Making It in Night City - Chapter 40

Under cover of night, I was kneeling outside a fence on the Northside docks, plying away at the metal mesh with a pair of wire cutters.

*HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK*

As I was sneaking into the harbor, the deafening booming sound of the horn of a passing ship threatened to damage my eardrums and caused my surroundings to slightly vibrate. I continued my work, unphased by the unannounced loud noise. The closer I got to the docks, the honking of ships became more and more frequent and audible, and I'd gotten used to them at this point.

I shimmied past the barrier once I cut a hole large enough for my body to crouch through. The fence made a rattling, crinkling noise as a few of the jagged edges momentarily grabbed onto the edges of my jacket. Once on the other side, I hid behind a shipping container, carefully looking around for any security that would notice me. When satisfied that I was alone, I moved from my hideout toward my destination.

While walking, I rotated my backpack to my front and opened the zippers. Inside was a hard hat, a high-vis safety vest, and a fake badge that looked legit enough. I worked in a few warehouses as a teen, and if I learned anything, it was that no one would question you if you looked the part and walked with confidence. I quickly donned my costume to blend into the environment as 'just another dock worker' and returned my backpack to my back.

This place was just a short distance from where the Ebunike was located. Rogue recently hit the site and got her payback on Grayson. I was helping the Aldecaldos while the Ebunike docked in NC, so I couldn't help Rogue clear the place out. Not like someone like Rogue needed me to help anyways.

She got Johnny's Porsche and Malorian back. She was trying to hide it, but I could hear she was happy she had them instead of some corp rat. I wonder if she'll give them to V once she learns that Johnny's taking a backseat in her conscience. Guess we'll wait and see.

More importantly, Rogue was also able to crack into Smasher's secret vault and empty the place. Imagining Smasher raging after finding out his stash got stolen brought a grin to my face. Since he's such a colossal asshole, he can go fuck himself. Rogue also has a ripperdoc and netrunner she trusts to inspect all the kit and see if there's anything we can exploit once the fight with the psycho goes down. 

Once I have the time, I'll look at everything we lifted once I have the spare time and see if I would like to keep anything for myself. But that was for the future. Right now, I should focus back on the job at hand. Misty was able to give me the vessel name and dock number her goods were stored before they went missing. From there, all it took for me to figure out which warehouse her things were stored at was a few hundred misplaced bucks on a logistics worker's table. Sometimes corruption can work to your benefit. The trick is knowing how to exploit it.

The docks at night were peaceful, with the only noise being the crashing of waves against concrete, the sound of reversing forklifts, and the occasional echoing *Clank* as empty containers were moved around the place. It was weird how peaceful I felt while illegally snooping around on private property. Moments of relative silence were hard to come by in Night City, especially if you live on a busy street like Urmland.

I stopped once I arrived at a road roughly four car lengths wide separating me from a warehouse on the other side. The warehouse was a pretty basic structure, with very little on the outside of its concrete walls other than a large number '22' painted near the roof, a double door, and a camera on each corner. A parking lot wrapped around it, with smaller spots in front for regular vehicles and larger lanes on the side for trucks.

I pulled up my map and checked that my custom marker was still placed on the warehouse where the worker said the goods were before going missing. If the intel I had was good, the warehouse right across the road was my final destination. I just needed to get in without anyone knowing that I was there.

I first scanned the camera and loaded a Big Sleep daemon with my breach protocol. The breach showed that there wasn't another person on the system and that the control computer was in an office on the second floor. I wasn't the best with the Breach Protocol number minigame and could rarely get all the daemons loaded. What I would do if I could get my hands on those breach protocol cheat apps.

Once the cameras were off, I had three minutes to work with them before they turned back on. I looked at both sides of the street and crossed the road to the warehouse as casually as possible. Once at the warehouse, I checked the door and saw a body check of nine that I could pass to unlock the thing.

I wedged my fingers into the crack, one hand on the door and the other on the frame. I flexed my synthetic muscles, and the panels on my arms slightly opened up to allow my arm cybernetics to bulge. I grunted and put some force, and pulled the door open.

Weirdly, forcing doors open like this never triggered alarm systems for me. Hacking doors with a technology check and not raising alarms made sense, but security programs should notice someone prying them apart. I guess it's just another quality-of-life perk that came with my weird powers.

Once a small gap formed, I put both hands on the door and dragged it open the rest of the way. There was some crumpling and grinding noise, but nothing that would sound too out of the ordinary on a busy dock. Once the door opened halfway and I ensured it wouldn't close itself, I wedged myself into the warehouse and out of the street.

Rows and rows of shelves and pallet racks greeted me inside, spaced just far enough for a forklift to fit in between. Above the empty space were catwalks where people could walk and look at the stock on the top shelves without needing a lift. The wall on my opposite side had two large garage doors, presumably, so oversized cargo could be lifted into the warehouse and broken down. 

The lights were turned off since there wasn't supposed to be anyone here right now, but the moon showed through the windows, providing me just enough illumination to navigate with. I looked around until I found a stair leading to a mezzanine. The pseudo-second floor had a bunch of smaller shelves with small bins and an office, presumably with a computer inside.

I walked up the stairs and into the simple office. On top of a simple desk were two screens and a desktop. I unplugged my access cable and inserted it into a port on the computer. A quick minigame later, I was given full access to the system.

The first thing I did was turn off all the cameras permanently since I didn't want them spotting me after my Big Sleep Daemon wore off. After that, I started digging around for what I came for. It took me only a short time to find the location where all the security footage was backed up. Once there, I filtered for the days after the cargo was put into the warehouse and when there was a security alert. 

