Chapter 11- Murder by kindness

Six need a metaphor to explain what was happening in front of him. This entire negotiation was a bit... He thought back at his memories and remembered old holotapes he would dig up and they always contained something new. There was the usual last words or ramblings in journals, the myriad of books that detailed the pre-war world. The ones he loved were the recordings of old shows from old America. The best part was the sheer variety of them. There was romance, mystery, horror and most exciting of all, Drama. The one that stuck out most courtroom dramas. Those had everything, backdoor deals, love triangles and the ever-present danger of everything falling apart with one wrong word. This meeting between three very different peoples was exactly the opposite of what he described.

Still Six watched smiles go to work and attempted to understand the flow of the negotiations. Smile's was telling them the events that led up to this moment. On what they attacked and what sort of harm it did. The deathclaw also described what we did to get here: The battle and troops we brought and he was an artist while doing it. The young deathclaw was cleverly weaving around anything that would paint us as aggressors and deflected any questions that would incriminate us and controlled the flow of the conversation with talent alone. Well… the fact he was a giant dinosaur with claws the length of your arms also helped.

Six had to hand it to Smiles, he made this go far smoother than expected. The people of Japan heard our story and know came to let them know our intentions and we were ready. Our blitzkrieg war granted us the territory we needed, the only thing we needed to do is tell them without souring the relationship too much.

Mizuki Kohara knew that these people felt like they were entitled a free pass. The nation of Japan needed an explanation and maybe some compensation as well. When she raised her objections the speaker of the meeting let her take the stage. She tried staring down the 2nd Gaters and failed to intimidate the massive talking lizard. It didn't deter her from taking her chance. "Tell me. How can you excuse the many immoral actions you have taken during your campaign. Such as using terror tactics or excessive use of force against a primitive force."

Smiles carefully studied the woman before him and read between the lines of her question. Bobbing his head he opens his maw to give his answer. "Our war with the empire was swift and with the intention to avoid any further incursion into our territory. Any claims of excessive force can be excused the same why you have excused yours. We simply didn't know who we were fighting."

The woman stood back and crossed her arms. Smiles spoke again. "Is that all?"

Kohara gritted her teeth in frustration. "No, I'm not convinced that you did it with the simple goal of protecting your civilians. I believe that your apocalyptic Authoritarian government is invading the beyond the gate to gain control of the land and exploit it for its resources."

Smile's turned to the speaker of the house to see if this was appropriate. He nodded and spoke. "The claim of Miss Kohara is warranted as this is a meeting to understand your intentions. Please understand we mean no offense. Though I may warn Miss Kohara that one should not throw accusation in such a manner." The speaker in a bored monotone board voice.

Smile nodded in understanding. His gaze met the crowd of people and camera focused on him. "You may think we are madmen playing with scrap and living in rubble. That we abuse our power and play tyrant with the lives of our people. Everyone on the wasteland would scoff at the idea. We scavenged old world technology and are rebuilding the foundations of society. The choice of government was made due to said technology removing any need of old-world ideals and the limited industrial capability making it impossible to live in a demand economy. A command economy was the only choice. If you want a moral reason, then all I can say is, we have no other reason than the ones we make for ourselves."

Whispers and hush messages passed amongst the crowd and they didn't sound negative to Kohara. It made her nervous, she had to make some sort of headway. "What's your reason." She asked out of desperation.

Six twitched when he heard smiles answer. "I believe it's the future. The new way form of governance is the most efficient and maximizes happiness. The automation will only get more advanced as the future comes closer. Making manpower less needed. There will be no need to revert back to a democratic government." Smiles said without stuttering. Making his word sincere. Six shook his in disappointment. He only had this form of government out of necessity, not as a replacement. He'd need to address this later.

Kohara still had one more question before she exasperated her options. "Very well, but I do have one more question." Smiles tilted his head ever slightly, preparing for the question he's predictions. "Are you planning on returning the occupied land back to the empire?"

The deathclaw watched the princess in the corner peck up at that question. He felt terrible that she's going to end up disappointed. "No." Smiles replayed.

Kohara pounced on that. "That sounds like a hostile takeover of foreign lands. That is a reasonable response."

Smiles responded with his comeback. "We believe that a foreign power that decided to attack to subjugate and enslave your people, does warrant a full-scale counterattack.

