An Engineer In Night City

Back at the Animal hideout, the leader of the pack that tried to intimidate Mark have gathered a larger group of gang members to listen to his story.

“So, you saw a prey with a single piece of iron and ran away with your tail between your legs,” one of the Animals interjects in a show of dominance but is quickly slapped due to the man’s short stature.

“That’s why you’re a little Rat, idiot. The first thing that comes to your mind is always running away! No! We didn’t ran away, dumbasses! He was bluffing! Why else would he put the turrets visible but don’t fire any bullet himself? Because he doesn’t have the guts, that’s why!”

“Uh, boss,” one of the pack leader companions raises his hand, “then why we came back?” The Output of the pack leader slaps the impertinent companion, earning a nod of approval from her Input.

“I almost believe that Bennie boy didn’t carry any eddies with him, because the real treasure is all the shit he set up and the material he collected. It’s just that the four of us don’t have enough hands to carry it all up, so I decided to give you reprobates the chance to ride on my glory.”

“‘Reprobates?’ Did you install a dictionary chip or something choom?” Another disciplinary slap followed the inquiry.

“Of course not, dumbass,” the pack leader hypocritically answers, “differently from you Animals, Jackal has culture.”

“““Ohhhh.”””

“What are you standing around for, gonks, go grab your irons and some tools, the Animals are going on a stampede!”

As the other Animals scurried around to prepare for the raid, Jack the Jackal fantasized about his future in the gang. He believes that, if he sells the salvaged materials and equipment he plans to steal from Mark together with the reputation boost from this operation, Jack might even be promoted to the inner circle of the Animals, or perhaps even splinter off from the parent gang.

‘The Jackals? No, there will be only one Jackal. Perhaps the Biters? Yes, that has a nice sound to it, isn’t it?’ Feeling optimistic about the future, the Jackal started barking orders to the other Animals.

…

After a few hours since the first contact, the Animals came back in force with trucks. Most animals were armed with large, heavy industrial tools while a few carried firearms. A particular Animal remained on the vehicle while the rest left the trucks to follow their leader.

As they walked, Jack felt that something was off with that area. At first, nothing looked out of ordinary to him, but before he could ponder on the cause for his unease, Mark comes to greet the group arrival.

“You had to come back, didn’t you.” Mark says with a disappointed tone. “By the extra muscle you brough, you don’t plan on dealing in good faith, either.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Jack growls at Mark, “we are the fucking Animals! You fuck with us, and we come in force to fuck you up! Split boy, fuck’em up!”

The last remaining Animal on the truck pull up an old Budget Arms Tripple Threat, a rocket launcher that was famous during the Time of Red.

“Fuck!” Mark swears while quickly taking cover behind a stone furnace.

The Animal fires the rocket once, twice, three times. All the visible gun turrets got destroyed by the poor-quality rockets, as Mark retreats further into his Starter Base.

“Ha ha! Who’s laughing now, Doughboy? Not so though without your toys, eh? Animals, charge!”

The Animals did as they always do, charging at their prey while howling and snarling, becoming beasts on a stampede, ready to stomp and trample anyone under their feet, claws, and hooves.

Unfortunately for the Animals, they forgot two fundamental rules of the jungle.

*Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack*

The first rule of the Jungle is that there is always someone bigger, meaner, and stronger somewhere out there. The second rule of the Jungle is that you never, ever, fuck with men.

*Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata*

The only animal on Earth that was the direct responsible for the extinction of several of the fauna and flora of the planet, some of them in recent memory with their technological marvels, and some on the distant past with primitive bows, spears, and even the humble rock.

All the Animals that charged at the Starter Base died in a manner of instants, an obscene amount of bullets raining down on their bodies with cold, mechanical precision. Jack panicked at the sight of the first wave dying so easily.

‘How, how did that happen? He didn’t had that many turrets! Where did they came from? How did he hid them?’ Straining his eyes, Jackal finally put two and two together.

At first it looked like the defenses were the same, a mere bluff to scare off the Animals, but upon closer inspection Jackal realized that the barrier of furnaces, the gun turrets, even the warning written on the ground, they had all moved several meters ahead from their initial position. However, in reality…

“It doubled in size! How!”

There were now two lines of defenses, the new decoy line, and the original line that was reinforced with more turrets. It is understandable that Jackal couldn’t notice it at first, since not only there are several large stone furnaces providing cover and forming a primitive wall, but even the stone walls that hid the Started Base got duplicated. Now that Jackal is straining his eyes he noticed that the south area of the base had expanded, with smoke and steam coming from that direction.

“Split booooy!” Jackal called for the heavy weapons guy to pick another rocket. However, his yell was drowned by the deafening explosion of the truck.

“Grenade!” One of the Animals yelled, only to eat several bullets from Mark’s submachine gun.

Mark decided to prioritize military science over anything else in the past few hours, increasing bullet damage, rate of fire, and explosive damage. His personal machinegun also has piercing armor bullets instead of the standard bullets. Thanks to this decision, most of the Animals were taken down without issues, as he threw grenade after grenade while aiming his gun with both arms for stability.

‘It reminds me of Doom Eternal integrated grenade launcher sys- UGH!’

Mark returns fire with his submachine gun while still throwing grenades at his enemies.

Eventually, all red dots disappeared from Mark minimap, save one.

Walking towards the downed Animal, the former Output of Jackal tries to crawl away from the armored man as if he were the devil himself.

“I am not going to kill you,” Mark states, surprising the woman, “I am allowing you to live so that you can send your gang a message.”

Mark crouches down, staring face to faceplate with the female Animal, the sight of the dark visor up close sending shivers down the Animal spine.

“Tell them that this area is my territory. Anyone that tries to bother me will be put down.” Mark pauses for a moment to let the threat hang in the air. “Tell them that you live because The Engineer allowed it. Got that… choom?”

“Y-yes, yes! Please don’t kill me!”

Mark dismisses her, giving the retreating Animal one last piece of advice. “You should leave that gang, or else you will end up on an early grave.”

She nods like a woodpecker before running like a Chetah, leaving the various corpses and ruined vehicles of her fellow gang members behind.

Soon after, that area is clean of any bodies, the ruined vehicles had disappeared, and a large walled off area in the south Pacifica region firmly establish itself, alongside a new rumor and urban legend.

The legend of The Engineer.