When everything was ready, and it was time to finally kick off the Scav raids, it was the day before the opening event for the resort. Jackie, Riggs, and I were already set and comfortable in our custom MJOLNIR, though it was more than a bit strange to be taller than Jackie. I was back in my level four doppelganger, which meant that I was just over a foot taller than him. I would have been worried about fitting inside the building, but unless the warehouse we were targeting was secretly made of adamantium, there was no way a small doorway would even slow me down.
My size was still something to consider, however, as there were places where an eight-foot-tall monster would be at a disadvantage. Thankfully, Frank was already working on an alternative model with more reasonable metrics. It would likely suffer some lower stats, but it would also be able to fit inside normal spaces, so that was a plus.
Despite already being ready, the three of us stood by and waited for the various Spartan teams pile into their transports. It was an impressive sight, even if I already knew the numbers, watching dozens, even hundreds of Spartans climbing into various VTOLs, one aircraft for every targeted building. It kinda reminded me of some shots from the prequel Star Wars movies, with line after line of marching soldiers travelling in perfect formations.
Of course, the numbers weren't nearly that intense. Yet.
With so many moving parts, the plan was thankfully pretty simple. Each Scav location would get its own VTOL, which would drop off a group of Spartans. Just how many there would be per target was determined by how many scavs were waiting for them. Once deployed, the Spartans would blitz the scavs, taking them down as quickly as possible. Technically, the Spartans' priority was to look for and protect any victims that the scav might have. However, in this case, protecting victims meant killing scavs as fast and as cleanly as they could, so it wasn't like we were sacrificing much to prioritize civilians.
We did weigh the possibility of making this a stealth mission versus blitzing our targets, and determined that with so many attacks going at once, it was too likely that a few bots would get spotted and the alarm would go out, putting victims at risk. The idea of the blitz was that it would be too fast to warn anyone or to set up a pushback. I wasn't really concerned about whether my Spartans would come out on top, since the scavs couldn't bring much to bear that actually threatened them.
When the last of the Spartans were loaded, the three of us climbed into our aircraft. There were already eight Spartans waiting inside, our backup for the mission. Jackie didn't want to bring them at all, but I convinced him they were mostly for hunting out victims while we focused on the scavs. They were all set to do that too, but with a quick order, I could turn them into support if we somehow ran into something we couldn't handle.
Once we were on board, the VTOLs started to vanish before teleporting away one after the other, their cloaks covering them perfectly before they were sent to the cliffside exit point. The exit was much smoother than before, this time avoiding the sudden, surprise plummet before the VTOL pulled up and flew normally.
It took five minutes for our aircraft to get into position, then another ten minutes to confirm that the rest of the teams were in place as well. During that time, Mary kept me updated on how things were moving, though it ultimately boiled down to a minor adjustment and several dozen confirmations that another VTOL was in place.
When it wasfinallytime go, I slapped Jackie's back, who rocked forward under the weight of the hit. I couldn't help but chuckle, as usually he was the one doing that to me.
"You ready?"
Instead of answering, he reached back and unclipped his axe from the magnet holster on his back. It had recently been redesigned to better fit a suit of MJOLNIR, as the original collapsible design couldn't withstand that level of stress. The new one was simple, just a slab of metal on the end of a polymer and metal shaft, sharpened on both edges. He gave me a look, gesturing with the melee weapon, and I couldn't help but laugh. I nodded along and reached along my back, pulling out what could only be called a greatsword, a massive, upgraded version of the original fusion blade I had made oh so long ago. As I activated it, the blade hummed with power, a thin plasma blade forming around its edge. Where the original had only been two feet long, more of a shortsword than anything, the new version was six feet long, and I, with my new strength, could swing it like it was a quarter of that length.
It was overkill in the best way possible, and I fucking loved it.
As the back hatch began to open, both Jackie and I looked back at Riggs, who, after a moment, seemed to sag. He reached down at his hips, pulled out a pair of fusion blades, pulling them from their sheaths and duel-wielding them. They were much more similar to the original fusion blade, though they had been updated several times. With a flick, their plasma blade appeared as well.
