We are all, in one form or another, shaped by stories, and I’ve had many of them over the course of the past decade. Though mine are considered dated at best now; the game has noticeably shifted since I left my position. The new, hip “thing” is this Relic bullshit. “Secure Your Soul,” but all it does is remind me of the Soulkiller days. I’m reminded of what that man told me in the war – saving engrams of the enemy and interrogating them. I wonder if this is where all the research went after the war ended? Not like it mattered much to me, I’d never be able to afford that crap. Nor would most people I knew.
Typical corpo tactic. Post your newfangled tech up on that big-ass billboard right in the middle of a shithole to make it seem like it might be something everyone can afford, but who’s anyone really kidding. Reminds me of that transcontinental Maglev system that Night Corp’s supposedly renovating. The one that took them like five years to get out of the planning stages, and who knows how much longer before anything actually moves on its own power on those tracks. Fucking jokes, the lot of it.
I hate to admit it, but Jackie’s right, it’s good that I got out when I did. I think it’s really starting to sink in now just how insufferable the lies and false promises are, and how blatantly transparent all these cheap psychological tactics became. Well, we can’t change what is, but at least we can hopefully change people's individual lives for the better. That's more than enough for me.
These apartment blocks remind me of the ones I used to live under in Tokyo after my mother kicked me out. They extended far overhead, with the sewers we lived in carving concrete canyons into the landscape. All of those buildings oppressively towered over us, the overhangs stacked one on top of another in geometrically-improbable angles from overcrowding, completely cutting off any direct sunlight. The whole thing rested on a great mountain of improvised girders preventing the buildings from instantly crumbling, but not because anyone was worried about us living beneath them – because they didn’t want to rebuild their precious offices again. If one dug only about 10cm down, they’d find the many creases of the concrete foundation were caused by simply paving over the skeletons of those who came before.
Apparently our mark was in one of these structures – Sandra Dorsett. Corpo with TT Platinum coverage, but for whatever reason they never came. So Wakako sent us on a little expedition into a supposed scav nest to locate the missing woman. I fucking hate scavs. All they do, all they ever will do, is take, and ruin people’s lives for it. Seeing the way they mercilessly exploit and carve up their victims makes my blood boil. The first time I saw such sights was in my mid-teens, and it’s one I wish I could forget.
“Here, pull in here,” Jackie ushered me into a parking garage on my right. I darted the Skyline belowdecks and we quickly reviewed what needed to happen. Pretty straightforward job – go up, find Sandra Dorsett, get her out, expect scav resistance and deal with them accordingly. Wakako Okada said nothing about leaving them alive, and neither of us held any complaints there.
T-Bug gave us a call while we rode the elevator up. “Not getting any vital signs, target could be flatlined already,” she noted, “Not sure you’re in time.”
“We’re in time, Bug,” Jackie asserted, “We. Just ‘cause you’re on the holo doesn’t make you any less of a part of this squad.”
“Squad. Charming.”
“Well aren’t you just a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day today,” I shook my head.
“Aw, you want nice, supportive? Call a damn helpline,” T-Bug hung up on us. Jackie just looked at me and shrugged his shoulders with bemusement – ah. There’s our floor. Alright, V, game-face on.
–
V slotted her sword to her side for a quicker draw and Jackie produced a pair of high-power Tsunami Nue pistols which he called La Chingada Dorada, named for his best friend – though he would never outwardly admit it to her. They walked with purpose down the long, dark hallway leading to the room, V fixing her baseball cap and palming the grip of her sword with her left hand. Jackie walked in such a way that it’s almost like the entire hallway had to give way for the monster of a man, his combat boots landing with a heavy thud to complement V’s distinctive clanking of her steel soles.
An elderly man by-chance stepped out into the hallway before rapidly retreating back into his room. “中に戻って [Go back inside],” V nodded to him in a quiet but reassuring tone as her lumbering friend moved past with the subtlety of an impending hurricane. “Lookin’ for 1237,” T-Bug informed the pair.
The two found the designated door shortly after, hearing what sounded like a rave on the other end. Seems that we’ll have the element of surprise for once, Jackie thought to himself as he and V stacked up outside the door. “Hey, you pry it open?” He asked V, motioning to her sword. V wordlessly nodded and quietly shimmied the monomolecular blade through the slight gap in the door, prying it open just enough to allow Jackie to slip a finger in between and rip it the rest of the way open.
“Bug, we’re in,” he whispered, “We got ‘em by surprise, low profile ‘til we get a head-count, V.”
“わかった [Sure].”
