The housing for the directional mic was done. So I took the prototype helmet, and integrated my old mic into it. Setting both pieces of the mic into the housing and sealing it together, then running the wire through the helmet to connect with the radio, flipping the thing around I just popped the radio casing, and hard wired them into unused ports. A few quick checks making sure it all still worked, I sealed it back up and flipped it around.

Yep. Looked a little weird, but hey. Additional functionality!

I plopped it on my head and ran some tests switching radio to directional mic, and it worked like a charm!

I laughed in delight as I spun around on my chair letting the mic struggling to handle the quickly changing environment, but that was fine!

Because I was pulling in more and more alerts!

*100 Crafting XP Gained.*

Satisfied I set the helmet aside and decided to change things up. I still needed to figure out what an ECM system would look like before I messed with the chest rig, so I decided to do some work on weapons instead.

This particular weapon was something I had a plan for. So I quickly checked it out, pulling it out of the case that it had been in. Took it apart, made sure everything was working, and put it back together.

The Shingen was a really good Smart SMG. Probably one of the best Smart weapons out on the market, even if it was a tiny thing.

And Malcolm had a smart link. The gonk had barely used it, but it was perfect. He could be my backup with the Shingen letting him stay in cover and be safe while still helping!

I set it aside, and picked up the next weapon case. I had considered for a while what to get Ichi. His vehicle focus was great, but that still left him in danger, but since we had just lifted a high end Arasaka shipment?

Well the choice was fairly obvious.

Yukimura were solid smart pistols. I had actually slipped two of them out of the shipment. One for Ichi, and one for Hiromi.

I think Hiromi already had a smart link, or if she didn’t I would talk her into getting one, but Ichi didn’t, but again I was going to bully him into it.

Sure, if we dealt with enemies with ECM their smart rounds would be way less effective, but I wasn’t worried about my chooms running into ECM backed borgs. I was worried about Scavs, or street gangs. Giving them each a smart weapon?

It was the greatest advantage, accuracy and rate of fire with the lowest negative. Sure I could have pulled a Malorian for Ichi, I even considered it, but Ichi and Hiromi both weren’t combat focused. So better to specialize them towards smart weapons, giving them a big damage boost, while training them to delta the fuck out of any combat they wind up in.

I looked at the three weapons and nodded. I would add them to each of the armored suits as I prepped them. I could even paint them to match if my chooms wanted.

With that sorted it was back to the grind.

I would need to make sure the holsters would be specialized for my chooms weapons of choice. Malcolm of course would get his Shingen clipped into the front of his chest rig since it was a bit big to holster normally.

I did have some fabric around, but I wanted something a bit tougher. So it was time for another shopping visit to the old lady that made my leotards.

—---

The old lady waved me in the back door after I knocked and I entered the sweat-shop like back room.

“You need more Leotards? Get bullet holes in even more of them?”

“Not this time! I’m doing some work altering some combat armor, and need some supplies.” I answered as I followed the woman over to her little desk which I joined across from her.

“Hooh? Combat armor is good. Keeps your insides on the inside. What are you thinking?”

“Well I want to make some holsters that will match the armor, as well as some adjustments. The armor is currently built for much bigger people than my chooms.” Well other than maybe Malcolm? He was pretty tall. Gangly teenager and everything.

“Hmm. Well then I can be of help. I have a roll of Armadillo weave that might suit you.” The old asian woman lit a cigarette and blew out a mass of smoke from her lungs. “It’s over there, take a look girl.”

I nodded hurrying over to where she was waving, finding the roll of… Well I wouldn’t call it fabric, it was almost like textured plastic, but it was flexible like fabric, and it was studded with some sort of hexagon armoring throughout.

“It’s bulletproof. Decent stuff. Expensive.”

“I have eddies. That’s not a problem.”

“Good! Then we will trade! Now come tell me how that leotard has been holding up. Issues? Chafing?”

