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Chapter Forty Two
August 22nd, 2077
Night City, Northern California
Aldecaldo Territory, Badlands
"Distance to intercept, one kilometer and closing."
Cyrus flexed his hand, resting the crook of his fingertip on his Grad's trigger. His magnifying scope trailed the Militech convoy as they zoomed with all haste out of the confines of Night City.
The convoy's speed wasn't entirely surprising, considering their valuable cargo. Only fools would relax during a venture out into the Badlands, and the Militech soldiers guarding the Basilisk weren't foolish enough to test their luck facing down Nomads or Raffen in their own backyard.
Speaking of Nomads.
"Understood," Panam spearheaded the Aldecaldo assault alongside V. "Any changes to the security detail?"
The Spartan glossed over the numerous armored vehicles sandwiching their target vehicles at the center of the convoy. Four Behemoth APCs backed up by several Militech Commandos carrying a contingent of Corpo Mercenaries guarded their prize.
"Negative. All pieces are in place." He glanced towards the mission timer running down to zero on his wristwatch. "You've got two mikes before they cross the railroad tracks."
"Check. We'll be ready for them, out." Panam terminated the link allowing Cyrus to silently view the oncoming convoy from his perch in comfortable solitude.
Well….that wasn't exactly correct.
"BARK!" The Spartan glanced to his left, finding a pair of expressive amber eyes attached to a furry grey coat.
"Keep it down, Luna." His canine companion was anxious, a stark contrast to her reserved behavior of yesterday.
Luna's wounds healed faster than Cyrus thought possible, but she still sported the jagged stitches along her muzzle. He was keen on keeping her at camp for at least a few more hours, but the Wolf proved to be as stubborn as he was.
The augmented canine sniffed the air around her with an inquisitive purpose, her nostrils expanding with each tiny intake of fresh air.
"Smell something, girl?" Luna shook her head and took a seated position to her right; frustration danced between her eyes. "Don't worry, there is someone out there, but they're just being polite until we're finished with our business."
The canine gave him a curious glance, snorting in irritation at his casual dismissal but kept a watchful eye on their surroundings. Cyrus picked up on their interloper hiding in the shrubbery to their west about a half-hour ago.
He would have engaged them outright if their intentions became less than cordial. The shimmering form and the subtle feedback from the howling wind gave Cyrus enough of a glimpse to deduce that a Siren was vying for a meeting.
Luna only managed to pick up their scent with the ever-changing winds, but her augmented eyes were confused by the camo module utilized by their Siren guest. The canine noticed the shimmering form but lacked the knowledge to understand what it entailed and deduced it as her mind playing tricks on her.
He made a note to train Luna on picking out these subtle forms of concealment at a later date, but until then…he had a job to do.
Cyrus racked a HE round into his GRAD's chamber, pulling the bolt forward and slamming it firmly in place. He carefully scrutinized the convoy as it passed one of Panam's designated checkpoints and immediately raised her on the commlink.
"Panam, our package has passed checkpoint lima. You have twenty seconds and counting."
"Copy, rolling in now." A plume of colorless smoke to the convoys south heralded their coming doom, and even from this distance, Cyrus could see Panam's Thorton leading the charge.
Cyrus shouldered his GRAD, bracing the oversized stock into his shoulder and sighting the lead Behemoth. The Militech operatives took notice of the approaching contacts to the south and maneuvered both of their lead APCs to the direct front of the convoy.
What they could not anticipate was the eighteen-ton freight train masked by the clouds of smoke steamrolling through their heaviest vehicles.
The Militech security detail had their formation disrupted by a makeshift battering ram that turned two of their APCs into broken wrecks of metal. From there, the Nomads rushed to establish an impenetrable ring of steel around the disoriented convoy and started picking off the security detail one by one.
Panam kicked off the firefight by t-boning a helpless Militech Commando, flipping the infantry vehicle on its side and smashing its chassis into the Commando opposite of it.
The Aldecaldo Rangers outfitted their vehicles with a static MK.31 HMG, configured in the same schematic as Panam's Thorton.
Dozens of .50 BMGs fired waves upon waves of blistering armor-piercing rounds, proving to be an effective counter to the Militech Behemoth's autocannon. The heated projectiles tore through the APCs chassis and rendered its 20mm autocannon obsolete, giving the Aldecaldos a tactical advantage over the Corpo Mercenaries.
The shock and awe approach derailed the Militech Officers attempting to reinstitute some form of discipline in their ranks after the runaway train cut their convoy in two.