They were greeted with a truly horrific smell, one which was absolutely characteristic of scavs. A combination of blood, overheating implants, and the tar-like stench of uncovered biological waste hung in the air, thickening it like a paste as they moved through the apartment. It was only one room later when the first body presented itself – a woman who’d seemingly been vivisected.
“Fuck me, guess that settles it,” Jackie frowned as he walked past, “No mercy for the wicked, huh, Cappy.” Jackie had a habit of referring to V by her military rank on the job as a term of endearment and encouragement, though never in front of T-Bug nor anyone else they worked with.
V took a long pause, glaring into the woman’s eye sockets where her optics formerly sat. She’d been mercilessly carved until there was almost nothing left. This is what they do, she thought to herself, What kind of cruel, twisted person must one be… Who is so desperate for a fix as to allow this terrible fate to come to an innocent woman…
She noted that the girl, no older than 15 or 16, likely didn’t have any of the corpo protection afforded to their client, much less the implants to back it up. Nothing but black-market tech. Not their lucky girl – assuming, of course, she was lucky enough to still be alive.
Jackie stopped her just before she went through the next door, hearing their first victim of the day on the other side. He implored V to take him out quietly, and V was only too happy to oblige. She silently drew her sword in an icepick grip and walked right up to the blissfully ignorant scav, driving her blade straight through the back of his skull and twisting it for good measure. His body twitched and flailed around on the skewer before she kicked it off, falling limp to the floor with a satisfying thud. A far cleaner end than any of his victims, to be sure. “Nice, couldn’ta done it better myself,” Jackie complimented as he caught up.
“Fuck, down!” Jackie whispered as a group split off, with V and Jackie diving into a nearby kitchen and hiding behind some appliances. “Fuckin’ reapers, man, I can’t stand ‘em,” he scoffed.
“すぐ戻って [I’ll be back],” V grumbled, palming her blade and shaking the blood off for a fresh application by the next unfortunate soul. She’d seen enough. These people were armed with nothing but handguns and basic weapons, and it was a close-quarters building. Sandra likely didn’t have much time left, if at all, and they hopelessly outmatched what she’d seen. Time to go to work, then, she growled to herself as she charged the pair of them, dismembering both within less than a second and leaving nothing but pieces in her wake. “自分自身を助けることができません [Sorry, I couldn’t help myself],” she twirled her katana and returned to a traditional grip, approaching the main floor head-on. No one seemed to have paid any mind to the thumps of body parts in the other room – likely a common sound for these people.
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She didn’t wait for them to notice the disappearances, taking the initiative by charging face-first into the nearest scav and quickly beheading him in a single precise cut – right in front of his friends. “Right, that’s how we’re doin’ it, fuck yeah!” Jackie chanted as he drew his handguns and ran in, immediately doming both soldiers nearest to him as they assumed their usual formation – V blocking incoming fire with her blade while Jackie fired back.
It was a routine they’d practiced for years together, with Jackie staying by V’s dominant right and firing over her shoulder in what might appear like a hostage situation to anyone else. But the sheer volume of firepower they could unload on the enemy was stunning to behold, especially in firefights involving a half-dozen scavs.
They struck their opponents right in the implants, the shots and deflections registering with audible pings as the rounds struck the metallic texture, turning the soldiers into nothing more than glorified tuning forks. V broke left and Jackie took cover to the right, forming a classic pincer maneuver to close the distance before a massive racket gave them both pause. That was no ordinary weapon – it was a heavy machine gun. “Fuck, what about that?!” Jackie shouted over the deafening sounds of gunfire in the enclosed space.
“後で対処 [We’ll deal with that later]!” V quickly replied, skidding herself into the corner and deflecting numerous handgun rounds from the two remaining soldiers in the main room. She ordered Jackie to push center and drove herself underneath both his and the machine gunner’s field of fire, suppressing the enemy in the far room and letting her cross the doorway relatively-unimpeded. V charged down both foes in quick succession, giving them no chance to retaliate as she impaled one and yanked her blade out so violently that it carried enough momentum to bisect his friend. Both immediately collapsed in several pieces, leaving no signs of life apart from twitches and electrical arcs.
–
Right, draw in the last one… Come on… “Jack, right!” I yelled at my friend while visibly shaking my head, meaning ‘No, don’t go right.’ Jackie took the hint, knowing exactly what I had in-mind and went left instead, doming the fucker as soon as he left cover, thinking he had us suppressed. Idiot.
Machine gunner… “There’s a window to your left, can sneak around-” T-Bug chimed in suddenly.
