An Engineer In Night City

Mark enters the public office of Wube Inc. and he is greeted by the 'management' staff. "Good morning Kiwi, how is everything going?"

"Surprisingly well, despite the Chief Engineer neglect," the Netrunner and current systems engineer answers. "You better thanks little David over there." The boy in question grunts in embarrassment, but otherwise don't react to the woman's teasing.

"Can I take a look?" Mark asks with curiosity over the work of the company new 'intern.'

"Sure thing boss," he says and sends the financial results to Mark's hybrid HUD. "The diary book is dutifully recorded, every bill is paid on time, all the sales are accounted for, taxes provision are carefully set aside, and all assets and liabilities are balanced." The young teenager buffs his chest in pride before remembering something. "The only thing I couldn't do is to invest the money, but dealing with money is the only area where the corpos are sticker for rules."

Kiwi snorts. "Of course they are, they made the rules, after all."

Reviewing the data, Mark concludes that the sales of Green, Red, and Blue chips goes increasingly well, though production of Blue chips is lagging behind demand as expected.

"Did you guys finished the tasks for the morning?" Mark asks his two employees, earning an affirmative sound from both of them. "Alright, I have something interesting to show if you are interested. It will take us out of Night City into the badlands, but we're bringing security for this."

"Will it take long?" Kiwi asks and Mark nods, "then I will pass. I promised to teach a fellow Netrunner on my off hours."

Mark scratches his armored chin, pondering for a moment. "Does this Netrunner needs a job? You can invite this person if you want. It's not a publicized event but the news will catch wind of it right away."

"What else could you do that would make the news talk about you?" The Netrunner asks skeptically, "did you find a way to eradicate every single Scav in Night City all at once?"

"Not yet," Mark ominously answers, "but it's a relatively rare event, so the news might decide to cover it if it's a slow news day."

"Is that related to the recent approval you got from Night City and NUSA?" David asks his employee, looking at the older man with awe and eagerness.

"NUSA? How are you getting NUSA involved in this?"

Despite his face being hidden by the armored mask, Kiwi could hear the smile on Mark's face. "Why don't you ask David? Anyway, we will leave after lunch so think about it. If you wish to invite your protegee, you're also welcome."

Mark exits the office and proceeds towards a recent addition to the compound, the medical wing, where David's mother currently works. "Good morning, Gloria. How is the work going?"

"Hello Mr. Henderson," she answers in a formal tone, "everything is fine, with no workplace accidents or other medical emergencies."

"Great! Though you can either call me Mark, or if you're feeling formal, call me 'Engineer.'"

"If you say so, Mr. Henderson." Mark rolls his eyes over Gloria's cheek, "is there something you wish to talk with me?"

"Are you free enough to leave Night City for a few hours? There's a private inauguration event I'm holding for some of our employees, though the media will learn about it soon."

Gloria thinks it over, but shakes her head. "No, I better stay here in case there is an emergency. I don't want to use our precious Trauma Team contract for something trivial. Just make sure to stay safe out there, alright?"

"Alright, got it, and don't worry. Everyone will be safe with me. Have a nice day!"

After leaving the medical wing walks towards the packaging area for the chips. There aren't many employees at the moment, but the factory works in three shifts so it can stay active twenty-four hours a day, every day. The workers had initially thought they would be working the typical ninety hours per week, then they were caught off guard when the mandatory work hours announced was a mere forty-eight hours while receiving a full salary. They even had a day off, alongside other benefits!

When the workers inquired the Chief Engineer about the work hours, his answer was, "don't you have a life? Family? What's the point of working if you can't use the money earned to spend time with those you love?" The answer was so alien to the workers it took until their received their first paycheck to realize that Wube Inc. was serious about their work culture.

At the packaging section, the workers greeted Mark as if he was their savior, and in a sense he was after he took them under the Wube Inc. umbrella. Surprisingly, this action insulated Wube Inc. from casual acts of betrayal and corporate espionage, as the workers feared losing their current job far more than they coveted the uncertainty of a large paycheck promised by the other corporations.

