Chapter 3

I returned to my Apartment largely without issue thanks to the heavy presence of Valentinos on the street and headed for my stash to store away the weapons I'd looted from DJ's group of Sixth Street Gangoons. When I opened the door to my stash, however, I found that there was an odd-looking metal door set into the back wall of the stash room. I was fairly certain that hadn't been there previously, and when I went over to inspect it, it asked for a DNA sample to open, a small section of the control panel opening up for a sample to be deposited.

As I could see no other option to get the door to open, I spit in the sample container and it retracted back into the control panel while an hourglass appeared on the panel as if it were a loading screen. Eventually, the control panel, a haptic keyboard attached to a screen, flashed green, and a welcome message scrawled across the screen as the metal door opened.

Inside, a room filled with all sorts of workbenches, various tools, and a bunch of robotic arms revealed itself, along with a computer system that seemed to be some sort of programmable blueprint encoding array. Intuitively, I realized that this was a sort of auto-factory that could be programmed with blueprints and would immediately begin assembling items based on the blueprint selected, even without my direct oversight, so long as it had the materials to do so.

My Mechanicus Training insisted it was a sort of proto-STC and honestly, I couldn't disagree with that assessment, given what I knew about Forty-K and how STCs worked. I had blueprints I could program, and would have more after just a bit of design work, but unfortunately, I had no raw materials. I did, however, have a bunch of recently captured guns I could disassemble for resources and components, along with a number of recently gained eddies to purchase more.

"All right. I suppose that means it's time to start tinkering." I mused.

For a moment, I considered just heading to my Computer Setup to make a few purchases from various Resource Supply Corps. There were dozens of such Corps that supplied basic resources to really big Corps like Saka, Militech, and others. With the right chemicals, plastics, and metals, I could absolutely make stuff that'd revolutionize the Arms Industry here on Cyberpunk Earth. Then I thought better of that.

"Corps talk to each other when it concerns some new gonk making preem tech. They've all got a vested interest in shutting down new players. I can't go to the Resource Supply Corps for stuff unless I want a visit from some Saka Ninjas or Militech Black Ops Teams. If I did go to the Resource Supply Corps, I'd get an offer I couldn't refuse and be pressganged into one of the big players real quick." I sighed.

So with that option crossed out, that pretty much just left salvaging. Fortunately, I seemed to know my way around that too. Likely some power I'd picked up that would let me render stuff down into useful components. I figured that out as I went to disassemble one of the DR-Five Nova Revolvers I'd looted from the Sixth Street Gangoons and found myself with a bunch of Preem Parts that I didn't think I would have gotten had I just been some Average Gonk stripping a revolver for resources to tinker. This made salvaging a lot more viable than I'd thought as a method of getting resources and components to tinker with.

For instance, I could buy a bunch of household chemicals that wouldn't send up any red flags, provided I program myself a fake identity as a janitor and render them down into base chemicals for tinkering. I also knew that Carmen would sell me whatever I wanted from her store without asking any questions that I could then render down for components, thanks to the perks of being friends with your Ex. I'd need to get in good with a Ripperdoc for similar access to materials to make Custom Chrome, but I had a feeling I'd be getting an introduction to Viktor Vektor at some point in the near future via Jackie to take care of that.

Regardless, I stripped down all the Sixth Street Guns for parts, leaving me with enough preem components to tinker up some more advanced weaponry. With what I had, I could do either six pistols, three long guns, two heavy weapons, or some combination of the three. I chose to tinker up a pair of pistols, an assault rifle, and a shotgun. With the components and resources I had from salvaging, I would be just about able to synthesize enough plasteel and the like for advanced Autogun Versions of those. Unfortunately, Boltguns would have to wait until I managed to get my Fake Janitorial ID since I'd need the chemicals to be able to synthesize their warheads. The same held true for any grenades.

I set down to begin programming the Autofactory to make Plasteel Autogun Components out of the salvaged resources and components from the guns. That took a couple of hours in and of itself, given how I had to figure out how to make the alloy from what I had using my Mechanicus Knowledge and Omnidsicplinary capabilities to work around the fact I wasn't specifically trained in materials science. Once that was done, I took another six hours to program in a few tweaked and modified schematics for the Lyndwyrm A-Twenty-Five-A 'Volcano' Autopistol, the Foehammer Stub Revolver, the Rending Shotgun, and the Sharpshooter Autorifle.

