l… l
Chapter Six
July 3rd, 2077
Night City, Northern California
Maelstrom Processing Center, Northside
A Headhunter needed patience if he wanted to ensure a good hunt and todays target was a Maelstrom facility in Northside.
They followed the same general schedule as their other smuggling centers.
At 06:00 am sharp, the trucks roll out for delivery and mix in with other corporation semi-trucks. Most of their heavy vehicles were sporting identification tags that linked them to several other corporations.
This allowed the Maelstrom to bypass NCPD checkpoints, who had a penchant for letting corporation trucks through without a full search. The difference between this processing center and their minor facilities was the heavy security that protected the site and the merchandise.
There were at least over two hundred Maelstrom thugs patrolling the interior of the complex and the perimeter. The processing center itself was safeguarded by a large twenty-foot tall concrete wall caked in barbed wire and an electrical fence. The only way in or out was through an impregnable ten-inch steel gate that could only be operated from a security room inside the main facility.
Cameras covered every inch of ground from the concrete barrier to the entrance of the main building. Cyrus had no doubt there were even more surveillance cameras in the interior as well. Automated turrets were spread evenly throughout the complex two of which protected the main gate. The final security measures were several reprogrammed Militech Battle Mechs stationed at each corner of the facility.
The Mechs were an exhilarating adversary, slow and easy to outmaneuver, but their perseverance was a game changer. They were one of the few Maelstrom units that carried Militech M-179E Achilles tech rifles, and those things played hell with his shields.
They weren't as dangerous as Covenant Plasma, but Cyrus didn't like them all the same.
Their single-shot capabilities weren't the problem.
It was when the projectile was charged and impacted his shields where issues hammered home.
The drawback was the two-second downtime when the user held down the trigger, giving him time to react. Cyrus preferred to get in close and deal with them with his bare hands, he didn't carry enough ammo to waste on their chassis. He already acquired an Achilles during his previous raids on Maelstrom stations, but ammo and parts were hard to come by.
As for the thugs themselves, they were little more than an inconvenience. Knowing his previous engagements with them, they weren't exactly the most capable armed force he's ever seen. A squad of ODST's would make mincemeat of Maelstrom thugs without breaking a sweat.
A single Spartan III, well, that was just cheating.
'Our package is almost here.' Chamber chimed in. 'You ready?'
Chamber was able to walk him through the process of constructing a makeshift EMP device. This device would cause an electrical discharge 40 meters wide, disrupting electrical appliances for a short amount of time. They had to commit a few dozen test runs with their makeshift EMP and only establish a minimum fifteen-second dead time.
Their delivery system plan was one of the transports; the truck's route would take it right past the security room. Should everything go to plan, Cyrus would be able to jump the twenty-foot high wall and sprint for the security room. It was a decent plan strung up by Chamber, but he had faith in her.
'Ready.'
Dismounting from his overwatch position, Cyrus pushed his legs to their very limit. Spartans were the apex of human evolution, and he was a prime example of it.
Out of his Mark 5, MJOLNIR Armor Cyrus achieved a top speed of 55 KPH.
Inside, he was able to push 75 KPH. This would be the most critical part of their plan; he had to time his jump perfectly, mount the rear of the transport, and plant the EMP device on the carriage's top.
'Here it comes.' Cyrus spotted the truck speeding down the main road toward the processing center. 'Jump on my mark.'
'Three, two, one… MARK!'
The Headhunter kicked off a rock mid-stride, soaring through the cool air at 80 KPH. His right hand shot out, grasping onto the right corner of the semi-trailer. The limb pierced straight through the steel frame and for the slightest second Cyrus feared he might lose his grip.
Fortunately, the structure held firm enough for Cyrus to swing his momentum toward the trailer's boat trail. Planting his free hand at the top of the carriage, he attached the EMP to the trailer's roof. As the transport reached the crest of a rolling hill, he dislodged from the vehicle and bled his momentum by sliding behind the truck.
'See, told ya you could do it.' Rising to his feet quickly, the Spartan sprinted for an outcropping that would allow him a straight shot at the concrete wall. He retrieved his Kukri from its sheath and held it in a reverse grip.
'Is the receiver still operational?' In response, Chamber adjusted his HUD to follow the truck's route. The delivery system rolled through the main gate without a problem, passing by multiple sentries in the process. There was a brief moment of concern when a duo of Maelstrom guards halted the truck's movement, but it continued its journey a minute later.
