I wake up in my mega building apartment to Jackie calling me on the holo.
"Ey, V. You finally awake? What's got you sleeping in like this. We've got gigs to take and eddies to drown in partner. Meet you outside your building."
It's barely 7:00. He's excited for something. Must have a job. I get dressed in my usual clothes. Black T-shirt of a smoking pistol, old grey jacket I've had since before my Maxtac days, a pair of jeans, and my trusty sneakers.
I open my apartments magnum opus, the stash room. Most of the eddies I made in my earlier gigs with Jackie went towards my car and this apartment. The next big portion went towards this stash room, where I can store my weapons and ammo. Speaking of ammo, the last chunk of my cash went towards my arms. Not in the sense that I have to keep buying ammo for them. No. A guy buying custom cartridges and ammo only used in one piece of experimental chrome would have risen flags on Militech and Arasaka's radars. Fortunately for me, I managed to find someone selling the schematics for the cartridges and ammo through Dakota Smith.
—- *Flashback, two months ago* —-
I've hit a snag. The ammo I have left over for my wolves is running low. And it's not like anyone is selling the stuff, it's too specialized. It was expensive but I managed to get help from Rogue, the queen of fixers. A full twenty thousand eddies. Had to take some solo gigs for this, sold some of my old gear too. Not the armor, but the assault rifle and the sub machine gun were never my style. I had Regina fence the weapons through maelstrom for a small fee so it would look like they just looted the weapons of my corpse.
Rogue got me in touch with a fixer for the badlands, Dakota Smith, who gave me some suprising but fortuitous news. The Aldecaldos had grabbed a small Militech convoy carrying the schematics for the cartridges and ammo for my wolves. They had just been lying around and the Aldecaldos had been unable to make money off them since until now nobody knew what weapon they were meant for. Can't sell ammo for a gun nobody has.
I asked Dakota what the price was, and she told me all she needed was some additional muscle to raid a wraith camp that was interfering with her business. Would even throw me a cut.
The next day and I'm meeting my contact from the Aldecaldos with Jackie. I decided to bring him along, give him my cut. All I really need is the schematics anyway. Three Aldecaldos pull up to the meeting point at the Sunset Motel. The woman, Carol and the two men, named Scorpion and Mitch, are veterans responsible for raids like these.
"Are you V?" Carol asks, making her disdain for city folk quite clear.
"Yep. That'd be me." I reply.
"And who is this?" Oh right. Forgot to mention I was bringing Jackie along.
"Jackie Welles. Nice to meet you."
She looks at him, sizing him up. Eventually, she gives a small cold nod and proceeds.
"Raffen Shiv posted camp in an abandoned railway tower close to one of our smuggling routes. They've been sniffing around trying to find our camp, so until they're gone our business is crippled. You will serve as bait. We will put you in a Militech van, the Raffens will send a group to take it. This will thin their numbers enough for us to easily clear them out. You will lead the group following you to the town of rocky ridge where we will have an ambush prepared for them. Understood?" Solid plan.
"If they have such a well laid out plan, what do they need us for?" Jackie asks.
"Baits the most dangerous part of the job. Their more physically capable fighters will be spread between the camp and the ambush with some left home to play defense. They needed people who could hold their own in a fight who they were comfortable with losing."
"Oh right. Nomads have the whole family thing, kinda like heywood. I get it." Jackie says.
"No you don't get it. Unlike your city people, we do not rob and kill each other." Quite the seething review from Carol.
"Calm down Carol. He was just trying to be understanding." The guy in the mechanics outfit, Mitch steps in.
"Alright. Better now than not at all. Where's the wheels we're supposed to use?" I ask, trying to move past the tension.
"In the garage, touched it up a little to cover the bullet holes from when we grabbed it. Should do you just fine. Just don't get boxed in." Mitch tells us.
"Try not to crash the car. Wheels like those could always do the camp some good." The other man, Scorpion says to us.
The job went over smooth in the end minus a few minor hiccups. The Raffen group they sent at us was much bigger than we were expecting. Had to use some of the last of my wolves' ammo to take a few down before we made it to the ambush but good thing I brought Jackie here to take the wheel for me.
Since the Aldecaldos managed to take back all their cargo from the Shivs without taking any losses, they were quite pleased. At the end of the day, I got my schematics, Jackie got some scratch, and we both got a welcome dose of street cred. Everybody won.
Well, except for the wraiths.
— *Flashback end* —