Deep within the laboratory of Helios One sat two men. One, a highly qualified scientist of high report secretly belonging to the Followers of the Apocolypse. And the other, well, it's best to leave that bit unsaid.
Ignacio Rivas sighs and rubs his face after going over his recent review of the various machinery contained within the facility, when he'd first arrived he'd assumed that the job would be fairly simple, all he had to do was reroute the energy from whatever it was previously going to and 'wallah' done.
But, he'd seemingly forgotten the Brotherhood of Steel's unwillingness to share technology. Sure, most of the machinery inside the main building was still fully functional, but that didn't matter as the Brotherhood had reactivated all security available to prevent people from accessing the mainframe.
Not only that, but the NCR were far from willing to waste more troops fighting their way through all the robots currently down there... A single Sentryboy could wipe out a squad of unprepared troopers with relative ease, and since the NCR had no idea just how many there were down there, they were shitting bricks waiting for one to go rouge to break loose and decimate their forces.
Ignacio gives a deep sigh and rests his head against the control panel at the bathroom door opens to reveal his 'colleague'... Fantastic he calls himself, now Dr. Fantastic, though Ignacio still hadn't seen what Doctorate the man supposedly had.
Fantastic stumbles out of the bathroom with a pale face and heavily dilated eyes signifying he'd just taken some sort of chem... "Urgh, where did the NCR find you? Passed out in a Freeside alley?" Ignacio mutters to himself.
"H-hey dude, just had to take a piss-break. How're you gettin' on with all that science stuff?" Fantastic asks, his voice as annoying as his dopey face. He was lucky he had tinted glasses to conceal the redness in his eyes that he no doubt had.
"Oh? And what 'Science-Stuff' would you expect me to be doing? Specifically." Ignacio asks, wanting to catch the idiot out on his lies.
Of course, Fantastic does just as you'd expect. "Er, well... Youknow, connectin' the thingamabob with the doohickey to make it go *Ping!... Right?"
...
Ignacio just rubs the bridge of his nose, wondering how he'd gotten into this mess. By now the NCR had already realised what a moron they'd hired, but they'd already signed a contract with him, preventing him from being let go without paying for the rest of his contracted time... So, instead of removing the obstacle, they elected to keep him here, to see if the idiot stumbled onto a solution...
Ignacio kept asking Fantastic various questions, eventually finishing with the most important. "Do you even know what we're supposed to be doing here?"
Fantastic nods, "Yeah, broo. We gotta fix up this place, make it shiny and activate those mirror things outside..."
Ignacio crosses his arms, "And once done, divide the energy between Freeside."
Fantastic shakes his head, "That's not what I heard. That lady wanted all the energy to go to Camp McCarren or whatever, right?"
Ignacio just stays silent. Yes, that is what they were 'hired' to do, but as a Follower of the Apocalypse, his goal was to spread peace and prosperity to as many people as possible... Altering the energy output slightly wouldn't harm the NCR anyway, especially since they control the dam.
Fortunately for the over and underworked duo, neither noticed the invisible shimmering silhouette who'd been listening in on their conversation thus far.
Afton grins at what he'd just learned as he sneaks away. Apparently, the NCR was more incompetent than he'd initially thought, hiring only two scientists to operate the facility... It'd taken almost everyone Scribe the Brotherhood had at its disposal to figure out, repair, and operate this place. What hope did they have with a scientist and a retard?
Sure, the place was mostly operational, but you'd still need someone to reactivate it. Which would be very, very difficult for the duo the NCR had just hired... Fortunately, Afton intended to activate the facility under their noses, distributing the energy where it needed to go, while hiding a secret function that no one would notice without a significant amount of snooping around.
Afton snuck out of the laboratory and back into the wasteland, he was currently right under the central array that would collect the energy from the solar panels... Only that it was currently misaligned, making it incredibly inefficient.
He sneaks over towards the basement entrance and lets himself inside, none of the robots notice him as he walks past them, though, he doesn't have much time left on his Stealthboy. Which is fine as all he needed to do was reach a terminal and designate himself as Brotherhood of Steel personnel.
Once he was registered, he could go through the facility unmolested. And he did just that, strolling through until he reached the mainframe. However, somehow the cable powering it had become frayed, but this was easily fixed with some DIY tricks. Once done, he logs onto the mainframe and starts playing around with the settings.
He remembered being here all those years ago when Elder Elijah had abandoned them... Now, he finally had the opportunity to put the shit he knew into action.
First, he designates energy distribution to go to Freeside, Westside, CampMcCarren, and New Vegas. Second, he makes it seems as if there is a tiny leak on the energy, though, its true purpose is to power the Orbital Laser.
It should, if everything went well, grant him an Orbital Charge once every two weeks. This wasn't to say he could store it up however, no it didn't work like that. All it meant was that he'd have to wait two weeks after each shot before it was ready again.
"I've done what you could not, Elijah, you crazy bastard." Afton mutters as he leaves the terminal.
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :
Joseph Suh
Chris Lindsey
With the target now selected, Afton moves up to the ladder and climbs all the way up the tower. He had no idea why the control panel was placed right in front of where the intense rays of sunlight shined, but there was no point over arguing about it now.
