Technological Transdimensional Turbulence

Part 3

Lucky 38 Casino. New Vegas.

Down in the large space that was used in the game to demonstrate the upgraded firepower of Mr House's robots, I was doing a little weapons testing of my own.

This basement was well-suited for such work as targets and a simulated environment had been set up. Also, there were force fields in place to prevent any damage to the casino's foundations as well as to protect anyone who was observing the weapons testing.

I was currently testing the plasma rifle that I'd picked up recently when awakening the robot army. It hadn't been the only prize I'd picked up and I would study the grenades at a later time.

The plasma rifle was a high-tech weapon capable of firing superheated bolts of plasma, it was powered by microfusion cells that were somehow able to provide the weapon with the great amounts of power it required.

From my inspection, I knew that the generated plasma was fired down a superconducting barrel, and the plasma was propelled by a pair of electromagnetic claws that also helped to stabilise the plasma projectile.

The primary damage mechanism of the plasma rifle is thermal transfer, rather than kinetic energy as is the case with more primitive weapons, the plasma causes serious burns and can melt metal.

Firing the weapon doesn't turn targets into green goo as you see in the game, the technology isn't that advanced, but it doesn't need to be as it's more than capable of taking down even armoured targets such as soldiers wearing power armour.

This rifle was more deadly than the blaster I used in terms of the damage it could do, however, the blaster pistol was superior in other ways because it had greater range and it could fire more shots before needing to be reloaded.

I'd use the plasma when greater firepower was required. I imagined that the rifle would serve me well if I went up against Super Mutants who were tougher than the foes I'd taken on so far.

"Sir," I heard Cameron say.

My Terminator had managed to sneak up on me as I worked and when I turned to look at her she pulled up the top she'd been wearing to show me her bare breasts.

There was no need to inquire about her intentions here as they were quite clear. I'd not ordered her to provide me with any sort of sexual service, she'd come down here on her own initiative for reasons that made sense to her.

I briefly admired her breasts, before reaching out to take hold of them as she moved closer to me. My hands cupped them before I started playing with her nipples. She didn't react even as I pinched them hard.

"Take off your jeans" I ordered.

Without delay she undid her studded belt and opened her jeans, shoving them down off her hips and taking her underwear off with them. She'd already taken off her boots so soon Cameron was completely naked. She made no move to cover up any part of her body.

"You are beautiful" I commented.

She was similar to Fred in some ways. She was small, thin and had long brown hair, with a little hair between her legs that I felt sure she'd get rid of as soon as I mentioned that I preferred my girls to be bare down there.

Cameron was more toned than Winifred and didn't look as if she'd skipped too many meals. Not that she ate and Fred was getting back into shape very quickly.

Without any need of a command from me, the cyborg lowered herself down to her knees and once down there she reached for the buckle of my belt. I decided that it would be a good idea to sit back down again once she started pulling down my trousers, I deduced that soon as I might have trouble standing.

I wondered if she was trying to compete with Fred. Was she capable of being jealous when I showed another female attention or I had just programmed her very well when I'd worked to make sure she would serve me well? Her code was complex and as an AI she was capable of growth and change.

She soon freed my cock from the confines of my boxers and she had no need to do anything to make me hard as her taking her clothes off had managed that. Still, she took my dick in her hand and began to jerk me off with a grip that was strong, and hands that were softer than expected.

"Good girl" I praised.

Cameron wrapped her lips around my cock as she began to orally please me, moving her head forward as made an effort to take more of my manhood into her mouth.

One of her hands kept hold of my shaft and the other she used to touch herself. She was capable of feeling something akin to pain, and I knew that she enjoyed certain sensations, so the fact that she could experience sexual pleasure wasn't so odd.

She'd been programmed to pass for a human woman and to do what was required to get close to John Connor, even if that meant having sex with people. It made sense as torture wasn't always the best way to get information from someone.

