Ghost in the City

This room was one I definitely remembered from the game. This was the Scavs rec room, the place they hung out. It also had crates of weapons and other supplies so they were ready for us here.

The lights from Ping gave us numbers, and locations so I didn’t have to call it out.

Six guys.

*Going to frag again. Rebecca you too.* I called as I found a position to post up before. Running into the room. Rebecca and I both stood next to one of the metal security blinds, and once she was ready with Jun and Malcolm both holding the entrance. I hacked the blinds and forced them open.

We both tossed. I made sure to toss my grenade in a different direction from Rebecca towards a different group of people.

Our synergy wasn’t great. I hadn’t thought to have us call out which group to target.

Despite my skill this was a new experience for me, just like it was for most of Section 9. We would have to do some team training soon.

The side thoughts were blown away with the explosions of two grenades, and the screams of agony from dying gonks.

Jun and Malcolm both charged. Malcolm I noticed as I turned to follow was hugging directly behind Jun. Using him as cover and rapid firing into groups that Jun wasn’t focused on.

Rebecca and I came around a second later, and her smile was already stretching across her face as she let loose.

The Ajax roared and she caught two in a spray of bullets that weren’t fast enough to hide behind some crates in the middle of the room they were using as cover.

It wouldn’t work against me either.

I leapt straight up, my head nearly touching the ceiling as I raised my copperhead and just fired into them from above. More Scavs were killed, and I think our assault finally started breaking any hope the scavs had of winning. They started running, not many of them got far.

Not with everyone shooting into their fleeing backs.

Rebecca had climbed up on top of a crate and was laughing hysterically as she went full auto down the tunnel the Scavs were trying to flee down.

I just chased after them while firing. The copperhead tight to my shoulder as I raced forward firing at the fleeing gonks.

One dropped, I took a second to lower the barrel and confirm the kill by blowing out the back of his head. Then moved on. I could hear Rebecca struggling down from the crate behind me as Jun continued to beat a poor Scav into a pulp.

Even without looking I knew he was already dead.

*Jun focus up!*

But that was all the attention I was willing to give.

I turned the corner down the hall, and some of the scavs had been smart enough to turn to try and shoot me.

I juked and my Copperhead jerked in my grip as the silent rounds started tearing out of the barrel.

I felt a round wing me, and then another got me in the chest, but I was wearing armor.

They weren’t.

A second later the hallway was clear. None of them had escaped.

“Motoko!”

*Jun. Comms you gonk!* I yelled at him over the call and he slowed to a stop and seemed to regain some of his humanity as he saw me perfectly fine and glaring at him… Oh wait I was wearing the tech gogs with my helmet. He couldn’t see me glaring.

*Right… Right. You okay?*

*I’m fine. Check! Any injuries?*

*Nope I’m fine.*

*Didn’t get touched.* Malcolm and Rebecca both confirmed and then I looked at my gonk brother.

*Do I need to pull you out?*

*It’s just some scratches.* He denied.

Yeah the bullet hole in his arm was not a scratch.

But I noticed the old Kang Tao armor had actually caught a few rounds for him. Even if he had done everything he could to show off his plastic abs.

I rolled my eyes and tossed him a roll of bandages.

*Cover those.*

*I’m fine.* He tried to argue and I just cut him off.

*Do it or leave.*

He grumbled and after a minute did as he was told.

*Everyone gather back up. Let’s finish clearing this place. We aren’t done.*

*Awesome!* Rebecca cheered out as she ran down the hall. I quirked an eyebrow.

She now had a Saratoga strapped to her back.

*What?*

*Nothing.* I said, chuckling quietly as I focused up. We weren’t done.

—---

Ichinose

The stairs had not been easy to maneuver down, but he had done it. The Minotaur was staring into the doors of the elevator just waiting for someone to be stupid enough to come up.

*Anything up there Hiromi?*

*Nope, still clear.* She said and he relaxed a little. Controlling the Minotaur was an interesting experience. Despite the fact he was still just sitting in the driver's seat of his van it felt like he was actually far away.

Hiromi watching over him at least made this doable. He didn’t want to imagine what it would be like to get killed because he was focused on the Minotaur, but then again what kind of idiot would lose complete track of his surroundings without someone watching over them in a dangerous area?

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The elevator shifted. He could ‘hear’ it through the Minotaurs pickups.

*Someone is using the elevator.* He called out both in the channel between Hiromi and him, and to Motoko’s squad.

God thinking about it in terms like that still caught him off guard. This whole thing. This wasn’t some group of gonk kids fucking around. This was a corp level op.

They were badasses.

*Not one of us. If anyone is in there, take them out.* Motoko answered back cooly, not a hint of the strain of being in combat in her voice.

Once again Ichi just had to shake his head. Motoko Kusanagi was an enigma, she had come back so different from the coma, and that had only grown with the time since. It was almost hard to remember what she used to be like.

But it was her almost clinical detachment when dealing with violence that still made him nervous.

