Dorio and Sasha quietly watched the door. Soon enough the two heard the sound of knuckles hitting metal.
Dorio quietly tiptoed to the door, looking through the eye hole and ready to start shooting if it was someone they shouldn't meet.
By the way Dorio opened the door and stepped to the side, it was their back up.
This was the first time Dorio and Sasha managed to meet with a boogeyman face to face. The Sci-fi looking militaristic black helmet with a gold visor catching the duo's eyes as the merc entered the room.
And fuck, the guy was HUGE. Easily standing two heads taller than Dorio. Sasha felt the height difference the most, since Dorio herself stood a head above Sasha.
"Dorio and Sasha?" Dorio and Sasha were quietly taken aback by the voice coming from the black armour. Ignoring the fact that it was the first time they heard any of the Baba Yagas besides the leader talk. A little muffled by the helmet, sure, but they half-expected hearing something demonic. Something distorted purposefully for anonymity. And for the fear factor. Like those XBDs showing Adam's latest massacre. That Arasaka full'borg had a voice that not even his mother could love.
"Oh… yeah, yeah. I'm Dorio, and this is… Sasha?"
The giant's voice was surprisingly calm and smooth. It was disorientating for the two, especially for Sasha.
"Sasha!"
"Wha- huh?
Sasha tore her gaze away from Noble 6 when she heard Dorio shout.
"Happy that you like our back up, but not the right time!"
"R-right!"
Sasha quickly snapped back to reality, slightly slouched shoulders straightened and lowered arm raising the pink Omaha pistol back into position.
"Is the package secure?" Noble 6, on the other, hand, saw the situation (and his radar) and lowered the looted gun.
Dorio snickered as she pointed to the giant crate at the back.
"Yeah, over there. We checked the content, everything's still intact. The case is pretty tough to crack."
"Heavy too." Sasha added.
"Oh, definitely heavy. It took the two of us heaving up the stairs - and unlike me, Sasha doesn't have much in the muscle department-."
Noble 6 quietly walked past Dorio and Sasha as they spoke. Still acting like he was engaged in the conversation, the Spartan opened the lid to confirm their testimony, closed it back and promptly lifted it with one arm like it weight absolutely nothing.
Dorio's words were cut short when she saw Noble 6 effortlessly carry the cargo with one arm and start walking back to them. The metal box under his arm like it was a handbag.
"Is there anything else you two need to take?"
"…No," Dorio quietly answered. Her eyes were still glued to Noble 6. "No, that's… that's pretty much it."
"Good. Most of them were chased off. But it's possible that they'll come back. We'll have to leave now. Few of them left their cars - we can use them."
When Noble 6 started walking out of the temporary shelter, Sasha took note of the smaller details of the Spartan's Mjolnir suit.
She hadn't noticed the subtle glowing blue lights speckled calculatingly placed around the chest and shoulder pad.
She saw the undersuit beneath the plates as the giant moved, condensing and flattening, bulging in few places like it were muscles.
The movement itself made Sasha believe that their back up was a full 'borg. If he really was a 'borg, then it was the most high tech prosthetics Sasha had ever seen. Megacorp material, and an experimental one at that. She managed to look at the side of the helmet more closely, seeing a large [UNSC] logo printed below where the ears would be. That wasn't a Corporation she had ever heard of - believe her, as a netrunner she would be the first one to get info about Megacorps making such high-quality military-grade chassis.
Sasha tried to subtly scan him as he started walking down the stairs. Nothing - her optics picked up nothing. That was the strangest thing - it wasn't an active jammer or concealer or ICE, Sasha's scanner just didn't seem to realise that Noble 6 was there.
It was as if Noble 6 was nothing more than a mirage. Sasha pondered if that was the reason why the Mercs said they were invisible in the night.
Sasha felt a sudden nudge on the shoulders, causing her to flinch and straighten her back. She turned to see that the perpetrator was her very own duo, who was grinning ear to ear in a fashion that caused Sasha to grumble.
"Da-hamn Sasha! I knew you took a liking to our big helper, but I didn't think you'd be eyeing him up like a cat seeing fish!"
"Shut up, Dorio." Sasha growled. "It's not like that."
"You sure? It's the first time I've seen you give someone those kinds of eyes."
Sasha ignored muscular solo, pushing past Dorio and following Noble 6 down the stairs.