While Mark couldn't bring any of them to visit the badlands away from Night City, he does set up a large monitor for the workers to pause for a moment and watch the surprise he has in store.

After leaving the packaging area, Mark goes to find Miguel in the barracks. The barracks is another recent addition, meant to house the Wube Inc. private security force. The basic security is armed with the proprietary weapons developed by Wube Inc. and are armored with the Modular Armor set in a simple configuration focused on combat. The security team isn't connected with the Factorio system directly, thus they lack an inventory beyond the slots afforded for ammunition in their three weapon slots save for a few exceptions. Usually working in fire teams of four where three private security carries a handgun sidearm, a submachine gun, and a shotgun, while one combat medic also has a dedicated inventory slot to carry medic kits.

However, Miguel's outfit is different than the rest as the head of security. He also wears a Power Armor Mk. I focused on combat, his inventory also has dedicated slots for ammo, medicine, grenades, and he exchanged his handgun sidearm for a reusable rocket launcher. While he's not as dangerous as The Engineer, his combat experience, natural chrome, and provided equipment makes him into a force to be reckoned.

"Good morning, Miguel. Is everything in order?"

"Good morning, Mark. Everything is in order, we're just waiting for the trucks to arrive to continue our final check ups. By the time we finish lunch, we will be ready."

"Great! How is your niece going, by the way?"

Miguel beans at the mention of his family, "everything is preem! Vik took out the last Maelstrom chrome and she's recovering quickly. She might even get back to school once her physical rehabilitation goes well."

"With how cyberpunks go around high as a kite on chems and chrome, I almost forgot how long it takes for a normal person to recover. I'm glad she's doing well."

Miguel wisely doesn't mention how the Engineer threats his injuries as little more than speed bumps thanks to his medpacks, or how he can go through dozens of such kits like water in a way that puts the craziest chem junkies to shame. Instead, Miguel nods to his friend. "Thank you for your concern. I will make sure to tease my niece about it later."

Shaking his head Mark leaves the barracks for Afterlife, ready to drop a couple more items 'liberated' from Scav hideouts found outside Pacifica. Unfortunately, the gangsters were like cockroaches: when you see one it means there are at least a hundred hidden somewhere.

Mark enters the bar from a side entrance reserved for staff, a privilege that even the most prestigious Fixers don't possess, however, The Engineer is no mere Fixer. After greeting the bar staff, Mark meets with Rogue Amendiares to quickly conduct his usual business. "You wouldn't had come to me just for this," the living legend says, "what kind of headache should I expect?"

Mark doesn't bother to defend himself from Rogue's accusations, since most of them turns true. "Spread this message among the Fixers of Afterlife, except Dex DeShawn. Make sure it's extra hard for him to gather this information."

Rogue reviews the message, and her eyes widen in surprise. "Are you sure you want to step foot in this arena?" The former Solo asks, a hint of fear entering her voice. "The other corpos might take this as your intrusion in the adult's table."

Mark shakes his head. "Ultimately, this is the purpose of Wube Inc. from the very beginning. Everything else was built for this. I need to take advantage of the element of surprise if I want to survive the corporations scrutiny. Besides," Mark gives Rogue a dangerous smile, "Wube Inc. was always one of the big boys. There are very few entities that can escalate better than Wube Inc.'s Engineers. The few that come to mind are CORE and ARM Commanders, and they're far less forgiving of the corporations liberties."

"I don't know who they are, but I will take your word for it." Rogue answers while making a note to research who those two entities might be. "On a related note, are you finally moving against DeShawn?"

"I'm going to start marinating that fat bastard in fear." Mark replies, "I will first make sure he loses all notion of belonging here in Afterlife, while still not being blacklisted. We will see how long it takes for him to do something stupid. The following message will certainly spook him and the Engineer's enemies." Mark passes another note to Rogue, "try reading this after today's surprise. I bet you will like it."

Rogue scowls but pockets the note. "Stop being coy and just go do your thing, you damnable brat."

With one last farewell, and a meal for the road, Mark returns to the factory to wait until the time is right.