Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
'Regina really outdid herself, huh.'
Despite myself, I flicked the replay on for the third time in a row.
The Trafficker
Saigo Sujiro groaned loudly as he finally returned to his lightless apartment, his body perfectly upright despite the alcohol currently sloshing through his veins.
He hated the feeling, but he had to hold a celebration for his contacts to display his recent successes.
Setting up a business in H11 had been slow at first, but he had expected that much. The Tyger Claw boss was a reasonable one, and didn't ask too much in tribute for working on his territory, even if he was incredibly dismissive of Saigo's contributions.
Sure his business wasn't glorious, but it brought in more eddies than their fucking pachinko parlors at least.
Didn't matter. He didn't need the goon's respect, just his protection.
He spat on the synth wool carpet in irritation as he switched the lights on.
And immediately swore to beat his assistant black and blue as he saw the battered body still splayed out on his bed, breathing shallowly and completely unmoved even twelve hours later.
A proper business man sampled his merchandise, thoroughly.
He near-growled in annoyance as he saw a message flick itself into his cornea all of a sudden and stopped unbelting his pants.
And then blinked.
Ah, his assistant flatlined himself.
"What a fucking waste of eddies." He spat again, and decided he might as well make use of the stupid Tyger goons the Okada had tossed his way and have the waste on his bed dragged out.
If she couldn't get up after half a day she was a bad investment anyways.
Also, he was craving something... fresher today.
So decided, he rung up one of his other assistants "Oi, Kanto."
"Right, right, good." He nodded as he set up the cleanup "And send-"
The power cut out.
"-number... 15... up." He finished as he felt a shiver of instinctive fear pass down his spine, each word dragging out for longer than the previous one.
Fear that was quickly replaced with anger "What the fuck?!" He growled "Which gonk thinks he is being funny?"
He nearly stumbled over a side closet, grunting in pain as he hit the edge and barely stopped himself from falling over "Do you know who the fuck you are dealing with, huh?!" The fear was back now, as his shitty optics frantically searched the completely dark space.
"I'll have you and your entire family-!"
His rant was cut off halfway as he stumbled again, seemingly against nothing.
The lights flickered back on and he went to scramble back up, a curse about Night Corp's shitty maintenance already halfway through his throat.
Only what he found as he sat up shut him up completely and utterly.
He did not stumble over.
He had lost half of his leverage.
Saigo Sujiro stared at the detached leg sprawled a few feet away from him, and then at the stump just below his right knee that was practically pissing blood.
And screamed.
The Assassin
She did her best to keep her scowl down as her monowire retracted back into her hand, finally silencing the fat fuck whose death she had been paid to drag out for as long as possible.
'Honestly.' She thought with disgust 'After listening to him speak for less than a minute, I might have done it for free.'
Still, the bonus was very specifically outlined in making the target regret ever being alive, and so she did, even if she had to activate her hormone blockers to stop from vomiting halfway through. The fat fuck was resilient.
The paycheck was just too good for a few hours work to refuse, and the target definitely deserved it besides.
More out of habit than any real purpose, she ended up searching through the target's systems, and quickly found a slew of messages discussing another delivery of 'merchandise' agreed upon a week in advance.
She tilted her head at the laptop, and it didn't take her all that much thought before decided to download the data in case the employer was feeling even more generous today.
Freaks that ordered hits like these usually liked that kind of 'proactive' thinking, and as much as she disliked doing them, she still needed to earn a living.
Satisfied with the target's mangled, and thoroughly dead, state she went to exit only to pause as her gaze passed the tortured joytoy sprawled on the bed.
She sighed, and quickly scooped the poor woman up, placing her in a fireman's carry before slinking out of the apartment without making a single sound.
She left the joytoy in what she hoped was a safe spot, and called up her Fixer.
[Target eliminated.]
The expectant look of Regina Jones did not ease [And the... other request?] She pressed.
[The client should be satisfied with what I managed.] She answered after a brief pause [I also got some data they might be interested in.]
[I'll be the judge of that.] The Fixer's response was immediate and stern [But I suspect they just might. The recording?]
She didn't bother answering and instead uploaded the whole thing through her external cyberdeck/laptop.
[Excellent] The Fixer nodded [Gig's closed. Have a good day Kimigawa.]
[You too, Reggie.] Yumiko nodded back, and ended the call.
She failed to contain the thrill of satisfaction as she saw a fat 80k drop into account.
Say what you will about the freak who ordered the hit, but they definitely knew how to motivate her.
Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
"Thanks." I said as I closed the replay and my Artifex ripped the flying bottle of beer from the air, safely plopping it into my expectant hand a second later.
'Hopefully that will be that.' I decided to simply bury the situation from this point on.
The joytoys should be taken care of by Regina's people, and Jugo should have gotten the message loud and clear.
