Cyberpunk: Archangel

Chapter 10: The End Times

Looking down the lifeless body of the Agent, the room silent other than the muffled sounds of the building slowly crumbling around him, Michael was snapped out of whatever state of rage he was in, and looked down at himself. He almost regretted what he had just done, and even though he was all machine, he felt as though his head ached. "What the hell is wrong with me?" he muttered to himself, as he gazed up at the machine he had just destroyed. As he looked upon whatever the device was, he couldn't help but feel as though he did something wrong.

As Michael turned to leave, all of the electronics in the room began to emit some sort of red, staticy sparks. "What the fuck?" He said out loud, as he looked at the scene before him. Suddenly, all of the monitors in the room were filled with a similar red static, and the screens all glitched into the same image of a sinister orange pentagram, with the icon a Ram's skull in the center of the star. Coming out of several speakers in the room, as well as echoing in what felt like Michael's own head, was laughter. The laughter of what sounded like thousands of twisted, distorted voices. "THE FLOODGATES HAVE BEEN OPENED." The voices said in unison. "THE HORDE HAS BEEN UNLEASHED. THE TIME HAS COME IN WHICH MANKIND FALLS, AND THE TENEBRIUM COLLECTIVE RISES TO TAKE THEIR PLACE."

Outside of the door, Michael heard what sounded like the rumbling of thousands of footsteps. Michael stood back, bracing himself as it got louder and louder. Into the room burst the several mangled bodies of dead guards and agents, their Cybernetic eyes glowing the same sickly red, and their cyberware emitting the same red sparks. "What the hell!" Michael shouted, as he opened fire on the several seemingly reanimated corpses. But no matter how many bullets he fired, none of them seemed to go down. As he shot at the new assainlants, he aimed his left arm, and shot a couple missiles at the last support beam. The entire building began to rumble, and Michael flew into the air, as he began to become overwhelmed by the number of attackers. He unsheathed his rippers and began to cut through the upper floor, as the new opponents began to stack themselves on top of each other to reach him. Just as a few of them began grabbing and clawing at his legs, Michael cut a hole through to the floor above him, and flew through. As he flew into the floor above him, he began flying towards the elevator shaft, as the dead guards began pouring into the hole in hot pursuit. He flew through the room, he turned and saw that there were more of them, but instead of puppeting the corpses of the fallen, whatever this force was had taken control of what seemed to be live people. The live puppets shouted at Michael in a language he didn't understand, and began to chase him down the hallway and open fire. Michael was in a desperate rush to escape, as the dead assailants joined the live ones, flooding the room as they viciously toppled each other in a desperate attempt to reach him. Michael slammed into the elevator, and began to rip the doors open, as the horde of possessed assailants got closer and closer. He was able to pry the doors open just as they got within arms reach, and he flew inside, and up to the top floor.

As Michael got closer to the surface, he gave Rogue a call, and after a moment, she picked up. "Rogue, I think we have a problem." Michael said with a hint of fear in his voice. "You think?" Rogue shouted back in response. "Arasaka personnel are pouring into the city out of nowhere! What the fuck did you do?"

"I blew shit up," Michael answered bluntly. "Think I might've meddled in something I shouldn't have. I destroyed Arasaka's HQ in Dogtown, along with some sort of machine, or device. When all was said and done, something spoke to me, I don't know what. And then I was attacked by a horde of Arasaka guards, alive and dead."

"What do you mean they were dead?" Rogue asked, clearly panicking. "Their bodies were maimed, but they got back up and kept moving. Their Cyberoptics were glowing red, and their cyberware was sparking with some weird red shit too."

Rogue went silent for a moment. "Fuck...." She muttered to herself. "I'm getting a hold of Netwatch, and then we're continuing this little talk!"

Rogue then hung up, as Michael arrived on the top floor. At this point, the building was beginning to shake and wobble. And just as Michael flew outside, the building collapsed in on itself, crumbling into a building-sized crater full of debris. Michael deactivated his rocket boots, and landed on the ground. He looked around outside, and couldn't believe what he was seeing. Several heavily armed members of Arasaka were running down the streets, shooting at any person they saw, accompanied by several mechs and drones, all emitting the same red glows and sparks. The sky was filled with several Trauma Team AVs, all flying in different directions. Michael held his arm up and recoiled in shock as a massive red laser shot into the sky, slicing a few of the AVs in half, and sending them careening back down, making explosions as they impacted the ground and crashed into buildings. "My god...." Michael said to himself. This was an absolute disaster. He had to find Rogue, and figure out what was going on. Not knowing what else to do, Michael called Falco, hoping that he would pick up. After the call rang out a few times, he answered. "Where did Rogue go?" Michael asked in an urgent tone. "And what the hell is going on?"