Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 11: Security Robots (Patreon)

Pantheon gave a knowing snort. A notification flashed across his cybernetic eye.

BOOM!

Thermal smoke grenades he'd planted inside and outside the factory detonated in succession. Within seconds, scorching smoke swallowed the entire abandoned building.

"Fuck! Thermal imaging's down!"

"Watch out for an ambush!"

Unable to see, the three men panicked and sprayed bullets blindly into the smoke. Not one shot came close to Pantheon.

As soon as the trap went off, he'd rolled behind a concrete pillar. Rather than return fire immediately, he simply waited for them to empty their magazines.

These weren't trained soldiers, just small-time thugs without the slightest grasp of basic tactics. None of the three thought to conserve ammunition, so their weapons ran dry almost simultaneously.

What was there left to say?

[Dead Eye]!

Pantheon even yawned. Through his enhanced vision, the gray-white smoke thinned into a faint haze, and amber outlines traced the three men's bodies.

Both hulking bodyguards had heavy subdermal armor, so he aimed for their throats instead.

Bang! Bang!

The Malorian thundered twice. Its powerful rounds met almost no resistance as they shredded flesh and cervical vertebrae. Deprived of support, the two men's heads rolled to the ground.

The surviving henchman lost his nerve and bolted for the factory exit. Pantheon raised his gun, but almost at the same moment, a muzzle flash lit the water tower a hundred meters away.

Pfft!

With Lucy's targets already tagged, the smoke offered no concealment. Her suppressed sniper rifle barked softly, and a round punched through the back of the fleeing man's skull, turning his head into a red mist.

The headless body stumbled another two steps before collapsing face-first into a puddle.

"Nice shot, choom! Beautiful shot!"

"Less talking. Watch the car!"

The tension in Lucy's voice had eased a little, though she was still keeping a close eye on their target.

Wind blew through the open factory, clearing the smoke before long. Three bodies lay in pools of blood.

Watching through the Chevillon's bulletproof window, Old Dog's expression shifted from contempt to horror. He lunged toward the driver's seat, desperate to get away.

"Only thinking about running now? Too late!"

Pantheon smirked and looked toward the cooler beside Old Dog. Besides half the drug sample, it held a little insurance he'd prepared.

A concealed timed bomb would begin its countdown if it went five minutes without a reset signal.

And by his reckoning, those five minutes were almost up.

Beep. Beep.

Sharp electronic tones sounded inside the car. Worse still, they were getting faster.

Old Dog clutched his chest. His heart hammered in time with the countdown as an ominous red light glowed from a hidden compartment beneath the sample.

"You bastard!"

BOOM!

Flames burst through the seams of the car. Its windows shattered, the bodywork crumpled, and the entire vehicle went up in flames.

Pantheon covered his head with both hands and leaned against a pillar, eyes shut, ready to collect Old Dog's body once the fire died down.

But just as he thought the matter was settled, a blackened metal arm reached through a shattered window.

Pantheon's eyes widened. He survived that?

Old Dog hauled himself halfway out of the car. His back was scorched black, his expensive suit hung in tatters, and his chest was a mangled mess of bloody flesh.

But he was alive. A bizarre mechanical heart throbbed in the wreckage of his chest, stubbornly keeping him going.

"Cough... You little bastard! You think it's over?!"

Old Dog spat bloody foam. His one surviving cybernetic eye glimmered as he glared at Pantheon with unrestrained hatred.

"We'll see which one of us dies first! Hahahaha!"

Click. Click.

The Chevillon Emperor's trunk suddenly sprang open. Heavy metallic footsteps sounded through the flames.

Two hulking black robots emerged, their crimson eyes locking onto Pantheon. Thick military armor covered their bodies, and each carried a Militech MK.31 heavy machine gun.

"Watch out! Kang Tao security robots!" Lucy shouted over the comms.

A chill raced down Pantheon's spine. It felt as though some enormous predator had fixed its gaze on him.

RATATATAT!

The heavy machine guns opened up, flooding the place where he'd just been standing with bullets.

His reflexes were fast, but against that kind of suppressive fire, all he could do was scramble behind cover.

