OG: Interlude: Clouds Assault

Jessie Nyan had been anxious going into this whole thing. Sure, she and Erica had done some stuff before out in NorCal, like that Biz with the Biotechnica Lab out near Tahoe, or that Biz out in Stockton where they'd had to Zero a bunch of Arzin Tynon Associates for Fixie when they'd tried muscling in on her Courier Biz in Sacramento. This, though, this wasn't either of those. That Biotechnica Biz hadn't been nearly so public, and all they'd really had to do was plant a bomb near what'd been supposed to be an abandoned fish farm from Two-Thousand-Seven on Fannette Island before they'd bombshelled and blown the place sky-high from a distance.

That Lab there'd barely been guarded, as Biotechnica had relied more on Cameras and anonymity than Cylons to keep folks out of their illegal cloning lab. They'd only had to zero a couple Cylons and Netrun their way into some external cameras. The Arzin Tynon Biz had been even less dangerous, since those Gangoons were all talk and tended to scatter the second you zeroed a couple of 'em. She and Erica had been able to zero the leader of their group of associates before running the rest of 'em off Fixie's Turf. They'd only wound up zeroing six out of the fourteen Gangoons, and two of those had been while the Arzin Tynon Gangoons had been trying to bombshell.

Clouds, though? This was a whole different type of Biz. The Tyger Claws were practically crawling all around the place, enough that Jessie was worried there'd be Gangoons coming out of every Scopsucking crevice of the place. Sure, they'd had practice with big groups like this, but they'd never had to Slammit On with so many without some kind of backup before. Unfortunately, they didn't have that backup now, Big E had gone to take down the Red Cyclone Bathhouse on his lonesome, which Jessie figured put him in the running for Hardest Gato out of all of them, and Jackie and V had gone after the Hotel Vladivostok themselves, which Jessie thought was only slightly less Nanars than Big E taking on the Red Cyclone alone. Meanwhile, Rita Wheeler was leading most of the Mox's Enforcers to the Jig-Jig Street Casino. That left her and Erica to deal with Clouds.

"Relax. This Biz is gonna go fine." Reassured Erica.

"Was it that obvious?" Questioned Jessie.

"Jessie, I know you. What do you think?" Queried Erica, cocking an eyebrow.

"Right. I should've figured you'd pick up on when I wasn't chilled." Sighed Jessie.

"Don't worry so much, Clouds is a Preem Gig. There's no way the Gangoons in there are ready for us when they're working a Job this Nova. They're probably kicking back and relaxing, we'll have caught them off guard." Intoned Erica.

"You think so?" Asked Jessie.

"Sure. After all, it's not like they can afford to carry heavy-duty Iron and risk scaring the Bennies and Straphangers coming in from out in Beaverville, now can they? They're the only ones who can afford to splurge on a Dollhouse like Clouds. Well, them and the Corpses out in the C-Suites, but those kinds of Gonks can't afford to be seen in a place run by Gangoons. It's bad optics. We'll be fine." Insisted Erica.

"All right, if you say so." Frowned Jessie.

"I do say so. Now, get ready. Just 'cause we're probably gonna be all right is no reason not to practice Twenty-Twenty Hindsight." Warned Erica.

Jessie nodded once, then pulled her Iron. She'd used some of the Eddies she'd gotten from helping out on this job to upgrade her Lexington with a Power Rebuild, a Grade Five Handyman Short Scope, and both Armor Piercing and Expansive Ammo while also springing for Grade Five Bleedout and Swiss Cheese Mods for her Kukri. Jessie had figured there was no sense in buying completely new Iron she'd have to get used to when she could Zero Gonks with the Iron she already knew how to use perfectly well. Instead, she'd sprung for upgrades of her existing Iron. It had the added benefit of letting her save some of the Eddies she'd earned, too.

Erica, on the other hand, had gone a different route. Sure, she was still using one pistol, but it wasn't the reliable Iron that she'd previously used. Instead, being a Nomad Very Heavy Long-Barreled Pistol, which, while powerful and having a larger magazine, also was a semi-auto Iron instead of the revolver she'd used previously. She'd also added a Grade Five GimletEye Scope, a Grade Five Dybbuk Muzzle Brake, and a Grade Five Better Half Attachment. Aside from that, Erica had sprung for a Federated Arms Pepper Shaker Submachine Gun with an Extended Magazine and Grade Five Focus Fire Attachment, plus the same mix of Armor Piercing and Expansive Ammo that Jessie had for her Lexington.

