When we finally stepped out of the elevator, we were greeted by several self-driving golf cart-esque vehicles, each with enough room for two people and cargo. We climbed on board, and Samwise entered a destination into the vehicle's navigation system. Moments later, the vehicle pulled away at a surprisingly fast speed, startling a few of us in the process.
We sped along the massive underground space, eventually passing by a few of the larger production buildings. We got a glimpse inside each factory, which was filled with hundreds of molly makers, and staffed with even more MRVNs. I could only imagine that it continued on the other floors, a level of custom production capabilities that was hard to fathom.
After passing two of the four massive production buildings, we entered the large-scale production area, where we could see giant molly makers printing out panels that appeared to be the exterior of a building, most likely for the meeting structure being built at the Ridge. Each one was printed pre-packaged inside a protective shell, and would likely need a custom teleporter to be sent to its destination.
After production, came storage, with one area allocated for each side, each divided into two parts. One stored finished products hot off the presses from production. At the moment, that area was mostly empty, save for more parts destined for Rocky Ridge. The other half consisted of massive blocks of feed for the thousands of molly makers. These were stacked high with hundreds of thousands of tons of metal blocks, probably left over from carving this massive space in the first place.
Finally, we passed through the storage area and arrived at the deployment zone. Most of the area was taken up by dozens of Cargo VTOLs, hundreds of shades, and a few dozen heavies. The shades were armed with mag rifles, all of which were updated to current standards, while the heavies held large magazine machine guns and shoulder-mounted launchers. Some of them had larger rifles, like sniper rifles that were larger than a person. Those were designed to pick off armored aircraft or other hard-to-hit or heavily armored targets. In truth, with the right data being fed into them, they could likely take down a jet clear across Night City.
Coming around the corner into the deployment zone, we could see several buildings, relatively small, simple structures with wide doors, styled after Quonset huts. Each one was clearly labeled "Weapons," "Gear," "Power Armor," and more. We pulled alongside the buildings, each of us stepping off the golf carts.
"Alright, everyone… suit up," I said, gesturing to the buildings, before stepping towards the power armor building.
Once we were inside, those of us going on a mission started getting into our armored underlayers, a few MRVNs helping Gloria. She had logged several hours in both the under armor and the power armor between the last few days, but putting them on was still relatively new to her, since she had only done it a few times. Once our underlayer was on, we all climbed into our mechs, the powerful machines sealing around us, moving perfectly with us as they activated.
After we were all encased in protective and enhancing armor, we armed up, passing out weapons and ammo, followed by items like grenades, med kits, and other equipment. I was particularly excited to finally try the fusion sword design I had first made so long ago. As with a lot of my early tech, Samwise had been slowly upgrading and updating the designs behind the scenes as new tech arrived, which meant the sword was now more like a greatsword, but matched perfectly with our power armor. I happily wore it clipped to my back, just barely resisting the urge to try it out on a spare shade.
Out of everyone, Gloria had the most extensive kit, including two types of medical scanners, extra stimpaks, a few armor-piercing stimpaks that Samwise designed, as well as a more mundane, but still extensive, first aid kit. She was also rocking a massive mag shotgun, something Samwise specially designed for her. Apparently, she was most comfortable around a shotgun and had a reputation for being a terror when holding one.
Personally, I had never seen the point, not when my mag weapons already covered everything shotguns were designed to do. Massive slugs? Grab a mag cannon. Wide bullet spread? Grab a submachine. Perhaps I was being overly critical, and my lack of real combat training was showing. Either way, even if I didn't understand, I wasn't going to deny someone their preference, especially not when I didn't need to be involved.
Judging how she was stroking her new weapon with an eager smile, I was glad I kept my mouth shut. I had to imagine it had been a long time since she had shot one, and she had missed it.
In total, it took twenty-five minutes for everyone to get locked and loaded, with around half of that time spent double-checking that everyone was stocked and that everything was in working order. When we were done, everyone gathered together.
"Alright, guys. This is the next step," I said. "Murtaugh is going to be guiding our unmanned forces, while we attack the All Foods Factory. That's where most of the leadership will hopefully be. Once we crush that, we move on to the docks. I have a feeling that the docks will actually have more people, but either way, we need to take each location seriously."
"What sort of resistance are we looking at?" Gloria asked, her voice crystal clear through our entangled-photon communication system. "It's been a while since I've fought Maelstrom."
In the game, the All Foods Factory was part of a mission you did in the early game, as part of the introduction chapter. That meant you were under-equipped and under-chromed, unless you were really pushing the game's mechanics. That meant that the fake meat plant was filled with redshirts with crappy weapons and paper armor.
It was very unlikely that that would be true here. This was where the leader of the entire gang called home. There was no doubt this would be filled with the most dangerous psychos they had.
"It's unlikely we will run into anything we can't handle, but this won't be a walk in the park," I pointed out. "Maelstrom is a gang of borderline or straight-up cyberpsychos. They will have a lot of chrome, a lot of it custom, and that means they will be tougher to kill. I also expect some borgs, and while it's not likely to be common, be on the lookout for some stray bits of advanced cyberware, guns, or other combat tech. Maelstrom has a habit of stealing from people they shouldn't and getting away with it."
"What about the warehouse district?" Jackie asked.
"Since civilians are almost guaranteed to be low there, our shades and heavies will be handling that raid," I explained. "Once we finish clearing the plant and the docks, we can head over to the warehouses to make sure everything is set. After that, we wait for the MRVNs to show up. Once things calm down, we will split up and lead teams of shades to lesser Maelstrom locations, pushing them from our territory. Any more questions?"