The Lyndwyrm was often used by Officers of the Inquisitorial Stormtroopers, while the Foehammer, Shotgun, and Sharpshooter Autorifle were often utilized by the Arch-Militants working for various Rogue Traders. It was a fairly potent set of gear, especially for Cyberpunk, and my tweaks were mostly ergonomic and cosmetic so as to preserve their deadliness. While it probably wouldn't take down a Full Borg in one go, it'd handle anything Sixth Street could throw at me with ease. As I fed the raw materials and components into the autofactory, it hummed to life to begin putting together my brand-new, more potent, arsenal.

Unfortunately, by the time I was finished, I was bushed and needed to get in a few hours of sleep before meeting up with Jackie at El Coyote Cojo for a round of celebration. I set my alarm to wake me up at eight PM and headed off to sleep.

As I did so, I had a dream of another person, this one a man who looked like a stereotypical Solo, with his five o'clock shadow, and buzzcut hair. Both his arms had been augmented to be Gorilla Arms, and his eyes glinted with special cyber-optics. That wasn't the most interesting part, though. No, that honor went to the Robotic Beast that was trailing alongside him.

It looked like someone had created a combat robot that was part armadillo and part bear. A Powerful frame, armored in armor plating that moved deceptively gracefully as it trotted alongside the man, its robotic digits tipped with sharp, mono-edged, claws, the equal of any Mantis Blade or Saka Katana. It also seemed to be at least somewhat intelligent, able to obey commands from the Man. They passed through Jig-Jig street with people giving them both a Wide Berth as the man and his Robot Armadillo-Bear made their way to Wakako's Pachinko Parlor.

"Stay, Ursa." Insisted the Man in a vaguely Russian Accent.

"Mrhhh." Wined the Robotic Armadillo-Bear, plaintively.

As it did, it sat down outside the parlor on its haunches, under the watchful gaze of a trio of Tyger Claw Gangoons, who looked like they weren't too keen on tangling with the Robotic Armadillo-Bear, even though they were all Chipped In decently and tooled up with all kinds of Iron, some of Saka's best even, as I spotted a TKI-Twenty Shingen Submachine Gun and a HJSH-Eighteen Masamune Assault Rifle on two of the trio.

My dream followed the Russian inside the Pachinko Parlor where he was ushered inside to see Wakako. The Old, Tyger Claw and Saka-Affiliated Fixer stood behind her desk before bowing to the Russian. It was a shallow bow, not meant for the man himself so much as for who he was connected to. I wasn't entirely sure how I'd gotten that impression, but what Wakako said next seemingly confirmed that I'd been on the mark.

"Greetings, Yurinov-San. How can I help the Organitskaya today?" Questioned Wakako.

"I'm not here on behalf of the Organitskaya today. This is more of Personal Biz than anything." Answered the Man, apparently named Yurinov.

"Does this Personal Biz have anything to do with the robotic thing you've brought to my doorstep?." Queried Wakako.

"Ursa is a good boy. He will not start trouble. If your men bring it to him, however, he will finish it." Warned Yurinov.

"Noted. So, why don't you tell me what you need and I'll see if I can help you?" Asked Wakako.

"I am looking for information. Do you know of a Solo that goes by the name of V?" Questioned Yurinov.

"I cannot say that I do, Yurinov-San. Why are you looking for them?" Queried Wakako.

"It is personal." Answered Yurinov.

"Very well. I can look for such a person, is V this person's Handle?" Asked Wakako.

"It is. I am given to understand they are a Woman, possibly a former Nomad." Informed Yurinov.

"I'll keep an ear to the pavement. I will require twenty thousand Eddies, however. For the vagueness of the request and the sparseness of information, as well as for discretion." Insisted Wakako.

"Ten now, ten when I receive the information." Demanded Yurinov.

"Of course." Agreed Wakako.

Yurinov's Cyber-Eyes flashed briefly, indicating the first half of the payment had been sent over. Wakako nodded and said she would contact him when she had found any information. Then Yurinov made his way back out to where his Robot Armadillo-Bear was currently sitting on the sidewalk. A few curious onlookers had wanted to snap pictures, but the Tyger Claws had warded them away. As Yurinov exited Wakako's Pachinko Parlor, he looked over at the Robot Armadillo-Bear and snapped his Chrome Fingers.

"Come, Ursa. We have other Biz to get to today." Ordered Yurinov.

