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Chapter 23 - Chapter 23: Hybrid Genesis

Aegis HQ – Executive Office, Nightfall .....

The office was dark, save for the blue hue of hundreds of floating holo-screens. The air was still, saturated with the subtle hum of high-frequency server banks humming behind the obsidian walls. M sat alone at his desk, his eyes sharp, hands steepled, locked in contemplation.

For the last four hours, he had been going over one plan, no, a revolution. A blueprint that would rewrite the technological and military balance of power in Night City, and perhaps the world.

Across his holo-display hovered a cluster of overlapping screens. They detailed acquisitions: small and mid-tier corporations in sectors like healthcare, cyberware manufacturing, public infrastructure, environmental tech, transportation, biotech, and more. The prices ranged from modest to astronomical. Total projected cost? 6.7 billion eddies.

M studied the flowcharts and numbers in silence.

The first stage of his plan: buy out and consolidate several corporations across key industries, raise them to Aegis standards. Control the means of production. Not just supply cyberware, but redefine it. Upgrade it.

The second stage: initiate large-scale production of the newly unlocked Deus Ex augmentation technology—civilian models, military systems, and specialized consumer devices. Exoskeletal reinforcement frames, dermal armor made of CNT composites, hyperdense bone lace, and EM-hardened processors. Even gene technology.

And the final stage: rebuild Aegis from the inside out. The new Aegis, the huge Aegis. M estimate that by the end of this plan, he will have over 40 thousand elite soldiers capable of fighting an army ten times their size. Every field agent, netrunner, ripperdoc, and logistical officer, refitted with the finest augmentations from both Cyberpunk and Deus Ex universes. The sandi speed, the neural webs, the ocular overlays of Kiroshi… fused with the precision, compute density, and EMP resistance of Jensen's toolkit. cost ? He stopped caring about that when he became the controller of the global stock market.

It would take months. Maybe a year.

But the Hybrid Era had begun.

M reached to the side and picked up a glass of water, never taking his eyes off the big interface screen displaying the structural comparison between myomer-polymer-based Cyberpunk limbs and carbon-nanotube muscle actuators of Deus Ex design.

Strength-to-weight ratio:

Cyberpunk polymer actuators: 10:1

Deus Ex CNT actuators: 100:1

Power source:

Cyberpunk: hazardous battery packs, often radiation-laced

Deus Ex: metabolic energy converters, no recharging required

Cybernetic armor:

Cyberpunk: external ceramic/composite plating

Deus Ex: internal, carbon-composite dermal weave with active EMP shielding

Augmented computing:

Cyberpunk: smart-link targeting, basic predictive AI

Deus Ex: environment mapping, enemy behavior extrapolation, recoil neutralization, networked vision enhancement and even emotional judgment.

M whispered to himself, almost amused, "We've been playing with toys."

He closed the interface with a flick of his finger and stood, adjusting his coat.

Aegis HQ – Private Garage, Minutes Later .....

His rayfield S9 sat like a panther beneath the LED ceiling lights—polished obsidian chrome, armored paneling, reinforced EMP shielding. He slid into the seat, systems flaring to life with quiet precision.

Eva was out for the evening, helping Gloria and David settle into their new apartment. The quiet meant peace. Peace, however, never lasted.

North Oak – M's Mansion, Thirty Minutes Later...

As he drove through the black gate and up the winding path, the Eye of Delphi, his supernatural vision, began to stir. Faint glimmers appeared around the edges of reality, like ghostly fingerprints smudged across the world.

A stone was displaced.

A flowerbed pattern is broken.

The door slightly… misaligned.

He stopped the car. He didn't breathe.

There were over twenty-four entities inside. Human, judging by the weight displacement on the ground and the shape of their movement patterns. But far too precise for mercs.

Government-trained.

M exhaled quietly. Then stepped out of the car, revolver already in hand.

His vision narrowed. Hyperfocus activated.

The world slowed. Sound dulled.

He moved up the steps without making a sound, then pressed against the side of the doorway and eased it open.

There they were.

Inside, fanned out in a tactical spread, were twenty-eight federal agents, each clad in matte stealth armor, cybernetic lenses glowing faintly in the dim light. At the center of the room, standing casually as though she owned the place, was a woman. Her ivory collarless jacket with gold accents resembles the iconic formal wear of women coming from old money, while the golden plate on her shoulder looks like a military rank, hinting at her service in the Marines.

President Rosalind Myers.

M blinked once and deactivated Hyperfocus. In an instant, he was no longer by the door.

He was at the wine cabinet.