The pair of them were as tooled up as they were going to be, and as they drew their Iron and the Elevator to the twelfth floor of Megabuilding H-Eight, where Clouds was chimed open, they took stock of the situation. Almost immediately, Erica was forced to snag control of the Cameras with her Netrunning Skills, and that in turn set off a bunch of alarms, causing a veritable flood of Tyger Claws Gangoons to begin piling out of various rooms while Joytoys went scrambling for their booths and the blue-haired receptionist took cover under her desk. Jessie began to fire her Iron into the wave of arriving Tyger Claws, her first shot putting an Expansive Round right between the optics of a Tyger Claw Gangoon with a Tsunami Nue Pistol, the round expanding inside the poor Gonk's skull and popping his head like a melon, zeroing him.

Then all hell broke loose as Jessie had to defend Erica while she tried to seize control of Clouds' Local Net. . .

XXXX

Sato Hiromi had been entertaining guests when the alarms had been tripped. Well, it had been more like he had been overseeing things while Skye and Roxanne had entertained his guests, the two Joytoys were good at that. His two guests were his Direct Superior in the Organization, the goateed, tuxedo-clad Ichida Marcus, and another Senior Officer from Kabuki, the gray-haired, grizzled Hamada Kouichi. Of the two, Hamada was the more dangerous to have something happen to. Hamada was, effectively, the Man in Charge of all front operations in Kabuki. He had a hard line to Burai and through Burai, Shinobu the Second himself.

That was why, when the alarms went off, Hiromi could not help but let out a groan of dismay. This was the worst possible time for something like this to happen. Unfortunately, it had, and now he would have to deal with it one way or the other. He stood from his desk, grabbing Tsumetogi as he did so. Likewise, Ichida grunted and shoved Skye off of his lap from where the Joytoy had been grinding against him on the couch. Ichida grabbed his own sword, Ikakkujū, as he made ready to leave as well.

"Hamada-Dono, please wait here while Ichida-Dono and I take care of the interlopers." Offered Hiromi, formally.

"Indeed, should anything befall you, Burai-Sama would be most displeased, and so would Shinobu-Sama." Added Ichida, also formally.

"Wonderful to see such Giri among the up-and-comers. This old man will wait here for your return." Nodded Hamada, similarly formally.

And with that, Hiromi and Ichida were out the door, leaving Hamada to wait for an update back in Hiromi's Office. Of course, as soon as they'd left, all the formality left the situation, as Ichida turned to Hiromi with a scowl on his goateed face. Hiromi could tell he was a hair's breadth from being zeroed right then and there. Certainly, Ichida had the chrome and the skill with a blade to do it, along with the clout in the Organization to get away with it.

"This Gomi is the last straw, Sato. I knew you'd been lax with security after reports I'd been hearing of that Gonk Woodman being rough with the Joytoys we pay him to look out for, but this is the last straw. If that Leadhead Woodman isn't zeroed by the Mox's Huscle, I'll do the deed myself, and then you and I will need to have a little chat about endangering upper management with your security issues." Warned Ichida.

Hiromi could only nod once, not even protesting at the implication he was being hazed by someone who works for him feeding Ichida reports on what goes on at Clouds. It wouldn't matter at this point, and if he tried to offer some excuse or justification, Hiromi would be the next on the list to be zeroed after Woodman. It would have shown a complete lack of Giri. Besides, Hamada had already been present for this colossal fuck up, so even if Hiromi was going to try and Slammit On, zeroing his way out of this, he would have to zero Hamada too, and that would defeat the point entirely.

"Understood." Answered Hiromi.

In the end, all he could do was fight as hard as he could in defense of Hamada and hope that he could maybe zero enough of the Mox's Huscle to get by with a bit of Yubitsume and a demotion. Ichida looked him in the eye for a few moments before nodding once, then turning and heading for the stairs, satisfied that Hiromi wouldn't try and zero him from behind. With no other path left open to him, Sato Hiromi followed after. When they arrived in the combat area, they found Woodman had already taken a bullet to the brain and that their assailants were the two younger Rimbos that the Mox had hired on as Huscle for the Gang War that they had been fighting. Then, Hiromi let out a shout and charged the Rimbo in the leopard-print jacket, cutting out with Tsumetogi.

And there was no more time for recriminations, only blood, death, and the hope of redemption in the aftermath. . .

XXXX

Jessie Nyan was frowning at the situation. Thus far, she and Erica had been able to hold their position in the Lobby against waves of Tyger Claws Gangoons, though it'd been touch and go for a bit. Honestly, if not for the vests that Big E had whipped up for them, Jessie was pretty sure that she and Erica would've been zeroed by now. They'd certainly taken enough shots from enough Iron to warrant it. Thankfully, it seemed that the Tyger Claws, like most Gonks, were trained to aim for center mass, allowing the Armor to soak up dozens of bullets. After all, they didn't exactly have the full Sardine Can that Power Armored Troopers tended to go for, nor did the vests even cover enough of their bodies to be considered full-on Doughgirls.

