Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 218

Hiromi as usual haggled fiercely, but even her best wasn’t enough to really give us much, if any, sort of discount. 

It was fine. I’d been making a lot of eddies, and never really spending it. Buying new Cyberware was basically my main cost anyways. 

Hiromi and I were leaving the stadium, she was holding the gear keeping my hands free as I kept my eyes on everyone and everything.

“Relax Motoko.” She whispered to me voice teasing, but I just smiled at her, and then ignored her anyway.

We made it back out to the setting sun and I had a moment of realization that despite how dangerous this place was, and it was, no doubt about that. It still had its own kind of life. I watched people camping out all along the sort of valley that Dog Town was built into. Campfires, and parties. 

Stupid to do it here, but I guess some people preferred Barghest to NCPD.

Just as we were about to hit the top of the stairs I heard it, and stilled.

The noise was familiar, perfectly tuned Quadra Super 640 Hyper engine.

My engine.

“Fuck.” I whispered as I raced forward for a moment ignoring Hiromi as I jumped up, getting as high as I could to watch as my Quadra, my baby, with it’s pretty black paint raced out of the parking area, slamming into a bit of abandoned junk along the sidewalk and then roared forward down the main boulevard away from the stadium.

“Motoko!” Hiromi called out from below me, but I waited, eyes locked, as I went to work. It was already almost too far. I sent a Ping and activation code to the trackers that littered the car. 

I watched as golden spider webs stretched out as the trackers reached out for open network nodes to transmit to me, and then just a bit more the car was too far and my Kiroshi stopped tracking the access lines.

But I watched on anyways, come on.

Come on.

I waited. There were only a few streets in Dog Town, and the biggest issue was my car was heading right towards the turn off towards the exit. 

If my car turned off into Night City proper…

It would take less than ten hours for my car to be turned into scrap and disappear. My network tracking method would be too slow. 

I saw brake lights as they came up to the turn and felt my stomach drop, but a Barghest truck drove in front of them, and the Quadra’s lights turned off and rushed forward.

Driving right past the entrance to Dog Town, and farther in.

I breathed a sigh of relief, even if the air passing my lips came out feeling like arctic cold.

Turning back I jumped down from the top of the kiosk I’d leapt onto. “C’mon Hiromi. We need to move.” I told her, and reached over to help push her forward.

“Motoko? Was that your car!?”

“Yeah.” I confirmed and she had a look of real anger spreading across her face.

“Those bastards! Hey you!” Hiromi called out to a Barghest guard that was leaning against the concrete wall of the stadium. “Someone stole my chooms car!” She called out and I watched as the guy just looked at her blankly before shrugging just once. Then ignoring her.

“Yeah. That’s what I thought would happen.” I confirmed, still moving her down the steps of the stadium. I needed….

“Fucker! Aren’t you- Motoko!”

“There, let’s go.” I said pushing her along away from the Barghest guard that would more than likely just shoot her than listen to her.

“What? Motoko? I should call everyone! We need a ride-”

“We have a ride. I need to get you somewhere secure, and then I need to go get it.” I told her back and pushed her forward, right towards the Heavy Hearts.

It would be safer inside there, a booth and time would keep Hiromi safe while I took care of things.

Hiromi looked like she was going to argue with me, but instead she simply nodded and put some effort into hurrying up. Good, that gave me time to think.

I had my weapons. Lexington with two spare mags on the back rig, my Burya with two replacement mags, and my Katana at my hip. 

It would be enough, and if it wasn’t, I’m sure whoever was stupid enough to steal my car would have some more weapons. We crossed the street and then ran up to the Pyramid entrance. The Barghest guards looked like he was going to stop us, but thought better of it, as we slowed and I walked Hiromi inside. “Just find a quiet place, let everyone know there might be trouble.”

“Shouldn’t you wait for backup? Isn’t that what you always tell us?” Hiromi reminded me as I was already half turned away. 

“Yeah probably, but if I don’t hurry they might start taking apart my car. I’ll keep you updated with my location just in case.”

“Alright. You’ll have backup soon, but be safe.”

I nodded and hurried out the door, breaking into a light jog as I started moving across Dog Town. I didn’t know this area at all. I had no idea the safe places if you could call it that, or the gang territory. The only thing I knew was that at least one person was about to die. When I found out who stole my car I was going to make it painful.

I paced myself perfectly, and wasn’t bothered by a light jog. Across broken sidewalks and over old graffitied benches I crossed the area as quickly as I could on foot. Luckily Dog Town wasn’t that large. 

