Arasaka Waterfront is Arasaka Corporation's largest and most comprehensive logistics and transportation hub in Night City.
It occupies a large area of the bay, boasting deep-water docks, a vast automated warehouse complex, a cargo sorting center, a vehicle dispatch yard, and formidable defensive fortifications.
This location is not only Arasaka's primary gateway for materials entering Night City but also a crucial node for its control over West Coast trade.
On normal days, cargo ships shuttle through, and vehicles come and go ceaselessly, making it one of the busiest areas in all of Night City.
At this moment, piercing alarms have already blared across the entire waterfront district.
All non-combat personnel have been evacuated, and the remaining Arasaka defenders have formed their final line of defense, relying on pre-constructed defensive positions, the sturdy walls of the warehouses, and the cranes on the docks.
Tanks were hidden behind containers, power armor occupied the high ground, and infantrymen crouched behind sandbagged cover, gripping their weapons nervously.
They saw the steel phalanx, as if emerging from hell, stepping into the outer perimeter of the waterfront district unhurriedly, their shadows elongated by the setting sun.
Sekhmet's optical sensors calmly scanned the defensive system ahead.
Data streams rapidly analyzed within her processing core, identifying the nodes with the strongest energy signatures—the command center, energy supply stations, anti-aircraft missile arrays, and several heavy firepower points.
"Priority targets locked," her voice echoed on the internal channel. "Dismantle defensive structures, destroy storage facilities, neutralize all resistance units."
The Guard Corps phalanx, upon entering the enemy's direct line of fire, actively changed its formation for the first time.
They dispersed from a compact wedge into an arc-shaped battle line, more conducive to unleashing firepower, but the distance between them remained within the effective range of their resonant shields.
The Arasaka defenders opened fire.
Tank cannons, heavy machine guns, rockets, power armor gatling guns... all weapons simultaneously spewed flames, and a dense storm of bullets crashed against the pale gold shields.
The shield surfaces once again erupted in continuous energy ripples, light flickering erratically, but they stubbornly held their ground.
Simultaneously, the Guard Corps' counterattack began.
This time, they were no longer limited to single arc volleys. Sekhmet assigned strike missions based on target characteristics.
Several Heavy Guardsmen pointed their spears at distant anti-aircraft missile emplacements and fixed turrets, and thick arcs of electricity traversed hundreds of meters, accurately striking those facilities.
Missile launchers twisted and exploded in the electrical light, and turrets melted into molten red iron.
At the same time, the other Heavy Guardsmen had shifted their focus to the Arasaka armored units and power armor exposed within their firing range.
Deadly electrical arcs, like invisible yet precise whips, struck with every fierce lash, inevitably causing an Arasaka war machine to disintegrate in dazzling electrical light, turning into charred, twisted scrap metal.
And in the center of the line, Sekhmet had aimed her spear at the massive automated warehouse complex, symbolizing the foundation of Arasaka's material wealth.
The energy core at her spear tip emitted an unprecedentedly sharp hum, as destructive energy was compressed to its absolute limit.
Then, a super arc far exceeding conventional specifications, solid as liquid metal, surged forth like a blue python breaking free, striking a gigantic, fully stocked warehouse with unstoppable force.
The anticipated violent explosion did not occur; instead, a more terrifying scene of annihilation unfolded.
Under the instantaneous extreme heat, the warehouse's metal exterior melted and vaporized as if exposed to the surface of a star; the mountains of goods piled inside didn't even have time to burn, carbonizing and ionizing in the horrifying heat wave, until they were reduced to fundamental particles.
The massive architectural structure lost its support within seconds and collapsed with a roar, leaving behind only a heap of molten material engulfed in flames and still flowing, with towering pillars of fire and thick smoke announcing its complete demise.
This devastating strike was like the sounding of a general assault.
The remaining Heavy Guardsmen then unleashed their firepower upon the storage facilities, which represented Arasaka's wealth and lifeline.
Countless electrical arcs crisscrossed the warehouse district, igniting, melting through, and disintegrating one building after another.
Stored fuels, chemicals, or ammunition were successively detonated, with continuous, rolling explosions further escalating the catastrophe.
The dock area also did not escape its fate of destruction.
Arasaka cargo ships docked at the berths were precisely hit by electrical arcs; their sturdy hulls were easily torn apart, rapidly consumed by raging fires, and slowly sank into the murky seawater with a resentful tilt.
The towering gantry cranes emitted ear-splitting metallic groans amidst the entanglement and erosion of electrical light, eventually twisting, breaking, and crashing into the sea, stirring up huge columns of turbid water.
In the face of such an absolute disparity in power, the Arasaka defenders' will to resist quickly crumbled.
Their attacks were like ants trying to shake a tree, while every counterattack from the Guard Corps brought complete destruction.
The surviving soldiers lost all morale and abandoned their weapons, fleeing their positions.
However, the Guard Corps strictly adhered to the order to "eliminate all hostile targets"; any figure attempting to attack or flee would be precisely targeted by the unforgiving electrical arcs, turning into another charred wreck on the ground.
This systematic destruction operation, from start to finish, lasted less than thirty minutes.
When the last main warehouse collapsed in flames, when the last stubbornly resisting Arasaka tank had its turret melted through, when no intact facilities could be found on the docks, the entire Arasaka Waterfront had been completely reduced to a ruin dominated by fire and thick smoke.
The air was filled with the pungent smell of ozone, the foul odor of molten polymers, the strange smells of various burning goods, and the terrifyingly sweet, burnt smell of flesh, all mingling into a sickening aroma symbolizing the end.
Sekhmet stood in the center of the ruins, surveying their handiwork.
Her sensors confirmed that there were no effective hostile energy signatures remaining in the area, and all primary targets had achieved physical destruction.
"Mission accomplished. Target 'Arasaka Waterfront' has lost its basic functions and strategic value," she reported to Osiris via data link, her voice as steady as ever, devoid of any fluctuation after completing a mission of destruction.
Osiris received Sekhmet's final battlefield assessment data and real-time imagery in the workshop. Looking at the logistics center turned into a sea of fire, his processing core calmly updated the mission status.
"Confirmed. Mission 'Phased Clearance' completed. Guard Corps units, return to the outskirts of Wasteland Town to establish alert positions and await further instructions."
Destroying Arasaka Waterfront was just one step on his path to thoroughly solving the problem.
It clearly demonstrated to Arasaka, and to all factions in this world, the level of power he possessed and his unquestionable style of action.
Now, he needed to focus his main computational power on the next, and final, phase of the mission—erecting a large portal to welcome the Knights of the Astoria Family.
That would be the moment to deliver the final judgment to Arasaka, and indeed, to this distorted corporate era.
The Guard Corps phalanx, led by Sekhmet, turned and departed from the still-burning ruins, silently returning along the path they came.
Leaving behind only the towering flames and the completely paralyzed Arasaka lifeline node, silently recounting everything that had just transpired.