41 Case 013 - Test Drive

Case 013 - Test Drive

Okay, we're all set. Team, weapons, training, implants. All done. There's only one thing left to do. Test drive. For that, we've already offered a new level of insurance to some wealthy clients. Who, after some consideration, agreed to buy our services. That is where the problem arose, that our team did not have a memorable name backed by reputation. We could have just called ourselves some kind of super-medics, but it seems to be too amateurish. We need to earn the right to a name first.

So for now we just pass as a special team with a simple call sign C-01. It's been a few days now, and we still haven't gotten any calls. Yeah, this is not what I was expecting.

"C-01, emergency evac request. Customer Platinum+. Sending data now." - Speak of the devil. Dispatcher sent us the data both on the client and on the alleged adversaries.

This time our client was some manager from Zetatech. All of his guards have been taken out, and he himself is being gutted by Maelstrom's netrunners, according to the tracking system. We'll have to break through with force and get him out as fast as possible. Knowing how brutal these barbarians are, our client could die due to shock or lack of important organs, which would either be chopped off or ripped out.

"Okay, everybody get ready. We're coming in with a bang. Kill all except the customer. Private, get the shield, according to the maps there are corridors waiting for us, which could become perfect traps. The rest of you take the extra elements of body protection. Oleg and Yaroslav, work as mules, we do not have enough time so we will flood everything with fire. So extra ammo won't harm us. Plus, you'll have to keep an eye on the enemy netrunners. If you see demons and viruses coming at us, mark the one who launched them and only then you can clean us off. Just like we went through during training. Got it, everybody?"

The answer was a lot of nods. Now, the main thing was to calm down. My adrenaline was surging through my veins. It was my first trial by fire, after all. Breathe in and out. Raise your hand. And sharply lower it, and loudly say, "Fuck it.

My strange gestures caused a smirk from the others, but everyone knew that the leader released his stress. And some, including Private, repeated after me. Finally, the green light came on, announcing the minute readiness. We flew up to one of the balconies next to the apartment where our first adversaries had settled. The external cameras identified at least six enemies, and we automatically sorted out our targets. Rico hopped at the machine gun, and the rest of us pointed our guns toward the exit.

Abruptly the outer door opened and we immediately opened fire. Machine gun fire sliced in half two of the freaks on the right and grazed a couple in the center. The others wanted to take cover or escape, but the fire from the rest of the team didn't give them much of a chance. I myself managed to get a short burst into one freak who wanted to escape, but the bullets tore his back at the same time throwing him toward the door.

"'Storm!" - a short order and everyone runs toward the door. Private takes it out with his shield, and we follow, covering him from the flanks.

"Clear!" - all three of us reply, with no potential enemies in sight.

A quick check of the map and here we're still 100-150 meters away from our objective. That's if it's in a straight line, but there's a run through the corridors waiting for us. When we find the shortest path, we form an assault formation.

Private goes first with the shield, followed by me. The medic brothers follow and the last one is Rico, ready to cover us with sniper fire. We cover about half of the way in this order. The last corridor left, but a barricade meets us there. Maelström goons try to suppress us with fire, but both I and Private go like an icebreaker, not paying attention to the fire, thanks to the shield that takes up all the fire. A few bullets ricochet, but they don't do any damage.

While we're here pretending to be an ancient phalanx, the rest of the team take comfortable positions behind us and start firing at the enemies. Rico was able to kill about three bandits in 10 seconds, causing them to panic. But we've already passed enough to knock out the rest with grenades.

"Private. Standby. Five seconds." - After giving the order I take out a boosted grenade and throw it behind the barricade. Then I quickly get into a stable position and prop up Private's back.

Bang.

Without wasting a second Private breaks apart the damaged barricade with his shield. We go in together through the gap, and Private gets down on his knees and gives me the direct line of fire. Three short bursts from the submachine gun and a few single shots from the assault rifle put an end to the confrontation with the barricade defenders.

"Report!" - another command.

