Sitting in his hotel suite at the Black Sapphire, Hansen expressionlessly opened his laptop and began to handle his work emails.
[Slider: If Director Mercer plans to give up managing the networks of Pacifica and Dogtown, then we Voodoo Boys can step up. But as you know, Director Mercer has always valued his say over Pacifica's network, and my relationship with him is pretty good.]
After just one glance at Slider's reply, Hansen scoffed, choosing to ignore this fine fence-sitter.
Then, Hansen looked at the reply from Europe.
[Aymeric: The breach program is written. You can try it out yourself.]
[Hansen: Excellent. If all goes well, the money will be transferred to your account on time. Also, if we can really get our hands on a rogue AI, can it truly solve the neural load issue with the armor?]
[Aymeric: This approach should be sound. The consciousness transfer system he wrote is very sophisticated. It transcodes human consciousness data into standard program data. In theory, with an AI acting as a relay, it can indeed significantly reduce the human mental load.]
[Hansen: Excellent. Once this period passes, you can make a trip to Dogtown. The price and benefits will be just as I told you before.]
[Aymeric: Understood.]
Closing the email, a trace of relief flashed across Hansen's face. He downloaded the breach program from the email and immediately sent it to a Barghest netrunner at the EBM Petrochem Stadium.
The skill of these European netrunners was truly impressive. A task his own group of useless netrunners had no confidence in, the other party had handled in just a few days.
What he now held was a dedicated breach and hack program for the operating system of Mercer's individual combat armor. In Hansen's view, Mercer's greatest threat wasn't even his netrunning skills, but the custom-grade armor worn by V and Rebecca.
As long as they didn't have their armor, that group was just flesh and blood, and he wouldn't have to worry about any backdoors Mercer might have written into his own armor.
When the time came, his men would be wearing armor, while the Kindling Squad's armor would turn into their own coffins because of the breach program. He just needed to find another expert to take over the permissions for Barghest's servers, and Mercer would become a toothless tiger.
Completely at his mercy.
Just as Hansen was cheerfully contemplating the future.
Ten seconds passed, but no one replied to the email he had sent. This made Hansen's brow furrow slightly. After a strange, ominous premonition rose in his heart, Hansen didn't hesitate and immediately dialed Bennett's number.
After a few rings, there was no answer.
Something's happened!
Without a second thought, Hansen shot to his feet and dialed the number of the Barghest officer in charge of security at the Black Sapphire. "Gather our people and prepare to engage the enemy! Mercer and that Kindling Squad may have turned traitor!"
"What?" The voice on the other end was stunned for a moment, then immediately replied with urgency, "Yes, sir!"
Hansen tried to leave the room, but then discovered with astonishment that the door was locked.
It was the most absurd joke in the world. He was in his own hotel, locked in by his own door!?
Hansen immediately realized that the situation was likely far more troublesome than he had imagined. "Damn bastard!" Hansen cursed, then violently pulled out the short knife strapped to his weapon belt and pried the door open with sheer brute force.
Stepping into the hallway, the Barghest soldier on guard duty was looking at him, confused. "Colonel Hansen! What happened?"
"Quick! Alert everyone! Reboot the servers! Mercer and the Kindling Squad have betrayed us!"
This was Hansen's first reaction, and as it turned out, he was right.
—--
At this very moment, V was in an elevator at The Black Sapphire, watching with bored indifference as it slowly ascended. The elevator was headed for the same floor as Hansen's luxury suite.
The Barghest guards in charge of security on the first floor had received Mercer's forged email and notice from Hansen, letting V pass without a shred of doubt. They couldn't possibly imagine that V, clad in armor and arriving alone, was actually there to deal with Hansen!
In reality, the call Hansen made had been intercepted by Mercer the moment he placed it.
The entire Barghest network was under Mercer's control. Mercer hadn't hacked Hansen's personal laptop when he sent the private email for fear of tipping him off, but he had never held back with the rest of Barghest.
Now, although Hansen could still make calls and send emails, the Barghest soldiers couldn't receive them.
The person who had just answered Hansen's call wasn't the Barghest head of security at all, but an AI-simulated voice from Morning Star.
