Unduh Aplikasi
39.06% Steel Waste / Chapter 277: Forced-Passivity

Bab 277: Forced-Passivity

That man had said something about a 'Courier' right? Afton wasn't sure but he suspected Tamia to be involved in some way... He hadn't met another Courier in all his travels in the Mojave thus far, and the way he spoke about her was somewhat ominous.

Of course, Afton could just be overthinking things, there had to be hundreds of thousands of couriers around the world, so what would the chances be of the courier he was describing to be the single courier Afton had personally met.

Though, he did speak of a place called the 'Divide', Afton already 'somewhat' knew of this place. It had been the trade path that led directly to the NCR. And had it stayed open, he knew there was no doubt that the NCR would control the entirety of the Mojave...

But... Something seems to have happened to it. Any whom enter the 'Divide' as it's now called, never return. The place is said to be one of the most inhospitable places in the world, from what he'd heard, it wasn't an incorrect statement either.

From heavy radiation that pervaded every inch of every surface, to winds that'd tear their flesh from your bones if you were caught by them. Afton had even seen logs in the Brotherhood of Steel that stated that most of its original inhabitants were still alive, having become ghouls who are now organised, militarized, and attack any that come near.

The man wanted his quarry to see the Divide, and what'd happened. Meaning that they might be somewhat responsible for the chaos and destruction that'd abruptly been caused there. He shakes his head, regardless, he'd deal with that when it came.

For now, he needed to sleep, heal up, and return to the Think Tank to ask about Christine...

He stores the Holo-Tapes in his backpack, wanting to preserve them and hopefully show them to Veronica. He was sure she'd be ecstatic to hear that Christine was... Probably alive.

[Quest received! Find Christine in the Sierra Madre!]

He raises a brow at the abrupt quest but shakes his head, he didn't need some ephemeral sixth dimension Pipboy to tell him to save his family. He'd rather skin himself alive than leave her alone now that he'd found her.

Deciding that he'd spent long enough fending off the exhaustion, he rests his head on the bedroll and closes his eyes, waiting for Morpheus to take him.

The next day Afton awoke with a start, the pain in his legs while having gotten significantly better, was still present. He checks himself over and finds that with the help of his mutations, perks, stimpacks, and proper treatment via his Medicine Skill, his legs were now only fractured.

The bones were slowly healing, but there was still clear weakness in his legs. He'd not take off the splints until they were completely repaired... Hopefully, once he was in the sunlight his healing factor would get another boost.

He cautiously gets up, continuing to use the Anti-Material rifle and X-2 Antenna as make-shift crutches. He takes one last glance around the room before heading outside, checking the area to make sure there weren't any lobotomites or Robo-Scorpions around.

Funnily enough, he could see the Robo-Scorpions still guarding the X-2 Transmitter Antenna Array door. He wondered if Mobius would try and starve him out of something? Still, this was pretty good, as if Mobius thought he was stuck inside the building then his Robo-Scorpions would be out of position when he attempts to take the next piece of Technology.;

Regardless, Afton begins his trek back to the Think Tank, the sunlight on his face revitalising him somewhat, while the extra strength it's granting him allows him to speed his pace up.

He's forced to avoid a few groups of roaming lobotomites, but eventually, he makes it back to the Think Tank in relatively good time. Once he enters, however, his thoughts of interrogating them about what they did to Christine abruptly dissipate. D.A.M.N Pacification field!

He takes a moment to massive his temples as a migraine strikes, his previously seething emotions getting suddenly cut off was causing him problems.

He quickly centres himself and allows the pacification field to strip him of any A.G.G.R.E.S.S.I.O.N he may feel. Once done he hobbles into the large room where the Think Tank scientists were working... None of which seem to notice him enter, nor attempt to take their attention away from their various projects.

He spotted Klein at the top of the ramp at the end of the room, staring into some monitors that had lots of binary code that ran across the screen at speeds almost impossible to track... Afton wasn't sure if the doctor was just feigning being able to understand the information or not... Perhaps he had some implants that allowed him to process the data more quickly?

