It's been two months since the eradication of the NCR leadership, and, well, things have proceeded exactly as you may have expected... As soon as the announcement of the attack was made, the NCR almost immediately began destroying itself.
The people holding the reigns of the Brahmin barons and other powerful people were gone, leaving a literal wasteland where no rules could really be governed. The NCR military couldn't do anything as they were barely holding the Brotherhood of Steel back at the borders, and the populace couldn't individually do anything aside from sitting back and watching the fireworks.
This was why the NCR split and fractured, the territory being claimed by various new factions that'd sprung up. Most of these factions were Brahmin barons with enough resources to stake a claim on more land, while the rest were simply large groups of NCR citizens that wanted to protect themselves and their way of life.
It didn't take long for the fighting to start either, once the groups were decided, any action that could be considered even slightly 'negative' would result in a massive conflict... A stray member of the People's Republic wandering into the Brahmin Lord Kalthakuk's territory? War.
Someone from the American Liberation Party sends a mean letter to the White Rights Faction? War.
The Anti-Mutant Coalition stones a Ghoul to death, infuriating the Mutant Freedom faction? War.
It was as if Afton, Cass, Anja, and Juan had pushed a tiny domino, that led to others that steadily grew in size, which continued until a domino large enough to flatten a country finally fell onto the NCR.
Afton was now wondering if the Mojave would be better off if Ulysses had just nuked the trade routes... Some of the fighting had started to spill into the local region, factions wanting to control as much territory as possible randomly staking claim on anything that didn't have a name on it.
This was easily dealt with however, the Brothers of Kimball had decided to march towards the South East entrance into the Mojave where the NCR Mojave Outpost had previously been. Their group numbered at around two hundred, and they'd somehow managed to scavenge an old out of order military base for equipment...
Afton just waited until they stopped to pay their respects to the large statue of a trooper and a ranger, before shooting the Range Finder at them... Instantly, the two hundred men were vaporized, along with the statue that'd previously marked NCR and Ranger cooperation.
The only thing left was a large scorched crater, a reminder to any attackers who thought the Mojave was theirs to claim.
Of course, Afton hadn't been twiddling his thumbs during all of this. Research on healing his father had continued, and with the 'willing' assistance of Macka Bree, they were finally beginning to make progress on returning Zachary Parker's humanity... Of course, they were still a long way away, but any progress is good progress.
As for how Macka was doing during his time in prison? Well, after extensive testing, Afton found that using hydrofluoric acid would temporarily stop the man's healing. It seemed as if the adaptivity of his body was useless in the face of it, and while he could make himself 'somewhat' resistant to it temporarily, he'd experience extraordinary pain when subjected to it.
Even without pain receptors, being touched by the substance made the man feel as if he were 'on fire' on every cell of his body. An interesting finding, to make use of this, Afton had changed Macka's cell floor with it. This allowed him to stop removing the man's limbs constantly, as Macka was too afraid to go against Afton after it'd been installed.
Indeed, he'd also been utilising the man's abilities against prisoners, seeing how extensive his manipulative of organic material really went... After the third 'Croninburg' monster they'd inadvertently created however, Afton decided it wasn't worth risking such a procedure on anyone he actually liked... Enemies though? He imagined it'd be an incredibly effective psychological torture option.
This might be useful soon enough, as the Brotherhood of Steel had finally taken notice of Afton, Bulwark, and New Vegas itself. The defences Afton and House ha constructed seem to have finally drawn their ire, though, he was sure they wouldn't try to attack the Mojave before eliminating whatever was left of the NCR.
Additionally, Afton scouts that'd been sent to whatever's left of Boston. He'd thought that teleportation would be easy to set up, but it seems that something was obstructing his Cyberdog's efforts in marking down coordinates for the place...
Every time they locked a coordinate in, something seemed to scramble it moments after, which was incredibly unnerving... It basically meant that someone either knew how to stop their methods of teleportation, or, there was a device there so powerful that it intentionally interfered with their attempts.
Afton was honestly betting on the former though, he knew the Institute was probably still around and active, so it doesn't surprise him that they may have teleportation tech. All it meant was that Afton would need to make some countermeasures in case they weren't as cooperative as he hoped.
He had no idea how they operated, what their goals were, or even if they were still sane... Who knows, perhaps he'd get another set of mad robotic scientists to add to his research and development department.
Speaking of which, progress on the cloning project had finally reached its conclusion, or at least, Afton hoped. With the data they'd extracted from Clone Caesar after having it self destruct, they'd quickly fixed the issues they'd been having with the other clones they'd created.
The rapid biological degradation had been 'somewhat' fixed, improving the overall lifespan of the clones by around fifty years or so. The only problem left now, was actually utilising the technology...