The Robotic Armadillo-Bear let out a chuffing noise but clambered to its paws from where it had been sitting. Yurinov started walking away and the Robotic Armadillo-Bear lumbered after him, it was deceptively swift to catch up, revealing it to have been built with enhanced servos for speed as well as strength. Combined with the armor plating and razor claws, that would be one Hell of an opponent to fight. Of course, that was the point, I suddenly realized as information seemed to come to me.

Aleksander Yurinov, an associate of the Organitskaya working out of Night City. Prior to that, he'd been with the Organitskaya Syndicate of Vladivostok and had connections with Syndicates on Sakhalin and in Alaska. He was also like me in that he was a Divinely Created Identity for the Champion of Flidais, a user of the Celestial Menagerie. He was looking for V for likely similar reasons as I was, which meant we'd be clashing sooner or later.

I wasn't sure how I knew that, but the mystery would be dispelled on waking up, my alarm blaring at me in a klaxon that was guaranteed to wake even the soundest sleeper. As I bolted upright, a note was on my pillow. I grabbed it and read through it. Apparently, the dream was Vulcan warning me that Fidlais' Champion had gone last and managed to pick the same world I had. Apparently, Champions normally received a certain grace period, but the rules stated that if two Champions managed to pick the same world to start in, they were on their own in regard to that grace period and it was up to them to keep them from killing each other if they wanted the full Grace Period.

"Mierda." I muttered to myself.

Of course, the second I finished reading Vulcan's note caught fire, a rune flashing on the parchment before it burned up like flash paper, forcing me to drop it onto the metal of my apartment floor to avoid being burned. That was very Inspector Gadget of him to pull a 'this message will self-destruct in five seconds' on me. With a sigh, I went to shower and get dressed, coming out fifteen minutes later with the Lyndwyrm Autopistol fully ready for whatever might happen tonight while celebrating.

As I made my way over to El Coyote Cojo, I heard gunshots in the distance, nothing major, a few isolated skirmishes. The War may have gone hot, but right now, things were still in the feeling-out phase of the conflict. Scouting, Skirmishes, and so on. Tio Padre hadn't called me in for anything while I'd been sleeping or tinkering, so I figured that it wasn't a situation I needed to worry about just yet. Besides, I was pretty sure that the skirmishes I was hearing were coming from over the river in Santo-Domingo to the East of Vista Del Rey, not anywhere in Vista Del Rey itself.

Thankfully, that appeared to be the case, as I managed to make it to El Coyote Cojo in one piece. Jackie's ARCH Motorcycle was parked in the sidelot, as was V's Ortiz Yacatecuhtli, so apparently, I was the last to show. That figured. Entering, I was waved over to a booth by Jackie, who was sitting with V and already stuffing his face with Quesadillas de carne asada, beer in one hand. V looked on at Jackie scarfing with a look of shock on his face.

"I see Jackie's already doing his impression of El Vacío Humano." I grinned.

"Sit down, E. Get whatever you want, Mama's willing to make anything!" Grinned Jackie.

"Mama's in the kitchen tonight?" I blinked.

"Is that good? I just got here a few minutes ago and only got to put a drink order in." Questioned V.

"Yeah, Choom. Mama Welles' cooking is preem. Pretty much anything you order tonight's gonna be Nova." I answered.

"Oh. We never really got to go all out back home. When you're part of a Nomad Clan, Food tends to be harder to come by than in a city." Shrugged V.

"Enjoy it, Chica. Mi Madre's the best cook around." Smirked Jackie. The effect was ruined by the fact that his mouth was still half-full of Carne Asada.

"Is Misty coming?" I queried.

"Not till later. Vic's got her helping him out with some Gonk with a busted Cyberarm. Apparently, the guy's some Corpo from Seattle whose arm went on the fritz while he was stuck in town during the lockdown that Saka and the Badges set up recently. He's paying a shitload of eddies to Vic and giving him access to some Preem Cyberware to get everything done on the down-low. Apparently, his wife thought he was in town for a business meeting, but he was actually hooking up with Joytoys down on Jig-Jig Street." Informed Jackie.

"Huh. You'd think a guy like that with a big Corpo Job would know better. He could definitely pay for some Preem Joytoys at Clouds and not have to trawl Jig-Jig Street. I wonder why he did?" Asked V.

"Ah, they're all like that. Corporats living in Beaverville that think they can handle the danger. That it'll be a fun time. Of course, without their Cylons, they quickly figure out real life isn't a Vid Adventure. By that point, it's usually too late." I shrugged.

