May 20, 2021. 15:45. Central Italy.
By the time both groups finish organizing themselves, the entire area feels unnaturally quiet.
It isn't peaceful, though. If anything, the silence only makes me more suspicious as we move considerably closer to the industrial complex, staying within the blind spots Shock mapped out earlier and using the overgrown terrain, drainage ditches, ruined concrete barriers, and abandoned machinery to keep ourselves out of sight.
From here, the buildings somehow look even more abandoned than they did from a distance. No lights shine through the boarded windows, no guards stand around smoking or talking, and there aren't even any vehicles moving inside the compound.
Still, the closer we get, the more obvious it becomes that somebody is here.
Aside from the fresh tracks through the dirt we spotted earlier, there are plenty of other signs that this place isn't as abandoned as it looks.
Pallets, crates, and other equipment are stacked around one of the loading bays, some of them recently moved judging by the clean marks left beneath years of accumulated dust. Fresh scratches surround the locking mechanism on one section of chain-link fencing, while several sets of tyre tracks lead farther into the complex before disappearing behind one of the larger warehouses.
Dante studies the compound for another several seconds before turning toward Michelangelo.
"Let's establish something before we begin."
Michelangelo looks toward him.
"My priority is dismantling the Neo-Tanwir presence in Italy," Dante says. "I know we're both here because of the railgun. If we recover it, we can discuss custody afterwards. I'm not interested in creating unnecessary casualties over who gets to carry the case home."
Michelangelo remains silent for a moment before responding. "My priority is actionable intelligence. Recovering the railgun is highly preferable, but eliminating the Neo-Tanwir presence is equally within my mission parameters. If resistance must be eliminated to accomplish that objective... I won't hesitate."
Dante's expression hardens slightly. "Very well."
A few seconds pass between them before Michelangelo gives a single nod. "For now, our objectives are aligned."
Dante returns the gesture. "Then let's keep it that way."
Around us, the Arasaka strike team begins quietly preparing to move while I lower myself behind a broken concrete divider and bring my rifle back up, sweeping across the distant windows one last time.
That's when something catches my eye, and I immediately gesture for the rest of the crew to stop.
"Hold it. Someone's watching us."
My rifle shifts away from the compound and toward a distant hillside overlooking the industrial site. At nearly the same moment, Michelangelo turns his head in the same direction, apparently noticing the movement too.
I increase the magnification on my scope until I find a lone figure standing beside a parked vehicle partially concealed behind the vegetation.
Slim frame, short black hair, binoculars.
Linh.
"...You've gotta be kidding me."
She stands there, watching us like she's at a sporting event.
The binoculars lower from her face and, even from this distance, I swear I can make out the faintest smile.
Michelangelo follows my line of sight. "Is she with you?"
"No."
He glances toward me. "I assumed you were on friendly terms during the gala."
"We barely just met. She's not on our side."
"The fuck?" Remi whispers from somewhere behind me. "She ain't on Arasaka's side either?"
Michelangelo's expression remains flat. "Biotechnica has no reason to report its activities to Arasaka."
"She's an executive operative herself," Tetra adds, sounding considerably less surprised than Remi. "If we found this place, I don't see why she couldn't have found it through her own people."
"Great." Remi looks toward the hillside. "So everybody found the secret terrorist base."
"More or less," I mutter.
Linh doesn't make any attempt to approach us. Instead, she raises one hand and points toward one side of the compound, then another, before finally gesturing upward.
I follow the direction through my scope, initially finding nothing unusual until I notice several small housings built into the upper walls.
They're way too bulky to be cameras.
"Shock," I whisper, keeping my eye against the scope.
"Hm? Yesssss, Artie~?" Shock answers distractedly, her fingers already moving across her cyberdeck as she works through the facility's network.
"Look at the eastern warehouse. Upper wall, just beneath the roofline."
Her eyes glow brighter as she redirects her attention toward the structure.
Meanwhile, Dante continues watching Linh from a distance, clearly nowhere near as comfortable with her presence as the rest of us.
"I still don't trust her."
"Neither do I," Mister replies. "But if she intended to interfere with us, warning us about the facility's defences would be a strange way to begin."
Dante considers that for a moment.
"Regardless, we shouldn't allow her presence to distract us," Mister continues. "At present, she isn't the immediate threat, the Neo-Tanwir soldiers are."
Dante gives a reluctant nod. "I agree. We proceed as planned, but keep an eye on her."
"Already on it," I mutter, keeping Linh centred in my scope for another second.
