Chapter 1052 - 91: Dawn Titanium Rain

[V: Sigh, only I would be tricked by you into doing such a terrifying mission.]

[Lille: Who made you the famous V? The ace always has to carry out ace missions.]

The spacecraft started moving in the direction of the companions under Jack’s control—

That’s right, they should head home, but there was only one spacecraft, how would they land?

Lille can fly!

V was riding on Lille’s head, looking quite peculiar—

[V: Haha, let’s take off! Charge, Lil’ Lille! Woohoo]

[Lille: This position is not safe.]

With a startled cry from V, Lille grabbed V down with a swift move, and amidst a whirl of dizziness, V found herself held in Lille’s arms!

Whew—

The slight tremor of the thrusters echoed faintly, V looked up at Lille, and also at the infinite starry sky surrounding them, momentarily lost in thought.

A small octopus suddenly jumped out and snuggled into V’s embrace, which was effectively Lille’s embrace, wildly rubbing against the two of them.

[Small Octopus: Huhu (๑>◡<๑)]

V lightly knocked on Lille’s chest:

[V: Tin can—why did I end up on your pirate ship? I stuck it out for two years just like Jack! Why won’t you let me take a vacation?]

[Lille: That’s because you’re special.]

V was indeed special, as some of the Crystal Palace’s documents confirmed Lille’s suspicions.

However, what was special didn’t seem all that special to Lille, so V’s current understanding was fine.

V snorted and turned her face away.

This was a long space journey, and being alone in the cosmos brought an unbounded fear, but perhaps thanks to V’s unusual guts, or maybe because she was in Lille’s arms, she could only feel tranquility.

The speed had reached an incredibly frightening value, yet the starry space remained unchanged.

There was no sound around her, only the feeling of being embraced next to her.

V suddenly thought: not only was it Lille’s body holding her, but also her prosthetics, drives, systems, exoskeleton, weapons...

Everything was made by Lille—

This truly was an unprecedented sense of peace, with no worries of prosthetic failures costing her life, no concern of drive failures leading to uncoordinated limbs, no fear of drive or system breaches frying her brain, the exoskeleton was fine, the weapons were fine, and she wouldn’t get lost in this vast universe...

As long as Lille was here.

[V: How long until we reach the Moon?]

[Lille: Two and a half days. This pays off the debt from when you had to drive us from Atlanta to Night City; this time I have to keep flying nonstop.]

[V: This isn’t driving, there’s no car.]

[Lille: Who said there’s no car? Mackinaw is also on its way, and I have to calculate its trajectory, which is an approximation like driving.]

[V: Can you really approximate it like that?]

V thought for a moment and agreed, calculating and whatnot was indeed harder than driving, so she changed the subject:

[V: Cars have music; sing me a song.]

[Lille: Sure, let me see...]

[Lille: This time I’ll find something classy for you, this song is called "Just the Two of Us."]

...

Two and a half days later, Tycho Colony.

An entire day’s work was about to begin.

It had been two and a half days since the invasion of the Crystal Palace, and a new task awaited this group of space workers who had no real personal freedom.

The invasion had made the space station system considerably insecure, so they had to prepare to welcome security specialists from the Crystal Palace, apply patches to the security systems, and possibly use the mass projector for more tactically clear deterrents.

Thanks to the High Knight’s successful rebellion a century ago, the treatment of Moon Colony inhabitants had improved significantly.

For example, now on the way from wake-up to their workstation, they could play some songs for themselves.

"Make the most of the time"—one corporate drone thought to himself, selecting a song: "Just the Two of Us."

[I see those crystal raindrops fall; how mesmerizing this all is;]

The corporate drone hummed the melody and connected to the observation window—

Technically, he should have stopped entertainment during work hours, but today he was feeling bold and continued to play music.

Today was the day the security specialists arrived. With the help of the algorithm, he looked at the spacecraft...

Was that a spacecraft?

It seemed a bit strange.

Boom—

A muffled sound seemed to come from the surface, all electronic devices subsequently stopped operating, and his prosthetics also malfunctioned—

The entire colony fell into dead silence, but the music continued.

