Baba Yaga watched as all the news channel were flooded with Jim's fight.
For all the hype it was getting, for all the hot responses - Baba Yaga were not happy.
Fixers told them about how much street cred they had earned, about just how many mercs were both pissing their pants and wanting at least one of them on their crew.
Hell, even Fixers were clambering to have the Boogeymen work for them.
That didn't matter. To Agent Locust, they had failed.
They needed this to be covert - grab the relic and the data, and run back out before anyone noticed.
They weren't there to cause a scene.
Locust looked at the biochip.
Evelyn Parker was never to be heard of again.
"What are we gonna do with the biochip?"
Leon asked cautiously. It's been 4 days since the fight, and Ram had already looked through the Relic file they had copied.
"… Send it over to Cell. He'll know what to do with it."
Ram snickered.
"Of course he will."
Agent Locust rolled the remote in his hands - too small for his palm.
He sighed in frustration before softly handing the remote over to Leon.
The gesture was appreciated, but there wasn't any channel Leon wanted to watch.
With every single one of them focusing on the recorded footage of the fight- all of them were the same.
-oOo-
"YOU TOLD US, THAT YOU HAD IT UNDER CONTROL!"
"I DID!"
"OH, SO ADAM FUCKING SMASHER SMASHED TO BITS AND WAITING TO GET HIS ENTIRE BODY REPAIRED IS HAVING IT UNDER CONTROL?!"
The Executives of Arasaka was quick to shout at each other.
And it wasn't only the middle management group - the Arasaka Clans had watched the entire recorded footage of the fight.
Film and streamed live - how Adam Smasher ended up as a talking torso in a matter of minutes, and the other side not even worse for wear.
There were already plenty of reasons to fear the Baba Yaga. And when live footage of their actual fight was shown to the world loud and clear - they had one big fat reason more.
Arasaka wasn't just scared, they were panicking shitless.
Of course they did - the reason for Adam Smasher as their head of security was because of his brute strength and skills. His presence, as a living legend, was enough as the face of Arasaka's might.
Then Adam Smasher got himself aggressively dismantled by what could be called the living opposite of him - a hulking figure of white plates. Controlled and reserved in his actions, which made it all the more impactful.
And just like that the Baba Yaga had disappeared.
Several factions of Arasaka had already been arguing with each other - About the current state of Adam Smasher, about the rash decisions of the middle management, about the future of Arasaka's might.
Meiko Arasaka Sanderson had to follow her mother Michiko to this meeting. Quite honestly, she didn't really know why they were trying to come up with an answer right now.
The biggest problem she saw was that they didn't have enough information to come up with a coherent judgement.
"It's more of an ego problem - they had relied on Adam Smasher a lot, and something came that challenged him and the Arasaka by extension."
Michiko had told her on their journey back home.
"Like Johnny Silverhand?" Meiko asked.
"Worse than Johnny Silverhand. At least Adam Smasher apprehended Johnny Silverhand - we don't even know the whereabouts of the Boogeymen."
The videos were already circulating, watched and rewatched by different streams and networks.
For the past week, all the news networks have been talking about it. And every word spread online was a hit on Arasaka's image.
'We called them the Baba Yaga, but now we know that they're not quite the Boogeymen. No, if we've learnt anything - they're the ones we hire to kill the fucking boogeyman.'
'If they can tear Adam Smasher's ass from the rest of his body this easily, I'm… I'm not going to say anything bad about them *chuckles* look, I know they're professionals. You can tell by their work methods and results. I think that really is one of the things that separates the new Boogeymen from the old - that they only focus on the mission. Not an inch more. Adam? We know the collateral damages he caused. Massive, Massive numbers that were silenced and left unattended due to pressure. But, but- we don't know enough about them, and I don't want to find out that they have a breaking point by talking shit about them. I definitely don't want to see them walk out my closet or from out under my bed. *laugh from audience*'
Not to mention, that apparently the Reds and Blues were going to do an emergency conference. They had announced it a week ago - exactly 24 hours after the fight had been streamed live.
People already took note of the armour of the assailant and Cell's own during the interview. Reporters were snooping around Reds and Blues facilities and taking footages of the similar soldiers talking and playing baseball in the badlands with the marines and workers.
People were already correlating the similar features and started to speculate.
