570 Shift Change
Since it was close to the time for the day shift crew to switch off to the night crew, Atlas left an illusion of the smoking wreckage where it was and teleported everything up to the Defiant. None of the escorts noticed the survivors being transported during the fighting, so he knew they wouldn't notice the fakes being left behind. He would return with the cargo hauler to collect it with the night shift crew.
Instead of joining the men and women in celebrating another successful day at work, Atlas went to the hospital to check on the guard that had been shot. The man was in high spirits as Chappel worked on him and Atlas thanked him for his service and gave him a bonus.
The guard was kind of shocked he was being rewarded for being taken out of action, since that usually resulted in losing your job and in most cases your life. Atlas explained that it was compensation for him having to take medical leave, which he would also be paid for, and he couldn't head back out in the morning for work again. Nurse Chappel's orders for rest took precedence.
After that meeting, Atlas excused himself and stepped up to the brig of the ship where he had transported the prisoners. He had managed to get most of the PetroChem assault team and they looked pissed about it. Oh, and he had disabled their suicide devices and made them even more angry about being captured alive and mostly intact, with only a lost limb or two among them.
“I hope you're ready to spend the rest of your life in prison for interfering in another corporation's operations.” The captain of their team said when he saw Atlas on the other side of the impossible force field that held them inside the cell. “As soon as we don't report in...”
“...you've already been disavowed by PetroChem.” Atlas said and showed them a fake news broadcast about the unprovoked attack on the dam by rogue elements not associated or affiliated with any corporation. “Do want to change your story about being well armed and heavily armored Wraiths?”
“Go fuck yourself.” The man answered.
Atlas smiled. “Not surprisingly, that was the wrong answer.” He said and pulled out a souped up handgun that looked really odd to the professional military-trained men.
“Do your worst.” The captain said with a scoff. “No matter what you do to me, I won't talk.”
“I know.” Atlas said and aimed the gun at his head. He saw the satisfied look on the captain's face and shifted his aim 10 degrees to the right and fired as he used his power to step the targeted man into another holding cell and replaced him with an illusion.
The illusion's head exploded and the body dropped to the floor. The remaining men in the cell were stunned by this and even the captain looked shocked at the change in their circumstances.
“There are six more men left in your team.” Atlas said and shifted his aim by 15 degrees in the other direction towards a skinnier man's head. “How many time are you going to give me the same answer to my question?”
All six men turned worried eyes to their captain and the man winced and the betrayal he saw there.
“Fuck.” He whispered. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Well captain, do want to change your story about being well armed and heavily armored Wraiths?” Atlas asked and wiggled the gun in his hand for emphasis.
The captain grit his teeth and thought about refusing, then changed his mind. Having them die on a mission was one thing. Causing each of their deaths personally by not talking was a bit too much for his conscience to take.
“It was all a ruse by PetroChem to blow up your modifications to the Laguna Bend Dam. If you thought it was Wraiths or Scavs, you'd head off into the badlands looking for more Wraiths to get your revenge.” The captain said.
“And who do you work for?” Atlas asked and didn't lower the gun.
“PetroChem for the last 15 years. It was a good job and I helped keep the company's secrets many times.” He answered, surprisingly honestly.
“Was?” Atlas asked and lowered the gun before tucking it away inside his suit jacket.
“We failed.” The man said with a shrug. “Even if you let us go, we'll be dead by the morning.”
“Then why talk?” Atlas asked and put the gun away.
“I realized it didn't matter if I talked or not.” The man answered. “I just didn't want to see my men die before you finished me off, too.”
A few of the men with him patted his arms or his shoulders in response.
“It's always easier to accept the losses when you die first.” Altas agreed and waved a hand to make a teleport illusion and stepped the other prisoner back into this sell and dispelled the illusion on the floor.
“YOU CAN BRING THE DEAD BACK TO LIFE?!?” One of them yelled and started making a whole bunch of religious symbols and prayed in several languages as he crossed himself several times.
Atlas laughed. “No, it's the same system I use to transport garbage. I didn't actually shoot him.”
“I thought it only worked on inanimate things?” The captain asked.
“Most garbage is organic in nature. Why would a transporter be so limited to transport everything except people?” Atlas asked and he looked surprised. “He can tell you he was in the cell next door and heard everything, too. I have to get back to work, now that I have a reason to alter the Coronado Dam.”
