Prologue: No good endings in Night City

12 November 2074.

Two hours of queue just to reach the checkpoint and bearing with the not-so-veiled insults of the Militech dogs guarding their masters' backyard. As Ernesto drove through Night City, the setting sun coloring the sky of red, he was instantly reminded of why he hated this place.

The suburbs were nothing but open sewers. Cyborgs dressed in dirty rags, limping around the walkways, completely abandoned by the world, each and every one of them either tired of fighting for their lives or searching for scraps in the rubbish. The houses were old and rotten, and most of them were empty, cause nobody there could afford to pay even for those hovels.

How could it be that people were left in this state? He had grown 12 years in the Legion and saw how the rest of the world was thriving. Out there, the Imperial Federation worked to improve the life of everybody, especially those at rock bottom, helping them to rebuild their lives. Instead, here millions of people had been cajoled into this prison of light, deprived of everything and left broken in spirit and body. Even if humanity as a whole was delving in the world of cybernetics, all the implants acquired in Night City were illegal, meaning that leaving the Autonomous Corporate Territory was so hard that many didn't even think about it. This and the growing tensions between the ACT and the Federation left the people at complete mercy of a the 1% of the city population that had right over their lives.

He wouldn't have come back were it not for the fact that everyone he cared about lived here. He parked his car in front of the apartments in Santo Domingo, passed beyond the group of homeless beggars at the entrance and rang the bell with his family name on it.

"Yes?" said the voice of a woman.

"Mum, it's me." he said with a happy tone that he couldn't suppress.

"Mijo!" she exclaimed.

Immediately the door slid open for him. He took the elevator and reached the floor of his family's apartment. Standing at the door was his mother Gloria. She was wearing her ER uniform, probably preparing for her shift, but she broke down in tears of joy when she saw him. Ernesto dropped his bag and smiled as he reached the entrance to hug her after three years away from home.

"I'm home, mamacita." he said softly to reassure her weeping parent.

Gloria sniffed and brought the face away from his shoulder to take a look at her son.

"Yes, you are." she said smiling, her eyes still watery. She brought her hands to his face, mostly clean with only a goatee on the chin and the buzz cut.

"Come on in." she invited with an almost commanding tone and he complied, taking his bag to the sofa while Gloria decided she could spare some coffee for her first son.

"Where is David?" he asked.

"Ah, probably in his room, sinking into a BD." she replied, handing the mug. "Wait a min."

Ernesto sipped quickly from the mug. It didn't take long before he heard Gloria calling David loudly and to get to the living room immediately. David protested, asking what the hell was going on and Ernesto already smiled just hearing that voice.

Then there he was. His younger brother, 15-years-old against his 21, with his brown crest. He entered the room annoyed at being forced to stand up from his bed, then his eyes widened when he saw who was in there.

Ernesto stood up from the chair. "Hey, David." he greeted happily.

The kid's face now sparkled with happiness. His breathing shook a bit, then he exploded. "Nesto!" he yelled, running to hug him. The youngling slammed against the muscular body of his older brother, who caught him and lifted him up, almost choking him in the embrace that followed.

"You back? How long this time?" David asked.

Ernesto chuckled. "Forever. I ended my service."

"For real?!"

"For real."

Gloria saw the clock and remembered that she had to go. "Oh, damn. I gotta go, guys. You have plans for tomorrow, Ernesto?"

"Oh, I'm meeting Luna for lunch, but I got the morning free."

"Good. We'll talk then. Feel free to stay tonight." she said as she quickly caught her yellow coat and paced out of the house.

"You up for a walk outside?" Ernesto asked.

"Sure." David replied enthusiastically.

So they spent the evening walking around. The district they lived in was probably one of the less worse to live in, but Ernesto couldn't ignore the signs of abyssal inequality. He tried to suppress those feelings so David could enjoy their reunion. It was incredible how energetic and almost naive he was, and the former Legionnaire needed just that to feel right at home. He bought him a meal at his favorite fast-food and they were back home before the streets became too dangerous as the evening turned to late night.

Still, it turned out that David was far from naive. At one point, noticing his brother's pensive mood, he asked. "You ok, bro? You seem...distant."

Ernesto was standing in front of the rectangular window of the living room, holding a beer and staring at the lights outside, but he had heard the question clearly.

"David. Have you ever thought of leaving this place?" he asked.

The kid was taken by surprise. "I...I don't think. I mean, mum would have to decide that."

"But do you like your life here?" Ernesto changed.

