Cyberpunk 2077: V

Chapter 29: Red Spiders

V's nails sank through the leather collar of Royce's jacket, slicing into the still organic flesh over the nape of his neck, cutting down to sinew and bone. Her hand constricted, gripping, ripping; and with a single savage yank, she tore out part of his spine. It was all blood and chrome, coolant-covered titanium complete with wires and nano-tissue connections. Royce didn't have time to let out a sound before the red lights of his eye-plate went dark and he keeled over. His body hit the ground with a heavy thud.

Everyone froze.

V blinked once, registering through the strange feeling of triumph in her chest that she had just murdered the leader of the Maelstrom gang.

Oh shit!

"YOU UGLY BITCH!" the ganger to her right suddenly screamed, bringing up his assault rifle. His movement kicked everyone else's asses into gear. Suddenly there was shouting and smashing, bullets whizzing through the air and pinging off of metal walls. V dropped the spine and grabbed Jackie, throwing him up over her head and behind the couch, using his momentum to take her with him. Jackie cursed in Spanish, and as he pulled out his handguns he shouted, "What the FUCK was that, V?!"

V gave him an apologetic look, then unsheathed her sword and darted around the corner of the couch.

The ganger who called her a bitch got a sword between the eyes. She then slipped into the server room where two other gangers followed her. Bullets slammed into metal and wires, showering her with sparks and lighting up the room with spurts of blue, white, and yellow. It was beautiful in a way, and terrifying. V leapt onto a desk, pushed off of a server rack, then turned and dispatched the two gonks who'd followed her. She landed with a flair, about to take off again until she realized that the shouting and shooting had stopped. An alarm was going off, echoing through the rooms along with flashing red light.

Jackie came into view, pistols in his hands, a strange look on his face. 

"What the hell, V?!" he gasped. "I thought we were gonna do the MiliTech deal - not zero the fuckin' borg leader! You couldn't've at least given me a sign or somethin'?!"

V looked up at him, a dark ball trapped in her throat. She had truly intended on either giving Royce the MiliTech shard or finding whatever solution meant her and Jackie waltzed happily and safely out of the factory with the bot in hand.

Instead, she'd ripped out Royce's spine. And now the whole factory had turned into a hive of red cyber-spiders out for their blood.

"I...I don't know," V said quickly. "I...I didn't mean-"

Suddenly a Maelstrom peeked around the corner. It was Dum-Dum.

In a flash V's sword rose to engage, but Jackie held out a hand.

"Easy, V," he said cautiously. "This gonk didn't shoot at us. He's, eh...surrendered."

Dum-Dum scoffed. 

"Yeah you wish. Nah, I just didn't feel like playin' with your attack dog over here. You chipped or somethin'? You ripped out the big man's spine like it was nothin'."

V just stared at him, sword lowering as the situation settled heavily on her shoulders. She hadn't lost control or gone psycho or anything - V knew that for a fact. But she had broken her own code of no killing unless someone was trying to kill her first. Why on earth had she attacked and killed unprovoked like that?

She didn't have time to ruminate on it though. She and Jackie jumped when they heard garbled voices screaming somewhere off in the distance. Dum-Dum looked towards the right side of the room and gestured casually with his hand.