Reviews
edboy4926
The Ad-Mech should be able to improve upon the fat boys and give them even more kick. I rather like the idea of the Thrax Second Regiment using them against the slavers and pirates in the Terminus Systems.
I never played the heist DLC. I rarely buy DLCs as I don't like paying to add for a game I already paid a lot for.
ThedemonlordPingu
The robots in Fallout aren't even close to AI they are not anywhere near advanced enough, and some of them do have human brains stuck inside them.
As for the Ad-Mech, it does make use of some robots such as the Kastelan Robot which are Battle-Automata and part of The Legio Cybernetica. Those machines are cyborgs, but the organic material within them is artificially created rather than taken from people so it's not really living tissue. However, these machines are very rare.
The Sisterhood of Steel is using Fallout power armour and plasma weapons that are manufactured onboard the Rogue Trader cruiser. Did I not make that clear? I'm sure I mentioned that they were producing power armour.
Thrax's power armour is an altered set of Enclave power armour.
frankieu
That satellite weapon is nothing compared to what the Rogue Traders cruiser is armed with. Lance batteries can destroy whole cities with ease. To the Imperium, such a weapon is just a curiosity.
Rogue Trader CYOA Story 2
"The 'Overlord Instinct' or the 'I'm the King of the Castle' syndrome works in our favour when we crush rebellions. The traitors are safe and sound behind their fortress walls. We, the loyal servants of Our Emperor, need look no further for our targets" - Johannes Dixen.
Part 8
Brotherhood Bunker. Hidden Valley.
"Welcome outsider, welcome," McNamara said with a surprisingly jovial tone of voice as the two of us entered his office for the second time. "And Veronica as well, welcome back".
I gave him a curt nod as we made our way up the steps to his desk. I had no idea why he was happy to see us, but I got the feeling that he planned to ask us to do something very dangerous, not that I planned to do these people any favours unless it led to some sort of settlement between Mr House, The Imperium and the Brotherhood.
"Elder, I was hoping that we could discuss an alliance between the Brotherhood and New Vegas," I said to the Chapter's leader "But first I need you to listen to Veronica for a few minutes".
With that, I stepped back down, letting Veronica get front and centre. The Elder looked at me, back at her, then back to me, and finally settled on Veronica.
"Veronica, I hope.."
She interrupted him.
"I brought you a present," Veronica said while setting the Pulse Gun on his desk. "This is a Pulse Gun. It was developed by the pre-war military for the sole purpose of disabling power armour. Just one of these could defeat the whole Brotherhood. This proves that we need to stop limiting our focus on military technology, it's not going to save us".
McNamara stared at the gun as she spoke, and finally looked up at her with a stern expression when she finished.
"Veronica, this weapon could be the only one of its kind," he said.
It wasn't as thanks to Ad-Mech we could now replicate the technology. I'd been surprised by the sheer speed of their work on this project even with me mentioning to them that I needed it done quickly. I'd been expecting lectures about paying the machine spirits their due and showing proper respect for the machine god and while there had been some grumbling the cyborgs had just gotten on with it. The Ad-Mech did have rituals and such meant to be used on the battlefield that could speed things up. I knew this because I'd been taught a few of the rituals required for a warrior to take care of their gear in the field.
Actually replicating the weapon would take time as it would low on the list of stuff that needed to be produced and that was fine since I had no desire to attack the Brotherhood. If I had wanted to wipe them out I'd just overwhelm them with sheer numbers as I did have thousands of Imperial Guard troopers at my command and there was enough tech down here to justify an attack.
"That's not the point!" she shouted. "Technology alone isn't going to win our wars for us. We need numbers, new recruits!".
I knew this was futile and even could form an alliance with the local Brotherhood Chater I didn't think that would achieve much really. I just wanted this over and done with at this point. I only had so much time before Mr House made his move and there was much more to New Vegas than the Brotherhood of Steel.
"What does the Codex say?" McNamara asked.
Veronica managed to stop yelling.
"A bunch of closed-minded bullshit" was her answer.
McNamara sighed.
"We do not help them or let them in," he said
The way he spoke made it sound as if he was merely rattling off a specific passage from memory and that he might not really believe it. After all, he'd let me in.
"We keep the knowledge that they must never have" he then added.
"Give it a chance," Veronica urged her superior "For me. I... I can't stay here and watch us waste away!"
