"Ugh, ugh, ugh."
Spitting out several tis, Jackie finally felt the tallic taste in his mouth fade a little. His gaze swept over the now silent battlefield, littered with the corpses of both rcs and attackers, before turning to the Arasaka security personnel who were only now leisurely driving up. He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"We fought and bled, and they only co strolling in now? They might as well have 'you're just disposable cannon fodder to test the danger' written on their faces."
"What else did you expect?" Oliver responded while carefully using sterilized tweezers and a scalpel to treat Jackie's wounds. "Hold still. You've taken a lot of bullets. None in vital spots, but if we don't treat them properly, you might end up with permanent damage."
Jackie winced as Oliver worked. "Can't you just give a shot of Revitalize or Heal-Up? I saw you still had so left. Wouldn't that fix up way faster?"
Oliver continued his work, explaining as he extracted a bullet. "That stuff speeds up cell regeneration, but if I inject it now, the bullets will just get trapped inside your body. I need to remove them first. And besides, I already used up the last doses on the critically wounded rcs. They needed it more."
"Seriously?" Jackie shot him a skeptical glance. "That doesn't sound like you."
"I charged them 100 eddies per dose."
Jackie imdiately waved it off. "Yeah, never mind then."
Of course, he knew Oliver had been more than fair. When you're dying, you'd gladly pay a thousand or even ten thousand eddies for sothing that could save your life. And for a group of rcs, spending a bit of money to keep their squad alive and at full combat capacity was a no-brainer. Oliver probably didn't want to be owed any favors, so he set a small price instead.
"Look at you, all noble and selfless."
Karl returned from clearing part of the battlefield. He had gone up to the sniper's position on the third floor, only to find a broken Nekoma sniper rifle and a shattered exoskeleton helt. The sniper himself had vanished—aning Karl's shot hadn't been fatal.
As for when exactly the sniper managed to escape, Karl wasn't sure. The rcs had counterattacked quickly after he took out the sniper's weapon, leaving only a small window for escape.
The final count of the attackers was in. Apart from the unknown number who fled, twenty-one confird bodies were sprawled across the apartnt complex.
Each attacker carried a Shingen smart SMG, but almost all had been destroyed—either by their owners' self-destruct locks or by grenades before the rcs could seize them. In terms of loot, the mission was a total loss.
Twenty-one dead attackers had cost the rcs thirteen lives and left four others in critical condition.
anwhile, the thirty-seven Arasaka security personnel? Not a single casualty. Not even a dirty uniform.
"Half of us gone, just like that."
Mann sighed as he walked over, feeling a mix of sadness for his fellow rcs and relief that he had chosen to stick with Karl. If he hadn't, his body might have been among the dead.
Or worse, if Karl hadn't pulled off that insane trick shot to take out the sniper, all of them would've been lying in the dirt.
"They were all solid fighters. A damn sha."
Jackie nodded, feeling the weight of their losses. Each of the fallen rcs had been just as well-equipped and cybered-up as them. They had simply been lucky—not targeted by the first RPG, not picked off by the sniper, not caught in the crossfire.
Pure, dumb luck.
"Only those of us still alive have the right to sigh."
Karl muttered as he noticed the Arasaka security personnel pushing forward, aggressively clearing the path for their convoy. They were shoving aside the rcs who had just risked their lives in the fight, as if they were nothing more than disposable pawns.
"Are you fucking kidding ?!"
Mann cursed loudly, his frustration boiling over. "We just finished bleeding for these corporate assholes, and now they can't wait to shove us aside? The road ahead isn't even cleared yet! If I ever take another corpo job after this, I swear, I'm a goddamn idiot."
"I'm more concerned about sothing else right now."
Oliver's expression darkened as he watched wounded rcs—barely able to stand—get roughly shoved to the ground by the Arasaka guards.
"How much do you think the fixers pocketed from our cut to make these corpo dogs feel this bold?"
The numbers weren't adding up.
Karl shrugged. "Probably a hell of a lot. But honestly, even if they weren't skimming off the top, corpos like these would still treat us like trash."
"Now even corpo dogs have rankings? What, there's a hierarchy to being an asshole?"
"Of course. You think dogs co in different breeds and sizes for no reason? Even mutts care about pedigree."
"Are we still talking about actual dogs or corpo dogs?"
"Is there a difference?"
Karl glanced at the slow-moving Guinevere. "Either way, it's all about status and bloodlines."
"Oh, that reminds ."
Karl unhooked the Shingen Smart SMG from his waist and tossed it to Oliver.
"I grabbed two Saratoga SMGs before. Gave one to Jackie, kept the other for myself to mod. Never gave you anything, so here, this should make up for it."
"Didn't I tell you before I wanted a sniper rifle instead?" Oliver sighed. "Whatever. Not like I have anything else to use right now anyway."
His voice still carried the regret of losing his SOR-22. Jackie chuckled, reaching out to pat Oliver's shoulder with a broad hand.
"Don't worry, hermano. You'll get another one. Sooner or later."
"Yeah..." Oliver exhaled, watching as the Arasaka security team efficiently cleared away the debris.
"But first, we have to survive this job."
This mission had only just begun.
Karl checked the ti.
Two hours to complete the job. Thirty minutes already gone.
One hour and thirty minutes left to deliver the target.
As Guinevere rolled past them, Karl had a strange feeling—like he was being watched.
He turned toward the vehicle, but all he could see was its polished silver body.
Just his imagination?
At the sa mont Karl looked away, the person inside the car also averted their gaze.
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