While I was driving I got a call and the payment from Rogue about the job I did that morning, she just mentioned that her client wanted to also buy the vintage Samurai albums I got from the gig. honestly, I think she wanted them for herself since in the game she had this sexual tension with Johnny. but who am I to judge, we agreed and I sold them for 12,000 eddies.
on the way, Beca sent us the address to Kurosaki's studio, which was the place where the Anbush would take place.
opening the door to the studio the scene was wider than I thought. there was a lot of equipment and computers and a few Netrunner chairs in the distance. It turns out Maine already had a plan. to use his sandi(he got a sandi himself) as soon as Tanaka enters the studio and inserts a jamming device that blocks any signal from Trauma team, while the rest of the crew would take care of the bodyguards he will bring with him. after that, they will have a few hours until Arasaka sends someone to find him. Then they would take him to an abandoned building that was arranged by Faraday to extract the info.
"Yoo Davy, Lucy" Beca said as she jumped on me like a Koala. I caught her and smiled after patting her on the head "I thought you guys were not gonna show up" she said
"Sorry, it took us a little while to find the studio," said Lucy
"Sup Falco, Kiwi," I said to both of them who nodded and were sitting at the far end of a table smoking, "Where is Maine and Dorio?". As I finished my sentence Dorio came out of another room with a daze-looking Maine.
Dorio waved a hand at me but Maine just looked like he was in another world since he did not even acknowledge anyone. just as I was about to talk to him Maine almost punched me in the face, good thing I had good reflexes and dodged the blow.
"Choom! What the fuck!." he came back to his senses and just looked at me confused, then told me that he did not see me there. I was a little dumstruck and was about to say something but Dorio took Maine back to the room they came from.
"What was that about" I ask Beca.
"I don't know, he's been acting strange for the past month"
I looked back at the rest of the crew and asked them but they stayed silent and looked uncomfortable so I decided to ask once we finished with the job. after 10 minutes Maine and Dorio came back, this time he looked normal and we managed to clear the room of the weird atmosphere.
Third Person POV
A few hours Later
A group of four men walked into the studio all dressed in suits and 3 of them well-armed. As one of them knocks on the door, they hear a "come-in" from the comm, the door automatically opens and 2 of the bodyguards enter. As soon as Tanaka and the last bodyguard step into the room, the four men just see a blur for a second just as the last bodyguard is about to drag his weapon. the 2 bodyguards on the front drop-down unconscious from Lucy and Kiwi using a daemon (they are the quick hacks you can use in the game) on their system. The last one was choked to unconsciousness by Dorio while David did the same to Tanaka, while also inserting the Jamming device. the whole ambush only lasted a few seconds and after Tanaka fainted we headed out to the building Faraday acquired for the mission.
While on the way I thought to myself, (it is a good thing they decided to let me handle Tanaka instead of Maine, since he was acting weird and everyone else decided to let me knock him out. honestly, it looked like Maine would just rip his head off if he tried.)
Later on a Building in Kabuki.
Maines POV
From the off voices that can be heard, pulling me back from my daydreams, or were they memories? His shaking hands can't hold the packet of food he receives from Dorio and drops it on the floor.
Dorio is clearly worried but I assure her that I am fine, despite using a large amount of medicine to stabilize my arm. after a few minutes of talking, I angrily rejected Dorio's suggestion to downgrade and reduce the stress on my nerves. I heard someone call me and looked back only to see myself in a desert and thought "When did I get here?".
Third POV
As Maine is rambling on in his anger, the scene moves on to Falco who is watching a screen, checking that the jamming device is still online and working, and then to Tanaka's body, clearly still unconscious and bound. Kiwi is in the bathtub next to him, deeply immersed in a complicated data session. The crew is extremely stressed to get their hands on the information promptly. while David is concerned about Maine's unusually aggressive behavior.
"He's clearly showing signs of Cyberpsychosis," David whispers to Lucy who is looking through the data Kiwi is sending to her with a worried look.
Lucy answered a few seconds later " I know, we got to talk about it with him after the job. he could hurt one of us if he has a psychotic episode. Also from the data Kiwi is sending, I can't find anything"
"what are you even looking for anyway?"
"Something about a project named (Weapon S1)"
It had been 30 minutes since the crew arrived But while David and Rebeca were doing a patrol of the building, Maine who was watching Tanaka in case he would wake up, had a violent outburst and attacked Kiwi who was in his range, beating her unconscious. David and Beca came running in after Lucy informed them and helped the rest of the crew by snaping Maine out of his psychotic episode.
Maine came out of his psychosis shortly afterward and could not remember what he did. Dorio and Falco keep him from doing more harm afterward.
