Chapter 232: Explosions and Gunfire
Huff—V exhaled heavily, the weight in her chest finally lifting. Just moments ago, when she thought the New United States president might have died in Night City, she’d feared war could erupt all over again.
“Has Hansen really lost his mind?” Still shaken, V muttered as she hurried down the stairs. “Or does he think this tiny patch called Dogtown is enough to provoke the New United States?”
“Keep it simple. Maybe he really is mad. I’ve seen madmen before. They look just like everyone else.” Arthur’s reply, coming from behind her, offered little insight—at least in V’s eyes.
“Either way... Hansen’s pissed off the New United States and caught Arasaka’s attention. His good days are over.” V murmured, clearly convinced their plan was heading toward a brighter outcome.
As they burst out of the EMB stadium, the sun’s glow was fading, but the raging fires around them still burned without end.
Ahead, a straight highway stretched forward. At its end, flames leapt over ten meters high, where the presidential spacecraft had crashed into the ruins.
Now, Dogtown was alive with traffic converging on the crash site. Heavily modified, barely recognizable armored vehicles roared toward the wreck.
Mercenaries in green uniforms—the BARGHEST—swept through the ruins with rifles raised, searching.
“You’ve got to move faster...” So Mi’s voice crackled urgently over the comms. It was no surprise—the inferno made it clear that even if Hansen’s men didn’t find the President immediately, she wouldn’t last long.
“We’re already moving as fast as we can!” V shouted, yanking open the door of a random car by the roadside. Both she and Arthur scrambled inside.
The street ahead was littered with wrecks—accidents caused by the panic and shockwaves from the spacecraft’s crash.
Many overturned vehicles still burned, their orange glow casting Arthur and V in a kind of protective camouflage.
The spacecraft had torn into Dogtown like a knife, gouging a crater through its structures. Thanks to the area’s advanced design, the collapse hadn’t spread far beyond the point of impact.
Abandoning the car, they slipped into the shadows.
“Damn... cough!” V waved away black smoke, scanning the devastation. “Shit, this is a disaster.”
Arthur studied the ruins. “Looks like an unfinished building... Let’s hope not too many people were inside.”
It wasn’t long before the BARGHEST spotted them, forcing a firefight.
These green-clad mercs weren’t just rabble. Their suppressive fire came in waves, staggered and disciplined.
But the ruins made the environment too chaotic for their barrages to fully lock down targets.
Through the gaps, Arthur’s sights and bullets found their marks. As their fire grew sparser, his shooting became easier and easier.
Meanwhile, V focused on the lumbering heavy troopers clad in thick armor. Taking them down was simple: pick up their dropped frag grenades, pull the pin, and shove them right back into their hands.
Clearly, the BARGHEST heavies weren’t as tightly geared as Arasaka’s elites—otherwise, those grenades never would’ve slipped through.
Fighting their way past, Arthur and V pushed forward, forced to keep up the pace before reinforcements could encircle them.
The deeper they went into the crater carved by the ship, the hotter it became. Waves of heat pressed against their skin, sweat evaporating before it could fall.
Finally, they saw the spacecraft buried in the ground.
The building must have had subterranean levels—the ship had crashed straight through into them. A ring of flames encircled it.
“Damn it... we can’t fly.” V cursed under her breath. Getting close looked impossible.
“Wait... wait... I’ll figure something out!” So Mi’s voice came frantically over the comms. She should still be inside the ship. Emergency landing or not, who knew where she was hiding now.
“Look! There’s a construction crane up there. I’ll hack into it. Use that to get closer!” Her solution came within seconds.
Almost as soon as she spoke, the crane whirred to life, swinging toward Arthur and V.
The spacecraft was massive—intact, it might have stretched nearly fifty meters long. Now, its rear half was gone, the severed cross-section bristling with exposed wiring. Fires raged inside, and what once had been a luxurious interior was shattered beyond recognition.
