Friday Night Firefight: A Cyberpunk Isekai

Once again, I found myself squatting in an abandoned apartment, surveilling a target. This time, the apartment was in Kabuki, and the target was a Scav base that had been built atop a series of buildings. I’d been holed up for a day, watching the Scavs go about their usual business. Anna and Deng had been in touch constantly since I had left them at Lizzie’s. They’d been prepping for the raid I promised them, so I sent a pin with my location and told them to meet me there.

It was still relatively early in the day, about 9am, and most of the Scavs were sluggish after a night of doing whatever it is that Scavs do. I kept an eye on them from my vantage point, waiting for Deng and Anna to arrive.

The door to the apartment creaked open, and I turned to see Anna entering, followed closely by Deng and two more men. I recognized the first guy following behind Deng. It was Diego, Deng’s friend from his vet support group and one of the most intimidating individuals I’d ever met. Seeing him gave me mixed feelings – a combination of the desperate urge to flee from a predator and the relief that such a frightening person would be working alongside me for this gig.

I hadn’t met the other guy that followed them into the apartment. He was a black man with the sides of his head shaved close. He sported cyberarms and tech goggles and was carrying a large case behind him. But what stood out the most to me as I watched him cross the apartment to the window I was peering out of, was how he moved. He had the same focused intensity as Diego and Deng. All three of them moved as if they had to concentrate hard to ensure their bodies didn’t just accidentally kill everyone. Being near the three of them, I felt a chill run down my spine and a message flashed in my mind that screamed: run.

Diego smiled when he saw me and came over to pat me on the back.

“Hey kid, you look a lot better than the last time I saw you.”

“Yea. Thanks for everything, by the way. It helped.”

Deng and the new guy joined us, and Deng introduced him.

“Noah, this is Zion. Met him in the vet group. Diego and him are here to help out. I told them what was going down, and they were keen to put some work in.”

Zion tossed a quick nod my way as a form of greeting and set the case he’d been carrying down on the ground. “Brought some toys to help out. Hope you don’t mind.”

I shook my head and Zion popped open the case, revealing two Nekomata sniper rifles and a tactician shotgun. Diego grinned, picked up the shotgun, and started checking on its condition.

“So, what’s the plan?” asked Deng.

I scooted over and motioned for everyone to gather around the window I’d been watching the Scavs from. When they all came closer and could see the Scav base, I explained what I had learned.

“It’s a Scav haunt. I scanned ten of them, but there might be more inside their shelters,” I said, pointing to the buildings they had constructed on the rooftops. “The leaders are Jae-Hyun and Katarina Mihalic. They’re the two we’re after.”

Diego stepped up next to me, the smile having fallen off his face and replaced by a serious expression. He radiated an aura of danger, and it made me want to impress him with my plan.

I took out my notepad and sketched the Scav base. They had taken over the roofs of several buildings, using corrugated metal sheets to create temporary shacks. The makeshift buildings housed drug den equipment and other Scav necessities.

The base stretched across three rooftops in a long line. The metal shacks lined both sides of the roof and allowed for a thoroughfare to stretch the length of the base. I sketched the layout in my notepad and drew little figures to illustrate my plan.

“We’ve got two sniper rifles. Who can use them?” I asked. Deng snorted, and Zion looked at me as if I had insulted his parentage.

“I’ll handle overwatch,” said Zion, grabbing a Nekomata from the case. Deng took the other rifle as well as two spare magazines.

“Okay, Zion and Deng on overwatch. Diego and I go in on foot. There’s a staircase on the side of the building that’ll get us up to the roof. We can flank them from there and take them out while Deng and Zion distract them.” I was leaning heavily on Hollywood dialogue and video game chatter to try and sound confident. Hopefully nobody would call me out.

Anna gave me a blank stare before saying, “You forgot about me.”

I winced as I turned to her. “I don’t want the Mox involved. If they’re caught attacking Scavs tied to the Tyger Claws, it could ignite a gang war.”

Anna shook her head. “I’m not a Mox. And last I checked, I’m still a cop.” Deng had told me that Anna had submitted her resignation to the NCPD but was still officially on the payroll for another week. “I have a duty to deal with monsters like Jotaro.”

