Adam's visit to Arasaka Tower today had two purposes. The first was to speak to his new techie, the second was to let Uriel snoop around a bit. As far as either of them were aware, Uriel was fully visible while in cyberspace, and from any camera equipped to look at the cyberspace of the area.
So Uriel didn't try to hide his presence, he instead expanded it as far as he could. Uriel was made out of fire, he didn't have eyes, so the only way to tell if he was looking at something would be to see where he was. Uriel had been doing this for the Pacifica reconstruction for weeks (more than a month now, thinking about it), and no one could tell what he was or was not looking at so far (to their knowledge). Normally Uriel collapsed back into Adam's systems when they had to go somewhere, they were just not doing that this time.
If he was everywhere, then Adam had enough plausible deniability to claim that he wasn't hacking anything or that he simply forgot to collapse his ICON again. He was just keeping his cyberspace sensors as expanded as possible in case of a threat or whatnot. Some other bullshit like that, he'd let Uriel take care of the talking if they had to. Uriel hated lies, but he was willing to do it. Uriel was a very good liar if he had to be, it disgusted him.
Besides, he didn't have to be convincing, he just had to have a plausible excuse. Were it not for Kagekaze's tip, he wouldn't know to go snooping. No one expected Adam to go snooping, and most thought he was all brute power. He certainly preferred to be that, but he could do subtle things if he felt like it.
And by subtle, he meant being so unsubtle that it loops all the way back to subtlety again.
When Adam arrived back in NC, Uriel had already expanded to take stock of Pacifica. Uriel hasn't collapsed back in again since, always keeping awareness of their territory. So Adam keeping him expanded means they could walk into Arasaka Tower, Uriel being able to look at anything he wanted to, and no one suspecting a thing (or at least, never having enough proof). So long as he didn't alert any firewalls or triplines, it was impossible to tell where his attention was.
Uriel suspected this might make them vulnerable to netrunners, but so far none have taken the bait. Adam's ICE was probably good enough to fend off most anyways.
So as Adam approached Arasaka Tower, Uriel's bubble of influence washed over the area. It was big enough to cover about one percent of Pacifica alone. Five percent now with their cyberdeck on his belt and its increased processing power. It wasn't great, but it was often enough for him to piggyback off other systems and cast a 'web' of influence through all the cameras in the region. Through it he could see basically everything that occurred within line of sight of anyone who had any kind of camera in their eyes.
Such as every cyberoptic, which most meats had in order to have a fucking phone hooked into their brain. They could just carry a cellphone, but saying that would make Adam a hypocrite. He had a phone in his brain as well. Granted, he also had one of the best ICEs in the world, and a head full of fire to fend off net-assault through that path, so he was better off than meatbags once again.
Shame, they should have just been him. It might have helped them.
Uriel wasn't making a net this time, too obvious, but his influence was still broad enough to get everything except the top floors of the tower and that 'secret' bunker they had beneath the tower. He's known about it for a while, but he doesn't know exactly what happened down there. Probably fatal experiments on orphans or something. It didn't really affect him, so he didn't care about it.
Uriel was somewhat curious, but he wasn't curious enough to take the risk of losing their deniability. The traitor had to be found, Adam had a high-priority package to put through their ribcage.
Adam walked into the tower proper, the security clearly having expected him, letting him through without issue. Then again, they wouldn't try to stop him regardless. He was Adam Smasher, they didn't have the gumption to get in his way. He approached the elevator, got in, and started heading for the third basement level. There was a woman in the elevator, he ignored her. The hair was an unfortunately familiar red. It was the handler's daughter, shame she survived too.
She didn't try to talk to him, good. He exited onto the engineering subfloor and the elevator closed behind him.
Uriel's presence reached far enough down to interact with the Mikoshi, he didn't bother doing anything with it. They were all engrams, and the kind of engram that was incomplete.
