The Creators: From Night City

Page 308

Then, a phantom golden flame, visible only to Jiang Bing, flashed across the elevator panel. The elevator, which was descending at a steady speed, suddenly began to shake violently. As everyone was thrown about by the sudden braking, the heavy elevator car was forcibly ejected from the brakes, pulling out a series of sparks. Accompanied by a piercing metallic scraping sound, the elevator was forcibly stopped between the 32nd and 31st floors.

"Damn it, what's going on? A button?" the infiltration team leader asked anxiously.

His anxiety stemmed not only from the fact that the entire Gemstone Forest had been alerted and hundreds of Netherhound soldiers were searching for their whereabouts, but also from the fact that a member of the assault squad was experiencing severe blood loss and could die at any moment.

At this moment, time truly is life in every sense.

Although the Ghost Hounds have recruited many new recruits over the years in order to maintain their fighting strength, there are still a considerable number of veterans serving.

These veterans who fought in the war of unification were not pushovers. Even the most elite "infiltration" squads suffered casualties in head-on confrontations.

In fact, the others were also shot to some extent, but either their injuries were not serious or they were blocked by their armor.

"Damn it, their hackers discovered our presence and immediately locked down all the elevator systems."

Is there a way to solve this?

"It's difficult. This is a deadly program designed to prevent situations like this from happening. Once the blockade is triggered, the only option is to force a physical or mechanical unlock." The hacker was so busy that hot air was billowing out from the back of his head, making the air in the enclosed space even hotter and more polluted.

Chapter 620 Counterintuitive Follow-up

The "CTM" action captain angrily slammed his fist against the metal box wall.

"We'll use a mechanical landing," Li De, with his extensive experience, quickly came up with his solution after only a couple of thoughts.

The hacker's prosthetic eye continued to glow: "I'll pull up the elevator system's design drawings right now and assess the feasibility of the plan."

The hackers were calculating the feasibility, but Li De, the king of spies, trusted his intuition more.

"We only need to damage a small part of the traction mechanism brake and the car safety clamp. We need to act immediately, or there won't be enough time. Alex, up here, remember, don't touch the traction steel cable, or the entire elevator will go out of control and start freefalling." Li De gestured for the team members to hand over the specially made thermoplastic cutting knife. He was already below the top of the elevator.

Without hesitation, Alex followed the other party's instructions, climbed out of the elevator by stepping on Li De's shoulders, activated the hot melt cutting blade in his hand, and started to attack the braking structure.

Doing this is undoubtedly suicidal. Such reckless human operation makes it impossible to precisely control the falling speed. If the falling speed is too high, the violent impact may cause the elevator guide rails to break, the car to disintegrate, and the buffers to fail. People inside the car will suffer severe fractures, internal bleeding, and concussions due to the huge impact force, and in severe cases, they may die directly.

But then again, they're risking their lives right now, so there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two.

The underground parking lot of the Sapphire Blue Building is so dark it's almost frightening; it could easily be used as a filming location for the horror film Mewtwo.

But at this moment, the beams of several tactical flashlights illuminated a corner of this vast underground parking lot.

"Seal off the elevator. Warning, they've taken Colonel Hansen hostage." Several Ghosthound soldiers surrounded the exit of elevator number 2, ready for action.

But before they could set up their formation, a sharp, metallic shriek, sharp enough to pierce eardrums, came from the elevator shaft, followed by a huge crashing sound.

"The elevator has fallen into the underground parking lot. Repeat, elevator has fallen!" the captain of the Ghost Hound Squad reported in the squad voice chat.

"Deploy tear gas!" He raised his hand to signal his team to prepare to drop non-lethal grenades into the elevator shaft, but suddenly a car headlights lit up behind him.

"Da da da da!"

A hail of bullets whistled through the air, leaving several Ghost Hound soldiers covered in blood.

After receiving a request for backup from Li De and his group via encrypted communication, FIA agents who had been lying in wait in the underground parking lot launched a surprise attack without hesitation.

Although the dozen or so agents disguised as civilians weren't wearing combat uniforms, their weapons were anything but insignificant.

Several agents calmly finished off the ghostly hound soldiers on the ground, while the remaining members raced against time to pry open the elevator door.

As soon as the elevator door was opened, the agent in charge of providing support identified himself, fearing that a few gun barrels might stick out from the crack in the door and cause accidental injuries.

Inside the carriage, everyone was in a sorry state, but fortunately, no one suffered any serious injuries.

"The badger is dead, Captain," a member of the infiltration team reported the bad news.