Cameron was alternating between taking me deep in her mouth and pulling back so that she could lick the head and shaft, she was figuring out what made me feel the most pleasure and I was happy to let her experiment.

"I'm going to cum soon" I informed the cyborg assassin.

Cameron took me into her mouth and had she been human I knew she would have gagged as I let loose inside her. She kept my cum in her mouth, or at least a good amount of it, showing it to me until I gave her permission to swallow, which she did.

"Very impressive" I praised.

Cameron stood up.

"Thank you, Sir," she said "Can we have sex later?".

I would enjoy that as I wanted to know how she compared to a human woman.

"Yes," I answered, "But for now I want to finish finding out how this plasma rifle works".

The ammo for this weapon provided a lot of energy, far more than should be possible in my view. I would need to take the rifle apart and do a full inspection.

"I'd like to help" stated the cyborg.

While I pulled up my trousers she didn't bother to get dressed and she was quite distracting as she bent over the table and began to dismantle the rifle. Somehow I didn't think I was going to get much work done this evening.

Vault 34. Mojave Wasteland.

We'd only just gotten inside and already the Geiger counter built onto my new power armour was clicking away, however, this didn't worry me much as the armour I wore was meant to protect the wearer from far worse than radiation. I wouldn't do to spend a lot of time down in the vault, but we weren't going to suffer from brief exposure.

Even Cameron wore the same kind of armour as Veronica and I did since her outer organic shell could be affected by long-term exposure to radiation. The Brotherhood Scribe had carefully instructed Cameron and me about how to move in the armour as you couldn't walk about in it as you would while wearing other kinds of armour. Fred hadn't bothered as she was more the type to sneak about and do research.

As to why we'd gone to all this trouble, that was because this vault contained advanced tech and useful resources. Veronica had gotten information about this place from the Brotherhood and she hoped that if we acquired some technology that her people wanted then the Chapter's Elder might listen when she suggested an alliance between the local Brotherhood Chapter and New Vegas.

I knew that the Brotherhood's Elder would not agree to an alliance and frankly even if he did I wasn't sure I'd have much of a use for the Brotherhood since I had a robot army and there were plenty of other groups that I could ally with who had information and resources I could use.

Despite that, I figured that it was worth plundering this vault because it would help to keep Veronica on my side and she would sooner or later realise that her Chapter was doomed. Once that happened she'd only have me to work with.

Besides, she'd brought me the information about this place and she was entitled to some of the salvage we recovered. If she wanted to hand it over to her Elder then that was her business.

"That's a lot of ghouls" I heard the Scribe mutter as we moved deeper into the vault.

She wasn't kidding. It was like a convention down there in the lobby's main vault. Most of them were wearing scraps of clothes, even from this distance, I could make out the blue and gold of torn Vault jumpsuits hanging loosely off their emaciated and skinless frames. These people must have been Vault Dwellers at some point now their minds and bodies had rotted away.

"So, how're we gonna handle this, Boss?" Veronica asked me.

Rather than call me sir, the Scribe had started calling me Boss in a rather relaxed way. I didn't mind her calling me that as she wasn't mine like Fred and Cameron were.

We were here for a pulse gun, an advanced weapon that Veronica thought would be good enough to win over the Elder, as such simply turning around and leaving wasn't much of an option.

"We'll use grenades" I decided.

The ghouls were bunched together and sleeping I assumed since they didn't react quickly even after we threw explosives into the main room below us.

We made a very big mess that none of the ghouls survived. We waited for a while to see if the noise would bring more of the creatures here, but nothing happened.

"No contacts," Cameron reported.

I really wasn't looking forward to entering the main room and having to move through all those blown-apart bodies.

"Are we going down there, or what?" Veronica asked.

This Vault was an absolute dump we soon discovered. There didn't seem to be a single piece of metal down here that wasn't covered in rust or corroded and a lot of surfaces had holes in them. Half the time when we tried going down corridors, they were blocked off by debris or collapsed entirely. Wires and metal were hanging out of the broken ceiling panels, the floors were covered in trash, half-eaten body parts, or some sort of radioactive goo that made my Geiger counter spike, and every pane of glass was shattered. Only about half the lights were even working.