[When I think of you, a ray of sunshine pierces through, a rainbow appears in my heart, I want to share the beauty with you;]

A terrifying electronic virus is invading the Tycho Colony!

The virus spreads throughout the Tycho Colony, the encryption system collapses in an instant, all data streams are devoured by an unknown ghost, and the surveillance footage crashes under electromagnetic interference.

But in the shattered images, the company lackey saw a suffocating scene—

A gigantic robot tears through the stationed troops’ armor, rolling over with a thunderous crash.

Under the cover of Transformers Wheat, Lille steps into the Tycho Colony at a slow pace, and with each step he takes, the surrounding equipment bizarrely burns out, any device observing directly overloads on the spot—

The experienced super corporate soldiers instantly realized the problem, shut down the prosthetics, and relied solely on their physical bodies to counterattack, but a shadow moved far faster than they did!

But a shadow was faster than them.

The Mantis Blade pierced through the chest, the surveillance footage completely collapsed.

The invaders, only two people.

[Only you and me, our world of two;]

[If we try together, we can have our world.]

The company lackeys, whose brains were not completely burned out, lay on the ground, fear sweeping through their hearts, tears and blood streaming uncontrollably from their eyes—

With agility uncharacteristic of a machine, mechanical arms quickly pierced different central control locations, hacking into the Tycho Colony comprehensively like a mechanical ghost from deep space—

Centuries of rule, shattered in a day.

[Just the two of us, building our castle in the sky;]

A silent massacre takes place in the Universe.

This battle came to be known as "Divine Retribution" in later generations—

Also the last time Burger King and the King appeared in public, their final battle...

The final battle that broke the European Space Agency’s highest authority for the entire world, sounding the death knell for the company’s demise.

[Just the two of us, you and I.]

[Just the two of us, you and I.]

...

In Night City, the brutal ground assault had continued for days, Night City was out of ammo and provisions.

The ground outposts were completely cleared, military technology, and Arasaka’s troops were beating these landless people into retreat.

"Company lackeys... they’re really tough to beat." Sherman, although self-mocking, couldn’t laugh.

As the CEO of the Mackinaw General Vehicles Company, he also ended up on the battlefield.

"Looks like this is it." The old captain also held a gun, looking disheveled, "Do you regret it?"

"Regret what? Regret making so much money?" Sherman laughed, took a nearly depleted cigarette out of his pocket, and lit it against his exoskeleton’s heat pipe, "I can die in battle, but I can’t die cowardly, this is the life I want, this exhilarating fight."

"Haha, then you’ve enjoyed it for two lifetimes’ worth."

The last line of defense was about to be breached, with corporate lackeys already breaking into the first level of the underground city.

The urgent footsteps echoed through the corridors, the two quickly finished their last cigarette—

Sherman looked up, staring at the sky through the broken ground, suddenly remembering his deceased wife, recalling how he had sworn to give her a good life, but she fell ill and died without money for treatment—

He wished he had this much money back then, or if only Burger King was around back then...

Unconsciously, he hummed the song he and his wife used to dance to.

"I hear the crystal raindrops fall;

On the window down the hall;

And it becomes the morning dew..."

Immediately, the ground trembles.

The people of Night City looked up.

Surprisingly, it really started to rain.

Composite material orbital mass projector projectiles tore through the atmosphere, carrying earth-shattering kinetic energy—

But this time, it was no longer Night City being attacked.

Arasaka’s newly deployed aircraft carrier on Night City’s coast was split in two and engulfed by giant waves; New America’s stationed military base disappeared in the strike.

And a spaceship descended from the sky, bringing news of victory.

...

Far away in Europe, as dawn broke, meteor showers fell during the transition from night to day, directly smashing into the fortresses of the European Union that the workers had struggled to breach.

Sevens and Blais exchanged unbelieving glances, and for a moment, the workers across Europe who were still resisting paused their actions—

This rain was their dawn titanium rain.

The dark night faded, dawn had arrived.