A ribbon of armor rolled across the far side of the Badlands. Armored carriers, missile trucks, and tanks stacked into a dense black line that looked ready to swallow a city.
On Night City's side of the flats, only a few people stood on open ground.
"L, you weren't wrong. Smacking those Arasaka suits before was just practice. This is way more exciting," Jackie said, grinning at the massing Militech force.
"This is more like it," Rebecca answered, visibly keyed up.
David kept his cyberware hot, ready to spike into combat the second it was needed. He looked eager. They all did. They knew they weren't going to lose today. The only job was to enjoy the fight.
Far off, aboard a Militech hover APC, the battlefield commander swept the area with recon gear and picked up the trio at once. The data center tagged them immediately.
"Ascension Technology, Special Operations. Those three again."
Jackie and the others had been visible in a string of Ascension ops since the company's founding. Every major outfit in Night City had their names, and the underground traded stories about them because their strength scared people.
Militech knew perfectly well what those three could do. In any other company, each would be a top-tier hitter. But a handful of operators still can't take an army by themselves.
"Ignore them. Keep advancing. Probe Ascension and Arasaka's other placements. Fleet keeps eyes on Arasaka's carriers at sea. If they push a fighter wing, we counter at once."
Orders went out. The column kept moving toward Night City.
Across the Badlands, no one spotted Ascension or Arasaka ground units. Militech's officers were puzzled, but it didn't slow the march. They'd find out what Ascension was doing once they reached Pacifica.
As the troops closed on the Night City border, Ascension still hadn't moved. Some of the Militech crew started to wonder if Ascension had shifted everything into Pacifica to make it the battlefield. Others thought Ascension was a glass clown that would crack on contact and that Night City was already in the bag.
Wrong.
Ascension hadn't built a forward defense because Rocky didn't think it was necessary.
When Militech hit a particular line in the dust, everyone felt a new vibration. The tread and wheelquake underfoot had been strong enough already, throwing dust high enough to haze half the sky. This was different. Their own tremor came from the ground. This one came from above.
It wasn't just the air that shook. Space itself seemed to hum.
The answer arrived a breath later.
The sky-bruise of sound swelled into a heavy buzz overhead. A ship tore the air open and settled into view, an aerospace warship dense with tech and pressure.
Its shadow poured over the field and nearly blotted out the light.
Militech crews stared. They didn't know if it was a spacefleet frigate or a full aerospace mothership. They only knew it was something they'd never seen or possessed. Something terrifying.
"Commander, did you see—"
"I've got eyes. I see it," the commander-in-chief snapped from the forward command screen, shock tightening his voice despite the words.
"What do we do now?"
It didn't matter. The moment the Warship appeared, their plans lost meaning. Initiative flipped to Ascension.
Hatches opened along the ship's belly. Batches of robots dropped like a metal rain, jets flaring to steady each landing. They snapped into combat posture and advanced in preset formations toward Militech's line. The empty side of the plain is filled with steel.
"Missile trucks. Saturation fire!"
Launchers lit. Trails scribbled white across the sky. Explosions and flames walked the ground in tight clusters until the Badlands looked like a low piece of hell.
The first volley ended. Fire died. Smoke thinned.
Ascension's units hadn't fallen. They kept moving as if nothing had happened.
Each platform carried a high-intensity shield generator, fed by an onboard Arc reactor. With those shields up, even Militech's best missiles couldn't touch them. The hardware beneath the shields could soak up a lot on its own, too.
"That's impossible," the commander breathed. He knew Ascension's robots were strong. They'd decided on Arasaka's internal war not long ago. That's why he ordered fire immediately.
He hadn't expected them to walk through a missile wash without a scratch.