Shock suddenly perks up beside us. "Ohhhhh... Artie was right."
I shift my attention back toward the compound. "What'd you find? Automated defences?"
"Yep." She starts typing in the air again, pinching and swiping with her fingers every now and then. "And we've got more. Two on the western building, one covering the loading yard, and another hidden behind that little fake ventilation housing." Shock clicks her tongue. "Cuuute!"
I look back toward the hillside just in time to see Linh give one last little gesture before stepping behind the vehicle.
By the time I adjust my position to find her again, she's already disappeared back into the surrounding countryside without so much as a wave.
I can't believe she's here too.
"If we weren't expecting some kind of trap before, I'd suggest we start expecting one now," Mister says quietly.
"Already ahead of you," Shock replies as her familiar cyberdeck purse gives off a soft mechanical whir and her optic implants glow brighter. "Yeah, yeah, I'm already on it. I've got the camera feeds looping as we speak, and I'm working on those automated defences now."
Several seconds pass before one of the turret housings subtly rotates away from our approach route, followed shortly by another.
Shock grins. "Annnnd... they're blind."
Dante immediately raises a hand, giving everyone the signal to start moving.
Michelangelo, apparently deciding that walking is beneath him, doesn't bother taking the same route as the rest of us. A cable fires from somewhere along his arm and hooks onto the upper structure of the nearest warehouse before he's yanked off the ground and disappears onto the roof.
Remi looks up after him. "Bruhhhh... that is so unfair."
"Focus, jackass," I whisper.
Mister draws his pistol and checks the weapon before looking between us. "I'll cover the ground floor with Dante and Rafael. Artemis, take Tetra and Remi. I don't believe I need to tell you what to do."
"Nope."
Tetra glances between us, then toward the much larger teams assembling nearby. "Just the three of us?"
"Ay, shit, that's a compliment, choom." Remi grins, adjusting his grip on his weapon. "Mister man's sayin' we're professionals."
Mister gives him a brief look. "For once, Remi is exactly right. I've seen what the three of you can do. I wouldn't be sending you in otherwise."
Remi's grin immediately widens.
Mister's attention shifts toward Shock. "And you already know your role."
"Yep yep! Camera loops, local network access, automated defences, and making sure none of you walk face-first into a turret!" Shock smiles.
Mister nods before slipping toward the nearest warehouse, sticking close to the shadows beneath the outer walls and making no unnecessary movements.
With that, the plan is officially underway.
Our strike teams split across the complex, with Arasaka moving toward the northern and eastern approaches while Rafael's Camorra soldiers spread across the southern perimeter. Dante, Rafael, Shock, and Mister advance toward the central buildings with part of the Camorra strike team, leaving me, Remi, and Tetra to approach a service entrance along the western warehouse.
The three of us stay close to the wall as we move, keeping conversation to an absolute minimum now that we're within the compound itself. Even Remi finally understands that this probably isn't the best time for one of his usual comments.
When we reach the service entrance, Tetra positions himself beside the handle while Remi stacks behind me. I raise a fist before either of them can move, and both immediately freeze.
I close my eyes for half a second and listen.
At first, I don't hear anything beyond the faint ambient noises of the building and the wind outside, but after another moment, something catches my attention. There's the light scrape of a shoe against concrete, followed by a metallic click and the muffled sound of somebody speaking somewhere beyond the door.
Then I hear another voice.
I slowly open my eyes and hold up two fingers before pointing toward the entrance.
Tetra nods while Remi reaches for his weapon.
"At least two immediately inside," I whisper. "There might be more farther back."
Remi's expression turns serious. "Got it."
"I'm throwing in a flashbang."
Tetra places one hand on the door. "Alright, your move."
I pull a flash grenade free and ready it while Remi lowers his stance behind me.
"Three... two... one."
Tetra throws the door open, and I immediately toss the grenade through.
The flash detonates almost instantly, its bang punching through the warehouse hard enough that my ears ring even beneath my protection.
Remi activates his Sandevistan.
An afterimage of him hangs beside me for a fraction of a second before he disappears through the doorway, and gunfire erupts from inside almost immediately.
Tetra and I push in right behind him.
One Neo-Tanwir operative is already collapsing beside a stack of crates while another blindly reaches for his rifle, still disoriented from the flash. I fire twice and drop him before he can get his weapon up.
Tetra swings toward the opposite side of the room and catches another man trying to recover behind a forklift, firing three controlled shots before immediately moving on.
"Left is clear!"
