OG: Interlude: Jig-Jig Street Casino Assault

The Tyger Claws Jig-Jig Street Casino was actually pretty difficult to get to if you were one of their Enemies. It was located in the back room of Jig-Jig Street of the Sea Bar, in a place you'd have to pass through the most heavily patrolled area of Jig-Jig Street to get to. You'd be up to your ass in Tyger Claws Gangoons before you even managed to sniff the Sea Bar. Though Judy Alvarez and Rita Wheeler were taking a sizable number of Enforcers to Slammit On with the Tyger Claws, they didn't think they had enough Iron to zero all the Tyger Claws Gangoons they'd have to if they went in loud.

Fortunately, Punchin' Judy had come through for them with her netrunning skills once again. She'd jacked into the Japantown District Net and managed to download a map of the Japantown Sewers around Jig-Jig Street. She'd managed to figure out a route through the Japantown Sewers that ought to get them to the Sea Bar's Street via a sewer access that was built into a nearby parking garage. That would let them bypass all the Gangoons around Wakako's Pachinko Parlor that they would ordinarily have to Slammit On with first to get to the Sea Bar. Of course, the sewers had their own dangers, Sewer Bandits, and the Odd Monstrosity that the Corps dumped down here to die.

It was one such group of Sewer Bandits that the Mox Attack Squad found themselves dealing with now. Most were former Gangoons, the Ragged Remnants of half a dozen decimated Gangs, living down in the sewers as they tried their best to scratch out some kinda living. Rita Wheeler saw flashes of colors she hadn't heard of in a while, the Kill Krashers, the Crawling Cobras, the Undertow, all jumbled together in one giant amalgamation of Gangoons. This kinda thing just tended to happen down in the sewers. It was a pressure cooker for Gangoons and Gonks that couldn't hack it up top.

Of course, most of them used various Melee Weapons and only a few of them had a proper Iron. Most of that Iron was rusty, Scop, that wasn't exactly the best quality, but could still kill you dead if you got hit too much. Rita was forced to admit that even Rusty Scop, like the Chadran Arms City Reapers used by the Gangoons firing on her at the moment, could zero her if she got hit too many times. Fortunately, the Sewers gave her plenty of places to hunker down and take cover, firing her Duel Lexingtons back at the Gangoons as she slid into cover around a corner. She managed to take one, a Former Kill Krashers Gangoon, judging from the bloody knife that was stitched onto her poncho, through the eye with a slug from her Iron, zeroing the Gangoon in the process.

"Shit! Judy, I'm pinned down here!" Growled Rita over the comms.

"I hear you. My attempt to take the Girls on a flanking run got bogged down, too. Some kinda former Scavs that are all chipped in. They're soaking up bullets like nobodies' business." Warned Judy.

"Great, so I guess that path you found to flank these Gonks didn't turn out, huh?" Questioned Rita.

"Hey, you think you have a better plan?" Queried Judy, angrily.

"Keep fighting the Scavs, I'll come to you." Confirmed Rita.

Then, she took a deep breath, activated her Sandy, and rushed forward. It wasn't one of the most Nova Models, of course, being a Grade Three Zetatech Model and not any of that Fancy Chrome that Big E and the other members of his Crew had. It wasn't even really cutting edge for Zetatech, since it was just a Grade Three Piece of Chrome. That was enough for this, though, and as Time Slowed Down, Rita burst out of cover, Iron out and firing. Within the first two seconds, she'd zeroed four more Gangoons going Guns Akimbo like this. Two former members of the Undertow, a Former Kill Krasher, and an Ex-Crawling Cobra that got unlucky and took a shot to the head from an Armor-Piercing Round.

