OG: Chapter 23

Laguna Bend had originally been a suburban community. A Corporate Beaverville for the Straphangers who rode the train into Night City every day to do work for the Corps before going home at night and leaving the City behind. That'd been before NC Dam, before the Reservoir. Now, all but the outskirts of town were under water so deep that you needed Scuba Gear just to head down and take a peek at what the place used to look like. There were even rumors that some of the Gonks who used to live here had refused to bombshell when the Dam went up and flooded the town, Zeroed in their own homes when the town drowned.

Of course, I wasn't here for any of that. Instead, I was heading out toward the Laguna Arms, an old apartment building on the outskirts of town. This was no megabuilding, it was a dinky, three-storey apartment block that'd been built around the same time the First Cybermodems had come out sixty-two years ago. It had a kind of quaint Old School Charm that'd appealed to the Gonks who formed the majority of the Straphangers and Corpo Middle and Line Managers that filled the Beavervilles. Not the Execs, though. Corpo Execs tended to live it up in giant mansions or were Highriders, living on the Moon and taking a giant piss all over the rest of us poor Gonks that were still stuck on Earth.

Anyway, it was, according to Meredith Stout, one of the very few buildings from Laguna Bend that was still above water, just on the other side of the Reservoir from Night City. Fortunately, today was a Sunday, which meant the Wraith Gangoons that Saka paid off to patrol the area weren't patrolling today. Unfortunately, the Sun was setting as I drove my Paladin Five-Hundred out of Night City, and I expected it to fully set by the time I got to the Laguna Arms. That meant I was on a clock here. So long as I was in and out before dawn, I would probably be all right, and the Wraith Gangoons wouldn't spot me leaving. We'd see how well that worked out, though.

Fortunately, the Paladin Five-Hundred had come with a Comms Update as one of the Modifications, so as soon as I was pulling around the Reservoir and could see the blocky shape of the Laguna Arms, I used my Cranial Implants to jack into the upgraded comms systems and then use the upgraded comms as a signal booster. By the time I had arrived at the Laguna Arms, I had all the external Cameras looped and spoofed an IFF Signal so that the external turrets that could be activated to fight off intruders wouldn't register me as an enemy. By the time I parked my Paladin Five-Hundred in the parking lot, the sun had already dipped fully behind the horizon, as expected.

I made my way around to the trunk and pulled out what I had been working on while tinkering. Besker Plates over an energized Uru Mesh, skin-tight and sleek to allow for my hooded trenchcoat to be put on over it. The whole thing was painted black, treated with alchemical oils to enhance its defensive capabilities, and enchanted for ease of movement, comfort, resizability, and to protect against flame, electricity, cold, and acid. The Trenchcoat had been redesigned as well, made of vibranium reinforced anti-ballistic nanocloth. Completing the outfit was a black mask of Uru that covered the bottom half of my face and contained a miniaturized rebreather capable of scrubbing chemicals and tainted air clean for me to breathe, along with filtering oxygen out of water.

With the mask covering the bottom of my face, and the hood covering the top half. All anyone would see if they could stop to do so would be the glowing red of my cranial implant's optics. Most would just assume I was a new type of Full Borg, epsically after the shit I could pull while wearing this. They wouldn't bother looking for Ernesto, they'd be looking for a new Adam Smasher instead. Perfect for throwing folks off my trail.

Of course, that wasn't everything. No, I also managed to create a new Combat Blade. The Mono-Edged, Electrically-charged, Adamantium, Combat Blade was a combination of multiple things that I'd figured out from various places. First off, obviously, I reverse-engineered Ken's Monokatana to get the electrical charge right. Secondly, the Adamantium Metal it was made of was clearly something I'd just gotten. Next was the power cell in the hilt, the blade was a vibroweapon ala Star Wars in addition to being electrified. Next, the power cell I used was made with Imperium Technology, ensuring it was rechargeable literally anywhere at any time. Finally, the enchantments laid on the blade took the electric output and magnified it using sorcery.

This blade was likely the deadliest Iron on the planet currently. It took the form of a Bowie Knife that had been enlarged to the point of being a shortsword. I called it Fuerza Chispa, the Forceful Spark, some of the nerdiness from my original life leaking through in the naming. Between that, my new armor, and my Hurrican Model Xipe Totec, I was convinced that I had everything I needed to Slammit On with the Cylons guarding the labs down in the basement of the Laguna Arms. Once I was kitted out, I headed into the Laguna Arms.