And his act of calling to warn the head of security was, without a doubt, immediately relayed to V by Mercer.
[Mercer: V, Hansen's on to us. Be careful.]
[V: Minor issue. I'm already on the elevator. Hansen's not getting away. Are you sure you're okay over there?]
[Mercer: I'm in the server room at the EBM Petrochem Stadium doing a deep dive. I'm watching the hotel's network with Morning Star, don't worry. Once you're upstairs, I'll cut off all support channels. If things go south, just break a window and fly out. We'll switch to the full-frontal assault plan.]
[V: No problem!]
Because Mercer couldn't be sure if there were any other warning systems within Barghest that he hadn't discovered, the operational plan he devised was for a simultaneous strike.
He would deal with the Barghest soldiers at the EBM Petrochem Stadium and use its servers to lock down all of Dogtown's networks and communications, then deep dive to assist the other team members with their operations.
Jackie, Maine, and Dorio were responsible for heading to the checkpoint, seizing control of it, and immediately sealing off the access routes to prevent outsiders from taking advantage of the chaos to get in, or insiders from trying to run out and alert the outside world.
Rebecca, leading the netrunners, would head to the weapons and equipment warehouse in the basement of The Black Sapphire under the pretense of "performing equipment maintenance" on Hansen's orders, cutting off Barghest's access to heavy weaponry.
As for the weapons and equipment of the Barghest forces at the stadium, Mercer would naturally take care of that himself.
Thanks to the Kindling Squad's reputation, coupled with the connections they had deliberately cultivated over time, the vast majority of ordinary Barghest soldiers were fundamentally unaware of the discord between Mercer and Hansen. In their eyes, Mercer was the first recipient of Dogtown's Medal of Honor, earning the highest salary and best treatment in Dogtown. Hansen seemed to grant his every request, at least, that's how Hansen and Mercer appeared to the public.
So, no one suspected a thing. Or rather, even if they did, they didn't dare to immediately question the Kindling Squad's story face-to-face. Maine and Jackie executed the Barghest captain in charge of checkpoint security on the spot for disobeying orders, then smoothly took over command of the checkpoint.
Meanwhile, Rebecca, leading three netrunners, encountered no resistance. Under the regulation-mandated supervision of a few Barghest soldiers, she reached the weapons and equipment warehouse beneath The Black Sapphire.
The three netrunners immediately went to work, seizing control of all the APCs, drones, bots, and other equipment parked inside.
To their astonishment, Rebecca and her team even discovered a Militech Chimera and a Basilisk, acquired at some unknown time, stored in The Black Sapphire's underground facility!
But whatever the original purpose of this equipment was, at this very moment, it all became the netrunners' playthings.
After Rebecca nonchalantly dealt with the few Barghest guards on duty, the netrunners immediately took action, seizing control of the weapons and equipment before taking up positions within the easily defensible underground facility.
If the situation devolved to the worst-case scenario, Rebecca and her team wouldn't hesitate to let Morning Star take over all the equipment here and engage Barghest in open warfare.
Deprived of heavy weapons support, without network control, and with even their communication command locked down by Mercer, this group of Barghest soldiers was almost certainly doomed to fail.
But defeating Barghest, or even crushing and annihilating them, was not Mercer's goal.
Right now, the most important thing was to capture Hansen alive!
Just as the others were methodically and smoothly completing their designated objectives according to plan, V, who was carrying out the most critical mission, ran into a small, unexpected problem.
When the elevator doors opened, V was greeted not by the familiar sight of Barghest soldiers, but by several burly men in suits, mixed-race Hispanic and Black men with slightly dark skin.
These expressionless men in suits, exuding a murderous aura, were currently just holding pistols.
One of them, a man in a black suit and a fedora with stark white cyberoptics, aimed his pistol at V's head and spoke in an icy tone, "Every time a cigar is lit in Havana, somewhere in the world, Aguilar..."
"Are you fucking stupid? What cigar? What Aguilar? Get out of my way if you don't want to die!" V, looking thoroughly annoyed, cut off their bullshit. She unceremoniously raised the smart submachine gun Mercer had given her and pointed it at the men before her.
