While the drive to NC didn't settle my emotions, it did allow me to calm down suffitly to reexamine my pns. Just stealing a car to get back to base, seemed like I'd be spinning my wheels. No, we were going to found an outpost. We were going to do it right uhese fuckers' noses. But where and how?

  Something Megan said, before things went to shit, clicked. A series of hidden bases utilizing abandoned buildings or involving digging underground or even a bination of both. Yes, I liked that idea. I liked it a lot.

  I was still running through various sarios by the time I hit Westbrook's Japantown. I parked in a random lot, not paying much attention to the area, I wouldn't be ing back to this specific parking lot again. Maybe, I should just ditch the Supron all together. If Arasaka had been watg us, they might have the profile of all of our vehicles. I wipe the Supron's fob of my fingerprints and dropped the it on the ground so it couldn't be traced to me.

  The Probes had detached from the van and began to surround me. All while making sure to keep their diligent sensors on the surroundings. Sadly, it hurt to look at them. I guessed I had a long way to go before I could match their creators, I had a difficult time accepting others' sacrifices, especially on my behalf. Ii left me in a position where I had no idea how to honor my fallen Robo-Buddies. I know that some people would never have been able to tell them apart, which would lead some people to think that the Probes were all intergeable, but I knew better. I had seen each of their own little quirks, and further now khey all had very distinct personalities.

  It was only a matter of time before I he Probes now proteg me. Perhaps, the reason I could tell them apart was because of the Psifield. Another reason might have been familiarity. These thoughts cshed around in my head while I wandered around, absently weaving through the packed midday crowds. I was so distract by my own issues that I failed to notice, that I was being watched.

  Slowly but surely, I had ended up making my way towards Jig-Jig Street. Sinnamin hadn't been exaggerating when she had listed this area as one of the busiest iy, as well as one of the sleaziest. Sex shops were everywhere the eye could see, and if not the shops themselves, then you would find yourself looking at an ad for some sexually reted service. She had also said to watch out for picksockets, but I didn't know how to do that. Hell, I didn't even uand what a picksocket was. She had gone on to expin that a picksocket erson who went after your credit chip, usually without zeroing you. A quickhack slipped through your ICE, and out flies your chip often with you he wiser. Fortunately, I really didn't o pay that much attention with the Probes above blending into the droraffiing along.

  Looking around in a moment of crity, I was startled that the local drones seemed to outhe people. Yet with a moment to think about it it made sense. Drones and bots performed a lot of the small bor jobs where people could afford to utilize them. Almost all home delivery work, be it food or or a v was handled by the meical helpers. The best part, no one paid any attention to them, uhey had to. This made freat cover for my Probes. No one had even given them a sed gnce, as far as I could tell.

  I stopped briefly at a noddle stand. These noodles were made out of real buckwheat, and had an excelleure. The bits of supposed chili peppers and the slivers of "beef" were tolerable, but only because of those noodles. The sauce was, I think, an attempt at a teriyaki sauce but could have been going for something else. Either way, not that good. I pnted myself on a bend ate while w on ing up with a more fleshed out pn.

  First order of business, find a small space to buy or rent. Preferably abandoned and as close to the eastern edge of the city as possible. The building itself wouldn't be important, it would be what I pnned on doing below the building that mattered. Hmm, how deep to dig? I suspected Arasaka had bee aware of us due to the energy signatures of the Khaydarin or Psicrystals. I had doubt they would be able to easily utilize them, but detect their energy output, sure. More questions remained as to what extent The Corps could detect us, and why did the Observer find out about the impending attack so te? The Observer should have been tapping into most if not all of the data traffic of the major Corporations' headquarters. Unless...

  Arasaka was based in Japan, maybe that expined a lot of it. Sure, they had a foothold here, but in some ways NC wasn't their focus right now. The more I thought about it, the more I was vihat they had been monit us from Japan, with their satellites. That would expin why we didn't know when they spotted us. Okay that tracked. So, why attack at all? What they would have seen ecial, absolutely, but worth the dozens of lost lives and damaged vehicles incurred while taking the outpost? I had a hard time reg that in my head. Corporations, regardless of the world, were all about cost vs be. The small bits of research I had managed showed that the Corps here were even more ruthless about their bottom lihen the ones bae. This left me with a real puzzler.

  I only saw two likely answers. Ohe energy of the Pylons appeared somehow threatening to them. Quite possible, as they shouldn't have the slightest clue what the energy real was. Or two, They had something going on in that area that our presence disturbed. Something that was vital to their pns. This was also quite possible, there could have been anything uhe cybernt. I was ined towards option two, but I didn't have anywhere near enough information to be fident in that guess. It might have been something else altogether, but I had no way of knowing what that might be. Anyway, it wasn't worth taking the risk that it was one over the other. I'd have to work uhe assumption it was both and probably other factors besides.

  Bay inal thought, how many yers into the ground did we o dig? I had some thoughts on how to go about that too, but let's start with getting a pce to cover up our activities first.

