POV Rio
After leaving Hancock's office, we made our first stop at the Memory Den. Once inside, Irma, the shop owner, informed me that I was in the wrong place and that they weren't accepting new clients at the moment. Now, usually I would respect that and talk to Dr. Amari, as that was what I came here for, but I was curious what the Memory Loungers would do if I tried to use them. So I convinced them to let me try them out.
I felt my consciousness fade, and then I appeared in a snowy landscape. I was a bit confused as I didn't recognize the location at first.
It was a frozen landscape as far as the eye could see.
'Is this Hoth? Why would I be seeing this?'
HOOOOOOWWWWL~~~~~~
I hear a very loud howl that made me instinctively shiver. I also felt very cold, which further confused me as this should only be a memory.
'But I don't remember this happening.'
RUMBLE
Then there was a mighty rumble that shook the earth below my feet. The next thing I saw was a pink, yellow, and white mushroom cloud. I could feel the pure, unadulterated magic in the explosion deep in my bones. It was almost so much that I was overwhelmed, but I managed to stay conscious.
The ground cracked and shattered, creating a massive crevasse. I had to jump away to avoid falling in.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" screamed an unknown voice.
Following the scream, I saw a flaming meteor heading towards me. I ran as fast as I could and got out of the impact range.
CRASH
After the snow and dust had settled, I went to investigate what had crashed. Peering over the edge of the crater, I saw a lot of blood and flesh chunks. Most of what landed there was gone, leaving behind an unrecognizable mess. But as I looked longer, I found some alarming things. Black feathers and fur, as well as fragments of some blue metal, likely armor.
Wheezing
The sound of difficult breathing and wheezing had startled me. I looked for the source of the sound. When my eyes landed on the thing that was making the sound, I had to stop myself from puking as it was a truly horrific sight. The creature's skull was destroyed in most places, and its flesh looked like it had decayed or rotted rapidly. Only one eye remained, and it was laser-focused on me. It had no lungs or chest to breathe from, and yet it was still breathing.
"Co... Co..." the being struggled out.
I wasn't sure what this creature was, but I decided to approach to hear its last words. I knelt beside it and lowered my ear to hear what it was trying to say.
"Pro... tect... children... Help... them... Niece... Danger... COUGH COUGH!" It stopped talking and started to violently cough.
Once the cough settled, it looked at me again, and I leaned in again.
"South... Shield... Run... Promise me..." It said with desperation in its eyes.
"I promise," I saw quietly.
She smiled and looked into the cloudy sky.
"I'm... coming... home, sis..." it said as its breathing slowed until eventually stopping completely.
I closed its remaining eye and gave a moment of silence. I wasn't sure what I had promised to do, but it was the least I could do to soothe a dying creature. I moved away from the body and looked around the area. Around me were signs of a fight of immense magnitude. The frozen landscape looked like WW1's no man's land. Craters all over the place and the guts and blood of a lot of dead creatures.
Most of the bodies were unrecognizable. But some looked eerily similar to me, which made me very uncomfortable. I froze when I heard movement near me. I felt like the air had gotten much colder and like my very soul was screaming in fear. I slowly turned around and saw a mangled, somewhat transparent horse-like creature. All but one of its hooves had been destroyed. It was leaking a glowing white liquid, and its eyes looked at me with the greatest amount of hatred and hunger I have ever seen or felt. It was slowly crawling towards me.
I fumbled around trying to figure out how to get out of here.
'How am I even here? Why can I interfere with this memory? Is this even a memory? Wait, if this isn't, then I can try something.'
I start trying to access my inventory. At first, nothing happens, but then I see a message at the top of my vision saying the system is loading. I keep trying to walk away from the creature, but my legs refuse to move. They were shaking worse than an alcoholic getting clean.
'This can't go on like this.'
I try something to snap my body out of its freeze instinct. I grit my teeth and put even the last bit of willpower into overcoming my body's frozen status. I feel my heart start working harder than it ever has, and with great effort, I get movement in my arms.
"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGH!!!!!!!!!!!!" I scream with all my might and free myself completely.
I open my wings and fly backward right as the creature starts to pounce at me.
"If you're hungry, then how about you have a taste of this!" I scream as I take out all of my Mini Nukes and arm them.
The creature can't stop his momentum and collides with them. I raise the strongest shield I can to try and block the blast. However, I was both too close and my shield too weak to survive the blast. My vision went white, and then darkness consumed me.
