Outrun - Cyberpunk LitRPG

The next morning my phone rang while I was eating silage and the PA pushed it up to my HUD. Shinobu, the Jade Fang enforcer. Weird. He never calls me. “Hello?”

“Chiwa mikata! Listen, I’m in need of a… subtle talent. I’ll pay you, of course, and even owe you a favor if you help me out.” He said.

“What is it?” I asked. Why was a Jade Fang Enforcer asking for my help instead of another Fang? Shinobu was quite tight with the Fangs, so he definitely had the authority.

There was a pause, as if he had put the call on mute. “... I caught wind of a shipment coming through Little Yukoto headed towards the Corporate Quarter. I need someone to help me, uh, examine the product.”

So he wants me to steal something? Interesting… still, why wasn’t he calling in other Fangs? “What’s the shipment of?”

“Hmm… perhaps we should speak in person about this.” The man’s gruff voice said. I could almost imagine him rubbing his metal arm as he did from time to time.

I briefly thought about it, but I didn’t have any pressing matters to attend to. Other than maybe checking over my back again. “Uh, sure… Big Mike’s?” That burger looked so good…

“Hai. I’ll be there in an hour.” He hung up.

I stared up at the ceiling of my small room for a minute, enjoying the relaxation. It would be so nice to rest for a day or two. I’ve been going and going near constantly since I got the interface… Maybe I should take a break sometime? The Rayn though… No, it was better for me to work while the gigs were abundant so I could prepare for a drought.

Maybe I should also start thinking about alternative revenue… klepping pockets wasn’t sustainable, and it was only a matter of time till I got caught. I’ve been thinking- the interface offered me a wide range of skills. It was just a loose thought at the moment, but maybe I could start using Tech or First Aid, or something and get a job somewhere. Maybe I could help out and patch up some of the Fangs, or use Tech to chop vehicles?

Why, necessarily, do they all have to be used to propagate crime though? Maybe I could go legit and work under Medtech Solutions and help with Medevacs or something. Do I want to work under a corp though? I could- I could start my own business making guns or something…

I grabbed my gear and headed out to my bike. I could think about all of this later. For now, money.

I had already ordered a burger from Big Mike by the time Shinobu arrived. The price was high, but even the scent of others' burgers was causing my stomach to rumble. I hope it's just as good as everyone says it is.

“Chiwa, Shiro.” The big man said as he slid into the booth. Ironically, it was the same one that Iris and I had taken the other day. He was the quintessential neo-greaser, and even his face had grease on it. He really took the style to a whole new level. And, of course, he wore the Jade Fang jacket with the twirling glowing neon dragons. Even a blind man could tell he was rather high up since his jacket even had flashwear styling of ancient samurai armor overlaying it.

“Yes, hello…” There was a moment of silence as Big Mike brought a platter over. My stomach was on the edge of rumbling as I breathed in the delicious scent.

Shinobu looked down at the burger before leaning in his chair. “So… the plan is to hit a small transport. Should be Netrunner stuff. Most of it is low-end programs, but I caught wind of there being some Daemons.”

Damn, that was some expensive stuff. Even low-end Daemons could sell for around a thousand… This is perfect. Just one of those programs could complete the Eye of Avarice request. But- “What’s the catch?”

“Its a corporate transport-”

“Are you insane?” Hitting a corporate Netrunner was a quick way to get flatlined in my sleep. I rather liked my face still being in one piece.

He raised his hands placatingly as he glanced around. “Small corporation. They’ll barely have any security, and you’ll only need to snatch it if things go according to the plan.”

At least he didn't go after a big, heck even a medium, corporation. “Okay okay…” Did I even want to get involved? Hmm… “What’s the pay?”

“Based on what you bag. Six way split regardless though. I’m taking two for my informant and equipment fees, then there are three others.” He leaned forward and looked at me seriously. “We’re expecting at least a thousand a piece if my intel is right.”

That was a lot of money. I could already feel myself wavering at the thought of lining my pockets. “Why me and not a Fang?”

He sheepishly rubbed his head. “We’re trying not to involve the Jade Fangs. If there were two Fangs, we would be obligated to give the Matriarch a cut since it would be a 'Fang activity'.”

