In the heart of the Big Empty some serious science was going sat at the nexus the sprawling facility, drinking in processing power and data like they were a libation through the dozen blue box splinter implants bonded at a near molecular level to his form. They in turn connected to the growing server banks all across the Big Empty, each node slowly becoming a part of him as he assimilated the quantum processors into his cognitive ability. All of the growing Mojave Republic's data was open to him, everything from the mundane to the classified all flowed into Tyrone and through their connection into Rex.
Rex paced in front of Tyrone's new tank, watching the displays come and go as the wall of information shifted and changed by what ever filters were coming into play as they surveyed the data. Together they formed an odd symbiosis, Tyrone with his immense processing power, data banks, and reach along side Rex's intuition and instincts. Coming together in a way not unlike their universe's variant of the Geth and Quarians operated, though Tyrone and Rex could hardly be called either purely synthetic or organic themselves after the Nimrod serum.
"Bring up the map of the NCR again." Rex said, smiling as the map appeared on a holographic display almost instantly. "Alright, so the last sighting of a big red woman was here in Junktown, probably stocking up on food and enthralling what ever dumb farm hands they could sink their teeth into."
"No doubt using the chaos of the Blight to hunt with impunity." Tyrone said. "After all, who would notice the difference between an Ardat yakshee's victim and a victim of the Blight?"
"Good point." Rex said, looking over the map as he chewed on one of his fingernails, a novel experience considering he'd grown accustomed to metal fingers. "Overlay Mojave drop ship patrol routes and the largest columns of refugees for me. Isolate the areas where the NCR Military has completely abandoned but still have decent sized populations, nothing over a few thousand. "
The information appeared on the display, and Rex took in the new information. Through their link, Tyrone could feel the gears turning as Rex processed the information. Well, he could feel himself proccess the information since he and Rex were technically two personalities functioning off the same hardware.
"Six communities fall within those parameters." Tyrone said, highlighting each on the map. "Of those six only one has broken away from the NCR military by choice as well as denied our efforts to deliver aid. The city of Irvine was spared from the worst of the Blight, but the garrison there has gone rogue and refuses to allow anyone in or out that isn't one of the farmers maintaining their food supply. Estimated population: five thousand nine hundred twelve."
"Any radio chatter or signals from within?" Rex asked as he stared at the glowing map marker.
"Heavily encrypted transmissions have been reported from the city's massive radio tower, but using encryption that matches no recorded NCR code keys." Tyrone explained. "Theoreticalaly, they could be using the tower to jam up communications. But judging by the city's proximity to Junk Town, the insular community that has shunned all outside help, and its supply of prey for Trenzia, I'd say Irvine is a likely place as any to pick up their trail."
"Good then we have the last lead we'll need for our little pow wow." Rex said, waving a hand and sending the information into an encrypted file. "I don't think playing with holograms will ever not be fun."
"Just wait until the pop up ads start showing up." Shepard said, appearing on their Dias.
"Shepard, you're looking good." Rex said, offering his hand. "Thank you for coming."
"No problem Rex." She said shaking his hand. "Thank you for letting me use your home in Goodsprings, I needed the time away."
"It's your home now." Rex said, tapping a button on his Omni-boy. "Transfered the deed over to you this morning, think of it as a little piece of the Mojave all your own. Trust me, Goodsprings is gonna be a booming market in a few years."
"About that." Shepard said. "I need to speak with you about potentially extending our stay here in New Vegas, especially now that you might be gaining access to galactic level industry."
"It's the Iguana bits, isn't it?." Rex said, waving as more people stepped into the think tank.
"A continued alliance between the Mojave republic and the Normandy's crew will always be a favorable arrangement, Shepard." Tyrone said. "Rex and I are committed in helping with your fight, and the topic of this meeting is related directly to your stay here in our universe."
Shepard gave the brain a look as the others arrived. Standing before him was Roxanne, Alyssa, Tali, Penelope, and Boone. All looking mildly confused as to why they were called into the heart of the Big Empty.
"Ladies and gentleman." Rex began. "Thank you for coming, some of you already know why you're here but for the rest of you allow me to give you the run down."
Rex sent a thought Tyrone's way and smirked as a holo display of Sol's mass relay appeared.
