Cyberpunk - Badland Madman [Cyberpunk 2077]

He jumped down. As soon as he was inside, lights from his suit's visor lit up, illuminating much of the water. There really was a lot of water, too much for him to feel comfortable. But once again, he saw a bright marker in his visor, and he swam towards it using his feet's thrusters.

In seconds, he surfaced at the top of the pool, enough space there for a human to swim and breathe. He found the dry emergency hatch there and turned the handle.

Fuck!

As soon as Cypher pushed the hatch open, he was blinded by white light everywhere. He peeked out, and it turned out to be a giant industrial location, with countless thick pipes running everywhere. The tank he was in sat at a height.

The good thing, there were no guards. The communication and surveillance systems were already under Atlas' supervision. All except for the main reactor building.

"Where's the engineer?" Cypher asked as he jumped out of the tank's hatch and landed on a narrow metal walkway in the middle of countless pipes running adjacent to the walkway on each side.

Right away, the marker appeared in his visor. At the same time, Cypher took off the large metallic storage extension attached to his suit's back. It was the same color as his suit and stored countless Microbots.

As soon as he put the storage down, its lids opened, and the black Microbots swarmed out. They all connected and formed humanoid shapes, six in total.

[The engineers cannot be permitted to trigger any alarms. I will deploy the Microbots to physically restrain them.]

Cypher nodded, attached the storage back on his back, and started walking towards the marker. This was the tricky part, even for Atlas. The target was completely organic, which meant there were limited ways to subdue him.

He followed the marker in his visor like it was a game. With his footsteps suppressed, he eventually took the final turn and saw the engineer. White hair, old, wearing a red hazmat suit with Arasaka badging, and a yellow safety helmet.

The engineer was looking at some pressure gauges and noting down something with a physical pen and paper. The entire facility seemed designed specifically to be cut from any network.

"Atlas, be on standby."

Cypher ordered, seeing Microbots moving secretly along the pipes on the sides. Like snakes, they made faint noises and gathered at the left and right of the engineer, ready to attack.

Slowly, Cypher walked behind the Arasaka engineer and raised his right arm. Unlike what most movies and BDs show, hitting a man on the head to knock them out wasn't the best way to knock them out. What if it led to permanent damage?

Instead, a silent gas left his right hand's fingertip as his hand neared the engineer's right ear. It worked fast, and by the time the man even realised what was happening, he began falling sideways.

Click! Click!

Snappily, all the Microbots emerged from hiding and crawled all over the engineer's body. Like thousands of tiny cockroaches, they covered his entire body and took control of the movements, acting as an exo-suit as well.

The engineer never even fell.

[I will prepare the evacuation for this one. Follow the marker for the next engineer.]

Cypher turned and continued. It was a good thing that not all engineers were in the same place. Three were occupying the main control room of the reactor. The others were doing maintenance.

Just like the first, Cypher found the next engineer, a woman of Japanese descent, grey-haired and old, working on an electrical control board. He got behind her, knocked her out with the gas, and let the Microbots take her.

The third man was tough. The man was standing sideways in the walkway, leaving both walking directions in his peripheral view. Cypher didn't risk approaching with his bulky size. The man was writing something on the pipes, some sort of observation.

In the midst of it, the Microbots attacked. They first latched onto the man's entire head and feet, negating any possibility of a shout or falling. Then the Microbots covered him entirely. By then, Cypher reached out and knocked him out.

Finally, he started his walk towards the reactor's control room.

[Cypher. Before we proceed, you must understand that once we begin drawing power from the reactor, the entire Waterfront and Konpeki Plaza Hotel will lose power. This outcome is unavoidable, as the city's grid cannot be rerouted. Those responsible will investigate the disruption and inevitably send someone here.]

"So you're saying a fight might break out?"

[The likelihood is considerable. The Fusion Cores require one to two hours to reach full charge. It's a long duration. Furthermore, Adam Shamsher is currently stationed in Arasaka Tower. Excessive delay may result in his deployment.]

