Chapter 91

“So that’s the place Jackie.” I told the older man as we pulled up to the Scav den.

Ichi and Malcolm weren’t far behind. Hiromi wasn’t here this time, but that’s because she was at school, and super bummed that I had decided to hit this Scav den without her.

Instead I had asked Jackie if he wanted to join.

“Huh. You sure Hermanita? Doesn’t look like a Scav hole.”

“Yep. I’ve still got all their cameras infested. I’ve already looped the outside cameras so no worries on them spotting our approach! But yeah I can see them inside. Here, I’ll cut you into the feed.” I told him and he nodded as I hooked up our call to show the live feed inside the old office building.

Jackie had actually chipped in a new set of optics, and they had a connection speed high enough for me to direct video him.

Thank fuck.

“Not too many of them. Should be easy enough.” Jackie offered and I nodded along.

“Yeah normally I go slow and take them all out quietly, but considering how small this group is.” I shrugged. “Loud and quick?”

“That’s my normal style Hermanita.” He said, throwing me a big smile.

“Great. I’ll add a tracker into your sight for each of them. Let me get my iron, and let’s take this place out.” I said as I stepped out of the Quadra waving to Ichi who was parking just behind me, I went to the trunk of the Quadra, popping it open.

I really needed to do some work on this.

My trunk was a mess. Guns, and ammo, quite a bit of the ammo now loose and rattling around reached my eyes, and I noticed the weapon I was actually going for was stuck behind the big case my Uragan was resting in. Still needed to put that away. Temptation to use it was a bit too much for normal gigs.

I winced a bit. My Poor Nekomata was jammed behind the Uragan case as well. Okay tonight I was going to take a break from everything and organize my trunk space. This was embarrassing.

But I didn’t grab my Nekomata, or Uragan. Instead I grabbed another weapon that would suit this fight.

I usually relied on my Burya, because of stealth, but if we were going to hit them hard, then I was going to use something that would keep up with me.

I pulled my Nokota D5 Copperhead out of the trunk. The assault rifle was something I had picked up at some point… Was it the first Scav raid? I wondered…

I couldn’t remember!

I laughed to myself, I had collected so many weapons I had forgotten where half of them had even come from! I loaded up holding the rifle correctly, in a way that I would be able to quick-aim it monstrously fast if I needed, and then I turned to Jackie.

Jackie still just had his Nue.

“You want something a bit bigger?” I asked him, pointing at my trunk, but despite looking a little tempted he shook his head.

“This is my shooter, I won’t need another for a group this small.”

“Alright. Let’s go then!” I said bouncing a little as I started moving towards the gate that blocked off the entrance.

The gate was locked, and I didn’t even want to open it up yet considering how old it looked I’m sure it would be noisy.

Or trapped.

So I quickly leapt right over it, easily turning my leap into a front flip letting me land on the other side without a sound, as I fell to my knee, gun raised.

I felt so cool.

I did my best to ignore Jackie’s grumbling as he clambered as quietly as he could over the fence.

It wasn’t that quiet.

Thankfully the Scavs inside didn’t notice. Once he landed with a thump beside me, I raced off towards the entrance. Rifle held to my chest as I kept low and reached the entrance. I knew from the cameras that no one was inside, but it was good practice to always double check, so I was peeking into the entrance and waving Jackie behind me as I moved in.

That and it felt cool to be all tactical about it.

Not that I was going to admit that to anyone.

The office was two stories, and the Scavs were set up on the second floor. The elevator of course would be too loud, but the stairwell was easy enough to reach, and their security wasn’t exactly there to help them anymore.

I smiled as I tugged on the door and it opened, locks already disengaged.

“Nice work Hermanita.” Jackie whispered and I threw him a smile as we headed up the stairs. Just for fun I leapt, touching the concrete wall of the stairwell and then bouncing up and over the stairs skipping the whole stairs problem. In just a moment I was at the second floor door, waiting for Jackie to follow me up at a much slower pace.

Okay, the Serano may just be the most ‘fun’ Cyberware I’ve installed. That included the Cyberdeck.

Cyberspace was fun, but jump good was cool.

“Alright Conejita, let’s take it slow for poor Jackie.” He whispered when he caught up, and I chuffed soundlessly at him. Even if I had no idea what Conejita meant. Then I blinked and I was looking through the camera that showed the other side of the door.

