Infinity, progressing from Arasaka

A set of intrusion countermeasures procedures.

Whether Vera had roasted the hacker's brains, hidden far away, to a crisp or a tender char, she didn't know, but the intrusion signal had certainly disappeared.

"Director, the airship system has been restarted!"

Just then, the excited voice of the accompanying cybersecurity expert, Arasaka, rang out.

"Yes. Prepare to retreat. I'm not involved in this with certain people," Vera answered herself.

Just as she was preparing to find an opportunity to leave the battlefield, she heard a familiar buzzing sound in her ears.

The next second, a high-explosive shell from the main battle airborne armored vehicle hit the Octant, which was hovering in front of Vera. The Octant plummeted down with a huge fireball from the explosion, and large pieces of debris scattered everywhere.

"Haha...Do you like my gift?"

Those were three magnetic levitation armored vehicles.

It features a dual-body air cushion design, but the gun barrel is thicker and longer than the standard model. It also includes anti-rocket grids and rocket launcher modules. Vera recognized it: the Demon Lizard.

A man's rough, neurotic, and hysterical voice came from a loudspeaker, growing louder as it approached.

"Finally, finally I've had this opportunity. Heh heh, you little bitch Arasaka, your octant and vehicle ammo reserves are all used up, aren't they? And my hacking, thanks to your help, has run out of RAM too..."

Vera's expression was unreadable.

What the heck? Are you just adding your own drama?

The encrypted order I secretly transmitted through Arasaka Kei's legacy in North America—the secret agent society—to my predecessors at the intelligence station in northern Mexico should have been to find a way to incite military technology agents, or related personnel infiltrated into the lower levels of the FIA, to go alone and attack Arasaka's return delegation.

Where did this idiot who's adding so much drama come from?

Vera glanced at the big metal lump a few more times, then decided to give up. She wasn't Adam Hammer; she wasn't fully equipped, and disassembling an armored vehicle would be too much trouble.

She raised her hand to stop the cyber ninjas and security forces from moving, and said calmly, "Cyber ​​Tyrant, move out."

[AI: Yes, 100% restarted, activating.]

laugh--

It was an aerial transport vehicle accompanying the convoy of explorers. With a sound like pressure being released, a massive figure, completely encased in sharply defined metal armor, slowly straightened up.

A series of heavy, thunderous heartbeats; thick upper limbs and narrow lower limbs; arms like pile drivers; an armored head resting on exaggeratedly broad shoulders; and scarlet goggles that glowed.

"Authorize, execute the annihilation operation. Take them out..." Vera turned around.

Before the words were finished, a buzzing sound rang out.

Blue flames erupted from the vectoring nozzles on the giant's back and legs. Boom! A hurricane howled as the flying metal giant streaked with fire. Then, with a resounding crash and a burst of brilliant sparks, one of the Demon Lizards was thrown into the air and crashed into another Demon Lizard behind it.

Before their turrets could rotate, the cybernetic tyrant hovered in mid-air, projecting a red alert zone of gravity field, representing death, downwards, indicating internal identification.

Buzzing and booming!

With a roar, a shudder, and a tooth-grinding metallic groan, the three Lizard tanks slammed into the ground, their rear ends jerking violently. The next moment, the ammunition detonated, exploding from the inside out, sending waves of heat scorching the air until it was distorted and scorching hot.

It doesn't matter who this guy is; maybe they have a grudge, but Vera has no interest in remembering.

She has gotten what she needed.

Vera, her body stained with blood and ashen, raised her head, blowing away the heatwave from the explosion, and looked towards the horizon.

There, accompanied by sirens and trailing blue flames, a series of black dots hurtled towards them.

------

P.S.: Juarez. A city on the US-Mexico border. Interested readers can search for it. Speechless, this lousy sensitive word system.

Chapter 111: A New America Under Showa-Style?

The monstrous, mangled flesh, bone fragments, and shattered prosthetic body were dragged out of the wreckage of the 'Demon Lizard Modified' by the Cyber ​​Tyrant.

All of them were stuck inside the burnt and charred composite material clothing and the severely twisted and damaged 'centaur' half-body bipedal exoskeleton armor.

It's like the raw material for hand-beaten beef balls that wasn't completely crushed.

Moreover, it's packed with technology and grueling action.

Bone fragments, cartilage, additives, alloy materials, electronic components, carbon fiber, and ceramic polymers have all been completely mixed with the minced meat into a lump.

"Interesting, you're very well prepared."

Vera put "Black Abyss IV" into the black gold box. Not minding the dirt, she half-squatted down and pried open the iconic translucent red shield of one of the damaged 'centaur' exoskeletons.

From a mass of rotten flesh, they found what appeared to be a skull, with fragments of subcutaneous implanted components behind the mastoid bone still sparking with electricity.

The Self-Intrusion Counter-Intrusion Element (ICE) is a pretty good model among military-grade equipment; is it a specialized piece of equipment designed to counter her combat hacking capabilities...?

Based on the information currently available, the enemy's attack tactics are, well, not entirely wrong.

