Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works; all other characters and worlds belong to their respective owners. I'm just playing with them.
Betad by Priapus, Beans
The Celestial Punk
Chapter 08: Base Expansion
– Hanako Arasaka –
People would be genuinely shocked to learn just how much crossed her desk, even her own allies. Yes, she was the leader of the Kiji faction within Arasaka but even most of her most fervent supporters followed her because they believed she was simply her father's mouthpiece. It had its benefits, as her word was as good as her father's, but being seen as a figurehead also came with its downsides. Still, being underestimated in this industry was far from a disadvantage, most of the time.
Even still, the sheer amount of information that passed through her desk would baffle both her rivals and allies alike. Perhaps even her father himself, as he was a very old man with old ideas about women and their place in the workplace.
Looking at the latest data packet, she frowned to herself and watched the video again. It was something their agents in Militech had acquired, after a Militech aligned Fixer had come running to his handler looking for a pat on the head or a treat. She was sure that this… Faraday had high opinions of himself and his talents, but Militech saw him as an unreliable asset with ambitions too grand for his talents. And yet, even an unreliable asset could prove useful to his masters, and unknowingly to their enemies.
The Saint of Heywood. She had heard of the rumours, but like most she'd assumed it was some talented, likely ex-corporation Ripperdoc or Medtech that was running around trying to clean their conscience with cheap or free medical care. Credit where it was due, Sebastian Ibarra had played the game well and truly muddied the waters. The only reason she'd heard of it at all is because her brother was doing something in Night City and as such, he'd drawn far more Arasaka attention that way than would have originally been given to the independent city. She'd told her father she would keep an eye on him to prevent Saburo from feeling the need to crack the whip, and as such she was more up-to-date on Night City operations than she would frankly prefer.
And yet, it was no mere Ripperdoc. Going over the information Faraday had supplied to Militech in his effort to get some corporate support for his upcoming plan to abduct Luis, she frowned. There was no official medical report, of course. The girl who he saved, Rosita, did not have medical insurance so there was no Biomonitor information to help explain what Luis and his strange technology had done to her. Of course, if she had had a Trauma Team subscription, she wouldn't have needed saving to begin with.
What they did have was the car that hit her, and the Counter-Intel agent she tasked with this job confirmed that the car showed enough damage, and the internal computer insisted it had been going at such high speeds that saving Rosita should have been nearly impossible for anything but the best medical technology available. Tucker Albach had a history of drunk driving and speeding, and this was far from his first collision. Kiroshi Optics had her car monitored for insurance purposes, and they knew better than to challenge Arasaka when she requested the information from the car.
She suspected they were too busy panicking that Tucker had run over someone important enough to Arasaka for Hanako herself to be making polite requests. She doubted Tucker would live to see the end of the week. She had made it clear she had no interest in receiving Albach herself, but Kiroshi was truly panicking at having her personal attention, because again… her attention was seen as Saburo Arasaka's attention. Her shadow was far larger than her, and infinitely more intimidating.
Faraday's idea that Luis had somehow gotten his hands on some prototype medical technology did not ring true to Hanako. It simply didn't add up to her. Which corporation would have such powerful medical technology and not be making a fuss over it going missing? Biotechnica? Trauma Team? No. If they'd lost something so powerful there would be far more waves in the corporate scene around Night City. After all, their first suspects would be other corporations and once that led nowhere, they would go to Fixers to have their technology tracked down. That Faraday, a Fixer who worked with corporations, had not realised this was a sign that Militech was right to believe him incompetent.
Which led her to a second, perhaps more unbelievable conclusion. Had Luis made it? Arasaka Counter-Intel was a powerful force, and Abernathy was desperate to prove that her recent purging hadn't weakened them. Luis was known, in certain circles, for his incredible skills as a 'Techie'. Admittedly, his reputation was mostly aimed at cars but 'Padre' wouldn't be taking such efforts to hide his grandson because of overtuned engines.
The corporate executive in her immediately dismissed it, before she got a hold of herself. Corporations did not have a monopoly on geniuses, much to their disappointment. If that had been the case, Bartmoss wouldn't have been able to demolish the old net. Sometimes, someone was born with talent that made his peers seem like monkeys with power tools. She couldn't dismiss the idea that this Luis Ibarra was a truly genius inventor, making wonders from scrap.
He had a note in his NCPD file that he had been given a verbal warning for trespassing in the Night City Municipal Landfill, with a note that he was suspected for scavenging but hadn't been carrying anything but a toolbox that he could prove was his. The answering officer likely didn't feel like making a fuss over literal trash or was at the end of his shift and simply didn't want to do more work. There were also records of him purchasing scrap and damaged technology from various junkyards. He was making an effort to not go to the same place too many times but… well, Arasaka was at the forefront of the intelligence industry. When properly motivated, Abernathy's department had proven themselves somewhat competent.
