The Brink and Back - Tinker of Fiction

Once we were done inspecting the damage, Riggs got some more practice time with his new weapon. By the time he emptied the full cylinder, he had utterly scrapped the target car into a nearly unrecognizable heap. It was bad enough that the three MRVNs waiting for us to finish barely needed their cutter tools to break up the car for scrapping.

Watching the mag cannon work was impressive, and I couldn't help but feel proud of both of my creations. Riggs was now a threat to damn near anything we could run into inside Night City, including Adam Smasher himself. I wasn't sure who would win on pure strength or skill, but there was absolutely no way he could stand up to the mag cannon. It was just a matter of putting shots on target, a not insignificant challenge when the target has a Sandevistan.

I couldn't help but wonder if there was a way for me to let the AI push to that kind of speed. Technically, their processing happened at a rate that made humans look like rocks. The problem was that in order to run their processing through their core, which was basically like us running our instincts through our conscious minds, that speed was slowed significantly by the pure computational load the core was under. It was still noticeably faster than what a standard, unmodified human could ever hope to achieve, but judging by how Sandys were characterized by time seeming to stop, they weren't at that level.

Hypothetically, I could let them bypass their core and let their automatic programs run their actions. Doing that would most likely accelerate them past what a Sandy was capable of, but that would essentially be handing them a button to bypass their free will and self-control. I wasn't prepared to offer them that option because they would most likely use it, and it would most likely end up severely harming their development.

I'm sure I would eventually come up with a solution, but until then, we would have to use other methods to beat Sandevistans and Kerenzikovs.

As I watched Riggs utterly destroy the already black and rusted car, I also got the idea for a more compact version, something between the mag rifle and the mag sniper. Higher power than the rifle but a faster fire rate than the sniper, something akin to DMR. I'm not sure who would use it, since Jackie liked his Nue pistols, Kaytlyn was a submachine gun and sniper rifle kind of girl, and I was thinking of going with a submachine gun as well since I was going to focus on being fast and maneuverable.

I would need a reliable melee option if that was the case.

I shook my head as I made my way back to the workshop. Riggs sat down so that Samwise could affix the mag cannon cycling clips to his back, three of them along the left side. That way, he could hold the weapon with his right, reach back with his left, grab a cylinder, and reload without switching anything up.

While they were working on that, I set the small printer up to start printing out ammo and mags for all of our weapons, assigning an MRVN to tend to it. I wanted everyone to have plenty of ammo, especially since this next mission sounded like a target-rich environment. The only ammo I couldn't print out was Jackies.

When that was done, I got to work on the last thing I really wanted to get done for this mission.

The jump kit.

Luckily, they were pretty simple in design, meaning that the physical modifications I would need to make would be relatively easy. The goal was to make them more user-friendly at the cost of some of the more advanced techniques that the original Pilots could accomplish. That meant coming up with an incredibly sophisticated system of gyros and programming that could interpret a person's position and apply thrust in exactly the right way to get them where they wanted. I ended up making a pair of gloves, inserts for boots, and a chest clip, which would attach perfectly to my armored underlayer design. These would feed the jump kit control system essential data on the wearer's positioning so it could crunch the numbers and basically drive the jump kit.

After setting up the program, I quickly redesigned the jump kit itself, adding the gyroscopes and increasing the angular range the jump kit rockets could boost. It would make manual jumping harder, but considering the system wouldn't let someone manually use the kit, that was fine.

I finished the redesign in an hour, but the programming took another two, the process needing several restarts since I had to apply the knowledge I had from the jump kits in new and strange ways. When I did finally finish, I quickly assembled everything together, before donning my armored underlayer and my armored suit. Once that was done, Samwise attached the aided jump kit to my lower back.

As I walked out of the garage, I was almost immediately spotted by Kaytlyn, who nearly jumped out of the surveillance perch above the security station.

"You did it!" She cheered, walking around me to check the kit out. "Where's mine?"

"It's being made as we speak," I assured her. "Give it an hour, and you'll have it. Should give you plenty of opportunity to practice with it for tonight."

"Good!" She said excitedly, pausing for a long moment before looking exasperated. "Well? Aren't you going to try it out?"

