When Jackie left to head back to Night City, I took a minute to collect myself, have a cup of cold water, and just relax. I had three days to complete my current projects and, more importantly, prepare myself for the next tech tree. That should be enough time to get it all done without working myself to the bone. I needed to resist the urge to push myself too hard since starting off a new tech tree exhausted and stressed was probably worse than not getting everything done in time.

When I was done with my unwinding moment, I got up from my computer and did a quick visual inspection of our three scrapper trucks. They needed to start going out again on their nightly excursions, or we would likely be starting the new tree in a material deficit, which was not something I wanted. I couldn't see anything wrong with the vehicles, no bullet holes or shrapnel damage from the Wraiths, so they should be good to send out.

After my quick inspection, I went out to find Noah. I could have radioed him to come find me, but at the moment, I didn't want to drag him away from working on the town's defenses. At this moment, his time was more valuable than mine.

Even though it had only been around ten hours since I had last checked them out, I could see how much progress had been made around the defensive parameter. The town center was surrounded by a significant portion of large Hesco-style sandcrates, all of them positioned and set up as proper cover. On each corner, the large multi-floor defensible hard points were coming along nicely, as were the smaller but still reinforced points between them. Dozens of the lighter turrets dotted each side, with the heavier ones set slightly less frequently. Everything was coming together smoothly, no doubt due to Noah's constant attention. When I eventually found him, he was watching a pair of MRVNs weld an armored plate to an already-built armored structure.

"Noah, you got a minute?" I called out, the AI continuing to watch for a few more seconds before nodding and making his way to me.

"What can I do for you, Sir?"

"The defenses are coming along well," I commented. "Do you have a time of completion in mind?"

"Of the major functions? Early tomorrow morning," He answered decisively. "Assuming you plan to decrease the MRVNs working on the project after that, full completion a few days after that."

"And what effectiveness are we at now?"

"In terms of functioning weapon emplacements and armored defenses, seventy-eight percent."

"Great, this is all amazing work, Noah. This whole project would have been a gigantic issue without you around to guide it. Thank you for your help."

Noah simply nodded, accepting the compliment and thanks silently.

"Tonight and into tomorrow morning, I am having most of Samwise's team focus on specter production. I want the old versions replaced by tomorrow night so I can send Dakota's people back," I explained. "I also want some MRVNs to go out scrapping. Can you spare six units and still hit your projection?"

"Not exactly, but we won't miss it by far," He responded. "I agreed that we need to continue gathering scrap. I will send six units out once the sun has set and it is appropriately dark."

"Thank you, Noah, I'll see you around," I said, patting his shoulder before making my way back to the workshop.

I found Samwise working in the production addition next to the Garage. I told him to keep one of his MRVN workers pulling apart and scanning the vehicles, and that the rest should focus on specters. Already, they had produced seven of them, the much more dense and sophisticated version of our combat unit taking much longer to make. He agreed before bringing up another point.

"We seem to be low on MRVN units," He pointed out, his arms still working the controls for a molly maker. "Should we not add that to the list of things to make?"

"Yes, absolutely. Once we scale back the defensive perimeter construction, we will have quite a bit of production freed up," I explained. "Once that happens, specters and MRVNs should be our main concern until we shift to something else. I need to think about how many specters I want around, but fifteen more MRVNs and another dozen or so spares, just in case, should be good. Eventually, we will be working on clearing out the rest of the town, and we will need more manpower for that."

We chatted a bit more about the projects before I headed back to my workshop. I had completed Jackie and Samwise's companion, so it only made sense to keep on going and make something for everyone. I spent a few minutes considering what I should make for each person before deciding that a massive bear would be the perfect fit for Riggs. It would be a bit impractical for tight spaces but an absolute powerhouse in any other situation.

The design would be simple, following the same design style as Duke rather than Nova, which was what Kaytlyn had started calling her cat. This would be a combat-focused companion, and I knew that Riggs would appreciate the no-nonsense heavy hitter style.

