Check ourself. Are we lacerated? Is there a knife nearby or anything that would give us clues as to what has occured?

Well, let's see...Alley, lots of bodies, loss of memory, and a cloud of what I can only presume to be nanotech draining out of the bodies. Booking it /might/ be a good idea.

check every dead body's orifices with my cock

>>8442726
Agreed. Being devoured by a grey goo would be an unfortunate start to the day.

>>8442726
You scramble backwards, you can't get any grip. Before you can act, the cloud is on top of you, the chittering builds. You instinctively clinch up, waiting for the end.

The noise stops. The cloud is gone. You realize, somewhat to your horror, that it's gone into your Hiver implants. Frantically you check your last build order, bringing up an entopic queue over your retinas. The data is corrupted, something was done, but you can't figure out what.

Checking your self over, you find now exterior injuries. Well, you find one, and your knife by unhappy coincidence. It is buried to the hilt in your upper left arm. Modified nervous system must have automatically deadened the cluster near the injury or the three inches of steel embedded in your arm would have you howling in pain.

>>8442832

How bad is the injury? Meaning, will we bleed out if we yank it?

>>8442832
Well damn. Check for any form of ID we may have had on us. Then I propose we remove the knife from our arm, and flee the scene. No good will become of being found with a knife near a number of dead bodies.

>>8442873
You have some amount of medical training, acquired over the years. Clotocytes augmenting your blood stream should be handling the blood flow, and judging by a quick scan of your medical monitor implants indicates that the knife is not in danger of severing your radial artery. You look away and try not to think about the wet squelch the knife makes when you pull it out with a swift, straight yank. You fold it and stuff it into the front pocket of your BDUs. You might want to find something to rap the gash with, a thin gruel if blood is trickling out and an open knife wound wo't do you any favors.

corrupted data?
that sounds brain-meltingly bad. are there any "first aid" steps in case of malfuntioning implants?

And maybe one of the bodies has a clean rag or some medical gear that is not grey-gooed all over. We could check for that and any other things that the former people wont need any more, right?

>>8442973
(also, you posses a full suite of noosphere implants, giving you access to the global super network. If you want information or have questions about anything in the setting, ask and ye shall receive. Likewise, ask at any time to receive a list of items in your inventory or a description of your functioning implants.)

>>8443055
Check inventory
Get reading on time, date, and location
Try and find either a clinic or our home

>>8443098

Agreed. Either sounds like a good idea. May I make a suggestion before we leave though? Why don't we check the bodies for ID or anything that seems important. Knowledge is always good, and it's going to suck if we need to come back here for whatever reason.

long post on the way.

>>8443098
tell the people at the clinic we were learning knife juggling, its just one of those silly accidents.

>>8443139
so find any id, small unmarked tradeable goods, feedstock, handtools, slates.. nice boots..

you know, just in case?

>>8442973
>>8443055
can we cauterize the wound? perhaps the afore mentioned 'lume strip' would be hot enough

>>8443168

Well, we just woke up in an alley with a /whole bunch of dead people/ and got snuggled by the nanocloud that apparently did all the killing. Seems to be in our best interests to be prepared, given how luck so far.

what racial/ethnic tensions exist in the city? perhaps this was a gang hit of some sort. also, clean any evidence before leaving the scene

You search around in your pockets, finally coming across a copy of hard ID. You flip it open to discover a number of things you already know. Your name Is Deima Machtiger, 30 years old, born in Berlin. Female, 5'10", brown eyes and black hair currently shaved into a close crewcut.

It seems only your recent memory has been stripped, and a number of other things have been altered, you feel like you're stumbling around in a dark room inside your own mind, outstretched fingers bumping into unexpected walls.

This is not like anything you've ever heard of before, not on a simple mugging or... whatever the hell happened here.

Making your way over to the bodies you note by their gear that they must all have been delvers, or hired security at the very least. Amongst the five corpses are three pistols, a pair of submachine guns and even an LMG near the scattered remains of a heavily cyberized (presumably male) body. The guns all seem to have failed catastrophically in one manner or another, barrels melted like candle wax or magazines exploded.