Afterward, David checked if Kiwi was ok. only to realize that when Maine hit Kiwi he also hit Tanaka who had blood coming out of his head. after David mentioned the injury of Tanaka. Falco and Lucy check him out to see if the jammer is damaged. a couple of minutes later, Lucy told everyone about the likelihood of the Jammer being damaged.
In desperation to gather the needed data since the Jamming device was most likely damaged and would alert Trauma team soon. after Lucy took another look at the status of the jamming devised it looked like it would only last 45 more minutes.
the crew was running out of time since also by this point in time Trauma would have gotten an alert about one of their platinum members going missing and the next step they would take is to alert someone in Arasaka of his last location. afterward, Arasaka would send MAXTAC looking for him, once Trauma confirmed his missing status we would have limited time left. which gives us not more than 45 minutes.
Maine was back to normal after injecting himself with a lot of medication and went to Lucy to ask if she could plug in and finish the job. Lucy was unsure even after both Dorio and Falco begged her to do it.
She only agreed after David encouraged her and promised to be with her the whole time as a backup. 30 minutes after the start of Lucy's session, Maine got a call from Faraday about the progress, which added to the pressure. after Maine finished telling him of our situation he did not say anything for a few seconds after what felt like minutes he said to call him back when they have the data.
After Maine came close to David to ask about the progress, David just told him to fuck off and wait.
After another 10 minutes went by, Lucy finally came out of the session looking tired and afraid about something. but just as we were preparing to Delta out.
Tanaka awakens from his unconscious state and surprises everyone. before Dorio can give him another tranquilizer shot. Tanaka gets electrocuted by an unknown net runner. the security system in his body kicks in and initiates a protocol that prevents any leaks of information and also informs Arasaka of his location. The man begins convulsing but before anything else happens Maine hits him with the tranquilizer and Tanaka falls unconscious a second later.
but Falco informs them that the jammer is offline, and a Trauma Team notification just appeared in the system.
"the jammer is no longer working and Trauma will be here in 60 seconds," Falco said. David activates the Sandevistan to rush Lucy and Kiwi to his car in the parking deck, where she informs David about another runner who was able to bypass the jammer and started interfering with their session. David then thinks that Faraday might have set them up and gave up on the data. so he decided to clean any loose ends.
But Lucy also tells him that it's all a scam and Tanaka has no relevant data of any project name S1, but David realizes after looking at her eyes, that she is telling him a lie and instead, calms her down by kissing her on the forehead and smiling at her. He knows she is afraid of something she found in Tanaka's head and will ask her about it later.
At the same time, Maine and Dorio do their best to move Tanaka, still convinced he's important to their mission but 30 seconds later They get caught up in the crossfire of Trauma Team and NCPD, and Maine's cyberpsychosis is now beginning to manifest to the point where he is no longer able to control himself.
Dorio tries to help him but is shot in the head by one of the cops. Caught in his delusions, Maine kills Tanaka and starts a massacre on everyone who is in his vicinity.
Despite Lucy's warning to not go back, David leaves her alone in the car and tries to support Beca and Falco who are just coming out of the building, and tells them to go wait in the car while he gets Maine and Dorio out, but it's too late Falco informs David - "MaxTac is on their way".
Maine meanwhile has accepted his fate and that it is the end for him. He still is planning to go out with a bang and has placed all the ammunition in an altar-like manner in the room - with Dorio's corpse upon it.
David manages to enter the main room just before MaxTac arrives and sees Maine in the distance, they both look each other eye to eye. and in an instant, David saw himself after his mom died. the resignation, sadness, and rage. and knew that Maine did not want to be saved and that he would not get out alive.
"Fuck!.." then a sound of footsteps and shooting can be heard in the distance. "I'm sorry Maine" David whispered.
David activated the Sandevistan to 80 percent to rush back to the car. on the way out he notices the MAXTAC team entering the main room in slow motion, two of them notice him and move to intercept him but their Sandis cannot keep up with him, once he turns his sandi up to 90 percent everything friezes and the two guys start to move in slow motions in Davids Point of view.
David moves and gives the first man a punch with enough force that it sends him flying, the second he jumps to his side and kicks him through a wall. once their acceleration returns to normal, both hit the ground unconscious. After that, the rest of the team who came with those 2 just looked around confused about what happened. David keeps moving to the Parking deck, where Beca and Falco are in a shoot-out with Trauma team.
everything is still in slow motion until he arrives by their side. he jumps in the car and gives a signal for both of them to get in. A moment later everyone leaves the area just before 3 more flaying surveyors with the MaxTac symbols are about to land close by.
David manages to escape the pursuit of the police and a few hours later after making sure no one is following them, they enter the crew's base to discuss what happened in the mission.