While the Aldecaldos traded shots with their Militech counterparts, V demonstrated her own combat capabilities by slashing her way through the Corpo Grunts thinning ranks. Her tenacity and dexterity left her opponents with hanging jaws and mutilated torsos confirming that her reputation as one of the most lethal Mercenaries in Night City was not hearsay.
Cyrus carefully scrutinized the gun battle below from his overwatch position North of the ambush point. He would much rather be in the tick of the fighting, but Panam preferred to use his razor-sharp accuracy to bring down any outlying threats.
His augmented hearing picked up the distinct reverberation of aerodyne turbines approaching from the west. The Spartan panned his GRAD away from the bloody firefight to a pair of encroaching Militech Combat Aerodynes.
The attack craft were the megacorps A-65 ground support variant, equipped with a nasty pair of twin 20mm autocannons and state-of-the-art heat-seeking missiles.
Cyrus wasted no time in sighting his scope directly onto the cockpit of the approaching AVs. The pair of hovercraft were breaking off their formation when he pulled on his GRAD's trigger, propelling a high explosive .50 BMG directly towards the lead aerodyne.
The explosive round burst against the AV's outer shell, hurling shards of glass and shrapnel into the pilot's face and causing him to lose control. The copilot struggled to wrestle control of the spinning aerodyne, but before he could balance out the aerodyne, a second HE shell stuck the AV's lower plate, shattering its control panels and sending it into a dive.
As soon as the second round impacted the lead aerodyne, Cyrus's hands immediately bolted a third high explosive shell into the GRAD's chamber. He pulled his sights directly on the left turbine of the second A-65, its crew startled by the sudden loss of their sister craft.
The Militech pilot attempted to jink his AV to the right after belatedly realizing that it wasn't a surface-to-air missile that took down the other aerodyne. He jerked his flight stick to the right attempting to use his speed to avoid an oncoming HE shell, but his trajectory ended up contributing to his downfall.
Cyrus predicted the evasive maneuver and fired an HE shell in sync with the Militech Pilots jinking. The .50 BMG bullet was practically devoured by the aerodyne's operating turbine, and the explosive contents triggered a volatile chain reaction throughout the AV's frame.
He admired his handiwork from a distance and watched the pair of combat aerodynes fall to their doom. Luna had been a quiet observer throughout, and Cyrus had to wonder if she knew that their enemy was Militech.
The glow in her amber eyes suggested the canine had an inkling of suspicion.
"Panam, the QRF is down. You have five minutes to secure the Basilisk before Militech sends more than two combat aerodynes." Cyrus gunned down a Mercenary Sergeant attempting to rally his underlings with a BMG shell to the cranium.
The Spartan spent the last of his explosive rounds taking down several Militech Heavy Gunners pinning a team of Aldecaldo Rangers behind their vehicles. The convoy's security detail was rapidly whittled down from a full strengthed platoon to a few scattered squads led by a Militech NCO.
"We'll have it done in two." A fragmentation shell echoed in Panam's background. "Can you see V from your vantage point? I've lost track of her!"
"Standby." He scanned the disjointed convoy for the Merc and managed to spot her vibrant hair amid several terrified Militech soldiers. "V's fifty meters to your ten o'clock, and she's making friends with a few grunts."
"Is she winning?" Cyrus watched V lung at a camo patterned uniform, slicing her Mantis Blades directly into their abdomen and spilling their entrails onto the damaged concrete road.
"I would say so." A rifleman tried to expose V's blind side while she was engaged with a Berserker. He quickly exchanged his spent magazine for a standard 12.7mm ball cartridge and barely managed to squeeze off a round before the Mercenary could fire his rifle.
This bullet missed V's head by a few inches, causing her blood-red hair to flare around the shell. The round then crashed into the grunt's visor, brain tissue and bone fragments sprayed everywhere as the headless corpse stumbled to the ground.
Cyrus managed to catch V's raised eyebrow in his scope for the barest moment, and a silent message was conveyed between Spartan and Merc.
I had it handled.
He couldn't help but snort in amusement at his companion's ignorance, but he'd grown used to her eccentric nature with time.
The Merc dipped beneath a stream of 5.56, spinning on her heel and lashing at a grunts midsection with her Mantis Blade. The soldier's eyes momentarily widened before V buried her blades into his abdomen.
Even as blood and metal penetrated his lungs, his fluids poured onto the earth, draining his life even faster. V snatched her dying opponent by his neck before pivoting her balance and tossing him directly into an overturned commando.
The Militech Rifleman died within mere moments of his dance with the Merc, and his comrades faired little better.