As you continue rooting through the tattered clothing and remains you notice that the damage to the bodies seems almost... clinical? Arteries are not slashed, but rather have holes bored into them, and every body has every major line punctured. What little medical training you have lets you know that these people would have exsanguinated in seconds with such injuries. The additional damage, faces torn away, tendons and limbs severed with surgical precision, seems to almost be a cosmetic effect.

inb4bourne

>>8443256
yep, looks like the nanotech did the killing, tear a bit of the dead person's clothes off and tie off your wounded arm with it. does our ID note our current address?

>>8443256

>Busted Weapons
Anything we can scavenge quickly? Also, is there anything else on the bodies we can make use of? They sure aren't going to need it soon.

In any case, grab any ID we can find, cards, dogtags, whatever. Someone will probably want to know they're dead.

hey OP, no offense mate, but the quest might move quicker if you narrowed down the wall o' text responses, i understand that nutopia has been a long developed setting but, well, people want instant gratification.

>>8443247
Nothing especially significant springs to mind, NewJ is very much a cosmopolitan settlement. Old fashioned biotypical vs. transhuman tension is still present, but not nearly as strong as in other places, hardshells and meatbags walk the same streets and drink at the same bars.

Aside from the wrecked firearms you find a brimmed hat, sufficient to keep the rain off your head and another knife, this one a sizable Kukri type thing probably belonging to the big hulk with the machine gun, although it was several feet from his body. You place the hat atop your head and turn your fashionable pair of sunglasses opaque with a twitch. Strapping on the Kukri and its attendant rig makes you feel safer, you know your way around a blade, and this thing is almost a foot and a half long. The carry rig was meant to be under arm, but unlike its previous owner you are not seven feet tall and you have breasts, so you jury rig it around your hips.

You pocket a wallet, ID for the big soldier and the woman who was about your build, and a couple cred chits.

>>8443197
Although you might be able to burn the wound shut with the heated glass, it would hardly be quick, and you're not even sure you can get your arm up next to it in the first place. In the mean time you pull a red bandanna from the forearm from one of the bodies and tie it around the wound in your arm.

Your Inventory:
Your armor amounts to a simple flack jacket cut into something of a vest with a hole sectioned out of the back to expose the Hiver 'plants on your back, and a carbon fiber reinforced top under that. Sturdy enough to turn a knife or stop a small caliber handgun, but this is evening wear, not power armor. You've got a pair of fingerless gloves and some boots reinforced the same way as your top, but not something you'd want to waltz through a firefight with.

In terms of weaponry it's a pair of knives, one considerably larger than the other.

>>8443256
can we get more info on our location? i.e. exits, doorways, streetnames

>>8443354
I know I know, my fault for being overly verbose, I'll try to keep things clipped, but I'm trying to respond to as many people as I can :S

>>8443306
Yes, and that section of your memory appears intact. A small one room flat on the dockside of town.

Would you all like to search for more here, or skedaddle?

>>8443256
uurk.. sounds a mess.

are we recording?
i mean, realtime taping this data via implants or a long series of photos. That way would could go over the sickening details at Home with a tall glass of something to settle the stomach, rather then doing it in a rainy alley, covered in blood.

speaking of in an alley, covered in blood.. we have anything that looks important? then its time to run, no, casually walk like a somewhat annoyed person heading home in the rain.

>>8443362
seeing as this is a cyberpunk setting, we might want to take some flesh chunks, or something, for DNA tests, and maybe the cybernetic implants on the one cyborg guy have a memory chip or a serial number?

>>8443421
oohh.. ghoulish.
>i like it

are we by a main thoroughfare? pedestrian or vehicular traffic?

