Chapter 201

The intel was good. An old ripperdoc shop, long abandoned by the owner, had been taken over. The group had klepped a shipment from Kang Tao. Some proprietary data or whatever, and they wanted it back, but hadn’t managed to track down who stole it, so some middle manager had hired Regina who hired Hiromi.

 

Honestly I was pretty relaxed, slipping into their data stream was tetchy. Maelstrom always had more potential for running into a Netrunner than some other gangs.

 

But as I slipped inside, and did a quick numbers check from a rooftop across the street, looking through the interior camera from their unblinking eyes everything kept coming back as just like the mission prep.

 

About fifteen Maelstrom. No one with a massive danger level, all worked out of this shop gathering chrome from all over the city and using this place to chrome themselves up.

 

I had a bad feeling they weren’t professional rippers, and were probably just doing it through their amateur skills which was horrifying.

 

I’d have to visit Vik after this and pray to the prophet of safe chrome use.

 

*Okay, I’m in their security, uploading Ping.* I sent out, and my eyes were filled with golden lights that I uploaded to my team. Out of the corner of a camera I caught Rebecca and Malcolm huddling in the alley behind the shop, both of them ready.

 

*I’m moving.* Ichi confirmed, a moment later and I looked with my actual eyes to see his Van pulling out of the spot he had parked down the street and drove closer.

 

*We’re ready!” Rebecca called out and I nodded.

 

*Alright. Everyone! Operation Begin!* I demanded as I stood up and started running.

 

A lot happened right away.

 

I leapt, landing precariously on the traffic light across the street, balancing a little for a moment and then running across.

 

Ichi stopped his truck with a little tire squeal and the back doors opened up, both HMG’s activating.

 

Rebecca hopped up, using a bit of garbage they had piled up to climb up onto the trash bin and heft her LMG onto the old fence pointing into the building.

 

I was glad I had made sure there wouldn’t be any chance of Ichi’s HMG hitting them, thanks to the weird shape of the building they were at an angle to each other.

 

Then I leapt, and as I did I uploaded Weapon Glitch.Then I landed on the roof, rolled forward and the firing began. My Lexington raised up already silenced and I started firing, destroying the glass of the skylight, and sliding to a stop. My Burya raised to match my Lexington, and I started firing from above into the Maelstrom that were still alive taking cover behind what little they could find.

 

*500 XP Gained.*

 

*500 XP Gained.*

 

*500 XP Gained.*

 

*500 XP Gained.*

 

I smirked as the XP came in, four shots each confirming a kill with the Burya as the Lexington did what it could as well, and then I rolled away from the window as return fire hit my position. Rolling a bit to get some distance I confirmed everything was working well.

 

*Grenades.* I called over the line, and Malcolm did his job. He wasn’t just there to help Rebecca after all. A moment later the inside of the shop started exploding as he tossed grenade after grenade inside until every golden light went out.

 

*I’m going in to clear, safety those HMG’s Ichi.*

*Roger that. Going to move so I’m not in the middle of the street.* He called out, and I already heard his roller door on his truck coming down as he started driving away to keep an eye out.

 

I jumped down through the skylight. Weapons raised as I checked the corner, but I was already fairly confident it was clear.

 

I looked over the bodies and whistled. That wasn’t just normal Maelstrom gear. They had some actual hardware. Must be what they klepped from the Kang Tao.

 

Looks like Section 9 was getting some more gear. I ignored that for now, and started searching. Plenty of equipment was destroyed from our surprise attack, but I had found what I suspected was the laptop that they had checked the stolen data from, and it was in a small side room. It had been safe-ish from grenades.

 

I finished checking all the rooms and joined up with Rebecca and Malcolm as they came in, before I relaxed.

 

“Looks all clear.”

“Preem! Look at that! Eee! I’ve always wanted a Zhuo!” Rebecca actually squealed as she set her Constitutional Arms Defender LMG onto the concrete barely treating it gently as she hefted the Smart Shotgun and started cackling.

 

“Keep an eye for traps!” I reminded her and Malcolm before I turned towards the small office and slipped inside.

 

The laptop inside was hooked up to all sorts of firewall hardware. Honestly all this equipment was expensive stuff, and I was already planning on calling for the boys to haul it all away.

 

Additional computing hardware to protect yourself while checking on a dangerous shard? That was valuable.

