Kaytlyn and I chatted for a while, sharing stories about growing up over her beer and my fruit salad. After a while, when I realized just how late it had gotten, I headed off to get some sleep. As I crawled into bed, I idly realized that this could possibly be the last time I slept in my trailer. I was unsurprisingly excited by the concept of moving into the bunker. I knew Samwise was going all out with the designs, and I was looking forward to having an actually safe place to lay my head. We would have to figure out the teleportation stuff, but given the fact we basically had infinite materials at this point, there weren't many problems we couldn't solve by throwing resources at it.

  The next morning, I woke up and lazily, eventually, made my way to the workshop. My first task for the day was to build the Monocyte Breeder, which had been bouncing around in my head for a while now. I already had more than a dozen small ideas to make the implant smaller, less conspicuous, hardier, and more energy efficient, but I still hadn't cracked how to boost its effectiveness. Don't get me wrong, the version that the Institute made was already far better than the pre-war model by at least a factor of two. But they had obviously run into the same wall I had.

  In the game, the original model, the, was only really good for hardcore playthroughs, or if having a few health bar pips missing bothered you, but you were too much of a hoarder to use a stimpak. In reality, the original implant was a slow but constant increase in healing speed, taking injuries that would usually lay people up for several weeks and condensing them down into one or two.

  The Monocyte Breeder implant was fused along one of your bones, one with plenty of blood flow and bone marrow. It would then stimulate monocyte production, which were cells that were responsible for a lot of the body's healing. It also seemed to have the opposite tendency as my nano hive in that it was more effective on minor injuries. Bruises would fade in just a few hours, but it wasn't nearly as effective at preventing blood loss. Meanwhile, keeping you from bleeding out was one of the nano hive's most significant selling points.

  Unfortunately, there was a critical barrier that both the Institute and I couldn't push past, at least not at the moment. At some point, increasing the availability of monocyte cells reached a state of diminishing returns, where the limiting factor was the cardiovascular system, not the monocyte concentration. The Institutes basically hit the very highest point before it became pointless, and there was no way to improve past that. Otherwise, you could just slap on multiple copies of the implant and give yourself a real healing factor.

  While it was disappointing that I had no way of bumping up the effectiveness even further, I would settle for even better internal healing, as it would actually work to keep my body healthy. Yes, it would come in handy in an emergency, like if I was ever caught without stimpaks, but having such enhanced healing was handy in general life as well. It meant no more sore joints as the swelling was swiftly washed away. It meant no bruises, no sore necks, no carpal tunnel. All the tiny little injuries you missed but stacked up would just fade away. For Jackie, it would keep his tendons and muscles from being damaged from repeat use of his Sandy, but for me, it was just a quality of life enhancement, as well as something that could save my life in a pinch.

  I was putting the finishing touches on the last form of the implant when Murtaugh sent a message to me. Rather than through the radio, or through my keyphone, the message popped up along my HUD, a little blinking icon.

  Samwise, being the exceptional individual that he was, had designed a prototype communication system using the tangled photons, creating the final word in secure communications. Mine was linked to my implant, but everyone else would be getting keyphones like mine, unless they wanted some sort of implant to interface with their eye implants or something like that. It all worked through a machine already safely stored in the vault, a relay that also connected to my router. He even went as far as to write a little program to delay messages that weren't emergencies until I wasn't heavily focused on something. As soon as they were distributed, we could finally say goodbye to the overly complicated radio systems I had designed. For now, however, I was testing the implementation on my end.

  I opened the message with a thought, reading the message and examining the aerial photo of a Nomad caravan approaching the town, clearly marked as Aldecaldos. Just a quick count showed that this was probably just the first wave of arrivals. I sent Murtaugh an acknowledgment before quickly finishing up my work. Using my keyphone, I sent a message to Vik that I had more stuff for him to look at, along with a warning that my new tenants had arrived, so things might be a bit hectic. I also sent a message to Jackie telling him that the Aldecaldos were on their way. I got confirmation from both of them almost immediately, with the latter confirming he was on his way.

  After I finished up the design and sent a production request for a half dozen of the implants, I left the garage behind, stepping out into the rapidly warming outdoors. Riggs was waiting for me, having probably been told about our guests from Murtaugh.