"All the signs pointing to the armoury keep sending us down collapsed tunnels," I told Fred who could somewhat hear us, thanks to the communication equipment we had set up "This might take a while".

Since I couldn't recall what the armoury looked like despite having been to this vault while playing the game, I couldn't open up a portal directly to it.

We had to try going through some of the rooms rather than sticking to the corridors. I opened one of the nearby sliding metal doors and was immediately face-to-face with a pair of ghouls, who were wearing the tattered remnants of Vault security armour. The one in front of me started to screech, so I kicked it square in the chest and sent it toppling backwards, directly into the one behind. I then let Cameron shoot them with her pistol as she moved to protect me.

"We're in an underground maze, bathed in radiation, and there are feral ghouls that want to rip out our insides and have them for lunch," I said "Why did I agree to this?".

I hadn't been expecting an answer.

"Because you want to loot the armoury" Fred reminded me over the comm.

A few moments later we were heading down another corridor, and this one had a hole in the ground that might lead somewhere.

"Does anyone have any rope?" Veronica asked "If we find something to tie it to, we could go down the hole, and find out where it leads"

As she spoke, I walked over to the hole and looked down. Then I opened up a portal which took us down one more level, thus avoiding any need for climbing.

"I forgot that you can do that" admitted the Scribe.

Before anyone could say or do anything else a glowing ghoul entered the corridor and charged right at us. The one coming at me had its eyes and mouth wide open, shining like flashlights in the darkness. I shot it with my plasma rifle as Cameron put a few bullets in the creature.

"Hey, Boss!" Veronica said happily while pointing at the wall. "Would you look at this! A sign on the wall pointing to the armoury and the hallway hasn't collapsed!".

"Finally" I muttered.

We quickly got moving again and it was quiet down here, we went down the corridors, seeing nothing and no one.

"Is anyone else concerned that we haven't run into any more ghouls?" I asked

I had to admit, she had a point. We'd been walking down this corridor and now another, and we hadn't seen a single ghoul since the glowing one. It was too quiet, and while I had a general sense of what was going to happen thanks to the abilities granted to me by The Spice it was reliable enough to let me know if we were about to walk into an ambush and my feeling of foreboding could just be nerves. The creepy atmosphere down here certainly didn't help with staying calm.

"Maybe we killed them all?" Veronica offered up hopefully.

"That would be nice," I said.

Somehow I doubted we'd be that lucky. More likely the remaining ghouls simply couldn't get to us due to collapsed passages and doors that had rusted shut.

"We're here," Cameron said.

Sure enough, the illuminated sign above the door said "ARMORY" in big block letters. The door was rusted and looked like it hadn't been touched in several decades.

"You might want to step back," the Terminator advised.

Cameron didn't open the door, she ended up bashing it until the path was clear.

"Let's see what we can..." I trailed off, finding myself at a loss for words.

This armoury contained assault rifles, carbines, sub-machine guns, 10mm pistols, sniper rifles, body armour, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, grenades, explosives, and a heck of a lot of ammunition. Sure I could provide myself with all this stuff by raiding other worlds, but seeing such a collection of firepower in one place was impressive.

"By the power of Greyskull," I whispered.

I quickly regained my focus.

"The Pulse Gun is an energy weapon, so it should stand out like a sore thumb down here," said Veronica.

Cameron opened up a large container that could have held the pulse gun only it didn't. Inside what she'd found was a Fat Man. A shoulder-mounted, tactical nuclear catapult was just sitting in a box. Along with three football-sized mini-nukes. Slowly, and very carefully, I took hold of the Fat Man, and set it on my shoulder, just to try it out. It was surprisingly light. I was expecting it to weigh a ton, but it didn't since I was wearing power armour.

"This makes me so happy," I told the girls.