Atlas used the teleport illusion and stepped back down to the underground facility. He made sure the cargo hauler was prepped and ready to launch, then asked for an escort. Nearly everyone on the night shift volunteered. Atlas laughed, thanked them, and told them to go do their actual jobs. He then specified the AV teams and they all still volunteered.
They decided on their own to do a rotation and give each of them an hour as his escort and the rest of their shifts would be patrolling their areas of operation, namely the downtown area and the industrial complex where the warehouse was. There were still lots of crimes happening, so they had lots of work to do.
Atlas warned them he had a date with Panam later that night and they all oo'd and aw'd at him, making him laugh again. They left the facility and went their separate ways to actually do their jobs, just as Atlas ordered. One AV came with the cargo hauler and they went to the Coronado Dam.
Instead of the normal garbage collection they thought he was going to do, the cargo hauler tilted up like the maintenance AV had when it attacked and a huge red beam shot out of the bottom of it. To their shock, the beam carved away the entire PetroChem logo that covered nearly 50% of the dam's inner surface.
A good portion of the city could see what was happening from where they lived, especially in the higher levels of the megabuildings. There were also a lot of recordings happening as well, since seeing a ship that big tilt at such an odd degree had caught a lot of people's attention.
All of the concrete and debris released by the red beam didn't fall to the ground or crushed the subdivision homes built underneath it. Everyone saw that it was all sucked up into the cargo hauler and no one was put in danger from it.
When the large section was carved out, the red beam narrowed and then continued working as it carved a wide channel down at an angle and to the side the housing development at the base of the dam. There was a large dividing wall where the previous waterway had been, before it was sold as real estate. Instead of continuing to carve something, one of the hexagon cargo bays opened and huge concrete blocks the length and height of the cargo bay, floated out and were lowered into place to make a new and very streamlined waterway that didn't impact people's land at all.
“Holy drek!” One of the escort guards said. “How long has he had this plan in the works? Stuff that big and difficult to move doesn't just appear out of nowhere.”
The pilot laughed. “That my friend was made from all of the garbage he's been collecting.”
“No fucking way!” The guard gasped. “How?”
“I have no idea.” The pilot said and flew along as he kept an eye out for any possible enemies or hostile projectiles aiming at the cargo hauler. “I just know the workers pull huge amounts of steel and concrete out of the warehouse after every time he returns with another load to dump out.”
“That... that... why the fuck has no one else ever done that?” The guard asked.
“None of them were as smart as the boss, maybe? Fuck knows I'd never think of ever doing drek like this.” The pilot answered.
They moved along until they reached the spot where the waterway just stops. A huge industrial treatment plant was there and was pretty much rusted out waste. It was also a PetroChem property and they hadn't done anything to either fix it or remove it.
*WNNNN!*
The red beam slashed out and carved that huge metal and concrete monstrosity into little chunks and then sucked the entire thing right up. Even the people on the street were stunned at how quickly it had happened, then the cargo hauler rotated and the next cargo hold opened and revealed even more concrete barriers.
They formed a new reservoir inside the giant pit the industrial plant had been and more barriers were put up around it to keep it safe, then the cargo hauler continued on its journey, carving up what was in the way of a previous path and fixing it, then replacing what needed to be replaced.
At one point, when they reached one of the bridges to go downtown, he didn't end the new canal nto the waterway. Instead, he attached the canal to the bridge, essentially making another lane for water to travel across, and brought it along the entire length to reach the other side. He also reinforced the bridge at the supports and added new cables along the length of it to handle the new weight.
To everyone's surprise, the canal eventually reached the area behind where the Arasaka Tower was. Everyone in the city knew this was the site of the horrific nuclear bombing of 2023 that had destroyed the previous Arasaka Tower and cost many lives. Several walkways crossed or surrounded it and there were memorial plaques with the names of those lost near the back of the new tower. They had even left the remains of the original lobby for people to tour, if they felt particularly depressed and wanted to see the site of all that death and destruction.
*WNNNN!*
The escorts and the gathering crowd nearby gasped as the entire thing was gutted, except for the walkways and the memorial wall. The red beam tore into the crater and the wreckage as if it didn't exist and it was all pulled up and disappeared into the cargo hauler.
The back of the ship rotated again and another hexagon cargo container opened. Large flat pieces of concrete were brought out and set down in layers, spreading out almost as fast as the eye could see. The bottom of the newly formed and very deep circular pool was quickly finished and another cargo container rotated and opened to put down many curved stone pieces to build the sides.
