Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Making Progress
Date Friday, August 27, 2275
Waking up several hours later from my comfortable sleep, I turned my head to my right side to see if Amata was awake.
Good, she's still sleeping just as peacefully as she was when I joined her in the land of dreams with her arms wrapped around my right arm... Alright time to get up, I'll let her continue to sleep for a while longer since she did have quite an active day yesterday. And while she's busy recharging her batteries, I'm going to head downstairs and grab a snack before getting to work on making an upgraded laser rifle, one that's powered by microfusion breeder cells instead of the normal run-of-the-mill cells.
With many things I both needed and wanted to do awaiting me, I checked my Pip-Boy for the time and saw it displaying 5:00 am. Simultaneously, as I was doing that, I used one of my many thought processes to see how my robots were making out. Checking in with all of them, I found that they were making steady progress across the board on the variety of tasks assigned to them. Including the hydroponics project I gave them, which they had finally finished building and setting up.
So, seeing that they were done carrying out that order, I reallocated those worker bots to begin the construction of a massive freezer slash refrigerator next to the hydroponics on the second level of the basement. I'm unable to start using the hydroponics just yet because my water production system hasn't been completed.
Hence, I might as well have them begin working on that task, so we'll be able to prevent our food from perishing immediately. As for when the other workforce will be done putting together the water purification system, they should have it fully taken care of by tomorrow, given their current progress.
Plenty satisfied with how everything was proceeding, I took over the robots and turrets that were manufactured while I was asleep. And had the recently manufactured Worker Bots hop on getting an automated weapon magazine manufacturing machine made and assembled, which they should be able to get out of the way by the end of the day.
The moment I was done with all that jazz, I used my new perk Ghost briefly to slip out of Amata's hold on me without waking her. From there, I climbed out of bed and headed for the bathroom, where I took care of my daily hygienic needs. As soon as I was ready, I took a ride in the elevator and grabbed some food, specifically shelf-stable high-protein meals.
After taking the elevator down to the first floor, I spent the next 10 minutes chowing down on three high-protein meals. The moment I had completely inhaled all the food, I set off to the manufacturing area to get busy working on that laser rifle upgrade. It won't be long before it's getting mass produced by my robots and the automated weapon manufacturing machine that's been churning out AER 29 LMGs ever since I turned in last night.
...
An hour or so later, I had the brand spanking new laser rifle model in hand. This design was substantially better than the original iteration.
| AER10 Laser Rifle |
Damage: 85
DPS: 1,133
Fire rate: 800 Fully Automatic, Semi-Automatic
Weight: 10
Ammo Type: Microfusion Breeder Cell
Value: 10,000
Attachments: Canted Red Dot Sight, Laser Sight, Variable Zoom Scope, Vertical Fore Grip, Weapon Sling
Item Description: A durable single-barreled full auto laser rifle that shares some similarities with the creator's past designs. This rifle features a heavy barrel, the latest version of the improved microfusion breeder cell, hardier and sturdier materials throughout the entirety of the weapon, a quad rail for mounting a variety of attachments that can range from different types of grips to under-barrel grenade launchers to laser sights, and a toggle to change the laser beam from a visible red to an invisible infrared laser. Designed by Harold Todd Woods.
Whilst I was looking over the newly finished laser rifle, I headed over to my improvised testing area and ran the weapon through a variety of tests. Once I was content, I sent the automated weapon manufacturing and my robots the new design with Mechu-deru and had them initiate production of it.
Having taken care of that, I returned to my workshop in the manufacturing area of the facility and busied myself by making some Mining Bots in preparation for when it comes time to clear out the nearby metro and begin the tunneling process to link it up with the second level of the basement.
...
Another hour passed with me grinding away and the minute the clock's hands landed at 7:00 AM, I detected the Hill brothers heading downstairs, likely going to get something to eat. So, pausing my work momentarily on the third Mining Bot, I picked myself up and made my way over to them and joined them for breakfast.
The four of us quickly prepared everything necessary, sat down, and began to eat. In between bites we discussed the details regarding what exactly I was going to have them do. Around 20 minutes into our meal, we had all the details ironed out and all four of our plates cleared. So, with nothing else needing to be discussed there, I led the brothers to the manufacturing area and got them set up with their jobs.
Following that, I hightailed it to my workshop and got back to work on my third Mining Robot.
...
The next hour was spent as such, at least until I detected Amata waking up via my Assaultrons guarding our shared space. Needing to pause my work again, I spent the next couple of minutes applying some finishing touches on my sixth Mining Bot. As soon as I was done, I took over all of them with Mechu-deru and proceeded in the direction of Amata and met up with her on the first floor.
"Good Morning, how'd you sleep, Amata?"
"Good morning, Harold. I slept great, but I was hoping you would be there when I opened my eyes." She replied, sounding somewhat saddened at the fact that I wasn't there when she woke up. However, I could tell that she was putting on an act, thus it didn't elicit a response from me.
