Mass Release 1: AEINC ch - 12.3

Initial Battles (3)

The Wube Inc.'s conference room was quickly changed into an improvised war room, with Mark, his employees, and friends working together reviewing reports and coordinating teams. Lucy and Kiwi use their newly installed enhanced Cyberdecks to check for attacks on the company's server and network, doing their best to protect the money and other assets against hacking. Thanks to their upgraded hardware, they can keep up with the assaults from NUSA and Militech Netrunners.

Meanwhile, David Martinez helps to coordinate with the security team employed by the company, taking some of Mark Henderson's burden, while throwing himself into work with vigor and a stony expression harder than granite ever since the teen left his mother's side.

In the middle of this chaos, Mark calls the ESA Executive Director Thomas Kowalski to address the asteroid drop on Night City and BN2 Complex. The call went through quickly and reached Director Thomas and the man on the other side of the line doesn’t appear concerned and meets Mark’s glare with calm composure.

“Mr. Henderson," he starts with a polite tone, "to what the ESA owes the pleasure of your call?”

Narrowing his eyes, Mark sends a document file to the Director, “This is my formal declaration of War against the ESA,” The Engineer says without hesitation, “don’t think I will allow your actions to go unresponded.”

“War?” The director gasps and holds his chest, acting surprised by the recording, “Are you mad? There’s no evidence the ESA did anything to you, what would you declare war on my agency for? Besides, do you think the international community will accept this without responding in kind?”

“Are you denying that your agency used their Mass Drivers to shoot a pair of asteroids at my holdings in the BN2 Complex and Night City?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, where is the evidence for that?” The director scoffs, “If the ESA did throw an asteroid at a population center as large as Night City then every astronomer in the right hemisphere would have picked it up and the attempt would be on the news by now, let alone the sheer destruction brought by the asteroid,” the Director makes a show to look around in the screen, "Since you're calling me, I can only assume there was no attempt."

"I can’t help but notice your focus on the media instead of the lives lost if your attempt on Night City had succeeded,” Mark's voice is cold and his glare intensifies. With a few waves of his hand, Mark brings images, videos, and telemetry data gathered by his satellites, “But if you need a reminder of your attack, here is the proof I have."

The director once again scoffs, dismissing the evidence shown, “The international community? Evidence? Do you have any idea how easy it is to doctor evidence in this world, especially when corporate is involved? Let me tell you something, *Engineer*, nobody cares about that, least of all during a war.”

Mark continues to stare at the man, trying to see his angle. The director is too casual and open about dismissing Mark, and shows no fear of repercussion, acting as if he's untouchable. 'His information can’t be this inaccurate, what is his angle?'

Unfortunately, Mark doesn’t have time to hesitate, so he hopes that his preparations are enough to deal with whatever trap they sprung.

"If you’re so confident about your decision, then you won’t cry with my next move." Mark pauses for a moment, "Remember, you chose this."

Closing the communication line Mark sinks into Map view, switching to the Moon. There, he selects his assault groups composed of different types of vehicles, from the chain gunners to the automated tanks and flame tanks, directing them to the mass drivers owned by the ESA.

Mark connects with the Highrider Prime Minister's direct line, waiting for a few seconds until the Egyptian-descended Prime Minister appears on the screen, “Miss Ranya, I am leading an offensive on ESA's Mass Drivers on the moon. Would you like to capture them, instead of watching them all get melted into slag?"

"I’d love to," she answers promptly, "however, I hope you have evidence for this action against the ESA. Otherwise, you will drag the EEC into your conflict, and the Highriders won’t support your actions," she warns Mark sternly but still considers his proposal.

“Will this suffice?” Mark sends a copy of his compiled data containing different items such as satellite videos of the large asteroids before destruction, the calculated origin and flight path, the intended targets, and his Anti-orbital cannon activation logs confirming the asteroids' destruction before they could cause damage.

“Yes, this will do nicely!” She smiles like a shark, “We will send a strike team to aid in your assault as soon as we mobilize our forces.”

