Sleep was rough that night. I'd awoken several times seeing those golden eyes in my dreams.
Bright.
Glowing.
Radiating.
As if they were the eyes of fate.
I couldn't get them out of my head. The power I saw in them was otherworldly. It was power, power that could move mountains with a blink. Power that could carve valleys with a glare. Power that would make the creators of Archimedes II cringe in embarrassment. Power to shift the fate of millions and defy even death itself.
I could see that power in her. Some say that the eyes are the window to the soul. Her beautiful, terrifying, godly eyes. They weren't a window. They were a glimpse at a being that decided the fate of the world and wouldn't blink with an once of regret.
It was power all living, breathing people had at least once dreamed of having. Near infinite power and possibilities. Everyone would want such power. I wanted such power, but no. That power didn't belong in my hands. I couldn't wield it.
I could shape it. Give it an additional choice. A different direction than others. Yes, that's what I'd do. I would become an ending for the wasteland that the courier could choose.
There were many choices for the fate the courier could give the wastes. I would need to be the one she chose. I wasn't the main character, but I could be a side character. But I don't have the power yet. So I become the choice for building your own force. One of the biggest faction allures I had when playing Fallout 4 was building my own forces. I had downloaded many mods to allow me to truly build the Minute Men.
Fallout New Vegas had many factions you could choose and many endings for them, but none allowed you to build the faction. Even Yes Man didn't have much in actual faction stuff.
I would be the choice when the courier wanted freedom. I would be there with a steel army at my back and a world to conquer and protect.
With those nearly insane thoughts I put my insomnia to use and began building. Five eyebots had been completed so far but I wanted more than them. I took the best pieces I had and started working. I started working on the CPU first. I wanted this to be a bot with a humanoid mind.
The core of the CPU would be the most prized piece in my tech junk collection, an assaultron circuit board; bought from Chet who had no idea of its value.
The rest of the build was high quality scrap from terminals, an enhanced targeting card, a military grade circuit board, and lots of other things I'd cleaned up. By the time I was done with the CPU, five more eyebots were finished and my small scrap bot had prepared a lot of my better junk for building this new bot.
With the incredibly powerful CPU and the simple yet extreme AI coding of this world it would practically be alive after putting in code. The CPU had not been something I worried about however. The body would be incredibly powerful and would take all the remaining resources I had to properly create.
She… would be a daughter of sorts and I wanted and needed to do my very best. The best I had to offer is what I would make her of. Most of her body would be easy to make aside from two parts. Her power source would be multiple fission batteries covered in armor with failsafes to launch the battery out of the body in case of failure or damage. The other problem would be her hands. I wanted her to be able to do human things better than humans so she'd need humanoid hands. They would be incredibly complex as I couldn't just find tech like that. I also planned to give her self repair functions but that would have to wait until I actually knew how to make things like that.
I gathered what I'd need for her hands on my main workbench but before I could even finish a single finger the door to my building opened. Standing in my doorway, dim yellow light shining on her was the courier. She stood there like she owned the world, her red hair flicking in the breeze of the fans I had going. A wicked scar at her hairline visible as her hair was tied in a tail.
Her armor had been upgraded. It was still a vault suit with armor but instead of lots of thick leather, most was replaced with metal. Her golden eyes were thankfully covered by dark sunglasses that she didn't have to remove as I made sure most of my building had strong lighting.
Large reinforced leather boots clacked on the floor as the seven feet of goddess walked straight to me. I nearly ran but steadied myself remembering my turrets and bots. They weren't active right now but their programming would immediately swarm anyone that threatened me.
I wasn't short. I was 15-16 in this life and had been raised well. At 5ft 11in I stood taller than most. But sitting at my workbench made her feel like a tree and I an ant. Her hand raised and I barely stopped a flinch as she pointed a finger at the blueprint draft of they hand I was building. Her voice sounded, soft but full of power "The tension muscles of the hand need to be tighter if you want any degree of strength control or accuracy."
