After giving Jun some affection, making sure he was okay and happy, and comfy and back to feeling like he was home and everything was okay. I finished cleaning up. Grabbing my gear I ran it all through a thorough cleaning. Holsters, belts, guns, and equipment. Just everything needed a cleaning.

So much dust.

Bleh! I hate the Badlands!

After that everything was settled I took a nice sleep, something I hadn’t really enjoyed during the gig and woke up feeling refreshed and ready to get to work!

First thing first.

My stat page.

Level 17

Body 8(16) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 8.

-Athletics 7

-Street Brawler 8

-Annihilation 5

Reflex 8

-Blades 7

-Handguns 7

-Assault 7

-Driving 7

Intelligence 10 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

-Breach Protocol 9

-Quick Hacks 8

-Programming 10

Cool 9

-Ninjutsu 9

-Cold Blood 8

-Rockerboy 8

Technical Ability 5 (9) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

-Crafting 4

-Engineering 4

Stat point.

Skill point.

Perks.

Ambidextrous Blades 2

Quickdraw Handguns 2

Gun Nut Assault 2

Parkour Athletics 2

Grappling Street Brawler 2

Drive By Driving 2

Cat-like Athletics 5

Cool Nerves Cold Blood 2

Danger Sense Ninjutsu 2

Wall Breaking Breach Protocol 2

Cyber Security Quick Hack 2

Recoil Reduction. Annihilation 2

Cyber Ninja Ninjutsu 5

Fearless Chill Cold Blood 5

Improvised Weapons Street Brawler 5

Parry Blades 5

Robotics wizard Crafting 2

Drifting Driving 5

Rapid Reload Handguns 5

Design Wizard Engineering 2

Rifle Ace Assault 5

Ghost touch Breach 5

Perfect Musical Memory Rockerboy 2

Debug Programming 2

Siren Song Rockerboy 5

Hacking Wizard Quick Hacks 5

Inspired Programmer Programming 5

A.I. Whisperer: Programming 10

Annihilation 5 *Unused*

Cyberware:

Seacho Electronics Mk.2 *Adaptation Seacho Mk.2 0/0*

Kiroshi Mk1 *Adaptation Kiroshi Mk1 1/2*

Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 5/6*

Arasaka Smart Link System. *Adaptation Smart Link 0/0*

Arasaka Ex-Disk *Adatapation Ex-Disk 0/0*

Militech-Armalite Ballistic Guard *Adaptation Ballistic Guard 1/2*

Serano Air-Groove Ankles *Adaptation Serano Air 1/1*

MoorE Titanium Bones (Shoulders, back, and ribs.) *Adaptation Titanium Bones 0/1*

Biotechnica Muscle and Bone Lace *Adaptation Muscle and Bone Lace 0/0*

Looking through it I took in all the little changes. Reading everything carefully so I would know exactly where I was at. And there were a few minor changes indeed.

My adaptation max had dropped again for my Condors! It was now only 6! I wiggled my shoulders and smiled. I guess I had gotten pretty used to the things. Maybe it also had to do with the Titanium bones? One of the problems I had was the chrome was a bit heavier than a normal limb, and so it was pulling on normal muscle and bone…

By improving my body more, had I eased one of the problems the Condors were causing? It was kinda annoying how complicated Adaptation was!

Either way, whatever caused it! It was awesome! One less point I would have to spend!

In fact…

I pushed the button without even thinking about it. It had to be done. A finale to the whole thing. A completion of a task.

Militech Condor *Adaptation Militech Condor 6/6*

It was over. I exhaled not even in relief because the Condor had been something I hadn’t been really bothered by in a long time. But in a way this was me finally, completely recovering from the Maelstrom attack.

Complete. I felt complete, I stretched my arms and nothing felt weird, or uncomfortable. Just muscles stretched around titanium bones in my back and my arms just felt like my arms.

I slammed a fist into my palm.

Fuck yeah!

I grinned goofily as I felt the happiness just surge up through me. I did it!

