The next morning caught me by surprise.

I'd worked on the armor designs all night. The first and most obvious improvement, was replacing the plating and components' neosteel for the Khalai alloy, I've decided to call crysbronze. During it's formation the base alloy, a true slurry of dozens of different metals, is infused with an artificial form of khaydarin crystal and then the molecular lattice is vibrated into the most stabile formation possible.

Did I really understand the chemistry of it? No, not yet.

The forge handled the calculations, I only need to understand the process. It didn't sit well with me. But I didn't have time to dig into everything now.

This one step improved the defensive performance of the armor by about 25%. Extra bonus it lightened the weight by 10% as well.

The next step replaced the electrical system with the artificial Psicrystal. This gave the armor a 12% increase increase in reaction speed and extended the battery life of the suit almost 50%. Also a vast improvement to the onboard computer assistance for things like targeting and mapping. thought about replacing the battery, but I wasn't quite sure how to get the psicrystal to give off a stable electric power flow.

I had to alter the baseline code of the armor's system to integrate with the psicrystal better, but it wasn't that difficult.

Lastly, I used some of the mechanical feedback systems of the Dragoon and the Khalai cyberware to cobble together a small improvement to the strength enhancement of the suit, only 6% but I was sure I could crank that up once I got some more experience with both technologies.

I didn't see a way to upgrade the gel impact lining yet. Most Protoss equipment seems to lack it or any equivalent of it. Hardcore, but maybe they didn't need it?

Oh and I figured out how to get the Forges to enamel the armor in other colors. I decided to go with a deep forest green with a midnight blue trim. A stylized version of Meadran, in silver, would be our emblem.

When the first suit rolled off the assembler, I loved it. It looked amazing. I wanted to hop right in, but I didn't make it for me.

I had Jitters help me haul it out to Raynor. Oof, just the torso was hefty.

We finally managed to drag it out to the Town Hall of New Lordaeron. The sun was just rising but Raynor was already running the recruits ragged, he stopped when he saw the armor.

"Morning, special delivery!" I was excited. This would change so much. The Protoss robots were great and they could certainly defend our territory, but we needed faster to produce troops. So we could expand forcefully if necessary, and so we could start matching numbers with our enemies.

He gave it a critical inspection. At his nod, we assembled it around him, making sure everything fit to a tee.

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Raynor ran a quick diagnostics test and when that returned an all clear he started a series of movement tests.

After a few minutes, "Handles like a dream. Smooth as silk and twice as useful. Might have gone a different way on the colors, but hey, it's your rodeo."

Now that I knew the armor worked properly, I had Jitters setup two forges on either side of and just behind the Town Hall.

"It will be a hassle but we'll scan everyone up and get them all a suit, probably by tomorrow." I was calling over a few Probes to get started on scanning the recruits.

"Sounds great, Hoss. I'll keep working 'em 'til then." Raynor had his faceplate close, and showed that I has copied his skull pattern on to the cover. Very intimidating.

He started barking at his boys, getting them to redouble their efforts.

Deciding to take a break I wandered over to the hill side and sat down to stare out into the badlands for a spell. The minty purple grass had already taken over the area and made for comfortable sitting.

Jitters floated over to be next to me as I stared out at the terrible desert, trying to come up with plans to bring life back to everywhere I saw. He gave a troubled beep.

"Nah, I'm fine, just a little overwhelmed, about all of this." I waved my arm to take in everything. "Half the time I've got no clue what I'm doing, and the other half I'm still confused about whether or not what I'm doing is the right thing."

His counter beep was reproachful.

"Hmm. Yeah, I know I'm doing the best I can. That what bothers me the most. Why didn't they take someone who knows about the kinds of things going on here? I can't help but feel like I'm missing opportunities just because I don't understand how this all works."

Jitters bumped against me. A show of support. I gave him a pat, and sent comforting thoughts at him. He flew off to get some more work done, leaving me to my thoughts.

[ Adjusting...]

[ Quest Offered

Establish two new Outposts in the Badlands around Night City,

They must be at least 50 miles apart.

Reward: 2000 Company Points, 1 Mercenary Squad Token

Accept: Y/N ]

[ Quest Offered

Establish Outposts in Night City Charter Hills and Santa Domingo areas,

They must be at least half a mile apart.

Reward: 4000 Company Points, 1 Theme Token

Accept: Y/N ]

[ Quest Offered

Regain control of your first Outpost and rebuild it

Reward: 3000 Company Points, 1 Hero Token

Accept: Y/N ]

[ Quest Offered

Kill 100 Gangoons or 50 Corpo Agents

Repeatable and Ongoing

Reward: 1000 Company Points, 1 Random Supply Token

Accept: Y/N ]

[ Quest Offered

Make an alliance with a local faction

Reward: 1000 Company Points, 1 Adjutant Token

Accept: Y/N ]

[ Quest Offered

Survey a different city,

Must have at least 1,000,000 inhabitants

Reward: 2000 Company Points, 1 Power Token

Accept: Y/N ]

"What the Fuck!" The flood of requests startled me. All this time not even a whisper. Now bam! Here's a bunch of tasks for you.

I started reading them. More outposts, already part of the plan so no stress there. I hit yes on those. A Merc Squad? So I have to pay them? Maybe not the best reward, but I surely wanted a another Theme Token, more power and flexibility.

Take back my first outpost. You could bet your sweet ass I wanted that back, so again no worries there. I accepted that one. Another hero, please. I needed all the help I could get and Raynor was a godsend. He was helping the Lordaeron folks get settled in far better than I could. I'm just not much of a people person.

Killing Gangoon and Corpos, well sure, I'd made my peace with killing for profit, as long as I knew the target was scum. Alright, no problem saying yes to that. Extra supplies were a great bonus.

I'm already making an alliance with the Aldecaldos. So I grabbed that one. I wondered what an Adjutant would do for us.

Survey a different city. Seemed like a hassle, I already had a ton of work on my plate. But there was no time limit and I'd need to expand to other cities anyway. So sure bring it on. While my first Power seemed to be a dud, maybe another one would be just what I needed.

Well, it was better then sitting around moping. Next task, start some Probes digging back towards NC.

More work, always.