Mass Release 3 - AEINC - ch 12.5 (Patreon)

Initial Battles (5)

Elsewhere, away from the main conflict in Night City or the brief Orbital War between the Highrider Confederacy and the ESA, the joint Militech and NUSA mobilize their infantry and armor division towards the Uranium Mine of Wube Inc. Owing to the distance between Night City and Wube Inc.’s BN2 Complex, the opposing forces can leisurely set up their equipment and defenses brought from their closest in neighboring states of Utah, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

The NUSA forces start the attack by bombarding the mine with Artillery, intent on blaming any environmental issues on Wube's "careless" mishandling of the mining site.

Like the other Wube Inc. installations, the local outpost's anti-air guns did their job preventing the artillery from causing any damage. But this time NUSA and allies have far more ordinance available to them, and they continue to shell the Mine.

The security forces within the Mine are tense, fearful of the relentless barrage against their position and wondering if they can survive the attack. The mine defenders are small, most of them being escorts from the Haulers recalled to the Mine, and the small security team stationed on the Mine. Counting everyone, they're twenty-five non-combatants, fifty security escorts for the truckers, and twenty-five permanent security forces on the Mine, for a total of seventy-five combatants.

While everyone inside flinches at the constant attack from the enemy artillery, a circuit condition activates and the construction bots place several Wube Inc.'s stationary Artillery Turrets that laid dormant inside a chest until now. Once the Artillery Turrets were in place, the circuits flared once more and released the materials to craft the Artillery Shells, automatically marking the enemy structures with an angry red.

Soon, the mine returned fire against the enemy artillery and other permanent fixtures in the camps. Militech and NUSA responded with their anti-air missiles to shoot down Wube Inc.'s Artillery Shells and engaged in a fierce exchange of long-range combat. While the anti-air missiles did initially work, the current forces came equipped against potential enemy aircraft, and the first casualties started to appear on the Militech side as the enemy shells hit their Artillery. The officers in charge quickly ordered a fallback retreat away from the Mine and the Artillery range.

Despite their best efforts to save their equipment, the opposing forces lost their artillery pieces while doing little to no damage to the mine, which was quickly repaired by the construction bots at the Mine.

…

At the Militech side, a group of soldiers runs to keep up with the vehicles, their cyberware allowing them to match the tanks' and truck’s speeds.

“Since when they had Artillery?” One of the soldiers asks, “That wasn’t on the intel!”

“Of course it was! Did you forget the briefing from the higher-ups?” The soldier imitates his voice in a half-mocking, half-serious tone, “‘Assume that Wube Inc. and the Engineer can bring out never before seen equipment or tactics at a moment’s notice!’”

The first soldier glares at his brother-in-arms, “I didn’t know that included fucking artillery too!”

“Stop complaining you two, and keep running!” The sergeant yells, “or else you will kill your unit by falling behind as we come back to save your ass!”

The pair closes their mouth and resume running with renewed vigor, away from the Artillery range.

Eventually, the soldiers learned that the Artillery range of Wube Inc.’s weapon was slightly longer than the Militech weapons brought for the operation,  and they would need to wait for the delivery of bigger weapons to resume shelling.

“What now? Our primary plan isn't feasible anymore.” One of the soldiers asks his brother-in-arms.

“Thank fuck for that,” the man answers, “Plan A sucks balls.”

Grimly, the first soldier agrees. Their primary plan was to overwhelm Wube Inc.'s defenses with their artillery, and then charge forward towards their defended position to bring down their defenses before capturing the Mine. The soldiers were ordered to ignore the defenses and bring down the walls, trading lives for territory. The soldiers suspect the strategy was made by the Militech Executives since the cost of an NUSA soldier is far less than the alternative options.

"Yeah, fuck that," they all agree before the second soldier realizes something, “Can’t we cut the power lines supplying energy to the base?”

The two soldiers turn when they hear a sigh, finding their unit Sergeant, “The higher-ups already took that into consideration, unfortunately, we aren’t simply assaulting a Mine.”

The infantrymen look at each other, “What do you mean?”

