Warzone: Iron Wolf III/Storyline

## Prologue

With the aftermath of the Agent Grey attack, the United States falls into a recession. Overseas in Europe, backlash against the Geneva Convention continues after the discovery of the corruption in the hierarchy. The world is left to rebuild again, however the people are fed up with the militarization of all governments, blaming them for the fact the world is in ruins once again.

The fuse that lit the powder keg was the assassination of the new presidential candidate during an election rally in Baltimore. Havoc spreads through the streets, forcing the National Guard to crack down on the civilians and install a curfew. However in 2045, a series of bombing of the White House by unknown perpetrators ignite the conflict, resulting in the Second American Civil War.

Meanwhile, inspired by the uprising in America, the European people start raiding Convention headquarters, forcing the Convention to lessen control over the European nations. In 2048, the Fall of Brussels occurs, where a rogue collectivism takes over the city of Brussels and puts it on complete lockdown. Inside, a state of anarchy reigns, while the collectivism's identity remains a mystery to the world.

By 2049, the Civil War ends, after a new peace-oriented government was appointed by the former congress, restoring peace inside the nation and giving power to the people again. With influence from America, China and other stabilized nations, the European countries regain control over their sovereign governments instead of a centralized Convention institute. The Half-Century Accord goes into effect, with the countries striving to rebuild the world together.

The first product of this is the CtEN, a centralized economic network that combines the world's top economies into a single functioning force, linking all their citizens to a common Gross National Product, as well as introducing a stable common encrypted currency, that was meant to serve as an exchange unit, but ended up being used directly as currency by the common people.

With the centralization of the economy occuring, the Brussels Revision takes place. A Russian investors party obtains access to the city, rebuilding it into a corporate state, a technology valhalla with sprawling research & development institutes. However, it also had a focus on military inventions, caused by the rise of Private Military Companies replacing the outlawed governmental armies in areas of conflict outside the first world.

One of these PMC's is ARES Private Military Company, an African company which builds an influence sphere throughout the Asian-Pacific, finalizing their ideal after beign signed by the United States as the military force over the American West Coast. However, they seize strategic positions in the South-Chinese Sea, worsening the relation between Japan, Taiwan and America and China, but the situation is quickly defused before escalating.

ARES display their military prowess and dominance by conducting Operation: Gemini, successfully conquering North-Korea in a mere 4-day campaign, reunifying South- and North-Korea under a capitalist banner. The world was witnessing the power of the newly developed expendable war robotics that were overwhelming the North-Koreans and allow ARES to capture the capital with minimum human casualties.

This, alongside pessism as the result of the Civil War, backlash against technology reached a boiling point in America in 2061. The world scared up by these developments, resulting in people putting more of their trust into Private Security, both large and small scale. By 2064 however, one such company, Monolith Security Group, conduct the Brussels Rebellion, overthrowing the corporate state and seizes the production factories for their own trade, transforming Brussels into a Junta and becoming a major war supplier to military companies across the globe.

Monolith and China's own Military Company, Tánglángquán Júnbeì or TLQ for short, strike a deal, giving TLQ access to sought-after ARC Technology, previously exclusive to ARES and allies. This heatens the situation in the Pacific, with the war quickly turning cold again. Meanwhile, scientific marvels continue to flourish with the completion of the first Space Elevator in the Gulf of Mexico.

By 2073, the world holds its breath as Asteroid 2006 JY26 is projected to collide with earth in an highly densed urban area. Repurposed Iron Wolf technology is used to build another Orbital Weapon in record time to destroy the asteroid before it reaches earth. The mission is a success, but as debris of the meteor remains in earth's orbit, it is discovered it contains valuable elements, sparking another space race between Corporations to mine the elements as fast as possible.

While the situation between Japan and China seemed to be cooling down, a massive series of natural disasters strike Japan, causing massive destruction to Japan's infrastructure in the Tojinbō district. Not taking any risks, ARES sends a large part of their robotic force as a defense entity to Japan, as well as posing with their might in the face of China. It is unclear if the Cold War will finally go hot.

## Events in Iron Wolf III

In 2075, CtEN headquarters are the target of a globally coordinated hijack attempt, with the buildings being occupied and barricaded from the inside by terrorists. The CtEN is a victim of a system hack due to a global breach of the servers. ARES Operative William Black and his partner Elon Vaughn are tasked with assisting the Montreal Military Police recovering control over the CtEN headquarter. Black and Vaughn enter the building through a hidden entrance, finding the inside ravaged and employees massacred by the occupants.