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Afton was currently looking through an observation window at some healthy, yet uncomfortable-looking people who were pacing around in the room. He was joined by every Think Tank scientist, as everything that went down today would include them, no matter how it went.
"Are these them?" Zero asks as his monitors focus on the subjects.
Afton nods, the project was a success, and Dala's managed to get the rejection rate to around ten percent. A dramatic difference compared to the fifty percent we saw before..." he gestures at a man sitting against one of the walls, "We've found that despite the disparity between male and female brains, implanting a brain in a body of the opposite sex only increases the rejection rate by twenty percent..." he explains.
"To prevent many mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia, hormones will need to be externally provided until the brain's chemistry adapts to the new body. A rapid change in homornic-profile can lead to more than just mental illnesses, so further research on the topic is necessary." Dala state from the side.
"Forgive me, but, how is this relevant to us?" Borous asks from the side.
Afton coughs into his fist and glances at Zero, the rest following his gaze.
...
"What?" the scientist quickly retorts, "I just wanted to know what it feels like to be a woman... It isn't like I can't turn back, right?" he states.
"Data on that particular area is limited, I saw no need to attempt it as the very idea seemed idiotic... My mistake." she says, sending a barbed remark at Zero.
Afton shakes his head, "Regardless, I think we need to get back to the subject at hand... Doctor 8, you've volunteered yourself to be the first to receive a body, I will not mention your stated reason, as it isn't really relevant, or tasteful... But, this has allowed us to prepare for this beforehand." Afton says as he gestures for the scientists to follow him.
He leads them through the hallway and into the next room where a clone body was floating in a tank. It was around eighteen years old, had tanned skin despite it never seeing sunlight, black hair, and brown eyes.
"8, this will be your body... You didn't specify what DNA you wanted to be used, and we couldn't find any samples of your previous body's, so, I decided to gather some elsewhere." he states, not revealing where he got the DNA for fear of offending someone.
Not the scientists of course, but someone else. After all, these guys were known to be good at keeping secrets, and he'd hate for Ulysses to find out that his DNA had been used without his permission.
Why had he done this? Well, to test how the man's DNA would react to the cloning process, and to see if his rather rediculous S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats could be replicated.
The scientists crowd around the body and begin examining it, muttered responses of "Ooooh?", "Ahhhh!", "Marvelous!", and "Ohohohoho!", could be heard as they looked it over.
8, in particular, took great interest in the... Front half of the body. "Oh, thank you for including a suitably sized genitalia. I was afraid you would downsize it to spite me." the scientist says.
Afton just shakes his head in exasperation, "If I did that it'd defeat your purpose of wanting a body... Just try to be civil about it, I don't want to see white marks on the lawn, street, chairs... People!... Keep that shit in your own room, don't think I forgot when you 'creamed into my gun'..." he grimaces, remembering how warm it was in his hands afterwards.
Afton composes himself with a cough, "Anyway. Everything is set up, and you've all been invited ere to observe the operation, but!... I have some rules that you must follow." he pauses, sending a glare at each of them.
"No backseat operating! If I hear one word of 'Hey, are you supposed to be cutting that?', or 'I don't think that's supposed to do that!', Ima stuff you in a clone body with Tourettes!"
"Er, could you do that? isn't Tourettes a psychological issue?" Zero tentatively asks.
Afton just grins at him, "Well, nothing a bit of prodding and electroshock therapy wouldn't fix, right Dala?" his voice lowers as he addresses her, reminding her of her actions against Christine. Heh, his big sis would be happy to hear Dala would soon be 'punishable' if this procedure goes well.
"Ooooh, your threats are making my bio-gel foam, teddy bear." Dala coo's, seemingly ignoring his threat.
Afton shakes his head and ignores her, "Second! You are not to interrupt the procedure no matter what. I don't care if a Deathclaw escapes and slaughters all of you, you will keep your screams down and be silent in such an event..." he states and pause, waiting for another complaint... Only to be greeted by silence.
"Huh, woulda thought you guys would protest that one as well."
Borous shrugs his monitors, "We all know the importance of concentration and focus, especially with something as delicate as literal brain surgery. Rest assured, we will die in silence." he jokes.
Afton nods before holding up three fingers, "Third and finally, after this is over you may request bodies to your specification... However! I reserve the right to alter them as I please... Also be reminded that each body will be chipped, to make sure any disobedience and instability caused by you regaining your humanity will be kept in check." Afton shrugs and continues.
"I'm sure most of you don't want any of your original DNA involved anyway, your frail and nerdy bodies were all well and good at producing efficient and intelligent brains, but now that that's developed, you can focus on other things, like disease resistance, etcetera, etcetera."
"Ahem... Can we choose who we received DNA from?" Dala asks from the side, her monitors closely appraising his face.
...
"Sure... Doesn't mean you'll get what you want though."
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