“No, it's still very comfortable, thank you. I might need an adjustment soon. I’m planning on getting some more chrome.”

“Hmph. You children and your chrome. Very well. Come with your new measurements and all of your old ones, and I will fix them, or make new. Good?”

“Yes. Thank you. Oba-san.”

“Pfft. Your Japanese is terrible girl. Stick to english.” I pouted at her as she just cackled before we haggled a bit for the roll of Armadillo, but I got it cheap in my eyes and headed back out.

I still had so much work to do!

—--

The sun was coming down when I got a knock on the door, before I could even go to check it opened.

“Motokooooo!” A wild Hiromi cry echoed through the apartment, and I shifted back from the workbench before she burst in.

“Hi Hiromi!” I greeted and had to quickly stand up to deflect the Motoko seeking missile from pushing me into the workbench.

“Schools done! Show me the armor!”

“I haven’t done most of it, but alright c’mere I’ll show you the prototype stuff.” I walked beside my workbench where a disassembled set of Arasaka troop armor was laying.

“This is the basic stuff right? So I’ve been going through each piece and seeing what I can upgrade. Since as powerful as Arasaka is, some stuff is expensive to outfit their grunts with.”

“Arasaka has the best equipped troops in the world, Motoko.” Hiromi replied, and I gave her a teasing look.

“Corpooooooo.”

“Stahp!” She whined at me, and I just laughed but didn’t tease her more.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“It’s good, don't get me wrong, but not perfect. I already added some additional functionality to the helmet, and I’m thinking of an ECM system for the chest rig.”

“Yeah you sent me the request. I haven’t had tim-”

“Hey it’s okay. I’m just going over it. No rush. We have time.” I interrupted her. She had started to sound like she had messed up and she certainly hadn’t.

“Anyway. That’s what I came up with so far. Painting and stuff is obvious, but also, we will need adjustment, so I just got back from picking up this!” I showed the roll of Armadillo weave armored fabric. “This still will give me some material to work with. I’m thinking… Either we get rid of the old jumpsuits we bought, or maybe just alter them?”

Hiromi looked at the fabric before humming as she thought.

“We should definitely do something to increase our style. We need to be… Well not flashy, but we need some flash. Something to make us stand out. It’ll help our marketing.”

I just giggled at the idea of Section 9 having marketing. “Sure. I was thinking a tight undersuit, maybe even in the netrunner styles… Oh that’s an idea.”

Our casual stuff can be netrunner chic. But I can do like a cape, or poncho type thing to wear while we aren’t in armor. Gunslingers of the web? That could be a cool aesthetic!

I sat back down and rolled over to my laptop. I already had netrunner suits scanned of course, so I pulled up a 3d model. And then started basically throwing a slick black poncho over the top.

“That looks weird. What are you thinking?”

“Netrunner Gunslinger. Like the wild west cowboys. Clint Eastwood style. Oh! I could even get everyone some netgogs for tactical displays! Or just the aesthetic.”

A group of four walking up in armored netrunner suits, and netgogs. We would seem like a cool netrunner gang!

And then of course we show up in the full armor!

“Can mine be green?” Hiromi asked, and I shrugged, shifting the color on the poncho to more green. No, that wasn’t right. Maybe green around the edges? I could do some of that with the netrunner suit as well. When I was done I looked to Hiromi and she was nodding.

“Not sure the boys will want to go skintight netrunner suits though.”

“They are comfy, and have protection! Plus, you can wear them under normal clothes. Besides, it’s just for when we are on the job!”

“Hey, I’m just saying Ichi and Malcolm will probably complain.” Hiromi said and I had to nod at that.

It’s fine. This was a cool little project. I already had their measurements. I would need to see the old lady again for more netrunner suits.

—--

Hiromi and I were hanging out in the living room just watching TV as I took a break when the boys finally showed up.

“Let’s get the party started!” Malcolm called out from the door as I opened it and he and Ichi came sauntering in arms full of snacks and drinks.

