I carefully paced down the dimly lit passageway, an unfinished tunnel with an abandoned mine cart at the far end. The cart itself still held a full capacity – it seems that even the construction workers who were building this suddenly disappeared, themselves. Tools were haphazardly strewn about, as if the crew was whisked away in the night. Yet everything looked almost meticulous in its presentation. I could almost picture the construction crew gently laying down their shovels and going on a synchronized bathroom break or something… How odd…
"Corsac Two, get the heavy equipment," I instructed her, "Vest, weapons, anything."
"Oh?" she keyed in.
"Something's really wrong here. Call you later." I turned down the volume and she observed radio silence. Nothing about this felt normal. Felt right. It felt almost incorrect, like something that shouldn't belong. Like the uncanny valley of a virtual character with an unnerving, unmoving face, staring straight at me. I found myself shivering and hesitant to leave these train tracks, as if something was holding me back.
“And, let me guess, we’re going into that gaping hole in the wall, huh?” Johnny grumbled with a worried tone.
“Why, you claustrophobic?” I lightly teased him, “There’s no other way. He said the western end, down a maintenance hallway. I don’t see any other hallways around here, do you?”
“Mrrrgh…”
“Okay, why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind?” I ushered him.
“V, you know what’s on my mind,” he said without batting an eye, “You feel it in your gut, too. Place’s bad news. I know you’re not exactly one to shy from a challenge, but somethin’s down there. We both know it.”
Every fiber of my being wanted to scream. I knew he was right. But I had no choice… I was dead either way. “Mm, I know,” I nodded, approaching the hole in the wall. No draft emanating from it… Doesn’t lead outside. Only one place it could lead, then… Deeper underground. “For Songbird.”
“No, V. For your survival.”
It might as well have been the same thing at this point, but sure. “Yeah… For my survival.” I clutched at Izanami, my sword seemingly humming away as if it had a mind of its own for a second there. In a way it did, I suppose. And it was as scared as I was.
The metal grates beneath my boots gave way to disintegrated stonework – looks like someone blasted their way through the wall here. In fact it looks like a finished structure on the inside… Was this accidental? “Hey, V,” Johnny called over, “Check the lining. Irregular and jagged. Looks like a breach.”
“Mhm,” I noted the outer rim of the ‘doorway’ the person made for themselves, “Blasting charge. Took out most of the wall. Seems to have blown inwards… They blasted into this room. Which means that this room was already here and they came upon it by accident.”
“The maintenance room Hansen mentioned earlier?”
“What else could it be?” I asked him honestly, “But why would they blast into their own maintenance room? Plus it's still strange that I don’t feel any draft. Normally these places would have some sort of ventilation shaft for emergencies. But not here… It’s like the whole place is sealed.”
“Maybe it’s buried behind the rubble?”
“Not likely,” I speculated, “Not to mention that this explosion seems to have been recent… Someone knew about this place. Someone wanted to enter.”
“BARGHEST?”
“Seems like it… Would fit with the boots as well… Just one person, though?” I scratched my head before jumping down onto some boxes below me. The place felt stale and cold, like I was inside a dead leviathan. There was this odd, hospital-like smell to it all… And a feeling creeping up my neck. I couldn’t place it…
“Looks like most of the structure up top has collapsed from the charge,” I observed, “I-beams were blown out by something, though. Just those beams… I don’t see any other scorch marks on the walls.”
“Mm, so whatever blew the floor apart–”
“Happened on the story above us,” I finished his sentence, “Then everything collapsed. Nothing on the ceiling, either.”
“Was it even an explosion?”
“What else could’ve caused this amount of devastation, a truck falling through the roof?” I criticized, “Whatever, let’s just get through here. I don’t want to spend a second in this place longer than I need to.”
Looks like there’s a small alcove hidden beneath the rubble. Did someone try and tunnel their way through, perhaps? Nah, not for these huge blocks… You’d need heavy machinery to move any of this. A Centaur suit, or maybe someone with the latest in muscle weave…
A small part of my brain drifted back to the Bridge. This felt eerily similar to the earliest stages of that infestation… A rogue AI program systematically ‘cleaning’ its surroundings to keep itself from being noticed. What have you gotten yourself into…
Looks like the lights are still on. So this place has power… Geothermal? Nuclear, maybe–
GAH!
A woman leapt out from behind a bunch of boxes as I emerged from the hole in the rubble, waving a Unity pistol in my face. Fucking hell, she scared the crap out of me… “What the fuck, you know I could’ve chopped you in half if I had my sword out?!” I shouted at her.
“Yeah, and I could’ve blown your brains out! You with Militech – wait, no, you’re with Arasaka?! Who the fuck are you?!”
“Someone you don’t want to point a gun at,” I grumbled, “Look, I’m wearing Arasaka colors but I'm here under orders from Colonel Hansen. I assume you’re the one leaving footprints everywhere, judging by those Militech combat boots of yours?” Looks like media to me. Probably wearing a wire, scared shitless, in way too deep in a situation she knows nothing about – granted, neither do I. But at least I’m decently well-equipped. I doubt that a strong breeze would have trouble blowing her over.
“Answer my fucking question!” she demanded, shakily clutching the pistol with both hands.
“Rrgh…” I grumbled, rolling my eyes at her, “Honey, I’m on a tight schedule and you haven’t even taken the safety off, so would you mind? I’m not in the mood right now.”
Her uncertain face and unsteady grip buckled as she glanced down at the weapon. “What? No, t-the safety’s– G-uhh!!”
–
V instantly ripped Izanami from its sheath, throwing the sword up over her head before catching its blade and rotating it on the spot. She snatched the grip in a pickaxe style, pulling it close to her body as she rushed forward. In one fluid motion, V’s left hand knocked the handgun clean out of the media’s grasp while her body shoved the woman back against the crates behind her, stunning her and allowing V all the time in the world to bring Izanami to her throat.