"It's...ok, I guess. Sure, mom works almost the entire day, but it could be worse. Why are you asking that?"

"Because I hate this place. I want to go away. I'll ask Luna to come with me, but I can arrange for you and mom to get out as well." he turned around to speak directly into his brother's eyes after chugging the last drops of beer. "There is completely different world out there. Night City is just a hell, and I hope that soon enough the Emperor will finally take out the bastards who live in those fucking ivory tower at the center. You and mom deserve way better than this."

David was a bit intimidated by the sudden shift in mood, he didn't know what to say back. After snapping out of his outburst, Ernesto sighed. "Sorry. That was quite the buzzkill for our reunion."

"I get it, you know." David said, surprising his brother. "But I always lived here. Mama too. Would we be ok outside of Night City? Whenever you tell us about the rest of the world...I can't even start to believe half of the things you say."

Right. Unspoken rules. Ernesto was being sorely reminded of them.

"Sure, maybe I tend to sugarcoat it a bit. It's not like it's a paradise out there, but it's definitely better. Besides, you two got no illegal hardware inside your body. It would be easy to get you a visa."

"Look, can we...talk about something else? I'm not really comfortable now." David said, turning away his gaze.

Ernesto realized that he was right. He should discuss that with their mother, not pushing problems that a 15-year-old should be burdened with.

"Right. Sorry, man." he said tenderly. "You up for a match?" added with a nod toward the console.

"Bring it." David said excitedly, his attitude turned upside down. "I got a lot of practice while you were gone."

"Beware, kid, I have a military training." Ernesto joked.


13 November 2074

They played for two hours before David fell asleep. After carrying him to his room, Ernesto entered his own and went to sleep. His improved biology meant that he only needed six hours to be completely rested. He woke up, took a couple minutes to make his morning push-ups and sit-ups, a mechanism left in his mind from a life in the Legion. Then he returned into the living room, where he found Gloria's coat hanging on the sofa, a sign that she had returned. As he approached the kitchen he opened the mailbox on his neural implant. To his surprise, there was a notice from his bank that he had received the bonus credits for his service in the Legion. They would amount to circa 200.000 imperial Crowns.

Seeing that the fridge was almost empty, Ernesto wasted no time in going out, converted the money and go for groceries in time to come back home and find the other two awake, so he could offer them some serious breakfast. Gloria then had to drive David to middle school, leaving Ernesto alone for a while. But it was in that empty time that he received an anonymous call.

Suspicious, the former Legionnaire picked it up anyway.

"Hello?" he said, with the feed of the implant transcribing the conversation.

"Greetings, Mister Martinez." a voice with a strong French accent said. "I am Director Pétran."

Ernesto was taken aback. "The Head of MI6?"

"Bien, looks like there is no need for introductions."

"Director, I left the Legion." Ernesto said defensively. "You should be aware of that."

"Of course, Lieutenant. I apologize for calling you this early in the morning, I only wish to extend an offer from His Majesty's Government."

He sighed. He hadn't left the Legion to become a spy or anything, but if he wanted to bring his family out of Night City, having the Head of the Imperial secret service on his side could only be beneficial.

"Ok, I'll hear it."

"Thank you. During your service you openly expressed your disappointment for the current status of Night City. I was wondering if you would be interested to cooperate with our agency to change such status."

Ernesto knew very well how relations between the ACT and the Federation were deteriorating. As the latter grew stronger, the former felt their influence threatened by the central power. And the Emperor himself had more than once expressed his desire to 'bring Night City into the new age.'

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, sir, but I have plans to leave this city as soon as possible with my family. Had it been a courier job or similar I would have accepted, but…" he suspended the phrasing.

"I see. Well, it's completely understandable. But, for whatever reason, should you change your mind, you can always contact me through this."

Immediately after the feed showed a phone number. With a thought, Ernest saved it into the contacts.

"I appreciate the offer, Director. Have a good day."

"You too, Mister Martinez."

The feed disappeared and Ernesto could finally spend some time relaxing on his own until his mother returned some twenty minutes later. He decided this was the right time to bring up what he discussed the evening before with David.

"Mijo, I appreciate that you care that much about us, but I don't think it would benefit us."

"Oh, because breaking your back for a misery salary is fulfilling?" he asked frustrated.

"I do that to ensure that David may one day study at the Arasaka Academy." Gloria said sternly.

Ernesto's heart jumped inside his chest. "Are you fucking kidding me?!"

"Language!" she reprimanded immediately.

