At the entrance of The Dump HQ, the air subtly warped due to the abundant energy, and the low hum of the weapon systems on standby was the only sound.
The entire Maine crew was assembled, standing silently beside their modified vehicles, no longer street mercenaries, but more like an alien kill squad awaiting final orders.
Osiris' command had been delivered via encrypted channel, concise and absolute: Destroy Arasaka Tower, remove all restrictions.
Jackie, supporting a pale Valerie with her severed arm, stood in the shadows of the hideout; they had just arrived at this Wasteland Town, their faces still showing signs of shock.
David and Lucy stood a short distance away, their gazes fixed on this team with its distinct aura.
Just as Maine was about to give the order to depart, an unexpected turn of events occurred.
Three figures, almost blending into the environment's colors with only faint thermal outlines, erupted like ghosts from the derelict mechanical wreckage on the outskirts of the hideout!
Their movements were beyond conventional speed; there were no footsteps, only the faint hiss of high-speed movement tearing through the air.
They were Arasaka's Cyber Ninjas, professional cleanup specialists, who had clearly tracked Valerie's signal here and chose this seemingly relaxed moment to launch a lightning strike.
Their target was the center of the team, the seemingly weakest link—Falco, who was adjusting his targeting equipment, and Sasha and Kiwi beside him.
However, their surprise attack, in front of the crew's now enhanced perception and reaction, seemed... too slow.
Morris's figure was the first to move.
Her Sandevistan System didn't even emit the full-power activation roar; it merely vibrated slightly, and her entire body left a fading afterimage in its place.
The low-frequency hum of a Sonic Blade being drawn and the sound of metal colliding and flesh tearing occurred almost simultaneously.
The Cyber Ninja at the very front had just raised his smart katana when a razor-thin red line appeared at his neck; his head instantly separated from his torso, and before the hot blood could spray, his body was kicked aside by Morris.
The second ninja's electromagnetic shuriken had just left his hand, aimed directly at Falco's nape.
A translucent, light-distorting, rhombus-shaped energy shield appeared without warning in the shuriken's path.
The shuriken struck the shield's surface, exploding in a dazzling shower of electrical sparks, but it couldn't budge it an inch.
It was Maine; he hadn't even fully turned around, merely raising his right arm, and the shield generator responded instantly.
At the same time, the bionic skin on his left arm silently slid open, and the blue light of the precision plasma cannon flashed and vanished.
There was no deafening cannon fire, only a muffled hum of energy release.
A basketball-sized, azure plasma orb shot out at a speed too fast for the eye to follow, accurately hitting the area where the second ninja was.
There was no explosion, only instantaneous, extreme high temperature.
The ninja, along with the ground and discarded parts within several meters around him, was completely vaporized, leaving only a shallow crater with edges like molten glass, and the pungent smell of ozone and ionized air permeated the air.
Seeing this, the third ninja immediately tried to retreat, sharply changing direction.
But Rebecca had already turned around; her heavy bolter wasn't even fully raised to a shoulder-firing position, but with her reinforced mechanical arm and neural connection, she fired an almost point-blank shot at extremely close range.
"Boom—!"
The roar of the bolter was particularly stunning in the open environment of the Wasteland Town.
A 150 caliber bolt round erupted from the barrel, directly hitting the ninja's chest.
The immense kinetic energy instantly tore his upper body apart, turning it into a scattering of flesh, blood, and metal parts; only his legs below the waist, due to inertia, ran a few more steps before collapsing.
From the Cyber Ninjas' sudden attack to their instantaneous vaporization, the entire process took no more than three seconds.
A brief silence fell over the hideout entrance.
Jackie's mouth hung open, and even Valerie's blood-drained face was filled with disbelief.
David and Lucy were completely frozen; they hadn't even fully seen what happened, only Morris's afterimage, the fleeting blue light and shield from Maine's arm, and the shower of blood after Rebecca's thunderous shot.
This was... the power their boss had given them? This was the crew's true strength now?
David felt a chill rise up his spine; his previous reluctance to participate in the action was completely replaced by an awe in the face of superhuman power.
Maine retracted his arm; the plasma cannon's muzzle closed, and the shield dissipated, as if nothing had happened.
He didn't even glance at the three rapidly cooling remains, his gaze sweeping over his team members.
"Checks complete. Depart."
No showing off, no superfluous explanations.
It was as if he had just casually cleared away a few annoying bugs.
The team members nodded silently, quickly boarding the vehicles.
Engines roared to life; the modified vehicles, like awakened steel beasts, surged out of the Wasteland Town, crushing the remains on the ground with an unstoppable momentum, heading straight for Night City.
Only the lingering smells of gunpowder, blood, and molten metal at the hideout entrance remained, along with the dumbfounded Jackie, Valerie, David, and Lucy.
Deep within the wasteland workshop, Osiris' crimson optical lens retracted from the external surveillance feed.
All data from the brief engagement—reaction time, weapon efficacy, energy consumption, coordination efficiency—had been recorded and analyzed in his processing core.
"Clearance efficiency: 94.1%. Response to sudden threats: qualified," his emotionless voice whispered in the empty workshop. "Now, execute the primary directive."
—
The convoy plunged into Night City's traffic network like a wedge.
Almost as soon as they entered the city's surveillance range, Arasaka's security forces swarmed out from every corner like a disturbed beehive.
"Attention, intersection ahead, four intercept vehicles, equipped with light machine guns," Falco's steady voice echoed on the squad's encrypted channel. His vehicle weaved through traffic like a fish, precisely navigating.
"Received," Maine replied, raising his left arm, the plasma cannon's muzzle gathering blue light. "Rebecca, clear the way."
"Couldn't wait any longer!" Rebecca yelled excitedly, her heavy bolter letting out a deafening roar.
A 150 caliber bolt round erupted from the barrel, instantly turning the front half of the first intercept vehicle, along with its occupants, into scattered metal fragments and blood mist.
Almost simultaneously, Maine's left arm plasma cannon fired a blinding blue energy orb, accurately hitting the second vehicle.
There was no violent explosion, only a muffled roar and an instantaneously expanding, then dissipating, high-temperature plasma cloud; the entire vehicle, along with the ground beneath it, was vaporized into a huge, melted-edged gap.
The security personnel in the other two vehicles hadn't even had time to open fire when Dorio leaped from her vehicle like a cannonball, slamming her fists into the ground the moment she landed.
Her internal tremor generators activated at full power, and a visible shockwave spread forward in a fan shape; the third vehicle's armor plating instantly buckled and deformed as if struck by an invisible giant hammer, its windows shattering simultaneously, and the occupants inside instantly lost consciousness.
The fourth vehicle was engulfed by the viscous promethium flames sprayed by Pilar, instantly turning into a fiercely burning iron coffin; the shrill screams briefly sounded before falling silent.
The battle began in an instant and ended in an instant.
Meanwhile, Night City's news media was only just starting to react.
On the gigantic holographic billboards along the street, an emergency news flash cut off the original product ads; the anchor spoke rapidly, with deliberately manufactured shock: "...Breaking news! A group of unidentified armed individuals are breaking into Heywood District from the Badlands! They are carrying extremely dangerous heavy weapons and are currently engaging corporate security personnel! This is simply outrageous behavior, a blatant challenge to urban order!"
Over the channel, Pilar chuckled, "Hear that? 'Unidentified armed individuals'! We're freaking famous!"
Rebecca scoffed, reloading her bolter, "Challenge order? I'm here to tear down buildings!"
Maine's crew, now enhanced by Osiris' modifications, was an unstoppable force, demonstrating their terrifying power against Arasaka's forces.