Chapter 153: Assault on Night City
At the entrance of the Badlands bastion, the air shimmered slightly from the abundance of energy, the low, waiting hum of weapon systems being the only sound.
Maine's entire squad was assembled, standing silently beside their modified vehicles. They no longer looked like street mercs, but rather like an alien kill-team awaiting their final directive.
Joric's order had been issued via an encrypted channel, concise and absolute: Destroy Arasaka Tower. Remove all restrictions.
Jackie supported the pale, one-armed Valerie, standing in the shadows of the outpost. They had just arrived, shock still lingering on their faces.
David and Lucy stood a little further away, their eyes fixed on this team whose aura felt vastly different from before.
Just as Maine was about to give the order to move out, a sudden change occurred.
Three figures, almost blending perfectly into the environmental colors with only faint thermal outlines, erupted like ghosts from the wreckage of discarded machinery on the perimeter!
Their movements were faster than conventional limits, making no sound of footsteps, only the faint hiss of high-speed movement tearing through the air.
Arasaka Cyber-ninjas. Professional cleaners. They had clearly tracked Valerie's signal here and chosen this seemingly lax moment to launch a thunderous strike.
Their target was the center of the formation, the seemingly weakest link—Falco, who was calibrating his optical sights, and Sasha and Kiwi beside him.
However, in the face of Maine's crew's currently enhanced perception and reflexes, their ambush appeared... too slow.
Mower's figure moved first.
Her Sandevistan system didn't even emit the boom of a full-power startup; it merely vibrated slightly, leaving a dissipating afterimage where she stood.
The low-frequency hum of a sonic blade unsheathing rang out almost simultaneously with the sound of metal clashing and flesh tearing.
The Cyber-ninja charging at the front had just raised his smart katana when a razor-thin red line appeared on his neck. Head and torso separated instantly. Before the hot blood could even spray, Mower had already kicked the corpse aside.
The second ninja had just released an electromagnetic dart, aiming straight for the back of Falco's neck.
A translucent, diamond-shaped energy shield that distorted the light appeared without warning in the dart's path.
The dart slammed into the shield surface, exploding into a ball of blinding sparks, but failed to shake it in the slightest.
It was Maine. He hadn't even fully turned around; he simply raised his right arm, and the shield generator responded instantly.
Simultaneously, the bionic skin on his left arm slid open silently, and the blue light of a master-crafted Plasma Cannon flashed.
There was no deafening roar of artillery, only the dull hum of energy release.
A basketball-sized orb of azure plasma shot out at a speed the naked eye couldn't track, precisely hitting the area where the second ninja stood.
There was no explosion, only instantaneous, extreme heat.
The ninja, along with the ground and scrap parts within several meters of him, was vaporized completely, leaving only a shallow crater with edges of molten glass. The acrid smell of ozone and ionized air filled the space.
Seeing this, the third ninja hesitated not a moment, attempting to retreat with a rapid change of direction.
But Rebecca had already turned. She didn't even raise her Heavy Bolter fully to her shoulder; relying on her reinforced mechanical arms and neural link, she fired a shot from the hip at near point-blank range.
BOOM—!
The roar of the Bolter was exceptionally earth-shaking in the empty Badlands environment.
A .75 caliber bolt shell left the chamber, hitting the ninja directly in the chest.
The massive kinetic energy instantly tore his upper body apart, turning it into a shower of scattering flesh and metal components. Only his legs continued to run forward a few steps due to inertia before collapsing to the ground.
From the Cyber-ninjas' explosive ambush to their instant evaporation, the entire process took less than three seconds.
The entrance to the outpost fell into a brief, deathly silence.
Jackie's mouth hung open. Valerie's face, already pale from blood loss, was written with disbelief.
David and Lucy were completely frozen. They hadn't even fully seen what happened—only Mower's afterimage, the flash of blue light and the shield from Maine's arm, and the rain of blood following Rebecca's thunderous shot.
Was this... the power the Boss had bestowed upon them? Was this the true strength of Maine's crew now?
David felt a chill rise up his spine. The lingering unwillingness to be left out of the action was thoroughly replaced by awe in the face of such inhuman power.
Maine retracted his arm. The plasma muzzle closed, and the shield dissipated as if nothing had happened.
He didn't even look at the three piles of rapidly cooling remains. His gaze swept over his team.
"Check complete. Move out."
No showing off. No superfluous explanation.
As if he had just casually swatted a few annoying bugs.
The team members nodded silently and boarded their vehicles rapidly.
Engines roared to life. The modified vehicles, like awakened steel beasts, charged out of the Badlands. With unstoppable momentum, they crushed the remains on the ground, heading straight for Night City.
Leaving behind only the smell of gunpowder, blood, and molten metal at the entrance, along with the dumbstruck quartet of Jackie, Valerie, David, and Lucy.
Deep within the manufactorum, Joric's crimson optical lenses withdrew from the external surveillance feed.
The data from the brief engagement—reaction time, weapon efficacy, energy consumption, coordination efficiency—had already been recorded and analyzed in his processing core.
"Purge efficiency: 94.1%. Response to sudden threat: Satisfactory." His voice, devoid of joy or anger, whispered in the empty workshop. "Now, execute primary directive."
The convoy drove like a wedge, slamming hard into the traffic arteries of Night City.
Almost the moment they entered the range of city surveillance, Arasaka's security forces swarmed out from every corner like a disturbed hive.
"Attention. Intersection ahead. Four interceptor vehicles, equipped with LMGs," Falco's steady voice sounded over the squad's encrypted channel. The vehicle he drove wove through traffic like a fish.
"Copy," Maine responded, raising his left arm as blue light gathered in the plasma muzzle. "Rebecca, clear the field."
"I've been waiting for this!" Rebecca screamed excitedly, her Heavy Bolter letting out a deafening roar.
The .75 caliber bolt shells flew, instantly turning the front half of the first interceptor—and its occupants—into flying metal shards and blood mist.
Almost simultaneously, the plasma cannon on Maine's left arm fired a blinding blue sphere, precisely hitting the second car.
There was no violent explosion, only a dull boom and a rapidly expanding, then dissipating, cloud of superheated plasma. The entire car, along with the foundation beneath it, was evaporated, leaving a massive gap with molten edges.
The security personnel in the other two cars hadn't even had time to fire when Dorio leaped from her vehicle like a cannonball, smashing both fists into the ground upon landing.
Her internal Seismic Generator fired at full power. A visible shockwave spread forward in a fan shape. The armor plating of the third car caved in instantly as if hit by an invisible giant hammer; the windows shattered in unison, and the personnel inside were knocked unconscious instantly.
The fourth car was covered in a stream of viscous Promethium flame sprayed by Pilar, instantly turning into a violently burning iron coffin. Screams rang out briefly before falling silent.
The battle began in an instant and ended just as quickly.
By this time, the news media of Night City had only just begun to react.
On the massive holographic billboards along the street, emergency news interruptions cut off the original product ads. The anchor spoke rapidly, with deliberately manufactured shock: "...Breaking news! A group of unidentified armed militants is breaking into Heywood from the direction of the Badlands! They are carrying extremely dangerous heavy weaponry and are exchanging fire with corporate security! This is madness, a blatant challenge to the order of the city!"
In the channel, Pilar chuckled. "Hear that? 'Unidentified armed militants'! We're famous!"
Rebecca sneered as she reloaded a drum into her Bolter. "Challenging the order? I'm here to demolish the house!"
(End of Chapter)