POV Rio
Clearing out the Mutants for Wiseman was easy. But I did spend some time inspecting the Mutants, and from what I could tell, they were not the usual Super Mutants. For one, they were definitely a bit yellow. They also seemed a bit smarter. Not massively, but they could use some tactics and speak in more complete sentences. I took a few samples and then buried the rest.
Rather than report back to Wiseman right away, we took a detour South to Finch Farm. Or at least what remained of it. The fields of crops were burned, and the main house was also just a burnt-out ruin. We searched for any survivors, but we didn't find any. But thankfully, before we gave up, Dogmeat found a scent. We followed it a ways West until we found an old military convoy with an open trailer.
Inside, we found two people. At first, they were hesitant, but Preston talked them down. It also helped that we looked nothing like Gunners. The two survivors were Abraham and Abigail Finch. Abraham was in rough shape. His right arm was gone from the shoulder down, and he looked overall quite ill. Cuire was able to stabilize him due to her extensive medical knowledge.
They told us their story, and it was similar to what Wiseman went through. The only difference was that this time it was technically their fault. Or rather, their son, Jake Finch. He joined the Forged, and the Gunners learned of this and retaliated. Because of that, they lost everything and didn't know what to do. Abraham asked me to wipe out the Forged and take back his Grandad's Sword. In exchange, he offered some caps, the ownership of the land of Finch Farm, and the Power Armor suit in the trailer he was in. We agreed.
We arrived at the Saugus Ironworks, and I used my magic eyes to scout out their numbers. It was quite small. I only counted 27 members in total. One of them was Jake. The other standout was the leader, who was in a complete set of T-45F Power Armor with a flaming paint job. I was able to tell what model of T-45 it was thanks to my high science skills and the fact that I have seen a set in person before.
'Hmm, this might be a bit tricky.'
There were 16 on the outside, 10 on the roof, and 6 on the ground. Inside, there were 4 near the front entrance, ready to fight, and the remaining members were either sleeping or relaxing.
I told everyone what I saw and asked what we should do. In the end, it was decided to have Dogmeat with Preston and me in a sniper position. He would warn us if anyone started to get close or was sneaking up on us. Next was Curie. She would be placed in a mid-range position to use her laser arm. Then, finally was Codsworth who would run into the enemy and cause chaos. Once the plan was settled, we got into our positions and started the attack.
Our first targets were the raiders on the ground, as they were the biggest threat to us. We also made sure to attack at sunset so the sun was to our backs, making it very hard to spot us. 3 raiders were brought down before they realised something was wrong. When they did, Codsworth started his distraction. The commotion drew the attention of the raiders on the roof and the backup raiders near the entrance.
The 4 near the entrance came out, and we started picking them off one by one. The raiders on the ground were completely wiped out, making our next target the roof raiders. Curie had also joined in by this point, and many of the raiders were shooting at either Curie or Codsworth. So far, nobody had even tried to shoot at Preston or me. Once only 3 raiders remained on the roof, they attempted to retreat inside. The keyword is attempted. Only one made it back inside, and that was because they were in a position where no one had a clear line of sight.
That meant only 8 raiders were remaining. And one of them could be discounted since I doubted Jake Finch wanted to be a raider, especially when his home is gone now. The raiders quickly rallied and set up positions to fight. They chose to make their last stand in the main forge area. They had set up 3 turrets before that area that would make things more complicated. Or at least they would if we attacked head-on. We didn't. Instead, I flew up to the roof and destroyed or disabled all the turrets from behind. Then I started to loot the place.
I got a decent amount of supplies. There were a lot of weapons and ammo just lying around. Likely from the former members of the gang. I also found a Protectron that was still in its pod. Which meant it was free game to program. The orders I gave were fairly simple.
'A Labor Union has forcibly taken over the main forge. Clear out the trespassing undesirables. Deadly force is authorized.'
Since I didn't change much of anything, I didn't need a perk or anything to make the Robot do what I wanted. I also tampered with the power core of the Protectron so it was more unstable. It made it so that if it were destroyed or disabled, it would overload and explode. Then once that was done, I set the little thing free.