"Alright, let's go!" Jackie shouted, holding his weapon ready as he ran toward the open end of the VTOL, jumping out into the air without hesitation.
In my ear, I could hear Mary calling out that the other groups were launching as well, but I mentally adjusted her volume before following Jackie out into the air, leaping out with a shout.
We were about a hundred feet up in the air when we jumped, and while Jackie was beating me down at first, when his jump kit fired off, slowing his descent, I did nothing but continue to fall. In a flash, I passed him, slamming down into the warehouse roof with a crash, punching through the sheet metal like tinfoil and continuing down until I slammed down on the ground floor, landing on a crate that exploded on impact. Meanwhile, the force of the landing drove me into a low crouch, my sword raised and ready. Above me, Jackie, Riggs, and the Spartans landed on the roof and started pouring down after me.
Looking around the room, I could see several people. In the furthest corner, I could see a pair of scavs tossing a corpse into the back of a van, with a wheelbarrow sitting behind them, spattered with blood. Four scavs were sitting around a nearby overturned crate, playing some sort of tile game, tucked between two shelves. Just in front of me alone, I could see around a dozen scavs, all of them slowly turning to look at me, moving as if they were stuck in molasses.
With a single step forward, I was suddenly halfway across the room, my fusion blade beheading a burly scav wearing a bloodstained wifebeater, his arms both chrome. Behind him, I could see a glowing, molten line in the shelving where my sword had cut through the thin metal structure. Another step and I was beside the corpse carrying duo, my fist already through the closest one's skull, the metal and plastic shell sparking even as gore sprayed in the direction of the blow.
A quick swipe of my blade bisected the other scav from shoulder to hip across his torso. As I turned, I spotted Jackie, facing the other way, axe raised. In my slowed-down view, his movements were faster than the scavs, but he was still moving slower than normal. That was until suddenly he was faster, way faster, his Sandevistan activating as he swung his axe, beheading another scav. His movements were fast enough that his limbs blurred, but my eyes could still follow them, even as he darted across the warehouse to kill another scav.
Suddenly it came to an end, Jackie coming down from his burst of speed, and my own sense of time returning to normal. Even as the scavs started moving at normal speeds, we still outclassed them, all four of the ones sitting around the crate dying in a hail of slugs from the still dropping Spartans.
I danced into another group of scavs, feeling like an anime protagonist as I all but blurred from one place to another, my sword carving through flesh and chrome like a hot knife through butter. Several shelves collapsed as my swings cut through them, but none of them landed on me, so it was fine.
Before I could sprint off to engage another target, one came to me, dropping off the walkway running above. It was a large man, his body nothing but cyberware, a borg most likely built of stolen, scavenged parts. In his hands were a pair of claws, both of them covered in flecks of dried gore. I centred my stance before driving forward, swinging my large weapon at him, the borg moving fast enough to raise his own weapons to block them.
Only for my fusion sword to slice through them, the borg, and the crate behind him. Even with his reinforced frame, he still collapses into two pieces.
Noticing that there was some sort of observation room along the walkways where the now dead borg had jumped down from, I bent my knees and jumped, easily clearing the railing and landing on the catwalk, my jump kit stabilizing my movements perfectly, the new and improved advanced system already proving its worth. Ahead of me, the catwalk led to a sealed door, with no way to see inside.
As I moved to push into the sealed-off room, I could see the Spartans below, spreading out in teams of two, pushing through a side door, and quickly approaching the van and the corpses. As they scanned them, quickly marking them as dead and gone, I reached my target, sheathing my sword on my back.
Without slowing down, I raised my foot and, with a kick, completely buckled the door. It tore free of its rails and slammed against the far wall, while three more scavs, all armed and aiming their weapons at me, opened fire. Bullets of several calibres, two smaller pistols, and one from a rifle slammed into my armour, but none of them made it through. The pistol rounds, fired from a Nue and a Guillotine, flattened against the plates of my armour, barely scratching the paint. The rifle, however, slapped harder, each bullet denting their impact point, even managing to burrow their way through the first layer of my undersuit.
