《An Engineer In Night City》 Chapter 1: The Fall Mark Henderson, twenty-seven years old. An ordinary man living a quiet, unremarkable life. He lost his parents during the global pandemic, and after finishing college he started working at a small tech company as a systems engineer while doing freelance coding on his free time. Because of the pandemic, Mark started working remotely from the start and managed to keep it that way after things went back to normal. That left him with plenty of time to dedicate for his hobby, gaming. His passion was always centered about gaming, and he wanted to become a game developer for a long time, but he also wanted to honor his parents sacrifice to send him to a good college, that¡¯s why he¡¯s currently working a ¡°normal¡± job. He didn¡¯t give up on the dream, but he also figured that some working experience will help him in the future, and it¡¯s always worth to make new connections. Right now, his favorite game is called Factorio, a game where players build and optimize their factory, while fending off hordes of alien creatures. ¡°Fucking environmentalists.¡± Mark mutters angrily at the screen, watching the left walls of his starter base being besieged by small Biters, the first enemies of the game. He runs after the enemies, gunning them down with his personal machinegun while placing a row of automated machineguns to clear up the enemies. ¡°Spawning on the desert sucks. At least it isn¡¯t on a deathworld.¡± Mark pauses the game for a moment, stretching his back until he hears a popping sound. ¡°Let¡¯s get some snacks. I want to finish the Space Exploration Mod before the Space Age expansion rolls out.¡± A quick trip to the kitchen later, and he¡¯s back to his computer, ready to tackle the game once again. He brings out his faithful companion to aid him through this gaming marathon, the rubber duck debugger, or in this case, the Marketable Plushy Solvernia? (unrelated) that helped him solve several issues at the company, and more importantly, helped him finish the Seablock mod. Making himself comfortable, Mark resumes the game. ¡°Let¡¯s get this started.¡± ¡­ Hours later, Mark looks at his Starter Base 2. It was big enough to launch a rocket, but differently from the normal gameplay, the Space Exploration mod doesn¡¯t end when you launch a rocket, it instead starts. The current base can send a small amount of material for science, but since Mark prioritized speed instead of expansibility his present setup became an unacceptable bottleneck. Reaching for a bottle of water, Mark takes a swing and finds it empty. Standing up to fill it again, Mark¡¯s head starts to throb in pain. ¡°Error. Code E-c422ff2d24c10f0faba3ed5081de5438.¡± ¡°Wh-what?¡± Mark slurs, wobbling on his feet for a few steps, and then collapsing on the ground. ¡°Error. Code E-c422ff2d24c10f0faba3ed5081de5438¡± As Mark vision fades, the last thing he sees is his Solvernia Plushy staring down at him. He wanted to think she looked concerned over his health. ¡­ Mark wakes up with a shiver, feeling the hard ground under him, and hearing the cacophony of noises from the nearby street. ¡°What? Where am I?¡± Picking himself up, Mark sees several Neon lights flickering above him, casting vibrant, distorted reflections on the rain-slicked streets. The air was thick with the smell of burning rubber, oil, and ozone. He wasn¡¯t¡¯ in his small apartment anymore, and Mark wasn¡¯t sure he was in the same city either. ¡°Where the hell am I?¡± Mark asks again, trying to make sense of what had happened. Around him, towering skyscrapers loomed, their surfaces adorned with massive holographic advertisements. Sleek vehicles zipped through the air, and the distant hum of engines and chatter filled the atmosphere. This was not a place he recognized from reality¡ªbut it was eerily familiar. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Then it hit him like a freight train. "No way," Mark whispered, his heart pounding in his chest. "This can''t be real." Mark recognized the sight: several monolithic buildings that towered over the landscape, their oppressive presence looming over the population like statues of ancient pagan gods. Among those buildings, one of them particularly stood out with its dark, sterile color of its sharp angles. On the entrance, a holographic goldfish swam in the air, while at the top of the building they proudly displayed their logo, composed of a stylized white tree inside an empty circle. ¡°The Arasaka Tower.¡± Mark whispers to himself. He was in Night City, the sprawling dystopian metropolis from the world of Cyberpunk 2077. As Mark struggled to process his sudden transmigration, a series of digital notifications flashed before his eyes, projected into his vision as if through a Heads-Up Display. ¡°Initialization complete. Welcome, Engineer.¡± ¡°Wube Inc. Factory Blueprint System ¨C Factorio System - Activated.¡± ¡°As a new employee of Wube Inc. your job is to travel to colony [ERROR] and assist in laying down infrastructure.¡± ¡°WARNING: Unable to find ship¡¯s central database. Database restored to factory default. Advise the launch of a satellite to planet¡¯s orbit to send rescue signal.¡± ¡°Warning: Incompatible star charts. Satellite will be unable to send rescue signal to civilization. Entering emergency survival mode. Advice building interstellar capable starship to return to civilization.¡± Mark eyes almost cross over at the amount of information he got, stumbling a few steps back until his feet touches something with a familiar texture. Looking down, he saw a familiar face smiling back at him. Picking her up, he clears her form of dust from the ground. ¡°So, you followed me here Solvy? What we should do now?¡± A few passersby look strangely at Mark talking with a plushy, but he ignores them. Since his days in college he was hooked to the rubber duck debugging method, voicing his thoughts aloud to an audience to figure out the solutions to his problem. The Marketable Plushy Solvernia? was a custom job he ordered at the time, and it became his constant companion since before the global pandemic. ¡°Maybe I should take stock of what I got first?¡± Nodding to himself, Mark instinctively brings out the user manual and the local interface. It looks like the game¡¯s interface, with familiar icons and technologies in place. The systems are a hybrid of the quality-of-life mods he had installed, and the newly developed interface updates promised to arrive in the Space Age expansion. ¡°Basic body enhancements?¡± According to the manual, all Engineers under the employ of Wube Inc. undergo special genetic treatment to enhance their bodies. The treatment allows them to heal faster, regenerate destroyed tissue, improve the effectiveness of medical kits, improve the capacity to survive and function after suffering critical injuries, and provide a certain degree of enhanced strength to aid in resource gathering. ¡°It helps explain how the Engineer can survive being chewed on by biters and recovering health thanks to the power of Omega-3 fatty acids. Since my version leans closer to Space Exploration, I need a proper medical kit to recover my health.¡± ¡°But why Night City, of all places?¡± Mark looks at his soft companion, ¡°any idea, Solvy?¡± The silent reply holds a hint of helplessness, and Mark sighs, patting his friend¡¯s head. ¡°Well, we just got here. We can find out later. The real question is, what to do first?¡± Mark feels like Solvernia returns a flat look at his dumb question. ¡°Oh, right, dumb question. Let me rephrase that: where we should start?¡± There are three places that Mark has in mind: Pacifica, a district that¡¯s mostly abandoned; the industrial district at Watson; or the municipal landfill near Santo Domino. Mark grimaces, but quickly resolves himself for the long walk ahead. ¡­ After the long walk, Mark finally arrives at his destination in the municipal landfill. Oddly, Mark doesn¡¯t find the smell unbearably repulsive, then he remembers the genetic treatment and the massive clouds of pollution in the game. ¡°What a lucky find.¡± As soon as Mark reaches the landfill, he finds what his interface counts as ¡°Iron Plate¡± and ¡°Iron Stick.¡± He touches the materials and brings them to his inventory, a type of extra-dimensional pocket that links to his real pockets. Currently, his inventory is smaller than the one from the game, but he¡¯s not even wearing the Engineer starter uniform. Thankfully, he wasn¡¯t wearing his pajamas while playing the game before arriving on Night City. Bringing the system online, he fabricates an iron axe using the collected iron plates and iron sticks. As he finishes his first craft, the finished iron axe sits on his inventory, and Mark vision expands. ¡°Thank you for finishing the Wube Inc. introductory training. We at Wube Inc. hope that you will find satisfaction with our company. Remember our motto¡­¡± The interface let the words hang in the air, as if expecting Mark to quote it himself. Mark holds his new iron axe up. ¡°The Factory Must Grow.¡± The first of many strikes begins. Welcome to Night City Mark kept hammering at the debris of the landfill for hours, until the first lights of the day blinded him when it reflected over a nearby broken window. Pausing for a moment, he checks the bounty of materials he managed to salvage. There was plastic and glass, a few iron plates, some steel, and a little of copper wire. An insignificant amount of stone and coal, but the majority of what he mined was considered ¡°Scrap.¡± ¡°Research Unlocked: Scrap Mining¡± Looking at the technology tech tree, I found out that I unlocked a new, previously hidden research by mining the scrap. Marks suddenly remember that in the new Spage Age expansion there was a planet where he could mine ancient ruins for scrap and get resources out of it, and the new research reflected that. The Scrap Mining allows any of the miners to dig through scraped ruins like the landfill to dig up ¡°Scrap,¡± and the new Recycler building transforms the scrap pile into various recovered materials. Each scrip unit has a certain probability of returning an item, with the changes starting from 1% up 12% for certain products. The Recycler can recover Iron and Copper in their oxide forms, requiring re-smelting into plates; excavates Stone and carbon products are stacked together as Stone and Coal; some of the more intact material can be broken down into Processing Units, Advanced Circuit, and Low Density Structure; the larger pieces of steel are fused together into Steel Plates; usable Battery is recovered; concrete is cut into Concrete blocks; more volatile hydrocarbons are compressed together into Solid Fuel; useable Gears and Wires are also extracted from the scrap; and finally a small selection of exotic mineral oxides can be found. The exotic minerals are grouped into different ore groups, but for the moment Mark doesn¡¯t have the means to turn them into useable items. ¡°At this point they¡¯re just occupying space. I mean, who would buy Holmium Oxide at retail volume? No one, that¡¯s who, isn¡¯t it right Solvy?¡± Mark likes to believe the silent reply is a product of their fatigue. Mark takes a few experimental swings in the air with his iron axe, then he agrees with his companion. ¡°Yeah, I can keep going, but I don¡¯t want to test my luck and drop on the ground in exhaustion. Let¡¯s stop for the day for now.¡± ¡­ After a long walk Mark returns to civilization, and a few of the pedestrians gives him a wide berth from the lingering smell on his uniform. It takes a while, but Mark manages to learn the directions to the nearest weapon shop near the Petrochem Dam. ¡°What can I do for- what the fuck is that smell!¡± ¡°Sorry, some jackass stole my things while I was at work, so I¡¯m strapped for cash.¡± ¡°Where the hell do you work, the city sewers?¡± Mark shrugs. ¡°Smells like it.¡± This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°What do you want, gonk, this isn¡¯t a charity.¡± ¡°Do you also buy used weapons?¡± Quickly motioning Mark to approach, Mark produces three Pistols and three Standard magazines from his utility belt and places them on the counter for appraisal. ¡°Never seen something like this, but it resembles the Unity.¡± The vendor mutters under his breath. ¡°Where did you get this?¡± ¡°I made them myself, as a hobby. I was going to take them for a spin today after work, when I noticed the rest of my stuff gone.¡± The Vendor checks the guns and magazines while Mark looks around the weapons on display, their prices proudly shown on the old-style glass displays. ¡°I can quote you a price, but if you want me to keep quiet about the weapons origins I¡¯m going to take an extra cut.¡± Marks ponders for a moment before making a counteroffer. ¡°Tell you what, if you have an unused, old Agent lying around and throw it in for me we have a deal.¡± ¡°Hm. Alright, deal. I will be right back.¡± A few minutes later the vendor comes back with the Agent, the device looking suspiciously like a Samsung A-11 model. ¡°It was my grandfather¡¯s; it should tide you up until you get back home. The eddies are on the Agent chip.¡± Mark fiddles with the device for a few moments while the vendor stares at him. Mark felt like his father when he tried to teach him how to use a smartphone for the first time. Thankfully, Mark was spared the indignity of asking for help due to the Agent ease of use. ¡°Alright, everything¡¯s fine. Thanks for the help. Now, where can I take a cab?¡± ¡°Cab? What are you, a Nomad New Yorker?¡± The vendor shakes his head, ¡°check your Agent, there should be a map for the NCART lines there. Now get out of my store, your stinking up the place!¡± ¡­ While walking towards the Mega Habitat 7, Mark experiments with his new Agent hoping to connect it with the Factorio System, and just as he believes he makes some progress he senses a few marks coming closer to him on the mini map of his HUD. Mark takes a turn to a quieter street, and the possible hostiles follow him. Turning around Mark confronts the group. ¡°Can I help you?¡± They both look at each other, before silently turning on their cyberware, ¡°donning¡± a holographic mask that displays an old emoji instead of their faces. ¡°>:)¡± ¡°Nothing to say? What do you think, Solvy, should we give them a change to explain themselves?¡± One of the unknown assailants draws a weapon at Mark. *Plat* *Clack* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* Before leaving the landfill, Mark used some of his collected resources to ¡°handcraft¡± a couple of supplies, and used them to craft both a Burner Assembler and a Burner Lab. With those two items Mark crafted ten Automation Science Pack, or ¡°Red Science¡± as the players calls them. Those ten red sciences allowed Mark to research the Gun Turret technology, providing him with the capability to craft automated gun turrets. Differently from the game, Mark could determine how to program the turrets Friend or Foe Identification protocols, setting it to blacklist mode. In blacklist mode, the turret will only target those on the blacklist, compared with the whitelist mode that will shoot at everything except those inside the Factorio System database. Mark has no idea how that works, but as a systems engineer he is used to this kind of black magic. Much like in the game, he can place the gun turrets at a certain distance from himself, and he can also load the gun turrets at a distance. With a twitch of his fingers, the gangsters had three turrets at their backs, and with another twitch the guns are loaded. The next moment, all hostiles are neutralized. Mark takes a deep breath, before staggering to the nearby wall, picking up Solvernia from his inventory. ¡°T-that w-was e-easy, right?¡± The plushy doesn¡¯t speak, thus it can¡¯t judge him. After spending a few moments recomposing himself, Mark recovers the turrets and loot the corpses of useful items. Mark leaves the small street as if nothing happened, leaving the corpses to rot in the open, and going back to his business. To Night City, nothing out of ordinary happened. Starter Base (1) After dealing with the brief excitement from the Scavs, Mark finally reaches the Megabuilding 07 area and is immediately taken aback as he notices the several hostiles on his minimap. Panic assaults him for a moment, then he realizes that no one is attacking him. Checking his Agent, Mark notices that the Megabuilding 07 is currently closed to habitation for unclear motives. ¡°What a naughty bunch, hiding there. Isn¡¯t that right, Solvy?¡± Mark agrees with the silent judgment of Solvernia. ¡°Oddly enough, the nearest Megabuilding from here is the 04 instead of the 06 thanks to the metro. Alright, let¡¯s take the Red line.¡± Mark pays for the ticket and buys an XXL Burrito, surprised at the cheap price. He takes a bite of the food and give it a tentative chew. ¡°You got to use the sauce.¡± Mark blinks, looking at the man who said that. The man¡¯s body was full of cybernetic enhancements, yet he smelt like he hasn¡¯t bathed in days, was missing a couple of teeth, and the top of his head was unevenly bald. ¡°Sauce?¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah, the sauce. Can¡¯t have a burrito without Salsa Verde.¡± The unidentified man isn¡¯t looking at Mark, instead he stares ahead, as if he¡¯s remembering a conversation with someone else. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Here,¡± Mark breaks the XXL Burrito in half, offering the fresh half to the man, ¡°do you want to share with me? I forgot to pick up the sauce, so this is too big for me to eat dry. My name¡¯s Mark, what¡¯s yours?¡± The man doesn¡¯t answer, digging into the offered meal like a starving man. After watching the man demolish the offered meal, Mark resumes to eat his own half. ¡°Miguel O¡¯Brian, 77th NUSA Green Beret.¡± Mark looks at the newly identified homeless veteran in a new light. It would explain the excessive amount of cybernetics on someone that¡¯s out of sorts. ¡°Do you have somewhere to go, Mr. Miguel?¡± The veteran soldier slowly turns to Mark, slowly blinking at Mark. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± ¡°I, I h-haven¡¯t been called by my n-name for a long time.¡± At that moment Mark remembers his experience with isolation, and his current predicament. If he can be honest with himself, Mark believes that if Solvernia didn¡¯t travel together with him, he would had lost his mind. Alone in a strange, hostile city that don¡¯t care if you will die or live on the next day. A city where life is cheap. ¡°I get it, Mr. Miguel. I really do.¡± Miguel stares at Mark for a long moment, as if searching something. Eventually, he nods, as if he found it. He stands up and pats Mark on the shoulder. ¡°Good talk, Mark. Good luck out there, and thanks for the meal.¡± Miguel walks away, his back a bit straighter, steps a bit surer than before. ¡°Hey, Miguel!¡± Mark stands up, calling back the man. The other passengers of the cart look at the pair, wondering why they¡¯re being so loud. Miguel pauses for a moment, looking back at Mark. ¡°I will bring the sauce next time. Sausa Verde, right?¡± Miguel returns a gap-toothed grin, before leaving for the next cart. Mark looks around and realizes this is his stop. As he leaves, Mark wonders if he will ever see Miguel again. Starter Base (2) After a short walk, Mark is standing in front of the habitation office of the Megabuilding 04. After knocking a few times on the door, an old man with a balding head, a five o¡¯clock shadow, and a wife beater shirt opens the door. ¡°What do you want?¡± ¡°I was looking for an apartment to,¡± before Mark could continue he was interrupted by the man. ¡°You pay rent every Friday; utilities paid separately. If you want to pay monthly, you need to make a three-month deposit first, and if you leave you don¡¯t get your deposit back. Any questions?¡± Mark looks strangely at the man, before carefully staring at his eyes. ¡°Do you have a Homeowners association here?¡± The bald man immediately straightens up, and utmost seriousness he answers. ¡°No.¡± ¡°Oh, thank God!¡± Mark sighs in relief, ¡°I will take the apartment.¡± Mark catches the key to his new apartment before taking the stairs. The Megabuilding is the size of a large city block at the base, and has several floors, allowing to house approximately 8000 apartments. ¡°If each apartment was made to house a family of three, that¡¯s at least 24.000 residents.¡± Mark comments to Solvernia, who silently listens to him. As soon as Mark arrives at the door of his new apartment, his neighbor also returns home. She¡¯s a woman with long red hair tied in a ponytail, tanned skin with a pair of red markings on her right cheek and wore a bright yellow jacket. They both stare at each other for a moment, until Mark awkwardly waves at her. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m your new neighbor. My name is Mark Henderson.¡± ¡°Oh, hey. Nice to meet you, my name is,¡± she tries and fails to stifle a yawn, ¡°sorry, I just came back from the night shift. My name is Gloria Martinez.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡± Looking at Gloria appearance, and remembering the state of his clothes, he opens the door to his new apartment. ¡°You¡¯re clearly tired, so I won¡¯t hold you up. I will come to invite you later for a homecoming celebration later if you¡¯re up to it. It¡¯s only right to be nice to your new neighbors.¡± ¡°That¡¯s sounds lovely,¡± Gloria responds hesitantly, then more firmly, ¡°you wouldn¡¯t mind if I bring my son David, would you?¡± ¡°None at all,¡± Marks answers simply, ¡°I¡¯m still getting settle, but once I¡¯m done I will give you a knock.¡± You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Great, I will be waiting. Oh, just so you know, every apartment comes with a standard issue water hose. Don¡¯t ask.¡± ¡°Heh, thanks. See you later then.¡± With a final wave Mark enters his new home. When the door closes, he takes off all his clothes and place them on the nearby washing machine. After transferring some money with his Agent, the washing cycle starts while Mark makes a beeline for the shower. ¡°The place is more spacious than I expected. I was honestly expecting a Little John tier apartment.¡± Letting the water of the shower hit his body, Mark feels like a person again, and he starts making a mental list of things to do. One of the first on the list it is to find a bottle of alcohol and other cleaning agents to give Solvernia a good bath. ¡°After re-stocking, it is time to work.¡± ... Mark next destination is the district of Pacifica, and thanks to the integrated Map View of the Factorio system he can look for the perfect area to start his operation. The Municipal landfill counted as a large ¡°Scrap Mine¡± in the same way that Iron and Copper mine appear in the game. The same goes for Pacifica, though with a more modest volume that¡¯s fitting for a Starter Base. Setting a single burner miner, Mark proceeds to break down the nearby walls and other remnant dilapidated buildings around the area, recovering enough materials to form Stone Walls inside his inventory. It takes a while, but Mark manages to harvest enough materials to build a proper smelting stack, while the higher end materials are stacked in a steel chest for later. Those looking above would be surprised at the sight, as several stone furnaces are being fed iron and copper ore oxide, which is somehow turned into clean cut plates. Those plates are taken by mechanical robot arms and feed into what, the onlookers would assume, is a coal powered 3D printer, and from the arcane machine a large gear would appear, put into conveyor belts that carefully send their items forward despite the lack of any source of energy. Those plates and gears are then placed inside another burner assembler to be transformed into strange, glass-like vials with red liquid that is ultimately thrown into another building to seemingly burn into nothing. ¡°I wonder if you guys looked at the Human Domain technology on the Persean sector the same way I see the Factorio System in real life.¡± Mark comments to his companion, who he placed on top of his steel chest. Unfortunately, Mark can¡¯t hear the any response with the noise the machines are making. ¡°If I remember correctly, part of the pollution is meant to be noise pollution. Thankfully, the uniform comes with sound suppressors.¡± As Mark continues to toil on his new factory, the new Engineer places some rudimentary defenses of his budding factory. The inner wall is made from the scavenged stone walls, with the primary purpose of obscuring his activities from prying eyes, while the secondary wall is made from stone furnaces to help hide the few gun turret placements, and finally a few stone furnaces are placed near the edge of the gun turrets range, marking the effective kill zone of his defenses. To make sure dumb idiots won¡¯t charge on the killing field, Mark places text plates using his precious resources on the ground to signal the killing field ahead. ¡°Hopefully, no dumb animal will come during the night and activate the defenses.¡± If she could sigh, Solvernia would sigh at Mark¡¯s statement. As it is, she can only silently judge her dumbass friend while he continued his labor. Starter Base (3) As a veteran Factorio Player, Mark managed to speedrun most of the early sciences available to him by carefully expanding his operations with a careful application of spaghetti, and by using a newly discovered function from the system. While the game had Mods, the Factorio System allows him to enable, disable, and program certain aspects to customize his employee experience. The first thing he programmed was a Calculator, with the second thing he programmed was the Evenly Distribution function, and the third most useful tool being a To-Do list that he can bring up for task outside the factory. ¡°Good thing I can install the simulation module. I hate to test designs in my main world.¡± The simulation module is a setting that creates an empty space used to build factories, test defenses, and try newly researched technologies. Right now, he enabled the AAI Vehicles, AAI Programmable Vehicles, and other related modules that are compatible with his current setup. As time passed something caught Mark¡¯s attention, with four red dots approaching his Starter Base. Looking through the minimap Mark identifies the four individuals. Facing the northern side of his base, Mark patiently waits for the four interlopers. All four of the group are large, with bulging muscles giving them an intimidating appearance. Three of them are clearly men, proudly displaying their pectorals and biceps, and one woman with flatter but better-defined chest muscles. One of the gangsters even take the opportunity to pose like a body builder while they wait for their leader, and the only one with visible cybernetics, to step forward and greet Mark. "Hey, choom," the leader called out, a sneer on his face. "This is Animal¡¯s turf. You think you can just set up shop here without paying your dues?" Mark pauses for a moment, pondering how to answer. He would rather avoid unnecessary conflicts for now, but he¡¯s far from defenseless. Aside from the gun turrets, he also unlocked the first tier of military science, making himself a submachine gun, a shotgun, a suit of heavy armor, and enough bullet magazines to defend himself. Everything put together, and Mark strikes a dangerous silhouette. Stolen novel; please report. ¡°I¡¯m a bit strapped for cash right now, since I just got things started. However, I¡¯m salvaging some valuable components, if you¡¯re willing to negotiate we can get into an accord.¡± The Animal team leader laughs, with his minions following suit. ¡°Salvage, you say. Got anything good up there, choom? Some fancy iron? Maybe some nice Kiroshi eyes?¡± Mark shrugs, ¡°intact microchips, computer units, mostly advanced electronics. No spare weapons yet, but if I find some I will ring you up and give you a good deal.¡± ¡°He said he would give us a good deal, chooms. Did the Bozo gang made a return to Night City?¡± All hint of levity disappears from the Animal leader. ¡°You think you¡¯re funny, Gonk? Do you think the Animals would let a Bennie squat on their turf and don¡¯t put him on their place, Doughboy? I bet you don¡¯t even know how to use that fancy toy in your hand. Give us your eddies, your iron, and we might just leave you with a broken arm.¡± ¡°Hey boss, look.¡± The only female of the group points towards the Marketable Plushy Solvernia? that Mark left on top of the steel chest. ¡°I want that too.¡± Before the remaining goons could engage in their typical routine of catcalling the Input-Output pair, Mark answers with a firm voice, bringing his shotgun up. ¡°Over your dead body.¡± The four Animal gangsters sneer at Mark¡¯s threat, with the female Anima stepping forward, only for all four of them to be startled by the whirring of machinery and staring at a large gun turret aiming at them. ¡°That¡¯s my range finder,¡± Mark explains, ¡°it¡¯s places just a few paces ahead of the rest. It¡¯s empty because its purpose is to alert me when some idiot who can¡¯t read get too close.¡± Mark steps on the ground for the group to see. One of the Animals takes a quick glance. ¡°Ah, Boss, this might not be a good idea.¡± Exactly where the group was standing, there were large copper plates shaped into text, written ¡°KILL ZONE.¡± ¡°Shut it, you coward! He¡¯s just bluffing -¡± The Animal leader tries to take another step forward, but four other gun turrets activate at the same time. ¡°Try me,¡± Mark says ominously behind his faceplate, his eyes obscured by the shadows, ¡°see what happens.¡± To his credit, the Animal leader takes his time to access the situation, and steps back behind the danger zone. ¡°This isn¡¯t over,¡± he turns and leaves, to the protest of the other gangsters. As soon as the four turn their backs, Mark uses the system to recover Solvernia back to his inventory. ¡°It¡¯s too much to ask them to leave me alone, right Solvy?¡± She can only give her usual melancholic silent smile as an answer. ¡°Not the first time I had to work overnight. Let¡¯s see who blinks first in this game of chicken.¡± Starter Base (4) Back at the Animal hideout, the leader of the pack that tried to intimidate Mark have gathered a larger group of gang members to listen to his story. ¡°So, you saw a prey with a single piece of iron and ran away with your tail between your legs,¡± one of the Animals interjects in a show of dominance but is quickly slapped due to the man¡¯s short stature. ¡°That¡¯s why you¡¯re a little Rat, idiot. The first thing that comes to your mind is always running away! No! We didn¡¯t ran away, dumbasses! He was bluffing! Why else would he put the turrets visible but don¡¯t fire any bullet himself? Because he doesn¡¯t have the guts, that¡¯s why!¡± ¡°Uh, boss,¡± one of the pack leader companions raises his hand, ¡°then why we came back?¡± The Output of the pack leader slaps the impertinent companion, earning a nod of approval from her Input. ¡°I almost believe that Bennie boy didn¡¯t carry any eddies with him, because the real treasure is all the shit he set up and the material he collected. It¡¯s just that the four of us don¡¯t have enough hands to carry it all up, so I decided to give you reprobates the chance to ride on my glory.¡± ¡°¡®Reprobates?¡¯ Did you install a dictionary chip or something choom?¡± Another disciplinary slap followed the inquiry. ¡°Of course not, dumbass,¡± the pack leader hypocritically answers, ¡°differently from you Animals, Jackal has culture.¡± ¡°¡°¡°Ohhhh.¡±¡±¡± ¡°What are you standing around for, gonks, go grab your irons and some tools, the Animals are going on a stampede!¡± As the other Animals scurried around to prepare for the raid, Jack the Jackal fantasized about his future in the gang. He believes that, if he sells the salvaged materials and equipment he plans to steal from Mark together with the reputation boost from this operation, Jack might even be promoted to the inner circle of the Animals, or perhaps even splinter off from the parent gang. ¡®The Jackals? No, there will be only one Jackal. Perhaps the Biters? Yes, that has a nice sound to it, isn¡¯t it?¡¯ Feeling optimistic about the future, the Jackal started barking orders to the other Animals. ¡­ After a few hours since the first contact, the Animals came back in force with trucks. Most animals were armed with large, heavy industrial tools while a few carried firearms. A particular Animal remained on the vehicle while the rest left the trucks to follow their leader. As they walked, Jack felt that something was off with that area. At first, nothing looked out of ordinary to him, but before he could ponder on the cause for his unease, Mark comes to greet the group arrival. ¡°You had to come back, didn¡¯t you.¡± Mark says with a disappointed tone. ¡°By the extra muscle you brough, you don¡¯t plan on dealing in good faith, either.¡± ¡°Who the fuck do you think you are?¡± Jack growls at Mark, ¡°we are the fucking Animals! You fuck with us, and we come in force to fuck you up! Split boy, fuck¡¯em up!¡± The last remaining Animal on the truck pull up an old Budget Arms Tripple Threat, a rocket launcher that was famous during the Time of Red. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Fuck!¡± Mark swears while quickly taking cover behind a stone furnace. The Animal fires the rocket once, twice, three times. All the visible gun turrets got destroyed by the poor-quality rockets, as Mark retreats further into his Starter Base. ¡°Ha ha! Who¡¯s laughing now, Doughboy? Not so though without your toys, eh? Animals, charge!¡± The Animals did as they always do, charging at their prey while howling and snarling, becoming beasts on a stampede, ready to stomp and trample anyone under their feet, claws, and hooves. Unfortunately for the Animals, they forgot two fundamental rules of the jungle. *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* The first rule of the Jungle is that there is always someone bigger, meaner, and stronger somewhere out there. The second rule of the Jungle is that you never, ever, fuck with men. *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* The only animal on Earth that was the direct responsible for the extinction of several of the fauna and flora of the planet, some of them in recent memory with their technological marvels, and some on the distant past with primitive bows, spears, and even the humble rock. All the Animals that charged at the Starter Base died in a manner of instants, an obscene amount of bullets raining down on their bodies with cold, mechanical precision. Jack panicked at the sight of the first wave dying so easily. ¡®How, how did that happen? He didn¡¯t had that many turrets! Where did they came from? How did he hid them?¡¯ Straining his eyes, Jackal finally put two and two together. At first it looked like the defenses were the same, a mere bluff to scare off the Animals, but upon closer inspection Jackal realized that the barrier of furnaces, the gun turrets, even the warning written on the ground, they had all moved several meters ahead from their initial position. However, in reality¡­ ¡°It doubled in size! How!¡± There were now two lines of defenses, the new decoy line, and the original line that was reinforced with more turrets. It is understandable that Jackal couldn¡¯t notice it at first, since not only there are several large stone furnaces providing cover and forming a primitive wall, but even the stone walls that hid the Started Base got duplicated. Now that Jackal is straining his eyes he noticed that the south area of the base had expanded, with smoke and steam coming from that direction. ¡°Split booooy!¡± Jackal called for the heavy weapons guy to pick another rocket. However, his yell was drowned by the deafening explosion of the truck. ¡°Grenade!¡± One of the Animals yelled, only to eat several bullets from Mark¡¯s submachine gun. Mark decided to prioritize military science over anything else in the past few hours, increasing bullet damage, rate of fire, and explosive damage. His personal machinegun also has piercing armor bullets instead of the standard bullets. Thanks to this decision, most of the Animals were taken down without issues, as he threw grenade after grenade while aiming his gun with both arms for stability. ¡®It reminds me of Doom Eternal integrated grenade launcher sys- UGH!¡¯ Mark returns fire with his submachine gun while still throwing grenades at his enemies. Eventually, all red dots disappeared from Mark minimap, save one. Walking towards the downed Animal, the former Output of Jackal tries to crawl away from the armored man as if he were the devil himself. ¡°I am not going to kill you,¡± Mark states, surprising the woman, ¡°I am allowing you to live so that you can send your gang a message.¡± Mark crouches down, staring face to faceplate with the female Animal, the sight of the dark visor up close sending shivers down the Animal spine. ¡°Tell them that this area is my territory. Anyone that tries to bother me will be put down.¡± Mark pauses for a moment to let the threat hang in the air. ¡°Tell them that you live because The Engineer allowed it. Got that¡­ choom?¡± ¡°Y-yes, yes! Please don¡¯t kill me!¡± Mark dismisses her, giving the retreating Animal one last piece of advice. ¡°You should leave that gang, or else you will end up on an early grave.