Though it was a modular temporary storage container, the interior felt neither cramped nor dim.
[AI: Identity authentication complete. Welcome, Director Russell and Executive Michiko Arasaka.]
After secondary verification by two built-in turrets and at least four scanners, Vela and Michiko Arasaka passed through the security corridor. Behind the partition door, they were greeted with salutes from guards in full cyber-ninja combat gear as they entered the container warehouse.
Smart digital thermostats, chemical protection drones hidden in columns, widely spaced stereoscopic observation windows, and multiple operation platforms with serial-numbered holographic nameplates.
"T—King Kong... King Kong?"
Michiko let out a curious sound, pausing in front of a chamber marked with the letter [T], muttering aloud.
King Kong—the name reminded Michiko of the most famous, enduring monster figure in North American cinema history. Back in her childhood, before the DataKrash, her father, whom she believed was just a mid-level manager at a regular company, had once taken her to see a King Kong film.
And Vela clearly wasn't making movies or toy merchandise. That left only one possibility.
"Is this the 'Prototype Cyberskeleton'—Cyber Kong? I saw a project brief from the Night City R&D Department. Wasn't that thing designed for Adam Smasher?"
Michiko turned sharply and looked at Vela.
"Though its performance is formidable, the neural strain and mental erosion it inflicts on the user are extremely exaggerated. Other than Adam Smasher… well, I recall your cyberware adaptability and tolerance are also extremely high. Don't tell me… you're planning to dismantle yourself and jam that big, dumb, black hunk of junk into your body? That's way too…"
"What are you even thinking?"
Vela's face was dark.
"The external modular cyber-skeletal concept of the 'Prototype Cyberskeleton' is sound in my opinion. Maybe I'll equip myself with a set later. But that half-baked prototype? No thanks."
Exactly—a prototype.
No matter how much military-grade advanced tech Shinichi Tanaka and the Night City R&D team stuffed into the 'Prototype Cyberskeleton'—anti-grav engines from drones, gravity manipulation devices, magnetic generators—in Vela's eyes, as long as the mounting structure wasn't optimized, it was still just a crude piece of junk.
To even use it, you'd have to amputate your limbs and turn yourself into a human swine… What kind of cyber-era self-harming suicide machine is that?
Beep.
The console activated the bio-sealed door, and Vela stepped inside.
It was a vast hall housing six enormous cylindrical glass containers. Each was about 4 meters in diameter and 10 meters high, filled with pale fluid that exuded a chilling aura.
As Vela's indigo eyes flickered with data streams, she made a gesture in the air, and the polarized glass shifted to transparent.
Thunk.
Michiko's heart skipped a beat.
Inside each pale liquid-filled cylinder stood a massive humanoid figure, muscular and burly, with a strange bluish-white skin tone—no, these weren't exactly humans. More accurate to call them humanoid beings.
"The 'Prototype Cyberskeleton'? I plan to use them."
Vela looked at Michiko as she spoke.
"...Enhanced clones? So the 'Sonnentreppe Project' really wasn't just a pharmaceutical research program…"
Looking up, Michiko tugged the corners of her mouth in awe.
"Truly magnificent creations."
Each of these humanoids stood nearly a meter taller than her, and their bodies were extensively cyber-modified.
Beneath granite-like muscle layers were indentations and exposed steel-gray metal panels from cybernetic modifications.
Even the preliminary scan results listed: [Elastic Joints], [Reinforced Skeleton], [Kinetic Frame], [Universal Enhancers], [Secondary Heart], [Blood Pumps], [Synaptic Accelerators], [Subdermal Armor], [Nano Coating], [Sandevistan], [Long-range Optics Interface], [Ejection Systems]…
They were essentially cybernetic machines draped in human skin.
For an ordinary person to receive this much cyberware would mean instant onset of cyberpsychosis.
Michiko instantly understood—these enhanced clones were the designated hosts for the 'Prototype Cyberskeleton' system, apart from Adam Smasher.