I looked around at everyone, and when no one spoke, I gave a thumbs-up.
"Then it looks like we are good to go," I said, before looking over at Samwise, David, and Sable. "You guys are more than welcome to watch from the security hub at Rocky Ridge. Or you could catch some sleep, lord knows we'll need it over the next few weeks. Either way, Sam will guide you back."
Sable nodded while David still looked annoyed that he couldn't join us. While Murtaugh started guiding our robot army into the Cargo VTOLs, Sable approached me, tapping on my chest.
"I know that's not actually you in there," she said, red nails catching on my armor plating. "But be careful. Keep your people safe and don't pull your punches just cause you're wearing a body suit."
She seemed a bit unsure as she told me to be careful, so I held back my joking comments, instead nodding seriously.
"I'll be back before you know it," I assured her. "Keep an eye on David for me. He is a smart kid, just a bit impulsive."
"Will do."
Before she pulled back, she made some sort of motion with her fingers, and as she tapped my chest again, this time she carved a small S on one of the plates, just about over my heart. When she was done, she pulled her hand back, a faint dusting of pink colored her pale cheeks. Rather than say anything, she turned and walked away, climbing into one of the golf carts with David and Sam. As they left, I raised my hand over the metal plate, smiling before turning to focus on the task at hand. So far, most of the shades and heavies had been loaded up, leaving us to pick from the remaining empty craft.
We piled into one of the empty VTOLs, the back hatch closing after us, the lights flipped on as we were sealed inside. Along one wall, a screen activated, giving us a view of what the "cockpit" was seeing, which for now was just the VTOL in front of it. I looked around the interior, reaching out to grip one of the many interior anchor points. This whole craft was designed to carry and spit out entire cargo containers at once, so there was plenty of room for us, though there were not a lot of internal comforts.
"I need to make a version of these designed for people," I said.
"The screen is a nice touch," Jackie pointed out, standing right beside me in his power armor. "Might feel a bit claustrophobic without it."
"Thank Samwise for that," I said, tapping the screen with a thick metal finger to zoom out a bit. "Alright, everyone set?"
After a few words of confirmation, I nodded and sent a message to Murtaugh to start the deployment. Just a few moments later, we could feel the cargo shuttle hum with power. From the screen's perspective, I could see that we, as well as a dozen or so ships around us, floated about two feet off the ground, our grav plates active.
"Activating teleport in fifteen seconds," a robotic voice warned. "Please grasp and lock handholds."
As they rose off the ground, I could see under each VTOL was a teleport pad, the catcher that would bring the VTOL back to the deployment area at the press of a button.
Suddenly, all the VTOLs around vanished, a wireframe representation appearing on the screen to indicate their location. After a few more seconds, starting at the far corner of the group, VTOL wireframes began disappearing, one after the other, in a flash I recognized as a teleport. I carefully checked that my power armor was firmly locked onto a secure point, scanning around to make sure everyone else was as well, when Jackie caught my attention.
"Hey, Jackson," Jackie said as we watched the cargo transports disappear. "You said your teleport stuff only works when you have a catcher device… so how are we getting out of here?"
"Well… I assume Noah set up some sort of catcher system in the badlands," I responded, bringing my armored hand up to scratch my helmet, an instinctive movement I stopped about halfway through. "But that's a good question. I-"
Suddenly we all shifted, the sensation of a teleport washing over us, muted heavily due ot the multiple layers surrounding us. What wasn't muted was the sudden sensation of no longer being the right way up. Instead, we were now pointing downward, with the screen showing a sheer cliff face. Immediately, we began to fall, our armors locking firmly to the latch points we had all grabbed. We continued to plummet, our grav plates keeping us from slamming into the cliff face before all of our thrusters kicked in, slowly blending out our fall until we were tearing across the badlands at a breakneck pace, only a hundred feet or so above the ground.
The group, once it was clear we weren't about ot die, was silent for a long moment, pointedly ignoring the terrified screams we had just released. Eventually, once we had all recovered, Kaytlyn spoke up.
"I am going to break all of Noah's limbs," She said, clenching her teeth. "After stranding him in the desert."
"I certainly have words for Samwise," I agreed, my hearts quickly returning to their normal paces. "He could have warned us as well."
The rumble of the thrusters was significantly more noticeable than the grav plates, but they slowly receded to a tolerable level once we leveled out and reached a cruising speed. Ahead of us, we could see the wireframes of the other VTOLs, all headed straight for Night City, which was significantly further away than we had been at Rocky Ridge. In fact, a quick check of my mental map of the area revealed that we were coming from an entirely different direction, which was smart since I didn't want people to think that the small town was somehow providing all the materials we were using. It was better if people assumed it was getting delivered from somewhere else, which was actually true.
"So what are the chances we get spotted?" Kaytlyn asked casually, now leaning against the wall of the cargo shuttle.
"With the naked eye? Almost zero," I assured her. "And that includes cyberware. We've made some good progress with stealth systems. I don't really know what kind of sensors they might have in Arasaka Tower, but we will steer well clear of that. Besides, the stealth is more about helping them make excuses as to why they can't track us when we teleport."
Night City grew larger and larger as we approached, until finally we were flying over it. I flicked the screen's focus down so we could watch the streets below us, watching the few cars on the road make their way around their business. In only a few seconds, we were heading around Westbrook.
