An Engineer In Night City

"It's about fucking time!" 

Mark exclaims as the last construction robot finishes placing the assembling machines, concluding the final part of his new factory in the Badlands. Creatively named BN2 Complex, or Base Number Two Complex, it's a base that closely resembles the design philosophy of the game Factorio. With a main bus style running through the middle of the factory, it has rows of conveyor belts distributing materials from each section, starting with the smelter, the circuit factories, logistic HUB, oil processing, thousands of liters of lube, and more advanced items like batteries, low-density structures, heat shielding, and rocket fuel. Mark feels at home in this new site.

The only thing currently lacking from a proper base is the concrete paved ground, but for now, Mark is happy with the lights in all key areas. There is another thing different from the usual base, a design philosophy that he toyed with while playing the older Space Exploration 6.0 mod, which was the habit of defending his entire base with anti-meteor defenses. Usually, he kept the base small enough that damage from meteors would be negligible until he researched the larger meteor defense structures, but in the world of Cyberpunk, the anti-meteor guns are repurposed as anti-air defenses, and the first place to test that defense was his Starter Base on Pacifica. Mark doesn't want to test his luck in an area considered a "No Man's Land" by everyone concerned.

Bringing the map view, Mark checks the progress of his construction robots, watching them fly in the area, breaking rocks and harvesting rotten wood for later. Thankfully there aren't any cliffs to impede his expansion in the immediate area, but the real-life machines are big enough that the factory looks similar to the game version when viewing under the map view, with the resemblance to the game being uncanny.

He looks at the production table, checking the various items being produced, and sees a nice, steady graph producing his basic items and intermediaries, alongside the precious science packs to advance his technological prowess. Walking over to the nearest energy pole, he checks on the energy consumption and production. Thanks to imported batteries from Night City he has a stockpile of accumulators to tide up the new factory's needs, but he needs to expand the solar field further. Right now, his energy production is an anemic 120 megawatts, with 80 megawatts taken by steam turbines while the rest is taken up by solar.

Mark notes down to expand energy production, but he's not certain if he should invest purely in solar or try his hand at nuclear right now.

"Oh right, I don't need to care about UPS anymore, so nuclear power became more attractive. What do you think Solvy, should I go full solar or do I start making nuclear power first?"

Mark's first companion didn't change since he first arrived, other than being cleaned up and receiving a new cloth hardhat to match the aesthetic of the current factory. Thankfully, Mark was mindful to stay away from other people to avoid looking like a weird person when talking with Solvernia. Despite the strangeness of his acting, it did help him come up with new plans and strategies that he would otherwise fuck up or freeze up before implementing.

Like before, Solvernia remains silent as that's outside her expertise, patiently waiting for Mark to explain his reasoning in a way that even a layman can understand.

"Well, the first problem this base has is the lack of energy," he says while bringing up the map view once more. "It's too big with a lot of stuff that is hungry for power, and if this place is attacked right now we might suffer a blackout, and while I have enough munitions and turrets to defend myself and the base from small groups of enemies, a large scale incursion will break our defenses and potentially risk my lie. I don't want to test out if I have respawn abilities, or if I'm playing Iron mode. Since the original Engineer didn't come back after I inherited his System, I don't want to risk it."

Mark looks around before finding his car. "Good thing the real car is easier to drive than that pump-ride buggy." Pressing the ignition he drives towards a special area in the factory that might count as the weak link of his operation. 

In a different area is the vehicle depot that will take the items from the halters, most of them being imported from Night City's first factory, while others are set up for other nearby mines. Thanks to the strange method the System interprets ores, he found several mineral deposits nearby that the locals didn't exploit. He assumes some of them are from the Old Country that got closed, and they aren't being exploited because the corporations have a monopoly on manufacturing goods. There's also the possibility that exploiting those small deposits won't be lucrative for the megacorporations, thankfully for the Engineer the reserves are plenty for his purposes.

Unfortunately, that leaves the issue of logistics. Extraction should be simple by placing several miners, and defense shouldn't be an issue with constant supplies of bullets and crude oil to deter a casual band of raiders, the issue is transporting the bulk of minerals back and forth between the outpost and the BN2 Complex. In the game, the biters were polite enough to leave the rail tracks alone, but sabotaging rails and other vital infrastructure is a possibility during times of conflict. 

He also needs to make sure to transport a steady stream of resources toward his factory, otherwise, he won't meet the expected production quotas for his technology research and sales to to other megacorporations.

This means he needs to buy some of the territories to legally build the infrastructure and make a deal with the local governments, or go full Murderhobo and conquer these areas. Both options have their pros and cons, but Mark wants to avoid starting wars he doesn't know how to stop without killing everyone.