Dorio let out a chuckle at the sight. If she told her crew that pushing their buttons weren't fun, she'd seriously be lying.
Arasaka counterintelligence division was a part of the Japanese Megacorp that presented itself as a security against data.
Everyone knew that was a front - only an aspect of what they really were, what they really did on a daily basis. Espionage, investigations, assassinations, literally stealing other Corpo data.
For a while they thought themselves to be the prime eye in the sky, thanks to getting Netwatch's assistance and their own advanced experimental technology. Night City bought it for a moment too.
Then the shadows gave birth to boogeymen. Then everything started going dark for them.
Their own people suddenly disappearing in their office, discovered a month or two later bloody and bruised. Barely breathing too, if they were lucky.
Cargos suddenly disappearing into thin air, highly confidential data suddenly leaked.
Their only solace was that they weren't the only ones being targeted - other Megacorps were suffering the same mysterious circumstances too. They all soon learned the general gist of what was happening when they started dropping gigs into Rogue's lap.
Baba Yaga, they called themselves.
Slavic enigma of the wood, witches- ogresses that either swept people away to cook and eat, or elders that helped the hero of the folktale.
An apt description, Kate had come to realise the more she tried to dig any info regarding them. Depending on who's perspective it was - and who's coins were being fished out of the pocket, they really were here to help a poor scop out of the trouble heap… or to eat up a choom the moment everyone turned to look somewhere else.
Kate looked out the window, the fingers of the crossed arm digging into her lean prosthetic biceps.
The buildings and highway roads below her were getting drenched in rain.
And once a moment, once a single moment,
She expected the rain to bend around something.
Like it did three weeks ago.
Were they happy they got the package as intended? Yeah, kinda.
Were they happy that it took full two weeks before militech realised their package wasn't coming back? Everyone in the Counter intelligence division were laughing.
Was Kate grateful that they got the best there was on this street?
No.
Not one bit.
Because unlike the rest of the Corporats in this building, Kate knew what that meant.
That Night City had people that were just as capable of slipping in and out of Arasaka territory unnoticed.
Who knows, maybe they have already been doing that. There was no way to tell right now.
Kate sipped her coffee as two people entered her office.
The one in front, stepping into the light and revealing themselves, was her assistant Douglas.
The mono-eye optic glowing red as he handed over a shard to Kate.
The figure behind Douglas remained in the shadows, eyes just as red as Douglas, but the absolute stature of the silhouette made them more menacing.
It took days, almost a week and a half, trying to acquire this and process it with enough resolution.
But they finally had what they wanted.
"Just so you know, ma'am." Douglas added as Kate took the shard and inserted it into her computer. Holographic screen came to life to start as she opened the file inside for all 3 to see. "The counterintelligence officer sent to retrieve and process the footage was found dead in her office 2 hours ago. As soon as she finished everything."
Kate didn't visibly react - a twitch of her index finger the best she showed. "… Cause of death?"
"Suicide. Put a bullet in her own head with a Nue Pistol." Douglas clarified. "Her colleagues reported that she had shown strange behaviour ever since she was put on this task. Got worse as nights went by. She had left a digital note, and the new Counterintelligence agent has been going through her personal files - records show that she recorded seeing 'figures' at her bedside. Medical records already showed that she was suffering from health problems due to stress - heavy medications were found in her office drawers too."
Douglas sent the file to Kate with a glow of his eyes.
Kate quietly read through it, finger hovering over the video file.
[I started this task as an Arasaka analyst thinking that they were just some new mercs. Boogeymen, they were called. Baba Yaga, they called themselves. Scary names they chose themselves to look big, look scary. Look tough.
Every night I watch through different video clips of anything I can find, and I realise one thing - they undersold themselves. This wasn't their attempt to make them look like a tough adversary or legend- this was their attempt to look human. They talk and act like this to blend in with us, to make us think that they are like us.
I leave a message to anyone who will carry on my work for Arasaka, whether willingly or not- The only position in nature where you would play yourself down and mimic yourself as something less than intimidating, is when you are the predator. Praying Mantis were recorded to disguise themselves as flowers to lure in butterflies and bees, Spiders mimicking ants to hunt them. Aggressive mimicry existed in life because it WORKED, just like how it is working now.