McNamara shook his head.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"But... we'll die out..." Veronica said
McNamara sighed.
"I know," he almost whispered.
Veronica looked at him one last time, the corners of her eyes starting to glisten, before turning on her heel and walking away from his desk.
"Come on," she said to me. "I... can't listen to this anymore".
On the way out my new Scribe companion told me that she wanted to come with me because there was nothing left for her. I agreed with this and decided to leave the Brotherhood alone. They could die down here. Time to move on. As for Veronica, I figured that she would need some time to herself and that she might be grateful if I gifted her with a couple of bottles of wine I'd brought with me from Planetos.
(Line Break)
The Strip. New Vegas
Alongside the Ultra-Luxe, The Tops, the casino and hotel I was currently visiting, quickly became a centrepiece of the Strip back before the War. It was well known for its comprehensive coverage of all of its patron's needs, offering great accommodations, dancing, drinks, and plenty of gambling, one of its most prominent features was the Aces Theater, constantly attracting fresh talent to entertain its patrons. Judging by what I'd seen so far the standards of entertainment around here were lower than what they must have been before the war. This was to be expected given that the humanity of this world had lost so much of its culture when the bombs fell.
After the Great War, the casino was abandoned. While it was spared total nuclear devastation, it remained empty for two centuries. Things changed in 2274 when House detected the first NCR forces at Hoover Dam. The Lucky 38 opened and securitrons deployed to the city en masse. The tribes were offered a choice: Extermination, resettlement or working for House.
The future Chairmen were approached by a Securitron. After initial miscommunication (and the deployment of twenty more), they listened to what House had to offer. That included food, shelter, and medical services. Most of the tribe was against the deal. Benny was all for it and if the file I had on him, which had been supplied to me by Mr House, was anything to go buy he was one to seize a good thing when it presented itself.
Bingo, the tribe chief, challenged Benny to a knife fight over their disagreement as to the course the tribe should take. The fight took place three days after House made contact. Benny won and the tribe then moved to Vegas and began renovating the Tops, bringing it back to life. As they worked, a number of House's Securitrons dropped off boxes with suits, ties, and wingtip shoes, together with a message from their employer announcing they were the Chairmen now. The tribe hated the name, but Benny liked it as his opinion was the one that mattered most.
By modern times the Tops had returned to its role as the mainstay of the Strip, offering everything one could desire and teaching its patrons how to truly enjoy the finer aspects of life. It was a true classic Vegas experience, with cool, hip, fun, mean to entice those with a sense of style. But the Tops was not enough for Benny. Although he was groomed as a protege by Mr House, he did not share his employer's views on Vegas. He saw the city as a potential for independent power, not answering to the NCR, the Legion, or House.
Over time The Tops had become his stronghold, where he planned how to overthrow Mr House. To this end, he hijacked a Securitron and set up a workshop in one of the suites on the 13th floor, or would do soon enough. If he was already working towards that goal I didn't know, but I soon would as I'd sent Widow to go find out and should she find evidence that Benny was working against Mr House she was to take that evidence before killing Benny. She'd likely kill Benny very soon and this didn't bother me at all since I knew exactly what kind of scumbag he was.
The Chairmen weren't the only group I had agents looking into. I had my own Master of Whispers who'd already started spinning his own webs of influence across this world, including here in New Vegas so all I had to do was wait for them to bring me any evidence of wrongdoings and then I could decide what to tell Mr House. If this New Vegas was anything like the one in the game then everyone around here had something to hide.
As for me, I was waiting for my assassin to report back. The temples did not produce fools who rushed in and while this operation was not a complex one she'd require time to get to scope the place out and to infiltrate The Chairmen before she took a good look at what was going on behind the scene. Since this would require me to step back and wait I'd decide to the time to marry Sarah, getting myself a second wife and spend some time with her doing some fun stuff.
Hence why I was inside the Tops Casino gambling with a lot of money. Well, a lot of money by local standards, to me this was pocket change and it wasn't as if I was losing since I'd been practising with my psykers powers to the point that I could perform a type of telepathy and it was possible with my gift to look into the future. You didn't need to be a Farseer to look ahead at what cards were going to put down on the table. The wheel proved harder to predict so I lost some there but overall I made a profit.
"How are you so good at this?" asked Sarah.
