When I exited the cave into the Badlands, several things happened at once.

Most of it was a series of messages on my interface. The Veil around the Valley apparently blocks net signals. I had simply thought no one needed to talk to me.

Carver - I see you have chosen to skip out on the job. Consider yourself banned from work.

Carver - ( Symbol of a Skull )

This one came two days later. Guess he found out I tipped the kid off. Oh, well. I planned to track Carver down anyway. Imagine getting offended that your intended patsy decided not to die for you. Sign of poor character I'd say.

Sinnamin - You pissed off Carver. Haha, probably tried to use you dirty. Well, let me know it you make it out okay.

Huh. Wouldn't have thought she'd care. That's nice.

Misty - Just checking in for Vik, on how the new chrome is treating you.

Ah a checkup. That's more than I expected.

Unknown Sender - We should meet. Big fan of your work.

Not just no. Hell no!

Amanda - 2 missed calls.

Sally - 5 missed calls.

Well fuck. I'm mister popular all the sudden. Replying would have to wait for a moment while I found out why my BTC was trying to squeeze my arm off.

[ Adjusting...]

[ Quest Offered

Establish an Outpost in the Badlands around Night City

Reward: 1000 Company Points, 1 Hero Token

Accept: Y/N ]

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[ Quest Offered

Establish an Outpost in Night City (any area)

Reward: 2000 Company Points, 1 Theme Token

Accept: Y/N ]

Okay. I liked the thought of getting more CPoints. But what constituted an outpost.

As I always do when confront with lacking information, I asked Meadran.

He explained an outpost consists of at least two buildings, from across your Themes, protected by at least one defensive structure. He defined Theme as being like the Khalai or the Kaldorei. Ah, so a Theme Token would get me new types of building and units. Nice.

'Just be cautious, Young One, Outposts tend to attract more attention than they should at first.' He did seem worried.

Hmm. I'll have to get defenses up quickly. I pondered the issue for a few moments.

'Either way, set aside enough silver Wisps for two Moon Wells. That should be a good starting point.' I'll adjust after I see how it goes.

'They will be ready in a day.'

'Thanks Meadran. I really appreciate your help.'

'You are most welcome, Young One.'

I accepted both quests, there didn't seem to be a time limit. So no rush to find good locations.

Then I messaged everyone but Carver and the Unknown Sender back. Explaining that I was in a area that blocked signals. I was okay and everything was going smooth.

Then I headed down to the Galena. I loaded all the backpacks of fruit in the trunk and put my tool case in the front passenger seat. Still room in the back seat for loot storage.

With their new streamline form, the Probes could fit two to the front and two to the back on the roof. That turned out better than I thought it would.

I drove down to the bridge and parked next to the lumber pile. The Probes had set it up to the south of the path and the outflow trough.

I nodded and messaged Amanda, I have a pile of Lumber we can move, let me know if you are available.

Scuff and Fix lead Chuck and Barry on a patrol of the area.

I decided to work on the Galena a bit while I waited for a reply. I had seen several places in the schematics, were small tweaks would help a lot.

A couple of hours later.

I got a reply from Amanda, Where and how much?

I sent back, By the broken highway bridge east of NC, best to approach from the south along the torn up road. 50, 8ft long 4"X4"s, weight between 750 and 800lbs.

Three Hours.

I ate a few pink grape-like fruits. Tasted of chocolate and butterscotch. Not my bag but interesting none the less.

Back to tinkering. I had noticed that the technology in the engines here didn't seem to resemble the ones from back home. there must have been fundamental shifts in how people solved problems here.

Well that was obvious, but the whole process of combustion in this engine shouldn't have worked anywhere near as well as it did. I understood the whats and hows of it, but not the whys. It was going to end up driving me nuts one of these days.

I was elbows deep in the engine bay when I heard the Probes beep. 'Visitors'

I finished up, and made sure everything was connected up. I went and turned over the engine. Ah, now that was a smoother purr. I revved the engine a few times. Good response.

I turned it off and tried to clean up a bit with some left over rags.

Three vehicles pulled up and parked. Every vehicle was done up in badland colors, to help blend in. While still having personalized touches here and there.

One looked like a weaponized muscle car. It had some kind of turbine on it's hood, how does it keep all the dust out? It roared like a beast. I liked.

The next vehicle was a Thorton Mackinaw truck the big brother of my Galena, I had my eyes on one while in the city. Thought it might be good for hauling supplies. This one had all kind of armor plating added and a small cannon on top. Sweet.

The last was a cargo truck of some kind, a bit overkill for this job. It was a brute somewhat comparable to a Semi from back home. It was towing a bare bones flat bed trailer.

The Probes where hovering above weaving in and out of each others paths. Just in case. Mistrustful little robo buddies.

Amanda got out of the muscle car, Sally got out of the Mackinaw, and an older fella I don't recall being introduced to got out of the cargo truck.

They were walking towards me, when almost at the same time they stopped and sniffed the air.

"Is that water?" Sally asked, or rather demanded.

I grinned at them.