POV Rio
I had been planning to create a better mode of transportation for our group. Traveling on foot was just not as safe or as quick. So I had been collecting supplies to build my own Vertibird or other aerial vehicle. I had no intention of making a truck, tank, or other terrestrial vehicle, as not only was it much less safe, but the roads are not in the best condition to drive on. Lastly, I couldn't drive as I could only go up to 30 mph. So, with all that info, I chose to use Finch Farm to build the first Vertibird of the Minutemen. It also helped that I could take all the materials from the two nearby crashed Vertibirds to construct a new one.
The reason I was doing so now instead of taking the materials back to Sanctuary was that I didn't want to leave so many good resources here without supervision. Saugus Ironworks was far more valuable than most people realised. The amount of Steel and Iron available in Saugus was massive. But back to the Veribird. I had all the parts I needed, and the Workshop gave me a very useful boon. As long as I had the schematics and the necessary equipment, I could build anything. That includes things like Vertibirds. The only downside is that further customization had to be done manually. The Workshop would only build the basic outline.
It also allowed me to cheese the system a bit. The Vertibird constructed like that would be classified as a Turret. Which meant it had unlimited ammo and never needed refueling. However, it could be destroyed. But it couldn't be used by anyone not allied with me, so there were good and bad parts. Another reason I chose to build it this way was that it was nearly instant. Constructing it manually could allow me to build a very powerful machine of death and travel, but it would take weeks or more to finish. This way, I could make a Vertibird quickly and then spend time later upgrading it as needed.
Once the Veribird was constructed, I started filling it up with loot. It had a very large storage capacity, but the real exploit came from overencumbering myself and then getting in the Vertibird. Technically, my system storage didn't have any effect on my real-life weight. So I could be overencumbered by 50k, and it wouldn't affect the ability of the Vertibird to fly. Of course, if I got too overencumbered, I couldn't move, but that only referred to walking speed. I could still move my arms.
Which led me to the biggest problem.
"Uh, do you even know how to fly one of these things?" Preston asks.
"I have a theoretical degree in piloting," I respond with a straight face.
"Oh okay... Hey, wait a minute, did you just say theoretical degree? As in you don't have one," Preston asks, but I ignore him.
I get in the pilot seat and start up the Vertibird. Since I designed it, I knew how it worked. Or at least technically, I did. I waited for everyone to get in. Preston was manning the gun. Dogmeat was in the Passenger seat. Codsworth and Curie were on either side of the Vertibird.
"Copilot Dogmeat, what's the weather looking like?" I say with a serious look.
"Bark, Bark," Dogmeat helpfully responds.
"Good to hear. Well, everyone, hold on to your butts. This might get a little rough," I say while trying to lift off.
"Uh, is it too late to ask if I can walk?" Preston asks nervously.
"There's no time," I shout over the comms.
The Veribird lifts off and starts to shake a slightly alarming amount.
"Uh, is it supposed to shake so much?" Preston asks with a slight panic in his voice.
"Uh, yeah, it's just some turbulence. Yeah turbulence. That's what it is," I respond with little confidence.
We get much higher up, and I start to direct it towards the West, where Sanctuary is. It takes some time and a few high-pitched screams from Preston, but I eventually get the hang of it. It was a very novel experience flying with a machine instead of just my wings. The trip that would have taken several days or even a week only took around 4 hours. And most of that was because I was not that fast at first. But that led to a bit of a problem.
"Why are we just circling Sanctuary?" Preston asks.
"Uh, well, I may have forgotten to mention that I have no idea how to land," I say sheepishly.
"WHAT!" screamed everyone.
"In my defense, I didn't even know how to fly a few hours ago. And I technically know how to crash this aircraft safely," I say with confidence.
"Then how are we getting down?" Preston asks a bit loudly.
"Don't worry, I'll figure something out. Maybe I could try spinning. I heard that's a good trick," I reply.
"NO!" screamed everyone.
"Geez, tough crowd," I grumble.
I start to get closer to the ground and try to figure out how to ease the bird down nicely. The computer starts to yell at me.
"Pull up. Terrain ahead. Pull up. Pull up. Don't sink too low. Flat too low. Gear too low."
"Yeah, yeah, just shut up, I know what I am doing," I complain at the system.
CRASH
The vertibird hits the ground fairly harshly, but the landing gear manages to cushion some of the blow.
"Whew, another happy landing," I say with a smile.
The vertibird groans, and then the landing gear gives out.
CRASH
"Ugh, remind me to never fly with you again," Preston says.