Conspiracy theories were already rushing through - aliens? Fully customised cyborgs? Whatever it was, many were sure that the Baba Yagas and Reds and Blues were connected.
Everyone was waiting with baited breath for the conference.
What was President Cell think?
-oOo-
"An emergency conference?" Washington asked.
"Yeah. How did negotiation go with New Mombasa?"
Washington and Cell were sitting in lawn chairs, looking at the night sky in the bad lands with a couple of cold ones.
The wheats fermented were from the vertical farm - A small research group of former Biotechnica and Zetatech researchers had decided to propose their Passion project today. Genetically modified wheat to increase fermentation rate - faster production of beer.
Cell had to ask about the preservation management and flavour before pushing for it - you know, just smoothing out the rough patches.
"This beer is awfully nice."
"New product the employees pitched. They've got huge potential."
"The beer or the workers?"
Cell chuckled.
"Yeah."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, both."
"I've seen the employment rates. It really skyrocketed."
"Yeah, It's a pain in the ass to maintain safe work environments though - lot of them were still thinking like it was their former work environment for the first 2 days."
"How about now?"
"They've relaxed. They're taking in the new work policies really well."
"Of course they do - a maximum daily 3 hours of compulsory workshift, 5 days a week. I'm more surprised there aren't people lazing around to impede your company's progress."
"And how am I gonna counter that - put more work hours on them? They'll just procrastinate after 3 hours anyway. You see this beer?"
Cell held it for Washington to see.
"This didn't come from the 3 hour work shift. This came from them using the remaining free time to chill out and work on their own passion projects. These guys just came together, decided to make better beer and proposed the prototype to me."
"Huh."
"It's cool, isn't it? I'm just acting as a supervisor for this."
"Like you weren't doing that kind of shit in the UNSC Revenant. You worked on a project, got bored, sent whatever blueprints you had to your research team to finish it while you jumped over to the next project."
"Apparently that's actually a successful R method. There's someone here that's bound to take interest in the project I dump on them. Speaking of which - apparently buying Biotechnica means that I own the other facilities that they had. We've recently used Smart matter to reconfigure a hospital owned by them."
"You mean renovate. And yeah, I heard the news."
"God, the inside state was awful. Blood and weird science experiments everywhere. That was another scandal for Biotechnica."
"And you renovated it into…"
"A clinic with cybernetic implant repair facilities."
"Let me guess- you made the implant repair service free?"
Cell looked at Washington.
"Yeah? Why shouldn't I?"
"I mean, is there a particular reason you made it free?"
"Because we're dealing with potential future customers, clients, and employees? If I'm dealing with them, I'd rather deal with them when they're healthy and guaranteed to live long. I'm frankly quite tired already to hear that someone signed up to deal with our product distribution until they suddenly die from a faulty implant and we have to try and bring the new contract dealer up to speed on what we agreed on… and then find out the new replacement died from cholesterol build up leading to cardiac arrest. Not to mention one of the farmers that were happy to have our vertical farm facility installed, but right when he was about to sign the contract the amount of lead poisoning from polluted water caused him to die the next morning. We had to waste about 3 to 4 more weeks before we had the contract signed because the family was grieving and it was too awkward to just walk up to them during the funeral and say 'hey, we're terribly sorry about your pa. Here's a contract he was about to sign before he kicked the bucket by the way- wanna sign it for him instead?'. 4 weeks, Wash! I could've built that shit in 30 minutes and moved on!"
"...You're not wrong, Cell. But you're a weird one. That's for sure."
"Hey, as long as it works."
Washington looked into the horizon briefly before he quickly shuffled in his chair and looked at Cell.
"Wait, Cell…You didn't say that shit word for word in an interview. Did you?"
"..."
"Oh my god, Cell."
"And what, you want me to lie? I can't improv speeches, Wash! You know that!"
"At least- Cell, soften your words! You sound like a psycho!"
"... I'm not a psycho."
"... Yeah, sure."
"Wash, come on. I'm not a psycho."
"Of course you're not, friend. Oh hey, did you also make the health care free?"
"Not really? Healthcare for kids are free, but not for adults. Polls in the office told us a lot a reason why it shouldn't but most of it was just aligned with making sure Reds and Blues is known as a megacorp, not a charity group. The monthly health check up is free, though."