My mind blanked. This Hercules bigger cousin had high intelligence. High enough to point out a mistake I made at a glance. Seems she was even more terrifying than I thought. Grabbing my pencil I marked out the previous measurements of the tension muscles in the hand and started new calculations for more precise measurements.
In my calculations she pointed out some mistakes and by the end of the new design the hand would be able to bend or crush steel with ease. She pulled up a box and sat across from me and helped to redesign most of what I had drafted. She was a genius in every sense of the word. She understood almost everything I had and if she didn't she learned it almost instantly.
My evaluation of her changed. She had high strength, unknown perception, high endurance, middle to high charisma, high intelligence, unknown agility, and likely high luck. She was a powerhouse on the level of Ulysses. By the time she left I had given he three eyebots, and I hadn't even gotten a name. She practically disappeared through the doorway leaving me rethinking my own intelligence and fumbling over myself from the small smile she had just before closing the door. My evaluation of her changed again, high charisma, or at least high enough to annihilate my own near zero charisma.
I flopped back into my seat at the workbench and entered a fugue state while building. By the time I came to I had built and put together all but the legs and head. Three eyebots had been built and just a few more could be produced. Checking the time I found it was a few hours before dusk and I hadn't eaten anything almost all day.
With an eyebot trailing me and my smg on my hip I began walking to the saloon. I got there as a large shouting argument ended and the powder ganger leader stormed away. I bought some food. Trudy gave me Brahmin steak, baked potatoes and carrots, a dessert salad, and fancy lads snack cakes for dessert. I told her that I was selling some combat eyebots and she promised to advertise for me as long as I guaranteed that she could buy two for security.
After my dinner I went to Chet and sold ten eyebots that I would be delivering before bringing the two for Trudy. That left me with five eyebots for scouts and security. After delivering the bots I scheduled a tech junk delivery with Chet from the
Crimson Caravan Company.
With new scrap coming in I went home and made a patrol route for two of my bots and sent the two to scan for junk I could send more junk bots to collect. The last eyebots would stay as a bodyguard of sorts. I sent out the bots and ended my week on a good not as I had only been scared by the courier twice and had pushed my plans forward.
The next day
I was awoken by the wasteland alarm clock called a firefight. Guess the powder gangers were making their move on the town. I got up, threw on my armor, a vest with steel plates and a steel plated skirt, then grabbed my guns. I then activated my sentry bot and tagged all my eyebots to follow me.
On my way to the saloon I could hear my turrets at the storage building chattering away at the enemy with bursts of fire and the district laser blast from eyebots. Inbetween my creations attacks were other weapons and even some dynamite from one side. As I got near the saloon I could see townsfolk with guns all taking cover and firing some as the courier dual wielded 9mm pistols at the front with the eyebots.
A single order sent all bot a single eyebot charging towards the enemy positions. The courier followed just behind them and sent a couple running as most were gunned down in seconds. After the small battle things got hectic as we helped wounded to Mitchell's house and the courier and I looted ganger bodies. The only tech I found was a single stealth-boy. I ignored most of the loot as I knew it would be here.
After the cleanup the townspeople thanked us and the courier sold most of the loot to Chet. After she sold the junk I practically dragged her massive genius ass to my place as I knew I would need he insanely powerful mind to help me reverse engineer the stealth-boy.
I paid her another bot and she and I stayed cooped up trying to figure out sustainable light based illusionary camouflage. I didn't care for the active camo of the stealth-boy. It was to limited and I wanted nearly free invisibility. With my best observation tech and the few scrap I had left we drew up a draft for stealth device that acted like a Chinese stealth suit.
Everything about it was perfect as we had spent all day and my remaining funds designing it. The courier, as I still knew her wasn't just knowledgeable and experienced but also incredibly creative. She had even theorized a version without harmful radiation. I would have made one on the spot but it would be another day before I got the tech shipment from crimson caravan.
She had been staying at doc Mitchell's house so I had the bots make her a bed where she stayed for the night.
