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?"

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 – 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.