It’s not like the new arra was entirely bad. The Aquads had actually never beeer. Before this, they couldn’t have dreamed of holding even a fra of the stock they were currently sitting on. They were previously tent to score some small profits here and there from the smuggled goods they mao intercept. Now, they had more product than they knew what to do with and their biggest problem was finding buyers and feo sell all of it. The whole gang could step up to the level ohey raked in the profits from even half of their current iory.
Still, he chaffed at the idea of bei under another’s thumb indefinitely. Garth didn’t even know for certain who ulling his strings now. His new masters liked to hide behind middlemen and anonymous unications, supplying him with only the bare minimum of information necessary to plete the tasks he was given. He didn’t even want to sider the sequences for failure or insubordination. He would be lucky if those beasts just killed him, but they wouldn’t eveo involve themselves if they decided he had lost his use. He was just another one of their disposable pawns, only useful as long as he stays in line. His only hope of breaking free from their hold was to gain enough personal power so the dirt they had on him wouldn’t matter anymore. Everyone in this city was dirty. It only mattered if you were too weak to keep it from affeg you.
As soon as the eddies started rolling in, Garth was going to start delegating his role in the raids and e the fuck up. He wouldn’t o worry about sinking to the bottom of the bay if he stopped venturing into deep water. He could just promote someone else to act as a sed in and and have them take his pce during the swims. It’s not like he couldn’t keep track of all his men while he stayed safe and dry on shore. and has it’s privileges and he was the boss now.
Gohe days where he was struggling just to get by with his meager wages as a ded. He already sidered himself lucky that the boats he crewed had always been able to evade the shifting fields of sea mines during their voyages. It seemed like every time he came back to dock there was word of another ship sunk in transit by the AI trolled sea mine swarms. He was never going to board another one of those death traps outside of the safety of the bay if he could help it. Soon, he could just sit bad watch as his small empire grew and became the pedestal that raised him above the on rabble.
“AHHHHHHH”
Garth was interrupted from his thoughts by a scream that came from somewhere out front. He checked the camera feeds and saw the boys walking just out of frame to deal with something before he sent a group wide message through their secure unications el.
“NO! WA-WAIT!” he could barely hear the muffled pleading through the wall before it was drown out by the sound of automatifire.
*RA-TA-TA-TA-TAT*
-------------------------------------------
The Aquads’ “base” had been incredibly easy to find. It was located in an industrial sub district a few blocks away from the docks where most of the cargo that came to the city via sea routes was stored or processed. Even without the location data he got frina, it would have been impossible for ot to notice the two goons standing guard out front of this building as he made his way through the area.
They both wore what looked like bck wetsuits underh red form fitting shirts and blue speedos with matg blue boots, and gloves. To finish it all off, they had superfluous and overly rge bck belts buckled with equally oversized gold buckles in the form of capital A’s which held up absolutely nothing. The absurd accessories looked more like pro wrestling championship belts than anything actually funal. The outfits practically screamed “P” to the point Cal thought he was actually in the wrong pce at first and these people were here shooting a movie or something. After looking at their “uniforms” he half expected to find a submarine port inside or maybe a rge aquarium housing a talking dolphin.
‘Why the hell would some lowlife criminals decide to pose as fug Aquaman’s sidekick? They probably spent more on these outfits than they did on their shitty guns, and it doesn’t look like they even have any real armor. These brain dead moroo y off the Bck Lace…’
Before he began his assault, Cal circled the block to look for any unguarded points of access he could use to sneak i turned out that the p’s base was just a small unit in a much rger industrial plex. The area occupied by The Aquads ated for only a fra of the spa the rge building, the structure as a whole spanning nearly the entire block. He was a little disappointed, but not at all surprised, when he didn’t find any ve paths he could use to slip into the unit unnoticed.
The building was designed as a mixed use industrial ter, st goods and providing spaall industrial manufacturers that relied oerials that came into the city through the port. Having a route outsiders could use to easily sneak in and out of their businesses wasly a sought after feature for this kind of aodation. The only other point of access to the units were the bay doors and rear entrahat opeo a service drive running down the middle of the U shaped building.
