章 41: Sunk-Cost
Once everything was set, the group departed for Longshore in the 'not-tank' Six had hired. The thing was a beast, stupidly heavy armour plating covering the entirety of it, with internal holoprojectors instead of windows to prevent creating exploitable vulnerabilities.
Six wheels, each made of some conglomeration of rubber and other materials which made them so damage resistant that you'd have better luck stabbing a spoon through carbon steel... Not to mention the fact that they were filled with some Radon-based gas instead of regular compressed air, Radon being hundreds of times heavier than most other gases.
There were actually only four seats available despite how large the truck looked, not to mention the lack of any steering wheel or other controls. The AI systems would handle all the driving and shooting, everyone inside was literally just cargo...
They reached their destination fairly quickly, though, Ori and Rebecca had to park the vehicle a good distance away to raise the enemy's alarm. While no one would be able to recognise what make it was, the thing being so heavily modified that even its original manufacturer would scratch their head at it, that didn't make it any less intimidating...
Regardless, they were left car-watching alone while Six snuck around the place looking for the best area to approach from... This, of course, didn't sit well with Ori's companion.
"Uuugh, how long have we got left?" Rebecca groans, her legs resting up on the back of the seat in front of her as she rests in what looked like the most uncomfortable posture imaginable.
"Still got an hour til sundown..." Ori idly remarks for the Nth time today. He'd already chewed down the nails on each of his fingers in sheer anxiousness for the battle ahead. Rebecca had tried teasing him for the first thirty minutes of their wait, but quickly got bored of his lacking responses...
"Hoo-ow about we play I Spy-" she starts with a drawl but Ori interrupts her with a refusal...
"No..."
"C'mon. I get you're nervous but all you're doin' right now is psyching yourself out. Don't get in your own head." she advises.
He responds with a grim, loose smile. "Only you would call 'thinking' a bad thing... I'm worried, about Max." he reluctantly admits.
"Well duh, you'd be an ass hole if you weren't. But acting like a pussy now means you'll fight like a pussy later. Raises your chin, square your shoulders, and get ready to fuck these gonks in their asses!" she exclaims, obviously attempting to cheer him up.
"I get that, just cause I want to though doesn't just make it happen..." he looks at his slightly trembling hand, wondering if he should just bare with it and let the nanites handle it...
"Let's get your mind off of it then," she pauses before her expression brightens, "Why don't you tell me how you zeroed Ta'xin? That shit was so dope you had me cheering for you" she states with a big grin.
"Why, you already saw the recording didn't you?"
"Yeah, but that only showed like, the last half of the fight. I wanna know what was up before you got your ass kicked out of the apartment."
...
"I guess... It started with my gonk Fixer-"
-----------------------------------
[I'm in position.] Six abruptly states over their comms, interrupting the story Rebecca was giving but she didn't seem all that bothered, instead excitedly hopping in her seat and grabbing her weapons.
[FINALLY! Let's go fuck shit up!]
[Remember the plan. Bring the vehicle into position.] Six grouses, tone more severe than Ori had ever heard from him before.
[Got it] Ori acknowledges, far calmer now thanks to Rebecca's 'Stop being a fucking pussy' talk.
The AI-controlled vehicle starts up and begins moving towards the warehouse, but doesn't stop anywhere, simply driving around a randomized route that kept them relatively close to the area.
It was tense, waiting for Six to either say something through the comms or for gunfire to start instead...
[I'm in. Security is tight, tagged twenty scavs in the main warehouse house alone.] Six states, allowing Ori to look down at the laptop to see their approximate locations. Rebecca herself had MK.3 Kiroshi's, so all that information was automatically provided to her... She could even see their locations through walls if she wished, something that had Ori wanting a pair of those of his own.
[Have you set the charges?] Ori questions.
[Three on pillars integral for structure integrity, all marked.] he states, the laptop pinging with their location.
The duo watch as Six's representation slowly sneaks through the place, eventually reaching the basement where he tags something...
[Found him...]
[I-Is he alright?] Ori tentatively asks, not liking the merc's tone at all.
...
[Max did not have any Cyberware for them to take, so they extracted his organs...] Six reports, sending them a picture. It revealed Max's sorry state, barely floating in a crimson-stained bathtub filled with ice. His torso had been awkwardly stitched back up, showing signs of surgery, that wasn't the worst however.
His eyes were missing, along with his arms and legs, his head had been scalped presumably to transplant his hair on someone else... Even his nose and ears had been removed, likely to act as replacements for people who'd lost their own but couldn't afford Cybernetic ones. The only reason Ori could recognise him at all was because of the familiar scars on his face...
[Fucking animals...] Rebecca growls through the comms.
[I-is he still alive...?] Ori hoarsely questions, they hadn't thrown his body out yet so they must have had further uses for him, right? If they could get him out now then they could replace everything he'd lost with Cybernetics... Right?
Six goes silent for a couple seconds, before quietly responding. [He's a shell. They took his heart and everything else...]
Ori grinds his teeth almost painfully, gripping his fists tight enough that the nanites were forced to heal the muscles he was unconsciously straining... Marv. That fuck did to Max what he'd done to his dad... HE'D FUCKING KILL THEM!
[Leave him, Six. This ain't a rescue anymore... We're gonna fucking exterminate those rats. We'll tear them apart and carry Max back through whatever slop is left of them!] he growls as he trembles, not in fear like last time, but in sheer rage at what they'd done.
...
[Affirmative.]
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