Ernesto grunted and reformulated his words. "Mom, you really want to send David into that place? You're condemning him to a life of solitude. There are a lot of great schools around the Federation where he won't be snobbed."

"David has a lot of potential. If he goes to the Academy he will be able to make the best out of them. Can you imagine?" she said with a dreaming face. "My little son at the top of Arasaka Tower. I can just see him."

The Legionnaire realized he could not convince her, for now.

"All right. I don't agree, but let's drop it for now. Just know that, today, I will ask Luna to move out of the city with me."

Gloria snapped out of her daydreaming and turned toward her son with a confused face. "Wait, you want to leave?"

"It's not like I won't come visit you. But I want to build a family in a civilized place. No offense."

Gloria wanted to say something, but eventually she resigned herself. "None taken. I understand, and you deserve happiness,Ernesto."

A couple hours later, Ernesto was once again out, driving through the city to reach the destination he awaited the most. He had put up the best clothes he still had and stopped along the way to buy a bottle of wine. He reached Northside District and another set of apartments, ringing on the bell of his beloved.

Two minutes later, he saw her. Luna Montego, worker in one of the countless factories of the District, with her tan skin and black hair. To Ernesto the most precious being in the universe.

"Welcome back." she said, embracing him.

"I missed you." he whispered before they shared a kiss.

He was invited in and they chatted for long while preparing lunch.

"What are you going to do now, though?" she asked at a point. "You loved being a soldier. Can you even figure?"

"Honestly? I'd like to work in colonial development, one day."

"No way!"

"Way. I want something better for us, something new." he said in a serious tone.

"Nesto...you know I want to leave this place, but another planet? I'm not sure I am ready." she said with a bit of hesitation.

"Woah, hold on. I didn't mean that we leave tomorrow. With my experience, I can go train the colonial militias, but I'm not leaving Earth until mom and David are trapped in this shithole."

Luna sighed in relief. "Thank God, that caught me by surprise. Speaking of which, how are they?"

"Quite well, all things considered. My discharge bonus should secure their rent for a while. Maybe I can convince my mother to not send David to the Arasaka Academy."

"The fuck?! Does she want him to become a snarky corpo?" Luna yelled.

"I know." he groaned. "Maybe I should…"

His ears caught gunshots nearby. He turned his head toward the window. The firefight started to become intense, and an explosion followed that made the apartment wobble.

"What's going on?" Luna asked worried.

Ernesto dashed to go take a look outside. He spotted a group of cyborgs on the street, firing with assault rifles to a group of men in uniform. Uniforms he identified as Arasaka.

"What are they doing here?" he asked with a whisper.

Those kind of troopers would not engage themselves in an open fight, unless those punks down there really pissed off the company somehow.

Then he heard the rumble of jet engines coming up and he looked in that direction. A sight that froze his blood.

A giant cyborg, clad in black, heavy armor and weapons. A white mask covering his face giving him the semblance of a skeleton without the jaw, and glowing red lights to cover the eyes.

"Adam...Smasher?" he muttered trembling.

"Nesto, what's happening?" Luna asked, approaching the window.

The cyberpunks tried to spread out, only to be easily mowed down by the machine gun coming out of Smasher's left arm. At that point, the cyborg took out his shoulder-mounted missile launcher. He fired the first rocket, blowing up the car of the surviving punks, then the launcher turned around...toward Ernesto's.

A moment later, a punk jumped over to the small terrace. He was trying to quickly reach the roof to escape.

"Get down!" Ernesto yelled, throwing himself at a shocked Luna.

The room was engulfed by fire and a violent shockwave sent him flying. The deafening rumble stunned him even more as he flew to the other side of the room and crashed with his back into the wall, then dropped on his belly to the floor.

His senses were dazed, but Ernesto was still conscious. The ears rang to the point of being painful and his eyes needed a few seconds to set focus again.

He tried to stand up. The back hurt, but nothing seemed broken, yet. The window had been completely blown away and there was rubble everywhere.

His mind raced to look for only one thing.

"Luna?!" he said.

He turned his face in front of him. To see his girl sitting with her back against the wall and a huge piece of the wall on her stomach. Her eyes were staring in front of her, mouth opened, bleeding like the rest of her holes.


Outside of the nearest clinic, Ernesto waited for a report from the doctor. It was late afternoon. He was still processing everything that had happened. He barely remembered that he had loaded Luna on his car and rushed there, mostly driven by the adrenaline and his training.

But what was consuming his mind was...why?

Why her? Why were they caught into something they had no business with? How was it possible that the police didn't even look for him even if he had called and denounced?