While we weren't married just yet she'd already started to act as if we were on a honeymoon. Even going as far as to let her hair down and to put on a dress that wouldn't have looked out of place on a woman back in 1950's America. If Veronica were here rather than taking some time for herself back at the air force base she might be jealous of Sarah's dress as the scribe had mentioned her love of pre-war lady's fashion.
"I'm just having a good day" I replied.
Sarah leaned in so that she could whisper to me.
"How long do we have to wait?" she wondered.
Before I could tell her that it would take as long it would take there was an explosion of some kind from a floor above that was strong enough to dislodge some of the plaster.
"Now it's time to go," I said.
I had a feeling that Black Widow's cover had been blown and now she was dealing with the Chairman by means only an Imperial assassin could employ.
(Line Break)
Vault 22. Mojave Wasteland.
Since it seemed like a good idea for me to get out of New Vegas for a while, so as to let Mr House clean up the mess my assassin had made while dealing with the Chairman, as well as to deal with the other gangs my people had found evidence of wrongdoings going on, I'd decided to led an operation to one of the Vaults that Veronica had told me about before she'd started needing some alone time.
Even from a distance, I could see that the plants were spilling from the Vault 22 gate. The ground near where we'd parked the landing craft 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 foliage just got thicker and thicker. There were bushes, trees, 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 when I reached out with my developing warp powers my feeling of unease was confirmed. There was something very wrong here. Something unnatural.
That wasn't the most worrying thing, however. That honour when to something we found right near the entrance: a giant metal sign.
"Stay out!" Sarah said aloud, reading the spray-painted sign. "The plants kill!".
According to the information we'd gotten from different sources, including the Brotherhood, there might also be a AER14 prototype laser rifle that had been in development before the Great War. It could be worth something to the Ad-Mech if it was a model that had never mass-produced as while they had plenty of laser weapons already a unique model could have functions not seen on other laser weapons or be a source of minor improvements. If nothing else it would look great in my personal armoury. Also, there could be useful data down there or a few bits of cool tech worth recovering hence why I'd brought some tech support.
"Well's that's rather ominous and foreboding," I said.
My words were supported by the fact that a group of giant bugs tried to kill us a few seconds later. Once the shooting was done I noticed that Magos Thea Maxanid was kneeling down, looking at something in the tall grasses. When she emerged, she was holding a giant mantis carcass up by one of its legs.
"Holy hell!" Sarah called out "I've never seen mantises mutated this big before! What are they eating?".
"Hopefully not us," one of the Sisterhood of Steel said.
The head cyborg with us seemed far less concerned than the organics.
"I know a Magos Biologis who will be very interested in this place" she commented.
A Magos Biologis was a tech priest who studied living things rather than machines. He, she or it was more than welcome to poke around in the vault once my people had cleared it out and looted anything worth taking.
Soon I saw the Vault door. 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. Giving me a 'Day of the Triffids' vibe. Which made me glad that we all had helmets or other means of protecting our faces, as these plants might go for the eyes.
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.
Something was definitely wrong here, I knew that for certain. The deeper we went, the thicker the foliage got. There were UV lights down here providing the plants with light, but no sign of anyone to maintain the equipment.
"Hold a sec," said Sarah as we about to round the next corner. "I'm picking up something".
We all stopped and checked our auspex, what passed for scanning equipment in Warhammer 40k, that we had built into our helmets. There was nothing on the motion detectors and my targeting systems didn't display any threat yet there was something here a creature of some kind.
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. It was vaguely humanoid, with long talon-tipped hands and feet, as well as a snarling mouth filled with unfriendly teeth. Also, 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, she, or it came at us and was followed by another, then two more. The strange creatures leapt towards us and everything erupted in gunfire. I managed to hit one, an impressive feat given that they were fast, a lot faster than I'd been expecting. It didn't help was that they were able apparently able to cling to the ceiling. Yet none of them managed to get too close thanks to the Sisterhood of Steel.
"What the fuck were those things?" Sarah asked.
A good question. One that the tech-priest with us tried to answer, but I already knew what was going on.
"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".
Soon the group further down underground. The sheer 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, best to avoid spending too much time down here even with our armour on.
"Where are we going?" Sarah asked after a while "All the way down?".
I actually 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".
We moved slowly and let the Sisterhood of Steel scout ahead.
"What do you know about the experiments?" Thea 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 or let the Ad-Mech do it.
"The Vaults were never meant to save anyone," I said "They were meant to provide Vault Tech with test subjects for vile experiments".