"In three weeks our local mass relay will be fully operational." Rex explained. "Once it's online, a Krogan dreadnought will be coming through within two local days to reinforce the system against attack from the Ascendancy and do the heavy lifting of setting up a dock for the aid ship coming through close behind."
"Are they expecting the Ascendancy to attack?" Shepard asked.
"It's possible and if they do they'll be doing it with this." Rex said as a holographic display of a twisted Reaper appeared above him. "The Ascendancy's flagship, Remnant, is a lobotomized Reaper that the Ascendancy has been to dominate their "dependent" species for centuries now. Shepard and Tali, you'll find a full report in your in boxes with what Wrail shared with me."
"Keelah." Tali said, her gaze shifting from the holographic reaper to her Omni tool. "They have a fully functioning Reaper under their command?"
"Not fully functioning, most of its weapons systems are conventional Asari technology and it's computer core is heavily jury rigged." Rex explained. "But that still makes it one of the most advanced systems in our galaxy, coupled with its intact mass effect core and slightly diminished indoctrination ability this ship is the crown jewel of the Ascendancy's whole armada."
"Is the Mojave Dream fit enough to fly?" Shepard asked, her eyes locked on the husk of her greatest enemy.
"Yes, what about your orbital defense cannons?" Tali asked.
"We can begin some light shakedown flights within the next couple of weeks, but we're starting to run into power problems." Rex said, shaking his head. "As for our cannons, they were implemented with the Zeta in mind, and with it out of commission their effectiveness is reduced by at least twenty five percent. On top of all that, Regier gave Trenzia complete access to our orbital infrastructure to send her message, and our technicians are taking their time painstakingly going every system to rule out sabotage. Right now, our best hope is that the Krogan dreadnought can fight it off, or at least hold it till we can get the Mojave Dream at least somewhat battle ready. The Shard fleets, especially the Krogan, are spread thin as it is maintaining the stale mate with the Ascendancy, so we'll have to make do with what we've got."
"Where does that leave us?" Roxanne asked, gesturing to herself. "I was never much for space in my go round, and never so much as heard a peep from the Shard Council."
"You six will make two three man teams to be dispatched to the NCR and the Commonwealth respectively." Tyrone explained. "Alyssa volunteered to go into the NCR along with her teammates, under the guise of a team of Followers of the Apocalypse, and hunt down the escaped Asari fugitive and her cohorts. If you would care to explain Alyssa."
"Of course." Alyssa said, nodding. "Rex recently shared this information with Veronica and I, and I pointed out that having Trenzia on the ground will only hurt us. I've got friends in the Followers of the Apocalypse and they can get me and a few other people deep into the NCR without arousing suspicion. Boone and Roxanne, out job will be to track down Trenzia and if possible eliminate her through any means necessary."
"Um, I know we've been going to dinner a lot lately, but you want to walk into the chaos of the NCR with me?" Roxanne asked.
"Not gonna be just you two girls." Boone said, his tone mildly annoyed which for him meant he was amused.
"Both you and Boone have extensive knowledge of the NCR's geography, Boone from having lived there and you from your years working the Brahmin runs." Alyssa explained as she looked Roxanne in the eye. "And I'm beginning to think that a little trip away together is just what we need, Roxanne."
"Romantic implications aside." Rex said, swiping a hand across his Omni boy and sending them the intel. "You'll be heading to the city of Irvine where you can hopefully catch Trenzia's scent."
"Been to Irvine once." Boone said. "Bunch of assholes who go to a church claiming the NCR was going to build a Utopia. They make it through the Blight?"
"Yes, they were one of the communities Vorhees mostly spared." Rex explained. "Currently they're not taking any aid and have cut themselves off from the NCR military while jamming any and all signals in the area. Your job is to get in and see if our red skinned friends have settled in for a little vacation."
"And if we do find her?" Roxanne asked.
"Either find a way to kill the bitch or destroy the jammer so we can teleport in support." Rex said. "Right now, that tower makes teleportation in too dangerous, but if you could take it down and get a lock on Trenzia we can have a crew of heavy Securitrons there in ten seconds."
"While they're hunting Trenzia what will we be doing?" Tali asked.