"Uh huh. And the cost for adults for healthcare?"
Cell quickly grabbed the Compad on the round beer table next to him, scrolling through the screen.
"... 50 eurodollars for the standard treatment. That was the largest vote on the poll."
"And the payment method?"
"10 dollars upfront, and the rest of the 10 dollars taken out from the account each month. If they're low on cash, we've also got an option to take 5 eurodollars each month off their income. Like a tax."
"Surgery cost?"
"I said 30 additional eurodollars. Exactly the same payment method. We're still working that out, though."
"Ok. Yeah. Weren't people asking why organ implants are so cheap?"
Cell shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, I just showed them the flash cloning technology we installed."
"... You are an absolute riot."
"I want them to live long enough to make it not a hassle to talk about the same thing to a different person. This is worth it when I don't have to deal with my clients suddenly dying from high cholesterol or liver failure."
"I'm sure your clients will say it's worth it too."
UNSC Revenant was still floating around the orbit of Earth - Captain Church was busy on the other side finalising negotiation with New Mombasa.
You know what? Washington thought to himself, not my problem anymore.
"So, you sure you wanna talk about the Spartans in the emergency Conference?"
Cell shrugged his shoulders.
"The cats out of the bag, isn't it? Everyone watched your boys beat the shit out of like, the strongest guy they know. Then we've had cameras flying over here too. Apparently one of the paparazzis managed to take the photo of Simmons hitting a homerun in a baseball game. Then everyone started drawing strings from Simmon's MJOLNIR and Jim's MIRAGE IIC"
"Oh shit. Who won?"
"Blue team."
"Huh. Caboose?"
"Caboose."
Cell and Washington sipped more of their beer.
"Honestly, I just thought this is a good opportunity to reveal ourselves."
"It's good timing, yeah."
"Yeah."
"... You know the other Megacorps are going to watch you more closely. Probably try to sabotage you."
Cell snickered
"As if they'd do it better than ONI."
"We don't need more insurrectionists."
"And insurrectionists came because the UNSC was oppressive."
"And they persisted once we let them do their own shit."
"Not as powerful as before the Covenant war, though. Most of them just left after they got what they wanted. The rest were just pirates."
"..."
"They were unified because of that. Worst of all, ONI's Smart AI collectives were the one behind most of the Insurrectionist groups' creation and why they were still so splintered apart. Did you know that?"
The hand gripping the beer can trembled, Washington staying silent for a bit before opening his mouth.
"... What?"
"... Oh."
Cell looked at Washington's confused body language, a chuckle was slowly coming out from Cell's helmet.
"Oh, Oh-ho shit! You- you didn't know?"
Does he know? Cell started to clap his hands.
"Oh my god! You didn't know!"
"..."
Washington looked at Cell.
"The Assembly was a collection of ONI Smart AIs that autonomously came together, that was the Mind Assembly- Washington, the reason why the insurrectionists still persisted for that long was because of them!"
"Wait… wait, what?"
"Wash, they're the ones who keep making insurrectionists!"
"... Wait, no… no-"
"I mean, yeah. UNSC's oppressive draconian regime was most to blame for colony dissatisfaction, but most of the rebellions were driven by the AI."
Washington felt like his world was falling apart.
"... You're lying…"
"Oh fuck, I wish I was. When you have time to go back to UNSC Revenant, search up the file 1977-Zeta Epsilon."
"... We don't have a file 1977-Zeta Epsilon…"
"Not without a clearance password. It's AKL1603."
Washington stared at his beer can, then back to Cell.
"... How do you know that."
"How do I… Wash, I was an ODST under ONI. My father was also an ODST, and my Mother was Catherine Halsey's assistant and apprentice. How the fuck would I not know this?"
Washington stayed quiet. In disbelief, and in shock.
"So, long story short - the mind assembly was centred around guidance and survival of humanity. They literally called themselves the shepherds. They were the ones that developed insurrectionist groups of different kinds."
"... Why? Why?!"
