Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 36: Cyberpsycho (Patreon)

Back on the battlefield, Jackie and the others kept Maelstrom pinned down from the front while Pantheon picked off targets from behind. In Cyberspace, the netrunners maintained their electronic suppression. The only reason Maelstrom hadn't broken yet was that its members were already half out of their minds. A few, realizing they had nowhere left to run, even tried to detonate the mines and take Pantheon's team with them.

Fortunately, the netrunners reacted in time and switched the mines to manual control.

“Hold the line! Everyone, hold the line!”

With the comms channel jammed and cutting in and out, Sergei had no choice but to shout his orders. As a Maelstrom officer, Sergei was no pushover. Unfortunately for him, he'd underestimated his enemies and held back at the start. By the time the battle turned against him, it was too late to make his move.

Static crackled through his head, and his enormous single cybernetic eye changed colors like a string of flashing lights. The survivors were all equipped with military-grade ICE, but against such a huge gap in computing power, it was only a matter of time before their defenses fell.

The battlefield had been divided into isolated pockets. The last handful of Maelstrom fighters had been forced inside the warehouse. For the moment, the warehouse's thick walls kept the automatic turrets at bay.

“Boss, we can’t hold out much longer! Let’s retreat!”

Every so often, another scream came over the comms, further crushing what little morale the survivors had left. Outside, the gunfire was fading. Most of the Maelstrom fighters there had already been wiped out.

Sergei couldn't stand the thought of watching the trusted men he'd trained so carefully die one by one. Nor could he bear to lose the power he'd fought so hard to build. He'd poured a fortune into the warehouse and the stronghold around it. If he abandoned it now, he'd never recover.

“I can’t back down. I won’t lose!”

He muttered to himself, then a ruthless glint entered his eye. He'd have to gamble everything.

“You guys hold them off here. I’ll go get ‘that thing’ out.”

“Boss!” “Boss!”

Ignoring his men's cries, he ran toward the basement at the far end of the warehouse without looking back. Pantheon had just climbed in through a second-floor window. At the sight, he sneered contemptuously.

“Tsk, now you’re thinking of running?”

He gave a cold laugh and twirled the Wingman in his hand. There was no reason to drag the fight out any longer.

[Dead Eye]!

He swept the muzzle across the men Sergei had left behind and locked onto his targets.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Several heads burst under the gunfire, and their owners swayed before collapsing. Only one managed to dodge, barely, with the help of his Sandevistan. Pantheon had no patience for him. He fired several more shots, cutting off every avenue of retreat.

“Boss, run!”

Four-Eyes screamed his warning. As Pantheon bore down on him, the Maelstrom fighter desperately activated his cyberware again.

“You bastard, don’t underestimate the bond between us!”

He'd activated the Sandevistan countless times tonight. His nervous system was already on the brink of collapse. His four cybernetic eyes shuddered as he stared at the incoming bullets, multiplying them into a blur of afterimages. Somehow, the Sandevistan on his back activated again, and he avoided the fatal shot.

“Watch out, he has Cyberpsychosis!”

Maine had caught a glimpse of it from a distance. He shouted the warning, every nerve suddenly on edge. Four-Eyes adjusted his stance and lunged toward Pantheon.

“Damn it, why does this make me look like the villain?”

Still furious, Pantheon snapped his wrist and reloaded in an instant. Idiot. Who said anything about fighting you up close?

“Bang! Bang!”

Pantheon's bullets sealed off every escape route. Four-Eyes could only take the hits or charge straight through them. But a cyberpsycho was no longer an ordinary human being. His subdermal armor couldn't stop every shot. Bloody holes opened across his body, and his intestines spilled from his abdomen.

As though he felt no pain at all, he laughed hysterically and kept charging.

Four-Eyes spread his arms, and a pair of Mantis Blades sprang out, glowing a sickly green. Pantheon's mouth twitched. He had no desire to be touched by those biological weapons. Who knew what was smeared on them?

The Sandevistan kicked in again. Four-Eyes blurred into a trail of afterimages, blades thrusting straight toward Pantheon. The Wingman fired again and again, but Four-Eyes dodged every round. He grew faster still, even as dark-red blood gushed from the holes in his body.

At that rate, he would bleed to death in minutes without Pantheon lifting another finger. Four-Eyes clearly had no intention of giving him those minutes. As the cyberpsycho rushed closer, Pantheon calmly produced a shotgun.

“Surprise!”

A tech shotgun. The Satara. A pistol lacked the stopping power to kill a cyberpsycho instantly, so Four-Eyes could afford to ignore it. A shotgun was another matter, especially a charged shot from a tech shotgun like the Satara at point-blank range.

Even several layers of subdermal armor and a bulletproof vest might not save him from a glancing hit. There was a good chance he'd be reduced to an unrecognizable heap.

Pantheon laughed and fired twice at Four-Eyes.

“Bang! Bang!”

Hundreds of pellets spread through the air. No matter how fast Four-Eyes was, he couldn't dodge them all. He tried to slip aside, but Pantheon's muzzle followed his every movement.

The metallic reek of blood filled the air. Pellets shredded Four-Eyes' limbs. Both legs disappeared, and all that remained of his left arm were two sections of alloy bone and a few scraps of flesh. With his remaining right hand, he caught Pantheon's trouser leg. Blood streamed from the corner of his mouth.

“I won’t let you interfere with Boss Sergei.”

Pantheon planted his foot on the Maelstrom fighter's head, his face twisted with rage.

“You animals actually have some kind of brotherly bond? Really? I don’t believe it!”

He pressed down slightly. Four-Eyes' head burst with a wet pop, showering Pantheon in blood.

[Detected trait: [Edgerunner] (Purple)]

Description: Love is the ultimate inhibitor.

Effect: Grants active control over overloaded organs and cyberware. While active, Body +5 and Reflexes +5. Cyberware cooldowns are halved.

(Temporary attributes are not restricted by stat allocation rules.)

Four-Eyes' fingers loosened one at a time, finally releasing Pantheon's trouser leg and falling limp. From Maelstrom's point of view, Four-Eyes hadn't done anything wrong. The strong were supposed to humiliate the weak without mercy.

To them, that was simply the natural order of things. They'd never stopped to wonder what would happen when they themselves grew old and useless.

Pantheon wiped the blood from his face and stared at the warehouse elevator. Something was rising from the basement.

“Ding!”

The elevator arrived with a chime, and the low rumble of an engine came from within. Before the doors could open, two enormous metal hands punched through the gap and tore them apart by brute force. Twisted pieces of metal hurtled toward Pantheon. He shot them aside with a single round.

As the dust cleared, a towering, menacing shadow took shape in front of them.

“Power Armor!!!”