The intel was good. An old ripperdoc shop, long abandoned by the owner, had been taken over. The group had klepped a shipment from Kang Tao. Some proprietary data or whatever, and they wanted it back, but hadn’t managed to track down who stole it, so some middle manager had hired Regina who hired Hiromi.

Honestly I was pretty relaxed, slipping into their data stream was tetchy. Maelstrom always had more potential for running into a Netrunner than some other gangs.

But as I slipped inside, and did a quick numbers check from a rooftop across the street, looking through the interior camera from their unblinking eyes everything kept coming back as just like the mission prep.

About fifteen Maelstrom. No one with a massive danger level, all worked out of this shop gathering chrome from all over the city and using this place to chrome themselves up.

I had a bad feeling they weren’t professional rippers, and were probably just doing it through their amateur skills which was horrifying.

I’d have to visit Vik after this and pray to the prophet of safe chrome use.

*Okay, I’m in their security, uploading Ping.* I sent out, and my eyes were filled with golden lights that I uploaded to my team. Out of the corner of a camera I caught Rebecca and Malcolm huddling in the alley behind the shop, both of them ready.

*I’m moving.* Ichi confirmed, a moment later and I looked with my actual eyes to see his Van pulling out of the spot he had parked down the street and drove closer.

*We’re ready!” Rebecca called out and I nodded.

*Alright. Everyone! Operation Begin!* I demanded as I stood up and started running.

A lot happened right away.

I leapt, landing precariously on the traffic light across the street, balancing a little for a moment and then running across.

Ichi stopped his truck with a little tire squeal and the back doors opened up, both HMG’s activating.

Rebecca hopped up, using a bit of garbage they had piled up to climb up onto the trash bin and heft her LMG onto the old fence pointing into the building.

I was glad I had made sure there wouldn’t be any chance of Ichi’s HMG hitting them, thanks to the weird shape of the building they were at an angle to each other.

Then I leapt, and as I did I uploaded Weapon Glitch.Then I landed on the roof, rolled forward and the firing began. My Lexington raised up already silenced and I started firing, destroying the glass of the skylight, and sliding to a stop. My Burya raised to match my Lexington, and I started firing from above into the Maelstrom that were still alive taking cover behind what little they could find.

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

I smirked as the XP came in, four shots each confirming a kill with the Burya as the Lexington did what it could as well, and then I rolled away from the window as return fire hit my position. Rolling a bit to get some distance I confirmed everything was working well.

*Grenades.* I called over the line, and Malcolm did his job. He wasn’t just there to help Rebecca after all. A moment later the inside of the shop started exploding as he tossed grenade after grenade inside until every golden light went out.

*I’m going in to clear, safety those HMG’s Ichi.**Roger that. Going to move so I’m not in the middle of the street.* He called out, and I already heard his roller door on his truck coming down as he started driving away to keep an eye out.

I jumped down through the skylight. Weapons raised as I checked the corner, but I was already fairly confident it was clear.

I looked over the bodies and whistled. That wasn’t just normal Maelstrom gear. They had some actual hardware. Must be what they klepped from the Kang Tao.

Looks like Section 9 was getting some more gear. I ignored that for now, and started searching. Plenty of equipment was destroyed from our surprise attack, but I had found what I suspected was the laptop that they had checked the stolen data from, and it was in a small side room. It had been safe-ish from grenades.

I finished checking all the rooms and joined up with Rebecca and Malcolm as they came in, before I relaxed.

“Looks all clear.”“Preem! Look at that! Eee! I’ve always wanted a Zhuo!” Rebecca actually squealed as she set her Constitutional Arms Defender LMG onto the concrete barely treating it gently as she hefted the Smart Shotgun and started cackling.

“Keep an eye for traps!” I reminded her and Malcolm before I turned towards the small office and slipped inside.

The laptop inside was hooked up to all sorts of firewall hardware. Honestly all this equipment was expensive stuff, and I was already planning on calling for the boys to haul it all away.

Additional computing hardware to protect yourself while checking on a dangerous shard? That was valuable.

I did one quick check using the data Regina gave me, confirming the data file I was looking for was present, and popped the Kang Tao Harddrive that they had rigged up to everything. Slipped it into a pouch in my armor. *Hiromi we have retrieved the target.*

*Nova. I’ll message Regina. We didn’t get a-*

*Shit! Incoming!* Ichi shouted out and I moved. Bringing my Burya up as I raced out of the small room. Rebecca was already jumping into cover. The same cover the poor Maelstrom had used until I attacked from above, but Malcolm was sort of hesitating.

