POV Rio
After settling things with Preston, I didn't leave right away. Instead, I started working on the Castle. I went into the basement and cleared it of any problems. There wasn't much, just a Sentry Bot and a few mines. The Sentry Bot was deactivated thanks to my Science skill. I found the corpse of a previous General. I stored the body so it could get a proper burial later. Then I entered the closed-off armory.
I found a truly massive amount of supplies. The armory and basement together held an enormous amount of crafting materials. The armory also had tens of thousands of rounds of various calibers. It also had the Artillery Schematics. The artillery was different from what I expected. They were 155mm Howitzers. I also found lots of Combat Armor and guns. The best gun I found was a legendary M107 Sniper Rifle. It was called the General's Ghost. It was heavily modified to shoot 50 caliber incendiary rounds through a very sophisticated silencer that eliminated most sound from shooting. The legendary effect made it so the gun was 33% more accurate in both VATS and normal shooting, and it cost 25% less AP to shoot in VATS.
There were a few other noteworthy finds, such as a Tesla Cannon, a set of X-01 Power Armor, and a lot of medical supplies. The Tesla Cannon was broken, so it couldn't be used right away, but I was fairly confident I could repair it. The Armor was cool, but I didn't intend on using it. It didn't fit with my current build.
Once I finished sorting out all the supplies, I moved on to fixing up the Castle. The first thing I did was rebuild the collapsed walls. It took a decent amount of Concrete, but once I was done, the Castle was whole again. After that, I started making more defensive structures. Lots of Concrete walls and bunkers. Then I built lots of turrets and even a high-caliber AA Gun. Then came the Artillery. I didn't want to build the standard 155mm Howitzers. So instead, I tinkered with the design to improve the range, accuracy, power, and even added the ability to use specialized rounds. Flare, Mini-Nuke, Cryo, Poison, Smoke, Shrapnel, and many others were designed. The only downside was that the specialized rounds were not infinite like the standard rounds.
I made sure to build plenty of shops and relaxation devices. I created a Rec Room for anyone taking a break. I made one of every kind of store to help promote trade and hopefully make the Castle more sustainable. Speaking of sustainability, I built enough Water Purifiers that we could produce 300 bottles of purified water per day. Then I built an expansive farming area that was protected from attack by numerous walls and turrets. I made it so the Castle was completely self-sustaining. While doing all the construction, I learned something interesting. The store operated in an odd way. They never needed to restock physically. At most, all they needed to do was wait 72 hours, and their stock would magically replenish. But the store inventory was not accessible to me. I could only view the products and buy them if I had the Caps.
It took a whole week, but the Castle was made into a fortress and a livable main base for the Minutemen. I also ended up spending most of my Caps on all the upgrades. I had to buy some materials because I ran out, and the stores cost Caps to create. But the news of the Minutemen retaking the Castle had spread quite a bit, and Preston was seeing his first recruits. It also helped that Travis spoke about it on Diamond City Radio.
Once I was certain everything would be fine, I got into the Vertibird and went back to the Warwick Homestead. This time, I spent time turning it into a fortress to help them defend themselves. I also vastly improved the sewage treatment, allowing them to process a large amount of clean freshwater. I was going to add some water purifiers, but I didn't want to draw too much attention to the Warwick Homestead for now. Not at least until I dealt with the nearby Raiders.
Normally, I wouldn't bother with them as they hadn't attacked the Warwicks, but I remembered that both groups had a Bobblehead that I desperately wanted. Speaking of Bobbleheads, I remembered a Bobblehead at the Atom Cats Garage, so I went and grabbed it. It read, You don't need weapons when you have tectonic force. It boosted the Unarmed Critical Damage by 25% and boosted the Unarmed skill by 15 points. I also grabbed a perk magazine that unlocked some power armor paints.
After taking the Bobblehead, I moved on to scout out the two locations. The first was the FMS Northern Star. It was filled with Norwegian Ghouls. Clearing them out was something that I wasn't fully set on doing. Technically, they were peaceful. They never left the ship and generally didn't bother anyone. So instead, I decided to fly over to the ship and grab the Bobblehead. I also snuck aboard to "borrow" the perk magazine Tales of a Junktown Jerky Vendor #8, Suit Up & Succeed. Then I left.
The Bobblehead read: Agility shmigility, A is for Awesome.
Special Perk: A is for Awesome
Your reflexes and reaction time are vastly enhanced. Your flying speed is no longer capped. You have a chance to randomly dodge any attack aimed at you and negate all of its damage. You and your companions can never trigger a trap. Once per day, you can boost yourself and your party's speed by up to 500% for 6 seconds.
It was a fantastic perk that could save me if I was lucky or if I was in a situation where I needed to run away with everyone else. It also fixed one of my biggest weaknesses. My magic eyes could allow me to perceive things at high speeds, but my body couldn't keep up. This perk fixed that issue. As for the flying speed improvement, I wasn't sure how useful that was, but it was always nice to get more buffs than less.
Once that Bobblehead was obtained, I moved on to the Poisiden Energy plant, where the Endurance Bobblehead was. I was a bit surprised to see that the gang was fairly small. It only had around a dozen members. There were also several ways to get into the plant. I could head through a coolant pipe, the roof, or the front door. Usually, I would never consider the front door, but this time was a bit unique.
The ground floor was locked off, and the raiders didn't go down there as the security was deactivated. I figured using the automated security would be a good idea as it cost me nothing and would hopefully thin out the numbers a bit. The only issue was that the ground floor had several mines spread throughout. But that could be solved using magic. Telekinesis is a broken ability. I could disable the mines from far away, making them useless to the raiders.