"..."
"Moh..." She complained, puffing her cheeks out.
Continuing to ignore her antics, I moved things along. "You ready to get fueled up for the long day we have ahead of us?"
"Sigh... Sure."
Presenting my arm to her, latched on to it before we proceeded to go get her a bit of breakfast. On the walk over to the improvised eating area, I sent several of my Worker Bots up to our room to begin renovations on the bathroom.
...
After another 20 minutes had elapsed, Amata finally finished eating her morning meal while I finished my third one for the day, which I'll certainly be needing for our trips back and forth from the vault. The two of us chatted for a few more minutes before we got up and headed around the facility to see where we were going to put the gym/training area, the pool, the entertainment area, and the dining area.
Wandering through the place, we settled on putting the gym on the second underground level, mainly because there is a ton of unused space down there. But there was also the fact that the new equipment I plan on fabricating to keep up with my training needs is going to weigh in the literal 10s of tons, eventually. Therefore, it made the most sense to put it on the lowest level so I wouldn't have to worry about the above ones caving in from a shit load of weight concentrated in a small area.
As for the specifics of the space, it will house a variety of normal-weight machines, free weights for relatively normal people to use, and a heavy-weight section that will probably only be used by me. Unless I recruit one of the friendly super mutants like Fawkes, for instance, or recruit someone out there in the wastes that is either gifted or has a special mutation...
Thoughts of recruiting unique and powerful individuals aside, the heavy-weight section of the space will consist of a variety of weighted machines and free weights that will max out in the tens of tons. Those monstrously heavy weights will allow me to keep pushing myself and my limits further so I can keep making progress.
Other than those two areas, there will be a training area for training my perception. That specific place will be equipped with the usual setup of baseball pitching machines rigged with turret targeting modules and 10mm ballistic turrets that will be loaded with rubber bullets initially. Those rounds will later be swapped out for live ammunition and probably swapped out again in favor of projectiles with even fast velocities.
Following picking out a spot for that, we selected one for the pool, which ended up being located right next to it, so they would both have access to a shared locker room. However, due to there not being enough concrete on hand, nor the materials required to produce it at the moment, construction of this project will be delayed until I manage to get some arc kilns fabricated and find a good source of limestone.
That latter one can be accomplished by my robotic workforce via mining and seeing how limestone is just about everywhere, I'm all too concerned about locating that resource. On top of using the lime for concrete, it can also be used for other things, such as in the process of making steel and various other metals and alloys. Which is something we will be doing a whole lot of when the arc furnaces are made and we possess the ore and scrap to feed them.
Moving on from there, we started our search for where the entertainment zone should go. This took us a decent while, but we eventually went with throwing it on the first level of the basement due to the fact that there was an abundant amount of space available down there for it.
With that spot settled on, we began discussing the details of what sort of things will be housed there. And after a bit of back and forth, we eventually got all the details in order and would be acquiring a number of arcade games from Vault 101 in the not so distant future.
Finished assigning areas to the underground floors, we moved on up to the levels above. The two of us walked around together for a short time before deciding to put the dining area up on the second floor because there was already a cafeteria there. Although an old one in a very poor state.
"Now that we have that all planned out, let's head back up to our room, get suited up, and ready to head out."
"Okay... Ohh, but before we head up, do you want to have lunch at the vault?" Amata replied.
"Sure, it beats the hell out of eating the stuff we have here."
Having covered what we wished to do for lunch, we headed upstairs, threw our personal form fitting suits of Shadow Armor, and climbed into respective power armor suits before moving on to equipping the rest of our loadouts.
Whilst we were in the midst of doing that, I had one of my increasing number of thought processes send my usual group robots to the loading area to get ready to depart for the vault. And as one of my thought processes was managing that, I had another send signals with Mechu-deru to my workers in the manufacturing section of the facility to inform the Hill brothers that Amata and I would be heading out to transfer more of my loot over.
Shortly thereafter, we arrived in the loading area ready to set out into the wasteland once again, armored from head to toe and armed to the teeth. With me wielding my gatling laser Purge, my 12G Laser Pistol magnetically attached to my waist along with Commando Knife, and more than a dozen MFC Grenades and Pulse Grenades magnetically attached to my power armor's built-in war belt. As for my partner, Amata, she was equipped with her own freshly produced AER 29 LMG, a Ripper on her waist, and a dozen MFC Grenades and Pulse Grenades each.
Doing a double check of everything, I found everything was in order as expected. "Alright, we got everything and all the robots are here. Let's set out."
"Okay, boss." Hauler responded while many mechanical forces responded with variations of that.
Ready as we'll ever be, I opened up the massive blast door on my own this time, since I figured out how to finally take over simpler mechanical constructs.
*Chirp...Chirp...Chirp...*
...
*Grrrnnnd-*
As soon as the massive door settled into the open position, I stepped outside, first followed by Amata, and then the rest of the group. Once the last of us were through, we set off for Vault 101.
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