While they approached the intersection Rebecca and Leia swapped seats.
Some professionalism was needed when on the job after all.
"Maine, what did the client say about conflict again?"
Maine kept his eyes focused on the checkpoint ahead.
"If we must, as long as the package stays safe."
Bruce nodded, "and what did they say about the package?"
Maine's knuckles tightened around the steering wheel.
"It can't be scanned through."
Bruce rolled up his left sleeve.
"Sasha can you ping them without being noticed? It'll be too long for me to make civvie exception packets."
Sasha nodded, her eyes already glowing.
A bundle of text appeared on his screen.
"You take these sigs, I can handle the others."
Their car moved up.
"Give me two minutes to connect to my proxy, are we doing this loud or quiet?"
Sasha tilted her head to get a better look at the maelstromers.
"Quiet is better so, memory wipe?"
Bruce shook his head.
"I have a blindspot hack, I need you to help apply it to the car."
Sasha nodded, "whenever you're ready."
Bruce nodded, "I don't think I will exclude the civvies for this one."
"Not a problem."
[CONNECTION ESTABLISHED]
"I'm sending you the hack, modify it to your needs."
Sasha picked up the hack from Bruce's network, its simple structure surprising Sasha.
"Why'd you need me for this one?"
Bruce continued typing away on his deck.
"I need an outside perspective to check on it, in case it wont work as I intended on larger subjects. So? Do you think it will work on the car?"
"It'll work, so now what?"
"I'll apply mine first, their ICE is weak. Then you do yours and we memory wipe everyone."
Sasha nodded,
"You sure your deck can handle that?"
Bruce nodded. "It's a proxy, connected to a fat stack of computers and ICEbreaker algorithms, the hacks are just waiting for a go."
"Then let's go."
They were getting very close to the intersection.
The Maelstrom members monitoring traffic stops paused for a moment, scrutinizing the cars.
They were certain that there was another car that should've been here.
They raised their weapons, something was certainly wrong.
"Memory wipe in two seconds. Maine you're gonna have to tailgate."
He nodded, "You got it choom."
The single car's worth of distance between them and the car in front shrunk to three inches.
"Small."
With bated breath they went through the intersection, no grunt stepped forward to stop them.
When they were clear Bruce disabled his hack, freeing up his systems for later checkpoints.
Sasha turned around in her seat.
"Bruce what kind of daemon was that? It's like we got a car sized optic camo."
"It deletes an area around the subject's signature in the infected's senses. So think of images and sound with holes in them."
He took a swig of real water.
"Then it loops a two second memory wipe program. Small scale, it only gets rid of recognition and some critical thinking."
Sasha nodded, "Huh, I would never have thought about that. Where did you get the idea for that?"
Leia was staring at Bruce with longing and pride in her eyes. She knew the answer, but that Bruce applied it in netrunning made her feel even better about him.
He adjusted his sleeve and cyberdeck.
"Before they had full eye replacements, they had to operate on a patient's eyes while they were awake. So they used drugs, something that impedes short term memory that essentially wipes the memory every three seconds. To the patient it apparently feels like no time has passed at all."
Sasha's eyes widened. "So then-"
Bruce nodded, "To them, literally nothing happened. Just business as usual."
Sasha was excited, Leia was prideful.
"Does this work on cameras too? Security units?"
Bruce shook his head, "For those things we just need to remove their ability to identify things, then block their reset protocols. Or falsify orders."
A pause followed Bruce's words, after which he spoke.
"Wait, I'm less experienced than you, isn't this stuff already in your repertoire?"
"No, I only joined a little while ago. I'm not that good on the net yet."
Bruce tilted his head.
"Surely you've done some solo work before getting into the crew?"
He reached his hand out for Leia, looking for some more comfort time as they got through the city.
"No choom, nothing big. Just breaking ICE and buying daemons."
Sasha leaned her seat back to see that Bruce and Leia were holding hands above Rebecca's head.
"ehe, and of course learning the other tricks of the trade."
Bruce turned his eyes away from Leia for a moment.
"I thought everyone usually wrote their own stuff."
Sasha raised her body and turned around.