'Five seconds.' The Headhunter shifted his balance in anticipation. 'GO.'
Dirt kicked up behind him as his body practically shot forward. He was five hundred meters away from the wall when the EMP kicked in. Turrets went offline, security cameras went silent, and the lights in the facility flickered in response. The Maelstrom guards inside were momentarily startled by the EMP blast, with a few smacking away at monitors in a futile attempt at correcting the issue.
The Spartan leaped with all his might, clearing the wall by a good foot or two. Adjusting his body midair, Cyrus rolled forward, allowing him to land feet first onto the hardened factory floor. Kicking off his feet once again, the Spartan bypassed an unsuspecting Maelstrom thug before taking to the air and landing on the roof of the security room.
At that moment, the security systems in the complex kicked in. Cameras started rolling, turrets reactivated, and the electrical system stabilized. In the security room, the Maelstrom ganger ran a quick diagnostic to determine the problem and chalked it up to a power surge. Leaning back into his chair, the security guard proceeded to continue with his previous activity.
Slaving his mind away in a braindance.
The Spartan could only wonder if he enjoyed himself even as a Kukri sliced through his jugular. Blood fell from the Maelstrom's throat as he threw the corpse back, impacting the far wall with a dull thud.
'Jack me in.' Cyrus wasted no time in inserting Chambers chip into the security system. 'Time to work my magic.'
Chamber seldom enjoyed tearing down the firewalls these animals believed was the state of the art security. Breaking down the algorithms and firewalls in this place was practically child's play for her; the only tricky part was making sense of the data presented to her.
Her black hat program successfully breached the security Network, and the complex was singing her tune. Everything was at her fingertips; the auto-turrets and security cameras quickly fell under her sway. The real kicker was the Battle Mechs; their entire force of Battle Mechs had been hooked up to the same network as the other defense systems.
The first thing she did was transfer every Eurodollar the Maelstrom had stored here to an offshore backing account she had set up weeks ago. The idiots never thought an intruder would gain access to the security room, steal all their hard-earned money, and turn their defenses against them. They were in for a rude awakening.
She had almost missed a curious development in the plant's electrical system. Chamber had acquired the blueprints to the site from the Militech servers a week ago and noted every speck of detail she could get her hands on. Those blueprints helped her decipher the security room's location, including the electrical system and where power was being diverted.
Which meant the stream of power heading to an undocumented lower flower of the manufacturing plant should not have been there. There was no mention of any plans for a basement in the Militech files, so the Maelstrom must have carved it out independently. Placing that agitating detail to the side, she pinged Cyrus to pull her out of the security network.
'We good?'
'Of course, now let's move. Time to find out what they manufacture in this place.' Cyrus drew his Copperhead and proceeded down a corridor towards the plant's factory line. They weren't able to get complete confirmation of what Maelstrom was producing here, but Chamber was 99 percent certain that they were making Black Lace.
It was a favorite drug for corporations and militaries and Mercs who needed an extra edge when carrying out GIGs. The drug was a high-powered version of 'Dorph,' which enabled the user to experience effects. An increase in euphoria, heightened adrenaline rush, and complete invulnerability to pain itself was just the tip of the iceberg.
Black Lace was also able to level out a user's composure, keeping them focused on any task. They also increased a user's resistance to stun or shock effects, leaving the user in a state of absolute harmony.
It'd almost be worth it if the drug didn't eventually lead to Cyberpsychosis.
The Spartans motion tracker lit up past a vacant office; ducking into the room quickly, he narrowly avoided a passing group of gangers. He peeked out of the office and watched the group turn away from the Security room before pushing further down the corridor.
He bypassed two more groups of Maelstrom before finally reaching the Factory line. Just as Chamber had predicted, they were producing a hefty amount of Black Lace. Stacks of the product were spread throughout the factory line, and Maelstrom groups were loading tons of the product into the waiting transports.
'Alright, let's start the party.'
Cooler observed quietly as his men loaded the first batches of Black Lace into the trucks. He had been a longstanding member of the Maelstrom for a decade now and had seen multiple management changes for the booster gang.
Royce taking charge was no surprise. After the gang war with the Tyger Claws went their way, Brick started getting fat and lazy. The idiot hadn't noticed Royce was turning his lieutenants against him until it was far too late. Regardless of the change in leadership allowed him a well-earned promotion, and that's how he ended up in charge of their processing plant.
Black Lace was a profitable product that he let his boys indulge in every now and then. It kept them sharp and happy, which was more than enough to earn and keep the loyalty of the thugs stationed here.