However, it was while Erica had been jacking into the local Net via the Terminal at the front desk, the Blue-Haired Receptionist having long since Bombshelled, that the biggest concerted push yet occurred. Six Tyger Claws Gangoons with a mix of Masamune Assault Rifles and Shingen Submachine Guns made their way down the stairs, clearly having had time to tool up, unlike the twenty-five previous Leadheads who'd grabbed whatever they had lying around. These other Gonks were being led by a large, bald Man in a suit carrying an Ajax Assault Rifle.

Jessie growled low in her throat as she fired her Upgraded Lexington at the incoming group of Gangoons, Iron barking out alternating traces of armor-piercing and expansive death. She managed to zero one of the Shingen Gangoons with an Armor-Piercing Round smashing his subdermal and allowing the expansive round to punch through and deform into fragments that shredded his heart. Unfortunately, the return fire was accurate, and she took three rounds to the chest from a burst of a Masamune and two to the shoulder from the Ajax, while a ricochet from one of the Other Masamunes sent bullet fragments cutting across the back of her calf.

Jessie growled, ducking under the circular reception desk and taking cover as more Tyger Claw Gangoons fired at where she'd been previously. She popped up out of cover and squeezed off another quartet of rounds, zeroing two more Gangoons before taking another ricocheted bullet fragment through the meat of her thigh as she was forced back into cover. Looking over at Erica, Jessie frowned. Her Partner was still slumped against the base of the Terminal, doing her Netrunning thing.

"Erica!" Hissed Jessie.

"Almost got it!" Insisted Erica.

"Almost got what? I don't even know what you're trying to do!" Questioned Jessie, tossing a grenade over the counter that exploded, zeroing two more Tyger Claws Gangoons.

"I'm almost into Cloud's Financial Data, just give me a second!" Insisted Erica.

"Do we really have time for this?" Queried Jessie.

As she asked that, Jessie popped up from out of cover and fired her Iron two more times at the Bald, Suited Man with the Ajax. Her first shot missed as the Bald Man janked to the side, firing his Ajax as he did so. Her second, though, got a lucky shot in that punched through the Gangoon's expensive Kiroshi Optics and expanded inside his skull, popping the top of his head clean off and zeroing him. In the process, though, Jessie took another trio of rounds to the armor, one of which managed to crack one of her ribs after the armor had taken so much fire already. She was blown back on her ass back into cover.

"Jessie! You all right?" Asked Erica.

"Give me a second." Ground out Jessie as she reached for the MaxDoc she kept on her, breathing in and letting the medical nanites mend her cracked rib.

"Shit, all right, their ICE was harder to beat than I thought. I couldn't Klep the Eddies in Clouds' Accounts." Informed Erica.

"Great, so that means you left me to Slammit On alone for nothing?" Questioned Jessie.

"I didn't say that. I managed to hit their Accounts with a Daemon of my own devising. The Greedy Dragon Daemon will zero the accounts I managed to access, though the Eddies won't be recoverable." Explained Erica.

"Nova. Can we bombshell now?" Queried Jessie.

"Not till we get that Sato guy that Suzie Q was talking about." Responded Erica.

"Well, come on then. It's not like he's gonna serve himself up to be zeroed for us, now is it?" Asked Jessie.

As she asked that, she stood up, Erica doing the same, just in time to see Hiromi Sato and some other Guy in a weird Red Tuxedo come barreling down the stairs with Monokatanas drawn and ready to Slammit On. Jessie groaned at that, realizing she didn't have time to reload her Iron and had just enough time to pull her Kukri before the two Tyger Claws Gangoons let out some kind of battle cry and charged forward. As they did so, Erica fired her Pepper Shaker at the Tuxedo Guy, only for the Gangoon to suddenly speed up and leap over the hail of bullets. Jessie didn't have time to see much more than that, because Sato had reached her and was cutting at her with his Monokatana.

Jessie Parried with her Kukri, but suddenly found herself being hit by bolts of electricity arcing from Sato's Monokatana through her Kukri and up into her arm. She staggered back away from him as another series of shots rang out from nearby, Erica firing her Iron in a wide enough arc to try and hit something, but to no avail.

"The Tuxedo Guy's got a Sandy!" Warned Erica.

"I'm a little busy here!" Snapped Jessie.