"C, get in the car quickly, or we'll all perish here."

Hansen and Jiang Bing were crammed into an unremarkable Villefort Columbus V340-F freight truck and sped off towards the outskirts of Dogtown, following behind Li De's vehicle.

The convoy practically flew out of the underground parking lot entrance. Li De's driving skills were definitely racing-level. He didn't let up on the accelerator the whole time, and with a drift, he ran over three ghost hound soldiers who couldn't dodge in time and crushed them under the car. He then sped out of the Gemstone Green Building, running over the three speed bumps.

Dogtown had already been alerted.

The citizens here are no saints; their sense of smell is incredibly sharp, and every single one of them had already hidden themselves away. However, the Ghost Hound soldiers patrolling the streets had already reacted, and a large number of soldiers carrying heavy weapons and mechanized soldiers driving Ghost Hound armor were closing in on the convoy.

Dogtown was formerly a regular legion, and it's famous for its arms and drug smuggling. Hansen's soldiers have a lot of good stuff.

As soon as the convoy turned off Dishui Street and drove less than two hundred meters from the unique pyramid-shaped ground structure of the Heartfelt Club, several hovering drones immediately attached themselves to them.

The dense hail of bullets swept up dust from the road in front of them, but none of the vehicles in the convoy were hit.

"Hansen is in our hands, they're hesitant to act rashly," Li De immediately said in the squad voice chat to reassure the troops.

"Don't stop, head straight to the Long Beach junkyard, our main force will meet you there."

Although New America was determined to use force, it did not intend to directly attack Dogtown's most heavily guarded and heavily armed gate.

In any case, for them, a wall made of sheet metal and concrete combined with barbed wire electrified with high voltage is definitely easier to break through than dozens of fully armed Ghost Hound soldiers and eight heavy sentry machine guns.

The New America agents who had infiltrated Pacific State during this period had already assembled and were just waiting for Li De's convoy to arrive at the designated location. They would then immediately blow up the wall, pick up the convoy and the target mission, and head to the border station of Badlands.

Once on bad soil, the new United States can deploy its armored forces and air vehicles with impunity, unleashing its deterrent power.

Things should have gone so smoothly.

After all, Hansen had lost his position, his second-in-command Bennett was colluding with Arasaka, and "White Paper Fan" Gago was entangled with the Voodoo Gang and the Cleaners; both of them had long harbored their own ambitions.

The Voodoo Gang can be considered natives of Taiping State, and may even have secret connections with those outside the Black Wall. The Cleaners are essentially the anti-Hounds in the smuggling business, and secretly support the Russian Federation.

These people feigned submission to Hansen while he was alive, but in essence, they were all hungry wolves with fangs hidden. They had already formed a huge pack, crouching in the darkness, waiting for Hansen, this lion, to show his weakness.

And now, this is the opportunity they've been dreaming of.

Bennett and Gago naturally wouldn't dare to kill Hansen in front of all the Ghost Hound soldiers, since these low-ranking soldiers were all paid by Hansen and would naturally fight for him.

However, due to structural obstacles in the system, they can only fight their own battles.

Using Hansen's kidnapping as a pretext, Bennett brazenly restricted the application for the use of the Ghosthound heavy firepower. Although he issued a lot of orders, it was just for show. He fired three shots into the air at the start of the battle to show his loyalty, but secretly he was eager to send this group of people out of the country as soon as possible so that he could take over.

The Cubans of Havana, who are closest to Hansen, strongly support him, but at this moment they are too far away to do anything about it.

In the vast town of Dogtown, a strange consensus had emerged. Although gunfire continued unabated, and the Ghost Hound squads near the convoy occasionally clashed with the FBI agents, the convoy did not encounter any significant obstacles.

This reveals the turbulent undercurrents hidden beneath Hansen's seemingly glamorous and prosperous exterior.

However, the delicate peace that everyone tacitly agreed upon was soon shattered by a force that suddenly appeared.

This force is [Anti-Entropy].

Chapter 621 The Final Fate of the New America

A loyal heavy grenade struck the vehicle on its intended target, turning the four-wheeled vehicle carrying four FIA agents into a rolling fireball.

The deafening explosion even seemed to mute Li De and his group's communication channels, leaving only the massive sound of the explosion filling the entire frequency band.

Li De took the lead and drove at the very front, so his field of vision was naturally the widest.

This is why he was shouting at the loudest right now.

"R! P! G!"

Li De doubted that he might never be able to shout so loudly again in his life.

Several burly men, each over two meters tall, lined up in the street, holding strange-looking weapons that clearly resembled rocket launchers.