¡± She nods like a woodpecker before running like a Chetah, leaving the various corpses and ruined vehicles of her fellow gang members behind. Soon after, that area is clean of any bodies, the ruined vehicles had disappeared, and a large walled off area in the south Pacifica region firmly establish itself, alongside a new rumor and urban legend. The legend of The Engineer. Good Neighbors, Bad Neighbors (1) After fending off the Animals attack, cleaning up the nearby area of corpses and debris, and replacing the destroyed equipment, Mark goes to the nearby shop where he can convert the extra guns, equipment, armor, and other items held by the Animals, for extra cash. The final balance of this incursion by the Animals, minus service fees, was over five thousand Eurodollars, eddies. ¡°I can pay rent and buy ingredients for the welcoming party. Looks like today was more productive than I thought. The real problem will be maintaining this consistency. Any ideas Solvy?¡± Solvernia doesn¡¯t answer, as she isn¡¯t an expert in economics, as her expertise leans more on field operations, naval tactics, and home defense. ¡°Maybe I should follow the path of ¡®John Starsector?¡¯¡± Solvernia silently agrees, as the Starfarer could fund a war with their personal funds when the situation calls for it. ¡°Whatever, that¡¯s Future Me problem. Now Solvy, the real question is, what I should make for dinner?¡± Mark preempts his friend first suggestion. ¡°Of course there will be Choco lava cake. I¡¯m not a barbarian.¡± In the end, Solvernia silently approves of Mark¡¯s proposed menu. ¡­ *Knock* *Knock* *Knock* ¡°What?¡± A teenage boy answers the door, surprising Mark for a moment, however, Mark quickly remembers who the boy is. ¡°Are you Gloria¡¯ son? My name is Mark Henderson and I¡¯m your new neighbor. I invited your family to a little welcoming feast before. If you¡¯re all free, you can come and have lunch at my apartment.¡± The boy looks suspiciously at Mark, before he turns back to his home. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ?Mam¨¢, el vecino quiere hablar contigo! After a few minutes, Gloria, David, and Mark are sitting on the dining room of Mark¡¯s apartment. ¡°I love what you did with the place. How did you manage to make it look so nice?¡± ¡°Oh, just some clever use of furniture and wall screens to split the large empty space into several smaller, cozier rooms.¡± Mark answers with pride in his work. After cleaning the apartment using powerful chemicals and a handcrafted power washer, Mark put several pieces of furniture using the vegetable fibers he compressed into ¡°wood.¡± ¡°You¡¯re into Feng Shui or something? The gonks at Arasaka says that¡¯s just pointless superstition.¡± David asks, pointing to some choice pieces of furniture, such as an Ba Gua Mirror hanging on the wall. Gloria quickly admonishes her kid. ¡°David, be nice!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not offended, and I don¡¯t think David tried to offend me either. It¡¯s just the kind of hypocrisy I would expect from Arasaka. Tell me David, did you ever heard about the principles of Fusui?¡± David slowly nods. ¡°They¡¯re literally the same thing, but flavored to the traditions of Japan. Only God knows how much things got worse since the early twenty-first century.¡± ¡°Ah, sorry hijo, I spoke too soon.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, mom.¡± Mark smiles at the interaction before going to the oven and picking up the main dish: a tray of roasted chicken baked together with potatoes and other root vegetables. Mark also brings other dishes, such as fresh rice, baked black beans, Pico de Gallo, and a green salad. The two Night City natives look at the spread of food with wide eyes, with David tentatively poking the chicken with his fork. ¡°Is this real meat? It must have cost a fortune!¡± ¡°Sadly, it isn¡¯t. It¡¯s just a higher end SCOP product made to look like real food, though it is good enough to work as an ingredient for middle class clients. I got lucky and managed to find a ¡®Food Dealer¡¯ earlier, and if I pay extra I can even get my find real food.¡± The two look at Mark strangely for admitting so openly to his ties to the Food Black Market of Night City. ¡°Look, not even a day after I arrived in this city I realized that people end up indulging in some manner to escape the harsh reality of the city. Drugs, alcohol, BD, XBD, name it and someone is into it.¡± Mark smiles at the time, leaning back on his chair. ¡°I like cooking, so I decided to indulge by eating tasty food despite this city trying their best to treat me like a dog. Besides, food taste better when sharing with others. So why don¡¯t we eat before the food turns cold.¡± David plate is already the size of a small hill as he answers. ¡°You don¡¯t have to ask twice.¡± With the tension broken, the apartment is filled with the clicking of utensils and laughter, as if in defiance of Night City darkness. Good Neighbors, Bad Neighbors (2) The next day Mark greets a refreshed Gloria going to her work shift while the Engineer walks towards his Starter Base. The base has enough production capacity to progress through the Automation (red), Logistics (green), and Military (grey) sciences; however, the problems will arise when Mark needs to advance to Chemical Science. For now, Mark has a relatively large stockpile of Advanced Circuits, the Red Chips, stocked, but the problem will be extracting sulfur. The Recycler from the Spage Age part of the Factorio System allows him to recover a wide variety of items, but all fluids are lost. The Recycling Facility from the Spage Exploration module, on the other hand, returns a small fraction of heavy oil, however it returns far less materials than the smaller Recycler, most of it coming in the form of Heavy Oil. ¡°Sadly, most of the good stuff is locked behind Rocket Science, and that¡¯s a problem. Do you have any suggestions, Solvy?¡± Solvernia silently stared back, as if what he was asking was obvious. ¡°Right, I guess I can¡¯t hide from it forever. Eventually I will need to leave Night City for the Badlands.¡± Mark sighs at the blunt reminder, ¡°before camping outside, I want to buy as many supplies as possible and have my fill of human interaction. Otherwise, I will start seeing people as Biters.¡± Solvernia wisely remains silent on that issue. ¡­ Back at the base, Mark frowns at seeing the bodies of gangsters lying on the ground after trying to enter the defended perimeter. Mark used his precious stock of concrete to place warning concrete on the ground and wrote on the walls a message about the dangers of going ahead, yet the Scavs thought Mark was bluffing. Much like in the Animals assault, Mark places all the bodies on his inventory before sorting the respective loot. In terms of eddies, the haul was small, though he¡¯s not certain on the quality of cybernetics. ¡°Thankfully, there is no part of a Scav that goes to waste. Much like pirates, right Solvy?¡± Mark likes to believe Solvernia returned a smug smile at him. After fumbling with his Agent for a while, Mark successfully calls the desired number. ¡°Hello, is this Viktor¡¯s Clinic?¡± Mark asks, holding the Agent like a cellphone. ¡°¡­ how did you get this number? Are you holding your agent over your ear?¡± ¡°Oh sorry, I didn¡¯t think it did video calls as default.¡± Mark says with an embarrassed smile. ¡°Hello, my name is Mark Henderson, and I wanted to talk business with a ripperdoc. As for how I got your number, I look it up on the net.¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°¡­excuse me?¡± The man on the video call asks incredulously, and Mark clarified it for him. ¡°The ¡®Night City Unofficial Business Guide¡¯ rated your clinic ninety points out of a hundred, which is the highest score they give to independent clinics. The ¡®Night City Business Association¡¯ lists your clinic as ¡®Active; Irregular;¡¯ so I suspect you haven¡¯t paid some taxes?¡± ¡°¡­ it¡¯s a monthly bribe to the Night City mayor office, being listed as ¡®Irregular¡¯ is an unofficial way to say your business services both law abiding citizens and criminals, but the cops won¡¯t come raiding unless you actively cause trouble.¡± ¡°That¡¯s as enlightening as it is horrifying, thank you for the answer. Now, are you willing to hear on m business proposal?¡± The man sighs, then look back at the camera screen. ¡°Just come to my clinic so we can talk face-to-face.¡± Mark gives a thumbs up and ends the call. Pocketing the Agent, mark looks around the reclaimed items on his stash, hoping that the famous ripperdoc references him to any known Techies. ¡­ Mark quickly drives to Little China towards a back alley, after making sure to secure the vehicle machine gun with cloth and rope. After parking, he takes a large crate and a trolley to carry towards Viktor¡¯s Clinic, stopping at Misty¡¯s Esoterica first. ¡°Good morning. I talked with Viktor over the phone, he should be waiting for me. My name is Mark Henderson.¡± The woman that answers Mark is, in his opinion, a rare sight in Night City. Her appearance screamed ¡°Goth¡± to Mark, despite the modest use of the color black in her outfit. It¡¯s the perfect advertisement for her shop, an island of spirituality in the materialistic wasteland of Night City. ¡°Hello, you¡¯re here to see Vik, right? My name is Misty, and I will show you the way to his clinic.¡± The young woman says with a smile, beckoning Mark to follow. ¡°Thank you, Misty.¡± With some careful maneuvering, Mark finally reaches the Viktor¡¯s Clinic, meeting the man face-to-face. ¡°Well, Mark, what kind of business you bring me today?¡± Mark opens the crate, where a couple of corpses are hidden, surprising the other pair. ¡°The Scavs thought I was a pushover, and I correct their misconception.¡± Mark states ominously. ¡°I already looted them of valuables, but I think I can get some extra cash by selling their chrome and cashing on any bounty they might have. Same for the Animals, though they¡¯re on a different crate.¡± Vik takes a cursory glance at the bodies, then nods. ¡°I can make use of this, and if you also have Animals there¡¯s a ripperdoc that buys their wetware. As for bounties, you should probably either ask a fixer or the NCPD bounty board.¡± ¡°Thanks for the advice, Viktor!¡± Mark opens a smaller box, containing a few Processing Units and Advanced Circuits. ¡°It¡¯s probably not your specialty, but please, take a look.¡± Viktor studies the Advanced Circuits first, then looks at the Processing Units. ¡°You¡¯re right, it¡¯s not my specialty, but I know a few techies that might be interested in this. I can tell they¡¯re high-quality products, though.¡± ¡°If they buy it, I will give you a 15% consulting fee for the referrals.¡± Viktor looks at Mark, reassessing the Engineer on his mind. ¡°I think, this is going to be a beautiful relationship, Mark.¡± The ripperdoc says while extending his hand. Mark quickly takes it. ¡°The pleasure is all mine, Viktor.¡± ¡°Please, call me Vik.¡± Good Neighbors, Bad Neighbors (3) After finishing his business deal with Vik, Mark continues with his second task for the day. ¡°Time to put the fear of God in those pirate wannabe, isn¡¯t it right, Solvy?¡± Mark likes to imagine that Solvernia agrees with him, since kidnapping people to harvest their organs and cybernetics is the exact behavior that pirates on the Persean Sector would engage. ¡°If only there was a way for me to decrypt the data this would be much simpler.¡± Unfortunately for Mark, properly interfacing with the encrypted memory shards left behind is beyond his means, since the laboratories are dedicated to research, and the supercomputers are tied behind Space science. ¡°Maybe if I get my get a cyberdeck? I will try to buy a cheap one later.¡± Thankfully for Mark, he still knew some hacking tricks he acquired during college, and one of the killed Scavs was a dumbass that forgot to protect his data. He now has the address to the Scav cell hideout, and a rough estimate of size of their cell from the contact list of the man. Jumping into his car, Mark drives through the streets towards his next target, turning on the radio. Mark quickly realizes that most of the stations play similar songs, melodies, and beats. ¡°Not much different from back home, to be honest. I guess if I want to listen to good music, I will need to make it myself.¡± Fortunately for Mark future musical ventures, the Wube Inc. enhancement package also enhanced his mental faculties to a degree, and he can recall songs and music from his Earth with greater clarity than before. ¡°I wonder if Sony and other companies still retain the copyright to old music, of if they managed to pull a Disney. What do you think, Solvy?¡± Solvernia gives a flat, silent stare at Mark in response. ¡°Right, not relevant to the job, got it.¡± Regardless of the content of his musings and one-sided discussion with the Marketable Plushy Solvernia?, Mark successfully arrives at the Scav hideout. Getting out of the car, Mark performs a final checkup of his supplies. Health packs, check. Armor piercing magazines, check. Standard magazines, check. Shotgun, check. Buckshot ammo, check. Gun turrets, check. Walls, check. Repair packs, check. Grenades, check. ¡°I will keep that other thing for later, the Scavs are not worth using it. Well, everything¡¯s in order. Wish me luck, Solvy.¡± Mark likes to pretend she smiled back and wished him good luck. ¡­ ¡°Slow night.¡± One of the pair of Scav guards says to his partner. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°I¡¯m not lending you money.¡± The second half of the pair bluntly answers. ¡°Oh, come on! I wasn¡¯t going to ask you for a loan!¡± ¡°You always ask for money, you always gamble it away, and then you always ask for more money. How is this conversation any different from the last fifty we had?¡± ~~OST - Steel For Humans~~ *Tratata* *sploosh* The first guard body wobbles on its feet for a moment, before dropping on the ground with a loud thud. ¡°Oh. OH SH-!¡± The second guard is interrupted mid-sentence by another burst of machinegun fire, hitting the man¡¯s head and exploding his skull. The Engineer approaches the two bodies, and notes that he can¡¯t recover the memory shard, making a note to reserve headshots to troublesome targets before placing the bodies on his inventory. The Engineer enters the building and already he hears the Scavs rushing towards the entrance. With a flick of his wrist several gun turrets appear on the corridor, greeting the approaching Scavs with a hail of bullets with mechanical precision. The rest of the Scav gang take up cover behind the walls, staying away from the turrets line of sight. The intruder of their hideout isn¡¯t in a hurry to press forward. ¡°§µ§Ò§Ý§ð§Õ§à§Ü! Someone call backup, Militech is-¡± A single grenade flew past the Scav issuing orders, then the entire area exploded violently with weaker walls blowing up in pieces, and pieces of bodies raining blood. ¡°§¤§â§Ñ§ß§Ñ§ä§Ñ!¡± Another Scav yelled, but he was caught by the Engineer¡¯s shotgun, dropping on the ground together with other gangsters. The Scavs are quickly losing ground, and they can¡¯t even use their homefield advantage due to the gun turrets left behind by the Engineer preventing the gangsters from flanking the intruder. Some of the Scavengers tries to run, only for their paths to be cut off mysteriously by the sudden appearance of stone walls, or for a line of gun turrets to cut off their escape before it unleashes a hail of bullets. At the center of the building, the leader of the current cell is sweating profusely as she looks on the installed security cameras monitor and sees the carnage unfolding before her. ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Who the hell did we anger? Is it Arasaka? Militech? The fucking Vatican?¡± The leader pauses for a moment, watching the Engineer on the monitor looking up and then aiming his gun upwards. ¡°What?¡± The Engineer starts to unload his submachine gun towards the ceiling, trying to hit the Scav leader on the room above his room. At first nothing happened, until the floor started to break up, leaving a fist sized gap between floors. That was enough for the Engineer, as with a single flick of his wrist, several gun turrets appeared on the upper room, raining bullets until every Scav was dead. Uncaring that the local cell leader just perished, the Engineer repeated the process twice more before he took the stairs to the second floor of the building. Eventually, the building fell silent, as neither the screams of panic and pain from the Scavs, or the constant stream of bullet fire could be heard. The only survivor of the massacre was, ironically, the latest victims of the gang, still on the operation table with her guts open. The woman was in incredible pain and delirious, but according to a later account, she was rescued by someone in a strange suit of yellowish armor. The building where the ¡°Scavenger Gang Massacre¡± happened would later be investigated by the NCPD, and they would determine that an excessive amount of firepower was used, with at least three areas being hit by powerful explosives. According to their profiling, either the Maelstrom or the Voodoo Boys attacked that cell, with the main reason being the lack of bodies in crime scene and all the security footage being unavailable due to the equipment being physically ripped off from the building. When asked by the Media why those actions would indicate the involvement of the Maelstrom or the Voodoo Boy gang, the NCPD choose not to comment. Good Neighbors, Bad Neighbors (4) ¡°Hey David, give this to your mother, alright? I made a bit much last time and I can¡¯t eat everything before it spoils.¡± Mark gives to David a large container of food, containing stir fry meat and vegetables. ¡°You don¡¯t need to do this, you know?¡± David replies to Mark as he picks up the container. ¡°I¡¯ serious when I said I made too much. I always end up overestimating how much food I cook, in the past I could call friends over for lunch, but here in Night City I only know your family.¡± Mark pauses for a moment, suddenly realizing something. ¡°Can I ask you for a favor David? Where can I buy a cheap cyberdeck?¡± ¡°Planning on becoming a Netrunner, choom?¡± Mark simply smiles. ¡°It¡¯s a personal project I¡¯m working on.¡± ¡­ Thanks to David help, Mark managed to buy a basic cyberdeck and other similar equipment that was quickly put on Mark inventory. The cyberdeck, together with several other pieces of cyberware extracted from the Scavs unlocked a new area of research for him. Together with his newly researched Modular Armor, Mark felt less vulnerable than before. The Modular Armor has better protection against corrosion and explosive impact compared with the previous Heavy Armor and has a five-by-five grid to add equipment modules. Most of the better modules are hidden behind Chemical Science, however, the cyberware only requires Automation and Logistic science to research. The new equipment module his Factorio System provided is named Digital Interface Port, and it already proved its usefulness by connecting to his Agent and integrating the technology into the Factorio System. Mark makes a pair of Modular Armor, setting them up for an ¡°Industrial Setup¡± and a ¡°Combat Setup.¡± For now, the secondary armor sits on his inventory. ¡°Let¡¯s see what the Scavs are hiding while I wait for all the batteries to charge.¡± It took hours for Mark to sift through the data and the gut-wrenching actions of the Scavenger gang. The Scavs are on the kidnapping business, taking individuals on the request of other gangs and corporations, while selling the extracted cyberware on the black market. After more work on the data, Mark realizes the true depts of depravity of the Scav gang. ¡°The little shits make most of their money selling third party data! Can you believe that Solvy? They kidnap, butcher, and dabble in chattel so that they can collect and sell data from the victims¡¯ friends and family to the corporations! Why? Why would you do this? What kind of demented creature approved of this business model? What kind of incompetent monster encourages this behavior?¡± As a systems engineer, Mark knows how easy it is to collect data from people. In Mark¡¯s mind, none of this make sense. He can only assume that the higher ups engage in this behavior because they are Evil, Depraved Monsters. Solvernia remains silent, allowing Mark to rant and rave until he calms down. Eventually, Mark reassesses the information he obtained from the Scavs. ¡°If I remember correctly, the gang has ties to the Russian mafia, or perhaps the Russian government? It would make sense for them to deal with information together with their usual ¡®business.¡¯ Who is the primary buyer of data?¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Upon further inspection, two names came up: Arasaka and Militech. ¡°Arasaka is probably using the data to further enhance their Soul Killer technology, but what about Militech? Are they feeding the data to an AI learning program?¡± There were other companies listed, but the volume of data the Scavs destined to them was much smaller. There were also other messages that caught Mark¡¯s interest. ¡°¡®Remember to send the boys to rough up MH04 for intruding in our turf.¡¯ Who the hell is ¡®MH04?¡¯¡± After searching the net, the only reference he finds is the ¡°Megabuilding Hospital 04,¡± the local hospital that services the Megabuilding 04. ¡°Why would a Hospital intrude on the Scavs turf? What¡¯s going on here?¡± Unfortunately for Mark, that throwaway line was the only clue regarding that line of investigation. ¡°Great, a whole lot of nothing. Well, let¡¯s cash out today¡¯s catch before calling it a night.¡± ¡­ The traffic towards Viktor¡¯s Clinic was too slow, so Mark decided to take an alternate route, landing him near the northern industrial district, meaning he¡¯s lost. ¡°Fuck. Hate when that happens.¡± While Mark checks his Agent for the city map (GPS subscription sold separately), he spotted someone familiar on a nearby alley. ¡°Get away from her you cum suckers!¡± A homeless man is pointing their arm threateningly towards a group of gangsters. Those gangsters have various, grotesque cybernetics all over their body, with their faces suffering the most. All the gangsters¡¯ members have strange optics, ranging from cyclopean to arachnid-like, to even a flatscreen that ran green symbols downwards like a screen saver. They¡¯re the Maelstrom gang, a group of people that venerates technology and cybernetics, not unlike the Mechanicum, except in Mark¡¯s opinion, at least the Mechanicum aesthetics had a certain inhuman appeal to it. The Maelstrom in comparison is like teenagers with too many piercings on their faces. They also shot the homeless man while Mark is watching the events unfold. ¡°FUCK!¡± Mark jumps off the car and rushes towards the gang, weapon in hand. The Maelstrom gangsters point their guns towards Mark, and he responds by placing a stone furnace between himself to block their bullets, then he brings several gun turrets in a line, setting up the FFI to not target the homeless man, until he finally loads the weapons. *Clack* *Clack* *Clack* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* Checking his minimap, Mark confirms that all gangsters are dead. He pockets all the bodies for later, when he realizes that the homeless man is blinking at him, as if not believing what he just saw. Mark also realizes that he knows this homeless man. ¡°Miguel? What are you doing here?¡± Miguels blinks, as if his mind is rebooting. ¡°Is that you Mark?¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s me. Wait, stay down, I¡¯m going to help you. Just trust me, alright?¡± Mark kneels on the ground while Miguels stares at the armored man. Miguel tries not to flinch at Mark¡¯s touch, doing his best to relax. ¡°Alright, do what you have to do.¡± Behind his faceplate Mark is cringing at the damage. Half of Miguel¡¯s lower torso got blown up, the skin in tatters while it shows the subdermal armor beneath. Some of the normal skin is also rotting, but Miguel doesn¡¯t look visibly troubled by it, or even show signs of being bothered by pain. Mark takes out a medical kit and apply it to Miguel. Since he¡¯s not directly connected to the Factorio System, Mark needs to open the medical kit and take a tube-like instrument to apply into the threated person. From the tub a liquid substance flows towards Miguel, and the man starts to look visibly better. As the treatment develops, the medical kit appears to eat itself, until it is completely used up. Miguel looks better, the rotten skin fell off, the gunshot wound has closed off, and even some color has returned to Miguel¡¯s face. He¡¯s not completely recovered yet, but weeks if not months of natural recovery happened in an instant. ¡°Wow! That was ¨C¡± ¡°Here¡¯s the second dose!¡± ¡°Wh-¡± Mark stabs another tub on Miguel, then a third, and finally a fourth medical kit. As the final specs of treatment finishes, Miguel is a completely new person. All external wounds of the veteran are healed, new synth skin grows and cover the subdermal armor, Miguel can breathe better, and even his fallen teeth appear to have grown back. Overall, Miguel even looks slightly younger than before. Sadly, Miguel hair didn¡¯t grown back. The homeless veteran pats his body all over, taking a minute to look at himself. ¡°What the hell, are you some kind of corpo executive, or something? This is some good shit.¡± Mark almost instinctively says no; however, he remembers that technically, he is now an employee of Wube Inc. ¡°I¡¯m just a peon. We got nice toys, but HR is brutal.¡± Good Neighbors, Bad Neighbors (5) ¡°Alright Miguel, tell me, what happened? Why were you yelling at the Maelstrom gangsters?¡± Miguel blinks at the odd language of Mark, but dismisses it as ¡°corpo business,¡± and returns to the matter at hand. ¡°It¡¯s my niece! The Maelstrom took my niece and are going to force her to join their gang! We must go after them!¡± Miguel sounds desperate, but Mark can sympathize since he knows how monstruous the Maelstrom are. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going to recover the gun turrets and other equipment while you tell me everything about the gang that might help.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no time!¡± Miguel desperation starts to rise, ¡°they took her from me! They hate people like her because she barely has any chrome on her!¡± Miguels tries to run away, but Mark manages to catch the veteran before he can go off on his own. ¡°Damn it Miguel, wait up! You can¡¯t just rush ahead on your own!¡± ¡°You don¡¯t get it!¡± The veteran snarls back at Mark, raising his other arm to the Engineer, but not opening the hidden weapon port yet. ¡°She¡¯s the only family I have in this cursed city!¡± Mark slaps the raised arm up and Miguel shots on reflex, surprised that the Engineer would move like that with a gun pointed to his face. That momentary surprise was enough to allow Mark to throw Miguel over his shoulder and point his shotgun to Miguel¡¯s face. ¡°Damn it, man! Listen to me! If they¡¯re going to force her to join the gang we still have time! We will get her today, no, in an hour. Just give me an hour to pick up my equipment and your niece will be safe, alright? Do you think I can¡¯t take the Maelstrom on my own?¡± Miguel looks at the barrel of the shotgun pointed at his face, then at the armored faceplate of Mark. He takes a deep breath, calming himself as much as he can. ¡°One hour?¡± ¡°One fucking hour, and the Maelstrom will be history.¡± ¡°Alright, alright. I get it. Sorry for pointing a gun at your face, earlier. Can you let me up?¡± With a single pull Miguel is back on his feet and Mark resumes reclaiming his gun turrets. ¡°What can you tell me about the gang?¡± ¡°They¡¯re all chrome junkies,¡± Miguel starts while futilely trying to close his jacket, ¡°augmented to hell and back so even a new gonk is a threat to most cyberpunks you find out there. In terms of firepower, they¡¯re as dangerous as a soldier from NUSA or a mid-level Edgerunner, but what makes them lethal is their complete disregard for themselves while fighting.¡± ¡°Alright, that helps. What about their numbers? Where are they located?¡± ¡°I know where their hideout is. It¡¯s on the former All Foods Plant, they completely took over the compound, maybe even expanded it. As for their numbers, last time I checked there¡¯s over a thousand strong.¡± Mark pauses for a moment, looking back Miguel. ¡°If there¡¯s over a thousand strong, then we definitely need to get my equipment back at base.¡± Mark finishes reclaiming everything, making sure to pick up everything, before motioning for Miguel to follow him. ¡°How well do you know the streets of Night City? If you know a shortcut back to Pacifica we can go and return in minutes.¡± ¡°Yeah, I lived here for years now. I know all the districts like the back of my hand!¡± ¡°Great, get into the driver¡¯s seat then.¡± Mark jumps over the window and get into the passenger seat while Miguel opens the car door. ¡°The fuck is this? A manual transmission? Did you mug a Nomad Clan before coming to Night City?¡± ¡°Can you drive or not?¡± Mark answers back with a hint of irritation. ¡°Yeah, learned back in the army.¡± Miguel hits the gas, only for the car to wobble forward, ¡°damn it!¡± *Vroom* *Creek* *Vroom* *Creek* *Vroom* *Creek* ¡°Do you know how to drive or not?¡± ¡°Shut up, it¡¯s been a while alright!¡± *Vroom* *Creek* *Vroom* *Creek* *Vroom* *Vroom* ¡°Alright, I got it!¡± *Vroom!!!* Both Miguel and Mark slam their back on their respective seats as the car hits nearly maximum acceleration in seconds. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare hit anything!¡± Mark screams amidst the roaring of the engine, ¡°I don¡¯t want the pigs¡¯ asking questions about where the car came from!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I got this!¡± ¡­ Despite Mark initial worry, the pair managed to get to the Starter Base without issues. Much to Mark¡¯ shock when he first arrived in Night City, unless you cause a traffic accident, the traffic laws are treated more as a suggestion than anything. The reason is because the NCPD doesn¡¯t bother to prosecute someone going over the speed limit. ¡°This way.¡± Mark motions for Miguel to follow him, and the veteran has the unique opportunity to see the inner workings of the Starter Base. Rows of Electric Miners are digging up the piles of trash on the ground accumulated over the many years. The scrap travels through a series of conveyor belts towards a series of machines where robotic arms pick up each individual scrap pile with expert dexterity and place them inside a strange machine. The machine grinds, churns, and spits a series of materials that is then belted towards a sorting area as multiple robotic arms and belt splitters help separate the items. From there, some of the items go to a steel furnace to be melted and turned into plates, other continue the conveyor belt further along the line, while others end into a chest where the items are stored for later. A massive factory hidden within the Pacifica district under the nose of the big corpos, supposedly owned by Mark¡¯s original employer. ¡°Come here,¡± Mark beckons Miguel towards a series of chests. ¡°Put this on first.¡± Mark gives to Miguel a copy of the base uniform, including a new set of underwear, for the veteran to wear. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, this is a one size fits all uniform. It will adjust to you automatically.¡± Miguel doesn¡¯t waste time, taking off his old clothes and putting on the uniform. Mark discreetly picks up the discarded clothes and place it en route to the burners. ¡°Great, now put this on.¡± This time, Mark hands Miguel a copy of Modular Armor to Miguel. ¡°We will wait here for fifteen minutes while the batteries charge up.¡± Once again, Miguel puts the new armor over the uniform, the pieces of the Modular Armor fitting easily on the veteran. As soon as Miguel finishes donning the armor, Mark receives a notification from the system, as new technologies are unlocked. Mark immediately starts researching them, while picking up a few supplies to build the latest items. ¡°If we¡¯re dealing with over a thousand gangsters, then four lines of stacks will be enough? No, better make it six stack lines. A stack line of grenades, another stack line of gun turrets, a stack line of this, another stack line of war crimes in a can, two stacks of medical kits, two stacks of repair kits, four stacks of walls, one stack of stone furnaces, one stack of automatic gates, and this is it.¡± Miguel blinks as Mark mutters under his breath while he walks around a row of steel chests, but his curiosity is interrupted by a new HUD appearing on his display. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Wube Inc. Factorio System Guest User.¡± ¡°What is this? What do I do, Mark?¡± The Engineer pauses his musing before he turns to Miguel. ¡°Well, while you¡¯re wearing the Modular Armor you have access to a limited Inventory. I will give you some items for you to use. Mostly ammo and other consumables. You interface with it using your usual cybernetics, it should come to you naturally.¡± Indeed, Miguel quickly got the hang of using the Inventory. With guest level access, what Miguel could do was severely limited, however he could easily equip and reload his weapons. Miguel¡¯s Projectile Launch System can now fire shotgun shells, and his cyberware now has extra power thanks to equipped batteries on the Modular Armor, allowing the veteran to use them more often and for longer, at least until the batteries last. ¡°Damn choom, are you trying to arm an army?¡± ¡°No, I just plan on fighting against one.¡± The casual way that Mark said those words send shivers down Miguel spine. In that moment, Miguel swore under everything he held dear that he would never, ever, become Mark¡¯s enemy. ¡­ The drive towards All Foods Plant was much calmer than before, as Miguel felt calmer than ever. While he¡¯s still worried about his niece, both he and Mark were carrying enough firepower to storm Arasaka headquarters, if the veteran estimates were correct. ¡°Stop here.¡± Mark says and they park a few blocks away from the defunct factory. ¡°Let¡¯s review the plan: first, we will storm the entrance of the factory, attracting the attention of the gangsters; second, I will create several fortified positions to fall back as we advance, until we find enough clues to where your niece might be; third, I will create a distraction by engaging with the majority of the gang while you rescue your niece; finally, you take your niece back to Viktor¡¯s Clinic in case she needs medical attention, otherwise you wait in the car while I finish the Maelstrom. Any questions?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to run?¡± ¡°Only if I must. Don¡¯t worry, I have an extra car in my pocket.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Miguel nods along, ¡°makes perfect sense.¡± ¡°Great, let¡¯s get this party started. Oh wait, put these on first.¡± Mark hands to Miguel a pair of armor plates. ¡°Extra protection never hurt anyone.¡± After the last-minute checkups were finished, the pair exit the vehicle and walk towards the gangster¡¯s hideout. Miguel walks carefully with his submachine gun on hand, his pace and gait returning to his days of being a soldier, while Mark walks visible unarmed, but is no less dangerous for it. When the pair were within sight of the Maelstrom gang, Mark didn¡¯t waste any time and threw a grenade ahead, instantly blowing up the gangsters near the entrance and on the windows of the second floor. He starts setting up the first fallback position, with the gun turrets and a couple of stone furnaces for cover. The pair then rush towards the factory, Mark pacing gun turrets along the way while Miguel provides overwatch, the gangsters meeting and falling on the turret¡¯s onslaught. The pair sets up a second fortified position, closing off corridors with stone walls and gun turrets creating lethal choke points. Occasionally Mark would throw Slow Capsules, the neuro toxins while not lethal caused lethargy and muscle cramps on the gangsters without a toxic filter. As the gangsters would fall to the assault, Mark would use his DIP to access the data recovered from the gangsters, finding a shard with the local area map. ¡°I¡¯m sending you the coordinates where your niece might be.¡± The Engineer calmly tells Miguel over the shared communication line, ¡°go pick her up while I distract them. Wait for my signal.¡± ¡°Alright!¡± Miguel leaves without hesitation while Mark cracks his neck. The Engineer cracks several canisters, and from them a series of drones fly around him. Taking a deep breath, Mark rushes ahead, engaging with the Maelstrom flood that comes after him. ¡­ Using his native Cyberware and the protection from the Modular Armor, Miguel quickly reaches the area where his Niece is being held captive. There were other prisoners around that Miguel set free to aid in his escape, and throwing some guns and ammo that he stole from the gonks. Miguel had barely made it to the Green Berets, but he still remembers a lesson or two. The former captives will provide a secondary distraction while Miguel sneak through the inner area of the hideout. While Mark is singlehandedly holding most of the gang, there are still more than enough gonks to protect the ¡°conversion area,¡± or whatever the Maelstrom call the horror carnival they set up. When Miguel spots his niece, he almost sinks into an episode of cyberpsychosis. Her once beautiful long blond hair is shaved, but fortunately her skull is still untouched. However, his niece right arm was converted into, in his professional opinion, ¡°a piss poor excuse for chrome¡± as the monstrosity is a kit bash amalgam of components welded together. Her right breast is cut off, as a patchwork of subdermal armor is ¡°sewn¡± together under her skin, and a pair of synth breasts hang over a clothesline. ¡®Are they trying to give my niece three boobs?