The inexperienced enemy simply blinked, her mouth agape and her body frozen in terror, not knowing how this woman seemingly came out of nowhere and disarmed her in a split second. She didn’t even have time to think about pulling the trigger before the gun was on the ground and a razor-sharp blade teased her skin. “落ち着け [Calm down],” the woman bluntly ordered her, snapping the media back to some sense. She reflexively reached out to bat away V’s weapon, the samurai easily subduing her again and pinning her to the crate by force.
–
“I said, ‘calm down,’ please,” I repeated, less rudely this time, “I told you, I’m not in the mood. But I wouldn’t suffer your passing for very long.”
“A-alright… Sorry…” she muttered, clearly scared out of her mind, “I heard you jump down a-and I panicked–”
"Hey, easy," I instructed, slowing my breath down.
"Okay…" she gulped a bit, "…Okay. I'm good…"
“What’s your name?” I asked in a softer tone.
“B-Bree. Uh… Bree Whitney…” At least she’s calmer now… finally…
“Ms. Whitney? My name is V,” I told her, “I’m here to retrieve some information, nothing more. Excuse me.”
“Information?! W-what do you think is down there, anyway?” she scolded me, “Let me get this straight. You just walk down into one of the most secure facilities in all of Night City for what, information?” Wow, the lady changed her tune rather quickly…
“That’s the job. Not my place to ask,” I told her definitively, “I was told to go to an abandoned maintenance shaft, open up a door, collect all the information I could find inside, and get out.”
“Heh, well I got news for you,” she shook her head, clearly still fired up, “You think you can open that door, well good luck. I tried. As did the previous idiots who thought they could.”
“What? Someone else was here?” I lowered my sword to my side, letting her stand upright again.
“Yeah, I came back several times to check. People brought drilling equipment. Blowtorches. The works.”
“And…?”
“I had a look downstairs. Not a single body or any tools. I saw ‘em ship over a dozen gonks in here, too. Had a spot in one of the containers.”
I glanced down at the ground for a second before locking eyes with her again. “So what happened to them?”
“Fuck knows. They blew the walls just fine, but no one ever came back up. Went down to have a look and it’s… just a door. But I did notice something…”
“What?”
“The card reader. Only a high-level Militech exec could access this place. Probably tripped some kind of automated defense system when they tried busting in, that’s why there’s no trace of anyone left.” Things just went from easy to insanely complicated…
“And I’m guessing you don’t happen to have such a card on your person, huh,” I rolled my eyes at her.
“No… But I know where to procure one. In fact I was just gonna go get it until you barged in–”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I interrupted, “Let’s have another look at this mystery door.”
“What?! B-but I’m being serious! I can get–”
“I’ll have a look first, I said. If you want to go running up by yourself, then by all means,” I told her plainly, “My plan doesn’t involve placing my faith in someone I don’t trust. So either be quiet and let me do my job or leave.”
“I– alright,” she finally relented, collecting her weapon off the ground and placing it in the small of her back.
“Why are you here, anyway?” I asked curiously, “You’re a media, no?”
“I am,” she meekly nodded, “Been writing screamsheets for around a decade. Got word of expeditions being sent underground at this unfinished station, so I followed one. I was hoping to find, I dunno… a storage facility, weapons R&D lab, something. Instead I found this fucking mystery door that no one can open. So I did some digging around.”
“Go on,” I ushered her, sheathing Izanami.
“Found a few skeletons in corpo closets in my time but nothing like this. Most of the files are redacted. I hunted around for a solid month–”
“A month?” I stopped her, “Don’t tell me you don’t know anything about this place because I won’t believe you.”
“I do,” she cautiously admitted, “Well… some stuff. I know it’s some sort of facility. A very old facility, dating back to before the DataKrash, judging by the card reader. 2013, by my estimate.”
“Mm, interesting,” I thought out loud, “So who put you up to this?”
“What? No one. I’m alone,” she told me almost immediately.
I drew Izanami again. Slowly this time. “Bullshit.”
“No, seriously–” she stammered.
“Listen to me very carefully,” I interrupted her again, “No one in your position stalks a place like this for a month without a concrete backup plan or some serious bankroll. If that backup plan involves Militech crashing the party to protect their dirty little secrets–”
“N-no, I don’t work for Militech!” she shouted loud enough to echo through the hallway before quickly silencing herself to a whimper, “Well… not anymore…”
“Mm?”
“Okay, so… let's say I made a few enemies in the NCPD’s ranks. Ran to Dogtown to escape the badges, took a deal that’d get my life back in exchange for what’s behind that door. Okay?!”
“A deal with whom, exactly?”
“Oh fuck you, you know I can’t talk about my sources.”
She’s definitely got some balls, I’ll give her that. “Fine, then you’re coming with me.”
“What? But you can’t get through the door–”
“Let’s try,” I sneered, “Now shut up and walk.”
Bree wordlessly frowned and drew her weapon, heading down the stairs with me in tow and clutching onto the wimpy handgun for dear life. An old Militech logo shone in yellow light on the wall, a stencil that went out of fashion all the way back before the Fourth Corporate War.
I found it an odd coincidence that, of all places, this facility was located at the Elizabeth Kress Street station. Elizabeth Kress… the first CEO of Militech, alongside General Lundee. The early history of Militech is rife with conflict and internal power struggle, with branches classifying documents from one another. One CEO was another’s shadow opponent – everything was muddled. Whole facilities dropped off the face of the Earth when one organization was absorbed by another… Probably what happened to this one, too. This wasn’t just an archaeological discovery from a time gone by. This was some sort of long-forgotten black site.
And to think that, at one point, I was stationed mere blocks away from here… I’d have killed to get inside of this place during the War. Much less after… ashamedly, I’ve killed for far less during my time as a counterintel officer.
We descended through four flights of stairs before finally coming to the ubiquitous door – sure enough, it was indeed locked by a card reader. “See? Doesn't work without a card. So what now?” Bree questioned me, “Gonna cut the door open with your sword or something?”
