Progressing from Arasaka

226

Chapter 226 Clouds in the Blue Sky, Water in the Bottle

South of the Badlands of Jackson Plains, in this wide, canyon-shaped corridor running southeast, floating vehicles are now everywhere.

On the desolate Gobi Desert, a vast array of ground and air vehicles from the Arasaka Emergency Rescue Team, the Military Station Rapid Response Mobile Team, the Night City Southern Border Checkpoint, the NCPD Border Patrol, the Dogtown Barghest Mercenaries, and the Trauma Team appeared one after another in the airspace surrounding the crash site.

Centered on the wrecked explorer who crash-landed on the ground, the area within a one-kilometer radius was filled with traces of intense firefights.

Damaged vehicles, light and heavy drones, and robot wreckage were burning. Golden kinetic ammunition casings were scattered everywhere, along with magazines, firearms, shrapnel, and other debris.

David Martinez was among the first members of the rapid reaction force to arrive, as he was recently on duty at the Dogtown Arasaka Barracks.

After determining the terrorists' location through intelligence sharing from the combat data center (data obtained by the Cyber Ninja hacking into Alex's brain), his armored airship immediately opened fire, catching up with a group of attackers who were fleeing eastward, and launching a barrage of attacks.

Buzz... Buzz...

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat—Boom!

With a loud bang, a desert-colored modified car, which had been drifting and playing a shrimp-catching trick in a gully in the Gobi Desert, turned into a sky full of flames along with its rider. The burning rear end of the car lifted up and crashed to the side, overturning and crashing into the rocky mountain with sparks and lightning all the way.

"Stop! There's only one left. Don't kill them all. Capture them alive, or at least leave them with intact corpses."

With the hatch opening to the side, the fully armed mobile team assault commander, clad in an EX0-1 exoskeleton, commanded, "Burn their systems."

"They are equipped with military-grade Intrusion Countermeasure Unit, which will take time."

A stream of crimson data flashed rapidly across the tactical goggles as the network expert looked down at the vehicles fleeing towards the Stone Ridge Mountains, trailing smoke Heat Decoy on the ground.

These fleeing Federal Intelligence Agency agents were unaware that their encrypted local area network had been hacked by Arasaka Cyber Ninja. Through a command node of a high-ranking agent, Arasaka had obtained their location and was tracking them.

"Then disable the vehicle. Descend the altitude and prepare for the assault."

The commander stood up from the folding chair and turned his head. "Tanaka, Martinez, Kawakami, your group is responsible for cover. These bastards are most likely Militech idiots, so be vigilant and ready to counterattack at any time."

"Yes."

The bullets clanged against the vehicle's armor. David, Katsuo, and Xiaofu steadily held their guns and responded in unison.

Even though David felt that his team, or even himself, could handle the gangsters below, he had been working in the office for over a year and was very clear about his role.

Arasaka is not a makeshift organization like mercenaries, gangs, or Nomads; he has his own set of operational rules.

Obedience, avoiding heroism, and emphasizing teamwork are two aspects. On the other hand, having a reserve team and always leaving oneself room for maneuver in case of misjudgment is Vera's operating principle, which the Security Department has been continuously learning and promoting.

Furthermore, if you're aiming for minimal loss or even no injury, you have to be cautious and not just blindly fight like in a street brawl.

On the ground.

"Shit!"

Joseph, driving away, kept calling out to Reed and Alex but received no response, which made his heart pound and he instantly realized that something was wrong.

Sacrificing pawns to save the king is a common practice in intelligence work and for spies.

Even Kingsman Reed himself had been stabbed in the back, let alone him.

Before being ordered by his superiors to infiltrate Night City and awaken Reed, he had assumed that Reed was long dead.

The incubator codenamed 'Gift' is obviously more valuable than him and must be obtained. He should be one of the Orphan used to distract the pursuers from Arasaka.

Thinking of this, Joseph clenched his teeth tightly.

Although he was angry and resentful, Reed had prepared the agents mentally before the mission, telling them that someone had to sacrifice for the cause of the new United States if necessary. Who told him to be unlucky enough to be targeted by Arasaka?

We absolutely cannot let those bastards from Arasaka capture us alive!

This was the only thought in Joseph's mind.

Just as he turned to look at the co-pilot—who was holding a portable Anti-air Missile and had the same hatred in his eyes—and was preparing to wait a while longer before exploding into a fight with Arasaka's pursuers, without warning, a deafening rumble—!!

Almost simultaneously, a series of explosions resounded, their thunderous roars deafening.

