The glorious cult welcomes Mcnoodlies to its prestigious ranks for no other reason than their own dogged efforts! (No bribery involved I pinky swear)
On a completely unrelated note, laborers may rejoice for an extra bite of rations waiting for them during their mandatory toils today.
---
Yumiko Kimigawa
"How bad is it?" She asked as she and Magos looked out from their hidden perch in the artificial woods.
The blood covered cyborg gave the burning district of Zurich closest to them another deliberate once over before twitching his shoulders in something approaching a shrug "Not as bad as it could be. Most of the droids are just passing by but they are still gunning down anyone who gets in their way. Guessing the fire is mostly coming from the chaotic traffic collapse."
"What about the curfew?"
He shot her a sideways glance "That only applies to the actual citizens, and this part of the city is meant for us and the rats."
"Think luring them out to block the way through was planned?"
"That would be autistic." He notes dryly "So probably. Or it was just an attack of opportunity. Good thing we are going around the entire shitstorm."
"Yeah." She sighed, making sure not to let her thoughts trail back to their exit some ten minutes back "Shame we won't be able to grab more ammo though."
"If you want to wade through that to get back to the penthouse be my guest." He points vaguely in the direction of the hotel they were staying at, just in time for a series of explosions to go off and bring a smaller building down "I will be kicking the civvies into gear, they've rested enough."
The other survivors looked like death warmed over behind them, both physically and emotionally drained save for their VIP, who was instead high as a kite. They had all begged for a bit of rest once they finally made it out, and it was granted if for no other reason than for the group to reorient itself.
They had wasted enough time already.
"Come on, Eurodyne. Get your ass up." Magos called.
She felt a slight chill at the constant refusal to acknowledge the rest, but knew the implied threat of being left behind was what was keeping them in line.
At least she wasn't the one who had to do it.
"Alright, alright. No need to be so rough big guy." The rockerboy slurred and rolled onto his feet, taking another sniff of the good stuff as he did "I'm up."
The worst part was he was genuinely more manageable like this.
"Get moving or I'll start dragging you." Magos ordered "I want to be out of this place before whoever did this decides to cut out any potential escape just to spite me."
A flash of clarity returned to the singer as he shivered "Just my fucking luck."
---
The Insurgents
While the city outside was growing increasingly chaotic, a man wearing special operations fatigues with every single one of his features completely concealed was walking, or more accurately strolling through an unmapped service tunnel of the Zurichen Prunksaal, a low relaxed hum of la marseillaise leaving his throat despite the noise of open battle surrounding him.
Reaching a point on the tunnel wall he nodded and began to pace, until a notification appeared in his sole cybernetic eye and a small grin split his face.
He leaned over as he reached a barely visible grate and slowly removed it, crawling into the vent and then into the secure bunker the EEC leaders had retreated into the moment the attack had begun.
He could already hear them shouting over each other, throwing accusations at themselves, then at their guests, and then at whoever else came to mind that could have hacked a couple of robots.
Not that anyone shackled by the corps could ever reach Schmetterling's level.
"That girl makes art, not hacks." He chuckled to himself as he crawled deeper into the secure location.
The argument inside the bunker had just turned heated when he reached his destination, and while their biomodded bodyguards were distracted by their bosses looking like they wanted to rip into each other with their bare hands, he soundlessly pushed the grate in front of him, slipping into the room without a trace.
And there they were, the CEOs of Europe's greatest corporations, gathered to plan a counter to their deserved fate.
A year of preparation, just for this moment.
His left hand whipped out and the two most dangerous bodyguards died in seconds to neurotoxin laced knives stuck in their throats, the rest losing their lives at the same time as he burst their brains with his silenced pistol.
The pathetic soulless hedonists that commanded the suffering of his people had barely even realized what was happening by now, and he was tempted to give them just a bit more time to truly understand what was coming.
But the mission came first.
He mentally checked his mag, and did righteous work.
"Un." The head of Biotechnica disguised as her cousin lost her head "Deux." The EBM's director fell over, clutching at his heart "Trois." IEC "Quatre." NetWatch "Cinq." And finally EuroBank.
He double tapped the banker fuck just in case.
The instant his mag clicked empty he slinked back into the grate he came through, covering his exit just as the security detail burst into the room to find some of the most expensive corpses in the entire world splayed out in silent agony, as if slain by a ghost.
The almost childish grin on his face refused to leave him no matter what he did or thought as he made his way back to the unmapped tunnel, and only then flicked his communicator on "Central, this is Lafayette. All targets eliminated."
