I had timed it perfectly.
Well… almost perfectly.
My target was trailing through the skies, on an approach to Arasaka tower.
A Lone AV, no distinguished branding or symbols, nothing to suggest it was just any other suit making a trip to Arasaka tower.
Business trip, more than likely, someone not so high up the food chain the vehicle would have any kind of defenses. I wasn't necessarily thinking about that, but I did conclude that the aerial vehicle would most certainly not be heavily reinforced.
I'd catch myself on its side with the blade.
My bones could take the force of the estimated 40 meter drop, I just had to hope my grip was tight enough.
All of this information had crossed my thoughts the moment I had stood on the lip of the break, the wind roaring past me.
Missing would mean a long way down, and a very painful death at the bottom of the plaza.
'Not dying here' had been my last thought before I lept.
I was barely able to discern the cracks of gunfire from behind me, lighting up the room and the space I had occupied. Probably Smasher, based on all the screams and shouts of the working techs.
"He's a fucking monster"
That voice… again, nearly throwing me off and costing me my life… a small corner of my mind reminded me to get a cyberware check up. Arasaka might have planted something in my skull after all.
My lapse of focus was only for a hair of a second.
Survival returned to being the focus of my attention.
The AV was flying just beneath me as I fell past it. It's flight pattern shifted slightly, but only because it had detected my rapidly falling form.
It would do its best to avoid me, but the speed of my descent wouldn't allow for much maneuvering.
It could move, and I'd fall to my death… but this option was my only way out of Arasaka tower alive.
To stay on the floors, with Smasher and other Arasaka security forces… outgunned, outnumbered and un-prepared… also with a missing limb…
Suicide isn't really my style.
The AV shifted once more, emergency thrusters trying to push itself away from me, but at 5 feet away, the best it could manage was a hard turn. It would avoid me in an attempt to protect its passenger, and by extension itself, but I still had the blade.
It would act as my grip.
My sword arm lunged out, stabbing right into the rear end of the air car.
The force of my fall reverberated through my arm, a sharp pain rushing through my remaining limb and into my torso.
Something must be broken.
But my fingers stayed wrapped around the hilt.
The AV didn't seem to appreciate its new passenger. Not at all. It lurched violently through the air, flashing with red lights and warnings.
Luckily… or perhaps unluckily… it would seem I had struck some important systems.
...This might not be the smoothest landing.
Yorinobu Arasaka couldn't believe what he just saw. Through the camera's of the security booth, he and those around him had been privileged enough to see one of the most inhuman feats of desperation ever performed.
An insane idea.
One that anyone else would have died trying.
But V, the witness to the Murder of Saburo Arasaka… he had done it.
The Thief had fallen nearly forty meters through the air, and stuck a blade through the rear port of an AV in his escape attempt.
He had cut off his own limb to avoid dismemberment at the hands of Adam Smasher… he had survived a bullet to the brain, landing on an Arasaka operating table for only an hour before cutting his way through eight security guards and the unfortunate surgeons.
Yorinobu had no clue what to say.
Like most in the room, the ones who had all been privy to the same sights as Arasaka's Freshly minted CEO, they lacked words.
Except for one.
"I want communication with that AV now!" Koji Yoshida was flowing back into work. He had been stunned like the rest, but refused to not do his job.
"I want the manifest, its capabilities and-" the aerial vehicle in question began to sputter and shift, before slowing devolving into a spin.
It was going to crash.
"Projected landing sites as well! Hurry!"
Koji's voice and tone had reignited the room, as tech's and workers shifted back to their tasks, rattling off information and numbers to one another and to Koji.
The head of security however, was now focused on Yorinobu.
"Yorinobu-sama" Koji bowed at the Arasaka CEO, "your orders?"
Yorinobu debated his options, his head still tilted upward to look at the main display in the cavernous security room.
The camera's on Arasaka tower were barely able to make out the figure of the Thief, desperately clinging to the failing AV… but Yorinobu couldn't take his eyes away from him.
'What are you…'
A thought struck him.
"Koji-san…" Yorinobu tilted his head back down to look at his still bowing subordinate.
"I want you to utilise whatever resource you need in order to secure this individual" he pointed toward the live feed of the struggling V, "and send a team to collect the limb from the sixty-second floor… I wanted it sent to a lab an hour ago"
Having dispensed his orders, Yorinobu turned away from the room, striding calmly to the exit. He had business matters to attend to.
Koji barked an affirmation before setting about executing the CEO's orders.
Rogue Amendiares really didn't need any more shit on her plate. It all started with the simple job that she had given to her new favourite attack dog.