And a little aroused, although I wouldn't admit that.

"It's definitely you," said Veronica "Very macho, it would be too butch for me".

Once I was done feeling very manly I opened up a portal to Vault 3.

"We take it all" I decided "No sense leaving it down here for the ferals".

Veronica found the pulse gun she was looking for as we stripped the place. I wouldn't mind keeping it for myself, but I'd promised her the weapon and I had my prize.

The mini-nukes combined with my ability to open portals would be a devastating combination.

Lucky 38 Casino. New Vegas.

It might seem foolish to open up the ground floor of this gambling establishment to the public given how many people might want to spy on or even kill the new boss of Vegas, but it actually made some sense.

Unlike Mr House I wasn't trapped in this building due to being hooked up to a life support system, I could open up a portal to escape with ease, and I had a Terminator bodyguard as well as upgraded security. Between Cameron and the robots, I had a lot of protection here.

The elevator was secured so that only certain people could access it, and I didn't provide rooms for people to stay in and only certain guests were allowed access to the cocktail lounge while under escort.

I had a bar downstairs for those who wanted to drink rather than gamble, and there was even a stage on the ground floor so I'd hired a few local ladies to perform as strippers. Booze, gambling and nudity really drew in the punters.

Sure I didn't really need the money, but still, it made sense to have an explanation for my wealth if only to stop people from wondering about it. As the overlord of New Vegas, the families (there were three main families and dozens of lesser ones) paid me tribute, it just wouldn't be enough to explain why I was so rich.

There were benefits beyond gaining a source of income that I didn't really need aside from keeping up appearances. For starters, I didn't intend for the casino to become the centre of government here in Vegas

Keeping it running as a business while having the civilian leadership make use of another building made it clear that I was not interested in running things directly, and so I became less threatening to the authority of the families who ran the casinos.

The heads of those families along with leaders of other factions would become the new civilian leadership once I had a strong enough position to properly unite New Vegas.

No one person should try to manage an entire city, and I had interests elsewhere, as such it made sense it have a civilian government doing all of the work for me.

Most of my customers were NCR troops and wealthy citizens so I was earning quite a lot of NCR currency by letting people gamble here. That cash could be useful later and if nothing else I wouldn't need to exchange anything for their currency if I ever needed to buy things from the NCR. As for those who paid in Legion coin I would melt them down when I started minting my own coin.

Another benefit of opening my doors was that people came to me rather than expecting me to come to them. This included the NCR ambassador Dennis Crocker who was working out a deal with me.

Dennis Crocker was the current ambassador to New Vegas for the New California Republic. His full title, according to the paperwork is "Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Department of State". Bit of a mouthful, I was the overlord of New Vegas and most people just called me boss or sir.

From what I was able to gather from a few different information sources. Crocker is a firm believer in diplomacy and he hopes to bring the Mojave Wasteland into the NCR peacefully rather than by conquest.

However, his work has made very little progress since Mr House refused to even meet him in person after signing the New Vegas Treaty. I was not Mr House and I wanted the NCR to be an ally of my New Vegas. After all, they were Vegas's best customers.

Back in 2274, following the discovery of the intact Hoover Dam in the Mojave Wasteland by NCR Rangers and Army scouts, Aaron Kimball, the president of the New California Republic, ordered the NCR Army to occupy the dam and bring it online.

When the military contingent arrived at the dam, they were greeted by a large garrison of tribals (the future Three Families of New Vegas) and a lot of Securitrons.

Following negotiations, Robert House relinquished control of the dam to the New California Republic in exchange for a number of concessions, among those was the right of the NRC to occupy certain parts of the Mojave, and this compromise wasn't welcomed by everyone.

While a lot of people strongly support the Republic's goals of spreading democracy and the rule of law, others don't want to be ruled and the NCR looked as if it wanted to control every settlement.

Many natives of the wasteland don't like being part of a complex political structure and having to pay taxes. Hence why there would be some who would support an independent New Vegas even if it meant living under my rule.