"No? That's only for runners that are deep into the game. It's all about ICEbreaking and quickhacks. Heck, I think your stuff could sell well on the BBS if you wanted to sell it."
She brought a finger to her chin.
"Do you use a trode set to jack in? I know you're organic but like, there's some things a netrunner needs to actually do, you know?"
Bruce scratched the back of his head.
"What's a trode set?"
A giggle came from Leia, Rebecca stared at the handholding above her in resignation, and Sasha did her best not to be mad.
"You've made it all this way, as a netrunner, without even once diving into the net?"
Her smile was most definitely fake and her eyes were narrowed in the wave of her emotions.
Sasha pulled her seat back up and took a deep breath.
"So you're avatarless, fully organic, and basically disconnected from the net."
She exhaled.
"And you've got preem hacks with a ragtag setup of some server at home and a PROXY deck."
A hand reached for her forehead.
"With lag meaning you're the equivalent of a Mai Mai when it comes to netrunning."
She closed her eyes and groaned.
"Choom how do you even get through ICE?"
Leia giggled. "He has an avatar, Bruce give her one of those access points."
A few taps sounded out in the car.
Sasha looked at the signature sent to her and skimmed the netrunning space.
"You piggyback off the adware, of course. I should've stayed at home today."
A second look and.
"ALL OF THE ADWARE!? WHAT THE FUCK! HOW AREN'T YOU DEAD YET?!"
Maine almost slammed the breaks at her screaming.
Almost.
"Hey we're on a job now. I need you chooms to chill and stay chill. Else we get zeroed."
Sasha turned her head over, "Right, sorry Maine."
"That goes for you guys in the back too, quit teasing 'becca."
That got a little jump from Leia, as she released her hand from Bruce's.
"Yes Maine."
She said sheepishly.
Bruce disengaged the handholding as well.
'I can see the father figure energy he has.'
"I may or may not have a machine learning model acting as an intern and assistant for the adware netrunners."
Sasha nearly blew another fuse.
"And you're joining us? Doesn't corpo pay give you more? Better cyberware?"
Bruce laid back in his seat.
"I wanna stay fully organic, and I have a bot working remotely for the job, so I can just falsify hardware specifications for them."
He engaged his deck again.
"That and the bot is an intern, its pay is barely enough to rent and pay utilities."
Sasha was still skeptical.
"What about in person meets? You're gonna be caught by them."
Bruce nodded, "Honestly that's the easiest part. Every corp is desperate for a good runner, most go to be mercs or are raised in house. A semi decent runner like me who is willing to be an intern first? That's a steal even if they only work remotely."
Sasha could accept that, "What about the bot's avatar?"
"Here's the signature for that."
Sasha looked at it. "You gonk piece of shit. That's you? That's been stuck in my head for years! And you're responsible?!"
cough*
"Yeah that's me."
"Unbelievable."
Leia poked Bruce's side. "You've become the one thing you swore to destroy."
Bruce poked back. "Don't remind me."
"Chooms they've got another checkpoint up ahead, can you string that same hack from earlier?"
""On it.""
There were twenty five clankers at this checkpoint, five in the center and five in each oncoming street.
"Done with the hacks, they haven't seen us yet so just drive on the other side of the road."
Maine nodded, oncoming traffic wasn't a problem either as the Maelstromers were already stopping traffic.
The crew passed through the intersection in silence, not a single Stromer noticing their car long enough to stop it.
Sasha turned back in her seat again.
"How many times can your rig handle this hack?"
Bruce checked his deck.
The orange glow of the screen illuminated his face.
"If we have ten or twenty minutes I'll be good to go without breaking anything"
He input a few commands.
"If we gotta deal with them right away I can do it on at most a group of thirty before something gets fried."
Sasha nodded.
"So you think we should pullover somewhere? Take a break?"
Bruce checked the time. 13:42. About three hours passed since he drove to meet up with Maine and the crew.
"I think we can do that. Got a spot nearby?"
"Wherever you chooms want, I see some vending machines over there if you're hungry."
Maine spoke up. He certainly looked like he needed the break.
"That should work."
Maine parked the car and they all piled up next to the vending machines.