The lobby of the Laguna Arms was dark, but there wasn't the sort of buildup of Scop along the floor or graffiti tags you'd expect for a supposedly abandoned place like this. In fact, there were lights on, albeit dim, blue ones that didn't show through the tinted windows outside. Clearly, the abandoned state of the building was all a facade, just as it would be for a place that was actually housing a secret Saka Lab. Almost immediately after realizing that, I spotted the Cameras, seizing control of the ones on the inside of the building using my Cranial Implants. Unfortunately, just as soon as I had done that, a door opened to the left side of the elevator, and out came the first of the Saka Cylons. Corporate Security in red and black Armor with their Iron already out. Well, if they were gonna be that quick to draw, then I'd oblige them.

My Xipe Totec barked out, the magnetically propelled ten-millimeter, armor-piercing rounds punching through Tac Vests and armored helmets and downing Cylon after Cylon. As I fired, I didn't even bother ducking for cover as the Cylons fired back, my Armor took their bullets without even being scratched as I marched forward, gunning down every Saka Cylon I ran across. One of the Cylons tried to call for a Rapid Response Team, but by this point, I was already in their comms and immediately canceled the order, sending the All Clear back to Saka Tower in place of the reinforcement request. As bullets pinged off my armor here and there, I couldn't help but grin. There was absolutely no way that any of these Cylons could zero me if this was the sort of Iron they had access to. I zeroed the last of the eleven Saka Cylons that'd exited what had to be a guard room with a grin.

Then the thought that this was obviously what Smasher Felt every time he waded into battle immediately wiped that grin off my face. If doing this too often made you a Psychopath, then really, why would you do this? Suddenly, I was very thankful that this was going to be an alternate persona for me instead of a full-time equipment loadout. True, Smasher had other problems besides being basically invulnerable in a world where everyone else wasn't, but that didn't mean that I shouldn't keep an eye on my mental state.

Regardless, I headed into the Guardroom to check it out, and was immediately drawn to the security system. True, I was already inside the Security System, and had control of the Comms and Cameras, but Saka, being the clever bastards they were, had compartmentalized things on the local net. The Autoturrets and Cameras down in the labs were on a completely air-gapped network, one that had manual input instead of anything that could be jacked into. That was gonna be interesting. Thankfully, it looked like the Cameras and systems down there didn't have the ability to send anything out, and any records or communications had to be transferred via Shard to this station here to be sent out via the normal comms or otherwise taken to Saka Tower in shard form.

It figured, sending data that the teams weren't supposed to have from a place that wasn't supposed to be active would be a red flag for any other Corp monitoring the Net around Night City. They needed secrecy to operate this lab without getting buried in lawsuits and Corpo Assassins. Now that secrecy worked against them, as I set the Comms to loop the all clear in such a way that nobody was gonna be able to send out till the loop I had programmed in was finished. That would take till just before dawn, by which point, I was pretty sure I'd be out of here already.

Aside from that, there was a gun locker, which I didn't loot just in case the Iron the Cylons used had trackers in it, along with a safe with around ten grand in Eddies that I looted. Looting the squad of eleven or so dead Cylons turned up another one-thousand-six-hundred Eddies, plus a pass-key to the Elevator down, which I klepped as well. That was pretty Nova. True, I probably could've hacked the Elevator, but this would be easier for me. I headed out of the Security Room and over toward the Elevator, swiping the pass-key as I did so and taking it down to the basement level. The Elevator let me off at what looked like a pretty standard Apartment Building Basement, with staircases leading down. A sign on the wall still advertised the Gym down the stairs at the end of the hall, while the boiler room and storage were labeled as under the landing.