And the 'shipment' will have been dealt with in good order as well.
I could finally stop twisting my reactor about this.
My Mechadendrite drew me back to reality as it whirred behind me, flicking off the bottle cap with a slight twist, and I wisely accepted that as that and enjoyed the delightful bitterness of the drink as I stared off into the scattering megabuilding crowd.
"Those things always look so damn useful." Rebecca shook her head as she joined me on the balcony.
"They are incredibly useful." I smirked "And would probably burn the brain of anyone who isn't a specialized fullborg to a crisp, in seconds."
She grinned up at me teasingly "But not you~?"
Knowing a trap when I heard one, I just grumbled into my bottle and took a long sip.
"Hey." She said after a short bit, looking herself over "D'you think I got taller recently? It's really been fucking with me."
"You did." I confirmed easily.
"Huh." Is all she said, eyebrows rising.
And then her eyes snapped back up to me, not immediately accusatory but there was a flash of realization there.
Looking away briefly, I worked my jaw before saying "Yes, I had something to do with it."
She tensed "...What?"
"Just went ahead and dealt with some malnourishment issues you built up when I fixed you." I turned to her with slightly raised arms, and seeing her intense stare, I looked away again and muttered "And I got rid of the skin cancer you got from the chemical treatment."
Whatever she was about to say died in her throat as she suddenly choked, making me turn back to her with a look of concern only to see her waving me down.
"'m fine." She said, clearing her throat before she gave me a bemused look "But seriously, don't just go out and say something ridiculous like that, I almost died there!"
"Sorry, sorry." I chuckled, feeling a brief flood of relief "I'll try to keep sudden medical condition jumpscares to a minimum."
"You better, mister!" She grinned briefly as her expression turned curious "How did you do it anyway?"
"Nanomachines." I said, seriously at first but something about the answer still tickled my hindbrain.
"Really?" She asked, baffled "How did you get your hands on those? Also, you sure you should be using something like that-"
"I made them." I interrupted her with a shiteating smirk.
She just stared up at me for a bit at that, before rubbing her chin in thought "...Huh."
I went to speak but her muttering interrupted me "So that's why I can walk-"
"Really?" I deadpanned, a massive chunk of my stress dying a silent death as it was replaced by exasperation.
"Heh."
It was now her turn to give me a shiteating smirk.
"You uh..." I paused, suddenly feeling a bit awkward "Aren't weirded out or anything?"
"Weirded out?" Her questioning look turned teasing "Why would I be weirded out by my scary input's preem aftercare?"
"Gah." I looked away and muttered "I was stressing my chrome off, expecting..." What was I even expecting?
"A reaction?" I asked more than said "You are just taking this in stride."
This naturally, only made the teasing gremlin cackle, as she scooted over closer to me and patted my arm "You're cute."
My only recourse to preserve my dignity was to look away and grumble away.
It didn't work.
Half an hour later, as we were chatting away about random things, the topic inevitably shifted back to my day at 'work', and the fact I returned almost completely untouched.
The rate at which I went through coats and to a lesser extent my clothing had by now become something of an inside joke between us, and to have the current one not need immediate recycling after the shitstorm that was Jugo's 'meeting' was quite frankly ridiculous.
"Can't you just-" She waved her hands dramatically "Toss me the recording of the whole thing I am pretty sure you have?"
"'Becca." I deadpanned "Recording a gig like that would be incredibly unprofessional."
She just stared, her look saying 'I know you are shitting me, and you know I know you are shitting me.'
And of course, I folded immediately "Alright fine, I do have BD recordings but they are made with my hardware in mind."
It didn't take her long to understand the issue "That would be some fucky overstimulation, huh?"
"Yup." I nodded "I'm not burning your brain with what is effectively an xBD for kicks."
"See!" Instead of being annoyed, she cheered "Told you you were cute!"
Wisely grumbling my complaints away again, I soldiered on and told her about what happened in broad strokes, pointedly not telling her about the traitor's family because that would have just been depressing-
"Hold on a moment." Rebecca crossed her arms, eyes narrow in dramatic fury "You let her use your what now?"
"My autocannon." I repeated "Do keep up."
A silent moment passed.
"Youhaveafuckingnautocannon?!" She practically screeched, clutching at my hoodie as she tried and failed to toss me about.
"Yup." I smacked my lips.
"And you let that Tyger bitch use it first..." She deflated.
"Should have come out when I invited you three days back." I shrugged "But you were too busy being a couch potato."
"Nooo!" She cried out dramatically.
"She got really freaky about it too." I shook my head with a pretend shudder "Started breathing heavily and everything... You'd almost think she didn't just see two of her friends die in front of her."
