Militech Commander
And her day had started out so great!
She had saved up her free days and finally managed to get enough dirt on her boss to not ask any questions for a few days.
She could almost smell her promotion after she dealt with Wilkins and put him in the dirt where he belonged.
Still, she had to be patient. She went to work one hour early, as suggested by her superiors, and made sure to keep everyone on track without making them hate her guts. Much.
Idiots that only thought about productivity in the short term learned quickly why suicide by ten bullets to the back of the head became such a common workplace health and safety hazard in most corporations.
Still, she ran a tight ship, made sure everyone did their shifts when they needed to, and made sure to silently help along the actually useful ones.
It kept things smooth.
It kept things quiet.
Today was everything except fucking quiet!
About half an hour earlier, that uppity little shit Jimothy (Who in their right fucking mind names their kid 'Jimothy'?!) decided to bother her, again, about a suspicious forklift worker, like he did every other day ever since he was shoved her way without even a 'by your leave'.
Thankfully, while the little shit was on a fast track to a promotion due to blatant nepotism, she was still above his idiot of a father so all she had to do was let the gonk speak for a bit and then pretend to care.
How in the fuck was she supposed to expect he'd be actually right for once?!
She was having her morning coffee when all of a sudden the alarms of the VIP storage area started blaring all over the base, a minute before she got the report of her Dweller, someone whom she had been cultivating as an asset for years, being found with his head completely burned out.
For once, she was thankful for her cousin's insistence she get a Kerenzikov implant when she was promoted to base Commander, as it gave her the time to calm the fuck down and think.
She immediately scrambled all available units and sent them to try and hem in the edgerunners, as confirmed a minute later through the dying scream of one of her NCOs, and either hunt them down or at least slow them down enough for the rest to prepare.
Capturing one would be ideal to salvage her career but she knew that was a pipe dream.
But fuck it! She'd take burying them if the alternative was to let them escape with the cases.
Of course things turned considerably less optimistic once she got the next round of reports.
The cameras were still not working and she wasn't stupid enough to send anyone else down through the elevators, but the emergency radio communications were still perfectly operational and reports of repurposed Wasps started coming in.
She was once more thankful for her Keren because if her command squad saw her shivering in terror, they'd be fucked.
Priorities immediately redirected, she immediately marched as many soldiers as she could down what she knew to be an impending slaughterhouse, and she did it without hesitation.
If those things got out the Arasakas would pounce on their asses, and it would all be her fault.
Thankfully, it seemed the mercs were using the Wasps as throwaways instead of support units. Foolish, but she could see an overeager netrunner wanting to stay out of the line of fire.
Less thankfully, the forces she sent downstairs were decimated, and it was now her turn to try and salvage something of this clusterfuck.
She gathered the last remnants of the garrison in the reception hall, she took in a short breath, and began speaking under the time dilation, each word calculated to provoke as much anger as was possible.
"Night City scum has invaded the base." She said calmly, clinically "Eighty six of your comrades at arms are already dead by their hands, just so they can get another payday."
Most looked like they did not care, but she knew they were just pretending to. Grunt workers were always too emotional to truly advance in the ranks.
She held down her smirk "We at Militech do not bow to the petty whims of mercenaries, and I for one do not feel like dying so some gutter runner can get his daily dose of BDs"
Some chuckles, some shifting of feet.
She knew not to drag it out, so she went in for the finisher "We are stronger, better armed, we have greater implants, those mercenaries are nothing without-"
Ding.
The entire hall turned dead silent as the elevator doors opened.
And the Commander grasped onto her Kerenzikov's time dilation like her life depended on it.
She could do absolutely nothing as her thoughts raced out of even her ironclad control and the fucking Full Body Conversion cyborg walked out of the elevator almost languidly.
"So." Death asked, far too many toothed grin visible under the armored biker helmet "How is that Trauma plan?"
Almost making her miss the two others.
She was finally managing to get her limbs moving, but others were quicker and she was forced to watch as Sgt. Igor raised his LMG with a snap burst of his Sandevistan, only to have his head blown off an instant later.
"Apparently it's great!" The fucking mercenary just had to gloat.
Giving her far too slow arms all the time they needed to line up a shot.
Or so she thought as she felt a sudden buzz in her Optics that made her sight glitch out.
Her modified Overture kicked like a tank but just as her eyes recalibrated she saw the cyborg moving, a light groove in his right shoulder armor.
She went for another shot but the borg had already reached her soldiers, though not before revealing a distinctly inhuman limb from his bag that grabbed onto his grenade satchel and then threw it directly into their center mass.
The explosion and trembling ground was all the cover he needed before he was among them, too close for anyone to fire freely, and with an obvious advantage in melee combat.
Blood and viscera began flying from his position like a fountain.
