Vik gave me the specs for Rebecca's arm connection points, as well as the specs on her internal cyberware. She thankfully had the proper internal reinforcements for gorilla arms, so whoever her ripperdoc was, he wasn't a complete hack. The implants weren't quite up to my standard, so I needed to make sure I was inside her specs, since I could overwhelm her reinforcements if I really put my mind to it.

  While Frank and Vik did their business, I got to work on Rebacca's arms. At first, I considered just taking the standard arms of an unit, the base model that Murtaugh and Riggs used, and then beefing them up a bit, but then I figured if I was going to do it, I might as well do it right.

  So, rather than copying another design, I started from scratch. I carefully mixed artificial muscles and servomotor joints, building them in unison to get the best of both worlds, precision, fluidity, and strength. I worked in sound dampening to keep the servos silent before realizing that I could use a dozen impact dampeners, built into the core structure, to absorb recoil. They would be togglable, so she could still hit things without the dampeners absorbing half of the impact, but when she was holding a gun, she would have a significantly easier time holding it steady.

  I also added in some extra knuckle and wrist reinforcements, so that, if necessary, she could punch out someone twice her size without having to worry about damaging her hands.

  Okay, so it wasn't exactly the peak of my capabilities. I was perfectly capable of adding quite a few more bells and whistles, maybe working in some sort of punch blade, or a hidden weapon. Hell, I could probably work in a decently powerful forearm cannon if I was really trying. I didn't even use any super-advanced alloys to save space or add some robustness. But in all honesty, I still wasn't sold on Rebecca joining permanently. If she hung around, and she mellowed out a bit while working with Vik, I could see about changing my opinion and eventually upgrading her arms. For now, however, she would have to be happy with perfectly adjusted arms that were just about superior to anything else on the market.

  When I finished the designs, I let the production MRVNs in the back handle printing and assembly while I returned to the Shack. The arms would be ready in an hour or so, but Rebecca wouldn't be getting them today, since I wasn't about to reveal how fast we could produce custom hardware like that, at least not to her. No, Vik would bring her back to his shop, hook her up with some basic temporary replacements, and then in a day or so, I would announce that her new arms were "ready," and Vik could install them. Or, more likely, he would take them back to his shop to run through some tests, and then install them.

  As Vik and Frank finished their work on the surgery plan for my implant, I hung around the Shack, enjoying a bit of downtime with Jackie. Somehow, we ended up playing one of the that we had kept from the original Shack design. As Jackie tried to set the high score on a low-quality look-alike based around the, I leaned against the cabinet, watching him play. Eventually, after we switched back and forth a few times, I watched him from the corner of my eye as I casually tried to save his life.

  "So... I was trying to figure out what we could do with some of the buildings I had Noah set up in the campground," I said, trying my best to act nonchalant, like this was just off the cuff. "Some of them will be handy for the Nomads to use, but one of the big ones could be good for something else…"

  "Like what, choom?" Jackie asked, trying to focus on his game.

  "Well, it would easily fit a full kitchen," I pointed out. "It would be the perfect place to run some sort of restaurant. If you wanted to."

  Jackie locked up, the sound of his character dying for his last life playing. He slowly pulled back away from the machine to look at me, his expression complicated, seeming to run through confused, interested, and... excited?

  "You want me to run a restaurant?" He asked, looking at me like he wasn't sure how he should feel. "Why?"

  "I mean, I was only asking if you want to," I responded with what I hoped was a casual shrug. "If that's something you would like."

  "What kind of restaurant?" He asked quietly, almost like he was sure he should be asking.

  "Well, I was thinking the Nomads would appreciate a sort of walk-up window style," I suggested. "You could open on the weekends or something. I could make a couple robots to help, and you would be the head chef. Personally, I would stick to simple stuff to keep it easy, and since I'm not ready to really show off all of the incredible work you've done with Frank."

  "A restaurant…"

  He went quiet for a moment, staring at the arcade cabinet screen as it flashed "Game Over" over and over again. Not that it mattered, because from what I could see, he wasn't reading it anyway, his mind a million miles away as he thought about my suggestion. At about the minute mark, I started to get a bit worried.