When I was finished, about an hour and a half later, the design was complete, and it was a monster. A mass of armored plates and artificial muscle, the massive robot was powered by two large Elerium nodes, which fed directly into the bear's muscles, giving it incredible speed, stamina, and strength.

As I was finishing the design, I realized that there was a lot of empty real estate on its back, which led me to develop a deployable cover system. Essentially, the armored panels that covered the bear's back were three layers deep, and the top two layers could swing over and out, creating two car door-like panels of heavy armor on either side of the bear, turning it into a mobile cover that could easily hide a large person on each side.

On top of that, I also had an idea of what I could fit into the chest cavity. It wasn't as large as one might think, given how much it had to shift and flex as the bear ran, but there was plenty of room for some advanced concepts. I just needed to run them by Riggs first since I ultimately wanted to keep it up to him.

By the time I finished the design, it was getting pretty late. The sun had long since set, and I had heard the scrapper trucks leave at least an hour and a half ago. I stretched in my chair for a minute before whistling to Duke, who was pretending to sleep in the corner of the workshop. We made our way to my trailer, pausing to watch a pair of new specters being activated. Samwise, after waving to me, ran them through a few quick diagnostics before they walked off to the security office for assignment.

They moved in a robotic fashion, looking much closer to what Arasaka offered in terms of humanoid robotics. Had I not just seen them do jumping jacks and a back flip as Samwise tested their gyroscopes, I would have assumed they were near useless fodder.

When I finally arrived at my trailer, I spent a few minutes laying out my undersuit and armor, making sure it was easily accessible. I also made sure my pistol was loaded but with the safety on, and that my submachine gun was sitting on the table, locked and loaded. With any luck, being prepared to wake up to the worst would help me sleep a bit better.

The next morning, I woke from a fitful but mildly restful night's sleep to Riggs knocking on my door. His new face startled me for a moment before it clicked in my still-tired brain.

"Dakota Smith called, warning us that Saul from the Aldecaldos is going to make his way here," He explained. "We have an hour, maybe two."

"What? Why didn't she call me?" I asked, walking over to where my keyphone was charging and double-checking that it hadn't gone off.

"Kaytlyn says that's how these things work," The newly humanized AI said. "People in charge don't call each other, their people call each other."

I turned and looked at him, before shaking my head with a smirk.

"They called Kaytlyn, but she refused to play secretary, didn't she, so she passed the buck to you," I guessed, Riggs' nod telling enough. I chuckled before continuing. "Alright, let me take a quick shower and I'll join you guys. Do me a favor and tell Sam I will be by in a few to talk about how the night work went,"

He nodded and left, leaving me alone to clean up, as well as put on my armored underlayer, covering that with a normal pair of clothes. While I wanted to be prepared, I didn't want to come off as aggressive, so I left my armor behind. When I finally made my way to the workshop, Samwise was waiting for me with a tablet and a list. He gave me a rundown of the night's activities. The new specters were up to fifteen, with ten old ones still around.

"Listen, let's designate the new specters as…Shades, Since they are painted all black and have that more uniform armor," I suggested.

"Very well. We currently have fifteen shades and ten specters," Samwise explained. "We will continue focusing on producing more. Have you decided how many are you looking to have?"

"I want the corners to have at least eight each, and each defensive point between them to have three, and I want another twenty to patrol around the interior, both to stop anyone who sneaks and to reinforce any of the sides when we are attacked," I explained. "How many is that in total?"

"Fifty-six around the perimeter and twenty on patrol," He responded. "A considerable increase from what we had before."

"I know, but we are already tipping our hand a bit with the defensive perimeter," I pointed out. "creating some robots to man that wall is just a bit extra."

"Any thoughts on production speed or density?"

"Spe-Shades are a priority as long as they don't drain us off too many resources or get in the way of the new tech tree," I said after a moment of thought. "After we have thirty along the walls, we can scale back a bit, but only if we need to. How long will it take?"

"At current speeds, we will be finished before the next tree," Sam assured me. "We can slow down our production if we start cutting into supplies too heavily."

"Good, sounds good," I confirmed with a nod. "How is the wall?"

