Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Rebecca Pov – September 28, 2075 - Night City.
"Are you ready, Becca?" Sera asked, and I smiled at her wide-eyed, with a touch of insanity.
"Of course, choom! This will be so preem!!" I squealed with sadistic joy.
"You know we can still find another way to lure Smasher, right?" Sera asked, raising an eyebrow. Lucy just snorted.
"Let her have her fun, in her own way, in her own bloody and brutal way." Lucy said dryly, and I bared all my teeth at her.
"You know me so well," I said playfully. Sera sighed once more.
"Okay, so, it's been 5 minutes since the video about our attack on Arasaka Tower was broadcast everywhere. Many of the regular members evacuated immediately, but obviously, there are some stubborn people or those who don't believe the warning was true." Sera hummed as she looked at the entrance of Arasaka Tower, where a few stragglers were still running out.
"Then it'll be their fault for getting in the way." I said, shrugging. "It'll be their fault," I snorted.
"Of course, then... It's time to move, and by the way, have fun." Sera said, finally smiling. Then I saw her clothes move around her body, turning into a cloak that covered both Lucy and Sera at once before becoming completely invisible.
"Oh... of course I'll have fun." I said aloud, not knowing if they were listening. I gripped the modified Malorian in my hand; I could feel the weight of the Hammerhead heavy machine gun against my back, and the Chaperone shotgun against my lower back.
I grinned widely, leaped from the building we were on, using Sera's rings to increase my weight. As I landed, a loud crash echoed, and the ground cracked beneath me. I could see people staring at me before I took off again, grinning broadly as I walked straight ahead, directly towards Arasaka Tower, a huge, deranged grin on my face.
All the way to the top, to the very top, to the summit of Arasaka Tower.
With that last thought, I let out a huge laugh and started running towards the gates. There were no civilians in sight, only the two guards in front of the Arasaka gate. They barely reacted when two bullets from my Malorian pierced their heads, killing them instantly.
I could feel the paracausal energy building in the Malorian, but I dismissed it immediately. I just kept running. I heard the alarm go off loudly, but I didn't stop.
As soon as I entered, I saw four more guards approaching, normal guards or whatever Arasaka kept. I saw that one had a katana, but the other three had firearms, which they did not hesitate to use. I jumped to the side, sliding along the ground as bullets from Arasaka's weapons hit the ground where I was.
I raised my Malorian and fired several times. Two of the guards died instantly, their heads exploding under the force of the Malorian's blast. The other two were able to react quickly enough, especially the one with the sword, who had activated a Sandy.
He moved quickly towards me, practically having his katana at my neck. I smiled maniacally, my hand moving faster than his. I stopped the blade with the barrel of my Malorian before hitting the guard with a backhand punch. His head spun several times abnormally, and there was a snapping sound from his neck, as his skin tore from the force of the blow. He died instantly.
I grabbed the body with my free hand before it fell, and I started laughing hysterically as I used the Arasaka guard's body as a human shield while the last guard emptied the magazine into his partner's body.
When I got close enough, I shot the Malorian through the battered guard's body. The Malorian's bullets had enough force to pierce the guard's body and go through the head of the last guard, killing him.
At that very moment, more guards emerged like cockroaches. And they weren't the only ones who came; in the reception area in front of me, three Arasaka mechs landed, and half a dozen drones began chasing me.
I burst out laughing as my feet hit the ground and I shot to the side. I took cover momentarily, reloaded my Malorian, and ran once more. I dodged the bullets with ease and began returning fire.
Each bullet from my Malorian killed an enemy—those who couldn't react quickly enough to see it coming. Those with superior speed and reflexes remained alive for a few moments longer.
I kept running around the mechs while dodging their heavy machine guns and drone fire. I drew the Chaperone, the exotic shotgun, or a replica without paracausal energy, but still with greater-than-normal firepower.
The shotgun didn't use pellets; no, it was a single, concentrated shot, a very powerful one, enough to shatter the armor of Arasaka's mechs. Dodging the hail of bullets, I approached the first mech at tremendous speed, positioned the Chaperone's barrel against its frame, and fired. I could feel the strong recoil in my arms, but it was nothing compared to what the mech felt.
The mech was flung back; the powerful shot sent a mass of several tons flying, caving in the front of its frame, and partially piercing it. I rushed towards the mech, placed the Chaperone in the same place, and fired again.
The second bullet was enough to pierce the mech, disabling it. I didn't stay to celebrate; I dodged to the side, avoiding the missiles from the other two mechs. I grabbed my Malorian and circled the mechs toward the remaining guards.
My Malorian killed guard after guard with a single headshot. I could feel the paracausal energy building inside the Malorian's magazine until only one bullet remained.
Hawkmoon. An exotic weapon that, when used to finish off an enemy or when the impacts hit the enemy's weak points, would cause Hawkmoon to begin accumulating Paracausal Charge, slowly increasing the damage against the enemy until there was only one bullet left in the magazine.
So, the last bullet significantly increased damage based on the number of accumulated charges. And that was the same effect Sera had put on the Malorian.
