Sophie stood in her garage, staring at the Type-66 Quadra. Truthfully, she hadn’t really spent much time examining it. Now that she was, Sophie was baffled by the behaviour of the Wraiths. Considering they were very similar to nomads, their cars being incredibly important to them, the previous owner of the Quadra that Sophie had flatlined was terrible at maintaining the car.
The entire thing was caked up and buried under layers of sand and grime. She didn’t even want to think about the ugly Wraith graffiti scrawled across its panels. Surely fixing this baby up will be enough to finish off my Mechanic Profession.
Sophie started by stripping the car down to its bare frame. The hood, doors, and even the fenders were removed and set aside, revealing an interior that Sophie was hesitant to go near. Sand had infiltrated every crevice, from the suspension joints to the engine block. Just from the outside, she was concerned moving the engine would do more damage than keeping it in. Still, she couldn’t let that stop her.
It took nearly an hour to carefully drain fluids and disconnect hoses, removing the engine piece by piece. The tangled mess of wires and tubing had Sophie realise the previous owner was definitely not a good mechanic.
“What the fuck have they done to this poor car,” Sophie muttered, pulling out a hose that had been poorly sealed, likely causing leaks. She marked it for replacement, a list that was already immensely long. She’d be spending quite a large chunk of her savings to get her hands on good parts. She wasn’t wealthy enough yet to be spending M-Coins on car parts so she had to settle for Cyberpunk tech.
Once the engine was fully disassembled, she discovered warped pistons and a cracked manifold. Following that, she moved to the suspension. The shocks were completely blown, and the springs were misaligned from incredibly rough driving. To be more precise, the rough driving of someone that should not be behind the wheel.
With the chassis exposed, Sophie could see a place that finally seemed untouched by the old owners. However, it seemed that some bolts were missing in key structural areas, and the frame itself had stress fractures from repeated impacts. It was likely the latter resulting in the former.
Once the core parts of the car had been torn apart, Sophie attacked the interior. The seats were stripped, revealing a foul smell that nearly made her vomit. She tossed the old upholstery into the garbage. The dashboard was next and Sophie was also forced to throw the entire thing out.
Before leaving to go shopping, Sophie gave all of the parts she kept a deep clean. She peeled off layers of gritty sand, then scrubbed every part by hand to ensure no dirt remained. She was then faced with a different challenge. As the grime disappeared, the full extent of the Wraith paint job was revealed; ugly red and blue streaks along with skulls covered the entire car. She guessed it was meant to look intimidating. Sadly, it just looked goofy, like someone trying way too hard to look cool or edgy.
“Definitely not staying,” she said, making a note to grab painting supplies.
Her attention turned to the tires, which weren’t in terrible condition. Still, Sophie would replace them all. She was already replacing pretty much everything in the car, doing the tires as well wouldn’t hurt.
Finally, she stepped back and looked at the dismantled husk. Her shopping list was very long and she would need help collecting all of the parts. So she called Vik. They had chatted about cars before, so Sophie figured he wouldn’t mind being there when she rebuilt her beautiful monster. Well, that and Misty wouldn’t be interested while Rita was too busy showing off her new Shion to the Mox.
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The shopping took the better part of the next day, with Vik helping Sophie unload all of the parts during the late afternoon. As expected, the young thief was terribly low on funds, both M-Coins and Eddies. However, it would all be worth it in the end.
Vik stayed for a while, watching and helping but ended up being called back to his clinic for an emergency surgery. He left while extracting a promise for her to bring the car around once it was finished. Sophie worked overtime that night, replacing every part of the engine and ensuring it was up to scratch. She took a brief nap, then got straight back to it.
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After she had all of the internals rebuilt, she started putting the internals of the car back in. New, high quality seats were put in, made from special, fancy foam and syn-leather. A new dashboard was put in, a more recent Quadra model she’d managed to grab for a good price at a shadier store. She ended up spending a small fortune on a set of military grade tires, the kind that were used in convoys. They were almost entirely bulletproof, something she did indeed test before she bought them. That had given the seller quite a shock. Even better, they could traverse any environment she could think of.
