OG: Hotel Vladivostok Assault

The Hotel Vladivostok was situated near where Japantown and Charter Hill met, out near Japantown South, close to Dark Matter and Gold Niwaki Plaza. Honestly, this was a pretty Preem area of Night City, Draga as all Hell. Jackie Welles felt out of place here, even though he knew he was here to Slammit On with the Organiskaya. Of course, as he rode shotgun in V's Ao Guang, Jackie couldn't help but grin. He was getting to hang out in the same Preem parts of town that the Corpses in the C-Suites tended to hang out with. Even if he was here to Slammit On and wreck the place up, it was still farther than he'd ever thought he'd get.

"Jackie! Did you hear me, Choom?" Questioned V loudly.

"Sorry, lost in thought, Chica. What were you saying?" Queried Jackie.

"I was saying that response times from the Badges are gonna be quicker than usual out here, 'cause of all the money in the area. We're gonna need to get in, zero our targets, and bombshell as fast as we can. That means we're not gonna have much time to Klep stuff." Reiterated V.

"Right. Guess this close to Charter Hill and North Oak, the Badges don't play around, huh?" Mused Jackie.

"Count on it. The NCPD isn't the worst of it, though." Warned V.

"It's not? What else do we need to worry about?" Asked Jackie.

"If we cause enough of a problem, there's a Dynalar Response Team that's about Fifteen Minutes out as the Ayvee Flies." Informed V.

"Right, cause of their giant complex out in Charter Hill. I think we can handle a few Cylons at this point, V." Scoffed Jackie.

"Sure, maybe if we were talking Kang Tao or something, but Dynalar manufactures a couple different loadouts of Chrome for Full-Borgs. You really think they won't keep one or two back at their Corporate HQ just in case?" Questioned V.

"Good point. So what sorta window are we looking at here?" Queried Jackie.

"I'd say give it around forty-five minutes before the Badges show up, and maybe twenty for Dynalar Cylons if they're gonna get involved to prevent any spillover into Charter Hill Proper." Cautioned V.

"Right, so do we have any clue on where these Gonks that Suzie Q wants us to Zero might be?" Asked Jackie.

"Club Astra, most likely. It's a big nightclub that takes up the whole penthouse floor of the Hotel. If I'm the Boss of a Major Organization like the Night City Organiskaya, I'm gonna want to have the most Preem Seat in the House, even if I own the building. Maybe especially if I own the building." Hedged V.

"Works for me. It's better than just zeroing Gangoons at random, anyway." Shrugged Jackie.

"Right. We're almost there, so get your Iron ready and make your final gear checks." Huffed V.

Jackie nodded, going over his Iron and Equipment one more time. Everything seemed to be in order, though, and as V parked in a lot nearby, Jackie got his first real look at the Hotel Vladivostok. The glow of red neon advertisements contrasted against the White Marble Facade of the building that must've cost some Preem Eddies. From what Jackie could see of the inside, the Lobby was pretty Draga too, with a crystal chandelier and marble floors. Jackie'd never been to Europe, but he figured this was sorta what all those Old School Hotels used to look like back in the day, the Hotel Monte Carlo and so on, just modernized. It really hammered home that this place catered to Corpses in the C-Suites and Gangoons that had Eddies to burn.

And they were about to go in, Iron hot and blazing to zero any poor Gonks who tried to get in their way. Jackie could only shake his head as he looked over at V. She'd grabbed one of the Submachine Guns that Ernesto had tinkered up for her recently for when she couldn't use her bigass sniper cannon. The thing was apparently some kind of laser weapon made up of advanced alloys that could recharge its power cell from literally anything, even putting it in a fire would work. She also carried a Pistol that fired more conventional Ammo and was a Copy of Ernesto's Original Pistol he'd used before creating his Xipe Totec.

Jackie, though? He'd always preferred pistols, and Ernesto had made him a good one. Sure, this Blast Pistol Thing only had a limited number of shots, only being able to fire six times before needing a recharge, but between that, his Plasma Shotgun, and his Foehammer Revolver, Jackie was pretty sure he had the ability to zero any Gonk in the building. With their armored vests, too, they were pretty much unstoppable. Now, V and Jackie would put that to the test.

As they entered the Lobby, both V and Jackie pulled their Iron and Jackie sighted down on the clearly mobbed-up Gangoon guarding the Elevator as random guests went running for cover. His foehammer barked twice, zeroing that Gangoon and another that'd just pulled a Techtronika Burya Revolver and was taking aim when the second shot from Jackie's Iron struck him right between his optics, zeroing him. V meanwhile, turned and began hosing down a trio of Gangoons with beams of coherent light that seemed to burn through chrome and skin as easy as anything.

