Arasaka Tower, March 2076
Kyle Vega always ended up wound up by the end of every day he spent working at this place. Working for Arasaka certainly didn't disappoint his parents, especially at his relatively respectable position in Counterintel. But he can swear to God that not a day had ended so far where he didn't just want to take a shower and pass out in his bed listening to white noise within the first hour he got home.
Today wasn't much different, in fact it was actually worse on account of that damned data leak over in Frankfurt which left every official stationed in Night City HQ probably feeling like him on his moderate days. As for Kyle himself… well if the vomit now dumped into the bathroom sink meant anything, it was that this was definitely going to be a day he'd rather forget. It was when he reached a hand underneath the water flowing from the sink that an image of a caller through his holo went off, a very familiar insignia of a crimson sword facing vertically in the center of a flaming heart appearing.
After having a drink of water out of his hand to wipe the smell of vomit from his mouth he picked up to see a woman with a half-shaven head of black hair with blue tips on the other side of the call, a katana-wielding mercenary named Rachel Ikeda who saved his life a year ago. Normally she was distrustful of corpos, but they promised to have each other's backs on that particularly hellish day that they met, and Kyle was nothing if not a man of his word.
Rachel then spoke on the other end "Ky, you there? Got your message asking for a talk." And after letting out a cough or two Kyle responded "Yes… ahem, sorry, yeah, I'm here." briefly dropping his formal tone that he had adopted amongst Arasaka, once again silently grateful for her friendship. It's not that he had an interest in her or anything, but it was during their calls where he could just feel normal for a minute, which he needed on days like this.
His brief reflection on his friendship with Rachel was then interrupted by her speaking up "You ok? You sound like you blew something in your gut." which left Kyle grimacing as he responded "Yeah… I'll admit it, I barfed, it's just stress."
He could hear Rachel's disapproving tone in her voice as his implanted translator deciphered her comment "あなたのその仕事はあなたを殺すつもりです." "That job of yours is going to get you killed." to which Kyle chuckled in response before saying "Yeah, maybe I should've taken a safer job, one where I might have to avoid getting shot at whenever I work." and Rachel proceeded to comment with "Hey at least I know who it is that's shooting at me. Sometimes I even know why… anyway, what's got you emptying your stomach?"
Kyle was about to respond but then he noticed someone was watching him who just entered, and he shifted a little to speak to the man "Is there a problem?" Naturally intending to get the man to back off, which worked as he entered a stall. He then returned to speaking to Rachel "We had a leak, my boss called. Dragged me in because we needed to intervene. Everyone at Night City HQ is on edge from it, myself especially." And then Rachel spoke up sounding a little concerned "Why, you're not the one getting fucked by this are you? Your job is to clean other people's messes, don't see why you should be." to which Kyle offered a sad half-grin before responding "Rachel, if you work in Arasaka Counterintel, you're just about always fucked." following it up with leaning his head down a little to take a breath, let the stress building up in him unwind. He then spoke as he leaned off of the sink "I need to be going, work won't handle itself and I'm expected elsewhere." and Rachel then responded with "See you on the other side." before hanging up.
Kyle was currently on the elevator up to the Counterintel floor when his holo went off once more, the contact belonging not to Rachel, but to his superior, Arthur Jenkins. "Christ Vega you were supposed to be here an hour ago." a quick message that left Kyle internally grimacing. He always hated being referred to by his last name, but unfortunately that's what being the son of a now 8-year retired Night City Arasaka executive got him. And not wishing to leave his boss hanging he quickly said "I got held up but I'm already on my way, I'll be there in a minute." And barely a second afterwards Kyle caught Jenkins muttering "Fucking Frankfurk, that bitch Abernathy'll probably dump it in our laps… agh, hanging up, I'll be in my office." Kyle sighing after his boss hung up… he just knew that this was going to end badly for him.
Author's note: So just for clarification purposes, italicized quotes are voice lines from people calling the character the POV is intended to be from, and underlined text is when something's being translated. Also I know that this is essentially a half-copy of the Corpo prologue in the main game as opposed to the complete change in introduction that I did in the first chapter, but I promise that this is serving a purpose and that the OCs I'm introducing in this chapter aren't just going to be a simple "alternate V and Jackie" situation in terms of how their relationship works. As for the possible cliffhanger this is being left on, it serves a purpose. I promise it won't be left off here.