Joseph's movements faltered, and he almost crashed.

"What?!"

"Holy crap, what's going on?!"

"Large tactical bomb?"

On the armored airborne vehicle, Arasaka was also startled. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw an explosion cloud, resembling a sandwich candy, rising from the ground in the southeast.

Multiple plumes of smoke rose and intertwined, their contents a chaotic jumble of various colors—

The white part is the fog formed by the condensation of water vapor, and the dark brown part is the chemical charge of the missile warhead. Interspersed with cherry-pink light waves, it is extremely dazzling, like a steel furnace that has exploded, blinding and scorching, illuminating the airspace within a radius of several kilometers, and can even be clearly seen from the urban area of Night City.

Immediately afterwards, the aftershocks of the heat wave arrived.

David, Shengnan, and Katsuo, though their expressions were somewhat stiff beneath their tactical masks, did not lose their composure and maintained their tactical gun-holding postures. Having seen their share of the world, they were simply astonished that someone would be so bold as to set off such a large firecracker near Night City.

This is a blatant violation of the Urban Fires Limitation Convention!

"It's not a nuclear bomb."

The veteran sergeant, who had witnessed the brutality of the 2069 Metal War, made his judgment.

"New beauty?"

Just as Katsuo was speculating, the voice of the rapid reaction mobile team commander barged into David and the others' minds. "Mission continues. It's SAT-6's doing, don't worry about it. These idiots are just unlucky, they ran into SAT-6 returning from a counter-terrorism mission."

Oh, it's that elite of the elite, Special Rapid Response Unit Team 6, the firecrackers set off by our own people in Arasaka. Oh well, it's alright then.

David, Katsuo, and Xiaofu exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with eagerness.

The next goal: to 'raise the flag', we need to find a way to get SAT-6 gold plating.

As for violating conventions, what? I don't know.

Using counter-terrorism military equipment on terrorists who assassinated Arasaka executives is a perfect solution!

"Assault!"

The squad leader simply waved his hand dismissively.

Beep, the vehicle-mounted jamming device is activated to its maximum extent.

[Parking Brake] — Intrusion successful! The network expert tilted his head.

With a whoosh, the armored airborne vehicle, having descended to a lower altitude, activated the EX0-1 exoskeleton propulsion system of the assault team. Low-temperature gas, resembling steam and gas, was ejected, propelling several rapid reaction soldiers forward. They leaped ten meters in one go, and David and others followed closely behind, opening fire. Large-caliber armor-piercing rounds pierced through the smoke screen and instantly tore apart the wheel hubs of the modified vehicle.

As the car slowed down and began to drift sideways, whoosh! The grappling hook pierced through the car's body, and a person landed on the roof.

The second person arrived shortly after, and the heavily modified veteran slammed heavily onto the car's hood. The speed and mass combined with the violent impact nearly caused the car's rear to lift up. The exoskeleton's propulsion system was activated a second time, and the veteran's "Gorilla Arms" rammed into the driver's seat in a flash.

"You stole the director's goods and now you want to run away?"

Iron Hand gripped the neck of the street-smart guy in the driver's seat tightly. The veteran grinned maliciously, his artificial muscle bands tightening their grip.

"Joseph!"

The other man exclaimed and pulled the trigger.

With a hiss, just as the first shot was fired, the car door on the side where he was located was ripped off with a crackling sound of metal being torn apart. The dark figure reached out, followed by a burst of angry roars and a flurry of gunfire.

David stared at the man in the passenger seat holding the rocket launcher until he resisted and tried to shoot himself and Him in the head, only to be ripped through the heart by the smart submachine guns of the other Arasaka soldiers.

Seeing this, David expanded the search area and shifted his attention to other directions. The assault commander, who had cut off the victim's head and put it into an evidence bag, shouted from the ground, "Tanaka, I need to collect evidence (such as fresh brain matter) from these wrecked cars. Your team continues the pursuit. The data center's intelligence indicates that some terrorists have escaped into the Stone Ridge Mountains, which is very close to us."

"Receive."

Tanaka patted David on the shoulder, and the two looked east. On the virtual retina screen built into the Kiroshi eye, a location-sharing map showed that the movement speed of multiple red dots was slowing down.

It felt like entering some kind of cave-like safe house, and the signal was intermittent, as if a hacker had noticed the covert intrusion and was interfering with and erasing tracking markers.

A big fish? David's eyes lit up.

227

Chapter 227 V: Loyalty! Honesty!

Badlands, in abandoned pipes that have been neglected for years.

Tap, tap.