“We got this, T-Bug,” I calmly reassured her, palming my blade and using its sheen as a mirror to look around the corner. Sure enough, still there. He had drilled a nice big hole in the wall with that. Sounded like a .50 BMG. Can’t block that, too powerful. I hand-signaled for Jackie to go left and hammer-and-anvil– Jackie, of course, being the anvil. He nodded and shot off to my left flank, dumping round after round at the gunner and allowing me to charge right up the middle. I kept my sword raised to my head, relying entirely on my reflexes and Jackie to keep me alive while I waited for my moment.
Soon enough, though, his weapon overheated as planned, signaled by the fire rate diminishing and halting entirely. Okay… Easy now…
Ballon. Pas assemblé through the wall, land on the right foot first.
Get low, blast off the left.
Développé.
Raise up – incoming fire.
Pivot right-step.
Right, left, down… à terre.
And adagio, slowly, grip the blade, rotate around, and fin.
“Fuck me, V, you got his arm and head in one shot?” Jackie exclaimed as he came into the room, “Impressive.”
“Heh, thanks… Hard to get at the head when his shoulder was at swinging level,” I noted humbly while getting my breath back, taking a subtle bow at my little dance impression.
“Right, uh… well – fuck, Sandra.”
“Not here,” I bit my lower lip while looking around the room for any signs of blood that hadn't been spilled by the gunner.
“Check the balcony,” he waved me outside, but that was empty save for a 12-story swan dive.
“Nothing here, either.”
“Bathroom it is, then,” he grunted, stacking up alongside the door. I returned Shinden to its saya [scabbard] and walked past what little remained of the gunner, posting up on the left. I always dreaded this part of the job – the bathrooms were the worst.
“God, what the fuck…” I muttered as I headed in, trudging through the overpowering stench and cursing myself that I left my face mask in the car. The floor was sticky with bile and mucous, and the tub filled with bodies submerged in ice water for preservation.
“Shit, I got a stomach of iron, but this… Man, it always makes me… ugh…” he retched.
“I know, Jack,” I nodded, approaching the bathtub in a hurry. If our girl’s here, she’s likely… Fuck… No… Dead… Hm. Woman, shiny implants – oh God, it’s her!
“Jackie, come here! She’s still alive!” I screamed as I yanked her out of the tub, “I can’t move her anymore, she’s in shock!”
“V, quick, jack into her biomon!” T-Bug shouted over the airwaves.
“She’s… uh… fuck, there’s other bodies here, too… like… slabs of meat,” I swallowed the pit in my throat. “People get panic attacks from this sort of trauma without ever knowing why… Sipping a glass of iced water and suddenly your hands start shaking…”
“V, get it together and jack in!”
“Right, right… um…” I took my glove off and plugged into her OS, scanning for any sort of corrupted data. Apart from oxygen deprivation and critical failures across the board, I found a jammer inside her neck – probably why Trauma Team never got the notice. Fuck… bastards getting smarter every day. I quickly pulled the shard from her neck and received an alert – 180 seconds to pickup. “Jackie, 3 minutes to Trauma Team!” I relayed as it rambled on about how her plan will cover 90 percent of the projected costs – I think that’s the least of her worries right now.
“Right, gonna have to move her outta the ice,” Jackie replied, “I’ll cover you. Do your thing.”
“Got it,” I nodded and gently dragger her out, careful not to touch her neck in case of any damage – fuck, FUCK! “Jackie, airhypo! She’s seizing!”
“Fuck it! Catch!” he shouted, tossing me the compressed-air injector and I pumped it straight into her heart without a second thought. She gasped for breath and twitched violently from the sudden shock before finally relaxing and stabilizing.
“Christ… Jackie, it worked for now.”
“Let’s hope it’s long enough to get ‘er on the balcony!” he returned to me and helped me grab her. We carried her as a unit outside, just in time to see Trauma Team pull up in their characteristic heavily-armed AV unit. Their gear put some Arasaka strike teams to shame. I can't say I wasn't envious; if we had a battalion of these people, we would've won the war in a heartbeat.
“Landing, stand clear!” the AV signaled as it touched down.
“You got her?” Jackie nodded to me.
“Yeah.” I took her full weight and Jackie broke off, covering my rear in case TT got any fancy ideas. The squad rapidly disembarked, assuming a 2-by-2 cover formation and pointing their weapons directly at our faces.
“Place the patient on the ground!” one of the paramedics ordered and I immediately complied. These people never fucked around; Trauma Team featured some of the most heavily-equipped soldiers in the business.
