Project: BW

Every corporation has at least one project that is unethical, illegal or at least questionable.

Netwatch, an international cybersecurity organization is tasked with watching over the net and defending it against attacks from Netrunners and preventing a Blackwall breach. 

In the mid 2010's, an employee of Netwatch quit and started his own cybersecurity firm called NetData. In the first years, NetData offered its cybersecurity services to the general public. And with each passing year, the corporation's revenue grew until it had made enough money to start making investments. Cyberware - Cyberdecks specifically - became their main aspect of research. Yet, their Cyberdecks were never good enough to compete with that of Arasaka, Netwatch and Militech. Only in 2067 was NetData able to produce a Cyberdeck that beat the others.

"At least 5 times better than that of the others, so why is it not responding when we install it on our best runners?"

"I don't know... The Cyberdeck seems to be too powerful for the brain. No - it's much more like the brain can't adapt to it."

"Maybe this Cyberdeck behaves more like a deck pre-netcrash. Our Cyberware adapts to us, this deck must require human adaptation."

"Possibly..."

"It's like speaking a language. Old experiments showed that a person who was shunned for more than 15 years after birth will never be able to learn to speak, or even grasp the concept of communication. Maybe if we were to leave this Cyberdeck inside a brain that is mid-development, we could have the brain adapt to something that is akin to a third, 'organic' limb."

The researchers argued about the Cyberdeck's inability to adapt to the human brain. And so, NetData's first unethical, illegal and horrifying experiment began. A set of 6 kids at the age of 8 were chosen to be experimented on.

The Cyberdecks was installed into them. Immediately, 3 of the children's psyche collapsed - in other words, they became a Cyberpsycho. With no Quickhacks installed and no knowledge about the Net, the 3 children could not do any damage, so they were disposed of. 3 more children were chosen, but they, too, were categorized as failures. When this happened for the third time, NetData decided that the 3 Cyberdecks that always caused the children to go Cyberpsycho were also failures. Further crafting of the same Cyberdeck was also impossible. Every time that a new one was built, it did not work. So, the 5 kids with the first 5 Cyberdecks remained.

Hellish testing, gruesome teaching and manipulation is what these 5 kids were put under. Brain samples were tested while the kids were conscious, netrunning was taught - but only in theory, as the Cyberdecks were still is testing phase. And NetData's principles were engraved into these 5 kids' brains.

Net-Soldier - a mostly-organic human that possessed the most frightening Cyberdeck of all time.

And as the years passed, the number of the kids decreased to two. 9 years had passed since the Cyberdeck was developed. 

"The Net-Soldiers are ready to be used. Adjacent requirements were made, the soldiers don't have their memories of their time at our research facility anymore. We also equipped them with Quickhacks - some of which are completely new: Ping, System Shutdown, Illusion and Netblock."

"Understood. File 1 will be transported to Night City. File 2 to Washington. I will get into contact with Barghest in NC and Blood-Crip-Unity in DC. We'll pay them good money to cover our Files' net trails, if they leave any that is."

Even after 9 years of testing and research, NetData was not familiar with the potential their Cyberdeck had. Some feats were obvious, such as instant Quickhack upload time, and rogue-AI immunity.

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"I never thought that you would personally ask me to do a job for you, Rogue," V said, sounding disappointed. 

"I thought so, too, until I got an anonymous message from someone yesterday. Nix was almost ICEd when he tried to find out the identity of this messenger," Rogue revealed, sitting comfortably in her private booth. "And they asked for you to do the job."

Inside Rogue's booth were only her and V. Even though V wore a Katana on her back, had a throwing-knife on her left and a pistol on her right, Rogue was not scared one bit. In Rogue's eyes, V was a risk to anyone around her - almost like a curse.

"Is there anything else you might want to add," V asked, waiting to hear Rogue's reason for calling her for a gig.

"100 thousand euro-dollars. I was already paid in advance, just like I always am. You get 90 for completing the job."

"90 thousand? I can already see it comin'. 'Storm Arasaka Tower and kill Adam Smasher'. That's what 90k eddies for a job sounds like to me."

"No, no. Not quite as hard. Even easier than you'd think. NetData Convoy. Contractor wants what is inside. Here, a Data-Shard," Rogue says and hands V a shard. The shard depicts the NetData convoy's exact route. Entry point: East border. Destination: Dogtown. Number of vehicles: 5 - 4 armed cars and 1 truck. Men: 24 - 8 Netrunners and 16 goons.

"Interesting, right," Rogue teased. 

"I attack the convoy and do what exactly. What type of gig is this? Thievery? Assassination? Rescue?"

"I could tell you, but it'd make things too boring. I want to enjoy this while I have a drink. You have a few hours until the convoy reaches the east border."

'The same Rogue, no doubt 'bout it,' Johnny said to V after she had left the club.

'Annoying, both of you. Need to get rid of you, and tame her temper.'

'Good luck with that, V. Only an impressive specimen such as myself is able to tell Rogue what to do.'

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"Entering Santo Domingo. Estimated 15 minutes to Dogtown," the convoy's truck driver said into the holo. 

"Copy. Make sure File 1 arrives safe and sound."

File 1, a biological 18 year-old male was chained up and unconscious inside the truck in the middle of the convoy. Around him, dozens of armed guards that were equipped with the strongest Self-ICE on the market - not that if it could prevent File 1 from killing then easily. File 1 was stripped of his emotions, only being left with his intellect and personality. 

The NetData convoy could easily be hit at two precise locations. First location, Rancho Coronado. Second location, the bridge between The Glen and the Coastview. V decided to ambush the convoy on the bridge between The Glen and Coastview. A big deciding factor was her relationship with Sebastian "Padre" Ibara, a Fixer from Heywood. With 90k eddies upfront, V knew she had t invest some of it. She bought remote-controlled mines with stealth features, and she also paid 20 eddies to Padre so the Valentinos would not interrupt her.

'Acting like a bitch, paying protection fees to some old-ass Fixer,' Johnny sighed, appearing right in front of V's face.

'Convoy inbound. Let's roll.'

The convoy drove over the strategically placed mines. Once the two cars in the front were right above the mines, the two cars in the back would also be above theirs, only leaving the truck with no mine under it.

V detonated the mines and took out the 4 cars.

"Fucking hell," the truck driver yelled out, trying to establish a connection to NetData HQ, but to no avail.

"Squad 1! Eliminate all hostile and protect File 1!"

"Yes, Sir!"

The 8 men were neither able to shoot one bullet, swing their blade, no hack anything. A solo-merc was just too chromed to handle. A classical Sandevistan Hack 'n' Slash was enough to take care of hhe goons and let V inside the truck.

„Poor defenses, this," V said as she hacked into the truck's security system.

As she opened the truck's back door, an ominous feeling enveloped her. V felt as if she was being observed by an entity that could extinguish the flame of her already expiring life.

‚V, I get goosebumps. Whatever it is you need to „steal", it may not be worth the risk. Last time I felt this way was when I stormed 'Saka tower…'

‚Yeah… but we have a job to do. Let's get whatever we are looking for and delta the fuck outta here."

It only took V three steps to see her target. Thick chrome suppressing chains held a teenage boy in place. The boy was barely conscious and looking at V with one, barely open eye.

„Guess that's him…"