Tak.
Tss!
An octopus arm ripped a cable out of the wall, then followed the conduit, prying off a metal panel to expose a tiny transmission device hidden within.
A third arm extended, delicate screwdrivers whirring as it opened the transmitter.
From the outside, the thing looked like a hobbyist's DIY project — even if you put it right in front of the NCPD, they'd probably just call it junk.
But inside…
All identifying serial numbers had been scratched out, yet to an experienced techie, the truth was obvious at a glance: those perfectly aligned wire bundles and ultra-dense, three-dimensional circuits —
This wasn't standard battlefield hardware. This was espionage-grade equipment.
Military parts were made to be rugged and cost-efficient. Spy gear ignored cost completely — and nowhere was that difference clearer than in its data modules.
If you tried hacking in, you'd probably find multiple layers of encryption and security countermeasures — but that'd be a risky move.
"Gotta hand it to the high-tech Brainiac gang," someone muttered. "They've got some real skill."
Tak.
The basement was dimly lit, the uneven dirt walls exposed in places, scattered tools and wreckage littering the corridor.
Clang.
The sound of metal on stone echoed faintly from deeper in.
The darkness hid the scene, but Leo could tell from the echo that something was being dug the old-fashioned way.
"What the hell..."
Jackie took point, his power armor's night-vision showing what hid in the dark:
People.
Human bodies heavily replaced with cyberware, laboring ceaselessly in the depths. Some had third mechanical arms, others were half-autonomous drones trudging through the tunnels.
The Brainiac gang was digging underground.
Leo and V's Kiroshi optics didn't have night-vision, so they relied on Jackie's visual feed for situational awareness, following slightly behind.
At times like this, Joestar's Maelstrom-grade cyber-eyes really proved their worth.
Ordinary replacement eyes rarely matched the clarity of naturals — unless you were using Kiroshi optics.
Kiroshi, monopolizing the visual cyberware industry, possessed the most advanced optical tech in orbit city — the kind where microscopic material layering was even more complex than chip fabrication itself.
Black-market knockoffs, by contrast, had barely half the resolution of real eyes, with awful color range, adaptive focus, and motion response.
The Maelstrom gang didn't have their own high-end optics factories, but they'd managed a back-door breakthrough:
Their "Hellfire Eyes" could integrate signals from multiple optical sensors into one composite image.
In normal conditions they were nowhere near Kiroshi quality — users had to live with blur, static, and warped colors — but they were damn tough.
And in rough environments, they performed remarkably well.
Right now, the dark tunnels lay fully revealed before them, giving Leo a clear composite view —
Eye tech was its own kind of frontier. Maybe he could branch into that next.
"Holy crap," Joestar breathed. "They're mining."
Using Joestar's visual feed, Leo caught a glimpse of a few robots and tools whose markings weren't completely scratched off. He pieced the name together:
Zhirafa Technical Manufacturing.
A Siberian giant in bionic engineering machinery.
Just from the echoes alone, the tunnels were long — very long.
Tiny RF transmitters, endless shafts… If the Brainiac gang wasn't recruiting, were they just tunneling day and night?
A secret underground project, mysterious transmitters — their actions made less and less sense.
"This isn't mining."
Tss—
Leo had just started to explain when the robots and miners all froze.
Dozens of blue eyes turned toward the four of them —
Ghostly glows in the dark.
The clang of tools stopped instantly. Even the hum of servos fell silent. Everyone unconsciously held their breath.
Blue optics meant massive data throughput — their visual feeds overloaded with streaming code, the crystal lenses glowing faintly from the density of data flooding through.
Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack—
The power armor's feeder whirred as 14mm caseless rounds rotated from the back magazine into Jackie's arm cannon.
He could tell they were ordinary people… but the sight was unnerving.
For a moment, the underground air felt suffocating.
[Leo: Keep moving. If they act first, we shoot first.]
Jackie understood, powering up his suit.
The motor hum echoed sharply in the confined dark.
Leo took a compact transceiver from his case and attached it to his third arm.
Night City was a vertical maze. Even its foundations weren't on the same level — Santo Domingo's lowest point and Corporate Plaza's could differ by dozens of meters.
Below ground ran infrastructure, metros, mag-lev rails, secret corporate tunnels, gang hideouts, even the abandoned bunkers once meant to survive nuclear war.
This basement proved it — the Brainiac gang was up to something beneath the surface.
They needed to find out what.
Given their return, the Brainiac gang should've been broke — no way they could afford full-body cyber upgrades.
More likely they were paying off debts by "doing favors" for someone else.
Which made it even stranger:
Why, when they could've stayed hidden, did they want that street vendor to lure Leo here?
Clack.
Jackie stepped forward — immediately, the laborers dropped their tools, and the robots turned deeper into the tunnels.
The whole scene flipped into retreat. Wherever Jackie's footsteps went, the workers scurried back into the depths.
"Creepier by the second," V murmured, pistol raised and centered.
Gunfire didn't rattle her anymore — but this silence did.
All four of them — even Joestar, even armored Jackie, even V hardened by gunfights — could feel the tension tightening.
Even Leo found the radio interference bizarre. The signal density was chaotic, unreadable. If these micro-devices synced to the Net, the data disruption would be catastrophic —
and not just for humans.
Bang!
The door slammed shut behind them!
But Leo had already told Jackie to break the valve earlier, so it jammed halfway.
The half-closed auto-door rattled and whined — like something was about to emerge.
Jackie's eyes locked on the tunnel ahead. He could hear the scurrying retreat of people and drones; even his own heartbeat sounded loud in his ears.
He had the best gear — but being point man against the unknown still made his pulse race.
Then, the attack didn't come from ahead.
In the one-point-eight-meter-wide passage, everyone was focused forward — when Joestar's Hellfire Eyes caught something strange:
The tunnel walls on both sides — flickered.
Like digital distortion. Whole chunks of wall seemed to peel away in his vision.
What looked like a glitch to Joestar, Leo recognized instantly:
Mimicry!
Almost simultaneously, every hidden transmitter in the walls surged to full power — all comms cut out.
Total signal blackout!