"Shepard's already heard the Intel, but Penelope believes she's found a way into the Institute." Tyrone said, glowing softly as Penelope stepped forward. "Penelope, the floor is yours."
"Thank you father…'s brain." Penelope said, taking a moment to catch her train of thought before continuing. " The Institute in this time period is run by a despot calling himself Father, an intelligent and ruthless fascist that put my biological father to shame in his choice of tactics. He was raised in the Institute and perfectly embodied their arrogance, possessed of a ruthless drive to fulfill his goals and a complete disregard for what he considers the rabble. Under his command, the Institute exploits the Commonwealth while exasperating the chaos they helped sow by using their Synths to kidnap anyone with scientific ability or out right killing/replacing leaders across the region. At the moment, they are the default power in the Commonwealth, most everyone is either terrified of them or secretly working for them.'
"Let me guess, our job is to infiltrate th Institute, yes?" Tali asked.
"At least it isn't a suicide mission this time around." Shepard said, nodding to Tali.
"Hopefully not." Penelope said. "Our mission is to locate a way into the Institute, beyond lasering a hole through ground or something equally ridiculous, and securing not only the Trans-universal engine as Tali calls it but to also claim the Institute for the Mojave republic. Which means leaving as much of infrastructure and knowledge intact as we can. We don't need to take it ourselves, but putting a chink in their armor will make annexation far easier."
"You want to absorb the Institute?" Alyssa asked, looking at Rex and Tyrone.
"The Institute represents one of the most technologically advanced factions active on planet Earth." Tyrone explained. "Their work in Synthetic organisms as well in miniaturizing computer components and teleportation would have made them our chief threat before yours and Shepard's arrival, Alyssa. As it stands, they are sitting on a cache both technology and knowledge that we cannot allow to go on being used by men and women who see the peoples of the surface as another resource to be exploited."
"On top of that, we need all of the bargaining chips we can get our hands on." Rex said. "Tomorrow I'll be starting the initial process of meeting the Shard Council via a Comm link running through the spooling up relay, and I'm going to need every resource we have to negotiate humanity's place in the galaxy. We already have the Raptor strain of FEV, our matter manipulators, and future access to the Normandy's universe. Add the institutes mastery of Synthetic organisms and all of their other advancements to what we've concentrated here in Big Mt and we have a position strength at the negotiating table. Wrail and Nao are practically drooling at the thought of Humanity securing exclusive rights to these technologies, but also the fact that Veronica and the council are going to agree that the Turians and Krogan will be the first investors as we scale up."
"So, take the Institute and we strengthen your people's position." Tali said, tapping her chin. "I suppose retrieving the engine will pay us for the effort."
"Actually since the Engine will benefit both our causes Veronica, Rex, and I want to offer you a bonus if you will." Tyrone explained as a holographic image of a stretch of wasteland north New Vegas appeared, now filled with holographic image of a massive space port with a monumental cable at its center.
"Keelah, you're planning on building a space elevator." Tali said, as the display zoomed out to show a counter weight in orbit holding the cable taught. "Never let anyone say you lack ambition."
"It will take years to build, but once it's done we'll have a core to build space infrastructure from as the Shard Council "uplifts" us." Rex said holding up two fingers. "Despite the costs, building it has two major advantages. The first is that we'll have a direct connection to orbit without the hassle of having to launch anything from the ground and likewise move tons of material, people, and products up and down cheaply. The second being that it not only concentrates traffic to New Vegas, at least in the beginning, but can also act as the staging area for the main bridge between our universes."
"Indeed, housing the bridge in orbit will allow the Normandy SR-3 to make us of it, and allow many more options for travel of all kinds." Tyrone explained. "Once you crack the secrets of Trans universal physics and stabilize the bridge between our two universes, New Vegas will become a nexus point between the two. Imagine for a moment what the Asari of this universe would do to once again walk on Thessia or your own people would do for a chance to see Rannoch again, Tali. Both universes will need each other in the times to come, and as such, control of the bridges or bridges between will become one of the most command points in either universe."
