Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 85: The Plan Goes Smoothly (Patreon)

The convoy entered the canyon. Shadows cast by the modest cliffs swallowed most of the vehicles.

Inside an armored vehicle, the convoy supervisor frowned as the road narrowed ahead. Anyone with a little common sense would recognize it as the perfect place for an ambush. The experienced supervisor sensed danger instinctively.

"Speed up. Get through this stretch as fast as you can."

He had barely finished speaking when everything went wrong.

"RPG!"

As the lead vehicle's driver screamed a warning, a rocket-propelled grenade streaked down from the canyon's front-left slope, trailing flame.

The armored vehicle folded like cardboard and erupted into an orange fireball.

"BOOM!"

The explosion thundered through the canyon. The several-ton armored vehicle flipped over, becoming a twisted mass of scrap that blocked the road.

"Ambush! Protect the transports!"

The Tyger Claws escorts erupted into chaos and fired back.

"Don't stop! Ram your way through the wreckage!"

The supervisor's cold order crackled over the radio. His only concern was delivering the cargo. Nothing else mattered.

At the command, the driver of the second armored escort floored the accelerator and rammed the wrecked vehicle.

"SCREEECH! BANG!"

Metal shrieked as the impact shoved the wreckage aside, opening a gap barely wide enough for a transport truck. The escort vehicle shifted into reverse. Its tires shrieked against the asphalt as it backed away to clear the passage.

The heavy transport truck accelerated into the gap, its armored sides scraping against the wreckage and rock walls in a shower of sparks. It managed to squeeze through, barely.

The second transport truck followed, but the ambushers had no intention of letting it escape.

From a concealed position above the canyon, Pantheon steadied the Nekomata tech sniper rifle he'd captured earlier and pulled the trigger without a trace of emotion.

"WHUM!"

The electromagnetic rails charged, launching a tungsten-alloy round. Even Arasaka's specially reinforced bulletproof glass couldn't stop the Nekomata round. The second transport's driver was blown to pieces.

Out of control, the truck slammed into the cliff, swung sideways, and blocked the road completely.

The convoy descended into chaos. Bullets rained from both cliffs, denting and pitting the vehicles' armor.

The Arasaka elites reacted quickly, throwing smoke grenades to blind the attackers above.

But reconnaissance drones overhead had already tagged every defender. For Pantheon's team, the battlefield was like a one-way mirror.

Jackie and Maine each opened fire with a Militech MK.31 heavy machine gun, pouring rounds into the targets below.

A squad of Militech mercenaries emerged on the opposite hillside. Crossfire from both slopes formed a deadly net, inflicting heavy casualties on the convoy.

Arasaka soldiers swung their armored vehicles' heavy machine guns toward the cliffs, trying to suppress Pantheon's team.

After only a few rounds, one of the mounted guns went haywire, swiveling around to fire on its own side.

Caught between the attackers and their own malfunctioning weapons, the Tyger Claws were slaughtered. In such cramped terrain, their motorcycles were useless.

A convoy netrunner tried to seize back control, only to be swallowed by a blue wave of data.

"Aaargh!"

He screamed as sparks burst from the neural interface at the back of his head. His body convulsed and collapsed into the netrunner chair, giving off the smell of roasted brain matter.

Arasaka's elite netrunners were eliminated in moments, leaving the others to fight on without them. Without their crucial advantages in surveillance and electronic warfare, their expensive smart weapons were scarcely more useful than fire pokers.

The Tyger Claws elites activated their Sandevistans and rushed uphill.

Fast as they were, they couldn't outrun bullets. Coordinated fire from both sides of the canyon riddled them with rounds.

Elsewhere, Arasaka's elite troops used the stranded transport truck as cover and established a makeshift defensive line.

The escorts had called for reinforcements as soon as the attack began.

Anywhere within Night City, backup could arrive in under twenty minutes. Pantheon's team needed to finish the job fast.

[Edgerunner]! [Dead Eye]!

Behind cover, the Arasaka commander felt a sudden chill and threw himself sideways.

"Pfft!"

A huge hole appeared in the armored vehicle behind him, and the round punched straight through his body.

Pantheon immediately shifted his aim to the barely surviving Half-Ghost Mask. Wounded during his earlier charge, the Half-Ghost Mask could only watch helplessly as the next bullet passed through his cover.

"Urgh!"

Pantheon's precise shots tore a gap in the fragile Arasaka defensive line.

At the same time, Militech's mercenaries threw several grenades, nearly finishing off the Tyger Claws.

"My eyes!"

The surviving Arasaka soldiers came under a coordinated attack from three netrunners.

Their cyberware shut down, and their weapons glitched. The well-trained elites became helpless targets who could barely keep hold of their guns.

Pantheon set aside the Nekomata, leaped down from the canyon rim, drew his Wingman, and quickly finished the last few survivors.

"Sweep the battlefield! Move fast!"

Maine and his crew rushed down too. To them, the field of corpses was a gold mine.

Pilar arrived from the rear at the wheel of a heavy tow truck.

"Move aside! Make way for Big Pilar!"

Pilar was ecstatic behind the wheel. Whooping wildly, he pushed the wrecked armored vehicle off the road and into the wasteland.

The Militech mercenaries were just as efficient. After making sure no enemies were alive, several climbed into the transport truck that was still largely intact.

Its engine roared, and the huge vehicle slowly pulled out of the canyon.

Watching the Militech mercenaries leave, Pantheon felt uneasy. Everyone knew what kind of corporation they worked for.

"Pilar, go with them. Keep an eye on those guys."

"You got it, boss! I swear not a single screw will go missing!"

Maine kicked a body, grinned broadly, and clapped Pantheon on the shoulder.

"Fuck yeah, King! Never thought I'd see anything like this in Night City!"

"Heh. There's plenty more where that came from."

Pantheon smiled and tossed Maine a data shard.

Pantheon had called Maine back for the operation. Biotechnica was too busy dealing with pressure from Militech to pay Maine's crew any attention. There was plenty of money to be made from this operation, and Pantheon trusted Maine's crew more than anyone else to handle the work.

"This operation has drawn away almost all the Tyger Claws' elite fighters. Know what that means?"

The two exchanged knowing smiles, like a pair of foxes, one big and one small.

"It means nobody's home."

...

Author's Note

We're finally getting close to catching up with the original raw releases!

As a result, the release schedule will be adjusted from 3 chapters every 2 days to 1 chapter per day. Once I've built up a sufficient backlog again, I'll return to the previous schedule of 3 chapters every 2 days.

Thank you all for your continued support and for following the story this far!