The Forge welcomes the new initiate: LongSongGolden to its ranks, may their tenure be as productive as it is devout.
The menials may rejoice as well for a new servitor enters the ranks.
-----
For a single drawn out moment, it felt as if the entire world turned silent.
And then my Igla went off, punching into the Scav woman with full force and sending her flying away in bloody chunks.
Thankfully, the noise was mostly absorbed by the music blaring inside.
'Hole In The Sun?' I idly wondered as I began working the lever action of the weapon 'How fitting.'
Unfortunately, I was not given the time to rest on my laurels as I pinged the woman's Neural Link and quickly revealed a confused Scav coming in from nearby.
"Jackie!" I called out "Cover me."
"On it!" He answered immediately and readied his handgun.
And just in time as a shirtless man covered in all manner of filth I'd rather not identify stepped out from a half-disassembled car, eyes widening as he saw the aftermath of my work.
Jackie wasted no time in braining the bastard, delivering a quick double tap to his head, and letting him fall like a puppet with its strings cut.
My shotgun clicked closed as I finally managed to fumble a reload and I began marching further into the automotive workshop proper.
But not before calling Jackie with my personal agent.
[Magos: We should communicate like this. Less chance of them hearing us.]
The Latino let out a sheepish chuckle as he followed after me.
[Jackie Welles: Should have suggested it myself.]
'My mistake for rushing in then' A small part of me noted.
The workshop the Scavs occupied seemed to be getting some actual use as I could see the red outlines of at least six of the filthy lowlives meandering around or working on a collection of vehicles.
But more importantly, none of them were aware of the commotion just yet.
Quickly doing a mental calculation I said
[Magos: Two on the left, behind the Quadra. You take them.]
Jackie wordlessly nodded and began stalking in their direction.
While I found myself advancing towards a large cargo van, one piled with slightly bloodied boxes filled to the brim with stolen life support cyberware, and of poor quality at that.
'Fucking rats will take anything.'
Two of the Scavs were smacking each other around while the other pair were busy working on the van's engine.
The Igla was readied once again.
One of them seemed to have detected something was wrong but only quickly enough to see his death coming. One tug at the trigger and his head flew off, another and his friend was thrown back, his guts painting the concrete floor under him.
The two working on the engine panicked and rounded on me but I was already next to them, and with all the perfect form of a lifelong cripple I threw a punch on the one closest to me.
My arm flew wide, and he desperately took the chance to try and redirect it.
But meat muscles would never come close to my glorious new body.
His hand snapped like a twig, and so did his neck as my punch simply barreled through his pathetic defense.
His friend panicked and rose a badly maintained Unity, firing blindly and hitting his still twitching body thrice before actually landing a hit on me.
The bullets barely even stung.
The pathetic waste of oxygen fell on his ass as he unloaded the rest of his magazine, trying to crawl away from me like the worm he was as I slowly walked over to him and grabbed him by the legs.
Ignoring the fact I nearly stumbled as I compensated for the new weight I took a good look at his panicked and suddenly glowing eyes before simply stomping on his head and painting the concrete floor with his brain matter.
"Fuck." I muttered 'He alerted the rest.'
Suddenly I heard a voice behind me "Damn choom, you are one scary motherfucker, you know that?"
I rounded on him, hands already halfway raised until I realized it was Jackie "Didn't we agree to communicate via Agent?" I deadpanned.
He gave me a challenging look "Room is clear, isn't it?"
"Whatever" I waved it off, finding some small amusement as I saw him flinch at the sight of my bloodied arm "No trouble on your side?"
He grinned and patted a second unity holstered on his belt "Never saw me coming."
"Good" I nodded and looked deeper into the workshop.
The way forward was guarded by a reinforced double door, the building schematics I nabbed from the automated lobby telling me it was a living space reserved for the workshop's owner, or the workers.
This time, I did not rush into opening it, and instead activated my Cyberdeck, immediately feeling the numerous connections around me I sent out a more detailed ping quickhack, focusing on neural links specifically.
Everyone but the most puritan of monks had those, and I do not believe the Scavengers are particularly religious.