"Naturally. Extending human life and strengthening the human body—that was the original intent behind the 'Sonnentreppe Project.'"
Vela crossed her arms, lips tugged downward in a smile, her eyes glinting.
"To command machines with flesh—the better the cyberware, the stronger the body needed to support it."
"Tyrant, Model T-104," Vela introduced.
This was her own innovation, born from her tutelage under Umbrella and developed at Arasaka.
Flesh as foundation, steel as framework—a special Tyrant model forged together.
For this Tyrant model, Vela had completely discarded the mutability and infectious traits typical of Umbrella's creations. Through precise gene editing and viral inhibitors, she forcibly locked the mutation process during development, fixing the form in a humanoid state.
They existed as tough, cyberware-compatible bodies with high neural adaptability.
Once a Tyrant was fully cultivated, all that remained was to install it with enough cybernetic implants.
The goal was standardization and mass production.
Vela never subscribed to Umbrella's idea of making the Tyrant some kind of ultimate biological weapon for final battles. As long as it remained flesh and didn't dabble in supernatural nonsense, it could never be a true doomsday weapon. Better to go the scalable route.
As for the uncontrollable intellect or potential cyberpsychosis?
It didn't need a brain. No need for thinking—thus, no cyberpsychosis.
Neural response coordinators and synaptic accelerators implanted into the nervous system would connect to the central control chip in the brain-machine interface, enhancing and regulating its intelligence.
The Tyrant's base biological intelligence wasn't entirely erased either. With targeted behavioral conditioning and subconscious imprinting, the T-104 model became a half-brain, half-chip cybernetic host.
Like a robot, but absolutely not a robot.
The reason for retaining some base intelligence was to prevent rogue AIs or hackers from easily hijacking control.
Clang clang, Vela knocked on the glass of the cylindrical container and turned to Michiko.
"Until we collect enough sample data and optimize improvements, using these Tyrants as disposable fodder for the 'Prototype Cyberskeleton' is perfectly suitable."
"Tyrant, huh? Not a bad name."
Michiko shrugged and glanced at Vela, who was fiddling with settings near the container. "Looks like ICE is the key."
Vela nodded.
The biggest flaw of the T-104 Tyrant lay there.
Once its electronic warfare module was breached by a hacker, the enhanced intelligence from the central control chip, limb coordination, and cyberware regulation would be severely compromised.
Fortunately, it wasn't a fatal flaw.
Because the T-104 Tyrant was meant to be expendable.
The most expensive implant on a Tyrant wasn't the mass-produced Sandevistan or the common Ejection System—it was the [Self-ICE], a military-grade electronic warfare unit.
[AI: Bodily fluid sample test complete. No viral residue detected.]
Satisfied, Vela closed the status panel on the Tyrant base unit in the T-King Kong warehouse.
Though she retained the non-infectious trait of the Progenitor Virus—and the Tyrant series' infection ability was already weak—she still injected inhibitors and made constant genetic tweaks throughout development to ensure the product was fully insulated at launch and wouldn't become a bioweapon vector.
Onward with the inspection.
Hiss—
The sound of a sealed door opening.
"Hunter," Vela said, stopping in front of a chamber marked with the letter [H].
Through the polarized glass.
Inside, smaller than the Tyrants, were non-humanoid creatures in their own cultivation tanks.
They looked like upright tailless lizards—entirely dark green, covered in tough scales, with large, razor-sharp foreclaws.
"Ugly," Michiko said with a look of disgust.
"Definitely."
"Hm?" Michiko blinked, then looked at the utterly unimpressed Vela. "Isn't this your research?"
"It is."
Vela still looked displeased. "An accident."
"Though from an economic standpoint, the Hunter can achieve sustainable, low-cost mass production of expendable cannon fodder, it's just too ugly. It tarnishes Arasaka's global image."
Both are B.O.W.s, but taking a Tyrant for a walk and taking a Hunter for a walk—how could those be the same?
The former is burly and imposing, something that can be framed as human evolution. The latter is hunched and sinister, evoking... goblins?