I've gathered any records I can find, and I leave them here so that they do not make the mistake I did. They disguise themselves as mercs, boogeymen-for-hire. And we all ate that up hook, line, and sinker.
They are not mercs.
They are not boogeymen, they are not here to hide under the bed or inside closets to take kids at night.
They are not the Baba Yaga. The slavic witch can at least be tricked, can be reasoned with.
They are not human.
They are worse.
They are darkness itself taken form. They mimic speech to make us think they can be negotiated, that they can be reasoned, that they can compromise. They have shown their true colours once they strike, for at that moment they no longer have a reason to keep up the facade.
They are demons, wearing human hide.
And the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
When people like us realise the great lie, they know.
You've heard the lie, now they can see you.
You've seen the lie, now they can hear you.
Never speak about it, not like I did. If you do, they can touch you.
I've seen their face on the glass window of my office. Whether it's just a figment of my imagination or the source of the fear itself closing in on me, I do not know and I no longer do not care. I'll be ending my shift on my own terms. I've already decided on that.]
Kate stood silent for a moment, before steeling herself and sneering.
"So she couldn't take the pressure. So what - we got what we needed out of her."
Kate pressed the video file.
An XBD file, processed into ordinary footage. While Kate and the other 2 watched it on the comfort of the office couch, sipping beverages, the analyst would most likely have been using the Brain dance to sift through - feeling the fear and pain of the Tyger Claws as a hulking mass of black metal was flying down from the sky.
Slowed footage showed how small flames were erupting from the back and the legs, before a sudden burst of force rushed down on the ground.
The Boogeyman had slammed onto the ground with might that caused a small quake to move through the asphalt, knocking several of the Tyger Claws off their feet, some launched into the air - unlucky few that were too close was crushed instead.
Then it started. Bullets flying at the boogeyman that bounced off of glowing hexagonal particles, not even one one managing to hit the walking mechanical armour.
Kate saw Douglas's mouth widen slightly ajar, and she felt her jaw fall slack too as the footage continued.
One footage showed the perspective of the Kunoichi, complete with the movement in the footage slowing down to tell the audience that the Tyger Claw had activated her Sandevistan, circling around the Baba Yaga.
Then the boogeyman turned his head faster, moved much faster than the Kunoichi too. With a flash, the Kunoichi was sent flying across the town and hitting her friend. That footage ended with the optics of the Kunoichi recording her lower half getting entangled with the eviscerated torso of her friend.
A few more footage showed of the merc's pinpoint precision with any weapon he can get his hands on - pistols, rifles, shotguns, even knives. One Footage was a Tyger Claw with a sniper rifle, miles away from the actual fight.
The scope showed the Boogeyman looking at the sniper, pistol aimed before the sound of glass shattering caused the footage to end.
Next showed Tyger Claw in a car, chasing the Boogeyman and two mercs inside - The boogeyman drifted across the road like it was made of butter, one hand on the wheel and a tanto in the other - the knife for the driver was all Noble 6 needed to cause the car to go out of control. The optics saw as a flash of metal flew past, smashing through the glass and embedding itself into the forehead of man behind the wheels.
By the time the owner of the optic had managed to crawl out of the car, their target was nothing more than a number plate disappearing at the corner.
More footage of a Car chase. Only reason why Kate would even classify this as carnage was because of how big of an after effect such restrained small actions caused. No hails of bullets or grenades - just short, concise bullet shots or knife throws from the black armour and suddenly cars and motorcycles were crashing into each other and turned over on the road.
Kate replayed the footages, and finally ended on the scene that could show the perpetrator as clearly as possible - and even then it was a semi-blur.
Gold visor, helmet design wasn't something she had ever seen.
The area where the clavicle would be showed an emblem of an eagle with its wings outstretched, sitting on top of a globe.
She couldn't make out the letters, but she knew there was something written on the logo.
"What do you think?" Kate asked. A question thrown into the two's general direction, but Douglas answered first.
"I think the analyst had the right idea." Kate snickered. She felt her heat drumming against her ribs. Kate expected that if this was viewed with a brain dance, then whoever was watching wouldn't leave without a heart attack. Maybe she was wrong about the Counter intelligence officer. Maybe she took the pressure well.
"I'm asking about the technology this… thing has. Energy shields, reaction speed exceeding a standard issue military-grade Sandevistan… pin point fucking precision. Thruster packs."