If they hadn't looked like they weren't with Barghest and didn't give off an unusual vibe, she would have already opened fire.
While cutting off the group's nonsense, V immediately sent a message to Mercer.
[V: Fuck, some morons are blocking my way, spouting some weird shit about cigars and Aguilar. What's the call? Should I just waste them?]
[Mercer: Cubans? Looks like Hansen really came prepared. Tell them I guarantee Dogtown's business won't be affected, but Hansen must be handed over to us first.]
V looked at the few guys in front of her, their expressions growing increasingly hostile. She recited his words verbatim, not changing a single one, "My boss said he guarantees Dogtown's business won't be affected, but Hansen must be handed over to us first."
"And if I say no?" Aguilar said expressionlessly. Then, the uniquely shaped revolver in his hand pointed motionlessly at V's head.
[V: He's asking me, what if he says no?]
[Mercer: Alright, I'll talk to him.]
V pursed her lips, looking at Aguilar with some annoyance.
[V: So these are the Cubans behind Hansen?]
[Mercer: Yes. We'll try courtesy before force.]
A dialog box suddenly popped up in Aguilar's cyberoptics.
[?: I'm A, or you can call me Mercer. I believe you must have heard my name from Mr. Hands.]
[Aguilar: That's right, I have indeed heard of you. But that doesn't mean you can touch our people right under our noses. Hansen can't die, or someone will be very unhappy. And if someone is very unhappy, you will die. We're only more terrifying than Arasaka.]
[Mercer: Listen, Hansen must be handed over to me today, but I guarantee he won't die in the short term. The transition of power in Dogtown will be as smooth as possible. I will continue to do what he did before, and I'll only do it better than him.
I know your reputation, Aguilar, but I have to say, you're no match for V. Instead of forcing our hand and making a mess of Dogtown, why not consider a win-win proposal?
Now, call your boss and ask for his opinion. Does he want to force me to wreck Dogtown, or does he want to switch to a new person and have everything carry on as usual?]
Aguilar pondered for a moment, but in the end, he obediently followed Mercer's suggestion and first called his boss to confirm the situation.
However, before Aguilar could get a reply, Hansen walked over from behind him with a cold expression.
He wasted no words. A high-level Barghest netrunner standing beside him, who seemed to be a new recruit, immediately launched a quickhack at V.
"Move!" As Hansen's voice fell, several Barghest soldiers pulled their triggers at V without hesitation.
V's expression turned cold. At this moment, she didn't care about any Aguilar or Cubans. Without a second thought, she activated her armor.
[Mercer: Huh? Someone's trying to hack you... Don't worry, leave it to me.]
V wasn't worried at all. As long as Mercer maintained his network connection with her, she wasn't afraid of anyone being able to hack her.
In an instant, three afterimages suddenly appeared on the scene.
The first was V, who rushed out of the elevator like a hurricane. The Cubans blocking her way were knocked aside, completely unable to resist. This was only because V had deliberately held back her strength and speed; otherwise, these Cubans in her way would have been smashed to pieces!
The second was Aguilar, who instantly retreated to the side in a blur, his brow deeply furrowed as he raised his pistol, momentarily hesitant.
The third was Hansen, now holding a pistol in one hand and a short blade in the other.
"Aguilar, are you just going to watch me die?!" Hansen barely had time to get the words out before Aguilar made his decision. Yes, even though he hadn't heard back from his boss, he absolutely could not let anything happen to Hansen.
And so, without a moment's hesitation, Aguilar acted, pulling the trigger.
Faced with the immensely powerful bullet from the custom revolver, V merely sneered disdainfully under her helmet. Her gaze was locked on Hansen, the killing intent in her eyes practically overflowing from her visor.
"I've been fucking sick of you for a while now!" V roared. The narrow corridor restricted her evasion, but her armor's defensive capabilities greatly enhanced her ability to rampage through the confined space.
With his Sandevistan active, Hansen fearlessly exchanged a few blows with V. But bullets bounced off her, and she swatted his knife away with a single punch.
