An Engineer In Night City - ch 10.2 (Patreon)

Race to Arasaka Tower(2)

Returning the clock to before the chase for David, Lucy, and Kiwi have infiltrated one of Faraday’s safe houses after receiving the intel from Mark. Currently, the pair are looting the safe house with a toothcomb using the modified Netrunner model Power Armor, with an improved cyberdeck, extra inventory storage space, extra RAM, a cooling system to help them in a deep dive, and even extra protection in case of an emergency.

Lucy makes her displeasure known to her partner. “I still don’t think it was necessary to put David in danger like this.”

Kiwi dryly replies to her protegee. “I was the one shot through the window of a skyscraper, Lucy.”

The younger Netrunner blushes at the reminder. “Let’s get this over quickly so we can save David and take our pound of flesh from Faraday.”

“I can agree to that.”

With access to Wube Inc.’s inventory system, they don’t bother being careful, taking whole stacks of items and suspicious-looking furniture and placing them inside their inventory. The internal analytic system providing a clue about the item's nature helps them triage what is relevant and what isn’t.

Eventually, the pair finds Faraday data fortress, and Kiwi will deep dive first while Lucy stays on overwatch.

While the veteran Netrunner works, Lucy thinks back on how this plan came together, and her place in it.

Faraday as a Fixer affiliated with Militech would eventually be directly at odds with Wube Inc. since Militech had a history of attacking Wube Inc.’s holding, and the apparent cordial relationship that Mark had with Faraday. Eventually, Faraday took the bait and plotted against the Engineer. 

He was either unaware or forgot that Wube Inc. now has eyes in space.

According to Kiwi, Mark never liked Faraday, using his likeliness with the Marketable Plushy Faraday(™) as target practice on occasion, and took this opportunity as an excuse to both flatline the Fixer and gain more information about the man’s masters.

Kiwi and Mark explained that the Taka faction within Arasaka is a reformist faction that wishes to undo much of the harm done by the company, led by Yorinobu Arasaka. The more power Taka has, the better the megacorp relationship with Wube will be, and the lesser the chance for future betrayal.

Lucy is still wary of helping Arasaka in any capacity, but for now, she will trust her mentor and the company’s boss.

Lucy has to admit one thing about Wube Inc., “At least they give us some nice toys to work with,” though she realized too late that the rumors that Wube Inc. has brutal HR hiring policies turned out to be true.

The company doesn’t abuse its employees, it is considered saintly by modern-day standards, however, the Factory attracts gangster activities, and mercenary attention like Speedware attracts chrome junkies.

“What did Kiwi say? ‘Things go from zero to a hundred really fucking fast,’ when working for this company.”

Sighing Lucy does one last check around the safehouse to make sure she isn’t missing anything when Kiwi stands up from her chair.

“I got what we need, time to delta!”

Lucy doesn’t question her mentor and starts running when she hears the alarms on the safe house go off.

The pair has roughly ten minutes to exit the building and escape according to their initial estimates, however, they are intercepted by a team of Militech private security assigned to guard the location.

“Freeze, on your knees!”

The pair doesn’t flinch and continues running away ignoring the orders, knowing that being captured would be a fate worse than death, especially for Netrunners like Lucy and Kiwi.

The power armor configuration the pair has contains the Improved Cyberdeck connector, the Cyberdeck Radiators, Personal Solar Panels, Personal Batteries, Extra Inventory Belts, and one Exoskeleton. With the power armor having several items that are hungry for power, it left little space and energy for other uses.

The mercenaries quickly catch up with Lucy and Kiwi, surrounding the pair. The two take out their Wube Inc.’s weapons to fight back, but the mercenaries are quicker on the draw. Yet, despite the gunfire the pair take, they don’t fall on the ground when they should, forcing the Militech soldiers to reload their weapons almost at the same time.

Grunting with pain whenever she’s hit, Lucy endures the attack and shoots back with her machine gun, while Kiwi pulls out a flamethrower against the enemies in front of her.

The mercenaries quickly flatline before both women loot their bodies, putting their wholesale inside the inventory for later dismantling.

“Fuck, that hurts!” Lucy yells before using one of her precious medical kits to restore herself to pristine condition. “‘You get used to it’ my ass! The people at security are all masochistic freaks!”

Kiwi is already far ahead of her protegee, never stopping her stride after cooking her enemies and looting them. “Stop bitching and let’s move out, Lucy. They’re going to send more goons if we stay here for long. Don’t you want to meet with David?”