>>8443373
A back alley that doesn't even warrant a name in the outskirts of Beachead a little settlement at the base of the causeway that leads to the mile high Spire. The alley seems to be on the outskirts of the town, opposite the ocean, between two unoccupied warehouses.
>>8443396
It strikes you that some form of record keeping might be a good idea. You begin a record function, one picture every second, and set aside some space on your internal drive for the photos.
>>8443421
Tissue samples are unsettlingly easy to come by, flesh is all over the place. The woman whose ID you bagged also has two high end VI servers implanted in her upper back. In addition to fetching a pair price, these might contain useful information, but are likely heavily secured. You could pry them out with a bit of knife work if you wanted to, and there's even a vac bag near by to carry your ghoulish sundries about in good condition.

>>8443525
alright, hide (what you can quickly) the bodies, and guns and bug out

>>8443525
set out for beachead, avoid main streets, also, wash yourself off with the rain to the best of your abilities, blood will only draw attention

>>8443505
Nothing near by, this spot is pretty out of the way, maybe intentionally so.
>>8443541
Someone of your build and condition would have difficulty handling this much carnage on a good day, with a knife wound and the rain the endeavour is even more dubious. You settle for heaving the weponry into a dumpster.

Where to?

>>8443525

Those VI servers sound like a good thing to take with us. Let's get prying?

>>8443572
get clean, and healed first, i say we set out for our flat, where we can do both, i would stay away from government/public/ whatever clinics to a avoid questions, but if we know a back alley doctor that would be good. are there any communication devices around?

>>8443572
>>8443564
so, snatch the shiny and book it for home. I guess those delver instincts never leave, even in a living city.

Get what you can, and get out while you can.

You opt to do some quick and messy back alley surgery. It surprises you that the VI servers pop free with nary a spurt, then you realize that there's no blood left in this woman.

Shivering slightly at the thought you toss your grizzly cargo in the vac bag along with a few scraps of flesh and head out of the alley. A spout empties into the street from the roof above and you halt beneath it for a moment, wringing out your hair and squeezing blood from your clothes. Feeling somewhat less caked in the fluids of life and no longer smelling so much like a walking slaughterhouse you step out into the street once more.

You have a fairly well equipped medkit at your flat, enough to deal with this wound at least, and through the wonders of mandatory corporate implantation programs from the last era, you /are/ a communications device.

>>8443716
can cross check our digital phonebook for people interested in purchasing black market technologies? as such, skip to our destination, or next event

>>8443716

While we're heading back home, what do our nannite stacks look like at the moment? Are we running on dry save our...guests?

>>8443782
You find, irritatingly, most of the contacts in your files to be blocked. Old friends in Europe can be accessed, but local information is all fuzzy.

If you plan on heading back to your flat, you have two options, straight down the middle of town, or pulling up an entopic map and trying to pick through the back alleys to avoid notice.

>>8443782
a quick flick through our personal directory of people who buy things without asking annoying questions? good idea to at least glance through that while we beat feet.

most important part there being the leaving.
We are clean enough to escape casual notice, lets just take the common streets instead of skulking. faster and safer.

>>8443842
seconded, blend with the crowd and use whatever police presence is there to dissuade any criminal assailants.

>>8443793
Your stacks are 70% full of, well whatever that thing was. Other than that and the inability to access their recent order history, they seem to be in perfect working condition. A quick hand check confirms not damage to the forearm or upper back emitters, and diagnostics read clean as well.

You make your way towards the apartment building through the middle of town. The street lights are more frequent now, and main street is lit with neon for various establishments. You pass an electronics shack you think you might know the owner of, and the shell bar that you last remember entering a few hours ago. There's a single bouncer in front, looking none too happy to be posted here when it's raining nearly sideways like this.

You reach you apartment without incident, climbing the steps to the second story of the building and beeping the RFID in your wrist to get the door open. Your slip inside, still dripping slightly reddish water on you linoleum floor.

Well, you seem to have some time to yourself. what now?

>>8443928
important words, two of them.
Hot. Shower.

And dump, well, everything, from boots to that silly hat into our scrubber. Cleanliness, right next to godliness.

Then we can get around to worrying about partial amnesia and the rather disturbing feeling that our head has been gone through with a sledgehammer.

