Created G.H.O.S.T. System - A Cyberpunk Story

Trace tapped his finger on the metal guard next to the trigger, thinking. The temptation to pop off a quick couple of shots right then was strong. It would serve to lower their numbers. However, it would also let them know someone was coming, and while he didn’t plan on entering through the front, it would be a pointless risk.

With a sigh, he turned off the thermal setting in his eyes and pulled back from the scope. This was fine. He could be patient enough to hit them in their den of nastiness.

He folded the barrel down and strapped it to his courier bag.

Back down in the truck, he placed it on the back seat, double-checked his equipment, and proceeded to drive it into position.

He had seen earlier that the floor above the scavs was empty, so he took the elevator to that floor. For some reason, it seemed as though most people were uncomfortable living near the murderous scavengers. Not that he could blame them.

However, it did make it easy to choose his point of entrance from among the many available options.

He was going to start at the rearmost apartment and come in from the balcony like he had started to grow somewhat accustomed to doing. The scavs had been kind enough to knock all the walls down that would have separated the apartments. So, he was going to make full use of that.

He would be coming in beside the office, which would give him a chance to unplug everything before they could remotely wipe anything. After that, it was just a matter of eliminating everyone as quietly as possible.

Trace had prepared a hook on the end of one of his climbing ropes. As soon as he had suctioned his way down and into position, he was able to flip the rope enough that it came loose, and he was able to pull it down. There would be no leaving ropes behind again, not if he could help it anyway. It was a cheap piece of equipment. However, equipment could be traced, and that was not something a wraith or he wanted.

Taking a steadying breath, he plugged into the button and used the system-breaching module to unlock the balcony’s door. A moment later he was inside, and he closed it behind him to keep out the wind noise it had generated.

The suppressed CD-10 was held at the ready in his hands as he did a quick S&R scan of the area. No one was coming his way. The door to the back office area where he had entered was closed. It must have kept the sudden burst of wind noise from being heard anywhere else on the floor.

At least, that was his hope.

He quickly moved over to the desk computer and shut everything down. There was no indication they had an information wipe procedure in place, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, judging by how much heat it had been putting out earlier, it had certainly been doing something. He was more than happy to interrupt whatever it had been doing. Even if all that was included downloading the latest drek of a TV show, some moronic scav was into.

Turning back to the door, Trace fell into a crouch as he ran another scan. His heart froze for a moment and then began beating triple time. While he had been dealing with the computer, one of the scavs had walked right on by the door and gone to the room with all the freezers. He had been so absorbed in his task that he hadn’t even heard their footsteps. Either that or the muffling qualities of the door really were that good.

Either way, he couldn’t afford to be that oblivious while in this sort of environment. That would only lead to him getting killed, or worse, ending up on the scavs table while he was still alive.

Regardless, this was the perfect opportunity to eliminate one of them while they were alone.

Staying low, he gently opened the door and snuck up behind the scav that was putting freshly stolen cyberware pieces into the freezer.

Trace stilled in the hallway and raised the gun. The targeting reticle appeared in the center of his vision as his finger touched the trigger. He took an extra split second to aim properly, not content to depend on just the reticle before pulling the trigger.

The suppressor muffled the shot to the point that the only noise was the subtle release of gasses from the chamber.

The bullet took the filthy scav in the back of his head and blew the front of his face out, dropping him instantly. Trace spun around and ran a quick S&R scan; he didn’t want anyone coming up behind him. Seeing that there wasn’t anyone, he holstered his gun for the moment and entered the room to hide the body. All he needed to do was ensure it stayed out of sight, just in case someone did get past him while he was on a different part of the floor.

With the body stuffed into a corner, beneath some plastic he had found, he was free to continue. That was only one scav down among the many that were left on the floor. Just thinking about it made him wish for the day he could afford the sort of cyberware that would help him become a better wraith. Those days were far in the future. Affording the less awesome equipment was somewhat closer at hand. However, they were also less powerful, and overall, more limited. That didn’t mean they weren’t useful, just limited their capabilities.

Sneaking through the floor, he was able to eliminate another scav without anyone knowing he was there. He shot the fellow through the bathroom door. Three quick shots to his chest and he was done. Two more were in the kitchen of the apartment with the office. It seemed as though they were using that apartment mostly for its intended purpose. While the rest of the floor was an absolute wreck as they turned everything into a charnel house.