Diego stepped in, cutting off our argument. “Zion and Deng on overwatch. They’ll start everything off and take out any targets of opportunity once the shooting starts. Anna and I will take the right side of the Scav base. Hit them hard, hit them fast. We move through the rooms and put down anything with a pulse. Noah, you handle the left side. Hold the position and cover us while Anna and I move through the right and Zion and Deng take out whatever targets pop their heads up.”

I was pleased that Diego had built off my plan, so I just nodded in agreement along with everyone else.

“Exfil?” asked Zion.

Ooh, I knew that word. Exfiltration. Thank you, Call of Duty.

“There’s a white panel van parked on the street in front of that building,” I said, pointing to one of the Scav-occupied rooftops. “It’s their van but I already hacked it and duplicated a key fob. If things get hairy, we regroup at the van.”

We set up a conference call between the five of us to stay connected during the raid. That was one of Zion’s suggestions as we got ready to start. Deng and Zion split off from us and were in a hushed conversation about where the best overwatch spots were. Anna, Diego and I made our way through the apartment to the street below and I led the three of us to the metal staircase that led to the Scav base.

I unholstered the Chao at my side and made sure to click the safety off. I saw Anna ready her Unity, while Diego did a final check on his shotgun. Diego informed Deng and Zion that we were heading up the stairs, and we set off as quietly as possible. Deng’s voice came over comms, telling us they were in position and had already chosen their targets. They’d start shooting once Deng was ready.

As we climbed the stairs, I could feel my heart threatening to pump out of my chest. This felt so much worse than when I had tried to rob Choki. This time, I was actively seeking out violence. I had to take deep breaths to calm myself as Anna, Diego and I approached the Scav base. Each step made my mind and heart race and I could feel my palms sweating.

I wish I had a shotgun or an assault rifle.

I hope I don’t embarrass myself or make a mistake that gets someone killed.

I regret not practicing with my quickhacks that I had bought from Yoko.

I had remembered the quickhacks too late for them to be much use in this raid. I didn’t want to delay everything so that I could figure out how to effectively quickhack in the middle of a fight. That would have made me look ridiculous, and I already got the sense that Zion, Anna and Deng didn’t completely trust me to pull my weight on this gig. I was the weak link in this team; the one with the least amount of experience.

None of the Scavs were attached to a security network which meant that Ping was basically useless. I also didn’t know which of the Scavs had organic eyes and which had cybernetics that I could shut off with a reboot optics hack. If I tried to use a quickhack and it failed, it would alert the Scavs and we’d lose our element of surprise. And surprise was much more important for this fight than me fiddling around with a tool I wasn’t completely comfortable with.

I had made the mistake of thinking of my netrunning skills as more stealthy and not particularly useful in combat since I’d only used them to open doors and hack communications. Just because I hadn’t used quickhacks before didn’t mean I shouldn’t have tried to practice with them. They could have tipped the scales of this fight in my favor.

All those thoughts raced through my mind as we ascended the stairs, which felt like they stretched on for miles. By the time we reached the top, I was sweating, and my hands were shaking, but not from the exertion.

Finally, Diego, Anna and I crept to our positions. Diego took lead in the raid, letting Deng and Zion know that we’d reached the roof and things were about to pop off. They’d confirmed that they were ready, had already chosen their targets, and would open fire as soon as they heard us shooting. Diego muttered some last-minute instructions to Anna as they stacked up on the right-sided buildings on the roof.

And then it was on.

Diego and Anna burst into the building they were stacked up on and I heard gunshots ring out. I watched as the two of them made short work of the Scavs that had been in the ramshackle hut they’d breached and I heard the dual cracks of Zion and Deng’s Nekomatas ring out.

I hugged the wall leading into the left sided buildings, my Chao held out and down in front of me. My hands were shaking, and my breathing was labored. The climb up the stairs hadn’t been difficult, so I knew that it was the adrenaline coursing through my body that was making my breath come out ragged.

I peeked from behind the side of the building and glanced down the hallway that led through the shacks on the left side of the roof. Two Scavs were crouched up against the wall loading weapons. Deng and Zion were picking off lone gunmen, and I could hear Diego and Anna advancing through the buildings on the right, cutting down anyone in their way.