Discreet, unobtrusive, and it maintained the original integrity of the Malorian without completely altering it and rendering it unrecognizable. I liked it; the amount of power behind the last bullet was ridiculous.
And it was easy to notice when I finished properly aligning myself, raised my Malorian, and fired at a Mecha. The powerful blast of the bullet easily pierced the Arasaka Mecha's frame from side to side and struck the second Mecha, sending it flying backward, but without completely disabling it.
I didn't stop; I reloaded my Malorian while running towards the mech, jumped onto it, and emptied the Malorian's magazine onto the mech's frame, destroying it entirely.
The alarm inside the Arasaka tower continued to blare. I turned my Malorian and fired at the drones that kept trying to shoot me. The drones quickly exploded, rendering them useless.
I smiled broadly. I had memorized the Arasaka Tower blueprints with ease. So I started running towards the stairs. I encountered several guards in the middle of the narrow staircase, but before any of them could fire, a bullet from my Malorian pierced their heads.
Arasaka was a complete labyrinth; there were no single stairs to go directly to the top. Instead, I had to go through an entire floor to find the next stairs or elevators that would take me to the next floor.
All along the way, there were guards, one after another after another. At some point, several of the Arasaka Ninjas made their appearance, all heavily modified, with mantis claws and optical camouflage.
Three of them ambushed me on the 57th floor. As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, a mantis claw appeared right in the middle of my forehead, almost about to pierce it. I reacted like a completely normal person and headbutted the mantis claw.
My head smashed through the mantis's claw and crushed it like a piece of paper, and my head slammed into the ninja's face. My hand went to the ninja's neck and pulled him towards me. I gave him a second, even stronger headbutt, then a third, and by the fourth, the ninja's head was completely smashed under the force of my headbutt.
I could feel the blood of the Arasaka ninja dripping down my face. I just let out a laugh, easily dodging the mantis claw of a second ninja who had activated a Sandy. I placed my Malorian under the ninja's chin and pulled the trigger.
The ninja's head exploded into just another pile of meat, staining me even more. The third one had stayed slightly away, but I appeared next to him, punched him in the face, his reinforced skull was just thrown back along with his whole body, I took a step forward and hit him again with my fist with even more force, his neck snapped back but the ninja was still alive, so I hit him again until I ripped his head off.
I laughed out loud as I continued my assault on Arasaka Tower. There were no blocked paths; GLaDOS was busy hacking and melting the brains of all the netrunners guarding the tower while she unlocked every door.
My laughter and my Malorian echoed through all the halls of Arasaka's floors. Guard after guard, drone after drone, ninja after ninja, they all fell dead; it was a complete massacre, and I enjoyed every damn second of it.
Ignore the completely stupid civilians who had decided to escape, except for those who raised a weapon; their heads exploded under the bullets of my Malorian.
I went through the Atrium, the artificial Jungle, the Upper Atrium, and finally to the very top. I kicked the door leading to the building's rooftop; it flew off and began a free fall of more than 600 meters to the ground.
I could feel the wind hit my face. I smiled broadly and started walking lazily. I could see several spotlights turning on and pointing at me one after another. Several AVs and drones were aimed at me. People with huge mounted machine guns followed my every move. I just kept walking, almost bouncing down the stairs.
I stayed on the rooftop and looked around at all the AV. I really thought the game was a joke, like dozens of guards would appear out of nowhere; those kinds of games were always exaggerating those kinds of situations just to increase the carnage.
But the carnage I'd carried out down below suggested the game hadn't gone far enough. Even so, it wasn't the time to dwell on that.
"Just in time," I said with a cheerful smile. I looked up at the sky where a rather distinctive AV was approaching, my eyes immediately meeting Adam Smasher's. It had all been calculated.
The time it took me to climb the Arasaka tower and distract everyone was the same amount of time it took Smasher to get here in his AV. The other aerial vehicles began to move away, giving Adam Smasher's AV space.
I holstered my Malorian on my thigh and drew my Hammerhead from my back. I primed the heavy machine gun, aimed at Smasher, then glanced briefly at the AV and opened fire. I could see several of them trying to return fire, only to have their weapons jam and become unable to fire.
The recoil hit like a bitch, but it was so pleasurable to fire it, the bullets went through the AV like it was paper, the shots hit the whole AV before heading for the cab, aim carefully, and the driver died quickly.
The AV started to veer off course, but before it went completely off, Smasher ran and leaped—a huge, colossal leap. I started shooting at him while laughing uproariously. Smasher shielded himself with his arms, blocking my shots, dismissing them as if they were nothing.
An instant before Smasher crushed me, I jumped to the side, right where Smasher landed, bending the entire roof structure of the Arasaka tower.
The place was definitely not a platform where we could fight comfortably, yet I looked at Smasher with a huge, deranged grin as I was surrounded by even more AV than before.
"You caused a huge mess, Meatbag." Adam Smasher's synthesized voice growled.
"A girl had to have fun." I said playfully while shrugging. Smasher grunted.