Footsteps, muffled by the rumbling on the ground, could be heard.

"The rapid reaction force has arrived."

"Jackie, we don't have much time left."

"Reassure your people as much as possible, make sure you evacuate safely and hide in a safe house, and act quickly."

"We're all in this together now. If you want peace of mind, you'd better clean up your own mess... Never mind, I won't say anything about betraying someone after you've served your purpose. You know how it is in counterintelligence work."

Before he could finish speaking about silencing her, V almost instantly noticed the change in his best friend's eyes and immediately shut up.

She changed the subject and encouraged him:

"It's a stroke of luck amidst misfortune. Although the intervention of the NUSA Joint Intelligence Bureau has added variables to the assassination, it has at least confused the pursuers' attention. Arasaka will definitely focus his primary target on Solomon Reed, which is our chance to extricate ourselves and clear our names."

"Jackie, I know what you're worried about."

"Indeed, even though Abernathy is gone, she still has a lot of troublesome forces left in the Special Operations Department. But believe me, as long as we keep our composure and don't let the news leak out, once the storm passes, my department head will be promoted smoothly, and no one will remember the old cases of this washed-up Corporate Dog."

This is Arasaka, or rather, the typical workplace environment in cyber giants.

Following V, Jackie spoke in a heavy tone, "No, that's not what I'm worried about. You can handle Arasaka's matter yourself, I trust you."

He paused for a moment. "It's Maine. He's in very bad shape. According to Dorio, he used [Sandevistan] multiple times while driving away and is currently on the verge of a relapse."

"Falco is injured, Pilar is seriously injured and incapacitated. In addition, including the gold and silver hacker sisters, three of his companions are still in the hands of that bastard Reed, and their fates are unknown."

An episode? Cyberpsychosis fit? Brilliant!

Those two hackers would be better off having their brains roasted by Federal Intelligence Agency!

V thought to himself upon hearing this.

She and Jackie were old friends, that's true, but her relationship with Maine's crew, Panam and the Nomads tribe behind them was just an indirect commission relationship. There was no real affection between them. If they all died, she would even applaud it, saving her the trouble of dealing with them later.

Of course, out of consideration for Jackie's feelings, V wouldn't say it too early and risk offending him.

She didn't want to waste time with Jackie; escaping was the priority.

"It will be alright."

V finally managed to utter this sentence.

She's not good at comforting people; she'd rather call a hotline.

V glanced back at Jackie.

The usually cheerful and optimistic young man remained silent, following her steps with his head down. The orange-red communication data stream flashing in his eyes suggested he was communicating with Maine's crew and Panam.

Withdrawing her gaze, V had no intention of getting involved. As she ran, she calmly unraveled the information in her mind, piece by piece.

She and Jackie had hidden their weapons and other 'stolen goods' carefully. They placed them in a special safe, embedded it into the rock wall, and then piled up stones, filled it with soil and sand, making it impossible for a scanner to penetrate.

Maine successfully evacuated and is currently with Dorio, Falco, and Pilar. The four of them should be able to take refuge in a pre-prepared safe house located underground in an abandoned oil town in western Jackson Plains, with enough supplies to last them a month.

We may need to send some immunosuppressant drugs over later.

Panam and the Nomads reportedly suffered heavy casualties, with even the Nomads tribe's minor chieftain who had come to support them losing one and another. The hot-tempered mercenary then berated Jackie and the peach-picking Shinmi before leaving Jackie and choosing to evacuate with the remnants of the Nomads. Their safe house was set up in a homeless enclave in the Badlands —a mixed-use area of tent-like structures and a landfill.

They don't need to worry about it anymore.

Badlands are the territory of Nomads; who knows how many holes they've dug in the wilderness.

The farther away from the city, the weaker the influence of the company and the government, and even Arasaka is beyond their reach.

According to Arasaka's internal intelligence, the massive explosion just now was caused by the arrival of SAT-6 from the Security Department's General Security Bureau...

Jenkins spoke with great confidence, but could he withstand the pressure? Even V wasn't sure.

She knew the predicament her boss was facing; the room for maneuver was getting narrower and narrower. To put it bluntly, this robbery and murder was a desperate act of overturning the table when all the losses were gone, a gambler's desperate attempt to survive when he had no money left.

Jenkins was both his strength and Jenkins weakness.

As a trusted confidant handpicked by Jenkins, he benefited from rapid advancement, but at the cost of bearing Jenkins's mark—his fate was intertwined with Jenkins's; their fates were intertwined, and their successes were intertwined.

Loyalty is a must!