"The VTOLS will be splitting up in a few seconds," Murtaugh warned me through the comms. "They will pick up speed to land around the same time as you."
"Understood, Murtaugh," I responded, nodding despite the fact that he couldn't see me. "Bring us in safe."
After a final confirmation, the majority of the cargo VTOLs pulled ahead of us, leaving four behind flying alongside us. After a few seconds, we began to descend, though our ride shifted away from our escorts. The shuttles carrying the shades and heavies slowly descended to the roads and parking lots around the factory. There, the robots would pour out and form a perimeter around the building. Their mission was twofold. One, they keep civilians away, clearing out anyone who might be sniffing around or taking refuge anywhere dangerous. Two, they would be keeping the Maelstrom inside, killing anyone who tried to escape.
Meanwhile, our VTOL hovered over the building itself, slowly descending and maneuvering into place. Inside, all of us were watching through the display screen.
The factory was enormous, extending far beyond what was visible in the game, with several different manufacturing stages spread throughout the facility. It was all defunct, closed down for barely a month before Maelstrom moved in and took it over. The closing and takeover was recent enough that some of the automatic functions of the facility were still working, half producing what it could with what materials it had.
I could only imagine the stench outside our carefully sealed suits, as no doubt thousands of pounds of fake meat was left to rot.
We could see the VTOLs suddenly revealing themselves just fifty feet off the ground, scaring the crap out of civilians and startling at least one Cop. Thankfully, Murtaugh was able to speak through the robot and knew precisely what legalese he needed to spout in order to keep the cops from swarming.
"Peremiter at seventy percent and climbing," Murtaugh said, the AI easily keeping track of us and all other assets in the field. "Suggest you make your move, Sir."
"Roger that," I responded. "Open us up."
The VTOL shuddered as the back hatch split vertically, opening up to the open air of Night City.
"Alright, everyone, time to move!" I said.
As I shouted, I ran towards the back of the hatch, passing by everyone with Jackie hot on my heels. Riggs was right behind him, and Rebecca was right behind him, leaping from the shuttle with a shout of joy. Gloria and Kaytlyn followed behind, both of them locked in and ready. Together we plummeted towards the building below, falling nearly forty feet before my boots smashed through a skylight and we plunged into one of the larger open rooms of the factory.
Glass shattered around us as we fell, our jump packs keeping us vertical and slowing us down as we passed through into the large production room below. Before we had even hit the ground, Jackie and I raised our mag rifles and opened fire, the large, power armor versions tearing through a trio of chromed-out punks. Two of them had replaced their eyes the same way that most Maelstrom did, and the other didn't even have a mouth.
We moved forward as our boots hit the ground, shifting to seek cover along a line of crates, dumping a trio of bullets into a ganger with massive cyberware arms, holding a Carnage. Behind me, I could hear the others touching down, their weapons opening up, spitting metal slugs as fast as they could pull their triggers.
By the time Kaytlyn touched down on the roof, looking down into the large open space with her rifle, the two dozen Maelstrom bastards were finally awake, screaming and shouting as they returned fire. Several of them charged, holding various melee weapons, only two of them blurring as they engaged their Sandevistans or Kerenzikovs. The one who charged without the benefit of speedware was almost immediately cut in half by Gloria's shotgun, the woman turning and blowing the arm off of another ganger.
The two who engaged their speedware made a beeline for Rebacca, only for Jackie to zip out from cover beside me, his Sandy vastly outperforming the other two. He slammed his axe, a much larger and sturdier version, into the metal skull of one of the Maelstrom goons. The third slipped to a stop beside Rebecca, prepared to cut into her with their cut-o-matic, only for the short power armor-clad gremlin to catch the saw, sparks spraying as it tried to cut through her armor.
Instead, she crushed the weapon like a toy before slamming the handle through the offending Maelstrom member's chest. She then finished him off with a point-blank shotgun blast, pulverizing the violent gangster.
I could only imagine what would have happened if she had taken him down with her mag cannon, which she originally wanted to bring. Luckily, we were able to convince her to go with the newly minted mag shotgun design.
Which I had to admit, I was starting to warm up.
Slowly but surely, the sounds flashes of gunfire were overwhelmed and replaced by the sounds of our weapons, until finally there was no one else shooting at us. As I looked around the room, confirming that all threats were down, I waved up at Kaytlyn, who jumped down from the roof, landing with a soft thump.
"Jackie, you're with me, to the elevator," I said, both of us already moving. "Gloria, Kaytlyn, push into shipping and clear it out. Rebecca and Riggs, the same for the office space. Jackie and I will push into R&D. Ready? Go!"
The pairs split off at a jog, with Kaytlyn and Gloria jumping up to the second-floor level, Gloria shoulder-checking through a thin door, while Ravecca and Riggs disappeared as well. Jackie and I quickly pushed into the elevator, riding it up just past the second floor, where, in the game, V and Jackie meet with Maelstrom higher-ups.
If their leaders were here, that was where they would be.
For a moment, we waited for the large door to open, but when that failed, I pulled a thick coil of rubber hose from my back. I quickly unwound it and slapped it against the door, stretching it into a large vertical oval. I then tapped on a small fixture, which started blinking.
"Get in the corner, Jackie," I said. "Lock up your suit."