Cypher thought a little while walking. Should Adam Smasher scare him? Definitely should. Was he scared? Not at all. The reason was simple: the man was a walking, moving computer. And who was his best friend? A God-like AI.

"I kinda hope Smasher shows up. Wanna see how this suit holds up against him. Though yeah, his Sandy could be a pain in the ass."

[Not for me.]

"Damn right."

At last, he arrived at the final door, which would take him inside the main reactor control room. There was no touch screen, no gadget to scan the eye or the hand. Instead, there was a keyhole. And by then, Cypher had three of those keys.

He slotted one key in and turned, then pushed the handle. He didn't walk in right away; instead, he let the door open just a tiny crack. All the remaining Microbots hurried into the control room. Even if they were seen, the engineers were likely to react with curiosity, not alarm.

[Go!]

At Atlas's call, Cypher pushed the door fully and walked inside. As expected, the three engineers were already alerted. However, Microbots had caught their feet and frozen them where they stood. Meanwhile, their hands were in the midst of being restrained.

"Temee wa dare da!"

One of the engineers shouted in Japanese. Cypher said nothing, walked over to him, and pointed his finger, knocking him out with the gas. He repeated with the other two, and in seconds, they were fully covered by Microbots.

"Atlas, evacuate them all. Stick to the plan."

[The escape route has been prepared. Sending the packages out.]

Meanwhile, Cypher got to work hastily. He found the nearest terminal and jammed his left hand's index finger into it. It was a modular plug Atlas made to act like a USB stick. And as soon as he did that, Atlas gained full control of Arasaka Waterfront's nuclear reactor.

"Running to the turbine building," Cypher said and ran, his mechanical suit finally making noise. But he was faster than a normal human.

The thing about a nuclear reactor was that you can't just walk inside the reactor room and find a socket to plug your thing into. No, the real electricity was generated in the turbine building, which later fed that electricity to the Waterfront's grid.

He needed to put Atlas inside the secured system to ensure power output could be controlled, and any attempts by another to control it could be foiled. Meanwhile, his job was to tap directly into the Isolated Phase Buses. It was a device that connected directly to the generator terminals and then routed to the outside transformers.

It was very loud in that section of the reactor building. It was just like the rest, made to be run by organic engineers. But by then, Atlas had gained control over the enclosed, private network.

Quickly, Cypher took out the six Fusion Cores he had prepared, then walked to the rear of the turbines one after another. That was where the parallel metal tubes were, the IPB ducts. His suit, being designed for this job, tore them open easily. He gained access to the thick, hollow aluminum conductors that carried electricity. Quickly, he prepared to connect the Fusion Core.

"Atlas, you good? Better hit that breaker on time and cut off those outside transformers. I ain't trying to get my ass blown to pieces."

This was worse than playing with fire. Cypher's technical knowledge told him that.

[Be at ease, Cyph. Your rear is secure. Everything is under my control. I have bypassed the automatic emergency shutdown system. You may connect all six Fusion Cores, two in series for each turbine.]

"Got it."

Cypher got to work and quickly attached the two Fusion Cores to that turbine. Just as he connected the charging cables made from SecUnit's own futuristic wiring system, a breaker tripped, and that turbine began charging the Fusion Cores.

He repeated the same with the other two turbines and attached all cores. It was a good thing the Dark Knight suit kept him cool.

"What's the read, Atlas?"

[Boosting the output. It will take us one hour and twenty-six minutes to fully charge all six cores.]

"Alright, I'll get ready for the fight. Just redirect them to attack the turbine building, not the control room."

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Check out Cypher X Judy, Cypher X Rebecca, Hanako Arasaka Solo NSFW ART, and advance chapters at [email protected]/MrPlotThickens Or Subscribestar.adult/mrplotthickens

Advance chapters on [PATREON] are in long-form format. I have 10 long chapters of this story on P@treon. That's equal to 35-45 NovelPhoenix chapters.