Reborn as a Mechanist with a God-Tier System-Chapter 286: Iron Reef

BZZZZ!

30,000 meters above ground level, buzzing with a barely audible sound like a hovering Fly, the Zerphyr-7 Stealth Reconnaissance UAV floated above Iron Reef’s airspace.

A journey that would have taken Leon countless hours on ground took him less than an hour on the Zerphyr-7 aircraft.

It was a swift and seamless ride.

In terms of comfort and speed, Leon gave the Zerphyr-7 a solid 9/10 rating.

The most significant performance factor of the Zerphyr-7 for Leon though was not the fact that he arrived in Iron Reef at record time, it was the singular fact that this was the headquarters of the Freegrid Collective, and yet they were currently hovering directly above it undetected!

The Zerphyr-7 passed Leon’s stealth test with flying colors, he rated the aircraft’s stealth a solid 10/10.

Afterall, this was not just any city but the headquarters of one of the 5 main powers in the entire world.

Even all the way back in Year 583 A.G when the Freegrid Collective was yet to be recognized as a major faction, they already had advanced technology like Purgatory, Leon had no doubt that they’ve developed even more cutting-edge technology in the 131 years since then.

Hovering above this city, Leon felt mixed feelings.

He experienced a feeling of excitement and melancholy like he was back to visit an old friend after being separated for over a century.

At this altitude, they could not see the massive city below clearly and this was why the Zerphyr-7 broadcasted a big virtual hologram of the city to them.

At an altitude of about 5000 meters above the city, there were multiple massive floating platforms like islands hovering at different points in the airspace above the city.

These massive floating platforms were brown heavily armored steel military bases that were manned with thousands of war transports, warships, tens of thousands of soldiers of the Freegrid Army, and countless turrets.

This was the first line of Iron Reef’s impenetrable aerial defense network, countless radar and advanced reading sensors scanned the airspace above 24/7, leaving no access points or blind spots.

Far below 5000 meters and the aerial defense network, the city finally unveiled itself.

The sky was swallowed in a state of perpetual dimness and constant evening due to the neon storms obscuring the sky, leaving the city glowing like a circuit board beneath it.

Compared to the Iron Reef that Leon was used to, this was a different city. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Towering skyscrapers rose in layers of glass and steel, their dark silhouettes broken by rivers of neon light that crawled up their sides.

Massive holographic billboards floated between the buildings like ghosts made of electricity, showing different scenes even as tower-high virtual projections pulsed in electric blue light.

This was a bustling economy.

One of the tower-high projections displayed the ’Broken Circuit’, the familiar emblem of the Freegrid Collective, showing contrasting black primary background colors and secondary electric cyan color while in the center of the symbol was a glowing small hexagon.

From the hexagon, flickering thin neon filaments spread outward like veins where the lines end abruptly before completing the cycle.

This was one of the first and most enduring symbols that Leon saw in Neo-Tokara all the way back when he was still a F Rank Mechanist and was yet to meet Talia and the other members of her crew.

Apart from the tower-high projections displaying the ’Broken Circuit’, others displayed different images reflecting themes of freedom.

The airspace between the towers were alive.

Dozens of sleek angular aerial vehicles drifted and darted through the sky with glowing engines that left thin white streaks behind them.

Some hovered like patient predators beside the buildings, picking up passengers, while others sliced through the sky in precise lanes, weaving through invisible traffic routes high above the streets.

Below, the ground city wasn’t underwhelming.

It was just as visually mind-blowing as the sky surface as multi-level highways stacked above one another, carrying endless streams of vehicles as their headlights reflected off rain-slick metal and glass.

A maglev train shot through a rail in the lower level like a silver bullet, its windows flashing past in a white light as its passage reminded Leon of certain memories of his past journeys.

Every surface of the city shimmered with reflections from neon signs to holograms, and to the reflective glow bouncing across wet pavement.

It rained recently.

On strategic positions around the city and beside roads, bridges and elevated walkways came together to form a labyrinth of steel arteries.

Digital advertisements flickered across every available surface, selling everything from cybernetic upgrades to virtual worlds.

The city hummed with endless energy.

Iron Reef didn’t discriminate, there were all kinds of races freely walking through the streets- from Geneforms to Synths and even the occasional A.I Construct, and yet nobody was ostracized.

This was a city teeming with life and freedom.

Seeing this alone, Leon could not help a big smile blooming over his face as he realized that Ren Nora did manage to fulfill his dream.

This was the city of his dreams.

A city of freedom where there is no discrimination, a city of freewill where there’s no racism and nepotism, where promotion is based on merit and effort.

Leon struggled to overlap this bustling city with the refugee camp that he remembered that sprawled across a dead industrial basin.

Then, Iron Reef was just a camp of half-collapsed factories, collapsed mag-rail pylons, and rusted towers that were tilted like broken towers, remnants of what the Omnicore Federation abandoned.

Then, it looked like a city of stubborn rebels who refused to live.

Then, unlike the current skyscrapers, all Iron Reef had was mismatched buildings that were welded together for structural integrity to withstand shock damage, and cargo containers that were turned into apartment blocks.

To Leon, it was just 3 weeks since he was here last but everything had changed. He felt like he stepped through time and the temporal-visual difference left him in a daze.

’Wow...’

’This is how much a city can develop in just 100+ years’. He thought.

Despite the fact that he knew he didn’t really have any direct input in the growth of this city, knowing that he fought for the freedom and independence of this city, seeing the current Iron Reef left Leon feeling proud.

He felt like a war veteran who was finally seeing the fruit of his battles.

While Tyla and Leon were mesmerized by the sight of the city in their own different ways, Daren turned to the duo with a big grin and said.

"Welcome to the headquarters of the Freegrid Collective".

"Welcome to Iron Reef!"

...

[NOTE: There was a mistake in the previous Chapter but I’ve edited it now. Tyla is not a Gene Augur, she’s a NetRunner. Thanks to r03n for pointing out the mistake.]