"You're not the woman who stole my things, but you have something I recognize, meatbag, you're supposed to be, a fan of the dead rocker boy, aren't you a little too young?" Smasher growled. I could feel his optics focusing on the Malorian on my thigh. I simply took it out of its sheath and twirled it between my fingers.
"I mean, Silverhand had his style, but I have my own reasons for being here," I said playfully.
"And I don't care to know, they'll take it out of your head once you're dead." Smasher growled, and I could see the missiles on his shoulder begin to move.
"Are you sure? The show's about to start." I said playfully, pointing to the side. Smasher didn't turn to look at what I was pointing at, at least not right away.
"Greetings, Night City and the rest of the world." Serena's voice said as her face began to appear on all available screens and holograms. Smasher stopped and turned to look at the screen. Serena was sitting completely naked with one leg raised and one arm resting on her knee. Her body was almost entirely visible; her Ex Machina form was on full display, the entire mechanism visible to the broadcast.
Behind them, with their backs to the camera, seated in a triangle, were Lucy and GLaDOS, with large cables attached to Lucy's neck, connecting to GLaDOS and Sera, and then several thick cables that went elsewhere off-screen.
"My name is Serena Eilen Prince, executive director of Aperture Science, a humanitarian organization," Sera said as she spoke aloud. "This message is being broadcast to every screen, hologram, radio, sound system, or any other transmission worldwide, so please listen to my words."
"Aperture Science was founded more than a century ago, when its founder, Dr. Elisabet Sobeck, realized the direction this planet was heading. What she saw was that everyone on this planet was slowly heading towards extinction and the complete destruction of nature."
"So Dr. Sobeck devised a plan and founded Aperture Science. She slowly began to devise and create a global terraforming system over time, completely automated, that would totally reshape the planet, and she called it Project Zero Dawn."
"Thousands of automated robots, capable of filtering and cleaning the atmosphere, capable of cleaning and decontaminating the oceans, and finally, with the help of preserved genetic reserves, bringing back to life hundreds of floral and faunal species that were thought to be extinct."
"Not only that, at this moment, a new global network has just been launched, completely free and without any corporations, and the APOLLO data will be loaded onto it."
"APOLLO is the largest archive of human history and culture up to 1978. All the information, all the history of humanity, thousands of years of data stored in those archives, all languages, entertainment, music, books, everything that could be collected from all countries, will be uploaded with public access on the new global network."
"History belongs to humanity, and we are giving it back. Unfortunately, the 2022 data crash also deleted the last Apollo backups, and we were only able to save the original 1978 backup. I deeply apologize for the loss of our history."
"And along with the APOLLO files, everything related to Aperture Science and Project Zero Dawn will also be uploaded; all the guidelines, all the information, all the secrets of our organization will be revealed."
"All terraforming information will be available, especially the estimates and simulations of the recovery of the Earth's biosphere. In 3 years, the atmosphere will be completely clean, in 5 years, the oceans will be decontaminated, and in 10 years, the replanting of fauna and flora species will be completed."
"Aperture Science worked silently for a century to carry out Dr. Sobeck's task. We worked tirelessly for decades in secret because we knew that corporations would not cooperate, and instead, would try to destroy Dr. Sobeck's dream."
"But Arasaka found out."
"For decades, we secretly fought against Arasaka while silently carrying out our task, while they tried to eradicate us, relentlessly, but now, now that Project Zero Dawn is finally ready to be initiated, we can no longer ignore Arasaka; a direct confrontation is all that awaits us."
"So this is my declaration, not of war, no, of surrender, of Arasaka. Right now, I am deep within Arasaka Tower, on Izanagi, an access point to what they call Mikoshi, a data fortress with servers located on orbital stations around the earth."
"We have taken total control of Mikoshi, and along with it, the entire Arasaka network. All information, except weapons, will be freely available to everyone in the world. Once this communication ends, the entire Arasaka network will expel everyone, and a contained DataKrash will be launched to destroy the entire Arasaka network from within."
"All the corporation's data will be completely lost, and then all Arasaka-affiliated facilities will be eliminated. With the Arasaka network at our disposal, we have access to all secret facilities, all public headquarters, and any facility related to Arasaka."
"At this time, all facilities are under siege. Within one hour, all Arasaka facilities will be destroyed, without exception. Anyone who wants to escape at that time will be guaranteed their freedom. If you remain inside, I cannot guarantee the safety of any person."
"Arasaka will be completely eradicated so that Aperture Science can accomplish its task. And this is also a warning: anyone who attempts to obstruct Aperture Science's work will be eliminated, whether by attacking the terraforming robots or our facilities."
"Project Zero Dawn will begin this very moment, and nothing will stop it. Thank you for listening."
Sera's image and voice abruptly and dramatically cut out. The AVs and drones in the sky that had been targeting me shut down and began to fall from the sky. Several crashed into the Arasaka tower and exploded. I just stared at Smasher, who had frozen solid.
Then he slowly turned to look at me, and I smiled broadly at him.
"Shall we dance, Choom?" I said to Smasher while pointing my Malorian at him. Smasher just stared at me before I heard his guns moving, then I started running while laughing maniacally.
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