16/10/77
Arasaka Tower, Corpo Plaza
Night City, California
V
-
They had been waiting, as patiently as a group of mercenaries on a mission for revenge could. The group had geared up and split up, a ground team and an infiltration team coming from the air would be all they need to get the pincer movement perfect in the tower. Two distractions had been the final plan, with Rogue having a satellite owned by Arasaka getting bombed out of the atmosphere to disable the security coverage. V had dutifully offered his Outlaw as his own distraction.

Two hundred pounds worth of plastic explosive were set up in the trunk of the car, wired and ready to explode as soon as it hit the entrance of the Arasaka Tower. Arasaka would do anything to get rid of the Afterlifers, they had discovered, and all it meant was that desperate measures would be certain to happen. A knife in the groin was as lethal and as painful as one in the gut, and fighting dirty was all they had left.

Even still, he felt uneasy. Everything could go perfect, but every single one of the Afterlife crew knew exactly what was going to happen. Death was a certainty, there was no way of getting out of escaping that fate.

He'd readied himself as much as possible. Ballistic plating, ammo pouches, weapons and equipment, his augs were clean and ready, V had become the walking weapon he knew himself comfortably as. The parking complex they had parked in was quiet, it was the middle of the working day, workers in the office and secretaries at their desks. In a way, V perhaps had come to terms with Johnny's views on the Japanese corporation. They were dirty, willing to do anything to put themselves on top, and they would do it to the last man or woman.

"Not a terrorist anymore, huh? Surprise surprise, some of us have known that for decades."

V shook his head. "Yeah, yeah, try not to get too up your own ass about being right for the first time in fifty-four years."

"Don't forget the butcher shop where you found your choom, or getting with Panam, or seeing that the Clouds bitch was obviously gonna bend you over as soon as fuckin' possible."

The ex-corpo once again shook his head. "I am going to be so happy, when you are out of my fucking skull, Johnny."

"I could say the same, we fit together quite well, but sometimes a lot of things are better separated than forced together."

"You are real fuckin' weird sometimes, Johnny. One moment, you're an annoying cock, and the next you're being the dead philosophical rocker that you were potentially gonna be."

"Well, if I'm a cock, then you're a cunt, no wonder we fit together so well."

"Please, shut the fuck up."

Out of the car, V joined Shaitan and Squama by the overlook of the complex. The small plaza in front of the tower entrance was barren, unoccupied, the stone jet-washed and cleaned to perfection. The Haitian merc finished his cigarette before he readied his automatic shotgun, his vest coated in plates and drums filled to the brim with shotgun shells. Shaitan, the invincible half-robot that he was, was fiddling with the screws in his wrist before he shook the aches out of his metal bones.

He'd never spent much time with other people, V had always found more peace and solace on his own without any partner that wasn't Jackie. Since he'd found his place with Panam, with Shaitan and the rest of the Afterlifers, even if they were as grouchy as Blackhand or as extroverted as Spider, it felt better together than he ever would alone. He'd attached a slide on both Johnny's Malorian and his MDX rifle, placing the pistol under the barrel as if it were his heavy artillery. Jackie's pistol was strapped to his ballistic vest, his last-ditch weapon if he lost everything else. Submachine guns in their holsters, knife in his belt, he was ready for death to claim them all.

Shaitan turned to V. "Never thought I'd hear from Alt ever again, you know. I saw the media footage from the first raid, coulda swore she was a goner."

"She is, technically. Johnny said she's not really Alt. It's just an altered form of her engram. Her source code is in Mikoshi, and she wants to be uploaded to it before it's destroyed." V replied, taking a cigarette from his own pack. "Can't blame her. Living like that ain't living."

The cyborg loaded an acid round into the Hydra. "Very nomad of you to say. Never really took you for a dust-rat, no offence."

"None was taken, Shai," V said before he took a hit from his cigarette. "Never really felt like one before now. Never really liked being a corpo either, if I'm being honest. Too much desk work."

