The Arasaka bunker protocols were first devised during the turbulent twenty-thirties. They were simple in overall concept, but sometimes tricky in execution. They were, in effect, a full withdrawal to the established defensive stronghold. In most militaries it was standard to bring troops back line after line, and slowly bleed off enemy strength as it approached, only falling back when each defensive line was finally overwhelmed.
That was not what the bunker protocols were meant for. The bunker protocols were meant to preserve as many non-combatant lives as possible, and were specifically used when non-combatant assets were currently deployed to the field. It was a retrieval operation that immediately withdrew to the last defensive hold, without the soldiers or non-combatants delaying their withdrawal at other defensive lines.
It was a three step strategy. First, the heaviest and longest-ranged assets were to be deployed to the defensive lines of HQ proper, to defend it and provide covering fire for incoming allies. Second, all mobile assets were to be mobilized and deployed to the field, seeking out the non-combatant assets, and escorting them back to the HQ. Once no more non-combatant assets remained on the field, all surviving combatant assets were to reinforce the heavy assets currently guarding the HQ until the bunker protocols were ordered to cease.
Kagekaze was surprised at receiving such an order from Jugemu Jun. Both because the president did not often directly intervene in security matters, trusting his chief of security to perform his task, and because the bunker protocols hadn't been used in quite some time. It was still a valid strategy, and the security assets were trained in it, but it was… retrograde.
No, not retrograde, there was another word for it. Kagekaze struggled to think of the word as he sent a nonstop stream of messages to all mobile assets in the city, optics jumping between streamed screens and messages in order to best coordinate the fulfillment of the bunker protocols.
The heavy assets had already been deployed to defend the entrances of Arasaka Tower. Three-quarters of the building was guarded by all sniper-specialists they had on hand. The entrance of the building was expected to be hit the worst by the oncoming riot, so their current strongest asset was deployed there.
A single DaiOni, and two crates of extra ammunition. Aoihachi growled out a confirmation earlier, wrestling with the Demon's will of violence. Kagekaze was still concerned for the boy, to be able to hold back the bloodthirst amidst all the bloodshed soon to follow was a mighty task indeed. He hummed to himself, and sent a message to the president.
[Jugemu-sama, requesting permission to replace ACPA asset as your security, and deploy ACPA asset to reinforce HQ entrance.]
The response was nearly immediate.
[Denied. You cannot coordinate the bunker protocols effectively while guarding me.]
Kagekaze paused for a second. This was rather odd.
[Jugemu-sama, I am capable of coordinating them through my internal agent and optical chyron display.]
There was a moment before Kagekaze received a response.
[...Yes, those were invented recently, weren't they? Previous request approved, I am in my office.]
The internal agent had prototypes as far back as 2020, and was widespread in use by 2040. The chyron's prototypical counterpart, the heads-up-display, was also fairly common in the 2020s. He was starting to develop a hint of suspicion.
EMP shielding for fully cybernetic warriors was nigh-infallible, their artificial body allowing total control over the safeguarding of delicate parts. EMP shielding for cybernetics on those that were still flesh and blood was not perfect, however, as you simply couldn't keep the components fully isolated and still compatible with the nervous system. There was always a chance for it to fail.
Jugemu Jun, like almost every Arasaka executive, had extensive neuralware. The chiefest among such was the Black Box. A simple device that recorded everything the individual experienced onto memory chips. A single chipware socket could hold up to ten such chips, each chip storing up to a year of memory. Usually, each decade these memory chips would be replaced and the old set copied onto a hard external database. These databases were then delivered to the Arasaka Data Vault in Japan, and added to the great horde of information sifted through by the mountain-AI that dwelled in those servers.
Jugemu Jun was the president of Arasaka NC, and before that an operations officer in Night Parade. The potential risk of an enemy agent finding the hard database and copying or stealing the information inside was too great. He did not have a single chipware socket to store information, he had ten. One hundred years of potential memory recorded and stored within the chipware safely tucked away under synth-flesh and seamless paneling in his neck.
EMP shielding on those who were still flesh was imperfect. Jugemu Jun had many, many memories that he could review in perfect clarity at any point.
It was, admittedly, a titanic leap in assumptions. Kagekaze had only two pieces of evidence pointing towards something like this. Still, his instincts had served him well in the past, and he was inclined to trust them. Still, it shouldn't be too great of an issue. It could be dealt with after the current disaster was handled.
They had received word of what was happening relatively quickly after the EMPs went off in Night City. A promising young woman named Valerie Taylor had sent the details of the bounty placed on all of Arasaka to him. He had sent a security squad out to retrieve her and her allies as thanks immediately afterwards.
Shaitan… that was a name he hadn't heard in a very long time, not explicitly by any means. There were only so many Eclipse full conversion frames in existence, and Kagekaze's personal information network tried its best to keep track of most of them.