The filter only returned a few results. Quickly scrubbing through a few videos showed that they were all false alarms, either picking up on loud noise or light soon traveling across the room from vehicles driving by. I was starting to give up when I finally hit the jackpot.

One of the videos started after the security system picked up the sound of a car screeching outside the warehouse. At first, I thought this was another false positive, only to hear loud thumping and the entrance door kicked down. A group of four in coats with hoods covering their face streamed into the warehouse. 

They ransacked the place, cracking open crates and throwing things around. They continued this until one of them yelled out that they had found what they were looking for. They then quickly lifted the supplies out of the warehouse. A tire burned later, and the warehouse was calm and abandoned. I exited the video and skimmed through the report on the event.

At 23:14, an unidentified group driving an unmarked vehicle ...blah blah... several crates were opened ...blah blah... damages in excess of ...blah blah... Oh! Here's the good stuff. The consignee of the targeted shipment on the BOL is Misty Olszewski, and the freight forwarder is Hatashi. Both parties have been contacted.

Bingo. This was Misty's package, and these people were responsible for making it go missing. Rewatching the video gave me a few more clues to work off of. The coats did an excellent job of hiding their faces, but they didn't suppress their voices which were clearly altered by technology. One of the coats also had a design I recognized on the back. It was a red crosshair superimposed on a white skull with several red sockets.

It was the goddamn Maelstrom again. What the fuck is it with them finding a way into my life. First, I have to deal with them to get those engine parts for the Surveyor, and now this? I hope I can end this peacefully, so I don't ruin my chances of getting those things for Panam. Then again, the Maelstrom is so crazy and unorganized that there is a good chance they won't even know about their guys dying if getting Misty's tuff back goes sideways.

I unplugged myself from the system and left the warehouse. Once I was outside again, I started looking for clues. Specifically, I was looking for the tire burn marks that should have been left behind. V could scan things like that in-game and draw a simulated path for them. Of course, it only showed that kind of tracking when the event had just occurred, so there's a chance that it won't work for me. There's also a chance that the tire marks have been cleaned or covered up by something else.

Fortunately for me, the tire marks were still in the parking lot. Scanning them highlighted the patterns in orange and reconstructed a Mackinaw Larimore. Getting closer to the hologram-like visual gave life to the reconstruction, and it started driving out of the parking lot. I followed it until I saw that it was about to make a left turn and through an exit.

Mackinaw Larimore

Since the exit was manned, I decided it would be suspicious to keep following on foot while inside the docks. I went near the warehouse and navigated through the containers back to the hole I cut in the fence. I removed my disguise once outside and returned to my van. I started the car up and tossed my pack onto the passenger seat. Once I pulled out of my spot, I drove to the entrance that the Maelstrom went through.

There waiting for me was the hologram of the simulated vehicle. I followed the truck down the road south, keeping the docks to the left of me. The car approached a Y-junction and made a left. I stuck behind it, driving under the sky rails for another few hundred feet until I saw the vehicle pull into an alley on the left.

This must be where they stopped to stash the goods. There's a good chance everything has moved since then. It's too close to where they stole it from, and they probably moved it here first to see if anyone cared enough to track it down. But it doesn't hurt to take a look. Maybe I can get more clues and determine where Maelstrom decided to move it next.

I parked my car next to the sidewalk and locked it before walking towards the alley. Since this was the industrial district, there were fewer street lamps than you would find in a part of the city with more entertainment or a larger civilian population. The lack of light sources and being under the concrete sky rail structure made the surroundings eerily dark. All except for the alley, which had a faint red glow coming out for some unexplained reason.

The closer I got to the alley, the more the situation simultaneously felt both familiar and creepy. The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up, and I could feel goosebumps forming on my skin. I tried to calm myself down by telling myself that it was only the cold wind blowing on me, but something deeper inside me was setting off alarms. I trusted that gut instinct and slowly drew my revolver from my holster. I kept my back to the wall once I was at the entrance to the alley and slowly peeked my head out to see what was going on. 

As far as I could see, the place was vacant, with the only sound being a weird rhythmic *thunk*. A sound that made me think of a machine banging on the side of an empty metal container. Probably something is broken and stuck in a loop. 

A liberal application of graffiti could be seen on the walls and structures. The 'art', if you could call it that, was mostly done with red and black paint. Since the subject matter was primarily skulls with red eyes and other gang symbols, it was clear that the Maelstrom had been here before.

The area was split into two sections by a few barriers and the wreckage of a van in the middle. A liberal application of graffiti was everywhere. The red glow came from a series of light bars spread across the ground and a lamp mounted on the side of some metal scaffolding. The lamp threw an ominous cone of red light into the second section. 

Alley

The lighting, combined with the run-down visual and Maelstrom graffiti everywhere, gave it a futuristic haunted house kind of vibe to it. Typically, I would have taken all signs as a clue from the world to stay the fuck away from the place. However, there was a van on the other side of the alley, and it would be the perfect place to hide some stolen merch.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and approached the van. Once the barriers and van were no longer blocking my view, I could see several corpses around a box in the middle and a man crawling in a pool of blood next to it. The box was white and surrounded by five lights placed in a pentagram pattern. Paint and blood coated the ground, creating strange patterns and Maelstrom iconography. The bodies were in varying states of dismemberment. Some only had stab wounds, while others were missing limbs or were decapitated.

