Infinity, progress from Arasaka

The ferocious roars of the five giant cyborg beasts that made people sweat gradually subsided.

The heavily armed soldiers of 'aRaSaKa' in black clothing and armor began to take over the battlefield.

“It’s a really good show.”

Withdrawing her gaze, Vera picked up the bone china cup of black tea, took a sip, and murmured softly. Then she stepped on the black marble floor tiles with the exquisite Arasaka Clover logo carved on them and stood up.

"Tanaka. Heavy Hammer is very satisfied with your 'Cyborg'. Well done."

She said to Shinichi Tanaka who was standing respectfully beside her.

"It's my honor, Director..." Tanaka, who had a serious look and a sturdy build, showed joy on his face when he heard this and quickly bowed 90 degrees to express his gratitude.

The 109th floor of Arasaka Tower was a height that a mid-level researcher of his level could never reach in his lifetime. Today, he was lucky enough to reach this place because of Vera's call.

"but."

Vera's sudden change of subject stunned Tanaka.

"You still haven't fulfilled the original goal of the King Kong project. The threshold is too high, and it is not popular enough to be deployed on a large scale, so it can only be customized equipment for professionals like Adam Hammer."

"I'm sorry!" Tanaka bowed again.

"Relax. Today is not a criticism and denunciation meeting." With a warm smile, Vera slowly turned around, "'Tyrant'. This is the gap I fixed for you. At least, you completed the cyborg. Adam Hammer accepted your proposal."

"You passed, Tanaka."

"Thank you very much." Tanaka bowed for a long time without standing up.

"You will continue to be responsible for the continuous improvement and optimization of the 'Cyborg 2.0' project. I will ask Jimmy to cooperate with you and hand over the new plan to me as soon as possible."

"Yes." Tanaka nodded repeatedly.

Pointing at the holographic screen, Vera continued to point out the problems and defects currently exposed by "Cyborg 1.2 Mod" in actual combat.

For example, frontline field operators who are cooperating in the battle reported that when the gravity field generator of Cybertron is activated, the image display effect in the tactical chain needs to be improved...

In addition, Vera continued to put forward new requirements, such as the "Picatinny rail" of the cybernetic King Kong, that is, the standardized accessory installation platform, and the modularization of the installation and disassembly of armor, airborne vector engines, gravity field operating devices, magnetic generators, and heavy firepower.

And miniaturization.

According to different divisions of details, it can be miniaturization with proportionally reduced performance, miniaturization without reducing performance, miniaturization with appropriately reduced performance, miniaturization with increased load, improved performance and increased difficulty of operation... Anyway, the requirements are many and detailed.

As for the series of improvement requests put forward by Vera as the client and superior, Tanaka took out the PDA tablet he carried with him and wrote down a long list.

Finally, facing the candy that Vera threw directly at his face, which said "Your performance rating will be raised by at least one level this year," and the encouragement of promotion and salary increase, Tanaka's expression was very interesting, both excited and disappointed. He gritted his teeth, took on this time-sensitive and heavy-duty task, and bowed to leave.

Orbital chirp.

The Situation Room fell silent again.

Vera continued to watch the show... no, watch the live field mission.

Actually, there is nothing good to see.

The rest were nothing more than sporadic gunshots, the thunderous footsteps of giants stepping on gravel, the clacking of wind blowing through wooden windows, the rustling of grass balls rolling across dry sand, the crackling of fireworks burning waste building materials, the roar of houses collapsing, and the low moans and sobs of the wounded...

boom!

There was another loud bang, flames rose, and dust flew.

Through the vision transmitted back by the Cyborg Tyrant, Vera could see the small town on the outskirts of the battlefield, with flames and smoke rising miserably.

From the bottom of a three-story building that looked shabby on the outside and no different from an abandoned building in the Badlands, one could see an extended staircase structure and elevator shaft that were cracked like a spider web, as well as cables that were sparking and had fallen from the half-broken underground walls.

Look at the metal heat storm created by the built-in machine gun turret and rocket launcher that are spewing flames.

Obviously, the basement.

It is also a large basement with complete supporting facilities.

