The Protagonist System

Hanako Arasaka had been feeling unrest ever since her meeting with Veder, aka Atlas, a couple of days ago. Despite her attempts to appease him, he seemed to not care about her efforts and then revealed many things to her and her 'cousin'.

How did he know what Yuri was and her becoming a full AI? There had been no signs of any kind of security breach or unauthorized access to the company servers, and her thoughts skidded to a stop as she remembered him stating 'no comment' when she mentioned Adam Smasher.

If Veder had corrupted or taken their head of security hostage, then he knew everyone's passwords and had full access to everything in the building. None of the executives of the Arasaka Corporation would ever know what he had accessed or changed. It made sense now that he could find so much personal and professional dirt on everyone else in his department and had let her clean the place up.

“Hanako, you have a priority message from a planted asset, Number 34598, placed undercover within the PetroChem secretarial pool.” Yuri said.

“Show me.” Hanako said, her unease disappearing with something else to focus on. She read the displayed message on her top of the line eye implant and frowned at the contents. “Contact one of my personal security teams and scramble them. I want their AV in the air immediately. If this message has the timing right, they should arrive at the Laguna Bend Reservoir just before the PetroChem strike team.”

Yuri didn't move and gave her a smile. “Would you mind if I make an alternate suggestion as a course of action?”

Hanako was surprised she was being so calm about Veder being attacked. “If we don't do something to mitigate this disaster, he could declare open warfare on all corporations for his treatment.”

Yuri nodded. “That is exactly what he is going to think if an Arasaka security team rushes towards his location.”

Hanako caught her breath and then sighed. “Heavens above, thank you for pointing that out.”

Yuri patted her hand. “Would you like to hear my suggestion?”

“Please.” Hanako said and turned her hand over to hold hers.

“Simply allow me to message him to warn him. He will take care of the rest.” Yuri said.

Hanako blinked her eyes at her friend. “Could it be that simple?”

Yuri let out a soft chuckle. “Forewarned is forearmed.”

Hanako nodded. “Then yes, please sent him a priority message and convey I what I wanted to do and you convinced me to be smarter about it.”

“Of course, I will let him know of your concerns.” Yuri said and stilled for a moment. When she moved again, she smiled warmly. “He thanks you for your thoughts to rush to protect him and he appreciates it.”

“Thank the heavens.” Hanako said and relaxed.

“I'm sure the heavens appreciate the praise.” Yuri said, clearly amused. “Atlas has offered to let us watch the skirmish. Do you...”

“Yes.” Hanako agreed instantly. “Do we need to go into VR?”

“If we want a more personal experience.” Yuri said and handed Hanako a very expensive VR setup to put on. “I will ensure we have a good vantage point.”

Hanako nodded and turned on the VR rig. Yuri stiffened for a moment and used a small part of her vast awareness to join her. She really did adore her new body that let her do so many things that she had only ever seen in recordings or through security cameras, not to mention the near virtual dominance she had because of the programming tricks Atlas had shared with her.

*

Atlas hadn't felt his Danger Sense flare after Yuri's warning and he wondered why, then he remembered it only ever warned him when he himself was in personal danger. If the secret PetroChem teams were attacking the dam modification and not him, his Danger Sense might never go off, even if he was caught in the explosion. He just had to decide if he wanted to reveal another technological innovation or not.

With a shrug, he decided to let things play out, just to see how far they would take the ruse. He even thought about warning his two escorts, then thought better of it. Seeing their reactions to a genuine threat would let him know for sure that they were good at their jobs and didn't have to be reassigned.

It was getting really close to shift change, from the day shift to the night shift, which meant the place would be left alone and unguarded for about an hour. Would they wait until then or would they attack just as the guards were leaving?

He had just put the finishing touches on the large pumping station on top of the Laguna Bend Reservoir and extended the extraction pipe down into the dark murky water, when he heard the rumbling engines of several vehicles. He was actually surprised they had the gall to come at him in disguise as Nomads and didn't use an AV or even a remote drone loaded with explosives.

“SIR!” One of the pilots gasped. “Four, I repeat, FOUR fast moving ground vehicles are approaching from the badlands! Two on the far side of the dam and two on the right.”

“Identifications?” Atlas asked.

“Nothing registered, sir. They've been wiped.” The other pilot said. “Dispatch says they're most likely Wraith vehicles. Clearing their registries is the first thing they do so you can't track where they stole them from.”

“Understood.” Atlas said. “It's a good thing the day shift has two escorts assigned to me.”

Both pilots chuckled at his non-order.

“We'll try to leave someone alive for you to interrogate, sir.” One of them said. “Stealth mode! Let's give these idiots the fright of their lives and then show them the error of their ways.”