A couple of the Sisterhood who were guarding us were confused and asked about that. Since it seemed relevant I I decided to share what I knew.
"The Vault programs were a series of massive social experiments, engineered by Vault-Tec and bankrolled by the people who would become the Enclave" I explained to everyone who was listening "They wanted to see how humans would react to various different environments and the stresses of isolation for extended periods. Officially, they wanted to test the feasibility of travelling to another world and colonising it after this one had been blown to shit, but really I think that the Vault-Tec engineers were just taking the piss at the end. Almost every Vault I've heard about had a different 'experiment' and they were all been nuts. Some of them were innocent enough, but most of them ended up like this place: everyone dead, and the place filled with dangerous monsters, or ghouls, or whatever".
Thinking on perhaps the people who'd died in the nuclear inferno when the bombs dropped had been the lucky ones.
"Hang on," Sarah chimed in. "You said all of this was a side effect of this Vault's experiment. What was the experiment?"
It wasn't me who answered, this time it was Thea who spoke.
"This Vault didn't have any food preservatives" she answered "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," Sarah said.
I didn't think so.
"No, it worked too well, look around you" the cyborg was now saying "They just didn't account for any of the side effects. This is the result of unsanctioned research that is not blessed by the machine god".
The sooner we got out of her with the tech and data we desired the better. We'd grab it, blow this place, and go home, or at least back to the casino.
"I found something" reported one of the Sisterhood of Steel
The AER14 was lying on the ground next to a scorched skeleton someone must have taken it from the armoury. Upon inspecting it I saw that the AER14, which I knew to be a successor to the AER9 and AER12 models, was indeed a prototype in development before the Great War. The unit found in Vault 22 turned out to be one of these development models, complete with exposed wiring and loose prototype circuit boards taped to the stock the side that must have been hastily added when the shooting started around here.
"This weapon is badly in need of my order's attention," said Thea.
Given that it looked unsafe to use I decided to hand it over knowing the Ad-Mech would keep it, but that I could also get something in return later on.
"Let's move on," I said.
(Line Break)
El Dorado Substation. Mojave Wasteland.
Not long after leaving Vault 22 with the prototype laser weapons, some other less impressive bits of tech, and setting the self destruct, I'd been contacted by Mr House who had another errand for me to run. I wasn't his to command it was just that it suited me to go along with his plans.
On the outside, this place did not look at all impressive. The location consisted of a single building and a large array of transformers. The building itself is a tall concrete structure with a garage door entrance and a barricaded side door. In front of the building, on its east side, is an empty dumpster and a short distance from the north side's outer wall was a collapsed power line frame.
Given its state, it seemed odd that anyone was here and that Mr House had the place guarded by some of his robots who simply let us past. However outward appearances can sometimes tell you very little about a place and this substation was actually very important. Hence why I'd come here along with Magos Thea Maxanid and some servitors who would fix this place up.
"I do like the idea of using unknown technology" stated the cyborg "I can not be certain that this override module only does what Mr House claims it does".
Her concerns made sense to me as and I would have liked to have kept the Ad-Mech out of this business only I needed Maxanid to install the tech and have the servitors get the substation up and running so that power could be spread all of the Free Economic Zone of New Vegas. Perhaps Veronica would have been a better choice for this mission, but she was still working through some stuff.
As for the Override Module, I knew that Mr House needed to jumpstart the Lucky 38's main reactor and that this would allow Mr House more control over the entire Securitron army over great distances making a better counter to Imperial military presence and the NCR should they try to invade. To me that sounded like just the thing the overlord of the Mojave would need to be installed ASAP.
"Our alliance with Mr House depends on this," I said.
The ruler of New Vegas had offered House Thrax as in me personally, rather than the Imperium, ownership of the Tops casino now that Benny and the Chairmen had been removed. My agent had found evidence of Benny's efforts to overthrow Mr House so he'd sent in his robots after any remaining members of the gang. Once the bodies were cleared away and the blood mopped up the casino would be reopened under new management. All I needed to do was ferry some administrative types down from the cruiser and get them to run the casino for me. It would earn me some profit and act as a base to work from. A place that was separate from the regiment as a military base wasn't the best place to conduct matters of diplomacy and trade from.
Since the Ad-Mech had their own operations going on in the Mojave it was in their own interest to keep Mr House happy if only because fighting his army of robots would be time-consuming and cost resources that we had in limited amounts.