The smart submachine gun in her hand spat flames, its electromagnetic rounds landing precisely on the helpless Barghest soldiers to the side, who were completely unable to keep up with this battle of speedsters.
But to V's surprise, just an instant before one of the Barghest soldiers was hit, he too suddenly activated a Sandevistan. Ha, so there was a master lying in ambush?
As for the other Cubans, they activated their Berserk OS and charged into the fray without hesitation.
The cyberware on this elite group of Cuban assassins was nothing like that of an ordinary Barghest soldier; each one of them was a high-priced, custom-built killing machine.
V was instantly thrown into a disadvantageous one-versus-many situation, but under her helmet, she just grinned.
After emptying a magazine, she casually slung the smart submachine gun back into its holster. Amidst the hail of gunfire, V weaved through a few times, then two crimson Mantis Blades shot out from her arms, directly piercing through the Barghest soldier who had activated his Sandevistan.
However, to V's surprise, the moment her blades ran through the Barghest soldier's chest, he gritted his teeth and grabbed her arms in a death grip.
"EMP!!"
The instant he roared, the others retreated into the distance like afterimages. Only V, held fast by his grip, had just enough time to slam his entire body against the wall.
As the Barghest soldier was violently crushed against the wall by V, an EMP struck her body directly.
Just before the EMP detonated, a cloud of white smoke suddenly burst from V's armor.
Pshhh...
The white smoke exploded almost instantly, filling most of the corridor. V's figure could only be vaguely seen, trembling under the EMP's assault.
Aguilar instinctively activated his cyberoptics' infrared detection, only to be forced to turn it off immediately, as the temperature of the white smoke was far higher than that of a human body.
Although they couldn't see the figure clearly through the smoke, everyone began pulling the triggers of their weapons without hesitation.
For a moment, gunfire erupted.
Seizing the opportunity, Hansen's revolver rounds repeatedly struck the figure's head, knocking her head to the side and causing her to slump against the wall.
After less than a tenth of a second of thought, Aguilar raised his gun, aimed at V's legs, and fired several shots in succession, eliciting a crisp crack from V's knee. The remaining Cubans also aimed their weapons with clear intent, firing at V's joints.
As the smoke grew thicker, the blurry figure seemed to collapse to the ground, making a crisp clatter as armor hit the floor.
Is it over?
Aguilar narrowed his eyes, suddenly took out a grenade, and threw it toward the white smoke.
Then, the grenade that had flown in came flying back out of the smoke at an even faster speed.
Without hesitation, Aguilar used a companion's body to block the grenade's explosion, while Hansen's rich combat experience made him immediately smash open a nearby door and dive into a room off the side of the corridor.
The next moment, a figure shot out from the white smoke.
With a look of annoyance, V simultaneously sliced apart the bullets fired by two Cubans, ducked into a spin that severed the legs of two other Cubans in her way, and then launched herself forward, charging straight into the room where Hansen was hiding.
Aguilar tried to intercept her, but V simply raised her hand, aimed her pistol at Aguilar's head, and pulled the trigger without mercy.
Aguilar instinctively dodged to the side and raised his own hand to return fire. The two speedsters, armed with pistols, dodged and shot at each other from a distance of only four or five meters, yet for a time, neither could land a hit.
But soon, as V's Mantis Blades shot out, Aguilar took several large steps back, then began to curse. Dammit, how is this woman's Sandevistan still active?
His speed began to slow, but V's seemed to grow even faster. Aguilar gave his all to tangle with V for two seconds before she kicked him away. He slammed heavily against the wall, one of his arms sent flying, severed by a Mantis Blade.
Aguilar stared in disbelief at his own severed left arm. His neural load had already reached its limit, forcing him to temporarily shut down his Sandevistan and catch his breath. Then, he saw an even more unbelievable sight.
In the white mist in the distance, a figure staggered to its feet. The Gyrfalcon Armor, riddled with bullet holes, walked to V's side, and V patted its helmet without ceremony.
Afterward, the Gyrfalcon Armor gave a very human-like nod, then turned and charged into a nearby room.
However, the instant it rushed into the room, a smart mine was detonated by Hansen.