Once at the top, he walks around and finds the small lever that'd realign all the mirror, as well as give skin cancer to everyone who was currently up there... Fortunately, Afton was immune to diseases, otherwise he'd have come wrapped up in a foil blanket or something.
"Well, as the alien time-traveller would say, Geronimo!" he exclaims, slamming the lever down and waiting for... Nothing to happen...
"Huh... Is it broken-OH GOD MY EYES!" he shouts as all the mirrors realign at once, shooting concentrated beams of sunlight directly at him. Afton does as any self-respecting genius would do at this moment, falling to the ground while clutching his eyes.
"I HATE YOU GOD, APOLLO, WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS YOU BASTARD!" he shouts while waiting for his healing factor to fix whatever damage had occurred. Once his eyes weren't feeling like they were on fire, he opens them and spots that is entire body had gained a dark tan... Though, it was covered by a lot of peeling skin, meaning that he'd been terribly sunburned by the whole ordeal.
"Gross." he mutters, peeling off what seems like another person's weight in dead skin.
Before anything else though, he glances at the notifications that'd popped up in his peripheral.
[Take control of ARCHIMEDES in Helios One COMPLETED!]
[Quest gained! : Use the Orbital Laser!!!!]
Afton grins at the quest but is forced to stop thinking about it as he hears a commotion coming from below, yeah, the NCR probably noticed all that didn't they... Lucky they probably hadn't managed to spot Afton, not that he would be recognisable all the way up here.
Regardless, instead of leaving the tower he decides to start gathering the coordinates so he can teleport up here whenever he wants... Plus, it'd be terribly difficult to leave this place now that they know something had happened, he could see it from here already, the many NCR troopers guarding the underground entrance, stopping him from leaving that way.
He shrugs to himself, pulling out a bottle of water and laying back on the slowly warming metal surface of the overlook, might as well kick back and relax while he waits for the teleportation to be ready.
Elsewhere :
"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Lt Haggerty exclaims, glaring straight at Fantastic with a caustic look.
"W-whaddya mean!? I fixed the thing, just like you asked, lady!" the chem'd up dope quickly says, sending pleading looks at Ignacio to ask for help.
"YOU, want me to believe that you fixed this place? After Ignacio hadn't managed for TWO YEARS?" she shouts, clearly not trusting the fraud.
"Err... Yeah?" Fantastic sheepishly says, "So, when do I get paid?"
Lt Haggerty just growls at him, "How do you explain the figure we saw on top of the facility then!?"
Ignacio raises a brow at this, opening the door and glancing up at the tower, spotting a figure who was seemingly laying down? Once he confirms its presence he goes to enter inside once more, but he takes one more glance and finds the figure gone... "What the fuck...?"
Lt Haggerty looks at Ignacio as he enters, "WELL? How do either of you explain that?"
...
"I-er... You saw a figure out there?" he asks and Haggerty nods.
"Well... It's not out there anymore..."
...
Lt Haggerty pushes past Ignacio and walks outside, glaring up at the tower where the figure should have been... It wasn't there any longer, meaning that it'd either started heading for the underground exit and would be caught, or... It didn't exist in the first place... "Men! Position yourselves at the entrance! We'll catch whoever's messing with our shit!... THAT'S AN ORDER!" she exclaims upon seeing her troopers still standing around with dumb looks.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, the 'figure' had completely disappeared, leaving the troopers sat with guns ready in front of the underground entrance for two months before they were finally allowed to leave it...
In the end, it was explained away as a 'trick of the eyes' due to the activation of the solar panels. Due to the facility seemingly working at full capacity, there wasn't any reason to investigate anymore either, especially since there was no point in destroying the robot security now that it was working how they wanted. The NCR just considered them an extra layer of protection and left it as is.
Of course, Ignacio was disgraced as less competent than a moron, and Fantastic was offered a promotion, allowing him to work in the OSI... At least, until they discovered how stupid the man is.
Back to Afton, he'd just teleported back to Novac and waited until midnight. Once he was sure most of the NCR in Helios One was asleep, he headed to where the Brotherhood and NCR had fought and started looking around.
He hoped to find some buried suits of Powerarmour or perhaps some weaponry the NCR had missed, but as he'd expected, the place was stripped clean... Even shards of metal blown from Powerarmour had been taken, most likely so the NCR could synthesize the material again.
There was one thing Afton noticed however... The canyon where he'd been forced to leave his father was relatively untouched by dust. Sure, there was a small layer of sand, just like the rest of the wasteland, but he was particularly interested in the place his father was last seen,
Despite the layer of dust, he could see drag marks left from all those years ago, as if a large truck as driven past. Afton knew it wasn't a vehicle though, it was likely the NCR dragging his father with his Powerarmour out... There weren't any bones or any sign of a corpse, which meant they either took his body with the suit, or, something else had happened...
Afton rubs his forehead, ignoring the cold sweat that was greasing his palm. Yeah, he didn't know what to hope for... To hop for a clean death for his father, or to hope he was still alive and imprisoned?...
Whatever the case, he didn't know where to even start... Perhaps once he'd antagonised the NCR enough and gained access to their databases he'd find something, but, for now, he had other matters to attend to. Regardless of the notification that'd popped up in his peripheral.
[Quest gained! : Find out what happened to your father]
Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!
If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.
Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :
Joseph Suh
Chris Lindsey
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