Chapter 28: Gunfire, Lolis, and the Maelstrom Gang

Where can you find the most cyberpsychos? Look no further than Night City and the Maelstrom gang! These monsters love to swap out their cyberware without anesthesia, while adorning their faces with optical implants that defy any standard of human aesthetics.

Their signature look includes glowing red eyes, black metal tattoos, extensive illegal modifications, and hollowed-out chins that distort their voices into an electrified, screeching buzz. To them, a frail human body is useless; as long as you have enough cyberware and a penchant for grotesque, violent crime—preferably accompanied by death metal—the Maelstrom gang welcomes you with open arms.

Today’s contract was a big one. The Maelstrom members were sitting in the front hall of the building, playing cards and passing around "the good stuff," punctuated by the occasional hiss of an inhaler. They were always puffing on something.

"Where the hell is Dum Dum?" one growled. "Damn it, why did they only send us to keep watch? This dump of a place in Dogtown is perfect for burying people. If you ask me, that dog should’ve been slaughtered and bricked into a concrete wall already. I can’t take it anymore."

"Hiss! That stuff hits hard!"

The speaker, whose pale gray arms were covered in hideous, pulsating veins and soft metal wiring, tossed his hand of cards onto the table. Beside him, a Maelstrom member with shoddy stitching around his chest cyberware puffed on a cigarette and slammed a few cards down in retaliation.

"Pay up! Cough it up!"

They shoved each other, their harsh laughter and crude cursing echoing through the room.

*Bang!*

A deafening crash erupted outside, and the dim room was instantly flooded with sunlight. The dilapidated automatic door groaned and hissed, smoke rising from its riddled lock, a boot print stamped right into the center of the panel.

The room fell silent, save for the blaring death metal still echoing from the speakers. The guy who had been standing on the card table froze, his jaw dropping until his cigarette fell to the floor.

Standing in the backlit doorway was a girl with twin tails, cradling a pitch-black shotgun.

"Shit! It’s a merc!"

The Maelstrom members scrambled to grab the rifles leaning against the tables, but Rebecca’s massive shotgun roared first. The guy who hadn't finished his smoke was plastered against the wall by a single blast.

"Motherf—!"

The Maelstrom muzzles turned toward Rebecca in unison. A pale blue streak of light whistled past her shoulder—a stray shot from a sniper rifle. The force of the passing projectile ruffled her hair, and the head of the Maelstrom member she had been targeting exploded before he could even pull his trigger.

Rebecca dove sideways, taking cover behind a computer console in the adjacent room as bullets pinged and clattered around her, keeping her pinned down.

"Nice shot, you bastard!" Rebecca shouted, waiting for the gunfire to lull so she could pop out and give these idiots hell.

Lin Yue, lying on the roof of a nearby building, muttered, "Don't mention it."

Amidst the shouts of the Maelstrom and the shower of concrete debris, a ticking grenade arched through the air toward Rebecca. Lin Yue’s second shot intercepted the grenade in mid-air, detonating it. The blast kicked up a cloud of dust and rubble, nearly burying Rebecca. Knowing she was about to snap, Lin Yue quickly holstered his Nekomata sniper rifle and rushed toward the Maelstrom building.

Sure enough, a moment later, Rebecca’s furious scream rang in his ear.

"You've had your fun, you assholes! Now it's my turn!"

Lin Yue ducked his head and hurriedly signaled Maine to begin the breach. Rebecca was only there to draw their fire; if they kept focusing on her, things would get messy.

Outside the two-story, dilapidated apartment building in Dogtown, Pilar had rigged a high-explosive charge against the wall, while Maine stood to the side, hands over his ears, ready to strike.

How do you handle urban warfare and room-clearing? Lin Yue, having served with Barghest, knew the secret: don't squeeze through the front door. Blowing a hole in the wall was always the optimal solution. After a few contracts, this crew had picked up most of the Barghest style—if you can saturate an area with firepower, do it; if you can toss grenades inside, don't hold back.

Rebecca moved fluidly, firing as she ran, her erratic patterns making it impossible for the Maelstrom members to track her. A heavy automatic machine gun, set up by the gang in the distance, began spitting fire. Its accuracy was far superior to the half-crazed Maelstrom members, making it the greatest threat to Rebecca.

"If Sasha were here, she would’ve hacked this turret and turned these Maelstrom freaks into a beehive!" Rebecca grumbled. She sprinted around the turret, and the moment its mechanical rotation lagged, she lunged forward, grabbing the power cable at its side.