Jackie nodded, hunkering down slightly in the far corner of the elevator, only a handful of feet away from the door. His suit shifted as it sealed any gaps a pressure wave could leak through, locking his suit up in the process. He wouldn't be able to move, but he wouldn't be affected by the imminent explosion's blast.
When he was locked, I moved to stand between him and the door, shielding him as best as I possibly could, before locking my own suit, feeling the joints and flex points of my armor tense and harden. My doppelganger was disposable, so on the off chance this explosion managed to damage us, I would be shielding Jackie.
Only ten seconds after I pressed the activator, the breaching charge detonated, punching through the door like aluminum foil. I got to watch in real time as an explosion and blast wave filled the elevator, blowing out the shutter door and singeing the front of my armor black. The ball of fire and wave of dust was accompanied by shards of shrapnel, slamming into me with various levels of force. My suit threw up several warnings, but none of them more than damage plating, so I ignored them. Instead, I laughed, slid my rifle onto my back, and drew my sword, charging through the breach.
The other side of the destroyed door was red-lit chaos, though not everyone was affected. Three or four goons were stumbling around, clutching at broken or missing pieces of themselves. There was a netrunner lying back on a cooling dive chair, with a piece of the door embedded in their chest. There were also three obvious borgs, all three of which were already turned towards the door and ready, pulling guns and grabbing weapons, as well as two heavily chromed bastards using an overturned and smoldering couch as cover.
With a lazy flick of my glowing fusion sword, I easily beheaded the nearest stumbling goon, before charging forward. Jackie zipped in around me, dropping a pair of grenades on the couch, before immediately zipping away. He stopped behind one of the borgs, the one standing most off by himself, both his pistols drawn. The second he skidded to a stop, he unloaded, the massive mag pistols punching holes in the borg's back, though the target didn't seem to be significantly affected.
Meanwhile, Jackie's grenades detonated, and I ran through the shrapnel, jumping over the couch and stabbing forward with my sword, the fusion blade punching through one of the borg's chests. I yanked it sideways, cutting out through his shoulder before coming around and slamming the blade into his other side, cutting his arm off below the elbow and cutting into his torso before my blade was stopped.
The borg screamed, his arms disabled before he could even attack, and yet he still charged me, lowering his intact shoulder like he was going to ram into me. I activated my jump kit, boosted backward, yanking my weapon free and making some distance. The gangster must have thought I was retreating, so he kept coming, not expecting me to skid until my feet made contact with a locker, then using added leverage to push, leaping forward in a low dive, slashing forward with even more force.
My sword slashed completely through borg, cutting him in half along his waist, but as it did, I could immediately feel something was wrong with my sword. The fusion edge flickered and sparked before giving out completely. As I looked down at the blade, I could see it was cracked and broken, bent just at the handle. I knew the sword was built with just about the best materials we could manage, but it just couldn't handle the force I was putting into it.
With a curse, I dropped the sword, hopping over the bisected borg, forced to duck under a massive swing from the other. I tried to dodge his next swing, but the bastard I had just cut in half was grabbing at my legs, and I was forced to tank a punch. I managed to pull my pistol and press the barrel against the standing borg's chest as I leaned forward into the blow, not away from it. I could feel my already damaged armor plates creak and bend under the force, but they held long enough for me to mag dump into the borg's chest.
The hulking, chrome stuffed Maelstrom member, the one that was still standing, rocked back under the barrage of high caliber bullets, which was enough time for me to raise my foot and slam it down on the first borgs head, once, twice, then three times, crumpling their metal head until they finally stopped tying to grapple my legs, slumping to the ground.
Immediately, its comrade was on me, trying his best to shove me back, but now that I was on stable ground, there was nothing he could do. I had a good half a foot on him, and while his punches were starting to get through my armor, I was still relatively undamaged.
After taking two hits, I was finally ready to hit back, so I backhanded his guard open as he swung wild, balled my fist, and slammed it into the patch of bullet holes in his chest. The weakened armor crumpled, and as I hit him again and again, it gave out entirely, allowing me to slam my fist into his chest and tear out a whole string of connected tech. Sparked jumped out of the hole, and his left side slumped slightly, staggering him just long enough for me to grab a grenade from my belt, prime it, and punch it into the hole in his chest.
The Maelstrom goon screamed and tore at the hole with his good hand, stumbling for the full five count of the grenade, before it finally went off. The resulting explosion tore out a whole chunk of his body, spraying the area, including me, with oil, coolant, and artificial blood.
I stepped back away from the mess that I wrought, psychosomatically breathing heavily in my power armor. I quickly checked both my targets, as well as the two smaller goons that Jackie had dropped grenades on during the beginning of the fight, before turning to see how Jackie was doing. The Night City native was half-sitting, half-leaning on a broken control panel, his borg smashed face first almost all the way through it. His axe was buried in the bastard's back, the borg still sparking occasionally.
"Took you long enough," he said, his smirk audible through the comms. "Thought I was actually going to need to help."
"We can't all be as badass as you, Jackie," I said, shaking my head, before looking around the room. "You ready to move?"
"Yeah, stimpaks already done," He commented, gesturing to his side.
Somehow, I had missed a chunk of his armor being damaged, and a bit of blood spatter around it. I stepped closer to inspect it, but he waved me off.
"Seriously, Choom, already healed," He assured me. "I'm not stupid, and I couldn't stop the suit from fixing me even if I tried. You can lead us through the rest, I'll cover you."
I nodded, and together we made our way around the room, heading to our next target.