  "Hey Riggs, how's it going?" I asked, patting him on the shoulder as I walked by, the large AI following behind me. "Are you ready to meet our new tenants?"

  "Tenants implies they are paying you," He pointed out. "Which I believe the Nomads are explicitly not doing."

  "Not in eddies, no," I admitted. "I'm hoping for a more symbiotic relationship than that, Riggs. I think, with a little work and some showing off, we could be standing at the start of a great alliance."

  Riggs stayed silent as we sat down to wait for the convoy to arrive. Sure enough, about five minutes later, Alexander's pulled in, parking by the Shack, while the convoy rolled to a stop just outside the town. Murtaugh was thankfully keeping his guns off of the Nomads.

  "Alexander, good to see you," I said, reaching out to shake his hand. "Moving day already?"

  "Good to see you as well," he commented, shaking my hand with a firm grip. "And yeah, this is just the first wave. Once these guys are set up, we have two more after this."

  "How big is the final total?"

  "Two hundred and forty-three," he responded before turning and gesturing to the large that led. "We are ready to move and set up some of the larger trucks, if you're ready for them."

  "By all means," I said with a nod, gesturing to the entrance. "You enter through this entrance, or if you're willing to go off-road, we could move some of the Hesco barriers, and you could enter through the side."

  "The road will work fine, I think," He assured me with a nod, waving in the first of the trucks.

  With the hiss of released airbrakes, the first large truck pulled forward, slowly passing through town. Four other trucks followed the first, which in turn were followed by several smaller vehicles. They pulled through the town center, then through the walls, before pulling into various spaces. Once things were parked, Alexander and I made our way to the campground, the leader quickly taking control of the situation.

  It was clear, despite having only been the leader for a short time, that the Nomads respected him. Even more encouraging, his people were not afraid to ask questions or make suggestions, and he was happy to take them seriously. I already had a good feeling about him, but I was glad to see that feeling get validated. As the Aldecaldos set to work, I had Samwise send out a couple of standard MRVN units to help. Duke was following beside me, without his fake robotic programming engaged, catching several looks as we watched.

  I was looking to desensitize them to my tech, as the quicker they saw the robots as normal, the quicker they wouldn't bat an eye at weirder stuff. Not that I was planning on teleporting around or firing off plasma weapons around them.

  I hung around and watched them set up the first few trucks, as well as a few large tents. Before long, however, I got bored and left them to their own devices. No doubt Murtaugh was keeping several close eyes over them anyway.

  After saying goodbye to Alexander and leaving the Aldecaldos to their work, I headed back to the workshop. With Frank working on the wet stuff, starting with the lungs, I was back to having time to myself, which meant I could finally get to work on something that was bugging the hell out of me.

  Ignoring all the mistakes that occurred during the previous night's mission, I was, frankly, quite annoyed that my robot frame had fallen so quickly, given that it was wearing two layers of armor. The frame had basically been a thinned-down unit with normal legs, covered in synthetic skin. Samwise was responsible for most of it, but the design was mostly borrowed from the work I did with Riggs.

  The fact that my armor succumbed to an HMG was not exactly a surprise, I already knew they were powerful enough to damage even my reinforced, armored stuff since one almost killed Riggs. I knew they were a large caliber weapon capable of taking down large vehicles, but I was annoyed that the ALEO unit had basically gone down like a bitch at the first bit of damage. Hell, if I had been hit in the same spots, I would have been better off than the frame. At least a stimpak would have fixed my issues.

  Since it was very likely I would be only attending missions in a robot frame from now on, I needed to build one I could trust to take the abuse and keep on trucking. On top of that, I also wanted to design a noncombat frame, something as human-like as possible, to fool any scans someone could pull down on me.

  Basically, I needed a robot combat frame and a synth frame.

  I could make a synth body without a brain, removing the ethical issues, and I was pretty sure I could fake my way through not having an overboard setup like the Institute had. Plus, there was a lot of room for improvement when it came to designing a robot, especially if I wasn't concerned about what it looked like and leaned heavily on the borged-out monstrosity.

  I could feel myself getting excited about the project when I heard someone enter into the side building. After a moment, Jackie stepped into view.

  "Hey Jay, how's it going?" He asked, his hands in his pockets. "Looks busy over at the campground."

  "Yeah, they should be all moved in sometime tomorrow," I explained. "Oh, wanna see the chrome I was talking about? The one that will keep the strain of using your Sandevistan from stacking up?"

