Chapter 32: Chapter 32

It took four days for the foundation level to be laid out via tunnels snaking everywhere to fill in the perimeter. After that, it was a simple matter of removing the intersecting walls inside to create a single massive hall covering about one square mile, while leaving enough columns here and there to stop the ceiling from caving in.

And now that my arcology’s base is one single, huge ass room nestling just below the seafloor, I could now select it and copy the whole room. And then a simple matter of slotting slabs on the vertical shaft for stairs, then poking out a small entryway on the level above and pasting the whole room, and voila, level 2.

Rinse and repeat a few times, and the initial work of four days was easily replicated in the span of three hours to give me two floors above the seafloor, and three more floors below it. So six floors, each about a square mile in size as the start of an arcology. Not too bad. Another four hours was to drive down some thinner vertical tunnels at the lowermost level. After being filled up with concrete and steel, they should serve as a proper foundation to anchor the whole megastructure in place.

I thickened the exterior walls and was about to switch it to stainless steel and pray it was resistant enough to irradiated seawater.

Oh wait, console tweaks. So yeah, fuck that, and I switched the walls to copper and just maxed the damage negation and resistances to everything I could find. That should cover corrosion, I hope. Might have to check again in the future. Anyways, I then pasted on a much thinner wall against the copper one and made it stainless steel.

I’ll add walls to define rooms later, for now I refined the vertical entry for converting into an elevator shaft, and relocated the beacon to the lower levels for easier convenience to haul the water purifier from the Tupile.

Oh, maybe I can start working on the Zetan worker bots to build me their ship’s reactor. Would need some fiddling with the robot’s programming, but should be worth it, if the mothership is able to power their stupidly energy draining death rays. Make a dedicated space for reactors, and then one for water purification, and… Oh yeah, air purifying too. More stuff to steal off alien tech.

I’ll add another floor near the water’s surface with a transparent roof for hydroponics and gardens-

The sharp crack of displaced air disrupted my thoughts, and Piper rushed to me. She was frowning with actual concern, which wasn’t something I’ve seen too often and immediately put me on edge. “We got trouble.”

We ported to the Tupile and then to New World 81, where by the time I left the basement, the situation seemed to be settled. The four offending passerbys were being dragged past me to the holding area downstairs, and I noticed how their hands and feet were bent in wrong ways. Looks like the capture protocols were implemented successfully.

I casually turned to the kids and ladies of New World 81. “So, what I miss?”

Well, after the voice recording and further elaboration from a really pissed off Curie, I was frowning hard at the potential fuckup the whole thing could’ve been.

I gave Nat her well deserved headpats, my hand constantly at it as she sat next to me while I was briefed. She was aware enough of her near immunity to tank the shot to avoid potential deaths, which made her, for the time being anyway, the best girl. Piper beamed with pride at her sister’s bravery.

“My apologies, Sev. The situation should have been avoided in the first place.” Curie sounded disappointed in herself, but I couldn’t fault her.

“Eh, no worries there Curie. You followed protocol, erred on the side of caution while still being open enough to visitors.” The idea of opening up to visitors was my idea anyway, hoping that an open door policy would draw far less attention than a closed door one would. Plus this was our first exposure with non-traders, so we didn’t consider how they might escalate things with stupidity.

At least Curie was cautious enough to keep the bots on heavy surveillance mode.

“If anything, it’s more of my fault for not fully anticipating things.”

I turned to Tim and Katy, one of the young couples that found love despite the shit they’ve been through. “You have my apologies for what happened.” And I meant it. The fuckwit that grabbed her should’ve been immediately ejected instead of getting stared down. A change in welcoming protocols is in order.

“It’s ok Sev, sir,” Tim said deferentially while his girlfriend nodded along. “We’re fine, thanks to Nat and Curie.”

“Yeah, but you could have been fine-r, right? Anyway, I guess we’ll have to change things a bit. Clearly I’ve been leaving too much to just intimidation and awe.”

I got up and as we left the improvised basement meeting room, I announced to those around, “We’ll start basic shooting classes for anyone who wants it. Fully optional, but those that take it gets their own sidearm. I’ll see if Vault 81 has anyone that can help in training, or if they want to join in.”

The young couple perked up quite a bit. Curie on the other hand just bobbed her entire hovering body as a nod. “An excellent idea. I will arrange the curriculum with assistance from the military robots, and will have safety measures ready, of course.”

“Thanks Curie. Cait, Piper, Nat, since you’ve all been on trips with me, you get to help in teaching too.”

And of course Nat would be smug about being the teacher for once. The older girls were also eager to show off.

“So, what we gonna be shooting with Sev?” Cait inquired.

I immediately answered without thinking. “Whatever we have in storage.” Well, anything that’s not from the Tupile at least. The picture of a bunch of kids laying down withering firepower to shoo away the BoS popped up in my head, and I approved of it. Nat should look plenty adorable going full dakka on a tripod-mounted minigun.

