November 25, 2080
The last couple weeks has been interesting but things are settling down, in between bouts of complete and absolute chaos.
I'll start at home first. I think I might have caused my wife a mild psychotic break down. Now before you judge, it's not anything I did as much as what I showed her. That being the notes on alternative fuels, especially the one on Thermal Depolymerization.
To add background to those who have no idea what I'm talking about it's a processes that uses extreme heat and water pressure to render basically anything organic down into light crude oil. Information was posted around here somewhere including some youtube stuff.
It's a highly efficient process. We're talking on the order of 80% here. It's not really not practical on our world due to our existing petroleum reserves meaning expanding infrastructure is just cheaper. However on, say, a world where peak oil has come and gone... like this one... it's literally a world changing breakthrough.
Kelly after she saw the videos. After she saw the notes... she had a nervous breakdown. She's doing better now but... I think it really triggered a lot of her pent up emotional trauma from all this... apocalypse. The reason is simple. In her own words, what I just showed her could have saved the world.
I also really think it made her realize that I'm really truly alien to this world, even more than the media I share with her. To put it in perspective, I took me over three years to remember it. To me it was just one of a number of alternative energy sources that have been developed over the years. To a local, well... to put it in perspective we're talking a process that lets you transform trash, sewage, and the like into oil as if by fucking magic. A local would have run to the patent office so fast that their shoes would have melted from the friction.
They really didn't have any alternate fuel options. Even bio-diesel was a bit of a blink inducer, though it kind of lacked the sheer impact of what Kelly is sarcastically calling "Magical Bullshit Voodoo Gas". I'm thinking it's honestly the same kind of setting induced blindness which had them miss out on the transistor also prevented them from really coming up reliable alternative sources of petroleum.
Oh, we both agree that by the time I arrived it was too late, but, had I been here just a decade ago it would have been enough to change the course of history. It would have given the entire world another option, something to hold them over while they converted over from a dieselpunk economy to a nuclear based atompunk economy.
Even with the three months I had, if I'd patented the process before the bombs dropped I probably would have been able to BUY my own personal Vault. Though I would have never met Kelly. She probably would have been killed by the bombs and I'd never have had my children.
I have no regrets.
Since her episode, she's thrown herself body and soul into building a "Gas-Still". According to her there's literally tens of millions of Internal Combustion based vehicles across the United States and compared to Atomic vehicles, "Jangles the Moon Monkey could keep them running".
Kelly seems to be seeing this as a way to decompress. It's something big. Something that matters universally and she needs to build it. Considering her pregnancy, I'm going to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't over do it but I understand how she must feel and I support her.
Though after watching Fury Road I have a slight fear that by doing this we might be changing one wasteland into another. I have zero interest in enabling any wanna be Immortan Joes and frankly, the son of a bitch reminded me of Necros way too much for comfort. Basically, it was a good movie but struck way too close to home.
We'll be watching the rest of the media files after Kelly gets over her fixation on building a fuel still. Though I'd like to know if there was any Mad Max media made because considering how much this universe drew from that series and how the pop culture reference seems to be a law of nature, I need to know as many details as possible. If only so I don't get broadsided by a lunatic screaming about Valhalla and such.
That all said, the exploding spears (what are they called?) are a good idea. I'll have to run them by Bear to see what he thinks.
Speaking of Bear and his family, three days ago, Helen gave birth to a healthy baby boy. We also finally discovered Bear's real name. The boy's been named Kevin, after his father. He also threatened to shank the first person who calls him by his real name.
It was also the first time I've ever seen him smile. I was probably the third most horrifying thing I've ever seen. Some things simply cannot be unseen.
In his honor, we've taken to calling the boy "Cub". He's amused, Helen on the other hand is a little exasperated by the nickname but seems to view it with good humor.
Having a family seems to have grounded the man a bit. He's still the kind of very very scary man who could never function in a civilized society, we aren't living in a civilized society. We're living in the kind of environment where being a relentless killer can actually be a boon to your long term. survival.
Before he seems to just be fighting because it was what he knew how to do. He was a soldier looking for an army. Now though, he's a man protecting his family and friends. He found a degree of joy in this blasted nightmare of a world. And to be honest, I think it's made him even more dangerous. Which in my mind is a very good thing.
Disney Star Wars? There should be a law against one company owning basically all of popular media? So who the hell do they have making it and is it based on the EU?
Fallout 4 sounds utterly idiotic but knowing my luck is part of reality. I'll need more information to look into it. I need you to send me as many lets plays as possible using every possible play style. I need to see as much of it as possible before I make any long term judgments. In fact, if you ever see any even semi-pertinent items send me lets plays.
As for the Power Armor in FO4, I asked Kelly and Bear about it. Seems that Power Armor is indeed modular in nature. The reason is to allow for infield modification and repair. There are also civilian grade power suits it seems. They're mostly used for hazardous work like mining, construction, and deep sea salvage. I'm lucky Necros didn't have any suits to use against us. Though considering we vaporized the vanguard of his assault force, we might not have noticed for the mushroom cloud.
But the Fusion Cores thing sounds like the suits they were either using the power system out of either a civilian power suit, an early suit of T-45 armor, or it had a disabled Micro-Fusion reactor. Fusion cores are normally used to prime a fusion reaction by providing the initial kick to keep it running and serving as a backup power source in case of damage, shutdown, or interruption.
We're not working on a name quite yet. Probably going to be based on Yellowstone as the park is going to end up being the center of our civilization. It's protected by mountains and easily fortified against large scale attack.
You mentioned codifying our military relationship, how would you do that?
Right now it seems to be a basically we take the will of the people into account but the various settlement leaders discuss the punishment. We will probably be working on a proper legal code soon as we grow into self-sufficiency. Right now we don't have the resources to dedicate to it. Though I probably will be insisting that we adopt a bill of rights based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights... though I will be structuring it in a way to be broad enough that should they come to pass, they'll cover non-human sapience and self-aware AI.
On the case of law enforcement, at the moment Roberta's basically our law enforcement official but there were a couple Missoula cops who survived. Since she wants to step down and have another kid, I'm thinking of putting her to work training a cadre of law enforcement rangers.
Between her and Bear, my hope is to raise a force of Rangers similar to the NCR and Desert Rangers who are able to serve as a force of protectors.
At the moment distribution of resources is being handled very much under the standard of making sure everyone can survive. In general my hope is we'll be able to transit over to an open market soon. But not a completely free market and I hope to keep a number of social protections in place.
Right now our foreign policy is simple. If you want to join us and can provide a positive contribution, welcome on board. If you don't and to join us, would you like to trade? If you want to threaten us, we'll kick your ass until you decide on a wiser course of action. If you do something truly unforgivable, we make sure you can never hurt anyone ever again.
It's a simple but rather reliable standard. It might change in time but I hope it provides a foundation for the future.
Turning livingston into the northern border of Yellowstone proper, the way Cody is our eastern border point is a good idea. I'll have a team look into seeing about setting up an outpost and looking for survivors come spring.
As for Cody, we're sending a mixed group of about 15 fighters to secure the station and they're bringing enough food for the winter, mostly corn, canned goods, and smoked meat along with a radio and enough guns and ammunition to survive a raid or two. Including a couple rocket launchers. Come spring we'll rotate them out and start looking into turning it into a better organized base.
I spent some time talking to Mei Ling and Mister Wu about where to place her and finally decided to go with Bear and Helen. Wu told me she was from a large family before the war and is the only survivor. I'm hoping being with a new family with a new child will help her. She's tough and smart though, so I'm sure she'll be okay.