There were two variations of the Soulkiller. The first was invented by the cheerleader's girlfriend back in the day, which required destructive scanning of the brain in order to properly record it. That version created 'complete' engrams, which were more similar to people than programs. You could use it on a corpse too, provided the brain hadn't suffered any damage yet. The second version was created by Hanako, which didn't require destructive scanning (thus not killing the subject) but didn't record them fully. That version created barely functional programs that tried to act like people. You could use it on a corpse, but why the fuck would you?
Calling the Mikoshi a 'engram database' was also inaccurate. It was really a broadcasting station that connected to the actual servers that were hosted in satellites currently in orbit. It had suffered damage in the attack, but who cares? Just build another set of systems to connect to those satellites.
Uriel saw the programs look at his fire through the metaphorical glass of the server connection. Their gazes were empty and dull, how boring. He thought he saw something else deeper in, but he didn't linger any longer. It was probably the AI that managed the server or something, nothing there was worth caring about.
Uriel continued through the tower that way, letting his 'vision' slowly sweep through systems and connections, careful not to disturb anything in his path. He wasn't looking for audio logs or video recordings or anything like that. If there was a traitor in management, then chances were that they covered their tracks well.
No, he was looking for something indirectly damning. Financial records. If he could find evidence of an employee not being paid the same as their peers, or being snubbed for promotions, or receiving a downgrade in pay, or anything of that nature then he could have a list of potential subjects to look deeper into later.
Best part was? This type of information was not a high-level priority to guard. This type of shit was given Arasaka basics in net-protection and basically nothing else. Most people didn't give a shit about knowing how many more thousands of eddies that corpo employees made. Even other corpos only sometimes gave a shit, if they were looking for getting a traitor to their side.
But corporate loyalty programs (ie, indoctrination) often meant that this was not especially useful either. It was often far more effective to create a child sleeper agent, have that agent inserted into the appropriate academy, and then remain a fully loyal corpo employee until the trigger was given to them. The first insertion took decades, but afterwards you could get the first to influence the corpo internally to hire more sleeper agents, thus accelerating all that came after.
If Uriel was going to guess, that was the situation he was looking at here. Sometimes it was just greed though, so it was best to cover his bases before moving onto the theories that he thought would bring the most success. That and this was very simple and quick to do, Uriel could get it done as Adam was doing other things in the Tower.
So as Adam approached the office/lab with his new techie, Uriel was looking over Arasaka's internal banking records, stepping over and around their ICE very carefully, and reading away.
The new guy was in Hijikata's old rooms. Adam walked through the door unannounced, the guards letting him pass.
Inside was a holographic projection of an ACPA, he didn't recognize the model, but he did recognize the listed specs on his new frame on the side of it and the comparison stats between the two. This must be the first of the new ACPAs that he was going to get, so he memorized the look of it as he walked forwards.
…That was a nice and big chassis, he liked it a great deal already. It looked bigger than a fifty-two class frame, which was the biggest you could get back in the day. Hell, his DaiOni was a fifty-two class, and this thing was a tad larger. Fifty-four perhaps? Whatever it was, it looked pleasing to his optics.
Speaking of things pleasing to the optics, the petite girl at the table was wearing shorts and a lab coat that stopped at upper hip-level, which meant her ass was on display. She turned as he approached and his show ended. At least it was free.
She looked at him, pulling up the goggles that were concealing her eyes. Short-cropped white hair, blue optics, dark blue leotard that disappeared into aforementioned black shorts. All in all, not bad, shame she was so flat though. Wasn't his new techie supposed to be a guy?
"Ah, Smasher-san! Good, I want your opinion on my drafts for your next ACPA!" She spoke, cheerily approaching him. She didn't have any visible chrome, aside from the optics that glowed as a wave of text flowed over it. She wanted his opinion on ACPAs? He might have found his new favorite techie. Sorry Hijikata, you have been replaced with a younger, feminine model, He'll have Uriel mourn your passing.