"That's why the Mojave council, soon to be the Mojave Senate, wants to extend an offer to the crew of the Normandy." Rex said, looking Shepard in the eye. "You all have fought beside us, bled for us, and some of you have made the ultimate sacrifice. Thanks to you, our world is changing in unbelievable ways, and in just shy of two years your schematics and knowledge have allowed us to advance by decades if not centuries. Without you there's no telling where we'd be or if we'd be anywhere close to the future we're building now, and for that we'd like to officially make all of you part of that future. We'd like you to be liaisons to your peoples in your universe, to work with us as the Mojave Republic takes its place in the galaxy so that both our universes can aid each other. So that even with the threat of the Reapers, we can stand united under two skies."
"Wow, quite the speech." Tali said.
"Thanks, I'm work shopping it for Veronica's next big public event." Rex said. "I think the united under two skies bit is a tad much though."
"That's a big ask Rex." Shepard said, looking at him thoughtfully. "What would that even entail?"
"Each of you would have a residence here in New Vegas, something along the lines of an embassy, along with property rights and official powers." Tyrone explained. "Though you would have no power in the Senate, any who take the job will have power within whatever organization forms to fill the role as you act as a mediators between our universe version of your species and your own."
"I assume I would be a mediator between my Quarians and your Quarians." Tali said, eyes narrowing. "I've spoken to some of the Quarians on Captain Nao's ship, they are fascinatingly… problematic to my people's understanding of our place in the universe. I have the benefit of…befriending Legion and I have an understanding of the Geth most of my people do not possess, but even I am taken aback by how lenient these Quarians are. If the two versions met, one a Quarian people who nurtured the Geth and allowed them to become fully sapient and another who tried to exterminate them in their infancy, I have no idea how they could find common ground without someone like me. I…think you are right, if we are going to link the universes together to fight the Reapers then we have to consider the clash of our two alternate histories. And who knows, maybe seeing that the there was a unified path forward for both the Geth and the Quarian people will sway some of the hardliners."
"Wow, you really inherited Dad's taste for this type of crap." Roxanne said, smiling at her brother and his brain.
"Turns out I was born to negotiate instead of shoot people." Rex said, shrugging. "Who knew?"
"Okay, as good as it sounds it's all theoretical until we actually get our hands on the part we need." Shepard said, trying to keep her mind off the burden Rex was trying to get her crew to take up. "How do we actually breach the Institute and steal it from them."
"Well, it's quite simple really as there are two weakness we can exploit." Penelope explained. "For starters Father, Shaun is his real name, may be a total sociopath and fascist cult leader but he has one weakness. A regret that has followed him his whole life, all the way from a lab rat turned scientist to his seizure of power there has been one question that has gnawed at his soul and would drive him to gamble the Institute itself. He has always wondered about his mommy."
"His mommy?" Shepard asked.
"Yes, Father is actually the child of vault dwellers interred in Vault 111." Penelope said. "This vault was an experiment in cryogenics with roughly five hundred civilians put on ice while Vault tech personnel watched over them. Leaving a population of pre war humans with no exposure to the air borne strain of FEV nor radiation damage from living in an irradiated wasteland. A population that the Institute desperately needed, for you see their synthetic life form project had reached a dead end, and so they looked to FEV and Vault 111 for a solution. In all of the vault, there was one infant who was lucky enough to be frozen with both of his parents creating a complete genetic profile, untainted by the post war world. So, they collected Father as a baby, killing his father in the scuffle, and putting his mother back on ice. The image of her husband bleeding out through the forehead the last thing she saw as the ice formed around her."
"She staid there for seventy long years, unaware that her child was being raised into the perfect leader for the Institute, a cold and calculating man of science." Penelope explained. "Seventy years of education, youth treatments, and augmentation had warped Father into quiet mass murderer he is today. A cult of personality who commands the Institute with an iron grip and a disregard for anyone outside his walls. Yet something lurks at the back of his mind, a though about dead father, his frozen mother, and the man who killed the latter. So, what does he do? Does he retrieve his mother and wake her up in the comfort and safety of the Institute? No, he arranges for her to wake from cryo sleep and through a convoluted game of detective find her way to the man who killed his father, and once she's proven herself worthy to him. At least, that would have been what happened, but we're a few years off from that so we can grab his mother from cryo before he can think to act."
"Does this universe run on mommy and daddy issues?" Shepard asked.