“This was supposed to be a meeting about our stuff.” I grumbled, but Hiromi was happily cheering along with the boys so I couldn’t do much but just shrug and turn this into a party.

We had done a big gig after all, and we had all had some time to have a sleep and clean up.

“Aw man! That was the beeeest!” Malcolm called out arms up in the air with a Broseph in his hand. “I mean! We did it!”

“My upgrades to the van worked out great.” Ichi added in sounding proud.

“Double HMG turrets are very scary.” I agreed, “Were there any issues with them hitting each other? I know you don’t have a lot of space with both of them.”

“A little. I ended up taking over one of them manually to keep firing.”

“I’ll kludge together some firing programs for you. Make sure they fire together and don’t interfere with each other.” I said and instantly Ichi looked pleased.

“Blegh! No more work talk! Party!” Malcolm demanded throwing a Broseph into Ichi’s hands, and attempting to put one on me but flipped it back on him and picked up my soda.

“Motoko showed me her idea for our new stuff. Including the netrunner undersuit.” Hiromi added, and I looked at her in confusion, because the way she was speaking was almost teasing.

“Absolutely not.”

“Nope.” Both boys instantly denied. “I’m never getting in one of those skin tight things.” Malcolm added, and I looked between the two of them.

“No, but! It’ll look cool! There will be an armored poncho on top for casual wear, we’ll be cyber gunslingers! It’ll look preem!”

“No.” Ichi denied shaking his head. I looked to Hiromi who was holding in her laughter and at the sight of my face she failed.

“I’m sorry!” She gasped out around giggles. “I just knew it wouldn’t work and wanted you to know before you set your heart on it.”

“You guys suck.” I grumbled. Fine. I’ll keep the cool cyber gunslinger outfit for myself! “What do we do for our less armored setup then? I was planning on it being something we could easily throw our gear on top of.”

“I’ll just wear my normal clothes. Just take off my jacket or something.” Malcolm offered and Ichi just shrugged along with it.

“Fine, you absolutely tasteless fools! I’ll make you armored clothing or something. Ugh.” I grumbled my idea of a team of matching cyber ninjas all disappearing.

Maybe another time.

It didn’t matter. Whatever my chooms wanted as long as they would wear it and keep their butts safe I was happy.

“Oh! I have stuff for everyone!” I stood up and rushed to the room grabbing the cases with the weapons and cheerfully bringing them back to the living room.

“So since we just got a bunch of high end Arasaka equipment, I think it’s time we do some weapon upgrades. Hiromi, Ichi, these are for you.” I pushed both of the smaller cases to them and Hiromi looked pleased as she pulled out her Yukimura, quickly gripping it, and checking it out.

Good she did have a Smart link.

Ichi on the other hand just looked neutral about it.

“I don’t have the equipment for this.”

“I know.” I said assuringly. “Smart link and optics are something I figured would be a good idea to start with anyways… Is that okay? You aren’t like… Against Cyberware or something right?”

“No, of course not. It’s just expensive. And I didn’t really think I would use smart weapons much.”

“They are perfect for you though! Easy to use, highly accurate. Perfect for spraying into a crowd of gonks causing you trouble, and then you have your HMG’s for bigger stuff. Hiromi gets a Yukimura too, it’s a really really solid self defense pistol.”

“Yeah… I guess. Probably about time I spend some eddies on some chrome anyways.” He offered, scratching at his head.

“Well just make sure to take it slow. Smart link and optics, just get some good stuff, you have the eddies now yeah?”

“Yeah.” He said, finally sounding confident. A reminder that we had made a lot of eddies on that last gig helped.

“What about me?”

“Something a bit bigger.” I said, sliding open the bigger case and there it was. The Shingen.

“Huh. Shingen?”

