Chapter 18 –
Preamble – Zain
We could not have gotten off to a more fantastic start if we had tried.
God, this thing was going to go to shit. I can feel it already.
"What do you think about these?" Becca asked, stepping out of the dressing room with her hands on her hips.
The two of us were in a damn clothing store on Bellevue Overwalk, less than a hundred feet away from the rooftop slums of Allen Street while we waited for Archie and Ethan to get into position to start this whole thing.
We had a few minutes to spare to somehow cover up Becca's chem-skin with a pair of pants, and whatever else we could. It was probably not going to work.
The pair Becca was trying on right now were a tight, high-waisted syn-leather pants. Glossy, skintight, with tiger print accentuating her thighs.
I blinked. "Uh… I thought the whole point was to blend in?"
Becca turned side to side, admiring her reflection in the shoddy full length mirror. "What? These look preem as hell. I think my butt looks friggin' nova in these."
It did, but that was not the point. I palmed the mask on my face. "That's not covering your chrome up, Becca. That's highlighting every single detail of your legs."
She turned, sticking out her hip. "You say that like it's a bad thing. At least my chem real-skinn is covered up! Besides, I'm gonna throw them away right after anyway."
…. I suppose she has a point. But I didn't give her a reply.
Becca rolled her eyes but ducked back into the dressing room.
God… what am I thinking? This is never going to work.
We could buy her as many pants, jackets, whatever else we can and there's probably no covering up the easily identifiable parts of her at all. Like her Gorilla arms, or her unique beautiful pink-green eyes…
A few minutes later, she emerged in a pair of loose light-yellow cargo pants.
They were baggy, heavy-duty, and… way too big for her.
She yanked at the waistband. "Ugh, these feel like I'm wearing a damn parachute!"
This was becoming ridiculous. I couldn't hold in my laugh. "That's because they're three sizes too big. Did you even check before grabbing them?"
She groaned, hiking them up. "I thought the color looked nova on me! But now I feel like I'm drowning in fabric."
I gestured at the multiple extra pockets running down the sides. "You could store an entire arsenal in there."
"Right? I could probably smuggle more guns in here than I already do in my jacket!" She experimentally shoved her hand into one of the massive pockets, only for it to go way too deep. "Okay, no, I hate this. I won't be able to move ten steps without it slipping off!"
"And we don't want that," I agreed. "Next"
Becca trundled away once more.
I should just work together a pair for her myself. That way she'd have more protection as well… it would only take me a couple minutes and some fabric to have it done.
But damn it, what am I supposed to say to her? My brain hurts even thinking about it.
'Hey, here's a perfectly fitted set of clothes for you that I whipped up a minute ago while you were trying out the shit here. Don't worry about the protection, I know it's made out of fucking nylon or whatever was in that shitty set of trousers I found on the rack in this dinky shop, but they've been blessed with cosmic forces of protection by the eldritch entity that likes to give me gifts at some odd points of my day for …. reasons. You're welcome!'
Right… if only I had a little bit more time to have given this whole thing more thought.
After a minute, she came out wearing another pair and I just stared.
She threw her arms out dramatically. "Boom! Fashionable and flexible!"
I couldn't hold back the snort. "Becca."
I could see what she was doing. Even she knew this entire thing was never going to work, but she was playing along for my sake. Reducing the tension that the both of us were feeling.
She knew that should she get recognized, she will have a lot of eyes on her that would come asking questions eventually, and was brushing it off with some jokes.
Though, I know she has some sort of plans to deal with all that attention somehow. Plans that I am sure I will regret. But at this point, I could not care. She can take care of herself. I will have to deal with things as they come, and make sure she is safe through all of it in the process.
She smirked. "What? I needed something I could move in! This fits!"
"That was not what I meant." I gestured vaguely at the ridiculously bright neon pink chain-mesh pants. The thing clinked every step she took. "Are you trying to get spotted from across the city?"
She snickered. "Hey, if I gotta run, I might as well be running in comfort! Style over Substance choom! First rule of being an edge runner!"
Well, she was not wrong. And those did look nice. And if she really is going to discard the pants then….
But I think she should get something a little bit more reasonable for this operation.
With an exaggerated groan, she threw her hands up and disappeared back into the dressing room.
God… It was bad enough that that girl is putting her neck on the line for me, she had asked to pair up with me so she could look out for me during the mess we were going to be in, thinking I needed help because of the apparent lack of armor on me that everybody else had, without realizing that the most of us all was me.
…. Fucking hell, if she was keeping one eye on me, she could get hurt.
Holy fucking shit. I did not even consider that!
I need to say …. something.
A few minutes later, she finally stepped out again, this time in a proper pair of dark tactical cargo pants.
Reinforced fabric, extra pockets, and, most importantly, they actually fit.
Becca checked herself out in the mirror, tugging lightly at the waistband of the tactical pants.
"Huh," she muttered, shifting her weight from foot to foot, rolling her shoulders. "Y'know, these aren't half bad."
… They covered up her chem skin adequately, and gave her full range of mobility…. but even so her Gorilla arms were clearly recognizable.
This had always been a futile endeavor.
I sighed, feeling an absurd sense of relief. "Good. We're take them then?"
She spun around, hands on her hips. "You sure you don't wanna see me go with the pink chain-mesh? I was kinda diggin' those."
I gave her a deadpan stare through my mask. "Absolutely not."
Becca clicked her tongue. "Boo, no fun."
She grabbed her old shorts, tossing them into the bag as we approached the counter. The poor cashier, a wiry kid who looked like he regretted every single choice in life that had led him to working in this shitty streetside store by the slum.
He wordlessly scanned the pants, avoiding eye contact with Becca and I… probably because of how heavily and visibly armed the two of us at least looked.
Becca paid, and as I collected the bag, once he was done.
"Becca, listen" I said, as we left the store, heading for my car.
