A few evenings later, the blood-red setting sun dyed the boundless desert into a hazy, yellow oil painting. The workshop's automatic defense network sent an early warning, a familiar heat signature was approaching at an alarming speed, driving the Goodwood, a vehicle patched up countless times, leaving a trail of flying dust in the desert.
It was Rebecca. But she was alone.
Osiris' brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. Her behavior indicated an unusual urgency... most likely, something had gone bad.
The Goodwood let out a screeching roar, a violent skid, almost slamming into the garage door with its momentum.
The car door was violently kicked open, and Rebecca's small figure impatiently jumped out, stumbling towards the workshop entrance.
She looked terrible. Her hair was matted with sweat and dust; her eyes were swollen and red, her lips trembling uncontrollably. Her jacket was stained with dark oil and... black bloodstains, emitting a pungent smell of rust mixed with gunpowder.
"Boss! Jack the hatch! Please! Quickly, pop the barrier!" She had forgotten the discreet signal, instead pounding on the heavy metal-reinforced door with her scarred fists, her voice filled with a thick sob.
Osiris gestured for the servo-skull to deactivate the alert level. The heavy baffle slowly slid open.
As soon as the door opened a crack, Rebecca squeezed in, almost falling. She saw Osiris' tall, dark-red-armored figure and her eyes, blurred by tears, burned with hope.
"Boss... save Pilar... please..." She was incoherent, her voice trembling, "He... he's almost flatlined... those damn city rippers... either they're charging fifty gees of scratch, or... or they just shake their heads and say he's a dead man walking..."
Osiris' optical lens quickly scanned her entire body. No severe open wounds.
"Calm down, Rebecca." His synthetic voice remained steady, but he actively adjusted the audio frequency, deliberately reducing some of the cold metallic quality and injecting a subtle, attempting-to-soothe undertone. "State slowly. What happened to Pilar? Specifics of his injuries."
Rebecca gasped several times, trying to suppress her trembling.
"It... it was that damn haul from last time... Boss Maine took a tough gig, and ended up running straight into a chrome trap... the other side was f-ing prepared, the heat was too heavy...
Pilar, that fool Pilar, to cover Dorio's retreat, was... was locked onto by the enemy's smart-lock iron... it was a hard-knocks round... it directly punched through his meat, damaging his spinal web and several vital organs... and... and it detonated all the old, outdated internal chrome inside him, causing a system meltdown..."
She couldn't continue, only staring fixedly at Osiris: "Boss... you... you can even fix my eyes and Pilar's busted shoulder so well... you got the magic digits, right? Please... save him... he's my only family... I only have him..."
Osiris listened in silence. He quickly constructed a preliminary injury simulation model. From a technical standpoint, it was not impossible.
His brief silence plunged Rebecca's heart into an ice cellar. "B-Boss...?"
Osiris looked up, his crimson optical lenses steadily focused on her: "His injuries are critical. The treatment process will consume specific biomaterial and energy from my reserves. These resources were originally planned for other important projects."
Rebecca's face turned ashen.
"But," Osiris' tone suddenly shifted, "it is not irreversible."
A ray of hope flared in Rebecca's cybernetic eyes.
"I can treat Pilar," Osiris continued, his tone maintaining his usual matter-of-fact steadiness, "but as an equivalent exchange, I will need to collect 'medical fees'."
"How much? I'll get you however much! I'll run the tightest gig for it!" Rebecca cried out desperately.
"I don't need money." Osiris shook his head, his optical lenses flickering slightly, "What I need are research materials. More diverse, well-preserved neural processors, bio-chips, and any cybernetic components containing unknown alloy compositions or abnormal energy signal characteristics, with new models or special markings. The quality must be far superior to those 'scraps' you brought last time."
Rebecca immediately reacted, nodding her head: "No problem! Absolutely no problem! As long as you can save Pilar, we'll deliver the entire data-slate! Boss Maine and Dorio will definitely help with all their might! I swear! I swear on everything!"
"Agreement reached." Osiris nodded slightly, "Where is the injured person now? Time is of the essence; pre-treatment must begin immediately."