“If that’s what it takes, yeah,” I told her flatly.
Strange… I felt something… oddly familiar. Like a smell I’ve long-forgotten from childhood…”Hah! Right, well you get to that. I’m gonna head back and pick up that keycard before you starve to death.”
What is that… I can’t help but shake the feeling that I’ve been here before… have I been here before…? No… No, I couldn’t have… But then why do I feel this way? It’s like… Like seeing an old friend… I forgot their face, but not their voice…
“Uhm… V?”
#KKDyyyl32YY----------
dpppppdiqa77-_SCREAM_--------99
HAEP93C-------------_-WE SEE YOU-_-*****
–
“Okay… I’m just… gonna… go,” Bree said with confusion, heading back up the stairs, her footfalls suddenly becoming dead-silent to V.
A barely-audible chatter echoed from V’s cyberdeck, catching her attention and prompting her to shut it off. It sounded to her like echoes from an old HAM radio, poorly tuned to a distant station.
She could’ve sworn she heard distant sounds of people screaming on the other end…
–
What is it…
I felt a cold shiver creep up my spine… my skin felt tingly all over…
Something was behind that door. I didn’t know what it was. But I could feel it…
“What’s wrong, V?” Johnny asked me, suddenly snapping me out of the trance-like state I felt myself falling into.
I swallowed heavily, my eyes glazing over as I stared at that door. “Can you not feel that?”
“Feel what?”
“A minute ago you were shouting at me to just leave…” I muttered, “Now here I stand, and you’re calm and collected… Why?”
“I dunno, goal’s in sight, right?” he shrugged, “Let’s just crack it open and collect whatever’s inside and get the fuck out.”
“I… I can’t,” I frowned, “If I open that door, we’re all dead.”
“What? V, it’s just a fuckin’ door.”
“No, Johnny, it isn’t,” I swiftly corrected him, “And you know it. We should turn back.”
I turned around and immediately met him in front of me, blocking my path. “V, seriously. Think about this.”
“What is there to think about?!”
“Look, we’ve come this far, right? So let’s just finish it. Get the fuck on with our lives.”
“And maybe you didn’t hear me before, but if we open this door, we won’t have any lives left. That’s it. Done.”
“How could you be so sure? Fuck, could be a treasure-trove of tech back there. I’m talkin’ Bartmoss-era shit. Fuckin’ untouched peak-ass Militech–”
“Dude, calm down,” I demanded, “Why are you so excited about this all of a sudden?” As if this wasn’t unsettling enough…
“I dunno, ‘cause ‘tween you and your freedom’s just about four inches of steel you could easily melt through with your sword?”
“My freedom? You mean my survival?”
“Whatever. Look, just get it over and done with. All Hansen wants is proof that you went in. Don’t even gotta take anything out.”
Something’s wrong… Johnny’s never been this pushy. Certainly not concerning a situation like this… “Would you mind me telling you a story?”
“What, now?” Johnny’s head sat back a little, clearly perplexed.
“Now,” I stated plainly, “This one goes back to Tokyo. To a place we used to call the Bridge.”
“Oh?” Johnny raised an eyebrow and lit up a cigarette, “Heard of this, vaguely.”
“Its full name is the Tokyo Cross-Bay Bridge. Though it’s technically not all a bridge – in fact, about half of it is a tunnel that goes around 60 meters below sea level, with an artificial island in between the junction point, housing the ventilation and control systems. You can just barely make it out from Kisarazu – it looks like a diamond, shining just above the sea at low tide. That place – the Control Tower – houses a rogue AI.”
“Mm…” Johnny pondered as I continued.
“The AI was originally meant to control the Bridge’s vital systems – life-support, maintenance, and so on. But then the Krash happened – it mutated. Started slaughtering people wholesale without a second thought. Anyone and everyone who approached the Bridge would be killed by the worker drones… Spiders, we called them. They were about as tall as a person, with these massive bundles of cables extending from a central ball-like structure… And they were fast. Faster than any car. They’d grab you and pull you in the tunnel.”
“What happened then?”
“No one really knows… We mounted many expeditions over the years. Whole battalions were sent into the tunnels. Some made it all the way through, even, at least in the early years. They reported new manufacturing facilities… Massive stores of materials in these huge underground complexes… The AI was building it all by itself, using dredged-up materials from old ships.”
“And the people?”
“Just like this place… No sign of them. The AI did its job well… It was meticulous. It kept the bridge absolutely spotless. If someone stepped onto it who didn’t belong, it would ‘clean’ them, we would say. The only people allowed on the Bridge were the Bridge People – descendants of whomever was unfortunate enough to have been trapped on the Bridge when it first turned. No one knows how they’re still alive… Some say they’re all just extensions of the AI itself. Some say the AI enhanced them. Your guess is as good as mine.”
“So… What, you think som’n similar’s hiding behind this door?” Johnny finally asked me.
“Johnny… I got no idea what’s behind it. But what I do know is that I hadn’t felt this way since I laid eyes on the Bridge. Whatever’s back there… I don’t want anything to do with it. I’d take the wrath of Hansen over this any day of the week… Please, please don't ask me to do this.”
“I'm not askin', or did you forget that your chances of survival go from slim to none if you leave?” he quickly reminded me…
Fuck me… Why does my head hurt so fucking bad…
Whatever…
No… You know what? Maybe he’s right… Maybe I’m just psyching all this up.
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Maybe it won’t be so bad…
I got Izanami, after all. I can defend myself…
No, I can’t– Why not?
Stop…
We have this.
**DSQPPD312-------------
089FSD-------------_-DO NOT FEAR DEATH-_0-89ORUFHEW98&&&&^***
*****227^%-_---CANNOT DIE------***
%**(HHHAFEF^^_-IF YOU DO NOT EXIST_-28&&^**
We want to see…
Input code 23010277.
…What?! How did I know…?