I took it all in and my eyes caught what was happening. I activated my Sandy and moved.

Bullets started shooting through the front window, but it wasn’t normal gunfire. Smart rounds. I took it in, and turned up my armor's ECM, the light would make me a bigger target, but if bullets were homing it was better than nothing. A moment later I was hitting Malcolm, both of us went sprawling, but hopefully behind enough cover the rounds would miss.

*ACTIVATE ECM!* I roared over our line and rose up realizing I was still in Sandy time.

Fuck.

I fired ,Kang Tao orange armor not standing up to angry Burya fire and dropping soldiers with every shot.

As I fired I started hacking. Weapon Glitch would certainly help, but Kang Tao weren’t off the street gonks. They had some actual defenses, and before I could finish it happened.

I didn’t make it back into cover without return fire. My ECM was working. Smart Rounds went wide and spiraling off, but that wasn’t a perfect solution. I felt a round impact my chest rig, right around my ribs, and then as I was knocked sideways, a spider crack blurred my vision. I landed hard, but rolled into cover.

Return fire started Rebecca firing her new toy, and Malcolm scrambled for his gun. I was a bit stunned for a moment as the Sandy cycled and I realized the reason my vision was so fucked was because a smart round had hit my helmet.

I pressed a hand against the hole and relaxed as I realized while I felt a bit concussed I wasn’t bleeding.

*Incoming!* Ichi called out again and I really worried that we were about to be hit by more enemies when I heard a massive crash outside. I peaked up and then started firing.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Ichi had crashed into the Kang Taos stupid little orange minivan they had come out of, and that had been enough of a distraction. Then Malcolms grenade went off and I flinched back.

Oh. He hadn’t been scrambling for a gun, but for another grenade.

“Good job.” I called out a few moments later when I realized they weren’t getting back up. And then I activated the Sandy again and charged.

The Kang Tao van was still occupied, just busy dealing with Ichi’s less than an accident. I pulled one of my own grenades from my chest rig and jumped, landing on the hood of Ichi’s Van.

*Ichi! Reverse!* I demanded and a moment later the truck peeled backwards escaping the Kang Tao’s van. With a little extra that I tossed in once there was an opening. The grenade popped and the entire little orange van bumped and I got a surge of alerts that I would check later.

Instead I raised my gun pointing at the van.

*Let’s go! In the truck now!” I demanded and not long after Rebecca and Malcolm both pulled themselves out of the shop, Both of them looked like they had been hit, but that would have to wait as they hurried as fast as they could and jumped into Ichi’s truck. I crawled over to the passenger side and slipped in, as Ichi floored it.

—--

“An explanation would be nice!” I growled holding an ice pack to my head. I hadn’t managed to slip a Max Doc between Ichi in the cab, and Hiromi fussing over me at Viks.

Malcolm was okay, just a big purple bruise growing across his shoulder where a round had slammed into him, but Rebecca got actually nicked.

I looked over at her, where she was doing everything she could to not pay attention to the way Vik was cleaning out a bullet hole in her leg.

“I don’t know either!” Hiromi said back, but she was just as pissed as I was. “Regina hasn’t gotten back to me since the attack.”

“That bitch. She’s the fucking cursed fixer. If I find out she did this, all those defenses at her stupid little hidey hole aren’t going to save her.” I promised, and despite the fact I just threatened a fixer, Hiromi nodded.

Then her eyes went gold and she held up a hand, her face turning into an angry glare as she spoke.

Ah, so Regina had called us finally.

I looked over, and everyone was okay. So I rested back and closed my eyes.

*500 XP Gained.*

*750 XP Gained.*

Two XP alerts for the grenade I had thrown. So the boss of the little hit squad had been inside the Kang Tao van?

Then a good bit of odd alerts, and of course I had leveled something.

*100 Engineering XP Gained.*

*Engineering skill level up!*

That had me snorting back a laugh. Killing people with explosives was engineering still made me laugh.

Engineering 7 was solid, I could feel the information leaking into my brain as I let myself decompress.

“Good news and bad news.” Hiromi called out and I looked up, that had been to everyone. “The good news? Regina wasn’t the one that tried to backstab us. The bad news? Kang Tao aren’t gonna drop this.”“Not our problem.” I denied instantly. “You tell Regina that as the fixer we are dropping off the data and our side of this is done. She handles it.” I argued but Hiromi shook her head.

