The boys had drifted off to sleep under the stars. Even Raynor and Mr. Wick closed their eyes for a spell. A sign of their trust in me, I hoped. Thankfully, nothing disturbed us and I had plenty of time to consider what to do with this outpost. While my thoughts spun out new ideas, the Probes had set up a perimeter of War Pylons and finished setting up several Robotics Facilities, a few Forges, and a Cybernetics Core. Then it hit me. This little outpost was going to start producing Reavers.

  Reavers were rge heavily armored caterpilr like robots that produced scarab drones. Their primary weakness was that they were slow, both in movement speed and in time to construct. Each unit would take two weeks to build, but their payload of explosive little scarab drones was well worth the investment in time. Later, I could adjust their payloads for a variety of tasks but even the power of the baseline scarab's explosions was truly a spectacle. Especially for such tiny drones. They would be great for assaulting any fortified position. Eventually, I'd need building or resources that others already possessed. If I couldn't bargain honestly and fairly with them, then explosives were often an excellent solution for that kind of problem.

  I also wanted to start collecting scans of the bots and drones from NC as soon as possible. Humanoid bots made with Khai tech might make for an interesting experiment. Indeed, having the our Khai Probes or Sentries disguised as the standard drones that were already an everyday part of society, would make future infiltration much easier. Hiding things in pin sight worked surprisingly well, and by the time the cat was out of the bag the number of the drones we would have spread out in the city should be sufficient to hold our own.

  On the other hand, the Khai had tried something called the Purifier project. They digitized the minds of some of their greatest warriors, both those who were injured and volunteers, and pced them into robotic bodies. They thought it would be a simple extension of the Dragoon project. Warriors who were still alive but unable to fight normally, were entombed within the Dragoon weapons ptforms, to continue in service to the Khai. Their duty to their people allowed them to carry on and often they made great strides in critical battles. Not so much with the Purifiers, mostly because the Khai treated them like they were mere robots not the valued and honored warriors their minds were based on. Personally, I think the Purifier rebellion was both predictable and justified. Sadly, I have no Protoss to discuss the situation with to try to make sense of the whole ordeal, and Alina only knew so much about what was mostly a cssified operation. I wouldn't have been able to access the data at all if not for my Executor status.

  As the troops roused themselves the next morning, I cast Regrowth, Cleanse, and Nature's Blessing on all of us. Perking everyone right up. We had a quick breakfast of HQ rations and then got moving towards the next location I wanted to occupy. We'd be swinging a couple dozen miles to the east to avoid the mountains but for the most part we headed straight south. As I was perusing the satellite maps of the region I'd seen that there was a massive sor farm south of the city. We were going to setup an outpost within striking distance of that facility. As my future pns progressed, I'd attempt to arrange most of my outposts next to critical infrastructure. If it was ever needed, I wanted to be able to grip Night City by it's balls. I felt a burning desire to repay all the kindness I had received to date, with interest.

  I did get a little worried when we had to cross the border with the NUSA. Unless crossing on designated roads, the border between Night City's autonomous zone and the New United States was enforced by extreme applications of ordinance, be it from satellite, artillery, or drone strikes. You'd get almost no time to retreat before you were reduced into atoms. However, I had a vehicle with a cloaking field. While the couldn't be powered for long periods of time, if we wanted to be able to keep moving, but it should be just enough to sneak by the kill zone. I had heard rumors that somewhere nearby the Wraiths had a tunnel the passed through the mountains. However, given the ck of solid leads, locating and appropriating that asset was going to have to be a story for another day.

  We made it through the border security zone without a hitch, and an hour ter we were looking at the most ridiculously oversized sor panels I could've imagined, and a equally hulking tower housing the central power collector. Knowing that the City needed this sor farm, at least two nuclear pnts, at least one hydroelectric damn, in addition to who knows what else, boggled the mind. Then again with the profligate dispys of Lights, Ads and high powered holographs, I'm shocked they didn't need even more. Though from what I'd seen on my previous trips, most buildings have their own methods of generating at least some power. Be it their own sor panels, wind turbines, or other more esoteric methods, it was hard to say, I'd have to research it more ter.

  At this particur location, we were not going to take over any existing buildings. Instead, we were going to build the Outpost in the middle of nowhere, off the roads and out of the way of prying eyes.

  While the Probes and Sentries were working on assembling buildings, Raynor, Mr. Wick and I were looking over maps of the city trying to get an idea of where in that rats' nest our next two Outposts were going.

  "Here." Mr. Wick pointed to a small shopping center next to Megabuilding 4. I immediately liked the idea, mainly because I'd been wanting an excuse to look inside one of those behemoths. The current theory was that it must be horrific to actually live in one.