Together, Jackie and I tore through the R&D section of the facility, walking through several labs and demolishing the Maelstrom hiding within them. Their forces were scattered and disorganized, stuck between trying to retreat and hunker down for cover. Neither of them would have done them any good, but trying to somehow do both made them easy targets.
Several of the research rooms were set up as bedrooms, as well as a ripper station that looked more like a torture chamber than a place for medical procedures, especially since the on-staff ripper looked like they had fallen into a pile of broken cyberware at terminal velocity and decided they liked the look.
We even took down the leader of the gang, a fucker named Brick, who I could only identify since he was shouting, "Do you know who I am?" as he ran from us, and was nice enough to answer when I called back, "No, who are you?"
The running leader attempted to use his people as meat shields so he could escape, only to get his body mulched as he managed to get outside and run headfirst into a group of shades. They made quick work of him, barely even hesitating to put him down.
When the building was completely secure, I fielded some questions from the police, who were shockingly accommodating considering we had basically engaged in a paramilitary campaign against Maelstrom. Sable had assured me it would be fine, and any questions I couldn't answer, I referred back to her, allowing the police to assume I was just some metalhead soldier with just enough information to keep from being shot at.
While we were executing the Maelstrom inside, the police had, relatively efficiently, cordoned off the area and encouraged civilians to keep their distance. They had apparently done the same for the warehouse district, though that was supposedly much easier to do since few people ventured through there.
About ten minutes after we were finished, a replacement power armor arrived for Jackie and myself, as well as two other spare sets. On top of that, another four VTOLs of shades and heavies were waiting for us to move on to our next target. The first four groups would remain behind to secure the perimeter around the factory, while our new escorts would accompany us to our next target, the Docks.
As we gathered, Jackie and I traded out our damaged armor, while I simultaneously checked in with everyone.
"How did everything go?" I asked, looking around the group. "Any damage or injuries? Any issues or thoughts?"
"These guys were chumps," Rabecca responded, standing with her massive shotgun, her smaller frame making it look like we had a small kid stuffed into power armor fighting with us. "I used to be nervous about them being so close to my apartment."
"Don't forget what you're wearing," I pointed out. "Not many people can hold up to that level of tech. Still, we did manage to accrue some injuries, so don't get cocky."
During their time in pairs, Gloria had almost been hit by a grenade but managed to kick it away just in time, just a split second before it went off. Her armor still took the brunt of it, and she had been pretty battered by the explosion, even if she fought through it well. The extra pairs of power armor were for her, as well as Riggs, who had tanked a blow from a gangster armed with a massive hammer and a Sandy. He was a bit "bruised," but really the only damage was the armor plating in the area, which had cracked a bit. Once they met us outside, they quickly changed armor as well.
Once everyone was ready, we took off and vanished, literally, into the night, crossing a significant chunk of the city. We now owned most of what we were crossing, a baffling concept that was absolutely foreign to me, but still made me excited. To design, build, and create on such a large scale was thrilling in a way I honestly hadn't expected, really hammered home by seeing and flying over the land for the first time.
After our flight over our new land, the VTOLs were in position. The plan was for the cargo shuttles, containing shades and heavies, to land outside the docks, creating a perimeter for us to work within. This time, however, things did not go nearly as smoothly as before. Where we had the element of surprise in our first raid, Maelstrom knew we were coming this time, and seemed to have pulled in a significant amount of its people to defend their base.
Ordinarily, the gang stayed behind a barrier set up further into the docks, just over halfway through the pier, which wasn't actually a pier at the moment since the drydock was drained. On what was usually the non-Maelstrom side was a cluster of cargo containers and stacked up against the wall Maelstrom built, which was pretty stupid because it made climbing the wall laughably easy, even in the game, with its invisible barriers.
Further on the civilian side was a yard of materials, organized and ready for some sort of large-scale construction project. Thick steel girders stacked taller than me, pre-formed concrete blocks, scaffolding, internal supports, liquid storage vessels, and all kinds of air conditioning and electrical equipment. It was the bones of some sort of building, all laid out in a large space.
And now, it was filled with Maelstrom, using the construction material as cover.
"Murtaugh, don't drop your invisibility when dropping off the shades and heavies," I warned him. "Give the Maelstrom a proper shock and give our forces the element of surprise again."
"Will do, Jackson," The AI agreed. "Lowering now. You should be in position in just a few seconds."
Sure enough, true to his word, we watched as the wireframes of the VTOLs descended. At a certain point, the thrusters began to kick up dirt and trash, but, to the waiting Maelstrom forces, it looked like it was coming from nothing. They looked around, confused, before the hatches suddenly opened, and our forces poured out, first the shades and then the heavies. The first wave tore through the Maelstrom gangsters who were out of cover, before the heavies started pummeling the rest, covering the smaller robots as they flanked.
That was when we finally got into position, and the back hatch opened. Once again, we repeated our airdrop into the middle of the base. All six of us landed in a slightly more open area around two red cargo containers. Immediately, we opened fire, with absolutely no lack of targets, we eviscerated nearly twenty of them within seconds.
"Gloria, Riggs, Kaytlyn, clear that building," I said, gesturing to the nearby small building. Jackie, Rebecca, and I will go clear around the outside! Go!"
We took off, the other team leaping and smashing through windows to breach the building, leaving my team to walk around the corner, dropping another half dozen bastards. A pair of borgs attempted to stop us, but they made the mistake of attacking us from too far away, giving us plenty of time to wreck them with sustained fire.