¡¯ Miguel wonders, part in anger, part in horror, part in sheer incredulity. Thankfully, whatever horrendous procedures they were subjecting his niece and a few other prisoners, they stopped once the avenging pair infiltrated the compound. Taking a deep breath, Miguel calmed himself. After all, he has more than enough firepower that he doesn¡¯t need to charge ahead blindly. Carefully setting the FFI codes to exclude his niece and the other prisoners strapped on the operation table, Miguel cracks the canister containing the Defender Capsules, the timer running on his HUD. He kicks down the doors and starts spraying bullets. ¡°Ooooohhhhhhh!¡± *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* *Tra -tatatatatatata* Fifteen drones continuously shot at anything not on their whitelist, while Miguel himself continuously spray bullets from his submachine gun with its ridiculous magazine. A single magazine contains twenty bullets, with each stack containing two hundred magazines, for a total of four thousand bullets per stack of armor piercing rounds, firing from a submachine gun that never overheats or jams through, quote, ¡°hypertech magic,¡± end quote. Miguel alone has more than enough bullets to deal with the Maelstrom gang in its entirety. Mark is carrying six thousand magazines, and five-hundred gun-turrets, alongside several canisters Defender Capsules, and ¡°other things.¡± Eventually, Miguel is out of targets, just in time as his drones break down and self-destruct into uselessness. ¡°Ciara, it¡¯s me, your uncle.¡± The young woman blink through her tears, slowly opening one of her eyes. ¡°Uncle Miguel?¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s me. I¡¯m here to rescue you, alright? My friend is distracting the rest of the gang while I take you somewhere safe.¡± Miguel takes a medical kit and places the tube on Ciara¡¯s good arm. ¡°This is going to make you feel better, alright. Please trust your uncle, okay?¡± ¡°¡­ alright.¡± She weakly answers and Miguel quickly goes to work. ¡®A single medical kit should be enough to help her recover, I don¡¯t want her to get acclimated with this junk on her.¡¯ Thankfully, the procedure finished without issues. Soon Miguel rescued the other prisoners, most of them monks or fellow homeless men and woman taken from the streets. After doing what he can to heal the prisoners, Miguel calls Mark. ¡°Niece secured, extra rescues. What do?¡± ¡°Give them my number. Resume plan.¡± Miguel doesn¡¯t hesitate, giving Mark number while escorting them to safety. The group promised to enter in contact with Mark later, before leaving the facility through a back door. Meanwhile, Miguel escorted his Niece back to the car, and without looking back drove towards Viktor¡¯s Clinic, as Mark had already contacted Viktor to wait for them. ¡­ ¡°Driving to Vik. No more civies.¡± Mark nods to himself, glad that¡¯ taken care off. There are still plenty of gangsters closing on his location, their behavior like the Biters on Factorio. While others would be disgusted by what Mark will do next, to the Engineer there¡¯s nothing to hesitate as he already declared the Maelstrom as Hostis Humani Generis, ¡°Enemies of Mankind,¡± and deserved no mercy. The Engineer cracks open a canister and throws a Poison Capsule at the rushing gangsters. That type of poison will soon break down in contact with oxygen, UV light, or hot temperatures, however, for the time it is volatile, it can melt a forest into slurry. His armor and genetic modification provide him with enough protection he can resist the effects of the poison, while his medical kit allows him to recover from the damage as if nothing happened. Using his enhanced stamina, the Engineer creates an impenetrable line of turrets, closing off escape routes with walls and stone furnaces, allowing his Defender Capsules to protect him from retaliation, while the Poison Capsules finish off the remaining Maelstrom, the ventilation system helping spread the toxic air through the facility. The relative isolation of the factory is also a factor that factored in the decision of the Engineer to use that weapon. With his minimap, the Engineer can easily track the spread of the deadly toxin and determine when the poison is cleared. Eventually, the bullets stop firing. The drones crash on the ground without firing a single round, and the screams have finally stopped. All Mark must do now, is to clean up. ¡­ After a while, Mark enters Viktor¡¯ Clinic as he already finished working on Miguel¡¯s niece. It will take multiple sessions, but according to Vik she can eventually return to normal life. ¡°How much do I owe you, Vik?¡± ¡°Look Mark, we don¡¯t need to discuss about money right now. Both you and your friend went through a lot today, so we can discuss it tomorrow, alright?¡± ¡°If you say so.¡± Mark yawns tiredly and then his stomach rumbles in hunger. ¡°Ugh, I need to order takeout. I don¡¯t have the patience to cook today.¡± ¡°Here,¡± Miguel approaches Mark with an XXL burrito and a cup with dipping sauce, ¡°try it with the sauce and tell me if it doesn¡¯t taste better.¡± Mark takes the offered half burrito, in a mirror to his first encounter with Miguel, and dips it into the Salsa Verde. ¡°Not bad. Not bad at all.¡± As the victorious pair sit down and enjoy their meal, a message pings on Mark¡¯s Agent. ¡°¡®You and your associate are invited to the Afterlife VIP room. Tell the bouncer that Rogue invited you.¡¯ How the fuck rumors spread this fast?¡± ¡°It has been a few hours.¡± Miguel helpfully points out, and Mark grimaces. ¡°Shit, I¡¯m going to take a bath first.¡± Mark turns to Miguel, ¡°you too, you smelly ass.¡± Miguel makes a show to sniff his armpit, immediately regretting it. ¡°Sounds fair.¡± Good Neighbors, Bad Neighbors (6) After borrowing a shower from Vik, Mark and Miguel drove to the Afterlife bar in silence. The pair took off their armor for the moment, instead wearing a set of ¡°office uniforms¡± for the Engineer. The outfit was a simple pair of short sleeved button-down shirts, a pair of chinos, and sturdy boots, all of them in similar colors to the usual Engineer attire. Only Miguel was visibly armed, but the veteran soldier held no doubt about who was the more dangerous of the pair. At the bar entrance, the due are stopped by the bouncer. ¡°Name?¡± ¡°Rogue invited me. Look for the Engineer. He¡¯s also with me.¡± The large man checks his Agent, scrolling down through the list until he finds what he¡¯s looking for. He steps aside and welcome the two men inside. ¡°Rogue is waiting for you two. She¡¯s in the back.¡± As they pass through the bar, Mark notices the places that he once visited while playing the game. Despite everything, he can¡¯t help the shivers of excitement from escaping. Eventually, the pair stops in front of a large booth where Rogue is waiting. The Queen of the Afterlife appearance is practically a history lesson that mirrors Night City. Her body looks strong, young, and beautiful, despite the woman being over eighty years old, as her body is enhanced with cybernetics and genetic manipulation. The areas where the signs of old age are harder to disguise, such as the neck and the back of her hands, are simply covered with a chocker and a pair of hand warmers. Her face looks older, likely on purpose as some kind of statement. Before, Rogue was a cyberpunk that made her name as a Solo in Night City, working for those who could pay her well while fighting for a cause. Now, people work for her, and she decides which causes are worth fighting for. The Queen isn¡¯t alone, being surrounded by men and woman on her booth. Some of them are casually drinking, while others are glaring at everyone and everything around them. Most of them looking visibly unarmed, but in the world of Cyberpunk that¡¯s not a sign of reassurance. ¡°Mark Henderson,¡± she casually calls Mark¡¯s name, ¡°you caused quite the stir today.¡± Mark nods and takes a seat in front of her, while Miguel remained standing to keep his eyes on the crowd and possible exit points. ¡°I heard about what you did today.¡± She continues, a smirk tugging at her lips, ¡°you clear up a Scav dem solo earlier in the day, then decides that¡¯s not enough and follow suit with the Maelstrom headquarters.¡± She takes a sip of her drink, a Johnny Silverhand. ¡°Not bad for someone who just arrived at Night City.¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Mark notices that Rogue is trying to fish for information, and he decides that nothing he can produce is more fantastical than the truth. ¡°Going after the Maelstrom was a spur of the moment thing,¡± Mark admits, ¡°Miguel¡¯s niece was captured by the Maelstrom, and after making some preparations, we rushed in. Miguel managed to rescue his niece while I dealt with the gang.¡± Rogue chuckles, taking another sip of her drink. ¡°So, you decided to wipe them out? All of them?¡± Mark shrugs. ¡°They¡¯re cultists. Not just cultists, but zealot cultists. Worse than that, they¡¯re satanists zealot cultists. I saw the iconography they had on their inner sanctum, and the practices they performed to ¡®initiate¡¯ their new members. It was only a matter of time for me to deal with them.¡± Rogue hums before finishing her drink. ¡°Do you have any physical evidence of your rampage?¡± Mark nods, looking at his inventory and taking two memory shards with a flick of his wrist. ¡°These two memory shards are from their leader ¡®Brick,¡¯ and his major rival ¡®Royce,¡¯ apparently they were going through an internal dispute and brought most of their members to the hideout. Otherwise, I would had hunt them down across the city.¡± ¡°Now I¡¯m curious,¡± Rogue leans forward as a waitress pour her another drink, ¡°how many did you flatline?¡± Once again, Mark looks at his inventory to confirm the numbers. ¡°I have eleven hundred and twelve memory shards, plus an assorted quantity of loot between junk cyberware, skill chips, and a few choice cyberware. I even have a couple of Sandevistans back inside my car¡¯s trunk, though they¡¯re an older model.¡± ¡°Interesting,¡± the Queen of afterlife says before leaning back on her seat, ¡°there are still around a hundred and eighty Maelstrom unaccounted for, but the age of Maelstrom being a relevant player in Night City are over.¡± Rogue takes a long sip to her new drink. ¡°Good riddance.¡± There was a lull in the conversation, and when Mark finally took the courage to order something Rogue started again. ¡°You must have some impressive tech behind you. I could use someone of your capabilities. Are you interested in a partnership?¡± ¡°What kind of partnership?¡± Mark asks, curious about the sudden proposal since it¡¯s not every day the Queen take the initiative like this. ¡°You¡¯re in possession of a lot of goods and shards you took from the Maelstrom, meaning you need a fence. I will pay for the shards and fence the rest of the goods for you. I also have a few well-paying jobs you can take directly from me if you¡¯re interested.¡± ¡®That¡¯s a good proposal,¡¯ Mark thinks it over before answering. ¡°So long as I can keep a copy of the data, it¡¯s a deal.¡± Mark and Rogue shake on their new agreement. ¡°What kind of job do you have in mind?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got my eyes on a few operations, Biotechnica and Petrochem. I need someone who can get in, steal their data, and get out without a trace,¡± Rogue said, her voice calm, but carrying the weight of the proposal. At that moment, Mark stomach rumbles loudly. ¡°Let¡¯s table that for now. Do you sell food here other than bar snacks? I¡¯m starving.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you eat half of a XXL Burrito earlier already?¡± Miguel asks, speaking for the first time since the conversation started. ¡°That was my first meal of the day. I still need to eat dinner.¡± Mark looks around with a thoughtful expression on his face. ¡°I¡¯m going to pick up a table to eat, and if you have any recommendation for crews to help me with my job, I appreciate it, Rogue.¡± ¡°You¡¯re in luck then, there¡¯s an Edgerunner crew nearby.¡± Rogue points towards a specific table. ¡°They¡¯re experienced and have a balanced crew; they can help you.¡± Mark Agent pings, and he notices that he added a new contact. ¡°Here¡¯s my number. You can call if you need something. Can I steal your choom here for a minute?¡± ¡°Sure, and thanks. See you later, Miguel.¡± Good Neighbors, Bad Neighbors (7) The veteran soldier sits down wondering what the Queen of the Afterlife wants to talk about with him. ¡°Miguel O¡¯Brian,¡± Rogue starts, almost startling the veteran, ¡°, Native to Night City before immigrating to New York NY. Joined the NUSA army and eventually made the Green Berets, eventually being honorably discharged before returning to Night City. You worked as private security for a short while, and then you went off the radar with suspected ties to Militech. A few months ago, you were spotted as a vagrant wandering Night City, focusing your wanderings on Watson while not doing anything noteworthy, until now.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t talk about the time I became a ghost,¡± Miguel preempts Rogue, and she nods. The lack of clear answer and the language used explained more than enough, and there¡¯s nothing urgent on that front yet. ¡°It¡¯s a good thing that I¡¯m not interested in that today,¡± Rogue motions with her head where Mark walked off. ¡°What can you tell me about the Engineer?¡± The former homeless pause for a moment, thinking over what he saw and what he can tell the woman. ¡°He¡¯s a generous man. Kind too.¡± Miguel pauses again, trying to find the proper word to describe Mark. ¡°Human in a way that Night City didn¡¯t manage to stamp out. The first day we meet I was having a¡­ bad day,¡± Miguel put it delicately, and Rogue raised an eyebrow at implication, ¡°we were at the Metro, and he bought a XXL Burrito. I made an off-hand comment about Salsa Verde, and after looking at me he split his meal and offered half. I was slipping off the deep end fast, and his words that day helped me regain clarity.¡± Miguel takes a deep breath, recalling the events leading to today. ¡°Afterwards, I called my niece asking if she wanted to meet for us to talk and reconnect. I even managed to get myself cleaned up enough to not get kicked out from a food stall. However, when it came to the date of our meeting, nobody came, so I went digging near her apartment. That¡¯s when I heard rumors about the Maelstrom kidnapping my niece in broad daylight.¡± ¡°I rushed after them, finding some gonks and demanded answers, but my chrome malfunctioned at the time, and I got shot. That¡¯s when Mark appeared and saved me, then afterwards he proposed to help me rescue my niece and ¡®take care¡¯ of the gang. The rest is history.¡± Despite the strong memories, Miguel feels peaceful now, since he knows the Maelstrom are no more and he had a hand in making that happen. ¡°He sounds quite the man,¡± Rogue admits, ¡°hard seeing him as a killer after talking with him.¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t get me wrong, Mark is a killer.¡± Miguel quickly explains, ¡°I would even go and call him absolutely deranged when facing his enemies. No Cyberpsycho can do what he did, it requires intent to come close to it.¡± Rogue frowns while staring at her Silverhand drink. ¡°Reminds me of a certain boogieman,¡± the Queen mutters under her breath. ¡°One round of drinks for everyone on me!¡± Both Miguel and Rogue look back, watching Mark yell through the bar and being cheered on by the other patrons. ¡­ Returning a couple of minutes before, Mark reaches the table pointed by Rogue. Looking at the group, Mark tries to stay calm, as he realizes who they are. Sitting at the right is Maine, his posture relaxed while he has a content smile on his face; in the center is Dorio, legs crossed and laughing at some joke; right next to her is Rebbeca sitting with her legs pulled close to her chest while listening to Dorio¡¯ story; finally, the last member of the crew, Sasha. Bright blue eyes, purple eye shadow, an easy smile, and she wears a catsuit and half jacket outfit. Initially, Mark thought it was a stroke of good luck when he coincidentally became neighbor with Gloria Martinez, but he didn¡¯t worry too much about the mother-son pair. If something were to happen with them, Mark was confident in the effectiveness of his medical kit. Now, with the original Edgerunner crew sitting in front of him, Mark isn¡¯t sure what he should do. He almost asks Solvernia for her opinion, then realizes what he was about to do. Taking a deep breath, he approaches the table and before he can say anything his stomach introduces himself first. Mark stands in front of them, and awkward smile on his face before Rebbeca breaks the ice with a laugh. ¡°Calm down choom! I know Sasha looks cute but try not to gobble her up, alright?¡± Mark shakes his head with a smile, thanking the little gremlin for the help. ¡°Hello, my name is Mark Henderson.¡± Mark raises his hand to greet Maine. ¡°Is this seat open? I have a job proposal for you guys,¡± Mark stomach remind him of more immediate concerns, ¡°I can also order dinner for us and pay for your tab today, if you don¡¯t mind.¡± Maine looks at his companions for a moment, then he takes Mark offered hand. ¡°Free food and free drinks? I like your style Mark. Name¡¯s Maine, and this is my crew: Dorio, Rebbeca and Sasha. How about you give us the detes to your gig before we commit to anything?¡± ¡°Good for me.¡± Mark grins to the group, ¡°don¡¯t be shy with your orders, I have cash to burn. In fact,¡± Mark stands up. ¡°A round for the house, on me!¡± The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The entire bar cheers, one of the waitresses looking distressed before turning to Rogue. Mark looks at the Owner of Afterlife and gives her a thumbs up before sitting together with the Edgerunners. ¡°Alright, what do they have other than bar snacks?¡± ¡­ Eventually, Mark order arrives, and he digs into the food. ¡°Wait, you¡¯re the Engineer? The guy that took down Jackal¡¯s pack on his own? The same Engineer that¡¯s the talk of Afterlife tonight?¡± Mark nods affirmatively to Dorio¡¯s question, mouth still full of synth stake. ¡°Couldn¡¯t have happened with a better bunch, that gonk Jackal was the worst. He was practically a Corpo Animal, can you imagine that?¡± Rebbeca shudders at the image, stealing a piece of meat from Mark¡¯s plate. ¡°Is it true that you¡¯re the one that zeroed the entire Maelstrom in a single day?¡± The small Solo asks. Mark swallows his food before answering. ¡°Almost two hundred survived, but other than them, yeah.¡± ¡°Nova! They¡¯re totally going to give a Preem nickname to today¡¯s event, like, ¡®The Engineer Demolition,¡¯ or ¡®The Flushing of Maelstrom.¡¯¡± ¡°If you¡¯re this capable, why would you want to hire us?¡± Sasha asks, nibbling on synth fries. ¡°I¡¯m not good at subtlety,¡± Mark admits, ¡°and sometimes I want someone to watch my back, you know?¡± ¡°I get it,¡± Maine agrees. He¡¯s about to continue when he spots something unpleasant ahead. ¡°Oh great, our night is about to get ruined.¡± As Maine predicted, a man approached their table. The new arrival is wearing a burgundy suit, he oozes condescending superiority, and his iconic appearance is completed by the odd arrangement of his four cybernetic eyes: three eyes on the right, one eye on the left. ¡°Maine,¡± Faraday sneered. ¡°I hear you¡¯ve been making deals behind my back, when you should be focusing on being at your best for my next job.¡± The Solo¡¯s jaw tightens, and the cheerful atmosphere of the bar suddenly takes a somber note. The nearby patrons look back at Maine¡¯s table as the venue slowly quiets down to watch the show. ¡°We¡¯re Edgerunners, Faraday,¡± Maine says in a level tone, his right-hand clenching tightly away from view. ¡°We also need to put food on the table. Your gigs alone aren¡¯t enough to finance our operations.¡± ¡°Do not blame me for how incompetently you run your operations, Maine.¡± Faraday condescendingly chides the Solo, ¡°remind me again, who paid in advance for the chrome you have? Hm? Answer me Maine.¡± ¡°¡­ you did, Faraday.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. I paid for your chrome when you started, and I had to ask some favors to help your crew of miscreants.¡± Rebbeca tried to talk back to Faraday, but was quickly held down by Dorio, who had an iron grip on the smaller girl. ¡°Don¡¯t forget that it¡¯s because of me that you were able to enter Afterlife.¡± Unknown to Faraday, Rogue started to pay attention to Maine¡¯s table while discreetly signaling her guards to watch the group. ¡°Don¡¯t ever forget, Maine, I own you. Understood?¡± *Clap* *Clap* *Clap* For the first time, Faraday notices Mark at the table. He¡¯s clapping at Faraday, swallowing the last of his food. The other Edgerunners turns to Mark. ¡°Wow, a white man telling a black man that he owns him.¡± Mark says with a sardonic smile. ¡°Not even the corporations are that blatant with their exploitation. Are you going to dig up ancient slurs to throw at him too, Tough Guy?¡± Something in the way Mark said the last part irked Faraday more than he expected. The jeers, laugh and whispers from the other patrons didn¡¯t help with his humor. ¡°And who would you be? This is a private conversation.¡± ¡°If this is a private conversation then learn not to make a scene,¡± Mark bit back, ¡°and I just happen to be the guy making a deal with Maine and his crew.¡± ¡°You?¡± Faraday asks, disbelief and mockery evident in his expression, ¡°did Maine get desperate enough that he¡¯s selling out to a nobody?¡± Once again Rebecca tries to protect Maine¡¯s honor, and yet again Dorio stops the petite woman, however, this time there¡¯s a hint of malicious glee in her eyes. ¡°Why are you here, Faraday?¡± Maine finally takes control of the conversation, ¡°you certainly didn¡¯t came here to berate me, did you?¡± ¡°As a matter of fact, no. I¡¯m here to introduce myself to the newest player of Night City, the mysterious ¡®Engineer.¡¯¡± Dorio¡¯s grip on Rebbeca tightens as the smaller woman struggles against her binding. ¡°Certainly, he will be interested in working for someone as esteemed as myself.¡± Maine silently stares at Faraday before replying. ¡°Sure thing, Faraday. Why don¡¯t you talk with Rogue? The ¡®Engineer¡¯ finished talking with her, she probably knows where he is.¡± Faraday sneers return stronger than before. ¡°I didn¡¯t need you to tell me that.¡± Faraday turns with an arrogant huff before walking towards Rogue. After talking with the Queen of Afterlife for a few minutes, Faraday slowly returns to Maine¡¯s table, his expression turning sourer and sourer with each step. Faraday glares at Mark, his four eyes narrowing with anger and embarrassment. ¡°You think this is funny? That this is just a big joke to you?¡± Mark doesn¡¯t respond, instead he meets Faraday gaze with his own, as if waiting for an apology from the man, something that will never happen. ¡°You made a powerful enemy today, Engineer.¡± ¡°Leave,¡± Mark replied with a cold tone, ¡°before you turn into a statistic.¡± The stare down lasts for a few moments, but before the Bouncers approach the fixer, he turns towards the door and powerwalks to the exit. Finally, Rebbeca can¡¯t contain herself anymore and explodes laughing. Even Dorio and Sasha join in the infectious atmosphere. Maine soon joins the rest of the crew laughing. ¡°That¡¯s going to bite me in the ass later, but damn if it wasn¡¯t satisfying. Thanks, Mark.¡± Mark grins back at Maine. ¡°You¡¯re welcome. Once I hash out the details with Rogue, I will call your crew for a job. Right now, there¡¯s something I want you guys to do for me.¡± Mark explains the strange mention of the Megabuilding 04 he found on the Scav cell memory shard. That puts Maine on high alert as that¡¯s the same building that Gloria Martinez, one of his cyberware dealers, lives together with her son. ¡°Yeah, we can investigate it. How much for the job?¡± ¡°I¡¯m new at this side of the job,¡± Mark admits, ¡°but I will quote you a price later today. For now, let¡¯s enjoy the bar and the atmosphere.¡± Maine grins and raises his glass. ¡°Now that¡¯s what I want to hear!¡± ¡°Maine, is that you?¡± Maine turns when he sees a familiar face, ¡°since when were you here?¡± ¡°Miguel, what the hell? Since when were you in Night City?¡± ¡°Since when were you here, gonk?¡± ¡°Since when were you here, gonk?¡± The back and forth resumed for a while, until the two former soldiers embrace each other. ¡°Man, today¡¯s full of surprises. The Maelstrom gets wiped out, Faraday makes a fool of himself in front of the Queen, and one of my former buddies from the army rose from the dead! We should celebrate!¡± They all raise their glasses to celebrate, thankful for the tasty food, good drinks, and the opportunity to share it with friends and family. But more strongly, they celebrate surviving another day in Night City. Legal Problems Require Illegal Solutions (1) "Gooooood morning Night City!" The announcer calls from the car radio as the driver leisurely goes through the morning rush of Night City. "Today we''re starting with special news regarding gang violence! As our listeners know, Night City has some of the highest murder rates for a city in the world, disputing first place neck-to-neck with the worst hellholes in this mudball, and recently the Night City just jumped a few points in the violence statistic overnight!" The driver stops at the red light, feeling relaxed despite the traffic jam. For a moment, a hand reaches out to change the stations, but curiosity eventually wins out. "That''s right, my fellow Night People, the rumors are true, one of the scourges of Night City is dead! Well, mostly, but that''s good enough for me! You all felt it, didn''t you? The gang violence suddenly took a lull, with one of the city''s major gangs suddenly disappearing from the streets and creating a power vacuum, yet no other gang came to pounce on this moment of weakness. Well, you heard here first, choomba, a single person flatlined the Maelstrom gang!" The light turns green, and the driver resumes the trip. "You might be asking yourself, ''but choom, how did a single gonk pullet it off in a single night? That''s impossible! Not even the Arasaka Executioner can hunt down those cockroaches in a single night!'' and you''d be right, listener! However, please remember the context of the situation. According to rumors, that you heard on this station first, the Maelstrom was undergoing an internal dispute between their major factions. It happens all the time with gangs as big and ancient as the Maelstrom. Please send a message to any ancient listeners that remember when the Maelstrom was an honorable combat gang, yes people that was real, it is history!" The driver chuckles at hearing that trivia of an ancient story. After the Time of Red, much of Night City history was lost, and nobody cared about the development of the gangs'' evolution, besides anthropologists, to bother piercing together the rise, fall, and change of Night City gangs. Inwardly, the driver bets that information came from some of the old guards that are still alive, and that kind of information doesn''t come cheap. "Because of the gang''s tension, the two major forces of the Maelstrom often butted heads, trying to one-up each other. Rumors say that one faction wanted to keep the interests of the gang more¡­ secular, while the other faction leader wanted to focus on the spiritual ideals of the gang. That''s crazy gonk doublespeak for ''I want to make money'' versus ''I want to break people so they''re as miserable as we are.'' That''s why the Maelstrom was competing with the Scavs for the dubious honor of ''scummiest gang in Night City.'' Since the Maelstrom is no more, the Scavs remain firmly in the first position for now." The driver can''t help but agree. There was a recent surge of disappearances, and occasionally a job would be posted to rescue or avenge a victim of the Maelstrom ''recruitment drive.'' "Now, according to my sources, on that day the two gang leaders brought most of their supporters to their main headquarters, the All Foods Plant, for some yet-to-be-determined reason, with reinforcements close enough to storm the place in case it was necessary. That was the Maelstrom first mistake: putting all their eggs in a single basket. Their second mistake was getting The Engineer involved." Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The driver perks up in interest, listening closer to the next segment. "The Engineer started as an urban legend at first. Apparently, someone counter-ambushed the infamous Jackal''s pack from the Animals back in Pacifica. The madman set up a killing field full of gun turrets against the Animals, and the Motherfucker even had a box of grenades! Also, check this: he deliberately allowed one of the Animals to run away so that she could serve as a warning to others! But we all know that this is Night City, and we never pass a good opportunity to throw our lives away. So, a bunch of gonks hear about this story and go to Pacifica to check him out, maybe cash on some eddies, and they find a genuine Fortress there! A Fortress with loud sounds of machinery and the sweet, sweet smell of smog! Rumors say that the gonks that try to look inside the Fortress never return, which just fueled the rumors." "Preem," the driver mutters under the breath, before quickly swerving the car and avoiding a speeding asshole from colliding at his side. "Look where you''re going gonk!" "¡­ rescue. That''s when the Engineer decided that he wouldn''t suffer the Maelstrom gang existing anymore! So, he picks up his iron, puts on his PA, drives to the All Foods Plant, and starts blasting like a maniac while his partner goes to rescue the missing person. After a while, one of the sardines leaves the building while rescuing a victim, and then much later another PA leaves the building. There''s a ton of shooting, screaming, and reinforcements arriving at the old factory in the meantime, though. Also, get this: the bodies of the Maelstrom gonks suddenly¡­ disappeared! The NCPD, bless their poor hearts, investigated the Plant, and found plenty of evidence for violent deaths, but no bodies. They did find a lot of biological slurry on the premises, but when questioned the officers didn''t comment. Sca~ry." The driver turns to another street, coming closer to the destination. "The police call the events of that night the ''Maelstrom Culling,'' though most people call it the ''Maelstrom Flushing.'' There are still some remnants of the gang, so make sure that -" *Click* The driver turns off the radio and gets out of the car. He walks a familiar path and greets the woman at the counter. "Hey Misty, how are you doing? Is Vik there?" "Hey Choom, I''m fine, thanks for asking. Vik is waiting for you, go in." Jackie gives Misty a flirty wink, feeling excited about the upcoming meeting after listening to the news about the latest Night City rising star, who will soon ascend into becoming a Legend in the future. Jackie wanted to be a Legend, to have his name written in the history of Night City, to have his life mean something. That''s why the mercenary is at the Viktor''s Clinic to chip in some new chrome. "Hey Vik, how are you doing? Is it true that you got a new Sandevistan on sale?" "Calm down Jackie, you just got yourself chipped in. This is only a checkup to monitor your condition, remember?" Jackie sounds sheepish, sounding embarrassed for the moment. "Sorry doc, I got too excited on the way in. Heard about the Engineer and got too carried away." "I get it. For now, get on the chair and try to relax. We can talk more after the checkup." Making himself comfortable, Jackie allows his mind to drift, dreaming of glory, eddies, and purpose. Legal Problems Requires Illegal Solutions (2) During the day, the Afterlife bar stayed closed to the public except during certain dates, and today wasn''t an exception. Despite most of her income coming from being a fixer and acting as a middleman for the better gigs in Night City, the Afterlife bar was Rogue''s baby, and she took loving care of the place. Right now, the Queen was looking over her financial reports, a bottle of vodka right next to her. "Still nervous?" "Squama." Rogue acknowledges her Bodyguard''s presence while reaching for her glass of alcohol. "I think that''s enough," the burly man takes the drink out of the older woman''s reach, "It''s not even eleven in the morning, Rogue, you had enough already. There''s no cyber liver that can keep up with that." She glares at her bodyguard, who answers by tilting his head towards the three empty bottles of vodka on the table, with a fourth already midway there. Rogue takes a deep breath, before relenting. A thoughtful waitress brings some water and other refreshments to her employer. "Stop treating me like an invalid, I''m fine." "No, you''re not fine. You''re scared as shit." Squama counters his charge and friend, "especially after that night. Can''t blame you, nobody could believe what they saw, regardless of the rumors." Once the rumors of the Maelstrom demise came to her ears, it was a trivial matter to check up on the rumors. At first, Rogue was skeptical of the rumors, believing them to be exaggerations from scared Animals. If the Jackals gang were dumb enough to charge at a killing field, they deserved what they got. Then more data returned to her, as one of her Netrunners hacked the closest security camera pointed at the All Foods Plant and recovered the footage, meanwhile, she ordered another of her runners to dig for information on the Engineer. In Rogue''s opinion, it was disturbingly easy yet hard to find information about the man. Mark Henderson, recently arrived in Night City, sold unregistered firearms to a shop near the Night City Landfill, rented an apartment on Megabuilding 04, and established himself as The Engineer in Pacifica. Afterward, the information becomes more unreliable, as there aren''t enough security cameras in the area where the Engineer set up shop, and anything related to Mark before he arrived at Night City was completely unavailable, not even the NCPD customs department had information on his arrival. In her eyes, Mark either hacked the NCPD database and erased the traces of his arrival, or the madman walked to Night City. Rogue isn''t certain which option is more terrifying after meeting the man. The Queen''s first impression of the Engineer was that of a na?ve, sheltered young man in over his head, wielding more power than he could handle. He made some wild claims about the Maelstrom incident, accepted her one-sided deals, then went to Maine to talk and ordered dinner. One of the small headaches Rogue is dealing with right now is deciding if it''s worth the hassle to stock different items on the menu, then perhaps she should add a few different seats for that kind of service, among other considerations. When she realized it, she once more reached for her drink, being disappointed it was only water. When Faraday arrived and walked straight to Maine''s table, she sent a message to her security in case there was an altercation, but other than kicking Faraday in the Ego the exchange ended up peacefully. Rogue thought that was the last excitement of the day coming from the Engineer, but she was mistaken. Mark was good on his promise and gave her all the shards in his possession while keeping the eddies for himself. The sheer amount of information contained in those shards is a treasure trove, and that''s only counting the personal shards of each gonk. There were also locations of weapon stashes, drug stashes, blackmail material of all sorts of corpos through the city, secrets the Netwatch would be interested in and would pay handsomely for it, and a couple of BD and XBD chips. Or more accurately, XBD chips recording the last moment of several Maelstrom gonks as the Engineer went through them. "I''m going to be sick," Rogue mutters under her breath, washing the risen bile in her mouth with another cup of water. Rogue lived through the worst of Night City history when the Arasaka Executioner was a new nightmare in the city, the Corporate Wars, the Time of Red, and more recently the NUSA unification wars. However, when she saw the devastation from the eyes of the Maelstrom gonks, she almost sympathized with them, almost. Then came the Blue Cloud. She saw flesh melting, bones cracking, and blood boiling, with the only mercy being how quickly the substance worked. Rogue was the first, and one of the few people, who knows the source of the biological slurry found at the old factory. ''The madman had the audacity of having dinner afterward.'' Thought Rogue with a