Then, Rita was among them, janking to the side to avoid a burst of submachine gun rounds from the Last Gangoon with a Proper Iron, some of which slammed into the chest of an Ex-Kill Krasher trying to cut her down from behind with a rusty machete, Zeroing the Gonk with friendly fire. Rita slid underneath a strike from a former Crawling Cobra swinging a massive hammer at her, emptying the rest of her Lexingtons into his torso, breaking through the heavy subdermal and zeroing the Gangoon. As she skipped up to her feet, she pulled her baseball bat and slammed it into the Skull of an Ex-Undertow Gangoon that tried to stab her with a combat knife, cracking his Dome and zeroing him.

A burst of rounds from the Submachine Gun Gangoon, who seemed to be a former member of the Kill Krashers from the patch on her Poncho, leaped over, thudding into the last Melee Gangoon, a former Crawling Cobra with a Fire Axe. The rounds smashed through the heavy Subdermal and shredded the Last Melee Gangoon's insides, zeroing him just before the Sole Remaining Gangoon's Piece of Rusty Scop jammed on her as Rita landed in a crouch next to the poor Gonk.

"And then there was one." Smirked Rita.

With a wordless snarl, the Last Gangoon threw her jammed Submachine Gun to the floor and pulled a Combat Knife from inside her Poncho, charging Rita in an attempt to skewer her. Rita dodged to the side, but the Gangoon was too close to entirely avoid the stab. Rita got cut along her right side, a gash in the RealSkinn opening up and bleeding. The wound wasn't a big deal, though, since it had barely scratched her. Rita's counterattack would be a lot more deadly. Rita's Cyberarm with the monomolecular claws in the nails flashed out, literally clawing the Gangoon's throat out, zeroing her.

"Damnit, that was one of my favorite tops!" Hissed Rita, glaring at the Dead Gangoon.

With a sigh, Rita made her way further down the sewer tunnels, toward where Punchin' Judy was mixing it up with the Ex-Scavengers. Rita Reloaded her Lexingtons as she ran, turning a corner and spotting Punchin' Judy and the main force of Enforcers firing away at the bunch of Chromeheads that seemed to be using Older Soviet Scop for Chrome. Had these been the guys who'd escaped the Organiskaya's Massacre of the Japantown Scavengers? Rita didn't know, and honestly, she didn't care. Instead, she aimed her Iron and fired with both barrels into the backs of the Ex-Scavengers.

Caught from both in front and behind, the Ex-Scavengers didn't last a whole lot longer. Rita had only managed to zero two of them before Punchin' Judy managed to blow one up with some kinda Daemon or Quickhack. The rest began to scatter and were mowed down by concentrated fire from not only Rita and Judy, but the dozen other Moxes that had come along as Enforcers.

"What took you so long?" Asked Punchin' Judy, teasingly.

"Can it. I got here as fast as I could." Smirked Rita.

"Right, well, their camp is this way. I can't imagine they won't have something there to help patch up our wounded. Plus maybe a few eddies to Klep." Opined Punchin' Judy.

"Lead the way." Agreed Rita.

Unfortunately, the Bandit Camp was light on Eddies, only coming up with around ten and a half grand in Eddies, which averaged out to about seven-hundred-fifty Eddies per person. It did have medical supplies, MaxDocs, and so on. Enough to get everyone who'd taken hits Zeroing this Bandit Gang patched up. Mostly, though, the Bandit's Loot came in the form of Ammo and Food. No wonder they'd been driven down into the Sewers if this was the sorta Scop they were going for.

About five minutes later, they resumed their Trek through the Sewers, having patched up their wounded and Klepped Eddies and any Ammo they might have needed. Ten minutes later, they took a set of stairs up and out of the sewers, coming out of a side door in a Parking Garage and out onto one of the narrow streets and alleyways that made up Jig-Jig Street. In front of them, the neon sign above a door in a row of buildings proclaimed the Sea Bar for anyone who might want to know. They'd managed to bypass the heavy Tyger Claws' Presence in Jig-Jig Street entirely through the sewers.

"It worked." Grinned Rita.

"I told you it would, didn't I?" Questioned Punchin' Judy.

"You did. I just didn't know if it would or not." Admitted Rita.