Ritual Site

I rushed past the barriers and up to the guy. I flipped him onto his back and tried to help him sit up, only to get a blood-soaked hand grab onto the collar of my jacket and pull me close to the guy's face. Only now did I realize that this person was a part of Maelstrom.

I froze for a second, unable to process what was happening. Luckily for me, instead of the usual violence the Maelstrom resorted to, this guy just put his face close to my ears and whispered something to me.

"Lilith has concealed the tenth circle from the ancestors' eyes."

Once he said his piece, his grip loosened, and he flopped to the side lifelessly. I had no idea what the fuck the dead gonk talking about, but I finally remembered what this shitshow was. A fixer, Regina Jones, could send V to an event at night to investigate a Maelstrom gathering. What the player found at the location was a botched pseudo-satanic AI summoning and a Cyberpsycho.

At this point, the lizard part of my brain that was going, 'this ain't right,' is now screaming at the top of its lungs, 'HOLY SHIT, GET THE FUCK OUT RIGHT NOW, YOU DUMBASS MOTHER FUCKER'. Right as I stood up from my spot, the *thunk* noise suddenly stopped coming from my left behind me. 

Never in my life has the sound of silence been more distracting. I turned my head toward where the sound used to be coming from, and I swear I could feel my neck creaking as I did. Even though I knew what I would most likely be seeing, I still couldn't help but be stunned by what I saw.

Near a crate that I couldn't see without coming inside the second area and looking back was a trunk with Militech markings. Next to the box was a dead body propped up by a woman's silhouette. She held the body in place with one arm while her other was raised above her head as if it was about to strike the corpse. 

Zaria Hughes Silhouette

In the game, after investigating the surroundings, the Cyberpsycho will rise from the ice tub at the center of the ritual and engage V in combat. In this world, I must have arrived before all that happened, and she hasn't returned to the freezer yet. Mantis blades protruded from her appendages, covering the tips in blood and gore. And the situation only got worse.

Even more alarming than finding the cause behind all the gruesome deaths was having the cause of the gruesome deaths stare at you with her four red eyes. Without good lighting, she looked like a malevolent specter readying to pounce on her next victim. Before I could tuck my tail between my legs and run for my dear life, the lunatic pointed the finger at me and opened her mouth.

"BLASPHEMER! KILL 'IM!"

She screeched those words before extending her mantis blades and throwing them back like she was preparing to lunge at me. As if the situation couldn't get worse, the weapons then suddenly caught on fire as if the devil himself had possessed this bitch and given her powers. Suddenly the name Zaria Hughes and a red bar underneath it popped up at the top of my vision.

"A health bar? Really? My system recognizes boss fights? What the fuck is this shit!"

Before I could get ready, Zaria closed the distance between us by zigzagging so fast I swore it left an afterimage. She pushed off her strange pointed stubs in place of her feet, lept toward me, and tried to pierce through my head with her blades. I dodged to the right in the nick of time and felt the slight breeze and heat as the flame-covered edge barely missed my face. After my successful dodge, I activated my Sandi and quickly rushed away from the woman, putting as much distance between her and me as possible.

I ran next to the barriers before turning around. Zaria had sailed right past me and was turning around. Now that she was under the light, I could get a better look at her. Starting from the bottom, everything below her knees were replaced with metal and instead of feet to pointed protrusions were there.  Other than skimpy red underwear, Zaria didn't have any other articles of traditional clothing. Over the undergarments was a strange metal harness with canvas straps that wrapped over her thighs and shoulders, like some kind of heavy duty bondage gear.

Zaria Under Better Lighting

While she was recovering from her missed attack, I took the chance to aim my revolver and empty the cylinder. I wasn't even taking time to place my shots accurately. Instead, I just slapped that trigger until no more bullets came out. A few of my rounds landed on their target, taking away five percent of her health and causing Zaria to stumble back a little before she regained her balance and focused back on me.

Rather than reloading my Overture, I stored it in my inventory, pulled out my HJSH-18, and equipped my plate carrier. This fight feels a bit out of the scope of what a pistol can accomplish. And I'm not even going to consider taking the katana and entertain a knife fight with a lunatic. My heart was beating so fast it felt like it could jump right out of my chest any second. Not every day you get forced into fighting a strange demonic lady with literal knife arms.

I shouldered my rifle and squeezed the trigger, sending three shots down range. Three tracers zipped out of my barrel, the first two shots impacting Zaria's chest and the last flying just over her right shoulder. Being shot multiple times by a revolver and twice with a rifle usually would have been enough to take someone down, but not this time. All those bullets and Zaria health bar were only down to 87%.

Zaria screeched again and bent over slightly in a sprinting position before kicking off and rushing toward me. I kept my sights trained on her and pulled the trigger again, only to have all three bullets miss when Zaria dodged by using what must have been a Kerenzinkov. My Sandivistan has run out, so I no longer had the speed advantage over her. I slowly stepped away from her while firing my rifle, only to watch as she escaped being hit by every burst.

When Zaria got within fifteen feet of me, she bent her knees and vaulted into a lunge attack again. I dived to the right out of the way and rolled so I could land on my feet. But Zaria was prepared for this because she extended her left foot after landing. The leg gently dragged on the ground, occasionally sending tiny sparks as metal ground against concrete. At the same time, her body rotated around her right foot like an ice skater. 

Once Zaria was facing me again, she bent her body forward and got into a sprinting position. Pushing off with her enhanced legs caused her to fly through the air again. Zaria's body rotated before she sliced through the air with her pointed feet stubs toward me like a human heat-seeking missile. Before I could react, Zaria's feet made contact with my chest. Right before she hit me, she extended both her legs, causing them to shoot out and increasing the force of the kick.

