Once we had traveled several minutes north, we crossed into the Arasaka Waterfront district, which was near a Megabuilding beled 11. I slowed the Galena down, we had to be on the lookout for our first ers. Traffic resent but minimal, so we could take our time hunting. The only snag was that the roads became more tangled in this part of town, so I had to pay more attention to where we were, however the Probes could s for viable targets.

  I began spotting Maelstrom graffiti everywhere. They were horrible ses of spider like b faces, the multiple eye were a menag red. While the tags invoked a sense of dread, I didn't let it worry me much. I figured it was just a gang trying hard to be intimidating.

  Scuff beeped that he'd located a potential victim. When I got my first look at actual 'Strom "gangoons", I realized Sinnamin hadn't overblown how repulsive they looked. The gang tags were at least partially descriptive. I stared a bit trying to make sense of what I was seeing, it didn't seem possible for ao alter their bodies that mud survive. there was certainly no way that ahat could do that to themselves was sane, by any definition of the word I uood.

  I found a small parking lot with other cars, and slipped iween twer vehicles. Since I was taking both Probes, my thinking was that any thief or scrapper would mess with the more valuable vehicles before the Galena. I filled Scuff and Fix in on a tentative tactical pn, both of them seemed to be almost buzzing with excitement as I described their roles. Their beeps were incredibly aggressive sounding. "We do it, Executor. We will elimihe enemies." That was Scuff, and Fix was no less rearing to go, "We will destroy the ugly ones, Executor."

  Their behavior more than anything else, gave me pause. I do not think I could have ever been beled a violent perso here we were, about to murder people for profit. In my case I was sure it was a bination of revulsion and desperation. With the Probes, who had up until now seem to be happy little Robo-Buddies, was their showing this new aggression, my fault? Or was it a sequence of fusion, leading to a bizarre iioween magid metal? Could this be what happens to Probes over time? Maybe, if you let them fight a bunch, they bee like this?

  Am I a bad person for using them like this? I've never been much ed with morality. I've never had a reason to be. I mostly just tried not to be a dick, ao myself. So in those terms; we were about to start killing people, admittedly grotesque people, to take their shit. That sure sounded like a dick move to me. Or is this one of those situations were one dick move was celed out by anroup's generally dickish behavior?

  I growled as some new part of my psyche respoo my increasing stress. It didn't know, and didn't care about the answer. It just wae what it saw as the un. The questions were annoying, a was needed. Wait. That didn't sound like me. What was wrong with me, was this pce twisting my outlook? Or was something deeper at py in my mind.

  I found I had been moving the whole time I was thinking. My feet just moved while my mind ed away at it's problems. I should have been paying more attention to my enviro, but now the time for moral quandaries had ended. I had been noticed and my observers certainly thought I had something worth taking. Or maybe my wallet didn't even matter and they just wao start some shit.

  Their red eyes gleamed fiercely in the dark. They had found prey. Me. A damned shame they hadn't noticed my friends, who hadn't lost focus. Even now the Probes were using their stealth to creep around behind our three new friends.

  "Hey, whadda we have here?" The voice was grainy and distorted. It grated on my nerves, almost as much as looking at their faces hurt my eyes. Up close, these three were in poor repair. "Rusted" I think Sinnamin had called it. You could hear some of their e's joints grinding. Lines of an old oil-like substance, dribbled out of pces, that it didn't seem like oil should be ing out of. They were either extremely down on their luck, or no longer had the capacity to care about themselves.

  "A poor lost Ganic is need of help." They ughed. there was no joy in that noise, only a type of manic madness. Everything about the sound was wrong. Everything about them was wrong. There was nothing I could reize as human to them, regardless of their ability to speak.

  "Maybe we throw 'im in da box and watch 'im squirm." Well, that didn't sound like fun. I didn't like the sound of that idea at all.

  "Could just cut off his arms, and watch him bleed out." Really? What an asshole. Though, I didn't have much of a leg to stand on, I came here to kill them after all.

  "Nah, we take him home and py, pin the e on the Ganic." I had already pulled my Omaha, but I wasn't quite pointing it at them yet. Safety off.

  "Oh is little Ganic scairwd, we're sorry. We just wanna help you." They started spreading out, not a dumb move. Except the two spreading to the sides now had tagalongs h just behind their heads. The fact that they hadn't pulled their oold me they felt they were in total trol. Like nothing I could or would do mattered in the slightest.

  That really pissed me off. I don't think I've been this kind of mad before. The sensation burned like magma slowly c through my body.