They continue with low profile, eliminating the terrorists stealthily. Eventually, they are contacted by the leader through intercoms, who makes an angsty impression. Trying to distract him as they push to the server room, the leader mentions what their goal was. At that moment, they are plundering the global funds and redistributing the wealth over the third worlds country, claiming "money is an unfair motivator and tool of power". Vaughn tries to reason that this could cause another global war, but the leader reasons that every nation should have the right to buy power and that a voice has awakened him.

They find and breach the server room, disarming the leader before he can fight back. It is revealed the leader was barely 20 years old and made more the impression of a confused adolescent. He tells them that they are too late and that it has already been done, before he tears a cyanide capsule and dying before they can get more answers. As they try to restore the servers, they find that the entire CtEN has been exposed, having leaked personal information of billions of people and having plundered and redistributed the funds.

The redistribution of wealth caused the economies of the major countries to enter phase 4 of economic collapse. Many companies take a big hit, including the PMC's, with some of the smaller powers forced to shut down or merge with the larger ones. To keep their heads up, ARES accepts new contractors, even if they might have large quantities of the redistributed funds. One such contractor is an African man, who intends to overthrow an African state to establish his own utopian state called Azania.

After negotiations initially failed, the political climate quickly turned ugly and opponents were arrested and thrown into prison camps and tortured. After an ARES HUMINT agent deployed in Azania to investigate the security of the General was arrested as a suspect of planning a coupe d'etat, ARES put an ultimatum for the General to surrender or face the consequences. The General remained firm, causing ARES Force Recon to deploy behind enemy lines to assassinate the General to allow for ARES to invade the state in a single offensive.

Black is succesfull in publicly assassinating the General in front of a gathered rally, calling in ARES Forces to quickly seize the General's remaining loyalists. However, military installations that remained from Dawnbreaker have been repurposed by the loyalists as anti-air batteries, surprising ARES and delaying the takeover. Force Recon is tasked with deactivating these AA sites, as well as saving Ruth from a prison bunker and personell from a downed VTOL before they perish in the flames.

With Azania now under ARES control, the Force Recon is greeted by the contractor, who declares the Free Republic of Azania and thanks them for believing in his cause. Vaughn responds, explaining that they do not care about any philosophy and that they only do what they are hired for. Leaving the contractor speechless, Black and Vaughn board a VTOL, preparing to leave. The contractor shouts at them one last time, telling that power can achieve great things, but only if it's used for the right causes. *ARES remains in Azania as a peacekeeping force, allowing for side missions.*

Few weeks later, ARES robots stationed in Japan have started violating their ARC protocols, which is highly unusual. They have expressed uncontrolled aggressive and dangerous behaviour, as well as ignoring shut down protocols. Expecting some kind bug at play, the drones are isolated and Force Recon is tasked with investigating them. The robots initially display proper behaviour as they see the armed Force Recon as correct threats, but do not respond to ARES tags, causing them to not lower their weapons as they should.

Force Recon eliminate the faulty drones, data mining their coding to see the source of the malfunction. It is revealed that the robots coding is being rewritten even at that moment and they find out the source of it is nearby. They chase the signal, running into more armed robots. As they engage with them in a firefight, intelligence reveals that they are part of Ronin, an anti-government group who use robots to conduct attacks on government officials. This caused human Ronin members to become the most wanted criminals in Japan's history, but as of yet no member has been captured or even identified.

They dispatch the last of the killer droids. They crack their coding, discovering that the ARC programming is actually based off ARES designs. They discover that it's source location is a buried ARES Blacksite located in Tojinbo, whom they didn't even knew the existence of. After Tojinbo was ravaged by a massive earthquake, the location is highly dangerous to visit. Force Recon doesn't get clearance from Commander Cade to search for the Blacksite remains, but Black and Vaughn are determined to find out what ARES is so secretive about.

They go off the grid and visit the Black Market circuit, obtaining a car that isn't under Tokyo police surveillance. With that car, they head for Tojinbo, sneaking into the territory unseen. They travel amongst wild streams, deep chasm and other violent environments, finding the Blacksite heavily ravaged by nature. They enter the complex, finding unstable footing. Once they delve deeper, they discover Ronin members are already there scavenging the place. They engage them, discovering that the violence causes the complex to crumble.