Although the Badlands smugglers and scavengers living in this abandoned town wear a variety of clothes and have different weapons and vehicles, which is quite Badlands style, this neat armament that is comparable to that of the wandering nation, and even better military-grade prosthetics, as an old rival who has been fighting for more than half a century -

After the frontline operators of the Arasaka security forces came into contact with the exchange of fire, they felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity. Damn! They were either from Militech, the New American Intelligence Agency, or the Lazarus Mercenary Group. At the very least, they had received training from the former and had contact with them.

According to Adam Sledgehammer: "Baby, did you miss me?"

There is no doubt that he is familiar with military technology and the Joint Intelligence Agency.

If we don’t talk about anything else about the Lazarus mercenary group, the fact that its headquarters is in Washington, you can tell what it is made of.

Both parties are quite familiar with each other, and I know what you are going to do as soon as you stick out your butt.

This didn't surprise Vera.

It would be strange if military technology and Washington didn't play tricks.

Although the secret intelligence transportation station for military technology discovered this time, located in the 'death zone' of the evil minefield, originated from an accident.

The Badlands, this chaotic and lawless place is so vast that generally speaking, the farther away from the city, the weaker the company's control.

Including the city government, NCPD, and many companies, their influence basically radiates along interstate highways, railways, and checkpoints near the border, and perhaps some military camps and garrisons are located in the badlands.

Carrying out tasks in this vast wasteland where no one lives, identifying and screening everything is extremely time-consuming and laborious.

It’s not that it’s impossible, but the expenditure and benefits are seriously disproportionate.

Just like the company basically doesn't care about the wanderers in the badlands unless it's necessary and profitable.

Otherwise, if the company goes to target the forces in the Bad Land with great fanfare, there is a high probability that the money earned from one trip will not be enough to cover the expenses.

Vera knew that Militech had outposts in the Badlands, just as Washington knew that Arasaka would definitely set up secret agents all over the West Coast and recover and activate the remaining underground weapons research institutes and secret agent societies left over from the last corporate war.

The two sides have waged countless secret wars over these outposts and secret stakes.

As for this discovery, it originated from the "severe crackdown and rectification" campaign led by Vera against the Li Scenic Area.

After she revealed some clues about the New American Intelligence Agency's hidden agents to Kurt Hansen, which led to an internal search in Dog Town, many NUSA agents who had not yet cleaned up their mess were caught and killed by the Hellhounds.

Some also escaped from Dog Town.

One of them escaped from Pacifica to Saint Domingo. I don't know if he was on a mission or something, but he didn't escape directly to the Bad Land, but went to Heywood. Then, with the idea that "the most dangerous place is the safest place", he ran to the Beautiful Scenic Area where the Arasaka Sheriff patrolled.

In fact, he is already halfway there.

But unfortunately, the location where he sent the signal happened to be on the skytrain.

Because she had just taken office as a director of the Management General Council, Vera passed the time by reviewing the administrative briefings of all departments of Night City Arasaka while attending the banquet at the Blue Sky Building.

Among them, the report that there were many pickpockets on the Heywood-Santo Domingo train line, and that a large number of the company's grassroots employees' communication chips and separation chips had been stolen, including students of Arasaka Academy, gave Vera pause.

It just so happened that Wei Daguanren decided to build a "model house" in the Li scenic area, so he gave a hint.

That is, the "Rampant Pickpocket Report" was thrown to the Night City Security Department.

The relevant managers of the security department who received the order attached great importance to it, and directly transferred the personnel of the special assault force security team who were patrolling the streets, demonstrating Arasaka's people-friendly attitude and promoting security business, to the train line.

then……

And then there was no more.

The military-tech agent got on the train smoothly, got rid of the inspectors of the Hellhound, passed the inspection of Sheriff Arasaka at the station, and after crossing the river bridge into Heywood, he relaxed for a moment and sent a signal to the encrypted channel according to the inherent code on the moving train.

Coincidentally, the encrypted message at this moment was captured by a hacker from the Arasaka Security Team who was also on the train but in a different car.

too close.

There was no need to decipher the information at all. Most of the video calls and phone calls on the train were recognizable. Suddenly, a highly encrypted message appeared, and the train was moving. Based on the basic qualities of security personnel and the need for deterrence to complete the crackdown mission, the Arasaka security operators stationed on the train decided to take a look.

This level of encrypted communication, either from rich people or corporate people, could it be a cyberpunk? Or a wild cyber hacker, they were not sure.