shiver, ''twice, if Miguel''s testimony was accurate.'' This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Rogue decided she was right to initially compare Night City''s boogie man with the Engineer. ''It''s been a while, but I guess I should take up praying again,'' Rogue fingers trail a Buddhist rosary inside her pocket, finally starting to calm down, ''and pray that Adam Smasher and Mark never meet each other.'' She regains her composure after a few minutes of meditation and brings up the report on the loot that Mark wants fencing that he recovered during his assault: cyberware, weapons, ammunition, miscellaneous equipment, and even jewelry that was taken from past victims. ''There''s being a klepto, there''s being a loot goblin, and then there''s the Engineer,'' Rogue thought with irritation at the reminder of the paperwork she will need to do to properly deal with that inventory since she can''t delegate everything to her subordinates. The Queen of Afterlife sighs, "Things were much simpler when my only worries were shooting at people and being shot back at." In the end Rogue realized too late that Mark wasn''t simply being easily reeled in by her, charmed by the reputation of Queen of the Afterlife and giving in to her demands without putting a token effort into negotiation. The truth was the opposite, as Rogue mentally summarizes the headache she volunteered for, ''the Engineer drops on my lap all the complicated and boring issues while he goes out and plays with his toys.'' A message reaches her Agent making the corner of her lips tug upwards into a smile. "Well, at least I won''t be the only one dealing with headaches." ¡­ Faraday, in his view, was a man destined for success. Raising in the cutthroat corporate environment of Militech, he believes he''s on the road to success. Faraday will not accept failure, nor he will allow any kind of disrespect to go unpunished. He quickly contacted some of his personnel to gather intelligence on the Engineer. Supposedly, such a dangerous man lives in a dilapidated apartment on Megabuilding 04. "A clear ploy," Faraday confidently assumes, keeping the address in mind to potentially ambush the Engineer if he ever tries to lay low, but otherwise dismisses the place as a secondary concern. When Faraday realized that the main area of operations for the Engineer was the district of Pacifica, Faraday became livid. "I am the one who''s going to conquer that place and rebuild it in my image, not some violent thug with aspirations of grandeur!" Mark would laugh at the irony of the statement. Despite the well-earned in Faraday''s opinion, arrogance of the man, the fixer knows that invading the Engineer fortress would be stupidity. That''s why he will take a more subtle approach. "I can''t rely on Maine''s crew for this," Faraday mutters under his breath, irritated that he can''t make use of an asset he took care to cultivate, "but it will be a good lesson for them to realize who is the real power behind their actions, once I deal with the Engineer." Looking over his list of contacts, he calls a particular Netrunner who should have the necessary experience. "Kiwi? Are you interested in a well-paying job?" ¡­ Somewhere hidden in the Night City, a pair of Scavs finish their latest assignment. "Are we sure we should be doing this?" One of the Scavengers asks his partner. "It feels like we''re going too far." The other gangster slowly turns to his partner. "What the hell choom, you do remember what we do for a living, right?" "I mean, yeah," the first Scav admits, "I know what we do is evil, but this?" He waves around his hand to illustrate the point, "It just feels wrong, choom. It makes me feel dirty, like we''re dealing with forces we''re not meant to mess with." The other Scav thinks about it, before reluctantly nodding. "Yeah, I get it. Unfortunately, it''s the higher-ups'' orders, so it''s out of our hands now." ¡­ Mark stops after scouting the Bad Lands, marking a few areas for future expansion and development, but those are concerns for the future. He finally managed to find an area with oil reserves. Looking at the map, it''s in a disputed area between the NUSA and the various independent states that were born in the wake of various disasters of the current universe. Considering himself fortunate, he places a few oil extractors, hooks them up with solar energy, and then decides on what to do with the oil. He needs water for the chemical plants to work with his current module settings, but there are no sources of water nearby. He could bring a train line from this outpost to an area closer to the ocean and Night City, but he''s not certain people won''t try to interfere in his business. Thankfully, he managed to take a special building from the Krastorio module and adapt it to his needs: the small camera-like radar that is the precursor to the radar. It has a modest range of visibility, but it doesn''t interfere with the aviation industry. For now, Mark will barrel the oil and drive it back to Night City, thankful that he kept most of his items in a chest back at the Starter Base. Happy with his success, Mark drives back to Night City and plans which research option he should prioritize now. When he comes close enough to Night City, his Agent signals an incoming call. "Hey, Miguel, how are you doing? Any problems back at the base?" Mark decided to hire his new friend, Miguel, both to help the man and to have a pair of experienced eyes and ears on Night City. Miguel can also help him stay informed on the Edgerunning scene so that Mark can anticipate certain tragedies. "A few people answered your recruitment ad, you just need to interview them." "Great!" "Also," Miguel hesitates, not sure how to break the news, "you got a Cease-and-Desist letter." Mark''s mind stops, as he looks at the message written on his Agent. "I got a WHAT!" Legal Problems Requires Illegal Solutions (3) After parking his car, Mark went straight into the ¡°office¡± of his Starter Base. Normally, in the game of Factorio, the Starter Base is either abandoned or deconstructed to provide materials for a larger base, or even help build the Real Base. Mark reasoned that, since he was in the middle of the city, he should make use of the abundance of human resources available. Perhaps, if circumstances permit, make life better for those under his employ, and the city in general. That is why Mark uses efficiency modules on all his machines: to cut on energy consumption and pollution generation. The office is in a separate area that¡¯s relatively unguarded, possessing only eight gun turrets for defense. The small building was decorated with simple and practical furniture, some of it taken and cleaned from the Maelstrom and Scavenger gangs. ¡°Hey Miguel,¡± Mark greets the man and goes straight to business, ¡°sorry for being sudden, but can I see the Cease and Desist order?¡± ¡°Here. It¡¯s even on paper too.¡± The former soldier hands the Engineer the letter. After reading the full document, the letter could be summarized as such: ¡°You are hereby ordered to immediately halt all operations in the district of Pacifica. Your activities are deemed illegal under the jurisdiction of the Night City Government. Failure to comply will result in further legal action, including, but not limited to, the seizure of assets, fines, and imprisonment.¡± Mark reads and rereads the letter, before asking for his friend¡¯s opinion. ¡°Hmm, can¡¯t say I have much knowledge of the Lawmen profession, my only experience was with the army JAG unit, and they were a complete joke.¡± The Engineer finishes reading the letter one more time before giving up. ¡°I will need to find local lawyers anyway. As soon as I have the time I will hire a lawyer firm. Now, you said someone responded to the ad?¡± ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s waiting in the Waiting Room.¡± ¡°Great, I will go there. Please bring us some refreshments,¡± Mark looks at his System clock to confirm the hour, ¡°and then you¡¯re good to go.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t,¡± Miguel begins to interject, but he catches himself midway through. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m not used to your hours.¡± Mark simply pats his friend on the back and moves to meet the potential new hire. The waiting room has better furniture, with comfortable furniture made with synthetic fibers and the few stacks of Wood available. Sitting on the couch is the woman that Mark is supposed to interview. Despite being seated, Mark notices that the woman is tall with a slender build. She has her blond hair done in a bob cut, and most of her face is obscured by a red mask. The woman glances back to Mark when he enters the room, with narrow eyes that appear both relaxed and sharp at the same time. The closest comparison that Mark can make is that she¡¯s high on both depressants and stimulants at the same time. ¡°Hello, my name is Mark Henderson. Sorry for making you wait.¡± Mark extends his hand to the potential employee in greeting, being met with stoic silence. The Engineer holds his hand in place until the woman relents and shakes his hand. ¡°Sorry,¡± the potential hire says with a flat, almost sarcastic tone, ¡°not used to corpos bothering to touch mere mortals out of their initiative.¡± ¡°I chalk that to different cultural values,¡± Mark says with an amused smile, hinting at a joke only he knew about, ¡°don¡¯t worry about it. Now, could you please introduce yourself?¡± ¡°Call me Kiwi. I¡¯m here for your job offer to handle the internal systems of your¡­ venture.¡± Mark raises an eyebrow. ¡°Just Kiwi?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not uncommon for orphans to not have a surname,¡± Kiwi bluntly answers, and Mark winces in response. ¡°Sorry for bringing up bad memories,¡± Mark is quick to apologize, but Kiwi waves him off. ¡°Not a lot of things require ID in Night City. For what is required you can just use your serial ID from your neuro port.¡± ¡°I see. Thanks for telling me that, Kiwi. Can you tell me about your work experience?¡± ¡°Legal or illegal?¡± She asks bluntly, not expecting an honest answer. ¡°Both, if you think they¡¯re relevant to the job and you¡¯re comfortable sharing.¡± The woman stares at Mark impassively, taking her time to answer. Her body appears relaxed, almost too relaxed in Mark¡¯s opinion. ¡°Room service!¡± Miguel opens the door with a yell, carrying a tray with simple food and drinks. ¡°We¡¯re out of whisky, but we have plenty of water.¡± ¡°Thanks. Now get out and visit your niece, tell her I will see her later.¡± The former soldier nods, turning back to the door. Miguel spares a glance towards Kiwi but leaves without saying anything. Miguel''s appearance seemingly broke the ice, as Kiwi took the initiative to pitch herself a glass of water. ¡°Well, I suppose my entire work history would count as ¡®illegal,¡¯ if people bothered with the fiction of labor laws.¡± Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Mark blinks at her. From the little he managed to research, work conditions in the current world are brutal, with eighty hours of mandatory work per week being considered generous. ¡°My first job was at a factory, then I worked for a time with Mizu Shoubai, and right now I¡¯m working as a self-employed independent contractor providing Netrunning consulting. Is that good enough for you?¡± Mark runs the meaning of Mizu Shoubai on the System''s internal dictionary and realizes that Kiwi spent some time as a prostitute, a Joytoy in the current slang. If she used that archaic euphemism, that means she likely worked for a Yakuza-owned brothel. It also meant she had experience working for corporations as she perfectly used the dry, neutral language of inoffensive marketing. ¡°Yes,¡± Mark gives her a small nod, ¡°thank you for trusting me to share this information.¡± He lets the somber air linger for a moment before going after the next topic. ¡°So, here is what I expect you to do during the working hours.¡± Mark slides over a piece of paper containing a list of her expected duties, ¡°and this is the contract. You can read and tell me if it interests you.¡± Kiwi glances at the analog document with distrust, but she picks it up and starts reading. After a few minutes, she looks back at Mark with an unreadable expression. ¡°Is this some kind of joke?¡± Mark tilts his head in confusion, wondering where that came from. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t understand.¡± Kiwi shows Mark the proposed contract. ¡°You don¡¯t expect me to believe this is real.¡± Mark picks up the contract and reads it, wondering if he made a mistake. After he finishes reading, he confirms that there are no mistakes. ¡°No, this is it. The working hours, salary, provision for holidays, benefits, everything is in order.¡± ¡°No one offers conditions that generous unless they want something in return.¡± This time it is Mark who looks strangely at Kiwi. ¡°I do want something in return.¡± Kiwi''s eyes narrow for a moment. ¡°I want you to do your job. That¡¯s why I¡¯m paying you a living wage that¡¯s fitting for your position.¡± Mark motions towards the rest of the city, beyond the walls of his Starter Factory, ¡°other corporations achieve competitive productivity by squeezing blood out of rocks, exploiting their workforce to the limits, using fear and violence as motivators to keep their workers in line.¡± Marks stares at Kiwi¡¯s eyes, trying to convey his sincerity. ¡°My strategy is simple, remove the factors that would demotivate my employees, like a slave-like working condition and low salaries, and then provide with reasons to be motivated.¡± Kiwi finally shows proper emotions, being visibly incredulous, while Mark shrugs. ¡°The ¡®normal¡¯ corporations almost get it at the middle management level, except they do it in the most stupidly evil manner possible. So, not what I plan to do at all.¡± The Netrunner regains her composure, before taking another look at the contract. ¡°Alright, I will bite. Where do I sign?¡± They quickly are done with their obligations, and Mark welcomes her to the team. ¡°Since I¡¯m not incorporated yet, I will pay you this month''s salary in advance. You can start your job immediately, come with me.¡± Mark motions Kiwi to follow him and they both arrive at a single computer terminal. ¡°This is the server,¡± Mark points to a small tower PC, ¡°it¡¯s not connected to the city net yet. Your first job will be to connect to the city net, and either deal or forward me any issues regarding that, from licenses to required infrastructure.¡± Mark motions her to continue following him until they arrive at an area marked with warning concrete. ¡°This area marks the safe limits before entering a hazardous location. The gun turrets use a proprietary FFI system, so tell your other employer to have good luck hacking them.¡± Kiwi visibly freezes, eyes widening at the admission, her right hand slowly drifting towards her hidden Unity gun. ¡°I suggest you not touch your gun,¡± the Netrunner hand freezes in place expecting the worst, ¡°before you have this.¡± Mark gives Kiwi an identification card, ¡°Always keep it in your person. Right now, I have disarmed the gun turrets to show you how to prevent any accidents, but in the future that ID-Card will be required. This area we¡¯re standing,¡± Mark points to the ground, ¡°is the safe limit before you become a valid target. Here, let me demonstrate.¡± Kiwi notices the odd item that Mark pulled out of the inventory, and despite the cold fear settling on her stomach she can¡¯t help but ask, ¡°What is that?¡± ¡°This is a Marketable Plushy Faraday?. I¡¯m thinking of selling a series based on famous figures of the Night City underworld, like some fixers and Edgerunner crews.¡± The Marketable Plushy Faraday? resembles the man, with his sour expression, unique cyberware, and burgundy suit. Mark throws the Faraday? plushy towards an area beyond the same markings, and the object is riddled with bullets. ¡°How did you know that Faraday hired me?¡± Kiwi asks in a calm tone, and Mark notes that it is far too calm for his liking. ¡°I didn¡¯t, you said it,¡± the Netrunner curses under her breath as she realizes she¡¯s been had, ¡°it does make sense though. Faraday made a fool of himself when we first met, and he strikes me as the type to seek revenge over petty bullshit.¡± ¡°So, you made that thing to intimidate me, or anyone else that works for Faraday?¡± Kiwi points to the destroyed plushy. ¡°Oh no, I made this to shoot later. It was just a good target to demonstrate the gun turret range and tracking capability, as per the tour outlined detailing your duties, obligations, and rights. It¡¯s listed under ¡®basic training.¡¯¡± Kiwi gingerly looks at the document tucked away, noticing the section about training related to familiarizing with the job site. ¡®To be fair, maybe this part is normal for a company. No, wait, I¡¯m focusing on the wrong thing right now.¡¯ ¡°Do you still want to employ me, despite knowing that I took a job from Faraday to spy on you?¡± ¡°There¡¯s not a lot of information you can spy that will be useful to Faraday. Keep working for him, and if you somehow manage to find a way to milk him twice, more power to you.¡± Suddenly, Mark''s tone changes from casual to menacing, and to Kiwi his silhouette turns sinister, as if his body is shrouded in shadows. ¡°So long as you don¡¯t directly become a nuisance, or try to threaten someone close to me, I don¡¯t have a problem with your side jobs. Understood?¡¯¡± ¡°Good enough for me, boss.¡± Mark grins, ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear that. Now continuing our tour¡­¡± Legal Problems Requires Illegal Solutions (4) After showing Kiwi around the factory and leaving her to her work, Mark picks up extra material and starts the expansion of the Starter Base. The first order of business was expanding the claimed area, and with his war gear, he proceeded to evict the various squatters and minor gangs in the area. If this were the first day, Mark would had a harder time dealing with his opponents, but by now he is used to the routine. What changed now, is that most of the gangs ran away as soon as he came near to their hideout. Mark places a power pole as a marker and a message on the ground. "Land claimed in the name of Wube Inc. Signed: The Engineer." Another difference became apparent when he met with the homeless population in Pacifica. "If you''re willing to follow me, I can set up proper housing, electricity, and plumping to your community. I can even supply your group with jobs if you''re willing to work for me. All you must do is to leave this place and relocate to this new location." The original Engineer''s job was to travel to another planet and set up civilian infrastructure, meaning that certain buildings were unlocked by default and had a simpler crafting cost. Due to their intended use, trying to use the buildings to build a factory would be prohibitively expensive, and if he wanted to use them for large-scale production, Mark would need to change to the A&B module. The local homeless population, initially suspicious, quickly moved to the new housing area after it was built. The initial buildings had a utilitarian design, giving access to clean water and public toilets, with future promises of electricity access in the future. "That''s for the future, right Solvy?" Mark''s constant companion silently agreed since Mark needed to properly secure the area before he could safely connect it to the factory electric grid. Once Mark has enough space, he begins the construction starting with the Oil refining facility. He sets up the larger oil refinery plants, already connecting the pipes for Light Oil and Heavy Oil, though currently, he can only use Petroleum Gas. After marking the area for oil cracking, Mark sets up the areas for the production of plastic and sulfur with his chemical plants. The Engineer makes sure to use efficiency modules on all buildings to cut pollution, but ultimately he is satisfied with the results. Looking at the available area, Mark decides the future direction of the Starter Base. "I guess I can''t escape my American heritage, huh?" Mark places a special underground building from the "AAI: Vehicles" module, the Vehicle Depot, and takes out a Hauler from his pocket. The Hauler is big, much larger than the car that Mark occasionally drives through the city, with a massive inventory that''s greater than an individual cargo train. "Usually, I would need to beat my head with the ''AAI: Programmable Vehicles'' programming, but why bother when I can hire people to do that for me? What do you think, Solvy?" This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Solvernia remains silent in indecision, as there are pros and cons to using human truck drivers. The pro is the simplification of the hauling task since a human driver can respond to quick changes in the environment, while the automatic driving system needs to be programmed by hand. Since the Engineer only has the tools to work on a mostly empty planet or a large empty area, he needs to program the vehicles using his Combinators, and they''re far from user-friendly. The cons are the risk of betrayal and the responsibility of paying them and taking care of the employees. "That''s a concern for the future. Let''s go to the next item on the agenda." With easier access to plastic and sulfur, Mark built the Chemical Science facility, taking red circuits from the main bus, and crafting the Multi-Cylinder Engine locally, before finally connecting it to his laboratories. The various assemblers took materials from the bus, churning their precious product, until a single "bottle" of Chemical Science was grabbed by the inserter. It slowly traveled the conveyor belts until it reached the laboratory area. When the inserter took the science pack the laboratory exploded with lights, and a muffled sound could be heard from the inside of the building. As more science packs were inserted and more laboratories became active, the music became clear enough that those who came close to the edge of the Starter Base could hear it. "The fuck is that?" A nearby ganger asked his companion. "The hell are they doing there?" Soon, the entire gang arrived to listen to the music. The members of the gang wore dark colors, and equally dark makeup, and called each other by their "vampire names." Despite everyone wielding Iron, the Toreador Posergang is considered mostly harmless by Night City standards. The gang had a habit of hanging around dangerous areas, to "feel their cold, dead heartbeat again." ~~ Caramella Girls ¨C Caramelldansen ~~ "I think it''s Swedish." One of the gang members says. "It''s quite the catchy sound." Another ganger states, earning several nods from his companions. "Myrmidon, bring in the beer!" Several hours later, Mark would find the improvised rave near his holdings. After briefly considering it, Mark would set up a new system so that he could earn some extra eddies from the entire affair. However, that''s a tale for another time. ¡­ A call reaches Maine, and he opens his internal Agent. A brown cog icon appears on the chat. "Hello, this is the Engineer. How are you doing Maine?" "Fine. Faraday later chewed my ass, but nothing he didn''t do before. Thanks for asking, Engineer. Is this a social call, or a job offer?" "It''s a job. I''m offering 50,000 eddies for your crew to gather information on MH04 about their potential connection with the Scavs. Since you''re going in blind, I''m willing to offer between 10,000 to 20,000 for hazard pay if you find heavy resistance. How does that sound?" "Sound Nova, you just hired yourself a crew, Mr. Engineer." "Great, depending on what you guys find, I might hire your crew for follow-up jobs regarding this issue. I will wire 15,000 eddies now, and the rest after the job is completed. I believe a week should be enough as a deadline?" "It is, don''t worry about it. We are professionals and will finish this job as soon as possible." "Excellent. When you get the info, call me and we will meet at Afterlife. See you later." Mark cuts the call, and Maine goes to gather his crew. They had a job to do. Legal Problems Require Illegal Solutions (5) ¡°Alright everyone, this job¡¯s simple. All we need to do is gather information that might implicate the Megabuilding Hospital 04 to the Scavs.¡± Maine says to the gathered crew. ¡°There¡¯s no reason to start a shot out or risk our lives over dumb shit. Let¡¯s revise the plan one last time. Dorio, you start.¡± The woman looks at her input with a smirk before addressing the rest of the crew. ¡°I will bring the big guy over here to the front door of the hospital to provide with a distraction, and possibly cause a scene on the hospital lobby if the situation calls for it.¡± Dorio looks down at her cyber legs, testing them out. ¡°Might as well have a proper checkup if it¡¯s a slow day, too. I haven¡¯t gone to a legitimate doctor in years.¡± ¡°Great. Pillar, go.¡± ¡°Yours truly made those babies here,¡± the tall Techie of the crew shows a couple of small sensors on his hands, ¡°that will aid the infiltration team with gathering intel while I wait outside the hospital to help with extraction.¡± ¡°Fantastic. ¡®Becca, your turn.¡± The small woman replies with a sickeningly sweet voice, entering in character for her role. ¡°I will use my cute, innocent looks to infiltrate the hospital and maybe listen to some juicy information.¡± Pillar snorts at his little sister''s antics. ¡°You will be caught in five minutes or less. I bet at three point fourteen seconds.¡± ¡°Shut up brother! What the fuck do you know about stealth, huh? You can¡¯t even keep your porn stash hidden!¡± Maine pinches the bridge of his nose at the siblings¡¯ antics. ¡°I speak for everyone that we have no interest in Pillar¡¯s porn stash. He¡¯s not wrong though, Rebecca. Sasha, what you¡¯re going to do?¡± The group Netrunner gives them a soft grin before outlining her plan. ¡°I will enter through the covert point beta, find the Hospital server, and wait for Rebbeca¡¯s signal. Once given the go-ahead, I copy the data, create some harmless distraction, and then delta to our fallback point.¡± Maine nods in appreciation, ¡°Good, you all know your roles. We¡¯re finishing this operation cleanly, alright? Remember that this is a heavily populated area. In-out, just a simple gig.¡± Upon hearing her leader''s words, Rebbeca gives Maine an incredulous look. ¡°You just had to jink us, didn¡¯t you, choom?¡± Even her brother nodded alongside his little sister. ¡°Don¡¯t talk nonsense and let¡¯s go.¡± ¡­ Dorio enters the hospital, complaining about one issue or another while accompanied by Maine. Pillar successfully sneaks his gadgets through the ventilation system of the hospital, positioning them so that Sasha can take control of them later. ¡°Ah~ I¡¯m scared. Can someone tell me where the exit is?¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Four minutes after Rebecca infiltrates the corridors of the hospital, she sends a signal to the crew Netrunner with directions toward the local offices. Through the combined efforts of Rebecca¡¯s distraction, Pillar¡¯s gadgets, and Sasha¡¯s stealth expertise, the Netrunner manages to find the correct terminal with the incriminating evidence. ¡®We have evidence that the Scavs and the MH04 are competing over territory, but why? I thought healthcare in this city was already bad enough, why antagonize the Scavs directly?¡¯ Sasha continues typing her queries while she copies everything on the database until she finds a more damning passage. ¡®The MH04 is secretly being funded by Biotechnica, and has ties to the¡­ Voodoo Boys? What?¡¯ Sasha performs a few queries, but she pauses and double-checks her ICE to make sure she didn¡¯t get a virus along the way. Afterward, she runs a diagnosis on her other cyberware to make sure she isn¡¯t seeing things. ¡°Zombies, really?¡± To be more precise, Biotechnica is using MH04 as a medicine testing ground, using the patients as guinea pigs for their medicine. To Sasha¡¯s disgust, that¡¯s both open and legal, though the average patient isn¡¯t aware of it since they likely didn¡¯t read the full terms of service. From there, things branch to illegality, as some of the doctors extract the relatively healthy organs and intact cyberware from the recently diseased patients to resell on the black market, which infuriated the nearby Scav cells. The connection between Biotechnica and the Voodoo Boys is more tenuous and would require further investigation directly at the source. ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡± Sasha quickly hides, turning off the monitor of the terminal. Using her Agent, she uses some of the gadgets that Pillar provided to provide a distraction. The small robots skitter around, making noise with their legs and mimicking mice sounds. ¡°Ugh, more rats? Well, at least we can fortify the patients¡¯ meals.¡± Satisfied with the answer to the source of the noise, the hospital staff left the room before they properly searched it. After a few seconds, Sasha leaves the room, and with confidence, she leaves the restricted area, with nobody stopping her until she leaves the hospital. ¡­ ¡°You did great Sasha!¡± Maine praises his Netrunner, ¡°Good work girl!¡± ¡°Yeah, the whole thing went super Preem! I mean, I was itching to shoot some gonks but I¡¯m glad everything went fine.¡± ¡°Should we hit Afterlife?¡± Dorio asks, being the ever-practical. ¡°Or do we call the Engineer for him to pick up the shard?¡± ¡°I will call him now.¡± The agent rings three times before the call connects, and Maine is blasted by the sound of a rave going on in the background. ¡°¡­ blasted¡­ how¡­¡± the sound cuts off and a text message appears on the screen. ¡°Sorry, got too close to the party, had to break up a minor fight. What can I do for you guys?¡± ¡°We got your data, and we found some Preem stuff. Where do you want us to drop it?¡± ¡°Is anybody hurt?¡± The Engineer asks first, ¡°Did everything go well?¡± ¡°Operation went smooth like fresh off the factory chrome, no worries about that.¡± ¡°Great, meet me at Afterlife. Drinks are on me. Over.¡± The Engineer cuts the call, and Maine gives the crew the good news. ¡°Nova, that guy knows how to treat people well!¡± Pillar cackles at the side, ¡°Oh, I already know what I¡¯m going to do with my share.¡± The tall man makes some suggestive motions with his hand, earning a bullet on his artificial hand from his little sister. As the pair of siblings bicker between themselves Maine and Dorio are bringing their vehicle. Meanwhile, Sasha''s mind is back to the information she gathered. Due to the hospital''s connection with Biotechnica, there were several reports sent to the company, among them the effects of several experimental drugs. Along those drugs, there was a name that Sasha knew by heart. Securicine. Legal Problems Require Illegal Solutions (6) Maine¡¯s crew arrives at Afterlife first to wait for their current employer, also buying a set of synth fries after taking a liking to it upon recommendation of the Engineer. While the group waits, they review the data found in the hospital. ¡°Looks like they¡¯re up to some heavy shit,¡± Maine comments on their private chat group, ¡°there¡¯s some extra info there that isn¡¯t covered by the mission. We can safely sell it to an info broker, but what do you guys think?¡± ¡°We should give the first pick of the info to the Engineer; he might pay us well.¡± Dorio quickly points it out, ¡°I don¡¯t want to anger the guy who gave us a fat paycheck for a simple gig.¡± ¡°We¡¯re not obligated to wait for his approval, though,¡± Pillar intrudes on the chat, ¡°some of the info is completely unrelated to the connection between the Scavs and Biotechnica. Sure, someone can use it for leverage or to try and find blackmail, but the rest are at best hooks for different gigs.¡± ¡°It¡¯s your call, boss,¡± Rebbeca gives her opinion while swatting her brother¡¯s hand from her bowl, ¡°I don¡¯t see any problem with waiting or going ahead.¡± The Solo leader ponders for a few seconds before addressing his Netrunner. ¡°Sasha, separate some of the juicier info that looks time-sensitive and sells the rest to the afterlife info broker.¡± Maine takes a sip of his drink, sighing in contentment after a job well done, when he notices Sasha''s demeanor. ¡°Sasha?¡± She looks back at Maine with a wink, showing the extra eddies everyone got from the successful sale. ¡°Alright, he should be coming here soon. We can order dinner while we wait.¡± Maine shakes his head at the last sentence, ¡°I can¡¯t believe the Engineer opened an entirely new menu on the afterlife,¡± Maine flashes the ¡®Engineer¡¯ Selection¡¯ with fresh SCOP-based full dishes, ¡°usually the Legends have a drink made in their honor.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not every day that someone zeros an entire gang,¡± a new voice calls out to the group, and the crew all turn towards the newcomer. ¡°If it isn¡¯t ¡®Mr. Cool¡¯ himself.¡± Maine acknowledges the Fixer''s arrival. ¡°Dex DeShawn, it¡¯s an honor.¡± The large man who approached the group is a famous fixer in Night City, considered one of the best with a good reputation for being dependable and providing lucrative gigs to Edgerunners. DeShawn has a distinctive appearance: a large forehead and long hair done in dreadlocks; chains, rings, and a watch made of gold that matches his gold-plated cyberarm; a pair of synth leather pants and jacket; and his iconic rose-tinted sunglasses. The flashy appearance of the fixer demands attention from those around him, and Dexter DeShawn knows how to leverage that.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The man known as Mr. Cool takes a drag from his cigar, savoring the taste before casually taking a seat near Maine. ¡°I just found some juicy gossip from the bar and realized that I have the perfect gig to match it. Since you¡¯re so well informed, I was thinking of offering the job to you first.¡± At first, Maine is flattered that someone of Mr. Cool¡¯s caliber is interested in their group, however, the ex-special forces don¡¯t get where he is by being reckless, ¡®That¡¯s a good way to get yourself and your people killed.¡¯ ¡°I know it¡¯s sudden,¡± DeShawn interjects before Maine can refuse the offer, ¡°but it¡¯s a simple gig. I can give you the detes free of charge if you are willing to listen.¡± Maine looks around the table, with his crew having a mixed reaction. Pillar is almost jumping out of his seat with nervous energy, while Rebecca looks interested in Mr. Cool. Maine¡¯s Output gives a disappointed look, while Sasha appears neutral to the idea. ¡°I can only promise to listen. We just came out of a job, and we want to keep our heat down for now.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s a simple thing. I just need you to get to the Biotechnica building and pick up something from their head office. I was supposed to send my own trusted Netrunner, T-Bug, but she¡¯s in recovery after installing some new Chrome.¡± Dex takes a drag from his cigar, shaking his head for a moment, ¡°I¡¯m going to be real with you here. The truth is that there was a scheduling problem on my part,¡± the fixer reluctantly admits to his mistake, ¡°another Netrunner was supposed to take the job, and I promised my client to give them the info as soon as possible, but the gonk got flatlined earlier today. We have everything prepared: the corpos schedule, the bribes, and even a jammer to help you do a clean and traceless job. Since I promised my client to finish this today, I¡¯m willing to pay some Preem eddies for the gig. Thirty thousand as a base, with an extra ten for discretion.¡± Maine takes the fixer words, thinking it over. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of money for a supposedly ¡®simple gig.¡¯¡± ¡°I¡¯m paying for speed,¡± Dex clarifies, ¡°it needs to be done today, so I can have the data sent to my client tomorrow morning. That¡¯s why I¡¯m offering a larger reward than usual.¡± ¡°I can do it,¡± Sasha says, surprising the crew with her initiative, ¡°depending on the detes it should be easy. In-and-out, easy eddies.¡± The Solo frowns, his gut saying something was amiss, but before he could think it over Dex rose up from his seat. ¡°If you¡¯re not interested, I will look for another crew or solo Netrunner. Time waits for no one, after all.¡± DeShawn takes three steps before Maine calls him. ¡°Wait. Alright, send us the detes and we will do the job.¡± DeShawn waves his cyberarm, trailing smoke behind him. The intel of the job appears on the group Agent screen. As the Fixer said, the prep work for the job was already done, with the last element being a Netrunning infiltrating the Biotechnica headquarters to copy the data. On the surface, it appeared simple. Maine relaxes upon seeing the intel, realizing that DeShawn reputation was well earned. Sasha looks at the clock and realizes that she needs to go right now if plans to return in time to continue celebrating with her crew. ¡°I will go ahead. Save a plate for me, chooms.¡± Waving at the group, she exits the Afterlife. A few minutes later, the Engineer Arrives. Legal Problems Require Illegal Solutions (7) ¡°Hey everyone, how are you doing?¡± Mark greets the crew before sitting down, already ordering a drink for himself. ¡°If it isn¡¯t the guy with the dough.