  "Hey Input, looking food time?" Huh? I hadn't been paying much attention to my surroundings. Too busy plotting, but the slightly sultry voiocked me bato paying attention to my surroundings.

  Red-Light District would be the most polite way to describe the market, that I had wandered into. Sure, I'd noticed the shops and ads earlier but now, everything here was sexual, even the food vendors and bodega style shops. I turo look at the woman talking to me. She was of East Asian dest and looked good for the circumstances. She was surprisingly well put together for her seeming profession. Probably, a fair amount of e involved there, but something about her didn't jive.

  "Sorry, no." Now more fully aware of the local enviro, I sped up a bit. Something about the air here made me nervous. Too much despair perhaps. Worse I had the sense I was being watched, and not just by the prostitute... the "Joytoy" in front of me. I dashed through and around a series of stalls, before turning around to check my backtrail. Then I used an alley where I could see the street oher side, pausing to pretend to fiddle with my clothes.

  'Guys, anyone following me?' I sent to the Probes. They had stayed close, and though they didn't detey immediate danger, I had the sense I was being stalked.

  'The woman that talked to you. She approaches. Shall we engage?' Shit. She might be a Corpo agent, or was she something else? I couldn't afford to waste time on this. I was about to order them to zap her, wheered the alley. She anting slightly, and looked almost apologetic.

  "Hey are you Ryan?" A Corpo agent wouldn't have known my least, I didn't think they would. I decided to hold off on zapping her for a moment.

  "Yes." My gun hand itched. I didn't feel safe right now, and wahe feel of iron in my grip. Somehow, I mao hold off on appearing aggressive.

  "The Mox tracted Wakako to have her people keep a for you. Rita would like a word. Head to Lizzie's when you get a ce." Okay, I never would have expected that.

  "Do you know what it's about?" What could Rita possibly want with me? I barely knew any of the Moxes. Though thinking about all of that reminded me, I o visit a Ripper anyway a my fucked up eye fixed. I could take care of two birds with oone.

  "Nah, just tasked with passing the message. I take tips though." Her huge grin made me think she was joking, at first. But as the seds went by with her not moving, I realized she real did expect a tip. I flicked her 100 and she scurried back to where she had e from.

  I went right back to w why Rita would want to talk to me specifically? Sinnamin should be able to message me. Unless something had happeo Sinn. Sigh. When it rains, it pours.

  After I quickly get somethiablished, I'll go find out what's going on. It couldn't be anything too drastic or Rita would've tracked me down herself.

  One of my searches came back with a hit, a tle two story shop with an upper story apartment. 3000 a month to rent. It took less than fifteen mio message the owner, wire the funds, ahe key fob from a delivery drone. Some things are so much easier here.

  When I arrived at my new building, I went over it with a fioothed b. It turned out to be more than suitable to my needs. The store itself was setup to be a basivenieore, with racks for basiacks and dies and shelves foods, toiletries and such. It had a walk-in space for the refrigerated drinks se with a ste room behind that. In the front, a checkout ter that was pletely enclosed by thick polycarbonate pahat had several clever slots and drawers for passing bills oods. It was a bullet resistant hidey hole if needed... oh look... the expected floor safe was missing. The previous shopkeepers had been robbed yet one more time it seemed.

  The upstairs apartment was , nothing special was going on up there; two bedrooms, a living room, and a barebones bathroom. I was disappointed by the ck of a kit area. Then I shrugged, I hadn't pnned on cooking muyway.

  It turned out that the ad was deceptive in one respect, the unit for rent art of an even rger building. However that wasn't the problem it could have been as there were no eg doorways into the rest of the structure.

  Alright it was time to get to work. The sooner I figured a few things out, the quicker I could go get my eye fixed and then touch base with the Mox. It started ie room behind the walk-in. I had the Probes s for pipes underh the floor. Their sensors revealed nothing that would be in the way, which was a good thing. My Pn B would have caused a real mess. We marked out a 6' square area, then the Probes were directed to cut through the crete sb. After that they attached to the freed sb and then moved it off to the side.

  Less than three mier... and wow! The Robo-Buddies never failed to impress me with their speed of pleting any assigasks. hey were going to create a three foot wide stairway leading down. From there, we were going to test a Pylon at 200' down first. If I could still feel it up here it would probably be noticeable to any high energy detectors, and we'd scrap that pylon and then keep digging deeper, buildiest Pylons at is of 200' after that. We would desd until at least until I could no longer sehe test Pylon from the surface.

  My current theory was that iy, a blip of spiking energy or odd reading would probably be ighere were too many things going on, all the time to waste resources on cheg out every little anomaly. I stepped down to test the first stairs, they seemed quite stable, with no slipping. I looked on while the Probes dug, fasated at how their particle beams could perform some ricks. In this case, they were basically melting, pressing and infusing the walls. However, other then a slight sheen and increased smoothhe walls didn't look too different from their inal structure, but when touched everythi like metal. That seemed like it should iability of the small tunnels, in most cases. Excess material was either being pressed into the walls themselves increase the density or the waste stone was being eled straight into the void.

