The Probe finished digging the interior of the garage down to the needed depth, now I had it yer the inner faces of the walls in Protoss alloy. Shiny and golden. Once it was done, the Probe would repce the door it had broken down and build a Pylon in here.

  I knew the Pylon's energy field and even the shielding could extend through the walls of buildings. The others would sp down a cannon in the front and back. Sure, they'd look strange, but nowhere near as strange as a Pylon.

  I sat on a nearby bench, plotting.

  I didn't want to leave the Probes unattended for very long, nor did I want to expose Ryll to many of the denizens of this whackjob city. She needed a save location to hold up in.

  I turned to one of the Probes. "Can you build underwater?" Not something you could do in the game, but there was literally no logical reason they couldn't.

  It beeped at me in a uncertain tone. Had the Protoss just never consider it? Well, it was time to find out. We went a few dozen yards to the beach and I had the Probe try to build a Pylon out far enough to be fully submerged. The results were mixed. The water interfered with the particle beam of the Probe, and fsh vaporized the surface of the water, which cause further interference. However, the building was slowly, very slowly forming.

  I groaned. "Not worth it." I stopped the Probe.

  Okay, I wanted to start exploring, and I needed something for the Probes to be doing, but out of sight. I needed a pce to keep Ryll safe while I dug into the answers I wanted. Wait, my mind was circling back around. I guess I was worried. Ryll was too pure a being for this twisted city.

  I sent two Probes to break into the next storage building, simply rendering the door into materials. This time the inside was undefended and packed full of junk. Boxes and boxes of random Welcome to Pacifica souvenirs and other little Knick knacks. All things no one would miss. A Probe got to work scrapping everything.

  Then I stopped. No, I couldn't do it this way. There was no way I was going to leave Ryll behind. So I'd need a couple of Probes, for back up. I'd been trying to set up a nest, but she'd panic or get bored or come looking for me. She wouldn't know any better. Alright, she stayed with me.

  But it wasn't necessary to waste the idea. The storage building would become a cover for a mine shaft. The Probes would dig down at a climbable angle and stockpile minerals, while we were gone. If anyone came by, the cannons would deal with them. A few more corpses here wouldn't be noticed. Nobody came to the roller coaster's causeway, without a reason.

  This should work. The underground utility works, NCART and other subterranean problems weren't near here. Though I might want to deal with the underground threats sooner rather than ter.

  Orders queued up. I chose two Probes and went south, there should be a stairway or ramp up to the parking lot of the mall. there might be some abandon cars up there. It didn't much matter what we found, the Probes wouldn't fit. But they could attach themselves to a rger vehicle. It would still have to be big.

  Ah, there's the stairway I was looking for. About halfway up, I heard voices ahead. I froze, listening in. I tightened the muscles around my ears with somewhat tilted them forward. Catches the sound better.

  "Boss says we gotta watch here, so we watch." Deep growling sounding guy. Years of hitting the Juice, and probably worse.

  "But I wanna getta good pump in. I ain't moves weight in almost two whole days now. It feels cracked, choom." Lighter voiced guy with a slight odd reverb the sound. Going through Juice withdrawal. Were their supplies low?

  "Needa of you two, shoulds be talking. Shoulds be watching. Granite say, you do." A hyper bestial voice. I had an idea of what was going on there, but I hope I was wrong.

  I frowned, thinking fast, Granite, not Sasquatch.

  The Mall's construction was dropped almost a decade before the events of CP2077, and had been used by various gangs ever since. The Animals in particur, seem to try to hold on to this chuck of real estate. These guys definitely sounded like they belonged to the Roid Rage Gang. The only thing this told me was we were here before or after the main events of V's story.

  I knelt down and used my hands to stay low while I slowly crept up the stair to try to get an eyeball on these guys. I had the Probes stay put.

  When my head was just barely peaking over the top step I saw them. Two were hulking monsters of men, with their muscles bulging grotesquely under tank tops and track pants. The third was a literal beast man, bio-sculpted to look like a huge man-tiger hybrid. Fuck that one was trouble and a half.

  Not one of them was carrying a gun, but I didn't fail to notice the nearby sledge hammers, and a mattock. If they had any dermal pting at all then they'd hardly need guns. They'd run in, tanking bullets, and then go to pound town with the hammers. Nasty and effective.

  I scanned the area. This was a maintenance entrance. No windows on the Mall directly overlooked this spot. We could deal with these fools without attracting too much heat. As long as we kept the noise down.

  I quietly waved the Probes to move up slowly, pausing just behind me. I unslung my gauss rifle, taking the best aim I could with the sightless gun on the head of the beast man. If he'd gathered enough to afford that kind of work, who knew what other surprises he'd have. And he'd likely be stronger and faster than his pack brothers to begin with.

  I activated Steady Aim and again felt a strange auto correction of my focus. I took a deep breath, held it, and squeezed the trigger as I let the breath out.

  The Tiger man's head became bologna paste. This was a damned good rifle. To think this was a cheap surplus model used for emergency gear. I wanted the real deal. Bad.

  I ordered the Probes to attack. They beeped in agreement and rushed forward.

  Say what we would about them, the other two didn't hesitate to pick up their hammers and charge the Probes. And for muscle bound juice monsters they were fast. But not fast enough.