The bitch just fucking DROP-KICKED me. The unexpected wrestling move caught me off guard, and the kick hit me dead center. The armor in my plate carrier spread out the impact. However, it still hurt like a mother fucker for someone to literally torpedo me. The force was enough to throw me off my feet, and an *Oof* escaped me as my back smashed onto the ground.

I managed to sit up just in time to see Zaria roll over from her drop kick landing and crawl towards me on her hands and feet like something out of the exorcist. I shouldered my rifle and started firing again. Rounds rained down on and around Zaria as she shambled toward me. One of the shots impacted her head, causing it to snap back and her entire body to stop.

I could hear myself panting heavily as I kept my rifle trained on Zaria's body, waiting for the next move. There was silence, and for a second, I thought I might have stopped her. But then I looked at her health bar and noticed it was only down to 77%. Zaria's head moved with rough and coarse movement before snapping back forward, fixing those four menacing red eyes back on me. I didn't even wait for her to start moving again before sending more bursts in her direction.

The rounds would catch her shoulder or leg, causing them to buckle temporarily but not much more than that. She lept again when close enough. Being on the ground made dodging harder, and I watched as Zaria's mantis blades swung down, almost certain to hit me.

At the very last moment, I pushed my rifle out in front of me and used it as a shield. My biceps flexed as the blades swung into my gun, barely able to stop that momentum from driving those knives into me. Zaria hissed in annoyance at being prevented from her kill and raised her right arm to swing at me again.

I couldn't block with my rifle since it was still blocking her other arm, so I could only shift my head to the left out of the path of certain death. The mantis blades missed my skull but impaled into my right shoulder instead. Getting stabbed obviously hurt, but what caused more pain was the feeling of a hot flame piercing through your flesh.

*Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!*

I yelled out as I felt the edge puncture through my subdermal armor and wedge into my muscles. Zaria's face formed into a twisted smile, and she FUCKING LAUGHED as if hurting me brought some kind of great sadistic pleasure to her. Even worse, the flames on her blades quickly spread onto my jacket, causing it to light up like a bonfire.

Despite being roasted alive and stabbed by a cyberpsycho, the first emotion I felt wasn't fear, dread, or even panic; it was anger. Pure, unadulterated anger. Watching someone hurt me and LAUGH about it caused something to snap within me, and I felt a rage take over me like nothing before. I'm NOT going to die to some fucking rando slum cult gonk, and I'm sure as hell not going to get shanked to death by someone giggling the whole time like some punk.

While Zaria was laughing, I brought my knees up toward my chest. Then I placed the soles of my boots against her abdomen. Before Zaria knew what was up, I kicked out and used my legs as a spring catapult, launching her off me.

I quickly rolled over and pushed myself off the ground and back into a standing position. I quickly took my jacket off and threw it aside. Zaria wasn't expecting to get thrown off and was lying on her back, trying to get back up. My Sandivistan's cooldown had reset, and I activated it to give me an edge in speed again.

Before Zaria could get back on her feet, I ran over and kicked her head like I was doing a kickoff in football. My foot slammed into the side of her head, causing her to lose her balance and crash face-first onto the ground. That attack elicited a groan from Zaria.

It must have also done severe damage since Zaria stumbled and struggled to recover. Not wasting time, I draped the sling on my rifle over her neck and pushed down on the back of her head with my foot. Shooting Zaria hasn't worked out too well for me so far, so I'm going to choke her out instead.

Zaria immediately started fighting against me by thrashing out with her arms. This wouldn't be a problem with anyone else, but Zaria has blades on her arms, so any wild movements were a legitimate threat to me. And since I didn't want to catch on fire again, I needed to get those limbs under control.

I took my foot off Zaria's neck, allowing her to breathe again, but not for long. While she was gasping for air, I knelt down and used my shins and weight to pin her arms in place. I then grabbed each end of the sling with my hand and crossed them before pulling in opposite directions, once again depriving Zaria of oxygen.

She was now down to only 65% health, and the number was dropping faster and faster as I blocked her airpath. Zaria didn't make it easy for me, though. She bucked wildly and gave it her best shot to throw me off of her. I had to do a balancing act of keeping her arms pinned, choking her with my sling, and kicking her legs out so she couldn't escape.

This complicated maneuvering continued, and I struggled to control the situation. My right shoulder strained and a burning pain radiated out from the stab wound. Occasionally, I had to keep Zaria from getting too rowdy by elbow-smashing the side of her head. 

I watched as the health bar dropped.

58%

45%

38%

23%

14%

When her health pool finally dropped under 10%, her movements became sluggish. She made some lame attempts at grabbing me, but her arms had no strength behind them and simply flopped back down every time she lifted them up. I no longer had to use so much energy just to keep her down on the ground, but I wouldn't stop choking this bitch out until that number hit zero.

8%

6%

3%

1%

0%

When that number eventually hit zero, Zoria became lifeless, and her body slumped without putting up any more resistance. Seeing she was finally out for the count, I let my sling go and sat on Zaria's back. I placed a finger next to her windpipe and felt her carotid artery pulse against it. The response was weak but constant and not fading away. Guess she'll live to die another day.

Pulling a pair of handcuffs from my inventory. I strapped Zaria's hands together so if she woke up she couldn't just start slashing again. These plastic cuffs come in pretty useful when someone gives up on one of my NCPD gigs. Working around her mantis blades was a bit awkward, but I got them to fit eventually.