“Won’t the Fangs get upset about you going behind their back?” That was the real kicker. I didn’t want to ruin one of my main income sources for a bit of instant Rayn.

“No. The Fangs don’t care about outside ‘projects’ as long as it doesn’t blow back onto them.” Shinobu shrugged.

“Makes sense…” There was just one thing that was still bothering me. “Why me though?”

He smiled and lightly caressed his metal arm. “You helped me out is the biggest reason. That, and I’ve talked to Ishimaru-sama and he assured me you were preem.”

That was oddly kind of the man. To cut me into a potentially big deal just because I noticed his pain and sent him to a good Medech… I wasn’t even the one who readjusted the nerve connections. And that ‘talk’ with Ishimaru was more than likely a drunken ramble. Could that even be trusted? “Then what’s the plan?”

He glanced around once more, the dim neon glow catching the reflection of his arm as the metal bits tensed. “Not here… we have a place set up, if you wouldn’t mind coming.”

Fair, fair… still annoying though. Why not just tell me to meet him at the place? Unless he didn’t want to tell me until confirming I was in. Haa… so annoying. “Okay.”

I cautiously followed Shinobu to an ‘abandoned’ apartment building on the north side of Little Yukoto after finishing my burger. It was sketchy, of which I had no doubt in my mind. I knew the guy a little, but I couldn’t say we were great chooms, so I was plenty cautious. I carried the shotgun I snatched on my back as I went, and was prepared to bolt at any minute if something went wrong.

Thankfully, my fears were unfounded as we arrived at the location. We easily moved to a room just off the main hall before Shinobu stopped me. “The rest of the team is here. If you want to hide your face, now would be the time.”

I thought about it for a moment before pulling my fox holo-mask from my bag and throwing it on. “Thanks.” It was very reassuring that he would say something. I already knew he was a decent guy as far as gangers went, but it was nice to have some confirmation.

“No problem.” Shinobu smiled. “Is just Shiro fine? It's not a rare name.”

Another good point. I hadn’t taken to hiding my identity very much. I should probably come up with a handle. It would be nice to start building a rep so I could get better gigs. Later though. Hmm… I never really thought about this, but do I come up with a handle, or am I just given one based on my accomplishments? For now, Shiro would work. “Yeah.”

He nodded and entered the apartment. It was a rather big affair and seemed as though the wall between two apartments had been busted out to grant more space. It was dim, but not dim enough I couldn’t see thanks to the neon ambiance of the city shining in the windows.

There were two people present arguing over a large paper map of the city. One was a rather stacked woman, though not as massive as Iris had been. She also had two chrome arms with hexagonal lights pulsing with a green light around the joints. I recognized the chrome; Medtech Extreme-ity was common amongst those looking for a little boost in power. Looked old though, maybe only a gen one or two. Probably the muscle of the group. Aside from Shinobu, that is. Though he was definitely the mastermind if he could cut me in.

The other was a diminutive guy who looked as though he hadn’t eaten for months. He had on a holo-mask of the classic hacker mask, as well as an AR Vizor™. I looked a bit more at him, spotting a non-flesh section of his arm that looked as if it could open up. A Netrunner perhaps?

Both stopped as we entered, the muscle chick going for a gun and the other guy looking as if he would bolt. Both calmed down at seeing Shinobu and curiously eyed me. The Netrunner spoke first. “Who’s the chick?”

“This is Shiro, the thief. The woman is Kat, our muscle. And finally, we have Bo, the Netrunner.” Shinobu made quick work of introducing us.

“Where’s the fifth?” I asked. He said there were four others.

He looked confused for a moment before realization came to him. “Oh, the fifth cut is for our fixer. She has agreed to find sellers and check all the loot for potential bugs.” Nice, he already had a plan to sell everything. That tended to be the second hardest part of any heist: fencing the loot.

Kat seemed to lose interest in me. “Great! Now that you’re here, boss, won’t you tell this gonk that we can’t just hack their car?”

“Yes, we can! It’ll be a simple thing for me to just get in and disable the engine, leaving them stranded.” Bo argued.

