The robot rocked but did not fall.
"Please do not interfere with my production work."
The voice came from a speaker buried in the chassis. The Maelstrom trooper snarled and kicked again, angrier now. He planted his boot and drove the machine backward, then sprang up, mantis blades snapping free along his arms. He landed on the head casing and slashed.
Sparks leapt. The housing did not part.
"Warning. Production activities were severely hindered—an obstacle removal plan was requested. Request approved. Execute."
The status screen on its chest flipped to a red exclamation mark. Before the trooper could strike again, a narrow blade punched up from the robot's forearm and speared him center mass. His motion froze. The blade pulled up and split his upper body cleanly.
Blood sheeted down the robot's front. It pushed the corpse aside and stood.
"Obstacles cleared. Eliminating additional hazards. Unknown personnel detected in large numbers. Threat level low. Production safety risk is high—action request submitted. Request approved. Mission received: annihilate. Target: Maelstrom."
Every Maelstrom ear heard the flat machine voice. A minute earlier, they might have laughed. The blood and the halved corpse said it was not a joke.
"Kill it."
Weapons came up across the floor. An elite with a sledgehammer charged and swung. The head of the hammer struck square. The robot only tilted, and a crack crawled along the hammer face.
"How is that possible?"
The machine did not give him time to answer. It drew a pistol from an internal mount and tracked instantly. The elite kicked on leg boosters and skated sideways, slipping the first line of fire. The deflected rounds curved in the air and chased his head. The next second, a smart round punched through his skull.
"Intelligence core online. Kill mode enabled."
The robot indexed every Maelstrom body in the room and opened fire. Each burst behaved like a set of guided darts, cutting perfect paths through smoke and chaos. Heads snapped back—bodies folded.
Curses scattered across the floor as Maelstrom tried to return fire. Their rounds bounced and sparked with little effect. The actual problem was only starting. Red light bled across the factory. Other robots inside and outside the building flashed combat status and moved. One by one, they joined the slaughter.
Under the attack of these machines, more Maelstrom fell each moment. The crew that swaggered at the park gates only minutes ago now died like animals under production arms repurposed for war.
"Fall back. Now."
Royce gave the order through clenched teeth. The situation flipped too fast. A third of his people were already down. If he stayed, he would die here.
Under covering fire from the remaining gangers, Royce pulled back and broke out of the Ascension Technology industrial park.
"What is with Ascension Technology? These are factory robots. Why are they carrying weapons like this? Why do our weapons not even scratch them?" He shouted inside the car, voice ragged with fury.
He could not understand why a pharma outfit that relied on Arasaka for basic perimeter work had this level of in-house force. The public release said these robots were for production. Yet the combat mode was terrifying.
The losses were real. Nearly half of Maelstrom had flooded into the park. Fewer than one in five made it back out, and those who ran for their lives. Only once they reached the base would their hands stop shaking.
The robots did not intend to let them breathe.
"Mission: annihilate Maelstrom."
They would not stop until every Maelstrom body stopped moving.
Teams began to deploy from the Ascension Technology park in numbers. Columns of robots marched the streets of the Northside Industrial District and swept every corner with programmed patience. It did not matter if it was a warehouse base or a lone ganger on a curb. None were spared. Wherever Maelstrom hid, the robots found them and killed them.
Royce fled to the All Foods plant. Even there, he could not escape.
On the factory floor, ringed by robots, he stared with wild eyes that mixed rage with something close to acceptance.
"Brick, you were right. Ascension should not be provoked. It does not matter. They will not let you live either. So we die together."
Only now did Royce understand why Brick had forbidden anyone to harass Ascension Technology. He did not understand why Brick, who saw the danger, had said so little and let the crew walk into a grinder.
He did not know Brick had not seen this either. Brick did not expect Ascension's machines to visit a locked cell.
They did not come to free him. They came to kill him.
Royce, Brick, and every Maelstrom foot that could be found died under the pursuit of Ascension's robot units.
By morning, Maelstrom, one of Night City's significant gangs and long entrenched in the Northside Industrial District, was gone. The gang announced its destruction.