Chapter 182: Chapter 177

The Nexus Severalty’s borders fully froze for the first time since it began. There were no little encroachments on the wasteland, no reaching out to claim nearby ruins, not even a quick excursion to obliterate raider-controlled vaults that were within a day’s walking distance.

 

Sev redirected his realm’s focus on consolidating and solidifying his hold on the currently owned lands, while production was ramped up for Sentinels, Strigoi and other materiel for the coming assault on Caesar’s Legion. The Senator Toomes’ delegation had been sent back via stealthed Quetzal air transports alongside a Nexus delegation led by Kelly to finalize talks with the NCR.

 

Curie smiled as she recalled the young lady’s poorly masked disappointment. Sev’s personal liaison to the Nexus central administration was utterly devoted to him, and took her assignment as his representative as well as she could, considering that she’d be away from his bed for a few days. At least Kelly would gain herself a promotion after this if things went well. Neither Curie, Piper or Cait had protested having the eager blonde serve as Sev’s personal assistant. Kelly Doyle knew her place in the hierarchy of Sev’s cocksheaths, and was far too content to try clawing her way up.

 

She also had a very good tongue, Curie had to admit. Piper and Cait had enthusiasm going for them, but Kelly had the natural talent of tongue-fucking second only to Sev, even while she got railed by his cock.

 

Curie wished the devoted underling all the best while she herself went to deal with her own responsibilities. With her medical knowledge, she led a team in Ix to monitor the growth of the gene-tampered mirelurk queen, nicknamed ‘Clicker’. The healed queen seem exhibit more advanced behavior compared to the baseline standard, communicating far more frequently with her hive’s mirelurks, and occasionally venturing out to personally investigate anything and everything like a curious child.

 

Unfortunately, the older generation of mirelurks were mostly unresponsive to her, which shouldn’t be surprising considering how their limited intelligence gave them little options to reply beyond their instinctual behavior. 

 

Still, the new, post-op generation of hatchlings showed promise. Instead of their usual hands-off approach, Queen Clicker actually tended to the oversized larvae by breaking up food for her young and ensuring that every hatchling had their share. For their part, the mirelurk young quickly learned to follow their queen’s orders and efficiently break apart the carcasses that the older mirelurks brought in.

 

Where the previous generations of mirelurks would often leave a lot of their food to be washed away by the tide as they gnawed through particular body parts, the new hatchlings would drag their food into the drier areas of their nest before butchering their food. They were particular about keeping entrails and organs from getting washed away, which meant more food became available to them.

 

Curie was glad of the progress being shown already. Under the instruction of the queen, these new mirelurks might be a far superior species than the ratkin that they feasted upon. While Sev had shown his disdain on those mutated rodents, there were some attempts of uplifting them up to a degree, as was done to the Deathclaws. Unfortunately, the ratkins’ instinctive behaviors, particularly with their gender segregation and explosive population growth, those attempts were eventually stopped, and the ratkin were soon consigned to being a food source for Deathclaws, mirelurks, and other carnivorous fauna.

 

Supposedly, the Doomgeese were beginning to prefer the rodents to a degree that they ignored cowering raiders in favor of sadistically hunting down the skittering ratkin. Somebody postulated that the monstrous birds preferred their prey afraid and panicking. After witnessing Doomgeese hunting, Curie had to agree with them.

 

Entertaining the thought of nine ratkin being bludgeoned to a paste by hardened beaks, Curie suppressed a smile as she returned her attention to the screens surveilling the mirelurk nest. “Is everything in position?”

 

The researchers around her nodded, some a bit too eagerly. Curie kept herself from rolling her eyes. “Initiating experimentation on mirelurk post-op and pre-op communication. Release the raiders.”

 

This would be a simple test to see how Clicker interacted with the older mirelurk adults; Whether the queen could organize a defense, whether the more primitive offspring would react to her commands, whether they could learn to differentiate between hostile and non-hostile humans.

 

“First wave of test subjects released,” one researcher sitting behind a console stated. “They are carrying the ratkin bodies towards the nest as instructed, no signs of deviation.”

 

Unfortunately, the first batch of prisoners were obliterated by the instinctual aggressiveness of the mirelurks. Clicker seemed to have little true command over her guards. Still, it was a result.

 

“Prepare the next batch,” Curie ordered gently. “And tell the testers to drop off the food faster, for their sake. If they manage to flee, see if there’s any variation in Clicker’s telemetry at the sight.”

 

Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to flee. The mirelurk queen personally chased them down, tearing the screaming victims apart into bite sized pieces for her young.