“Kang Tao went after her too.”“What?” I asked, actually surprised. Regina wasn’t the oldest fixer, but she’d been Media before this, had plenty of connections, and… You just didn’t go after Fixers like that. But I still shook my head. “Still not our problem. Not unless she’s paying more.”Hiromi nodded and went silent as she still had Regina on a line.

We were all quiet as Hiromi’s face went through a variety of responses before settling on a bit of anger and then she nodded. Grimacing which made the black EMP threading on her cheeks shift.

“Fuck you too then!” Hiromi yelled out, shocking everyone including Vik who looked up with a judging eyebrow raise at Hiromi who looked a little bashful. “Sorry.”“What happened?”“We need to get the data to her so she can finish the gig from Kang Tao and turn off the heat for this, but she says we need to get it to her, and that it’s not going to be easy.”“Again that sounds like a her problem.” I added bluntly.

“She mentioned that she can get Kang Tao off our ass, but she needs the data first.” Hiromi added and I rolled my eyes.

“Fucking hell.” I grumbled and shrugged standing up. “Okay I’m going to get this to her and get out. Stay here, while… No, go to Hiromi’s place once you are patched up. We don’t want to bring any heat down on Vik.” I added looking to the older man, who hadn’t turned from his work while I spoke, but I got the feeling I had done right.

“Yeah. We can crash at my place… Probably.” Hiromi added and I shrugged. While I didn’t want to make her parents pissed, I didn’t exactly care about that as much as I cared about my chooms.

“Alright Hiromi, send me whatever Regina sent you about the drop off. I’m out.”“Shouldn’t you recover a bit more?” Hiromi asked, pointing at my head and I shook it off.

“I’m fine. Really.” I added throwing up a smile. “Alright guys. I’ll keep in touch.”

—--

Regina was still up in her little hidey hole of a floor in a skyscraper. The problem came that Kang Tao also knew that, and they had moved into the area to watch her.

She couldn’t leave to get the data to get them to back off, and they wanted the data and the carriers of it dead.

Fucking hell.

I was going to tell Hiromi no more Regina after this. She was just bad luck.

I parked a long way away, and ended up getting to the rooftops so I would have a better view of everything. Looking across the street at the building Regina was in, I kept my head down low, because even on the rooftop there were Kang Tao Snipers.

This… This was going to be difficult. They definitely had a runner here too, so I would either need to sneak in and get to her, or disable the runners while I did so… I considered the options. I could probably start flatling gonks on my way in, but…

Kang Tao was not the sort of threat I wanted to keep poking. Killing a single hit squad they sent after me wasn’t a huge deal, but wiping out more of them after? That’s the sort of thing that could get them to decide to make an example out of me.

So stealth it was. From the rooftop I started marking targets, not through Ping or anything as that might be noticed, but just using the old ninja skills. Slowly in my mind a layout came into place. With each of the Kang Tao grunts forming a web as I took in their routes, and paths.

Slowly I got a solid image of the whole place. Instincts had me focus on areas that I could sneak through, and places that would be impossible to move around, but slowly it all came together.

I sighed, taking a moment to just take in the annoyance and what I was being forced to do. Then I stepped off the building.

It felt like flying every time I did this. I landed silently on a sign and stayed there for a minute. Then moved again. Leaping from the sign onto the street light, something that was starting to become a fun trick I kept pulling as street lights were high enough most people weren’t going to notice me traveling across them if I moved fast enough. With a leap I crossed the street and landed on an overhang of a building next to Regina’s.

Then I crouched down and waited, adjusting myself so my body would blur into the shadows, and hopefully keep me concealed even from Kiroshi if they were looking around.

I counted the time.

One. Two. Three… Sixteen. Seventeen. And I rose up and leapt. This was the hardest part. I hit Regina’s building, my feet just landing on a tiny ledge as I jumped again backwards crossing the alley that hid Regina’s entrance, I jumped over the heads of the Kang Tao guards that were standing at the exit.

I hit the other building and this time let my momentum stall as I simply dropped straight down. Right in between a very lucky garbage bin. Then I waited. There was a guy directly in front of me as I looked towards the opening to Regina’s little private elevator.