“We received an updated intel of the mine," the Sergeant clarifies to his men, "Differently from Wube's holdings in North California, his assets in Wyoming take longer to change, but recently they underwent expansion and they built a nuclear reactor right next to the Mine.”

The soldier's eyes widen at the sudden news, “A nuclear reactor? But where are the water vapor from the cooling towers?”

The sergeant grimaces, and the soldiers immediately understand as they say in unison, """Wube Inc'’s proprietary technology."""

“What about water?” One of the soldiers asks, “They still need water to power their electrical generators, right?”

“There’s a water basin underground, even if it is contaminated,” The sergeant reminds the soldier, “Wube made sure to buy enough property to secure both the Uranium mines and the water basin. He purifies the water before using it in the reactor and then sends the impurities back to North California to reprocess it. They now sell energy from the Mine to Wyoming State and the nearby states.”

The two soldiers look at each other, not believing the high command would make such a blunder right before the attack. In contrast, a nearby veteran listening to the conversation knew that high command could fuck it up.

“Since when did Wube Inc. build a nuclear reactor here?” One of the soldiers asks, still unable to believe in his ears.

The Sergeant checks his updated orders, “According to intel, sixteen hours before Operation Early Harvest.”

Seeing that none of the pair of soldiers were asking the right questions, the veteran approached the sergeant. “Are you telling me that we kept shelling the location of an active nuclear reactor? Is that what you’re tellin' us?”

The two soldiers don’t understand the question at first until they see the sergeant grimace. “Wait, were we about to turn this place into fucking Chernobyl? That place is still an irradiated hellhole after nearly a century! You’re telling us the high command wanted us to charge inside after turning that place into a radioactive wasteland?”

The sergeant didn’t answer, which was enough for the pair of soldiers. “If we survive this,” one of the soldiers says, “I’m quitting the military. I don’t care if I need to be dishonorably discharged! What the fuck were they thinking?”

The sergeant ignores the pair and listens to the radio, subconsciously nodding at certain points of the message. “Understood, I will relay the information, sir.” He turns to the soldiers with a grimace. “The high command updated the intel. The artillery will be used to pin down anyone entering or exiting the facility, while infantry and our armor will storm the place. We will coordinate the entry with the Paratroopers, and air support will be limited to the Grandpa.”

The youngest soldier glances between the Sergeant and the Veteran, "What do you mean by 'Grandpa?'" 

The veteran steps up, speaking from experience and with pride, "'Grandpa' is the name of the *Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II*, originally nicknamed as *Warthog*. The venerable aircraft saw combat through most of the wars in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, until it was considered obsolete by newer stealth multirole aircraft. However, while officially the Warthog was retired from service, it still saw combat through the twenty-first century as a close support aircraft, rebranded by the soldiers as *Grandpa* due to its old age. While Grandpa is effective at its role, they aren’t being produced and each relic is irreplaceable to the military, both for tactical and morale reasons."

After clarifying about Grandpa, the veteran spits on the ground, “I love that plane, but it sounds like high command wants us to clean up their asses for faulty intel, how fucking typical.”

“Alright, enough congregating!” The Sergeant suddenly yells, “Rookie, it’s camp inspection time! You better have finished setting up the new command tents properly!”

Suppressing a groan, they show their sergeant the tents, quickly forgetting about the veteran complaints over the high command issues.

...

Elsewhere, at the West Side City, Wube Inc. WSC office was far more modest than the Night City Factory, only large enough to house the administrative office of Wube Inc. and act as a maintenance garage for the Haulers. Despite the small office, Wube Inc. employs only locals to run the operations of the Mine and the local office, with the company being one of the largest sources of wealth for the city thanks to paying all of its taxes. 

Thanks to the partnership with the local government, the employees of Wube Inc. still in West Side City were sheltered by the Mayor of WSC and the local population. While the Mayor protects his partner's employees, he sends messages to the Mayors of nearby cities and contacts the governor, setting up an emergency conference call.

“We can’t allow NUSA to trample over us like this!” The West Side City Mayor starts powerfully, “It was thanks to Wube that our city started to see true prosperity! If it weren’t for the cheap electrical power provided by them we couldn’t improve our cities and the state, and just recently with the new Nuclear reactor power became practically free! More importantly, Wyoming is a Free State! We shouldn’t accept the yoke of the NUSA’s federal government like this!”

