I woke up to the sounds of a chopper. It was 4:55 am according to my neural interface. The blasted thing woke me up 5 minutes before my alarm.

I looked outside the window. The rain had stopped. The few lights of the residential district showed empty streets.

The rendezvous was at 6:30 am way out at the edges of the outskirts, which would take me one hour of driving to reach. I hurried to take a shower and grabbed some protein bars for breakfast. I wore my armored camo vest and pants over my regular civvies. Luckily it was winter, or things would get too hot too fast, but even so being able to turn from a merc to a civilian in a flash was simply too good to pass.

I packed my dark green cyclone and my dull gray longbow into two separate bags and stuffed their respective ammo in the side pockets. I added some more ammo mags in the pockets of my vests, as well as a couple of mags for my handgun. I holstered my pistol, got my combat knife, and finally, I grabbed my full-face combat helmet with an incorporated gas mask and made my way to the garage. I boarded my military green SUV and placed the bags on the back and the helmet on the passenger seat. I went on my neural interface and began running the spoofing code that Alex sent to the team, this won’t only hide our identities but also blur our faces and license plates from most cameras in LA.

I started the car and began to drive.

Despite this being the time during which the city began to wake I noticed that the 15 million inhabitants of Los Angeles seemed to be quite happy to stay in their homes this morning. It seems that the news traveled fast. Sentai and the Undertakers must have planned for this, if there were fewer civilian casualties caught in the crossfire that meant that the army would most likely just watch as the gangs did their thing.

As I drove into the outskirts I went through rich and ordered districts that were under the control of big gangs such as Sentai, the extravagant large houses and establishments varied from Asian to European architecture. The decadence was another display of power.

However, as I continued making my way outwards my view changed radically. The tall houses were replaced by squat buildings that began to clump together, some of them were rickety shacks that looked like the mildest wind could knock them down. Tents would line up the street in patches, where the homeless would try to survive. If a gang fight were to erupt in the middle of the road those poor bastards would be easily caught in the crossfire, and nobody would care.

As I cleared the slums, I received an encrypted group call from Jun. A few moments after I connected Jun’s voice resounded in my head.

“Give me your ETAs, over.”

“Batou here, ETA is 5 minutes, over.”

“This is Alex, ETA is 7 minutes, over.”

“This is Jack, ETA is 10 minutes, over.”

“Revy here, ETA is 6 minutes, over.”

“Roger that team, keep this channel open, over.”

I gave it thirty minutes maximum before all discipline was lost.

Might as well bet on it, so I messaged Batou.

Jack:

Bet you 50 credits we lose the professional attitude in 30.

Batou:

Deal, I say we lose it in 20.

The next ten minutes passed in silence. The sun started cresting the horizon, painting golden the underside of the cloudy sky. Shrubs and trees started populating my surroundings.

I arrived at an abandoned parking lot. Two motorbikes, an armored truck, and a black sedan were there, I parked my SUV next to the truck and got out. Behind the truck the rest of the team was waiting, chatting with each other. They were all wearing tactical gear identical to mine. Except for Batou, who had no sleeves and was showing off his tattooed arms, with all the metal under that fake skin he doesn’t care if he gets shot.

When they saw me, we formed up in front of Jun who began the debriefing.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you all should have read the Op details, but I am not willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I will therefore state our objective.”

“Our target is the hideout of a small gang located three clicks southeast from here, we are to ideally incapacitate with less than lethal force any hostiles and retrieve the data stored within the building. The data is in isolated storage, therefore we must physically extract it. We should expect roughly a dozen hostiles, at least two of which have significant cybernetical enhancements. -”

Revy rolled her eyes. “Come oooon, get on with the plan. Stop trying to play the serious samurai lord persona. We all know you copied the looks of a character from a manga you read.” She said the last part giggling.

Jun froze like a deer caught in the headlights.

A moment later he recomposed himself and said with a perfect poker face “I have no idea what you are talking about.” And then he snapped “Also fuck you, I’m always repeating our objectives because I know that if there is one person who might not read the Op details it is you.”

“That was one time! And you don’t have to snap at me because you’re embarrassed that your secret is out.”

“I am not embarrassed! You -“

As the two started bickering I looked suspiciously at Batou and asked him “You were chatting with Revy when I was on the way, weren’t you? Did you tell her about Jun, and maybe suggest that she could lighten up the mood by sharing the fact with the rest of the squad?”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Batou just smiled softly.

Son of a bitch.

“Here’s your money, you bastard,” I grumbled as I transferred the credits.

During our small interaction, order was restored by Alex, who threatened to blind them if they kept it up. You never wanted to get on the bad side of your team’s hacker.

After taking a moment to recompose himself Jun started sharing the plan of action.

“Alex will send out her drone to scout ahead, Jack will set up at a location of his choice and help spot any patrols and lookouts. Everyone except Jack will approach up to 200 meters while using the environment for cover. We will divide targets amongst each other and at my signal we will take them out at the same time. After which we use knock-out gas to incapacitate or flush out any targets within, then we break in and deal with any remaining hostiles and retrieve the data.”

“Any questions?”

When no one spoke up he added. “Then grab the rest of your gear, we move out in two minutes.”

I went back to the SUV, put on my helmet, and grabbed the bags with the rifles.

The others were equipped with assault rifles that had scopes, grenade launchers, and silencers. They also had pistols and combat knives. Alex’s drone was already flying ahead, the only telltale sign of her piloting being the blue glow of her left eye, which you’d have to see through the visor of her helmet.