Mark matches her grin with his, “Just make sure they can take over the Mass Driver operations. I want to retrieve their logs.”

The Prime Minister hesitates for a moment, “You’re not going to use them for retribution against the ESA, are you?”

Mark grins somehow but even fiercer, “I have my ways to deal with them.”

There are several moon bases and Mass Drivers owned by ESA. While there are only two large-scale colonies on the moon, the corporations have small military bases stationed by a rotating platoon of soldiers and accompanying technicians, with the ESA mass drivers not being an exception. 

While there are several mass drivers on the moon, not all of them face Earth, even those that deliver material to the planet. Using orbital mechanics, a package might be fired from the dark side of the moon, and using built-in thrusters the delivery package can precisely reorient itself before reentry.

The advantage of this approach is the capability to hit any part of the planet using the Mass Driver, without care of where the original equipment is installed. The disadvantage is the predictability of the trajectory as it relies on orbital physics for delivery, making a sneak attack with this method a near-impossible task.

On the side facing the planet things are different, since the asteroid can make a more direct travel path to a location depending on the time of the day. The only warnings of this delivery are a brief bloom from the Mass Drivers barrel heating up briefly, and then the delivery packet igniting on reentry. Most agencies in the world can’t calculate and catch his delivery mid-transit fast enough for Anti Orbital defenses to activate, and the constant threat of ESA and other polities lobbying against the development of counters to Ortillery ended up delaying or forbidding the creation of those defenses against the astral powers.

The Wube Inc.'s Anti Air defenses and Anti Orbital defenses were a different breed. Originally developed on the Space Exploration Module for deployment in asteroid-rich planets or moons to defend the Factory, the system can also be used against enemy attacks. The only drawback of the buildings is the recharge time of the buildings and the small chance for an asteroid or weapon to pass through the defensive array.

To counter the AA weakness, the building is usually constructed in multiples of six, like in the BN2 Complex, for a total of sixty Anti Orbital cannons, on top of the local Anti Air defenses against aircraft and artillery. 

With this information in hand, of the various mass drivers in operation by ESA that can perform a direct hit on both Night City and BN2 Complex, Mark concludes there is only one Mass Driver installation that fits the requirements to conduct the attack.

Mark ends his armored vehicle assault group to approach the Mass Driver, the vehicle speed allowing them to cover the great distance thanks to the nuclear vehicle fuel, and his Warden quickly erects a defensive fortification to defend against the base's retaliation, thanks to the Construction Bots upgraded travel speed, and the Warden's array of miniaturized roboports, allowing the Engineer to remotely build a small fortress in a matter of seconds, just in time for the Mass Driver's defenses to try and meet with Mark’s forces.

Once they spot the defensive emplacement built moments before they try to retreat, but the Buggies and Flame Tumblers speed towards their targets, with the Buggy gunning them down at range while the Tumblers rammed on the vehicles and soldiers, using their flamethrowers to finish off the surviving opposition.

Without mercy, Mark orders his assault group to cycle the base installation to prevent anyone from escaping and deploys his new trump card.

Hidden behind the main forces a small group of spider-like mechanical monstrosities march towards the installation. The newest member of Mark's automated forces are the Mini-Spidertrons, or the Spiders as Mark calls them, imported from a different module the Spiders are a simplified model of the larger Spidertron that were further modified by Mark for his needs. After the firmware update, the Spidertron requires a different set of ingredients to construct, making the automaton more expensive and harder to build than before, and the answer to that was the Spider.

The automated arachnid vehicle is smaller than the original, being slightly larger than a Buggy, with limited weapons, weaker armor, and a smaller inventory. What makes the Spider worth their cost is its equipment module size, and the automated vehicle's smaller size makes it perfect for infiltration in buildings.

For this operation, Mark built an attack group of T3 or Rare Quality Spiders with a larger equipment capacity, loading them for anti-infantry operations.

“I hope they like my new toys,” Mark mutters under his breath as he directs the Spiders to the entrance of the base. One of the Spiders designated The Medic uses its construction bots to tear apart the entrance and the infiltrators squeeze themselves into the corridors. From the cameras on the Spiders Mark sees the sheer terror of the soldiers inside the base.

