Chapter 16: Chapter 16

Thankfully Nat didn’t make any comments the following morning.

We had our breakfast and a bath, and then I led the girls to the hangar. I found it possible to modify the shuttle, and so I expanded its interior to make for a more comfortable trip for passengers.

We left the Tupile in short order, and I did a quick scout of the space around us to see a cloud of debris floating where the other mothership was, while the other alien craft we used to fly up here still floating around. A quick remote pickup to shove that small vessel into the Tupile, and then back down to Earth we go.

Compared to the pristine void of space, descending from the heavens reminded me how ugly everything was. The air already looked foul even from up here, with dirty looking clouds in the horizon sparking with lighting every now and then. Then the surface came into view and I felt like I needed a shower just from looking at the torn and blasted ground.

The girls shared that sentiment too it seemed, Nat fidgeting a bit and frowning while Piper was more upfront with it.

“I forgot how bad we had it down there.”

With a very basic map interface from the Pip-Boy, I kept to the coast as I tried to find Boston Airport. I brought the craft (needs a name…) to a slower coasting speed while I got the girls to give me a hand in looking for the spot.

Oh, did you know the smaller alien ships like these came with stealth fields? Made sense if you think about how they go around abducting stuff with minimal fuss created. Also allowed us to take our time flying along the coast at a slightly lower altitude.

We eventually found that small-ish island that was Fort Strong. After circling round a few times to make sure no one of note was around, I landed us just in front of the bridge and we geared up for an aggressive recon.

Piper had two alien atomizers akimbo, while Nat held only one. With my trusty beam gun, I led them out of the unstealthed ship, and as we disembarked the yells and strangled cries of super mutants were heard.

“Remember girls, take your time,” I told the girls in a calming tone as I started to take aim. This would be their first blooding, since I thought it better to not coddle them too much and let them learn to handle things on their own. “Anything goes wrong, let me know and don’t panic, alright?”

We stood by the shuttle’s entrance, weapons at the ready. Four super mutants stomped out, yelling the usual ‘bleeders’ and ‘puny human’ lines as they rushed at us while shooting at us with various rifles and SMGs. Naturally (or was it unnaturally?) the bullets hit us with a dull thump and fell off without leaving so much as a scratch.

“Right then, as we practiced yesterday. Show ‘em not to mess with us.”

Piper fired first, the alien weapons catching a charging super mutant and blasting back with a crater in its chest. Nat followed a bit nervously at first, knocking a raging greenskin by grazing its shoulder and subsequently delimbing the arm below it, but after putting it down with a few more shots she seemed confident enough to take aim and continue shooting again.

The funny ‘pew pew’ noises downplayed how devastating their shots were, obliterating the super mutants as more came out of the woodwork to greet us. A good rapid fire from Nat boiled a super mutant down to messy goo, while Piper was clearly having fun trading shots with her short-lived targets.

Of course I modified their weapons’ damage.

I covered their backs basically, disintegrating a couple of super mutants with missile launchers. It seemed that the population here was significantly more than in game, as a village’s worth of giants were yelling at us as they either took cover and shot at us, or charged angrily and shot at us.

Grenades were tossed at us, and I think I heard Nat giggle as they detonated around us. I had to reset the ship to clear out the dents and shrapnel, but other than coughing a bit from the smoke, we were untouched.

As some of the greenskins tried getting into melee with us, I felt proud of the girls as they kept their composure and steadily picked their targets off.

“Weak humans DIE!” one brute roared triumphantly as he slammed a fist down onto Piper, making her wince but otherwise just blast it to steaming gore. We could survive a tank’s weight running over us, a super mutant was nothing.

A power-fist toting super mutant reached Nat, and I had to catch her as the force of it sent her flying back with a surprised yelp. Piper avenged the slight on her sister, blasting down the assailant with the fury of an angered older sibling.

Eh, so far this hands-on training was going well enough. Despite being grossed out the girls kept on shooting, and were learning how to dodge or kick back grenades on reflex.

I cloned out ammo as the gunfight wore on and about a ten minutes later, despite the exertion, the girls were in high spirits, happily blasting the cover and the last of the super mutants hiding behind them.

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I looked at them as we pushed our way out to open ground. “So girls, how was it? Still wanna join me next time?”

Piper nodded, Nat didn’t. About as expected.

“I’m tired and dirty,” Nat complained with Piper nodding along.

“Yeah. fighting is messy business, but at least you know how it works a bit now.”

I entered console to check on the girls’ statuses. Let’s see here… Aha. “Piper’s right there Nat, better that you have some basics down just in case. Besides, feels good putting down those big nasties by yourself right? … There, feeling better?”

Both sisters looked surprised as they looked at their hands, and then at me.

“Whoa...” “Holy shit Sev, what’d you do?”

“Just a bit of a tweak. Don’t expect me to do too much, we’re trying to teach you girls how to handle the nasties here.”

With better access to the console, it was amazing to find how much of a person I could edit. Exhaustion, sleep, hunger and thirst were big deals, but I promised myself only to use them and most other functions only during emergencies so we don’t get too dependent on them.

Muscle fatigue I don’t mind clearing for now, the girls knew their limits now hopefully, so I can see how they handle it. Got a lecture prepared and everything if they bugged me about doing it again.

I led them to the big intact building that was the armory of Fort Strong. The main goal: Plunder the atomics to deny resources. Secondary goal: Let the girls get used to combat with little hand holding so they can defend themselves if it ever boiled down to it.

The doors to the armory was not locked, so we let ourselves in and proceeded to messily clean out the place. Or rather, I watched as the girls messily cleaned out the place.

Oh no, there’s debris blocking the lift to the sublevels. Whatever should I do?

Too lazy to remote pickup, I just blasted a few beams to clear out the way, then we rode the elevator down. No game mechanics to make you immune now, conveniently placed debris.

More dead super mutants later, and we came across the storage room filled with crates of mini nukes.

Nat didn’t understand what she was seeing, but Piper was rightly impressed at what were were looting. I set down the teleport beacon and activated it, then tagged each crate to be sent back to the Tupile.

After emptying the place, I clapped my hands to get their attention. “Right then, that’s what we came here for. Now how did you two find the trip? Good learning experience?”

“Yeah!” “Yeah, Sev.” Nat and Piper each answered. Despite her earlier complaints, she was almost bouncing cheerily. “Thanks for showing us giants aren’t so scary Sev!”

I chuckled. “Yeah, and if giants like them don’t scare you, would a bunch of bad raiders or mirelurks make you cry?”

“Nuh uh!”

Of course, I’ll have to make sure to train their combat awareness (mine too) before they can go traipsing around the wastelands by themselves, but all in all, this was time well spent. After collecting and stowing the beacon away, we headed back to the alien shuttle - really need a name for it - and headed to our next destination.

“You girls know any good stories about Vaults?”

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