And Li De's judgment was indeed correct.

The employees of 【Anti-Entropy】 seemed completely unafraid of accidentally blowing up their boss in the car, and heavy grenades rained down on the convoy.

Two more cars immediately flew into the air, and the people inside turned into roasted tin box meat.

Li De's hands were trembling.

This is normal.

Even a seasoned special agent who has faced life and death would feel fear watching a grenade the size of a forearm graz the windshield and then blast a lamppost beside him into half a metal stake.

"Turn left, turn left!"

The surviving car tires soon faced the most rigorous quality inspection of their lives. After a lot of 'black mud' was rubbed off, they managed to withstand it and did not burst on the spot.

Thanks to Commissioner Smith's frugality in managing the FIA's operational budget, the surviving vehicles in the convoy were all of high quality and successfully survived this dramatic turn of events.

"Who are they? The Ghost Hound's rapid response team?" the leader of the infiltration team in the second vehicle asked over the communication channel.

“A person from [Anti-Entropy].” Li De’s already dark face became even darker, almost blending into the night.

What about casualties?

"Four cars left, the rest of the convoy has been destroyed," the car at the back of the convoy reported.

"Call for backup." Li De turned the car onto a new street far from the target location, looked back, and made his decision.

How determined is the new America to reclaim the cyber nuclear bomb that is Song So-mi?

This issue can be seen from the fact that Rosalind Myers, the then-new US president, appeared on the roof of the Westwind Apartments outside Dogtown, holding a telescope and acting as the commander of this battle.

She wanted to see him alive or dead; that was her bottom line.

For this reason, she did not hesitate to send a large army to invade.

In any case, as long as the beginning and end are handled well, and money or power is used to shut up the media, there will be no new news about the United States in this war.

The prerequisite is that she needs to win.

The winner takes all; an eternal truth.

“Madam President, Reed has sent out a distress signal, saying that they were attacked by the target guards while on their way to the rendezvous point and the convoy was forced to turn away.”

An invisible pressure was building up towards Miles, and things were getting worse than she wanted, but she had to accept reality.

As president, she must bear the backlash from every order she issues thereafter.

Fortunately, she can handle today's operation.

"action!"

In response to her, a huge fireball rose from the walls of Dogtown.

This is a spectacular display of fireworks created by military ammonium nitrate explosives.

Miles knew that from this moment on, the conflict had officially escalated into war.

What would small-scale warfare look like in a cyberpunk world?

The answer is that it's not that surprising.

The way people kill each other is still the same: throwing stones and boiling water. The only difference from the past is that they throw metal stones, more and bigger stones that can explode and track. From throwing by people, it has become throwing with gunpowder. From using hands to firing with guns, and now it has become firing with drones.

War is cruel; human life is merely the most common consumable resource, while order is the inevitable nutrient consumed.

Death arrived as expected.

The first thing the New American soldiers did after flooding into Dogtown was to open fire, to fire wildly.

They fired not only at the ghost hound soldiers in their yellow combat uniforms, but also at the residents on the streets, the cleaners wearing electronic masks, groups of voodoo gangs, and everything else they could see.

This was a massacre, a massacre of equals, without a doubt.

Unorganized gangs and the still unorganized Ghost Hound soldiers are no match for a well-organized, technologically advanced, regular army.

Dogtown has become a death trap, a killing arena.

With things having come to this point, Bennett finally started to panic, but by the time he realized what was happening and began to mobilize his troops, the military technology personnel had already integrated into the streets and alleys of Dogtown.

The war escalated into brutal urban warfare.

The purpose of the military technology was clear: to slaughter all witnesses, eliminate all threatening forces, and welcome back Li De's convoy.

But things are never that simple.

The moment the Dogtown wall collapsed with the explosion, Jiang Bing, who was lying peacefully in the back seat of the second car, suddenly opened his eyes and sat up leisurely.

The fuse has been lit, and the current situation doesn't require him to continue this act.

From this moment on, he has dragged New America, military technology, the FIA, and President Rosalind Myers into the mess.

However, the FIA ​​agent guarding him was unaware that, upon realizing his target had awakened, he immediately pulled out a stun gun, intending to use the same tactic again.

boom!

Li De clearly saw in the rearview mirror on the right side of the car that the right rear door of the car behind him suddenly flew off, followed closely by the assault team members of the infiltration squad.

He flew faster, farther, and with more power, his roaring body crashing into a stone sculpture by the roadside, where it was torn apart by the hard protrusions, turning into several irregular chunks of flesh.