....
I wake up in the Memory Lounger, covered in sweat, and look around me, and see everyone looking at me with worried and shocked faces.
"Easy there, just breathe. I am terribly sorry for what just happened. The Memory Loungers have never caused something like this before," Irma says while helping me out of the Memory Lounger.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"You were in a coma, sweetie. Dr. Amari said you were brain-dead. I don't know why such a thing happened, but my only guess is that it was due to your non-human body. Of course, I know that is no excuse for what happened. So I am willing to give you some caps and perhaps something you might find a bit more useful," Irma offers.
"And yer eyes were shining lights like a beacon. It damn near blinded us," Cait complained.
"Don't forget that weird high-pitched tone. I thought I had tinnitus," MacCready joins in.
I ignore both of them for now and focus on Irma.
"Thank you for the offer. You can keep the caps; all I ask is access to the Memory Loungers software, and if you know of any other Memory Loungers, I would like to know where. Oh, and if you would be willing to help my friend here. She requires Dr. Amari's expertise," I suggest to Irma.
"Of course. That is no problem. Dr. Amari will help you, and she can give you a copy of the Memory Loungers software. We have a broken unit in storage that you can take, and I heard of somewhere you can find a few more. They are a bit hard to get, and we never bothered because they were too large to transport back here, but they are similar enough," Irma said with a smile.
Irma gave me the info on where I could find them, and then she talked with Dr. Amari. They were both willing to help Curie. But said that she would need a week to get the synth caretaker to come to Goodneighbor with the braindead synth. Curie decided to stay at the Memory Den while we waited for the synth caretaker to arrive. I agreed, and we parted ways for the time being. I then went through Goodneighbor and collected some perk magazines. I ended up getting Live & Love #4 and 6, which gave Companions permanent +5 Damage Resistance and Energy Resistance, and I get +5% xp while traveling with companions. I also picked up the RobCo Fun Holotape game, Grognak & The Ruby Ruins. I didn't really plan on using it, but I like collecting stuff.
With a week to kill, we went back and accepted some jobs from Hancock. I also took the chance to hire MacCready, who was more than happy to take my caps and further help us cause problems for the Gunners. I accepted the job to help Bobbi with the Big Dig, knowing that I could get some good resources from the dig itself. I then sold a large amount of loot to the various vendors throughout Goodneighbor. I also took the chance to alter some programming in KL-E-0, as I told Hancock about her plans to wipe out Goodneighbor. I didn't change her much, just added some restrictions and made her want to protect the people of Goodneighbor.
I may have also repossessed some items from KL-E-0 with permission from Hancock. I only took some unique items as they were interesting to me in how they functioned. While messing with KL-E-0, I learned where she came from. It was the unknown facility to the north of the Commonwealth that was receiving power from the Mass Fusion Containment Shed. But she didn't know fully what the facility was for, just that she stole a large amount of weapons from there, and she only developed sentience because an attack by the Enclave damaged her.
'Hmm, we should check that area out sooner rather than later if the Enclave is interested in it.'
After selling all the loot I didn't need, I started to plan out what we would do next. I planned to solve some of the problem sights in the simplest ways. A nice thing about the artillery is that it has a long enough range to strike really far away. And the shells launched cause no structural damage and can hit at odd angles. Another option was using the AHO to attack from above. But I decided to try something else. I had been studying the Wendigo corpse for a while, as well as Feral Ghoul corpses, and I had designed a baiting device.
The hordes of Boston could get into the tens of thousands. So, needless to say, as long as I gave Hancock a heads-up, I could cause a massive horde of Ferals to swarm the area and clear out a sizeable portion of Northern Boston. And to cause as much damage as possible, I could trigger the baiting device during the day. The only issue I could see would be enemies using the high ground. But I had Artillery and the AHO to deal with them. Or just normal explosives if I want it to be more secret.
'I might want to design a Vertibird that looks like an Enclave Vertibird so they take the blame. Yeah, that could work. They are my enemy anyway.'
With the plan in place, it was time to start the prep work.
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Authors Note:
The vision is based on a few things. Overcoming the frozen state was inspired by the scene of Climb being trained by Sebas in Overlord. Just know that Rio was basically astrally projecting himself. Let's just say the Memory Loungers will be used in a very different capacity later in the story. Until next time, Ciao.