[Excellent work, operative.] The Commander's smile was audible through the call [Secondary targets?]
"Only the big names got the hiding spot, mon cher. Like we expected."
[Unfortunate but understandable.] The Commander merely filed the information away [And Arasaka and Militech, did they get out like we planned?]
The very idea of letting the faces of evil flee unmolested disgusted him.
Schmetterling piped in, voice still kept in a blur despite their many years of work together [Arasakas are making their way to the airport. Militech got caught up with some neutrals and kicked it.]
[Shit.] Commander cursed [We will need to make sure this doesn't give the Americans any ideas. Just make sure to let the Arasakas through and then exfil. We have a celebration to prepare. Central out.]
Lafayette's face was threatening to split in half as he learned the fate of the Americans, but he waited until the Commander disconnected before speaking up "Schmetterling, my beautiful butterfly, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
[Already sent half the city after them.]
"Oh how I love the way you think!" He laughed before his face twisted into an expression of hateful fury "Good. Let none of the filth escape."
'Sorry Commander but some meals are just too good to pass on.' Lafayette thought happily as he lit up a cigar, took a drag, and began humming again, passing by a patrolling squad of hacked droids as he left exactly as he arrived.
Without a trace.
---
The Corpo
"Interference signal breached." The most net capable of the cyber ninjas spoke up "Company forces will be here to retrieve you soon, Arasaka-sama."
"Don't bother. They won't survive transit." Smasher interrupted from atop his pile of wrecked droids, and all of them turned to see him pointing at a swarm of air drones slowly changing direction to face them.
'And they seemed so happy to ignore us before.' Valerie sighed to herself.
The same cyber ninja quickly shoved the corporate heir who was just about to exit for some fresh air back into the car and shut him inside, the driver giving them worried looks but still keeping ready to blast off if the situation demanded it.
They had almost reached the airport when they were stopped by a massive roadblock made up of other cars and crashed AVs, and it was decided they'd try reaching the remaining company detachment before they tried pushing through the blockade.
Seemed like they poked something they really shouldn't have.
Valerie and the ninjas began gunning down the air drones with no real issue, and she did her best to ignore the almost... pouty posture of Adam Smasher who didn't even bother shooting drones as he most probably found them too boring for the effort.
She regretted the thought as soon as it came because a second later she saw the netrunner ninja tense before a massive fuck off security mech shoved its way through a nearby alley, its hacked police siren blaring loudly enough to disorient anyone who had yet to cyberize their ears.
But before it could so much as point its set of machineguns at them, Smasher was already moving.
"Now that's what I fucking want!" He roared as his massive frame turned into a blur and after what felt like a single moment a loud clang rang out across the street, Smasher reappearing next to the mech's heavy leg, or what was left of it.
Did... did he just punch a fucking hole through a mech?
"Driver meat." Smasher's voice cut through the noise "Push through the blockade, the rest of you wastes of space blow him a way through. The netfuckers decided to send us a present."
As if to punctuate the statement another pair of mechs appeared on the edges of the street only to be met with another battle cry as they were quite literally smashed into pieces.
V shook her awe away and rushed to help the others clear the way forward. A few burns were not worth staying for whatever clusterfuck was gunning for them.
The explosions behind them intensified alongside the cybernetic laughter, and without a word between them, all of the Arasaka personnel agreed to push through just a bit harder.
Which is just about when Valerie heard the sound of a missile going off, followed almost immediately by that of it detonating against a metal surface right behind her.
Michael 'Magos' Sobronov
Commandeering a truck once we'd reached a less explosive part of the city was as easy as using an outdated breach protocol, and as soon as the runts managed to drag themselves into the rear we were driving through the almost eerily empty streets and making good time towards the airport.
I could still detect the locals huddled in their homes around us, but they seemed to have gotten the memo that they weren't the targets tonight and wisely decided to just sit the whole thing out.
Doubt Swiss civvies even had iron on them, so it wasn't like they had the option to do anything else either.
Logos kept me up to date with the state of affairs around us as Kimigawa drove, and the movement pattern shift of the droids was obvious. The attackers were finished with whatever they were doing at the state hall, and now they were moving to make sure no one of note escaped them.
Minutes of tense waiting later, I reached for the final Militor drone in my possession, the one that went unused by Sharpe, and placed it in front of the truck's windshield, letting it skitter above us and set itself up as a turret.
Kimigawa and I shared a quick look and a nod and I grabbed my Groundhog rocket launcher, leaning out of the truck window just as she rounded the final bend in the road and we came upon the sight of a small army of droids trying and failing to push through a comparatively tiny group of Arasaka goons dug in at the airport's entrance.