The door shone green and silently opened, the speakers long-dead…
I felt Izanami glow white-hot in my scabbard…
REFID#NC770416_-HANDSHAKE_PROTOCOL-_
_-QUERY_NO DATA FOUND-_
_-QUERY_WHAT ARE YOU-_
I blinked a few times, revealing a cavernous, dark room before me… Some sort of hallway, lined with turrets… My head was burning up… “Johnny…?” I called out…
No answer.
Dust particles remained suspended in the air, even after the wind flowed into the room, as if the entire place was airtight sealed from the inside… Yet, I felt something else here. Something… not quite right.
It felt like the Chimera, staring at me. Studying me. I could sense it… Like a pair of eyes reflecting moonlight on a dark night… Yet it had no form to speak of.
What are you…
-_-SYS_ERROR_NO INTERFACE FOUND-_-
I could’ve sworn I heard some sort of clattering above me…
No… it’s in the walls now…
Under the floor… under me…
Within me…
A silent electrical pulse. A nerve ending touched with a bolt of lightning. A muscle spasm that broke me.
I felt… dizzy… and cold…
What are you…
I felt… witnessed…
Mom…?
Dad?
Jackie… I’m scared…
_-CMD_EXEC_SYSRESET-_
_-COMPLYING-_
The lights all flickered to life, sparks appearing seemingly at random from the wiring leading to the fluorescent bulbs. I couldn’t see nor hear anything, yet the air felt… oppressive. Heavy. It’s like the air had somehow putrefied, like I was inside a gaseous, bloated corpse. But they say that even dead gods can dream.
“Johnny…?” Still no reply… What happened? I hope he’s okay…
*&&DSFPIU23********--------DATA MIGRATION TO PRIMARY MATRIX_ERROR--------****6220*&
_-ERR-_
It looks like… like some kind of research laboratory of some sort…? Multiple locked doors teased me throughout the lone hallway, itself lined with dead turrets and security cameras… No… They weren’t dead. Not quite… They were looking at me. Right at me.
If this really was some sort of AI installation, I would already be dead. It must be slumbering… Waiting, perhaps? Or maybe just watching? Why would it be watching, though…?
More clattering from beyond the walls. Something was inside this place. Some sort of… irregular, harsh footfalls somewhere below me. It sounded like nothing I ever heard, no rhyme or rhythm to the steps, as if it was dazed and stumbling. The atonal, metallic sounds echoed through the otherwise silent facility, the only other detectable noise being the low hum of electronic equipment.
The steady, flickering fluorescent bulbs, the droning sounds of cooling fans circulating air around the place… every bit of tech as analogue and foreign to me as my time’s tech is to whatever presence inhabits it. Yet I had no doubt that just a single one of these motherboards could be worth its weight in gold… These computers simply do not exist anymore, and for good reason.
I carefully walked into one of the side rooms, just to have a look and see what was inside – looks like a stack of large graphite rods… Filled with some sort of coolant marked ‘toxic.’ Hm… Nuclear cooling rods, perhaps…?
And a computer… No, wait, this one doesn’t belong. This one looks recent…
I walked over to it and opened up the messages, dating back to 2068… What? These people really were here all this time…
A man named Evan McRay. He calls this place ‘PC Site D…’ Site D? Some kind of Militech expedition… Says he’s looking into breaching datafortresses. Then his research was abruptly ended when military activity began in South Pacifica… Guess he’s referring to us. Yeah, an email with a Lisa Smith, something about Arasaka armored battalions setting up topside. Interesting… We were parked right on top of this place…
Hm… Everything else is encrypted here. But from what I can see, it looks like this was some sort of… what, nuclear power plant? No, that can’t be right… That doesn’t make any sense. Then what the hell are these cooling rods for?
_-SYNTAX_ERROR-_
36GHHH&88******--------THEIR WORLD--------RHUyg3790&**--------IS A SIMULATION-------67FJORjuEEgy
_-CMD_FORCE RESTART-_
Strange… I didn’t feel threatened… Not really.
Was it trying to communicate…?
“Back in training my mentor told me something I won’t forget,” a voice suddenly echoed from the hallway outside, prompting me to rush out and– Songbird?! “Don’t go towards the light. No matter what you do, do not go to that light. They set it because they know you’ll head straight there.”
“Songbird?!” I shouted, “What…? Are you okay? What're you doing here?!”
“I should be asking you the same thing, what the hell are you doing down here?” she quickly scolded me, “Do you even realize the danger you walked into?”
I think I’m beginning to… “I take it you’re awake?”
“Lucky for you. I managed to stall out the facility before it had time to do its work. Think it jumped to your cyberdeck though… You did disable it, right?”
“What– yeah, yeah, I turned it off about ten minutes ago, why?”
“V, this is important,” she crossed her arms and looked at me with a deathly scowl, “I can’t hold ‘em off forever if you’re spotted, you have got to get out.”
“Hold what off?!” I demanded.
“This is a reloading station and R&D lab, V. It’s got mountains of automated defenses and self-ICE encryption protocols just ready to go, each one–”
“Hard-linked to one another, I know how Militech operates,” I finished her thought, “I haven’t encountered anything, though… Nothing except these strange noises I keep hearing.”
“Noises? What kind of noises?”
“I don’t know… Sounds like… some mechanical devices of a sort, shuffling around… Could be my imagination, I have no idea…”
“I doubt it. Place like this’s bound to have some sorta maintenance drones. Do not damage anything.”
“I don’t plan on dying today…” I nodded, "But I can't leave. Not yet. Hansen told me I needed information. Something tangible to bring him."
"Information? What kind of- Actually… God, why would I even ask… V, he's playing you. He isn't expecting you to come back alive."
"Well I hate to prove him wrong," I said with a pissed tone, "I don't have a choice. Not anymore. It's this or he won't let you leave. Which means no cure."
"V, you always have a choice."