  "Listen, you-"

  "I'll think about it," He said suddenly, cutting me off. He reached forward and tapped at the controls, restarting the game. "I don't know, but I'll think about it."

  "Cool," I responded simply, turning back to the game, before nudging his shoulder. "Hey, you died, it's my turn."

  "What? That was your fault, pendejo," He claimed. "You distracted me!"

  "Oh, it's my fault you can't talk and play at the same time? Try again," I said with a smirk, pushing him again, laughing when his character jumped straight off the side of the level. "See, my turn."

  Jackie and I played for another fifteen or twenty minutes, trash-talking and bickering on and off. Eventually, Vik and Frank stepped out from the AI's office, with Frank carrying a plastic box. They shared a look before Vik gave me a confident smile.

  "We are ready," He said, patting my shoulder. "The surgery is planned, and Frank has all the parts. All that's left is to set up the surgery suite and get to work."

  "And you're sure you can do them all at once?" I asked, my paranoia itching at the back of my mind, now that the moment was actually here.

  "There are several safe stopping points along the surgical plan where I can pause if I need a break to rest my hands," he assured me. "If at any point I need an extended break, we will close you up at one of those points, use a stimpack to heal you up, and then finish the surgery tomorrow. That said, I don't think that will be a problem. With Frank's help, I don't see this as being that difficult. Long, maybe, but not difficult."

  "Right. Well, let's get Rebecca set up in one of the temporary trailers, she can watch TV or something there. Then-"

  "Jackson, relax," Jackie said, giving me a gentle nudge. "You got this, no problem. Let us handle the rest."

  I let out a long breath and nodded, letting go of the situation for the moment, despite my instincts. I found a quiet spot to calm down as my friends took care of the logistics.

  Thirty minutes later, I was sitting in the surgery suite, a whole host of things hooked up to me to monitor my vitals. Frank did one last scan of my body to make sure nothing was going to get in the way of the surgery, while Vik finished getting his own tools ready and sterilized.

  "Alright, Jay, are you ready?" the ripperdoc asked, waiting for me to nod. "Perfect. Frank is going to administer the anesthesia, so take a few deep breaths and count back from ten."

  Frank appeared in my peripheral, holding a mask with a little tank along the side. He nodded and gently pressed it against my face, and after a moment, I took a long breath, soon followed by a few more. When he pulled the mask away, I began counting backward, only for darkness to swallow me before I could reach seven.

  When I woke up, I was still lying in the surgery suite, almost like no time had passed. Frank was standing by some of the monitoring equipment and immediately spotted my shift in consciousness. My mind was swimming from the anesthetic, but he put a calming hand on my shoulder.

  "Relax, you're going to feel groggy for at least another thirty minutes," he warned, waving a scanner over my head. "The surgery was a complete success, the installation went flawlessly. The system will be set to turn on in about an hour."

  I nodded, regretting it instantly since it made the swimming brain worse. Frank gave me a small cup of water which I drank greedily, finishing it just as Vik entered the temporary room, a big smile plastered over his face.

  "How do you feel?" he asked, sitting beside me.

  "A bit loopy," I admitted, laying back and closing my eyes.

  "That will pass," He explained with a smile, though I could see an underlying tiredness. "All you can do is sit back and let your body work through it. It should all pass before the implant kicks on. I would have preferred to have the option of turning it on when I was sure you were ready, but it's your implant and your body. I can't stop you from being paranoid."

  We shared a chuckle before he patted my shoulder. I winced, before realizing that there was actually no pain. It was strange, almost like my body it had been cut open and modified, and it was confused as to why I wasn't in pain. It wasn't anything major, just a slight oddity that I very well could have been imagining under the effects of the drugs still in my system.

  Vik hung around, checking in on me until my implant could kick on, and we found out if everything actually had gone perfectly. He was sitting beside me, watching the timer tick down when it did. As the implant finally activated, I couldn't help but let out a gasp.

  In a split second, an honest-to-go HUD appeared around the corners of my vision. Most of it was empty since there wasn't a whole lot connected to it, but as I looked around the room, I noticed that objects and items were highlighted. I shook my head a bit, overwhelmed by the display.

  "Is everything alright? Anything feel warm or sore?" Vik asked, trying to catch my attention.