The Scav group was small, only six chooms.

I sent the data to Jackie watching him perk up as he could see the lines targeting each Scav shooting through the wall.

His surprised look turned into a dark smirk.

I nodded and then slammed into the door.

No stealth on this run.

This was a firepower run. Hadn’t done this… Ever.

Rifle raised up I fired four rounds punching through the drywall and suddenly the light I had been using to aim winked out.

Shooting through walls was the best.

Jackie was moving Nue raised as he slammed into a door already firing at the gonk that was on the other side.

My Copperhead barked right alongside him.

While Jackie was rushing the entrance making a big noise my gun was just slamming rounds through the thin walls.

It was childsplay, and I enjoyed the noise of the alerts popping up in my head.

The actual fight only lasted a few moments. Between Jackie who killed two guys practically the moment he bum rushed the room proving he wasn’t a joke as a solo at all, and then my rifle shooting through the walls the Scavs died without much fight.

“You okay Jackie?”

“Just a scrape Hermanita. Won’t even need to see Vik. Got stopped by my jacket.” He chuckled flexing his right bicep where a round had definitely nicked him.

I nodded pleased as I went through the area making sure we hadn’t missed anyone. Only once did I need a double tap on a Scav that was trying to crawl away, leading a pool of blood behind him.

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“All clear!” I called out, pleased at the whole thing.

I hadn’t really needed Jackie, but it wasn’t about needing help for this gig, it was about setting up a relationship.

This was the first time I had shown Jackie how useful it would be to have me on a gig.

I had setup the location. Got numbers and targeting data. Solved basically everything to get him right where he needed to be to do the most damage, and most importantly!

“Ready for us?” Ichi called out from the stairwell.

“Yeah come on up. I’ll get the elevator working!” I called back to him, earning a confirmation in turn.

“So now what?” Jackie asked, looking around at the few crates of chrome that was now all ours.

“We wait around while Ichi and Malcolm load up. Just make sure no Scavs show up and ambush us, and then we go home, have a party, and let Hiromi sell the chrome, we get our cut and prep for the next gig.” I told him and he blinked at me before laughing.

“You got yourself a nice little system then eh? Who registers the bounties?” He asked and I frowned confused.

“Bounties?”

“On the gonks? Most of these guys have a few hundred eddie in bounties you know?”

“Oh yeah… The bounties… That I totally register… with the NCPD… Right?” I winced as Jackie gave me a look.

Then he burst into laughter.

What!? I don’t usually concern myself over a few hundred eddies! Plus you have to call the NCPD for that!

“You never registered bounties?”

“Nope. Well I called the NCPD once on a Scav den, but I was just letting them know there were bodies there. I delta’ed right after.

“Heh, jeeze, you clear out a Scav den in seconds, but then you go and say things like that. Reminds me you’re still a kid.” Jackie chuckled, but I wasn’t laughing along with him.

Dammit. This was supposed to be my chance to show how useful I was!

I sighed and shook my head. At least I had my four alerts for XP to tide me over.

*500 XP Gained.*

—–

To my surprise Jackie actually stuck around after we loaded everything up. He even helped out loading the chrome which went much faster with his strength. Thanks to his work we were done at lightning speed and on our way out of the den.

As we drove away Jackie made the calls to the NCPD bounty office, letting them know about the corpses, what they were up to, who they were, and that meat wagons would be needed.

Then as we dropped off the loot at the TC owned storage lot that was still under our control. Jackie still stuck around.

I was watching as Jackie joked with some of the TC enforcers hanging around getting laughs out of the entire group despite there being a large ‘tino shaped Jackie in the middle of their turf.

“What’s got you so focused?” Malcolm asked as he walked past me with an arm full of guns. Formerly Scav iron.

“Jackie. I expected the TC guys to be more aggressive about him.”

“Well he did come in with you, and he’s pretty friendly. Plus the fact he looks like he could take all of those guys at once means they probably don’t want to cause problems.”

“Yeah I guess, but I don’t think they are afraid of him, they are just enjoying his banter.” I chuckled as Jackie’s story ended with him throwing his arms up to mimic an explosion and all the guards laughed. I just shook my head.

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