The massive cloud of smoke and explosion-borne debris made it nearly impossible to see anything at the doorway, especially with the high-temperature white mist the Gyrfalcon Armor had previously released, which now obscured half the corridor.
Hansen stood around a corner in the room. Hearing no footsteps from outside, he thought, A hit!?
But in just a moment, he realized something was wrong. He whipped his head around and saw the pristine white armor smashing directly through the wall from the adjacent room.
Boom!
The wall seemed to have been blasted open, leaving a human-shaped fissure, and Gyrfalcon's figure shot through the opening at a terrifying speed.
What's going on? Didn't she get out of the armor somehow? Can you put this thing on that fast?
But Hansen had no time to ponder how V had managed it, because the Gyrfalcon Armor was already upon him.
Facing the Gyrfalcon Armor alone, Hansen didn't find it particularly troublesome. But when V charged in through the doorway right after, a flicker of despair flashed in his eyes. Facing V, who was still at her peak, Hansen only managed to grapple with her for a few seconds before the unmanned Gyrfalcon battle armor behind him broke one of his arms with a single punch.
V's hand clamped tightly around his neck. She then spun around, using his body to point toward the door, cutting off the Cubans' line of fire as she sneered in contempt.
"King of Dogtown? King of bullshit!"
She wasted no words. Lifting him up by the neck with one hand, she unhesitatingly slammed her other fist into his jaw.
Before Hansen could even utter a word, his jaw was broken and he passed out. Seeing that the situation was decided, Aguilar could only reluctantly wave for the other Cubans to stand down.
V grinned, dangling the unconscious Hansen as she looked mockingly at the Cuban. "Is that all? And here I thought you Cubans were supposed to be tough."
Aguilar's face darkened, though his skin was already dark. He could only grab his own severed arm and say in a grim tone, "You're strong, but I advise you to show us some respect."
"I tried to be nice. I'll say this one last time: get lost, or flatline!" V stared menacingly at Aguilar. Behind her, several all-black suits of Tank armor flew in at high speed from the sky, smashing through the room's windows and landing behind her.
This was Mercer, who, after gaining control of the stadium's equipment, had immediately used the AI to pilot the armor and provide V with armed reinforcements via their flight capabilities.
Not only that, but a large number of drones were now taking to the skies all over Dogtown, visibly crisscrossing the streets and buildings like a swarm of bees.
Countless armed bots also took to the streets, taking over important facilities originally managed by Barghest. As for the original Barghest soldiers, they received different orders.
Some were ordered to assemble at the EBM Petrochem Stadium, while others were told to be on standby at The Black Sapphire.
Little did they know, these two completely different assembly points represented two completely different fates.
Large numbers of Barghest soldiers began to move under Hansen's orders. The Hansen simulated by Morning Star's AI was completely convincing, with no flaws visible even on video calls. Hansen's die-hard loyalists all began gathering at the stadium.
Meanwhile, some of the wavering centrists, contract soldiers with little loyalty to Hansen, or Barghest members on good terms with Mercer and his crew, were directed to assemble at The Black Sapphire.
As for Hansen himself?
After V stared coldly at Aguilar for a moment, Aguilar finally gave up on his obsession with Hansen.
At that moment, the higher-ups in the Cuban crime syndicate, having received Aguilar's report, realized the situation in Dogtown had spiraled beyond their imagination. They had no choice but to opt for negotiations with Mercer.
Aguilar looked at V and said with a cold expression, "The boss will call your boss. But you'd better make sure you don't screw up Dogtown's operations."
As soon as he finished speaking, Aguilar turned to leave. He didn't even spare a glance for his companion's corpse on the floor. Simply clutching his own severed arm, he returned to the elevator with a stony face, pressed the button for the ground floor, and prepared to delta.
This time, he had truly lost a great deal of face.
Aguilar was the gold standard of the Cuban syndicate, a symbol of their violence and lethality. His failure was unacceptable to the Cubans.
But what was done was done. The Cubans could only swallow this bitter pill, besides, apart from Mercer and his crew, no one else knew that Aguilar's protection detail had failed.
Most importantly, the top priority for the Cubans was to ensure that Dogtown's operations continued without a hitch.