"Moving!" I yell back.
Remi reappears behind a steel support beam about twenty metres ahead of us. "RIGHT SIDE, CHOOMS!"
I pivot toward the movement and catch a rifle muzzle emerging between a pair of stacked containers. I fire before whoever's holding it can fully expose himself, and both the weapon and its owner disappear behind cover.
Then the rest of the facility erupts, gunfire cracking from multiple buildings almost simultaneously as every strike team begins making contact.
Arasaka rifles hammer away from the northern warehouse while Camorra soldiers answer from somewhere beyond the loading yard, followed by a grenade detonating hard enough to shake dust from the rafters above us.
Shock's voice cuts through the comms. "Two moving toward the western corridor! Another three upstairs!"
"Got it!" I answer.
Tetra points toward the stairs. "I've got it!"
"I'll cover you!"
He starts moving while Remi fires past him, briefly accelerating again as another Neo-Tanwir operative rounds the corner. The man barely manages to raise his rifle before Remi puts him down.
Despite all the noise, this fight feels completely different from the gala.
Back then, we were surrounded, confused, and barely understood where half the enemy was coming from, let alone who was still loyal to the Camorra. This time, we're the ones who came prepared.
Well, it also helps that there are significantly fewer enemies to deal with. I doubt the Neo-Tanwir here are anywhere close to the full force that attacked the gala.
They barely have enough time to organize before somebody crashes into them from another direction, and it quickly becomes obvious that a full Arasaka squad of equipped soldiers, accompanied by Michelangelo, operates on an entirely different level from the Camorra.
Their communications are almost unnervingly clean.
"North two clear."
"Contact second level."
"Moving."
"Cover."
"Clear."
There isn't any screaming over the radio or three different people shouting conflicting orders at once.
Every operative seems to know exactly where the others are, where they're supposed to move next, which angle they're responsible for covering, and when to put complete trust in their teammates.
All in all, they cover each other's asses.
Through a broken interior window, I catch a glimpse of three Arasaka soldiers crossing an open section of the loading yard in a practised sequence. One covers while another advances, and the third rotates behind them almost immediately.
A Neo-Tanwir fighter opens fire from a doorway and gets maybe half a burst out before two Arasaka rifles answer simultaneously, forcing him backward out of sight.
Then Michelangelo drops from somewhere above them.
Where the fuck did he even come from?
Two Neo-Tanwir operatives rush him from opposite sides, but neither manages to get close. Michelangelo pivots around the first man's rifle and cuts his blade across an exposed section of armour before rotating directly toward the second.
The other operative manages to fire a single round that disappears uselessly into the ceiling before Michelangelo's second sword drives through a gap beneath his chest plate.
Both men are on the floor within seconds, and Michelangelo is already moving again before either body completely settles.
"Jeez..." Tetra mutters over the comms.
I can't even disagree.
The Neo-Tanwir try to compensate as one group retreats deeper into the warehouse while another attempts to deploy a drone from behind a storage container.
Shock catches it almost immediately.
"Drone coming online."
The machine barely rises two metres from the ground before its rotors suddenly die and it slams straight back into the concrete.
"Not anymore~."
"Nice," I mutter.
A Neo-Tanwir soldier charges out from behind the same container, and I fire once, catching him high in the chest and sending him backward into the metal shelving. Remi catches the next one attempting to move between cover while Tetra intercepts another trying to flank us from the side.
The entire firefight only lasts a few minutes, but the enclosed warehouses make it sound like a full-scale battle.
Rifles hammer against concrete walls, boots pound across the floors, metallic impacts ring through the machinery, and comms constantly pass through our earpieces as each team pushes farther into the facility.
Within another minute, Shock's voice returns over the radio.
"Western cameras are clear! Northern warehouse looks almost empty, but I'm seeing movement toward the central building."
Dante answers immediately. "All teams converge."
"Agreed," Michelangelo adds shortly afterward.
I swap magazines while Tetra checks the hallway ahead and Remi rolls his shoulders, waiting for his Sandevistan to finish cooling down.
"Guess we're moving," I mutter.
"Anyone hurt?" Tetra calls out.
"No complaints here." Remi checks his weapon. "Let's finish this shit."
The three of us push out of the warehouse and into the loading yard, joining the other teams as they close in from different directions.
By then, whatever organization the Neo-Tanwir had left is already falling apart.
A handful of fighters attempt to hold the central building, but with Arasaka advancing from one side and the Camorra pushing from another, there isn't much room left for them to manoeuvre. The last few exchanges of gunfire become increasingly scattered until, eventually, the shooting stops altogether.