"You think the Corpo tried to Slammit on with a Pimp or something?" Questioned Jackie.

"I wouldn't be surprised. You get stuck in middle management in a Corpo Office all day, eating shit from the guys who really run the show and you start thinking you need a little more excitement in your life." I intoned.

"I once had a Corpo pay for a joy ride down to the LA Metroplex. The guy figured the Acid Rain, the Boostergangs, and the lack of clean water would forge him into a real man." Mused V.

"Madre de Dios." Muttered Jackie.

"Vaya Con Dios, Corpo Poser." I agreed

We stayed like that for a few hours, just shooting the shit, drinking, and eating. At some point, Misty arrived from work and joined the party. Mama Welles really was a good cook, and she refused to take our eddies for the tab. Not at full price, anyway. Apparently, it was her way of thanking V and I for helping Jackie not get hazed by Kirk, who by the by, hadn't shown his face in El Coyote Cojo since yesterday, and likely wouldn't, after I talked with Tio Padre about what he'd been trying to pull. All in all, it was a good night out, got some good food, good company, and a few drinks in me. Unfortunately, it was pretty much the last hurrah for that sort of thing, the calm before the storm.

I'd wind up getting a message from Tio Padre when I woke up the next day. Apparently, Sixth Street had hit a Valentino Safehouse near Republic and Vine. He'd heard from Chela and Juan how I'd handled DJ's group and wanted to hire me, Jackie, and V to hit a Sixth Street Drug Manufacturing Center on Hargreaves Street in Arroyo. It was headed by Darius Miles, a known possessed of Kerenzikov and Sandevistan implants. We were given one week to do so, in recognition of the fact that it might take us a second to tool up.

On the one hand, the loot we'd gain for such a job would be huge. On the other, the danger of going against a bunch of Cybered Up non-trainees led by a guy with MilSpec Cyberware like a Sandy and Kerenzikov was a bit dodgy, to say the least. On the gripping hand, the Valentinos were offering to pay us twenty-five grand apiece for the job, plus whatever bounties the Lawmen would pay out. And that was after Tio Padre got his cut. Apparently, one of Campo Orta's Nephews took a bullet somewhere Ganic in the Sixth Street attack on Republic and Vine. Campo Orta wanted to hit them back hard, somewhere it would make an impact and to make that happen, money was no object.

Conferring with Jackie and V, both agreed that the opportunity was just too big to pass up. None of us were as Cybered Up as we should have been for this, but there was a solution to that just waiting for us, Viktor Vektor. Apparently, Vik had time to fit us in to do his thing in about four days. In the meantime, Jackie was gonna spend his eddies on better guns, while V was looking to buy some armor for herself. In the meantime, I would be tinkering and coding. It would take me a day before I had the Skeleton of my Fake Janitorial ID ready and not liable to be cracked any time soon. Domingo Lopez would place orders for two thousand Eddies' worth of household chemicals, in the meantime, I went off to purchase Cyberware.

As I made my way around to various Ripperdocs, I made it clear that I didn't have time to install the Chrome today and just wanted to get it all boxed and ready to install some other time. That was a lie, of course. I was buying up Cyberware to study it and then break it down for components to build improved versions using Mechanicus Principles and Omnidisciplinary Science. Regardless, I spent nearly my entire wad, including the half advance on the Sixth Street job that Tio Padre had given us, and wound up with a Zetatech Sandevistan, an IEC Kerenzikov, and a Newton Module made by Rocklin Augmetics. Of course, I only had around four grand remaining from the big bonanza, and that I would save.

For now, it was time to get to work reverse-engineering and redesigning the Cyberware into something better. Thankfully, my Autofactory seemed to have finished creating the rest of my guns sometime during the evening and I even found that there were a trio of crates that had arrived in my autofactory at some point during my excursion out that were marked with Aurebesh letters from Star Wars. It had been some time since I'd learned the Aurebesh Alphabet, back in my old life, but they seemed to be a cache of electronic and mechanical components, and two caches of common materials like Durasteel, Armorplast, Tibanna Gas, and whatnot. Checking inside revealed that yes, that was the case. Shortly after, my household chemicals arrived via drone delivery and I grabbed them and took them into my Autofactory.

"All right. Vik is gonna want to meet in three days. I'd better buckle down." I huffed.

