There was a moment where each group stared at the other trying to understand their capabilities. The air held a tension, both sides of this stand off were ready to snap.

  "So, who are you guys?" Rogue belted her words out while she eye fucked John. Maybe, she liked what she saw in our boy more than this "Johnny" character she'd asked about.

  My brain raced to come up with a plausible story. "We're Mercs hired for a gig. No names given, just be here at this time. Do what our contact needs. Are you the contact?"

  "I... don't... Shit this is exactly the kind of fucking stunt Johnny would pull. He's probably sitting in wings, laughing his ass off." She bit her lip and paced back and forth, and taping her pistol against her thigh. It was a very nice pistol and a very nice thigh. "That fucking gonk. Yeah, I guess I'm your contact."

  "Excellent. What do you need?" With my visor down nodding was kind of pointless, but I did it out of habit anyway. I hoped they just ran with my flimsy story. I mean sure, someone might set things up this way, but there'd be passwords or something to recognize the other party.

  "We are hitting Arasaka Tower, while the riots, some stupid asshole started, have them distracted. Johnny was supposed to meet us here, but I guess he sent you instead. Typical, letting me down when it counts." Her scowl could have started wildfires. I sensed a lot of history between her and this Johnny, but I'd no desire to step in that minefield.

  [ Challenge 1 complete - 1 Reward token ]

  [ Meet Contact - 1 Hero Upgrade token ]

  [ Meeting was peaceful - 2 Unit Upgrade tokens ]

  Whoa! That was a lot of tokens for just talking to someone. This was really starting to grow on me. These Mana Sinks were awesome! But the tokens didn't appear, yet. We'd probably get them all at the end.

  I turn to my group. "Let's head out." I turned back to Rogue, "Lead the way." I almost gestured with a jaunty after you, but I caught myself in time. Best not to seem too flippant, we were supposed to be hard bitten mercs after all. We followed Rogue's people to an atrium formed by clusters of alleyways coming together. the space was filled with lots of dumpsters. Sadly, no one seemed to understand how to use those dumpsters as trash was piling up everywhere. The most interesting thing was the very loud, boxy AV hovering just above the ground. Its side door was already open and a very aggressive looking heavy machinegun of some variety was jutting out, ready for someone to take control of it and light up the night.

  "Mine." John said. Let it be a testament to his obvious deadliness that no one said a word of objection.

  We mounted the AV, Rogue went up to talk to the pilot. Eager and Borfen went with Raynor to stand towards the back, to keep an eye on everyone else. I posted up next to John, so that I could look out the side door. I wanted to see this version of Night City from the air. I grabbed onto an overhead grip bar lightly. While I kept my SOR pointed out. My accuracy would only slightly be affected by using one hand to shoot, thanks to the enhancements we'd worked into the armor. Alina's clone, nested in the suit, could practically shoot for me, if needed.

  Hmm. Glancing behind me revealed that there was no exit on the other side of the vehicle, a design flaw as far as I was concerned. However, It did seem to be quite a sturdy flying beast though. Shame that I didn't have a Probe to scan it right now.

  The chrome skinned guy chuckled as John familiarized himself with the HMG. "Good, you know your weapons. Call me Shaitan." John grunted in return, he must've been warming up to the big guy.

  I took quick stock of the rest of the vehicle's occupants. There was a guy in a business suit and a small camera drone. He was speaking dramatically at the Drone. "It will be on this day, August 20, 2023 that the underdogs strike back against Corporate tyranny to liberate one of their comrades... " Some kind of reporter, I guessed.

  That was shocking though we were 51 years in the past, almost exactly. Wait, I remembered Sinn talking about this... fuck I don't really recall every detail of what she said about it, just that this event changed everything. I focused on recalling what she'd said about the bombing of Arasaka Plaza. It was starting to come back to me. She'd said, more than a few times, that so many versions of the story existed that no one who hadn't been there knew the truth.

  There were a number of other folks, some looked military and some looked like Nomads. All of them looked ready for a fight. Then there was a little wisp of a thing, messing with what looked like an extra thick laptop. She was wired straight into it. She hummed and sang little rhymes while working. I had a feeling she wasn't all there. This time's equivalent to a netrunner. Probably.

  So where was Johnny Silverhand? I was sure that Sinn said he was part of this, a big part. Most of the official blame ended up falling on his shoulders. Rogue thought we'd be him. That meant that he was supposed to spearhead this group right? I think that was what had happened. If I'm recalling it properly, there should be two other groups. As the AV rose into the air I saw two other vehicles fall into formation with ours. Hmm, some things are different, some things are the same. Interesting.

  Rogue came back from the front. "ETA 5 minutes." She turned to John, "There are going to be turrets, those are your priority targets. The security forces with their pop guns shouldn't be able to dent this baby at all." One thing I was finding odd, sure the tech of 2074 had advanced. But not as much as you would expect for 50 years, and the culture seemed much the same. As I looked out at this older version of Night City, I could see tons of differences in its layout. So why so little change that mattered? A stagnant culture with barely improved tech, it emphasized that something fundamental was deeply wrong with this world.