They made their stay brief and purposeful, dictating to me to keep back while they secured Sandra for transport before sailing off to the next poor individual, leaving Jackie and I to find our own way back. “Fuck…” he muttered to himself, “What a day, huh?”
“Yeah… Let’s get the Hell out of here. I feel filthy,” I frowned as we walked back through the decimated remains of the scavs and down the way we came in.
“Listen, V,” he made small-talk on the elevator ride down, “I gotta borrow your wheels for a minute.”
“What? Why?”
“Got a date with Misty lined up tonight.”
“Jackie, when in the last decade have I let you borrow my car. Can you even drive stick?”
“Hey, no better time to learn,” he laughed. I threw my katana over my shoulder and leaned up against the wall; I couldn’t help but look at this big, lovable oaf, like a little puppy-dog or something. But okay, fine… I can't say no to him. Well, if he persists long enough.
“Don’t you have a Quadra V-Tech?” I chuckled, “Why would you want my car? You always make fun of it.”
“Yeah but it’s got a misfire. C’mon, I only make fun of your piece of shit outta love, you know that.”
“Bah, please, you drive my car and the first thing you’re gonna do’s wonder why you need to floor it just to keep up with highway traffic,” I smiled, “But hey, you know what? We got a long ride home, why don’t you try.”
“What? Really?!” Jackie exclaimed.
“Yeah, here,” I handed him my keys and it looked like he was about to jump out of his own skin with how excited he was.
“Shiiit, here I thought I’d never get the chance!” His face was utterly beaming. We restored this car together, and after he tried to drive it but nearly melted my clutch from standing on it the whole time, I never let him in anything but the passenger seat again. Figured it’s time to change that, though.
“But Jackie, you slip off the clutch one time and I’m kicking your big ass to the curb.”
“Relaaax, I’m a professional,” he grinned as we walked out into the parking garage. What have I done…
I called Wakako to inform her on a job well-done. She was characteristically cold and professional, though perhaps overly-detached given the circumstances. Still that’s another paycheck down, and like always, I handed my cut straight over to Jackie. But she did tell us one interesting thing – apparently all of Watson was on lockdown for some reason. Starting tomorrow, no one gets in or out. Strange…
“Well, let’s head home and regroup there. Figure out what’s going on in the morning,” Jackie said as I relayed everything to him, “I’m tired.”
“Same,” I muttered, “Just crash on my bed. No guarantee they’ll let you out.”
“True, true,” he nodded, “Thanks, V.”
“No problem, Jackie. Just don’t be afraid to put it in fifth gear. Don’t want us to go back to the good ol’ days of sleeping in the back of some van.”
“Hah, yeah, fair point,” he laughed as he went to get in the wrong way, “Oh, uh… fuck, so used to getting in the left side.”
“Look at you, moving up in the world,” I smiled at him, “Take care of Miyoko. Please.”
“I got this, relax.” I won’t relax until we’re all home safe, you know this, Jackie.
---
V never brandishes her ribbon bar at any point, owing to Arasaka's uniform requirements. Instead, her dogtags feature a built-in electronic reader which tracks her service in real-time for display with cyber eyes. To view her ribbons, one must only have a glance and they will appear next to her alias above her head, like any other active-duty soldier. This allows for easy identification of a person's background and skills to those authorized to view them, while denying anyone without the correct clearances. Particularly useful for infiltration operations, to denote which individuals are friendly versus unknown in the absence of standardized uniforms.
- Security Services Participation: Joining the Arasaka Security Services, 2065
- National Defense: Served during a time of active conflict, 2069
- Overseas Defense: Participation in overseas training operations, 2066
- Devolutionist Service Ribbon: For active duty during the conflicts leading up to the Unification War, 2067
- Metal Wars Service Ribbon x2: For active duty during the Unification War, 2069, 2070
- International Cooperation: Service in joint operations with a foreign nation, 2066
- Anti-Piracy (The "Street Sweepers") Ribbon x2: Convoy escort duties, 2067
- Career Service: Ten years of enlistment, 2075
- Junior Commissioned Officer Citation - Benkei Device: Successful completion of Benkei Island officer's training course, 2071
- Distinguished Training - Swordsmanship x2: Special citation awarded to individuals who possess skills above and beyond their peers in training, 2065, 2071
- 3rd Class Citation: Third-highest award for gallantry in combat, 2070
- Combat Wounded Citation x2: Receive serious injuries during active-duty operations and return to service, 2069, 2072
- Meritorious Civil Service, Night City Device: For demonstrating continuous gallantry during civil service operations, 2073 (Operation: Dead Summer, Saudi Arabia)