Lucy quickly catches up with her mentor, staring suspiciously at her. “What about you? Are you doing this just to stick to Faraday?”

Kiwi eyes sparkle, despite answering with her usual deadpan tone. “I’m a professional, Lucy. I don’t kiss and tell.”

“... what, what?!”

…

In another place, Maine’s Crew manages to catch up with Faraday’s Crew, and they both start a shootout. Maine suspects they are under order to deliver David alive, which is why they didn’t bother using the teenager's health as a bargaining chip against the Edgerunners.

Normally, Maine’s Crew would have a better showing than their current performance, but the majority of them are operating at or less than seventy-five percent effectiveness due to still being acclimatized to their new chrome. In terms of raw numbers, the two teams are equivalent, but his Crew needs to be careful not to hit David.

Ahead of Maine, the Faraday’s Crew receives a message from the fixer and their sponsor.

“What are you doing? You’re running out late, bring the boy to the meeting point ASAP!”

The taller man carrying David answers. “On it, boss. T-One, stay behind and delay them for five minutes. Afterward, disengage and run for the nearest safehouse.”

One of the mercenaries, a man wearing all black with a tuff of red hair sticking out from his face mask answers, “On it, glorious leader.”

The man starts to throw grenades around his group and back at Maine’s crew, creating a large smoke screen. Right after bullets start to rain from all different directions.

“They’re standing their ground!” Dorio yells to the group, but to her surprise Pilar contradicts her.

“No, it’s just one guy! He didn’t just throw smoke grenades, he also threw chaff grenades and drone grenades, that’s why it looks like the group is attacking! He just wants to pin us here! You guys go ahead while I deal with him.”

Maine checks the tracker and curses when he realizes that the signal is compromised as Pilar said. A quick message to Mark confirms that David is still running ahead.

“Alright Mr. Handyman, do your magic to avoid this clown, and then follow us!”

Surprised, Rebecca turns to her leader. “Are you going to leave my brother behind, Chief?”

“Don’t talk as if he’s leaving me to die, do you think I’m going to risk my neck fighting some random gonk? I’m going to Delta and find you guys as soon as I trick this moron.”

Maine gives a grim nod, uncomfortable with the parallels between now and his previous unit in South America. “You heard the Handyman, he’s too much of a coward to sacrifice himself for us.”

“Ha ha, guilty as charged!”

Rebecca glances at her brother, seeing him in a new light. “You better not die here, you dumbass, only I have the right to do that!”

“Bitch, I am going to live forever!”

Rebecca isn’t amused by the response. “I’m fucking serious, you asshole!”

Pilar sighs, sending a private message to his sister on their private sibling’s channel. “Sis, it’s been a month in real life since I’m clean. Please, trust me when I say I won’t be doing anything stupid, alright?”

The Solo is caught by surprise, being unaware of her brother’s dedication. “A full month? How? And why now?”

“Everyone is getting chromed up, training harder, and getting better. Hell, even the new guy Falco is an absolute beast on the wheel, you just saw that! I can’t allow myself to get behind everyone else! So I got my shit together, and now I’m clean for a month and feeling better than ever, so trust me, sis, I got this!”

Moved by her irresponsible bother plea, Rebecca's eyes moistened with an unshed tear. “Damn it, who are you and what you did to my brother?”

In response, Pilar throws his drones into the air and deploys his ECCM suit. “You’re good to go!”

Their leader doesn’t waste the opportunity. “You heard the Handyman! On the count of three, we engage the boosters! One… two… three!”

The group activates their exoskeletons and rushes past the chaff grenades harmlessly while Pilar uses his drones and other gadgets to keep the opposing Techie occupied, allowing the group to make a clean escape.

Rebecca looks back at the humungous smoke cloud they left behind, still hearing gunfire and explosions coming from that direction. “You better not die, stupid brother.”

Forcing herself back to the task at hand, Rebecca follows her crew to continue the chase.

...

Eventually both T-One and Pilar “Mr. Handyman” realize they are the only ones left inside the smoke cloud. While Pilar power armor has an integrated gas mask, the visibility is still compromised, and there is no sign of the electrically charged smoke and dust cloud to dissipate any time soon.

The objective of the battle changed from “allowing his crew members to escape” to “returning to them as soon as possible to reinforce, or flank them,” thus upon an unspoken agreement both Techies are now trying to kill each other instead of merely escaping.