Then a bunch of Organiskaya Gangoons burst out of another nearby doorway, leading to a bar, with a combination of pistols and shotguns, including a goddamn Rostovic Street Destroyer! Jackie whirled about and began firing his Foehammer with one hand, pulling his Blast Pistol with the other as blasts of high-energy laser fire joined the heavy slugs from his Foehammer. Jackie must've zeroed four out of nine before the Gangoon with the Street Destroyer managed to fire a scrap metal slug that smashed full-on into Jackie's chest, knocking him to the floor.

"Mierda!" Swore Jackie as his vest soaked up the hit, though not without taking damage. His ribs were gonna feel that for a while. Fortunately, Jackie managed to flip over in time to Zero the Gangoon creeping up on him with the Dai Lung Magnum to double tap him. He fired his Blast Pistol into the shocked Gonk's face at point-blank range, literally melting the Cabron's face with his Iron and zeroing him.

Then V showed up with her Submachine Gun, laying down suppressive fire and forcing the remaining Organiskaya Gangoons on the Lobby Floor back into the Bar to take cover behind the copper bartop. Honestly, the whole Bar had an ambiance of burnished copper, like something out of some kind of old school science fiction piece. Jules Verne or something like that. Either way, taking cover behind the bar didn't help the Organiskaya Gangoons too much, as V managed to zero them just fine while letting Jackie take a bit of a breather from the doorway. A burst of fire from her Laser Submachine Gun effectively suppressed the Gangoons while shattering the bottles of booze stacked up against the wall behind the bar, raining glass fragments on their heads. As soon as she'd suppressed them, V leaped up onto the bartop and began firing her Pistol, zeroing the remaining four Gangoons.

As she came walking out of the Bar, V nodded over at Jackie from where he was nursing his ribs. He was pretty sure they were bruised at least. The Rostovic Street Destroyer was some pretty heavy iron, after all. A railgun, even.

"You all right?" Questioned V.

"I'll be fine, Chica. Worry about yourself." Huffed Jackie.

"What do you mean?" Queried V.

"Watch your ear." Intoned Jackie.

V frowned, putting her hand to her right ear and finding it coming back wet with blood. She looked pretty amazed that she'd even been hit, and Jackie couldn't really blame her there. They'd zeroed those Gonks in the Lobby fast, after all.

"When did that happen?" Asked V.

"Who knows? Could've been at any time." Shrugged Jackie.

"Right, come on. We're on the clock here." Nodded V.

Then together, they headed for the Elevators to make their way up to Club Astra and the Penthouse Floor. . .

XXXX

Pavel Ivanovich Kublanov had not always been so successful. His first job had been as a factory worker at a radio plant in Khabarovsk, only for the market panic following the Mideast Meltdown to cause him to lose his job. The night after he had been laid off, Pavel had stolen a load of copper wiring intended for use in the factory. He'd taken it to his cousin in Vladivostok, who had ties to the Vladivostok Organiskaya, and the rest had been history. Literally, even as Pavel was ninety-eight years old, though he looked as if he were about thirty to forty years younger, thanks to having had the Eddies to pay for medical treatments to extend his life.

Yes, Pavel Ivanovich Kublanov had been around a long time, which was why he knew that if they were going to continue this War to a successful conclusion, they would need more Huscle. Oh, certainly, he had intimated to Wakako that they had this all but wrapped up already, but much of that was bravado. The Organiskaya had to bring in fresh blood in order to bolster their ranks if they wanted their actions to live up to that bravado.

This was largely because Pavel had seen through Wakako's little Maskirovka attempt. He had known that she had some ulterior motive for floating the idea of a ceasefire beyond simple consolidation of gains. He had his men do some digging, and what they had unearthed revealed just how fine a line they were all walking here. Wakako had started this War without the sanction of Shinobu the Second and could only pull in so many resources to the war efforts before someone noticed that didn't approve.

That was why he, Sergei, and Arkadiy were now seated in a private booth in Club Astra, the Club that was the star attraction of the Hotel Vladivostok, which not only had a bar and dance floor, but also Gambling Parlors, Doll Booths for Joytoys, and even shadier facilities. It truly was one of the largest money-making operations the Organiskaya had in Night City. This and the Red Cyclone provided a sizable fraction of the Organiskaya's revenue. The rest was largely in back alleys and street corners, and a few, smaller operations, such as Gunrunning down on the Japantown Docks.