I went through the front door and activated the automated security. The radiers didn't notice right away, which cost them dearly. 3 raiders were cut down by laser fire. 2 from laser turrets and 1 from a protection.
"God damn it, who's the idiot that activated the security!?" Cutty the radier boss screamed.
They start to find cover to fight off the security. Meanwhile, I use this chance to cause a little chaos. I take the deactivated mines and place them in the hallway leading to the roof. I did so at the perfect time, as some raiders from the roof came running inside to see what the commotion was about.
BOOM
"My leg!" screamed a raider.
The mines took out 4 raiders in total, and I had to manually activate them with my magic a few times. By the time the last mine detonated, the raiders in the plant were reduced to 3 members. But they had dealt with the protections and 2 turrets. With only 2 remaining turrets, both in positions that would normally never get a chance to attack the raiders, I decided to deal with the survivors myself.
I pulled out the General's Ghost and lined up some shots. A nice thing about it shooting 50 caliber rounds meant that it could pierce many types of cover. Such as my first target, who was hiding behind a wooden box, or my second target, who was behind a thin metal wall.
POP POP
Two quick rounds and the raiders popped like watermelons. All that remained was Cutter, the leader. But he was pretty smart and hiding in a concrete room. While the round could pierce some concrete, it wouldn't go far, and it would lose so much power that it wouldn't be that effective. So instead, I chose to have Curie and Dogmeat attack from the front while I attacked from behind.
The plan seemed to be working, but then Cutter turned around and shot me while I was about to attack him. I hit him with several rounds from the Alien Blaster, but I took several rounds to my chest and arms. Curie and Dogmeat rushed in and killed Cutter while I jumped out of the way. I had taken damage, but it wasn't too severe. But it did hurt worse than stepping on a LEGO and then falling down the stairs.
Luckily, my armor caught most of the bullets, and I only had a few rounds lodged in my arms. Normally, I would just use a Stimpak and then heal, but I prefer to save Stimpaks for emergencies. So instead, I ate some noodles and then let my healing kick in. I now regenerate health slowly while outside of battle because I maxed out my Survival skill.
After healing, I cleared out the rest of the plant. It was mostly just some Mirelurks, but I used the same method as before to help thin out their numbers. Once that was done, I started to clean up the plant a bit so I could get the reactors working at peak efficiency. The power was sent to the Warwick Homestead, Atom Cats Garage, and Spectacle Island. I tried sending some power to the Castle, but some of the power lines were not functioning, so it couldn't transmit that far. I also decided to be petty and turned off all power to Quincy. Then, to make sure no one tried to divert the energy anywhere else, I locked down the systems, making it impossible to hack or bypass them. Then I blocked the roof and main entrances with concrete, steel, and lots of furniture. Lastly, I repaired and rebuilt all the automated security systems.
'That should make it so difficult to get through that most won't bother. Even if the Gunners came with a large force to capture the plant, they would pay dearly, only to find out they can't divert the power anyway.'
Was I holding a grudge against the Gunners? Yes. Did they deserve it? Also Yes.
Once I was confident in the integrity of the plant, I decided to go through the loot I found. It was mostly healing supplies and chems. But I did get really lucky and get 9 fully charged Fusion Cores. The raiders had apparently looted a sizeable amount of various chems and healing items from the Quincy Police Station before the Gunners captured it. Other than that, I found a Tesla Science Magazine that increased my critical damage with energy weapons by 5%. But the best loot was what I came here for. The Endurance Bobblehead. It read, When Somebody tries to block, show them that you rock.
I laughed a bit at the description. But what really drew my attention was the perk it gave me.
Special Perk: Kindness Shared Unites Us Through Each Day
Sprinting and flying no longer cost AP. You and your companions are immune to status effects and all forms of Radiation. You gain a base 50% resistance to all forms of magic. Once per day, you can take and survive a fatal injury that would hit your companions, you will be reduced to 1 HP and become immune to damage for 10 seconds afterwards.
The perk was really powerful. Radiation was one of the biggest issues in the Fallout Universe, so being immune to it was a massive advantage. You could argue that there are already a few creatures immune to Radiation, but most of them are not friendly, or their immunity may have long-term side effects. The magic resistance was always welcome, even if it might not show up often. Status effect immunity was a great addition that made us far better in combat. We could use it to our advantage, such as using AOE effects at close range, because we are immune to the effects. Being able to sprint and fly for free increased my mobility massively.
'If I am ever alone, I could easily travel in places others couldn't. Thanks to my uncapped flight speed, I could traverse long distances fairly quickly.'
The last part of the perk was interesting. I didn't see myself using it too often, as it was only once per day, and its effects were only okay. But admittedly, I lost nothing by using the perk as I would become immune to damage for 10 seconds. I imagine there were ways to exploit the invulnerability.
As I was thinking about the perk, I suddenly felt my Pipboy buzzing. It was a message from Preston. I had set up my Pipboy to be linked to a terminal in my quarters in the Castle so that if Preston needed to send a message, I would know right away. The message was short, but those few words were impactful.
Gunners are coming to attack the Castle.
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Authors Note:
Fun fact: the raider who hurt his leg was named Fred. In case it wasn't obvious, the magic eyes are a combination of the Sharingan and Byakugan. After the coming battle, there will be info on Rio's current level. I will post an Auxiliary Chapter that contains a full text of Rio's stats and perks, as well as equipment. Until next time, Ciao.