Eventually, she had most of the car put back together. The only thing left were the externals. First and foremost, Sophie wanted the car to protect her. It didn't need to have crazy offensive power, but she wanted it to have defence like a tank, or close enough. She stuck very special, lightweight ballistic panels, designed for cars, on the inner layer of the externals. On the outside, the original external panels were actually some of the best that could be bought. Nothing short of a sniper round would puncture them and hopefully the new internal defences would stop anything that did get through.
Finally, the paint job. It was actually the thing that took Sophie the longest. She simply couldn’t decide what she wanted to do with it. It would be black and silver, just like Talons, but she wasn’t sure what kind of design she wanted. After spending nearly an hour debating, she threw black on the whole car, with silver highlights around each edge. After nearly two entire days of work, she had completely changed nearly everything in the original. In fact, the only thing she didn’t touch was the crystal dome tech that made her windows bullet proof and gave excellent visuals of her surroundings.
She ran her hand along the hood, feeling the cool, smooth surface. Sophie loved it. It was beautiful and it was hers. Of course, she needed a name for it. Thus, the Raven came into existence.
All she had left before she could go and sleep was to test the engine. She slipped into the driver’s seat, loving the comfortable feel of the interior. Trusting her own knowledge and skill as a mechanic, she activated the car. The engine purred, a deep, rumbling sound that was unlike anything Sophie had ever heard. And just like the rest of the car, Sophie loved it. Her Raven was perfect.
And it was time for bed. She was tired.
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Sophie blinked the sleep out of her eyes as she gradually woke up.
After her intense frenzy, completely rebuilding her Raven, she was still exhausted. Then Sophie remembered her system messages.
Mechanic has reached level 100!
Profession: Mechanic has reached maximum level.
Mechanic Trait: Structural Intuition has been unlocked
New Profession available!
Sophie pulled up the trait description.
Trait: Structural Intuition - You can identify structural weaknesses and failures upon examination.
It was a fantastic ability, especially when Sophie decided to get more into the RnD side of things to develop her own equipment. Finally finishing Mechanic also had the added bonus of unlocking her next profession. Originally she had planned to pick up Engineer, however the development of the Raven made her think twice. Locking in her choice, she received more messages and an influx of knowledge.
Profession selected: Driver
Skills Unlocked: Driving (Basic), Vehicle Combat (Basic)
Driving (Basic): Lvl.1
Provides basic knowledge of Driving.
Vehicle Combat (Basic): Lvl.1
Provides basic knowledge of Vehicle Combat.
Suddenly feeling energetic, Sophie jumped out of bed, keen to go show off the Raven to Vik. She’d promised after all.
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Pulling up outside Misty’s Esoterica, Sophie flicked Vik a message, letting him know she was outside. Her Quadra was receiving quite a bit of attention from people, a fact that made the mechanic’s chest puff up with pride. After a few minutes of waiting, Vik and Misty both came out. The Ripperdoc whistled, staring at the car in clear appreciation. Misty on the other hand came over to fuss, checking her smaller friend over for any injuries.
“I’m fine Misty, I swear! Vik’s already checked me over the other day!” Indeed, the doctor had been greatly dismayed when he found her with bullet wounds, even through her new subdermal and had forced her into surgery to get fixed up. She had made a point though, that it could have been much worse if not for the subdermal armour she’d gotten installed along with her arms. That had mollified some of his grumbling, though not all of it.
“You’ve done a fantastic job here Soph. Looks far better than the first time you showed me it.”
“Haha, thanks Vik.” She blushed slightly from the praise. They spoke a bit more but before Sophie could leave, Vik spoke.
“By the way, I’ve just gotten my hands on some new Kiroshi Optics. Are you interested? They’re brand new, recently released so I’ll give you a friend's price of 10,000 Eddies.” Sophie stared daggers at the man.
“You know I have no money you bastard. Come on, cough it up. You’ve got a job for me right? If I do it, you’ll give me the eyes?”
“Well, I’ve gotten news of a covert corporate transport. Supposedly it’s transporting a heap of high end cyberware out to a military base in the desert. If you could hit it and grab as much of that chrome as possible, I’d be able to put it to good use. And of course, I’ll pay well.” He seemed a little embarrassed he was asking for help, but Sophie still accepted. Who knows, she might grab something that she could use.
New Mission
Assault the Militech convoy and obtain the cyberware for Vik.
Difficulty: Medium
Rewards: 2500 M-Coins, 1 Driver level, 1 Markswoman level
Well, it’s a good reward I guess.