He was inside the little elevator room and just idling around. Waiting. C’mon. C’mon. I thought to myself as I waited for the time. He would move soon, I just had to hope I got the timing right. I waited and then like every person he shifted as he started to move. My Sandy activated.

I ran forward on silent feet as I slipped right into his shadow. The heavy Kang Tao helmets weren’t great for peripheral vision even with good optics. I slipped straight behind him as my Sandy turned off, and turned along with him using him to block vision of myself from the exit.

Then I waited a few moments, as he looked and started moving. I rushed forward. I didn’t have long. I ran over and pushed the call button on Regina’s elevator and then leapt into the same place I had once hidden to ambush her guards the first time I had shown up here.

To my complete lack of surprise with a very quick scan I noticed the new camera that was hidden in the ceiling pointed at this location. I looked right into it, and with only a slight difficulty I pulled up my netgogs and threw the camera a wink.

Then I waited. Securing both arms into the concrete I managed to pin myself in place pretty comfortably, as I waited.

Another Kang Tao guard came in and I waited. The cycle would repeat soon. And so I held myself in position. I could stay up here for a long time, but not forever. Even with my arms, there were still muscles being strained to keep me pinned in place.

But I waited. Regina would have to open the elevator for me… Right?

I once more realized that this could all just be Regina fucking us in someway. This was Night City after all. But I waited, and finally as the guard moved back out to cycle through the routine, I saw the elevator doors open silently. Not a sound giving it away.

I dropped, and hit the floor as I rolled backwards avoiding my hands as I tumbled, and rolled into the elevator I stopped waiting to draw if someone saw me, as I waited and waited, and almost too long the doors started closing and the guards either just saw it too late, or missed it as they closed and the elevator shifted bringing me up.

I rose up and prepared myself.

Regina had defenses and this could still be a giant weird trap.

The doors opened and to my surprise the HMG’s weren’t pointing at me, but were still active. And in front of me was Regina, and her… Chooms? Workers? Guards?

“Yo.” I greeted her because I didn’t know what else to say and she was giving me a complicated look.

“Motoko Kusanagi.”“Yeah I know, bet you never expected to see me again.” I offered as I reached into my pouch to grab the data and the two guards both jerked up with weapons so I stilled.

“Relax.” Regina ordered and they did and so I finished bringing out the Hard Drive.

“Here’s the data Kang Tao are so finicky about. I expect this will solve this issue?”

“It should. Come on.” She demanded as she took the hard drive and walked inside.

I sighed. I knew that another issue was here. There was no way I could get out of here with the Kang Tao right outside the exit so I had no choice but to follow her inside.

Her guards were shooting me odd looks as I walked in, following after the fixer. She moved until she was facing out the window, her eyes golden as she was on a call palming the data drive.

I found a box to sit on because Regina had this place set up like some crazy ass hobo encampment and I just sat back against the wall before remembering my chooms and sending them a text.

*Motoko: Regina has the data drive. Just waiting now.* I sent into the group chat and sat back as everyone responded. Rebecca’s grumblings about this made me want to laugh, but I kept my face blank as I was right in Regina’s citadel.

Then finally Regina slumped a bit and reached for a drink on a desk and took a sip.

“Kang Tao are backing off. In exchange for the drive like they wanted. They’ll pretend the rest didn’t happen.”

“Yeah, say that to me and my chooms that got shot.”“Dangers of the job… Shouldn’t you know that by now kid?”“I’ve never taken a gig from a fixer that ended up this fucked up before. You tell me.” I snapped back and Regina definitely didn’t look pleased at my tone.

“I don’t hire kids for a reason.” She countered back and I rolled my eyes. Hiromi probably didn’t inform her about how old Section 9 was when she got the gig.

“These kids performed your gig perfectly, survived an ambush and brought you the data so you could save your ass from a pissed off Kang Tao middle manager. You can mock us all you want, but we are the side that did our job here.” I pointed out and Regina went blank before she breathed in and out.

“You’re right. This was my fuck up, not yours. You did the gig you were hired to, and did more. Can’t deny that.” She said suddenly to my surprise, then she pinned me with a stare from her one eye. “You did well, but I still don’t like hiring kids for this kind of work… Call me in a few years if you’re still alive.”

“Pfft.” I scoffed at her and settled back. “I’ll think about letting you send me a gig that long in the future. You might have to work for it.”

“Arrogant brat.” She muttered but turned away and continued her work.