Chapter 142: The Situation
BANG!
“Can someone tell me where the hell these bastards came from?!”
Jamde slammed his fist onto the table, leaving a visible dent, and roared at the confused subordinates standing before him.
“Not a single one of you knows even a shred of information?! Are all my men a bunch of damn idiots?!”
Faced with Jamde’s furious outburst, everyone lowered their heads in silence. There was no other reason—what they knew was genuinely very little. Or rather… all they knew was that this might have been Arasaka’s doing.
Of course, it was only a possibility. There were many other explanations as well. So… they chose to remain silent.
After venting his anger, Jamde rubbed his forehead and sat down. There was no helping it. Even if his subordinates were disappointing, as the commander, he still had to shoulder responsibility—starting with cleaning up this mess as quickly as possible.
As for this incident… yes, it had been arranged by Higashiyama Ryoichi.
Once his orders were issued, Arasaka’s operatives began acting across New United States territory, as well as at Militech bases around the world.
Some sabotaged key facilities.
Some disrupted the transmission of critical intelligence.
Others eliminated important figures.
Among them were even operatives who had already been exposed to Militech.
They acted anyway. Although all of them were captured by Militech, Arasaka didn’t care in the slightest. Those people had been deliberately sent out as decoys.
The goal was simple: confuse Militech and prevent them from identifying who was truly behind everything. The orders given to those exposed operatives were completely different from the ones given to the real sleeper agents.
That was exactly why Jamde and his people were so utterly baffled.
You could say they’d suffered a completely undeserved disaster. As for who was actually responsible… that wasn’t something that could be clearly pinned down anytime soon.
If you said it was Roland’s fault… that didn’t quite fit either. He hadn’t planned to work with Militech at all in the beginning. It was only after Weis came to him—and after some thought—that he decided it was worth doing.
If you blamed Weis… his original intention really was to act in Militech’s interests, which was why he chose to move against Arasaka. He simply hadn’t anticipated that Arasaka had been preparing for so many years.
Hmm… thinking about it that way, Weis did seem to have some connection to this whole mess.
The truth was—Weis was an undercover agent, deliberately pushing Arasaka into action.
Once Jamde realized what was happening, he quickly responded to developments within the territory. Militech’s counterintelligence division also began operating at full speed.
After a period of pursuit and containment, they finally captured one of Arasaka’s sleeper agents. Under the control of Militech’s netrunners, they obtained some key intelligence.
But not much.
It only confirmed one thing: Arasaka was behind it.
The news weighed heavily on Militech’s upper leadership.
They still remembered how enthusiastic Arasaka had been back when Myers decided to initiate the Unification War—so enthusiastic that they’d thought Arasaka had lost its mind.
Back then, Arasaka had even set aside old grudges to help Myers eliminate several opponents, which had come as a genuine surprise.
Some had even considered loosening restrictions on Arasaka slightly…
But now, it was clear that Arasaka’s intentions had never been pure.
“Whatever Arasaka is planning, we can’t stop now. We can only move forward.”
Myers looked around the room with firm resolve and issued the order for New United States forces to advance into Southern California.
Then… something unexpected, yet entirely reasonable, happened.
Southern California’s forces were already deployed along the border. When Jamde’s adjutant requested communication, the opposing commander put on a fake smile and said he hadn’t received orders from his superiors yet, so he couldn’t allow passage and asked them to wait patiently.
The moment Jamde and the others heard this response, their expressions turned ugly.
How could they not recognize that excuse?
After all, they were the ones who used it most often.
“Bastards!”
Jamde slammed the table again, adding yet another fist mark.
“What do we do now?”
His adjutant frowned and asked.
“...Get me in touch with the Southern California government!”
Jamde ground his teeth as he spoke. Even he knew there was no better option. As for the agreements they’d made before… those had always been fragile things.
...
While Militech’s advance stalled, Roland was happily enjoying the spectacle, watching the numbers in his system tick up once again.
He’d been relatively relaxed lately—especially after stepping aside and letting the Golor Gang’s people pass through. That had only made things easier for him.
Arasaka internally condemned Roland’s actions—but only in a psychological sense. There were no public statements and no concrete measures taken.
The reason was simple.
They didn’t want to provoke both Militech and PROJECT at the same time. For now, only Militech had entered the fray. If they tore things apart with PROJECT as well, they’d be facing a two-front situation.
On top of that, there would be pressure from the law enforcement side—because PROJECT possessed a certain degree of enforcement authority.
That would drag things into a deeper level of conflict. Going that far over the Tyger Claws simply wasn’t worth it.
After all, Arasaka was still holding up against Militech’s pressure. As long as they could keep holding, there was no need for PROJECT to get involved.
Still, Arasaka quietly made a note of it.
There’s plenty of time. We’ll settle this later.
But just as Militech thought everything was proceeding smoothly, the movements of another force caught both Arasaka’s and Militech’s attention.
It was the Northern California government’s army.
Without anyone noticing, their troops had arrived at Locale City, north of Night City, and formed up in military formation.
Their posture clearly indicated that they intended to observe the situation from there.
However…
The force they brought wasn’t large—only around ten thousand troops.
That number made Night City’s councilors’ hearts sink.
Based on the New United States’ movements alone, the force heading toward Night City numbered at least a full division. And a New United States division consisted of twenty-five thousand soldiers.
With both numerical and equipment superiority…
The outcome was obvious.
For Lucius, this was the final warning bell. He had to act.
Arasaka, however, showed no particular reaction to Northern California’s movements.
After all, the longer they could drag things out with Militech, the better it would be for them—especially now that Lucius was already beginning to waver.
Author's Note
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