The worst thing that ever happened is when I got shot. I can kind of remember my mother, and it was pretty bad when she went away, but that was a long time ago and it's hard to remember that time. I still remember every part about getting shot though. I can remember jumping down from the window. I can remember the dusty air pulling against my arms as I slid out my knives to take the guy out. I can remember the merc and how his visor reflected the flash as he stepped out from the cargo door and the weight of the thing as it slammed into my chest. It didn't even hurt, it just slammed into me and spun me in the other direction. I can remember not being able to get a breath and then blood in my mouth and I couldn't see anymore, just white. I can remember hearing folks and guys yelling and more shots but I don't remember what they were yelling. I remember being surprised that Cross was there and not up watching the window and then he picked me up and there was so much pain. I don't remember after that, but he said he thought I was capped for sure and he just grabbed me so he had something. He thought he was capped too. He got out though.
I figure that it was Lad that tipped them off, and that's how they knew we were going to do the port run and how they set up for us. I don't know what he got for it, but folks never saw him again so he either got a lot or they tossed him in the cycler. He wasn't on the run, but almost everyone else was because I had planned it out forever and it was going to be a real good one, real big. I had the stock lists and all the right gear and even some suits and chips from their corp fuzz. I got it all together after we found a guy that had keycode for InterSee, a low grade shipping corp that had warehouse at the port. I used those credits we had and it was planned out and we were stocked legit for a run on them. The list said there were only a few guys on security and we had a perfect run getting in, but that was all sour because when we got in they had mercs set up for us. They got a lot of my crew right off, most of my crew capped or caught, and even the ones that got out went deep after that. I didn't see those folks again. They could have killed everyone, they could have changed the chips too so we couldn't even get in, but InterSee wanted to make sure our gang did get in and was busted up, and they wanted some folks to get away too. They wanted folks to know. It was pretty smart if you think about it.
I was laid up for a long time, like just a month just trying to not be dead. Cross always said he knew a bunch of adams up in the city that were as good as folks and ran some kind of crew that helped out muties and bents. They lived in ships or something and were all deep thinkers and holy rollers who came down to G4 to be good and helpful or something. I didn't figure any of that, and I used to say they must want something but now I don't know because they took us in and didn't flag or turn sour on us either. Not that I had a choice trusting them, I wasn't going to make it in The Cut the way I was busted up. I always figured Cross was angling to be boss of the crew and that he didn't much like me cause he always got on me about things, but he was good folk and he took care of me even though he didn't have to. I didn't figure it back then but now I think maybe he didn't care about being boss as much as he wanted it to be good for the crew. He took care of me because I was all the crew that was left. Anyway these adams did patch me up and were all pretty chuffed to see me and they even knew I was Eloi and that was pretty important to them for some reason. They knew a lot about my mutie though like how I didn't look old and how I could live with a broke heart for so long. They even seemed kind of sad about it, like when you owe someone for a trade but you can't make good on it.
The adams were from some place called Farthrow which wasn't in any of my code or even the files I read from that datacore. I wanted to run some searches or navsim and check that out cause I was laid up with nothing to do. They didn't let me use their gear though, and mine was all spragged and no way to fix it. I didn't even have any of those old audibles to listen to and all the stim these adams had was like clouds whispering or something. I was nearly out of my mind bored except that Cross would come by and tell me a joke or blow some dust up some adams back for a laugh. They were so easy to dust and they had a really bad tell so you knew just how to twist them up too. He would tell me about some folks we knew or if he saw someone from the crew or what he heard going on. He stopped coming though. The adams let me stay with them for a couple months more and I kind of helped around the place while I got better. I was itching to get out of there though, I thought I might try to find Cross or maybe see if I could get in with a new crew.
And then that pilot showed up.
next: The New Crew
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