POV Rio
After transferring the Power Armor to Preston, we decided to rest, but that was stopped when we heard something fly overhead at high speeds. I activated my magic eyes to see what it was and was fairly shocked at what I saw. It was an alien spaceship.
BOOOM
"What the hell was that?" Preston says while slowly looking around.
"A spaceship," I reply.
"A what? You're pulling my tail, right? Right?" Preston says with a more and more shocked face.
"Well, let's head over and see what remains of the ship," I say with a smile.
"Are you sure that's wise, General?" Preston says.
"Nope," I reply and start walking.
Preston just sighs and follows me.
"Also pulling my tail? Really?" I say while looking at Preston with a deadpan face.
"Cough. Sorry, it was a slip of the tongue," Preston says.
I see through his helmet to see he is at least blushing from embarrassment.
"BARK!" Dogmeat helpfully says.
"See, even Dogmeat didn't like that," I tease Preston some more.
"I'll just shut up now," Preston mumbles.
I laugh and continue walking. Since we were travelling at night, we did take slightly longer to arrive at the crash site, but when we did, I was glad to see that no one had come to investigate yet. I wanted the ship for myself. Now you may be asking how the heck I would carry the massive spaceship by myself.
The answer was simple: I wouldn't. Or at least not completely. I found out a nice detail about my system's storage. It doesn't have a limit on how much can be stored. Or at least not technically. I still had a carryweight limit, but I could ignore it in exchange for suffering from overencumbrance. The penalties were not too bad. My speed would lower the more overencumbered I was. I couldn't run or sprint. And I would drain AP for every step I took.
So, in other words, I would be slow as Molasses, but I could technically walk all the way back to Sanctuary while carrying the spaceship. It would be exhausting, a slog, and not fun. But it could be done. But before that, I first followed the blood trail to a nearby cave where the Zetan was calling for rescue via a Ham Radio. I slowly crept towards them and then put an arrow between their eyes. Their head exploded, and I then claimed my prize. The Alien Blaster. I also took the corpse as it would be an interesting research subject. Then I left the cave and put the Spaceship in my inventory.
I almost immediately regretted that. I felt like I was under the pressure of 10 times Earth's gravity. Trying to move a single step was excruciating. I was extremely slow. I checked my inventory and saw I was at 6387/1300. I started to give everything I had to Preston, Codsworth, and even Dogmeat. Since they all had system inventories, I could offload a decent amount of weight. I also took the T-51B from Preston to help me lift a bit better. After doing all that, I was able to get my carryweight to 5587/1990.
I had to use magic to buff myself and my companions to carry more, but in the end, I wasn't as slow as a snail, and now I moved closer to a paraplegic grandma who has to crawl on the ground. We made our way to Cambridge, as I knew that the Police Station had a Power Armor stand that could be used to modify the T-51B. Despite the distance not being that far, it still took until a little after 9 am to get to the Police Station.
When we arrived, what we found was the remains of a lot of ghouls and the mutilated corpses of 3 Brotherhood members. But there was one thing missing from the battle. Danse and his Power Armor. We found him in the Police Station in the interrogation room, covered the the corpses of Ferals. It looked like the Ferals had managed to pry off the helmet and ripped out Danse's throat.
"Jesus, the Ferals did a number on him. There is hardly anything left on his head," Preston says while trying not to puke.
The Ferals had eaten away at his head and neck, leaving behind only some bones and a Synth Component. I grab the Component, and Preston recognizes what it is.
"You've got to be kidding me. Even the Brotherhood of Steel has been infiltrated by the Institute. How's that even possible?" Prston says while freaking out a little.
I ignore him and store the corpse in my inventory. Then I remove the corpse from the Power Armor frame. After that, I place the Armor down. Then I inspect the armor.
"Whistle. Damn, that's some really great armor," I comment while inspecting the armor.
Each armor piece is legendary and upgraded to Model F, the highest rank the armor can be upgraded to. Some of the armor is damaged, but that can be fixed with the scrap I have on me. I leave the T-51B and get in the T-60F and then walk to the Power Armor Station to start repairing and upgrading our gear.
A Few Hours Later...
"Whew. Okay, we got everything we needed from here and even a nice break. Now, it's time to get back on the road. The journey is going to be pretty long. Are you ready?" I ask everyone.
They all nod, and we leave the Police Station and start the long journey back to Sanctuary. Or rather, Vault 111, as that is where I have built a small lab. It was large enough to store the Zetan Spaceship. As for what we got from the Police Station, it wasn't much. A Recurve Bow, plenty of arrows, some ammo, some healing supplies, and some scrap. The real boost was from all the upgrades I gave the suits of Power Armor.