"No, I don't. Not if I want to survive…" I grumbled, heading into the main work area… Looks like about a half-dozen computers and a kitchen or break room. The typical work environment… But everything was unquestionably ancient.
The computers all had power, too… odd. I pulled up a chair and thumbed through what appeared to be the manager’s desk, a man by the name of Mike Penny… And the logo. Cynosure… The second letter of the PC acronym, perhaps? ‘Encryption measures and defensive ICE.’ Interesting… Encrypting and defending against what?…
Wait. Where did I hear about this… I could’ve sworn I’ve heard of such a project before, some sort of experiment to counter Soulkiller… I thought it was just a myth, some sort of horror story passed around late-night bar talk. This place was huge. And it was right under our noses - and it's not even the main facility?! Jesus…
Hm… The top two files on the man's desk mention some sort of an emergency situation over at a place called Site C…
I picked up the stack and read off the top pages to myself. ‘To sum up - we're going to have to quickly slap together a statement of some kind to reassure folks that everything is under control. You know the drill. The actual truth of what happened is a separate issue - investigation is still underway, though from what I've heard our security systems were breached and interfered with by an ‘alien intelligence.’ As of yet we have no idea if and to what degree this "intelligence" has infiltrated the facility's infrastructure. Apparently, we'll never know. We're left groping blind. So just in case, beyond the standard protocols (we'll make sure none of this gets leaked to the media, fortify our communications, remind people of the consequences of discussing the incident, update our security), we'll have have to take drastic measures. Dymtro will bring counterintelligence to bear on the specifics, Irene will ask the armed forces for temporary assistance (at least something to deal with Cerberus?), Bret will see whether we can get any additional security specialists. That's it. You all know what to do. Keep me updated. M.’
An ‘alien intelligence…’ Hang on a minute, I recognize this. In fact, one of my first assignments was something Militech referred to internally as ArS-03. Apparently it was supposed to be some sort of a human-AI hybrid project, but I never found out more. It all got deferred to my higher-ups before I could even put pen to paper. I learned very quickly that such projects were above my pay grade, and people who forget that tend to have their desks vacated within the hour.
Another paper… a termination notice?
“We know how difficult the past few months have been, especially after the emergency situation at Site C and the problems it created. As you may have noticed, we've already had to let some of you go. We know you must have questions, but they'll have to wait for the time being. Site D will be shut down on June 13, 2017. You have two days to collect your things and return any equipment. All data should be encrypted according to Procedure 2B. All the best.”
This comes straight from the Militech Special Projects Department… These guys weren’t exactly known for canceling this sort of thing on a whim, certainly not when Arasaka was nipping at their heels with Alt Cunningham’s research. Not to mention that there must’ve been billions invested into this place… What the hell happened here that made them decide to shut it all down?!
I heard rumors of some sort of underground complex hidden beneath Dogtown but always thought it was just a load of hogwash. Yet here I am. I suppose I stand corrected… “You wouldn't happen to know anything about this 'Cynosure,' would you?” I asked Songbird as I continued thumbing through files, though most of them were old manifests or random project suggestions… Heh, an old Johnny Silverhand solo record. Random find of the day…
“Gosh, where to begin…” she groaned, “Want the long story?”
“Obviously.”
“Well me too, ‘cause I never got the memo,” she confessed with a shrug, “All I know is that it’s a Militech research project designed to harness rogue AI programs.”
I suddenly stood up and glared at her, “Excuse me, what?! Harness rogue AIs? How?!”
“V, I just said, I don’t know–”
“BULLSHIT!” I screamed, “You mean to tell me that you’re one of the NUSA’s top netrunners and you have no idea about what this all entails?!”
“Did you know everything about Soulkiller when you were working with Arasaka, or did you just know what colleagues told you?” she quickly shot back, “Listen, I’m telling the truth, I don’t know what–”
“Spare me the lecture,” I interrupted again, “This isn’t just about my survival anymore. If any of this gets out, the result will be far worse than our most terrifying nightmares, and you know it.”
“Yeah… Don’t I know it,” Songbird lamented, walking off and back into the hallway, “But that’s not what this facility does. C’mere, let me show you.”
I followed her back out, with the netrunner walking at a casual pace through the facility. “No AIs were ever housed here. There was a danger zone – this room. Nothing connected to the Net within six feet of the mainframe. Why? Because the last thing anyone needed was an unsecure device digging up what this place housed.”
“And what’s that?”
“Why don’tcha go on in, see for yourself?”
The room itself was bathed in red and blue hues, the walls lined with massive server banks and hardware bundles. The air was chilly, almost enough to make me shiver – cooling was obviously still operational. I gently walked inside, as if I was paying respects to some long-dead monarch in a crypt. “This is… I know exactly what this is…” I mumbled… “The Militech database mainframe computer…”
“The only surviving example from before the Krash,” Songbird noted… I simply stared at it in awe, as if I stood before some ancient, long-forgotten religious artifact… “Back in ‘68, Militech sent a team down here looking for it. Hopin’ to extract as much data as possible… Guy’s name was Doctor Evan McRay. A real hotshot in the intel sector. He busted ass to make it happen, built a team of about two dozen crack individuals… But then Arasaka moved in upstairs, and they couldn’t risk being compromised. So they buried this place and left it all behind. Encrypted everything, changed into plainclothes, and took off. The whole project's been dormant ever since.”
"Why do I get the feeling you know more than you're letting on?" I said with an accusatory tone.
"V, we're talking about some of the most dangerous technology harnessed by humankind," she interjected, "At least, that's what I believe is going on. I'll be honest, I'm in the dark as much as you. I'd never seen this place before. I just know about it."
"And you found about it, what, by reading the screamsheets or something?"
"No, it's- mmh, it's a long story," she said humbly, "But you have my word that I've never seen this room before. I've done my homework with the research team, read their mission brief and saw a few logs, but that's as far as I got."
