I got a call from Hiromi.

*Hey Hiromi! What’s up?*

*Motoko! I did it! I got us a gig to get supplies! You are going to love this!* Hiromi practically squealed into the phone as I pushed myself away from the workbench to focus on the call.

*Okay, hit me.*

*Okay so, I was talking to my Dad, and he mentioned there had been an AV carrying supplies shot down. I think you can figure it out from there?*

*Oh easily. Arasaka doesn’t care so much for the supplies just wants to send a message?*

*Ehhhh. Dad does want some of the supplies returned, there was some data he would like to retrieve if you catch my drift. But trust me, I negotiated really really hard! Papa was so proud! We will walk away with loads of equipment.*

*Alright. What do we know? Do we know where the supplies are now?*

*That’s… The problem. No, not exactly. It was definitely some nomads, the attack happened in the badlands but whether it’s nomads, or Wraith Arasaka doesn’t know. That’s for us to find out basically.*

*Hmm… You didn’t already confirm our participation right?*

*No way! We have a contract that we negotiated but it’s unsigned, I wanted to run it past you first to make sure it’s even possible.* Hiromi trailed off. *I’m pretty confident, but you are the one who has to do it.*

*Hiromi, you’re perfect. Send me what data you have okay? I’m going to call Saul and make sure it wasn’t the Aldecaldos. If it wasn’t that narrows it down, and he might even know who took it.*

*Alright, I have the info, sending now.*

I checked over the text. The supplies were taken out of a downed AV all men had been killed, and by the time Arasaka had sent a second AV to check it out everyone on board was dead, and the stuff was taken. This happened last week, and so far Arasaka hadn’t dedicated any resources to handle the problem.

*And your dad, he’s responsible for finding the shipment? I just want to know in case we refuse, we wouldn’t be screwing him over right?*

*Nope. Dad is the one who is in charge of the guy that was responsible for it. That guy is… Well Dad just mentioned he was no longer a problem, he might have been responsible for leaking the flight plan, willingly or not.*

*Okay. Give me a few minutes and I'll call you right back. Can you get Ichi and Malcolm? We should all discuss this.*

*Hehe! You got it, leave it all to your fixer Hiromi-chan!*

I just laughed at how cute Hiromi had tried to sound, but hung up a moment after and made the call to Saul.

*Ringing.*

*Ringing.*

*Ringing.*

*This is Saul.*

*Saul, it’s Motoko. Do you have a moment to talk? Business.* I added at the end.

*Hmm. Sure, what’s going on?*

*Let’s just say I’m looking at a contract to hunt down someone that downed an Arasaka AV last week. Current assumption is some Nomad group. I just want to make sure I’m not going to be hunting people I actually like… If I take this, I won’t be hunting down you, or your family… Right?*

The line was quiet for a moment, but Saul spoke up a moment after clearly.

*Normally I wouldn’t want to answer that sort of question, but in this case, it wasn’t us, so I don’t have to beat around the bush and pretend. We don’t go after corp AV’s unless it’s on contract, and we haven’t poked any corps in a while. Much less Arasaka. Sounds like a Wraith group. Probably on contract by Militech.*

*I assumed it was a counter corp thing, glad to hear it isn’t you guys. Sounds like I’ll be running around the badlands in the next few days. Maybe I’ll stop by and say hi. Maybe with more Wraith vehicles that might need new owners.* I offered.

*Tell you what Kid. You’ve been square with us, and I do appreciate the call to make sure you aren’t taking a contract on my family. I don’t think we have much need for more vehicles, but I’ll contact Dakota for you. She’ll likely give you a call, might even have some information that might narrow your target down a bit. If I know Dakota, she’ll take a chunk off from the vehicles if you can supply them in payment.*

*That would be perfect. Thanks Saul. I really appreciate it!*

*No problem kid. Good hunting.*

*Thanks!*

I quickly ended the call and pushed my chair away from my workbench so I could give myself enough space to quickly spin myself around as I giggled at kicked my feet.

“New gig! New gig!”

—--

“Welcome to the Section 9 pre-mission debrief!” I called out as Malcolm finally arrived and I handed him his favorite Ni-Cola and ushered him inside the apartment.

“Thanks?” He questioned looking around but Hiromi just waved at him lazily from the couch, her face still buried in a laptop she had brought with.

“Don’t mind Motoko, she is just excited.”

“Hey! I’m not excited… I’m super duper excited!” I called out happily, and I was.

A nomad group wouldn’t just be a couple dudes in an apartment. This would take actual work to plan out, I would have to go in full ninja mode, and murder potentially dozens of bad guys!

So much XP! So much loot! I would actually have my team with me to loot the place! Sure the Arasaka Helmet was only mid, but their armor was good, and so we would definitely end up with weapons, and armor for my team!

We would look so fucking cool after!