I managed to offload around 1600 pounds of loot to Preston, Codsworth, and Dogmeat. Meanwhile, I got my carry capacity to 2550. Which made it so I could walk somewhat normally. My inventory was at 4700/2550. I was still heavily overencumbered, but it was much better than before, thanks to using a lot of scrap to upgrade things and a lot of materials, just not weighing anything while in the system inventory. Like ammo, healing items, key items, and so on.
The journey to Vault 111 took just under two weeks to complete. Given that the journey to Graygarden took around 46 hours of non-stop travel, the time it took to get back was pretty rough, but it gave me time to really bond with Preston and the others. We also took longer because we had to avoid any dangerous areas and any fights when we could. The others were the main attackers, as I was too slow to help. At most, I could attack from range. But with my Magic Eyes, I could easily avoid anyone we didn't want to deal with.
When it came to the Vault itself, I didn't have to worry about the Institute, as they would not do anything if we went into the Vault. As "Nate" has already left the Vault. You may wonder how my large head fits into a Power Armor helmet. My only answer to that would be system nonsense. I don't fully know myself, but I don't care as long as it works. Once we went down the elevator, I walked to one of the Cryo Pod Rooms and started to scrap or store everything until there was enough space. I made sure to leave any communications equipment from the ship in my inventory just in case.
I turned Vaut 111 into a system-recognized Settlement by rebuilding a Workshop from scratch. It wasn't easy, but it was more than worth it. I had done some minor upgrades to the Vault here and there, nothing massive, just mostly adding lots of turrets and fixing the leaking reactor. The Vault had a working water filtration and recycling system and an absolute butt ton of Liquid Nitrogen and other super-cold materials. I even got some Liquid Oxygen, Helium, and Argon.
I was confident that Vault 111 would be secure enough for research on the spaceship. Once I was sure everything was fine, I unloaded some scrap in the Workshop and then left Vault 111 and walked to Sanctuary. It didn't take too long to unload all our stuff, and we could all take a long break as the journey exhausted us mentally. Our break wasn't that long, just a full day.
During that day off, Preston came to talk with me.
"Excuse me, General, do you have a minute?" Preston asks.
"Sure thing," I respond.
"When I first met you, I admit I had my doubts about you. But you've done nothing but impress me. You're just who the Minutemen needed to bring us back from the brink," Preston says with a confident smile.
"I'm not so sure," I reply while thinking back to what I have done so far.
"You don't give yourself enough credit, Rio. You've done great things so far. And most in your shoes wouldn't do that. You know, when I was 17, I joined the Minutemen. I was with Ezra Hollis's group. He was one of the good ones. Really believed in the old-time Minutemen ways. We had a few good years. I felt like I was part of something greater, that I was really making the Commonwealth a better place," Preston says with a fond look on his face.
"If things were so good back then, why did it all fall apart?" I ask, wondering if it is like what I knew.
"Sigh. I'm sure there was a lot I didn't see or know enough to pay attention to. You know the politics, rivalries, and bad blood between the groups. I guess General Becker was able to keep a lid on all that and get everyone to say on the same team. But after he was killed, it all came out in the open. I couldn't believe it at first. Those guys were supposed to be Minutemen. They were supposed to put their duty to the people above everything else. I still believe that the Minutemen can be what I thought they always were. The good guys," Preston says with some fire.
"I think the Minutemen can be the good guys, too. But there will have to be some changes so that history doesn't repeat," I caution him.
"Of course. I know things can't just go back to the way they were. We need change. And I am certain that you will bring it. I guess I'm just trying to say thank you, if that makes any sense. Thank you for being different from everyone else I've run across. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to my rambling," Preston says.
"Of course, Preston. If you ever need to talk, you can come to me. And I really appreciate what you said. It means a lot to me," I say sincerely.
"Sure thing, Rio. But I'd better let you go back to relaxing," Preston says while walking over to Sturges.
It felt great to be recognized by someone like Preston. He was a bit of an idealist, but he was a genuinely good man. With a good heart. I wasn't always sure if what I was doing was right, but I was happy to know I had good friends by my side. I lay back in the bed and decided to take a nap.
---------------
Authors Note:
So yeah, Paladin Danse is dead. But to be fair, I thought it didn't make much sense for Recon Squad Gladius to survive without help. Especially, if there is a massive horde of Feral Ghouls in Cambridge, which the game says is there. To be fair, the Brotherhood of Steel will come to the Commonwealth regardless of whether Gladius survives or not, as they had undoubtedly planned the expedition many months or possibly even years in advance. I also always thought that the Zetan Spaceship would be valuable beyond belief, so someone would come to salvage it, but the game never shows that, nor does anyone talk about that. I feel like that isn't realistic, so Rio just stole the entire thing. As for how heavy it is, I imagine it is likely around 5000-6000 pounds, as spaceships should be made of lightweight metals, and the ship is a smaller one with only one crew member. That and the crater that the ship made were not that large. And the inventory can split items, or rather separate items, when they are in the inventory. Until next time, Ciao.