Motoko the gonk that didn’t like alcohol, and would happily get into arguments about the best character in a movie with Malcolm. Would in a second transform into a killer. He had never understood the idea of a ‘cold blooded killer’ before. Every murder he had ever seen had been passionate acting out, or just gang stuff which was usually full of shouting and yelling.

Although he knew Jotaro had been the same, but seeing that look on Motoko’s face as she talked about murdering her enemies always made Ichi… Not nervous. He wasn’t afraid of her, but he was… Wary of her.

He watched the elevator doors open, and five scavs stepped out. These were the leaders. The netrunner among them told Ichi that. The fact they were escaping was rather telling as well.

He felt his HMG’s activate. The targeting software easily pinging all five.

“FUCK!” The Netrunner managed to scream as the group realized what it was that was standing in the shadows in front of them.

Then Ichi fired.

Yeah. This was the fun part.

They tried. One scav must have some training, he raised a Metel the clunky Techtronika revolver fired twice before he had so many holes in him that the pistol fell from his grip.

*Five Scavs took the elevator. They’re dead.* He called out and he could hear Hiromi cheer. He could imagine her pumping her fist at that.

*Confirmed.* Motoko offered back, once more calm and controlled despite the fact he could vaguely hear gunfire still coming from down below.

He settled in again. Motoko had this under control.

—--

I felt like I had no control over what was happening.

Jun was once more racing off. Malcolm was doing his best to stay with him using him as cover. Rebecca had gone completely gun crazy and was just firing full auto at everything that moved.

I was forced to run multiple positions and tasks.

That scav aiming at Jun’s back? Quickdraw the Burya fire twice.

Rebecca running out of ammo and struggling to reload with how many weapons she now had strapped to her?

Jump up and tackle her off the table she had found to give her some height. Cover her with my body so the return fire from the scavs hit me and not her. Land, and fire through the cover at the fucker that just shot me.

Reload Burya, ensure Rebecca was okay visually. Rise.

Fire into fucking dirty scavs until they die.

“Sorry.” I heard quietly as I looked back and saw Rebecca.

The fury was quenched and I was cool once more.

“It’s fine. We work as a team to watch out for each other. We all have things to learn.” Then because I was just holding my Burya I reached out a hand for her. She had landed on her ass after everything. “We aren’t done yet.”

She looked up at me, and smiled evilly. “Right!” And then I was hauling her back to her feet, and we went to town.

This last section of the Scav base was a fucking maze. Broken walls. Scaffolding. Large machines to hide around.

There weren’t that many Scavs down here, but they were all hiding in nooks and crannies to ambush us.

Thankfully Ping still worked, and between Jun and I we hunted them all down, pulling them out and murdering them mercilessly.

Especially after we checked the side rooms and found all the killing rooms.

Or rather the Scavs BD rooms. The horrific locals were something I expected, but it made Jun go real quiet and I could see him tighten his hands over and over. The view had Rebecca lose it too. Malcolm though was probably inured to seeing Scav holes. He just kept trying to kill them.

But finally we cleared the entire underground. Each corner was checked, and we went through the whole complex, including in rooms that I remember from the game had been ‘dead’ doors. Many of the side paths were full of gear or equipment, or just corpse storage.

But it was done.

*Looks like we are clear down here. Hiromi, Malcolm, let’s move onto the most important part. Looting.*

I got a laugh from Malcolm at my words, but Rebecca mostly gave me a funny look when I said the most important part.

Obviously Maine didn’t know how to make the real eddies. There was a lot of gear down here.

—--

Ichi and I switched places, although I didn’t have the Minotaur, I was just on overwatch upstairs, keeping an eye on things in case any random scavs returned.

To my amusement Jun had been roped in by Hiromi, and she was ordering him around as he lifted heavy stuff. While Malcolm and Ichi started going through rooms gathering up interesting pieces. Rebecca had also wanted to help, but her stature had gotten in the way and so she had finally given up and was heading up to the surface.

I was on the second floor of the broken down building looking over the power plants lot when she finally came up and then headed up to where I was hiding out.

“You’re up here right?” She asked as she came up and I reached up over my head, revealing my hiding place between some boxes cutting me entirely off from sight.

“Umm what are you doing?” She asked as she walked over and climbed up onto the boxes to look down on me.

“Overwatch!”

“Yeah I get that, but why are you hiding?”

“Because if I see anyone coming in and they don’t see me, that gives me a tactical advantage.”

“Right… Right.” She answered and then to my surprise she shimmied over the box and landed in my little hidey hole and rested against the box. “That was… Pretty crazy.”

“One of the biggest raids we’ve done for sure. Not the biggest, but one of them. Definitely the first one with our new equipment.” I offered, looking her over, happy to see she hadn’t taken any wounds. I had already checked over my armor poking fingers into little holes in the chest rig, and some random shrapnel I had picked up from ricochets somewhere.

