November 21st, 2075.
A pair of black combat boots hit the narrow ledge, Teo's ripped up, baggy combat pants barely clearing the rusty rebar sticking out from the wall.
He leaped, falling a controlled twenty feet, landing with a muffled thud amidst the fetid, rotting trash in a dumpster below. The mountains of refuse broke his fall, the stench of decay immediately assaulting his nostrils a cloying mix of stale synth food, chemical runoff, and something faintly metallic.
Night had already bled through the alley, painting the narrow canyon between the buildings in shades of grime and shadow. He moved through the refuse, sliding his back against a slick, brick wall, then peeked around the corner.
Before him lay the perimeter of a Maelstrom controlled warehouse, a fortress of corrugated iron and razor wire. Patrols, hulking figures with crude chrome and glowing red eyes, moved with a predatory rhythm inside the chain link fence.
Wakako Okada had sent him this gig. Called him in the middle of tuning Bon Bon Mark 2, her voice as smooth and cold as polished steel.
Retrieval mission- Retrieve the package, killing authorized. Simple as that.
Teo's gaze snagged on a camera mounted high on the wall, overlooking the fence line. He executed a Camera Control quickhack. His vision immediately switched, the world transforming from his meat-space perspective to the grainy, monochrome feed of the surveillance lens.
He swept the camera's view, two Maelstrom gangers were arguing in a dimly lit corner of the fence, their voices just a static laced murmur in his comms. A thin line of glowing data, visible only through his SpecterNet Optics, extended from the camera, directly to the electrical box they were arguing against.
A plan formed. He sent a strand of aggressive data, initiating an Override on the box. It exploded in a shower of brilliant, violent sparks, like a cruel, digital fireworks display. The Maelstroms screamed, their crude cyberware shorting out instantly. They convulsed, twitching like hooked fish, then fell, collapsing in a heap of sparking chrome and dead flesh.
'Nice,' Teo thought, a grim satisfaction settling in. He quickly checked the other cameras outside the compound, he had access to them, but not the ones inside the building. No sign of alarm.
Nobody. Really? He used the camera to pan down at the fence directly in front of his physical body. There was a small, rusted gate, meant for garbage disposal or maintenance, barely visible in the shadows.
He sent another quickhack, a silent Access Point Override, and the gate creaked open, just wide enough. He exited the camera feed, the Night City alley snapping back into focus.
The stench of rot and stale synth brew hit Teo like a physical blow as he slipped through the newly opened, rusted gate. This was Maelstrom territory, and even the air seemed to hum with their crude, violent energy, a low, visceral thrum that promised pain.
He moved low, a shadow within shadows. His SpecterNet Optics cut through the gloom, highlighting the crude, exposed wiring of Maelstrom's security systems. He didn't even bother with stealth protocols for the first few cameras, a simple Short Circuit quickhack sent a nearby surveillance orb sparking and spinning uselessly.
"Primitive," Fucker chirped in his ear, his voice tinged with disdain. "Their reliance on brute-force electrical impulses instead of sophisticated data encryption is almost endearing in its barbarism. One might even call it… quaint."
"Endearing doesn't pay the eddies, Fucker," Teo muttered back, ghosting past a pile of rusting cargo containers. He came upon a door, and a terminal next to it. He jacked in, hacked it and opened the door.
Inside, the warehouse was a chaotic, oppressive labyrinth. Towering shelves, teetering precariously under mountains of illicit goods, stolen chrome, illicit pharmas, raw materials, stretched into the dizzying heights.
Automated forklifts, repurposed with spiked frames, rumbled along predestined paths, their lights occasionally illuminating heavily chromed Maelstrom goons patrolling the aisles. Their movements were jerky, unpredictable, often punctuated by guttural growls and the clanking of their own crude cyberware.
Teo used Mass Vulnerability quickhacks to briefly blind a patrol's optical implants, slipping past them as they stumbled, cursing. He navigated the sprawling interior, Fucker's real time mapping overlay in his vision guiding him through the treacherous aisles.