I rolled my eyes and focused on the roof of the BD shack, specifically the higher level, because I wanted to test the kit and I could probably make the lower roof with just the underlayer. I eyed the lip, planned out the action, and started to run. As I got within range, I tapped my pointer and thumb together twice, the sensors in my glove reading it and interpreting the command. As I began to jump, the sensors I was wearing on my body read my positioning, and the autojump calculator system kicked in. It read all the information I was giving it and fired the boosters, adding momentum to my jump and easily carrying me to the roof, where I landed softly.

"Fuck yes!" I shouted, immediately turning around and jumping off of the roof.

This time, the sensors picked up my uncontrolled descent and fired a low-level thrust to stop my landing from being too rough. Then I just kept on running, testing out the systems, and practicing with the kit. Even with the limitations, the system was incredible. I could jump up things, scale walls with assisted boosts, wall run, effectively double jump, do a boosted leap forward, cushion a fall, reorient a fall if I was spinning out of control, do a boosted sidestep, and it would even pop me back to my feet after an at speed slide. It was an incredible boost to my maneuverability. Suddenly, I wasn't even remotely tied to the usual avenues of attack or infiltration.

Now, there was cyberware and tech that could mimic some aspects of the jump kit, but none of them would fit in such a small, non-invasive package, and none of them could do all of that at once.

After an hour, I headed back to the garage, only to find Kaytlyn with her face pressed up against the medium maker's polycarbonate viewport.

"How much longer?" She asked, not pulling away.

"About twenty minutes," I responded. "Just enough time to get you into your suit and get used to it."

She nodded, and I helped her into her armored undersuit and her new armor. Thankfully, she liked the purple and gold color scheme, and by the time she got used to the underlayer, Samwise was ready to attach the jump kit to her back. When he was done, Kaytlyn sprinted out of the door, laughing ecstatically as she did. Murtaugh followed after her, promising to take care of her and prevent her from injuring herself. The ALEO unit was more than qualified to keep up with the more stable but ultimately inferior version of the jump kit.

I couldn't help but chuckle when Kaytyln's practice almost immediately descended into another game of tag, similar to what Jackie and I did. However, ours was much more even, as Murtaugh was easily keeping ahead of Kaytlyn. After that, they were out of sight and out of mind, save the occasion thumps on the workshop roof.

I called and asked if Jackie wanted a jump kit as well, but he said no. Apparently, he had no interest in breaking his neck trying to climb a building or jump over crap. He would much rather just go through it.

I spent the next few hours helping Samwise where I could, printing out a few extra bits for my loadout. The first was a pair of combat knives, more like daggers than anything, that would be tucked in the small of my back. They were also fusion blades, of course, though I did do a better job at making them look like normal weapons. As far as anyone could see, they were simple metal daggers until I turned them on.

I also filled out my utility belt with a few grenades made from the explosive formula I learned from Titanfall, as well as EMP grenades and a singular plasma grenade for emergencies. I was really tempted to add a holster for a second pistol, but I very much lacked the skill or computing power necessary to wield two at once. Instead, I integrated my newly created quick reload system into a few of my mag holders. I also whipped up a batch of AA-tipped bullets, just in case.

I had learned that they were overkill for most things, but in a pinch, they would give me a quick bit of extra oomph.

Jackie arrived at the Rocky Ridge as the sun was starting to set, and with his arrival, I called a meeting at the garage. As everyone gathered up, I sat down in my chair, spinning around once before focusing on everyone.

"So… everyone ready?" I asked, suddenly feeling a bit awkward.

I had no illusions that whatever Rocky Ridge turned into, whatever resulted from my tech, whether it was something beautiful or a nice big crater, it was my responsibility. I would be leading it, guiding it, and adding to it. But going out, doing gigs, performing dangerous tasks for money and clout, that was all Jackie. This was his thing, so I didn't want to edge into it. Luckily, while Jackie didn't really do the whole "I'm the boss, get in line." type thing, he did know how to lead. Part of me wondered if it was all just instinctual for him, born of his potent level of charisma.

"Relax, Genio. You've already given us everything you could, short of showing up with a bunch of your robot things," He said, gesturing to the pair of specters standing guard just outside the garage. "We can do this choom. Just chill."

"I know we can handle it, gonk. I just wanted to make sure everyone had what they needed," I explained, taking a deep breath and letting it out. "It's my job to make sure everyone has the gear they need."

"Glad you're taking it seriously, Genio."

We discussed each other's loadouts for a few minutes, mostly just to confirm that we knew what our teammates were bringing to the table. Everyone was very interested in Riggs' new weapons, especially Jackie.