She had been given a gig to deal with a Cyberpsycho, simple stuff with some corpo entanglements.
Straight shot, someone needed somebody else zero'd. Bare bones Night City basics.
Except V never called in.
He never came back to the Afterlife.
One of her men, a regular enforcer for Rogue had been sent to snoop around the area given by the client.
He left, and he had never come back.
Rogue had been worried then.
When the client suddenly became unreachable?
The word 'stressed' did a poor job at describing how she felt.
Because V was a good resource, and a damn fine solo. He was a diamond in the rough, one that had been sitting on the shelf for whatever reason, but finally found his way under a contract and work.
He wasn't a suit or a psycho… well as far as Rogue could tell… but he was also loyal and driven.
Their arrangement had been incredibly beneficial. So just as he's beginning to build his name, just as people are starting to notice Rogue has another ace up her sleeve, he gets zeroed?
That was hair pulling, rage inducing frustration.
It was recoverable.
Future arrangements with customers were pulled back, people were told to wait a bit longer. Rogue couldn't guarantee the V-express delivery on her clients Gig's anymore.
A shame.
And sure, her reputation would take a hit, but only a glancing blow or a graze at most.
Recoverable.
She did need to find the client for V's job though…
Two good people dead for what?
Rogue didn't like being left holding a flaming bag of shit…
"Rogue"
She'd checked him out long ago, made sure the job was clean.
"Rogue"
And it was clean. Not a speck on his record or any bad words against him from across town.
"Boss?"
Now V was probably in a ditch somewhere, providing fertilizer for a field or-
A hand waved in front of her face, pulling her out of her musings.
Rogue blinked and looked up.
The ever faithful and loyal Claire stood in front of her Afterlife throne, a round of drinks in one hand, the other idly resting by her side.
She had gotten Rogue's attention but was distracted by something else. In fact, after a quick glance around, Rogue noticed how everyone seemed distracted.
Even her ever present and loyal body guard, Weyland, had his head turned towards what every patron of the Afterlife was focused on.
Muted conversation filtered in from all directions.
"-unbelievable-"
"-yeah, that's Rogue's new guy-"
"-kidding? That's at least a thirty meter drop-"
Rogue focused on Claire as she stood, grabbing the bartender by the shoulder.
"What's got everyone's-"
Then she could see the big Vid-screen above the bar, the one that was always set to blurt out news and important announcements broadcast across Night City.
And Rogue finally understood why they were all so focused and interested.
Everyone had been watching the big screen when Saburo Arasaka bit the dust, and only a few days later it seemed something else caught their attention.
The title read, "Attack at Arasaka"
Rogue sucked in a breath, memories of a night and operation long ago, one that had left her with many dirty regrets.
But the footage compiled and displayed wasn't an attack helicopter, or a crazed rocker with a silver borg arm cracking open skulls with lead.
It was a small explosion, one that blew open a window of the side of Arasaka tower. Out from it came a human figure in laboratory fatigues.
The figure was missing an arm.
As the shaky amateur footage attempted to track the figure's descent, everyone in the bar was enraptured.
Then the figure had caught itself on an air car… with a sword.
"Sweet mother of God" Rogue blurted out.
Because the figure, even in the shitty camera footage, was quite distinctly V.
Alive.
At Arasaka.
Jumping out of windows.
Missing an arm.
Rogue released her soft grip of Claire's shoulder before slumping back into her chair. As the newsreel panned out to the regular s.o.b explaining that 'the situation was still evolving' and that 'we don't have more details at this time', Rogue picked up her drink.
Many gazes were being sent her way, as well as a lot of active conversation surrounding her Merc.
Rogue downed the entire Silverhand Special in one.
Claire didn't need to be told to get her another one.
The crash site had Arasaka guards swarming all over it like ants in minutes. Most of the faceless grunts had formed a perimeter, their backs to the smoking wreckage, their eyes trained on the surroundings.
The AV had clipped a building on its way down, violently spiralling into an executive car park at a lesser branch building.
Some really nice cars had been totalled.
"Damn shame" Shane McKinnon, my tall and slender partner, was thinking along the same lines as myself.
"Right?" I grunted, eyeing the hundreds of thousands of eddies wasted in the destruction of such preem vehicles.
"Focus Jones, boss wants any and all leads you can get. You've got five minutes"
That was Fred, our communications operator.
John Jones is my name, and I'm a modified Arasaka tracking specialist. Myself and my team are mainly sent out for retrieval of property… but we can do anything our Corporate overlords ask of us.