First, delay and then wear down Vera, maintaining sustained firepower. Then, the demon lizards charged at her at close range, and finally, an elite squad equipped with 'centaur' exoskeletons, wielding cluster thermal cannons, finished her off in one fell swoop, decapitating Vera, who was said to possess the strength of Adam Hammer but was 'equipped' and unprepared.

Good idea.

Compared to Adam Hammer, she is indeed too offensively focused on high ground and poorly defended.

pity……

Vera glanced at the cybernetic tyrant standing guard like a gatekeeper, and at the cybernetic tyrant roaring in the distance, rampaging through the nozzles of the King Kong Vector Engine and slaughtering the attackers. She chuckled and shook her head.

Selling weaknesses doesn't mean I'm gambling with my life.

Looking down, Vera gazed at the humanoid shape inside the exoskeleton, which was humanoid to some extent, and could be identified as having a head.

A single glance from the prosthetic eye.

[Scanning in progress, unable to accurately identify at this time]

The result was as expected.

"Preservation".

"Stand up," Vera said.

"Yes." The accompanying Captain Arasaka understood immediately.

Collecting brain matter and intact brain tissue is like how the Dark Mewtwo makers in Night City pick out the most exciting murders from the NCPD's daily cases. Even if someone's head is ripped open by a gun from the Terrorist Unit, they can still extract usable brain matter from the fresh brain matter to make Mewtwos and sell them on the black market.

Generally speaking, the fresher and more complete the information, the higher the quality of the extracted and edited information and the more vivid the dream.

Mewtwo editors are naturally not lacking in Arasaka's intelligence department.

Vera returned to her private car as the guards unloaded specialized scanning and refrigeration equipment from their armored hovercraft to begin collecting the brain tissue of the last wave of elite members of the 'Sand Bandits' who had arrived in modified lizard-riding vehicles equipped with 'centaur' exoskeletons.

At this moment, reinforcements that had been rushing from various branches in western North America had also arrived.

The new Octave formation began to circle the ravaged battlefield and unleashed a frenzied barrage of fire on the remaining surviving 'sand bandits' in the surrounding area.

In the darkness, the machine guns spewed fire at high speeds like lasers licking the ground, and the flying rockets pulverized any still-moving vehicles.

"Director, I'm late! Are you alright?!"

Upon seeing the piles of burning black metal scattered on the surrounding sand, Kotaro, the captain of the Special Assault Team 4, who was there as a relay point, immediately turned pale.

Of the six Octagon escorts of the Austin Conference delegation, only one remained; one Manticore was damaged and another crashed… He was so shocked when he saw Vera covered in blood, her once radiant blonde hair now stained with blood, that his eyebrows practically flew off.

Unaware of the true circumstances of the 'attack,' he practically slid to his knees and rushed to Vera's side, pushing aside the Night City Foreign Affairs Department official who was talking to Vera, and squatted down with a look of fear and self-reproach.

"It's alright, except for being a bit disheveled and anxious as if someone were about to capture me. I don't know whose wishes I've fulfilled."

Vera sat in the armchair and said softly.

She glanced at him and immediately ordered, "Seal off the scene, protect the evidence, and rescue the wounded. Capture those 'sand bandits' if you can, and if you can't capture them alive, subdue Mewtwo."

At this point, Vera glanced at the sky, where the constant roaring sounds came from Arasaka's reinforcements, the trauma team's rescue workers, and the major news media.

Those who make a living in this industry are very well-informed; they can catch a whiff of the opportunity and come running.

With special frequency signals symbolizing the 'rights and obligations of journalists, right to report' flashing, and under the bright searchlights and flares of drones, WNS News and News Channel 54's iconic 'Atlas' armored hovercraft was prominently suspended in mid-air, frantically filming.

The reporters and film crew clearly noticed Vera, who appeared to be in the middle of a fierce battle and covered in blood, inside the half-open door of the exploration site.

I waited for about three or four seconds.

After the media had taken enough pictures of her like this, Vera ordered the onboard AI, which had already restarted the system, to start the car again.

As a precaution, the safety officer Arasaka of the newly arrived airships recommended changing the destination from Night City to San Diego, which is closer.

Vera has no objection.

As she closed her eyes to rest, seemingly indifferent because of the attack, a video call came in.

Caller ID: Shintaro Takayama

Vera opened her eyes.

drop.

"Lord Shintaro, everything is going well."

The self-inflicted injury plot, the victim Arakasa being attacked, the curtain falls.

Buzzing... Buzzing...

Amidst the roar, the business vehicle carrying Vera, belonging to the delegation, slowly took off, escorted by multiple Octagonal aircraft, Arasaka Manticore aircraft, and gunships. With a sonic boom, the formation entered high-speed cruising mode and sped westward.

On the Gobi Desert, the cleanup and finishing work continued.

As armed personnel and tactical equipment from Arasaka became increasingly concentrated, the border troopers of New Mexico and Arizona finally arrived late, riding their new-century cyberpunk warhorses, along with bewildered new U.S. border patrol agents and military technology personnel.

what happened?

Was the Arasaka delegation's aerial convoy attacked?

what happened?