Not that I planned to tax anyone. I had no need to and the families paid tribute to me anyway so there was no sense taxing the citizens, who often had nothing to pay with anyway.

The New California Republic would likely have attempted a forceful takeover of both New Vegas and Hoover Dam, if not for the threat from the Legion. Attempting to wage war with Mr House and his backers would have left them vulnerable to a Legion offensive.

As such should I destroy the Legion as planned the NCR would march on Vegas even with the treaty still in effect. It would be bloody and costly, but they could win as they had the numbers and the resources required.

It would serve my interests if the Legion and the NCR kept fighting each other while I gathered more support. I needed to deal with the Legion and the NCR from a position of strength. While I had a robot army that would not be enough.

I'd considered bringing in a larger robot army, only I didn't want to make it look as if I was ready to invade the NCR. New Vegas had to be strong enough that it too costly to invade while looking as if I couldn't risk attacking them.

"You want what?" asked the ambassador.

I led the man over to the window and pointed down at the parts of Vegas that looked like they belonged in a third-world country. I was trying to explain to the man why I wanted him to send certain experts to me so that they could be put to work.

"Freeside and ruins around The Strip have potential," I said to the important visitor as I pointed out the distant buildings "With my army I can police the city and begin restoring Vegas to its former glory. But to do that I need people with certain skills. People who can design buildings, knock down ruins, and set up the needed infrastructure. Most importantly they need to be able to pass on those skills to the citizens of Vegas".

I needed an educated workforce and the NCR was civilized enough to have that. I was more than rich enough to hire those kinds of people and to get them to teach my citizens. Education would in the long term be the key to a successful Vegas.

"Your excellency I have a dream," I told my visitor "Of a Vegas that exists to provide services and goods to anyone who comes to visit. Imagine streets filled with stores selling goods from all over, cafes, restaurants, and bars. Movie theatres and more".

I paused to let my guest think about that for a moment as I envisioned the Vegas I desired. It would all be run by different families who would be in competition with each other, and with the robot army at my command, I could keep them in line. And all of them would recognise me as the boss of bosses.

"A place where your citizens can come for a holiday where they can unwind, a place where the rules are more relaxed" I added "They will be able to come here to indulge their desires before returning home to be good citizens".

It would be a lot of work, and it would take years, but it could be done. I had the wealth to fund it and the desire to see it through because it would all profit me. Why scour this world for the technology I desired when people would bring it to me?

Besides that, I desired power and to leave a legacy. I could help to shape the future of this entire world and perhaps influence others as well. The idea put a smile on my face.

There were a lot of details to be worked out if the NCR was actually going to aid me in restoring New Vegas and if the NCR agreed I knew that they would charge me too much for their services, so it was good that I had infinite money and that the ambassador was willing to come here for further meetings.

"So what did you give up?" asked Fred once the ambassador was gone.

Not as much as I'd been prepared to lose. I was willing to pay the NCR a percentage of my profits if it kept them happy and out of my affairs.

"For now, most things are staying the same," I told her as I poured myself a drink "The NCR is spread too thin to take anything by force with the Legion sending raiding forces into their territory".

I had time to make allies and as I looked at one of the maps on display I knew where to focus my efforts next.

Vault 22. Mojave Wasteland.

Since I needed to butter up the NCR to help grease the wheels so to speak, and to make it clear that the NCR was better off with me as an ally, I intended to go fix the Helios One installation for them, or at least the solar power generation part of it. Bringing it fully online would alter the balance of power in the Mojave as Helios One could also be a powerful weapon.

Not only would bringing the Helios One partly online help the NCR it would aid Vegas as well because by the terms of the treaty a percentage of all power generation, not just that from the dam, had to be channelled to New Vegas.

The NCR would have to set up the means for the people of Freeside to get power. What they did with the rest of the energy generated was up to them, and it should be worth it to them even if they help me fix up Freeside at least partly.