Espionage, sabotage, search and destroy… we're not as fancy as counter-intel, but we can get the job done.
"Yeah yeah, we're on it" I snark, enjoying the crunch of gravel under my thick combat boots.
Being a 'Saka goon really allowed you to wear some badass clothing.
Pay was good too.
"Careful pretty boy, you might hurt yourself" Shane stumbled after me, data pad in hand and his eyes most certainly scanning the wreckage.
I'm doing the same, but just taking my time.
Gotta charge my bosses a full shift after all.
Hands stuffed in my pockets, I looked the AV up and down, then side to side. The door was torn open in the crash. The occupant's body had been found smeared across a sidewalk a block back.
Fall had broken his neck.
Poor Corpo fucker just doing his day job.
But the perpetrator's body was nowhere to be found.
I nibbled my lip.
"Perp wasn't on any of the rooftops?"
Shane was moving around the wreckage now, his eyes darting over every scratch, dent and break.
He didn't glance up as he responded, "saw it on camera. He went down with his ride" before ducking down to examine something.
"...huh?"
Shane's confusion caught my attention and I perked up.
"Hmm?"
Shane popped back up, "don't know what to make of this..." he waved me over.
I smirked, and sauntered my way around to the back of the inoperable AV. Shane was crouched in front of a port, one that had been ripped open, and obviously tampered with.
"Hasty work" the short haired Irishman mumbled, "but it's only thruster control… he couldn't have been able to do this in the air with one arm" Shane looked up to me, but I was already searching.
I turned my focus away from the ravaged port.
My eyes traced up the back of the vehicle, to one of the main sets of propulsion engines. Three had been torn away from the rear. Two more were dented and closed… but the lowest one...
I bent over to look at the top of the conical engine, and narrowed my eyes.
What the fuck...
"Perp lost his arm right?"
Shane was quiet for a second.
I glanced back at him.
"Cut it off to escape Smasher"
I cocked an eyebrow.
Shane shrugged, "that's what I've heard. But it's for certain he recently had his arm cut off" I looked back to the engine, studying the scorch on it.
Shane tucked out his data pad again, "could have tried thinking about using the AV for something, ran out of ideas and bolted. He won't get far with the arm though. Blood loss will get him"
I sighed.
"He bought himself as much time as he could"
"Huh?"
Standing up, I stepped back from the engine I was observing to allow Shane enough space to also make his own observation.
He took about a second.
"Holy shit"
"Yeah" I grunt, "tough fucking cookie"
We didn't say anything for a good minute.
Sometimes, you'd see things that make your stomach turn. In a job like mine, more often than not you're faced with perfect examples of the extremes that humans can go to, in order to stay alive.
"...better tell Fred… I'm gonna see if he left anything behind"
Shane had already shifted away even before I acknowledged his 'suggestion'. I stepped back from the wreckage, looking up and down all the buildings around me. I made my call to Fred.
Camera coverage was still narrow, especially in the exact place the AV had landed.
Perp could have gone in any direction.
"Yeah?"
"Perp's mobile, looking to cover as much ground between us and him as possible"
There was some chatter I couldn't pick up on.
"He's missing an arm Jones"
I sighed, "he cauterized it"
Silence dominated the call.
"Come again Jones… Did you say he cauterized it?"
I nodded mostly for my own benefit, "yes sir. Perp repurposed an engine of the AV, probably overloaded it so the safety sheet was piping hot. Found cooked blood and some nasty bits and pieces on the engine. He burnt his bleeding stump shut"
"...fucking hell"
I chuckled, "Exactly what I thought Fred" my eyes finished tracing the buildings and looked to the ground, as well as the rubble and-
A manhole.
Off to the side of the lot, bordering one of the Alleyways.
No camera would have a clean line of sight on it.
"Yo Fred" I jogged towards the manhole covering, "might have found something"
It… it was disturbed. The layer of rubble and destruction littering the car park had been brushed away from it. Meaning it had been moved after the crash occurred.
"What do you have Jones?"
I reached for the cover.
"Perp's underground, moving through the sewage-
As soon as I lifted the man hole, the small wire connected to a beacon device removed from the AV was broken.
For a booby trap it was hastily put together, yet it still managed to deliver the expected result.
The beacon's programmed signal was then instantly delivered to the crashed AV that Shane was working beside.
In one second, the engines activated. In two seconds, they accelerated. In three seconds they went critical.
And in four seconds, the resulting blast of the AV's bottlenecked engines killed Shane Mckinnon and a handful of Arasaka troops too close to the site.
I didn't get time to process any of this.
