An Engineer in Night City - ch 8.4 (Patreon)

New Outposts (4)

The newly signed agreement with Biotechnica sits on Mark’s desk, detailing the results of the joint venture. As a concession to keep quiet about the issues with Biotechnica finances, the megacorporation gave access to several projects to Wube Inc., allowing them to ‘cooperate’ with research. Other concessions include the difficult-to-obtain licensing of exclusive plants meant for consumption or as raw materials for other industries and the licensing of animal DNA for cloning and revitalization.

Content with his accomplishments, Mark relaxes on the couch of his new office and decides to work on the BN2 Complex from the comfort of his sofa. He opens up the map view to watch the various robots flying on the base and checks the various indicators of his factory.

Iron and Copper are cruising steadily, the same for crude oil at the moment. His core fragments are being processed and the items are put into a large storage for any sudden emergencies. Looking at the production of RGB chips he decides to place another green chip factory to future-proof his future endeavors.

Next, he starts building new factories for his Science production. He already unlocked the cloning chamber, and would personally deliver it to start the process later, but for now, he pasted the design on the allocated area and watched the various robots flying to make his design a reality.

In another area, his production of speed, efficiency, production, and quality modules reached the expected number, with the construction bots slowly assigning them to the factories. The quality module gives the chance for the Assembles(tm) to spit out better items within a certain chance.

To Mark’s surprise, he could change the names of the quality tiers without programming a new Module for the Factorio System, and he chose to rename them on the basic Sigma Levels, signifying the standard deviation of a product, with the implied idea that a higher Sigma has a better quality standard. The items are already made with exact standards and are all functional, but as the rarity or the Sigma Levels increase, the product comes closer to a theoretical ideal.

“It’s like watching a gacha machine.”

There is a separate area where the quality-moduled Assemblers(tm) and smelters build the higher-quality items, starting with the plates and working their way through the intermediary products until the final product, with the logistic bots working overtime to move each item towards their respective tiered destination. Only a few finished products reached the highest available Sigma level.

“It will take a while to build everything I need, but I have some time for now.”

With access to the uranium mine, Mark quickly extracted a few items to unlock the creation of his centrifuges. Unfortunately for Mark, the Kovarex Enrichment process is keyed behind a different technology. However, he was lucky when he mined a small quantity of uranium and found a large ore with U-235, giving him an early uranium fuel cell. Using a local Geiger Counter device he found that the radioactivity of the fuel cell was no different from the background levels. The following radioactive materials were still processed in a sealed chamber, a difference of the System being real instead of a game abstraction.

Mark built a small fission reactor that will power his power armor for centuries using a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), the newly added step between solar panels and batteries, and the endgame Legally Distinct Mr. Fusion(tm) portable fusion reactor.

The map moves to show the BN2 Complex in a different area with small farm animals crazing inside the climate-controlled buildings, and Mark expands the farms and automated ranches for higher production, now that he has full access to the biological science. The agricultural production will take a large area to expand, roughly half of the southern area of the BN2 Complex.

“I need to hire more truck drivers.”

Mark checks the total production of his farms that eventually produce the civilian-grade "daily meal package" an Item composed of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, and frozen meat, the Engineer realizes that each Item provides the daily calories necessary for a person.

At the current rate, the factory produces enough food to sustain a little over 85.000 people per day with its current setup. Once that segment of the factory expands to its final form, it will increase production by over ten times, which will be further enhanced once the productivity modules and beacons are included.

Mark estimates that he can reach a daily production of over a million people served using a fraction of the space that Biotechnica claims a "Classic farm model" takes.

“It’s nowhere near enough to supply the complete needs of Night City, but it should ease a bit on my worker's burden, and fetch a good penny on the retail market.”

Comparing the size of the planned farm expansion, its production, and accessory segments for the factory such as power generation, defenses, and product distribution, he will need two-and-a-half factories the size of BN2 Complex to meet the needs of Night City by himself all year round. With refrigeration, the factory can even export that surplus. With a more specialized setup, those numbers can grow even larger.

“Once everyone is finally eating real food instead of dehydrated nutrient paste or the equivalent of emergency MREs, maybe people will stop being so desperate and act like total assholes as a way of life. It's hard for an average person to act like a normal human being when the Maslow Pyramid foundation is looser than sand.” Mark knows this is  a distant dream, and it hinges on him deciding to grow roots and commit himself to the world, but for now, he chooses to follow Wube Inc’s motto of “the factory must grow.”

Mark makes sure that the blueprints are correct, and he pastes another extension.

The robots start to build the factory for him to produce the new Biological Science Packs. 

He had already exhausted everything that was within his reach by unlocking certain tasks, but now he will properly jump into that tech tree. The first branch of the tree to unlock is Advanced Agriculture Technology, which will help him grow and manage more Perishable Items, some of them required for Science Packs.

The second technology on schedule is the Advanced Biotech Enhancements, which grants access to Bioware and other modifications. With this, he can increase his health, strength, speed, and even intelligence, which will also tie up to the science Research Speed. The Advanced Biotecch also helps with the development, acclimation, and compatibility with chrome, acting as a biological method to expand the user's chrome capacity.

“Both Maine and Rebecca will love those.”