A third heavily chromed, but still partially fleshy Maelstrom goon dragged an HMG off a stack of crates, lugging it around and attempting to fire it at us. Well before they could, however, Jackie blurred, sweeping around his already dead previous target, now focused on the new threat. He put his pistols directly against the chrome-out goon's temple and ruined all their fancy neural chrome with a pair of metal slugs. He then grabbed the HMG before it hit the ground, spun around, and opened fire with it, wielding it like it was nearly weightless.
"Jesus, I have bad ass friends," I muttered, firing a burst of rounds at a Maelstrom taking cover behind a truck. "Rebecca, if you would?"
With a laugh, the pint-sized hellion ran around some cover, flanking my target and blowing them away with a double pull of her trigger. Meanwhile, I spotted and killed a pair of goons who attempted to kill her as she ran out of cover.
Of course, throughout this whole fight, all three of us tanked several dozen small-caliber rounds, as Maelstrom, armed with pistols and submachine guns, attempted to take us down. We ignored those attempts, instead focusing on those who were armed with larger, more dangerous weapons. Once we finished with their more destructive counterparts, we tore the test of them to shreds.
Within a few short minutes, we had wiped out any external threats inside the base. Outside, the shades and heavies were still fighting the large gathering, but I know Murtaugh would do something if they needed help. Meanwhile, we could still hear gunfire from inside the building.
"Okay, they are still busy, so let's push up to the boat and clear it," I said, getting a nod from my two temporary partners.
I took the lead as we ran back the way we came, past our landing zone, jumping up on one of the red cargo containers. From there, one after the other, we jumped up and over the fence that marked the end of the yard. We were still in the Maelstrom territory, just another sectioned-off area.
"Let's go!" I called out, jumping again, scaling the scaffolding that reached up the side of the boat. "Clear the top floor, and then we can move down!"
I led the charge, running up the remaining ramp and onto the boat, speeding along the many crates and dividers built along the substantial deck.
I never made it this far during my play-through of Cyberpunk. For all I knew, this base didn't even exist in the game. So, when we were met with cargo containers that had been converted into what looked like rooms, some of them filled with crates of tech, while others resembled cobbled-together living spaces, I had no idea what it meant.
What I did know was that the entire deck of the boat was empty of Maelstrom. We checked every corner of the top deck, searching every cargo container we could get into, only to find a whole load of nothing.
It felt like the whole boat was empty.
"You guys picking up anything?" I asked, walking from aft to stern, peaking inside every cargo container and corner. "I'm not seeing anything."
"Negative here, choom," Rebecca responded. "Looks like no one's home?"
"Maybe they are below deck?" Jackie suggested, having boosted up on top of the helm, scanning the deck.
"That sucks, cause these suits sure as he'll ain't fitting down there," Rebecca said, waving me down to show me a stairwell downward. "Should we get out?"
"No, you guys stay suited up and cover the exits," I responded, shaking my head. "I'll go down with some shades."
It took a few minutes for the shades to make their way to me, as they had to knock down the front gate with the help of a heavy. Once they were clear of the gate, they rushed to the deck of the ship, where I was waiting, now standing out of my power armor. From my armor's pack, I pulled my pistol and a normal-sized submachine gun, which was kept in two parts for easier storage. I snapped them together easily, before looking to Jackie.
"Keep an eye out for anyone trying to run," I warned him. "I'll let you know if it gets too crazy."
"Good luck," He said with a nod, and I headed down the stairs into the bowels of the ship, three shades in front of me and two behind.
"Murtaugh, get our heavies in position," I said, now speaking into my watch. "And set up a proper perimeter now that the outer forces are dead."
"On it, Jackson."
My boots clunked against the floor as I finally stepped onto the first interior deck, the lead shades already clearing the nearest room, the back two covering us from the hall we had stepped into
"Okay, boys, let's do this room by room," I said. "No reason to rush this."
The ship was thankfully well-lit, but the hallways were narrow and the sections were divided by even tighter doorways. As we slowly cleared the ship room by room, it wasn't until we found a small cafeteria space that anything happened.
As I followed my escort into the slightly open room, the front shade was suddenly slammed into the wall, its shoulder and chest armor cracking. It tried to react to what had hit it, except it clearly could not figure out what it was. Unsurprising, considering it was completely covered in some sort of optical camo, barely shimmering as it moved. A second blow struck the robot's head, and suddenly mantis blades popped out of the shimmer, slicing into the exposed neck and even punching through the crack that had formed. The shade sparked and jerked before going limp.
"Fuck!" I cursed, raising my submachine gun and opening fire, dumping it into the distortion in the air, a dozen rounds tearing into it.
The blurred distortion staggered, and the shade it had attacked slumped to the ground as they pulled back. I continued to fire, emptying my mag and dropping my weapon to draw my pistol, pulling the trigger as fast as my enhanced ALEO frame could. Finally, the camo failed, and the Maelstrom bastard dropped to the ground.
"Adjust your aim for visual distortions," I ordered the shades. "Release safeties on conditional engagement."
The shades were, by and large, dumb throwaway robots, made to toss into combat with no remorse. Since they were so simple, I pretty harshly controlled what they considered to be acceptable targets, so they didn't shoot at things before they could confirm they were actively being engaged by an enemy. This made them less effective, but made me feel a hell of a lot better about having them around anyone, never mind civilians.
My order significantly expanded what they considered acceptable levels of confirmation that they had identified an enemy. This would make them extremely touchy and liable to shoot at nothing, but it also gave them a chance to take down cloaked enemies.