"You thought I was wrong?" Queried Punchin' Judy.

"Not exactly, it's just that things almost never go to plan in times like this." Shrugged Rita.

"I guess that's fair, if kinda douchey. So what's the plan?" Asked Punchin' Judy.

"Now, we head inside and hit our targets. Remember, you're supposed to be Netrunning into their Local Net to Klep any funds they're holding for the Casino. Let us worry about zeroing Gonks." Intoned Rita.

"Got it. Let's go Slammit On, then." Nodded Punchin' Judy.

And with that, the Assault Group entered the Sea Bar. Rita Wheeler looked around the facade, a front business with neon signs advertising this brand or that of Booze, most in Japanese. Bottles of Booze lined up behind a metal bar, and patrons all wearing Tyger Claws Colors. Then she grinned and raised her Iron, putting a bullet right between the eyes of the Bartender, who was reaching for a hidden Shotgun, the Arasaka Rapid Assault with the sawn off stock and barrel fell from nerveless fingers as the Gangoon working the bar was Zeroed by Rita's Shot. Punchin' Judy looked over at a Camera, immediately netrunning her way into it and using it as a backdoor into the Casino Systems as the rest of the Enforcers fanned out.

"Nobody move. This is a stick-up!" Grinned Rita as the various other Tyger Claws Gangoons reacted.

Then all Hell broke loose in the Sea Bar. . .

XXXX

Matsunaga Shunsuke sat in his private booth in the back room of the Jig-Jig Street Casino, watching as various people threw their money away on Video Poker, Slot Machines, and the few table games on offer. There were a million or so Eddies that passed through his Casino every twenty-four hours, and while some of that went to operating expenses and more was kicked up the chain of command, Shunsuke still managed to grab six figures out of the operation in profits for himself every single day. Gambling was by far one of the more profitable ventures the Tyger Claws were engaged in, after all.

He lifted his drink to his lips, gold-plated, black gorilla arms deceptively gentle so as not to shatter the glass in his hand. True, it wouldn't hurt him, but he didn't need the mess it would make of his designer suit. As he sipped the Whiskey, he looked over to the seat across from him, gazing over his sunglasses at Mihoshi. His Bodyguard was an interesting little thing, her hair was dyed pink in parts, contrasting with the black of her outfit and tactical gear. For such a pretty woman, she was so serious all the time. Shunsuke had never seen her indulge even once in the past several months he had known her. She was deadly with her custom Tsunami Nue, though, and Shunsuke supposed that so long as she Zeroed the Gonks he told her to Zero, he could overlook her dour personality.

"Mihoshi, how are we stocked for Yamazaki Whisky?" He questioned.

"We could use more bottles. Mister Shiki over there keeps drinking the stuff. He goes through a bottle a night, and he's been in here every night for the past week." Scowled Mihoshi.

"You don't approve of his presence?" Queried Shunsuke.

"He is a degenerate gambler with no Giri. The only reason he is not a Yono is because of his money." Scowled Mihoshi.

"Which we're taking from him, but that's not the ultimate goal. We want his ownership stake in his Ramen Joint out in the Cherry Blossom Market. Once we have that, we can really begin bleeding him. He just needs to lose enough Eddies to us first." Informed Shunsuke.

"A Bust out?" Asked Mihoshi.

"You didn't think I'd let Kunio come in here and make a drunken ruckus every night without a bigger plan in place, did you?" Questioned Shunsuke with a grin.

"I should never have doubted that. Apologies." Apologized Mihoshi.

"What I want to know is where he keeps getting the Eddies from? The Ramen Joint can't be that profitable that he can come in here and drop preem eddies on the tables every night for a week. What has he been doing?" Queried Shunsuke.

"I do not know." Shrugged Mihoshi.