>>8443928
clean up and use the medkit, and a change of clothes. it might be a good idea, after the fact, to retrace our steps and see if anyone remembers us from the bar. the sale of electronics doesnt seem to be an immediate concern, rips some data from the chips you took, store the tissue samples, and store your recording in whatever depository is most readily available

>>8444022

You strip down, heaving clothes and loot alike into a scrubber tank attached to your minimaker and setting it to gnaw off any pesky blood and tissue. You step into the shower and stand, hot water blasting your back. You elect not to cry, although the thought crosses your mind. You rub your face in your hands, squeezing your head a bit, trying to shake loose the imagery of the alley. The almost vindictive nature of the injuries, the smiling white skulls leering from under peeled back faces and muscle.

You step out of the shower and shake your head rapidly, reaching for a towel. The scrubber makes a soft ding, on your way over you find a scrap of paper on the table. It reads:

"Hey, some friends of mine from out of town brought in a package they want a discreet appraisal on, I told them you were the best I knew on the subject. Meet them at that shellbar on mainstreet at 18:00 of you want the gig. Gallie's I think it's called. Anyway, I know you could use the cash and thought I'd hip this to ya, stop by the shop when your done and give me the downlow if you're up for it.

--V"

You cannot for the life of you remember who the hell V is.

>>8444039
what's the time?

>>8444031
Still mulling over the note you open the hardcase under your bed that holds your various tools of the trade, rappelling harnesses, bolt cutters... underneath what appears to be the remnants of a parachute you remember having to use to get out of the Nakatomi Metroplex with your limbs intact you find your medkit. You pluck out a heat wand and set to sealing up the wound, but not before applying a little steroid supplement into the gash with an eyedropper. you should get full muscle functionality back within a week, but it will be stiff for another month.

>>8444059
Your internal clock reads 23:00. Whatever meeting there was has passed, and you can't be sure whether you attended it or not. Although, Gallie's is the shellbar you remember entering.

>>8444039
we start checking our photo album for guy fawkes mask wearing guys? nah, too easy.

seconding dumping anything in our memory and serve's, just in case. Get everything into some secured desktop terminal and set all the antivirals and diagnostics onto it.

and on ourself too, because it is getting more and more obvious that we have been screwed with.

heh, maybe we lock the door, pretend we are not home for a week or so, just in case?

>>8444183
Head back to the bar. Ask the bouncer if he remembers seeing you entering and leaving the bar. Go ask the bartender as well. Maybe being there will jog your memory. Also, check your internal drives for any recently edited files like a journal or day planner.

PLAYING CALL OF DUTY U FAGGOTS GET A LIFE fuck /tg/ going back to /v/

>>8444282

wat

Trying to keep busy, focused, you dump your footage taken since you awoke onto a spare minidrive, disconnect it from the terminal you have haphazardly set up in one corner and toss it in the hardcase. If anyone wants what's on it they'll have to break in and grab it, then fight past the encryption. Not impossible, but hardly a casual task.
>>8444230
Heading back to the bar seems like as good as place as any to pick up the trail, anything you want to grab from the apartment before you head out? The current "Small woman in a bath towel" look might be fetching, but hardly suited for the near-hurricane outside.

>>8444339
>Small woman in bath towel
holy shit we are a little girl? Yeeeessss!

Also, clothes, a gun if we have one and it is legal to be carried around.

>>8444324
>>8444282
our filters must be half crashed. Picking up random noise and scrambled electronic ghosts bleeding off the networks.

>>8444339
>The current "Small woman in a bath towel" look might be fetching.
Its a certain way of getting any questions answered, i suppose.

maybe a more weather appropriate wardrobe choice, plus anything stouter in the way of armor we might have?

>>8444339

What do we have in the way of arms/armor do we have lying around? I mean, we've obviously been through some shit, we've got to have /something/ lying around.

>>8444384
U guies are fucking failures
wait help Urgg i'm getting raped by Tenical MONSTERs help
OUR UAV IS online! HURRRR

Watching burn notice, I'm a bit slow.

