Heather's smile was confident. "It seems we truly are in a life-or-death situation. You're right, one of us absolutely has to install the Cyberpunk. There's no negotiation on that. But, heh, I can cut off the test data you're trying to acquire."
Faraday's face went rigid. "Wh-what?"
Heather continued. "I wonder, Mr. Night City Fixer, a double agent operating between Militech and Arasaka. With your personal information leaked and Arasaka unable to get their hands on the Cyberpunk data, what kind of 'love' will they and Militech show you after a mission like this fails? Hehehe."
Faraday's nonchalant attitude vanished; he panicked. "Kiwi, quickly eliminate this girl! Otherwise, you won't get a single cent!"
Maine and Heather turned their heads at the same time. Smoke was rising from behind Falco and Dorio's heads as both of them fell to the ground. Rebecca, who was closest to Kiwi, was bewildered, but in the next second, her anger surged.
"You old hag! You really are a traitor! Just watch me cut you down…" Rebecca raised her Slaughterer, but before she could finish her sentence, her eyes rolled back and she fell to her knees.
Heather was certain: Kiwi was a traitor, working with Faraday. The conversation they just had made it clear. Faraday promised Kiwi a lot of money if this job was done well.
Lucy's disappearance last night was most likely also Kiwi's doing. Heather's mind raced. At this point, she could only use her last resort. It was her self-developed quick-crack plug-in, "Communication Short Circuit," a large-scale, indiscriminate communication attack. She had no time to hesitate and immediately activated it.
Centered on her, an undetectable shockwave spread out within a 500-meter radius, short-circuiting all communication devices except her own. For a moment, the world fell silent.
"Heather, I have to say," Dog Brother shouted, "that move of yours was truly brilliant! Well done! Let Faraday eat Arasaka's shit! I wish him a good appetite; hope he doesn't get indigestion."
"He's finished," Heather said, her voice grim. "He openly stood Arasaka up. He should find a comfortable coffin to lie in."
Maine rushed over and pinned Kiwi down, his tone full of regret. "Kiwi, all these years we've treated you like family. I never thought you would…"
Kiwi showed no remorse. She had prepared for the possibility of failure from the start. "Be mature, Maine. In Night City, you can't trust anyone but yourself. With you leading this team, it's bound to be wiped out sooner or later."
Maine threw a punch, and Kiwi went limp.
In that short time, Militech's forces had already approached, and with a hostile greeting, dense artillery fire began to fall. Maine hooked an arm around Falco and Dorio, carrying them both behind the highest and largest dirt mound.
Jackie and David each carried one as well, and everyone gathered together. There were four unconscious people: Rebecca, Dorio, Falco, and Kiwi. There were also four who could still fight: Heather, Maine, Jackie, and David.
The area was filled with the sound of exploding shells. Everyone's internal comms were short-circuited. Jackie clutched his head, shouting, "How are we supposed to fight like this? Are we just going to wait to be blown up?"
Maine's expression was resolute; he didn't clutch his head like the others, as if he wasn't afraid of being hit by shrapnel. Heather could only shout; her comms working alone were useless. She still had to rely on her voice.
"Maine, do you want to install the Cyberpunk?" she yelled. She couldn't tell if he had heard her, but he was indeed running toward the large Arasaka truck. She had no choice but to follow him. With his skills alone, it would be impossible to handle the system.
As soon as she entered the truck compartment, she saw a brightly lit control panel with all the parameters already set. "Arasaka's service is truly thorough," she said. "They're so eager to collect combat data."
Although she didn't shout this time, since they were inside the truck and the back door was closed to block the shrapnel, communication was no longer difficult.
Time was precious; Militech's forces could arrive at any moment. Heather calmly began to operate the system. Her mother was a top Arasaka hacker, and she had learned a lot from her, so she was very familiar with Arasaka's operating system. She quickly understood and worked smoothly.
The Cyberpunk, although it sounded like a prosthetic, was more like an external armor—a combat mech with huge shoulders and arms, hollow in the middle for a pilot. It was classified as a prosthetic because it was directly connected to a person's nervous system.
"Maine," she explained. "Your legs can go directly in, but your prosthetics must be removed. The Cyberpunk needs to establish a neural connection with the base of your upper arms after they're gone."
Maine's expression was tense as he lay inside. The robotic arms nearby began to rotate, looking as if they were about to dismember him. As the connection level continuously increased, Maine's personality traits rapidly decreased.
Heather looked at the screen, then at Maine, her gaze darting back and forth. Maine was already in great pain. Removing the prosthetics wasn't painful, but the Cyberpunk's neural connection required more, forcing the removal of some healthy muscle tissue on the spot. This kind of pain was unbearable; screaming was a normal reaction.
The screen showed that Maine's personality trait loss rate had reached 90%. His eyes now looked like compound eyes, a spastic reaction of the human body when the nervous system reached a certain load. When the loss rate reached 100%, Maine would completely become a cyberpsycho and kill anyone he saw.
Heather couldn't take any more risks. She plunged two doses of inhibitor into Maine's chest. The index quickly dropped to 0%, and only then did Heather dare to wipe the cold sweat from her forehead.
"Maine is truly a man," Dog Brother said from outside. "I admire him."
Outside, Jackie, hiding behind the dirt mound, was preparing to meet his Maker. "David, I shouldn't have taken on this mission. I'm sorry to you."
David, however, shook his head. "No, Master! I'm not afraid of death. It's just hard on my mom; she always had high hopes for me."
The two seemed to be saying their final goodbyes, but then a huge machine suddenly crashed down near them. Jackie and David thought it was a shell and cowered, waiting to die.
There was no explosion. A dud? Were Militech's quality inspectors all vegetarians?
A man's voice rang out. "Look at you two cowards!"
They looked up and saw a giant, robot-like contraption. Its leg dimensions were relatively normal, but its shoulders and arms were terrifyingly large—thicker than an entire strong man's body, square and imposing. A man without hands was embedded within it. Wasn't that Maine?
Jackie exclaimed, "Holy crap, Amigo! Did you transform?"
"I just heard Little H explain how to use it," Maine said, his voice deep and metallic. "But the Cyberpunk is mainly driven directly by the brain. Just fight by instinct."
With that, Maine's massive body inexplicably floated, stopped, and then, defying the laws of physics, shot out of thin air. Its trajectory was a perfect straight line, covering a great distance in just one second. With one landing, he crushed a Militech soldier into a puddle of flesh, and blood splattered everywhere like a bursting sac.