We're all clear and all in order. Well let's keep moving on, the only thing left is to sweep the room where the last misfits and our client are sitting in. But we can't just storm in blasting. We might hurt the client. So a quick scan of the area. Hmm, the bastards decided to go all the way, judging by the fact that they got a machine gun and took more or less solid positions for defense. Anyway, they don't have the sturdiest wall on the side that can be pierced with our assault rifles.

"Rico and Private take positions at the entrance. Open the door on my mark, but don't go in. Just lock on the enemy's position. Open fire on my command. Oleg, Yaroslav, follow me." - While I was giving orders, I led brothers toward the wall.

"Shoot until our magazines run out. Our bullets should penetrate the wall. Machine gunner is the priority. Then fire at will." - I stood against the wall and took aim at the machine gunner whose silhouette was illuminated to me by the scanners. It was worth paying so much money for them after all.

"Rico, Private open the door. - After my order they kick the door open. They respond with a hail of bullets. Using this as a distraction, me and brothers open fire. The first bullets barely make it through the wall and go off anywhere, but they've done their job. The rest of the bullets pierce the machine gunner. With about half a magazine left, we start shooting at the most shielded targets.

The trick worked a hundred percent. The Maelstrom men didn't even realize where they were being shot at, continuing to spray the entrance with fire. When our magazines were empty, I ordered Rico and Private to kill the remaining enemies with their smart guns. The homing bullets made it easy to finish off the rest of the Maelstom men, the most heavily armored machine gunner and a couple of bandits in good body armor we killed with a flanking fire before.

After making sure that there were no living bandits or any other threats, we all went into the room where the client was waiting for us. He looked, quite frankly, like shit. Bruises, cuts, and traces of crude surgical intervention more like an attempted brutal execution. Looks like our client had a bounty on his head. Probably even a fellow colleague of his. Whatever, not my problem.

"How is he?" - I asked our medics, hoping our first call wouldn't end in disaster because of a client dying on the surgical table or during an evacuation.

"Bad. But he'll live. They just started gutting him so all his insides are relatively fine. Now we'll stabilize his organs and we can carry him to our bird." - Oleg replied while his brother used a medical stapler to patch the wound on his stomach.

Nodding back to them, I waited until we could start the evacuation. Rico and Private continued to monitor the situation in case enemy reinforcements arrived. But with a glance at the timer I could be sure we had enough time. Less than five minutes had passed since the call and rescue of the client. In fact, we're even going for the record.

"We're all set!"

"Start the retreat!"

The next few minutes went by quickly enough. There we see our bird and load into it as fast as we can. Now we're being squeezed into our seats by the engines roaring at full throttle. Finally we hand over our client to the doctors at the TT hospital.

I sit down next to our bird and smoke. Beside me the rest of the crew sat down, to whom I handed out a cigarette each as a way of celebrating our first and successful call.

"Skipper, ahem, I mean leader. Am I the only one who thinks it all went kind of easily? It used to be crappier and harder in boot camp. And here we just came in and shot everyone and then left like nothing ever happened. Not as scary and stressful as the cases you told me about." - Private asked, looking at the sunset.

"That's because we're all professionals. We've been through rigorous training and were prepared for such circumstances. That, for starters. Secondly, we had excellent equipment and implants even by TT standards. Third, our team has great tactical flexibility so instead of having to improvise, we can use tactics that others can't. Do you think that in the past I would have had to risk my neck to go for a breakthrough if I had the shield-carrier and sniper cover ? No. And lastly. This time our opponents were bandits, not some corpo soldiers or experienced mercenaries. Roughly speaking, we're a few levels above that trash. So don't be surprised at how smoothly everything went." - My long speech pleased the egos of my boys, who are finally starting to see themselves as elite and not just over-hyped cannon fodder.

What can I say. For the first test drive everything went very well. The main thing now is not to slack off and keep getting better. This is only the first step on the long way to the top of the pyramid.

AN- So yeah. I am still alive. This is translation in case you wonder. Now guys help me out with new name for my moron team. make it funny) have a good day and send me stones.