A loud bang resounded through the factory, and Cooler almost drew his sidearm in response. It was a growl of frustration to see that one of the idiots had dropped an entire crate of Black Lace.
'HEYM QUIT FUCKING AROUND PACKER!' The Maelstrom thug, as mentioned earlier, sheepishly retrieved the crate.
'SORRY, BOSS. I'M TWEAKING OUT AGAIN. CAN I TAKE A HIT!'
'NO, YOU FUCKING IDIOT. YOU ALREADY HAD A BLAST AN HOUR AGO!' The Maelstrom ganger scrunched up his optics in response.
'I DID!' Cooler would have shot him if he wasn't carrying a crate of Black Lace.
'JUST GET BACK TO WORK!'
Cooler had started making his way to the security room when a second bang resounded through the factory. He was about to scream in anger but caught himself at the last second. That was a clap from a Lexington, not a crate.
Turning his head, Cooler watched as Packer's body fell to the ground in a heap. Blood trailed down the cyborg's head slowly; a bullet had gone straight through, scrambling his brains in the process.
Cooler had turned towards the source of the gunshot when a massive fist smashed through his head plate. The Spartan's fist burst through the back of his head in an explosion of blood and brain matter. Should he have survived a few seconds longer, he would have heard the familiar staccato of gunfire and the outbreak of battle.
Cyrus slid his arm out of the Maelstrom Lieutenants skull.
Blood and fragments of bone crunched against his arm, as the body it once resided him bounced off the ground. Cries of outrage and fear echoed through the rest of the processing center, from the rest of the belated Maelstrom thugs.
Gunfire erupted in an orchestra of metal and gunpowder. The four closest Maelstrom thugs rushed Cyrus with a mixture of gorilla arms and mantis blades. With practiced ease, the Headhunter avoided an unorganized flurry of strikes.
Each assault was met with a retaliating blow; one strike hit the palm of a Maelstrom possessing gorilla arms. Where most hand-to-hand strikes would have stalled, the Headhunters strike snapped through the offending joint.
His fellow bandit screamed in barely restrained fury, singing his blades wildly to push the Spartan back. His strikes were batted away by the Spartans left arm, allowing the Headhunter to get into his guard.
Wrapping both hands around the back of the Maelstroms neck, Cyrus pulled the Maelstroms head straight into his right knee. Skull fragments and blood went everywhere as the Maelstroms head imploded around the Spartans' knee.
The final two Maelstrom thugs fared little better against the Spartan's retaliation, and before long, they were added to an ever-growing list of Maelstrom casualties.
Cyrus rolled to his left around the recently deposited corpses fired off a burst of 7.62mm rounds from his Copperhead. His projectiles found new homes in the bellies and sternums of Maelstrom thugs.
'Chamber. Status on the perimeter?' Cyrus dropped three more Maelstrom gangers in quick succession. 'Chamber!?'
In response, an explosion rocked the processing center. 'Quiet down, you monkey. I'm working here!'
Outside the main structure, auto-turrets and battle mechs turned on their former masters. In the opening flurry, thirty Maelstrom guards were killed in a shower of ballistics and fragmentation shells. While low in number, the Battle Mechs could easily make up for their lack of quantity with their superior combat capabilities.
A blip on his motion tracker alerted him to a Maelstrom flanking his left. While maintaining a barrage of fire downrange, Cyrus pulled a Lexington sidearm with his free hand.
Firing off a trio of shots that burst out the back of the thug's head, swinging to his front, he fired off a combination of Copperhead and Lexington rounds. Activity on his motion tracker began to lessen in intensity as more and more Maelstrom corpses hit the floor with a violent slam.
Cyrus counted twenty-five dead Maelstrom in his head, with fifteen left inside to deal with. A Maelstrom berserker attempted a last-ditch assault on the Spartan's blindside, but the thug's strike was deflected the Spartan. The Headhunter could see the thug's eyes bursting with madness as he swiped at his faceplate, dodging the initial strike.
A Lexington was planted underneath his jaw.
The thug cried out as a bullet fractured his jaw and blasted through the top of his head. Cyrus disentangled himself from the lumbering corpse and reengaged a group of Maelstrom taking cover in the loading area.
The Headhunter glanced at the Black Lace containers surrounding their position and fired off a single shot. The round pierced the Black Lace container setting off an explosive chain reaction.