Kohara pressed on. "Still, you have achieved your goals. There is no need to occupy the empire city anymore"

Smiles retorted. "The city of Italica has many parties that would be in danger of empire retaliation if we left. For the interest of public safety and the betterment of the citizens daily life. We're going to be staying in the city for the foreseeable future."

The woman alongside with anyone opposing saw that they couldn't dislodge the foothold New Vegas has in the alternate world. They ran out of options for now and there were more pressing matters that they wanted to talk about. Such as the technology the people of New Vegas displayed and the need to better their relationship if they wanted any hope on using any of it. Dozens of representatives of dozens of different nations were completely tense. Wondering who would be the first to ask the question. Many hands raced to ask the question but only one got any attention.

"Excuse me. But the president of the United States of America wishes me to translate." A wiry man in a navy blue suit with a red, white and blue flag spoke in Japanese.

Everyone froze cold still as they heard the moderator give permission. The wiry blonde man was given some orders through his headpiece, after a few seconds he spoke. "Mr. Smiles, is it true that your part of New Vegas which is part of the continental United States. Do you and the people of new vegas consider themselves Americans?"

The young deathclaw stood and listen to the man with a poker face. It also helped that he had no recognizable human features to understand his emotions. Smiles slowly moved to the mic and artificially created more tension within the room. It only broke when he spoke. "We consider ourselves as Americans yes, but we are the Americans of the new world. When we are rebuilding we do so in a new future, not willing to repeat mistakes of the old. To do so, we keep our old name to remember but discard any notion of having any relationship with the past."

The president received the news a few seconds later. The president took this with stoic indifference. He wasn't planning on stretching any authority on a false sense of ownership. He was looking for something else entirely. Smiles stood and waited for a few more tense second later. "We wish to understand any feeling you may harbor with a modern America and any possibility of opening any form of trade. Specifically the sorts of technology we see in the demonstrations videos you sent us. Such as the fabricators and hydrogen-powered fission generators."

Smiles stuttered for a moment. He knew that he had no authority at discussing that he'd need Six to speak up and normally he'd wasn't very enthusiastic about it. The second problem is that they still haven't gotten to an agreement on that front. "We still haven't gotten to an agreement on that quite yet."

If smiles could sweet then he'd be shooting bullets. He saw the entire crowd mumbled to one another. There were arguments on both sides on how they should approach on sharing their technology. Six and most of the military figures were flat out against it. They feared any possible military actions these new nations might take in the future. Other that was more concern for the future diplomatic relationship and concern in repeating past mistakes. The main argument that put this idea in a stalemate was that the last time people denied the solution to the world's biggest problems it causes the third world war.

"We'd still haven't gotten into a consensus about that situation." Smile's responded.

The blond man did not relent. "Isn't the world leader who owns the technology with you now?"

Smiles turned his head towards Six and he jerked his head back. Smiles nodded and turned to address the crowd. "If you want an answer now then we would need a few minutes to think it over."

The speaker of the house let them have the time and even gave them a separate room to speak it over. Six, smile's, The sergeant and half a dozen other people of various backgrounds follow close behind. When the door closed shut, a massive amount of arguments for both sides bombarded Six and all combined into a mass of unsensible noise. It was all silence by Smiles clear his throat quite loudly with his cybernetic vocal cords. Everyone in the room quieted down at that. The all turned to the deathclaw who stood diligently next to his boss. Six.

Everyone waited for the man that responsible for the decision. He was sitting in the chair and his chin was resting on his palm. "Alright, I want one person from both sides to give me their arguments and I'll decide. Don't worry, I know I'm leaning towards withholding the tech, but I understand the other side of the argument."

That didn't reassure the people were sharing for sharing the tech as it sounds like he already made up his mind. The two groups split and each chose someone to represent them. The Sergeant surprisingly was chosen to represent the people who opposed the sharing of tech. Julie Farkas step out of the crowd who was pro sharing of technology.

Six slumped in his chair and got prepared for a lengthy debate. He nodded towards the Sergeant and he spoke with the confidence of the man who believes he was part of the right side of history.

