“I don’t think those are actually raiders,” Ko muttered as they crept closer after he had parked the truck as close to the apartment building as he dared. “None of those trucks or cars look like they have been modified for raider use. Could it be a rival wastelanders' group instead? Some nearby scarpo town that is fighting them for resources.”

  Trace held his scout rifle at the ready. He had noticed the same signs, but was less worried about what they meant. Either way, the people still needed to be removed. He didn’t particularly care whether they were raiders or wastelanders, just how dangerous they were.

  “Can you contact the old lady or whoever sent the message to you earlier?” He asked, carefully watching how the armed people moved. It seemed to him that they were familiar with their weapons, but most were not entirely comfortable with the actions that they were taking. Another point in favor of them being inhabitants of a nearby scarpo town instead of raiders.

  “I’ll try, but the signal out here is spotty at best. Hold on.”

  His finger rested on the trigger guard as he zoomed in and thought about how he wanted to do this. Killing them all would be the easy route, but they wouldn’t get any answers if he did that. Hitting them in the arms and legs on the other hand would disable them while also leaving them able to speak. The downside to this approach was that it left them able to speak, or rather scream, and draw attention to what was going on.

  “I should have brought my stealth suit for this,” He muttered. “Could have gotten in and found her without raising any sort of ruckus.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Ko asked.

  “I didn’t think to bring it originally, and when I knew what we were going to do, I certainly wasn’t going to put it on and leave you all alone.” He replied softly. “I really need to get something less lethal for the odd jobs like this. They are spread out enough that I can probably kill them all silently without an issue. If we want to leave any of them alive to talk to though…” He shrugged. “As you said, they don’t look like raiders, which means they probably came from a nearby scarpo town for some reason.”

  “Argh, I don’t have a signal in this area. How about you? Your NetConnect is newer than mine. Maybe its antenna is better.”

  He checked, only to see the no signal icon as well. “Nope, nothing. Maybe once we leave the trees, but right here I have no signal.”

  Ko nodded and turned back to the people in the parking lot. “I don’t care if they are raiders or wastelanders. They still killed some of the people who lived here. Do what you need to do.”

  Trace glanced over at her, seeing the hard set of her eyes, and nodded. “You got it.”

  It took him a minute to find the optimum shooting path, wherein he would need to adjust his aim the least before taking the next shot. There were a lot of targets down there and economy of movement equaled speed.

  Trace took in a breath and let it out slowly as he began. The first shot took the target in the head, as did the second. From there, he began to work his way down to the center mass, not wanting to take any chances by missing.

  As soon as it was all over, a notification appeared in the corner of his vision. He had received a new perk.

  - New Perk unlocked and has been identified as ‘Quick Scope 1’

  - Quick Scope 1 – Reduces the time needed to adjust to the scope before using it by a small amount

  He was disappointed that it was another perk related to killing. He had been rather enjoying the benefits that the last one brought him when it came to learning.

  There was nothing he could do about that though, as he barely even understood how the perk system worked.

  Focusing on the people in the parking lot, everyone was surprised as the group of armed invaders collapsed dead, one after another. He had blown through two entire magazines in the course of twenty seconds. That was twenty-four shots, with aiming time included. He wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or scared.

  It wasn’t the fastest time when it came to simply pulling the trigger. However, properly aiming did slow that down some. The only reason it was even as fast as it was is because of the preparations he had taken beforehand.

  He slipped a fresh magazine into place and scanned the area for anyone else that might need to be turned into a corpse.

  “That was fast,” Ko muttered in awe as they got to their feet and carefully walked out of the trees and into view.

  “It’s all about selecting the right targets beforehand.” He muttered back, keeping his eyes open. “And I’ve been doing enhanced gun courses for a while now. It’s nice to know they work. The first time we met, I couldn’t even shoot straight.”

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  She snorted, only to remember how many holes he had shown up with back then. “At least you haven’t shown up with more gunshot wounds since then.”

  “Yeah, instead I showed up with half my body crushed and missing an arm. I think I’ll take a few new holes over that any day, thank you very much.” He returned lightly.

  They had reached the edge of the parking lot by that point, bringing a halt to their banter. Everyone that had been gathered there was now watching them wearily. A few looked as though they wanted to make a mad dash for the fallen weapons, but were being restrained by those next to them.

  Ko waved to the person closest to them. “Hi, my name is Devko, this is Tune. Hannah contacted my mentor Sevorah this morning, saying that she was injured. Where is she?”

  Her words caused those closest to begin whispering, as several of them unconsciously touched their throats.