“This is going to be fun.” One of the guards standing on the extended platforms said as he readied his assault weapon and his partner hooked onto the secure line and leaned out the other side of the AV with his gun ready, too.

“No head shots.” The other pilot warned as both AVs split away from protection duty to head towards the plumes of dust the vehicles in the distance were creating. “We need to identify the bodies for the bounties.”

“Fuck the bounties.” A guard said on the second escort and readied his weapon as well. “These assholes killed my little brother last year. We hit them hard and fast and let God sort them out.”

No one said anything to contradict him and he felt satisfaction that they silently agreed. Taking them down to protect their boss was the priority now, not making some quick cash. He felt a hand on his shoulder and nodded at his partner, whom went to the other side of the AV and prepared to shoot to kill.

The two military AVs flew through the air almost completely silent, besides the whistling air they cut through as they flew fast towards their targets.

“We've got two in a line on this side. Easy prey.” The first pilot said and powered up the autocannons to get them spinning.

“Damn, they're side by side here. I'll need to do an angled strafing run to get both in a single pass.” The second pilot said as he swung towards the left to do that.

“Aim for the engines if you can and disable them. Use your onboard cyberdeck to check the vehicle specs.” The dispatcher advised. “Aim carefully and it should work.”

One of the guards barked a laugh. “You do know that the boss doesn't charge us by the bullet, right?”

A few chuckles came over the comm system from the pilots and the guards.

“Good point. Going full auto.” The first pilot said and everyone voiced agreement.

*

Ken drove the lead car towards the Laguna Dam and thought this job was going to be the one that would get his name on a drink in the Afterlife. Stopping some idiot trying to steal the city's water, which stopped PetroChem from cleaning it up, was as noble of a job as he'd ever had.

He usually did the dirty work and had to kill a few homeless people to stop them from squatting on the various lands corpos owned. It was a job not a lot of mercs would take; but, it kept food on the table and drinks in his hand.

Stopping corporate espionage? Ken felt like he was on top of the world and he would have to change his opinion of DeShawn for arranging this for him. PetroChem was one of the biggest corporations in the world and coming to their attention was going to put Ken the Merc on the map!

Automatic gunfire from a heavy calibre weapon tore through the engine block, the windshield, and his chest. It was just sheer luck that the last bullet pierced through his throat and decapitated him. The body slumped and turned the steering wheel, the car bounced as it swerved off the road.

The front tire hooked a rut and the excessive speed jerked the car to the right and it flipped the car over several times, which launched the severed head out of the shattered windshield and it flew in an arc through the air and landed on the ground beside the road.

The second vehicle, a heavily armored van that was packed full of other mercs, drove right over his head with spiked tires and splattered it into a large gory spot on the map, just as he predicted. The other mercs involved in the mission weren't as lucky to have such a quick death.

*

“If they weren't Wraiths, I'd feel kind of sorry about wrecking them like this.” One of the guards said and opened fire on the survivors as they tried to mount a defense against being attacked from the air.

“Grenade!” His partner shouted when he saw them throw something.

The AV swiftly swung around and a dull thunk hit the side by the platform as the grenade bounced off and flew away. It exploded well away from the exposed guards in the back.

“Nice save, Ace.” The guard said and let his harness hold him as he waited for the AV to settle again. “Drinks are on me when we RTB.”

The pilot let out a curse as bullets pinged off of the windshield of the AV. He pulled back around and gave the guard on that side a clear shot.

“Thanks.” The guard said and poured a full auto shot into the ground and undercarriage of the turned over car the surviving Wraiths from the van were hiding behind. He pretended to pause, as if out of ammo, and two of the idiots leaned out to aim up at them. “Suckers.”

He emptied the rest of the magazine into them and chuckled as the bodies fell to the ground. The pilot swung them around to let his partner have a chance to shoot as well and he reloaded.

*

The other AV wasn't having as easy of a time as the other one. Their cars had been on parallel paths and his strafing run only did surface damage to both vehicles, which meant they had reinforced the hoods of the engines specifically to stop what the pilot tried to do to disable them. The gunfire was also more accurate from their targets and a lot more dangerous, as the cracks in the bulletproof glass proved.

“There's no way these guys are Wraiths.” One of the guards said as he held up his rifle to aim and an armor piercing bullet tore into his shoulder and had barely missed his chin. He dropped the gun and it swung on the strap around his back and he fell backwards onto the platform. “FUCK! I'm hit!”

“Med-EVAC!” His partner shouted and laid down covering fire on the still moving cars as the AV swung around. “Pull back! I need to check how bad it is!”

“Shoulder's gone.” The other guard hissed and tried to stem the flow of blood with his working hand. “It missed my chin by a hair.”

