Ah, nightcity, what a city… history around every corner, and a gang member choking on his own blood right next to it! Nightclubs serving up a glass of spunky monkey with a smile. All that music, arts, and blood on the street. And multiculturalism!! It's a class of city, really! Top-shelf stuff. But all of it stops the moment you set your foot in Pacifica.
Nightcity is always changing with the times; it's always evolving. Sometimes for the worse, yes, but this place… Pacifica is stuck in a moment, and unfortunately it never moved on.
Pacifica was supposed to be a paradise the crown jewel of NightCity, filled with malls, casinos, and hotels. But those plans are gone, like a fleeting memory of your first love. Gone like the darkness at dawn. Now, none of it is operational anymore… I mean, the hotel is operational… but unfortunately, it is now in Dogtown, leaving Pacifica a barren shell of what it was supposed to be. Which is why it is a perfect place for voodoo boys to set up shop.
Walking out of the only clothing shop in this district, I took a deep breath but found nothing but the rancid and stale air of Pacifica. Looking around, I can clearly see the shopping district where VDBs are based in, and the GIM where that netwatch agent Bryce Mosley is still setting up his shop.
'What are you thinking?' Johnny asked, appearing beside me. And isn't that the million-dollar question…
"First, I'm going to meet with Bryce Mosley, the Netwatch agent." I said simply and started walking towards the decrepit mall.
'Seriously?! Why are you going to that suit?!'
"Because Netwatch is more than just a corpo, Johnny." Believe me, they are. "Among all the major corporations in this city of ours, Netwatch is the one that I'm most fond of. Not only because I worked with them in the LF but also because they are the only one who's doing what they are meant to do, and that too with extreme prejudice."
'Please tell me you're not going to work for them again!' Johnny asked with desperation in his voice.
"Not really; after Arasaka, I was never able to fit into that corporate mold again. So no, I'm not going to work for them again, but I'm going to act as a free undercover agent. Helping them out if it fits my needs or when it is necessary."
'First of all, why do you even wanna do this? And second of all, how are you going to pose as one?'
"Because netwatch is, as I like to call them, the necessary evil. And it won't be hard posing as an undercover agent. All agents are given a universal code that can't be learned through normal means, like I can't tell you even if I wanted to." I said, looking at his confused face, and to be honest, this is pretty confusing stuff. "The code is literally burned onto our psyche, and can only be verified by a netrunner running a scan, and even then only a netwatch agent will be able to understand that it is something."
'That sounds like a cult to me.' Johnny said skeptically while rolling his eyes. And to be honest, that was exactly my reaction the first time. "I won't lie with you there. We hide what we do from the rest of the world and try to protect it from entities from beyond a realm that we fear with every atom of our being. So yes, it does sound like a bloody cult."
Turning to look at Johnny, I saw that he was giving me a weird look. "What?"
'Are you sure you don't wanna join the Netwatch again? You said 'we' way too many times…'
Sighing, I turned towards him with a grim look on my face. I get his point, but "listen, I didn't go to Netwatch because I like their work ethic—god knows I don't—or that I like their benefits. I worked for them, despite not having a personal link, by the way, because what they do is fucking important. If the blackwall falls and those AIs come here, then we are all dead! Believe me, Johnny, I hate the corps as much as you, but we need Netwatch."
'Okay, I understand. I don't like it, but I understand.'
Looking at him with an understanding, I gave him a small smile. "It took me a long time to come to terms with it too, Johnny. I mean, me working for a corp again?! Blaspheme!" I said with a small laugh but quickly sobered up as I reached the mall. Looking through the camera, I could see that the entire operation is still in its infancy; Mosley has just begun his surveillance.
So slipping in was pretty easy, just a few memory wipes and sonic shocks, and I was sneaking almost across the mall. This place was still too empty for my taste, and I wasn't the biggest fan of the acoustics; a few shots fired from me, and it'll sound like I brought an entire marching band with me. It wasn't long before I was crouching and slipping by the sasquatch. It was still pretty unnerving, because last time this bitch threw me into a wall from halfway across the room. I wanna repeat a lot of things, but fighting with her again is a firm no from me.
A few seconds later I was standing in front of the theater door. I already knew that tying myself to a corp and getting on their radar was a bad idea, but in the absence of any other idea, I continued on. Opening the door, I slowly slipped in, but this time there was no movie playing on the screen; the theater was completely dead. But uploading a ping nearby, I could see that Mosley was inside, and he was aware.
With a weary smile, I slowly climbed up to the projector room and walked in.