The slums were visible just over the ledge of the walkway outside the store. In a few minutes, at Archie's signal the pair of us were going to be opening fire into the scav hideout that we could see right in the middle of the sprawling set of shacks scattered across the rooftops.
We could even see some of the scavengers posted along those rooftops as lookouts.
I need to make sure Becca does not go into this distracted because of me.
"Whassup, choom?" She replied lazily.
I hesitated for a second and said "I-I just wanted to say, Thank you"
She blinked. "Huh? For what?"
"For looking out for me. For everything you're doing for me."
She scoffed, throwing an arm over my shoulders as we stepped out of the store. "Duh, choom. What kind of friend would I be if I let you get gonked after everything?"
… I need to stop pussy footing around this, and say that I have to say.
God, why is this so difficult?
Right. This was skirting around the secret of the forge, that's why.
I swallowed, then spoke, keeping my voice steady. "I appreciate that, but…. I want you to know you don't have to worry so much. I will be fine; I won't get hurt 'cause of some random stray bullet."
She gave me a look. "Oh yeah? Last I checked, I didn't see you walking around with dermal plating. The mask's nice and all, but there are other vitals that need protection too choom."
I sighed. "That's because I don't need dermal plating." I tugged at my jacket slightly. "This thing? Hell, all of my clothes at this point, they may not seem like it, but they are bulletproof."
Becca's brow furrowed. "That just looks like a normal jacket. Normal fucking clothes."
I nodded. "It does. That's the point."
She studied me for a long second. "And it's got armor ... how? There a plate underneath all that I don't see?"
"Something like that." I met her gaze. "Just like the guns I made, I have other tech just for shit like this. I can take care of myself, Becca. You don't have to put yourself at risk keeping an eye on me."
She was quiet for a moment, then she clicked her tongue. "Y'know, I can tell you're bullshitting me. You know that right? You ever gonna explain where the hell you get all your preem shit?"
… I know. That's why I need to come clean to her after all this… as much as I really can anyway.
I smiled wanly under the mask. "I know. That talk that I said I wanted to have? I promise to tell you everything then. Just… have some faith in me during this shit? I don't want you getting hurt because of me,"
Becca didn't say anything for a while, as we reached my car and I tossed her old shorts in the back seat and retrieved my old balaclava and started walking back to get in position as I offered her the piece of cloth.
She sighed rolling her eyes, snatching the balaclava and pulling it over her head. "Fine, fine. But if you do get shot and hurt today? Just for having to wear this crap, I'm gonna pull you out then rub it in your face so hard, you'll be tasting the 'I-told-you-so' for a month."
She did look very ridiculous wearing that thing, and her beautiful eyes were a dead giveaway of who she was.
Futile fucking endeavor.
We could not be getting off to a more fantastic start if we had tried. God, just the fact that she has access to my weapons, my tech is going to bring so much attention to her….
Fucking hell.
This is already fucked up in all the ways it could be, and we haven't even started with the main thing in all of this yet. I should have been more prepared to deal with this shit. Should have taken more time to think all of this through.
But that's the fucking problem. There is no goddamn time! And the little time that I do have, I have to use for shit that needs to come first!
No. I am making excuses for my mistakes. I need to do better. I should have given more time to go over everything before meeting up with the others at Empathy.
This was important too. For Rafael, and to Archie.
Before I could reply, a soft click echoed in my ear, as Archie's voice crackled through the earpiece. "We're in position. I have eyes on Jae-Hyun. Are you guy's ready?"
Becca's grin widened. Her eyes turned gold, and she walked ahead of me, heading back to the edge of the Bellevue Overwalk.
I reached deep into my jacket, where nobody would be able to see what I was about to do. Focusing on the tattoo on my wrist, I willed the SMG back into hands after a concealed light show of golden light hidden beneath the jacket.
"We're in positon too," Becca responded, as she pulled out the shotgun I had made for her from inside her jacket, and leaned on the ledge looking at the sprawling slums below. "Waiting for your signal boss lady."
The other pedestrians saw the weaponry in our hands, and were quickly scampering, clearing the walkway.
I joined her on the edge walkway, my gaze locked on the slums a small distance away from us as I made sure my SMG was all set.
The slums sprawled out beneath us, a tangled mess of shacks and scrap-metal roofs. In the distance, I could hear music blaring from a busted radio, mixing with the distant hum of traffic. The air was thick with the smell of cheap food, gun oil, and the faintest hint of burning garbage.
There was no time to ponder my fucking mistakes anymore. It was time to get down to business.
Interlude – Rebecca
She couldn't remember the last time she had been this excited for a gig. The preem piece of Iron that Zain had given her was begging to be let loose. Normally, she would open fire using her modded Lexington, and Malorian. But for this gig, she wanted to open up directly with the big guns.
Besides, the plan they had agreed upon called for it, so she couldn't be happier. Well, maybe if she weren't wearing this stupid balaclava over her head then this would have been better.
…. And maybe if her crew were here too.
No, that's not true. She needed to be away from them. Away from Lucy, from …. David.
She shouldn't even be thinking about him. Fucking emotions. They suck.
Zain, the poor poor gonk was worried about the heat that preem corpo level shit like this would bring on her head, and the rest of his chooms, so she could deal with going in with wearing a little more than she was used to.
Not like she didn't worry about that kind of heat herself, but she could deal with it if people came to take away her new little baby. Nobody was taking away her new shotgun.
Zain, the gonk that he was, had enough on his mind anyway. She didn't want to add to it.
She could tell he had big BIG secrets that he was hiding from everybody. She had known since the first time they had met almost a week ago at his wannabe corpo choom's apartment. He had secrets that he was afraid of, maybe even people he was probably running away from.
But everybody had a past that they didn't like to talk about after all. She did too.
