I approached the repair clinic from around a corner. When the local repair guy calls for my help, I listen.

Outside the clinic, I saw four sectroops, three grounders and a lieutenant. So he wasn't exaggerating. The sec people kept neighborhoods like this in line by controlling their access to parts. When they found repair clinics giving people another route, they cracked down.

The rain was still coming down. I could already feel my janky arm starting to fritz. If I engaged with any of them out in the wet, it would probably short out and trip the breaker. I didn't like the idea of fighting these goons with one arm, but better that than dropping a weapon in the middle of the fight.

I scanned the sectroops for salvage value. The three grounders had standard heavy fittings, good for the locals who worked rough jobs for crap pay, but the lieutenant looked just my size. Maybe I could finally get a replacement for my fritzy arm when this was over. Not a fan of the corpo paint job, of course, but that would buff out.

Just as well that I was going at this one-handed, I suppose, since the repair guy couldn't move parts that I had already beaten to scrap. Best to get the goons to deecee and pull out the control boards so the doc could pick them apart. I reached for my hack probe and took aim at the lead goon. He was already reaching for a breach charge. Time to move.

I sent a jolt along the goon's comm channel, just enough to make him fumble the charge. While he looked around in confusion, I prepped the probe again and took aim at the LT, but I couldn't get a lock. They must have updated their protocols since I did this last. Well, she wasn't the one with the weapons. As long as I could keep her calling in an alert, that would have to do.

I ran in with my overload prod and gave the goon in back a tap. He spasmed from head to toe as all of his sensors maxed out. While he wrestled with the stim, I kicked the breach charge into an alley and gave the lead goon another tap. I saw the lieutenant raise her wrist to her lips as the last goon grabbed his chopper from his hip. Before he could take a swing, I slid between his legs and kicked the LT in the ankle. It didn't drop her, but it startled her for a sec. Just enough time to give her pause and give me my opening.

I kicked up to a standing position and jumped, spinning my heel against the side of her head. No good breaking anything valuable in there, and no good getting her to deecee, either. Not an LT. I wanted her sticking around.

Just in time, I saw her notice something behind me. I turned and ducked as the last goon swung his blade at me, barely missing the edge as it sang through the rain. The other two grounders were already starting to go limp. I needed to work quick.

I parried the last guy's backswing with my bad arm and knocked him off balance just enough to get the overload in. The blade cut a heavy chunk out of my hand, taking off two fingers. If the arm wasn't useless before, it was now. Oh well. At least there was a repair clinic right here.

I gritted my teeth, pushing through the stim as I pried panels off of the three grounders. The LT was starting to recover from the kick, so while she was still groggy, I pulled the field-strip from my belt and started in on her shoulders, then on her hips and waist. She started to wake up while I was working, but once I popped her neck joint, all she could do was shout. No good deeceeing when I already had the goods.

When I was through with her, I heard the doc behind me.

"Thanks for the help, K," he said, as he plucked the control boards from the grounders. They hadn't stayed in long enough for any of them to wake back up, so with nobody left in the driver's seat, they were nothing but sorely needed parts. "You all right?"

"Nothing you can't fix," I said, piling up the LT and picking up her head. "This one's still blinking. You get her plugged in somewhere off-net, I bet she's got all sorts of juicy intel we can use. I call dibs on this, though."

I tossed him the LT's arm.

"You got it," he said, waving back toward his clinic. A couple of his helpers swarmed out of the door and started gathering up sectroop parts, ready to clean and wipe them and get them ready for new owners. One of them grabbed the LT's head and wrapped it in rags, in case any of the neighbors were trying to sleep.

I followed the doc back into the clinic, and I took a seat by the bench. A pile of new parts for the neighborhood, enough to patch everyone who needed patching, plus a new arm for me, all shiny fresh connections plus updated protocols for my probe. And to boot, a sec troop LT to interrogate.

Good day.