Flight of the Bumbling Bee

"Arasaka-sama, we must evacuate!" Takamura presses, already having ordered an AV to wait for them at the top of the tower. The nuke's failure against the Case 21 had cemented Night City as a loss, and it didn't take a genius to recognise that leaving as quickly as possible was the only real solution. Of course, this wasn't an option for most employees, fortunately, all the less valuable members had been informed of their dismissal... This included terminating transport privileges, which allowed vital workers to exit with haste.

Hanako thinks for a moment, takes one last glance at the feed granting her information, and nods. The loss of Mikoshi and all the other technologies and projects in the tower would be crippling to Arasaka, but so would the demise of the last 'true-born' member of the family. Michiko was safely in Japan, but she'd be challenged for the position of CEO, and it wouldn't be unusual for her to be ousted if opposing positions aligned.

"I see... Prepare to collapse the building, it should step it for some time, if it continues growing we must consider 'liquidating' Night City."

Takamura nods and leads Hanako with Oda towards the roof, but takes a moment to ask while moving, "Should we leave the prisoners? Perhaps the nanite swarm could be bargained with if it is so incensed with us...?"

She bites a finger knuckle and nods, "Have them brought to the AV, even if it's mindless the chance of even an ounce of leverage will serve us well." her eyes flash as she sends them the updated feed, displaying the giant mecha standing atop the ruins of Memorial Park. It would be upon the tower in moments.

*Sssschhkkksh!*

The building trembles as something collides with it, apparently the feed had a few seconds delay...

"Hanako-sama, I will buy time for you to leave." Oda states, his visor clicking over his face as he turns to leave.

"Buy time!? What could you possibly do, Oda!?" Takamura asks in bafflement, pausing his steps.

Hanako nods, "Come, let security hold it off. This is an order, losing both you and the tower is unacceptable." she says and continues her stride to the roof, followed by a reluctant-looking Oda.

"As you wish... Arasaka-sama..."

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*CRRAAAAAASSSSHHHH!!!*

Ori slams a giant metal arm into the side of the tower with reckless abandon. It'd been heavily fortified after the last Night City holocaust, providing a greater challenge than any other building so far. Even then, each strike splintered, bent, and fractured the wall, shattering reinforced glass like frozen plastic wrap...

He could hear thousands of screams coming from inside but ignored them as he injects nanites into the interior. They flow through newly created cracks in the walls and soon invade the ventilation systems, quickly revealing most of the tower to him.

Five office workers sprint through a hallway as a vent-cover bursts open and showers them with the 'black-sludge'. They pause and look at themselves for a moment, before howling in pain as the nanites begin devouring them, skin, flesh, blood and bone.

A face scared shitless Arasaka guards blitz around a corner but flee in the opposite direction when they catch sight of the horrific fate of their colleagues. Most deciding that the forgettable pay wasn't worth dealing with this shit any longer.

Soon enough the nanites reach the very bottom of the tower and find the complex known as Mikoshi. After devouring the scientists, he finds an unfortunate scene... V had been tied to chair and hooked up to a machine he presumed to be Soul Killer. With how riddled with bullets her body was, he doubted she'd have lived much longer regardless, but he wouldn't wish such a fate on anyone.

With that thought, he unleashes the collective on Mikoshi, allowing them to devour every server, machine, and any other tech they encounter...

"Wish I could say I was sorry, V. But I'm not." he mutters before turning his gaze 'upwards', particularly some cells near the roof that had the DNA of his friends present. It was fresh, meaning they'd been escorted away within ten minutes or so.

"Fucking Arsaka ICE." he grunts, if they'd just followed Biotechnica's lead in shitty security he could've found them by now.

He grits his teeth and looks to the sky with the many sensors covering the mecha, spotting ten to twenty smaller AVs quickly departing the roof. Shit, he was gonna miss them!

His Sandevistan actives and he forces the mecha into action, its many legs and arms gripping the building like a giant spider as it clambers up. It was a head(comparatively) shorter than the tower itself, but the thing walked more like a quadruped than bipedal, add the difficulty of moving so much mass at once and the mecha was slower than he'd like.

The giant reaches the top, looking over the side of the roof and spotting a landing centre with a larger, more luxurious AV that was about to take off... Given the heat signatures, one of which was smaller and squirming like a certain gun gremlin he knew, it became his highest priority.

"AAARRAASSSAAAKKKAAAAAAAA!" the mecha screams as the AV slams its engines to fly away, it almost escapes, if it weren't for the sheer flexibility the nanites granted him. The mecha's tongue shoots out like a large black whip, wrapping around the AV and stopping it from going anywhere.

--------------------

"IT'S GOT US!" one of the pilots shouts over to the cabin where Hanako, her guards and the prisoners were sitting. The vehicle itself groaned as they tried to pry themselves out of its grasp.

"Shoot it!" Hanako exclaims.

"W-WE ARE! I-It's not doing anything!-..." the man pauses as a loud *clunk* sounds out, "I-it just ate our fucking weapons!"

Oda tears off his seatbelt and forces the door open before jumping out with sword drawn, going ahead with his earlier plan...