“Is this really happening?” The dispatcher asked. “I mean, I'm seeing it; but, I don't believe it.”
“If I'm dreaming, I don't want anyone to wake me up.” The pilot said and they all silently agreed.
The massive eyesore, the terrible event that changed the face of Night City, was being cleaned up completely and was going to be replaced with fresh clean water.
*
“He's activated the pumps remotely.” Yuri said as she and Hanako looked down from the balcony at the work the huge cargo hauler was doing with their own eyes.
“What?” Hanako asked without looking away from the disaster that was a stain on their company's history was wiped away and replaced with something the PR department was going to be overjoyed about.
“The pumps at the pumping station at Laguna Bend Dam. They're churning out...” Yuri paused and checked the numbers. “Oh, my.”
“What is it?” Hanako asked and managed to tear her eyes away from the miraculous site to look at the AI.
“Estimates are it's pumping about 5,000 cubic feet of water a second.” Yuri told her and Hanako gave her a blank look. “Roughly 2 million gallons of water a minute.”
Hanako's mouth dropped open and stared at her, shocked at hearing the ridiculous number.
“If my calculations are right, by the time he places the final concrete barrier piece into place, water will be rushing in to fill it.” Yuri told her. “I have to assume he'll go back and add cleaning and filtering stations where appropriate, especially at the mini-reservoir he put on the other side of the bridge to downtown. That should stop the water from splashing out of his carefully constructed routing system.”
Hanako blinked her eyes at her for a few seconds and then turned and looked down at the construction that was being rapidly finished before her eyes.
Just as Yuri predicted, as soon as the ship laid the final piece, which just so happened to be shaped like a half-funnel into place, the sound of rushing water was heard and clean and shockingly clear water shot out of the canal like a firehose and flowed down into the deep concrete pool. The echo of it hitting the bottom took a few seconds to reach them, too.
“Is he insane?” Hanako asked before she could stop herself.
“No.” Yuri said and put an arm over her friend's shoulder. “He would probably say he was a little bit crazy.”
“Only crazy people do drek like this.” Hanako said and motioned to the site that was drawing more and more people, even though it was getting late in the evening.
“And get away with it.” Yuri said and raised a hand to wave as the cargo hauler and the AV escort floated up past the balcony. They flashed their running lights at her and flew off along the approved flight plan they had long ago filed with her.
“Will he?” Hanako asked.
“Oh, yes. Even the NetWatch task group assigned to watch him and Veder, because they suspect one or both are involved with a rogue AI, they will back off after seeing this.” Yuri answered. “Just like with Delamain, if the AI is beneficial to the city and the people, they will keep a close eye on them and won't do anything to interfere. If there is any hint of instability, though...”
Hanako nodded and thought about what to do for the rest of the evening. An errant thought passed through her mind about giving Veder and his current coworkers the night off, then after a short consideration, she decided not to. Celebrating in the middle of the week never worked out, even at high corporate levels.
*
Wakako sat in the security room at the club called Clouds and barely stopped herself from cursing at the lowlife in front of her. She had made him a section leader, mostly because she couldn't find anyone better, and he hadn't met his recruitment quota.
In fact, he had just reported how many of his men had been brutally beaten when they tried their normal recruiting tactics and that two of them had subsequently died from their wounds. The two deaths would have normally been inconsequential to her, only this time she had very finite resources and needed every warm body she could get her hands on.
“Start leaning on the independent prostitutes. We need an influx of cash and fresh faces to draw in the right numbers.” Wakako ordered. “If they won't cooperate or won't pay the rent they owe us for being in our areas, then make an example of one of them. The rest will fall in line quickly enough.”
“Yes, Lado Okado. Right away!” He said and left as fast as his little feet could carry him away from her. With a little luck, they'd have the means to bring in more people into their gang to bring their numbers back up to a sustainable level and then they would hit back at the ones that had hurt them the most. The Sixth Street Gang was going down and the Tyger Claws would be the victors once more.
Little did he realize that The Sixth Street Gang had gone the same way as the Maelstrom Gang. They had been too violent and too prevalent in their tactics to be left unchecked. They had been culled and no one ever had to worry about them ever again.
That was something the Valentinos Gang already knew. They had been occupying the Sixth Street Gang's territory ever since the riots and pretty much had control of everything, making them one of the sole remaining gangs in the city. Also, since their protection racket was much lower cost than the other gangs, it was happily paid by the businesses in their new territory and everyone was happy.