What was wrong with fucking city?

The door opened, and the doctor came out with a pad in his hands.

"Mister Martinez." he said in a sterile tone. Ernesto looked up with hope. "I'm sorry to report that the girl didn't make it."

He froze in place. He didn't know what emotion was surging in his heart, but he had the strength to ask. "What happened?"

"Her organs were completely mashed. We tried to revitalize her, but there was simply nothing to do." the doctor tapped the pad. "If you are interested, we offer burial services." and then just walked away after handing the pad.

The advertisement went on, but he wasn't listening.

Now he saw what was happening.

Rage. Pure hatred. This was wrong. This was all wrong!

And for fuck's sake, he was going to make it right!

He threw away the pad and went back to his car. He drove like mad back home, finding that both Gloria and David were out.

He dialed in and waited for an answer.

"Mister Martinez?" Pétran asked surprised.

Still panting, Ernesto grunted. "Tell me, Director. Does your plan imply taking down the fucking Arasaka?"

"Both Arasaka and Militech are a hindrance to the Emperor's plan for mankind. So we would like to...scale down their size."

"Well, count me in. Where do I start?"

A small silence followed.

"Mister Martinez, you are clearly upset. Are you taking up my offer with the right state of mind?" he asked calmly.

"Never been more serious. Sir."

Pétran hummed, then answered. "Very well. Before we start, though, I need to see that you can be a valuable asset."

"Try me."

"Before the Agency can do anything, we need an access to the isolated Net of Night City. That way we can start infiltrating the databases of the corporations. You have to install a virus that I will send you soon into any hub belonging to them."

"Saka and Tech usually have armed guards around their hubs. I'll need a weapon."

"Patience, Lieutenant. Avoiding a bloodshed will avoid unwanted attention from us, so it's preferable you act unnoticed. Anyway, our contacts will leave a stash of weapons at these coordinates."

"Leave it to me." Ernesto grunted, then he remembered something. "And, Director? Can you erase my name from the registers of the Legion?"

"Don't worry, Monsieur. As soon as you complete the mission, I will classify it myself. Your family will be safe."

"Thanks. Then I have nothing else to ask."


The nano-suit. Still incredible to Ernesto that the Legion would simply allow something that costly for its veterans to keep, but now he couldn't be more grateful. Cause that was the only way he could hope to throw punches to the cyborgs, if the need arose.

Night had fallen. Good thing he hadn't crossed David or Gloria, cause he didn't want them to know what he was about to do.

The stash was where he was told, he inspected it. He was amazed that there was an entire arsenal in there, but he went for his favorite loadout: a silenced SMG, EMP as stun grenades and a short molecular blade on his back.

With the face covered by the suit's mask, Ernesto cautiously approached the server building. The Arasaka logo evidently painted on the front and armed guards patrolling the perimeter.

Just seeing those uniforms made Ernesto's blood boil with rage, but he needed to stay calm. A soldier who let his emotion drive is a dead soldier. Pétran had provided him with a map of the building and he had studied it. He knew what to do, so he had to do it quickly, just like any mission he had done before.

He observed the guards, studied the dark zones. His suit would hide him from the basic night visors that the sentries had. Carefully timing, the Legionnaire manged to slip inside the small building without alerting anyone. Now, however, the lights would make impossible to hide, he could only try to exploit possible irregularities in the walls, but he knew things may get bloody.

His neural implant included a motion sensor that really helped him in the short path to the central computer. Avoiding the last sentry by a small margin, Ernesto finally reached the server. He called up Pétran.

"Ok, I'm in."

"We're receiving the data. Stay close so your implant can transmit the data."

"Understood."

Ernesto stood there, ears and eyes peeled to notice any abnormality. Yet, he felt a comfortable warm spreading in his body.

Luna was right: he loved this kind of life. Fighting for something he believed in, even though vengeance at the moment was the main driving force.

"Done. Get the device and exfiltrate." the voice of the Director came up after twenty seconds circa.

Ernesto moved to get the chip, but then his neck suddenly tingled with urgency. His ears caught a faint sound of someone running. A rush of adrenaline kicked in and his body moved on his own. His super reflexes made everything look in slow motion and he managed to grab the leg of a small figure that was shooting toward him from his right.

He grabbed the ankle and twisted toward the wall of servers on the other side. A female voice grunted and he let her fall.

"You fucking asshole!" she yelled, jumping back on her feet.

Ernesto saw the figure of a girl, no, just a short cyborg woman with gray chrome, green hair and strange pink tattoos on her chassis. Right now, her eyes were completely red for her fury.