With that cheery thought, I went to see the prisoners.

“Look man, we’re sorry,” one of the prisoners, Arnold, pleaded. “It’s a huge mistake on our part, but we didn’t mean to draw guns on your kids.” Their wrists and ankles were fixed, but their arms were bound behind their backs and their no-longer fucked ankles shackled to the floor.

Poor Chucky the shooter was lying on the ground, still sobbing in pain. Apparently, Cait helped to fix his damage, applying a few stimpak straight to his genitals. I saw at least two sticking out between his bare legs as he lay curled up. One for each ball, I guess. Cait said she administered three, so the last one should be giving him a good sounding?

Curie said he had a cocktail of something that made him unstable. Still though...

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“Ah, but you’d let your friend there grab kids and shoot at anyone that doesn’t follow him?”

“No! We didn’t… We didn’t know, okay? I swear!”

The other two desperately bobbed their heads in agreement, clearly alright with giving Chuck up. Still though…

“See, what annoys me is that you helped yourself to the free food and drink, plus our goodwill. But then, when your friend there decided to act like a raider, you lot never bothered stepping in to stop him. Nope, just went for the exit and drew your guns.”

I sighed dramatically at the shamed and terrified looks on their faces. “Since you were willing enough to aid your friend in a spot of trouble, you should be just as willing to stand with him as he suffers the consequences, no?”

Their cries for mercy filled the room, which went on for a few seconds until I decided I had enough, particularly after all three of them brought up their families. Fuck all about whether Chuck had his own though.

“Ah, since you have families, I should give a damn?”

More desperate nods and affirmatives.

“So I should care more for you than my charges just because they don’t have families?”

The argument didn’t make sense, but it sounded good and caught them off guard with sheer terror overtaking each of them at the implications of the flawed logic. I turned to Katy and Tim, who were just outside the holding cells with Curie, Piper and Cait.

“What do you think Katy? Since you were the intended target, I’m gonna let you have your say.”

While Tim held murder in his eyes, Katy gave a pitying look at the three and shook her head at me. “Let them go, Sev? They’re stupid, but all they did was scare everyone.”

I looked to the others for their verdict. Tim reluctantly agreed with his other half, while my girls and Curie were far less aligned.

“They have abused our welcome, as you’ve said Sev,” Curie remarked, somehow looking menacing as fuck with her eyestalks scanning the three men. “Such barbaric behaviour should be punished.”

“Yeah, don’t kill ‘em,” Cait added with a sniff, “But we can’t really trust if they’re only sorry they got caught.”

Piper nodded her agreement. “And letting them go means they’ll eventually come for payback.”

Arnold led the vehement protesting, but I made up my mind. “You three will be freed, but only after we’ve dealt with your friend. I will personally lead you back to your homes, and a message will be sent.”

I shot them a cold glare to abort any further input from them, then walked over and grabbed a whimpering Chuck from his corner, flipping him on his back and yanking out all three stimpaks.

I was wrong, number three wasn’t sounding him, Cait missed the mark and it pinned the tip of his sorry member to his upper groin. Guess I should’ve been more delicate. Whoops.

“And as for you...”

That he had the audacity to shoot, and that Nat of all people took the shot, that actually angered me. She wasn’t hurt at all, but that wasn’t the point. Just picturing the girl getting shot got me all ready to force feed Chuck his genitals.

I forced myself to calm down, I had to be an adult here after all, even if Curie of all people was calling for blood. Seeing that he’s a captive and therefore under my control to a limited extent, I had a look through the console.

Keeping him up and making sure his naked lower half was clearly seen by everyone, I announced with as much gravitas as I managed, “You are guilty of attempting grievous harm on persons within New World 81, and on my charges in particular. You are guilty of attempting to violate a person within New World 81, one of my charges in particular. How do you plead?”

“I-I’m...sorry...” was all he managed to whimper.

It was hard not breaking into an evil grin. “As your attempts have failed, I hereby reduce your punishment from death, and therefore you as well.”

Confirming the changes on console, Chuck squirmed and squealed while everyone watched as his ballsack shrivelled to the size of a raisin, and his cock withered into a fleshy cashewnut.

He survived and didn’t take too much mental damage, so I made significant progress on console manipulation. Yay me. Oh yeah, make sure to render him infertile and reduce penis growth to nil.

I let Chuck drop to the ground and enjoy his agony. Ignoring the pale, horrified faces of the other three prisoners, I left the cell. “Curie, Cait, make sure he survives. If more stimpaks on the area are needed, so be it. Then prep them to leave. Piper, get the tank ready, I’ve got some stuff to finish up.”

Tim and Katy were looking at me with awe, while Piper had to ruin the moment by chipping in. “You gonna keep him flat after giving him two clits Sev?”

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