The next day
It was 10:00 when the caravan arrived and it was bigger than I thought. Apparently Chet in his merchant ways bought his own tech scrap, anticipating that I would by it from him. I sold my junk truck cart thing to the caravan as it was better than any of their carts, payed for my tech junk, bought a few choice pieces from them and then began work on the new stealth tech along with starting new eyebot production.
Throughout the day the courier popped in and out with suggestions for the new tech and scrap she had grabbed. I had asked her name every time she came in but she'd leave with an infuriating smirk without speaking a word. It took another three days of this to complete the new Stealth-Boy 1000, a right handed device that renders the wearer nearly invisible when activated.
I had made many different things over the past few days, one of which was a very powerful custom eyebot. When she entered with more scrap for me to buy she couldn't find me in my building or around town so she resorted to activating my eyebots and my custom to search for me. My custom had easily found me with the multitude of sensors it had.
She had chastised me like I was some child and took the stealth-boy 1000 to fiddle with. She ended up upgrading it so I let her keep it and made myself one while making one for my custom eyebot.
The courier ended up leaving to Primm a few days later after I had needled a promise to bring back as much interesting tech as she could carry. From what I could tell she was a good person who cared for others but, she was a bit strange. I could easily overlook the strangeness as I myself have been called strange.
Without her here things dulled down and I was forced to wait for another caravan with tech and hope my bots found something of worth in the wastes. Weeks passed like this and the only new thing was an update from the eyebot sent west. It had come across an abandoned town called Ripley. It was an old and small town and from the footage it sent I could tell it had been picked clean then left to time.
Another few days passed and my westbound bot reported a mountain straight west and a small mountain range a bit north from that. After passing over the forest inbetween the mountains I reported what seemed to be a hot springs resort. It was little more than mud with a hotel and resort, both lost to time.
In between the bots reports I had been working on my masterpiece. I had named her Brigid after a Celtic goddess who had domains of smithing, inspiration, and fire. Many of my breakthroughs in knowledge and tech had been inspired while making her. She was made by my hand out of metal so smithing went well with her. The only thing left to make for her was her head and I had yet to give her any built in weapons besides her own body so a flame or laser weapon would fit well.
The next report came a few days later. The bot reported almost crippling structural damage. Footage showed it lipping through the air towards a transparent blue wall at the top of a hill. It was blasting its laser around at cazadors buzzing around it. Its last transmission was grainy footage of it passing through the blue wall and see a place I recognized. The report stated the bot had activated its atomic failsafe and exploded to eliminate its enemies.
I immediately sent out a group of five new eyebots with a sixth that had custom programming and hovertech to safely scout the place I was sending them to. I had never seen a full map of the fallout world before but I still easily recognized what was in the grainy image. In the middle of the area was a large dome building and to its north was a glowing red area. It was the Big MT, I had now it was near the divide and of course the divide was close to Goodsprings as the entrance to the dlc was near Primm.
I'd love to take over Big MT but that would have to wait as I'd need an army to even attempt it. If it took it over I could effectively take the divide after some time and maybe even wipe out the tunnelers. New Vegas had many doomsday apocalypse scenarios in and around it and the tunnelers were one such threat.
1 week later
I was now nearly done with my "daughter". She was deactivated currently as I wanted to send her to her target location with at least 20 eyebots. I also needed to check her code and such to guarantee that she wouldn't go against me or cause more damage to the wastes.
I didn't want her pulling an automaton dlc and manufacturing bots to wipe out humanity. I had built her well but I couldn't send her through the Great Khans or through Quarry Junctions deathclaws so I was going to sent her through the powder gangers and over the mountains to the Repconn test site. With her stealth-boy 1000 and the eyebots she could cut through the ghouls and super-mutants to take over.
It took three more days but I had finally completed her. She looked like a much more human assaultron. I immediately activated her so that her self learning could get to work and get her personality to start developing. She was little more than a highly intelligent assaultron right now a personality would begin showing by the time I sent her off. She would have to wait a few more days for her eyebots to complete.
With her activated I left her to herself and went to bed. I would be busy the next few weeks expanding my production lines with a new building.
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