Chapter 103: Chapter 99

Following in the wake of the latest expansion had been an eye opening experience to Shella, and likely to her audience as well. In a generous offer to boost the budding media industry, Sev had blessed her reckless request to record and broadcast the new push. Not only that, he had insisted that she didn’t hold herself back with censorship, save for maybe overly graphic moments that she might come across.

So, with her new gifted truck that she was getting the hang of driving, Shella trailed after the ceaseless march of the robots and let herself be thoroughly impressed by how efficiently the Nexus grabbed more land. From the simple briefing she was given, Sev was pushing in all directions, but would mostly be eating up a huge chunk of the southwestern lands. The first main goal was the ruins of Providence to the south, and then it would be a westward march along the coast.

It was a good idea at the time, but now that the self-styled reporter was out in the wasteland again, Shella was regretting it. The air stank of metals and ash and everything else, she had to rely on the water tank in her truck for hydration and food packets for sustenance, and bloody hell was it a lonely drive. She should’ve fought harder to keep Marie from dropping out of the trip… Or joined her friend instead in the safe comfort of the studio.

Well, too late to turn back now. Shella used the newly developed cameras to record various moments of the conquest of Providence. The device was far smaller and more manageable than the stuff she had seen in the ruins, and allowed her to run around to quickly bring her targets into focus.

A nest of radscorpions being dived upon by leaping Eversors and Strigoi, the corpses being carted off by Sentinels shortly after.

The aftermath of a Sentinel swarm on a ramshackle raider’s outpost, with the prisoners forced on their dislocated knees while the Quetzal transport arrived to transport them away.

A dirty, crude hole that housed a small family of near-feral wastelanders. Shella also recorded the inhabitant’s wide-eyed response to fresh food and clean water, and how their jaws dropped when she told them about the Nexus. A Quetzal came to pick them up soon after.

There were also equally impressive but more…unsettling scenes that Shella doggedly trained her camera on. Stuff that reminded her and hopefully everyone else of how uncivilized the lands beyonds the Nexus can be.

A settlement of seemingly peaceful wastelanders, all of them now on their knees under the unblinking optics of the Eversors when butchered human corpses were found in shallow graves, and neatly packed human flesh in crates stored in sheds or basements. These cannibals had tried hiding their nature and preyed on passing travelers. Shella kept her silence as she kept the lens trained on the rantings of an old man, the bloodstains on his teeth making him look downright psychotic.

And there were various occasions of rescued slaves. It broke her heart to witness the scenes first hand, but it was also awe inspiring to watch the armored Sardaukar troopers descend from the heavens to gently aid and escort the rescued people to the Quetzals, hopefully towards a new life in the Nexus

Shella recorded anything and everything going on, and the only thing keeping her from driving back to prep the files for broadcasting was the promise of more content just ahead.

She had just gotten to see how the Nexus deals with actual peaceful settlements. A Sentinel would send out the offer through their loudspeakers from a safe distance while the rest of the metal legion advanced around the settlement. Whether the populace was scared or downright welcoming seemed to depend on what news they’ve heard about the Nexus.

Regardless, those that welcomed integration into the Nexus would find Quetzals descending in front of their gates as the troopers and the new Nexus Enforcers (Shella and most people still called them the Minutemen) took over. Nexus-made water purifiers and rad-free foods were brought in, de-radiator bots were sent out, and the medics would sweep their healing guns around. It was an effective show of power that promptly won over the hearts of the new applicants.

The Nexus didn’t seem to care if some chose to abandon their ramshackle settlements while others stubbornly chose to remain. For the latter, Shella did get the conversation from a trooper explaining how roads would be built to connect them to the Nexus, and bots would come in if they wanted to help rebuild the ruins or shanties or improvised houses. The reporter also recorded some of the troopers or Minutemen being swamped with grateful settlers after healing or repairing, or simply just providing Nexus-grade food and drink.

For those that outright rejected the offer or were hesitant about it, the bots simply ignored them and their lands and set up a rough border using metal poles. Shella hung back near one such settlement for a few days to watch as the settlers crossed the borders without any consequences, though they seemed angry at having no ruins to scavenge from anymore. And with how commerce operated in the Nexus, they’d likely not see any traveling traders anytime soon.