Bruce asked the obvious question.
"You guys want to pay for this stuff or for me to just unload these things?"
And so came the obvious answer.
"Empty those machines out! We're having a party!"
From the gremlin.
Bruce looked towards Maine.
He nodded, "Three burritos each, give us a box of drinks."
Thus it was such, the machines shook as 15 burritos fell out along with 24 cans of soda.
Bruce and Leia each took their three veggie burritos as the rest of the crew grabbed their own.
The drinks were placed in the trunk of the car, only five were left for the mercs to drink on the spot.
"This thing is not subtle at all you know?"
Bruce pointed towards the car.
A heavily modified Chevillon Emperor.
Maine nodded his head.
"It's bulletproof though."
He tore into his second burrito.
Bruce and Leia nodded.
They ate in silence for ten minutes, occasionally exchanging words and enjoying Rebecca's enthusiastic gun performance.
How her limbs could load, unload, and reload her beloved gun still seemed miraculous.
This reminded Bruce of something.
"Hey, why'd Dorio sit this one out?"
Maine, looking up from his third drink answered.
"She's chipping new arms in, the appointment was today so she sat out. Falco had a car modding gig he couldn't say no to, so he's sitting this out too."
Maine sipped his NiCola.
"That's why we're using his car too."
An appreciative nod came from Bruce.
Leia was off teasing Rebecca again. (She stole her gun.)
Sasha was enjoying a drink and reading through Bruce's quickhack.
The traffic was relatively small, thanks to it being controlled by the Maelstrom goons.
Bruce checked the time again, 13:59.
He looked at the contraption on his forearm.
All green.
A nod to Sasha and Maine told them he was good to go.
Maine held a smile as he watched Rebecca chase Leia.
A fruitless endeavor, Leia had far more stamina and speed than the gremlin.
"So, Bruce. How far along you two get?"
Leia's ears twitched, but she kept playing with Rebecca.
Bruce noticed it too, but that was fine with him.
"Haven't done anything yet, taking it slow."
Maine did not drink his nicola.
"You two got the feelings for each other choom, what are you waiting for?"
Leia's ears perked up. Bruce ignored that too, it wouldn't change his answer.
"In this world? I need to do something first before everything else."
Maine nodded his head, more words spewing out of him.
"Choom, a girl like her? I've almost never seen her this happy before. And she's happy with you, you're happy with her."
He took a sip of his drink.
"Don't let this opportunity slip you gonk. It's ok to have priorities but make sure she's one of them."
Bruce smiled. 'Not all bots are clankers'
"She's number one."
That earned joy from Leia and a great laugh from Maine.
"Ha! Just make sure you don't slip up on this yeah? Because if you break her heart."
He didn't need to say more.
'I'm appreciating this guy more and more.'
"If her heart breaks then it's because I've died."
He beckoned Leia over, she too smiled at the implications of Maine's words.
She still had Guts in her hand.
Bruce reached out for a hug but she tossed Guts into his hands.
Walking closer she whispered.
"Your turn."
"I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU 'GANIC GONKS KEEP THIS UP I'LL REALLY SHOOT YOU!!"
A certain gremlin was upset.
"Hahaha!"
If only the moment could last.
It was 14:00, his systems were green. It was time to go.
Bruce passed Rebecca her gun back, which she began tending to like a street kitten.
He nodded towards Sasha and walked to the car with Maine.
"Still don't get how a 'ganic gonk like you is a netrunner."
They entered the car, this time Leia picking the middle seat.
Professionalism be damned, they've got a carwide optic camo.
"What can I say? I'm the second coming of Bartmoss."
Sasha popped in.
"Bartmoss jacked into the net, he didn't have as much cyberware as we do now but he still wasn't organic."
Bruce leaned back in his seat as Maine began driving.
"I guess I'm just better then."
They drove on in silence to the client's meeting point.
"Hey Bruce." Sasha had plenty of questions for the organic marvel.
"Bruce, you got any more quickhacks?"
He turned away from the window, hand held by Leia.
"Not really, it took forever making that one compatible with most optics and OS'. I can scrounge out ICEbreakers and steal money and data, like everyone else. But I don't got more of my own hacks. Not big ones at least."