“Alright settle down.“ Hiromi demanded pointing mostly at me. “Here is what we know, and it isn’t much. Thanks to Motoko knowing the Aldecaldo leader I got in contact with Dakota Smith, she’s one of the big fixers in the Badlands. And we got some potential targets for who took the shipment, but nothing concrete.”

“The Badlands is pretty big.” Malcolm sort of pointed out slowly. “Are we even going to find these gonks? I mean we can’t do Motoko’s Camera trick out there.”

“True, but we have all the data Arasaka has, and more importantly. We know who didn’t take it.” Hiromi added, and she turned to me, I threw her a thumbs up.

“We got some stuff to go on. Dakota was kind enough to give us some data in exchange, for a lump payment now, which will be returned to us if and when we sell off the suspected Raffen Shiv vehicles we are probably going to come into ownership of soon.”

“Oh! I want one!” Malcolm called out and Ichi slapped him on the back of his head.

“You already have two cars, you gonk.”

“Nah. The Archer was stolen by my mom. She always wanted her own car, and I can’t exactly drive my baby to the grocery store!” He argued, waving his hands as if that would emphasize his point. It honestly only made me laugh all the harder.

“This gonk! He spent all his eddies on a car he can’t even use!” I cackled and Malcolm grabbed an empty Ni-Cola can and chucked it at me, but my ninja reflexes were too strong!

I managed to bat it away and smile widely at him.

“I can so use it! I just don’t want to drive it around to places it could get targeted, or get me targeted.”

“So you can’t use it.” I mumbled under my breath quietly enough that everyone heard it.

“Let’s focus back up you gonks.” Hiromi demanded poking me in the side to get me to stop messing with Malcolm

“We will obviously need some actual on the ground scouting this time, but that’s gonna be super dangerous. Thankfully Motoko’s wheels are already made for the badlands so we got that. Ichi Malcolm and I will drive together in his van to Dakota’s garage. She agreed to let us set up there as long as we don’t drag any trouble there, so we have a staging ground.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“While I hit the locations we think might have the loot!” I burst out unable to contain myself.

I would probably have to hit multiple Raffen bases!

I shivered and didn’t discretely wipe my mouth at the idea of all the XP! Definitely not!

“Right. Motoko will go out scouting, but that’s going to take a while. The Raffen will often have security around the camps in case someone is driving up on them, which means getting a mile or so off and walking… Motoko?”

“Easy. I got good boots, and I’ll bring lots of water in the car.” I waved off the concern. Seriously these city kids! As if walking a mile in a desert was that tough. I had done it before even and I was way more beat up then! And there had been a sandstorm!

“So that’s the idea. Motoko hits the locations, clears them out, we find our target, and Ichi moves in to remove it.”

“What about the places Motoko scouts that aren’t the target?” Malcolm asked, once again proving he was my swiftly shooting up the favorite charts. “Like what about all that loot that will be left behind?”

Hiromi fumbled for a minute and looked to me.

I just shrugged. “We should expect this could take a while, days maybe. So if I clear a place you guys move in, we loot up and leave. Run the idea past Dakota I guess. She’ll probably take the loot, or know where we could offload it… Or she’ll refuse cause it’ll bring a lot of heat. Who knows.”

“Okay. I’ll run the idea past Dakota after this meeting. For now Malcolm we will loot it up, or if Dakota says it will bring too much heat… We can just sell the info. The Aldecaldos would be happy to loot it in our place.” Hiromi muttered I could tell the way she said it that she liked the idea.

“I’m okay with that. It’s gonna be hot out there.” Ichi offered, but Malcolm was a true loot goblin and glared at both of them. Our eyes met.

Yes, my choom. The loot shall be ours.

We nodded silently. Compact complete.

“Oh! Malcolm, take my HMG too. That way you guys will have a lot of protection between Ichi’s turret, and you backing him up.”

“Oooh.” Malcolm gave me a sinister smile, which I returned.

“Okay you maniacs, we do have another problem. Please turn your eyes to Arasaka’s only information on the attackers.” Hiromi demanded, and turned her laptop around, where there was a small text log.

It was transcribed from the pilot, and I frowned deeply at what I read.

“That’s going to be a problem.” Ichi offered, but Malcolm jumped in instantly after.

“I want it! Dibs!”

“Fuck!” I cursed, because the idea of a vehicle with a Rocket Launcher on top was pretty rad. Like… At least as cool as my Black Quadra.

“I really don’t think you need a rocket launcher equipped vehicle, Malcolm.” Hiromi tried to argue, but I actually considered it and shook my head.

“Actually. If we gathered a few armed vehicles like that, and stored them for emergencies… that’s not a bad idea. We might take gigs where we have to hit AV’s or need to take out an armored transport. Having something like that in storage isn’t a bad idea.”

Hiromi looked like she was going to argue but her shoulders slumped. “That’s true.”