  "No, no, it's not that," I said, shaking my head. "I just went overboard designing the HUD system. It's overwhelming. Hold on."

  I closed my eyes and focused, closing and modifying the HUD, tapping into the settings, and quickly adjusting it. After a few minutes of tinkering, I finally simplified it enough that I could turn it back in and not be overwhelmed. I did take a moment to activate a little info feed about the interface's functionality, quickly double-checking that everything was in order and none of the implant's internal sensors were reading anything off.

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  "Alright, that's better," I said, looking at Vik, very happy to find that his face wasn't suddenly highlighted. "Everything is running fine."

  We ran a few more internal tests, which I honestly could have done on my own, before Vik was satisfied. By that time, he had been at the Ridge much longer than he had originally planned, and he was long past due back. After reassuring him I would be fine, Jackie finally drove him home, taking Rebecca with him.

  With a clean bill of health and confirmation that my implant was running smoothly, it was finally time for me to stretch my legs. I was desperate to put the implant to the test and see what it could really do. Thankfully, Samwise was ahead of the curve, as always, and designed a link between the photon router and my garage computer.

  I made my way down to the Shack's first floor, where I grabbed a snack and a smoothie Jackie had left for me. I quickly finished both before finally heading to the garage, where Samwise was waiting. He was just as eager as I was to see how this worked, as setting up a photon router for him and the other AI would be extremely beneficial to them. They wouldn't be able to travel along the connection, but they could still send and receive data and interface directly with the tech they used.

  I greeted my AI assistant with a smile before quickly making my way to my workstation. I sat down in my chair and, with a thought, connected to the router and activated the link between me and my computer.

  Slowly but surely, I pulled up my design software, started a new file, and started planning out a drone, all without touching the keyboard or mouse. It was slow at first, but as I got more and more used to it, the process got faster and faster. I could feel my brain, or more specifically my reflexes, adapting to the direct connection. It was like getting used to where all the buttons and switches were on a new car, but with no physical separation between my thoughts and the action.

  The process was far from instantaneous, and I could tell it never would be, as it wasn't that kind of interface. But I could already feel that with a bit of work, the design process was no longer going to be a major point of slowdown.

  The drone design was finished, with the final step now in the hands of production. Despite the fact that it was getting pretty late, I continued to work, my excitement easily keeping me going, despite not getting to use what I was designing. Anything that I created now would be ready when I woke up the next morning.

  I spent a few more hours designing, each one taking less time than the one before it. At just about two AM, Samwise finally convinced me to call it a night, Duke half following and half guiding me home.

  I woke up the following day more than a bit late. Rather than rushing out of bed to see what I had designed the night before, I reached out with my interface to the router, which was already linked to three new systems. The first was the newly, which I immediately partially connected. The drone itself wasn't really anything special, just an improved and modernized with some extra thrust systems for utility and added sensors for my own benefit. After checking that its systems were all set for a minute, I finally fully linked to it.

  Suddenly, my vision was almost completely replaced by a camera feed, which showed the roof of the garage, a small charging port, and an already set up landing pad.

  "I really need to do something special for Sam," I said out loud, laying back in my bed as I turned on the drone, feeling its power generation thrum to life.

  I took the drone up into the air, slowly pulling off the garage roof before tearing it across the Ridge as fast as it could go. For a moment, my brain panicked, but I quickly got control over myself, the slight bits of my room I could see around the camera feed helping me do so.

  I did a quick loop around the campground section, dropping down low so that the camera could pick out the details of the shades manning the wall. I could see the combat robots turning to follow the drone like a bunch of cats, watching the movement until I passed beyond their sphere of concern.

  Next, I zoomed across our section of town, stopping by Kaytlyn's sniper nest before activating the drone's speakers.

  "Hey! Anyone home?" I called out, both in my room and through the drone. "Taking a nap there?"

  Kaytlyn, who had been fiddling with her sniper rifle, jumped up when I shouted at her, her pistol drawn and squarely aimed at the drone. She managed to hold back from shooting it however, instead holding steady for a moment before kissing her teeth and lowering her weapon.

  "What the hell, Jay?" she asked, crossing her arms. "What are you doing?"

