If Ascension Technology's Universal Network monopolizes the planet's communications, the revenue generated every second will be terrifying in scale. Profit attracts risk. Network services are a giant cake. If Ascension tries to eat it whole, the backlash will be severe.
Set aside the city-net operators for a moment. The first to strike will be the World Satellite Communications Network Company (WCN), which monopolizes satellite comms. WCN ranks among Europe's biggest corporations and sits close to the European Space Council and the European Space Agency. If anyone tries to share its cake, or flips the table and runs off with the cake, WCN will answer with maximum force. That kind of collision could light the Fifth Corporate War.
Rocky understands all this. He is not afraid. Since stepping into space, Ascension does not need to tiptoe. Worst case, they evacuate Earth and relocate to Black Star. With space resource–extraction tech, Ascension can develop off-world without the planet. Progress would slow, but after a period of growth, Ascension could still crush Earthbound civilization.
The space dock is rising fast. Once the resource teams deploy to new worlds, military factories will stand up one after another. At that point, Ascension will teach these corporations what real war looks like. The war will arrive sooner or later. If Ascension wants to advance, it must prove strength to the world. No top-tier corporation reached the peak without a war. The one ahead will be wilder and grander than any in the record.
Not long ago, V sent news that made Rocky smile: Yorinobu Arasaka has come to Night City. If war starts, Ascension will not fight alone. The prince of Arasaka wants a brutal corporate war more than anyone. He hopes the majors tear each other apart until nothing remains of Arasaka or imperial capitalism. Rocky is confident he can put Yorinobu on the same side.
That is for later. He will not spark the conflict in a single step. The plan is to bite off the profits of cyberspace little by little, starting in Night City and expanding outward. Ascension is not fully ready yet.
This is the origin of the plan Old Del is reading now: Ascension will enter network communications. Rocky believes a monopoly is achievable. Today's net is fragmented and underpowered. The Universal Network can re-link it. The gains in convenience and performance will tempt almost everyone to switch. As for those who resist because they control the old net, Rocky has ways to handle them.
When Lissandra completes her evolution and returns, Rocky will move to explore beyond the Blackwall. If Ascension gains control of the post-Blackwall space, the holdouts will have no choice left. The current net suffers frequent Blackwall failures, and rogue AIs slip through to vandalize cyberspace. The new Universal Network will be globally connected and free of rogue-AI interference. In that comparison, the market's choice is obvious.
Maybe this is a despicable way to secure a monopoly. Rocky does not care. He does not deny it is dirty. The world is already rotten. If you want to change it and defeat the corporations, you must be dirtier and meaner than they are. Fight with normal methods and you will be picked clean to the bone.
"This new network will cover the world," Rocky tells Old Del. "Night City is the pilot. It will not be subject to net-monitor supervision. Ascension will enforce its own security controls. Malicious AI will not exist on it. Any intelligent AI that wants access must register with Ascension, undergo evaluation, and obey our management regulations. That is the second document you just read."
The new network will need time to roll out. Old Del will be the first registered, supervised intelligent AI. Rocky wants Delamain to lead by example so others see the advantages and make a choice. This is the condition for helping Old Del field a Droso fleet.
"Enter the new network and accept supervision…" Old Del goes quiet. Self-aware AIs are usually lawless in cyberspace. They are powerful and ignore human rules. Corporations and NetWatch do not tolerate that. Such AIs are either erased in fights with net monitors and corp hackers, or they flee behind the Blackwall. Old Del is a rare exception. One day he might also leave the human net, like one ending to the Delamain side job.
Now he must choose.
Accept Rocky's cooperation and sacrifice some freedom in exchange for Delamain's growth. Or refuse and keep AI autonomy, avoiding the new network's rules. Old Del knows that one day Ascension's network will become the primary human net. If he refuses control, he will have to leave humanity's net and live on the Old Net with the other AIs.
"Old Del, I am not forcing you," Rocky says. "Make your own choice. But I am curious. What is your goal? Why have you kept running Delamain all this time? Maybe your goal will give you the answer."