You pop the seal on your wardrobe case. You pull on the same top as earlier, but opt for a plate carrier instead of the vest. The back is Kevlar and a permeable mesh so your nanites can squeeze through, while the front carries a ceramic plate that'll stop a couple rifle rounds if it comes to that. You pull your pants and boots on, hitting a switch that hardens the knees of the pants into a stiff pad and likewise the thighs. The hat you picked up earlier, your glasses and a rebreather mask make for a good disguise. You pull a trusty machine pistol out of your night stand. Small bore, but high velocity, and the caseless top loading configuration gives you controllable fire and a magazine capacity of 30 rounds. Plus it's a svelte little gun to boot. You put it in a shoulder rig, stuff a couple spare mags in pouches on the plate carrier and pull a black plastic poncho on over the top of all that. You could probably put the big kukri under that poncho too if you wanted, hell, you could sneak a combat shotgun under this thing, but you don't have that kind of artillery laying around the house.

I suggest we put a filter on some of the local newsfeeds in case our friends in the alley are found and people start asking questions.

>>8444456

Do we happen to have it lying around somewhere then? Because that would make a good second stop after the bar...

>>8444505
You set up a simple tracker program, sifting for local feeds and terms like "slaughter" "slayings" "massacre" and other such applicable words.

To the bar?

>>8444456
so..
>combat-ready clothes
>plate-carrier vest
>big black poncho
>mask and selectable visibility glasses.
>Machine pistol and holster, 30 rounds sleectable fire.

Ready for the weather, and ready for some action (especially if that action includes running away) but we are not a super-armored combat god?

not like being a super armored combat god helped what was left of that guy in the alley.

Are we feeling up to relying on hiver gear nanites currently, or should we pull metaphorical plugs and shut down anything acting up?

>>8444538
to the bar and to drink away our pain!
wait, maybe thats what led up the the alley..

To the bar to drink cranberry juice without cheaply synthed vodka in it!

>>8444537
Unfortunately no, never had cause to haul something like that around now that you're trying to settle down a bit. Right about now you're kicking yourself for thoughts like that.

>>8444561
>Are we feeling up to relying on hiver gear nanites currently, or should we pull metaphorical plugs and shut down anything acting up?

That is entirely up to you. There is something in you, what degree of control you have over that thing, and what will happen should you try to use your 'plants regardless of it, is sort of up in the air at this point.

You pull the poncho close and head out into the rain. It's still pelting, maybe even harder now. You book it to the bar. The bouncer, combo job with some cheap prosthetics picked for intimidation rather than functionality, greets you with a leer fro his original eye and a blank red stare from the other. The first words out of his mouth are a warm "The fuck you want?"

>>8444648

>Mystery Nano & Hiver Implants
Well, I'm not so sure it's a bad idea to try them out. I mean, they /didn't/ attack us like the other (presumed) victims.

That brings up a thought. Were we the only Hiver in the alley? This could all be a nano attack gone horribly wrong. Does Hiver nano go batshit?

>>8444648
give him a long look, shades set to mirror, and then walk past him. no time to screw around with lackeys who want to play power games.

>>8444648
'So, this is going to be a strange question, but did you happen to see who I left with earlier?'

>That brings up a thought. Were we the only Hiver in the alley? This could all be a nano attack gone horribly wrong. Does Hiver nano go batshit?

Yes, "horribly wrong" would be a not inaccurate descriptor, and not that you've ever heard of. What with the risk of goo, security protocols on these implants are extremely good. That's part of what makes the idea of someone hacking yours so disconcerting.

You keep walking towards the bouncer, and as you near him his expression softens. "Oh I'm sorry darlin' Nah, my shift's just started an hour ago, hadn't seen anyone like as you enter or leave, I'd have remembered that."

If his face were still capable of making a lecherous grin you get the feeling he'd be trying one on.

>>8444806

Great, this is serious business then. Still didn't answer the "Were we the only Hiver there?" question though.

>>8444891
That would be the first yes. None of the people there had the signature implants. What with their state of damage you surely would have noticed them regardless.