A race against the clock before the entire structure collapses, they race to find answers. They stumble upon an operation room, finding an odd operation table called the Exocortex. They find a cracked data drive with a recording. They play the recording, finding out that a certain Doctor Soto is responsible for experimenting with the Exocortex, asking a subject if it is working, but there is no response. A second recording shows Soto conversing about a deal with another man, who Vaughn recognizes as a member of the Yakuza. A third and final recording shows Soto commiting suicide by shooting himself in temple.

Before they are buried beneath the rubble, they escape the complex, witnessing the ground swallowing the blacksite for good. With more questions than answers, they deduct that the Yakuza is their only lead on what is happening. As they travel back to Tokyo, they are stalked by a mysterious figure, who corners them, revealing it's an advanced robot. Vaughn recognizes it as Cecile's, who remote controls the robot from the safehouse. Cecile tells them she was put on babysitting duty after Black and Vaughn disappeared, asking them what they are planning on doing.

Vaughn reveals that they believe the Yakuza to be involved with Ronin, but Cecile deducts that, claiming the Yakuza has been a valuable asset in the combat against Ronin. While Black and Vaughn are surprised by that, Cecile offers that she can arrange a meeting with the Yakuza, forcing Black and Vaughn to accompany her. As the meeting takes place in the underground of Tokyo, Vaughn recognizes the leader as the member meeting the Doctor. After being asked what that means, the leader says that he will help them if Black and Vaughn prove to be helpful to them. They have to complete a series of favors to gain the leader's trust.

After gaining his trust, the leader tells them that he met Soto, who asked him to protect him from the Ronin, who he believed were coming after him. He reveals that Soto has uploaded his memories and personality onto a robot, which is still roaming in Tokyo and that the Yakuza had been asked to dispose of his body. The Force Recon asks where to find the robot of Soto, but the leader shrugs that he wouldn't know where to look. Cecile orders for a citywide manhunt, but the leader tells them that Ronin is still in the dark about Soto, but that they cannot know that his memories are still out there, as Soto tried to prevent the Ronin from getting to him.

The Force Recon start hunting for Soto in a low profile, tracing all memory-uploaded robots roaming Tokyo. After finding a match, ARES tries to take him in, but Tokyo police doesn't allow them. The robot is untouchable for armed forces due to law restrictions, forcing the team to watch from afar as the police tries to take Soto's robot with them. However, hell breaks loose as a sniper assassinates the police and Soto starts running, forcing the team to chase. Immediately, Ronin operatives enter the fray, causing havoc in the city centre.

Eventually, they catch up to Soto before Ronin does, surrounding him with their weapons up. Paniced, Soto raises a detonator. As they try to reason, Black gets a message from Soto in his optical HUD: "Trust No One" and a serie of coordinates. While Black is confused, he locks eye contact with Soto's robot. Black steps forward, trying to stop him, but the robot pushes the detonator and explodes, catching Black who is propelled back and blacks out. Regaining conciousness, Black sees Cecile performing CPR on him, telling him it will be okay. He tries grab her hand, but as he makes contact, his arm vanishes from his sight, revealing it was ripped off by the explosion, and he blacks out again.

Later, he wakes up on the intensive care, witnessing parts of an operation of attaching a new arm to his old arm. After the montage, Vaughn pays Black a visit, asking how his new arm feels. The new arm is a biologically cultured by stamcells, making it almost indistinguishable from his old arm. Vaughn curses Soto for taking the secrets to his grave, reminding Black of the message, He reactivates his retinal HUD, still seeing the message imprinted. He tells Vaughn about it, who reasons they have to go off the grid one last time, as the debacle of the blacksite causes him to think they can't even trust ARES right now.

They travel to the coordinates, finding out it's an old laboratory of Soto. They find another Exocortex, as well as a document about an ARC mind named Valk. Robots across the facility activate suddenly and a man named Kokushibyo introduces himself as the perpetrator, thanking him for leading him to the goldmine. As Black and Vaughn try to repel the onslaught of robots, Kokushibyo reveals that he is a creation of Soto as well, as he once was an ARES operative like them. However, he was mortally wounded by the earthquake in Tojinbo and went MIA, only to be rescued by Soto.