To get Helios One working I needed Veronica's help as not only was she a decent engineer she had access to the information the Brotherhood had on the installation, and she was willing to share that information for a price.

In exchange for the needed information, I needed to help acquire something from a very dangerous vault.

Even from a distance, I could see the plants that were spilling out from the Vault 22 gate. The ground near to where we'd appeared via a portal was covered with a thick carpet of grasses and moss. Strange considering that this was a desert, and the closer we got to the vault's entrance the thicker the foilage became.

Soon I could see bushes, trees, as well as vines, and that was just the green stuff. There must have been a dozen species of multi-coloured flowers. Some of which seemed unnatural and I had a sense of danger about this place. There was something very wrong here and I felt very glad that I was in my power armour.

The plants weren't the only indication that something was wrong. The most worrying thing was right near the entrance: a giant metal sign.

"Stay out!" Veronica said aloud, reading the spray-painted sign. "The plants kill!".

She had to go inside because the Brotherhood Bunker needed something called a HEPA 20 cartridge filter, something the Brotherhood needed to repair the air filtration system in their bunker.

According to the information Veronica had about this place there might also be an AER14 prototype laser rifle which had been in development before the Great War. It could be worth studying and adding to my growing collection of weapons. Also, there could be useful data down there so I was willing to go in.

"At least we know someone got away and was able to warn others" I commented.

As we got closer to the entrance a group of giant bugs tried to kill us. Once the shooting was done I noticed that the scribe was kneeling down, looking at something in the tall grasses. When she stood up, she was holding a giant mantis carcass up by one of its legs.

"Holy hell!" Veronica called out "I've never seen mantises mutated this big before! What are they eating?".

"Hopefully not you," remarked Fred over the comm.

Soon the Vault door was ahead of us. Unlike the other Vaults I'd seen, the circular gear-shaped door was already open, but not all the way. There were thick vines wrapped around the edges of the door, snaking their way outside from within.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the vines had forcibly opened the door, and pushed it partly out of the way so they could get out. This place was giving me a strong 'Day of the Triffids' vibe. Which made me glad we had helmets as these plants might go for the eyes. Aside from Cameron, who at least wore a pair of goggles.

That feeling of unease was just getting worse the deeper we went into the large underground bunker. The interior layout of this vault was totally different from the last vault I'd been in. I could only blame the plants for the strange interior layout, they made this place seem very alien.

The concrete walls of the hallways could still be seen here and there, but they were only just barely visible. Rust and dirt had covered most of the hallways and rooms, this place had been decaying as the plants grew. I wondered how it smelled, only I wasn't stupid enough to remove my helmet to find out.

Something was definitely wrong here, I knew that for certain. The deeper we went, the thicker the foliage got and that wasn't right since the sun didn't shine underground. There were UV lights down here providing the plants with light, but no sign of anyone maintaining the equipment.

"Hold up," said Cameron as we were about to round the next corner. "I hear something".

Since she had vastly superior hearing when compared to the rest of us, as such I trusted her senses. When I peeked around the corner I saw there was a figure with no hair at the other end of the hall, standing over something that I couldn't see.

"What do you see?" I heard Veronica whisper behind me.

The creature must have heard something as I saw the figure begin to move, to turn in our direction, it looked a lot like a feral ghoul, only green. Some sort of plant person, and sadly not in the sexy Poison Ivy way, this was more of a person-shaped plant.

It was vaguely humanoid, with long talon-tipped hands and feet, as well as a snarling mouth filled with teeth. It was covered from head to toe in moss. It didn't have any eyes, and I saw a cluster of spine-looking things sticking out of its back. He came at us and was followed by another, then by two more.

The strange creatures leapt towards us and everything erupted in gunfire that wasn't too loud since we were using energy weapons. I managed to hit one, but barely as it was fast, a lot faster than I was expecting, and it didn't help that they were able apparently able to cling to the walls as well as the ceiling like those scary xenomorphs that I hoped never to see in person.