  Jackie nodded, and I walked over to my workstation, where one of the production MRVNs had put the copies I requested for Vik to test and check out. The finished product was a metal rectangle, about the size of an empty matchbook, opened up and spread out. This particular model was designed to be set into the sternum, so it was plated thicker in the front to protect it from impact. I passed one to him, the larger muscular man turning it over, revealing the two dozen prongs that did the job of stimulating monocyte production.

  Huh… that's smaller than I would have thought," he admitted. "And this goes where, exactly?"

  "It gets set into your sternum, so those prongs reach your marrow," I explained. "You won't even remember it's there, but it will keep your muscles and tendons healthy while you use your Sandy."

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  "Yeah, alright," he nodded in agreement, passing the implant back to me, before sitting on a nearby crate. "Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something."

  "Oh, boy. Okay, yeah. What's going on?" I asked, his shift in tone catching me off guard. I pulled my own seat over, sitting down at his level. "Everything okay?"

  "Yes, everything is great, and that's the problem," Jackie said, shaking his head. "No, that's not right. It's not a problem, it's just… Dammit, this was a lot easier to explain with Misty filling in the gaps for me."

  "Take your time, Jackie," I said, trying to sound reassuring, starting to feel concerned. "I've got all day."

  He sat there for a moment, getting his thoughts in order, before finally starting to talk again, though his head was turned to study something along the garage door.

  "I don't want to give up. I've spent my whole life trying to make my mark on Night City," He explained, a frown crossing his face. "It's been my dream since I was little. My dad tried to beat it out of me, said I was born nothing special and would die nothing special. My whole life became about proving him wrong."

  Admitted that seemed to take a lot out of Jackie, and he paused, fiddling with a bolt he must have found on the ground. I was glad for the moment to collect myself as well, quickly schooling my shocked look into something vaguely resembling calm.

  "I still want that. I still want to leave my mark, carve my name into the streets of Night City… But between you, Misty, and Kayt…" He started, trailing off. "Last night was a real eye-opener, Genio. Either of us could have died in that moment, just a single mistake and…"

  He stood up quickly, a clear mix of nervous energy and agitation driving him to pace in the garage. While he was facing away, the door to the production addition opened and Sam appeared, but he quickly stepped back and sealed the door before Jackie could spot him. I sent him a message saying thanks before Jackie finally continued.

  "I refuse to give up… but I know something needs to change," he admitted, the admission seeming to fall out of him. "No more burning the fuse at both ends. I… I was looking at it like it was something I needed to die for… But I don't want that anymore, choom. I can't give up my dreams, but I need a new way of achieving them."

  I stood and put my hand on his shoulders, stopping his pacing.

  "Jackie, it's okay to be confused and not know what you should do," I assured him. "This dream of yours has been your focus for such a long time, of course questioning it is going to send you for a loop."

  "Yeah… yeah, that's what Misty said. Well, she said something about settling Chakras taking time, but, yeah, same difference," he responded, sitting back down heavily on the crate. "So what, I just sit around until my head is on straight? I can't sit around doing nothing, Jay."

  "Well, to be perfectly honest, Jackie, we are about to get really busy," I pointed out. "There is going to be plenty you can help with, and besides, you already help us. Your cooking is a fucking blessing, Jackie, seriously. I think you are underestimating how important a well-cooked meal, shared with family, can be."

  That seemed to make him smile, the idea that his cooking could help us.

  "Let's not forget that your connections are what got us to this point, either. Not to mention, as we start to get serious and push in in Night City, those connections are only going to get more useful," I pointed out. "Not to mention the fact that we will desperately need a face for all of this. I would love for you to run with those connections, communicating with the people. I know you love this city and its people, so why not help me make sure they get what they need?"

  "You really think you're gonna need someone like that?" He asked, raising his eyebrow. "Thought you planned on stomping out the gangs?"

  "I do, but connecting to the community is how we keep more from appearing in their place," I explained. "Crime is inevitable, but organized crime is a cancer, one we could drastically reduce if we rebuild this city with the right structure. A structure that requires someone to be the voice of the people and make sure they get what they need. That voice could be you. Or you could decide to be a chef, an artist, or a writer. Your options are open, Jackie. We just want you to be happy in a way that isn't going to get you killed."

