Chapter 82: Chapter 79

The Glowing Sea had to be renamed, because thanks to initial efforts, it lost both its ‘glowing’ and ‘sea’ descriptors after the first few waves from the de-radiating bots. The bloated territory of ours was big enough to be split into several districts by itself, when the time came for such things.

Thanks to the huge expanse of land, we had to expand the underground rail network from Station 81 to cut down on travel time. As a result, the Nexus’ metro network now had four separate rails; one purely to connect Station 81 and Caladan, one for Station 81, Tleilax, Ix, and a two more that branched out from Station 81 to link up with yet-unnamed stations we’ve built throughout the Nexus.

And with the Zetan and Institute’s teleport tech, plazas were the first thing we reserved and built during city planning meetings, allowing for quick military deployment throughout any point within the Nexus with little fuss. The open spaces would also serve as improvised landing zones for the crafts of our nascent air force.

The people and bots in Ix had quickly come up with new designs to cement the Nexus’ airpower. Faster and with actual weapons to fire, the crafts making it out of the prototype stage would be faster and far more efficient than sending out Sentinel swarms. And with this world’s physics-breaking tech, I really enjoyed providing design ideas.

Like our multirole fighter for example; It was a sleek VTOL aircraft that looked similar to the Macross fighters I remembered with weapons slapped onto it to allow for engaging air and ground targets. Other than the two nose-mounted white laser cannons, it also had rail cannons and AI-guided missiles on the wings. Thanks to the automated surface factories we got running, it didn’t cost too much to build one; it only took enough resources to comfortably house and maintain a small village of wastelanders for a year.

Was it worth it? The super mutant camps pasted from miles away said yes.

Even with just six of them stored in an underground hangar, I think it’s a good step at assuming and maintaining air superiority in and around the Nexus. Until something like the Children of Atom’s bullshit pops up again, anyway. At least that ‘Atom’ stopped showing up, so maybe I broke it hard enough that it’d take generations to recover.

Anyway, with the Enclave defectors (or deserters…don’t know which is more accurate) still trickling in, I’m pretty sure I’ll have to deal with the remaining Enclave forces, of which I’ve been told there’s still a few considerable strong points left throughout the continental US. Supposedly they had advanced tech, but after some breaking down, it was clear that ‘advanced’ didn’t mean ‘more advanced than the Nexus’ by any margin.

It was like having to deal with Iron Age tech instead of Bronze Age stuff, and here I am cheating the Nexus up to the Modern Age. So as long as we don’t play with our food, the Enclave shouldn’t be too much of a threat. The same applied to the Brotherhood of Steel, and even the NCR if I ever decide to take the Village People’s advice and go west.

With the thought of air superiority in mind, I had an unveiling event for one of the more unsubtle pieces of airpower. Practically everyone from Caladan and Station 81 were out in the open fields south of Station 81, along with the mayor of Diamond City and his VIPs, General Becker and his Minutemen higher ups, and various travellers and traders who were passing by and accepted the invitation.

Since I couldn’t hide it, I might as well make a full show out of it.

The bleachers the Sentinels had quickly constructed for the event were all filled, and standing before them I could feel the anticipation from everyone. It’s not everyday I did something like this after all.

Using Sentinels hovering around to broadcast my voice, I made my speech short and simple. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending the launch of the Nexus’ new step towards securing our future.”

The field behind me rumbled as the concrete floor beneath the soil parted open like a massive sliding trap door. My spectator’s interest were really piqued at the sudden tremor, most of them standing up as if that would get them a better view. I didn’t need to turn behind to know that by now a vast chasm had replaced the field, and judging from the deep hum that reverberated a bit in my bones, the object of my unveiling was starting to rise from the hole.

I took in and savored the assorted looks of amazement, terror and sheer awe as a shadow slowly crept up from behind me and blanketed the bleachers with its spectators. At a solid thousand feet long and two hundred feet wide, the armored airship I had diverted a substantial amount of construction resources towards building was a thing of pure overkill.

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Using Zetan tech to keep it afloat, instead of hydrogen or helium, the massive blimp-shaped void within it was used to house aircraft, an armory, a command center, and an almost literal fuckton of ordnance. Since the processing demands were substantial enough, it also housed its own specially built AI.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” I said once the airship rose high enough that the thrumming wasn’t so overbearing, ”I present to you the Nexus’ mobile air fortress.”

Oh yeah, why the blimp silhouette instead of heli carriers, oversized aerofoils or whatever other designs?

The metalclad airship strobed as the lights on it briefly lit up through the activation process. Then, through the boom of the general address hailers the AI gave its first words, deep and heavily accented..

“Kirov reporting.”

Yeah, that’s why.

*****

Mayor Francis Sacklen of Diamond City gaped in terror at the sight above him. He was not one for guns, but even he could tell that the talking blimp carried guns and cannons that poked out at various parts of the ship’s body.

And the mayor understood the implications that such a craft carried, or at least some of it. No doubt Sev had other plans for showing off his new toy so publicly. Images of robots or the Nexus’ arcane weapons raining from the sky flashed through Mayor Sacklen’s head, and he swallowed a dry gulp as he tried not to picture the flying fortress looming above Diamond City.

Managing to gather his wits, he leaned to one side and tapped on Tomlinson’s shoulders, and his provisional deputy snapped out of her own dumbstruck awe (or horror) to turn her paling face to him.

“Indra. Indra? Remember the draft we stashed away? Yeah. Once this is done, gather up everyone and let them know about it, see if it’ll pass unanimously before we get back to Diamond City.”

He paused for a moment, wiping his brow and realising that his hand was trembling. “Correction, make sure it’ll pass unanimously. I’ll…I’ll go have a chat with Sev.”

Accepting her nod, the mayor left his capable deputy to it and composed himself as he took the long walk to Sev who was still grinning up at the Nexus’ new display of power. The ruler of the Nexus greeted Francis with the same amiable smile.

“Hey Sev? I’ve got an idea to run through you if you don’t mind?” And so the mayor began offering up his city to the bloody aegis of the Nexus Severalty. Diamond City and its territories would be incorporated into the borders of the Nexus, maintaining some degree of autonomy as a vassal.

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