"The record logs show that they wanted to prepare humanity from external forces! They calculated and predicted the likelihood of hostile encounters, and wanted humanity to prepare for them. That's why they intentionally underestimated the danger of insurrectionists in official calculations. They directed UNSC away from stopping them so they could… you know, let them grow. Pretty much each of those factions were like science experiments for them. Like uhh… Radical factions were made because they wanted to see what would happen if the rebel movement became radically aggressive and hostile. I mean, they're assholes, sure. But when you realise that we had a 30 year war with Covenant forces they weren't that wrong. I mean, they were the reason why the Spartan Project got greenlit. Before the insurrectionists happened, UNSC rejected Halsey's proposal because of morality issue-"
"My parents died because of AI manipulations… My parents fucking died because AIs wanted to pull a HAL 9000… I- the insurrectionists… they killed my parents… But they were just fucking puppets…"
"Oh."
Cell stopped his rant.
Well, shit…
Washington was gripping the side of his helmets, hunched over in his chair.
"... Fuck, so that's why you were so paranoid about insurrectionists…"
"... I… my parents were nothing but a science experiment for them…?"
"I mean… more like collateral damage to a science experiment, considering they died to the hostile invasions and takeovers, right? but-"
"CELL!"
"Yeah- I know, bad timing."
Washington stared at Cell in disbelief.
"... BAD TIMING?!"
"Ok, more like a poor choice of words. I'm… I'll drop it."
Washington went back to grieving in shock.
Cell sighed.
Guess he wasn't taking the revelation well.
"... Need a blanket?"
That was the best thing Cell could offer to Washington for comfort.
"... I need more beer…"
Washington asked for the second best option.
-oOo-
Reporters were already crowding the space in front of the podium. Camera drones were flying around the sky.
People on the other sides - watching on their phones, their TV, their monitors - even on the big screens on the buildings centred in streets, were watching with anticipation.
Yet for all the anticipation, President Cell nor any employees of Reds and Blues were to be seen.
"Come on… why are you blue-balling us like this?" One of the Journalist muttered under their breath.
Then the sky briefly darkened, few of the reporters looked up and gasped.
A pelican was flying down from the sky - blocking part of the sun and casting a large shadow.
It didn't land - only hovering over the podium as the back opened up.
None of them were marines nor ODST.
Spartans, all of the 10 passengers that dropped out and fell down.
The reporters recognised one of them.
"Shit - focus on the one on the right! It's him!"
Jim growled at the sights of all camera moving to face him.
Leon chuckled
The last one to fall down from the Pelican was none other than Cell.
Walking up the podium and tapping on the mic to confirm that it was working.
"Right, sorry about taking my sweet as time coming here."
Camera shutters waved through the air, but Cell ignored it. He continued on.
"Before I talk about why I announced an emergency conference, I just want to explain something to you guys - questions after I finish talking, Ok? I just want you guys to listen for a moment. It's probably going to answer most of your questions anyway. Everyone agree with that? Yes? Perfect."
Cell cleared his throat.
"Now, you may be wondering why the so-called Baba Yagas are here… Fucking look at their armours and then to ours, I think that answers most of it… You need verbal confirmation? Fine - Baba Yaga is part of our military."
Cell pointed to the 9 Spartans behind him.
"First off, yes - we've come from outerspace. No, we're not aliens. We're human. We've also heard a lot of speculations about the Baba Yagas being Full Borgs. I am here to clarify that. They are not Full Borgs. They are not even Cyborgs."
Cell gestured behind him, twirling his finger in the sky.
The Spartans that came here today all came here to agree to one thing-
These were among the Spartans perfectly happy to reveal their face in public.
Each of them removed their helmet. Revealing human heads, with human hair and human faces.
Cameras were starting to focus on all of them.
Murmur and hushed discussions rippled through the crowd with each faces revealed. Disbelief and gasps filled the air.
"… They're human…"
One of the people from the back whispered.
Cell took off his own helmet. Revealing that despite his unorthodox methods and thought processes - he was human too.
"We're what are called Spartans. Super-soldiers, augmented biologically through the use of genetic modifications, hormones, chemicals and physical surgery. However I want to make it clear - none of them were from cybernetic implants. Despite the augmentation, there has been no replacement of organs or limbs."
More cameras started to appear, and journalists were getting busy recording. Reporters were looking into their cameras - equally shocked and excited.
Cell decided up the ante - he pulled out a hologram projector and placed it callously on the table - the projector lighting up to show several recorded footages of the New Mombasa fight.
