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83.49% Steel Waste / Chapter 592: Moods Barred

Chapter 592: Moods Barred

...

"Well, do you remember anything? Or is it just Dejavu?" Afton asks.

Tamia shakes her head, "Dejavu would be the word for it I think... Vague feelings of familiarity, somehow knowing how to deal with Tunnelers..." she rubs the spot on her helmet where she'd been shot by Benny, "Feels like I've been here and done this all before. Yet, I feel like I'm doing something wrong..." she admits while sounding somewhat vulnerable.

Afton gives a shrug and looks her up and down, "Maaybe you're just going crazy? That knock to the head finally catching up with you." he says semi-sarcastically.

"I'm being serious." Tamia instantly retorts with crossed arms, "Something's wrong, but I just can't place my finger on it." she states.

...

Afton chews his lip and decides to just throw an idea out there... Even if it were instantly rejected and labelled 'idiotic and ridiculous', it'd at least be less awkward than whatever this silence is called. "You know this tunnel supposedly leads to that irradiated military base Christine spoke about, maybe you'll find your answers there? If anything else, you could scavenge it for me, clear it and make it easy for my robots to take all the valuables."

...

Tamia taps her foot, "I'll think about it... But I need to see if House needs me for anything... And I'd have to take some of those robots with me too, I can't imagine a military base will be all that friendly... Plus the radiation." she trails off, as if trying to persuade herself.

Afton nods, "Right, well, you get on that. I'll be with Borous attending to our 'queen'." he says, gesturing for the Ultimo-Bots, Cyberdogs, and Deathclaws to follow him as he begin walking towards Big Mt.

Tamia just watches as he walks back, eyes glazed over as she'd deep in thought, wringing her mind for any information it was willing, or able to grant. "Urgh, why can't I just remember!" she mutters to herself, frustrated with Benny, Bullets, Brains... And anything else started with the letter B.

Elsewhere :

"Boss really has his stuff together, don't he?" Raul says as he watches the 'vending machine' materialise a cold bottle of Mexican beer. The humming of the machine stops and he opens the door, taking it out and marvelling at the condensation forming on its surface. "I mean, really, how does this thing even work? It's giving me a headache just tryin' to wrap my head around it." he mutters.

"Aha, well. You can't hold those things solely under him, he only scavenged and recreated them from a strange and dangerous place... Still, he did save my behind when it came down to it, even when it put himself at risk." Dean says and raising his beer, "Cheers my fellow outcast." he chuckles as they clink their drinks together.

Raul laughs along with him, "Aha, sounds similar to how I first met 'im. Was imprisoned by some crazy Nightkin and forced to operate the Black Mountain radio... Boss stormed the place alone and found me sitting there as if I were a teen masturbating."

"That must've been a strange sight to behold... Mind you, I haven't masturbated since I turned into a Ghoul... Afraid the thing might just, drop off!" Dean proclaims before bursting into laughter. He and Raul had been drinking for a couple hours now, and were both thoroughly drunk. While their status as Ghouls might've made it more difficult, the amount of beer they'd ingested would knock out a few human men, yet they were still drinking.

Once they quieted down Raul looks around the bar they were sitting in... It was dim with dark walls, yet nicely constructed, unlike most bars the duo had previously been to. The staff serving people were all nice-looking women wearing maid uniforms, and most of the patrons seemed to be of the military sort.

Indeed, both Ghouls could see a couple people sending sideways glances their way. Seems like wherever they came from weren't all that friendly towards Ghouls, it was good enough as long as they didn't bother them though.

Still, Dean had spent hundreds of years on his own with minimal company if any. And now that alcohol was loosening his lips, he couldn't help himself... He abruptly gets up out of his seat and walks towards them while Raul watches with morbid curiosity, wondering what kind of reaction his fellow Ghoul would get.

"Hello Amigas and Amigos, I was just wondering, do any of you have some matches I could borrow?" he asks while presenting an unlit cigarette... Of course, he had a lighter in his pocket, but he was interested in conversing with them than anything else.

The group of Former-brotherhood soldiers shuffle uncomfortably. Each had been given long lectures by Veronica, Christine, Afton, and even Glados when things started getting really bad. It was difficult for them to acclimate from their previous isolationist lifestyle to this one...

Life in Big Mt was strange, there were people from all walks of life here, Former-Legion slaves, NCR citizens, Ghouls, Robots, those creepy Scientist things... That overbearing creature called 'Glados'... It wasn't uncommon for Former-Brotherhood soldiers who were tired from training to react badly to things, especially since they'd been brought up from birth to be like that.

Miles glances around the table but finds that no one was willing to help the Ghoul out, he releases a sigh and lights Deans cigarette with his lighter, "Here."

Dean takes a couple puffs and blows the smoke in the air, not caring that the smoke catches a few of the soldiers... Fortunately, they manage to restrain themselves from reacting though, the lectures they received still fresh in their minds.

"Thanks for that, you know, I don't think I remember seeing you lot around here when I first arrived... Where are you from?" Dean drawls conversationally.

Miles notices his friends tense up at the Ghouls continued presence and decides to try and resolve this before they do anything they'll regret. "Look, I'd love to talk with you but we've just finished training and just want to relax... Maybe we can chat some other time?" he says, hoping the Ghoul would catch the message.

Dean shrugs and slowly examines the group before nodding, "Alright, fine... I'll leave you to it... But know you can only glare and avoid us for so long, eventually, there'll be more of us around... I wonder what you'll do then." he states, stabbing his cigarette into the ashtray and returning to his own table.