"… Out of this world."
"That's one way to say it. Everything about this merc is a Megacorp's fantasy. Arasaka and Militech, especially. All of this. All, of this, is something that our R&D haven't even been able to start on because their math kept fucking them over. Technology that isn't even inthe theoretical stage is currently roaming the streets like it isn't breaking the laws of physics."
And she had a general gist of where they may have come from.
Kate looked out her window and into the cloudy Night City night sky.
Up above those clouds was the ship of their newest guest.
And in the badlands were their newest abode.
"And we have 6 of them." Douglas and Kate turned to the 3rd member in the office, who finally spoke. Mechanical voice boomed out after such a long time of silence.
"Yes, Adam. We have 6 of these fuckers going around town stirring shit up and barely leaving a trace. 6 of them who are several thousand years ahead of any technology Earth could whip out right now."
Adam Smasher silently stared at the holographic footage. Even if he wasn't making any noise, Douglas and Kate could still hear him salivate.
When Arasaka saw this and felt fear, Adam Smasher saw a challenge.
New Challenge.
A real challenge since Morgan Blackhand.
And not like that cheap disappointment that called himself Johnny Silverhand.
They had taken Adam's title of NC Boogeyman, which he wasn't too happy about.
But he could at least commend them for how efficient they were in the killing business.
Yeah, they deserved the title. While their methods may be different Adam expected them to be a kindred spirit at the core.
And that was precisely why Adam was dying to find them.
"What. The fuck."
Washington had recently received their latest report from Agent Locust.
Enough had been delivered over the past month and a few weeks to finally move into phase 2: something that Washington was going to discuss with Cell.
And what did Washington find as he went inside Cell's newest office?
A fucking corpse inside a broken refrigerator.
"What." Cell replied while he still looked through the lens of a microscope.
Washington stammered a bit while looking from the opened fridge and to Cell. He then pointed to the corpse.
"THAT!" Washington shouted. "I'M TALKING ABOUT THAT! WHAT THE FUCK, CELL! WHY DO YOU HAVE A DEAD BODY IN YOUR OFFICE!"
Cell looked behind him.
"Oh, that. Yeah, our boys found the fridge as they dug up the trash mountain. While it was going to be fed into our vat, the lid opened and… well, tadah. Dead body. We were going to throw it away but I thought it'd have some uses."
"… WHAT USES! YOU CAN'T JUST 'Oh, that.' A FUCKING CORPSE, CELL!"
Cell pushed himself off the table to get some space between him and the microscope, gesturing to the lens.
"Ok, Ok. I know it's a little weird but I promise it's well paid off. First off, the corpse reeks."
Washington just stared at Cell, arms going limp.
Why wouldn't a corpse reek? It's a corpse! Who knows how long it's been out in the open!
"Which, I get sounds obvious to you because you're a little stupid in the scientific area. So I'll elaborate - if the corpse isn't decaying, it shouldn't reek. While the decaying process was slow thanks to… well, being refrigerated, the fact that it smells means that it is happening - which means we have…?"
Washington looked to the corpse and slowly looked back at Cell.
"… Microorganisms, Washington. We have microorganisms." Cell finished his sentence with a disappointing tone. He tried to make this fun for the Spartan Commander. But whatever colony planet this guy came from, their education system had seemingly failed poor old Washington here. "We can get the bacteria we needed to convert the poisoned soil of this shit hole from the corpse."
"… Is… is that what you're looking through the microscope?" Washington weakly asked. He was getting tired at this point.
"Well… yes, but actually no. I've already seen the samples, got what I wanted. Then I just did some gene modifications and I'm watching the results."
"Results…?"
"Yeah, I got the analysis of the poison - it's artificial toxin. Which means we have some Megacorp purposefully contaminating the ground. Luckily I got several ways to make the microorganisms counteract it: I can make them form small biofilms between the soil, have them resist it using specific amino acids and RNA, and then I can make them process the toxins and convert them into viable nutrients and cell-building materials. The base of the microorganisms I got from the dead body over there, and then got some DNA materials from legume roots.
"Legumes…?"
"Beeeaans, Washington. I got them from Beeeans. Here, take a look."
Cell gestured at the microscope to Washington, who defeatedly walked over and decided to humour Cell's offer.