A woman's eyes can be shrewd. Zain was good at appearing that he didn't care for those secrets, at building a stoic face to show that he didn't have them even, but he was slowly becoming one of the few people she couldn't help herself from watching closely. His eyes always gave him away.
It was only becoming clearer and clearer just how many things he was trying to hide every time they met. That damned nova mask of his, the 'armored' clothes he was wearing or the arsenal of prototype groundbreaking tech he was willing to share with his chooms were just the latest of them all.
So, yeah. She knew he was hiding some big fuckin' secrets alright.
She also knew despite all that he was afraid of, all that he was hiding, the gonk had a good heart. He wouldn't be here if he didn't, and she knew she could trust just that if nothing else.
And that was enough for her.
She adjusted her grip on the shotgun, bracing it against her shoulder as she peered down the ledge. The slums below stretched out like a tangled maze of steel and scrap, a patchwork of makeshift homes, busted neon signs, and hanging tarps fluttering in the wind.
The scavs had taken over, and fortified a central portion of it. The fucking parasites. Concrete walls, barbed wires, tighter rooftop patrols.
She could tell, they were on edge. They hadn't been spotted, but they would have to be complete and utter gonks to not be prepared after what had happened at the container yard with Peter.
The holo crackled to life, Archie's voice cutting through the static. "Yoko, d'you have eyes on their runners?"
The hag's response came a second later, her voice distant, with that constant reverberating echo that holo calls like this one often had the tendency of creating. No doubt she was jacked straight into the subnet. "All three, plus the drones, are ready to be burned. Daemons are locked and loaded. On your word, Arch."
Becca exhaled through her nose, shifting her stance. She lined up her holo sights, angling her shotgun toward the far end of the scav slum hideout where the rickety bridges stretched into the other parts of the slums.
The plan was simple, cut off their escape, ice over every way out before they even realized they were under attack.
She glanced at Zain beside her.
The gonk was still, his posture rigid, controlled. His apparently newly upgraded SMG rested steady in his hands, aimed at the nearer bridges. She didn't know Japanese, but that thing had beautiful flowing Japanese writing etched onto the cool metallic exterior, running along the cryo tubing that hadn't been there last time. He had given a name to the final product then?
She will ask him later.
The preem scary looking wolf mask he wore gave away nothing, but Becca had been around him long enough to tell when he was keeping shit locked down.
This was one of those times.
"You ready?" she asked, voice low.
Zain nodded, shifting slightly as he lined up his shot. "As I'll ever be."
A smirk tugged at her lips. Good enough.
The comms flared up again, Ethan's smoothed on the holo. "I have the sniper in my line of sight. Waiting on your signal, Arch."
Becca could barely hear it over the blood thrumming in her ears. She rolled her shoulders, feeling the weight of her shotgun settle into place, the cold kiss of metal against her fingertips. This really was perfectly suited to her. She didn't know how Zain had managed it, didn't know what to even make of it.
There was no time to think of all that. She could wrestle with her gonk thoughts later.
Finally, Archie's voice steeled over the holo. "Fry 'em, Yoko. I wanna see them burn! Fire!"
Becca squeezed the trigger.
A thunderous BOOM cracked through the air, her shotgun kicking back hard as the first shell hit the far bridge with pinpoint precision. The moment the cryo payload made contact, the temperature in the air seemed to plummet.
A wave of deep blue ice exploded outward, racing along the bridge's surface, freezing the metal and wood in a matter of seconds. Frost crept up cables and joints, the entire structure locking up under the sheer cold.
At the same time, Zain's SMG barked to life beside her, a flurry of thwip-thwip-thwip rounds slicing through the air.
She expected the little beast to be the same thing she had seen in the container yard. Expected the same controlled ice effect her own shells carried, locking down movement, sealing exits with a thick frost that it had done a few days ago.
But apparently, the Gonk didn't believe in being predictable. He didn't believe is things like overkill.
Each of Zain's bullets hit like fucking 'nades, slamming into the bridges and rooftops with explosive force. Shards of ice shot out in all directions, freezing whatever they touched on impact.
The first few shots shattered an entire section of the bridge outright, sending rusted planks and metal debris tumbling down into the slums below. The next sealed an entire wall of ice over another exit, cutting off yet another route.
She had to focus really hard to no have her jaw come practically unhinged as she watched a pair of Scavs scatter off their watch on the rooftop, one barely managing to leap aside the frozen shockwave engulfed his leg, freezing it solid mid-stride alongside the little opening on the concrete wall right below him.
The poor parasitic bastard tumbled, hitting the ground hard, his limb snapping clean off at the knee as it shattered into frozen chunks.
"The actual fuck, Zain!?" she half-laughed, half-yelled over the chaos, still firing off her own shells at the remaining escape points.
Bridges became glaciers in seconds. Walls of ice shot up like barricades. Any path leading away from the hideout was instantly frozen over.
The remaining straggling gonk pedestrians around them bolted, their screams cutting through the night air. Some tripped, others shoved past each other in their rush to clear out.
A woman shrieked, "WHAT THE HELL?! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" before running off away from them.
Another voice yelled, "Somebody call the badges! NOW!"
Becca gritted her teeth as she popped another shot at a fire escape the Scavs might use to bail out. "Choom! I know you like showing off, but you wanna tell me why the fuck your SMG's firing off like a goddamn tank!?"
Zain didn't stop firing, but there was a slight pause before he responded, "I got myself an upgrade! Messing with some new things I'm trying out to improve the tech!"
Becca let out a sharp laugh, shaking her head. "Yeah, no shit! You turned that thing into a fuckin' rocket launcher!"
The holo crackled, Yoko's voice coming in clear and sharp, the usual contained excitement humming beneath her words.
"All runners are down. Drones are toast. Their implants…. should be offline, right aboouut... Now!"
A few distant shrieks followed, a sharp crackle of malfunctioning cyberware.
