Hearing the roar of gunfire from the other side, Carl wasn't surprised by the sound of artillery as she circled into an alley and ran toward the back of the convenience store.
Because the moment she heard the first blast, she knew what it was—the sound of a Projectile Launch System.
Projectile Launch System: a piece of cyberware installed in the arm, essentially a palm-sized artillery launcher.
Carl remembered that when activated, the cyberware would pop out of the arm like Mantis Blades or Monomolecular Wire, as though a turret were rising from the limb. Then, guided by the user's aim, it would fire a shell or missile from the arm.
Carl had once spent half a day looking into that cyberware, but ultimately decided not to buy it because it was too expensive.
The Projectile Launch System itself was fairly average in price among arm-modification cyberware. What was truly expensive was the ammunition. After all, miniature shells and missiles weren't easy to come by, and they were single-use. Fire one, and you had to buy another. What poor mercenary could afford that?
Using shells and missiles to bombard them, even miniature ones—these attackers were really spending big. They were seriously loaded.
But Carl didn't understand. They had been having such a great time blasting away with rocket launchers earlier, so why weren't they using rocket launchers now? Compared to the less powerful shells and missiles fired by cyberware, rockets packed a far greater punch. A few shots like that, and wouldn't this three-story shop be blown apart?
Thinking carefully, none of the previous rockets had been aimed directly at the vehicle.
Did they want to capture the target alive and unharmed?
No, considering how close those rockets had landed to the vehicle, perhaps "unharmed" wasn't necessary. As long as