  "Hey why's the chump glowing?" No more, I'd heard enough of their fug disgusting voices. It was time to end this.

  "Now!" I snarled as I raised my iron. Ts rang out as did two deafening cracks. Three bodies hit the ground.

  I stood there, staring at the corpses for few minutes. I rocessing. While my feeling bubbled, I took the time to top off my magazine. I wasn't thinking about it, the a just a reflex, that I shouldn't even have had. In that moment, I didn't feel like morals mattered anymore. I was gd we'd killed them. My head and my heart went still.

  My BTC shivered the motion pulled me bato the moment.

  [ Adjusting...]

  [ Gained skill Firearms at Rank 1 ]

  Oh, okay. I guess that was good. I really had no clue whether any of the information on the ss was actually useful. For all I khe data on those ss was a lie.

  Well, enough bullshit, time to get to the real work. We found three more of those crooked chips, in their ports. Sinnamin said those be anything like Cred Chips, Skillsofts, or even just secured data. So potentially valuable, though I was without any way to calcute that value. Into the backpack they went. Even if I could pull the data off the chips right now it wouldn't do me any good, I'd need a lot of text to make the best use of anything I discovered.

  Which reminded me, I pulled out another Cirrus Co. After the NiCo disaster I hesitated, then shrugged and tried it. The liquid tasted like off brand aybe with some lime or lemon in it. Not as bad as the other junk that was for sure, but not that great either. This possible future was disappointing me in a great many ways.

  I noticed Scuff and Fix sing everything in the area, including the corpses. I guessed they were curious little robots.

  Only one of the "gonks" had a gun. A big ass revolver, into the backpack with that as well. The bdes the others carried, looked like garbage to me, so I didn't bother with them.

  Shit, they only had 200 in bills. This method of resathering would take a while. There was nothing else worth "klepping" on the bodies. I did go poke around where I first seen them, while I was driving around. I found a whole bunch of junk, of ierminate worth. I wasn't sure what a lot of this stuff was even for. Various cables and microchips. A radio that while funal looked cheap. "Food" and "drinks" of various descriptions. A couple of inhaler looking objects. If I had got the text right, these could be either medies s. Into the backpack. There seemed to be the lot of it.

  That could expin their erratic behavior, maybe the three gangers were junkies.

  I sighed. No one said it would be easy. We o get back to hunting down anroup, I supposed. Very disappointing.

  I found a massive Wall. The wall was bd lit with red. Blocks worth of the city had been walled off behind this edifice. The colors and the name of the district gave away who this area beloo, Arasaka. A Mega Corp, wielding massive power and influence across the world. Perhaps the biggest gang in Night City, from a certain point of vieere not ready to mess with them. Though raiding Corporations for fun and profit did souing? Maybe, one day. For now, I'll have to be tent with smaller game.

  Skirting the wall led me to a pce were I could hear some ear bleeding music, if you could call it that. I followed until I had found the Totentanz. The screeg noises were very loud. Yup, definitively looked like a pce for Death Metal certs. Haha, Death Metal. Bed up Psychos.

  Loads of Maelstrom, too many for us to deal with right now. Let's skip it. I'll e back with my own gang someday. Tree gang represent. I threw a few silly gang signs, in a moment of pure childlike glee. Or would we be the Nature gang? Eh, I'll figure it out ter.

  Much rger gatherings of the more ordinary looking people milled about in this area, normal by 2074 standards anyway. I couldn't uand wanting to be around the Maelstrom. You'd think the stant threat of being robbed, killed or worse, would keep the riff-raff away. No such luck.

  Driving on, I was overwhelmed by a sense of futility. There were just so many of these fuckers everywhere. My initial distaste for the city had grown to full blown hatred, by this point, and I'd not been here for even a full day yet. The truly weird thing was, I think this fucked up city wanted me to hate it. Like it thrived off all the pain and misery. There's a terrible thought. A Cursed City, feasting off blood, sorrow ah. And here I was about to feed it some more.

  I spied a couple of more isoted groups of 'Stromers over by Megabuilding 12. As good a pce as any for us to setup a hunting ground. I circled around and parked by a clothing store, called Ded Zed. I picked it because while there were still cars in the parking lot the store itself was closed. Good.

  This time I'd try to be more cautious, I'd rather not get surrounded again. It might have worked out the first time but I couldn't rely on luck to see me through this. Trying to be stealthy likely wouldn't work for me. But I thought that I could be a distra for the Probes to make their moves. I nodded as I got my on ready for a. Eyes ope's bag some 'Strom.

