Raptor Pack. Part 1.
- I still can't believe you convinced me to do this show. It sounds like ancient Roman gladiator fights. - Jeremiah sighs and sits down on a chair in the VIP lounge.
- Jeremiah, calm down. Everything will be fine. Although yes, there is an unpleasant stench, gladiators in those days were still quoted as modern porn stars. Popular, but still not the most respected of men. But we are different. It's a battle between the best and it's not for the entertainment of a dumb crowd, but for our honor and vanity.Another level. Think of it as sword masters fighting. - Looking down at the makeshift arena that recreated city conditions.
- Then why so many spectators and cameras, Marcus?
- The marketing department's already got it covered. Those scumbags don't even doubt that we're gonna lose so they made it liek a live show.
- They practically idolize you. How many times have you and your gang of evil penguins created a huge PR wave for them? And then they take full advantage of it. - Jeremiah sighs.
- What can I say? We know how to hit the trends. All right. Here's the first fight. A warm-up, so to speak. The private must smash his opponent or I'll kill him on the training ground. - Pointing to Private, who has entered the arena to the applause of the spectators.
- But his opponent is not a wimp either. See what a big bull with a heavy shotgun they put him up against. - Ron's in the next chair puffing on his cigar.
- It's even better. The shield isn't easy to penetrate, even with a heavy machine gun. The only thing the momentum from the shotgun's high-powered rounds can cause hinder at close range. Oh, here we go. - A loud clang alerted everyone to the start of the first round.
Private, covered by his shield, staggered towards the enemy, who also decided to go for a full frontal attack. Max-Tac bull was emptying his shotgun's magazine at breakneck speed. The fire fired bullets that would have penetrated even Borg armor, but it only sent sparks out of the Private's shield, though if you looked closely you could see the dents and paint.
Realizing this, the bullfighter decided to focus his fire at one point in order to break the shield. The private realized it too, but didn't show it, walking at his usual speed towards the enemy. Huh. Hippo's tactics would be a big surprise to the token psycho. With less than 20 meters between them, Private opened fire with his smart gun, causing the enemy to hesitate. The bullets may not have done much damage to the bull that clearly had built-in armor, but that wasn't Private's goal. He wanted to distract his opponent for a moment before accelerating sharply.
The bullfighter missed that moment, so all he had to do was to fire his remaining bullets at the private who was coming at him with all possible speed. Then there was a bone-crushing contact with the shield, and the big guy was blown away as if by a train. The shotgun flew out of his hands, and he was knocked down with the muzzle of the submachine gun pressed against his jaw. That's a clear defeat for a police cyber-psycho.
- A clean win. But so boring. We need to add some blood and spectacle. - My words cause Jeremiah and Ron to stare at the arena in bewilderment.
Private said something to his opponent and then stepped away from him, giving him a chance to stand.And the next thing he did stirred everyone up. Well, except for me, because it was part of a backup plan in case he won too easily. We need to show off to the public, but most importantly break Max-Tac's will. So now the Private put his shield, along with his machine gun, on the ground and took a boxing stance.
- Does he want to fight him hand-to-hand? - Jeremiah asks, but Ron just hums and smiles.
- It'll be bloodier and tougher. We need to put on a show, after all. - I answer him and watch as the bull man attacks Private with Gorilla Hands.
From the outside, it looks like the Private is dodging every attack at the last moment. But it's all an illusion. He's like a cat playing with his victim, giving him a false hope of success. So it goes on until he gets tired of dodging, and he starts beating the bull Max-Tac like a punching bag. Blood begins to pour to the ground from his battered foe. Okay, the sand of the arena has been sprinkled with enough blood. I send a short order to the Private, and he begins to perform pain holds, breaking the limbs of the enemy almost neutralizing him. Toward the end, he puts his knee on the back of a lying cyber-cop and breaks his spine. For a normal human this is a fatal injury, but for a cyber-psycho it may not be fatal, but he will not recover from such an injury for a long time, if at all.
After such an end of the bout there is silence in the arena, which after a few moments explodes with applause. Apparently they enjoyed the brutality. Night City style.
- You know, Marcus, it's only now that I see it for myself that I realize how powerful you are. Records and reports can't convey that.
- It's the nature of our work, Jeremiah. When we go to rescue a client, we have to control our strength so we don't accidentally smash him along with the enemy, and quite often we're opposed by numerically superior forces. And here you can not hold back, and the enemy is only one plus we know approximately what to expect from them, and on missions often enough have to work in the emergency mode with a minimum of information.
Another ringing of the bell announces that the second round will begin and this time it will be a two-on-two bout. Rico and Kowalski against one regular operative and a Max-Tac netrunner.
- How will this fight go? Another frontal assault?
