Bafil hates Arasaka. The scattered Arasaka soldiers inside the truck are his work. It is only a powerless venting of rage.
He looks at the mercenaries who are fleeing in panic. He raises his hand and drops a gravity field. They flatten into meat on the sand. The ground buckles and sinks into a huge crater under the strain.
The gravity field does not only act outward. While he uses it, a sharp sting pulses in his head. His thoughts smear—his temper spikes.
He turns his eyes to the armed force closing from a distance."Militech. So this is Arasaka's goal. Use me to fight an army."
The column draws near. Missile trucks set their payloads to ready.
Bafil does not want to dance to Arasaka's tune. What he wants is to crash through Arasaka Tower with this body and kill every person who turned him into this thing.
A voice out of memory reins him in.
"Test subject Bafil, the Militech force is your target. Show me what you can do. Do not try anything clever. You know our methods. Handle Militech's troops, and your daughter will never have to work a day in her life. She will receive the best life and the best education. If you refuse, you know the consequences. Arasaka saved your life. Call it a fair trade. You can even give your daughter a better future. Consider this your last use."
"What a load of high-sounding garbage," Bafil growls, spitting through his anger. They grab the soft spot and threaten it. Despicable, but effective. Even an iron-blooded soldier bows to that.
The Militech column presses in. A salvo lifts off every launcher at once. Violent fire washes toward him. Bafil snaps his Sandevistan on and blurs clear of the missile rain.
He is an elite. Of course, he runs Sandevistan, and a high-intensity military model at that. Otherwise, Arasaka would not have selected him. Cybertron does not hinder Sandevistan. They complement each other for terrifying output.
After one dodge, the Sandevistan load hits his mind. Calm frays. Mania screams through the gap. Anyone alive in the truck compartment would see the terminal panel spike the personality collapse progress by several percentage points.
Hover-drive cradles him in the air. He looks down at Militech's troops with bloodthirst in his eyes.
"Militech and Arasaka are the same. Corporate dogs deserve to die. If I cannot kill Arasaka's people, I will kill you. You are all the same."
He points the gravity controller at Militech.
As Arasaka intended, the first-generation test subject finally engages Militech in full. Gunfire, missile detonations, and gravity compression blasts stack together like a war demon's roar and roll across the Badlands.
On a stone platform not far away, the ground looks empty. Look closely and a faintly twisted film hangs in the air. Inside the shimmer, Rocky watches the field.
Cybertron is making its first appearance. Of course he wants the best seat.
To see it up close, Rocky exchanged for an invisibility field generator from No Man's Sky. Unlike common stealth rigs that use optical coatings, this device bends the surrounding gravity field to create camouflage. It can cut with scalpel precision, or spread a broad covert field.
Inside the field, Rocky sits on Droso's roof. Rebecca and Lucy sit to his left and right. Each holds a cold drink, as if this is a day trip in the Badlands.
"Amazing. Arasaka really has a weapon at this level. So this is Cybertron," Rebecca says between gulps.
The field ripples. A figure slips in. David arrives, Sandevistan still hot. He has just sprinted back from the Arasaka truck.
Rocky arranged this. David used a data knife to help Lissandra breach the Cybertron installation vehicle. With Sandevistan and stealth, he was the right pick. With Lissandra inside the system, Cybertron's experimental data will land in Rocky's hands. Ascension Technology does not need it, but it is a useful bargaining chip, so he will not let it go.
Rocky tosses David a chilled bottle."Nice work. Come on. Let's see what Cybertron can do."
David drinks without ceremony. Even with a super-soldier physique, running Sandevistan hard in Badlands heat takes a toll. Task complete, he joins the spectators.
The fight tips into the hottest phase, though it looks more like a one-sided slaughter. With Sandevistan, Militech squads can barely touch Cybertron. He flips armored cars with raw power. The gravity generator tears at their formations.
There is a price. Every activation of Sandevistan and Cybertron pushes more invasive signals through Bafil's neural links and gnaws his brain. The damage piles up. His mind grows more chaotic and more violent. Killing out of hatred shifts into killing by reflex, a simple instinct to break and destroy.
Bafil's personality is collapsing. That is exactly what Arasaka wants to watch. They want to know the limit of Cybertron. To Arasaka, Bafil has always been a disposable test piece.