Shinobu shook his head as we approached the map. “Their truck short-circuiting will cause suspicion. They aren’t supposed to know something is up until they start off-loading.”

Bo looked as if he wanted to argue more, but he relented as he sighed and flopped a rather weak hand towards the map. “Then what’s the plan? You’ve barely told us anything.”

I lost interest in their ramblings as I looked at the map. It was a large map of Aythryn City with a red line drawn on it. Looks as if the transport, assuming the line was the transport’s route, would move from Portside through Little Yukoto and down into Downtown. A blue line split off from the red for a few blocks before meeting back. There were even some figurines, though they didn’t look as if they'd been placed yet.

“Right.” Shinobu walked over and picked up one of the figurines. It was a small transport truck, the kind with double doors on its back. “Listen closely. A small start-up corporation, Shen Studios, will be moving a lot of programs through the city. They’ve hired a secondary company, Yue Security, to move them from Portside to Downtown.

“My insider has informed me there should only be one Armored Truck coming through. Standard package, so two guards, and both will be in the front cabin. Maybe some vests and rifles, but nothing too serious. The standard operating procedure is check-ins every five minutes, and a direct panic button for the Crusade, so we can’t be noticed.”

He reached out to a stack of folders off to the side of the map and pulled out a picture of a Yue Security truck on the table. Then he also grabbed two blueprints and passed them to Bo and I. I looked it over, my knowledge in Tech slightly helping me to understand what I was looking at.

He set the van on the line and moved it from Portside. “This part took some social engineering, but the fixer and I already figured it out. To move the transport to a more desirable location, the fixer has set up some small-time local gangs to get into a fight, blocking the main path.”

Shinobu then moved the armored truck down the blue line instead. “Since they are corpo, they will take the next closest route available to save time, which is this one. Here’s where we start moving in.”

He picked up a small token of a bow and put it into one of the buildings near where the truck stopped. “Bo will provide overwatch and let us know when the truck arrives.” He then grabbed the tokens of two cars. “When he gives the signal, Kat and I will crash in front of them with boosted cars, forcing them to stop. We’ll get into a fight, causing a distraction.”

Motioning to me, he picked up a cat token. Probably shoulda used it for, you know, KAT, but whatever. “This is when Shiro sneaks up and takes advantage of the distraction.” He moved me onto the truck. “Then it's back to Bo. My insider informed me Yue Security uses maglocks on their trucks and specialized keys to open them. Keys that the guards carry on their body at all times. This is where Bo comes back in. Bo?”

He looked over the blueprint again. “Right… um… I could probably use a pick and pop ‘em open… might take me a few seconds.” An intense look of concentration came onto his face as his vizor lit up a few times. “I’ll need a day to get a pick. After that, all I need is for Shiro to stick it into the door’s socket. Any plan for the cameras? If I cut the feed, the cabin will notice, and I won’t have enough time to set up a loop.”

Shinobu looked at me. “Good question… Do you have anything for cameras in your bag of tricks?”

“Yeah, it shouldn't be a problem…” My biggest worry was the actual cabin itself. It had a mesh door where the shotgun seat could look back and check on the cargo. I would have to get in, and instantly get against the wall to avoid being spotted.

“Nova. After that, Shiro will move sneaky beaky like, and klep the goods. The programs will be kept in briefcases.” Shinobu passed me a picture of the inside of a Yue Security truck and the typical briefcases they used. Looked to be silver ones mostly. “There will be six chips per case. My insider will mark the cases with the valuable programs with a strip of red tape around the handle. Take those, then take anything that looks valuable. Also, Bo, give Shiro some extra picks in case she’ll need them in the truck itself.”

He motioned between Kat and himself. “We’ll only distract for a minute to avoid too much attention. You’ll have to move quickly and get out without being noticed. If our cover is blown before they get to Downtown, we’ll have the full force of a corporation hunting us. Everyone for themselves at that point. They may be small, but they are a corporation after all.”

Shinobu moved the truck to Downtown. “By the time they realize something is wrong, we’ll be ghosts in the wind. Questions?”