"Thank you, everyone, for flying Air Rio, now please make sure to remove all luggage from the aircraft and mind the gap," I say with a beaming smile.
I start organizing the loot and placing much of it in the Workshop's storage. I look over the Vertibird and see that it is in somewhat decent condition. Not really airworthy, but I planned on doing a lot of modifications anyway. I see Sturges come out of his house with bleary eyes.
"What the heck was that racket?" Sturges asks with a big yawn.
I forgot to mention it was 1 AM and everyone was likely asleep. Or at least they were before I landed (crashed) the Vertibird in the middle of Sanctuary.
"Uh, nothing much. Sorry to wake you. But when you wake up later, I will have an interesting project you can help with if you want," I reply.
"Huh? Is that a Vertibird? Or I guess what's left of it," Sturges comments while pointing at it.
"Perhaps," I respond.
"Sigh. You know what, I'm too tired for this. I'm going back to bed," Sturges says while walking away.
A few others come to investigate but leave soon after, once they know it wasn't anything bad. Meanwhile, I go to Vault 111 to take a shower and sleep. I didn't need to sleep, but sleep still felt great. Not to mention, I got an xp boost for several hours after sleeping in my own bed. Once I woke up, I started to work on the Vertibird upgrades. I spent the next several days upgrading it. I also used the time to produce the first of many blasters. My first choice was the DC-15A. It was a great long-range and close-range option that I gave to Preston to test out.
Speaking of Preston, he had a new mission for us. Two actually. One was from the Warwick Homestead to the far South. And the other was retaking the Castle, or Fort Independence as it was formerly called. Which was not going to happen unless we had air superiority. Preston was not very excited to be flying with me, but I assured him it would be different because I had more practice and I had built an AI based on preexisting models to fly the Veitbird. It was part of the info I downloaded from the satellite. It had the schematics for the Vertibot, which was an unmanned version of the Vertibird.
Modifying the AI was not too difficult. A max Science Skill was very strong. But beyond the AI, I had also added numerous upgrades. The armor on the Vertibird was made based on the Zetan spaceship metals. This made it not only far lighter but also more durable. This made the top speed increase. Then I upgraded the weapons. The front-facing guns were replaced by laser cannons based on the EWHB-12 heavy repeating blaster. Then I replaced the minigun on the side with two Z-6 Rotary Laser Cannons, one for each door. Then I also added a rear-facing gun that can be operated by the co-pilot. I used a homing missile launcher for that. I also added flares that can be used to deal with incoming missiles or to blind enemies.
Overall, I was very satisfied with the Vertibird. The only changes I wanted to make but couldn't were increasing its passenger capacity. Even with all the extra space I created, I was only able to increase the passenger capacity to 12 people. That included the pilot. But if I wanted more people, I could always design a better gunship/helicopter later on. Some other upgrades I added were the ability to fly at high altitudes, EMP shielding, vastly increased storage capacity, a long-range radar, anti-radar cloaking, signal jammers, targeting computers, long range scopes for observation, and a remote controller so it can be summoned from a distance.
And most importantly, all the previous benefits from being a Workshop item remain. With the new Vertibird, we could easily travel most of the Commonwealth and beyond safely. I named the new Vertibird the Air Horse One. And unlike the Bear Force One, it can't be destroyed very easily.
'Like seriously, you would think they would make the president's personal Vertibird much safer. Like that thing could be taken out by basically anything. One shot of an AA Gun, a clump of C4, just straight up bullets. At least mine could take several hits from an AA Gun and keep going.'
The Air Horse One (AHO) wasn't indestructible by any means, but it was still far sturdier than the average Vertibird. However, I didn't plan on upgrading all future Minutemen Vertibirds to this extent. If only for the fact that I can't synthesize more Zetan Steel, as I have started to call it. Most of the other upgrades I don't mind adding as they would save more lives that way. That and I had the materials to make at least another 2 or 3 Vertibirds MK2s, as I call the new models.
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Authors Note:
So yeah, I planned on Rio building a Vertibird for a while. I figured it would make the most sense with Rio having a maxed-out Science skill and the resources on hand, he would build some Vertibirds. Air superiority is a massive advantage that I don't think gets shown as well in the Fallout Universe, and I think that's because most often we see transports and not things like bombers and fighters, or even something like a gunship. We do get to see a B-29 in New Vegas, but that's the only one I can think of. So Rio has plans to invest heavily in aircraft and air transportation. The Anti-Radar shielding is what many modern stealth jets and bombers use to be much harder to detect on radar. Until next time, Ciao.