Armor and Value

"ACPA?! Are you sure it's ACPA?"

Hearing Oliver's words, Jack looked quite surprised, because everyone knew what ACPA was.

ACPA, short for "Assault Combat Power Armor," was what people called combat support armor. If it had to be described precisely, it was wearable armor with the firepower and protection of an armored vehicle—or even a tank.

In the terms used by braindance games nowadays, it could also be called "power armor."

"I'm sure, Jack. The Sixth Street Gang has three small riot-control ACPAs stashed away. I never expected that after Arasaka and Militech signed their ceasefire agreement, I'd find information about ACPA in a Scavengers den—ACPA that wasn't allowed to openly appear in Night City anymore. That's really strange."

"Does ACPA need to appear openly?"

Carl recalled something she seemed to have seen before. "But I remember that when NCPD officers were stopping traffic, there would sometimes be a fully armed mech standing beside the vehicle they'd pulled over. Wasn't that ACPA?"

"At most, that was just an exoskeleton fitted with an ACPA weapons platform."

Oliver explained, "A real ACPA completely surpasses those exoskeletons that merely have the appearance of ACPA armor, whether in firepower, armor thickness, or personnel safety. When it moves, it feels like a tank, you know? The kind that can plow through anything."

"Then I suddenly have a question."

Carl curled the hair hanging over her forehead. "Since power armor is so strong, why do corporations nowadays prefer researching cyberware? Could cyberware really be more useful than power armor on the battlefield?"

"Carl, you really are a sheltered young lady who doesn't understand much."

Jack answered for Oliver. "Cyberware is tied to the lives of those Corpo Dogs up top. They can replace their hearts or lungs and still look human. But if they climb entirely into power armor, let machines replace their flesh, and survive solely on nutrient fluid, then their whole appearance becomes an iron shell. Wouldn't that make them canned meat?"

It felt like the dreadnought veterans from certain stories had just been dissed.

"And that's not all."

Oliver explained, "If you rely solely on your flesh-and-blood body to control a mech inside an ACPA, the G-forces during movement are too intense. The fragile human body might not be able to withstand that kind of force. Rather than saying cyberware is valued more than ACPA, it would be more accurate to say that only a body enhanced with enough cyberware can endure an ACPA."

"I see. But what does G-force mean?"

"Didn't you watch the aviation guide braindance I recommended? Simply put, it's the acceleration caused by gravity that you experience during high-speed movement."

"Yeah, I didn't finish it. I don't really understand."

That was what Carl said, but she roughly understood a little more about cyberware and ACPA now.

They were not things that needed to be separated, but rather complementary existences, like a wooden shaft and the iron spearhead mounted on it. Only when combined did they become stronger.

Once that question had been answered, another arose.

"Still, if Militech and Arasaka don't allow ACPA to openly appear in Night City, aren't they afraid that some corporation—or a gang like the Sixth Street Gang—might hide ACPA and launch a surprise attack on their important personnel in Night City?"

Oliver explained this to Carl as well.

"That's because while ACPA is powerful, it isn't invincible against cyberware. Do you know how much a good ACPA costs, Carl? Take the Sixth Street Gang's small ACPAs, for example. Those are relatively cheap, only around 1.4 million eddies each. But do you know how much it costs to take down one of those ACPAs on the battlefield?"

"Money?"

"To corporations, human lives are nothing. Money is what matters, so naturally they measure it in money. I once heard veterans from the Sixth Street Gang who took part in wars say that on the battlefield, never mind a light ACPA worth 1.4 million—even medium and heavy ones could be dealt with by sending out a few veterans equipped with Sandevistans and tech weapons. And do you know how little those veterans, treated as expendable goods, cost?"

Sandevistan: A type of cyberware that could temporarily enhance the user's muscles and reflexes to their limits, causing the outside world to feel slowed down.

To destroy high-value ACPA, all it took was cyberware-enhanced veterans risking their lives.

Carl said in understanding, "So their values aren't equal."

"That's pretty much it. Corporations only care about money."

Having understood, Carl did not foolishly ask what would happen if a veteran with a Sandevistan also wore ACPA. According to Oliver, an ACPA pilot already needed a considerable amount of cyberware installed. Adding a Sandevistan, which few people could bear in the first place, would likely mean that the pilot would suffer Cyberpsychosis and start indiscriminately slaughtering allies and enemies alike the moment he entered the battlefield—or halfway through the fighting.

Even street punks knew what happened when you installed cyberware recklessly.

They had spent enough time discussing ACPA armor. Carl checked the message from the client. The vehicle would arrive downstairs in one minute, so it was about time to carry the target down. After copying the image files related to ACPA armor from the Scavengers' computer, she raised her pistol and blasted the computer to pieces.

"We can talk more about this later while we eat and have something to drink. Let's finish this job first."

The presence of information on ACPA armor in a Scavengers den was certainly strange, but Carl and the others had no further intelligence. Even if they knew about it, they only knew about it; there was nothing they could investigate more deeply.

"Sure. We'll have a topic to talk about when we get back. But before that—"

Jack glanced at the place piled high with all kinds of cyberware. "I need to call the NCPD. We should be thankful there aren't many corpses here yet, only lots of stripped cyberware. Otherwise, I'd definitely have nightmares tonight."

Jack was obviously joking. A man who had once come from the Valentinos gang would not be terrified by a few corpses.

At Jack's mention of calling the NCPD, Oliver raised an eyebrow.

"If we call the NCPD, they'll probably come here, confiscate all this cyberware, then turn around and sell it to Ripperdocs who buy secondhand cyberware."

Even as he said that, Oliver still called the NCPD.

Because compared to scum like the Scavengers, the NCPD had at least some bottom line.

Though not much.