  "I… thanks, Jay. I appreciate how you guys have been looking out for me, even when I didn't want it."

  "That's what friends do, choom," I said, patting his shoulder. "Now, you wanna sit down at my computer and help me design a power armor that will keep what happened last night from ever happening again?"

  Jackie laughed and nodded, moving over to sit at my chair, watching as the computer displayed the designs of the T-60. Meanwhile, I brought the designs up in front of me using my interface, studying the designs as Jackie got comfortable.

  Yes, technically, I had wanted to work on a robotic frame for myself, but this was something I could actually use some input in, so I was switching gears, the frame could wait. I wanted Jackie around for a bit, and this was a good way to make him feel involved.

  "Okay, so the power armor designs I have are severely outperformed by a good number of the existing models, except in two ways. One is simplicity, and the other is ease of access and use," I explained, tapping the controls of the CAD program with my mind and showing how the back of the armor opened up for someone to step inside. "Half the car repair shops in Night City could repair one of these from most common breaks, and getting in one takes all of three seconds on a slow day. Other models take a lot longer, and would need a team of workers and all sorts of specialized tools to repair."

  "That's handy, but could it keep up with other versions?" Jackie asked, looking at the design closely. "It looks like it could punch out a building."

  "As it is, not even close," I admitted with a frown. "As I first designed it, a full-on borg could probably beat it, if for no other reason than speed alone. If I gave it another complete makeover, replacing all of the metals, servos, and hydraulics with better versions, that gap would close significantly, but I'm not here to design a comparable. I want the best."

  "So what are you gonna do?"

  "Well… I could push it to its next level, making it a real walking tank. Double down on pure size and make it a mobile weapons platform rather than a running, gunning juggernaut. But that wouldn't really solve its problem," I responded, scratching my chin as I walked around the projected, augmented reality T-60. "It would be a sitting duck, and there is a limit to how tough I can make it."

  "Why do you need more power armor, anyway?" Jackie asked, leaning back in my chair. "Don't you already have one? The one Riggs uses?"

  “I… dammit, your right…”

  Riggs's armor started out as, from XCOM 2. Originally, it was a light power armor with an internal array of artificial muscle fibers latched onto an. It was a noticeable level of enhancement, but we were restricted by the material limitation of the AA frame. Thankfully, with the help of the best artificial muscle the Titanfall universe had to offer, which could sense and act as its own bracing systems, we were able to crank the frame to eleven by replacing the middle-of-the-road artificial muscle with a significantly larger quantity of already superior fibers.

  The result was a that provided a significant level of enhancement, way beyond the original suit. In it, Riggs easily outpaced borgs, and I suspected, now that Jackie pointed out to me, that he could also tangle with some of the light and medium power armors of this world.

  "I can't believe I forgot that his equipment was power armor," I said, shaking my head and bringing up the improved Warden Armor designs, setting them up alongside the T-60 power armor. "It's actually closer to the style more common around here… even though it uses artificial muscles."

  "Yeah, I've seen under the plating," Jackie admitted. "Same stuff that goes in our armored undersuits, right?"

  "Yeah, exact same stuff," I answered with a nod, mostly focused on the two projected schematics. "The Warden Armor takes longer to put on, and it's more complicated, but it's more graceful. A modernized, upgraded T-60 would be quicker to put on, stronger, and significantly more protective. But it's a tank, meaning it slow and easily outpaced..."

  With a gesture, I peeled away the exterior armors of both power armors, exposing the interior frames of each. It was interesting to see that both function similarly, with the interior frame providing the movement and control systems, while the exterior plating was simply for protection.

  "Anyway, you can just, I don't know, combine them?" Jackie asked, spinning around in the chair. "Best of both worlds kinda thing?"

  "I think… that's exactly what I'm going to try and do," I admitted, staring at the plans for another long moment before wiping them away.

  If I wanted to do this right, I would need to start from scratch.

  "Jackie, this is gonna get boring pretty quick," I said, turning to look at him. "I thought I would be planning for much longer, but thanks to your help, I already have some serious ideas that I need to work on. I cannot believe I forgot about Riggs' armor."

  "No problem, choom, I'm gonna go see Frank about my new lungs," He said, chuckling to himself. "I expect to get to test drive one of those when you're done!"

