Unlimited: Progressing from Arasaka
There was only a bland, horizontal loading animation.
For her, ordinary internet browsing is like swimming in an indoor pool after unloading a long-term burden.
She saw the hierarchical partitioned network, the various migration vectors, and the sudden explosion of Cyberspace data—due to the surge in access data throughput in San Francisco.
There was also a 'private highway' that allowed her access, the Arasaka one, Cyberspace passage from the Night City Arasaka Tower LAN to the San Francisco Arasaka Branch LAN.
After the Great Network Collapse caused by the Fourth Corporate War, the days of free internet access and global interconnection completely disappeared from people's lives. Back then, the best open-source hackers could still burn the brains of their foul-mouthed teammates in games across cities, countries, and even continents, but now, that's impossible.
In 2077, even the most skilled amateur hackers can only wield power within a city's local area network. Want to operate across cities, states, or countries? Only corporate hackers can do that, or rather, hackers can only do it by leveraging the private global networks and satellite communication systems built by Major Corporations.
[Bite--]
Are you Song Zhaomei?
It's me.
As the visual data mimicry of the Arasaka San Francisco branch hackers appeared before her eyes, Song Zhaomei knew it was time to get to work.
Leveraging her familiarity with Militech and the characteristics of the Federal Intelligence Agency's underlying network protocols, she helped the San Francisco branch and even the command system of the Adelheid bridge to identify and address any gaps, minimize risks, and uncover any weaknesses that the US had planted in San Francisco.
Song Zhaomei isn't that stupid to resort to underhanded tactics at a time like this.
Vera must have something to rely on to allow her to access Arasaka's backbone server so quickly.
Bridge...
Without any pleasantries or greetings, Song Zhaomei quickly focused her attention on the Cyber Golden Gate Bridge, which, even in Cyberspace, still featured suspension cables and distinctive grid-style bridge towers.
Although, strictly speaking, Cyberspace does not have the concept of 'seeing,' for cyberwalkers, it is something that can 'see' and can perceive.
Here, including the migration vector data streams on the north and south outer beaches, the data streams are decreasing rapidly, indicating the fleeing crowds.
During the search, Song Zhaomei quickly identified risks based on her knowledge of data link layer protocol characteristics. She also meticulously examined the data packets sent by the Arasaka Hackers on orders from his superiors.
Just then, [Damn it, an anti-ship missile is penetrating our defenses!]
Arasaka Hackers, suddenly launched into a tirade.
Song Zhaomei saw it too.
A data chain flashing encrypted O1 characters at high frequency in Cyberspace, completely out of the reach of the naked eye, broke through the escort fleet's multi-layered defenses at an extremely tricky angle and plunged headlong into the data stack outline symbolizing the Adelheid.
A dud?
Why is there no reaction at all?
[No need to look anymore, it's an energy shield. Keep searching, find it for me. Since these bastards from Shinmei have chosen to tear off the mask, there's no reason they'd only resort to long-range attacks. Be vigilant!]
The hacker team leader's voice came through.
Turning her gaze away, Song Zhaomei continued searching for anomalies.
Shortly after, a colleague brought back good news. "[The Adelheid's command and control chain has been hacked and is being counter-tracked—locked on at 215 Lombard Street in the Castro District! Quickly, notify SFPD and QRF (rapid reaction force) to deploy!]"
Is it really that simple?
Song Zhaomei seemed to be deep in thought.
Look at the 'data points' that are swaying and falling into the sea on the CyberGolden Golden Gate Bridge, and the broken 'data points' that are rising and falling on the sea surface.
Those are people and vehicles.
She seemed to have thought of something.
Wait! Song Zhaomei began to focus on investigating the abnormal data links on the Golden Gate Bridge, and suddenly she paused.
From the data packets examined by the hackers at the San Francisco branch, she discovered data links that would synchronize at regular intervals, and that would occasionally fall into the water. Family travel? Unlikely.
It connects many people and vehicles, and those communication signals are all encrypted and disguised.
The first layer is shallow encryption, mimicking the basic telephone signals of urban districts. The second layer is deep encryption, which uses features of cybersecurity protocols commonly used by the Federal Intelligence Agency. If she weren't a former senior Federal Intelligence Agency agent, she wouldn't have easily noticed it.
The person has a problem? The car has an even bigger problem.
Song Zhaomei immediately made a judgment.
No need for decoding or hacking; if an anomaly is detected, simply alert the Adelheid to the underwater situation.