She could see the last remaining scavs not boxed in behind the ice scream as his arms seized up, his mantis blades twitching uncontrollably before snapping backward.
The hag had fried their chrome from the inside out.
And just like that, every single advantage the Scavs had was gone.
The corpo rat, Ethan's voice rang on the holo "The sniper is down. All possible entry and exits are sealed."
Archie's voice followed him. "Perfect. They're boxed in. Move in!"
Becca's pulse spiked. Without hesitation, she stepped onto the ledge, eyes locked on the rooftops below.
"Let's go get em!" she shot at Zain before vaulting off the overwalk.
The wind whipped past her as she dropped, boots slamming onto the nearest rooftop. The shock rattled her spine, but she was already moving, shotgun ready as she rushed toward the bottleneck opening.
Behind her, Zain landed in perfect sync, SMG still raised.
"I'm going to lose direct visuals inside the slums. Too much interference from all that scrap metal to keep line of sight, and they have no cams I can detect. You are going in blind from here on out."
Ethan's voice cut in, tight and composed. "How long until the badges catch wind?"
"I'm already working on that." Yoko's tone was smoother now, a hint of satisfaction bleeding through. "Scrambling all signals out of Allen Street. Calls, comms, most anything I can in the vicinity. Any poor gonks trying to dial in backup will be screaming into the void."
A slight pause, and Archie asked over the comms "How long can you keep that up?"
"Depends," The hag drawled gleefully "How fast can you gonk these bastards? Move through fast enough, and maybe I'll even keep the NCPD off your backs completely."
The smug bitch was showing off. Two can play that game, she could do better.
Becca huffed a laugh, leaping over a frozen railing as they reached the bridge leading to the bottleneck.
The ice crunched underfoot, slick and deadly, but they kept their momentum.
They passed a few slummers huddled in makeshift shelters below, people peering out from torn tarps and rusted sheet metal walls; wide-eyed, frozen in fear. But Becca didn't give them a second look. They weren't the target. They will be gone in a few minutes, most chooms with sense would know to keep their heads down and run if they could.
The entry point loomed ahead across the rickety bridge. The only way in or out from this side. They had made sure of that.
Zain started to push forward, but Becca grabbed his arm, yanking the gonk back.
"The hell?"
She shook her head, pulling a flashbang from her jacket. "C'mon, choom. You know better."
With a flick of her wrist, the grenade clinked against the icy ground and bounced straight into the bottleneck entrance.
A heartbeat later. A loud flash and a BANG followed. The alley exploded in white light, the blast ricocheting off the ice-covered walls. Now they could rush in.
Becca didn't wait, she rushed in first keeping her eyes open watching for traps, shotgun already raised. Luckily, there seemed to be none.
Zain was right behind her. They were in.
The scavs had no idea what the fuck was happening. Guns half-raised, cyberware glitching, panic setting in. Some were fumbling with their weapons, others trying and failing to boot up fried systems, their bodies lagging like a gonk'd-out cyberpsycho on a bad BD trip.
She kept moving steadily first. "Come and get some! Scopsuckers!" She roared as she moved them down one after the other.
A cryo shell roared out of the barrel, slamming into the closest pack of scavs huddled near an alleyway. The blast of subzero energy spread on impact, frost racing up their legs, locking them in place mid-motion.
"Wha-!" one of them barely got out before his breath turned white, his skin flash-freezing to ice, alongside most of his chooms.
She fired again. This time again right in the middle of the group, the shot shattered the entire group. Limbs cracked apart like brittle glass, their frozen torsos hitting the ground in jagged, broken pieces of flesh and frozen blood.
She felt Zain beside her, moving in right behind her.
His SMG rattled in steady bursts, cutting across the slums with precise, steady fire. Every bullet detonated on impact, ice-blue explosions rippling outward, coating surfaces in a thick layers of frost. The impact so outrageous, that the iced crystals of blood and guts it left behind almost looked like glittering rubies in the carnage.
She needed to get her some of that upgrade. God damn!
Her shotgun was high-grade tech, sure, but Zain's SMG was a whole different beast from when they'd last fought together.
Each shot froze entire walls in seconds, gonks snapping and cracking under the cold, structures locking up as if winter had come crashing in all at once. The poor fucks caught in the radius were instantly obliterated, turned into shards of flesh and metal.
"What the fuck! WHAT THE FUCK! PROTOTYPE TECH?! BLYAT! BLYAT! BLYAT!" one scav screeched, stumbling backward, watching as her chooms were turned into icy statues.
The gonks had been prepared for an attack, but they didn't have anything to counter Zain's preem ass Cryo tech.
"The netrunners are down!" another shouted. "Drones are fucking scrap! We got nothing!"
"MOVE! BOOST TO THE FUCKING STRE-!"
Becca blew his head off before he could finish the sentence. But some of them were making a run for the walls already.
She kept moving, pace steady, boots crunching against the frost-covered rooftop slum streets. She could see her breath in the air, feel the drop in temperature with every shot fired.
A scav stumbled forward, still half-frozen, his mantis blades twitching from the malfunctioning cyberware. He barely got three steps before a final burst from Zain's SMG caught him in the chest, freezing him solid. His lifeless body hit the ground with a hollow thud.
"Becca! I'm switching to tag rounds!" Zain shouted over the din. "Cover me! I don't want them getting away!"
Zain's SMG had some kind of tracking rounds, but the gonk didn't have smart link, not that he had any Cyberware. The work around he had come up with was … alright. Switching between firefights could be dangerous!
But she covered him anyway as he moved into cover behind a pillar of ice, reloading his SMG.
Each bullet landed clean, embedding itself in the scav's armor, jackets, or exposed flesh. The impact pulsed a faint blue glow, marking their locations through walls, crates, whatever shitty cover they had managed to dive behind.