Luckily for me, none of them did nearly enough to stop me from raising my own pistol, one of the heavy pistols I originally built for Riggs. It actually looked a bit small in my hand, but each round blew fist-sized chunks out of the scavs, so it had more than enough power.
The scavs dropped in a clatter and splat, but I was already moving, stepping through a door in the back which led to a larger office. For a moment, I thought it was empty, only for a chrome-plated bastard to stand up holding a massive Caranage, his body modified enough to handle it.
"You motherfu-"
Before he could finish his monologue, time slowed again, giving me ample time to act. I kicked the edge of his desk, the large piece of furniture popping up and slamming into his hands and weapon. The shotgun went off, the massive round carving a hole in the wall just above my head, before I dove forward, grabbing the legs of the desk. With a flex of the armour and my muscles, I slammed the desk forward while it was still in the air, pushing it until it impacted the wall. Behind it, the scav was flattened, sparks and mechanical liquid pouring out instead of blood.
Time returned to normal again, and I released the desk, only for it to stay there, the heavy desk embedded in the wall. Resisting the urge to investigate the room further, I turned and left, making good time down the catwalk. My pistol was out, scanning the room, only to find it already cleared. I spotted Jackie, down on the bottom floor, nudging another dead borg with his toe.
"We all clear down there?" I called, catching his attention and making him look up.
"Yeah, Riggs already led the Spartans down to clear the basement," he responded, sounding… subdued? "You all good up there?"
"Yeah, all clear. Any survivors?"
The subtle shake of his head told the story, and mentally I cursed. I knew it wasn't healthy to think that way, but if we had come sooner, if I had taken less of a day, then some of these people would still be alive. I let out an aggressive sigh, turning up the volume on Mary and Murtaugh, who had been announcing various things, basically giving a live play-by-play for me and the Spartan hubs. Technically, Mary could have done it with pure data, but Murtaugh and I were better suited for verbal communications.
After listening for a few moments, I got the gist of the general situation. None of the Spartan groups had run into any real issues, and among the nearly three hundred Spartans fielded, we had exactly two casualties, with no fully destroyed units. An impressive figure, even if our targets were not the most advanced. Random chance alone was enough to cause problems with the numbers we were fielding.
I finished exploring the catwalk, checking behind a corner stacked with a shelf and some boxes, before leaping back over the side to the first floor. By the time I landed, Riggs and the Spartans had returned from the basement.
"All clear," Riggs declared. "We located their store of removed cybernetics. What are we doing with them?"
"... Let's see if Vik needs any basic stock, but other than that, we don't really need it," I said with a frown. "The construction crews will catalogue it before they demolish the building, and if they find anything interesting, they will scan it, but other than that, it's all scrap."
Riggs nodded before we all did one last quick scan. When we were done, the three of us headed out to the street. The Spartans spread out through the building, using scanners from their equipment to check for anything hidden, and when they were done, they would set up a perimeter around the building, keeping watch over it until we were ready to start building on it. The apartment buildings wouldn't take long to build, as most of the construction and production teams dedicated to the major projects would be free for more work.
The next major project was the hospital, but that wouldn't be started until we could clear out the apartments and buildings still being used in the location where we wanted to build the hospital.
As Jackie, Riggs, and I climbed into the VTOL, ignoring the few hundred people that had formed a crowd around the building, recording footage and staring. As the boarding ramp closed, I turned to Jackie, nudging him in the side.
"What's wrong?" I asked, watching as he popped off his helmet, dropping down to sit on the reinforced seat along the edges of the transport VTOL. "You get hit?"
"No, no, I'm good," he said. "It just hit me that I could probably beat half the Legends I could name. That was easy. Too easy. It felt like we were running circles around them, and that's even without my Sandy. With it…?"