Within minutes, organized resistance collapses.
The remaining Neo-Tanwir operatives are either dead, captured, or found wounded deeper inside the complex. A few attempt to hide among storage rooms and maintenance corridors, but between Shock's control of the security network and Arasaka methodically sweeping every section of the compound, none of them get very far.
Eventually, Rafael's voice comes through the radio.
"Southern perimeter secure."
Another Arasaka operative follows shortly afterward. "Northern sector secure."
Michelangelo checks in next. "Central building secure."
With a moment to breathe, Dante allows himself to relax slightly.
He glances around at the Arasaka soldiers already spreading throughout the facility, securing rooms, collecting weapons, and restraining survivors with almost mechanical efficiency.
"It's no wonder the corporations rule the world."
I glance toward him. "It's a little depressing when you say it out loud."
"It doesn't make it any less true."
"Fair enough."
With nobody left actively trying to kill us, the operation shifts toward figuring out what the Neo-Tanwir were actually doing here.
"Tutti quanti, perquisite ogni cosa," Dante orders his men over the radio. "Documenti, computer, manifesti, armi, qualsiasi cosa possa dirci da dove sono venuti o dove erano diretti. Segnalate immediatamente qualsiasi cosa importante."
Then he switches back to English for the rest of us. "Same goes for all of you. Search everything and report anything important immediately."
The Camorra soldiers, alongside Mister and Shock, gradually spread out again, working through whatever remains of the facility's network and searching the offices and storage areas. Tetra and Remi start checking the warehouse we'd just cleared, while I move between the central building and loading yard, looking through whatever the Neo-Tanwir didn't have time to destroy.
Arasaka has its own priorities, evident in the way they move.
Michelangelo walks between the captured operatives one by one, studying each of them while his soldiers finish restraining the survivors.
"Names, identification, rank if available," he orders. "I want to know if any of them held command authority."
One of the Arasaka operatives nods. "Understood."
He glances at the rest of us after that, stepping closer until I'm practically an arm's length away from him.
I can feel his clinical gaze moving over us, assessing each of us as if we're wounded, compromised, or potentially a threat to his operation.
There's a flicker of something across his face, like he's about to say something to one of us, before his attention suddenly shifts elsewhere.
He goes quiet for half a second, his eyes focusing on something none of us can hear.
"I'm listening."
Oh. Private comms.
A few seconds pass before I finally remember who he's probably talking to.
Who was she again? Astrid? Sigrid? Ingrid? Eh, whatever.
"If there are surviving high-ranking Neo-Tanwir operatives, recover them alive. We'll use intelligence reconstruction again."
Michelangelo's expression doesn't change. "Understood."
I glance toward him.
What the hell is "intelligence reconstruction"?
Whatever that means, nobody else from Arasaka seems particularly interested in explaining it.
Instead, Michelangelo immediately resumes inspecting the prisoners while the rest of us continue deeper into the site, clearing rooms and slowly disarming any traps we find along the way.
Michelangelo eventually rejoins us, but every now and then, I can feel his gaze focusing on me.
"What?" I raise an eyebrow and stare back at him, somewhat unnerved by how often he seems to be eyeing me. "Is there something weird on me?"
His eyes briefly move toward my rifle before returning to my face.
"Nothing that concerns you. Your room-clearing technique and situational awareness are unusually refined."
"... Okay?"
He says nothing else, simply turning away and continuing down the corridor without another care.
What the fuck? What is he talking about?
Throughout the operation, I never moved as quickly as his soldiers did. They had military-grade cyberware, integrated communications, enhanced reflexes, and years of Arasaka tactical training backing every movement they made.
All I have are my dad's teachings, my own instincts, and senses and reactions that, if I'm being fair to myself, are better than practically anyone I've met without implants.
I guess I have decent fundamentals? My aim and clearing skills are pretty good.
Elsewhere, Mister has considerably better luck finding something immediately useful.
"Mister to Dante," his voice comes through the shared radio channel several minutes later.
"Go ahead."
"I believe I've confirmed Giovanni's intelligence in a dedicated office space."
I turn toward the central offices and start making my way over, careful not to interrupt as Mister continues.
"I've recovered several shipping manifests, personnel records, and local transportation logs. Most are incomplete, but when compared against the intelligence Ghost has provided us, the pattern is fairly clear."
"And? Are there any implications beyond what we already know?" Dante asks.