When I heard the click of the cuffs locking my body was finally able to let the stress go. I took several deep breaths, just happy that the fight was over.

Under cover of night, I was kneeling outside a fence on the Northside docks, plying away at the metal mesh with a pair of wire cutters. *HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK* As I was sneaking into the harbor, the deafening booming sound of the horn of a passing ship threatened to damage my eardrums and caused my surroundings to slightly vibrate. I continued my work, unphased by the unannounced loud noise. The closer I got to the docks, the honking of ships became more and more frequent and audible, and I'd gotten used to them at this point. I shimmied past the barrier once I cut a hole large enough for my body to crouch through. The fence made a rattling, crinkling noise as a few of the jagged edges momentarily grabbed onto the edges of my jacket. Once on the other side, I hid behind a shipping container, carefully looking around for any security that would notice me. When satisfied that I was alone, I moved from my hideout toward my destination. While walking, I rotated my backpack to my front and opened the zippers. Inside was a hard hat, a high-vis safety vest, and a fake badge that looked legit enough. I worked in a few warehouses as a teen, and if I learned anything, it was that no one would question you if you looked the part and walked with confidence. I quickly donned my costume to blend into the environment as 'just another dock worker' and returned my backpack to my back. This place was just a short distance from where the Ebunike was located. Rogue recently hit the site and got her payback on Grayson. I was helping the Aldecaldos while the Ebunike docked in NC, so I couldn't help Rogue clear the place out. Not like someone like Rogue needed me to help anyways. She got Johnny's Porsche and Malorian back. She was trying to hide it, but I could hear she was happy she had them instead of some corp rat. I wonder if she'll give them to V once she learns that Johnny's taking a backseat in her conscience. Guess we'll wait and see. More importantly, Rogue was also able to crack into Smasher's secret vault and empty the place. Imagining Smasher raging after finding out his stash got stolen brought a grin to my face. Since he's such a colossal asshole, he can go fuck himself. Rogue also has a ripperdoc and netrunner she trusts to inspect all the kit and see if there's anything we can exploit once the fight with the psycho goes down. Once I have the time, I'll look at everything we lifted once I have the spare time and see if I would like to keep anything for myself. But that was for the future. Right now, I should focus back on the job at hand. Misty was able to give me the vessel name and dock number her goods were stored before they went missing. From there, all it took for me to figure out which warehouse her things were stored at was a few hundred misplaced bucks on a logistics worker's table. Sometimes corruption can work to your benefit. The trick is knowing how to exploit it. The docks at night were peaceful, with the only noise being the crashing of waves against concrete, the sound of reversing forklifts, and the occasional echoing *Clank* as empty containers were moved around the place. It was weird how peaceful I felt while illegally snooping around on private property. Moments of relative silence were hard to come by in Night City, especially if you live on a busy street like Urmland. I stopped once I arrived at a road roughly four car lengths wide separating me from a warehouse on the other side. The warehouse was a pretty basic structure, with very little on the outside of its concrete walls other than a large number '22' painted near the roof, a double door, and a camera on each corner. A parking lot wrapped around it, with smaller spots in front for regular vehicles and larger lanes on the side for trucks. I pulled up my map and checked that my custom marker was still placed on the warehouse where the worker said the goods were before going missing. If the intel I had was good, the warehouse right across the road was my final destination. I just needed to get in without anyone knowing that I was there. I first scanned the camera and loaded a Big Sleep daemon with my breach protocol. The breach showed that there wasn't another person on the system and that the control computer was in an office on the second floor. I wasn't the best with the Breach Protocol number minigame and could rarely get all the daemons loaded. What I would do if I could get my hands on those breach protocol cheat apps. Once the cameras were off, I had three minutes to work with them before they turned back on. I looked at both sides of the street and crossed the road to the warehouse as casually as possible. Once at the warehouse, I checked the door and saw a body check of nine that I could pass to unlock the thing. I wedged my fingers into the crack, one hand on the door and the other on the frame. I flexed my synthetic muscles, and the panels on my arms slightly opened up to allow my arm cybernetics to bulge. I grunted and put some force, and pulled the door open. Weirdly, forcing doors open like this never triggered alarm systems for me. Hacking doors with a technology check and not raising alarms made sense, but security programs should notice someone prying them apart. I guess it's just another quality-of-life perk that came with my weird powers. Once a small gap formed, I put both hands on the door and dragged it open the rest of the way. There was some crumpling and grinding noise, but nothing that would sound too out of the ordinary on a busy dock. Once the door opened halfway and I ensured it wouldn't close itself, I wedged myself into the warehouse and out of the street. Rows and rows of shelves and pallet racks greeted me inside, spaced just far enough for a forklift to fit in between. Above the empty space were catwalks where people could walk and look at the stock on the top shelves without needing a lift. The wall on my opposite side had two large garage doors, presumably, so oversized cargo could be lifted into the warehouse and broken down. The lights were turned off since there wasn't supposed to be anyone here right now, but the moon showed through the windows, providing me just enough illumination to navigate with. I looked around until I found a stair leading to a mezzanine. The pseudo-second floor had a bunch of smaller shelves with small bins and an office, presumably with a computer inside. I walked up the stairs and into the simple office. On top of a simple desk were two screens and a desktop. I unplugged my access cable and inserted it into a port on the computer. A quick minigame later, I was given full access to the system. The first thing I did was turn off all the cameras permanently since I didn't want them