He found a lone terminal on a wall in a dark corner. He sneaked up to it and jacked his neural port into the interface on the console. Using Breach Protocol, he matched the numbers and symbols in order, a digital dance of penetration.
The main network, Teo's mind noted, was a chaotic mess of digital noise and screaming, aggressive ICE, brute force defenses that hit hard but lacked finesse. He pushed through it with his cyberdeck, ignoring the mental sting, focusing on the coordinates Wakako provided.
The package, Fucker confirmed, was in a reinforced chamber, deep within the warehouse. The vault's ICE was surprisingly simplistic for such a high value item, almost an afterthought. He looked deeper into the security, using Camera Control once again and panning through the different cameras in the facility.
He spotted another lone Maelstromer behind a wall in front of him, leaning against a stack of sparking, repurposed generators, his chrome arm twitching. Teo's optics flashed. He linked to a nearby environmental camera, using it as a conduit, and sent a subtle Short Circuit through the gangers optical implant. The Maelstromer screamed, clutching his head as his vision filled with static, then collapsed, thrashing on the ground.
Teo unjacked and slipped past, unseen. Further into the warehouse, nestled behind a tower of stacked, illicit Kiroshi optics, Teo found another beat up, grimy terminal. This one though was a relic, probably left over from the warehouse's legitimate days, but its connection to the main network was clear. This was better than quickhacks alone. He jacked in.
"Initiating connection. Warning, Maelstrom network is highly unstable. Potential for… unexpected side effects. I can smell the fuckery Teo!" Fucker warned, a hint of mischievous glee in his voice.
"Install it," Teo commanded, his fingers flying across the holographic keyboard projected from his comm link. "The new one. Ghost Breach protocol, then deploy."
On the terminal's grimy screen, a spectral image flickered to life. A emereald green tinged, more ferocious Gangar ghost, its form rippling with malicious code, a predatory grin etched into its pixelated face, fangs elongated.
This was their new prototype version of the Ghost Protocol, no longer merely an enhanced quickhack. It was now a virus Teo and Fucker had concocted, designed for maximum, absolute digital destruction. It plunged into the Maelstrom network, scattering its digital presence, burrowing deep, exploiting every crude vulnerability.
Teo pulled his jack, exiting the terminal. Now, he became a shepherd of chaos. He quickly re accessed the warehouse cameras, panning through them, identifying every isolated Maelstrom guard.
One by one, their optical implants flared. Their comms shrieked with digital static. Their crude cyberware began to cook, smoking, frying. Teo watched, detached, as they dropped, convulsing, their red eyes dimming. The new virus, silent and lethal, cleaned up the lone guards, leaving them scattered like discarded puppets.
"Remaining Maelstrom life signs detected: Zero within sectors 1 through 2. Efficiency: 99.8%. The remaining 0.2% is likely irreversible brain damage from the process," Fucker reported, his voice dripping with satisfaction. "Another successful application of the Ghost Protocol, V 2.0."
He panned through more cameras seeing groups of Maelstrom guards mess about, some discretely sucking up Immuno blocker aerosol from glowing cannisters. He scrolled through the list more, but then he stopped. Inside a grimy office, a Maelstrom Capo sat slouched in his chair. Across from him sat another man.
It was a figure of cold, brutal efficiency, clad in a Militech heavy combat armor exosuit, charcoal gray and scuffed, with thick plating and visible weapon mounts. No exposed chrome, no crude Maelstrom augments.
This was a Militech Agent, judging by the faded Militech logos subtly implanted almost everywhere on the suit. A highly trained operative, designed for silent, lethal infiltration and retrieval.
Its movements were fluid, precise, its optical sensors glowing with a frigid blue light. They were talking, or more accurately, arguing. Stagnant Maelstrom gang members stood around the office, watching with bated breaths.