>>8444806
Give him a flirty smile and thank him. Head into the bar and talk to the bartender and anyone you may remember.

>>8444927

Huh. That's a sobering thought. By chance, nano doesn't just happen to wander about without a Hiver, does it? *hopeful*

>>8444806
ugh.. bouncers.

To the bartender then? and if he just got on shift too, we bump it up to the owner or patrons? anyone who has been there and has captured vid of us, anything like that?

>head for the bartender?
>start looking around inside, for anyone familer?
>just get inside and shout "hey! who's the fraggin' joker who spiked me, huh?"
>drink quietly, go home, never speak of this matter again to anyone.

>>8444961
well, hardly ever. Migth run into a cloud of utility fog sweeping through a building and leaving every surface clean and shiny, but its going to be maintained by equipment onsite.

whether or not it kills you might depend on whether or not you are supposed to be there, but its not a Random threat

>>8444944
You toss the bouncer a smile and head through the door. Your 'sphere plants register the entrance fee being charged to a credit chit as you clear the door. It went to one of the ones in the wallet you pilfered.

The lighting in here is shit, and some old aggrotech classic is blaring, Combichrist?

You belly up to the bar, and the bartender, a man whose name you feel as if you should know, turns to you. Bright multicolored neon dreadlocks frame an all meat face, a few teeth missing. "Deima girl, out for a while, what can I get you?" he thinks for a second and then adds. "Oh yes, Victor called, asking after you about an hour ago."

>>8445053

But Hiver wouldn't have been in an alley with the other victims if they knew a hostile maintenance swarm was in the area, would they?

This is looking more and more like the attacking bots are yours in the first place. Is it possible for someone to have bodyjacked Hiver?

>>8445101
Body jacking is possible, but typically requires a hardline to the target and skill. Doing it remotely is the realm of hacking masters, and even then taking control of hiver implants would be difficult. Whoever did this to you was very, very good.

aha.. V for Victor, who is looking for us.

is that showing up in our mental rolodex?
If not, we bluff? shake our head a bit, like we are annoyed and ask.. "Oh, V' called? thats cool.. which call code was he on? i can never remember.. heh, too much tonight maybe?"

and speaking of too much tonight, is that how we should check to see who we left with or when we left alone, etc?

'Hey, did I leave with anybody? I think someone might've slipped something in my drink.'

The bartender looks at you with a cocked head. His dreads sway a little. "Yeah, V... lemme see. Victor::LxX431@dspace/sec7871. Y'all weren't here for more than half an hour, weren't drinking much either. I don't think you had anything in fact. You ok D?"

On an utterly unrelated side note, is that random MW2 spam all over or custom tailored for us?

>>8445272
Call the number. See what's up and apologize for missing the meeting.

I haven't seen the MW2 spam elsewhere.

You leave he bartender's inquiry dangling and punch up the given address, Haptics tingling as you dial in mid air. There's a couple rings before the link goes through. A familiar voice answers on the other end "Hey Deima, how'd the meeting go?"

>>8445536
Not so great. I think somebody tried to ambush me. Several mercs or delvers are now dead in the alley, and I've got a sizable knife wound in my shoulder. They were killed by some kind of nanoweapon exsanguinating them. I'm not sure why I managed to survive.

>>8445536

"Uh, it went fine. How have things gone on your end?"

>>8445608
>>8445629
Y'all gotta pick here, these will yield very different responses.

>>8445608
I pick this one. He seems to be on our side.

>>8445656
woops, forgot mah trip.

The voice on the other end picks up, trying to be calming but obviously excited. "Woah woah woah, slow down. Who's dead, the clients are dead? Jesus Deima, what do you mean the got killed by a nanoweapon? Is it loose? Is there something loose in town?"

>>8445717
"PROBABLY not..."

>>8445717

I have no idea what's going on. Nobody else there was Hiver implanted, and when I came to after the fact, the killer nano fucking went into my stacks. I think I might have killed them. Somehow.