The fact that a disgraced, believed dead, Ex-Arasaka Counter-Intel agent had planted herself directly by Luis was equally curious. V's file, formerly closed and now wide open again, showed that Jackie Welles was on record as one of her assets. An asset she had been meeting with to plan a hit on Abernathy the night she'd 'died'. Luis Ibarra's close acquaintances included the Welles family. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together and work out how V had survived.
Abernathy had executed all the agents who had sworn that V had been eliminated, but Hanako had put a stop to the woman's raging before she could go after V herself. V's record showed that she was a highly ambitious corporate climber, incredibly talented to the point of intimidating her former boss, Jenkins, who tried to suppress her to keep her under his thumb.
V deciding to go into the merc business was unsurprising, given her skills and position. She was too ambitious and prideful to reduce herself to a normal job, and trying to join another corporation would both expose her survival and cause Arasaka to come after her much harder. Counter-Intel agents couldn't be allowed to move to rival corporations because they simply knew too much about Arasaka to permit them to take that information to their rivals.
But someone that ambitious would absolutely see the benefits of attaching themselves to a natural genius. If Luis had simply stolen the technology or somehow found it, V would have likely handed him to a corporation, perhaps Arasaka itself, to regain her power and wealth. If Luis was capable of far more, then Hanako could see V deciding to ride him to success.
So, until evidence presented itself that Luis was not this genius she was slowly believing him to be, she would work on that assumption. Ordinarily, she would simply send agents to recruit him and call it a day. She was sure the Streetkid would chafe and resist, but Arasaka got what Arasaka wanted and if he was half as smart as she thought, he'd likely end up running his own division of the R&D department before long. Or get consumed by a rival.
That was not her goal.
She needed to know just how far this healing went, because there was something far more important than Arasaka's bottom line on her mind.
Her father was dying. It wasn't anything as crude as illness, as he was simply too wealthy for that, but he was simply ancient. He was 157 years old, and barring a Full Body Conversion, something he was too prideful to do, he was getting to the limits of what Cyberware and Medtech could do to extend a… Well, she couldn't call it a natural lifespan. It was by no means an emergency, as he would likely last a few more years as it stood, but Arasaka's best was forced to admit that they had done as much as could be done for him. Everything they could do for him.
Despite her differences with her father, she did not wish to see him dead. Not even remotely. But, the executive in her also saw the disaster looming in the distance. Saburo's death could kill Arasaka entirely. Not immediately, but slowly, piece by piece. The factions would tear themselves apart, and while her brother remained the heir, she knew him well enough to know that he would not put his hatred for the corporation aside. If they made him the CEO, they would be giving control of Arasaka to the man who wanted to see it burn more than any other.
In her eyes, she could see the next Corporate War looming, triggered by Miltiech pushing a weakened Arasaka, or her own brother trying to become a martyr and take the entire corporation down with him. She loved Yorinobu, but she saw the bitterness and hatred in him, the same rebellious urge that had once caused him to become a Nomad.
She knew her father had plans of his own, though he shared them with nobody but the researchers he had working on them. Even she had been left in the dark, which was a truly worrying sign. It meant her father was desperate, and doing something he suspected she would oppose. Her loyalty to him was near-unshakable, so she could only fear what he believed would cause her to fight him after so many years.
She wouldn't bring this to his attention, because at the moment she had nothing but hearsay and rumour. Second hand information, primarily from an unreliable Militech asset. He would turn his nose up at her suggestion, even if she recruited Luis and brought him before her father.
Making a call, she frowned mildly at the line ringing several times before it was answered. The amount of people who would dare leave a call from her ringing for so long was a very short list, indeed. Even her father answered after two rings.
"This is a surprise, Aunt," Michiko replied, her entire body showing tension. She hid it well, but Hanako was trained far better. "What do you need?"
The idea that Hanako had called her niece for anything but to give her an order had clearly not crossed Michiko's mind. While Michiko led the Hato faction, there was no doubt that of the three main factions within Arasaka, Hato was by far the weakest and as always, her word was Saburo's word. Michiko wouldn't disobey a direct order.
"I have need of your particular skills, for something I don't trust Night City's Counter-Intel Branch for," Hanako replied smoothly. "I have someone I want investigated and tailed. Your Puma Squad will handle it."
"Danger Gal is shut down, by Grandfather's demand," Michiko pointed out, stiffening further as if Hanako was pointing a gun at her head. As part of Michiko becoming an Arasaka Board Member, and retaking the Arasaka name instead of her deceased husband's name of Sanderson, she had been forced to cut ties with her 'hobby'.
Hanako simply stared her down for a moment, raising one eyebrow until Michiko sighed. Danger Gals was officially shut down but only on paper. It was simply greatly downsized and most of its employees folded into Arasaka. Saburo knew she kept her Puma Squad and was still operating, of course, but the Emperor of Arasaka was not above permitting his children and grandchildren their hobbies. Michiko got away with more, as she was the only child of his favourite son. If Kei still lived, the world would be a far simpler place. She wouldn't be nearly as worried about her father's age if his preferred heir was ready to take over.