"Noah reported eighty-two percent completion of our perimeter defenses," My assistant reported. "All that remains are safety devices, cosmetics, and convenience features. As ordered, he is scaling back construction by seventy-five percent."

"Good, okay. Put some of the relieved MRVNs on MRVN production, then some on making more shades. The rest can focus on scraping and repair. There are bullet holes everywhere, and most of the vehicles aren't scrapped yet. Just keep the ones I designated alone. Oh, and keep a few to help me. I'll be working on some stuff after I'm done talking to Saul."

We continued to talk for a bit longer, going over some of the material numbers and some of the stuff I should consider buying rather than waiting to get lucky through scrap. Considering the incoming tech tree, I told him to triple the order he was thinking of. We had plenty of room, and I wanted to be ready to rock once I finally had some new tech to explore. It had been a while since I had gotten a new source of knowledge, and I was excited to expand my tech base.

The last thing he did was warn me that Jackie had shown up an hour before and had immediately gone to see Frank, but he hadn't left the Shack since.

I entered the Shack to find that it was empty, but I could hear Jackie and Frank talking in the small doctor's space that Frank worked from for now. When I knocked and stepped in, both of them turned to look at me.

"Morning, what's up?"

"Jackie is discussing some of the options for cooking while I run some of the new food samples he managed to find. I believe I am close to reproducing a facsimile of egg yolk, and I have already finished the whites."

"Damn, well out of anything that's going to be easy to cook with," I commented. "Assuming the texture isn't disgusting. Stacking egg, bread, and some sort of meat, preferably bacon, would make a passible breakfast sandwich. Assuming the bread was edible."

"I would require a sample of bread in order to make that happen," Frank pointed out.

"Bread is something I can get," Jackie responded, "Do we need to make a printable version?"

"Depends on how it turns out. The bread you guys eat is like fifty percent, not grain, which is horrifying," I pointed out. "If he can take an expensive all-grain bread, sample it, recreate it, and we can use that to make a semi-decent bread substitute, then it will be worth it. Otherwise, we might need to find alternatives."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Jackie opened his mouth to comment before shaking his head like he changed his mind.

"We are getting sidetracked, choom. I came 'cause Riggs said we are having the Aaldecaldos visit," He explained before posing an interesting question. "Would a printed meal make your offer more enticing? Should we show off what we can do that much? You said that revealing the foodstuff could be dangerous..."

"I…waving 'Real' food in front is a good way to get them very interested in what you have to say, for better or worse," I admitted. "But there's not a lot of way to make sure that's only good attention. Once, or rather if they move in, we can talk about letting them in on the secret."

"So, no miracle meal?"

"Let's… maybe we create one simple thing, maybe a fruit or maybe just a sample of meat," I suggested. "Then we present it as the pinnacle of our work, a lone, singular facet of what we are working on. Once we have their trust, and us theirs, we can reveal what's really going on."

Jackie agreed with the idea, and even admitted he had some thoughts on what he could make. Apparently, the somewhat impulsive choice to volunteer to experiment with cooking had given him a bit of a bug. He had been making notes for ideas all night, hence why he managed to get here so quickly when Riggs called him. He was already up and planning on coming over.

Everyone spent some time getting ready for our guests, mostly just cleaning up and repairing some small bits of damage around the place. I put out water, ice, and a few booze options nearby, but left the food to Jackie. It was just after two in the afternoon that Murtaugh radioed me.

"We have three cars approaching on the road," He said. "They are covered in Aldecaldo and nomad markings."

"Sounds like our guests are arriving," I responded, calling out to Jackie before continuing to talk to Murtaugh on the radio. "Keep the heavy weapons pointed away from them, but form up seven or eight shades to cover us just in case. Keep them out of sight."

"Seven or eight what?" he asked after a moment, sparking me to rub my eyes, knowing that the confusion was my fault. I waited way too long to rename the new defense robots.

"Shades are the designations for the new specters," I explained. "Spread that around if you can. I should have done it sooner."

"Copy that, Sir," the security AI responded. "Guest ETA in forty-five seconds."

"Thanks, Murtaugh, keep up the good work."