Regardless, he marched up to him, leant on his Anti-Material rifle and coughed into his fist to catch the doctors attention. *Cough*

Dr. Klein quickly whips around towards Afton, the brain in the glass dome being sloshed around within the bio-gel. "H-HUH? OH! IT'S YOU, LOBOTOMITE. HAVE YOU RETRIEVE THE TECHNOLOGIES AS I HAVE INDICATED?" he asks.

Afton just raises a brow at him, "Shouldn't you know if I did? You seemed to be able to track my progress on obtaining the X-2 Antenna... Oh, and stop calling me 'Lobotomite', my name is Afton, use it." he states, his emotions on what they'd done to Christine somehow bleeding into his voice, though the pacification field only increases the strength of his migraine due to it.

"OH. I KNOW YOU HAVEN'T RECOVERED THE TECHNOLOGIES YET, I JUST THOUGHT IT PERTINENT TO ASK BEFORE YOU TELL ME WHY YOU ARE SLACKING OFF!?" Klein says, in his usual, loud-broken voice modulator tone.


PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
Niggross Niggross

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

Bab 278: Ego Clash

Afton gapes at the robot, looking down at his beaten and tattered state. His legs were clearly splinted up, displaying just how injured he actually was. "Slacking off? Are you stupid? My legs are broken you doddering two-hundred-year-old jar-head!" he shouts, jabbing his finger pointedly towards the robot.

"STUPID!? HOW DARE YOU! I AM THE CHIEF RESEARCHER OF THE THINK TANK, MOST MARVELOUS AND INTELLIGENTLY INTELLIGENT INSTITUTIONS EVER CREATED, OR EVER WILL BE CREATED! YOU ACCUSE ME OF BEING STUPID? WHY, WE SHOULD HAVE YOU PUT DOWN FOR MENTAL INSTABILITY!" Klein exclaims back, clearly offended at being called 'stupid'.

The Doctor's tirade isn't over just yet, however, "AND NO! WHY WOULD TAKE NOTICE OF YOUR FRAGILE HUMAN BODY'S CONDITION? IF YOU WANT SYMPATHY FOR YOUR FLESHY PENIS-TIPPED FORMS INADEQUACIES THEN GO SEE DALA! OTHERWISE, CONTINUE THE TASK WE HAVE SET FOR YOU."

The stubborn man and robot glare at one another, neither wishing to give ground... Afton furrows his brow, "Ignoring the technology... I need you to answer a question I have, and you will answer it truthfully, 'oh mighty chief researcher of the Think Tank'." he states sarcastically before continuing, "I heard that you have received some visits from some outsiders fairly recently, I need to know what happened to them."

"YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE VISITORS?" he asks, almost sounded confounded. "GO ASK DR. O OR DR. 8, THEY WOULD KNOW MORE ABOUT THEM THEN I WOULD." he states, making a 'shooing' gesture with his manipulators.

"Are you pointing me in the right direction or just trying to get me to leave?" Afton asks, mirth and annoying interspersed within his voice.

"THAT DEPENDS, WHAT ANSWER WILL MAKE YOU LEAVE FASTER?"

Afton just shakes his head and limbs away, towards 'Dr. O'. He honestly didn't think he'd be able to get anything of worth out of 8, seeing as the robots voice modulator had been 'irreparably' damaged.

That wasn't saying that Afton couldn't fix it, because he probably could. He just wanted to hold off on that until he could gain something from it, fixing it too early would allow Dr. 8 and the others to slowly forget their debt towards him, better to wait until he needs something and then strike while the iron is hot.

That being said, he wondered why everyone referred to Dr. Zero as Dr. O... It was fairly obvious what was numerical and what was a letter... He'd seen sticky notes on and around Dr. Zero's work area, so it's pretty easy to figure out... Perhaps the robots were all going senile? Or perhaps they were all just mocking the robotics expert for some reason?