“Yes!” Malcolm fist pumped because that meant we were definitely taking heavily weaponized vehicles for ourselves.

“Okay but back to the point. That thing is super dangerous. What do we do?”

“We infiltrate their camp and kill them before they get a chance to get in their rides.” I offered with a shrug. “I’ll just have to be super careful if any of the thieves manage to get into their vehicles that could be pretty dangerous.” It made me consider whether I needed to bring my Uragan, but that might be overkill.

Nekomata should punch through the armor pretty well, and at close range and not standing on top of a moving vehicle, I should be able to hit the driver.

“Alright! Let’s get everything we need sorted out tonight, and we can head out in the morning to Dakota’s garage!” Hiromi called out clapping her hands to refocus us all. “We will have a mission budget, so run things through me, and we can get everything sorted out!”

“Don’t forget to bring lots of water!” I added looking at my chooms who all rolled their eyes at me.

—--

The next morning we all met up at Hiromi’s parking garage, and Hiromi dropped a new issue on our heads.

“Dad wants to talk to everyone about the gig? I think he just wants to meet my chooms.” Hiromi added looking nervous as we all arrived.

Ichi, Malcolm, and I looked at eachother and I could tell the boys weren’t interested, but Ichi shrugged and Malcolm relented a moment after. “Sure, I guess.”

“If our client wants to meet, I’m not against it.” I added, and Hiromi looked relieved as we all headed towards the elevators.

The ride up was quiet and I could see Hiromi sort of buzzing with anxiety but we stepped out and over to her door which she opened and led us in.

There, sitting at the big table in the dining area was Hiromi’s father. That same sort of sinister look behind his eyes was present just like before.

“Ah Hiromi! I see you brought your little friends! Good. Why don’t all of you come over for a minute, this won’t take long.” He called out waving us over, but I noticed didn’t actually ask, or offer us a seat.

Once we walked over he looked the three of us that weren’t Hiromi up and down, paying particular attention to me.

“You look like you are doing well, Motoko wasn’t it?”

“Yes. Nice to see you again as well. I hope that our completion of your gig will meet your satisfaction.” I added, and he simply smiled lightly, like he was looking at a child showing a finger painting, or a small dog.

“I’m not overly concerned, which is why I agreed to let Hiromi take on the contract for this issue. My true concern is that my daughter comes to no harm while working this gig. I hope you understand my meaning.”

I nodded to the man, while my mind was buzzing.

That’s right. Arasaka was full of people like him. Arrogant men and women, that don’t actually care about the bottom line, just as long as their pet projects or comforts were respected.

Who cares if Arasaka lost a shipment, as long as they weren’t the ones directly responsible for it? That just meant they could remove some upstart below them, securing their own power. Throw eddies at some mercs to see if they could kill the ones that attacked them problem solved. No longer a problem.

This guy didn’t care about the shipment. Didn’t care about killing the ones responsible. Very likely if Hiromi hadn’t offered to take the contract he would have just filled in a report somewhere about how he had hired some mercs with company eddies and they hadn’t found anything. All the while just pocketing the money and never bothering to actually investigate.

This was a sign of the arrogance and corruption within Arasaka at this time.

But I didn’t care. As much as Hiromi planned on joining the corp. I didn’t, and didn’t have any reason or desire to try and fix it.

I would happily take the eddies though.

“Daddy, I already told you what I would be doing, I’ll be at a nomad fixers base the whole time.” Hiromi did not quite whine, but I noticed her lie right away. She was planning on helping when it comes to cleared camps.

I wasn’t going to call her out on it though.

“Alright. Well I mostly just wanted to see my daughter's little friends. Heh, putting together a merc group at fifteen. What a goal getter. You’ll go far if you keep that ambition honey.” He added, with the fakest fake laugh I had ever heard, and the way he said honey made it sound like a foreign word on his tongue.

Hiromi just smiled at her dad though.

Whatever, it was time.

We were all dismissed after that, and Malcolm and Ichi both hurried for the door, obviously uncomfortable.

Yeah I get that chooms.

We were quiet on the elevator ride back to the garage, where we finally seemed to relax.

“Alright team, mount up. We have a long drive to get to!” I called, and that got everyone moving. Ichi and Malcolm jumped in his van, and Hiromi joined me in the Quadra.

We caravaned out of the city, I kept it slow making sure Ichi had protection on the drive.

Time for the hunt to begin.

—--

Dakota had been true to her word. Giving us a few different camp locations that we could check out.

I had left my chooms behind, and headed out, Parking far away from the first camp, I had hiked for a while under the sun. Thankfully it wasn’t too hot, and I had a water bottle, so I was fine.

Unfortunately I hadn’t noticed any sensor equipment out in the desert, so I was pretty sure I could have just driven right up.

Oh well, it was worth it just for the ninja aspect. Nin-nin.