- No. This one's gonna be defensive. Rico and Kowalski are specialists with delicate fingers, so it's not really their style to use their fists to pound on an opponent's face. They can fight in close quarters, but they don't need to. - I answer Jeremiah and watch as my guys take a comfortable defensive position.
The other side decided to start with an attack, through the network, releasing a bunch of demons and viruses. Two-thirds of the attacks were Rico's, apparently they wanted to get rid of the shooter and then take out Kowalski in close combat.
- Stupid mistake. Kowalski's just gonna wash that attack away like mud from a powerful hose.
- So it's going to be a slow but inexorable firing squad from Rico's side? - Jeremiah asked, but before I could answer, Ron was the first to speak.
- We can, but that would take too long, and in a fight, things can change pretty quickly. Rico and Kowalski are going to fake that the network attack was successful enough to lure Max-Tac out.
- You think they'll fall for it after all?
- Manfredi and Johnson have taught Kowalski a lot about how a cyberattack feels, so they can play the role of disoriented and stunned victims without too much trouble. And Kowalski will be able to launch a sneak attack through an intercepted data feed, setting up a time bomb.
- What are the possible complications? - Jeremiah asks, rolling the cognac in his glass.
- Defense won't be a problem, but a sneak attack might not do enough damage or might not penetrate the personal Ice. It's either stealth or damage, and you can't put many of these mines, each mine increases the chance of defense and countermeasure activation. Although knowing Kowalski, he'll come up with something. - And my words almost perfectly describe the next part of the fight.
Rico fakes a partial loss of control of his limbs, cramps and spasms causing his body to jerk in different directions. You can forget about any aiming, all the bullets are flying towards the opponents, but the spread is such that the hit is possible only by a miracle. Kowalski has gone into a supposedly deaf defense and is firing blindly from behind cover.
This encourages the psycho-cops and they decide to assault. After leaving cover, one of them began to flank Rico and the other one prevented Kowalski from looking out. The Netrunner must have unleashed a few more viruses and demons, judging by the fact that Kowalski had reduced his return fire and was busy defending himself. It was the perfect moment to deal with Rico, who had not yet regained consciousness and was struggling to hold his sniper rifle. Here he raises his weapon, and aim at Rico only to pull the trigger, and victory is guaranteed. But at the last moment he staggers, and a strange blissful smile is seen on his face. After seeing this and receiving confirmation from Kowalski that the virus mines have been triggered, Rico stops playing the crippled man and fires a charged shot that incapacitates the Max-Tac fighter. Just in case, he fires another shot, which, though it doesn't have much penetrating power, hits a poorly protected area under his armpit. Minus one, and the wound is very nasty, with a long recovery time.
The only one left is the netrunner, who, realizing that their plan had failed, decided to go all-in. Going into overdrive, he began to unleash viruses and demons one after another. Kowalski, too, had to work hard to contain this attack and prepare for a counterattack. When there was a pause of a few seconds between the waves of viruses, he launched an attack that triggered the grenades on his off-loading vest.
It stunned and rendered the enemy netrunner virtually defenseless. I thought Kowalski would just kill him with some virus or lure him out of cover to shoot him later. To my surprise, he decided to incinerate his enemy, using the Max-Tac netrunner implants, which were already working to the limit. The defense and lockout systems failed and overheating ensued. The implants began to burn, causing tremendous pain and causing the netrunner to lose his mind. He fell to the ground and tried to dislodge the flames that engulfed his body. It continued like this until he fell silent and medics ran into the arena with fire extinguishers.
- It's brutal. Don't you think that's a bit extreme? - Jeremiah asks.
- No. If we don't get the pure and raw fear of the TT logo into their heads, we're in for an endless cycle of hidden vendetta. Only pain, agony and the very close breath of death. But there's still a long way to go to solidify the lesson. There are three more rounds to go. Three rounds in which we'll put them on the brink of death. If it weren't for the lethal force restrictions, we might be able to get a few of them over the edge. But still, living witnesses who can recount the horror that will be in the arena tonight will be more useful than cold corpses. - I answer him and look at the Max-Tac leaders sitting in the opposite lounge.
A bloodthirsty grin appears on my face, and the aura around me makes even the experienced Jeremiah and Ron twitch. I think not only they felt it, but also our current victims. Why? Because it didn't escape me that some of them twitched like sheep who heard a predator growling in the vicinity. Well done. The seeds of fear and terror have been planted. All that's left is to water them and they'll sprout beautifully.
Hey guys - I have some news, I have created a ko-fi page where people can make donations, etc and it contains a link to my Boosty account.
ko-fi.com/abizul
Feel free to have a look, I can use it as a way to make it more easier for readers to access advanced chapters since I am not big fan of patreon.
Enjoy new chapter and give a look for my other fanfiction - Old Scar of Terra.