  The first group we ran across were five eheads right by the Megabuilding itself. We came upo a good moment, they were getting ready to head some where else. They gathered their stuff up arying to put out the fire they had been cooking something over.

  Scuff had snuck up on them and was now h well over their heads. The aggressive little Probe began to zap one and then another. Fix came in fast and loing at the gangers' feet. I fired a few rounds, trying to do my part. Our first volley, we did a lot of damage. But some of them still had some fight left. One ganger had a machete and only seeing me decided to charge, the other two still standing started firing at me oh a shotguher with some kind of automatic rifle.

  Something spped into me. "Shit!" I went down hard. At first, I didn't feel anything. It's like my body couldn't believe what had happehe only good thing to out of it, was in my reflexive spasm, I pulled the trigger on my Omaha. This somehow dropped the machete wielding asshole long enough for Fix to zap him face first into the life. When my mind finally started to catch up, Scuff was finishing off the 'Strom with the rifle. The guy, showiill had half a brain, tried to run, but the Probes tag teamed him, zapping him into a sm pile of metal a.

  I was fervently attempting to cast regrowth, I fumbled the shape of the spell a few times as this throbbing burning pai in. "Fuck, fuck, fuck... " Finally, I mao get the shape right and mana to flow properly. I eled the spell, keeping the mana flowing until I could return to full health. Somewhere in there, I fumbled the spell again. My tration was shot. Curses flowed from my mouth as I tried to get the spell shape right for the umpteenth time.

  Scuff beeped, "Exeore Enemies are approag. Orders?" The Probes seemed like he really wahe order to be, "kill them all."

  "Damn it, ambush them, shit, while I, fuck, finish up here." I got the spell going again a my mana drain more rapidly, this time.

  "By your and." Both beeped in unison. They flitted off at top speed, eager to y into some more bed out fools.

  As I was trying te up more mana from the thin air, I heard the sounds of battle. This made me feel even shittier for having to depend on the Probes so much. The pain was dying down. I dared to check myself over. No wonder I fell down, I'd gotten hit by both gangoons. The remnants of both wounds were on my gut, though I guessed nothing too vital got wrecked. I used my hands to feel around the wounds, skin was once again mostly smooth. Still tender, but han being dead.

  The ruckus in the distance was getting louder. What was going on?

  Okay, if I was going to keep doing this crazy bullshit I required some armor. Also staying further back would probably be a great idea. Let's just shoot the guys panicked into running by being zapped by something they couldn't see. It was being more and more obvious to me, that I knew nothing about bat. This learning it the hard way shit, not so fun.

  I stood up, getting a good look at my ruined clothes. Rapidly drying blood was soaked into the entire front. Yup, these robes were a lost cause. Likely the clothes underh were in even worse shape. I tested my movement. No hitches or cramps or muscle pulls. I seemed to be able to bend every which way. My legs solidly held my weight. Alright, I was fully funal if not optimal.

  I decided to let Scuff and Fix hahe fighting for a moment while I started looting. Everything I could make out sounded like they had it covered. Pulling the backpack off was a struggle, somehow the straps got ched tighter with my earlier fall. It didn't get hit but some of the co s ruptured when I was dropped to the ground. Ah, too bad. The shards seem ued, though the revolver would o be ed ter.

  So I dumped the cos. Dried the pack out as best I could with a shirt sged from one of the retired Maelstromers. I somehow hadn't dropped my Omaha this whole time, and I wasn't about to now, which created a feard moments while looting. Thankfully I managed not to shoot myself.

  The sounds of fighting were moving further away. I guessed that I was going to be looting the aftermath, of dozens of small fights.

  An hour ter, The Probes were doh their rampage. Soon after, both the trunk and backseat of the Galena were full. 9000 in script, 31 shards, a dozen more inhalers and various odds and ends that might be worth something. Fix and Scuff were dang around in celebration, this was after they'd sed every little thing in the area. I let them py, they'd ear. her one of them had even gotten scratched. Were the Maelstrom that bad, or were my Probes that awesome?

  I mae together an outfit, from the 32 dead Stromers. It didn't look too bad, more of blue colr look rather thah metal video extra. Now if I could just get some meics overalls, I'd look like I did baost of the time. I threw my tattered robes and clothes into the back seat of the Galena as well. I'd have to be sure to up all the blood ter, but for now, my exhaustion was being unignorable.

  Let's go sell all of this loot before finding a hotel, so I could zonk out for a while.