"This appears to have been Neo-Tanwir's final major operational base within Italy."
By the time I reach the office, Dante is already there with Mister and Shock. Papers and several digital storage devices are spread across a desk while Shock works through a nearby terminal.
"And you're sure?" Dante asks.
"As certain as the available information allows," Mister replies. "There are most likely smaller cells still operating independently, but nothing we've recovered indicates another facility of comparable size or importance within Italy. The majority of their forces appear to have left the country, leaving their organized presence here effectively collapsed."
Shock lazily drops into a chair in the corner of the room, spinning herself around slightly. "Yeahhh... and the network traffic backs him up. Most of the external connections I'm finding point outside the country too."
"Where?" I ask.
"Different places. Mostly elsewhere in Europe." She snaps her fingers. "Mmm... but there's traffic going farther out too. Asia, North America, places like that."
Right, that explains the Elias connection.
Dante slowly nods. "So we've removed them from Italy."
"For the most part," Mister answers. "I wouldn't assume they're completely gone, but their ability to operate here in any organized capacity has been severely reduced."
"Good."
Right as Dante prepares to issue his next order, gunfire echoes from somewhere deeper inside the building.
My head snaps toward the sound, and my rifle is already coming up before I consciously think about it.
A second burst follows, accompanied by heavy footsteps pounding against the concrete floor and rapidly getting louder. Dante immediately draws his weapon while Mister does the same, and Shock abandons the terminal to reach for her own.
"What the hell?"
Tetra's voice suddenly breaks through the radio. "Okay! Remi and I found some—"
"On my way," Michelangelo cuts in.
Several more shots erupt, much closer this time.
I move toward the office doorway and bring my rifle against my shoulder, checking the near corner before leaning far enough to clear the opposite side of the corridor.
Several figures rush through an intersection farther down the hall, some retreating while others turn and fire behind them.
Tetra is locked in a scuffle with an armoured Neo-Tanwir soldier near the opposite wall, struggling to keep the man's rifle pointed away from him while Remi fires farther down the corridor. Several more Neo-Tanwir operatives exchange fire with an Arasaka squad advancing from another section of the building.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I catch a shadow—no, a blur—rushing past me.
Michelangelo tears past us so quickly that I barely register him before he's already halfway down the corridor.
He closes the distance with the retreating Neo-Tanwir before any of them have time to properly react.
That's when I finally see what one of them is carrying.
A massive weapon is cradled between the arms of an armoured operative near the back of the group. Even after everything that's happened to it, I'd recognize the shape anywhere.
My eyes widen. Holy shit.
"The railgun!"
Several Neo-Tanwir operatives start shouting in Italian, far too quickly for me to understand more than a few scattered words. Their formation immediately changes as they see Michelangelo bearing down on them.
One of them grabs the railgun, swinging it towards Michelangelo.
For the first time since I've laid eyes on the fucking thing, I watch it actually charge.
Blue light suddenly spills from between the weapon's housings as the entire assembly begins to hum. The sound climbs in pitch almost instantly, accompanied by electrical arcs snapping across the rails.
Oh, fuck.
Michelangelo doesn't stop.
I barely have time to process what's happening before something slams into my side.
"CHOOM, GET THE FUCK—"
Remi comes in as a blur.
My feet leave the floor as he grabs me around the torso and practically carries me out of the firing line with his Sandevistan at full speed.
The sudden momentum makes my entire body lurch. "WHOA, OKAY, HANDS OFF—"
Then the railgun fires.
For a fraction of a second, I see nothing except blue.
A dart wrapped in incandescent energy tears down the corridor at a speed even my eyes can barely follow.
Michelangelo twists clear at the last possible instant, but everyone else isn't nearly as fast.
The projectile rips straight through the formation. Arasaka soldiers and Neo-Tanwir operatives vanish beneath the impact as armour, weapons, concrete, and bodies are ripped apart in the same instant. Tetra throws himself toward the floor just before the shot passes through where he'd been standing, hitting the concrete hard enough to roll onto his side.
And the fucking thing keeps going.
It punches through the wall behind us as though the concrete barely exists, crosses the adjoining room, tears through another wall, then another, leaving a chain of enormous holes through the building before finally escaping outside.
A distant impact follows a moment later, causing the entire structure to shudder.
Dust pours from the ceiling while fragments of concrete scatter across the floor, and for perhaps half a second, absolutely nobody seems to comprehend what the hell just happened.
Remi's Sandevistan cuts out at the worst possible moment.