V finished slicing up the Berserker and two more soldiers before the firefight below finally came to a resounding conclusion. A Militech NCO organized a retreat from the ambush point and extracted two fire teams worth of Mercs into the rearmost vehicles.
Several Aldecaldo Rangers made to follow, but Mitch was able to curtail their ambitions.
"Cut 'em loose!" The Aldecaldo Veteran's command bellowed over the comm channel. "Bob, Cassidy, hop into the transports and follow us in. The rest of you grab our wounded, and let's get the fuck out of here!"
The sound of shifting gravel behind Cyrus garnered his full attention, and Luna met his discreet glance over with narrowed eyes.
Their guest was getting impatient.
"Cyrus." Panam's voice called out to him. "I'm on my way to you for pickup."
"Negative." The Spartan drew himself into a crouched position, planting his GRADs stock into the dirt below. "I already have a ride. I'll meet you and V at the main encampment in an hour. I have some business to attend to."
"Are you sure?" V echoed the Nomad's concern's but Cyrus remained steadfast in his decision.
"I am…." Cyrus watched the War Hound turn on her heels and growl towards their interloper. "….I need to go. See you at camp."
"But-." He disconnected the commlink and cast a suspicious glance at their unwelcome guest.
V would be furious with him when he finally caught up with them at the camp, but the Spartan counted on Saul doing something incredibly stupid to make up for his casual dismissal.
"Do you have my package, Siren?"
The only reason Eliza's people would even dare to approach Cyrus in the first place was to complete the deal struck between their Matriarch and him.
Cyrus was
Out of the corner of Cyrus's eyesight, additional shimmers emerged from a ditch to his east. His interloper wasn't as alone as he initially believed, and Luna's barking grew into a vicious snarl as she assumed a pouncing stance.
Several Howling Banshees dropped their optical camo, and he could see the tension building in their postures
"I do not." Cyrus had half a mind to let Luna tear into the Siren for wasting his time, but Eliza would snap his neck if such a thing came to pass.
"Then why are you here?"
"To meet my uncle."The banshee removed her hard-suits hood and let loose strings of golden blonde hair from their confinement. Cyrus glanced over the woman's stature and found her to be similar to his Spartan sisters after their augmentation procedure.
The Siren was a carbon copy of her mother, with a few minor differences in height and muscle composition. She also had the misfortune of being identical to the sociopath that Cyrus wished he had slaughtered in the catacombs, but Eliza persuaded that stay of execution.
"Acadia, I presume?" The Secundus nodded sharply, earning a derisive snort from her Uncle. "I doubt your mother would allow this meeting under the current circumstances."
"What she doesn't know won't hurt her." As Acadia approached him, Cyrus clutched his holstered Unity with a tight grip. The Banshees shouldered their firearms in response, but she gave her subordinates a withering glance.
"Hold!" Acadia placed herself in between their lines of fire, opting to smother any exchange of gunfire between Spartan and Sirens.
The Secundus knew that a lethal confrontation with Cyrus would be a one-sided massacre on these darkened plains. She didn't want the first meeting with the only person in the world that knew her mother inside and out to be less than cordial.
"I'm only here to talk, Uncle." His eyes narrowed dangerously, scrutinizing her intentions with a clinical gaze. Acadia stood awkwardly underneath the looming moonlight from above.
"I'm not here to talk to you, though," Cyrus remarked. "Your mother specifically asked me to stay away from you and your sisters, and the only exception to that demand was an exchange for her armor through a representative. Now, where is it?"
Words failed Acadia for the first time in her life, but that wasn't surprising considering her target audience. Cyrus possessed a personality made of pure iron, with no chinks in his mental armor for her to exploit.
Just like her mother.
"It will be ready soon," Acadia admitted without a hint of deception. "My technicians are still familiarizing themselves with the inner mechanisms and ensuring that my sister didn't damage its internal locks during her short-term usage."
"If you wanted anonymity," Cyrus gestured towards her increasingly tense bodyguards. "You shouldn't have brought them along."
"They are loyal to me." The Spartan could not help but snort in derision at Acadia's remark.
"Loyalty can make people commit seemingly treasonous actions in the name of protecting those they cherish. How many of them disagreed with your decision to come here?"
Cyrus would not be surprised if one of her so-called bodyguards told Eliza about this impromptu encounter, and judging by Acadia's expression, neither would she.
"The look on your face only proves my point." Cyrus allowed the grip on his Unity to loosen, and he abated Luna's tension by running his free hand through her thick fur. The canine didn't trust their guests in the least, but she believed that her master knew who was friend and who was foe.