"Puma Squad doesn't do wetwork. You clearly already know that," Michiko warned, drawing a line in the sand as if an order from Saburo wouldn't wash it away.
"Then it is good that this is not wetwork. I merely need a more in-depth investigation into someone than I trust Susan Abernathy to be capable of providing. You have heard of the Saint of Heywood?" Hanako asked, amused to see genuine confusion on her niece's face.
"An urban legend, built around some Ripperdoc doing free work," Michiko shrugged.
"So we thought," Hanako agreed, transferring the files. "And yet, we were wrong. You'll understand why I don't trust Abernathy to handle this. She already failed once. I want to know the full capabilities of Luis Ibarra."
Waiting for a moment as Michiko went through the files, Hanako typed away. She could simply put pressure on V, but there was every chance that V realising her survival had been exposed could cause her to flee. Luis had a recent connection with the Bright Family of the Aldecaldos, and was very good with vehicles. If he fled, at her urging, tracking him down could be difficult. Especially in the Militech patrolled Badlands.
"What about this Militech Fixer?" Michiko pointed out.
"A Militech attack will be a good way to see what the target is capable of. The merc group he hired has orders to take him in alive. I will monitor if Militech gives him the support he is requesting. If so, they will likely eliminate the mercs and take Luis for themselves. Have Puma Squad ready to ambush the Militech abductors if that happens, and retrieve Luis for Arasaka," Hanako ordered plainly. Michiko frowned, because that was essentially abducting him from the abductors and was already pushing on her line in the sand but she didn't argue.
"Very well. My girls can handle that," Michiko agreed, calmer than she actually was. "Is there anything else, or can I get to work?"
"That will be all," Hanako replied calmly. "A pleasure speaking with you, Michiko."
Ending the call, Hanako permitted herself a small smile. Puma Squad was undyingly loyal to Michiko, and Michiko was disconnected enough from the rest of Arasaka that this would fly under the radar. She didn't need anyone overcomplicating this by getting involved, and it limited the chance of it leaking to another corporation. It would be mildly embarrassing if Militech agents stole the information she'd stolen from them in the first place.
It was possible that this would go nowhere, and that Luis was not the key to her current problem. She wouldn't be surprised, or even particularly disappointed, but she would be a fool not to see the opportunity for what it was.
And Hanako Arasaka was no fool.
– Jackie Welles –
"I thought you said this place was a dump?" Misty asked, looking at the crew's new base with a confused expression. Imagine how he felt, because this wasn't the run-down factory he'd left!
Sure, he'd been a little busy with the domestic bliss of living with Misty, picking out furniture and shit (and christening every single piece), but what the fuck had he missed?
"It was!" Jackie assured her, looking around. The trash was gone, the old machinery was nowhere to be seen and even the buildings had been repainted in a nice, clean white with a black and gold trim. Had to be V's idea, Luis would paint it all grey and call it done. The guy was allergic to colour. "There was trash everywhere, and the buildings looked way worse."
"And you left all the clean-up to V and Luis?" Misty asked, placing her hands on her hips as he suddenly felt like he was in front of Mama after getting into a fight.
"Luis told me to! He literally said 'Oi, Jaquito, can you fuck off for a bit. You're getting in the way'," Jackie defended. "He's got some fucking robo- oh, sorry, droids that were doing all the heavy lifting and what the fuck do I know about wiring or plumbing?"
Looking around, he spotted several newly installed cameras and a pair of turrets by the front gate. Looked weird, not like any turrets he'd seen, but he trusted that Luis knew what he was doing and they didn't even perk up as Jackie led Misty into the base.
"Come on. If I know Luis, he's in his workshop," Jackie said, putting an arm around her shoulder. "Oh look, that's the droid. Could have sworn he had less last time I was here."
Pointing out the copper-coloured lil guys, Misty giggled at the sight of four of them moving into the main building. For things that didn't talk, they sure seemed to argue a lot. Couldn't deny that the little guys knew what they were doing though.
Entering the workshop, he let out a low whistle at the sight of it. Before, it had just been some corpo garage but it looked like Luis had stripped the entire place empty and set up all kinds of new shit that he… absolutely didn't know what any of it did. He vaguely recognised the car stuff from having been in Raul's garage so many times, but the rest was weird techie shit that was laughably beyond him.
He understood hammers and screwdrivers. Anything more advanced and he was fucked. Hell, he'd just shown that with his attempts to build Misty's new cabinet. He'd followed the instructions and still had three pieces left over, when he very much wasn't supposed to. Had to take the whole thing apart and put it back together again. Still wasn't convinced it wasn't going to fall apart if he bumped into it, but he had his pride as a man and he wasn't gonna call Luis to help him set up simple DIY furniture.
Unless it did fall apart, in which case he absolutely would. Maybe borrow a couple of the lil droids to help out.
All these tools and fun little gadgets and yet no Luis to be seen. Wasn't that odd? Normally it was a fight to get Luis to put down his toolbox and do something else, but now that he had a place to go wild he hadn't glued himself to the place?