Losing Dogtown meant losing the massive smuggling market they had painstakingly established in Night City. That was a loss the Cubans could not accept.
Since Mercer had repeatedly claimed he could guarantee the continued operation of Dogtown, the Cubans could only endure for the moment and see what happened next.
Only after Aguilar and the remaining two Cubans had left did V finally let out a long sigh. Looking at the unconscious Hansen in her hand, she tossed him in disgust onto the floor of the trashed room.
[V: Done. What's next?]
[Mercer: Nice work. Bring Hansen to the base. We'll try performing surgery on him with the Soulkiller, hope it all goes smoothly. Otherwise, we'll have the Cubans on our asses before we've even dealt with Arasaka.]
[V: I'm injured!]
[Mercer: For real?]
[V: Fuck! It was the EMP again. One of my eyes is glitching out, I can't see clearly. It's so annoying! When are you going to make some EMP-proof equipment?]
[Mercer: Already have. I'll install it for you later. Thanks for your hard work. You come to the stadium too. I'll swap out your cyberoptics and run a check-up.]
[V: Okay!]
She then looked at Gyrfalcon, who was a bit wobbly on her feet, and patted her on the shoulder. "Good work."
The Gyrfalcon Armor emitted a mechanical voice: "I am glad I did not disappoint you."
"Let's go find Mercer." V turned her head enthusiastically toward a suit of Tank armor that Mercer had remotely flown over with the AI. "This model looks about my size... I want to see what the Tank model armor feels like."
She couldn't wait to get into it. Gyrfalcon froze on the spot, then, after a moment, aggrievedly helped V put on the Tank model armor.
Then, V, wearing the external Tank model, grabbed both the malfunctioning Gyrfalcon and Hansen by their thrusters, one in each hand, and took off straight through the window, heading directly for the stadium.
To be honest, after not seeing Mercer for over ten days, she was actually a little worried.
Rebecca and the others had also received messages from Mercer. The message Rebecca received, however, was to take control of the Barghest soldiers who would subsequently gather at The Black Sapphire hotel, temporarily confiscate their weapons and equipment, and place them under guard to await further instructions.
Jackie and the others' mission remained unchanged. Until Mercer successfully took control of Barghest, Jackie, Maine, and the rest had to maintain the lockdown on Dogtown, allowing no one in or out.
—--
When V arrived at the EBM Petrochem Stadium and passed by its training grounds, she couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath.
The training grounds were littered with the corpses of Barghest soldiers. Among them, a bloody path of shredded flesh was the most eye-catching.
It was as if a high-speed train had plowed through a crowd. V could hardly believe it. Did Mercer do all this by himself?
In her memory, when Mercer took action, it usually just involved making people's heads spark and their bodies arc with electricity. Such a brutally bloody scene was a rare sight.
V gave it a rough look; at least forty or more Barghest soldiers had died here. At that moment, some bots were carrying out cleanup duties. Watching their nimble movements as they scraped bits of flesh from the ground made even V shiver.
A little disgusting...
When V reached the server room where Mercer was, she was startled again by his current appearance.
"Holy shit! What happened to you!?" V practically threw Hansen and Gyrfalcon aside and rushed to his side, looking him up and down, touching the all-black armor he now wore, and staring at the six Octopus Arms waving behind his back.
Mercer exited his deep dive and opened his helmet's faceplate. He looked at her, reached out to wipe a smudge of blood from her face, God knows where it came from, and curled his lips into a smile. "Cool, right?"
"It is... kinda cool..." V hesitated, then finally just looked at his face. "How come you feel thinner again?"
"Sigh~ I haven't been able to eat your cooking. The food in Barghest is just awful." The Octopus Arms behind Mercer pushed off the ground, lifting him straight up. This slightly bizarre way of standing up left V stunned.
Then, she just pursed her lips, holding back the many things she wanted to say, and pointed at Hansen. "I brought the guy. Are we using the Soulkiller on him here?"
"No, we'll take him back to the base later. It's safer to use our own server."
Mercer said, glancing at Hansen. "We need all of Hansen's key memories, and we even need him to appear as a living person for a while to stabilize the situation and transition power peacefully.