Soto was leading a secretive program of uploading consciousness into a computer, instead of only memories and personality the actual "ghost in the machine". Kokushibyo claims he is the first success and that Soto followed, making Black realize why Soto staged his death and made the choice to destroy himself for good. He leaves them to struggle to survive, but they manage to make it out with the document, which is moslty redacted. Even though they are familiar with ARES' ARC minds, Valk is unfamiliar to them both, making them wonder if that's what ARES was hiding from them.

Vaughn confronts Cade and The Chief with the file of Valk, however they are both surprised by its existence, telling them they shut down the project long ago. Upon reasoning that Ronin is after it, they task the Force Recon to find the origins of Valk in Brussels, sending them on a intelligence mission to the Sonder Institute in Brussels. They meet with Monolith officials, discussing their security clearance to the archives of the institute, but during the meeting, Ronin-affiliated sleeper cells activate across Brussels, forcing the team to combine forces with Monolith to protect the city.

While Brussels falls into disarray, the Force Recon gain assistence from an in-vitro developed supersoldier, whom they help deploy safely into Brussels. However, the ground situation worsens as Ronin start hacking Monolith's factories and gain remote access to their war robotics. Unable to coordinate with Monolith to shut down the facilities, the Force Recon destroy the majority of Monolith Robotics factories. This puts ARES on bad terms with Monolith, who now consider them enemies as well, putting the Force Recon in the crossfire.

In retaliation, Monolith take a commitee of scientists who work for the Sonder Institute hostage to prevent ARES from accessing the archives. The team secure the commitee in an hostage rescue, but they realize they are working on a timer before it's too late and Ronin reach the archives first. With the help of a scientist, they infiltrate the Ronin-overrun Sonder Institute and dive into the archives. Black is seperated from the others, goes ahead alone to find the data of Valk inside the facilities hidden core.

Upon reaching the core, Black comes face to face with Kokushibyo, who reveals to be indeed solely a robot. With bullets proving to be ineffective, Kokushibyo's metallic frame is too sturdy to fight, causing Black to be mocked in their duel. Using protocol erasers obtained earlier, Black tries to deactivate Kokushibyo, but instead causes his programming to overload. Instead of fighting Black, Kokushibyo collapses and deactivates.

The team secures Valk's data and contact Cade, who orders them to upload the program to ARES. As they are uploading Valk, Kokushibyo reanimates, but instead of fighting them, he asks them to open data from a chip he got from Soto. Vaughn opens the file, revealing Valk's original design: An ARC Mind designed to be controlled by a human, creating a supercomputer with the morality and control of a human. In his dying breath as his programming is being erased, Kokushibyo explains that with that technology, ARES becomes unstoppable.

Realizing the leaders of ARES aren't willing to let go of their priced possession, they plan on terminating Valk before it is fully uploaded by disrupting the upload process. They head to the transmission building that is hosting the upload, but it is revealed ARES is aware of their intentions by monitoring them and have send a dispatch crew to eliminate the defecting rogue team, who escort the scientist to the transmission terminal.

They manage to reach the data room and Black interfaces with the terminal, but suddenly his Cerebral Implant interacts with the computer, causing his brain to be overloaded with information. It ends with the image of an Falcon, after which the vision shatters. Black is brought back to the conciousness by Vaughn, while it is revealed the computer exploded and killed the scientist. They realize they have failed when they get a notification of the transfer completing. As they get surrounded, they have no time to grasp what happened and fight their way out of the situation.

As they hide inside the city, they are contacted by an unknown caller, who tells them he knows that they are in a tough spot. He offers them a ride out, giving them the location of a hacked automated VTOL that will escort them away once they enter it. If Black and Vaughn have completed their remaining duties inside of Brussels, they can sneak their way onto the VTOL, which leaves Brussels and heads for an unknown destination.

The VTOL eventually lands near Johannesburg, South Africa. Outside, the unknown contact is waiting for them, introducing himself as Carlyle, an agent of Trinity Defense Applications, an ARES rivalling PMC originating from a Seascraper of the coast of the United States. He leads an espionage team wiretapping intelligence from ARES' Headquarters in Johannesburg and have dug themselves into the slums of Soweto. He reveals that with this information, they found out that Black and Vaughn were highly valuable assets for their operation.