Unfortunately, those were the only easy targets he was destined to have. The rest of the scavs on the floor were all working in their surgery rooms or doing something else near the elevator.

Trace made sure the clip of shotgun shells was loaded in the X5, and the selector switch on the proper barrel. He was going to keep moving and attacking as quietly as possible for as long as he could. Now that he was reaching an area where they were bunched up, he just wasn’t expecting that to be much longer is all.

The assault rifle was ready for when they learned of his presence, and the K-10 was for when they got in close.

Trace took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a beat, let the breath out, and opened them. It was go time.

He peeked into the nearest surgery room, the barrel of his gun leading the way. Each of the five scavs positions was already marked in his mind. There were too many.

The first shot took the one who looked the least busy, while the second hit the throat of the person next to him. The third shot skimmed the shoulder of the scav, who had been tearing into the person on the table. Thankfully, at least in Trace’s opinion, they were already dead.

The man roared in pain, while the other two dove for cover. Trace put two more bullets in the scav, killing him and emptying his magazine. Swapping it out, he pocketed the empty and holstered the gun. It was time for the assault rifle to show them what it was made of.

The model he was currently carrying didn’t have any mods installed. It had the base reticle interface, along with the old-school iron sights, and nothing else. Each time he pulled the trigger, it could either fire off three-round bursts or do a full auto mode. He would have preferred a single-shot mode as well, but that would come later from modifications. At the moment, he was just testing out which of the assault rifles he actually liked.

He had picked up a few of them from the scarpo town and none of them had mods. The information online had been pretty good for a few of them as well. After test-firing them, he hadn’t been able to make up his mind. Which meant he had to actually use each of them first.

He squeezed the trigger, feeling the three rounds burst out the end of the barrel in a flash of flame. It was fast, but there was something about it that annoyed him. He flicked the switch to auto and tapped the trigger to produce a single shot. It wasn’t perfect, but it was less annoying. It also took far too much precision for him to do in the middle of a battle.

Trace flung himself backward as the wall exploded with a hail of gunfire. His back hit the floor as he mentally tapped the S&R scan icon he had created for his HUD. The outlines of the scavs in the other room and beyond lit up in his eyes as he took aim and opened fire in full auto. Within seconds, the magazine for the assault rifle was empty. Flicking the gun to the side, he ejected the spent mag and slapped the spare he had stashed in his back pocket, home.

He would pick it up later.

Trace ran another scan, his hand going to the back of his neck as he felt his NetConnect starting to heat up. He needed to talk to Sevorah or Ko about a better cooling solution for the device. Using his body just wasn’t cutting it if he wanted to seriously use any of the functions that came with the mil-spec eyes.

The outlines he saw were all on the ground and still. However, he did see more were approaching from other directions. There were two entrances into that surgery room, not to mention that the hallway he was in also led deeper into the floor where the other scavs were.

Rolling to his feet, he ran back the way he had come and found a good place to shoot from. He also took a moment to grab more magazines for the assault rifle from his bag. He’d only had the one spare readily available before.

Scavs weren’t exactly known for their intelligence, which he was glad for, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t learn. Over the next few minutes, six scavs made appearances in the hallway, only to be gunned down with ease.

Everything was going great, scavs were dying, he was healthy, all was right in the world.

Then the fracking minigun showed up. The one that had been in front of the elevator, yeah, that minigun. One of the scavs had gotten smart and decided to use it to cut their way through all the walls separating them from Trace. This was a clear example of one of them learning, and to Trace’s detriment.

With the bullets flying overhead, all he could do was keep his head down until they stopped or the ceiling fell down on top of them. Whichever came first, really.

For several long seconds, he listened to the gun roar, as it sent hundreds of bullets through every wall in the area. Finally, all that remained was an interminable whine as the barrels spun down along with the clatter of thousands of bullet casings as they hit the ground and bounced.

Trace hesitated, barely daring to believe that he was still alive before uncovering his head and taking a look around. Everywhere he looked, there was devastation. The walls had been mulched to absolute powder, revealing the meticulous substrate beneath that gave it the tensile strength to hold everything up.

There was one thing though, all the damage was several feet off the ground.

Daring to look down the hallway, Trace barely resisted the urge to facepalm at what he saw.

The scavs had grabbed the entire minigun emplacement, which included the base that held it in place for the shooter. A base that was currently axis-locked with a dummy pin.

He took back what he had been thinking earlier, scavs couldn’t learn, and he was perfectly alright with that.