"Hey, Jackie!" Luis called, getting him to look up to the catwalk as Luis appeared from around the corner, where the little room he'd called dibs on was. Before Jackie could respond, V followed and Jackie paused as he noticed the lipstick stains on Luis' neck and the ruffled clothes.
Ha! Lil Luis had some game. First the Nomad baddie and now V?
"You've been busy," Jackie said, wiggling his eyebrows subtly as he looked around the workshop. Even the walls had changed. They hadn't just been repainted but it looked like Luis had put metal plates over the old concrete. V had definitely picked the colours, because they were black with a sleek gold trim. Luis wouldn't have put so much attention onto how the place looked when there was other work to do.
Luis, picking up his innuendo, rolled his eyes as the pair made their way down the staircase. Luis didn't look too annoyed, so they probably hadn't interrupted too much.
"Lots of work to do," Luis shrugged, as V looked insufferably smug. Maybe Corps taught their agents how to pull off that specific look? "We've got water and electricity now. Plumbing is still a work in progress, but the droids are on it. Heating too, the insulation here is shit."
"You really do work fast," Misty praised.
"Ha. I've barely done shit beyond lay out the plans. My three dozen pairs of hands did the actual work while I was tinkering," Luis admitted shamelessly. "Once I made two Pit Droids, I had them start making more and went full hands off."
"Hey, work smart, not hard, right?" Jackie shrugged.
"For sure. Anyway, do you want your presents or the tour first?" Luis asked with a grin, leaning against the wall as Jackie paused.
"Gotta be the presents, right?" Jackie asked, getting a laugh from Luis as he pushed off the wall and gestured for them to follow him. "So, you already got your presents, V? I know Luis well enough to know he gave the sexy chica the good stuff before he remembered I exist."
"You have no idea," V laughed, grinning as Luis opened up one of the storage units and started pulling things out. Laying it out, Jackie looked over the black and gold armour with a raised eyebrow. It looked damn good.
"So, since you've decided you're our frontliner, this is your armour," Luis explained. "Put it on. Lose the jacket, but wearing your jeans and t-shirt under it is fine."
Playing along, he only needed a little help to get into it and he had to admit it felt good. Was it cushioned or some shit? It was way lighter than the thick armour felt like it should have been.
"How'd you get my size?" Jackie asked, getting a snort from Luis.
"I asked Misty," Luis admitted with a shrug. "Anyway, this baby is made to last under heavy fire. Try not to get shot by armour piercing rounds, but small-arms and regular weapons aren't going to do shit to it. If you do, there's an inbuilt Bacta dispenser to fix up your wounds. Basically healing paste. It has an in-built Omnitool that can handle basic hacks and shit, and connects to V's armour so she can work through you since she's our sniper and isn't usually going to be in the fray. If you need to jack in, V can handle the hacking shit for you. The entire armour has hydraul- look just, think of it like Gorilla arms that you don't have to cut your arms off for. You'll run faster, jump higher and hit harder. The helmet's visor has a few different modes, tracks people V has marked and objectives. It also has an aim-assist mode because you spray and pray too much."
"And God must be listening because it always works out," Jackie boasted, getting a snort.
"Yeah, but I wanted to make sure you had something more reliable before giving you this," Luis said, lifting something heavy from the storage box with some clear strain as he pulled out a fucking cannon and placed it on the workbench. It looked like a minigun, but not like any he'd ever seen and far thicker. It was also black and gold, since V had apparently picked a theme for them. "Meet the Corellian Bunker Buster. Come on, I set up a shooting range because I knew you'd want to fire this immediately."
Needing no further invitation, he rushed forward and lifted up the massive weapon with a grin on his face. His helmet lit up, connecting to the gun to tell him how close it was to overheating as he raised an eyebrow.
The shooting range was just a short distance away, some targets of various sizes set up against the cliff base.
"Go on, pull the trigger," Luis said easily, and Jackie did so instantly, feeling the barrels begin to spin before it spat pure golden death at the targets. The one he'd been aiming at, a rock that had a bullseye pointed on it, fucking disappeared as a hundred bolts of golden light struck it and reduced it to rubble.
"Holy shit," Jackie said, his voice modulated by the helmet. Before anyone could respond, he aimed at the second target, a derelict car that Luis had already stripped all the pieces out of. It was still a big hunk of metal, mostly intact. In fact, his helmet had already scanned its composition and informed him that it was pretty heavily armoured. Probably a Wraith car that V had acquired. It looked fine… right up until Jackie pulled the trigger and watched as massive holes ripped through the thick metal plates, the edges of each hole glowing from the heat.
"I also made you a Corellian Blaster Rifle, for when you just need to hit one thing instead of the target, along with anything behind, beside or in front of them. The Bunker Buster is a Borg and heavy armour killer, not really made for smaller engagements," Luis explained. "But it has a mount on the back of your armour, so you don't have to lug it around and won't be caught without it if things get dire enough to need it."
