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?"

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."