The blast ripped through my side, throwing me high into the air and against a wall. I was unconscious when I dropped onto the roof of a car.
I also was missing a few bits and pieces, but that was an issue for future me to deal with.
The call came from nowhere.
In the middle of the Glen, having fought his way back from Pacifica, Takemura was tempted to decline the call. He was, after all, pressed for time and currently scratching Koji-san's back.
His Arasaka friend had contacted him requesting he check out a location in Pacifica, old factory space.
Goro had arrived, and upon doing so discovered quite a large Scav haunt. A very hostile Scav haunt.
Beating a hasting retreat under the hail of gunfire was the best option. He could return later with better gear and supplies in order to investigate Koji's request.
His borrowed vehicle had been totalled and left in an alley a few blocks back. By the time any of the Arasaka assassins discovered it, Takemura would be long gone.
The notification still buzzed in his vision.
It was the first time Takemura had been subjected to contact from the Device the Thief had given him. The so-called 'private' communication channel.
Well, temporarily private. Anything connected to a network these days was hackable, especially if it piggybacked off public domains.
A signal could be listened in on. The right tech, timing and luck and anything was discoverable.
Goro knew that this secure line would eventually become compromised, but for now, on its first use no less, the connection would be safe.
"V" Takemura began, "now is not-"
"Help me"
His voice hissed, barely audible. Takemura could make out the sound of… water? Or some kind of liquid at least. It lapped in the background.
The Thief was injured, dangerously so. Takemura had pegged the man for an individual that did not break so easily.
He did not sound bent or misshapen.
He sounded shattered.
"How?"
"Ripperdoc-" there was a gasp of pain, "Skully"
The situation didn't sound good.
So Goro made a decision.
The Thief, his witness, would not die on his watch. Not like Saburo-sama.
Takemura glanced around the street before striding out into the road with purpose. People clamoured and pointed at the big asian man, casually marching into traffic. There were shouts and screams as Takeuma drew a gun, pointing it at the driver of the nearest oncoming vehicle.
The man behind the wheel hastily lifted his hands.
Takemura nudged the gun sideways, and the man got out with his arms raised high.
"T-Take it! P-please! Don't kill-" Goro ignored him, shoving him aside and sliding into the driver's seat.
The Vehicle smelt disgusting. Food littered the back seat. Cigarettes littered the passenger chair.
"Where are you V?"
A shuddering breath, and then a moment of silence.
Goro felt something bottom out in his stomach.
But then the Thief spoke, softly and slowly.
"Kabuki… washed up by the slums..."
Takemura floored it, the abused vehicle ripping off into and around traffic. He'd make it there in record time.
The office door cracked open briefly, and a man in military fatigues marched into the immaculate white space.
Half of his face was cybernetically enhanced, as well as a standard military augment for his right arm and left hand.
A desk crafted from marble, a seat behind it that was half as tall as the room was wide.
Behind this chair sat a woman, her long black hair streaked with grey. She faced away from the door, her eyes on the pristine and clear glass windows, overlooking large tracts of plants and agricultural technology.
There were hundreds of people walking between the plants and equipment, each and every one of them uniform in white garbs and protective gear.
The man coughed, taking the woman's attention.
"An interesting memo landed on my desk, and I thought I should come clear this with you"
The lady continued to stare at the man.
"Arasaka's been having some trouble"
She tilted her head slightly, the ominous and unnatural gold in her pupils flickering in the white fluorescent light of the room.
When she spoke, it was soft and airy, devoid of concern or worry.
"Is our venture still a profitable one, Max?"
The man, identified as Max, nodded.
"Good. Haggle the price, use this trouble as a reasonable excuse" she turned away.
Max didn't leave, something that the woman took notice of a few moments later. She spun the chair quickly around, leaned over her desk with laced fingers, braced her elbows are stared deeply into the man's eyes.
"Please Max, you have no reason to be so shy with me… what is it?"
Max swallowed, a now obvious bead of sweat rolling down his forehead.
"...there are some undocumented stories coming out of Night City, stories that Arasaka has been suppressing from further investigation"
The woman unlaced her fingers, taking time to slowly tap them against her office's table.
"A personal feud? I suppose Yorinobu is far more inexperienced then his Father"
Max allowed a moment for the woman to speculate, but continued when she fell silent after her comment.
"That's what I also thought ma'am… until Professor Holloway took an interest"
The tapping stopped.
Max received the full weight of the gold tinted gaze from the woman behind the desk. The airy tone gained grit and steel. A focus that wasn't present before soon became the forefront of the woman's speech.