[This is Song Zhaomei. New anomalies detected. Requesting the San Francisco branch's beachside hacking team to be on alert for civilians who have fallen into the water below the Golden Gate Bridge. Among them are Federal Intelligence Agency agents. Also, be aware of vehicles that have fallen into the water, especially trucks and vans; they may be disguised.]
At the same time, in Night City, at Arasaka Tower.
The 120th floor is the office of the InterContinental Regional President.
With news of the attack on her own carrier battle group spreading around the world, Vera could no longer remain indifferent.
After all, she didn't want to hear news of 'herself' being badly damaged or even sunk in battle just over ten minutes later.
This is why, as soon as she received the intelligence, she took the time to order Song Zhaomei to support the work of the San Francisco branch. It was to fill in the gaps, after all; that's why traitors are so hateful.
While it's often said that your enemy knows you best, what if it's a former ally who is now an enemy?
Finally, it was a prediction of Miles's prediction. Vera guessed that Miles, judging by his own standards, would think that even if she accepted Song Zhaomei's surrender, she wouldn't immediately give her much trust. Vera, however, did the opposite.
As for the risks of allowing Song Zhaomei to access the Arasaka backbone server, there are naturally some.
Vera knew very well that this Korean woman's so-called loyalty was nothing more than an art form of weighing pros and cons.
To put it another way, this girl is very smart and has no lingering attachment to her former employer. She knows exactly what she wants and what price she's willing to pay. She has a clear goal, is ruthless to herself, and can stick to her convictions to the end.
She has already offended Militech to the death, and apart from Arasaka, there are few forces that can protect her.
Paying attention to her contact surfaces and regularly giving her sweet dates will be enough to keep her by your side for a long time.
Moreover, surveillance, regular check-ups, and the full-domain network scans that she personally performs during Rejuvenation Surgery are indispensable. If she can still be fooled by all this, Vera can only say, "Fine, you're amazing. This is my 'tuition fee.' My skills are far from perfect!"
Boom! On the live broadcast showing the situation in San Francisco: the aircraft carrier quietly glowed.
Vera took a sip of black tea, scrolling through the summaries of reports from the Arasaka region of the Americas over the past few days and the declaration of war that Saburo had just issued.
Fighting has already broken out in San Francisco; reckless micro-management is unacceptable, so—
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
Thinking it over, Vera pulled up a map of North America. Since the war had already begun, taking a beating without fighting back wasn't her style. Santa Fe, New Mexico, let's start from here. Let's first establish a land border Texas Lone Star State in Texas before worrying about anything else.
Just as she was dialing her contacts, BOOM—!!
A sudden burst of light, an unparalleled light!
Vera looked up abruptly.
In the violently shaking and tearing footage, a mushroom cloud rises from the mouth of the strait, bathed in light and flames, melting the collapsed Golden Gate Bridge!
Damn! Another nuclear attack?
Miles, you've got guts.
Vera immediately dialed the phone number of Seventh Fleet Commander Katsutoshi Murata.
"This is Vera. Please respond if you receive this message."
A grating noise, mixed with the soldiers' urgent shouts, followed by Katsutoshi Murata's slightly hoarse voice.
"Director Vera, the Adelheid is unharmed!"
The problem lies in that brief description of the street-smart, decadent cyberpunk loafer. I'm speechless; they're nitpicking every word, not even allowing the use of the XXX character to replace a pronoun.
Chapter 255: Nuclear Explosion Paves the Way for War, Declaration of War.
As the sun sets, the red bridge and the black boat are reflected in each other, sparks and smoke intertwine, the rainbow piercing the sun and the winding, serpentine road intertwine, and the dazzling neon advertisements symbolizing consumerism and the deadly, explosive halos representing the smoke of war are linked side by side...
Ah, the Golden Gate Bridge, bizarre yet picturesque!
It's absolutely stunning!
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!!!
Accompanied by a muffled rumble that seemed to pierce through clouds and split rocks, the already turbulent sea surface visibly bulged.
Dazzling spots of light burst forth underwater, fire and water clashing and expanding suddenly, like a bright orange sun rising from the seabed. The air was violently stirred, and the spreading shockwaves turned into explosions that echoed throughout the entire bay area.
The shock wave spreads rapidly underwater, like a thin, arc-shaped white sheet extending outwards across the sea.
The Golden Gate Bridge is the first to be affected.
The high temperature and high pressure of the thermonuclear explosion, along with the misty air currents, instantly engulfed the orange-red suspension bridge.
Boom!!