“Firepower and accuracy. You already got the smart link, so it can help make sure every bullet counts, and you get a bit more firepower than Hiromi and Ichi… Since you’ll be my backup more often than not.” My words caused a reaction.

Malcolm looked up and our eyes locked and then he smiled, looking pleased.

“Yeah. I’ve got your back.”

I smiled at his confidence. “Oh I finished the prototype for the helmet as well, I want your feedback!” I called out as I rushed back to my room grabbing the helmet and bringing it back out held in front of me with a big smile.

“Tell me what you think!”

“Motoko, why does your helmet have kitty ears?”

“What? No it doesn’t!” I denied, that was a bold-faced lie!

“Those are definitely kitty ears.” Hiromi confirmed looking at the housing for the directional mic.

“That’s not what that is!”

“It’s kitty ears.” Everyone kind of just nodded along together as they looked over the helmet.

“It’s really not! That’s where the direction mic is located! I just had to make a housing structure for it to make sure-”

“Mokoko, it’s fine.” Hiromi said, patting my shoulder and all I could do was pout as my chooms talked about my kitty eared helmet.

I hate them all!

“Sure we aren’t going to piss off Danger Gal with this?” Malcolm asked Hiromi and she shook her head.

“Kitty ears aren’t trademarked, besides Danger Gal hasn’t been really active as a company in years. They only pop out to do special gigs now.”

“Preem. So when do we get the complete ones.”

“I don’t know, maybe when I stop making them look like cat ears apparently.” I grumbled, but my pouting didn’t help, and only made my chooms laugh all the louder.

Soon enough everyone was nudging me and smiling and I finally sighed and just decided to let it go.

I guess I accidentally’ed cat ears onto my helmet.

“Forget it then! Now let’s all party!” I cheered, raising my Ni-Cola into the air and everyone clacked their drinks to mine.

—--

We partied hard and while everyone was relaxed I took fresh measurements for my adjustments. The next day after rolling my chooms off my couch and out into the day I headed out as well. As much as I wanted to keep slamming my head into the tech work. There was something I had been preparing.

I headed to Vik’s. Stopping to see Misty and chattered at her for a while about my recent adventures before heading back down into Viks shop.

“I hope you're ready!” I called out as I stomped into the bottom only to stop and smile as Vik wasn’t alone.

“Jackie! I haven’t seen you in forever, choom!”

“Hah. It hasn’t been that long Hermanita. How ya been?”

“Good! We just got back from a huge gig! Worked with an Arasaka corpo to recover some stolen goods.”

My answer seemed to shock Jackie. “What? Really?”

“Oh yeah. Hiromi’s dad works in the corp, and he hired us through her to get the stuff back. Turned into a big thing, but we made some serious eddies! I saw V too. I needed to call her in because of a thing.”

“Well… It’s good she’s doing well. Haven’t seen her in a month or so. She’s been busy.” Jackie offered, seemingly shaking himself a bit to focus, but I did catch it.

He was upset.

“Jackie?”

“Ah. It’s nothing Hermanita. Nothing.” He assured me, patting my shoulder a lilttle awkwardly.

Jackie was so funny.

“You know… If my team ends up picking up another big gig. We could always use more bodies. People we can trust to watch out back. The eddies are good.” I offered and he seemed to wince more than seem happy at the offer.

“I’ll think about it Hermanita, but let’s switch topics. You’re here for the old man eh?” Jackie looked to Vik who had been gathering things up for me.

“That's right Jack. I told you I had an appointment. You ready kid?”

“For chrome? Always.” I said, but then took back my words as I didn’t want Vik to think I was being blase about it. “I’m mentally prepared, and I do need this. It’s important.”

“Alright kid. Well it’ll be a while. So go ahead and get comfortable. Jack-”

“Say no more Vik, I’ll come chat with you about that move I can’t get another time.”

“Just practice it, I think you’ll surprise me, if you keep at it. Alright kid. Let’s get you changed.”

I nodded, and slipped into the medical gown.