"Choom, those pistols… When did you make those?" Jackie asked, eyeing up the large weapons.

"Yesterday," I explained with a shrug. "They are pretty heavy duty, way more powerful than my first pistol design."

"Didn't realize you were taking custom orders…"

"I'm not. That's going to be our standard heavy pistol for a while," I explained. "And before you ask, no, you can't have a pair. For one thing, we don't have the time to print them out if we want to clear the scav den out today. Second, they are too big for you. You could handle shooting them, but it's not worth the added problems for you."

"Damn, Choom. I-"

"That said, if doing some custom work for a friend is what it takes to get you to upgrade your arsenal, then yes, I will make you a pair of custom pistols," I said, cutting him off. "Can't do it today, like I said, we don't have time, but I can put it on the list."

Jackie smirked and smacked my shoulder, for once not knocking me loose in the process since he wasn't wearing his suit, but I was. After finishing the loadout conversation, we started to discuss our target. I had seen what information Padre had given Jackie before, as had the rest of the team, but this was their first time sitting down together and going over it. We had a few dozen pictures of the location and the surrounding areas up on my computer.

"I think I'll be most useful up here," Kaytlyn said, pointing to a row of buildings just off to the side of one of the images we received. "Unless there is something with a better angle that we are missing, I should be able to take down quite a few people with my sniper. I bought a smart scope for your sniper rifle, so I might even be able to pop a few guys through the walls."

"It would be reassuring to have sniper support," I agreed. "But where you are should have more to do with where we enter, shouldn't it?"

w"Eh, sometimes?" She admitted, making a so-so gesture with her hands. "If it was a fortified position, maybe?"

"Padre said we will have multiple people standing guard outside. How is that not guarded?" I asked with a confused look.

"Fortified is different than guarded. Fortified is armored, with good cover and protected interiors. Guarded is just having a bunch of people walking around the perimeter," She explained. "If the place was fortified, I would only be able to cover you from the outside. Since these walls are just basic paneling, your sniper rifle should punch right through. I won't always be able to help, but I should be able to take out some people.

"Right… well, don't hit any of us," I commented, Kaytlyn rolling her eyes at my response.

"You should focus on keeping people from running," Jackie pointed out. "Any Scav that escapes is a problem we will have to deal with later."

We spent a bit longer going over entrance strategies before eventually settling on our plan. Once we had, it was time to go, Jackie taking a moment to put on his suit. When he was done, all of us left the garage, carrying our gear. Riggs and Jackie headed for the truck while Kaytlyn and I headed for her car, both of which were parked right in front of the garage. Some of our gear got set in the trunk before I turned around and found Murtaugh standing there at attention. I smiled and I slapped his shoulder.

"The place is yours, buddy," I said with a smile. "Keep it safe."

Both Murtaugh and the two specters snapped to a salute, dripping it after a few seconds.

"I will, Sir," the ALEO AI stated. "We will await your return."

I nodded and turned around, sliding easily into the passenger side of Kaytlyn's car, the door closing immediately. Seconds later, we were off, with the town behind us and Night City filling the front screen.

"You sure you're ready for this?" Kaytlyn asked as we followed behind the truck, taking it slow for once in her life. "This is your first time in a gunfight, right? Can you handle this?"

I opened my mouth to deny that, to remind her that I had gone on two jobs with Jackie, but luckily managed to stop myself. I had been playing Alloy for both of those, so she had no idea that it had been me. I let out a long breath and nodded.

"I'm ready," I said confidently. "Our gear will protect us and give us a huge advantage. Just a matter of rounds into the bastard scavs"

"Alright, alright, fair enough," She relented, though I could hear the doubt in her voice. "Jackie and Riggs both say you will be fine but-"

"Sounds like they know what they are talking about," I responded. "I appreciate the concern, Kaytlyn, but I'm going to be fine. Besides, do you really think Riggs or Jackie would let me come if they weren't absolutely sure I could handle myself?"

She was silent after that, and I hoped I had gotten through to her.

Eventually, we entered Night City, pulling in through Red Peaks. We crossed through the city until we reached our destination, the warehouse district of Arroyo. Out of anywhere in the city, this place where the shift between reality and the game I had been, at least city-wise, was most obvious. There was a whole additional warehouse district with a few dozen large buildings. As far as I knew, none of it had been there while I played the game.