We started trekking through the lightly wooded area. The overcast shading us from the sun. After the first kilometer, I separated from the group and aimed toward a hill slightly to the right.

When I started climbing the hill Alex spoke on the comms. “I see one lookout on the roof, and two hostiles in front of the entrance.”

Once I found a point with a good view of the metal two-story building further ahead, I set up the longbow on a bipod and then proceeded to do the same with the cyclone, putting it close enough so that I could quickly shift to the other gun if needed. I lay down and scanned the perimeter with the scope of the longbow. I was approximately 400 meters away, a bit too close for comfort since most assault rifles had effective ranges of 500 meters. Which would mean nothing if they couldn’t spot me.

I spotted the lookout on the roof and the other two gangsters in front of the building. The lookout wore a military vest, he was sitting on a chair scanning the perimeter, a rifle placed on a table next to him. While the other two were sitting on a low wall, the only visible weapons were two handguns at their sides. Considering there was only one person with a vest I’ll be shooting him since I had the weapon with the heaviest punch.

I considered loading the rubber-tipped bullets on the longbow but eventually decided not to. I’ll be aiming at the vest no matter what if I wanted to attempt a non-lethal incapacitation. If the lookout was a cheapskate who wore bad armor and got himself killed shame on him, if he wore good armor and I shot rubber-tipped bullets only to alert him shame on me.

When the team was in position I spoke on the comms. “I’ll be targeting the lookout, he’s got armor.”

Jun’s voice followed “Roger, we will split the remaining two amongst the rest of us, Batou and Alex you target the one to the right. Three-round bursts. Confirm.”

“Wilco”

“Alright crew, on my mark fire.”

I aimed at the center of the vest of the lookout.

“3”

I inhaled.

“2”

I held my breath.

“1”

Still holding.

“Mark!”

I exhaled as I softly squeezed the trigger.

The Mach 3 bullet tore through the vest and left a gaping hole in the lookout’s chest.

Poor guy, better luck next life.

“Target down.”

Two more confirmations resounded on the comms.

The whole ordeal was done silently, suppressors doing their job. Which is why we didn’t expect an immediate response. Two figures zipped outside the building in a burst of speed a bit too fast to be normal, taking cover behind the trees.

“Two fast ones” I spoke calmly.

“Revy flank, Batou take point, Alex blind them when possible, Jack keep overwatch on the building.” Jun quickly ordered.

A moment later 4 more gangsters equipped with assault rifles rushed out of the building, this time much slower. I shot at the rightmost one, offing him instantly. I shifted my aim to the next in line and shot again. Only for my bullet to ricochet off his shoulder.

He staggered a bit.

I unloaded the remaining seven rounds of my longbow on the cyborg, forcing him to kneel and cover his head with his arms. I then quickly shifted to the cyclone while the borg was still reeling from my previous shots. I unhurriedly aimed. As soon as he stood up I took the shot.

The roar of my cyclone was deafening even with my ears adjusting the volume input. The recoil propagated from my shoulder to the rest of my body.

The bullet launched at a hypersonic 6 Mach and struck the right leg of the borg, blowing it apart into a thousand pieces. Despite that, the guy was most likely still alive, resulting in my first non-lethal incapacitation. Good job me.

“Two more down, one hard target. Two more are approaching you” I said as I quickly grabbed both rifles and sprinted away, changing position now that my cover was blown. Feeling quickly justified as I heard the thumping of bullets hitting the ground randomly where I was before.

“One more down over here.” Alex’s voice said.

I changed the view of my left eye to Jun’s view to observe their situation. One of the fast gangsters was sprawled on the floor, most likely blinded and then shot by Alex.

Revy was bolting at extreme speeds from the side towards the remaining fast gangster, who was currently pinned behind a tree from Jun’s covering fire. Revy, unlike a reasonable person who would simply fire and take down the guy, had instead decided to continue running, jump and deliver a flying kick, hitting the gangster on the side and sending him rag-dolling on the ground. He lay motionless.

“Another one bites the dust.” Said an out-of-breath and slightly pained voice.

Dumbass was abusing her synth muscles and overexerting the rest of her normal body with all those bursts of speed. She really needed to learn some common sense.

As I was laying down on a new spot and reloading my longbow Batou’s concerned voice resounded in my head. “I could use some help here.”

I shifted to Batou’s view, seeing that the tree he was using as cover was reduced to a stump. He was covering his eyes with his arms, bullets were flying all around him. Those that hit him were bouncing away quite harmlessly, but I doubt it was a pleasant feeling. He was under fire by the two who had sallied forth and by three shooters that were on the second floor of the structure.

Covering fire erupted from behind Batou and the two forward goons were forced to take cover.

I focused back on my scope ready to offer covering fire from the remaining shooters. However, before I could start shooting, a knock-out gas cloud expanded covering the inside of the building’s floor in seconds, silencing the gunfire.

The remaining two gangsters, when realizing that they were suddenly outnumbered, wisely decided to surrender.

As I started walking back to the rest of the team I connected to the comms, and asked with no little dread “Who was it that managed to pull off the gas grenade shot at nearly 200 meters, and accurately hit one of the few window openings of the second floor?”

“Naturally, it was me.” Jun’s arrogant voice confirmed my fears. He will be bragging about this for the next five years. The worst part is that to be fair, it had been a brilliant shot.

Just as I was about to surrender to the painful reality that my future was shaping up to be, Revy’s voice came to the rescue.

“As expected of the young master.”