My hunch was quickly rewarded as I detected twelve signatures within, one of whom was eerily familiar.
One built by my own hands.
My Optics narrowed with hatred and I very nearly rushed for it then and there.
Thankfully I was able to stop myself, as I also saw the outlines of most of the remaining Scavs scrambling for their weapons and piling towards the door, while a few stayed behind.
My thoughts raced for a plan but instead a memory surfaced unbidden.
Allowing myself a slight smirk, I looked to Jackie "How good are you with grenades?"
Of course, the man simply grinned and squared his shoulders "Choom, I am a grenade artist!"
"Good" I nodded and grabbed the two frags from my pockets "Take these and cook the first one when I tell you."
Suddenly, the cheerful Latino was not quite so cheerful as he rapidly paled "You sure about that?"
I blinked "Do you want me to try it?"
He looked at the grenades, and then to the shotgun I took a good ten seconds to reload, before slowly nodding "Alright fine. If I blow myself up I am haunting your ass."
"At least I will have company" I snarked back and focused back on the door.
I saw six of the Scavs piling up behind it and gave Jackie the nod.
My net self barely even touched the door's servos before it hissed open, practically crushing its own gears under the sudden movement.
"Now!" I called.
Once more muttering prayers, Jackie lobbed the grenade at the surprised lowlives, sending it flying directly in between the lot of them.
Except, one of them did not panic like the rest, instead he calmly rose an Overture and simply shot the grenade from the air, detonating it safely away from him and his goons.
"Que?" Jackie deadpanned.
Ignoring my own astonishment, I forced myself to move.
I kicked Jackie's side lightly to get him out of it before lifting my Copperhead and spraying in the Scavengers' general direction, scoring multiple hits but killing only one before my mag was out.
They began returning fire, even as another of their number crumbled onto the floor, a pistol wound in his throat.
I felt a dull thud on the side of my head as I pulled back into cover, my Optics and Audioreceptors both detecting a fresh rent in my biker helmet and a very light scrape on the side of my head.
If I had not moved then, the revolver Scav fuck would have shot me in the eye!
The unpleasant realization made me focus once again, and I quickly guessed he was using some manner of speedware to give himself time to react.
The duration was obviously too long for a Sandevistan...
A Kerenzikov, had to be.
A new plan in my mind, I pinged Jackie.
[Magos: Cover me!]
He closed his eyes before snapping out of cover, pistol in each hand and a shout of "Come at me bastardos!" On his lips.
The Scavs flinched away from the hail of gunfire and I used the chance to peek out, and activate my Cyberdeck.
The world around me seemed to slow just ever so slightly as I began searching for my target.
Only a second passed before I detected my target, and I lunged for it with all the processing power I had.
What little protection he had against intrusion fell apart before my breach protocol like it wasn't even there, and then I was in.
'Got you.'
Without a care for ram usage, I connected directly to his Kerenzikov and immediately overclocked it to its absolute maximum unsafe setting, and slammed it with an overload for good measure.
The instant I retreated back from the net, the blaring music was momentarily overtaken by a bloodcurdling scream.
Jackie winced and took cover, but all I felt at the sound was confidence, and so instead of hiding I stepped out with my shotgun in hand just in time to see the revolver wielding Scav's entire head catch fire.
The other three were not as cowardly as their dead allies, and immediately aimed for me, firing SMGs and assault rifles at me with solid accuracy.
They did not even make me flinch.
My Igla roared once more, cutting one of them down and wounding another, while the last idiot, now out of ammo for his Copperhead, desperately rushed at me with a machete of all things.
Unwilling to waste bullets on the swine, I swung out my shotgun like a club and surprisingly struck him directly in the neck as he went in for an overhead swing.
His bones crumbled under the sudden force.
But unfortunately, so did my weapon.
"Damn" I cursed and threw the now useless scrap away.
Annoyed at my own idiocy, I rounded on the final Scav, only to see her clutching at her chest in desperation before Jackie shot her between the eyes.