"Seems like it sometimes." Tyrone and Rex said in unison.
"So, if his mother is one way into the Institute." Tali said. "What is the other?"
"A device known as the beryllium agitator." Penelope said, bringing up the image of what looked like a fuel rod. "The agitator was a prewar marvel of technology, the missing component that allows for true self sustaining fusion energy generation on a massive now, we can only sustain a fusion reaction on a small scale to medium scale and for only a limited amount of time, a few years at the most. But with agitator we will be able to not only upscale our current fusion projects but also make them last centuries. The Institute will need the agitator too if they wish to expand."
"A tertiary objective is to bring it back here by the way." Rex said. "If we had that baby our fusion projects could scale exponentially. The problem right now is safely sustaining the energy needed to start the reactions, but with the agitator we can start mass reactions safely as well as maintain them. We'll need that level of fusion energy to begin working on the elevator."
"I thought you wanted to build a dyson swarm?" Tali asked.
"First off, drunk Rex told you that." Rex said. "And second, I'd like to turn the dozen or so reactors in the dam into one before I die of old age."
"Once we have the agitator we can reproduce it and scale it up, producing power for the continent cheaply and cleanly." Penelope said, patting Rex on the arm before looking back to the others. "Back to the topic at hand though, right about now, the Institute is beginning to run into problems with their planned expansions. They have the resources to continue building for decades, but their self sufficiency is threatened by a single bottle neck, power. Whether it be going into creating new Synths or maintaining their teleportation network, they're reaching the limits of power they can generate before drawing attention. So long as they draw power from the surface and the micro fusion reactors they already control, the Institute cannot expand as they like, and that my friends is how we get in. They're a few years off from being desperate enough for Father to thaw his mother, and so if we were to grab the agitator and free her from cryogenic confinement we'll have the tools needed to bait the Institute into coming to us."
"You want them to sick an army of robots on us?" Shepard asked.
"No, just one." Penelope said. "We need a Courser, a Synth enhanced to beyond super human levels that they use to retrieve run away Synths. Inside their head is a transmitter that ties into the Institute's teleportation matrix and allows them to come and go as needed. I have decades of experience with this bio tech and can use it to get us inside where we will find your trans universal engine and inject a collection of the nastiest malware we have directly into their system. We'll be out before they even know we're there and all of their systems will be crippled by the time they realize what's happened. Easy as pie."
"Sounds complicated, and probably not at all what's going to happen." Alyssa said.
"Lucky for us we have the entire R&D department backing them up." Rex said. "The girls and guys down the way have been tinkering with designs from both universes and have come up with some tasty stuff."
"Can you please not refer to the culmination of our people's technological prowess as "tasty stuff"?" Tyrone pleaded.
"No." Rex said, patting the brain's tank before continuing. " Both teams will have a whole new kit, state of the art combat armor disguised to blend in civilian populations, experimental personal shields that are ninety five percent effective against small arms fire, reinforced Omni boys with enhanced functionality, MK III stealth boys, and the piece da persistence…"
Rex raised a hand and summoned a holographic display of multiple weapons.
"First gen hybrid mass effect energy weapons." Rex said, smugly. "Each weapon is at its core similar to the weapons you're used to, mass accelerators that shave off a grain of metal from a block and then fires it at super sonic speeds. We've already got use tested prototypes ready for each of you, disguised as standard run of the mill weaponry."
"What about…" Roxanne began before Rex shut her up with another display.
"Miniaturized saturnite fists with force amplifiers built in." Rex said, smirking at his twin. "Should serve you well miss bullet proof."
"Wait." Tali said, pointing at the display. "These are based off my designs, I made these as a pet project for Garrus and I to work on, how do you have them?"
"You're standing in the middle of quite possibly the densest concentration of brain power outside the Institute, Tali'Zorah." Tyrone said. "If you thought that you could leave research files open without at least one person taking a peek, then you're a bit naive."
"I suppose you're right." Tali said, shaking her head. "But where are do the thermal clips go? None of these designs have a thermal clip port."
"We did away with that in favor of high capacity micro fusion cells." Tyrone said. "Frankly, thermal clips are purely an aesthetic choice considering all of your weapons are already designed to vent heat."