  "Yup. That seems like a good bet, Hoss." I could tell Raynor didn't like what he was seeing on the maps. "This city is messier than a sty, full of sick swine. With all these shops it's going to be a nightmare to avoid notice. At least until we get some Pylons up." He wasn't wrong, there were cameras and people everywhere. Hmm, we'd have to look like something else to avoid notice.

  "I'll try renting a space out first. It worked out fine st time. Then we can setup what we need underground. If they don't want to rent us the space we could act like a gang. Roll up and smash the fuck out of the pce, driving all the people off. We'd still dig out our setup underground, and avoid resurfacing. I'll make sure that the shop owners are compensated ter." It was just the basic framework of a pn but it would have to do, until we'd gotten a better look at the area. "What I'm most worried about is the truck. While awesome, it screams that we must have some Corpo involvement. We'll have to stash it somewhere and pick up other means of transportation." I continued, looking for a warehouse district on the edge of the city. When I saw a likely pce I pointed to it, "Here. We'll stash the MRAP here. Then I'll buy us another transport, maybe a hauler of some kind, and we'll use that to get to the shopping center. It'd be best to act as if we're delivering something, until or unless we need a different strategy."

  They nodded their agreement. We spitballed a few more ideas back and forth.

  Not long after that, the Probes had everything setup and another Quest was completed. I was 2000 CPoints richer, and a Mercenary Squad Token was now mine.

  We arrived at the warehouses by the edge of the Rancho Coronado district. I'd noticed while driving that many vehicles had given us a wide berth. Perhaps it was the sheer size of the MRAP, or maybe it was the massive chain gun on the roof, hard to say. The extra space to maneuver was welcome though, the modified MTV was too wide for standard nes. My main worry was that all of this attention could lead us into a situation where we attracted the wrong kind of notice, like the NCPD. Which was why I wanted to find something less conspicuous to travel deeper into the urban jungle of NC.

  The warehouses stored a rge variety of goods, mostly for mid level corps. You might find everything from cyberware components to supposedly "organic" but shelf stable food products, and even raw materials like ores could be found in this pce. The Security in the area was minimal, but more than enough to discourage any random punks looking for trouble. I easily located a smaller unoccupied building, which I quickly rented off the NET and we stashed the MTV. One of the Sentries would remain here to guard the vehicle. Though that did give me an idea for an automated guard mode for the vehicle.

  Stage one of our spdash pn was complete, now it was time to find something big enough to haul all of us to the shopping center. I started digging into the local Net, looking for viable options. It took a while but I found an auction for a Kaukaz Zeya 420 model that had been used as a municipal garbage truck. It should be just big enough to fit us all in it, while not raising eyebrows anywhere we needed to go. Though it might have needed some work, but hey, between me and the Probes we'd have it roaring like a bear in no time.

  It's onboard AI limped it to us, after I dropped enough eddies with the city to just about buy it new. Money didn't matter too much right then, I had plenty of money, and you actually couldn't just buy a new garbage truck without a special permit. There was an exemption for decommissioned vehicles though, the the shop that decommissions city vehicles was very x at their job. Without a Forge we couldn't completely overhaul it, but I dug around in its engine while the Probes disassembled local trash into minerals to aid in repairing the chassis. The Probes even managed to convert most of the chassis into low quality crysbronze. Meaning it was going to be lightly armored. That was a relief. While I didn't pn for us to get shot at, it was pretty much a guarantee that a few bullets would head our way at some point.

  Several of this poor beast's engine components were totally shot, and the electrical harness needed all kinds of love. So, I had to make a few quick orders, all from different shops, to get what parts were needed to bring it up to a decent level of functionality. Later the Probes would scan it and we'd be able to fabricate the parts if needed, but by then we'd likely be able to completely convert it with Khai Tech.

  It took a few hours, but it at least the truck now looked new. The poor garbage truck now ran far better than it had in years, though not quite at factory new levels. I gave up making more improvements for now, I was burning up the clock and we needed to get started.

  That was stage two down. We arrived at the shopping center to find that two spaces were for rent. I took the one on the ground floor, for obvious reasons. Once again, I was both impressed and disappointed that it was so easy to obtain a space. While it was incredibly convenient, especially for our purposes, there was a bizarre distance to the whole thing. It felt not just impersonal, but inhuman. You don't know the owner and they don't know you. Eh, I guess that was just business as usual in this Cyber Dystopia. Why do you need to know anybody anyway, money's money right? Spends the same no matter who's on the other end. As if, my knowledge of economics and currency was limited but even I knew better than that.

