The Brink and Back - Tinker of Fiction

We took turns keeping watch, which was little more than peeking over the side of the building to make sure that the Tyger Claws were not suddenly freaking out over anything. Eventually, after another two hours, the sky was as dark as it was going to get, which meant it was time for us to move.

Riggs, Jackie, and I all lined up, our gliders in hand, standing at the far back of our temporary waiting space on the roof. Kaytlyn got herself situated, raising her sniper rifle up over the side of the building. For a long moment, she was silent, adjusting her position slightly. Finally, after nearly two minutes of her just looking through the scope, she finally spoke a single, simple word.

"Go."

Riggs was first to move, followed by Jackie and then myself, each of us pausing long enough to give the first person time to boost off the edge of the roof toward our target. By the time Jackie's feet left the roof, Riggs had activated his glider, the same for Jackie and myself. Just after the sound of my glider turning on filled my ears, the crackling thrumming sound that meant the XCOM tech was working at full power, the rapid snapping of Kaytlyn's weapon echoed across the street.

Ahead of us, on the roof of the target building, we watched as, one by one, Kaytlyn punched holes in the gang members who were keeping watch. The last one had just enough time to turn and raise his weapon before his head exploded.

Seconds later, Riggs touched down on the roof, quickly walking further along to give Jackie and me more room. Without breaking stride, he walked forward ten feet and then fifteen to the right. Then, as Jackie touched down, he placed his glider upside down on the roof. A few seconds later, as my feet touched the roof, he cracked open a red safety cover and flicked the switch underneath. As Jackie and I quickly moved to the far side of the roof, hiding behind an air conditioner unit, Riggs tapped the glider activation switch three times rapidly, which turned on the thruster paddles, pushing the glider down against the roof.

The device set, Riggs rushed over to join us, carefully leaning over Jackie and me to protect us both. Before I could complain that he should be in better cover, the shaped charge I had rigged around the frame of the glider, extra special for this mission, detonated, sending dust and shards of concrete flying as the explosion rattled my teeth.

If anyone had somehow missed the shots Kaytlyn had taken, they had definitely heard that.

When the dust began to settle, I could see that the explosives had worked, punching a surprisingly clean hole down to the floor below. With our way down complete and any security or mounting forces now bypassed, all three of us rushed to the hole and jumped down.

Through the hole was a dust-choked hallway, the tattered remains of two people, and a whole lot of stunned Tyger Claws. Riggs, who was first through the hole, immediately opened fire with his pistols, taking two chunks out of a katana-wielding maniac before he could take a swing.

"Riggs, cover the stairs, Jay, the hall!" Jackie called out as he slammed his axe into the skull of a tattooed Claw as they came out of their rooms swinging.

I nodded and sprayed down the nearest Claw, forcing the rest to take cover as he dropped. I stopped at the intersection of three hallways and peeked out around the corner, barely pulling back in time for a man wielding an M2038 shotgun to blow a watermelon-sized hole in the corner I was hiding behind. I cursed as the pellets and chunks of material scattered off my armor. Rather than risking getting shot by that, I simply pushed my submachine gun around the corner and dumped half the mag. This time, when I peaked, the shotgun-toting man was on the ground.

"Get clear!"

Jackie shouted as he ran past me, pulling me around the corner of the hall I had just cleared. A moment later, his-shaped charged glider detonated, the explosion echoing down the hall. Both of us would have been deafened by the shockwave that kicked up dust all the way down to and past us, but both our helmets protected us from that. We finished off the rest of the claws who were struggling to keep up, before charging back around the corner.

We came around just in time to watch Riggs drop down into the newly made hole, both of us to follow him in without hesitation. As I landed and cleared the drop zone, I saw that Riggs had his mag cannon out, aiming down the hall at a seven-foot-tall chromed-out bastard. The borg was charging at us, shouting obscenities in Japanese as he did. His gorilla arms were bulky and looked powerful, while his legs were the kind of cyberware that looked industrial and brutal. Riggs obviously didn't care to fight him, instead firing a single shot from his mag cannon, driving a doub-fist-sized hole through his sternum, as well as blowing the arm off of a katana-wielding punk behind him.

Riggs fired a second shot, obliterating the borgs head and killing two more bastards behind him, before he quickly clipped his cannon to his back and drew his pistols.

