Chapter 40

I really should have stayed home tonight.

 

We had gone out to hit a Maelstrom attack. Apparently, someone had managed to get information that the Strom were going to hit a Tyger Claw business, specifically a little gun shop that supplied quite a few Tyger Claws with firearms.

 

So Kamikaze were sent to take out the attack. What that entailed was everyone piling into four cars in a nearby alley and being as quiet as possible as we waited.

 

Which meant putting a group of budding Cyberpsychoes into close proximity to each other with the anxiety of future conflict.

 

I was with Jun and Akari again and just with that, I was ready to kill someone. Akari was getting snippy. Jun was surprisingly handling his anger really well.

 

Honestly he was handling Akari poking him with her sharp feet, or continuously trying to turn on the radio over and over despite all of us supposed to be quiet really well.

 

I however was not.

 

Akari kept pushing her passenger seat back into me, and whenever I moved behind Jun she would start trying to poke ME with her feet blades.

 

I was half a minute away from bashing my Nekomata in the back of her head to get some peace, when both Jun and Akari stilled.

 

I glanced around the seat, both of their eyes were yellow.

 

I rolled my eyes at not being included and just leaned back Jun would tell me what the call was about.

 

“Alright, the Maelstrom trucks are a minute out. Get ready.” Jun said and I nodded.

 

Then I instantly opened the door to Jun’s shock.

 

“Motoko?” He whispered at me as I climbed out.

 

“I’ll be on the roof. I’ll wait for you guys to start attacking before firing.” I tell them, pointing to the old buildings we were parked between, I could get up onto the roof and have an overwatch position. If you were willing to do a couple of tricky leaps.

 

I stuck the Nekomata over my shoulder and rushed away before Jun could say anything else.

 

I was honestly needing my own space. Akari was fun in short doses.

 

Short doses.

 

I tightened my gloves as I started climbing up the building. Sliding from a dumpster to an AC unit, then along the window ledge to jump to the next floor, where I grabbed an overhand and climbed up with a bit of effort.

 

Parkour made it a simple process of just pulling myself up after a jump each jump and leap climbing me higher and higher in the shortest time.

 

Then I was on the roof, and I hurried to overlook the Tyger Claw shop. Crouching up to the edge, I pulled off my Nekomata and started checking it over. Gun Nut already told me it was fine, but knowing, and ‘Knowing’, are two different things. Loaded, with the safety off, I rose up, having already chosen the best place to keep myself completely out of view. A shade from a sign put me entirely into shadow, and the brick I was pushed up against was colorful from Graffiti, so I would be invisible without a lot of attention.

 

I eased my eye over the scope. I could hear them.

 

The Maelstrom trucks were old beaters, hyper tuned monsters, or just loud. Loud and driven angrily.

 

They came around the corner in a mess, two of them even scraping against each other as they took the turn too sharply but neither driver seemed to care. The cavalcade roared down the street stopping around the shop, the Maelstrom actually managing an okay semi circle around it, to isolate it.

 

I waited. Kiroshi already scanning the gangsters. My NCPD File Search letting my scan not just tell me what the Strom were using for weapons, and some of their Cyberware, but also their rap sheet.

 

The more I scanned the more I smiled.

Cleaning up scum was a duty to all lovers of Peace and Justice after all. I scanned them as I waited, nothing really surprising popping out.

 

Murder, kidnapping and illegal squatting.

 

But I waited.

 

The Maelstrom borgs were hollering as if they already won, as they stepped out, a few guns firing into the air, or into the front of the shop seemingly just for fun.

 

I waited.

 

And then finally as the door opened, it happened.

 

The first Borg to try and enter got ripped apart as an HMG began firing from within the building. Instantly the Maelstrom jumped for cover and started firing back into the store. The forceful response more than the borgs expected.

 

Which is when I saw them.

 

Kamikaze, rushing in head first from behind. I sighed as I kept both eyes open, one through the scope, and one without as I watched, waited.

 

The first Maelstrom to notice the enemies at his back and turn around, was my target. His shotgun was raised.

 

I exhaled, a stream of what felt like freezing air escaping my lips. It was so easy.

 

My scope was already adjusted for range.

 

My arms held perfectly still. I couldn’t design a better weapons platform than my own body at that moment. I pulled the trigger.

 

The borg lost his head, his Shotgun falling out of his hands as his body followed. Bleeding out across the pavement.

 

I specifically ignored the alerts coming through. Making sure they wouldn’t be caught on the BD I was scrolling.

 

I shifted, my firing had unfortunately caused a few of the Maelstrom gonks to turn around hearing the rifle, but Kamikaze were on them now. Jun just behind Fujimura. Katana blazing red as he leapt over the back of one of the pickups, cutting down the Maelstrom gonk that was standing up on the bed, and then putting himself into the group.

 

But I was overwatch and I saw everything.

 

The Kamikaze gonkhead that hadn’t properly checked his ass and didn’t notice the driver of one of the trucks step out and start aiming at his back. The Kamikaze was punching a borg into scrap despite the body being quite dead. Hazards of Cyberpsychos I supposed.

 

Then I fired.

 

The driver slammed face first into his truck’s rear door, as my round burst through his chest, he slipped to the pavement without resistance.

 

I shifted again.

 

It was funny. I rarely tended to use rifles, but with all of my skills and perks. They did synergize well. I fired again.

 

The gonk that Fujimura was wrestling with, had been just as big as the angry Kamikaze leader. They had tangled on the floor each trying to rip the other apart with their cyberware and strength.

 

I had a clear shot and took it. The Maelstroms spider like head came apart in two splattering Fujimura in white borg blood.

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I moved on, uncaring that I could see Fujimura’s angry glare looking towards me.

 

But instead of firing I dropped. A barrage of bullets slamming into my previous position, I rolled along completely unbothered by the stone shrapnel as I kept the Nekomata closed.

 

Chrome arms made rolling on the ground surprisingly painless.

 

The burst of automatic fire was pulled away, but that was all I needed. As soon as it stopped I sprung up. Jogging sideways along the edge of the rooftop, stealth no longer needed, lining up the shot, the gonk that had just shot at me, while still distracted as he was being shot at, noticed and started aiming towards me.

 

Too slow.

 

I fired.

 

The fucker ducked away just in time his own response wildly missing even when mine punched a quarter sized hole into the side of the truck he was now taking cover behind.

 

I didn’t wait. My hands already dancing, as I grabbed another magazine from a hip pouch, dropping the empty magazine, and slamming the new one home. I was already aiming in once I stabilized from the reload I fired. Punching through the truck, and the moron that thought a few bits of car siding would stop a tech Sniper Rifle.

 

I didn’t stop moving, instead focusing on my next target, but it was already over.

 

Kamikaze were tearing the last few Maelstrom members into pieces.

 

A quick look over the battlefield to make sure no one was playing dead, and I nodded.

 

Mission complete.

 

I threw the Nekomata over my shoulder taking a moment to scope out my path and leapt off the side of the building, landing on a sign, I slipped off that to another lower sign, and then onto a ledge of the building, then simply stepped off and landed on the concrete.

 

I exhaled.

 

That felt good.

 

I took a moment to glance at the alerts after I shut off the BD scrolling. Looking through the list of alerts, very pleased with what I saw.

 

*500 XP Gained.*

 

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

 

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

 

*500 XP Gained.*

 

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

 

*Assault skill level up!*

 

*1 Perk Point Gained.*

 

*1000 XP Gained.*

 

*100 Assault XP Gained.*

 

*500 XP Gained.*