An Engineer In Night City

Away from Night City, Mark is celebrating the inauguration event of his Rocket Launcher Site, where soon he will build an orbital station to produce Space Science, and from there the exploration of the solar system is within his grasp. Once the rocket engines are unlocked and assuming a standard configuration for the engines, it will take around ten days to travel towards Venus at its longest distance of 241 million kilometers, or 162 million miles in 'freedom units;' meanwhile, it will take nearly sixteen days to travel to Mars at the farthest distance of 401 million kilometers, or 250 million miles. Once close to Mars, reaching the asteroid belt is a simple task, and any worries about material resources become a thing of the past.

When the information that Wube Inc. wanted to have a license from NUSA to launch rockets, initially the government wanted to bar the efforts of the nascent company, however, Militech convinced the current authorities to grant the license, using the opportunity to lure Mark away from his factory, and with it invade and loot the place.

Right at this moment, several Militech armored vans are awaiting orders from the higher-ups to assault the place, however, before the main force can advance a group of mercenaries was hired to act as a vanguard. A few Edgerunners were also hired to provide slightly more elite attempts before the professional mercenaries could storm the place.

The Voodoo Boys are the first gang on the scene armed with heavy weapons and explosives. "Bring that fucking wall down!" One of the techno cultists yells at a large man holding a rocket launcher. He aims at the outer protective wall of the Factory, the Pacifica Wall according to natives. The nearby gangsters give the man some space before he can shoot, and when he pulls the trigger only those with enhanced vision or some form of Speedware can see what happens next.

The rocket is shot down halfway through the distance between the Voodoo boy and the rocket, taken by an invisible deadly force in the form of the Laser Turrets that were recently installed. When the first Laser Turret fires, the atmosphere of the Factory changes. Inside, the workers moved according to the security drills and looked for safety, while the security forces went to guard the vital choke points.

A newly installed turret activates for the first time, as Flamethrower turrets fire at the Voodoo Boys, burning them and the precious equipment they received. The other gangs flee once they see the carnage and hear the screams of the Haitian gangsters, some of them even leaving behind the supplied Iron to avoid being connected to this operation. A few Edgerunners try to use this opportunity to slip past the security, successfully hacking the security cameras and disabling a few of the gun turrets. Unfortunately for those brave few, the gun turrets hacked were bought from Militech and Arasaka to act as visible deterrents against the casual gangster. The realm Gun Turrets are hidden inside the defensive walls and shoot at anyone without the proper identification.

As the gangsters are gunned down either by bullets, lasers, or burned by incendiaries, the leader of the operation gives his verdict. "This is Fisherman calling Pier, I'm calling it off, the intel is outdated, over."

"This is Pier, we won't have a similar opportunity like this for a while, Fisherman." Someone in the command center tells the ground leader, "you must act now, over."

"Fisherman here, and with all due respect, our intel is worthless shit. The fodder that was meant to breach the defenses is now barbecue and didn't even have the decency of scratching the walls. The Reef got himself some nasty PD, so the only thing we will accomplish is to become a walking loot bag to the bastard. Unless you want to call theJaps or they allow us to call an airstrike, we can't proceed, over."

"Stand by, Fisherman. Calculating target solution."

The leader waits for a few moments until he hears a familiar loud sound coming from inside the factory. In the distance, the attack helicopter meant to assault the factory from a distance explodes into shrapnel, the pieces falling into the ocean.

"Of course, the SOB has anti-air turrets," the leader mutters under his breath, "why wouldn't he? What else does he have under the sleeve? Pier, we're leaving. I'm not going to die a pointless death over some executive fuck up, over."

"Acknowledged, Fisherman. Return to base for debriefing."

As the unmarked vans return to the base while pretending to be delivery vehicles, one of the soldiers addresses their leader. "So, not what you expect, mister FIA?"

"Shut it, soldier." The NUSA special agent currently working for the Federal Intelligence Agency, FIA, retorts with a frustrated sigh. "This shit only happens in Night City. Not even in South America, did I get blindsided this bad. If I didn't know any better I would believe that Wube is being sponsored by Arasaka."

The FIA agent grabs his dog tag from his time in the army, the name Solomon Reed laser etched still visible after all these years. "I guess I will need to convince the higher-ups to try a different approach. Maybe it's a good opportunity for me to meet with some friends from my old unit."

...

In a different location, Dex DeShawn hears what happened with the teams he sent for the Militech gig at the Factory: almost complete casualties from the teams that tried to infiltrate, while the few that initially hesitated ran away when the Factory defense system activated.

Dex takes a deep breath but concludes that everything is still fine. Militech still paid him half upfront from the distraction, and the eddies from the various booster gangs he sold information to will help pay his costs and turn up a profit. Unfortunately, DeShawn was expecting a higher payout from a successful operation, instead, the Factory turned out to be a death trap even worse than they remembered. 'What kind of demented man uses flamethrowers to defend their turf?' Dex "'Mr. Cool" DeShawn thinks while pacing.

"Alright, I can recover from this. I just need to focus on other gigs while the heat from the Engineer dies down." The Fixer takes a drag from his imported cigar, before taking a look at his list of gigs, calling some of the clients to confirm a few final details.

"… who the fuck is Faraday!"