spotting me after my Big Sleep Daemon wore off. After that, I started digging around for what I came for. It took me only a short time to find the location where all the security footage was backed up. Once there, I filtered for the days after the cargo was put into the warehouse and when there was a security alert. The filter only returned a few results. Quickly scrubbing through a few videos showed that they were all false alarms, either picking up on loud noise or light soon traveling across the room from vehicles driving by. I was starting to give up when I finally hit the jackpot. One of the videos started after the security system picked up the sound of a car screeching outside the warehouse. At first, I thought this was another false positive, only to hear loud thumping and the entrance door kicked down. A group of four in coats with hoods covering their face streamed into the warehouse. They ransacked the place, cracking open crates and throwing things around. They continued this until one of them yelled out that they had found what they were looking for. They then quickly lifted the supplies out of the warehouse. A tire burned later, and the warehouse was calm and abandoned. I exited the video and skimmed through the report on the event. At 23:14, an unidentified group driving an unmarked vehicle ...blah blah...several crates were opened ...blah blah...damages in excess of ...blah blah...Oh! Here's the good stuff. The consignee of the targeted shipment on the BOL is Misty Olszewski, and the freight forwarder is Hatashi. Both parties have been contacted. Bingo. This was Misty's package, and these people were responsible for making it go missing. Rewatching the video gave me a few more clues to work off of. The coats did an excellent job of hiding their faces, but they didn't suppress their voices which were clearly altered by technology. One of the coats also had a design I recognized on the back. It was a red crosshair superimposed on a white skull with several red sockets. It was the goddamn Maelstrom again. What the fuck is it with them finding a way into my life. First, I have to deal with them to get those engine parts for the Surveyor, and now this? I hope I can end this peacefully, so I don't ruin my chances of getting those things for Panam. Then again, the Maelstrom is so crazy and unorganized that there is a good chance they won't even know about their guys dying if getting Misty's tuff back goes sideways. I unplugged myself from the system and left the warehouse. Once I was outside again, I started looking for clues. Specifically, I was looking for the tire burn marks that should have been left behind. V could scan things like that in-game and draw a simulated path for them. Of course, it only showed that kind of tracking when the event had just occurred, so there's a chance that it won't work for me. There's also a chance that the tire marks have been cleaned or covered up by something else. Fortunately for me, the tire marks were still in the parking lot. Scanning them highlighted the patterns in orange and reconstructed a Mackinaw Larimore. Getting closer to the hologram-like visual gave life to the reconstruction, and it started driving out of the parking lot. I followed it until I saw that it was about to make a left turn and through an exit. Spoiler Mackinaw Larimore collapse Since the exit was manned, I decided it would be suspicious to keep following on foot while inside the docks. I went near the warehouse and navigated through the containers back to the hole I cut in the fence. I removed my disguise once outside and returned to my van. I started the car up and tossed my pack onto the passenger seat. Once I pulled out of my spot, I drove to the entrance that the Maelstrom went through. There waiting for me was the hologram of the simulated vehicle. I followed the truck down the road south, keeping the docks to the left of me. The car approached a Y-junction and made a left. I stuck behind it, driving under the sky rails for another few hundred feet until I saw the vehicle pull into an alley on the left. This must be where they stopped to stash the goods. There's a good chance everything has moved since then. It's too close to where they stole it from, and they probably moved it here first to see if anyone cared enough to track it down. But it doesn't hurt to take a look. Maybe I can get more clues and determine where Maelstrom decided to move it next. I parked my car next to the sidewalk and locked it before walking towards the alley. Since this was the industrial district, there were fewer street lamps than you would find in a part of the city with more entertainment or a larger civilian population. The lack of light sources and being under the concrete sky rail structure made the surroundings eerily dark. All except for the alley, which had a faint red glow coming out for some unexplained reason. The closer I got to the alley, the more the situation simultaneously felt both familiar and creepy. The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up, and I could feel goosebumps forming on my skin. I tried to calm myself down by telling myself that it was only the cold wind blowing on me, but something deeper inside me was setting off alarms. I trusted that gut instinct and slowly drew my revolver from my holster. I kept my back to the wall once I was at the entrance to the alley and slowly peeked my head out to see what was going on. As far as I could see, the place was vacant, with the only sound being a weird rhythmic*thunk*. A sound that made me think of a machine banging on the side of an empty metal container. Probably something is broken and stuck in a loop. A liberal application of graffiti could be seen on the walls and structures. The 'art', if you could call it that, was mostly done with red and black paint. Since the subject matter was primarily skulls with red eyes and other gang symbols, it was clear that the Maelstrom had been here before. The area was split into two sections by a few barriers and the wreckage of a van in the middle. A liberal application of graffiti was everywhere. The red glow came from a series of light bars spread across the ground and a lamp mounted on the side of some metal scaffolding. The lamp threw an ominous cone of red light into the second section. Spoiler Alley collapse The lighting, combined with the run-down visual and Maelstrom graffiti everywhere, gave it a futuristic haunted house kind of vibe to it. Typically, I would have taken all signs as a clue from the world to stay the fuck away from the place. However, there was a van on the other side of the alley, and it would be the perfect place to hide some stolen merch. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and approached the van. Once the barriers and van were no longer blocking my view, I could see several corpses around a box in the middle and a man crawling in a pool of blood next to it. The box was white and surrounded by five lights placed in a pentagram pattern. Paint and blood coated the ground, creating strange patterns and Maelstrom iconography. The bodies were in varying states of dismemberment. Some only had stab wounds, while others were missing limbs or were decapitated. Spoiler Ritual Site collapse I rushed past the barriers and up to the guy. I flipped him onto his back and tried to help him sit up, only to get a blood-soaked hand grab onto the collar of my jacket and pull me close to the guy's face. Only now did I realize that this person was a part of Maelstrom. I froze for a second, unable to process what was happening. Luckily for me, instead of the usual violence the Maelstrom resorted to, this guy just put his face close to my ears and whispered something to me. "Lilith has concealed the tenth circle from the ancestors' eyes." Once he said his piece, his grip loosened, and he flopped to the side lifelessly. I had no idea what the fuck the dead gonk talking about, but I finally remembered what this shitshow was. A fixer, Regina Jones, could send V to an event at night to investigate a Maelstrom gathering. What the player found at the location was a botched pseudo-satanic AI summoning and a Cyberpsycho. At this point, the lizard part of my brain that was going, 'this ain't right,' is now screaming at the top of its lungs, 'HOLY SHIT, GET THE FUCK OUT RIGHT NOW, YOU DUMBASS MOTHER FUCKER'. Right as I stood up from my spot, the*thunk*noise suddenly stopped coming from my left behind me. Never in my life has the sound of silence been more distracting. I turned my head toward where the sound used to be coming from, and I swear I could feel my neck creaking as I did. Even though I knew what I would most likely be seeing, I still couldn't help but be stunned by what I saw. Near a crate that I couldn't see without coming inside the second area and looking back was a trunk with Militech markings. Next to the box was a dead body propped up by a woman's silhouette. She held the body in place with one arm while her other was raised above her head as if it was about to strike the corpse. Spoiler Zaria Hughes Silhouette collapse In the game, after investigating the surroundings, the Cyberpsycho will rise from the ice tub at the center of the ritual and engage V in combat. In this world, I must have arrived before all that happened, and she hasn't returned to the freezer yet. Mantis blades protruded from her appendages, covering the tips in blood and gore. And the situation only got worse. Even more alarming than finding the cause behind all the gruesome deaths was having the cause of the gruesome deaths stare at you with her four red eyes. Without good lighting, she looked like a malevolent specter readying to pounce on her next victim. Before I could tuck my tail between my legs and run for my dear life, the lunatic pointed the finger at me and opened her mouth. "BLASPHEMER! KILL 'IM!" She screeched those words before extending her mantis blades and throwing them back like she was preparing to lunge at me. As if the situation couldn't get worse, the weapons then suddenly caught on fire as if the devil himself had possessed this bitch and given her powers. Suddenly the name Zaria Hughes and a red bar underneath it popped up at the top of my vision. "A health bar? Really? My system recognizes boss fights? What the fuck is this shit!" Before I could get ready, Zaria closed the distance between us by zigzagging so fast I swore it left an afterimage. She pushed off her strange pointed stubs in place of her feet, lept toward me, and tried to pierce through my head with her blades. I dodged to the right in the nick of time and felt the slight breeze and heat as the flame-covered edge barely missed my face. After my successful dodge, I activated my Sandi and quickly rushed away from the woman, putting as much distance between her and me as possible. I ran next to the barriers before turning around. Zaria had sailed right past me and was turning around. Now that she was under the light, I could get a better look at her. Starting from the bottom, everything below her knees were replaced with metal and instead of feet to pointed protrusions were there. Other than skimpy red underwear, Zaria didn't have any other articles of traditional clothing. Over the undergarments was a strange metal harness with canvas straps that wrapped over her thighs and shoulders, like some kind of heavy duty bondage gear. Spoiler Zaria Under Better Lighting collapse While she was recovering from her missed attack, I took the chance to aim my revolver and empty the cylinder. I wasn't even taking time to place my shots accurately. Instead, I just slapped that trigger until no more bullets came out. A few of my rounds landed on their target, taking away five percent of her health and causing Zaria to stumble back a little before she regained her balance and focused back on me. Rather than reloading my Overture, I stored it in my inventory, pulled out my HJSH-18, and equipped my plate carrier. This fight feels a bit out of the scope of what a pistol can accomplish. And I'm not even going to consider taking the katana and entertain a knife fight with a lunatic. My heart was beating so fast it felt like it could jump right out of my chest any second. Not every day you get forced into fighting a strange demonic lady with literal knife arms. I shouldered my rifle and squeezed the trigger, sending three shots down range. Three tracers zipped out of my barrel, the first two shots impacting Zaria's chest and the last flying just over her right shoulder. Being shot multiple times by a revolver and twice with a rifle usually would have been enough to take someone down, but not this time. All those bullets and Zaria health bar were only down to 87%. Zaria screeched again and bent over slightly in a sprinting position before kicking off and rushing toward me. I kept my sights trained on her and pulled the trigger again, only to have all three bullets miss when Zaria dodged by using what must have been a Kerenzinkov. My Sandivistan has run out, so I no longer had the speed advantage over her. I slowly stepped away from her while firing my rifle, only to watch as she escaped being hit by every burst. When Zaria got within fifteen feet of me, she bent her knees and vaulted into a lunge attack again. I dived to the right out of the way and rolled so I could land on my feet. But Zaria was prepared for this because she extended her left foot after landing. The leg gently dragged on the ground, occasionally sending tiny sparks as metal ground against concrete. At the same time, her body rotated around her right foot like an ice skater. Once Zaria was facing me again, she bent her body forward and got into a sprinting position. Pushing off with her enhanced legs caused her to fly through the air