POV Rio
After spending a few weeks off Earth working on Terraforming, I thought I had mastered it enough and decided that I would now focus on terraforming Equus. I chose to do it on Equus first, as it would give me more experience with mass changes, and more importantly, it would give me the chance to see the effects on a practically dead world. I had even started working on it, and so far, it had no issues. It helped that the weather had started warming up quickly now that the Windigos were extinct. I also learned that the Jewel of Life can influence climate and, by extension, weather.
But after making some changes, I decided to take a break. Changing Equus wasn't an urgent affair, as we already have more than enough space to work with for our small population. Moreover, I had been heavily focused on Terraforming for almost two months, and I needed to take some time to relax.
As soon as I arrived back on Earth, I started to walk around and see what everyone was up to. Codsworth was overseeing Sanctuary as usual. Nothing of note there. Curie was on Mars helping with the research and excavation of the massive vessel buried there. Last I heard, they had fully excavated it and were now working on repairs and diagnostics. As well as studying the ship to see if there is anything to learn. Deacon was back at Acadia with the rest of the Railroad. No idea why they still stayed over there, but that was their choice.
'I think Nick is working with them now that I think about it.'
After DiMa's memories had been destroyed by the Alliance, the investigation was proving to be difficult,t but the real issue was that Nick had already gathered enough evidence to prove that DiMa had done horrible things, but he wasn't sure what to do with that info. I offered my help, but he said this was something he had to solve himself. I respected his wishes and only had some MIMIC agents assist him whenever needed. The Island was still a volatile place, and while we could clear it out and restore order, we didn't. People needed a place where they felt they could be free. And honestly, it was more trouble than it was worth. The losses wouldn't be worth the ultimately basically worthless island that could be offered.
'Not to mention the hatred and constant resistance we would create if we invaded.'
MacCready was basically retired at this point and focused on raising his son. I took a peek at his farm and found that he was quite happy to be done with the sniper lifestyle. He still had his skills and would gladly help me even if I didn't ask, but living a calm life with his son seemed to make him as happy as could be. It felt nice to see MacCready so content with his life. And Duncan seemed happy and healthy, which was a nice bonus.
Hancock was now the mayor of Boston. That's right, the entire city, not just Goodneighbor, Diamond City, or Bunker Hill, but the entire city area. Most of the city had been leveled and returned to a more agrarian lifestyle. The city used to hold nearly 1 million people before the war. Now the population was barely 100k. The rest of our population was present in places such as Quincy, with 10k. Spectacle Island with 9k. Concord with 6k. Lexington with 8k. Salem with 8k. Cambridge with 9k. And a mix of small settlements spread out across much of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The most recent census says our total population is 159k. Which isn't too bad considering the state of the world.
Piper was currently working with Hancock on running Boston properly. She seemed happy with the job, as there wasn't a massive amount of work for Hancock or Piper, and that gave them enough free time to spend time with their families. Dogmeat spent most of his time with Quiet on missions. They seemed to get along very well as both their skills complemented each other. And Quiet was good at teaching Dogmeat new tricks and skills. Likely something from her work with Venom Snake. The missions they went on were mostly clearing out the remaining hostile wildlife left in our territory. There wasn't much, and clearing out didn't always mean extermination, but instead it just meant moving them to somewhere else or recruiting them.
It was these missions that caused the wild dog population to cease to exist. Some creatures were hunted to extinction due to the damage they caused and the fact that they would hunt humans when the opportunity arose. The creatures in question were the Radscorpions, Molerats, Bloodbugs, Cave Crickets, Ants, Bloatflies, Radroaches, ROUS, and Bloodworms. Creatures that were in the process of being eliminated were Mirelurks, as they were a serious annoyance. So far, we had wiped them out for the most part, with only places such as The Island still having them. Creatures we often had to move to designated wildlife preserves were Yao Gui's, Foxes, Radstags, Gazelles, Rad Rabbits, Wolves, Squirrels, and other small harmless woodland critters. The most annoying part is the various reports of wild gorillas. We have checked thoroughly, but haven't found any wild gorillas that people keep reporting.
'I'm starting to think people are just having a mass hallucination. But so many reports? They're too consistent; there must be something they are seeing.'
That was what Quiet and Dogmeat were currently tracking down. Supposed gorilla or perhaps just very hairy men sightings. Preston, meanwhile, was just running the day-to-day operations of the Minutemen. Patrols, training, and other related affairs. Plenty of Minutemen were doing so as reserve Minutemen, as the battles were all basically over. Perhaps a future space conflict will arise but for now, many can return to settlement life and come back for the occasional training. Or they get sent to various patrol and garrison missions.
Cait and Loona seemed to be spending a lot of time together. Anytime I asked, they said they were doing magic studies. They also visited Cadance very often. I didn't mind, as it was nice that my friends were getting along with my girlfriend. Speaking of Cadance, she and I have been getting along swell. I admit I was a bit unsure about a relationship, but with no big crisis on the horizon, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try. And so far, I have nothing to complain about. If anything its been a very nice experience to have someone so... close. We had a few dates already, and she had come to deliver food to me while I was Terraforming Equus. We both knew I didn't need food, but it was the thought that counted.
'I should get her something to show how much I appreciate her.'
With those simple thoughts, I decided to take a small detour to the nearby school we had set up. Organized education did exist, but it was not the most common. Despite the lower amounts of organized education, literacy was actually not half bad. Places like Diamond City had around a 90% literacy rate thanks to their schoolhouse. Settlements, even those far out in the wasteland, were literate thanks to the tradition of passing down any knowledge they could. Literacy could be very helpful when making deals with traders, so they tried to stay as educated as they could.
I wanted to further push education by introducing higher education. Most education outside of the Vaults stops at elementary school. At most, they might go to middle school if you have a particularly stable settlement. And even most Vaults didn't go beyond High School. Though that depends heavily on the particular experiment the Vault would be running.
The school is nice to visit from time to time, as I would on occasion come and tell a story. As such, when the children see me, they get very excited, and the teacher shakes their head ruefully.
"Hello everybody!" I shout.
"Hello, Mister Rio!" the kids shout back.
"Haha, sorry for the interruption, but I felt like dropping by," I said to the teacher.
"It's fine, the children have missed you. Its been several months since your last visit," the teacher says.
"Where were you, Mr Rio?" a kid named Daniel asks.
"I was working on rebuilding an entire planet," I say with a smile.
"Whoa," the kids respond.
"Can you tell us another story?" Asks a little girl named Susie.
"Sure thing. What kind of story do you guys want to hear?" I ask.
The response is a jumble of all sorts of stories and genres. I wait for them to settle down and then pick one.
"Okay, I got a story in mind," I say with a smile.
I pull a seat out of my sleeve by using my inventory and make the kids laugh.
"Okay, now how does this go again? Ah yes. Once upon a time, there was a lovely princess... But she had an enchantment upon her of a fearful sort, which could only be broken by love's first kiss," I say, and an illusion started forming above me.
The illusion was a dark and smoky castle. Then a great fire-breathing dragon appeared.
"She was locked away in a castle guarded by a terrible fire-breathing dragon. Many brave knights had attempted to free her from this dreadful prison... but none prevailed. She waited in the dragon's keep in the highest room of the tallest tower. For her true love and true love's first kiss," I say, and everyone was focused on the story, so I hit them with the twist.
"Like that's ever gonna happen!" I say and cause everyone to get taken out of the story.
Then Smash Mouth started playing.