He tried returning fire. The bullets barely scratched the robots' armor, throwing off a few sparks and, at best, making them pause for an instant.

A muzzle flash flared on the distant water tower. Lucy's sniper round struck one robot with a shower of sparks, sending it stumbling back two steps.

When it steadied itself, however, all she'd done was dent its shoulder plate.

No penetration!

"I'll see if I can hack them!"

Data streaked frantically across Lucy's cybernetic eyes. A moment later, she grunted as if someone had punched her, and blood trickled from her nose.

"Military-grade ICE! I can't break through it that quickly!"

"Can you freeze them for a second? Two seconds would be plenty!" Pantheon called from behind his pillar, unable even to raise his head.

"I'll try!"

He held his breath as [Battlefield Instinct] screamed warnings through his mind.

Both robots kept up their suppressive fire. Then they pulled grenades from their waists and hurled them behind his cover, saturating almost every route of escape.

[Dead Eye]!

Pantheon shot two grenades out of the air, opening a brief gap in the explosions. His legs drove hard against the ground, and he sprang like a cheetah toward a pillar on the far side.

BOOM!

The blast hurled fragments of concrete everywhere. Pain jolted through his chest, his blood seemed to churn, and fresh rents appeared in his bulletproof vest.

Then the volume of gunfire dropped. The robots were running low on ammunition and had started reloading in turns.

Pantheon recognized the opening immediately. There might not be another.

"Lucy! Stop the one that's shooting for two seconds!"

"Got it!"

Lucy set down her rifle and threw everything she had into the intrusion. Her eyes blazed blue. Wisps of smoke curled from the back of her head, carrying what might almost have been the smell of roasting meat.

The robot's movements turned jerky. Its trigger finger twitched twice and froze.

Pantheon inhaled deeply and stepped out from cover.

He couldn't hope to punch through military-grade armor with a frontal shot from his revolver.

But the armor plates met at a narrow seam between the robot's chest and abdomen.

That was his only chance.

Come on, then. Let's see how much you can take!

[Dead Eye]!

He raised the gun and squeezed the trigger.

Bang!

The first round struck the seam. The armor buckled so slightly it was almost impossible to see.

If one bullet wasn't enough, he'd use two. If two weren't enough, he'd use three. He refused to believe a pair of mass-produced robots could stop him.

Time remained nearly frozen. Pantheon corrected his aim and fired again.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

All five bullets struck almost exactly the same spot.

The two enemies he'd killed earlier had already given him stacks of [Stronger with Every Battle]. Now the increased critical hit chance offered a sliver of hope.

His cylinder emptied. He reloaded at blinding speed and kept firing.

The seventh shot.

The eighth.

The ninth!

At last, the final round forced the battered seam open and punched into the robot's core.

Precision electronics shorted out in a cascade. A shrill electrical screech rang out, its crimson eyes went dark, and the machine toppled to the ground.

"Cough!"

Time resumed. Pantheon's vision blackened, and sharp pain drilled through his brain.

He caught himself against the pillar. His newly replaced lungs felt as though they were burning, and a mouthful of blood surged up his throat.

He'd pushed [Dead Eye] far beyond his body's limits. The neural load had reached a dangerous extreme, leaving him unable to activate it again for the time being.

"Pantheon! Are you okay?" Lucy's anxious voice broke through the comms.

"Not dead yet. Still got one more!"

The second robot assessed the situation and discarded its empty machine gun.

One arm transformed, extending a monomolecular blade. The weapon hummed with intense heat, warping the air around it.

Pantheon reached to his waist and tossed his last two flashbangs.

"Watch your eyes!"

From the water tower, Lucy launched another intrusion in perfect time with his throw. Exhausted as she was, she could disrupt the machine for only a fraction of a second.

That was enough.

The robot took both flashbangs head-on. Its visual modules overloaded and shut down, leaving it swinging the heated blade blindly in front of itself.

Pantheon seized the opportunity and rushed in. He ducked past a slash, grabbed a chunk of concrete half as tall as a man, and swung it like a sledgehammer straight at the robot.