  Ah screw it, I better get my head in the game. There would be time for philosophy later. Other than the reporter and the netrunner everyone was staying quiet. Lost in their own thoughts or just silent by nature. Of course, it had started raining. The tears of the sky wept for the lost souls of Night City.

  "Alpha Team, 30 Seconds to Contact!" Rogue barked out. We had swung around most of the city to come at this area from the other side of where we had started.. Though not the same, this section of the city mirrored the City Center from our time. Though the architecture was somewhere between my Earth's version and the crazy physics defying buildings of this world in 2074.

  "Missiles! Deploying countermeasures!" The pilot called over their shoulder. The AV started yawing back and forth as several light thuds popped off from the tail of the vehicle. Flares and chaff.

  Then John fired a short burst, taking out a missile as it was passing our vehicle. Showoff. The AV turned giving us a clear line of sight to the tallest building's rooftop. Motherfuckin' Arasaka Tower. We were still farther out than I'd want to start shooting from, but not John. Using tight controlled bursts for the beast of of a weapon, he took out the first turret before they'd even started firing at us. By the time a turret started to respond, he was already finished destroying a second.

  "You are good!" Laughed Shaitan. He seemed the type to enjoy a good fight.

  We circled closer, the security forces had begun trying to hit us, but they were mostly bouncing off the heavily armor fuselage of the AV. The flying brick was as tough as Rogue had promised.

  I targeted a few of the scrambling security guards, and added my two cents to the heavy pounding music John was laying down. Unbelievable! He simply never missed.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The third turret went down before we completed our first full circle of the building. Then a round bounced off John's shield which shattered but kept him intact. Thank goodness no one else was on that gun, they'd be going home in a bag. That near brush with death only seemed to increase John's determination. He walked his fire over to the last turret cutting several bodies in half on the way.

  I'd managed to hit a couple of the bastards myself, though keeping a stable footing was hard as the AV bucked.

  A moment later the last turret was down. John turned his heavy gun on the rest of the security forces and nothing they did could save them. Whether they ran or hid the bullets found them. We hadn't even completed a second rotation around the building when John let the gun come to a rest. There were no more targets.

  "Take us down!" Rogue yelled to the pilot. Less than a minute later we were back on solid concrete and forming up to carry out the next step of this insane plan.

  The other two AVs set down next to us and disgorged their own cargos of mercs. The rain hadn't let up, I was happy to be in a fully enclosed suit. Everyone who wasn't, got drenched in no time. Most of them didn't stand out too much, but one guy in a trench coat, gave off a similar feeling to John. Not quite as dark, but very close.

  "Anybody injured?!" I yelled. I got a chorus of No(s). Rogue gave me a questioning look. "Team Medic." I responded with a chuckle.

  "Scariest looking medic, I ever saw." Said the guy in a trench coat as he walked over with a upright looking fella.

  "Morgan, Ronald, are we ready for the next phase." Rogue shook hands with the two guys.

  "Yeah, let's get moving. The clock is already ticking." Morgan, the dangerous one said. His guys were more like the merc, all mismatched but tough looking bastards.

  "My men are ready." Ronald echoed. His team looked like Black Ops soldiers. They were carrying a large duffle bag that seemed to require two to move.

  "Alright, we return in 30 minutes, not a second longer. Don't get left behind." Rogue nodded to them before turning back to us.

  "Our target is on the 120th floor. It's a series of labs, we are looking for the mainframe. Extract the target and return here. Questions?" She barked it out, it was obvious this wasn't her first rodeo.

  "Can you guide me? We should lead, our armor should be able to hold up to most of what they've got." I answered.

  "Good Idea. I'll follow you and point the way." Rogue smirked at me. Probably thinking we were about to be torn to pieces. She'd better get ready to be wrong.

  As we prepared to descend a set stairs leading down the side of the roof to a door, I got a notice.

  [ Challenge 2 complete - 1 Reward token ]

  [ Lose no units - 1 Hero Upgrade token ]

  [ Destroy all turrets before AVs reach 50% armor loss - 2 Unit Upgrade tokens ]

  The hits just kept on coming. Nice. I lead the way down, but the tiny netrunner squeezed by to get to the door. She started to jack in. My rifle stayed focused on the doorway, just in case they were waiting for us on the other side. Let's be honest, they were waiting. But there is no way they are ready for us.

  The little woman kept chanting her little poems about spiders and webs while her fingers danced across a very interesting non standard keyboard. "Ah, there it is. Another fly caught in my web." The door slid open and the shooting started immediately. My SOR answered tearing through three guards in record time.

  "Clear." I called back. Spider girl had shied to the side when the shots whizzed by and stayed there as the rest of us rushed the stairway. Nothing else greeted us, except a sign on the wall that was simply labeled Rooftops.

  Raynor had lined up behind me and Rogue behind him then John followed by Eager and Borfen. The Nomads were next and then Rogue's mercs running the tail.