As I stepped onto the stairs, though, a pair of Turrets folded down out of the ceiling, and another squad of Saka Cylons came up the hallway toward where the sign advertised the Laguna Arms Gym would have been. I frowned, looking at the Turrets as time slowed down and I began to run the numbers. It was clear that the HMGs they were using weren't completely normal weapons. Some kind of electro-chemical propulsion system, maybe? It was an intermediate step toward magnetic acceleration and wouldn't be enough at that caliber to pierce my armor, but they'd sting like a bitch and might bruise bone if they hit a weak point. Plus, there was the fact that the top of my head only had a hood covering it, and while the Vibranium fibers in the nanocloth would do a lot to dampen the impact, if I took a hit straight on in the face, that could still do some pretty bad damage.

The turrets would have to go first, unfortunately, they were fairly dumb, to the point that I couldn't hack them, thanks to the isolated, air-gapped network the security measures down here used. As time sped back up, I raised my Xipe Totec and fired a plasma-sheathed round into one of the two turrets, immediately janking to the side as the magnetically accelerated, plasma-sheathed alloy destroyed one turret while the other locked on and fired. Electro-Chemically Propelled Five-Five-Six Millimeter Rounds chattered toward me from the turret, a few of which slammed into my shoulder as I tried to dodge out of the way of full-auto gunfire. I could feel my shoulder bruise and knew I was gonna be slightly sore tomorrow, but it was a lot better than the alternative.

That Iron was no joke, and I immediately reloaded my plasma launcher, sighting down on the Autoturret to Zero it, even as the Security Cylon's much lighter rounds did nothing to me as they plinked off my armor to no effect. The Plasma Sheathed Round shredded the second and last turret, even as I had to turn my head to avoid a shot that came dead on at the front of my face, the bullet cutting across my forehead and creasing it, though naturally, thanks to my Scarab Bone Sheathe and Super Soldier Formula, the damage was literally only skin deep. In response, I fired my Xipe Totec, Armor Piercing Rounds, zeroing Saka Security Cylons one after another. Unfortunately, before I could Zero the last one, he got a radio call out to his superiors, thanks to my having to reload first. As I fired a round from my Xipe Totec through the flimsy wooden desk he was using for cover, I scowled at that.

"I guess they know I'm coming now." I sighed.

Oh well, it couldn't be helped. If the turrets being destroyed didn't clue them in, I wasn't sure if anything would have. I rolled the Saka Cylons, Klepping another one-thousand-four-hundred eddies in the process, before heading down the hall toward what used to be the Gym. The Gym, it turned out, had been decked out into a staff room. There was a mini-fridge full of drinks, Ni-Cola, Triti-Fizz, Tiancha, even a couple of cans of Smash. I ignored that, and the Us Cracks Pinball Machine that blared out the plastic and annoying Lazrpop songs that band was known for, and found another safe with five grand in Eddies, which I pocketed as well.

Continuing back down the way I came, I found that the former Boiler Room and storage area of the Laguna Arms had another Elevator in it. This one, I didn't have a keycard for, and would need to hack into. As I realized that, though, another pair of Unhackable Turrets folded out of the ceiling and began firing at me. I zeroed one with a plasma round from the Magnetic Launcher on my Xipe Totec, but the other Iron forced me back out of the boiler room in a spray of five-five-six rounds that slammed into my chestplate, bruising my abs a bit. I reloaded my Plasma Launcher as the Autoturret scanned for me again, before leaning back around the doorway and firing another plasma round to Zero the last of the Iron.

Turrets taken care of, I made my way to the Elevator to begin hacking into it for the trip down into the labs proper. . .

XXXX

Chief Joaquin Lopez, head of Security for Arasaka Black Site NC-Gamma, was worried. Of the three Night City Black Sites, they were the least important, but also had the most to lose if they were found out. Black Site NC-Beta did Human Testing on the sorts of poor Gonks who couldn't afford to live another week in Night City and wound up selling themselves as Guinea Pigs to the various Corps for Human Trials of various projects. While that would be considered something the government would fine you for, every Corp did it to some extent or another, at least all the Big Boys did, so the fines couldn't ever be more than a slap on the wrist, just like the Corps wanted it to be. Black Site NC-Alpha, meanwhile, was a secret weapons development lab where Saka tested various Iron they wanted to keep under wraps but that weren't illegal. The only thing that'd happen if that site got found out was a possible leak about various bits of gear.

