Chapter 75
We arrived at the CHOOH2 Station, and immediately began to dig through all the left over junk from the previous owners. It seemed that folks had been using this place as a makeshift dump for a while now. There were old cars, appliances and all manner of electronics scraps. Thankfully the amount of organic waste was relatively small. Though the odd corpse here and there was disturbing, we were coming to accept that Night City was just that kind of place.
While a couple of Probes began to dig down to establish the outpost, the rest started setting up a War Pylon and a Forge to begin disassembling all the clutter into usable materials, while scanning anything that looked remotely useful.
I had been thinking about how to proceed once this outpost was done. I was leaning towards using the new theme token here and establishing this as a front line base for my eventual takeover of the city. Whoever was sent with the new base should be able to hold this territory, with support from New Lordaeron until it was time to expand. Hopefully, they would be combat ready, though I suppose it wasn't really a problem if they weren't, as long as they were trainable.
I found myself liking this idea more and more as I pondered it. An underground base, to be the central hub of Night City operations. We could establish food and material harvest here, have a force to protect the area.
Now I was no General or military history buff, but that sounded like a workable strategy in my head. I ran it by Raynor and Mr. Wick and they didn't see any major flaws, unless the Corpos caught on quickly and bombed the neighborhood. I didn't see how they'd figure it out, with the Pylons keeping us all under the radar. Still it would be stupid to underestimate them.
My mind turned with the idea over that it was better to assume the enemy knew your plans and had every advantage rather than thinking we were the shit and untouchable.
Hmm. I needed someone more than poor Raynor, he was great don't get me wrong, but I got the impression he was more a small squad leader. Great with tactics, but not so much with strategy. Mr. Wick was all about individual performance, so not the greatest help in this situation. I needed a General, a Colonel, or even a Major to help plan all this out. Someone better at grasping the bigger picture than I was, before I made a stupid mistake.
While waiting for the Probes to make progress, I had fixed up a few of the TVs and let everybody find something to distract them between running drills with Raynor and Mr. Wick.I also lost myself in working on a small scooter.
Hours later, I had just gotten it running, when I got the notice for quest competition. 4000 company Points and the new Theme Token.
I was so excited. Who would they be? What could they do?
[ Do you wish to use Theme token? Y/N ]
"Yes."
[ Rolling result... ]
[ You have obtained faction, Astra Militarum Death Korps of Krieg, 999th Mixed Operations Regiment ] (See below Author's Note 1)
[ Please note that this faction is hazardous to utilize, we have established your relationship as one that they will obey without question. This identity will cause significant difficulties with your current build. It also has the potential to dramatically impact your personality. ] (See below Author's Note 2)
[ The Company offers a one time deal, you may exchange this theme for 2 Hero tokens and 10,000 Company Points. ]
What the hell? A deal. Interesting. Let's roll that around a bit.
While the name was quite ominous, they sounded like an actually Military force. Which was I desperately needed. While a another couple of Heroes would be great, I don't think they could change the course of this situation as effectively as an actually military faction. While it was warning me about affecting my personality, perhaps that wasn't a bad thing.
In the long run wasn't my current personality a problem? Maybe it was worth taking a chance this would be a helpful change. Without risk, rewards can become elusive.
I lost track of time, while I went back and forth in my head. After getting more and more frustrated, I finally just threw my hands up.
Ah, fuck it!
"Nah, no deal." (See below Author's Note 3)
[ So be it. ]
A silvery cube appeared before me. I grabbed it. While focusing on the cube my BTC was able to give me an idea of what the building would look like and how large it was.
Damn! 300 yards cubed.
I descended, on a newly finished lift, into the depths of the new outpost to see how it was arranged. At the bottom of the lift, some 700 feet below the surface, they had carved out a plain square chamber. The only break in the smoothed stone were some small Psicrystals used for both lighting and to extend the Psifield.
Two exits to the north, two to the south, and one to the east. One exit to the north led to the Japantown outpost, the other to a large chamber containing a couple of forges and several robotic facilities along with a War Pylon to power everything. One exit to the south led to the new outpost in Santa Domingo, the other a chamber with beds, chairs, and appliances needed for living. The one to the east would link up with the tunnel back to New Lordaeron.
I got the Probes to stop digging tunnels and to dig down deeper to the west and then establish a 500 yard cubed chamber. That would take a while, so I ate and then informed the fellas I be getting some rest down below.
"We'll keep an eye on things, Hoss. Get some shuteye." Raynor gave me a jaunty salute.
Mr. Wick grunted, "Sleep." Before turning back to whatever they were watching. How they could tolerate any of the brain rotting programs on the TV confounded me. Eh, to each their own.
I laid down and soon was dreaming of vast armies grinding my foes into dust. Been awhile since I'd slept so well. (AN: A nice moment before epic headaches to come.)