> Wait a minute … magnetic implants, spurs, insufferable moral code … YOU GOAT-FUCKING SON OF A BITCH, YOU STILL OWE ME!
> Clockwork
> What in the nine hells are you talking about?
> Ma’Fan
> I’ve worked with this bastard before, and his fucking moral code cost me hundreds of hours of work and thousands of nuyen in materials! And Kane, pay attention, because this is the story you wanted to hear earlier.
Here’s the sitch: Quietus was temporarily attached to my team for a job, though he wasn’t using that name. On behalf of some Yakuza or another, we were supposed to assassinate this Triad mucky-muck who was running a slaving operation. The yak wasn’t interested in the merchandise’s condition, he was just pissed that the Triad guy had beaten him to the punch on that particular market. He didn’t care how we did the job, just as long as the Triad guy was dead.
So we track the guy to a dock warehouse, where he’s receiving his latest shipment. I figure this is the best chance to strike and I say I’ve got a new drone that can do the job. I had this custom job that I hadn’t even come up with a name for yet. It was a heavily armored drone that looked like a miniature tank, with tons of weapons. It was beautiful. I spent a lot of time making this thing. I had just finished it and wanted to test it out.
Mister Softy here refuses to consider such a plan of action because it would “put innocents at risk.” Like I give a fuck about some no-name whores. He wants to go the quiet route and take a sniper shot at the guy. We get into an argument, and I’m about to start up my new custom drone when he knocks me unconscious to make sure that I can’t do it! Well, the Triad douchebag is long gone by the time our argument is resolved, so we miss our shot. We still know where the guy bases his operations from, so he’s not entirely lost to us, but trying to go through a bunch of Triad soldiers to reach him isn’t my idea of a good time. Still, Quietus thinks we can do it, and in fact believes it’s the best choice since the only ones who will be hurt are “evil.” He suggests that my new combat drone is the best choice to aid the rest of my team in a diversionary assault while he takes the kill shot. I’m a bit pissed, but the money is good for taking this guy out, so I go along with it.
Well, the drone works really damn nicely in its first test run. It cuts down some Triad guards like it was barely a challenge, and the rest of my team easily picks off the other guards while they’re panicking and trying to take out the mechanical beast that’s killing their friends. Quietus gets the kill shot on the target, but as we’re retreating one of the guards brings out an anti-vehicle rocket launcher and shoots it at my drone. BOOM! Six months of work and 500,000 nuyen in materials, down the fucking drain just like that! All so he could save some goddamn whores nobody gives a shit about! He never even paid me back a single nuyen for the damage either!
> Clockwork
> So was that you, Quietus? Does Clockwork have it right? Did you really go to all that trouble to save the lives of a few people you didn’t know and who certain assholes seem to think are expendable?
> Kat o’ Nine Tales
> I can neither confirm nor deny any of the little bastard’s story.
> Quietus