Black Site NC-Gamma, though? This place reverse-engineered bits of tech that had been pilfered from the Other Corps. Some of them were pretty big players, too. They had tech from Militech, Rostovic, and Zetatech here now, along with tech that, while it was based on Arasaka's own Robot Mark Two, incorporated technology from some competitors to increase performance, such as the latest Stun Paneling and Shrieker Weaponry Technology they stole from Zhirafa or the Hybrid Super-Ice that they stole from Seocho. The primary weapon of the Mark Three Enforcement Mech was a type of Knockout Gas they stole from Petrochem. All of these had been reverse-engineered in this very black site, and there were still copies of the data on the local Net.

And now they were being attacked. Already, two squads of his Enforcers had been downed. Whoever this guy was, he was good. He had some sort of partial powered armor that made him look like a Full Borg, but the way he had dodged at times seemed to indicate otherwise. Joaquin had even managed to get a look at his face, and while he couldn't see much past the hood and mask the guy wore, he could see that he had exposed skin on the top of his head. That would provide a critical weak spot to target, and it was possible that the Enforcement Mech's Knockout Gas would work. True, the stuff had to be inhaled to really do the trick, but that mask might not have a rebreather or anything in it. If they could slow this guy down with the gas, it was possible that the Drone could use its Screamer to incapacitate him. If not, well, the Enforcement Drone could still shoot, after all.

The issue would be convincing Director Nabukov and Doctor Shinogawa to use the Enforcement Drone. Shinogawa was notoriously territorial about who got to do what with her projects. Meanwhile, Director Nabukov didn't like taking advice from people she felt were beneath her, and he definitely qualified, even if he was the Chief of Security. If Joaquin could get Doctor Sanchez and Doctor Kobayashi to back him, he might be able to get Director Nabukov to agree, and Doctor Shinogawa would have to say yes if she were ordered. It might save more of his guys, at least. Fortunately, Director Nabukov just called an emergency meeting in light of the situation.

"All right, let's begin. What can you tell us about our attacker?" Questioned Director Nabukov.

The Dark Skinned, dark-haired American woman was a snob of the worst kind. Her family had owned a mid-tier Russian Corp in Vladivostok during the Nineties and Two-Thousands, the Vladivostok Commercial Corp or Vladicom Corp. Vladicom Corp had been bought out in Twenty-Ten by Arasaka, and her family had worked for the Company ever since. Emilia Nabukov was the Corpo Daughter of Corpo Parents, and it showed, not just in how she treated all the department heads and researchers at the Blacksite, but in her taste in music too. She listened to high-class, snobbish Scop from the previous century, her headphones on most of the time while she was doing paperwork, and woe to the poor Gonk who interrupted her listening because they needed her to actually manage something.

That was neither here nor there, though. Right now, Joaquin needed to give her an honest assessment of the Gonk who had Zeroed two squads of his guys already. So that's what he did. Frowning as he spoke.

"Well, he seems to be a Full Borg, but that's a ruse. He's actually wearing some kind of partial powered armor. Not a full Sardine, but close enough. The best I can tell, the Armor he has on is imprenatrable, even by our Mark Two Hackguard Electro-chemical Turrets. There's a small window to do some damage, though. He seems not to have anything but that hood covering the top of his head." Answered Joaquin.

"How do you know? The images I saw from the Turrets showed glowing panels for eyes." Frowned Doctor Yumi Shinogawa, pushing her glasses up on her nose.

The Japanese Woman was one of the brightest minds to come out of the Tokyo University Class of Twenty-Seventy-Four. She specialized in Robotic Engineering, and the Enforcement Drone was her Brainchild. She was incredibly wedded to her work, though, and that had bred a reluctance to part with any of her prototypes unless she had to, something that had seen her shuffled from the Tower's more public research areas to Black Site NC-Gamma, where she'd begun not only the Enforcement Drone Project, but also the reverse-engineering of a Zetatech Octant AV Combat Drone.

"Because I saw him bleed." Informed Joaquin.

"Besides, Yumi, those could just be optics." Added Doctor Sanchez, scratching at his stubble.

Domenico Sanchez was, unlike everyone else here, born and bred in SoCal. Even Joquin was from Mexico, where he'd learned his trade as a boy in the Slums of Nogales. Domenico had studied Physics at Stanford University, and his specialty was in Thermomechanics. That had made him the perfect person to reverse-engineer Militech's Thermal Wave Cannon. The Slightly Scruffy Latino Man had been pulled off a project looking into Geothermal Power Taps using the San Andreas Fault and sent to work on the Cannon.