I raised my eyebrow as he trailed off, before reaching up to unclip my helmet. The doppelganger still technically had my face, even if it looked a bit off from the subdermal armour implants and other chrome.
"To be honest, with your armour, there's no maybe about it, you could beat most of this city's legends," I responded with a wince. "The only one I think might beat you is Adam Smasher, and only if you're alone."
He let out a long breath, nodding in understanding, though for a long moment he remained silent.
"It feels… pointless. I thought I would be excited when I finally reached this level. But even the Spartans wiped the floor with them, why did I bother coming?" he asked, though I could tell he was being hypothetical. "I… I don't know."
"Well… think about it for a bit," I said, patting his shoulder. "I'm happy to listen, but it sounds like you're not sure what you're feeling."
"Yeah… I'll circle round when I sort it out in my head," he said, nodding slightly, though still not completely focused. "Misty usually helps me figure out stuff like this."
I patted his shoulder again before leaning back in my seat. It didn't take long for us to teleport back into the vault, and once we landed, Jackie and Riggs left, and I dropped the connection to the doppelganger. I blinked and refocused, smiling when I realized that the pressure I felt on my chest was just Sable, sleeping beside me with her arm draped over me. I reached down to brush her hair away from her face, before laying my head back on my pillow and closing my eyes.
The following morning, it was time to finally open the resort. The building was staffed with hundreds of robots, had the proper security, and was fully furnished and ready. I dressed up in my usual Corpo flare, or, rather, I had my level two enhanced doppelganger dress up in my usual flare, heading into the city. Sable was with me, of course, as were Jackie and a few others.
The event started with a press conference-like segment before shifting to a ribbon-cutting ceremony. I then led a dozen reporters through the resort, answering questions and showing off the many features and luxuries of the building and grounds. I was happy to see that the clean beach got quite a bit of interest, but nothing compared to their reaction to the low cost I was offering the rooms at.
When I was done showing off the resort, I passed the proverbial baton to Jackie, who led his own tour through his restaurant. I could see the reporters sharing looks, wondering why a restaurant could be so famous, until they connected Jackie to the new food products that were now all the rage in the city. Their interest only went up from there as the tour went on.
Jackie had spent quite a bit of time designing his restaurant, eventually deciding to go all out. With so much kitchen space, robotic staff, and a constant flow of top-quality ingredients, his menu was expansive, covering everything from tacos to beef wellington. He even planned on having a rotating menu once the restaurant's reputation increased.
What really caught the reporters' eyes, however, were the prices of the food. Just like the resort, Jackie was looking to offer good food to people who couldn't usually afford it. He didn't want the restaurant turning into a corpo haven any more than I wanted that to happen to the resort.
Despite being more than a bit bored tending to the reporters, I was excited to see the resort getting some use. This was hopefully just the start of me improving the lives of people in Night City, which was important not just because I wanted to help, but also because if people liked me and what I was doing, then our taking over would hopefully be met with a lot less pushback.
I wasn't deluded enough to think I could convince everyone to welcome me with open arms, but keeping the rioting down as much as possible was worth the effort.
Once the tours were over, I left the resort in the very capable hands of Amelia and a handful of Dumb AI. Amelia, while built to help Jackie with running his restaurant, was more than capable of keeping track of both, especially with the resort so simplified by the Dumb AI. It might be necessary for me to hire more people to work with her once more humans started to replace the robot workers, but that was something we could handle as it came.
The event took up most of the day, which meant that when it was finally over, there was no real point in heading down to the workshop. Instead, I paid a visit to Murtaugh to see how locking down the rest of the scavs was going.
"Our secondary objectives for our all-in-one strike were a complete success," Mary stated happily. "Our properties are clear, and Samwise's MRVN team is already starting to go over each site."
"Make sure any site they are working at has at least double the Spartans keeping watch," I said, butting in when Mary paused for a moment. "They are budding AIs unlike the rest of them, and I don't want to lose them."