I made my way outside, making sure that everyone was in position. Riggs joined me as I stepped out of the Shack doors, wearing his fully repaired armor and looking like a full eight-foot-tall borg. He was fully armed, pistols on his hips and his massive mag cannon on his back.

"You good?" I asked as he followed behind me. "Armor fit properly with all the adjustments?"

"Yes, everything is fine," He acknowledged. "I do… find myself looking forward to taking it off now, though. That's new."

"I'm not surprised you're picking up new wants and needs, big guy. You went through some trauma, and that always changes people. No reason for AI's to be different. Just make sure you aren't bottling anything up. We are all here to help if you want to talk."

As we waited, watching the distant dust cloud get closer, I could see the two anti-personnel turrets on either side of the town's main entrance swivel away and aim upward, an obvious sign of non-aggression. As the three vehicles came around the final turn, emerging out from behind a shallow hill, I settled into a comfortable stance. With Riggs standing behind me, as well as what they had to drive past, I'm sure it cut an impressive visage.

As the vehicles pulled into town, I got a good look at them. All of them were obviously nomad style, covered in dirt, but clearly well maintained. The Aldecaldos ran their equipment hard, but they also took care of it, which made sense. When you were traveling across the badlands, the last thing you wanted was something to give out due to poor maintenance.

All three vehicles parked smoothly along the Shack, with the final Type-66 stopping right in front of me. After a moment, an older man climbed out. He had wild hair, a full beard and mustache, sun-slapped skin, and light eyes. He approached me, stopping within a few feet.

"I assume you're this Jackson that Dakota talks so highly of?" He asked, giving me an obvious look up and down.

"And you must be Saul," I responded, reaching out to shake his hand, watching from the corner of my eye as three more people climbed out of the other two cars. "Got a bit of a proposal, Dakota says getting you on board will help make it a reality."

After a moment, the slightly older man reached out and shook my hand, squeezing it a bit harder than necessary. Unfortunately for him, I could easily match whatever he was outputting with my underlayer. I didn't hurt him, though, as that would be counterproductive. I simply matched his strength, applying the same amount of pressure as him. When he finally released my hand, he nodded.

"I don't know about a proposal, but she suggested that I hear what you had to say," He admitted, giving me the eye. "You got some sort of presentation, maybe some slides for us to watch?"

"Nothing that corporate," I assured him. "Why don't we step inside before it really starts to warm up. We have drinks inside."

He nodded and followed me as I turned and headed back into the Shack, his three bodyguards following along. Part of me had expected Panam to show up, which made me wonder where she was. Before she left the family, according to the lore that I knew, she was more or less Saul's right-hand woman. If she had already left the family, it meant that Saul was already openly talking to Biotechnica, looking for ways to better feed the Aldecaldos, and generally getting screwed over.

We sat down around the table, Saul happily accepting a beer from Jackie, his bodyguards sitting around the room. Riggs stayed by the door while Jackie sat down beside me. I waited for Saul to enjoy a sip of his beer before leaning back in my chair.

"How much did Dakota tell you before suggesting you pay me a visit?"

"She claimed that you were a halfway decent sort who would probably deal fairly with me," He admitted, sipping his beer. "Said that you had an idea for us."

"I suppose that's the best I could have hoped for," I said with a smirk. "I do have an offer, not just for you and your family, but for friendly nomads in general. You see, own the entirety of Rocky Ridge, as well as a good chunk of land around it. At the moment, it is sitting there, filled with junk and scrap."

"And what, you wanna hire us to clear it?" He asked, looking confused and not a small bit insulted.

"No, I've got bots for that," I assured him. "What I want is to create a safe place for traveling nomads to settle down, do their business, refuel, recharge, and buy their parts. It will be defended as well as my section of the town is and will have plenty of room for two, maybe even three groups at once."

That seemed to get his attention, his attitude shifting from basically only half listening to fully paying attention. He sat up straighter and focused on me, putting down his beer.

"And what's the catch?" He asked, watching me closely.