She knocked a fist on her head. "Ah, first, introductions." She raised a hand to shake, he considered not touching the meatbag, but discarded it. It was good to have your techie like you, that's how you stayed alive. He shook the hand at a meatbag level of force.
"I'm Hannei Saika, I have a doctoral degree in ACPA design, masters degrees in Linear Frame and Cyborg designs, and a bachelor's degree in heavy weaponry, electronics, and general robotics. I'm not sure what you call those in English though, paraphrasing here. I've been assigned to be your new techie, glad to meet you."
Adam nodded as the handshake stopped. "Adam Smasher. The ACPA?"
She grinned. "Straight to it, huh? That's what I like to hear."
She gestured to the hologram, and started talking.
"So, working off the initial design proposed by Hijikata-sensei, your new frame is designed to integrate into ACPA. the same thing that the DaiOni did, but now expanded out to be modular in nature. Your frame is designed to work with any number of different ACPA designs, provided we build them based on the specs that Hijikata-sensei put down. Your frame isn't done yet, but the design is solidified and is being custom made over in japan right now."
"One of the big things we have to do is account for your new Frame's CCPL. You are going to be stronger than any ACPA we put you in until the company finally starts investing in bigger designs again. The only reason we can even put your new frame in an ACPA without tearing it apart is the new material."
She paused, and started a tangent. Did she get Neolungs or something? She hasn't stopped talking for a while now.
The new material they're letting me use is fantastic, Carbon-Nanohelix structure coated with High Entropy Alloy. It is so strong and saves so much weight, frankly I have no idea why they don't use this for everything."
She paused again, and looked off to the side.
"Oh yeah, cost."
Adam grunted to remind her to finish what she was saying, she got the hint.
"Ah, sorry. So the first of your new frames, I'm thinking it would be best to…"
She better say a generalist build. That was what he needed first of all to make up for the DaiOni getting stolen. A solid, all-rounder variant that will buy him time to get the more specialist ACPAs designed and built.
"...a generalist, trooper design."
…She passed the first muster, let's see if she kept it up. Adam nodded to show that he understood and agreed. She flashed a grin at that as she gestured for the hologram.
"So the three core features of a trooper ACPA are solid armor, decent mobility, and average or better long and medium ranged options. You're a cyborg, so we can save an incredible amount of weight and expense by removing Auto-doctors and Safety systems. We don't need a way to get you out of the Frame, because you're strong enough to just move in it even if it runs out of power."
"That gives us a lot of space to work with, so I went with the basics."
She started counting off on her fingers.
"Your armor needs to be tank-grade 3 at minimum, preferably tank-4 instead. Going tank-2 or lower gives you a design that has equal or less armor than your normal frame. Maybe tank-2 for flight models or something in the future, but that's iffy."
"You need at least one long range option, and one medium range option. Your close range can be covered by that fancy vibro-punching you do."
She paused and looked at him.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me how all that works? I know there's a team working on it back at main HQ, but I'm not on that team. It shouldn't be possible to pull all those tricks off."
Adam grunted. "I shake my limbs, and rotate as I attack or defend." It was a bit more complicated than that probably, but Adam didn't really have a way to explain it. He went off gut instinct with it, and it worked out for him. He couldn't really explain the finer details even if he tried. Uriel might be able to, but he was working right now.
…The Mikoshi-AI was still staring at Uriel's fire, creepy fucker.
"...shake your limbs and rotate? Note to self, incorporate full-rotation joints when possible." She muttered, bringing his attention back to the room. She looked back up and continued.
"Right, so I'm thinking of big and heavy guns for each. You shouldn't really ever need a rapid-fire option, no matter how subarashii miniguns are."
Reluctantly, he agreed with a nod and frown. If something needed many bullets, then he'd just punch it to death.
"Right, so I'm thinking of a railgun for your long range option, and a shotgun for your mid-range option. You can't go wrong with either. Then we can give you a back-up weapon for any range with two missile packs on your shoulders."