A thoughtful look crossed Sasha's face.
"What are the small ones?"
Bruce thought for a moment. "I have a really bad version of the ping quickhack, gives me sigs with only default labels."
"Ooh yeah that's bad."
"I have a hack that changes the target's code compiler, still needs a lot of work."
"That's evil."
"And I have a memory wipe, you saw that in the hack earlier. Along with a scramble optics hack."
"Uh huh."
"I uh, yeah that's about it. I didn't have as much time to make stuff as I did learning the different coding languages for netrunning."
Sasha nodded her head, her curiosity almost fully sated.
"How about your fighting? What do you have there?"
Bruce checked the slide on his Nue.
"Fifty rounds of 45, pure strength and speed."
Sasha looked around the car, "So you're mini Maine with a deck, she's mini Dorio, there's Becca, then the runner me, and big Maine driving."
She returned to her seat with her hands behind her head. "Preem team comp."
Bruce just nodded, waiting for either the next checkpoint or the client to show up.
—-
Thankfully the client was not dead or missing.
He was in the Northside apartments.
"Bruce, you hold the package. I'll go talk with our client."
Bruce nodded and left the car, circling to the trunk to grab the package.
The box was in pristine condition.
He grabbed it, tested its weight a little.
'Besides medicine it might just be parts and stuff. Whatever, not my package.'
The whole crew was out of the car, off to the side chatting as Maine was talking to the client.
"Your package sir."
The client, more chrome on his neck than bushes in the city was startled.
"You brought a corpo here?!? Holy shit I'm so screwed, hey listen please don't-"
Bruce shut him up quickly.
"Package, for, anonymous, client. You paid ten k for delivery, you get to not burn your retinas with the unholy fashion that mercs use."
He turned to Maine, "No offense."
Maine nodded back.
The client calmed himself shortly after.
"S-so you're not one of them?"
Bruce rolled his eyes.
"Not a corpo, now could you take the package and call the fixer? The clankers out there might be interested in it, not that I'm certain of it."
The man took hold of the box and stepped back.
"Ok phew, I thought I was a goner. Thank you, you don't know how much I nee-"
Bruce stopped him right there.
"We don't need to know, you paid ten grand on a delivery, you have your stuff. Now stay safe and do what you need to."
The client thanked them a few more times before heading back to his apartment.
"Maine, you gotta deal with clients like these all the time?"
Bruce looked over at Maine.
The smile Maine had could only be described as fatherly.
"It's a people job choom, and honestly, after that guy gets his act together, you might've gotten yourself a regular."
Bruce nodded his head and paused.
"Regular? He's gonna ask specifically for us?"
Maine nodded his head and opened a nicola from the trunk.
"You didn't open the container, granted we didn't have a moment to."
Bruce muttered
"That 20 minute break though."
Maine continued.
"You calmed him down real quick, you were terrifying but much easier on the eyes, and you handled him entirely professionally. People want that, you know that choom?"
Bruce scrutinized Maine.
"Wasn't your customer support the opposite of mine? You know, friendly, instant choommaker?"
Maine barked a laugh. "HA! You're right kid, but different people need different things, they need muscle and courage? They got me. They want efficiency and professionalism, well, you're making it look like they'll want you."
They regrouped with the others, Leia immediately attaching herself to Bruce's arm.
"How was your first gig? Boring? Easy?"
Maine had gone off to chat with Sasha.
Bruce adjusted to Leia's contact.
"I'm happy I didn't need to bring fifty rounds with me."
Leia checked through his jacket pockets.
"One, two, one, two, one."
Counting his magazines, including the one in his gun.
"Yeah that's fifty. So, what do you want to do now? Your place? My place? The bar with the others?"
Bruce glanced at the others, Maine was holding guts out of Rebecca's reach.
Sasha had found a seat and was watching from the side.
"The bar can wait, let's get to mine."
Leia nodded and the crew once more filed into the car.
Maine adjusted the mirrors and addressed the team.
"I'll drop you chooms off first then return the car, anyone have any specific spots or something?"
—