I made good headway, ignoring the looks I was receiving from the natives. I raced along the street until it ended, which was annoying, but I was still getting a few stray pings from my trackers. Further forward.

As I ran I ended up running right into what looked like a little shopping district. A large tree of all things, a real tree stood in the center. I looked around for a moment, but the ping which was coming from what looked like a netrunner center in a cargo container kept pointing me forward.

I jogged through and finally I found it. Turning a corner I heard it first. Russian voices. There was a chair set into an old container that was looking out over the gap in between two containers and a Scav was sitting there keeping watch… Mostly on his TV.

Okay. My breath was good, but I had exerted myself. Calm. Cool.

I sent a ping to Hiromi giving my location and a brief description of what I’d found. I activated the BD recorder, opening my eyes to a world recorded. Then I peaked out from around the container and pinged the Scav.

Lights splashed across my vision. More and more as the stealthiest Ping I could do stretched its web between all the Scavs connected to it.

I added onto the message to Hiromi that I was looking at fifty plus Scavs…

I reached up and realized I was smiling, my heart hammering in my chest in a completely different way from exertion.

An excuse to murder an entire Scav den, and a big one? Oh I was going to really enjoy this. I took a moment to upload another hack into the gonk. 

[Onryo]

I installed it at a very low setting, basically it would slowly propagate along the network for now, but not actually do anything. Just enough that when I needed I could start really fucking with everyone.

Then I moved. Stepping back I took two leaps, once against the wall and then over the container. Getting above the guard they had posted. I hunkered down already cataloging the moving pieces all around me. 

Okay, the first target was clear. I leapt across the gap, landing without a sound, and slipping in through the back of the container behind the Scav.

My knife came up and I muffled his mouth as steel slipped into his jugular, ending his life.

500 XP Gained.

I dragged him out of the plastic chair and tucked him into a corner out of sight. No one would even notice he was gone until long after I was done here. 

This gave me an open view down a ramp and into a broken construction area. The large towers that I was shadowed by were skeletal things, incomplete and this was where the Scavs had set up their home. 

There she was. Right down in the open my Quadra sitting at the base of the ramp and people were looking her over. 

She was still complete. They hadn’t started ripping her apart yet. 

I moved. Leaping off the container, and slipping into a crouched position on an old rickety walk way. Using the covered railings to hide myself as I got closer and closer, until I could hear them.

“I said six kay, that’s all I’ll do.”

“It’s a fucking modded to fuck Quadra! She’s worth more than that!”

“She’s also klepped. Six Kay.” I watched as the guy who obviously stole my ride haggled with a full faced Scav. 

The kid… No I shouldn’t call him that, he was older than me, probably late teens, and he was a target anyways.

He would die.

He looked like he wanted to argue even more but eventually just tsk’ed and nodded, holding out a hand. He shook with the Scav, and the deal was done.

Six thousand eddies… For my car? My baby?

The shit in her trunk was worth more than six thousand eddies!

I watched as the thief handed over a shard… He’d already copied the shard? That was… Actually impressive. I could do it… Probably. Never had before, but that was impressive considering it hadn’t even… Well he probably started stealing my car the moment we went into the stadium. 

The little thief turned and walked up the ramp, six thousand eddies richer.

I followed him.

—--

Tony Gonzalez

Tony walked calmly out of The Scrapers yard and only when he was sure that he was out of sight did he hurry a bit more to get away, finding a quiet corner to duck into and catch his breath.

Selling to Scavs was always a danger. Tony kept his Lexington visible in his waistband just in case. 

He checked his account, six kay… That was a lot of eddies, not as much as the car was worth, but it was good eddies, more than he’d make in a couple of months working some scop job or worse. 

Easy eddies. He’d go buy Melissa that skirt she’d been looking at. He wouldn’t mind seeing her in it. 

He patted his jacket, the car cracker was still there. It was his key to a good life. He’d klepped it from a dead runner. Old Etienne was a VDB, Tony did some work for him, moved things and the like, but he’d gone to pick up a new package only to find the old runner fried. 

So Tony had helped himself, getting the fuck out of there hopefully without anyone noticing. He hadn’t gone for any of the gear. Nah, that was shit that the other Boys would notice missing. No he klepped the little things that Etienne made. A car cracker, a runner stunner, and all the eddies he knew the old man kept around as he didn’t trust virtual eddies.