Seeing the Arasaka heavy-armored soldiers suddenly rushing out from the carriage passage, the Militech agent misunderstood their intentions and subconsciously thought that he had been exposed. It would have been fine if he didn't move, but as soon as he moved, he was locked.

The veteran Arasaka security operator immediately realized that something was wrong!

There was a flurry of arrests and manhunts.

When the military-tech agent's shape-shifting nano-camouflage clothing and mask were knocked off and damaged, his identity as a secret agent became clear.

He was beaten half to death and then dragged away.

Vera didn't need to know what methods Arasaka's intelligence department interrogator would use. Even if he pulled out her brains and used the method of creating Black Mewtwo to check the intelligence, it didn't matter. Anyway, she got the intelligence.

How did the other party come to Night City? Where did he come from? Which intelligence station did he pass through?

Enter Night City from the old industrial area in the north of Watson, then transfer to sneak into Dogtown, passing through an abandoned remote town in the "Death Zone" in the northern badlands mine area.

There are many abandoned towns in the badlands surrounding Night City, thousands of kilometers away, but in the north, it is still easier to find the minefield "Death Zone" to be precise.

It just so happened that Adam Hammer was newly equipped with a cyborg, and several cyborg Tyrants had also been debugged. Based on the idea of ​​"whether it's a mule or a horse, take it out for training", Vera issued a combat mission.

In hindsight, the results were pretty good.

Boom——!

An exceptionally violent explosion shook the screen. The miniature incendiary rocket dragged a curved trajectory, the gap in the basement was forcibly enlarged, and the damaged inverted machine gun turret was twisted into a funny posture.

In the messy underground space, flames had already spread, and the air was filled with black smoke from burning components and electrical sparks.

"You are just a piece of meat that I fucked to pieces."

Amid Adam Sledgehammer's manic laughter, hum—

Finally, there was a series of gunshots and explosions. Under the gravity field, the last few cyber-transformed cyborgs who resisted were crushed.

Blood splattered, and the skin and flesh, the military-grade prostheses that were extremely popular in the civilian market, from the hair to the skull, to the eyeballs and teeth, were all rammed into the ground like collapsed building blocks, indistinguishable from each other.

Vera looked calmly at the blood, flesh and limbs splattering on the holographic screen.

The battle is over.

"Hit the hammer, gather the troops, the annihilation mission is over."

Vera said with an orange-red light flashing in her eyes.

"Wow, is it over?" On the video channel, Adam Hammer's face, which looked like a pale corpse, showed a hideous smile. "It's great, it's really great. Director Russell, if there is such a good job next time, remember to call me."

"There will be a chance."

Vera stroked her chin, and her smile became much more meaningful.

"You lead the Cyborg Tyrant troops to retreat to Arasaka Beach first. Remember, the faster the better, and you can show some unfamiliarity and discomfort... Cyborg 1.2 still has a lot of problems that need to be improved."

"Oh? Confusing and misleading... Got it! Director."

beep.

At this time, the analyst who was in charge of tracking the battle situation reported to Vera, "Director, the personnel on the scene have confirmed that this abandoned town is one of the largest underground intelligence communication stations for military technology and the New American Joint Intelligence Agency around Night City."

"Very good. Gather the information and let me know as soon as the analysis report comes out."

"Yes!"

After taking a sip of black tea, Vera picked up the PDA tablet on the table, on which was the construction progress report of the new area of ​​Arasaka Research Center, and she glanced at it.

"Badland mine clearance... It is indeed the most time-saving and labor-saving to outsource this kind of hard work to the homeless... The construction of the new border wall does need their efforts. But, supervision is needed."

As she pondered, she raised her head and looked at the holographic screen in front of her. Her eyes turned red, and the image of the abandoned town in the Badlands shrank and slid to the side, flashing several overlapping pictures and texts.

First, the 2076th graduate of Night City's Arasaka Academy.

"Graduates...Tanaka's son, oh, and David, they are interns, so let's arrange them to be 'contractors' first..."

------

Chapter 103 Yes, Director Vera

It happened in a split second.

Badlands, under the scorching sun, the wasteland appears a burning sandy yellow.

In the distance, there were columns of black smoke coming out from some abandoned outskirts town, like some deformed mushrooms.