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

The assault rifle had made quick work of the remaining scavs on the floor, and he was left to pick up the pieces.

Now that the place had been emptied of living scavs, he needed to start emptying it of all the loot. A quick trip down to his truck had both the large crates in the elevator and were waiting to be filled with goodies.

The first two things he grabbed were the minigun and the computer desk. The computer he set to the side for the moment beside the elevator. It wouldn’t fit in one of the crates, so it would go in last. The minigun, however, along with its stand, went into the bottom of the first crate. There was no more ammo for it, but just having it would be awesome.

The rest of the items in the office went into the second crate.

Once the room had been cleared of items he wanted, he began dragging bodies back into it. Just like usual, he grabbed everything of value from each one as he did so. Pockets were turned inside out, modules -if they had any- were taken, and crypto-vaults were emptied.

All the guns and ammo were placed to the side for the moment, as he began to see an issue he thought he had left behind. There was too much loot to fit in just his two crates and the back of his truck.

He was going to need another vehicle and more help if he wanted to recover all of these goodies.

‘Are you busy? I need some help looting a scav den I just took out.’ Trace asked in a quick message to Ko.

While he was waiting for her to reply, he kept working at grabbing everything he wanted. He found more medical supplies and first aid kits, which he immediately grabbed. Most of what he was finding was stuff that he could sell but held no interest to him otherwise.

The real value in doing this sort of job was eliminating one more group of scavs, while also getting a few useful items. Namely, the computer and the minigun. The rest of the guns he would look over, but he had seen how they took care of their equipment last time around. It was highly likely that most of them would get sold for cheap unless he managed to find one in decent condition.

There were also all the cyberware parts in the back, which, as he had learned last time, weren’t actually as valuable as he had been hoping.

No, the money he would be getting from this job would be nice, but it wasn’t the main reason he had done it. He had been after information, along with a bit of revenge.

Ko and he sent messages back and forth several times before she agreed to show up with a large van.

The contents of the freezers would be going in her van. If there was any room left over, then they would go from there.

***

“Ugh, if you are going to keep doing these sorts of jobs, then you need to hire someone or find somebody to work with you,” Ko complained once they had finished loading everything.

Trace grunted. “I don’t see how that is possible. I don’t know anyone.”

“Really? You must know other kids from your time growing up on the street, right?” She asked in disbelief.

He shook his head. “None that I’ve kept in touch with. Most of the ones I was actually friends with died years ago or were merely acquaintances. Either way, those of us who survived those days did it in one of three ways. Joining one of the gangs, stabbing everyone around you in the back, or putting enough distance between you and the rest that they couldn’t betray you. I chose option three. Stick-Point was the first person I had let close in over a year when he and I met.”

“Wow, we really need to socialize you more,” She told him with a frown.

“Like you’re one to talk. How many friends do you have outside of Sevorah?” He shot back.

“I’m friends with Anna!”

“Who?” He asked, not recognizing the name.

“She’s the receptionist at the clinic!” Ko cried out in exasperation.

“Oh, I never learned her name before.”

“There’s a placard with it written on her desk,” She growled, getting annoyed with him for real now.

“Uh, how about we take the truck back to my warehouse, and then go on to the clinic?” Trace asked, trying to change the subject.

“Fine! But don’t think we’re done talking about this subject for even a moment.”

He scurried into the cab of his truck and sighed with relief. Ko could be intense when she got worked up. Not that she was wrong in this case. Getting a partner of some sort would be nice. Paying them was the issue. Credits and trust he had found were almost always the two greatest problems in life.

They dropped his truck off and continued on to the clinic in silence.

“Were you at least careful in how you eliminated the scavs? I saw the walls there, and a lot of them had suffered a ridiculous amount of damage.”

“I went in like a proper wraith for the most part, taking each one as silently as possible.” He told her. “That worked for maybe a fourth of them, possibly a little less. I don’t really remember.”

She inhaled sharply as her hands gripped the wheel tight enough to turn them pale. “Trace, you are not to attack another scav den like this again without backup. Is that clear?”

He nodded readily. “Got it, understood.”

Ko began muttering under her breath, only stopping when they pulled up to the clinic. Sevorah and Anna were waiting outside to help them unload the van.

“I’m going to put all of these toward the debt you owe me,” Sevorah said in a way of greeting.

“Oh, come on you too?”

“Ko already sent me a message about how stupid you were being. Maybe this will encourage you to make better choices in the future.”