Cal didn’t waste any time after his initial iion and quickly breached the p’s security cameras and private unicatiowork, taking trol of both. He had spent a lot of time practig this on different kinds of sub-s over the past few months and now had a pretty good handle on his current capabilities. He could even live edit certais out of video feeds, but doing sht now would take up a siderable k of his avaible RAM, severely limiting his ability to simultaneously manipute their unications el or unbat quickhacks.
He o keep his targets from calling for help as he chipped away at the gang, so his best option was to just loop the feed while he kept tabs on both works, intervening as necessary. He didn’t have the quickhacks or skill o take the entire gang dowely, so he would have to use his resources sparingly while he chipped away at their numbers.
The gang had both of the entrances equally defended, but where the back was easily observable by any of the other workers i, the front of the building ractically desote with no one else walking the street. He didn’t know if any of the other businesses in the plex would raise an arm whearted eliminating the gang, so Cal had decided to start attag from the front hoping to draw the uards inside and elimihe gang before anyone else got too nosey. Everyone he had sed so far had a criminal record, but he still didn’t want to get involved with the NCPD if someone decided to send in a report.
His initial Ping had shown that there were eight individuals in total ected to the “secure” unicatiowork. There were the two guards out front, two more in the back, three milling about ihe warehouse, with the st oationary in aed positiohe frorance.
Cal pulled up to the curb o the building and parked about thirty feet from their door drawing the attention of the guards. They seemed more ahan ed as they approached his vehicle, ready to use their DS1 Pulsars to coerce him to move along but not eager to antagonize him right off the bat. Cheg the feed from the security camera, Cal started to loop it when he saw both of the guards leave the frame.
“Keep it moving! No parki-”
Cal didn’t waste ant time as he popped out of his seat and quickly took aim at the gangsters over the hood of his Emperor. His crusher let out a quiet hiss as he dropped the first guard with a well aimed slug that pulped his head, painting the sed goon with blood and gray matter before he too was incapacitated by the quick followup shots. Cal missed twice but mao nd his third shot on the dazed guard, mangling his right arm and sending the SMG in his now useless hand cttering to the ground as he colpsed from the pain.
He chided himself for his poor accuracy as the soon to be dead man rolled around on the ground screaming and blinded by the pain emanating from his heming appendage. Cal was able to firm the st isoted signal on the group’s el came from the leader when the ma out a message asking for a status report. Cal quickly used the remaining guard’s ID to send a respoo the leader as he ran up and grabbed one of the SMGs on the ground before taking aim at the wretch that almost blew his cover.
“NO! WA-WAIT!”
*RA-TA-TA-TA-TAT*
The sidewalk had turned into a mess of blood and bone as both the corpses tio leak out their vital fluids. Cal discarded the cheap SMG and dragged the disfigured bodies out of the way before he calmed himself and waited for his arget to walk out into his trap. He had to spoof both of the guards IDs on the el to maintain the illusion that they were still alive, but that was a retively simple matter.
This was Cal’s first time taking a life, but instead of feeling sick or full ret a strange mix of fear and exhiration boiled in his stomach. He hadn’t even bothered to really look at the corpses as he moved them. They were in the way and he was more focused on the ining threat.
The ahat built from moment to moment as he awaited the member of the p urged him to just kick down the door and rush in, cutting dowhing in his path. Another part of him wao jump in his SUV and drive away, esg the iable retaliation that would e from the rest of the gang. He wao do anything but wait, just to quell the building feeling of unease, but his better senses prevailed.
Time seemed to pass by more slowly than he had ever experienced before. It was like the entire world around him had stilled, waiting for him to make the move and silently ning his ina.
He was startled and nearly lost hold of his gun when a loud sound came from the metal door as it swung open and he heard the man behind it start to curse. Cal quickly schooled himself and tightened his grip.
“Fuck that’s a lot of blood! Couldn’t you guys ha-”
The man didn’t get to finish his thought as he stepped past the threshold and into Cal’s sights.
*Tsck*
*SLAP*
Cal didn’t need much time to aim at this distance before he pulled the trigger and the man’s head popped like an overripe tomato.