  I started the show. I tried to cut the pie, just peeking around the corners of each descending stair. Safer but tedious, and in this case the safe method was taking too much time. By the third floor, I just said fuck it, and fast marched boldly downward. Right into a hail of bullets. None of which did a damn thing. At least to me. A few bounced around off my shielding doing some damage to their senders. Ha! Watching me just stride through their attack had the guards pissing their pants. Thankfully for them, they didn't have to live with the shame for long. Raynor and I mopped them up with a few bursts. It was almost an afterthought. It felt like a chore rather than a fight.

  Despite being on a short clock, we had a long night ahead.

  A few floors later. More rounds were caught by my shields. So far nothing the Arasaka forces had thrown at us was enough to pop our shields never mind our armor. This squad, at least, had the good sense to try to take cover. Their lack of proper tactics made sense, if you thought about it. Arasaka's goons were used to having the best armor and weapons in any conflict. Probably the best gear all around. Why would they need to be great at tactics?

  Jim's and my return fire blew through their poor choice of cover and slaughtered the lot. Two volleys and it was a done deal. We loaded up fresh mags.

  We'd reached the right floor, 120, and once through the door the space opened up drastically. In fact, the floor seemed to be an open concept deal with pillars. So far everything had been concrete and steel, black and red, very minimalistic. This floor was no exception. The labs themselves were self contained modules in red and black. Separating the lab spaces like that was not a bad idea. It kept cross contamination of results down. Gotta respect clever but proper lab procedures.

  Now that we had more room, Raynor, Eager, Borfen and I were side by side serving as a shield to the folks behind us. Our SOR moving slowly over everything in front of us as we scanned the area. Nothing, silent as the grave.

  "Clear!" We called. I was still running on the excitement from the stairway. Though honestly, I was both ecstatic and mortified at how easily we cut through the enemy. My mood might be a tad less manic then it was before. "Feels a bit like we are the bullies here, huh?" I gave voice to my thoughts.

  That got a round of chuckles. "Better this way, Hoss. Doubt they'd be as nice about finishing us quick." Raynor cut in. He got a bigger round of laughs. Touché, Jim.

  "Where'd you get that armor?" Rogue asked. All her people had been eyeballing us from a while now. All of them wondering the same thing.

  "Experimental. Our boys build it and we hire ourselves out to help pay for it." They didn't look surprised. Lying was getting easier. That wasn't a good thing, but I've always been bad at it. However, no one was calling out my bullshit now. Maybe because they weren't real, and were like a dream. They seemed pretty solid though. I'd bet we'd die all the same to the Arasaka scum. Virtual or not.

  Given the size of the floorplan, and the fact that the blueprints that Rogue had didn't show the mainframe, we'd split up into smaller search squads. John, Rogue, Spider lady, one of the nomads named Raul and myself when straight through the middle of the floor. The mainframe itself was likely to be a larger unit than the ones for the labs or a series of containers clustered together. Should be easy enough to spot. For the next few minutes, we heard nothing unusual. No roaming guards to cause trouble. No workers getting underfoot. Which helped make finding the Mainframe a breeze.

  We found it at the dead center of the floorplan because, of course it was there. It was one container the size of about ten of the the others. The only problem was the ten foot tall fully automated war bot. It reminded me of something out of Robocop. Right now, it seemed passive, but I had a sneaking suspicion that if we got any closer it would get hostile, fast.

  "Maybe it wants to be friends. Bots get lonely too." The spider girl chimed in. Her eyes had sparkles in them as she gazed at the bot.

  "Unauthorized access is not allowed, come no closer." Replied the death machine in a soulless voice.

  We signaled the other groups and surrounded the scary mass of metal. My squad had changed their mags to the armor piercing rounds. We all aimed for what we thought looked like vital spots.

  And go! I would like to tell you it was a hard fought battle and that many feats of valor were performed. But, that's not what happened. The big scary robot went down like a sack of potatoes. One burst of armor piercing rounds from each of my team tore through it's defenses like tissue paper. We must've hit something important, because the bot never got to respond, despite not looking that damaged. A few sparks and some smoke were the only signs of activity from it. I hoped we hadn't damaged the servers behind it.

  [ Challenge 3 complete - 1 Reward token ]

  [ Lose no units - 1 Hero Upgrade token ]

  [ No damage to the servers - 2 Unit Upgrade tokens ]

  Answered that question. Good. I was really enjoying this trip. We were dominating everything. Best part, I felt like I was actually helping this time. I liked that feeling. Plus, lots of tokens!

  Rogue took the Spider girl and marched into the mainframe. "Guard the area, until we return." She called over her shoulder, hair flashing blue in the lights. "Spider we have to get her out as fast as you can... " Heh. Spider it was then. Nice to have a name for the crazy girl.

  They were back in less than five minutes, but we were still pushing the time she'd set. No one had bothered us, my guess was that the other teams had caught all the attention.

  [ Challenge 4 complete - 1 Reward token ]

  [ Lose no units - 1 Hero Upgrade token ]

  [ No damage to the target - 2 Unit Upgrade tokens ]

  Well, I sure happy to see that, even if it felt a bit undeserved.

  We were hit by a massive shockwave. The sound arrive just a split second after. The building itself shook violently. It took a moment for us to pick ourselves up from off the ground. No one seemed hurt, but I could clearly sense the fear of Rogue's people. Something had just gone very wrong.

  What could it have been?