Amidst a tooth-grinding metallic groan, the impact of the blast wave with the bridge structure produced a deafening roar, like rolling thunder.
The bridge melted down, the holographic advertising light pillars went out, thousands of suspension cables snapped, the main bridge road shattered, and under the combined tension, inertia, and the shockwave of the nuclear explosion, the two bridge towers also collapsed...
On the collapsed bridge, cars and people either carbonized on the spot or were lifted into the air, becoming no different from debris in the wind.
In a short while, the Golden Gate Strait was filled with a column of mist that pierced the sky.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
The fiery ball of the nuclear explosion burst into flames and then dissipated, replaced by a column of grayish-white, semi-transparent mist-like water. The millions of tons of boiling seawater and sand thrown into the sky by the nuclear explosion formed a water wall nearly two kilometers high. Finally, due to the rapid drop in air pressure behind the shock wave, the water vapor condensed into clouds.
From a distance, it looks like an enormous, grayish-white mushroom that has suddenly sprouted in the strait.
And it is still getting bigger and thicker.
At this moment, on the western side of the 'slender' root of the mushroom cloud, the Adelheid carrier battle group is being tossed about by the raging waves.
The supercarrier, which can be described as a steel island at sea, is in good condition. It is large and wide, made of solid materials, has a stable chassis, a long range, and is backed by Blaze Luminous system. Apart from the combat readiness and takeoff-ready status on the deck, more than ten carrier-based aircraft that were being launched crashed. There was damage to deck equipment and technical equipment. The damage was caused by water pressure shock waves to the bottom plate, but thanks to the watertight bulkheads and damage control, it was not a major problem.
However, the two frigates that were closer to the Golden Gate Bridge, almost touching the 'stem' of the nuclear explosion, were not so lucky.
First, it was sucked up by the Tsunami -like waves after the explosion. Then, the nuclear explosion caused a large amount of seawater to be sucked up by the sea bubbles, creating a vacuum underwater. When seawater rushed in from both sides to fill the gap, the ship was swept up, causing the bow to fall and hit the seabed, where it capsized and exploded.
At approximately 500 meters, a destroyer began to take on water and list, its integrated anti-tank arm severely damaged, temporarily rendering it combat ineffective.
The other frigates, destroyers, and cruisers, located at varying distances (around 1,000 kilometers) and having taken precautions thanks to the warning from the San Francisco branch, faced the epicenter with their bows facing the nuclear blast wave longitudinally, resulting in smaller areas of damage.
In addition, the close proximity of the flagship and the relatively dense arrangement of the warships dispersed the force of the shockwave, resulting in relatively minor damage to the warships in the area. Even those that suffered severe damage were not sunk.
The world seemed to stand still at that moment.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the noise returned.
Boom!...
The close-in weapon system continued to roar loudly, and although the firing of guided fire was paused, it never stopped.
As the temporary tinnitus caused by the nuclear explosion subsided, the roar of interceptor missiles clashing with incoming anti-ship missiles became clear again.
As the mushroom-shaped condensation cloud that had blotted out the sun disappeared, the top of the water wall began to take on a cauliflower shape. All the seawater, sand, and water mist exhausted their power and fell back to the surface of the sea due to gravity. The bright streaks of light from the shipborne energy weapons that cut through the night became clear again.
Compared to before the nuclear explosion, the firepower network, which had been much sparser, was quickly filled.
Although it's still not as good as before the nuclear explosion.
That was the Arasaka Navy ship urgently repairing the irreparable damage caused by the Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse (NEMP).
Having survived four Corporate War, the Three Defenses Standard has long been a basic requirement for modern military equipment.
The bridge of the Adelheid activated in a nuclear emergency response.
The piercing alarm blared, "...Yes! The war has begun, I understand, Your Excellency Vera."
After giving a brief report on the fleet's situation, Katsutoshi Murata said, "I salute you, and please convey my gratitude to Song Zhaomei."
Dudu.
Katsutoshi Murata didn't look too good after hanging up the phone.
Of course, it wasn't because Vera scolded him. Any frontline military commander would be eager to have a superior like Vera, who understands military affairs, can handle things, and only provides reminders when necessary, without micromanaging.
His sour face was because he was annoyed that the guys in the New America were treating him like a pushover, like a "Murata brand" (a derogatory term for someone easily manipulated).
If those NUSA agents succeed in getting the specially modified underwater vehicle carrying the nuclear bomb close to the center of the fleet...
In the worst-case scenario, he might die at the outset of the Fifth Corporate War.