Well, they were putting up a respectable fight, and I even saw V gunning down small clumps of droids before ducking back into cover to reload her Nue.
But what was really keeping the tide back was a familiar black blur, the armor stripped Dragoon frame of Adam Smasher was like a shadow bouncing between droid squads, leaving behind only chunks and scrap as he roared out taunts and challenges.
"Fucker is having the time of his life." I clicked my tongue and moved my aim away from him 'Logos?'
[Optimal strike calculated.]
An outline of the nearby building appeared in my optical overlay and I immediately aimed for the weak spot, the quartet of rockets leaving the boxy launcher one after the other and smashing into the already damaged foundation.
I didn't bother watching as the building toppled over and crushed every single robot beneath it, blocking the approach from all but the aerial units, which the 'Saka goons were more than enough to deal with.
Part of me was hopeful this would be enough to buy passage, but I wasn't going to chance this shit again, and immediately reached for my Nekomata, letting it charge up as the truck slowed to a halt and Kimigawa moved to the back just in case.
Weapon still pointed at Smasher's back, I mentally nudged Logos.
[Daemon compilation completed.]
[Ping.exe uploaded]
[BreachPortocol.exe uploaded]
[BreachProtocol.exe... ... successful.]
[DecommissionYourself.exe uploading...]
With a pulse of signal that sent a buzz through my brain, all of the remaining droids in front of the airport entrance stopped in their tracks, their weapons suddenly pointed at the CPU core in their heads as they all pulled the trigger as one.
Then and only then did I send V a call.
She refused to pick up, and I had Logos hack her overlay so she'd look at me.
[M, what the fuck?!] She visibly twitched under her cover, drawing the eyes of her fellow rats.
[We need to get into the airport. Can you keep your chooms from going too trigger happy?]
Before I could get my answer I felt another powerful signal come into range and quickly looked aside to see something smash its way through a distant building, and reacted faster than I thought.
The boxy security mech fell over backwards as its main cassis was smashed open by my Nekomata shell.
Hearing no further response from V, I wasted no time in charging up the next shot.
Smasher's face practically twitched around to face whoever had just stolen his fun, and I could almost taste the madman's eagerness to beat the fuck out of me again. And properly this time.
But I wasn't going to give up that easily. He couldn't resist an AI indefinitely, and he couldn't move fast enough to dodge a small rail canon, no matter how experienced he was.
The two of us glared at each other, myself in all honesty scared shitless and the Living Legend no doubt eager to see what I'd do before he turned me into fine metal paste.
But he'd have to wait as the moment was broken up by V leaving cover with raised hands "Friendlies, Smasher. Friendlies!"
"What the fuck are you talking about halfmeat?!" Somehow he managed to scowl despite lacking an actual face.
"Yorinobu-sama said let them through." Impressively she didn't back away despite all of his attention landing on her "The FBC is a ripper."
He looked back at me and then actually looked me over before growling out a slightly more intrigued "You do custom work?"
"Something like that." I retorted irritably and looked back at V "I can look anyone you want over but you are helping us get out of here and we are keeping the weapons. Non negotiable."
Her apologetic look at having to spill some of my secrets turned into a wince and then into irritation as she pressed just under her ear again, and after some fifteen seconds she nodded "Arasaka-sama agrees, you can come through."
Thankfully by this point, Eurodyne was too out of it to start any shit with Smasher again, and the thoroughly battered Arasaka goons were surprisingly eager to let us through which only served to grow my suspicion, especially once Smasher started walking next to me without trying to get a rise out of me.
My ramping paranoia lasted me until we reached the launch pad, where their netrunner was trying to get the exact AV me and my team arrived in opened up, and a certain corporate heir was leaned up against one of its walls and surrounded by a pair of cyber ninjas who were desperately trying, and miserably failing, to close up the two bleeding stumps that used to be his lower legs.
'This, I can work with this.' I decided and quickly had Logos open the AV, startling the living daylight out of the ninja who was trying to hack his way in before approaching the downed Arasaka with my bioscanner active.
'Well, they slowed the bleeding at least.' I decided, guessing their medical expert probably bit it in the initial fighting.
Seeing the rest of my group approach I addressed the cyber ninjas "Get him inside and get us in the air. Fixing this will take some time."
Bafflingly enough, giving them orders did not earn me an immediate knife to the neck and within minutes we were blasting off into the Swiss sky.
-------
The venerable cult's stores require refilling, your own stones will do.
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