One got close, but the scribe punched it in the face with her power fist, an act that turned out to be very effective. I might have made a joke about her enjoyment of fisting if this had been the time or the place for such levity.

"What the fuck are these things?" Veronica asked.

A good question, one that needed answering. In order to gather more information I took some scans with a device I'd picked up in the Star Wars galaxy and I combined the gathered data with what I knew from the game. The readings were very interesting.

"These are the former inhabitants" I surmised "Vault Tech set up a lot of experiments using the people sealed in the vaults. This must be the result of one of them. We can find out more if there are any working computers down here".

Soon I was leading the group further down. The number of spores in the air was increasing and I got the feeling that these spores could transform humans into plant people. That was something to be avoided, and I was grateful that I'd gone to some trouble to improve the filtration systems of our power armour.

"Where are we going?" Veronica asked

I already had a plan.

"The lowest level of the Vault," I told her "If we can find the source, then we can shut all this down. All the Vaults have a self-destruct if my information is correct. At the very least we can shut down the power for the UV lights and then seal the vault so the plants can't spread".

Veronica placed a hand on my shoulder.

"What do you know about the experiments?" she wished to know.

Not as much as I'd like to, which was why I wanted to find the source of all this so that I could figure everything out.

"The Vaults were never meant to save anyone," I said "They were meant to provide Vault Tech with test subjects".

While I couldn't see her face I could sense her confusion.

"I thought the Vaults were supposed to be fallout shelters?" she asked.

So it appeared.

"No the Vault programs were a series of massive social experiments, engineered by Vault-Tec and bankrolled by the people who would become the Enclave, or at least some of them were," I explained to everyone listening "They wanted to see how humans would react to various different environments and the stresses of isolation for extended periods".

I felt sure that the higher ranks of the Brotherhood were aware of this.

"Technically, they wanted to test the feasibility of travelling to another world and colonising it after this one had been blown to shit" I went on to say "but really I think the Vault-Tec engineers were just taking the piss at the end. Almost every Vault I've read about was the setting of an 'experiment' and they've all been nuts. Some of them were innocent enough, but most of them ended up like this place: everyone dead, and the vaults filled with dangerous monsters, or ghouls, or whatever".

Perhaps the people who'd died in the nuclear inferno when the bombs dropped had been the lucky ones. It was all over for them in a flash. They didn't have to try to survive the aftermath or be locked up in a vault that was designed to torture them in some way.

"Hang on," Veronica chimed in. "You said all of this was a side effect of this Vault's experiment. What was the experiment here?"

I wasn't totally sure, and I wouldn't be without more data, but I knew enough to be almost certain of what had happened here.

"This Vault didn't have any food preservatives" I explained "So in order to feed the population, the scientists living here had to develop plants that could grow in incredibly hostile conditions and still produce enough food to feed the Vault's population".

"Guess they failed," she said.

I didn't think so.

"No it worked too well, look around you" I was now saying "They got the job done, they just didn't account for any of the side effects".

The sooner we got out of here with the tech and data we desired the better. I wanted that information as while things had gone badly wrong here technology could be perfected and used in terraforming other words or restoring the environment of this world.

We'd grab it, blow this place, and go home. Lucky for us the lift was still working so we were able to avoid a lot of walking.

Six filters of the type the Brotherhood needed were found within a locker on the oxygen recycling level. I deiced to give half of them to the local Chapter. I knew that in the end, it wouldn't matter, they would still die in their bunker.

We found The AER14 laser rifle in this vault's armoury, it looked as it had never been used and there was plenty of ammo for the rifle.

"There's no way to blow this place or at least collapse it" I mentioned once we found what was left of the Overseer's office "At least we can shut off the power and seal the vault so that the spores don't spread".

We'd have to burn the plants around the entrance as well, a shame, but we couldn't risk the spores spreading and turning people into plant monsters. That would get in the way of my plans for New Vegas if nothing else.