Space.
Black Star.
The shipyard is finished. The base city on Black Star has taken shape.
A massive tower rises at the center. It's Ascension Technology's official headquarters now. Every core division from the old campus has moved up here.
At the docks, new craft roll out nonstop, jump to fresh worlds, and anchor portals. One base after another climbs out of alien soil. Each base taps local ore and spins up new Marvin-class robot plants. Those robots strip resources, expand the bases, and bring new arsenals online.
Ascension has taken the big step. It's entered the rapid expansion phase.
Inside Black Star's core arsenal, Rocky is elbows-deep in a test bench. He ends a call with Yorinobu Arasaka and refocuses on the work.
"Settled on Yorinobu's side? I didn't expect Saburo's son to stick to his ideals," Vik says, fitting a small device into a robot's chest.
"He's got a mind and a spine. I respect that," Rocky says.
"So you're ready to start the real plan?" Vik smiles.
"Yeah. Ascension's strong enough now," Rocky nods.
"I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime," Vik says. "A grand station, swarms of bases and arsenals, and more space resources than we can count. Meanwhile, everyone else is still tearing each other apart down on Earth for markets and scraps. If you'd told me this at the start, I wouldn't have believed Ascension could pull it off. But now? You've got the muscle."
His hands never stop. He locks a round, blue-lit unit into place. Power shivers through the frame; the robot boots clean.
If Vik had Rocky's energy-absorption sense, he'd feel what's packed inside that small housing and how much it's feeding out every second.
[Ark Reactor]
[A micro, controllable nuclear power unit (Marvel universe concept) that outputs massive energy.]
This is Rocky's latest power package. With ore from radiation worlds and the Ark Reactor design, he plans to refit Ascension's robots for better endurance.
It's icing on top; their baseline runtime was already solid. What Rocky wants more is the Ark Reactor's headroom for heavy weapons.
With backing from Yoshiko Corp and Arasaka, cash for module exchanges isn't the bottleneck. And robots plus Ark Reactors are still only the tip of what Ascension can build.
After the reactor tests pass, Rocky and Vik move deeper into the factory.
A giant machine waits there.
Nearly ten meters tall. Humanoid. Heavy weapons are hard-mounted everywhere. It doesn't pretend to be anything but a gun.
A Titan.
From the Titanfall world.
Titans started as huge industrial tools for mining and heavy labor. Then people learned what they could do in a fight. Now they're battlefield assets. Among them, the Vanguard-class Titans were explicitly built for war. The one in front of Rocky was fabricated to Vanguard-class specs and drawings.
Typically, a Titan needs an experienced Pilot to shine. To field them wide, Rocky equips each Titan with an independent combat AI so they can fight solo when no pilots are aboard.
They do have a well-known weakness: batteries. For quick swaps, the pack interface sits exposed, which lets enemy Pilots yank the power in the middle of a fight. It's ugly, and it happens.
With Ark Reactor tech, Ascension can kill that weakness outright. Power moves internal. The shell gets reinforced with Vibranium and Adamantium. A Titan that doesn't need battery swaps becomes a real killing machine on open ground. No grunt can stop it.
Vik steps up to the Titan's flank.
This model's been re-worked; the old battery slot is gone. He straps on an exoskeleton arm kit and brings the shoulder-mounted third manipulator online to help with the installs.
Vik has lived in Ascension's labs for a long time now. He's soaked in advanced tech, and he's talented. Calling him the best mechanical engineer in the world isn't a stretch.
With the assist of the extra arm, he seats the Ark Reactors fast. On both sides of the Titan's internal power bay, four units per side slot into their rails, delivering steady energy so the frame can run hot when it needs to.
Startup sequence rolls.
Servos whine in a rising scale.
The head's optics wake in a clean blue.
"BT-7274, start."
…
Night City.
City Council.
"What? Hand Night City's border garrison rights to Ascension Technology? And replace the NCPD with policing contracted to Ascension?
"What are these people thinking? Are they crazy?"
A councilor stares at the bill, stunned.
Line by line, the proposal reads like it was written for Ascension. Policy after policy tilts in Ascension's favor. It might as well say "Let Ascension run Night City" in the header.
Night City already brought in Arasaka once in the name of independence, and that gave a corporation massive power inside the city.
Now Ascension wants in, too. If this passes, Night City will be one step from becoming an Ascension colony.