Crawling through some old brambles gave me a good covered position as I looked into the camp.

It was an old tunnel, probably a mine. The entrance was only sorta fortified. I noticed a mediocre attempt at putting up trash into a wall around the exterior, but it wasn’t even tall enough to block my sight as I scanned over the camp.

I only saw one vehicle, and it wasn’t the one I was searching for.

But there were tire tracks leading into the mine. So they likely parked inside.

There were a few electronic defenses. Cameras, and I saw an old dirty HMG turret scanning at the entrance of the camp set up on an old fridge by the looks of it.

*I’m at the camp. Checking it out now. I’m not sure this is our target, but I’ll be checking out the mine to make sure. Sending details.* I spoke into the group chat, while sending pictures by text to my chooms.

We were still on coms with each other. We were still close enough to Night City that we had our agents working just fine after all.

*Not seeing a lot of people.* Malcolm noted and I nodded to myself.

*I think they are inside the mine, probably cooler in there.*

*Watch out for traps! There might be… Land mines! Or something!* Hiromi added and I chuckled aloud, but didn’t send it through the agent.

*I’ll keep my eyes open.* I assured her instead.

*That car, I don’t think it has the weapons our target has.* Malcolm added in, but Ichi instantly responded.

*They might not weaponize every vehicle. Don’t want your underlings driving something that can take you out after all.*

*Alright chooms. I’m moving in. Going dark.* I felt my smile widen as I said that. So fucking cool. Then I clambered out of the bushes and wiped the brambles out of my hair before moving closer.

There were a few people outside in the camp proper. Time to introduce myself.

I stalked up until I was close enough I could hack the cameras without the lag potentially interfering in my breach. Slipped into the defenses, and uploaded my Ghost Daemon into the network.

Now I would be a lot harder for any of their sensor equipment to catch. I also sent a ping through the network, watching as the lines blurred into vision.

Yep, there were three gonks outside the cave, and at least a dozen more inside.

That could be irritating depending on how they were camped out.

I considered just slipping into the cave, going through it and scouting the place without killing anyone, but honestly. Leaving myself without an exit was a really bad idea.

Fact was, stealth was good, one of my best skills, maybe even a bit OP, but it could fail, as it had against Thomas, and getting caught without an escape could actually lead to my death.

So quiet, consistent, and deadly it was.

The three gonks outside were all doing their own thing. One was working on the car that was parked outside. It looks like the car had something wrong with it, and he couldn’t drive it inside.

Another was inside a small shack near the entrance to the mine. With a bit of peaking through the cameras I could faintly hear some commercial playing, so he was just chilling.

The third looked to actually be on guard duty. Which was weird for a Raffen camp.

There was an overhang near the HMG turret they had set up and he was sitting in the shade looking out over the desert with a big old Grad Sniper resting beside him.

Okay. I slipped closer, taking control of the cameras and locking them into an angle that would make sure it couldn’t catch sight of what was going to happen.

I slipped over the trash without a sound, as I did so my hands were busy, quickly pulling free my Lexington, and the silencer, and in one move slowly screwing them together.

Then once I had that taken care of I pulled my knife.

I hadn’t actually used the silencer in a real life condition yet, didn’t want to misjudge a shot and have a ricocheting bullet alert the camp so no long range shooting with it yet.

I actually ignored the guard first. I had no idea what their guard schedule was like, so I wanted to leave him alive until I was ready to move into the mine, instead I scurried under old trash, and busted equipment, until I was at the entrance to the mine.

The gonk inside watching TV was first.

I scoped out the little shed and narrowed my eyes in a little frustration.

I don’t know if I could slip in without being seen.

So I raised up my pistol held in my right hand, my knife in my left raised up to help support and I stalked closer, getting up to the hut I peaked through some of the wood slats and got my first look at the woman that was inside. She was actually working on something while she watched TV. Her hands busy with some tools as she stared down at her workbench.

Well that made this easier. I did actually slip in, while she was distracted, and a moment later her throat was missing and I carried her gently to the ground.

*500 XP Gained.*

One down.

I stepped out and stalked towards the gonk working on his car. It’s kinda funny how often I’ve killed someone doing this.

He was at the side of the car actually changing out the wheel.

I considered it. Should I just let him finish before killing him? It would save my team or the nomads some work later…

I shook it off, stalked up and with a vicious move tore out his throat as well. I stayed down with him for a moment making sure no noise had alerted the guard, but it was quiet.

*500 XP Gained.*

With that I went after the last one.

But since there was no one else outside, I figured I might as well get some experience. I got close enough, lined up a shot and pulled.

The sound of the bullet in the air wasn’t entirely quiet, but it was a whole lot quieter than a normal shot.

*500 XP Gained.*

The man slumped and I nodded.

Cool. Three down. A dozen more to go.