She saw some of her soldiers fall to the disciplined fire of one of the other, thankfully very human mercenaries, but she quickly left them to Smith and Martin's squads as they seemed to have them well in hand.
Her implant allowed her near infinite time to think, making her reaction plan in objective time near instant "Spread out! Simmons back to the entrance, James east wing, Williams to me!"
The troops followed their orders immediately, but not without casualties as against her projections the cyborg was not stunned for even a blink by the sudden choice paralysis presented to him and immediately took after James' squad.
She began giving out orders to hem him in while making the most off of the squad's sacrifice when she felt a heavy shove to her left.
Slow motion gave her the perfect view as she turned to snap at whoever pushed her, only to see Marianne, her second-in-command, get whipped over the head by a blindingly fast monowire.
Her almost-friend's head was promptly bisected by the razor-sharp weapon and she felt no terror or hesitation this time as she ordered her command squad to put the merc down while she focused on the real threat.
Whoever that was, was only human.
She could hear members of her squad fighting and dying to her left but she put them out of her mind, once again preparing her Overture.
What she found on the other end was both as terrible as she expected and surprisingly encouraging.
The borg's gait was broken, an obvious sign of heavy shotgun fire on his left hip as she more hopped than sprinted through the combat, obviously not used to the movement even if he was adapting at rapid speeds.
But she knew that this was her chance.
She immediately sent the radio signal, and to her right Sgt. Simmons brought up her heavy machinegun, the suppressive fire of her other soldiers going up in volume as a number of them threw out their grenades the moment Sgt. James threw himself at his enemy, now that his whole squad was dead.
The borg's unnatural snake-like appendage lashed out again, impaling the sergeant through the chest and as if having eyes on the back of his head he immediately twisted the body around himself and in the path of the fusillade to his back.
James' body was torn apart in milliseconds, the heavy wave of bullets seemingly slowing the FBC down for a brief moment.
Except that was the exact time the Commander caught a muffled charging sound behind the noise of tearing flesh and then what remained of James' body exploded as a railgun round burst through him and directly into Simmons' head.
The Sgt. and the two soldiers behind her were pulverized seemingly from nowhere, startling the troops and momentarily breaking their cohesion.
And then, like something straight out of a horror xBD, the cyborg launched himself at them, sword discarded as he dual wielded assault rifle and auto-shotgun with horrific accuracy.
But he wasn't undamaged. His right hand was missing two of its lower fingers, his chest armor was completely ripped to shreds and his chrome chassis had multiple dents and even minor punctures in it, and the side of his face had a jagged groove passing through it from a HMG shell.
Somehow it made his far too toothy grin even more terrifying than before.
She immediately fired another round of her Overture, but that same fucking glitch came to her eyes again, making her miss him completely this time.
"Fuck!" She cursed. Her calm threatening to crack.
Despite the terror inducing scene, the last, mostly untouched section of her troops under Williams, immediately began firing at him, stopping him from simply annihilating what was left of Simmons' squad.
Or they would have, if the cyborg's grin did not suddenly start steaming and damn near every single soldier stumbled on their feet or fumbled with their weapons, their shots going wild despite the threat charging straight at them.
Simmons' squad could not even react as another grenade bandolier was thrown their way by the barely scratched inhuman limb, the borg not even bothering to look their way as they all exploded.
Decidedly unwilling to die, she started preparing contingencies.
Things turned to an outright melee then, both her men and the cyborg becoming more sluggish with each passing second as the bogey's now empty weapons were discarded in favor of sword and fist, the chrome limbs doing just as much if not more damage than the blade.
She saw one of her troopers rush the borg from the side, shotgun pointed at the side of his head.
Only for the monstrosity to twitch backwards, bite his gun in half without even a blink of hesitance, and reach for his belt.
The gun went off but due to the sudden blockage, the shell exploded backwards, blinding the soldier, and leaving him open to the Liberty suddenly pointed at his chin.
A moment later, his brains were turned to mush.
A somewhat high pitched cry came from the borg's other end as another soldier rushed him assault rifle never ceasing to fire as no bullet found its mark.
'And there went Jimothy.' She thought with morbid detachment as she prepared to use the moment to her advantage.
The borg swung his sword hand backwards, snarling as one bullet finally did find its mark somewhere in his chest, but he seemed to miscalculate the swing and instead of a cut he ended up burying his hand in the soldier's chest.
"Huh." The synthetic voice seemed almost as baffled by the situation as she was.
Baffled by how lucky it was.
She lined up her gun, and took the shot, but this time instead of the expected buzz in her eyes, she saw the borg's mouth start steaming again, only a blink before her revolver fired and the cyborg's head slammed back.