Most of the warehouses were clearly abandoned, showing signs of decay and urban collapse, with rust as the primary color of many of their rooves. A few of them were serviceable, and only one of them showed signs of being populated.

We saw all of this easily, as the warehouses were set in the low point of the area, meaning as we stopped, parking the vehicles in the back area of an abandoned garage, we could see them in the distance, a long row of warehouses, separated by a few dozen feet.

"Okay, I'm off," Kaytlyn said, giving the three of us a nod. "I'll be on that building, just as we planned."

She pointed to a small building that capped a platform along a row of large tanks and multi-story storage containers that looked to be in about the same condition as some of the worst warehouses. Thankfully, the metal crossbeam structure that supported the small building looked mostly sound.

"Alright, good luck," I responded, all of us watching as she turned and ran away.

She moved silently along the cover of the concrete barriers that ran along the road. Eventually, she vaulted over them, then leaped clear up on top of a building using the jump kit. When she finally reached the large tower that supported her destination, she used the jump kits again to boost more than halfway up the stairs that led to the top. She quickly entered into the structure, disappearing from view.

"Alright, that just means us. You two ready?" Jackie asked, eyeing Riggs And me.

"We're ready," I nodded confidently, Riggs nodding in agreement.

"Okay then. Lets give Kaytlyn a minute to set up, and then we go."

Jackie counted out a minute thirty, before all together we began to run, making a beeline for the target warehouse.

During our planning meeting, we discussed several possible strategies. Everything from setting up Riggs out front, with support from Kaytlyn, while Jackie and I entered from the back and cleared everyone out silently, to me just cooking up a whole batch of cyberpunk napalm and burning it down from a distance with incendiary grenades.

In the end, we settled on one strategy, something that played well to our strength and that all but the fastest borgs wouldn't be able to match.

Blitzkrieg.

Keep the enemy off center while relentlessly pushing forward, taking advantage of our superior speed and weapons to smash through anyone who stood in our way. The enemy couldn't kill you if they couldn't catch you.

All three of us picked up speed, kicking up dust as both Jackie and Riggs switched to their vaulting run, with Riggs pulling out ahead with each step, just as planned. As we got within a hundred feet, the scavs walking the perimeter spotted us. They barely had enough time to point us out before the cracking sound of Katelyn's weapon marked their deaths, heads exploding with each shot. I saw her put a bullet through one fuckers weapon as he tried to shoot Riggs, the bipedal AI freight train crushing him with a wide backhand as we passed.

When we were finally only a few dozen feet away, we focused on the office building, our first target. As we ran, Riggs reached out and took Jackie's hand, boosting the large man up as he jumped, getting the large man to the second floor. I was just far enough behind them to watch as the AI juggernaut then lowered his shoulder and slammed through the first-floor window, punching through shady construction with ease.

I followed Jackie up, using the jump kit to easily boost me to the second-floor roof. Jackie was still running, and as I watched he jumped and smashed through the glass window of the second floor. I whipped out my pistol and activated the jump kit again, double jumping and firing off a single shot, diving through the shattering safety glass, letting the kit correct my tumble so I landed on my feet, now inside the building.

I brought my pistol up, firing twice more to take down the stunned occupant of the room I had ended up in. I put a third into their skull as I stood, looking around and noting I was in a pretty decent ripperdoc setup, the operating chair set up in the middle of the room. I slid my pistol into its holster and reached behind my back to grab my submachine gun. The weapon whined as its E-nodes cycled through to make up any fading charge. I held it up as I rushed to the door, crumpling it open with a swift kick. On the other side, I saw a small open area, stacks of boxes and crates filling the center of the room.

For a split second, I paused, which proved to be good instincts. The already ruined door was almost immediately torn to pieces as someone down the hall perforated the thin metal with a full auto barrage of bullets. When the gunfire stopped for a second, I dove out, moving past the door and rolling to my feet. I quickly let out my own spray of bullets, the impressive fire rate of my weapon negating the need for precision. My wide spray caught and killed two scavs before they could finish reloading.

Suddenly, it felt like I had been punched in the side as someone from across the open space managed to catch me by surprise. Despite that, only one of their rushed shots managed to land, slapping against my armor. I still cursed, pissed I had let my guard down. I quickly raised my weapon and washed him away with bullets.

Quickly, as I reloaded my submachine gun, I checked every room around the open space. Most of them were empty, but I did have to do a rather gruesome execution of another ripperdoc. He was screaming and throwing his tools at me, lacking the sense to take cover or hide.