 

I did one quick check using the data Regina gave me, confirming the data file I was looking for was present, and popped the Kang Tao Harddrive that they had rigged up to everything. Slipped it into a pouch in my armor. *Hiromi we have retrieved the target.*

 

*Nova. I’ll message Regina. We didn’t get a-*

*Shit! Incoming!* Ichi shouted out and I moved. Bringing my Burya up as I raced out of the small room. Rebecca was already jumping into cover. The same cover the poor Maelstrom had used until I attacked from above, but Malcolm was sort of hesitating.

 

I took it all in and my eyes caught what was happening. I activated my Sandy and moved.

 

Bullets started shooting through the front window, but it wasn’t normal gunfire. Smart rounds. I took it in, and turned up my armor’s ECM, the light would make me a bigger target, but if bullets were homing it was better than nothing. A moment later I was hitting Malcolm, both of us went sprawling, but hopefully behind enough cover the rounds would miss.

 

*ACTIVATE ECM!* I roared over our line and rose up realizing I was still in Sandy time.

 

Fuck.

 

I fired ,Kang Tao orange armor not standing up to angry Burya fire and dropping soldiers with every shot.

 

As I fired I started hacking. Weapon Glitch would certainly help, but Kang Tao weren’t off the street gonks. They had some actual defenses, and before I could finish it happened.

 

I didn’t make it back into cover without return fire. My ECM was working. Smart Rounds went wide and spiraling off, but that wasn’t a perfect solution. I felt a round impact my chest rig, right around my ribs, and then as I was knocked sideways, a spider crack blurred my vision. I landed hard, but rolled into cover.

 

Return fire started Rebecca firing her new toy, and Malcolm scrambled for his gun. I was a bit stunned for a moment as the Sandy cycled and I realized the reason my vision was so fucked was because a smart round had hit my helmet.

 

I pressed a hand against the hole and relaxed as I realized while I felt a bit concussed I wasn’t bleeding.

 

*Incoming!* Ichi called out again and I really worried that we were about to be hit by more enemies when I heard a massive crash outside. I peaked up and then started firing.

This narrative has been purloined without the author’s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

 

Ichi had crashed into the Kang Taos stupid little orange minivan they had come out of, and that had been enough of a distraction. Then Malcolms grenade went off and I flinched back.

 

Oh. He hadn’t been scrambling for a gun, but for another grenade.

 

“Good job.” I called out a few moments later when I realized they weren’t getting back up. And then I activated the Sandy again and charged.

 

The Kang Tao van was still occupied, just busy dealing with Ichi’s less than an accident. I pulled one of my own grenades from my chest rig and jumped, landing on the hood of Ichi’s Van.

 

*Ichi! Reverse!* I demanded and a moment later the truck peeled backwards escaping the Kang Tao’s van. With a little extra that I tossed in once there was an opening. The grenade popped and the entire little orange van bumped and I got a surge of alerts that I would check later.

 

Instead I raised my gun pointing at the van.

 

*Let’s go! In the truck now!” I demanded and not long after Rebecca and Malcolm both pulled themselves out of the shop, Both of them looked like they had been hit, but that would have to wait as they hurried as fast as they could and jumped into Ichi’s truck. I crawled over to the passenger side and slipped in, as Ichi floored it.

 

—–

 

“An explanation would be nice!” I growled holding an ice pack to my head. I hadn’t managed to slip a Max Doc between Ichi in the cab, and Hiromi fussing over me at Viks.

 

Malcolm was okay, just a big purple bruise growing across his shoulder where a round had slammed into him, but Rebecca got actually nicked.

 

I looked over at her, where she was doing everything she could to not pay attention to the way Vik was cleaning out a bullet hole in her leg.

 

“I don’t know either!” Hiromi said back, but she was just as pissed as I was. “Regina hasn’t gotten back to me since the attack.”

 

“That bitch. She’s the fucking cursed fixer. If I find out she did this, all those defenses at her stupid little hidey hole aren’t going to save her.” I promised, and despite the fact I just threatened a fixer, Hiromi nodded.

 

Then her eyes went gold and she held up a hand, her face turning into an angry glare as she spoke.

 

Ah, so Regina had called us finally.

 

I looked over, and everyone was okay. So I rested back and closed my eyes.

 

*500 XP Gained.*