¡± Maine greets Mark with a handshake, raising his glass to the Engineer. Mark answers in kind, glad that the service in Afterlife was fast. ¡°Let¡¯s get the business out first before we eat. Do you have the data?¡± ¡°Yeah, here.¡± Maine passes the memory shards, and Mark confirms the contents from his Agent. ¡°Alright, you deserve the bonus too. Wiring the rest of the money.¡± ¡°We also found some juicy data that¡¯s unrelated to your gig, if you¡¯re interested in buying.¡± Pillar interjects, getting a slap from his sister for speaking over Maine. ¡°What Pillar said,¡± the Solo nods, ¡°since it wasn¡¯t part of the contract the info is sold separately, but because you hired us for the gig and gave us a generous offer, we¡¯re offering you first pick of the best intel we got. Interested?¡± ¡°Hmm, it hurts a little that I couldn¡¯t get everything first, but I should have included it in the contract. Alright, how much for what you have?¡± Maine grins. ¡°For you? 2K total.¡± Mark wires the money for the Solo, setting the info for later, however he notices something odd. ¡°Where is Sasha?¡± ¡°She had to leave earlier,¡± Dorio answers this time, ¡°she will get back soon.¡± ¡°Alright,¡± Mark pauses once more, still feeling something amiss, ¡°hey, how do I get the info you guys sold? Is there some specific info broker I should ask?¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s simple!¡± Rebbeca helpfully answers. ¡°Just call the bar and ask for rumors and they will sell you all the information you need on a subject.¡± ¡°Great, great, thanks.¡± Mark nods in appreciation to Rebbeca, then he starts fiddling with his Agent. ¡®She just had to do something else, right? It¡¯s not like she had to rush to Biotechnica right away on her own, right?¡¯ As Mark finished those thoughts, his eyes widened as a particular piece of information appeared on his Agent. ¡°Maine,¡± Mark turns to the Edgerunner with a barely restrained tone, ¡°I found this info from the bar, but I want to hear it directly from you. Did you just accept a job from Dex DeShawn?¡± Maine blinks his optics. ¡°Mr. Cool? I mean, yeah, we did. Why?¡± Mark ignores the question, taking a deep breath. ¡°Did this job involve Biotechnica? Did he provide some kind of signal jammer? Did this job need to be done tonight?¡± ¡°Wha, how the hell did you know all that?¡± ¡°FUCK!¡± Mark sprints away from Afterlife as if his life depended on it and as soon as he exits the building he puts on his new armor, the Power Armor Mk. I. The Power Armor Mk. I can accommodate more modules than the Modular Armor, alongside the usual benefits of better protection and increased inventory size. The Power Armor Mk. I also have a distinct look, with some people confusing the armor for a Fullborg Chrome. ¡°I better make it in time!¡± ¡­ Sasha leaves the elevator with a bored expression and walks straight towards the head office where the data is located. This kind of corporate espionage isn¡¯t new to her or the crew, and at the lower levels, it is expected as part of the business. Her current target involves financial reports on the sales of CHOO2, likely for insider trading purposes, and information on the ¡°Immunosuppressant Prototype 0.091¡±, this time for competitive advantages.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Thanks to Dex DeShawn providing the prep work, everything went smoothly for Sasha. ¡®Just take the data, dig a little bit, then delta.¡¯ Sasha repeated to herself like a mantra, maintaining a neutral expression on her face. Finally, she reaches the terminal and starts to work. It doesn¡¯t take long for her to breach the local ICE and infiltrate the database. Sasha suddenly receives a call from Maine. ¡°Hey, Sasha, are you alright? What¡¯s going on there?¡± ¡°Everything¡¯s fine-fine. Why the rush-rush?¡± ¡°The Engineer just got out of Afterlife like a man possessed! He heard you were doing a gig on Biotechnica after accepting a job from DeShawn and he went mental! He¡¯s probably rushing to your position. Do you have any idea why he would be set off?¡± Sasha''s expression didn¡¯t change as she already found what she wanted. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Maine, I will get back to you later.¡± ¡°Sasha, wait!¡± The Netrunner cuts off the connection and proceeds with her plan of revenge on Biotechnica. The first information she found on MH04 tipped her off, and the gig from Mr. Cool gave her the excuse necessary to act on it. If she¡¯s lucky, she might even survive it! ¡­ Above the streets of Night City, a lone figure travels at speeds unmatched by anything else on the ground. Using a special weapon called a Grappling Gun, the Engineer covers one city block per shot until he reaches the Corpo Plaza. Firing the Grappling Gun one last time, the Engineer reaches the Biotechnica building top floor, and he can see Sasha setting up a bag of explosives. Mark doesn¡¯t waste time, hitting the bulletproof glass with his axe, startling Sasha. After five swings, the glass shows signs of damage, and at fifteen swings Sasha is witness to a miracle as the entire glass panel disappears allowing Mark to enter. ¡°What?¡± Raising his hand, a pair of stone walls appear in front of the large steel door of the office and seal the entrance. ¡°Are you done?¡± Mark asks the stunned Netrunner. ¡°The security will come at any moment; you have to hurry!¡± From the other side of the wall, the pair could hear the walls being shot. Without wasting any more time, Sasha resumes her task of uploading the database to a media outlet. The security outside places an explosive charge that blasts through the walls, only for the security robots to face the stone furnace acting as cover for the pair. With a thought, a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher throws a grenade, blowing up the robots, but more would come. ¡°Are you done?¡± Mark asks while quickly sweeping all the robot bodies for later study. ¡°Yes! We must-¡± Sasha can¡¯t finish the sentence, as Mark tackles her and they both go through the window, seemingly falling to their deaths, until Mark activates the jetpack module and the pair flies away through the Night City landscape, eventually reaching a safe area behind a back alley. When they land the pair sit down to catch their breath after the daring escape. ¡°Are you alright? Are you hurt?¡± Mark asks Sasha as he recomposes himself. Sasha, on the other hand, needs to take a few more deep breaths to regain her composure. ¡°Yeah, yeah. I¡¯m fine. Yes, fine.¡± ¡°Good, good. Now tell me, what the fuck did you expect to accomplish today? What, where you expecting to die or something?¡± Mark ignores the small flinch from Sasha, ¡°how do you think your crew would feel? What about Rebbeca, Dorio, even Pillar? I met you guys for a little while and already I know you¡¯re friends, and you go and almost kill yourself! What do you think would happen to Maine? He¡¯s your leader, the one responsible for everyone! Did any of that cross over your pretty, little head?¡± Sasha can¡¯t refute those words, so she doesn¡¯t bother. ¡°You don¡¯t get it, I had to get revenge for what they did to me, my family!¡± Mark looks at the young woman and realizes that she looks more na?ve than he initially expected. ¡°This does not hurt the company,¡± Mark says slowly and deliberately, ¡°at worst, the company will release a public statement, potentially take the drugs off circulation, and maybe fire the ones personally responsible for the approval of commercial production. However, the company will live on because the environment and culture that allowed this travesty to happen in the first place didn¡¯t change. The only thing that happened is that they got caught this time, and they won¡¯t make the same mistake again. This is the best-case scenario, and you know it.¡± The worst case scenario, in Mark''s understanding, is that Biotechnica releases an inoffensive, neutral language, an empty statement that doesn¡¯t address the issue, and the stocks of Biotechnica dip slightly for a couple of weeks, before rising back as the company releases their newest quarters profit. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± Deep down, Sasha knew about this. This kind of cyber vigilantism was attempted in the past, yet the corporations are apparently immune from reprisal. Looking at Sasha¡¯s tear-filled, defeated look, Mark sighs tiredly. ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s worse, the cyberpunk lifestyle, or this damned city in this damned world that makes the lifestyle a legitimate choice for survival.¡± Unfortunately for Mark, the night was far from over. In his HUD, a series of alerts start to go off one after another. The base is under attack. Legal Problems Require Illegal Solutions (8) Mark turns to Sasha, ¡°Stay under the radar somewhere, I have something urgent to get back to.¡± Without waiting for a response Mark rushes towards Pacifica using his Grappling Gun and measured jumps with his jetpack. He carefully checks his current arsenal, hoping that it will be enough without dipping into his new weapons. Mark returns to Pacifica just as fast as he arrives at the Corpo Plaza. He ignores the gangsters shooting at each other in the middle of the ¡°outer shell¡± of the Starter Base, where he had claimed new land but had yet to build anything, and went straight towards the area with warning signals on his System until the invaders become visible on his minimap. It was a sight of pure carnage and senseless death, as the gangsters had blew up the outer walls with powerful rocket launchers, then did the same with the nearby defenses. Mark arrived just in time to see the group trying to escape with his assembled items. Without wasting time, Mark cuts off the escape from the gangsters and then deploys his turrets. The gangsters inside the factory are flatlined quickly until none is remaining. After a fast patchwork and reestablishing new supply lines, Mark turns his attention to the gang war ongoing in his backyard. Jumping away like a famous webslinger, the Engineer finds one of the Posergang kids who were partying nearby some time ago. ¡°Chaos, what the hell just happened here?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± The nominal leader of the Poser Gang yelled back hysterically, ¡°We were just partying when all those people suddenly came out packing tons of iron!¡± ¡°Stay here where it is safe!¡± Mark yells over the gunfight before rushing towards the front lines. There were only a few people that Mark recognized in the chaotic battlefield, though the Engineer recognized a few gangs in attendance. Mark can see the Animals, the Voodoo Boys, a small Tyger Claw team fighting together, various individual Scavs sneaking around the battlefield to loot the bodies, and finally the Barghest coming in force. Other than the notorious gangs, there are also several Posergangs, Combat Gangs, Go Gangs, the unmistakable remnants of Maelstrom, and finally ¡°the fucking nazis!¡± The last group is comprised of several tenuously related Hate Gangs that operate in Night City as a whole and would never ally themselves with any of the previously listed gangs. ¡°Investigate later, deal with them now.¡± Mark sets up an improvised cover using stone furnaces to protect the armed gun turrets he deploys, using his Grappling Gun to zip through the battlefield and setting similar ¡®kill boxes.¡¯ His form is a blur on the battlefield, made worse for his enemies during the nighttime, as most of the gangsters don¡¯t have a form of night vision. Unfortunately, the gangsters with proper night vision were also heavily armed. When Mark paused for an instant to set up another kill box, the Barghest was ready, and one of their numbers shot a rocket launcher at the Engineer. *Boom* Mark flies several meters from the impact of the explosion hitting him in the face. ¡°Argh!¡± The gangsters don¡¯t stop, and continue to fire their weapons at Mark, forcing him to split his focus between evading the heavy ordinance and healing himself, which gives the momentum of the fight back to the gangsters. In a miracle of Hate and Spite, all the gangs fighting against each other decided to drop their current rivalries and grudges to focus their efforts on the Engineer. As Mark zips through the battlefield toward safer areas, Mark notices that his supplies are running low. Deciding that he needs to resupply, Mark quickly returns to his base. ¡°I didn¡¯t think I would use it this soon,¡± Mark remarks as he drops most of his items and picks up the contents of his War Chest. Mark quickly runs towards the newly installed gates of his Starter Base. Waiting for him, is the Factorio Tank, already armed and fueled for action. *Cracracracra* *Cracracracra* From inside the factory, a tank comes out, surprising the gangsters for its presence and appearance. The tank machine guns roar, and more gun turrets materialize at the sides to provide support and stationary defenses. The large turrets whirl towards the Barghest team, firing their precious explosive rounds, taking out the gangsters. The tank picks up more speed, firing the machine gun while grenades fly from inside the war machine. It doesn¡¯t stop when it comes closer to the gangsters, running over the few unfortunates that couldn¡¯t run fast enough. From time to time, Mark leaves the tank and once more zips through the battlefield, setting up more kill boxes, refueling the already present gun turrets, and throwing grenades. The gangsters¡¯ actions would become more desperate, as they saw most of their weapons hit the Engineer, with the man faltering at times, however, he never stops firing his weapons, running, and hunting down the gangsters. The coalition that started this war will never know how close they were to killing the Engineer thanks to his sealed armor and the various medical kits in his inventory. Unfortunately for the coalition, they made the mistake of assaulting the Engineer right in front of his base. The Engineer has a greater chance of dying from his logistic system than he does from external enemies while within reach of his base. Now, everyone will understand that. ¡­ The event that would later be reported on the media as ¡°The Pacifica Gang War Massacre¡± ends after, what to Mark feels like, hours of fighting. Through the fight, Mark sealed the local area with stone walls to keep uninvolved people away from the combat zone. Differently from the assault on the Maelstrom base, Mark allowed the gangsters to flee, until only a few remnant gangsters stayed. Some of them were dying, while others were made prisoners where the interrogation began. ¡°Why did your gang decide to attack today? Did you idiots decide to start a gang war on a whim, or was it on your agenda?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± the gangsters cried, ¡°the boss said that tonight would be a good chance for us to loot the Engineer hideout.¡± Mark shakes the unnamed man, ¡°who gave you that information?¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°I, I don¡¯t know,¡± Mark aims his machine gun at the gangster''s head, and he starts to speak, ¡°It, it was a Ffixer! B-boss said a ¡®big shot fixer¡¯ gave us a nice tip, that¡¯s all I know!¡± The same kind of response continued with several minor gangs, always a ¡®big shot fixer¡¯ selling hot intel to assault the Engineer holdings. The pattern only broke when the larger gangs got involved. ¡­ ¡°Who sent you here? Do you think I won¡¯t finish the job if you don¡¯t answer?¡± ¡°Do your worst.¡± The Tyger Claw gangster says and closes her eyes, getting herself ready for torture. She didn¡¯t expect Mark''s next action, as she felt most of her wounds healed, bringing her back from the brink of death to merely injured. ¡°What?¡± ¡°You can go,¡± the Engineer tells the gangster, ¡°your silence answers enough to me about who¡¯s responsible for your group tantrum.¡± The female Tyger Claw widens her eyes as if Mark had seen through her. ¡°I wonder, what will your group do when they realize you crawled back to them instead of having the decency of dying for your failure? Will they ask you to commit seppuku or a zako like you isn¡¯t afforded that kind of courtesy?¡± That mere understanding of Japanese culture was enough for the gangster to flee the area like a woman possessed, never looking back. ¡­ ¡°Who sent you here?¡± Mark asks while pointing his gun towards the Barghest gangster. In the Engineer''s opinion, the Barghest aren¡¯t true ¡®gangsters¡¯ but instead they¡¯re paid mercenaries of Militech due to their superior equipment and training. ¡°Are they paying you enough to stay silent?¡± ¡°¡­ I¡¯m no snitch, but you don¡¯t really need me to tell you who sent me here, right?¡± ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not clueless.¡± The Engineer answers him, ¡°You can leave. I will be keeping your weapons and other possessions as spoils of war.¡± ¡°You¡¯re very generous.¡± The gangster remarks as he slowly stands up. ¡°If you want me to kill you to wash away the shame of failure, you can just ask.¡± ¡°Nope, not paid enough to die for those corpo bastards. I will take my leave.¡± ¡­ ¡°The Night City Corp sent us.¡± The Animal confesses to Mark¡¯s shock, ¡°They don¡¯t like that you¡¯re digging their trash.¡± ¡°Are they for real?¡± Mark can¡¯t help but ask at the insanity of it, ¡°Aren¡¯t they the government? Shouldn¡¯t they have at least sent the cops first?¡± This time it was the Animal that looked strangely at Mark. ¡°Hello? They¡¯re corpos, sending killers to their competition is what corpos do.¡± ¡°Just, just leave.¡± Mark waves off the Animal, and the gangsters reluctantly leave without causing any further issues. ¡­ ¡°Who sent you?¡± ¡°We¡¯re not going to say anything, you bastard!¡± The Voodoo boy prisoner yells back at Mark, uncaring about his potential survival, ¡°If it weren¡¯t for you, we would have taken Pacifica for ourselves!¡± Mark makes a show to roll his eyes. ¡°Like the Animals or Barghest¡­¡± The Voodoo Boy spat, hitting Mark¡¯s armor. ¡°They are like children to the ones we serve! We have a purpose, a dream, something that goes beyond the petty squabbles of mortal men!¡± Mark stares at the captured gangster, then shakes his head. ¡°I can see why you were sent to die. I doubt I could get any useful intel from cannon fodder.¡± Mark can see the gangster''s heart skipping a beat. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Oh, you know, if I were in your shoes I would think this setup was abnormal. Consider this: a man that allegedly took down the Maelstrom gang in a single night, killing over a thousand men alone if the rumors are true, and you¡¯re asked to assault his alleged stronghold.¡± Mark tilts his head, trying to convey pity through his hidden face, ¡°you clearly have strong faith in your ideology, and looks vocal about it too. I can only imagine that you or your faction has powerful enemies back with your group. Send the troublemakers to die on a suicide mission to clean house, and even if they survive the ordeal their numbers will be too low to be a threat. Tell me, Boy, did everyone that died today was one of your friends?¡± The Voodoo Boy sweats, trembling at the imposing figure of the armored Engineer, and the implication of the man¡¯s words. ¡°You, you¡¯re wrong! We¡¯re united against the filth of this city, even De,¡± the gangster clamps his mouth shut, realizing what he was about to say. Unfortunately for him, it was already too late. ¡°If you finish that sentence, I will allow you to leave unmolested. Otherwise¡­¡± Mark allows his words to hang in the air. The gangster looks away, shame and anger in his expression. ¡°Good answer,¡± Mark says and allows the gangster to leave. ¡­ ¡°We never should have listened to that,¡± Mark''s shotgun rests on the Hate Gangster''s head, and he wisely changes his words, ¡°Fat bastard!¡± ¡°Good enough for me. Now leave, and if I ever see your gang near here, or harassing someone outside, you will answer to me, get it?¡± If the gangster glare could kill, it would still be inferior to the wrath of the Engineer. Wisely, the gangster stands up and leaves the area. ¡­ After finishing the interrogation, Mark looks around the area to determine the damage. To his anger, the gangs ended up destroying the habitation blocks he created, with several of the homeless population dying in the process. Differently from the other gangsters, Mark decided to properly perform funerary rites on the innocent who died. ¡°Hey Chaos,¡± Mark approaches the Poser gangster, already back at full health thanks to the shared medical kit, ¡°I¡¯m sorry things ended up like this. I don¡¯t think our deal can continue under those conditions. It¡¯s simply too dangerous.¡± ¡°Nah, this is Night City choom, there¡¯s a gang war every other month. We got used to it already,¡± the self-proclaimed Toreador reassures Mark, ¡°though it usually doesn¡¯t get this big so fast, nor does it end in a single night.¡± ¡°Yeah, well, I¡¯m still not comfortable allowing you guys near a place that will turn into a warzone at any minute. I will contact you if I ever find a way to set up a safer place for your guys.¡± ¡°Thanks, choom,¡± Chaos yaws before rubbing his eyes, ¡°I¡¯m going home, this night was terrible for me, and I still have to turn in my assignments at Arasaka Academy.¡± Mark pats the Poser ganger on the shoulder, before looking for one last place, and his temper once more ignites. The future ¡°Wube Inc.¡± office was completely wrecked and ransacked, with almost every piece of furniture destroyed, the walls damaged, and the PC tower missing. There was nothing important to Mark since most of the valuable items were either on his inventory or were part of the Factorio System, but disproportionate damage was done to something that Mark knows will be useless, however, the stolen equipment was the last straw for the night. ¡°DeShawn, you¡¯re fucking dead when I get my hands on you!¡± Taking a deep breath, Mark sits on the only semi-intact piece of furniture and enters the simulation mode. In this mode, Mark¡¯s mind is transported to a sandbox world where time passes slowly, which he usually uses to build new factory blueprints and test new equipment. He¡¯s going to use that extra time to plan and strategize. There will be a reckoning, so swears the Engineer. Legal Problems Require Illegal Solutions (9) David closes the door, ready to leave for Arasaka Academy, when he notices Mark returning to his apartment while looking worse for wear. ¡°Rough night?¡± David asks his neighbor once he notices the rare state of his person. ¡°Y, yeah.¡± Mark yawns tiredly, ¡°there is still more to do, but I need to take a shower first. I will try to catch a nap while I wait for my appointment later in the day.¡± ¡°Make sure you get enough rest, and don¡¯t forget to sleep, alright? Work will still be there when you get back.¡± Mark blinks at David''s words, grinning at the young man and reaching towards his head, ruffling the hair of the protesting teen. ¡°Thanks for the advice, David, I appreciate it. You¡¯re right, I will sleep it off before going back to work.¡± David slaps Mark''s hand away in embarrassment before powerwalking towards the Academy, and Mark enters his apartment once more with a tired yawn on his lips. The transmigrator takes David''s advice and takes a long, relaxing shower, then he sends a quick message to both Kiwi and Miguel regarding the affairs of the day. Finally, he falls on his bed and sleeps like the dead, or like a Factorio player who just realized the sun is already up on the window. ¡­ Kiwi looks at the message marked Important, realizing it''s from her new employer. After quickly reading it the Netrunner sighed and pulled the files she was about to sell on the black market, a hint of amusement at the fact they would act as proper backup like her ¡°day job¡± description intended. Her ¡°department¡± also has a budget and since some idiot decided to steal the physical server like a caveman instead of taking the data as a civilized person should, she will be using the budget to buy another server. For a moment, the idea of skimming off the top of the department budget crossed her head, making her weigh the pros and cons of such an action. It¡¯s not unusual for Edgerunners to klepto some valuables during a mission but depending on the fixer and the valuables stolen that would tank the cyberpunk reputation on the streets. If she decides to stay for the long term and steals from the budget she will need to work with subpar equipment or cover the difference with her ill-gotten money anyway. Kiwi pauses once that thought crosses her mind. ¡°Am I really willing to become a corpo after a single offer?¡± The Netrunner looks at the contract she signed, and the advance she received for the month. ¡°So long as he stays professional, yeah.¡± In the former factory worker and Joytoy''s eyes, the contract was too good to be true, but since her employer paid her in advance if things get messy she can simply delta and lay low for a while. Kiwi doubted that Wube Inc. would be so vengeful as to root out a single Netrunner in Night City. ¡­ Miguel knocks on the apartment door, and a small hand pointing a hand cannon to his face answers. ¡°Hey choom, what can I do for you?¡± Putting his hands up, Miguel introduces himself. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Miguel, remember me? I¡¯m a friend of your boss, Maine.¡± Rebbeca''s eyes widen, ¡°oh yeah, Miguel, I remember now. How are you doing, choom?¡± The small Solo steps aside, inviting the former Green Beret. ¡°Come in, Maine just woke up. He got the whole crew holed up in his apartment to look after Sasha.¡± As Miguel enters he spots the rest of the crew. Maine looks tired despite being the middle of the day, his output is giving a dressing down to the group¡¯s Netrunner, the techie with long arms is stuffing his face with kibble as he strips and cleans a gun, and Rebbeca goes back to the kitchen to make some synth coffee. ¡°Good day, Maine. Can we talk a little bit? It¡¯s business.¡± ¡°Hey Miguel, Nice to see you.¡± Maine sighs, ¡°business, eh? I can guess about what it is. Do you mind if the rest of the crew listen, or should we move this to my office?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t your ¡®office¡¯ the bathroom?¡± Pillar asks casually, and Rebbeca casually shoots his hand for his impertinence. ¡°Hey, that was close to the product!¡±Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Ignoring the siblings¡¯ antics, Miguel sits at the table. ¡°The Engineer sent me a message about yesterday''s clusterfuck. He said they used your Netrunner as ¡®bait to draw him out of the factory so that They could raid the Starter Base.¡¯ Can you give me some more detes on what happened yesterday? I swear, the first time I get to sleep during the night this shit happens.¡± Maine replies with an ironic smile to his friend, ¡°Just like in the army, huh?¡± Shaking his head, Maine recounts the events of the previous day. The successful operation from the Engineer gig, waiting at Afterlife, meeting ¡°Mr. Cool¡± himself, and accepting an improvised gig that paid premium for speed, Sasha completed the mission but almost fucking it up due to personal reasons, if not for the Engineer deciding to rush towards Biotechnica¡¯s building the moment he heard that Dex DeShawn was the one who gave them the gig, the subsequent rescue, and finally the Engineer leaving a stunned Sasha on the street before rushing to fight in a gang war in Pacifica. ¡°He won, by the way,¡± Miguel notes to the stunned Edgerunner crew, ¡°some people wrecked his base, but he managed to deal with the aggressors. If you go there right now you wouldn¡¯t think the place was a warzone just a few hours ago.¡± ¡°Damn, no wonder he had the balls to treat my Netrunner as an amateur. Our levels are different.¡± Miguel shrugs, ¡°maybe he was just angry that she almost got herself killed? Unless you¡¯re on his shitlist, he¡¯s quite generous and compassionate.¡± ¡°I really should apologize to him, if he felt so strongly about it.¡± Sasha quickly elaborates when everyone turns to her, ¡°Not that I¡¯m complaining about the dressing down or don¡¯t appreciate being cared for, but I was expecting that sort of behavior from the crew or my sister, not from a stranger.¡± ¡°Yeah, now that you mention it, Sasha, it sounded strange at first,¡± Maina turns to Miguel, ¡°the Engineer had too much intel on what, where, and how Sasha would conduct her gig, and the moment Dex DeShawn name crossed his lips he ran like the Executioner was on his tail.¡± Miguel knew that his friend was fishing for information, however he could only shake his head. ¡°As far as I understand, some of the things he can do are fucking magic, so I¡¯m not going to question how he knows some secrets while being painfully na?ve on certain aspects. Anyway, the Engineer isn¡¯t blaming the crew for anything if that¡¯s what you¡¯re wondering.¡± While the rest of the crew sighed in relief, Dorio took the opportunity to ask her question. ¡°Then what is the Engineer''s message?¡± ¡°He wants to propose a closer partnership with your crew,¡± Miguel answers, ¡°he will soon incorporate, and he will build the ¡®legal¡¯ security team to provide security for his workers, while he will hire Edgerunners for black ops operations.¡± ¡°A corpo fixer, huh? That¡¯s a lot of hats the Engineer plans to wear.¡± Pillar points out, making Maine think over the proposal. ¡°What does he get from hiring Edgerunners instead of Arasaka or Militech mercs?¡± ¡°According to him, he likes to have a hand in a group¡¯s development, and he believes that a professional mercenary¡¯s loyalty is to their parent company, which is a conflict of interest in his opinion.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t fault him there,¡± Maine agrees with the sentiment behind the Engineer''s actions, ¡°give me the detes on the proposal, depending on what it is, it might be worthy hearing shit from Faraday.¡± ¡°Just remember this,¡± Miguel warns his friend and the crew with a somber tone, ¡°make sure that you don¡¯t go half-cocked just so you get yourself killed, Mark is willing to help resolve your issues, but he can¡¯t read your fucking mind.¡± The ex-special forces pause, ¡°probably.¡± ¡­ The Queen of the Afterlife is seething with rage at the sudden gang war happening in her city and is entirely in the dark about the reason why it started. She isn¡¯t entirely in the dark, however, there are too missing many pieces for her liking. ¡®The gang war started several hours ago, deep into the night. Several gangs arrived on Pacifica, and after a tense initial confrontation, one of the booster gangs fired the first shot, and then things went downhill.¡¯ Rogue mentally recounts the events of the night, trying to make sense of the insanity. ¡®A few gangs tried to blow up the Engineer¡¯s headquarters and klepto his equipment with a certain degree of success, while other gangs were killing each other within Pacifica either under orders or to stir up trouble. Every gang wanted something different, and not all of it related to the Engineer.¡¯ The legendary Solo grabs a bottle of Vodka and pours herself a drink while glaring at her bodyguard if he ever dares take her drink away. ¡°This must have been an accident, or as an impulsive whim. Something of this magnitude doesn¡¯t go under the radar until the last minute without anyone hearing about it.¡± Rogue wanted to blame the Engineer for this, but the man was simply defending his turf from the aggressors. The only clue that she has is the piece of intel she learned while overhearing Maine¡¯s crew table. After sitting down to commemorate a successful job, Dex DeShawn approaches them, they talk for a while, Dex leaves, and The Engineer arrives and talks with the Edgerunners, Biotechnica and Dex''s names are eventually dropped, then the Engineer rushes after the crew Netrunner. The rest, as they say, is history. ¡°What other headache does he have for me?¡± Her Netrunner redirects a message from the Engineer to her Agent, answering her prayers. It answered with scorn and mockery. Legal Problems Require Illegal Solutions (10) The Mayor''s office clerk tried not to fidget at the sight in front of her. A man wearing incredibly expensive-looking Power Armor was calmly writing the forms for opening a new business inside Night City. Most small businesses, in the clerk¡¯s humble opinion, are ¡®frauds that only survive on their better¡¯s charity,¡¯ because they didn¡¯t go through the bureaucratic process, and thus didn¡¯t pay them the necessary ¡°fees¡± to keep the business running legally. The man sitting in front of the clerk, however, made sure to read each passage on every contract and license that required his signature, slowing down the line massively behind him. As petty revenge, the clerk tells the armored man that he isn¡¯t filling the forms correctly, or that he isn¡¯t filling the proper forms promptly. Yet, the armored man did everything without issues, and soon the excuses to delay him became more malicious. For the people in the office, the sight cut a comical silhouette due to the rarity of people well armored as Mark doing something so mundane in Night City. They would say, ¡®Edgerunners don¡¯t stand in lines, they blast their way to the front!¡¯ or ¡®corpos don¡¯t send their attack dogs on an office errand, they have interns for that!¡¯ Eventually, Mark is called further inside the Mayor''s office to talk with people of enough importance. Mark follows the attendant and walks through the corridors of Night City¡¯s Mayor''s Office. Mark is almost surprised by how mundane the inner architecture of the office looks, with a clear departure from the needlessly flashy and retro-futuristic aesthetic that Night City favors, or the clean and sterile corporation architecture that Arasaka and other corpos employ. ¡®This city must be getting to me, here I am being nostalgic for seeing a building full of extremely busy government clerks.¡¯ Mark shakes his head and finally enters the meeting room. ¡°Good evening.¡± There were three people seated at the table, with three more standing acting as bodyguards. One of them is a representative of the government, while the other two are from Arasaka and Militech. Mark narrowed his eyes behind the visor, recognizing the Arasaka man. ¡°Yorinobu-san,¡± Mark gives the older man a respectful bow, thanking his time in college and hardcore weeb phase. He then extended his hand to the Militech representative. ¡°Mr. representative.¡± Finally, he addressed the government representative, who is the mayor himself. ¡°Mr. Mayor.¡± ¡°Hajimemashite,¡± Yorinobu replies with a polite nod, holding a hand to stop his cyborg ninja bodyguard. The Militech representative didn¡¯t return the greeting, while the Mayor returned a tired smile. ¡°Welcome to this meeting, Mr. Mark. As you already know, I am Lucius Rhyne, the Mayor of Night City. I hope you weren¡¯t inconvenienced by the waiting.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Mark answers the overweight man, ¡°now, how can I help the city and the two major corporations of Night City?¡± ¡°We want you to stop what you¡¯re doing and leave Pacifica, after paying us for compensation, and then be persecuted to the full extent of the law.¡± The Militech representative answers promptly. Yorinobu takes his time to answer, and the other two representatives wait for him to continue. The Mayor is visibly stressed by the wait, while the Militech representative doesn¡¯t bother masking his impatience. Eventually, the heir to the Arasaka Empire speaks. ¡°Arasaka wishes for you to cease your operations in Pacifica, as it fears you will glean corporate secrets that were improperly disposed of. Additionally, it has an interest in developing the Pacifica region for future real estate projects and cannot stand by someone taking it first.¡± Finally, the Mayor speaks. ¡°The Night City council simply can¡¯t abide by your irregular acquisition of Night City property. At least, a proper bidding process must take place before operating in such a manner. Fines must also be paid for the irregular activity.¡± Mark nods and addresses the Mayor directly. ¡°I understand your concern. After all, the entirety of Night City trash could be considered a unique treasure for those who can exploit it. I believe I am uniquely suited to make use of all that trash. If you don¡¯t mind, I have a demonstration video for you to see.¡± Mark sends a video file to the three sitting across from him, and after some time checking the files the group opens the video. In the movie, Mark shows his equipment working to transform the trash into finished goods, starting with mining. A large mining drill digs into the ground, compacting the scrap into massive blocks of trash, which is then moved through conveyor belts towards the recycler machines. From there, the trash is disassembled, and certain materials are spilled out, with a tiny fraction of scrap leaving the conveyor belt for storage. The disassembled material is then sorted and sent to storage, with some of the material being further broken down along the line before going into stock. The image changes to an area that was previously full of trash, and slowly the trash pile diminishes until only clean ground is left. ¡°As you can see, I can automate the cleaning process of the land, taking out the trash and leaving pristine ground behind. Pacifica is relatively clean compared with the City Landfill, so the process of cleaning the area of filth should happen swiftly. As for the reclaimed components, here is a sample of what my Assemblers? can do.