BOOOM
The explosion was my cue to see who survived. Surprisingly, Jake was somehow still alive and in pretty okay condition. He might have minor radiation poisoning, but overwise he seemed fine. Other than Jake, there were 3 other survivors. Slag, the leader, was not surprising. He was in a fully upgraded set of Power Armor. The other two survivors were somewhat interesting. One was wearing a set of heavy metal armor. He almost looked like a medieval knight. And the other held a baseball bat and was wearing nothing other than a thong. He also looked high out of his mind and would randomly twitch.
I scanned the survivors for something I could use and found something on the medieval knight. A frag grenade was on his waist. And he was standing close enough to the baseball player. So all it took was a little telekinesis.
Click
"Huh? What was that?" the knight asked.
"WhAt wAs wHaT?" Said the baseball player.
BOOOM
The knight and baseball player were blasted into chunks. Slag was furious and Jake was so scared he peed himself.
"God damn it! Those idiots! Can't they take care of their gear? Ugh, now I'm stuck with just you. Here, take this and distract the enemy," Slag says to Jake.
Slag hands a shotgun to Jake and then motions him to run out of the main forge. I was able to easily guess what Slag wanted him to do. He was a distraction, so Slag could run away. I wasn't interested in letting that happen, so I decided to get Preston and the others to distract while I tried to eject the Fusion Core from the Power Armor. It was much harder to do than pulling a pin on a grenade. But I had confidence that I could do it.
It took a minute of concentration and delicate magic control, but eventually the core popped out, and I started to levitate it away. It took only a couple of seconds for Slag to realize what had happened. When he does, I can see the look of unadulterated panic on his face. Without the core, he can't escape. But he can also barely move. Without any power, the several hundred-pound suit has to be moved with almost pure physical strength. He was a sitting duck. Or a fish in a barrel.
Before he could try and threaten Jake into getting himself killed, I walked in and told Jake he could walk away. And that his family was still alive.
"Th-they're alive? I thought with the fire that they didn't make it," Jake looks surprised.
"They are alive, and if you put your gun down and walk out of this room, I can take you there," I offer.
"Don't listen to them, boy, they almost killed you just a few minutes ago. As soon as you leave this room, I can't protect you anymore. They are just trying to separate us so we are easier to break," Slag tries to dispute my offer.
Jake doesn't look convinced and drops his gun and raises his hands. Then starts to walk towards us. I see Slag raising his gun, but I quickly activate the safety on it. As he goes to fire, he fails, and I drag Jake out of the room before Slag can quickly switch the safety off.
By the time he shoots, Jake is already gone, and we are no longer in his line of sight. It seems this really angers him as he leaves his power armor. And he uses it as cover. A decent strategy, but once he leaves the suit, Curie and Codsworth rush in. Preston and I wait a second for Slag to shoot at them before we pop out and blow his brains out.
Once he is dead, I start to loot the place. I get the Explosives Bobblehead, which reads, Prestige, pyrotechnics, and precision, you make every blast a performance. It boosted the power of all player-based Explosives by 15% and gave a permanent boost to the Explosives Skill by 15. I also found a magazine that unlocked some settlement items. Other than those, I got some more supplies like ammo, food, and weapons. I also took the Power Armor and created a lot of metal ingots, as I had the knowledge on how to do so and the resources on hand. I also made sure to grab the Dampening Coil for a later quest.
Once I was done looting the place, I started to leave, but I spotted something odd. Someone had hung up an Incinerator over molten steel. I shrugged my shoulders and just used Telekinesis to grab it. Then we left and met up with Abraham Finch. There was a little fight between Abraham and Jake, but Abigail put an end to that. Once that was done, I suggested they move to The Slog, due to their farm being destroyed. They agreed, and I escorted them to The Slog. Preston took the other set of Power Armor. It was a full set of T-60. I got the rewards, which were not much, but I, as usual, refused the caps as I knew they needed them more right now.
If I had to eat, drink, or sleep, then perhaps I would take the caps, but since my party and I had almost no needs, we didn't have a strong need for caps. That and by refusing to take it, I spread my fame farther and generally made it so people were more willing to trade with me and less likely to attack me. Reputation and Fame were quite useful when you have a lot of enemies and are trying to rebuild a faction that many had lost faith in. We took a slight break, and then I went to the Finch Farm to start working on a plan I had. The Saugus Ironworks gave me more than enough raw resources to do so.