"People who know about the New Mombasa will know of us - yes, we are from the UNSC. The forces that were defending the city from the extraterrestrial forces. Spartans were created to serve as elite forces for the UNSC, and have been serving under the Spartan Operations division. I'm sure those that watched footages of New Mombasa has seen some of us at work.
Why did I suddenly decided to reveal this? Because Reds and Blues are a company built from the UNSC, and the fact that we'll be more in contact with you guys meant that people will connect the dots soon. If you guys are going to connect the dots, might as well clarify things so misinformation doesn't spread.
Yes, the Baba Yagas were a Spartan Fireteam sent by the UNSC as undercover mercs to gather intel on Night City's situation. From the city infrastructures, to political situations and to surrounding companies. And also to gather enough fund for us to use when we interact with your market and economy"
Cell rolled his eyes around his head and thought for a moment. Breathing out in frustration - his expression, usually covered by his helmet, was evident for all to see and record.
Did he forget anything else to say?
Cell looked to the crowd.
"I think that's all I can think of at the moment. I'm open to questions now."
The crowd took this with an uproar- hundreds of questions suddenly flooding to Cell from the crowd.
Cell took this moment to gesture back at his fellow Spartans.
You guys can put your helmet back on now.
"Are all of your Spartans capable of winning against Adam Smasher?!"
"I'd say that's an average baseline for Spartan Candidacy."
"You told us Spartans are genetically modified- does that mean all of you were 'grown' as super soldiers?!"
"No. The official first lines of Spartans were created during 2021. During that time UNSC had a controversial method of kidnapping 150 candidates: the ages ranging between 6 to roughly 14 years old. This news spread after the Human-Covenant War and majority of the ones leading the program were persecuted. The second line of Spartans were created during the war, this time war orphans volunteered in order to take revenge on the Covenants. The most recent line - which I came from - finally had enough of a technological advancement to use fully consenting human adult soldiers as candidates, as UNSC had intended during the concept development of the first Spartan Program. Most of it comes from genetic modification of both somatic and germ cells, as well as surgery and chemical augmentations."
The rate these questions were asked were accelerating. Before it diversified- some asking about the capability of Spartan's sexual reproduction, some asking about the validity of some of the Spartans playing baseball or soccer with their employees and local civilians.
Some wished to really clarify if there were no mechanical enhancements made during the surgery.
Some also asked about if Spartans were still capable of ingesting normal food.
Soon it was chaos, something Cell was trying to answer, but slowly failing.
Until he heard with clear distinction, a question that questioned his capabilities.
"Does this mean majority of your product are actually developed with alien technology?"
"And you think Fucking Arasaka could make this shit? It's obvious, people! You've fucking seen me renovate the Biotechnica Tower!"
The questions slowed down, several blinking at the sudden outburst.
A few who already experienced his rant from the previous interview could see the anger rising already.
Now that his helmet was off, it was easier to see, but still just as intimidating.
Cell gripped the bridges of his nose, holding his hands up to the crowd.
"Look - buddy, look- listen. The main reason why I wanted to talk about this is because I really, really just wanted you tell you guys that no matter what I build for you guys? This shit right here, is the magnum opus."
Cell briefly tapped his foot on the ground before hurling towards his comerades - arms outstretched to display them like they were a new car model.
"I mean- how the fuck do you top this shit, man?! This shit is 38 years of augmentation and modification that constantly updated and upgraded over the course of it's existence!"
Cell leaned on the podium and chuckled, before opening his mouth again.
Cell had clear frustration etched on his face.
"... Do you guys wanna know why Spartans were made? We had rebellions in colony planets. Do you know what UNSC did? They made the first line of Spartans to deal with it. Children - for crying out loud, kidnapped children. Augmented with invasive surgeries, genentic modifications, pretty much brain-washed into soldiers. All for what, riot control? To act as fucking military polices? Strong arm people? That was our intended use. Our superiors were called many things - dogs, weapons. A fucking tool. They got spat on, had junk thrown their way. Feared.
And then the war happened. And then Spartans started pointing their gun not at people, but at the Covenant.
... Spartan IIs were made as Oppressive forces. And they ended up being the vanguard of humanity. Not their intended uses, I know. But then again we're all fucking stupid enough to ignore the 'don't use it for unintended uses' sign labelled on the fucking front.