  "Just checking in, testing my new implant," I explained, bouncing the drone around, even doing a flip, the camera stabilizing most of the visual issues away.

  "How's it working?"

  "There is a learning curve, but I'm managing," I responded. "I imagine some things are going to be harder than others, this is me just telling the drone what to do, other things are going to require more control."

  "Right… Well, just FYI, Jackie was talking about another gig," She warned. "Something about clearing out some property or something. Didn't sound too big, but he wanted to talk to you."

  "Ah, sure, I'll look for him," I said, spinning the drone and scanning the ground. The car he had been using was here, so he likely was as well. "Alright, I'll talk to you later."

  "Wait, hold up. Anything special about this drone?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "Like, does the connection hurt if it's destroyed, or is it hard to make?"

  "No, the router protects me, and Samwise has a whole stash of tangled particles ready to go," I answer, tilting the drone instinctively. "Pretty sure they even made some spare drone shells. Why?"

  "Teaching moment," She said with a shrug. "Don't scare me while I'm handling my gun."

  Quick as a flash, she raised her pistol and sighted me in. I jerked the controls away, trying to dodge her shots, but I was too close, and she had caught me off guard. The first round punched through the top left of the drone's body, while the second disabled the lift. I plummet to the ground, the camera and photon capsule breaking on impact. The feed I was looking at flicked to black before slowly pulsing a "Signal Lost" message.

  "Huh… fair enough, I suppose," I said with a groan, rolling to the edge of the bed and sitting there for a moment before standing and stretching.

  As I went about my morning, I could see another option in my list of router connections, but I ignored it for the time being. One of the things I was worried about while coming up with this interfacing system was just how easy it would be to separate myself from everyone. Between my paranoia and penchant for leaning towards being antisocial, I knew that, if I let myself, I would absolutely slip into some unhealthy habits. I needed to force myself to leave my trailer, and later the Vault, or I would quickly spiral.

  I poked my head into the Shack, looking for Jackie, only to find that he was busy talking with Frank. So, rather than interrupt, I left them to their work, instead heading to the garage. I sat down in my chair and brought up my design software, watching the computer as I controlled it with my mind. After a few minutes of manipulating the software, something that had been bugging me while I was initially testing out the connection finally clicked in my head. I was restricting myself rather heavily by sticking with just the screen. I now had access to the perfect augmented reality system, not using it would be a huge waste.

  I quickly took a copy of the design software I used before tearing it apart with a series of thoughts. I was pushing my programming system to the brink as I took the CAD software, dissected it, reinforced it, and mixed it with a high-powered response system before puzzling out a 3D imaging wireframe system.

  After three hours of work and several crashed initializing attempts, I finally slid a photon capsule into the large computer bank I had bootstrapped together to hold my new, completely overpowered CAD program. I passed the bank off to a MRVN to carry off to the Vault for safekeeping, waiting a few minutes for its connection point to blink into my control list. I stood from my chair and made my way to Sam's half of the garage, which was much more open than mine, before activating my newest creation.

  The space lit up with a base, which appeared fused to the ground. Around it floated the tools and commands I most commonly used, waiting to be activated by a look or with a thought. I quickly brought up the files on the T-64 power armor, opened it up, and placed it on the table. The wireframe design flashed into existence, looking very similar to what Tony Starks in the MCU.

  I reached out and flicked the projection with my hand. Though my fingers still passed through it, my implant did give me a level of haptic feedback, almost like I was dipping my fingers into a very thin sheet of water, without feeling wet. I activated the response program interpretation system, allowing the advanced program to differentiate between every little part, noting every alloy and polymer. When it was done, I could reach out and tap on a part and receive detailed information about it, most of it inference by the RP, since I never really added specific material information, just what its components were made from so the molly makers could print them correctly.

  Resisting the urge to continue working the power armor, I reached out and crushed it up, crumpling the wireframe into a ball before "throwing it" into the trash. I then started a new file, experimenting with creating something completely new, messing around with the software, and getting used to the extreme responsiveness. After about twenty minutes of building random metal objects and fiddling around with other designs, I was rather rudely interrupted.

  "So, should I get Vik on the line?"