Black Lace was an extremely volatile substance when gathered in large quantities. The compounds possessed the same capabilities as an anti-infantry mine. In an enclosed environment, the effects were even more devastating. Shrapnel and particles accelerated in all directions, piercing cybernetic limbs and shattering bones.
Cyrus dived in between a set of transport trailers, barely avoiding a large chunk of steel embedded in the far wall. When the explosions finally subsided, the only thing left in its wake were devastated corpses and a blazing fire.
His motion tracker that had been bursting with life, not moments earlier, had suddenly gone silent. Palming a magazine on his right hip, Cyrus dumped the empty magazine in his Copperhead on the floor below.
'Chamber status?'
'Well, my robot army is gone,' Chamber said nonchalantly. 'And there are still about fifty Maelstrom gangers alive. My auto-turrets are stalling their efforts for now, but that won't hold them for long. So, any ideas?'
'We use the Black Lace containers.' Cyrus spotted a few canisters nestled in a back corner. 'All I need is for you to tell me where to put them.'
A small smile came to the AI's face. 'And here I thought Eliza was the pyromaniac.'
Hefting two crates of Black Lace on his shoulders, Cyrus made for the markers Chamber had placed on his HUD. 'She taught me a few things.'
'I'm sure she would be proud to hear you took some of her teachings to heart.' Footsteps and voices drew his attention as he placed the last barrel down.
'Fifteen seconds.'
Cyrus sprinted up a flight of stairs towards the factor line control room with all haste, breaking down the flimsy door with little effort. Voices grew louder as the Maelstrom thugs were barreling down one of two corridors leading into the Factory line.
'Tracking movements….Thirty total Maelstrom inbound. Fifteen on the left, twenty of the right.' Chambers callouts filtered through the Headhunters' mind. Cyrus broke the control room's windows and mounted his Copperhead accordingly.
A single round from Cyphers rifle met the first Maelstrom to breach the Factory line. The bullet traveled through smoke and flames, impacting just underneath the thug's frontal lobe. Five more of his comrades met the same grisly fate before the second doorway exploded with activity.
'Six contacts on your right!' Cyrus adjusted his aim to the right, firing off a burst of rounds in their direction. Four of the six Maelstrom managed to dive for cover, while the final two had their lives cut short by the Headhunters Copperhead.
His weapon discharge eventually drew more accurate fire from other Maelstrom Shooters. A few managed to score hits along his right forearm, and a bullet even managed to bounce off his forehead. Cyrus ignored the glancing shots in favor of palming a frag grenade in his left hand. Chamber marked a cluster of Maelstrom thugs clumped together behind an overturned trailer.
He tossed the fragmentation grenade, watching it bounce along the top of the trailer and sliding off the edge before it fell at the feet of a Maelstrom thug.
'GRENADE!' An explosion of smoke and shrapnel was followed by the flying corpses of ten Maelstrom thugs. The Maelstroms morale was slowly breaking; as each of their fellow gangers hit the floor, their nerves and courage followed. When the final Maelstrom crossed into the kill zone, Cyrus sprung the trap.
Cyrus peeked around the corner of the window and fired off two rounds from his Copperhead. The chain reaction of Black Lace compounds reached a crescendo within moments of the second round landing. Two fireballs of identical size and devastation ripped through the Factory Line.
He watched as one Maelstrom was consumed by a blackened bonfire, his skin blistering and cybernetics melting under the intense heat. Most of the Maelstrom were blasted off their feet and thrown to the ground under a show of melted shrapnel. Fire ripped through the factory line, leaving nothing but molten steel and shattered bodies in its wake.
Cyrus found his feet quickly, jumping over the control room window and landing in the now devastated remains of the Maelstrom Processing Center. Nothing that resided in the factory was left untouched.
All of the Black Lace compounds were destroyed, trailers were overturned, and every transport truck was destroyed. The Black Lace explosions had ripped an enormous fifty-foot wide hole in the factory lines southeast wall.
Chamber did a quick calculation of the total amount of profits the Maelstrom would suffer from their latest raid and came out to well over ten million Eurodollars in damage.
'The rest of the Maelstrom are scattering like cockroaches. Were in the clear.' Cyrus started towards the exit, satisfied with their work for the day. 'Wait, follow the path I marked out.'
Cyrus watched a path be drawn out on his MJOLNIR hud, leading further into the factory complex. The trail finally ended 200 meters to his west and 50 meters underground.
'Chamber, what's down there?' Cyrus asked quietly.