Most mayors agree as their cities also enjoy cheap electricity, and the remainder are majorly neutral on their opinion of the corporation, with only a few rural towns wishing to join NUSA for their promises of aid.

“If you wish for aid,” the West Side City mayor says, “I’m sure that Wube Inc. will be happy to help you out. They are primarily an infrastructure corporation, after all.”

“What do you gain from selling Wube's interests to us,” the Wyoming governor asks, “this level of devotion goes beyond money, otherwise you would have accepted a bribe from Militech by now.”

“I was sold on Wube’s vision for the future, and America.” The words of the local Mayor silence the ongoing murmur on the conference. “I agree with Mark’s assessment, we’re on an emergency since the late twentieth century. The common population doesn’t even know what real food looks like, eating reconstituted fibers out of vacuum-sealed packages for a fucking salad. My great-grandfather said that it was a *joke* when someone asked *‘where milk comes from’* and replied with ‘from the supermarket,’ because several varieties of dairy cows went *extinct*! I believe it is time for us to change that, and our current best bet for it is to ally ourselves with Wube Inc.”

At the impassioned speech from the Mayor, the belligerent Mayors decided to remain neutral in this conflict, while the Governor nodded at the West Side City leader.

“Well said,” the governor approves, “I am already in contact with the other States, they will help delay or fight against NUSA and Militech forces. I won’t stand for the tyranny of NUSA either,” the Mayors cheers at the pronouncement of the governor, “however, we can’t risk our citizens in open warfare. For now, the State government will provide ‘humanitarian aid’ to W.S.C. and will send ‘volunteers’ to fight against the upsurge in ‘gang violence’. We hope that will be enough for now, until we can muster further aid from the other states.”

“What about the Empire of Texas?” One mayor asks, “Can we count on their support for this?”

The other mayors grimace, with the Governor following suit. “The Empire of Texas promised they won’t intervene in this conflict on either side, and I believe this will be for the best.” Coughing to distract everyone, the governor continues, “Now let’s discuss how to provide aid for W.S.C. and their Uranium mines.”

Soon, a plan of action against NUSA and Militech was drafted, and the local leader went ahead to implement it.

...

At the mines, the employees' mood was grim as they looked at the displays showing the inventory of the complex. The Nuclear reactor is sealed off against intrusion, with a separate array of anti-air and Anti-orbital defense systems along with other weapons to protect the precious building, the entrance being forbidden even for employees as their presence might draw attention from external forces.

The security team had to reluctantly agree, as the Artillery shells were raining down dangerously close to the new reactor. What was once a sign of future prosperity for the State, now became the sword of Damocles for the City, State, and Country.

The defenses of the Mine are formidable, with flamethrowers, gun turrets armed with Uranium Magazines, an array of laser defense towers defending against ground attackers, and their separate anti-air defense array. 

Despite the defenses, the employees' unease grew from their current situation, as the supplies keeping the Mines defended were limited compared with the Bn2Complex or Night City’s Factory. Their numbers were also smaller than the Night City Factory, being less than a hundred security forces.

“Enemy incoming,” one of the senior security officers says, watching on his HUD the troop movements picked by the Mine's radar.

Leading the vanguard is the armor division flanked by Militech’s ACPA. Behind them were the infantry, an elite force compared with cyberpunks, impoverished Nomads, and other criminals the security forces often dealt with. In contrast, Wube Inc.’s security forces are not composed of ordinary people, as they are well equipped and all underwent the Reach training. Part of the promotion process to senior security leader is reaching the final stage of the simulation.

With practiced ease, the team leader directs his men behind the walls and orders them to aim at opportunity targets. Some of the security personnel enter the limited armored vehicles brought to the mines and get ready for deployment once the enemy comes within a certain distance.

The second phase of the Mine defense will soon start.

Post Chapter Notes

Two more chapters to go. For those wondering, I'm basing the decision-making process of the megacorps of the world of Cyberpunk upon two principles: lives are cheap, and they're evil. If you ever wonder why they are taking a certain action in a specific manner, it is likely because of that.