"They are here for my protection," Acadia announced with a pointed glance towards her bodyguards. "Not to provide me counsel on meeting my family."
Cyrus vehemently disagreed with that statement.
"We aren't family, Acadia." The Spartan retorted while collapsing his GRADs stock. Cyrus needed to start packing up his gear, and these Sirens weren't leaving anytime soon. "I don't know you, nor do I trust you or any of you, Sirens. The only one I trust is your mother, and that is because of the history we share and the duty we upheld."
"Once upheld." Cyrus paused upon hearing the vitriol in Acadia's voice when speaking of Eliza. "My mother is now ruled by the fear of losing what she has earned after the catastrophe that was my sister's rebellion. Our Matriarch has put our people and our values on hold to protect us from the perils we previously confronted in the light of day without fear or hesitation…."
Acadia's condemning words ignited feelings of apprehension in a few of her bodyguards. Cyrus could practically feel the internal struggle from these select few as they fought against defending their former Matriarchs armor.
Despite Eliza's failings during the civil war, there were still Sirens who disagreed with her decision to step down from command. That was an issue that earned Cyrus's curiosity, and despite his open dismissal for the fractured Order to Acadia, their instability required observation.
But the Sirens volatile nature did not garner his immediate attention just yet.
"I don't have time for a history lesson, Acadia." Cyrus turned his gaze away from the Siren and began removing his GRAD's barrel. "What do you want?"
The Siren shifted in place, glancing towards her apprehensive guards with a pensive glance. She struggled to find the proper words to convey her intentions, and never in her wildest dreams did Acadia imagine meeting one of the few people in existence that left a resounding impact on her mother's life.
The Secundus wanted so desperately to emulate the women Eliza once was, but she lacked the means by which to uphold the mantle of responsibility to the Sirens.
Acadia lacked the means of becoming a Spartan.
And only a Spartan could properly lead the Sirens to their former glory.
"…I want to earn my mother's position through merit, not birthright…."
Cyrus's motions slowly ground to a halt with Acadia's following words.
"…I want to become a Spartan."
The word heretic was a favorite insult amongst the Covenant during the few instances where Cyrus managed to pick up a conversation between their followers. The religious zealots often found several of their number advocating differing opinions to their dogma, either through actions or words.
Now he knew how the Covenant felt when someone trespassed upon the sacred ground that did not belong to them.
Acadia was unprepared for the venom in Cyrus's words as he surged toward her.
"You wouldn't know the first thing about being one of us, Siren…." As Cyrus stormed towards Acadia, he shrugged off her bodyguard's moving to intercede on her behalf. Luna placed herself between Cyrus and the encroaching Banshees, bearing her sharpened teeth to draw attention away from her master.
"…Spartans are not made or chosen." Acadia visibly flinched at his words, but she refused to back down from his crimson gaze. "We are cultivated from the desperate hands of those who sought to delay humanity's extinction by any means necessary…."
To become a Spartan wasn't a simple task by any means, and there was more to them than enhancements and power armor.
"Death is our calling, and a Spartan embraces the burdens of the human race and strives to ensure its safety in the face of every adversary. Human and alien…." Cyrus turned his back on Acadia when she became visibly cowed by his temperament.
"…Your mother may have raised you to be one of us, and you may have inherited her augmentations from the womb, but you have none of what made her a Spartan in the first place." Cyrus's words struck a chord with Acadia, and she lashed out at him.
"That….Spartan, you speak of hides in an Estate with my youngest sibling while the people we once sought to protect are left clutching at the chains of their masters once again!"
Acadia venerated Eliza for decades, and when she left the order, the Matriarch long glorified as a deity revealed herself to be a normal human subject to doubt and fear. Her resignation spelled the end of the Sirens as Acadia knew it, and she was left to pick up the scraps of her birthright.
It was Acadia's turn to round on Cyrus with equal amounts of vitriol. "We were so close to uprooting every decadent corporation in Night City barely a decade ago, and if not for Isabel's treachery and my mother's weakness, you would have landed in a far different city."
Cyrus had to fight the urge to take Acadia's head off for the intolerant way she spoke of Eliza, but his partner didn't need anyone to defend her honor. She was more than capable of sticking up for herself, and given the irate postures from Acadia's bodyguards, Eliza was going to have words for her daughter at a later date.
"But I didn't." The Spartan retorted. "In your hubris, you failed to understand that a people defeated by their enemies can rise again. But one that crumbles from within. That's dead. Forever."