Sure, yeah - and she said 'encrypted everything…' No, there must be something we can access on here… “This is the interface?” I pointed to the monitor before me, “Let’s see what we have…”
“Probably very little,” Songbird said with a shrug.
“Let me be the judge of that…” I flipped through menus searching for anything relevant, “One thing you learn in counterintel… Everyone leaves a trace…”
Wow… There’s even files dating back to the Third Corporate War… Proposed operations against rival firms, hostile takeovers, records of invasions and black operations… All encrypted. Fuck… Okay, think. The encryption was done after the fact, probably in a hurry. Maybe if I route Kiyo's deck to the device, I can use its horsepower to punch through the ICE. No… that's a horrible idea, who knows what's on this computer… Not to mention risking an alert of the whole facility. Then I'd have the maintenance workers to worry about…
Hang on… “Evan McRay, you said?” I asked Songbird, “Alright, let me do a keyword search…” Mm… Ah. “Log entries… Dated to 2068. Let’s see what he has to say…”
I clicked on the first log, the computer whirring to life and conjuring up a video file. “Yeah? Okay, it’s recording… Senior research specialist Evan McRay… This is day… three, of our expedition…” the man said into a laptop webcam. Presumably he uploaded the data to the mainframe as a local backup. “We’ve moved some equipment to the bunker. The old rail system remains largely functional. They might’ve used it to transport heat exchangers from the lab, once upon a time.” Rail system?! “There’s a mountain of old research in here… I’ll see if I can find a use for any of it.”
Interesting… Were they trying to reactivate the project?
Second log of three, this time dated a month later… Let’s see what else is on his mind…
“Well, Caesar managed to breach one of the dataforts… He found fragments of some outdated code. Command controls for a weapon, perhaps? All we need now is an AI to merge his findings. Lisa will probe the Blackwall for any potential gateways.”
Fuck… I knew it… They’re harnessing and going beyond the Blackwall… And for what? A rogue AI to control a weapon?! How reckless can you get?! This has to be stopped…
The final entry… “Day fifty… Five-oh. We received orders from HQ to shut down and return home. Pff… They say we’re not safe here anymore… Caesar has packed us, we await Lisa’s return. Poor thing’s been in the bunker for two days, jacked in… Or is it three? She… She just won’t come out… She’s… trying to download data from the fortresses… But, we can’t hope to take it with us if she does… That’s it, I’m going to go get her. Caesar!–” And it cuts off…
“Songbird…?” I nervously glanced over to her, “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”
“Alright… It isn’t what you think it is.”
“Then what the hell is it?! Because from where I’m standing, it looks like one of the world’s most powerful megacorps was trying to open a passageway beyond the Blackwall.”
“And they failed, V,” Songbird reiterated, “McRay’s team pulled out on November 11, two months before war broke out. Place’s been cold and dark since.”
“Yeah but it still exists, we’re standing in it! And people know about it – Hansen sent me down here to collect the data from this very mainframe, I’m presuming. Besides, it doesn’t look cold and dark to me. It even has steady electricity.”
“And I have no idea why – genuinely, I don’t know, V. I've never been down here, either. Why would I lie about something like this?!” she pleaded.
“Why?! Look at this place! Gods know what secrets it hides! I can’t imagine the value of something like this to a megacorp – unfettered access to archives hidden away from the Krash?! Information like this could change the world, Songbird,” I shouted at her, “I’d have figured you of all people would give it the respect it’s owed. How the hell did Hansen even find out about this, anyway?”
Songbird leaned back on one of the cooling towers, her eyes shifting towards the ground. “I… suspect that I probably had something to do with that,” she confessed, “Remember the cure I promised you? That… came out of another facility like this one…” MORE ARE OPENED?! “I was supposed to do a straight-up deal with Hansen for the tech, but he betrayed me… Took down Space Force One in the process. Guessin’ he found this particular facility way back when and sorta left it alone. But now–”
“Now that you tried to buy the cure from the other facility, it piqued Hansen’s curiosity about this one,” I continued, “He says he wants ‘data.’ But he didn’t elaborate on it, specifically… He didn’t know what was back here any more than you or I did. Did he?”
“He probably had an idea… It is his backyard, after all.”
“True, but that doesn’t nullify the real reason why I’m here,” I growled, looking at the mainframe again, “He’s going all-in based off a hunch. And he’s right – whomever holds this information can hold the world hostage… Songbird, this is tech that no one should have.”
“Tech that no one should have?! You’re using some of it right now,” she argued, “Hell, Arasaka’s been breaching the Blackwall since the mid-2060s. One of their most widely-publicized incidents occurred partly because of it – the Battle of Corpo Plaza, featuring a team with an elite netrunner named Lucyna Kushinada. She was part of that program, did tours in the Blackwall since she was a child.”
All I hear are deflections after deflections. “I don't care about Arasaka right now!” I shouted back, “I was a mid-level counterintel supervisor! You're one of the greatest netrunning minds of our time, you should know better! How many times do we have to reach an ‘almost’ before someone accidentally crosses the finish line here, and we all have to pay the ultimate price for their hubris?! Are we kidding ourselves, come on! We can't use this!!”
“No, V, the corps can't use this - we can take the data for ourselves and use it to effect some real, meaningful change!” she retorted, “Look, Hansen doesn’t know what to expect, right? So maybe we give him something else, keep the data for ourselves and use the research to figure out how to cure–”
“No,” I said with fierce insistence, “Moreover, you were adamant that I turned back. Now all of a sudden you want to take this with you?! Do you have some sort of death wish or what?”
“What…?” she asked me… Wait, something’s wrong… She looks… delirious?! “Death wish… About what?”
“Songbird… Are you okay?” I queried with genuine concern.
“Hm– Yeah, yeah, I’m fine–” she stuttered.
“Good, then I’m destroying this thing,” I shouted, drawing Izanami and powering it up, bathing the room in a dull white glow.
