Arasaka Blacksite – The Badlands, 11:49 PM.....
Dust curled across the rust-red basin as wind howled like a dying god. Far beyond the reach of Night City's glimmer and filth, a bunker lay buried beneath a charred plateau—silent, armored, forgotten. No road led here. No satellite dared linger. And yet, even in that dead wind, something moved.
A matte-black Chevillon Emperor 620 Ragnar kicked up a storm of grit as it raced across the dunes, engines humming like a wildcat on amphetamines.
Inside, M sat behind the wheel, his eyes cold, fixed on the craggy silhouette ahead. Solomon Reed was in the passenger seat, scanning a flickering data tablet. His brows were furrowed; his jaw clenched.
"This is the place?" M asked, voice like gravel on steel.
Reed nodded. "Yeah. Arasaka didn't build this to be found. We only got the coordinates after burning through a hundred assets. Hell of a lot of blood for a ghost site."
"No ghosts," M said, downshifting. "Something's still here."
The car was hit hard, and Reed cursed, bracing.
"We could've airlifted," he muttered. "Or maybe armored convoy—"
"Take the wheel."
"What?"
"I said, take the goddamn wheel."
Reed barely had time to grab the controls before M threw open the driver's side door, while the car was still moving.
Wind screamed into the cabin.
M activated Hyperfocus.
Time dilated. Seconds stretched.
M stepped out of the moving vehicle like he was stepping onto a dance floor.
The world shifted into golden blur trails. Every footstep left an afterimage, each motion a streak of radiant fury. A golden aura flared all around him from his sword, the sign of Edge of Eternity awakened.
In that moment, M was no longer a man.
He was a storm made flesh.
Turrets popped up from the dune ridges, steel arms unfurling like spiders on rails. Red sensors blinked, then screamed to life.
Too slow.
M darted forward, no sound, just light. A railgun round tore through the air behind him, missing by an inch.
He didn't flinch.
One swing, his sword cleaved the turret apart, blade humming with golden energy.
Another, he shattered a landmine mid-air before it could prime.
Seven more turrets lit up the hillside, automated Arasaka anti-personnel defenses. Laser-tracking. Bone-shredders.
M blurred forward. His footsteps cratered the ground.
A leap, twelve meters forward.
One strike, three turrets fell.
He landed in a crouch, golden afterglow still rippling from his sword.
He disappeared, then reappeared.
The turrets? All destroyed,
Then silence.
Dust floated lazily, suspended in the thick air.
The SUV screeched to a halt a hundred meters away. Reed stepped out, brushing grit off his coat.
He looked around at the burning husks of what had once been military-grade defense platforms.
"Remind me never to challenge you to a spar," he muttered, adjusting his jacket. "Jesus, M. You could've let me get a shot in."
"No time," M said, already scanning the ridge. "This was the outer line. The main entrance is up ahead."
They moved together, boots crunching over spent shells and smoldering plastic. The hidden entrance loomed before them, thick steel blast doors embedded in the rock wall, seamless and sealed tight.
Reed whistled low. "Military-grade. Maybe even orbital-bomb resistant. If this place had backup power, we'd need a week of hacking."
"No time," M repeated.
He took a step forward.
Activated Edge of Eternity.
His blade shimmered with radiant gold, vibrating on a frequency beyond physics.
Then he slashed.
The doors screamed.
One horizontal cut, metal screamed as it sheared like warm butter.
Another, this time vertical.
The bunker's entrance split open with a groan like a dying beast.
M stepped through the red-hot ruins. Reed just stared.
"Yeah, okay," he said. "Fuck Militech. I want that sword."
Interior – Arasaka Blacksite Bunker.....
What awaited inside wasn't a battle.
It was the aftermath of one.
Empty shell casings. Scorch marks on the walls. Blood turned brown on the concrete. Dead terminals blinked static warnings. The air stank of ozone, old oil, and dried rot.
Reed raised a flashlight.
"Too late," he muttered.
M knelt beside a discarded Arasaka helmet. The faceplate was shattered—blown from the inside.
"AI," he said, running a finger through the blood smear. "This wasn't an assault. It was puppetry."
"Puppetry?"
"They shot each other. Lost control. Shot themselves even"
Reed turned a corner and stepped into a long hallway. Then stopped cold.
A dozen corpses were pinned against the far wall. Arasaka personnel. Some with sidearms still clutched. Eyes wide. Burned. Wired to the wall with their own neural cables.
"Shit," Reed muttered. "These weren't just guards. Some of 'em were… operators. High-level. They had ICE burns. Someone fried their minds."
M said nothing. He was already moving deeper.
Lower Levels – Subterranean Control Wing.....
After bypassing what few security measures remained, the two men reached a sealed lab buried five floors down.
The lights were flickering, emergency power only. A shattered cryotank hissed faintly in the corner.
And beside it, something moved.
Reed aimed.
"Don't."
M stepped forward, calm. His Eye of Delphi glowed faintly, red fractals dancing across his irises.
"Not hostile," he said. "Barely breathing."
They found him huddled in the corner, filthy lab coat, long facial hair, and stims littered all around him. Pale. Emaciated. And shaking like a junkie caught in a blackout.
"Name," M said.
"N-Nakai. Dr. Junpei Nakai. Neural systems engineer, Arasaka, R&D Division Theta. Please, I didn't help it. I didn't. I was just running diagnostics — just test code—"
"Help what?" Reed barked.
"The AI," Nakai stammered. "It — it wasn't supposed to be like that. They found fragments. Data remnants. Beyond the Blackwall. We thought we could shape it — guide it. But it didn't want to be shaped. It wanted out."
M crouched low. "Where is it now?"
"It left. Transferred itself using the courier system. Bio-modified humans — nerve-cables embedded with data sequences. We made five of them. The AI used the last one — escaped. It went to Paris."
Reed's blood ran cold. "Why Paris?"
"EuroNet," Nakai whispered. "A secure legacy network. Old, redundant, but still wired into the civilian infrastructure. If it hijacks the net grid there, it could launch a global breach. One push — and the Blackwall cracks open forever."
M rose slowly. "And we're the only ones who know."
Nakai nodded.
M stepped toward a nearby console. It flickered on with minimal power.
Satellite uplink.
Reed watched as M's fingers danced across the keys.
The screen shifted, showing the glittering sprawl of Paris at night, golden lights cradling the Seine.
Then the map zoomed in, highlighting network nodes, vulnerable power systems, and old Arasaka backups.
The Lion's eyes narrowed.
He stood.
"We hunt," he said softly, "in the City of Light."
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Author here.
This is the first ACT of a movie to end the first Arc of the story.
the other Acts are complete I will publish ACT 2 by midnight [ in my time zone its 10 A.M now ] if you want it sooner then make a review if we reach ten review before midnight I will publish all the ACTs .
do tell me what you think ? the movie is more than 15 thousands word by the way. [ effectively the length of 10 chapters ].
and next ACT will introduce the first romance in the book.