When I was done clearing my floor, I heard Jackie call out that his was clear, Riggs doing so as well shortly after. That was impressive, considering he had much more ground to cover.

Just as quickly as we entered, we left, jumping or running out of the holes or smashed windows we made as we did. All three of us met up outside, not too far from the hole Riggs had made. We could hear the people shouting inside the warehouse, as well as the crack of Kaytlyn picking off another scav as they tried to escape.

"Pick a door, Riggs," I asked, gesturing down the side of the building. "You're in first."

He nodded before taking off along the side of the warehouse. Jackie and I followed after him, the large tank turning and slamming into one of the few doors along the side, absolutely destroying it and tearing it off its hinges. Shouts of surprise and screams of fear echoed from inside as the large AI disappeared into the interior.

As Jackie and I followed Riggs in, I realized that we had entered between two large storage shelves. Ahead of us, standing in a more open area, was Riggs, currently holding up a very dead scav as a shield, blood and sparks spraying off of the body as the AI fired one of his massive pistols. As we stepped further inside to support the armored tank of an AI, a second large frame suddenly came into view, slamming into Riggs with a shout.

I cursed and boosted forward, moving past Jackie and hosing down another scav, punching several bullets through his torso. I turned to see what Riggs was doing, only to find him wrestling with a patchwork borg. The scav heavy had two massive robotic arms, oversized and ugly, as well as a heavily armored chest, his head set in so deep too artificial torso that I couldn't see his mouth, though I could hear him screaming obscenities as Riggs. The scav borgs legs were mismatched, one looking military and matching the torso, while the other looked like a repurposed and upgraded industrial replacement. They were both clearly powerful, though, since he had managed to drive Riggs back a dozen feet, having slammed into him like a football defensive line.

The screaming borg seemed to attract everyone's attention, and for a second, we all seemed to stop to watch them both grapple. As we did, I reached one of my hands behind my back, gripping the hilt of one of my daggers. The borg looked decently armored, so my best chance to get him off Riggs was a fusion blade.

Before I could pull out my weapon, Riggs finally recovered from the shock of being tackled. He turned to face the borg directly, reaching around him to firmly grab hold. Then, in a moment that seemed to slow down time, he lifted the mismatched maniac up off his feet and into the air. Higher and higher he hauled the screaming borg, until he was clear above his head, grappled around his torso. After a moment's pause, Riggs slammed backward, pile-driving the scav bastard in a devastating German suplex.

The borg attempted to catch the fall, bending his back to get his feet under him as Riggs drove him down, but it was too much for the repurposed industrial leg. It crumpled in a spray of white liquid and sparks, the borg screaming in anger. He promised Riggs all sorts of suffering, but unfortunately for him, my friend wasn't finished.

Using his larger and more powerful jump kit, Riggs spun up and off his back, fluidly lining up behind the still struggling borg. He grabbed the borg's head, even as he tried to hobble back up onto his one good leg. With a twist and pull, Riggs yanked off his head, dragging a significant amount of artificial spine with it.

The entire warehouse was silent, all of us looking and watching as Riggs pushed the borgs corps forward with his foot, the sizeable armored body falling to the ground with a crunch.

"Oh fuck me." one of the scavs finally said, breaking the silence with a scared whimper.

The lul broke just as suddenly as it started, with Riggs grabbing his second pistol and aiming it, blowing another scavs head clean off. Suddenly, the building was once again alive with gunfire, both Jackie and I whirling around to cover one direction while Riggs handled the other.

Together, Jackie and I quickly pushed to the back end of the warehouse, with me using my jump kit to boost ahead, leaping past the scavs cover and forcing them to shift, making them easy targets for Jackie. After another few minutes of work, we had cleared out the whole building. After handing out a handful of double taps, we met back at the middle of the warehouse. Jackie punched Riggs in the shoulder with a laugh.

"No mames! Estuvo a toda madre!" Jacke said, laughing and shaking his head. "That was fucking nova compadre!"

"That was a hell of a move, Riggs," I agreed, giving the large AI a nod. "Well done."

"Thank you, Sir," He responded simply. "Should we… clear the sublevel?"

"Yeah, we should hurry," Jackie said, suddenly all serious again. "The longer we give them, the more they will try and prepare."

"I will breach first," Riggs said. "Follow me."