IDKjust
patreon
Chapter 98 c
🕑 Added 2025-03-14 17:01:14 +0000 UTCChapter 98 c
It turned out that the Eden Gang had not only killed the officers left behind to guard Channel 54 News and their crew, but had also tampered with the patrol cars and the news team’s van. The moment anyone started the engine, the vehicles would blow up.
The intense fire and searing heat claimed the lives of those who tried to flee in the cruiser, as though Fate itself were mocking them. The female officer Lucy was carrying looked deathly pale. The surviving officers wore similar expressions of grim despair. More than one of them had briefly considered ditching everyone else and making a solo run for it. Fortunately, that idea never went beyond idle thought.
Meanwhile, the firefight raged on. The Eden Gang showed no sign of letting up just because a few members of the NCPD had died. If anything, the open gateway seemed to drive them into a frenzy. More than one fanatic charged in with explosives strapped to their chest, attempting a suicide attack. Had Leo not reacted in time to shoot down these human bombs, their hastily set up defensive position would have collapsed in an instant.
Even so, the situation looked grim. Leo glanced toward the gate, then at the gang members pouring out of the building in a mad rush. Without hesitation, he shouted:
“Move! Everyone, get out!”
Every vehicle had been rigged with explosives—starting an engine meant certain death. That left them no choice but to flee on foot and hope to outrun the horde. Leo told Lucy to take the injured female officer and follow the other NCPD officers. He planned to cover their retreat himself.
Clad in his custom bulletproof combat suit, he could ignore most small-arms fire unless it came from a high-caliber weapon or specialized tech rounds. Of course, Leo was no fool: even against conventional bullets, he didn’t stand there soaking up hits. Thanks to Evasion LV8, he weaved through the hail of lead like a serpent. At least half the rounds missed him entirely.
Whenever his Shingen Smart SMG ran dry, Leo switched to his Kenshin Tech Pistol. One charged shot after another tore open the heads of the Eden Gang members who drew too close. But there seemed to be no end to these lunatics. They surged forward with a zeal reminiscent of a zombie horde in a post-apocalyptic flick.
By Leo’s rough count, he had already taken out fifty or sixty enemies since the battle began, yet the Eden Gang kept coming. It truly felt like they were infinite in number.
Suddenly, an SUV roared in from the side and screeched to a halt, blocking the barrage of bullets. Sparks danced across its chassis. Rebecca leaned out from the driver’s seat, firing both a Kenshin Tech Pistol and an Arasaka Yukimura Smart Pistol in quick succession. The hail of precise shots dropped several gang members in seconds.
“Rebecca!” Leo shouted, relieved. “You got here just in time!”
The roar of her guns was nothing compared to the roar in her throat. “Do you have any idea how worried I was? Your signal just vanished, and then I heard nonstop gunfire from inside. If I’d been able to get in, I would’ve come after you ages ago!”
Safe behind the SUV, Leo reloaded his Crusher shotgun and dove back into the fight. Those two pistols Rebecca wielded had more stopping power than ten of the NCPD’s Lexingtons combined.
Not long after, Lucy reappeared in the firefight with her Tech SMG.
“What happened to that wounded officer?” he asked.
“I handed her over to the other NCPD guys. They’re holed up in a nearby scrapyard, waiting for backup,” Lucy replied.
Leo nodded. “Then we should group up with them over there.”
He checked the time in his tactical visor. MaxTac—Night City’s heavy-duty crisis response team—should be arriving soon. If they could just hold out a bit longer, MaxTac would raze the Eden Gang to the ground. But if he and the others tried to bail now, the wounded NCPD officers in the scrapyard would almost certainly be overrun and torn to shreds.
They’d already saved those officers repeatedly; why stop now?
Leo motioned Lucy into the SUV. Then he got in himself and slammed the door. Leaning out the window, he fired several shotgun blasts, tearing apart the Eden Gang members who got too close.
“All right, we’re in, Rebecca—drive!”
“Got it. Hang on!”
Rebecca stowed her pistols and grabbed the wheel. Right then, something rammed the SUV from behind, hard enough to send a jolt through Leo’s entire body. Since he was leaning out of the window, he nearly got thrown clear out of the car.
“What the hell?” Leo glanced back and saw a tanker truck slamming its grill into the SUV’s rear, pinning them against the compound’s outer wall. Rebecca floored the accelerator, but the tanker was simply too heavy. There was no budging it.
In the truck’s cab, an Eden Gang member with a crazed expression stared straight at them. A terrible feeling tightened Leo’s gut. He jumped out and yanked the SUV’s door open.
“Everybody out—now!”
Lucy and Rebecca might not have understood why, but they trusted Leo enough to obey immediately. No sooner had they cleared the vehicle than they spotted the driver in the tanker’s cab, about to pull the detonator strapped to his body.
Bang! Leo fired a single shot from his Overture revolver. The large-caliber round slammed through the windshield and drilled neatly into the driver’s forehead. His head jerked back, then flopped forward onto the steering wheel.
“Move!” Leo barked. The three of them retreated amid a fresh barrage of gunfire.
One of the remaining gang members hoisted a rocket launcher onto his shoulder and fired. The rocket whistled through the air and collided with the tanker’s rear tank. The resulting explosion dwarfed all previous blasts.
Leo felt a massive shockwave hurl him off his feet. The roar in his ears was deafening.
Yet he twisted at the last moment, managing a skillful midair roll. He snatched Lucy and Rebecca out of the air as they tumbled, using his momentum to shield them while sliding across the pavement. Their combined weight left deep skid marks, and they finally came to a halt.
Leo placed them gently on the ground. “Rebecca! You okay?”
She shook her head, disoriented. “Still breathing, so I’m fine.”
Leo turned to Lucy. “How about you?”
Lucy’s face was pale but uninjured. “I’ll be all right.”
Rebecca wiped her mouth, her usual explosive temperament flaring. “Dammit! If we get out of here in one piece, El Capitán had better pay us double!”
A shout came from nearby. “Hey! Over here!”
“We’ll cover you—run this way!”
It was a few of the surviving NCPD officers. Despite the risks, they had emerged from the scrapyard to help Leo’s group. Unfortunately, the remaining Eden Gang forces had fanned out past the explosion site, closing in from multiple angles. They might have been reduced from over two hundred to under a hundred, but these fanatics—driven by twisted zeal—refused to let up. To them, dying in battle was a direct ticket to the holy land of their so-called gods.
Leo, Lucy, and Rebecca managed to rejoin the handful of NCPD officers rushing in to support them.