"What's Corellian mean?" Misty asked, and Luis paused.
"I genuinely don't know," Luis admitted before shrugging. "But right now it just means 'real good fucking blasters'. The point is, with these two we shouldn't ever run into something too borged out or armoured for us to damage, unless we pick a fight with Adam Smasher."
"Fucking Preem," Jackie admitted, stroking the barrel for a moment. "How the fuck did you make this stuff?"
His question got a laugh from V, surprising him.
"Jackie, you have no idea what our Wonderboy made while you were playing hide the sausage with Misty. You wanna show them your masterpiece?" V asked in amusement.
"Eh. Jackie won't get it," Luis admitted, getting an 'oi' from him. "Fine, fine. Come on," Luis said, waving them to follow him.
"Why are your droids digging into the cliff over there?" Misty asked, spotting what he missed (because he was looking at a big fucking gun).
"Because we actually own quite a lot of the land around the base, and I wanna make the most of it. They're working on making an underground garage for our rides, and so I've got a place to put any new rides I make. Got ideas, but right now I'd have to leave them out in the open. Don't feel like inviting the Wraiths to try it," Luis explained. "It's gonna take them a while, but they're going to expand the road to the opening and dig out a nice, reinforced and securable underground garage area for us."
"Sweet. I didn't wanna leave my bike out here," Jackie agreed. He'd come in a borrowed car, because Misty didn't like riding on the back of his bike. In her defence, his record wasn't the best and he wasn't gonna risk his girl like that anyway. Maybe it was time he got a proper car? Something to save up for, or have Luis repurpose one of the ones they scavenged?
Shit, he was already going domestic.
He'd moved in with her a week ago and he was already thinking about getting a mini-van for the kids that were barely a twinkle in his eye. Hey, with this new armour and gear maybe he'd live long enough to have to think about shit like that. Fucking weird to think about.
Leading them to the main building, Jackie had to admit he was impressed as they entered the place. It used to be just one big open space but those metal walls had been put in place to section it off to a lobby area with secure doors on either side. Following behind, Luis led them through empty rooms and down a set of stairs. He remembered the basement looking like it was used for storage before, but now he could see it was sectioned off. Looking through one door, he gave an impressed look to the clear Netrunner space with one of those fancy chairs in the middle and what he thought were probably dataforts along the walls.
"Where'd you get the chair? Ain't they expensive?" Jackie asked, and V laughed.
"Used Luis' scanner to find a Scav group that had a Netrunner. Now, they don't and I have a new chair. Luis is gonna upgrade it, but it's low priority," V explained.
"You hit a scav den and didn't invite me?" Jackie pouted.
"I called you, it went to voicemail," V replied blandly. Huh, did he- oh yeah, he was err… testing the new bed with Misty and declined, then forgot to call back. "Trust me, it wasn't even a work out. You probably worked up more of a sweat than I did."
Oh yeah, she knew.
"Sorry…" Jackie laughed, rubbing the back of his neck as Misty giggled.
"Like V said, it wasn't even a work out. V'll show you the Dark Eye later. We were sitting in the Merrimac the entire time, the Scavs didn't even realise we were there until one of them stumbled on a body while going for a piss," Luis shrugged. "Come on, it's just through here."
Following him, they entered a big, mostly empty room which had some weird fucking tech taking up the back half of the room. It looked like a box, with one side open so you could walk into it.
"What is it?" Jackie asked, poking the frame.
"Stand back, and watch," Luis said, a smile on his face. He was proud of this one, and approaching the terminal he typed away for a moment before hitting enter and watching as the machine came to life with a hum and a glow of white light in the cube. The light flashed and little lasers moved around the box and Jackie's eyes widened as a form began to take shape inside it, an all too familiar one.
After a moment, the lights faded and left behind was a small, copper figure that hopped out of the machine, making those funny beeping noises as the Pit Droid looked to Luis.
"Go help the others with the garage expansion," Luis ordered easily, sending it along. "This is my fabricator. It's a complete energy hog, but I've made one hell of a generator for this place. It's still in its early phases, and can't fabricate the good stuff I want yet, but being able to turn any materials and energy into whatever we need has sped up production considerably. If I can think it, I can make a schematic and fabricate it. And I can think of a lot."
"...you couldn't have made this before I had to put all that furniture together the old fashioned way?" Jackie asked, puncturing Luis' pride as he paused before sighing. V just snorted, shaking her head at him. "What? If you can make anything I bet you could make some preem furniture. Just saying."
"Yes, Jackie. It can make furniture," Luis sighed fondly. "But it can also make armour, weapons, medpacks, grenades and just about everything else we'll ever need."
"Jackie, just so we're all on the same page here. There isn't a corp in the world that wouldn't kill everyone in Heywood to get their hands on this thing. The metal plates on the walls? Anti-scanning tech. This is our biggest secret, and if it ever gets out, fuck Arasaka and Militech, we'll have corps coming from the other side of the world to try and steal it," V explained seriously, getting Jackie's attention.