  Ko sighed. “Yes, I know what the old bat is like, and yes, I know her feelings about cyberware. Now tell me where she is, please?”

  One of the men closest to them cleared his throat, trying to say something. He had a dark purple cheek and the eye on that side had swollen completely shut. “We aren’t completely sure,” He said hoarsely after rubbing his throat. “They split us up into three groups initially, but that was last night. Anything might have happened since then.”

  The woman closest to him put an older model cyberware hand on his shoulder. The metal was showing signs of rust, and some of the protective plates had been removed, allowing you to see the inner workings of the wrist itself.

  “They’re from the Manitou Springs scarpo town,” She told them, her natural eyes firm and blazing with anger. “We have traded with them many times in the past and welcomed them with open arms when they appeared last night.”

  “Why did they attack you if they were already being welcomed inside?” Trace asked, more than a little confused.

  She spat to the side, and the glob of warm liquid hit a nearby corpse. “You’d have to ask them. All we know is that their town was hit by raiders, and they came here. Instead of joining with us though, they did this.”

  Ko shook her head, her eyes lingering on the people who were hurt near the back. “Can you tell us where Hannah is, please? What group was she with last night? The sooner we can find her, the quicker I can determine whether or not I have time to help others before we leave.”

  “I heard them talking about two spots, the old hospital, and the planetarium.” Someone said from within the crowd.

  “The hospital would make sense,” Trace said.

  “Only if she wasn’t injured,” Ko returned, barely daring to hope.

  “We’ll be back as soon as we can if possible,” Trace told them. “Take their weapons and secure yourselves back inside the building. Also, can someone gather up all the credits they have inside their crypto-vaults for me, please?”

  He and Ko turned around and ran for the truck they had left in the trees.

  The hospital building on the base had originally been decommissioned in the early 2000s. Then World War 3 happened, and it had quickly been opened again. It was later bull-dozed and rebuilt from the ground up into a modern facility fully equipped for all things cyberware. Then the military had been disbanded, and the place had been forgotten about until a town sprang up around it.

  That was the way things worked sometimes. Of course, by this point, all the surgery equipment was hopelessly out of date. However, it still worked and was in excellent condition. As long as you were fine not using the latest and greatest, then it could perform most surgeries adequately well. It also helped if you were used to performing those same surgeries a little more manually, say without your NetConnect or other augments.

  Hannah had been perfectly alright with using all the older equipment in the hospital, and in many ways even preferred it to what she had before.

  Trace pulled the truck to a stop well short of the hospital and looked up at it. The road leading up to it split just ahead, one direction led to the planetarium, while the other went to the hospital. Both structures were visible from where he was at. That meant that if anyone was on the roof of either location, they knew someone was coming toward them.

  “Can you imagine if we still only had hospitals instead of doctors, menders, and slicers?” Trace asked Ko as he began driving again.

  “Ugh, it sounds like something from a nightmare. No one would ever get any help. It’s hard enough to find enough time to do so now. I have no idea how they managed it back then.”

  He pulled right up to the entrance and slung his backpack across his shoulders, drawing his suppressed CD-10. In the close quarters inside the hospital, the smaller gun would be more useful than his scout rifle.

  Ko was holding his suppressed shotgun, just in case.

  He took the lead, promptly doing an S&R scan. There was no one immediately nearby, but there were a couple on the floor above them and farther in. No cameras though, on a private network or otherwise, so that was one less thing that they needed to worry about.

  Hurrying forward, they dashed through the main atrium and a few smaller gathering areas before he scanned the area again. They were getting closer. There were five of them on this main floor, and a whole bunch more spread out on the second floor.

  He pushed open the next set of doors and stopped. It had once been a waiting area of some sort. At the moment, all the ancient cushions and pillows, those that hadn’t been previously stolen, were gathered together on the floor. All five people that he had detected were currently curled up and napping. They had blockaded all of the windows, leaving the waiting room nice and dim.

  Trace might have doubted that they belonged to the group of invaders with how content they seemed if it wasn’t for the weapons by their side.

  Stepping silently into the room, he aimed and squeezed the trigger four times. The gun was so quiet that it never even woke the fifth person.

  No, that only happened when he pushed the hot barrel of the suppressor against the middle of his forehead. His other hand quickly pressed firmly down over his mouth.

  “Hi,” Trace told the man politely. “We’re looking for someone. Maybe you can help us.”

  His eyes were wide and frantically flailing about in their sockets as he took in his dead companions. He had been sleeping right next to them when they had been killed and never registered a thing until they decided to wake him. That, more than anything, was enough to scare him into obeying.

  What sort of edger who wasn’t even a wraith could kill that quietly?

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