And with that, I got to work. My capacity to scavenge materials and reverse engineer things helped considerably, as did my knowledge of Omnidisciplinary Science. As it would turn out, the Star Wars Materials were actually fairly easily translated to Forty-K Materials with a little help from my Autofactory. I was able to write up a process to easily convert Duraplast to Armaplas, while Plasteel was practically the same in both universes, and I could convert Durasteel to Ceramite with only a moderate amount of material loss.

I set the Autofactory to work on those conversion processes while I took a look at my cyberware. It was a slow process, but in the end, I not only managed to get designs for beyond bleeding edge chrome out of the process, but I also managed to do it while minimizing the side effects and allowing practically anyone to successfully implant this stuff. I got the sense that Cyberpsychosis would be a rare phenomenon using my Implants, thanks to using the principles of the Mechanicus in the designs. You see, the Machine Spirits instilled in my own tech, which my Omnidisciplinary Capabilities recognized to be a form of Minor AI Fragments that had been leftover from the initial development of the technologies during the Age of Technology and given a religious makeover to slip past the prohibition on such things, ensured that Cyberpsychosis did not take hold in those their tech was implanted in.

At the same time, I began creating a few rudimentary Fragmentation and Krak Grenades using the household chemicals. I was able to render the chemicals down into base components through a complicated process of chemical resynthesis known to the Mechanicus. Then, once that had been done, I fed the chemical formulae for the explosives and base chemicals into the Autofactory along with the basic designs for the grenades. I could only make a few of each, however, as the chemical resynthesis process supposed that you were starting from a lot more advanced of a base when it came to chemicals and I wound up using two gallons of household chemicals per grenade. The Krak Grenades would, however, be able to bust open any Military AV, Full Borg, or Armored Vehicle while the Fragmentation Grenades would be deadly to anyone without good subdermal or body armor.

Aside from that, I was also able to build a sort of self-maintenance routine into the implants. Effectively automating the Rites of Maintainance of the Mechanicum while the implanted Gonk was sleeping. A lot of people online in my old life had claimed that Imperial Tech was apocalypse-proofed to a fairly high degree, but this effectively ensured that the implants would keep working forever. It was something I'd only been able to do thanks to utilizing Omnidisciplinary Techniques, and some of the Computer Science of Cyberpunk, specifically, quickhacks. One of the Quickhack Slots in my improved OS would be automatically taken up by the Renewal Cycle, as I called the automated maintenance.

The best part of all this was that these implants were completely compatible with my basic Mechanicus Cranial Implants and were, in fact, designed to build off the base that those implants set. In fact, using that as a base was already such a huge time-saver, that I didn't even need to use the whole three days. Instead, I spent some time crafting an armored vest to wear under my signature coat. The vest was crude, just some Armorplas Plates on a Plasflex Backing. I wasn't exactly specialized in armor technologies, after all, but it was enough to get some crude advanced armor out of it that'd be good to tank shots to the chest, stomach, and shoulders.

By that point, however, I was good and tired and had almost run out my time for preparation before I needed to go meet Vik. I set my Autofactory to produce more converted components and basic resources for future crafting and headed to sleep.

When I woke up, it would be time to meet Viktor Vektor and see about installing my new Cyberware. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, there was a lot of tinkering done in this one, along with some character interaction with Jackie and V, as well as a sneak peek at the main antagonist for the time Big E is in Cyberpunk in the form of the Celestial Forge User, Aleksander Yurinov, and his summoned minions.

With the sort of things he's building, it won't be long before even Adam Smasher isn't even as much of a threat, after all. No, the big opposition is going to come from the other Champion in town. He currently has feelers out for V, hoping to get a lead on her to score points via the plot. That's going to bring him into contact with Big E.

Hopefully, by the time it does, Big E will have snowballed enough to fight another Champion on even terms. Of course, he'll likely be doing that at the same time as he deals with Arasaka and the whole Relic thing.

Mind you, it's unlikely that plays out the same way. Dexter Deshawn isn't likely to get his hooks into Jackie and V with Big E around, but then, Dex wasn't the only one looking for the Relic. The Voodoo Boys were looking for it to attract Alt Cunningham and Evelyn Parker was looking to sell it to NetWatch and then get the fuck out of dodge with or without Judy. It's likely that Dex pulls in some other sucker for the heist and forces both Big E and Aleksander to improvise if they want the points for solving the plot.

At any rate, the next chapter will involve meeting Vik and a bit of action in Little China. I'll have images for this chapter and an update of the Character Sheet up before that comes out.

Stay tuned. . .