Afton walks up to Zero before greeting him with a small wave, "Dr. Zero?" he asks.

"For the last time, it's Zer-... Wait, what did you just call me?" the robot asks, disbelief apparent in his voice.

"Dr. Zero." Afton states, "Why? Do you like being called Dr. O instead?"

"Ah-No-no-no-no-NO! Dr. Zero is my name, don't let the other oxy-morons tell you otherwise!" he quickly says, "Youknow, lobotomite, you aren't all that bad. Even if you wear RobCo junk." he says, gesturing at Afton's Pipboy.

"Mhm." Afton hums, not bothering to mention the mystical properties it seems to have. "I was talking with Dr. Klein and heard about some intruders you guys had recently." he asks jovially, not letting his connection to Christine be known as of yet.

...

"I... Don't like to talk about it. 8 can't talk about it either after what they did to fry his voice module. It wasn't all the visitors though, only one of them got outta control. He's the one that took control of Little Yangtze, our old human farm."

...

"Human farm?" Afton asks after a moment, that didn't sound good AT ALL.

"Oh, yeah. During the great war, the American government had all Chinese-American citizens packed up and shipped off to various camps... Concentration camps they called it, don't know why they wanted to keep it so hush-hush." the robot lifts its manipulators, giving the best shrug it could manage. "Annoying meat-bags kept trying to break out, so be designed explosive collars to keep them put... Not that it mattered in the end, the great war happened and, well, ghouls don't make the best test subjects, especially if your experiments concern the brain."

If Afton wasn't already sure of the Think Tanks complete lack of morale boundaries before, then he definitely would now. Abducting people and lobotomizing them, concentration camps... What's next? Creating Frankenstein's monster or something?

He shook his head, he decides to pursue this later and ask about the 'troublesome' visitor, "What happened to the intruder?"

"You'll never believe it, this human... He broke out of the Think Tank. In seconds... Then he went of Yangtze, got our bomb collars, and start practising on the remaining ghouls there. No doubt trying to figure out the right frequencies to operate them.

We were sending robots to get him, but he kept slicing and cutting through their shells with some suped-up laser gun like they were cheese... Paper. When he hacked into the mainframe, 8 tried to stop him and got fried. Me? He rerouted my processors to take control of the train network here.

If you've seen the tunnels with the trains ploughed into them, you can thank our visitor for that. He wrecked the whole place... While we were trying to keep containment on the surface, he used one train to punch a hole through a tunnel and escape. Sealed now. But..."

Sounds like a certain mad-man Afton was somewhat familiar with... His obsession with technology would have no doubt lead him here, the skills he picked up from the Brotherhood allowing him to cause all that havoc, Elder Elijah. "What about the others?"


PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA
Niggross Niggross

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.

Load failed, please RETRY

Status Power Mingguan

Membuka kunci kumpulan bab

Indeks

Opsi Tampilan

Latar Belakang

Font

Ukuran

Komentar pada bab

Tulis ulasan Status Membaca: C277
Gagal mengirim. Silakan coba lagi
  • Kualitas penulisan
  • Stabilitas Pembaruan
  • Pengembangan Cerita
  • Desain Karakter
  • Latar Belakang Dunia

Skor total 0.0

Ulasan berhasil diposting! Baca ulasan lebih lanjut
Pilih Power Stone
Rank 200+ Peringkat Power
Stone 15 Batu Daya
Laporkan konten yang tidak pantas
Tip kesalahan

Laporkan penyalahgunaan

Komentar paragraf

Masuk

tip Komentar Paragraf

Fitur komentar paragraf sekarang ada di Web! Arahkan kursor ke atas paragraf apa pun dan klik ikon untuk menambahkan komentar Anda.

Selain itu, Anda selalu dapat menonaktifkannya atau mengaktifkannya di Pengaturan.

MENGERTI