¡± Taking out a small box, Mark produces three items, a ¡°green chip,¡± a ¡°red chip,¡± and a ¡°blue chip.¡± ¡°Those are special computer chips that can be used for a wide range of applications, customizable for the needs of the client. They might look bulky now, however,¡± Mark takes one green chip, the Electronic Chip, and breaks it with his finger, creating a smaller piece, ¡°each chip can be broken down with simple tools, even manually as you just saw, to fit the requirements of the use case, yet they don¡¯t change their performance. The green chip you see is the basic Electronic Chip, good for simple applications in the civilian sector, or if you need reliable items to supply the military. The red chip is the Advanced Electronic Chip, with a higher performance than its basic counterpart and is suitable for most high-tech applications. The blue chip is the Processing Unit, with the highest performance and fit for cutting-edge technology. Allow me to demonstrate a simple application of this technology.¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Once more Marks takes three items from his box and they are three cyberdecks painted in green, red, and blue colors for identification purposes. Mark takes one piece of each chip type slots it into an adequate area of the cyberdecks and shows the representatives, who now look mildly interested in the demonstration. After a brief inspection, the Militech representative eyebrows shot up in surprise at the change in performance. The equipment with a green chip operates to usual parameters, but the ones with red and blue chips have a much better performance when it comes to speed, and after a brief struggle by one of the bodyguards to hack and fry the cyberdecks, the destroyed chips are recovered by Mark and changed to new chips in different configurations, restoring the inoperable equipment. Mark gives three cards to the men present, a black card with a single orange rust gear in the middle, with the name Wube Inc. at the back and Mark''s current contact info. Urban Development, Infrastructure, Mining, Logistics, Security Wube Inc. Mark Henderson: Chief Engineer of Night City Operations ¡°Here¡¯s my proposal, Mr. Mayor. The city won¡¯t need to pay Wube Inc. for the trash reclamation and disposal service, in return it will sell the chips and other materials for the Night City and the two corporations in attendance at a discount.¡± Mark turns towards Yorinobu. ¡°I don¡¯t trust any information that comes out of the trash, nor do I have the time to personally sift through the refuse to find the small golden nuggets of info, when I can make more money selling Iron and Steel. Of course, I can also offer services to properly dispose of databanks and other sensitive material, if you¡¯re interested.¡± Both the Militech representative and the Mayor look surprised at Mark''s courage in offering Arasaka to deal with their trash in such a bold manner. Yorinobu remains mostly stoic though his expression tightens. ¡°I see.¡± ¡°What about your actions? Are you going to talk about the murders and other illegal activities you¡¯re up to? Do you,¡± before the Militech representative could continue, Mark interrupted the man. ¡°No.¡± ¡°What? ¡®No?¡¯ What do you mean by ¡®No?¡¯¡± ¡°No. We¡¯re not going to talk about past issues. I could give some very compelling arguments as to why, but that requires me to acknowledge that there is any issue, and hence talk about it. So, no. We¡¯re not going to talk about it.¡± Suddenly Yorinobu stands up. ¡°Arasaka will study your proposal with care, Mark-san. For now, we will drop the claim on the Pacifica district until it is cleaned and fit for human habitation. Both Arasaka and I will be in contact with Wube Inc. Until then, Mark-san.¡± The Heir to the Arasaka Empire leaves the room calmly but swiftly, with both Militech and the Mayor staring at the retreating men with surprise. The Militech representative glares at Mark¡¯s armored mask but doesn¡¯t further antagonize him. Eventually, he also stands up. ¡°I will talk with the R&D department regarding interest in the items. Militech Procurement Department will contact your sales department for further negotiations.¡± Only the Mayor and his bodyguard remain from the original men waiting for Mark. ¡°You said Wube Inc. would work for free to the betterment of Night City?¡± Mark shakes his head. ¡°Nice try. Wube Inc. won¡¯t charge for the trash reclamation projects, but I am willing to give a very generous deal for urban development and infrastructure projects, so long as the city approves some of Wube Inc.''s proposals for opening new installations.¡± The Mayor''s eyes, once dull and tired, regain some spark of life from the once idealistic man. ¡°Tell me more, Chief Engineer.¡± Mark grins behind the mask. ¡­ Back at the limousine, the Bodyguard questions Yorinobu¡¯s decision to have the Night City branch of Arasaka make a deal with the newly established Wube Inc. ¡°The products shown by Mark-san have the potential to be useful to Arasaka¡¯s efforts, and I felt prudent to cultivate a good relationship with the Chief Engineer, who appears both capable and dangerous. Close the windows, I wish for some privacy.¡± The bodyguard nods, clicking a button and raising the privacy screen for his current boss. When Yorinobu is certain he¡¯s alone in his seat and nobody is listening, he loosens control of his emotions and starts laughing hard. ¡°Ha ha, to have the audacity to come at Arasaka to take their trash and dismiss Militech in the same breath. I like the balls of that man. I wonder how he will respond to this.¡± Yorinobu sends a quick message to Mark. ¡°Are you willing to discuss business after work hours over a drink?¡± Yorinobu¡¯s father, Saburo, would never lower himself to drink with someone he considers his ¡®lesser¡¯ unless he¡¯s completely in control of the situation, disdaining certain confraternization practices when he was young. The reply came promptly. ¡°Sure. High class, low class, or my place? I know how to cook washoku, genuine ramen if you give me twelve hours of preparation time, or we can have some genuine burgers made of real meat and real American cheese.¡± Once more Yorinobu laughs at the reply. ¡°I would kill for a burger.¡± ¡­ ¡°Sir, is it wise to leave the Engineer free without at least pressing charges?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. I doubt he would care about the law of Night City beyond paying it lip service, and he¡¯s clearly deranged enough to wage war on Militech if he felt like it. We can¡¯t have access to his technology through legal means, but I admit that was a long shot to begin with.¡± ¡°What do you propose, then?¡± ¡°We will talk with the R&D department once more and see if they managed to crack the stolen samples first, if they didn¡¯t I will talk with the Finance department to approve a new budget for Procurement.¡± The Militech representative stalls the bodyguard complains, ¡°there¡¯s always time for litigation, my friend. Besides, that¡¯s not how corporations really fight, is it?¡± The bodyguard remains silent for a few moments. ¡°I thought you didn¡¯t like the current system, Mr. CEO.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t, but I¡¯m not blind to the reality of the world either, and Mark and Wube Inc. aren¡¯t blind to it either. Maybe a little na?ve, but he¡¯s not stupid. Regardless we already got enough data on how to breach his defenses, and next time we want to finish the job we will send the professionals.¡± ¡­ Unaware of the many plots and developments happening around him, Dex DeShawn celebrates another well-paying job that was successfully finished. He earned a lot of money from the information sold to the gangs, got some extra eddies from working with the larger corporations while doing little to no work himself, and got out smelling like roses. ¡°I love it when a plan comes together. This is going to be my decade, Choombatta!¡± Dex DeShawn cheers with his closest confidants and team, raising a glass of pre-DataKrash whiskey. ¡°Cheers!¡± ¡°Cheers!¡± Dex takes another drag of his cigar before sighing in contentment. ¡°Nothing can sully my mood now, nothing.¡± Dex DeShawn, self-styled ¡°Mr. Cool,¡± would later regret getting himself involved with the corporations and the Engineer. For now, he parties away the money earned from his biggest hit to date. It IS Rocket Science! (1) Mark and Rogue shake hands as more intel, surplus weapons, ammo, and chrome changes hands. ¡°Pleasure doing business with you, Rogue.¡± ¡°The people after you had some serious firepower,¡± she notes while glancing at a few special weapons, ¡°it¡¯s not every day the market sees a railgun that strong.¡± ¡°I almost thought about keeping it for myself, but sadly it wasn¡¯t compatible with my fighting style.¡± Mark lied as naturally as he breathed, since the possession of this weapon unlocked a new line of military research, though he needs to unlock energy science first. Before he can fantasize about powerful weapons, he needs to finish the basics first. ¡°I heard you also went legit. What was the name of the company again? Lube It?¡± The older woman says with a tone hiding mischief. Mark rolls his eyes good-naturedly. ¡°It¡¯s Wube Inc. grandma.¡± ¡°Brat! Don¡¯t force me to spank your ass over my knee!¡± The Engineer and the Queen of Afterlife stare at each other before they both break into laughter, the nearby Afterlife workers looking weirdly at the pair. Eventually, the two stopped laughing and resumed staring at each other in silence until Mark felt the awkwardness of the situation. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for causing you so many headaches.¡± ¡°Oh, so you are aware of it.¡± The former Solo let out a long-suffering sigh, ¡°I¡¯m already used to it. You can¡¯t be Johnny Silverhand''s friend without developing a thicker skin. Just take care, alright? Corpos aren¡¯t reasonable people, they see you pulling the impossible once, and they dismiss you as a fluke, they see you pulling the impossible twice, they make plans around your miracles.¡±The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°And if you pull the impossible thrice?¡± Rogue takes a cigar from her pocket, turning it on with an old lighter that has the logo for the Samurai band. She takes a long drag before addressing Mark. ¡°Then they offer you a job. Rumors say that¡¯s how Adam Smasher got his chrome.¡± Mark hums appreciatively, pondering the older woman¡¯s words. ¡°Then, I just need to do one final impossible task, and tell them ¡®No,¡¯ eh?¡± Mark¡¯s subsequent grin looked too smug for Rogue¡¯s tastes. ¡°What do you plan to do with him?¡± Rogue changes the conversation focus to something more somber, ¡°usually Afterlife stays away from private disputes between fixers and other Edgerunners to maintain our neutrality, but nobody likes people who starts gang wars as part of their operations.¡± Rogue can see a glint of danger in Mark¡¯s eyes. ¡°If you can, discreetly tell anyone that has a problem with Dex to leave him alone for now and to contact me. I have a plan to deal with him, and I don¡¯t want him to escape and hide like a damn cockroach.¡± ¡°I will see what I can do. Anything else that you need?¡± ¡°Actually, yeah. Do you know where I can buy some real food? I invited Yorinobu Arasaka to eat some homemade burgers, but I can only find SCOP food for sale.¡± Rogue stares at Mark, trying to find the joke in the man¡¯s statement. When she finds none, she takes another long drag from her cigar. ¡°¡­ I will set you up with my food dealer.¡± ¡°Thank you, Rogue, you¡¯re the best.¡± ¡°You damn bet I am! Now get the hell out of my bar, we need to set things up before opening.¡± Rogue shakes her head at Mark''s fading backside. ¡°Not a boring day with him. If he starts making music, some people might start to get nervous.¡± It IS Rocket Science! (2) Back at the Starter Base, Mark finishes cleaning everything and putting things in place. ¡°My supply of oil is running low. I hope Kiwi arrives on time today.¡± As if summoned by his words, the recently hired Netrunner arrives at the public face of Wube Inc. ¡°I thought things would look beaten up, but it¡¯s almost the same,¡± Kiwi remarks when she enters the building. ¡°Save for the stolen server, of course.¡± ¡°Well, you can¡¯t work in a trashed up place, right? I had to dig on my precious reserves of wood, but everything else should be in order. You can decorate with other things if you want.¡± Kiwi blinks, looking at the furniture made of hardwood. ¡°It¡¯s handmade?¡± Nowadays, most items are mass produced in factories, and very few craftsmen remained since the latest industrial revolution. ¡°Something like that,¡± Mark vaguely replies, ¡°anyway Kiwi, Wube Inc. is officially incorporated and you¡¯re now on the company payroll. Wube Inc. will start hiring soon, and I know this is beyond your position, but I will need your help to manage things for a bit, and the company will be relying on your experience as a factory worker to talk with our future employees.¡± The woman replies with her usual stoic attitude. ¡°I don¡¯t know how much help I will be to you, but if my work hours don¡¯t change and I don¡¯t have to sign anything, I¡¯m fine with it.¡± ¡°Great! Miguel should be arriving anytime now, but while we wait we will go over some of the most important people in our organization: the janitorial staff.¡± Kiwi raises an eyebrow at him. ¡°The janitors? Do you really thing that janitors are so important?¡±A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Yep,¡± Mark admits without missing a beat, ¡°never underestimate how much a clean environment help with morale, and I want to create a workspace where people want to be here, instead of being yet another soul sucking corporate trap.¡± ¡°I see,¡± replied in a polite tone, ¡°who else are you going to hire?¡± ¡°Miguel will help hiring security for low to mid danger areas, and to act as armed escort. Once that¡¯s finished, I will hire people as truck drivers to bring crude oil back and forth from the oil fields.¡± It takes two seconds for Kiwi to register what Mark said, and her questions came hesitantly, almost as if the words were caught in her throat. ¡°You found untapped oil fields? Do you have any idea how much trouble that will cause?¡± ¡°I can take a guess,¡± Mark answers dryly, ¡°it¡¯s a small oil field, and only gives between 1,6 Mbbl/d and 6,4 Mbbl/d, and it will exhaust itself in two years at the current rate of extraction. Not enough to compete with the oil companies, but more than enough to supply our needs at the upstream.¡± ¡°I never thought I would see crude oil threated as a retail product instead of a commodity substitute to CHOO2 like you see in the news.¡± Kiwi sarcastic replies to try and regain her balance, ¡°any other world shaking information you want to reveal while you¡¯re at it?¡± At Mark considering look Kiwi instantly backtracks. ¡°No, no, no. Keep it to yourself. I¡¯m already debating if I should sell the info about your oil discovery or not, since it will paint a target on my back.¡± Mark decides to keep quiet about his offshore platform pumps that are more efficient than the land pumps, or the potentially infinite ore and oil he can extract by using the Core Mining building. ¡°Well, Wube Inc. will be busy on the following days setting things up, and we should officially start operations by the end of the month. If you have anyone to indicate to take a new post, please let me know.¡± Kiwi makes a few calculations using her inner Agent, estimating the costs of everything, and finding it a substantial amount for a single person. ¡°How do you even afford this?¡± She asks jokingly, and to dig for valuable information. ¡°With the blood of my enemies.¡± Mark replies seriously to Kiwi¡¯s mild discomfort. It IS Rocket Science! (3) Mark knocks on his neighbor door, and Gloria greets him. ¡°Oh, hi Mark. What can I do for you?¡± ¡°Can I come in?¡± Mark asks while holding up a package, ¡°I also have some sweets to share over tea, if you don¡¯t mind.¡± Gloria looks at the package with suspicion, but eventually she relents and allows the man inside. She prepares a kettle of hot water, while Mark hands the single mother a tea bag. Meanwhile, Mark opens the sweets package, allowing the fragrant aroma of freshly baked goods to enter the apartment. With tea and treats in hand, the pair enjoy the quiet atmosphere until Mark takes the initiative. ¡°How is David doing in the school?¡± ¡°He¡¯s doing marvelously,¡± the mother answers with pride, ¡°top of his class despite having to compete with the other corpo kids. Remember my words, David will go to places in the future.¡± ¡°I can tell he has great potential,¡± Mark agrees with Gloria, ¡°it¡¯s because of David that I came with a proposal for you, Gloria.¡± The woman looks suspiciously at Mark, and he takes a small card from his pocket. She hesitantly takes the offered object. ¡°Wube Inc.?¡± ¡°It is a foreign company that recently opened its Night City office and factory. I am the Chief Engineer, and currently I¡¯m recruiting new employees for the company. I was thinking on offering you a job as part of the onsite medical staff.¡± Mark pulls out his agent and show Gloria the list of duties and benefits for joining his employ. She takes the tablet, reading it carefully, until she slides it back with a frown. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Mr. Henderson, but I will have to decline.¡± At Mark surprised expression, she felt the need to elaborate. ¡°My family might be in a delicate situation, but we don¡¯t need charity, and the strings attached to it. David doesn¡¯t need that kind of baggage for his future.¡± Mark blinks for a moment, wondering what the woman was talking about. In his view, the offer was generous, and made use of her medical expertise to help take care of the health of his future employees. That¡¯s when he remembers Kiwi. ¡°Ah, I think I understand what you¡¯re afraid.¡± Mark lets out a mirthless chuckle once he realizes the full implications of his offer from Gloria¡¯s perspective. ¡°Tell me, Mrs. Martinez, do you know what is the hardest trait to find in Night City? Integrity.¡± The Engineer sips some of the tea recommended by Rogue before resuming. ¡°In this age technical qualification isn¡¯t appreciated, or even expected, since you can implant a skill chip and perform to a minimum level of competency. Even higher education isn¡¯t appreciated anymore through the simple law of supply and demand: there¡¯s simply too many people to choose from.¡± Mark turns to the photo of David wearing his Arasaka Academy uniform together with his mother in her EMT jacket. ¡°They don¡¯t even need teachers to run the lessons. What is more important is the character of the future employee, and how they will fit with the company culture. Let me tell you this: the company culture worldwide is undoubtedly rotten to the core. Places like the Arasaka Company, or other education institutions, sole purpose is to mold the minds of people into obedient drones that will act, think, and believe in the garbage the corporation culture demands.¡±Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Mark lets Gloria stew on his words for a few moments while taking another sip of his tea. ¡°That¡¯s why, at Wube Inc. I want to hire people that didn¡¯t forget what morality is, what integrity is. I¡¯m not blind to the realities of this city and the necessities of the population, but I¡¯m trying to extend a hand in goodwill to the people that lives here. It¡¯s why I am offering an opportunity to those I trust, and after living near you, seeing the sacrifices you make for your son, I am certain that my decision to hire you won¡¯t be misplaced.¡± Mark slides the agent to Gloria once more. ¡°Please, consider the offer once more, and trust my sincerity.¡± ¡°I, I suppose I can read it again,¡± Gloria replies with a complex tone of voice. The offer is good, and she wants to believe it, but she also knows that in Night City there¡¯s always a catch. ¡°What happens if things don¡¯t work out? Joining a newly formed company is a risky move. I can¡¯t afford to take risks like that.¡± Mark nods, knowing that this is a sensible concern. ¡°Did you read the last section of the list?¡± The last section detailed some of the most common issues during recruitment that he could find, written in advance to cut down on negotiations for the future. Gloria reads the section and gasps, and Mark knows that he¡¯s almost there. One of the clauses details the insurance for those who leave their current jobs for Wube Inc. helping them with their future return to the job market. ¡°Not all of those benefits are offered to everyone, but someone who went to medical school like you fits the criteria.¡± The mother chews on her lower lip, finally showing signs of temptation to accept the offer. ¡°Can I have a few days to think about the offer? I want to ask my son opinion since this will also impact his life.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Mark agrees, ¡°I am still recruiting, so there¡¯s still time. My business card has my contact info, or you can knock on my door.¡± ¡°Wait, if you¡¯re a corpo, why are you living in this dump?¡± Gloria blushes when she realizes what she said. ¡°I don¡¯t care much about where I sleep,¡± Mark answers, ¡°but the pleasant company of your family was a factor for staying. Though I will probably move to the factory grounds soon, I just have some other business to attend here on Megabuilding 04 first.¡± ¡°I, I see. I will enter in contact with you later, Mr. Henderson.¡± ¡°Hey, there¡¯s no need to be so formal with me, at least outside business hours. Just call me Mark.¡± ¡°Nova.¡± Gloria takes a deep breath before shoving one of the sweets down, ¡°well, we will be in touch, Mr. Mark. But I must ask you to leave since it¡¯s almost time for my shift.¡± ¡°Sure. Tell David I said ¡®hi¡¯ and ask him if he likes the treats.¡± Gloria finally relaxes upon hearing the name of her son, ¡°oh, he will love those. I will make sure he thanks you later.¡± After exchanging farewells, Mark leaves the apartment before bringing his To Do List and crossing one entry and focusing on his next item on the agenda: buying groceries for the burger he owns Yorinobu Arasaka. It IS Rocket Science! (4) The AV cross the airspace of Night City while containing two notorious individuals, the first one is the heir to the Arasaka Empire, Yorinobu Arasaka. Out of the public eye, those with a passing knowledge of the man exploits knows Yorinobu as a rebel who opposes his father policies within the Arasaka group while trying to seize political power for himself. In recent years, the executives of Arasaka believe that Yorinobu mellowed out, since the scion of the empire learned moderation and negotiation. In their view, the past Yorinobu was incapable of compromising his ideals, and this change in attitude shows the once proud Taka learning humility by playing the political game that made Arasaka one of the strongest companies in the world. ¡°We will arrive in five minutes, Yorinobu-sama.¡± The pilot reminds the two passengers, and they silently acknowledge him. The pilot spots the area marked for VTOL aircraft where a man is waiting for them to arrive. Gently, the AV touches the ground and open the door for the passengers. Mark is ready to greet Yorinobu, but the first one to open the door is even more infamous than rebel heir to the Arasaka. It is none other than Adam Smasher, the Executioner of Arasaka, the Boogieman of the world of Cyberpunk. ¡°Catch.¡± Adam casually throws a metal box at Mark, and on most people that simple display would be enough to crush their body. Yet, the Engineer is built different even outside his power armor. ¡°Hey, careful with the package. I only have the local beer as an alternative.¡± Adam eyes glow menacingly at Mark, who doesn¡¯t look intimidated by the man. ¡°You caught that easy for someone made of meat. Have some chrome hidden away, boy?¡± ¡°Adam, play nice.¡± Yorinobu says while stepping out of the air car. ¡°You¡¯re not here to interrogate him, that¡¯s my job.¡± Adam doesn¡¯t reply, simply staring intensely at Mark. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go to the grill then. The coals should be hot enough, and I bet you¡¯re starving for some good old burgers.¡± Yorinobu gives Mark the hint of a smile, ¡°we will see. Lead the way, Mark-san.¡± The barbecue area is a small sectioned off region of the factory where the future employees can rest and congregate after finishing their shift, giving it an almost ¡°homely¡± feel. There was a larger table made of hardwood where the food is arrayed, with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, brioche buns, French bread, cheese, and other options for the burgers are on display. On the grill there is a hot griddle, and Mark puts on an old fashioned ¡°kiss the cook¡± apron while fetching a pair of ground beef balls from a nearby cooler. ¡°Let¡¯s start with the classics first. If you have any questions, I can answer them while you wait, Yorinobu-san.¡± Mark turns to Adam Smash, who remains still at Yorinobu¡¯s side. ¡°Do you want one too?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t talk to me.¡± Yorinobu chuckles at Mark remark. ¡°He can¡¯t eat on the job. Don¡¯t worry about taste testing, Arasaka is proud of their specialized anti-assassination cyberware suit.¡± ¡°Alright, I will leave him one for the go, then.¡±The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Soon, both Mark and Yorinobu are talking, at first with a reserved tone, but soon their mood changes as they both have some drinks under their system. ¡°¡­ that day Kei had to spend the whole morning looking like a Tanuki, and my niece never let his get away with it!¡± Mark shakes his head at the old tale from Yorinobu. ¡°Here, this one should be good.¡± The Arasaka scion looks at the burger in his hand. It¡¯s an old recipe, being over a hundred and fifty years old by now. Meat patty smashed on the griddle, a generous amount of caramelized onions, and stacked as a double on a brioche bun. It was once called the ¡°depression bum¡± due to being made during the early twenty century Great Depression. Ground beef, onions, bread, a once cheap meal the poor could enjoy, but now even simple ingredients as those are sold at a premium price. ¡°What do you think about this burger, Adam Smasher?¡± Yorinobu asks his bodyguard. ¡°I saw better. If he wants to impress someone then he¡¯s as much a disappointment as that burger. It¡¯s utterly mediocre.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± Mark interjects on Adam¡¯s assessment, ¡°but I fear that you wouldn¡¯t be able to enjoy the burger to its fullest, Adam Smasher. After all, the two secret ingredients are love and nostalgia.¡± Yorinobu looks at the burger and thinks back when he was young, before the Food Crash, before the first mass famines, one of his earliest memories. He had traveled with his late brother to America on some business and asked his brother to buy him a treat. He ate a burger not unlike the one offered by Mark, and it was one of the few good memories he had while growing up under the shadow of his father. Taking a bite, the Arasaka heir enjoys the meal, and he must admit it tastes better than the one from his memory. ¡°Not bad. Seven out of ten.¡± ¡°Good enough.¡± Mark answers before taking a bite of his burger. ¡­ After a while, both men finish their hearty meals, with the cooling coals keeping the burger on the go warm. ¡°Tell me, Mark-san, what do you think about Arasaka? Do you think it will continue in its current path, or will it fail despite everyone¡¯s best efforts?¡± Mark takes another swing at his beer, thinking over his answer. ¡°Rome didn¡¯t fell from the invasion of the Barbarians, but rather it fell from the corruption and rot within that allowed the Barbarians to sack Rome. If you want to topple an Empire, you need to ruin its foundations first. So long as the people in charge are aware of this and remain vigilant, Arasaka will stay in power. Beyond that, it depends on their ability to seize opportunities before their enemies¡¯ strike.¡± Yorinobu hums in appreciation. ¡°I see. Thank you for hosting me today, Mark-san. It was an enlightening experience. Arasaka will make sure to keep up with your progress, now more than ever.¡± ¡°Thank you for the compliment, Yorinobu-san.¡± On cue, the AV approaches the factory. ¡°I will escort you to the heliport.¡± As the two Arasaka men depart from the Starter Base, Yorinobu turns to Adam Smasher, who ended up accepting the offered burger on the go. ¡°What do you think about the Engineer, Adam-san?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t look like much, but he had an obscene amount of firepower hidden in that area. If moved wrong, you would had turned into minced meat faster than I could react.¡± Yorinobu nods, already aware that coming here alone was a test from his father. A test to determine if Yorinobu could gain some degree of trust for the board due to his current position as the heir to Arasaka. ¡°If I had died, what would you had done, Adam-san?¡± ¡°I would shot the fucker, then bail out of the place. It¡¯s not fun being shot by over fifty guns without the satisfaction of killing the perpetrators.¡± ¡°I heard that the Engineer managed to deal with the Maelstrom gang on his own, and the fought against a gang war and won. If you were to fight against the Engineer at his best, how things would go?¡± Adam takes the time to ponder, mentally reviewing the data he studied about the Engineer so far. ¡°If he were to set his killing field and I couldn¡¯t disengage, the excess of guns pointed at me combined with his mobility would cause a little trouble if I challenged him with my usual kit.¡± ¡°That¡¯s high praise from you, Adam-san. But would you lose?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Adam Fucking Smasher, of course I¡¯d win.¡± It IS Rocket Science! (5) As time passes, the operations of Wube Inc. became more visible to the average Night Citizen. At the Night City Landfill the miners are busy digging through the years of irresponsibly thrown trash by the previous company, going through the mountain of scrap and refuse without a care. The miners drill digs through the ground, and the massive claws compact the dug up Scrap before spitting it out on the conveyor belts. The Conveyor belts threads are full of Scrap, yet it precisely moves the items through curves, turns, ups and downs without spilling a single item. Once it reaches the Recyclers, large Blue Inserter arms grab the Scrap and throw it inside the machine. The Machine grinds, shakes, and separate the detritus, spitting a recovered item. There¡¯s a certain variety for the recovered items, but some of them being mysterious to the staff on the recycling center. Most of the Wube Inc. process is automated, but they still need to record stock and the movement of goods for bureaucratic purposes. The are also has a security team patrolling the area against potential infiltrators using stolen identification cards, though violent incursions proved to be ineffective thanks to the literal wall of turrets defending the area. Another function of the staff is to check the conveyor belts and make sure that it isn¡¯t stuck into a deadlock in case the inserter arms can¡¯t sort the items in time. Another function of the staff is to notify the Engineer when the unrecoverable refuse spit from the recycles in the forms of Contaminated Scrap reaches a certain point. Then they call one of Wube Inc. haulers to send the items to a different processing plant for storage, away from Night City and deep into the Bad Lands. Once a certain type of reclaimable item reaches the desired production, a Hauler is called to transport it to the Factory. From there, the large vehicle travel through the streets of Night City under a heavy escort of the ¡°Buggy,¡± a fast vehicle armed with a mounted machinegun, which can house up to four security guards under the employ of Wube Inc. On an entirely different direction, a different convoy travels through the Bad Lands, a heavy armed escort following the Haulter towards a forgotten oil field. In the past, that area produced hundreds of thousand of barrels of crude oil per day, until the oil dried up to the point that it stopped being economically viable to extract. Since it is inside the ¡°no man¡¯s land¡± of post-war America, those capable of exploiting the field and defending it are the effective owners. The oil field defenses improved since Mark first set the first oil pump, and the Hauler driver sets the vehicle on the storage area, and its primary cargo of Empty Steel Barrels is transferred to storage, then a mechanical loader spits the barrels on the conveyor belts, which disappears underground through the Underground Belts towards a sealed off area hidden behind an electronic gate. The driver moves towards another storage area and collects the Steel Barrels filled with Crude Oil. Once the vehicle is full, the trip back to Night City starts.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. While the cargo is precious, no Nomad clan or opportunistic parties succeeded in harming the Oil Haulers thanks to the addition of another vehicle from the Wube Inc. garage: the Warden. Through means unknown by the present witness, any broken vehicle near the Warden would be restored to pristine condition given enough time. Combined with the exceptional range of the machineguns mounted on the ¡°Buggy,¡± nothing that came close with malicious intent survived the encounter. When such encounters happen, the Warden runs over the fallen bodies and debris, somehow cleaning everything up and leaving no evidence of altercation ever happening. Eventually, regardless of where the Hauler came from, be it the Night City Landfill, or from the badlands, they would all return to Pacifica were reconstruction efforts are being done. The Haulers enter through the gates, being greeted by what the locals call The Factory. The previous stone walls now have a smooth surface, made of durable concrete. The Engineer upgraded all walls surrounding the factory while using the old Stone Walls to section off the area overlooking the sea, as he undergoes a special project. The Haulers deposit their precious cargo on the marked storage area, where most items transfer to the inner factory while the remaining goes to packaging, where several workers pick up, sort, package, seal, and separate the items for delivery to the Corporations. From there, the items are stored in a conventional warehouse, then shipped using vans towards Wube Inc. clients. The items that went into the factory travel through the conveyor belts until they are picked by the inserters, processed inside the assemblers together with other items until they turn into Chemical Science, and together with the Science already being produced, they travel to the Science Labs. Once, the labs were close enough to the edge of the factory that people could hear the faint music produced as technology advanced, but now the factory expanded further than that area. The Engineer moved the ¡°Rave Zone¡± to a different area where he installed speakers that could play music, but for the moment those remain unused. As the labs use the Science packs, they unlock new technological progress on the Science Tree of the Factorio System. Weapons improvements, new buildings, improved productivity, new intermediaries, until finally the technology that the Engineer was waiting for. Rocket Science. The Engineer finally unlocked Rocket Science and with it he can send satellites to space. With eyes on the sky, the Engineer will be one step ahead of his competitors. Before Mark can take this next step he needs to prepare himself, after all this game changer will attract a lot of attention from the entire world. There are at least two loose ends that Mark feels he must take care off before starting Rocket Science in earnest: first, he needs the data on Biotechnica scientific discoveries to produce a substitute to Legally Distinct Spice?, or Vitamelange, and with it become capable of cleaning the growing stockpile of Contaminated Scrap, and while Mark could buy the data, if he doesn¡¯t at least try to engage in corporate espionage the other corporations would consider Wube Inc. weak and start harassing Mark. Second, Mark didn¡¯t forget the gang war sent his way by DeShawn and is patiently waiting for the best time to return the favor. It IS Rocket Science! (6) Mark enters the public office of Wube Inc. and he is greeted by the ¡®management¡¯ staff. ¡°Good morning Kiwi, how is everything going?¡± ¡°Surprisingly well, despite the Chief Engineer neglect,¡± the Netrunner and current systems engineer answers. ¡°You better thanks little David over there.¡± The boy in question grunts in embarrassment, but otherwise don¡¯t react to the woman¡¯s teasing. ¡°Can I take a look?¡± Mark asks with curiosity over the work of the company new ¡®intern.¡¯ ¡°Sure thing boss,¡± he says and sends the financial results to Mark¡¯s hybrid HUD. ¡°The diary book is dutifully recorded, every bill is paid on time, all the sales are accounted for, taxes provision are carefully set aside, and all assets and liabilities are balanced.