By the time the last scav was tagged, Zain flipped back to ice rounds.
Becca ducked behind cover, to reload her Shotty, watching as Zain cut off most who tried to boost on over.
A volley of ice fire from Zain's SMG ripped through the tagged scavs, freezing them where they stood.
Some tried to fight back.
A machete-wielding scav rushed her.
Becca smirked. Too slow.
Her shotgun, freshly loaded, roared, blasting his entire torso apart, his frozen remains crumbling to a pile of frost-coated meat and chrome before he even hit the ground.
Another one vaulted from cover, firing blindly at them.
Zain's return burst caught him mid-air, freezing him solid. The poor bastard crashed down like a block of ice, body shattering on impact.
Still, some of the more desperate ones kept moving.
She could hear the sizzle of burning chrome. Yoko's daemons had already set most of them on fire, their implants cooking their frozen chunks from the inside out.
A scav screamed in agony, his arms locking up, cybernetics frying. Sparks shot from his augments, heating up faster than his body could handle.
Another one, already ablaze, stumbled forward, his screams choking out as his eyes spewed fire, overheated from the inside, while his neck was covered in ice.
Becca glanced to the other end of the slum. The Gonks were being cut down left right and center. And they didn't even realize it.
But she could tell the blonde choom of Zain's, Archie was there. Moving like a fucking ghost.
The mantis blades hidden under the optical camo of hers making quick work of everybody in her path, each strike sending scavs crumpling to the ground, limbs severed before they even realized they were dead.
She barely stopped moving, weaving through the crowd with surgical efficiency, carving a bloody path forward.
Ethan was close behind, his assault rifle laying down cover fire of ice all around her, somehow keeping track of her, and watching her six.
The few scavs still standing and untagged were scrambling, trying to break the ice barricades keeping them boxed in.
Others were vaulting over, boosters kicking in, their last-ditch augments pushing them into the air, over the frozen barriers.
Some of the gonks were getting desperate, they were slowly regrouping. A burst of gunfire cracked through the air, followed by the sharp shatter of ice. The fuckers were firing blind, but it didn't matter, some shots were punching through.
Becca barely had time to twist to the side as a few bullets tore through frozen barricades, splintering into shards of ice and metal. One round whizzed past her cheek, almost bouncing off her subderms that she could feel the heat of it.
Others weren't taking chances.
A group of scavs boosted over the barricades, their cyberware barely functional but still enough to send them vaulting through the air. Their jump boosters spat out sparks, some failing mid-launch, sending a few poor bastards face-first into the ice. But a handful actually made it through.
The holo crackled, Yoko's voice echoed in with amused gleed. "You got some strays. Should've known some of these cockroaches would have backup augments. Hitting them with daemons now, let's see how long they last."
Ethan cut in, just after her "Call 'em out. I've got a vantage. I'll pick off as many as I can."
They couldn't see either him or Archie's shadow anymore. There were too many gonks between them, and most of the cover was blown open, covered with thick ice.
Archie's voice snapped through the comms, her tone edged with raw focus. "Jae-Hyun is making a break for it. I won't let him!"
Archie was already pushing ahead, cutting through whoever was in her way as she chased down their target. They could tell clearly from the screams echoing into the comms of the bastards she cut down.
Becca barely had time to register the update because suddenly both her and Zain were being peppered in more blind fire.
The Scavs were getting their shit together.
The scattered, screaming panic was turning into retaliation.
"DON'T JUST STAND THERE, SHOOT BACK!" someone barked, their voice raw with panic but holding just enough steel to snap a few others out of their frozen daze.
"FUCK, PROTO WEAPONS! I WANT ONE OF THEM WHEN WE ZERO THEIR GONK ASSES!" another scav shouted from behind cover, as fired blindly from behind cover.
Bullets started hailing down, rattling through the slums, ricocheting off frozen steel, chipping away at the ice barriers. Some of them had figured out where to shoot, breaking through the weaker parts of the frozen choke points.
A burst of automatic fire chewed through the side of the building just inches from her head.
Becca snapped her shotgun up, took aim, and fired.
The scav who almost got her barely had time to react before his smug holo mask covered mug caved in and turned into frozen chunks.
She made to move out of cover, but then suddenly she was being pelted down with very concentrated fire.
"Becca! Get down!" Luckily, Zain pulled her back into cover before she was covered in bullet holes.
A massive brute of a man, half on fire, his cyberware sizzling, eyes wild with manic glee.
"Borg!" She called out over the comms, mind working on how to deal with this fucker. "There's a fucking Borg pinning us down!"
The big fucker was barely reacting to the heat melting parts of his own skin, more charred flesh than man, as Yoko's daemons turned most of implants to crips. But despite it all, the fucker was laughing maniacally a goddamn heavy machine gun in his meaty hands.
Shit.
"I've got him" Zain said, and the Gonk made to step out into the line of fire.
The fucking gonk! Has he lost his mind?
Becca's pulse spiked just as the HMG roared to life, unleashing a relentless barrage of gunfire and she just barely caught the sleeve of his jacket before he turned himself into mince meat under that kind of heavy fire.
Bullets shredded through the space he would have been, ripping apart makeshift metal walls, obliterating the frozen walls just behind them.
The brute kept laughing, his voice distorted by the overheating cyberware struggling to keep up with him.
"YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT! KEEP HIDING, LITTLE CHOOMS! YOU AIN'T GOT SHIT ON ME!"
Becca whirled on Zain, shoving him back against the ice-coated wall with her forearm before he could make another stupid move.
"Are you fucking insane?!" she hissed. "You step out there, and that meatgrinder is gonna cut you in half!"
Zain pushed her arm off with a sharp huff, his voice almost hysterical as he urged. "I'll be fine, Becca! Trust me on this!"
