Chapter 109: Chapter 103: The Second Breakthrough

The situation came so suddenly

Three hours earlier.

Colonel Lance Hardy received a special notification—from a "colleague" at the company, Mark Carroll.

Colonel Lance Hardy, "So this contract for the lockdown was orchestrated by a senator, that Mendoza guy who works in media?"

Mark Carroll, "Right, Koch screwed up the research and got a visit from Mendoza."

Colonel Lance Hardy, "How much does he know?"

Mark Carroll, "Hard to say. He’s brought in a bunch of people, and things have gotten messy. The incident at City Hall yesterday was caused by a Biotechnology agent."

Mark Carroll, "The NCPD lot are useless, and the Tiger Claw Gang are cowards; let the guy get away. But it seems the Biotech agent left a contingency plan."

Mark Carroll, "Koch is certain that if we take out Mendoza and the two former Biotech employees today, that’ll be the end of it."

Mark Carroll, "Don’t make a scene, though. This operation was already not quite by the book. Too much heat and the Government and other companies will have issues with it, and I’ll be in a tight spot."

Mark Carroll, "Don’t worry too much. We’ve checked—Mendoza’s accessible mercenary teams are nothing special, just hold down the subway entrance."

Mark Carroll, "Try to minimize casualties, then pin it all on them in the end, terrorists, you know."

Colonel Lance Hardy, "What about those from yesterday? The bunch from yesterday were lunatics, heard someone even called the Terrorist Mobile Team, but then the guys ran off, and the Team didn’t show up."

Mark Carroll, "The guys from yesterday barely got away, mercenaries like them are all about the money, they won’t come back and risk their necks."

Mark Carroll, "Oh, and there’s this Zora Barnes, another media type, always investigating the senator. She’ll be there too."

Colonel Lance Hardy, "Got it, so now you want me to clean it all up."

Mark Carroll, "Exactly, thanks."

Colonel Lance Hardy, "Sure thing, leave it to me."

After sorting all this out, he started passing orders to his subordinates.

Contact: Military Technology Sergeant #7773, Military Technology Lieutenant #7103.

Military Technology Major #1389: Troop number...take over the northwest area of City Hall, secure the City Hall subway station.

Military Technology Major #1389: Targets for inspection: Manuel Mendoza, Emilia Morton, Brandon Murphy, Zora Barnes.

Military Technology Major #1389: Elimination targets, charged with engaging in terror activities for anti-corporate and anti-capitalist ideologies.

Military Technology Major #1389: Targets armed, high danger level.

Military Technology Forces: Roger that.

Making the overly curious media disappear was a common task for these city-stationed officers.

The lockdown made things much simpler—could blame it on a few legal stipulations and pin it on these unlucky sods—

Dead people can’t defend themselves anyway—unless they’ve hired the services of Arasaka.

But who would do this if they could afford that kind of service?

With the lockdown complete, guarding the subway station was an entire squad, plus two sharpshooters and one heavy machine gunner. The firepower was more than adequate.

Another squad was patrolling the northwest side of City Hall—

Anyway, they did have the NCPD contract for the northwest district of City Hall lockdown, so this squad was just for show.

A little later, Hardy received the latest report:

Military Technology Sergeant #7773: Target spotted in the subway, squad commencing encirclement and suppression.

Military Technology Major #1389: Continue reporting mission progress.

Military Technology Sergeant #7773: Copy that.

Some time passed, and Colonel Hardy had already popped a bottle of champagne—

Today’s work not only allowed for claiming recent expenses but also looked likely to pull in a nice profit. Why not celebrate with champagne?

However...

Pop.

Just as the champagne cork flew off, an operational message appeared in his visual system.

Military Technology Sergeant #7773 emergency automated message: Casualties.

Colonel Hardy froze, then immediately stood up:

Military Technology Major #1389: Lieutenant, to the subway station immediately, Sergeant 7773 is down!

Military Technology Lieutenant #7103: Roger that.

A walk in the park, and there are casualties?

The champagne in hand lost its appeal.

...

Boom!

The blast wave and flames hurled the soldiers near the subway entrance away; Jack took out a sharpshooter with one shot, Sadara’s flechette shotgun turned the guy’s upper body into a mist of blood, and one of the unfortunate souls behind him was also caught in the blast, thrown through the air, bloody and mutilated.

The world around V slowed to a crawl as Si Anweisitan activated, the Mantis Blade unfolded, and he lunged at the last sharpshooter!

The guy was quick, injecting all of his stimulants, the Krensky kicking in at the crucial moment—

But sadly, this was a surprise attack! The RPG explosion had him reeling for air.

He barely dodged V’s first Mantis Blade strike with an exaggerated maneuver, yet he couldn’t avoid the second!

The Mantis Blade pierced his abdomen, tearing through his Subdermal Armor. V swung the other Mantis Blade, decapitating him!

The explosion sent soldiers tumbling down the stairs; Jack grabbed an MK31 from the ground, and a terrifying barrage of gunfire ensued—

"Move it! Crossfire!"

Bullets instantly took down several soldiers hunkered down near the stairwell, blood and flesh splattered everywhere.

Lille immediately marked the firing positions on Mann Team’s prosthetic eyes; they were initially stunned, but soon they sprung into action, their weapons firing at last!

The pincer attack quickly turned the tables; the Military Science soldiers were all exposed to the gunfire!

Prosthetics form the basis of combat, but only a minority of transhumans can withstand a heavy machine gun—