So his consciousness needs a very delicate operation... Even I'm not very confident. If I were, I would have done it long ago.
But things have come to this point. We have to bite the bullet and do it, whether we can or not."
Mercer turned to look at her, reached out to cup her face, and leaned in to examine her closely. V subconsciously held her breath, her mind suddenly going blank. But Mercer just looked at her from a face-to-face distance for a moment, then nodded and pulled back.
"Looks like the display circuit in your cyberoptics was fused by the pulse. It probably sustained some damage during the last EMP attack, and this time it completely gave out. I'll look for a new Kiroshi for you to install in a bit."
After Mercer finished speaking, he saw V looking at him with a somewhat awkward expression. Only then did he realize his previous action didn't quite look like he was giving her a check-up.
But he didn't point it out, just pretended he didn't know anything. Propping himself up with his Octopus Arms, he crossed two of them once and covered a distance of four or five meters.
V pointed at Hansen. "What about him?"
"I sent a program into his brain that locked down his cyberware. A bot will be responsible for controlling him in a moment. Once we've dealt with his loyalists and secured the situation, we'll secretly transfer him to the base."
Mercer paused, then said, "We don't have much time. The upheaval in Barghest can't be hidden for long. Arasaka's people will soon realize we've seized control of Dogtown, and who knows what will happen after that.
So, let's go. Come with me to welcome that group of stubborn Barghest members and make them understand who's in charge of Dogtown now."
V said, "Oh," rubbed her damaged cyberoptic, and followed him. Gyrfalcon remained behind to guard Hansen.
Returning to the training grounds, Mercer and V sat on the edge of the upper platform, waiting for the arrival of the other Barghest soldiers.
Dogtown wasn't large. The fastest Barghest soldiers, responding to "Hansen's" summons, arrived on the scene in just a few minutes, rushing over in their APCs.
The sight of the corpses littering the ground, the somewhat terrifying-looking Mercer, and V, who was wearing a suit of Tank armor and sitting right beside him, immediately put the Barghest soldiers on high alert.
A squad leader cautiously raised his gun and asked, "Director Mercer! Colonel Hansen ordered us to assemble here... May I ask what happened?"
Mercer just said flatly, "Form up. Wait for the others to arrive, and I'll explain everything at once."
That Barghest soldier swallowed hard and immediately sent a message to his superior officer, but the reply was still to obey Colonel Hansen's orders. Thus, he could only nervously form up in the open area and wait.
As Barghest squads arrived one after another, an elite force of more than eighty people soon gathered in the training grounds.
These were the teams put together by Hansen's core members, or people who didn't get along with Mercer, or simply a bunch of good-for-nothings who, in Mercer's eyes, were disloyal leeches only thinking about lining their own pockets.
And Mercer, having gathered this group, certainly wasn't planning on a friendly chat or a patient attempt at persuasion.
So, once everyone was assembled, Mercer spoke directly, without hesitation.
"Colonel Hansen was attacked and is currently undergoing emergency treatment. Per Colonel Hansen's orders, I am now the sole leader of Dogtown. All Barghest personnel are to disarm immediately, follow instructions, and await further deployment."
As soon as these words were spoken, the area erupted.
One of the Barghest soldiers, without another word, raised his weapon, his expression savage. "What kind of joke is this! How could the Colonel possibly make you the leader? Talk! Where is Colonel Hansen?"
Mercer didn't speak, just looked at him with a dark gaze.
The next moment, the man's head sparked. As the others watched, sucking in cold breaths, he collapsed to the ground, screaming and trembling.
"I repeat, Colonel Hansen was attacked. Per the Colonel's orders before he lost consciousness, I am taking over all of Barghest."
Mercer just sat high on the edge of the training ground's upper platform, gazing expressionlessly at the group of Barghest soldiers.
This time, a dead silence fell over the training grounds.
You could hear a pin drop.
---------------
5500words.
In the games, Aguilar's gender is the same as V's, but here the author has made him male, I don't know why. I've checked several times and there's no mistake in my translation, so it's either an error or a deliberate choice.