They were seated in this Private Booth, talking to two Solos that had come over from the Old Country to work for them as Huscle. Their fees were quite exorbitant, especially as they demanded eddies up front, but their reputations suggested they were worth the Money. They had worked several jobs both as a duo and separately that would be commensurate with a high level of veterancy.

The first and less talkative of the pair was an Asian Woman with long black hair and an armored parka. Both of her hands had been replaced with chrome. In this case, a pair of Modular Cyberhands. Khanum, she was called. Former Mongolian Special Forces, Khanum had done a number of jobs over the years in the Russian Far East and Central Asia once she had been cashiered and found herself outgrowing the Solo Scene in Ulaanbataar. This included the assassination of a Korean Gang Leader in Yuzhno-Sakhailinsk, who had hired a respected Solo from Seoul, going by Hwarang. In the end, Khanum had managed to zero both the Gang Leader and Hwarang, putting her on the map as more than just a local Solo.

The more talkative, yet somehow more mysterious of the pair was a bald, scarred, Chechen Man in an armored trenchcoat. This man went only by the handle of the Chechen, and he used to be a member of Spetznaz. That wasn't interesting by itself, the Organiskaya had plenty of people who were former Spetznaz, but what was interesting was that the man had also supposedly trained at several of the advanced training schools as well. From the stories Pavel had heard about his exploits during the SovOil Clearances in the Urals, the Caucasus Conflicts, and half a dozen other small-scale wars besides, Pavel could well believe it.

"So then, you agree to our terms?" Questioned the Chechen.

"I am thinking it over. Do not rush me." Frowned Pavel.

"Why reach out to us if you weren't planning on paying our rates?" Queried Khanum.

"Still, fifty thousand eddies as a signing bonus is a bit steep, is it not?" Asked Sergei.

"Perhaps, but you wanted quality Huscle. You want quality Huscle, you pay Quality Huscle Prices." Shrugged the Chechen.

"We could simply walk away from the table. You would be out the eddies for your flight to Night City from wherever it was you were staying. Where did you say that was again?" Questioned Arkadiy.

"We didn't." Intoned Khanum.

"Besides, we both know that you wouldn't do that. By now, half the fixers in this town already know we are meeting. If you walk away, they will know that too, and so will your prospects for other Huscle." Smirked the Chechen.

"Very well." Nodded Pavel, coming to a decision.

"So you agree, then?" Queried the Chechen.

"I do. What would you want as a per-diem?" Asked Pavel.

"A thousand eddies a day for expenses sounds about right. I could go as low as half that, though." Offered the Chechen.

"Done." Intoned Pavel.

Just then, however, the sound of gunfire could be heard from over by the Elevators. Pavel frowned at that, peeking his head out of the booth. What he saw shocked him. Two of the Mox's Huscle had shown up and were zeroing his men! Turning to the Chechen and Khanum, Pavel nodded at the pair.

"It is time to earn your keep! Get me out of here!" He hissed.

"Right, follow me. I saw a roof access somewhere and can summon our ride with the remote control." Nodded the Chechen.

In the meantime, both Sergei and Arkadiy would spring into action as well, Sergei rushing for the security office to organize a counterattack and Arkadiy moving to command the various Boeviks currently fighting the Mox's Huscle. Pavel, however, would manage to escape, thanks to Khanum and the Chechen.

Sergei and Arkadiy would not be as lucky. . .

XXXX

V snarled as she fired a burst of beams of coherent light from her new Iron at the various Organiskaya Gangoons that had rushed to Slammit On with her and Jackie. She mowed down a quartet of them as they charged her, firing shotguns, pistols, and assault rifles, mostly Old Soviet Scop that was still able to zero folks as well as the day it had come off the assembly line. To her right, Jackie fired his own Iron, the Blast Pistol burning a hole through the chromed-up torso of a Gangoon that had been close enough to a full borg that V had to figure he'd come to the Organiskaya through the Scavengers. The Scavs were almost as Chipped in as Maelstrom were these days, after all.

"Mierda! I'm empty on the Blast Pistol!" Swore Jackie, switching to his revolver. The Foehammer punched an attacking Organiskaya Gangoon out of a mid-air leap that he'd been pulling with a Sandy of some kind. The Rostovic Kleaver falling from limp hands alongside the Body that Jackie had shot out of mid-jump.

"Try your Plasma Shotgun!" Insisted V, mowing down a pair of Gangoons that were firing back with assault rifles. The bullets from the Soviet Scop the Gangoons were wearing hadn't managed to do much more than deflect off V's vest before her Iron spat death and zeroed both of the Gangoons.