“Phew—” Maybe thanks to special materials, the temperature inside was actually lower. As soon as they landed inside, V let out a long breath. “We’re in... but it’s bad.”
Corpses littered the deck. Judging by their suits, they’d been the President’s staff.
“Search. At least... we need to find bodies.” So Mi’s voice was heavy, faltering. From her tone, it seemed she had a personal connection to the President.
Moving deeper into the wreck, the horror only grew. The crash had twisted bodies grotesquely, leaving nothing but carnage—so much that it killed any hope of finding survivors.
“The safety pod’s up ahead. I’ll unlock it. The President should be inside.” So Mi’s voice guided them toward a heavy rectangular hatch.
It was already cracked open.
Rolling her shoulders, V gripped the gap with both hands. Ever since installing her muscle-enhancing Cyberware, she’d felt like she carried a master key.
She remembered when she had to jack into doors with data cables.
Metal groaned as she forced the hatch open. And then—suddenly—a rifle butt swung down from behind it.
V instinctively raised her arm to block. Before the attacker could strike again, Arthur kicked the door wide, his revolver already aimed at the figure’s head.
“Hey! Stop!” V shouted quickly, waving her hands as she grabbed Arthur’s arm to stop him.
“Damn... huff—” Panting, V looked at the assailant. “This must be the President.” Forcing the hatch open had clearly drained her.
Arthur frowned, eyeing the figure sprawled on the floor. A woman, dressed in a tailored white suit—not the uniform of those green-clad mercs.
“Fine... fine...” Arthur muttered, extending a hand toward the woman still clutching her weapon. “Guess I figured the President would be a well-mannered type. Sounds like the kind of job for brains, not guns.”
Lowering her weapon, Rosalind Myers didn’t linger on the scuffle. She took Arthur’s hand, studying the two oddly dressed mercenaries before her.
The woman wore a coat over a shirt laced with muted gold thread—expensive fabric by the look. The man was the opposite: a coat caked in dust, topped with a rough leather gambler’s hat.
“Songbird’s mercs clean up nice, huh? You two look like you’re from different centuries.” Myers greeted them without the slightest presidential arrogance—none of the insufferable superiority one might expect.
Of course, it could be an act. But that didn’t matter.
“We need to move—now.” Myers glanced at the flashing red lights—the ship’s alarms. Useless now. The expensive craft was totaled.
Before they could retreat through the rear, a violent explosion erupted from the safety pod chamber.
Thankfully, the half-closed hatch absorbed most of the blast.
“Shit! These flies just won’t quit!” Myers spat, glaring at the jagged breach in the hull.
BARGHEST troops were already swarming through.
Arthur raised his pistol and dropped the first one charging in.
“Out that way!” he shouted, pointing to a section of collapsed flooring still connected above.
Picking off the mercs one by one, they fell back. Myers, rifle in hand, proved no figurehead—her shots dropped several attackers in quick bursts.
Leaving the inferno behind, the air finally cooled.
Beyond the wreckage stretched a corridor under a glass dome. Beneath the dust, its original ambition still showed.
“This looks like... an abandoned hotel,” V guessed, scanning the surroundings.
“Doesn’t matter what it was—we need to move.” Myers urged. This close to the crash site, Hansen’s men would have the place locked down tight.
Above, blinding white beams cut through the sky—search drones.
“So Mi said we should... meet at that place called Elizabeth Clayton Street.” V muttered, eyes fixed beyond the glass.
Drones and AVs patrolled the skies in groups. Hansen’s fortune showed in the sheer scale of his private army.
“But first, we need to get out.” Myers stayed low in the shadows, rifle clutched tight, as they made their way toward the hotel’s perimeter.
“Right...” She suddenly stopped, turning back. “Washington might not be safe either. I mean... whoever hacked Space Force One must’ve been an insider.
And I’ve still got a tracking chip in the back of my neck. We need to get it out—fast.”
Comments (0)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.