  After another hour of digging they popped the first Pylon. Nope, no good I felt it clearly, it was only somewhat muted. That was enough to show that the idea had some merit, and that we weren't wasting our time. The Robo-Buddies quickly broke that Pylon down a digging deeper. Sihis course of a seemed viable, once we got deep enought to shield us from dete, we would then turaight back towards the Valley. Pg Pylons every so often along our tunnels. We'd eventually make tact through with the main Psifield, and then dig up somewhere he broken bridge area.

  Of course, we would also be installing defenses around the exits and by every Pylon withiunnels as well. Later, we'd build a al system down there using Moon Wells and then add some deep reservoirs. Once all of that was finished, we could dig out hidden surface wells over a few specific reservoirs, ensuring the Nomads have access to water. Some reservoirs would remain hidden from everyone, but my most trusted allies.

  Over the months and years that folloould spread the same model outward into ions. It wouldn't be quick but as long as no one gives up information as to what was going on, it would have to be enough.

  The Pylo up at 400' down. I could still feel it, but it was getting pretty faint... still that was another scrapped Pylon. Within an hour after that, the Pylon was ed in at 600'. It was uable from up here. I decided to test the sense of the Pylon while I was underground. I had a slight sense of it from around te down.

  "Nah, break it down. We'll dig a little further down." I ordered. My thought was that it was better to over do it. I had the Probes drop down another hundred feet, just to be cautious. This meant that there was 700' of stairway to navigate. Whew. Nothing but to get to it. Okay, we were going to have to put in some rest stops here and there, with fy benches and maybe fridges with cold water.

  Down at the bottom level, two of the Probes had started tunneling toward the valley right away. The other four started digging out rooms for structures. We needed plenty of space for all of our Robotic Facilities, and at least a few Fes. Now that the first stage was finished, it was time to get my eye fixed, and then find out what was going on with the Mox.

  I took two of the Probes with me and as luck would have it, night had fallen above ground. I'd have to take the NCART maglev rail system to get around for now. Which was just delightful... not. Yeah, I needed another car pronto. I got to see all of the crazy folks that used public transportation in NC. The less said about the whole thing the better, but both Probes ended up dropping a few bodies. No one cared. No one panicked. Hell, no one even looked at the situation. These were some peak levels of we don't give a fuck. I could the damrain fast enough at the stop closest to Misty's.

  The Doe a new eye, and barely charged me for it. While I kind of wao stay and spend time with some genuinely nice folk, I still had to che with Rita.

  When I got to Lizzie's, Rita gred at me. Like I'd fucked her sister, or killed her cat. Okay, maybe I'd been wrong about what was going on. I gave her my best fused look.

  "Where is Sinn?" She s me, while readying her bat. Her partner pulled a submae gun on me. We had skipped some levels here, and I didn't feel the slightest bit wele. This had escated quickly, and I had no fug clue what was going on. The Probes got ready to back me up, but I held up my hand to stop them. This caused both dies some fusion, until Rita put it together.

  "You have your Drones with you?" Her optics were darting around trying to spot them. Yeah, good luck with that. I nodded, while keeping my face as ral as possible.

  "Shit." She relutly let her tension go and lowered her on. Her partner quickly followed suit.

  "Just tell me what the fuck is going on Rita, and I'll do my best to help." Yeah, I barely khese people, but Sinn had done alright by me. I could at least help search for her.

  "Susie's going to give me an earful. I was sure she'd run off with you. You two seemed to get along." She shook her head. I started doing some calcutions.

  "Fuck. Find Carver... or better yet, tell me where Carver is." I utting two and two together as fast as I could. I might not be getting four but it was all I had.

  "Huh? The Fa? He got the cut almost a week back, Sinn's only been missing three nights." Rita looked frustrated, no, pissed off. No Carver meant... what, I didn't know enough about Sinn to begin to figure this shit out.

  "Carver's the only clue I had, unless you know who the Fixer that ran him is?" Why the hell would anyone want to snatch Sinn... "You know anything about her old pack?" I was just spitballing here, but I wasn't going to leave Sinn in the lurch.

  "Yeah, their still running with the Animals. Well, the ohat survived...anyway." She brightened up a bit. Oh, e on! You aren't tellihat she didn't even think of them.

  "I don't have a crew to back me up or the es to smooth a meeting. So, you check with them?" At her nod, I tinued, "In the meantime, give me Sinn's address and st known loy Pr...drones have excellent sers and they might be able to uncover a clue or two." I got Sinn's full detes, and then Rita's to keep her updated. Then She went to talk to Susie.

  Then I performed an emergency sear the , for a car. I ended up buying a new Villefort bus V340-F Freight for 25,000, it came with some extra features that might e in handy down the road. The fob was delivered quickly by drone. I immediately called my new Van to me, If I had to run around, I wasn't battling with the NC rail system.

  My heart quailed at all the horrible sarios running through my mind. I shuddered. Scavs, Maelstrom, or some pissed off Fixer. Who had nabbed her? Why hadn't I fug taken it seriously in the first pce?

  Please be okay, Sinn.