It worked out for Tony. Months of living real quiet, letting old Etienne’s death blow over until no one would ever think Tony had anything to do with it, or that he had klepped something from the old man.

Then when his eddies were running out, he’d gone out to keep an eye on the stadium lot. 

He couldn’t klep a ride from locals, or anyone too important. There was a way of things, and pissing off Barghest would end with him dead in a ditch, but some outsiders coming to use the blackmarket? Outsider kids even?

Just a couple girls, corpo and street rat, coming to the black market to feel the thrill probably. Buy something illegal, get into some trouble. Now they’d have a story to tell about their stolen suped up car. Probably daddy’s or something.

Tony nodded as he made to move on, only he couldn’t. His legs dropped as quickly as his blood pressure, as his throat was opened up.

—--

250 XP Gained.

I took a moment to look through the gonks pockets, a stun stick, nasty fucker too, and a Car Cracker. It’d sync up to a vehicles on board computer override the key system, and with just a press of a button most cars would flash a new key and you’d be off. 

The only problem was, my Quadra had good security, it probably took a while to crack. When I got out of here, I was going to update the security even more. Fucking hell. 

With that cleared up I headed back to the tower that was basically a massive scav den. I looked over the numbers from back on top of the storage containers hidden among the refuse.

There were netrunners around, but not good ones.

These weren’t security runners, but thugs. People with Quick Hacks meant to try and disable their targets, and while normally I’d be a lot more wary, with my Stealth Quick Hacking Perk that I’d just picked up, I felt like a Ghost as I uploaded more hacks through the gonks I could see standing around my Quadra.

There were a lot of people just inside this construction area, and it was a surprise just how many more of them lived inside the half finished skyscraper. 

This was a nest. Maybe even a distribution center for a massive Scav Gang. 

I’d never heard anything about this place, but then again if the data I’d gathered led to DogTown I’d also ignored it and moved on, thinking it was insane to follow it.

Good thing I was feeling particularly insane at the moment. Onryo had spread to everyone. Time to initiate level 1, I sent out the code that would cause her to start getting a bit more aggressive. 

I needed to clear out the stragglers first. There was a Sniper along the side, he’d be my first target, just to be safe.

I moved, jumped up and onto the rooftop, only taking a moment to look up, to make sure I’d be out of sight of anyone on the upper levels of the scraper.

Then I moved, sticking to the shadows cast by the setting sun, and moving across the construction site unseen.

I heard it as I approached, one of the guys around my Quadra yelped and started yelling at his buddies.

Onryo was doing her job.

I slipped down from the Containers that surrounded the area, landing without a sound right behind the sniper Scav. He had good gear even walking around with a Grad of all things. Not really beating those Russian connections there pal.

It’s fine. He was hidden up above the rest of the construction site, and so when I slipped behind him, and l ran my sword through his heart from behind, grabbing his mouth to quiet his startled gasp he died easily.

750 XP Gained.

Nice. Extra XP.

With him dead, I had superiority over the entire area. No one else was really on overwatch.

It was time to wipe out some Scavs.

I heard the first real scream as I was making my way through the shadows, unable to hide my grin as Onryo was working.

Sure, going completely stealth would probably have been better, but… I wanted to see how Onryo did. I still needed to do more updates to it, but a little field test was a good idea.

That and I didn’t want them to focus on my car. 

I’d already tried to call for it to come to me, but the car cracker that little shit had used, had overwritten the key shard I still had. 

I’d have to override whatever bullshit this thing had done. But first I needed to clear out some assholes.

I slipped down among the shadows even as the cries of panic grew louder.

Onryo was working hard. Grabbing at hands, or legs, or running fingers over cheeks from behind. Which the poor bastards agents all made them feel.

The network integration was working too, as I started hearing the gonks scream at each other when the Ghostly form of the Onryo would slip out from behind someones back with her claw-like hands.

Of course there were a few working to fix the issue.

The Netrunners were already trying to hunt down the Daemon in their network, but like I said they were thugs.

I pulled out my knife readying myself as I took over the Daemon and set up a vector.

The Netrunner had a moment to see Onryo slide up from below his sight, climbing out of his shadow and then clambering up onto his chest. Each time she touched him as she climbed he’d feel it and then it was revealed the massive knife in her hands.

“Oh fuck off! Whoever is doing this! I know it’s just a fucking trick!” He yelled out, trying to act tough, trying to act like this was nothing so his chooms would calm down.

Which is why when Onryo thrust a knife into his throat. I made my throw.