“I wanted to say thanks.” She finally admitted after a minute of quiet. “You didn’t treat me like some random extra you were just bringing along, or give me some random gonk work. You just gave me a gun and expected me to use it.”

“Well yeah? You work with Maine and Sasha right?”

“Sometimes.” She said weakly, and that sometimes sounded more like. Never. Or not in the way she wanted.

“Well Section 9 is always looking to hire good shooters. Malcolm is shaping up well to be my backup but we could use another solid gun…. Not saying you have to stop working with Maine or anything! I just mean if you-”

“Yeah.. Listen. Motoko, you got something going here, that’s kinda wild. Not the sort of shit I expected from a teenager, even one that can walk into the Afterlife, but I get why Rogue has her eye on you now. You don’t… You keep bringing up Maine, and Maine is great. He has army training, and is an absolute beast, but he doesn’t… The planning you did? That’s way beyond his normal prep. You passed out equipment that blows away anything Maine and crew use. My brother is Maine's Techie. The gonk that makes sure they have whatever random tool they need, but he certainly doesn’t have a Minotaur.”

“That’s pretty recent, and sort of a surprise to us too.”

“Yeah but… Maine wouldn’t have kept it, if he got one. It would have just been sold off.” Rebecca added and then seemed to struggle with herself. “I’m not good at this kind of shit. I’m not saying it right… Maine cares for his crew, he’s protective yeah, but he doesn’t force them into high end armor. Doesn’t get Minotaurs for the non-shooters to be able to do something. That’s not normal. Like at all. It’s crazy… I like that kind of crazy.”

I looked at Rebecca’s red eyes and I understood. “It’ll take a bit for us to get a fresh set of armor. I’ll talk to Hiromi, we might be able to buy a set fresh. A bit of time on top of that, the ECM emitters will take some time to source again, but that’s not a huge issue. So give me some time, and the armor will be done.”

“Armor?”

“Your armor. Can’t continue to work with us without armor.” I added and Rebecca seemed sort of shocked at how casually I had just accepted her into the crew.

“That sounds expensive.”

“Nah, Section 9 will handle the expenses.” I assured her she wouldn’t have to pay for it, and that did something, because a second later she started laughing.

“You’re really fucking weird!”

“Thanks?”

—--

Despite expecting some massive Scav response. Nothing happened. Instead Rebecca and I switched off on overwatch to make sure nothing continued to happen, while Section 9 went to work.

Well besides Jun, One of the times he had come up I noticed he was still bleeding. I had ordered him to go to a ripper and get checked up, ignoring any and all of his arguments about it.

Then to my surprise as I helped haul some heavy crates up the stairs, Ichi wasn’t there and his van was gone, including the Minotaur.

“Where’s Ichi?”

“He went to get us more transport space.” Hiromi said. She was going through all the crates seemingly making lists of all the crap we were taking out.

I shrugged, figuring he would just come back with his normal truck empty, but instead an hour later he came pulling into the lot with the massive Behemoth.

“Huh. You didn’t sell it?” I asked Hiromi absolutely surprised to see that thing again.

“I set up a rental plan as part of an agreement with a SCSM stocking service. Apparently having something armored like the Behemoth heavily decreases injuries. I called it back in before we left. I had a feeling we would need all the space we could fit.” Hiromi said looking pleased with herself as Ichi came out of the cab with a proud look as well.

“You’ve been practicing.” I called out to Ichi and he smiled.

“I have! Hiromi has had me working with a SCSM company. They use the truck and in exchange don’t have to worry about getting shot at as much.”

I instantly looked at Hiromi who smiled even more slyly. “I might have also rented out Ichi.”

“You!” I called out before bursting into laughter. “You sneaky corpo!” I yelled out and chased at her.

“Hehehe!” She giggled back flashing a bright smile as she escaped my grabbing hands.

“Well you certainly drive it like you’ve got some experience now.” I called out as I gave up on the chase.

“Yeah it took a while.” Ichi agreed, then he looked over all the crates already stacking up. “I’ll lower the ramp, let’s start getting stocked up.”

I nodded in agreement, and soon we were working together hauling up the heavy crates into the truck.

“I’m still surprised you didn’t sell it. Aren’t these things difficult to get a hold of.”

“Yeah. Militech only sells it to big corps, or governments.” Hiromi agreed, nodding a moment later had her smile going sly. “Which is why I decided that Section 9 should keep it for ourselves. Something like this isn’t a vehicle we could just buy again later. Armored transports aren’t easy to get.”

“Well I can’t complain.” I shrugged. I mean, I hadn’t even noticed that Hiromi hadn’t sold it…

Was that another sign I was bad with money, or a hint that I had way too much money and should spend it?

Both. Probably both.

I traded out loading the truck with Rebecca every once in a while giving me a break to rest and watch over the lot, while she helped out.

And slowly we cleared out the entire place.

At least anything we actually wanted to take. Then long into the night. Ichi piled into the cab of the Behemoth, and we all slipped away into the night. Rebecca once more joined me in the Quadra as we followed along behind the truck.

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