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Yondu specified a day and a time and now it was time for everyone to assemble so that they could get on their way to Night City and get V back. Now was a good time to mingle and ask questions about the mission, review what they knew, speculate what they maybe didn't know, and discuss the plan. Or discuss the lack of a plan, if there was a lack of a plan.

It was ultimately decided to take a ship and, at the advice of a native, to end up in the Badlands that surrounded Night City. By the time they dropped into the Badlands the sun was down and the sky was covered in a thick layer of thunder clouds. The rain was coming down heavy tonight - nothing new but it was definitely fitting given the circumstances. It would take a little while to get organized and ready to set off on this mission so, again, there were a few minutes to mingle and plan.

Obtaining the address of V's current apartment was no easy feat. The man was well known and something of an underground celebrity: his reputation definitely preceded him and people were less than comfortable that a group of people were sniffing around for V's home and doing so in such a blatant way. It seemed like nobody wanted to know that information and they didn't want to give away who might. Luckily throwing enough money at the situation led the team to Sebastian "Padre" Ibarra and with enough reassurances (and bribing) he gave up V's address. A penthouse in Palms View Way in The Glen, Heywood. Apparently not far from where V grew up, if Padre was to be believed.

It was an easy enough drive to get there and the scenery shfited from a ruined shantytown to a part of the city that had seen sizable corporate money in the past but no longer saw it now. The further they pushed into Heywood the more graffitti was present on the streets: beautiful murals of the Virgin Mother, brightly colored and surrounded by roses and their thorns; phrases in Spanish that ranged from biblical quotes to -isms; the occasional golden V that was the symbol of the Valentino's gang. It was clear who ran this section of town and it was clear who they should consider being wary of.

The apartment building looked like any of the other skyscrapers in this part of town: the area near the street was a concrete facade that was painted in a bright color but higher up it turned into a sleek glass building of black metal and black glass. The lobby of the building was surprisingly ritzy despite the rough neighborhood: sleek black metal to create an industrial feel with touches of dark wood to keep it warm. It was dimly lit on the inside and acting like you knew exactly what you were doing was all that was required to get to the elevator that would take them to the penthouse that was V's home. With a little bit of hacking from Alena's cyberdeck the lock disengaged and they were met with V's apartment.

His apartment had the same industrial feel with black steel and exposed pipes with wood accenting to keep it warm. Floor to ceiling windows, the ceiling easily twenty feet tall. A genuine leather couch in the living area before the huge tv, and a wall full of records: Samurai, Kerry Eurodyne, Bea Sting, and Wolf's Bane; to name a few. The place was spotless except for the nightstand next to his bed and the room that was V's armory and tinkering station. Somewhere, a radio played the late night news.

A curious meow came from somewhere in the apartment though Nibbles was clearly hiding from the newcomers.

As the group looked around for whatever they were there for eventually the sky would light up as if the sun somehow would peak through this night time storm and the wreckage of some orbital satellite would streak through the sky as it descended through the atmosphere to nestle itself into the ocean. The news would cease and fade into static and any devices connected to the Night City network would find themselves failing to connect. All Night City-specific communication was down.

Alena's car swirved dangerously on the wet pavement as the car came to a halt as close to Arasaka Tower that they could get. High up in the skyscraper - around floor 75 - there was a gaping hole in the building that was smoking. With communications down there was no NCPD on the scene but it was clear that security forces inside the building were scrambling. It would be a fight to get in and move further down the levels.

Arasaka security was nothing to scoff at. It was a privatized military for a corporation that ran Japan and owned Night City. Forces ranging from long range shooters to your smg monkies to assassins so loaded up on cyberware to improve their reflexes and movement speed that you blink and they've got their mantis blades through your stomach. No part of this would be easy but, then again, nobody tried to say breaking into the secret data fortress of a megacorporation would be a walk in the park. You knew what you were coming here for.

With the help of the blueprints that were found in V's apartment the team would know which elevator to take to drop themselves straight into the server rooms of hell, and with Alena's guidance the team would know the access card required to operate that elevator could be lifted off one of the higher level security guards.

The ones with all the armor and big guns?

Alternately, one could try to brute force hack their way into making the elevator cooperate while their friends gave them covering fire. If they felt up to the challenge.

The lower levels were a prison: a combination of server farm and laboratory, corpses everywhere. It was clear that V and his team had cut their way through here with a chilling ease. Blood painted the walls and floors from the fire fight and the path they needed to follow was clear. Moving through was easy because everyone was dead. Entering the final server room before the goal would be met with the corpse of a woman on the floor, a hulking cyborg that maybe was a man at one time halfway through the room.

The doors opened to a short walkway that ended in the server that housed Mikoshi. All around the server was a moat of coolant that the walkway allowed everyone to walk over. The server itself was a monolith in this room: a pillar of black and red in an otherwise empty room, the only sound here was the hum of the server. Even V, unconscious in the coolant with a cable plugged into his neck that ran from the server, had fallen completely still while whatever was going on in Mikoshi was being played out. There was an unsettling peace in here.

All that was left now was to jack into Mikoshi and pull V out.

Inside Mikoshi was a surreal space. A pyramid of sorts in cyan with a path that led up to it, a yellow beam that signified Alt's datastream visible from anywhere in space. Any off-limits section was simply marked as black, empty space. Upon approaching the pyramid and climbing the steps to the flat top the entities that were present were clear by the fact that they were red. Three of them were there. One was a feminine figure that floated above the floor - that must be the fabled Alt Cunningham - one was Johnny Silverhand, and the last was the familiar V. They seemed to be having a discussion of sorts about the varying fates that V would have to choose from. It was clear that he didn't like what he heard based on how he shifted to learn forward and put his head in his hands and the fact that Johnny seemed angry.

Things seemed to start to pick up and move now as the tone of the discussion shifted and all of the figures moved to a different discussion of what to do next.

- They will have access to Alena's car to move about the city. It seats four and has room for gear.
- Feel free to shoot coopyey#1337 a message with specific Night City questions if you have any.
- Apartment visual reference here and here :>
- Vincent's entire playthrough of the ending mission can be found here. Once V makes his choice to let Johnny run the show the rest of the video is Johnny's pov. Navigation in the video description.