"Right." Agreed Jackie, pulling his Plasma Shotgun. Not a moment too soon, either, because a Small, Wiry Gangoon in a long trenchcoat had just arrived with a forty-millimeter, pump-action Grenade Launcher that he leveled at them both.

"Down!" Called out V.

Jackie and she hit the floor, rolling into cover behind an upturned roulette table as the first grenade was launched, high explosive pulverizing the thick wood and metal of the roulette table and throwing her and Jackie back with concussive force, but they were only lightly bruised and singed and ready to fire back. As it happened, Jackie got there before V did, firing a blast from his Plasma Iron that seared through the Gangoon even as he fired a second grenade at them both, his aim sent askew by being zeroed so hard. The grenade flew up, exploding against a crystal chandelier that sent jagged shards of razor-sharp crystal flying everywhere, cutting into both V and Jackie as they tried to get into cover. V took a shard of crystal to the meat of her left bicep, while Jackie seemed to have a shard through the meat of his right thigh.

They both managed to stagger into cover, however, just in time for a quartet of heavily armed Gangoons to emerge from a side-room somewhere, armed with better quality Shotguns and Assault Rifles, along with an honest to god Light Machine Gun, a German-made Sternmeyer M-Five-A SAW. Behind the advancing Quartet was an old, Bald, Gray-bearded Man, Sergei Antonov, Sovietnik of the Night City Organiskaya.

"Zero the Gonk with the Machine Gun First! I'll handle the others!" Ordered V.

"You got it, Chica!" Agreed Jackie.

Then, for a few brief moments, all Hell broke loose as V and Jackie popped out of their cover to lay down a blistering torrent of firepower on their attackers. V's Laser SMG spitting beams of coherent light that zeroed one of the Gangoons, wounded another, and sent the rest scurrying for cover. One of those, the Machine Gunner, dove to the floor and began to open up with his Iron on their position, forcing V and Jackie to duck as the light machine gun blasted chunks out of their cover. Jackie popped out of cover and fired a single blast from his Plasma Shotgun that put the Machine Gunner down, though he took a heavy round to the pauldron to do so. V, not wanting to be left out, frantically popped back up and began firing, her Iron spitting more coherent light and zeroing the remaining two Gangoons.

Then she felt a pain in the meat of her right thigh, and V was falling sideways, looking at the direction the pain had come from and seeing that Sergei Antonov had pulled a pistol from his trenchcoat while she'd been dealing with the other Gangoons and had literally shot the leg out from under her. That didn't stop Jackie from zeroing the Gonk in the aftermath, his Plasma Shotgun belching out incendiary death that zeroed Sergei fast.

V couldn't focus on that right now, though. Instead, she reached for the emergency MaxDoc she kept stashed on her person, grabbing the inhaler with shaky hands and raising it to her mouth before depressing the plunger. As she breathed in, the medical nanites began to do their job, patching up V's thigh. It was a patch job, but that was fine. It only needed to last till they were finished here, anyway.

"Come on, we need to find the security room and erase any camera logs before we Bombshell, just in case the Badges show up early." Insisted V.

"Right, come on." Agreed Jackie, hauling V to her feet.

Together, they limped their way into the room the well-armed Gangoons came from. Sure enough, there was a small weapons locker and armory next to a terminal showing camera feeds. While V jacked into the Terminal to Netrun her way through the local Net and delete any camera footage of the attack, Jackie spent that time Klepping what he could in terms of Eddies. By the time V was done erasing any record of their presence, Jackie had klepped twenty grand in Eddies. Then they bombshelled.

V and Jackie got out of there just five minutes before the NCPD would show up, having successfully dodged the metaphorical, if not the literal, bullet. They'd taken out two of their three targets as well, though the Big Boss had escaped with his new Huscle. It was only a matter of time till they zeroed him too, though. That was what V thought, anyway. She had no way of knowing just how right she was on that count.

By the end of the Week, whatever was left of the Organiskaya would be begging for peace. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next chapter. Here we see how the attack on the Hotel Vladivostok went. V and Jackie managed to take out two out of their three targets, but the Organiskaya have called in some Huscle to even the score. Things are trending toward a climactic showdown there. On an unrelated note, I have decided that I'm gonna do character sheets at the end of the interludes, so as to not have to keep doing them over and over again after each interlude.

At any rate, the next chapter will be an interlude involving the Mox's attack on the Tyger Claws Jig-Jig Street Casino, then we'll be back with the MC. I'll also have more images out before then as well.

Stay tuned. . .