While Jackie covered the stairs and Riggs covered the hall, it was my turn to place the shaped charge. I yanked my glider free from the magnets along the back of my armor, quickly putting it on the ground before carefully activating it.

"Stand clear!" I shouted, running to Jackie and pulling him down the stairs.

As we took cover from the explosion, I got a look at why we were bothering with them in the first place. As Katylyn and Riggs had predicted during our brainstorming session, the floors were separated by rather robust-looking security doors. We would have had to clear them floor by floor, breaking through each security door, which would have slowed us down considerably, giving more time for the Tyger claws to prepare. With the glider-directed breaching charges, we were able to make incredible time and disorient the Claws at each breaching point in one quick move.

We dropped down after Riggs again, who was now grappling with another borg, this one prepackaged model decorated by dragon paints and golden highlights. I didn't recognize the make or model, but if Jackie or I had gone first, they would have been standing in the hall waiting for us. Judging by how Riggs was struggling with him, neither of us would have faired very well, though Jackie did have his sandy.

Thankfully, we had seen that issue coming, and Riggs had gone first, meaning Jackie and I simply shot around him, taking down the borg's support team. They dropped easily, and while Jackie turned to cover the stairs, I watched as Riggs twisted the borgs arm around violently, the gangster's limb unable to keep up with strange angle, its elbow joint crumpling in a shower of white lubricated fluid.

With one arm now useless, Riggs manhandled the borg, slamming his now free hand into its chest, tearing out chunks of parts before he finally gripped something and yanked at it violently. The borg's head jerked back and down, pulling partially into its frame as Riggs yanked half of its reinforced, robotic spine out through a hole he punched in its stomach plates. He followed it up by tearing the borg's other hand free from its shoulder.

"Damn, Riggs," I said once the borg had fallen to the ground. "You got something against spines? Your damn near tore out that scavs too."

"Can't move if you can't communicate with your body," He responded with a shrug.

I snorted before quickly looking around. We had descended enough floors, now we just needed to find the right room. Riggs covered me as I oriented myself, finally finding the right place. I was just hooking myself into the door's controls, ready to use my own enhanced auto-hacker when the thick security door suddenly slid open.

A string of Japanese curses followed me as I dove backward, a muscular Tyger Claw already stepping out of the room. He was wearing pants and a black oni mask, a glowing red katana already swinging downward at me. Despite my surprisingly quick reaction time, he still managed to slash me twice, his body blurring as he activated some sort of speed-enhancing device, probably a Sandy.

Both of his strikes hit my chest, carving an X into the durable metal plating. Even with the multiple layers, I could feel the heat of the blade.

My attempt to dodge threw me across the hall, the far wall dented from the impact. I lowered my hand to grab my weapon, only for the Claw to blur again. I instinctively flinched, raising my arm to protect myself, only for another blur to blitz the Claw, Jackie's ax catching the glowing katana.

"Hey fucker, pick on someone your own speed," Jackie said, winding up and cracking the bigger man's jaw with his armored fist, both of them blurring as sparks and glowing trails flew.

As Jackie fought the fellow Sandy user, I was forced to take his place covering the stairs, spraying a pair of reinforcements before turning my head to look back at Riggs.

"Fuck safe, smash it, Riggs!"

The brutal AI nodded, quickly dispatching a pair of charging gangsters coming from down the hall. He turned to the door, which had closed after the katana-wielding man had crossed the threshold. Riggs ran around Jackie and his opponent, who blurred again, this time whipping around and coming back to normal speed. Jackie didn't fall for it, blurring for a moment before both of them stopped. The gangster's katana was hanging limply to the side, while Jackie's axe was buried in his opponent's neck, deep enough that it flopped at a weird angle from the force of impact.

Before the dead man could finish sliding off Jackie's weapon, Riggs slammed himself into the door, the thick, reinforced paneling buckling and bending under the impact. With a backward yank, Riggs pulled himself free and raised his leg, slamming one, two, three kicks into the door, each one cracking dust free from the building's concrete structure. Finally,l after the third kick, the door gave way, slamming inward and sending sparks everywhere.

Jackie blurred inside, sneaking through the doorway before the door even finished slamming open, leaving Riggs to step into the apartment second and me to slowly pick up the back end, charging in with my weapon raised, just in time to hose down a gangster with a tanto, trying to catch Jackie off guard from his blind spot.