"That's close enough!" Mosley exclaimed, leveling a gun at me, which was laughable, but I knew that the real danger was not from the gun but from the hacks that this guy could upload in me. Now I know that I can still go toe-to-toe with him, but it will be mutually assured destruction, and I don't want that. So with a small smirk, I raised my hand but kept my body language relaxed.
"Throw away that gun; we both know that it is nothing but a toy between us."
Narrowing his eyes, Moseley stared at me for a few seconds before lowering the gun. "Who are you?"
Still smiling, I lowered my hands and leaned back against the wall and slowly said, "I'm a UC, Mosley."
"Bullshit! There's no active agent in Pacifica!"
"I'm not stationed in Pacifica; I'm a free agent, but I was on the tail of VDBs. And it seems so are you. Let me guess, the prob-"
"Stop talking!" He stopped me in between and raised his hand. "Code check! Now!"
Dashing towards him, I quickly grabbed his chin, and before he could understand what was happening, I forced him on his knees and pressed a knife to his throat.
"Now listen to me, and listen well. This meeting is nothing but a courtesy, and the only reason I'm here is because I'm sure that you will get in my way. Now are you going to behave?" I asked as I applied a little more pressure with the knife.
Jerkily he nodded and with a wavering voice said, "I understand…"
Through my interactions with Moseley in LF and now, I have understood that he's a pretty good agent. Pretty good if your idea of a good agent was a fancy suit, a couple of hacks in a cyberdeck, and no courage to show for it. The guy was an extremely skilled hacker, but he can't go into the field without having an entire security detail at his beck and call; without them, he's an easy target.
Releasing him, I stepped back and waited for him to stand up. The moment I saw him trying to create a little bit of a gap between us, I immediately grabbed him by the arm and yanked out his personal link. "Now I'm warning you, one wrong move and my ice will end you, and while taking its time."
Giving him a hard stare, I slowly inserted the link in my port and let him run a scan for the NetWatch UC codes. The moment he saw the code, his entire body language changed.
"Sorry for the welcome I gave you, but you know…"
"Can never be too careful, I know." I said with a small laugh and sat down in a chair.
"So what can I do for you, and who are you?" he asked in confusion as he pulled up a chair next to me.
"My name is V. I was first a UC in Arasaka but changed my assignment after a while when I understood that Arasaka is not the biggest problem we have."
Mosley looked at me skeptically. "You mean to tell me that a big corp like Arasaka is not a problem? Seriously?"
"Believe me, Arasaka will destroy itself while fighting with Militech, plus ever since Saburo's death, the inner factions are already at each other's throats, so we don't really have to worry about them. For now."
"I get it, I really do, but still, in Arasaka you'd be living a life of comfort, but now you're a merc. I mean a pretty good one but still a merc." The fuck does he mean pretty good one? Is he really saying that just after one meeting?
Looking at my confused face, he elaborated, "You know how it is; we have to keep a close eye on all major players, and that definitely includes you, V. You see, I already knew who you were, just not the whole UC part. To be honest, I still can't believe it…"
I can understand why he's skeptical; UCs are usually trained to infiltrate gangs like VDBs or sometimes Maelstrom, but not a merc—too many variables to teach and look out for.
"I get it, but I heard something big that forced me to act."
Suddenly his eyes lit up with interest, waiting for what I'm about to tell him. "Really? And what was that?"
"You already know, I mean, I'm guessing the level of your task here," I said, gesturing to the monitors that were currently tracking moments of VDBs.
Giving me a knowing smile, he nodded and said, "The relic with Johnny Silverhand's construct. Yes, we heard about it, and from what I heard we were pretty close to getting it, but somehow it slipped from our hands." He finished looking a bit annoyed at the situation.
"I know; I was undercover with the crew that was supposed to klep it. I was supposed to be an additional assurance. In case the doll decided to betray us." I said, hiding the grimace that was coming on my face due to talking about Evelyn like this.
"Wait…" he looked at me with concentration for a couple of seconds before his eyes lit up, and he exclaimed. "You're the female merc who went to Yorinobu's penthouse?! But I heard that everyone related to that heist died?!"
With a small scoff I leaned forward, "I had to fake my death; Arasaka assassins were on my tail, the chip was already a bust, Yorinobu destroyed it, and then killed Saburo." I said with a frustrated sigh, "But I got the identity of the person who originally wanted the chip." Flicking him whatever information I had on the VDBs of Pacifica, I said, "The plan was the brainchild of one, Mama Brigitte; she's the leader of the VDBs here."
