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50.21% Steel Waste / Chapter 356: Ed Edd and ED-E

Chapter 356: Ed Edd and ED-E

The group continues walking around Primm, Meyers showing them the various improvements that'd been made. The casino had been 'fixed up' and the Bison Steve Hotel had finally been cleared of the bodies Afton and Karl had left there.

It'd also been renovated to the best of the resident's abilities and made into a proper hotel. Though, right now no one was paying rent. Instead, it was basically owned by everyone in town and people who didn't have another residence would simply stay in one of the rooms.

Meyers said it was messy and a bit mismanaged but worked for the influx in population for now. As they walked Afton eventually spotted another familiar face, Johnson Nash. The elderly man was sitting in a lawn chair with any mechanical components on the floor in front of him.

"Huh, would have thought you guys'd make him Mayor..." Afton mutters, having got the impression back when the old man pulled a pistol on him in the casino.

Meyers chuckles, "He is our mayor..."

...

Indeed, that brought many questions... "Why is your mayor selling scrap metal and not managing the town?" Afton asks with a dull expression.

"He's a smart guy, why can't he do both? Not like having an office makes you a better mayor or somethin'. This way he can earn some money without being a corrupt asshole like most of those douchebags." Meyers scoffs, and Afton had to give it to him, that certainly a benefit.

Before they walk past the old man's stall however, something catches Afton's eye. "Hang on... Is that an Enclave eyebot?" Afton murmurs to himself, bending down and looking the robot over. He remembered reading about these things in the Brotherhood database, they were apparently designed to spy on the populace and broadcast propaganda.

"You know what this thing is, kid? I tried to fix it up but never managed it... The wife wanted it outta the house..." Nash admits.

"Yeah, I know it... Yo Nash, you remember me?" Afton asks.

The man gives him a glare and eventually nods, "Bout to say you looked familiar. My mind must be leaving me if I couldn't recognise the guy who saved our asses. How've you been doin'?"

"Good." Afton states before focussing on the robot, "Anyway, how much for the robot? I doubt anyone other than me would be interested in it, and even if they were it'd only be for scrap metal." he explains.

Nash shrugs, "50 caps."

Afton suppresses his enthusiasm and slowly nods before handing the caps over, "Fair."

"Hmm? I guess you're stayin' the night then? I doubt you'll be wanting ta' lug that thing around the place." Meyers says from the side, looking at the heavy exercise ball-sized machine Afton had just purchased.

Afton nods, "I'll get it fixed by tonight, we'll be gone tomorrow. That alright with you guys?"

"Course, you guys can take a couple rooms in the hotel." Nash adds, and the group nod gratefully at him.

"Alright, since we're stayin' here for the day, I might as well hit up the casino. Need some practice for New Vegas." Karl adds, leaving and taking Boone with him.

Afton looks to the girls, "Guess we better pick out some rooms, we can go see what trouble those two'll get themselves in afterwards." he says, carrying the robot towards the hotel.

The group spends the rest of the day relaxing in the casino, they weren't strapped for caps in the least, especially since they'd just completed one of the best paying jobs the NCR had. Once they returned to Camp McCarren they'd be one of the richest group in the Mojave. As well as the most well-armed.

Some of the group are confused at why Afton isn't trying to fix the machine now, but he just waves them off saying he'd do a couple tweaks to it at night. Obviously, these 'tweaks' would be him sleeping next to it and allowing [Mechanicus] to do the job.

From what he'd learned by looking the robot over, it'd apparently been shot out of the sky and had a few vital components damaged. Nothing too difficult to fix, but annoying nonetheless. Fortunately, like most robots, it had some basic info printed on the inside of its chassis...

It was designated Eyebot Duraframe Subject E, but Afton decides to just call it 'ED-E' as it seems more... Fitting? Hopefully, it'd have more personality than most robots, otherwise he might just render it down to its components and use them to upgrade his next vehicle.

Unfortunately, most of the other information he'd hoped to find in the chassis had been destroyed by external sources... Bullet holes make it difficult to read after all.

"What do you think Nyx?" he asks, wanting to know his 'closest' companions opinion on the robot.

"I hope it will be fun... I wish it could sneak, but it doesn't have legs..." she mutters.

He chuckles, "You don't need legs to sneak you know... In fact, lacking legs probably makes you better at it."

"OOooohh? Shall we remove yours then? You can always be better at sneaking, user."

...

"Er, no. I need my legs for, eh, walking... Anyway, we'll see what ED-E is like tomorrow morning." he states.

As the night rolls around, Afton and the rest of the group are forced to drag Karl's drunk and unconscious body to their hotel room... Seems like he'd gotten a bit too 'relaxed', though, it was funny to see him brag about killing a Deathclaw nest and having no one believe him.

As recompense for getting drunk while they still had things to do, the group writes a few things on his face with marker pens. Due to the lack of mirrors around the wasteland, Karl would probably not find out until someone mentions it...


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!