"Fine?!" Becca snapped, gesturing wildly to where the HMG rounds were tearing through concrete and metal like paper. "That thing will turn you into chum for the rats, Zain!"
"Becca-!"
"NO. You're NOT walking out there like some preem-tier gonk thinking you're unkillable!"
Before they could go another round, Yoko's voice echoed through the comms, casual, but tinged with just a little thrill of excitement.
"Ooooh, I see him, that's a nasty one," she mused. "His combat implants are offline, I torched 'em all. And he's overheating as he should be, like thanksgiving turkey."
Becca furrowed her brow, annoyed. She could tell that herself. "Then why the fuck is he still walking?!"
"I'm betting the borg has pain editor's chipped in, plus a little extra cyberpsycho cocktail. He's juiced on something nasty."
Becca gritted her teeth. Great. Just great.
"I can deal with him-" Zain tried to say, but she yanked the gonk back down behind cover, and ripped a frag grenade from her jacket, and flung it at the borged out freak.
The grenade bounced once, twice, BOOM. A direct hit.
The Borg didn't even flinch, the firing went on as if nothing had even touched him. The smoke cleared, his left arm was half gone, metal plating warped and sizzling. His chest was a charred mess of melted chrome and flesh.
The bastard was still standing, still laughing, his HMG still chewing through everything in front of him.
"THAT IT?!" he roared. "C'MON, CHOOMS, BRING SOME REAL HEAT, DA!"
"Oh, fuck off!" Becca snarled, raising her shotgun, leaning just slightly out of cover to blind-fire.
Her finger just about squeezed the trigger, but before she could fire her right arm was punched through with heavy bullets one after the other. The shotgun slipped from her grip, clattering to the ground.
Becca bit back a scream, her chrome fingers twitching, servos locking up as she felt the arm almost get ripped off the socket it was slotted into at the elbow. The bastard had chewed straight through her Gorilla arm. It was fucking useless now.
She would need a replacement. Damn it!
"Becca!" Zain's voice snapped over the gunfire.
She shook off the white-hot pain, hissing through her teeth. "I'm fine! Just my chrome!"
The Borg let out another wild, crackling laugh.
"LOOK AT YOU, SQUIRMIN'!" he taunted. "ALL THAT SHINY TECH AND YA CAN'T EVEN TAKE A LITTLE LOVE TAP!"
Becca's jaw tightened. She wanted to shove a shell right through that bastard's face. If David were, if her crew were here this would have been a cinch!
"Shit" Yoko's curse echoed on the comms "Someone slipped past the net scramble, the badges are on their way, you guys need to finish this, deal with Jae-Hyun and delta the fuck out of there!"
Great! Just great! They were low on time!
The comms flared to life again, Ethan's voice cutting through the chaos.
"I'll get the borg. He's the last remaining scav, 'cept the small group with Jae. I am moving into position," he called. "If you can call him out, I'll pick him off-"
"No time!" Archie's voice barked in. "Jae-Hyun's boosted over the ice! He's making a break for the highways. I am running after him, I almost have him!"
"I see him, I'll slow him down now," Yoko added. "Let's see if he can run with his implants keep locking up."
Becca gritted her teeth, yanking out her sidearm, about to take another shot at the borg. Then Ethan's shout of pain ripped through their comms.
Her head snapped toward the far end of the short alley of the slums.
Ethan was scrambling, dragging himself behind cover, clutching at his shoulder. The borg had some how seen him coming despite the optical camo he had put to use.
"Ethan!" Zain barked.
"I'm fine! He shot me with a side arm," Ethan's breath was ragged, "Fuck! Bastard can fire that thing with one arm! He bit through my chrome, it stings like a motherfucker!"
Zain's posture went rigid. Becca watched him, already seeing what the gonk was about to do.
"Zain," she snapped, before he could pull another suicide stunt.
His voice was low, insistent, almost pleading. "Becca, you have to trust me. I'm armored. I will be fine."
She bit the inside of her cheek, staring up at him. This was gonked in all the wrong fucking ways.
"…Alright," she bit out after a moment, and pulled out a flashbang from her jacket. "Fine. But after this!"
Zain nodded.
Becca yanked the pin and hurled it at the borg.
The Borg reeled at the loud BANG, and the flash of bright light as he was stunned momentarily. Even so, he kept his aim trained on them, the firing never ending.
Zain moved stepping into the open, straight into the gunfire.
Becca's heart jumped into her throat as bullets slammed into him.
One hit his jacket and …. bounced off.
Another cracked against his mask…. and ricocheted away, leaving not even a scratch.
What the fuck? What kind of armor was he wearing?! Fabric like the type he seemed to be wearing do not work that way! Kevlar cannot handle rounds that are probably from a 50 cal HMG. Nothing can!
No. She can worry about that later!
Zain didn't waste any time, as he fired off his SMG at the borg. The massive freak was instantly covered in ice, and in the next moment crystals of his blood and guts shattered all over what remained of the scav hideout.
A sharp crackle burst through the comms, Yoko's voice cutting in, this time tight with urgency.
"Fuck!" Yoko's voice echoed through the comms, edged with panic "Fuck, fuck, fuck! Netwatch is trying to trace my location! I'm holding them off, but the badges are mobilizing a force! They know cryo weapons have been used!"
Becca sucked in a breath. No more wasting time.
She grabbed Zain by her left functioning arm, dragging him away from the frozen wreckage of the Borg as she sprinted toward Ethan's position making sure to pick up her shotgun with her broken, torn apart one.
Zain didn't fight her on it, he was already moving, his SMG still raised, his body tense, scanning every shadow for movement.
Ethan was hunched over behind a half-frozen heap of scrap metal, inside a shack with some arcade machines. His left hand gripping his right shoulder. The plating on his chrome arm was half gone, the reinforced metal peeled away like burnt skin, exposing the raw mechanics underneath.
No blood, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like a motherfucker.