Technically, they had one level of lethality above this, but I wasn't prepared to go that far.
Before I could check out the prick who had just attacked us, one of the tables across the cafeteria shifted, as if someone had nudged it as they walked by. Instantly, the shades flicked their weapons up and fired several bursts, each a spread that went from the table edge and out. At first, I thought they had missed, but on the tail end of the final burst, a spark of metal and a splurt of white cyberware blood sprayed out, and suddenly they all opened fire again, this time to devastating effect. Their target was cut down in seconds by the barrage, and the cafeteria went silent again.
I was busy reloading my weapons, watching the shades destroy the cloaked target, when one of the shades covering our backs opened fire, spraying down the hall, bullets sparking against the wall, doorframe, and then ceiling as another cloaked figure slammed into them. Instead of being stabbed at by mantis blades, this bot was pummeled. Blurred, translucent fists slammed into them again and again, shoving them against the wall with each heavy blow.
The shade's armor cracked, metal struts bent, and sparks began to shoot out from their internals, before the second shade finally opened fire, ignoring that its comrade was too close. The cloaked enemy staggered back, his active camo dropping enough that I could see his thick gorilla arms, his hand pulled back for another strike. I lined up my shot and sprayed him down, the bullets peppering him until he collapsed back.
"Jesus, this isn't going to work," I said, shaking my head as I connected to the rest of my group. "We are falling back, cover the exits! There are a bunch of cloaked Maelstrom down here, keep them from escaping!"
I could hear my team confirm the orders, Murtaugh already moving his assets around. By now, the battle outside the base was long over, and all attention was focused on us clearing the boat.
As I ran back the way we had come, the shades following behind, I sent a few more commands to Murtaugh. Suddenly, as I was stepping through a four-way intersection of hallways, someone cloaked grabbed me from the side. They used my momentum to spin me around, slamming me into the metal wall hard enough to knock my weapon from my hands. Meanwhile, another cloaked individual slammed the naval door I had just practically leapt through shut, spinning the latch to lock it. The sound of bullets hitting the thick door echoed for a moment as my shades attempted to get through, before finally going silent.
I was slammed into the wall again, before whoever had grabbed me de-cloaked, revealing a torn-up and chromed-out Maelstrom bastard, bulging with cyberware enhancements and covered in extra wires, servos, and hydraulics, bolted and welded to the plating under his skin. He was wearing a mask that completely covered his face. In fact, they all were, wearing the same crisp, clean, metallic masks with sensors along the sides. They clashed hard with their general look of amateur cyberware stapled on by a hack. It was clearly professional work, not something cobbled together with spare parts and slapped on.
"Who are you?" The bastard who was holding me shouted, slamming me against the wall. "Who the FUCK thinks they can mess with Maesltrom?"
"Oh no, you've caught me," I said, my tone bored as I raised my hands and half-heartedly shook them in mocking fear. "I'm so scared, I'll tell you everything."
"Good!" he said, his voice mechanical and harsh, like violent autotune. "Now answer the question!"
"He is fucking with you, Gonk," One of the other gang members said, one of three in the room. "Hit him again!"
The big brute of an abomination slammed me back into the wall again, denting it slightly. I could feel some of my back, as well as my armor, bending and denting as well, but so far, my internal systems were intact, if a little rattled.
"Ouch. Anyway, where did you guys get this stealth tech? It's impressive," I asked, tilting my head to look at the big brute's shoulder. "High-quality optical camo isn't exactly cheap."
"Ya like it meat? Raided a militech warehouse for a bunch of choice bits," the one standing back from the bragged. "Others might have gotten stomped, but you can't stop what you can't see."
I laughed, shaking my head, ignoring the fact that the jacked up bastard was starting to deform my armor under his massive hands.
"Maybe for you guys, but I bet you show up light road flare to thermal," I responded. "The only reason I can't see through it is cause I got out of my armor."
"He's full of shit," The one who seemed to be in charge said as he pulled out a pistol and aimed it at my forehead. "Still hasn't told us who the fuck he is! You got one more chance fuck, or I'm gonna get real creative!"
I let out a long sigh before mentally giving Murtaugh the order to go ahead with the plan. Since I was giving up clearing the place room by room, I told our AI general to bring the heavies around the exterior of the boat and switch to solid, armor-piercing bullets. The plan was to open fire and shred the interior from aft to stern.
Of course, I wasn't supposed to be inside when that happened, but you win some and lose some.
A few seconds after I gave the order, the eight heavies we had with us opened fire, spraying the boat with massive high-caliber mag rifle slugs. It was like eight fully automatic 25mm rifles, firing nonstop, raking across the hull of the ship, punching fist-sized holes into it. Instantly, the hall we were in went from calm to chaos, as the Maelstrom gangers were obliterated. All three of the goons who had been watching were destroyed in seconds, while the goon with a gun to my head was nearly evaporated by a burst that turned him into a spray of blood, oil, and scrap. The brute holding me up was also hit, a round tearing his torso nearly in half, as well as blowing off the arm that was holding me up.
Of course, I didn't escape unscathed either.
As I fell back to my feet, one of my legs was blown clean off, and as I tried to stabilize myself, I lost my left arm just below my shoulder. I just barely managed to avoid getting thrown off my feet, but I was still thrown against the wall, my head cracking against a corner, putting a visible deformation in my head, shutting down my right eye.