Although they never fought directly, they were the only two Eclipse frames in the 2023 battle of Night City. Kagekaze tried his best to keep track of his activities afterwards, when Shaitan had escaped Adam's grasp by being rescued by mercenary allies, even if reduced to just a biopod at the time. Shaitan promptly got back to doing what he had been doing for years before.
Every few months, an Arasaka asset would be attacked, sometimes destroyed. There was always enough circumstantial evidence to pin the attack on him, even if he was careful to remove most traces of his presence afterwards. Namely because Shaitan cut a large 'S' into at least one surface every time he successfully destroyed an asset.
These attacks were bothersome for years after the fact, but gradually had slowed in frequency even as they increased in success rate. Soon enough, it wasn't an attack every few months. It was a forward operating base going dark every few years. Usually some of the most valuable assets were pilfered, and always a man-sized 'S' was carved into at least one wall or floor.
When factored into the overall cost of tracking one eclipse borg down in the middle of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, however, the price of smaller bases going dark every five years or so was simply not as costly. As such, Shaitan remained relatively low on the list of priorities for security assets in the field.
He was at the door to the president's office. He briefly paused his musings even as he continued sending messages out to coordinate the bunker protocols, and knocked properly. The multitude of cameras outside the doorway confirmed his visual appearance, and his IFF transponder confirmed his data-identity. The door opened, and he walked inside. The office was dark, running off the bare minimum energy in order to preserve as much of the tower's backup power supply as possible. All of which was standard procedure for bunker protocols.
He nodded to Akakyu, who nodded back. He bowed to the president, as was proper, and moved to the standard guard position. The president did not respond other than a brief nod, currently rapidly typing away at his screen, glasses glowing from the light contrasted in the dark room. No time for ceremony then, it seems.
"Asset Akakyu, you are to reinforce Asset Aoihachi at the front of the HQ." He commanded, to which the hotshot red DaiOni gave an eager nod and stomped its way out the room towards the elevator. The earnest love between those two was downright charming, he approved of it.
He looked at the president, focused so much on his non-stop work. His optics banished the darkness of the room, and he noticed an alarming fact.
"Jugemu-sama, your nose is bleeding."
The president nodded at this, and replied without pausing his work.
"I suffered internal hemorrhaging in a fall earlier. My bioware has already repaired the damage." The president glanced at him, and spoke with a flat tone that carried a slightest hint of humor. "I'm getting old, you know, falls are a bit more exciting for me than they are for youngsters."
That confirmed it in his mind. Kagekaze gave a polite chuckle, and went back to focusing on his work. One optic and his auditory suite focused on the room, and the other optic cycling through streams of information and delivering the correct orders at the correct times. The president would have to see medical and technical attention after this, assuming he survived the aftermath of Arasaka-sama's attention turning fully to Night City after this incident.
Kagekaze doubted it. The mistakes had simply piled up too much at this point. Jugemu Jun was likely going to die very soon, and these were his last few hours or days. He idly wondered if the president would be given the right to seppuku.
The president paused in his work, and suddenly focused entirely on one part of his screen.
"Look here, security chief." He said. Kagekaze focused his optics on the screen, zooming in to look.
It wasn't a well known fact, but Arasaka Tower has three layers of security cameras now. Previously they had two, but the most recent attack on the tower by 'Blackbeard' had caused a revision in the security. The first was a most obvious layer, a basic set of cameras that captured all the expected information that industry standard cameras were supposed to. The second layer was hidden inside of hard-to-spot locations, and recorded information in infrared, virtuality, and ultraviolet as well.
The newest layer was a live x-ray imaging and motion sensor set of cameras and recorders, buried in the concrete walls and connected to an entirely separate power supply. And currently, it was detecting a single individual slowly making its way to underground chambers. The place where the non-combatants were currently being kept safely inside of. That individual was invisible to standard optics, infrared, and ultraviolet.
Kagekaze recognized the silhouette. It was one he used to have. "There is a lone Eclipse cyborg making its way towards the non-combatants." He spoke in grim realization. "Circumstantial evidence would indicate that to be enemy combatant Shaitan."
The president nodded slowly. Kagekaze was about to deploy security assets to engage with him, but was stopped by the president's next words.
"Security chief, you are to engage the enemy and protect the non-combatants."
He paused. "Jugemu-sama?"
"Cyborg-Shaitan has decades of combat experience. You are currently the only cyborg upon the Island, as Kuroichi has been deployed already. Our ACPA troopers are unlikely to be experienced enough to defeat him without damaging the structural integrity of the tower."
The president looked up to him.
"I will initiate a lockdown of my office. You are to engage the enemy. That is an order."
Kagekaze nodded, and departed. After he left, the locks on the reinforced door engaged, and the metal panels dropped down from the ceiling slots.