>>8445717
Tell him the cloud shouldn't be a threat any longer. Ask if he has any details on the buyers and cross check with your experiences. Send him one of the images from the scene.

Play up the "I have absolutely no idea what is going on and am freaking the fuck out" factor. Ask if we can meet face to face.

(rough combination of responses)

"Fucking hell woman, get over to the shop now, we need to face to face this. You're going to have to do better than that in terms of an explanation, but not over the 'sphere. Across the street from Gallie's."

>>8445824

Enter the store in such a way that the SMG is within easy drawing range. When it becomes evident that he's not going to immediately shoot us, pull the gun on him and explain that we don't want to hurt anyone, but we don't know who the fuck he is beyond his name, and someone has been fucking around with our memories. We just want some answers.

>>8445824
to clarify, you muttered something non committal. Press him further here, talk more to the barman, or head across the street?

>>8445873

Oh. Right. Talk with the barman, apologize for the rude behavior. Tell him that things have definitely taken a turn for the strange lately.

>>8445909

Ask the barman about the people you were hanging with at the bar, see if they match the description of the other victims, see if anyone notable is missing from the group.

The barman nods at your apology, he has a quizzical look on his face as he describes the group you left with to you, but doesn't press. His description fits well enough, body shapes, gear. No one's been left out as far as you can tell. The group you left with was the one in the alley.

You cross the street to the store you noted on your way in, you make a few connections in your mind, Victors shop, been here before. Don't know much more than that.

Cybernetic parts, electronics and huge masses of wiring cover the walls and ceiling, you have to duck and weave around them to get fully inside. A man with long, matted black hair rises from a desk in the corner, working on a servo with some delicate equipment. As he turns towards you his concerned look turns to something like fear when he discovers the barrel of your autopistol brushing against his nose.

"Um..."

>>8446014
Are we doing this intentionally?
if yes, lower gun.
if no, shout at him to run from us, we're not having a good day.

>>8446014
Ask if that he is Victor. If he is, lower your gun and explain to the best of our ability what happened.

>>8446096
see
>>8445856
"V?.. i need you to listen to me very carefully.. ive had a baaaad night, and i hope you can make it a little better.. i'm going to lower this, and we are going to sit and have a talk"

>>8446124
seconding, in the hopes of reducing the level of derp in my contributions.

*spot for a response*

"cool.. real cool.."
Lets not keep the gun on him, that would be rude. just in hand, gesturing a little now and then as we recount waking up in an alley feeling like we got a bad plug-job, finding the bodies, getting out of there and so on.

Mention the cloud, and mention how we are sure our brain has been fucked with.

Needs one of those movie-style scenes where our heroine who has had Too Much clutches her head in pain and/of nerves, still holding the little autopistol.

Then we drop the gun on a workbench and sit down with a sigh, tugging off our shades and tossing them after the gun. Look back to Victor and finally ask "what the hell was i supposed to look at, V'?"

That was about the least opportune moment I could imagine for my tubes to go down. Sorry guys, give me a moment to catch up.

>>8446330
Thanks for rather ably writing my response for me Teka :P

after having recounted your tale to the now calmer Victor and having apologized for making him almost shit himself with the whole gun in the face schtick, he fills in the following details:

"Memory job like that is pro work, like, I'm good, and I'd need a lab and a week to do that kind of damage. As for what they wanted you to look at, I got no clue, standard consulting job as far as I knew. Did you take anything off of them that I can mine for data? VI servers, eyeballs and shit?"

>>8446513

Good thing we grabbed those VI servers.

>>8446532
which are still in the scrubber at your flat unfortunately.

>>8446532
thats right

>>8446572

gooood damnit. Well, guess it's time to give him the "Crap, left them at home. Be right back." line.

>>8446572
ah.. poop.

"unh.. yeah. i think so. I mean, not on me, back at my.. hidden somewhere"

>>8446610
so we march in, give the whole line and are overall Very impressive.. and then "oops, be right back" march home, then back, grumbling the whole time?

never live this one down, if we live.

well, we come back, serv's in hand, our glare daring him to say anything other then "I will get right on it" or something like that.