"Got it, chica. My lips are sealed," Jackie agreed. V knew the corps better, if she said it was that big a deal, he believed her.
V went to speak, before she got a call, distracting her.
"It's Padre, calling on the gig line," V explained before answering. He wasn't surprised Padre called V for this, since Luis was a bitch for letting his phone go to voice when he was working and Jackie… well, he knew he wasn't exactly in the running for crew leader. Worked fine with him.
"But yeah, I can make custom furniture if you want," Luis said, typing away as a hologram appeared in the middle of the room. "This is the schematic mode. I've already made a bed and some furniture for my room in the workshop building. Paint and wallpaper too, if you wanna decorate."
"You don't mind? It is still your house, we're just renting," Misty pointed out.
"Nah. It's needed doing for years, I just never cared enough to. Do what you want," Luis waved off as they began working. Luis said something about getting a full scan of the apartment so they could plan better as V came back to them.
"Another missing person gig. Padre sent the details. I'll use the scanner to see if I can locate them, and work out how much firepower we're going to need," V explained, getting a grin from Jackie. Maybe it was wrong, but god he was hoping the answer was 'they needed a fuckton of firepower' because his Bunker Buster was eager to go.
– Luis Ibarra –
100cp granted, 100cp total.
Feat Achieved: Become known as reliable mercs, 200cp granted. 300cp total.
As much as I'd like to take credit, V is the lynchpin of this. I make the tech, V is the one who works out how to best use it.
My little scanner? Yeah, I made that as a one-off and would have left it at that if it wasn't for V's idea. I've made a much stronger version now that we have a proper base, its range covering Night City entirely and a lot of the Badlands. Which led to V's idea of us taking the Missing Person scene by storm.
Night City has no shortage of missing people, with an estimated one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty people reported to the NCPD each day. If you took into account people who had a reason to avoid official reports, it was probably way higher. Now, most of those would never reach a Fixer but plenty did eventually because desperate families would always look for solutions.
With my new and improved scanner model, we can search for people instead of cars. It isn't perfect, but if we know what cyberware they have, their height and weight and other details, we can rapidly filter out everyone else and with V's Darkeye drones, she can send them out from her chair and check each report to try and find the person without ever leaving the base.
Padre had forty-eight active missing person cases when V messaged him. Normally he wouldn't entrust more than one gig to one crew, but nepotism is alive and well so he sent us the full files of each case. V located twenty two within the hour. Not always happy endings, often very much not.
But even if we don't actively take the gig to go and retrieve the ones in danger, being able to tell him 'the target is in this Tyger Claw brothel' or 'they are in this Scav den' means he can send out other crews to go and do the dirty work. A lot of them are just 'here's where the body is, no danger involved' and Padre can send out one of his guys to go and collect them.
And Fixers talk. Soon, El Capitán, Regina Jones and the Lady of Westbrook contacted V with Missing Person cases of their own. Dakota has less, because people who go missing in the Badlands don't tend to ever reappear, and it is too large for us to do the same trick at the moment. Still, she's had some for Nomads who went into the city for biz and never came back out. We don't actually retrieve the missing person for most of them, just sell the information on their location and circumstances back to the Fixer for them to make a gig with a much higher chance of succeeding. Mercs are far happier to accept jobs of 'go here, shoot the bad guys and grab the target' than they are to take jobs of 'this person went missing here, find them'.
The skillsets needed for each are wildly different. For every crew capable of that kind of detective work, there's fifty who are more suited for kicking down a door and shooting some scavs in the face.
At the same time, V has made a side-gig on selling intel. The Darkeye Probe really is the ultimate scout, and the scanners on it can map out an entire building, along with traps, security systems, occupants and more. So, she came up with the idea of approaching Fixers and offering to scout out locations for their jobs for them. Again, it'd be a hard sell to most but Padre is Padre and both trusts that we know what we're doing and is willing to take a chance.
I think he likes the idea of me spending my time scouting rather than being balls deep in a shoot out.
She gets the data, sells it to the Fixer, and they then use that data for whatever gig they are arranging. The mercs get a much better understanding of the job they are taking, which means two things. The Fixer is more likely to send the right crew to the right gig and… they can pay the mercs less because they're getting so much information on the gig. No need to overpay for a job if V has confirmed the hostile forces are three junkies armed with Budget Arms popguns and whatever they found on the floor that passes for a melee weapon. At the same time, they're not accidentally going to send a new crew to face a borged-out Maelstrom borderline cyberpsycho with Gorilla Arms and a Sandevistan.
Everybody wins, and the Fixers we work with get a rep for always having the best information on the gigs they're arranging, which only makes them more influential. If you've got the choice between working with a Fixer who's gonna give you a vague target and a pat on the back for luck or the Fixer who gives you the target, the number of gangoons waiting for you, the layout of the gig area along with the location of any cameras, turrets or mines, it's not a hard choice.