The Latino looked just about ready to drop another of his quips but before he could open his mouth a piercing noise came from deeper in the Scav den, and the both of us rushed out of the way as high caliber light machinegun rounds began scything through our previous position, completely destroying a few of the cars around us and catching me in the foot.
For the first time since I started my assault, I felt a bullet penetrate my armor, and a sharp faux pain signal slam into my brain.
But something so banal would never be enough to paralyze me, and so as always I ignored it and reloaded my Copperhead.
The new mag clicked into place and I addressed Jackie.
[Magos: I will draw their fire. You rush to the side and grenade them.]
The Latino flinched away from the edge of the van as another burst cut through its windshield.
[Jackie Welles: Fuck! You sure you want to do that?]
I did not answer, and instead stepped out from cover, bringing my Copperhead to bear just as my Cyberdeck was done breaching the weapon that managed to damage me.
The light machine gun let out a loud click as it jammed, the [WeaponMalfunction.exe] working perfectly as I returned their favor in full.
The Copperhead series of guns was touted as the new rugged workhorse of Militech, a reliable rifle that would never jam or break down, no matter what you did.
It also had the terrible reputation of kicking like a rabid mule and ruining the user's accuracy.
My Manibus implants laughed at the very concept of recoil.
I simply pointed the rifle at the raging Scavenger, and let loose.
My first shots missed, but I followed the arc of destruction with my unerringly calm grip and in a blink the bastard flinched away as a bullet lodged itself into his pitiful fleshy eye.
The other Scavs inside tried shooting me down, but their low caliber weapons only served to embolden me as my stride lengthened.
Unbidden, I found myself laughing at them "Why are you even bothering you wastes of space? I am fucking immortal!"
Just as the words left my mouth, my Copperhead clicked empty.
I heard Jackie loudly curse and saw him toss the grenade at the other Scavengers firing at me but before the grenade could detonate I heard an unknown charging sound.
"Get into cover you gonk!" Jackie tried to warn me.
But all I managed was a half stumbled side step before a large projectile cut through my right arm like a hot knife through decomposing SCOP, the faux pain signal this time was so strong it momentarily left me blind and confused.
But not deaf, as I heard the detonation of the frag grenade, and the screams of the freshly dying.
But Jackie did not stop firing, and a moment later I heard a loud crunch, followed by my ally's pained grunt and a slam of flesh against metal.
My eyes blinked clear once again just in time for me to see Jackie sliding down a now dented van while a massive Scav with a spinal implant stood over him, and slowly reloaded his chunky railgun revolver.
"Fucking mercs!" The man that was undoubtedly 'Koschei' roared, his voice pained as I saw multiple puncture wounds no doubt caused by flying shrapnel "Always sticking your fucking noses into my biz-"
My Liberty rang out as I unloaded the full twelve bullets into his back.
Or at least I attempted to do so.
As the moment the first bullet struck the back of his ribcage I felt more than saw his spinal implant activate, and his form became a blur, a wave of heat following him as he dodged out of the way before redirecting himself at me in the short span of a second.
I immediately used all of my Cyberdeck's capabilities to slam him with as many quickhacks and daemons as I had available but except for a slight twitch of his chromed arms and a glitch in his eyes I could see only thanks to my advanced Optics, his advance did not slow.
And in a blink, just as I was halfway to fully standing up, I was sent flying away with a loud metallic clang.
"The fuck is a borg doing here?!" The increasingly agitated Russian screamed "Who the fuck did I piss off?! Did Yaga send you, that fucking cunt?!"
I tried getting up again but the lack of balance ensured I had no such chances, as I was simply thrown back by another punch, the Gorilla Arms slamming into the back of my heavily armored head and denting it to a worrying degree.
But to my confusion, he did not continue with his attack. Instead he simply kept muttering to himself, words that made no sense and came out more erratic by the second.
Feeling just enough heat being dragged off by my heatsink, I immediately took the chance to slam him with an [OpticsReset] quickhack, not wasting any time by checking if it worked or not and instead rolling to my side and throwing myself up with my remaining arm.
The lunatic's reaction was not one I expected.