I shook it off patting my cheeks to refocus. I still had other things! I had a perk point!

Well, I’ll be honest and admit I’ve had it forever. Annihilation was just… I didn’t know what to pick!

But today was a clean slate kind of day. Time to clean up my stuff!

So I popped open the perk selection and hummed as I looked it over. There was… Well a lot of stuff for sure, but I needed something… It was a split of perks for the most part. Shotgun stuff, and Machine gun stuff.

I mean, I used both weapons, but when it really came down to it. Neither were ever going to be my primary weapons. Most of the time I would need more penetration for serious missions than a shotgun offers, and machine guns were good, but… I’m kinda small, and those things are chunky.

My first Annihilation perk had been Recoil Reduction, probably one of the best perks I picked, considering how versatile it was, but now I needed something… I read through the list and there wasn’t just a perfect option I could find. No perk that would just affect everything, or would blow things away.

In the end I just shrugged. I grabbed a Shotgun perk. I’d grab a Machine gun one next time.

Slam Fire. You know how to hold, cock and fire a pump shotgun.

It seemed simple, but firing a shotgun faster was a neat trick.

I selected it and shivered in delight as the knowledge flowed through. Once it was done, I rolled backwards off my bed sliding from my arms up onto my feet and into a brisk walk without slowing down as I found my Tactician, and unloaded it.

I brought it to bear and noticed how my hands shifted automatically. My grip changed, and I brought it down, and then up down and up, and then I faux fired, pumped and fired again. Both of my arms worked in tandem, pushing and pulling the gun at different intervals. I knew I was also adjusting for recoil that wasn’t there, and then I blurred through firing, and I slammed out eight rounds in just a few moments.

Quick! Really quick!

I nodded pleased. I wouldn’t be as quick with the Carnage because that thing was brute and cocking it was like bashing two pieces of metal together until something gave, but it would probably still be a lot faster than it had before.

I reloaded the Tactician and put it back by my bedroom door before heading back to my bed.

Okay I was satisfied with that! Now onto the really interesting bit.

Intelligence 10 (14) Due to Cyberization, Maximum value has increased by 4.

I took a breath and clicked on Intelligence. Putting in a stat point and then.

Well nothing. I didn’t… Feel different? Well I shrugged it off, I was used to Intelligence being kind of a zany stat.

No, instead I moved on to see what was beyond 10.

I only had one Intelligence skill at 10 already. Programming, which was definitely a powerful tool. So it was perfect to test out.

I put in a skill point, which the system reminded me I needed to use a skill point to gain anything in skills over 10, and then…

I yelped, blinking stars that were definitely not in my vision, at the surge of new information.

It was… Oh.

Oooooh.

I get it now. I understood. The difference between under 10 in a skill, and over. Why I needed Cyberization! It all made sense!

The information I gained was a lot of repeated information in a way. Things I already knew, but now? Now I knew how to do them solely with my cyberware. To integrate being a cyborg into the task so there was no need for something more. No need for a laptop, for typing.

Just me, and the code. Me and my ghost accessing the digital space.

While I had always been a cyborg, I hadn’t been using the connection of machine and man to its full extent I now realized.

This was more than just a repeat of old information. If before I was learning how to code as a human, now I was learning how to code as a cyborg. I had only touched on the barest of programming without a laptop before in emergencies, when I needed to rewrite some code on the fly, and it hadn’t been easy.

But now? I had all the beginner tools to do it without getting distracted or losing sight of what I was trying for.

“BrrRrrrrRrrrRrrr!” I exhaled and shook my head back and forth for a few moments. Then I once again slapped my cheeks a few times.

That was a lot.

“Okay. Note to self. Don’t double skill upgrade with post 10.” I felt like my brain was overheating. But I felt normal, just sort of swamped.

I was really glad I was on my bed so I just flopped back and waited for a bit to get used to it.