  Jackie, who had somehow snuck in behind me while I was fiddling, was leaning against the inner door frame of the workshop. From his perspective, I would have looked like I was waving, poking and grabbing at nothing.

  "No, you fucker," I said, resisting the urge to throw something at him as my heart thundered in my chest. "I'm messing around with a piece of design software that uses my implants. I can see a bunch of stuff."

  "Oh, good, that would have been bad," He said with a smirk. "By the way, we have a Gig."

  "...Kaytlyn mentioned that, but something about how you said it is making me nervous," I responded, now turning to look at him. "Any reason why?"

  "Well… Kinda?" He responded, rubbing the back of his head. "It's nothing big, just a small punk gang squatting in a construction site. Shouldn't be more than thirty people, selling drugs and looking to start something. Padre is the one who gave it to me, and he is asking me to take care of it quickly, partially as a favor to him."

  I let out a long breath. I had very mixed feelings about Padre, especially since he had helped Jackie and his mom so much in the past. He definitely took advantage of my situation in the early days of all this to make himself a lot of money. Yes, he provided me money and obfuscation when I needed it, but he had definitely underpaid for the tech I sold him. Still, staying on his good side was better than not, and given that he was a friend of Jackie's family…

  "I'm assuming by quickly, you mean as soon as possible?" I asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "And by that, I assume you mean tonight?"

  "If we can, yeah," He said with a wince. "Look, I know it's sudden, but it is your downtime from your thing, and… well, it's been a while since we took a gig…"

  Internally I cursed, letting out a long breath, before finally nodding.

  "Fine, fine. We can do it tonight. You're not wrong, and I am free, more or less," I admitted, looking around the workshop. "Go tell Kaytlyn and Riggs what is up, and tell them to head to the Shack so we can go over everything. I'll… I'll be there in a minute. I need to finish something here and get dressed."

  "Sure thing Genio," He said with a smile. "And thanks."

  I nodded as he left, before letting out another long breath. After a moment, I made my way out of the workshop and into the side room. While most of the room was now dedicated to the production addition just a door away, one of the original couches was still inside. I sat down in it heavily, before shifting and laying down on my back. For a moment I closed my eyes, just feeling myself breathing.

  When I opened my eyes, I felt more ready, and a quick check of my HUD told me I had wasted enough time gathering myself. I slowly stepped forward, stumbling for a moment before Samwise stepped forward to catch me.

  "Are you alright?" he asked, sounding concerned, his reinforced frame more than enough to lean on. "Pushing yourself is not a good idea, Jackson."

  "It's fine, I just needed a moment," I assured him, patting his shoulder. "If it turns into something, I'll call off the mission."

  "Very well, Jackson," He said with a nod. "Good luck."

  I smiled and made my way out, leaving the production addition through the back door. I quickly made my way back to my trailer, where I carefully and patiently put on my armored undersuit and then my armor. I double-checked that my jump kit was strapped on properly, followed by my and my. Lastly, I grabbed my helmet and clipped it onto my belt. I took a deep breath, going over the process I had just gone through, mentally examining my actions. As far as I could tell, everything was fine, and I felt normal.

  After reassuring myself I was fine to fight, I left my trailer and headed over to the Shack, arriving just as Kaytlyn did.

  "You know, you could have put it off," She said, giving me a look. "Padre could have waited a day."

  "No point," I said with a shrug. "Tonight, tomorrow night, not much of a difference really."

  She grumbled a bit as we stepped inside to find Riggs already sitting at the table and Jackie tapping at one of the simple tablets that Sam and Frank used. As Kaytyn and I sat, he passed it to me.

  "So it's a ten-story building just on the outskirts of Valentino territory," Jackie explained. "Padre wants the people inside gone since they are encroaching, holding up the building's development, and they aren't following Valentino rules."

  "Right, what rules have been broken?" I asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not slaughtering thirty people 'cause they didn't know the secret handshake or bow three times when someone important walked by."

  "They were selling drugs to kids and are harassing locals for cash," Jackie said with a frown. "Smacking them around a bit when they don't pay up. The last straw was when they killed a shop owner who refused to do business with them."

  "... Good enough for me," I said with a frown, shaking my head. "Alright, then what's the plan?"