Do you know what people called them now? Heroes. Fucking, heroes. A symbol of hope and a shining beacon for the injured and the scared.
Spartan IIs and Spartan IIIs.
That's why we continued on to Spartan IVs.
I don't know what the future will bring to us, but if it turns a man's nightmare into a kid's dream? Fucking hell, I know I don't want to let my senior spartans' efforts down.
Because these Spartans, for all their appearances, aren't machines made to be unbreakable. They were people who bled, broke, and sometimes didn't even come back. They knew this, THEY KNEW THIS! THEY KNEW THE COST! And they still walked! Still fought! Because it was the only thing they knew, and that was what a Spartan was.
… Sorry, I'm ranting again. Fuck, it's just- I wanted to address at least this clearly - you will see us. You will see us with guns, guarding our facilities - walking down the street stomping around like fucking gorillas. Isn't that right Jim?"
Cell looked behind him to Jim- the Spartan III simply groaned as he turned away from Cell's gaze.
The Spartans around him chuckled.
"Yeah, we know how you walk. You oversized silver gorilla. I just… I'm repeating my rant from the last interview - I just don't want to be leashed or controlled so willingly again. And I just wanted you guys to see-"
Cell sighed, gathering his thoughts a bit longer before reiterating.
"So when you see us, I know you guys will see the danger and the horror. That, I understand. I've seen your faces when we were jumping down here.
I just wanted you guys to also see what the other planets saw in us. Someday.
I just wanted you guys to see the legacy our seniors sacrificed for us. For you. For all of us.
Because I've been on the short end of the stick. The one people use to poke other people. Let me tell you, I'm just tired.
Look, I get it! Some of you are skeptics- as you should be! Even good intentions die with bad results. Don't trust everything that's fucking fed to you on a silver plate and golden spoon! Dig through it yourself with your own hands! Explore it on your own two feet and with your own two eyes! AS. YOU. SHOULD!
So it's entirely understandable if you think 'oh great, another megacorp with a big promise.' Yeah! It is a big promise! It does sound like a propaganda! BECAUSE IT IS A PROPAGANDA! It is, I'm tired already trying to lie to you that it's not.
Call me radical! Call me dangerous! I know who I am, and what I am! I am dangerous! I am a lethal force! I probably am crazy, judging by my recent medical tests! I am a menace to society- I've actually heard that shit so many times by my former higher ups, by the way. Apparently my ideas are 'symbols of insubordination.' Funny little words, they probably threw that shit around to everything they didn't like.
And you fucks should be thanking Christ that I'm not worse than that.
The point was- I know what you guys are saying about me. Polarising on the network. I'm aware.
Keep talking. What you think, what you heard.
Just as long as it's the conclusion you've reached with your own judgement. I'm not that mad.
And I've got bigger shit to clean off my plate than to silence it.
Because we're not here to control you.
We're here to build and rebuild.
To venture more on what we found, what we have discovered, for science! For humanity!
And most of all- We're here to clean up your shit because apparently some of you weren't educated manners and basic human common sense.
And I think I let my actions- our, actions. The Spartan's actions, shout that out enough times."
The crowd remained silent for a noticeable while.
Each looked and lingered on the Spartan's helmets.
Even the ones people were too scared to look into when they saw them in the Afterlife, or when they were talking to them when they were clients hiring the Baba Yagas as mercs.
One of the reporters finally opened their mouth again.
"Will you be disclosing full history of the UNSC?"
Cell puffed up his cheeks in thought.
"Shit, I might. Probably not now though. You've seen how this conference went. Hell, you've seen how the surprise interview went. I rant, a lot. I probably need to schedule a time to just sit down with one of you guys on camera and just talk about it. I've got files about it too. Recordings that I can show you while I explain. It's gonna takes some time though. It's… it's a long history."
"Do you all have full names?"
"Yeah, we do. My full name is Tony Klein. But I've been called Spartan Cell more times than I've been called my name."
Cell looked back at the Spartans, move aside from the mic and pointing at it.
"Any of you guys comfortable enough to tell your full names?"
A few remained in their spot, but other few were walking up to the podium.
"Richard Simmons. People just call me Spartan Simmons."
"Kim Kilwhan. Better known by most as Spartan Leon."