“Destroy–?!” she paused for a split second, “V, wait! You can’t!–”
“Watch me,” I sneered, lifting up Izanami and preparing to strike at the heart of the mainframe.
“Seriously, stop!” she begged, “Look, we don’t know what’ll happen if you tamper with it!”
“As opposed to Hansen tampering with it?!” I growled back at her, “I’ll take my chances, thanks.”
In a single heartbeat, I threw all my body weight into Izanami, and the sword analyzed what it was about to cut in real-time and adjusted its parameters accordingly. The ceramic heating element instantly superheated the blade, cutting straight through the mainframe interface with absolute ease. “Jesus Christ, V!!” Songbird yelled out in protest as I repeated the strike. Again, and again, and again, until I was satisfied.
“Look, you said this place was a repository for researching rogue AIs, right?” I countered, “I can think of no better facility to test Izanami’s anti-materiel capabilities in.” With that, I plunged the electrified blade into the server farm, instantly overloading it and blowing the entire faceplate of the wall out, almost singeing my own uniform in the process.
After sufficiently showering the mainframe in sparks, I simply walked through Songbird’s hologram and allowed it to dissipate without another word. I knew in my heart of hearts that I did the just thing here… Military-industrial complex be damned. Nobody – not the military, not a megacorp, and certainly not a private individual – should have this sort of technology. These projects wouldn’t just give one side a military advantage. All they would accomplish was to bring forth a darkness unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.
It was one thing to see the Voodoo Boys poke and prod at the Blackwall like a bunch of schoolchildren. But with the resources behind Militech, something like this could’ve ended apocalyptically for humanity. There is no such thing as controlling rogue AIs – we’ve tried. We’ve tried for decades. And all it does is remind us just how unknowable these abominations are… Nothing in this world frightens me more than a rogue AI, and justifiably so when a single one could wipe out huge swaths of humanity and usher in a scene of abject, continuous terror.
I felt nothing as I walked out… The air stopped circulating, yet it was lighter. Warmer. I felt like I could breathe again.
Yet… I could also hear something… Something akin to the faintest of whispers.
The room was aflame. But the cables, the walls, the floor…
It’s as if I was half-asleep… a white noise in my mind. A whisper. Almost inaudible and completely incomprehensible… But a feeling hit me. One of curiosity… like a hand reaching into a dark hole in the side of a wall…
Something was still here…
I woke it up…
_-IJgyuCDZ87*--------_YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM US_--------*HIgygcv[okl(chk}23***&
I took a cursory glance back into the room, and… and I could feel something looking back at me. I couldn’t see anything. But I knew it was there.
It was less of a person and more of this… vague sense of uneasiness. Like being in a place I shouldn’t be. I felt nauseous… horrified. This pang of anxiety trickling down my neck, teasing my nerves and making my hair stand on end.
No… Nope.
I’m not going back in there.
I’m never going back.
Leave. Go.
I darted through the rubble like my life depended on it. Like a Spider was right behind me, its tendrils furiously swiping at my legs.
I ran.
I ran my ass off.
I ran so hard that I tripped on the rails. Yet I dared not look back.
I picked myself back up.
And I just kept running.
Something was there. Something… I didn’t know what it was. But something was behind me. Something I could not see, nor hear, nor touch. But I could feel it. I didn't know how I knew it was there, but I had never felt this terrified. Never.
I ran so hard that I thought I might tear muscles. This wasn’t a person. This wasn’t even the Chimera. It was something far, far worse.
Give me Adam Smasher any day.
I scrambled into the elevator and frantically hit the button, sweat dripping off of me as I hyperventilated and prepared for the fight of my life.
But nothing happened… The elevator went up, and I looked back, and there was nothing.
“Johnny?” I called out again, “Songbird?”
Still no response… What the fuck is going on…
Come on, can’t this elevator go faster…
Jackie… Mom… Dad… Anyone…
Help me… Please…
I flipped on Kiyo’s deck again, the cooling fan humming back to life. “Corsac Two, status report,” I demanded, trying to catch my breath.
No response…
“Corsac Two, this is Corsac Actual…”
Static…?
Something’s wrong… God, this is like being in a dream… I felt so helpless. Like I was awaiting the cold inevitability of being snuffed out and waking up in by bed again, except it was real.
My sword was out before the elevator reached the eighth floor. The electricity danced off the blade, eagerly anticipating an invisible enemy. An enemy that never came…
There was nothing… It was quiet…
It was quiet.
I keyed the radio pack twice. No response.
Again… Come on, Scars… Where are you…
I heard one click in return… Distress.
I turned off the cyberdeck and carefully approached the door, listening for anything – anything at all. And there wasn’t a single sound… No breath, no voices, nothing. Did they find her…?
Easy, now… Just open the door.
“Scars? I’m coming in– What the fuck…”
I sprinted over to the body, laying face-down in the middle of the room. She was impossible to miss… The President. Or… what was left of her…
“Dammit, Scars…” I cursed out-loud, sheathing my sword and bending over to check on Myers’ vitals. “What have you done…”
Nothing. She was gone…
I retreated back a little to better observe the wounds - looks like she took a stab to the jugular, another to the abdominal aorta. Must have bled out in less than a minute… She tried crawling away, but… Yeah… Another stab to her back. Just to be sure…
She never stood a chance.
Hang on, though… Where’s Scars…? She keyed in a distress call… “Scars?!” I called out, running over to the kitchen area… Nothing. “Scars!!”
No response… Again?!
I turned the cyberdeck back on and keyed in a single click… Distress.
Hang on… Is that…?
I heard audio coming from the other room… Some sort of faint, glitchy voice… Like a distorted, distant scream… What the fuck is that…
I slowly got up and drew my sword out again… “Scars…?”
GAH! A single slam on a hard surface from the master bedroom… Scared the living daylights out of me…
The distress signal… Something happened to her.
“Scars?!” I put my sword away again and turned my attention over to where I heard it.