¡± The young teenager buffs his chest in pride before remembering something. ¡°The only thing I couldn¡¯t do is to invest the money, but dealing with money is the only area where the corpos are sticker for rules.¡± Kiwi snorts. ¡°Of course they are, they made the rules, after all.¡± Reviewing the data, Mark concludes that the sales of Green, Red, and Blue chips goes increasingly well, though production of Blue chips is lagging behind demand as expected. ¡°Did you guys finished the tasks for the morning?¡± Mark asks his two employees, earning an affirmative sound from both of them. ¡°Alright, I have something interesting to show if you are interested. It will take us out of Night City into the badlands, but we¡¯re bringing security for this.¡± ¡°Will it take long?¡± Kiwi asks and Mark nods, ¡°then I will pass. I promised to teach a fellow Netrunner on my off hours.¡± Mark scratches his armored chin, pondering for a moment. ¡°Does this Netrunner needs a job? You can invite this person if you want. It¡¯s not a publicized event but the news will catch wind of it right away.¡± ¡°What else could you do that would make the news talk about you?¡± The Netrunner asks skeptically, ¡°did you find a way to eradicate every single Scav in Night City all at once?¡± ¡°Not yet,¡± Mark ominously answers, ¡°but it¡¯s a relatively rare event, so the news might decide to cover it if it¡¯s a slow news day.¡± ¡°Is that related to the recent approval you got from Night City and NUSA?¡± David asks his employee, looking at the older man with awe and eagerness. ¡°NUSA? How are you getting NUSA involved in this?¡± Despite his face being hidden by the armored mask, Kiwi could hear the smile on Mark¡¯s face. ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask David? Anyway, we will leave after lunch so think about it. If you wish to invite your protegee, you¡¯re also welcome.¡± Mark exits the office and proceeds towards a recent addition to the compound, the medical wing, where David¡¯s mother currently works. ¡°Good morning, Gloria. How is the work going?¡± ¡°Hello Mr. Henderson,¡± she answers in a formal tone, ¡°everything is fine, with no workplace accidents or other medical emergencies.¡± ¡°Great! Though you can either call me Mark, or if you¡¯re feeling formal, call me ¡®Engineer.¡¯¡± ¡°If you say so, Mr. Henderson.¡± Mark rolls his eyes over Gloria¡¯s cheek, ¡°is there something you wish to talk with me?¡± ¡°Are you free enough to leave Night City for a few hours? There¡¯s a private inauguration event I¡¯m holding for some of our employees, though the media will learn about it soon.¡± Gloria thinks it over, but shakes her head. ¡°No, I better stay here in case there is an emergency. I don¡¯t want to use our precious Trauma Team contract for something trivial. Just make sure to stay safe out there, alright?¡± ¡°Alright, got it, and don¡¯t worry. Everyone will be safe with me. Have a nice day!¡± After leaving the medical wing walks towards the packaging area for the chips. There aren¡¯t many employees at the moment, but the factory works in three shifts so it can stay active twenty-four hours a day, every day. The workers had initially thought they would be working the typical ninety hours per week, then they were caught off guard when the mandatory work hours announced was a mere forty-eight hours while receiving a full salary. They even had a day off, alongside other benefits!Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. When the workers inquired the Chief Engineer about the work hours, his answer was, ¡°don¡¯t you have a life? Family? What¡¯s the point of working if you can¡¯t use the money earned to spend time with those you love?¡± The answer was so alien to the workers it took until their received their first paycheck to realize that Wube Inc. was serious about their work culture. At the packaging section, the workers greeted Mark as if he was their savior, and in a sense he was after he took them under the Wube Inc. umbrella. Surprisingly, this action insulated Wube Inc. from casual acts of betrayal and corporate espionage, as the workers feared losing their current job far more than they coveted the uncertainty of a large paycheck promised by the other corporations. While Mark couldn¡¯t bring any of them to visit the badlands away from Night City, he does set up a large monitor for the workers to pause for a moment and watch the surprise he has in store. After leaving the packaging area, Mark goes to find Miguel in the barracks. The barracks is another recent addition, meant to house the Wube Inc. private security force. The basic security is armed with the proprietary weapons developed by Wube Inc. and are armored with the Modular Armor set in a simple configuration focused on combat. The security team isn¡¯t connected with the Factorio system directly, thus they lack an inventory beyond the slots afforded for ammunition in their three weapon slots save for a few exceptions. Usually working in fire teams of four where three private security carries a handgun sidearm, a submachine gun, and a shotgun, while one combat medic also has a dedicated inventory slot to carry medic kits. However, Miguel¡¯s outfit is different than the rest as the head of security. He also wears a Power Armor Mk. I focused on combat, his inventory also has dedicated slots for ammo, medicine, grenades, and he exchanged his handgun sidearm for a reusable rocket launcher. While he¡¯s not as dangerous as The Engineer, his combat experience, natural chrome, and provided equipment makes him into a force to be reckoned. ¡°Good morning, Miguel. Is everything in order?¡± ¡°Good morning, Mark. Everything is in order, we¡¯re just waiting for the trucks to arrive to continue our final check ups. By the time we finish lunch, we will be ready.¡± ¡°Great! How is your niece going, by the way?¡± Miguel beans at the mention of his family, ¡°everything is preem! Vik took out the last Maelstrom chrome and she¡¯s recovering quickly. She might even get back to school once her physical rehabilitation goes well.¡± ¡°With how cyberpunks go around high as a kite on chems and chrome, I almost forgot how long it takes for a normal person to recover. I¡¯m glad she¡¯s doing well.¡± Miguel wisely doesn¡¯t mention how the Engineer threats his injuries as little more than speed bumps thanks to his medpacks, or how he can go through dozens of such kits like water in a way that puts the craziest chem junkies to shame. Instead, Miguel nods to his friend. ¡°Thank you for your concern. I will make sure to tease my niece about it later.¡± Shaking his head Mark leaves the barracks for Afterlife, ready to drop a couple more items ¡®liberated¡¯ from Scav hideouts found outside Pacifica. Unfortunately, the gangsters were like cockroaches: when you see one it means there are at least a hundred hidden somewhere. Mark enters the bar from a side entrance reserved for staff, a privilege that even the most prestigious Fixers don¡¯t possess, however, The Engineer is no mere Fixer. After greeting the bar staff, Mark meets with Rogue Amendiares to quickly conduct his usual business. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t had come to me just for this,¡± the living legend says, ¡°what kind of headache should I expect?¡± Mark doesn¡¯t bother to defend himself from Rogue¡¯s accusations, since most of them turns true. ¡°Spread this message among the Fixers of Afterlife, except Dex DeShawn. Make sure it¡¯s extra hard for him to gather this information.¡± Rogue reviews the message, and her eyes widen in surprise. ¡°Are you sure you want to step foot in this arena?¡± The former Solo asks, a hint of fear entering her voice. ¡°The other corpos might take this as your intrusion in the adult¡¯s table.¡± Mark shakes his head. ¡°Ultimately, this is the purpose of Wube Inc. from the very beginning. Everything else was built for this. I need to take advantage of the element of surprise if I want to survive the corporations scrutiny. Besides,¡± Mark gives Rogue a dangerous smile, ¡°Wube Inc. was always one of the big boys. There are very few entities that can escalate better than Wube Inc.¡¯s Engineers. The few that come to mind are CORE and ARM Commanders, and they¡¯re far less forgiving of the corporations liberties.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know who they are, but I will take your word for it.¡± Rogue answers while making a note to research who those two entities might be. ¡°On a related note, are you finally moving against DeShawn?¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to start marinating that fat bastard in fear.¡± Mark replies, ¡°I will first make sure he loses all notion of belonging here in Afterlife, while still not being blacklisted. We will see how long it takes for him to do something stupid. The following message will certainly spook him and the Engineer¡¯s enemies.¡± Mark passes another note to Rogue, ¡°try reading this after today¡¯s surprise. I bet you will like it.¡± Rogue scowls but pockets the note. ¡°Stop being coy and just go do your thing, you damnable brat.¡± With one last farewell, and a meal for the road, Mark returns to the factory to wait until the time is right. It IS Rocket Science! (7) At the factory, Mark does a last minute check to make sure everything is in order. The trucks carrying material are all loaded, and the escort vehicles are ready with both security and ammunition in case of trouble. The staff will ride together with Mark, while the Wube Inc. convoy waits for the last minute guests. The first ones to arrive are Maine¡¯s crew in the car loaned by Mark for the following weeks. The group disembark from the vehicle and come to greet the Engineer. ¡°Hey Mark, thanks for loaning your preem ride!¡± Rebecca waves at Mark excitedly, while the rest of the crew approaches the Wube Inc. Chief Engineer at a sedate pace. Mark and Maine shakes their hands. ¡°Hey choom, how are you doing? Heard you wanted us as guests?¡± ¡°Things are doing well, Maine. Thanks for asking. Yeah, I have some things to discuss with you and the crew, but instead of meeting at Afterlife I wanted to let you guys take a peek at some of the things I¡¯m cooking. Also, we can¡¯t have a more private meeting than being in the middle of the Badlands. Even if someone else will also tag along.¡± As if on cue, another car parks nearby after being directed by Mark¡¯s security team. From the upscale car a familiar figure exists. ¡°Faraday.¡± Mark nods to the Fixer, ¡°you arrived in good health, I presume.¡± ¡°Of course, I am know by my punctuality.¡± The Militech Fixer answers with none of the implied hostility of his previous encounter with Mark, acting like a picture perfect professional. Mark nods. ¡°Private security will be limited, as already agreed on the document I sent you.¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Faraday readily agrees, ¡°don¡¯t worry, I made sure that my security is sufficient for this little journey. Did you know that ever since Militech heard I was acquainted with the Engineer I heard talks of promotion? It is all thanks to you, my friend.¡± Mark raises a single eyebrow at Faraday¡¯s audacity, while the rest of Mine¡¯s crew has a more visible reaction, specially Rebecca as her jaws drops open in surprise. ¡°Well, talk with Miguel, he will give you more details about following the convoy. Please excuse me, I have to talk with my staff. Maine.¡± With a final nod to the Edgerunner Mark looks for Kiwi and David. Mark finds Kiwi, Sasha, and a new figure teasing David when he approaches. ¡°Ladies, please, wait a few years before the boy can legally drink.¡± ¡°Screw you, gonk.¡± David flips the bird to Mark, and the Engineer simply laughs it off. ¡°It¡¯s hard being popular, isn¡¯t it?¡± Mark teases the boy before turning to the girls. ¡°Hello Sasha, Kiwi, new girl. I assume Kiwi invited you? Could you please introduce us, Kiwi?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± the older Netrunner of the group says, ¡°this is Lucy Kushinada, I mentor her in my off hours and help the little scamp get her footing on Night City scene.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet with the famed Engineer.¡± The younger Netrunner greets Mark with a slight bow. ¡°Thank you for the invitation.¡± Mark could see a bead of sweat running down the young woman¡¯s face, as she appeared to be scared of Mark. ¡°Hey, Kiwi probably told you to stay on your best behavior, but there¡¯s no need to be nervous. Only Scavs and similar gangsters deserve my full wrath. You can relax, you¡¯re between friends here, alright?¡± ¡°Nova. Uh, thank you for inviting me.¡± Mark gives Lucy a thumbs up, then turns to Kiwi. ¡°I¡¯m glad you decided to attend.¡± Kiwi shrugs. ¡°It was a good opportunity for a change of air. I almost would complain from the lack of forewarning, but that¡¯s corpos for you.¡± At Kiwi remark Mark winces, ¡°what?¡± ¡°Would you believe me if I said I forgot to to tell you and some of the staff? I was so busy with other things it slipped my mind.¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Kiwi raises a single eyebrow, mimicking Mark¡¯s earlier attitude with Faraday. ¡°So! Sasha,¡± Mark turns to the third Netrunner to try and distract the others from his blunder, ¡°how are you doing?¡± ¡°Oh, everything¡¯s preem, don¡¯t worry. Thanks to you I didn¡¯t get much heat from my job, so it¡¯s fine.¡± ¡°Great, great. Anyway, I just came here to remind you that after the event there will be an open bar and buffet, and wanted to know, is there any dietary restrictions for any of you?¡± ¡°Nope, I¡¯m good.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I brought my face today.¡± David blinks as one of these where not like the others, but he didn¡¯t pry on other people¡¯s business. ¡°Alright, get ready everyone, we will soon depart!¡± After making sure everything was done, everyone went to their respective vehicles and started the convoy, with Mark leading the group. They left Night City from one of the main roads, driving for a while until they reached a large electric pole that acted as an improvised landmark, and the group turned right. The full journey took an hour, but eventually the group reached a large concrete that stretched far into one direction. Mark disembarked and directed Miguel and the rest of the security team to direct the vehicles before they entered the large structure. Passing electronic gates, they travel further inwards a large empty area through a concrete road until they reach the designated area. Most of the guests park their vehicles while the large trucks drive a little further towards the storage area where their valuable cargo will be later transferred. Everyone is directed to a prepared area with chairs, a podium, and other equipment and amenities meant for this special day. The guests seated on their seats, with the drinks and food tempting them on the back while Mark does a last minute preparation, and he also gives ear muffs for everyone present. When everything is ready and everyone is accounted for, Mark climbs the podium to start the ceremony. ¡°Thank you for everyone present here. Some of you are part of the Wube Inc. staff, and we have been together for a brief period you quickly became valuable employees of the company, with some of you I have the honor to call friends.¡± Miguel smiles while standing guard, and even Kiwi relaxes slightly at Mark¡¯s words. ¡°Wube Inc. is primarily a company that works setting up precious infrastructure, from roads, water treatment plants, electrical grids, buildings, factories, and even farms should the need appears. As such, is it any wonder if Wube Inc. also has the means to reach for the Final Frontier?¡± Mark clicks a remote, and a large projector shows the hidden Rocket Launch Site with its gates currently closed. Near the Rocket Launch Site there are several Inserters putting three special materials inside the Launch Site: Low Density Structures, Solid Rocket Fuel, and Rocket Control Units. Some of the guests gasp at what they see, since Aerospace is still an area that¡¯s considered expensive for corpos standards. A rocket to the moon costs around a hundred thousand eddies, a significant sum for an individual, and that¡¯s only for a single ticket. The cost to set up the infrastructure to send a rocket to space isn¡¯t anything anyone present has experience estimating. ¡°I am happy to announce that Wube Inc. received the permits to work with Aerospace operations, and starting by launching the Wube Inc. Satellite Network, Wube Inc. will build its private orbital stations, and soon we will start colonization process to extract precious resources from other planets, moons, and asteroids, with the aim to further scientific progress for humanity.¡± Finally, the inserters stop their arms and the large gates slowly open, revealing the rocket hidden inside. Slowly, the rocket emerges from the ground for everyone to see both with the cameras and with their eyes further away. ¡°It is the hope of Wube Inc. to also use our Satellite Network to ease the burden of communications around the world, reconnecting the cities and countries once more into a new World Wide Web, hopefully avoiding the mistakes of the past and earning new wisdom along the way. Please feel free to put on your mufflers.¡± Those without the necessary chrome put the provided pieces of ancient PPE, and once Mark realized that everyone was protected he activated the launch. Slowly at first, but then faster and faster, the rocket lifted in the air before going higher and higher until it disappeared from view. The gates of the rocket silo slowly closes, and the surprisingly intact inserters once again insert the three special items on the Rocket Launch Site. The camera feed cuts off as Mark turns to the audience and bows. Most guests clap with enthusiasm in appreciation of the achievement, and before Mark can open the open bar and buffet, Mark receives a series of messages from his System. Factorio System detects Extra Terrestrial Link Current firmware version 1.5.10132020 A new firmware update is available to Factorio System Updating firmware¡­ Update complete! Factorio 2.0 installed! Factorio reached Space Age! Recalibrating current modules¡­ Recalibration finished! Factorio System update complete! Remember the Motto¡­ To the surprise of everyone present, Mark starts laughing, though they quickly dismiss it mere happiness for accomplishing something so important for the new company. ¡°I¡¯m sorry everyone. Please, enjoy the open bar and the buffet!¡± The last restraint of the guests evaporates, and Mark slowly walks to the buffet table to celebrate his latest achievement, while silently muttering under his breath. ¡°The factory must grow...¡± It IS Rocket Science! (8) With the new firmware installed, the previous aspects of Space Age and Space Exploration in the module database changed into a smoother experience. Mark doesn¡¯t strictly need the Legally Distinct Spice ? to unlock biological science, and now his options for that science pack expanded making it easier to use it. The next thing that changed is that launching a Rocket became much easier than before, as the process was streamlined with the advent of the new firmware. He can still try to build Cargo Rockets, but those are much gigantic than the previous simulations stated, thanks to the recent changes. Already, Mark is itching to start research and production of new items, but that will have to wait for a while. First, Mark had to finish his business.¡°Enjoying the Buffet, Maine?¡± The large Edgerunner finishes taking a bite of the canape before answering. ¡°Yeah, lots of stuff to choose from. I¡¯m trying to pace myself and sample everything first.¡± ¡°Great, I will pick up a plate and then we can talk more privately behind some screens.¡± Mark takes a large plate and starts grabbing the various items on display. Some small fried pastries as hors d''?uvre, real green vegetables, a portion of real rice bought from Arasaka suppliers, roasted chicken tights, thinly sliced meat, sausages, roasted potatoes, and a collection of steamed vegetables topped with the available sauces and gravy. Mark leads Maine towards a reserved area where they could talk more privately through their chat group. ¡°Most corpos don¡¯t eat this good,¡± Maine remarks while digging in his meal, ¡°only executives have access to meat and vegetables like this.¡± ¡°I plan on starting a farm outside Night City. If I feed chickens with all that insect protein they will grow big and fat at a low price. As for vegetables, that¡¯s where you come in.¡± ¡°To business then,¡± Maine replies without pausing his eating, ¡°what do you have in mind?¡± ¡°The data you found on the hospital had a couple more hidden gems on it. Apparently they¡¯re using the hospital as a test lab because they¡¯re looking for their ¡®next big hit.¡¯ It is somewhat connected with Sasha¡¯s case.¡± This time, Maine pauses. ¡°How so?¡± ¡°Apparently, Biotechnica is desperately trying to push new products at an accelerated pace and bypassing the regulations set by their parent company in Europe. The founder of the company don¡¯t care enough about rumors of unethical experimentation, but he hates shoddy research. Since the painkiller that killed Sasha mother was a product of incompetence more than malice on the researchers part, it means that something fishy is going on with the branch in Night City.¡± ¡°And we¡¯re going to investigate it.¡± Maine concludes and Mark nods. ¡°Do you have the detes of the gig?¡± Mark takes a data shard held on a Wube Inc. casing. ¡°Use the thing I gave you to read this.¡± Maine looks down at the case and nods. ¡°Anything else?¡± ¡°Yeah, I got hold of some extra equipment and I want to have it field tested. I don¡¯t want to throw my Boys into a conflict for no reason, so having an active Edgerunner giving me combat data will be ideal. I will even sponsor your personal chrome, if you¡¯re willing.¡± ¡°For real?¡± Maine looks at Mark as if Christmas came earlier. ¡°Yeah, but I want to take a look at your Build first. We will set an appointment with Vik first, and then we will see from there. If the rest of the crew also want to have their chrome checked, I will also sponsor them.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the catch? Your reputation for being generous is well earned, but there must be a reason for this personal interest.¡± ¡°I want your crew to have the best chrome so you can all operate at your best. I¡¯m also going to veto any chrome you want to put on if it¡¯s really fucking stupid.¡± Mark practically growls. ¡°You have no idea how much hated I built from sifting through the Maelstrom chrome. There¡¯s jamming as many cybernetics on yourself until you¡¯re a cyberpsycho, and then there¡¯s putting a bunch of random shit that interfere with one another that makes you less effective than someone with a quarter of the enhancements.¡± Maine laughs, ¡°ha! Can¡¯t be me! But I get your point, I had to deal with those gonks in the past and it always ended in a shit show.¡± ¡°Glad we came to an understanding.¡± Mark brings his beer up, and the two man clinks their glasses to seal the deal. ¡°Now Maine, when are you going to turn Dorio into an honest woman?¡± The Edgerunner spits his beer in surprise while Mark laughs at the man¡¯s reaction. ¡­ Lucy looks at the direction where the rocket launch site is located, watching as a new rockets stands ready to launch. She¡¯s not certain if a rocket can be built so fast, but she¡¯s not an expert. All Lucy knows is that if she could board one of those she could leave Night City, leave Earth altogether and finally escape the shadow of Arasaka. ¡°What are you thinking?¡± The young Netrunner turns to voice and finds David offering a drink for her. ¡°Thanks,¡± she mutters while taking the offered beverage. The two of them keep looking at the standing rocket and they remain silent for a few minutes, with David patiently waiting for an answer. Eventually, Lucy speaks.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Ever wonder what it¡¯s like, away from Earth? Away from the corpos, making a fresh start?¡± David mulls it over for a moment, considering the older girl words and trying to comparing with his own circumstances. ¡°Kind of,¡± David admits, ¡°to chase your dreams, start a new life, living for yourself without fears or burdens. I can sympathize.¡± Lucy turns to David to stare at him closely. The teen is shorter than her and his voice is still young, but the young man has an intensity to his gaze that draws the Netrunner attention. He also nailed Lucy feelings after a single sentence, a rare skill in the current era unless you have the right chrome installed, or it could be David¡¯s natural talent. ¡°I see,¡± she replies quietly, ¡°are you someone¡¯s kid in the company? Can¡¯t see someone as young as you working for this new rising star.¡± David proudly puffs his chest, ¡°I actually do the company accounting. It¡¯s surprisingly simple for the income we generate.¡± ¡°Really,¡± Lucy asks skeptically, ¡°you¡¯re the company¡¯s accountant? Are you kidding with me?¡± The teen deflates a bit. ¡°Honestly, I¡¯m an intern with a salary to match. At least I only work half period and don¡¯t need to sign anything.¡± David scratches the back of his head nervously, ¡°Wube¡¯s books are surprisingly simple compared with the stuff I have to learn at the Academy. They actually pay the taxes they owe without much fuss instead of relying on bureaucratic black magic.¡± ¡°Now that¡¯s a first.¡± Lucy admits with a hint of admiration in her voice. As far as the Netrunner knows, taxes are for the dumb and poor. ¡°Yeah, caught me off guard too.¡± David pauses for a moment, feeling awkward. ¡°Are you thinking on joining the company too?¡± Lucy smiles mischievously at the teen.¡°Oh~ do you want me around more, David?¡± ¡°¡­ I won¡¯t be opposed to it.¡± He bravely admits. The young Netrunner thinks for a moment before grabbing David¡¯s hand. ¡°Let¡¯s go take a walk, come on.¡± While the young man complains about being manhandled, he makes sure to keep up pace with the young woman. ¡­ A few hours later, Maine and his crew returns earlier than the rest of the convoy, taking a couple of souvenirs from the inauguration event. As the group drives back to Night City, they spot another car coming from behind. ¡°Faraday,¡± Maine answers the call, ¡°what can I do for you in the middle of nowhere?¡± ¡°I would appreciate if you stopped for us to talk.¡± Sighing, Maine turns the car and stop it as the crew disembark from the vehicle, save Pillar remains inside. Faraday car eventually catch up to Maine¡¯s, and from the vehicle several Militech soldiers flanked Faraday. The mercenary soldiers numbers match with Maine¡¯s crew, but Pillar is still in the car manning the vehicle¡¯s machineguns, and from personal experience he knows how powerful they are. ¡°What can I do for you, Faraday?¡± ¡°I heard that the Engineer offered you a job, is that right?¡± The Edgerunner narrows his eyes at the Fixer. ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°I would like to take over the assignment, and have some of my other people take it over.¡± ¡°What! That¡¯s bullshit!¡± Rebecca yells at Faraday, ¡°Mark offered us a job himself, you have nothing to do with that!¡± ¡°Rebecca,¡± Dorio warns the small Solo, ¡°she¡¯s not wrong though, that¡¯s not how things are done, Faraday.¡± ¡°What the ladies say,¡± Maine agrees, ¡°why should I agree to this?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t forgot I still hold sway over you,¡± Faraday answers, holding himself from using ¡®ownership¡¯ metaphors, ¡°don¡¯t forget that it was thanks to my influence that your Netrunner isn¡¯t currently running from the law.¡± Sasha expression darkens, but she remains silent. Maine grips his fist, the sound of metallic stress being like music to Faraday¡¯s ears. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Maine changes gears. ¡°You can¡¯t expect me hand you the detes for free, don¡¯t you? Even you know that¡¯s going too far.¡± Faraday wires three thousand eddies to Maine, and the Edgerunner grunts in acceptance. He takes out the Wube Inc. packaging and hands out the memory shard to the Fixer. ¡°Pleasure doing business with you. Now, if you excuse me.¡± The fixer and his bodyguards quickly leave the place as their vehicle throws up dust in the air. ¡°What a fucking rat!¡± Sasha growls at the retreating figure of Faraday, guilt rising in her chest over her fuck up with Biotechnica. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, I expected him to pull this shit earlier.¡± The entire crew look surprised at the message from Mark, since they¡¯re too far away from any signal towers to receive a reliable call in the middle of the Badlands. ¡°Mark, how are you calling us? Aren¡¯t you still at the event site?¡± ¡°I am.¡± Mark confirms to Maine, ¡°we are still cleaning up some things before we return to Night City. I¡¯m just testing the Satellite Network effectiveness. By the way, look up and give a wave.¡± Maine slowly looks up to the sky, and awkwardly waves his hand. This movement is captured by the high definition cameras of the satellite launched by the rocket, and the image is then transmitted back to the group chat. ¡°Nova! You have your own spysat choom! Can I use it to know when Pillar is being a dumbass?¡± Rebecca sends the message on the chat excitedly. ¡°Hey, I resent that remark!¡± Pillar¡¯s protest is ignored by the rest of the group. ¡°Anyway, Maine just gave the decoy shard to Faraday. The real mission assignment is hidden with your leader.¡± ¡°Yeah. Who the hell still uses microfilm to hide information?¡± Maine shakes his head in amusement, as his earlier acting was perfect. However, in Maine¡¯s opinion it doesn¡¯t take much for him to lose his patience with his primary fixer. ¡°What was in that shard in the first place?¡± ¡°Oh, there was a secondary mission for you guys. It¡¯s more of a personal project that would give your crew some extra spending money, but if Faraday is volunteering, he can take over.¡± Maine grins, ¡°alright everyone, let¡¯s get back home, tomorrow we will have a long day planning our operation. See you later, Mark.¡± ¡­ At afterlife, Rogue receives a message from Mark with the video of his inauguration event and the first rocket being sent to space by Wube Inc. She carefully takes the message that Mark asked her to read later, and finds a list of rates for the various uses of his new Satellite Network, from large data stream transfer, spying capabilities, and other uses that might interest Rogue and however she favors. The living legend is not sure if she should kiss the Engineer the next time she see¡¯s him, or strangle the dangerous man before his ridiculousness spreads. It IS Rocket Science! (9) Away from Night City, Mark is celebrating the inauguration event of his Rocket Launcher Site, where soon he will build an orbital station to produce Space Science, and from there the exploration of the solar system is within his grasp. Once the rocket engines are unlocked and assuming a standard configuration for the engines, it will take around ten days to travel towards Venus at its longest distance of 241 million kilometers, or 162 million miles in ¡®freedom units;¡¯ meanwhile, it will take nearly sixteen days to travel to Mars at the farthest distance of 401 million kilometers, or 250 million miles. Once close to Mars, reaching the asteroid belt is a simple task, and any worries about material resources become a thing of the past. When the information that Wube Inc. wanted to have a license from NUSA to launch rockets, initially the government wanted to bar the efforts of the nascent company, however, Militech convinced the current authorities to grant the license, using the opportunity to lure Mark away from his factory, and with it invade and loot the place. Right at this moment, several Militech armored vans are awaiting orders from the higher-ups to assault the place, however, before the main force can advance a group of mercenaries was hired to act as a vanguard. A few Edgerunners were also hired to provide slightly more elite attempts before the professional mercenaries could storm the place. The Voodoo Boys are the first gang on the scene armed with heavy weapons and explosives. ¡°Bring that fucking wall down!¡± One of the techno cultists yells at a large man holding a rocket launcher. He aims at the outer protective wall of the Factory, the Pacifica Wall according to natives. The nearby gangsters give the man some space before he can shoot, and when he pulls the trigger only those with enhanced vision or some form of Speedware can see what happens next. The rocket is shot down halfway through the distance between the Voodoo boy and the rocket, taken by an invisible deadly force in the form of the Laser Turrets that were recently installed. When the first Laser Turret fires, the atmosphere of the Factory changes. Inside, the workers moved according to the security drills and looked for safety, while the security forces went to guard the vital choke points. A newly installed turret activates for the first time, as Flamethrower turrets fire at the Voodoo Boys, burning them and the precious equipment they received. The other gangs flee once they see the carnage and hear the screams of the Haitian gangsters, some of them even leaving behind the supplied Iron to avoid being connected to this operation. A few Edgerunners try to use this opportunity to slip past the security, successfully hacking the security cameras and disabling a few of the gun turrets. Unfortunately for those brave few, the gun turrets hacked were bought from Militech and Arasaka to act as visible deterrents against the casual gangster. The realm Gun Turrets are hidden inside the defensive walls and shoot at anyone without the proper identification. As the gangsters are gunned down either by bullets, lasers, or burned by incendiaries, the leader of the operation gives his verdict. ¡°This is Fisherman calling Pier, I¡¯m calling it off, the intel is outdated, over.¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°This is Pier, we won¡¯t have a similar opportunity like this for a while, Fisherman.¡± Someone in the command center tells the ground leader, ¡°you must act now, over.¡± ¡°Fisherman here, and with all due respect, our intel is worthless shit. The fodder that was meant to breach the defenses is now barbecue and didn¡¯t even have the decency of scratching the walls. The Reef got himself some nasty PD, so the only thing we will accomplish is to become a walking loot bag to the bastard. Unless you want to call theJaps or they allow us to call an airstrike, we can¡¯t proceed, over.¡± ¡°Stand by, Fisherman. Calculating target solution.¡± The leader waits for a few moments until he hears a familiar loud sound coming from inside the factory. In the distance, the attack helicopter meant to assault the factory from a distance explodes into shrapnel, the pieces falling into the ocean. ¡°Of course, the SOB has anti-air turrets,¡± the leader mutters under his breath, ¡°why wouldn¡¯t he? What else does he have under the sleeve? Pier, we¡¯re leaving. I¡¯m not going to die a pointless death over some executive fuck up, over.¡± ¡°Acknowledged, Fisherman. Return to base for debriefing.¡± As the unmarked vans return to the base while pretending to be delivery vehicles, one of the soldiers addresses their leader. ¡°So, not what you expect, mister FIA?¡± ¡°Shut it, soldier.¡± The NUSA special agent currently working for the Federal Intelligence Agency, FIA, retorts with a frustrated sigh. ¡°This shit only happens in Night City. Not even in South America, did I get blindsided this bad. If I didn¡¯t know any better I would believe that Wube is being sponsored by Arasaka.¡± The FIA agent grabs his dog tag from his time in the army, the name Solomon Reed laser etched still visible after all these years. ¡°I guess I will need to convince the higher-ups to try a different approach. Maybe it¡¯s a good opportunity for me to meet with some friends from my old unit.¡± ... In a different location, Dex DeShawn hears what happened with the teams he sent for the Militech gig at the Factory: almost complete casualties from the teams that tried to infiltrate, while the few that initially hesitated ran away when the Factory defense system activated. Dex takes a deep breath but concludes that everything is still fine. Militech still paid him half upfront from the distraction, and the eddies from the various booster gangs he sold information to will help pay his costs and turn up a profit. Unfortunately, DeShawn was expecting a higher payout from a successful operation, instead, the Factory turned out to be a death trap even worse than they remembered. ¡®What kind of demented man uses flamethrowers to defend their turf?¡¯ Dex ¡°¡®Mr. Cool¡± DeShawn thinks while pacing. ¡°Alright, I can recover from this. I just need to focus on other gigs while the heat from the Engineer dies down.¡± The Fixer takes a drag from his imported cigar, before taking a look at his list of gigs, calling some of the clients to confirm a few final details. ¡°¡­ who the fuck is Faraday!¡± It IS Rocket Science! (10) While sitting comfortably in his seat, the Engineer reads a message from Rogue, saying ¡°Dex DeShawn lost almost all of his high profile jobs in the Pacifica region with Watson following right after. Now is the perfect time to send your message.