"What kind of interest"
Not a question. A demand.
Max's spine went rigid, and his response was instantaneous.
"A direct one. He's dispatched at least two agents into the city"
"At least two?"
Max grumbled and rolled his shoulders, "it's impossible to tell the true number of components to one of Holloway's schemes"
The woman nodded her agreement.
She took a second to think of her order.
In her mind she considered what she did know.
Holloway had finally come out from his pity cave. One failed project and the man secluded himself from nearly all of his practical duties. He'd cost her a lot of money after all, but still not enough to label him as a liability.
Still… whatever rumours that had found their way to him were enough to spur him into action.
His men were still loyal to him, a rare commodity found in most people these days. They would carry out his orders however he wished, and however he wanted.
Even at the expense of the company…
But.
Anything that got Holloway interested… had the potential to be very profitable.
"Have the one's you're aware of followed. Try and find out who the others are, but don't spook anyone… I'm curious to see where this goes"
"Yes ma'am" Max nodded, turning to leave. The woman behind the desk smiled, taking a more relaxed position in her chair.
"And Max?"
The military man turned, an expectant look on his features.
"Please deliver these rumours to me as well"
He nodded with a final "Yes ma'am" and exited the room. His pace increased once he had left, and he'd be barking orders outside of his boss's tranquil environment, but the woman no longer paid him any attention.
She turned to look back at her farms, appreciating all the work and effort put into it all.
Biotechnica held a powerful position over most corporations and the world at large.
They were the forefront of sustainable food production in the late 21st century. As long as there was humanity, there would always be a need for food.
Biotechnica never picked fights with the other super corps. They never bowed away from one either.
So at this current moment in time, with Arasaka wavering and the all time high number of corporate assassinations, Biotechnica was in the perfect position to sweep it all away.
Marissa Arlington smiled.
It was soft and kind.
She wouldn't stop at anything less than total control of the New United States of America. She'd wrestle this country back from foreign influence one gravestone after another.
Takemura wouldn't admit to resulting in a hasty jog through the waterside Kabuki slums. Trash and smell permeated his nose, but his eyes focused toward the small cluster of people by the dirty Night City water.
They were surrounding something.
It didn't take a genius to figure out what it was, and Takemura quickened his pace.
They could have called anyone over, or were harvesting V for their own needs.
A city such as this rarely allowed kindness to sprout up in vast quantities.
Takemura shouldered his way through, pushing right into the inner circle of the 20 people. Most were confused or surprised at the sudden arrival of the mercenary-like man, and hastily moved aside.
And once Goro found himself at the center, he blinked down at the injured and battered form of the Thief, being held by what appeared to be… a doctor.
"V" Goro snapped, dragging every curious yet quiet expression towards him. Even the unknown doctor was startled into looking up at him.
The Thief's eyes broke open for a moment.
"Goro"
"Friend of yours?" the doctor attempted in humour, his hands lingering around the damage to the Thief's body.
Takemura didn't bother speaking. He reached down and hoisted V up, taking him by his side.
His clothing was… strange. A mix of medical scientist and facilities guard, an outlandish combination to be sure, but one covered in a familiar symbol.
Arasaka.
And like that, Goro powered his way back through the slowly dispersing crowd.
The Doctor had neither the guts or the spine to stand up to the imposing former bodyguard.
"V" Goro whispered, shaking the man as he dragged him back up the embankment.
"...alive" was the hiss.
"Your Ripperdoc. Where is he?"
The car was in sight.
"...not Vik…. Skully… need Skully, beat Smasher"
Takemura sighed, "his location? Where is his shop V?!" he couldn't help the frustration that seeped into his voice.
And V managed to blearily open his eyes, his expression focusing for a few seconds.
"NID, big factory at the back… he'll find us"
His head slumped, and the Thief returned to unconsciousness.
Takemura sighed, but stuffed him into the dirty passenger seat of the car anyway.
Getting back around to the driver's side, he peeled away from all the curious eyes and words.
"Northern Industrial District…" Goro grumbled, taking one last look at V.
"...Thieves" he grunted, pushing the car into gear.
He couldn't decide what was worse… the smell of the Vehicle, or the smell of V's burnt and fleshy stub of an arm.
AN: Hey y'all, sorry its taking so long to put a chapter together. Just finding time to get chunks of it done is proving to be harder than I thought, and I'm looking to start updating some of my older stories. So, it might be a week or two for the next chapter to come out!
HOWEVER!
When it does, we can be expecting some cybernetics for V, as well as some more explanations for his origins.
Take care y'all, much love,
Freedom.