He didn’t feel bad for these posers, but as he stood there catg his breath and trying to calm his rag heart, the gory se elicited a deep sense of revulsion that mixed into his already chaotic psyche. He might have to unpack all these emotions ter, but it was more likely that he’d just shove them all down and ighem, drowning them in intoxits if they ever decided to bubble back up to the surface. Cal didn’t dwell on his feelings for long, fog ba the job before him as he reloaded his Crusher.
The third goon had fallen backwards as he died, his legs still holding the door slightly ajar. Cal kicked his feet out of the way as he passed over the warm body aered the building. He quickly moved through the small cluttered room as he made his way towards the solitary door that lead deeper into the warehouse. He didn’t have any idea what was waiting for him behind it, so he took another moment to take some deep breaths in an attempt to calm his nerves before creeping up to the door and opening it a crack to get his first look at the warehouse interior.
Most of the space was taken up by partially filled pallet shelves. Peering through the gaps Cal could just make out a forklift he baloading the tents of a shipping tainer locked to the bed of a Kaukaz Bratsk U4020 parked in the loading bay.
‘There should be one muy somewhere around here…’
Cal didn’t kly where the st Aquad in the warehouse was, but after sending another Ping through the gang’s sub- he figured they were somewhere dow aisle of shelves. Not ideal sidering he nning on going up the stairs that would be in pin view from that area.
He o get up to the offi that sed level and take out the boss before aiced his presehe room was situated with rge windows overlooking the whole warehouse which would give him some light cover and a good vantage point to quickly elimihe st of the gangoons once he cut the head off this saking cover behind anything on this level just seemed like a bad idea. He didn’t know what was in half of the barrels and crates stored here and he didn’t want to get blown up or soaked in caustic chemicals if all hell broke loose.
With a rough pn, Cal slowly closed the door behind himself and started creeping his way towards the staircase. His heart was beating so fast he could feel his blood surging through his veins, but he keept a steady pace despite that. He mao make it to the st aisle, still unnoticed and peaked his head around the er expeg to see the st gang member. Thankfully he was just where Cal expected and had his back turo him, standing about half way down the aisle moving items around on a shelf as he referenced a datapad.
Cal wasn’t sure he’d be able to make it all the the stairs without being noticed, so he made the snap judgment to take out this ght here and now. He braced against the side of the shelf, aimed, and fired on the Aquad.
*Tsck*
*SLAP*
*CRASH*
‘FUCK.’
Cal wasn’t fident in hitting the man’s head at this angle and distance, so he had shot him ter of mass. On his way down, the gangster had pulled over the box of goods he was iing sending it’s tents scattering across the floor.
“What the hell Gary! Careful with the merdise!”
The voice echoed out from a window in the upstairs office, causing Cal to turn towards it and freeze in pce. A muscur man with short bck hair leaned out the window, his expression ging from one of fury, to fusion as he spotted “Gary” sprawled out on the floor in a growing pool of his own blood.
“FUCK!”
Cal blocked the message from going through their s, but the forklift driver had already beeed by the otion and was making his way over. The big problem for Cal was the boss who was now staring straight at him, eyes burning with fury.
“HE’S OVER HERE! PIN HIM DOWN!”
Cal switched his Crusher to full auto and opened up fire on Garth as he was dug bato the window. He kept firing after he lost sight of the man and dragged his shots down below the window frame, in case his rounds peed and Garth had only ducked down behind the wall. He couldn’t tell if any of his shots had hit their mark, but he didn’t have any more time to think about it.
Cal dropped the empty mag and loaded one filled with buckshot as he backed up against the wall and sed the warehouse again. He heard a door open from the back of the warehouse and could hear a panicked exge from the area, telling him the gig .
He o get upstairs and take out Garth. He hat vantage and whatever cover it would afford him to finish off the st 3 men.
Cal dropped his e to the cameras but kept blog their s as he spriowards the staircase.
“HE’S A FUG RUNNER! S ARE DOWN!”
Cal spared a gnce over his shoulder as he made it to the base of the stairs. He could only see two of the three gangsters from here. The two guards had just scrambled into the end of the aisle opposite him and he caught glimpses of the third making his way down the one. He didn’t have time to take any of them ht now. Garth could take advantage of that moment to shoot him in the back if he even tried to fire on them. He o disable these goons for now so he used the work to hit eae of them with Reboot Optid Short Circuit, bottoming out his RAM.
