2070. The Unification War.

FIA Special Agent Solomon Reed raised a hand to cover his eyes against the sun's glare and took stock of his handiwork. NUSA Army troops stalked the base motor pool and popup structures for survivors or intelligence, kicking up dust and blood where they walked. Thirty corpses, men and women, and countless drones littered the ground.

Pulling off his combat helmet, Reed turned over a body whose collar insignia drew his interest: a captain in an indistinct North California militia fighting against the Federal cause. Engaging his neural link with brigade headquarters, he pinged his favorite netrunner. "So-Mi, can you break this gonk's Net account?"

Songbird's nasally-radio inflection responded, "I have your eyes. Way ahead. Ye-yes, he's got no selfies. Better post something good. OSINT forums already claiming NUSA in the central valley." Reed inspected the captain's combat helmet. "Mm. It's a little messy on the back. Should still be good."

"I'll clean it up before you send. You have his terminal?"

"No worries, wiping it off is easy," Reed confirmed, freeing a hand terminal from the corpse's back pocket. " Got it right here." He showed the device camera to the dead's face, unlocking the handheld. Speaking aloud, Reed thumbed through a few apps to the Arasaka tracking forum the captain used to frequent. "That's fake news."

Reed turned the terminal's camera to his face and smiled, pulling on the captain's helmet.

"Good pic. But you need to work on your chatter, too simple."

"Less context is better."

"Mm. If you say so. Got any preference on how I spread it?"

"Use the Agency's botnet – you can mix accounts but stick to established ones. Looks fishy if they're fresh accounts reposting."

"I'll task my virtual assistants to handle the rest then."

"Off to the next patrol base," Reed agreed, slipping his helmet back on.

So-Mi asked, "Not going to post anymore?"

"Maybe. Misinformation is too chaotic to try and orchestrate. Only hope is it remains sticky for a while."

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A/N: *OSINT: "open-source intelligence," just a simple short story featuring an enduring issue in our world and the world beyond Night City.