"The catch is that we would be mutually using each other for protection," I explained. "The groups would be safe from raffen shiv, other gangs, and from being asked to leave for trespassing, since I own this area. In turn, you would be my cover, acting as a distraction and a filter to keep people's eyes and ears away from my work."

"And what exactly is your work?"

"I'm an inventor, a builder with big dreams and a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head. For everything from armor," I said, gesturing to Riggs standing by the door. "To robotics, weapon systems, and… well, I think my second has something you and your men can enjoy."

Jackie smirked and stood, heading to Frank's space, returning with five frosty mugs of red blended ice, each with a straw. He placed one in front of everyone, but nobody made any move to try it until I took a big sip of one, letting out a refreshing sigh when I was done. As near as I could tell, Jackie had blended up the strawberry chunks to get rid of their texture, frozen them to make ice cubes, and then blended them to make a fruit smoothie-like slush thing. Then, because he was Jackie, he poured some sort of sweet liquor over it to make a bastardized and broken strawberry daiquiri.

Somewhat hesitantly, Saul took a sip, ignoring the straw. He nearly coughed it up before taking another, much more eager taste. He savored it for a long moment before swallowing it down.

"Did… Is that real strawberries?" He asked, his eyes wide as he looked at me.

"Nope, it is a synthetic recreation," I explained. "Same nutritional value, with no additives, stabilizers, flavorings, or anything else. We are still working on getting the texture right, but honestly, just having the flavor and nutritional value is impressive enough."

"...Why strawberries?" He asked, taking another sip.

"Why not?" I asked back with a shrug. "They are tasty and healthy, and we were able to get the right samples. It seemed like a great place to start."

I was being purposely misleading, acting like the strawberries were all we had developed and that we were still in development. I didn't know how deep I would let the nomads into this whole charade, but keeping them at a slight distance was the best bet for now.

"So you make things, including food," He commented, though I could hear a slight interest in my ability to make food. "Why's that require a cover? Besides the obvious threats."

"Because I have plans that don't involve being tied to some big company that can yank my leash whenever they feel like making some cash," I said. "I have no interest in being a corpo stooge or a chained genius."

He watched me as I spoke, listening to the words I said, seeming to weigh them as I spoke.

"Now I understand that nomads generally default to trade rather than eddies, which is why I want to do away with the idea of anyone paying anyone anything," I explained. "A mutual exchange of services, with benefits to each side. That way, we don't get at each other's throats when you're short on eddies."

"And what type of services would we be offering each other?"

I smiled and leaned in, glad to finally have some of his interest. I started going down the list of what I planned on creating, a place where traveling nomads could buy cheap parts, upgrades, recharge their batteries, and even fill up on CHOOH2. They could stay somewhere close to Night City, defended from gangs and Wraiths, and do their business with the knowledge that they weren't going to get harassed for staying where they shouldn't. I would even have the occasional job for them. And, given that I understood how eddies didn't flow through Nomad families, I was happy to accept rare or valuable scrap as payment. I had iron, aluminum, and other basic metals coming out of my ears, but I could always use a bit of the more rare materials.

The only draw was that they would be hanging around me, a potential target for companies. A risk, for sure, but they were used to being under threat from major corporations. I would also ask that they do any major illegal business away from the compound.

Saul asked a few more questions before eventually leaning back and finally bringing up the topic I knew he really wanted to ask.

"What about food?" He asked. "You're working on your strawberries, but what about growing food?"

"Well, alongside the project for recreating food is another project, one about creating cheap, healthy food," I admitted. "The idea is to replace or augment normal meals to vastly cut down the cost and quantity needed to survive at a healthy level."

"But we would have to purchase that from you," He accused, shaking his head. "And while Dakota might trust you for some bizarre reason, I doubt you could supply all of the Aldecaldos, never mind the other nomad families."

"There are plenty of other opportunities," I assured him. "This is just the beginning, and while I don't have the kind of solution you're looking for now, that doesn't mean I won't in the future. Besides, this proposal is not specifically about food. I understand your worry and desire to improve your people's lives through access to better food, but don't pass over the silver because you're looking for gold. Especially when it is very possible to pick both."