If you like my content please go to https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.

Chapter 357: Meet the team...

The next day Afton was awoken with an unfamiliar sound at his bedside... He wipes the dust from his eyes and takes a blurry look at the disturbance, afterwards spotting the metal ball floating in front of his face while beeping away happily.

...

"Couldn't you do this like, five minutes later?" he asks with a tired frown.

"Beep Beep-wooo!" it chirps happily, though Afton has no idea what it just said, or even if it was intelligible in the first place.

...

"Nyx, did you understand any of that?" he inquires, hoping his AI would have some way to translate the eye-bot's peculiar and strangely expressive beeping.

"I'm not sure... Is there a port I can interface with?" she asks, a wire sticking out from the wrist of the suit.

Afton raises a brow and is about to start looking to robot over for a port when it turns around and presents it to him, as if it'd understood what they were saying. "Huh, that's a good sign." he mutters, plugging the port in... To be honest, this felt oddly sexual despite the lack of, you know, sexuality...

"*Ahem*, is the port in correctly Nyx?"

"It is, give me a moment."

Afton nods and sits up, grabbing some water out of his bag and sipping it to wake himself up faster... Nyx seems to be taking her time, so he brushes his teeth and prepares everything else that might be needed for travel. After a couple more minutes of holding his wrist up against the eye-bot's port Nyx finally finishes.

"User, this eye-bot seems to possess information on how to manufacture more of it. It's a Prototype Duraframe model, and seems more suited for combat than records on the Enclave suggest. This model you have named 'ED-E' has been tasked with delivering this information to an Enclave base somewhere in Navarro, though this data seems far more encrypted than the rest... It is currently beyond my ability to decipher, perhaps my younger sister would have more luck?" Nyx explains.

Afton rubs his face, what's an eye-bot with top-secret information doing wandering the wasteland alone?... The Prototype Eye-bot schematics drew a lot of his attention however, his 'dream' was to conquer the Mojave, and he wasn't planning on doing so via typical means of uniting people and overthrowing the current ruling government. No, robots were far more loyal and stable.

These Eye-bots gave him more leeway though, he could make hundreds or maybe even thousands of them and have them patrol the Mojave as a sort of police. It wasn't out of the means of possibility, and seemed pretty easy to do once the Think Tank was properly set up.

"Dog-meat! Come here." he calls, the Cyberdog trotting through the door not long after, "Nyx, transmit the data to Dog-meat so he can send it to Glados."

"Will do." she chirps and ports into Dog-meats neck, the Cyberdog going silent as it begins sending the data to Glados. It'd take a couple hours as they would be encrypting the data before sending it off, while Afton didn't think anyone would be able to pick it up, it was better to be safe than sorry.

While that's happening Afton looks to ED-E and gives the robot a poke, causing it to wobble in mid-air. "So, since your duty as been completed and all of your data is being sent to the Enclave, what will you do now?" he asks, making sure to emphasize that its duty was done.

"Beep Beeeeep!"

...

"Nyx?"

"ED-E says that it does not know, it is supposed to be reprogrammed after the information was transmitted to prevent anyone stealing it." she translates.

Afton shrugs, "Er, ok." he says, not really wanting to waste time reprogramming it, "I am now your owner, you belong to me and exist to protect me and all I own. Understand?"

"Beep?"

"'What should I do with the data I possess' it asks." Nyx says in a dull voice, obviously concentrating on transmitting data to Dog-meat.

"Delete it." Afton states, knowing that Nyx had already downloaded it. After a couple second ED-E beeps again, signalling that the data had indeed been deleted. Afton smirks at the fact the Enclave would never receive the data that was rightfully theirs.

[Companion gained : ED-E]

[Comapnion Perk gained : Enhanced Sensors]

[Enhanced Sensors] : Enemies are easier to detect and target, even while cloaked.

Huh, Afton wasn't sure that Perk was actually any good... Didn't Nyx basically already do that? Hmm, maybe it affects her as well? "Nyx, something just happened, do you feel anything different?" he asks.

...

"Not that I am aware of?" she says, wondering if her sensors were malfunctioning at not sensing anything. She deactivates and then reactivates them to see if there was a problem, and only then spotting what'd changed. "User, my sensors have somehow improved?... My range has almost doubled and has become better at detecting peculiarities in the terrain."

Afton nod with a grin, "Good... Now, how long left until the data transfer is complete?"

"Two hours and forty-six minutes."

...

"You serious?... God damn it." he mutters. "Alright ED-E, come with me, it's time to introduce you to everyone while we have time."

ED-E ends up receiving a 'warm' response from the group. Boone didn't really care, Karl wanted to know if he could rig a mini-nuke to it, Josie wanted to deconstruct it, and Anja disliked being unable to talk to it.

Indeed, a very 'warm' response. Though, the robot didn't seem to care. It just continued hovering along and beeping happily. Afton wasn't sure whether it was programmed this was, or whether it was simply just an easy-going robot...


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!

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