The two Scavs in front of me were frantically loading their weapons, still groggy from the night before. They were panicking, making their hands sluggish and uncoordinated, but if I didn’t act they’d get their shit together and have a flanking position on Anna and Diego.

I took two deep breaths to steady myself. Holding my Chao out, I quickly moved into the doorway, silhouetting myself but giving me a perfect angle on the Scavs. The targeting box popped up in my vision and I tagged both Scavs with my optics. I squeezed the trigger and watched the rounds corkscrew out of my gun before they slammed home.

I ducked back and hid behind the doorway again and glanced at my Chao. The barrel was empty, and my hands were too unsteady to reload. How had I fired all my rounds? I took a breath and holstered the Chao before pulling out my Kenshin. I quickly poked my head out to check the hallway. My heart was pounding in my head, a heavy pulse that felt like a headache.

The gunfire died off, and I heard Diego and Anna saying something over the chat, but I couldn’t make it out. The fight was over, but every muscle in my body was still clenched and my mind was focused on the scene in front of me.

I had to replay the whole scene in my head to remember what had happened. I stood in the doorway, fired a full magazine from my Chao, and watched as the two bodies dropped lifeless to the floor. As I replayed the memory, I couldn’t help but think, ‘hmm, they didn’t ragdoll like in the game.’

I heard Diego calling out to me and forced myself out of my head and back to the present.

“Noah. Noah, you good?”

“Yea, all good here.”

He quickly peeked into the room where I had killed the two Scavs, clearly unsure if I was fully in control and wary that I might fire on him out of nervousness. “Coming in,” he shouted before he fully walked into the room and looked at the two dead Scavs.

“Good job kid.”

I felt nauseous, cold, and clammy. My eyes were probably bulging out of my head. Diego had likely seen plenty of rookies on their first op and could tell I was freaking out, and he seemed to feel like it was his job to check on me and calm me down. Thankfully, I hadn’t completely freaked out like after I had killed Choki. I was still coming down from the nausea and the adrenaline that was pumping into my body, but I hadn’t gone dumb like how Deng had found me.

I steadied my breathing and reholstered my Kenshin. Anna ducked into the shack, saw the two dead Scavs at my feet, and gave me an appreciative nod before leaving to secure the area.

“What now?” asked Deng over comms. I glanced at the guns the Scavs had been trying to load.

“We can loot everything they’ve got up here and drag it all down to the van downstairs. That should give everyone a decent payday,” I said. “I need to check on something first though. Can you guys handle looting duty?”

I heard Diego over comms giving out orders, but I wasn’t paying attention. Instead, I walked through the Scav camp towards the largest building in the back and surveyed the aftermath of the raid. It had only taken moments, and every single Scav was down. Sure, Scavs weren’t the most dangerous enemies in Night City, but I knew that if I had tried to tackle this hideout alone, I would have just gotten myself killed.

I finally reached the largest makeshift building at the end of the Scav base and started poking around. The two bodies that were splayed out with bullet holes in them were Jae-Hyun and his lieutenant. Two fewer bad guys in the city, which felt pretty good. But what really caught my attention, and the reason for why I was strolling through the base, were the empty cages in the far corner of the building.

Diego joined me moments later and saw me staring at the caged. “What were those for?”

“People,” I sighed. “These Scavs were collecting victims for Jotaro Shobo. I was hoping that one or two might still be here somewhere, but it looks like these shits already made a drop-off.”

Anna joined us and mentioned that Zion knew a few people out in Arroyo who’d be interested in all the loot they were gathering. He was going to take Deng and the van out and sell everything that they could.

“What now?” asked Anna.

“We still need one of Jotaro’s victims. We need to go after Malcolm Bell or Callum Black,” I said. Seeing Diego’s confusion, I added, “one’s an NCPD officer and the other is a border patrol agent. They both supply victims for Jotaro.

I jerked my head towards Anna. “That’s why she’s here. I’m hoping she can give me some ideas on how to ambush Callum Black.”

Diego didn’t ask why we needed a person who was being delivered to Jotaro. Instead, he glanced at the cages that had spots of darkened blood staining them. I could see a cold anger settling on his face.

“We should get to it then.”