Several microorganisms of different sizes and shapes were eating materials, and then spitting them back out.
"They're eating the toxin particles and spitting out usable materials. Essentially making the soil a huge nutrient storage for them to use whenever they need to."
"That's… good, I guess. Makes the terraforming effort a lot less tedious. What about our cars, though?"
"Oh, right. Ratchet?"
"Ratchet? Who's Rat-" Washington asked as he took his visor off the lens, only to be interrupted by a blue holographic figure coming out of the table.
A feature common within UNSC smart AIs.
[For the last time sir, it's 'Rache'. Not Ratchet. Rache Bartmoss.]
"Don't care, give me report of our current car situation."
The Smart AI threw his hands in the air in frustration, but decided to follow Cell's order.
[It's… it's currently going swell. Your Chooms have finished like, three different models and are testing them out at the back right now. Got the recording going on and everything.]
"Sweet. There's your answer, Wash."
Washington looked at the newest Smart AI, and then to the Corpse.
The two clicked together rather fast as he whipped his head to Cell.
"You-, he's-, you-"
Cell looked at the Smart AI and then to the corpse as he heard Washington's emotion get the best of his speech capability.
"Oh yeah, I didn't tell you did I? I flash cloned the guy's brain and well… voila."
[Hello, nice to meet you. Agent Washington, correct? I'm Rache Bartmoss, the Smart AI created with the dynamic memory-processor matrix scanned and replicated from the neural pathway of the brain of the late Rache Bartmoss.]
"….WHY?!"
"Because the guy had pretty cool technology for what's our perspective of medieval peasants. The fridge is a customised computer, and the guy had some hand held tablet as well."
[It's called a Cyberdeck, sir.]
"Like I give a shit, Ratchet. Whatever the fuck it's called, it's still an ooga booga tablet to me."
Cell and Washington saw the Smart AI slightly crouch down at the response, who was grumbling to himself like he was emotionally hurt.
"So anyway, turns out this guy was a hacker."
[…and not just any hacker too, I'm made from the legendary netrunner, you know…]
Cell swivelled around his chair
"Shut the fuck up, no one gives a shit about what you did here." Washington swore he heard a short sob from the Smart AI as Cell then turned back to the fellow Spartan. "He's the one who crashed the entire internet on Earth and made them all go back to the primitive net."
"… So we have someone that knows their way around this Earth's net."
"Yeah, for a pretty unstable matrix I cloned from a rotting brain this thing has some pretty solid residual thoughts and memories of the dead guy. Guess the fact that there's a lack of optimal environment of microbial growth allowed us to have a pretty well preserved body. I was able to make someone that's hot shit on Earth into our glorified tour guide thanks to that."
Washington had way too many thoughts rushing into his mind, but then he noticed the tablet in his hand and realised what he was here for.
Oh yeah, this mother fucker wasn't my problem anymore now.
"Cell."
"Washington."
Washington placed the table on Cell's table, which the Spartan picked up and read over with his four spectral nodes on his helmet.
"Your file told me that you had experience in founding and running a start up company?"
"Yeah, I made it with my girlfriend before we joined the UNSC."
"Girlfriend?"
"… Miranda Keyes."
"Oh. Oooh."
"We met thanks to our mother's working at the same workplace. Lovely lady, she was. Got the best of both sides of her parents… But yeah, once I went into the ODST and she followed her father's footsteps our Company and the workers were absorbed into the Watershed division. Reds and Blues, we named it. We cradled it in our arms like it was our newborn."
"Well good news, you're getting that Startup back, and you're the CEO."
Cell took his eyes of the tablet screen and turned his head to Washington.
"I am?"
"Yeah, because that'll be our front as a Megacorp now. You'll be running this joint as I go back to UNSC Revenant."
While Cell would still have to make monthly reports to Captain Church, Washington now didn't had to directly deal with Cell's bullshit for a good long while.
Cell silently looked back to the tablet as Washington left the room. The Spartan Commander shouting 'Peace!' could be heard echoing into the entrance to Cell's office.
Well, shit.
… Guess nothing really changed.
"Hey, Ratchet?"
[… Rache, sir.]
"Tell the engineers in charge of the vehicle R&D that I'll be coming over to help."
Cell could hear the Smart AI let out a sigh.
[… You're the boss, sir.]
"… Damn right, I am."