There was a moment, I could tell a dichotomy where what was happening to him didn’t make sense and he tried to deny it.

But the blood flowing out of his mouth as the blade stuck through his throat stopped all of that.

The Onryo laughed, warm and sinister and disappeared.

Which revealed the truth to all of his chooms.

The screams… Well, I had to admit it gave me warm feelings inside as the Scavs went from reacting to some weird shit, to realizing they were in a horror movie.

750 XP Gained.

I had one more knife, and then I’d have to start collecting more.

I grinned.

The shock, the fear, it already affected their ability to try and pin me down. Instead of sticking together, or sending out groups, the Scavs were splintering, some were running in fear back into the building, some some together, and some started firing randomly.

One Scav actually shot one of his chooms when the Onryo was sliding along that guy's face.

500 XP Gained.

I guess if I got some idiots to kill each other it still counted? That was nice.

There were about sixteen Scavs in the area at the start, two down, fourteen more to go, and then however many were in this building.

Time to get to work.

I started running, rushing through the maze like stacks of containers, and trash that was built up all around the area.

I knew where they were, but they had no idea where I was.

The first Scav I ran into was hiding. Shotgun pointed towards the only area where he’d jammed himself. The Pozhar was shaking and wavering.

Unfortunately I had just leapt above him and was looking down on him now. 

I pushed up the Onryo’s effects on him. Suddenly, hands were crawling up his face, scratching, and clawing at his eyes. Agents weren’t meant to cause pain, but well…

His scream was pretty horrible, and while he was blind and scrabbling at his eyes I leapt down, kicking the pozhar as I landed, knocking it up and out of his hands, until I grabbed it out of the air and pointed it.

The blast echoed in the little cubby between two containers he’d tucked himself, and then I just dropped the Pozhar and leapt back out.

500 XP Gained.

Gone like a ghost. I decided to wait and see, laying down on top of the container and just letting the chaos continue.

Three Scavs came to check on the noise, and when they found their choom, or what was left of him. I adjusted their own affect.

The feeling of the Onryo scratching at their eyes, gave me all the time I needed to leap in between all three of them.

My Katana was shifted, and in a single move I drew my blade, three bodies and three heads fell.

500 XP Gained.

500 XP Gained.

500 XP Gained.

I once more disappeared, slow and steady, lure them away. Get them into smaller numbers, and then blind and remove them.

Honestly when I’d originally come up with Onryo, I hadn’t thought of its effect of being able to cover some poor gonk's eyes. 

Adding in the pain mechanism, and using that like an Optical Reboot? I had to admit, this was much more powerful of a hack than I’d expected. 

—-

Daniil Antonov

The screams as the setting sun was coming through the open spaces in the half built skyscraper were not something he wanted to hear.

“Fucking hell. What is going on now?” He grunted as he left his own little room. Being the boss of the place had its benefits and a bit of privacy was one of them.

“What’s going on?” He called out, looking around as more than a few others were coming out of rooms to find out what the hell was going on.

He hurried down when no response came.

Shit.

“Grab your weapons!” He roared to everyone grabbing his own Pozhar and hurrying towards the elevator.

When he arrived he slowed down so he could process what he was seeing.

One of his men was shaking and disturbed, scratches ran across his face, and they looked self-inflicted.

Cyberpsycho? He gripped his gun tight, just in case.

“What the hell is going on?”

“We’re under attack!” The man checking on him called out. “Some Runner is fucking with our boys! They’re seeing ghosts, and more and more are showing up dead!”

Daniil considered this. There were two paths forward for him. Send more men downstairs, maybe even start ordering everyone down to kill this scop sucker.

The other was to wait it out. Netrunners had to see you to hack you out. He didn’t have security cameras up here, and his boys had every route up, locked down. Some one dangerous enough to start slaughtering his men was dangerous enough to just let them do what they wanted.

But that would make him look weak. 

“Dmitri. Take your squad, clean up this mess.” Daniil ordered, and looked up at the man. 

Dmitri was his group's heavy hitter. The most borged out fuckers in the group. Ex-SovOil special forces. They were what Daniil used when shit got bad. The guards he used when he had to deal with Barghest, or any of the other players here in Dogtown.

“You heard him!” Dmitri didn’t wait, roaring out and holding that massive HMG of his.

His squad of killers clambered into the elevator. There whoever was stupid enough to fuck with him was dead. Now to deal with these idiots getting scared of some piece of trash causing trouble.