"Ethan!" Zain crouched down beside him, his voice low but urgent. "Buddy! How can I help you? You alright"
He was looking at the man very intently, assessing the damage that was visible.
Ethan shook his head sharply, wincing as he shifted. "Don't worry about me. It's just a chrome wound, I dropped my satchel. Get me a huffer from inside and I'll be fine."
Becca's eyes darted around before spotting the satchel a few feet away, half-buried under a frozen corpse. She made a sharp turn, boots skidding slightly over the ice, before bending down to grab it.
Ripping it open, she rummaged through the mess of gear until her fingers closed around the air hypo Ethan was talking about.
"Here, Catch!" she called, tossing it over.
Ethan snatched it out of the air with his good hand, flipped the cap, and took a long, deep pull. He exhaled sharply, the relief hitting instantly. His shoulders sagged, his whole body untensing just a fraction.
"Oh, fuck yeah, that's the stuff." He flexed his fingers experimentally, rolling his shoulder. Still stiff, but functional.
And then, "ARCHIE, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? YOU'RE GOING TOO FAR!" Yoko's voice spiked into a panicked shriek over the comms.
Archie's response came through, breathless and fierce. "They're alive, I'm not letting that rat bastard escape!"
Zain immediately pressed urgently. "What's wrong? Yoko, talk to me!"
"She-" Yoko started to answer, but Archie cut her off sharply.
"I cut him off! The fucker is fast even without his implants! I'll lose him in the slums! I need to box him! Get here! Now!"
Becca exchanged a look with Zain. Shit.
Yoko cursed again, her voice vibrating with frustration. "…. She's right! He's slowed down, but he's using the civies around him as meat shields! Fucker's trying to disappear into the crowd!"
If Jae-Hyun got away, this whole thing was a wash..
Ethan snapped the hypo shut with a click, muttering a curse under his breath. "Shit… Okay, change of plans. I'll go get the cars ready. The badges will be here any minute. We need to delta out of here."
Then, turning to Becca and Zain, he jerked his chin toward the streets ahead.
"You two go help Archie finish off the target!"
The both of them agreed and didn't waste another second.
They were already moving, sprinting through the wreckage of frozen corpses and burning augments, pushing forward toward Archie's location.
"Bringing down one of my drones. Follow it, I'll guide you." Yoko's voice echoed into their comms again, as a Bombus drone hovered materialized in-front of them from. It had optical camo too! So that's how it hadn't been spotted during everything.
She had to hand it to the hag, she had brains.
"Archie's corralling him toward the northwest side. You can pin him there." The hag continued.
Becca's brow furrowed at that. Northwest side?
"That's near Bellevue Overwalk." She muttered as they ran, the realization hitting fast.
Jae-Hyun was trying to double back to the high-rises, maybe even make a run for the traffic flow. If he slipped past the overwalk, they'd lose him in the urban sprawl.
Not happening.
The ice-crusted remains of the scav hideout loomed around them, bodies frozen in various states of disarray. Zain moved ahead, slipping through a jagged gap in the shattered ice wall, clearing their way out.
They stepped onto the bridge leading out of the slums, their breath misting in the night air as Yoko's drone zipped overhead, its optics flashing bright blue as it hovered, signaling their path.
Yoko's voice hummed through their comms, smooth, professional, but clipped with focus. "Go straight two blocks, then veer left. Jae-Hyun's cutting through the narrow alleys toward the Overwalk."
Becca and Zain pushed forward, weaving through the scattered remains of the slum streets.
As they made their way through the rest of the slums they ran past dozens of broken down homes, with slummers, civilians. Hurt, bleeding, some missing limbs.
A group of ten, maybe twelve, huddled near a collapsed shanty, their clothes torn, some cradling missing arms, others rocking back and forth in shock.
Thankfully, the only dead bodies they saw were the Scavs. Their holo-masks flickered broken static, their bodies torn apart.
Zain's jaw clenched as he ran, his voice cutting through the comms. "Yoko. The hell happened to the civs?"
Yoko's reply came quick. "Jae-Hyun and the last batch of scavs that tried to run, kept tossing people at Archie. Threw 'em right into her path, trying to slow her down."
Becca's gut twisted. That explained the bodies.
She could already picture it. The blonde tearing through anything in her way, not stopping, not hesitating. In her almost blinding, psychotic rage.
She had seen it happen many times in her career. Archie was out for revenge. And the heaps of chrome she was piling on didn't help.
Yoko continued, her voice lowering slightly. "It didn't work. Archie barreled through the lot."
Before Becca could reply, Archie's voice tore through the comms, breathless, filled with raw adrenaline. "He's almost mine! The fucker's the only one left! Where the hell are you guys?!"
Becca pushed harder, her boots pounding against the frozen pavement, her breath sharp.
They had just reached the place Yoko had guided them to.
Becca replied, panting slightly from the sprint. "We're here."
They skidded to a halt at the edge of the slums.
The shack they were in was barely standing. Rusted sheet metal walls, a tarp for a roof, the kind of place that barely held together on a good day.
Inside, Jae-Hyun stood with his back against the wall, a pistol in one hand, the other wrapped around a woman's neck.
She was shaking, her eyes wide, terrified. Clutched against her chest was a girl, she couldn't have been more than six or seven, whimpering into her mother's shoulder. This was probably their home.
Archie stood a few feet away, her mantis blades out, her whole body vibrating with pent-up fury. Her stance was lethal, unshaken, eyes burning with the kind of rage Becca had only seen in people who were teetering on the edge.
"Jae-Hyun." Archie's voice was low, but with a sibilant hiss. "You took everything from me!"
The man let out a sharp, breathless laugh, his half burnt, and charred face a mess of desperation. His synthetic left eye flickered, his augments half-fried from Yoko's daemons, but the fucker was still standing.