More gunfire rang out as Erica tried to keep the Sandy User at bay with her Iron. Jessie couldn't worry about that, though, since Sato was coming back in with his Monokatana. This time, instead of trying to parry like a Gonk, Jessie dodged the blade. The arcing electric bolts were sparking just an inch away from her head as she just barely dodged. With a shout, she cut out with her Kukri, only for Sato to pivot and dodge the disemboweling strike, instead only taking a graze along his side that bled, but not nearly as much as Jessie expected.

"Combat Stim Implant!" Hissed Jessie.

"Among others." Concurred Sato.

Then he smacked Jessie with an off-hand straight punch that broke her nose, bruised her orbital bone, and split her cheek open. He had some kind of Gorilla Arm covered in RealSkinn, too, apparently. As she staggered back, she just barely managed to sway aside from another cut from Sato's sparking blade, lashing out with her Kukri at the same time, but she only managed to graze Sato again. The Gonk just would not be zeroed. As if to prove the point, Sato lashed out with a side kick that smashed into Jessie's side, cracking the rib that the MaxDoc had only just healed and sending her flying away, Kukri forgotten in the scuffle.

She landed hard next to the corpse of a Zeroed Tyger Claw Gangoon from earlier, one who'd been zeroed with his Tsunami Nue relatively close by. As Sato let out another battle cry and charged forward, Jessie grabbed the fallen Iron and popped off four rounds, emptying what was left in the clip. Sato, mid-rush, couldn't stop his attack and took three rounds to the chest and one to the face, overwhelming his subdermal and zeroing him. He fell to the floor with a strangled cry, one that was echoed by Erica as Jessie reloaded her Lexington.

Jessie pushed herself up to her feet to see that Erica had taken a major cut to her left shin. One that had nicked the scarab bone sheath to show the off-white shinbone below. That wasn't good, and now the Tuxedo Gonk was standing over Erica with his Katana poised to swipe down and Zero her. Jessie growled at that and fired her Lexington, emptying the clip of her iron as she did so. The Tuxedo Gonk, already in mid-swordcut, could only dodge half of the shots. He took four to the torso, two breaking through his heavy subdermal, and the third and fourth punching deep into his torso, the last, expansive, round shredding his stomach, liver, and kidney as the fragments punched out his right side in a mass of gore, zeroing him.

Jessie winced, clutching her side and searching the fallen Gangoons. She managed to retrieve her Kukri, Klep around fifteen thousand Eddies, and find a MaxDoc, which she used to heal her busted rib. Then she made a tourniquet using one of the Dead Gangoon's Belts and tied it off on Erica's Leg, tearing a strip of fabric off a dead Gangoon's coat and using it as a makeshift bandage. That all took around five minutes, and Jessie grabbed Erica in a Bridal Carry and hauled ass back down to the Car they'd arrived in.

Thankfully, it seemed the Tyger Claws were content to let them Bombshell, because they didn't have to dodge gunfire from a bunch of pissed off Gangoons as they escaped. As Jessie Nyan drove Erica to Doc Rainwater's Clinic to get her leg fixed up, she was too busy trying to keep Erica alive to wonder why that was. She would only find out later that their attack had exposed Wakako's Private War to Burai, the only other Tyger Claw Higher-Up would could rival Wakako's influence over the day-to-day running of the Gang.

Wakako would effectively be declared a Yono by the Tyger Claws once all the pieces fell into place. As someone without Giri, that meant she was effectively blacklisted from the Organization. By the end of the Week, Wakako Okada would be found dead in her Penthouse Suite in Japantown, and the Tyger Claws would sue for peace with the Mox. So too would the Organiskaya.

What was left of it by the time the week ended. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the next chapter. As you can clearly see, this was almost too much for a pair of Rookie Solos like Jessie Nyan and Erica Nightly. They largely managed to survive the operation based on luck, and even then, Erica was hurt bad in the process in such a way that she needed an actual doctor and not just a MaxDoc. However, the attack occurred when one of the people who is effectively the second-in-command to the only other Tyger Claws Higher Ups who can rival Wakako in importance within the organization has fucked the Tyger Claws War Effort over more than the Worm Daemon that Erica slipped into Cloud's Financial Database or the deaths of Sato and Ichida. They again lucked out that Hamada was around.

At any rate, the next chapter will be another interlude with Jackie and V attacking the Hotel Vladivostok, then we'll have one more Interlude showing the Mox's Attack on the Tyger Claws' Jig-Jig Street Casino before returning to the MC's POV. I'll also have more character sheet updates out before then as well.

Stay tuned. . .