Actually, I would suggest taking him with us rather than just us leaving him alone. That way we can keep an eye on him, and we also know he won't get rubbed out by whatever/whoever did this to us.

I'd say take him with us, just to get shit done faster. Tell him that he can't contact anyone and that we're very sorry for it, but paranoia is king.

>>8446610
Victor very nearly facepalms. As you make to leave he speaks up "D, I know you're swimming around a bit lost right now, but you can trust me, for whatever that's worth. If that /thing/ is in you, well, I've never heard of anything like it, I wouldn't use your 'plants at the moment anyway. Here, take this, it's too dangerous to go out there alone with just that little autopistol, nearly blowing my head off aside."

He's dug around under the desk and produced very short rectangular brick of polymer with a thumbhole stock drilled into one end. As you grip it iron sights pop clear of the top. There's a simple sling as well.

"Four in the tube, one in the barrel, 12 gauge loaded with flechettes. Stay safe Deima."

You could hold him with that shotgun, but this man's done nothing overtly against you. He'll probably go with you, but such behavior is hardly endearing.

If he's giving us a shotgun, what's he going to use to protect himself? Offer, and I mean politely offer, to have him come with us so we can keep him safe in case someone wants to wax him, but if he says he'll be fine on his own then let him stay and hurry back. If he's arming us, I'd say he's not going to be backstabbing us for now.

>>8446816

Agreed. Giving /another/ gun to the chick that held you up for information just a few minutes ago speaks of trust to me, the kind you get when two people have known each other for a good while.

Victor actually snorts at the offer for protection. He does something funny at his waistline and all of a sudden there's a large frame semiauto pointed at your face, just as quickly the gun is gone and his hand hangs at his side again.

"D, you had me flatfooted, but with the number of Combat VIs I'm running and these new nervous system augs I can handle myself. Believe me, I'll be OK, get back here as quickly as you can, you were the one who got jumped. I'll work some angles and see if I can figure out why that team was in town."

Then obviously our next action should be to shrug at him and move back to the Hivercave and recover the bodyparts we need to give to him.

You sling the shotgun under to parka with a nod and a thanks and head out the door. The storm is calming down, the rain now content to fall in its normal vertical format.

You make your way back towards your flat, the streets are empty, everyone sheltered from the storm well indoors.

That is, save for a single large figure in a black slicker who rounds the corner just as you approach your building.

Shit. Whip out the shotgun, yell a challenge, and if he doesn't stop or respond give him a blast in the gut and a blast in the head. Rule #2: Double Tap.

>>8447152
The figure advances, all seven feet of it, or him. A gust blow open the slicker, revealing what is clearly power armor beneath. Your shout of "Back the fuck up!" is met with a quizzical stare.

"What'd you say little girl?" He takes a step forward.

You panic, bring the shotgun up from within the parka. The man speaks "Hey now, no reason for anyone to get hurt, put it down before I break you in half."

"Calm down, Just calm down. I've been through to much shit tonight to deal a mugging."

The man looks to you, then the gun, then you again. He pauses, doing nothing for a few moments, then nods for some reason.

Then he lunges. The shotgun goes off as you collide, he grunts, but the blast seems to have done nothing to slow him down. An armored hand pins your gun to the pavement at an awkward angle, and another begins you press against your throat. You can't wriggle free, he has a couple hundred pounds and a lot of augmented strength on his side.

Your vision starts to swim, you go for your pistol with your other hand, press it against a seam near his hip and lay pn the trigger. He groans, the gun is jerked out of your hand. He's still squeezing, but now he throws in a knee for good measure.

You start to black out, and your register your maker stacks coming online.

>>8447374
Alright folks, I'm going to call it there for tonight, thanks all for participating and bearing with my tech difficulties (fuckshitassbadgertwatsgoddamnbrighthousemotherfuck) If this was interesting, catch the next installment at 20:00 pacific next Saturday, hopefully I will be at my desktop instead of my laptop at that time, and thus able to respond much more quickly as well.

Evening folks!