in a big hug.

 

“We did it!” I cried out delighted, spinning him around like he was a doll, before attacking Hiromi who was next closest.

 

Her eep of surprise was very cute as I twirled her around a whole bunch before setting her back on her unsteady feet and then leapt over the van to assault Malcolm, who tried to fend me off, but his reflex was far too low to stop me!

 

I laughed in delight as he groaned at my affection.

 

“Motoko! Look at this!” Ichi finally responded, looking around the camp at the massacre.

 

“Yeah it’s great! We got almost all of them! Fuck Wraiths!” I called out happily, arms shooting up in the air, and Hiromi as always was right there with me, thrusting her arm into the sky as well.

 

Of course that is when I turned and grabbed Malcolm in a bear hug.

 

“What’s with you shooting my Uragan huh!?” I demanded squeezing tightly far tighter than he could have expected, as his breath left him in a rush.

 

“Oh… That was me.” Hiromi called in from behind me and I eased up on Malcolm to look at Hiromi who was looking a little bashful. “I just thought it would be a good addition. It certainly stopped them from wanting to eeeee!” She squealed as I scooped her up and squeezed, pushing the air right out of her with my bear hug.

 

“Punishment hug!” I proclaimed as Hiromi’s legs kicked and her face went red from lack of air.

 

“Alright Motoko, leave Hiromi alone. She’ll die if you keep that up.” Ichi called out as he was looking over a dead Wraith kicking the corpse a little to make sure it was dead.

 

I let go of Hiromi listening to her whoop for more air as I walked over.

 

“Don’t worry. I double checked, everyone that didn’t run is dead.”

 

“Preem.” He said a little blankly, so I nudged his shoulder.

 

“These are bad guys, and think of all the eddies. We need to start gathering everything. Car shards. Eddies. Weapons. We can bring it all back to Night City and sell it off.

 

“That’s… A good… Idea!” Hiromi called out still gasping for breath.

 

“Oh! And we got the big truck we can use!” I called out pointing at the massive semi that was pulling the cargo container.

 

“Oh nova. A Militech Behemoth.” Ichi said, looking at it for a minute. “Only one problem. I don’t know how to drive that thing.”