Leo, Lucy, and Rebecca fought while falling back, gradually retreating into the scrapyard.
"There are enemies everywhere outside. Without a vehicle, we can't break through. We're stuck here," Rebecca muttered. She tried to peek out from beneath a wrecked car, but a burst of heavy gunfire forced her back. Bullets pelted the metal shell, sending up a storm of sparks.
Worse news piled on. One of the officers spent his last round—and the others soon discovered they had all run dry as well. This wasn't some first-person shooter where they could haul around hundreds of bullets. The Eden Gang had completely surrounded the scrapyard, and reinforcements were nowhere in sight.
This didn't mean Commissioner Fort had abandoned them, but getting a heavily armed MaxTac team from City Center to Santo Domingo—passing through Heywood—required time. Add potential traffic jams, and the delay grew even longer.
Outside, the Eden Gang members realized the NCPD had run out of ammo. Eager to seize the advantage, they unleashed suppressive fire and inched forward, primed to lob grenades and end it fast.
Backed into the scrapyard with no bullets left, the surviving officers all wore grim expressions. Lucy huddled beside Leo, while Rebecca stayed on his other side, forming a tight triangle to watch every angle. Lucy trembled slightly, and Leo tried to reassure her.
"Don't worry," he said calmly. "We'll make it out of here."
Lucy stayed silent. Rebecca, however, let out a faint laugh that sounded more like despair. "Leo…you do realize our situation, don't you? We're not getting out."
She didn't blame him for dragging her into this mess. From the day she became a merc, she had known a day like this would come eventually—dying in a hail of bullets was practically part of the job description. It was only a matter of when.
Leo merely smiled at her doubts. Pointing overhead, he flashed a grin. "Haven't you heard? Our backup is here."
A fierce gust of wind whipped at Leo's white coat. Lucy and Rebecca looked up to see several heavy aerial vehicles circling overhead. Thick armor plating gleamed under the sun, each hull emblazoned with the MaxTac emblem.
Panic struck the Eden Gang at once. They howled, spraying frantic bursts of gunfire at the incoming craft, but their weapons did nothing against those heavily armored AVs designed to operate in war zones. Meanwhile, the AV-mounted cannons rained destruction like a steel monsoon. The Eden Gang, so menacing moments before, suddenly looked like mere stalks of wheat before the harvester's blade. They dropped in droves.
Caught in that whirling storm of bullets, no amount of zeal or faith could shield them. Their lines broke at once. Bodies tore apart under large-caliber rounds, entire squads wiped out in seconds. Half their remaining forces vanished in the first barrage alone. The survivors finally abandoned all will to fight, scattering in terror. MaxTac, however, had no intention of letting them escape, splitting off to hunt down every last fleeing target.
…
The arrival of MaxTac turned a hopeless standoff into a decisive rescue. Rebecca collapsed to the ground, breathing a sigh of relief. Yet after a moment, her shoulders slumped and she spoke in a guilty tone.
"I'm sorry, Leo…I wrecked your SUV."
"You didn't wreck it," he assured her, ruffling her hair. Normally, that would have set Rebecca off—she despised being treated like a child. But she stayed quiet, partly because of her guilt, partly because it was Leo.
She looked up anxiously. "You're not mad?"
"Of course not."
The SUV had once been a gift from McCoy when Leo parted ways with the Bakkers, something modest in monetary value, but holding a bit of sentimental worth. Still, both Leo and McCoy were practical. The loss of a vehicle simply wasn't worth sulking over.
"Without a car, though, we're stuck walking," Leo remarked.
Rebecca offered, "I could call Maine or someone else to pick us up."
Leo shook his head. "No need. I'll just get a Delamain cab." He used his tactical visor to dial. "Delamain? I'm at… Right. Thanks."
When he hung up, he found Rebecca eyeing him in shock. "You can afford Delamain?"
"In fact, I got the premium plan for everyone on my team."
Rebecca's jaw practically fell open. She thought back on all she had seen since teaming up with Leo—how he provided top-tier Tech or Smart weapons, bulletproof combat gear, and now Delamain rides for the entire crew. She almost wished she could have met him at the start of her merc days.
But there was no rewinding the clock.
At that moment, a group of battered NCPD officers limped over, including the female officer with the injured leg.
"If it weren't for you three, we'd have been dead long before MaxTac arrived," one of the officers said.
"Just doing my duty as a citizen of Night City," Leo replied.
"For that alone, City Hall should pin a medal on you."
Several NCPD personnel nodded in genuine respect. Then, as if recalling a detail, one officer asked, "By the way, did you call MaxTac?"
Lucy and Rebecca exchanged glances. Neither spoke. Lucy knew the real story, while Rebecca did not—but both looked to Leo for an answer. He wore an unreadable expression as he shook his head.
"No."
"That's so strange. At first, we assumed they were the reinforcements we requested. But when we finally made contact, we found out the backup was still stuck in Heywood. If not you or the precinct, why'd MaxTac show up out of nowhere?"
Leo feigned puzzlement, acting as though he knew nothing. "Maybe it was a coincidence."
In truth, Lucy had hacked into MaxTac's subnet from the Eden Gang's HQ, drawing them here. Sure, that had saved numerous lives—including many of the NCPD—but hacking the city's elite division wasn't exactly legal. It was comparable to breaking into a top-level internal police network in the real world, and Leo wasn't about to confess.
Also, Night City law wasn't guaranteed to have a perfect "necessity defense" for such an act, and none of them wanted the heat. Lucy had covered her tracks by using the Eden Gang's own netrunning chair, so unless they admitted it, no one would be able to trace it back.
…...
..
.
Rebecca reclined in the plush leather seat of the Delamain. She had never ridden in anything this luxurious before. It felt like a kitten nestling into a perfectly warm bed. Now she understood why Delamain fares were so steep.