  When the first guy got close to the Probes, one brief zap locked him up. The second charging into another zap, which had a simir effect. That was unexpected.

  I stopped the Probes from zapping them again, and stalked over to them keeping my rifle trained on the first one. Trying to determine what happened.

  Ryll stirred slightly, she was awake but stayed quiet, trying to figure out what was going on.

  I use my foot to kick the first guy in the gut. He fell down like a board not a person. All of his joints were hard locked. I'm fairly sure he wasn't even conscious. I checked the second guy. Same deal.

  Okay the Voodoo Boys had been fried. What made the difference? Muscle mass? Amount of chrome they'd chipped? Well, it didn't really matter, I guess. Not right now anyway.

  I slung my rifle and pulled my left pistol, delivering a coup de grace to both Animal's faces. I felt almost nothing, just a stir of annoyance at the trouble this might bring. I'd gotten far too used to having to kill people to survive for this to effect me. But I wished it still did.

  I'd really hoped to not have to be this guy anymore. I guess we hardly ever get want we want.

  Sure I was happy to sy monsters be they Naga or Zombies and what have you, but people just trying to get by. I wanted killing them to bother me again, so I'd have to carefully weight the decision. To feel like I was part of the group again.

  I sighed. Ryll trilled concern, nudging my cheek. I reached up to pet her gently. Now this little dy could help me remember what being kind was like.

  [ You have sin 1 Animals Beastkin and 2 Animals Maulers, do you offer up their corpses? Y/N ]

  "Yes." Thank you System for ruining my moment of self-reflection. Ah well, I'd probably just get depressed anyway.

  Two new points in Physical, and 500 in script. Seeing no datashards, I immediately offered up their gear. Another 300 in my pocket.

  With the System taking everything the area was all cleaned up. No muss, no fuss.

  I stayed close to the wall of the building while we worked our way towards the main parking lot. I peaked the corner. Nothing stood out. I took a longer look.

  While there were no functional vehicles on the rge asphalt lot, there were quite a few wrecks and burnt out husks. One cluster of the junked cars, had a smashed up van. What was it? A Columbus, I think. I never payed too much attention to the name of the cars, just whether or not I liked the look of them.

  The Probes could scrap the other wrecks and hopefully repair the van. If not, I guess we'll go with Pn B.

  Ten minutes ter the Van was done, and no one had messed with us. Why they weren't watching the main parking lot was anyone's guess. I wasn't going to worry about it. I had too much too do.

  I hopped in, and the Probes attached to the sides of the Van.

  Now I could get us out of Pacifica, and to pce a little more friendly. Or at least more willing to deal semi-honestly. The vehicle should have needed a fob, but apparently the Probes took care of it. They really were incredibly useful. It was a shame they didn't have much personality.

  I pyed with the radio for a minute, looking for news. Maybe I could get a idea when in the timeline we were. Then I could make some pns.

  I headed north, avoiding the improvised road blocks by generally being ready to run gonks over if they don't get out of the way. I was going to stop in this town for anyone I didn't know. And if I saw Pcide, I was going to floor it. I still despised that bastard for what he did in the game.

  First, I'll head to the El Coyote Cojo, they wouldn't be likely to turn me away even if they might not be too willing to talk to me at first. I should be able to pick up the general y of the nd without too much hassle. Though I was of mixed feelings about getting on the Padre's radar before I'd gotten more of a foothold.

  "The market fell by 2000 points today as Arasaka aggressively dumps their shares of Biotechnica. However the move may lead to problems for the Japanese Giant as Militech secured a new contract for police bots with the Night City council. Petrochem has announced a new additive to CHOOH 2 to increase the longevity of most vehicles engines. There might be a dark plot to this seeming altruist py though, as the additive supposedly targets specific companies' engines and somehow gums up the works. More after the hour... "

  Ad reads came on and I tuned them out.

  Yeah, that report gave me nothing but a headache at the typical Corpo bullshit.

  I backstab you. Wait why are you upset I backstabbed you? No you can't stab me in the back, I'll sue you and bribe the judge... so on and so forth. Pointless drivel, that served no purpose other than spinning an engine of perpetual despair.

  I drove cautiously until I got out of Pacifica and into Heywood. Not that I couldn't catch a bullet just as easily here, but it was usually something you could avoid by sticking to specific pces. And not poking your nose into other people's business.

  The ad reads were over,

  "Today April 14, 2076 marks a new day in Night City Politics, as new councilmen Ramos Vasquez announces a crackdown on all bribes to city officials. Sources say A ring of Gangs cooperating in secret were responsible for the wave of massive bribes. Our contacts from the NCPD have yet to respond."

  Ah okay, I was probably way too te to save Sasha, Gloria, Maine, or Dorio. But I should have time to make contact with David and the rest. Maybe set them up for success. Or at least, less harsh failure.

  I really wanted to find a way to get a dozen or so Photon Cannons into the City Center Pza. A certain Arasaka cyborg needed an ass whooping, preferably before he can trash the people I'm interested in befriending.

  Perhaps I should consider removing Faraday, and perhaps Kiwi, as quickly as possible, and maybe head off the final confrontation in the first pce.

  Also sometime within the next two months or so, V would enter the Night City street scene. Though I'd have about six months after that to prevent the Konpeki Pza incident...

  As I finally id my eyes on the iconic bar, I realized I still had a ton of work to do.