'I don't know. Maelstrom carved out a basement underneath the facility when they took over.' The amount of power circulating down there was too much for Chamber to ignore.
Cyrus chose to follow his AI's direction, and before long, he found himself in front of a flight of stairs. The lights heading into the basement were flickering as he pushed down the stairwell.
Anticipation was thick in the air, and for the first time in weeks, he felt a chill run down his spine. The Headhunter stopped at the stairway's end; his rifle shouldered at a ready position, eyes scanning his environment carefully.
To his front was a makeshift laboratory. Medical tools and gurneys were scattered around the entire lab; crates of products lined the far wall to his left while piles of defiled corpses were thrown haphazardly to his right.
This wasn't the first time he had found something like this. Scavengers were a ruthless pack of scum who, on occasion, preyed on anyone who had decent cyberware. Body augmentations were expensive and crucial to Night City society. Harvesting cyberware and organs was a nasty but profitable business, and Scavengers fill the high demand in cyberware by kidnapping their victims off the streets.
But this was the first time he had a seen a Maelstrom harvesting lab.
It wasn't the boxes of human organs that drew his attention or even the dozens of other corpses that had their cyberware torn out from them. The object that drew his attention was the tiny body lying on a medical gurney with a black tarp covering it. A small childlike hand had slipped out from underneath the tarp, and blood dripped with it.
'Oh, god.' Cyrus bypassed several other Gurneys, all of them containing people with their cyberware and other vital organs were torn out.
Some looked to be in their early twenties, while others had passed their golden ages long ago. Cyrus ignored his partners' demands to leave and walked toward the gurney with a small hand sticking out.
Gently pulling the tarp back, the Headhunters augmented mind sucked in every gory detail. The child was a girl barely eight to ten years of age, from his guess. Her eyes had been scooped out, leaving two vacant holes where her once innocent eyes once laid.
Her vital organs had been ruthlessly ripped out, leaving nothing but flesh and bone in the aftermath. The Maelstrom had taken everything from her, and for the first time in his life, Cyrus felt useless. Eyes wandered throughout the harvest center, catching more and more gurneys with the most precious of human lives.
Despite his upbringing and pragmatism to every dire situation, he came across. He still believed in the undeniable obligation that every Spartan was created to abide by. To protect humanity, whatever the cost may be, and there was nothing more precious to that duty than the life of a human child.
Children were the future of the human race.
It was an undeniable fact even amongst the most callous of criminal organizations would never willingly take a child's life for any reason. He foolishly believed that nothing could ever match the XBD's he saw at Gottfrid and Fredrik's studio. To his right laid a surgical table and resting on it was a braindance.
Was it not a Spartan's duty to ensure the survival of the human race. Were they not charged to protect the very future of their species when they were given their armor. Was it not their duty to enact vengeance upon those who would threaten that future.
Grasping the Braindance carefully, the Spartan inserted the recording chip into his tacpad. The tacpad was initializing the Braindance, but Chambers avatar appeared with a pleading look before it could finish.
'Cyrus.'
'Play it.' Her frame could not look anymore frantic. She didn't need or want to know what that Braindance contained, for his sake, if anything.
'You don't need to see this, do not do this to yourself.' The Headhunters eyes turned into cold steel.
'Play it, or I will rip you out of my head and do it myself.' Chamber's Avatar was a mixture of fury and concern. The will and testament of AI and Spartan fought against one another, neither willing to give ground to the other for fear of what would come next.
Eventually, Chamber gave in. 'Cyrus I.'
'I know Chamber. But I need to see this. I need to remember.' Silence reigned in for what felt like an eternity. Inevitably Chambers Avatar winked out, and the BD's initialization finalized.
The Headhunter watched the Braindance from beginning to end. His face betrayed none of the emotion he felt brewing in his core.
Cyrus engrained every emotional feeling deep into his mind, watching as the child he was made to protect was torn apart by a Maelstrom Ripper. He felt every single excruciating detail as the ripper tore into the child's ribcage, removing organ after organ.
In the end, all he felt was a storm of boiling rage.
A hunger for retribution so vast that it could not be satisfied by the devastation of the Maelstrom gang alone. Any man or woman who bared their colors and emblems would be put to the torch.
None would survive; he'd make it his duty to erase them from history itself.
An example would be made of the booster gang.
This atrocity would not go unpunished.
Every corpse that laid in this lab would be avenged in blood.
Maelstrom Blood.
Royce and his cronies will die screaming.