"We know little of these people except one thing. They are powerful. They have a massive fleet of tanks in comparison to our low numbers. We might outmatch them in technology but they are far ahead in their industry. They'll eventually overwhelm us if we're not careful. Hell! If they are clever themselves, they can destroy us with their airpower alone. Something we're severely lacking. We need every possible advantage. So just hold on to it, at least until we learn more about these people."

Six nodded. He understood his way of thinking. Hell, he pioneered that way of thinking. Still, it's just one half of the argument. He turned to Farkas and expecting her to preach about doing the right thing and helping people like a chump. It ended up surprising the courier.

Julia Farkas first few words felt desperate. As if she was attempting to avoid an accident. "Believing that it is us against everyone else isn't justifiable. America did it and they ended up destroying the world. Imagine what would have happened if they did share the same technology with the rest of the world. It would be a unified world that could explore the stars and create instead of destroy itself. The world is too deep in paranoia that we forgot to trust one another. So tell me, why didn't America share its technology." Farkas asked that last question as if it was obvious

Six shrugged his shoulders. "Old America probably didn't want the technology since it would ruin their economy and destroy the status quo. Its entire political ideals were opposed to the idea of a socialist government. The whole thing would rip itself apart. Hell, most governments would with such drastic changes to the facts of supply and demand..." Then it hit Six "Holy shit Farkas, I can destabilize the alternate world by playing nice and can't be blamed for it. When the chaos erupts, I blow up the gate and leave them to their fate."

The follower was surprised and terrified that the courier turned charity into a weapon of mass destruction. She can't believe that she put that idea into his head and now billions will suffer for it. Still, it was better than the other option. She only prays that it won't cause too much damage because that means humanity was doomed either way.

It all ended there and with a new party making most of the diplomats. The ones who voice their disagreement were quite vocal and with good reason. Still, everyone was set to see this through. They knew what happened last time and it only caused the apocalypse. Six was the one who personally gave the announcement. Every calm voice soon became vocal with joy and confusion. They expected a bigger fuss but this was pretty clean and cut. If they had the foresight what was coming, they would have rejected the offer and kicked Six out. They would have destroyed the gate and forgotten the whole thing. They were even warned by the courier himself.

"This will be a massive change, millions will be unable to starve, everyone will be able to live in luxury and no will ever hurt one another. Why! Because it will all be wiped clean, No more needs only want!" To many, it was a miracle and to a very small few it was death. The greedy, corrupt, and the sinful saw the truth. It was the death of their way of life. And they panicked.

[Mojave Wasteland]

111 walked through the rubble of the destroyed village. It was here were it all began. The place that doomed the other worlders. Heh, lucky them. Still, he watched the crew of miners clearing the rubble Six made. If he remembered correctly, there was a working supercomputer under there. Six's brother walked up next to him.

"So you have some sort of trick that will speed this dig up?" 21 asked 111.

"Yes, just tell your people to clear the way." 111 said in a monotone voice.

"Fine, if you waste their time then I expect that you pay for it." 21 said as he hand waved his workers to take five.

111 took the head-sized lantern tube off his waist and unhooked it from his belt. With a squeeze of his thumb, it activated. The panels flung open and a skinless head, it had a strange crown with a green jewel revealed itself. The eye bulged out of it's sockets and the lipless jaw gaped open in a soundless scream of pain. The Green jewel glowed and the earth around the rubble started to float away. The massive chunks of concrete started sharking as well and when sweet started to roll down 111 brow, the rocks started to lift. With an audible huff, 111 flung the tons of concrete meters away. Crashing with a plum of dust. 111 smiled and stared in satisfaction at the decapitated head of Lorenzo.

21 was had to take a few minutes to realize he had his jaw on the floor. He looked back at 111 and said. "My bro is going to be mad at letting you come, when you whip that out again."

111 gave a curt smile. "He won't mind when he see the help you gathered together for the war effort."

21 looked doubtful. "They'll be useless if the talks go well."

111 chuckled. "There always use for an army in the world." 111 said as he turned to see his three divisions. There were also Great Khans, boomers, a squad of enclave, and a sizeable securitron reinforcements. With the odd group of mercenaries here and there. He nearly choked when he saw Reilly's rangers and the gunners. The oddest of the bunch was the desert Rangers with their anti-material rifles. Didn't they hate Six for what he did to the Ncr? They must be desperate. Oh on how the might have fallen.

111 could only chuckle at the sight.