Holding back the veritable river of relief, she turned back to see how the rest of her troops were doing only to find that the vast majority of Smth and Martin's squads had been decimated by the old man, with the merc looking almost untouched by the experience as he weaved from cover to cover with military discipline.
While her command squad was being slowly and methodically dismantled by the combat assassin, only Vera and Jackie remained, and as the merc went to gut the woman, the burly man interposed himself with a sudden burst of speed, punching out with his Gorilla Arm.
Only excellent instincts saved the merc as she threw herself back against the punch, only to still be launched away with the telltale crunch of bones breaking.
Jackie was not willing to leave things to chance though, and immediately jumped after her, only to get a facefull of smart bullets as the smaller woman rolled out from under him, and while he was momentarily stunned by the distraction, Vera paid for it with her life, the smart bullets twisting around their initial target and slamming into the combat medic's head.
The Commander cursed internally and immediately made the decision.
She turned towards the exit, and ra-
Saw the borg slowly sitting up, Sgt. Williams twitching as he was impaled into the wall next to him by the inhuman snake-limb the borg liked using so much, one baleful golden eye glaring directly at her.
Finally, her calm cracked "What in fucking hell?" She whispered, and promptly decided this shit was not worth dying for.
She immediately raised her gun, unloading the remaining rounds before even bothering to aim, and with her other hand she grabbed for her final lifeline.
There was no way in fucking hell the FBC had no EMP lacing but at this point she was out of options!
She ignored her surprise as she saw the cyborg flinch back and clutch at his chest as one of her shots landed, and immediately lobbed the grenade before bolting away and not looking back.
She did not stop, she did not slow, and in what felt like both a blink and an eternity she was out of the complex where a car and an armored troop transport were waiting for her.
"Maria." She addressed her cousin quickly, uncaring of how clipped together her words would come out "Get us the fuck out of here!"
Her loyal, or as loyal as corpos can be, aide nodded all too slowly and immediately waved her hand at the Specialist currently doing something to the troop transport, grabbing her hand and leading her by hand to the car.
She didn't even notice but she was starting to feel... drowsy.
Her eyes widened, and she did an internal helath scan, revealing multiple punctures by smart bullets.
"That little fucking-" She stopped herself and began nodding.
SB scramblers were another smart investment.
Behind her, the Specialist finished whatever he was doing and rushed over to join them before doing something with his cyberdeck, and the unarmed APC's engines roared as it jerked forward and into the building.
A loud crash followed but by then they were already driving away, her agent connecting her to her reinforcements that were still five minutes away.
Despite herself, she looked back, seeing the smoking entrance to her abandoned post.
Meredith Stout was almost certain now, she was fucked.
Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
For a single, terrible moment, I was left to exist as a string of thought in the void, unable to interact with anything or sense anything but my Biopod.
It was a familiar feeling...
One I had hoped to never experience again.
And it made me fucking livid!
That. Fucking. Meat!
She'll be lucky if Kimigawa gets to her, because by all that is unholy I will rip her the fuck apa-
Suddenly, my sensor array reactivated and in a painful jolt I felt my limbs come back to activity, my sole remaining Optic blinking open as I returned to the waking world.
Immediately, I forced my protesting Cyberdeck to run one final scan and exhaled as I only saw my allies still standing within the reception room, rolling back on my feet and immediately frowning as I detected my suitcase back somewhere in the pile of bodies to the middle.
"You good, Magos?" Kimigawa called, limping towards me.
"Wait." Sharpe called "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" I asked and just then my Audioreceptors re-sharpened and I heard an... engine?
My Optic widened "Scatter!"
Immediately all three of us rushed for the edges of the room, just as a fucking troop carrier burst through the wall, engines at full throttle and hurtling straight towards me.
"Just how fucked is my luck?" I couldn't help but mutter in disbelief as I threw myself to the side, stumbling over my feet before stabbing my Mechadendrite into the ground before me and pulling.
Despite my efforts, I felt something immense smash into my side and I was send sprawling away, my right leg crumpling under the force of the impact before a loud crash could be heard further on behind me, as the entire lift system was destroyed.
Grunting I pushed myself to my feet, or at least tried to but the artificial musculature in my right leg was not working.
Sharpe saw it and his eyes narrowed, calm and calculative "Can you keep up?"
Scowling, I directed my Mechadendrite to slither around my leg, forcing it into compliance even as I managed a limping step "Yeah." I exhaled "I'll manage."
"Good." He nodded, lugging two very battered but very intact suitcases with him "Let's get the fuck out of here kids."
"You heard the old man, Mag." Kimigawa faux saluted from the other end of the room.
"Just call me Mike." I scoffed, earning a loud chuckle from Sharpe, and a smile from Kimigawa.
The look the driver gave us when he slipped by the Militech reinforcement wave was something I immediately carved into my memory.
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