  Just like that stage three was down. As we all stood around the empty space I'd just rented, watching the Probes get started on carving out the underground space for our new outpost, we couldn't help but feel the absurdity of it all. All that prep for nothing, just because it was so easy to rent even without a proper ID.

  Raynor smirking said it first, "Looks like we got all gussied up for nothing." He seemed both disappointed and relieved. Probably didn't like the idea of scaring everyday folks, just to get a space for our work.

  Wick's lips had the barest of upward curves to it, "Yeah. Shame." Mr. Wick didn't care one way or the other, I was sure it was all the same to him.

  I was grinning, "Hey, it could have been the fight of our lives. You never know when a Granny with Cyberpsychosis is behind the counter." We all broke down into ughter, even the troops joined in, draining all the tension that we had been building up. Well, except Mr. Wick he kind made a noise that only the most charitable might call a chuckle. That gave me a great idea. Mwahaha.

  I quickly ordered a bunch of food to be delivered. Soon my people were all staring at triangles of processed crust, supposed cheese, mystery sauce and a variety of dubious toppings.

  "Pizza?" Mr. Wick's tone held all the possible doubt in the universe.

  Raynor and the boys were looking cockeyed at theirs, not knowing a thing about pizza in the first pce. Strangely for all the different things that could come out of a Company ration pack, pizza was a rare occurrence. I supposed that pizza wasn't considered high quality by the Company. But that wasn't the only reason they hadn't pounced on the food. No, they were probably hesitating because they noticed I hadn't reached for mine yet. Cautious folk tend to notice things like that.

  "Dig in, fels." I gestured at the "pizza".

  Except for Mr. Wick they all all took a tentative bite. Yeah, didn't think I'd get him with this prank. They all stared daggers at me after the first swallow of Buck A Slice Pizza. Their second bite had their stomachs churning. Yet they kept eating and as they kept eating, I could feel their increasing irritation. Their stares transforming into full blown gres promising death and grumbling promising revenge. I felt the accusation, but let it rolled off me like water off a duck.

  "What's wrong, don't like it?" As I reached behind me and pulled out a bag full of burgers from Tom's Diner. I slowly unwrapped the first one and then took a big bite. Controlling my reaction took some effort, but I think I managed to pull a happy face off. Eh, Tom's burgers weren't horrible, but after being spoiled by the food back in New Lordaeron, it just didn't hit right.

  Everyone looked at the burger in my hand and then back at the "pizza". The angry yelling ensued. Some food tossing might have happened. I ughed while dodging slices of the crappiest pizza ever.

  "That's a low down dirty trick! Poisoning your own people like that." Raynor grumped. Choruses of "That's right!" and "You tell him, boss!" rang out.

  I snickered as I pulled out more bags of burgers and tossed them to everyone. They set upon the mediocre burgers with a will. Sure, it wasn't great, but after the false pizza, that didn't matter so much. In the retive silence that followed, I id it out for them. "That "pizza" was the first thing I ate in this city. Think about that. Think about how bnd these burgers are. This is what the folks here live on\" I went from chuckling to serious. "This is just an intro to the hell this pce really is, it gets a lot worse from here on in."

  That sobered them up quick. I could see the understanding take hold. Simir thoughts to mine, from that first time in this hellhole, pyed out on their faces. They were now at the beginning of the path, the path of why we were doing this. I could see that they accepted my grimly funny lesson.

  Heh heh, bme successfully diverted. Mischief Ma...wait wrong script.

  After the Probes had gotten the same basic setup for an Outpost going underground, Raynor, Wick and I started looking at the Charter Hills area on the maps. I had already seen an interesting abandoned building by the highway, when I first rolled into the city, it was a 5 story office building. Not ideal for our purposes, it was both too rge and too close to the highway. Though the presence of such a building being abandoned meant there might be more.

  "Oh look here," I pointed to a spot on the map. There was an abandoned auto shop, with nothing too busy next to it either. That would be a good option.

  "Bad sight lines." Wick stated. He gestured at a CHOOH2 station that had gone under recently, he pointed at the fuel storage towers. "Better." The area around it was clear for a hundred yards in any direction. He was right, the station would be an excellent pce to setup defenses. Though that begged the question what was CHOOH2?

  I did a quick search on CHOOH2 and followed some threads, gathering an array of information on it's production. Which gave me a very wicked idea. At the end of the day, CHOOH 2 was just a burnable grain alcohol or an ethanol. I think the formu for ethanol was CH3CH2OH or something like that. Sure that probably wasn't all that CHOOH2 was, but not only could we produce a viable ethanol fuel in the Forges' assemblers we could refine it into a superior version. Hell, we could just copy the existing formu and start modifying it from there.