After a near minute of trying their damnedest to cut the bottom off the boat, the heavies ceased fire, and the dry dock went quiet. The room was a mess, and the brute who had been manhandling me had fallen back on most of it. He was choking and coughing, his body and cyberware failing as I watched. As he shifted and squirmed, his mask fell off, revealing the face underneath.
Well, it released the abomination that was underneath. Nearly his entire front face had been removed, replaced by black, bulging, tearing implants that looked like they had been grown through his skin. His whole jaw was gone, replaced by a metal contraption of spikes and pointed teeth that looked like they had been meant to tear apart flesh like a weapon. As he gagged and sputtered, the red glowing visual sensors flickering, I pulled out my pistol and aimed it at his head.
"You're one ugly motherfucker."
I said, before pulling the trigger, scattering the murderous, twisted man's memories around with his cohorts.
I leaned back against the wall, the gunshot having almost knocked me off balance. Quickly drop my gun and grab the wall as best I could, holding myself steady on my one remaining leg.
"I am so glad I made meat and metal doppelgangers," I groaned to myself, watching the liquid skin struggle to deal with my removed limbs, eventually retreating up to my thigh and acting like that was where my cybernetic limb ended. "This would have been so much messier in a synth body."
I barely had to wait a whole minute before a torrent of shades started prying the already broken and bent doors open. After a few tries, they managed to get inside, most of them continuing on to clear the ship, while one of them knelt slightly beside me, offering its shoulder for me to lean on. It took a minute, but eventually we made it outside, where Jackie and Rebecca were waiting, now joined by the rest of the team as well.
Gloria gasped when she saw me, about to start applying first aid, when she saw that my lost limbs were all mechanical. Then her eyes went wide when she saw my skull. As she rushed me, I held up my hand.
"It's fine, this isn't me, remember?" I reminded her, the older woman frowning as she examined my head, her large, power-armed hands gently checking the damage. "It's mechanical, Gloria. I'm fine, I promise."
She clicked her tongue and pulled back, but I couldn't help but chuckle, looking over them. My people were a bit battle-worn, with dents, dings, and a few cracked pieces of armor, but by and large they looked hale and hearty.
"Did you guys stay on the boat when they were shredding it?" I asked, still leaning on the shade.
"No, we jumped down just before they opened fire," Jackie explained. "Far as we could see, no one came up. Thermal was clean. You uh… You gonna disconnect choom?"
"No, just shove me back into my armor," I responded, shaking my head. "My connection is still solid, and the armor will still read my movements fine, even if my limbs are gone."
Jackie snorted and grabbed me from the shade, using his strength to help me into my power armor easily, even if it was a bit embarrassing for me. When I was sealed inside, I shook myself off a bit and nodded. We could hear the shades double-tapping the Maelstrom bastards in the boat, with occasional longer bursts of fire as more ambulatory gangsters tried to move or run.
Once we confirmed that the boat was empty and that the shades and heavies, or more specifically, that Murtaugh had the situation at the docks base under control, we hopped back into a VTOL and took off. Our destination was the warehouse, where we would take control of the situation and spend some time hanging out. It probably wouldn't take long for people to start poking around, and since the large empty warehouse district would be our primary build site for quite a while, I wanted eyes on the location, at least we could establish a beachhead of sorts. As we traveled, Murtaugh briefed me on the situation, including the situation at the docks we had just left, our current destination, and the All Foods Factory.
Apparently, the perimeters were being held, but already civilians were attempting to poke around, either looking to steal some choice loot or find out what was going on. Both of them were locked down and cleared. I didn't mind people trying to get info, as most of it would be publicly available soon anyway, and we wouldn't be doing anything bad at our construction sites. My one concern was the few shade wrecks we had at the docks and at the warehouse. I ordered Murtaugh to pile up every single piece they could find and throw them into a VTOL to get sent back and scrapped. It wasn't anything earth-shattering inside the shades, but what tech was inside them could be easily reverse-engineered, so keeping it out of anyone else's hands was top priority.
The Maelstrom corpses could be dragged away and dumped for all I cared.
We landed around the outskirts of the warehouse, where the police had already set up a cordon. I couldn't help but chuckle as the crowd of civilians, as well as the cops keeping them back, gasped when our VTOL suddenly appeared, landing with a burst of dust and trash.
All around us were the signs of a pretty brutal battle. Craters were dug into the ground, large holes had been blown into several warehouses, and there were still corpses piled around. A few dozen shades were working on taking care of their broken brethren, while others patrolled the area, their heads on swivels. The heavies were stationed around intermittently, as well as on the perimeter, their superior size and sensors making them daunting guardians.
The battlefield clearly showed that while the shades and heavies were effective, they were not unstoppable battlebots I had hoped they would be. I mean, they were basically free to make, so losing fifteen to twenty percent of them for every fight was a price I was willing to pay, but I definitely had room to improve them over time and future tech trees.
As we patrolled around, essentially just showing that there were, in fact, people at the heart of this movement, Murtaugh filled me in on the problem. Apparently, because the robots lacked the momentum our group generated through surprise, precision, and overwhelming force, it was too easy for them to be pushed back. It only worked for so long, as the shades and heavies had the advantage of firepower and numbers, but they would still take casualties in the process.
Promising a redesign soon, we continued to patrol for a few more hours. Just as the sun was rising, the first delivery of MRVNs and equipment arrived, stepping out of their shuttles and immediately getting to work.
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