"Now, Colonel Hansen, it's your turn."
-----
Little Beidou Laboratory Engineering District
The engineering district has been renovated since V's last visit, and it's noticeably different. The ssy lathes and conveyor belts have been pieced together seamlessly. Once powered, a vast array of chanical parts flow down the conveyor belts to various processing nodes, where they are assembled by industrial prosthetics and automation nodes, slowly taking shape.
The final product is the Hellhound robot.
The eeriest part is that those industrial prosthetics, originally ant to be installed on humans, are now fixed to the sides of the assembly line, connected by thick cables to sealed hydroponic boxes, each linked to twenty pairs of prosthetics.
The workflow is orderly, resembling a fully automated industrial machine.
If you look closely, you can still find the unpolished marks of the Soviet Jilafa Company on those chanical parts and lathes.
Soviet Petrochemical did not just sit idle; they believe that enemies can be friends. Thanks to Lin Miao, Hansen received support from a powerful industrial company, or else it would've been impossible for him to translate blueprint designs into mass production quickly.
Then there's Zeta Technology; Hansen agreed to let them conduct secret experints in Dog Town, but the condition was that they help him set up an assembly line, and both parties found it mutually beneficial.
Together with the current Cuba Group, Hansen's Netherworld Dog has the backing of several factions, reaching the pinnacle mont of the past seven years.
However, he couldn't feel any joy.
Agitated
Uneasy
Hansen's crisis awareness, honed over the years, made him so anxious that, despite his calm deanor, his constantly twitching right leg betrayed his ntal state.
Before the neural regulators ca on the market, Hansen considered himself equal to Lin Miao, never regarding the latter as significant—just another military technology subordinate.
But now, the other side has beco a darling of the capitalist market, soaring high. Even with several companies' help, Hansen couldn't match Lin Miao's potential.
If he delays further, once Lin Miao deals with the Taiping Continent's miscellaneous matters, it would spell the end for Hansen.
Therefore, Hansen thought he must strike first and swiftly, leaving no room for Lin Miao to breathe.
He glanced at a Hellhound robot just off the assembly line, transported by Zeta Technology staff on a small carrier for connection experints, asking,
"How long before these things are combat-ready? I'm eager to see these little treasures in action around ."
Before Hellhound, Hansen had already been building a robot army, but previously he entrusted it to the Voodoo Gang remnants led by Slider, whose products always fell short of expectations—those humanoid combat robots never catching his eye.
He nearly abandoned the attempt until Zeta Technology ca knocking.
"It won't be long, dear."
The speaker was not the previous Zeta Technology supervisor but a red-haired female hacker, whom he spent heavily to secure through connections from France. It's rumored that she had participated in so Military Science laboratory projects.
She sat in a chair, alluringly crossed her legs, with her mini-skirt barely covering her snowy thighs, leaving much to the imagination in the shadowed areas.
Unfortunately, Hansen wasn't in the mood for such trifling matters; he preferred straightforward work relationships, finish the job, get paid, then leave. If there were any indulgence, it would be post-job.
Seeing Hansen's lack of interest, Aurora rolled her eyes at him, comnting.
"Zeta Technology has already perford brain segntation surgeries, cutting off the vertebral neurons, and also conducted frontal lobe mutilation, so you no longer need to worry about these fools panicking after waking up to find themselves as your little puppets. Once the combat program design is complete, they can start attempting automated weaponry equipnt."
As Aurora looked at the fresh brains piled in the hydroponic box, a hint of dread flashed in her eyes.
"Using human brains for experints, these corporate dogs are really losing their limits."
"You don't think your European Community is any purer, do you?"
Hansen snorted; the end-of-the-20th-century hunger pandemic ravaged Europe, causing billions of deaths akin to the new age Black Death—the virus's origin remaining mysterious to this day.
How could it so happen that it only affected humans, spreading with such speed and range, almost like a virus designed against human genes?
Hansen was unconcerned about the chanics as long as they functioned; he was a utilitarian.
"All crows under the sky are equally black, hacker lass."
"I wonder how dark you are, Colonel Hansen?"
"..."
Hansen cursed internally, then turned to the topic at hand.
"I heard before the Unification War, you and Alie were employees of military technology, working in Night City?"
Aurora leaned against the chair, her fingers swiftly gliding over the tablet, fast enough to leave afterimages.
"Nine out of ten hackers worldwide co from corporations; nothing surprising. You're not worried I'm a Military Science agent, are you, Colonel Hansen?"
User Comments
0 comments from readers