It was an effective method of slowly whittling away the settler’s resistance to joining up, Shella felt. After all, most tools and structures in the wasteland, improvised or not, needed maintenance and without anything raw material to work with, the whole place would crumble to dust. She wondered how long would they last before begging to join the Nexus.

Shella only cut one thing out of her camera so far over the nine days on the wasteland. They had come across one of her people in one of the raider purges. It was a shame to see a rehabilitated synth falling into the depravities of the wasteland. She had watched without camera in hand for just that one time, as the synth raider tried using his slaves as a hostage and shield. A metal claw punched clean through his head after a stealthed Eversor made its presence known. The troopers huddled over the broken synth components, too far away for Shella to get any hints of their discussion.

You are reading story Uncommon Wealth at novel35.com

It was a sobering moment, to see basically an extended family member turn bad and get killed. One of the few who took their chances outside the Nexus instead of staying within its borders, and he became a raider. Not the best first impression of freedom, that painted.

Shella shook herself off the gloom and doom and continued filming. The ruins of Providence were just up ahead, and she had caught a glimpse of the newly upgraded Centurion robots. Looking far from the Sentry bots they used to be based on, these four legged behemoths glided through the air on whatever mystery propulsion that replaces the wheels on their legs. They landed to walk on those same legs, presumably to better stabilize their shots as they found their targets.

As they hung behind the main advance, Shella got to record the robots firing their new plasma cannons into the distance, causing a rumble followed by a cloud of smoke snaking up into the sky in the far horizon. It was rather intimidating as some of them clustered around Shella protectively, walking alongside her as she continued her work. When rough screams were heard, Shella immediately stopped recording.

Better to wait for the bloodbath to finish and skip that place. Super mutant camps rarely offered anything other than rescued slaves and tons of gore.

*****

“Migration from Settlement C3 complete. No incompatible elements detected. Assigning probationary state to all migrants.”

Overseeing the human traffic from the expansion was a daunting task for the Nexus’ administration team. Luckily for Curie, Cabal shouldered most of the burden by neatly processing and organizing the stream of rescued slaves and eager migrants.

She and the rest of the admin team had to just look out for possible unwanted elements within the new intake of potential citizens. With a methodical yet quick questioning from the robots, rapists, murderers, slavers, and any such problematic people breaching the Nexus’ code of conduct were highlighted for the human and synth team to judge.

Already, an entire settlement had to be blacklisted and purged due to their despicable practices of infanticide and cannibalism. And then there was another village that forcefully kidnapped passersby for breeding stock, and another that enforced abominable gender degradation. Gwen and Curie approved the culling of such people, only sparing those deemed to be salvageable, like children or the victims fortunate enough to be alive.

She hated being reminded of how ugly the world beyond Sev’s paradise could be. Even the best looking towns were collections of rusted heaps and broken concrete, with living standards far below the Nexus’ minimum. Curie’s heart went out to the people they were welcoming in, but at the same time she detested the human scum that were found.

It was a balance to carefully manage, but Sev had fully trusted her with this role that she volunteered for, so Curie had to make sure to be thorough in her work. She saw what happened to poor Sarah Lyons that one time, after all.

Curie pored through the reports filtered from Cabal and then the general staff. Domestic abuse, aggressive behavior, substance addiction, and other ‘yellow’ cases were set aside for further investigation of the accused and their peers, while allegations of rape and murder, or those who reportedly retired from a raider’s life, were set for temporary holding pending far more thorough interrogation in the truth chambers.

Piper and Cait would likely look forward to handling those cases. Or would it serve as training for the NIN agents?

Either way, it seemed that there would be plenty to work with.

Curie would make sure to receive her well earned payment tonight from Sev. He promised her three hours of alone time. Now that she thought about it, how much of those three hours could she remain conscious for?

You can find story with these keywords: Uncommon Wealth, Read Uncommon Wealth, Uncommon Wealth novel, Uncommon Wealth book, Uncommon Wealth story, Uncommon Wealth full, Uncommon Wealth Latest Chapter