Cyberpunk 2077: V

Prologue: Chapter 2 - The Salvage Run

Adrenaline kicked V's heart into gear, her brain already calculating what resources she should prioritize looking for. Computer chips, fuel pumps, belts; things that wore out quickly in the desert heat and dust. Anything with precious metals like copper and gold. Engine heat shielding.

Anxiety rose in her throat, and she reached over to lay her hand on her sword. The always cool metal calmed her.

V felt anger lick at her throat when she realized it only took ten minutes to reach the convoy. It was too close; way too close. The Shiv's aggressive hit and runs were causing more and more problems,  and it was clear they were trying to get rid of the Bakkers. Even with how they treated her, they were the only family she had, and she didn't want them to nearly get wiped out again.

The convoy was a pretty good size; supply haulers with MiliTech armored cars surrounding them. There were two haulers and six cars, all haphazardly strewn across the barely traveled highway. One hauler was on its side, boxes strewn over the road behind it where it apparently slid. Tom waved to either end of the dead convoy, signaling they would start at the ends and meet in the middle. He then hopped on their close range radios and said as much.

What he added made a chill go down V's spine.

"If anyone is left alive, end'em. That way none of'em will be able to pin this on us. Plus, what's one less corpo, eh?"

V hoped that all of the MiliTech guards were already dead, for their sakes.

The salvage team split up, with V going to the back of the convoy. Most of the others started at the front where the hauler had overturned, no doubt going after the boxes of whatever they had been carrying. V chose the back because those vehicles looked like they were in pretty good shape for having been blown away by the Raffen Shiv; which meant she had a better chance of getting what she wanted intact.

She realized then that there was something about Tom's voice that had bothered her. It was a subtle thing, and if it wasn't for the slight chill in her spine V would have told herself she was imagining it. But that chill, that "sixth sense" she seemed to have, never lied. Something was...off.

V parked her car next to an armored car riddled with bullets. She set her jaw, preparing herself for what she might see. She'd seen dead bodies; Freddy's, some of the clan who'd been killed by corpo bullets or sliced apart by the Raffen Shiv. She didn't like dead bodies.

She strapped her sword to her side in addition to her revolver, and got out of her car to begin, keeping her senses open just in case not EVERYONE had died in the attack.

The first car she approached was the one she parked next to. It was a classic corpo transport, heavy and bristling with armor and tech. The camouflage paint was chipped and dented, no doubt from the Shiv ramming into the thing while they riddled the occupants with bullets. V looked through a crack in the rear door and felt bile rise in her throat.

Chunks of meat and uniform, weapons splayed across the seat. Someone must have managed to get a grenade through a shattered window. They were dead. V moved up to the front seat to see the same story. The driver had half of her head blown off, with the passenger slumped over. Both dead.

V felt the bile push into her mouth, and she paused a moment to say a silent prayer that Freddy taught her when she was young on behalf of the dead corpos. They may not have been part of the clans, and technically her enemies, but no one deserved to die in such a horrific manner. V finished her prayer, shut down her emotions, and went to work.

The car was relieved of its useful components within five minutes, V's expert eyes and hands stripping out the rare metals, motherboards, and other necessary items with surgical efficiency. When she finished packing her haul into the cartons in her back seat, she looked for the other Nomads. They were finishing up stuffing all of the scattered boxes and crates into Lily's big rig, and she saw Tom waving his hands. Her radio on the dash crackled to life.