  "Sure, no problem. Have fun," I said, my mind already working, barely hearing him.

  By the time he had left the garage, I was already starting to work on the first framework, controlling the CAD software with my mind, crunching through the process at a breakneck speed.

  The armor would have to be big, large enough to fit someone with full armor, both outer and armored undersuit. That meant I would have to follow the design methodology of the Fallout power armor, making the armor's limbs extend far past the user's own limbs.

  Over the next hour, I worked up a frame, something that on the exterior looked similar to the standard power armor frame but lighter and made from more refined materials, filled with more advanced tech. It also had significantly more points of articulation, allowing the user to bend and shift. At this point, I was completely giving up on the idea of having power armor you could fix in a standard garage and instead doubling down on high-tech, more powerful stuff.

  Then, once the frame was done, I attached a latticework of woven artificial muscle, integrating it in, around, and through the entire frame. The lattice work was focused on the joints, as while they did increase the system's overall strength, the primary function was to smooth out any movements.

  With the strength of advanced hydraulics and servos, combined with the fluidity, precision, and grace of artificial muscle, the power armor was about twice as strong as Riggs' current, while retaining its near-perfect flexibility and accuracy.

  On the outside of the new frame, I first layered a protective layer of advanced, resilient polymer, something stretchy that would prevent shards of shrapnel from sneaking through the different panels of armor. I then started layering said armor panels, using Alien Alloy and several other alloys from Titanfall. The goal was to keep the system as light as possible while still maximizing protection and durability. I needed it light because I wanted to strap a jumpkit to it. Thankfully, I could actually improve the original jump kit design with some of the stuff I got from Fallout, bumping up its power and dropping its energy consumption a few notches. With a few tweaks to the original design I used with the improved Warden Armor, which was already an upscaled version of the actual original, I was pretty sure I could get this armor to even if it was just over seven and a half feet tall.

  I just needed to keep it light.

  Of course, the jump kit was not all that I wanted to link to the system. I opened up the design of the Stealth Suit Mk II and tore it to pieces, beefing up the design, improving and adding to the response program into a sort of Jarvis program for the armor, silent by default, before affixing it to the power armor frame and armor. The SS Mk II did not have a cloaking field, as the US couldn't crack the Chinese stealth field tech. Instead, it was a muffle field, an adaptive system that could completely silence someone, given enough time to adapt. That meant my seven-foot eight-inch behemoth would, after some training, be nearly silent.

  Then, I deconstructed the design for the Titanfall cloak pack and mixed it around to make it easier to armor before affixing it to the armor's exterior. The projector arm, responsible for projecting the cloaking field, rose over the armor's right shoulder.

  Now, unfortunately, the addition of the cloak pack and the muffle system did add considerable weight. Thankfully, it wasn't enough to render the jump kit useless, but definitely sufficient that it was severely hampered. Rather than give up on the idea of power armor jumping around the streets of Night City, I saved the cloak and muffle option as the stealth version and the more nimble version as the base model. This allowed me to add a layer of thermal absorption to the stealth version, adding a few more pounds without damming the nimble version even more.

  In the end, the final version, for now, was seven feet eight inches tall and could either bounce and run around the battlefield or vanish without a sound or trace. of bench-pressing a car, and the pilot could disembark or enter the armor in seconds. It was made of several layers of composite alloys and Alien Alloy, keeping the entire system light but still incredibly resilient. It would even likely survive a barrage from an HMG, though likely not more than a long controlled burst. Alien Alloy and the materials I had access to from Titanfall were impressive, but they weren't indestructible.

  All in all, it was an incredible compilation of all I knew about armor technology, a mix of Titanfall, XCOM, and Fallout. Pound for pound, it would be more than a match for any power armor available in this setting.

  I spent another hour smoothing out the edges and using the CAD system to troubleshoot potential issues. I set up an entangled photon link inside the machine for communication, as well as a control system that would pull information from the armored underlayer the pilots would be wearing, which in turn scanned our bodies directly. I added in a HUD, some basic sensors, both for the suit, the pilot, and the surrounding area, as well as some life support systems for the helmet. There was a stimpak injection system that could be triggered by the user or would activate if life signs dropped too low.

  The last thing I did was to put an order in for four complete sets for Riggs, Jackie, Kaytlyn, and myself.