Jacky's Vow to the Maelstrom

Jacky once had a deal with a local gang known as the Maelstrom. Back in the day, Jacky was scrambling to find money of any sort whatsoever, and needed a loan. He was planning one of his first gigs but didn't have the firepower to take down the truck he was going to rob. Fortunately, he had a contact in the up and coming Maelstrom gang. Unfortunately, poor Jacky was naïve to how vicious and heartless the gang really was. Meeting with his contact, they struck a deal. Rather than money, they would loan him one of their own weapons, a sniper rifle known as the Roll of Thunder, packing enough firepower to punch through the armor of the truck he was targeting. The catch was that Jacky would owe the Maelstrom 50% of whatever goods he found in the Militech transport. To his ears, that sounded like a sweet deal. So he took it.

The next day, Jacky moved ahead with his hit. Sitting on an outlook over the highway, he waited for the scheduled Militech transport to pass under him on the interstate. As the time came, he spotted the transport, driven by one Militech lackey and protected by another in the passenger seat. Taking aim, he fired at the driver. A blinding flash from the muzzle ensued, followed by a rumbling as the bullet broke the sound barrier and smashed through the reinforced glass into the driver's skull. The guard in the passenger seat did not even have time to register what had happened, and before he could grab the wheel and stabilize the truck, Jacky had already rechambered another round. Another flash followed by the sound of thunder, and the second guard was no longer with them. The truck swerved into a barrier, tipped over, and rolled off the side of the interstate. When Jacky got down to the truck, he found crates of the latest military-grade cybernetics, ranging from accessories to implants. He locked down the truck and proceeded to move the crates off to a hidden area near the highway.

Over the next week, Jacky was celebrating one of his biggest hauls to date as a young mercenary. But the poor guy had forgotten his deal with the Maelstrom, and had put off giving them their share until later. The Maelstrom had been attempting to contact him all week, but Jacky was in a drunken stupor following his celebration and was in no shape to respond at all. Then one day, he heard a clap of thunder followed by his door hinges being blown off. Smoke rolled in, clouding the room, as Jacky stumbled around coughing. When the smoke cleared, most of the crates he had stolen were gone, with only scraps left behind. A note next to his doorway read "You forgot that we had a deal, Jacky." Having sobered up quickly once his door had been blown out of its frame, Jacky realized the gravity of his mistake, along with his door, as it was currently lying on top of him. He groaned, realizing that'd he'd have to break out the broom to clean the mess up.

Author's Note: The original story I sourced my material from was An Indian's Vow to the Thunder Gods, from the Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, especially of Washington and Oregon, by Katharine Berry Judson (1910). In the original story, a mother receives a vision from a Thunder god and promises to give it her first born child. But when she raises the child, she realizes she loves it, and does not want to give it up. Eventually, the Thunder Gods collect, and kill her child by a clap of lightning.

In my version refitted for Cyberpunk, rather than owe some gods a child, I had Jacky owe a gang a cut of his profits in return for borrowing something from them, aptly named the Roll of Thunder. Jacky forgets to pay them, but rather than being killed, I have his apartment attacked by the same thunder, with smoke mimicking the effects of a storm, and having his goods disappear after the fact like an act of the gods. While the ending to An Indian's Vow held a somber tone as the mother lost her child, I decided to end Jacky's version with some humor to make the story more comedic than tragic.

Web source: Myths and Legends of the Pacific Northwest, especially of Washington and Oregon, by Katharine Berry Judson (1910).