"Yeah, what ever asshole decided to start a whole industry around thermal clips deserves a smack in the face." Rex said. "Ruined such beautiful weapons for what? Mimicking a magazine?"
"So we've fancy new weapons, armor, and stealth tech." Boone said, is eyes still on the map of the NCR. "When do we ship out?"
"Two days from now if you accept." Tyrone said. "There is a stealth drop ship prepared for each of you with fully functioning auto docs, teleporter, and all the amenities of an FOB. Once you arrive in your respective theaters it's imperative that you see to your tasks immediately, so I must do you accept the mission?"
They were silent for no longer than five seconds before everyone agreed.
"Then the game's set." Rex said. "Let's hope we can beat the clock, eh?"
?
Jack sat in her living room, hating the fact that she was enjoying sitting in her living room reading a book. Granted, it was a book on failed military coups from Rex's personal collection, but the fact that her life had come to the point where she could be content doing something so….mundane irked some part of her. Well, it was that and the fact that her other crazy sister in law from another universe was in her new bedroom probably drawing or reading some of the text books her siblings had given her.
Rex had asked her if Rose could stay with them, after three separate psych screenings asserted that her evil bitch personality wasn't anywhere near control, but he didn't press it. The annoying bastard was very good at being considerate and even offered to send her to the quiet retreat New Vegas used to house and treat their mentally ill, but Jack had seen how both Rex and Roxanne looked at the battered young woman. Family, she realized, was an important thing to have be it a goody two shoes crew or a bunch of parallel universe transplants. So, since she apparently had a heart now, she'd allowed Rose to come and live with them under the condition that she stay away from the good knives.
"Jack, I'm home!" Alena yelled as she came up the stairs into the living area.
"Yo squirt." Jack said, smiling at the string bean as she plopped down on the couch beside her. "Where's your dad? I thought he was walking you home."
"Oh he did, but he's down in the workshop having a talk with Penelope." Alena said, shrugging off her boots and leaning back into the chair. "Something about her putting algae and fungi together in a vat of FEV. She's also going out and father was wanting everyone home for a family dinner."
"Hey, boots on the mat pip squeak." Jack ordered, tussling her hair as the girl reluctantly moved her boots. "How was the session today?"
"Oh it was good." Alena said, making a show of putting her boots in their exact place on the mat. "Dr. Maguire and I talked about what I've been doing since the…since the kidnapping. Says the project Mara and I are working on is a very good way to work through the memories. Dak is even helping us with some of the heavy lifting."
"Dak?" Jack asked. "You mean the little ass…jerk who you've been at war with for months now?"
"He's not that bad once you get to know him." Alena said, shrugging. "Plus we can make him lift all the heavy things and he'll do it to show how manly he is."
"Uh huh." Jack said, smirking at the girl and trying not to laugh. "Just watch him, you never know if you'll start to like the little idiot. It's how your father and I ended up together."
"I think that's how my mother described it too." Alena said, thoughtfully. "Something about him being annoying, in a good way."
"You know, I'm starting to see a pattern here." Jack said, smiling as Alena sat back down. "So this project, what are you actually doing in that scrap yard?"
"It's a secret." Alena said, wiggling her eyebrows. "But I'll give you a hint, it hovers."
"You know I have to ask, is it armed?" Jack asked.
"Oh no, weapons of any kind would throw off the gyroscope." Alena said, patting Jack's hand. "Hand held small arms are about all it can handle."
"Knowing who your father is doesn't make that a very reassuring idea, String bean." Jack said.
"Heyo!" Rex called from the stairway, his red head popping out of the void. "Where are my favorite people?"
"Sitting on the couch, waiting for the dead beat who owns the place to come home and cook dinner." Jack said, as her fiance came around the couch to plant a kiss on her lips.
"We aren't even married yet and she's already giving me guff." Rex said, planting another kiss on her cheek before standing up. "How was your day?"
"Oh good if count doctor's appointments and every fuc…schmuck from the Normandy walking around like I'm going to either bite their heads off or break if they so much as look at me wrong." Jack said, trying to muster one of her old snarls but her comfortable pillows and spot swallowed it whole.
"Aren't you used to the former?" Rex asked, sitting down between her and Alena. "And the latter just means they care about you, albeit maybe a bit too much."
