Chapter 948 - 1: Rerouting to Washington

"Good morning, Night City!"

"Let’s check out today’s news—Natalie, a once-in-a-century super typhoon, is about to make landfall in Europe. According to the European Meteorological Bureau, this typhoon may even create extremely heavy rainfall inland. It seems our diligent old Europe is going to have to work overtime again."

"Speaking of which, do you know why typhoons are always named after women? The answer will be revealed in the next episode..."

Click.

Colorado, the former headquarters of the United States Space Force, now stands as a vacant ruin.

In an era of vying for near-Earth orbital space, conflicts among nations and corporations are ceaseless. At that time, the United States hadn’t yet been depleted by the four major sectors. On the surface, it barely maintained America’s dignity, and its military strength was still first-rate—

The United States Space Force was still a renowned unit. After all, this was the country that completed the Apollo Program; back then, everyone had to pay attention to this force.

To seize near-Earth orbital resources, the U.S. Space Force engaged in direct conflict with the Soviet Union, launching humanity’s first space combat mission. Wearing spacesuits, Marine Corps members carried out a space landing operation to directly assault a Soviet-affiliated near-Earth orbital station.

Because the assault occurred suddenly, the U.S. Space Force decimated the unprepared Soviets, and the battle lasted six hours until the space station gradually fell...

Until their ally, the European Space Agency, delivered orders to the orbital mass projector at the Tycho Colony on the Moon—

An asteroid struck, completely destroying the U.S. Space Force headquarters, shattering America’s dream of space dominance, and the new overlord, the European Space Agency, ascended.

However, the asteroid wasn’t thorough enough; one woman named Elizabeth Cres survived at the Space Force headquarters, becoming the sole survivor. Perhaps such survivors do get a bit of mystery bonus; Elizabeth later controlled military technology and unified the Federation State after America’s civil war to establish New America.

Rosalind Miles inherited New America from her, both being pure main battle party advocates.

The return to space was imperative; otherwise, they’d only wither away on Earth. Though the years-long unification process of military technology was shattered, an unintended opportunity arose...

EBM extended a cooperation invitation to them.

Inside the car, V waved a hand to signal Matt to turn off the radio.

"...If New America manages to rebuild, and that Space Force gets reinstated, we’ll never have a chance to lift our heads again..."

Alas, I merely wished to enjoy the grandeur in Night City. Yet, having money turned me into a tired vagabond?"

V had just ambushed a convoy transporting supplies to Colorado state, joining forces with Adkaduo to stop an entire New America force in Evil Land. He still bore the scent of gunpowder, with a scarf tied around his head, barely holding his hair together.

Though appearing disheveled, he possessed a certain charisma and decisiveness akin to a leader.

From the rear compartment, Jack shifted his body, donned a helmet, and shrugged.

Both wore New America uniforms, and, observed by drones from high above, they appeared as an ordinary New America armored vehicle, even co-branded with military technology.

A little octopus appeared in the air:

[Little Octopus: Mom, the chip is loaded, we can enter Washington directly.]

V and Jack attacked a New America transport unit to obtain vehicles and soldiers’ internal signals, gaining the ability to camouflage their identities.

To achieve this goal, they had to avoid killing anyone in the entire military technology squad, so as to paralyze their combat system, and could only inflict limited damage on the vehicles, drones, and other intelligent combat units.

Normally, even though Adkaduo possessed adequate combat capability, it’s improbable to accomplish without V and Jack.

Another stealthy assault; like before, New America won’t find out the outcome until several hours later.

Now, within the electronic surveillance system, whether it’s a prosthetic eye or camera, as long as it’s New America and military technology equipment, all they’ll see is a vehicle on the move...

Several hours will be enough to enter the outskirts of the Space Force headquarters in Washington.

[Matt: Destination ahead! Drones are approaching!]

Along the expansive transport route, patrolling drones quickly detected this vehicle with abnormal travel—

The under-construction New America Space Force headquarters stood visibly nearby, appearing from the outside as a fort-like orbital aviation airport!

It’s close enough!

Helmet fastened, the window raised, the massive electromagnetic sniper rifle barrel protrudes from the window—

Bam!

One shot obliterated the leading octant drone!

Mackinaw Floating Shadow’s enormous cargo bay door opened slowly, several auxiliary drones ascended swiftly, and with Jack in the massive combat mecha, he hoisted a heavy rocket launcher aimed at the fortress—

Boom!

Flames soared skyward.

Across the desolate Evil Land, drones and armies swarmed—

This time, V only brought Jack, with no one else, for a single reason...

This mission was nearly a self-sacrificial act.

...

Whoosh!

The gale howled, with everything around veiled in darkness except for occasional lightning flashes—

For two years since becoming a professional athlete, Matt frequently faced one question:

Why can you maintain nearly perfect heart rhythm in such intense sports, appearing as if your heart never overloads from the exertion?

The power from the Human Lizard Cyborg was only one reason, after all, his opponents are also generally strengthened youths.

The real reason is that he witnessed the battle in Dog Town firsthand, faced the hail of bullets; sports passion simply can’t induce that uncontrollable tension.

And today, that feeling escalated again!

They weaved through thunderclouds!

Competitive sports never offered Matt such terrifying oppression!

The sturdy Mackinaw Floating Shadow appeared minuscule amid the storm, and at high speeds, the storm seemed on verge of crushing and deforming the vehicle—

Since acquiring the Human Lizard Cyborg, Matt had never felt such exaggerated helplessness; faced with nature’s might, he trembled inside, as though returning to his first confrontation with gunfire, the first time standing at the Voodoo Gang’s stronghold, that sense of bewilderment...

"Big brother brother brother brother—!"

"Hold tight!"

Matt’s muscles felt rigid all over. His father woke once and fainted again, foaming at the mouth!

Lille’s additional arm and arm directly connected to the vehicle’s power system, azure light nearly blinded one’s eyes, and through quantum computing boosts, the magnetohydrodynamic generator strove to counteract turbulence, the sustained ion jet gradually propelled them into the sky—

At one moment, all darkness vanished.

Heavy clouds lay beneath, and above was a clear high altitude.

Matt exhaled—

If he looked up, he could still see the floating, diminutive artificial satellites in the near-Earth orbit, some malfunctioning, others still operational.

[Munemasa: Let me see... not bad, some satellites are usable, I’ll try connecting.]

Mackinaw Floating Shadow maintained a steady speed, pushing higher and would eventually reach an altitude of 100 kilometers.

At that altitude, Munemasa could utilize communication components taken from Europa Tower to attempt connecting to the satellites above—

Those satellites from the Internet era, most are controlled by AI now, serving as the longest existing dangerous borderline entity in the vehicle, Munemasa still had tricks to reclaim control.

This wasn’t part of the plan, but Munemasa intended to do it spontaneously.

After reaching the target altitude, the glider would begin moving horizontally—

Utilizing controllable magnetohydrodynamic wings and continuous thrust supply, this unremarkable flying device could ultimately reach Mach 3, cruising at supersonic speed at high altitude, finally landing in North America.

This connection led Munemasa to make an unexpected discovery.

[Munemasa:... Someone is attacking Washington’s New America Space Force command... Oh shit.]

Munemasa had just finished speaking when he realized who the attacker was—

He also realized...

Lille was about to change course again: from Night City to Washington.