Raul across the table at Dean with a frown, "You tryin'a start a fight or somethin'? Boss will know who's right and wrong, his lady's always watchin'..." he warns.

Dean chuckles, "Tell me about it." he says while glancing up into the corner of the room where a camera with an orange light is observing everything.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

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

Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :

ShinAmazake

Kingsprovince

Michael Jarrett

Nazlican Erdem

Tarlock

Justin David

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Chapter 593: Scientific Specifics

A couple days pass since the Tunneler extermination expedition had happened. As planned, Afton and Glados continued to send small patrols of Ultimo-Bots to purge any more Tunnelers who find their way into the cave system.

There were still plans to collapse it, but they were being especially cautious as they didn't know how far the tunnels actually went... A sudden ill-prepared collapse could weaken the foundations of the Railway tunnels and potentially even parts of Big Mt... Not to mention wherever the other tunnels snaked off to.

The group of Cyberdogs and Ultimo-Bots that Afton had sent off to explore them had only recently come back... It'd taken them two days to reach the end of a single tunnel, and strangely enough, the exit was only a couple miles away from a couple villages... Afton was still contemplating whether or not he wanted to contact them and ask if they'd encountered any tunnelers, but he suspected the Tunnelers didn't hunt the humans there, only the livestock they kept.

There were also plans in the works to modify the Cloud to be the bane of Tunnelers... Pumping that corrosive mist into the cave system would no doubt annihilate anything it came across, though there was a couple of problems with actually integrating it...

The first being the fact that anywhere the Tunnels led to would be put in significant danger. It wasn't possible to judge how long they were, where they led(In good time), and even if the Cloud would start weakening the foundations of everything above it... It was corrosive for a reason, if left long enough it might even eat through stone, soil, and breach the surface, obviously killing everything that had been there.

The second problem was the fact Tunnelers were extremely adaptable. The reason Ghost people formed was because air filtration lowered corrosive properties of the Cloud, this allowed it to slowly infest the body and alter it. This made them immune to the Cloud, while also increasing strength, agility, and unfortunately rendering the victim insane and in a constant state of rage.

No one could predict how Tunnelers would react when presented with the Cloud... Some might just dissolve into fleshy goo, while others might adapt to it and begin utilising it to strengthen themselves, becoming pseudo ghost people in the process... Hell, the possibility of them acquiring a limited form of air filtration just to become ghost people was not zero.

Of course, Tunnelers adapted to the Cloud, it wouldn't be that difficult to kill them... After such a mutation they'd need occasional upkeep of the Cloud to keep their bodies functioning. This is one of the reasons Ghost people didn't stray too far from the Sierra Madre, without the Cloud their bodies would slowly degrade and fall apart.

Regardless, Afton would allow Borous to experiment with using the Cloud on Tunnelers in secure locations. Even if it didn't help solve their Tunneler problem, it'd at least help them understand exactly how the Cloud functioned...

*Clunk!*

Afton steps through the lab door and looks over at Borous who was observing the Tunneler Queen through an observation window.

He walks over and looks through, spotting the Queen laying eggs in the corner of the room. He's quickly surprised however as the Queen picks one of her eggs up and devours it... He turns towards Borous who's monitors weren't moving, as if he'd already observed such a behavior. "Why did it do that?"

One of Borous monitors turns towards him as the scientist begins to speak, "As far as I can tell, it only eats its young when stressed..." the scientist turns to look fully at Afton, "I've conducted a number of tests on it already, as you can see, when not in complete darkness these creatures become incredibly stressed..."

"Why would that be? Cass said she'd seen plenty on the surface...?" Afton asks.

"Ah... No idea." Borous states, "I suspect there are some variants more suited to going above ground. Their cave systems receive little to no light, so their eyes have been adapted to be incredibly sensitive... Being in a brightly lit room would be like having high-powered lasers shined in your eyes constantly, the only reason this creature's eyes haven't been destroyed yet is due to the multiple eyelids it possesses."

...

Afton crooks a brow, "Uh huh... And, is any of this actually useful information, or just merely interesting to you?"

Borous snorts, "Can it not be BOTH!?... But yes, as you most likely already know, sudden flashes of light that occur before they can shield their eyes can disorient them and perhaps permanently blind some... Perhaps some targeted high-powered light systems would be effective?"

...

"Isn't that just lasers?..." Afton asks with a dull look.

...

"Ah-er... Yes..." Borous sheepishly admits.

"And you just recommended 'shooting them in the eyes'... As if that wasn't already effective with weapons other than lasers?"

...

"Well, anything would sound stupid if you put it like that!" Borous retorts.

Afton shakes his head, "No, only your idea sounds stupid in that scenario... Plus, once combat started, wouldn't the Tunnelers protect their eyes with those films anyway? Thus rendering a Laser shot not any more effective than what a bullet would be?"

Borous' floating height lowers slightly as if put out at being remonstrated. "You asked, I replied... ANYWAY! The tests you asked to be conducted on the various Tunneler samples you brought have been completed... And I am sad to say no, their scales, hides, organs, or claws would not be more effective than what we already have. Saturnite, Deathclaw hide, and Cybernetics can easily achieve anything these samples might do."

"Okay so, Tunnelers; bad... How is the Deathclaw Project going? The two Deathclaws I took on the expedition were very effective, so how long until we can have an army of them?"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

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

Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :

ShinAmazake

Kingsprovince

Michael Jarrett

Nazlican Erdem

Tarlock

Justin David

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