Acadia's expression fell at his declaration, and she was compelled to retaliate for the sake of her people's honor, but Cyrus was right. The Sirens were practically destroyed in the catacombs years ago, and what little influence they had now was used to protect their interests and nothing else.
"What stands before me now is a pale imitation of what they once stood for, and you have not proven to me you are capable of earning the distinction of becoming a Spartan." Acadia was left speechless at his words and offered no resistance as Cyrus turned away and began packing up the rest of his equipment.
Cyrus took no pleasure in dressing down the Siren in front of her people, but he did not care for her desire to become a Spartan.
"What do I have to do?" It came as a low whisper, but Cyrus picked it up nonetheless.
Acadia had the temperament as far as he could see, but he did not know how far she was willing to go.
It's easy to speak the words of upholding a duty, but it is far more difficult to maintain it. Eliza spent most of her life fighting for humanity, and it took four decades for her to no longer want to bear the burden.
For all Cyrus knew, Acadia would only last a fraction of the length Eliza did, and he didn't have the time to train a stand-in.
And yet, there was a fire in Acadia's eyes that mimicked Eliza's the first time Cyrus met her on the training grounds of Camp Currahee. If she were serious about becoming a Spartan, then she'd have to prove it to him.
"The question you should be asking yourself, Acadia. Is how much are you willing to give up?"
The Siren didn't respond to the Spartan at first and whatever words she'd managed to find were immediately drowned out by the approaching turbines of his Phantom. Luna snarled at Acadia as she strode past the contemplating woman, hopping into the aerodynes cargo hold alongside her master.
Cyrus gave Acadia a passive glance analyzing her pensive expression with a critical eye. She struggled to answer the question passed onto her, but the answer was simple.
She needed to be willing to give up everything for more than just the Sirens and the downtrodden who occasionally earned her attention. Death was a Spartan's calling, and one must be prepared to sacrifice their life upon the altar of humanity without hesitation.
After a few moments of deliberation, Cyrus gave Acadia the answer she was looking for.
"There is a warehouse in Northside." The Siren's head shot up at his voice. "If you truly know the answer to my question, I will see you there in a week. If you don't, I expect this will be the last conversation we will ever have barring my presence in Solaris during your sister's execution."
If there was one addendum that Eliza was willing to concede to Cyrus, it was his demand to be in the same room as Isabel when her execution came.
Eliza may not have wanted to see her daughter die, but her appalling crimes made no other option viable. Isabel was too dangerous to be kept in a cell, and exile wasn't even an option on the table.
Only death was her salvation, and the Siren order craved the betrayer's blood.
The traitor's execution was slated to commence in two days, and Cyrus would arrive looking his best.
Equipped with MJOLNIR and a bullet with Isabel's name on it should the Sirens fail to complete the task at hand.
"What about my mother." It wasn't lost on Acadia that the relationship between Cyrus and Eliza may be fractured even more by his open declaration to her, but he was ill concerned with the Matriarchs ire.
"I have dealt with your mother for years before she became what she is now." The Spartan retorted while grasping the Phantoms cargo door. "I have long since learned how to deal with her fury and if she takes issue with my directive. Then she knows where to find me."
The Phantom lifted into the sky, leaving Acadia with no parting words as her Uncle took to the skies towards the Aldecaldo camp. As the Sirens climbed into their hidden hoverbikes, the Secundus reflected on her good fortune.
Her meeting with Cyrus ended better than she expected, and she wasn't exactly confident that he'd willingly take her on as an apprentice, but she'd take a minor victory while it was still there.
Short chapter but it felt the next section didn't feel necessary to addon to this chapter. Panam has her Basilisk and Cyrus has a potential cadet for Spartan training but things are still progressing on that front. I may need to take a week's break from writing to get the creative juices flowing but for now, we are full steam ahead.
As always I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and remember to review to your heart's content every little bit helps my motivation.
Reviews:
Luxo11: Things will start looking up soon, Cyrus is going to take a few hit along the way but he'll come through nonetheless.
Spartan-A312: Happy Birthday and stay safe out there.
edboy4926: Close but no dice, Luna was my go-to and hopefully people are not miffed that our War Hound is called Luna.
dekuton: Yes Yes I did have Eliza get with Morgan Blackhand, in my opinion, he is one of the few who could match a Spartan stubbornness.
RickDeckard: Good suggestions when I add music to the chapter I may add those.
Next Chapter: October 4th
The next chapter is available on my Pa t re on for those who would like to see it. The Link is below.
www .(p)at (r) e o n. co (m) /Cypher1597 (remove the spaces and () to access)