"You're out of your mind, woman! I don't even know who you are!" he spat, tightening his grip on the woman's throat. "We all know how this goes. You kill me, you kill them, yeah? That how we're playing it?"
Becca kept her shotgun trained, her heart pounding as she took in the whole damn situation.
They had no time.
Sirens were wailing in the distance now, faint but getting closer, the echo bouncing off the ruined rooftops of the slums around them.
Zain raised a hand, voice even but urgent. "Jae-Hyun, let the woman go. You've got nowhere to run. No one needs to get hurt anymore."
Jae sneered, his lip curling. "That's where you're wrong, choom. There's always a way out."
Archie let out a bitter laugh. "A way out?" She tilted her head, stepping forward, voice dripping with venom. "Buddy, you're done. There's no runners left, no netrunners, no backup, all your scop-sucking cockroach scum chooms are dead. You're standing in a fucking shack, holding some fucking gonks hostage, while a bunch of people with preem-tier firepower got you boxed in. YOU ARE DEAD!"
Jae-Hyun's tightened his grip even further.
"You see, daddy! I swore I would avenge you!" Archie roared manically "There's nothing that will stop me!"
Her mantis blade twitched. Archie pulled out her revolver into the other hand.
Becca saw it happen before it even started, the moment Archie's rage snapped. She tried to fire her shotgun, but her firing arm was broken, and her reflexes out of whack.
The gunfire exploded before she could stop it. Jae-Hyun pushed the woman and child straight into the line of fire.
A burst of frost rounds tore through the shack.
"NO!" Zain roared as he dove straight at them.
Becca's breath caught as she watched Zain lunge forward, throwing himself at the civilians. Her entire world slowed down. She could only watch in horror.
The frost round slammed into his back.
A shockwave of ice burst outward, encasing him in a thick sheen of frost.
Jae-Hyun stumbled back, as Zain and the civs fell right on him, his pistol clattering to the ground as he hit the dirt hard.
For a split second, she was scared that he had died. Died to his own creation. That she had lost him too. That she had failed.
Then somehow, through yet another fucking miracle Zain groaned, shaking off the frost. His jacket was stiff, his mask coated in a thin sheet of ice. He crawled off the woman and child.
He still had the SMG in his hand, and he aimed it that scav rat a few paces away from him.
He was up close to the scav bastard, as it fired, the cryo rounds slamming into Jae-Hyun's chest, one after another.
Frost spiked up his torso, crawling up his neck, locking his limbs in place. His breath hitched, a choked, gasping sound escaping him. Then, with a sickening CRACK, his frozen body shattered in the crystal blood and organ rubies that were covering the entire hideout.
Becca's grip tightened around her Lexington. Her blood was boiling.
Before she even realized she was moving, she had her pistol raised.
The modified Lexington barked a single shot, the bullet slamming into Archie's revolver, knocking it clean out of her hands before she could fire another round.
Archie snapped her gaze to Becca, fury written all over her face.
Becca stood her ground, chest heaving. "What the fuck, Archie?!"
The blonde's hands clenched into trembling fists. "That was my kill, he had no right! That fucking bastard was mine!"
Becca's jaw tightened. She could not believe this fucking scopshit nonsense!
Archie was breathing hard, shoulders stiff, her eyes wild, erratic. Her fingers twitched, as if reaching for another weapon. Like her body was fighting against itself, running on pure instinct.
Becca had seen this before.
She had seen it in gonks who pushed too much chrome, ran too many ops, who started seeing red and never stopped.
Early signs of Cyberpsychosis.
Zain limped off the ground, stepping toward his choom, his body bruised and stiff. He moved with a lot of strain, the thick ice coating his body stopping him as he slowly broke it off "Archie."
She turned to him, her golden irises flickering.
Zain didn't flinch. He didn't raise his gun. Didn't move in a way that would set her off.
He just spoke. Calm. Measured.
"It's over. He's gone. Look at me."
She didn't.
Zain took another step. "Archie. He's gone. It's over. Your father is avenged. Let it go."
Her breath hitched.
Becca could see the shift, the moment the fight drained out of her.
Archie's hands loosened. Her shoulders sagged. Her jaw clenched, and then… she let out a sharp breath, chest heaving.
For a second, it looked like she might break.
Then she took a shaky step back, grabbing at her head with both hands. "Fuck."
Becca exhaled, lowering her pistol. The rage in her chest hadn't cooled, but at least Archie wasn't about to lose it completely.
The blonde woman didn't say a word, as she collected her dropped pistol off the floor and stared at it intently, her hands shaking.
They had a lot to talk about.
Yoko's voice crackled in the comms, high and panicked. "I'm about to be burned! I gotta jack out, or Netwatch is gonna trace me! You got one minute to delta! Meet me at No Tell Motel, we need to split!"
They had no time. Talking could wait.
Zain turned to look at the woman and child. The mother had already scrambled to her feet, clutching the girl tightly. The child was wailing, her face buried in her mother's shoulder.
Zain took a step back, his bruised, frost-coated frame making no move to stop them. The mother hesitated for a half second, her terrified gaze flicking between them.
Then she ran. She should feel relieved. Instead, all she felt was sick.
They didn't watch them go.
They too turned, wordlessly, swiftly, and bolted toward the rendezvous point, heading for where Ethan had the cars waiting.
The sirens grew louder. They needed to talk.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
(A/N)
Finally, Jae-Hyun's dead.
Shit's hit the fan. Archie is slowly becoming unstable.
If you want to discuss this fic with me in more detail, you can find me on the Celestial Forge discord. Celestial Forge 2 in Exile
There wasn't a roll, because most of it was interlude.
The die had landed for roll at 6000 words, but Zain's part was mere 2000.
So, he has 100 points stored up.
Note: I had made a mistake in point count last chapter. Zain had used up all points, and ended chapter 17 with Zero.