An Engineer in Night City - ch 11.5

Preparation (5)

In Europe, in the office of the ESA's Executive Director, a new message lies half-finished on the monitor. The room is immaculate, decorated with expensive wooden furniture and leather-bound seats.

The most powerful man in the organization sits, enjoying the peace and comfort of his chair. Sighing with a smile, he listens to the soft classic music in the background. Unfortunately for him, time waits for no one, and soon he's back to draft the official message for the president of NUSA.

...

From:

Dr. Thomas Kowalski

Executive Director

European Space Agency

To:

The Honorable President Rosalind Myers

Office of the President’s Cabinet

New United States of America

Date:

[REDACTED]

Dear President Myers and Esteemed Members of the Cabinet,

The European Space Agency (ESA) values the longstanding principles of peaceful exploration and the sustainable development of space. As the capabilities of our respective nations continue to evolve, the sanctity of spaceflight operations faces increasing challenges, both from emerging competitors and entities whose ambitions jeopardize collective progress.

To address these concerns, I formally propose the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between the European Space Agency and the government of the New United States of America. This partnership would focus on strengthening mutual interests in safeguarding spaceflight, ensuring the integrity of orbital infrastructure, and deterring any entity or corporation acting counter to international stability in space.

In particular, recent activities of Wube Inc. have raised concerns over their monopolization of key orbital and space-capable infrastructure. Their unchecked expansion threatens not only competitive equity but also the collaborative spirit of space exploration. A coordinated effort to address this imbalance, including strategies to integrate Wube's assets into shared governance, would benefit both our agencies and reinforce our roles as leaders in space diplomacy and security.

ESA stands ready to engage in high-level discussions with your administration to formalize this alliance. I am confident that by combining our technological and operational strengths, we can preserve space as a domain for scientific innovation and human advancement.

I look forward to your response and the opportunity to align our missions for the greater good of humanity.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Thomas Kowalski

Executive Director

European Space Agency

...

"Perfect," the Director says after the integrated AI finishes authoring his letter, as he believes his sexy secretary has far better uses of her time than translating his thoughts into official documents.

After sending the official letter, he contacts the people behind the president, the group he nicknamed The Fifth Power, though most people know them as the anonymous shareholders of Militech.

Someone picks up the call from the other side, with only voice available. "Yes," an old, raspy feminine voice answers, "what do you want?"

'Old witch,' Thomas thought but kept it to himself, instead he answered with a respectful tone, "Madam, my agency officially pledged to support the NUSA and Militech in the humbling of Wube Inc."

"Good. We will cede control of his orbital infrastructure to the ESA, as previously agreed, in return, the ESA will allow Militech bases near the rockets and will have priority when sending assets to space."

The Executive Director's lips curl up at the old fossil's words. "Don't you mean, 'NUSA bases,' ma'am."

"Oh, dear me," the woman on the other side exclaims, "I'm sorry for confusing them, dear, but please forgive me for making such an understandable mistake. After all, they look just the same to me."

A shudder runs down Thomas' spine at the reminder of the power the woman holds. "Think nothing of it, ma'am. The ESA is glad to be a part of this important mark in history."

The woman on the other side hums, "We remember our allies, Mr. Kowalski. Rest assured, the ESA made the right choice."

…

Meanwhile, the last space station of the current batch finishes construction in orbit, ready for the Confederation.

"There you go, Madam Prime Minister," Mark says once the payment hits his bank account, "your new space stations, ready for naming and habitation. While the basics come pre-installed, if there are other items you wish to add your people need to install themselves."

The woman on the other side of the screen smiles, "Thank you, Mr. Henderson. Please, don't be a stranger, I believe we can refer to each other by our names, call me Ranya."

Mark smiles at the head of the Highrider Confederation, "Of course, miss Abdel-Malek, as soon as you call me Mark."

She returns the same smile to the Engineer, "Very well then, Mark. Now, I can only assume you called for something else, besides checking the delivery?"

Sobering up, Mark nods to her, "I am facing a problem of lack of manpower, Ranya. I'm thinking of expanding further into the East where it's mostly empty and setting up new settlements to populate the area and help defend some of my infrastructure."

Mark waits until the Prime Minister considers his request. Eventually, she answers somberly, "The Confederacy can't directly interfere with landside nations conflicts unless attacked first, but we can send a message to each member state if they wish to send colonists to your new planned settlements."

Mark sighs in relief, glad that the problem is settled for now. However, the Prime Minister still warns him, "While we can redirect people sympathetic to your interests, we can't guarantee that everyone will be trustworthy."

"I understand that I still appreciate your help, Ranya." He gives her a wink before bringing up an image with more space station models for her to choose from, "Now, let's talk further about expanding the reach of the Space Colonies."

"Oh, Mark," the Prime Minister makes a show of fluttering her eyelashes, "you know how to talk with a woman, you charming rogue."

…

On the Moon, several kilometers away from Mark's moon base, a group of riders sit outside watching for any weakness they can exploit.

The leader checks his monitor for the drone's video feed, but he slaps the device with a curse when the feed abruptly cuts off. "Damn it! Another one shot down!" He turns to one of his underlings, "What about advanced recon?"