  Slinging their own overpriced fuel back to them to help pay for our efforts to bring down the Corpos. I liked the sound of that. I could build some top tier bots to run it, and we could convert the whole pce to be a fortress. But the longer I thought about it, the more I was sure that would be the fast track to an armed confrontation with the Corps. Petrochem was one of the Big Guys and they had a near monopoly on CHOOH2, sure they licensed the wheat they used to make it from Biotechnica, but that just meant I'd piss them both off with my idea. Yeah, maybe we'd hold off on that for now.

  Still, the station was a good property to grab and it was selling for retively cheap. I went ahead and bought it. What was a few hundred grand invested in the face of what we stood to gain. Our lumber trade was making big bucks right now.

  I nodded at them, "Alright no problem buying that one. Already went through. A drone will be by in fifteen minutes with the key fobs." Hmm. Let's see, what else? I wanted to see the inside of Megabuilding 4 while we were nearby. No that wasn't it...

  I snapped my fingers, "Right." I rang up Misty.

  "Ryan! Been awhile. We've missed you. You doing alright?" She seemed to be in a good mood. It was good to hear her voice.

  "Sure, Misty... things are, um, preem. Just wanted to see if Vik had some time ter to look over a couple of fels I'm working with. Get them chipped." Seemed a good time to get Raynor and Mr. Wick fitted for some chrome.

  "Let's see... Vik has an opening in a couple of hours, that good for you?"

  "Yup, that'd be perfect."

  "Alright, I've got you scheduled. See you soon."

  "That's great. Thanks Misty. You're the best."

  "Misty, huh?" Raynor gave me a suspicious look.

  I rolled my eyes at him. "Don't go there, Misty's great and Sally and Megan already know all about us being friends." Which was true, but I also knew that both dies would love to have some time to "talk" to Misty. Oh well, I'm pretty sure Misty had mention having a guy she had just started to see. What was his name... Jack or something like that?

  I changed my mind about checking out Megabuilding 4 shifting my target to Megabuilding 10 since it was on the way to see Vik. The fels had left their armor down in the Outpost under the protection of the Probes, Sentries and a few War Pylons. They all kept their rifles on them though. Going anywhere unarmed in Night City was a fool's errand. They were wearing the recreation of the casual garb of New Lordaeron, based loosely off of blue jeans and t shirts, so they wouldn't appear too out of pce.

  Megabuilding 10 was a hustling bustling edifice to the Dystopia Gods. Built to withstand nuclear strikes and to be a completely self contained environment and was to my untrained eyes a gravity defying monstrosity. No, seriously how does all that work. You would think it would crumble under its own weight. Layer after yer, floor after floor, of concrete and steel. With barely a spsh of paint to breakup the monotony, most of the color was from Gangs tagging their turf with graffiti. Compounded with the endless drone of advertisements bring at you 24/7 from every direction, driving you slowly but inevitably mad.

  And the people. They almost all looked broken and worn down. Completely absorbed into an endless nightmare of corporate greed, or they looked jittery, nervous and ready to pull iron at the drop of a hat. Some, a very small few, were either more put together, ready to hit a Corpo job, or basically homeless using the quieter corners to squat until someone drove them off. A true spread of the standard Night City citizenry. It took no time at all for all of my people to become disenchanted with the technology of the era, after seeing the conditions forced on the everyday folks. I heard them talking about how the madness of Goblins and Gnomes had surely cursed this nd. Something about never leaving things well enough alone.

  Huh? Now there's a thought. I had an idea of little greedy green guys and more human looking quixotic little folk running around with crazy contraptions getting into all manner of trouble. It made me chuckle. Which I needed after facing the bleak realities of life in this pce.

  We left the building after looking through a few more stores and stalls. Junk. Most of the goods on offer were just junk. Who needs any of this? None of us wanted to explore further up in the building, too bummed out by what we'd seen so far.

  On the way over to Vik's, a few wannabes gangers tried to start a fight, perhaps thinking we were some new rivals for their territory. Ten low level street toughs looking to make a name for themselves. Maybe looking to join a bigger gang after they had run the streets awhile. Who could say. Not that it mattered anymore.

  Mr. Wick put rounds into each of their skulls before the rest of us had an idea what he was going to do. That fast. Faster than it took to say, "That's not a good idea, fels." Which is what I was going to say. You know, before somebody decorated the street with their brains.

  We all looked at him. That bnk stare when you can't believe what you'd just seen.

  "Sorry, reflex." He shrugged dismissively, like it wasn't the most badass thing we'd ever seen. Fucking terrifying.

  I sighed. "We'd better get a move on before NCPD rolls by. Don't want to deal with them if we can help it." I shook my head as I picked up the pace.

  "Not that they'd actually give a damn." I whispered mostly to myself.