Before they could ponder that too much, however, the sound of gunshots rang out from the Sea Bar section of the building, signalling trouble in the Front Company that the Tyger Claws were using to mask Shunsuke's Casino Operation. Mihoshi immediately shot to her feet, sliding out of the booth, with Shunsuke a few moments behind her. Both of them pulled weapons. In Mihoshi's Case, she grabbed her Heavily Modified Custom Tsunami Nue, Yorutori, while Shunsuke grabbed his Monokatana, Suzumebachi.

"Gunshots? Here? Has the War gone that badly?" Asked Shunsuke.

"It's more likely that you might think." Offered Mihoshi.

"Right, Kensuke, Chiyoda, get the patrons out of here through the back! Everyone else tool up! It's time to Slammit On!" Ordered Shunsuke.

Two of his men nodded and began rounding up various Gamblers and ushering them out the back door. In the meantime, the remaining ten Tyger Claws pulled Iron and prepared to Slammit On with whoever the Mox had sent after them. They wouldn't have to wait long, hopefully. Jig-Jig Street was heavy Tyger Claw Territory, and reinforcements should be on the way even if Shunsuke and his men didn't Zero the attackers. Of course, they had no real way of knowing that Suzie Q had sent out the rest of the Attack Group to hit Wakako's Pachinko Parlor to keep the main Tyger Claw Force busy.

As for the attackers, however, Shunsuke, Mihoshi, and company wouldn't be waiting long. Not five minutes after the first gunshots rang out, silence stole over the Sea Bar. Then, a few moments later, the door to the Casino was hacked open by an enemy Netrunner, and the Attackers entered with their Iron out and blazing.

And the battle started up once again in earnest. . .

XXXX

Rita Wheeler snarled as she fired her Iron at the mass of Tyger Claws. Some of the Girls had been pretty badly wounded in the fighting and had needed to hang back in the Sea Bar using the last of the Medical Supplies they'd looted from the Bandit Camp to patch themselves up enough to be able to Bombshell when the time came. Fortunately, nobody'd been Zeroed, but it had been a close thing. The Mox was a small gang, mostly made up of Joytoys and Techies. The number of enforcers they had was small enough already, even without the losses they'd taken in the fighting so far. Just a dozen enforcers being Zeroed would equal a fourth of their total number of Enforcers.

Accordingly, when Rita and Judy attacked the Casino, they'd only had a half dozen Mox Enforcers to back them up against a Dozen Tyger Claws Gangoons. As Rita's Lexingtons barked out, spitting bullets, and Punchin' Judy overloaded the cranial implants on a Tyger Claw Gangoon, however, that number got cut down to nine. Then her Girls opened up, Zeroing two More Gangoons, though two of their own got Zeroed in the process. Steph and Maria went down to return fire from a Tyger Claws Gangoon with Pink in her hair and a tricked-out Nue. Two more of her remaining Enforcers got wounded by the Tyger Claws adding their own fire to the intense firefight.

Rita's Lexingtons fired two more times, zeroing two more Tyger Claws Gangoons before she was forced to backpedal away from a flashing monokatana as a Tyger Claw Gangoon wearing designer clothes that looked Draga as all hell along with a preem pair of sunglasses, attacked her. That had to be Matsunaga Shunsuke, the Man in charge of this operation, which would make the Woman with the Nue who had fired off two rounds that zeroed Amanda and wounded Alice, Mihoshi, his Bodyguard. Both of them were on the Target List that Suzie Q had given her.

With a snarl, Rita raised her right-hand Lexington to fire off a bullet from the Iron into Shunsuke's face at point-blank range, but his monokatana swept up and sliced the barrel off her Iron. Rita growled and tried to bring her remaining Lexington to bear, but Shunsuke slammed an elbow strike into her torso that sent her staggering back with a bruised rib. She just barely managed to duck in time to avoid a cut of the Monokatana that would have taken her head clean off. Unfortunately, her counterattack was dodged, Shunsuke engaging a Sandy of his own to leap into the air to dodge the bullet she sent at him.