The Lieutenant checks her messages before shaking her head. "Nothing, they're still sitting on their asses, and the monstrosity ahead didn't change since its latest expansion cycle."

The raider slaps his visor, "If we don't do anything, we don't get paid."

He looks at the video feed, bouncing his leg like a machine gun in place until he decides, "We're going in."

"You can't be serious," his Lt. protests, "do you respect the Engineer Moon base to be more vulnerable since its latest expansion cycle?"

"No," the raider commander admits, "but we can at least sell Militech the combat data on the engagement and get some extra eddies from it. Send the scout ahead to give it a pass-by. If the dumbasses find something, then we get the money, if they fuck it up, it will be fewer mouths to feed and share oxygen."

Slowly, the Lt. calls on the radio, "Tourists, this is Sand Castle, you can engage the enemy position at your leisure, over."

As the raider commander predicted, the scouts cheered at the opportunity to throw their lives away, "Fucking finally! Let's go you gonk shits, we're going to be rich!"

The command watches silently as the scouts approach the walls, and as expected, the enemy gunfire and laser hit the armored vehicles when they enter range. The few remaining heavy ordinances are shot down by the gun and laser turrets, keeping the walls safe from the raiders, until a different stream of light shots from behind the walls.

The command center watched in horror when streams of fire hit the armored vehicles, the fire sticking to the metal and plastic, reacting to the material and producing flames in the near vacuum of the Moon's exosphere.

"Nope, we're not doing this," the raider commander decided, "I don't care how much they're paying us; I don't want anything with a group that uses the devil's fire as fuel."

"It might not be FOOF," the Lt. weakly informs the raider commander, earning a hateful glare from the man, "but I'm glad it's over."

Calling the rest of his raiders back, the commander gives one last glance at the Moonbase that changed into a fortress virtually overnight, before expanding to unforeseen magnitude.

"Wube and Militech should just kill each other already." With a final curse, the cuts off the feed and returns to base. "I need a fucking drink."

…

Down on earth in the BN2 Complex, a massive structure holds the nuclear reactor that powers the factory and sells clean energy to Night City, the southern North California region, and the Wyoming state. The complex is closed off from the outside with concrete walls, while the steam turbine generators remain outside. The most comprehensive anti-air setup protects the nearby area. The AA system has a separate auxiliary power that can start the reactor in case of an energy blackout and has enough Accumulators to recharge the anti-air systems.

Each block of the energy generation complex produces over 1.2GWh of energy, for 12GWh total, with all reactors online. The extra energy remains inside storage tanks as 500C, or 936F, steam.

"Steam temperatures don't decay even on frozen planets, but food decays into spoilage unless refrigerated even inside the inventory." Mark shakes his head at the contradiction of the Wube Inc. technology and the oddities from the Factorio System, "And I had to program a custom refrigeration system. I'm glad I don't have to deal with accidental nuclear meltdowns."

With the new firmware update, controlling the insertion rate of nuclear fuel became trivial, and the reactor never goes critical unless only explodes when destroyed.

Usually, that is a good trade-off, but now, Mark needs to spend at least thirty percent of his energy generation with dedicated defenses against idiots. The NUSA and other companies know the coordinates of Wube Inc.'s nuclear reactors, in case they decide to invade and they need to avoid the area. The nuclear fuel production and reclamation center is similarly protected, creating an area segregated from the rest of the BN2 Complex.

"All Hail Kovarex for solving nuclear issues," Mark gives a toast to the man who invented the revolutionary uranium enrichment process.

Back in his home universe, uranium enrichment is a process that separates the heavier U-238 from the lighter U-235, forming the necessary fuel for nuclear reactors. However, the Kovarex enrichment process is closer to Plutonium breeding, as the process creates more fissile material than initially imputed by consuming the non-fissile material.

Adding the spent fuel cells from the reclamation research that returns part of the unused U-238, and the various steps where you can add two to four Productivity Modules to increase the number of Nuclear Fuel cells, Wube Inc. is self-sufficient with nuclear energy. It has enough surpluses of U-238 that Mark can carry several stacks of Uranium Rounds Magazines and Uranium Cannon Shells.

Beyond the nuclear reactor area, Mark does one final check on the factory and finds nothing out of place. Everything is working as intended, and there are no bottlenecks visible. The Core Miner produces enough surplus stock to feed the Anti-Air and Anti-Orbital weapons, and can still store excess resources for an emergency.

The new technologies finished research and have their new items put into production for testing; the defenses of all Wube Inc.'s holdings are in place; and the supplies fill in the warehouses. Now Mark can do nothing but act normally, pretending everything is business as usual, and wait for the other shoe to drop.

If Wube Inc. wants to survive the next calamity, they won't be the ones to start a conflict.

However, Mark swears if his enemies start something, he will finish it, one way or another.

Post Chapter Notes

Here is another update everyone! Today I will attend the graduation of my niece, so I likely won't be updating the second update of today, but I will work my best if things end earlier than expected.

Please enjoy the chapter!