"There are certain blessings and prayers I can recite that should lower the risk," said Thea.
Compared to poking around in Necron tombs, something that the Ad-Mech was known for doing, installing an unsanctioned device wasn't really a big deal and if the red-robed woman needed some light some incense and recite words to soothe herself then she was welcome to do so.
"I'll be waiting in the landing craft," I said.
The servitors would remain here to clean this place up and keep it running while those of us who could think would leave so as to handle other matters.
(Line Break)
The Strip. New Vegas.
These rooms had once belonged to Benny the leader of the Chairmen, yet he wouldn't recognise it as everything here had been cleaned, repaired or replaced. Proof of my high station in life could be seen everywhere from the weapons and armour on display to the repurposed local computers that displayed information about ongoing operations in this world.
Members of my battle harem stood guard inside and out of the rooms. None of them looked to be too close by as far as I could tell, however, I knew better than to assume that none of them were watching over me as that was their entire reason for existing.
While there were many matters that I could be seeing to, today was my day off. As such, I was going to relax and to help with that Sarah Lyons, or Sarah Thrax was sucking me off as I laid back on a sofa that had once belonged to Benny. My new wife was eager to please her husband despite our union being one of alliance rather than love, and the wedding having been a simple affair.
I looked down at the naked commander of the Sisterhood of Steel and saw that she had a hand moving between her legs as she pleased me. I wondered what her warriors would think if they could see their leader on her knees like this doing her best to drive me wild with her mouth. They might lose some respect for her, or be jealous, I was after all a very rich and powerful man who had his own starship. There would be plenty of women out there in the multiverse willing to drop their knickers for far less.
"Use your breasts" I commanded.
Sarah knew what I wanted so she drooled and let the saliva collect between her breasts as she started rubbing them together till they were somewhat lathered up for me. Once my dick was between her tits she squeezed them hard for me. I couldn't imagine that this felt good for her yet that didn't stop her from moving her body for me as she used her tits to try to get me off.
"Does that feel good?" she asked.
It might be an act, an attempt to impress and make me happy, but she actually desperate to find out how much pleasure she was giving me. As it turned out she didn't need a verbal reply as her efforts were more than enough for me to unleash my seed and to do my best to coat her breasts in the sticky stuff. I heard her squeal in either surprise or delight, perhaps it was both.
I let myself relax some more as a still naked Sarah went off to the bathroom to clean up. When she returned she carried a glass of something and handed it to me. Once she'd sat down it wasn't long before she worked with her hand to get me hard again while also playing with herself. Which she succeeded at despite me having just emptied my balls all over her chest.
"Do you spike my drink?" I asked.
The locals had a pill for everything and they worked pretty well. I felt fine so I assumed that the drug didn't mess with me in unexpected ways so this should be fine as a one-off thing.
"You wanna fuck me, stud?" Sarah said, avoiding the question.
She gave me a look that made it impossible for me to resist the offer, not that I tried. I picked her up and carried her off to the bedroom and as I did she made noises that were far more girly than anything I'd ever heard coming from her mouth before now. She was no longer the tough as nails Brotherhood knight who faced down ghouls, super mutants and raiders, she was just Sarah, a woman who wanted to get fucked.
Once she was on the bed I moved her legs so that I could see the cunt she was offering for my use one she'd made nice and still wet from touching herself while pleasing me so I didn't hesitate to slide myself in. She called out my name as I filled up her eager pussy and did her best to get her arms around me. It felt as if she wanted to push as much of me inside her as possible.
Before long I was pounding away at her like she was nothing more than a sex toy. Not that she seemed to mind as her screams of pleasure only grew louder as I fucked her, I was punishing her poor pussy for slipping something into her drink, only this didn't seem like much of a telling off. I'd have to give her a spanking later on. She might enjoy that too as Sarah was proving to be fun in the bedroom department.
For now, I just kept pounding away with her making some interesting noises, all of which made it sound as if she was also having a good time. When I finished inside her, something that happened seconds or an hour later for all I knew as time meant nothing to me when fucking like that, she screamed out my name, and I rolled off her she went limp with only the smile on her face letting me know that was she more than okay.
"Haven't done that in a long time" said my newest wife.
Unlike Dany, she'd not been a virgin on the wedding night but Sarah hadn't been raised as a noblewoman meant to marry so as to create an alliance she was a warrior. Besides what mattered now was that I'd taken her as a wife which made her all mine.