Of course, before Jackie could even realize that I had saved him from being stabbed, returned the favor by shooting past me and taking down a shotgun-wielding punk coming from a room off the side.

"Where's Riggs?" I asked.

Before Jackie could respond, a crumpled mess of what used to be a chromed-out Tyger came flying from another side room, slamming into a window and shattering it, the corpse falling out of view. Riggs stepped out from that room, his chest marked with a few dents and a single line of scoring.

"Akiko is currently locked in the bathroom, alone," He explained. "Didn't want to hurt her trying to get her out."

"Riggs, Jay, hold the door," Jackie said. "Let's hope she recognizes my voice."

Riggs and I nodded, both of us turning to the door. Riggs actually made his way to it to peek outside. He quickly pulled back, reached down to his belt, and pulled out a quartet of grenades, quickly throwing two down each hall. The explosions kicked up dust as the pressure wave washed over us, but this time, when the AI brute looked, he nodded confidently.

"Clear for now," he said. "We-"

A groaning came from behind us, and I whirled, ready to put down any survivors. When no immediate target presented itself, I stepped further into the apartment. Five minutes ago, it would have been a pretty decent place, with more open space than most people in Night City got to enjoy. Now, it was a warzone, with half a dozen dead bodies and a consistent amount of blood and gore. There was also an older man, still alive, with a singular gut shot in his stomach. He was struggling to sit up, collapsed back on a half-broken coffee table. The moment he spotted me, he started choking out words, none of which I understood. Rather than listen to him, I pulled out my pistol, ready to finish him off.

"Wait!" A woman's voice called out. "Please don't."

I rolled my eyes, having foreseen this very problem when we first took the mission. I turned to see Jackie and our target, Carlos's wife, Akiko.

"That's my father," She said, stepping forward with a surprising amount of confidence.

"Right, well-"

Before I could finish, she reached over to Jackie and pulled one of his pistols from its holster. With a pretty fast draw, she put three rounds in the shocked-looking man, two in the chest and one in the head.

"Sorry, I just wanted to do it myself."

I looked at her for a moment while she passed Jackie his gun back, who accepted it back with an equally stunned look on his face. After a moment, the sound of Riggs firing his mag cannon, as well as the accompanying explosion of noise, kicked me into high gear.

"Great, fantastic, I assume Jackie explained the situation?" I asked, waiting for her to nod. "Wonderful, in that case…"

I made my way to Riggs, grabbing the wound and bound mass that was the emergency escape suit I had built, pulling it off his back. I unbuckled several straps, flicking the metal and cloth armor open before passing it to her.

"Put this on, it's one size fits all armor to keep you from getting hit by a stray," I explained, watching her look at it with a raised eyebrow. "Please? We are technically on a schedule here, so..."

She winced and started pulling on the armor, struggling a bit before I helped. When she was wearing the very baggy pile of metal and cloth, she gave me a look like I was an idiot. Rather than correct her, I tapped the controls along her back, and the suit tightened and sealed itself in seconds, pulling all of the bunched slack to her back. The last bit to tighten was the hood and mask, giving me a chance to adjust and fix it as it seated itself on her head.

It looked dumb as hell, but she was protected and wasn't going to get insta popped by gonk with bad aim.

"Alright, Jackie," I said, giving him a thumbs up. "We are ready to rock."

"Okay. I'll call her in."

Jackie pulled out his radio and started talking to it while I switched places with Riggs, covering the door. At this point, the hall was more broken than intact, with massive chunks of the building blown out by Riggs' mag cannon. I turned to watch as Riggs unloaded his weapon, dropping the cylinder magazine, and pulled another from his back, slapping it home in one fluid movement. He quickly kicked the balcony door open, raising his weapon and looking down to the grounds of the compound. I could see him through the door as he opened fire, raining down lethal power from on high like a fucking meteor.

"Okay, She is on her way, one minute!" Jackie said, looking out of the balcony and guiding Akiko to the open space. "How we looking, Riggs?"

"... clear enough." He said, after firing two more rounds.

I reached down to my belt and grabbed a pair of grenades, throwing them down the hall, just as Riggs had done before, mostly to discourage people from rushing in the next fifteen seconds, before turning and jogging to the balcony, the explosions rocking the building as the grenades went off.