"We can do that," Mary responded, sharing a look with Murtaugh, who nodded and started typing into his computer. "On top of clearing the buildings and taking out plenty of large scav groups, we gained an incredible amount of information on secondary operations. We have three dozen secondary targets already selected, as well as forty individual targets."
"Who are those individual targets?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Non-combat personnel. Bookkeepers, leaders, runners, technicians, and suppliers," she explained, her projector showing flashes of a few dozen images of people's faces. "Basically, anyone who helped keep their operations going, but wouldn't be at their many bases or safe houses."
"Okay. I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but it bears saying out loud. Make sure these people know who they are working with, and that they are actually worth killing. I don't want to kill a runner who has no idea he was working with scavs," I said with a frown. "The unfortunate truth is that this city leans past a grey area a lot. If we kill everyone related to any gang, more than half the city will end up dead. We can't hold back from the actual gangs, but once we start hitting a few degrees of separation from the main people, we need to start making exceptions in specific situations."
"... how do I know who to exempt?" Mary asked, now sounding a bit unsure.
"Base it on how connected to violence and hurting people they are, and how much they knew about what was going on," I explained. "The ripper who buys from them, who asks for specific parts knowing how they get them, shouldn't be exempt, but the ripper who buys from them who just assumes they are stolen, and doesn't know they are taken from living people, would be. If you have any questions, run them by Jackie, Kaytlyn, Gloria, or me. Don't ask Misty, she is too civilian for that, and Vik is too much of a bleeding heart."
Vik was a great guy, and I was looking forward to putting him in charge of an entire hospital. His bleeding heart would be put to good use there, and I would be able to support him fully. That said, putting him in charge of moral choices of who lives and dies was asking for trouble. He wasn't unreasonable; he was too familiar with Night City to be, but he did tend to see the best in people.
We talked a bit more about what we would be doing for the next few days, including that I wanted them to talk with Noah about where the first few apartment buildings would be located, as they needed to coordinate with him. After that, I headed back to the vault, just in time to sit down and enjoy dinner with everyone else.
The following morning, I started the day by heading down to the workshop. I had already gotten some useful data from Westworld, but I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I was very glad that I did, because as I was scanning through the various computing branches, I stumbled on something I hadn't expected, a rather robust quantum computing branch that went way further than I had thought the setting would allow. It wasn't on par with what the UNSC could do, not even close, but I was a bit shocked by how many qubits such a relatively crude version of the computers could parse. Its computing speeds were pretty fast for the technology and scale involved, enough so to catch my eye.
Thankfully, I could figure out just how they were doing that by building the penultimate device at the end of the branch. Even better, I would be able to start pretty far along the branch, saving a whole bunch of time, especially considering the size of their quantum computers. They were big enough that I would have to use the medium assembly platform, the same one I used to build some of the smaller UNSC shuttles and slipspace-capable craft.
Building through the branch took several hours, during which I started to get a better idea of how they were managing to pull so much computing power out of their systems, but it wasn't until I finished the final version that I fully understood. Essentially, they were compressing their equations, running qubits in parallel, and overlapping certain portions to simplify the equations overall.
It was a small thing, something that took robust systems, hence why they were so large, but if I could get the much more advanced versions from the Halo tech tree running like that, I would increase their power by at least fifteen, maybe even twenty percent, which was not a small amount considering how powerful they already were.
Not only would that make the quantum computers more powerful, but they would also let me make them fifteen to twenty percent smaller, which was useful for specific uses, like the slipspace drives. They were really the most prevalent use of the quantum computers, though I'm sure that Mary would enjoy a bump in her computing power when we upgraded hers.
I finished the last quantum computer from Westworld, it was only around three in the afternoon. I had spent most of the day in the workshop, so I headed out to find what Sable and Cassie were up to, and maybe have some lunch.
I was just about to step through to the teleporter to the living quarters when I got a message from Dakota. Apparently, the nomad families had finally reached a consensus, and they were ready to talk. I paused, letting out a long breath before stepping back from the teleporter and adjusting the destination, before stepping through again in a flash.