Pouring himself a glass of vintage red.

"Want a drink?" he said coolly, voice deep and unbothered.

All twenty-eight agents raised their weapons while sweating bullets. They are the best of the best, but none of them even registered him till he talked.

He didn't even glance at them.

"You have three seconds to get your lapdogs to lower their weapons," M said in a cold whisper, the air in the room tightening like a clenched fist.

Myers raised her hand. "Lower them. NOW!"

Most obeyed. Five didn't react in time.

M disappeared again.

The next time they saw him, he was sitting on the leather sofa across from Myers, wine glass in hand.

Behind him, the five slow guards screamed in agony, arms torn clean off, arterial spray painting the wall like abstract art.

"I asked nicely", M said without looking.

Myers watched him silently. Not angry. Not scared. Just calculating.

"So," M began. "What does the most powerful woman on this side of the hemisphere want from me?"

"Hello, Mr. Maximus Moriarty," she said, carefully enunciating the name. "Pleasure meeting you, finally, face to face."

"Save me the pleasantries," he replied, sipping his wine. "You want something. Spit it out. You weren't this polite during the Metal War. But I guess Everyone's brave behind a projector."

Myers's expression twitched.

"You were always a ghost, M. Even before you vanished. But now you're a shadow with an army, and a dream. You were the lion king of the battlefield, I hear now you want to be the lion king of this city?"

He chuckled. "Will you look at that, your FIA agents worked really hard for this information, right? Let me guess, was it Liam or Sara who brought you the news? and before you ask, of course I knew they were FIA agents from the start. you really think you can slip your agents into my turf unnoticed?" He leaned forward a bit "So, you came to reminisce about the old times?"

"No." She sat down, crossing one leg over the other. "I came to ask for your help."

M raised an eyebrow.

"You have every private contract worth protecting in Night City. You run the fastest-growing corporate militia on the continent. Although still small, we both know it's only a matter of time before you build an elite army. And now, with the Glen project... you've done what no mayor ever could."

M stayed quiet.

"We have a problem. The Eastern seaboard is slipping. Corporations aren't following federal mandates. Rogue AIs are beginning to leak from data vaults. Blacksite weapons are unaccounted for. And Texas is well ... being Texas."

She leaned in.

"I want Aegis to step in."

"To do what exactly?" M asked.

"Expand operations. Nationwide. In exchange, we grant you full corporate autonomy and priority rights over military technology sharing."

"You want me to be your watchdog."

"I want you to be the pillar. The new standard. The one thing even Arasaka and Militech won't challenge."

He set his glass down slowly.

"And what do you get out of this? Let me guess, Militech is slipping out of your control, right? The NUSA can't do without a behemoth backing it, and you want to make Aegis that behemoth?"

"....."Myers just stayed silent

M didn't answer. He stood and walked toward the window.

Outside, the moon glowed cold and silver over his private garden.

"Let me be clear, Myers," he said without turning. "If I do this, I don't answer to anyone. Not to you. Not to the NUSA. Not even to God."

Myers smiled faintly.

"Then I guess I'll settle for the devil."

She stood to leave.

"I'll await your answer, and by the way, I need your help, not the help of the political lion but the warrior one, with another thing, Araska is making a weapon, a dangerous one, I want it destroyed", she said.

"destroyed? not acquired? " M replied.

"We both know if you go, you won't allow me to have it, so why bother?" she said

"Has anyone told you before?" M smiled at her, "You are a smart woman"

"Anyhow, if you decide to help stop Arasaka, then contact Reed, your old buddy, he is in Night City... " she said 

"I know in Dogtown", M cut her off

She smiled at M, "I guess a lion is always a lion"

And with that, she left.

The agents disappeared like shadows at midnight, and once again, the mansion was silent.

M sat back down.

He opened a new file on his tablet.

Titled it: Aegis Global Expansion Plan – Hybrid Sovereignty Protocol

And began to write.

The new era had arrived.

And the king was ready.

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HEy guys Author is her.

I am in a good mood, my mom just smuggled me real food, you know the meaty kind, so I am in a very good mood right now.

As a reward, the first one to comment can ask me to add or modify something in the story(for the next chapters, of course. comment on this paragraph).

Anyway, what do you think of the story for now? do you like where it's heading?

What about the pace? Should I slow things a little or keep going?

By the way, do you want a chapter in the respective of Myers like a flashback before she decide to contact M and their past?

next chapter will most likely feature M and reed raiding a araska data fortress to destroy the weapon and a boss fight where like always the plot works in the favor of M .

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