Black explains the direness of the situation, thus Carlyle explains that they have no time to waste. They are preparing for a cognitive espionage mission on an ARES frontman to find a possible weak spot. They need to takedown his patrol and interface with his Cerebral Implant, but they were lacking the equipment to do so. Now with ARES Implants on Black and Vaughn, they have the key to breaching his thoughts. To prepare Black for what to look for, they run a simulation mission of him interfacing with a Trinity member, looking for a password, which he finds in literal imagery. However, firewall fights back, forcing Black to defend himself against metaphorical robots while interfacing.

A few days later, they execute the operation. They are waiting to ambush the patrol, immediately firing explosive at the escorting vehicles. However, the ambush escalates, causing the designated vehicle to also be damaged. Rushing to see if the target is alive, Black finds him dying. With no time to lose, he interfaces. However, because the target is dying, the imagery is much more visceral, making it difficult for Black to find valuable information while time is running out.

In the chaos, Black finds another Falcon. As he touches it, the area he is in becomes empty and tranquil. He is left facing the Frontman, who starts explaining that he must be after information regarding Valk. Black asks what ARES intends with Valk, which causes the room to project imagery of the Egyptian God Horus. The frontman explains that he wishes to lie to him, but he can't since it's his thoughts that are talking for him. Yet, he can explain truthfully that Valk is linked to a very secretive project called "Horus", which only a select few people know about. However, Horus will change the way war is waged if it were to be completed and the frontman says that he is scared himself of that future.

Before getting more answers, the frontman dies and Black is forced out. Vaughn pulls the groggy Black up, explaining that reinforcements are coming for them. They make their way out, during which Black asks how long he was gone. Vaughn tells him it wasn't more than 30 seconds, which surprises Black as it felt that he was gone for longer. With ARES forces in pursuit, the Trinity formation run into the slums and reveal that they are prepared for possible ARES soldiers. The entirety of the slums is boobytrapped, while most of the residents have possession of arms to defend themselves. They repel the ARES forces, but now that there hideout is revealed, they head for a new 'base', a penthouse inside the city of Johannesburg.

To break into the headquarters, they have to [[Complexity|reprogram the police droids in Johannesburg to cause a distraction and slow down reinforcements]. From the penthouse, Black and Vaughn head in civilian clothing to a police station. After not raising attention, they sneak into restricted area unseen and allow Black to interface with the radio through his Cerebral Implant. They upload a encrypted wavelength signal, being picked up by all robotics in the area, secretly making them vulnerable for hacks. However, they are spotted and fight their way out, alarming the entire city and ARES of insurgency activity.

ARES puts the city on lockdown, forcing Trinity to execute the final plan; Infiltrate ARES HQ and find out what Project: Horus entails. Black and Vaughn gear up and avoid curfew patrols on their way to the headquarters. Once nearby, Carlyle emits the signal, causing all robotics to turn onto ARES and allowing the duo to enter the headquarters in the chaos. They secure the lobby and start a data download, granting the 'keys' of the headquarters to Carlyle. After the download is complete, Carlyle sends blueprints of the building, revealing Horus' design space to be on a high floor.

By using a hacked elevator, they head to the floor, seeing security blocking their way towards it. They eliminate the resistance and enter the design space. On a holo table, a schematic of a space station is shown. As they wonder what it is, an ARES commander walks up to the duo, holding them under shot. Black recognizes him as his caretaker and godfather, while Locke commands his soldiers to stand down. He explains them what Horus is: A legion of robotics controlled by the ARC mind Valk, allowing for global surveillance and protection from the space station in the hologram, Providence Station.

Locke explains that he doesn't agree, as what ARES tries to achieve is essentially the same as Typhoon. He ends by saying Cade is the supposed host of Valk and that they are already on their way to Providence to unleash the fleet. Black asks how they can stop him, but Locke says he doesn't know. The only possibility would be to destroy Providence before the fleet is unleashed. To enter Providence, they would have to use the space elevator in the Gulf of Mexico. Locke tells him that he will have division to aid them takeover the station, as it should be defended by ARES at the moment.

Trinity and Locke's ARES Division prepare the assault on the floating Space Elevator platform via air, taking out SAM sites to make a landing on the southern wing of the platform. Black, Vaughn and Locke fight through the resistance. However suddenly during the fight, Black's mind is scrambled and he collapses. He gets visions from what seems to be a hanger bay. Suddenly, he hears a vague conversation and his sight moves around to reveal that the hangar is in outer space, thus being Providence station. He then hears Cade, the person he is looking through, saying it is working.