The opponents try to shoot back at the invaders, but their advanced weaponry does little damage against the invaders, their Adaptative Armor increases in passive defenses reducing the damage taken while providing a small shield-like ablative armor, and the energy shields protect the Spiders against all attacks as the two equipment module synergize to provide a powerful defense and create a nearly unstoppable force.

“Fuck fuck fuck, I hate spiders, I hate,” One of the soldiers is interrupted mid-sentence as the Spider weapons gun them down. The original Spidertrons are armed with rocket launchers, meant to deal with large concentrations of biters. The Spiders are armed with machineguns, and have grenade launcher modules to quickly clean a room with explosives.

The disadvantage of this combat force despite its overwhelming power and high mobility is the necessity to direct them manually, taking away the Enginer’s attention from other tasks. For now, Mark will simply accept this disadvantage as inevitable while conquering the Mass Driver and the military base.

Outside, the patrolling vehicles shot down the reinforcements sent by the other bases, leaving them vulnerable to retaliation. From the moon base, Mark sends similar assault groups to the other ESA-Owned Drivers, allowing their basic programming to finish any opposition.

Finally, after several minutes of cleaning each room with bullets, grenades, and fire, Mark's forces secure the objective.

Calling the Prime Minister, Mark says, “I got the building, I’m sending you my IFF codes so that my local forces won't shoot at you.”

“That was fast, but I should have expected that,” The Prime Minister says with a hint of surprise before teasing the Engineer, “You know, normally people talk directly with those involved in the military when a joint operation happens, they don’t use the leader of their organization as a messenger.”

Mark smiles at the banter, “Ma'am, I wouldn’t dream of ordering your military. I can only give you suggestions to capitalize on the opportunities.”

“What a charmer,” she playfully replies, “are you going to take over the other mass drivers?”

“How many of them can you hold without other forces throwing a stink?”

The Prime Minister gives Mark a shit-eating grin, not caring about her image as a faction leader, “All of them, on the account of being in space, while everyone else is grounded.”

“Enjoy your early birthday present, then,” Mark answers lightly, “the rest of my forces are en route after the other Mass Drivers. What about the groundside installations?”

This time the prime minister pauses, somberly considering her words. “If you can take over them that’s preferable, however, we can’t destroy them. Part of the Highrider Confederacy charter was written to protect the integrity of Orbital and Orbital capable infrastructure."

Mark nods, “Do you have a list of acceptable targets?”

A file quickly arrives on Mark's side, and after briefly reading he notices a pattern, “There are much less than on the moon.”

The Prime Minister agrees, “Some of the installations were built on population centers, or a small town grew into a city after the construction of the infrastructure. The list has isolated installations with a limited permanent presence.”

After studying the places and their location, Mark gives his verdict, “I can’t take over any of them, but I can clean them up for you. Will that be enough?”

“Certainly," she accepts the proposal without issue, "our Orbital Drop Assault Soldiers are ready to go.”

Mark pauses for a moment to study the woman and her responses, “You were waiting for this opportunity for a long time, didn’t you?” Mark slowly realizes, “You were ready for this before I even came into the picture."

The woman serenely smiled at Mark, “Let me just say that The Confederacy still has a couple of axes to grind against the groundsiders.”

Mark shrugs, silently muttering to himself in jest, “Glory to Zeon."

At Solvernia's silent judgmental look, he amends to his friend. "The Republic, not the Principality. Fuck the Principality."

With his friend's respect restored, the Engineer proceeds to the next phase of this operation.

Post Chapter Notes

Merry Christmas to you all, and happy holidays! I will publish two chapters right now, and then after lunch, I will finish publishing the rest. Once all chapters are updated I will write a perspective on this month's performance and what I learned in the last few days, and two things are clear: I now remember why I stopped using Grammarly with how often the damn thing lags on a small 1k words document.

Please enjoy the chapters, and enjoy your time with your family!