The pained scream that left his lungs was not one of rage but of terror and trauma, his arms swinging around as if aiming for a target only he could see.
I prepared to finish him but just then, his eyes reactivated and he rounded on me.
"Kill you, pickle your bones, chew on your heart…" He kept muttering, and just as I realized I was witnessing a cyberpsychosis in real time, his form blurred once again.
But instead of letting him send me flying again, I stomped both my feet into the ground, burying them into the comparatively soft concrete and raising my arm to guard my face.
The dull explosion of pain that followed from my remaining arm proved my decision correct, as I found myself still being pushed back slightly, and felt my hand go unresponsive.
But the man above me was in no greater shape than I, as I saw sparks coming out from his heavily dented Gorilla Arm, and his eyes' previous glitches growing more and more pronounced.
I did not waste a moment, and sprung my secret weapon.
My lips split open, and the heatsink in the back of my throat that had been gathering heat for the entire duration of the fight unleashed all of its contents directly into the bastard's face.
This time, his scream was one of pure agony.
His other hand reflexively swung out for me, but this time I was ready, and twisted my head out of the way before simply biting onto the offending limb and shredding it into tiny pieces, ripping out the cybernetic components and shoving them directly down my gullet.
The Scav recoiled, and I sprung after him.
And with one final snap of my reactivated arm, I collapsed his neck.
He just stood there for a long confused moment, before gurgling out one final curse and falling onto the bloody concrete, dead.
Once again, I felt my breathing grow uneven and counter to its programming, slowing it down consciously I threw out another ping just in case and found that there was only one neural link still active.
My breathing noticeably slowed then, and I began trudging towards my target.
Only to pause, as I saw the slumped Jackie in the corner of my Optics.
A quick scan showed he had multiple bones cracked and that a part of his spine had been heavily bruised. Something easily solvable with my own brilliance.
My hand reached for the three doses of nanites I brought with me but then I paused.
Shouldn't I use all of them on mom? Why waste it on some random merc who is probably going to die in a ditch anyway?
I must have stood there for a very long time, as I heard Jackie grunt in pain.
Once again, my Optics spotted another detail I had missed previously, a large neon green graffiti on the wall stating "No Hope!" Followed by another more ominous red "The City Always Wins."
My hand almost crushed the glass containers and I scowled at the thought "Not against me." I growled.
And with all the care I could give in my state, I pried the unconscious Latino's mouth open, and poured a dose of nanites down his throat.
Unwilling to waste a moment longer, I grabbed my right arm, hung it under my assault rifle's strap, and marched into the Scav den's previous living quarters, stepping over the mess of blood, guts, and cyberware without a care I simply crushed the cheap plastic door barring my way.
And there I saw her.
And felt furious that I did not preserve the bastards just to pay them back in kind.
She was strapped to an operating table, her hair completely gone, as were her optics, her cybernetic lower jaw, her teeth, her legs, and both her cybernetic arms.
Feeling a growing panic, I immediately did a deep scan on her and let out a relieved breath, her internal implants had yet to be removed.
They filth were taking their fucking time with her.
My mind pointedly skipped all the bruising and tear marks I detected and instead zeroed in on a detail that was not there before…
A fucking Braindance Recorder in one of her Neural Ports.
My rage went from murderous to fucking apocalyptic, had I any blood left it would have probably frozen, and only the slight cracking sound stopped me from turning my nanites into fine dust.
Cursing at myself, I approached the operating table, and put the nanites down before hesitantly patting the shoulder above the roughly cauterized stump of her arm "Don't worry mom, I am here now. They will never touch you again."
Except instead of feeling her breathing relax like parts of me hoped... no, fantasized, I felt her entire body tense and twitch before she began thrashing around and screaming in terror.
With no conscious command from me, my legs moved back, as I flinched away in confusion, one that was slowly but certainly replaced with a growing sense of unease.
---
An: Hello, new trauma!
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The forge hungers for even more stone!
The moste terrible locale of the Patreon has 11 chapters written in advance if you are into that sort of thing (at patreon .com/ Rastislav156) as well as 13 chapters of Sorcerer's Tale for those of discerning taste.
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