Suddenly, the Falcon flies by again in his vision and distorts the view. Black is woken up by Vaughn, who is dragging him out the crossfire. Deducting they got no time left, Black and Vaughn decide to make a run for the elevator instead of taking full control of the floating platform, while Locke will cover them as they ascend into space to ensure they make it. They barely make it, immediately activating the lift and heading to Providence.

As they arrive a few minutes later to ultimately stop ARES, they avoid being hit by a welcoming firing squad penetrating the elevator with gunfire by climbing out of the top. As the elevator is checked for survivors, they get the element of surprise as the elevator seemed empty. They climb through a shaft to get into a hangar unseen, finding themselves amongst the robotic fleet stationed. They hijack a single Predator Drone, with Black controlling it to spread havoc and destroy a large part of the hangar.

However, they are attacked and forced to avoid being surrounded. They cross the station while engaging on the defenders. Midst fighting, they find out where Cade is hiding as an evacuation squad is intercepted by them. They head for control room, but Black and Vaughn are separated in the heavy fighting. Alone, Black heads over to the control room, breaching and eliminating the guards. However, Cade's robot is resistant to Black's bullets, causing him to jump onto Black and disarming him.

In the ensuing struggle, Cade explains their motives. Everytime the world got their liberty, it allowed for evil to grow and eventually unleash their havoc. World War III, the Typhoon Coupe, the Convention scandal, they were all results of incapable political systems. Black argues what a dictatorship will improve of that, but Cade debunks that that is their ultimate goal. Rather, they want to eliminate all evil spawn the moment it forms. CtEN not only was an economic system, it also was an omnisurveillance, recording all actions of individuals. That information, combined with an all-seeing eye and a trigger ready at all times, a tragic all-consuming war will be impossible.

The fist fight continues, until Cade manages to wrestle Black's knife off of him and pierces his abdomen from close by, holding Black by his shoulder. Black, feeling life flowing out of him, lightly touches Cade's head. Suddenly, his vision spazes with Valk's logo before blacking out. In rapidly flashing motions, Black sees a series of events of Iron Wolf II, while hearing Locke tell Black, still a child, stories about 'the war'. He is told about how his dad was a hero and how evil Typhoon was. Locke ends with a life lesson, saying that they always fought to protect others, so that they have a better life than them.

Suddenly, the vision distorts an Black is thrown in an empty black space. With him, is Cade in his human body. When Blacks asks where they are, Cade says that they're in his mind. Black urges Cade not to execute Horus, but Cade tells him he will not be able to, as he is feeling as if he is losing control of his robotic body. Not hostile anymore, Cade tells Black of the time he first woke up inside his robotic body. After he lost his own body in Operation: Gemini, he experienced dying, but being kept alive and put into the robot, it allowed him to be reborn. What he feels now, is that same feeling of slipping away, but this time he accepts it, as he is tired of the feeling of dying.

A falcon delivers a knife out of nothing to Black, while Cade urges him to end the suffering. As Black steps forward, he briefly holds Cade by his shoulder, as Cade says that Valk brings enlightenment. Black then stabs Cade, causing vision to rapidly flash again, but this time shifting between the vision of Black in Cade's mind and from the robot's eyes, looking at a stabbed Cade in the mind and a stabbed Black in reality. The vision clears and returns to reality, Black having taken over Cade's robot and his human body having died in front of him.

A soothing voice tells Black they have become one, while Black looks at his hands, getting used to his new body. The voice continues, saying he has waited so long for him to come. Suddenly, Vaughn, gun drawn, threatens Cade, not realizing it is Black. Calmly, Black says it's him, startling Vaughn, who asks what he has become. While Black tries to explain, his speech is overridden by the voice and he gets a vision of him grabbing the knife and throwing it at Vaughn. Black now says that the world needs saving from itself, but internally tries to resist.

The voice tells Black to trust him, but Black remains resistant. However, when Vaughn calls out that Black has gone insane and raises his weapon again, Black throws the knife at Vaughn, causing him to collapse. He walks over to Vaughn, seeing him bleed out and picking up his gun. The voice tells him for them to finally meld, they need to agree on letting go of emotional connections weighing him down by killing Vaughn. As he aims the gun, he asks the voice why, who responds: "So WE can save the world.". Black gets the QTE of pulling the trigger, causing the game to blackout as he fires. On screen, the Valk logo is formed by scorching flames and the credits roll.