As we walked up the hill back to ArcJet, Joshua the little boy I saved, stared at me like I was an alien and asked ridiculous questions.
"How old are you? Where are you from? That's really cool armor! Can I also get armor like that? The way you killed those mirelurks was so cool! Can you teach me..."
Sigh...
"Okay! Enough talking for now. I'm just a guy out here trying to survive like anyone else. And if you listen nicely and behave, maybe later I can teach you some things..."
The boy giggled sheepishly. "Hehe, you said it! No take backs!"
I rolled my eyes and pressed forward a little faster.
When we got back to ArcJet, we were greeted by the gang of bots and the kid lost it.
"Robots! So cool! Are these yours, Frankie?!" The kid bubbled in excitement, as if completely forgetting that he recently became an orphan.
'It's good that he isnt crippled with depression. The fact that he can stay positive even after all that is a miracle.' I thought solemnly.
"Joshua." I called over to him taking his attention off the robots, which he was acting like a kid who got his favorite toy on Christmas. Pure excitement.
He stopped pestering the robots and responded. "Yeah?"
"I got some business to handle inside. Don't mess with the bots and don't go inside for any reason until I come back out. Got it?" He nodded his head in understanding then went back to checking out a protectron that stood still and let him examine it.
"Good." I said to myself since the boy was no longer paying attention.
The front door to the building creaked as I opened it.
ArcJet Systems. They were an aerospace company that, before the bombs, attempted to get into making engines for space crafts as they got thier first federal contract.
The contract was for the XMB booster engine, that they were making good progress with, until the bombs ended thier dreams.
They also developed a deep range transmitter that could transmit signals to Mars in about 10 minutes. The world I came from with the technology available took about 30 minutes so the transmitter that ArcJet created is very impressive... and will now also be mine.
After entering the lobby, I swapped my outfit to the stealth armor since I didn't want to damage the loot.
Protectrons. The building hadn't been touched since pre-war and all the defences are still up in this place.
It was full of turrets and protectrons but there might as well have been a sign out front that said, "free shit", because I'll be leaving with all the loot this place has to offer including those robots.
I snuck through the building silently. Past the lobby and up the stairs to the second floor there were numerous protectrons throughout the building and turrets hiding in corners.
When I came upon the first of the robots, it hadn't detected me and I was able to shut it down and using the override code, and was able to easily make myself the new owner.
I sent the first robot outside to join the others while I continued.
The turrets were harder to bypass. Any little movement caused the to snap to attention and if I wasn't careful, I'd be shot full of holes.
There were five active protectrons and 4 turrets on this floor as well as another protectron in the CEO's office.
There was a laser tripwire at the door that I easily disarmed.
Once the five additional protectrons were under my command, I shot out the turrets one by one to finish clearing the floor and collecting any usuable parts from them.
I sent the protectrons out to the front to join the others.
I wasnt finished here. I still had to find my way into the engine core room and the labs but the elevators didnt work and the stairwell had collaped.
I remember in the game, there was a fallen section of floor that would lead you downward when you come with Paladin Danse but I wasn't seeing any collapsed floors so I had to improvise.
There was an elevator that was out of order so I pried the doors open and found an empty elevator shaft. The broken elevator was at the very bottom and that's where I was heading.
I took a second to prepare myself before leaping over to the elevator cables and latching on.
I slowly slid myself down the cable until finally I planted my feet onto the roof of the broken elevator.
There was an emergency hatch that I was able to easily kick in and then jump into the interior.
Inside was a skeleton wearing a faded hard hat and overalls.
"Poor bastard. Hope your death was quick..."
I kicked the bones out of the way and then began prying the elevator doors open.
With a rusty creak the door opened and I found myself in a dimly lit corridor.
The corridor let out into an massive open space where the XMB booster rocket was tested.
To the left was a broken section of stairs that lead up to the project managers office.
With Marsupial I was able to leap up to the second floor and enter the office.
Inside was a terminal and a safe which I got to work on.
The terminal required me to hack into it before I could access the files. My fingers soared across the keyboard as I filtered through code looking for a possible password.
"Finally!" I shouted triumphantly as I actually guessed the password and succeeded.
"Let's see what I can get..."
The terminals has details and schematics for various projects ArcJet has created.
Most of them were for various types of engines and a few niche projects but also had schematics for the XMB. I downloaded on the data to a few blank holotapes for future use and then went over to the locked safe.
I still didnt have the lock picking perk so if I couldn't brute force my way into a safe, I'd just have to leave it for now.
"Shit why is this thing so tough?!" I had pulled a portable oxy-acetylene torch from my inventory and was trying to cut the damn safe door open but the treated metal was resisting the heat so it was taking forever to get red hot.
It also would rapidly cool when I accidentally moved the flame away.
After 15 minutes of trying to cut the safe open, I'm ashamed to admit that I lobbed like six frag grenades at it and only managed to destroy the office interior.
That damn safe mocked me with its durability.
'Eh, fuck it. I'll come back later with the right perk or some C4...'
I jumped back over to the lower level and went into the generator room at the bottom of the engine core room.
Inside I grabbed the JunkJet, because who doesnt like shooting teddy bears at deathclaws?
I started the auxiliary power from the terminal so I could take the elevator to the control room where the deep range transmitter is.
But before leaving, and with a mischievous smirk I also grabbed a paint can and popped it open.
'Hehe, I wonder what his face would be like seeing this in the future?'
On the wall of the Engine Core room, in big red letters, I wrote, "Paladin Danse is a synth."
I could only giggle thinking about the existential crisis I was gonna give that guy.
Truth is, I never liked the Brother of Steel. Sure they had cool shit, but the whole isolationism and religious fervor turned me off to them.
To me they are just the other side of the same extreme coin as the Enclave.
At least they will be if they haven't gone down that path already.
I had gotten what I came down here for and decided to go back up to the upper floors and finish my business.
With power to the service elevator I went inside and took it up to the control room.
Inside the control room were several computers and desk with a large window for viewing the engine core room.
Sitting on a desk was the object I was looking for. The deep range transmitter.
I pocketed the component and then began going through the terminals to collect all the data I could on the transmitter as well as anything else that was useful.
Honestly I found tons of schematics in this place that I could probably start my own NASA.
With the most valuable object in my possession, I went into another service elevator that was behind the control room, that led back to the upper floors.
I was now back on the first floor that I had yet to clear fully.
Behing the reception desk in the lobby there was a door that led to the security room.
In hindsight, I should have found this room first but I had long forgotten the layout of this place.
In the security room there were four protectrons remaining idle within thier stations.
The security terminal was powered and could likely help me disable the rest if the turrets in the facility.
I first took command of the four protectrons stationed in the security room and then began hacking the terminal.
I was really getting good at it but knew I could benefit more with the higher level perks.
Thankfully the terminal only had advanced encryption which meant it didnt take that long to hack with my skill level.
"...and hacked!" Inside were incident reports and security controls.
I disabled the remaining turrets and then sent the four additional protectrons outside.
So far I have gotten ten nearly pristine robots from this place along with the ones from Wattz, I had 18 protectrons and 4 mister handy.
'My days of finding my own scrap might just be over!' If I wasn't in the middle of a creepy building I'd be shedding tears of joy.
I didnt see a point scouring the rest of the building myself now. I was nearly over encumbered and I could just make the protectrons bring all the useful loot back later.
Heading back to the front entrance, I felt satisfied. Things were looking up for ole Frankie Winter.