Rebecca held back a snort "Ah, but Mike." She tried sounding patronizing and failed because she was still half chuckling "Didn't you know?"
"Know what?" I looked down curiously.
"Bitches love canons!" She snapped her fingers with a grin "Which means you are letting me try that bad boy out!"
"Sure thing, 'Becca." I rolled my eyes good naturedly as I ruffled her hair.
Unusually, that failed to annoy her.
"And I have the perfect place to do it!" She preempted any further response.
"Got a gig you want me to tag along on?" I asked, not particularly minding the idea.
"Nah." She waved it off "Falco is coming back soon and Biotechnica should have stopped looking for us by now, so Maine and the rest are coming back to NC too."
"And you want us to what?" I crossed my arms "Play escort for them or something?"
"Yup." She nodded cheerily "Badlands are usually a shitheap of danger and I don't want my chooms to get ganked by a Wraith raiding spree."
"Aren't Wraith attacks already a given though? Your chooms should know to avoid them if they are hiding out with the Nomads." I asked, tapping my finger on the balcony ledge expectantly.
"They probably do but I wanna be sure." She confirmed, her look knowing "Also, you can just say you don't wanna go and get Maine, I'd get it."
"Tsk." I clicked my tongue "I don't actually hate him enough to tell you no. I just don't like interacting with him."
"Man, you two are such babies about everything." She teased before slowly yawning.
"How am I the baby here?" I asked, throwing my hands up "I was being polite and shit and the man just turned hostile on me for no reason."
"Uh uh." Rebecca nodded, smirking.
My eyes narrowed in warning.
To which her teasing expression only grew.
My Mechadendrite whipped out, grabbing her by the scruff of her jacket.
"Oh no~" She singsonged before she was yanked off the ground.
And naturally all she did as she was carried inside was let out a cheery "Weeee~!"
Damn, I think I am in love.
----
[So what do you think?] Jackie asked me over the call.
I stopped my tinkering briefly to consider the question.
[Objectively, I would recommend against it. Your chrome is good but all it takes is one fuckup and all of a sudden you are fistfighting a halfborg.] I immediately shot him a pointed look across the call [But since I know I can't convince you otherwise, I'll say make sure to conduct your biz on their periphery, preferably the coast. Under no circumstances are you to accept gigs that go on near these places-]
I sent him a full list of the biggest Maelstrom hotspots.
[Thanks, Mike!] Jackie grinned [You are a lifesaver.]
[Just make sure you keep your head on a swivel with your new 'runner.] I said with utmost gravitas [I have heard of this 'T Bug' before and while her rep in the cafe is solid, I only really know her by name.]
[Didn't I already tell you Yoko vouched for her?] Jackie asked, frowning.
[That is the bare minimum when dealing with unknowns, Jack.] I retorted [Never hurts to watch your back.]
[Yah, yah, homes, I get ya.] He waved it off [I'll make sure not to rely on her too much until she proves herself.]
[Just be careful.] I pressed, annoyed by his flippancy [Watson is pretty much on fire now, and I wouldn't want to see you burned.]
[Ah, don't you start with the metaphors now too!] Jackie exclaimed dramatically [Bug is already killing me with her weird philosopher quotes, I don't need you joining her.]
[Truly, what a plebeian response.] I said with fake pomp before chuckling and giving him a wave [Have fun, Jack.]
[Hasta luego, Mike.] He waved a salute back and ended the call.
Shaking my head at the bullheaded gonk, I updated my monitoring software just in case he decided to ignore my warnings and sink himself directly into the heart of Maelstrom to spite me or something equally stupid.
A Maelstrom that instead of being cowed by the loss of their leader, and a bunch of their fellow retards, was now fucking excited to keep the slaughter going, and Brick, the poor fucker who somehow survived the shitshow at Totentanz simply did not have the influence to calm them down despite 'inheriting' the position.
Supposedly he was one of the more reasonable members of their death cult but it would be a miracle if he survived long enough to actually start mattering enough to take control anyway.
I shook my head and decided I simply did not want to deal with that clusterfuck so early in the morning and returned to my tinkering.
Which is when my monitoring systems warned me of an irregularity, and despite being tempted to ignore it for my work I still scanned the whole of my 'territory' just in case, only to pause as I noticed a rather... unexpected figure.
She was currently shuffling nervously in one of the more secluded corners of the floor while repeatedly staring directly into the camera currently observing her, as if she was expecting someone to notice her.
"Hello there, Ms. V." I muttered, picked up my guns, and rushed out of my workshop.
-------
The cult demands a fresh tribute of raw material to power its production lines.
Failure to comply will inevitably result in your joining of said production lines in a more productive form.
Praise be to the machine spirit!
14 glorious chapters await for those wise enough to seek them upon the forbidden Patreon (at patreon .com/ Rastislav156)
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