Chapter 91: The Electronic Warfare Sanction
The last to enter the augmentation bay were Sasha and Kiwi, their moods vastly different, yet equally grim.
Sasha's was the most complex. She had been on the very precipice of death, her body a shattered ruin. Joric, with his god-like, incomprehensible technology, had dragged her back. That salvage-augmentation had replaced nearly every part of her, save her brain and core nervous system. Standing here, awaiting an even deeper "upgrade," she was a vortex of gratitude for her creator, trepidation for the unknown, and a profound, disorienting confusion about her own existence—was this chassis of metal and synth-tissue, still "Sasha"?
Kiwi, in contrast, was defined by a technician's awe and a subtle reverence. She had personally felt Joric's power—that divine, network-level purge that had annihilated an entire corporate tactical-squad. That experience, of her own consciousness being colonized and used as a bridge, had utterly shattered her definition of "hacking." She now craved this new, transcendent knowledge, even as she remained instinctively wary of its source.
Joric's tall, crimson-robed form stood by the augmentation-slab. His crimson optical lenses swept over them, offering no redundant emotional greeting.
"Your existing systems are inefficient," his synthesized voice stated, a flat, objective fact. "They are incompatible with the cohort's future operational-directives. The re-consecration will focus on the cranium and neural-systems, replacing your obsolete, local-pattern network-decks and hacking-suites."
The ritual was precise, efficient, and cold. Their existing, primitive cyberpunk implants were excised one by one. In their place, Joric installed Adeptus Mechanicus-standard Electronic Warfare Augmetics. These new, sanctified systems were far more complex, highly integrated, their lines hard and functional, radiating a pure, inhuman efficiency. As the new neural-links sintered into place, both Sasha and Kiwi felt something vast, cold, and other interfacing with their consciousness.
"The Rite of Augmentation is complete," Joric's voice pulled them back. "Your previous 'hacker' equipment has been purged. Your new systems are designated Node-Units, constructed for pure electronic warfare."
He began to explain their new function, his voice like a technical-manual.
"First: Individual Operational Capacity. In solo-mode, either of you can project a powerful electronic warfare (EW) field, with an effective radius of approximately one kilometer. This is not crude, primitive 'jamming.' It is a modulated, high-intensity electro-magnetic pulse and a data-scourge-torrent. It is sufficient to instantly overload and burn out all un-sanctified—that is, unshielded—civilian and standard military-grade electronics. This means the vast majority of cybernetics, comm-links, drones, and vehicle control-systems within that field will suffer catastrophic, instantaneous failure."
"Second: Cohort-Operation Mode. When you are both within effective data-tether range and synchronize your protocols, your power and range are amplified. The EW-field can be extended to a five-kilometer diameter. Simultaneously, you can construct a stable, regional, encrypted data-network, providing our cohort with a reliable command-and-intel link, even in a hostile electronic-environment."
Joric concluded, "In short, this system's core advantage is its specific targeting of all enemies reliant on delicate electronics and network-links. In this reality, where the vast majority of combatants are highly augmented, its effectiveness will be... maximized."
Sasha slowly raised her new hand. She focused, and a tiny, almost invisible, lethally-blue arc of energy crackled at her fingertips. The air filled with the sharp tang of ozone. She could feel the invisible EM-signals in the room, now rendered as shapes and colors, an entirely new layer of perception. She took a deep breath, pushing aside her existential confusion, focusing instead on the sense of pure, cold control.
Kiwi's reaction was more direct, more technical. She was already immersed in the vast, new data-ocean. She could see the wireless packets flowing through the air, hear the electromagnetic whispers of the sanctum's idle machinery, and even faintly perceive the bio-metric ident-signals from Maine and the others in the bastion above.
Joric had not given her a "skill"; he had given her dominion. The power to crush and overwhelm the entire information-battlespace. It made her old, hard-won "hacking" skills seem like a child's game. She realized, for the first time, that her choice to join this crew was the most correct, and most subversive, decision of her entire life.
When Sasha and Kiwi walked out of the manufactorum, their physical appearance was largely unchanged, but their presence was fundamentally altered. Sasha was quieter, more serene, her eyes seeming to watch the silent flow of data beneath the skin of the world, a detached, rebuilt survivor. Kiwi had lost her defensive, cold shell, replacing it with a focused, burning intensity, her gaze now sharp enough to pierce material-reality and see the electronic-spirit within.
They were no longer netrunners. They were mobile Electronic-Warfare fortresses, information-sanctums, strategic-level assets capable of reducing a tech-reliant enemy to the primitive state in an instant. In future conflicts, their very presence would be enough to secure absolute information-dominance for the cohort or, at Joric's command, to unleash an all-consuming electronic storm.
In fact, by Joric's own internal projections, the EW-capability he had just installed in Sasha and Kiwi was, by this world's standards, a strategic-level deterrent.
If they were to act in concert, with all safeties disengaged, their amplified EW-field could blanket the core of Night City. The result would be a mass-casualty event, an indiscriminate electronic-purge, as the millions of citizens who relied on implants for basic life-function and social-connection suffered catastrophic, fatal neural-overload. The city's infrastructure, communications, and transport-grids would simultaneously collapse.
This terrifying vulnerability was not because Mechanicus EW-tech was designed for such slaughter, but because this world was utterly undefended against it. This reality had built its entire civilization on a fragile, interconnected network, whereas the holy technology of the 41st Millennium was forged in the fires of galactic war, hardened against energies and entities this world could not even comprehend. A few, top-tier corpo or military systems might resist for a few seconds, but against a targeted, sanctified wave of data-scourge... that resistance would be futile.
(End of Chapter)