"That's true, I guess." Sighed Doctor Shinogawa.

"What I want to know is, where is the Rapid Response Team? They should have had an AV in the Air already, shouldn't they?" Queried Doctor Kobayashi.

Hayato Kobayashi was something of an outlier in the facility. He had worked for another Corp before Arasaka had scooped him up, working for Kang Tao on developing a rail flechette cannon. However, Kang Tao had sacked him for reasons unknown to Joaquin, but which Corporate had assured him weren't a problem for his work here. Doctor Kobayashi's high cheekbones and strong jaw line had been biosculpted, which Joaquin felt might point to the reason. He'd been pretty flirty with Director Nabukov and Doctor Shinogawa as well. Put those together, and you had a blueprint for being fired for sleeping with the wrong manager's wife. Either way, the man was a physicist who specialized in Electromagnetism, and he'd been sent to the Black Site to work on reverse-engineering the Rostovic Railcannon.

"Yes, they should have, but they haven't. Why is that, Joaquin?" Asked Director Nabukov.

"He managed to jack into the external net and cancel the distress signal. Right now, I think the only thing that can stop him is if we push on him with the Enforcement Drone. My Guys aren't doing Scop to this guy." Informed Joaquin.

"Absolutely not!" Scoffed Doctor Shinogawa.

"If no help is coming, and the Autoturrets can't penetrate his armor, then it's the only thing we have that might do the trick." Pressed Joaquin.

"Agreed. If it's all we can do to stop him, we need to use it." Added Doctor Sanchez.

"Unless there are other ways. Don't we have a prototype for the Thermal Wave Cannon or Railcannon? Why not try using one of those?" Demanded Doctor Shinogawa.

"The Railcanon is completely disassembled and was meant to be mounted on a vehicle. It's not something anyone can just fire. You would need to be a Drone just to be able to shoot the thing." Refuted Doctor Kobayashi.

"We do have a prototype of the Thermal Wave Cannon, but it runs into the same problems with portability as the Railcannon. It's meant to be used by someone wearing a full sardine can of Power Armor. Without that, the Enforcement Drone is the only way to use it." Intoned Doctor Sanchez.

"Whatever we decide, we need to decide it quickly. The Elevator and my Guys won't stop him for long." Warned Joaquin.

"Agreed. We'll use the Enforcement Drone, but we'll also have it take the Thermal Wave Cannon Prototype to use as well." Ordered Director Nabukov.

And with that, the management team got to work. The Enforcement Drone was booted up in the Vehicle and Drone lab while the Prototype Thermal Wave Cannon was grabbed from the Weapons Lab and carted over to the Vehicle and Drone Lab using a hand truck. The Enforcement Drone was fitted with the Thermal Wave Cannon, hooked directly into its reactor, before being sent out to fight. Joaquin, meanwhile, was rallying his remaining guys to support the Drone. Hopefully, this would be enough.

After all, the Gonk that was doing this hadn't shown any inclination to spare anyone yet, and Joaquin would really rather not be zeroed today. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here's the next chapter. We get the first half of the Militech Job and also get to see a bit of what the SI had been tinkering up in his Lab/Factory. The stuff is about as good as some models of Warhammer Power Armor, plus it's more compact and doesn't require all that fancy Black Carapace, and that's before you add in any of the enchantments or magical properties. At the same time, while we haven't seen his new blade at work yet, it's gonna be a treat when we do.

It's gotten to the point where pretty much unless your name is Adam Smasher or you're in the same ballpark as him, you're unlikely to be able to take the SI down if you aren't also an SI with powers. At least not when he's using this stuff and you're using the same sort of guns that everyone else does. The Chief of Security here was being smart because the Shrieker Weapon used by the Enforcement Drone is a Sonic Weapon meant to incapacitate people. With his ears uncovered, it's the only thing he knows for sure might work.

At any rate, the next chapter will involve the second half of the attack on the Arasaka Black Site, where the SI takes on the Enforcement Drone. I'll also have character sheet updates and a few images out before then as well.

Stay tuned. . .