 

Well, it’s not like they had to be that careful with their Tleilax prisoners, Curie consoled herself. After all, once the assault on Caesar’s lands began, the blacksite would likely have a glut of prisoners.

 

“For the next batch, maybe pull back their objective a few meters. And perhaps it’s better to swap out their escape craft for something more durable than a wooden boat…”

 

You are reading story Uncommon Wealth at novel35.com

*****

 

The Nexus was gearing for a full on invasion, but in secret. It wasn’t really that hard a thing with how most of the war industry was kept out of sight from the public. Piper and Nat were responsible for managing the cover story about the NCR visit, and to make sure that as little clarity escaped about the coming attack.

 

If things went well, Caesar’s Legion would not know what hit them until they were being carried off to Blacksite Tleilax.

 

With Piper’s authority and Nat’s showbusiness savvy, the Wright sisters kept a close eye on how the NCR’s visit was reported. It was a different kind of excitement compared to combat, Piper found. There was a novel flavor of satisfaction from steering conversations with just a few well-placed emphasis in interviews. No wonder Nat liked teasing people.

 

“Considering where they’re positioned from us, the possibility of trade took up a lot of time in the discussion,” she insinuated in her interview with Three Dog, omitting the fact that at the end of the day, it was agreed that trade talks would resume after the Nexus annexed Caesar’s empire.

 

“And while the Nexus remains steadfastly against slaving, Sev is also reluctant to directly deliver arms to the NCR. Not until rumors about their poor governance have been cleared up.” Which fertilized the rumors of corruption within the NCR.

 

The radio host of Galaxy News Radio happily zoomed in on that. “Yeah, I can see how that’s a worry,” Three Dog said, keeping a semi-formal tone throughout the interview that was still a significant deviation from his usual relaxed persona. “Even out here, there have been tales about NCR abuses of power, stealing lands and extorting villages… Heh. Sometimes it sounds like they’re little better than the Enclave. Would Sev still deal with them if that’s the case?”

 

Nat answered in a tone that ensured that listeners could hear her frown. “Knowing Sev, he’ll probably insist they clean up their act before allowing for less limited trade. Assuming the rumors are true, of course. With how bad the wasteland can be, we can’t have Nexus produced food and water be used as leverage against disadvantaged settlements.”

 

“That’s good to hear. I’m glad our benevolent dictator still cares for the little people beyond the borders.”

 

Both Wright sisters smiled at the term, taking no offense to it. Sev had found it and far worse names amusing, and so they would as well. After all, Three Dog wasn’t as acerbic as Nora, though they might have to monitor his feedback to ensure he didn’t get into too much shit for using that moniker. 

 

“The Nexus wouldn’t have grown and prospered as it has otherwise,” Piper replied, beating her younger sister to it. “Even with all Sev has, it’d be hard to look after a populace that doesn’t trust him.”

 

“Very true. Very true.” Three Dog nodded across the table, and from the way he tensed up, the older Wright knew what was coming. “So, getting to the elephant in the room… I’m sure my listeners - all four of them - would like to know: would the Nexus take the fight to Caesar’s Legion?”

 

Piper didn’t need to trade looks with Nat. They’d prepared for this after all. “As nice as the idea might be,” she answered with a well suppressed grin, “We have to bear in mind that the degenerates there would likely resort to far more barbaric atrocities if the Nexus began to attack. Caesar’s Legion controls a lot of land, and oppresses a lot of people. As we are now, any attack might get them to start committing further atrocities in an effort to resist us.”

 

Leaning in, the older Wright took on a sober, regretful expression like how Nat trained her. “There’s a lot of people suffering right now, but trying to attack now might cause that number to jump a lot. For all you know, they might just execute all the innocents out of spite before we fully stomp them out.” 

 

Three Dog hummed thoughtfully, the grave nod he gave telling the sisters that he was weighing the cost of lives in his mind.

 

Piper sat up straight once more, and Nat came in with just the right amount of frustration in her voice. “For better or worse, Sev is not ready to begin hostilities against Caesar’s Legion until he’s sure that he can end them all in one go.”

 

Which should be about…one week’s time or so? Not that anyone outside of the inner circle had to know.

 

“It’s a tough decision,” their rather sobered host agreed. “But regardless, I’m reassured that the great minds of the Nexus are putting a lot of thought into this. I’m sure my listeners are as well.”

 

Three Dog’s interview turned out to be the most taxing one, the other brown-nosing networks were far more interested in comparing the NCR against the Nexus. That neither Wright sister had even been to California was irrelevant, most people just wanted to confirm that the country on the other end of the continent was nowhere close to the Nexus Severalty’s level of comfort.

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