"Jackie, how are we getting down?" Akiko asked. "You got a rope or-"

Riggs reached around the small woman, firmly grasping a reinforced loop especially built into the armor. Then, while holding her up and out, he rolled over the railing, grabbing the edge with his free hand. While Akiko screamed, Riggs dropped, falling two floors before he snagged another balcony edge, stopping just enough to absorb the sudden deceleration before repeating the pattern. Jackie and I watched them both descend, leaning over the railing.

"You sure the jump kits can handle this height?" Jackie asked calmly.

"Of course I am," I answered. "I just wasn't sure one could handle Riggs and a passenger."

"Fair."

I laughed before jumping up and over the railing, letting out a whoop as I fell. I could hear Jackie doing the same, right behind me, angling slightly so we wouldn't hit each other. Our jump kits activated just as Riggs reached the ground, Princess carrying Akiko through the corpse and rubble-covered compound front entrance. As the G-forces made me sag, I idly noted I could see where each one of Riggs's mag cannon shots had impacted, destroying the front gate, four guards, and three cars.

My feet touched the broken and cracked asphalt a moment before Jackies did, so I pushed forward, rushing past Riggs as he made his way through the front gate, still holding Akiko. Our rescue target had sagged, hanging limply enough that I was pretty sure she passed out. Before I could even worry that maybe something worse had happened, she began to stir, jerking back to consciousness and wildly looking around, breathing heavily and panicking.

"What? How? Wh…."

"It's alright Akiko, hard parts over," I called out as I covered the streets, spotting Kaytlyn driving the Emperor. "Just keep it together for another five minutes."

Kaytlyn screeched to a stop in front of the compound, reaching over to throw the doors open. Jackie ran past and climbed into the front seat, while Riggs popped the back seat open and practical threw Akiko inside. I jumped up and over the Emperor, climbing into the opposite back seat. As I climbed in, I could feel the whole vehicle sink slightly, and I looked back to watch Riggs climb into the truck bed.

"Alright, Chica, go!" Jackie shouted, and Kaytlyn put her foot down, the large, imposing vehicle lurching forward.

Akiko, still recovering from our hasty escape method, was clawing her way into a proper sitting position. At the same time, Kaytlyn pushed our behemoth of a truck to its limits, flying down road after road. After Akiko slammed into the side of the truck because Kaytlyn clipped a smaller car on a turn, I spoke up.

"Let's get you buckled in, Akiko," I suggested. "We are at the home stretch. It would suck for you to get ejected from the car or something stupid like that."

She nodded and, with my help, got strapped in. Her movements were slightly more restricted by my suit than I intended or realized they would be, but that hardly mattered once she was securely buckled. Just after I finished clipping her in, something slammed into us from the side.

"Fuck! Tygers from your side, Jay!" Kaytlyn shouted, prompting me to look out my window.

Sure enough, a van with damage along its front bumper, probably matching damage to our side, was following along beside us. Just as I spotted it, the side door began to open. With a curse, I smashed the window and opened fire, my mag submachine gun pumping out a spray of rounds that dimpled and punched through the van, from the passenger seat all the way to the back tire, which exploded into a spray of rubber and sparks.

The Tyger vehicle swerved away from us, the driver screaming as he lost control, blood pouring from his leg as the man opening the back side door fell out of the vehicle, limp and bleeding. Before he could recover, the vehicle slammed into a line of parked cars, vanishing behind us in an instant.

"Not done yet! One from-"

The sound of Riggs' mag cannon slammed into us, echoing in my ears. Behind us, I could hear the sound of destruction, tempting to me to peek out the window. Behind us was a car with its front end crumpled, like it had struck an invisible, unmovable pole, with a fist-sized hole through the radiator.

"-behind. Never mind, nice shooting," Kaytlyn finished with a chuckle. "Keep your eyes open, we have two minutes before we are out of Tyger territory."

Three more times, we were ambushed, two of which were immediately obliterated by Riggs, while the third was taken down by Jackie, who used a short burst of accelerated speed to line up the perfect shot on the driver of an open-roofed car. The driver's head exploded, the vehicle swerved and drove right off the road, slamming into a concrete pillar that held up the road above us.