Programming 11… It wasn’t a direct increase in power exactly. I couldn’t just make hacks at a new tier or something, but it felt like… I could code faster.

Maybe even cut off half the time in any project with just that one point.

The ability to split my focus through my cyberdeck. To code without touching a keyboard, but I could still synergize that. Code with both? Potentially.

It was a lot. I could tell I was pushing beyond human, beyond what just my flesh brain could handle without support.

And honestly?

It felt amazing.

—--

A few hours later I headed over to the storage lot. Thankfully nothing looked stolen, even without me performing overwatch for the night again.

I wasn’t saying I trusted Fujimura to be enough of protection on its own, but this time I didn’t have a gang of gonk kids that would happily klep everything from me knowing we just had a payday.

Plus if anyone did steal something I would just track them down and teach them it was a bad idea.

I had opened up the unit and was pulling out the tactical gear for the team. I had left it here yesterday because after unloading everything from the big truck, I was a bit too tired to want to haul it around again to home.

Now I felt much better and was gathering up the Arasaka tactical armor and piling it into the Quadra. Along with a bunch of the extra guns and equipment we had found.

I wanted to clean up a bit of everything for my chooms to use. The Arasaka equipment was certainly better quality than some of the stuff we used up until now.

I might not be a fan of the Masamune for example, but it was a very accurate and dangerous rifle, although I was thinking something specific for my chooms.

Piling on another stack of equipment into the Quadra’s passenger seat I once more spotted the TC grunts watching me out of the corner of my eye.

They were keeping an eye on me, but hadn’t tried to talk to me, or bother me. So I was mostly ignoring them, but the attention still made me aware, made me consider ways to defend myself.

Thankfully it wasn’t needed. I was done with what I needed today. Hiromi would be handling the rest over the next while.

I took one last look at the Minotaur the desire to play with it almost irresistible, but I had work to do before I could take it out and play with it.

I closed up the garage, and climbed back into the Quadra and drove home.

Time for some real tech work.

I had so many supplies, literally piles of guns. I was going to rip anything we didn’t sell apart, and start working on the grind.

A few trips between apartment and car later, I was all set up.

First I pulled out the helmet of the armor. I did a scan, and started basically tearing it apart.

Frankly I was planning on redesigning most of it, but I first wanted to look it over for something I suspected to find.

Trackers. Listening devices. Anything for Arasaka to just keep one more finger on the pulse of their troopers.

It couldn’t be anywhere not easy to find, I really tore this one apart. Every piece of tech was taken apart, examined, and explored.

I was even getting Crafting and Tech alerts for it!

The helmets were pretty simple. Actual armored hard case. Internal electronics, and external electronics.

That was it.

The internal electronics were simple enough. A sound baffling to keep their ears from being blown out by gunfire, or flashbangs, and an internal booster, and squad radio.

I really wanted both pieces, and so carefully examined the whole thing. Even going through the chips that ran everything to check what everything did.

It was all… Normal.

Maybe it wasn’t in the helmets?

Well, I had a fully taken apart the helmet with all its electronics, scans of the whole thing which I was already storing in my laptop in case I ever needed to repair or replace the parts…

But what do I do with the Helmet? Couldn’t just leave them as is. Getting thought of as being Arasaka forces would not be a good idea. I had to alter the form of the helmet. Plus, I had to decide on paint as well. Did we pick a solid color, a camo?

Oh… Wait… I could probably get some of the ECM emitters that the TC used in their tats. ECM equipped armor could be pretty neat. It would probably be super expensive, but like…

I had a lot of eddies right now.

I shook that off. Stop feature creeping. I haven’t even gotten the helmet figured out yet. Staring at the disassembled helmet I wondered what I could do other than just change up the paint. How could I give Section 9 a look…

I did consider going Sentai Rangers, but no. That was just silly.

Hmm… Well I did have my directional mic, something these helmets didn’t have integrated…

I pulled up the CAD program, and tossed the helmets dimension into it, thank you Kiroshi scan tech!