As Shunsuke came down, using the momentum of his fall to power a downward cut of his Monokatana, Rita pulled her Baseball Bat and raised it up in a parry that drew sparks. She wasn't done, though, shoving her remaining Lexington into Shunsuke's chest and squeezing off two rounds that failed to break through his heavy subdermal. In response, Shunsuke slammed a headbutt into Rita's face that broke her nose and bruised her orbital bone, sending her staggering backward. She tried an awkward parry with her Baseball bat, but she was just too out of position, and the inevitable follow-on Monokatana cut ripped her Bat out of her hand.

However, she was able to squeeze off two more rounds from her Lexington before Shunsuke could retake his guard. These rounds did punch through his heavy subdermal, and Rita smirked as her Iron barked a second time and shredded Shunsuke's insides, zeroing him. He sank to the floor, dead, and Rita looked around. Punchin' Judy was trading fire with Mihoshi while their remaining Enforcers mopped up the remainder of the Tyger Claws in the Casino. Apparently, Mihoshi was bleeding from her nose, eyes, and ears, a telltale sign of an Overheated Sandy. Good on Judy for managing to hit her with that. Now it was time to finish this.

As Rita joined the fight, Mihoshi was caught up in a crossfire and unable to engage her overheated Sandy to escape it. A few moments later, the Remaining Mox Enforcers managed to Zero the rest of the Tyger Claws Gangoons and joined in the fight against Mihoshi. Mihoshi didn't last much longer than that, being shot to pieces. Then, they got to work patching up their wounded, Klepping any Eddies, and having Punchin' Judy jack into the Local Casino Net. Fifteen minutes after arriving at the Sea Bar, Punchin' Judy had managed to crack open the Casino's Data Fortress and redirect the Casino's Eddies to the Mox's accounts using shell companies and false transactions.

They finished patching everyone up who could be patched up, Klepped any physical Eddies, and Bombshelled. They were leaving four of their Enforcers behind. Amanda, Alice, Steph, and Maria had been zeroed by the Tyger Claws. Their share of the physical eddies they'd Klepped would go to any next-of-kin. Given how many Physical Eddies had been in the casino, that was about five grand apiece as all told, they'd Klepped seventy-thousand Physical Eddies from this whole ordeal, plus the million or so Eddies that Punchin' Judy had Klepped over the Net. Rita just wished she weren't leaving four of her Girls on the floor back in the Casino to get that success.

When they inevitably made it back to Lizzie's, however, Rita would find out that they'd got off lightly with only four Girls zeroed. Suzie Q's attack on Wakako's Pachino Parlor had come back worse off twice over. To strike this blow, the Mox had lost a quarter of their non-Huscle Enforcers.

Fortunately for them, the war would be ending soon. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the next chapter. It looks like the attack on the Tyger Claws Jig-Jig Street Casino was a massive success for the Mox, coming away with over a million eddies stolen from their enemies and having zeroed more officers and Gangoons. Of course, by the time all the casualties of the day are counted up, the Wakako-Organiskaya Alliance will have lost many of their officers and over a hundred of their Men in the various strikes. Not to mention that both the Jig-Jig Street Casino and Clouds have had their funds wither deleted or stolen. Of course, the Mox took losses too. Going into this operation, the Mox had fifty Enforcers, now they only have thirty-eight, not counting the Solos they've hired.

Of course, this operation will effectively put an end to the War with the Tyger Claws. Burai is coming for Wakako for starting a war that she's losing badly without proper authorization, while the Organiskaya is on the run, leaving just its Pavel Ivanovich Kublanov, a few dozen Boeviks, Aleksander Yurinov, Khanum, and the Chechen. The next battle against them will be the last.

At any rate, the next chapter will be a return to the MC's POV as he meets with Meredith Stout about the Arasaka Lab Job. I'll also have a few more images and some character sheets out before then as well. We're closing in on the end of the Cyberpunk Section of the Jump. There are maybe three or four chapters left to go.

Stay tuned. . .