The screen indicating the enemy's location flickered once.
Above the seat of the highest authority among Arasaka in the North American continent, hanging from the ceiling, a wicked spirit silently decloaked.
The biggest predators never look up.
—
David Martinez had a slight problem at the moment. He was currently outside of Arasaka Tower, and he wasn't technically an employee of Arasaka. He had been given a warning shot when he tried to get back in, and an apologetic message from Aoihachi about the circumstances. That was when he first learned of the city-wide bounty hunt going on. Fucker, don't blow a basketball sized hole in the concrete next to him as a warning short, he nearly panicked and shot back.
So, for the rest of the night, he was stuck outside of the relative safety of the tower. That was mostly fine with him. Lucy, Rebecca, and his mom were all already inside the tower, and thus under the safety of the lockdown. He could outrun gonks that thought they could cash in on a bounty from him all night, fast is what he was good at. That part wasn't a problem.
What was a problem was that he knew for a fact that Katsuo was supposed to be about halfway between the tower and Pacifica right now. He had been heading back to the fortress to finish his paperwork for the day there. Katsuo, by his own admission, was not good in a fight. Katsuo was also currently on some exec's bad side, David wouldn't put it past them to try and delay security assets to him.
He wasn't about to trust his friend's life to the slimy fuckers that he's been dealing with this past week. So he was running, and constantly trying to call the stupid asshole who wouldn't pick up. There was a good chance the EMP earlier took out his internal agent, so that wasn't terribly unexpected. It was still worrying.
So David ran along the various roads between the tower and Pacifica, back and forth, from most likely to least likely, looking for his blue-haired asshole of a friend. Everytime some fucker shot at him, he rushed in and blew their head's off. He took their guns too for good measure, he would need the shots before the night was over.
It had been an hour since he started. He was starting to get worried.
"On your right, bossman!" The 'all-american' voice of his new shotgun scope called out.
He rolled under a slug fired from some hobo with a pop-up gun in his arm. David hated him already. He activated his sandevistan, raced forwards, and punched his skull inwards. The gun looked useless, so he ignored it. His sandevistan deactivated, and he shook the gore off his fist.
"Thanks." he responded, even though he knew it was basically just a chatbot.
"Anytime bossman!" came the cheerful reply from the little speaker now attached to his gun. Displayed on the scope optic was the little animated representation of his gun doing a sloppy military salute.
The Militech Standard Military Shotgun was apparently named 'Miss-Miss'. A tall (relative to the screen size, of course), blonde, and busty girl in an outfit that was half gunmetal grey military uniform, half 'daisy dukes' shorts and tied-up camo shirt. The shirt was either tied up into a knot, or unfolded depending on if the stock was folded or not. She had a lunchbox on her belt, which held an improbable amount of fast food inside. Enough for eight of her cartoonishly massive bites. Such bites often being followed by some truly impressive belches.
Her bra and panties were American flag patterned. He knew this because her clothes were rather skimpy. It was a little embarrassing to carry her around, but she had more than proven her worth at this point, so he ignored the heat on his face whenever someone looked at him talking to her.
He kept running, looking for any hint of electric blue among panicking civvies and running 'Saka cylons. He had been at this for an hour now, he'd keep it up all night if he had to.
He stumbled a bit when he saw a kid being backed into an alley by gonks with baseball bats. He recognized the kid. A kid with brown hair and glasses in a suit that didn't quite fit him.
A kid whose mother he killed a few months ago.
He cursed and stomped a heel into the ground, leaping in that direction.
The gangers turned to the source of the sound. He was already above them. He activated his sandevistan and fired Miss-Miss twice. Two of them found new holes in their temples.
Still in the air, he kicked, and his chrome heel partially hooked around the jugular of the last one.
His sandevistan deactivated, he used his weight to swing the meat to the ground and crush his neck and spine in one smooth stomping motion.
He unfolded from the partial crouch and looked at the kid.
Kid was maybe only a couple years younger than him, but he certainly felt much younger than that with how he tried to disguise his trembling. David sighed, suddenly feeling quite tired from doing his best to suppress the memory of killing this kid's mother.
She didn't need to die. He had killed her all the same. It wasn't a good feeling.
All he could do was keep running.
"You work for 'Saka, kid?" He asked, to which he received a nervous and hesitant nod. David nodded in turn, and walked to the entrance of the alley. He looked over his shoulder at the kid, who was staring at the bodies.
"C'mon kid, let's get you to the tower." He stated. It wasn't really a request. The kid probably realized it was for the best anyways, and started following behind him.
…He was doing unpaid escort duty right now, wasn't he? He groaned internally.
Miss-Miss alerted him to another hostile. He took them out quick as he could and thanked her.
He then realized what he had just done, and glanced at the kid.
The kid was deadpanning at him.
He groaned internally again. Tonight was just the worst.