¡± Mark nods to himself in satisfaction, taking a pen and writing his message in cursive. ¡°Dear Mr. Fraud, I hope this letter reaches you in good health to inform you of your impending demise. When we finally meet I hope that you remember the moment you received your first warning, likely dismissing it as a prank or a mistake. It isn¡¯t, unlike the moment you decided to cross me. I will make sure that you receive a new warning every day until the moment of your inevitable death, with the last warning delivered by my hand. I hope you prepare yourself and make peace with whatever gods you believe, because soon you will get the meet them. Kisses and hugs, The Engineer.¡± After finishing the letter, he gives the message to a logistic bot disguised as a carrier pigeon and sends it off towards its target. ¡°That¡¯s enough amusement for the day, back to work now.¡± Mark looks at the reports of the assault on his base, happy that everything went according to plan. He was afraid that with the firmware update some of his buildings wouldn¡¯t work as intended, but that proved to be an unnecessary worry. Truthfully, the update made things better for Mark, as thanks to his repair packs, any damage to nearby buildings and the road was a temporary issue, and the sensors installed in the factory did their job to help him tag the potential perpetrators. ¡°It¡¯s probably Militech, Faraday looked too smug at the start of the event until he appeared in Afterlife with a sour expression. He became better at hiding his emotions after the embarrassment with Maine¡¯s Crew, but with things involving Militech or Arasaka he¡¯s still relatively open.¡± Of course, Mark has an advantage when reading Faraday¡¯s tells because of his privileged knowledge. After reviewing all reports, Mark concluded that there is nothing urgent he needs to take care of, with everything else moving along his schedule. The only thing he needs to deal with for now is the appointment with Viktor for Maine¡¯s pre-op before he has new cybernetics installed. ¡­ At Viktor¡¯s Clinic, Mark looks at the Edgerunner current loadout like it has offended him. While the ripperdoc is arguing with Maine over the man going overboard with chrome, Mark''s temper is ready to blow up. Finally, Mark pronounces his judgment. ¡°Take them all off,¡± Mark says firmly, ¡°I will set you up with medical implants and cloned pieces while your body recuperates and I build you a new set of chrome.¡± ¡°Now listen here, Mark,¡± Maine turns to Mark while trying to get out of his medical chair while Vik and Dorio try to keep the Edgerunner calm, ¡°You don¡¯t have the right to tell me what to do with my body! What do you even know about chrome anyway?¡± Mark turns around with his right eye twitching, hundreds of hours playing Cyberpunk 2077 with all sorts of builds for V, and several hours playing Cyberpunk Red online come back to him. ¡°This is a fucking disgrace,¡± Mark says while pointing out to the chrome installed on Maine, ¡°just look at this! Do you want to do everything all at once? Do you feel like you don¡¯t have enough organs, big boy?¡± Mark points to the excess number of chrome of a certain type, straining that slot in Mark''s mind eye and eating through the chrome capacity. ¡°And what do you intend on accomplishing as a Solo, huh? You have you have a lot of shit installed for long-range, mid-range, and close combat, yet your synergy with them is only mediocre. Don¡¯t even get me started on the quality of the chrome you have installed! It¡¯s like it went through an entire gang''s worth of owners with how deteriorated some of them are still at their basic configuration! If you wanted to improve your performance you should have called a Techie to upgrade the chrome to keep your chrome capacity in check! And don¡¯t even get me started on why the fuck you have a linear frame bolted to your body! Unless you can suplex a fucking Metal Gearwhy would you need to have an exoskeleton on your body twenty-four seven? Let me guess, your next purchase was going to be some Speedware. Maybe a Sandevistan to complete your spaghetti build?¡±Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Maine, Vik, and Dorio look at Mark ranting like a madman as he continues on and on, giving his opinion on cyberpunks who think that they can buy true skill, those who believe chrome is a substitute for competency or the idiots who don¡¯t bother to learn how the multiple chrome stack with each other. Eventually, his rant winds down, and when Mark realizes more than half an hour has passed. ¡°Are you done?¡± Vik asks with a hint of fear. ¡°I am nowhere near done, but it will have to suffice for now,¡± Mark admits without shame while staring at Maine. ¡°Well, I can¡¯t get myself benched like that.¡± Maine tries the diplomatic approach to avoid setting off the potential cyberpsycho within spitting distance of himself and Dorio. ¡°I have bills to pay, and a contract with Faraday to honor.¡± ¡°I can fine-tune some of your chrome and prescribe meds to help,¡± Vik says in a conciliatory tone, ¡°there¡¯s also some chrome that would be redundant if Mark were to supply you with his equipment, which would ease the load on your body. Mark also has a point, you have two types of chrome that count as subdermal armor, and statistically speaking only the best chrome provides significant protection while the inferior version isn¡¯t useful.¡± Maine mumbles about ¡®not finding the time¡¯ to take some of the chrome off, earning a dirty look from his output. ¡°But what about the rest of my chrome? The good stuff is not only expensive, but they¡¯re hard to find in the market.¡± ¡°That¡¯s why the thing I talked with you about is so important,¡± Mark reminds Maine, ¡°it will help me dip my toe on the cybernetic market. Though it is much easier to get an Aerospace license than a cybernetic manufacturer license. If the other companies ever bothered with 1% of the industry requirements, regulations, and legislation the number of cyberpsychos would drop by 90%.¡± Viktor snorts, ¡°I believe that.¡± ¡°Alright, so what are your suggestions then, Mr. Expert?¡± Mark grins. ¡°I¡¯m glad you asked.¡± Mark gives three lists to Maine for potential builds. The first is a Sandevistan Build, nicknamed ¡°Raiden,¡± focusing on improving his melee attacks and using the strongest guns possible to take advantage of the Speedware time dilatation effect to carefully aim multiple shots in a short period. It is powerful, but it doesn¡¯t mesh well with Maine''s current combat doctrine. The second build is centered around an Experimental Operational System called Chrome Compressor, nicknamed ¡°Master Chief,¡± and it is the build that matches Maine''s current desire to install as much cybernetics as possible since the O.S. effectively increases the user chrome capacity without adverse effects. Maine would become an absolute menace on the battlefield due to stacking the right cybernetics to for a devastating effect, turning himself into an army killing machine. However, this build requires patience on the Edgerunner part, as he will need to replace many of his current chrome. The final build is, to Maine¡¯s surprise, a Combat Netrunner build, where Maine would forego all the technical aspects of being a Netrunner and focus on combat quick hacks for silent takedowns and becoming a ghost on the battlefield. While this build is powerful it isn¡¯t compatible with Maine''s current combat doctrine, but Mark decided to give him the option in case he wants to change his focus. ¡°The ¡®Master Chief¡¯ build intrigues me,¡± Maine admits, ¡°it does everything I¡¯m good at but better, and thanks to the muscle grafts and other chrome I can still punch out a car. I think I will take it, boss.¡± ¡°Great! I will talk with Vik about the payment and scheduling of your surgeries, and you will put Spartans-IV to shame in no time. Maybe even match the Spartans-II if my projects stay on schedule.¡± ¡°¡­ Spartans who?¡± Once again Mark turns towards Maine, but this time he has the look of someone who lost something precious to him, and only now realizes it. ¡°Never mind,¡± Mark manages to say with a tight voice, ¡°just take a rest.¡± It IS Rocket Science! (11) Ever since Dex DeShawn felt he botched the Militech job his luck took a turn for the worse. First, it was that upstart Faraday doing everything in his power to wrestle control over Pacifica¡¯s clients. Then he receives a message from his contacts cutting ties with him, as they found a new Fixer that isn¡¯t ¡®tainted.¡¯ Finally, when the Fixer went to Afterlife to have a drink and relax before going on the offensive, The Message arrived. Coming from a carrier pigeon, to the Fixer¡¯s surprise, a piece of paper contained the most important warning in DeShawn¡¯ short life. Somehow, against all odds, Mr. ¡°Cool¡± earned the personal ire of the Engineer himself. At first he thought it was a prank, much like the message predicted, then someone on Afterlife staff gave him another message. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to tell you this, Mr. DeShawn, but Rogue has barred your entrance on Afterlife starting the next day.¡± The manager politely continues talking despite DeShawn outburst, ¡°since you lost your prestige in Pacifica and Watson, you don¡¯t have a strong enough Reputation to be eligible for Afterlife entrance. For tonight, you are still allowed to remain and finish any business you need. Please, enjoy the rest of the night.¡± With trembling hands Dex looks once more at the message, and realizes that he suddenly became enemies with the Engineer. As if to deny the truth staring in front of him, he orders as much alcohol as he can, paying several rounds for the bar and burning off his immediate funds. Eventually the bar¡¯s bouncers throw him out when the Fixer becomes too intoxicated to walk back to his home. DeShawn wakes up in his bed at his most used safe house, eager to dismiss the previous night event as a nightmare, when a pigeon enters from a window and drops another message. The Fixer jumps from his bed in fright, before gingerly picking up the message. Another warning and an irrevocable proof that the Engineer is serious about his intentions. The days pass, and the Wube Inc. accomplishments hit the news with the plans to build a new space station that collects space junk and micro asteroids for research, alongside a new Moon base for limited mining operations and possibly setting up a new colony. Wube Inc. claims that, in the future, it will expand its operations to send cargo rockets to send large scale material between Earth and Space to set up an industrial scale Space Logistics. Dex DeShawn does not comprehend nor care about the implications of this news. The Fixer is more concerned with the constant death threats he¡¯s receiving via robotic carrier pigeons. Dex swears that he¡¯s constantly watched by the mechanical menaces, and he¡¯s laughed at by people on his employ, calling him paranoid for believing in such outdated conspiracy. The more mindful of his stressed condition wonders if his chrome was hacked, and the Fixer would normally agree if it weren¡¯t for the many paper letters with the death threat written in cursive. ¡°Who the fuck writes in cursive?¡± One of DeShawn¡¯s Netrunners looks at what appears to be incriminating evidence. ¡°Boss, have you ever thought of sending this letter to the authorities? Try and ruin the Engineer and Wube Inc. reputation?¡± Dex stands up and smacks the offending Netrunner. ¡°Do you think I didn¡¯t already try that? The bastard has Netrunners keeping watch over the net and any movement I do. Besides, did you forget about the leaked video of the meeting between The Engineer and the Arasaka and Militech representatives? That man doesn¡¯t give a fuck about the law!¡± ¡°Hey Choom, don¡¯t go hitting on her just because you¡¯re upset-¡± The Fixer turns to the offending voice, power walking towards him. ¡°What¡¯s your name, boy?¡± Dex grunts out to the man in his late twenties. ¡°Jackie Welles, sir.¡± The recently contracted Edgerunner answers nervously. Jackie is a former Valentino¡¯s member that always dreamed to become a Legend in Night City, and when someone introduced him to Dex DeShawn after the biggest job in Pacifica he jumped at the opportunity. His friend V was happy for his success, but advised caution around Fixers with a career that burns too brightly, ¡°a nail that sticks out gets hammered down,¡± according to the Arasaka corpo, an almost alien concept to the former gangster. ¡°Well, Jackie boy, answer me this, have you ever met with the Engineer?¡± ¡°No sir.¡± ¡°Well, I met him. Indirectly. That man¡¯s an absolute menace! A verified psycho!¡± Spit flies out of Dex mouth as he rages at the mercenary, ¡°The night the Engineer completely eradicated the Maelstrom? The fight where he killed almost the entire gang single-handed, and used some kind of unknown poison to turn them into a biological slurry, do you know what he did once he arrived Afterlife?¡± Jackie shakes his head and Dex continues, ¡°he asked for fucking dinner! Afterlife now has an entire a la carte menu named The Engineer¡¯s Choice because after spending an entire night killing and bathing in gore the madman got hungry!¡± With each new work the Fixer¡¯s voice rises, as each point is emphasized by DeShawn poking at Jackie¡¯s chest with his cyberlimb. ¡°Most Legends in Night City have a drink dedicated to them in that Place, with two exceptions: the unofficial Adam Smasher¡¯ Selection with the various Legends that were flatlined by the Arasaka executioner, and the fucking Engineer¡¯s Choice! Don¡¯t you see, motherfucker, Afterlife acknowledged the Engineer as an Adam Smasher level threat!¡± ¡°And he¡¯s looking for me! Me! ME! If you don¡¯t know how to get me out of this situation, shut your whore fucking mouth!¡± By the end of his rant Mr. ¡°Cool¡± lost all of his composure as his breath turned ragged with exertion. He takes a deep breath to try and calm himself when he hears a sound that makes his eyes widen. ¡°Hoh hoh.¡± ¡°AHHHHHH!¡± The top Fixer screams at the bird sitting on the table. He takes one of his guns and tries to fire at it, but none of his nervous shots hit the creature that flies away peacefully after delivering its message. The female Netrunner gingerly approaches the message, but DeShawn roughly manhandles her. ¡°Don''t you dare touch it!¡± *Crash* A brick breaks the hideout window and Jackie goes to investigate, but soon he returns with another paper in his hand. ¡°Uh, boss? This one reads, ¡®read the damn message, DeShawn. Aloud.¡¯¡± The Fixer releases his Netrunner and gingerly takes the original message and reads it out loud with a shaky voice. ¡°Dear Dead Man, This is the penultimate reminder of your inevitable doom. The time of reckoning is close, so I recommend you to finish putting your affairs in order, and steel your resolve for what¡¯s to come. Hugs and kisses, The Engineer.¡± Strangely to Jackie, the Fixer currently looks calm and collected, as if the current message had brought him a sense of enlightenment. ¡°T-Bug, clean up all of my accounts.¡± Dex says with a firm tone, ¡°I am going to delta from Night City. I already bought a ticket out of this situation, but I didn¡¯t want to give up on my current reputation.¡± ¡°Mr. Cool, you¡¯re just going to¡­ leave?¡± Jackie asks one of his idols while growing up. The wreck of a man in front of him was once one of the best Fixers in the city, a member in good standing on Afterlife. For an individual instead of a corporation to have the power to make him scared like that, Jackie wonders about the kind of person that can accomplish it. ¡°This is just a temporary retreat,¡± the Fixer insists, ¡°I will leave, let the heat die down some more and after a few months, a few years, this whole thing will be blown over. It always does. Until it does, make sure to stay low.¡± ¡°Here boss, your eddies.¡± The Netrunner T-Bug, one of Dex oldest employees, hands the large man a memory shard. ¡°It... wasn¡¯t as much as I expected. Did the Engineer also hack into your personal accounts?¡± ¡°I had to pay some bribes here and there,¡± DeShawn vaguely answers, ¡°anyway, Jackie, take the car and drive me to the spaceport. Afterwards I will wire you your share, then you stay low key for a few days.¡± ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go.¡± ¡­ The drive to the spaceport is tense and with an unusual amount of traffic for the time of the day. The car could barely drive for a street before stopping over the next street. ¡°Take a shortcut,¡± Dex orders, ¡°or else we will never get there.¡± Jackie looks around seeing little opportunities to take a shortcut unless he runs over the pedestrians, but he isn¡¯t desperate to face the law enforcement over this. Thankfully for the small group, on the next semaphore Jackie finds a faster lane to travel despite deviating slightly from the original route. ¡°We¡¯re deviating from the route too much,¡± T-Bug remarks as she pulls a map, ¡°we¡¯re going away from the spaceport.¡± ¡°Relax,¡± Jackie reassures the Netrunner, ¡°I know those streets. We just need to turn at the next intersection and then we¡¯re back on track.¡± Unfortunately, things don''t go according to the group¡¯s wishes as the car turns in a different direction. ¡°Shit, the car¡¯s hacked! The steering wheel doesn¡¯t respond!¡±Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°¡®Hacked?¡¯ What the fuck do you mean by ¡®hacked?¡¯¡± DeShawn asks fearfully. ¡°This is a 1970¡¯s Cadillac, there¡¯s nothing here to hack!¡± ¡°Look!¡± Jackie turns the steering wheel all the way to the right, but the car continues driving towards a different location. After a few minutes, the three reach a street on Santo Domingo where a crew of Edgerunners is waiting for them. Rebecca taps the car window startling DeShawn. ¡°Hey Choom, care to step out of the car for us?¡± The fat man slams the door on the small girl¡¯s face earning a small cry as he tries to run away, but a tall man with long limbs holds an abomination of a gun to the Fixer¡¯s face. ¡°Don¡¯t you fucking dare touch my sister, you fat fuck. I¡¯m the only one who gets to annoy her, capisce?¡± ¡°Shut up Pillar, don¡¯t act cool!¡± The angry woman quickly stands up and points her own weapon to DeShawn¡¯s head. Before the sibling pair could start bickering, the tall ex-Animal and Maine¡¯ second in command Dorio break up their fight. ¡°Follow us without any funny business, you two too.¡± On the other side of the car, Sasha and Maine open the door to Jackie and T-Bug. Currently, Maine wears a Modular Armor with modified design to acclimate himself with the Engineer¡¯s equipment and to prevent himself from further straining his body after the first round of surgeries. Both Jackie and T-Bug step out of the car, sizing up their captors. ¡°Hands on the car.¡± Maine orders, and with practiced ease pats down Jackie for any weapons he might have on his person. ¡°They¡¯re clear,¡± Sasha proclaims after checking the chrome of the two companions of DeShawn. ¡°They don¡¯t have anything on themselves to surprise us on the car drive.¡± ¡°Good. Now move out you two, and don¡¯t try any funny business.¡± The trio is escorted to another car while their Cadillac disappears from view. The group enters the large vehicle before it goes away into the badlands. The drive is tense, with any attempt at communication being shut down immediately. Jackie starts praying under his breath, not wanting to die like this, and T-Bug does her best to remain calm under the current situation. Eventually, after driving in the Badlands for half an hour the group reaches a small concrete shack. ¡°Set out.¡± Maine calls the group and they reluctantly exit the vehicle. In the shack illuminated by a single lamp, the Engineer is waiting for the group''s arrival. ¡°You done goofed, Dex DeShawn.¡± Jackie is taken aback by the odd slang from the Engineer, while Maine¡¯s crew already grew used to the Engineer eccentricities. They push the trio forward to face the Engineer¡¯s wrath while the rest of the crew watches a few steps away. ¡°L-l-look, i-if this is a-about the gonks I sent after the Factory, that¡¯s just business, alright? You work with Rogue, right? You know a lot of Fixers, so you know how the business works, right? Right?¡± The Engineer stares back at DeShawn stammers, patiently waiting for something. DeShawn sees this as his opportunity. ¡°In the end you profited off it, didn¡¯t you? You took out most of the gangs in Pacifica, got yourself a fat paycheck, a boost in respect and reputation at Afterlife, and even the grudging respect from the corpos! I mean, when I saw the leaked video between you, Arasaka, Militech and the Mayor the first thing I thought was ¡®hey, what a fucking badass! He¡¯s going to be a Legend thanks to me!¡¯ So, in a sense, you owe part of your success to that night!¡± The Engineer remains silent until he takes a deep breath. *Smack* Mark slaps DeShawn with his armored hand, leaving a bruise on the Fixer¡¯s face. ¡°Esther.¡± *Smack* ¡°Maria.¡± Smack. ¡°Josue.¡± Smack. ¡°Nahomie.¡± Smack. ¡°Jesus.¡± Smack. ¡°Oliver.¡± Smack. ¡°Adine.¡± Smack. ¡°Jos¨¦.¡± Smack. ¡°Samyr.¡± With each name Mark slaps DeShawn¡¯s face strong enough for him to feel pain, but not enough to risk him losing consciousness or becoming incapacitated, but a large bruise forming on the man¡¯s face. ¡°Those are the names of the unfortunate homeless people that were sleeping in one of my improvised shelters. The shelter that I was going to use to help the local population. The shelter with nothing there except homeless people! The shelter that was raided by one of the gangs that you called that night!¡± DeShawn sputters indignantly, unable to comprehend what he just heard. ¡°Are you going to kill me over some nobodies?¡± Mark knees the Fixer on the stomach, making him lose his air. ¡°They had names! Weren¡¯t you listening? Esther, Maria, Josue, Nahomie, Jesus, Oliver, Adine, Jos¨¦, Samyr!¡± With each name Mark slaps DeShawn once more, this time stronger until the Fixer¡¯s look like it went a full round against a professional boxer. ¡°You sent everything and the kitchen sink at me! There were even fucking Nazis there too! Not poser supremacists, not try hard racists, not even dumb idiots being led by an asshole, but the actual hidden Nazi community in this hellhole of a city came to knock on my door, killing off any undesirables they saw on Pacifica, which was everybody in their eyes!¡± Rebecca looks startled at the revelation. ¡°Do we have a Nazi community in this city?¡± ¡°We had.¡± Mark corrects the Solo. It took time, but Mark managed to hunt them down quietly. ¡°As I said, you fucked up DeShawn, and I¡¯m going to kill you.¡± ¡°No¡­¡± The fat man protests weakly from the ground due to pain. ¡°Please¡­ mercy¡­¡± ¡°Now, I¡¯m not a monster,¡± Mark ignores DeShawn¡¯s begging, ¡°so I am giving you a choice. Since you¡¯re a local you probably buy into the ¡®style over substance¡¯ lifestyle of the City, so I¡¯m giving you two options: you can die quickly and painlessly, but your legacy in Night City will be completely trashed, your name will become synonymous with cowardice and disrespect. A symbol to be mocked and degraded until the masses get tired and forget about you.¡± That cuts off the pain that Dex DeShawn is currently feeling, as the man looks up in both horror and anger at the man daring to desecrate his legacy. ¡°Option two, you go out as a badass. Your death will be slow and excruciating, and you will need to have a closed casket funeral, however, I will make sure to spread word on Afterlife that you fought bravely, that in your final moments you earned the respect of the Engineer, and I will ensure that your name will live on as a Legend in Night City.¡± The Engineer steps forward looking down on Dex. ¡°Now, what do you choose, DeShawn?¡± The man stands up, taking a deep breath before answering. ¡°Do you think I am scared of you? Sure, you hold my life in your hands, but I¡¯m not some little boy you can cower with your intimidation attempts. If you think I can¡¯t take it, then give me your worst! I will live on as a Legend, and you can¡¯t take this away from me!¡± The Engineer nods, and brings a flamethrower from his inventory, clicking the pilot fire for effect. The Fixer steps back in fright, finally realizing what he signed himself for. ¡°As you wish.¡± ¡°No no no nonononono! Please, don¡¯t do this man! Not like this, not like this!¡± Dex discards all notions of dignity falling on his knees and grabbing at the Engineer¡¯s waist to beg for his life. ¡°Now DeShawn, you choose your execution method. Please, don¡¯t make my job harder.¡± DeShawn weeps and bawls, pleading for his life, but the Engineer is unmoved. He points his weapon at the soon to be dead man, but someone interrupts him. ¡°Wait!¡± Jackie calls out to Mark, and he turns to the mercenary. ¡°Is there any way for you to spare him? He, he gave me a chance to properly join the Edgerunner scene, I owe him a lot. I can¡¯t just stand and watch him die, I will do anything!¡± Mark stares at the man, evaluating his proposal. Maine signals his crew to stay silent, stopping Rebecca from speaking out for the brave man. ¡°Alright. I will give you a chance to walk out of this alive, DeShawn.¡± Mark looks at the two extras that tagged along to this excursion. ¡°If any of you two decides to take his place, DeShawn can walk away free. I will fake his death while you take the burden of his execution.¡± ¡°What happens if we don¡¯t agree?¡± T-Bug asks the Engineer. ¡°Nothing,¡± he replies promptly, ¡°I don¡¯t have any problems with any of you.¡± ¡°Then fuck you DeShawn, you fat bastard! You never paid me enough to put up with your bullshit anyway.¡± ¡°T-Bug, you double crossing bitch!¡± The doomed man yells at his once loyal Netrunner before turning to Jackie. ¡°You will do it, won¡¯t you? You said it yourself, you owe me for helping you! If you do that I make sure that you become a Legend in Night City! Everyone will know your name!¡± ¡°I,¡± Jackie hesitates for a moment, until he strengthens his resolve. ¡°I will do it.¡± Mark nods at the man, and gives Jackie a handgun with a full clip. ¡°Since you¡¯re not DeShawn, you can go out easier. He will live, but his reputation in Night City will be in shambles while he will be exiled.¡± ¡°That''s not what you promised, you bastard!¡± Mark ignores DeShawn protests, continuing to speak with Jackie Welles. ¡°You can also suffer the same execution as him, to ensure his Legend in Night City.¡± The mercenary looks down at the gun, DeShawn, and the other Edgerunners in the room. He quickly raises his gun and emptied the clip on the Engineer¡¯s armored face, to little effect. Once the gun clicks empty Mark tilts his head. ¡°Did you get that out of your system?¡± ¡°I had to try.¡± Jackie admits, and hands the Engineer the gun once more, accepting his fate. In response, Mark loads another clip in the handgun and gives it back to Jackie. This time, Jackie stares at the gun and considers his choices. If he should sacrifice himself for Dex the easy way, or take the burden of his execution, or to let the Fixer die. He slowly raises the gun towards his head, thinking of the people he will leave behind. His mother will be alone, but he only gives her disappointment; his childhood friend Misty that he never got the courage to ask out, and finally his friend at Arasaka V, whom he surprisingly became close over the years. ¡°What are you waiting for? Just do it! Die already so I can leave! If you can¡¯t even go out like a badass then at least get it over already!¡± DeShawn yells towards Jackie as fear, pain, and anger overcomes the man. Jackie stares hurtfully at DeShawn before closing his eyes and bringing the gun to his head. *Click* Jackie opens his eyes and he pulls the trigger again, hearing another click. Mark gently takes the gun from the mercenary¡¯s hand. ¡°You¡¯re a very loyal person, Jackie Welles. This ¡®ride or die¡¯ attitude is precious, and you shouldn¡¯t waste it on him. This was a test, not just to DeShawn, but to you.¡± Mark''s words surprise Jackie, and he continues, ¡°you passed, and DeShawn failed. If you want a job you can talk with me later. Maine, please escort Jackie and T-Bug outside. The rest can leave too, if you want.¡± Maine answers with a grunt and takes the pair outside, leaving only Sasha inside the building. Sasha doesn¡¯t say anything, and Mark likewise doesn''t ask anything. ¡°No no, you can¡¯t do this to me!¡± DeShawn screams in terror and tries to escape, but Mark shoots him on the knee making the soon to be dead man fall on the ground crying. Once more, Mark ignites the flamethrower pilot fire, pointing the weapon at the former Fixer. The Edgerunners were expecting to hear screams from the doomed man, but instead they heard the lyrics of a music long forgotten by time, and none of them could understand the significance of the song in this context. ¡°Do you believe in magic ~ in a young girl''s heart?¡± ¡°How the music can free her ~ whenever it starts?¡± When everything is over, Mark makes sure that everyone in Night City is aware of DeShawn''s last moments as a victim of ¡®gang warfare,¡¯ and lets them decide for themselves what to make of the former fixer. In Mark¡¯s opinion, he doesn¡¯t believe he can come up with a better smear campaign than what Dex DeShawn did to himself. Night City will come to agree with that assessment. Book 2: Interlude: Rogue The living Legend and Queen of the Afterlife Rogue Amendiares finishes reading her report while holding her Johnny Silverhand in her left hand while with her right hand, she grabs another piece of fried chicken, courtesy of her new partner Mark Henderson, known by the city as the enigmatic Engineer. ¡°A headache and profit in a single package, it almost reminds me of you.¡± The Queen murmurs under her breath. The poultry came from a farm far away from Night City in the Badlands, meant to supply Wube Inc. workers with fresh, organic food. The supply of Organic Chickens is currently limited, however, with her connections and allies, she has access to those products among others. Wube Inc. plans to enter the food market in the future, but the regulations placed on that industry would make him an enemy of both Biotechnica and Petrochem, depending on the focus. At the moment, Wube Inc. is studying the possibility of expansion and gearing up for a potential legal battle, but that¡¯s a distraction from the main accomplishments of the company. Rogue connects to her agent and opens the photo gallery, a relic that most casual users don¡¯t bother at the current age. She glances over the various photos sent by Mark from his Space Station. ¡°Not going to lie, this is the ugliest thing I have ever seen.¡± The woman takes another swing of her drink as the photo enters into focus. The Space Station is composed of a single Command Center over a set of Space Platforms that grows outwards from this initial structure. On top of the station are strange ¡°asteroid catchers¡± that grab micro asteroids and other space debris into their hungry maws, spewing items into conveyor belts set on top of the Space Platforms. How none of the items that aren¡¯t bolted into the platforms don¡¯t fly off carried by their momentum, is not a piece of information that Rogue is privy to. ¡°It¡¯s almost like he¡¯s taunting the other corporations.¡± The station also has some of the mysterious Assemblers? that appear in a rare video recorded inside the Factory of Pacifica. Amateur astronomers sold the recording on the net for those curious to see the Engineer¡¯s equipment in action. Some people claim the Engineer had stolen the blueprints of nanoforgers from the corporations, forgetting that Wube Inc. itself is a corporation. Unfortunately, there are no known records of a company called ¡°Wube Inc.¡± ever existing. However, after the Datacrash it is difficult to access old records, with the only evidence of something¡¯s existence being a living person¡¯s memory. That quality is part of what makes Rogue a Living Legend. According to her observations, Mark has access to an advanced, mature technology that sometimes looks like magic to the uneducated eyes, though she heard one of her Techies call the equipment shown by the Engineer an example of techno-sorcery. In Rogue¡¯s opinion that¡¯s an exaggeration that doesn¡¯t need to be spread, the Queen doesn¡¯t need to give Mark a bigger head. Rogue flicks over another photo, this time with Mark on the moon, holding a flag with the symbol of Wube Inc. standing like the old photo of Neil Armstrong standing on the moon. She flicks another photo, and she sees the strange doll that Mark occasionally carries around. According to him, when he needs to decide on a course of action, instead of talking out loud to sound the idea, he tries to explain it to an imaginary audience to determine the feasibility of his plans. If he can¡¯t articulate his thoughts to a plushy, then the idea needs revision or will be scrapped as a bad idea.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Rogue shakes her head in indignation. ¡°I wonder what counts as a bad idea in his book.¡± After the first Space Station, Mark quickly launched a second ¡°seed¡± into space that quickly grew, and he claims this new Station will become a spaceship. She¡¯s not an aerospace engineer, but she¡¯s certain that spaceships look nothing like what Mark currently has in space. The abomination currently looks like a factory floor with three rocket engines strapped to the ¡°stern¡± waiting for fuel and building materials to make its maiden voyage. Rogue closes the album and brings another report with the minerals extracted by the moon colony. There are plenty of rare metals, noble gases, and unprocessed ore that Wube Inc. uses for themselves while selling the excess. That¡¯s not abnormal, and the volume extracted currently can be considered small, but Wube Inc.''s costs are almost none making the extraction extremely lucrative. Already, Rogue receives offers to spy on the Engineer or to provide intelligence on his operations, with enough eddies to allow her to retire for the next century in luxury. She almost sent a team of Edgerunners to those middle managers who don¡¯t know their place, but that¡¯s acknowledging the existence of a walking corpse since corporations don¡¯t admit this kind of blunder in their ranks. Rogue might not work as a Solo anymore, but she was already on the camp of ¡°Fuck the Corpos¡± before they were born. Finally, Rogue picks the datashard containing Mark¡¯s request for a job, which is the reason why she¡¯s drinking a Silverhand in the middle of the day: an infiltration mission on Biotechnica to investigate their servers and offices for potential dirt. Mark found circumstantial evidence that Biotechnica might be in trouble, or at least Night City¡¯s office. If they can find further proof, he can hit the corporation where it hurts: the investor¡¯s wallets. Mark is currently sponsoring the chrome and retraining of Maine¡¯s Crew for this mission, but he also wants extra help to deal with the corporation, this time focusing on investigating the alleged experiments on Megabuilding Hospital 04, MH04, and to prevent a tragedy in the future. ¡°Speaking of tragedy, I didn¡¯t know those deaths affected him so much.¡± During the Engineer vs Pacifica Incident, the renamed impromptu gang war started by Dex DeShawn, one of the Hate gangs targeted a small homeless camp set up by the Engineer, and that was enough cause for him to seek revenge on the late Fixer. Personally, Rogue approved of that attitude and sense of justice. She¡¯s not unfamiliar with collateral damage and innocents being caught in the crossfire, but deliberately targetting civilians for no other reason than to cause pain and suffering? She made a small fortune hunting those people, and now Rogue pays others to clean up the trash. The Queen of Afterlife is impressed by the Engineer¡¯s vengeance. His plan starts by isolating the man in the Afterlife, creating a sense of unease, and then excluding DeShawn from contracts and other jobs until his invitation to the Afterlife is revoked. Afterward, a psychological campaign of terror drives the former Fixer into a corner, and when he¡¯s ready to escape the Engineer catches Dex and executes him. The Engineer made sure to release an edited video of the Fixer execution on the Net for the Edgerunners and others to see how much of a coward the Fixer was, and to show his nature as a rat. New evidence appeared, revealing DeShawn¡¯s treatment of the crews on his payroll as disposable fodder to pad his record and maintain an inflated reputation. Rogue doesn¡¯t interfere with the relationship between Fixers, Edgerunners, and Clients, however, DeShawn actions were skirting the line. The Engineer even convinced her to make a cocktail in honor of the late Fixer. The DeShawn is a cheap drink pretending to be sophisticated, recommended to Edgerunners who survived bad jobs and betrayal. To ¡°get a DeShawn¡± is quickly becoming synonymous with being a sucker. Rogue brings her drink to her lips to sip the last remaining liquid before making a few calls. She will recommend trusted specialists for the job at Biotechnica, but it will be up to Mark to decide how to run the operation. Once that is finished, she returns to other matters that require the attention of the Queen.