Arasaka's reputation wasn't good to begin with. Only after the truth of the Arasaka Tower nuclear incident during the Fourth Corporate War was made public did it begin to recover, even gaining ground over Militech in public opinion.
Deploying grotesque, hunchbacked, and viscerally repulsive bio-weapons like the Hunter—clearly a human-animal hybrid experiment—was that wise?
If word got out, Militech, News54, and other hostile media corps would rejoice.
Headlines like "Arasaka is killing all of humanity!", "Arasaka is unworthy of being called human!", "The Evil Arasaka Empire", and "Ah, Man—the most remarkable creation of God—defiled today by Arasaka!" would inevitably follow.
Compared to Arasaka's corporate image and current edge in public relations, the minor economic benefit and negligible battlefield impact of the Hunter weren't worth it in Vela's view.
She didn't need to play the tactical genius anymore. She had inherent advantages. Her new role was that of a strategic commander and project director creating new profit engines for Arasaka.
Perhaps the Hunter was one of Umbrella's most successful products—but for Arasaka, in a cyberpunk world, it was just dead weight.
"Feasible as a tech reserve. Not viable as a product." After glancing at Michiko, Vela made her decision: "Terminate the Hunters."
[AI: Understood, Director Russell.]
The two left the Hunter storage chamber.
Vela continued showing Michiko around other, more conventional areas—like experimental drugs and memory metal chambers. Finally, after demonstrating some new medicines related to rehabilitation and beauty enhancement, Michiko brought up an old topic.
Looking spiritedly at Vela, she said, "Vela, I want to give you shares in Danger Gal. Half the profits from the rehab and therapy business—consider it a token from me to you, a sisterly gift since that's where our cooperation began."
"I can't accept what I haven't earned."
"You keep saying that—same old lines. You really are just like Saburo. But don't rush to refuse." As if anticipating Vela's response, Michiko winked slyly. "Just answer me one thing—would you let me lose money?"
Vela was momentarily speechless.
"Seems like we'll get along just fine." With that, she walked further inside.
Ahead, a large door slowly opened.
Michiko looked at the label and read aloud, "001, Quinque..."
"This is my temporary workshop. As for the Quinque—you can think of it as a new idea. A special kind of biological component weapon."
"Another new idea..." Michiko feigned surprise appropriately. "You really are outrageous, Vela. No wonder even Saburo can't ignore you."
Vela simply smiled in return to Michiko's friendliness. "I'm still young, I have room for error—and with people like you backing me, when else should I be testing boundaries if not now?"
That was her greatest asset, or at least what many perceived to be her greatest asset.
Youth.
They entered the workshop.
A suddenly expansive view.
"So this is the completed 'Prototype Cyberskeleton'—Cyber Kong? I pity whoever runs into it."
Through a partitioned glass wall, Michiko could see scattered cyber-skeletal components and exoskeletons with burly arms. Cyber Kong—a fitting name. Kong, as in gorilla—the upper limbs were thick, the lower limbs narrow.
There were two units inside.
One had already been assembled. The T-104 Tyrant they had seen earlier now bore the massive structure on its frame. Ferocious and intimidating.
All around, screens were mounted on the walls, with streams of red and blue data flashing by—clearly in final calibration.
Michiko glanced at Vela thoughtfully. "And the other one is...?"
"Adam Smasher's." Vela smiled faintly, bringing up the surveillance feed from Arasaka Coastal.
Thud!
A heavy, icy steel shadow appeared on the feed.
"Director Russell..."
A dull, forceful voice like a hammer blow.
"Leisure never lasts long. Looks like the tour is over, Ms. Michiko." Vela turned to her. "Time to get to work."
"Then I should head to the groundbreaking ceremony Wilton Holt invited me to," Michiko replied with a smile.
Naturally, Vela would see her off. "Thanks for waiting, 'Legend Maker.' This is the cyberware upgrade plan Tanaka prepared for you. Have a look." On the way, she nodded to the Smasher on the feed.
Beep.
[Sent.]
...