Another issue is the acquisition of uranium, since with the proliferation of nuclear weapons during the past this substance should be heavily regulated by the NUSA and international organs. However, there is a local option that he might try to pursue before looking for extraterrestrial imports.

Afterward, Mark goes to the storage area where he stockpiles the production before directing part of it to internal use or export. The outbound area is also divided into two sections, though currently, only the Vehicle depot area is active. Mark already feels the hard work necessary to convince the Mayor to allow him to build train tracks between BN2 and Night City, but that would interfere with Night Corp.'s monopoly on transportation in the Night City sphere of influence, and they're jealous of the only reliable source of income the city has a the moment. The corporations barely pay taxes thanks to several deals and lobbied exceptions, while the population is too poor in general to squeeze more money out of them, and the government needs to compete with the corporations over the essential services that would otherwise sustain and justify the government coffers.

Beyond physical goods, the Engineer also checks the balance of his accounts, seeing them grow at a constant pace. It would grow faster if he didn't insist on hiring the locals or helping the community, but when you're making money at zero operational costs, trying to take money from the downtrodden and down on their luck is a step too far in Mark's opinion.

In a different storage area, Mark checks the weapons and ammunition stockpile. Not only does he have access to special vehicles from the Space Exploration Module, but with the new firmware update all vehicles now have an equipment grid. He can also craft specialized items to put into those vehicles, though since the material costs are similar to the version that goes inside the power armor, Mark suspects the distinction was done so that Engineers won't tear out their hair at watching a tank equipped with powered Legs to move faster.

Another thing that he has access to is the remotely autonomous vehicles module, to automatizes the vehicle's deployment and control using circuit logic. Thanks to the new firmware update, the automation process became easier, giving him more options in case of an open conflict. The necessary ammunition is also stockpiled to an acceptable degree, the same goes for the concrete walls, repair packs, and landmines to protect his territory.

He needs to be cautious when sending things to space, since the space agencies regulate the use of orbital mass drivers, though, with access to his space station and rockets, he already has the means to cause untold destruction.

Satisfied with what he accomplished so far on the military side, Mark returns to his newly created command center to further study his options.

In the region immediately of the area of influence for Night City, there are a few deposits of iron, copper, and coal, with geographically large deposits of scrap from the former war ruined cities, but the deposits aren't rich like the one found in the Night City landfill. Then he has another interesting place marked that's away from anything important under a special area on the map. There he marks for the placement of a Core Mining Drill, a building from the Space Exploration module that would normally require a Core Mining Seam to be deployed, but yet again the firmware update changed that requirement, making it more generic so that it instead requires an area in a specific position near the tectonic plates. Once deployed, the Core Mining not only will extract Core Fragments but will prevent the area from suffering tectonic activity instead of stimulating it as the Engineer originally feared. Mark already marked a dedicated area for Core Fragment processing in his BN2 Complex, and that will help tidy up his mineral needs in case of an emergency.

The next area marked has vast, important reserves of nothing in a single direction which is where the solar farms will grow. Thanks to the efficiency of his solar panels and the accumulators, he can soon sell energy to Nighty City and beyond in earnest. The current world uses as much energy as the old world, despite the overall population dropping severely since the tragedies of the late twenty-first century, thanks to the over-reliance on electronics and energy-intensive applications. Most energy is either "green" in areas with enough free space, or fusion-powered like the rich countries in Europe. NUSA still has old coal plants and nuclear plants to supply their diminished demand, but the Free States rely more on solar thanks to the vast areas of uninhabited space in their territories.

For Uranium, Mark will need to make a trip to Wyoming, the closest state with large uranium deposits that aren't part of NUSA, though he still needs to be careful since the state has borders with a former Independent state that joined with the New Country.

On the Moon, Mark's needs are more simple and are already met for the moment. Some of the other High riders want him to open the mining site for inspection and to live inside, but the automated nature of the place makes turning it into a colony difficult., or so Mark claimed at the time, but the reality is that Mark doesn't want anyone that he doesn't rust near the equipment. He came from a world facing the threat of terrorism, and in this world the Corporate Wars sanctioned the use of violence to settle economic disputes between corporations, causing more damage to the world than traditional conflicts, in Mark's opinion.

Outside Earht's orbit, Mark takes a peek at the scout craft sent to check on the other planets and moons of the solar system.

Mercury is a good candidate for minerals, and Venus has sulfur and sulfuric acid among other gases to extract. Io is uncolonized, and the volcanic activities on the moon show promise of rich minerals, while Europa could potentially grant the Engineer access to underwater oceans of hydrocarbons, ammonia, or even exotic lifeforms.

Unfortunately, before Mark can explore those places in earnest, he needs to take care of the remaining loose ends in his projects, which means a trip back to Night City to check on Maine'sCrew. 

The Heist on Biotechnica will soon approach.