"Blah blah." Jack said, giving him a withering look before smiling. "How'd your day go, carrot top?"
"Good, Tyrone and I did that brain meld thing for a few hours and got some good planning done." Rex said, nodding his head as if that was a reasonable thing for a person to say. "But beyond that, it was the usual scheming, politicking, and tinkering that my life has devolved into."
"Father." Alena said, tugging on her father's sleeve. "Did you and Tyrone look over Mara and I's schematics?"
"Wait, you're telling him what it is and not me?" Jack asked.
"Don't take it personally." Rex said, smirking at her. "She needed help with the wiring between the mini mass effect core and the fusion cells."
"Not even in a training bra yet and she's already building doomsday devices." Jack said shaking her head.
"I was repairing death bots by the time I was twelve, need I remind you." Rex said. "Alena's ten times as smart as I was then, so she can make as many doomsday devices as she wants."
"It's not a doomsday device." Alena insisted, her freckled cheeks turning red. "It's a…It's a…It's a secret."
"And what a beautiful secret it is." Rex said, pulling her in for a hug before looking at Jack. "Alright, I think its time I make us some supper. Who's hungry for some tomato soup?"
"Can we have grilled cheese with it?" Alena begged, clinging to her father and giving him puppy dog eyes.
"Ooh, that sounds good." Jack said, snapping her fingers. "Pregnant lady's orders, whip it up Jeeves."
"I live to serve." Rex said, bowing before tickling Alena's side to get her off him.
Maybe the whole mundane schtick isn't so bad after all. Jack thought as she watched Rex and Alena, her hand resting on her stomach. Not bad at all.
?
Penelope stood on a catwalk watching the Super mutants and ghoul go about their work on the floor of the small warehouse she'd commandeered. The weeks of forging business documents and burning through alias after alias were about to pay off, because as Raul ordered the lumbering mutants around she could already see ZAX 1.2 powering back up and connecting to the blue box nodes assembled around it. She checked her Omni boy and smiled as the archaic system connected to the transition interfaces Big Mt's techs had written to bridge the gaps between the old firmware and the vastly superior tech. Slowly, ZAX 1.2 was coming awake and becoming aware of a whole new world of capability. Simple artificial neural networks all but merging with vastly more complex matrices, a clever mortal tasting ambrosia.
"How did you manage all this?" Marcus asked, coming to stand beside her. "Not only do you have a warehouse remote enough that no one will notice it, but you've got the Courier's personal mechanic helping with the install. Yet not one person in power knows about this?"
"One of my duties in my past life was infiltrating and organizing shadow operations on the surface." Penelope said, old memories bubbling up to the surface like tar. "Though it was rarely so robust, I did have to navigate settlement or city government to supply my auntie with safe houses and resources should she be cut off from the Institute's supply line. It was easier when I could just replace key players with Synths, now it's quite a bit of fun playing hide the secret lab without the luxury of the old switcheroo. The Mojave bureaucracy was easy, it was Raul here that gave me the greatest challenge, but a few long talks and a promise of all the Institute salvage he could ever ask for, the old boy agreed to help."
"Good thing I'm on your good side." Marcus said, letting out a deep laugh. "And here I thought your father was a devil when it came to organizing."
"Very much so." Penelope said, queuing up the activation of several VIs she'd copied from Mordin who would go about filling in the gaps for ZAX 1.2 as well as monitor its access to lab functions. "You have no idea how much you've helped me, helped all of humanity, today Marcus. The virtual intelligences will begin feeding ZAX information and testing its responses while I'm away in the Commonwealth, and when I return the work of unlocking the true potential of organic life can begin. I'll be able to run at least a dozen experiments as well as maintain forty different strains of FEV once the equipment comes online, and its all thanks to you and yours Marcus."
"Is that the spiel you're going to tell your father when he finds out about this?" Marcus asked. "And are you counting us when you say "all of humanity"?"
"If my father understands anything, it's that it is better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission." Penelope said, smiling as she watched the lab equipment come to life below them."And that's the secret everyone likes to forget Marcus. All of us are human deep down, be you a Super Mutant, Ghoul, or wastelander. Everyone just as human as the next."
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