[Aesthetics and Flair] - 100cp, 200cp remaining
Source: Bayonetta
A gun isn't quite a gun until it LOOKS good, you know? It's supposed to be classy, make you look amazing just for having it. Likewise, that sword could use a bit of badass styling to it. When you create your weapons, you can make them look DAMNED good even on an off day. Expect any weapon creator to envy you, and those who die by your weapons to count themselves lucky as they perish to such beautiful art.
Weird but I won't complain. V has been going on about how important style is for a merc crew. Sounds too corpo advertising for me but she knows these things and being even better at making shit look good is never gonna be a bad thing.
[Barriers and Shields] - Free, 200cp remaining
Source: Lyrical Nanoha
But you can't just keep slinging offensive spells left and right all day without any kind of defense, right? You can create barriers and shields to reinforce your own defenses, letting you block spells and attacks so long as you utilize them properly. This can be especially draining or fragile against powerful Bombardment spells or worse, though...you might want to consider dodging instead.
"Hey, Jackie. Your turn," I say, poking him in the face as he blinks before a flash of light from my hand makes him gasp. "If anyone asks, it's a feature of your armour, yeah?"
Jackie holds out a hand, a golden force field appearing in front of him before he grins.
"Oh yeah," Jackie agrees. Our frontliner is going to be our defence specialist. We don't need cover, we'll bring our own thanks.
…I can probably make a tech version of that. Don't think it'd be as strong but some kind of shield projection doesn't sound that hard.
[Tool King] - 100cp, 100cp remaining
Source: Fallout
Starting with a cartload of random junk and ending with high-quality ammunition or power cells, cutting-edge improvements to power armor, overcharged laser weaponry or even entirely new kinds of science is practically trivial for the average Fallout protagonist yet their talents pale compared to yours. This Perk grants you immediate access to pretty much any kind of crafting shown in the Fallout series: from Hand Loader to Science! and Chemist to Robotics Expert, if it somehow involves building things out of other things(from guns to ammo to even entire buildings) , you've got it - including perfectly memorized designs for the kind of components and tools you might need, like the Robotics Workbench or Nuka-Cola Mixer station. In fact, you're good enough that you'll never make mistakes while doing this type of crafting (assuming someone doesn't start shooting at you or some such), and you'll be perfectly aware of where you were in the process if you do find yourself interrupted and have to continue later on.
Especially if my power keeps giving me shit like this. Bacta is a bitch to fabricate but I could make Stimpacks much easier. I don't normally need them because I have my own healing but ensuring everyone has a way to heal people is only going to help us going forward.
[Pure of Heart] - Free, 100cp remaining
Source: Disney Princess Supplement
You are able to Toggle and project an aura of good and light that will cause those who touch it to feel a hope and love as wide as your power. This can also be set so that any type of scan done on you to determine any crimes, taboos or immoral acts including dark magic come up negative.
Ugh, the Saint is meant to be a stupid nickname not- whatever.
[Constructor Drone and AI Kernel] - 100cp, 0cp remaining
Source: Warhammer 40k: T'au Empire
This drone is an automated constructor unit, capable of building simple machines and buildings on its own and more complicated structures and technologies under your direct supervision, so long as it has materials to work with. Its tools can be easily customized or replaced with new or different technologies. Moreover, its software includes a kernel that can be used to grow specialized AI and VI systems optimized for various computational substrates and tasks that are always loyal to you.
But this? This I can work with.
"New tricks?" V asks, returning as she spots the new drone and Jackie playing with barriers.
"Yup. Barriers for Jackie, more tech for me. This is a constructor drone, and it can handle all the work we have planned for the base without me being involved," I explain, typing away. "What's the gig looking like?"
"It's another Wraith situation. Couple got hit while travelling out of the city. Still alive, so possibly ransom. That or they're being used as camp slaves, fucking Wraiths," V reports. "Jackie, wanna turn some Wraiths to a fine red mist?"
"Hell yeah, Chica. Luis, you got your own armour?" Jackie asks.
"I do. It's less heavy than yours, but still pretty damn protective. More than V's, but hers is a stealth suit first. What about you, Misty? What do you wanna do? You can borrow my ride if you wanna get home, or you can crash here. We've set up a lounge in the main building but it's still pretty barebones," I offer.
"I'm fine with waiting here. It's safe as long as I don't leave the base, right?" Misty asks.
"Yeah. Scanners, alarms, cameras and turrets mean nothing is getting in here easily. There's also an emergency safe room one level down. Basically a reinforced bunker," I admit. "Hey, Jackie. You remember the room that had that weird tunnel that went outside, right? Show Misty the way there. The terminal is incredibly simple, basically a big red button you press if we're under attack."
Better to have it and not need it, and all that. It actually has some of my stealth tech that hides the room by replacing the vault-like door with a hardlight hologram of a stone wall. Even if Wraiths attack while we're gone, they won't find her before we can come back and rain death on them.
"No worries. Come on, babe," Jackie agrees, getting the hint. As they leave, V turns back to me with a raised eyebrow.
"What is it?" V asks simply.