Combining Advanced Biotech and future Electromagnetic Science, the Factorio system will be capable of producing all types of chrome to equip the Wube Inc.-derived equipment. With higher quality power armor, or with the creation of a new power armor System Module to build new models of power armor, the workers and guards of Wube Inc. will become a power to be reckoned with.

Mark remembers when Rebecca came after him to undergo the surgeries to create the Raiden build, and the Engineer vowed that he wouldn’t let Rebecca sink into cyberpsychosis under his watch. Thanks to his contacts with Rogue, Mark gained access to cutting-edge Sandevistan with a similar model to the one in the Edgerunner anime. As he suspected, the Sandevistan model was an upgraded and jailbroken earlier generation Apogee, since it could turn on and off in batches instead of working until it shut down once reaching the limit.

While the Operational System is powerful, other Chrome will help Rebecca more than the expensive model, so he focused on their creation for now. Like Maine, she now wears medical grade prosthesis when not working, which lessens the burden on her mind and body.

Mark pulls out the results of the group training using his simulator and smiles seeing the results meeting his expectations. 

Each full use of the simulator counts as 300 hours of accelerated training, they completed the Navy SEALs program in two weeks and then they switched to the Adam Smasher Preparatory Course, where the scenario either replaces them with the Arasaka's butcher, or they need to fight against a simulated Smasher. They graduate from the Preparatory Course when they manage to take down the V2020 Smasher at least once, with Maine managing to defeat him at only eleven retries, and he ties with Rebecca for the fastest kill at 1:19 minutes.

“Faraday should be asking them to perform a job soon, they can only stay attached so long to a single client before becoming official retainers.” Unfortunately, if Maine's Crew becomes official retainers to Mark, it will become harder to sweep their actions under the rug due to the association with Wube Inc., and they're not ready yet.

“Eh, it will be fine for now.”

Mark is finally satisfied after double-checking all buildings and factories on the BN2 Complex, and he is ready to work on different issues for now.

…

A new product created to build Science Packs is the Biogel, which has powerful uses for Netrunners and with tasks related to the Net. Wube Inc. will start selling the Biogel to larger corporations soon, but in light of their good relationship with Arasaka, they are offering the product to them first at lower prices than the competition.

David nervously pulls at his collar while he waits for the directors to call him, and after a long wait, he enters the meeting room.

Everyone looks at the young man from their seats, watching the movements of David with complete focus.

He walks towards the front of the table where the speaker makes the presentation, and gives everyone a bow.

“My name is David Martinez, representative of Wube Inc. and its interests in Arasaka NC. We will present a new product that will soon hit the market for your company to plan accordingly. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.”

No one reacts but the young man proceeds with the presentation regardless.

David masks his anxiety well, but he can barely understand what the Biogell does. Despite studying under Mark, most of the science and applications of the product go over his head. He managed to memorize the talking points that Mark wanted him to pass on to the director board, but he hoped that no one would ask him pertinent questions on the technical aspects of the product.

Once he finishes the presentation, he turns back to the board of directors and bows as he was taught in the Academy and after he was coached by Yorinobu. 

A pair of hands starts clapping, and the rest of the board follows suit.

David feels relieved that the presentation didn’t end in disaster, and when he raises his head he sees Yorinobu looking straight at him. David forcefully ignores the memory of his boss's friend wanting to date his mother. Eventually, he takes his usual seat next to Yorinobu.

“You did well,” Yorinobu whispers, “don’t worry about them, they were trained to not react under any circumstances.”

David wisely didn’t answer, only acknowledging the comment with a nod.

A few hours later, the board of directors decided to make an order for research purposes, though the Arasaka asked for two batches of the Biogell.

David's eyebrows rise. “Adam Smasher asked for a batch?”

“You don’t want to sell to me, soft meat?”

David doesn't jump in fright at the large fullborg sneaking up on him and wisely doesn’t comment on Adam Smasher's choice of words. “We will sell to you without problems, I’m just surprised that you’re buying a batch under your name rather than taking a share from Arasaka. Don’t you work for them?”

Adam Smasher pauses for a moment, considering if he should answer the meat creature in front of him.

“That’s why you are still soft meat. I work under contract for Arasaka, but I’m not affiliated with the company on paper.”

David nods, understanding what the fullborg means. The young man notices Adam Smasher studying him intently, and he looks up to meet with looks up at Adam Smasher's eyes. “Is there something wrong, Smasher?”

“Hm… did you got some new chrome on yourself, boy?”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not authorized to speak about Wube Inc.'s internal policies regarding chrome since I signed an NDA.”

An abnormal sound comes from Adam Smasher, startling those nearby.

David slowly realizes that the sound coming from the fullborg is laughter.

“I will wait for the day when I can crush you, boy.”

David looks at the retreating back of Smasher, slowly calming himself and putting the encounter behind him. He still has a lot to learn from Mark before he can match up with a monster like Adam Smasher.

Post Chapter Notes

I got my ass kicked yesterday, so I might not be able to post two chapters of AEINC today. There's also my Grammarly shitting on me and taking too long to load. I might also change the schedule in the future, since mixing AEINC with Nier: Revengeance on the same day slows down my writing speed, or it could have been the private commission I'm finally working toward. Thankfully I'm documenting my progress and that will shed light on my performance moving forward.

I almost feel like a professional writer now.