"… Jim Cranston. Jim-G199."
"Spartan Killshot.
… Arasaka Kenichi."
… Wait, what?
All eyes looked to the one standing on the podium - the sniper of the Baba Yaga. The reporters saw the asian male with short hair, and the barcode tattoo on the left side of his face clear his throat after the bombshell he had just dropped.
"Could we ask you to repeat that sir? About your surname?"
"… Arasaka Kenichi. My Great-Great-Great Grandfather was Arasaka Hosei… Nephew of Arasaka Sasai."
People's eyes were slowly growing wide.
"… For your information, I'm just one of the Spartan IV. It's not as high of a rank as you think. More of a middle management."
Killshot briefly turned his face to Cell.
"Hell, I barely even work with this guy - his twin brother? Yes. Him? Not so much."
Cell grinned awkwardly at Killshot nonchalantly pointing a finger at him, looking into the cameras.
He could already see the jaws dropping to the floor- some figuratively, some literally.
Boy, sure hope Saburo doesn't get a heart attack from this info.
"I've barely met my extended family, though. I've been with the UNSC more than them. I mean… fuck, I've only found out that my extended family has a megacorp with our family name plastered on it when I landed down here."
"Shit, I was going to ask if you guys have any more questions on Reds and Blues… but I guess this is more of a hot shit to you guys, huh?"
Cell chuckled before putting his helmet back on and slapping Killshot by the back.
Killshot, in turn smirked. His expression distorting into one resembling a scheming fox.
"Be lucky you didn't have me talk about Operation Shield World 9 - you know, the first mission we met."
"We don't talk about Operation Shield World 9."
The reporters and journalists were slowly rising to an uproar once more.
However, now it was for a different reason.
"Mister Kenichi Arasaka! Sir! Can we ask more about your history?!"
"Is it really the same Hosei Arasaka famous for suddenly disappearing into thin air during 1972?!"
"Have you been in contact with any of the Arasaka here on Earth?!"
"Do you have any evidence that supports the legitimacy of your claim of heritage?!"
Killshot sighed, but soon smirked as he turned away from the camera, winking at Cell.
Cell scoffed as he waved his hands at Killshot before walking off the podium.
For a sniper, he was goddamn useful as a diversion.
"Oh boy." Killshot replied. "Those are a lot of questions. Hard to answer all of them-"
Kenichi gripped at his neck to pull out a necklace.
No, not a necklace- a dog tag.
A worn dog tag- the lack of rust despite the wears told everyone that it was still well looked after.
Yet one detail was distinct - most dog tags came in pairs of two.
This only had one tag.
"Everyone focus on this.
Great Uncle Arasaka Saburo, I'm sure you know what this is.
And I'm sure you still have the other dog tag lying around in your room somewhere."
It was Hosei Arasaka's dog tag.
One of them shared to his cousin as proof and a memento of both of their survival in WW2.
"You'll have questions about it. I'm sure.
Don't know if I can answer all of them, but if you want to at least ask…"
Killshot looked behind his shoulders and pointed his thumb at the CEO of Reds and Blues leaving, whistiling in his helmet while doing so.
"You know who to contact to set up a one to one talking session."
-oOo-
"Holy shit…"
"Did great-grandfather know about this?"
"Probably not. But if he didn't, he's going to find out soon enough…"
Michiko Sanderson and Meiko Arasaka muttered as they watched the conference live.
"Holy shit!"
"That's what the fucking NC Boogeymen were?!"
Maine cried out in disbelief, as the rest of the edgerunners watched in shock - jaws dropping just as wide as the reporters.
Dorio and Rebecca had been mimicking the fight between Adam Smasher and Jim behind the couch, but even they had their eyes on the conference the entire time.
But Dorio was grinning the most.
No Chrome.
As a former member of the Animals Gang, she knew that her friends in her former affiliation were just going to worship these people.
"… Wow."
Sasha muttered as she watched the news with her sister.
She thought back to the Biotechnica heist, when the rain was hitting down on Noble 6 before he disappeared.
Guess there really was a face to picture behind that helmet of his.
"… Holy shit…"
David muttered at all these revelations.
He was sliding from his couch - these were a lot of revelation to take in all at once.
But he grinned.
The anticipation and the hype for the past week were worth it.