"My Constructor Drone has an AI Kernel. It can make multiple completely loyal AI for various tasks. Tell me it isn't a good idea to make a Base AI," I say simply.
"...can your Stealth tech hide it from Netrunners?" V asks, frowning in thought as I pause.
"I can make it look like an advanced VI Agent. Disguise is a part of stealth," I agree.
"Then we do it. Look, with the amount of shit we already have here, adding an AI is going to do nothing. We're fucked if the corps find out what we have before we're ready either way," V admits. "You have ideas, don't you?"
"The Voodoo Boys have their own net. The Drone could make an AI and the dataforts for us to build our own, right under our base. A cyberspace that is all ours," I say, seeing the avarice in her eyes. "And an AI would be much safer exploring past the Blackwall. All those lost bank details, technology and more that's out there. The tech base I got this from is laughably more advanced than Bartmoss's demons."
"We could plunder the old Net for all its worth," V realises, biting her lip. The Blackwall is just about the one thing nobody wants to fuck with, but that doesn't mean nobody does. I've already taken a look at it, and it's nowhere near as secure as Netwatch likes to claim. "Fuck it. Do it."
"You heard her," I say simply, the constructor drone humming in agreement. "Expand further down. Use the Pit Droids and Fabricator. Cloak the entire subsection of the base from scans, then start making a datafortress down there. We'll need a new energy plant as well. Oh, and make a genuine shooting range. We're going to need it."
It spins around, humming again as it gets to work. I can already tell it's begun making the AI. Two, one to handle the base and another to explore the Old Net. The Tau are incredibly advanced, maybe the most advanced techbase I've come across yet.
"And done. Now, let's go shoot some Wraiths," I say with a grin. "Then we can pick up where we were interrupted."
"Sounds like a plan to me," V agrees, kissing me roughly as we go to find Jackie.
It's harder than expected, because a certain chromebrain pressed the big red button and can't work out how to disable the lockdown.
— Bonus Scene — Kiwi
This was a disaster waiting to happen.
"It's doable," Maine insisted.
"At the risk of crossing one of the strongest Fixers in the city, with heavy Valentino connections," Dorio pointed out with a frown.
"I wouldn't suggest we take any jobs from Padre, but Luis became an Edgerunner. He knows how the world works," Maine argued back. "Look, we fucked up the Maxim job. The data we got from the car was worthless since we stole the car and alerted Arasaka to the fact that the data was compromised. Faraday was pissed enough at us, and it fucked up the other jobs he had for us. We're lucky he's willing to give us another job, and getting blacklisted would fuck us over. We've had too many issues. We outnumber this other merc group, and they're usually in the Badlands where reinforcements are unlikely. It's a simple smash and grab. We need the money, and we need a win."
Because Rebecca was a loose cannon, only made more so by her brother's death.
"Come on, guys. All of us, against three new mercs?" David said, as if he wasn't even more green than their targets. David was rapidly becoming Maine 2.0 and that wasn't a compliment.
"If we're doing this, Lucy needs to upgrade her Cyberdeck," Kiwi cut in, surprising Lucy. "You aren't a field runner, and this… V is. If you take on an ex-Arasaka Counter-Intel Netrunner with your current gear, she'll fry you in seconds. She's definitely the most dangerous of the crew, and I'm not sure I can take her on 1v1. The Badlands isn't a great place for Netrunners, and if they've got a base out there, they've almost certainly already begun reinforcing it."
"Won't matter if I get in close and zero her," David boasted. He was assuming she'd be in the field, not deep diving in a chair. More likely, she compromised his cyberware and killed him before he made it half way.
"I'm going to get some speedware of my own. Faraday found a source that managed to get their hands on a used Sandevistan. It's not as good as the one I wanted, but it'll do. If we're taking on a Fixer's grandkid, we should assume he's got the best of the best. Probably where he got the proto-tech we're after to begin with," Maine said.
Faraday found a Sandevistan for him? That was… entirely too generous for a Fixer like Faraday. Especially since Maine didn't have that much money. Looking around, she realised that nobody else was seeing the neon-red flags all over this gig.
Every instinct she had was screaming at her, but she saw no allies for the 'do the smart thing and refuse' plan. Lucy would do what David did, David and Dorio would do what Maine wanted, Rebecca barely said anything because she was still dealing with Pilar's death.
The meeting continued a little longer, for what good it was. Maine had made up his mind and was dragging the rest of them into a death sentence in his pursuit of glory and wealth. After it ended, she went out for a smoke, considering her options.
Her first thought was 'tell Padre and jump off this sinking ship'. Getting attached was how you ended up dead in this biz, and just because her friend- team had decided to jump off a bridge didn't mean she was dumb enough to follow them. Faraday would be watching for that, however.
Considering her options, she sighed to herself and made a call.
"El Capitán, speaking. What can the captain do for you today?"
Faraday would be watching that they didn't contact Padre, so she wasn't going to. Wasn't her first time changing merc groups. She doubted it'd be her last.