That he very much agreed with. He nodded with a more enthused (ie, less contemptuous) expression.
"As for mobility, we could do fancy stuff like climbers and jets and gliders, but that's all specialist suit stuff. Best take those out. Instead I'm thinking of simple Skaters for overland travel. Cheap, effective, and doesn't risk killing yourself by dropping from high places."
"Powered or Unpowered?"
She paused and tilted her head. "Why would you go with unpowered Skaters on an ACPA? We have an unlimited budget here."
Adam shook his head. "Go unpowered, I'm fast enough both normally and with the sandevistan that the powered version would actually be slower here."
He's used Skater-equipped ACPAs in the past, this was something he had experience in. She blinked and her optics started showing her running some calculations. She blinked again after a second.
"Oh, wow, you are huh? See, this is why I wanted you here, you just saved a bunch of weight and made it way better. Always ask the soldier what works and doesn't afterall."
"Right, after that I'm giving you a back-loop to carry your club around in. That's about it for the overview, what are your thoughts?"
Adam considered it for roughly three seconds.
"Give it a non-kinetic option with lots of ammo and spread, thermite grenade launcher works here, and an upscaled microwaver."
She considered that for a second. "Ah, for more enemy cyborg targets, I see. Yeah I'll be sure to add those in. Anything else?"
Adam considered it again.
"VRI tech and Shielding are incorporated, correct?"
"Yup. Arasaka premium and double-layered respectively."
"Then no, that's all I can think of. Not bad girlie" Overall not bad, new techie, he'd give you a B for now, lets see how it actually turns out.
She paused at that, and awkwardly squirmed. He raised a brow. She raised a hand to scratch the back of her head.
"Ah… I'm actually a guy, Smasher-san."
…
"What's with the getup then?"
"...it's my fetish."
…
Adam should have probably figured that. He had been directly told that his techie was a guy after all. With how much meatbags were obsessed with cosmetic alteration these days it wasn't surprising. Uriel laughed and nearly set off an alarm. The Mikoshi AI glinted at that. Oi, program, stop staring and go do something else.
It was privately embarrassing that he didn't notice immediately, but no one saw so it's fine. If the new techie blabs he'll just kill them for libel, all square.
'I saw~" Uriel chimed in, face still holding that mocking grin.
'You don't have eyes, idiot, you saw nothing.' Adam shot back. Uriel loosed a bark of laughter.
Eh, that was as good of a place to end the conversation as any. The specs were discussed and he didn't need to be here for anything else, Uriel was also almost done. Adam turned and walked away, he'd leave the techie to it.
"Sorry about that! I'll treat you to some drinks to make it up to you!" Saika offered. Make up for what? Dressing like a girl? That was hardly a crime, dumbass.
As he stomped to the elevator, Uriel started reporting back on what he learned thus far.
Three potential suspect executives who received unusually large deposits within the month leading up to the attack. The only thing left to do was follow up on them from here.
The easiest one to look into was Kaneki Issei, who had received a large some from somebody named 'Declan Griffin'. Uriel looked into the connection to find that he was the leader of Maelstorm of all things. He… didn't think that a mere gang would have connections with a panzerbot that could smash their way through Arasaka tower like that.
Granted, they were also obsessed with the net too, so it made a vague amount of sense. Perhaps the bot had contacted them when he got into the city? The connection started to form in his mind, it was plausible enough.
Unfortunately he might have to kill them all, they were some of the few meatbags that knew the truth of metal over meat. Oh well, more meat for the grinder. Uriel called him cringe, he brought attention to Uriel's deficiencies again by consciously blinking. Uriel laughed again.
Still he had to get more info before writing off this line or not. This was a gang in Night City that he was looking into, there was only one place that made sense.
Welp, looks like the kids were going to Afterlife again. He had to speak to Rogue.