again. Zaria's body rotated before she sliced through the air with her pointed feet stubs toward me like a human heat-seeking missile. Before I could react, Zaria's feet made contact with my chest. Right before she hit me, she extended both her legs, causing them to shoot out and increasing the force of the kick. The bitch just fucking DROP-KICKED me. The unexpected wrestling move caught me off guard, and the kick hit me dead center. The armor in my plate carrier spread out the impact. However, it still hurt like a mother fucker for someone to literally torpedo me. The force was enough to throw me off my feet, and an*Oof*escaped me as my back smashed onto the ground. I managed to sit up just in time to see Zaria roll over from her drop kick landing and crawl towards me on her hands and feet like something out of the exorcist. I shouldered my rifle and started firing again. Rounds rained down on and around Zaria as she shambled toward me. One of the shots impacted her head, causing it to snap back and her entire body to stop. I could hear myself panting heavily as I kept my rifle trained on Zaria's body, waiting for the next move. There was silence, and for a second, I thought I might have stopped her. But then I looked at her health bar and noticed it was only down to 77%. Zaria's head moved with rough and coarse movement before snapping back forward, fixing those four menacing red eyes back on me. I didn't even wait for her to start moving again before sending more bursts in her direction. The rounds would catch her shoulder or leg, causing them to buckle temporarily but not much more than that. She lept again when close enough. Being on the ground made dodging harder, and I watched as Zaria's mantis blades swung down, almost certain to hit me. At the very last moment, I pushed my rifle out in front of me and used it as a shield. My biceps flexed as the blades swung into my gun, barely able to stop that momentum from driving those knives into me. Zaria hissed in annoyance at being prevented from her kill and raised her right arm to swing at me again. I couldn't block with my rifle since it was still blocking her other arm, so I could only shift my head to the left out of the path of certain death. The mantis blades missed my skull but impaled into my right shoulder instead. Getting stabbed obviously hurt, but what caused more pain was the feeling of a hot flame piercing through your flesh. *Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!* I yelled out as I felt the edge puncture through my subdermal armor and wedge into my muscles. Zaria's face formed into a twisted smile, and she FUCKING LAUGHED as if hurting me brought some kind of great sadistic pleasure to her. Even worse, the flames on her blades quickly spread onto my jacket, causing it to light up like a bonfire. Despite being roasted alive and stabbed by a cyberpsycho, the first emotion I felt wasn't fear, dread, or even panic; it was anger. Pure, unadulterated anger. Watching someone hurt me and LAUGH about it caused something to snap within me, and I felt a rage take over me like nothing before. I'm NOT going to die to some fucking rando slum cult gonk, and I'm sure as hell not going to get shanked to death by someone giggling the whole time like some punk. While Zaria was laughing, I brought my knees up toward my chest. Then I placed the soles of my boots against her abdomen. Before Zaria knew what was up, I kicked out and used my legs as a spring catapult, launching her off me. I quickly rolled over and pushed myself off the ground and back into a standing position. I quickly took my jacket off and threw it aside. Zaria wasn't expecting to get thrown off and was lying on her back, trying to get back up. My Sandivistan's cooldown had reset, and I activated it to give me an edge in speed again. Before Zaria could get back on her feet, I ran over and kicked her head like I was doing a kickoff in football. My foot slammed into the side of her head, causing her to lose her balance and crash face-first onto the ground. That attack elicited a groan from Zaria. It must have also done severe damage since Zaria stumbled and struggled to recover. Not wasting time, I draped the sling on my rifle over her neck and pushed down on the back of her head with my foot. Shooting Zaria hasn't worked out too well for me so far, so I'm going to choke her out instead. Zaria immediately started fighting against me by thrashing out with her arms. This wouldn't be a problem with anyone else, but Zaria has blades on her arms, so any wild movements were a legitimate threat to me. And since I didn't want to catch on fire again, I needed to get those limbs under control. I took my foot off Zaria's neck, allowing her to breathe again, but not for long. While she was gasping for air, I knelt down and used my shins and weight to pin her arms in place. I then grabbed each end of the sling with my hand and crossed them before pulling in opposite directions, once again depriving Zaria of oxygen. She was now down to only 65% health, and the number was dropping faster and faster as I blocked her airpath. Zaria didn't make it easy for me, though. She bucked wildly and gave it her best shot to throw me off of her. I had to do a balancing act of keeping her arms pinned, choking her with my sling, and kicking her legs out so she couldn't escape. This complicated maneuvering continued, and I struggled to control the situation. My right shoulder strained and a burning pain radiated out from the stab wound. Occasionally, I had to keep Zaria from getting too rowdy by elbow-smashing the side of her head. I watched as the health bar dropped. 58% 45% 38% 23% 14% When her health pool finally dropped under 10%, her movements became sluggish. She made some lame attempts at grabbing me, but her arms had no strength behind them and simply flopped back down every time she lifted them up. I no longer had to use so much energy just to keep her down on the ground, but I wouldn't stop choking this bitch out until that number hit zero. 8% 6% 3% 1% 0% When that number eventually hit zero, Zoria became lifeless, and her body slumped without putting up any more resistance. Seeing she was finally out for the count, I let my sling go and sat on Zaria's back.I placed a finger next to her windpipe and felt her carotid artery pulse against it. The response was weak but constant and not fading away. Guess she'll live to die another day. Pulling a pair of handcuffs from my inventory. I strapped Zaria's hands together so if she woke up she couldn't just start slashing again. These plastic cuffs come in pretty useful when someone gives up on one of my NCPD gigs. Working around her mantis blades was a bit awkward, but I got them to fit eventually. When I heard the click of the cuffs locking my body was finally able to let the stress go. I took several deep breaths, just happy that the fight was over.