June 22nd, Year 714 A.G.

It was a Sunday morning in Community G, 6:05am.

In the secret underground bunker of the Zmer gang, a square-faced man with a clean shaven chin and barren hair, a lean man built like an assassin on all black- black coat, black boots, black gloves, black durag, and black glasses with two swords strapped to his back, and a middle-aged man with a rough and stony face filled with scars stood in front of a thick metallic door.

"Do you think they'll really come?" Swain asked in an idle manner as he fiddled with a short pole that was on his hand. "Do they have the guts?"

"Heh," Cain smirked. "I think they will. Did you see the look on their faces yesterday? They looked like mad dogs". He chuckled. "Those poor bastards have sold their fear to the devil, so I think they'll come".

He grinned. "I can't wait".

"That's if they manage to find here though". Swain added with a nonchalant smile on his face.

Just like Parasite ordered, they woke up very early today and came to wait on him in front of the door to his room.

Today was an extremely important day for the Zmer gang.

At that moment, Cain broke the silence and asked. "What of that nerdy brat? Did she really kill him?"

He was referring to Brad.

He looked at Cell for answers but the Geneform was as still and silent as a statue, he didn't answer. Cain's face twitched.

In the end, Swain answered him. "He should be dead. Afterall, Cell's report says she's already E Rank. There's no way that bum is surviving against an E Rank".

"Unless he switched factions". Cain added with a carefree smile.

Inside the large room, while his 3 Ascended subordinates waited for him outside, Parasite stood in front of the medieval-styled telephone.

At this moment, just like his subordinates, he was dressed for war.

He wore a familiar set of black cargo pants with hidden slots where he kept a kinetic pistol and 2 poisoned daggers.

On his upper body, he also wore a familiar casual military-style forest green T-shirt with an emerald green loose techwear jacket over it.

A pair of reflective aviator sunglasses covered his predatory blood-red eyes, and an automatic-fire KZ-47 kinetic machine gun was strapped to his shoulder.

Apart from the automatic-fire KZ-47 machine gun that was strapped to his shoulder, there was a large sword, a Zweihander resting by the side of the telephone booth.

His long brown dreads fell to the side of his face and an eye-catching blood-red pendant rested comfortably against his chest.

Ring! Ring!

The telephone rang the next moment.

Hearing it ring, Parasite immediately picked it up.

He heard about what happened to the cell tower base and Brad already, but from the beginning, Parasite was paranoid and already planned for a day when Brad would potentially betray him.

Afterall, he never really trusted the sketchy bastard.

This was why he created a backchannel to bypass the network blockade of the cell tower's isolation.

Afterall, only a foolish businessman would leave the key to an important trade business under the control of a subordinate, especially when there is only one key to that specific business.

This was the reason why he was not anxious despite the fact that Brad was already compromised and likely already dead.

Even without the NetRunner, he could contact the trade representative.

If Brad was dead, perfect, he wouldn't be able to give out the secrets of the gang. But in the case that he was not dead, Parasite was also prepared.

With his Artifact, Rose Bishop, the blood-red pendant on his neck, he already affected Brad's blood and memories to forget everything relating to the truth about the warehouses and the secret underground bunker.

Brad would never remember that he once entered an underground bunker.

From the very beginning, he was in control.

The next moment, a holographic projection lit up in front of his face showing the familiar face of an A.I Construct.

"Is everything ready?" The A.I Construct directly asked.

Looking at the holographic projection, Parasite keenly noticed that Mr. Representative Ben was in a moving vehicle.

He immediately grinned. "Everything is ready, we're waiting for the pickup".

"Good, I'll arrive in less than an hour".

Bzzzt!

The call disconnected and Parasite's grin widened.

He was about to conclude the biggest deal of his life worth a whopping 30,000 Neo Credits. "Heh," he smirked. "Who would have thought a poor bastard like me would ever become this big?"

He poured a glass of wine for himself to ease his nerves.

About 2 minutes later, he opened the door of the room as he faced his three subordinates who waited for him outside.

He ordered in a deep voice. "Prepare the slaves for transport".

"Yes Lord Parasite".

The trio answered in unison and quickly left.

…

A long distance away from Community G, a convoy of 5 huge and heavily armored 85-capacity double-decked buses approached.

The 5 huge buses formed a straight-line, and flanking the lineup of buses on both sides were 4 military-grade armored trucks, 2 on each side.

The armored trucks were stacked to the brim with disguised soldiers of the Omnicore Federation, 5 to 6 on each truck. They were dressed in dark blue military attire with helmets and scarves covering most of their faces like bandits, and they were heavily armed.

Inside the double-decked bus at the very front of the advancing formation, Mr. Representative Ben sat in isolation.

The A.I Construct wore a neat sky blue businessman suit, a matching red tie and a pair of white leather boots.

With his legs crossed, he leaned against the wall of the bus, tastelessly sipping a cup of Synth black coffee as he stared outside at the dry road and the distant trees.