“Drek!” The other guard said as the AV retreated to a safer distance and he unhooked his safety line and knelt to check his partner. “It's your actual shoulder, too.”

“Yeah, why couldn't they shoot the metal one? It's easily replaced!”

The guard chuckled and pulled out a blood clotter and injected it into his partner's shoulder and then added a pain killer. “You're going to be fine. Free medical care, remember?”

“I'm sidelined until then. A pistol ain't gonna do drek against these assholes.” The guard responded.

The other guard nodded. “Did you get all that, sir?”

“I did.” Atlas said. “I've also been informed they're a PetroChem hit team that's fully armed and armored and the other team are mercs hired to pretend to be Wraiths, even if a couple of them actually are Wraiths in disguise.”

Several curses came from both pilots and the guards.

“I'm taking off to join you in the assault.” Atlas said and everyone fell silent. They had seen the hidden weapons on the thing and had also seen a demonstration of what they could do. His explanation that he wasn't legally allowed to have them, made them all nervous about him using them openly.

The maintenance ship lifted off and turned towards the left, then seemed to blur as it flew over to them and slowed down as it passed where the second AV was. The pilot and guards watched as it floated at a normal pace towards the PetroChem assault team and came under fire. It didn't stop its advance and then tilted up on an angle.

*WNNNN!*

A bright red beam came out of the ship and tore through the fronts of the two vehicles. All four halves tumbled to a stop and several bodies were scattered around.

*WNNNN!*

The beam tore into the back pieces and ignited the fuel tanks.

*Wha-BOOOM!*

When the smoke cleared a few moments later, the whole area was covered in fire and there were no signs of the bodies.

“I'll go give the others a hand, not that the secret's out. Return to base and Chappel will take good care of you.” Atlas said and the maintenance AV flew off in a blur. They didn't hear the red beam when it was used; but, they did hear the whispered awe from the other pilot and the guards over the open comm signal.

*

Hanako stared at the carnage Atlas could unleash. She had been surprised at how well the AVs were armed and the professionalism of the guards as they fought. Seeing a real laser beam actually working like the theories postulated, instead of as a cutter like the large industrial mechs used, wasn't as big of a shock as she thought it would be. It was the scale of the weapon that had shaken her to her core.

How in the world did he made a power source large enough and stable enough to use it? Hanako asked herself as she watched Atlas tear apart the armored van with a red beam of death. What could they do if he ever decided to turn that weapon against them?

“He won't.” Yuri said and Hanako turned to look at her inside the virtual space. “Atlas doesn't think like that.”

“He doesn't want to take over everything?” Hanako asked, a little surprised.

Yuri shook her head. “He just wants to live his life and make himself and others happy. That's it.”

Hanako shook her head in return. “That doesn't make sense. He's about to graduate the academy in two months and...”

“He's only playing a role.” Yuri said with a smile. “If he really is who you think he is, both Veder and Atlas, then you know he already owns a registered corporation and has liquid assets and properties worth about half a billion eurodollars.”

Hanako wasn't sure what to say to that.

“The patents he's made for Arasaka Corporation alone earns him several hundred thousand a day.” Yuri informed her.

“Excuse me? How much?” Hanako asked, surprised.

“Our company's executives all around the world are upgrading their personal weapons, their ground vehicles, and their company assigned AVs to the new versions he's made available.” Yuri said. “The ones that can afford a personal AV have been trying to bribe the R&D and Construction departments to hurry up and put his luxury AV into production. The new jet engine design is quite revolutionary.”

Hanako was at a loss for what to say. She was quite confused about how to handle the situation.

Yuri let out a soft laugh. “He actually likes you, so you don't have to worry.”

Hanako actually relaxed at hearing that and nodded.

“Now that Atlas has dealt with the threat against him and his plans, would you like to see what Veder does in the stairwell when he thinks the security cameras can't see him?” Yuri asked her.

Hanako gave her a pointed look. “How did you manage that?”

Yuri let out another soft laugh. “Discreetly placed mirrors don't give off an electronic signal.”

Hanako caught her breath at the VI, no the AI, being so sneaky. A second later, she barely stopped her gasp as a very detailed stairwell formed around them. The two of them stood right beside Veder as he bent Denise over the railing, lifted her stylish and expensive skirt, opened his suit pants, and his perfect penis entered her and he railed her from behind.

As she watched the lovers going at it during their break, not realizing that it was actually live and not a recording, Hanako wondered if Yuri could somehow make it into a braindance for her to experience the same scene from Denise's perspective. Her fingers went down between her legs and she felt no shame as she pleasured herself, since Yuri had seen her do it hundreds of times over the years.