His sudden loss of speed sends both of us tumbling behind cover, and I hit the floor hard before rolling away from him.
"FUCK—"
Across the corridor, Michelangelo is already moving.
Before the Neo-Tanwir operative can recover from the recoil, he closes the remaining distance and drives one of his blades through.
The operative collapses, and Michelangelo catches the railgun before it can slam against the floor.
"TETRA!" I shout, pushing myself upright and ignoring the pain shooting through my shoulder.
I look toward where I last saw him, but there's nothing except dust, shattered concrete, and the enormous fucking path the railgun carved through the building.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Where is he?!
My stomach drops as I scramble forward another step, desperately searching through the haze. "TETRA! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"I'm good!" he finally shouts.
Tetra pushes himself up from the floor several metres away, coughing as he brushes debris off himself.
OH, THANK GOD.
He's clearly going to have some spectacular bruises tomorrow, but otherwise he's still in one piece.
I breathe out hard. "Holy shit..."
Remi rolls onto his back beside me. "You're fuckin' welcome."
I look down at him, the reality that he probably just saved my life settling in. "Thanks."
"Yeah, yeah." Remi waves a hand haphazardly.
The remaining fight doesn't last much longer. Whatever coordination the Neo-Tanwir had left disappears with the railgun, and the surviving Arasaka soldiers immediately capitalize on it. The last few operatives are either shot down or forced to surrender within another minute.
Then, finally, the building goes quiet.
Shock slowly emerges from cover and stares through the enormous succession of holes carved through the facility.
"Wow..." Her glowing eyes follow the path all the way toward daylight. "Okayyyyy. Suddenly, I'm really glad you never fired that thing during the gala."
Dante is staring at the damage too. "Even with the theoretical output estimates..." He slowly lowers his weapon. "I didn't expect anything like that."
"None of us could have," Mister says, calmly surveying the destruction. "Outside of a single piece of leaked footage in Vancouver, nobody here had ever witnessed the weapon fired under controlled conditions."
"Controlled?" I look through the gigantic hole in the building. "That's what we're calling this?"
Mister glances toward me. "Relatively."
"Right..."
Michelangelo doesn't participate in the conversation. His attention is entirely on the railgun in his hands-or what's left of it really.
The weapon is still recognizable, but smoke curls from several openings along its body and the faint blue glow between its rails is already dying. Parts of the housing have warped from the heat, and the power source, as promised, died to make that one shot possible.
Michelangelo examines it for several seconds. "Power source is exhausted."
There's a hint of disappointment that I see on his face. Perhaps if he could bring the weapon back in tact, there would've been a bigger promotion, I'm not sure.
Shock walks closer, keeping a considerably more respectful distance from the barrel than before. "Welllll… Azure's modifications did exactly what they were supposed to. One big boom, then kaput." She whistles. "Like... a really big boom."
I stare through the holes again, almost breathless. "Yeah… no shit, girl."
With the railgun recovered and the last resistance dealt with, Arasaka immediately begins moving its prisoners outside.
Several surviving Neo-Tanwir operatives are hauled to their feet and escorted toward the waiting vehicles under heavy guard, including two Michelangelo apparently considers important enough to keep alive.
He hands the disabled railgun off to two of his soldiers before gesturing toward the prisoners. "Take them outside."
Dante watches the procession through one of the shattered windows. "Where are they taking them?"
Michelangelo, standing nearby, doesn't even look toward him. "Arasaka custody."
Dante's brow furrows. "And where exactly is that?"
Michelangelo finally turns his head. "Arasaka custody."
I stare at him. Oh, that's reassuring.
Dante clearly isn't thrilled with the answer either, but after several seconds, he decides not to push it.
Whatever Arasaka intends to do with the prisoners, Michelangelo offers nothing else.
"Okayyyy, sooo..." She gestures vaguely toward the destruction. "What exactly happened?"
Tetra brushes another layer of dust from his clothes. "We were checking one of the storage rooms when we found another section behind it."
"We thought it was just more warehouse shit at first," Remi adds, finally pushing himself back onto his feet. "Then these gonks came outta nowhere and started blasting us and shit."
"There was a concealed section?" Mister asks.
"More or less." Tetra nods toward the corridor behind him. "There's a way down farther inside. We didn't get much of a chance to look around before they noticed us."
Remi points toward the disabled railgun in Michelangelo's hands. "And then one of 'em grabbed that fuckin' thing."
Shock slowly looks toward the trail of destruction again. "Rightttt..."
Dante steps forward. "Show us."