“I had my reasons, and they weren’t entirely based around the thought of money. I had the location for this place from last time, and I wanted to get information from them. Don’t forget they tore apart my apartment while I was still recovering at Pushman’s place. I need to know if they are actively looking for me still, and if so why. I stole their computer and all their data prisms. When I get back to my place, I’ll ensure it isn’t connected to anything and then start going through all the data.”

“At least that reason is better than no reason, but not by much,” Sevorah said after a moment. “You’re still not getting any money from these though.”

“That’s fine. As long as you get your money, I can live with it.” Trace tapped his neck. “Is there a way to get better cooling for this thing, by any chance? When I use the functions from my eyes more than a few times in a row, it starts heating up something fierce.”

She frowned. “Have you tried using them without the NetConnect as a medium, by any chance?”

“Yeah, it was knocked out by an EMP the other day.” He admitted. “I was able to run a scan without them, but it felt like I had a fever afterward. My head was nice and toasty until my blood cooled it down.”

“That is both impressive and concerning. I admit, I was hoping you would be able to run them without any additional hardware to interface with them, which you have done. Even in a shutdown state, the NetConnect connects with the brain on a level few but the most skilled in the subject understand. The side-effects, however, are worrying. I’ll look into the matter and get back to you as soon as I find something. In the meantime, don’t cook either your NetConnect or your brain.”

“Gee, thanks, I’ll try not to,” He replied glibly as they began unloading everything.

The back of the van contained everything that Ko had thought might be useful to the clinic or that they would be able to sell. That obviously included the cyberware parts, but it also meant all the equipment from the surgery rooms. None of it was high end, or particularly useful for helping people. That said, it still had its place inside a clinic.

When they finished, he left them to go through everything and started walking back to the warehouse. It would take him a bit, but he wanted the time to clear his mind. Ko was right. This job had been too dangerous for him to do alone. More than that, it was not something that he would have even normally thought about attempting, let alone actually doing.

He knew that he was a little better shot with a gun than he used to be, and physically, he felt better than ever before. Yet, there was no reason to lose control like this. Taking out scav dens was typically done with teams of edgers, not by just one idiotic wannabe wraith.

Whatever extra healing the nanites gave him would be hard-pressed to do anything if he had been cut in half by the minigun earlier.

His mind was preoccupied with those thoughts and more, as he walked along. When he reached his warehouse, he found a team of gangster gonks attempting to break in by kicking it with their augmented legs. To be fair to them, that tactic would have worked if it had still had the same lock from when he started renting the place. There was a nice big bar in place there now. The rest of the door was getting bent around the bar, so the odds were good that they would have gotten in eventually.

Trace had never gotten to use the Maritech X5 and its shotgun barrel. So, he unholstered it, took a broad sort of aim, and pulled the trigger. The shell ejected out the side as the clip slid a new one into place. The air was filled with the noise of his first shot when he brought the gun back into position and shot them again.

The first blast of buckshot caught them completely unaware, but were only lightly damaged for the most part. The 28-gauge shells the gun used just weren’t big enough to do more damage at any sort of range. The spread of the buckshot from the short barrel became too ridiculous.

Now that he knew that, Trace took a few steps forward and blasted them with the third shell. At a distance of around ten feet, the damage it caused was much more impressive. But it also lost its crowd control abilities. It was still a sweet gun, but possibly not as impressive as he had first thought it was.

Thumbing the switch, he put it into standard firing mode and began firing regular bullets at them. Where a couple of the gangsters had been stunned by the suddenness of his attack, most had dived out of the way.

That meant the three shotgun shells injured a couple of them but only actually killed two.

After that, it became a regular good old gunfight.

“Why are you trying to break into my warehouse?” He screamed at them as he ducked behind the rusted remains of a vehicle that had been taken down to its bare metal years before.

“Haha, we saw you come in with some good stuff,” One of them cackled madly.

What could they have even seen? Everything was in crates outside of the desk computer.

“Wasn’t aware there was a gang in this area.” Trace swapped out guns for the Kenyobi that normally sat where the Maritech had been. The optical scope on it was special and directly linked with his eyes. Instead of merely giving him a reticle, it provided an image, like a real scope would.

It was an uncommon feature for such a small scope and would allow him to look around corners in this instance.

“I can’t believe I am having this much difficulty with common street thugs!” He muttered to himself as he got back into position. “What was I thinking hitting a scav den by myself?”