Before coming here, Mercedes had already gotten her subordinates to investigate. It’s a newly established military industrial company in Night City, without branches in other cities, and its predecessors were a group of Wanderers.
These Mercenaries take jobs in the company’s mission hall. Before this, there was no such company in Night City; usually, intermediaries handled such tasks, and if anything went wrong, they could walk away clean. No one ever considered turning it into a legitimate business.
It’s utterly ridiculous.
What makes you think these Mercenaries can defeat the Trauma Team?
Judging by the weaponry on both sides, no matter how the Mercenaries boast, they’re only equipped with rocket launchers and cheap exoskeletons produced by Horizon Corporation. On the other hand, the Trauma Team has high-spec cybernetic Soldiers, and if pushed, they may even deploy light exoskeleton Soldiers.
These aren’t the cheap goods Horizon Corporation offers. Do they think the company’s serious moves are as simple as street fights?
"Let me see your performance, little rats..."
This ambulance has really given its all.
If it had a soul, it would surely be posthumously declared a martyr, bleeding out its last drop for the company.
God knows how the big shot drove it to the destination.
The doors on both sides had fallen off during the first impact, the engine hood, bumper, and front windshield flew off who knows where, leaving the engine system exposed to the air, roaring furiously. The vehicle’s frame was severely deformed, the rear cabin riddled with bullet holes, and large and small gaps looked like a mouse-chewed pair of pants.
V and Jack survived purely by using two exoskeletons to shield them with their door-sized shields and take all the fire.
"Oh my god, today’s definitely the most thrilling for me, it’s absolutely exhilarating!"
Jack’s first reaction after getting off the vehicle wasn’t fear; he felt excited.
"What are we doing now? Are we going to kick these corporate dogs’ asses? Had I known, I would’ve brought my Death Knight, it’d be explosive fun!"
Only V was apprehensive. What kind of madness had possessed her to plan to beat these lunatics?
"Jack, this has nothing to do with you, don’t meddle."
"V, don’t be a buzzkill. Everyone’s hyped right now."
"Jack, think of the look on Mrs. Wells’s face if she knew you died here."
Okay, saying that made Jack deflate immediately.
V knew using his mom to pressure him wouldn’t fail.
She gazed at the four air vehicles quickly approaching above and swiftly spoke to Brother Dao and the others.
"The Trauma Team’s platinum member has been successfully rescued by you. We’re leaving now; you handle the rest yourselves, don’t forget our agreement."
Brother Dao nodded, "Boss said you can find him at the bar anytime."
V nodded and immediately grabbed Jack, fleeing the scene. She knew what was going to happen next, even if they didn’t say.
V could only say they were crazy—the drivers were crazy, the doctors were crazy, and those Mercenaries were all psychos.
Even cyber psychosis wouldn’t play .
The Trauma Team in the air quickly locked onto V and Jack but didn’t trouble their own member, letting them go.
Their aim had shifted from initially capturing the member to now capturing people.
A glaring red matrix surrounded the battered ambulance and five players inside. The unfolding cabin doors revealed four heavy machine guns, dark muzzles seemingly ready to tear everyone apart at any moment.
Additionally, over twenty Trauma Team operatives jumped from the air vehicle and surrounded them.
They intended to capture this group that caused significant losses to the Trauma Team alive, then let the Hacker search their brains to find the mastermind.
Sitting in the air vehicle, the armed forces officer leading the action, Stokes, hadn’t spoken before the vehicle’s AI blared a piercing alarm.
"Warning! Several unidentified heat signals are approaching! Take evasive action..."
Stokes hadn’t reacted yet when the originally steady air vehicle suddenly pulled up sharply, almost causing her to eat dirt inside.
Before she could curse, she saw through the car window that one or two air vehicles beside didn’t dodge in time and were immediately showered by rockets. The explosion engulfed the entire air vehicle, and these damn things were clearly overloaded tandem warheads; even specialized bulletproof armor couldn’t save the air vehicle, turning into two fireballs plummeting toward the ground.
This shocking scene chilled half of Stokes’s heart; she immediately checked the ground surveillance.
Sure enough, a dozen cars rushed in from all directions, blocking the entire intersection, and several dozen Mercenaries jumped off their vehicles. There were also a dozen folks outfitted in exoskeleton armor, each wielding a recoil-less rifle aimed at them.
"What the f***!!! Evasive maneuvers!"
No matter how things went with the ground operatives, the air vehicles above were sitting ducks to that many rocket launchers.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh~~~
A dozen little rockets formed a net and flew towards the two air vehicles still lingering above.
Stokes was relieved that this group was only using basic rockets, not guided missiles, which had low hit rates against highly mobile targets. This meant if they reached a certain altitude, survival was still possible.
However, while the players were firing at air vehicles for the first time, they were well aware of their weapons’ capabilities. Not to mention having people advising them on this.
Long before, during the unnoticed chase, the Trauma Team’s air vehicle convoy had been lured by the big shot into a complex residential district, with dozens of meter-high tube buildings everywhere.
If ground level was blocked, how could the upper levels not be?