With a confused look, he stood up and walked over to his computer. "Wait, what? I thought the leader here was Placide? He's the one who's mobilizing and managing all the gang members."
"He is second in command."
"Okay… okay. In any case, what exactly do you want from me? How can I help you?"
Taking a deep breath, I leaned back in my chair and crossed my legs, painting a picture of a cool and unbothered merc in a tense situation. "Well… seeing that our end goal is pretty clear and aligned: stop VDBs from fucking with the blackwall as soon as possible. I thought that we could help each other."
Slowly nodding, he understood the advantage and asked, "Okay, so what's your plan?"
"I'm going to see Placide and Brigitte after this and probably going to take a deep dive in their subnet; I will drop a tracker and a back door in it for you to use. But only after I get back."
"Of course… Are you sure you wanna do this? It can be dangerous…"
"Believe me, for me, it'll be a walk in the park." Well… not really, but when has panicking ever helped me before?
"Okay, and what do you need in return?"
"In the future, maybe I'll need help," I said with a shrug.
"With what?" he asked with an incredulous look before quickly adding, "You don't look like the kind of person that'll ask for help."
"We already know about the relic and how it works. Well, the new model, like the one with Silverhand's construct, was supposed to rewrite the psyche of the person it was inserted in."
He just sat there for a few seconds before his brain properly understood the implication of what I've just told him. "Wha- wait, what do you mean, rewrite?! As in, the construct in it will take over a living host?!"
"Yes." I could see the clear disbelief on his face, and to be honest, I couldn't fault him for it. If I hadn't lived through the whole experience, I'd also have a hard time believing it. "This was supposed to be an in-house model, only available for the Arasakas."
"How do you know this?!" he asked, jumping up from his chair as he began to pace around the room.
"Got a whiff of it when I was working in Arasaka; I poked around, and it turned out I was right. Now I have credible intel that Saburo Arasaka's construct is already up and running, and I'm pretty sure that his daughter is going to use Yorinobu to resurrect her father." "Saburo won't accept just anybody; he needs someone with a high level of influence in Arasaka, and Yorinobu, being his son, is a perfect candidate.
"That is so fucked up…" he muttered slowly before turning towards one of the computers. "Okay, officially the constructs will be considered AIs so they are under our jurisdiction…"
"That's not what I'm worried about! Johnny Silverhand's construct was a program that you could change however you want, so now imagine him with the abilities of someone like… alt."
"Dear god…" Now properly understanding the danger, he slumped back in his chair and just sat there for a few seconds before audibly gulping and asking, "So what do we do?"
"For now? Nothing. These are just suspicions, strong suspicions, but we can't just go and act on them." Looking at the protest that was about to erupt from him, I quickly shut him down and said, "Here's what you're going to do: you're going to have to inform higher-ups about what we talked about, just in case, but don't act on it! Under no circumstance can Netwatch go against Arasaka. Especially when things are already so tumultuous to begin with."
"Okay… god, this is a mess."
"You have no idea," I said with a small sigh. He has no idea how fucking big this entire thing is. Shaking my head, I turned towards his main computer and sent all the relevant files and details. "In any case, I've sent you all the files and programs. Once I'm in their system, it'll start transmitting data, but don't act on it until I give you the go-ahead. Understand?" I said, standing up and brushing my clothes off.
"Yes, I understand," he said, also standing up a second later. Before looking at me with a sincere smile, he said, "You know I have great respect for all you UCs."
"We are pretty impressive," I said behind me, and, with a parting wave, I started walking out of the room.
"I'll inform the animals to let you pass without any hassle!" he exclaimed before the door could close.
Nodding, I made my way through the mall again, but this time I didn't bother hiding away, and true to his word, no one stopped me. But they sure were looking at me with anger. Shrugging, I walked out of the mall from the side door, where I know VDBs won't be watching.
"So?" I asked Johnny as we walked out.
'I don't know how to feel about it…' he said, but didn't appear in my FOV.
Signing, I nodded my head in agreement and quietly said, "necessary evil, Johnny, necessary evil."
I was just standing there for a few minutes, soaking in the calm before the storm, when Johnny finally appeared before me and hesitatingly asked, 'Can you really give me Alt's abilities?'
The only thing he got in return from me was a startled laugh.
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Hey guys! thanks for reading! please do consider rating, commenting and saving, it'll help me immensely! also I feel like Gollum now, running and chasing after my precious Powerstones. So please, do consider throwing some my way please!