She lounged forward, taking out a shotgun that Ernesto barely avoided by bobbing his head away from the barrel when the shot was fired. Next he managed to elbow that thing away from her hand and the woman jumped back to reorganize, but still glaring at him like a tiger.

"Who are you?" Ernesto asked, pointing his gun.

"Right back at ya." another voice with an afro accent came from the entrance.

A colossal cyborg with black skin, blonde brew cut and sunglasses even though the room was pretty dark, was aiming an arm-cannon at him.

"The fuck you think ya doin' punk?"

"You guys here to hurt Arasaka, too?" Ernesto asked with a calm tone, still pointing his gun at the midget.

"What if we are?"

A few moments full of ticking tension followed. Yet, the lack of reaction from those two showed Ernesto that there was a chance in front of him.

He cocked his weapon down. "Then we are not to be enemies."

"Huh?!" the woman said loudly.

"Look, I'm only here to plug a virus inside the fucker's net. But if you guys need some data, my chip is still in. You can have them."

The man hummed a second, though he seemed to realize there was no time to lose.

"Fine. My netrunner will handle it."

"Maine, we got company!" the voice of another woman came up from outside.

"Shit!" the black man exclaimed. "Becca, guard the server. You boy, come with me."

"Why do I get to guard a stupid bunch of wires?!" the woman whose name had to be Rebecca protested vehemently. But Ernesto rushed out.

Beside Maine, Ernesto spotted a woman almost as bulky as the man, guarding the hallway where a heavy sound of running foots was coming.

Soon enough, three guards ran in.

"There they are." one of them yelled, and they pointed their guns.

Instinctively, Ernesto raised his weapon with ridiculous speed and aligned the red-dot with the closest guard's head.

He shot it straight in the eyes, then the second, the third, all of them with a single bullet, then he shot the control panel of the door, making the alarm sound and a metal bulkhead fell down, barring the entrance.

"Nice shots." the big woman said impressed.

"Yeah, but t'was our only way out." Maine exclaimed.

"Not exactly." Ernesto said, gaining the other two's attention. "How long before the download is over?"

"Kiwi?" Maine asked into his neural feed.

Ernesto couldn't hear the answer, but three seconds later, Maine said "Ready." and the Legionnaire rushed back to get his chip back before Rebecca could get her hands on it.

"Follow me, there's another way out." he said them. After all, he wasn't planning on leaving from the main door from the start.

"Hey, where you taking us?"

Ernesto didn't reply, for right behind the next corner there was the answer: an access to the sewers.

"You fucking kidding me?" Rebecca said disgusted.

"They won't consider this option until we are far away from here. Now…" he crouched and tore away the large panel with a twist of his arm that impressed the cyborgs. "Do you trust me to go first?"

The large woman stepped forward. "Right, not a chance."

"Sorry, Dorio. I'll buy you some good shower gel." Maine quipped to her.

"Fucking right you will." she muttered before jumping down.

Ernesto dropped next, then Rebecca and Maine. Luckily, the sewers were not very full, for it was late at night, but the stream of stinking liquids still covered him to his ankles and Rebecca to her knees, but despite her laments, they used the tunnels to reach a recovery depot of old vehicles not far from the server building, which was being encircled by the police right then. Still, the group of thieves could breath a sigh of relief.

"Gotta hand it to ya, kid, you know your shit." Maine said in an admired tone.

"1st Lieutenant Ernesto Martinez. Legionnaire. SpecOps Brigade. That's all you need to understand." the soldier said as he gave another check at his gun before putting it away.

The cyborgs were stunned. "Uh? A Leg?" Rebecca asked.

"Yes." Ernesto simply replied. He took his chip away from his neck-socket and showed it to the others. "By the way, you guys got something to copy this?"

A van suddenly showed up on the road in front of the yard. From the driver's seat, a guy with a slender body and comically long arms waved a punch at them.

"Yo, dipshits, the fuck you make us drive half da neighborhood?"

"Shut up, fucker!" Rebecca yelled back. "You didn't have to crawl in the damn sewers!"

"Hop on, Lieutenant," Maine invited. "We get the data and for you something to drink."

"Good." Ernesto said. And as they quickly mounted in the back of the van, Dorio couldn't refrain from asking.

"But seriously, kid, what are you doing here?"

Ernesto sat down and exhaled with his nose. "I hoped my stay here would be quick. Just passing by before starting my new life...but I forgot this shitty city does not allow good endings."