But something froze me in-place… A deep, chilling dread… “Naira…?”
I heard… breathing.
“Mmmggrrr…” I heard a low growl emanating from the other room… It sounded… inhuman. Some sort of distortion, like a cyber voice being pierced by a thousand needles… “You did this…”
“S-Scars…?”
Draw your sword, V…
This one's gonna be bad…
A shadowy figure crept from the darkened room. Her face was absolutely caked with blood, as was her bulletproof vest.
Jesus Christ…
“Myers… took everything… from me…” she growled, her voice horrid and twisted, like her throat was rebelling against her. Her eyes glowed a bright red… What the fuck… “And you… You did… nothing… You bled with her… And you USED ME!!”
“Naira– Oh my God, Naira!!” I desperately shouted, her face borderline unrecognizable, “Naira, stop, it’s– it’s okay, I–”
“No, Valerie… It was never okay…” she interrupted, taking a few steps towards me, “All of that time… And you never thought about me… Do you even know what I did, the things I’ve seen… Do you even care?!”
I instinctively raised my sword, nervously backing up to give her space. “I’m sorry… I– I didn’t know you were still around after–”
“No…” she snarled, “You were my blood… And you left me behind like garbage… You and your FUCKING FAMILY!!”
–
Scars lunged out with her Mantis Blades, throwing all of her body weight into a fearsome right hook. V barely dodged the attack, her face etched with pure terror – her best friend nearly sliced her head off in a single, devastating strike.
“WE HAD NOTHING!!” Naira screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice cracking and glitching out with an inhuman roar, “SHE TOOK IT AWAY FROM US!!”
“ナイラ、やめて [Naira, stop]!!” V desperately pleaded, her words falling on deaf ears – Scars again lunged at her friend with her left blade, with V batting it away and sending the MaxTac operator reeling.
“You never gave us a chance…” Scars fired back, “My whole world… is agony…”
“ナイラ?スカラ、やめなさい [Naira Skara, stop it]!” V shouted in a desperate, commanding tone, backing up to give her squadmate some room.
–
Gods… This… This isn’t cyberpsychosis… “Listen to me, soldier!”
“W-we… are not your soldier anymore…” she said under a hushed tone, stalking me like a hungry predator, “We– n-no… V…” She’s stopping…
“Scars…?”
“S- Sarge…” she moaned deeply– Wait… what’s… what’s happening to her face?! “…RUN!!”
–
Scars charged down the retreating samurai and unleashed an unrelenting flurry of attacks, seemingly propelled at an almost unreal level of speed and ferocity. V barely managed to keep up, defending against the violent assault as best as she could given her already injured state.
“WE WILL END YOU!” Scars screamed almost incoherently, her attacks outpacing what V could accomplish with her damaged sternum. V threw Izanami up in self-defense, parrying to the best of her ability, but nothing she did could match Scars' almost supernatural madness. To her, it was as if her friend was replaced with some horrifying entity, one which knew nothing but absolute, unrestrained power and precision.
It was only a matter of time before Scars’ blade found flesh.
Her left arm’s blade buried itself into V’s right shoulder, cutting directly into her subclavian artery and severing most of the cables holding her muscles together.
Blood gushed from the wound, immediately coating V’s shoulder and head in a deep red within the dim lighting of the room. She screamed in agony, switching Izanami to her left hand and knocking away Scars’ right arm to prevent her from capitalizing on the strike.
Scars backed off and shook the blood off her blades, coming in for a furious charge to end the samurai once and for all. Her weapons hungered for flesh with an indiscriminate blind rage, her mind totally oblivious to her surroundings. Her body acted on pure instinct, driven by an entity far beyond her comprehension.
V raised her weapon again, clasping it with both hands and shouting in petrified terror as her friend came in for the final blow – only to meet Izanami first.
In her utterly fanatical haze, the police operator found herself impaled through the kidney with V’s weapon, the electricity instantly seizing her body and sending her reeling to the ground. Scars’ body convulsed in unnatural ways, threatening to snap bones. She stabbed herself multiple times with her own blades before her self-ICE finally took over, her OS entering into a hard reset by the sudden electric shock.
–
“G-Guuhhh…” I found the room… spinning… hazy…
I can’t… feel my arm…
“S-Scars…” Get up…
Please…
Please get up…
She’s moving… “Sarge…” she groaned, vomiting up blood, “Mmmmguuhgh…”
“Blood… clotter…” I whimpered, feeling myself… slowly fading… “B-backpack…”
I can’t… keep my eyes open–
–
“Scream…”
Mom…?
I tried… I tried so hard…
What do you want from me…?
Help… Mom… I’m so cold…
I’m surrounded by fire…
Why am I cold?
No… Stop… Stop it…
Help me…!
–
“V, help me…!” Scars shouted, “C’mon, Sarge…!”
I hacked blood from my mouth and nose… I… I couldn’t feel my arm… “S-Scars…?”
“S-Sarge… Thank the spirits…” she sighed, “Come… on… I can’t lift you…”
The blood clotters… She used the whole pack on us both… “Airhypo…?”
“And a mountain of adrenaline… Gonna crash… soon…” she stammered weakly, “Need… a ripperdoc…”
“H-Hansen… would have one…” I whispered, “Our only… chance – wait… Izanami…”
“Your scabbard fell off… Here…” she placed it on my back, the magnets automatically sticking it to my bloodied and torn uniform, “Where are your car keys…?”
“Mmh… Back… pocket…” I could barely stand… Fuck…
“Come on, Sarge…” she ushered me, “Just… another day, right…?”
Another… day…
---
The Tokyo Crossway Bridge, or Tokyo Cross-Bay Bridge, was first opened to the public on December 18, 1997. Simply known as the "Crossway" or the "Bridge" depending on the local dialect, its original name was the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line and represents one of the last shining jewels of the early Japanese boom economy. The megaproject was first conceived in the 1980s, though its tactical significance wasn't realized until several decades later.