Just as he turned his attention back to the offid made his a third of the steps, the door swung open and Cal was met with a grisly sight.
Garth had tossed a greraight at him.
Cal barely had any time to respond to the attack. On pure instinct he jumped over the hand rail and covered his neck with his left arm as he ropelled through the air, a wave of heat washing over his body. He crashed into the ground, nding on his right side and crag his helmet against the floor in the process. The bst and subsequent hit to the head had him dazed, but the adrenaline surging through his veins quickly brought him back to reality. Panicked, he scrambled back against the wall underh the office windows. He didn’t want to give Garth an easy shot on him. That bastard would have to fully expose himself if he wao take advantage of his position.
Cal’s entire left side burned with pain. He quickly realized it wasn’t a literal burn. He had mostly escaped the cussive bst from the grenade, but not the shrapnel. His left arm and leg were both peppered with small wounds. He didn’t know if any of them were critical, but he quickly praised his vest a for stopping any of the shards that could have hit his vitals. Grabbing the Bounce Back out of his pocket, Cal pressed it against his left thigh and squeezed, activating the ior.
His mind fought itself for a moment as the wonder drug spread through his system, numbing the pain. Cal knew he o act fast. He was in a terrible position, and if Garth had any mrenades he would be utterly screwed. The two goons at the end of the aisle were still vulsing from the Short Circuit he threw at them but the one in the aisle seemed to be rec.
‘Not on my watch’
He got ba his feet and edged over to the shelf before pre-firing on his target as he rouhe er, dumping half of his mag into the rec Aquad. He tried to swiftly move back to get a shot oher two, but was met with a hail of automatic fire as soon as he got sight of them. One of goons had recovered enough of his seo swing his Pulsar towards Cal from his prone position and blindly sprayed him down. One of the rounds mao hit Cal iomach, but again his vest saved him from receiving any real damage. Still, getting shot was never fun.
The rest of the rounds cttered against the wall iively as Cal ducked back behind the shelf. The DS1 Pulsar was a cheap, inaccurate piece of trash. It’s only redeeming quality was it’s high fire rate. At this range and half disabled, the goons didn’t have much of a ce at hitting Cal with any real accuracy. Cal squeezed a few shots at each of the office windows to dissuade Garth from getting any funny ideas while he hunkered down and waited for a break in the fire.
Moments ter the gunshots cut out as the goon ran out of ammo. Cal seized the opportunity and rouhe er again, dumping the rest of his mag at the pair. Their bodies writhed aed with red mist as the buckshot tore through them, some of the shot hitting the floor around them and mixing chips of crete into the bloody air. By the time his mag ran dry, it was clear her one of them would be getting back up.
Cal dropped the empty mag and loaded another one before quickly pivoting and watg farth, fully expeg him to poke his head out one of the windows to toss anre him.
There weren’t many good options for cover if anrenade did e his way, and Cal raying that was the st he’d seen of the hot potatoes. He’d just have to try to get as much distaween him and the bst if it came to that.
‘I should really get some of my own grenades for situations like this…’
The silence was deafening.
Cal didn’t knoould break first.
He o get up into that office, but he was afraid of the same sario pying out again.
Seds ticked by into minutes and Cal made his pn. None of the Aquads had enough cyberware for him to hit them with a lethal attack. He was lucky that optid internal agents were so prevalent, otherwise his quickhacks would have been essentially useless against them. As it stood, Short Circuit could basically be used as a remote taser against this kind of enemy, but Overheat would do little more than damage their minimal cyberware.
Cal had already started to make his move, sprinting up the stairs as he sent a Short Circuit at Garth through the gang’s sub. He had recovered enough RAM to send a few quickhaow and queued up two more behind it, just to make sure Garth wouldn’t give him any surprises.
Barging through the door, Cal found the man a few feet away, vulsing on the ground with a few grazes on his arm and side and his face beet red from the rage and pain that were ing him.
Cal made sure his shots would hit the mark.
*Tsck-Tsck-Tsck-Tsck-Tsck-Tsck*
pengwn