A harsh, grating sound filled the air as sparks showered everywhere. Lin Yue, standing firm with his weapon, fired a shot into the reinforced wire near the heavy gun.

Veins bulging on her arms, Rebecca let out a low growl and ripped the heavy machine gun right off its automatic mount! Of course, Lin Yue disabling the fixation point was the main reason.

She swung the muzzle around.

Planting her feet, Rebecca lifted the heavy gun with both hands. The pink tattoo on her thigh made the massive, pitch-black weapon look even more terrifying. After the first job, she had reinforced her arm cyberware; while she was still a way off from the massive, multicolored guns she dreamed of, she could at least handle this caliber now.

"Eat lead!"

The heavy *thud-thud-thud* rhythm began, and thick shell casings poured onto the ground. The Maelstrom’s cover was shredded to dust by the heavy-caliber fire!

*Bang!*

The wall bulged outward as bricks and dust exploded into the room. A Maelstrom member leaning against it vanished instantly. Maine, with his massive, dark-skinned frame, burst through the hole like a gorilla, leaving the stunned Maelstrom members to swallow hard in terror.

"Rat-tat-tat!"

The Maelstrom rifles roared, but not a single bullet hit Maine. Instead, he charged, slamming into a gunman with such force that the man flew backward, his spine snapping with a sickening crunch.

Lin Yue emerged from behind Maine, firing his Lexington X-MOD. Using his ballistic coprocessor, he ricocheted shots off various surfaces, taking out the Maelstrom members who were trying to flank Rebecca.

The two retreated slowly, back-to-back, facing their respective enemies.

"Nice aim," Lin Yue murmured.

Rebecca’s voice was versatile—she could sound cute and high-pitched when happy, but in the heat of battle, she was a foul-mouthed girl with a rough, gravelly voice.

"Don't look down on me! I'm the Cyberpunk who's got your back!" The barrel of her heavy machine gun was glowing red hot.

As the last bullet left the chamber, she slammed the massive gun into the cover where a Maelstrom member was hiding. By chance, the idiot popped his head up just in time to be crushed by the heavy weapon.

The two quickly shifted their formation into a sweep, rushing toward the deeper corridors of the building.

Once the front hall was cleared, Pilar entered the fray. He tossed his "Good Boy" bio-grenades into the pitch-black underground passage without a second thought. The sound of laser-tripwire mines detonating mixed with a series of violent explosions. Curses and coughing filled the air, and the entire corridor was choked with a pungent, acrid stench.

*Whoosh!*

A few bullets whistled through the air!

Lin Yue lunged from the side, shoving Rebecca out of the way. He took several rounds to the face; blood instantly spurted from the holes, and the force of the impact sent him stumbling until he collapsed into a pile of debris in the hallway.

It wasn't just his face; three bloody holes appeared in his arm, nearly crippling it.

*Not the arm again! And the right one at that!*

Lin Yue felt like dying from the pain.

"Lin Yue!" Maine froze for a second before shouting his name.

The Maelstrom fire in the hallway intensified. Rebecca and the others couldn't reach him to provide cover, so they could only fire back and look for an opening to close the distance.

Lying in the debris, Lin Yue reached out with his one functional arm and called out weakly, "I'm fine!"

He lay flat, shaking his dizzy head. Clearly, subcutaneous armor wasn't a catch-all solution, especially since his was only of average quality.

"It served me well enough until now," he thought.

Pilar, hiding from the gunfire while tossing grenades, wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling a surge of relief. *Damn! My sister almost got hit!*

"Kid, you're reliable!"

Seeing that Lin Yue was alive, Rebecca and the others vented their rage on the cornered Maelstrom members. The intense crossfire resumed.

His "Copper-Hearted Iron-Guts" and "Steel-Blood" constitution gradually dulled the pain, and his pain editor began to kick in. The wounds looked gruesome, but they weren't fatal.

Just as Lin Yue was about to catch his breath and pull himself up, a line of text appeared in his cybernetic eye.

[Character "Pilar" favorability updated]
[Favorability: 20]
[Reward: Technical Ability +2, Technical Ability Perk unlocked]

Lin Yue let out a horrific, dry laugh, spitting out blood and fragments of a tooth.

"Those bullets were worth it!"

***

*Note: Dum Dum is a Maelstrom member in Cyberpunk 2077 responsible for selling the Flathead robot during the "The Pickup" mission. While he acts like a clown, he is cunning and cruel, conspiring with Royce to extort the protagonist and Jackie.*