"I told you not to cause issues with the Valentinos, Razor. Your little raiding runs on their outposts have sparked the flames of those little Spanish speaking rats." The Agent's voice rumbled, synthesized and deep behind his helmet, a tone of barely contained contempt.
The Capo, Razor, straightened slightly, his cyber jaw clicking. "That wasn't in the deal, Guy. You said you'd give us backing if we did this for Militech. We pulled through, choom." Razor lit a cigar, placing it into his glowing cyber jaw, a plume of acrid smoke puffing out.
The Agent shifted, a wave of palpable rage emanating from his posture. "You moron! If Valentinos find out that I'm backing you, that MILITECH IS BACKING YOU, they will send operatives here! They will come for you, for me! Just because I'm here doesn't make you invincible, Razor. We have very little manpower here helping out, my mission is discreet! We can't handle a frontal assault from Verdant Core! They would wipe us clean." The Agent yelled, standing abruptly, his exosuit whirring in the sudden silence of the room.
The Capo let out a scoff, smoke curling from his nostrils. "Oh please, Verdant only operates within Heywood. They won't come out this far."
The Agent shook his head. "Listen to me. Stop your attacks and ambitions, Razor. Militech won't hesitate to cut ties and stop backing you." His exosuit whirred again, a low, dangerous growl.
The Capo let out another scoff. "I can't. Orders from the higher ups. Plus, what are you gonna do if I don't?" Razor asked, a smirk playing on his face, exhaling a cloud of smoke directly at the Agent.
The Agent tilted its head. "Then Militech has no more use for you." He raised his arm, a retractable plate sliding down as a glowing red monowire shot out from his forearm. He shot his arm down, a blur of motion as the monowire connected with the Capo's forehead.
The wire moved down like a hot knife through butter, slicing all the way through the skull, neck, chest, and even his cyber enhanced groin, through the desk in front of him, and into the floor. The Capo split cleanly in half, sparks and gore shooting out, spraying the wall behind him as his two bisected parts fell off the chair with a wet thud.
No one moved inside the office. No one dared to. The Maelstromers, their crude chrome optics wide with terror, knew they couldn't take this man. The Agent retracted the wire with a sharp WHIP! It shot back into his arm with a soft click.
He stood there, letting the silence permeate, absolute dominance radiating from him. He turned to the lieutenant, who was sitting a few feet away from the boss but was unharmed and covered in viscera. "You're in charge now. You do what I say, when I say it. Got it." he said, his voice calm, chillingly so.
The lieutenant nodded quickly, eyes wide with terror. "All good here, choom." He said, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.
The Agent nodded and turned to leave, not before looking directly up at the camera Teo was watching from. "Little rat," he rumbled, his voice low but clear. Then he raised his arm, and a deafening gunshot erupted from the exosuit's forearm, a high caliber round that tore through the camera lens, ending the feed in a violent burst of static.
Teo watched this all with growing concern, a cold knot forming in his stomach. 'Well fuck! I can't handle him!' he thought, his mind racing. He quickly jacked out of the terminal, pulling his port with a sharp tug. He got up, his legs feeling heavy, and started to move quickly through the aisles. He had to hurry.
Fucker's voice, now tinged with genuine alarm, spoke up through the sudden silence of the warehouse. "Warning! New threat assessment: Militech Agent. High tier combatant. Chances of survival... Just dropped by 65%. Recommending immediate evasive maneuvers!"
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Teo's internal comms screamed.
The Agent, inside the office, lowered his gun, turning to the remaining Maelstrom goons. "There's a rat inside. Go catch it." The command snapped the Maelstromers into full motion.
They grabbed their weapons, their eyes now cold with murderous intent, and rushed out of the room, fanning out into the warehouse. The Agent followed behind, a slow, methodical pace, like a hunter pursuing wounded prey.
"lets go fishin."
A/N: After this arc ima give a character info chapter.