The silver soldier's hands tightened around the concrete barrier, a small crack erupting in the material before he released a deep sigh. "I was a street-kid, V. Only person that I ever knew was always on my side was my mom. She was just a receptionist, for Arasaka of all the fucking places and people. That piece of shit that was hunting you, us at the Sixer place, he did things to her that I can't even begin to describe."

"Takemura?" V asked. "That piece of shit? You ask me, he's just as bad as Smasher. Ninja-looking bastard. He'll get his today if he's here."

"V, he's mine."

"I wasn't going to contest who kills who. If they die, they die, that's all they deserve."

Shaitan sneered, almost growling. "They deserve worse. Bunch of fucking corpo-cunts as Johnny would say, they don't care about anyone else, why would anyone else care about them?"

It was a question, one that V didn't really have an answer to. He had something of an insight, but it was so far away from who he was, he felt like he was another person once more. A mix of both his youth and his experience. Nobody cared about the corpos who worked their lives away for wealth, power and nothing else, but it was because they either hated or envied them. Corpos didn't care about anyone just because they were below them. Meredith thought the same, she forged his worldview when he joined Militech to be that way. They all had lives, but who really cared about anyone in Night City?

V finished his cigarette. "They wouldn't, because in this place, the only person that matters are you. The mighty I."

"Exactly."

Before V could even respond, he felt himself get a ping from Rogue: a confirmation that they were in Arasaka airspace. The trio of heavies gathered climbing inside the Outlaw as they slithered through the complex before they came out onto the open road. V opened the armrest, revealing a compartment where a nitrous tank sat. Opening the valve, Shaitan readied the detonator for the explosives in the back before they got out. Citizens who around quickly ran away, fleeing at speed as a borg and a former Voodoo Boy marched towards the tower. The car they got out of speeding off, ripping up the steps and careening through the front door of the tower.

Chaos erupted, a boom ripping apart steel and concrete, glass shattering into pieces as shockwaves rippled throughout the corpo plaza. Screams piercing the public square as bystanders ran away, drivers getting out of their cars and sprinting away from the action. A figure got up from the floor, the one man armed to the teeth who must have been driving the car. Joined by his compatriots. A grizzled soldier, all of them armed, locked and loaded as they strode forward towards the burning entrance of the tower.

Bits and piece of the decorative structure fell away, collapsing as the trio of gunmen strolled through the open entrance. A once peaceful, serene and perfect lobby was torn open, bleeding and bloody. The security that remained, of those that weren't obliterated by the blast, could barely fight back. Not that it mattered. They tried to aim at the assailants, only to be fired upon themselves. Bullets tore through them, quickly and effectively wiping out whatever was left of the ground floor security.

The trio moved up to the elevator, the one that was the least damaged. "Rogue, this is V. You read?"

"…"

"Rogue, confirm?"

Johnny appeared at their side as they gathered into the elevator. "Satellite must be out."

Squama patted V on the shoulder, tightening the ballistic vest strap before V did the same to Shaitan. Magazines and chambers were checked, refilled and swapped out. As they moved up through the skyscraper, the elevator soon stopped, a echo seemed to boom and bounce around them. The building seemed to shake, violently so, before the power came back online. The elevator continued to move up, but not before the comm system the Afterlifers were using was scrambled.

"Jesus, fuck!" Shaitan shouted. "Is the comm okay?"

"My ears might be bleeding after that," Squama grunted, pressing his ear. "Rogue, do you read me? Miss Panam, Blackhand?"

V shook his head. "Satellite must be out of commission. Doubt it could have been hacked if Spider's on the net."

The comm screamed again before V's HUD popped up with a screen. One glowing red eye, the other side of his fleshy faceplate coated in scratches, scars and cracked flesh. "Maybe you should ask the old cunt that question, but you'd never get an answer. Virgil, you disgusting sack of fucking meat, I'm coming for you."