Then I went to work, adding and adjusting, it wouldn’t be expensive, at least not for the directional mic. I already had the design done and it was cheap to begin with.

The housing for it would be cheap as well, a bit of extra armor, I could even potentially use some of the spare armor from the extra sets to make it, but I would probably just go buy something feasible. It didn’t need to be perfectly bullet proof since it was just a directional mic.

The program came together and I nodded at the look, the triangle horns sticking out of the top. Yeah that could work. Of course the problem would be hooking it up to the squad radio already integrated into the helmet.

Luckily I was a programmer!

I pulled it apart, and started hooking it up to check the programming when Jun knocked.

“Motoko?”

“I’m here! What’s up Jun?” I called out barely tearing my eyes away from the code I was dissecting, before realizing I didn’t need to do that. I slipped my personal link into the laptop and was suddenly accessing the code on a visual spectrum in my agent, and then I could just… Start modifying.

Programming 11! Stronk!

“Hey, want to get lunch?” I blinked as I whirled to Jun who was in more casual clothing than his usual TC gang outfit.

“Yeah!” I agreed instantly. Putting my coding to the side, but not shutting it down as I hurried after. Slipping my boots on I followed after casual clothes wearing Jun as he grabbed his big Cyberpunk jacket and slipped it on. I quickly reached out as we left the apartment to grab his hand, swinging it back and forth happily.

—--

Jun and I spent a nice lunch together and then split up. He was heading out to hang out with some of his chooms, while I went home to continue my work.

I had done a little more programming work on the walk to the Ramen place we ended up using, which meant by the time I walked back into the apartment and settled at my workbench, I was ready.

The in built helmet radio was actually wired to the antennae in the back to increase its ability to punch through any ECM interference. But it meant I could splice a new wire in with the new coding and now instead of having multiple private channels on different frequencies. It had one, that I made sure wasn’t the normal Arasaka frequencies anyways, and the radio could now toggle to connect to the directional mic.

It was a neat bit of coding and I was super proud of how it came out! All the work on the helmet was already paying dividends as I was getting Crafting, Engineering and Tech alerts as I solved each of the problems.

I rolled around the workbench grabbing supplies to start work on the actual directional mic housing. I would need them for each of us, but I figured a prototype first to show off what I was working with would be the best.

As I let my 3D printer form the metal I had into the right shape, I sent a text to my chooms in our group chat.

*Motoko: Fixing up the armor now, doing some prototype work still, but I need suggestions for color, or camo? Anyone have a preference? Also might want to integrate an ECM unit into the chest rig, like the ECM tats the TC use. Sound cool?*

*Malcolm: Oooh! I want mine in yellow!**Motoko: I’m not designing your armor in the same color as a Caliburn Malcolm. This is our combat equipment. Be serious.*

*Ichi: Yeah Malcolm be serious. Camo would be good. City colors? Greys and concrete colored?*

*Malcolm: I am serious! Fine both of you pick on me. I don’t know. Camo sounds so corp. I’d rather we do something Kitsch!*

*Ichi: Motoko, can you give us any visuals of what different versions would look like before we decide?*

*Motoko: Oh yeah. I can do that. I don’t have a complete set yet, but once I do, I’ll give us a 3D rendering, and we can mess around with the colors. That sound good?*

*Malcolm: Sounds perfect to me!*

*Hiromi: Can’t talk in class. Sounds preem Motoko! Thanks!*

*Motoko: That’s fine Hiromi no rush. Talk to me when you are done. I might need help sourcing the ECM stuff. Have fun in class Badass corpo bitch!*

*Malcolm: Yeah! Bad corpo bitch Hiromi! Kick all those arrogant shits ass!*

*Ichi: I don’t think you should beat up the other corpos you go to class with, but I’m not saying don’t do it.*

I giggled at the messages we all sent at Hiromi which she undoubtedly couldn’t read right now. I shook it off and went back to work. I could finish most of the stuff and do color schemes and other things later.

Back to work.