His cybernetic eyes gleamed.

…

6:12am.

After a long night of unrest with undercurrents churning in the dark, morning finally embraced community G again.

And just like travelers feared, the storm erupted.

The darkness of the night disappeared, including the bioluminescent fog as the neon storms once again appeared in the sky, painting the skylines pink and violet. And against this backdrop, the true Uprising started!

It was unlike yesterday.

It was no longer just repressed feelings and peaceful, mildly violent protests like yesterday, now, it was an organized and violent riot.

The storm that had been brewing for over 12 hours finally detonated!

Community G woke up like a Dragon waking up from slumber after a thousand-year nap.

Across the community, the populace erupted- youths and radical middle-aged Synth and Geneforms flooded the streets armed to the teeth with guns!

They looked disheveled, they looked malnourished, they looked like they were one step away from death but with the sheer number of them and armed with pistols, it no longer looked like a mere protest, it now looked like war.

It didn't just look like it, it was war.

With the sheer population of community G though, it was unrealistic for all the people to get access to guns, but the others weren't relegated from the action either.

For those who didn't get guns, they got other weapons. They improvised as they stormed out with clubs, wooden bats, metal bars, and even entire wooden planks as they marched through the streets in a mob and with a target in mind.

During the past few days while Talia was engaged in a game of wits with the Zmer gang and Cell, she and Ghostwire used their NetRunner powers to do a lot of undercover job even as she also gathered materials for the Mechanists.

Within the past few days, they managed to fish out all the inns, bars, and establishments of the Zmer gang in community G through which they secretly controlled the community from the shadows.

The most shocking and perhaps not-shocking discovery was the fact that the Zmer gang also controlled the only large water factory in community G.

In the Wastes, water was an invaluable commodity.

In certain ways, the company who controls water controls the life of beings who live in the Wastes. Afterall, water is not a race-exclusive need, both Synths and Geneforms need water to survive.

By controlling the water factory from the dark, Parasite had his tentacles stretched and wrapped around the whole community.

And now, as the mob moved, they knew the targets to attack. Talia and Ghostwire already did the needful during the night.

Across community G, multiple mobs rose up in an uprising, armed with guns and other weapons as they encroached on the Zmer gang's property.

Parasite didn't leave his properties unprotected.

At most, the influence of the Zmer gang was hidden in most cases to avoid uprisings like this but with the mob now directly targeting them, the Zmer gang was forced to reveal its hand.

The mob forced the thugs out, and violence erupted!

Bam… bam… bam…

Bullets flew like rain as war erupted in the streets!

It was the Zmer gang against the community, and the mob had no intentions of stopping till they got what they wanted- the release of their neighbors, friends, and loved ones and the complete destruction of the Zmer gang.

It was chaos across the community.

Wooden inns and bars were set ablaze as street Synths threw Molotov cocktails inside, some triggering explosions while others burned silently.

BOOM!

Community G came alive in a violent manner.

And as the inns burned and the thugs retaliated, a few brave ones among the mob directly climbed through the burning buildings, entering inside to engage the surviving thugs in melee combat.

After Audrey Ross, after what happened yesterday, most of these people no longer knew fear, all they knew now was rage and revenge.

Like this, it didn't take long for the first casualty to appear. And immediately after the first casualty appeared, it escalated.

Bam… bam… bam…

The resistance from the thugs grew fiercer and it attracted even more indignant retribution from the attacking mob.

Within a few minutes, casualties began piling on both sides as blood flowed.

Yet, the war didn't stop, the riot didn't abate.

This was the price of war.

The mob pushed, forcing the thugs back as some of them finally abandoned their stationed inns, turning and running with their tails in between their legs.

The little victories spurred the mob on.

"FOR OUR LAND!" They roared.

"FOR OUR COMMUNITY!"

"FOR OUR NEIGHBOURS!"

"FOR AUDREY ROSS!"

The wave of rebellion swept through the community, scouring through all the establishments of the Zmer gang.

All it took was 8 minutes.

Within just 8 minutes, the organized mob swept through the community from different sides, pushing the Zmer gang back and forcing them to retreat as inns and buildings were left burning in their wake.

And then, the mob conflagrated in front of the large water factory. It was a single large wooden building with a gigantic wooden fence surrounding it.

The water factory was not like the inns and other locations where thugs guarded sporadically though, this was a major chess piece of the Zmer gang and it was heavily guarded and fortified.

With news already spreading, dozens of thugs of the Zmer gang already gathered here. They were close to a hundred or more!

But the mob was far larger.

With the mob's arrival, both sides arrived at a stalemate but everybody knew that this stalemate would break any moment and that blood would flow.

"Stay back or we'll shoot!" Stationed at different strategic locations of the fortified factory, a few commanding voices shouted at them.

The mob wasn't deterred though as they demanded.

"Give us back our neighbors!" They roared.

"Give us back our children!"

The stalemate continued.

Yet, that was when they arrived, the couple.

Gary and Mary arrived in style.

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