T-One is the first to start taunting his opponent. “You got some nice toys, you bloody wanker. Got some hand-me-downs from your sugar daddy?”

Pilar almost laughs. “‘Bloddy wanker?’ Are you a Brit, or are you trying to sound ‘posh?’ Just die already and let me get back to my team!”

Both Techies are evenly matched when it comes to equipment. T-One quickly deploys cutting-edge and prototype drones to create an impassable zone, while Pilar throws temporary drones similar to the Engineer’ “Drone Capsules”. T-One uses the latest “Tech Weapons” developed by Militech, while Pilar uses the “Power Weapons” that Wube Inc. is famous for.

“Better sounding posh than being a ‘has been’ loser like you, Pilar! I wonder what ‘Papa Sunrise’ would think seeing his crotch spawn turning into you!”

Pilar doesn’t respond, shocked that someone still remembers his father. He silently maneuvers around in the smoke cloud, remembering the past few years.

A long time ago, Pilar was a responsible older brother, unlike he is now. After his father disappeared and their possessions were taken away, he and his little sister worked as independent mercs for a while. Rebecca always got the pair into trouble due to her recklessness and compassionate behavior.

To Pilar, his little sister's behavior was a painful reminder of his mother, having disappeared when he was still young. When their father also disappeared, Pilar vowed to find the ones responsible for their disappearance.

Things were hard in their first years as independent mercs, with the older man playing the role of a responsible brother while investigating his parent’s disappearance, until they met with Maine and his budding crew.

For the Techie, that was both the best and worst moment of his life, as with a larger team to watch the sibling’s back Rebecca would be safer from others and her own behavior, and with the lowered responsibility on his back, Pilar began to relax and unwind.

To the older brother’s shame, he relaxed and indulged too much, becoming a menace in a short time. Despite his failings, Maine was unwilling to discard one of his comrades unless they betrayed him first, and Pilar abused that trust to become even more of a menace.

It was with the arrival of the Engineer and the incorporation of Wube that things changed.

Pilar saw a Techie fighting like a demon-possessed, bathing in the blood of his enemies and using advanced technology that scares the megacorps. He became Pilar’s idol overnight. Normally, Pilar would envy someone more successful than him with a similar skill set, but after talking with Mark one day, he was enlightened by a simple piece of advice.

“The Grind never ends. You either learn to enjoy the Grind and become better, or you’re ground up and are left behind.”

Pilar realized that all the indulgence in drugs, alcohol, and sex was nothing but him trying to run away from his responsibilities. He didn’t want to be the responsible one anymore, he wanted to be reckless and crazy for once, to let others pick up the burden he felt was too much for him.

The man realized that he felt disillusioned by the mercenary life that took both his parents' lives and was gearing up to take his and his little sister’s life too. He lost his passion, dream, and motivation. When he put his hands on the Engineer’s RGB Chips, it was like a new world opened to him.

With his passion back, he slowly changed back, returning to form and measuring up to the potential he once had.

The opposing Techie mentioning his father was the final nail to firm Pilar’s new determination.

“Gotcha!”

A grenade goes off near Pilar's position, the explosion taking out his relatively anemic defenses and inflicting damage on Pilar. The explosion also briefly cleared the smoke grenade, allowing T-One to spot Pilar's prone form.

“Found you, you ‘have been’ loser! Tell your father in hell that- huh?”

The prone form of Pilar flickers until the realistic hologram disappears, revealing Pilar’s original EMP grenade that explodes on T-One’s face.

All the muscles of the Techie lock in place when the armor he’s wearing freezes “Argh!”

The Techie can only stare in terror as several capsule drones float around him, sending electric shocks at the man, electrocuting him until his body carbonizes.

Pilar slowly leaves the smoke cloud with a bleeding left side. He grits his teeth before using one of the miraculous medical kits of Wube Inc.

Sighing in relief, the man sits down in a nearby discreet area to avoid the notice of the police and closes his eyes for a minute.

“I’m going to hit the gym after this. Also, why nobody told me that getting clean would suck?”

With one final mirthless chuckle, Pilar closes his eyes and lets his body relax. The combination of the winding down adrenaline and the anesthetic nature of the medical kit would make Pilar take a nap, retiring him from the chase for now.

Post Chapter Notes

Man, this segment is proving to be immense. I ended up splitting part of this chapter segment and putting it to the next part. Once again, I'm happy with how this turned out, so please give me your feedback on this chapter!