The rest of the ride was tense, but eventually, we left Night City behind, passing under the highway street lamps. Eventually, we turned off that road to the lone, two-lane asphalt strip that led to Rocky Ridge. By then, the tension had started to lessen, though it was nowhere close to disappearing. When we finally pulled into our town, all of us quickly exited the vehicle, Riggs jumping out of the back.

"Murtaugh, everything alright?" I asked, pulling off my helmet and letting out a long sigh of relief.

"All is well, sir," He responded with a salute. "All patrols have been increased, we have held back salvage trucks for the night, and all specters are charged and activated, ready to reinforce the patrols if necessary."

"Good. I'm sorry to do this, but I would feel better if you were keeping an eye on the security feeds…"

"Of course, I was simply waiting for the group to return."

"Thank you, Murtaugh. I appreciate all the hard work you've been putting in," I said, patting his shoulder.

"Happy to serve, sir," He responded with a nod. "Carlos is waiting for you in the BD Shack."

He saluted again before rushing to our temporary security building, heading inside to keep an eye out for intruders or aggressors. Meanwhile, I turned to find that Jackie was helping Akiko out of her protective armor. As she stepped out of the cloth and metal, I approached.

"Well, it seems we made it out, why don't we get you inside," I said, guiding her away towards the front entrance to the shack.

"We should keep moving," She pointed out with a frown. "The longer we stay here the more likely we are going to get caught."

"This place is much better defended than you realize," I assured her. "Just relax and let us take care of it."

She chewed her lip but nodded, letting me guide her into the shack. Carlos nearly jumped out of his seat as we entered, charging across the room to wrap his wife in a tight, spinning hug. They kissed and whispered to each other, continuously reassuring each other that they were okay, that everything was alright, and that it was finally over.

After a few minutes, when both husband and wife had calmed down, they sat down at the table, along with Jackie and Myself. Kaytlyn had happily returned to her nest, keeping her own watch over the desert around us.

"Thank you, thank you so much," Carlos said, almost gushing, the relief and happiness dripping from every word. "I, oh god, I was so scared I would never see you again."

He turned back to his wife, who was leaning against him, her arms around his, her head on his shoulder. He seemed to get lost for a moment, eventually turning back to Jackie, his eyes glowing.

"Here is the full payment, as promised," He said, his eyes glowing for a few seconds before fading. "I… I don't think I could ever really repay you, but this is the best I can do."

"I'm just glad we can help," Jackie said with a smile, patting his old friend's shoulder. "You guys going to be good?"

"Your offer to stay the night was generous, but our daughter has been with our neighbor for long enough," Carlos explained, shaking his head. "I bought a junker that should get us home, and I'll be autopiloting most of the way so we can rest."

I frowned, listening to their plan. I pulled out my radio and whispered a few orders. After that, we only had to wait a few minutes before a MRVN unit carrying a box arrived. The low-level AI put the plastic box on the table, and I began unpacking it, revealing two pistols and a machine gun to the couple, as well as a few clips of ammo. They were just a few random guns we had collected and kept, inferior in nearly every way to what I could make, but perfect for handing out.

"Take these for your trip back, so you can defend yourself," I said, Carlos nodding while Akiko expertly picked up one of the Lexington and checked its slide. "And… Let Jackie know when you've gotten home safe."

We talked a bit more, including a rather unhappy conversation about how we had descended the compound, which Akiko had momentarily forgotten after seeing her husband. I assured her it was the quickest and safest way we could get her away without having to fight through hundreds of converging Tyger Claws. She reluctantly agreed and asked us to thank Riggs and Kaytlyn for their help.

After sending Padre confirmation that the gig was closed, Akiko and Carlos quickly packed up and climbed into the beat-up car that Carlos had bought. We gave them some water and some basic food, and the couple left, bound for their own home, eager to see their daughter.

"I hope they make it," I said with a frown, watching them drive off. "The whole family."

"I do too, Choom," Jackie agreed. "I do, too."

When the car disappeared from sight, we both headed off for bed, tired from a day of work. I managed to make it all the way to my trailer, climbing into bed. For a moment, I lay there, whistling for Duke to come join me. He quickly jumped up onto the bed, laying down beside me, letting me pet his head.

Watching the married couple's reunion had been tough, reminding me of my own family, though admittedly only by approximation. I hadn't left behind a girlfriend, wife, or, thank god, any children. Still, thoughts of my old life danced in my head as I lay there, waiting for sleep to take me.