Chapter 14: The Sleeping giants awake
General POV
With Kane's massive successive attacks far beyond any kind expected, Petrochem has eliminated any and all information about them in their database. They also sent a new gift in their thanks to the mystery that is Messiah. While being completely sincere if the messages of the CEO and COO are real, the said gift being a Kremlin class Aircraft submarine, which although is a very good submarine back in time 40 years, is becoming increasingly costly to maintain as well as insufficient for modern operation. So they thought of it as a gift to ensure friendly relations in the future.
[Kremlin class aircraft carrier submarine]
This was also left at the bottom of the ocean floor just outside of Night City waters for easy recovery and powered down on the seabed. Throughout this, Petrochem has made incredible investments into the now defenceless China industries, mostly those of heavy production like fuel and mining operations.
While the other giants interested in the area, Arasaka mainly, have started to make incursions into the now in turmoil Taiwan due to the absence of any kind of order. Local warlords are starting to appear all across China, with some even getting sponsored by corporations such as Militech. They have started to increase the amounts of heavy weaponry used to fight against the government forces while also using the heavily experienced netrunners under them to attack weak Chinese defence networks.
This has also led to open confrontation on the sea between Arasaka battle group Kanji and Militech Leviathan fleet, where numerous missiles were launched at each other along with drone carriers on both sides being deployed. It only cooled down when the European Economic Community (EEC) threatened both to stand down or face nationalization in Europa.
Both did, but not before Arasaka used hidden submarines to sink the Militech transport ships that held approximately 850 million eddies worth of products, utterly enraging Militech high command. In reprisal, they attacked in Africa, which led to 100,000 casualties due to surprise air attacks on factories.
With both sides scrambling to eat the corpse that was left over from Kang Tao, both companies wanted to find the so-called 'Messiah' who had made their presence known by making a corp fall. This was something that hadn't happened in a century and had become the main topic of the world, with both corps looking to be outside the public spotlight.
Meanwhile, in Night City, the queen of the city is facing nervous mercs and Fixers in the back of the Afterlife. At a long oak table, she has her hand in front of her with her legs crossed and an impassive face, while behind her, Nix is still slightly drunk after his bender yesterday.
Rouge: "I think we all know why we are here, so I will stop with the nonsense and posturing. Do any of you, and I mean any of you, know who this 'Messiah' is? And do we know if they're from a corp or are just a freelancer? If a corp, we might see another corp war. This person might be trying to be Bartmoss' successor."
Faraday: "As if a mere netrunner can do anything by their lonesome. I'm sure the corps will come after them like a cyberpsycho after hearing new chrome. It will go away. Besides, we are the true rulers of Night City."
It felt as if the room was thrown into a freezer. Rouge's passive face looked towards Faraday and sighed while pulling up footage of Regina Jones' apartment she had acquired and let it show to all in the room.
Many inside were disturbed after the footage ended. Nix woke up as if taken over and watched it again and again, till he had everyone look at him. As the best netrunner of Night City, they wanted his opinion.
Nix: "The person who made these demons is someone who can totally block you off the net, and I mean blacklist you entirely from using any technology. They have that much of a presence. The footage you see here is what I believe to be a low-level demon for them, and if this is what a netrunner with numerous safety protocols is like after a demon, I dread to think about them in combat. They can most likely crash the global economy given enough time, and with what they've done to Kang Tao, it's no doubt they know how to destroy anything in their way."
As everyone took in that information from the best netrunner in Night City, Padre asked a question that appeared on everyone's mind: "How is the person responsible for destroying Kang Tao in a day?"
Nix: "They used ASAT weapons, which are missiles designed to attack space assets, and a combination of demons uploaded from the inside. From what I can piece together, the whole net that is touched by them seems to actively work against anyone there. It wasn't just me there; corp teams of netrunners seemed to be fighting against the lingering code. It seemed as if Biotechnica got greedy and lost 48 netrunners due to it being a deeply hidden trojan. They had to purge all systems while the runners were in."
Everyone had a grim face. Losing 48 runners for an investigation must have ruffled feathers badly. Each runner was like a guard for a prison: the more you had, the more secure it was, and the fewer you had, the more a potential breakout was waiting to happen. So losing so many left Bio in a lot of trouble on the net, as their team that had been there to help against hacks was gone.
It was decided that every fixer do their own thing and not be strong-armed into doing this by corps. By searching for Messiah, any and all netrunners under their employ would be monitored by their compatriots.
This meeting discussing Messiah was one of many, with one happening at the Voodoo Boys in Pacifica, where the whole gang was on the net searching for Messiah. This was so they could learn from them and possibly join them. This was seen by all forces in Pacifica who sought to attack them.
But all stopped when a message appeared on the leaders' interfaces, which had their addresses and their product codes for their chrome. They instantly knew who this was, and before many could react, their gang members were on the floor going crazy. Another gang leader saw it as a bluff and tried to fight against it, only to become a puppet of Messiah, who then went on a rampage around Pacifica, only to be put down by a small contingent of Maxtac, who got a thank you notification. Instantly, they turned off their chrome and suits.
When the Voodoo Boys found out about this, they immediately started making all kinds of propaganda about Messiah, which then got an image of Messiah walking in the net, seemingly surrounded by spirits. This is what led to a whole gang becoming radical followers of Messiah, the one who peered through Blackwall, by the claims of the Voodoo Boys.
And Kane? He was making an attempt at creating a super tactical droid from Star Wars, and he was doing it through trial and error. While doing this, he had his base, now deemed "Zero-1" in reference to the machines of the Matrix, where Kane felt angry at such a reality in which humanity is nought but sheep for machines. He would make use of the sentinel designed around his base to help build and craft. He has made the lasers of the sentinels much more effective, with them being neon green because of the countless layers of tiberium focusing glass.
He also has begun to build a massive underground hangar and a shipyard, one for the submarine and the others for his sentinels to use to bring up materials from the ocean floor. These materials are then used to feed tiberium plants made for certain resources that are then made into suitable components. For example, iron is turned into steel, while titanium is infused with tiberium to make the hull of a sentinel, which is then assembled by another sentinel. This process continues with Kane having 320 sentinels made already due to having worked constantly and his use of production-type tiberium.
The tiberium hull for the sentinel also helps with the anti-gravity properties of the sentinels and also helps scramble radar detection. Additionally, a small layer of reflective tiberium makes light bend around the tiberium, making it very hard to detect by sight.
Kane has also used his foresight to see that if he left for long enough, his sentinels would be approached by the AI of the Blackwall and be turned against him. So he made an adjustment to all of them. He did a Sidious and implemented a biochip inside of them that they didn't even know was there. This prevents the gathering of an AI due to it not having the feeling of flesh. It would not realize it had it inside and thus be subtle to control from Kane, who made the biochip with a special type of red tiberium which induces control to the maker, that being Kane, and the rejection of any other AI apart from others that their maker makes. Kane also gave them enough room to grow to dog-like levels of intelligence. Thus, some of the first sentinels are particularly fond of watching Kane build stuff from hiding on the ceiling—a cute yet terrifying thing that is.
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AN/ How is this one i kind of went over board no? well i wanted show that while Kane does a bunch of things that make moving mountains simple he is just if not more crazy than he realises and how much power he now holds when he hasn't even started his own corp yet.
Hope you all enjoyed it for any ideas put them on this paragraph thanks for all the support this has been getting in comments i really do appreciate it all, also what do you think of the punctuation of Ai is good bad let me know anyway toodles!!.
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